This could be the netbooklet I have been waiting for. A chinese company , Hanvon or Hanwang will being shipping a tablet running Windows 7 operating system with a Atom processor inside. This 8.9-inch, two USB port-sporting device can pull off multi-touch pinching and zooming and outfitted in a rather becoming all-aluminum case. It could make for a pretty desirable movie-playing machine on the go, provided it has the battery prowess for such tasks.

Source: Gottabemobile.com

We’ve just seen Acer Germany officially release two more Aspire One 10.1-inchers and now PC World Norway have gotten a hold of a preproduction model of the upcoming 11.6” Acer Aspire One 751.

First impressions are good. The trackpad is larger and the buttons don’t seem to be stiff. The redesigned HP Mini like keyboard is slightly wider than previous Aspire Ones (8.9-inch and 10.1-incher have the same keyboard). The 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 screen is glossy, bright and has good image quality.

Upgrade wise, you have easy access to the hard drive, memory and Wi-Fi / 3G on the back.

The test unit only came with an Atom Z520 (1.33GHz) and a 3-cell battery but it will also be available with an Atom Z530 (1.6GHz) processor and a 6-cell battery. The 3-cell battery is rated at 4 hours while the 6-cell battery is rated at 8 hours.

It comes with a 11.6” 1366 x 768 Display, Atom Z520-530 CPU,  SCH USW15S Chipset, GMA500 Graphics, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD and Windows XP Pro. It weights only 2.7 lbs (with the 3-cell battery I assume) and is under an inch thick (0.86 - 0.98 inches).

Check out the Aspire One 751 Preview at PC World Norway. via www.portablemonkey.com

MSI is showing off the MSI Wind U123 and the X320/X340 in the X-Slim line at CTIA. These two devices are expected to start at $700 and $1,000, respectively, and both feature the small dimensions of 8.8″x 12.9″x 0.7″ with a 13.4-inch screen at 1366×768 resolution. Each is 2.8 pounds with the standard 4-cell battery, although you can use an optional 8-cell battery as well. The main reason for the $300 price differential between the X320 and the X340 is that one is built around traditional netbook components while the other is closer to a standard notebook build. Here’s a rundown of a few examples; the first spec is for the $700 X320 while the second is for the $1,000 X340:

• Processor = 1.6GHz Intel Atom / Intel ULV SU3500 (speed not specified)
• Graphics: Intel GMA500 / Intel GMA4500MHD
• Memory: DDR2-667 up to 2GB / DDR2-800 up to 4GB

Both devices will run on Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium and each offers ample storage and connectivity.

Read more here.

“Sometimes we see devices at the CES that never get launched. Luckily, this isn’t one of those times. That ASUS Eee PC with the integrated optical drive we eye-spied in January is about to arrive in mid-April, says DigiTimes. It’s the same 1004DN we glimpsed during our ASUS booth tour and that integrated optical drive looks mighty slim.”

So now, the question is; do you really need an optical drive in a netbook? For the longest time, my main workhorse is the Lenovo X60 Thinkpad. No optical drive there and I have never missed it. Everything is either online or easily transported on a USB drive nowadays that you can hardly see a CD or DVD media at work or at home. And then you need to ask yourself why you are using a netbook in the first place. I am sure the main reasons are portability, weight, battery life above the rest. So having an optical drive on a netbook sounds like an innovation initially but it is questionable if it is really needed.

Source: www.jkontherun.com

We must confess, the first round of Samsung N310 photos we saw didn’t exactly fill us with lust.  Not rubbery enough to be properly rugged, and not innovative enough to stand apart from the crowds of other netbooks on the market, the N310 rocks its curvy casing and Atom N270 processor but doesn’t carve much of a niche.  It’s an opinion this Blogeee hands-on video does nothing to diminish.

Source: www.slashgear.com

 Engadget reports that Intel Atom Z5xx series will be having 2 more members joining the line up. The Z550 and Z515. Targeting at mobile phones and MIDS, the Z550 will have a clock speed of 2GHz while using less than 2.4 watts. The Z515 will have a dynamic clock speed ranging between 800MHz and 1.33GHz

The Sony VAIO P notebook is easily the smallest notebook I have used with a keyboard that allows touch typing. In this video I give a tour of the VAIO P that shows off all the features of the little notebook. I demonstrate how easy it is to type on the keyboard and give a feel for the performance of the VAIO P.

Source: JKontheRun.com

When you bring your netbook home for the night, do you plug it in and forget it? If so, you’re missing out on a host of home-netbooking possibilities. Ars shows you five ways to use your netbook at home.

You’ve had a long day on the road and now you’re back at home. So what do you do with your trusty netbook? If you’re like a lot of users, you plug it in to recharge and then turn to your primary system, desktop or laptop, to finish out the day.

Netbooks are all about compromise, which means they have small screens, small keyboards, and less powerful processors. And yet, they remain perfectly adequate computers for anyone willing to work past those limitations. Netbooks can work just as well, if not better, at home at night as they do on the road during the day. Here are five ways to give your netbook a second life in the evening.

Source: ArsTechnica

NEC announces the new Versa N1200 at the IT Show. Comes with 3 cell battery at S$899. Supposedly, it can withstand direct weight loading of up to 150Kg.

Trade in your HP 2133 mininote for the new 2140 at just S$399!

One of the netbooks that I hope to see tomorrow at the IT show is this convertible from Gigabyte. I always wanted a 10” tablet seeing how the 12 incher and beyond are abit bulky and heavy to hold and write on for prolong hours.

In case you missed Gigabyte’s CeBIT debut, here’s a quick recap from SlashGear.

The Gigabyte Touch Note M1028 has an 10.1-inch swiveling touchscreen, comes with up to Intel’s 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor and has a 160GB hard-drive.

Four versions of the convertible were announced, two - the M1028M and M1028G - with a WSVGA 1024 x 600 display, and two - the M1028X and M1028P - with a WXGA 1366 x 768 display.  Each has 1GB of DDR2 memory (2GB maximum) and the Intel 945GSE graphics chipset, except for the M1028P which has the HD-capable GN40 chipset.

Connectivity includes WiFi a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, and in the case of the M1028G there’s 3.5G and WiMAX connectivity.  All four run Windows XP Home, have three USB 2.0 ports and an ExpressCard slot, and there’s a choice of two batteries: a 4,500mAh 4-cell pack or a 7,650mAh 6-cell pack.  Weight with the former is 1.3kg, while with the latter it’s 1.48kg.

No word on pricing for the Gigabyte tablets, nor which models we might see in the US and when.  Still, our brief hands-on with them suggested they have very usable keyboards and responsive touchscreens, and the extra real-estate over the original M912 is welcome when you’re dealing with bigger on-screen buttons for your finger to poke at.

What do you think? Would you mind a 10” tablet?

Mention the word ‘netbook’ or ‘ultraportable’, and the first thing that comes to mind would probably be the ASUS Eee PC. The original 7-inch Eee PC when launched, took the computing world by storm. You could even say that it re-defined the meaning of mobile computing. Since then, with netbooks slowly gaining market share (a large portion of it to ASUS and their Eee PC line), other manufacturers have also produced their own netbook models, hoping to get a slice of the lucrative netbook market.

In this review, we’ll be taking a look at LG’s first netbook, the X110. This netbook comes in two hardware flavors - with or without 3.5G HSPA support. (The one with support is also obviously more pricey). The X110 that we have on hand comes with the 3.5G HSPA module built-in. We will try it out, but more on that later. (continue reading…)