Vye mini-v S37B review
You have to admit that the Asus Eee PC is a pretty impressive device; email, web browsing, document management and more for around £200. Unfortunately, this isn’t enough for some people who want MS Vista and Office running on their UMPC.
The Vye mini-v S37B answers those calls for more. The S37B is packs a harder punch than the Eee PC inside of a similar sized chassis (at 227 x 170 x 25mm - WDH). If you’re looking for a contender that will plugin into your Windows network or simply let you use familiar MS tools this may be the one for you.
Design
Like I said, the chassis is the same size as the Eee PC with a tough and not unattractive black finish. But take a look under the bonnet and you’ll see the differences. The S37B is powered by an 800Mhz Intel A110 CPU with a 120Gb platter disk and 1Gb of RAM. Impressed? I’ll leave the price until later.
The 7in 1,024 x 600 resolution screen provides a perfectly adequate viewing experience which allows you to rotate the lid in the same way as a table PC. In addition, the screen is touch sensitive. You can use your fingers (not a good idea if you have fat fingers like me) or the stylus which is housed in the lid. The touchscreen features were actually pretty responsive compared to some of the devices we’ve reviewed. That said, there were a few instances of frustrated screen stabbing!
The keyboard. What can I say? The usual gripe; size. Like most other devices, I found this to be a little fiddly at first due to the small key size. After a couple of hours use I was fairly comfortable only occassinally pressing two keys at once. I won’t grumble too much, the Vye S37B is a UMPC. What was I expecting?
The touchpad, although small, was smooth and responsive. The only downside is the lack of scrolling but that’s to be expected considering the S37B’s size so no real complaints.
Battery life is good. The Vye S37B comes with an extended life battery which protrudes from the S37B which may not sound great until you look at the running time - over 5 hours away from a mains supply. Once I started running some seriously intensive testing (video, CPU time etc) this dropped to just over 3 hours - more than enough time watch your favourite movies.
Connectivity is good. You get an Ethernet port as well as two USB ports, a VGA output for powering an external monitor, SD and CompactFlash memory card slots. On the front of the S37B is a pair of 3.5mm audio sockets (headphones and mic) and a switch for the wireless and Bluetooth adapters. Sadly, there’s no HSDPA features - disappointing considering the price (yeah, I’m getting to it).
Conclusion
I really like this device. There a couple of minors moans but they’re exactly that; minor. The S37B is a device I would seriously recommend buying if you have about £800 floating around! Yeah, it’s expensive but it’s good and if you really need a Windows device this may just be the one for you.
Specifications
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Edition or XP Pro SP2
800Mhz Intel A110 CPU
1Gb PC2-3200 RAM
7.0 “ WSVGA TFT (1024 * 600) - Touchscreen
LAN - IEEE 802.11 b/g, Ethernet 10100
Bluetooth 2
Wake-On-LAN support
1.3Mpxs Camera
Memory Stick / SD card / MMC
CF - Type-I & I/O card support
Downside
The price. Like I said at £800 odd this isn’t cheap but the S37B has been designed to fit in with specific requirements. The Vye mini-v S37B doesn’t have room for an optical device either so you’ll need transfer data using USB. Finally, the S37B could do with a processor upgrade. The 800Mhz A100 gets by but really needs one of the CPU’s from AMD or Intel that are designed for UMPC’s.
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