Tuesday February 17, 2009
Light and easy PowerMate
By CHONG JINN XIUNG
It has the looks and can fit anywhere in the home but it’s best to keep the NEC PowerMate 4010 for light tasks.
NEC’S latest all-in-one desktop PC, the PowerMate 4010 is stylish as it is functional. A small compact PC that easily fits anywhere in the home, the P4010 is the perfect choice if you are short of space but need an extra computer for the family area.
But does the P4010 have what it takes to meet your everyday needs? We take it out for a spin and find out.
Out of the box
Compared to your average desktop, the setup process is relatively simple and easy. We only spent a couple of minutes getting the P4010 out of its packaging, plugging it into a wall socket, synched the wireless keyboard and mouse to the desktop before we were good to go.
In fact the entire setup process is similar to that of hooking up a notebook computer, albeit the P4010 is much larger.
SPACE SAVER: When not in use, the keyboard can easily be tucked away underneath the P4010. The P4010 very much reminded me of the Apple iMac in both shape and design. However, it still has its own unique style that distinguishes it.
We liked the compact yet stylish, space-saving design — there’s even a little tray that can be attached to its back to hold stationery and other tools that you may use around the computer.
Along the side of the P4010, you will find four USB ports, a slot-in DVD drive, Ethernet port and a multi-format card reader thrown in for good measure. There is even space at the bottom to tuck in the wireless keyboard.
Another plus point is there aren’t any unsightly wires or cables that get in your way save for the power cord.
Aside from being used to type, the included wireless keyboard has a number of nifty multimedia shortcut buttons that give you quick easy access to controlling media playback, volume and even a pointing stick for you to navigate around your desktop.
While the idea of surfing the Web wirelessly from your couch sounds novel, I found the pointing stick control difficult to use as it felt too stiff and inaccurate for normal navigation. Even the wireless mouse felt a little sluggish.
Strangely enough, the keyboard has an on/off button that only works to put the computer on standby, though, its a shame you can’t turn the PC on from afar. Now that would have been cool.
Media hub
Dominating the front panel of the P4010 is its 16in dual-lamp lit LCD screen. We found the display to be sufficiently bright and it has good contrast levels.
It’s a great display for a wide variety of uses from web surfing to photo-viewing and watching movies.
The widescreen format (1,366 x 768-pixel resolution) provides a sufficient amount of space to work around with. Still, that is not to say that it is perfect. The display exhibits all the typical problems found in LCDs panels such as bad viewing angles.
Needless to say, you’d probably be better off watching a movie on a larger screen.
However, we were quite impressed at the level of quality when we tested some 720p movie trailers to see how well it handles HD content. Even during action-packed and fast-moving sequences, the LCD managed to keep up with the action without missing a frame.
It is worth noting that the machine runs surprisingly silent, so you’re likely to enjoy the ambiance of your movie rather than listen to the exhaust fan spinning.
When it comes to comes to sound quality however, the delivery is more of a mixed bag. On one hand, the built-in speakers sounded better than any regular set of built-in speakers I’ve heard before.
They give off a nice surround sound experience though I have to say that the range pretty limited as they easily start crackle whenever the volume peaks. Also, the lack of any bass speaker leaves most of the audio sounding rather flat.
Overall, the P4010 has what it takes to be a decent media centre computer with a large 250GB capacity hard disk for holding in lots of data, a screen that delivers good looking pictures but otherwise marred by its weak built-in speakers.
Performance
The P4010’s AMD Turion 64 X2 processor gives it a reasonable amount of processing power to run multiple applications at once.
We ran a 720p video, played some music and worked on a story on Notepad without a running into any slowdown. However, as we piled on more applications, there were visible signs of the P4010 struggling to cope.
This is largely due to the fact that the machine only has 1GB of RAM. This amount is severely lacking considering that even the Vista operating system needs at least 2GB of RAM to run smoothly.
WIRELESS: The P4010's wireless keyboard has a few nifty shortcut buttons to control media playback and a pointing stick to navigate around your desktop without a mouse. If you are considering doing any serious photo-editing on this machine, you’ll definitely need to invest in at least 2GB of RAM (take note that the P4010 uses notebook RAM) for better performance.
Fortunately, this problem is easily remedied as the main RAM module is easily accessible on the back of the P4010 so adding more memory is just a matter of taking off the back panel and inserting it in the slot.
The integrated nVidia GEForce 91000M graphics isn’t exactly cutting edge, so the P4010 isn’t quite geared for gaming.
Simple games that don’t require killer graphics like Spore ran fine on the P4010 though things still looked choppy when there was a lot of activity going on the screen.
In short, the graphics are passable at the very least and will meet your basic requirements if you aren’t looking to play games on the highest settings.
Conclusion
After a few days with the P4010, we came away with mixed feelings.
On one hand, the P4010 works well as a media centre PC that you can place anywhere in the home. With the right combination of speakers, a slot-in DVD drive and a large capacity hard disk, this all-in-one had the promise of a machine that could do more than surf the Web.
However the P4010 is a fairly average performer, largely held back by its small amount of on-board memory though this can easily be rectified by adding on more RAM.
There’s also no hiding the fact that the P4010 obviously won’t meet the requirements of most high-end games, so if you are looking for some gaming fun, you’d best look elsewhere.
However, if you are looking for an all-in-one PC that’s good for web surfing while doubling as a media outlet for your videos and music, then the P4010 is worth a second look.
Pros: Compact design; easy to set up; great as a media hub computer.
Cons: Limited amount of RAM included; lack of a subwoofer makes speakers sound flat.
POWERMATE P4010
(NEC)
All-in-one PC
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-60 (1.9GHz)
Memory: 1GB DDR2 RAM (expandable up to 4GB)
Graphics: Integrated nVidia GeForce 9100M
Display: 16in LCD
Storage: 250GB
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11b/g/n, 10/100 Ethernet port
Optical drive: Slot-in DVD Super Multi Double Layer
I/O ports: Four USB ports, headphone/microphone combo jack
Other features: 13-in-1 card reader (Memory Stick/ SD, Mini SD, xD Picture Card, Micro SD, SDHC, Mini SDHC, Micro SDHC)
Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium
Dimensions (w x d x h): 436 x 47 x 315mm
Weight: 4kg (without keyboard and mouse)
Price: RM3,299
Review unit courtesy of NEC Computers Asia Pacific, (03) 2283-1632.
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