The first legalised home computers have gone on sale in Cuba, but Internet access remains restricted to workplaces, schools and universities.
It is the latest move by Cuban President, Raul Castro, to to allow citizens greater personal freedom.
President Castro hinted last month that the country's strict travel controls would be lifted and that Cubans could go abroad without permission from the authorities. Moves have also been made to lift restrictions on personal goods such as DVD players and mobile phones.
The Cuban PCs have Intel Celeron processors with 80 gigabytes of memory and 512 RAM and are equipped with Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. Both could be violations of a U.S. trade embargo, but not something Washington can do anything about in the absence of diplomatic relations with Havana.
The PCs were assembled by Cuban companies using parts imported from China. For about €52 less, buyers in the US can get a desktop with more than twice the memory, a 80GB SATA hard drive and 22-inch LCD flat screen monitor.
However, internet access remains limited with the Government saying that the US trade embargo has prevented it from connecting with undersea fibre-optic cables which are the backbone of the online web.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is laying a new cable under the Caribbean to enable such a connection for Cuba.