OLPC XO-4 Arriving This March

Let us take a breather from the slew of CES news as we bring you word of other interesting tech goings-on. Case in point, did you know that there will be the OLPC XO-4 that is tipped for a release later this March? Yes sir, the OLPC XO-4 might seem awfully familiar to some at first glance, looking all too much like the XO-1.75 notebook, but you cannot fault those who do so. After all, the OLPC XO-4 does share a similar 7.5-inch sunlight readable display, not to mention a similar rugged design, as well as the identical athletic ability to twist the display and fold it flat in order to use it as a tablet or an e-reader.

What makes the OLPC XO-4 different from the XO-1.75 notebook is this – the former is a true, blue tablet, courtesy of the inclusion of a touchscreen display. Not only that, OLPC intends to make it far more sprightly by throwing in a dual-core 1.2GHz Marvell PXA2128 processor. This particular processor will deliver long battery life thanks to low power consumption, and yet it ain’t too shabby for average tasks that users in developing nations would use it for.

Apart from that, the wireless chip has also received an upgrade to 802.11n WiFi now. Similar to its predecessors, the OLPC XO-4 will be powered by Fedora Linux with the custom Sugar user interface, while placing a strong emphasis on educational software. Expect OLPC to mass produce the XO-4 sometime later this March, where they ought to retail for $200 thereabouts each with a minimum order of 10,000. Ouch!

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers, Tablets
Tags: olpc