Get a $99 Mini-Netbook 1

Posted by JD 05/22/2010 at 11:21

$99 mini-netbook with an ARM processor

Buy It Today!

The device runs either WindowsCE or Android, but I imagine an Ubuntu-on-ARM or Maemo5 distro will work too. For $99, I’d buy one of these devices today, on a whim. If they were in Walmart or Target, then I’d buy 2 of them. Seriously, my neighbor could replace her $700 laptop with this for all the email and surfing she does AND be safer on the internet.

Add an 8GB class 6 SDHC and you’re ready for most home internet users.

Why am I so enthusiastic?

I own a Nokia N800 (few articles here), which is also ARM-processor based. It is the size of a smartphone – about 4". While traveling, that small device is perfect, but once you are at the destination, the small screen and tiny keyboard make using it less than ideal. The available applications are fine. I travel with a BlueTooth keyboard to enhance my N800 experience, but it is tiny and typing numbers requires a “Fn” keystoke. Sometimes keypresses aren’t captured or are doubled due to BT issues too. Arrrrg.

The N800 has very similar specs to the CherryPal MiniNetbook. It is also 800×480 resolution, but in a 4" screen. For me, the screen size and keyboard are THE ISSUES for end of day email, blogging and other casual use. There are thousands of Linux programs already ported to ARM, so that wouldn’t be too much of an issue. Almost every daily use program that I use is already ported or has an very good alternative on ARM. The N800 does multitasking, limited only by CPU and RAM. About 3-4 GUI programs is the real limit in the 128MB of RAM. With 256MB like this CherryPal model has, that limit would be expanded.

It is an excellent device for

  • email (Claws),
  • blogging (builtin or Fennec browser)
  • common web surfing including games
  • Common games like chess, sudoku, tetris, Doom, etc … hundreds of games
  • Mapping (think GPS)
  • skype (yes, skype is available on ARM),
  • YouTube and other flash videos,
  • Remote access into other systems with
    • VNC or
    • rdesktop (RDP client) or
    • ssh.
  • Play media like (mplayer/mencoder, gmplayer, and at least 10 other media playback programs exist)
    • music,
    • audiobooks,
    • podcasts (gPodder),
    • most internet videos,
    • HQ videos after some minor transcoding – resulting video will look very nice.

This device would be perfect for a teen or younger user as well as for older users who simply want to connect with their families.

What it won’t do

You aren’t going to do these things:

  1. Play Crisis or most newer high-action games
  2. Watch DVDs or BlueRay media
  3. Run a full Quicken (if you run WindowsCE perhaps there’s a Mobile Quicken)
  4. Run MS-Office (GNUmeric and other office productivity tools have been ported)
  5. locally run any heavy compute tasks

Oh yes, I’d purchase one or more of these today. I’m seeking a reputable store to purchase one of these or one of the many clones now. If I were going to Hong Kong, I’d pick up a few of these immediately in a computer mall there and ship them home to friends ASAP! Are you going to HK?

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  1. JD 05/27/2010 at 09:31

    This is a travel friendly email/browser device. When you go on vacation, you don’t want to take the 15" laptop that weighs 6 lbs, is full of company sensitive data and worth $1500+.

    I have a Nokia N800 with almost the same specifications as this device, just a smaller physical size (4"). The N800 is too small for comfortable use even with an external keyboard. I would buy a 7" version with a touch-type-friendly keyboard in a second. The normal netbook 10" size is too big. Throwing a 1.5 lb mini-netbook into a carry-on is a no-brainer and it would limit what work that I could actually DO while on vacation, but still give the work team the feel that I “stayed in touch.” Perfect.

    At US$99, if it is lost or stolen, it isn’t the end of the world. Losing the $1500 work laptop with all the sensitive data on it would be really bad. This device won’t have any work data on it, just cached files.