The tablet craze may have pushed smartbooks out of the
spotlight, but don't tell Malata that -- the ODM's launching an
ARM-powered mini laptop in China this very week. Spotted at
Mobilize 2010, the Malata T9000 is a cute-as-a-button blue and
black clamshell with a 10-inch, 1024 x 600 screen and a Marvell
Armada 166 inside, running a Chinese version of Linux (on an 8GB
SSD) designed for the educational market. It's almost certainly
cheap and underpowered, but we weren't really able to tell, as
the UI didn't actually launch any usable applications when we
randomly clicked on the icons strewn about. That said, it's got
a fairly usable, springy little keyboard and a good number of
ports, so it might be fun to tinker with, but we won't shed a
tear if the machine never makes it stateside.  Malata T9000
smartbook, hands-on  See all photos  18 Photos   Malata launches
a candy-colored educational smartbook, we give it a whirl