Non-Glossy

I welcome return to proper Matt screen. Like we had nearly 10 years ago. Shiny on a screen is stupid. For YEARS people researched how to make screens Matt.

I think Matte may refer to photographic and cinema Masking? Unless El Reg has relocated.

In film:

* Matte (filmmaking), film and video technology

* Matte painting, a process of creating sets used in film and video

* Matte box, a camera accessory for controlling lens glare

* Open matte, a filming technique that involves matting out the top and bottom of the film frame in the movie projector

Matt: In British English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish

Matte: In American English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish

Anyway a glossy screen gives headaches due to eye re-focusing automatically on any moving reflection. Alleviated by careful position of desk etc. A Matt screen may not look so pretty in showroom, but is less distracting and less tiring. I suspect the glossy screens came in because they are cheaper and look prettier. For a tablet a glossy screen also shows up fingerprints worse than Matt. Matt is superior in brightly lit environments and outdoors.

Anyone remember the high contrast ultra-matt Victor 9000 / Sirius1 screen (done by a very fine nylon matt black mesh probably) compared to Shiny Goldfish bowl screens on all other Monitors? It was nearly 15 years before CRT colour monitors caught up (can't use mesh as it's not fine enough and you get moire fringing with mask/slots)

Otherwise nothing special on this netbook?

I hope the Matt no-gloss screen sets a trend.

Can we go back to 1200 lines/pixels (or better) instead of 1080 or lower please for those of us that want to read PDFs and Word DOCs and DTP layout "page at a time". Maybe even option for 4:3 screen and not WS. Some people actually use Laptop for working, not watching Video.

1G RAM is plenty for a netbook with a decent OS. You didn't buy it to run 5 server images or play a high end game?

"...the price has gently declined..."

No it hasn't.

The range for a netbook has always been between £175 and £329. It hasn't changed a bit in two years or more.

Given you can get the Packard Bell DOT-SE-911 from John Lewis for £229, and as far as I can see it's the same spec, this is just a basic machine at a silly price.

I was honestly expecting a machine like this to be £150 by now. But no-one wants to sell machines that cheap - they'd rather price netbooks too high, then say "no-one wants them" - so they can concentrate on making bloody tablets that loads of people don't actually want.