Thin Intel Netbook to vie with MacBook Air?

During a keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, an Intel executive brandished a Netbook that looked Air-thin. Will inexpensive Linux Netbooks be a poor man's MacBook Air?

Ultrathin Intel Atom-based Netbook shown at IDF.

(Credit: Intel)

Most of the photos to date of upcoming Netbooks are ho-hum designs, engineered to be inexpensive yet practical for users such as young schoolchildren. But some upcoming designs look intriguing--and extremely thin. (See close-up photo here--PC Watch.)

"This Netbook is running Linux...As you see, this doesn't mean an ugly design. It's a really nice-looking, stylish design," said Dadi Perlmutter, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Mobility Group, when waving a very-thin-looking Netbook (photo) at the audience during his keynote at IDF.

Consider the typical specifications for a Netbook (best exemplified by the tiny Eee PC) and it's not a stretch to design an ultraportable, ultrathin Netbook:

Power-sipping Atom processor: This chip will draw as little as 0.65 watt, much less than the Air's Core 2 Duo chip which has a TDP (Thermal Design Power, or thermal envelope) of 20 watts. This means less heat dissipation.

Solid-state drive: Netbooks (Eee PC, Intel Classmate) will typically use SSDs, not hard-disk drives--another power- and space-saving feature. (There will be exceptions such as the 2go, which packs a hard drive.)

No optical drive:: Typically, Netbooks won't come with optical drives--meaning power and cost savings.

Smaller display: Netbooks will have small, less-power-hungry displays, ranging from seven to nine inches.

Though not as well-endowed as full-fledged notebooks like the MacBook Air, Netbooks won't set you back $3,000 either. It's likely that the price will be much closer to $300--but that's a big unknown at this point.

Intel sees two distinct market opportunities for the Netbook. In the developing world, Netbooks will attract first-time buyers. In more mature markets, they will become supplemental PCs.

Click here for more stories on IDF Shanghai.

[the Otter]

It also looks like the display resolution is about 640×480. What?s up with that?

[Fred_Stone]

Funny how this article uses the $3000 highest end SD drive MacBook Air to compare prices (there is an $1800 model Brooke) versus a $300 NetBook. This $300 Netbook has a SD drive, Brooke? Wow I would like to know where they are getting these 64GB flash drives - I may buy a dozen at $300 and rip them open because the drives alone are selling for around 3x that.

[Mam00th]

For the resolution it doesn't seems that bad, I think it's just the icon that are really big, I may be wrong though. As for the fanboy, his point wasn't that your beloved MacBook Air was expansive, he just meant to point out that Netbooks are going to be relatively cheap... Stop taking everything as a personnal attack ffs...

[pfletcher]

the point on price is very important - @ $300 it would make an excellent second device, while the AirMac - even at $1800 is more likely to have to do everything on its own

[slewisma]

Why poor man's? Maybe it is the open person's or the non-Mac OS X person's or even the why stop at BSD with a pretty face when you can have Linux person's?

I like all the OSes and all their GUIs and accompanying apps to varying degrees and for varying uses. I happen to use Linux most often but still use Windows and Mac OS X. I suppose the notion that the Netbook will be less expensive than the macbook air triggered the poor man's comment but there are many flaws with that characterization once you look past price.

[ifiredmyboss.com]

I don't see a lot of first time users buying linux... it will just scare a lot of them off.
BUT I think a lot of peple would pay $300 for a light decent borwsing system to haul to the coffee shops to do webmail and googledocs plus other web activities.

[jaycee0408]

True, I haven't use linux at all because it's not as common as the window's and mac's os in UK. But £150 for a laptop for light decent web browsing is not too bad, althought personally would prefer pocket pc.

[jmo507]

you would be referring to the weak macbook air with a 4200 rpm ipod hd for $1800. once again overpricing hardware because of the pretty package.

[gulfportgeek]

I think that it is funny that you reference the link to the picture of the laptop as being "extremely thin." If you look closely at that picture you can see the vga connection hidden under the plexiglass case that the laptop is sitting in. Doesn't appear to be much thinner than a normal laptop. I'm not doubting they have some designs that are thin, but you probably should have used a different picture to highlight that quality.

[calvin.giroud]

now i don't get it, why do they compare a low priced $300 laptop to a $3000 laptop? That, my friends, is a mismatch. One has a 64gig solid state, the other has a probably 2,4,8, maybe 16 gig ssd. One has a atom processor, the other has a smaller version of a regular core 2 duo. Ona side note, what the hell is the resolution on this thing? The icons are huge. It makes my 8 year old desktop approachable. The resolution better not be the size of the $50 venturer portable dvd player that i got (i still like though, as a test rage meter!!!!!)

[calvin.giroud]

now i don't get it, why do they compare a low priced $300 laptop to a $3000 laptop? That, my friends, is a mismatch. One has a 64gig solid state, the other has a probably 2,4,8, maybe 16 gig ssd. One has a atom processor, the other has a smaller version of a regular core 2 duo. Ona side note, what the hell is the resolution on this thing? The icons are huge. It makes my 8 year old desktop approachable. The resolution better not be the size of the $50 venturer portable dvd player that i got (i still like though, as a test rage meter!!!!!)

[cyberDJ-2038765336053745013836]

Let's not forget that it's an Intel chip that makes the Air possible.
Apple is just riding the prowess of a truly powerful chip maker.

Let's see Apple make a $300 laptop.

[geo825]

this seems much more practical for an ultraportable.

[AppleSuxLeo]

I`ll go HP Mini-Note when they go "Atom" Millions of students will flock to either the Asus , HP , or Intel models. Perfect for school/coffee shop and the prices are right.

[g15host]

Just because Intel can make chips does not mean it knows how to make a good machine. To say the the MacBook Air is nothing more than sexy casing covering an Intel chip is to assume that no other groundbreaking design went into any other part of the Apple computer, inside or out. That makes no engineering sense. "you get what you pay for" is generally true when it comes to consumer products.

What is puzzling is: where is the decent sub-notebook in between the MBA and Netbook range? Why is a drop in half the low-end PC notebook price result in drops in the features and capabilities by more than half? That is something the consumers may really want.

[john55440]

I'm a Desktop Computer Person, but will strongly consider adding the HP Mini-Note with Windows, when an Intel-Atom version becomes available.

As for style, which is a high priority for MacBook Air buyers, PC Magazine writes "The Mini-Note is designed to look like a $2,000 machine. The anodized aluminum that HP draped all over the exterior is absolutely gorgeous."

[nspires1]

I am an educator with a small, 8 student classroom. I am looking for someone to donate 5 to 8 laptops (even 1 laptop from 5-8 sources would be great). Ideally they would be 'wireless' ready. Does anyone know a good place to start looking? Are these netbooks available to the public yet and if so who creates them and how do I contact them?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!