Cheapest Netbook in the world – The LY-EB01

A Chinese based company, ShenZhen has come up with a (cheap) netbook for those, who are generally a little tight of budget  and searching for a lightweight companion for their laptop/desktop when traveling. The LY-EB01, available at a price tag of $98 could be the world’s cheapest netbook. It just weighs 600gm and measures 213mm [...]

World’s CHEAPEST netbook – Just $98! – Runs Windows CE, not XP

eBook’s LY-EB01 netbook is now officially world’s number 1 cheapest netbook. Made in China, this netbook runs Windows CE 5.0 and comes with 128MB RAM and sports a low price tag of $98.

Specifications:-

• 7-inch 800×480 TFT LCD.
• 266MHz AK7802Q216 ARM processor.
• WinCE 5.0.
• Wi-Fi.
• 128MB RAM
• 1800mAh LI-Ion battery

No information on when it will be available in the international market. Keep in mind that it CANNOT run your Windows XP apps.

SmartQ MID now runs Windows CE OS too – costs just $150!

We mentioned the SmartQ MID a couple of months back. At that time, it was able to run just Ubuntu Linux. Now, it will be able to run Windows CE as OS. This MID comes with an 4.3-inch screen and runs ARM processor. Although it raises the possibility of dual-booting, but I don’t think that will be offered to the consumers.

It is available at DealExtreme (non-affiliate link) online shop that has few units in stock and is being retailed at $150 (with free shipping too)

ARM executive says “Android not good enough for netbooks”

Every week, we hear a lot of manufactures that are going to use ARM chip+Android combo on their netbooks. According to them, this will help them to create cheap netbooks that provide decent web-experience on-the-go.

“I do think that there is more work that can and will be done to bring the things we love about Android into form factors (netbooks). Android is still optimized for smartphones,” said Kerry McGuire, director of strategic alliances at ARM

Frankly speaking, this is something we did not see coming. A lot of manufactures are working hard on releasing netbooks at the end of this year or early next year and if the Google Android does not behaves nicely on ARM-powered netbooks, it can be detrimental to the Android developers and the whole Android  community.

ARM processors are still not x86 compatible and thus do not have the ability to run desktop operating systems like Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. Although, it can run other popular OS like Ubuntu Linux and Windows CE  embedded, but those are not *enough* to make a lot of people buy non-x86 compatible products.

Best way would be using Android on Atom processors which are x86-compatible. Acer already has a similar netbook in the tunnel which will be released later this year.

Aigo MID Phone – How about running XP on your phone?

Although we have seen plethora of netbooks and MIDs running Windows XP, but only a handful of companies have come up with the concept of XP-Phone. The Aigo seems to have one in development. It has left and right mouse buttons on the either sides of the device and sports a slide-out keyboard just like many HTC phones. It is also rumored to have an Intel Atom processor. It will have the ability to send and receive calls as-well-as sending and receiving messages.

Commentary: To run Windows XP, you must use an X86 platform, which rules out the possibility of using ARM processors. However, if folks at Aigo use a Linux instead, it may be possible to use the ARM processor and thus it may be able to give the user at least a day of battery life, which is important for a device to be used as a phone. Otherwise, no one would be interested in carrying a huge brick which can give them just few hours of battery life.

Skytone Alpha 680 netbook in flesh

We have mentioned Skytone in the past (here and here). But for the first time, someone has got hold of it and taken few tasty pictures of it. It is a tablet!

It will come with following specifications:

• 533MHz ARM processor
• 7-inch touchscreen
• 800 x 480 resolution
• 128MB of RAM
• 1GB of storage
• SD card slot
• 3G (optional)

Skytone netbook to cost $250

Remember the Skytone netbook that we mentioned a couple of days back? Some more details are come up about this Android-netbook. The netbook will be named Alpha 680 and will cost $250. It will run on an ARM processor and will weigh just 1.5 pounds which is even less than the EEE 701.

It uses the same chip that is being used in the iPhone too, the ARM 11. The skytone netbook is set to debut in month August or September this year.
Don’t you think that $250 is too much for the Android netbook? By spending a few more dollars, one can buy an Atom-powered netbook. But, the biggest asset that the Android-netbooks will have over the Atom powered netbooks will be better battery life.

Only time will tell, if the consumers will adopt netbooks running Android OS.

Android Netbook by Skytone

Yesterday, we posted about the ibuddie netbook which would be powered by Android OS. Now, Skytone is also going to release its Android powered netbook.

It will come with following specifications:

• 533MHz ARM processor
• 7-inch touchscreen
• 800 x 480 resolution
• 128MB of RAM
• 1GB of storage
• SD card slot
• 3G (optional)

The netbook may seem pretty underpowered when compared to the netbooks powered by Atom processor, but we must not forget that we are talking about a netbook that runs mobile OS. Android OS is certainly not ‘that’ tasking on the CPU and hence, does not a lot of horsepower to run.

It is nice to the option to get one with 3G built-in though.

“ARM Sparrow” processor for Netbooks, MIDs

ARM processor is widely used in variety of phones including the likes of Windows Mobile, iPhone and Nokia. At the Mobile World Congress, the ARM announced their new processor. This time, it was not for the mobiles, but for the netbooks.