Mac vs PC: A fight to the death!
DesktopsHear ye! Hear ye! Before us we have two gallant fighters preparing to do bloody battle for our affections. In the orange corner we have Baron Vista, representing Windows' finest, and in the black corner is Count OS X, representing Apple.
That's right, we're doing Mac vs PC CNET.co.uk style: in tights. Gasp in fear as Vista approaches OS X, questions his parentage and slaps a heavy gauntlet across the Count's supple, moisturised face. Feel your heart race as OS X swings his sword with reckless abandon, and scream in desperation as Vista counters with a barrage of flying fists.
Forget Mitchell and Webb's veiled insults -- these boys get down and dirty until there's only one winner. So who will it be? Will it be Vista, with its improved user interface and superior graphics performance? Or will it be OS X with its ease of use and unrivalled style? Continue reading...
HP unveils Maybach laptop
LaptopsUpdate: HP has confirmed it has no intention of releasing this laptop and that the following story is probably an April Fool's joke. A lame, four-day late, hugely unfunny April Fool's joke.
Nothing is certain in this world but death, taxes and laptop makers initiating pointless co-branding deals with car manufacturers. The latest to join the mid-life crisis gang is HP, with a Maybach-branded laptop.
The HP ns42 seems wrong at first glance. Sure, it's caked in leather and has the familiar (if you're 50 Cent) Maybach logo splashed on the lid, but that doesn't take away from the fact it's basically an HP. Nothing about this laptop says 'Maybach', 'luxury', or 'rap star'. Look at it -- it's an NC6000-series with a fancy logo. Continue reading...
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HTC Shift: Smart phone morphs into Vista UMPC
Mobile PhonesEvery now and then a mobile phone manufacturer makes you sit up in your seat and have a really good look at your computer screen. When we were sent this photo of HTC's Shift by its PR company, we stared at our screens for a very long time indeed.
The HTC Shift is similar in many ways to the HTC Advantage (aka the T-Mobile Ameo). It has a large 178mm colour touchscreen and a full Qwerty keypad, but unlike any device that HTC has made before this is much more than a smart phone -- it's a UMPC running Windows Vista Business edition.
There's not much information on specs yet, but we know it has a 30GB hard drive, tri-band HSDPA, quad-band EDGE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. There's also a fingerprint reader and a small Synaptics touchpad for navigating the menu. Continue reading...
MSI M677 Crystal Collection: Laptop with added bling
LaptopsCrave remembers a time when crystal was a metric of quality. For centuries it was synonymous with opulence, luxury and was a sure-fire way of not just keeping up with the Joneses, but making them feel like tramps.
In today's bling-tastic celebrity-toe-sucking culture, however, crystal is favoured by Burberry-clad drunkards, which is why we nearly vomited in our mouths when we saw the MSI M677 Crystal Collection laptops.
They're ordinary laptops, except the lid logo and mouse trackpad are encrusted with 120 pieces of genuine Swarovski crystal. Then there's the lid itself, which has a shiny scratch-resistant UV coating for extra bling. Classy. Continue reading...
Photos: Hands on with the Samsung Q1 Ultra
LaptopsThe Samsung Q1 Ultra was the world's worst-kept secret. Everybody and their nan has known about it for days, and we've just spent the morning fiddling with one in the flesh.
We never thought we'd say this about a UMPC, but it's really rather good. It's thinner (29.9mm), lighter (690g) and more attractive (phwoar!) than the original Q1 and has bags more features.
Most important is the Qwerty keyboard, which is split across either side of the screen, but feels surprisingly good to type on. We used it to enter Web addresses and send an email, and though we made the odd mistake, we think it's miles better than the keyboard on the Sony Vaio VGN-UX1XN. Continue reading...
Photos: Asus reveals rugged UMPC
LaptopsThe Asus R2H was one of the few ultra-mobile PCs we actually liked, so you can imagine our delight when we encountered its successor at CeBIT today. Asus refers to it as the "Highly integration UMPC" (sic) and its major selling point is that it's semi-ruggedised.
Like the full-sized Rugged Military NB, it's not designed for the everyday consumer. It's for the sort of bloke/bird who might find themselves climbing a mountain, traversing the desert, or possibly fighting insurgents in hostile environments. Continue reading...
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Asus Rugged Military NB: Made to take to war
LaptopsWe've just taken an exclusive look at Asus' new tablet computer, which is designed to be tough enough to give to troops in Iraq. Currently at the prototype stage and on the show floor at CeBIT, it's the company's first model to be designed specifically with the military in mind.
Codenamed the Rugged Military NB, it's designed for those fighting in extreme conditions, like the desert. It complies with the IP 54 standard, which means the chassis is virtually impervious to sand and water.
There's GPS inside, which will help the military navigate in hostile lands, and the screen swivels. Continue reading...
Samsung Q2 is actually Q1 Ultra
LaptopsThe first pics of the Samsung 'Q2' had us whooping with delight -- only it's not actually called the Q2. Turns out Samsung has dubbed it the Q1 Ultra, which is odd because that means we'll have to refer to it as the Samsung Q1 Ultra ultra-mobile PC. Sod it, we'll just call it the 'Ultra ultra'.
We've yet to get our hands on one (the builders are still putting the finishing touches to Samsung's CeBIT stand for the official announcement at 9.30am on Wednesday), but rest assured we'll grab some quality time with the Ultra ultra soon. Continue reading...
Samsung Q2 UMPC: Leaked
LaptopsApparently, our friends at Samsung are working on a sequel to the Q1 ultra-mobile PC. Cleverly dubbed the Q2, the device will feature a host of improvements over its predecessor, including better wireless connectivity and a built-in Qwerty keyboard.
Submitted to Engadget by an anonymous user, this leaked image shows the Q2 in all its glory. It's said to have an unknown Intel CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 60GB hard drive and a 7-inch screen with a 1,024x600-pixel screen -- much like the recently announced Samsung Q1P.
Acer targets tightwads with cheap laptops
LaptopsFilthy, dirty cheapness is all the rage -- we know this because we're constantly being harassed by friends and colleagues about what sort of laptop or PC they can buy for peanuts.
We normally treat such requests with contempt, especially when they're not accompanied by offers of free alcohol, but when we're in a good mood we tend to direct people towards Acer's range of budget PCs.
The company has absolutely no qualms about releasing high-end products like the Aspire TravelMate 8215 WLMi -- one of the first laptops to use a Blu-ray drive --Â nor does it have a problem releasing laptops and desktops that are cheap enough to fall out of a cereal box. Continue reading...
Laptops of the future coming up at CeBIT 2007
LaptopsYou can always rely on the CeBIT expo in Hanover to conjure a few surprises. While visiting in 2006, we saw the world's first UMPCs from Samsung, Asus and ECS, and we've worked ourselves into a frenzy trying to guess what tech treats will surface this year.
Peering into our shiny crystal ball, we reckon we can just about see the faint glimmer of the Vulcan Flipstart E1001S. This fabled UMPC was vapourware until recently, but we have it on good authority that it exists and will be at CeBIT. Specs-wise, it's said to have a 5.6-inch 1,024x768-pixel screen, a Pentium M CPU and Windows XP. It's the brainchild of Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, so it won't be completely rubbish. We hope. Continue reading...
Photos: The Asus EcoBook bamboo laptop
LaptopsWe've just spent the morning fondling an Asus EcoBook -- the first laptop to feature real bamboo panelling. Yes, bamboo -- the stuff that's gobbled up by pandas and used to construct beach houses in the Maldives.
Making a laptop out of wood doesn't sound all that sane a project, but we should probably get accustomed to this sort of thing -- Asus has already delivered the first leather-bound laptops, and Tulip does a range of crazy laptop skins for its Ego range.
The EcoBook, due to launch next year, is designed to communicate Asus' eco-friendly message. Like it or loathe it, you should check out the world exclusive pictures over the next few pages. Continue reading...
Packard Bell EasyNote S4947: Bargain-bin laptop
LaptopsGuess what we found on our doorstep this morning. No, apart from the bailiffs. Yes, that's right, a Packard Bell EasyNote S4947 laptop. We're not sure which of the two caused us the most embarrassment, but we paid our debt, wrapped the EasyNote in a bin liner and hurried off to work.
Like most of Packard Bell's laptops, the S4947 is cheap. We couldn't find it anywhere on the Internet, but if you stumble across one in your local PC World, it'll set you back in the region of 450 -- and snobbishness aside, that's actually very good value.
You don't get any of that high-speed Core 2 Duo nonsense, just a good old-fashioned Pentium M 740 running at 1.73GHz, 1GB of RAM, and a 120GB hard drive -- all of which is perfectly fine for everyday office tasks and Web surfing. Continue reading...
Sony Vaio VGN-UX1XN: The devil's UMPC
LaptopsWe've spent the last week or so playing with the Sony Vaio VGN-UX1XN -- a device that, on the surface, should be the perfect ultra-mobile PC. The 95 by 150 by 32mm chassis feels good in the hands; it's super-light (480g); it runs Windows Vista Business Edition and has a Qwerty keyboard below the screen.
But then it all goes horribly wrong. The 1,024x600-pixel resolution is way too high to be usable on the UX1XN's 114mm (4.5-inch) screen -- how Sony expects bespectacled geeks not to strain their already failing eyes is beyond us.
Then there's the keyboard, if you can call it that. The keys are way too small for typing and are grouped too closely. Plus they have very little travel, which means it's hard to tell when you've pressed one -- or four simultaneously, as is common. Sony's designers (presumably a gaggle of retarded baboons) have a lot to answer for. Continue reading...
Breaking stuff r00lz!
My reputation for cack-handedness precedes me: I got a call from laptop bag specialists Tech21 yesterday, saying they wanted to show me a range of laptop bags that can protect laptops from drop damage.
Asus Lamborghini VX2 taken for a spin
LaptopsAsus has been busy beavering away on a new version of its Lamborghini laptop. The Lamborghini VX2 replaces the outgoing VX1, ever-so-slightly shaming it in the process.
We had the pleasure of fondling one recently and we're pretty stoked by it. We've always thought we might look a bit sad if we used a Lambo laptop in public, but we've no such reservations about the VX2 -- it oozes class.
As before, there's a yellow version made from aluminium magnesium-alloy, and a black version with carbon-fibre detailing. Both have sublime little touches like a wheel rim-esque exhaust fan and, our favourite, a leather palm-rest with yellow stitching -- Asus obviously has a thing for dead cows. Continue reading...
Sony Vaio VGN-C2S: Colourful laptop
LaptopsWe've just got our hands on a shiny blue Sony Vaio VGN-C2. Yay! It's part of Sony's C Series, a collection of laptops that Sony says aren't just laptops -- they're also 'a lifestyle'. No, we're not sure what that means either, but we're guessing it's marketing speak for 'not black and silver'.
The VGN-C2S/G.CEK, to give it its full title, is entirely blue but for the keyboard and base section. It's a nice idea, but we think the blue used on the lid is a little too garish. Sony has opted for a slightly less intense blue on the inside, but the jury's still out on whether we like the overall effect. Some of us thought it was alright, while others felt Sony had 'gone all Fisher Price'. You'll either like it or loathe it. Continue reading...
Intel's new Core 2 Duo L7200 and L7400: Completely pointless?
LaptopsIntel has started shipping a couple of new low-voltage processors designed to help make tiny laptops faster. The Core 2 Duo L7200 and L7400 chips, clocked at 1.05GHz and 1.33GHz respectively, have a fast 667MHz front-side bus and a monstrous 4MB of shared level 2 cache.
The chips are said to have a thermal design power (TDP) of 17W, which sounds good on paper, but we wonder just how much benefit this will bring the consumer. If you're buying an ultraportable and your main concern is battery life, you're probably better off getting an ultra low-voltage chip such as the 1.06GHz U2400 CPU in the Asus U1 -- which has a TDP of 9W. Continue reading...
Gadget Love: Romance is a red piece of tech
Gadgets"Happy Valentine's Day, sweetheart! Look, I got you a present." "Oh, Crave, that's so sweet of you, you shouldn't have! It's a... it's a red iPod nano. WTF?" "Yes, it's red, the colour of romance, so whenever you're listening to your MP3s you can remember how much I love you." "Blatantly, you're going to nick it." "True, but whenever I'm using it I can remember how much I love you -- what could be more romantic?"
If this situation sounds like it could well happen in your love life, here are some red gadgets for your perusal. And if you order them today, they should be here in time for the big day next week. Continue reading...
Sony Vaio G11: Diddy but durable
LaptopsPeople tend to think of size-zero laptops as extra flimsy. Many of us probably wouldn't mind dropping the 20-inch Dell XPS M2010 (as long as it's not on your toes), but if your slinky new Asus U1 hit the floor you'd weep like a lady.
This isn't quite right though, and here to realign perceptions of ultraportable sturdiness is Sony, with its newly announced Vaio G11. This 12.1-inch laptop weighs 1.2kg, which is about the same as a bag of sugar. Despite its slim proportions, it has a drop rating of nearly one metre -- that's impressive for such a tiny laptop . We reckon the G in G11 must stand for 'gangsta'. Continue reading...
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