The sub <£300 laptop challenge

A recent AccountingWeb article (covering a recent ComputingWhich? article) claims that laptop buyers in the market for a sub £300 laptop would be “best” served by a refurbished Compaq Presario.

I haven’t got the ComputingWhich? article, but the AccountingWeb article states that eBay wasn’t a good place to purchase since the laptops there in at least one case didn’t have proper software licences, and certainly (this is true) may not come with official retailer and manufacturer after-sales support or warranty.

ComputingWhich? Editor, Abigail Waraker comments that,
“It’s not easy to find a laptop for £300, especially one that you know will perform really well. So we were very impressed with the quality of the all of the models.”

“However, our bargain hunt shows that with a refurbished laptop you can get value for money, with the same levels of support as a new model – the perfect combination if you’re already thinking of Christmas presents.”

There is absolutely no way that ComputingWhich? are right, and it is dissapointing that the best they could suggest was a refurbished Compaq Presario with a broken power supply unit. Compaq/HP laptops are notoriously poor quality, containing cheaper and lower performance parts than their more suitable counterparts. Compaq/HP laptops are the trabant of the laptop world, favoured by PC World and similar high street shops. These laptops carry huge profit margins for the shops (and poor value for you) and have a reputation for poor build quality and terrible service (particularly PC World in this regard). If you want to know more, simply google these products and companies and make your own mind up from what you read.

Their researchers were briefed to find laptops with a minimum specification of a 233MHz Intel Pentium processor, 64MB of RAM and at least 1.5GB of storage capacity. They looked everywhere, direct with manufacturers, online resellers, classified and the high street.

But they didn’t look hard enough.

There are a multitude of brand new laptops available for around or less than £300, with at least a 1600Mhz processor, 512MB of RAM and 60GB of storage capacity. As a software house, we regularly have to source cheap hardware in order to test our software for compatability. Even so, a trade account isn’t required to get a good deal on a brand new laptop. It isn’t hard to find a laptop, from a quality manufacturer using quality parts with a specification that is at least 6 times faster and 6 times bigger than the ComputingWhich? minimum.

Second hand, even refurbished laptops, unless intended for children’s toys, testing or parts are not recommended. A cheap second hand laptop may have been misused (how many times have you moved a laptop while it is on, or not kept it on a flat surface?). It may have been kept in a dusty or smoky atmosphere (I’m looking at you, smokers!), increasing the likelyhood of critical temperature causing component failure. You’re also going to be getting a second hand laptop battery with your refurbished or used laptop, this is not good, particularly as cheap laptops are too often shipped with Celeron or Athlon/Semperon processors which all use up a lot of energy and emit a lot of heat. Used batteries on old technology won’t last long, maybe an hour or so on average. Old batteries might have NiCd cells, rather than NiMH or better still, Lithium Ion cells, compounding the issues associated with old, dated batteries. “Celeron” is the Intel brand name for the cheap, budget CPUs for desktops and laptops. Newer Celerons are significantly faster and cooler than the older Celerons, although the “Core 2 Duo” model is vastly superior and should be high on your wish list.

If you have £300 to spend, and you want a capable all-rounder laptop look no further. While sipping my cup of tea, I found several resellers eager to sell a £300 laptop. These deals are from reputable resellers (who are able to refund you, should you be sent a lemon, and from manufacturers with a good reputation for support and service):

Fujitsu Siemens AMILO Pro V3515
£284.99 inc VAT (£242.54 ex VAT)
Intel Celeron M 1.6Ghz, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD
DVDRW/DVD RAM
XP Home (Vista Ready)

Acer Aspire 3694 WLMi
£299.97 inc VAT (£255.29 ex VAT)
Intel Celeron M 1.86Ghz, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD
DVDRW/DVD-RAM
Vista Home Basic

Acer Aspire 5051AWXMi
£339.99 inc VAT (£289.35 ex VAT)
AMD Turion 64 2Ghz, 1024MB RAM, 120GB HDD
DVDRW/DVD RAM
Vista Home Basic

All of the above laptops can be had with Windows XP or Windows Vista. Some come with Microsoft Works (cut down office), or you can use the fantastic OpenOffice completely free.

The refurbished laptop from Currys that ComputingWhich? found had a broken PSU, replaced under warranty within three days. The fact that there is a wide choice brand new laptops available, with safe and factory electrically tested PSU’s should be a no-brainer.

All these laptops come with consumer protection courtesy of the distance selling regulations, are brand new with warranty and service/support options and are completely brand new. They all have brand new hard disk drives with no bad sectors, no damaged pixels on the screen, clean batteries with full power potential and none of the drawbacks of a used machine.

These laptops will probably arrive, in a brand new box on your doorstep within 2-3 days of ordering. You can also order with a credit card too for additional consumer protection

When you consider that Windows Vista is £150-£200 on its own, and the original parts for these laptops comes to £200-300 if you’re able to purchase the components individually, you can see what a great bargin these low-end laptops are. My advice would be, if you can stretch to £450 - you can buy some magnificant laptops, powered by the Intel “Core 2 Duo” processor. “Core 2 Duo” (NOT to be confused with “Core Duo”) laptops are in the £400-500 price range are the current sweet spot for bang-for-your-buck performance mobile computing. Even our two local Tesco stores are selling these laptops there now.

If you’re buying for Christmas, forget the refurbished laptops. Unless you’re purchasing high-end equipment that would normally be out of your price range, a refurbished £300 laptop is a poor choice.

Do you still want a refurbished Compaq Presario after reading this?

Comments please! Read the article that prompted this blog post on AccountingWeb here

Comparing the Kaiser (TyTN II/MDA Vario III) with the Hermes (TyTN/MDA Vario II)

Thanks to a friend at T-Mobile, my Kaiser arrived on the day of it’s official launch in the UK. There are many reviews of both these devices, so I will settle for explaining the differences between the two rather than a detailed review of either.

I’m only going to cover the main areas of difference, and those points missed by all the other review sites (and they missed a lot - maybe they all had pre-production reference models?).

Introducing the TyTN II

Both the TyTN and Kaiser are Windows Mobile devices, produced for a large number of resellers under OEM by HTC. This means that although the device might be called something else, their real model names are the “HTC Kaiser” (new) replacing the “HTC TyTN” (old).

The other official names you might know these devices as are the:

HTC Kaiser
HTC TyTN II
T-Mobile MDA Vario III
Vodafone 1615
AT&T Tilt (8900, 8915, 8925)
SFR v1615
Swisscom XPA1615

HTC Hermes
HTC TyTN
T-Mobile MDA Vario II
Vodafone 1605
Vodafone VPA-Compact III
Orange SPV M3100
O2 XDA Trion
AT&T 8525
i-mate JasJam
Dopod 838 Pto
Telus P4000
Qtek 9600
Softbank XO1HT
Cingular 8525

So, what’s changed?

The HTC TyTN was a phenomenal phone/PDA combination. It was the first ever to provide HSDPA (broadband-like speeds) in a mobile phone. It is small, light and powerful. Early editions shipped with Windows Mobile 5.0 - but later editions contain the additional “Messaging and Security Pack” or Windows Mobile 6.0. I won’t go into the software comparison here, that’s another story.

The HTC TyTN II builds on HTC TyTN and makes improvements right across the board. These improvements are:

The Size

You can tell these two devices are related, they’re basically the same size. The TyTN II is slightly smaller than the TyTN, and doesn’t protrude as much. The newer materials and finish feel of a much higher quality, the plastics feel more solid and the metallic sections have a brushed aluminium design. Side by side, the TyTN II has a distinctly upmarket feel.

The buttons are more defined than the TyTN and give a good response when pushed.

Take a look at these pictures (click for a detailed view):

TyTN II (left) and TyTN (right)
TyTN II buttons are all on the lower portion of the device. The D-PAD is 2mm wider and 2mm taller than previously. The enter push-button on the center of the D-PAD is no longer attached to the D-PAD. These are slight attention-to-detail improvements that make the device easier to use, and more attractive

TyTN (left) and TyTN II (right)
TyTN II has a 3.0mp autofocus camera and GPS unit
TyTN has a 2.0mp camera with manual macro mode and flashlight

You’re unlikely to miss not having a flashlight on the TyTN II since neither camera performs particularly well indoors or in low light situations. What you will definately miss on the TyTN II is a graphics accellerator chip. Taking a well timed and clear photograph with an unmodified TyTN II is like trying to thread a needle whilst completely drunk. It’s not going to happen until HTC provide the proper hardware support for this device.

 TyTN (left) and TyTN II (right)
The TyTN II has a cool trick, it can tilt the display so that it operates like a laptop. This is particularly useful as it allows the screen to be visible whilst on any surface, without using a dock. So it can show you your email, allow you to type a document, or just be an expensive alarm clock

It is also worth mentioning that the sliding mechanism is much more elegant than the TyTN. The TyTN just slides on the rails, but the TyTN II springs closed and springs open and feels altogether more solid. It feels like this is done with magnets, but without opening it up, I can’t see how - it must be magic

TyTN (top) and TyTN II (bottom)
Note that the TyTN II is thinner than TyTN
Although it weighs more

TyTN (right) and TyTN II (left)
TyTN does not come with an IR port, but does have a proper stylus (compared to the TyTN collapsable stylus).

There are only two negatives - no IR port and the TyTN II weighs more. Other review sites say the TyTN II weighs less than the TyTN. My kitchen scales show 180gms for the TyTN II, and 160gms for the TyTN. This means that you can more easily fit the PDA into your pocket, but you’ll feel it pulling a bit more. The lack of IR port is no big deal it has been depricated by bluetooth, wireless networking and mobile internet connection technologies.

Beauty is only skin-deep

Because the real changes are under the skin. HTC has done away with the Samsung 400mhz chip and replaced the entire chipset with a Qualcomm 7200 400mhz dual CPU with integrated Imageon hardware 2D/3D graphics accelerator.

What does this mean? Well, the Qualcomm is about 8 times faster at processing according to published benchmarks, and up to 20 times faster at graphical drawing. This makes the device feel fast and responsive when web browsing, composing emails, playing games, using the camera or remote desktop and other business applications. It even gives a substantial boost to TomTom GPS navigation software.

Speaking of GPS - this device has a built in receiver, which can be used as a feed to show your location in Google Maps, Live Search, TomTom or any other GPS software. It comes with a software utility called “QuickGPS” which downloads satellite information from the internet - up to 7 days in advance - which speeds up fix time dramatically. Without any modifications, I was able to get my first satellite fix into Google Maps within 10 seconds, and it was even able to track me around my garden. Very accurate.

Memory is doubled on the TyTN II - it now packs 128 MB RAM and 256 MB ROM. That’s plenty for almost everything, you don’t need to close down pocket internet explorer, opera, email or word to still use a GPS software application and make a phonecall without slowdown. This is a stark contrast to earlier Windows Mobile devices, which made even a simple google search take forever.

USB 2.0 support - the TyTN was just a USB 1.0 device. Faster sync rate means faster web browsing (if you use your TyTN II as a mobile data modem card) and faster ActiveSync.

Improved Camera - In addition to the front mounted VGA camera; It’s now got a 3.0 mp camera with autofocus. But no flash for night shots - this isn’t a big deal, since the device isn’t meant to replace your existing camera. Be aware that there are some press reference early-model TyTN II’s floating around, probably on eBay. These are the model 100, 110, they both are either missing the main camera or both main and front cameras.

.NET Compact Framework 2.0 - This is meant as a benefit for application developers who provide you with all those wonderful life-saving convenient Windows Mobile applications that make your life easier expect to see more software for these devices over time.

HTC TouchFlo - This device came preloaded with the HTC TouchFlo software. It works by allowing finger-style navigation on lists of information. For example, your email can be navigated by running your finger over the emails and “spinning” the list up and down. It takes getting used to, but is a much easier way to navigate when you only have one hand free. Pocket Internet Explorer also supports HTC TouchFlo, allowing website navigation by allowing “flying” around the page using a finger. This has definately been inspired by the iPhone multi-touch interface, and there is a possibility that “Safari Mobile” might make it to Windows Mobile devices in the future. Microsoft are already working on their own mobile device web-browsing technology, “Deepfish” - but this project appears to have stalled as there haven’t been any updates in a while on this..

Better than an iPhone? Better than a Blackberry?

Absolutely! The iPhone doesn’t have 3G. Both TyTN and TyTN II have 3.5G - that’s broadband fast. EDGE is poorly supported and in the UK at least, the alternative to 3G is GPRS - which is slower than a slow dialup modem.

TyTN and TyTN II are both Windows Mobile devices. So you can use them to pick up your email from Exchange (direct Exchange integration). For businesses these devices can be locked down remotely (and even wiped remotely). For others, you can pick up your Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or Gmail directly with this device as it also supports the POP3 and IMAP protocols.

Should you need to work on a Word document, view a PDF, browse the internet, use MSN Messenger or Skype - you can. If you need to use your laptop - simply connect to it via bluetooth or USB cable and you’re instantly connected to the internet at broadband speeds.

What is not to love about these devices? Comments please!

edit: Thanks to jonc and drummer10630 from xda-developers for corrections on the above post!

Apple release an iPhone; without the Phone…

Apple have announced today the first major redesign of the iPod. Introducing, the iPhone-without-the-phone-pod:

 

This device, in an iPhone-style form factor, will replace the outgoing jog-wheel iPod models. In fact, it makes the current iPods look 30 years old - the new one is stunningly beautiful.

If you want one of these, you’ll need to start saving now. They are due for retail at $299 and $399 for the 8GB and for the 16GB version respectively. The new iPod also sports some of the features from it’s bigger brother, the iPhone: Multi-touch (use more than one finger on the display at a time) and Wi-Fi, as well as support for YouTube videos.

However, you can’t make or receive phone calls, or watch live internet-enabled content (WebTV, YouTube, etc), you’ll need an iPhone for that. But more great news - Apple have slashed the prices for the iPhone models too!

Just hours before the Apple announcement, in an attempt to maintain competitiveness, Microsoft slashed the recommended retail price of it’s latest Zune by $50.00.

There is no official word yet on an SDK (tools to create third party software) for either the iPhone or the iPod. Microsoft have historically held the lead in providing developer tools and basic hardware for the community to create the innovation. I’m keeping my eyes open for this one, and hoping to persuade my better half that a new not-quite-an-iPhone would be a good present for not-quite-Christmas

What are you thoughts on the new iPod? Will the lower price of the iPhone tempt you to abandon your decrepit old phone?

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