Averatec to inevitably pump out a netbook
By Nilay Patel 
posted Aug 11th 2008 8:18PM
posted Aug 11th 2008 8:18PM
Please note: If you're a current Engadget commenter, you do not need to re-register. Simply login and you will be prompted to select a username.
I'm looking forward to fine-ing out this winter!
Thats what she said?
Come on, it's not like he writes for a living.
Enough with the netbooks already!
Nevermind 'but will anyone care by then?' Does anyone really care about it now, as in really, care?
What?
Back on topic, what do they mean with a "'real' Shift key?"
as opposed to silicon shift keys?
As opposed to EEEs and others that have the up arrow beside the /? key instead of a proper shift key which is moved to the right of the up arrow. So when you want to shift using the right shift key you get up arrow instead.
I had it on my EEE 701 and it was frustrating. Along with the damn cramped keyboard.
But who uses the Right shift key anyways?
MY real problem is with keyboards that give you tiny backspaces, or giant Enter keys.
Dell E Slim
That is the MSI Wind.
That's exactly what i see from the pic. Fake on.
Can you say keeping it fake? Keepin It real fake CXXVII anyone. Averatec rebadges all of MSI's computers. I have a Averatec AV-7115EH1 which is basically a MSI notebook, it even says Case by MSI on the bottom. I'll have to admit, not very impressed by the quality of it. Hinges cracked and power board gave out 13 months after purchase, very common problem with them.
I was thinking the same thing, Then I looked at the difference between my wind and the picture and I found none.
Averatec has been building small laptops for a while now, this one should be good value for the price. Well that is depending on final configurations, I for one am waiting for the S10 from Lenovo.
"Averatec reliably cranks out stylish-but-generic takes on most new hardware trends".
???
You know, I've been using my Averatec 1050 for years now. As these "netbooks" get announced, I've wondered why it took so long for someone, anyone, to make a comparable product to it.
When I bought the 1050 two years ago, it was far cheaper and lighter than ANYTHING on the market: $599, and under 3.5 pounds.
Nice to see them returning to the market they invented.
I'm with you. I love my Averatec AV1050-EB1... Phenomenal laptop, bought it a few years back. Compared it to the Sony Vaio TZ and other small laptops of the time. For the cost difference, there was no comparison. The thing has held up surprisingly well for being an "off-brand". Definitely a big fan. Let it be known, the current Averatec is not the Averatec of yore. I haven't been able to find all the details, but it appears that they kinda went out of business and/or were bought out by TriGem.
The market they invented?! I'm assuming you never got your hands on the original Portege from Toshiba? This was at the tail end of the 486/start of the Pentium processor days.
Here you go. Feast your eyes on these beauties!
http://www.toshiba-europe.com/bv/computers/resource_centre/index.asp?TYPE=flyers&PART=portege&FIRST=21
i had a 12 inch averatec a couple years ago.
that computer ruled until it met its demise
Looks like 2 real shift keys to me...
Nope, one of them is fake for sure.
Keep in mind guys that Averatec rebrands other companies notebooks, doesn't make their own.
I also really liked the Averatec 1050, its a rebranded Twinhead F10D by the way.
And this looks to be a Wind rebrand, and yet the Wind has already been rebranded in Europe and other places. : /
If companies actually want consumers to buy these things, I think they're going to have to knock at least another bill off the price. The original Eee advertisements said $200. There still is yet to be a decent netbook for $200, and until there is, I doubt these things are going to really take off. Most people just don't want to spend as much on a netbook as they could on a low-end fully featured laptop, even though the small size is nice.
It would be better if they could generically crank out stylish-but-RELIABLE takes on hardware trends. Their build quality sucks.
/had an averatec, and a predecessor, sotec.
//still have the burn marks in my legs from the heat and a few random parts lying around
really, what kind of market is there for these netbooks, umpc's, and mid's? why does it seem like everyone is jumping on this bandwagon and a new one of these things is being released every other week?
thanks, dick.
I bought the Averatec 3220 a few years ago and it has served me well. It was the first sub-$1000 notebook that I could find with a 12 inch screen. Back then I was looking for a "netbook" but there really wasn't such a thing available at the time. The Averatec came with Windows XP, but I found more joy running Linux on the laptop ( http://cmsreport.com/node/1530 ).
In my opinion, the netbooks that people are really going to care about are those notebooks capable of better screen resolution. While 1024x600 screens are better than 800x600...why would I trade my old 12 inch notebook for a slightly smaller notebook that doesn't give me better resolution. So far, the only netbook with better resolution (1280x768) is the HP Mini-Note 2133 ( http://www.engadget.com/tag/2133/ ),
If your only aim with the extra pixels is to get more real estate, the problem is everything becomes just too tiny to read.
If you scale up everything to the same size as before it looks prettier I suppose, but you haven't gained anything else.
It should be remembered however, that Averatek turns out flimsy junk.
Will anyone care?! .... Yes.... I'll be ready to cash in my eee901 by then... I can type on it just fine after a day or so getting used to it.... but the location of the number keys, and shift keys, I fear I will never accept.
10 inch, 16:9 machines look to be a suitable alternative as well.
Lenovo? Dell? WTFSERIOUSLY? Where are you?
i propose to get all these netbooks in the KIRF category. this is getting ridiculous.
testing the comment