Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve been seeing a fair amount of netbooks equipped with Intel’s Pine Trail platform since they were announced early last week, and it looks like we’re going to be seeing at least one from Samsung in the very near future. This one — the N220 — was just spotted in France. The 10.1-incher packs (as you’d expect) an Atom N450 CPU, GMA 3150 graphics, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth, plus a webcam and a 6 cell battery which should supposedly get around eleven and a half hours of battery life. It comes with Windows 7 installed, and as you can see from the photo, one of the available colors will be glossy green. It’s going for 350 euros in France, so, if the price stays comparable when (and if it) hits North American soil, we can expect it to cost somewhere in the realm of $500.

Samsung’s Pine Trail-boasting N220 netbook spied in France originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a while since we first saw the $199 NorhTech Gecko hit the scene, but the AA-powered netbook looks to finally be hitting US shores in proper fashion, and the crew at Lilliputing just got their tester. Inside it’s no great shakes, with a 1GHz Xcore86 processor, 512MB of RAM, an 8GB SD card, and an 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 display — but almost every component can be swapped out for a more powerful variant, including the processor. That’s certainly intriguing, especially for the education market NorhTech is targeting, but we’re mostly on the edge of our seats waiting to find out how long those AAs last under some real use. Check one video after the break and another at the read link.

Continue reading NorhTech Gecko netbook loaded up with AAs and booted

NorhTech Gecko netbook loaded up with AAs and booted originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already seen that early builds of Google’s Chromium OS can be hacked onto existing machines, but those Chrome OS netbooks that the software giant has planned for next year have remained curiously elusive until now. According to both IBTimes and Netbook News, the company is in talks with a number of outfits in order to bring at least a few sub-$300 options to the market that are well suited to power through its first non-mobile operating system. For starters, we’re told that the 10.1-inch machine will be ARM-based, while NVIDIA’s Tegra platform (likely the second generation) steers the graphical ship. There’s also promise of a multitouch panel (1,280 x 720 resolution), 64GB SSD, WiFi, 2GB of RAM, integrated 3G connectivity, Bluetooth, an Ethernet jack, an undisclosed amount of USB sockets, webcam, 3.5mm audio jack, a multi-card reader, a 4- or 6-cell battery and optional GPS. Wilder still, a $200 configuration could very well pop up, and it looks as if (at least initially) Google will sell the device(s) directly through its own website — much like Fusion Garage has done with the Joojoo tablet. ‘Course, it’ll still take some arm twisting to get the low-end crowd to try anything not labeled “Windows,” but if anyone can do it, it’s the company that inexplicably kept Gmail in “beta” for over five years.

Google’s Chrome OS-based netbook specs leak out originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Details are exceedingly light on Averatec‘s HS-105 netbook, but all you really need to know is in the processor: there’s a 1.6GHz Atom N270 running the show. Unfortunately, that’s the same CPU that has been powering the bulk of netbooks for the past year or so, and with Intel’s Atom N450 already being used in a few choice rigs, there’s hardly a reason to cast a glance at this one. If you insist, other specifications include 2GB of RAM, a 945GSE graphics set, 10.1-inch LCD (1,024 x 600), 160GB / 250GB HDD, WiFi and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. There’s nary a word on price or release, but we fully anticipate the sticker to fall somewhere between “ultra cheap” and “let’s get two.”

Averatec’s HS-105 netbook looks good, should’ve waited for Pine Trail originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The whole “man, how time flies” thing feels a little played out, but we definitely just heard the Pavilion dv2 say as much to the Wind U100. Believe it or not, those two machines were just a couple of the legions that ushered us into a netbook-crazed 2009, and now DisplaySearch has the figures that prove what we’ve all been thinking: netbooks are the bees knees. According to their research, shipments of low-cost, miniaturized laptops shot up 103 percent year-over-year; compare that to the 5 percent uptick in the conventional laptop market, and you’ll start to get a feel for the shifting trend. Potentially more amazing is the revenue analysis, which found that netbooks experienced a 72 percent rise in year-over-year revenue growth while all other mobile computers saw a loss. It’s tough to say if the momentum can be stopped, but if folks have continued to buy these things despite the limited CPU options and lackluster multimedia performance, we suspect there isn’t anything those angered CULV alternatives can do to stop the inevitable rise to stardom.

Netbooks party hard in 2009: shipments up 103 percent year-over-year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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