Hi,

There is a lot of buzz around ultraportable low cost design (many companies dive in this market : asus, dell, msi, gigabyte, etc...)

Anything planed to fill the gap?

It would be really nice to have an ultraportable that feature 5121e, LED display and 10h+ autonomy at full throttle.

Are you planning a 2 KG battery for such long battery time?

I managed 5h+ with ibook G4@1ghz with low power settings.

There is an atom laptop doing 10h with low power settings too (Zepto Notus A12, 1.1Kg).

Some device can play video for 5h, archos A700 for example with much lower battery than laptop.

It wouldn't compete with the EeePC etc. which ostensibly run twice to 3 times faster (in the case of the MSI notebook just released, maybe up to 4x).

People expect a certain level of performance from a notebook. That it may be small is not a deterrant. The 5200B and 5121E I don't think meet that need.

However you could probably get 20h out of a 5121E in a notebook of the same size as MSI's with the same battery. What you'd get is something very much akin to the canceled Palm Foleo - which is a great device and everyone wanted one, but it was NEVER marketed as a full notebook to compete with Centrino or Via's notebook platform.

_________________
Matt Sealey

so how about a laptop like the ibook that can run morphos or linux for a whole day.

i still get 5 hours on my ibook g4.

matt

One can have good use from a computer with these processors. It's as easy as convincing customers to use another operating system (eeek!).
I think that this battery duration war has no sense when figures exceed one normal working day. Who wants to use a computer for twenty hours in a row? There can't be many people that actually want that, and the people that need that would be a fraction of them. Alright, battery duration figures are like the megahertz figures for desktops, pure marketing hook. People just want a single figure to judge overall quality. It's not fair (nor clever).
I first choked at the Foleo concept: Something like a laptop, only that with much less funcionality? Who would carry that along with their smartphone?
Then, upon seeing all the crazy things that smartphones do today (the same, if not more, that regular desktops ten years ago), I came to realize that what people need is a terminal for their smartphone: The smartphone does a lot of things, but it's really limited by its small screen and keyboard. All that's needed is a bigger keyboard and screen for some uses. Internet browsing and e-mail have been on the smartphone for years, but who can actually use them seriously without proper input and output devices?
I have something better: If a manufacturer came with a way of attaching a regular keyboard/mouse and screen to a smartphone, it would take the world by storm. For business use, it would rock, because one can find keyboards and monitors everywhere. You go to that office just with your phone, plug the keyboard/mouse, screen (and charger, of course), and off you go, you can work with no computer (that's what illiterate people would say). When it's time to go, you just pick your phone, and that's all.
If smartphones are good as computers, why doesn't any manufacturer allow them to have decent input and output devices?

Not everybody needs horsepower for their laptop use. The zeptos notus A12 feature a simple core intel atom @800Mhz which is a quite small cpu by nowadays. Wouldn't the 5121e a perfect CPU for a $100 laptop ? The hard part is OS that must fly on such 'low end' CPU. I don't remember exactly but I heard there is something that works very well on this device class. :)

Convincing users ? They are more and more people used to switch from OS to OS. This started with mobile phone. Nokia UI != Sony UI != Alcatel UI != Moto UI etc... iPod, Archos, whatever media player do not have the same OS and UI as well. Many people that are not used with computer begin to be aware that there is something after MS windows. Words like linux, mac os X, firefox, openoffice,... sound more and more everyday.

Asus eeePC started with linux as main OS. They sold a lot of this cute laptop even if the OS was not desktop mainstream choice (read : windows).

More than half of the sold computer every year is laptop.

There is maybe a market for epsilon portable that features 20h battery life, 12" 1280x800LCD, 32Gb SSD and less than 1Kg weight with photovoltaic lid... Something where nobody dare to go !
Many researches are done on fuel cell working with methane to allow 30 days of battery life for notebook & mobile phone (ex: toshiba). Is that insane ?

You expect from your ipod/archos/whatever device to last long enough not to be annoyed by refuelling the battery while watching a movie or listening to music. The same apply to laptop IMHO.

I would personnaly be very happy to refuel my laptop every two or three days like my mobile phone!

The main problem is the display here. I know PixelQi have really low energy models in the works (and transflective - I was long looking for something like that). But when will it be ready?
Unfortunately the PixelQi hp is not what I call an particular source of information and I never contacted them.
Other suppliers I think reduced recently the energy uptake significantly (e.g. LED light, dyanamically driven background light intensity and such), but my guess would be that it'll be diffucult to realise an Efika2 9"-10" subnotebook that consumes significatly less than 10W.

The original PixelQi display is low power enough and ridiculously low power if it's in greyscale (e-reader) mode. With dynamic switching and some purposeful software, what you'd get is a 7" portable device.

I wouldn't want it to be a notebook to be honest, just because of the expectations of such a device. I would much prefer a handheld UMPC/Tablet which can be held like a book (fitting with the greyscale high-res capability of the screen) and toyed around without being tied to a flat surface. Have you ever tried using a notebook while laying on the couch? It's difficult :)

Take a look at devices like the Chumby and digital photo frames and of course all the media players out there. There is not a great deal of need for typing for this kind of devices.. it is a passive experience, watching a movie, reading a book, flipping to the next photo, a few simple accelerometer/touchpanel games.

If you need a keyboard you can buy one and attach it via USB or Bluetooth to most of them. Such a device has many uses beyond merely being an ultraportable, long-life laptop. Imagine a very capable Blackberry with the abilities for media, a companion for your travel, or to sit by your PC (or Mac or Pegasos) and to take to the coffee shop.

It's not an idea that would be an iPhone killer - too large after all, and probably not nearly as useful on an open network, but having all the iPhone's best features (after all, Google Maps is free) plus some that just wouldn't work, and a great deal more "openness".

That's my view on it anyway - you might notice the LimePC matches this, that's no coincidence. It may not be what comes out however, things change in development :D

_________________
Matt Sealey