$99 Netbook at CVS

!±8± Netbook at CVS

As of September 5, 2010, CVS drugstores are selling a Sylvania netbook for . There's been plenty of buzz in the press, but no complete reviews.

We bought one of these yesterday and plan to return it today. It's not bad, it just doesn't serve our needs.

What we wanted was a substitute for our laptops so we didn't have to lug them around on short trips. What we got is, for all practical purposes, an oversized PDA.

Following is a comparison and contrast list. "L" stands for WinXP/Vista laptop, "N" stands for the Sylvania netbook.

HARDWARE

L: 4 lbs or more

N: 2 lbs (so light, this is the best thing about it!)

L: Professional build quality

N: Feels more like a toy

L: Slow boot

N: Fast boot

L: Intel or AMD full processors, gigs of RAM

N: Via 8505 processor, 128 mB RAM

L: Battery life 3-4 hours

N: 2 hours after first charge

L: Hard drive (operating system susceptible to viruses)

N: Flash drive (easily reset to factory specs with a paper clip if it crashes); SD card slot (not SDHC)

L: 2-3 USB ports

N: 3 USB ports

L: Good looking screen, at least 1024 x 768.

N: Bright screen lacking contrast, 800 x 480 pixels. It's ok for browsing, although some websites are wider than 800 pixels and you'll need to use the slider bar to see the right side of the screen. Being a small screen, 7", icons in the bottom tray are quite small. With some screen content, pixel columns are visible, indicating non-uniform pixels. This is not a big problem if you are absorbed in the content.

L: Reasonably full sized keyboard

N: Barely touch typeable. Space key feels recessed, requiring more than a tap to operate. Touchpad on tested unit was erratic. I used a USB wireless mouse, which somewhat defeats the benefit of extreme portability.

L: WiFi 802.11 b/g or better, plus ethernet (wired)

N: WiFi 802.11, plus ethernet (wired)

L: Internal speakers, headphone jack, microphone jack, built-in microphone, Line In jack (optional)

N: Internal speakers, headphone jack, microphone jack (no built-in mic). Speakers are tiny and tinny; I recorded with two microphones. The first was part of a quality Telex headset, fwith which the recording of my voice was tinny and soft. I used an older dynamic microphone for tape recordings; it provided a quality, rich sound to my voice. There was noticeable background hiss on files recorded with this computer. Other audio files, such as videos and mp3s sounded fine.

SOFTWARE

L: WinXP or Vista --- easy to find programs

N: Windows CE 6.0, similar to Windows Mobile- limited programs. Some websites will identify it as a mobile device and set their screen display for it. Three are plenty of Windows Mobile or CE applications available if you know where to find them on the net.

L: Full function browser choices, i.e. IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera

N: IE, looks normal although somewhat crippled. IE won't play some Flash and other videos. N requires an external program to play YouTube. It comes with Windows Media Player, which doesn't stream YouTube. So it also comes with TCIMP (Core Player), a popular video player that allows streaming. I tried to fast forward through "Nosferatu" on YouTube, and the player locked up, requiring ALT-CTRL-DEL to end the program.

L: You're going to have an email application

N: I found no email application (e.g. Outlook), only an IM application. You can, of course, use web based email such as Hotmail, Yahoo, and Google.

L: MSWord and Excel are available.

N: Only a Word reader and Excel reader are installed. It does have Wordpad, which will save docs in MSWord format.

The desktop is similar to WinXP. There are choices of desktop backgrounds, two of which seemed to be from anime, targeted to pre-teens or early teens. Applications open quickly. Browsing is reasonably quick.

CONCLUSIONS

The bottlenecks for me are the limitations of Windows CE and associated software. I can get used to the little keyboard and screen. If it used alkaline batteries rather than rechargables, I might be inclined to keep it as an emergency device. It's wonderfully stowable. But rechargeables don't hold the charge over several months of inactivity like alkalines do. This is the same problem I have with the portable TV I keep in the trunk of my car.

As a single use computer, such as watching YouTube or simply surfing, it could work well. Notwithstanding web surfing concerns, it could make a good children's laptop.