VIA enjoyed some success early on, shipping in a handful of HP Mini models. However, the Intel competitor was roundly beaten into submission by the x86 king’s Atom CPUs.
With the arrival of Phecda’s PHV102, it looks as though VIA might be down but not out.
According to Shanzai.com, the PHV102 will feature VIA’s 1.6GHz C7-M processor, 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB SATA hard drive, 1024×600 10.2” display, and a three-cell 200mAh battery. Pretty standard netbook fare, but there’s one big difference.
The PHV102 will be Black Friday priced all the time – selling for an estimated $185.
Whether or not you’re a VIA fan, this can only be good news for the market. Competition is good, after all, and this could help drive netbook prices down even further.