Lenovo Sales Recover, but Still Under Pressure in Q2

Lenovo’s PC sales began to recover in its latest fiscal quarter, but the world’s fourth-biggest PC maker warned that the recession was not over as it posted a net loss Thursday.

Demand for PCs is still suffering in the West, and price competition has combined with rising component costs to pressure Lenovo’s margins, executives said in a conference call.

“The operating environment continues to be challenging for PC makers,” said Wong Wai Ming, Lenovo’s CFO.

Lenovo reported sales of US$3.5 billion in its first fiscal quarter, ended June 30. The number was down 17.9 percent from a year earlier, even though PC shipments were up slightly over the same period.

Lenovo posted a quarterly net loss of $16 million, compared to a net profit of $110 million a year earlier.

The company has been hit by falling PC prices and rising costs for parts like LCD screens and memory, said company CEO Yang Yuanqing. Large enterprises in the U.S. and Western Europe are also continuing to delay new IT purchases, preventing recovery in the biggest market segment in those countries, Yang said.

Lenovo’s quarterly sales figure was up about 25 percent from the previous three months, and its net loss was down substantially from $264 million in the previous quarter.

Lenovo this year began restructuring to enhance its focus on China and other rising economies. The company split its product groups into high- and low-end lines to separately target developed and emerging markets.

China is by far Lenovo’s biggest market, but the company is also building a focus on India. Lenovo posted sequential sales growth of 23 percent in India, which is “still an underperforming market,” Wong said.

Lenovo last month said it would triple its sales coverage in India to reach 300 cities this year.

While Lenovo released a series of netbooks to tap the growing demand for them in the last year, it does not expect that demand to continue rising, said Rory Read, chief operating officer for Lenovo.

The company has instead placed its hopes on a class of laptops powered by Intel’s consumer ultra-low voltage (CULV) microprocessors. The laptops are ultra-thin, but bigger and more powerful than netbooks.

Read called CULV laptops “exciting,” but said it was too early to speculate if demand for them could surpass demand for netbooks.

“We believe we’re going to see significant growth in this segment,” Read said.

Lenovo is open to merger and acquisition opportunities that align with its strategic goals, the executives said, declining to give details.

Kinpo Puts Via Nano in New 3G/WiMax Netbook

Kinpo Electronics, a Taiwanese electronics maker, debuted a new netbook on Thursday with a Via Nano microprocessor and integrated 3G/WiMax chipset to make sure users are always connected to the Internet.

The Kinpo N03 appears to be aimed at China, since its 3G options include TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), the home grown 3G standard in China.

The company did not say when it would be available nor its price.

The company’s choice of a Via Nano microprocessor over Intel’s popular Atom processor shows the battle between the two processor maker continues to rage in the netbook arena. Via has made a number of important product wins in netbooks bound for China, but Intel has stepped up its China activities.

Kinpo’s N03 netbook comes with an 11.6-inch screen with 1366×768 pixel resolution, either Microsoft Windows XP or Vista Home Basic, and up to 2GB of DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM and a 1.3-megapixel Web cam.

The Via Nano processors inside run at either 1.2GHz or 1.3GHz, depending on the configuration, according to Kinpo.

The netbook comes in a variety of configurations, including with either a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD).

It also includes a variety of high end wireless communications technologies due to an integrated chipset, according to Kinpo. The device can handle WiMax, the Intel-backed technology meant to someday replace Wi-Fi, as well as a range of mobile telecommunications technologies, including HSDPA/HSUPA (High Speed downlink/uplink packet access), TD-SCDMA, W-CDMA, and EVDO.

The device also includes 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.

The N03 weighs around 1.3 kilograms depending on the configuration and can run for 3-hours in normal use, Kinpo said. It is 281-millimeters long, 198mm wide and 27mm thick.

Wacom Intuos 4 Graphics Tablet Review

Graphics tablets is one of the few sectors in the technology market where one brand dominates to the point where it’s the only one professionals would consider. Wacom has a well-established reputation as the best that money can buy, but despite the lack of competition the company hasn’t stood still. It has recently upgraded its professional Intuos range of tablets and we’re taking a look at what the Intuos 4 Professional Pen Tablet has to offer.

The Intuos currently sits near the top of Wacom’s range, which starts with the Bamboo for casual users, offers the Graphire for those who want wireless, and culminates with the Cintiq which combines a tablet and LCD monitor into a single device. Though Cintiqs are still the most expensive of Wacom’s offerings, in fact the Intuos 4 is the best-specified tablet out of the lot because the Cintiqs are still based around the same architecture as the Intuos 3 was.

Before we get onto the upgrades and changes Wacom has implemented in its fourth Intuos tablet, let’s quickly go over just what a graphics tablet does and what it’s for. Essentially, it’s like a piece of very thick digital paper. You use a digital pen to draw upon it, and what you draw appears on your screen. Of course it doesn’t appear on the tablet (unless you have a Cintiq), so it takes a bit of getting used to, but once you have the hang of coordinating your hand to the screen you’ll never want to go back to a mouse for drawing or detailed photo-editing. Nearly all tablets are pressure-sensitive so you can vary the width, opacity or jitter (etc) of your lines, and Wacom’s pens uniquely offer 60 degrees of tilt sensitivity too.
The Intuos 4 package consists of the pen and tablet, USB cable, pen-holder and driver CD. The first thing some might notice is that the set has received a visual make-over. Gone is the blue and grey colour scheme that adorned all but the special edition Intuos 3 tablets, to be replaced with a mixture of satin and gloss black that makes it look and feel like an even more premium product.

To go with the new look the pen feels different, too. Its whole length is now soft-touch instead of just the lower part on its predecessor (though the lower rubber ‘grip’ is still replaceable), which combines with a shorter and slightly fatter body to make it more comfortable to hold. The two-way rocker switch near its base sticks out less too, so it’s not as easy to press the lower ‘button’ accidentally while working. Its action remains flawless however, with a nice click to confirm presses. Wacom’s unique ‘Penabled’ technology means the pen never requires batteries, and its build quality is excellent.

Pens from the Intuos 3 won’t work with the newer tablet, but rather than a way of making you pay all over again for the large variety of pens the company offers (including Grip, Airbrush, Inking and Art models), it’s because they have received a genuine hardware upgrade inside too, doubling the Intuos 3 pen’s 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity to a heady 2,048. The nib now only requires a single gram of pressure to register an action compared to the previous pen’s 10, so an even finer touch than before is possible. Also, both the nibs and the eraser at the pen’s top now feel softer, giving better resistance and making them feel more like the real thing.

Wacom has cleverly designed the stand to be more than just a pen-holder like it was for the Intuos 3. It’s taller and heavier than before, and its glossy base unscrews from the hollow top section to reveal a foam holding area for all your nibs and a compact metal nib-extractor. Storing the nibs in the pen-base is an inspired idea, one of the many incidental touches that elevate the Intuos 4 above its predecessor. Ten nibs are included, which with the one pre-installed in the pen makes for a total of eleven. These all give a different feel to writing or drawing, and include pen, stroke, hard felt and flex nib varieties.

Naturally the biggest changes concern the tablet itself. Compared to the Intuos 3, the surround of the actual tablet area has now been changed to a matte rather than glossy finish, which not only means less maintenance but also gives your palms a securer resting area.

Indeed the only glossy section is a piano-black strip on the side, which contains the updated controls and, in what is one of the most dramatic upgrades since the beginning of the Intuos line, two monochrome organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays. This advanced display technology doesn’t need a backlight, meaning they require less energy, are never tiring on the eyes and look really cool too, with the white symbols on a perfectly black background really adding a lot of visual appeal.

Their practical purpose though is to tell you the functions of each of the eight fully programmable matte buttons (called ExpressKeys) the strip houses. You might think it’s easy enough to remember what eight buttons do, but taking into consideration that you may want to have different configurations for different software packages, or even switch between various configs within a single piece of software depending on the task, you’ll soon wonder how you ever managed without them.

It’s worth noting that the smallest Intuos 4 – of the four sizes available, which like T-shirts include small, medium, large and x-large – doesn’t come with the OLED displays and only has six buttons, so if you’re not severely constrained by either space or budget it’s well worth making the medium tablet your minimum starting point.

Getting back to the controls, the touch-strips of the Intuos 3 have been replaced by an iPod-like ‘wheel’ on its successor, which Wacom has named the TouchRing. Not only does the ring offer more accurate and flexible action than the strip did, but the common (and extremely annoying) problem on the Intuos 3 where users would inadvertently activate the touch-strips by brushing against them has also been eliminated. It’s good to see Wacom not just adding new features, but listening to user feedback and rectifying the problems older models have revealed too.

At the centre of the ring is a round toggle button which can switch the ring between up to five functions, including scroll/zoom, adjusting brush size and rotating your canvas. Sensitivity can be adjusted individually for each separate function using Wacom’s excellent software driver.

At this stage those of you who are left-handed (like myself) may be wondering how a single control strip, compared to one on each side for the Intuos 3, accommodates south paws. Again, Wacom has implemented a superior solution to before. The fixed USB data cable which was a weakness of the older model (since if the cable was damaged the tablet became effectively useless) has been replaced with a pair of mini-USB ports at the top and bottom of the Intuos 4.

When you want to change your handedness, simply flip the tablet over, insert the USB cable into the appropriate slot and tell the software about the new orientation, after which it will rotate the OLED symbols and tablet sensitivities accordingly (though it shouldn’t be required, in our testing we found a few instances where the new orientation wouldn’t take effect without a reset – but then it’s not something you’re likely to want to change often). In yet another of those touches that show Wacom’s designers deserve every one of their pay-checks, if you open the ‘door’ for one USB port it automatically closes off the other port, preventing dust and grit from getting in.

Even the drawing surface of the tablet has had an upgrade, and thanks to a softer texture and the pen’s slightly softer nibs it now feels more like drawing on real paper than ever. Nibs might need to be replaced more frequently, but it’s inexpensive to do so and a small price to pay for the tactile improvement. The only real complaint here is that if you have a particularly heavy hand it’s easier to permanently mark the tablet’s surface than on the Intuos 3.

Because of all the physical upgrades Wacom’s Intuos 4 is easier and better to use than ever before, but it wouldn’t be all it could without the excellent software. Wacom’s driver works on almost any operating system including versions of Windows from 95 onwards, Mac OS X or Classic and Linux. A single properties window lets you adjust all settings for the tablet and pen within any application you wish. The only thing that’s inexplicably missing is profiles for different users or for sharing across computers, an oversight we hope Wacom will soon rectify.

Two changes to Wacom’s driver aside from those necessary to accommodate the Intuos 4′s new hardware features are a Precision Mode, which as the name suggests switches to a lower sensitivity so that bigger movements are required for the same action (ideal for quickly switching to fiddly detail work or delicate selections where a slip can ruin things) and the Radial Menu. The radial menu is a similar concept to the selection ring on Gyration’s Air Mouse, where pressing a certain button brings up a ring of actions or shortcuts around your cursor, allowing you to choose up to eight different ones with a flick of the pen.

When you register your Intuos you get a choice between downloading a selection of third-party software titles, including AutoDesk Scetchbook Express 2010, Corel SketchPad or Adobe Photoshop Elements 7. While these should help you get started, to be honest a tablet of this calibre deserves the fully-featured versions of these packages such as Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Corel Painter 11.

With prices ranging from just under £300 (or around £270 if you can get an academic discount) for the Medium tablet to £650 for the XL one, the Intuos 4 is by no means cheap but nonetheless well worth every penny if you’re serious about digital art or design – especially since there really is no competition at the high end of the tablet market. Once you’ve used a Wacom Intuos, tablets from other manufacturers such as the Genius G-Pen M712 will just seem cheap and inadequate by comparison.

If you’re really on a budget or need something that will fit in a shoulder bag you might even consider the Small Intuos 4, but keep in mind that not only is the drawing area relatively cramped but you’d be missing out on the OLED screens too. Another ‘budget’ option is to go for the previous generation Intuos 3, which is still widely available and obviously considerably cheaper than its successor.

Meanwhile, if you already own an Intuos 3 and have the cash, is it worth upgrading? Let me answer that simply by confessing that I’m looking to upgrade my precious Intuos 3 to a 4 as soon as I can afford to. Yes, it really is that much better.

Wacom Intuos 4 Graphics Tablet Review

Graphics tablets is one of the few sectors in the technology market where one brand dominates to the point where it’s the only one professionals would consider. Wacom has a well-established reputation as the best that money can buy, but despite the lack of competition the company hasn’t stood still. It has recently upgraded its professional Intuos range of tablets and we’re taking a look at what the Intuos 4 Professional Pen Tablet has to offer.

The Intuos currently sits near the top of Wacom’s range, which starts with the Bamboo for casual users, offers the Graphire for those who want wireless, and culminates with the Cintiq which combines a tablet and LCD monitor into a single device. Though Cintiqs are still the most expensive of Wacom’s offerings, in fact the Intuos 4 is the best-specified tablet out of the lot because the Cintiqs are still based around the same architecture as the Intuos 3 was.

Before we get onto the upgrades and changes Wacom has implemented in its fourth Intuos tablet, let’s quickly go over just what a graphics tablet does and what it’s for. Essentially, it’s like a piece of very thick digital paper. You use a digital pen to draw upon it, and what you draw appears on your screen. Of course it doesn’t appear on the tablet (unless you have a Cintiq), so it takes a bit of getting used to, but once you have the hang of coordinating your hand to the screen you’ll never want to go back to a mouse for drawing or detailed photo-editing. Nearly all tablets are pressure-sensitive so you can vary the width, opacity or jitter (etc) of your lines, and Wacom’s pens uniquely offer 60 degrees of tilt sensitivity too.
The Intuos 4 package consists of the pen and tablet, USB cable, pen-holder and driver CD. The first thing some might notice is that the set has received a visual make-over. Gone is the blue and grey colour scheme that adorned all but the special edition Intuos 3 tablets, to be replaced with a mixture of satin and gloss black that makes it look and feel like an even more premium product.

To go with the new look the pen feels different, too. Its whole length is now soft-touch instead of just the lower part on its predecessor (though the lower rubber ‘grip’ is still replaceable), which combines with a shorter and slightly fatter body to make it more comfortable to hold. The two-way rocker switch near its base sticks out less too, so it’s not as easy to press the lower ‘button’ accidentally while working. Its action remains flawless however, with a nice click to confirm presses. Wacom’s unique ‘Penabled’ technology means the pen never requires batteries, and its build quality is excellent.

Pens from the Intuos 3 won’t work with the newer tablet, but rather than a way of making you pay all over again for the large variety of pens the company offers (including Grip, Airbrush, Inking and Art models), it’s because they have received a genuine hardware upgrade inside too, doubling the Intuos 3 pen’s 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity to a heady 2,048. The nib now only requires a single gram of pressure to register an action compared to the previous pen’s 10, so an even finer touch than before is possible. Also, both the nibs and the eraser at the pen’s top now feel softer, giving better resistance and making them feel more like the real thing.

Wacom has cleverly designed the stand to be more than just a pen-holder like it was for the Intuos 3. It’s taller and heavier than before, and its glossy base unscrews from the hollow top section to reveal a foam holding area for all your nibs and a compact metal nib-extractor. Storing the nibs in the pen-base is an inspired idea, one of the many incidental touches that elevate the Intuos 4 above its predecessor. Ten nibs are included, which with the one pre-installed in the pen makes for a total of eleven. These all give a different feel to writing or drawing, and include pen, stroke, hard felt and flex nib varieties.

Naturally the biggest changes concern the tablet itself. Compared to the Intuos 3, the surround of the actual tablet area has now been changed to a matte rather than glossy finish, which not only means less maintenance but also gives your palms a securer resting area.

Indeed the only glossy section is a piano-black strip on the side, which contains the updated controls and, in what is one of the most dramatic upgrades since the beginning of the Intuos line, two monochrome organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays. This advanced display technology doesn’t need a backlight, meaning they require less energy, are never tiring on the eyes and look really cool too, with the white symbols on a perfectly black background really adding a lot of visual appeal.

Their practical purpose though is to tell you the functions of each of the eight fully programmable matte buttons (called ExpressKeys) the strip houses. You might think it’s easy enough to remember what eight buttons do, but taking into consideration that you may want to have different configurations for different software packages, or even switch between various configs within a single piece of software depending on the task, you’ll soon wonder how you ever managed without them.

It’s worth noting that the smallest Intuos 4 – of the four sizes available, which like T-shirts include small, medium, large and x-large – doesn’t come with the OLED displays and only has six buttons, so if you’re not severely constrained by either space or budget it’s well worth making the medium tablet your minimum starting point.

Getting back to the controls, the touch-strips of the Intuos 3 have been replaced by an iPod-like ‘wheel’ on its successor, which Wacom has named the TouchRing. Not only does the ring offer more accurate and flexible action than the strip did, but the common (and extremely annoying) problem on the Intuos 3 where users would inadvertently activate the touch-strips by brushing against them has also been eliminated. It’s good to see Wacom not just adding new features, but listening to user feedback and rectifying the problems older models have revealed too.

At the centre of the ring is a round toggle button which can switch the ring between up to five functions, including scroll/zoom, adjusting brush size and rotating your canvas. Sensitivity can be adjusted individually for each separate function using Wacom’s excellent software driver.

At this stage those of you who are left-handed (like myself) may be wondering how a single control strip, compared to one on each side for the Intuos 3, accommodates south paws. Again, Wacom has implemented a superior solution to before. The fixed USB data cable which was a weakness of the older model (since if the cable was damaged the tablet became effectively useless) has been replaced with a pair of mini-USB ports at the top and bottom of the Intuos 4.

When you want to change your handedness, simply flip the tablet over, insert the USB cable into the appropriate slot and tell the software about the new orientation, after which it will rotate the OLED symbols and tablet sensitivities accordingly (though it shouldn’t be required, in our testing we found a few instances where the new orientation wouldn’t take effect without a reset – but then it’s not something you’re likely to want to change often). In yet another of those touches that show Wacom’s designers deserve every one of their pay-checks, if you open the ‘door’ for one USB port it automatically closes off the other port, preventing dust and grit from getting in.

Even the drawing surface of the tablet has had an upgrade, and thanks to a softer texture and the pen’s slightly softer nibs it now feels more like drawing on real paper than ever. Nibs might need to be replaced more frequently, but it’s inexpensive to do so and a small price to pay for the tactile improvement. The only real complaint here is that if you have a particularly heavy hand it’s easier to permanently mark the tablet’s surface than on the Intuos 3.

Because of all the physical upgrades Wacom’s Intuos 4 is easier and better to use than ever before, but it wouldn’t be all it could without the excellent software. Wacom’s driver works on almost any operating system including versions of Windows from 95 onwards, Mac OS X or Classic and Linux. A single properties window lets you adjust all settings for the tablet and pen within any application you wish. The only thing that’s inexplicably missing is profiles for different users or for sharing across computers, an oversight we hope Wacom will soon rectify.

Two changes to Wacom’s driver aside from those necessary to accommodate the Intuos 4′s new hardware features are a Precision Mode, which as the name suggests switches to a lower sensitivity so that bigger movements are required for the same action (ideal for quickly switching to fiddly detail work or delicate selections where a slip can ruin things) and the Radial Menu. The radial menu is a similar concept to the selection ring on Gyration’s Air Mouse, where pressing a certain button brings up a ring of actions or shortcuts around your cursor, allowing you to choose up to eight different ones with a flick of the pen.

When you register your Intuos you get a choice between downloading a selection of third-party software titles, including AutoDesk Scetchbook Express 2010, Corel SketchPad or Adobe Photoshop Elements 7. While these should help you get started, to be honest a tablet of this calibre deserves the fully-featured versions of these packages such as Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Corel Painter 11.

With prices ranging from just under £300 (or around £270 if you can get an academic discount) for the Medium tablet to £650 for the XL one, the Intuos 4 is by no means cheap but nonetheless well worth every penny if you’re serious about digital art or design – especially since there really is no competition at the high end of the tablet market. Once you’ve used a Wacom Intuos, tablets from other manufacturers such as the Genius G-Pen M712 will just seem cheap and inadequate by comparison.

If you’re really on a budget or need something that will fit in a shoulder bag you might even consider the Small Intuos 4, but keep in mind that not only is the drawing area relatively cramped but you’d be missing out on the OLED screens too. Another ‘budget’ option is to go for the previous generation Intuos 3, which is still widely available and obviously considerably cheaper than its successor.

Meanwhile, if you already own an Intuos 3 and have the cash, is it worth upgrading? Let me answer that simply by confessing that I’m looking to upgrade my precious Intuos 3 to a 4 as soon as I can afford to. Yes, it really is that much better.

Sony Post ¥37.1 Billion First-Quarter Loss

Sony didn’t exactly have what you could call a good 2008 to 2009 financial year for 2008 to 2009 – reporting a ¥98.9 billion loss – and the first quarter of this financial year suggests things aren’t getting much better. The damage? A net loss of ¥37.1 billion (£235 million).

Compared with last year’s Q1 profit of ¥35 billion that’s not a good sign for Sony. Some explanation is forthcoming in the 19.2 percent reduction in Sony’s revenue, year on year, from ¥1.98 trillion to ¥1.6 trillion. The math savvy among you may notice that drop is a fair bit more than Sony’s loss this quarter, suggesting Sony is adjusting to the current financial climate somewhat.

Unsurprisingly Sony is still blaming “the slowdown of the global economy and appreciation of the yen” on its less-than-ideal financial results. Restructuring expenses, which should ultimately lead to a reduction in Sony’s costs also took their toll. If the result is wider PlayStation Network availability and touchscreen Vaios, however, it should be money well spent.

Sony is predicting a ¥120 billion loss for this current financial year outwardly, but Sony seems keen to better those (likely conservative) estimates. CFO, Nobuyuki Oneda, says that: “Internally, we are aiming to at least break even.”

I’m almost inclined to think such hopes might not be entirely far fetched. Windows 7′s release is just around the corner – and is likely to boost PC sales – while the PlayStation division is having a better time of things – the PS3 finally seeing the appreciation some of us would argue it has always deserved – and that’s forgetting that the number of great Walkman, Bravia and other products Sony has produced recently, or is brining out soon.

In other words, you’d be silly to write Sony off just now.

Link:
Sony Investor Relations.

HP Compaq Mini 110c – 10.1in Netbook Review

HP has taken a circuitous route in the netbook market. It started out with its business focussed HP 2133 Mini-Note PC, which while regarded as one of the best looking and best made netbooks around, was short on power and longevity. Sometime later it released the HP Compaq Mini 700 and with it eschewed the conventions laid down by other manufacturers, opting for a less is more approach and a classy look and feel. With the HP Compaq Mini 110c, HP appears to have relented to market pressure with a more conventional proposition.
While it’s based on the Compaq Mini 700, closer inspection reveals plenty of differences. The 110c is now chunkier and houses a proper VGA output instead of the mini variety from before, and in general the materials feel a little cheaper, with a coarser matte black plastic finish and no ‘frameless’ display. At least in the latter case this could be construed as an improvement, since the 10in, 1,024 x 576 resolution display has an anti-glare finish more conducive to outdoor use.

Overall, though, this remains an attractive and well put together machine. While the glossy lid does attract the usual grease and grime, it’s not repeated on the body of the machine like many recent efforts. It’s also a sturdy feeling device, so should be able to survive a few bumps and scrapes.

Lifting the lid reveals an interior largely unchanged from before, which is good news where the keyboard is concerned. Stretching right to the edges of the chassis, the 92 per cent full-size keys are great to type on, proving both roomy and positive in action. Our pre-production unit came with a US style Return key, but expect that to change on those shipped to customers.

Unfortunately, one thing that’s unchanged is the touchpad, where the buttons remain on either side. This has always been a slightly awkward arrangement, although it is one you do get accustomed to. All the same, if HP really wanted to it could surely use a better layout, especially considering the buttons can interfere with typing from time to time.

On the hardware side of things the 110c is about as ordinary as they come. Naturally there’s a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive – this much you should know already. You also get 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a webcam.

The same goes for connectivity, too, though this model does share the Mini 700′s lack of a second audio jack, with just one port serving both headphones and microphones. Aside from this, it’s the usual trio of USB ports, a VGA output, multi-format card reader and Ethernet port.

It would have been nice if some of the benefits found on the recent Toshiba NB200 were here, like the sleep and charge USB ports, but the HP costs less than even the basic NB200, which goes some way to appeasing the disappointment.

Indeed, of all things, the 110c’s strength lies in its price. While most manufacturers seem intent on pushing all new netbooks above the £300 mark, prices for the 110c start at £249 for the three-cell battery version, rising to a reasonable £279 for the six-cell version. Of course, as we’ve counselled many times before, we’d definitely recommend the six-cell version for its better battery life, especially given the meagre results provided by the three-cell one we have.

In our testing we managed just less than two and a half hours of video playback, which is fine if you’re using a netbook when commuting, but isn’t going to cut it elsewhere. Since the six-cell 110c doubles the capacity from the 28 Watt-hours of our unit, the extra £30 seems pretty trivial considering the benefits it will bring.

On the audio visual side of things, the 110c is much like most netbooks. While bright and sharp, the display is merely passable where colour production is concerned, while the speakers barely pass muster. As such, a good set of headphones is a must.

Finally, it’s worth noting that Windows XP is the operating system of choice, as has been the case with netbooks for a while now. It’s a shame, however, that HP doesn’t offer its Mobile Internet Experience (MIE) Linux shell as an option in the UK. Of course, you could install this yourself, but it does mean you’re paying for a Windows license you might not want.

Acer Outs Timeline 8000 Series

Acer has added another step to its timeline range. Sitting (numerically at least) above the 4000-series and 5000-series comes the 8000-series, targeted at both business users and general consumers alike.

Three display sizes are on offer – 13.3in, 14in and 15.6in – all with a 1,366 x 768 pixel resolution. Either Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Solo ULV CPUs are available, with up to 4GB or 8GB of DDR3 RAM depending on whether a 32bit or 64bit OS is installed. Storage options across the 8000 series range from either a 160GB to a 500GB hard drive or an 80GB Intel X25-M SSD with graphics are handled by either Intel’s GMA 4500MHD integrated chip, or a dedicated ATI 4330 GPU.

Four USB ports on the 15.6in model and three on the 14in ad 13.3in, a memory card reader and Bluetooth are present. All of the 8000-series will come with Draft-N wireless and will eventually offer HSDPA connectivity as an upgrade. Each Timeline 8000-series laptop has a multi-touch touchpad.

The 8000-series also has some nifty battery features. A claimed eight hours of battery life is a good start and it’s complemented by a ‘smart’ charger which will turn itself off when the cells are at 100 per cent capacity – reducing degradation.

UK-centric pricing isn’t available yet, nor is a release date.

Asus X58L review

The Asus X58L isn’t exciting-looking, but it works well enough

Asus’ comprehensive laptop range covers all sectors of the market, from low-powered entry-level systems to high-end media centres. While the X58L is a resilient and well-made machine, it struggles to stand out from the crowd in any specific area.

The plain, black chassis is made from hardwearing plastics. The thick screen panel adds bulk to the overall appearance, but provides ample protection. Its nondescript design may not win any awards, but the chequered pattern finish adds a touch of style.

It’s a fairly light laptop at just 2.4kg. While it’s not ideal for frequent travel use, you can work in comfort on short journeys. The 159-minute battery life falls short of the three-hour minimum we expect, but allows for basic travel use.

The user interface is unexciting but functional. The keyboard’s design also lacks flair, but the board is firm and responsive with all the keys moving smoothly. The large touchpad and mouse buttons are equally staid yet usable.

The most notable feature here is the vibrant 15.4-inch screen. Its glossy Super- TFT coating means colours pop off the screen. Contrast and black levels are also impressive. While the glossy coating increases reflections, the bright panel is easy to view in bright conditions.

Single-core power

As with all laptops at this price, performance is basic. The single–core Intel Celeron processor and 1024MB of memory suit daily office use and browsing the internet, but it quickly shows its limitations when attempting anything more taxing.

This low level of performance is also mirrored in the use of an integrated Intel graphics chip. While it delivers enough power for watching movies and running basic games, it is a low performer overall.

While the 120GB hard drive provides ample space for family use, all three rivals here better it. The dual-layer DVD rewriter and 4-in-1 card reader are more pleasing, and provide read/write access to CDs, DVDs and flash storage cards.

Due to the low price, extra features are almost non-existent. Tools for internet security and CD/DVD creation are installed, but there is no home office software included. This bare-bones package is quite common at this price, so you’ll need to budget for any extras you’ll need.

While the Asus X58L doesn’t fall drastically short in any particular area, its lack of a key selling-point prevents it from standing out. For such a low price, it is certainly a bargain and a highly usable laptop, but you may find other laptops to be more enticing options.

(Reviewed by Alex Bentley – What Laptop Issue 127)

Compaq Presario CQ60-419WM at just $298 From Walmart

Walmart has announced that it will offer the Compaq Presario CQ60-419WM notebook at just $298 staring from 26 July 8AM. The Presario notebook is powered by an AMD Sempron SI-41 2.1GHz processor, 3GB RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 8200M graphics.

It has a 160GB hard drive and a 8X DVD SuperMulti burner. You can find a 15.6-inch 1366×768 LCD display and support for WiFi 802.11b/g, and Altec Lansing speakers. It’s really a bargain to get a 15.6-inch notebook for just $298. As expected, this is part of Walmart’s back-to-school promotion and limited stocks are available. So act quick

MainGear eX-L 18 Gaming Notebook

MainGear launches the new eX-L gaming notebook that may be one of the best mobile gaming solution. The eX-L is boosted by Intel’s Core 2 platform getting up to a quad-core Core 2 Extreme X9300 2.53GHz processor and up to 8GB RAM. It is equipped with dual 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M graphics card for 3D gaming.

MainGear’s eX-L can get up to three 500GB hard drives in RAID 0 configuration, or you can get a 80GB SSD. The eX-L supports WiFi 802.11a/b/g and Bluetooth 2.1. There are a 18.4-inch 1920×0180 Full HD LCD display and a 7-in-1 card reader. As for connections, the laptop has a HDMI port, a 4-pin IEEE1394 port, an ExpressCard slot, an eSATA port.

The base price of the MainGear eX-L 18 is $2,999.00.