Zonbu laptop review

This is the first product to come out of the work Zonbu has done together with Everex - the long rumored laptop. Tough this isn't the Cloudbook I showed you sometime ago, this is definitely what the rumors were all about, a laptop promoted by Zonbu, with it's costumized Linux distribution based on Gentoo Linux, and built by Everex.
The hardware is very similar to what Everex offered themselves in their $200 desktop computer sold by Wal-Mart. It features an 1.5GHz Via C7, but this time it's a mobile version, 512MB of RAM, a 15.4" screen and a 60GB HDD.
The C7-M has the advantage of saving a bit more power than the desktop counterpart, but like this review pointed out, it doesn't even matter and it's negligible. It's very slow and power consumption in the desktop version is incredibly high for the performance it offers. The Sempron simply destroys it.
The reason is the AMD processor is also very efficient and since it also used a low power chipset in the review - instead of some power hungry nForce4 - it manages to consume less than the desktop C7. If you don't believe the numbers in the review I can also tell you I have a server running a Sempron 64 at 1.1v@933MHz, that is running fanless with an AMD stock cooler at no more than 30ºC idle and about 38ºC in full load. A bit of messing around and they could've achieved a better machine all around, like Asus did with the Eee.
So the C7 isn't a very good choice in either way, at least it could've been cheaper, which is what they were also aiming at.

The mobile version consumes approximately 12W instead of 20W of the C7-D, but those aren't any outstanding savings and the laptop only has autonomy for one hour and 30 minutes - according to CrunchGear's review that inspired me to write this.

But on the cheap front it loses to the Eee PC by a large margin, since it costs $279 plus a subscription service from Zonbu that tolls $14.95/month during two years. You have support, unlimited upgrades and 50GB of Amazon S3-based storage during that time, but that doesn't seem tempting and most people won't find the online space useful since the laptop already has an HDD with a considerable capacity.
It is indeed useful for the Zonbu Desktop, which only has 4GB of flash memory, but, with the laptop, most people won't find it engaging even when they tout the online storage will protect all your files from data loss. Joe Sixpack doesn't care about that. Don't get me wrong, it's good to have that kind of protection for your most important data, but people that buy a laptop for $279 don't care about it.

As a Linux based laptop then it's not that interesting because it's expensive. Though you don't have to worry about hardware compatibility, the price doesn't make it a very good choice.
Zonbu wants to cash on the subscription service, I get it to some extent - if people grab it, they are cashing in more, but I don't think they will bite this one like they did the $199 PC.

I wouldn't be surprised if an Eee PC vs Zonbu Laptop would end up with the Asus machine completely wiping the floor in all that is benchmark. Feature wise, it would only lose to it for having a smaller drive and screen.
That said, I'm waiting to see what they can churn out with the CloudBook, it seems more promising since to succeed it must improve someway in what the Eee PC has set as standard for cheap UMPCs.
And do, please, keep pushing on the Linux on desktop front, just in a better way. The $199 PC from Everex paved the way, it showed that there is market for it, now just make it cheap and mobile. This one here is only mobile but a bigger laptop like this one could pick up where the Eee PC left off.
Keywords: Zonbu laptop review Everex Eee pc C7-M CloudBook