Intel unveiled its second-generation Classmate PC with a 9-inch screen and webcam at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai. It looks a bit more robust than the previous 7-inch version but still has a Celeron M processor, not a new Atom. Intel's Classmate PC site has side-by-side specifications.
Classmates are based on Intel's design and include its processors, but they are built by other manufacturers and sold under a variety of brand names. The first generation went on sale in March 2007 with the 7-inch screen and fewer functions. Intel said it has sold "tens of thousands" of the machines but declined to provide more specific data.
CNet has a review, Intel Classmate PC (9-inch), which says:
Compared with the original, this Classmate PC looks less like a toy and more like a traditional laptop computer, even as it keeps a somewhat thick, plastic chassis with slightly rounded corners. The new Classmate also keeps the removable snap on leather cover, which doubles as a convenient carry handle. The rugged design makes it more than a pound heavier than the Eee PC, but it also feels significantly sturdier.
The keyboard is about the same size as on the original Classmate and is designed for those with smaller fingers. However, the keys have been rearranged into a more traditional layout, correcting a few niggling problems with the older version, such as a missing right-shift key. The touch pad is now a traditional rectangular surface, instead of the visually interesting, but hard-to-use round version on the older Classmate. Intel added a Webcam, positioned above the screen, in this revision, which is a cool extra for such an inexpensive system.
The major disappointment is that the larger screen still has the same old resolution: 800 x 480 pixels. Still, says CNet, it has more ports than a MacBook Air....
Forbes magazine compares the $489 Classmate 2 with the OLPC XO, saying: "the Classmate hardly feels like a leap forward in educational hardware as much as a gray, shrunken version of any typical Intel-powered laptop". (Harsh? In real life, the XO looks amazingly naff.) Still:
In Forbes.com's tests, the XO's Wi-Fi connection was weak and finicky. When it did connect, Flash or Java-based sites like YouTube or Yahoo! Games suffered from crippling sputters and stalls, thanks to the XO's small memory capacity.
Intel's Classmate, on the other hand, connected to the same Wi-Fi network and was playing 9-inch videos of Korean break dancing within seconds. Other dynamic Web sites, like games and photo sites, also loaded without a hitch.
That means that as the computing world shifts to the Web from the increasingly irrelevant desktop, Intel's Classmate could flourish while the XO is left behind. For all of OLPC's brilliant bells and whistles, the nonprofit has created a closed platform that isn't capable of using Windows programs -- not to mention a constantly evolving ecosystem of Web applications.
Forbes's conclusion:
But the most important factor by far in the Classmate's favor? Once that rural Indian nine-year-old gets a peak at YouTube, the XO doesn't stand a chance.
Intel, of course, also supports the use of Linux on Classmate PCs, not just Windows.
Update: Here's Intel's press release.
