NVIDIA’s Tegra may be stealing MID-lover’s hearts at Computex 2009, but that doesn’t mean the company is forgetting about their Ion GPU. Taking to the stage with news of a full 21 Ion-based devices - including the ASUS Eee Top ET2002 all-in-one, ASRock ION 330 and MSI Wind Top AE2201 – NVIDIA revealed a mixture of mainboards, all-in-one desktops, netbooks, nettops and notebooks based on the 1080p-capable chipset.
The choice of ASUS Eee PC models keeps getting larger, and the company shows little sign of stopping until there’s a netbook variant for every individual person on the planet. On the SlashGear desk today is the Eee PC 1000HA, part of the company’s largest 1000-series netbooks but coming in at the relatively bargain price of $429.99. Could this be the best balance of budget and functionality to date?
The Eee PC will get at least two touchscreen variants announced in early 2009, with both convertible and standard notebook form-factor designs being explored. That’s the latest news from ASUS CEO Jerry Shen, who has been sharing some more details about what’s become the largest netbook range on the market. As well as the touchscreen models, ASUS have obviously decided to take Steve Ballmer at his word and miss Windows Vista out completely; instead, they’re planning to introduce Windows 7 to netbooks in the second half of 2009.
The Samsung NC10 netbook has had a pre-release unboxing and benchmark photoshoot, pitting the NC10 against ASUS’ Eee PC 901. While falling short of a full review, it does tell us that the keyboard is more usable than the Eee PC’s – thanks to larger keys – and the trackpad, though relatively small, works well. As for the benchmarks, in CPUMark 2.2 the NC10 scored 75.05 points, while the 901 managed 74.27.
Check out the full Samsung N10 image gallery after the cut
Biggest news this week has been in gaming, with Nintendo announcing the latest iteration of their DS handheld. The DSi introduces new multimedia features – for instance a 3-megapixel camera – and an even thinner body, at the expense of battery life. Don’t get too excited, though; the US won’t see the DSi until “well into” 2009.
In netbooks, ASUS slipped in a few new models at both the low and high-end of the market, with the Eee PC 900HA and 904HA offering bargain 160GB storage while the S101 corners the more-fashionable (and expensive) end. That’s a niche the ASUS N10 already occupies; that netbook ran the review gauntlet this week, proving “technologically clever” but simply too expensive. ASUS – and MSI, whose Wind U90 was panned too – must be looking enviably at Gigabyte’s M912M convertible touchscreen netbook, which was good enough to pull a credit card from the wallet of one reviewer.
Read SlashGear – or any tech website – even semi-regularly and you’ll see new netbooks appearing pretty much every day. The niche that started off with the Eee PC 700 as an unusual budget ultraportable has flourished to the point where most major notebook manufacturers have at least one on sale or in the pipeline. Just as common, however, as the new models is the phrase “another 1.6GHz Intel Atom”; the netbook market may not have reached saturation point, but has our interest in the same old hardware?
ASUS’ upcoming S101 netbook – which company CEO Jerry Shen insists is not an Eee – was expected to launch in September. Instead all we have is this recently discovered photo, which seems to picture the Atom-based ultraportable in its identity-confused phase as it still has the Eee logo on the lid.
In netbook circles, the ASUS N10 remains something of an oddity. Unlike most of its category-mates, it can make a decent stab at gaming and has an unusual level of graphics grunt; also unlike them, it doesn’t really make much of an effort to come in as a budget offering. Mobile Computer Mag have been the latest to sit the N10 on their test bench, and after being initially impressed have posted their full review of the non-Eee.
Netbooks made their typical strong showing this week, with ASUS announcing their intention to put 3G HSUPA into the Eee PC 901. Meanwhile their N10 was reviewed and deemed the first netbook “suitable for serious gaming“, a promising title indeed. Lenovo’s S10 also hit reviewers’ benches, making a strong – if at times warm – case for the smallest IdeaPad, while Packard Bell unveiled their ‘dot’, targeted much more at the budget end of the scale. They’ll have a fight on their hands, though; SlashGear reviewed the Acer Aspire One this week too, and when it comes to value for money it’s a tough one to beat.
Arguably the biggest news of the week, however, has been T-Mobile’s G1 – the first Android-based handset to be officially announced. Our sister-site AndroidCommunity.com ran a Live Blog of the whole event (and gave away a G1 to one lucky forum member), and we’ve got the photo galleries and hands-on video to show for it.
ASUS’ N10 might be a netbook, but it’s certainly no Eee PC – not if your general conception of the Eee range is a basic web-surfing machine that would run out of breath even at the mention of gaming. Mobile Computer have been putting the N10 through its paces, and one thing is clear: a netbook becomes a very different animal once you add switchable NVIDIA GeForce 9200M graphics, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard-drive and HDMI output.
Check out the ASUS N10 gaming demo video after the cut
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