Technical characteristics
CPU: Intel Pentium U5400 (dual-core, 1.2 GHz, L3-Cash 3 MB) * Chipset: Intel QS57 Express * RAM: 2 GB DDR3-800 MHz * Video: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD, up to 728 MB video memory * Displays: 2x 7 inches (1024×600, 16: 9), sensory (capacitive), LED backlight * Drummer: 64 GB (SSD) * Flash cards: Microsd up to 2 GB, microSDHC up to 16 GB * Connectors: USB 2.0, 3.5 mm mini-jack * Sound: Built -in speakers * Connection: GSM/GPRS/Edge 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS/HSPA 2100 MHz * Harrys Casino sister sites Wireless modules: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + edr * Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit * Additionally: Accelerometer, webcam (1280×800), 6 screen keyboard options * Battery: lithium-ion * Autonomous work time: up to 3 h * Dimensions: 20.2×12.3×3.07 cm * Weight: 820 g * Price for February 2011: $ 1100 in the world, from 80,000 rubles in Russia
Last fall, the company Toshiba I introduced a very extraordinary device – TOSHIBA Libretto W100 , A mini-non-laptop with an additional screen located where we are used to seeing the keyboard. This feature significantly expands the capabilities of the device – and significantly infuriates the price. Whether there is a conceptual thing, for a variety of output not under the brand Apple , place in the market occupied by tablets?
Under the hood
Libretto weighs less than the average netbook, but more than the tablet – 820 grams. The device is created on the basis of the processor Intel Pentium U5400 1.2 GHz frequency is a new mobile processor with an integrated graphic chip, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD. This chip, although it cannot compete with modern graphic boards from NVIDIA And AMD , able to provide a quality picture when viewing HD-video. In addition, the laptop is equipped with two gigabytes of DDR3 RAM and a solid -state drive of 64 GB. The little thing also has a Microsd connector (unfortunately, only cards up to 16 GB are supported), one USB 2 port 2.0 and 3.5 mm mini-jack for headphones. The Ethernet connector is not provided for the gadget, only wireless wireless joints via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are supported, so without a Libretto access point will not be released on the Internet.
LED backlight displays, clear and bright, the picture does not cause any complaints. Multitach is supported – all the gestures to which we were accustomed to devices Apple , They work here. By default, the picture is displayed in the album mode, as on a laptop, but it can be translated into a portrait one – in this form the device will take the view of the book. By the way, "Libretto" is translated from Italian as "Book".
At first glance, the "book" is not very impressive. After seeing Libretto, you can not pay attention to it, but it is worthwhile to twist a laptop in your hands, as it will appear before you from a completely different side. In a closed form, this is a rather chubby volume of three centimeters thick. The case is glossy, the upper cover is made under fiberglass, like a hood of a racing car. On the lower, corrugated side of the case are four rubberized legs, thanks to which the device almost does not slip. The legs in the rear of the case are longer than the front are about half a centimeter, and on the plane the laptop is under a slight inclination to the user. The lid can be fixed in any position: left at an angle of 90-100 degrees and work with Libretto as with a laptop or open for all 180 and turn a “book” into a tablet.
Rich inner world
Libretto works under the control of a full -fledged Windows 7 Home Premium , due to which the question of supported video and audio files falls away by itself. You can install any software designed for Windows on a miniature “Book”: a combination of a sufficiently powerful iron filling and the operating system from Microsoft Opens the widest horizons. By the way, the kit includes pre -installed, but not activated Microsoft Office Standard 2010.
However, Windows 7 is primarily a table operating system. Initially, it is not focused on finger control, in its interface there are many small elements, so Toshiba has developed a number of additions for the OS. They do not solve the problem completely, but make work with the system much easier and more pleasant. So, the buttons for deployment for the entire width (or height) of two screens and for instant transfer to another screen are added to the stalk of each window. If you poke into the stalk itself, then a menu will appear on top of the window, which allows you to quickly perform such complex operations for smacked and deployment, increased, luminous size and, finally, just closing. The click of the right mouse button is implemented in the same way, in compact versions of Windows for the CCP, it is emulated by a long press at one point.
By pressing one of the three hard-covers on the lower screen, a graphic shell appears Toshiba Bulletin Board. It consists of eight panels, each of which (with the exception of the first – on it are located elements of control of the Toshiba utilities) can be used to place widgets: calendar, watch, organizer, sticky stickers, bookmarks. You can also get photos from the webcam here and make signatures to them. Or you can change the color of the background of the panel and write something from above with a finger, like a pencil (drawn characters are recognized well, but this entertainment is still an amateur).
On the lower edge of the screen there are virtual activation buttons of various functions: volume adjustment, window choice (analogue of the ALT + TAB keyboard combination), screen magnifier, virtual touchpad with two buttons and, finally, the screen keyboard, on which it is in more detail.
We are offered to choose six types of keyboard, each has its own area of application. There is a regular QWERTY keyboard with rather large virtual buttons and without additional keys. There is a full -fledged keyboard – for obvious reasons the key on it is smaller, it is not so comfortable to use it, but there are buttons from F1 on F12. There are also two options for the keyboard for blind printing: the first – with direct key placement, the second with an ergonomic displacement. The last two versions are variations of a digital keyboard, one of which copies an additional digital block of a computer, and the second – a mobile phone keyboard with letters on digital buttons. The keyboard can be placed on any of the two screens where it is more convenient. To facilitate the set (and print on Libretto – a specific pleasure) “Book” is equipped with a module selecting the right word – analogue T9.
Difficulties in orientation
Like any experiment device, Libretto has several serious disadvantages. The most unpleasant thing is software bugs. For example, the transition from album orientation to portrait and back occurs quite slowly; In the process of transition, the interface elements are kept on now and then, sometimes leaving behind the “ghosts”, and the Toshibovskaya control panel does not immediately take its place on the screen correctly.
The turn of the picture is not very comfortable. If you remember, the picture turned on the iPad as crazy, and, passing the device from hand to hand, it was never sure of which position the contents of the desktop would end up. On Libretto, the picture does not spin immediately: the rotation is preceded by an animated icon, and the screen orientation changes only if by the end of the Libretto animation is in the same position as in the beginning. So: until the animation is over, it is better not to move. One unsuccessful movement – and the picture will not turn over.
Two is better than one
It is unlikely that Libretto expects deafening success and wide recognition: Toshiba releases its “book” with a limited circulation, and the price bites. “Pioneers!" – justifies her press. However, this is not so: engineers of other companies have previously tried to create devices with two screens.
Lenovo ThinkPad W700DS
Developed Lenovo laptop ThinkPad W700DS – This is not even a mobile device in the usual sense, but a portable workstation. With a weight of almost five kilograms and an exorbitant price of $ 3150, at the time of release, this computer was equipped with the latest technique. It was equipped with a Core 2 Quad processor, the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 graphic board with a video memory of up to 8 GB, with hard drives with a capacity of up to 960 GB, wireless Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules, a built-in Wacom tablet and had two displays-the main one with a diagonal of 17 dumers and an additional , at 10.6 inches. The computer was intended for photographers and designers, but even in these narrow circles did not become popular.
Gscreen Spacebook 17
American company Gscreen For the third year, it has shown engineering samples of its two -screen laptop at exhibitions Gscreen Spacebook 17. Year from year, technical characteristics and date of sale are changing. In December 2010, GSCREEN was going to launch Spacebook 17 this spring, and the filling promised this: the Intel Core i7-620M processor 2.66 GHz, 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA GEFORCE GTS 150M 1 GB graphics card is 250 500 GB and, of course, two matte 17-inch screens with a resolution of 1920×1080, which are laid out horizontally using a slider. This is just the question: how portable can the device with two 17-inch displays be?
Kohjinsha dz6khe16e
Japanese company Kohjinsha For a year, a two-screen laptop on the basis of the AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor, equipped with 1 GB of RAM, a 160 GB-based ATI Radeon HD 3200 processor, has been selling a two-screen laptop. The highlight of the device is two 10.1-inch screen with a resolution of 1024×600 each. In folded form, they are located one after another and are laid out in width using a special slider mechanism. Despite the fact that a small battery has to feed two displays at once instead of one, DZ6KHE16E can hold out without recharge, solid 4.5 hours. The price of the conceptual gadget Kohjinsha, as for the Libretto W100, bites – $ 1110.
Estari Canova
Canova – This is a conceptual device with a unique mechanism of fastening of screens, which allows you to place them almost as relative to each other. Having changed the displays back and forth, from Canova you can make a laptop with a screen keyboard and a tablet (if you place one screen on top of another), and an electronic reader (if you put the screens in a row), and a photo frame (if you support one screen). The gadget shines with a honed industrial design, but no price, no release date, technical characteristics, nor the target audience of the device is known. It is probably from the same tribe as our mini-noute: there is no practical application, but the fact of the invention pleases.
Iron miscalculation
Not without technical shortcomings. For example, we were able to evaluate the quality of sound only in the headphones: perhaps this is a malfunction specifically our apparatus, but the built-in speakers sounded so quiet that even in complete silence it was difficult to make out anything. It suddenly turned out that the weakest Libretto place is the battery. It would seem that a device with such a powerful filling and two screens simply must be provided with a powerful battery! But the Libretto battery provides it with three hours of life in an autonomous mode, and then only if you do not want, for example, watch a movie. When playing the video, the time of the "Books" is reduced to a miserable forty minutes.
There are smaller flaws. For example, the processor and cooling system are located in the upper part of the case. Without a doubt, this is a reasonable solution, but because of this location, the lid heats up-you will feel this if you deploy a mini-nuum to the state of the book and put on your knees.
Libretto webcam is located on the left side of the upper screen. This is probably a design feature and it was impossible otherwise, but this placement seems illogical: because of it, the object is shifted to the side, regardless of the position of the device.
And finally – the drawback that is present in 99% of the sensory gadgets: the surface of the screens is glossy, and therefore glitters, very quickly stuck with his fingers and begins to look untidy.
* * *
It is quite obvious that Toshiba Libretto W100 is a status device. This is a laptop that is trying to pretend to be a tablet – and falls on one field with the eminent brainchild of Apple. The problem of Libretto is that there is not a single task for which it would be worth buying. Compared to the iPad, the “Book” does not withstand any criticism (“apple” tablet and cheaper and more universal), and in comparison with laptops of its price category, it loses in functionality. TOSHIBA Libretto looks appropriate only in the hands of a top manager, who needs a touch-based electronic book to switch during the presentation of the slides with financial calculations.
A good concept is broken about stones of shortcomings: the desktop Windows 7 is poorly adapted to control without a mouse; The branded shell does not greatly facilitate the work with the OS, and the capacitive matrix does not respond to pressing the stylus; A short time of work does not allow the use of Libretto on long trips. Finally, the price is too high. Those who have deposited 80,000 rubles on a laptop will most likely spend them on a game model – the cost of a two -display hybrid and a powerful gaming machine approximately.
Pros:
- Brave concept
- Status device
- It is convenient to use for business presentations
Cons:
- Lesser time of autonomous work
- It is inconvenient to control the fingers
- glossy surface of the screens
- Glump software
- Very high price