While we often can be found heaping scorn onto the me-too Atom N270 netbook ranges that pass our viewing window, Intel’s low-power chip does occasionally find its way into an interesting machine. Stealth Computer have slotted the 1.6GHz chip into their latest “Little PC”, the Stealth LPC-395F, a fanless nettop with a ruggedized chassis and front-loading 2.5-inch hard-drive bay.
Back in August we got our hands on the small ASRock ION330-BD nettop with a Blu-ray drive inside for a full review. We liked the little machine pretty well thanks to its low price and decent performance. ASRock has now announced a new updated version the nettop we played with offering more features called the ASRock ION330HT-BD.
The ASUS Eee Keyboard saga continues, and we’re beginning to think it’s the company’s version of vaporware. At their latest launch event in London, UK, this week, the Eee Keyboard – which squeezes a nettop and touchscreen into a keyboard form-factor, and was first debuted at CES back in January – was conspicuous by its absence, with ASUS telling Electricpig that the device was still mired in testing; however, ASUS have also been demonstrating their latest version of the Eee Keyboard to NetbookNews, with nary a mention of release delays.
Video demo of latest version after the cut
ASUS’ latest NVIDIA Ion based nettops have been well and truly pawed over by NetbookNews.de, and considering that the Eee Box EB1012 at least seems destined for the US market it’s only right that we should take an interest. The EB1012 – and the ASUS Eee Box EB1501 – uses Intel’s dual-core Atom 330 1.6GHz processor, paired with the Ion 1080p-capable graphics chipset, with the key difference being that the EB1501 finds room to squeeze in an optical drive.
Video demos after the cut
We’ve seen removable optical drives on nettops before now – ViewSonic had one back in July – but Onkyo’s offering is particularly curvy and pleasing. The Onkyo P305A3 may not have a catchy name but it does offer an Intel Atom 230 1.6GHz processor paired with an NVIDIA Ion graphics chipset, while the optical drive is detachable from the side.
Acer’s Aspire Revo nettop has just received a welcome shot in the arm, courtesy of a dual-core Atom 330 processor and an extra gig of RAM. The Aspire Revo R3610-U9012 kicks out its predecessor’s Atom 230 chip in favor of the quicker alternative, and pairs it with 2GB of RAM, Windows 7 and NVIDIA Ion graphics. That should hopefully make the system a little better at coping with non-1080p video tasks, something the first model had issues with.
Back when we reviewed the ASUS Eee Top ET1602 late last year, we suggested it could be the epitome of a niche product: netbook hardware squeezed into an unusual desktop case. Now all-in-ones are more common, and so ASUS have returned with an updated design, bigger screen and more media-centric intentions. The ASUS Eee Top ET2002-B024C sticks with Intel’s Atom CPU range but now pairs it with NVIDIA’s Ion graphics chipset for potentially 1080p High-Definition performance. Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
ASUS’ Eee Box range arguably came of age when the company announced the 1501, their first NVIDIA Ion based model. Packing a DVD drive and various video output options, we’ve been waiting to see when it might show up in the wild; that question has been answered by the guys at Newgadgets.de, who grabbed some live shots of the Eee Box 1501 at a press conference in Munich.
Intel’s Pine Trail Atom refresh wasn’t predicted to see any products actually arrive on shelves until Q1 2010, but that wasn’t counting on the motivation of Shanzai producers in China. The first all-in-one nettop using the 1.66GHz dual-core Intel Atom D510 processor has emerged, the KND K1850, with an 18.6-inch display, 2GB of RAM, 250GB hard-drive and a DVD drive.
We’ve been waiting for the ASUS Eee Keyboard for a very long time, at least that’s how it feels, so it’s good to see some movement happening over at the FCC. They’ve just published the Eee Keyboard’s user manual, together with a whole batch of external, internal and wireless-testing photos. Among the details there’s a fair few shots of the media-centric nettop/keyboard hybid’s UWB (ultrawideband) system.
JP
