Review As the world swings inexorably away from Desktop PCs towards notebooks, netbooks and PMPs, the PC has to adapt or die. One way to go, as Packard Bell would have it, is the touchscreen media PC. It follows the iMac paradigm that the whole thing should be built into the back of a large-format LCD screen.
A nice touch? PackBell’s oneTwo M includes a Freeview tuner
The concept of a media PC, for use in a living room or study/bedroom isn’t new and integrated computers built into LCD screens have been around a while now, but Packard Bell’s oneTwo machines have two extras to set them apart, namely, a touchscreen with support for Microsoft Surface apps, and a built-in Freeview DVB-T tuner.
There are two oneTwo models: M for the Medium 20in screen dual core CPU and L for Large 23in model with a quad core chip. The L version supports a full 1080i HD resolution, but the M, reviewed here, has to make do with a 1600 by 900 widescreen. Both models include wireless keyboard, mouse and remote, so they can be used as conventional large-screen desktops, as well as media centres.
The case of the oneTwo M is all gloss black plastic, apart from an insert of clear acrylic between the two case halves, which extends down to form the front feet of the device. On the back panel are sockets for Ethernet, TV tuner and line out, as well as four USBs, and there are a further two USBs on the left-hand edge. The right-hand edge offers a multi-format DVD rewriter, a 5-in-1 card reader, plus mic and headphone 3.5mm sockets. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Over the past two years Acer has bought the eMachines, Gateway and Packard Bell. Dividing the buying public into a number of categories that it can target with specific brands, Packard Bell covers the ‘Trends & Lifestyle’ group in Europe, and the EasyNote Butterfly s laptop is part of the plan.
Light on power consumption: Packard Bell’s EasyNote Butterfly s
You might hope that the EasyNote Butterfly s gets its name in some way from the fold out butterfly keyboard on the legendary IBM ThinkPad 701, but no, it’s more to do with hype rather than invention.
Let Acer explain: ‘In Mandarin Chinese the word for butterfly has become a symbol for long life. Which better name for a product that, thanks to a combination of new technologies, has one full working day of battery life?’ And there we were, thinking that Acer had this facet of laptop performance nailed with the Timeline name.
Continuing this theme, nausea creeps in: ‘Often associated with the human soul, the image of a butterfly suggests the sense of lightness. The new EasyNote Butterfly by Packard Bell is definitely light, 500g less than a standard notebook and less than one inch thick.’ In truth, the Butterfly s isn’t especially thin or light, as it’s fairly typical for a notebook with a 13.3in screen. Dispensing with a DVD writer and supplying it as an external USB drive that weighs 350g has kept the notebook’s weight down to 1.87kg. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Packard Bell may not a name you immediately associate with the latest word in netbooks, but now that it’s part of Acer, all that may be about to change. Acer has big plans for the Packard Bell brand: it intends to develop PB into the very acme of trendy tech desirability. Apparently.
Packard Bell’s dot m/a: rarely, a netbook based on AMD chippery
PB’s netbook range will eventually include three machines: the 10.1in dot s, which uses the Atom N280 chip and Windows XP; the Atom Z520-powered, Vista-running 11.6in dot m; and the dot m/a, which is a little out of the ordinary because it’s a netbook powered by an AMD processor.
To be exact, it uses a 1.2GHz Athlon L110 with an 800MHz HyperTransport bus and 512KB of L2 cache. Graphics come courtesy of the AMD ATI Radeon Xpress X1270 graphics core built into AMD’s 690G chipset. You also get 2GB of DDR 2 memory as standard and Vista Home Premium.
Despite housing an 11.6in screen, the dot m/a is still a reasonably compact and sleek affair, measuring 288 x 199 x 25.4mm and weighing 1.25kg with the standard three-cell battery pack or 1.38kg with a six-cell unit. Those dimensions are the same as Acer’s Aspire One 751 for a good reason: the two machines share the same chassis and case. Read the rest of this entry »
