MSI Chairman Joseph Hsu in the middle surrounded by beautiful (MSI) models
MSI Notebook is continuing to power ahead with the launch of its flagship multimedia entertainment notebook, the MSI Bravo EX620. At the global launch, the Cinema Pro technology aboard the Bravo EX620 delivered a cinema-grade sensory experience and stunned the audience with its superb performance! The grand launch of the MSI Bravo EX620 was not only attended by some of the top names in the industry but also a horde of interested media.
MSI Bravo EX620 global launch, Angel Chang, a well-known model
The Indamixx netbook is built for who wants to create music on the go. It is all set to jump into netbook market with price $499 with preloaded music software. It’s may not versatile as the latest netbooks currently in the market, but it’s so cute and smaller. You can easily carry it and keep anywhere. It comes with a custom Linux distro too.
If you want to get it on pre-order before christmas, then you will have to $99 deposit before
the 15th December (2008)
I’d a chance to play with Lenovo Ideapad S10 at the International Trade show, New Delhi. After my introduction with their product manager at the booth, I used the unit for nearly half-an-hour. Unfortunately, I had not previously decided that I would be going to the Trade Show so I was not carrying my digital camera with me. So, I was left with no option but to take pictures from my HTC Diamond. Also, since this is going to be my quick thoughts, don’t consider it to be final review.
Here are the quick specifications of the Lenovo S10:
10.2″ WSVGA (1024 x 600) display
1.6GHz N270 Intel Atom Processor
1GB DDR2 SDRAM @ 667MHz
Windows XP Home Edition
1.3MP camera
160GB HDD @ 5400rpm
Intel GMA 950 Integrated Graphics
Broadcom 11b/g Wi-Fi wireless and Bluetooth
4-in-1 Media card reader and ExpressCard slot
3-Cell Li-ion battery
Size 9.8″ x 7.2″ x 1.2″
Price: $499 (Rs 25000)
Design, Build Quality
The unit I used was black in color. The unit was solid and the body is plastic. The plastic was quite tough and does not flex at all, which is a nice thing. READ full review here
The Samsung NC10 was originally launched in only white color and now it would be available in two more colors: blue and black.
The NC10 Black is available on several UK retailer websites, but, it is more expensive than the white NC10. Th black NC10’s supply is also short in the US. On the other hand, NC10 Blue has good supply in US, but not so good in UK.
The newly released Samsung NC10 comes with same specification as the white NC10 – 10.2 inch screen, 1GB of RAM and an Intel Atom processor.
According to Scott Lin, Acer Taiwan President, Acer will be launching 10-inch versions of the popular Aspire One netbooks in february or March next year. He also pointed out that notebook/netbook average selling prices will continue to decrease through the end of this year. A 14.1-incher is also in the pipelines and should hit this year with a price of NT$40,000 (~$1,200).
“The company will also launch a 14.1-inch LED-based notebook priced below NT$40,000 during the upcoming IT Month-a local promotional sales event-and is preparing to launch 12.1-inch, 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch LED-based notebooks in 2009.”
The competition in the netbooks is getting fiercer and fiercer everyday. Everyday or so, we hear new computer manufactures jumping into the Netbook battle ground. ASUS, being the most experienced company has remained the leader so far in the netbook business. It’s new netbook, the EEE 904HA promises to give user excellent features at quite affordable price. Has it been able to impress us? Read the review to find out!
Unboxing
The ASUS has comes in a small box. The contents of the ASUS EEE 904HA are 100% same as 1000H, which includes the following:
EEE 904HA (what else, Beyonce?)
AC adapter/charger
Restore XP CD
6600mAh battery
Silicon Case
Soft cleaning cloth
Few documents
I received the ASUS EEE 904HA with 160GB HDD and not 80GB HDD like some EEEs. The extra space is always welcomed.
Bootup
The bootup times is quite fast thanks to the boot-booster which does not displays the splash screen upon hard boot. The XP Home which comes with the EEE 904HA loads up pretty quickly. It also seems that ASUS has tweaked the XP quite a bit to the EEE’s hardware. Also, it comes with hard disk and not SSD which also boosts up the boot times. Generally, the SSD that comes with the EEE is quite slow, which results in longer boot timings. the EEE 904HA has fast Seagate HDD of which we will learn about later in this review
Exterior, Size
The ASUS EEE 904HA adopts the shell/casing of the EEE 1000 series, though there are few differences too, which you will learn later in this review.
The EEE 904HA has shiny exterior, which looks very sleek. Currently, almost every netbook in the market comes with shiny exterior and 904HA is no exception. But, shiny exterior means that it also catches fingerprints easily. This may be another reason, why ASUS included cleaning cloth in the package.
On the left side of the unit, you will find the familiar ETHERNET port, a USB port, microphone and earphone jack. Note that it does not have Dolby Digital support.
On the other(right) side, you will find the VGA output port, AC adapter port and 2 USB 2.0 ports. You will also find the MMC/SD card reader, which is integrated into the unit. It is SDHC compatible meaning that it can read/write all those high-capacity SD cards in the market. The capacity of these cards go upto 32GB.
MMC/SD slot
Unlike ASUS EEE 1000H, it has matte, grainy interior. I like matte interior over the shiny black interior of EEE 1000 series. This makes it not to catch the fingerprints. It also prevents you palm slipping away from the keyboard while you type. Nice touch ASUS!
Keyboard
This is the best part of the EEE 904HA. It is just fabulous. You can type on it just the way you type on any normal laptop keyboard. ASUS claims it to be 95% of the usual laptop keyboard. This makes typing on it a no-learner job. Anyone can just start typing on it without making any adjustments. This is a great news for those people who work or blog on the go. Since the size of the EEE 904HA is smaller than the conventional laptop, it makes it an ideal companion for everyone who do a lot of input and are always on the move.
The keyboard is big and it is spacious!
Screen, Resolution
The ASUS EEE 904HA comes with a 1024 x 600 resolution, which is definitely better than the shabby resolution of the EEE 700 series (800 x 480). The screen of the ASUS 904HA is nice and bright. The text is easy to read on it. The images looks crisp. You can work on this netbook for an hour and your eyes won’t feel tired at all. Webpages, office documents all look fine and you won’t find yourself scrolling like you had to do in EEE 700 series. The speakers surround the screen just like they did on EEE 700 series. I personally like the front facing speakers as the sound does not get muffled when you are using the netbook on your lap.
notice the 1.3MP camera on the bezel
Battery, Battery life
The EEE 904HA comes with a big 6 cell battery which promises really nice run times. It is 6600mAh and is exactly the same as the one used in 1000H. I tested its battery in 1000H and vice-versa and it worked fine in both cases. In auto-powersaving mode and normal brightness, I got nearly 5 hours with wifi on. In power saving mode, you may be able to squeeze out even more.
SHE (Super Hybrid Engine) – The actual player behind the great battery performance
All credits to its awesome battery life goes to the SHE. It gives you to underclock the EEE when you feel that you don’t need all the horsepower. The result: long runtimes. You would absolutely love this feature. You can toggle between: power-saving, auto power-saving, high performance, auto high performance and super performance modes with a touch of a button. By default, it is assigned to the 3rd button from the left in the top row.
Multitouch Touchpad
The touchpad of the EEE 904HA supports multi-touch. You can use various gestures like moving your fingers apart at the same times will trigger zoom in in a webpage or image and bringing your fingers together will zoom out. In a web browser, you can use two fingers to scroll up and down. Three finger tap to a right click and so on. The touchpad is also much more comfortable when compared to many of its rival netbooks like Lenovo Ideapad S10, S9 or its little brother ASUS EEE 700 series.
Basic tests of applications
I loaded up the following applications and they all ran fine.
Office 2007: runs flawless
Visual Studio 2005: runs great and EEE 904HA can be a huge asset for programmers
Firefox
Opera
klite codec
Microsoft Activesync: to sync with my windows mobile device
Size Comparisons
This is the part I like to most: comparing it to other gadgets.
EEE 1000H and EEE 904HAEEE 1000H, EEE 701 and EEE 904HA
Thickness comparison of the ASUS EEE 701 and EEE 904HA
Keyboard comparison: I would like to reiterate the fact the EEE 904HA is perfect for typing making it great for businessmen who work on the spreadsheets and office documents; perfect for the students and programmers who would appreciate it nice size.
like the wallpaper of my EEE 701? ;)
Ability to upgrade? = Yeah!
You can easily upgrade the RAM module and HDD of the EEE 904HA. You have to unscrew the backdoor panel of the EEE 904HA to gain access to the RAM module and HDD.
Take extra care of the ‘holders’ of the RAM chip and take the RAM module out.
The HDD is fast @ 5400rpm and has 160GB storage capacity. You need to unscrew the 6 screws to take the HDD out. Now since it is the normal 2.5″ HDD, you can also swap-in a 2.5″ SSD in the future.
Here is the RAM module that came with EEE 904HA. As you can see, it came with 1GB DDR2 RAM.
I took the 2G Transcend RAM @ 667Mhz bus speed out from my EEE 701 and swapped it in to the EEE 904HA. It worked fine. Note that if you don’t go into the BIOS, your device won’t recognize the newly added 2G RAM as the boot booster is enabled by-default. Infact, it will still think that only 1GB RAM module is there. To enter into the BIOS, repeatedly press F2 immediately after hitting the power button. Then, you must press F10 to save the changes. After that, your device should be able to use the full 2GB RAM.
Final Verdict
It is around 100gm lighter than the 1000H and has front facing speakers. It has the same resolution as the EEE 1000H. The difference of screen size is just 1.3″, which is just not noticeable to me as I was using both the devices at the same time. It is also around $50-80 cheaper depending upon from where you buy it. But to me, the front facing speakers and lighter weight wins the battle over 1000H.
Here are some bigger pictures of the ones used in the review. It also includes some which were not used in the review at all. Click on the thumbails too the bigger pictures:
DELL has a released Vostro A90 netbook. Actually it is just a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 dressed up in solid black casing. Previously DELL didn’t unviel its price and date but now A90 is available in the UK. It can now be seen on the Dell’s website. However, the Vostro A90 is cheaper than Inspiron Mini 9(£269) as it retails at £235. The Vostro A90 is also available in Germany for €329. Personally, I don’t know when will Vostro A90 roll out in the North America.
It is not a unknown fact that the ASUS is fond of producing hybrids. What would you get if S101 and 1000H mate? – An ASUS EEE 1002HA. Eee PC 1002HA features almost the same specs as the Eee PC 1000H. Eee PC has brushed-metal casing. It will be available in December and cost around $499 (amazing!).
Be the toast of your office with the new Eee PC 1002HA, a built-for-business netbook that is sure to impress both your colleagues and clients alike. Its Argent Grey chassis lends an instant air of professionalism, and its long 5-hour battery life**—thanks to ASUS’ exclusive energy-saving Super Hybrid Engine—will see you through lengthy meetings and presentations. Furthermore, its 10″ display and large keyboard will allow you to work in absolute comfort for hours on end, and its generous 160 GB of in-built storage—along with an additional 10 GB of online Eee Storage—will enable you to store, share and access your important data anytime, anywhere.
ASUS provides it’s EEE users a certain amount of storage online for free for a certain amount of time. Unfortunately, this service is not available for all EEE PCs. Those in which it is available, ASUS is providing the service free of charge for maximum for 18 months.
What does the EEE storage let you do? In a nutshell, it:
lets you store your data online
lets you store data with others, even non-EEE users
provides a easy interface and direct uploading/downloading from your desktop
Depending on the model and in some cases country, you may get free EEEstorage with your ASUS EEE PC.
The EEEstorage is provided for the Windows XP versions of the netbooks only. The client software works with only XP and vista 32 bit versions. There is no news of the linux version which many of the EEE PCs use.
The EEE storage shortcut is placed on the desktop and in “My Computer”
