11 inches of netbook gold from Caszh

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Comments Posted on Aug 31, 2009 Posted by Song Jiang

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The success of the recent MacBook Air clones in the last few weeks and months, has prompted a number of Shenzhai manufacturers to reach beyond the realms of ten inches and venture out into 11 and 12 inch territory. One of those manufacturers is Caszh, an oddly named bunch who, when they're not knocking out ION-ized netbooks, are responsible for producing this funky looking gold number.

Known locally as the Caszh CA-L11A, this 11 inch netbook device uses hardware typically found in netbooks; the now standard Atom N270 clocked at 1.6GHz, 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a 160GB hard drive. The slightly larger screen is what makes it stand out above the netbook crowd. Like a growing number of devices, the Caszh opts for a larger 11.1 inch screen, supporting a 1366 x 1768 screen resolution, which, as far as I can know, has only been used once before on an Western branded 11.1 inch device; the Sony Vaio W.

The larger screen is supplemented by a rather fetching gold exterior and the increasingly popular chiclet keyboard. Also known in some circles as an isolation keyboard, this kind of keyboard seems to be moving towards the norm for netbooks. One example is Asus, who have started outfitting older netbooks chiclet-style keyboards due to consumer demand. An argument I would almost reject out of hand. Chiclet keyboards are simply cheaper to manufacture, and in an industry were profit margins are slimmer than ever, it comes as no surprise to hear the chiclet keyboard is suddenly back in vogue. Opinion is divided on the subject. Some like it. Some don't.

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Western Opportunity Analysis:

While this baby isn't all that thin; 275mm x 195mm x 30mm, which is well outside of Intel's idea of sub-10mm 'thin-is-in-ness', it will find acceptance with many consumers on the basis of it's 11.1 inch screen. The netbook continues to evolve, with larger screens being one major departure from the original concept. Intel doesn't like this of course and would prefer all Atom based devices stay within ten inches.

I imagine however that Intel didn't sell these chips direct to the shanzhai manufacturers who are probably relying on surplus supply from mostly Taiwan. How long that will last remains to be seen. Will Intel eventually play ball on larger screens, or will the shanzhai eventually refocus using VIA's Nano platform, or eventually even ARM?

Conclusions:

I'm not always partial to gold colored devices, but the Caszh CA-L11A is far from gaudy or pimped up. It's larger screen and display resolution are going to make this an attractive proposition to many a cash-shy consumer in China. Sorry no word on price, but should be less than 200 bucks on the streets of Shanzhen.

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