Hands on with second-generation Intel Classmate laptop

The Shrek-green "OLPC" isn't the only game in town when it comes to affordable laptops designed for schoolchildren. Intel's got a project of its own, called the Classmate, and it's quite competitive. The original Classmate came out last year, and already a second version is about to hit the market. I got some hands-on time with the 2G Classmate, and wanted to offer some thoughts.

First, if you're familiar with the original classmate, you won't find many surprises in this edition. The ruggedized/rubberized look and feel are similar, with the Classmate 2 a little more modern than the kind-of-'80s-looking Classmate 1 (pictured below), with a bigger trackpad and more traditional laptop design. (The Classmate 2 makes it all the way to 1988.) Both generations I tested were running Windows XP (a Linux version is also available, but I haven't checked it out). And despite running a 900MHz Celeron CPU, performance is pretty responsive. Sure, the machine is slowish to boot, but it's not unacceptable compared to other Windows machines.

The biggest upgrades are under the hood: The original Classmate had just 256MB of RAM and 2GB of SSD disk space (upgradable to 4GB). A new Classmate upgrades that to 512MB and a 30GB (traditional) hard drive (though this size hasn't been finalized), for environments were 2GB just isn't going to cut it. More importantly, this version of the Classmate is also upgraded from a 7-inch screen to a 9-inch model, giving students a little bigger picture. Unfortunately resolution is the same on both models, just 800 x 480 pixels. Oh, and there's also an integrated webcam available now.

I didn't get to try out the new mesh networking system, designed to make instant collaboration in the classroom easy, but its description sounds pretty cool (and a lot like the OLPC). There's new software preinstalled on the device too, designed to facilitate classroom instruction.

As for pricing, Intel doesn't make the devices itself but licenses the design for the Classmate to manufacturers around the world. They have been being sold for $250 to $400 so far, which is largely in line with other affordable laptops designed for students, like the OLPC and the Asus Eee PC. The new Classmates shouldn't stray from that by much. 

Overall, I remain impressed with the device. It's an attractive alternative to the OLPC, particularly for environments where a Windows-based infrastructure works well (primarily those that already use Windows in some capacity and just want to add student computers to the mix). 

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