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.
