Specifications, Availability and Pricing

Above we get a look at the specifications of the ViewSonic VOT132 nettop and basically they mimic the spec listing of pretty much all Ion based systems out there, except there are a few important points to take away before we move on.

This is the first nettop we have seen that currently comes shipped with Windows 7 installed; the specific flavor you get is Home Premium. It comes decked out with a dual-core Intel Atom 330 processor that is clocked at 1.6GHz. Of course, in there is the GeForce 9400M or MCP7A-ION chipset from NVIDIA that provides the platform with its 1080p HD capabilities.

Moving down the list, the VOT132 comes installed with 2GB of DDR2-800 memory. The big shame here is that there is only a single DIMM slot, which means there is a performance penalty since dual-channel is not possible. Sure, ViewSonic wanted a tiny system, but next time they have to find a way to add in two DIMM slots as this type of platform needs every tweak possible, since it's far from a speed demon.

And while we are on the negative points, we will say now that the decision to include a slow 5,400 RPM hard drive was silly. As I just said, the Atom and Ion platform need all the best options available to it. We would have much rather seen a 7,200 RPM drive installed, but you'll have to deal with a Western Digital 320GB drive as standard. Of course, you can rip it out and install in a super duper new fast SSD and we would highly recommend that if you have the spare funds... but we like all things to be fast.

Fortunately, on the spec list, that is about all we can fault. On the good side of things, the VOT132 comes with wireless and not just any old wireless, it gets 802.11n. Also for the wired networking, you get gigabit ethernet LAN and that's great. With many systems we see that they only get 10/100 LAN and 802.11b/g wireless and that just sucks.

One of the biggest selling points for the VOT132, though, is the size of the unit. It is the smallest computer we have ever tested here at TweakTown and is only 24mm thick. In the weight department, this thing is a light weight coming in at only half a kilogram, or about one pound.

As far as availability goes, we couldn't see the VOT132 listed in many places, but we did see it listed at one particular store for about $470 USD, down from its list price of $499 USD. It's not cheap, but it's pretty high-end as far as Ion based nettops go with solid specs in the networking department, as well as HDD size. Besides the ASRock ION 330HT, it's one of the more expensive nettops you will find. You will need to pay extra for the external ViewSonic VDD100 DVD burner we are covering, too - we saw that listed from about $80 to $100 USD.