Netbook India

In 2008, Lenovo launched their first mini laptop in India. The first Lenovo Mini Laptop for India was the Lenovo S10. The Lenovo S10 ran on Atom N270 processor. It came in two colors, white and black. It was not so widely marketed by Lenovo. As a result of which it could not gain much popularity.

The second Lenovo netbook launched in India was the Lenovo S10-2 which is still being sold in India. This one was nicely marketed and can be seen in various electronic stores like Chroma and Reliance Digital.

Well, if you thought that the VAIO X was overpriced, think again! Dell has launched its flagship model in India (finally!). For Rs 150,000, you get a breath-taking design. The keyboard fits inside the reinforced display when closed. Once open, the body is slightly raised, which gives the use a comfortable angle to type on.

The display size is 13.4-inch which is enclosed in an aluminum body. It runs Windows 7 64-bit edition and uses 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor with 4GB DDR3 RAM. For storage, you get 128GB SSD. There is no optical drive included in Adamo.

Dell claims the battery life to be 5 hours and 17 minutes on a single charge.

Visit Dell Adamo XPS Indian website

Acer recently unveiled their first netbook with Android OS and many more netbook manufactures will launching their own Android netbooks soon. However, whether Android netbooks will be popular is certainly a tough question to answer.

Aricent is  a company that is current working with many chipset manufactures and vendors to synchronize the Android operating system with their chipset and to enhance the user’s experience

According to Sajal Gupta, Vice President of Aricent, Android is still considered as mobile OS and is not tailored for the bigger devices such as notebooks and mini laptops. Device manufactures are looking forward to use Android OS on bigger devices too. He further said that chipset in mobile phones have limited processing power and Android OS is not fully optimized for bigger devices, yet.

Interestingly, device manufactures are looking into the possibility of using the Android OS for car entertainment and hybrid television. 

"With new chipset and device manufacturers showing their interest to develop new devices using Android, there are high chances that we may see presence of Android on many devices, apart from mobile phones and netbooks," he added.

There is a huge demand for Android, coming from foreign operators. Demand is less in India as people are not much cognizant of Android OS.

At FCC, a netbook with the name of Lenovo FL5-B3 has been spotted that will run the next-gen Pine View Atom N450 processor @ 1.6GHz. With a 10.1-inch @ 1024×600 display, Wi-Fi b/g, has 250GB Hard disk (5400rpm) and 2GB memory. The big chiclet keyboard has keys curved at the front edge and a button-less touchpad. Fingerprints can easily be visible on its surface, so need to take care for this. Expected to launch in Q1 2010. You might meet it at CES 2010.

We were there at the VAIO X launch in India where we saw the hot Bollywoord actress, Kareena Kapoor promoting the VAIO X as the new zero figure. Here is a new video being used in India to promote the VAIO X

Clearly, SONY is spending a fortune in promoting the VAIO X in India. We made visits to few local SONY stores and all units have already been sold!

Haleron technologies have launched MIO Smartbook Computer that runs Windows CE 6.0 OS. It comes with a VIA ARM CPU that runs at a mind-boggling speed of 266MHz. It has an 7″ display and 128MB RAM. For storage, you get 1GB flash (upto 4GB).

It comes with 3 USB ports and has built-in Wireless LAN (b/g) Weighing at just 700gm, it can you upto 6 hours of usage, 24 hours of standby. 3G can be added via USB module.

They also offer something called Swordfish USB flash memory which basically offers you more storage and has few operating systems on-board: Windows XP, Linux or Android.

How would you run XP on an ARM-architecture? Well, to do that you must undergo a $55 dollar processor upgrade.

If you wish to have Linux on-board instead of Windows CE, you will have to add $15 more to the total amount, $189

[Haleron]

Our friends at Gadgetmix have spotted an excellent mod for the Dell Mini 9 netbook where a user has first put in a touch screen followed by installation of an Accelerometer.In his video, the modder has demonstrated how just by tilting the screen changes the orientation of the display.

(more…)

At the SONY VAIO X’s launch event in New Delhi, India, we were actually surprised to the very famous Indian bollywood actress, Ms Kareena Kapoor. Famous for her Zero figure, she was seen promoting the VAIO X as the new Zero Figure in capital.

Not surprisingly, SONY itself is saying the same thing on Sony’s India site: The New Zero Figure.

“The whole size zero thing in India has more to do with people being slim and lightweight. And I am slim and lightweight. And so is this laptop. I think this new laptop is very chic and sexy and people also often associate me with these qualities”,

“I believe in Sony products and I am privileged that they have signed me. They believe in cutting edge technology and innovate a lot and I am glad to be their ambassador since I associate myself with quality”, says Kareena

SONY VAIO X has been officially launched in India. Two models are being offered:  VPCX113KG (64GB SSD) for Rs. 64,990 and VPCX117LG (128GB SSD) for Rs. 84,990

It has 2GHz Atom Z550 processor.

READ our SONY VAIO X review

ASUS is now offering EEE 1005HA Business Edition. Asus wants to mark its recognition in the market of business netbooks which is mainly dominated by HP and Lenovo so far. Business edition comes with 2GB RAM as standard and runs Windows XP Professional (instead of Home edition). Vista  is also available.

Black and white are the available colors.  Atom N280 processor, same 10.1-inch screen, 10.2 hours battery life are the rest of the specs.

Note: Price of ASUS EEE 1005HA is Rs 21,500 (non business edition)

Netbook India’s HP Mini 2140 HD Review

Netbook India’s Lenovo Ideapad S10e review

Qualcomm, a US-based chip maker few months back announced that they are working on a low cost PC called Kayak. And now it seems as if they are going to test India for it. They are in talks with cellular giants in India which includes Airtel, Tata Indicom and others to come with a netbook that has 3G built-in and costs Rs 10,000 which is around $220USD.

Kanwalinder Singh, President, Qualcomm India and South Asia said, “We hope to undertake trials by the end of this year. The reference design is ready. We are talking to various original equipment manufacturers and they, in turn, are talking to operators. We are also talking to application developers to allow wide applications to ride on the Kayak. Though not an Indian name, Kayak is very focused on emerging markets. It offers a very simplified means of travel, hence the word to describe our emerging market strategy to create an alternative computer that is suited not only for rural folk but also the urban youth who seek just infotainment,”.

Samsung has launched N128 netbook in India for an unbelievable price of Rs 15,000 ($320).

It comes with free DOS so you should keep a copy of that Windows OS handy or better get Ubuntu on it.

Specs: Atom N270 processor (1.6GHz), 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, WiFi b/g, memory card reader, 3USB ports, 6-cell battery and 1.3kg.