PHOTOS: Datawind Ubisurfer hands on

Up close with the £159 netbook

10 July 2009 9:11 GMT / By Chris Hall

Datawind unveiled its Ubisurfer netbook on Thursday and we were on hand to grab some shots of the new device.

Taking a slight departure from the typical "mini notebook" netbook specs, the Ubisurfer is designed for internet users on the go and comes with an embedded Vodafone SIM giving you a GPRS connection without the bother of a dongle.

Coming with a Linux OS, it features a 7-inch, 800 x 480px display, 128MB RAM, a 1GB of storage on-board, but easily expanded via an SDHC card, so you could simply add what you need.

All the communications are inbuilt, giving you a GPRS data connection and Wi-Fi for hotspots or in your home, or a standard Ethernet connection. It features the normal headphone and mic jacks, as well as having speakers for the playback of your media.

For £159 you get 30 hours of browsing a month for the first year. Interestingly the roaming charges are only 5p a minute, so it might appeal to the likes of caravaners in Europe who want access to the Internet, without the bother of all the additional expense that comes with a more conventional netbook and mobile broadband dongle.

The Ubisurfer will be on sale in Maplin soon.