A 12.1" laptop is more expensive because of the increased engineering that needs to go into it to make sure everything fits and runs well, better cooling, and it's harder to manufacture things in a smaller space.
Regarding the Foleo - I think it's at a great price point - I recently wanted to buy an ultraportable for £400 (what's the point in buying a laptop if it's bulky? I have my desktop for my desk) and settled on an IBM X31 used for £450. If this was around, I definitely would have bought it.
Ideally this wouldn't be so locked down (although this remains to be seen) - making it possible to install things like Java and the rest on it - probably why laptops are preferable to PDAs if you wish to do more serious work (such as development).
However, it's weight is near to that of my fully functional IBM with a 12.1" display as opposed to it's 10.1" display - I don't see why it should be so heavy, especially as my IBM has a hard disk and all the other bits in it. Especially for something with cut down functionality.
I would also hope the screen is at a decent resolution, if it's just a scaled up PDA then it will look pretty garish and cheap.
I would buy one though for travelling - you really don't want something quite so heavy to travel with and PDA's irritate me for data entry (sending longer emails etc.).
Register
Too heavy
@Chris Cartledge -
A 12.1" laptop is more expensive because of the increased engineering that needs to go into it to make sure everything fits and runs well, better cooling, and it's harder to manufacture things in a smaller space.
Regarding the Foleo - I think it's at a great price point - I recently wanted to buy an ultraportable for £400 (what's the point in buying a laptop if it's bulky? I have my desktop for my desk) and settled on an IBM X31 used for £450. If this was around, I definitely would have bought it.
Ideally this wouldn't be so locked down (although this remains to be seen) - making it possible to install things like Java and the rest on it - probably why laptops are preferable to PDAs if you wish to do more serious work (such as development).
However, it's weight is near to that of my fully functional IBM with a 12.1" display as opposed to it's 10.1" display - I don't see why it should be so heavy, especially as my IBM has a hard disk and all the other bits in it. Especially for something with cut down functionality.
I would also hope the screen is at a decent resolution, if it's just a scaled up PDA then it will look pretty garish and cheap.
I would buy one though for travelling - you really don't want something quite so heavy to travel with and PDA's irritate me for data entry (sending longer emails etc.).