Hardware More subnotebooks!

[Veho]

We've seen the Asus EEE. Great little thing. But the most important thing about it is that it has shown that there's a market for cheap, small notebooks. (It has always been there, but everyone has been ignoring it.) Naturally, a "new" market has attracted some new players.

Here's another subnotebook thingy.

Everex CloudBook.

1.2 GHz, 512 MB, 30 GB, DVI port, Ethernet port, Line-in, Line-out, 2 lb's (0.5 kg), 5 hours work time, 4-in-1 card reader, screen identical to the EEE. Price: $399.

Also, Via NanoBook.

Hardware: identical to the CloudBook, but with the HDD up to 60 GB, and a proprietary expansion slot (World Time Clock, GPS receiver, DVB (digital video broadcast) receiver, VoIP (voice-over-IP) phone, and 3G/CDMA wireless broadband modules).

Price: $600.

The cheap subnotebook market is cooking. And in a competition between several service providers, customers win

 

[Urza]

Couldn't care less about the Cloudbook. Just some sub-par product thrown out to try and grab a quick bit of market share from ASUS.


Now the Noahpad, that looks interesting.

 

[Fiddy101]

Is that Cloudbook thing using gOS Rocket ?

 

[Urza]

Is that Cloudbook thing using gOS Rocket ?

It was demoed before Rocket, so I'm pretty sure its the first version.

May have Rocket by release (later this week) though.

 

[Veho]

Intriguing. I like the swivel screen. It's not a touch screen, though?

And instead of a classic keyboard, it has an inductive typepad (that doubles as a touchpad)?

Built-in 3G and Bluetooth. Cool.

This could be interesting.

Have they announced the price?

 

[Urza]

Intriguing. I like the swivel screen. It's not a touch screen, though?
Unfortunately not.

Have they announced the price?

Not that I know of.

 

[Sinkhead]

Noahpad looks nice, there's a bigger screen and touchpad and it can be used as a GPS. I'm not sure what OS it uses though...

 

[Urza]

Noahpad looks nice, there's a bigger screen
Incorrect. The Noahpad has the same 7" screen as the EeePC and Cloudbook.

I'm not sure what OS it uses though...

I'm pretty sure its a similiar distribution of Xandro that the EeePC uses.

 

[Veho]

...and it can be used as a GPS.
I got pretty warmed up about that one too, but it doesn't actually have a built-in GPS receiver.
QUOTEFor Noahpad UMPC to function as a GPS device, a separate Bluetooth or USB GPS receiver is required. As an in-car GPS system, it requires a USB 3.5G receiver or WiMax receiver.

The EEE could do the same, with an external GPS unit.

 

[Sinkhead]

Noahpad looks nice, there's a bigger screen

Incorrect. The Noahpad has the same 7" screen as the EeePC and Cloudbook.

Sorry, you're right. I meant to say it can use virtual screen to make it seem like a 10" screen, giving you more area to work with even though you can't see it all the time.

 

[myuusmeow]

Sorry, you're right. I meant to say it can use virtual screen to make it seem like a 10" screen, giving you more area to work with even though you can't see it all the time.

I've got a laptop (2 inches thick, runs Windows 98, very slow) that can do that. It's got a 640x480 native LCD screen but actually can go up to 1024x768.

 

[Urza]

Scheduled to be released today, the CloudBook has been delayed for an unconfirmed amount of time due to "software tweaks".

 

[Veho]

That was to be expected, since the "software" is the scapegoat of choice in these matters; however, I'm inclined to believe them this time, because an identical subnotebook, the Packard Bell Easynote XS (specs here) is already available, the only difference being that the Easybook runs Windows XP (and costs $800).

 

[Veho]

More subnotebooks:

Pioneer DreamBook Light IL1

7'' TFT; 800*480
VIA C7-M 1.0Ghz, Up to 1GB RAM
USBx2, Headphone out, Mic-in, DC-in
VGA-Out
3-in-1, SD/MMC/MS


Two permanent storage options:
Option 1: NAND flash 2GB, 4GB or 8GB
Option 2: 1.8''HDD 40G PATA/80G PATA

244mm x 172mm x 28.5mm
1.1kg

"Windows Vista Ready" (!?)
I'd love to see Vista run on a 1GHz Via processor with 512 MB RAM.

The "starting price" is supposed to be $450, but with the (optional) WiFi card and the (optional) 1GB RAM and the (suppposedly optional but you can't get the other option) 40 GB HDD, it's $585. Not so great.

What gets me most, though, is what IL1 stands for...

I'D Love 1

Next up: the Little Weirdo: the Fontastic A-View Simple PC

The keyboard is detachable.

So it's supposed to be a tablet, but without a touchscreen. It has a trackpad (that nipple-thing) and mouse keys on the back of it instead.
More of an oversized PDA than an actual "notebook", the A-View has the following specs:

CPU: 300 MHz X86
128/256 MB DDR2 SDRAM
4 MB Flash ROM
1 GB/2GB NAND FLASH
800x480 7'' TFT LCD
Ethernet 10/100 Mbps
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g (optional)
Bluetooth (optional)
Webcam: 2.0M pixels (optional)
USB sockets: USB 2.0/1.1 port X 2
Audio jack: 3.5mm in/out
Battery: 3 cells, 2200mAH/cell
Weight: 950g(with keyboard)
Dimension(WxLxH): 230 mm x 146 mm x 33 mm(with keyboard)

Price: to be announced, but I can't see this selling if it's anything over $199 with all the "optionals" included, and even then, I expect people will be saying, "hey, but just $100 more will buy me a basic EEE..."