Price Drop on NetBooks

9-inch netbooks seeing sharp price declines

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/41518/145/

By Wolfgang Gruener
Monday, February 23, 2009 13:43

Chicago (IL) – If you have thought about buying a netbook and are simply buying for a simple Internet access device, there may be some interesting deals out there.

According to a report published by Digitimes, notebook vendors are dropping the prices of their 8.9” netbooks in an effort to clear their inventory. SSD versions are apparently seeing the most significant declines , which is said to be due to more hard drive options in netbooks and the simple fact that SSDs are still way too expensive anyway and may make little sense for many buyers.

A quick check in the North American market reveals that Acer’s Aspire One, the best-selling netbook at this time, can be purchased for about $250 with an 8 GB SSD, while the Asus EeePC 900 with a 16 GB SSD is available for about $320 and HP’s Mini with an 8 GB SSD for about $330. Further price drops are expected.

If you are looking for a netbook with an SSD, you can generally expect a device that is lighter than the hard drive version and generates notably less heat. Battery time should also be positively impacted in most cases. However, buyers should be aware that 8 GB may be a bit tight as, for example, HP’s Mini with Windows XP provides only 2 GB of remaining storage space (HP provides an extra 2 GB USB stick that can be installed flush into the casing free of charge.) Buyers of 8 GB netbooks should consider buying an additional memory card to act as their main mass storage device.

It should also be noted that while these 8.9” and 9” netbooks are compact and light, their screen resolution is not high enough to comfortable view websites that are designed for screen resolutions of a 1024 pixel width or more. Netbook vendors have been saying for a while that the segment may be moving towards 10.1” netbooks as a result.