First Google Android Netbook Launched – Skytone Alpha 680

After much speculation and rumour in the past weeks, the race to launch the first Google Android netbook has been won. The winner is the Skytone Alpha 680 from Guangzhou. (Who?)

The specification of the Skytone Alpha 680 is like most of the recent Smartphones – a 533 mhz ARM processor and 128 MB of RAM (can be extended up to 256 MB). Built-in storage is a little sparse in the base model – just 1 GB SSD although a 4GB option is mentioned on the companies website, as well as being expandable by using an SD or SDHC card in the slot that is thoughtfully provided.

The 680 looks like any other netbook at first glance, but closer inspection reveals that it can also be used in ‘Tablet PC mode’, although even closer inspection raises the question – how are you supposed to use it like that, when it does not have a touchscreen.

The 7-inch screen, apart from not being a touch-screen also only offers 800×480 resolution, so in this way it would be a little unfair to put in the same class as the regular Intel based netbooks around. The price though is set to be considerably lower than your average EeePC, so there will certainly be a market for it, probably in the web-browsing only user-base.

Other than this, its good to see that all the features we’ve come to expect are included – from a VGA port, an Ethernet port and a webcam, microphone and speakers.

If you draw a line between smartphone and netbook, it’s clearly much nearer the netbook end of things, and we are sure that many of the other players in the market (probably including Microsoft) are paying attention to see how it sells.

Will the Skytone Alpha 680 be leave a mark in the history of the netbook as significant as the one that Asus made with their first EeePC. Time will tell.