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$150 Linux Laptop for the Masses

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the on-the-cheap dept.

Xemu writes "Inspired by Negroponte's laptop for children, the Swedish company Medison is now taking orders for their US$150 Linux laptop, the Medison Celebrity. The laptop is a 1.5 GHz Celeron M 370 with 14 inch screen, wireless network and it comes with Fedora Red Hat pre-installed." Update 2035 GMT by SM: As many readers have pointed out, the more you dig into the details of this company the more fishy it starts to seem. I would suggest any potential buyers be wary on this one.

13 of 434 comments (clear)

  1. Wish it had more details by WrongMonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's a neat looking laptop, but info on the website is pretty scarce. For instance, what kind of battery life can I expect? Is it as upgradeable as normal laptop (eg. HDD and RAM)?

    1. Re:Wish it had more details by metlin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Quite obviously, you read the website, didn't you?

      Q: Do you have other products or can I add more memory to this laptop?

      A: Yes, we have other models coming up next month and if you want to expand with more memory on your laptop you can go to our 'Accessories' page and buy extra memory.

  2. Re:Smells fishy... by LWATCDR · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well there is an old saying.
    If it sounds too good to be true...

    But running a scam like this out of Sweden seems like a big risk to me. But then I have no idea how good the Swedish legal system is. I thought they had some very strong consumer protection laws. It is probably safer to buy this if you live in Sweden than the US.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  3. Re:It may be fraud by theelectron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I like how on the order page, the verified by Visa and Mastercard mastercode logos (which should have links from them to verify their authenticity) are just pictures on the site. Very fishy indeed.

  4. No phone number! by ipjohnson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To quote the website "The phone lines are temporarly closed" all they give is an email address. You can't even call to complain if you don't get it.

    If they are legit they are working really hard to seem like a scam.

    1. Re:No phone number! by blackest_k · · Score: 3, Insightful

      investigate that address and there are a number of registered companies at that address, ok if it was a solicitors office not that unusual, however I couldn't find 1 which had filed accounts.

      it has to be a con

      --
      Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
  5. Re:Smells fishy... by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If this is indeed a scam...we have been trolled. Badly. I would feel they deserve kudos for getting their fake product featured on /..

    On the other hand, the fact that, within minutes of the story going live, you pointed out the scammy smell and got modded up so as to be prominently near the top of the page shows the major strength of community-driven reporting: near-instantaneous corrections and additions.

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
  6. Re:The fine print by jmorris42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > It might take one or two weeks longer to get the laptop.

    No, it might take that long (it says elsewhere 4-6 weeks plus they can shine people on for another week or two) for them to get cash from the credit card clearing house before they disappear. Add up the BOM on that machine and they can't buy those parts in 100,000 lots for $150USD. Scam.

    --
    Democrat delenda est
  7. Obvious Scam (Price) by evilviper · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's obviously a scam. You don't need to do a whois look-up or anything else. Just look at the specs.

    There's no way in hell they're going to offer a 1.6GHz CPU, 40GB HDD, 14" LCD, 256MB DDR, etc., for $150... Even at twice that price ($300) it would be a stretch, but just possible. At $150, it's laughable.

    You could make a $150 laptop... If you went with a tiny screen, no backlight, no CD/DVD, tiny HDD, no battery, ancient CPU, etc., etc. But with fairly modern specs as this has, there isn't a snowball's chance in hell that it's real.

    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  8. Re:Smells fishy... by thethibs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How do you know it's run out of Sweden?

    --
    I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
  9. Re:Smells fishy... by kisrael · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The thing is, it didn't sound SO good as to be absolutely implausible...

    --
    SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
  10. Slashdot needs a professional editor. by Picass0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Glad I read the comments. My kneejerk reaction was to go to the site and read the specs. For a moment I thought "it's on Slashdot so it's OK." I was about to call my wife and tell her she can have the laptop she wanted, and I hit the back button on my browser and started reading all the posts about this being a scam.

    So the readers of Slashdot, often characterized as the great unwashed, saved me from a scam brought to me by the editors of Slashdot.

  11. Re:It may be fraud by master0ne · · Score: 3, Insightful

    and also when cost is considerd, most products with lightning fast delivery times are high dollar or high volume items... a laptop generally is high dollar, in this case its neither.... it would be impossible to sell this laptop at this cost if they had to pay for blazing fast shipping in (for the parts) and then back out to the customer, it would undoubtly raise the cost significantly.... now my only remaning question is who works in their assembly plant? orphens and widows? at these prices id be weary of supporting a "sweat shop" although they are in a country with laws aganst it, doesnt mean their assembly plant is too....

    --
    Noone writes jokes in base 13!