- Sunday, 22 November 2009
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When anything goes wrong Lord Button is brought out of retirement - Tony Benn
VIA has two nice netbooks
VIA HAD A BUNCH of netbooks on display at CES, and they ranged from generic to really interesting. Two of them were standouts for very different reasons.
The generic versions hit the market sweet spot sporting 10-inch to 13.3-inch screens with just about every feature you could care about in at least one of them. In the end, they were fairly generic looking and none stood out from the crowd.
Freestyle 1300n notebook
Except this one. It is the Freestyle 1300n, and it looks really great. Not only that, it has a Via 1.3GHz Nano (U2350 for those who remember model names), an 11.6-inch screen, a Via VX800 chipset and Chrome9 integrated graphics.
Not only does the 1300n stand out from the crowd of white notebooks with it's orangy-red and black color scheme, but it is coated in a very high quality rubberized material. It feels good. The carbon fiber touchpad adds a bit of class as well, and it is just very thin and sleek.
It will be selling later in Q1 for under $500, and unlike many of it's brethren, should be more than able to get out of it's own way thanks to the Nano. The end branding may change, possibly using the Dr. Mobile brand in some way, but keep an eye out for this one - it is one of the best out there at half the cost of many competitors.
Wondermedia SoC netbook
Remember the ARM chip that Via was working on a few years ago? Well, they are now showing netbooks based on it. This one is called the Uni-V 100 SmartBook, and it looks like any of a dozen other netbooks out there. This one sports the Wondermedia PRIZM VT8430 SoC and a µDSP 2.0. Via claims it will decode MPEG 1, 2 and 4, along with H.264 video.
Just who is Wondermedia? They are a new branch of Via that does ARM stuff, presumably renamed to not be confused with the Centaur guys who do x86. They can pull from the Via IP pool, and have an ARM chip to use as a CPU when needed.
In the end, Via has a lot of netbooks to show off - not just one, but a dozen designs or more. Some will likely not make it to market, but if you're looking for a Nano powered beastie, you won't have to wait much longer. I would recommend the Freestyle, as it was one of the best netbooks at the show. µ
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I think the deal with nVIDIA on making a solid platform to compete against Atom should have pulled through. Without nVIDIA, VIA's CPU won't stand a change against the Atom : 1) It won't be cheaper than an All-Intel-Atom solution and 2) It won't be more powerful than an Atom-ION platform .
Too bad for VIA :( .
nVidia may not necessarily make since if you're Via. They do own the S3 company and have full access to their line of Chrome products; all of the ones they have for sale today can do h.264 onboard. While I'm not sure the mobile product numbers, some of their desktop parts use < 13 watts at full tilt. nVidia can't do that. There's no licensing or royalties to deal with. A Chrome video chip(set) makes much more sense.