Alpha 400: the crappiest netbook you'll ever hate
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted December 8th 2008 12:06PM
posted December 8th 2008 12:06PM
[Via jkOnTheRun]
posted December 8th 2008 12:06PM
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How about actually reviewing the product before you slam it? I personally want to know how it performs for the kinds of mobile app/web use people would use it for. Anybody can read the specs and just start jumping to halfassed conclusions. As many people have already pointed out, those of us who just want to work with a full-size web page, keyboard, and our work documents on the go might find this portable a lot more practical than tricked out *phones* with teeny-tiny touchy-feely interfaces that can't properly display a spreadsheet/table with more than a couple columns visible at a time.
I have a long commute each day and don't particularly want to haul a full sized laptop OR risk getting jacked for it (yay public transit). This seems like a good alternative (plus it's cheap enough you can let your kids borrow it/take it to grandma's and not worry toooo much if it comes home in one piece).
Some perspective people,
For XP to run on that hunk of junk, I should be able to get XP to run on my AT&T Tilt.
Just sayin.
If it had an aluminum casing and a shiny Apple logo it would be netbook of the year by Engadget!
As a side note though, this would be a cool machine to run a light Linux build on an SD card dual booting with windows. Great device for managing servers in a data center too.
When did it become just about "specs"? I agree it would be nice to see a hands-on review of something like this. You do an an awful lot with that much processing power if you take the time to optimize the software. Especially if all you want to do is browse the web.
I worked at a small ISP from '96-'99 and we ran web/email/ftp/file servers for up to 50 domains on a single P200 machine with 4GB RAM... no problems, soild performance. Our workstations were all P166's and we browsed the web just fine. Obviously there's a lot more video/flash and such these days, but if a P166 can browse the web just fine in 1996, why do I need a dual-core 3.0GHz processor to do the same thing 12 years later? Where's the software optimization? Unfortunately, almost nowhere. Instead of optimizing code to run on slower hardware, most developers just raise the minimum system requirements because it's just easier.
Correction: That should have read a P200 w/ 500MB of RAM (not 4GB's). I guess I had my current system specs on the brain.
I usually agree with engadget on most things like this, but im going to have to disagree this time around.
This is a great gift for a kid. If they break it, it costs less then your cell phone to replace. If you want something a bit more advanced for your personal use, then bump up to the acer one running linux. It runs about $50 more then this and is much nicer.
Engadget is correct in criticizing this thing. If it's running Windows CE, the available MIPS development tools create inefficient code, so a 400Mhz MIPS will be slow (and probably buggy).
Its running linux
Thanks for the free pub Engadget, though you're not as enamoured with this item as you were back in May...
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/21/bestlinks-alpha-400-ultraportable-is-dirt-cheap-regular-cheap/
quote: "So... worth about $250, wouldn't you say?"
Actually, how about $189.95...
More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skytone_Alpha-400
LOL PWN3D!
Megabytes!
doubleposted! sorry - first posted this a while ago.
surprised that no one has compared it to the OLPC. Ironically, I think that the OLPC (technically the XO-1) is a better performer...albeit unavailable to the western world at this price point.
I like it alot.
Not a bad machine for running ssh on.
I'm concur with the majority of posters here, this review is just silly.
I'm quite an advocate of low-end computing. In fact, I recently bought an old HP Jornada 720 for £60 (just shy of $89 for my American friends) and installed a Linux distribution called JLime on it http://www.jlime.com Coupled with a Wifi card, ethernet card, and 3G card, it's now a very useable sub-sub-notebook / mini-netbook. To add insult and injury to Engadget here, the Jornada I have has about half or less of the specs of this thing. To echo many a geek before me, epic fail!
P.S. You can do a lot with just a Linux terminal, even in these times of Flash and Silverlight. Check out a command-line variant of Ubuntu called "Cubuntu" https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Cubuntu
Given the price and the size, doesn't sound too bad, beats a PDA. If it will surf the internet, run an email client that supports IMAP, and do instant messaging, then it handles virtually everything I use a laptop for. I've spent more on a lot less power in a bigger heavier package back in the day.
I'm sorry, this thing is lame, it has the power or my phone, a HTC TyTN II 400mhz Qualcomm CPU, 256mb Ram and an 8GB SD card, also a full qwerty keyboard and touchscreen.
Oh and 802.11 G!
Actually i bought this for my daughter for x-mas, she's 9.
we were looking for a small, kid friendly, affordable child's computer.
After the olpc debate, we finally rested on this.
My thoughts.
This is not an adult pc! so every one that is QQ'ing about it. stop....just stop although we would get some use out of it. its U.I was clearly designed for the 8-14 age range. i do not need a "diary" in my pc or pda, thank you.
The U.I is flawless. minimal without seeming cheap. and with the built in linux down loader, you will never run out of open source games and apps.
That's just my 2 cents.
These have been available in the UK for some time now, albeit under a different name. http://www.next.co.uk/shopping/electric/computers/1/1
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=225532&source=1
I bought one to see if i could use it as a starter for a 4yr old to lear like the timex sinclare back in the day. But after playing with it for 3 days I will let them play with the 7 yr old dell.
The price is now down to $ 149.99 (!)
http://www.netbookusers.com/smf/index.php/topic,256.0.html
SoC design often means s low cost and high reliability. The Alpha-400 has extremely low power consumption (it uses 0,2 Watt) and does not need a cooling system as it produces almost no heat. It only needs a 2-cell battery, which keeps the pc running for 2 or 3 hours.
It’s a gadget for surfing the web, word processing, spreadsheets tasks, MSN chat, MP3 downloading/listening and picture sharing. With the built-in Linux down loader, you will never run out of open source games and apps. With a little help from external drivers or applications it might support streaming movies (like YouTube) and even 3G (!) mobile broadband.
If you want a netbook for serious tasks and performance, you might want to look elswhere. But this is not what this cheapie is about; it’s about being compact, lightweight, and some value for almost no money.