Bestseller netbooks: EEE PC vs Acer Aspire One AOD250 vs Dell Mini 10v (1011)

The ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA is stable as absolute netbook bestseller at Amazon.com. This is definetly justified by the relatively low price for a well built netbook, good looking and (by the way) with top features:

• 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 Processor
• 1GB DDR2 RAM, 1 x SODIMM Slot, 2GB Max
• 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
• 10.1" WSVGA 1024x600 LCD Display, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
• Windows 7 Starter Operating System (32 Bit), *10.5 Hours of Battery Life

These are the top 5 netbooks of the actual bestseller list

1. ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA-PU17-BK for $338.95
2. Acer AOD250-1197 for $279.99
3. Acer AOD250-1584 for $299.99
4. Dell Inspiron Mini 1011 (Mini 10v) for $296.99
5. ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK for $329.95

The complete list at EEE Journal Bestseller Site

A quick look at the main differences:

• Build quality: IMHO the best is ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA
  
• 10 inch display: unfortunately all glare displays, the EEE PCs are not that bright (by default)... you know the eeectl mod...
  
• Operating system: the first 4 got Windows 7 Starter while ASUS Eee PC 1005H got Windows XP
• Processor: Very little/no difference, since the Inspiron Mini 1011 (Mini 10v) got the Intel Atom N270 at 1.6GHz, while all other netbooks use the Intel Atom N280 at 1.66GHz.
• 1GB DDR2 SDRAM for all netbooks. It should be possible to expand them to 2GB, not sure for the Acer Aspire One models.
  
• Hard disk: 250 for ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA , Acer AOD250-1197 and Acer AOD250-1584 160GB for Inspiron Mini 1011 (Mini 10v) and ASUS Eee PC 1005HA
• Wifi: the fast 802.11b/g/n for the two EEE PC models and one Acer (Acer AOD250-1584). The Mini 10v and the other Acer Acer AOD250-1197 got the slower 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth in all netbooks but Acer AOD250-1197 in any case it is possible to add bluetooth with few dollars
• High capacity battery (6-cells) for all netbooks. Asus claims 10.5h for both EEE PC, while Acer Aspire One AOD250 and Dell Mini10v are between 8 and 9h.
  

Pink Netbook - Not only for Girls/Women!

For a women/girl the appearance and color of an object/netbook is a very important decision criteria. This is something men rarely understand... Pink is one important fashion color since a few years now.
A prepared a selection of pink netbooks for all price ranges, first the best (and most expensive...) followed by many netbooks of the $270-330 range.
Last but not least, don't forget to find a nice bag fitting the new netbook!

It's simply beautiful and perfect...
....for your Valentine Day 2010 gift: ASUS Eee PC Seashell Karim Rashid Collection 1008P-KR-PU17-PI 10.1-Inch Netbook - Hot Pink
Designed from Karin Rashid, Indian origin and actually living in Paris, Karin Rashid is one of the most important modern designers.
For $499.99 (USD) it isn't the cheapest netbook out there however: what a netbook! It features a breathtaking design that includes a 10.1" frameless LED backlit display and an ergonomic chiclet keyboard. This beauty is matched by an excellent build quality, keyboard and high end feature for a netbook. Actually it isn't just for women/girls or valentine day: I lile very much this netbook and I'm seriously thinking of getting it for myself...
ASUS Eee PC Seashell Karim Rashid Collection 1008P-KR-PU17-PI

• Intel Atom N450 Processor 1.66GHz (new Intel Pineview processor!)
  
• 2GB DDR2 RAM
  
• 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) + 500GB Free Web Storage; Windows 7 Home Premium Operating System
• 10.1-Inch Frameless Color-Shine 1024x600 WSVGA LCD Display; 802.11 b/g/n; Bluetooth Enabled, 1.3Mpixel Webcam
  
• 6-cell battery for 6+ hours battery life.
  

As you can see above, compared to main stream netbooks, the Eee PC Seashell Karim Rashid Collection 1008P got double as much RAM (2GB) and hard drive (320GB). Furthermore you get Windows 7 Home Premium instead of Windows 7 Starter.

If you want to spend less
I found a very good offer for you: $299.99 to preorder the Asus EEE PC Seashell 1001P-MU17-PI, up to 11 hours of battery life and the new Atom N450 (Pineview processor).

In any case you still can find good fashion pink netbooks for about $300
all of them with the Atom N270 or N280 processor, 160GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, 10.1-inch display. Most of them got also a high capacity battery and Windows XP, some of them got Windows 7 Starter edition.

A selection of other good pink netbooks I found

• Toshiba Mini NB205-313/P for $327 (Windows XP, up to 9 hours battery)
• Asus EEE PC 1005HA-VU1X-PI for $319.77 (Windows XP, up to 8.5 hours battery)
  

Pink netbooks below $300

• Lenovo S10-2 for $294.93 (Windows 7 Starter, up to 6 hours battery)
  
• MSI Wind U100-427 for $279.99 (only 2.5 hour battery life)

New netbook bestseller EEE PC 1005PE with Intel Atom N450 (Pineview)

The Asus EEE PC 1005PE is one of the first netbooks equipped with the new Atom N450 (Pineview), availble since a week or so and already a big success: the ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PE-PU17-BK is currently number 1 of the netbook Amazon besteseller list. Not really unexpected since the Asus EEE PC Seashell 1005PE is kind of successor of the bestseller EEE PC Seashell 1005HA, to be noted that the 1005PE improves the already excellent battery life of the 1005HA: 14 hourse for the 1005PE vs 10.5hours for the 1005HA. Of course an additional sale boost is the fact that the 1005PE is the first netbook shipping with Atom N450.

Some technical data for the Asus EEE PC Seashell 1005PE-PU17

• 1.66GHz processor (Intel Atom N450)
• 1GB RAM, 2GB Max
• 250GB hard drive
• 10.1 inch display (glossy)
• Windows 7 Starter
• 6 cells battery: up to 14 hours battery life!!
• 0.3 megapixel webcam
• high speed wifi (802.11b/g/n) and Bluetooth

As also mentioned in the posts below, the new Atom N450 is much more power optimized and doesn't offer a performance upgrade compared to the older Atom N270 and N280.

• Atom Power Consumption - Pineview TDP vs first Generation Atom
  
• Benchmarks Intel Atom N450 Pineview Performance
• Intel Atom N450 (Pineview) vs Atom N280 vs N270 Benchmarks

Intel Atom N450 (Pineview) vs Atom N280 vs N270 Benchmarks

The first netbooks with Atom N450 (Pineview, 1.66GHz) are already shipping and much more are going to be released in the next few weeks:

• Shipping: ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PE-PU17-BU 10.1-Inch Blue Netbook - Up to 14 Hours of Battery Life $379.99 (USD)
  
• Shipping: ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1001P-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook - Up to 11 Hours of Battery Life $339.99 (USD)

In the meantime some few Pineview netbooks arrived to the press and the first benchmarks are out: bottom line the Atom N450 doesn't bring more horse power to netbooks using the new Atom generation. The situation will definetly change with the Atom N470: the higher clock (1.83GHz) will help a bit to improve netbook performance.

I put together some benchmark results

• notebookcheck.com: Asus EEE PC 1005PE (Atom N450) and EEE PC 1008HA (Atom N280)
• endgadget.com: Asus EEE PC 1005PE (Atom N450) and EEE PC 1008HA (Atom N280)
• ndevil.com: Acer Aspire One D150 (Atom N280) and Aspire One A150 (Atom N270)

The wPrime (32M) and Cinebench R10 (2 threads) clearly show that the Atom N450 is positioned at the Atom N280 level. Only 3DMark06 test shows some slightly better values for the pinewiew (Atom N450).

More details on Atom N450 and N470 performance

(click pictures to enlarge)

First Atom Pineview/Pine Trail Netbooks for Preorder/Sale

The first Intel Atom Pineview/Pine Trail netbooks are available for preorder at Amazon!

Amazon.com (USA): ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1001P-PU17-WT for $339.99 USD
Amazon.de (Germany): Asus Eee PC 1005P for 279 EUR

The big news is the Intel Pine Trail platform with the Intel Atom N450 (Pineview) clocked at 1.66GHz and NM10 chipset. The rest is pretty standard in both netbooks: 10.1 matte display (good!), 1GB RAM Windows 7 Starter, decent keyboard, 6-cell battery (rated up to 11 hours), 0.3Mpixel webcam, "slow Wifi" (802.11.b/g) and 3xUSB 2.0 interfaces.
There is a difference in the hard drive: 250GB for the ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1001P and 160GB for the Asus Eee PC 1005P.

Best Netbook with Matte Display (and for outdoor usage)

If you are in a hurry: these are the netbooks with matte display that I suggest, see also below the description


Be careful when buying a netbook: consider the fact that most of the netbooks are shipped with glossy/glare display, many people find it annoying (me for example) and prefer a matte display. This is especially important if you plant to use the netbook outdoor or in conditions of brigth sun.

Glare vs matte display in a nutshell

Glossy/glare displays got nicer crisps images, in fact matte display got an additional non-reflecting layer that tends to make the image a bit softer. On the other hand the big advantage of the matte displays is that they don't reflect your image.
The reflections on glare displays can be very annoying (and let the image disappear) outdoor and/or with direct light source from the backside. In order to "reduce" this annoying effect the glare displays must be very bright (more than 200cd/m2).

Best netbooks with matte display

As far as I know all 10-inch Samsung netbooks got a non-glare (Matte) display.
I personally think that Samsung buils the best netbooks: if you want to have a good netbook with matte display you can't be wrong with a Samsung, for example the NC10 models are among the best netbooks available today

You must pay attention with Asus netbooks since only part of the EEE PC netbooks got a matte display, you have to search for...

• The new EEE PC 1005HA ("normal" and Seashell) line got few models with matte display, namely all EEE PC 1005HA-M models. Older Asus EEE PC 1000 and 1000HE models got also a Matte display.
• "Family issue": the display of all Asus EEE PCs isn't that brigth, actually is rather dark. This can be changed by software, the eeectl utility allow you enhance the display brigthness to excellent values. Of course this is not covered by Asus guarrantee...

Asus N10, Gamer Netbook with Hybrid Graphics

Very last news about a luxus netbook announced by Asus, the N10 will include hybrid graphics (chipset + Nvidia GeForce 9300 GS). In order to save power, the Asus N10 will include a switch to activate/deactivate the powerful graphics.
The "entry level" Asus N10 will be priced at about 450 Euros, top featured to be sold at 950 Euros: are we still talking about netbooks? Yes, if you look at CPU and display: Atom N270, 10.2-inch display.
No if you look at "premium" features like HDMI video interface, fingerprint reader and expecially at the prive: 3 times as much the first EEE PC.

Availability September 13th.

More Netbook News

Netbook Deals 2010 with Intel Atom N450 and N270

2010 started with an invasion of netbook deals: excellent netbooks with Atom N270 and N280 are sold below 300 dollars (see end of the post) and many of the Atom N450 (Pineview) netbooks got relatively low prices..
Asus started first flooding the online shops with many Atom N450 models and I got the impression that the new EEE PC netbooks with Atom N450 got a lower average selling price: most Asus EEE PC Seashell models are available for well under 400 dollars, actually the Seashell 1001P is even below 300 dollars. I found only one premium model above 400 dollars (Karim Rashid collection).

• EEE PC Seashell 1005PE for $367.97
• EEE PC Seashell 1001P for $299.00

Beside Asus EEE PCs, also MSI started early shipping MSI Wind U135 with Atom N450, the models with small battery are sold for around 300 dollars. I strongly recommend the MSI Wind U135 with high capacity battery for just 20 bucks more.

As mentioned above, many deals are available especially for N270 and N280 netbooks. Top netbooks below 300 dollars

• EEE PC 1005HA, for $299.99
• Dell Inspiron Mini 1011 (10v), for $297.69
• Samsung NC10, for $284.99
  

DVD burner for EEE PC and any netbook, why not?

In a world with Internet flat rates, tons of gigabytes in hard disks, USB memory sticks and flash cards you don't have to burn DVD so frequently. However especially if you aren't a power user a DVD player/burner is an essential piece of hardware. DVD are especially handy to back up and restore the hard disk, not to speak about playing out music/movies from your private CD/DVD collection.
Netbooks and subnotebooks typically miss a DVD burner, especially for space reasons. The EEE PCs are not an exception. The new Asus SDRW-08D1S-U DVD records on 8X DVD+R, 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-R and 5X DVD-RAM and access 8X DVD-ROM and 5X DVD-RAM formats. While obviously designed with the EEE PC in mind, the Asus DVD burner can be used on MSI Wind, Samsung NC10 or any other netbook. You just plug it to the USB port(s), while for the player functionality you don't need of installing any software, for burning DVDs you typically need some software. Asus ships the burner in bundle with Cyberlink Power2Go 6 LE.

Dual Core Atom Processor for EEE PC Netbook with Windows 7

NEW posts about dual core Atom processor and Intel Atom processor

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?

NEW posts about dual core Atom processor and Intel Atom processor

Asus EEE PC 4G is out!

After the success of the 1st generation Asus EEE PC, the first $299 laptop, now the Asus EEE PC 4G includes a bigger display and native support for Windows XP for a small price.

More on EEE Journal Home Page

Netbook Asus EEE PC 1005HA

The Asus EEE PC 1005HA is the absolute (Amazon) netbook topseller in the past few weeks. If you look at the netbook topseller list today you find 4 EEE PC 1005HA models in the first 5 positions. With Aspire One AOD250 in the 4th position.

Cheap Netbooks: Mini 10v vs EEE PC 1005HA vs Aspire One AOD150

Finally the market offers real netbooks, I mean really cheap tiny laptops (max 1.3kg) with decent battery life (6 or more hours), good keyboard, enough display and processor power, enough for casual and mobile usage.
For less than 300 USD you have the chooce between Dell Mini 10v (Inspiron 1011), Asus EEE PC 1005HA and Acer Aspire One AOD150. If you want to spend 50 bucks more than the Samsung NC10 is probably the best choice, especially for the nice keyboard.
Until few months ago you had to spend 400+ dollars for a decent netbook, now we finally got below 300 dollars. This is what I consider a netbook price level.

Mini 10v vs EEE PC 1005HA vs Aspire One AOD150

• Processor: almost no difference, the EEE PC 1005HA is equipped with the new Atom N280 while Mini 10v and One AOD150 use the Atom N270.
• Noise: the Mini 10v is absolutely silent, I guess fanless; the EEE PC and Aspire One tend to be a bit louder under full load, nothing really annoying.
• Display: the 10-inch display of the EEE PC isn't as brigth as Mini 10v and Aspire One AOD150, in any case eeectl can help... at your own risk of course!
• Keyboard: Mini 10v and EEE PC 1005HA got a very good keyboard, 92% of full size keys, the Aspire One got slighty smaller keys.
• Touchpad: the EEE PC got a multitouch touchpad, nothing to say for Aspire One; I really hate the touchpad of the Mini 10v.
• Wifi: The EEE PC got the faster 802.11n (draft), while Mini 10v and Aspire One have only 802.11b/g.
• Battery: for the 300 dollars class the EEE PC 1005HA got a 8,5h battery life vs about 6,5 battery life for the other two netbooks with 6-cells battery. Be careful since Mini 10v and Aspire One AOD150 are also sold with 3-cells, giving you about 3h of battery life.
• Size, weight and remaining features are very similar: 1GB DDR memory, 160GB hard disk, Windows XP, 1.3megapixel webcam, SD-card slot, 3xUSB

My bottom line: if you want the most featured netbook for 300 dollars, take definetly the EEE PC 1005HA you won't be disappointed.
If you really need an absolutely silent netbook the Dell Mini 10v (Inspiron 1011) is the netbook for you!

The absolute topseller in the past 2 months is the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook - 10.5 Hour Battery Life for about 350 USD.

Dell Inspiron Mini 10v - Review after a few days extensive use

Follow up from my post on Dell Mini 10v vs Asus EEE PC 1008HA

Actually the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v (Inspiron 1011) netbook fulfilled my expectation.

What I liked so far

• It's very silent, you barelly hear the hard drive
• Even if the display isn't the brightest ever seen in a netbook, it's enough even with sunshining
• Long battery time, with display dimmed to half I get 6 to 7 hours
• Bluetooth included
  

What I didn't like

• The surface is easy to scratch and you see the fingerprint
• The touchpad is horrible, I can't get used to the "buttons", you move the pointer instead of "clicking", I mostly use a small mouse.
• Suboptimal "standby", from time to time I see that the standby doesn't work well. The Mini 10v draws much current while in idle, sometime reboots after idle. I'll investigate more
• No hard disk LED
• Stupid powe supply LED, it is on even if not plugged
  

Neutral opinion

• Resolution, ok after resizing the system fonts
  
• Size and weight
• Webcam quality, actually not a surprice for a netbook, poor image quality and no image at all in low light conditions
• Only 802.11bg wifi, not 802.11n

NEW: Mini 10v vs Asus EEE PC 1005HA vs Aspire One AOD150

Android Netbooks: Asus EEE PC, Acer Aspire One

Acer and Asus representatives at the Computex confirmed that the first netbooks with Google Android operating systems are expected for end of 2009, beginning 2010.
Actually this is something I already "predicted", see also my post on Netbook CPU and Operating Systems for 2009 and 2010

EEE PC News - EEE PC 901 and 1000 / 1000H for Sale!

Asus presented the new ultra portable laptop EEE PC 901 at the Computex conference (Taipei) with the following features

• 1.6GHz Atom CPU
  
• 1GB memory
• 12GB or 20GB SDD hard disk
  
• 8.9-inch display
• Bluetooth and WLAN (802.11n)
  
• up to 3.2 to 7.8h battery
  life

The EEE PC 901 basis version should cost about $559.
At the same time Asus announced the launch of the subnotebook EEE PC 1000, main difference from the 901 seems to be a bigger display (10.2-inch) and hard disk 40GB / 80GB SDD.

I already pre-announced (some details about the new EEE PC 901)

EEE Journal Home Page

EEE PC News - Benchmark comparing Atom (Diamondville) vs Celeron vs Core 2 Duo

UPDATE: see also new post with new tests/benchmarks and all articles about

• Benchmarks
• Performance

The Japanese site Impress (pc.watch.impress.co.jp) published PCMark 05 benchmark results comparing a MSI Wind desktop (not to be confused with the MSI Wind ultra portable laptop).
So you may say, what's the matter? The benchmark is of interest since the MSI Wind desktop is equipped with an Atom (Diamondville) CPU clocked at 1.33GHz, chipset Intel 945GC Express, 1GB SDRAM, Windows Vista.
The other tested devices

• Asus EEE PC 900: Celeron M 900MHz, 1GB SDRAM and Windows XP
• Asus EEE PC 701 4G: Celeron M 630MHz, 512MB SDRAM and Windows XP
• Sony Vaio T VGN TZ905: Core 2 Duo U7600 (1.2GHz), 2GB SDRAM and Windows XP

Before giving the results: also in this case I have some (little) doubths about the test methodology! It is important to compare apple with apples! Nevertheless I must say that the result of this benchmark is far more applicable to the Atoms SuperPI benchmark and the CrystalMark benchmarks agains VIA Isaiah (C8) other published in the past weeks.

There were two major differences between the Atom system (MSI Wind desktop) and the other systems

1. Operating system: the Atom and Core 2 Duo systems were running Windows Vista while the EEE PCs run Windows XP. Vista slows down dramatically PC performance. This is especially true for systems with little memory and for slower CPUs, as typical for ultra portable laptops and tiny desktops.
   
2. PC type: Impress compared the three listed ultra portable laptops with a tiny desktop. This is also not optimal, since tiny desktops and ultra portable laptops are built using different parts and requirements.

That said, here you have some of the results.
Compared to the Celeron system, the Atom system scores well on the system tests while in the CPU benchmark the Atom numbers look very bad.
It seems confirmed that Intel Atom is not suitable for CPU intensive tasks, BUT WHO CARES????
Atom's best feature is the very low power consumption, Atom targets cheap ultra portable laptops and desktops, mainly used for surfing and casual Office. If you need performance you should buy a Core 2 Duo and add 1000 bucks by the way... ;-)

PCMark05 (syntetic index of the overall system performance)

• 2328 Core 2 Duo 1,2GHz
• 1468 Atom 1,33GHz
• 1126 Celeron 900MHz
• 818 Celeron 630MHz

CPU Score (use very CPU intensive algorithms: file comp/decompression, en/decryption, image and audio comp/decompression)

• 2328 Core 2 Duo 1,2GHz
• 1441 Celeron 900MHz
• 1159 Atom 1,33GHz
• 997 Celeron 630MHz

The good PCMark05 value can be explained to the relatively high HDD score (4x higher than the EEE PC 900, 2x higher than the Vaio) and the good memory score (slightly below the Vaio and higher than both EEE PCs).
About the CPU score: I think that here we can see that the Atom was designed with power in mind, not for CPU intensive task. We can see this especially with the major difference between the Atom and Core 2 Duo result. The latter scores well, given the dual core and the performant CPU architecture. Also the Celeron CPU is much more complex than the Atom and we see the results in the CPU benchmark.

UPDATE: see also new post with new tests/benchmarks and all articles about

• Benchmarks
• Performance

EEE PC Review

Not possible to deny: Asus EEE PC is the most discussed laptop in the past year. This is of course because of the revolutionary price for the micro laptop format.
Ther are ton of reviews out there, all of the Asus EEE PC all of them very positive!
See here and here.

More on EEE Journal Home Page

EEE PC News - EEE PC 900 with 8.9 inch display

The Asus EEE PC 900 has a 8.9 inch display (resolution 1024x600) and a 12-20GB hard disk.
See also Asus's press release.

More on EEE Journal Home Page

Netbook with HD Video (HDMI and HDTV) - Dell Mini 10 (Inspiron 1010)

As far as I know the Dell Mini 10 (Inspiron 1010) the only 10-inch "HD/HDTV capable" netbook: the Mini 10 got an HDMI interface (instead of VGA) and an integrated HDTV digital TV receiver.
The best is that now the price of the Mini 10 dropped to $329.99 (down from $399.99)

Complete feature set of the
Dell Inspiron Mini 10 10.1-Inch Obsidian Black Netbook with Integrated TV Tuner - Up to 6 Hours 20 Minutes of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)

• Processor: Atom 1.6GHz Intel Z530 (512K Cache, yes it isn't a typo! It isn't the N270.
• 1GB DDR2 SDRAM Memory
• 160GB Hard Drive
• HDTV internal Digital TV Receiver (ATS), Mini TV Antenna
• HDMI digital display out insteady of VGA (analog)!
  
• 10.1-inch display, 1024x600
• Integrated Intel 500 Media Accelerator
• 1.3M Pixel Webcam
• 6 Cell Battery
  
• Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card (802.11g)
• No Bluetooth, you can easy find a cheap Bluetooth dongle
  
• Windows 7 Starter

The main reason for the significant price drop is the introduction of the new Atom N450 (1.66GHz Pineview) netbooks, for this reason OEMs and shops are trying to sell all remaining Atom N270/N280 netbooks.

All major netbook brands are already shipping or at least announced new models with the just released Intel Atom N450 (1,66GHz Pineview).
As far as I know only a couple of netbooks are really shipping with the new Atom N450

• Asus EEE PC Seashell 1005PE-PU17-BK for about $370
• MSI Wind U135-206US for $324.99