A recent article posted on SlashGear give us our first look at Quanta’s Android Smartbook prototype. The Quanta machine looks ostensibly like a regular netbook, but it’s considerably thinner – helped by the fact that it’s based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset and thus requires no active cooling fan.  Its display isn’t a touchscreen – we left fingerprints all over it trying to find out – but Quanta have reworked the keyboard to offer one-touch access to not only the homescreen (which still offers three customisable panes) but the slide-out programs menu, key apps like the browser, and individual control over WiFi, 3G and Bluetooth.

This particular model didn’t have a SIM card inserted, but we booted up the WiFi connection and managed to do a little surfing.  In terms of speed, it’s as nippy as a netbook is, and moving up and down the webpage is actually better with the arrow keys since it automatically jumps from link to link.  Slightly less impressive was keyboard flex, with not only the QWERTY itself bouncing and twisting during typing, but – as you can see in the video – the whole base of the Smartbook bending under the weight of the screen when held at the palmrest.  Still, this is a prototype after all; Qualcomm say Lenovo’s will be thinner again, with more pronounced curves at the corners.

Video can be seen on Slashgear