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Samsung N102S netbook listed on UK sites for £240, possibly with Cedar Trail
Even if Samsung plans to stop producing 10.1-inch netbooks from next year, there's still plenty of scope for new models in little ol' 2011. In fact, British online retailers have just put up listings for an N102S running an officially unknown Atom N2100 processor. This chip is rumored to be a low-power variant of Intel's delayed Cedar Trail line-up, which might explain why none of the retailers yet have firm information about availability. (We called the number above, they told us to ignore the bit about December 2nd.) Other listed specs include a distinctly last-gen 1GB of RAM, 320GB of HDD roominess and Windows 7 Starter Edition for £240 ($370). Update: Netbook Italia also picked up on some Asus Cedar Trail Eee PCs in similar UK listings. These include the 1025CE we saw recently, which packs an N2800 processor for £270, plus a X101CH running on the N2600 for £225. Other specs are very similar to the Samsung's.
Is Samsung giving up on netbooks next year?
An email sent by Samsung to its trading partners appears to shut down any prospect of the manufacturer producing new netbooks after the first quarter of 2012. The email is quoted by French site Blogeee and says that Samsung will switch its focus to 11.6- and 12-inch ultraportables as well as Intel Ultrabooks. The quote does not preclude some of those ultraportables running cheaper processors such as Cedar Trail, which would arguably just make them slightly larger next-gen netbooks, but it does specifically mention the abandonment of the 10.1-inch form factor. Here's our translation: "Following the introduction of our new strategy in 2012, we will discontinue our 10.1-inch (netbook) product range in Q1 2012, in favor of ultraportables (11.6 and 12 inches) and ultrabooks to be launched in 2012." [Thanks, Marco]
Samsung's N102 is an N100 clone, ditches MeeGo for Windows 7 Starter
Were you mostly on board with the N100, but wished Sammy would have held the MeeGo? Those of you in India or Russia are apparently in luck, as Notebook Italia has spotted its Windows-toting twin: the N102. Identical to the N100 in every other way, 10-inch netbook kicks the open source OS to the curb, opting instead for the pared down Windows 7 Starter Edition. Naturally, you'll pay a little extra for the privilege, as the 8,930 Roubles (around $320) gizmo is about 50 bones more than its MeeGo-wielding doppelgänger. Or, you know, you could just buy the N100, bask in open-source goodness and then put that half-Benjamin toward the purchase of a real copy of Windows.
Samsung's N150 netbook picks up some Corby branding, Starburst color
Spotted first crawling its way through the FCC, then on the floors of CES and most recently at WMC with some LTE inside we're going to go ahead and say the Samsung N150 has earned its new stripes, err rainbow colors. Trying to add some brightness to its well stocked Pine Trail netbook line up, Sammy has gone and painted the $379 10.1-inch N150 in Flamingo Pink, Bermuda Blue and Caribbean Yellow, though kept its internal 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 250GB hard drive and 1GB RAM unprimed. Interestingly, in some countries the netbook has acquired Samsung's affordable mobile phone Corby brand, though here in the U.S. that doesn't seem to be the case. We'd probably just stick with the black hue, but that doesn't mean we couldn't go for some sort of tropical-flavor candy right about now.
Ion netbooks head-to-head: Atom, overcharged?
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-81099%
