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Coby is a company known for making cheap electronics. And back in January, the company showed off a whole slew of cheap netbooks with 9 and 10 inch displays. But so far, not a one of them has been made available in the US… until now.
Liliputing Forum member Lincoln Thurber spotted two models available for pre-order from Amazon. One has a 12.1 inch display, while the other is outfitted with a 10.1 inch screen. The specifications look a little odd, but here’s a rundown of what the pre-order pages say:
- Display: 12.1 inch, 1024 x 800 pixels
- CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270
- OS: Windows XP Home
- RAM: 1GB
- Storage: 160GB hard drive
- Battery: 2.3 hours
- Dimensions: 13.1″ x 9.8″ x 3.2″
- Weight: 3.2 pounds (although the shipping weight is listed as 1 pound!?!)
- Price: $423.99
- Display: 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixels
- CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270
- OS: Windows XP Home,
- RAM: 1GB
- Storage: 160GB hard drive
- BatterY: 2.45 hours
- Dimensions: 13.1″ x 9.8″ x 3.2″ (does this look familiar to anyone?)
- Weight: 3 pounds (again, the shipping weight is listed as 1 pound)
- Price: $318.99
While the dimensions and weight appear to be off, and I have questions about the screen resolution on the 12 inch model, these products do seem to be real. At least, I’d like to imagine that Amazon wouldn’t be taking pre-orders if they weren’t. The prices are decent, if not spectacular. It would be nice if there were higher capacity battery options available, or more information about wireless. I’m assuming both laptops have 802.11b/g WiFi, but what about 802.11n or Bluetooth?
They do look like those Nudos devices indeed…same prices too. Early talk was Coby wouldn’t badge their machines as Coby at all, but given the convoluted way computers are made overseas it hard to know who makes what.
What does interests me is if Coby will sell these machines in their current supply chain of pharmacies and discount stores. It’s one ting to sell a netbook at Staples or Best Buy; however, when they sell at Rite-Aid for $250 or $300 might we see a change in who buys netbooks?
The other thing I see is netbooks being sold at airports. Walk into the everything shop at the airport and if you have forgotten your laptop you buy another one cheap. Disposable cameras used to seem outlandish, so the cheap computer might seem today, but might be a real device in a decade. Meanwhile, Coby might just have a niche that would be easy to exploit if they are fast and smart.
these look the same as sold on dealextreme.com as the nudos brand
https://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.netbook
As you know…I’m over joyed!!!
I also think that 13.1″ x 9.8″ x 3.2″ is the size of the box. Think about most netbooks come in a 13 x 10 x 3 box, right?
I think the 12″ is a weird choice for COBY, but that 10″ seems nearly perfect except for the price. The sweet spot for them has to be $299. Almost nobody would match that price in the 10″ space. Yes, $319 is low already but is it COBY low?