Why isn't there an equivalent now? All the laptops I see in that price range have very nice specs, but weak design. They don't seem at all durable, and they often have terrible battery life as a result of high-end processors.
Basically, what I want is a laptop designed like a Macbook for about $500, with the price difference coming from reduced specs. I don't want a superpowered laptop, I would rather have the battery life. Does this exist, and if not, why?
It is indeed a great computer, but I can't help thinking a used Macbook, Thinkpad, or the plethora of netbooks on the market would better serve even the most avid of hackers.
May I ask what puts you off with it's current incarnation, the Chromebook? It 's only $200 (and up). The external branding can be resolved with a $5 can of 'Plasti-dip', a screwdriver, and a bit of time. You'll end up a with a black, rubberized finish similar to the CR-48.
It may very well be fake, but if it isn't, it's probably gonna be worth waiting for unless you need something right now.
To make better use of the smaller screen real estate, you may wish to look into using a tiling window manager (dwm, xmonad, etc) coupled with a 'full screen' browser like Conkeror which nets another 100px vertically by not having a tab/navbar.
The Acer chromebook is $199 in US, but £199 in UK. ($199 is £126)
The UK prices do include our sales taxes (VAT at 20%), but still.
Which means you can use it as a breakfast tray when you're at a business summit, as a bludgeon when intruders come into your home, as a bulletproof plate if you live in a ghetto, as a riot shield if you're a journalist in Syria, and also as a skateboard if your car is broken.
Or, if you really want, you could use it as a really good, durable computer.
But obviously, this is nowhere near the price point you are suggesting. I think the reason cheap laptops look cheap is that they are, well, cheap. Users do not really expect them to last and therefore manufactures do not focus on longevity or style.
Good design is a premium for which you simply need to pay extra.
However, given the success of Chrome OS, it might not be that difficult, actually.
It should be easy to replicate it with better hardware and avoiding some of the biggest problems (tiny SSD soldered to the motherboard; weird trackpad; tiny keyboard) especially if you're not trying to cram it into a teeny tiny package.
At a quick glance, I think the biggest problem with it would be the 800x480 screen! If screen resolution wasn't an issue, I think a netbook could meet my criteria.
I think they have an 11" and 14" in their range which might fit the criteria and you can customise the specs to whatever you want really.
Good design, high quality construction, higher-end construction materials (aluminum chassis), etc..
It's probably a little larger than what you're looking for if the Cr-48 is your preferred size.
Link: http://reviews.bestbuy.com/answers/3545/product/3411128/asus...
Aside from that, it looks promising. I'm seeing it for about $400 at a couple places.
Since alot of the major OEMs (Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc.) have already made major investments in products (Thinkpad, Inspiron, etc.) for design that is focused on the head end and highly configurable, they don't spend resources producing the low end. Instead they all of the R&D cost have been spent creating one design that is very configurable, which results in design tradeoffs (swapable parts causes laptop to be bigger, etc.) in order for them.
Apple is successful partially because they have VERY few SKUs, a small number of models, which enables to them to easily reach scale and spend all their money on design. There is no equivalent because the margins at the $400-500 are very low and if OEMs have to spend large amount on design for something with low margin that can't be scaled up to high end, the ROI is not there.
