ViewSonic brand adorns a new netbook

Known for its crystal-sharp displays, ViewSonic will enter (or re-enter) the PC business with its Atom-based LinkPC.

New netbooks are struggling to find the right price point, and the sluggish economy may not be helping much. So $400 is going to be a gamble for ViewSonic, a company not known to current buyers as having ever made a PC.

So the LinkPC's buildout needs something to help it stand out, and so far, that may be a problem. It's a 1.6 GHz model with 1 GB of RAM and a 160 GB drive, with LAN and 802.11b/g -- pretty standard stuff. Windows XP Home rather than Vista is understandable for now, given Vista's big footprint. Four USB ports rather than two will be nice. But the value proposition that the LinkPC is an upgrade or a "facelift" for a monitor that's just hanging around (read, an add-on to a ViewSonic monitor) will be a big stretch.

Availability is slated for March with an MSRP of $399.