Cherrypal Asia runs Android on the cheap, comes in 7- and 10.1-inch flavors
What do you do if you're CherryPal, and you've already released a $118 netbook named Africa? Uh, you replace it with a $99 netbook named the Asia, of course. Actually, CherryPal has slapped together its Asia in two versions, a 7-incher at $99 and a 10.1-incher with an integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam for right around $150, both running Android 1.6 paired to a "good-enough" (their words, not ours) 533MHz ARM9 core sourced from VIA; both are available now.
We had a chance to check out both flavors of the Asia at gdgt live in Chicago this week, and the phrase "you get what you pay for" definitely applies with these suckers -- they're not well-built powerhouses in any sense of the word, and we were told on no uncertain terms that the devices are geared at developing markets where price point reigns supreme. Closed, both smartbooks have the same slick, glossy appearance, but open, they're quite different; the 10.1-inch version has a simple, upscale, matte, MacBook-ish look to it while the 7-inch version just looks like a straight-up toy. Both were running pretty choppy -- a symptom of the low-spec processor, we're sure -- but Cherrypal told us that updates to newer builds of Android are in the works and will be available either online or via flash drive, so we suppose there's a chance that could help smooth things out a bit. Check out some shots below!
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World's first $99 laptop goes Android, Cherrypal drops Linux in favor of Android for sub-100-dollar laptop
Palo Alto, CA (RPR) 05/11/10 - After the successful launch of the Cherrypal Africa product line (WinCE and Linux) in December of last year the company announced today the availability of its new sub-100-dollar laptop, the Cherrypal Asia. The "Asia" comes in its basic version with a 7" screen and Android 1.6. The Asia is also available in a 10.1" wide-screen version. The company also announced the end-of-life of the Cherrypal Africa Linux edition. Pending orders will be automatically upgraded to the "Asia" Android edition.
"Android is the ideal operating environment for the ultra-low-cost laptop market. It combines the stability and flexibility of Linux with the very intuitive user experience of Android. It seamlessly fits into our ongoing cloud computing initiative. More and more applications are going to be consumed in a hosted "application-store-like" environment rather than stored locally. The "Africa" (Windows CE) as well as the "Asia" (Android) product line are the ideal systems for our partners in the developing as well as industrialized world; low cost, "good-enough" user-experience and last but not least above average quality in order to address the digital divide and make green computing available to everyone. ", said Max Seybold, Cherrypal's founder.
World's first $99 laptop goes Android, Cherrypal drops Linux in favor of Android for sub-100-dollar laptop
Cherrypal Asia 7 inch
The $99 (US retail price) Cherrypal "Asia" comes with "good-enough" processing power, based on the design principles of the very successful Cherrypal Africa product line; VIA ARM9 533Mhz processor, 256MB RAM, 3 USB 2.0, 2GB local storage and full keyboard.
The Cherrypal Asia is also available as 10.1" wide-screen edition, same specification as the 7" model but with integrated 1.3 Megapixels webcam included. Cherrypal's suggested US retail retail price for the Asia 10" is $148.00
Detailed technical specifications can be found at http://www.cherrypal.com
