Solar Powered Laptop runs Linux

[deathdealerxx]

http://www.solaptop.com/#Page6

[Guest spazi]

Wow, that is a cool idea.

Thanks for sharing this :)

[Sitwon]

Very cool idea, but I'm extremely skeptical about their proposed price.

[deathdealerxx]

Because it's listed at $350 or cause its listed as estimated price?

[Sitwon]

Well, both. I've seen how well those "estimated prices" reflect reality with plenty of past projects.

However it's really just a ridiculous price to begin with. Look at the specs. $350 would be a good price for a cheap off-brand netbook with specs like that. But we're supposed to believe that this one isn't just another disposable netbook, it's "ruggedized".

And I don't know if you've ever priced out solar panels before, but for the panels to recharge a netbook battery in about one day's worth of sunlight (8-10 useful hours of light) you'll be paying nearly $350 for just the panels.

So there's no way they can sell you a laptop with those specs with panels that are anything more than a novelty at that price point.

That said, It's an interesting idea, and I'm sure they'd still have a market if they were to price it at around $1500 and give you a system that was actually ruggedized and had useful solar charging capability. I'd even spend another $300 to upgrade the display panel to a Pixel Qi display with scratch and impact resistant glass over top.

Or maybe i'll just build it myself, since I'm not sure I'd trust their cheap Chinese manufacturing anyways.