Hasee Q230

There might not be much that stands out in this netbook from mainland PC maker Hasee, but for just under HK$2,000, you can take one home.

That price gets you a full-feature Q230 netbook powered by an Intel N450 processor running at 1.66GHz, a Mobile Intel GMA 3150 graphics chip, 1GB of RAM running at 800MHz, a 250GB hard disk drive and a 10.1-inch LED-backlit LCD display with a maximum resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels.

Considering the price, it is a nice bonus to have LED technology, which improves energy efficiency and brightness. Also, the use of LED should stretch the life of the standard three-cell battery, so you can work longer on a single charge.

There are also a webcam, network connectivity by Ethernet 10/100 Base-T and 802.11b/g wireless LAN, and a 4-in-1 card reader.

What you don't get with the Q230 is Windows 7, or its multi-touch support. The amount of RAM is upgradable only to 2GB, so computation-intensive applications like games or video-editing software will crawl. There is no 3G, no 802.11n and no HDMI to support HD content.

With the roll-out of Windows 7 models, more netbooks in this category are likely to be cheaper. One example is the Olevia X101.