It may be lagging behind the
OLPC 2B1 in terms of
pre-sales and
globe-trotting diplomacy, but China's Sinomanic (at least that appears to be the name from the translation) looks to be set to give NickNeg a bit of competition in putting laptops into the hands of as many students as possible -- in China, at least. While it apparently lacks a
pull-string or other less electricity-dependent power source, the Sinomanic laptop should get the job done for most basic computing tasks, and look half-decent to boot. Based around a
400MHz Godson-1 processor (similar to that used in the $150 Municator), the multi-colored laptop boasts a 10.2-inch TFT, a 40GB hard drive, 128MB RAM, built-in networking (not WiFi) and is set to cost 1,998 Yuan, or about $250. Exactly what OS it's using isn't clear, though we're guessing that desktop background isn't an indication. Looking to broaden its appeal, the company's also announced a less-curvy laptop model, presumably with similar specs, as well as a curiously familiar-looking desktop computer (check it out at the link below). Your guess is as good as ours as to when any of 'em will actually find their way into the hands of students, however.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matt @ Oct 14th 2006 5:51AM
Ah, the mark of a quality product: stealing Apple's desktop background.
Kenneth @ Oct 14th 2006 6:09AM
Strange, the keyboard looks like it may have the Alt/Option key and the Command/Apple keys
Intrepid @ Oct 14th 2006 6:18AM
They look overly girlish, so MacOS would be right at home on this system... It must be a joke - Apple would rather slit their own wrists than see another company ship laptops with Apple command keys on them...
andy @ Oct 14th 2006 6:49AM
also, one of the pictures on the product page actually has a copy and pasted macbook pro keyboard on it lol, hhmmmm very fishy indeed, i would buy one of these cause i wouldnt expect the company to around after the apple lawsuit lol
Matias Korhonen @ Oct 14th 2006 8:22AM
The first thing i noticed was the 'Aqua' wallpaper from OSX... And is that a control key from mac?
Andrew Valderas @ Oct 14th 2006 10:00AM
Yeah this is right off the Clamshell iBook cutting room floor....
roger born @ Oct 14th 2006 10:53AM
here is the translation of the linked page in chinese -
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://cn.engadget.com/2006/10/11/china-sinomanic-notebook-appear/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsinomanic%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den
wish apple would build something like this - a writer's notebook, small and minimal, with a bit of web surfing and emailing thrown in.
Oddmanout @ Oct 14th 2006 10:56AM
Not bad. Makes me nostalgic for the old days of the TI-85. It was a badge of honor/nerd-dom to be in a math class that required a graphing calculator.
But yeah, if it plays at least Mpeg1 at a reasonable level of quality and has a PCCard slot I'd hit it for $250...
I'd prefer if it were a little smaller though...say Vaio Picturebook size...
Ignacio @ Oct 14th 2006 11:47AM
That's *definitely* a Mac keyboard: Alt/Option key, Apple/Command Key:
http://cn.engadget.com/images/2006/10/sinomanic.jpg
Blake @ Oct 14th 2006 11:54AM
Notice it also has a touchscreen: No trackpad or trakstik is visible.
tiuk @ Oct 14th 2006 2:52PM
If it has USB, CF, or PC card (so I can use a wifi adapter) I'd buy it. $250 is exactly in the price range of what I'd be willing to spend on an ultracompact PC *with a keyboard* that I can install a full fledged OS on (and why I've been avoiding things like the UMPC and mylo).
tiuk @ Oct 14th 2006 3:00PM
Oops, looks like I jumped the gun on the "full fledged OS" part, since it doesn't say what it'll be running or if it can be changed. Still, $250 would still be worth it as long as it has a browser, word processor, and can run MSN messenger and Skype. While we're on the subject, is there even any chance of getting these in North America?
gRm @ Oct 14th 2006 4:24PM
Interesting mock-up, it's obvious there is no actual product yet though. At least, what's in that picture is certainly not even a prototype product. At least we know the company has competent photoshop skills...that should be enough to build a quality product no?
Reevsaj @ Oct 14th 2006 7:59PM
why does it have a macbook pro/powerbook keyboard? this is just a bad photoshop.
Timbobsteve @ Oct 16th 2006 10:35AM
Interesting concept. I absolutely adore portable gadgets. I am still using my older ibook G3 12" over anything newer, simply because its small, light and portable (and I can't quite afford a Flybook).
If I can get one of these things running Linux then I would be willing to pay the $250 for it, if only because the 2B1 (olpc) isn't for commercial consumption.