SamsungN510
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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%
Samsung's ION-enriched N510 reviewed approvingly, still needs price trim
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.
Samsung's Ion-infused N510 netbook steeply priced across the pond
€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]
Samsung to introduce NVIDIA Ion-powered netbook
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]
