Testing
Well, as much as we know by now about the e2 is nice and good, but let’s try and find out what we can use it for. Given it’s small size, many of you may think of it as a Pocket PC but it is much more than that, it functions more like a replacement for the functions of a notebook. The operating system on our device was a normal, sterling Windows XP, completed with SP2. There was no Office amongst the pre-installed applications, so we made the picture complete with Open Office. The applications installed by default are the same as on a fresh desktop installation of Windows.
We have many ways to connect to the Internet. Although there is an HSDPA-enabled version of e2, but in our test-model there were no such functions. So we have chosen the simplest solution and connected a USB modem to it. At first the UMPC with the attached modem seemed quite strange, but it served it function perfectly and there was no lack of usability either. In case we have no such modem at hand, then we can use the WLAN networks with the help of the built-in WiFi, or by using the 2.0 Bluetooth connection, we can use a phone as a modem and moreover we can take advantage of our wired Internet connection through the docking station, but in that case we lose the experience of mobility, but that was already lost at the word "wired".
There is no use of talking about basic office software as it is unambiguous that all of us will manage them easily. So I did some more extreme tests: I started playing. In the first round I jumped at Steam and installed some games. Counter Strike 1.6 ran quite well which has been a surprise, but it’s Source version would have needed a better graphics card, just as the new version of Team Fortress had the same problem. Civilization IV also performed really good, but I didn’t have any doubts about that. As a general conclusion we can say that unfortunately the graphics card was the weakest link in case of the tested games. I tried to makes some videos of the tests but I unfortunately didn’t manage to start Fraps, although we had a long fight.
To try to express our subjective test in numbers, I started two testing applications on the device. The first was the full report of SiSoftware Sandra, whose results can be viewed here. Although the second one doesn’t test the main usage profile of the device, but I still have been curious what the gadget knows in 3DMark. Well the result can be seen on the screenshot below and it unambiguously justifies my presumption about the graphics card.
The muscular battery built in the device produced a wavering performance. Every function that makes use of the hard disk greatly decreased working time. When continuously downloading, the e2 took it for about 1-1.5 hours with one charge, but in that case the cooling fan and the hard disk were both working continuously. With a lower usage (WLAN and Bluetooth turned off, luminosity set to low) I managed to browse without the battery to go empty.
A cikk még nem ért véget, kérlek, lapozz!
