MSI Wind U100 - $350 at Best Buy

Last month, I mentioned Best Buy would be selling Intel Atom-powered 10.2″ MSI Wind U100 netbooks. At the time, it looked like they would be $399.99.

They are now available MSI Wind U100-420US for $349.99. They are being listed as available in 1-2 weeks (that may change depending on supply / demand).

Specifications:
- Model: U100-420US SKU: 9078534
- Color: Black
- Windows XP Home
- 120GB HDD
- 1GB RAM

There appears to be an error with the graphics chipset listed on the Best Buy site - BB is listing it as “Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 graphics” but I believe it’s the standard Intel GMA 950 that is available with other U100 models.

Whether there are any other models or colors probably depends upon how well these do.

Thanks to Tim for emailing this.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Review, Return Process

Hugh Macleod over at gapingvoid (via GottaBeMobile) has written a review of the new 8.9″ Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook.

He calls it his “coffee shop computer” and talks about carrying it around, including on an overseas trip, and compares it to a replacement for a 13.3″ Apple MacBook Air. He also mentions how much of an attention-getter it is, compared to other laptops. The netbooks do tend to draw a lot of attention, especially when people find out the price.

Meanwhile, Jason Dunn over at Smartphone Thoughts had a negative experience with returning his Inspiron Mini 9 to have it replaced and has written about what he’s gone through so far.

VIA and NVIDIA Netbooks: Unlikely, Plus No More New Apple Hardware in 2008

It looks like NVIDIA and VIA Technologies won’t be working together on VIA Nano netbooks, as well as Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) according to a report by DigiTimes.

Earlier this year, they had agreed to work on netbooks powered by C7-M and Nano CPUs produced by VIA, controlled by NVIDIA’s MCP79 chipsets (complete with integrated graphics).

Meanwhile, Macworld spoke with Apple and got a confirmation that Apple will not be releasing anymore new Mac hardware this year. An Apple spokesman, Bill Evans, told Macworld “Our holiday line-up is set,”.

Most of the rumors had to do with iMacs and Mac minis, but there were a few floating around concerning an Apple netbook.

Fujitsu LifeBook U820 - Available in US

The 5.6″ Fujitsu LifeBook U820 (or U2010 as its known elsewhere) has popped up on the US Fujitsu site. It’s Fujitsu’s first Intel Atom-powered ultraportable available here in the US, and it’s a “convertible” - it can convert between a Tablet PC and a laptop form factor.

It’s lumped in with netbooks because of its size and CPU, but it’s $999 starting price tag prices it out of the range of most netbook buyers. Again, it does have Tablet PC functionality.

They have two models, one starting at $999 with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium and a 60GB HDD, the other starting at $1,299, with Windows Vista Business and a 120GB HDD. Both are available through in the ultraportable section of Fujitsu’s site.

via jkkmobile

Toshiba NB100 Review (APC Mag)

APC Magazine has reviewed the 8.9″ Toshiba NB100 netbook, and it wasn’t pretty. They felt, among other things, that it was hurried and was a “me too” product, calling it “perhaps the most pedestrian of all the netbooks we’ve seen to date“.

Toshiba gets credit for port placement - they’ve got the VGA/video, ethernet, and A/C sockets on the back - most netbooks have them on the sides, which can be clunky in a confined space. It’s also got easy access so that you can upgrade to 2GB of RAM if needed.

Read:
- APC Magazine
- via liliputing

MSI Wind U100 and 9-Cell Batteries

First reports of the third-party 9-cell batteries for the 10.2″ MSI Wind U100 are coming in. Wired Magazine mentioned a thread over at the MSIWind.net forums where somebody ordered one off of ebay.

They mentioned that currently, you are looking at over 4 hours with a standard 6-cell battery in the MSI U100. An MSIWind.net forums user picked up a 9-cell in the UK off of ebay UK, which cost around £70 ($120 USD). With WiFi switched on, they were getting over 7 hours of battery life (under Windows XP Home), with some OS X users getting just under 7 hours. These are initial charges, so the numbers should change after a few charge / discharge cycles.

A few of these have popped up in the US - Amazon has a 7800mAh 9-cell battery from Lion Battery that is up for pre-order (and pricier than the one mentioned above).

Read:
- Forums.MSIWind.net
- via Wired Magazine

« Previous Page — Next Page »