Dospara has released the Prime Note Albireo JL, a notebook that will have you thinking twice about buying a netbook, with the affordable €640 price and the fact that you are basically getting a real PC. Some specs are: 13.3” WXGA display, Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, DVD Super Multi drive, Intel GM965 Express video chipset, and Wi-Fi connectivity.

It’s not too heavy either, at 1.98kgs. Sure, it’s twice the price of some entry-level netbooks, but you are getting an actual quality computer under the hood.

While I am not a big Mac fan, I admit that the design and thin profile of the MacBook Air was very cool. Still, it wasn’t cool enough to lure me into buying the overpriced machine and I hoped that other manufacturers would offer similarly sized Windows PC.

At CES 2009, I laid my eyes on the MSI X-Slim series that offers Air-like dimensions at a much lower price. MSI reportedly has two more X-Slim machines debuting soon called the X600 and the X400. The machines are thin and offer larger screen sizes for users wanting portability with more screen space.

It’s not hard to understand why netbooks are doing so well in the current global economy. People still want and need new computers, they simply don’t want or can’t spend what they would have on a new computer last year.

Netbooks are cheap, light, and portable leading many mobile users to jump on the netbook train. Strategy Analytics offers a few details about the netbook market in its latest report. According to the firm 2/3 of all netbooks sell for under $500 and more than half of all netbooks sold use Windows XP Home.

I have never really understood why companies like Dell and HP never made a business notebook that was cool looking. Major computer markers always try to make consumer notebooks attractive, but the business machines were stodgy black boxes with the sex appeal of a tube sock.

HP is changing that with the introduction of its new HP ProBook series of notebook computers. The line has attractive colors with a choice of merlot or glossy finishes. The machines can be had in 14-inch, 15.6-inch, and 17-inch form factors. All of the machines can be fitted with HP Mobile Broadband using Gobi technology to allow the modem to operate on several broadband networks from different providers.

With the poor global economy, it’s no surprise that computer sales are slipping around the globe. The only segment of the computer industry that is actually growing robustly is the netbook category as consumers look to lower cost devices.

Gartner Research announced its global PC shipment numbers for Q1 2009 today and HP sits at the top of the list. HP shipped 19.8% of the all PCs shipped globally. Total global PC shipments for the quarter were 67.2 million units.

There are many different types of notebooks on the market today with small netbooks aimed at the budget conscious buyer wanting portability and a basic computing experience to the high-end gaming enthusiast wanting the fastest of everything. Another class of notebooks that tend to be large and expensive is the multimedia notebook.

Acer has announced two new notebooks with one of them being a mainstream ultra portable and the other a massive multimedia notebook. The Aspire 3935-6504 is a 13.3-inch ultraportable notebook designed to be slim and easy to carry. The screen has a 1368 x 768 resolution and the notebook weighs 4.1 pounds. Other features include an Intel dual-core T7350 CPU, 3GB of RAM, and a 250GB HDD. The machine is available now for $899.99.

Today Packard Bell announced that they will soon be releasing the Acer supplied EasyNote Butterfly. It’s just a bit too large to qualify as a netbook, measuring in at 13.4-inches and it features a LED-backlit display. Some other specs include an Intel Ultra Low Voltage processor, a multitouch trackpad and ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 graphics.

Some optional features include 3G and a choice between a standard hard drive or a solid-state drive. It should be pretty useful with eight-hours of battery life. No word on when exactly it will be released or how much it will cost, but it looks like this will be for Europe.

MSI’s new AMD based notebook, the GX733 is aimed at gamers and multimedia fans. Hence the 17-inch screen and a 5.1 Dolby Theater class sound system, with a sub woofer. The notebook sports MSI’s ECO Engine so you can switch between five different power modes, each with offering different energy consumption and performance options.

Some other features include: 17-inch widescreen display, AMD Turion X2 dual-core CPU, ATi Mobility Radeon HD 4670 3D Graphic Card with DDR3 512 MB VRAM, AMD RX781+SB700 Chipset, HD Audio, 4 Speakers + 1 Sub Woofer, Maximum 500 GB SATA HDD, 2 GB DDR2 RAM, max 4GB, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WLAN Card.

Add this one to the rumor mill. The Korean manufacturing giant somehow has info on Apple’s netbook and they know it’s an OLED touchscreen. How do they know this? Because they possess the technology that prevents smudges and stains on an OLED screen and Apple wants it.

Apple already has a working prototype of this netbook and are about to manufacture it using LG’s screen. The Apple netbook won’t probably be a tablet like in the photo above.

After a few months of waiting, the Adamo has finally been announced. Dell has officially announced the first machine in the Adamo line, the 13.4-inch model from CES.

It features a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo U9300 with integrated Intel X4500 graphics, 2GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD, and it weighs only four pounds, which is a pound more than the MacBook Air. It will cost you $1,999. Seems like most of that money goes toward stuff like a magnetic cover.

There are several different form factors available in the notebook/laptop world. Most of the computers we see are traditional style notebooks with a keyboard and an LCD. However, some models offer swiveling screens and the capability to be used like a tablet with pen-based or finger input.

There are also pure tablet machines that offer no keyboard. Motion Computing has announced its latest pure tablet computer called the J3400. The machine has an interesting dual battery slot design allowing batteries to be hot swapped for continuous runtime.

Boston-Power isn’t really a household name at this point, but the company has some very cool battery tech that promises to make the battery in your laptop work for three times as long before you need to get a new battery. The average laptop battery starts to storage capacity in only a year, yet the Boston-Power Sonata battery promises to last for 3 years with full charge capacity.

I mentioned in December 2008 that HP would be the first computer maker to offer the Sonata batteries for sale. At the time, HP didn’t offer any pricing information for the upgraded battery packs.

TG Sambo just rolled another notebook for the South Korea: The Averatec Star. This model will come in an ‘eco & slim’ design, with a silver-colored aluminum finish and a built-in battery pack. Under the hood, there’s an Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz processor, 3GB RAM, a 320GB SATA hard drive and a 13.1″ widescreen LCD display.

You wont be doing any serious gaming on this thing though, as it lacks a dedicated video card It’s supported by an Intel GMA X4500MHD graphics engine. As far as connectivity, there’s Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Ethernet LAN. You also get VGA output, 3 USB 2.0 ports and a built-in 1.3 megapixel camera.

MSI has been busy lately, releasing a bunch of notebooks and even an all-in-one. Now they are showing off the VX600.

This notebook sports a 15.4-inch (1280 x 800) display, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD3410 graphics, up to 4GB memory, up to 320GB storage, and both 6 and 9-cell battery options. The company has even incorporated their ECO Engine Power Management System, which lets you choose from five power saving modes, which should give you more battery life. (Gaming, Movie, Presentation, Office, and Turbo Battery).

Gaming notebooks are great for gamers who either don’t have the room for a full-size desktop computer or who like to travel with their computer. One of the biggest problems with gaming machines is that they are expensive and tend to have less battery life than other notebooks.

MSI has announced its most recent gaming notebook called the GT 628. The machine uses the new NVIDIA GTS 160M GPU that NVIDI promises delivers 50% more performance than the video card it replaces. The GTS 160M also features 1GB of DDR3 RAM.