Hasta La Gadget!

AT&T just added a pair of Windows 7 Starter netbooks to its stable, and while we’ve got nothing against the Samsung Go and the Acer Aspire One, we just can’t help but feel preloading 7 Starter makes the already-dubious subsidized netbook value proposition even worse. Let’s break it down: both the Go and the Aspire One will set you back $199 upfront (well, after mail-in rebate), and then you’re on the hook for two-year data contract, which will cost you either $35 a month for a 200MB cap or $60 a month for a 5GB cap. Now, $35 a month for 200MB of data is basically worthless for a netbook — that’s what, a half-day of watching YouTube? — so assuming you do what most people do and buy the $60 plan, you’re out at least $1,639 over two years for last-gen netbook hardware running a gimped OS that doesn’t even let you change the desktop wallpaper. Not exactly a screaming deal. We’d say you’re much better off finding a netbook with XP on sale and just getting a regular free-on-contract USB data card, which you’ll be able to use on multiple machines — or, if you absolutely must have Windows 7, holding out for the coming flood of Pine Trail netbooks at CES, which we’re hoping will come preloaded with 7 Home Premium.

Filed under: Laptops

AT&T adds Samsung Go to netbook lineup, dumbs it down with Windows 7 Starter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Don’t be fooled by that background: this Menq EasyPC E790 is only using Windows CE 5.0 for the sake of this hands-on. The successor to the $89 E760 we saw last year still sports a Samsung ARM processor, bumps the 7-inch display’s resolution to 800 x 480, and at least as far as this Techvideoblog video hands-on shows, can do a decent (albeit not great) job of handling DivX files, Skype, and browsing. There’s a promise from the manufacturer that Android is coming sometime in the next month, but honestly, given what we’ve seen before, we’d be happy to stick with Windows CE. Of course, the big selling point here is the price, and that claimed $80 is quite the looker. Video after the break.

[Via SlashGear and Linux for Devices]

Read – Hands-on
Read – Product page

Continue reading Menq’s $80 EasyPC E790 netbook runs Windows CE now, should run Android later (video)

Filed under: Laptops

Menq’s $80 EasyPC E790 netbook runs Windows CE now, should run Android later (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Litl Easel Webbook gets the extensive hands-on treatment (video)

Filed under: Laptops

Litl Easel Webbook gets the extensive hands-on treatment (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Say it with us now: “freaking finally!” The world at large seems perfectly fine with using Atom N270 and N280 CPUs for the rest of eternity (judging by the latest netbook sales figures, anyway), but techies like us are sick and tired of dabbling with the same underpowered chips and the same lackluster capabilities. At long last, we’re hearing that Intel will supposedly officially announce the Pine Trail platform in late December, with a raft of netbooks based around the new Pineview chips hitting the CES show floor in January. The 1.66GHz Atom N450, dual-core 1.66GHz Atom D510 and Atom D410 are expected to be all the rage at the show, with the existing N270 and N280 making an expedited trip to the grave. Good riddance, we say.

[Via Register Hardware]

Filed under: Laptops

Intel purportedly fast-tracking Pine Trail platform, forgetting all about N270 / N280 at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew good and well that Nokia’s Booklet 3G was coming to Best Buy sometime “during the holidays,” and now we’ve got something a bit more precise to share. Starting now, Reward Zone members can waltz into their local store and place a pre-order, while public availability is pegged for November 15th (though we already know that a select few have ’em in stock). As we’d heard, the 2.76-pound, Atom-powered netbook will be sold for $299.99 with a 2-year AT&T data contract or $599.99 straight-up. Oh, and if you’re looking to get your order in early, we’d recommend printing out that image above just so you don’t baffle anyone with your otherworldly request.

Filed under: Laptops

Best Buy stocking Nokia’s Booklet 3G on November 15th originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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