Tukortrijk – Your tech shop in Liege

With the U60 the brand Gigabyte wants to attack the distributor of smart phones and PDAs. However, not every attempt to establish itself in and with a new class of devices are crowned with success. The operating system is Microsoft Windows XP, a mass-compatible software installed; it exists for the U 60 in either the Home or the Professional versions. Now, we should pay little attention to the Hardware Features: Inside tinkers a type processor VIA C7-M clock of 1 GHz, 768 MB of RAM is DDR2-533, the Hitachi hard drive offers 28.6 gigabytes of storage space.

A display for indoor

The 6.5-inch display has a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. That does not sound bad at first, but on closer inspection, it reveals weaknesses: In part, it reflects the colours are dull; the brightness is not enough to useful work under the open sky

Journal entry with pitfalls

You can enter on the touch screen by hand or stylus. In addition, a QWERTY keyboard, it is pulled below the display. The text input is more difficult than in notebooks, but much simpler than the somewhat fiddly QWERTY keyboards of smartphones.

Gigabyte U60

There are also integrates a miniature touchpad and two mouse buttons, so you can navigate to some extent.

Restricted mobility

Also in terms of mobility – WLAN and Bluetooth are available; a modem for mobile network is completely missing. For this, the battery performance is very good with scarce four hours.

Mobility for handbag

Even with the dimensions of the problem reveals a device that works as a kind of intermediate class between two existing categories. Approximately 19 x 12 x 3 centimetres measure of the Gigabyte U60. With 740 grams, it takes many times more than the balance on the smart phones or PDAs. A smartphone can comfortably accommodate in a jacket pocket, the best ultralights fit in a briefcase.The U60 is simply worse in terms of mobility as smartphones, and in terms of computing power, monitor, or text input worse than notebooks.Depending on how you set, the focus /mobility or computer power/ you can opt for one or the other, perhaps even both. Whether there is customers who still want something in between? It seems questionable.

An inexpensive subnotebook is LG with the E200. However, for the low cost you can afford very little mobility. Specifically, the radius of action is likely to range from flat to a steady job.

Subnotebook giant with a lot of computing power

Even the dimensions are there just too bad: 30.4 x 3.9 x 22.4 inches plus good 2 kg. In addition, what else is on offer in terms of mobility?

LG E200

After all, the LG E200 Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and an integrated optical drive – but no Firewire and no integrated modem. Three USB ports, a LAN port, an HDMI and a VGA output can be found. There are also the 34-mm Express Card Slot, 5-in-1 card reader and jacks for headphones and microphone.

Weak battery, good computing power

The battery fits into weak mobility picture: He keeps in normal operation with Office applications, two and a half hours, with energy-hungry applications can’s sometimes even be an hour and a quarter. That is enough not even for a weekend trip. The device is quite impressive specifications. Inside tinkers a family Intel Pentium Dual Core T2330 with 2x 1.6 GHz. The RAM is 2 GB, hard drive 160 GB in size. That is enough for fleet operations in the office area and a bit of multi-media in between.

Solid case, good keyboard

The housing cover is good overall, including it makes a stable impression. The integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam gives you sharp images. The keyboard is very good, prolific writers played their part in their joy. Among the major minus points unfortunately part of the 12.1-inch screen with a resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels. Rather dark, low contrast and the speakers are not the best. It is good for students who only have a tight budget and work essentially at home and wearing it only once to the university or school.

Intel launched the new class of devices Mobile Internet Device (MID) and it turns very important for the target consumers and business customers. The MIDs are to close the gap between on the one hand subnotebooks, PDA’s, and smart phones on the other hand, thus creating a more practical mobile Internet access.

Why were MIDS launched?

In the creation of the new device class, you went from the following disadvantages of the existing hardware: PDAs and smartphones have small screens; they cannot represent the entire optimum website. The smallest laptops weigh many customers still too much to carry around them constantly, the battery is consumed quickly, the Internet is one that often only via WLAN. There are also comparatively high cost.

What is a MID?

According to the trade press, MIDs must meet the following conditions: A much larger screen than the smartphone class must show 800-1024 pixels wide. It will show, for example, with videos and flash the pages of Web 2.0. The operating system can be used immediately after turning on and consumes no battery power by the stand-by mode. To transfer the techniques of third generation mobile phone can be used, so Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, better known as UMTS and High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), also known as 3.5G,3G + and UMTS Broadband known. The units are large enough; as the user interface is adapted to the lower input options. The minimum price 500 euro to be named, the maximum price should be less than € 1000. The new class of device is operated via a touch screen called – with the finger on the screen; the user can control the MIDs.

What is inside of MIDs?

The new MIDs include low-power processors and chipsets from Intel. The units are controlled by a Linux operating system; it should contain an Intel designed especially user-friendly operating interface. With a dual core processor to run the MIDs with Windwos XP and Windwos Vista.

As it is with the future of MIDs?

According to AnandChandrasekher, senior vice president of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, his company for the introduction of the device class uses cheaper flat rates for the modern mobile phone technologies.