Toshiba has officially unveiled its latest portable computer system that has been designed to compete with all the other netbooks currently available on the market. Simply dubbed NB100, the new netbook is the company's first such device and, just like Dell's Inspiron Mini 910, it will be offered with Linux-based Ubuntu 8.04 operating system.

 

Although details about the new system have been hard to find on the Internet, the company has been expected to release its own netbook for quite some time now. However, as it turns out, Toshiba has finally decided to take the wraps off the netbook – and it will be offered in an 8.9-inch form factor.

 

A closer look at the netbook's specifications list will reveal that Toshiba also went for Intel's highly successful Atom N270 processor, which runs at a cool 1.6GHz. In addition, the NB100 will come with 512MB of memory, but there will also be a higher option, for 1GB. As far as storage is concerned, the NB100 will provide its users with a maximum of 120GB.

 

The 8.9-inch display outputs a resolution of 1024 by 600, and has a built-in 0.3 MP webcam, as you might expect from such an Internet-oriented device. As far as connectivity goes, Toshiba's first netbook features wireless 802.11 b/g and wired Ethernet, as well as USB and VGA ports.

 

Toshiba has announced that the NB100 will deliver almost four hours of battery life, although details such as the battery capacity have not been disclosed. Nevertheless, one could assume there's probably going to be 3-cell and 6-cell options, as is the case with most of today's netbooks.

 

The NB100 will come in three different color options, including “Cosmic Black,” “Champagne Gold” and “Bright Silver.” Toshiba will also make available a Windows XP OS option, for those users that prefer Windows over Linux. Unfortunately, for the time being, no details regarding pricing have been provided by the company.