GoNote: Will this Android-powered touchscreen netbook appeal to UK kids?

UK company Ergo Electronics on Wednesday officially launched GoNote, a 10-inch touchscreen netbook powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. While there have been numerous low-cost Android netbooks over the years, Ergo Electronics claims to have created a new category with the GoNote, the "hybrid touchscreen netbook."

The price is a reasonable GBP 149.99, and it will be available with a black or white chassis starting in September 2012. For this price, buyers will get a 10-inch 16:9 LED backlit screen with a 1024x600 resolution, powered by a 1.2GHz ARM Rockchip RK2918 CPU (based on the ARM Cortex A8 architecture,) aided by 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. A microSD card slot is available, allowing users to extend the storage capacity by 32GB for a total of 40GB. It comes with four USB 2.0 ports, a mini HDMI 1.3 port, 3.5mm jack for audio output and microphone and a VGA forward-facing camera is thrown as well into the mix. In terms of Internet connectivity, the GoNote comes with an Ethernet port and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n. The 9000mAh battery provides a quoted battery life of 6 hours for video playback and roughly a week of standby.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is running in its full glory on the GoNote, and all compatible Google Play apps --which is no small amount to start with-- will be able to run on it, giving it instant versatility. But, just as Android 4.0 ICS comes out of the box, so does an office software suite, named Kingsoft Office, which includes text editing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs that are compatible with Microsoft Office 97-2010.

Basically, the GoNote is not the most well-specced netbook, and it's not the best tablet either. Granted, it's meant to be a netbook with a touchscreen display but the tablet comparisons will be inevitable. Students looking for a cheap device that gives them easy access to the Internet and the ability to write documents, make spreadsheets and presentations for school or for other activities should find the GoNote attractive.

At GBP 150, it's easily a nice offering from Ergo Electronics but final judgement comes from those interested in purchasing it, which will eventually dictate whether it has reached a sweet spot or it's just another, no-one-will-care-about device on the market.