I think I must be one of the few people that has already owned and reviewed a version of the Cloudbook. Last year I got hold of the Packard Bell Easynote XS20, which is effectively the Everex Cloudbook running Windows XP, and I did a fair bit of testing. I definitely know what to expect of the hardware so it’s probably worth revisiting some of the things I wrote about it in order to help those considering a Feb 15th purchase from Walmart or ZaReason.
More details after the jump…
To start with, I want to take a look at how I summarized the Easynote XS20 in my ‘First Impressions’ post. I basically compared it to the Eee PC and said that, at 599 Euros with XP, it was 100 Euros too expensive and needed a USP in order for it too compete. Well, as it happens, the price has dropped by over 100 Euros (based on UK pricing) and a huge 40+% since PC World first announced their rip-off 600 pounds price in the UK. You can get it with XP for 350 quid (470 Euros) at Dixons, UK which, in my book, is very good value indeed. Lets assume you would save 70 Euros by getting a version with gOS which brings it down to 400 Euros – 100 Euros more than the Eee PC. I still think it needs the 60GB drive I suggested to make it a no-brainer choice for those wanting storage but as it is, and remembering that the Easynote has 1GB of RAM (the Cloudbook only 512M) it would still be my recommendation for anyone wanting a great value, ultra portable, productive (yes, its good enough for that!) PC with storage.
In the U.S. the pricing is slightly different and there’s the OS to consider. It’s launching at exactly the same price as the Eee PC which, if you follow my reasoning above, makes it competitive although, if I had been the product manager, I would have sourced those 60GB drives and put $50 onto the retail price making it the de-facto choice for people wanting to store and play media. It only has 512MB and doesn’t look like it has the Bluetooth module though so that’s why it’s come into line with Eee PC pricing in the U.S. If you want some more detailed Eee PC vs Cloudbook comparisons, take a look at JKKMobile’s comparison of the two devices.
Here’s the presentation video of the Easynote XS20 which will give you a feel for the hardware. Note that I do like the positioning of the mouse pointer and mouse buttons but I don’t like that mouse pad at all. If it had been a mouse pointer I would have been much happier with it. I class the webcam as reasonable and give the hinges the thumbs up.
And here is an extract from my first-impressions post:
Inside that uninspiring design (that’s me being polite!) is a good set of components. The 1.2Ghz VIA C7-M, 1GB of RAM and Windows XP make a good combination for a fairly speedy system. The LED-backlit screen is clear and bright, the 13GB of free disk space [XP+recovery partition – Ed.] is useful and over 2.5 hours of WiFi-on browsing (nearly 4 hours max) battery life is better than other sub-notebook devices. (SH6, S37 I’m talking about you!)
Note that its not going to be a 5-hour battery life device. I mentioned ‘media’ before and although the Cloudbook won’t have the graphics power that the Eee PC has (especially in 3D performance) the video playback performance is fine for this small screen. In the second video below you’ll see Divx, YouTube and Skype running. You’ll also see Firefox running and I expect to see gOS running at about the same speed. There’s no reason that it should run any faster than on a fresh install of XP.
In summary then, the Cloudbook hardware is solid and will perform well. Personally I would have liked to have seen a bigger disk in it to give it a definite edge for media lovers but overall, the hardware is good and the processing platform is good. If you want to store and play media, it’s going to be the better choice for you but if not, or if you have a clutch of SD media cards, you can based your decision on looks and community. In that case, the Eee PC probably wins!
More specifications and a good list of links out to articles about the Easynote, Cloudbook and Belinea S.book, another device based on the same motherboard, are available on the Cloudbook product page.
More images are available in the Gallery and there’s a forum where you can ask questions here. (or click on the animated image to the left!)
