Laptops Arena

A dictionary to have with you on the road? Sure, why not, especially if it's a "netbook-style" one! The Sharp RD-PM10 is a pretty handsome gadget, and while some may claim its place isn't amongst laptops... here's the story to make you change your mind. Ready or not, we're rollin'!

This little pocket dictionary comes powered by Windows CE 5.0, and since it also has a full QWERTY keyboard, you can almost call it a netbook. After all, it wouldn't be the first mobile computer without any kind of optical drive, but let's get serious and see the rest of it, shall we?

Apart from using Microsoft's Windows CE, this white beauty packs a screen as large as 4.3 inch (WQVGA resolution), as well as 8GB of storage, but I don't think you'll be able to play Quake on it. Why that?
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Well, the Sharp RD-PM10 has been designed only for light e-dictionary duties, and despite the fact it also has some basic media playback features, it won't get too far with that. Damn, if they would add some more interesting and capable OS in future versions...

Anyway, if you're asking yourselves about the price, I guess it's enough to say that the Sharp RD-PM10 has a list price of about $290, but there's no word about its availability in the US just yet. Anyway, as long as it also comes with a microSD slot for expansion, and very good codec support, it could be worth the wait, don't you think?

Back when I was a kid, the most interesting technology I was able to reach wasn't much - my father's stereo (Japanese made, it was a Casio or a Sharp, I can't really remember that), my uncle's boombox, and my best friend's pickup. The good part of this is that most of them worked flawlessly for a few decades, with my uncle's boombox still rockin' after over 30 years since its manufacture. I would really like to see a working 1st gen iPod in 2030...but let's get to the point now, shall we?

So, we're talking about another Atom-based netbook. What's so special about it? If you didn't get it by looking at the image above, then let me tell you this - the Sharp Mebius NJ70A features a 10.1 inch wide display with a 1024X600 pixels resolution, as well as a secondary 4 inch display. More than that, we're talking about a touchpad display, having no less than 854x480 resolution!

Available for $999, the Sharp Mebius NJ70A also comes with 1GB of memory, of which 256MB are shared with the integrated graphics chip, 160GB hard disk drive, 802.11b/g and Bluetooth connectivity, but I think the OS was an extremely bad choice, because running Windows Vista Home Basic on a computer with less than 1GB of memory doesn't look like a bright idea to me.
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Of course, you can easily get more memory, but that would also take the price to new heights, so why not come up with a custom-made Linux distro for this beauty, and a slightly better hardware setup? Good question, but I am not working for Sharp, so I can't answer it...

At last, you should know that June 5th is the day when the Sharp Mebius NJ70A will start shipping, but if you really want to get one(available in black or white), you should be aware that there's only a Japanese International Layout keyboard available for now.