Oh, netbooks. Doug loves ‘em, but I’m still not convinced of their vitalness. Is it neat to see a tiny little computer zip around the Internet? Sure, yeah. Can I go about my business without ever having owned one? So far, so good! I bring this up because yesterday I was able to goof around—in truth, that’s probably the most accurate phrase to describe it, no matter how silly it sounds—with Acer’s newest netbook, the Aspire One AOD250 ($350, available now, rumored for the past 700 years). It’s a netbook; it doesn’t look too different from netbooks you’ve already seen, but for one difference: see that little switch right there? That’s where you tell the netbook to boot into Android or Windows XP. Read More
The almost over-rumored (see here, here, and here) 10.1-inch Acer Aspire One netbook running Android and XP has shown up for preorder on Amazon for $350.
Good then. Netbook manufacturers will be able to preload any version of Windows 7 onto their machines – not just Windows 7 Starter Edition. And while we found out in May that the arbitrary three-application limit had been removed from Windows 7 Starter (thereby making it virtually indistinguishable from Windows 7 Home Basic), the lack of other features like not being able to change your desktop wallpaper or use some of the cooler Aero stuff felt more than a bit underwhelming.
Starting next Sunday, October 4th, you’ll be able to pick up the Gateway LT2016U through Verizon for $150 after a $100 mail-in rebate and with a two-year data plan. The machine will come preinstalled with a 3G Gobi chipset from Qualcomm, which will work here in the US and abroad as well.
Okay, here’s the MSI Wind U110 ECO. It’s a netbook, through and through, with the added twist of a nine-cell battery good for what MSI claims to be over 15 hours of battery life. Not bad considering the weight of the computer is kept at a very-portable 3.2 pounds.
Well good morning, Interesting Netbook. You have caught my attention thanks to your inclusion of NVIDIA’s Ion chipset, 1366×768 display, 2GB of RAM, Windows 7 operating system, and longer-than-long battery life.
Pretty good marks already for the $799 ultraportable ASUS UL30A notebook, as the machine garners a LAPTOP Editors’ Choice award for its ten-hour battery life, nice design, and adequate horsepower.
Here it is in the flesh; the Nokia Booklet 3G. Unboxed by YouTube user Titanas, who remarked that it’s got, “Pretty amazing hardware in terms of design and elegance. 3G, HSDPA, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, Windows 7 Home Premium.”
Netbooks are too underpowered, notebooks are too bulky and expensive – “SILENCE!” shouts VIA. All hail the new “NetNote” category, if you please. We’re basically talking netbooks with 10- to 12-inch screens that can handle 1080p HD video without breaking stride.
MSI’s gone the AMD Neo route with the Wind U210, available now for $429 at Amazon and Newegg. The U210’s got a 12.1-inch screen with a 1366×768 resolution, 1.6GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, Vista Home Premium, 3.2-pound weight, and a six cell battery good for over four hours according to MSI (five hours, according to Amazon’s product page).
If you follow the Dutch design scene as closely as I do, you’ll be thrilled to hear that the one and only Studio Tord Boontje has created “the industry’s first three-dimensional PC surface technology” and worked it into HP’s Mini 110 netbook line.
Oh wow, take a look at that MacBook Ai—hey, that’s not a MacBook Air! It’s a $250 netbook from China! That’s actually not too bad of a deal, considering that the machine has a 12.1-inch 1366×768 display, weighs just under three pounds, and is less than an inch thick.
Yama hama, that’s one expensive netbook. Nokia’s impending Booklet 3G has shown up on the company’s Italian website priced at 699 Euro – just over $1,000 US.
ASUS has officially announced its upcoming UL series of brushed-aluminum ultraportable notebooks based on Intel’s new dual-core SU7300 ultra-low voltage CPUs. The UL stands for UnLimited — and please notice ASUS’ trendy use of capitalization there. The notebooks will come in a variety of sizes and weights and some models will feature switchable graphics systems allowing you to use an NVIDIA GeForce G 210M chipset for power-hungry stuff, while falling back on the Intel GS45 chipset for maximum battery life.
Woot.com is selling new 8.9-inch Eee netbooks for $150, today only. That’s a pretty good price on a non-refurbished portable computer, if you’re in the market.
Samsung just dropped two new notebooks, the N130 and N140. Both run Atom chips, the 130 running an N270 while the 140 will run an N280. They have 10-inch screens and will cost about $500.
Here’s a nice, juicy rumor to start the day off on the right (or wrong) foot. After those recent supposed screenshots of Google’s upcoming Chrome OS, Taiwan’s Shanzai.com is now reporting the following:
“According to our reliable sources on the Mainland, both Lenovo and Acer are planing to launch Tegra-based devices running Google’s Chrome OS, and the word on the streets is that it could even happen sometime later this month.”
A veritable cornucopia of ultra-thin laptops is expected from the likes of Asus, Acer, and MSI in the near future. The computers will use Intel’s forthcoming low and ultra-low voltage Penryn CPUs, the Celeron 743 and the SU2300.
MSI’s got a 12-inch Wind netbook rolling out to the US in the next few weeks. The U210 will feature an AMD CPU, though, which ought to place it in direct competition with Gateway’s LT3100. We can probably expect to see shorter battery life (the LT3100 promises five hours) in exchange for some extra power over Intel’s Atom offerings.
Sony’s first official netbook, the VAIO W, has been poked and prodded by Darren Gladstone over at PC World. You’ll recall that the $499 machine features pretty standard netbook components, with the added bonus of the slightly-faster 1.66GHz Atom N280 CPU and a 10-inch 1366×768 resolution screen. Let’s check out the highlights and lowlights, shall we?
