aojie

While netbook prices continue to fall in the US, western PC vendors have got nothing on Chinese PC makers. Shanzai.com recently spotted two new models from AOJIE that are priced at just $146 and $160 US.

While we’ve certainly seen some other mini-laptops at or below those prices, they tend to be 7 inchers with sluggish ARM-based processors. The AOJIE X100V and X100A both sport 10 inch screens. The cheaper X100V has a 1.6GHz VIA C7-M processor, while the $160 X100A has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU.

Both models ship with Windows XP, have 1024 x 576 pixel displays, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 2 USB ports, a 1.3MP webcam, and 3 cell, 2200mAh battery. The computers weigh in at 2.3 pounds. On the down side, they’re saddled with just 512MB of RAM and 4GB of solid state storage.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 16,212 other subscribers

10 replies on “AOJIE unveils dirt cheap Chinese netbooks”

  1. Feh. Won’t ever show up in the US. None of the others have, this one won’t either. Anything with an MSRP under $250 ever actually makes it.

  2. I think it was a good idea to stay with WinXP. It is more suited for netbooks that Vista or Win7. I think the price is very good and they will sell quite well. If they sold in the USA, I think they would do very well.

  3. Cheers! This is more in line with where netbook prices should be as of December 2009. At $160, the addition of a 500GB or 640GB hard drive would turn these netbooks into properly speced computers. They’re not worth any more than this — even despite them being amazing pieces of technology. We’re being sold a bag of goods, I’m afraid (as are other countries — particularly developing ones).

    A 500GB version of the AOJIE netbook should cost $248 (or $265.36 with tax [from the addition of a 500GB Scorpio Blue at $88 on Amazon]). This would be Windows XP, Atom processor, 512MB RAM, 500GB Hard drive, 3-cell battery, etc.

    A 640GB version should cost $280 (or $299.60 with tax [from the addition of a 640GB 2.5-inch Scorpio Blue Drive at $120 on Amazon]).

    Add in a 7200 mAh (9-Cell) Battery — which, in reality, shouldn’t cost over $60 — and the total price comes to $340 (or $363.80 with tax). This would amount to a 10-inch netbook with Windows XP, 1.6 Ghz Intel Atom, 512MB RAM, 640GB Hard Drive, 9-Cell 7200mAh Battery (plus additional 2200mAh 3-cell spare), 4GB of Solid State Storage, etc. — all for just $340. This is where the prices really should be. The 500GB version of this same customization (i.e. 9-Cell Battery, 500GB hard drive, etc.) would be only $308.

    Throw in a 1.5TB Hard Drive and a portable enclosure ($109 and $20 respectively) and the price ends up being $469 (or $501.83 with tax).

    In other words, for $469.00 you get:

    10-Inch Screen Netbook
    Windows XP
    1.6 Ghz Atom
    640GB Hard Drive
    9-Cell Battery (7200mAh)
    512MB RAM
    4GB SD Storage
    1.5TB Portable, enclosed 3.5-inch Hard Drive
    3-Cell Extra Battery Spare (2200mAh)
    802.11b/g/n WiFi
    1.3MP webcam
    2 USB ports
    11-hour Battery Life

    All of this for just $469. This is where netbooks should priced going into early 2010. Anything over this means that consumers are getting the proverbial banana, I think.

    I won’t even comment on RAM or the fact that I’ve intentionally added at least $20 onto the total pricing. As the real prices that I’ve seen on these additions at Amazon add up to be about $449 (which includes the 2.1 Terabytes of portable Hard drive space, 9-Cell battery, Windows XP, etc.)!

    Purchase with a standard rewards credit card at 3% back and the total comes down to $435 (before tax).

    1. uhm. you are aware you can buy 10″ netbooks right now for under $300 right? if not you should visit this site more often – they showcase deals all the time.

      Also I’m not sure why you would need both a 620GB internal drive AND a 1.5TB external drive… do you need 2000 ripped DVDs with you at all times? It’s not like an Atom can handle video anyway… 😀

    2. Interesting… (I’m sure you can subtract, etc, and possibly extract square roots as well 😉 😉 the first question I had about this unit was, what are the odds that an existing after-market 9-cell battery would fit? The 2200 mAh 3-cell wouldn’t be of much use.

  4. If the 4G SSD is on a mini-PCIe card, it might be fun to have one of these to play around with, but I suppose it’s probably soldered in. From the pics at Shanzai, I see that they’ve copied Asus’s highly successful Shift on the right side of PgUp key ;).

Comments are closed.