KOREAN OUTFIT Samsung has unveiled a series of “shark” NF and SF laptops and netbooks.
The Samsung team has been beavering away on shark-themed designs for its new laptops and ultra-portable netbooks. Both sets of machines have been given a fin effect design.
The Samsung SF Series comes in three flavours with the SF310, SF410, SF510 models on 13.3-inch, 14-inch and 15.6-inch chassis, respectively. All boast a glossy ivory front with a matte black finish on the inside. Samsung claims the new coat is scratch resistant and all models now sport chiclet keyboards.
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Samsung has bundled hybrid graphics into all models so punters can switch between the Intel GPU and a Nvidia GPU. It claims the battery life is 7.5 hours and Samsung also reckons they can be juiced back up in two to three hours thanks to its Express Charging Mode.
The NF series also has three models with the NF310, NF210 and NF110 all designed as netbook versions of the SF range. These all use a dual-core Intel Atom N550 chip and DDR3 memory but Samsung didn’t say how much is in each model.
The NF310 has a 1366×768 widescreen display with a 16:9 aspect ratio and Samsung said the NF210 can knock out 14 hours of battery life on a 6-cell battery.
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HP Mini 210 Specifications
The HP Mini 210 targets consumers who surf the web, check e-mail, listen to music and need access to friends, family or information while on the go. The netbook includes built-in Wi-Fi, 1.3-megapixel Webcam, microphone and a nearly full-sized island-style keyboard. As mentioned above, the HP Mini 210 also supports the single-core Intel Atom N455 and N475 processors as well as the new dual-core N550 processor, all of which support DDR3 memory.
Less than 1-inch thick and weighing 3.1 pounds, the HP Mini 210 comes standard with an inline six-cell battery that promises up to 10.75 hours of battery life and fits flush, complementing the overall design. The Mini 210 is available in a choice of five HP Imprint finishes: charcoal, crimson red, lavender frost, luminous rose and ocean drive.
An optional 10.1-inch diagonal HD display and optional Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Video Accelerator is promised to enable smooth 720p and 1080p HD playback and video streaming from popular Websites. The netbook also offers Dolby Advanced Audio.
The HP Mini 210 comes pre-loaded with HP Media Suite (organize, store and play multimedia content such as music, photos and videos) and Evernote (note-tasking software that allows users to quickly capture and search for notes).
Additionally, courtesy of HP QuickSync the HP Mini 210 automatically synchronizes files with a home PC over a wireless connection. HP QuickWeb allows users to access the Web in seconds without booting up the netbook. HP Navigator, included with the optional GPS, provides general mapping, route planning, points of interest and voice-guided navigation.
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Asus has released a new Eee PC netbook that is designed for children 12 years or younger, and retails for AED 1,270 across the Middle East.
“Children today get acquainted with technology at a fairly early age with a good portion of their school curriculum being computer aided,” said Ericson Correa, business development manager, ASUS Middle East.
The company adds the Asus Eee PC 1001PQ’s Inspirus Desktop “comes across as a simplified operating system with applications that have been designed to keep impressionable young minds away from objectionable material on the net”.
Eee PC 1001PQ also comes with parental controls that specify with websites children can visit, including restricting e-mail contacts and programs they can access. The restrictions can be set to a timetable, so parents can easily keep track of their child’s online activities.
Complete with an Intel Atom N450 processor, the Eee PC 1001PQ runs the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, features a 10.1″ display, along with Wi-Fi and a built-in 0.3 megapixel camera.
It is available in Flame Purple or Vibrant Gold color schemes and comes with stickers for added customisation.
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Chrome OS Tablet or Netbook – Analysis
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There have long been rumours regarding the possibility of Google releasing a Chrome OS powered tablet device. These rumours have arguably been spurred on by leaked tablet mock-ups and more so, wishful thinking; buoyed by an emerging tablet craze.
It is easy to understand why the market craves a Chrome OS powered tablet. After all Apple has sold millions of Ipads unabated for the last few months. Hence it is more than natural for consumers to dream of viable and cheaper alternatives to the Ipad.
Benefits of introducing a Chrome OS powered tablet
The benefits of introducing a Chrome OS tablet to the market are foreseeable. Due to the explosive growth of this market it is feasible that Google could get an early foothold. This can then enable exponential growth in the usage of it’s upcoming operating system.
It may also be in Google’s interest to not only piggy back on the growth of the tablet market but ‘ride the crest of the wave’ as they are doing with Android OS in smart phones until the eventual maturity of this market.
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Asus and Acer up the ante in luxury netbook market
Is the netbook market players at their wits’ end that they have to resort to luxury models in order to sell more units? Perhaps, as Asus and Acer are slated to roll out luxury netbooks sometime in the fourth quarter of the year, with the former prepping a 12.1-inch Lamborghini netbook known as the Eee PC VX6 (with a recently leaked manual), while the latter will take the prancing horse route with an 11.6-inch Ferrari model. Interestingly enough, both models will feature processors from opposing camps – the Eee PC VX6 will be powered by an Intel dual-core Atom CPU, while the Acer Ferrari netbook will run on an AMD Fusion processor.
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Toshiba is putting the finishing touches to the UK launch of the Toshiba AC100 netbook. Toshiba UK made the announcement via its Twitter link. Could this be the start of a whole new wave of interest for the netbook? Read on to find out about the Toshiba AC100 Android netbook and what it has to offer…
The Toshiba AC100 is an ultra-thin mobile computing device that runs the Android operating system. Although more usually found on mobile phones like theHTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy S, Android is a flexible operating system that is more than capable of running on a netbook.
The AC100 weighs just 899g and is just 14mm thick. It has a 10.1 inch TruBrite display with graphics courtesy of an nVidia Tegra 250 processor. As befits a mobile device, the AC100 comes with 3G networking built in as well as WiFi so you can be up and surfing anywhere.
The standout feature of the AC100 is the battery life, however. Toshiba are claiming an amazing 180 hours of standby time and 8 hours of constant use making this a real contender if you need to take a lightweight web device on holiday or for long business trips.
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Google is expected to launch its Chrome Operating System for netbooks and other mobile devices later this year. Chrome OS is based on the Google Chrome web browser, and it’s designed to blur the lines between a desktop operating system and web-based apps. Want to write a document, watch a movie, chat with friends, or do just about anything else? There’s a web app for that.
While Google initially pitched Chrome OS as a netbook operating system, a lot of things have changed since the OS was first announced last year. The biggest change is that while in 2009 netbooks were still the hottest thing in affordable portable computing, tablets are all the rage this year — even if Apple is still the only company with a runaway success story in the tablet space.
So maybe it’s not that surprising that Google is optimizing Chrome OS to run on tablets as well as netbooks. And Download Squad received a tip from a reliable source suggesting that Google is going to kick things off by launching a Google-branded tablet on November 26th.
The tablet will be built by HTC (much like the Google Nexus One Android Smartphone), and it will be sold through Verizon, with the wireless carrier offering the tablet for a subsidized price to customers that sign up for long term service contracts.
There’s no official word on what the tablet will look like or what specs it will have, but a multitouch display is pretty much a given, with Download Squad’s Lee Mathews guessing it will also have a 1280 x 720 pixel or higher resolution screen.
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Buying a netbook has always been a hard decision for many on the grounds that this type of device is still new on the market and has encountered lots of resistance from the skeptics’ side. It is questionable if the pros outweigh the cons in this case as to make buying a netbook a good decision but which are the things one should keep in mind when considering the acquisition of this type of device?
To begin with, the mini laptop has in target mobility. It is made to be small and versatile with components that can give one a fair enough amount of computing power while still having in mind a device that can go 5+ hours without a single charge. Thus, it is normal to score less in benchmarks than laptops but one has to understand that when turning to such a device he/she wants more battery life rather than more performance.
Furthermore, the components that are fitted inside the netbook are usually the same or vary a little depending on manufacturer for over 90% of mini notebooks have the Intel Atom CPU. This processor is clocked at around 1.60GHz, a good frequency to run every-day applications but rather slow in the case of big and demanding software. The new generation of Intel processors has gone a step up with the introduction of multi-cores but with high prices on new hardware it will be some time until many of us can touch those.
The video card is in the best case a NVIDIA ION (or ION 2) that can easily handle HD but is rather slow at intensive gaming, this not to mention the integrated video cards that tend to choke at more than solitaire. The memory is 1GB usually with the possibility of expansion to 2GB, which makes video editing or heavier software slower as it needs to grab RAM out of the HDD to cope with the extra demands.
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Today, mobile computing users are looking for two things-portability and connectivity. The netbook phenomenon has proved to the world that size really does matter, where users have bought the device as second to the primary laptop.
According to Gartner, shipments of notebook computers leapt 43% in the first quarter, their highest YoY growth in eight years, driven by consumer demand for netbooks. Average selling prices dropped 16 percent to $732 as many consumers chose inexpensive netbooks-mini-notebooks with pared-down features-over more sophisticated laptop computers. Total notebook sales rose 21 percent to $36.1 billion.
Given that netbooks are all about always-on connectivity, 3G in addition to WiFi is a must for this product category. PCMCIA cards were the initial enablers for WiFi connectivity. But convenience coupled with declines in module costs drove OEMs to deliver laptops with integrated WiFi functionality. The same trend is likely to be repeated with integrated 3G as well. To begin with, USB dongles hanging out of netbooks will look pretty awkward-in addition, embedded antennas down the side of a screen will deliver a better signal that translates into higher speeds. Instant 3G connectivity when the netbook is turned on, similar to WiFi, will also be a key selling point. Finally, mobile operators may end up driving this product category and the OEMs will have little choice other than partnering with the operators.
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Businesses and consumers will purchase 36 million netbooks in 2010 globally, according to research firm Techaisle, which said Monday that the figure reaffirms its initial forecast released in mid 2009.
Business netbook penetration will be 5.3% and consumer netbook penetration will be 1.8%, said the firm. There will be a “short and transient shift of netbook purchases among consumers from some mature markets into a few newly emerging markets,” in 2010, the firm said in a statement. European businesses will continue to adopt netbooks “in decent numbers” during the same timeframe, and they are especially popular with small retail shop owners, Techaisle said.
While netbooks created a strong market in 2009 by their ability to address latent mobility needs, thereby attracting new buyers, starting in 2011 through 2013 or 2014, netbook sales will be on the decline, the firm said. Market expansion will be limited by the “value proposition differential,” said Anurag Agrawal, CEO of Techaisle, because “there is no compelling reason for a consumer or a business to buy a netbook as compared to a notebook.”
In 2009, netbooks were highly sought after devices because they were new, the economy was down and they were relatively inexpensive, making them attractive to both businesses and consumers, explained Agrawal. “But the important thing was consumers were not buying them in numbers — because they decided if they spent another $200 they’d get better a notebook.” Businesses, on the other hand, were buying netbooks to supplement their main computing devices, he said.
“We were getting feedback from the market that it’s not the beginning of an era, but the start of a short trend,” added Agrawal. Although netbooks were touted as a great alternative device for emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines, where PC penetration is very low, consumers did not gravitate to them as expected, he claimed.
Agrawal said netbook vendors need to promote the device to businesses as an alternative for functions that fall short on smartphones, such as PowerPoint presentations, webcams, and web conferencing. “That’s where you can open up the market for netbooks,” he said.
Agrawal claimed netbook forecasts by other research firms are now being revised down since sales have not lived up to expectations and they are only good for internet browsing or taking files on the road.
Techaisle’s netbook sales projections are significantly less than what at least one other analyst firm has forecasted. ABI Research recently predicted about 60 million netbooks are expected to ship worldwide this year, a figure that will almost double by 2013. ABI Research also said the netbook market would begin to decline in 2014-2015.
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