The HP Compaq Airlife 100 Android netbook was made official just a few days ago, and we’ve just had a hands-on session with its Android-stuffed shell. Is it a flash in the pan? Can Android really work as a laptop OS? See our hands-on photos, read our first impressions and find out!
First, the good news. The HP Compaq Airlife 100 looks brilliant. It’s small, light and looks like a full-power netbook, despite running a mobile OS. But here’s the bad news. Android struggles on the Compaq Airlife 100. The browser was shockingly slow and laggy. We tried typing in electricpig.co.uk, but it was always a step behind our keypresses, meaning even this simple process took for ever. And then there’s the trackpad.
You don’t scroll around as you’d expect, but rather you just tap the trackpad, as the buttons on the left and right are Android’s home and back buttons.
We’re sure HP is beavering away on fixes for these problems, but it’s taken a bit of sheen off our first impressions. What’s more, there’s still no word on a UK release. That said, maybe a delay in releasing the Airlife 100 will give HP time to iron out the bugs. It’s being sold with Telefonica in Spain, so there’s every chance O2 could pick it up in the UK.
TBC | TBC | HP
