NEC has three new LaVie Light netbooks

NEC has unveiled a range of new netbooks in Japan under it’s LaVie Light brand and all three of the new models are a far cry from NEC’s first attempt at creating a netbook, the BL100. The three new models are the BL300, BL310 and BL350.

All three models feature an Atom N280 processor, the 945GSE chipset, 1GB of DDR2 memory and a 10.1-inch display with 1,024×600 resolution.

You also get 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, a webcam, 10/100Mbit Ethernet, a memory card reader, a D-sub connector, two audio jacks and three USB 2.0 ports.

The BL300 and BL310 both comes with a 160GB 2.5-inch hard drive and a 3-cell battery and weigh in at 1.14kg. The BL310 comes with a copy of Office 2007 and both models has Windows XP as the operating system of choice.

The BL350 differ by offering the 160GB hard drive as well as a 16GB SSD, although the question is if this model will be allowed by Microsoft, as it too comes with Windows XP and Microsoft doesn’t like Windows XP netbooks with both an SSD and a hard drive in them (this is also known as hybrid storage). The BL350 is also supplied with a 6-cell battery which increases its weight to 1.32kg.

The 3-cell battery is said to be good for up to 4.2h of usage, while the 6-cell option (which protrudes out the back of the netbook), is said to last 7.4h. Price wise in Japan, the BL300 goes for about €443, while the BL310 and BL350 retails for about €517 (Office doesn’t come cheap you know).

One last interesting feature is the way the hard drive can be easily removed, as there’s a slot behind the battery which allows you to swap the hard drive out easily. However, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way of upgrading the memory on these models. You can find more pictures and details here (in Japanese)