The line is called the Mirius, and here’s the basic specs: A 10.2″ LCD display, 1GB RAM, and a decent sized 120GB hard drive, along with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, a 3-cell battery, and Microsoft Windows XP, three USB ports, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a VGA output, and an SD card slot.

Not bad for its suggested $248 price tag, we’d say. Time will tell if it proves to be a popular line with consumers, with extreme power being so inexpensive these days.

Verizon is poised to release the Gateway LT2016U (which to be fair, is the Acer Aspire One D250 with Gateway clothing over it).

Features: a 10.1-inch display with 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard disk drive, webcam, and Microsoft Windows XP Home (standard on many netbooks nowadays). It also has a Qualcomm Gobi 3G module which supports internally both CDMA EVDO and EDGE/UMTS/HSPA 3G data courtesy of Verizon.

The Gateway LT2016U will be priced at $249.99 after $100 rebate with 2-year contract agreement, so there’s a bit of a “catch”, but the price is tough to beat.

Available in two glorious color schemes: “Magic Blue” and the shown “Princess Pink”, the netbook will include “intuitive and fun applications” as well as “safety features” to keep kids safe on the web as well.

The Disney netbook includes a solid 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 160GB hard drive or 16GB SSD, 1GB of RAM, a 8.9-inch (1024×600) LCD screen (kinda on the small side), and Windows XP OS. It’s decent, but not extraordinary as far as specs go, but that’s not why kids will want it, needless to say.

It’ll retail at only $350 or so, which will allow parents to get off (somewhat) easily price wise.

The codenamed Aspire One D250 netbook has a 10.1-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution as opposed to 1024 x 600 typical of this level of of laptop. We welcome the trend, as the previous resolutions weren’t suitable for games and the like.

While, the rest of the specs remain solid: 1.60GHz Intel Atom N270, 1GB RAM, roomy 160GB HDD, webcam, and also in a welcome inclusion: Windows XP SP3 OS and a 6-cell battery for slightly longer battery life.

Apparently, this one is already out for pre-order in Norway and should be available in more territories by August or so.

Sony will make its new Sony VAIO W netbook avaiilable for your greedy hands in early August 2009. It has an Intel Atom processor (pretty standard on these now), a 10.1-inch widescreen LCD with 1366×768 resolution, a decent 160GB hard drive, and Microsoft Windows XP included.

The Sony VAIO W series can be obtained with several very contemporary shades of color: berry pink, sugar white and cocoa brown. The units will retail for around $500, a very nice price point for Sony.

BenQ has released a new netbook computer that weighs only about 1Kg, so it can literally go anywhere you need it to go. This portable machine features a 10.1-inch WSVGA backlit display with 1024 x 600 resolution (typical for this size), a fairly muscular Intel Atom N270/N280 processor, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, a webcam and 3G, WiFi, 3 USB ports and Windows XP included.

Pricing and exact availability was not released.

The new Panasonic Note Light R8 notebook/netbook comes packed with a pretty strong 1.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 CPU, 2GB of RAM (upgradable to 4GB), and a 64GB SSD with lightning fast 220MB/s reading speed. This seems to be creeping more and more into notebook feature sets nowadays.

The Panasonic Lets Note offers a choice of OS: Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 or Windows XP Professional Edition (they’re offering the kind of options with OS we wish more laptop companies offered).

With a $1,750 retail price, it’s pretty far out of typical netbook range, but its also far more powerful than many notebooks in its class. It’ll be released in Japan later this month first, then around the country in July/August or so.

The MSI Wind U123 is finally shipping in the US via Amazon. The price: a very reasonable $349.99 with a 6-cell battery in two colors, red or blue.

This mini-laptop comes with a 10.2-inch screen with a solid 1024 x 600 resolution (enough for browsing and e-mailing; not really a heavy gaming system), a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 processor (pretty zippy), 1GB RAM, a sizable 160GB hard drive, a webcam, and all the network goodies, as you’d expect: WiFi, Bluetooth and comes with the Windows XP Home OS, fairly standard on netbooks.

A model with a longer lasting 9-cell battery can be pre-ordered for $379.99 as well.

Lenovo ThinkPad R61i 76509LU

Do you need a new laptop computer that can handle all of your day to day business tasks as well as take care of a few entertainment essentials but don’t have a lot of money to spend? That won’t be a problem because you can get everything you need in this moderately priced Lenovo notebook computer.

You won’t have to compromise on computing power, because the ThinkPad R61i comes with a 1.6GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2330 processor and 1GB of installed memory that’s expandable to 4GB along with an 80GB hard drive that provides enough room to store all of your essential files. In your downtime you’ll be able to take advantage of some of the entertainment aspects this Lenovo laptop offers, like casually surfing the web, listening to CDs or watching DVDs on the bright 15.4″ widescreen monitor. You’re not limited to just watching DVDs, because on this notebook you’ll also be able to create DVDs as well.

Connecting to both wired and wireless networks is a snap as well with the installed modem, Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11 wireless networking cards. The R61i 76509LU runs fast even with less than top of the line features as you’ll get Windows XP Professional as the installed operating system. The Lenovo ThinkPad R61i 76509LU will handle just about any task you need to take care of, whether it’s business or pleasure, without having to spend a fortune.

If this notebook computer has what you need then buy it now for under $700 while it’s still available.

Toshiba Portege R500-S5007V – Core 2 Duo U7700 1.33 GHz – 12.1″

The Apple MacBook Air garnered a lot of attention when it was launched, and although it is a very unique and trendsetting computer, there are other computers available that are comparable in both performance and weight. In fact this Toshiba notebook is even lighter than the MacBook Air by weighing .6 pounds less at only 2.4 pounds, but you won’t have to give up the convenience of having an optical drive. You’ll get a CD/DVD burner as well as all the necessary ports to connect this computer to all of your other digital devices. Also with this Toshiba Portege you’ll get an even bigger 128 GB Solid State Drive that provides plenty of storage capacity, and as it has no moving parts it’s much faster and more stable than the older hard disk drives. You can be sure to connect to the net just about anywhere with the Portege R500-S5007V through 802.11a/b/g and Draft-n wireless standards as well as to other digital devices that are Bluetooth equipped. This computer is perfect for business use or for students with its built-in microphone, speakers for recording notes, listening to audio or having a VoIP conversation and the spill-proof keyboard and touchpad will make sure that unforeseen accidents won’t ruin this laptop. You won’t get the biggest screen, but at 12.1″ it’s big enough to take care of any computing needs that you have, and it’s easily carried anywhere you need to go. Whether you’re heading back to school or looking for a new work computer, the lightweight Toshiba Portege R500-S5007V 12.1″ notebook will handle every task you need to take care of.