I will say right up front that I never really saw the point of smartbooks. They are the same basic size as a netbook, though they are a pound or so lighter. The big downside in my mind has always been the performance of a smartbook.

Inside the smartbooks netbook looking shell hides hardware with more in common with a smartphone. If you like the smartbook promise a new machine from Genesi has landed called the Efika MX Smartbook. The machine can be purchased now for $349.

The future of Augen’s $150 tablet and $100 smartbook isn’t looking as bright as we had hoped. They have slow processors and resistive touchscreens and now their official Google app privileges have just been revoked.

Augen has confirmed that the entire proprietary suite (including Market, Gmail and more) was preloaded on the devices without Google’s permission, and won’t appear on new batches that make it to store shelves. Augen says it’s working with Google to secure rights to these apps for new products down the road. Hopefully it gets sorted out quickly.

We haven’t heard any news about this one since back in April. While the delay of Lenovo’s Skylight smartbook is disappointing, it gives Lenovo some time to swap in a newer, more powerful, 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor.

The Skylight smartbook should be powered by Google’s Android OS when it is finally released before the end of the year. The processor would certainly make this one more attractive to buyers.

Smartbooks promise to be cheap devices that will cost $200 or so and provide smartphone-like performance with a larger screen. Some of the devices are turning up with prices more like high-end netbooks when you do not opt for a 3G plan with them.

Mobinnova has announced its smartbook called the Beam. The device has an ARM Cortex A9 processor, NVIDIA Tegra for graphics, and an 8.9-inch screen. The screen resolution is 1024 x 600 and the machine has 512MB of RAM. It also sports 512MB of NAND for the Android OS and storage is to a SSD 8 to 64GB in capacity.

The Skylight is Lenovo’s first ARM-based Snapdragon Smartbook. Qualcomm is providing its 1GHz Snapdragon chipset. It features a 10.1″ screen and will weigh less than two pounds. Lenovo says that it gets 10 hours-plus of active battery life as well.

Skylight will be paired with AT&T for 3G, along with its own built-in Wi-Fi. Some other features include a full keyboard and a custom interface that uses “web gadgets” for direct access to popular services like Gmail and Facebook.

The Mobinnova élan netbook, a NVIDIA Tegra-powered machine, weighs just two pounds, but can deliver 720p video on its 8.9-inch screen. We aren’t sure what OS it’s running, but we do know that it has an “innovative 3D graphical user interface,” supports hardware-accelerated Flash video, has both WiFi and 3G, and can play video for five to ten hours on a single charge.

NVIDIA claims that its Tegra platform can play an audio file continuously for 600 hours (thats 25 days!) assuming that the display is turned off. Take a deep breath. We don’t know what the pricing looks like after all. Mobinnova’s Tegra announcements also include the T8 tablet, which repackages the élan in a 10.1-inch tablet form factor with GPS and HDMI out.