Elonex takes orders for £99 laptop

7in laptop has detachable keyboard and runs Linux

Elonex is taking pre-orders, on a £10 deposit, for the £99 laptop it is targeting at schools but details of the device remain obscure.

The Elonex One is a curious design, looking at first sight like a standard laptop. But closer inspection shows that all the workings (and weight) are in the lid, which also houses the 7in 800x480-resolution screen.

The keyboard is detachable and it seems from the specification that the rear can be used for touch input.

It weighs 0.95kg, measures 22x15x3cm, and uses what is described as an LNX Core 8 mobile processor clocking 300MHz, plus and 128MB Ram and 1GB of flash memory with options of between 1GB and 16GB removable memory.

Expansion is also available via two USB 2.0 port. The device runs the Linos 2.6.21 version of Linux and comes with " education-oriented" software.

There are two built-in speakers and 3.5mm audio in and headphone sockets. Elonex claims a four-hour battery life from the three-cell battery.

See Test Bed article for picture and more details