Medion Akoya Mini E1217 on sale in Europe – obsolete specs

Medion, a reputed brand in Europe, has unveiled a new netbook, Akoya Mini E1217. This new Medion Akoya has a 10.1-inch display, Intel Atom N270 processor, 160GB HDD and 1GB RAM. It ships with Window 7 starter. It has WiFi b/g/n and bluetooth radios too.

Priced at 329€, this is clearly a sleek netbook with outdated specs. On one hand, companies are unleashing netbooks that run a N280/Z540/Z550 processors; have 250GB HDDs and more and on other hands, we have Medion, who have the atrocity to release N270 netbooks in the Q4 2009 and that too pricey!

MSI Wind U100 upgraded with Windows 7 with a slight change in Specs

MSI’s one of the popular netbook, Wind U100 has now been upgraded to Windows 7 Starter Edition, and this new model features the same: Intel Atom N270 processor that runs @ 1.6GHz, 10-inch screen, 1 GB memory, but now comes with 250 GB HDD.

However, there is a new N280 version available that runs at 1.66GHz. It is available in Europe right now.

Commentary: With so many models from MSI already on sale, it does not make much sense to keep a 1 year old model still for sale.

Asus eBook reader coming next year

You must be aware about the Asus eBook reader as it was heard many times about it in the past couple of months. According to the latest reports, it will be launched next year, in month of March in the US and Europe. The company also has in mind to offer eBook readers that include internet connectivity options such as WiFi, 3G, and WiMAX.

We have already hear about their plans to launch ebook readers with 6 and 9-inch e-Ink displays and we may possibly see one with dual-screen too.

Samsung, number 2 netbook seller?

Samsung is soon going to surpass ASUS and HP in terms of netbook sales. This will make it the second largest netbook manufacture in Europe (in the Q3 2009). The reason behind this extraordinary success is the fact that Samsung has been bundling its netbooks with the services from cellphone carriers in Europe. It is doing the same practice in America and Asia too.

So far, Acer is still the market king in terms of netbook sales.

MSI X410 now on sale in Europe, Already shipping in France and Belgium

Few days back, we mentioned about the MSI X-slim notebook and Wind netbooks based on AMD’s NEO platform and according to fudzilla, amazingly, MSI has begun shipping some of its Neo-based notebooks, right now to particularly to France and Belgium. MSI is still in a mum about their products,which is yet not made public officially.

X410 is a very attracting model, weighing just 1.5kg and it’s under 25mm thick, which makes it the lightest and slimmest of all. It has a 14-inch display and is backed by an Athlon MV-40 at 1.6GHz, has 2GB of memory and 320GB of storage, draft-n wireless and comes installed with Vista Premium.

X410 is listed by some French vendors at as low as €414 although some are shipping at higher price which is slightly above €500. While Belgian e-tailers have also listed the X400, which is based on Intel’s SU3500 CPU. However, the price difference is astonishing. Shockingly, X400 costs €650, while the X410 is listed at just €499.

The battery life of AMD-based X410 with that of X400 is incomparable as the latter offers much better battery life.

Asus Eee PC S101H launching in Europe – Too Late?

Undoubtedly, no one can deceive Asus Eee PC S101H in terms of looks and it is one of the best looking netbooks on the market so far. But apart from its great looks, there are other things to take into considerations too. Main concerning thought is brought over its price. It’s pretty costly at €399 and comes with a 160GB hard drive and packs a 1.66GHz Atom N280 on a 667MHz bus. It costs as much as Acer’s 11.6-inch Aspire One 751.

You can read our review of ASUS EEE S101H here

Packard Bell Butterfly notebook soon to be launched in Europe – SU3500 CULV notebook

Packard Bell’s 13-inch CULV notebook is soon going to make its debut in Europe very soon. The Packard Bell Butterfly S FC notebook runs a SU3500 processor, comes with 4GB RAM and 500GB HDD. Packard Bell has even packed it with a HD4330 discrete graphics and an HDMI port to let you watch your HD content on big screen.

The SU3500 processor is the main reason for its long battery life of 8 hours. Price-wise, Packard Bell has hit the sweet spot too. It costs just 650 Euros.

MSI X600 now available in Europe – selling in Germany at 749 Euros

MSI’s new thin notebook has now landed on European shores and is now available in Germany at a price starting at €749. The new X-slim X600 notebook is based on Intel’s CULV platform. Unlike most thin and light notebooks, it features discrete graphics, courtesy of ATi. The ATi’s GPU, HD 4330 comes with 512MB of memory which is a welcome addition to the 15.6-inch LED-backlit glare screen that has a resolution of 1366×768. It is equipped with 6-cell Battery and weighs just over 2kg.

You also get two years warranty with this thin notebook.

ASUS EEE PC 1101HA coming to European continent soon!

We have mentioned about this 11.6-inch netbook earlier too, which is going to be the first 11.6-inch netbook by ASUS. It will cost you around 399 Euros ($560). Let’s take a quick glance at its specifications:

• 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU
• GMA 500 graphics
• 160GB HDD
• 1GB RAM
• 802.11b/g/n WiFi
• Bluetooth 2.1
• 6-cell Battery
• Weighs-3Pounds
• 11.3″x7.7″x1.3″

Again, this is plagued with the atrocious Z520 processor, which just sucks when it comes to performance. I had reviewed Acer Aspire 751 a couple of weeks back, which sported the same processor and the performance was not at all ‘ground-breaking’. Infact, it felt noticeably slower than Atom N270/N280 which runs at a clock speed of 1.6GHz.

Netbooks saved European PC market

Title surely sounds like “Superman saved the world!”, but that is how the report of Gartner sounds. In the Q1 2009, the PC market showed an increase of just 0.7 percent. Gartner says that if the netbooks were not there, PC market would have depicted negative growth figures. Due to the economic downturn, most of the corporates simply did not want to purchase anything as a result of which the corporate PC market declined by mind-boggling 20 percent! (compared to Q1 2008)

Among the netbooks, Acer is still the undisputed king in Europe. Infact, its sales increased by 32 percent compared to Q1 2008