Haseenote's JIVE W205R Core Duo MacBook clone for Korea

Maybe it's a bit harsh to call this thing a MacBook rip, they're just taking a few cues from the uber-successful Apple design after all, but with Haseenote's design, production and distribution all set firmly in Korea, what are they going to do about it? Questionably relevant design comparisons aside, this new JIVE W205R looks like a nice little laptop. The 12-inch screen runs at 1280 x 800 pixels, and the 1.66GHz Core Duo T2050, 1GB of RAM, 80GB SATA HDD and DVD burner all sound plenty spicy. The Radeon Xpress 200M with 64MB of VRAM won't exactly burn through graphics chores, but it's better than some integrated alternative. But the best news is that Haseenote managed all this fun in a 2.7 pound enclosure for a bit more than $1000 USD. Not bad at all.

[Justin Buck @ Aug 8th 2006 4:38PM]

This thing looks pretty sweet...

1st!

[danny @ Aug 8th 2006 4:39PM]

Plagiarize, Plagiarize
Why do you think the good Lord
Made your eyes?

[the T @ Aug 8th 2006 4:41PM]

Can it run os x!? I DON'T THINK SO!!! So therefore it's junk.

[Phil @ Aug 8th 2006 4:43PM]

well for "a bit more than 1000$" i'll just stick to a macbook with the same specs (except the gpu), thank you very much.

[Yuri Walkiw @ Aug 8th 2006 4:45PM]

I think this laptop matches my needs perfectly. I've been looking for a laptop to run Ubuntu or Suse on that can run XGL, and some basic windows puzzle games for my sister. Would this work well with Ubuntu?

[Joshua Ochs @ Aug 8th 2006 4:55PM]

The thing that caught my attention is the weight - that's *very* light compared to the MacBook. My only concern is whether it's as durable.

[Drew @ Aug 8th 2006 5:00PM]

It has a right click button!

Nice specs, but I've never heard of the company.

[Alex K. @ Aug 8th 2006 5:01PM]

How is this a clone? Because it's black?

[Kurt @ Aug 8th 2006 5:12PM]

can it run OSX ..... I believe the answer is yes. http://www.osx86project.net

[JerkyChew @ Aug 8th 2006 5:13PM]

Quote:
"Can it run os x!? I DON'T THINK SO!!! So therefore it's junk."

You don't know if it can or not. My friend's been using a Dell Inspiron with OS X as his primary computer for a month now with no problems, so it would stand to reason that other laptops will run it as well.

[Tom @ Aug 8th 2006 5:20PM]

Er, Clone? GTFO Mr Miller, there is no significant design element on this machine that isn't shared by a hundred other generic laptops. Your rabid fanboyism might have made you forget, but there were black laptops before the MacBook.

[Joey @ Aug 8th 2006 5:20PM]

The specs look nice, I want a note book that is fast BLAZING fast how does this stack up to the Mac?

[Joey @ Aug 8th 2006 5:20PM]

The specs look nice, I want a note book that is fast BLAZING fast how does this stack up to the Mac?

[Jeff Foster @ Aug 8th 2006 5:21PM]

even as a Apple-Design-Ripoff, it's still fairly ugly by comparison.

wow PC laptop manufacturers suck. it just blows my mind. as far as PCs go, though, i guess this one is okay ...in a sort of ignorable kind of way.

someone do something original! please! stop letting Apple get away with the "Our designs are the only ones worth a shit" reputation they've managed to keep for so long. bah!

[John @ Aug 8th 2006 5:23PM]

JIVE equals Johnathan Ive

Did Haseenote miss that or do they have that much gall?

[Jeff Foster @ Aug 8th 2006 5:32PM]

oh no, no copying here at all.

http://www.the-ish.com/x/images/jiveversusmacbook.jpg

nope. nothing similar going on here... you're a tool, tom, and your rabid anti-apple fanboyism has blinded you.

[Ndric @ Aug 8th 2006 5:48PM]

Haha, I'd rock it.

[Spyvie @ Aug 8th 2006 5:51PM]

Apple invented the very idea of digital music, so any other MP3 player is an iPod rip off.

Apple is also the true originator of the very idea of a notebook computer, or in fact any black or white vaguely rectangular portable device.

This is an obvious Apple rip off.

[Zack @ Aug 8th 2006 5:55PM]

I'm really not seeing the whole "rip-off" thing. This has: Sliding tray optical drive. Normal sized (not extra wide) two button track-pad with a light colored border. Two small hinges rather than one large one. Apparently fairly normal keyboard design. Obvious seems in the sides of the case. Fairly average port selection, design, and layout, including a phone modem. The optical drive is on the left and the ports are on the right. The optical drive has "DISC" and "DVD" logos on it. The case finish is more of a plan plastic look, as well as being almost grey compared to the black MacBook, and the top is an even lighter grey or silvery color that doesn't match the bottom. And to top it all off, it's an inch smaller diagonal, and weighs about half as much.

Where's the design similarity? Core Duo? 1GB of RAM? 1280x800? Aren't those kinda standard by now? So what is it that makes it a clone, a magnetic latch?

I'm not trying to fanboy either way, it's got some nicer specs and some less nice specs than the MacBook. I just don't see much similarity, particularly.

[Che @ Aug 8th 2006 6:05PM]

Jeff (and Paul),

What exactly is similar about those two laptops? That they're both black and shaped like a laptop with a touchpad?

The only distinctive design feature of either laptop is the offseting color of the touchpad and the white line surrounding it on the supposed clone. The Apple is simply an all-black laptop, like a million PC laptops that have been available for the last decade. Just because you never looked at a black laptop before Apple started selling them doesn't mean they didn't exist.

This is probably the stupidest Engadget post I've ever read. Maybe there is some design feature this laptop shares with the Apple that the Apple doesn't share with a million laptops that came before it, but nothing in the post of Jeff's picture identifies any such feature.

[Tull @ Aug 8th 2006 6:33PM]

Well now I've got an alternative to what I was going to do, buy a macbook and just reformat the hd and install windows on it. Now I won't have to go through all that trouble! I think it has nicer specs then the macbook as well, considering it doesn't use that "extreme" Intel gpu.

[OLivier @ Aug 8th 2006 6:33PM]

Very nice except it doesn't run DVI screens..
Next!

[TheJones @ Aug 8th 2006 6:42PM]

Not a clone. here

[Fred @ Aug 8th 2006 6:45PM]

The integrated graphics in the macbook are actually very good and quite capable of running 720p or 1080p HD. That's much better than the non-integrated card in the old ibook G4. It beggers belief as to what you'd actually want to do on a macbook that would require anything more than integrated graphics other than play games. But that can't be right since as every Windows fanboy worth his salt knows: 'macs cannt play gamez lolz!!!1!1!!!!!!!1111'

[Tom @ Aug 8th 2006 6:49PM]

Jeff, kindly keep your assumptions to yourself, I'm not anti-Apple, and my problem isn't with Apple but a small section of their fanbase (in which I include myself).
I love the design of the MacBook, but this isn't anything like it, it's ugly and plain. The only thing I can see on this laptop that is notable similar to the MacBook is the touchpad, and even that is more similar to the touchpad I've seen on some Toshiba notebooks. I could understand the howls of 'clone' if the laptop had copied the MacBook's keyboard or something, but otherwise I just don't see what anyone is talking about. Does anyone care to actually explain?

[donut @ Aug 8th 2006 6:55PM]

The latchless design as well as the submerged hinge are obviously inspired by what Apple came up with

[Tom @ Aug 8th 2006 7:05PM]

Uh, my two year old Vaio has a latchless design.
So you've got the hinges. Anything else? That doesn't make a clone. Honestly, if this is a rip, it's a rip of a IBM (well, Lenovo), with the 'functional' design style... The design is far busier than the MacBook.

[js @ Aug 8th 2006 7:33PM]

Apple zealots, to your battle stations!

Seriously, engadget, how is this a Macbook clone? Is it because it's black and the screen sits below the base when it's opened? I don't get it....

And at 2.7 lbs, it sure is tempting. Enjoy your 5.2 lbs macbook.

[ns @ Aug 8th 2006 9:11PM]

I don't think it matters much, but while the notebook is on sale in Korea, the company is Chinese.

[Paul Miller @ Aug 8th 2006 9:12PM]

Since my admittedly "Questionably relevant design comparisons" seem to have bothered a few of you, here is what I was seeing:

Submerged hinge
Latchless
Fairly monotone
Rather squarish design (pretty rare for PC laptops these days to not try to spice things up)
Similar proportions in most places to the MacBook (keyboard, screen bezel)

Nothing really blatant, or worthy of a "Keepin' it real fake" writeup, but pretty similar all the same.

[chris @ Aug 8th 2006 10:07PM]

This is what I've been looking for:

a laptop with simplified design at a reasonable price with moderate performance.

And personally this is the one of the best design for any PC laptop with more than enough horsepower, then the price is more than reasonable-

Lastly, whenever there's a simplified, nice looking laptop, it's a rip-off from Apple, eh??

[mr. pragmatic @ Aug 8th 2006 10:16PM]

wow, who cares what the thing looks like? why is everyone so superficial? one should look at the weight of the laptop, the specs, and the price. who cares what it looks like?

[keith waddington @ Aug 9th 2006 2:56AM]

it has a slower processor, it's uglier than the mac book, it can only run windows and will cum jam packed with trial wear which is harder to remove then os X, it is designed to be cheap and light where the Mac book is designed to take the hard knocks of school use, it has no isight which allows amazing 30fps full screen video conferencing with no stupid head set, it will never arrive in US or Europe. Other than that it's a winner. Mines on order.

waddo
www.waddo.net

[Intrepid @ Aug 9th 2006 4:38AM]

I give it a thumbs up... purely because it isn't a Mac. HAHAHA.

[Funk @ Aug 9th 2006 12:18PM]

With Macs switched to intel i see the argument of who is better pc or mac becoming irrelevant, because the mac essentially is a PC. And pretty much anyone with semi-new hardware can run OSX on a PC. This looks like a laptop so does the macbook neither look amazing. Talk to me when they have an awsome glossy paintjob like thos falcon northwest pcs.

[MasterCKO @ Aug 9th 2006 2:29PM]

So Paul, besides the submerged hinge and latch, you've described a ThinkPad. With the latch, you've described a VAIO.

So, in conclusion, the only thing, really, that you can say took its cues from Apple is the hinge.

Lastly, who cares if the hinge is the same? If it works, and the specs are good and it's half the weight, what's the diff?

Oh, and to waddo. You're wrong or misguided on a number of your points. You think that PCs don't have webcams with 30 fps and built-in mics? Are you serious? (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2204,CONTENTID=11804 for an example) Oh, and it probably CAN run OS-X based on the news of it being booted up on Dells and the like. And do you know for a fact that the quality of these particular laptops isn't good? light-weight DNE cheap-quality, dude.

Tool.

[JBL @ Aug 9th 2006 4:02PM]

This looks pretty close to what I've wanted for a while. As do many of the Korea/Japan/Non-U.S.-Asian-Country-only laptops. Anyone out there have any idea how we can actually buying one of these (preferrably with an English version of Windows)???

[keith waddington @ Aug 9th 2006 8:55PM]

ichat uses the h264 codec (quicktime) which happens to be the same codec used for the new HD video disks of both varieties. This allows you to have amazing quality for the bandwidth available and so full screen conferencing with 4 people involved.

30fps is only a detail, not the point. On Windows you can buy a nice cam, as linked, but you are still stuck with the Windows codec which in a resent independent study was the worst codec available. This may explain why HD blue ray etc does not use the windows codec. Also you are limited to the bad implementation of video conferencing in MSN and Yahoo etc. Good implementation looks like this:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat/

So, out of the box, with no additional purchase a mac gives you the highest quality video available, full screen and four people video 10 people audio. No matter how nice a camera you can buy (extra) for a windows, you cannot do any of this. We are talking about out of the box user experience that just works.

Any way, I don't want to argue: I was simply pointing out that I have great contact with my relatives now which Apple makes possible. And I am very happy about it.

waddo
http://www.waddo.net/

[keith waddington @ Aug 11th 2006 10:29PM]

Mr. star you are a strange person indeed. Life is too short and precious for such generalised and irrational hatred. I feel sorry for you.

Peace
http://www.waddo.net/