Alpha400
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Switched On: Alpha 400 pays a high price for low cost
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. When a recent fake news story claiming that Coby Electronics would enter the netbook market with a $100 PC included a quote I had given two years ago, I smelled something fishy. But before I questioned the validity of the article, I questioned the validity of such a product. Because for at least those expecting some semblance of a modern PC, the fascination with a $100 notebook might turn to disappointment when they realize the considerable compromises needed to achieve that alluring price.For as life quickly moved to imitate art, the aftermath of Cobygate saw news of the Alpha 400, which is smaller, lighter and, at $170 at Geeks.com, about $100 less than online pricing for the Eee PC 2G Surf. With no hard drive and no fan, it runs so coolly and quietly the only noise the product makes is when you open and close its creaky hinge, which allows the screen to lay flat parallel to the keyboard. Its brand-free top surface is glossy black, but the rest of its plastic body has a finish so dull that the product could pass for one of those plastic laptop props used in furniture stores.Like the original Eee, the Alpha 400 has a 7-inch screen, an SD card slot, three USB ports, and a keyboard (albeit one that is even smaller than the one on the first Eee). From there, almost all the specs take a dramatic step down. The Alpha 400 has only 128MB of RAM and 1GB of local storage. It has no webcam and supports only 802.11b although it connected consistently to my home network, something that has not been true of some other Linux-based netbooks. With the Alpha 400's extremely limited driver support, very few USB peripherals will work with the device. Some USB flash drives, for example, would not mount and USB audio is not supported.%Gallery-39953%
Alpha 400: the crappiest netbook you'll ever hate
Looking for the ultimate in nerve-shatteringly cheap cheapo netbooks? Don't want to break the $200 price point? Introduce yourself to the Alpha 400 -- a tiny "computer" with about as much processing power as your last TI scientific calculator. The miniature laptop sports a 400MHz (megahertz!) MIPS CPU, 128MB (megabytes!) of RAM, a mind-blowing 1GB (gigabyte!) of flash storage, 802.11b (b!), a 7-inch "display," and support for SD cards up to 32GB (gigabytes!). Seriously, this thing is essentially a glorified pocket dictionary, but who are we to question its awesome $189.95 price tag? Oh wait, we're Engadget. Yeah, we don't recommend this.[Via jkOnTheRun]
Bestlink's Alpha 400 ultraportable is dirt cheap, regular cheap
Call us crazy, but these new low-end ultraportable laptops are beginning to look mighty familiar. At least Bestlink has an angle here -- make it dirt cheap -- so its entry isn't totally without merit. The Alpha 400 will apparently be priced from $250 (or $180 in volume), sport a 400MHz (!) Xburst CPU, 128MB of RAM, 1GB or 2GB of flash memory, a 7-inch 800 x 400 display, and will run Windows CE or some form of Linux. The manufacturer says storage can be expanded via SD card or USB drives, and WiFi, CDMA, GPRS, and ADSL will all be available via external add-ons. So... worth about $250, wouldn't you say?[Via Desktop Linux; Thanks, DeeDee]
