Compaq AirLife 100 Android Smartbook Headed To The US?

All these smartbooks that are due to show up this year may very well be what everyone had in mind for netbooks originally. Case in point: the Compaq AirLife 100, which was announced in Spain earlier this year, has now shown up on HP’s US website.

There’s no word on pricing or availability yet, but specs include a customized Android operating system, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, 512MB of flash memory for saving Android apps, and 16GB of built-in file storage with an SD slot with support for up to 32GB cards. There’s also a 10.1-inch resistive touchscreen with 1024×600 resolution, and the battery is slated to last over 12 hours, according to HP.

Connectivity options will include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and 3G, but it’s unknown which mobile networks will be supported stateside. Hopefully it’ll be available both with and without a mobile contract, although when it was announced in Spain it was revealed that pricing would be set by Telefonica, one of Spain’s mobile providers.

I’d love to see this thing hit the magic $200 price point (unsubsidized) we were all promised when netbooks were first conceptualized and then re-promised when smartbooks were introduced. This AirLife 100 may be able to come close, although something tells me that $250 seems more probable.

via SlashGear

Brent

Sweet. I would have one of these before an Apple iPad. But I don’t know much about android. Are there lots of good free programs? I don’t do games. Using Google Docs would be enough for me in general. I see a need for 3G and possibly 4G at affordable rates. Surfing wants to be free–as in all ways possible.
gum0nshoe

@Brent . Google Chrome is essentially a browser operating system. Everything is made to run off of the internet, so without a network connection the computer would be entirely 100% useless unless they’ve come up with a way to run off line that I’ve never heard about. I’d assume some of those Android apps you could run natively, but Google docs is a program you run off the net as far as I know.

See http://www.aviary.com if you want an idea of what a net application might look like. Eventually you will see plenty of awesome programs in this space, but currently everything is fairly fledgling and new. The computer was likely designed to serf the web, check e-mail, and play streaming video/music. If you want to do anything else, like play video games or compile code I’d suggest getting a real box.

There’s also some concern over whether this can be used for private enterprise work. Since a lot of the data is stored up in the cloud, there are security risks just like going to a server farm and asking them to back up your files. Only in this case, all your files reside at the server farm and you only gain access to them when you request them.
bignumone

That looks/sounds pretty darn nice. It has a lot of features I was hoping for in the iPad.
But I would have to have a few days with Android before I could pull the trigger on a device like that.
I have not heard great things about Android outside of from Google fanboys. And the idea that Google is making it does not instill confidence in the security of my personal information/data.