The Kogan Agora is a netbook that was designed by committee. And when I say committee, I mean the Australian company built the netbook based on specifications requested by potential customers. The end result is a pretty standard looking netbook which ships with gOS Linux (which is based on Ubuntu) and which comes with a choice of batteries and up to 2GB of RAM. At launch, the Kogan Agora was reasonably cheap at $499 Australian. But now it looks like Kogan has dropped the price to as low as $399 Australian, or about $336 US.

The base price will get you a netbook with 1GB of RAM and a 3 cell battery. For $439 Australian, or about $369 US, you get 2GB of RAM and a 6 cell battery. Both models have a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, 1.3MP webcam, 802.11b/g WiFi, 3 USB ports, a VGA port, headphone and microphone jacks, and a flash card reader. The laptop measures 10.4″ x 7.3″ x 1.2″ and weighs 2.6 pounds with a 3 cell battery and 3.1 pounds with a 6 cell.

The Agora Netbook from Australia’s Kogan Technologies may be one of the first examples of a netbook designed by committee. Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan asked for community input when he first decided to put together a mini-notebook, and the results are a stunningly average netbook with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 10.1 inch display. 160GB hard drive, and if you’ve ever seen another netbook you can probably fill in the rest.

But there are a few things that make the Agora stand out. It uses the gOS operating system, which is based on Ubuntu Linux, but which uses an OS X-style dock application launcher and integration with web services like Gmail and Google Docs.

Australia’s Technology & Business posted a glowing review of the netbook today, and points out another nice feature: easy access to the RAM, hard drive, and WiFi. While the Agora Netbook certainly isn’t the only mini-laptop that lets you remove or upgrade these components, it certainly makes things easy. All you have to do is remove a single screw.

On the down side, the Kogan Agora comes with a choice of a 3 or 6 cell battery, but even the higher capacity 6 cell version provides only 3 to 4 hours of run time.

via Boing Boing Gadgets