Netbook thoughts
Dec. 22nd, 2009 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterToday I woke up to find the article I wrote last night about the $99 netbook had gotten Slashdotted. (Granted, it was intentional, as I also submitted the article to Slashdot.) An interesting discussion followed.
My article was predicated on the idea that CherryPal is building netbooks out of marked-down components and then branding them as Africas. That is, after all, what the blog post Max Seybold wrote said they were doing, more or less. Except perhaps I was misinterpreting him. A number of people in the Slashdot discussion feel that what he's doing is buying batches of discounted entire netbooks wholesale and turning around and rebranding and reselling them—netbooks like the very Menq EasyPC I mention in that article, for example.
Of course, whatever he's doing, I'm going to find out. I've been in touch with him, and I'll be interviewing him on the phone tomorrow afternoon. And what's more, he's going to send me review units of both the Africa and the more expensive computer his company makes, the $349 "Bing". So I'll get to take a look at them in person, which should be interesting.
I'll have to send them back after I'm done reviewing them, of course. But if I find I like the Africa enough, I might just be able to scrape up the $99 to buy it. It would be nice to have a portable computer I can write on that actually has battery life and doesn't weigh eight fricking pounds like my old Toshiba Satellite laptop.
Someone else on Slashdot pointed me to this listing for $109 refurbished Asus Eees. They're the earliest, 7" Eee models, but they have better specs than the baseline for Africas. Of course, the question is whether I'll get a "baseline". If I get something with a 10.2" screen, for $100, that's definitely a keeper.
Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see what Mr. Seybold has to say tomorrow.
My article was predicated on the idea that CherryPal is building netbooks out of marked-down components and then branding them as Africas. That is, after all, what the blog post Max Seybold wrote said they were doing, more or less. Except perhaps I was misinterpreting him. A number of people in the Slashdot discussion feel that what he's doing is buying batches of discounted entire netbooks wholesale and turning around and rebranding and reselling them—netbooks like the very Menq EasyPC I mention in that article, for example.
Of course, whatever he's doing, I'm going to find out. I've been in touch with him, and I'll be interviewing him on the phone tomorrow afternoon. And what's more, he's going to send me review units of both the Africa and the more expensive computer his company makes, the $349 "Bing". So I'll get to take a look at them in person, which should be interesting.
I'll have to send them back after I'm done reviewing them, of course. But if I find I like the Africa enough, I might just be able to scrape up the $99 to buy it. It would be nice to have a portable computer I can write on that actually has battery life and doesn't weigh eight fricking pounds like my old Toshiba Satellite laptop.
Someone else on Slashdot pointed me to this listing for $109 refurbished Asus Eees. They're the earliest, 7" Eee models, but they have better specs than the baseline for Africas. Of course, the question is whether I'll get a "baseline". If I get something with a 10.2" screen, for $100, that's definitely a keeper.
Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see what Mr. Seybold has to say tomorrow.
