Rob Beschizza
Gear

£350 Packard Bell Easynote XS Out In Europe

Packard Bell’s Easynote XS, the European cut of Via’s Nanobook, is out. Priced at about $600 or £350 (So long as you don’t buy it from the price-gouging profiteers at PC World), it parks itself in a similar space to Asus’ own hit ultraportable, the $400 EeePC. Chippy from UMPC Portal grabs one in Holland […]

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Packard Bell's Easynote XS, the European cut of Via's Nanobook, is out. Priced at about $600 or £350 (So long as you don't buy it from the price-gouging profiteers at PC World), it parks itself in a similar space to Asus' own hit ultraportable, the $400 EeePC.

Chippy from UMPC Portal grabs one in Holland and takes it for a whirl, lamenting Packard Bell's lackluster marketing and the uneven pricing, but praising the machine itself.

"The Easynote XP-20 works very well indeed. Inside that uninspiring design (that's me being polite!) is a good set of components. The
1.2Ghz VIA C7-M, 1GB of RAM and Windows XP make a good combination for a fairly speedy system. The LED-backlit screen is clear and bright, the
13GB of free disk space is useful and over 2.5 hours of WiFi-on browsing (nearly 4 hours max) battery life is better than other sub-notebook devices."

Asus hasn't launched the Eee in Europe yet, so Pac's got the hop on a competitor. Everex was identified months ago as Via's U.S. partner, but plans don't seem to be moving anywhere fast.

Packard Bell Easynote XS first impressions [UMPC Portal]