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885g Pentium Sub-Notebook
Alicia (ad454) writes "A new sub-notebook was released in Japan today,
the JVC InterLink Victor MP-XP7210,
which is one of the smallest notebooks around in
recent years that does not have a Transmeta emulation processor.
It has a true Pentium-III 800MHz processor, weighs only 885 grams, and is only 225x152x28mm in size.
It also comes with 256MB ram (384 max), 30 GB harddrive, 1024x600 TFT display, SoundBlaster Pro compatable audio, V90 56kbps fax/modem, 10/100 ethernet, USBx2, IEEE1394 (ilink/firewire), cardbus type 2 PCMCIA, and SD memory slot. You can get the specifications, which are in Japanese; you can use Alta Vista to translate it.
A number of stores in Tokyo are selling it for (JPY)209,800.
It would be interesting to hear what type of
opensource Unix (NetBSD, Linux, etc.) and X-windows driver support exists for it.
Although some may find the keyboard and screen too
small, many of us find it quite useable, especially when compared to a PDA."
I'd rather get a Sony Vaio U with Transmeta CPU.
Have a look at these specs.
***Quis custodiet ipsos custodes***
I am sorry, but I am not big on the idea of using a laptop from JVC. Nothing against JVC, but that are not in the computer market. Laptops are complex devices, and when a new company enters this market, their first couple of products are usually full of bugs. I remember the hell I went through supporting a few Sony laptops when they first came out, at my last job. Drivers were crap, tech support was non-existant, and you could fry an egg on them once they had been running for 10 minutes.
It will be interesting to read any reviews...in english that is. Babblefish just doesn't cut it for me. I wonder if it will come to the US.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
why firewire? i guess it has (barely) the juice to do video editing, but not nearly the screen real estate video editors want. I guess you could use that for external storage, but then if you are using those the device isn't so portable anymore. The price is smaller than i expected ($1690.57) and that will probably get even lower if it hits the states. I think it's an ok little subnotebook, but still MUCH bigger than a pda, and too limited to be of any real use.
or 1,789.15 Euro
or 2,613.96 Canadian
or 3,018.88 Australian
Cheaper than I expected, really. Anyone else remember the days when any decent laptop ran you at least $3,000 US?
Well that page was spectacularly useless.
For an English-language press release try: here instead.
(and dont forget to notice the big bold capped FOR THE JAPANESE MARKET ONLY)
(2,3-Benzopyrrole)
Yeah, despite the fact that it's an excellent piece of technology, there's still some things(like PDA's) that does a better job at being a PDA. If you want a laptop, get a proper laptop .
Hmm, I'm sure a lot of people will think differently...
Nevermind.
I'm just jealous because I can't afford one yet...
"I used to have that really cool,funny sig
What bothers me with these sub laptops with tiny keyboards and screen sizes is the OS they try to run: Windows XP. The input manager in this OS is not appropriate to use such little cursor devices. The screen is way too small to do anything very seriously. On the other hand, WinCE (at least the UI, not the kernel) or better Linux Familiar (www.handhelds.org) would look way more appropriate. Why bother with XP?
PPA, the girl next door.
-- I feel better now. Thanks for asking.
When I read the subject, the first thought that popped into my head was "885 GHz! Holy cow, how did they do that?"
Then I noticed the rest of the writeup and the small "g". Darn.
885 grams == 1.95 pounds
This article is a bit of a ridiculous pitch, here are Other machines come close:
The Dell X200 = 2.8 pounds (800 MHz processor, 12.1)
Fujitsu Laptops (Various w/Transmeta) - P1000 is 2.2 pounds, $1299 starting
The Toshiba Portege - 2.6 pounds PIII750, bit expensive, $2199
-Sean
What is it with these tiny laptops that don't have longer battery life than an iBook or tiBook which has around 5 hours of battery life. I would think that if you had a tiny laptop, you'd probably be using it mostly away from any power source.
'cause the vast majority of users would rather pay the $40 extra for preinstalled Windows instead of having to go out and pay several hundred dollars for a copy they have to install themselves.
Expect a slow AltaVista response from this, but here's the easier way to click directly to a translated version of the specs page:
Translation
Most of the cool things never make it to sateside.
Some japanese electronics shopping areas have become a regular pornopopulust of technologia. The land of techno-lust deluxe.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Back in May on Slashdot there was this article on the Sony Little Vaio. It seems to have comparable specs, but I think I like the way the pointer works better. There is a stick on the right side of the keyboard that is made for you to move and click with your right thumb.
It is kind of interesting how vendors are coming at the portable market from different angles. You have devices like these superlights from JVC/Sony/etc., then you have the smaller PDA's from Palm/Sony/HP/Sharp. Then of course there are the mobile phone makers developing organizers, etc into their phones. And finally there are a plethora of companies making "webpad" devices.
I guess what I am waiting for is the ideal convergence of these devices. I like the superlights because they have the keyboard, pointing device, and the clamshell design, but they are still a little large for casual carrying around (ie. can't fit in the pocket.)
Who knows where things will end up.
--Jon
Here is a link to the product page in English in case you can't read Japanese
I wonder if it really means Sound Blaster PRO compatible... I used to have one of these cards, and it's 8 bit, rather than 16 bit like most generic, non-dsp sound cards now. This means that, for example, mp3s will sound absolutely horrible (kind of like listening to music on AM radio), if they'll play at all.
When I first heard about mp3's in early '97, I ripped a song and tried playing it on my 486 with a Pentium 83MHz overdrive chip, and a sound blaster pro. Sounded just awful. I knew then that for my next computer I'd need a 16 bit sound card...
He said, "You'll be able to tell your grandchildren that you helped assemble the first NT supercomputer," and I cringed.
Lifebook P-1032 (700MHz Crusoe, 128 MB, 20 GB, Windows XP, 8.9" TFT)
The coolest part of this one is the fact it has a touch screen just like we have come to expect for pda's. And, I have a friend that is running debian on one without any trouble.
And, it weighs in under 1kg.
Pricegrabber has it for $1393 shipped to my home.
Sig Return: 204 No Content
Why are all the little notebooks using dinky 20g
harddrives and topping out at 256/384MB? It peeves
me that the first thing i have to do when i spend
a couple grand on a lap is replace the hard drive
and expand the memory. It peeves me even more that
the memory doesn't expand to something reasonable
for a modern application load, like 1G/2G
reasonable. Finally, what's up with the display
sizes? I know they can put a decent resolution
into a 10" screen -- but you can't find one on the
market. The newer picturebooks and librettos are
almost reasonable, at 1280x768.
And this crappy proprietary hardware stuff has
got to stop. I'm not going to buy a piece of
hardware I can't control.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
So people can whore karma by converting the units.