Another Overly Priced NetBook: Samsung

Once again we see the more solid technology companies begin to think that they can attach a name to a product and sell it at a significant price. This time it is Samsung.

The 12" NC-20 has some decent specs for a NetBook, but it is fairly pricey for a NoteBook.

Here are some of the specs: "A big-sized sequel to the 10-inch NC10, purported specs include an unnamed VIA U225 processor, 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, 1.3MP webcam and a weight of 3.3lbs. Slated for February (in Italy at least), the system is said to retail at $650. " [Gizmodo]

Again, $650? That's like armed robbery when I get can a modest, yet weaker model, for half that price?

Alpha 400: Netbook or Netjunk?

There are a lot of articles out there bashing this very low end addition to the Netbook family.  While this new comer to the race doesn't seem to offer much, it may not be as bad as it seems.

The specs aren't that much too look at, especially considering that most of the hardware was outdated 5 years ago. But there is some promise that may get over looked by some critical reviewers: Upgradable.

Technical Details

• Alpha 400 MIPS 400 MHz Ultralite 7-inch Mini Notebook General Features: Ultralite notebook
• Linux 2.4 Operating System MIPS XBurst 400 MHz 32-bit CPU 128 MB RAM 1 GB NAND Flash Storage
• 10/100 MB Ethernet interface Supports External Hard Drive up to 160 GB
• Supports SD Card up to 32 GB Xiptech application software packages (Xip office, Flash player)
• 7-inch digital panel 800 x 480 true-color - 802.11b WI-FI

When looking at the specs above, one may notice the ability to use SD cards. You can also use an external HDD via Ethernet. Although this is not a huge deal to some, it may be a big deal to others. If one is simply looking for simple word processing and or business related tasks, this tool might not be too bad.

Amazon.com Netbook Deals

A brief browsing at the Amazon.com website, searching for Netbooks turned up some decent deals.

ASUS Eee PC 2G Surf (7-Inch Display, Intel Mobile Processor, 512 MB RAM, 2 GB Hard Drive, Linux Preloaded) Galaxy Black is only $259.72. An 8GB black Eee with Linux is only $270.

That's not bad prices for older models. The prices range from mid $200 - $400's, depending on what you are looking for.

The prices aren't bad, and you can probably get some free shipping thrown in there too!

New HP Netbook

While I find the insanely flooded Netbook market intriguing and possibly the future of mobile computing, it is easy to get tired by the same old, same old.

HP's new Netbook, the Mini 1000, is not the biggest jump from the typical netbook, containing "10.2-inch netbook that comes in at under 2.5 pounds and packs a 1.6 Ghz Atom processor, 16 GB SSD and up to 2 GB RAM " [Gizmodo]

What will make this netbook different in the future is the custom OS developed by HP. Currently the Mini 1000 runs a version of XP, which is common in the Netbook realm. 

The OS is said to be based on a version of Ubuntu, a Linux distro.

While this is new to the current market, it is not new all together. Hopefully this time around the new OS will be more user friendly and less of a software engineers toy.

New Dell Mini-Inspiron

The new Dell Netbook is as beautiful as it is large. There is a great review of it at Gizmodo.

The specs look decent, but I feel they still don't fill in the price tag ($599). Intel Atom Processor, maybe 1 GB RAM, small hard drive (40 - 80GB), nothing special. The only thing truly interesting about this Netbook is the size. It very nicely runs on a 12 inch screen.

Wait for the XP or Linux model to come out.

Asus Reeeturns to Its Roots With $300 Eee PC 701SDX

According to a article on Giz, from Eeepcnews.de, Asus may be very well going to what most of us think a Netbook should be...CHEAP!

The article states the are those that believe that Asus will be selling a lower cost model of the Eee sometime in the near future...for $300.

Although this won't be a record breaking speed machine, it will probably serve a good purpose to those who need small, compact  and cheap PC's.

Hopefully the Eee PC 701SDX will be out before Christmas, 

so we can see this miracle for ourselves!

Netbooks Big on Amazon.com

This is a pretty good link from Gizmodo about how Amazon has jumped on the "we sell Netbooks!" bandwagon. 

What I think is funny though is how hard it is to buy a Netbook via like Best Buy or Circuit City. Seriously, does any physical store actually carry more than say 2 Netbooks or more than 1 model of them?

For how popular these seem to be, they are hard to find outside of the interweb!