CES 2009 - Day 1: Netbooks, "Talking" Cars and more
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Manveer Wasson on January 9, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Coming into this year’s CES, we knew things would be different.
With many large companies having no presence on the show floor, and estimated attendance down, we expected a different feeling from the show. After attending press conferences from LG, Toshiba, Samsung, Panasonic, and Sony, we can certainly confirm our thoughts. With the world’s economy in recession, CE companies have had to change their marketing approach from those flashy, obscenely large screens that nobody could afford (remember all those “World’s Largest TV” claims?).
Photography for this and other AT CES articles provided by Laura Johnston
Companies are still showing off their fancy new gadgets, they’re just more affordable. Netbooks like Sony’s P Series Lifestyle PC are quite popular on the show floor; however there is now a new emphasis placed on being eco-friendly.
A solar powered battery charger? Green is in.
Every company this year took a significant portion of their allotted 45 min of time during the pre-CES press conferences to talk about the environmental impact of their products. From Energy Star 3.0 and ROHS compliance, to CO2 emissions reductions from factories, these companies are definitely starting to take the environment into consideration for their products.
More green
The Year of the Netbook
The popularity of netbooks have grown tremendously over the past year and on the show floor this year there was definitely buzz about some of the new models.
The Sony P Series launched as a “Lifestyle PC” however it’s basically a more stylish netbook. From a design standpoint, the device works well. At 1.4 lbs and 8” wide, it can fit into a large coat pocket or purse. The keyboard is roughly 90% the size of a full sized keyboard which is a huge plus. It’s also available in 5 “fashion-forward” colors.
However the internals are definitely lacking compared to other netbooks. With a 1.33 Ghz Intel Z520 Atom processor and Windows Vista pre-installed, even navigating the desktop is sluggish. It took over a minute just to get to Device Manager from the desktop.
And at an outrageous price point of $900, you’re not anything more than style for your money. For $500 you can get a HP Mini 1000 with a 1.6Ghz Atom N270 in a 2.5 lbs package.
Speaking of the Mini, HP unveiled their new HP Mini 2140 aimed at the commercial market.
Improvements over the 1000 include an aluminum case design and available SSD drive upgrade options. Starting at $499, the Mini has a 1.6Ghz Atom N270, 1GB of ram (max 2GB), and a 10.1” LCD display. Compared to the Sony P Series, this netbook is much more useable, it just doesn’t look as cool.
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vjoose - Friday, March 13, 2009 - link
Somebody please send a copy of this vista driver to my mail box...vjoose@asiamail.com
Enough suffers with the fxxking Intel driver. I just can't hold myself dreaming of turning my mini 12 to the one shown in CES ...
icrf - Tuesday, January 13, 2009 - link
"The Imagination Technologies staff also ran a dual stream video decode demo where they had a Atom/Poulsbo netbook playing one 8Mbps H.264 video and a 1080p H.264 video on an external display, simultaneously."I thought Poulsbo could only output 1366x768, so it's not outputting 1080p anywhere.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc...">http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc...
syrup1971 - Monday, March 23, 2009 - link
The Video decoder, can decode 1080P video, so it is showing a 1080P video, which is scaled using the graphics core, to format for the display. The display pipeline is capable of higher resolutions than 1366x768, as witnessed for example in Sonys vaio P, with its 1600x768 display.sprockkets - Sunday, January 11, 2009 - link
The HP pictures are wrong. The first two are the new HP Linux GUI interface netbook, http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/compute...">http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopp...imi_seri...The other one must be the business one. I recently used a Dell Mini 9. Keyboard is a bit too small. But those HP ones are nice.
JonnyDough - Saturday, January 10, 2009 - link
"Intel gave a few examples of how this system could be used. Say the car in front of yours with this system in place applied its breaks (hence illuminating the LED brake lights), data embedded in those lights can be sent to your car and processed by an onboard computer (powered by an Intel Atom, of course). The computer could then either warn you that the car in front of you is slowing down or even apply the brakes for you."I just wanted to say that this is going to present major problems. People will get used to auto-braking and the sound that tones when someone in front of you brakes. Ice over the sensor or headlights, a dead sensor, or a dead pulse switch is going to leave you in the rear-end of the car in front of you.
Oh, and Anandtech: Quote button doesn't work right.
sprockkets - Saturday, January 10, 2009 - link
Cars apply their "breaks" all the time, huh?vailr - Friday, January 9, 2009 - link
Re: "The SGX543 will probably show up in designs in about 2 years."I'd tend to doubt that statement. I'm guessing: more like one year or less. Also: there was a mention somewhere online about a dual-core Atom CPU being in development. Any news about that?
Penti - Friday, January 9, 2009 - link
Dual core atoms is available today it's called Atom 330 which is a 8W TDP dual-core desktop Atom.ebayne - Friday, January 9, 2009 - link
The same folks who bought the jellybean colored macbooks will buy the Sony in droves. For the same reason. They're cute. Women, students and metrosexual execs will line up to purchase it because it looks "nice" and because all their friends want them. Feature conscious road-warriors aren't Sony's target demographic.JimmiG - Friday, January 9, 2009 - link
That Sony netbook doesn't even look very good IMO. I like the look of that new HP Mini a lot more.I also agree that Atom-powered netbooks only make sense in the <$400 segment. Even with a GeForce GPU, there just isn't enough raw CPU power to justify spending $600 or more on an Atom netbook. If you want to spend more, just buy a 13" Core2 machine with better graphics. I do like my $290 Aspire One, though.