Engagdet got a nice little present yesterday – details on the Dell ‘E’ PC. Very interesting specs, a large standard battery and a range of SSD configurations. It hardly looks like its for ‘developing countries’ though! More the Eee PC killer methinks. There are going to be three versions of the 8.9" version, all with different SSD sizes and with the possibility of a webcam and Bluetooth. Prices will start at $299 and the launch target is, as we heard before, August.

This will certainly compete well with the HP, Acer, ASUS, MSI and ECS and if battery life and mobility is your concern, it looks like one of the better choices.

We’ve entered all the details in the product database and will be adding links and information as we get it. For a quick comparison of all 16 of the 8.9" netbooks in our database, click here.

Thanks JKK for the heads-up. Engadget have more pics and some interesting comments.

Acer’s entry into the netbook space was seen a few weeks ago, but hasn’t been seen on their site until recently. An entire mini-site dedicated to the Aspire One can be seen over at Acer’s website. One of the first things you will read on that site is the following:

The Aspire one is more than just another ultra-mobile notebook: it’s an all-new communication device designed to deliver continuous access to the internet and a simplified wireless experience no matter where you are.

I really hope they have some magic to back up that claim. As far as I can tell, it is in fact “just another ultra-mobile notebook”. Granted, it looks very slick but so far I can’t say there are any features that make this one stand out from the crowd. The site gives only information that has already been know; the Aspire One will be available in many different colors, and weigh in under 1kg (2.2lb). Interestingly Acer has chosen to use Linpus Lite for the OS, and the site says that they have kept startup/shutdown times very low. Of course some people need software compatibility so I’m sure we’ll see XP as popular choice for the Aspire One. And then there is the standard 8.9″ LCD screen running at 1024×600, and the whole thing is running on Intel’s Atom. Could this netbook be any more generic?

Take a look at 4 of the most popular netbooks side-by-side.

That apple-red Dell netbook you may have spotted a few weeks ago is expected to be hitting the market in August, but its keyboard will be lacking a dedicated row of F-keys. For certain users this is nearly preposterous. However for some, such as myself, it isn’t that big of a deal. I personally could live without a dedicated row of function keys. I don’t use them frequently enough to justify a whole separate row. That being said, they should still be accessible through a modifier key which at this time APCmag is saying that is not the case.

It’s true that the alpha keys are all of a good size, although others are noticeably slim, and the function keys have been dropped altogether: the Fn modifier activates hardware-related shortcuts mapped onto the keyboard, with no facility to call up the usual F1-F12 keys. [my emphasis]

It’s one thing to remove the row of keys entirely, but not providing a way to press them at all is a peculiar decision on Dell’s part. It may have something to do with the target audience. While tech enthusiasts will inevitably end up buying the Dell netbook if it turns out to be a quality product, Dell says it is targeted toward students and first time computer users. If Dell’s audience for this netbook is truly first time computer users, removal of the row of function keys makes a bit more sense. First time computer users are certainly not acquainted to keyboard shortcuts and only a small percentage would make use of them. So why not remove these keys and be able to make the rest of the keys more finger friendly? Sounds logical to me at least.

The yet to be named 9″ Dell netbook is predicted to feature Intel’s Atom, and knowing Dell, XP and Ubuntu will most likely be choices for the OS. Specs have not been announced yet but Dell says they will bring the product to market “…later this summer”, expect to specs in the next few weeks.

What is everyone’s opinion on big companies (HP , Sony, Dell) getting into the netbook explosion?

There’s been a suprising lack of information from OEMs and resellers on the MID products during Computex. Or perhaps it isnt suprising. The netbooks mean more to the bottom line than MIDs this year!

Intel realyed a snippet of news this afternoon via their ‘Chip Shots‘ blog. In a speach on the 4th, Anand Chandrasekher gave an update on the situation. Apparently everything is going to plan. OEMs are making progress and the software ecossytem is building steam. Sounds like a bit of PR-fill to me!

Building on the Intel® Atomâ„¢ Processor launch at Shanghai IDF, Peter Chen, general manager, BenQ Technology Product Center, and Masatsugu Shinozaki, executive vice president and general manager, Car Information System Division, Hitachi, Ltd., discussed how the companies are working to bring new entertainment and information experiences to market through their respective upcoming Mobile Internet Devices. Chandrasekher also highlighted a support from a range of software vendors around the world, including a new collaboration with Wind River Systems through development of an open, extensible Moblin-based Linux platform for MIDs.

Check out the Press Kit for a couple of new PDFs/

Sascha has been busy today. Here’s his video of the G10IL which I haven’t seen launch info for yet. It looks like it might have an Express/34 slot. Or is it a card reader slot?

AnandTech published some strip-down pics of the Asus Eee PC 901 earlier today and JKK has put them under the microscope to try and work out if there are any new features. Unfortunately it looks like the SSD drive is still split into two partitions making XP a pain to manage but on the other hand, there’s a few really nice surprises in there. Pop over to JKKMobile for the raw, naked details.

Not Joanna Stern!

Joanna Stern, queen of netbook-land it seems, has published her full review of the MSI Wind and given it 4.5/5 on the morning that it officially launched. Good timing MSI!

The review covers pretty much every aspect of the device from design to battery life (Mmm, battery life. Why the cheap, low-cap batteries MSI? It could have been a lot better) and is the must-read if you’re considering the device, which, if the stats on UMPCPortal.com are anything to go by, is a huge number of people.

Laptop Magazine MSI Wind Review

The press release and product pages are now available.

Via Engadget.

MSI Wind details, specs and updates being added to our MSI Wind product page.

From Engadget China, this is an interesting image.

It’s a line-up of netbooks and includes new devices from Amtek (top-middle,) Haier and others. Engadget China have the details.