This week Palm announced the Foleo, an ultraportable Smartphone companion laptop. The January 2007 issue of Make shows you how to take a hardcover book and turn it into an ultraportable laptop by embedding a Palm Pilot and keyboard. The designer, Allen Wong, even powered it with AAA batteries that last for days. How does the Foleo stack up against Wong's Palm Notebook? It's time for... Iron Gadget!
Power Up
Foleo: Instant On
Palm Notebook: Instant On
Screen Size
Foleo: 10-inch screen, 1024 x 600
Palm Notebook: 2-1/4" x 3"—Wong used a IIIe which is 160 x 160
Connectivity
Foleo: WiFi and Bluetooth
Palm Notebook: Wong used a serial cable. But a newer Palm, like the TX, would supply WiFi, Bluetooth and infrared
Battery Life
Foleo: 5 Hours
Palm Notebook: Days... if you're carrying big pack of AAAs
Memory
Foleo: About 118MB RAM expandable with SD card slot.
Palm Notebook: 2MB RAM (later Palm models have SD slots as well)
Weight
Foleo: 2.5 lbs
Palm Notebook: 1.1 lbs
Cost
Foleo: $500
Palm Notebook: 1 book, 1 old palmpilot ($25) and Landware GoYype ($40), hours of
time.
Bonus Round: Green-ness
Foleo: 100% not recycled
Palm Notebook: 90% recycled
From Allen Wong:
Future Plans:
After they saw the article in MAKE, the good folks at Palm sent me a TX.
When I get a wireless keyboard, the TX will be disassembled and converted
into another Palm Notebook, hopefully smaller and lighter than the first.
Upgrading to a brand new TX with WiFi and a 320 x 480 screen would bring the total to around $325. Which one would you buy?
Palm Pilot Notebook [Make Digital]
Palm Foleo Coverage [Gizmodo]
DISCUSSION
Wong's a winner. Creative, thoughtful and from the opinions here, underappreciated. I think the instant on and forgetaboutit battery life are the key things here. I'm a UMPC fan, but yet to take the plunge because they are lacking these two things. I'm tempted to put my own ideas like Wong's to work and try to make something like but include more of the things I'd like. Thanks.