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£200 Laptop - good buy?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
http://laptop.org/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml
http://xogiving.org/
I see that for around £200 you'll be able to buy 2 of these laptops and give one away and keep one.
Now with no moving parts and only weighing about 1.45kg it's pretty portable - I'm thinking it's an excellent bit of kit for traveling with?
And far more useable then a PDA type device since it has a bigger screen and full keyboard?
The kind of thing you can take with you from Hostel to hostel and use free WiFi with to check emails, brows the web with, etc?
http://xogiving.org/
I see that for around £200 you'll be able to buy 2 of these laptops and give one away and keep one.
Now with no moving parts and only weighing about 1.45kg it's pretty portable - I'm thinking it's an excellent bit of kit for traveling with?
And far more useable then a PDA type device since it has a bigger screen and full keyboard?
The kind of thing you can take with you from Hostel to hostel and use free WiFi with to check emails, brows the web with, etc?
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This laptop's a pile of shite which ain't robust enough for African life.
but those same qualities make it useful for travelers i.e. it's tough and light and easy to use
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4285568518538296189&q=user%3A%22Google+engEDU%22&total=538&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=6
What do you know about African life?
The only difference between Africa and UK in terms of looking after electronic devices like this ... is there's a lot more dust there!! Hence the sealed rubber keyboard.
ok, fuck off and don't bother asking an opinion again if you don't really want one.
Yes, more dust- but also the availability of replacement parts and access to electricity to recharge it will not be as easy- and I wouldn't trust a 200 quid laptop to last too well.
What even makes you think life is tough out there?
Do you think just cos someone lives in Africa they don't look after what little they have?
If anything COLD weather is tougher on electronics with the exception of batteries -
The air in Africa is less humid then in the UK so less condensation on components
Airborne dust is the only major difference
I've lived out in Africa and still have relatives there - so that's where my views and actual experience comes from.
But I go back to my original point, don't expect too much from a computer designed for 5 year olds
If something is reliable then you don't have to worry about replacement parts ... reliability is why there is no hard drive in the machine ... everyone seems to be straying away from the initial question ..
The question related to whether it was a good machine for the money for someone that likes to travel ... based on the spec, price & weight. And mostly likes to have access to the net in hostels - no one said anything about dragging the thing in the jungles ..
And yes I totally agree that people in poor countries look after things well.
Access to the internet for web and emails was the main concern ... All of this was mentioned in the very first post
2) To charge the items, where are the homes which these laptops are aimed at going to really charge them from?
3) There's not much STORAGE - so apps will hve to be developed to fit onto SD cards (i.e teaching applications - as google, and wifi is not a learning tool in itself)
4) With said storage / card slots - is there a cover on that to stop sand / dust / etc etc getting in and corrupting components?
I said nothing about life in general being tough out there - and I never mentioned that people don't respect the items they have there.
I do not have to justify any answers to you - I just gave a straight off the cuff opinion to your final question (if you can indeed call it a question - it's more of a screwed up statement) - "The kind of thing you can take with you from Hostel to hostel and use free WiFi with to check emails, brows the web with, etc?"
Ipaqs are cheaper, and have more functionality / memory / potential.
Personally I wouldn't bother with it, but then if it's that cheap you won't be too upset if it gets lost while you're travelling.
http://www.dabs.com/ProductList.aspx?ExposedRefinement=11001&NavigationKey=11107&CategorySelectedId=11107&PageOffset=0&RecordOffset=0#Paging
BTW the MAIN question was regarding USABILITY for web and email access on the move
With reference being made in the very first post regarding the screen size and full sized keyboard and built in WiFi and taking into consideration the weight
You should make your questions seem like questions then - rather than statements with question marks.
I'll link you to that ipaq soon enough...
hope they have one for less then £200 with at least a 1024 by 768 screen
The XO Laptop has Resolution: 1200 (H) × 900 (V) resolution so that's even better!!
Well I'd be miffed if I lost one BUT the fact it's about the third the price of a decent laptop means you have less to be miffed about ..
screen size isn't that important to kids.
because if it was, surely a HARD DRIVE would be too so they could save web pages / images from the web etc etc etc
I never said CURRENT ipaq
But yes, it has email, wifi, bluetooth, internal memory, SD card slot, comes with a case, stylus, and "games buttons", speakers and headphone jack, and fits in a pocket...
oh the bonus? It's Touch screen - so that probably makes up for the lack in screen size
Screen size / resolution is Important to me ..
I've had 3 different kinds of PDA - 2 of which have had WiFi Access and the last one I took with me last week to a Hostel in Ireland and used it there for Wireless Internet ..
But I found it a pain to view normal websites on a screen with such low resolution, to have to constantly be scrolling up and down - left and right - to use a on screen keyboard to type out an email.
The first post was all about me and my needs .. and how I think this little device might be useful for me or someone like me who like to see new places but stay in a hostel.
I want to be able to travel and have a way to stay in touch with friends and family and also do research about the places I'm in, look up maps online, etc
I travel mostly by Ryan Air and only take hand luggage which limits me to 10kg.
If people can suggest a similar device for similar money then that's what I want to know about. OR have them point out flaws with the device that would affect my ability to use it as intended.
For example I expected someone to suggest the Nokia 800 or Nintendo DS Lite which you can get a browser for and also has two screens which may make it more useable then the average PDA for web access.
Touch screens are useful but for me the scrolling up / down and left right thing is a pain - it's like trying to see the web through a letter box
I'd say the average website these days is designed for 1024 by 768 - it's certainly the minimum size I now design my own websites for.
The nokia 800 only goes up to [SIZE=-1]800 x 480 so even that is falling below the minimum for most website to be viewed as intended but still better then most PDA's[/SIZE]
True, that
Also according to that website they'll only be on sale for 2 weeks - so if you lost it you might not be able to buy another one
Which is also another reason for this thread to inform others who may be interested in a device that might be useful to them but let them know about it before it's too late to get hold of one.
As well as that I thought such a device would be useful for my Aunt who wants internet and email access but who is in her 70's (and never used a PC) and thus would be a better solution for her then a full blown laptop and less likely to crash or get a virus. She already has Sky Wireless Broadband at home which her son uses when he visits on Business Trips.
So what you are saying is that you just want a large screen which you can view and a keyboard you can type with. You don't really seem to be concerned with anything else - which to be honest, you will notice the lack of when you get moving with this "laptop"
If I was you, I'd take a £10 rollup keyboard
a £3 image magnifier
and a pda / your mobile phone.
Cheaper than £200 and will do the job and more!
I once watched the original version of the movie "Three men and a Baby" which is in French and had to read the subtitles on a 2 inch LCD TV
I could read it just fine even though the screen is tiny - but that screen had the same number of pixels as a regular TV
MOST PDA's only have a resolution of 320 x 240 - there simply isn't enough pixels on the screen to see everything at once.
320 x 240 = 76,800 Pixels (number of pixel most Average PDA's have)
1024 x 768 = 786,432 (number of pixels on a standard web page)
786,432 / 76,800 = 10.24
So on a standard Computer monitor your eyes can see over 10 times more information at once then on a PDA screen - which is about right cos it seems to take 10 times longer to get anything useful done a PDA with regards to using the web.
These kids won't be watching subtitled movies on the laptops though, so that's completely out of context.
It's been besigned and built as a learning device.
Which besides the screen size, has absolutely nothing better on it than a PDA.
Even the touch screen (i.e stylus / onscreen keyboard) (I know I've gone back to it again, but I have just thought of a great point) - encourages hand eye coordination for youngsters.
Oh sorry - I forgot this thread was about YOU travelling with it. Maybe it will be good enough for you!
That'd be cool if it had wifi
It is designed to work as a collbarotive thing - so you can sit in a classroom and the teacher can give you the work and you can work together via wifi talking.
Not sure how good it would be as a mobile device. And have you seen the way it looks
Yup sorry but the thread is about me .. LOL
This BBC News article make it seem even better
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6679431.stm
Batteries only cost £5 and last 4 times longer then most laptops in use - most laptop batteries are more like £40 to £70
Plus the antenna's have a much better range - trouble in hostels is that they usually only put a WiFi router in the common area so if you're in a bedroom not nearby you won't get a signal.
Yeah it looks a bit kiddie like - supposed to .. but as long as it gets the job done ..
not sure what you meant about NOT plugging in to recharge - it's not a magic laptop ..
It was supposed to be wind-up if I remember rightly.
Or pullstring.
1 pull = 1 minute of power.
Max of 2 hours or something.
would have made it too big and heavy - but you could build a separate windup unit for it - you can also use several powersupplies you have hanging around cos it accepts a wide variety of input voltages