Remember Hercules? A couple of years ago during the height of the netbook craze, the company launched their first eCAFÉ netbook which had a rather nice design and even made it to US (see my post back at Netbooked). Now, they are back with two new eCAFÉ netbooks, or smartbooks as I like to call them for the time being – ARM powered and running on Linux.
There’s the eCAFÉ Slim HD and eCAFÉ EX HD. Both look the same, have 10-inch displays and are powered by dated ARM Cortex A8 i.MX515 (800MHz) processors with 720p HD video playback and instant on. The Linux OS used is the eCAFÉ Netbook Edition OS which looks and sounds like a modified Ubuntu Netbook Edition.
eCAFÉ Slim HD
The eCAFÉ Slim HD boasts a thin profile at 0.8″ thick with a weight of just 1.9 lbs. For ports it has 3x USB, Ethernet, headphone and mic jacks and a card reader. There’s a DIP switch for starting another OS on the device.
- 10.1″ 1024 x 600 display
- 8GB flash storage + 50GB online
- ARM Cortex A8 i.MX515 (800MHz) processors
- 512MB of RAM
- 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
- 0.3MP camera
- 2,400mAh battery (4.5 hours)
- 3x USB, headset, mic jacks, RJ45, internal and external card readers
- DIP switch
eCAFÉ EX HD
The eCAFÉ EX HD is a little thicker at 1.1″ and heaver at 2.4 lbs. There are multimedia controls, HDMI output and a 13 hour battery.
- 10.1″ 1024 x 600 display
- 16GB flash storage + 8GB SDHC card + 50GB online
- ARM Cortex A8 i.MX515 (800MHz) processors
- 512MB of RAM
- HDMI output
- 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
- 0.3MP camera
- 6,800mAh battery (13 hours)
- 3x USB, headset, mic jacks, RJ45, internal and external card readers
- DIP switch
Both are due out this month (April) priced at $229 / £180 for the Slim HD and $269 / £230 for the EX HD.
