From September 5, 2010, CVS drug stores are selling a Sylvania netbook for $ 99. There are a lot of buzz in the press, but not a full evaluation.
We bought one of these yesterday and planned to return today. It's not bad, just do not serve our needs.
What we wanted was a replacement for our laptops, so you do not have to drag them around for short distances. What we got is, in effect, a large PDA.
Below is a list comparing and contrasting. "L"is for WinXP / Vista laptop, "N" stands for the Sylvania netbook.
HARDWARE
L: 4 pounds or more
N: 2 pounds (so easily, which is the best part!)
L: Professional build quality
N: It feels more like a toy
L: Slow Boat
N: Fast Boot
L: Intel or AMD full GB of RAM
N: 8505 Via processor, 128 MB RAM
L: The battery life of 3-4 hours
N: 2 hours after the first charge
L: drive (operating system vulnerable toVirus)
N: flash drive (just to restore the factory settings with a specific clip when it crashes), SD card slot (not SDHC)
L: 2-3 USB ports
N: 3 USB ports
L: good-looking screen size of 1024 x 768
N: bright screen, the contrast is lacking, 800 x 480 pixels. It 'ok for surfing, even if some sites are more than 800 pixels wide and you must use the slider to see the right side of the screen. As a small 7 "screen, are icons in the tray bottom rather small. With someThe screens are visible columns of pixels, the pixels that irregular. This is a big problem if you have added to the content.
L: Fairly full-size keyboard
N: hardly touch typeable. Spacebar feels thoroughly, to use more than one tap. Touchpad unit tested was unexpected. I have a USB wireless mouse that somewhat defeats the advantage of extreme portability.
L: WiFi 802.11 b / g or more, and Ethernet (wired)
N: WiFi 802.11, in addition to Ethernet(Wired)
L: internal speakers, headphone jack line, microphone in, integrated microphone, in-socket (optional)
N: internal speakers, headphone jack, microphone (without microphone). The speakers are small and metallic, I took two microphones. The first was part of a telex headset quality fwith recording my voice was metallic and soft. I have an old dynamic microphone for voice recording, has offered a full sound quality of my voice. It 'was amazingBackground noise of files recorded with this computer. Other audio files, like videos and MP3s sounded good.
SOFTWARE
L: WinXP or Vista --- easy to find programs
N: Windows CE 6.0, similar to Windows Mobile-restricted programs. Some sites will be recognized as a mobile device and set their screen display for them. Three many applications Windows Mobile or CE are available if you know where to find the net.
L: Full-function browser choices, such as IE,Firefox, Chrome, Opera
N: IE seems normal, if somewhat 'mangled. IE will not play some flash videos. N requires an external program to play YouTube. It comes with Windows Media Player, not the flow is YouTube. It also comes with TCIMP (core player), a popular video player allows streaming. I tried to fast forward is blocked by "Nosferatu" on YouTube, and the player, requiring CTRL-ALT-DEL to end the program.
L: You have an e-mailApplication
N: I did not find any email program (Outlook for example), only a chat program. You can also use Web-based email such as Hotmail, Yahoo and Google.
L: MS Word and Excel.
N: Just a word-reader and Excel Reader. He Wordpad to save documents in MSWord.
The desktop is similar to WinXP. There are possibilities of desktop backgrounds, two of which are from anime, to be intended to pre-adolescents or adolescents seemed at first.Quickly open applications. Navigation is pretty fast.
CONCLUSION
The bottlenecks are to me the limitations of Windows CE and its software. I can get used to the small keyboard and screen. If you use rechargeable alkaline batteries, however, I tend to regard it as an emergency device. It 'wonderful store. But the batteries do not hold the office for several months of inactivity, such as alkalis do. This is the same problem I have with the laptopI think TV in the trunk of my car.
Like a computer for single use, such as YouTube or just browse, it might work well. Although surfing the Internet is concerned, may be portable for children quiet.
| Price : $138.99 | Post Date : Aug 05, 2011 02:42:05
