News Bits: More Netbooks, MSI Business Laptop, Expensive Eee PCs Coming Soon

Fujitsu, Sony, Toshiba getting ready to introduce netbooks

According to a news story on Financial Times, Fujitsu, Sony, and Toshiba are preparing to introduce netbooks. The netbook market is currently being led by ASUS with the Eee PC. Quanta, the world's number one notebook manufacturer by volume, will produce the Sony netbook, while Inventec, a contract manufacturer, will produce Toshiba's. Fujitsu is planning to produce its netbook in its own facilities.

Full Story (FT.com)
Via (HEXUS.net)

Intel sells 500,000 Classmate laptops to Portugal

Intel made a deal with Portugal's government to supply primary school students with 500,000 machines. The deal is part of an educational program called the Magellan Initiative.

Full Story (ChannelRegister.co.uk)

ASUS to introduce high-end Eee PCs for $700+

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ASUStek president Jerry Shen said the company is planning to introduce high-end Eee PCs to address different market segments. ASUS currently has 11 different Eee PC models, differentiated by size, CPU type, and design. The Ultimate and Pro Fashion series are expected to join this year. They will feature more expensive components including dual-core Intel Atom processors and larger storage capacities (a 120GB hard drive or a 32GB SSD).
The S-series Eee PCs will be introduced in late September, and feature 10.1-inch, 16:9 LED-backlit displays and a 4-5 hour battery life. They will carry pricetags in the $700 - $900 range.
Shen says ASUS is expecting to ship 1.5 - 1.6 million Eee PCs in the third quarter of this year, and is on track to meet its 5 million unit goal for this year.

Full Story (DigiTimes.com)

Alienware now offering Nvidia QuadroFX 3600M GPU

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Alienware is now offering the workstation-class Nvidia Quadro FX 3600M graphics card in its Area-51 m15x notebook. The m15x is currently the only 15.4" notebook offered with the FX 3600M.
Alienware currently offers the QuadroFX 1600M on its Area-51 M9750 notebook, and will be offering the FX 3600M soon in its new m17x notebook.

Alienware Press Release (BusinessWire.com)
NotebookReview.com review for the Alienware Area-51 m15x
NotebookReview.com review for the Alienware Area-51 M9750

Alienware Area-51 m15x User Review
Forum member Svarto has done a thorough review of the Alienware Area-51 m15x in our forums. Overall the review is positive, while pointing out the high and low points of the machine.

Read the Full Review in the forums

Sylvania G netbook specs emerge

Image credit: jkOnTheRun

Information has been uncovered on Sylvania's G netbook. Reported specifications are as followed:

• 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor
• 512MB - 1GB RAM
• 80GB hard drive
• 4 hours battery life (max.)
• 8.9-inch LED-backlit display, 1024x600 resolution
• Media card reader
• Intel 945 Express graphics chipset

Full Story (jkOnTheRun.com)
Via (Engadget.com)

MSI announces PR601 business-class notebook

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MSI today announced its PR601 business-class notebook, based on the latest Intel Centrino 2 technology. It features a 15.4" display and an independent numeric keypad. Specifications include Intel Core 2 Duo processors, Intel GMA X4500 graphics, up to 4GB of RAM, Bluetooth, and N wireless.

MSI Press Release
Via (Laptoping.com)

Intel Atom processor beaten by VIA Nano

HardOCP has done a thorough comparison of the two, and the results are quite surprising. In real-world usage, the VIA processor was much more tolerable than the Intel Atom.

Full Story (HardOCP.com)

Special thanks to forum member Gophn for submitting this bit

 

ready**

Thanks 4 the news Chaz

 

"Expensive Eee PCs Coming Soon"

Hehe, that's old news.

But I'm glad Compound is gonna appear in netbooks after all.

Now to wait a while for companies other than Asus to produce the same specced machines at $400-500.

 

are they now calling everything eee?i think they lost it

 

Wonder how much the Alienware will run price-wise. And if it'll have the same problems that people are complaining about in m15x.

 

Well they did brand it seperately for a reason.

But yea, EEEPC is dead to me now... At first it was like a neat little thing that's part of Asus, imo.

 

Business-class from MSI??? What can we expect?

 

^cr*p i think

 

The specs on the Sylvania looks pretty generous if it's indeed $299.But I suspect thats just for the lowend version.And it doesn't look very attractive judging from the one pic.

 

Now we need to see some VIA Nano "netbooks"... those are probably going to kill the Intel Atom systems in performance and price.

 

a $700 Eee? I could get a decent laptop from Bestbuy at that price.

 

Please. Let's not get into that argument about a 15.4" dual core being the same price as a 9-10" ~2-3lb laptop AGAIN. It's not the same.

That said, it seems like the EEE line is becoming an easy transition into ASUS' other laptop lines

There may be some truth to that as I've actually always sort of been interested in ASUS laptops since they are stylish and decently powerful, but have bad battery life and aren't the cheapest option. I've gone with Thinkpads as a workhorse, but I've just purchased a 900 and a 901 and started playing around with them. I'd say it's a good gauge of ASUS quality in general.

 

The Compounds are going to step all over Nanos.

 

So how well do these perform? In-game specs, or an estimate...?

I'm still stuck on 8400 graphics, so yeah, likely anything is an improvement.

 

The Quadro 3600M is equivalent (in specs and performance) to the 8800M GTS.

 

Why compare the Intel Atom processor to the Via Nano? They are designed for very different applications. The Via Nano, with its 25W TDP, is not compatible with the sub-notebooks within which the Atom (<5W TDP) is found; just as the Atom is not comparable to the tiny ARM processors found in mobile phones. Via's Nano is in the same power category as the Intel Core2Duo P9500, a processor that would run circles around the Nano.

 

Its because this site's news section is very anti-Intel for some reason ...

But even that review takes what you wrote into account if you read it.

 

Any word on what sort of IGP the Nano is going to be paired with? The review used an old C7 chipset.