Celio's REDFLY down to $199, still $198 too expensive

For those who've managed to avoid hearing about Celio's REDFLY up until now, we hate that you've been absent for so many laughs. Essentially, this here is a Foleo wannabe that somehow made it into production, and no, you can't even use the thing without your smartphone. Still down for throwing away $199 for a handset companion? Be our guest.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

[Erwos @ Sep 25th 2008 6:13PM]

For $200, I would seriously consider it. There's a lot of times that I want to browse at the dinner table, but not actually haul my laptop up. But my phone is already up there...

[Testies, Testies, 1, 2... 3? @ Sep 25th 2008 6:35PM]

They should come up with some sort of low powered, lightweight notebook that is designed for light tasks, but could still handle little bit bigger tasks. Kinda like a notebook designed for the net,

They could call it a "NetNotebook"!

[Serial 8-Ball Mouse @ Sep 25th 2008 6:52PM]

...and those times warrant carrying around another $200 piece of machinery with you?

I doubt it.

[JohnTitor @ Sep 25th 2008 7:16PM]

dude, trust me you don't want this, either spend more to get a netbook (around 400)
or just get a PDA cause they'd have a same power, for the same price that fits in your pocket

by the way, what's up with copying Dell's pencil

[Erwos @ Sep 25th 2008 7:25PM]

Um, duh, I already have a smartphone. Upstairs, in fact, which is why this would be handy. But browsing at 320x240 is not even remotely similar to browsing at 800x480. There's also the instant-on aspect of it all.

[JohnTitor @ Sep 25th 2008 10:50PM]

its all about the browser and skyfire is the best one for winmo
it doesn't support higher than qvga so you'd do best to install that on your winmo phone than use this trash

[Testies, Testies, 1, 2... 3? @ Sep 26th 2008 12:43PM]

"I already have a smart phone... upstairs in fact"

I personally thought about getting a smart phone that I would carry around with me, but I realized that would be stupid... So I have one upstairs, one downstairs, one in the garage, two at work... Oh yeah, and one in the bathroom.

It's all good cause it's a family plan, but when I hear a text message I have to run all over!

[Joe H @ Sep 25th 2008 6:14PM]

Actually I happen to think $200 is a decent price for this. I won't be buying it though, for two reasons. One, because I don't really need it, but more importantly, because if the price has crashed down this far so quickly, then why not wait and see if it goes down. If it hits $100 its almost a no-brainer for those using WM.

[Fred @ Sep 25th 2008 6:23PM]

But...will it run Doom?

[Testies, Testies, 1, 2... 3? @ Sep 25th 2008 6:35PM]

Well, at least we know what your brain consists of... Pineapple brain...

[KRIS_C_123 @ Sep 25th 2008 6:23PM]

i love the titles of the articles on engadget, they alaways make me chuckle

[BChau @ Sep 25th 2008 6:24PM]

The Celio should just be a dongle with a display port for connecting to a display screen, and a USB port for connecting to keyboard and mouse. The PDA phone is essentially a computer. All we need is the ability to connect to a display screen and keyboard/mouse.

[Surur @ Sep 25th 2008 9:30PM]

They do actually sell that dongle.

[konshuss @ Sep 26th 2008 10:00AM]

what these dolts should have been doing is making SOFTWARE that does this on existing laptops. those foolish fools.

[Colonel Kernel @ Sep 28th 2008 2:11AM]

That is exactly what this is.

[Serial 8-Ball Mouse @ Sep 25th 2008 6:27PM]

HAHA... solid title...

[BJ is Gooder @ Sep 25th 2008 6:27PM]

This thing is hilarious! There would have to be some serious salary negotiations to get me to try this thing. And with these price cuts, it doesn't look like Celio could pay me enough to make it worth my while...

[broli @ Sep 25th 2008 6:28PM]

Wtf is this crap. I thought it was a full fledged netbook until I realized you needed a damn smartphone that acted as the cpu/ram/hdd.

[YpoCaramel @ Sep 25th 2008 6:28PM]

Now that's a lot of hate. Has the poster really used this thing, or does he just like to hate?

[ben @ Sep 25th 2008 6:29PM]

This product's function seems somewhat vague and...I don't know, nonexistent? I personally think that Windows Mobile is a decent operating system for mobile devices, but to run it on a crippled netbook seems awfully WinCE-like/ridiculous. Someone who can shell out the moneys needed to own and use a smartphone (that data rate's a killer) probably can buy themselves a netbook.

[GON @ Sep 25th 2008 6:34PM]

It's useless without my smartphone? I'll pass and just get a netbook.

[Graham @ Sep 25th 2008 6:40PM]

Okay... Here me out on this one... Lets say this drops between a $100 and $150, and you pair it up with an HTC touch or Touch Diamond, you know... A PDA phone with out a keyboard... It then could serve as a decent large screen, and bluetooth keyboard/mouse to your PDA.

Sure it's an expensive accessory but I can't help wondering about all the Diamond people who aren't waiting for the Touch Pro because of it's Thickness, if this could be a nice accessory from time to time.

[sracer @ Sep 25th 2008 6:52PM]

Sorry Celio. I was extremely interested in the RedFly. But you came out with this @ $499 and quickly dropped it to $399. Since it seemed like that was going to be the price range, I went ahead and bought an EeePC 701 4G for $279.

You really shot yourself in the foot with those high initial prices. You'll need to drop it to $100 (at least for a limited time) to get some of us to take a 2nd look.

[broli @ Sep 25th 2008 7:22PM]

Fail.

[Mr_ShaM @ Sep 25th 2008 6:53PM]

Ya know,

Get rid of the keyboard, and add in some nice multitouch, and this is exactly what I think apple should release for the iphone.

[Vincent @ Sep 25th 2008 7:00PM]

You guys are still way too kind in this post. I would beat the living crap out of "anyone" should they even attempt to give me this thing for "free". What a useless piece of doo-doo. You honestly tell me that you will carry this hunk of device in addition to a laptop? I don't think so. That does leave me wonder about Windows Mobile phones...in general. You spend upwards of $300-$500 on a smartphone powered by Windows Mobile, and yet you still need to spend another $200 on a secondary device to get a better user experience? What the heck is wrong with this picture here?

[Colonel Kernel @ Sep 28th 2008 2:19AM]

INSTEAD of a laptop and even then, only some of the time.

I have no idea how well this device performs, but the concept is very good. Shell out the bucks for your WM smarphone, buy this for 2 Bills, and then go hog wild on the lap top of your dreams without caring how light/small it needs to be.

The one failing of the Redfly is the apparent lack of media, which was the main conceptual failing of Palm's Foleo.

[RK @ Sep 25th 2008 7:01PM]

Perfectly priced now....heck I just paid $30 for a leather case for my Mogul. In for 1.

[Dave @ Sep 25th 2008 7:02PM]

REDFLY is a smartphone TERMINAL with a large screen and full keyboard with no OS, no CPU, and no storage that lets you use your smartphone like a laptop.

cause your smart phone is such a great what... word document editor.. sorry word mobile has less editing capability than vi.. excel spreadsheet editor.. same as above.. the apps on the phone are super weak.. seriously people.. short of browsing the web or viewing photos.. stuff that is at the limits the screen of your phone. what would you use it for?

it does have a vga out port so you can hinge your company presentation on powerpoint mobile..
"but boss.. my bluetooth enabled terminal that I picked up on woot for $30 would freeze everytime I got to the merger proposal slide on my cellphone so I couldn't ever get to the details and then everyone freaked out and I tried to call but I get no bars in finland"

[hch @ Sep 25th 2008 7:03PM]

They are 5 years too early. The future will be a core computer and networking unit (think: an iphone) with a variety of input and output devices connected wirelessly (headsets, headphones, mice, displays, radios, etc.)

They are blazing the trail but price/performance penalty is still too high.

[robp @ Sep 25th 2008 7:07PM]

I don't understand how this seems useless to everyone. Sure, you
could just get a netbook. A netbook is also two and a half times the
price.

I would love to get some productive use out of my PDA -- do you
actually sit there in Pocket Word and enjoy writing documents by
scratching about on the screen?

[KilgoreTrout @ Sep 25th 2008 7:10PM]

I surely will not pay 200 bucks for it but I would really really love to have the possibility to try my hand at modding this thing.
I´m sure I'd be able to stuff some SDD, a decent mobo and a single core Atom or maybe a little VIA cpu with a couple of GB of ddr2. in there.
Now it's also possible to buy off the shelf (or the net) some quite good touch screens without breaking the bank and I just wrote some code for ubuntu that would seem made just for such a device.
A price drop of 120 dollars more and I'm gonna get one.
Definitely

[jon @ Sep 25th 2008 7:13PM]

@ hch : 5 years too early? Try 5 years too late. The netbook killed any chance they had at marketing their worthless device. Why would you ever carry a huge thing around when the EEE is being bundled with built in hsdpa? pop in your sim and youre ready to rock.
Furthermore, there already exists freeware software (read MyMobiler) that allows your computer to control your mobile device and it works very well.

[edward @ Sep 25th 2008 7:21PM]

Depending on the display resolution it could be quite the killer device, think about it, this is not targeted at us its targeted at company's who want to give their employees laptop like functionality without the same cost. The ability to use remote desktop is on a device this inexpensive is HUGE, if they could make it work on blackberries and palm based Treos then they have a killer product IMO.

[broli @ Sep 25th 2008 7:27PM]

The person who gets this for his birthday, because his mom thought it was the cheapest laptop, will think it's broken after he can't get it to start thinking it's a netbook.

[Waldo15 @ Sep 25th 2008 8:01PM]

Hey guys! Lotsa' negative mojo going on for the poor Redfly... a real shame since this thing is quite interesting. Here's where I am coming from: I won one of these at WMexperts about 1.5 months ago, and I have been using it ever since. I have first hand experience with it and I can tell you this thing has many positives going for it.

But before anything else, here's the thing: if you do not own a smartphone of any kind, then yes, seriously this thing is useless to you, $199 is a joke and a Netbook will do marvels for you. That oughta be clear from the very beginning.

OK, now assume you do have a smartphone. In my case, it's a Tilt (yes, just like the marketing picture :) ) and indeed, using the phone in stand-alone has been so far so good. Where I have found my phone being somewhat limited is on the screen, it is very tiny and if I have to show pictures to someone, well there's only so much you can do with 320x240 pixels. Also, when I receive email from friends, thumb-typing in the phone gets tiring pretty fast, not to mention that even if I do type my replies would be one sentence long because the tiny keyboard drives me nuts; I usually have to wait 'til I'm next to a PC to do the reply and more than once I never do it since well, in this DNA age after 5 minutes news become old news and I loose my interest.

Anyways, using the Redfly as an extension of the phone, has shown me many things: Windows mobile is powerful, yes it may be ugly and bloated and what have yous but you do see the power under the hood when the phone automatically detects Mice, keyboards, flash drives and whatever is plugged into the USB ports of the Redfly. The Redfly effectively transforms your Smartphone into a Netbook!

Is the price right? well, coming from someone who paid $0 for it may not be considered a fair assesment, but I do think $199 is a bit high. $150 would be my limit. Is this for a day-to-day use? I would argue that if you use your smartphone for everything on a daily basis, Redfly may ease your pain when typing and ease your eye-strain; the unit is perfect for travel since it makes a convincing argument for not bringing a laptop with you.

So there, a few thoughts from someone who has used this and has seen its potential...

[sam @ Sep 25th 2008 8:17PM]

I think that this could be a great resource if used with an android based phone.

[BOGRASH @ Sep 25th 2008 8:36PM]

gayer than all hell

[TL @ Sep 25th 2008 8:40PM]

198 too expensive - so it should be free?

[Derek @ Sep 25th 2008 8:58PM]

Yes, because $199 - $198 = $0.

[KRIS_C_123 @ Oct 2nd 2008 5:52PM]

HA derek, very very funny

[EL @ Sep 25th 2008 11:32PM]

What's appalling is that this company was setting the price ridiculously high (above cost) so that they could make some sweet $$ at consumer expense. I think they just got greedy thinking they could snatch big bucks from the business sector.

[Boarderwoot @ Sep 26th 2008 12:00AM]

Started at $500-nobody bought it
went to $400-nobody bought it
went to $200-nobody's gonna buy it.
The only thing this product has ever done is give Engadget the opportunity to use this graphic again except this time they should have put the machine flying off the bottom of the demand curve. They didnt, so this article and this product are both double fails.

[louis @ Sep 26th 2008 1:23AM]

For me, the celio redfly is perfect. i'm in outside sales and take both my Mogul and laptop. Many times I go to the coffee stores, get on my laptop for typing out longer emails or viewing spreadsheets. HEre's what I hate about this: 1. i have to find a power outlet if my battery is low. (which it always is) 2. boot up time takes a while - even when i'm in sleep/hibernate mode. 3. laptop is heavy. 4.the keyboard for my Mogul is suspect. double types, keys are starting to stick, etc.

I like the features of it being light, has a very long batt life, quick boot up, etc. At $200 it's not a great deal but a good deal.

[Raunak @ Sep 26th 2008 4:04AM]

Wouldn't this be a million times easier if u just VNC-ed into ur phone from ur laptop? Assuming u have wi-fi of course. I do that all the time on my jailbroken iPhone and it works decently well.

[wilcoholic @ Sep 26th 2008 4:38AM]

I dont get it. Whats so bad about it?

[Ricardo @ Sep 26th 2008 7:13AM]

Now I'm seriously considering buying one.

I have a smartphone and I'm buying a new one (HTC Touch Pro). I also have an EeePC, which I basically use for research / office use. And the phone is limited because of the screen and keyboard, which are exactly the things Redfly offers.

So yes, I do think it's a good product, don't just reject it because Engadget told you so.

[The_Steven @ Sep 26th 2008 8:38AM]

At $199.99, I'll think about it... At $99.99, I'd probably get two.

[Trey @ Sep 26th 2008 10:02AM]

I got the 30 day trial version for free. I thought I could use it over Hurricane Ike break. The setup stumped me as my Samsung Blackjack was listed but the over the air download said it was not supported. I think the smartphone is fine for 60% of what I do (simple composition of email, word, excel, pdf viewing, etc.). it needs PPT to be of value. But the keyboard is TINY....for a child. I think they should do a really big one 13.3" with a full notebook keyboard. Then maybe you have something. I think I will send it back....

[Treo_user @ Sep 26th 2008 10:19AM]

So much angst, it's funny.

Vincent: "You honestly tell me that you will carry this hunk of device in addition to a laptop? I don't think so."

Of course not, but for those of us who have been relying on a PDA plus bluetooth keyboard for awhile on long trips, a larger display and keyboard are welcome. I wouldn't carry it in addition to a laptop...I will carry it instead of a laptop. It's smaller, lighter, and has longer battery life than many laptops.

I always figured $200 is where it should have been priced initially. I think it's a really interesting idea for a product, useful for people who aren't always in an office but don't need a laptop (I'm squarely in that segment). Looking forward to receiving my order, Celio.