Packard Bell EasyNote XS shrinks to seven inches

Asus’ EeePC 701 isn’t the only tiny laptop in town. It’s got some competition from fellow PC maker Packard Bell.Unlike its mung-bean-chewing rival, the EasyNote XS packs fully fledged Windows XP rather than open source Linux. It also has a respectable 1GB RAM and nearly double the hard disk space with 30GB, although not of the speedy solid state kind found on the Asus.Aping VIA’s NanoBook reference design, it’s been endowed with efficient VIA C7-M processors, ranging from 1.5GHz up to an impressive 2.0Ghz, which squeeze three hours out of the battery life – even with Wi-Fi on.A built-in mic and VGA webcam make it web-conferencing friendly and it weighs less than a single, measly kilogram. Look out for them in PC World from next month.EssentialsPackard Bell EasyNote XSPrice: From £350On sale: November Contact: Packard BellRelated stories:Reviewed: Asus EeePC 701Honey, VIA shrunk the laptopFujitsu primes a QWERTY UMPC

Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home