The One Laptop Per Child scheme was an optimistic attempt during the middle of last decade to build a laptop for children in developing countries, for under $100. While that goal was never fully realized, it did have moderate success, and there is a new company today carrying the torch. Australian firm One Education has built an affordable, high definition laptop with students in mind, that’s entirely modular and totally affordable.
The $250-$300 laptop-tablet combo is available for reservation now (and will be purchasable by those who reserve first). As a modular design, it comes in several pieces. Not only can the keyboard and touch-screen (2,560 x 1,600 resolution) be separated, but all of the internals are modular too.
There are four modules to the Infinity: the camera, screen, battery and ‘core’ which features the processor, memory and storage solution. The former comes packing a five megapixel rear camera and a two megapixel front camera, while the latter packs a 1.5GHz quad core CPU, 2GB of memory and 24GB of storage.
Specifics on the battery have yet to be released, so may be in the process of being finalized. Similarly so, there is no detail on the branding of the CPU, or its clock speed. However based on the price of the system they are unlikely to be power houses. The exciting thing though, is that they will be fully upgradeable.
Students who find themselves needing more grunt in the future will be able to swap out the core module, or the battery if they need a longer life between charges.
If you’re thinking that perhaps One Education won’t be around long enough to produce modular replacements, it’s also made sure that there’s USB-C ports on the side, which will allow users to connect hardware like Raspberry Pis or Chromebits, and let them make their own modules.
No release date has been announced.
