Once and Still a Techie Weblog

The Low-cost Subnotebook Market Just Got Hotter

It’s been barely 6-months since I bought my Asus Eee PC 701 4G and I’m already thinking about selling it to make way for another really cool, must-have, small footprint sub-12″ notebook.

Dell “mini-Inspiron”

Only a few days ago a guy from Gizmodo happened to see Michael Dell of Dell Computers strolling around at the D: All Things Digital conference with a really small, bright red for the ‘conspicuous factor’, notebook. It’s being coined the mini-Inspiron. Take a look at the pictures Dell recently released and tell me what you think.

The specifications for this item haven’t been officially released yet but unconfirmed reports put an Intel Atom 1.6GHz CPU, 3 USB ports, a card reader, VGA out, Kensington lock, and a n unconfirmed 8.9″ screen with 1024×800 resolution. Nothing about storage or RAM yet. The price for the “mini-Inspiron” will be in the $500 range.

Acer “Aspire One”

Acer has just announced their own take on the sub-12″ notebook and it has an 8.9″ screen with a 1024×600 resolution, either an 8GB SSD or 20-40GB HDD possibly with an Intel Atom CPU as well. The notebook will launch with prices starting at $400.

More information on this Acer at the Computex 2008 in Taiwan which is scheduled to start June 3.

Clearly the heavyweights of the notebook PC market have recognized the huge market for low cost sub-notebooks that Asus stumbled upon last year with their Eee PC 700 series.

MSI Wind

The MSI Wind has a 1024×600 10″ screen, 1GB RAM standard, 80GB HDD, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11b/g WiFi, 3 USB ports, 4-in-1 card reader, and the usual Ethernet, VGA, and audio ports. The version with Windows XP preinstalled will go for about $550, while the SUSE linux version will cost around $400. One thing that stands out with the MSI Wind, aside from the larger screen, is that it has a “TurboDrive” function key that allows you to overclock the CPU by 20% when plugged in to the mains. On battery the same key reduces the CPU power by a certain amount and lowers screen brightness which means more time away from the AC plug.

Asus Eee 1000

Not to be left out in all this considering it’s a market they essentially made popular, Asus has recently announced they will also be launching their 10″ Eee PC at the Computex as well. No pricing or updated specs available as of now. Let’s wait for this information from the official launch press release. Keep in mind that even though they are launching the product it won’t be hitting the store shelves till a few more months down the road. So MSI will still have the upper hand and most of the 10″-er market till then.

More information on the Acer, Asus, MSI, and possibly the Dell will be out once Computex gets rolling on June 3. So I’m keeping my eyes and ears peeled for this.

A Growing Market

Based on a recent study, 8-15 million low-cost mini notebooks will be sold this 2008. What a huge difference compared to the few hundred thousand sold last year (mostly Asus Eee PCs). More and more manufacturers are getting on the bandwagon which means a future of competition and price cuts. All good for the regular consumer who’s in the market to own one. I’m certainly in the market. Now starts the waiting game to see which one I lay the cold hard moola on.