Pricing starts at US$499 for the XP Home model with 1GB of RAM, the 160GB hard drive, the three-cell battery and a one-year warranty. Thornton said an XP Pro version costs US$649 with 2GB of RAM, the 160GB drive and the six-cell battery.
The 2140 will sport the same 92 percent-of-full-size keyboard as the 2133, along with a DuraKeys coating that provides protection against spills and UV rays, Thornton said. He added that if the new netbook is dropped, an accelerometer detects the fall and removes the hard drive heads from the disk in order to avoid damaging it and reduce the potential for data loss.
The system also includes a fast-charge mode that should charge its battery to 90 percent capacity within 90 minutes, according to Thornton.