VIA's affiliate site, Howtobemobile.com has put up a first looks video of the new thin and light notebooks from Dr Mobile with an 11.6-inch display and a VIA Nano processor, although some would call this a netbook, but for various reasons, VIA doesn't.

The FreeStyle 1300n as the notebooks are known as come in a selection of colours and finishes, some which are more appealing than others. The FreeStyle 1300n also relies on a very thin Li-Polymer battery, although as this is only a 3-cell power pack, it might not last as long as we've come to expect from some netbooks. However, this keeps the weight down to a manageable 1.3kg, despite the larger display. With a screen resolution of 1,366x768 we're talking "real" notebook resolution here and you should've have any problems surfing most websites, which the smaller 1,024x600 or lower resolution netbook displays have at times.

Internally we're looking at a 1.3GHz VIA Nano CPU, although faster options might follow later this year, up to 4GB of DDR2 memory and sadly the ageing VIA VX800 chipset. The chipset is the biggest compromise in the case in our opinion and it's VIA's biggest weakness at the moment. A better chipset would make VIA a much more serious contender in this market space. Other features include the option of a 2.5-inch hard drive or SSD drive, , 802.11b/g WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, an SD/MMC card reader, three USB 2.0 ports, a 1.3Megapixel webcam and a D-sub connector. Both 3G and WiMAX will be available as options as well.

Thanks to its slightly larger size, 281x198x25mm (WxDxH), the keyboard is pretty much standard notebook size and the touch pad is better than on your average netbook, especially as Dr Mobile has made sure it has two separate buttons rather than the long bar that has become popular with certain manufacturers. The OS of choice will either be Windows XP or Vista Home basic, but Linux might also be an option.

We should have more details for you come Computex, as of right now we don't have an exact launch date or a price of the FreeStyle 1300n notebooks. Some models will be sold under Dr Mobile's own brand, while others are like to show up under other brand names later this year.

You can find the video here