The all-in-one Powermate 3020 brings elegance and flexibility to your computer table
NEC calls it a hybrid computer. I call it a godsend. Several other computer manufacturers had flirted with the idea of incorporating the computer monitor and the CPU into one, seamless unit, but those were bulky (and to be fair, quite impractical) units.
With the advent of LCD monitors, the task got even more complicated as the slim design of the monitor made it a designer’s nightmare to fit all the peripherals and keep it looking cool.
NEC Powermate 5000 series, which was launched last year, cracked the design conundrum and set the bar really high in terms of melding style and functionality into a seriously sweet looking package.
And recently, they launched a new line, the P3000 series, which aims to deliver sophisticated digital home entertainment experience to the [grateful] user.
The first product out in this series is the P3020, which features a 15.4" wide Dual Lamp LCD screen coupled with NEC Super Shine View EX for bright, vibrant images.
The all-in-one computer is powered by AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-57, 1.9GHz ultra high-speed computing for low power consumption.
It’s gorgeous to look at: all white and sleek, weighing in at only 3.9kg, with a bar to make it easy to carry around. The speakers are on either side – slim but boasting good sound fidelity. And there’s only one cable for the entire unit – both the keyboard and the optical mouse are wireless, so you can keep things uncluttered. And it’s slim – less than 5cm thick.
Slotted in somewhere is a DVD-RW super multi drive, 4 USB ports, 1 IEEE 1394 port, a 13-in-1 card reader, 802.1b/g Wireless LAN, Gigabits LAN 10/100/1000 mbits/sec, topped up with a 160Gb harddisk with 1Gb DDR2 RAM on board. Phew.
NEC has also thrown in two gadget pockets that clip on to the monitor to store stationeries and CD-ROMs.
The hybrid is preloaded with Windows Vista Home Basic and easy video editing software, though the review unit also had Office 2007 suite.
It’s a joy to use the Powermate P3020. It powers along quietly but with a jaunt to its stride, handling the usually sluggish OS with practised ease. The monitor displays crisp, clear images, and the wireless keyboard and mouse are a pleasure to use.
The use of dedicated buttons/shortcut keys and a built-in joystick on the keyboard take only minutes to master. Ditto the zoom function on the mouse – you can use it to blow up different parts of the webpage or document with ease.
Don’t you just hate it that your iPod needs a USB power source to charge? If you are like me, and dislike having to leave your computer on specifically for this purpose, then NEC Powermate 3020’s USB charging capability – even with the system switched off – is extremely useful.
The folks at NEC have even put in a enhanced night mode feature to lull you to sleep at night – it works a treat.
In real world use, the idea of having a separate keyboard is very practical, as a flip down model (as in laptops) can cause discomfort to users. The viewing angle and the ideal height for the keyboard may differ, and in keeping things separate, you – the user – gets to be in the ideal position.
I had no difficulty setting up the wireless keyboard and mouse connections and linking up to my wireless router. And though Windows Vista Home Basic is not my favourite OS at the moment, it was however, stable enough during the review period.
If you are keen to upgrade to Vista Ultimate (for the very cool but memory hogging Aero effect), make sure you at least double up the RAM or you could find things moving at a sluggish pace.
As a home entertainment device, the Powermate P3020 performs credibly. The DVD movie playback was smooth and stutter free, though the audio track sometimes got overwhelmed by the background sounds (a common enough problem with laptops, unless you hook it up to a 5.1. channel sound system).
In all, this is a very beautiful piece of equipment that can have pride of place on your now very empty table.
NEC Powermate P3020 series is now available at RM3,299 in all NEC authorised resellers.
NEC calls it a hybrid computer. I call it a godsend. Several other computer manufacturers had flirted with the idea of incorporating the computer monitor and the CPU into one, seamless unit, but those were bulky (and to be fair, quite impractical) units.
With the advent of LCD monitors, the task got even more complicated as the slim design of the monitor made it a designer’s nightmare to fit all the peripherals and keep it looking cool.
NEC Powermate 5000 series, which was launched last year, cracked the design conundrum and set the bar really high in terms of melding style and functionality into a seriously sweet looking package.
And recently, they launched a new line, the P3000 series, which aims to deliver sophisticated digital home entertainment experience to the [grateful] user.
The first product out in this series is the P3020, which features a 15.4" wide Dual Lamp LCD screen coupled with NEC Super Shine View EX for bright, vibrant images.
The all-in-one computer is powered by AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-57, 1.9GHz ultra high-speed computing for low power consumption.
It’s gorgeous to look at: all white and sleek, weighing in at only 3.9kg, with a bar to make it easy to carry around. The speakers are on either side – slim but boasting good sound fidelity. And there’s only one cable for the entire unit – both the keyboard and the optical mouse are wireless, so you can keep things uncluttered. And it’s slim – less than 5cm thick.
Slotted in somewhere is a DVD-RW super multi drive, 4 USB ports, 1 IEEE 1394 port, a 13-in-1 card reader, 802.1b/g Wireless LAN, Gigabits LAN 10/100/1000 mbits/sec, topped up with a 160Gb harddisk with 1Gb DDR2 RAM on board. Phew.
NEC has also thrown in two gadget pockets that clip on to the monitor to store stationeries and CD-ROMs.
The hybrid is preloaded with Windows Vista Home Basic and easy video editing software, though the review unit also had Office 2007 suite.
It’s a joy to use the Powermate P3020. It powers along quietly but with a jaunt to its stride, handling the usually sluggish OS with practised ease. The monitor displays crisp, clear images, and the wireless keyboard and mouse are a pleasure to use.
The use of dedicated buttons/shortcut keys and a built-in joystick on the keyboard take only minutes to master. Ditto the zoom function on the mouse – you can use it to blow up different parts of the webpage or document with ease.
Don’t you just hate it that your iPod needs a USB power source to charge? If you are like me, and dislike having to leave your computer on specifically for this purpose, then NEC Powermate 3020’s USB charging capability – even with the system switched off – is extremely useful.
The folks at NEC have even put in a enhanced night mode feature to lull you to sleep at night – it works a treat.
In real world use, the idea of having a separate keyboard is very practical, as a flip down model (as in laptops) can cause discomfort to users. The viewing angle and the ideal height for the keyboard may differ, and in keeping things separate, you – the user – gets to be in the ideal position.
I had no difficulty setting up the wireless keyboard and mouse connections and linking up to my wireless router. And though Windows Vista Home Basic is not my favourite OS at the moment, it was however, stable enough during the review period.
If you are keen to upgrade to Vista Ultimate (for the very cool but memory hogging Aero effect), make sure you at least double up the RAM or you could find things moving at a sluggish pace.
As a home entertainment device, the Powermate P3020 performs credibly. The DVD movie playback was smooth and stutter free, though the audio track sometimes got overwhelmed by the background sounds (a common enough problem with laptops, unless you hook it up to a 5.1. channel sound system).
In all, this is a very beautiful piece of equipment that can have pride of place on your now very empty table.
NEC Powermate P3020 series is now available at RM3,299 in all NEC authorised resellers.
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