Viewsonic VOT132 nettop review

Viewsonic VOT132 nettop review

You don’t need booming sales figures to tell you that netbooks have taken over the world — the mobile computing world, at least. Their screenless and battery-free brethren, however, have yet to find quite the same success. Nettops are great tiny little machines but in general they’ve been under-powered and, while people love eking out another hour or two of battery life on the road, few sadly care whether their desktop computers pull down 17 or 71 watts of juice. Still, it’s hard to deny the appeal of a fully-functional computer that’s half the size of a Wii — especially when it can manage 1080p output over HDMI. Viewsonic’s VOT132, with its Ion graphics and trick magnetic DVD drive, is tiny, efficient, and powerful. The perfect media PC? Read on to find out.

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Viewsonic VOT132 nettop review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel’s next-gen Pine Trail Atom processors officially announced

Get ready for the next generation of netbooks and nettops: Intel’s just officially announced the Pine Trail Atom N450, D410, and D510, along with the NM10 Express chipset, and we should see over 80 machines with the 45-nanometer chips at CES 2010. Nothing too surprising about the 1.66GHz chips themselves, which integrate the memory controller and Intel graphics directly onto the CPU die: the N450 is targeted at netbooks, while the single-core D410 and dual-core D510 are designed for nettops, and each chip should use about 20 percent less power than its predecessor. That was borne out in our review of the N450-based ASUS Eee PC 1005PE, which got 10 hours of battery life in regular use, but unfortunately we didn’t experience any performance improvements over the familiar N270 and N280. That jibes with other reports we’ve heard, but we’ll wait to test some more machines before we break out the frowny face permanently — for now, check out the full press release below.

Continue reading Intel’s next-gen Pine Trail Atom processors officially announced

Intel’s next-gen Pine Trail Atom processors officially announced originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Artopz Minitopz Ion-based nettop lamp rains down confusion, wonder

We don’t get it. At all. That said, we’re totally enamored with this Artopz Minitopz, which manages to both be an impressively-specced Atom and Ion-based nettop, and simultaneously a completely confounding piece of “art.” Apparently it’s supposed to be perceived as a lamp, but we’d say that stretches the limits of imagination. But it stretches them in a good way, that’s all we’re saying. Oh, and the Minitopz costs $2,250, just in case you thought you’d penetrated this fog of luxurious gadget oddity to the point of pulling out a wallet. Maybe the video after the break will help clear some things up? Nope, not really.

Continue reading Artopz Minitopz Ion-based nettop lamp rains down confusion, wonder

Artopz Minitopz Ion-based nettop lamp rains down confusion, wonder originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CherryPal debuts $99 netbook, names it Africa

If you’re looking at a netbook whose motto is “small, slow, sufficient,” you pretty much know what to expect. CherryPal’s latest, named Africa (in honor of the nation of Ghana or something), has everything you’d want in a $99 computer: a 7-inch display, 400MHz processor, 256MB memory, 2GB flash storage, and either Linux or Windows CE under the hood. According to the company, you can expect about four hours use on the included Lithium battery. If that weren’t enough, the company has introduced its online store — no longer do you have to pick up your CherryPal PCs on the streets, like we did when we were your age. Hit the source link to get started — but not before you check out the PR after the break. It’s a real page-turner.

Continue reading CherryPal debuts $99 netbook, names it Africa

CherryPal debuts $99 netbook, names it Africa originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS Eee Box EB1501 primed for $479 Amazon pre-order

We’d been wondering when ASUS’ NVIDIA Ion and optical drive packing Eee Box EB1501 would touch down on US soil, and lo and behold today it’s showing face for all those eager enough to pre-order. The device is available at Amazon for not a dollar less than $479 (though it does have free shipping), and if you’ll recall, the box is boasting a 1.6GHz Intel Atom dual core N330, NVIDIA Ion graphics, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive. All that and you get Windows 7 Home Premium rather than the ever-graying Windows XP. Of course, if you’re looking for all that in a mobile form factor you can always wait on the $499 ASUS Eee PC 1201N, but for set-top duty, feel free to unleash the credit card right now.

ASUS Eee Box EB1501 primed for $479 Amazon pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASRock ION 330HT-BD nettop goes on sale for $589

If you’re scouting a nettop that’ll hit your doorstep prior to those Christmas bells ringing, you’ll want to look elsewhere. That said, those with plenty of time to spare may want to consider ASRock’s ION 330HT-BD, particularly if you just can’t seem to stop renting Blu-ray Discs from Netflix. The box has just landed on Amazon with a $588.99 price tag and an admittedly frightening “usually ships within 1 to 4 months” warning, and if you’re no fan of BD (liar!), the standard 330HT is in the same boat for $458.99.

ASRock ION 330HT-BD nettop goes on sale for $589 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Asus Eee Box EB1501 gets unBoxed

With that fancy disc drive, NVIDIA Ion under the hood, and considerable aesthetic improvements, the Eee Box EB1501 has seemingly little to do with the Asus Eee Box of yore. So, is it as stunning in person as it is on paper? The folks at Blogeee.net have unwrapped the thing and stood it on its fancy metal stand, and they seem to be digging it — of course, their impressions are written in French, so we can never be entirely sure. Now if only Asus could work in an internal Blu-ray drive we’d be set! Hands-on video is after the break.

Continue reading Asus Eee Box EB1501 gets unBoxed

Asus Eee Box EB1501 gets unBoxed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AOpen’s Ion-powered XC Mini GP7A-HD puts the ‘choice’ in ‘nettop’

There’s a decent chance you North Americans in attendance won’t ever see the likes of AOpen‘s XC Mini GP7A-HD, but for those in places where having a say on what innards are shoved into their next nettop (we’re lookin’ at you, Japan), this mini PC is apposite to fill quite the void. Boasting only a small frame, NVIDIA’s Ion graphics technology and space for a multicard reader, it’s up to the buyer to slap in a Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of RAM, a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD and a DVD burner or Blu-ray drive. You’ll also find six USB 2.0 sockets, an HDMI port and a VGA output, and while gigabit Ethernet is included, it looks as if the WiFi module is on you. Mum’s the word on pricing, but we’re guessing it’ll be as close to nothing as NVIDIA will allow.

AOpen’s Ion-powered XC Mini GP7A-HD puts the ‘choice’ in ‘nettop’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell’s Inspiron Zino HD on sale now in America: starts at $229, doubles as an HTPC

Dell has taken its sweet time in bringing the 7.75- x 7.75- x 3.5-inch Inspiron Zino HD to market, but just 24 hours after it made its market debut across the pond, this little zinger is finally available to the Yanks in attendance. Starting at just $229, the mini PC is far more exhilarating than most ho hum nettops. Oh sure, the base configuration is fairly unexciting, but thankfully Dell enables you to add up to 8GB of memory, a 1.8GHz dual-core AMD Athlon Neo X2 6850e CPU, up to 1TB of HDD space, an optional Blu-ray drive, a 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4330 discrete GPU and WiFi to the mix. ‘Course, speccing it out will obviously raise the price substantially, but it’s always nice to see more power than anticipated within such a minuscule box. Of note, Dell also mentions that an optional TV tuner, wireless keyboard and mouse are available, but at least for now, the TV tuner is nowhere to be found in the configuration pages. Other inclusions are a 4-in-1 card reader, four USB 2.0 sockets and a pair of eSATA ports. Who says HTPCs have to breathe fire?

Update: We’ve just heard that the TV tuner won’t be available at launch (sounds a lot like what happened with the Mini 10), so there goes those dreams of immediately gratifying your urge for a new HTPC of the smallest scale.

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Dell’s Inspiron Zino HD on sale now in America: starts at $229, doubles as an HTPC originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell’s Inspiron Zino HD now official in Ireland and UK

The Irish may be a few hours ahead of us Yanks, but that’s not stopping us from snooping on their web pages. Dell’s long-awaited Inspiron Zino HD has finally popped official over on the outfit’s IE portal, and considering that it even made a brief appearance on the US site over the weekend, we’re guessing it’s only a matter of hours, minutes and / or nanoseconds before the minuscule desktop shows up everywhere. A total of ten interchangeable colors and designs are being offered on the machine (which gets going at €329), not to mention an integrated HDMI socket and an optional Blu-ray drive. Unlike most of the mini PCs out there today, this one actually has a specs list worth drooling over, and if we can figure out how to get a TV tuner in here, we’d say we just might be looking at our next bedroom HTPC. C’mon US admins — it’s not that early in Round Rock.

[Thanks, Andy]

Update: It’s now live in the UK! Another market down, a few hundred to go…

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Dell’s Inspiron Zino HD now official in Ireland and UK originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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