I’ve been tipped yet another time by one of my reader (Thank you Alex!) about an interesting low cost ARM device. H6 Netbook is powered by AllWinner A10 processor with 1 GB RAM and 4GB Flash, features a 10″ display (non touch) and runs Android 4.0.3. I wrote about the Sunlike UMPC-1021 in April, but the H6 is the first AllWinner A10 netbook – that I know of – that is available for retail.
Here are the specs of this ARM netbook.
- CPU – AllWinner A10 @ 1.0GHz (Cortex A8;) with Mali 400 GPU
- System Memory – 1GB RAM
- Storage – 4GB Flash + SD Card slot (up to 32 GB)
- Display – 10″ LCD Display (no touchscreen) with 1024×600 resolution.
- Connectivity
- 10/100M Ethernet
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n built-in
- 3G support via external 3G dongle: E1916, ZTE AC2736, HUAWEI E1750, HUAWEI EC122, HUAWEI EM770W…
- USB – 3x USB 2.0 Host ports
- Camera – 0.3 MP front camera
- Audio I/O – 3.5mm headphone jack, built-in microphone,
- Sensors – Gravity Sensor
- Battery – 2800mAh – Up to 3 hours usage
- Dimensions – 278 x 188 x 25 mm
- Weight – 807g
This device supports the usually videos (AVI/MOV/MP4/RMVB/FLV/MKV…) and audio (MP3/WMA/WAV/APE/AAC/FLAC/OGG) formats supported by AllWinner processor. Google Play is pre-installed and Skype is said to work as well.
Since it’s based on AllWinner A10, you’ll certainly be able to run Linux on this device, however I’ve noticed that 1024×600 resolution can be a problem on Ubuntu with some inaccessible buttons on some pop-up windows. The battery has a low capacity and I’d rather have around 10 hours battery life for an ARM netbook.
It sells for $140 on Pandawill including shipping, which is a fairly decent price as 10″ tablets based on Allwinner A10 start at around $130 on Chinese websites. [Update: I found an A10 Netbook with similar specs that sells for $99.5 + shipping on Aliexpress. For example, the total cost to Thailand is $116.49 via China Post. I could not find anything about the battery capacity however.]
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Same netbook for $99.5 + $17 shipping(for me) = $116.5:
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/595634153-10-2-inch-Android-4-0-1-2ghz-cpu-1GB-RAM-4G-Flash-allwinner-a10-WiFi-wholesalers.html
From aliexpress delivery is about 50$.
On Panda it’s just arrived, so the price will be lower(hope so).
@ rm
We’ve found the same netbook on Aliexpress eventually. 🙂 (I saw your comment after my update).
But it may not be exactly the same as the on in this article, although it’s pretty similar.
No HDMI out? Shame, but otherwise a nice little device. Might have to buy one and put Ubuntu on it, also open it up to see if I can’t increase the battery capacity or swap out the board. No HDMI is making me think it might have a converter board for HDMI to LVDS weirdness
Oops! Looks like I found a cheaper/better deal in 7″ segment.
$83
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/600384892-2012-Newest-Free-shipping-7-inch-VIA8850-DDR3-1G-4G-HDD-1-5GHZ-Android-4-0-wholesalers.html
If the objective is just to play then I think this should do the trick + via 8850 (cortex a9) is 25% faster then allwinner a10 (cortex a8) Also with 7″ screen means less pixel counts, can also mean faster performance.
I think @Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) can evaluate and can throw more light on this, vis a vis linaro port or Ubuntu port availability / development case etc.
*Also some $10 coupon on $50+ purchase at aliexpress was in rounds a week back. “US $10 off $50”
$83
^^ same as above but With HDMI
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/600501026-7-inch-Mini-laptop-computer-QWERTY-keyboard-And-camera-Wifi-Support-HDMI-Android-4-0-Black-wholesalers.html
@ max
10″ is as low as I would go for a netbook screen. I still could not find WM8850 kernel, so you’d have to use the Android kernel to run Linux. This is possible but there are some issues.
But even if you can run Linux, I don’t think it would be nice to use at all on a 800×480 screen. The HDMI port may mitigate this.
i am an hour out of bangkok at present. if you are anywhere nearby i would like to give you my novo7 aurora to play with and perhaps get it to run any linux. i have failed all tries and given up.
email me.
@sukhumthaug
Well, I’m also one hour from Bangkok… by plane! I live in Chiang Mai, so probably a bit far away.
yes a little too far for my current plan. but i am mobile, perhaps loy gratong. but just perhaps.
I have one and ended up here while searching for a firmware update. The firmware it came with is too unstable for the device to be functional. So far no luck finding an update so I’d avoid the product everyone (re: for now).
@thomass
If you can obtain the current firmware image (for recovery) for H6, you may want to try using Mele firmware (http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/08/13/new-android-4-0-4-firmwares-for-mele-a1000-a2000/). This is for STB, so I’m not sure if LCD display is enabled by default. If you try this, you’d better save script.bin or evb.bin (or other bin files) in the FAT partition, so that you could replace the script.bin in the firmware, with your own. If you want to play around you could also boot Linux with an SD card (Plenty information about this in this blog and on the web).
@thomass
could you post a vid about it ? Or link it if you already shot it ?
I just noticed this strange beast (Via8850 1gb/4gb netbook with a 7″ touchscreen, HDMI, wifi) for $90:
http://www.buyincoins.com/new_en/details/7-mini-notebook-google-android-4-0-via-8850-1-5ghz-laptop-4gb-1gb-ram-wifi-pc-product-18655.html
@Onebir
I already find 10″ notebook keyboards to be small, although still OK to use, but 7″ might be too small for many people. Nice that they kept the touchscreen however. VIA WM8850 has good performance, but it seems difficult to find the firmware. I could find firmware for my WM8850-MID tablet, but I’m not sure it matches, and some people tried on a similar tablet and bricked their device…
I was disappointed they didn’t have a 10″ one too. Didn’t realise there were firmware issues with WM8850 :s Ah well, a step in the right direction…
What do you think of this one, also AllWinner A10-based: http://www.ahappydeal.com/product-91858.html ?
Mention of 4500mAh battery attracts me.
Also, do you think it’s possible to replace stock LCD screen with PixelQi 10.1″: http://www.pixelqi.com/our_screens ?
@wzz
It looks very similar to the one discussed in this post, except as you mentioned, the battery capacity is bigger. Personally, now I’m not very interested in single core ARM netbooks, especially if you want to Linux, as dual and quad core versions should be much faster and not cost that much. The resolution (1024×600) is also a problem if you run Ubuntu (I have experience with my x86 netbook).
I don’t know about the LCD thing.
hello i have the same one i dont succeed to boot linux . have you succeeded ?
i have tried the linaro img it seems that something happens but i have nothing on screen
i suppose it is almost working because i can see some logs in the /var/log folder somebody has succeeded to install linux ?
@jean-michel
I don’t own it, I’m not sure if somebody has run Linux on this one. One step is to the script.bin or evb.bin from your device, and replace it on your image.
There are also updated instructions on sunxi-linux to add a new board See section “Adding a new A1x board” @ https://github.com/linux-sunxi/u-boot-sunxi/wiki
hello good news it works now the H6 netbook can boots on linux done with a linaro distribution
i will put the script.bin here http://jeanmichel.gens.free.fr/script.bin
you can find script.bin in /dev/nanda a vfat partition you can mount under a terminal emulator
i am very happy with my N6 netbook under linaro only 1G used for the moment
now i start directly linux linqro from the internal sdcard ( /dev/nandi ) and i can come back to android by replacing a file ( u-boot.bin )
@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)
Im need firmware on this device (H6) too.
Do you find firmware?
Can you post link on it
Sanks
@dendroid
I don’t have the firmware, try to ask where you bought it.