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
