RIP Everex. Please Stay Dead
July 14th, 2009 by Avram Piltch 
The history of technology is littered with failed companies that had great ideas and wonderful products that just couldn’t turn a profit. Many would argue that the Commodore Amiga was better than PCs or Macs in the eighties, but Commodore couldn’t get consumers to adopt its platform and pretty-much went out of business. BeOS , a speedy attractive operating system, should have overtaken Windows in the 90s, but Be Inc. was no Microsoft and quickly folded. In the late 90s and early 2000s Handspring PDAs were the shiznit, but they couldn’t compete and Palm absorbed them. Unlike Commodore, Be Inc., and Handspring nobody will have fond memories of Everex, a company that talked a big game but produced some of the worst notebooks we’ve ever tested.
Perhaps this is old news, but we just discovered that Everex, whose CloudBook CE1200V might be the worst netbook ever made, is out of business at least in the Western hemisphere. The Everex USA site unceremoniously states that:
We regret to inform you that Everex is no longer in business. We have closed our operations and are in the process of liquidation of all our assets.
The company’s Japanese and Taiwanese sites still appear to be open for business so maybe only the Western world is truly Everex-free. There’s no doubt, however, that America has never seen anything like Everex and *hopefully* we won’t again.
It’s always sad when a tech company closes, because employees lose their jobs, and consumers lose a choice. In this case, while we feel bad for the employees, we are overjoyed for the consuming public that they won’t be hoodwinked into buying one of these pieces of garbage. We’re also overjoyed that we won’t have to review one again.
If you haven’t heard of Everex before, count yourself lucky. The company’s low-cost notebooks and desktops often sold at Wal-Mart and were often far cheaper than its competitors. Everex was somewhat of a pioneer in that it sold low-cost notebooks long before the downward trend in prices we’ve seen recently. The reason its products were so inexpensive is that they were cheaply made and you really got what you paid for.
Take the 17-inch Everex StepNote XT5000T, which we reviewed back in April 2007. At a time when 17-inch systems were selling for well over $2,000, the XT5000T was only $899, but it performed below every notebook in the category and came with a chintzy keyboard. Likewise, the StepNote NC1500, which was a mere $487 way back in 2006, but it had the worst performance we’d seen in a long time and misplaced keys.
Perhaps the company’s crowning achievement in mediocrity was its CloudBook netbook, which arrived in our office riding a wave of hype and high expectations, only to leave as the most disappointing system we’ve ever tested. At the time the CloudBook was released in February 2008, it was only the second netbook on the market after ASUS’s famous Eee PC. It promised innovations such as a 30GB hard drive (as opposed to the original Eee PC’s tiny SSD) and a snazzy version of Linux called gOS.
Unfortunately, it took several minutes to boot, Wi-Fi cut out constantly, and several dialog boxes in the OS were actually located below the screen! Its 4,200 rpm hard drive literally took minutes to load several of its programs. And did we mention its one-of-a-kind touchpad? See our review of the CloudBook for a full bashing.
Undaunted by the negative press for its infamous netbook, Everex announced big plans. Paul C. Kim, the company’s marketing director, told us in February 2008 that the company would release a touchscreen CloudBook within 60 days, that the homely system would come in a variety of “nice” colors, and that the company was even considering a 22-inch model! These plans never came to fruition, though we would have loved to have seen the 22-inch netbook.
We certainly appreciate the ambition, though we’re sure the unlucky few who spent $399 on CloudBooks would have rather that the company put more effort into its first-gen netbook and less effort into bragging about vaporware.
To be fair, the company did develop an 8.9-inch sequel called the CloudBook Max that, to our knowledge, never made it to market but did hit the show circuit. It sported Wi-Max, a technology that may soon join Everex in the technology graveyard.
And the original CloudBook itself lives on under other names. According to a list on CloudBook UMPC, the CloudBook is just one of many “Nanobooks” using the same Via reference design. In fact, the site recommends that “Countries deprived of Everex Cloudbook might also wish to take a look at other Nanobooks.” Fortunately the U.S. is not a “deprived” nation, because Sylvania sells a CloudBook clone under the name “g Netbook.” Those nostalgic for early 2008’s worst technology or wishing to punish a bad relative by giving it as a gift can find it on Amazon for $207.
While we don’t know the exact reasons for Everex’s demise, it’s safe to say that, in a world where you can get good quality notebooks from respectable companies like Toshiba, HP, Gateway, Dell, and Lenovo for under $600, the only place for cheap garbage is the landfill.
Rest in peace, Everex. But, please, don’t rise again!
Our Related Content
- Details on Everex CloudBook Max: WiMAX, Windows Vista, and More
- Everex CloudBook CE1200V: Full Review
- Analyst Says the CloudBook and Linux aren't Ready for Big Box Retailers
From Other Sites
- Everex: Another One Bites the Dust (GottaBeMobile)
- Everex US folds after Cloudbook fails to find favor (SlashGear)
- PC maker Everex closes up shop in the US (Liliputing)
Related Deals
- Dell Off Lease Coupon Code: 25% off Any Item (No Minimum) at Dell Off Lease Refurbished Computers
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16 Responses to “RIP Everex. Please Stay Dead”
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July 14th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
I bought one of those Everex $199 Walmart desktop machines 1 1/2 years ago, put another $100 into it with upgraded graphics card, power supply and RAM, and here I am still using it and loving it. I did have to install Ubuntu in place of a not so good gOS operating system. I would argue that Everex’s ultra cheap Walmart desktops launched in November 2007 opened the door for netbooks and affordable “right powered” computers for the average user that have become so prevalent today. Many average Joe computer users today owe Everex a debt of gratitude for their (cost) cutting edge efforts. I will remember Everex more fondly than you.
July 15th, 2009 at 9:11 am
don’t worry they’ll be back
July 16th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Although underpowered I have quite a few StepNote laptops installed in our service vehicles. They do what I want, provide a cheap method for the tech to access a terminal server at the office.
They have been in service for nearly 2 years without a problem.
July 21st, 2009 at 5:34 pm
The real reason for the company closure: Everex was acquired by another company. Due to the ongoing economic crisis, the acquiring company could not come up with the funds by the scheduled closing date. The current ownership did not want to keep paying the bills and chose to close Everex doors and go after the buying company via litigation.
July 21st, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Right, but the reason it was sold and the reason the acquirer did not see fit to keep it open is obviously that it was not doing well. Companies that turn profits don’t tend to be closed down. Why didn’t it see great success? The economy surely had something to do with it, but the bottom line is that the products were of poor quality and other vendors were matching or beating Everex’s prices with better products.
July 21st, 2009 at 7:23 pm
This looks like it’s just the US subsidiary. There was an article on Digitimes yesterday about it. Basically, FIC, the owners of the Everex brand, decided they wanted out of the US market.
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Everex was wholly owned by FIC up to the end … a lot of people reported that New Market Technologies bought a share but this was not the case. I have confirmation from New Market investor relations that the deal fell through and they dumped no money into Everex. I think they were counting on that extra push of money to keep their business afloat, and when it didn’t, they got stuck with the mess they were in.
Very limited support and warranty terms, problems with their website for 4-5 months and issues with Nvidia-based chipsets didn’t help them either.
August 25th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
i have a everxe stepnot i have had it about a year ,and in that year it has been in the shop more that i have had it .
if i had the chanes to by one all overe agean i would not by a everx , but that sad thing is that i cant get a new one so i am stuck with this one ,
mabey i should take the advice of my computer guy and take it to a church and get it blessed
October 1st, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Hmmm…I own an everex stepnote. First, I’m a little perturbed that I found out Everex closed this way. They should have contacted their customers that logged into their website. Second, I’m not really surprised. Cheap computers, yes but if I had to do it over again, I’d have gotten anything other than Everex. Because Everex put Vista on a computer meant for XP and it still ticks me off. I don’t like Vista because they did that, and I’m still looking for a cheap XP program to put on here. Vista isn’t exactly great by itself, but it’s just adding insult to injury.
Everex can come back to life, and they probably will. If they do, a word of advice – stop cutting corners to save a few bucks, that’s why you’re out of business!!
October 4th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I had a vastly different experience than you did. I bought my Everex Stepnote in May of 2007 from Best Buy, upgraded the RAM, and haven’t had any major issues with it. The CD burner is starting to act up a little now, but if that’s the worst thing that happens in almost two and a half years of owning a laptop, I’ll sign up for that every time!
October 10th, 2009 at 1:43 am
I wonder if the publisher of the letter (Avram) actually owned a laptop made by Everex or was
he assigned to run quick tests and “nit pick” at it. I own not 1 but 2 Everex XT500t for over
a couple of years and have NOT had any problems with it.I added more Ram and a 500Gig
secondary drive (yes it can take 2 hard drives) loaded with Win XP Pro.I can boot to either drive
and as a Certified Computer Tech, it has outlasted the so called other name brands.I have repaired
tons of laptops and 90% of them are the other name brands.I have been pleased with Everex and
have had nothing but good results from them.
October 11th, 2009 at 3:42 am
I had this POS Everex XT5000T and video card died just out of warranty, Everex customer service responded to my email “we need to evaluate it and you will have to pay for repair”, I spent countless hours trying to find how to fix it on the budget and I have discovered sooo many users with exact same problem, the cause was the heatsink does not adhere to video chip (nVidia) and the overheating damaged connection of chip to motherboard. I was about to file a lawsuit after I collected enough informations to prove that it was a Everex fault – manufacturing defective laptop with weak cooling directly causing damage to vidochip rendering laptop unusable by the end of warranty or shortly thereafter but the bastards closed it down and I did not know who to sue after that. But I want to point out very interesting fact that is exact same laptop down to a screw was sold with exact same problems in Europe, under Fujitsu brand. model was Fujitsu Amilo XA 1526. Wonder how Everex and Fujitsu made same laptops ? my guess is the FIC (owner of Everex) made the laptop and then sell it like a no name to manufacturers to put their brand on it like Fujitsu did.
October 31st, 2009 at 4:42 pm
My laptop was repaired outside of warranty, but only after 2 months.
I spoke with my lawyer, spoke about it on a forum they monitored, http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1174232, and in less than a day, received an email that it was repaired & would be shipped out.
The laptop works fine now, and the BIOS have been upgraded – and then I “downgraded” them from E to D).
Frankly, LaptopMag’s review was very poor and lacked any real substance. The review contains no information on the well-performing speakers, subwoofer, and actually says the 1400 x 900 17″ screen is “low for this class” – a blatant lie considering they still sell 1440 x 900 17″ laptops, and the performance laptops in 2006-2008 were still 1440×900. 3DMark 03? seriously?
They made poor laptops, they made poor desktops. But the specs on the XT5000T were high at their time, and are still decent for gaming now. I get flawless gameplay in BioShock & a all the HL2 games.
January 27th, 2010 at 11:15 am
i bought the everex xt5000t and 1 week out of warranty the mother board and video card burned up everex to me to send it to them but ti might not be covered .after argueing they agree to fix it .and they did 6 months later.after getting it back we had it 3 months and its messed up again and now their out of bussness .what do i do we paid a lot of money for this boat anchor
January 30th, 2010 at 8:58 am
Cloudbook everex is a wonderful machine! The problem was the gOS which was rushed and poorly designed and via’s reluctance to provide open source support. Running Ubuntu 10.4 alpha 2 on mine at the mo and it runs great!!!
February 5th, 2010 at 11:09 am
Hey now, down boy….where is the love? I have the Stepnote NC1510 and it quite happily plays the roles of my router/firewall, smb server, print server, torrent downloader and voip client. Just because it doesn’t run Vista (as ridiculous as it was to ship it with) doesn’t mean it deserves this kind of flaming. It runs ultra quiet, ultra cool, barely a blip on the ole hydro bill and for $400, it didn’t hurt the wallet either…
I actually found this article because I was looking to buy ANOTHER StepNote as a back-up server, or to actually use it as a laptop (my server laptop is too deeply embedded and relied upon now), damn, I’ll actually miss them.