You may have noticed that there’s a trend in the ultraportable laptop space that’s leading to larger, more powerful, and more expensive laptops. You know, kind of like the ones we were all using a few years ago. I’m still happy at all the new choices available for people looking to pick up a 12 inch or smaller laptop for under $600. But if you’re looking for something way cheaper, there are still a number of companies putting out tiny, less capable devices. And some of them are incredibly cheap.
Case in point: The SMQ 4012 Aviation Book. This little guy sports a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display, a VIA VT8500 ARM-based processor running at just 400MHz, 128MB of RAM and 2GB of storage. It runs Windows CE and weighs just over 1.4 pounds. The best part? It sells for 85 Euros, or about $122 US… not that I’ve seen it in the US yet, but you never know.
You can find more details, plus a whole slew of pictures at NetbookNews.de.
The SMQ 4012 isn’t the cheapest clamshell-style laptop I’ve seen running Windows CE. But it’s certainly one of the cheapest.
Update: I stand corrected. You can order the SMQ 4012 (or rather, an unnamed model of this notebook) in the US for about $120.