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Review of the CnMBook Windows CE from Maplin
Here are some other similar products in the same category as this product since a few have been released with similar specs under different brands, including Maplin's CnmBook, PLAY.COM's and HMV's Disgo NetBrowser, some CnMBooks on Amazon, and generally most smartbooks or ultra-lightweight 7" netbooks released to the UK market under various obscure brands in 2009.
If you think of it more as some of the computer hardware of a mobile phone turned into what looks like a very small laptop, then this should help with your expectations. The processor is an ARM processor (most of these current batch of smartbooks running WinCE use an ARM processor, whereas most of these current batch of smartbooks running a variant of linux use a MIPs processor).
Unfortunately, the WinCE version used is WinCE v5, which is quite an old operating system, a few versions behind the latest WinCE/Windows Mobile version.
With the MIPS linux version, again this is a fairly specific operating system, since most of the modern linux versions are targeting different processors, so it is not the same as the choice of os's you would have with say an Intel chip (to get linux on Arm you are currently pretty limited in your choice of distributions). Maplin originally shipped the older linux version of the smartbook, then replaced this with the newer Windows CE version.
Because of this, most of these current batch of smartbooks have issues due to their operating systsems, especially the most popular Arm WinCE 5.0 smartbooks browsing the popular websites with flash, since WinCE 5 has a cut down version of IE6, and does not support Flash.
So my opinion of this current batch of smartbooks is that they are OK, they have finally delivered what the industry has been going on about for quite a while, the £99 computer/laptop, but they are not quite there yet. They do provide a nice taster of what is possible and what may arrive in 2010 with newer operating systems supporting ARM
How about the smartbook for kids?
That depends what a kid is going to use it for, but if they want to visit websites with flash games (e.g. cbeebies, flash game sites or facebook), or view youtube (the WinCE 5.0 youtube experience is not nice, it involves viewing the mobile version of youtube and running low quality 3gp mobile format video) then it will not be fit for purpose.
Specification:
| Smartbook Model | CnMbook Silver 7" | | Manufacturer | CnM Lifestyle | | Operating System | Windows CE 5.0 | | Processor | 32bit ARM - ARM926EJ-S 266Mhz | | Memory | 128MB | | Storage | 4GB Flash Drive | | LCD Screen | 7" Widescreen 800 x 480 (WVGA) | | I/O Ports | 3 x USB, 1 x Earphone, 1 x Line-In | | Card Slot | SD Card Slot | | Keyboard | Standard 80 Qwerty Key | | Mouse Control | Touch Pad | | Networking | Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), 10/100 Ethernet | | 3G Broadband Support | No | | CD/DVD drive | No CD/DVD drive | | USB Support | Keyboard & Mouse
No USB Memory Sticks Supported | | Weight | 650g | | Size | 212x140x29.5 mm |
Also consider:
The Disgo Netbrowser from HMV etc, however I would be slightly worried about the Disgo model from a performance viewpoint mainly because it has half the RAM, 64MB instead of 128MB but is running the same Windows CE v5 operating system. The Disgo also has half the Flash permanent storage, 2GB instead of 4GB, although this is less of a performance issue.
CnMBook likes:
Almost silent operation., size, battery life, doesn't get hot, screen.
CnMBook dislikes:
Keyboard (double keying is a problem, not for touch typists, by double keying I mean press Q, press W, take finger off Q and another W is typed giving QWW instead of QW), Wifi drops connections (although this might be improved with tweaking), youtube playback at mobile phone resolutions (.3gp video file format), no Adobe Flash, no support for 3G dongles (although the 3 mobile broadband Mifi product, your own personal mobile Wifi hotspot via 3G, might be the answer to this issue).
CnMBook recommendation:
Personally I cannot honestly recommend this product yet, due to my dislikes, mainly the keyboard and wifi issues. If I can tweak the system and get around these issues then I could change this recommendation in the future.
CnMBook Review by Paul Ireland, 30 Dec 2009
This article is copyright Abstract Worlds Ltd 2010 - you do not have permission to reproduce, or cut or paste, this article onto any other website, forum or any other electronic or printed media.
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