CES 2007: Hands-on with the $100 laptop

 

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By Ross Burridge in Las Vegas

Posted on 10 Jan 2007 at 17:01

After what seems like years of nothing but marketing, a prototype of Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) made an appearance at this year's CES show. We discovered it on the rather tucked-away stand of Marvell, which is supplying the wireless card for the sub-$100 laptop.

We managed to spend a few minutes with the sample, and came away largely impressed. The all-plastic chassis is remarkably solid, with even the screen hinge (used to flip the machine into tablet mode) and the two flip-out wireless aerials feeling sturdy. The screen quality is better than we were expecting too.

The rubberised keyboard is the only potential cause for complaint, as it doesn't have anything like the feel of a standard laptop - think more giant PDA. Although the rest of the hardware appeared largely finished, complete with plastic swing-out aerials for the Wi-Fi card, the operating system was in a little more disarray. Based largely on symbols, we couldn't fathom it out in the time we were able to tinker with the laptop.

According to Negroponte, versions of the operating system will be localised for each country, and One Laptop Per Child will send in a mentor to each school for a month to help the children find their way around the OS.

The first laptops will be trialled in February, with a full roll-out planned for July. Initially laptops will cost around $135 to produce, but Negroponte claims this could eventually fall to $50.