Specification

Packard Bell has announced two mini-laptops featuring 10.1 inch and 11.6 inch displays.

The smaller model called Dot S2 has an Intel Atom N450 processor, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM and a 160GB SATA hard drive. It will have the regular connectivity options – both wireless and wired. The machine is likely to ship with Windows XP Home. Prices are expected to be in the range of 250-300€.

The other model – the Butterfly XS – has a faster Intel SU4100 processor, 2 GB of DDR2 of RAM and a 250GB SATA hard drive. It is equipped with a 6-cell battery and will ship with Windows 7 Home Premium. A higher-end model with a Core2 Solo SU3500 and a 320GB hard drive is also likely to be released soon.

While there is no official confirmation in this regard, both laptops are likely to have multi-touch capable touchpads.

Windows 7 is out and every netbook maker has released at least one model sporting the brand new OS. ViewSonic is no different. The company recently announced a Windows 7 version of its 10 inch VNB102 netbook.

The VNB102 will be released on December 18th with Windows 7 Starter. Prices start at $399. Other than the new operating system, the VNB102 doesn’t have anything to set it apart from other ViewSonic laptops. It has a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1 GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive. The 10 inch display has 1024 x 600 pixels. Other features include WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Ethernet and VGA output. The 6-cell battery is expected to give up to 6 hours of runtime.

The newly announced Asus UL30, UL50AG and UL50VG will run on CULV processors. Besides being power efficient the new laptops feature a thin design and promises to deliver up to 12 hours of battery life.

Design
The chassis is built of brushed aluminum which lends the laptops an aura of elegance while at the same time keeping the design thin. While the UL30 has a 13.3 inch display, the other two notebooks – the UL50AG and UL50VG – come with 15.6 inch displays.

Specifications
The laptops will be powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.40GHz processor with 500GB hard disk. The UL50VG will come with a switchable discrete graphics GPU. Another power efficient feature is the Turbo Boost option which improves the performance of the laptops by 33%.

The touchpad supports multi-touch gestures. Other features include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi b/g/n, webcam and Altec Lansing Speakers with SRS surround sound.

Pricing and Availability
The laptops will hit the UK market on October 22 with Windows 7. Prices start from £599 for UL30, £699 for UL50AG and £799 for UL50VG.

Workhorse? Yeah I know, well actually I have never heard of this one before. It looks like this little known company that caters to government and educational institutions has decided to cash in on the netbook rush by unleashing its Workhorse Certeza MC10.

The Workhorse Certeza MC10 is a 10-inch netbook powered by the ubiquitous 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, up to 2GB of RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G wireless options. The 10-inch LCD display has a 1024 x 600 pixel resolution. It will also include an ExpressCard slot, 4-in-1 card reader, a 1.3 mega pixel web camera and packs a 4 or 6 cell battery. The Workhorse Certeza MC10 will measure 10 x 7.3 x 0.75 inches.

Though these features can be found in any one of the galloping netbooks, what differentiates the Workhorse from other similar netbooks is the inbuilt WiMax and WWAN options. It also provides a multiple choice of operating systems. You can choose from Ubuntu Linux, Windows XP or Windows Vista. Though not many netbooks can support the Vista, the Workhorse with its 2GB of RAM may just carry it off.

The Workhorse Certeza MC10 comes in three versions with three different price tags. The Linux version is priced at $399, the Windows XP Home is priced at $449 and the Windows Vista Business model will cost you $549. unfortunately you have to wait for a release date, which is unknown at this date, to rope in a Workhorse.