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Maplin joins the sub-laptop party with £170 model

by Scott Bicheno on 14 August 2008, 13:06

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Low price, low spec

UK high street electronics chain Maplin has launched an own-brand sub-laptop called the minibook and it's apparently hoping to undercut the market at the start of the ‘back to school' period by offering it for a mere £169.99 until 2nd September, after which it will cost £219.99. It was officially launched two days ago but has apparently been selling for a week or two at least.

Here's the spec:

Processor: XBurst 400 MHz, 32-bit

Memory: 128MB RAM

Storage: 2GB NAND Flash

Display:  7-inch, 800x480

External storage: SD card slot

Networking: ADSL, Wi-Fi (b, g)

Input: 2 USB ports

Operating system: Linux

Software: Email, productivity, web browser, pdf viewer

So not exactly over specced then. However, with many of the latest Atom based sub-notebooks coming in at more like £400, Maplin could be on to a good thing with a model coming in at comfortably under £200.

We're hoping to speak to someone from Maplin soon to find out a bit more about the minibook, but in the meantime we would like to know your thoughts. With this spec, is the minibook worth buying even for £170? If not, how could it be improved without adding too much to the cost? Let us know in the HEXUS.community.

 

 

 

Update - 14:30, 14th August 2008: Scan is selling what appears to be the same product, but branded CnM, at pretty much the same price. It has been doing so since the start of the month, it seems.

Update 2 - 14:40, 14th August 2008: So is Novatech.

 

Press release: MAPLIN UNVEILS ITS NEW SPACE-SAVING MINI-LAPTOP AT A SNIP

 

HEXUS Forums :: 14 Comments

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Posted by this_is_gav - Thu 14 Aug 2008 13:56
Oh sweet lord. This is doomed to failure. It's not worth £170, so if it rises to £220, it's immediately into ACER Aspire One territory, which beats it in every possible way (other than being a touch bigger presumably). Ironically, they're selling the original Eee PC for the price they claim this will retail at…

I struggle to even consider a for this as a netbook. It's more an oversized phone without the phone… I just can't see the point.

Upgrade the CPU and the RAM and storage is hopelessly limited. Upgrade the RAM and the CPU and storage are hopelessly limited… you get the idea. It's just horribly under-specced.

This is a company which have thought “ooh, this is our chance to branch out and get onto this cash-cow!” without thinking it through at all. It's not going to sell more than a handful at the £170 price point and absolutely zero at the inflated price.
Posted by TheAnimus - Thu 14 Aug 2008 15:54
this is much more of a PDA, for a start its a RISC CPU, so you can't easily compare it to a x86 without risking apple and oranges conversions. But a 400Mhz RISC CPU can be quite snappy in the right hands, never come accross this one before thou!
Posted by tefster - Thu 14 Aug 2008 16:04
Isn't this just the RM Asus (http://www.rm.com/primary/Products/product.asp?cref=PD1030046) rebadged ?
Posted by Agent - Thu 14 Aug 2008 17:43
tefster
Isn't this just the RM Asus (http://www.rm.com/primary/Products/product.asp?cref=PD1030046) rebadged ?

Nope.

I saw the boxes for these at Maplin a few hours ago….looked really cheaply made. Didn't have an actual model on show though.
Posted by iworrall - Thu 14 Aug 2008 18:04
A tenner more will get you an EeePC 701 in the Toys ‘R’ Us “Back to School” sale.
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