SlashGear

If we’re honest, we were more excited about Viewsonic’s Ion-packing VOT 132 nettop than its new netbooks yesterday, but that doesn’t mean we won’t give the 10.2-inch VNB101 a chance.  NetbookNews were skulking around the press conference and managed to grab some hands-on time with the 10.2-inch machine.

Video demo after the cut

There is, to be fair, not much about the VBN101 that we haven’t already seen on rival netbooks, though it’s always welcome to see some of the ports spread around the back of the machine rather than all squeezed onto the sides.  There’s also a Li-Poly battery, rather than Li-Ion, which offers 6-cell-style runtimes from a smaller unit.

The demo units also have integrated 3G, though there’s no word on whether shipping versions will have the same along with the WiFi b/g and Bluetooth.  As for the keyboard, that’s not great, with the right-hand shift key pushed all the way to the right of the up-arrow, but the multitouch-capable trackpad is at least large to make up for it.  It’s expected to begin shipping in Taiwan for the equivalent of around $484.