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ViewSonic enters netbook/nettop market

by on09 January 2009

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Announces three new systems


Although ViewSonic has tried to make inroads into the low-end PC market in the past, it's latest Cloud Computing Initiative is taking things to a whole new level with three new systems which consists of a netbook, an all-in-one system and a really tiny nettop.

Let's start with the netbook which is simply called the VieBook. It doesn't have any real stand-out features as it's based on the standard Atom N270 processor and the 945GSE chipset, has 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 10/100Mbit Ethernet, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, a 1.3Megapixel webcam and a memory card reader. The battery life is meant to be good for 3h of usage and the VieBook weighs in at 1.18kg.
It's expected to hit retail in the US next month for a MSRP of $429 (€312/£282).

Next up is the VPC100 which is a all-in-one system with an 18.5in LCD panel. Although no specifications are mentioned for the panel, we have a feeling that it will only offer 1,366x768 resolution, as it's a 16:9 panel and we haven't seen any 18.5in panels with higher resolution than this. The hardware specs seems to be similar to the VieBook, although we're not sure of hte VPC100 uses the Atom N270 or 230, as there are no details as to which CPU is used.

On the upside, ViewSonic has added Gigabit Ethernet and an DVD writer. ViewSonic is targeting schools, internet cafe's, office workers and a range of other usage models with the VPC100. The VPC100 is expected to be available sometime in Q1 this year for a MSRP of US$549 (€400/£360)

Finally we have what seems to be the most interesting device of the three, the ViePC. This tiny little system is once again using an unspecified 1.6GHz Atom processor, comes with 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive (ViewSonic must've got a good deal on these drives), Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g WiFi, D-sub and what at least according to the picture looks like DVI (no mention of it in the press release), four USB 2.0 ports and oddly enough a serial port. The ViePC will be available from March for a MSRP of US$399 (€291/£262)

All three models come with Windows XP Home (most likely the basic version). You can find the so far very basic product page here

Last modified on 09 January 2009
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