A new player to the already-flooded Netbook market is here to say hello: Hannspree, the former world suppliers of utterly bizarre basketball, elephant, and plushie-shaped novelty TVs, has released its very own itty-bity Atom minilaptop for the U.S. to buy at last. Extreme similarities to the
For $379.99, the 10-inch HannsNote (which sounds vaguely German) weighs 2.9 pounds, has a six-cell battery that to its credit is better integrated than some recent Netbooks we've seen, and comes with all the standard Netbook specs--160GB HDD, 1GB RAM, 1.6GHz Atom N270, you know the drill. There are a few pleasant surprises, which we'll bullet below:
- 802.11 b/g and n Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth 2.0
- A matte screen
- 1.3 megapixel Webcam
- SD card reader
While the beefed-up connectivity is appreciated, we wish this newcomer to the Netbook scene would have been even more aggressively priced. Consumers aren't exactly comfortable with putting their computing in the hands of Hannspree, and a little newcomer discount would be appreciated. You can get a Dell for less.
And our one other complaint: why the heck is this thing so boring? The HannsNote only comes in "Pearl Black" and "Pearl White." And talk about somber--they haven't even made a pink model, something even Sony's gotten into.
As for teddy-bear, dolphin, sushi, cucumber, Wolverine, football, tomato, french fry, or clown designs, we'll just have to wait and cross our fingers. In fact, it's not such a crazy idea anymore--someone's already beaten Hannspree to it. Come on, Hannspree, don't lose your wackiness now!