Left: Asus Eee PC 701 / Right: Samsung NC10

Ukraine’s TechIteasy has posted a detailed review of the upcoming Samsung NC10 netbook. If you don’t happen to read Russian, here’s the Google Translated version.

There aren’t a ton of surprises in the review. The case is attractive, the keyboard roomy and easy to use (by netbook standards). But there are a boatload of pictures of the computer from the front, back, top, buttom, and sides.

There’s a SIM card slot hidden behind the battery pack. And speaking of batteries, this review unit came with a 3-cell, 2200mAh battery which provided just about 2 hours of operation time. Word on the street is that a 6-cell battery will also be available.

via Eee PC News.de

Remember that big ole 10400 mAh battery for the Eee PC 701/900 series I told you about the other day? It’s cheap as all get out at just under $50. But DealExtreme, the company selling the battery, conveniently didn’t have any pictures showing the battery actually plugged into a computer.

Fortunately for us, at least one person decided to take one for the team and order this almost too-good-to-be-true battery and post a few pictures. The battery is big. No doubt about it. It sticks out like a sore thumb. But while it might increase the weight of your netbook by 50%, it will also tilt the keyboard up, which is nice if you happen to like slanted keyboards.

It will also provide a whole lot of battery power. Spode, the guy who ordered one, says Ubuntu reports that the battery should last close to 7 hours. But it’s possible that it could run even longer, since the battery meter seems to go down slowly. He hasn’t performed a complete rundown test on the battery, so we’ll have to wait for Spode or someone else to do that before declaring this a 7, 8, or 9 hour battery. But it’s still pretty impressive.

via Eee PC.net

We’ve seen homemade 9-cell batteries for the MSI Wind before. But now it looks like a major battery maker is preparing to sell a 9-cell battery designed for the MSI Wind netbook. Sascha at Eee PC News.de got a tip from a source saying that the batteries could be available as soon as November.

While I haven’t put these batteries to the test yet (or even seen one in person), it stands to reason that they should provide 8 to 9 hours of battery life, since an MSI Wind with a 6-cell battery can operate for 5 to 6 hours under typical use.

No word on how much these batteries will cost, or how much they’ll weigh. They do seem to stick out a bit from the back of the computer which is all fine and well if you want to elevate the keyboard. But if you want your netbook to weigh less than 3 pounds, you might want to stick with a 3 or 6 cell battery.

Not happy with the 2-3 hours of battery life that you can get from the Eee PC 701 battery? DealExtreme is selling a massive 10400mAh battery that should provide enough juice for 10+ hours of use.

The battery pack should work with most first and second generation Eee PC units, including the Eee PC 701 and Eee PC 900. It will not fit the Eee PC 901 or 1000 series. Oh, and just so you know, not only will the battery stick out of the back of your device a bit, it weighs a whopping 16.05 ounces. That’s right, the battery alone weighs more than a pound, which is quite a bit when you consider the fact that the Eee PC itself weighs just over 2 pounds.

The battery pack is selling for $49.90 with free shipping, which is a rather remarkable price. Perhaps even too good to be true? If you’ve ever ordered from DealExtreme, let us know about your experiences in the comments.

via Eee PC.net

Not satisfied with the 5-6 hour battery life you can get out of an Eee PC 1000H with a 6 cell, 6600mAh battery? French batteyr makers Bluetrade are selling 8 cell, 9800mAh batteries for 100 Euros or about $140 US.

The batteries should work with Asus Eee PC 901, 1000, and 1000H models. They’ll also make your laptop a bit heavier and a bit uglier. But that’s a small price to pay for never having to carry a charger. My guess is that you should be able to get at least 7-8 hours of life out of a 9800mAh battery. But that’s just a guess.

via Blogeee

If you want an Asus Eee PC 1000H or an MSI Wind with a 6 cell battery, you’ll have to pony up about $550. For about $400 you can get a Lenovo IdeaPad S10, but it’ll ship with a 3 cell battery. And that means that Acer is the first PC maker to offer a netbook with a 6 cell battery, 8.9 inch display and 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU for under $400.

Amazon is taking orders for the Aspire One for $399.95. This version also ships with a 160GB HDD and Windows XP, which means you won’t be saddled with the slow SSD that plagues the Linux version of the Aspire One.

via Engadget

Dell isn’t making a big deal out of the fact that the newly launched Inspiron Mini 9 laptop will support 3G wireless networks. But it will. Dell Senior Product Line Manager John New tells Laptop Magazine that by the end of the year the company will launch a version of the Inspiron Mini with a 3G modem. It’s possible this device could be sold by US mobile carriers who may even subsidize the price of the device by locking customers into wireless contract.

While I’d read early reports saying the Inspiron Mini would support WiMax, New says Dell has no plans to add WiMax support at the moment.

One other interesting revelation is that Dell currently has no plans to release a higher capacity battery for the Inspiron Mini 9. The included 4 cell battery is a bit more powerful than the 3 cell batteries shipping with most netbooks. And it appears that you can get a good 3 to 3.5 hours of battery life out of it. So while Dell may eventually produce a 6 cell or larger battery, right now the company plans to stick with the cheaper 4 cell model.

Bluetrade is selling what appear to be the first available third party batteries for the MSI Wind laptop. These batteries should be compatible with the MSI Wind U100, U90, and a whole slew of computers that are just rebranded versions of those laptops including the Advent 4211 and Medion Akoya Mini.

French site Blogeee discovered that French retailer Material.net is selling the 4900mAh batteries for about 79 Euros or $118 US. I suspect it won’t be long before we see similar batteries available in the US.

There’s good news and bad news on the Eee PC 900A front. Jkkmobile reports that the upcoming laptop has the same size and form factor as the Eee PC 900, right down to the RAM access panel on the back making it easy to upgrade the computer’s memory. That’s something you don’t find on every netbook, or even every Eee PC these days.

The new computer also uses a single 8GB SSD module for the operating system and storage, unlike some other units that have a speedy 4GB SSD for the OS and another slower SSD for storage. That means the Eee PC 900A would probably outperform the 900 even if it didn’t have the faster Intel Atom CPU (the original 900 has a Celeron chip).

But not all is well in the land of the 900A. The computer comes with a cheap 4400mAh battery. And that battery uses a different connector than the Eee PC 900 or the Eee PC 701. That means you can’t just swap out a spare battery you already have lying around or pick up one of the hundreds of spare batteries you can find on eBay.

A few days ago we discovered pictures of what appears to be a 6-cell, high capacity battery plugged into an Acer Aspire One laptop. Now one astute Liliputing reader has spotted a product page at CDW for a 6-cell battery.

The battery isn’t available yet, and there’s no official picture. But there is a price: $119.99. For a battery that goes with a $380 computer. That’s right, the battery costs almost 1/3rd as much as the full computer.

Computer companies have a track record of charging ridiculously high prices for batteries. But it’s one thing to charge $120 for a battery for a $1000 computer. It’s quite another to ask users to pony up more than 30% of what they paid for a computer for the privilege of running it a few hours longer. Hopefully Acer will offer a version of the Aspire One that comes bundled with the higher capacity battery for a more reasonable price. But if you’ve already purchased an Aspire One with a 3 cell battery, it looks like you’ll just have to shell out the cash to upgrade your battery whenever this thing becomes available.

Want an 8 hour battery for your tiny computer, but don’t want to build one yourself and risk getting stopped by the TSA next time you pass through the metal detector? If you’ve got an Eee PC 901 or 1000, you can now pick up an 8-cell battery, 8800mAh battery that should be good for about 8 hours of use on eBay. The extended battery costs less than $90.

This battery is developed by a third party, not Asus. So use of the battery may void your warranty and if it overheats, explodes, and melts crucial parts of your computer don’t expect Asus to refund your money. But how cool would it to be able to run your computer for an entire work day without once plugging it in?

Of course, the battery pack is huge, not particularly attractive, and probably a bit heavier than the standard 4 or 6 cell battery packs that you can get from Asus. But did I mention, 8 hours?

[via jkkmobile]

Tired of waiting to get your hands on an MSI Wind laptop with a 6-cell battery? Don’t feel like paying $50 extra for the higher capacity battery? Looks like you can build your own. It won’t be pretty, but it’s certainly possible, as one member of the MSI Wind.net forums has shown.

The concept is pretty simple. You get your hands on a few of the 3.7v, 2200mAh cells used in the MSI Wind batteries (Wind Master at the MSI Wind.net forums is selling them, 8 for £15), cut open your battery pack (this is the scary part), and cram the extra batteris in. The result? A laptop that weighs a little more, has an unsightly bottom, and runs for 8 hours or more on a single charge.

[via Blogeee]

A member of the Aspire One User forums has posted a few pictures showing what appears to be an Acer Aspire One with a 6-cell battery. The computer currently ships with a 3-cell battery. In the image above you can see two Aspire One computers, one with the standard battery and the other with the high capacity battery which should provide twice the battery life.

No word on when you’ll be able to pick up a computer with the higher capacity battery or if Acer plans to sell the battery separately. Heck, for all I know this could be a third party battery or a fake. But it sure looks pretty (in that sticking out of the back not-so-pretty way).

Last week a version of the MSI Wind with a 6-cell battery showed up online for $570. While MSI had originally promised to release the Wind with a 6-cell battery for $499, the company scaled back its plans before launch date due to a battery shortage. If you’re lucky enough to have found an MSI Wind in stock pretty much anywhere, odds are you found a 3-cell version for $479 or $499. That led to an obvious question: Had MSI actually raised the price of the 6-cell version, or was one retailer playing fast and loose with the pricing on a rare computer?

Turns out the truth is probably a bit of both. Laptop Magazine is reporting that MSI has confirmed a $50 price hike for the 6-cell Wind. That means you probably won’t find the laptop anywhere for less than $550. No word on why Mwave, the first retailer I’ve found to actually ship a few units before running out of stock, decided to boost the price by an additional $20. My guess? Because they could.

I have two bits of MSI Wind-related news to share today. First, Wilson Azevedo wrote in to let me know that an MSI Wind clone will be hitting Brazil soon. The computer will be released by a company called Mirax and will be known as the Mirax Freedom.The specs are pretty much identical to the US version. For $999 Brazilian (about $627 US), you get a 10 inch display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive.

Closer to home, J&R has posted a product page for the MSI Wind. Although the US retailer says the computer isn’t shipping yet, it’s worth noting that J&R is listing a unit with a 6-cell battery and a $549 price tag.

Originally MSI had promised to release the computer with a 6-cell battery for $499. But the global battery shortage made it hard to supply 6-cell batteries, and MSI knocked $20 off the price and 3 cells off the battery before releasing the PC this month. It’s not clear at the moment whether J&R’s price reflects the actual price of a 6-cell MSI Wind notebook. But it wouldn’t be a huge suprise if MSI decided to jack up the price for the higher capacity battery. Notebook batteries are notoriously expensive.

[via Mike Cane]