Marvell has a new smartbook design on display here with its Armada 510 processor under the hood, and it's one of the skinniest we've seen yet. What's more surprising, however, is that the device is actually built pretty well, and we even enjoyed the classic-style keyboard spread across its 12.1-inch expanse. The unit was built by an unnamed ODM who is currently shopping it around to manufacturers (or perhaps someone's bitten already, who knows), and we're getting a ballpark $200 pricepoint and a promise of about 4 hours of battery life with regular use. Apparently the big trend with these low-power ARM processor-based laptops is to trim down on battery size and therefore cost, and so we'll have to see where the market settles on preferred batter life: 4 hours might be too few, but at $200 it's surely tempting. The machine runs full Ubuntu plenty well, including 720p movies, and we were even digging the screen brightness and color -- basically, if Marvell's partners can get this on the market in short order, it might have a significant leg up on the rest of the smartbook competition, at least in terms of sheer quality and sex appeal. Gallery: Marvell shows off an ODM smartbook thinner than strict decency permits

Marvell shows off an ODM smartbook thinner than strict decency permits (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.


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