Once in a while a company comes along and designs a product that's wildly different from everything else in the category. Sometimes these odd duck gadgets end up redefining the market and changing the game entirely. More often, they just give us something strange to oggle and laugh about ten years down the line. I can't say for certain which one of these the Litl Webbook will end up being, but if I'd have to guess I'd say...the latter.

Basically, the Webbook is a netbook with a 12” monitor that can slide around like an easel. Litl says this feature makes their Webbook perfect for enjoying movies, displaying photos, or browsing through social networking websites and web TV. Sounds like a neat, simple little device for your computer illiterate family to browse the Internet. The problem, of course, is the price.

As Engadget points out, this gimped and simplified netbook costs $699. For that kind of money, you can buy pretty much any other netbook out there. Considering this thing only packs a 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 2 GB of storage and 1 GB of WiFi, it's hard to see how $700 is even close to justified. Sure, the easel thing is cool, and 720p playback is nice, but I'd rather go with, well, just about any other product on the market.