Category: General

The Gigabyte is planning to launch 3 new netbooks in the second quarter this year. Out of 3 netbooks, two will be manufactured by Quanta, which is a popular manufacturer of notebooks and Windows Mobile smartphones. All three netbooks are rumored to have prices around $400, although the folks at Gigabyte are trying to get one of them at around $300 for the emerging markets.

I hope the netbooks made by Quanta won’t have hardware problems like the MWG had with the Atom Life. I have personally owned Atom Life once and had to sell it at a ridiculously low price. Not only me, but countless people complained about the hardware issues of Atom Life and the original Atom (then known as O2 Atom).

[digitimes]

At CES 2009, Asus has announced their three new devices EEE PC T91, EEE T101H and EEE S121 Netbook. The EEE PC T91 is the first official EEE which has a 8.9-inch swivel touch screen. It will come with Windows XP Home edition. It comes with an optional TV-tuner or GPS. EEE PC T101H looks similar to the T91, but sports a bigger 10-inch screen and sports a better keyboard where there is more space between the keys. The EEE PC S121 looks a lot like Asus S101 Netbook, but with new powerful specifications, especially the use of 512GB SSD:

• Intel Atom Z520 processor
• 512GB SSD
• 12.2-inch slim chassis
• whooping 8-hours of battery time
• dimensions: 11.7×8.3×0.9

I’m really excited about the one with the 512GB SSD. I am still wondering though how ASUS will be able to keep the price of the S121 low since a 512GB SSD won’t come cheap for sure.

VelocityMicro have released a new netbook, NoteMagix M10. It has the same specifications as any other netbook in the market like an Atom processor, a gig of RAM and 10.1-inch screen. Velocity is targeting this netbook at the students, who want to carry a fully-capable computer with them on the go running Windows XP. It will be shipping at an expected price for $379.

Features:-

• 10.1” screen, the perfect size for web browsing, email, and viewing documents.
• 4-cell lithium ion battery for extended run times– up to 5+ hours
• B+G Wifi and integrated webcam to stay connected with friends and family
• Extremely lightweight chassis weighs just 2.6 pounds with battery
• Microsoft Windows XP for a true computing experience
• Custom carrying case made of wet suit-grade neoprene

In case you don’t know about VelocityMicro, it is a famous North-American Desktop PC maker.

Visit VelocityMicro website

CTL today officially announced the new 2go Convertible Classmate PC. It will be the one of the first touch-enabled netbooks to be available in the US. There are other players in the market too like Asus and MSI, who will also be launching their own touch-enabled netbooks worldwide soon.

The difference however is the target audience. While rest of the netbook makers are targeting the grown-up individuals, the CTL’s Convertible classmate is for the purpose of education and for the new youth generation. It has a light weight of 2.8lbs (1.27kg), which makes it easy for the children to carry it in their backpacks. Although, at $549, I doubt how many parents will let their children carry such an expensive gadget with them to the school.

Specifications of CTL 2go Convertible Classmate PC :-

• 1.6GHz Intel Atom 270 processor
• 1GB RAM
• shock-mounted 60GB HD
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
• 6-cell battery
• 8.9 LCD screen (1024×600) with accelerometer
• supports stylus for touchscreen navigation
• resistive touchscreen technology

The specifications are nothing spectacular, but hey, this device is targetted for the children and the young students and they don’t need a device with lots of horsepower. But, the highly limiting factor again is going to be high price of the device. They need to keep the prices down to let the parents buy it for their children.