Hands-on with the Asus N20 - an N10 netbook teaser

If you were already bewildered by Asus’ ever-expanding Eee PC range of low cost laptops, here’s some bad news – there’s more to come. Its new N-Series, however, is from its laptop division (Eee PCs are produced by a separate Eee PC division, natch), which makes them rather interesting.

Rather more interesting is that in addition to three stylish Core 2 Duo models with a range of specifications, there's also an entry-level N10 model that uses an Intel Atom processor, which makes it another new netbook.

There are currently four N-Series laptops planned and all but one use Intel Core 2 Duo processors and have specifications much in-line with what you’d expect from a modern portable PC – SATA hard drives, internal optical drives, screens from 12.1in to 15.4in, and so on.

At 1.4kg with a 10.2in screen and that Intel Atom N270 processor, the N10 doesn’t sound like anything special, but it will be available with SATA hard drives ranging from 160Gb to 320Gb, with either Windows XP or Vista. Based on the good looks of the N20, however, the hope is that the N10 will cut a similar dash – which should please anyone who didn’t quite take to the Eee PC 1000 .

Now before you start scratching your head about yet another Asus netbook, remember that this one is from a different part of Asus and if the N20 is anything to go by, it should cut quite a dash. Unfortunately, we’re still waiting for prices from Asus for the N10 and N20, so we can’t say just how low-cost they are. We are, however, expecting an N10 to be delivered tomorrow, so we’ll have a much better idea of how this Eee PC alternative shapes up then.

In the meantime, enjoy this short hands-on video of the Asus N20 as a teaser for the N10 netbook.