Pioneer gets into the netbook game with the 12.1″, ION2-toti

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Pioneer isn’t exactly a company I consider synonymous with laptops: in my mind’s eye, they are mostly identified with televisions and stereo systems. So it’s sort of surprising to see this come through my mailbox: Pioneer have announced a new netbook, the 12.1″ DreamBook Lite. Who’d a thunk?
It’s not a bad little machine, although typical by netbook standards. As far as the processor is concerned, you have a choice between Intel’s Atom N450 1.66GHz CPU, or the faster Intel Atom N470 1.83GHz CPU. The display isn’t an LCD affair, but instead packs an LED panel, which is more power efficient and should yield better viewing angles, richer colors and deeper blacks. This is an ION 2 laptop, so you can expect great graphics performance (all things considered), as well as 720p HD on the 1366 x 768 16:9 display.
Otherwise, it’s the regular specs: up to 2GB of RAM, three USB 2.0 ports, an ethernet jack, HDMI out, 802.11 WiFi b/g/n, a 1.3MP webcam, Bluetooth 2.1, optional 3G and up to 10 hours of battery life with an optional six-cell battery (four-cell is default, and should offer about six hours of battery).
Interestingly, Pioneer’s offering the DreamBook Lite in many different operating system configurations, including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Ubuntu 9.10 and some unspecified variation of Linux.
It’s a great looking laptop… but unfortunately, Pioneer doesn’t seem to have seen fit to give a price or release date. Heck, it might even be available now, for all we know. If you see on at Best Buy, give it a gander.
 
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