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Ion netbooks head-to-head: Atom, overcharged?

Joanna Stern — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:30:00 EST

It's been more than a year since NVIDIA announced its Ion platform, promising to bring HD video and gaming to the underpowered Atom CPU. After all the hold ups, we started to wonder if we'd ever see the platform packed inside a netbook, so imagine our surprise when no less than four Ion-based machines launched in the past few months. With bigger screens, better specs, more graphics muscle and, of course, the resulting higher price tag, each of these Ion machines promises quite a bit, but which one lives up to the hype? We got them all together and spent the past few weeks testing the ASUS Eee PC 1201N, Lenovo IdeaPad S12, HP Mini 311 and the Samsung N510 -- follow on past the break for our complete faceoff.

Gallery: Ion Netbooks Compared

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Ion netbooks head-to-head: Atom, overcharged? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Slew of Pine Trail packing portables announced, processor release slated for early Jan?

Tim Stevens — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:06:00 EST

Remember that lone Pine Trail nettop that was spotted yesterday morning? That wasn't the only next-gen Atom product that KND had up its sleeve -- not by a long shot. The company has an array of netbooks, nettops, and one hybrid combination of the two displayed on its website, all captured in tiny little pictures like the one you see to the right. On the low end there's the K116, an 11.6-inch netbook with an N450 processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard disk. Two nettops are planned, including the K185 we saw yesterday as well as the K19W with its 19-inch, 1440 x 900 screen, dual-core Atom D510 processor, 2GB of RAM, and again a 250GB hard disk. Finally there's the middle-man, the K133 netbook that shares its specs with the K19W, but is included in a 13.3-inch laptop form. All are spec'd out at the read link below, but none with prices or ship dates. The latest word on the Pine Trail platform release is that the N450 chips will be let loose on January 3, and that several devices will be shipping on that very same day. You can probably connect the dots as well as we can.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Slew of Pine Trail packing portables announced, processor release slated for early Jan? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung's ION-enriched N510 reviewed approvingly, still needs price trim

Vlad Savov — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:39:00 EST

We dare say NVIDIA's ION platform hasn't been the quickest to go from announcement to market availability, but at long last we're seeing a number of pretty decent options cropping up. The Samsung N510 is a great test case for the prowess of the chipset, as it boasts the otherwise entirely unremarkable Atom N280, 1GB RAM and 160GB HDD spec, meaning that whatever performance gains it exhibits will be down to the ION infrastructure. Unsurprisingly, the 11.6-inch machine showed marked improvements over standard netbooks in the graphics department, with hardware-accelerated 1080p video decoding and mildly graphically-intensive games made possible. With six and a half hours of battery life and a matte 1366 x 768 screen, the N510 was well received by the PC Pro team, who could only bemoan the uncompetitive pricing of £382 (about $613). Hit the read link for their full impressions.

Filed under: Laptops

Samsung's ION-enriched N510 reviewed approvingly, still needs price trim originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung N510 unboxed, looking rather large sitting next to the NC10

Ross Miller — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:40:00 EST

We know the specs, the release window, even the price -- it feels like we're already intimately acquainted with Samsung's ION-powered N510 netbook, but honestly, we've never really seen it outside of a touched-up press photo. Netbooknews.de has gone ahead and fixed all that, giving us a good idea what we'll be taking home to mom and dad, from retail packaging all the way to the exposed underbelly. There's even a number of side-by-side shots with its older brother NC10, which looks downright tiny sitting next to its more powerful, but also pretty small kin. Want a good glimpse ~~of what's~~ ~~likely to be~~ ~~the first~~ ~~ION netbook~~ ~~to US market~~? All relevant materials lie beyond the read links below.

Update: Turns out the ION-equipped N510 has been pushed back until after the Windows 7 launch, at least for the US. Unboxing is from Germany, where the netbook's now on sale.

[Thanks, buttons]

Read - Samsung N510 unboxing (translated)
Read - Flickr gallery

Filed under: Laptops

Samsung N510 unboxed, looking rather large sitting next to the NC10 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ion-equipped Samsung N510 netbook shipping stateside next month

Darren Murph — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:21:00 EST

Momma always said you had to pay to play, and it looks like those Europeans won't be the only ones coughing up dearly for the pleasure of having NVIDIA's Ion platform shoved within Samsung's forthcoming N510 netbook. According to the fine folks over at Liliputing, a Samsung rep has confirmed to them that said machine will begin shipping to US soil starting in September (far later than the "July" date we heard earlier in the year), bringing with it a sizable 11.6-inch display, HDMI output, GeForce 9400M GPU, Atom processor and the ability to handle high-def and Blu-ray content. Trouble is, all that multimedia prowess will demand a stiff premium, and by "stiff," we mean "$599." So, is anyone actually planning on laying down six bills for a netbook, or did you just convince yourself that a thin-and-light is the way to go?

Filed under: Laptops

Ion-equipped Samsung N510 netbook shipping stateside next month originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung's Ion-infused N510 netbook steeply priced across the pond

Darren Murph — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:02:00 EST

€499. $717. Or three easy payments of €171 ($246). That's the price folks in Europe are being asked to pony up for Samsung's admittedly svelte 11.6-inch N510 netbook. As one of the largest netbooks in its class, this machine -- which can purportedly last for around 6.5 hours under ideal circumstances -- also packs NVIDIA's Ion technology, but a sluggish Atom N280 is still manning the ship. If you'll recall, we actually heard that this here rig would surface sometime this summer, but it looks as if those orders may end up pushed to September. Anyone care to place a pre-order? Or are you more interested in those "real laptops" for just north of seven Benjamins?

[Via Blogeee]

Filed under: Laptops

Samsung's Ion-infused N510 netbook steeply priced across the pond originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung to introduce NVIDIA Ion-powered netbook

Joseph L. Flatley — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:08:00 EST

According to a mag called Netbook Italia (which might have something to do with computers) Samsung is developing a new NVIDIA Ion-powered netbook platform, with the first such device making the scene in Europe as early as July. The N510 boasts a 1.66 GHz N280 processor, 11.6-inch WXGA display, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3-in-1 card reader, and a 6-cell battery. The addition of a GPU should help out quite a bit when viewing HD video, although we're guessing this could take its toll on battery life. Either way, we'll find out soon enough.

Update: According to CNET, Samsung has confirmed the N510 (with the above specs) for a July release.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Filed under: Laptops

Samsung to introduce NVIDIA Ion-powered netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hanvon taps E Ink for Vizplex tech in N510 e-book reader

Darren Murph — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:18:00 EST

If you've been disinterested in the current wave of e-book readers due to their size, have a gander at Hanvon's N510. Yeah, you'll have to look a little harder than usual given its diminutive size, but it's there (we promise). Hailed as the world's first five-inch e-book to use electrophoretic technology, this power-sipping device relies on an E Ink Vizplex display and offers up 180-degrees viewing, an 11-millimeter thick frame and support for TXT, HTML, PNG, JPG, PDF, XEB, CEB, MP3 and MTXT formats. The daylight-viewable screen boasts an SVGA (800 x 600) resolution, and it comes loaded with a 1GB SD card and a mini USB port. There's no direct mention of availability, but it should start floating around soon (somewhere in the world, at least) for $295.

[Via Slashgear]

Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

Hanvon taps E Ink for Vizplex tech in N510 e-book reader originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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