The concept of “entry level” is certainly changing. No longer are bargain basement offerings completely lacking in technological goodies. Case in point is the budget-minded Versa Pro VY20 notebook from NEC, a 15-inch unit boasting a Core 2 Duo T7200 processor. It could use a little more RAM (just 512MB of DDR2 on board), and maybe more beef in the graphics department (ATI Radeon Xpress 1250), but it certainly is no slouch. The rest of specs — CD-R/DVD combo drive, 40GB HDD, etc. — are more what you’d expect from an entry-level laptop.

No word on price, but as it a part of the company’s BTO Pro range, you’ll be able to up/downgrade components to your liking (apparently including a fingerprint reader, which you can see to the right of the mouse touch panel).