Posts Tagged ‘Netbooks’

Dell Mini 5Dell Mini 5 will present the design of mobile tablet with a larger screen size, which is five inches. “Dell Streak will be present with a combination of traditional smart phones and tablets big sail,” says Ron Garriques, Communications Solutions Group, Dell’s president, quoted from page Cellular News, Wednesday, May 26, 2010.

“The size was expected to offer a unique new experience for customers.” In addition to the big screen with a resolution of 480×800 pixels, this tablet smart phone comes with dimensions of 15.2 x 7.9 x 1 inches and weighs a little heavy, which is 220 grams.

However, a large TFT screen that has the function of capacitive multi-touch and accelerometer sensors in the UI (user interface), it makes it look elegant. Dell also pinned Streak 5 MP camera (2592 x 1944 pixels) equipped with an auto focus feature and dual LED flash to emit a brighter light. In addition, this product was immersed Android OS v1.6 (Cupcake), which can be upgraded to v2.2 (Froyo) and Snapdragon processor QSD8250 Quacomm 1GHz.any reliable connectivity.

In addition to GPRS (32-48 kbps) and EDGE, Dell Streak also supports data access 7.2 M bps HSDPA / HSUPA 5.76 M bps, plus WI-Fi 802.11 b / g, Blue tooth 2.1 and mini USB 2.0

Unfortunately, the battery powered device that reportedly Li-Ion 1530 mAh This will only circulate exclusively in the UK through O2 network in June next. There has been no further official information from Dell and O2 related party pricing and availability outside the UK.

Nokia's Booklet 3G

Nokia's Booklet 3G

Try as we might, we just can’t see the point of this so-called smartbook.Sure, Nokia’s Booklet 3G is cute and quaint. It’s got Mac-like svelteness and would look equally at home on the desk of a CEO or graphic designer. But why would either of them bother to put it there?The smartbook, as near as anyone at Nokia has been able to explain, is a device that melds a smartphone with netbook. I’ve long imagined such a beast would perhaps look like the handheld HP computers of yore — a monstrous phone you could edit a spreadsheet on. But in 2009’s reality, the smartbook is emerging as something quite different, and far more boring: Basically, it’s a netbook outfitted with a wireless network card.Sure enough, that’s exactly what Nokia’s Booklet 3G is: A netbook with a 10.1-inch screen (1028 x 720 pixels), a 1.6-GHz Atom processor, a paltry 1 GB of RAM, and a 120-GB hard drive. It comes with Wi-Fi and a WCDMA 3G wireless card, with service courtesy of AT&T. Our test unit had Windows 7 Starter Edition is preinstalled.

And for that measly configuration, Nokia wants you to fork over 600 bucks. Sign up for two years of data service with AT&T and you can have it for a mere $300, a touch less than other netbooks of this general size and shape.And that’s the head-scratcher. You can pick up a USB 3G adapter from the carrier of your choice for next to nothing and use it on every computer you own. Or you can pay $300 for this single-purpose machine with a minuscule keyboard, dim screen and downright awful performance, while paying a monthly fee for the thing every month for the next two years. Rest assured, that’s all you’re getting: There’s no phone in the Booklet 3G by any stretch of the imagination; it can’t even make voice calls.

Overall, the Booklet 3G (and, to be fair, all smartbooks that follow) is really a back-to-the-drawing-board proposition. As sexy and long-lived, battery-wise, as it might be, it’s simply too slow and far too expensive for anyone to seriously consider buying when far more credible alternatives (like, say, any netbook on the market) are available. Turn this into a free-with-service gimmick and maybe we could see getting behind it. Maybe.

Fujitsu P3010

Fujitsu P3010

As of this moment, I don’t have enough fingers to count the amount of oversized netbooks that are being sold in retail. Oversized netbooks typically have 11 to 12-inch widescreens and have parts with names like Nvidia’s ION, AMD’s Neo, VIA’s Nano, and the most popular of which, Intel’s Atom. Fairly late to the game is Fujitsu’s LifeBook P3010, an 11-inch, oversized netbook that runs on AMD parts, which have an edge in speed over the Intel Atom but trails it in battery life. Even if Fujitsu were to knock down the price from $549, it would still be just an okay netbook.Design  I’m usually a sucker for vibrant colors. The P3010’s shiny red plastics, though plain in design, still grabs a hold of your attention immediately and beats the drab, neutral hues found on the Lenovo IdeaPad S12, Samsung NC20 (21GBK), and MSI U210 (008US). Over on the corner of the lid is Fujitsu’s signature infinity logo, which is always a nice finishing touch. It’s a heavy netbook, though, as its 3.5-pound frame outweighs many of its netbook peers, including the Asus EeePC 1101HA (3 lbs), HP Mini 311 (3.3 lbs), and MSI U210 (3 lbs). Only the HP Pavilion dv2-1030us is heavier, tipping the scales at 3.8 pounds.

As with any oversized netbook, the sweet spot is the extra screen real estate. The P3010 has an 11.6-inch widescreen, which not only gives you more to look at than the typical 10-inch ones, but the resolution is higher as well. Case in point: Ten-inch netbooks like the Toshiba mini NB205 and HP Mini 5101 default to 1,024-by-600 resolutions; the P3010, like all oversized netbooks, has a 1,366-by-768 one, or WXGA. Oversized netbooks like the Lenovo S12, Samsung NC20, and MSI U210 have bigger 12-inch widescreens, which you might consider if you want to push this boundary.
Features Another thing that the P3010 can afford to do with a bigger screen (hence, wider dimensions) is put in a full size keyboard. Its keyboard size is comparable to the ones found in the Lenovo S12, Samsung NC20, and MSI U210. In contrast, others in its size class, namely the HP Mini 311, ASUS 1101HA, and HP dv2, top out at 92% of full size. The touchpad seemed agonizingly small at first, but wrapping the chrome mouse buttons around the front bezel, thereby widening the pinch between the thumb and index fingers (used to navigate), made it tolerable. Nevertheless, Fujitsu needs to find a way to increase the size of the touchpad.

The P3010’s other features are average at best. Its most glaring omission is an HDMI port, given that the HP dv2 and MSI U210—netbooks that run on similar AMD parts—are including it. The three USB ports can be found in smaller 10-inch netbooks and 802.11g Wi-Fi seems average, too, when others are bundling 802.11n. Fujitsu is including a 320GB hard drive, though, which gives you more storage than MSI U210’s 250GB drive. Aside from that, it has Bluetooth, a 4-in-1 media card reader, Webcam, an Ethernet and a VGA port.

Performance
To date, I’ve looked at about four netbooks that run on the 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40—a single-core processor and one of AMD’s answers to the Intel Atom. A dual-core Neo is already shipping, but hasn’t shown up in many netbooks. The advantage of using an AMD Neo is that there isn’t a RAM restriction (Intel Atom-based netbooks can only ship with 1GB of RAM, but can be manually upgraded to two), so the P3010 ships with 2GB of DDR2 memory. In terms of raw speed, the Neo is a faster processor than the Atom; its score on our video encoding tests bears this out: The P3010’s 3-minute 56-second score convincingly beat out the Lenovo S12 (4:40), Samsung NC20 (5:30), and ASUS 1101HA (5:32). It has a minor graphics advantage, too, as the ATI Radeon 3200 chipset (with the Neo processor and 2GB of memory) handled high-definition clips (1080p and 720p) reasonably well; at least better than with Intel’s integrated graphics.

As a result of using AMD chips, the P3010 had to sacrifice battery life. As with the MSI U210 (4:13) and the HP dv2 (3:08), the P3010’s 3 hours 25 minutes score on MobileMark 2007 is sufficient enough for a half-day’s work, but falls well short of the 5- to 7-hour scores amassed by the Lenovo S12 (5:19), ASUS 1101HA (6:50), and HP Mini 311 (5:29). Against a smaller netbook like the Toshiba NB205 (8:27), the P3010 gets less than half its battery life.

It’s hard enough to compete as a latecomer, but when you’re priced more than similar netbooks (i.e, the MSI U210 runs for $430), it makes the Fujitsu LifeBook P3010 difficult to recommend. The P3010 does have very good qualities for a netbook, such as speed, ability to playback HD video, and a full size typing experience, but its battery score and price can’t compete with its peers. Consider the MSI U210 and the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 instead.

The Acer 5738DZG

The Acer 5738DZG

The Acer 5738DZG, the first laptop with a 3-D display, is a widescreen, 15.6in model. The 3-D effect is achieved by a transparent polarising filter overlaid on the screen, which splits images into separate streams for each eye.

When looking at the screen straight on (if the angle of view is too wide the effect disappears), and seen through a suitable pair of polarising glasses (two are included, one a clip-on pair in case you already wear specs), the results range from stunning to not so good.

Best are the special trailers and animations saved on to the 500GB hard drive. Many more can be downloaded, and they are genuinely breathtaking. Portal, a computer-animated trip through time and space, is bound to win over any sceptic, with the effect being far more noticeable on the relatively small, bright laptop screen than on a TV or cinema screen.

Handling all the hard work is a piece of software called TriDef 3D, which can also add three dimensions to PC games and DVD and video footage, although these are less impressive. With video, the effect is fleeting and often minimal. It hardly seems worth suffering the dimming of the screen and washed-out colours caused by wearing the glasses, not to mention the lower screen resolution — half the normal 1,366×768 pixels — as the video signal is split in two. Games do look better, and dozens of big PC titles are supported, but they can be blurry.

The Acer has a decent-enough processor — an Intel Dual Core running at 2.1GHz, and 4GB of Ram — but only a middling graphics chip. You could get more for your money; indeed, specify the laptop without the 3-D gubbins and you’ll save about £100. It seems like a lot of cash to pay for the 3-D but, to be charitable, this is like the first fax machine or photocopier: it’s bound to improve with time and as dedicated software and video material becomes available.