5 ms·
In the early 2000's Japan was way ahead in the Sub-notebook market. As subnotebooks and tablets have come into popularity and wide availability worldwide, this
by benzesandbetter 10y ago
In the early 2000's Japan was way ahead in the Sub-notebook market. As subnotebooks and tablets have come into popularity and wide availability worldwide, this arbitrage opportunity has narrowed significantly.
In 2007, I picked up a Panasonic R6 (10" LetsNote/toughbook). It was a great little machine, and I ran both Windows and Debian on it. The keyboard was a bit cramped, and the circular trackpad was pretty lame, but overall I loved the machine. Everywhere I went people would notice it and ask about it. After about 14 months, the logic board failed, and I discovered that as grey-market import, there was no warranty. This was a hard lesson, as I had paid almost $2k USD for the machine. Fortunately, I was back in the states when it happened, so I wasn't stranded abroad without a working laptop.
Earlier this year, I was in Japan and picked up a Japanese chromebook 10" for under $200. The keyboard is both english and Japanese which makes it a bit of a conversation starter. I installed Debian on it via Crouton (alongside ChromeOS). When I travel, I usually bring both my MacBook Air, and the Chromebook, and particularly in the developing world, I leave my MBA back in my hotel or apartment and bring my Chromebook with me when I'm out and about in the city.
- minikomi 10y agoCan you share which Chromebook you got? I'm living in Japan and am interested.
- benzesandbetter 10y agoI have the Chromebook Flip C100
- minikomi 10y agoInteresting. Seems the price has changed - I can't find it for any less than ¥35,000 without flets hikari subsidy.
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago> The keyboard is both english and Japanese So, Japanese, then? Or does it have English labels on the modifier keys?
- jpatokal 10y agoThis usually implies a QWERTY keyboard with Japanese kana printed on the keys and a way to switch modes: https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSH1YLn0FIXihr_tZjuhtsGHP2sQl9GeaavUOTT-WaFVGjn3oaFZpisVRvxtQ https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSH1YLn...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y agoOh I see, it's US QWERTY with labelled kana, as opposed to the Japanese layout, which adds some extra keys specific to Japanese (mostly for IME use).
- benzesandbetter 10y agoIt's QWERTY with Kana. You can see a couple images here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BAqh-TUpLh3/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BAqh-TUpLh3/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BGGFILmpLsn/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BGGFILmpLsn/
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y agoAh, that looks like the standard Japanese layout; it has the extra keys.
- benzesandbetter 10y agoFound a photo of me working on my R6 https://www.instagram.com/p/o4XZ5_hVSR/ https://www.instagram.com/p/o4XZ5_hVSR/