Australian outfit Pioneer Computers has put its new Dreambook Lite M81 on its website for order. The 10.1″ model sports a Pine Trail N450 processor and Intel 950 Graphics, it can have “up to 2GB” of RAM (1GB is standard), a 7-in-1 card reader, 160GB hard drive and is “Windows 7 Ready” (No OS seems to be included in the standard price, although Ubuntu is available for free).
All of the language on the website seems like unsubtle code for expensive optional extras, and Pioneer’s mandatory “Build your own” feature doesn’t disappoint – you can order such extras as a 1TB Hard Drive (An extra AUS$299), and External Blu-Ray drive (AUS$439), a touchscreen upgrade for the monitor (AUS$499), a USB HDTV Tuner (AUS$89), and an HDMI Projector (AUS$1,749) – both of those last two options come as “Recommended” upgrades despite the fact the M81 doesn’t seem to come with an HD display or HDMI-out.
Once you kit the M81 out to the level of a standard Netbook (give it Bluetooth, 3G, Windows 7), the base price of AUS$399 jumps to about AUS$570 (or about $510 US), which is far from cheap, although this high level of customisation may very well suit some peoples needs. Out of interest I built a system using all of Pioneer’s “Recommended” options and my Netbook ended up costing AUS$6,821. Ouch.
If you want to pick one up you get customising right now on Pioneer’s website.
