We have been giving the netbook manufacturers a tough time for not picking up faster CPUs in the past. The reality of it is it’s not all that simple. Many netbooks come with N270 as their CPU. While it’s a wonderful CPU and fast enough to get the job done, it could all be a bit better. N280 is finally gaining some traction in the netbook market, but it’s still not where it need to be. Besides, N280 is not too much faster than N270. Starting next year, we are going to see those faster CPUs (N450 and N470) used in top netbooks. You can always talk about netbooks weight, features, and portability, but at the end of the day performance matters as well. You can’t expect to get heavy duty things done on those slow CPUs, so the new ATOM N470 certainly is a step in the right direction.

Those of you who have been waiting for a dual core Intel CPU for netbooks are going to be disappointed with N470. It’s still a single-core CPU but the clock is a bit faster at 1.88 Ghz. It’s still not known how this CPU will work with the ION technology. It’s also not clear how much price increase we will see in netbooks that take advantage of this CPU. Whatever the case, it’s still a move in the right direction. Netbooks need more powerful CPUs, and N470 seems to be one powerful one.