I've had mine for about a week now. I got it off eBay for $105.57 (canadian), shipping from Hong Kong included.
PROS:
- The price, clearly.
- I REALLY like the size. It's big enough that I can do work on it without squinting, but it's small enough to fit in a interior suit pocket. That's very convenient. I think Apple should learn a lesson from this device where size is concerned.
- The proprietary port on the bottom is simply an iPod connection, so you can connect it directly to your computer if you have an iPod sync cable.
CONS:
- The AC adapter that came with it was incredibly cheap, and it burned out after less than a minute of use. I had to get a replacement from Radio Shack for about $30 (Canadian).
- The battery only lasts about 2 hours, if that.
- The accelerometer doesn't work on mine, so I have to click an icon to rotate the screen. I haven't found a way to set the default view to portrait, so I'm constantly having to switch from landscape.
- There is no access to the Android Market, so any apps I want have to be available online as apk files. There was an "App Store", but it was in Chinese. The best place to find apps is through BitTorrent (be honest and only use freeware!).
- The processor is quite underpowered. Apps run very slowly, and crash from time to time.
- I have yet to get video to play at all, let alone with decent framerates.
- It came with a Skype client installed, but the device is WiFi only and the Skype client requires phone network connectivity.
- No camera.
- No GPS.
- WiFi only.
- The buttons on the bottom sometimes don't work unless you press really hard. I will not be surprised if they stop working entirely.
BOTTOM LINE:
- This is clearly a 1.0 sort of product. Unless I can get my hands on a better model at a similar price, I will continue to use mine and put up with the inconvenient flaws. I removed the pre-installed ereader and replaced it with Aldiko, which works well. The browser, email, and IM client all work fine. I installed an SSH client and a VNC client to control my desktop PCs, and an SFTP client to access files on my network.
So it's not completely useless, but even at $105 (Canadian) I wouldn't really recommend it unless you have a very specific use for it.
I could see someone modding the thing to use as a controller for a home automation set up, or an internet-attached photoframe, or a model railroad controller, or something like that. I've seen videos on YouTube where guys have added a bigger battery, a couple of USB ports, and a webcam.
As a general-use device, however, I definitely get much more use out of my OLPC XO netbook running Debian than I will likely get from the m001.