Packard Bell Butterfly XS 11.6in notebook
The lepidopterist's laptop?
Review Where does the dividing line between netbooks and notebooks lie? Is an 11.6in screen small enough to dismiss any ideas of true notebook status? Conversely, does having a DVD rewriter lift a portable forever out of netbookdom?
Packard Bell's Easynote Butterfly XS: flighty?
For those who want an ultra-portable, but aren't keen to give up an optical drive, Packard Bell’s EasyNote Butterfly XS could be a good halfway house. It's around 30 per cent bigger than a typical 10in netbook. It weighs around 1.5kg, so it's heavier than most, but still very portable.
The larger case gives it room for a full-size keyboard, with a good size and action to each key. Even so, there are some layout compromises, such as the tucked-in cursor keys in the bottom, right-hand corner
Packard Bell has chosen to use red LEDs for most indicators and has, unfortunately, extended this to the colour of the legends on all the dual-function keys, making them near-impossible to read under anything other than full overhead lighting.
The touchpad is integral with the top surface of the machine, though slightly recessed. In use it’s sensitive and supports multi-gesture movements under Windows 7.
An HDMI port, hurrah
The 11.6in, 1366 x 768 display uses LED backlighting, which cuts power use and still gives bright, natural colours. Even dimmed on battery power, it’s still bright enough to view comfortably unless picnicking in the Kalahari.
COMMENTS
Is the 3g version available in UK anywhere
Does anybody know if the 3G version is available in UK anywhere? The Packard Bell UK website only lists the black version without 3G or Bluetooth. And Currys, Comet, Amazon etc. all list only this model. The version with 3G would be way better then without - not having to carry the extra dongle.
I don't understand why so many models of netbooks and small laptops have 3G as an option in their spec - but they are never available with 3G in the UK - only somewhere else. Some agreement with the 3G network operators of some sort?
Also, has anybody noticed that this might be the only true sublaptop at the moment out-there? I mean, in the vein of legendary Sony TT/TZ/TX series - a tiny 11 inch machine, with everything integrated (including, crucially, optical drive) - and a non-Atom processor. I couldn't find anybody else doing this at the moment. The trend to drop optical drives out of small laptops seems to have truly taken over the industry. I still prefer an optical drive as I still use it a lot - and my main machine over past 3 years - with 11 inch screen, Intel SU2500 processor and an optical drive has served me very well so far.
Well, I'm done ranting now :-)
That is a pretty good price
The real question is - does it run Linux? 2G RAM and 250G is "diet" for Windows 7. It will be aplenty for something less resource hungry. However the question is what are the real peripherals here: what ethernet, what wifi, what 3G did Packard Bell use.
Packard Hell
nuff said
although i did get a free copy of descent with my packard bell desktop yaaay
Subtitle questions?
Are getting old? when they're on every single review? don't you think?
looks an ok machine.
Good price point as well... might be ideal for my parents.
