14 DAY TRIAL // On today's market, the cheapest mobile PCs that one can buy are those entry-level systems known as netbooks. These products are known for their lack of advanced computing and graphics, but they have long battery lives and, most importantly, low prices (under $500/500 Euro). As such, when a 15.4-inch notebook shows up and has a price tag lower than that of most such laptops, consumers usually end up stumped. This is exactly what Lenovo reportedly enabled with its IBM 3000 G530.
The 3000 G530 is incredibly cheap, but, as expected, also quite lacking in performance, In fact, the system doesn't really have anything to set it apart from low-end netbooks, except for its size. The hard disk drive is of 160GB and even the central processing unit, the Intel 2.2GHz Celeron 900 single-core, is rather weak. Not only that, but there is only 1GB of memory, which may prove problematic.
1GB of memory is barely enough to run any version of Windows, especially those newer than Windows XP. Of course, end-users may simply go for a Linux OS if they wish. Either way, Lenovo left this choice up to consumers and did not pre-install any OS besides FreeDOS. To drive costs even lower, the company implemented a low-resolution LCD display (1,280 x 800 pixels), only two USB ports, a WLAN connector and a DVD burner. The end-result is a machine that has a starting price of only 260 Euro.
Truly, the Lenovo IBM 3000 G530 seems to be the PC supplier's experiment meant to discover just how cheap a 15.4-incher can actually be. Basically, this laptop won't be able to do anything besides simple document-viewing and web-browsing tasks. This means that schools and certain undemanding consumers will be the only parties interested in acquiring a model, unless, of course, one likes to collect unusual gadgets.