By The cool thing to do these days is announce you’re working on an Android Netbook, possibly even show a prototype, but leave a bunch of the pieces to the puzzle missing. That is exactly what ECS did at the Computex show with their T800 Netbook.
They had the sexy netbook on display with a specs card sitting next to it. And guess that spec card indicated? That it would run Android OS!
Those specs in text form:
- Model: T800
- OS Supported: Android
- CPU: TI OMAP3 3440 (800MHz) or OMAP3 3450 (1GHz)
- Display: 8.1″ LCD Panel
- Memory: 512MB DDR
- Storage:
- 2.5″ SATA HDD/SSD
- 2x USB 2.0 ports
- 1x Card Reader
- 1x Headphone Jack
- 2x MiniPCe slot reserved for WWAN (HSPA/WiMax)
- PC Camera 0.3 or 1.3 MP (optional)
- Dimensions: 246 x 121 x 20 mm (Close type)
- Weight: 800g
I thought it was interesting to note the “WiMax” in those specs. But even more interesting is the live video of the device performed by Sascha from NetbookNews.com.
As you can see the prototype is not a working model and the netbook isn’t even turned on, which leaves us no choice but to believe that they’ll deliver this in 2nd Half of 2009. But even if THEY believe it, that doesn’t mean we won’t see delays, which seem to be commonplace at this point in Android’s life cycle.
The Android Revolution is inevitably coming… and it isn’t only about mobile phones.
is it just me or are there others who think that a netbook with android is just retarded? Why would I want an ultra portable laptop that does not have open office and firefox and thunderbird? I mean, I get that android is awesome and as a phone platform or embedded device it just can’t be beat. but where user interaction is gonna matter, android cannot compete with native apps that are never gonna be rewritten in the android toolkit (such as open office and firefox). What about more obscure apps that might be important like nmap, nessus etc. If you are gonna make a netbook take a regular linux kernel and strip it down to bare bones. then at least the user gets to pick what he wants to run. and there is no reason the user can’t run android in a sandbox if he really wants it.
Such an odd screen size as well. I run a MSI Wind and run into issues with applications that are too tall vertically(photoshop’s save for web screen for example) even on that, it will be worse on these ultra wide screens.
I think Solid has a point as well, whats the point if its not actually a fully function version of linux that can run linux apps (open office) as well as special things like Wine. I dont see the advantage either
I think the point may be to use Google products; Calendar, Document et al. Although not as big, it definitely has a niche market… don’t think I’d be an early adopter, though…
@Solid….. thank you so much!
What do I really care about an android laptop? what does it do for me? It is the most retarded thing to me. they need to make a better phone HW for android. all I have seen are ugly phones!!!
I don`t see the point in having a mobile OS on a netbook. I mean, Android is really cool, but it`s still not Ubuntu or Win XP, which are generally speaking more usable. On android, you can install android apps, but on regular Linux or Win XP, you can install whatever you want.
I too, don’t see much point in an Android netbook, at least as netbooks exist now, but for completely different reasons. I have no doubt that whatever software is needed will be developed(in my book open office, Mozilla and particularly Firebird are far from needed) To me Android makes sense as a light, inexpensive tablet pc, maybe even without keyboards. Any more power and you might as well go with a regular operating system. Personally I’m looking forward to Android on set top boxes, in cars, and that kind of stuff much more than netbooks.
There are a few things I want to say about an Android netbook, as the current state of both Android and “Android Netbooks” leave some things to be desired. If an Android netbook maker solves/provides all of these, I’ll be interested in buying one:
A) Featurs I want in an Android netbook: it has to be a Convertible Tablet/Swivel Screen design for me to be interested; 9″ screen with at least 1024×600; I’d prefer micro-dvi-i out, but vga out is acceptable — but it has to have some form of video out; at least 2 or 3 USB slots for things like KVM, storage, etc. (including the option to boot from USB storage); at last one full size SDHC card slot, but two would actually be a bit more ideal; and an _OPTION_ for internal 3G.
B) There are 6 shortcomings, in my opinion, to Android as it is now, which would be critical to me wanting to use Android on something bigger than a phone: Full Gmail (send/reply as one of my other gmail personalities, create/edit filters, create/edit labels, see full details of the message, see the original message, edit the quoted message in a reply (to trim it down, focus on a particular passage, etc.)); Full Google Reader (keyboard shortcuts, add/edit tags); Full Google Docs (read/write, all formats, view Gmail attachments); Full IM (more than 1 identity per service, more than 1 service active at a time, more than one identity at a time active with each service, more jabber servers that just google talk, more than one Google Talk account, logging conversations to SD card/storage); better VNC viewer support, and better integration with ConnectBot (not so much Google’s fault, but still something that’s necessary for me on a netbook; must be able to do BOTH ssh tunneling through ConnectBot AND vnc password); Tethering (Wifi +++, BT-DUN ++, BT-PAN +, USB) phone: act as the server/access point for those netbook: act as the client for those, in addition to _options_ for built-in/internal 3G.