So What Does $99 Get You in the Netbook Aisle?

The short answer to what $99 gets you in a netbook is: not much. But you could take solace in the fact that you’re paying about 25 percent of what a standard netbook costs. If that’s the type of cost saving that appeals, then the CherryPal Africa is for you. Like the original ASUS Eee PC 701, the CherryPal Africa resorts to a 7″ display with an 800 x 480 resolution. Unlike the Eee PC line however, this device isn’t x86 compatible, meaning it won’t run Microsoft Windows. Instead, the 400 MHz ARM processor runs GMo Linux or Windows CE. Essentially, you’ve got yourself more of a smartbook than a netbook — it has the guts of a smartphone minus the mobile broadband, but the display and keyboard of the first netbook.

Other specs are meager as well, but that’s to be expected for this price:

• 10/100 wired Ethernet
• 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• 86-key keyboard and touchpad
• 2 x USB 1.1
• Memory card slot for up to 8 GB of removable storage
• 1800 mAh battery, with an expectation of four hours usage
• Weight of 1.2 kilograms
• Size of 213.5 x 141.8 x 30.8 mm

Perhaps the CherryPal site says it best when they advertise the Africa with the three S’s that every mobile maven wants to hear:  ”small, slow, sufficient.” OK, make that one of out of three. ;) Actually, for developing nations and children around the world, this might be desirable in an OLPC kind of way.

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