The XO laptop sponsored by the One Laptop Per Child organisation (OLPC) has hit the European market this week.
The computers will be sold via the Give One, Get One scheme that has already been operating in the US market. There is a big feel-good factor in the scheme which means that when buyers purchase a machine for themselves, another is donated to a school child in a developing nation.
This does mean you have to fork out for two machines. The name of the laptop is a bit misleading as well, as the final price is instead $188.
So what do you get for money? Well a pretty basic machine that does have the benefit of being as robust as rubber. Almost. To attain this strangth, all moving parts have been omitted. There is no hard drive or CD drive, and no cooling fans as the low power processor doesn’t need them.
Instead of a hard drive, there is 1GB of flash memory, which can be expanded through an SD memory card slot beneath the screen or by plugging in external devices through the USB ports.
The laptops will be available from Amazon UK from December 16 for £275. It is expected to eventually be available in 27 EU nations as well as Switzerland, Russia and Turkey.
The Give One, Get One scheme was first run in the US in 2007, with almost 190,000 machines sold through the programme.