One thing we're not so keen on is the keyboard. It flexes considerably and has a spongy feel. Pressing the 'C' key, for example, causes the '4', three rows up, to move. This, unsurprisingly, decreases typing accuracy and is also a sign of poor build quality. We're not saying keys might be falling off after a matter of months, but, if they did, we wouldn't be that surprised. The mouse could be better, too. It lacks multitouch gesture inputs and dedicated scroll zones, which we're not too happy about.The X340's most interesting feature is its brand new Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500. This runs at a rather modest 1.4GHz, which isn't even as high a frequency as an Intel Atom N270 CPU. But it has significantly more L2 cache memory than an N270 -- 3MB as opposed to 512KB -- and a faster front-side bus -- 800MHz versus 533MHz. What's more, it doesn't use significantly more energy than an Atom. The SU3500 has a thermal design power (TDP) of 5.5W, which isn't much more than the 2.5W used by an N270.Memory comes in the form of 2GB of DDR2 533MHz RAM -- more than you get in your average netbook -- plus a 250GB hard drive. Both forms of memory are ample here. The Air has far faster DDR3 1,066MHz memory, but the X340 has more than twice as much storage -- perfect if you're the sort of person that likes to stash a wealth of multimedia content.
The X340 is well-suited to playing movies. Its 13-inch screen offers impressive image quality -- a narrow vertical viewing angle notwithstanding -- and its glossy screen finish isn't so reflective that it restricts use in direct lighting conditions. Its 1,366x768-pixel resolution dictates a 16:10 aspect ratio, meaning you do get black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, but we can forgive the X340 this particular trespass.Asus has announced the U series of laptops: the U20A, U80V, U50Vg and UX50V are claimed to benefit from low power consumption and decent battery life.The U20A boasts a 12.1-inch screen, the U80V has a nice round 14-inches, and the U50V -- pictured here -- and UX50V both sporting 15.6-inch 16:9 high-definition screens. All the screens are LED-backlit displays with light-in-motion, an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts screen brightness. According to Asus, the result is 50 per cent less power consumption than traditional LCD panels.The MosaicGlow keyboard is also backlit. It's a chiclet keyboard, which means it's a pad of rubber buttons like on a remote control. We'll be getting samples in tomorrow so stay tuned for our hands-on first impressions.
The energy-saving tips don't stop at the screen. Under the bonnet the U20 and UX50 models include Intel's CULV, or Consumer Ultra Low Voltage processor. Asus reckons it's as energy-frugal as an aging hippy living in a yurt in Birkenhead Park, and should therefore have a decent effect on battery life.Each model includes 4GB of DDR2 800MHz RAM memory, with a choice of storage from 250GB up to 500GB HDD. All four versions also have HDMI output, Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth 2.1.Laptops aren't the most serious of energy hogs. (Oink, oink.) But LG Electronics, the Korean company that's made everything from the Chocolate phone to the Swarovski-studded fridge, is hoping to make them even more power-efficient. Treehugger posted recently about the e-Book, which is powered by a biofuel cell and uses organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) instead of an LCD screen. Oh, and it's pretty enough that it was nominated for a Red Dot Award this year.
In yesterday's installment, I loaded some drivers and applications on Vista. Part of that day was spent away from an electrical outlet. The dual-core Acer TravelMate 8200 rated pretty highly in our CNET review, especially in terms of battery life, yet I returned to my desk midmorning yesterday to find that Vista had shut down prematurely because I'd run out of battery life. So I spent nearly all of my Saturday trying to prove this. I must admit that my colleague at CNET News.com Ina Fried also tipped me off to this potential bug in Vista, so I volunteered to investigate. Short of a full-on CNET Labs test, I decided upon three simple tests. First, operating on a fully charged battery, I would play a DVD movie in Windows Media Player 9 on Windows XP and record that time, then I'd repeat the above in Windows Media Player 11 on Windows Vista running with Aero (Microsoft's new 3D graphics system). Finally, I'd run the test again in Windows Media Player 11 in Windows Vista Standard mode. It's the new Vista graphics system, called GPU, that's the issue; when it's engaged, it really eats up battery life.
If you don't already know, Vista will run differently depending on the hardware. Lower-end machines will have a choice between Windows Vista Classic and Windows Vista Standard, which both give you many of the features in the new OS but without the 3D graphics. Higher-end machines will have those choices, plus Windows Vista Basic, which gives you more features, and Windows Vista Aero (the version with all the 3D bells and whistles). Mostly to get Aero, you must have a relatively new graphics card with a lot of built-in video memory. One thing I found in conducting the test is that Microsoft doesn't make it easy to switch between these modes. For desktop users, it's a moot point; you have AC power. But if you're working on a notebook and want to conserve every last second of battery life, you'll want to switch to a less graphics-intensive envirnoment. To do so in Vista, you first need to find Personalization And Appearance in the Control Panel, then choose Personalization > Visual Appearance. From Visual Appearance, click to Appearance Settings, then click "Open Classic appearance properties." Under Color Schemes, you have all the choices listed above, plus four monochromatic color schemes. The process of reducing or increasing your graphics output is not exactly intuitive.
OK, so what did I find? Under Windows XP, my Acer TravelMate 8200 enjoyed a comfortable 3 hours and 15 minutes of battery life--more than enough to watch any major motion picture released these days. But under Windows Vista Aero, my battery life dropped considerably, to a mere 2 hours. Under Windows Vista Standard, battery life did improve--to a whopping 2 hours and 15 minutes--better, but not enough to justify doing without all the glitz and glammor of Vista Aero. But once you've seen Vista Aero in action, it's really hard to do without. Microsoft's planning its whole Vista marketing campaign around Aero, though in reality many, many people will upgrade only to a relatively bland Vista Standard or Basic--sure you'll have built-in search and a new file structure, but it's the transparent windows and flip 3D effect you'll be wanting. For that, you'll need to buy a whole new machine with Windows Vista preinstalled. If you've bought a new PC within the last two years, I'd recommend staying with Windows XP until you absolutely need to upgrade, then buy a new Windows Vista machine.
Laptop battery maker Boston-Power on Wednesday said it has raised $55 million to expand its manufacturing, and develop lithium ion batteries for transportation and potentially other applications.
The Series D round was led by Foundation Asset Management, the investment arm of a Swedish foundation, along with existing investors Oak Investment Partners, Venrock, GGV Capital, and Gabriel Venture Partners. Altogether, 4-year old Boston-Power has raised $125 million.
Boston-Power's first product a long-lasting battery called Sonata, is available for Hewlett-Packard laptops. While the run time of current laptop batteries starts to degrade after about 150 charges, the Sonata can go for 1,000 charges without the same degradation, according to the company. It can also be charged quickly, getting 80 percent of capacity in half an hour.The Westborough, Mass.-based company has sought to make its batteries environmentally sustainable as well by not using PVC plastic or heavy metals--cadmium, arsenic, or mercury--in the manufacturing process.
With the fresh funding round, Boston-Power intends to boost its manufacturing, and develop batteries for cars and potentially for utility-level energy storage, co-founder and CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud said."We took on the mission of creating a more satisfying experience with laptops, and now we can go into transportation more seriously," Lampe-Onnerud said.The funding--a sign of confidence in an energy technology company--comes at a time when many clean-tech start-ups are having to scale back with layoffs in order to preserve cash. Certain technology areas, including energy storage and energy efficiency, however, are better placed than others.Samsung, long an international laptop player, re-entered the U.S. computer market last year with a functional (if not exactly exciting) slate of systems, including the NC10 Netbook. Despite its generic looks, we liked its long battery life, and the follow-up N110 model is similarly impressive.
The $469 N110 manages to cram a 6-cell battery into a fairly slim frame, and also fixes the original's too-small touch pad. But, at almost $500, it's more expensive than the competition, despite offering the same Intel Atom/160GB HDD/1GB RAM components. The N110 remains a solid example of the form, but there are several sub-$400 Netbooks (such as the Lenovo S10) that do the same job for less.The Samsung N110 is a fairly anonymous-looking Netbook, with a matte black interior (accented by a very subtle maroon stripe around the outer edge), and a glossy, black lid. Unfortunately, the glossy surface of the lid was among the more smudge and fingerprint-friendly we've encountered, and keeping it looking clean for even a single day was a struggle. While not as thin as something like the HP Mini 1000, Samsung gets points for making a Netbook with a 6-cell battery that doesn't look like it has a kickstand.
The keyboard is of the more traditional tapered key design, with individual keys that are wider at the base, and narrower at the top. We've seen many more PC makers, including Dell, HP, and Asus, move to a flat-key design. Still, the keys were large and we were especially pleased to see a big right Shift key; that's one that sometimes gets butchered on compact keyboard layouts. The touch pad on the N110 is slightly larger than on the original, and is about as good as we've seen on a Netbook--it even includes a specially demarcated scroll zone.The 10.1-inch LCD display has a native resolution of 1,024x600, which is standard for Netbooks. That's generally fine for most Web surfing, but long, vertical pages and Word documents can require a lot of scrolling to read. We were, however, disappointed to see the matte screen finish of the original NC10 replaced with a glossy one. Most consumer laptops have glossy screens, but we generally find that the glare on the overly reflective glossy surface outweighs advantages, which include more vibrant colors and better overall brightness.
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