You know how computer products are often announced at one price overseas and then wind up selling for a bit less once they hit the US market? It looks like Viewsonic might have missed that memo. The company is selling a nettop with a dual core Intel Atom 330 processor and NVIDIA graphics for about $514 in China, but when I caught up with Viewsonic this week I was told that a virtually identical PC will cost $599 in the US.

For that price you could get an Asus Eee Top ET2002T which has the same specs plus a 20 inch monitor and a built in DVD drive. Viewsonic charges an extra $100 for a DVD drive module that snaps onto the nettop.

The Viewsonic VOT131 is certainly attractive, and it’s one of the smallest nettops I’ve seen. I’m just not sure why anyone would pay $599 for it. You can check out my hands-on video after the break.