Netbook News

Got $900 burning a hole in your pocket and don’t know what to spend it on? You could buy two or three netbooks, a used car (that doesn’t drive in reverse), or donate to charity. Or you could pick up a tiny mini-laptop from Sony, because the latest version of the Sony Vaio P is now in stock and shipping from SonyStyle.

The Sony Vaio P mini-laptops sport 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processors, 2G of RAM, and 128Gb solid state disks, and an 8 inch, 1600 x 768 pixel display. They also pack 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bleutooth 2.1, and 3G modules.

You certainly get a lot for your money, but I’m still just not sure why you’d drop that kind of money on a computer with a relatively slow Atom Z530 CPU.

The Gigabyte T1000P is a 10.1 inch touchscreen style tablet which features a high resolution 1366 x 768 pixel touchscreen display. You can operate the T1000P either as a normal laptop, or fold the screen down over the keyboard for use in tablet mode. First introduced a couple of months ago, the Gigabyte T1000P is now available for pre-order from Amazon, but at $699 plus shipping, it ain’t exactly cheap.

The netbook features a 1.83GHz Intel Atom N470 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive, and comes with Windows 7 Starter Edition.

Aside from the slightly faster processor and higher resolution screen, on paper the Gigabyte T1000P doesn’t look all that different from the Asus Eee PC T101MT, which sells for about $200 less. But if you’re a high-resolution display junkie, it looks like the Gigabyte model might be the best option.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is a thin, light, and low power laptop aimed at business customers, or anyone who prefers a pointing stick to a touchpad and doesn’t mind a somewhat boxy design. Lenovo recently rolled out the option to configure the mini-laptop with a dual core AMD Neo processor, and the company sent me one of the new models to review.

At first glance, I see a lot to like about this little laptop. The overall design is very professional, and while it’s been years since I used a TrackPoint-style pointing stick, I can definitely see how it could be easier to use than a touchpad since your hand doesn’t have to move from the keyboard — although it definitely takes a little getting used to. Fortunately there’s also a normal touchpad for users who prefer to use one.

The chiclet-style keyboard is large and comfortable to use. And since the 6-cell battery protrudes from the back of the laptop instead of the bottom, it doesn’t add much height to the laptop, which is about 1.2 inches thick.

What really sets this notebook apart from most other thin and light laptops I’ve reviewed is the chipset. The demo unit Lenovo sent me has a 1.6GHz dual core AMD Turion NEO X2 L625 processor and ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics. I’ll be putting the laptop through the paces over the coming days to see how it stacks up in terms of battery life and overall performance,.

The Lenovo X100e is available from Lenovo.com for $449 and up, although a dual core model will cost you a bit more. The demo unit I’m testing starts at $529, and would actually run a bit more since it has 2GB of RAM and Windows 7 Professional.