A Father's day hardware review

I had several surprises leading to Father's day. Got several gadgets recently and was surprised how these toys performed.

Sony Ericsson K530i

SE K540i is a cheap, do-all phone, with 3G, dual-camera, web browser, bluetooth, radio and mp3 polytones. My Nokia 6233 has all that except for the dual-camera, but I was looking for a sleeker model. The K530i is slightly lighter, but almost half the bulk of its Nokia counterpart. Voice quality is good, the interface is so, well, ..Ericsson. I'm not really used to SE's interface being a long-time Nokia user, but I can't say it's bad because it's not. The learning curve is not that high, and surprisingly, the interface is pretty intuitive.   

Pros: Lightweight, has all the must-have phone features and looks elegant.     

Cons: Supports memory stick duo only, no IR, SE interface.     

8GB Asus Eee PC

I originally included this in my Christmas wishlist. I didn't expect to have it by Father's day :) It's a UMPC (Ultramobile PC) that can pose as a big-daddy notebook due to it's sheer, raw power. At 900 mhz, 1GB ddr2 ram, and solid-state disk (read: faster read/write), it can run the most basic application (office 2007), the productive (sql server 2005 express) and the entertaining (age of wonder 2: wizard's throne) despite having a small resolution (800x480 full screen, 800x600 panning). It's built-in card reader allows you to upgrade the built-in 8GB storage with another 8GB SDHC card. Has a good built-in wifi adapter to connect to a hotspot or a Bluetooth to connect to your BT-enabled 3G phone to go online. SSD also means shock-proof computing, no spinning disks and no bad-sector threat. That's mobile computing.   

The Eee pc completes my computer quartet: The daddy desktop (Quad-core 2.4 Ghz), the normal neo notebook (Dual-core 1.6 Ghz), the mini mobile eee umpc (Single-core 900 Mhz), and the tiny Palm Tx (XScale 312 MHz).

From small to smallest

Pros: Lightweight, has all the features of a bigger notebook, responsive touchpad, reasonable price per computing power and feature.

Cons: Takes a little getting used-to with the tiny keyboard, small screen.   

Dlink Dir-300 B/g wifi router   

It's part of my home project to link-up devices in the house, and this router is already long overdue. I started first with a makeshift NAT using a wireless NIC in ad-hoc mode and Windows XP's ICS, but it's not very efficient. The Dlink Dir-300 wifi router is one of the cheapest, and the performance is average. I installed the router at the first floor of the house and only get 2/4 to 3/4 signal in the second floor. That translates to 20-40% packet loss. Acceptable for the meantime, but I am thinking of changing the default omni-directional antenna with a high-gain one to increase signal strenght, or fabricate a homebrew parabolic reflector to direct the signal to my room's direction.   

Homebrew wifi set-up

Pros: Cheap, small and easy to set-up.   

Cons: Average performance