During a round-table discussion yesterday with Neo executives and Intel representatives, I asked why it took a while for the local laptop manufacturer to bring out their big guns.
The answer was pretty simple and straight-forward — they basically want to position their new Core i3 and Core i5 notebooks as among the most affordable in the local market.
So far, they did the first step to bring a Core i3 notebook in the sub-30k price point.
Neo Basic B4103
Intel Core i3 330M (2.13 GHz), supports Hyper-Threading
14.1″ display screen @ 1366×768 pixels
2GB DDR3 RAM
Integrated Intel HD
320GB HDD
DVD+RW Supermulti Optical Drive
6-cell Li-Ion @ 4400mAh
It’s pretty basic really, but the highlight here is the Core i3 processor running at 2.13GHz with 2 cores and 4 threads. And the price is just one peso shy of thirty grand — Php29,999. Since people are asking for OS option, there’s no pre-installed OS here (just FreeDOS) so it’s up to the buyer if they want Windows 7 with it.
And they’ve got a Core i5 as well (NEO Basic B4105) that’s got a Core i5 CPU for Php35,999 (see here).
sir yuga how about ung i5 ng asus? any idea kung kelan release dito? k42jr-a1
Twitter: kjalcordo
says:
No decent Vid Card..
nice, i believe msi has the same specs around that price range.
tae lang talaga ang after sales service ng NEO.
Twitter: jdGONEMD
says:
master, ilan hours battery?
@1timnatupa: oo tama ka dyan and also mahal ang services nila kapag may nasira compared sa ibang sikat na brand
mahal pa rin sila. considering that it is a local brand, it should be cheaper to be competitive with other brands.
@leeto – technically speaking, they are already the cheapest.
I just want to ask, compared to ASUS and Acer, how competitive are Neo’s products? They are dirt cheap but quality and reliability-wise, are they worth the dough?
i say, good job to NEO. Will wait for your hands-on review sir abe.
Twitter: JayL_Aquino
says:
i bought a NEO for 17,000+ & okay pa naman siya until ngayon. never nag-hang.
pero di ko kase siya masyado ginagamit eh pag wala lng ako sa house, i have a desktop PC + a HP Mini pa.
eto experience ko,
una ko laptop, blue, 2nd NEO Endura, 3rd Dell Inspiron, 4th HP Pavilion, 5th MSI CR400
all used atleast 6 months before I replace, sa lahat ng brands na yan, never had a problem with my NEO and blue laptop.
Dell – touchpad problems
HP Pavilion – display problems, hangs-up, improves after driver update, but still sometimes it hangs..
MSI – keeps on hanging up.
funny huh…
any freezing issues are usually OS related. this is not uncommon in windows based systems. on other platforms running linux, the number of occurrences are significantly lower (on the same machine).
neo should change it’s name to a fruit like ‘mango’ to be competitive… look what it did to apple
Twitter: Teknisyan
says:
Removing the OS is a marketing move, since OS is usually 10% to 20% of the total cost of the unit. By removing the OS, this gives the consumer the option what OS they want to install. This is more appealing to people who are more on specs and not brand name. Since branded one usually has a lot of “crapware”, which more or less useless but takes up space on your hard drive and memory.
i think i’ll buy one.
neo always says that their laptops are just as good as the others, since they are using branded parts.
however i think i’ll only buy core i3-i7 if im programming or something. maybe i’ll buy the atom type processors, they’re cheaper.
however, for windows > XP, it would be recommended i guess to get core i3 or so, since they take advantage of the core architecture.
@Manong
try Macopa XD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macopa
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Wax_apple_close_up.jpg/120px-Wax_apple_close_up.jpg
I disagree, MSI brought the 1st i3 under 30k 1st here in the Philippines.
@eason – asked the SRP of the 3 Core i3 notebooks from MSI reps and the lowest they gave was Php31,999. I currently have all 3 units now for review.
I still love Neo so much… 7 months na si Neoko (name for my net book) wala pa rin siyang problema. I have like 2500 songs, 50 Yahoo Games, Movies and Series, plants vs. zombies, SIMS 2 (Complete Package)… still running like a wild horse… at hindi madali maubos ang kanyang battery life…. I so love Neo Brand! GO PINOYS!
hi guess
Pre, I bought Neo rather than any brands. Ang problema kasi ng ibang brands ay ang durability. I tried Toshiba L200 ang dali nasira, mainboard problem parati nag hahang. pumunta ako sa service center nila at sinabihan ako bumili ng bago. KC pag mag replace ng motherboard mahal daw price almost the cost ng new laptop. Panget talaga ang toshiba madali masira after 2-3 years gamit mag labas na ang problema. Kaya buy Pinoy made na lang pre, mas durable at nakakatulong ka pa sa bayan. Pagbumili ka ng iba ang nakikinibang ay china at produkto china, china din ang quality.
amazing price range right now of this i3 book, it’s being sold less than 23k in Market right now. Honestly, not bad for an iCore machine. Based on experience, the first Neo we got was for my mom, it has been 5 years since and it is still running like a charm, never had hardware issues with it. Now we got this i3, it is able to live to what its suppose to function. Not bad!