Cut-price laptops coming forth
Spare some change for a computer?
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Updated If the now well-known $100 One Laptop per Child project appeals for its cheap-as-chips price, but you're not taken by the garish colour or crank-up handle, then you might consider the Medison Celebrity laptop, which retails for just $50 more.
The Celebrity doesn’t pretend to be an Alienware-esque ultimate gaming machine, rather Medison claims the machine is an everyday laptop for “e-mailing, surfing the Web, word processing and working with spreadsheet programmes”.
The $150 Medison Celebrity, hardly an A-list price-tag
The preinstalled OS is Linux Fedora from RedHat, presumably to keep the price down. It measures 33 x 24 x 2cm and weighs 2.2Kg - partly due to to the six cell Lithium-lion battery, and the 14in display sports a 1280 x 768 pixel resolution.
A respectable Intel 1.5GHz Celeron CPU hides under the hood, together with 256MB of memory (expandable up to 1GB) and 40GB hard drive. A CD/DVD drive is also included and wireless connectivity is provided over 802.11g.
Medison hasn’t skimped on the Celebrity’s connectivity interfaces either, with three USB 2.0 ports, one external CRT monitor output, separate headphone and microphone jacks, and one line-in jack, to name just a few.
The Medison Celebrity retails for around $150 (£73/€109) and will be available in Europe over the next four to six weeks.
Last year Chinese OEM ZhongKe Menglan Electronics began shipping a PC with its homegrown Godson CPU, 256MB of DDR memory, up to a 60GB hard drive and with a similar price tag of between $175 and $200.
Supplemental
A laptop for $150? Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Well, that's certainly what our readers seem to think. We've tried contacting them, but the folks at Medison have remained elusive.
But according to a statement from Medison that one website received, the company claims that the laptop is the real deal.
The statement says that manufacturer is aware of the ongoing debate over the authenticity of the laptop and ominously states that everything will be clarified really soon. The company apparently plans to arrange a press conference in Sweden in the next few days to address any doubts and questions regarding the laptop’s authenticity.
Register Hardware is hoping Medison will be passing out a few of the laptops for review after the press conference. In the meantime, you might want to think long and hard before shelling out for the machine.
COMMENTS
Scam signs
* This company has a product that will revolutionize the market and are actually claiming to have a laptop that is cheaper than OLPC? They even claim to make money on the business.
* The businesses that are supposed to handle shipping to consumers as well as service were not aware of Medison until a few days ago.
* On their web they claim that VAT and shipping is not included in the price, but in forums the frontman is claiming the opposite.
* All 6 companies under the Medison-name that has been registered in sweden since 1996 has gone bankrupt, but on the site they claim 11 successful years.
* On the site they claim to have factories in Bazil and later on they deny it.
* They have sold this laptop since march in sweden, for a price of 450$ and all who claims to have placed orders are still waiting for delivery.
* When they released info about their fantastic prize they had a lot of banners from partners on their site, banners that has been pulled by companies who say that they have nothing to do with Medison.
* Their Terms of Use & Privacy is a rip from Apple
* Founder has no income, no capial and no real estate
* Why advertize Windows Live Messenger on a site for a laptop that only ships with Linux?
* Why launch this during the time in Sweden where all is more or less closed due to vacation and almost nothing can be verified?
* Howcome a smalltime swede claims to be able to make this venture possible and even financially viable when Asus cannot?
* All this adds up to very good reason to be careful
Sadly Swedish mainstream media has reported that this is viable and many unsuspecting Mr & Mrs Swede is placing orders. Forums all over are claiming this is a scam and media refuses to change their view on this, thus luring more and more to give this scammers money.
This is a SCAM
I wasn't to sure about this. I done a bit of poking around the web and would suggest any prospective buyers to do so also. Especially interesting is the link to "Medison Europe Limited" from the MedisonCelebrity website. This reveals that:-
1. The contact address for a European (/ Global) company is a house in kent:
27 Ruffets Wood
Gravesend, Kent
DA12 5JQ England
2. Google maps confirm this; I suggest any prospect buyer look at this.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=
3. Very interesting is the UKDATA.COM company search & the creditgate.com search:- creditgate finds 4 companies registered to this address; UKDATA.COM finds 224 companies; yes, 224! - this house must be as big as a small town.
- Can El Reg please investigate this before too many of the readers lose £77 +
I'm almost tempted.
To get a new credit card, with a low limit, and order one of these.
Then see what, if anything turns up in 4-6 weeks.
At least the CC company would refund the money if it's a scam. If they're stealing CC details, then a virgin card would be ideal.
Hmm. Have to be a Mastercard, they've screwed me enough in the past...
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