2go PC

This past week, my favorite five-year-old, Paige, was in town, so I decided to give her the ol’ Pepsi/Coke Challenge with the ASUS Eee PC running Xandros and the CTL 2go PC running Windows XP. Both are touted as computers for children and both feature educational software. Based on our typing tests last week, both mini-notebooks also have keyboards that are best suited for children’s hands.

Paige is already familiar with video iChat on Macs and enjoys the games and videos on iCarly.com, Zoey101.com and Starfall.com. But which laptop better held the kindergartener’s attention?

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Welcome to the third day of LAPTOP’s Mini-Notebook Type Off! To quickly recap, our four typing gladiators are pounding out the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Hamlet on the Eee PC, the HP Mini-Note, the 2Go PC and our control laptop, a ThinkPad with a full-sized keyboard. We are filming and posting their results throughout the challenge for your viewing pleasure.

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Welcome back to the Mini-Dome! In case you’re just joining us, LAPTOP searched all over our office for four typists who were brave enough to take on the ASUS Eee PC, the HP Mini-Note and the CTL 2Go PC in the ultimate type-off challenge.

Yesterday, our typing gladiators took on the ASUS Eee PC with varying results. Emily “Key Crusher” Kizer came in first with 57 words per minute (wpm); Avram “The ESC Artist” Piltch and TJ “Furious Fingers” Fink tied for second with 42 wpm and Jeffrey “Hands of Steel” Wilson took third place with 38 wpm.

Today, our typists enter the conference room with their fingers stretched and ready to conquer the HP 2133 Mini-Note. With a wear-resistant keyboard that’s only 8% smaller than a full size keyboard , the Mini-Note looks like it’ll be a walk in the park compared to the Eee PC.

Check out how our contestants fared and how they scored in the video below and come back tomorrow as our keyboard warriors risk hand cramps to take on the 2Go PC.

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Like everyone else, we here at LAPTOP are enamored with mini-notebooks, but we’re concerned about the size of the keyboards. While the HP Mini-Note sports an almost full-size keyboard with much more finger real estate than the Eee PC or the 2Go PC, it still has those awkward side-mouse buttons.

As we sat around the conference room mini-bar with our mini-notebooks, we thought, “what better way to test our notebooks than with a knock-down, drag-out mini-notebook type-off?”

We searched the far corners of our office for the fastest, the slowest and the fiercest typists to take on the challenge of typing Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy on a mini-notebook. Our four challengers and their typing scores on a regular-sized Lenovo Thinkpad are below:

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There is a lot of talk today about CTL’s 2go low-cost laptop. The offical specs of the 2go are being reported. But what is the machine? Last week, when we spoke with Agnes Kwan of Intel she disclosed that Intel would be coming out later this month (or even as soon as this week) with a second iteration of the Classmate. To quote ourselves:

An Intel spokesperson also confirmed that the Classmate is designed by Intel, but PC manufacturers will produce it like other personal computers using Intel chips. Intel also revealed its plans to launch a second generation of the Classmate in the coming weeks. The second generation will provide more choices for manufacturers.

Kwan would not comment on the question of if the rumored “netbook” (or now the 2go) was in fact a Classmate version. However, she did say that a “netbook” is not a specific notebook; it is, however, a genre or a classification. It is a phrase just like low-cost laptop or mobile Internet device. Check out this post on an Intel blog.

So, is the Intel-powered 2go PC a version of the Classmate? It sure looks a lot like the first iteration of the Classmate, is intended for the education market, and seems to follow the guidelines provided by our Intel spokeswoman.

Stay tuned for official news of the Classmate 2 and our hands-on impressions….