ArsGeek

A little over a week ago I received my Zonbu Notebook. Since reviewing their tiny, silent desktop replacement computer I’ve been interested in Zonbu and their business model. Could they really pull of the subscription model with inexpensive computers? I’ve long held that in the next ten to fifteen years the majority of computers will be inexpensive blocks handed out to anyone who wants one in exchange for subscribing to some sort of service – be it connectivity, online storage or even gaming.

Sure there will be folks who continue to push hardware and software limits on custom or quasi-custom machines built for specific purposes, like squeezing the last extra frame rate out of Doom 6. For the majority of computer users however, access to the web, email and available online services is the real draw.

The Zonbu Notebook offers just that at a fairly cheap price. $279 (if you sign up for a 2 year plan, $479 with a month-to-month plan) for a notebook is nothing to scoff at. While the specs won’t blow you away it’s still not a bad laptop. A 15.4” 1440 x 900 display is nice to look at and weighing in at almost five and a half pounds it won’t break your back either. You’ll also be paying at least $14.95 a month for a subscription. What does the subscription get you? Transparent updates – when a new update is released for the OS or the applications installed on it. Unlimited Support – which means live phone support Monday – Friday. Zonbu has traditionally been very fast at replacing hardware gone bad as well. You’ll also get 50GB of storage with the Zonbu Elastic Drive. This storage contains a backup of your data on the Zonbu device and is available anywhere there is unrestricted web access.

The Zonbu Notebook comes in a briefcase style box with a nice travel handle, which was good as it was delivered to me at a place where I needed to carry it home. It’s well packed and survived the journey without incident. When I arrived home I was greeted with a nice, silver and black laptop. While the laptop looks very nice and feels mostly solid I did notice that some of the exterior parts feel a bit flimsy. On the left and right side of the keyboard I can depress the plastic a full 5th of an inch or so. The DVD drive tray feels a bit flimsy as well. I noticed it was also a bit hard to push back in due to the plastic over it (on the left side of the keyboard) being not quite level.

On turning it on, you’ll see the typical Zonbu startup screen where various icons light up to show you what phase of the boot process it’s in. After about a minute or so I was on the desktop. Zonbu, no matter what else they may have going for them certainly have great wallpapers. The desktop is crisp and clean, with a few icons in the upper left and a few items in the taskbar on the bottom.

I was immediately greeted with a network connection wizard which walked me through getting online using my home wireless connection. It was painless and in a minute I was happily online. I logged in with my email and password and I was ready to play!

Speaking of icons – it’s been a short while since I’ve been on my Zonbu desktop. I noticed a new icon called Public Folder. This caused me to raise an eyebrow. What was a public folder? Inside it was. . . nothing. A quick search on Zonbu’s site brought about this, along with instructions for access it via the web.

The public folder allows you to share files on your Zonbu with the rest of the world. All you need to do is place a file or folder in the Public folder on your desktop. Then, anyone that accesses your Public folder and will be able to download the file to their computer. Possible uses include sharing important documents, pictures, music, and more. I can immediately see how this would be very useful as a place to keep stuff you want to share with the outside world.

In the time I’ve been working with the laptop there have been two updates to the OS and it’s applications. It’s really great having a team of dedicated Linux folks behind a Linux box who consistently keep it up to date and working. It’s nice not to have to do that myself for once. The laptops is easy enough to customize and make it feel like your own.

While some may find the list of applications a bit limiting I find it hard to see how the average user would. There’s not much you can’t do on the machine. If you’re looking for a laptop so set up as a dedicated network monitoring station or host a website this may not be the beast for you. However if you want an inexpensive laptop that can play just about any media type you throw at it, do your internet browsing, write your documents, compose emails, organize your photos, play a few games and and even publish your Zine from – well this is certainly a product that will work for you. There are plenty of applications available, including some that I didn’t expect. Skype was certainly a nice surprise. Indeed, it played my divx movies without thinking twice.

While the list of applications is great, some of them are a bit behind in their releases. Most likely this is to ensure that they integrate seamlessly with Zonbu’s home grown Linux distribution it shouldn’t be all that hard to get some of the products a bit more up to date. Remember though that this is still a beta software release. I expect we can see a lot of these coming up to date as the software reaches 1.0.

As is always the case with a Zonbu product, the notebook strives to be low power. Zonbu is big into environmentally friendly computing and have done a good job with this so far. The laptop is no exception.

All in all my experiences with the Zonbu laptop have been overwhelmingly positive. The laptop even fared well under the usage of a few friends who are not computer or Linux types. The applications aren’t hard to find and they are easy to use. The notebook connected quickly to my wireless network and worked flawlessly.

As Zonbu is marketing their desktop as a second computer, one you may find in the kitchen or the family room rather than the office, I think the laptop has a great chance to fulfill this role as well. This laptop works great in my dining room as a third computer with no external screen needed. It would also be a great solution for students heading off to school as long as Microsoft products aren’t a requirement. The price point, even after several years of subscription fees are taken into account is still fairly compelling. More so since you should theoretically not have to worry about any updates or maintenance to the machine. If something breaks it will be replaced. If software goes wrong you can revert to the factory default while still retaining all of your files. That in itself is a compelling reason to look seriously at Zonbu and their desktop and laptop solutions.

Here are some of the technical details:

Processor: 1.5GHz, VIA C7-M
Intel-compatible, low energy use
Display: 15.4″ WXGA Widescreen (1440 x 900) and VGA output
Memory: 512MB
Hard Disk local storage: 60GB (58GB for your data)
Optical Drive: DVD-ROM/CD-RW
Graphics: VIA Chrome9 HC IGP (64MB shared memory, 128MB maximum)

• Audio: built-in speaker, microphone and headphone ports

• 3 USB 2.0 ports

• Ethernet: 10/100 Mbps built-in - broadband ready

• Wifi: Built-in 802.11b/g

• Power Supply: 65W AC-DC Adapter, 15W average power usage

• Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-Ion, 2h30 to 3h, depending on usage

• Measurements: 14.1″ x 10.7″ x 1.5″ (35.8cm x 27.2cm x 3.8cm)

• Weight: 5.3lbs (2.4kg)

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