DosPara unveils snow white ultraportable: the Prime A Note Cressida NB

There's nothing like a PC wrapped in Apple's white clothing, and DosPara's latest ultraportable sports a glossy WXGA display, dual-core processor, and a decent pricetag to go along with the trendy white finish. While the company has unveiled a few larger offerings of late, this 12.1-inch gem features a 1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 CPU, 512MB to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, 80GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive, dual-layer DVD burner, an option for NVIDIA's GeForce Go 6100 graphics, three hours of battery life, and built-in 802.11b/g -- all in a knapsack-friendly four-pound package. On the sides, you'll find VGA out, a Kensington lock port, 4-pin FireWire, audio in / out, Ethernet, a 56k modem, and a trio of USB 2.0 connectors. Sans an operating system, the basic Prime A Note Cressida NB will run you ¥109,980 ($957), while tossing in Windows XP Home (with a discounted upgrade to Vista, mind you) will cost ¥121,980 ($1,061).

[Via Akihabara News]

[Michael @ Dec 8th 2006 7:29AM]

I'm not some big mac fanboy or anyhting but that's kind of expensive compared to a macbook. Espcially considering no DVI output, no full sized firewire jack and much slower processor. It does look nice though. When you said decent pricetag I was thinking around $600-$700.

[bemckenna @ Dec 8th 2006 8:31AM]

Engadget reviewed a laptop that is a clone of a Macbook today, its priced at $1047 if you include xp home.

The lenient writeup prompted me to do a breakdown of the incredible value inherent in the Macbook.
A few years ago you needed $2,000 to look at a mac, in fact you heard $4,000 as a starting price when you spoke to a mac sales person, for that high price you got features and build quality not seen in other computers.
As with all high priced items, copies and emulations were there for half the price to grab the buyer who just wanted the expensive look of the product and it seems that this DosPara laptop is aiming for these customers, the problem is that Apples computers are now extremely affordable. I�ll continue.

Nowadays, Apples prices are the lowest of ANY computer maker, feature for feature, lower than Dell, lower than Compaq and lower than DosPara (wtf!).
The first commenter on Engadget correctly pointed out the poorer firewire port on the Dospara copycat, lack of dvi out and the power hungry (but slower) amd chip.
But lets look at what else we get in our macbook:
Bluetooth
Wireless 802.11N !!!
Magsafe connector
Six Hour Battery Life
Stunning Screen (Everyone knows what Pc users feel when they see the bright screen of a mac)
Popular New keypad
Two Finger to scroll touchpad !!!
The Best Operating System in the World !!!
OPTICAL Audio In and Out !!!
Gigabit Ethernet !!!
Small Bezel
Allure
Attractiveness
Ability to run Windows & OSX !!!
Incredible power efficiency (17watts idle and 53watts at 100% on both cores with bluetooth and wireless-n blazing)

Give each of those a $50 value (which is a bargain for completely integrated optical audio, 802.11n, gigabit ethernet, core duo chip, etc) and its plain to see that any of the Macbooks is a far greater V.A.L.U.E. than this laptop, In fact I�m going out to stock up on Macbooks before they raise the prices!

[JayP @ Dec 8th 2006 9:34AM]

well. i think bemckenna has said all that is needed to be said

[patsy @ Dec 8th 2006 9:48AM]

@bemckenna

Ahem, don't forget to wash your hands when you're done.

[gmobley @ Dec 8th 2006 10:39AM]

This appears to be an Averatec 2300. I was looking at one in the store last week.

[Bart Lee @ Dec 8th 2006 10:29AM]

$50 for allure? A bargain at twice the price!

[DYGIT @ Dec 8th 2006 10:12PM]

I have the 2300 and it looks identical except for color - by the way, I really like it - got it at Office Depot for $750 with rebate about a month ago.....

[bemckenna @ Dec 8th 2006 12:37PM]

One more thing...
iSight
Mic
Amazing Speaker Sound
Frontrow
Remote

[Eric D. @ Dec 8th 2006 8:46PM]

Just because it's white doesn't mean it's a MacBook ripoff. Apple doesn't have a copyright on the color white, you know.

[keith waddington @ Dec 8th 2006 9:41PM]

Eric D.

after the first imac was released, even kitchenware could be found using translucent bondi blue plastic. It went on and on from there.

It's true that Apple had no copyright on transparent plastic. It's also true that only an idiot would be unaware of the influence of Apple designs well beyond the gadget world.

waddo

[bemckenna @ Dec 10th 2006 10:26AM]

Does OSX Tiger run well on your 2300? I love zeroconf stuff that OSX Tiger does. I used to spend ages configuring IP addresses etc on Windows,
Do us a favour DYGIT:
Add the price of a
webcam $30
mic $15
good speakers $30
scrolling touchpad $priceless
smaller bezel $priceless
bluetooth $30
brighter screen $priceless
slot loading optical drive $ priceless
iLife $99
Full size Firewire $45
802.11N $priceless/$150
Allure $priceless
Sex Appeal $priceless
No Viruses $Priceless/$59 per year
No Spyware $Priceless/$20 per year

And let me us know how much extra the purchase of your 2300 costs you.

Cheers,

Bemckenna

[The ZeroCorpse @ Dec 10th 2006 9:00PM]

Who uses PCMCIA cards anymore?

Really... Everything you can do via cardbus is built into any good notebook computer. What do you need to add?

[dr1ft @ Dec 10th 2006 9:07PM]

>I used to spend ages configuring IP addresses etc on Windows,

You must be a retard.