NetbookShow

The Toshiba NB305 is widely regarded as one of the best netbooks around – and with good reason.  It’s a good looker, has an amazing keyboard, good build quality and a pretty reasonable price.  It looks as though it’s now due for another update – only around 2 months after it got the new-ish Atom N450 – according to Toshiba’s French website (the page has been taken down now).  It’s being upgraded to the ever-so-slightly-newer N455, which retains the same 1.6GHz clock speed but adds in support for DDR3 RAM.

Aside from that, the other specs look largely unchanged – Windows 7 Starter, 10.1″ screen, 250GB Hard Drive and 1GB (DDR3!) RAM.

The other wonderful side-effect of all these netbook leaks is we now know Intel’s Atom lineup for the near-future – the 1.6GHz N455, the 1.83GHz N475 (both with DDR3 support) any time now, and a little further down the line the dual-core Atom N500.

With Windows 7 launch day coming up fast, it looks like PC makers and retailers are getting ready. Amazon is a choc full of information today about upcoming laptop specifications and prices. I already told you about the Acer Aspire Timeline AS1810T/TZ and the Asus UL20A. But here are a few more thin and light laptops that popped up on Amazon today:

* ASUS UL20A – 12.1 inch, 1366 x 768 laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 dual core CPU, 2GB RAM 250GB HDD, 7.5 hour battery for $590
* Toshiba Satellite T115 – 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768  laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz Intel  SU2700 single core CPU, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 8.5 hour battery for $450
* Toshiba Satellite T115 – 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz Intel SU2700 single core CPU, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 9.5 hour battery for $480
* Acer Aspire Timeline AS1810T- 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz  Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 dual core CPU, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 8 hour battery for $600
* Acer Aspire Timeline AS1810TZ – 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 dual core CPU, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 8 hour battery for $550
* Acer Aspire AS1410 – 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.2GHz Intel Celeron SU2300 dual core CPU, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 6 hour battery for $400
* Gateway EC1440U – 11.6 inch laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz Intel Celeron 743 single core CPU, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 6 hour battery for $400
* Gateway EC1430U – 11.6 inch laptop with 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 dual core CPU, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 7 hour battery for $550
* Dell Inspiron Mini 11z – 11.6 inch laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 dual core CPU, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 4 hour battery for $550
* Sony Vaio P – 8 inch laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD, 1600 x 768 display, 3.5 hour battery for $850

And a whole slew of netbooks:

* Samsung N130-13P – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, 5.8 hour battery for $351
* Samsung N140-14R – 10.1 inch laptop with Win7 Starter, 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 7.5 hour battery for $401
* Toshiba Mini NB205 – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, 9 hour battery starting at $380
* Gateway LT2022u – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, 3 hour battery for $300
* Acer Aspire One AOD250 – 10.1 inch laptop with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, 3 hour battery for $320
* Asus Eee PC 1008HA – 10.1 inch netbook withWin7 Starter, 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, 6 hour battery for $430
* Asus Eee PC 1008HA – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Home Premium, 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 6 hour battery for $480
* Asus Eee PC 1005HA-MU17 – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 8.5 hour battery for $350
* Asus Eee PC 1005HA-PU17 – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 10.4 hour battery for $400
* HP Mini 110 – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 3.75 hour battery starting at $380
* Dell Inspiron Mini 10 – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 5 hour battery for $400
* Dell Inspiron Mini 10v – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 3 hour battery for $330
* Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6Ghz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 6 hour battery for $350
* Sony Vaio Mini W – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1366 x 768 display, 1.66GHz Atom N280 CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 7 hour battery for $500

Pretty much all of these laptops are scheduled to be available on Thursday, October 22nd, which by some strange coincidence happens to be Windows 7 launch day.

And Amazon’s not the only place where you can pre-order laptops with Windows 7 today. You can also place pre-orders from HP for the Mini 110 with an optional $30 upgrade to Windows 7 Starter. The HP Mini 311 is available with a $50 upgrade option for Windows 7 Home Premium.

Dell is also offering the Inspiron Mini 10v and Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with a Windows 7 Starter upgrade for a $30 premium when you order from Dell.com, although I know some people are going to question whether a switch from Windows XP Home to Windows 7 Starter really qualifies as an “upgrade.” Dell also lets you upgrade the Inspiron 11z to Windows 7 Home Premium for $30 or Windows 7 Professional for $130.

In other news, Amazon Germany is taking pre-orders for the Asus Eee PC T91MT with Windows 7 Home Premium, an 8.9 inch multitouch display, 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 processor, and 16GB SSD and 1GB of RAM for 506 Euros (about $754 US).  This model isn’t showing up at any US retailers that I can find yet.