subnotebook

It's taken the computer industry a little while to fully embrace the charms of the under-sized Netbook, although with big players such as Dell and Lenovo on board, as well as major retails like Best Buy and Amazon, these small laptops are more popular now then anyone could have anticipated.

We've even finally come to an industry wide agreement on what to call these products, which were originally dubbed mini-notes, sub-notebooks, mini-laptops, etc., before we all settled on "Netbook."

In perhaps the final step towards mainstream acceptance, the eagle-eyed gang over at Laptop mag just spotted … Read more

Hewlett-Packard will launch a 4-pound "ultralight" business notebook line based on Intel's Centrino 2 silicon this month.

The 12.1-inch HP-Compaq 2230s series packs Centrino 2 processors and Intel's newest GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics, which HP lists as "Microsoft DirectX 10 capable."

The weight is listed as starting at 4.07 pounds. By comparison, the Via processor-based HP 2133 Mini-Note (8.9-inch screen) is listed at 2.63 pounds.

Models start at $999 with a T5670 (1.80GHz) Core 2 Duo processor and range up to $1,649 for a model with a … Read more

At Computex 2008 in Taipei, the biggest buzz is about the developing new market for mini-laptops, sub-notebooks, "netbooks"--whatever you want to call them. They're smaller than traditional laptops but larger than PDAs. Tech hearts are also going "buh-boom" over the revolutionary new chips running these tiny PCs of joy. To see what's being shown off at the international trade show, click here.

The proliferation at Computex of ultra-small, inexpensive netbooks poses this pesky question: why are traditional ultra-compact laptops so expensive?

The Asus Eee PC 1000 debuted this week with a 10-inch screen, 40GB solid state drive, and Windows XP. Pricing has been rumored at between $600 and $700.

Features and size threaten to push the Eee PC 1000 netbook into a category traditionally referred to as subnotebooks--with one glaring difference: price.

Subnotebooks like the 11-inch Lenovo IdeaPad or Sony Vaio TZ series typically start at above $1,500 and go up from there, ranging up to $3,000.

But as netbooks … Read more

Updated 6:15 AM PDT to reflect official announcement, as expected.

The biggest name in computing is joining the growing mini-notebook fray.

On Tuesday, Hewlett-Packard announced its new Mini-Note PC, due to begin shipping next week. You might recognize it as the HP Compaq 2133, which was the internal HP name back when early images were leaked online.

HP's entry into the trendy mini-notebook market is certainly the biggest name--so far. To get an idea of how popular these devices are of late, check out Amazon.com's list of 10 most-purchased PCs. Three of Amazon's top 10 notebooks … Read more

If the sudden rush into subnotebooks by major PC vendors is any indication, it's worth considering whether Palm's Foleo wasn't such a lame idea.

Photos of a subnotebook from Hewlett-Packard, reportedly called the HP Compaq 2133, showed up on the Web recently. And another major PC vendor, Acer, is also rumored to be entering the subnotebook fray sometime soon. Neither company will confirm anything, but in the case of the HP Compaq device, an industry insider tells us the product is for real and that the company began seriously looking into the category in November 2007. When … Read more

If you follow the wide world of Mac computing, you probably know that rumors are commonplace and Steve Jobs always finds a way to fool everyone. But one of the most persistent rumors over the past few months has revolved around Apple's impending release of a subnotebook.

In case you're new to the subnotebook game, these devices usually offer many of the features you would expect from a normal notebook, but are extremely underpowered and typically feature screen sizes that run between 7- to 10-inches. In order to keep their prices down, they usually lack many of the ports you would expect from a regular laptop and an optical drive is a blessing and not the norm.

That said, subnotebooks generally come in at a nicely affordable price, but rarely sell well on the open market. To make matters worse, most of these computers are downright ugly.

Now, after reading over the general design of a subnotebook, does that design sound anything like a product Apple would sell? Not a chance. Not to mention, don't you remember what happened the last time Apple ventured into the subnotebook market?

And while that description doesn't even apply to anything Steve Jobs and company would release, there's still a host of rumors saying Apple will release one of these losers.… Read more