Packard Bell launches "dot" netbook

8.9-inch XP model aimed at families to go on sale in November

19 September 2008 17:53 GMT / By Verity Burns

Packard Bell has unveiled its entry to the netbook market, with the rather sweetly named dot, at its Global Press Conference today.

The dinky machine features an 8.9-inch screen and 1024 x 600 resolution display, but whereas its sister company Acer's popular Aspire One ships mainly with a Linux OS, the dot will feature a full Windows XP operating system.

This, according to the company, is because XP "provides users with the features and interface they know so well".

Emmanuel Fromont, Packard Bell's sales and marketing vice-president, spoke about why Packard Bell has waited so long to enter the popular consumer netbook market.

He said: "We've been watching netbooks ever since they first appeared. But we've always considered them too austere and too business-oriented for consumers".

"We told our designers and engineers to rethink the netbook, to look at it through the eyes of a family, not a company. The result is the dot."

The popular choice for netbooks of the Intel Atom processor will also be featured in the dot, helping to increase battery life, and there's even room for an extra 6-cell battery should you fancy getting really heavy-duty use from it.

There's a 160GB hard drive for plenty of storage, and its 1GB of RAM should make for a fairly speedy performance. As additional extras, the machine has an optional 3G module for speedier browsing and optional webcam, should you so wish.

The dot is set to be released in Europe in November, starting at around €399/£315.