AMD E-450 netbook or wait for Brazos 2.0

[BabySnakes]

Hello people of Tom's Hardware.

I'm in the market for a netbook/small-notebook and have pretty much decided on purchasing an ASUS 1225B powered by the AMD E-450 APU. It should satisfy my needs which is internet browsing, some light gaming (from what I've read this APU will play some of the older CoDs at 30 fps on the lowest graphics setting), and possibly some Adobe Illustrator drawing with a Wacom tablet (how cpu intensive is illustrator?).

My only hold up on ordering is that I keep reading that Brazos 2.0 is right around the corner. Is there any reason to wait for this? Will the very modest cpu clock speed bump and purported power savings of Brazos 2.0 even be noticeable? Also AMD likes to delay it's releases, I'm certainly not waiting for the e2-1800 if it's 3-4 months before availability.

I'm open to suggestions on other netbooks/notebooks in the 11.6"-to-13.3" range. I do like that the E-450 has a respectable (relative to traditional netbooks) integrated GPU. Minimum 4 hours of expected web surfing battery life is required.

 

[BabySnakes]

Perhaps I should simplify my questions:

Are there any expected performance or battery life gains with the E2-1800 APU as compared the E-450?

When would you expect availability of E2-1800 equipped netbooks?

Conjectures welcome.

 

[blotto5]

It looks like HP is already selling e2-1800 netbooks. It looks like clock speeds of both the cpu and gpu are only slightly bumped up, and the TDP is the same 18W. This looks to be an evolutionary upgrade instead of a revolution. Performance should be marginally better, but battery life should stay the same, around 9 to 10 hours of idle to light usage, and 4 to 6 hours of moderate to heavy usage. If it wasnt available already I would say stick with the 450, but since its out and basically costs the same, I would just get the e2-1800.

 

[roymustang]

I wanted an E-450 based machine too but honestly they're too expensive for what they are. Anything in the 11.6" to 13.3" range is like $400-500 for little more than a glorified netbook CPU. Brazos 2.0 is really only a rebranding of the E-450 and E-300 with a small clock boost. For $200-300 I would have gotten one but not $400-500.

After digging around for quite a while I finally found a great deal on a 13.3" laptop that was light and fairly thin and powerful. Amazon is selling the ASUS U31SG-AS31 for $550.

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-U31SG-AS31-13-3-Inch-Laptop-Black/dp/B00713CSWM

It's really a great deal because similar laptops go for $700-800. It has a fast Core i3-2350M CPU and even a nVidia GT 610M discrete GPU which is great for light gaming and that turns off to save battery thanks to nVidia's Optimus technology (the laptop will then use the HD 3000 Graphics built in to the i3). I love it; I'm really glad I found it.