Sum n substance:

Thumbs up: matte interiors avoiding finger print attraction, excellent graphics, comfortable typing experience.

Thumbs down: battery life could have been better.

Inside the trunk:

• Price as reviewed / Starting price $379
• Processor 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270
• Memory 1GB, 533MHz DDR2
• Hard drive 160GB 5,400rpm
• Chipset Intel 945GSE + ICH7M
• Graphics Intel GMA 950
• Operating system Windows XP
• Dimensions (WD) 12.3 x 8.7 inches
• Height 1.3 inches
• Screen size (diagonal) 10.1 inches
• System weight / Weight with AC adapter 2.9/3.6 pounds

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: Most of the netbooks these days have almost the same configurations, the same looks, and at times if you’re lucky enough there could be a slight change in the features. This is no different from the rest of them. It’s like the same dough being used to probably make the same cake in a different shape and with probably a few extra toppings. Hannspree is relatively new into this world netbooks, well with almost everyone in the market trying its hand out with netbooks, I really don’t blame Hannspree here for having tried its hand too. This is probably just a remake of one of the earlier netbooks which we have seen from many other companies. Anyways moving on to the more technical aspects.

Razzle-dazzle: Available in two colours glossy black and pearl white, I was handed over the glossy black model to play around with. It’s a stunner in the looks department atleast, with a glossy black cover and chrome touches and even with its lid closed it still looks aesthetic with the chrome strip running around it which says ‘find yourself’. Plus it isn’t uncommon nowadays for these glossy netbooks to be fingerprint and grime magnets and it surely is no different in the case of this one too. I guess a bit of that could be avoided if you probably settle down for the pearl white model.

I was pleasantly surprised after taking a look at the matte finished interiors which included a matte finish around the display as well which is quite unusual in most of the netbooks which still follow the glossy finish even after knowing the drawbacks of such a finish.

Anyways coming down to the keyboard, it is pretty much comfortable to type on it. The keys are decently spaced giving enough finger space and I personally had no difficulty in using this one. Talking about the touchpad, it doesn’t have multitouch but still performs wise and has brilliant response.  I guess a few other netbooks could learn a lot from this child in the market. The battery has been semi integrated into the bottom and though the hannspree is not even close to being superslim it definitely gives a pleasant lap-type on experience.

It comes loaded with a 10.1-inch LED screen with a resolution of 1,024×600 which is almost anti glare and filled with bright and vibrant colours which could probably get anyone who is going through a dull day back to life.

Inside dope:
In terms of the processor being used it has nothing new or different to offer, it’s the same old Intel atom processors like most of the other netbooks. Keeping the processor in mind the Hannsspree did not perform any different from most of the other netbooks which use the same processor. Its perfect from a netbook point of view, offering decent web browsing and regular office document processing.

Though the internal speakers aren’t all that great, the audio quality isn’t all that bad. Plus I wouldn’t recommend this one for any kind of video viewing because the videos are quite grainy and choppy. Also it didn’t seem to be that efficient when it came to multitasking.

The ram can be upgraded upto 2GB, but this can be done only once it has been ordered. The battery life of this one is quite average and it ran for almost 5 hours and 9 minutes on the video playback test. It isn’t truly outstanding and if battery life is the deciding facort for you then you have many other better options to look forward too.

Going to the connectivity, it offers a lock spot and two USB ports on the left, while on the right we have a third USB port, a card reader and a headphone jack along with a VGA port and Ethernet port.

Nitty- gritty: After a not so promising era in electronics, Hannspree has very carefully ventured into the netbook arena. I guess it just tried to be overtly cautious about not coming up with anything new and just fiddled around with what was already available. But I must add that probably its first step into this field is worth all the talk. It is definitely good and is also amongst one of the most promising netbooks around. Finally a company which lives upto its claims.

Rating: 3.5 on 5

Similar Posts

• April 25, 2009 -- The Argument for Netbooks (0)
• May 29, 2009 -- Dell Earnings Plunge 63 Percent In The First Quarter (0)
• May 12, 2009 -- Which Netbook Feature is Most Important to You? (0)