Research by African universities looking at the top laptop and desktops for use in developing countries has shown that Asus' Eee PC netbook wins out hands down over the One Laptop per Child's XO laptop.
PC reuse charity Computer Aid International has published the results of the extensive study into the best low power PCs for use in developing countries, which proves through quantitative and qualitative tests that the Asus Eee wins out over the many other low-cost netbooks out there right now.
The top five PCs best-equipped for use in developing countries, according to the study, were (in order of merit) the Asus Eee, Intel Classmate; OLPC XO laptop; Inveneo Computing Station and Ncomputing X300.
Eees are good
"The Asus Eee PC was the solution preferred unanimously by all the testing teams, offering the ideal compromise between power consumption, performance and portability," reads Computer Aid's press release. "The Ncomputing X300 was also highlighted for its suitability for computer labs, in some settings."
Unfortunately, the OLPC XO "consistently ranked top for low power consumption, but was the slowest of all the systems in the performance tests."
Let's hope the latest version of the XO, recently announced, will fare a little better. Otherwise the project is going to be in considerable trouble over the coming year.
"Many communities in Africa have no reliable access to mains electricity and are forced to rely on expensive alternatives like solar panels or diesel generators, so we set out to find a low power, low cost solution that will facilitate the availability and use of information technology in those regions," said Tony Roberts, Founder of Computer Aid International.
"ICT can play a vital role in economic growth and education provision in the developing world, but it's vital that we offer equipment that can meet the unique requirements of these countries. By working with ZDNet's technical labs and three leading African Universities we have been able to accurately assess the performance and suitability of a number of low power computing options in the countries where they are required, to better inform future choices in ICT for education and development."
The report was based on extensive testing of all the above-mentioned machines at Kenyatta University, Kenya; Jos University, Nigeria; and the National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe.
Check out the full report over at computeraid.org/lowpowerpcs
Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
mokurai
April 29th 2009
3. Adam: Very curious. The OLPC XO loses out in a category it was not designed for, and is completely unsuited for, due to the keyboard if nothing else. Why trumpet the results of a meaningless study in this completely inappropriate and meaningless way?
This study claims to determine which computers are best for developing countries, as though there were only one category of computer users in developing countries, that is, as though schoolchildren don't matter. Its findings thus have nothing to do with the XO's intended use, and are an insult to all children, teachers, and parents in every developing country.
Ugomatic: Why do such a study in the first place, with such ill-defined aims? I have often observed that the answers you get in evaluating the XO depend sensitively on the questions you ask. If you look for speed, capacity, throughput in business or technical computing, then of course the XO fails in comparison with conventional netbooks. But who would even think of using a child's computer with a child's keyboard for such purposes?
And what does throughput have to do with the schools? XOs will commonly be used for reading static books and Web pages. Can you read faster on an Eee?
If you ask not just about the power consumption and processor speeds as cost factors, but consider
o the use of Free Software tailored for children, which children have the legal right to adapt to their own languages
o ruggedness to reduce repair and replacement costs
o environmental friendliness (no heavy metals in the battery, no mercury in the screen backlight) to reduce disposal costs
o daylight readable, higher resolution, lower cost screen
and other mission-critical factors for education, nothing comes close to an XO.
Also, it is pointless to claim that a computer is inferior because it lacks a particular piece of software. In fact, you can run a spreadsheet on the XO, and a Sugar-specific spreadsheet, SocialCalc, is in development.
There are more than a million XOs in use by children, and more than a million more on order. There are also Intel Classmate and Encore Mobilis computers, among others, in use in one-to-one computing in the schools of various countries. Sugar Labs has ported Sugar to Caixa Mágica Linux for the Classmate, as used in Venezuela, and is porting Sugar to the ARM processor used in the Mobilis. That will give us more than 3 million units by the end of the year.
If anyone would care to do a study that does focus on education, we can soon have real answers to the real question.
charbax: Stop shouting, and get your facts straight.
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ugomatic
April 23rd 2009
2. Hi,
Thanks for your comment. I've been in charge of managing this research and can assure you that the tests were conducted independently by three reputable universities - with no pressure from any manufacturers.
As the report noted, the OLPC is indeed the least power consuming solution: it uses approximately half the power consumed by the Asus Eee PC. However, it features the slowest processor of all tested solutions, which results in higher overall power consumption when trying to complete a set of tasks. In addition to this, all teams testing the OLPC found a number of limitations with the software provided with the machine: for example, they were for the most part unable to play video on it. Other missing features are spreadsheet software and the ability to connect to the Internet in ways other than wi-fi.
Last but not least, this test was not meant to analyse solutions targeted only to children, but overall suitable low-power PC solutions for developing countries.
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charbax
April 21st 2009
1. This report is obviously either corrupt by Intel or it's totally misguided and useless.
OLPC has sold 1 million laptops in developing countries. You will find very few if not none of the Intel based laptops in developping countries. Intel only sells to rich people who have money to spare.
OLPC XO1 uses 10 times less power than Asus Eee, and XO2 will use 50 times less power and cost $50-100 when released.
This report obviously does not test laptops for children either, Universities need to run those productivity and adult-oriented Microsoft applications.
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