By The Mobile World Congress doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, but that hasn’t stopped some early Android attention from being waved around. Take the Compaq Airlife 100 for instance – an Android Smartbook manufactured by HP with a data plan partnership through Telefonica.
That desktop/homescreen looks more attractive than the majority of other Android netbook/smartbooks we’ve seen and HP/Compaq might really have something here. The keyboard looks spacious and they say its 92% the size of a normal laptop keyboard. The specs themselves sound pretty darn good:
- 10.1-inch touchscreen
- 16GB SSD
- POSSIBLY a Snapdragon processor
- instant startup Instant-On
- integrated 3G modem
- WiFi
- VGA camer
- 10 hour battery life
Wowzers. Not gonna lie… this has me interested in an Android netbook/smartbook once again.
[Via Engadget Spain]
when it well come to the us
Once this comes to the US, I’m buying!
touchscreen?
POSSIBLY a Snapdragon processor
lol.
Yea I think it is a touchscreen as well. Looks pretty good.
Inevitably someone will comment that the screen should be made that it could lay flat and used more like a touch pad.. Although that would be nice, for me this layout is more than acceptable. You have the touchscreen (or track-pad that I would hate to use) to navigate, and a keyboard to get things done. It’s an improvement over laptops and netbooks with track-pad only.. If I wanted a touch pad (I don’t) then I would get that.. this is more like a better netbook, and it looks to be done very well.. If they want to sell it to me though, I would appreciate some kind of 3G data sharing with my phone, otherwise I guess it would have to be a Wifi only device for me.. and even then, I still may consider this if priced right.
@Hans:
Yes touchscreen.
This looks awesome imo, I would get it if it was cheap and in the US.
The whole Android/Chrome on netbooks thing is very confusing to me. Do all Android apps run flawlessly on Chrome? Can chrome and android hardware talk to each other the same way android-android hardware can?
If so, what’s the point of having both? Can chrome be built into android or vice versa? I don’t understand the fragmentation by Google. If I’m going out to get a netbook or a touchrev type of device, do I want one with Chrome or with Android?
Is Chrome “the future” and Android “the present” like Google pitches Buzz and Wave?
Is this the right place to be asking these kinds of questions?
/close rant.
This Android smartbook does have some good specs…touchscreen, wifi, instant on. How much is this going to sell retail?
@Justin M.
The way I understand it.. Chrome will basically be an OS in a browser.. I am not sure how they plan on dealing with functionality when it’s not connected to the internet.. but I imagine they will think of something.. there are many things you can do offline with a browser, but it has some limitations. Both approaches have futures, and will appeal to different people. I am pretty certain that things you can do on Chrome you will be able to do on Android, the opposite is probably less likely that apps developed for Android will all work on Chrome.
Very interesting. If Google ever improves on their documents and makes their word processing and spreadsheets more powerful and a true competitor to MS Office it would be perfect. Overall I like the cloud-based concept that it Chrome netbooks will have and their simplicity of use and no-nonsense approach is refreshing.
@Dennis
I see, I see. So maybe if I get a netbook I can put both Chrome AND Android on it and boot whichever one I want at that particular time?
Hopefully they make Android Apps run seamlessly in a Chrome browser so that developers don’t have to make a Android and a Chrome app.
instant startup Instant-On? How instant is that?
If this is under $200 dollars I would be very interested. Hopefully the screen will fold over for a tablet like experience *fingers crossed*
I tell you what its looks like the moto backflip fashion where you put the keyboard behing the screen?