The EFIKA MX Smartbook is a portable computer that is small, light and highly energy efficient. It requires less than 12W to fully operate insuring mobility. The Efika MX features an optimized Linux kernel and web browser that fully supports Google Apps Premier Edition.Toshiba’s AC100 getting released at around the same time didn’t help matters, nor did the $350 price tag which is what you’d pay for a mid-high end netbook. Over the weekend, they dropped the price to $199 – around the same price the AC100 has dropped to.
The Efika MX looks like a typical netbook with a 10 inch display, but where most netbooks have an Intel Atom chip, this model has an 800 MHz Freescal i.MX515 ARM Cortex A8 processor. Since Windows isn’t yet available for ARM-based chips, the Efika MX runs Linux, although it’s probably possible to port Android to the platform.
The mini-laptop has a 1024 x 600 pixel display, 16GB of storage, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, optional 3G (which drives up the price by about $50, Bluetooth2.1, 2 USB 2.0 ports, a 1.3MP camera, mic and headphone jacks and a speaker as well as a microSD card slot for expansion. It supports 3D graphics and HD video playback and weighs just over 2 pounds. The computer uses less than 12W of power.
Note one thing: by default Smartbook boots from internal PATA drive but if there is SD card in slot then it is used for booting. This allows to test development kernels without need of getting to U-Boot. I got hit once by that because card which I used to transfer some data had OMAP3 kernels on it As you can imagine it did not booted properly.
After I think hour or two I got it upgraded from Ubuntu 10.10 “maverick” to “natty” and got hit by some modifications done by Genesi. After copying “/boot/” from other Efika MX I got it working again. Next days will bring me working KDE 4.5.2 desktop (will have to rebuild some packages for it).
