Samsung N310 which was unveiled last month is now available in Korea.
The specs for the N310 netbook are: 10.1inch 1024x600 display, Atom N270 CPU, 160GB HDD, 1GB RAM, 1.3MP Webcam, 802.11g Wi-Fi ,Bluetooth. 3x USB ports, SRS sound and a 3-in-1 card reader. It features a rubberized case, which will be be available in Turkey Blue and Red Orange, a nice large keyboard, and a standard battery that’s reportedly good for up to 5 hours. The price for Samsung N310 is between 900,000 KRW and 1,000,000 KRW ($672 - $747).
Toshiba recently announced a new model 10-inch netbook in Japan and Europe. Although being the same model, Toshiba has named them differently in these 2 different regions -- Dynabook UX in Japan, and Mini NB200 in Europe.
The specification for the new Toshiba 10-inch netbook is as follow:
10-inch display with 1024×600 native pixel resolution
Intel Atom N280 1.66 GHz Processor
1GB RAM
160GB HDD
Integrated GMA 950 graphics
802.11b/g WiFi
Windows XP Home
Portable Monkey has had a chance to play around with this new netbook, and written a short post on it. Here's the summary of their first impression on this machine:
exquisite gold metallic hinges
great build quality and design
lightweight with 3-cell battery
smooth trackpad (best netbook trackpad so far)
nice chickeley-style keyboard (like the Eee PC 1000HE)
small powerbrick
Also, Megawhat.tv who got a chance to check out the Toshiba NB200 at a UK event has taken a video of the new netbook to give you a better look at it:
In terms of external design and appearance, this netbook seems to be pretty impressive. The performance is yet to be find out though.
MSI has recently announced a Wind U100 Plus netbook. It's almost similar to its predecessor model, U100, except for a faster 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU and higher capacity battery which is said to last for 7 hours.
Here’s a rundown of MSI Wind U100 Plus specs:
10.2 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution
1GB of RAM
160GB hard drive
802.11b/g/n WiFi
integrated flash card reader
1.3MP webcam
Bluetooth 2.1.
In addition to the usual white, black and red colors, the MSI Wind U100 PLUS will be available in 2 new colors: Rose Champagne (pink) and Metallic Blue. No words on the release date and price for the U100 Plus netbook for the moment.
So far, most netbooks run either on Windows or Linux. Now here's the first netbook that run on a different OS, Google Android. The netbook model is Skytone Alpha A680 which is manufactured by a Chinese electronic maker. It has a 7-inch, 800 x 480 resolution touchscreen display with a swivel, a 533MHz ARM11 Processor, 128MB RAM, and 1GB flash memory for storage. The specs are much lower than other standard netbooks today, but it's more than enough to run Google Android, which was developed for ARM-based cellphones. Also, the low-end specs means lower price. There's rumor that the price for this machine will be as little as $100.
While more and more companies are joining the netbook market, most of them comes makes pretty similar machine which comes with a standard specs. But we do get surprise once in a while when a netbook like Mebius PC-NJ70A from Sharp is announced. It's claimed to be the first netbook with LCD touchpad that allow for both stylus and multi-touch finger operation.
The LCD touchpad is an 854 x 480 resolution screen placed right on the palm rest and is able to recognize drawings and text using the bundled stylus, and to perform the same finger-based functions, such as zoom in, zoom out, rotate, and other multi-touch functions which is similar to what you can do with an iphone or Apple’s latest MacBooks.
Check it out in the following video:
Other than the LCD touchpad, Sharps's Mebius PC-NJ70A netbook has a standards specs like many other netbooks on the market: 10.1-inch screen, a 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, an Intel 945GSE Express Chipset, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 160GB of HDD, 1.3Mp webcam, Bluetooth 2.1 and wireless web over 802.11b/g.
No words on when this netbook from Sharp will be released, but it's expected to retail for ¥80,000 ($814 US).
Dell Vostro A90 netbook which has already been released in Europe for quite some time, is now available in the US.
The Vostro A90 netbook has an identical specs as the Inspiron Mini 9:
8.9-inch screen
Intel Atom N270 CPU
1GB RAM
16GB SSD
Windows XP Home
WiFi, Bluetooth and an optional 0.3 webcam
An obvious difference between them would be the external design -- the Vostro A90 comes in a cool all-black design. The price for Vostro A90 is currently set at $349.
According to Akihabara News, Sharp will be launching a netbook from the Mebius Line-up next week. No information is available for this netbook yet, but we it's likely to feature the standard specs we find on most netbooks today.
Asus Eee PC T91 is the first touchscreen netbook from the company. The convertible touchscreen can pivot, and lay flush against the keyboard, thus giving it the flexibility to be used as a Tablet PC. This model of netbook from Asus was first presented at CES 2009, and has recently made its appearance at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This is a good sign of it being available soon in the US -- great news for those who have been waiting for a touchscreen Eee PC!
The Asus Eee PC T91 will comes with a 1.3GHz Intel Atom Processor, 8.9-inch screen with 1024 x 600 resolution, Intel GMA 500 graphics and 1 GB of RAM. Asus has not make any official announcement on T91 model yet, but we have found a few hands-on videos on this netbook:
Gigabyte Touch Note T1028M, a netbook with foldable touchscreen display is now available. The company has made the 8.9-inch convertible touchscreen netbook before in 2008.. so this would be the second touchscreen netbook from Gigabyte, and according to UMPC Portal, Gigabyte has learned a lot from its experience with the previous model and built a much better machine in the 10.1-inch Touch Note T1028M.
Here's the specification for Gigabyte Touch Note T1028M
10.1" swivel touch screen
Intel Atom Processor N270 1.6GHz
2.5" 9.5mm SATA HDD 5400rpm, 160 GB
1GB RAM (Max 2GB)
Mobile Intel 945GSE Express Chipset+ ICH7M
Embedded HSDPA Support
92% full-sized keyboard
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
UMPC Portal has done a review on this machine and complement its fast 2.5 inch hard drive and great reception of its UMTS 3G modem. Here's their summary comment on Gigabyte Touch Note T1028M:
"The Touchnote offers a lot more than the average netbook and offers significant improvements over the groundbreaking M912M that came before it. Convertible touchscreen, draft-n WiFi, BT2.1, fast 2.5” drive, easy upgrade possibilities, Expresscard/34 and the well-prepared SIM card and 3G Antenna are a a feature set you won’t find on any other device. The glossy screen and average battery life are really the only two points I could highlight as issues. Oh, and perhaps the fact that an advanced N280-based model is coming soon! Currently Gigabyte stands alone in offering a 10” touchscreen notebook at this price point but they may not have the playground to themselves for long. The ASUS T101H is an obvious competitor and many will be laboring over the choice between the two. Until we get hands-on with the T101H we won’t be able to make a decision but until then, we can certainly say that the Gigabyte Touchnote T1028M is a unique, good value and well thought-out choice in both the prosumer end of the netbook market and the budget notebook market." Read full review
A full set of Dell's netbook roadmap slides are leaked. From the slide, we can see that Dell is planning to release an 11-inch netbook (Mini 11) by end of Q3. Also, there will be quite some changes to the Mini 10. Dell is planning to add 3G modem, Vista, and may be a 1.86GHz Atom processor to the Mini 10 on 17th April. And finally, a new 1.6GHz Atom N270 SKU will arrive in May and Dell will update will update everything in the second half of the year with Intel's Pine Trail processors.
Samsung NC10 is one of the best netbook in today's market due to its good build quality and excellent battery life. Following the success of Samsung NC10, the company has recently announced a 12-inch mini laptop named NC20. Besides having larger size, another major difference between Samsung NC20 and NC10 is the processor. Samsung has chosen to use 1.3GHz VIA Nano U2250 processor in NC20 instead of Intel Atom processor that's used in the NC10. The specs for NC20 is as follows:
1.3-GHz VIA Nano U2250 Processor
1GB RAM, Expandable to 2GB
160GB/5,400 rpm HDD
12.1 inches display with 1280 x 800 resolution
Windows XP Home (SP3)
3.4 pounds
With 12.1-inch screen, Samsung NC20 might be too big to be called a netbook, but is still a great choice for those who are interested in a mini laptop. It's currently available on Newegg for $549.99 with 1Gb of RAM, a 160Gb hard drive, and Windows XP Home. A review for Samsung NC20 is available on Laptop Magazine.
