HP tips more details on Android netbook

By Eric Brown
2010-02-12

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HP has tipped an Android-based netbook, heading for the Spanish carrier Telefonica, according to several reports. HP's Compaq Airlife 100 is said to run a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor clocked to 1GHz, with 16GB of flash storage and a 10-inch 1,024 x 600 touchscreen.

Several reports offer mostly consistent details on the HP announcement, with The Inquirer saying the Airlife 100 is heading for the U.K on the O2 network (Telefonica Europe), while Engadget en Espanol says it's heading for Telefonica in Spain, claiming that the device is part of a larger pact between HP and Telefonica that will play out over both European and Latin American networks. No announcement, however, has appeared on the HP, Telefonica, or O2 sites, as far as we can see.

Compaq Airlife 100
(Source: Engadget en Espanol)

According to Engadget en Espanol, which posted the photo shown above, the Compaq Airlife 100 runs Android on a processor that is suspected to be a Qualcomm Snapdragon, but cannot be confirmed. The Airlife 100 offers a 10.1-inch touchscreen, 16GB SSD, integrated 3G and WiFi, and a camera, says the story. The netbook is also said to provide 10-battery life and instant-on capability.

According to the GearLog account (their photo is below), HP "basically took the [case of the] second-generation Mini 110, customized the right mouse button, and slapped Google's Android operating system on it." The story, which says the netbook will only be available in Europe for now, confirms some of the previous details, states the presence of the Snapdragon as a fact, and adds the following: 512MB RAM, a card reader, and a 28WH, three-cell battery.

Compaq Airlife 100
(Source: GearLog)

The Inquirer story, meanwhile, says the Airlife 100 offers 12 hours of battery life, not 10, but offers 10 days of life on standby. The story's author, Lawrence Latif, who dubs HP the "flogger of expensive printer ink," chips in with one more alleged feature: GPS.

The Airlife 100 appears to be the same prototype "smartbook" that HP demo n strated running Android on Qualcomm's ARM-based Snapdragon at CES in early January. Shown at right in an Engadget shot, the netbook was said to feature a 10-inch resistive touch display and resemble a last generation HP Mini.

In a separate eWEEK report on the CES demo, it was said that HP executive Todd Bradley described HP's unnamed touchscreen smartbook as a "thin, 3G device with an all-day battery." Bradley was further quoted as saying that, "It'll be an always-on device. Shut the lid and it stays connected to receive email. When you power it up later, your email is there waiting for you."

At CES, Bradley was said to have further described the smartbook as having an "improved UI," with enhanced launch strip, a camera file manager, browser, messaging, and tabs for multiple pages like Firefox. "It'll have a preinstalled Exchange connection, so you can open an email attachment in Office," he was quoted as saying. "We'll also have new photo and music apps."

Availability

More information on the Compaq Airlife 100 netbook may eventually become available at HP's site, here.

A translated page from the Engadget en Espanol story on the Airlife 100 may be found here. The GearLog story should be here, and The Inquirer's coverage should be here.

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