The p1i is the latest in Sony Ericsson’s business line, succeeding both the p990iand the m600i bringing the functionality of former to the from factor of the latter. Its dimensions are nearly the same as those of M600i, and its style statement is in Chinese – the shiny plastic sides and the chrome details look downright tacky. It’s based on the same Symbian UIQ3 platform as the p900i and M600i, with a few minor changes. The OS is definitely quicker, which is probably due to the oodles of program memory that the phone comes with-128 MB. Other then that, there’s nothing remarkably new here.

Just like the M600i, this one doesn’t feature any soft-keys, and you operate it using either the stylus or your fingers on the touch screen. There’s also the three-way jog dial, which thankfully, does away with the annoying protrusion featured on the previous phones. The screen itself is wonderfully vibrant and quite responsive to the touch, but is, naturally, fingerprint magnet. We recommend slapping on a screen guard the second you open the box – the screen’s responsiveness will suffer a tab, but it’ll be worth it.

The stylus is longer and easier to write with, and its locking mechanism seems much firmer then the M600i’s flimsy setup. The QWERTY keypad is the same as that on the M600i-two letters to the key. Not too different from the M600i, but the keys do feel more tactile.

The 3.2MP camera is respectable, though not exceptional – indoor photos are a bit grainy, but overall, the clarity and colour balance of the photos satisfies. There’s a

second camera on the front for video calls, but you can’t take self-portraits with it. Like the P990i, this model comes with a business card scanner. The future works just as nicely (or as badly, depending on the card) as the one the P990i.

The P1i supports 3G (but no EDGE) and Wi-Fi 802. 11b. Wi- Fi speeds are decent, and battery life, thankfully, doesn’t suffer for it.

The P1i isn’t really light years ahead of the P990i, but it definitely nudges it off top spot. There’s no annoying flip top, the QWERTY keypad can actually be worked with, the audio levels louder, and the huge program memory has you multitasking like you are never multitasked before.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Lenovo’s 3000 series line-up makes up its mainstream laptops. The latest addition is the 200 and is based on Santa Rosa, the latest laptop platform from Intel.

A biometric scanner lets you long in to Vista with a swipe of your finger. Setting up the software for the finger scanner is simple, and logging in is convenient. The performance in PCMark 2005-a test for measuring mainly the graphics subsystem performance was more then satisfactory. The 1 GB of RAM makes sure Vista runs fine. The benchmark for FarCry recorded a frame rate of 5.70 fps, and Doom 3 did 9.3 fps, both of which are pretty bad, but comparable to most mid range laptops of today. The memory and drive benchmarks in SiSoft Sandra show pretty good results a 42 MB/s drive index and a Score of 3786 for memory. The 15.4-inch screen does a maximum resolution of 1280 x 800. It is crisp and vibrant decent enough for day to day use, but you start to see the bandings in color gradients with HD videos-a sing of a poor LCD.

The keyboard is sturdy; the keys have descent travel, and most importantly, lack the flimsy, plasticky feel you find in quite a few cheaper laptops these days. The right edge of the touchpad acts as a scrollbar. The blast of hot air from the left vent is noticeable, which clearly indicates that the laptop runs quite hot. The speakers are lacking in power, and despite the low volumes we kept it at, the laptop only stayed powered on for 2:41 hours on a full charge.

It’s down to the extras, because the performance is pretty standard. You get Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, four USB ports and a FireWire port. The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth can be turned on and off with the slide of a notch instead of through the OS. There is a VGA connector for an external monitor, a 5-in-1 memory card reader, and a 1.3MP webcam mounted at the top of the screen.

Gaming is out of the question because of the lacking graphics subsystem, but the N200 should be fine for students and business users for regular work and the occasional movie or two.

Specs:

1. Core 2 Duo
2. 110GB HDD
3. 1GB RAM
4. 15.4 inch Widescreen (1280×800)
5. 5-in1 Card Reader (SD,MMC,XD,MS,MS Pro)
6. 1.3MP Webcam

Popularity: 5% [?]