BenQ is the latest netbook maker to throw its hat in the Pine Trail ring. The company’s new Joybook Lite U103 is a 10.1 inch netbook with a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU. That all sounds pretty familiar at this point, but there are a few things that make the Joybook Lite U103 stand out from the crowd.

First up, the netbook features SRS TruSurround HD and SRS CS Headphone audio. Second, it’s available with up to 500GB of hard drive space plus an optional 32GB SSD.

With a 6 cell battery, the netbook gets up to 8 hours battery life, and a quick-charge feature which can restore 4.5 hours of battery life in just an hour. A 3 cell, 4  hour battery is also available.

The rest of the specs are pretty much par for the course, including Windows 7, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, optional Bluetooth 2.1, and optional 3.75G HSUPA.

The BenQ Joybook Lite U103 is available in China, Taiwan, and Thailand starting today.

via Eee PC.net

BenQ is getting ready to launch its new 11.6 inch laptop, the Joybook Lite 121 Eco, in China and Thailand soon. It’s not clear yet whether this model will be available in other parts of the world, but Netbook News got to spend some hands-on time with the notebook and they were pretty impressed.

As previously reported, the most intriguing features of this notebook are the fact that it will be available in some markets with a combination hard drive/solid state disk. A Linux version (running Linpus Linux Lite) will be available with up to 532GB of storage space, thanks to a 500GB HDD and a 32GB SSD. This model is said to run for up to 9.5 hours with a 6 cell battery, although you’ll probably get a little less battery life if you have a hard drive-only model.

The computer also earns its “Eco” name by using about 25% recycled materials. The packaging is also composed of partially recycled materials and soy-based inks.

The Joybook Lite 121 Eco has a matte finish on the lid, but a glossy display. The computer will ship with an integrated 3G modem in some markets. It has an Intel Atom Z520 CPU, Intel GMA 500 graphics, a 1366 x 768 pixel display. 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, a 1.3MP webcam, VGA output, and 3 USB ports. It has a starting price of around $525.

You can check out the hands-on video after the break.

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BenQ is adding another netbook to its lineup. The latest member of the BenQ Joybook clan is the Joybook Lite U102 which sports a 10.2 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display. Here’s a quick rundown of the rest of the specs:

• CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270/1.66GHz Intel Atom N280
• Chipset: Intel 945GSE with integrated GMA950 graphics
• Operating system: Windows XP Home
• RAM: 1GB
• Storage: 160GB 5400rpm SATA HDD
• I/O: 3 USB ports, mic, headphone
• Connectivity: Ethernet, 802.11b/g, optional Bluetooth 2.1, optional HSUPA

The netbook comes with either a 3 cell, 24.3 Whr battery with an estimated 3 hour duration or a 6 cell, 48.6Whr battery that BenQ says should last for about 6 hours. It looks like the main things setting the U102 apart from the BenQ Joybook Lite U101 is the optional 3G module and the optional Atom N280 CPU.

via Electronista

BenQ plans to add a Google Android powered netbook to its mini-laptop lineup next year. The company will also be launching a smartphone running Google’s operating system, but I personally find that a lot less interesting, since Google Android was designed to run on phones, after all.

BenQ already has a few netbooks on the market in some parts of the globe, but all run Windows XP. No word on whether the company’s new Android netbook will have an x86 processor like the Intel Atom CPU or an ARM based processor.

The company also introduced a new 11.6 inch laptop which runs either Windows XP or Linpus Linux Lite at the Computex trade show in Taiwan this week.

BenQ is introducing a new mini-laptop in its Joybook Lite lineup. The U121 Eco is the first member of the Joybook Lite family to sport an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display. It also features a full sized keyboard, although the touchpad looks like it could stand to gain a few millimeters.

The Joybook Lite U121 can handle both a solid state disk and a hard drive… at the same time, much like the MSI Wind U115. It supports SSDs up to 32GB and hard drives up to 500GB, for a total of up to 532Gb of storage. And if you were wondering where that “Eco” in the name came from, in addition to using a low power Intel Atom Z520/Z530 processor, BenQ says that some recycled material was used in the product design and the company is cutting back on the amount of packing material used.

Otherwise, the specs look pretty standard:

• CPU: Intel Atom Z520/Z530
• Display: 11.6″ 1366 x 768 pixel
• Chipset: Mobile Intel Polsbo US15W Express Chipset
• Graphics: Intel GMA500
• Operating system: Windows XP Home or Linpus Linux Lite
• Hard drive: 160/250/320/500GB
• SSD: (optional) 8/16/32GB
• Connectivity: Ethernet, 802.11b/g, optional Bluetooth and  HSUPA
• I/O: 3 USB ports, mic, headphone, line input, D-Sub
• Battey: 3 cell, 2600mAh 28.86 Whr (4 hour) or 6 cell, 5200mAh 57.72 Whr (8 hour)
• Dimensions: 11.4″ x 8.2″ x 1.25″
• Weight: 2.9 pounds with a 3 cell battery

Oh yeah, there is one other thing that makes this laptop stand out. It looks like you can open the screen to a 180 degree angle. Check out the picture after the break to see what I mean.

via Netbook News.de

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It’s no secret that a huge proportion of the laptops and other computers sold around the world are produced in Taiwan. But what about the notebooks that sell in Taiwan? According to BenQ Taiwan president Danny Yao, 37% of them could be netbooks by the end of the year, putting Taiwan way ahead of the curve.

You might want to take these numbers with a grain of salt, since they’re coming from a company that’s not exactly best known for making laptops that aren’t netbooks. BenQ has a handful of mini-laptops on the market or in the works, but is better known for making LCD displays. But Yao says that 20 to 30 percent of the notebooks sold in Taiwan in 2008 were netbooks,a nd it’s likely that number could be higher this year. And Sascha from Netbook News.de, who recently spent some time in Taiwan says based on the number of netbooks he saw in retail stores there, he believes Yao.

The BenQ Joybook Lite U101 may not be the most distinctive netbook available. But it’s a decent looking little machine that is reportedly stress resistant. And according to DigiTimes and the Chinese language Economic Daily News, it won’t be the last netbook from BenQ.

The company is expected to release new netbook, camera, and LCD TV models this year as well as its first all-in-one PC device. The all-in-one computer concept was given a boost a few years ago when Apple released an iMac that crammed all of the components of a typical computer into a case that looks like it’s barely big enough to house an LCD display. But companies like Asus, MSI, and BenQ are aiming to make that form factor available.

In essence, an iMac is sort of what you get if you take the components of a MacBook and put them together in a desktop computer form factor. The lower cost all-in-one computers that companies like BenQ are designing are what you get when you take the innards of netbook and stick them behind a desktop monitor.

No word on how much BenQ’s new products will cost, when they’ll be released, or what countries they’ll be available in.

via Eee PC.net

The folks at Laptop Magazine have posted a full review of that BenQ Joybook Lite U101 netbook they picked up the other day. The mini-laptop is one of the few netbooks to ship with 1.5GB of RAM and one of the first to sport a true 16:9 aspect ratio, making it ideal for watching HD movies. But Laptop Mag gives it a sold “meh” when it comes to the keyboard and battery life.

The batter conked out at just over 2 and a half hours. And while that’s more battery life than I get from my cheap 15.4 inch Toshiba laptop, it’s not great for a netbook. The Joybook Lite U101 ships with a 3 cell battery, but you might want to wait until the 6 cell version is available if you want to get something closer to 5 hours.

The keyboard is also surprisingly small for a netbook with a 10.2 inch screen. As you can see in the image above, there is a bit of empty space on either side of the keyboard, so it’s surprising that BenQ didn’t make the keys a tad larger. The netbook also places the shift key to the right of the up-arrow button rather than the left, something which Asus and Dell have also decided to do with their netbook keyboards. If  you regularly use the right-shift key when typing, you might find this mini-laptop awkward to use.

The BenQ Joybook Lite U101 isn’t available in the US yet, but there’s a decent chance the company will begin offering the netbook here in the not too distant future.

Acer and Asus may be the dominant forces in netbook sales today, but the netbook market is just a little over a year old. There’s plenty of time for some major shakeups. And BenQ isn’t even looking for a major shakeup, just a minor one. The company says it wants a 5% share of the netbook market in 2009.

In order to meet that goal, BenQ would have to ship about 350,000 netbooks worldwide next year, which will be a major feat, considering the company plans to ship 500,000 notebooks total, including netbooks and full sized notebooks.

BenQ launched its first netbook, the BenQ Joybook Lite U101 a few months ago. The mini-notebook has an Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g WiFi and an optional 3.5G HSUPA modem. It’s also built to to withstand a fall of 2.5 feet or the pressure of being stood upon.

It’s hard to make a netbook stand out from the crowd these days. There are a huge number of mini-notebooks available with Intel Atom processors, 9 or 10 inch displays, and decently sized hard drives or solid state disks. So BenQ has taken an interesting approach toward making its Joybook Lite U101 stand out – demonstrate that you can stand on it.

The company says the BenQ Joybook Lite U101 can withstand a drop of up to 76 centimeters, or about 2.5 feet. That didn’t strike me as all that impressive. And then I remembered an article I had read a few days ago at Eee PC News showing a woman actually standing on the netbook to demonstrate how well it stands up to pressure.

Now granted, she doesn’t look like a particularly heavy woman. But if a netbook can stand up to this kind of stress, odds are it’ll be OK if your kid accidentally sits down on it.

BenQ isn’t the only mini-laptop maker promising a more durable netbook. NEC says its Versa N1100 laptop can withstand the pressure of being sat upon, and is even somewhat sweat-resistant.