3K's Windows CE-powered RazorBook 400 netbook goes half price, still won't sell
By Darren Murph 
posted April 10th 2009 8:33AM
posted April 10th 2009 8:33AM
Man, remember just how great of a deal this looked like when it launched at $299 in May of last year? Funny how things change so rapidly, huh? Well, it's pretty comical unless you're 3K Computers, who now has a pathetic excuse of a netbook that it can only sell by slashing the asking price from $299 to under $150. Nearly web-wide, legitimate e-tailers are selling the RazorBook 400 CE for less than half of its original MSRP, and we're not even a full year into its life cycle. But really, who's jonesing for a CE-powered netbook (we could just stop there, truthfully) with a diminutive 7-inch display, 128MB of RAM and a processor that's slower (in clock speed, anyway) than that found in HTC's Touch Diamond? If you're sheepishly raising your hand, the read link's got [Via Laptoping]
on the cheap server?
Uh...undersea habitat?
-after gluing them all together of course...
i wouldn't even think about it for $50
I guess when your competition has nearly 10 times the RAM and XP instead of CE for roughly the same price, I guess it wouldn't sell so great.
Yeah.... I see what you mean.......
Maybe I'm a sucker, but I have one, but in the Linux flavor. The hardware is sold under many names, including the geeks.com belco alpha 400. There is quite the community of tweakers that have tips to completely upgrade the O/S to include a fresh new version of Linux including Firefox 3. It works quite well as long as you stay away from heavy ajax applications. I use 3mx, but this site has several OS's to choose from.
http://www.littlelinuxlaptop.com/software/3MX.htm
It has a local console and the ability to act as a web/file server and bit-torrent built right in. Think about leaving this on instead of a full PC to finish your bit-torrent downloads and save a ton of money on the electric bill. The power supply is 12volts 1amp. That's 12 watts of power draw.
The Nokia n97 is a better computer than this thing... worthless piece of shit!!!
Nope, the N97's processor will probably be slower (in clock speed).
Actually the Nokia N97, or my HTC touch HD or the coming HTC Thoth and SuperStar, Samsung OmniaHD and a few other smartphone are better computers than most so called netbooks on the market at the moment and they are also cosiderably more expensive.
After a few tweaks and add ons, I discovered that my TouchHD and my Samsung Omnia have rendered my MSI Wind totally redundant and if I haven't sold it yet it's only for sentimental reasons.
OK, I also have a Vaio TT I could not live and work without, but in most occasions my smartphones are more than enough and I'm pretty sure that the next generation of smartphones will push MIDs and most small netbooks in the dustbin of tech history.
This is useless even for a child.
"That's impossible, even for a computer"
When this hits $99 I'll get one. There is already a 3rd party linux build : http://www.littlelinuxlaptop.com/software/3MX.htm . It will make a nice laptop for the kids.
Heck, I'd take a little CE device. there are plenty of decent CE apps, including Opera browser and Mobipocket reader, as well as good multimedia players. I agree with Sean... Find me one of these for $99 and I'll get one, and I might even take his advice and toss Linux on it!
I foresee a new Microsoft ad...
Young-ish, sort of hip, 'real person' says "I want a computer and I only have $160 to spend. I looked at Apple's machines and they cost a lot more, so I go the RazorBook and I'm really happy. I even get to keep the $10 to buy lunch!"
What!? You guys are nuts! I am grabbing one of these bad boys to play some Doom I on!
With a serial port or a CF slot (they make CF serial cards) this would make a cheap portable little terminal for hooking to console ports. That's what I used to use WinCE Handheld devices for.
The Linux version of this cheaptop DOES have a serial port. It's inside, you just have to open it and solder a couple wires.
The CE version, though, is worthless IMO.
Look, all kidding aside, if it drops to under 120 dollars I'd bite, but only because it seems like hacking on the thing would be a crapload of fun!
Plus with the various other OSes you can put on the thing you end up with a nearly disposable portable you don't have to sweat treating a little rougher than your nice toys.
To be fair, most netbooks from May of last year have dropped by 50% or more. When the Eee 901 started shipping in July, it was $600. Now it's $250. Eee 900A's have been seen for as little as $200.
Which of course makes this all the more dubious.
Ballmer is keen on pissing away shareholder equity. He should have bought all these WinCE crapbooks to save embarrassment and had them bulldozed them into a landfill -- just like they did with Microsoft's ill-fated smartphone some years ago.
The bigger problem with this device is their choice of CPU. With the MIPS CPU you'll have a harder time finding applications that will run on it. A smarter choice would have been some flavor of ARM.
L.B.
Agreed Arm is SOOO much better... I wish the Smartq 5mid ran faster (I have seen videos)
I was going to say "Maybe if it had a convertible tablet swivel screen, 600-800MHz ARM CPU, 1GB RAM, and Ubuntu-ARM or Mer/Maemo" ... but by the time you get done fixing all of its shortcomings, you might as well just go buy a Touchbook. Especially since all of those fixes will drive up the price, probably higher than the Touchbook.
If you have used HP Jornada 720, you will find this one's hardware is actually enough for running CE and 2-3 office applications. I think it's a good one.
@ Larry & Brainy142
On the link it says:
(http://www.buy.com/prod/3k-razorbook-400-ce-ultra-mobile-pc-arm-400mhz-7-wvga-128mb-ddr2-sdram/q/loc/101/210401409.html)
• Processor Manufacturer ARM
You know what... if it were possible to put in some distro of linux, I'm sure it won't be as bad.. I mean you get a lot more out of it than a Windows CE.
I dont know this could be a really good start of a "Frankenbook" project.
The purpose for getting a WinCE machine is that it should have instant on. According to the YouTube video, it takes 10 to 15 seconds. So, what's the point. Perhaps as it has an ARM processor, all the apps written for WinCE.