Ruslan Kogan has been talking up his upcoming netbook for a few months now. I just had a quick hands on with a couple of prototype units, and I can happily say that the other laptop manufacturers should be very scared right now.First thing worth noting is that the netbook will be a part of the Agora family. Ruslan firmly believes in his products being open source (Agora itself means “open forum” in Greek), and so his first netbook will run the gOS Linux operating system.
There will be two models available – both will come with a 10-inch screen, Atom processor (N270), and Wi-Fi. The difference is that the cheaper option (which costs $499 – the only 10-inch netbook with an RRP under $500) only comes with a 3 cell battery and 1GB RAM. The Pro model has 2GB RAM, and a 6 cell battery.
Bluetooth isn’t built in to the netbook itself – Ruslan said that their research showed that everybody wanted Bluetooth but rarely used it. Instead, in an effort to save battery life, Bluetooth comes in the form of a tiny USB dongle, which comes included with the Pro unit, or an extra $10 for the basic model.
The netbook will come in black, although the design on the lid will be slightly modified. We also saw a white version, although there aren’t any plans to release that at present.
Typing on the keyboard, in the brief time I had, was actually really comfortable, even though the keys looked a little small. The keyboard’s design reminded me of a Lenovo Thinkpad, without the red nipple sticking out in the middle. And right next to the power button is a Wi-Fi toggle switch to switch Wi-Fi on and off.
The Agora netbook will come with a whole raft of free apps including Open Office, and because of the gOS operating system, getting more programs and widgets is incredibly simple. And Kogan plans on being extremely flexible with the OS as well – even though the Agora netbook will come with gOS installed, they’re also planning to provide support for anyone wishing to install a different operating system, although they won’t go so far as to actually provide the software.
We’ve booked in to get a proper hands on, to see if this is the laptop to take us to Netbook Nirvana at the end of the month. In the meantime, enjoy the eye candy of the prototype version.
[Kogan]
Anthony Agius
March 12, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Needs more Hackintosh gents.
Report PermalinkZephyr
March 12, 2009 at 2:06 PM
Mind telling us how many USB ports there are, how many mAh is the 6-cell and is it fanless, pretty please? :D
Report PermalinkNick Broughall
March 12, 2009 at 2:21 PM
@Zephyr – Stay tuned – full specs should be announced next week (but from memory I think there are 3 USB ports)
Report PermalinkZephyr
March 12, 2009 at 2:53 PM
Nice. Hopefully it’ll fulfill a lot of people’s needs after the heaps of comments on Kogan’s blog.
Report Permalinkwoodduck
March 12, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Sorry, but if more people new they could use bluetooth mice, i think more people would use them, especially more so then dial up modem(looks like on the side). come on, if you can afford to get a new netbook, you probably have Broad band, iff not get a cheap modem some place, save some money, get rid of the modem, it takes up space that could be used for more useful technology… like bluetooth or usb plug. But I think if it goes orright, it could just out do the asus1000h, which i think is the best netbook on the market.
Report Permalinkattila
March 12, 2009 at 3:12 PM
Come on – you missed the obvious joke. If other manufacturers are scared of this, it means they are suffering from “agoraphobia”!
Report PermalinkGordon
March 12, 2009 at 3:24 PM
I fail to see why other manufacturers should be scared? I dont see anything special about this netbook. My MSI Wind seems just as good and there are a mass of after market batteries and hacks available for it.
Report Permalinkpoedgirl
March 12, 2009 at 4:00 PM
He really needs to release this ASAP to reap the benefits of the $900 tax incentive. I know I’d seriously consider one if it was on the market now.
Report PermalinkFodi
March 13, 2009 at 4:26 PM
I was waiting to see this before making a purchase. How un-inspiring. Looks like I’ll be picking up an HP mini on the way home tonight.
Report PermalinkDuncan
March 13, 2009 at 6:02 PM
It seems former gizmodo editor has gone one better and has a bit of video of the netbook in action. Hit this link
http://www.midnightupdate.com/2009/03/13/update25-kogan-agora-netbook-exclusive-hands-on-preview/
Report Permalinkjohn
March 15, 2009 at 3:31 AM
those bright blue lights on the outside aren’t a good idea…
Report Permalinkgadgit
March 17, 2009 at 8:17 AM
This appears to be a rebadged Olevia X10a which is basically the same as the Hello Kitty notebook released in Japan. The white version looks quite good, hopefully it will be released as an option.
Report PermalinkSibron
September 9, 2009 at 12:08 AM
got mine last week, $470AUD delivered to the door in perth,2gig of ram, 3 usb, card reader, webcam, wifi, openoffice, 160gb HD, what more would you want?
Report PermalinkFodi, you have your HP mini, I’ll take my change of $330(HP Mini 2140 $800RRP), buy an external dvd burner, another external HDD, a NextG usb stick and still have enough left for some beer and a pizza or two :-)