Netbooks - Two Stylish Netbooks For a Chic Setup

If there's one thing that can be held against netbooks, it is that most models are bland and boring, and rarely can you find a model that you can call stylish.

Thankfully, two netbook manufacturers have taken their cue from fashionistas and have released new stylish models that are at least one step higher than their siblings in terms of design. Creating stylish models is unavoidable - netbooks are, after all, laptop mini-me's that can be considered as fashion accessories. That said, there are two models for the stylish set:

The Dell Mini 9 netbook

Dell's Mini 9 and 12 netbooks have new casings with designs created by toy designer Tristan Eaton. If you like comic books or like the work of Peter Max, the new Dell netbooks are for you. If you already have a Dell Mini, you can have the skin upgraded from standard black to Eaton graphics for $50.

Asus Eee 1002HA

The newly-introduced Asus Eee 1002HA is similar to the Asus 1000H, except that the 1002HA sports a brushed aluminum casing, which makes it look more business-like. It is also slick looking at just one inch thick. Like most netbooks, the Asus Eee 1002HA has a ten-inch display and has a large hard drive space at 160GB. Its battery is estimated to last five hours.

While they are stylish, the new Dell Mini netbooks and the Asus Eee 1002HA lack optical drives like most netbooks, so you can forget about enjoying DVD or CD movies. The new stylish Eee PC hits stores shelves on December 1, 2009 and will be sold for $499.

By John Kessler