HP, Lenovo and Asus had brand new netbooks on display at CES 2009. Check out our hands-on look inside.
HP Mini 2140
 The HP Mini 2140 is a slight, but welcome upgrade to the original HP Mini 2133. HP's higher-end Mini laptops really define the limits of the Netbook genre, though the HP Mini 2140 still manages to come in at a $500 price point, and HP really squeezes the 92%-sized keyboard and the 10-inch monitor to the very edge of the device's aluminum shell. In our hands-on time with the HP Mini 2140, we still liked the metal housing, especially compared to its plastic competitors, and the device retains its light weight as well as its wide keys. We also appreciate the Express Card 34 slot, which means buyers can add all sorts of peripherals, and this nearly makes up for the lack of integrated 3G, though we wish HP would bite the bullet and just pick a carrier. The HP Mini 2140 is still available with Windows XP, though the device now uses a more capable Intel Atom processor and chipset, so perhaps its time to give Vista a try? Nah. Instead, spend $30 on the 6-cell battery, which offers up to 8 hours of usage time.
Lenovo IdeaPad S10
 For the first-time home PC user, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 has been on the market for a while. However, it's now been upgraded with new multimedia and networking tools for social networking enthusiasts, ranging from newbies to the most social of socialites. If you're tired of Facebook, the new LenovoSocial app will act as a portal to all the other great stuff out there. With VeriFace facial recognition technology, users will also be granted access to their netbook in a high-tech way. Lastly, the updated S10 will offer a Quick Start app for quicker access to frequently used applications. The catch? You'll have to wait until March to shell out $450 for this one.
Convertible EEE PC tablets
  No matter how you feel about the inexpensive, bargain netbook Asus EEE PCs, it's hard to deny that Asus started a real fire with its EEE line and perhaps even created the Netbook craze. So, it's hard not to be curious when the company introduces their newest convertible tablet PCs, the Asus EEE T91 and the Asus EEE T101H. The two are very similar machines, with an 8.9-inch and 10-inch screen respectively. Both have a hinge swivel to turn the display around and lay it back on top of the keyboard, though the actual keyboard design on the two machines was slightly different.
Both will run a proprietary Asus Linux-based OS, and will probably come with enough power to run a version of Windows. Asus wasn't too forthcoming with details on these devices, so there's much we don't know. We don't know the price, but don't expect these devices to come in under $400, like the regular EEE PC laptops. We don't know much about the hardware, but it would be a shame if these machines weren't available with some sort of 3G WWAN option, preferably the Qualcomm Gobi chip we've been seeing elsewhere. Availability is also up in the air at this point.
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