Taking the GITEX 2006 function at Dubai, UAE as a backdrop, Samsung has come up with its much anticipated SPH-P9000, new ULTRA portable PC, which will be on sale in South Korea within a couple of weeks. Featuring Wibro (Mobile Wimax), 10 Mbps (download), 3 Mbps (upload) of Data Rate, CDMA2000 1x EVDO support, the ULTRA portbable PC will become the smallest gadget to present Microsoft Windows XP and full sized QWERTY keyboard. Supporting 256 Mb DDR RAM memory, 1 GHz CPU and bluetooth support, the SPH-P9000 offers 262144 color TFT WVGA (5″, 800 x 480) display and 1.3 megapixel camera as well. No words on pricing.
Samsung
UMPC or the ultra mobile PC’s were touted as the devices that will change life and provide good computing device on the go. Many concepts came and some were near about laptops while other were hybrid of phone-cum-PC. Here a brief review of the best UMPC’s that you saw in 2006 based on looks design and yes the most important performance. 1) Kohjisha SA1F00 This is almost a laptop with 500MHz AMD processor 7-inch 800 x 480 screen with 8 GB HDD and host of other features like WI-FI, Bluetooth CF card slots. It’s priced in the range of $750 to $1000 depending upon specs you choose. 2) Sony VAIO UX Series It’s a good UMPC with 1.2 GHz Core Solo processor but the price tag of $1700 and above depending upon specs can put away many possible buyers. 3) ASUS R2H A Celeron 900 MHz processor base UMPC this supports Windows XP and is priced at £799 in UK. 4) Raon Digital Vega This one has 4.3-inch screen with the maximum resolution of 1024 x 768 with RAM of 256MB and 30 GB HDD. Price is in the range of $978 to $1016 depending upon specs. 5) Fujitsu P1610 This UMPC has an 8.9-inch display with 1.2 GHz solo processor, RAM of 512MB coupled with WI-Fi and battery life of 3.5 hours, it is priced at $1649. Link photo: http://www.ixbt.com/short/images/p1610.jpg Here is what you can look forward to in the year 2007 1) VISTAGAMI not Origami The number one UMPC to look forward to will be (as the reports are suggesting) Vistagami another Microsoft foray in the UMPC market after the well known debacle of Origami. It is supposed that this new venture will have better battery life and hopefully become first UMPC to support Vista. 2) HTC Athena The other UMPC to watch out for is HTC Athena Half Phone Half UMPC. A UMPC styled device with full QWERTY keyboard powered by Windows mobile 5.0 and having 2-megapixel camera with GPS. 3) Samsung SPH-P9000 Samsung has also showcased their concept ULTRA Portable PC ‘SPH-P9000′ a folding keyboard UMPC with 5-inch screen and 256 Mb DDR RAM with WiMax support. 4) Fujitsu CD Case-sized UMPC Fujitsu has also Show Cased their concept folding UMPC which when folded is of the size of CD case with 8-inch display One of the major disappointment for all the fans of the UMPC was the pathetic battery life of them although it saved you from carrying larger laptops all the time but on an average the battery life never lasted a working day.
The year 2006 was all about the exploding laptops for the industry but with the very start of the New Year, the good folks at Samsung have come up with a new technique of powering your laptop. Well, you might be thinking of some alternative sources such as solar power and the wind farms but it’s not like that. Samsung is touting its new proposal of a laptop power expansion dock running on conventional Methanol. While this fuel is usually used to run 750 horsepower F1-style racers, Samsung has tested the fuel on one of its machines, the Samsung Q35 that was able to run for five weeks with the daily usage of eight hours. If everything goes as per plans, Samsung will start the manufacturing of the powerful Methanol based add-ons by the end of this year. Hope they have not ignored the odds of fire catching!
Vista is the buzz word today with its launch in the common man realms and Samsung is all set to present their SenS Q1 a vista certified UMPC in Korea. UMPC has a 7-inch WVGA screen giving resolution of 800 x 480 with an Intel Celeron M ULV 900MHz processor working under the hood. It will have 512MB of DDR2 400MHz RAM and connectivity will be provided through 802.1b/g WLAN and Bluetooth. No word on the release date and price till now.
Samsung has armored itself with a whole new series of laptops under the banner named ‘Aura’ by next week. The first lappy in the series will be Aura R20. Samsung seems to have gone a bit more design conscious as it looks from the picture above with a slim and sexy make with that tempting glossy black finish. Under the hood, the machine packs a 14.1-inch widescreen display, a Core 2 Duo T7400 processor, up to 4GB of RAM, a maximum of 160GB hard drive, ATI’s Radeon Xpress 1250 Hyper Memory graphics chip, a DVD burner, built-in WiFi, and Bluetooth. No words on pricing and availability.
This is not going to transform your life completely but I guess to a certain extent yes, Samsung presents a whole new cheaper DDI (Display Driver IC) for PDP (Plasma) screens and HD panels. Samsung Delivers Power-Saving Display Driver for Plasma Screens Seoul, Mar 05 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a leader in superior and advanced semiconductor technology, announced that its latest, broad 256-channel display driver IC (DDI) for plasma display panels (PDP) is in group production now. This technology has an edge over conformist PDP driver ICs, and creates superior cost efficiencies by dipping down the number of DDIs per panel, too good. Samsung’s spokesperson read out that-’The flat panel TV industry is experiencing unprecedented growth due to consumer demand for a high-definition experience,’ said Jin-Tae Kim, vice president, DDI business development team of System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics. ‘Our new display driver IC solution enables greater high-definition clarity for plasma screens while reducing the amount of required energy. They also added concluding that-’First introduced in the 192-channel DDI, Samsung’s unique power-saving technology, an energy recovery circuit (ERC), is again implemented in the new 256-channel driver IC to recycle energy loss within the circuit. This new power-smart feature lowers the DDI power consumption of a conventional PDP TV by over 35 percent. Such a reduction in power eliminates the need for a separate power-saving component feature, enabling for a slimmer and lighter TV module.’ Such technologies which we thought to be nonexistent some years back are now certainly a part of our present
Samsung gets Windows Vista certification for its first ultra mobile PC. This Q1P UMPC provides users with modern PC functions along with multimedia versatility and advanced connectivity in an ultra-mobile platform. The machine features 1.0 GHz Intel Pentium processor, 60 MB hard drive, 1 GB of memory and AVS to access multimedia content without opening Windows. This 7′ touchscreen machine weighs around 1.7 pounds and also includes Bluetooth and WiFi wireless connectivity with many other common feaures. The device costs around 1300$ and can be easily purchased online or from any retail stores.
Hybrid is the world which most of the companies seems to be concentration on these days. Now, Samsung has announced its very first laptop that comes with built-in “hybrid hard drive.” The new Samsung R55 multimedia notebook is the first obne to boast the same. The salient specs include an Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 processor clocked at 1.83 GHz, 15.4-inch WXGA LCD display, 80GB hybrid HDD, nVidia GeForce 7400 graphics card, and Vista Premium operating system. The new drive is claimed to offer an increment of 26% in data reading, and amplifies data-writing by 71%. The R55 is priced at $1923. Via: PCjoint
Samsung announced its second generation Q1 Ultra UMPC during the press conference at Cebit exhibition in Hanover, Germany. The company has rolled its second generation UMPC with lighter weight and more power to rectify inadequacy in technology applied in original Q1 PC . Weighing just 690 grams this Q1 Ultra is 12% percent lighter than the original Q1 that weighs somewhere around 780 grams and is also slightly smaller in measurement that is 228 millimeters by 124mm by 24 mm. The PC is refined with some other changes too that include 7-inch touchscreen LCD with 1,024-pixel by 600-pixel resolution, hardware keypad that is divided into two parts on each side of the device and facilitates users to type while holding the PC with their both hands. The Q1 Ultra UMPC contain 800MHz Intel Corp. microprocessor, 1G byte of double data rate 2 memory, an external USB keyboard, mobile version of WiMax, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, WiBro and support High-Speed Downlink Packet Access networks. The prices are $1,300 to $2,000 depending on the processor you pick.
Samsung Electronics has introduced its new range of notebooks called ‘The Aura Edition’. This new generation edition of notebooks features next generation mobile computing hardware. To improve mobile computing all the three models R70, R20 and Q45 comes equipped with ‘ Nano-Technology’ that involves sprinkling nano-sized silver ion powder on keyboard and touchpad to kill germs. Samsung R20 will be the first model to hit the market. It comprises 14.1-inch TFT LCD monitor, ATI X1250 express card with 15.4-inch version, R70, Blu-ray or HD DVD drive and HDMI connectivity. The model is expected to launch in May. The other model Q45 includes 12.1-inch Widescreen, NVIDIA 8400M graphics card, HSPDA connectivity and 1.3 megapixel built-in webcam. It is the smallest model among the three and will strike the market in June.
