2Go Convertible
We should all pay homage to a little laptop known as the Intel Classmate PC. Without it, there wouldn’t be a category called netbooks, and ultraportables in the 2 to 4 pound range would still cost you an arm and a leg. While most netbooks have gone on and evolved into more complex designs, the Classmate has been and still is a netbook aimed at classrooms, particularly in developing nations. The 2Go Convertible Classmate PC ($499 street) by CTL Corp. has a rotating screen and touch capabilities this time around, complete with a carrying handle. Although the bundled education software and average netbook parts are classroom-worthy, parents and kids will find more appeal in the Disney Netpal by ASUS.
Design
Based on looks alone, the Classmate won’t likely won’t be a big seller. It’s bulky-looking, plain, and practical so that kids in a classroom won’t feel that any Classmate will look better than the other. It’s not meant to stop you at your tracks like the Disney Netpal or Dell Mini Nickelodeon Edition; the Classmate lacks any sort of zesty colors, animated themes, or glossy plastics. Like the teachers it likely appeals to, the Classmate’s primary goal is to get children interested in learning.
While most netbooks offer 10-inch widescreens (and some are even pushing it beyond that), the Classmate’s 8.9-inch one seems as antiquated as the one on the Disney Netpal. As most parents would say, a big screen is better for the eyes. The keyboard looks miniature compared with the full size ones found on the Toshiba mini NB205, Samsung N120 (12GBK), and HP Mini 5101. At 84%, it’s even smaller than the 89% keyboard found in the Disney Netpal. Although you can argue that a child’s hands are small enough to handle it, the Netpal’s keyboard is where I draw the line. The Classmate’s mouse buttons and touchpad, on other hand, are some of the best I’ve used. They’re comparable to the NB205’s navigating experience, which is terrific for kids and adults alike.
Features
The Convertible portion of this model refers to the rotating screen that covers up the keyboard and supports touch gestures. It lacks Wacom support (which requires a digitized pen) and Windows XP’s Tablet Edition (this review unit comes with Windows XP Home Edition), so there isn’t a built-in handwriting recognition engine (it does include Vision Pen Objects—a third-party tool that does an average job turning handwriting into editable text and includes a virtual keyboard). In addition, a stylus is included for tapping and doodling. The touch gestures work well if you use your fingertips. Otherwise, you would have to forcefully press on the screen in order to get a response.
In addition to Vision Pen Objects, the Classmate, as usual, comes with a bevy of software, which includes Evernote’s note taker, a basic eReader, and a drawing and doodling program called ArtRage—good learning tools but nothing a child or a parent would consider must-haves. The Netpal, on the other hand, built an entire environment around Disney’s classic and current themes. It comes with productivity and learning tools, games, and more importantly, effective parental controls that keep your child away from online dangers. The Classmate lacks these parental controls since the primary target is a school environment, which is more than likely to administer its own security software. If you’re buying this for a home, you can opt to do what the Dell Nickelodeon did—install a subscription-based security suite like McAfee’s Family Security Center, which will have the parental controls you need.
Features are as plain as any other inexpensive netbook. The two USB ports aren’t impressive when the Netpal and the Mini Nickelodeon have three. It has an SD card reader, VGA-Out, Ethernet, and built-in 802.11n WiFi. The Webcam, which sits above the screen, rotates 180 degrees and has a light that tells you when the camera is on. The most disappointing feature is the 60GB hard drive, which pales in comparison to the Netpal’s and Mini’s 160GB ones. Worst of all, it spins at an atrocious 4200rpms, which impacts performance.
The Classmate has caught up with current processing technologies, considering the first one started with an Intel Celeron M processor. Like the Netpal and Nickelodeon, the Classmate uses an Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz) processor and 1GB of DDR2 memory. Upgrading the memory yourself, however, isn’t as easy as removing a screw or two (it’s easier to perform a memory upgrade on the Netpal and the Mini).
Performance
Performance would have been in line with other netbooks had the Classmate used a faster spinning hard drive. Its SYSMark 2007 score finished 3 points below those of the Disney Netpal and Dell Nickelodeon. Since video encoding is a processor-intensive test and the Classmate uses the same processor as its peers, its 4 minute 43 second score was par for the course with the rest. It includes a 53Wh (6-cell battery), which drained in about 5 hours, according to MobileMark 2007 scores. The Netpal, however, beat the Classmate by another half an hour (5:30). Mainstream netbooks like the Toshiba NB205 and HP 5101 delivered 7-8 hour battery scores with similar batteries.
The 2Go Convertible Classmate PC’s price seems high for an average netbook with touch functions. When purchased in bulk, say, for a school, however, prices do come down drastically. CTL Corp. is selling this netbook as a standalone system, and by itself, it’s overpriced compared with mainstream netbook models like the Toshiba mini NB205 and HP mini 5101. Furthermore, parents and kids will prefer all the neat and useful software that comes with the Disney Netpal by ASUS.
Intel Corp Companies in the world’s largest microprocessor maker has just announced their financial performance for the first quarter of 2010. In the report, noted that during the first 3 months of this year, Intel managed to increase their net income amounted to 288 percent compared to last year.”Last quarter was the first quarter of the year as the best ever achieved by Intel during the time,” said Paul Otellini, Intel’s Chief Executive Officer, Engadget, 15 April 2010.
Santosamaru 