Compaq Airlife 100 puts Android OS, Snapdragon CPU, and an SSD behind 10.1-inch touchscreen
By Vlad Savov 
posted February 12th 2010 5:58AM
posted February 12th 2010 5:58AM
posted February 12th 2010 5:58AM
powered by gdgt
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If the price is less than $250 then it would be the most awesome thing ever. If the price reaches netbook levels, I still believe a netbook with an extended battery is a better buy.
@mnhthebest
US 250.00 IS already (well-equipped/N270/N280) netbook price territory.
Doesn't this use of the "smartbook" name come from Freescale?
I'm a little surprised the battery life isn't longer. I guess the power requirements of the display offsets some portion of the advantage of the ARM-CPU in power utilization.
Make it a convertible and I'll buy it.
I'd rather have a desktop OS.
This whole trend of putting PDS OSes on notebooks is stupid.
@jgp
Gah--meant to type PDA, not PDS.
Anyway, this would look so much cooler if it ran Kubuntu or something similar.
I don't see the need to re-brand this to "smartbook". I mean, it's basically a netbook running android, which by itself isn't new (live android).
@O Gil
The Real Question: Is It Magical?
Please come to usa!!! I LOVE seeing android netbooks; we NEED more of them...fuck putting full os's on mobile products; they are and never were designed for them.
wow, looks awesome!
i had to doubt that HP is capable of churning out pretty looking products, the only questions remains is that how reliable they are (see the laptop malfunction rate in three years survey somewhere on the net)
Why would I want performance that can fit in a cellphone that slides right into my pocket in something the size of a 10" netbook? o_O
Unless this is just crazy cheap at $200, I don't see why I would want this over a regular performance netbook.
@Ducman69
It may not meet your needs, but for some who only require simple/limited computer functionality (web surfing, IMing, media player functions, SKYPE, et al) it could be a great alternative to more 'complicated/expensive devices'.
For say, an elderly person who doesn't want to learn/spend much to simply communicate via the interweb, view pics of the grandchildren, and listen to Benny Goodman, it could be ideal.
@DaHarder Isnt that what a netbook is, and he/she doesn't have to learn a new OS?!? Plus, think of the tech support nightmares, and them trying to install legacy windows XP/Vista/7 programs on it. This product has no market unless it's about $99. Right now u can get an Atom netbook for $199 from Frys.
@Palomino
"Isnt that what a netbook is ?" - No... Not Really.
Netbooks are simply smaller/less-powerful notebook computers that (typically) run full-featured/desktop-calibre operating systems (windows Xp/7/etc.) Netbooks today provide almost exactly the same functionality of their larger laptop/notebook counterparts, they just perform their task a bit slower than most.
Android-based smartbooks/devices offer a much simpler solution (think internet/communication appliance) that are hardly more complicated/difficult to learn than the average smartphone and have the added benefit of requiring exponentially fewer system resources while doing so (battery battery autonomy, faster book times, et al).
I hope that this clears up you confusion on the matter.
Looks really nice. I'm not a big of the 16gb SSD though.
Four thumbs up!
Now that's what I called a Labtop. Still wondering why is the HHD so small can you upgrade like a 120GB or higher? I would buy it but it only comes with 16GB.
@Inspector Gadget80
You want a 120GB SSD in your netbook? It would cost more than the rest of the hardware combined! xD
If you want a regular slow 5400rpm drive over the 16GB SSD, its probably because you haven't tried a half decent SSD lately. The battery savings and quick boot time/application launches are great for a netbook device.
@Ducman69
What use is battery life and boot time when you can't do anything with the machine?
Geez--even my N900 has 32GB. 16GB is just useless.
@jgp I have 16GB on my Dell Mini 9... and the other half dozen I bought for family members. Its more than enough space for W7 (although I did turn system recovery and page file off) and all the applications you'd want on a netbook with room to spare. The SDHC slot also has another $30 16GB capacity for a bunch of 480P tv shows/music/etc.
Vanilla Android needs some updates to be used with keyboard and mice operated devices.
Having to use a homemade fork sucks to update.
FFS GOOGLE GET ON WITH IT
I'd buy it if it didn't have that keyboard. But I'm probably in the minority.
@jjsavage
i semi-agree
meaning i'd also buy it if the screen swiveled on top of that keyboard to create a pseudo-tablet, but i agree i'd prefer no keyboard to the current
also, 16 gigs is a tad on the small side
DOES WANT.
But yeah, it does need 2.1.
Well I'd rather have this then an iPad. That's for damn sure.
Does Android have any full-featured Office programs? If not, I don't see this taking off much.
My Gateway LT series is great as a netbook- I really couldn't see replacing it with something less capable/powerful, unless I got one of those tiny Sonys that are crazy expensive, simply cause of the size.
Anyways, anyone know about productivity sweets? Cause otherwise I would love to drop Maemo on this- I had Open Office on my N810.
@Palomino Android does have Documents2Go, which can edit Word and Excel files
@Manny Fleurmond Ive got Docs2Go on my WinMo devices, and it gets the job done for a phone, but on a 10" screen w/ full keyboard I'd want something fuller, like my Maemo solution posted above, or dare I say it, like the iPad's (shudder) office sweet w/ flyout menus, etc.
finally Snapdragon netbooks...err...sorry smartbooks are starting to surface
This does look pretty badass. How about some pictures of the outside of the netbook?
Snapdragon? Unless this is a 'new' Snapdragon (?), then, meh. Could we have something with a real processor please? Even Apple's tablet-looking-for-a-problem has (supposedly) a Cortex A9-based chip; and this one is supposed to be an actual netbook you might actually use for something.
Also, please with the full standard linux distribution option. I understand Android is probably more user-friendly, but it's also significantly less useful for an advanced user. Maybe you can install a standard Linux distribution on the thing, though. (Bet there would be driver issues...)
It looks awesome though, good job on the styling. I'm looking forward to dual-core Cortex A9 (Tegra 2 or whatever) netbooks like this one, if they can also run a real operating system. (Oh, and I'd be happy to lose the touchscreen.)
Whatever happened to Chrone OS?
Android is based on Linux and has been hacked to run full desktop shells before. I believe it was rooted and Debian was installed.
If they made a version of this that was a convertable tablet, and made it less than $500, they would have a game changing device.
Why would anyone use this? Didn't Acer already put out a netbook with the Android OS? Heck the Acer Android netbook has way better hardware than what a smartphone could ever offer, plus it can dual boot? With insydemarket, i'd even see apps as a moot point.
So why doesn't the screen rotate? A 5 dollar part could have made this thing a tablet ...