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.