COBY 12" (Coby NMPC1220XPBLK)

[Lincoln Thurber]

Well, that's news to me!
Coby NMPC1220XPBLK 12.1-Inch Black Netbook - 2.3 Hour Battery Life

Product Features
1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor
1 GB (DDR2) RAM
160GB Hard Drive
Windows XP Home, 2.3 Hour Battery Life
12.1-Inch VGA display, 1024 x 800 resolution

[Lincoln Thurber]

Okay here is another Coby on Amazon...with different specs as a 10" HERE

But I think the specs are wrong.
-1 lb shipping weight?
- The unit measures Size (LWH): 13.07 inches, 9.84 inches, 3.15 inches?

No...it can be more then 3 inches thick or 13 inches wide with just a ten inch screen.

[Lincoln Thurber]

Come now people its COBY! Even if you think COBY is garbage, which I don't think is true, but either way COBY computers in the US is interesting.

The shocking parts for me is the price. The 12" seems high price, the 10" is at nearly what I expected. Yet, I expected $299.95 as a shot across the bow of the industry. Why $319? That is so damn close to $299, so you wonder what they were thinking because a lower price would have made a bigger impact. Bigger impact means more sales in my mind.

I wonder if this is just testing the waters with products to work out kinks. Put out some product quietly, and fix the issues after that soft launch; then put the true push afterward to Rite-Aid, Walgreens, or Valu-Rite near you.

[BoloMKXXVIII]

Sorry, but I will not buy anything with the Coby name on it. First hand experience.

[Lincoln Thurber]

I don't blame you, or at least I understand your sentiment. But to be honest I've seen more Apple iPhones break in front of me then Coby MP3 players or their other stuff.

Me? I've always has remearkable luck with cheap 'kitschy' electronics. I gave my parenets a nice DVD player five years ago, but they could never use it, so three years ago I bought them a $49 Craig DVD Player that they love. They like the cheap one because it has two buttons on it open/close and play. It will likley set their house on fire someday like the issue Walmart is having with it cheap DVD players, but my parents would likely build a new house and buy another cheap DVD player.

I have a crappy CD player, a crap clock-radio; and junky mice, USB doo-dads, and stuff that feels cheap but works for years. The only reason I have a Creative MP3 player is the stores didn't have any Coby devices that played protected WMA files..or I wasn't 100% sure they would.

[Lincoln Thurber]

As user firepower pointed out on the main page story, the cheaper Coby netbook looks somewhat 'like' the NUODO 10.2" which is sold at various discount electronics outlets. The NUODO was covered in April at this site, but before you go looking I would bring up a few points that I noticed form comparing photos.

- The Coby seems to have a better keyboard w/ proper sized keys for a 10"
- The Coby touch pad is different, although 'bucket rigged' with the button on either side.
- The Coby has proper Intel Atom, Win XP and other badges
- The Coby upper case for the screen is different and has a concave lip and the hinge is different
- The Coby screen hinge is different

The distinguishing feature of the NUODO was the bumpout of the SD card slot and the microphone and headphone slots. But it appears to be that is the only similarity, that bumpout, but other then that they devices don't match.

Overall, I think most netbooks are now being judged on keyboard, pad, and port placement all of which on a smaller machine are no trivial issues. There's just one photo of the Coby 10" but I seem nothing outwardly wrong with the Coby design.

I would love a trustworthy hands-on review of the device in any case. Hard to accomplish since I doubt Coby will send out review hardware and nobody in the netbook review blog community is likely to buy one on a lark.