Hands-On With The New 10-inch Hercules eCafe

Just yesterday Mark took tech manufacturers who don’t traditionally make notebooks to task for jumping on the netbook bandwagon with systems that included severe flaws. Flaws anyone who was paying attention should have been able to avoid. Just as that post was going live a new netbook arrived in our offices: the Hercules eCAFE. If you’re unfamiliar with Hercules, don’t fret. They’re hardware and accessory makers and the eCAFE was their first foray into laptop land.

It doesn’t follow that the eCAFE is a bad netbook simply because it doesn’t come from a traditional computer manufacturer. I’ve spent a few hours with this system and my initial impression is that it’s a solid entry into the netbook market, though not likely to set the category on fire.

The Hercules eCAFE EC-1000W has an attractive design which incorporates elements reminiscent of existing netbooks. The power button integrated into the hinge is similar to the one on the Samsung NC10/N110. The squared-off lid design reminds us of the original IdeaPad S10, the status lights on the lower right side are just like the MSI Wind, and the island-style keyboard looks a bit like the one on the Toshiba mini NB205. Clearly Hercules looked at some of the best netbooks on the market and tried to learn from them. One thing that stands out is the lid — the “in-mold” designed cover has a funky metallic sheen to it that changes as you look from different angles. It’s attractive and definitely not something we usually see.

My first impressions are that the keyboard isn’t the greatest, but doesn’t take too long to get used to. The trackpad hasn’t sent me scrambling for an external mouse yet, but the buttons underneath need a lot of help. The eCAFE is slightly heavier than most netbooks (3.0 lbs instead of 2.8), something I noticed right away. I’m definitely digging the placement of the speakers (on top of the deck instead of underneath the unit) and the overall design.

Ports and specs are typical for netbooks: 3 USB, 4-in-1 card reader, VGA, Ethernet, headphone and mic. Inside is an 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 250GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and 802.11n wireless. It comes loaded with Windows 7 Starter Edition, but perhaps Hercules will also release a Linux version as they did with their EC-900 series.

As I said, this netbook might not set the world on fire, but we’ll see what our benchmark tests reveal. Look for a full review next week.