Ty Pendlebury

Samsung entered the notebook race a little over a year ago, and in that time they have consistently released a series of excellent laptops with exceptional looks and battery life. And the M50 is the flagship of the Samsung range.

The M50 features a 17″ screen in a magnesium alloy casing, which makes it very strong and light. The screen itself is well-braced with absolutely no flex, meaning that if it accidentally lands screen-side down on the ground, it’s less likely to break off or crack unlike some other, flimsier display panels.

With a screen that large, it’s no surprise that this is intended as a desktop replacement and not a portable machine. While it’s quite comfortable to carry at 2.95 kg, the battery life is not up to the level of some rivals such as Sony, and even its own stablemates. The freely-available benchmark, Battery Eater Pro, tests a laptop’s charge through several number-crunching and graphics-intensive tests. The Samsung managed a decent two hours and 28 minutes – enough for a DVD perhaps. But, plugged into the mains, its other strengths come to the fore.

The M50 features a 2GHz Pentium processor, a hefty amount of RAM for a notebook – 1GB – and a goodly amount of hard drive space in 80GB. The notebook will also play new release games courtesy of its Geforce Go 6600 chipset. And games are particularly well served – it will run the latest DirectX 9 games, achieving a 3DMark 05 score of 2173, which is excellent for a notebook.

Meanwhile,PCMark 04 managed an excellent 4080 marks which is quite exceptional for a notebook. This is one powerful machine.
In terms of ergonomics, Samsung are one of the best, and the M50 is no missed trick. The keys are responsive, the trackpad is one of the most pleasing to use, and the display is bright and consistent across the screen.

The M50 is an excellent notebook for both general usage and multimedia applications. It’s thin, relatively portable, and well priced. Samsung’s dominance of the laptop market continues.

Samsung M50 | $3,599 |

For: Light for a desktop replacement; surprisingly good battery life; excellent performance.
Against: Lack of multimedia features such as webcam and TV tuner
Verdict: A reasonably priced notebook with a gorgeous screen, and enough juice for the daily commute

 

Creative adopts iPod “cool” as it launches the new Sleek for the UK. Locals meanwhile, get access to the Neeon – 5GB for under $300.

The Zen Neeon.

The Zen Sleek, the Zen Neeon and the Zen 20GB are a part of Creative’s attempt to gain back Apple’s overwhelming market share. 

The Zen Neeon, while already released in Asia, was announced for Australian release today. It is based on the Muvo player, features a 5GB drive, and replaceable covers. It will be available here at the end of July with an RRP of $299.95.
Meanwhile, the Zen Sleek was announced in the UK on the weekend, and combines elements of the Zen Micro and the iPod Mini, with a compact aluminium and white plastic casing, a 20GB hard-drive, and the Micro’s existing navigation system. No pricing or availability has been announced.

Thirdly, the Zen 20GB player was released in Australia in early June, is a little larger than the Micro but based on the same shape and features a healthy 20GB of space, and is available for $449.
Creative are no doubt betting that the stylish appearance of the new range, and in particular the Zen Sleek, will appeal to users enamoured with the iPod’s blend of simplicity and “cool”.

“The Zen Sleek is the latest expression of Zen style,” Geraldine De Bonis, European Business Manager for MP3 Players with Creative said in a press release. “Its combination of cutting edge design with the most advanced audio technology makes it a unique and modern statement of excellence. It’s the player for people who want an individual product with outstanding sound.”

 

At last, a timepiece designed for those of us with – how do you put this? – a relaxed sense of time.

US company Talus Furniture have released details about their ‘About Time’ watch which aims to bring analog time values to the digital world.

Taking a very philosophical stance – “time is not uniform but flows from moment to moment” – the new timepiece reads the time like you would say it. For example, if it’s 8.13, most people would say ‘quarter past eight’, and that’s exactly what the watch will say.

However, if you want a more accurate reading, pressing the ‘Set’ button gives you the exact time.

The company says the watch can be customised to display localised slang terms, or to ‘speak’ like an English butler.

Talus is also planning another watch, called the ‘Timeline’ which shows the hour ‘floating’ from the bottom to the top of the display.

Manufacturing of the watches is still under negotiation, with local availability and pricing unavailable.

Lexmark began life producing printers for Apple before changing its name to Lexmark.

And under this name, the company has grown its skillset and made its reputation on multi-function centres. The X8350 is Lexmark’s latest product, and trades in on the current fascination with digital photography.

As such, it features an inbuilt card-reader, PictBridge, and PC-free photo image editing. As well as this, it includes the usual multi-function features such as faxing, photocopying and scanning.

With such a focus on photography, what are the prints like? Well, excellent. Colours are reproduced with vibrancy and there is very little discernable grain to areas such as sky, which can prove tricky for inkjet printers. Speed is also on a par with other printers in its class with an A4 print taking four minutes and 27 seconds.

Text quality is also very good, and fast: in normal mode, the printer reproduced a 20 page text document in 2 minutes and 38 seconds. And in ‘quick copy’ mode it managed 1 minute and 31 seconds, and while there was significant banding the text was still perfectly readable, with none of the bleed that hampers brands such as Canon and Epson.

Setup was also a breeze, with the installation guiding you quickly through the process.

So, are there any downsides to this machine? The only thing we can think of is that there are only two separate ink tanks – one black and one colour – meaning that once one colour runs out the entire tank needs replacing, which could become costly. But with print quality this good, you won’t mind so much.

The X8350 is an excellent machine, and adds several features to its predecessor the X7170 such as a memory card reader for a lower price. It is well suited to both small offices and photography enthusiasts alike.

 

Lexmark X8350 | $449 |

For: Excellent print quality; fast; affordable.

Against: No individual colour tanks; no CD printing

Verdict: A truly versatile machine which is equally at home with printing photographs and reproducing text documents.

 

Computer games on a tabletop are about to become a reality due to a new touch-sensitive table from Mitsubishi, which it debuted at the recent Games Developers Conference in California.

The table works by projecting a computer screen onto the table, which contains pressure sensitive pads. Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) demonstrated the DiamondTouch table with a game of Warcraft III, which also reacted to voice commands.

Adam Bogue, MERL’s vice president of marketing and business, told games site IGN how the device worked: “DiamondTouch is front-projected and uses an array of antennas embedded in the touch surface. Each antenna transmits a unique signal. Each user has a separate receiver, connected to the user capacitively, typically through the user’s chair.

“When a user touches the surface, antennas near the touch point couple an extremely small amount of signal through the user’s body and to the receiver. This unique touch technology supports multiple touches by a single user (e.g., two handed touch gestures) and distinguishes between simultaneous inputs from multiple users. DiamondTouch tables are available in two sizes (32″ diagonal and 42″ diagonal display), while custom sizes and shapes are available on spec”, he said.

While possible uses include gaming, it could also be used for planning by emergency services, or for other such collaborative business and government uses.

Videos of the table in action are available here: http://gear.ign.com/articles/698/698241p1.html