Consumer electronics maker Haier has been pumping out netbooks for a little while, but so far they haven’t been available in the US. Haier is showing off a few 10 inch laptops at CES this week, and plans to begin launching them int he United States in April.
One of the first is the Haier X220, a 10 inch netbook with a convertible touchscreen display. You can fold the screen down over the keyboard and use the netbook in tablet mode. The laptop features a resistive touchscreen, which means no support for multitouch gestures. And while the display will automatically rotate when you fold down th screen, the computer doesn’t detect any further motion. In other words, you can’t switch from landscape to portrait mode and back again simply by rotating the X220 in your hands.
Aside from the touchscreen though, the specs look very 2009. It has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and Windows XP Home. Haier does plan to offer an updated version with an Atom N450 CPU and Windows 7 later this year. But that model will likely cost more than the X220 which is priced at just $429.99, making it one of the cheapest touchscreen tablet-style netbooks around.
You can check out my video overview of the Haier X220 after the break.
What do you mean it is not meant for finger input, are you saying it needs your finger nail or some kind sharp point in order to respond? Is it similar to the touch experience on the Intel Convertible Classmate?
Because if it is, I imagine it is a great netvertible for inking.
Yup. It works with a fingernail, but not a fingertip.
That’s very interesting. It’s already available in Europe? Through what vendors?
I think most people would rather buy from more established brands who have been in the market for decades.
You should put a poll in your blog asking people, who would buy China brands and who would buy big established brands.