You know how a few years ago a $100 laptop seemed like the stuff dreams were made of? Even the folks at the OLPC foundation never actually managed to bring the price of their revolutionary XO Laptop down to $100. But you know where you’ll be able to pick up a $100 mini-laptop soon? At your neighborhood CVS drug store.
Sure, $99.99 isn’t going to get you a top of the line netbook. Heck, it’s not even going to get you Windows 7 (or XP, for that matter). This little guy will sport Windows CE, and based on the picture I’m guessing it has a 7 inch display, a few gigs of storage space at most, and 512MB or less of RAM. We’ve seen a number of similar machines with low power ARM-based processors over the last few years, although they usually don’t make it to US retail stores.
While the Sylvania netbook looks pretty underwhelming, the price isn’t bad. And to be honest, it’s probably at least as capable a machine as the HP Jornada or NEC MobilePro series of mobile devices which sold for close to $1000 about a decade ago.
Engadget reports that the Sylvania netbook should hit CVS sometime this Fall.
Bought the little Sylvania $99.00
It doesn’t work. My posts tothemdon’t go though.
Class action law suit? Sic my spelling hereÂ
I was lucky enough to buy the last one that CVS had about a month ago (but i could have sworn it was a Cody). It did have wireless capability. i got it home and called comcast only to have them tell me that they did not support “windows CE” and i could therefore, not get on line. I returned it back to the store. Was I just speaking to someone at Comcast that did not know what they were doing??? I should have been able to get online, regardless of the OS correct??? Someone help, I’m so angry with Comcast.!!
I bought a 7´net book Sylvania. It looks wonderful but I am tired of calling the company because the netbook is not working. You can press any key and nothing will happen. Try to open the programs and nothing will happens. I brought as a gift for some kids and I am really sorry and ashamed of offering such a cheap piece of junk, destroying the expectations and illusions of these poor kids. I am tired of sending emails to digitalgadgets.com and they do not even answer. To call, impossible.
[email protected]
ON the Sylvania site it is known as the 7 -in Netbook (I guess to avoid confusion with their two other notebooks the Meso and Magni. The specs are listed below
Processor- Via 8505
Display- 7″ Hi Res TFT (800×400)
Internal Memory- 128mb
Internal Storage- 2gb NAND flash
Connectivity- Wifi 802.11b/g
Connectors- 3 USB Ports USB 2.0 x 1 (supports external memory)-USB 1.1 x 2 (supports keyboard and mouse only)
SD Card Slot- Up to 8gb
Jacks- Microphone Earphone and DC
Keyboard-80 keys
Mouse pad- 2.2″ mouse pad
Battery- 8.4 V 1800 mHa built in Lithium battery
Speakers- 2 x 0.5 W speakers
Operating system- Win CE 6.0 Professional Plus Version
Colors-Silver and Black or Red
We sell a “Generic Model” Just like the sylvania and if it meets a need it is a great machine. We sell ours for $100.00 and have wholesale as well. We are shipping and selling these like crazy. 100’s a day.
This is a nice little machine for the money and I have seen the exact same specs for as much as $269.99 and often it sells for $129.99
So this should be a hit for sylvania.
I am not sure if I can give my addy but We do sell wholesale if anyone is interested [email protected] Same specs no branding.
Should clarify: the Sylvania website says the operating system is gOS but a picture at the website says Windows CE.
First netbook that I have seen that offers the gOS operating system.
I just wanted to add that Coby USA, after over a years of dipping their toe into netbooks, has placed a page on their website that displays seven models of netbook. They have four 10″ Atom CPU models, two 8″ Atomâ„¢ CPU models and one 12″ model that features the AMD Sempronâ„¢ 1.5 GHz 210u Processor. They even have a “BUY” button on each devices description page, but sadly those buttons do not go anywhere yet.
That is a big step for Coby and I suspect that in the future Coby netbooks will be more widely available in N. America without having to buy from shady resellers selling the models available in Brazil and Uruguay.
I had the Sylvania G Netbook (7 inch screen). I just hope the WIFI works in this new incarnation. It didn’t work in the G Netbook. At $340.00, the G Netbook was a fiasco. At $99.00, with working WIFI, and running MS CE, maybe this one will be a hit. I have to say the G Netbook was sturdy built. So hopefully this one will be too.
The G Meso is a different model netbook, but you are correct to worry about build quality no matter whatever version we might see on the shelf for $99
I thought Coby would pull it off first. But Sylvania has been making and selling inexpensive netbooks all along thus this makes more sense.
Also, I think this might be a link to a closer look of a 7″ Sylvania
https://digitalgadgets.com/netbooks/7-in-netbook.htm
Nice find. If that’s the case, it looks like this little guy might have a VIA C7-M, which could make porting Linux or other operating systems relatively easy.
It seems to be what the OLPC should have been. Perhaps there will be a future OLPC based on this computer? For the price of the netbook, it seems like quite a bargain. I think it would be great as a beginner computer for the young or as a portable computer for surfing the web.
Looks like yet another Razorbook rebadge from the photos. Will anyone ever release a budget netbook NOT based on that crock?