Bestlink's Alpha 400 ultraportable is dirt cheap, regular cheap

Call us crazy, but these new low-end ultraportable laptops are beginning to look mighty familiar. At least Bestlink has an angle here -- make it dirt cheap -- so its entry isn't totally without merit. The Alpha 400 will apparently be priced from $250 (or $180 in volume), sport a 400MHz (!) Xburst CPU, 128MB of RAM, 1GB or 2GB of flash memory, a 7-inch 800 x 400 display, and will run Windows CE or some form of Linux. The manufacturer says storage can be expanded via SD card or USB drives, and WiFi, CDMA, GPRS, and ADSL will all be available via external add-ons. So... worth about $250, wouldn't you say?

[Via Desktop Linux; Thanks, DeeDee]

[paul @ May 21st 2008 2:59PM]

128MB of RAM? boo!!

[ethana2 @ May 21st 2008 5:57PM]

Who knew they were actually going to make laptops disposable?

[Genjinaro @ May 21st 2008 3:01PM]

LOL on Windows mobile 128MB Ram is high end. :p

Hmm, I see CDMA but no 1xrtt or EVDO.....weird.

[Phoenix @ May 21st 2008 3:31PM]

Nah, pretty much average now. 192 is high end.

[0megapart!cle @ May 21st 2008 4:02PM]

Wrong. 128 MB is definitely high end, at least in the US

[trethlyn @ May 21st 2008 6:12PM]

I'm pretty sure the it's because CDMA is used more than either of those in China and Korea.

[Phoenix @ May 21st 2008 6:13PM]

Oh, The US is a different matter :P With PROPER PocketPCs (smartphones are slightly behind) 128 is on pretty much all the recent ones, and the Touch Diamond will have 192.

[Joshua Ochs @ May 21st 2008 3:02PM]

There, all you "the Eee costs too much!" folks. It's cheap. It's also crap. 400Mhz no-name CPU? 128MB of memory? Enjoy... if you can stand it.

[sracer @ May 21st 2008 3:09PM]

One might consider it "crap" if one was a hardware simp. But if a person is more interested in USING the device rather than drooling over specs, it is a much welcomed addition to the low-end, ultra-light, inexpensive notebook arena.

[jbodar @ May 21st 2008 3:59PM]

@sracer

Great, an ultra-portable email box without built-in Wi-Fi. How much extra is that device gonna run me? I mean, isn't that the point of such a small device? Once you've bought the extra accessories, you may have paid the same price that the low-end EeePCs are selling for right now.

The device need not play Crysis to impress me, it just needs to have the basic necessities for what it's trying to do, and not as "external devices" - read: hidden extra costs to make it seem like a bargain. Sorry, this Fisher-Price ultra-portable wannabe doesn't impress me at all.

[TavisJohn @ May 21st 2008 4:02PM]

For the price of an EEE PC I can get a really nice (More than 2x powerfull) refirb laptop!
This is a better deal of Price vs Preformance.

[Ayman @ May 21st 2008 5:11PM]

Did you even see the size of the icons?
10 icons and there is no more room
no offense but i still have a 486 Compaq with 16mb ram and 0.5 MB Harddrive that runs win 3.11 and the icons still look better also i think it has a bigger screen (not buy much)

[Jonathon @ May 21st 2008 3:02PM]

Honestly I think there is more of a market for something like this than the MID devices. The only problem with them being super cheap is that the batteries are also probably super cheap. Maybe they'll let you upgrade, but I'd gladly spend a few extra dollars to be able to have a few extra hours unplugged.

[initialxy @ May 21st 2008 3:02PM]

400 MHz Xburst? that's new

[bobartig @ May 21st 2008 3:14PM]

Here's a link to the product info for the Xburst: http://www.ingenic.cn/eng/productServ/XBurst/pfCustomPage.aspx

Its based on embedded technology? RISC something or other... *shrug* No clue how this will run, although WinCE is not exactly a motivating factor. Have to see how desktop linux runs on it.

[cmonkey @ May 21st 2008 3:48PM]

My guess is its an ARM (though probably unlicensed).

[Todd @ May 21st 2008 3:03PM]

Paint it Tiffany Blue and it would make a nice dedicated "Twitter box".

[liabo @ May 21st 2008 3:33PM]

Probably will crash just as much too... :)

[Tarnation @ May 21st 2008 3:03PM]

Is it just me or are laptop manufacturers getting away with selling computer that run about as well as computers from the late 90s early 2000s. They are just itty bitty and have better battery life. I understand the ultraportable craze but this crap has to end.

[IT-Accountant @ May 21st 2008 3:08PM]

People were happy with their computers in the early 2000s, my friend. You forget that not everyone needs blazing performance all the time. This thing isn't for AUTOCAD or Crysis- it's an email box.

Not that I would get one, but these things do have a good value proposition.

[retro77 @ May 21st 2008 3:27PM]

Look at what the Prada/iPhone did to the cell phone industry. Everyone is coming out with touch stuff.

Asus hit the nail on the head with the Eee and now everyone else wants to capitalize on it.

[Alex @ May 21st 2008 3:10PM]

It looks cheap.

[d00b @ May 21st 2008 3:13PM]

128 megs will run well with Win98 SE, and there is still a large library of software for the OS. A lean Linux distro with a lite shell will be best for this. Battery life will be make-or-break for this thing.

[retro77 @ May 21st 2008 3:25PM]

Ah, if only we could legally get Win98. M$ definitely isn't selling it any longer.

[Pochi @ May 21st 2008 3:44PM]

"...there is still a large library of software for the OS."

Yeah, except drivers for the Bestlink Alpha 400.

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ May 21st 2008 3:54PM]

@retro77, I have about 20 copies of win98. Legal copies with all the fixins left.

This looks neat. A bit more powerful than a PSP but about the same size and price. The real olpc: O.ne L.ittle P.ersonal C.omputer

[John Stracke @ May 22nd 2008 10:42AM]

It won't run Win98, because it's not an x86 CPU.

[telepheedian @ May 21st 2008 3:15PM]

Spec-wise, that's like a boosted version of my Zune, with undoubtedly worse build quality.

[retro77 @ May 21st 2008 3:24PM]

Varporware...meh. I'll stick to my 701 8G. when the Wifi+3G/EVDO cards come out I'll replace my wireless card in the Eee and be set.

[Blaine Oliver @ May 21st 2008 3:33PM]

Fail.

[Tim Lord @ May 21st 2008 3:38PM]

For $150, I'd say, Sure.

For $250 ... eh, that's $50 *more* than the EEE was originally supposed to cost, for a thing that (in the next technology year) has and does way less.

So, No, I wouldn't say it's worth $250.

But it they sent me one for free I would not complain -- it looks like a nice toy!

timothy

[Baz @ May 22nd 2008 7:35AM]

ASUS originally quoted us at $199 for the Eee 4G - and given its specs, that remains the price it should be, not the $399 we ended up paying.

That said, this device, with these specs, should come in at under $100 - and no, even sent to me for free does nothing for me....

[Sonkith Nola @ May 21st 2008 3:44PM]

IF they make sure that it can run Puppy Linux, I'm up for it.

If not, I'm pretty sure $300 smart phones kick this thing's ass.

[bryan @ May 21st 2008 4:07PM]

I've seen PDAs with more power and memory.. This looks like an overblown Jornada - but with cheaper plastic.

[R1cebrner @ May 21st 2008 4:11PM]

I hope you where saying you where the first to ask if it played doom.

[Ethan @ May 21st 2008 4:15PM]

400MHz is as fast as an HTC Kaiser (Tilt), Touch Cruise, etc.

Windows CE is very similar to Windows Mobile, so it's quite likely this will have adequate performance.

[bryan @ May 21st 2008 5:26PM]

They started out as this
http://tommcmahon.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/nec900720b.jpg
http://tommcmahon.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/jornada820b.jpg

has morphed into this:
http://tommcmahon.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/25/asuseeepc.jpg

which has now become this:
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/05/bestlink_alpha400.jpg

[Superevil @ May 21st 2008 4:27PM]

Double Fail.

[Hellios @ May 21st 2008 5:05PM]

I see no reason why would this need WiFi, it's not like that cpu can render any page except smaller wikipedia articles.

ALTHOUGH.... If that windows CE supported J2ME I could totally see Opera Mini running on this flawlessly.

[kev @ May 21st 2008 5:07PM]

400 MHz processor
128mb RAM

Same specs as the iPhone on a laptop....

[maff @ May 21st 2008 5:09PM]

XBurst CPU for pr0nphans!

[ethana2 @ May 21st 2008 5:59PM]

Go see if you'll blend..

[ethana2 @ May 21st 2008 5:59PM]

..on second thought, I really don't advise that.

[LarryLarryLarry @ May 21st 2008 6:35PM]

Bezelous.

[telepheedian @ May 21st 2008 8:40PM]

I just looked up the XBurst, it's definitely not x86, RISC-based, so its probably some sort of unlicensed ARM variant.

[Tyler @ May 21st 2008 9:35PM]

$100, yes. $150, maybe. $150 with a decent SD card and upgradable RAM, yes. $250, NO.

[Rob @ May 22nd 2008 12:17AM]

So this is a bit cheaper than the 2G Surf, doesn't have any wireless, 128megs RAM instead of 512, slower processor, etc... doesn't sound like a very good deal. Maybe if it had a great amount of battery life and the processor ran very cool... but even then, it should at least have WiFi or some optional *internal* wireless.

[Rob @ May 22nd 2008 2:28PM]

Useless crap. 128MB and non-x86 architecture mean it isn't worth the trouble; I already have a Nokia tablet with the same limitations.

[meadmarc @ Jul 12th 2008 5:11PM]

Could you use it with a thin client?

As a middle school teacher working to bring more and more assignments into the internet age, if this thing can a classroom of 25 kids on-line to do some work, I'm interested. I don't need a hard drive, loads of ram, just a working internet connection and Firefox.

Authentication into our Windows network may present a problem, though...

[Zaman @ Jun 15th 2008 7:43PM]

This is not a very bad laptop I use it everyday.

its on sale now
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180254106018&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37%26satitle%3D180254106018%2509%26category0%3D%26fvi%3D1