Rank intel atom

In a nutshell, no it's not by any definition good.

To add to the above, the Atom line is pretty much as low as you can go for a modern computer.

It's enough for basic web browsing and other basic tasks, but that's about it.

Core i7 = Luxury Sedan (BMW 780)
Core i5 = Average Sedan (Toyota Camry)
Core i3 = Compact Car (Ford Focus)
Pentiums = Sub-Compact Car (Fiat 500)
Intel Atom = Motor Ped

No it's horrible. I have yet to work on an Intel Atom based laptop that wasn't unbearably slow. Hell they were unbearably slow out of the box. I wouldn't get an Intel Atom ultrabook or anything else. Even a crappy Celeron would be better than an Atom.

Actually I think a crappy motor ped would be faster than an Atom CPU...

There are a few dual core Atom CPUs that have hyper-threading and are good enough for anything but gaming. I wouldn't touch a single core Atom if you can help it, though. And if you're doing any kind of heavy processing, well you know Atom is not going to be for you.

Some site, maybe Tom's, did a comparison about a year or so ago and concluded that the modern Atom CPUs have about as much processing power as a Pentium 4 had, but of course they are much more efficient, as well.

Single core or dual core I wouldn't touch either one. I hate Atom CPU's. They gaveup so much power in the name of low power and low heat that now you have a laptop that is almost unbearably slow from the start. And really do you want a CPU equal to a Pentium 4? I don't.

Yeah it's slow for any real work or play, but are you going to get a netbook for gaming or video editing? Simple browsing, emailing, document creation and editing...this is about the extent of what you'll do on a netbook. I'm posting this on my old laptop with a Core2Duo, which doesn't feel all that different from the Misses Atom D525 in her netbook. For stuff like this.

I know you aren't going to game with an Atom CPU but once you start bogging it down with work it slows down alot.