Introduction
We continue to receive a great amount of email with questions about the monitor market. The monitor market has changed over the last several years, and we have seen a consolidation of companies in this market space. Now, with the wider acceptance of flat panel LCD displays, monitor companies are once again returning to their former glory. What is perhaps the most unique thing about panels continues to be the fact that it seems that everyone wants one, but most everyone agrees that right now, in most cases, they are too expensive for the vast majority of home users. However, some corporate buyers have been picking up the slack, and this, coupled with even lower prices, has made this technology gain wider acceptance.
While standard monitor technology isn’t ready to make an exit just yet, slim and sexy new form factors are the direction in which the technology is headed. While you can expect the price of the typical flat panel monitor to continue to decrease, it is obvious all of the new innovations, like the wider acceptance of 16×9 aspect ratios (widescreen) and base pivot technology, will continue to drive the price of panels downward.
We “monitor” the panel news at Comdex to find out what is happening in this market and when you can expect to be able to afford one, without having to take out a second mortgage on your home.
Biostar – A Commitment To Customer Service
When we met with the folks at Biostar, the first thing that they wanted us to tell everyone is that they continue to work very hard to make customer service the primary focus of each and every sale. Biostar isn’t a brand name that many people recognize. What is ironic in fact is that Biostar knows that you don’t know who they are, but they are working really hard to enhance brand awareness.
Biostar carries a complete line of products, as well as a complete like of graphics cards based on the NVIDIA and SiS chipsets. Biostar is currently producing motherboards based on the AMD, Intel, VIA, SiS, and NVIDIA chipsets. We last looked at a Biostar motherboard in the article DDR400 for Athlon: A Comparison of 9 Motherboards, in October of this year.
In our discussion with Biostar, it was refreshing to have a company contine to talk about its commitment to customer service. We encouraged Biostar to submit more products for review, as it looks like they are making good progress in the development of their new solutions. The team at Biostar feels that if you give their products a try, you will not be disappointed.
Like most motherboard makers, Biostar stands ready with a Hammer solution, as well; all they need is for AMD to release the processors. The Biostar K8VHA.
The Biostar 845GE solution is the P4TGE.
A look at the Biostar graphics card solutions.
A look at the Biostar all-in-one, bare-bones, flat panel integrated solution.
NEC/ Mitsubishi – A Variety Of New Products
Our stop at NEC/ Mitsubishi revealed a variety of new solutions. The focus right now is squarely on the development of new LCD panel products. Like the other monitor vendors that we talked to, NEC/ Mitsubishi feels that the new widescreen 16×9 aspect ratio panels will be all the rage in the next several months. They make a compelling argument for this by saying that you can almost integrate dual monitor functionality into the purchase of one 16×9 panel. Reason being that you are able to get two side-by-side pictures into the one monitor, whereas normally each monitor can only handle one. This, of course, makes dual head cards using two 16×9 monitors an interesting proposition, giving you almost as much screen real estate as you would get with four regular monitors.
The adoption of widescreen products is a new concept. Many people like the 16×9 aspect ratio that it offers, but they are not sure what to make of it. With advanced scaling technology, full screen content fills the screen without the black bars that seem to turn people off to widescreen technology.
NEC/ Mitsubishi has not forgotten their roots, as the high-end Mitsubishi Diamond Pro Series products are still offered. The new Diamond Pro 930 and 2070 models.
From recycling to touch-screen integration to extended warranties, NEC/ Mitsubishi offers a number of value-added solutions for every customer need.
We had to save the best for last. Here is a look at the new LCD3000, a 30-inch LCD widescreen monitor. Loaded with a variety of inputs and enhancements for the display market. The LCD 3000 will set you back a few bucks, but the picture and quality were impressive.
Atech Flash – Exclusive First Photos Of The New Pro IV USB 2.0 Pro Drive
We recently took a look at multi-function/ multi-format flash card readers in our article Bridging The Flash Format Gap With Multi-Format Readers/ Writers. The one comment that we had about the Editor’s Choice Award winning Pro III is that we would like to have it in a new USB 2.0 version. Atech was proud to show us the new Pro IV USB 2.0 Drive today. The Pro IV is the same as the Pro III in every way, but it offers the speed advantage of USB 2.0.
Beyond our look at the Pro IV, Atech showed us a variety of new cases that they are marketing. We just received the new AFT6551 and AFT6303 cases that will be in our upcoming case review. The cool thing about the AFT6551 is that it has a sort of iMac look to the case. We like the looks of it and look forward to seeing it in our case review coming up in the next several weeks.
The new Atech Flash Pro IV with USB 2.0. This is the first time that it has been seen out of the lab. We should have it for testing in a few weeks.
The Atech AFT6303 also looks to be another winner from Atech, with it’s unique look and excellent screwless design.
A look at some of the other Atech products that are currently available.
U.S. Robotics – Wireless Performance Upgrade
U.S. Robotics announced that its latest 22 Mbps wireless networking products are now capable of providing data throughput speeds to its users that are as much as four times faster than using other 802.11b standard equipment.
The folks at USR also told us that those of you that are USR Courier users should be happy to know that the V.92 upgrades are ready for download. In addition, there is new packaging for the Courier, and, of course, they have no plans to discontinue the Courier, which should be good news to those corporate customers that have come to depend on the product. As an added note, you will notice that the Sportster is now black rather than that (yuck..) beige.
USR has some exciting new products planned over the next several months, to move the company into a few new areas. We found the new packaing for most of the products to be very attractive. In addition, the outer designs of the shells of some of these products look good. Looks like some exciting times are ahead in the USR camp. Stay tuned for futher details in the coming months.
The USR Modem Products and NIC Card.
USR is offering a complete set of solutions for broadband users. These are the variety of ADSL products, but they also offer additional cable modem and DSL products, as well.
Are you ready and set to connect? You can, with the new USR 22mbps wireless offerings.
What would a trip to see USR be without a picture of the Courier modem? Disappointing, that is what it would be, so here is a picture of the latest generation Courier flanked on the left by the new black version of the Sportster.
Asus – P4G8X
Of course, the biggest news from Asus was the new P4G8X. We were able to capture this elusive and eagerly awaited motherboard on film.
The Asus P4G8X.
Other news from Asus includes the announcement of a new notebook product line for white box integrators. While it will not be a build your own notebook concept completely, it will come as close as possible. In the meantime, we took a look at one of the latest laptops.
The Asus M2 series notebook.
Asus continues its mission to introduce networking products with a variety of new wireless offerings like the WL-200, WL-500, WL-300, WL-100, and WL-110. Looks like some continued impressive offerings on the network side of things.
Samsung – 16×9 Aspect Ratio Flat Panel LCDs Are The Next Big Thing!
During our visit with Samsung, we were treated to seeing a variety of new products. The majority of them, however, were LCD products. Many of them caught our eye, and we were impressed by the design and picture performance of these Samsung LCDs. Again, we were surprised to see that most of them were in the widescreen form factor. Get used to this, because it is a reality that we are going to learn to love. One thing that we really liked about some of the Samsung products that we saw was the variety of form factors and outer case designs. These were some sharp looking products.
In addition to the monitors, we saw a lot of evidence of Samsung’s commitment to laser printing, as well. With the introduction of the new ML-3550N, Samsung is going to bring to market an enterprise-level printer that is very fast, and compatible with your existing HP printing infrastructure. We also saw an excellent new personal laser printer with an outstanding design that we expect to have for testing in the next couple of months. This unit, rather than using a vertical feed bin, uses a compact, 250-sheet tray with integrated envelope feeder above. They can perhaps be best described as similar to some of the older retro solutions, but with a new design twist on them. Best of all, they are affordable. This makes it possible to have two printers in your home, one for black-and-white printing, and a color printer for color printing only. This should help reduce your ink cartridge costs.
Two of the many Samsung LCD products on display. These pictures don’t do the monitors justice. I was impressed by the rich color on the 211MP.
This is the new enterprise-level ML-3550N laser printer from Samsung. Looks impressive, and it should have a good price point. You can integrate it into your current HP printer environment, which is key in order for this product to have a chance. Oh, by the way, it should cost less… a lot less.
A look at some of the Samsung Hard Drive product line. Samsung is going to do Serial ATA, and will soon introduce the new Spinpoint P-80 Serial ATA drive.
Philips – Have you seen the JackRabbit yet?
Philips continues to play to their strengths in the market. One of these strengths is optical storage, and that was never more obvious than with the introduction of the new JackRabbit product. The JackRabbit is a portable DVD/ CDRW combo drive that is USB 2.0 ready. What is really cool is that it supports all of the important functions that a DVD drive needs to support, and includes a handy wireless remote, as well. It has a rich connector feature set and excellent performance specs. Philips tells us that of course it will be able to be battery powered, and may support an additional, unannounced power solution. The final price on the JackRabbit is not yet set, but expect it to be VERY competitive.
Watch out, the JackRabbit is coming! This DVD/ CDRW has a good mix of features, and, coupled with a good price point, it has a real chance to be popular. What we liked was the construction and quality of the JackRabbit. Also, the name of the product isn’t bad at all.
Philips is shifting into high gear with its LCD panel releases. We really liked the 170W widescreen pivoting LCD monitor. Although you can’t tell it from the picture below, it looked great; but, because of the lighting in the room and the flash, it was hard to get a good picture of the 170W.
We wanted to pivot the screen into the portrait position on the 170W while the DVD was playing, just to show you how rock-solid the 170W looks. What was really nice about this unit was that it was widescreen and had a very sharp image. We really thought that the colors were very rich and vibrant. Look for the 170W to appear soon.
