Lanyu LY-EB01 is world's cheapest laptop with built-in obsolescence

Step aside, World's Cheapest Laptop, Lanyu of China just undercut you -- and the magical $100 barrier -- with the 666 Yuan ($98) LY-EB01. This marketing marvel might have a processor slower than most netbooks' FSB at 266MHz, and its 128MB of RAM might spontaneously combust if you even type the word Vista into it, but it is, technically, a laptop. And you can totally store, like, a few hundred Word files on the 2GB flash drive. Having played around with the previous champ of the 'cheap 'n useless' weight class, we must at least congratulate Lanyu on a solid looking construction, and hey, apparently there's a chance for a release outside China. Aren't you excited?

[Via Cloned in China]

[ZZMitch Posted Aug 13th 2009 1:59PM]

I have always needed a laptop that could process all the different types of wood for me!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 13th 2009 2:10PM]

A lightweight machine like this will probable only process balsa...

[GGG Posted Aug 13th 2009 1:54PM]

2x faster processor clock, 2x larger storage and 8x larger RAM than my first PC. People would be amazed if i could bring this thing back to 1995.


but on the down side it has a 2x slower processor clock, 4x smaller storage and 2x smaller RAM than my PHONE so it really doesn't belong in 2009

[migmanson Posted Aug 13th 2009 2:58PM]

Your $500 phone with 10x smaller screen?

[cloud858rk Posted Aug 13th 2009 4:36PM]

Something like the HTC Click or Morrison blows this thing away and they'll be free.

[TheCrusher Posted Aug 13th 2009 2:47PM]

Did I hear someone mention Crysis-party?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 13th 2009 2:55PM]

hahahah that thing in middle can not possibly be a webcam.... like they said above its an oversized screw

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 13th 2009 3:02PM]

I found it online but for about $140 picture and specs are the same wonder why it is 40 bucks more
http://www.china-wholesale-supplier.com/ebook-netbook-ak7802-266mhzwifi-7panel-umpc-free-2gb-sd-card-and-optical-mouse-mini107_p11818.html

[dwkernen Posted Aug 13th 2009 3:03PM]

10 years ago this would have been the bomb! Now, not so much.

[computernerd225 Posted Aug 13th 2009 3:30PM]

Is it possible that these are mass produced for say, the same program that tried to distribute cheap laptops to 3rd world countries?

That's how I took it anyways.

[tomsomething Posted Aug 13th 2009 4:28PM]

It probably performs well enough to suit the needs of a rural family who wants to give their kid a leg-up. And maybe Starcraft would still be decent on it, so it works for China.

[Switchbitch Posted Aug 13th 2009 5:25PM]

FIRST!

This was sent from my LY-EB01 with 266MHz processor.

Sending.......

.......................

.......................

[Rinum009 Posted Aug 13th 2009 8:06PM]

L..........//wfwfegh......O.....................................................????????!D@@FDP>>>FFQWP>PV""""V?"VEQWEFV#R#$%GG.......................................................................L

[TheMike Posted Aug 13th 2009 5:29PM]

I have an old Acer Laptop here. It has a 500mhz P3, 192mb ram and a 20GB drive. The screen is fantastic, its near as makes no difference silent and it's built like a tank.
Copy of XP Pro included!

Do I have $97?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 13th 2009 5:51PM]

This isn't new! I have one of these. And I can confirm it is a piece of crap. A glorified word processor. The hardware is actually as capable as you'd expect, but windows CE 5 is just the most awful. Having said that, for the more adventurous out there there is a way of flashing the boot ROM with linux.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 13th 2009 9:39PM]

My phone does more than this. An attractive price, but I'd pay 100.00 more for something with a little more kick like a Aspire or something along those lines. 2GB?? Serious?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 13th 2009 10:46PM]

The description is full of Typos but it does have a "Build-In" keyboard and mosue so I'll take one. NOT, High Five! (Borat)

[wrsu1996gmailcom Posted Aug 14th 2009 12:22AM]

id buy it and supe it up, omg if i replace the 128mb ram with a 64 i could break their record, then burning it to make coal and make it even more expensive so i could sell it for 100 and make 2 bucks and get a free 128mb ram

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 13th 2009 11:52PM]

Eleven years ago, my dad's Gateway with a PII 266, 4GB HD, 64 MB of RAM and a 13.3" display went for $2500. Apple's Mainstreet PowerBook G3 with a 233 MHz processor, 2GB HD, 32 MB RAM, and a 12.1" dual scan display cost $2k. I remember when these machines were state of the art workhorses that had no trouble doing an average day's business or school work, and even had enough horsepower to run Civilization II (among other games).

Just because it's not state of the art to you doesn't mean it won't be useful for someone else - I could even imagine small businesses (or nonprofits, churches, etc) getting by with these machines.

Let's not forget, a laptop like this is likely more computing power than all of 1960s NASA combined, and they were able to do some pretty interesting things with that...

[Khav Posted Aug 14th 2009 11:10AM]

How feasible would it be to do something like this on this machine? http://www.winhistory.de/more/386/xpmini_eng.htm

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 19th 2009 4:25PM]

Hey guys. I contacted the supplier for these, on alibaba.

Turns out, they do ship to US and Canada. And they do ship single units.

The price to ship a single unit to US or Canada is: $88 + Shipping and possible customs charges.

I've notified engadget about this.