Laptop : COMPAQ AIRLIFE 100 REVIEWED

COMPAQ AIRLIFE 100 REVIEWED

The Compaq Airlife 100 is one of the first smartbooks to hit the market. Needless to say, there has been a great deal of hype surrounding the device, but does it really manage to live up to its potential?

Chippy at Carrypad recently obtained a pre-production unit from HP. He has posted a detailed review of the smartboook and according to him the machine is a bit of a let down.

The Compaq Airelife 100 is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 512MB of RAM and 16GB of flash based storage. The smartbook runs Google Android 1.6. The supported connectivity options are 3G and WiFi.

Just like your smartphone, the Compaq Airlife 100 also offers always-on internet connectivity. It can receive incoming messages even when it is in the suspend mode. It also sports a clean design with a nice and quiet keyboard. Other plus points include a 12-hour battery life. The 10inch touchscreen display has 1024 x 600 pixels.

Even though the machine sports a touchscreen, you can also operate it using a touchpad, thanks to the tweaks HP has made to the operating system. There is one problem, though. Android doesn't have a cursor. So navigating using the touchpad may seem like a bit of a hassle. So far, so good. So what are the down sides?

The Compaq Airlife 100 has the same form factor as a netbook. It has a built-in keyboard and a 10 inch display. But unfortunately it doesn't offer the full functionality of a netbook. There are, for example, noUSB ports. So,you can't plug in a printer or a smartphone into it.

Other downsides relate to the software. The smartbook ships with Android but it doesn't have access to the Android Market which means that there are very few apps you can install on the device. Worse still, it ships without the basic Google apps you get on most smartphone like Gmail, maps, contact sync and Goggles. The multimedia capabilities of the device are also questionable.

So what is the verdict? Smartbook like devices do have great potential thanks to their always-on nature, but this machine requires a lot of work on thesoftware. Android may be a great platform for a smartphone, but on laptop like devices with large displays it just doesn't fit the bill.