Ah, what is it about low cost and therefore low margin yielding netbooks that makes almost every manufacturer out there want to dip their toes into the shark infested waters? This time, it’s Viewsonic’s turn. Viewsonic is more well known for producing LCD and CRT monitors, but it has decided to jump head first into the emptying (from a profit perspective anyway) pool that is the netbook market. Its offering – the VNB101 – sports nothing spectacular in terms of specifications. It has a 10″ 1024 x 600 pixel resolution screen, multi-touch touchpad, Atom N280 processor, 1Gb RAM, 160Gb hard disk. Big yawn. Click here for the full specifications.
It sells for RM 1,299. For this price, I think one gets the Linux version with the 3 cell battery, there doesn’t seem to be an option for a 6 cell battery yet. The only thing that is even remotely interesting about the VNB101 seems to be the 10″ LED backlit screen which should be more power efficient than traditional LCD screens. At this price, I can’t see anyone choosing a Viewsonic over an Acer Aspire One D250 which now sells for RM 1,399 with a 6 cell battery – and with the recent drop in price of the Acer Aspire One 751 to RM 1,499, might we see a drop in the Aspire One D250′s price to RM 1,299? If so, then this would make the VNB101 a dead duck.
Note to Viewsonic Malaysia – when you advertise a new product and ask interested readers to surf over to your website for more information, make sure the product page is up! There’s nothing more frustrating than having to dig through trash that makes up a website just to find the information one is looking for. In this case, instead of the web address given in the advertisement, I finally found the VNB101′s specifications on the Singapore website.
