Greg Chaffins 
Could it be true, that an actual laptop is about to be released that will cost only $99 (and not only theorized)? Well, Jointech is claiming so, and the JL7100 Mini Laptop is priced $99 at the Jointech website.
OF course, for that price there are some corners to be cut. The JL7100 runs on WinCE 5.0 instead of a bigger OS, and memory is only in the 64 MB range (those of you familiar with Pocket PCs probably understand this laptop by now). The display measures 7 inches across, and sports a 800×400 resolution. The laptop also features a VGA port and three USB ports.
The Jointech JL7100 website rates the notebook as having a four hour runtime per charge, and it weighs in at only 680g, including battery. The installed software includes:
- MS Word Viewer
- MS Excel Viewer
- MS Powerpoint Viewer
- MSN Messenger
- Media Player
- Image Viewer
- Wordpad
- PDF Viewer
- Calculator
- Paint
- Internet Explorer
Since it is WinCE 5.0 the software list is considerably shorter than a standard laptop, but the addition of Softmaker Office or similar could make the JL7100 a truly capable portable machine. Not to mention that users would find a WINCE based device to boot extremely fast as compared to a standard desktop OS, which would no doubt fit a busy lifestyle.
As a stand alone computer users will no doubt find serious shortcomings as compared to a regular laptop. But as a netbook (notebook designed for mostly Internet usage and email) this low priced laptop has some serious potential. Asus may need to start looking in the rear view mirror, and quickly.
