Notebook PC with Bamboo Top Panel Introduced, Natural Material Exudes Originality

Jun 7, 2007 19:40 Yuhiko Iochi, Nikkei WinPC

The Earth Tech Computer's booth at the COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2007, now being held in Taipei City, Taiwan, has been attracting visitors to the latest mother boards equipped with the 3 series, the new chip set manufactured by Intel Corp. and the yet-to-be-announced chip set RD780 manufactured by AMD. In addition, two other interesting notebook PCs are exhibited.

One is a notebook PC that has a bamboo top panel, which is exhibited as a concept model. Its top panel and the area around the keyboard are made of bamboo.

It has been accepted practice to present an expensive-looking appearance by using magnesium or aluminum materials, while the key to this product is the use of a natural material. We were not allowed to touch the product, but it appeared to be of high quality.

This is a concept model, but the company is planning to release the model (release in Japan has not been finalized).

The other one is Eee PC 701, which weighs 0.89 kg. This is a so-called "zero-spindle PC," a mobile PC without a hard disk, in which a 4-16GB flash memory is integrated. This is not a high-performance PC but a "practically portable PC."

The company announced only that it incorporates the CPU manufactured by Intel Corp., but it is supposed to be the A-series, which is also incorporated in Fujitsu FMV-U8240.

The main memory is 512 MB, while the display is 7-inch LCD (estimated resolution is 800 x 480 dot). It is sized 225 (W) x 165 (D) and 21-35 mm in thickness. The battery life is approximately 3 hours.

This product incorporates Linux as the OS because it is targeted for China, but installation of Windows XP is also possible. According to the keynote speech by Intel, the price is $199 (for 2GB version).

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