Samsung N510 Ion Netbook Available from July? Samsung's First Ion Netbook Due Imminently

According to reports just surfacing it appears that Samsung's first
netbook to employ Nvidia's Ion chipset - the Samsung N510 - is scheduled
for release from July with pricing expected to be around the $800 mark.

Interestingly, the Ion powered Samsung N510 netbook, which comes with an
Atom N270 CPU under the hood, in measuring in at 12 (it'll be Samsung's
largest 'netbook' to date) is over Nvidia's size restriction concerning
netbooks - Nvidia's restriction comes in at 10.2 - so Samsung negate
Nvidia's preferential Ion chipset pricing but Samsung seem all too
willing to sacrifice Nvidia's preferential Ion pricing rates for what,
on paper at least, looks to be a netbook that offers little more than
smaller (sub 10.2 ) devices (except for the N510's 11.6 display, of
course). Samsung obviously feel that they genuinely have a hit on their
hands with the N510 but it remains to be seen whether consumer's are
inclined to agree (that litmus test is pending).

So, what does the 12 Samsung N510 netbook bring to the table?

Apart from packing a 1.66GHz Atom N280 CPU, the N510's 11.6 display
offers 1366 x 768 resolution (enough for it to be billed as being of the
HD variety) whilst there's 1GB of RAM (standard netbook fair), a 160GB
hard disk, a Nvidia Geforce 9400M graphics card (part of the Ion
standard), 802.11b/gn Wi-Fi, Ethernet LAN, built-in Bluetooth
connectivity, an integrated webcam, 3-in-1 card reader and a 6-cell
battery offering an as yet unknown endurance. Additionally, being that
the N510 is billed as being a HD netbook, you can obviously factor in a
HDMI port into the equation.

It'll be interesting to see how the N510 fairs in the ever cut-throat
netbook wars, especially in light of the fact that Samsung will be
splashing out more for the N510's Ion chipsets on account of its size,
but one cannot help but wonder whether the N510, if it does indeed come
in at the $800 price point, is going to loose out to the usual suspects
(we're specifically thinking Asus and MSI here). And, being that, in our
experience, Samsung build some mighty fine (and mightily good looking)
ultraportables, we hope not.

The jury's out.