Comments on: Would you pay $250 for an underpowered Google Android netbook?

By: thequinox

thequinox — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:39:21 +0000

No. It comes down to the fact that I need a full OS. If this was a DAP, Phone, or MID then android would be fine. Those devices don't have the hardware or form factor to be considered a full fledged PC. I can accept shortcomings there.

A netbook on the other hand is a fully functional PC. I want it to be able to do everything a laptop can do. If I am out somewhere and I need to troubleshoot a network connection, I know I whip out my netbook and get the job done with standard tools. i don't want to have to worry about how to get things working on Android.

Leave limited lite OSs to limited lite devices. Don't start making me carry around a full sized netbook with limited functionality.

By: teh.sean

teh.sean — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:26:21 +0000

For my $250 it would have to have more than android to make the sell.
I'm thinking 6+ hour life and smaller (and perhaps gimmicky) form factor. If they are going with an arm it should last a long time. You can get a good used Sharp Zaurus PDA for $250 right now that would compare.

By: thequinox

thequinox — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:39:21 +0000

By: teh.sean

teh.sean — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:26:21 +0000

By: brian

brian — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:19:14 +0000

They missed the boat with these. A year ago would have been the latest they should have released these. With netbooks easily had for $250 they'll have to settle with charging under $200 and likely more around $150 if they even want to be in the market. With trashy displays and keyboards they'll be lucky to get $150 for these.

By: Is the Skytone Android-powered netbook overpriced at $250? | Netbooks News, Hacks and HowTo's

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:53:49 +0000

[...] via liliputing [...]

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:49:23 +0000

Nope. I'd happily pay $250 for one with a 1024×600 display, 256MB of RAM and a Cortex-A8 if it had the kind of battery life I think one could expect from such a beast. But the first thing I'd do would be to install a more typical Linux OS on it.

Oh, and it should have a pointing stick instead of a trackpad (I think that's true of every <14″ laptop, but it's especially obvious for the smallest devices). That teeny trackpad and the buttons to either side of it don't look like a joy to use.

By: Jeff Jones

Jeff Jones — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:31:26 +0000

Years ago I had a few of the WindowsCE handheld/Laptop devices and liked them for taking notes, etc. I imagine this would be even better with a cloud like computing environment which Google has already in place. However, unless current netbook/laptop prices boom I would not pay $250.

Funny though, I might be more willing to pay more for such a device if bundled with a smaller handheld and a 3g/4g plan. Thought might be enticing.

By: Bolomkxxviii

Bolomkxxviii — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:29:49 +0000

That would be no.

By: angryearthling

angryearthling — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:14:23 +0000

the price is ok if the the underpowered system has a better battery life. remember the palmos was run on an underclocked cpu that gave a fantastic battery life. 7″ screen is fine for web browsing and light usage. i like them small. i liked the nokia tablets. the real problem with them was that when it came to displaying pdfs the 64mb wasn't able to render the pages properly. 7″ might be a little small for that but it would depend on the reolution on that 7″ screen. it would be border line. it would definitely need a sd card slot so that it could have a large card put in it. 8 or 16gb.

but yeah i could see myself buying one. but then i've bought pretty much every other device out there.

psion, palm, zaurus, visor, nokia, iphone, eeepc, olpc, aspire one.

By: While I Was Away (26 April 2009) | UMPCPortal - The Mobile Internet and Computing Reference Site

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:19:02 +0000

[...] some interesting news going about relating to Android on netbooks. It’s going to happen and i’m sure it’s going to be big but it might not happen on a big [...]

By: saperalot

saperalot — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:32:00 +0000

250 Bucks they are crazy! 100 will be OK so far but for what? “kiddynetbook”

By: viva

viva — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:57:10 +0000

It's not the price nor the OS. It's the screen resolution. I had my expierences with 800 x 480 on a Nokia N800. It calls itself 'internet tablet' but frankly, this resolution is way too small for a vast majority of web pages. The typical netbook resolution of 1024 x 600 is wide enough for most sites. So, even for 99$, I wouldn't spend money on such a device. It's just not fit for the main task of a mobile device like that: web browsing. If it's just chatting or e-mail you want to do, there are other devices your mobile phone provider will offer you for free.