Elonex £99 Eee PC rival to arrive in June Elonex has rolled out its sub-£100 Linux-based laptop, the One, but it looks like it's going to prove harder get hold of than Asus Eee PC has been. Elonex One Elonex One: reserve yours now Elonex today unveiled black, pink, green, white and silver Ones to whet buyers' appetites. However, it admitted that the initial batch …
Funny, I only clicked on the article to see if they'd managed to include a picture of the Asus blonde again ;-)
The brunette could be interesting, but there's something about a blonde in a skimpy outfit on the beach that does it for me. That and the fact that melon sized headphones aren't all that flattering...
(Paris, since I prefer the [stereotypically] ditzy blonde)
..at least she is willing to look at us, finding the presence of other (albeit geeky) human beings more interesting than the diminutive laptop in fromt of her. Of course, she is not actually listening to us with those giant headphones on, but at least there is some acknowledgment to validate our pathetic existences.
Oh, and the computer looks a bit top-heavy to me. Wonder what having the ports on the lid will do for balance one a few USB dongles and rocket launchers have been attached?
This post has been deleted by its author
As a person who thinks the Airbook is too slow for them, I cannot imagine using one of these. Do I really need a laptop on the beach (splashproof keyboard would imply that is a common use for this?)
No I don't. I just need an 8 core beast sitting on the internet that I can access anywhere and can be rendering my HD home movies at high speed.
Is this box an undersized x86 laptop, or an upsized StrongARM superPDA (think HP Jornada 720, quite a few years later)?
Does it matter which one it is?
Does it omit anything which 90% of the PC-using public would actually miss if they didn't have it?
Whatever happened to the Psion Netbook, looks like it might have started to be trendy round about now...
Can we have the elonex lady in a bikini please? (Think the asus girl would get a bit hot on that beach in more than a bikini.) Just to make the comparison fair ;)
Also would probably raise demand for the machine if they used the bikini pic in *online* advertising ;)
Old adage about s*x selling
plus might plant the idea in female heads that it would be a neat toy for the beach, and might plant the idea in mens heads that getting the lady in their life to the beach might be easier ;-)
paris as she might think a mini laptop would go well with mini dog like tinkerbell :)
At 99 quid, this is now starting to get to apoint where I could reasonably start to consider replacing my Psion 5mx with a new PDA.
Well all said an done, this cheap 'laptops' a just big PDA's, the evolutionary path the Psion would hacve taken if they were still in the HW business.
Oh and for the record, the dark haired Elonex girl. Not fond of blondes and she has wobbly legs. Sorry to be picky.
P.
Jesus! What on earth were they on when they "designed" that? Why have they put all the workings into the lid rather than under the keyboard? It looks like it would tip up if you took your hand off the keyboard. Also, what's with the 7" screens on these cheapo notebooks? How much more does a 12" or 13" screen cost? A 7" screen is such a compromise, you might as well use a PDA. instead of having a 7" screen for £100, why not have a 12" screen for £150? Or at least have it as an optional extra.
The same Elenox who have gone titsup twice in the last twelve months?
Now owned by the notorious Nick Smith - he of titsup sight and sound, SSC, Careera, Digital Network etc etc fame?
Its just a rebadged Fontastic A-View apparently, its massively underdev'd especially on the OS side of things.
Though all those £10 "deposits" will come in handy, guess what happens to your cash though it it does not come off?
My My , the top is bigger then the bottom half and appears to be top heavy like many of the current crop of clone one hit wonders on the record charts this century and as well the elonex lassie seems to missing the bottom half too !
Perhaps the answer to the question posed in the poll is "42" after much deep thought !
Still looking for a replacement for my Psion 5 too - though I don't use it much anymore, I still have never found anything that beats the software or OS on the Psion - especially the diary. Oh and that keyboard...
Psion 5, bigger/colour screen, USB, wireless. Am I asking for too much?
SJ, because my wife goes all weak at the knees when watching the MacBook Air ads.
I'll probably go for an eeepc but hopefully competition will be good news in the price stakes (Several manufacturers are aiming at this niche now that Asus have shown how lucrative it is).
For those who've expressed a preference for blondes, Elonex has that covered too : http://www.elonexone.co.uk/overview.html
The Elonex ONE has a little stand on the back of it to stand it up. I suspect that this was used during the shoot, but photoshopped out.
Why? Why the top-heavy design and stand?
Because this was designed as a digital picture-frame, but one that can do more than display pictures.
Think about it: your average digital picture frame is pretty much powerful enough to do everything the average user wants: browsing, word-processing, email etc. So why not stick a keyboard and a few ports on it and just let it do it?
It's an inspired decision by the Fontasticsdesigners, but there's no major market in digital photo frames here, so Elonex are marketing it slightly differently (more power to them). However, if their manual features clear instructions on picture-frame mode, I reckon that enough people will use it that way that digital frames finally break into the UK market.
I see there is an optional interchangeble rubberised external skin... snarf!
For those complaining about Photoshopping on the Asus add, take a look at the image on the Elonex Visons page, then follow the link to the NLI website; same image; different laptop. I hope Elonex got permission to use NLI's intellectual property.
hmm, splashproof keyboard... could it be elonex were thinking of the pornpc but couldnt get the trademark?
but, is it just me or does the elonex pc look like its built upside down?, surely your going to spend all your time trying to stop the screen flopping down onto the table with all that bulk affached to it, i suspect the flimsy keyboard wont be that much of a counterbalance
or maybe thats why the elonex girl is indoors, - its glued to the floor to stop it flipping over...
I beg to differ, the Asus girl is just the right balance :)
I would have to say that both models probably have their advantages, depending on the situation. On the beach, or chilling in a fancy cafe or bar, I think the asus is far sexier. The elonex would be great for everyday use though.
Hmm... Was I thinking about the girls or the machines there. AAARGH, get me my coat, the thoughts are getting mixed up and I am am now getting turned on by a frickin subnotebook! HEEEEEEELP!
It's the same price I paid for my Palm Pilot, (1MB RAM) which I still use, and better specced than my current laptop, a Thinkpad P90, 40MB RAM, 1GB hdd, no usb ports, (which I love, but bless it, it's hardware is failing) which happily runs a bastardised and oft dysfunctional hybrid linux with a full development stack.
Splash proof keyboard not just a gimmick, but handy when I'm slurping wine and tea on a train and it passes over a set of badly maintained points (anyone who actually uses a laptop on a beech should just stay at home).
I'm in love with it, personally.
Its like buying a car, you need to get inside them both and drive them for a bit for see what they are like.
Me, well I like the Elonex girl somewhat - whan to see her with her kit off - as for the other one - if PhotoShop is involved, she might be 80 years, toothless and a midget !!!!!
And the Laptop/PDA/Mobile phone thingy - for £99 its going to be crap - 300Mhz CPU (or whatever its got tucked away inside) If you tried XP on that, never mind Vista, well I supose, Windows starting in about 5 hours time would be different - oh bugger the battery only lasts 4 hours...............
The specs are a joke.
Elonex's stand was moved next to ours at short notice, which was nice for us because they generated a lot of traffic! It also meant I got to have a good play with the ElonexONE and chatted to the guys on the stand - and being a Linux user (and Eee owner) I got as much technical info as I could.
What they had on the stand was a technical sample and not a final product. They're playing with different processors (including a 1GHz processor) and seeing how much memory they can get in without exceeding £100. The OS they had on there wasn't final either, and they openly admitted to anyone that it's looking a bit flaky at the moment because they'd committed to a launch date and then had to rush things last minute.
The device itself is novel in design and I rather liked it - seeing through the rough edges it was obvious to me that there was something good inside, and I just hope that the rough edges are polished off nicely. The keyboard was a bit squishy for my liking but then I touchtype, and this is being marketed for kids - when I was a kid, I had a rubber-keyed Spectrum that I pecked the keys of. The display, however, is as good as the Eee (which is good).
I'd lay down £100 for one. Nuff said.
The Elonex One is aimed at the education sector. In addition, a price tag of £99 does believe it or not limit what the device can and cannot do - a larger screen, better battery life would be nice, but for half the price of an Eee, I'm not going to complain about imperfections. It may not be the right choice for those who have the bank balance to go with something like the Asus, but for a student such as myself the price tag is perfect, and will indeed save my shoulders from over-load as I epically fail to transport my current 15.4" notebook from A -B on my delicate 5ft 2" frame. I've seen a lot of commenting on the way the Elonex looks - but it won't stop me typing on the train if I have work to be done; I don't really care what other people think. As for the models - both should be male. And topless. And be covered in a fair bit of lotion to...er...y'know, protect their skin. Then maybe I'll get back to you.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
