Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 23:08:45 -0800 (PST) From: David Chien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Information On Libretto L1/L2?
> 1. General reactions to them? Interesting, but the use of the Crusoe kills the machine. Would have much prefered a Pentium instead. Just far too slow, IMO, for the upgrade vs. an older Libretto. > 2. Compare to other, similarly sized subnotes, e.g. Sony PictureBook > Vaio C1? Or to the L3/L5 if that's the competition? Basically, it's just a larger Sony Picturebook at about the same weight, bigger screen that is a touch more comfy to read, a more comfy keyboard to type on, no camera, and about the same slow processor. L3/L5 run faster, but not by much. > 3. How powerful or not powerful is a 600MHz Crusoe, anyway? I'm not > positive if the L1/L2 maxes at 256 or 384MB RAM. Divide processor speed by 1/2 and you'll get the ballpark Pentium CPU speed equivalent. It's really that slow, and if you've seen them run in real life, you'd really wonder why they'd ever release the Crusoe upon poor users. Push it hard with floating point calculations, and you can just expect it to crawl along like a snail. > 4. Are they hard to do clean OS installs and run Win XP on? I'm > trying to read through the L1 Yahoo Group board, and keep coming across > lots of "can't boot from XYZ device" and "where's the BIOS" and "help I > need ABC driver" messages. Shouldn't be. www.toshiba.co.jp has all of the drivers and they should run under Windows XP English or Japanese. But don't have one, so haven't tried here. The missing drivers for English OS primarily concerned the Toshiba ff1100v model line - which had remote control + webcam. > 5. Other sources of information? I haven't found nearly as much > online information, discussion, or sellers of batteries etc for the > L1/L2 as for the L50-L110 range. See my site, links to Japanese Libretto pages. We Are Libretters website will have more info. Otherwise, Nifty Toshiba forums in Japan. use bablefish.altavista.com to translate. because it's a Japanese-only model, don't expect much English-based talk or support here at all. -- www.conics.net would be one place that could get a L1-L5 from Yahoo Auctions or used for you as well as parts. ------ In general, you'd have to consider what you're using it for. Here, the Libretto 110 is used as a portable email/websurfing/picture store machine, esp. when travelling. Not very fast, so I've got a desktop rigged for the serious work (seriously, they're really aren't any laptops out there yet that has the speed, storage capacity, etc. of a decent desktop, IMO, at a resonable <$1000 price; and no, I'm not about to drop $3k+ on a laptop that depreciates 50%+ per year either). For the web terminal that sits in one spot all the time for web surfing and basic shopping, there's my IBM thinkpad T21. It's got the nicer screen and keyboard (not tiny like the Libretto), so it's easier for longer surfing sessions. I'd love to eventually combine them into a single notebook, but sadly, there hasn't been anything out there that's cheap and fits the bill -- super-small yet with big screen & keyboard (oxymoron actually). Today, if I were to look for a 'Libretto' replacement for stationary web terminal use, I'd seriously look at the $499 laptops that are often on sale (eg. this week - they've got a handful of $499 laptops at the usual store - see sunday newspaper ads). Cheap, powerful, has everything, and works great for a little bit of money. Destined to run for years and give you lots of bang for the buck in return. If I were to go for a small, Libretto-like sized replacement that's faster, I'd start looking at the Fujitsu P5000 series, Sony T series, the Averatec 4lbs at Staples.com, the JVC Interlink XP series (Japan only), the Panasonic Y/R/W series (Japan only), etc. -- you can see and buy most of them from www.conics.net. If price wasn't such a big issue, I'd start with the Sony T series -- light, acts as a stand-alone DVD player (no OS boot required), and has a nice keyboard and screen, as well as the Fujitsu P5000 series (T70 in Japan) - both have built-in CD burners, about 3lbs, and generally balance everything out well for the size. Beyond that, you'd have to see what fits your fingers. (eg. Panasonic looks good on paper, but the odd chisled top keys are tough to finger) Also your eyes. eg. Sony U50/U70 series seems awesome until you see one in real life and realize that even at the maginified resolution provided, you still have to hold it up to your nose to read anything. Battery life is an issue here as well - eg. JVC Interlink XP looks awesome, but then you realize to get anything past 2 hours of battery life, you'll have to attach a heavy, external rear battery pack =( Anyways, if the L1-L5 was so 'awesome' as a Libretto, I would have picked one up in Japan when I was there. But after seeing them in person and playing with them awhile, they simply didn't make any sense - money wise, almost the same as a new $499 laptop; feature & speed wise, crippled vs. a Fujitsu P5000/Sony T series (hate not having a burner built-in and I'd rather carry 3lbs than 2lbs for this alone); bigger than my L110 (significantly so - won't fit a big pants pocket anymore); slow (vs. anything not running a Crusoe). Push me to get something <$700 in this size and weight, and I'd have to start with a used JVC Interlink XP -- it's got 700+Mhz PIII CPUs (fast enough to run XP decent), and is just modern enough to run things w/o feeling piggy. ===== adorable toshiba libretto The latest news and information for the Toshiba Libretto owner. http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Read only the mail you want - Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
