ARM blames Flash, netbooks and tablets for smartbook delay, oh my

It's not easy to launch a new product category, especially if devices don't have a magically-delicious hook, but that's not why ARM thinks it's taken so long to deliver the smartbook. In an interview with ZDNet UK, VP Ian Drew said Adobe's blame was undeniable -- Flash didn't deliver ARM optimization in time for subnetbooks to be viable. Compounding the issue, the tablet craze has manufacturers all atwitter, he said, diverting smartbook resources to the iPad party instead. As far as netbooks are concerned, Drew cited poor adoption of Linux; he reminded us ARM smartbooks can't do x86. Asked if Atom (which can) might be the real reason for delay, he said absolutely, positively no way. The executive said manufacturers apparently hadn't brought up that idea even once. Guess we'll have to take his word on that one.

Read more »

Fujitsu MH380 review

You know what can't be easy? Making a netbook stand out amongst the hordes of them out there, and yet despite run-of-the-mill specs Fujitsu's done just that with the MH380. Maybe it is the rounded red lid or the small crater in its palmrest that doubles as a scroll pad, but the $449 netbook has struck us as more than just another Pine Trail netbook ever since its appearance at CES. We'd like to take that at face value, but given the fact that Fujitsu doesn't have the best netbook track record, we wanted to spend some quality time with it to find out if the 10-inch mini-laptop has the battery life, performance and ergonomics we expect for its higher-than-average price. You can be sure we found out, so hit the break for our full review.
Fujitsu MH380 hands-on


Look and feel

It's hard not to like the MH380's glossy red cover and chrome trim; you can see Tony Stark buying it to match his Iron Man suit. But superhero or not, it's easy to appreciate the unique squircle shape of the lid, the teardrop shaped hinges and the silver inner edge. Though the system is primarily made of plastic, we have to say the manufacturing quality does feel better than most, and overall it feels quite sturdy.

The real bummer for us is that the head-turning design isn't matched by the best portability specs. The MH380 measures 1.4-inches thick, and its protruding six-cell battery adds even more girth in the back. And then there's the fact that the system weighs 3.1 pounds, and feels heavier in hand than most netbooks. Don't get us wrong, it's still a netbook, and small enough to fit in a shoulder bag or carry around the house with one hand, but it's just not the trimmest of the bunch.

Keyboard, touchpad and screen

Those that like a good flush keyboard will have no qualms about the MH380, and while we've become fonder of chiclet style keyboards on netbooks, we were typing at a decent clip in no time. The MH380's keyboard may get ergonomics points, but we can't say the same of the touchpad below it. The 1.8 by 1.6-inch pad -- yes, we pulled out the ruler -- is no bigger than a small sized Post-It or a Wheat Thin, and the result is a very frustrating navigation experience that requires a ton of backtracking and finger cramping. To compensate Fujitsu has sped up the tracking speed which shoots the pointer across the screen at the slightest provocation -- yes, we disabled this function. The reason for this shrunken experience? To make room for the smooth circular divot to the right of the trackpad. In theory the scroll pad's touch sensitive surface is supposed to allow for easy vertical scrolling, but that's not how it worked in practice. We were able to get the the pad to scroll down the length of Engadget at a smooth pace only after we made a number of tweaks to the sensitivity in the Synaptics menu, and though you can set the pad to function as a button to open a program or go back in the browser, it mistakenly launched programs when we just wanted to scroll. Though the whole setup provides a different look, we couldn't hook up a external mouse quickly enough to make the pain go away.

The higher-resolution 1366 x 768, 10.1-inch display is crisper and brighter than most, and those extra horizontal pixels do make a noticeable difference when surfing the web. While we couldn't watch a YouTube HD video because of the MH380's weak GMA 3150 graphics, a 720p WMV video of the Caribbean Ocean looked very crisp. We found vertical viewing angles to be decent when we tilted the screen to different angles, but horizontal ones weren't worthy of the same praise – though better than most, colors still washed out when we tried to view the screen from the side.

Performance and battery life



We've got no complaints about the MH380's Intel Atom N450 processor and 1GB of RAM. Windows 7 Starter edition ran like a champ and handled our normal netbook activities, including writing this review in MS Word 2007, streaming music in Firefox and tweeting from Tweetdeck, with no issue. As usual watching a Hulu.com video at full screen caused some stuttering. The MH380 is equipped with a 250GB of hard drive that's oddly partitioned into two equal sized drives.


PCMark05 3DMark06 Battery Life
Fujitsu MH380 1368 153 6:37
ASUS Eee PC 1008P 1531 152 3:20
ASUS Eee PC 1005PE 1431 157 8:10
Toshiba Mini NB305 1272 156 6:30


Thankfully the larger 63Wh six-cell battery that protrudes out the back results in some good endurance. On our video rundown test -- where we loop the same standard definition video at 65 brightness -- the MH380 lasted 6 hours and 37 minutes. That's not as long as the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE's eight hours, but it will allow you to avoid the outlet scavenger hunt at an airport or coffee shop.

Wrap-up

We have two quite cliche words for Fujitsu's designers: size matters. Putting aside the $449 price point for a second, the larger size and resulting weight of the netbook along with the contrasting diminutive size of its touchpad hold the MH380 from competing with the rest. While we'd probably be able to justify paying a $50 premium for the MH380's design and HD screen, those issues -- the touchpad in particular -- make it out of the question for us. If you are hung up about your netbook's looks the Eee PC 1008p is one attractive netbook that doesn't have usability issues, and the Toshiba NB305 continues to provide the best of the design and performance worlds.

Source

Read more »

Samsung's N150 netbook picks up some Corby branding, Starburst color

Spotted first crawling its way through the FCC, then on the floors of CES and most recently at WMC with some LTE inside we're going to go ahead and say the Samsung N150 has earned its new stripes, err rainbow colors. Trying to add some brightness to its well stocked Pine Trail netbook line up, Sammy has gone and painted the $379 10.1-inch N150 in Flamingo Pink, Bermuda Blue and Caribbean Yellow, though kept its internal 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 250GB hard drive and 1GB RAM unprimed. Interestingly, in some countries the netbook has acquired Samsung's affordable mobile phone Corby brand, though here in the U.S. that doesn't seem to be the case. We'd probably just stick with the black hue, but that doesn't mean we couldn't go for some sort of tropical-flavor candy right about now.

Source

Read more »

Averatec outs light as air 10-inch netbook, can move move move any mountain

Averatec's just outed its super thin, super light, 10-inch netbook, the N1200. Available in silver or black, it's a good looking little package which weighs in at just 2.2 pounds. It boasts an Atom N450 CPU, a 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM which is expandable up to 2GB, plus a webcam and 802.11n Wi-Fi. You can get this bad little dude with either XP or Windows 7 Starter. The battery life is apparently about 3 hours, though you can upgrade to a better, 6 hour battery. The N1200 starts at $330. The full press release is after the break.

Source

Read more »

MSI Wind U135 should be available for as low as $310

You better watch it, Acer -- it looks like MSI is getting real close to undercutting your $299 Aspire One 532h netbook with its $309.99 Pine Trail-powered Wind U135. Taiwanese manufacturer disputes aside, not much has changed with the Wind U135 since we brought you our impressions, but we remind you that $305 buys you a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450, 1GB of RAM, an 160GB hard drive and Windows 7 Starter. If you need a bit more storage, you can shell out an extra 20 bucks for the 250GB version. And the cheap netbook race continues... Check the full PR after the break.

Source

Read more »

Dell Mini 10 TV tuner option coming this summer, Mini 10v goes hands-on

While Dell originally mentioned a TV tuner option back when it launched the Mini 10 in January, it's still working on bringing the feature to market. The latest news is that the configuration will tack roughly $50 onto the price, includes an external antenna (which is only required in low-signal situations), and should be available "this summer." The couple of channels we saw in action seemed plenty good on the quality front, but nothing groundbreaking. Meanwhile, we also got a look at the new Mini 10v, which swaps HDMI for VGA, lacks the flush "glass" styling of the Mini 10 display, and bounces over to the Atom N270 processor. The version we were looking at included a 6-cell battery (a $30 add-on), which added a considerable amount of lift at the back -- it might be ergonomic, but it sure isn't pretty. Unfortunately the TV option won't be available for the 10v, so if you were holding out... maybe you should be spending more time with your family.

Source

Read more »

Entelligence: Netbooks, R.I.P.

Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

It's one of the hottest selling items in the consumer electronics market today. At a time when vendors are struggling to sell PCs, it's the one category that has been selling consistently in Amazon's top ten list of technology purchases. Apple and Sony have both dismissed the category, even as other vendors bring more models to market. Yes, I'm talking about the phenomenon called the netbook. Here's why I think it's going to be pretty short lived as a category.

"What's in a name?" Shakespeare asked, adding "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." While some perceive the netbook as a new product category -- a class of device that's never existed -- I would have to beg to differ. A netbook is merely a laptop with the pivotal axis based on price first and foremost. In other words, "how much computer can I build for $300-500?" (which is about the average selling price of most netbooks). When Apple or Sony designs products, they look at what materials they want in a device. If it costs too much to deliver, it gets scrapped. If the materials are too shoddy to deliver at a price point, it gets scrapped. That's why we don't see netbooks from either vendor. At least... not yet.

Sure, my price-oriented definition might sound heretical to those who view the netbook as an ode to cloud computing, ubiquitous usage scenarios, and freedom from Microsoft OS tyranny, but that's not how the market has shaped out.

Let's look at history. At the end of 2007 a netbook (or laptop you could build for about $300-$500) had about a 7-inch screen, a tiny keyboard, about 4GB of storage, half a gig of RAM and no Windows OS (that Windows thing adds to price). Purists argued that the max screen size for a netbook was 7-inches. Fast forward to today: that same price point will deliver you a 10-inch screen or so, a gig of RAM and perhaps 160GB of storage. It also gets you a copy of Windows for the most part. By year's end, we'll see vendors offering 12-inch screens, full keyboards, and 300GB of storage. And they'll be called netbooks. But that doesn't matter, does it? Because that rose still smells the same -- no matter what we call it.

Sure, there are some folks who adopted netbooks as an additional PC or even a primary machine -- but the driver has consistently been price. Tiny, underpowered laptops have been around for more than a decade, but few people bought them because there was a premium price associated with them. As prices came down, capabilities
"Tiny, underpowered laptops have been around for more than a decade, but few people bought them because there was a premium price associated with them."
increased and more folks bought them. But not as netbooks -- rather as laptop replacements. The proof? Look at the sales and return rates of Linux netbooks vs. Windows-based ones. The vast majority of folks want Windows. The reason? It's their laptop replacement. No one carries a netbook and a laptop.

The cellphone and laptop represent the core part of a user's mobile experience. With most consumers willing to carry two devices total, there's not a lot of room for 'tweener devices. That's one reason vendors have worked so hard to increase netbook capabilities. The more they increase, the more they can displace the laptop for more users. Of course there's a downside. Netbooks use less horsepower than many other laptops. They ship with Windows XP (at least for now) instead of the more expensive Vista. That's why Intel and Microsoft are working hard to constrain the specifications of whatever's called a netbook. Of course, that won't work: technology moves at its own pace and no vendor can control it. That's why when I can get a nice 12-inch screen, with a full keyboard, a few hundred gigs of storage and a lot of RAM for $300-400 I won't care if it's called a netbook or a laptop. I'll just call it Moore's law in action.

Source

Read more »

Sheng T108 brushed aluminum netbook appears

Hey, now this isn't your average, everyday, boring netbook now is it? Well, at least not in looks, anyway. The Sheng T108, which has recently been spotted in Shenzhen, China, has a brushed aluminum chassis that makes it stand out from the crowd, to be sure. Internally, you'll find this 10.1-incher boasting an Intel Atom N280 CPU, 2GB of DDR2 memory, and a 250GB hard drive -- nothing volcanically surprising, but not too shabby either. It's also got a 3-cell battery, a VGA port, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi support, a built in webcam, and a SIM card slot for 3G connectivity. The pricing is said to be somewhere in the realm of $300, and while there's no word on availability of this puppy outside of China, we'll certainly keep our eyes peeled for you. One more shot after the break.


Source

Read more »