Hasta La Gadget!

Last year upstart Acer stole the netbook crown from ASUS, a sales stat that might have been helped by the ability to buy an Aspire One at your local neighborhood Walmart. While you can already pick up an Eee at places like Target and Best Buy, from what we hear at wholesale mixers you’re nothing until you go Supercenter, and that’s just where the company that started the netbook craze wants to go, said to be planning its own push into the biggest of big-box retailers. If this report is correct, expect to be able to pick up a little Eee with your groceries (and shame) sometime in the latter half of this year.

Filed under: Laptops

ASUS’s little netbooks go big-box; Eee PCs expected in Walmart by year’s end originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tired of waiting for that NC20, are you? Fret not, as Samsung has apparently hammered out a deal with Amazon to exclusively sell a special edition of the NC10. As we saw with MSI’s upgrading of the Wind U100, the nicely refreshed NC10 checks in with most of the same specs — a 10.2 WSVGA display, 1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, 160GB HDD, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR — but it does add a few delectable extras for just $50 over the “other” NC10. Most notable is the 5,900mAh 6-cell high capacity battery, which extends the already respectable battery life to a staggering 9.4 hours. Furthermore, the enlarged touchpad should make mousing around a bit easier, and there’s also an anti-reflection gloss coating display that may or may not float your boat. Obviously, there’s no word on a ship date just yet, but we’d put our money on “sooner,” not “later.”

[Via PortableMonkey]

Filed under: Laptops

Special Edition Samsung NC10 gets 6-cell battery, larger touchpad originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Feb 2009 17:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you thought last month’s $99 Mini 9 was just too cheap (unlikely), or were scared off by the two year contract that came along with the offer (rather more likely), check out Dell’s latest deal. The company is selling its lowest-spec Mini 9n, offering 512MB of memory and Ubuntu installed on a 4GB SSD, for just $249. That’s $100 less one went for for last September. Can’t live without Windows? You’ll still need to pony up another $50, but will at least get an extra 4GB of storage out of the deal. Surely one of these two bargain portables will fit into your budget and your lifestyle, but don’t spend too long deciding which — this deal expires on February 12.

[Thanks, Justin R.]

Filed under: Laptops

Dell’s Mini 9 selling for just $249 — who needs a subsidy? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First shipments of Acer’s 10.1-inch Aspire One netbooks are now underway in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Large volume shipments are on schedule for the rest-of-world beginning mid-February according to the DigiTimes‘ typically reliable Acer sources. And after watching the 8.9-inch Aspire One steal the crown of world’s best selling netbook away from ASUS, we thought you’d like to know that Acer’s version of the 1.6GHz Atom N270 netbook with 1GB of RAM, SDHC card slot, 3x USB, and optional 3G was nearly here. Still no pricing unless “aggresive” means something specific to you.

Update: Acer just announced a February 20th launch in Japan and the first 10-inch Aspire One was spotted by HKEPC on a shelf in Hong Kong.

Filed under: Laptops

Acer’s 10.1-inch Aspire One netbook trickles out originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A few retailer slip-ups aside, we haven’t heard a whole lot about the Dell Mini 10 since it was unveiled at CES, but it looks like that’s now starting to change, with this supposedly authentic slide offering some further details on the netbook. Among the new bits of information is word that the Mini 10 will apparently have two display options: the 1366 x 768 option we heard about initially, and a more conventional 1024 x 576 WSVGA option for those less concerned with 720p content. You’ll also apparently be able to get your choice of 1.3GHz or 1.6GHz Atom processors, one of six different color options, a 3-cell or 6-cell battery, and apparently even an “optional DVD slice,” although there’s unfortunately no pics or further details on it. There’s also still no word on a price or release date, but let’s hope those details are the next to surface, officially or otherwise.

Filed under: Laptops

More Dell Mini 10 details, colors surface originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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