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Via shows off Nanobook successor
Via has released the details of its successor to the Nanobook, called the Openbook.
It's a reference design that will be re-badged and tweaked by manufacturers just like the Nanobook was (Belinea's S.book 1 and Packard Bell's Easynote XS used Via's older design).
It is perhaps named Openbook because, Via says in its launch video, that it will put the CAD design files for the notebook freely on its website so manufacturers can easily modify the original design to suit their brands.
The Openbook design has been modernised to include a bigger and higher resolution 8.9in display with two webcams (one pointing out, one pointing in) and a sleeker chassis compared with the Nanobook.
Via's 1.6GHz C7-M processor sits at the heart of the new design, a surprise since we're expecting its Isaiah successor to arrive on our desks any day now, while a unified (north/south) chipset, the VX800, appears to be the biggest improvement under the hood.
One of the more disappointing features is the claimed three hour battery life. When you consider Via said the original Nanobook was capable of four hours, yet in our labs it could barely last two hours, then by the same measure the Openbook could end up achieving just an hour and a half in real-usage situations.
I think it's a better idea now, more than ever, to read reviews of the
new cheap and portable laptops, because they are often being advertised
with ridiculous battery life claims and performance varies drastically
between models. For example, we've seen many Via C7-M based laptops
that can't even play back standard definition video smoothly; although
that may not be the case with the Openbook since it should have
hardware decoding of Mpeg2 and Mpeg4.
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