Having already gotten our hands dirty with the Lenovo Skylight and Mobinnova Beam, it’s time to round off our CES previews with a closer look at the third major new smartbook to be unveiled at the show: the Pegatron Neo.
For those unfamiliar with the Pegatron brand, it actually comes from very good stock and is currently part of Asus. That said, Asus is in the process of spinning off Pegatron, so it is devices like the Neo that will be prove critical to its success or failure. So what of the Neo itself? Like the Beam, it is an Nvidia Tegra 2-based smartbook, but like the Skylight, it is built around a larger 10-in. screen size and matches the same isolation-style keyboard. In essence then, it is something of a hybrid of both these models, but unfortunately it trails each of them.
The principal reason for this is build quality. With the Skylight designed by Thinkpad gurus Lenovo, it was always going to be a hard bar to reach, but the Neo is also of significantly worse construction than the Beam. Simply holding it with one hand is enough to make it creak and bend, and the keyboard is noticeably poor, with spongy keys that produce a deep flex when pressed. Equally thoughtless is the positioning of the left and right mouse buttons which sit either side of the (otherwise responsive) trackpad. This alignment has never proved popular in the past (notably with the HP 2133 Mini-Note), and is seems strange Pegatron would revisit this failed approach. We should be a little lenient here, as the Neo is still not a finished retail product, but there remains a lot of work to do.
Then again, if Pegatron can iron out these flaws, things look promising. Like the Skylight, the Neo is jaw-droppingly light, at well under 2 lbs., and Nvidia reps claim it will last a full day with Wi-Fi switched on, or for up to 16 hours of continuous HD video playback – outstanding stuff. Full HD (1080p) also presents no problems, and an HDMI port means it can be easily connected to any High Definition TV or projector.
Performance-wise I came away impressed too. The choice of Android means response times were always likely to be good, but it should be equally snappy running Windows CE (like the Beam), and Nvidia was also very keen to promote its eventual adoption of Chrome OS.
Sadly, Nvidia wasn’t saying anything about real-world availability, and it is highly likely we’ll see the Neo sold and rebranded by other manufacturers and possibly telcos. If Pegatron can keep the cost low, then smartbooks have certainly proved they have the form factor and stamina to succeed, but this definitely feels like a first generation product at present.
Gordon
