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In not-too-surprising, yet good-to-know-for-sure news, it seems that Samsung is indeed working on a netbook designed around Chrome OS. Now, what exactly that comprises I can’t tell you — my guess is they’re really just getting a cheap netbook ready to go with whatever Google announces when Chrome OS hits prime time. Or maybe they’ll use one of those neat (useless) transparent ones?
The specs are nothing crazy: 3G, 2GB of RAM to start, 64GB or more of SSD storage, probably a 10.1″ screen, and a nice long battery life. The chipset and processor weren’t disclosed, but the source is suggesting a 1.5GHz Snapdragon. I wonder about that — I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some curveballs in there. Dual Snapdragons, for instance, or a dedicated GPU like the iPad. It’s actually very similar to this speculative post here, except without a price, which makes it much easier to swallow.
Guess we’ll find out… not soon. It’s not clear when they’ll be making the real announcement, and at any rate we’ll probably hear from Google first.
Asustek unveiled some of its newest products at CES on Tuesday, including a new netbook with slide-out battery and the N90 Bang & Olufsen widescreen laptop.
It looks like Viliv has a lot planned for CES 2010 this week. In true Internet fashion, most, if not all, of Viliv’s upcoming products leaked out today. The only thing missing are the prices and release dates. At least we have the specs for not only the multi-touch convertable S10 Blade netbook and N5 clamshell, but also all the info on the OLED, Android-equipped P3 and 10809-capable HD5 PMPs.
To be honest, most of this info was out previously. The S10 Blade debuted over the summer and then Viliv somewhat announced the N5 a couple weeks back. But no matter, the rest of the specs are here for your enjoyment.
S10 Blade – Convertable Multi-Touch Tablet
Intel Atom Z530 (1.6GHz) / Z550 (2.0GHz)
Windows 7 Home Premium
10.1 -inch 1366 x 768, WXVGA, multi-touch, swivel screen
Whoops, it looks like most, if not all, of HP’s CES computer lineup has leaked a few days early. So far detailed spec sheets are missing for the four notebooks and four deskstops, but none of them really seem to be all that exciting. The most noteworthy one out of the bunch is the Mini 210 HD netbook that comes sporting a Pine Trail CPU and Broadcom’s Crystal HD video playback chip for $329. Besides that, the rest are just your standard Best Buy-bound computers.
>Now all of this info should still be classified as a rumor until HP makes it official next week. But each system seems like the next evolutionary step for HP. There is nothing out of the ordinary here like, say, a tablet with a revolutionary content delivery system. LogicBuy, the deal site that originally posted the leaks, states the ship date for the systems is January 7, 2010, so expect word before then. [via Engadget]
Hold on to your hats, folks! It’s a doozy. Wait… I’m being told it’s actually a minor, but significant, change to an Acer Netbook, and one we already heard about. Sorry.
Well, as long as you’re here: it seems that the popular Acer Aspire One, a perfectly decent netbook if I ever saw one, is going to be sporting the new Atom N450 processor. This is the newest Atom, and it lowers wattage while integrating graphics. So you can expect slightly better battery life and better performance, although the clock speed is still hanging out at the same old 1.66GHz.
Good for Acer, but hold on to your wallets. We expect pretty much every netbook maker have similar specs after the next week or so. That’s not so long to wait, is it? Just chill a bit, watch our CES coverage, and then decide which is the best afterwards. I’m betting Doug is just itching to get hands-on with all these things. He’s like that.
Here are the full specs from the press release. Should go for $300 MSRP, less of course on the strizzle.
Acer Aspire One AO532h
• Intel® Atom(TM) Processor N450 (1.66GHz, 512KB L2 cache, 667MHz FSB)
• 10.1″ WSVGA Acer CrystalBrite(TM) LED-backlit Display
• Mobile Intel® NM10 Express Chipset
• Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3150
• 1024MB DDR2 667MHz Memory
• 160GB(2) 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
• Acer InviLink(TM) Nplify(TM) 802.11b/g/Draft-N Wi-Fi CERTIFIED®
• 10/100 Fast Ethernet LAN (RJ-45)
• Built-in Webcam
• Two Built-in Stereo Speakers
• Multi-Gesture Touchpad
• 3 – USB 2.0 Ports
• 6-cell Li-ion Battery (4400 mAh)
• 2.76 lbs. | 1.25 kg
• 10.17” (W) x7.28” (D) x .99” (H)
• Windows® 7 Starter
• Three stylish colors: Onyx Blue, Garnet Red and Silver Matrix.
• MSRP: $299.99
In my humble opinion, conventional wisdom should dictate that any netbook that’s still sporting a 1024×600 resolution should be overlooked immediately. We make an exception today for Acer’s 10.1-inch 532h, which features Intel’s upcoming N450 “Pine Trail” chipset sporting a 1.66GHz Atom CPU (see previous info here).
The main draw of the Pine Trail platform, you’ll recall, is a move from a three-chip architecture to a two-chip architecture. The graphics and memory controller move in with the CPU while the I/O makes up the other chip. The end result is more efficiency, better battery life, and cooler running temperatures.
After all that, though, we’re still dealing with a small-resolution screen here. Other specs include 1GB of RAM, 160GB or 250GB hard drive configurations and, presumably, some flavor of Windows 7. None of this stuff is officially confirmed yet but I’d be willing to be it’ll be outed at CES next week. Pricing would probably fall somewhere in the $299 to $349 range, I’d guess.
If you like pink, you can save a heap on Sony’s 10.1-inch VAIO W netbook. The Microsoft Store is selling it for just $374.25 with free shipping. The same netbook is available in white for $499.
You’ll recall that the VAIO W features a 1368×768 resolution screen despite being only 10 inches, as well as a 1.66GHz Atom N280 CPU. Other specs include 1GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, Windows 7 Starter, two USB ports, Bluetooth, six-cell battery, VGA output, webcam with face tracking, and a weight of just under three pounds.
The 1.5-pound, half-inch thick Sony VAIO X Series notebook is easily one of the most impressive portable computers I’ve seen in quite some time. I can’t convey how light it is. It seems to defy logic. My brain doesn’t understand that it’s seeing my hand hold up an 11.1-inch notebook that weighs less than half of what most other notebooks its size weigh.
It’s not a super powerful computer. No sir. But Sony’s managed to stuff a nimble 2GHz Atom CPU (Z550) under the carbon fiber hood. It’s not cheap either, starting at $1299. If you can mentally get past the whole $1300 netbook thing, you get a nice array of features – solid state drive, GPS, Bluetooth, Verizon 3G, Wi-Fi, 2GB of RAM, standard 3-hour battery and an unbelievably lengthy 12+ hour battery that doesn’t seem to add much weight at all. Perhaps best of all is that unless you’re doing some relatively aggressive multitasking, using this computer doesn’t feel much like using a netbook at all.
The screen is an 11.1-inch LED backlit affair at 1366×768, there’s a tiny but relatively functional island keyboard, multitouch trackpad (it’s too small to effectively use the multitouch features), webcam, Windows 7 Home Premium, Ethernet, memory card reader, VGA out, and two USB ports. And again, it’s unbelievably light.
I’ll be putting the machine through its paces and will have a full review up shortly.
It seems that Google plans to re-define the stereotypical netbook. Spec wise, if sources are correct, the Google Netbook will completely change the way we look at netbooks—small, but weak, to cheap, but powerful. According to IBTimes and Netbook News, Google's self-branded netbook will have a NVIDIA Tegra (probably 2nd gen) chipset and will come pre-installed Google apps, such as Maps, Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Search, and Voice.
Intel’s Pine Trail Atom processor (1.66 GHz Atom N450/unveiled earlier this year) is one of the key elements in the LifeBook MH380, Fujitsu’s latest netbook. The MH380 has a 10.1-inch glossy LCD screen with LED backlight, 200nits brightness and no less than 1,366×768 resolution. What’s quite unique design-wise is the tiny circle area (next to the trackpad), which enables circular motion scrolling.
You also get 2GB of RAM, a 250 GB SATA HDD, a card reader, a 1.3 MP web camera, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, USB/SD/SDHC ports, and Windows 7 (Starter). The made-in-Japan MH380 has a battery life of 7.5 hours and weighs just 1.3kg (2.97 lbs).
Fujitsu America will start selling the MH380 next month (price: $449). It will be available in brown, black and white.
When you give your product the name “Butterfly Touch,” you’d better get ready for some teasing. I mean, I understand that it’s supposed to evoke the touch capabilities as well as the swiveling, tilting screen, but what you’ve ended up with sounds like someone petting a bug. Good thing the product itself looks pretty cool.
It’s basically a high-end netbook (from the EasyNote line) that converts into a tablet, and I have no problem with that. It looks solid: nice design, textured body, multitouch trackpad. I4U seems to think the display is multitouch, too — but there’s a stylus there and I don’t think 11.6″ multitouch displays are cheap enough to put in netbooks. We’ll see.
The EasyNote Butterfly Touch will probably be Euro-only first, and should cost about €600
The Google rumors just keep on coming. First the Google Phone creates a buzz throughout the blogosphere, and now, SlashGear (via TechCrunch) is reporting that Google will produce a Google branded netbook as well. The netbook will, obviously, run Chrome OS and could possibly be tied to a mobile carrier, giving it Internet access wherever it's used. It would also be sold to consumers directly from Google. The specs of the proposed netbook are unknown. Sources say that it may run NVIDIA's Tegra 2 platform and will most likely use a solid state hard drive, as Google pushed its use back in November when the Chrome OS platform was unveiled.
Most of the tech world now considers it a given that Google will be selling its own unlocked phone, called the Nexus One, to customers directly early in 2010. A few stragglers are still debating the finer points of the difference between Google working with handset manufacturers and carriers on a good Android experience v. them dictating the hardware specs and selling it directly to users. While they work that out for themselves we're off to the next story - the Google Chrome OS Netbook (although we think Google has a few surprises left around the Nexus One, too).
Google has said from the beginning that they plan on working with select manufacturers to ensure a good Chrome OS experience for users when devices first hit the market next year. From an early FAQ: "The Google Chrome OS team is currently working with a number of technology companies to design and build devices that deliver an extraordinary end user experience. Among others, these companies include Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba."
Most people assume that "working with" around Chrome OS means the same thing as "working with" around Android - lots of meetings to make sure the devices and software work together as well as possible. But sometimes those pesky hardware guys just don't do things quite right. And when you're competing against Apple, everything most definitely needs to be quite right.
That may explain why Google has, according to multiple sources, been talking to at least one hardware manufacturer about building a netbook for Google directly. As in Google gave the company a RFP with quite detailed technical specifications and has begun discussions on building it.
News about the $99 Cherrypal Africa netbook swept across the vast plains of the blogosphere yesterday. But what would you say if I told you there is now $80/50 Euro netbook, too? I’m serious and everyone’s pal, Sasah Pallenberg from NetbookNews, got a hands-on with the Windows CE-powered device from MenQ. Click the link below and find what an $80 computer looks like. You know you wanna.
True story: About two months back I was walking through my house with the then-new Viliv S7 convertible netbook. I started babbling to my wife while she was tending to the kids about how much I loved this little netbook. Even though she clearly couldn’t care less, I went on to proclaim that if Apple would have gotten in on the netbook craze, its model probably would have been something a lot like the S7. You can probably guess that at the time I was ready to write a glowing review of the Viliv S7. But then I went to turn it on and discovered it was borked. My wife laughed out loud.
Features
7-inch swivel touchscreen
3G HSPA
Intel Atom Z520 1.33GHz CPU
32GB SSD
$799 MSRP (models start at $579 though)
Pros
Great form factor
Super long battery life
Very quick start-up
Cons
Viliv’s control over the hardware(more info farther down)
Quirky software
Pricey
The outside
This is a good looking netbook. The case has the same white finish found on the plastic MacBooks and it looks like it’s a top-tier product. The edges are rounded and the whole thing feels solid. With the lid closed, it’s about as tall as a SD card is wide. Let’s just say it’s on the smaller side of the spectrum.
Even the keyboard feels nice. It’s a tad bouncy, but I never felt like I was going to bust through it like I sometimes do on lesser netbooks. The trackpad’s location feels funny at first being located above the right side of the keyboard, but it’s actually the perfect location. You can effectively hold the S7 with two hands as if it’s a large smartphone and use your thumb on the trackpad. You can even type somewhat fast with your thumbs when holding it this way.
I’m somewhat doubtful that users with sausage fingers will be able to type on the small keyboard though. The keys are about the size of a square M&M, if M&M’s were square, that is. Even with my slender, piano-playing fingers, I often found myself mashing two keys at once, but I did eventually get used to it. Now, I can type at about 3/4 of my full speed, which is good enough in my book.
Mark, over at Gizmodo, railed the S7’s screen but I can find no fault in it. The finish isn’t matte or glossy. It’s somewhat in between, but it gets bright enough to counter most glare; it’s totally usable outside. (I just wish I hadn’t gone through two review units and could have posted the review when he did months ago, but I digress)
Let’s not forget that the S7 also has a touchscreen and it works just as well as the X70 tablet. I found it to be more of a novelity feature for me though. I only used it occasionally after the first few days I had the netbook. It’s just that Windows isn’t meant to be used via a 7-inch touchscreen and the small trackpad is better suited for most tasks. Being able to swivel the screen around and lay it flat is great for movie-watching or ebook-reading though.
The inside
The Viliv S7 packs the standard high-end netbooks specs: an Atom Z520 @ 1.33GHz, 1GB of RAM, 3G modem, 32GB SSD, WiFi, VGA & composite out, SD card slot, three USB ports. It only takes 35 seconds to boot to XP and 9 seconds to resume from sleep. Got to love that.
I’m assuming that the 3G modem works fine, but I seem to live in an AT&T 3G dead zone; I could only connect with EDGE speeds. Let’s not blame the Viliv S7 though.
The S7 includes the same USB transfer program found on the Viliv X70. When a connection is made to the mini USB port, a program auto-runs on both machines and allows you to transfer files between. It’s flawless and should actually be a standard computer feature. It takes all the work out of connecting two computer just to share a few files.
But also like other Viliv rigs, some of the hardware can be switched off to improve the battery life. This can be problematic I found as sometimes hardware like WiFi doesn’t want to respond to the Windows program. I often had to restart the first review sample I received in order for it to work.
From what I can gather, the program removes the 3G modem, camera, and WiFi/Bluetooth from Windows’s reach. Even Device Manager cannot see them when the program has them switched off. It’s a little scary actually to think that some of the most important features of the computer are controlled by this one program.
I do need to point out that I had two review samples die on me. The first one couldn’t find the WiFi/Bluetooth hardware and the second one wouldn’t turn on at all. Most of the time the review samples we receive are first-ran devices — like the URC MX-5000 — but the S7 was out in Korea for a few months before Dynamism imported them to the States. But computers are never perfect. The third S7 I received works fine although the battery switch sometimes doesn’t want to spring back into place to fully secure it. None of the other samples had this issue.
The recommendation
I love the S7 in theory. In my mind it’s the perfect Windows netbook thanks to its size and quick start-up time. But because of the bad experiences I had with it over the last few months, I’m hesitant to recommend it. At least I can tell you confidently that Dynamism.com, the flagship Viliv dealer in the states, fully backs the product and offers excellent tech support as Viliv offers none outside of Korea. That’s important.
Update: A commenter below indicated that Viliv does indeed offer US tech support. The phone number is 1-888-698-4548. News to me, that phone number isn’t on any of the packaging I received nor could I find it in Google when I was having all my issues.
Microsoft has re-posted the USB/DVD download tool after it was discovered it contained GPLv2 code. Installing Windows 7 on a netbook can be a daunting task. The lack of DVD drive can make even the most skilled geek feel inadequate and mortal. The only real way to plug external data into a netbook is via its USB ports. Now these handy lil' ports would be great, assuming Windows 7 actually came on bootable flash drives. Sadly, Microsoft hasn't decided to take that route. Instead, you're stuck scratching your head, googling (or binging, whichever) the best way to turn your flash drive into an installation disc.
Would you run Windows 7 on a netbook? It’s a good question, especially when you look at some of the benchmarks vis-à-vis battery life and past versions of Windows, namely XP. But let’s put that aside for a moment. Let’s say you do, in fact, want Windows 7 on that shiny new netbook of yours. Problem: your netbook doesn’t have an optical drive, which makes installing Windows 7, oh, impossible. Until now! Microsoft has released the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool that let’s users create a bootable Windows 7 USB drive or DVD ISO.
Now, the second part of that equation, the DVD ISO, is fairly useless for netbook users, but a USB drive? Everyone has at least one free USB port. Buy and download the Windows 7 image file from Microsoft, then run it through the Download tool, then off you go.
Onkyo Japan has announced a few notebooks today, all of which are in fact re-branded (but beefed up) models competitor Kohjinsha released earlier on the Japanese market. Perhaps the most interesting new model is the NX707A4 [JP], a 7-inch tablet netbook with an built-in GPS module.
The tablet is powered by Atom Z520 processor (1.33 GHz) and has an 80GB HDD, 1GB RAM, Intel US15W chipset, two USB ports, an ExpressCard/34 slot, SD/SDHC/MMC/Memory Stick Pro slots, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, 802.11n Wi-Fi and two web cams (3MP and 0.3MP) on board. The display is a touch screen with 1,024×600 resolution.
Buyers will get Windows 7 starter as the OS and can expect a battery life of about 3 hours. The NX707A4 weighs 720g and is sized at 193 x 132 x 22 – 30mm.
Onkyo will start selling the device in Japan at the end of this month (price: $680). The company hasn’t said yet if it plans to sell the tablet outside this country as well so you might want to contact import/export specialist Geek Stuff 4 U if you want to get one.
Seems like Seagate is trying to make up for some lost time in the storage technology field. After a late entry into the SSD market, Seagate may be getting a jump start on the ultra-thin drive market. One of the issues with the new ultra-thin generation of notebook computers is the hard drive size. You can only make a computer so thin before you run into issues with the thickness of the components.
Currently drives are either 9.5 millimeters for a laptop, or 12.5 millimeters in the more traditional desktop drive. The thicker drives normally come in larger capacities, because they allow for more platters. Seagate has been working on improvements in magnetic storage techniques, which has reduced the need for multiple platters.
Seagate has been mum about the capacities that the new drives will come in, as well as keeping the pricing quiet. The official announcement is expected to come on January 5th.
Microsoft’s PR folks in Germany have officially asked journalists not to use or talk about Apple products during their events. Why? Because one journo said his iPhone kicked ass.
9to5 has a translation of the German story which essentially amounts to a Microsoft asking a journalist not to use his Apple products at an event.
“While at a Windows Mobile 6.5 demonstration in Munich, Germany a journalist was warned by a Microsoft spokesman not to mention or use Apple products…since it was a Microsoft event the journalist had previously told everyone that he had never owned an easier to use cell phone than the iPhone.”
This comes on top of some shots at another secret Microsoft event in Seattle of all the journos lined up using MacBooks. If you look closely you can see Sascha Segan from PC Mag using what looks like a Baby’s First Netbook and Vincent Nguyen next to him using a MBP.
I’ve already proclaimed my love and affection for the Astro Boy netbook. I love the overall style, lid graphic, and all the sweet Astro Boy-themed accessories. The video above makes me want it ever more. Too bad it’s not leaving the Taiwanese market and it costs $900. [via netbooknews]
Acer, no stranger to netbooks with Google-backed operating systems, is hoping to have the first Chrome OS netbook on the market by the second half of next year, according to DigiTimes.
The company has apparently been developing the machine since the middle of this year. Acer’s JT Wang “expressed his confidence that the company will be the first vendor to launch [a] Chrome-based netbook in the market during a recent interview with Digitimes.”
The second half of 2010 is light years away as far as technology development is concerned but, hey, now you have something to talk about at your next dinner party. I’d bring it up right away, like before you even take your coat off.
If you’re keen on the whole low voltage ultraportable idea (bigger screens, slightly faster processors than standard netbooks) but you can’t quite stomach the $600+ price tag that accompanies most of those systems, you may be happy to hear that JR.com is blowing the MSI X320 right the hell out.
Now to be fair, this is basically a netbook in an ultraportable’s body. You get a big 13.4-inch screen and decently-sized keyboard along with a 2.8-pound weight and a thickness of just 0.79 inches, although the innards include an older Atom Z530 CPU, dumpy GMA 500 graphics, and Windows Vista Home Premium.
If you like pink, you can save a heap on Sony’s 10.1-inch VAIO W netbook. The Microsoft Store is selling it for just $374.25 with free shipping. The same netbook is available in white for $499.
Most of the tech world now considers it a given that Google will be selling its own unlocked phone, called the 
Buyers will get Windows 7 starter as the OS and can expect a battery life of about 3 hours. The NX707A4 weighs 720g and is sized at 193 x 132 x 22 – 30mm.
Seems like Seagate is trying to make up for some lost time in the storage technology field. After a 
Microsoft’s PR folks in Germany have officially asked journalists not to use or talk about Apple products during their events. Why? Because one journo said his iPhone kicked ass. 
If you’re keen on the whole low voltage ultraportable idea (bigger screens, slightly faster processors than standard netbooks) but you can’t quite stomach the $600+ price tag that accompanies most of those systems, you may be happy to hear that JR.com is blowing the MSI X320 right the hell out.