The unit CTL (Intel designs the Classmate PC, and companies like CTL bring it to market) sent me is lab coat white with a silver, grayish handle and I’ve got to say it is pretty ugly even for kids. That little bear is way cuter and so is Dell’s Latitude 2100 education netbook (which comes in school bus yellow and ball field green) and the ASUS Disney Netpal Eee PC. Thankfully the pictures of the Classmate PC in blue and grey look a lot better, but if I were a kid given this egg white netbook I’d cover it in magic marker and Hello Kitty stickers. I do actually really like the detachable lunchbox-like handle, however.

What the Classmate lacks in style it makes up for in durability. The 10-inch netbook (unlike its convertible tablet sibling) can take a beating. It’s hard drive is shock mounted and the chassis can withstand a 70-centimetre drop. And I wasn’t scared to drool on it since its keyboard is spill resistant.

The netbook has one of the most cramped keyboards I’ve seen on a 10-inch netbook (though the Shift key is now full size), but I’m willing to be forgiving for that since it is meant for the small handed. Win on the trackpad though; it has been expanded and with its dedicated scroll bar is a pleasure to navigate the desktop with.

The $US449 netbook has the usual specs—a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, Windows XP and 160GB hard drive. That is plenty fine for writing a homework assignment in Microsoft Works and hitting up kid friendly websites. However, the best part of the whole netbook is the Blue Dolphin skin over Windows XP that Intel has created.The UI is pretty neat and has large animated shortcuts to frequently used programs (it is pretty easy to customise too). Its six-cell battery which doesn’t protrude from the system should blast out about five hours of runtime and last well into recess.

The $US449 price seems like overkill considering most netbooks on the market, which are hands down more attractive, are at least $US50 less. However, for a kid its got durability, easy to use software and is 100 percent cootie free. [CTL]

Computer Technology Link is the presumptive first manufacturer of the Classmate 2 for some time now. The final unit specs are the same as the demonstration model we’ve been playing with since the Intel Developer Forum—and which, in a later incarnation, we found quite palatable at CES—barring the replacement of the 802.11n wireless card with a b/g unit.

The price is a steep $US550, but could well be lower for bulk orders (assuming there are other sales channels, as CTL’s site only allows one laptop per customer, or “OLPC” if you will). [CTL via NetBux—Thanks, Johannes!]

From the outset, Intel’s goal with the Classmate line was to create a cheap, durable laptop that could be useful in a classroom. As such, Intel gave the Classmate tablet an 8.9-inch touchpanel, 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 802.11n wi-fi, 1 GB RAM, a 60 GB HDD (or up to 8 GB of flash storage), a days worth of battery life and a weight under 1.3kg.

The computer itself is on par with most other netbooks in terms of build quality. Nothing feels super flimsy, the 1024×600 resolution screen is sharp, and when using it as a tablet, it sits comfortably in the hand. The keyboard and trackpad are pretty decent sized, going toe to toe with the HP Mini or the MSI Wind in that regard. And it even has a webcam that can rotate to either face the user or look out in the other direction.

Messing around with some of the apps, it’s clear Intel did more than slap a touchscreen on a XP laptop and call it a tablet—they went one step further, adding the necessary hardware and software enhancements to make it as simple to use as possible.

For example, the Convertible Classmate has a quick launch panel that’s been optimised for use with the touchscreen, with big icons, and other touch friendly elements. And when the Classmate is folded into tablet mode, there’s a dedicated button that brings up the quick launch screen.

And not only will they be making the hardware as capable as possible for the educational arena, but they’ll be working with developers and OEM’s directly to make sure everything is optimised for the Classmate. One specific company they’re working with is Lego, whose Mindstorms kits are popular with educators.

Intel also put some thought into how kids would be using the Convertible Classmate specifically, and calibrated the touchscreen so that it wouldn’t recognise palm contact when kids are writing with the stylus. They found that most kids write with the palm down on the table, and if they didn’t adjust for that with the tablet, it would have caused many input problems.

But that also involved a trade off. Because they didn’t want to increase the price and have to use a capacitive/multitouch panel to enable palm detection, they had to lower the sensitivity of the resistive touchscreen in addition to using software fixes. As a result, the screen requires a bit of a heavier press to get it to recognise your input, which from what I could tell, doesn’t make it the most finger friendly.

Touchscreen issues aside, the presumable lack of consumer-centric touch app support, missing features like bluetooth and a pretty generic design will likely keep it entrenched in its educational niche. But considering that’s exactly what they’re gunning for, you can’t exactly call that a bad thing. [Classmate on Giz]

The touchscreen sequel to the original Classmate, the Convertible Classmate will pack the typical netbook 1.6 GHz Intel Atom, 60 GB hard drive, and Windows XP. Its touchscreen is 8.9 inches.

Laptop liked it, however, noting that the system handles XP by providing a touch-friendly Home menu that’s supposed to be fairly decent. Newly bundled software includes a virtual keyboard and handwriting recognition to take advantage of the responsive touchscreen—plus there should be more apps from developers on the way. Also, integrated accelerometers successfully tracked whether the computer was in portrait or landscape mode, adjusting accordingly in 2 seconds.

If you like netbooks, CES 2009 will be chock-full of them. Intel’s latest Classmate iteration looks solid, but we’ll see what we think when the competitors show up. [Laptop]

Intel had a couple of Classmate 2s set out as well, which looks admittedly dated next to the tablet. The new design takes some queues from popular netbooks like the EeePC and the MSI Wind, with an emphasis on slimness and a forward-sloping keyboard. The case, though still in development, looks more businesslike than its predecessor. There’s a new webcam that with vertical tilt capability, and a nifty home button on the screen’s bezel that returns the user to the desktop. Speaking of the desktop, the Classmate still runs XP, and Intel has built a simple dashboard with commonly used icons for easy touch access, though using XP’s regular functions with your fingers won’t be any easier than on other touchscreen tablets. A stylus is included.

The fact that it looks and behaves like a consumer subnotebook is bewildering. Without a dedicated educational OS, multitouch or even kid-friendly looks the Classmate seems to have veered off into overcrowded netbook territory. It seems plenty functional as a compact tablet though, so if the price is right it could well succeed at that. The device is still in development, so at least Intel theoretically has a chance that make this thing interesting.

The current Classmate PC fits a traditional form-factor and has been moderately successful, if not dominant, in its intended market. Without a truly unique design or an adequately modified (or new) operating system, the first and second generations of the Classmate amounted to little more than a very cheap laptop. Switching to a tablet-style design and relying on nontraditional input methods could push the new Classmate (or whatever this is) over the edge as the de facto digital teaching device for the developing world. That, and a ridiculously low price. In any case, we’ll be at tomorrow’s IDF keynote when this little tease gets filled out. [Laptop Mag]