Thumbs up: Nice sleek and rugged design, added SD slot and Webcam, good speakers.

Thumbs down: High price, average performance.

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: This one is yet another addition to ultraportable computing devices. I personally am a huge fan of these devices but what is to be seen in this case is whether this one would find universal appeal especially at a time when there is absolutely no dearth of smartphones and netbooks.

Before the launch of the iPhones and the other in the category the UPMC’s were like the hottest thing available in the market. However the only drawback was that at that time these UPMC’s were priced anything between $1500-$2000. This one launched by Viliv has a starting price of $587. But then we get netbooks priced at around $350 so here again its universal appeal is questioned. Anyways let’s move ahead and see what this one has in store for us…

This one is definitely a smasher when it comes to looks. It’s covered with gunmetal gray plastic and is accented with silver and chrome touches. It’s got a rectangular shape and with curved edges.

The buttons are well spaced and are comfortable to use. They are well placed on the case and instead of trackpoint navigation here we have a joystick which can be used to jump between cells or icons on the desktop. Well what is new in the case of this one is the presence of a webcam. I ll come to the functionality of that one later.

In keeping with the slim trend this one measures a sleek 0.88 inch in thickness and weighs 1.6 pounds which is quite lightweight as well. Unlike many of the slim devices on the shelf this one has got a nice rugged feel to it.

It comes along with an actual stylus for navigation purposes and also has an antenna for 3G reception. Also it supports GPS but the GPS software has to be installed in it. This tablet can be easily mounted into a car navigation device.

As per the claims of Viliv, this one can easily be used to browse through different applications. However when I actually got my hands on it, I noticed that browsing through applications using Windows XP is what it supports most of the times. The haptic feedback keys are much better than the ones on its predecessor S5. The virtual keys really made me cringe and I could not help but want to just keep this one aside and get back to my iPhone to get an actual feel of the virtual keyboard.

Compared to the 4.8 inch screen this one has a nice large 7 inch screen with a resolution of 1,024×600 pixels.  At 7 inches the text on the display is pretty much readable and also the images are bright and vibrant. The resolution of most of the netbooks nowadays also adds upto the same figure.

Coming to the quality of the speakers which are mounted on the back of this one, they were pretty much loud and clear. For once, listening to something on the inbuilt speakers actually made me go ‘wow, now that’s something’.

This one has a SD card slot and a webcam. Well the addition of the webcam is a really nice feature but the addition of the SD card slot is what is more essential in the case of a computing device. It makes file transfers a less daunting task. However the Bluetooth and Wi-fi are both controlled by the same settings on the Viliv Cube UI, which means the user, gets either both or none unless the settings are tweaked through the XP’s device menus.

Coming back to the price, as I mentioned earlier this starts at $587 but then again the one you get at this price doesn’t have a lot of features including the 3G modem. But at a price of $1,359 you could easily upgrade this to include Windows Vista along with a 128GB SSD. Well this could get you thinking that probably a Macbook would be a better option.

This one uses the same Atom Z520 processor that was used in S5. Though Z series is a great processor when it comes to low power consumption, it doesn’t add much to the processing capabilities of the Viliv. This one did not perform well in most of our benchmark tests as compared to most of the netbooks. Infact even the S5 was better at performance in most of the cases, not that this one lagged far behind, but the S5 showed better results. It also took a lot of time as compared to the Atom N270 Netbooks when it came to loading flash files and webpages.

Video streaming from Hulu as well as from Youtube did not produce satisfactory results. The videos were grainy and choppy most of the times. Also the touch screen responsiveness was quite below the mark. Talking about the battery life, this one lasted for hardly 4 hours and 8 minutes wherein we made it undergo a few tests like continous video playback and web browsing.

Nitty-gritty: Go ahead get it if you have the money to spend over the UPMC. However compared to most of the other Atom powered gadgets you would be better off getting a nice netbook for a better price.

Toshiba has announced the launch of two mini SSD’s which are almost a seventh the size of the 2.5 inch drives which we come across nowadays. These new SSD’s have been specially developed keeping netbooks in mind. The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) mentioned that these SSD’s will feature a mini SATA interface connector.

Toshiba plans to launch two models a 30 GB SSD and s 60 GB SSD and both of them have reading speeds of  180 MB/s and writing speeds of  70 MB/s. touted to be lightweight these SSD’s  weigh 9g and  measure around 30×4.75mmx50.95mm.

Toshiba has plans of starting mass production as early as next month and if the buzz doing the rounds is to be believed then both the SSD’s will be made in Japan. Also news is that the 62GB drive will cost $330 and the 30GB drive will be priced at $220.

This means that in all there will be seven versions of the windows being launched. The news doing the round in the first half of the year was that Microsoft was likely to cut down on quite a few applications in its Windows 7 version for netbooks just because with the charge of the entire OS the pricing of the netbook would also rise to a totally new level.

What is left to be seen is how Microsoft manages to adjust the Windows 7 pricing when it comes to the netbooks. However there is pressure being applied by Intel and the Original design manufacturers who build the machines and are in a tizzy over the fact that the machines would be considered inferior if the functionality is reduced. So let’s just wait n watch as to what trick Microsoft comes up with to solve this conundrum.

Thumbs up: Good graphics, killer looks, pocket friendly rates, optical drive support.

Thumbs down: Low speaker volume, keyboard has some flex, mushy touchpad.

Inside the trunk:
CPU : 2.1-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6500

RAM Included : 4GB

RAM Upgradable : 4GB

Hard Drive Size : 320GB

Hard Drive Speed : 5,400rpm

Native Resolution : 1366×768

Graphics Card : Nvidia GeForce G102M

Video Memory : 512MB

Wi-Fi : 802.11a/b/g/n

Operating System: MS Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: Comes loaded with an attractive design, a two year warranty and good graphics at rock bottom prices which makes it a compelling choice for the students. Anyways moving ahead with the review…

Razzle-dazzle: This one surely screams ‘style icon’ at the top of its voice. Its like born to be a headturner. Anyways all those superfluous adjectives aside, this one has got an eye catching lid with finespun blue dots arranged in a grid like pattern all over it. This pattern continues till the base of the system after lifting the lid. This one also like most of the other laptops is a fingerprint magnet and would frequently need some quick wipes. This 14-inch laptop weighs a modest 5.2 pounds and is a bit heavy if we compare it to the rest of the lightweight netbooks.

The keys on the keyboard have some amount of flex, though they have been placed quite spaciously and the palm rest is also pretty much roomy. Typing this  review on the K40 was a simple non daunting task. The touchpad was kind of mushy not offering much feedback but the texture over the touchpad let me move the cursor swiftly over the screen.

This 14-inch display has a resolution of  (1366 x 768) pixels and watching Dark Knight on it was quite a pleasure. The visuals were pretty much bright accentuating the dark scenes. This one kind of kicks back the reflections offering very less viewing angles.

On the right side it houses 2 USB ports, Ethernet, VGA and headphone jacks and on the left side there are two additional USB ports 8X DVD±RW drive. On the back it has two Kensington lock slots and on the front it has 2-in-1 memory card reader.

Inside dope: The audio quality was pretty decent enough displaying comfortable amounts of highs and lows and the audio had a very deep feeling to it. Although I guess the speakers could benefit if they had a higher maximum volume range.

The inbuilt 1.3 megapixel webcam offers some good visuals and video qualities. Using it while chatting with friends, they said that the visuals were pretty much clear but they complained about some slight motion distortion when we moved. The videos and the images can be edited and enhanced by using the LifeFrame software.

Thanks to its 2.1-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 CPU this one performed quite decently in our overall system performance test. It loaded Windows and the other menus within no seconds but it took some time to for the media player menus to open. ‘zombie’ by Cranberries almost took like 9.1 secs to load fully.

The 5,400-rpm, 320GB hard drive managed to duplicate a 4.7 GB media folder at a rate of almost 19.1 MBps. It took like 1 min and 2 secs for the windows vista version to get fully booted which a bit above the category average.

The Nvidia GeForce G102M GPU offered pretty much decent graphics well above the category average and offered a decent frame rate while playing a game of  “Raven squad”. Also there were almost no hiccups while playing a clip of  Guitar heroes. A high definition video of  an episode of the 70’s show played through without any intermediate stuttering. In all to sum it all up… the graphics offered by this one are much decent enough and offer some good gaming experience.

Coming to the battery life… I must say that it is pretty much disappointing. It lasted for around 3 hours and 51 minutes which is quite a bit less than the normal category average. Also it took around 2 hours and 10 minutes to fully recharge the battery of the K40 during which it consumed around 46.2 watts.

This one has a sibling to offer to which is the K40IJ with almost the same configurations except for the 250 GB of storage and an integrated GL40 graphics chip and is being offered for $699.

Nitty-Gritty: There are quite a few 14-inch laptops in the same range being offered at the same price but if your looking forward to an enhanced grphics experience then this could be your pick. Also not many in the same range offer an optical drive. So if an optical drive and graphics are what your looking out for then the K40 is the one for you.

Sum n substance:

Thumbs up: Stunner in the looks department, long battery life, a sure headturner, comfortable keypad, less boot time.

Thumbs down: exorbitant price tag even the features are like most of the other netbooks,  the in your face Samsung logo.

Inside the trunk:

• Processor: Intel Atom (1.6 GHz)
• RAM installed: 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM
• Hard drive size: 160 GB

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: Most of  the netbooks making their presence felt nowadays essentially have the same configuration. Get together an Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and a copy of Windows XP and voila what do I have… another netbook. With this latest one, Samsung hasn’t done any better than just combining the recipe for the same old cake and just topping it all up with some quality icing. Well, leaving aside the superfluous metaphors I ll proceed with the review.

Razzle-dazzle: Okay, I really have to give this one to Sammy… they ve come up with some killer looks for this child of theirs and I d bet on anything to say that this is the best looking netbook in the market. Though a few might argue that the pebble look that this one sports makes it look a bit like its not for professional use or possibly even a bit like a toy. But then again having such a fun piece with vibrant colours could just make your dull and boring day at work a bit more animated. Yeah its lid is available in different colours like bright orange, black, navy blue and light blue. Unlike the glossy covering that most of the netbooks these days boast of which more often than not act as fingerprint magnets this one has a grainy and rubberized cover which is far more durable and looks classy too. It has got the Samsung logo on its back which just cannot be missed even if your like standing at half a miles distance. Anyways, leaving the hyperboles aside this one has two USB ports on the right side along with a VGA port and on the left side it again has an USB port with a headphone jack and an Ethernet jack. To avoid inconvenience all the ports have been placed either in the front or on the sides.

Not that the earlier keyboards by Samsung were not impressive but this one gets the numero uno position on my list of most comfortable to use keyboards. And for all the bacteria skittish users, this one really has something good to offer. The keys are treated with nano-sized silver particles which protect you from bacteria. From the very second that I started using this keyboard I almost fell in love with it.

The touchpad at 2.5 x 1.3 inches is pretty much comfortable but the only glitch I guess this one has is that it comes along with a single rocker button. I personally prefer the two button rocker so this was kind of disappointing.

This one being a 10 incher netbook has a resolution of 1024 x 600-pixel although most of the netbooks which fall in this price range have a resolution of 1,366×768. Anyways,  the width is pretty much decent and can be easily used at work where you have to keep several documents open side by side. Though the display produces glare when tilted in the direction of light, it isn’t distracting at all.

Inside dope: Well, netbooks are machines which cannot be expected to perform anything more than probably browsing the web, sending mails, and document processing. And keeping these standards in mind I must say that this netbook fits into the norms set by its predecessors pretty well.

Talking about the tests we put it through, the Go was pretty much able to handle the mobile tasks and performed somewhere along the category average. This one could also be used to view 720p videos very smoothly. There were hardly any jerks and the videos were pretty much non-grainy. Also it booted the Windows XP around 10 secs faster than the normal category average.

It comes loaded with a 1.3 megapixel web camera which came up with really clear images during a skype video chat. Also the person on the other side could clearly make out the details on our face. Coming to the speakers, the inbuilt speakers of this netbook were loud enough and did not actually require headphones. But as always it’s always better to be using a headphone for better sound quality. “ ulysess” by Franz Ferdinand when played over slacker.com could be heard loudly and clearly even over the speakers.

It comes along with a 6-cell battery and ran for over 5 hours and 51 minutes on the video playback drain test. Though the battery is kind of huge it really doesn’t jut out at the back. And it doesn’t even make the netbook any bulkier than the normal netbooks.

Nitty-gritty: I would give it a 5 on 5 as far as looks are compared. The performance is pretty much average, as in I don’t think performance it has anything more to offer as compared to the regular netbooks. Its almost on par with most of the other netbooks as far performance is concerned. I could go on and on blabbering about it mind blowing looks but then the price tag really gets me too a pause. Accompanied with a $449 price tag this one is a tad bit too expensive. But then again if your looking out for an unusual combination of looks too die for and endurance at the same time then probably the binge would be worth it.

My rating: 3.5 on 5