Toshiba NB305 and HP Mini 210 to be upgraded with Atom N455 CPUs and DDR3 memory

A little bit of Euroland investigation this morning has revealed signs that Intel's upcoming 1.66GHz N455 and 1.83GHz N475 Atom processors are close to making their official debut. Netbook Italia spotted the official Toshiba website posting up an NB305-10F model a little prematurely -- a page that was promptly yanked, but not before our amici were able to note the inclusion of the DDR3-compatible N455 CPU, a gigabyte of RAM, 250GB hard disk and otherwise unchanged specs. The expected price for that netbook is noted at €350 ($467), which is also the price at which the upgraded HP Mini 210 -- spotted by German outfit nDevil -- is listed on Amazon.de. Shipping dates are predictably not yet ascertained, though it's looking like things are about to get moving nice and swiftly from here on out.

[Stiggy Posted Apr 27th 2010 8:57AM]

Now if they can fix that awful keyword too...
(then I would be really annoyed about just having bought a pre-updated NB305…)

[archkron Posted Apr 27th 2010 1:24PM]

@Stiggy

I ordered a Mini 210 about a month ago. I'm more pissed than you.

[Stiggy Posted Apr 27th 2010 3:09PM]

@archkron : I ordered my NB305 also about a month ago. Damn thing is about 150 EURO more expensive than other netbooks, but I thought it was worth it because of the good keyboard according to the reviews (also here on Engadget). But the keyboard is crap, so I am quite sure I am a bit more pissed than you.

[bob e Posted Apr 27th 2010 9:02AM]

That HP Mini has come a long way. Back in the day I had the original HP Mini-Note with Via chip and Vista Home.

It may be worth looking at these again or wait for the slate.

[AppleDrank Posted Apr 27th 2010 9:15AM]

$467?

yikes!

[zeroprime Posted Apr 27th 2010 9:20AM]

@AppleDrank Way overpriced. You can get a dual-core CULV netbook for less money.

[blland Posted Apr 27th 2010 9:31AM]

might as well get an iPad for $32 more!!!

please mod me down.

[Dafrety Posted Apr 27th 2010 9:45AM]

@blland
Totally. this is too much, so you might as well spend more and get less.

[CommentsTroll Posted Apr 27th 2010 9:59AM]

@AppleDrank

Euro price and all that, expect $350.

[AppleDrank Posted Apr 27th 2010 9:17AM]

I thought that NETbooks were the segment targeted at people that wanted to do things... on the NET..

Not run Photoshop and Moviemaker at the same time...

thats like saying this new compact car costs $45,000 but has a V6 and can tow a trailer...

oh and is not compact at all.

[buoy Posted Apr 27th 2010 9:22AM]

@AppleDrank yes, but i use my hp mini 5101 as my backup computer. it has photoshop and all that jazz. reallly wouldn't like using it as the main machine of course, but since it's so portable, light and can do everything (functionally) as your main pc/notebook, it's kinda like an emergency PC/internet connection on-the-go. Saved my skin more than a few times.

Could be at the beach, at a park, in the city somewhere, an hour from the office and i'd need to whip something up. Just find a cafe, sit down, order a coffee, do the photoshop/flash/web stuff that's required, email it out via the modest 3g plan i got, test the changes live, send email to client. done. no need to rush back to the office. so for that it's great.

[SlaterGS Posted Apr 27th 2010 9:23AM]

@AppleDrank
I would say that consumer needs change and while you are correct that the main target segment is mainly going to use it for surfing the internet or taking notes, the ability to be able to do more is very nice.
I use Photoshop on my Mini 9 and it runs great, I do not do it often, but it is nice to be able to go to a client and change stuff on the fly or watch hulu. I think the target will continue to change, there have been many products over time that have evolved into different products due to a maturing market, its business.

[buoy Posted Apr 27th 2010 9:25AM]

@AppleDrank but you are right... even opening up multiple engadget / youtube pages does make the thing crawl. it's almost embarrassing. wouldn't even think of running something like photoshop and premiere and flash and a few youtubes and engadget pages at the same time on that thing. you'd switch programs and wait a good 5 seconds just for the screen to redraw. lol.

[AppleDrank Posted Apr 27th 2010 11:25AM]

@SlaterGS


So basically you are condoning Buying features you will never use and spending the extra $267... when $199 netbooc will siffice?

So by your logic it is ok for car companies to sell me a compact car with a V8 and 4 turbos even though all I need to do is go to the local grocery store...

[jeff0529 Posted Apr 27th 2010 10:21AM]

They are defeating the purpose of a netbook. Affordable and portable. Approaching $500 will get me a much more capable machine that is still light and portable.

[KingFaisal94 Posted Apr 27th 2010 10:22AM]

Screw this single-core bs. Instead of bothering producing these shitty computers, work on improving battery efficiency!

[tazmond Posted Apr 27th 2010 1:40PM]

Yawn... another 1.6xx ghz atom CPU paired with a shyte graphics sub system and yesterday's parts.

With how it seems most netbook buyers are looking for a small laptop (just stand by the netbooks at best buy and see how often you hear someone ask how well they play games or youtube)- i.e. a device as capable as a regular portable PC, just smaller, you'd think one with ION or something similar would be the entry level by now. It's not like the ION system is some super exotic tech. It's designed for cheap portable systems. Oh well..

p.s. 'scuse the run on (and on and on) sentence

[mjcs77 Posted Apr 29th 2010 4:27PM]

Does anyone have any idea/speculation whether the introduction of the NB305-10F will have any impact on the price of the existing Toshiba NB305's?

I was about to buy the NB305-310 on Amazon (only $306 as of today!), but if this new model will be introduced at the same price, or if Toshiba will lower the price on the existing NB305's once it comes out, I might wait and get one or the other then, rather than making my move now. (I'm a student so price matters! Of course, I don't know how much lower than $305 they could get... The option of getting the new version at the same price, if that will be the case, is very appealing, though.)

Anyone have any idea about this? Thanks in advance for any help!