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Video: Lanyu's $98 LY-EB01 smartbook reviewed, disliked
It wouldn't have taken a gadget guru to see this one coming: the first review of the Lanyu LY-EB01, the $98 smartbook with a 266MHz (yes, one-quarter of one GHz) ARM processor, is not especially positive, scoring 15 points out of a possible 30 at Shanzai.com. Build quality is actually reasonably highly rated, with the machine having a solid feel and, impressively, not a single moving part (unless you count electrons). After that everything goes downhill, with the keyboard said to be cramped, that tiny screen too tiny, and its Windows CE 5.0 operating system described as "Win 98 with a hangover." Having spent a few too many nights up late cleaning up after that animal, we're not particularly inclined to show up for this party. CE is apparently the biggest killer here, with minimal support for multimedia content, productivity apps, and even web surfing. An Android install would have made this thing into something of an interesting commodity, but as-is it seems less functional than your average smartphone. See for yourself in the video review after the break.
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]
