Sinomanic Godson-based student laptop

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.

[ArticIce @ Apr 25th 2009 3:33PM]

No, the wallpaper is more like the one used in Fedora linux, or one of the KDE default ones; I'm pretty sure they didn't steal any of the precious Apple wallpapers.
I also don't think they put a touchscreen in a budget laptop, the mouse is probably just an external one, which is nice as for me, because I hate that dumb touchpads, they are useless.
And yes, they are girly, and if I was a male chinese student (well, I'm still male :D) I would definitely choose the purple one, because the other two would look stupid, and with the purple I could make it that way, I don't mind girlyness :)

[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?

[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...

[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.

[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.