If you’re going to spend $40k-$42k on a DLP projector, you want to know it can deliver the visual goods. Happily, according to Electronic House, the SIM2 Grand Cinema CX3 Lumis HOST system does just that; the two-piece Full HD projector produced “viewing splendor”.
As hugely convergent devices go, D-Link’s DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router could be best of breed. Announced at CES in January, the DIR-685 not only offers WiFi draft-n support and four gigabit ethernet ports, but a 3.5-inch display with multimedia widgets, dual USB 2.0 ports for sharing printers and external drives, and an internal 2.5-inch HDD bay for turning it into a NAS. Overkill or network overlord? OhGizmo! took a look, and while the DIR-685 is expensive it’s also just as capable as you’d hope.
Over at our sibling site PhoneMag they’ve posted the full Nokia N97 review, and if you’ve been as eagerly-anticipating this smartphone as we have then you really need to read it. On paper, the N97 ticks just about every box you could hope for, but when it comes to usability and overall polish it seems that Nokia may have dropped the ball.
Acer’s Timeline range of notebooks spans the gamut from 13.3-inch ULV ultraportable to 15.6-inch mainstream laptop, promising prolonged battery life with an affordable price tag. The company sent over their Aspire Timeline 3810T, a 13.3-inch 1.4GHz ULV machine with heady runtime estimates and an $899 sticker, for SlashGear to try out; check out the full review after the cut.
Considering you can find SD cards, PMPs and even fridges packing WiFi these days, it’s something of a surprise that so few digital photo frames include wireless connectivity. One such exception is the Sungale ID800WT Widget Photo Frame, an 8-inch 800 x 600 touchscreen display which not only promises to show off your holiday snaps – whether locally stored or in an online gallery – but YouTube, GMail and internet radio, too. Unfortunately, as Zatz Not Funny discovered, the reason so few frames include WiFi is perhaps because the manufacturers handle it so poorly.
When your HDTV is a one-of-a-kind ultrawide 56-inch display with a £4,500 ($7,318) price tag, you’d better hope it rates well in reviews. Thankfully Philips’ indecently broad Cinema 21:9 56PFL9954H does just that; according to TechRadar, the 1080p high-def set delivers “the best aspects of the finest sets” they’ve ever seen.
After the MSI X-Slim X340’s recent frankly awful review, we’ve been waiting for a third-opinion and hopefully some indication that the ultraportable’s poor showing was a one-off aberration. Unfortunately, many of the critique points from that review – poor build quality, “cheap and nasty” trackpad and “tacky” keyboard – also crop up in NotebookReview’s piece.
We’ve known Toshiba’s mini NB205 netbook was headed to the US since the beginning of the month, and the first units seem to be arriving. LaptopMag’s well-work test bench is one of the earliest recipients, and while the N280-based NB205 may be behind the curve when it comes to reaching the market, according to reviewer Joanna Stern it “rises above the competition”.
Chuwi’s W3000 still looks unlikely to arrive on US or European shelves any time soon, but that hasn’t dulled the enthusiasm of the guys over at MP4 Nation. They’ve been putting the 4.1-inch touchscreen PMP through its paces, and finding that in contrast to the SmartQ 5, the W3000 actually does a good job both as a media player and as an internet device.
We’ve already seen enough of Viliv’s X70 to know it could arguably be the company’s best device to-date, and now the first full review of the 7-inch UMPC is in from our friend Steve over at UMPC Portal. He describes the X70 as “the best 7-in Tablet UMPC we’ve ever tested”, praising its great build quality, long battery life and impressive web browsing and media playback.
Video demo of X70 running StreetDeck PND app after the cut
SlashGear Japan
