Samsung to release Nvidia Ion-based N510 netbook

Posted on 30 Jun 2009 at 15:36, by Tim Smalley

The covers were taken off Samsung's forthcoming N510 not-a-netbook, which is based on Nvidia's Ion platform, at a recent event held by the graphics firm in Paris.

Nvidia's Ion platform combines an Atom processor with a GeForce 9400M graphics chip to bring new capabilities, such as HD video playback and light gaming, to machines based on Intel's low-cost CPU.

The Samsung N510 features an 11.6in LED-backlit display with a 1,366 x 768 native resolution. The CPU is apparently Intel's Atom N280, which runs at 1.66GHz and has slightly higher power draw than the Z-series Atom chips generally used in Mobile Internet Devices.

Almost all of the N510's remaining specs will hardly be a surprise: 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 10/100 Ethernet, Draft-N wireless, Bluetooth and three USB ports. In addition to the VGA connector, there will be an HDMI port as well though, which will make it easy to connect the machine to your HDTV.

While we appreciate the larger screen size and higher resolution, it does mean that it's not a netbook by Microsoft's definition. You won't be seeing this machine running Windows 7 Starter Edition, that's for sure, as the screen diagonal would need to be less than 10 inches in order to qualify for the cheaper Windows license.

This means the N510 is unlikely to be cheap as Samsung is reported to be looking at a retail price of £485 with Windows XP installed - it's not clear whether Samsung will make the step up to Windows 7 when it launches but, if it does, you can expect to pay even more.

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