ARM-powered Android netbook tips up
A GOOGLE ANDROID-POWERED netbook has tipped up from Chinese firm SkyTone, but don't hold your breath just yet, it's really not very impressive.
Fair enough, the guys from Guanzhou are only flogging the little lappie for $100 , but even for that paltry sum the Alpha-680 Google Android netbook is a bit naff.
Made from what appears to be very cheap plastic, the netbook sports a tiddly seven inch display with 800 x 480 WVGA resolution, has only 128MB of DDR2 memory, 1GB NAND flash and runs on an ARM 11 533 MHz 32bit CPU.
To its credit, however, the netbook does seem to have a swively touchscreen, Wifi, Ethernet, 3G, a couple of USB ports and an SD card slot bunged into the low-cost package.
Android netbooks may have only tentatively started to tip up, but at least another two - Pegatron's Freescale based netbook and little known, Atom based I-Buddie - are set to pop up on shelves any day now.
To be kind, Skytone's attempt definitely looks way better than your standard etch-a-sketch and is not all that bad for a firm which has only really had success making skype headsets. Oh, and it does come in Pink, Yellow, Red, Black and White. Oooooh! µ
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Does the manufacturer state how long the battery will last? That's the key attraction for an ARM powered netbook as far as I am concerned.
I like this netbook. How is Mike doing? His site has me a bit worried.
from the site: 3.7v 4200ma Li Polimer
my best guess would be about 4-5 hours, less if you turn on wireless/3g/webcam etc.
I like how they have Yahoo loaded up in the browser. LOL
I don't see any reference to a touch-screen on the skytone website - are you making stuff up?
I think I'd rather have one of these cheapos to surf the net than a 3" cell phone. But obviously, not as cool as doing it from a cell, so it would never be as popular.
For $100 I'd take one even if it sucks. I pay almost that for a lame 7" portable dvd player, this is worlds better than that garbage for another few dollars. Claims to support mpeg1/2/4 h264 etc, so if I loaded up an sd card with divx it might be sweet.
Someone better call that OLPC dude. It's been done. The $100 laptop is here.
yeah no kidding, ad a blue tooth navigation. This is a winner in my book.
Btw Nice Highway Robbery as they call it here in America. If you hadnt pirated it i would have never seen the article, who goes to compuworld now a days.
If we are really talking about a 7" touchscreen tablet for $100, I think we can overlook the little issues of battery life, build quality, and performance.
Not that I'd buy it or anything, I just think that as gadgets go, this is a pretty respectable effort.
like this thing beats the crap of the one laptop per child toy being flogged out, cheaper too.