New mini-laptops challenge Eee PC

Aside from the Asus Eee PC 900, several low-cost mini-laptops were announced at the Cebit08. Personal Computer World UK provides a run-down of the latest Eee PC competitors -

Gecube Junior, at $229 (£115 excl Vat), uses a 7" 800x480 display, a 2GB SSD and a completely detachable keyboard. It has a five-hour battery life, uses an unspecified v86 processor and weighs 0.94kg including keyboard and a carrybag. It looks almost identical to Elonex's £99 notebook.

Gecube Senior Genie PC has a 10.2" 800x600 screen, comes with a 1GHz C7 processor, 60GB mechanical hard disk and Windows drivers and costs about $279 (£140 excl Vat).

The E-Lead Noahpad has a 7" 800x480 display. Its range of ports, wireless networking and styling is similar to the Eee PC, with the exception of a 1GHz Via C7 processor, a 30GB hard disk, a fully rotatable screen and a keyboard split into two rigid, touch-sensitive panels. The device will go on sale in April for about $600 (£302 excl Vat).

Medion showed an early prototype of its 10"Linux-based notebook behind closed doors. It has a similar resolution to the 8.9in Eee. Its chassis has a matt-white outer clam-shell design with a black keyboard.

Dixons' rebadged Packard Bell’s 7in notebook has a 1.2GHz Via C7 CPU, 1GB Ram and a 30GB hard disk and will cost €599 (approx £450).

Clevo released a 7" 1,024x600 touch-panel LCD laptop with Intel’s Atom processors running at 1.33GHz, 1.6Ghz or 1.86GHz. The laptop will go on sale in June and weighs 990g. Its other features look identical to the Asus Eee PC but it has enough processing power to attain the Vista Premium Logo.

Amoi showed off a notebook with a 10.2in 800x480 screen and a full sized 25.5cm wide keyboard. It will go on sale this summer for a similar price to the 8.9in Eee PC.

More details and photos of the mini-laptops are available here.