As we have expected, Elitegroup announced their new notebook family under the codename A928 and named officially i-Buddie 4 (Elitegroup trade mark). In the corresponding press-release i-Buddie 4 are called the world’s first notebooks based on Intel Pentium 4 CPUs, however, it is not quite true, because similar models have been recently announced by the Taiwanese MiTAC Company. However, this is not the first time a press-release contains inaccuracies like that. :-)

As for the specs of the i-Buddie 4 family, it looks very much like a fully-fledged desktop system free from some drawbacks typical of the similar MiTAC’s solution (the latter is built with PC133 SDRAM):

• Desktop Pentium 4 CPU on 0.13micron Northwood core or 0.18micron Willamette with 1.4GHz-2.8GHz core clock (this is a future plan, I suppose);
• SiS650/SiS961 chipset (this is not surprising at all bearing in mind their long-term partnership with Elitegroup);
• Up to 1GB PC2100 DDR SDRAM (it also supports PC2700 DDR SDRAM, however, at present there are no notebooks packed with this memory type);
• Integrated graphics of the SiS650 chipset (SiS315, 143MHz chip frequency, UMA frame buffer, up to 64MB);
• 6-channel AC’97 2.2 sound;
• ATA/100 HDD with up to 40GB storage capacity (2.5" platters, 9.5mm high);
• 8x DVD-ROM 12.7mm high (optional 24x CD-ROM, DC-RW or Combo DVD-ROM/DC-RW);
• 10/100 Base-T Ethernet, 56K/V.90 Conexant PCI software data/fax modem, IrDA 1.3, IEEE 1394, USB 2.0, TV Out;
• 14.1"/15.0" XGA TFT-LCD display with 1024x768 resolution or 15.0" SXGA+TFT-LCD with 1400x1050 resolution;
• 330mm x 281mm x 39.7mm (min) or 44.7mm (max);
• 3.18kg (with 15" panel and DVD-ROM).