Netbook Review, notebook review, tablet review, PC review » MIDs

Archos 7 Home Tablet hands-on pictures

Brooke — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 07:50:02 +0000

Archos unveiled two tablets at CeBIT 2010. One of them was the Archos 7 Home Tablet which has a 7-inch display and runs Google Android OS, just like the all recent Archos tablets. Newsgadgets.de reports that the device feels thin and light and the quality is top-notch too.

Boy, look at that huge engraving on its back!

ARM to release multi-core CPU in 2013

Brooke — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:13:12 +0000

How fast the phones and MIDs going to be in the coming future? Well, to get answer to this question, we shall approach the President of ARM. ARM is the company that drives millions of mobile phones all around the world.

Now, after unveiling their ARM Cortex A8 CPU last year, they now have plans to unveil a multi-core CPU in 2013. Codenamed “Eagle”, this multi-core CPU will use 22nm technology and will offer high-end graphics along with increased security.

ENT N97 MID

Kamal DS — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:30:46 +0000

ENT has launched N97 MID, which has a bright 7-inch TFT display and runs on an ARM processor. ENT is targeting it towards the media-centric people and to those who do browsing on-the-go. It has all the latest radios built-in: WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and even packs in 3G!Its smooth rounded corners will make sure that it feels comfortable in your hands.ENT says it will give you PC-class Internet experience, which we doubt would be possible on a MID like this that has a Marvell PXA303 ARM processor. It comes with 256MB flash-based storage which can be extended by use of SD cards (upto 16GB supported).It is powered by a lithium-polymer battery that should give you run time of around 4 hours. Oddly, the type of OS that it runs is not specified anywhere, but we expect it to be running Android OSNote: This shall not be confused with the symbian-based Nokia N97 phone

Sharp RD-PM1 MID – nothing great about this MID

Paul Merak — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:27:20 +0000

Sharp has rolled out another great looking MID: RD-PM1. This design employs use of slider mechanism.It comes with a 4.3-inch touch-screen and a rather shabby resolution of 480x272. It has a sliding keyboard which it cleverly hides itself beneath its screen when not in use. It is powered by Windows CE 5.0 operating system. It has 8GB flash-storage, micro-SD slot (upto 16GB supported), built-in Bluetooth and WiFi. It is set to carry a price-tag of $290.To be honest, we were more impressed by the two other MIDs that the Sharp rolled out (Sharp PM-MID and Sharp PC-Z1). At least, they sported better resolution. Whats up with the pathetic resolution in RD-PM1? Heck, even iPhone has better resolution than that!

Smart Q7 MID Price in China – Yuan 1200 ($175)

Jane — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:28:02 +0000

SmartQ MIDs are cheap, and by cheap we mean really cheap. They can be seen being sold at under $200 in most of the online stores. SmartQ7 MID is a 7-inch MID with WVGA resolution that is based on an ARM-11 architecture. It has meager 1GB flash based storage.Other Specs: WiFi, built-in microphone, SDHC expansion slot and can be mounted as mass-storage device. Weighing just 480gm, it is one of the lightest 7-inch device we have ever come across. It is also one of the cheapest MIDs around. It costs just $175! Try beating that.Note: WVGA = 800X480

Toshiba releases 3 new MIDs – Toshiba K01, Toshiba K02 and Toshiba L1 – Run Windows Mobile

Brooke — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:29:43 +0000

Toshiba is showing off 3 new MIDs: K01, K02 and L1. All of them sport touch screens. First MID, the K01, comes with an 4.1-inch slider touch screen and has thickness of mere 0.6 inches. Second MID, the K02 has an 3.5-inch screen having 800x400 (WVGA) resolution. It is equipped with a 10-key keyboard.Third one, the L1 has a bigger screen than aforementioned 2 models. It has a massive 7-inch screen. These MIDs will be released by end of the year 2010 and will run on Windows Mobile 6.5.Commentary: It is interesting to see manufactures still churning out MIDs based on Windows Mobile platform. This means that there is still a good market for the Windows Mobile MIDs since it also has its own advantages over the webOS, iPhone or Android OS., apart from the bucketfull of disadvantages when compared to other mobile operating systems.

Viliv S10 Netbook unveiled! – Pricey

Jane — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:59:17 +0000

Viliv is the world's most popular MID manufacture right now which has churned out pretty impressive MIDs and UMPCs in the past few months. But, let's face it: MIDs still form a small niche. Viliv, thus, made a very clever decision of entering the netbook arena by introducing their Viliv S10 netbookIt comes with normal specifications for a netbook: 10-inch display with convertible touchscreen, Intel's Atom 1.33GHz processor or 2.0GHz and comes with Windows 7 Home Premium. It has 1GB of Ram, 32GB or 64GB SSD and promises amazing 10-hours runtime on single charge. The base model will start at $500.Yes, an Atom 2GHz processor will finally be making its way to the netbooks and Viliv S10 will be one of the first netbooks in the world to use it. However, we are definitely not happy to see it starting at $500. We hope that Viliv is well aware of the fact that 99% of the total netbooks actually cost below that price level and it is very important to get the price right in this cut throat competition.

MID Conceptual design by Petr Kubik – Design of things to come?

Brooke — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:59:42 +0000

Petr Kubik, a student at Brno University of technology has come with a great looking design that is meant for Mobile Internet Devices. The design makes use of folding screen concept, which basically lets you read webpages like a newspaper.To do the input, you can use the onscreen virtual keyboard.Click on read more to see more images.

Meet the amazing Zii Egg MID – Supports 1080p video output and can run Good Android!

Paul Merak — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:33:16 +0000

The Zii Egg MID is one of the few MIDs that can run two different operating systems. It can run either popular Google Android or Linux 'Plaszma' OS.The Zii Egg uses Zii ZMS-05 processor which is powerful enough to output 1080p video. It comes with an 3.5-inch 320x480 display just the iPhone and has full support for multi-touch (again, just like the iPhone). It comes with 256MB RAM and 32GB flash storage. It even features an SDHC slot through which you can further expand the storage memory by 32GB (which is easily available now).It comes with 2 cameras: one on the front and another at its back. The front one (0.3MP) is meant to be used for video calling and the back one has "HD resolution" (should be either 1.3MP or 2MP). It is has pretty slim profile as it just 12mm thick and weighs a mere 108g!Price? Just $199. iPod Touch fans, jealous? Or you can spend $400 with which you will get Zii Plaszma starter kit AND Zii Egg MID Click on read more to see lot of other pictures of this sleek MID!

Dell working on a Mobile Internet Device to compete with Apple iPod Touch

Paul Merak — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:52:17 +0000

According to several online sources, Dell may be working on a non-cellular device that will run Google Android OS. The rumored device is said to be a little larger than the iPod Touch. Also, it is speculated that Dell will be selling it via mobile operators. Sources say that it will be launched in the second half of 2009.

Apple has been able to sell millions of iPod Touch devices all over the world even though it did not posses cellular capabilities. This clearly shows that people DO WANT a powerful pocketable Internet device. It would be great if Dell is able to get firefox on their upcoming MID as it will make help it to gain an edge over Apple’s iPod Touch in the context of FIE (Full Internet Experience).

Nokia N900 coming – Nokia Tablets are not dead!

Paul Merak — Thu, 28 May 2009 06:46:12 +0000

Nokia is soon going to release Nokia N900, a MID (Mobile Internet Device) running Maemo OS. It is going to be equipped with WVGA display, 32-48GB storage memory, a 5MP auto-focus camera with flash (!). It will hit European retailers in the month of July.Although, we are not huge fans of devices, which do not run Desktop OS like XP or Ubuntu, but we are happy to know that Nokia has not completely forgotten its loyal Tablet fans. Also, it is great that Nokia is bumping up the storage memory to 32GB, which will allow the users to store a lot of data, but the overall package could have become better if they had decided to bump up the resolution to something like 1024 x 600. WVGA (800 x 480) is commonly found in HTC Phones and MIDs need to have some sort of edge over the phones.

ARM netbook coming to AT&T

Paul Merak — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:13:30 +0000

AT&T is soon going to offer ARM based netbooks running Linux OS. Glen Lurie, President of emerging devices for AT&T says,

“There are a lot of people who will dive in and build netbooks, including folks like cellular or wireless OEMs who never built a computer before. There will be a lot of innovation around what a netbook looks like and what the use cases are, and we will see this evolve very quickly,”

He thinks that the ARM based netbooks would do just fine as people are doing their work via Cloud-based applications and thus do not need a lot of horsepower in their netbooks. He also showed keen interest in the MIDs, which he refers to as "smartphones on steroids."AT&T is already selling four subsidized netbooks: Acer Aspire One, Dell Mini 9, Dell Mini 12 and LG X110.PS: Lurie also manages AT&T's relationship with Apple to sell the iPhone in the U.S.

Compal reducing R&D support for MIDs – Are they not selling well?

Paul Merak — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:38:55 +0000

MID (Mobile Internet Devices) is a segment which started along with UMPCs (ultra mobile PCs) and Netbook. Both UMPCs and MIDs simply failed to take off.The Compal Electronics has reduced its R&D resources specifically allocated for MIDs due to the uncertain business outlook for the segment, according to industry sources.However, Compal made a wise move by shifting those employees to the netbook R&D segment.

Z550 Atom processor reaches 2.0GHz

Paul Merak — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 16:32:55 +0000

Information about two Z-series Atom processors was leaked today. One is 1.2GHz processor (Z515), which is extremely power-frugal and consumes just 1.4W when running at full power and as-little-as 0.65W when scaled back to 800MHz clock speed. However, with all these fancy low number, you will have to bear with slower 400MHz system bus and a 100MHz slower graphics core.The second Atom is the first one to achive 2GHz clock speed (Z550). Interestingly, it still consumes 2.4W of power which is same as consumed by the 1.86GHz version.The Z515 will be targeted at the low-powered MIDs and low-cost netbooks. Onviously, the Z550 will be targeted towards hi-end netbooks.