It’s actually surprising how long it has taken someone to come out with this in the US.  Samsung has announced plans to release the NC215S solar powered laptop in July.

The netbook will retail for $399.  You can power the netbook for one hour for every two hours that you keep it in the sun.  That’s not too bad.  The netbook has a 10.1 inch display with an effective resolution of 1024 x 600.  It comes with 1GB of ram and a 250 GB hard drive.  The powerhouse is a 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N570 dual core processor.  The battery, when fully charged, can last 14 hours.  We’ll see what kind of demand this can garner.

This is a Lenovo machine?  I repeat, the Skylight is a Lenovo machine?  Seriously.  I am shocked by the nice, unique styling.  It features the Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, hence the term “smartbook.”  Yeah, that means processing power is not to be found here.

So, why the heck would people want to have the Lenovo Skylight?  Well, it’s meant for super light travel and application use.  So, think off loaded processing like remote sessions or cloud computing.  It does feature a nice HD display and 10 hours of use in a 2lb body that is really thin.  Oooh, svelty.  It’s an instant on OS built for app use utilizing 3G.  Not following?  Okay, a video will help:

Coming in Spring of 2010.

It seems that netbooks are making a race to the laptop.  This seems similar to the Asian market strategy with cars.  You start with super cheap cars that masses can buy and work up the pricing line.  Whatever the rationale, the Asus 1101HA netbook really is a sweet machine.

The Asus 1101HA of the “seashell” line offers a really nice 11 inch screen in a light and slim body.  The screen offers up a commendable 1366 x 768 resolution.  It comes with a 160GB HD, but I would prefer a SSD.  It also comes with the Atom Z series processor and a gig of ram.  Now, the biggest deal about this laptop, is that they are claiming 11 hours of runtime.  I would guess that that figure is an optimal one.

Specs:

• Up to 11 Hours of Battery Life, Bluetooth, and Sleeve Case Included
• Intel Menlow Z520 Processor 1.3Ghz
• 1 Gb DDR2 RAM, 1 x SODIMM Slot, 2GB Max
• 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM) and 10GB Free Eee Storage
• Windows XP Home Operating System, 11.6-inch WXGA 1366 x 768 LED LCD Display
• Integrated webcam
• 11.3 x 7.7 x 1.4 inches ; 3 pounds

I honestly hate 5400rpm drives.  I think they are a waste.  But the price seems like it will run around $425.  That’s a great deal for a little power house (3lbs) with a great screen.

The flourishing mini laptop market is getting even more competitive.  Companies are really starting to come to the table with compelling products.  HP is one of those companies.  Their latest offering, the Mini 5101 is surprising in aesthetic as well as performance.

The HP Mini 5101 stands apart from the crowd in a myriad of ways.  First, it keeps the screen small at 10.1 inches.  Second, and this is the most striking, the shell is made of brushed aluminum and the chassis is made of magnesium.  In terms of processing power, the HP Mini 5101 goes for the stock Atom N280 1.66 GHZ.

You get to choose on some options and also get some unexpected goodies as well.  First, you can choose between an WSVGA, or 1024 x 600, and a 16:9 HD screen, or 1366 x 768.  If you want leightweight, you can opt for the 4 cell battery.  Of course, less uptime is the trade off.  Or you can go with the 6 cell.  I know which I would choose in an ultra portable!  It does come, however, with a standard 7200 rpm drive that has drive protection on it.  That means it has a 3 axis accelerometer that locks the drive if it detects a fall.  Can you say yes!

It also has a spill resistant keyboard and is priced at around $450.  The HP Mini 5101 will be a very nice portable mini that will last.

Now, before I get Apple fans knocking my blog door down, I will qualify that statement.  It’s obvious that the Mac Air bests the MSI X340 in a few key ways – one being the screen – but, at it’s price of $900, it is a great option.

The X340 weighs a little less than the Air at 2.9 pounds.  No, it doesn’t include an optical drive – but who wants one now anyway?  You have your flash keys, stop crying.  Anyway, it also sports an okay screen with good resolution and a full keyboard.  The battery life is a little lacking – it fizzles before you hit the 2 hour mark, but the battery is also user replaceable.  So, pros and cons.  It does have a little less potent processor and wimpier graphics.  But again, for $900 this is a great alternative.  First thing I would do is replace that SATA drive with a SSD drive.  I would like to see battery life with that in place.  It also sports 2 USB ports and an HDMI connection.  And, it comes with WiMax built in.  Nice touch.  You can buy external CD/DVD drives or a Blu-ray drive.

Specs:

Battery

• Battery type included
• Lithium-ion

Connectivity

• Network interface
• 10/100/1000 LAN, Bluetooth, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n

• USB ports
• 2

• VGA
• Yes

• HDMI
• Yes

Display

• Natural resolution (max)
• 1366 x 768 pixels

• Diagonal screen size
• 13.4 inch

Drives

• Primary hard drive
• 250 GB

General

• Weight
• 1.3 kg

• Laptop type
• Thin and light

Graphics

• Graphics hardware
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500

Memory

• Amt of RAM
• 2GB

Other

• Integrated webcam
• Yes

Processor

• Processor type
• Intel Celeron M

• Processor speed
• 1.2 GHz

Software

• Operating system
• Windows Vista Home Premium

Sound

• Embedded stereo speakers
• Yes

2009 will be the year for the touch screen laptop.  Considerable movement is being made by Asus, HP, Apple, and others to bring this dream to reality.  What’s interesting is that many concept dual screen touch screen laptops are being released.  Always Innovating has released a touch screen laptop, really a netbook that will knock your socks off.

The Always Innovating touch screen laptop, er netbook, contains an Arm processor for less heat.  It is also instant on.  Okay, probably getting your attention now.  And…the battery will last between 10 and 15 hours.  Egads, now I really have your attention.  And…the screen is detachable to be like a tablet.  And…it runs linux.  It is 2 lbs with the keyboard, and 1 lb as a touchscreen.  The touchscreen is position sensitive, adjusting to portrait and landscape.  I’ll let the video below say the rest:

• 9.4″ x 7″ x 1.4″ for 2 lbs (with keyboard)
• ARM Texas Instruments OMAP3 chip
• 1024×600 8.9” screen
• Storage: 8GB micro SD card
• Wifi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth
• 3-dimensional accelerometer
• Speakers, micro and headphone
• 6 USB 2.0 (3 internal, 2 external, 1 mini)
• 10h to 15 hours of battery life

A docking station (or port replicator) is a good thing.  Whether you want something for your laptop, your iPod, or netbook; there is something for everyone.

Most of the modern laptops have so many connections that docking stations can be irrelevant.  But, if you are constantly connecting and disconnecting like 5 wires, then yes, i would consider a port replicator if I were you.  And sometimes docking stations expand the devices connectability.  It’s important to check with the manufacturer to see if this the case.

Another thing you may want to consider is the picture above.  You can get newer computer docking stations that allow for standing use of your laptop or netbook.  Why would you want this?  Well, sometimes people like to work while standing up.  I know I spend way too much time at work sitting.  Also, a lot of people are now putting devices in kitchens.  Having something like this allows you to access recipes and other things really quickly.

It’s kind of funny, but I had a client who kept complaining that their docking station wasn’t working.  At first I just replaced it because it’s a time thing and docking stations aren’t worth the effort to troubleshoot.  But when this happened a third time, I had a closer look.  Somehow the client had managed to completely mangle the interface where they computer slot went in.  How in the world do you do that kind of thing – continually?

Yeah, Sony is trying to avoid calling this thing a netbook.  I call it a microbook.  You can call it uncle, darling, or whatever.  Whatever you call it – it’s a very cool laptop, er microbook, that will be popular.  Heck, it only weighs 1.4lbs and is less than an inch thick and starts at $900.

Specs:

• Intel^® (1.33GHz) processor