The market for tiny laptops under 300 USD formed

While some people dare to spend more than $ 3,000 to own MacBook Air with SSD storage, countless others only need a computer weighing less than 1 kg, 3-hour battery life, Wi-Fi connection but only 200 USD.

Although many low-cost laptop projects have been mentioned, it is not until October 2007 that the Asus Eee PC opens up a new market: shortening all the cumbersome, unnecessary in the machine and only serving basic use purpose. This trend exists in parallel with the mainstream trend in the PC industry: developing stronger systems, greater storage capacity and integrating as many features as possible.

Asus Eee PC. Photo: Click2Solutions .

The 7-inch Eee PC uses the Intel Celeron 900 MHz and the battery life is 4 hours. Asus laptop is equipped with strong configuration with 512 MB RAM can upgrade to 1 GB, SSD solid-state storage drive from 2 GB to 8 GB and cost USD 199-399. Recently, the Taiwanese electronics company announced it will release a 8.9-inch widescreen model, running Windows operating system and connecting to WiMax wide-range wireless Internet.

The latest face in the "super cheap" market is Elonex (UK). The Elonex One has a 7-inch screen, 800 x 400 pixel resolution, works on Linux and uses 1 GB Flash drive. In addition, the device integrates a 300 MHz LNX Code 8 processor, 128 MB DDR2 RAM, 802.11 b / g, Ethernet and 2 USB 2.0 ports.

Elonex One. Photo: The Register .

Elonex chose the name "One" as if to send a message that their laptop shares the same purpose with the rather noisy project over time via One Laptop per Child (OLPC - each child with a laptop). The lack of uniformity between developers and sponsors has made OLPC prices from $ 100 to $ 150-180. Meanwhile, One is sold at 195 USD.

OLO Laptop XO project. Photo: Li.mn.

However, the code of LNX Code 8 in One machine sounds quite strange to users. Therefore, observers say it will be difficult to compete with the Eee PC and another buzzing name on this emerging market is Cloudbook.

The combination of Taiwanese computer company Everex (Taiwan) and Zonbu open source company has brought to users 7-inch powerful system with VIA C7-M 1.2 GHz chip, 512 MB RAM, 30 GB hard drive , discrete graphics card, CD or DVD drive and Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g connection. Everex claims their $ 299-399 product can be operated continuously for 5 hours.

Everex Cloudbook. Photo: RegHardware .

Microsoft also does not want to stay out of the trend. They announced that they would soon develop a shortened version of Windows but still fully equipped with familiar gadgets for cheap ultra-thin laptops.