Review - CnM Lifestyle miniBOOK 7”

CnM are better known for their excellent USB flash memory devices, however they have also jumped onto the ‘netbook’ bandwagon that other more well known manufactures have been rolling along on for a fair few months now. The device that started it all, the ASUS EeePC is still the market leader in this area, while other manufacturers have also been jumping on such as Acer with the AspireONE and MSI with the Wind.

The CnM Lifestyle miniBOOK 7” though caught my eye more so than any of the others due to its extremely low price. At just £169 from retailers such as Maplin, the price is nothing to baulk at considering how the ASUS netbooks tend to be retailing at around £249.

As the name implies, this model has a 7 inch screen across its diagonal, which is the same as that offered by the original EeePC. However, unlike the EeePC, CnM does not offer a 9” or 10” version at this time.

At just 650 grams the miniBOOK weighs in at less than your average bag of sugar, which is several times less than most average notebook computers today, which usually weigh in at around the 3.5kg mark (3500g).

The keyboard sports 80 keys, some of which carry additional functions accessed through combing a special ‘Fn’ key. Unlike most keyboards, that of the miniBOOK has just 10 Function keys (F1 through to F10) however F11 and F12 can still be used though combing the ‘Fn’ key and the F1 or F2 keys respectively. The keys are mostly only a little smaller than your usual laptop keys, however some are about half as small again. This may pose a problem for many users as they can be difficult to accurately press without pressing the neighbouring keys at the same time. However, since the miniBOOK comes with 3 USB ports it is more than feasible to use an external USB keyboard for extended periods of typing.

Most laptop users today are quite comfortable with the use of track pad's in place of the usual mouse. The miniBOOK has a responsive track pad, which although about half the size of the average laptop track pad, is perfectly serviceable. Should the end user feel the track pad to be too small for long periods of use though, you can, as with the keyboard, plug in a USB mouse.

My only significant issue with the track pad though, is the placement of the left and right buttons. Unlike most track pads, which have the buttons placed below, the buttons of the miniBOOK are on either side. I have found this difficult to get used to, but I am sure that with practice I could.

With a built-in Wi-Fi card, accessing the internet should be no problem, however I have been unable to test this since I currently have no internet access at home due to recently moving house. I hope to test this in the near future though.

The specifications of the miniBOOK include a 400MHz (MIPS based) XBURST CPU, 128MB RAM and 2GB Nand Flash storage. While by today’s standards this specification is almost joke worthy, it fits the miniBOOK perfectly since its intended purpose is for use as an internet and email device, which has low memory or processing requirement.

Also, the low specification means that it is light, does not get hot, has a good 3 hour battery life between charges, and has no moving parts. Having no moving parts extended the battery life, but more importantly to me, means that dust does not build up inside the unit, which would cause extra heat, and ultimately decreases the devices life expectancy.

The operating system has been designed to be simple and fast.

The miniBOOK comes running a small and light version of Linux, which has been designed to be user friendly, to both adults and especially children. After starting the miniBOOK up you are greeted (after 40 seconds) by the desktop which is divided into four areas. These are:

1. Menu – This runs along the top of the screen and has headers for Internet, Work, Play, Settings and Others. These divide the application shortcuts into groups to make navigation simpler.

2. Application Area – where shortcuts to applications are presented. These change as you select headings from the Menu.

3. Taskbar – where you will find the Power-Off button, Task Manager, battery info and minimised applications.

4. Clock – This does as you would expect.

Preinstalled applications include a web browser, email client, messaging program, eBook reader, Word processor, Spreadsheet program (both office compatible), PDF viewer, Dictionary, Calendar, Calculator, Media Player, Flash player, Image Gallery, and Paint Brush.

The web browser is a simplified version of the excellent Firefox known as Bon Echo. It is a pretty fast browser, and incorporates all the essential features you would expect from a Firefox derivative.

The email client is Sylpheed 2.4.1, a program I have no previous experience of, however it seems to look and operate in much the same way as Outlook Express. It handles POP3 email with ease and has a basic Address Book built in. It is all I would expect, but comes with none of the bells and whistles as those found in Outlook 2007.

The messaging program is Pidgin, which is a very popular client in Linux circles, but one I again have no previous experience with. I will not be testing this program though, since as I mentioned before, I currently have no internet access at home.

FBReader, the eBook reader is a competent program which handles most popular eBook formats.

The word processing and spreadsheet programs, Xip Word and Xip Table are based on the very popular freeware OpenOffice program, and as such carry the all important Microsoft Office compatibility you need. The features of these two programs are quite full. Full text formatting, and image insertion is provided in Xip Word, as is the creation of tables. Xip Table allows for complex equations and charts.

The PDF Viewer application is a simple affair but quite capable.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Dictionary program. As I typed a word, suggestions are made instantly, and definitions appeared instantly in the right hand pane. I’ve never found a use for a dictionary application before, but now I have used this one, I can certainly see a use for it.

The calendar is another excellent application. It allows you to create many calendars from which all appointments are pooled together in the same window, with different colours to help you recognise your work appointments from your home, sport, or other appointments. You can also deselect the calendars to be displayed, in this way you can view appointments just for work for example.

The calculator is very basic in appearance; much like the one you may have created yourself if you have ever learned to program in Java. It does however allow you to enter formulas too, which might interest some people, just not me.

The Media Player, while basic, offers the ability to play MP3 and WMA files out of the box. This is not the norm for Linux distributions since MP3 and WMA are not open source formats, however it is great to see this compatibility included as most people tend to expect the files to be playable on everything today. You can also watch movies on in the Media Player; however the small 2GB storage of the device would hamper the viability of storing many of these.

Xip Flash player allows for the playback of Flash animations, programs and movies (such as those found on YouTube) which you may have downloaded, however it does not integrate with the browser and therefore does not offer playback via the web. It offers three modes, Normal, Low Quality and Half Size to reduce stuttering and enhance the experience.

Image Gallery is the installed image viewing application, which does a pretty good job. You are able to select folders from the tree in the upper left hand pane, and files from the lower left where you’ll find thumbnails of the images. The right hand pane displays the image, F11 (‘Fn’ + F1) displays the select image in fullscreen mode while alt-clicking the containing folder brings up the option of a slideshow which can again be displayed fullscreen using the key combo above.

Paint Brush is the image editing program of choice. This is very much like Microsoft Paint, very basic and not of a great deal of use. I would have like to have used it to save some screen grabs, however I could not paste into the program after pressing the ‘PrtSc’ key. This is a big shame.

Xip Tar is a file compression program, able to open and save in many standard compression formats such as .zip, .rar and .tar.

Also installed are a few other applications which I have not mentioned since I do not consider them worth noting, not because they are bad, but because they are the usual bits and pieces you would expect to find.

You can tell that this device is not intended for power users but instead for those who simply want internet, email and other web-centric programs, and occasional office applications, such as teenagers. Personally I would consider this to be the most perfect PDA ever.

Having used PDA’s for many years, I have always been put off by the small screen, lack of keyboard and having to use a stylus, and in recent years have opted to using my laptop more and more despite its weight and size. The miniBOOK is a great replacement for a PDA.

The main problem, other than the few gripes I have already outlines above, is the lack of storage capacity. 2GB is not enough, and will quickly be filled by images, music and movies. Since the majority of users are likely to be teenagers (in my mind at least) it is likely that the device could quickly be discarded as a fad, luckily though the storage memory is expandable through the use of SD memory cards. The manual quotes up to 4GB cards can be used, however I was only able to test with the 2GB card I have in my Dell Axim x51v PDA. Unlike a lot of laptops, the card inserts almost completely into the chassis, and is therefore unlikely to become damaged if the card remained inserted at all times, since there is no part left exposed and likely to be snapped off.

The speakers are not fantastic; in fact they lack bass and definition, producing a horribly tinny sound that is far from easy on the ears. However, since teenagers seem to be happy to listen to the din produced by the playback of music through their mobile phones, I doubt this would pose much of an issue. Playback though my Sony ear phones though produced a much better sound, although not as high quality as that provided by my iPod Nano. The volume through my headphones had to be turned down to almost the minimum available through the Media Player software, as it was far too loud at full volume.

Playback of a 199MB avi file from a 4GB USB flash drive was slow and stuttering, it produced no sound whatsoever. As such I copied the file over to the built in storage. File copying was very slow, taking around 2 minutes 30 seconds. I’d imagine it would take a great deal longer if I were attempting to carry out other file operations at the same time.

Playback of the same avi file from the built in storage still produced no sound (I didn’t think it would, but hoped otherwise) and although playback was faster, it still stuttered badly and was unwatchable. I had a greater degree of success with playback of the following video formats though;

• .mov – no stuttering, sound was fine
• .3GP – no stuttering, no sound
• .mpg – no stuttering, fantastic sound

Since the File Manager did not recognise the .wmv file type, the Media Player would not play it and while the File Manager did recognise the .mp4 extension as a video file, I could not get Media Player to play the video. Selecting it via the File Manager caused the application to hang, while opening it via the Media Player software cause the program to exit immediately.

I decided after successfully using my 2GB SD card, and my 4GB USB flash drive, to attempt using my 8GB flash drive with the miniBOOK. The manual states that you can use up to 4GB SD cards and USB flash drives. However I hoped that an 8GB drive would work none-the-less. It didn’t. That is a real shame.

The manufacturers’ website also states that it is not possible to use the device with external USB hard disk drives, so I felt the need to try one of these too. I selected one of my 2.5” 80GB USB drives, since these do not require an additional power source and plugged it in to the miniBOOK but just as expected the drive did not appear in the File Manager at all, even though the drive was clearly being interrogated by the operating system, which was indicated by the activity LED flashing on the drive.

I find it curious that a device such as this cannot access storage capacities exceeding 4GB; however I do not see this as being reason enough to not purchase the miniBOOK given its excellent price.

Conclusion

While this review has not been nearly as in-depth as I would have liked, given the limitation of review time (one night) and my current lack of internet access at home, I believe I have outlined the key points to be considered if looking to buy this device.

With its limited storage capacity another storage medium is a necessity. Since you are limited to using 4GB SD cards or USB flash drives, this is not going to be an expensive additional purchase. SD cards would be the medium of choice if considering semi-permanent storage since the card can be inserted at all times without fear of damage, while a USB flash drive could be used for transferring documents between computers.

The weight and size of the device is perfect, especially when accounting for the fast boot up time as this makes for a device which is portable enough to be used as and when required, at a moment’s notice.

The screen is large enough for most purposes, but may pose a problem on wide web pages, where the user would need to make use of the horizontal scroll bar to view all a pages content.

I would happily buy this device for my 9 year old son to use occasionally, while my fiancé would make good use of it for accessing her email and browsing the internet (Facebook in particular). At the same time, it would be perfect for me for the same reason, as well as for making notes, keeping track of my schedule and for writing up articles for my blog.

I would like to see another model with more RAM, a slightly faster 600MHz CPU and 8GB storage. This would make for me an almost perfect netbook, particularly if it were sold at the same price point.

The review model was gratefully provided by Microtest Ltd. who sell the CnM miniBOOK with a complimentary 2GB SD Card. Microtest Ltd. are a UK company based in Bodmin, Cornwall and can be contacted on 01208 261600 or sales@microtest.co.uk.

If you have encountered any problems with the CnM netbook please check the comments for this article where you will find some good assistance from other miniBOOK users.

Also there is a follow up series to this article, starting here