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Charbax at Arm Devices has posted a video review of the Hivision PWS700CA, an ARM-based min-laptop running Google Android. The device has a 600MHz ARM-based CPU, 128MB of RAM, and a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display. It supports WiFi and Ethernet connections and can handle 720p HD video playback. It also weighs just about 1.4 pounds.

The Hivision netbook is designed to be dirt cheap. But I think Charbax gets a bit carried away when he hears the prices of OEM devices from Chinese manufacturers like Hivision. Just because Hivision is charging distributors about $98 for the equipment doesn’t mean we’ll ever see the mini-laptop sold for under $100. Still, the PWS700CA could certainly be rebranded and sold for under $200.

The browser seems pretty responsive. But the user interface is clearly designed for a touchscreen device like a phone, not a laptop with a touchpad or mouse. Out of the box there’s no support for the Google Android Marketplace for third party applications. But Hivision has created their own app store with access to a handful of programs that can run on the device.

You can check out Charbax’s video after the break.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e stands apart from other notebooks in the thin and light crowd in a couple of ways. First, it has an AMD Neo MV-40 processor and ATI Radeon 3200 HD graphics, which you don’t find in a lot of 11.6 inch laptops. Second, it has a distinctive keyboard design. Third, it’s got Lenovo’s signature TrackPoint system which lets you use either the touchpad or a pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard to move the cursor.

But there’s another thing that apparently sets the ThinkPad X100e apart from other thin and lights such as the Asus UL20A, Acer Aspire 1810, and even the Lenovo IdeaPad U150. The X100e gets horrible battery life.

A few weeks ago Peter at Netbooked reviewde the laptop an found that even with a six cell battery, he was only getting 3 to 4 hours of run time. Now SlashGear’s Ewdison Then has posted another review, and he says the laptop typically ran for just about 3 hours on a charge.

Lenovo admits that the the X100e isn’t designed to get the 10+ hours of battery life we’ve come to expect of netbooks and ultraportables with Intel Atom or CULV processors. The company says with a 3 cell battery the X100e should run for about 2 hours, and it should be good for up to 5 hours with a 6 cell battery. But it sounds like the laptop is having a hard time coming anywhere close to that 5 hour promise. Perhaps you need to turn off the WiFi, dim the screen, and let the CPU idle…

Of course, some users would probably be willing to put up with crappy battery life if it came with a significant performance boost. But SlashGear says the laptop doesn’t feel any faster than a machine with an Intel Atom CPU. But as Netbooked points out, the ATI Radeon 3200 graphics does at least give the machine a bit of an advantage in some tasks. For instance, it can handle 1080p HD video playback, something that no Atom-powered system can do without help from NVIDIA ION graphics or a Broadcom HD video accelerator.

The Samsung X120 is a thin and light laptop with an 11.6 inch display and an Intel CULV processor. Samsung doesn’t offer this model in the US, instead focusing on the Samsung N510 mini-laptop which is a similar size, but which has an Atom processor and NVIDIA ION graphics instead.

But the folks at Netbook News aren’t based in the US. And Roland managed to get his hands on an X120 and he’s posted an unboxing video.

The X120 has chromed edges, a full sized keyboard, and for some reason buttons on the left and right sides of the touchpad instead of below it. The bezel around the display has a mate finish, but the screen is glossy.

Overall, it looks like a pretty attractive thin and light notebook. For a more detailed look at the Samsung X120, you can check out reviews from CNET and Trusted Reviews.

I got a chance to check out the recently announced MSI Wind Box DE220 nettop while I was at CES earlier this month. And then I kept forgetting to upload the pictures. So here you go.

The small form factor desktop PC comes with a choice of a single core 1.66GHz Intel Atom D410 or dual ore 1.66GHz Atom D510 processor. Both models are available with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 graphics, up to 4GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of hard disk space. The computer runs Windows 7 Home Premium and comes with an optional 802.11b/g/n WiFi card.

The Wind Box DE220 measures 10.8″ x  x 6.7″ x 1.6″.

No word on pricing or a launch date.

You can find more pictures after the break.

The Gateway EC14D is an 11.6 inch thin and light laptop with an Intel CULV processor. There’s nothing too surprising there. Acer, Gateway, and Packard Bell (which are all really the same company) have more than a half dozen similar models between them. What sets the EC14D apart from the crowd is the fact that it also has a DVD burner packed into the rather compact frame.

The EC14D was first announced earlier this month. And while it’s not generally available in Europe yet, the folks at Notebook Italia got to spend some hands-on time with the mini-laptop.

As you’d expect, the 8X DVD Super Multi drive takes up a considerable amount of space on one side of the computer. But Gateway still manages to squeeze in a USB port, Ethernet jack, and SD card slot on the same side of the laptop as the disc drive. The other side sports two more USB ports, audio jacks, an HDMI port and a VGA port.

The laptop has an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel HD display, a 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 dual core processor, GMA 4500MHD graphics, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. It should start shipping soon.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e and ThinkPad Edge 13 have a completely new keyboard design. For the first time, Lenovo is using a chiclet, or island-style keyboard. Lenovo likes to call it an isolation keyboard, since the defining characteristic is that there’s more space between each of the keys.The company has posted a detailed article about the new layout on its blog.

In order to accomplish this, the keys are flatter. That leaves you with pretty much the same amount of surface area per key that you would expect on other keyboards.

Of course, Lenovo is hardly the first company to produce laptops with isolation keyboards. Apple has been doing it for years, and island-style keyboards are all the rage on netbooks these days, with popular models from Toshiba, Asus, and MSI all featuring a similar layout. But there are a few differences between the ThinkPad isolation keyboard and most of those other keyboards.

First up, the Lenovo keys are actually concave. Sure, they look flat compared to to an old-school ThinkPad keyboard, but there’s a little curvature on each key. Lenovo also touts the solid frame of the keyboard with a stainless steel base plate.

Most isolation keyboards also have square keys, while the Lenovo keyboard features a curved design at the front of the keys. I don’ t think there’s any real practical advantage to this feature, but it does allow the ThinkPad X100e keyboard to look a bit more like other ThinkPad keyboards which could come in handy if you’re a longtime ThinkPad user who fears change.

The HP Mini 2102 is basically the same laptop as the HP Mini 210. The difference is that the Mini 210 is sold and marketed by HP’s consumer division, while the HP business division handles the Mini 2102. On the one hand, that means the Mini 2102 has a higher price tag. But it also means that you get more customization options.

HP just added and HP Mini 2102 customization and order page. Prices start at $447 for a netbook with FreeDOS or SUSE Linux and a 3 cell battery. But odds are if you wait a few days, HP will add a “smart buy” option or two which will offer the netbook with Windows 7 for an even lower price.

That said, here are some of the options which may or may not be available in Smart Buy configurations:

•OS: Windows 7 Starter, Win 7 Pro, Win XP Pro, SUSE Linux 11, FreeDOS
•Memory: 1GB to 2GB of RAM
•Storage: 160GB, 250GB, or 320GB 7200RPM hard drive
•Wireless: 802.11b/g or 802.11a/b/g/n, optional Bluetooth
•Battery: 3 cell, 28Whr or 6 cell, 62Whr
All models come swith a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, GMA 3150 graphics, and a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display.

The Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Edition is a designer netbook that features the same basic layout as the Asus Eee PC 1008HA. On the inside, it’s basically the same netbook as the Eee PC 1005PE, with an Atom N450 processor, 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, 1GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Starter Edition. But the thin and light design is more like the 1008HA — if the 1008HA had a designer casising.

The 1008P Karim Rashid edition has a distinctive design that comes in a handful of colors including pink, brown and black.

I got a chance to check out the Karim Rashid netbook at CES, but Pierre at Blogeee has gone a little further and posted an unboxing video and photoset showcasing this designer netbook, along with some battery and performance test results

Pierre’s review unit is a brown model which he says is completely fingerprint-resistant.

For the most part, the layout of the netbook is exactly the same as the original Eee PC 1008HA. But Pierre has confirmed that there’s a spot on the bottom of the laptop that lets you access the battery — something you can’t do on the 1008HA. The notebook also seems to get decent battery life, with up to 5 and a half hours of run time with WiFi enabled.

You can find more details and tests results at Blogeee.

With a base price of $499, the recently announced iPad isn’t exactly cheap. Most netbooks, smartphones, and other mobile computing devices available today can be picked up for significantly less. But for an Apple product, $499 ain’t bad. COO TIM Cook had previously indicated that he didn’t think the company could produce anything worthwhile in the netbook space (and he’s not a fan of traditional netbooks) for less than that price. So most pundits kind of expected the Apple Tablet to run $800 or more. As it turns out, the most expensive version of the iPad will run $829, and that’s for a model with 3G connectivity and 64GB of storage.

Anyway, long story short, that’s bad news for some of the companies that were hoping to put out their own tablets and market them as cheaper alternatives to the Apple Tablet. DigiTimes reports that Asus, MSI, and other would-be tablet makers were hoping to sell their products for 20% to 30% less than Apple’s. But that would have been a lot easier if the iPad cost $1000.

That doesn’t mean we won’t see some of the promised iPad competitors hit the streets later this year. But the profit margins are likely to be slimmer and we could see companies cutting some corners to keep costs down.

Of course, there have also been plenty of chip-makers promising that $200 tablets could hit the streets at some point. But I haven’t seen a manufacturer actually follow through on that promise yet, and my guess is that we’ll have to rely on telecom subsidies to bring tablet prices down to that point.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs took a few pot shots at netbooks during the iPad announcement yesterday, saying they’re “not better at anything” than laptops or smartphones. And that’s kind of true. A netbook isn’t better at playing videos, surfing the web, playing games, or editing documents than a 15 inch laptop with a speedy processor and GPU. And a netbook doesn’t fit in your pocket or turn on as instantly as a smartphone. But you know what netbooks might be better than in a lot of respects? The iPad.

Basically the iPad looks like a wonderful device for consuming digital media. A 1.5 pound device that’s virtually all-screen could really provide a better experience for reading eBooks or web pages or watching videos than a 2.5 netbook with a keyboard that kind of gets in the way.

But if you want to create content, then a netbook seems like a much better way to go. A nearly full sized physical keyboard is much easier to use than an on-screen keyboard. And while Apple pointed out that the on-screen keyboard on the iPad is nearly the same size as a laptop keyboard, all the promotional pictures and videos I’ve seen of people successfully using the on-screen keyboard showed them lying on a couch with their legs up and the iPad precariously placed on their thighs.

Try placing it on a table and typing with 10 fingers without hurting your neck. Or try pulling the iPad out on the train or an airplane and typing with it on your lap. Same problem. You could try to use your thumbs the way you do on an iPhone or Blackberry, but I doubt they’ll reach from one side of the 10 inch tablet to the other.

Apple will be selling a $69 keyboard dock. But there are at least three problems with this approach:
1.You’ll need to set the dock down on a table to type; it’s going to be tough to use on your lap.
2.The dock only works with the iPad in portrait mode, which means you’re stuck with an awkward screen resolution of 768 x 1024 instead of the other way around.
3.It’s a clunky two-piece solution which drives up the physical weight and drives down the mobility factor. If you might need to do some writing on the go, now you need to grab two items and throw them in your bag, not just one.
I’ll admit, netbooks aren’t necessarily the best devices for watching movies, reading books, or playing games. But a device that treats people simply as passive media consumers feels very outdated. If you want to send emails, write documents, leave comments on web sites, update your blog, or do any of the hundreds of other things that we’ve come to expect computers to let us do over the past decade, netbooks seem to trump the iPad.

And that’s without even getting into the fact that netbooks are cheaper, support multitasking, work with Adobe Flash, allow you to choose your OS, and fun full desktop applications.

The point of this article isn’t to say that the iPad is useless. I think it’s actually a pretty slick device and for the right price I might even consider picking one up to use as an eBook and movie player. But it’s hardly a replacement for a netbook.

What does seem clear is that Apple has no intention of launching a 2 pounds, 10 inch mini-laptop capable of running OS X for under $600. Fortunately, the hackintosh community has no intention of letting this niche go unfilled.