Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Checking Out This Fall's Gadgets: Pepcom's Holiday Spectacular Press Event
Posted by Suhit Gupta in "EVENT" @ 03:30 PM
Yesterday, two members of the Thoughts Media team, Suhit Gupta (of Digital Media Thoughts) and Janak Parekh (of Pocket PC Thoughts) visited the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular Press Event in New York City. After the poorly-attended CeBIT conference (Kati's, Janak's and Suhit's report) and the associated Press Event (Suhit's report) 6 months ago, we were not really expecting much at this event. However, we would like to say right off the bat that we were definitely pleasantly surprised by the excellent turnout yesterday by both attendees and exhibitors. There were over 50 companies there, most notably HP, IBM, Canon, Nikon and Motorola. We got to play with several gadgets that have been announced in the last few weeks and have taken several photographs to give you guys a better idea of their scale and look 'n feel. Join us for the tour of what we saw. :)
Figure 1: HP F2304 23" LCD monitor
First off, HP had one of the biggest booths there and we happened to hit it first. They have made some major announcements in the last two weeks (cameras, printers, monitors, etc.) and was showing off all the new items. First up was their new 23" LCD monitor, HP F2304 which looked incredible at the max resolution of 1920 x 1200. We fired up two copies of Internet Explorer side by side (with DMT and PPCT open, of course ;-)). We could certainly get used to this.
(Note: Most of these pictures were taken with Suhit's Canon 10D camera. Click on any picture for a higher-resolution version, and if you want really high-res pictures, contact him for the original images.)
Figure 2: Another look at HP's 23" widescreen LCD monitor
Here's a picture without flash to get an idea of the brightness. Interestingly, HP had the unit running at a low resolution until we tweaked it.
Figure 3: HP Photosmart 2710 All-in-One
The HP Photosmart 2710 All-in-One unit was there all in its glory. Suhit posted on this a few weeks ago -- it's a fantastic little device that can print 30ppm (draft mode)/12ppm (normal quality) and has a 2400 x 4800 dpi scanner + copier, plus the regular media card readers. But most impressively, it can be connected to your network wirelessly.
Figure 4: HP Photosmart 8450 photo printer
The HP Photosmart 8450 photo printer prints looked great and the price point for this printer is fantastic at $299. Some of the sample printout were on matte quality paper and the printer was able to do a great job with the images on a rough surface.
Figure 5: HP Photosmart 375B Compact Printer with Battery
The 375B is a really compact device. Note the USB wireless stick (we didn't check if it was Bluetooth or Wi-Fi) sticking out of the top of the printer. The device struck Suhit as looking a lot smaller in person than in pictures, and the LCD screen is extremely clear and bright.
Figure 6: HP's iPAQ hx4705
Here you see Janak handling the HP iPAQ hx4705. We only had a minute or two to play with it, as there were lots of people, so in brief, Janak was reasonably impressed -- the form factor was decent and the unit was comfortable to hold. Suhit was a bit underwhelmed; in his opinion, Janak's e805 had brighter colors. Janak noted that the flip cover ONLY attaches to the left side, and cannot be shifted to the right side. Incidentally, the unit is officially now shipping from HP's perspective.
Figure 7: Comparison shot of the iPAQ hx4705 and Janak's Toshiba e805
Note that the e805 in this picture has an extended battery, and as such appears thicker. Both units were set to full brightness. The overall form factors of the two are very similar.
Suhit's biggest nit was the touch screen response on the hx4705: when dragging the stylus against the screen, the liquid flows around as if a laptop screen was being poked. We haven't seen that on Pocket PCs in years. The HP representatives suggested that this was normal. 8O Janak hopes this is just a preproduction unit, but for Suhit, the hx4705 might be off his list of VGA devices to consider.
Figure 8: HP iPAQ rz1715 vs. iPAQ rx3715
Both the rz1715 and rx3715 have only 240x320 screens, but they're bright, clear, and don't have the yellowing effect like some of the current iPAQ models.
Figure 9: Another shot of the HP iPAQ hx4705
Another shot of the hx4705, with its flip-cover closed.
Figure 1: HP F2304 23" LCD monitor
First off, HP had one of the biggest booths there and we happened to hit it first. They have made some major announcements in the last two weeks (cameras, printers, monitors, etc.) and was showing off all the new items. First up was their new 23" LCD monitor, HP F2304 which looked incredible at the max resolution of 1920 x 1200. We fired up two copies of Internet Explorer side by side (with DMT and PPCT open, of course ;-)). We could certainly get used to this.
(Note: Most of these pictures were taken with Suhit's Canon 10D camera. Click on any picture for a higher-resolution version, and if you want really high-res pictures, contact him for the original images.)
Figure 2: Another look at HP's 23" widescreen LCD monitor
Here's a picture without flash to get an idea of the brightness. Interestingly, HP had the unit running at a low resolution until we tweaked it.
Figure 3: HP Photosmart 2710 All-in-One
The HP Photosmart 2710 All-in-One unit was there all in its glory. Suhit posted on this a few weeks ago -- it's a fantastic little device that can print 30ppm (draft mode)/12ppm (normal quality) and has a 2400 x 4800 dpi scanner + copier, plus the regular media card readers. But most impressively, it can be connected to your network wirelessly.
Figure 4: HP Photosmart 8450 photo printer
The HP Photosmart 8450 photo printer prints looked great and the price point for this printer is fantastic at $299. Some of the sample printout were on matte quality paper and the printer was able to do a great job with the images on a rough surface.
Figure 5: HP Photosmart 375B Compact Printer with Battery
The 375B is a really compact device. Note the USB wireless stick (we didn't check if it was Bluetooth or Wi-Fi) sticking out of the top of the printer. The device struck Suhit as looking a lot smaller in person than in pictures, and the LCD screen is extremely clear and bright.
Figure 6: HP's iPAQ hx4705
Here you see Janak handling the HP iPAQ hx4705. We only had a minute or two to play with it, as there were lots of people, so in brief, Janak was reasonably impressed -- the form factor was decent and the unit was comfortable to hold. Suhit was a bit underwhelmed; in his opinion, Janak's e805 had brighter colors. Janak noted that the flip cover ONLY attaches to the left side, and cannot be shifted to the right side. Incidentally, the unit is officially now shipping from HP's perspective.
Figure 7: Comparison shot of the iPAQ hx4705 and Janak's Toshiba e805
Note that the e805 in this picture has an extended battery, and as such appears thicker. Both units were set to full brightness. The overall form factors of the two are very similar.
Suhit's biggest nit was the touch screen response on the hx4705: when dragging the stylus against the screen, the liquid flows around as if a laptop screen was being poked. We haven't seen that on Pocket PCs in years. The HP representatives suggested that this was normal. 8O Janak hopes this is just a preproduction unit, but for Suhit, the hx4705 might be off his list of VGA devices to consider.
Figure 8: HP iPAQ rz1715 vs. iPAQ rx3715
Both the rz1715 and rx3715 have only 240x320 screens, but they're bright, clear, and don't have the yellowing effect like some of the current iPAQ models.
Figure 9: Another shot of the HP iPAQ hx4705
Another shot of the hx4705, with its flip-cover closed.
