Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

I think quite a while ago we looked at a prototype of a dual screened netbook/slate type computer substituting the keyboard for another touchscreen with a software keyboard for extra screen space. Well now Toshiba have announced the “clamshell” Libretto W100 a similar affair, obviously taking the simplicity of a DS and adding the functionality of a netbook and smartphone.

The two 7” screens run Windows 7 Home Premium, with an Intel Pentium U5400 Processor. Further look at the specs show it’s no simple pushover either. With 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a 62GB SSD storage, N-standard WiFi, SB, microSD and a 1MP webcam the user also has a choice of built in 3G connectivity too. Sadly the downside is the battery life which Tosh claims is a measly 3 and a half hours.

Everybody was looking forward to a Microsof slate after iPad rocked the world but it never surfaced. This is certainly looking promising as a player in the market and certainly will be interesting to see in action. Bad news is we only know it’s getting released sometime over the summer and there’s no price.

The thing with netbooks in my opinion is they’re all well and good to carry about and do the odd bit of word processing or web surfingin a coffee shop, but they cant really do much else. Acer has obviously noted this and has updated its range to allow HD video capabilities but also given them extra connectivity but still giving decent battery life.

The Aspire One 533 has a 10.1” 1280 x 720 screen. Alright it’s not Full HD but 720p is still pretty good. Powered by either the Intel Atom N455 nor N475 you can opt for 1GB or 2GB of memory. It also has up to 250GB of storage. The standard WiFi comes too but you can also have the option to include 3G connectivity and the latest Bluetooth 3.0. Battery wise, there’s 3 options for you to pick from. The highest being a six-cell affair which will give up to 10 hours of use, but also will add weight.

Available in July there’s no price but with so many options to choose from they’re going to vary anyway.

If you pop on to the Asus website, they’ve just added it’s next model into its Eee range with the 1015P netbook. “Another netbook?” you might say “What’s different?”. Well according to Asus this little baby will work mains free for up to 13.5 hours, a current record from what I can gather.

Specs wise it’s not the most powerful but still pretty good considering the fact it can last so long on it's battery. This is probably due to the fact it uses Intel’s latest Atom N450 chip. Options come with a 160GB, 250GB or 320GB HDD. It comes with 1GB RAM upgradeable to 2GB and comes with N-standard WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1. With a 10.1" LED Backlight WSVGA Screen and running Windows 7 Starter, the website states it’s available in black, white or blue.

No luck with the full details yet though but Asus have confirmed it will be available in the UK, so if you’re interested, just keep your eye on that website.

Samsung have entered the touchscreen netbook market which may be a little late with the soon to be arriving folding tablets but where it makes up for it is in its durability and its compact size.

A not so great 1024x600 10.1” it’s standard size for a netbook but this has a nice touchscreen for you to prod around with and as its running Windows 7, the touchscreen friendly OS unlike most netbooks that run Windows XP. However despite its superior OS the netbook itself isn’t a top of the range power monster. Intels Atom N450 is the processor with 1GB RAM. It also comes with with a choice of 160GB or 250GB HDD.

However it looks like Samsung are aiming for a particular market with this one as it seems its been built to last the elements and general wear and tear despite its lack of future-proof tech. The drives are anti-shock protected and the case is reinforced to withstand the odd drop or bump in your bag, probably from them idiots at the train station who insist on barging you out the way. It also has a liquid resistant keyboard. Whether you can spill your coffee on it and it still work I would like to see although at £350 a throw for the machine, it would be an expensive test.

Not available in the UK yet and no release date, the Samsung NB30 Touch is on sale in Italy now so it shouldn’t be too far off a British release.

Although officially not released by Sony yet, Tesco had put up a new Sony Vaio M Netbook for sale for just under £300 but now it appears to have been removed from the site probably due to the fact Sony are keeping quiet about its official release, oops.

A nice little black number the Sony Vaio M if pricing is true will be the cheapest Vaio we’ve seen to date and if you’re looking for a netbook this offers some pretty decent spec and the obvious recognition of quality Sony craftmanship. Inside the 10.1” Netbook will be Intel’s latest Atom chipset the N450(an improvement in speed and power consumption) powering a 250GB HDD, 1GB RAM and Windows 7 Starter Edition.

As said Sony haven’t confirmed it for sure and are still staying coy about it and although it appeared on Tesco the other day, I’m struggling to find it now but surely it won’t be long till it’s in officialdom.

AMD has announced the Tigris laptop platform which will become AMD's "mainstream" platform capable of full 1080p, DirectX 10.1 support and offloading video encoding to the Radeon HD 4200 GPU. The CPU is the new 45nm dual core Caspian CPUs, with speeds ranging up to 2.6GHz which should make for quite a powerful little netbook. Unfortunately though the battery life is only rated at 1 Hour 55 Minutes of active use.

Congo will offer the same HD video and DX10.1 support but use the slightly less powerful HD 3200 and dual core Neo chips inside meaning that you will get two hours 26 minutes of computer use.

Nokia have left entering the netbook market for some time but here’s their first foray into the market with what they prefer to call a “mini laptop”. The Finn’s netbook(should I call it that??) appears to have the specs of a high end netbook but offers a lot more. You wouldnt expect anything less from Nokia though would we.

• The first advantage is this Netbook is made by a “Mobile” company. Nokia knows what people want/need on the move which computer specialists Dell and Acer still havent seemed to get 100% right.
• Most netbooks don’t do HD graphics on their small screens, THIS DOES!!!! 720p – No problemo
• Nokia Claims its battery will last 12 hours. Now I know some of their phones batteries last forever but in my experience some havent so i’ll reserver judgement on this comment till I see one.
• The Nokia netbook no doubt will come bundled with a 3G broadband subscription but it has a SIM slot allowing you to put your phone SIM in to continue surging if your 3G broadband has no signal.
• Nokia have bundled GPS into the Booket 3G, no need to upgrade like other netbooks. Add Nokia Ovi Maps to the equation and you can find your way around like on your mobile.
• It works with all of Nokias online services (Ovi etc)
• Only 2cm thick, but built by Nokia. We all know you can drop your Nokia in the toilet(not recommended in reality) and after a dry out they work. No doubt the 3G booklet will be built of the same solid stuff. Its got an aluminium chassis and a thin Glass Screen frame, just like the MacBook, so it’ll look real nice too
• Nokia have said it’ll sync with your mobile too although full details on how or what it’ll do entirely arent sure but it can only be good …….right??
• It has HDMI out.  Plug into your TV and watch your HD video…….Simples!!

China’s InfoTimes is reporting via Foxconn(the makers of the iPhone) that Apple will be releasing a Netbook. Its reported to have a 9.7” touchscreen and you should be able to pick one up for $800 in the U.S. What price that would mean for the UK remains to be seen but personally, I can’t see it being more than £800.

This is a surprise really after Steve Jobs slated netbooks and said "As best as we can tell, there's not a lot of them being sold." So why the turn round especially when we also said "one of our entrants into that category if you will is the iPhone, for browsing the internet, and doing email and all the other things that a netbook lets you do".

All this is just strong rumours at the moment so we wont know the full details unless its announced. The main questions whats powerin it and what OS is it running. Will it be good enough for Snow Leopard or will it run an iPhone 3.0 style OS? Who knows?