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HP's Compaq nc2400 ultraportable notebook reviewed
You may have missed that Compaq nc2400 ultraportable business laptop among the slew of notebooks we reported on yesterday, but according to Laptop magazine, those on a budget looking to travel light should probably give the 3.6-pound (with battery) model from HP a second look. You can't really expect stellar performance or a satisfying gaming experience from an ultraportable that starts at only $1,600, and benchmarking indicates that even with the fastest available Core Solo processor (the 1.2GHz U1400), this model may falter when attempting any serious multitasking. On the plus side, battery life seems to be very good, clocking in at almost six hours with the standard six-cell battery and about nine with an optional nice-cell model. You also get a combination DVD reader / CD burner, fingerprint scanner, and built-in accelerometer to lock the drive heads in the event of a fall, but unfortunately no trackpad (just the nub) or extras like 3G and Bluetooth connectivity (WiFi is still present of course). All-in-all, if you don't mind the relatively pokey processor and integrated graphics, and are fairly adept at navigating a computer using just the pointing nub, then the nc2400 seems like a pretty good way to shave some pounds from your travel gear.
Samsung Q1 UMPC to go on sale May 7th for $1,100
At a San Francisco press briefing and product demonstration that hopefully went better than its disastrous Korean counterpart last month, executives from Samsung, Microsoft, and Intel jointly announced pricing and availability details for the official U.S. release of the Q1 UMPC. Starting on May 7th, early-adopters will be able to pick up a Q1 -- along with all the high-profit-margin accessories -- at Best Buy's e-tail location for $1,100, with an in-store rollout planned for "later this summer." As you're probably already aware, the Q1, along with models from Asus, Founder, and TabletKiosk, is among the first generation of so-called Ultra Mobile PCs designed to enhance your on-the-go lifestyle, and sports a 7-inch touchscreen, Celeron M ULV processor, 40GB hard drive, 512MB RAM, 802.11b/g, and Bluetooth 2.0.
Teclast's other "dual core" DAP, the T19
We see a lot of digital audio players pass through here, but Teclast is one of the first manufacturers we've seen to incorporate a separate processor for audio decoding. Just weeks after we spotted their first so-called "dual core" DAP, the C150, comes another PDA-esque model called the T19, which has the same dedicated Wolfson WM8750 decoding chip as the "C" but adds a 1GB option into the mix. Besides MP3 playback, the "T" features MPEG-1 video support, and sports extras such as an FM tuner, line-in recording and voice recording, along with an eBook reader, dictionary, and calendar. Probably only available in China for the time being, the T19 costs 77 or 90 dollars worth of yuan for the 512MB and 1GB versions, respectively.[Thanks, lionc]
Toshiba's Dynabook whale DAP
We know oddly shaped DAPs are hard to come by, so we thought we'd run this whale seal-influenced unit by you, just in case you've been scouring the market for a marine mammal that can pump the tunes. The Toshiba Dynabook IPCZ100A sports 512MB of storage, stores a USB 2.0 connection in its tail, and has a small LCD display in its belly. There's no WMA DRM support or really much of anything, but, well, it's a seal, so let's cut it some slack.
