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Amid all the chatter about Asus’ Eee PC mega-lineup, the Dell Studio Hybrid and any other of the myriad netbooks and mini green PCs in the news these days, it’s easy to overlook the CherryPal Desktop. And the little system, without a screen, keyboard or mouse, is having its share of problems despite the fact that it hasn’t even been released yet. But it’s got its good bits, too. More after the clicky thingie…

Ok, first the good: It’s tiny. At 5.8″ x 4.2″ x 1.3″ high, it’s smaller than machines like Dell’s Studio Hybrid by a fair margin. CherryPal also claims a 20 second up-and-running time, which is pretty sweet if true. And despite its shiny black exterior, it’s pretty green. The manufacturer claims that, due to the use of 80% fewer parts than a traditional PC, including no moving parts at all, the CherryPal Desktop consumes only 2 watts of power while in use and should last 10 years. And it’s got a cherry on the top, which will make you happy because it’ll remind you of Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and slot machines.

On the bad side, though, it’s expensive. At about $250, it’s only $50 less than the low-end Asus Eee PC netbooks available at places like Tiger Direct, and they’ve got a screen, keyboard and trackpad…not to mention a pretty big company behind them. The CherryPal also got a funky processor, that being the Freescale MPC5121e mobileGT, running at just 400MHz. Add to this just 256MB RAM, and it gets harder and harder to justify the cost-to-performance ratio of this vs. an Eee PC or another cheapish netbook.

Oh, and it was supposed to be out last month, then a few days ago, now it’s been delayed again due to software & hardware not playing nice together, according to CherryPal.

Still, we like the fact that somebody’s trying to do something a little different. And CherryPal’s website is snazzy. And did we mention it’s got a cute little cherry on it?

CherryPal