Raon Digital's tiny Everun Note reviewed

Don't call it a netbook. Placing Raon Digital's featherweight powerhouse up against relative monsters like the Eee PC or MSI Wind leaves you looking at a device that is tiny and fast, but at $879 is woefully overpriced. UMPC Portal was loaned one for perusal and found that it stands on its own, filling the gap (niche of a niche?) between ultra-mobile and ultra-portable. The six-page review was itself "written, edited, and post produced on the Everun Note in the car, bed, sofa and on the desktop." UMPC Portal rates its battery life as below that of your typical 6-cell netbook (3 hours on average or 2:15 if you can't live without WiFi), but indicates its dual-core AMD Turion X2 gives it the power to "span ultra mobile and desktop duties" -- even serving as a respectable gaming machine, which can't be said for your average Atom-based portable.

[Thanks, benz145]

[Tom Robertson @ Sep 10th 2008 8:54AM]

Impressive CPU spec for the size and dimensions!

[Jeff @ Sep 10th 2008 8:56AM]

I won't lie. Kind of excited about this one.

Sure, you pay a $380 premium over most netbooks. But it's still a solid $400-or-more cheaper than many true UMPCs. And the idea that this little guy actually packs more power than the legion of Atom-based minis coming out, to me, is absolutely delicious.

It's not for me, I confess. But I wager that this would sell a lot if it was marketed to the gaming crowd.

[Atanas Boev @ Sep 10th 2008 9:00AM]

This should be called a subnetbook (usually 255.255.255.0).

[Level 5 @ Sep 10th 2008 2:38PM]

win.

[stefan @ Sep 10th 2008 9:02AM]

as soon as this becomes available I might just put my eee900 on ebay.

[Serial 8-Ball Mouse @ Sep 10th 2008 9:18AM]

And then get an Eee 901.

[Mark @ Sep 11th 2008 1:07PM]

Know where we can buy one?

[Cybergypsy @ Sep 10th 2008 9:11AM]

Way to much money!

[TareX @ Sep 10th 2008 11:38AM]

Nope. Engadget is stupid. It's THE ONLY dual-core processor netbook with a dedicated ATI 128MB gfx chip, AND also by far the smallest. If anything I'm glad they priced it sub-$1000.

[TareX @ Sep 10th 2008 11:39AM]

Nope. Engadget is stupid. It's THE ONLY dual-core processor netbook with a dedicated ATI 128MB gfx chip, AND also by far the smallest. If anything I'm glad they priced it sub-$1000.

[iEye @ Sep 10th 2008 9:16AM]

HiVision needs to start pumping out those $98 Laptops ASAP!

put these greedy jokers in place...

[bioadam @ Sep 10th 2008 9:46AM]

There is definitely a gap between big cheap laptops and small underpowered cheap "netbooks". The Everun Note has great stats, but where oh where are the decently priced 11" and 12" laptops?

[Major4Play @ Sep 10th 2008 9:47AM]

nice amount of power but my last laptop (an HP pavilion dv2000) had a dual core turion and it nearly melted my laptop stand !
If AMD can die shrink it to 45nm and make it very cool running, I'd certainly pick something with proper desktop power over an atom anyday.

[avester @ Sep 10th 2008 9:51AM]

If this had aluminium shell, Apple logo, and 1800$ price tag, you wouldn't call this overpriced.

[Harry Wagstaff @ Sep 10th 2008 12:45PM]

Well no, because the fact that it was overpriced would be implied by the Apple logo. It's not that we wouldn't call it overpriced, it's that we wouldn't need to.

[chefgon_ign @ Sep 10th 2008 12:56PM]

Well said.

[timmy @ Sep 10th 2008 11:52AM]

This reminds me of the Toshiba Libretto of yesteryear , I think they were 486 DX50s, sweet for their time and about the size of a pencel box.

[BigD145 @ Sep 10th 2008 1:40PM]

$879? Did we go back in time to the first year of the UMPC?

[AiboPet2003 @ Sep 10th 2008 3:32PM]

Fun looking machine. Anyone who has ever owned a Libretto (I have a U105,50CT,70CT,110CT).....will right about ........NOW.... be laughing at the whiners in here about the sub 1K price. The Librettos were upwards of 2000 each when I got 'em. The little U105 is STILL a very capable machine, is STILL around 1500 on ebay for a complete machine, and blows the eee machines out of the water in performance.

I'll be looking at this thing closely when it comes out :-)

[Fredley Whimson-Pompley @ Sep 10th 2008 6:15PM]

Yep, Libretto U105 user here too. This Digital Everun is the first thing to hold a candle to the Libretto U10* series, compared to the laughable Eee and their bulky clones.

I'm really tempted to buy this and the extended battery, but I think the Libretto has still got quite a few working years left in it (Cuts through Half Life II like butter!)

[Fredley Whimson-Pompley @ Sep 10th 2008 6:15PM]

Forgot to mention the only downside to this unit is the 1024×600 resolution. Libretto packs in a 1280×800 res which really defines the difference between "toy notebook" and "practical computing device" especially for web browsing.

[Mark @ Sep 11th 2008 12:56PM]

Sorry, but 1280x800 would make my eyes bleed.

[Phil @ Sep 10th 2008 6:21PM]

Anyone have any idea where in the UK you can buy one?

[LondonConsultant @ Sep 10th 2008 5:13PM]

Try typing "Raon Digital Everun Note" into Google, eg:
http://www.supergps.co.uk/raon-digital-everun-note-white-amd-turion-64x2-60gb-1gb-xp-p-3648.html?gad=CMDIu8kDEgg-s_Nh2Zr1URiY3OT-AyCY9p4z&

[Lycias @ Sep 10th 2008 7:57PM]

Wow, any desires of getting it dissipated when I clicked on that link. There reasonable pricing and then theres 'you got to be kidding me pricing'

[jpconard @ Sep 10th 2008 6:43PM]

Yes, as somebody mentioned above, I just received my HP dv2313cl back from HP, burnt itself up (could be the Nvidia issue), but those CPUs run way too hot. Now the fan is kicked up to run more and so you have that to deal with. They need to stay cool, quiet, and cheap (cheaper than they are now) and the only way to do that is with Atom or Celeron M CPUs. The software needs to do more with less CPU.

[wootman @ Sep 10th 2008 7:36PM]

reminds me of the pandora.

[SimonRichards @ Sep 10th 2008 9:33PM]

If youre gonna thank anyone you could have thanked me for tipping you on this 5 hours earlier...

Anyway the note looks like a good device but it does seem to need a bigger battery, if it could get perhaps 5 hours then it would be great

[Phoenix987 @ Sep 11th 2008 6:54PM]

Oh Engadget writers, whatever you are on, please share.

$879 for this isn't "woefully overpriced" especially when you compare it to other netbooks.