Reduced Sale Price for MSI Wind U100 Netbook

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MSI reduced the price of the MSI Wind U100, one of the best netbooks currently for sale, I found some online stores selling the MSI Wind U100 with Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor, Windows XP and 120GB hard disk for $350 USD. For a few days even Best Buy sold it for the same price. Of course for $350 you'll get only a 3-cells battery.

Also in Germany you can currently buy the MSI Wind U100, 120GB hard disk and Windows XP for only 328 Euros at Amazon.de see link below.

The main price for the price reduction is the immanent market launch of the new MSI Wind netbooks: models U110, U115 and U120. Still using the Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, the major differences are in interfaces and storage. I'll post more details very soon...

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Amazon USA

Amazon Germany

AMD Conesus, Intel Atom Alternative for Netbooks?

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Not it is official, AMD is going to ship a new processor, Conesus, a dual core CPU with a total of 1MB L2 cache (2x512KB), DDR2 and BGA package. Available CPU frequencies, TDP and pricing are still unknow. Also not clear is the production process: some news sites state that the AMD Conesus is going to be produced with the new AMD 45nm process, if you look at the AMD roadmap below (source gizmodo) you'll see that the Conesus is still using the 65nm process. To be noted that Intel Atom is also built using a 45nm process.

According to AMD officials, Conesus doesn't address the netbook market and will be shipped in ultraportable and mini notebooks/mini laptops. This looks like a contraddiction: I'd really like to understand the difference, if any, between a netbook and a mini notebook. For sure AMD doesn't wants to miss the huge netbook market.
AMD guys (see AMD blog) use the term mini notebook to refer to EEE PC, MSI Wind, Aspire One and so on.
Why is AMD saying that Conesus doesn't address the netbook market?
I got two reasons, both of marketing nature

• AMD wants to stress the fact that Conesus got more performance than Intel Atom. That's why AMD is basically saying: with Conesus you can do more than with Atom. It is actually true that Intel Atom is a bit too weak to be used in notebooks, it will be interesting to see whether or not Conesus will have a performance edge... of course don't forget that Conesus is a dual core CPU while actual netbook include only the single core Atom processor.
  
• The term netbook was introduced by Intel about a year ago, to refer to EEE PC and similar products. AMD doesn't want to use a term "invented" by Intel. Actually the word netbook was invented by psion a few years ago...
  

In any case the good news is that Intel will get tough competition for the netbook market: beside VIA Nano, also ARM, Qualcomm and AMD announced CPUs for netbook. It means for us more performance at a lower price!

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Dual core Atom not yet in EEE PC S101 Netbook

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Yesterday I already raised some doubts about the news of a dual core Atom Netbook (EEE PC S101) running Windows 7, now there is an endgadget update:
"Microsoft's PR folks just got in touch to let us know that the device demoed was not a dual-core Atom, but actually a single-core chip. Apparently the speaker misspoke when mentioning what kind of processor was being used."

Some background: in a video from the WinHEC published by endgadget, a Microsoft guys presents Windows 7 on a EEE PC S101 netbook and he talks about a dual core Atom processor.
See post explain what was wrong about it.

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Dual Core Atom Processor for EEE PC Netbook with Windows 7

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SEE UPDATE: the original news from endgadget wasn't correct, the EEE PC S101 has a single core Atom processor!

The facts first: at the last WinHEC event Microsoft presented a preview of Windows 7 running on a Netbook, the EEE PC S101 according to some blogs; according to the Microsoft presenter, the EEE PC is equipped with an Intel Dual Core Atom processor clocked at 1.6GHz (see video).
Another fact is that Asus doesn't ship (yet) netbooks based on dual core Atom processor. However it is only a matter of time:
So what's wrong here, how to interprete it?

1. There is no question that the showen netbook is one of the EEE PC S series, at least from the design, however I bet that Asus would use a new model number for a netbook with dual core Atom processor maybe EEE PC S201, of course not EEE PC S101 since this model is marketed with a single core Atom processor.
   
2. If the netbook is really equipped with a dual core Atom processor, the EEE PC model shown at the WinHEC is an Asus preseries model. BUT: in the video the speaker doesn't talk about a preseries netbook. The speaker just mentioned 1GB SDRAM, dual core Atom 1.6GHz and 16GB SDD hard disk storage. From his speach he was referring to a standard netbook rather than a preseries EEE PC.
   
3. There is also an interesting possibility... as you know the Intel Atom CPU is multithreaded, maybe the speaker is not so deep in technical stuff and exchanged a dual threaded processor for a dual core processor. It isn't a joke, I saw it already in the industry... some marketing guys don't understand the differences between dual core and multithreading.

At the end of the days this is just guessing and it is a matter of time: Intel already announced a dual core Atom (the Atom 330) and I guess that in max 12 months we'll see the first dual core Atom netbooks in the market. Remeber that (according to Intel) the Atom 330 is addressing only the nettop market, it means that Intel is going to announce the first dual core Atom processor for netbooks.

Some more interesting thoughts....
If the showen netbook is really equipped with a dual core Atom, this is a sign that also the new Windows 7 runs much slower than Windows XP and needs considerable horse power to run. Otherwise why not to demo Windows 7 on a "normal" netbook equipped with the single core Atom CPU?

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Acer Aspire One A150X, A150L or A110?

The Acer Aspire One is a big sale success, it is one of the best 8.9-inch class netbooks, well maybe even more, the Acer Aspire One is one of the best netbooks that you can currently buy. I like very much especially the keyboard: one of the best for the 8.9-inch netbooks. What I miss in the Aspire One is only Bluetooth.
I think that the main reason for the Aspire One success is(was) a price level much lower than similar featured Asus EEE PC 901
If you want to buy an Acer Aspire One netbook be aware of the fact that there are three models currently shipped, all three equipped with the Intel Atom processor N270 1.6GHz, wifi a/b/g, 3xUSB and a 0.3 megapixel webcam. Please note that, as mentioned above, the Aspire One doesn't include Bluetooth yet. If required you may use a compatible Bluetooth USB adaptor.

The main differences between the three models are Aspire One A110L, Linux Linpus distribution. 512MB DDR2 and 8-16GB SDD hard disk. 3 cells battery. Aspire One A150L, Linux Linpus distribution. 1GB DDR2 and 120GB hard 3-cells battery. Aspire One A150X, Windows XP, with 1GB DDR2 and 120GB hard disk with 3-cells batery or 160GB hard disk with 6-cells battery.

What about price?
You can buy the Aspire One A110L for about 300 US$/Euro (8GB SDD), for the Aspire One A150L you have to give out about 50 bucks more.
The Aspire One A150X is currently available online for about 350 US$/Euros (with 120GB hard disk and 3 cells battery) or 400 US$/Euros (with 160GB and 6 cells battery).

Which Acer Aspire One to buy? I prefer the Aspire One A150 models, however at the end of the daysl... it's up to you! First of all you should be clear on the operating system: are you ready for Linux? If the answer is yes and you just want to have a good netbook, to be used for casual surfing and email the Acer Aspire One A110L is already ok for you.
If you want to do something more than casual internet surfing and emails, you definetly have to think at one of the Aspire One A150 models. Again, if Linux doesn't scare you, grab the One A150L, otherwise the One A150X is the netbook for you!

Remember that the some One A150X ship with 6 cells battery, giving you about 4 hours of battery life vs 2 hours for the 3 cells battery (standard for all Linux models).

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