According to a number of recent reports on the Internet, Samsung is about to expand its line of ultraportable netbook systems with the introduction of a new 11.6-inch N510 netbook built on the much-hyped NVIDIA Ion platform. The product is said to become available later this week or early next month, which could make it the first NVIDIA Ion-based netbook available to market, stealing the show from the Lenovo IdeaPad S12, which has reportedly been delayed until the fourth quarter of this year.

 

The Samsung N510 is designed as an 11.6-inch netbook powered by an Intel Atom N280 processor, clocked at 1.66GHz and coupled with NVIDIA's widely appreciated GeForce 9400M motherboard GPU. Built on the NVIDIA ION platform, the new netbook is going to be featured with at least 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a traditional 160GB hard disk drive and an HD resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. Additional features include a wireless 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth module, Ethernet LAN, webcam and 3-in-1 memory card reader. The system is to be powered by a 6-cell battery pack.

 

It is believed that the new netbook will be launched by the end of this month, or early the next one, with a price tag that should settle at under €600. If details are correct, the next-generation Samsung netbook could become the first NVIDIA ION-based netbook to be available on the market, before the already announced Lenovo IdeaPad S12.

 

The N510 11.6-inch Samsung netbook represents another design win for the Santa Clara, California-based chip maker, currently due to release its next-generation Ion platform, which will enable support for a series of other processors, including low-power ones from VIA.