There are so many mini netbooks going around that I thought I’d get my hands on one of them. By “mini” I do not mean these Atom 10″ netbooks with Ubuntu or Windows XP on them. I really mean “mini” as in 7″ ARM based netbooks.

For no particular reason I targeted the “Allfine PC703 Mini Netbook”. Going for about +-£80/£90 (DO NOT pay more than this for any of these. You have been warned!). Loads of people are fooled into buying these at higher prices expecting a fully fledged netbook. Let me set this straight right now… they are running Windows CE. It may look like Windows, but it is not. Windows CE is a completely different platform designed to run as Firmware on devices. Your GPS navigator, ATM or even some printers are running a version of this. Don’t expect to upgrade or run any windows programs. There is almost no support for apps or older versions (like CE 5.0) and it’s almost impossible to find decent apps for it.

Scared yet? Well… let me calm you down. Don’t worry, in my opinion, I don’t think it was meant to be targeted for ages greater than 12. I can see a 5 – 8 year old having this on his/her lap next to her daddy with his Laptop/Netbook watching TV drafting a cookie recipe on the Win CE version of Wordpad. Watching youtube, browsing the internet or clasping the dog’s tail with it. I mean, for £80 who cares what they do with it, as long as they leave yours alone!

After switching the device on, opening WordPad, Excel and Paint, it soon becomes very clear… I need apps. After about 2 hours of searching I found a version of ScummVM that can run games like Monkey Island, Full Throttle, The Dig and Day of the Tentacle. I could get it to run, but needed to request a driver from one of the developers for the device so it can run full screen. They were willing to provide one for £15. Luckily I was still sober, so I gratefully declined. I was surprised that I could view Youtube videos with it. Well… it was a mixture of youtube and “Core Player” working together to provide this to me.

If you like hunting down apps you could probably get this thing to serve some purpose. And for the price of £80, this is the right device to fiddle with.

I still think the Allfine Mini Netbook is most suitable for kids and I personally think that OLPC (one laptop per child) should take a note of these.

Technical Specs:

7-inch widescreen LCD screen
Easy to use Windows CE version 5 operating system
128MB memory
Window media player
2GB SSD (solid state disk) shock proof storage
SD / SDHC Card reader
SD Card slot for storage expansion – up to 32gb extra storage
2 x USB 2.0 ports for input devices (keyboard, mouse)
1 x WIN CE ActiveSync USB port
Audio connections: Mic In (3.5mm jack) Stereo out (3.5mm jack)
Touch mouse pad
Email application
10/100Mbps Ethernet port
AC adaptor / charger
Input Voltage: 9Vdc 1.5A

UPDATE: See here for alternative netbooks

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