A while ago we told you about 3M’s pico projector the MPro150, and today we bring you its sibling the MPro120. The MPro120 lacks its big brother’s internal memory and is not quite as bright but otherwise it’s pretty similar. Here are the full details on 3M’s MPro120

* 12 lumens
* Displays - VGA, SVGA, XGA, WXGA (1280×800)
* 8 to 50 inch display
* 2 x 0.5 W speakers
* Inputs - VGA, Composite, Component
* Up to 120 minutes battery life
* 5.4 oz
* 4.7 x 2.4 x 0.9 inches

The 3M MPro120 seems like a great little pico projector and is available at Amazon for only $289. Customer reviews give the unit a 3 out of 5 with most complaints being around the unit’s brightness or lack of, however same reviewers admit its main use would be in environments (office or small classroom) where this may not be a problem. If you have one of these pico projectors please let us know what you think of it.

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Dell have just added a new 24 inch WLED-backlit monitor to its range. The G2410H sports a 24 inch 16:9 1920 x 1080 res display along with a host of green features including an Ambient Light Sensor which adjusts brightness to help minimize power use, 3 Energy Modes for a perfect blend of energy efficiency, display brightness and viewing comfort and it uses recycled plastic in its chassis and packaging. For those of us who are more numerically inclined here are the specifications on the G2410H monitor from Dell.

* 24 inch display
* Aspect Ratio - Widescreen, 16:9
* WLED Backlight Technology
* 1920 x 1080 res at 60 Hz
* 1000:1 standard contrast ratio
* 250 cd/m2 brightness
* Max Viewing Angle 160° (vertical), 170° (horizontal)
* VGA and DVI-D inputs
* 570.75 x 184.12 x 463.81~363.81 mm
* 4.02 kg

The Dell G2410H is available over at Amazon for $329 which is not bad for an eco-friendly widescreen monitor. It also sports 4.5 stars out of 5 from customer reviews although there are only four reviews. Overall it doesn’t sound like a bad monitor option.

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Western Digital’s latest portable HDD, the My Passport AV, is squarely aimed at the media-on-the-go types. Apparently the spinning drive is

engineered for the audio/video market, so this drive stays cool even in a hot entertainment center, uses less power, and delivers optimized streaming for smooth video playback.

It hooks up to game consoles, a WD TV unit, even certain camcorders to enable you to view/record HD video at a touch. It’ll talk nicely with a whole raft of Sony camcorders, Blu-Ray players and PS3s whilst still being friends with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 plus a handful of HDTVs. Check out the full list at WD. Here are the other details on the My Passport AV

* stays cool even in a hot entertainment center
* uses less power to operate
* delivers optimized streaming for smooth video playback
* light-weight storage companion for your camcorder
* Play videos, music and photos on your TV
* 320 GB capacity
* USB 2.0 connectivity
* 16.0 x 126.0 x 80.0 mm
* 0.18 kg

The WD My Passport AV certainly looks like a handy addition to a media-fiends home entertainment gadget collection. The 320 GB capacity seems a bit on the small size but its matched with a pint-sized price tag of $110.

But wait there’s more, Amazon have the WD My Passport AV marked down to $80 at the moment if you’re real keen.

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Whilst you might think SSDs are so 2009, OCZ should be able to grab your attention with their latest SSD offering, the Onyx Series SATA II SSD. This little sucker offers you 32 GB of zeroes and ones with a read speed of up to 125 MB/s. It’ll write them back at up to 70 MB/s. Here’s the rest of the specification of the Onyx Series SSD.

* 32GB capacity
* 64MB Onboard Cache
* TRIM Support
* Seek Time: < .1ms
* Slim 2.5″ Design
* 99.8 x 69.63 x 9.3mm
* 77g
* 1.5 million hour mean time between failure (MTBF)

The 32GB Onyx will retail for $100 which means SSD technology is now within reach of even the most frugal budgets. Obviously the $ per GB figure still does not match spinning HDDs but of course there’s an upside in power usage and noise reduction which is up to the individual to quantify in dollar terms. We’re not yet convinced that the average consumer is ready for the SSD revolution but $100 drives like the OCZ Onyx can only bring that date closer. At the moment we couldn’t find an online purchase option for the Onyx but if you’re reading this a bit after the launch then this link may produce some results on Amazon.

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Having spied the BenQ W1000 projector a few days ago, we thought we’d check out its smaller sibling the W600 Home Entertainment projector. The projector sports BenQ BrilliantColor Technology ‘to produce a more life-like picture’, UNISHAPE lamp lighting technology from Osram for ‘exquisitely rendered color fidelity’ and Independent Color Management allowing you to ‘fine-tune luminance, saturation, and hue of individual tones’. Impressed? Here are the numbers on the BenQ W600 just in case the marketing blurb doesn’t spin your wheels

* Native Resolution 720p (1280 x 720)
* DLP® technology by Texas Instruments®
* 2600 ANSI lumens
* Lamp 230W, 2500/4000 hours (Normal/Economic mode)
* Contrast Ratio 4000:1
* 6 lbs (2.7kg)
* Supported resolutions - VGA(640 x 480) to UXGA(1600 x 1200)
* 12 x 3.6 x 8.5 inch (306 x 93 x 216 mm)
* Image Size 26” to 300”
* Lens F:2.55 (Wide) ~ 2.71(Tele), f:21.3mm (Wide) ~ 24.5mm (Tele)
* 16:9 Aspect Ratio
* Inputs - PC, Analog RGB, HDMI v1.3 x 2, RCA x 3, S-Video, Composite x 1
* Stereo Mini Jack
* Speaker 2W
* Video Compatibility NTSC, PAL, SECAM
* HDTV formats 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p

The BenQ W600 sports a couple of HDMI inputs amongst all those stats, which is quite handy if you have a couple of HDMI-capable toys and with a price tag of $650 at Amazon, it looks like a great entry-level projector. Let us know what you think.

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Samsung have installed the Intel ATOM N450 processor under the hood of their N315 range of laptops. These laptops which sport a MSRP tag of $430 also boast a pre-loaded version of the NY Times reader (subscription required), a 4.5 hour battery life and a ‘pebble-style’ keyboard. Whilst we’re not too sure about the keyboard, we like the sound of the price tag, so here’s the rest of the Samsung N315 specification

* Windows 7 Starter
* Intel ATOM Processor N450
* Memory 1 GB (DDR2 / 1 GB x 1)
* Display LCD 10.1″ WSVGA (1,024 x 600), LED Back Light
* Graphic Processor Intel GMA3150 (Int. Graphic)
* Multimedia Sound HD (High Definition) Audio
* Speaker 3 W Stereo Speaker (1.5 W x 2)
* Integrated Camera 1.3 MP Web Camera
* HDD 250 GB (5,400 rpm S - ATA)
* Communication Wired Ethernet LAN 10 / 100 LAN
* Wi-Fi LAN 802.11 b/g/n
* VGA port
* Headphone & Mic ports
* Internal Mic
* 3 x USB 2.0 ports
* Multi Card Slot 3 - in - 1 (SD, SDHC, MMC)
* RJ45 (LAN)
* Standard Battery 4 Cell
* Dimensions Dimension (W x D x H inches) 10.3″ x 7.3″ x 1.1″
* 2.71 lbs

Obvious missing components include an optical disk drive and bluetooth connectivity. Of course the absence of an ODD seems commonplace in light-weight laptops these days, but we’re not so sure why Bluetooth is not a feature. Anyway the Samsung N315 range of laptops is still marked at the competitive price of $430.

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Samsung have a stylish laptop out there, namely the R780 which according to the marketing blurb allows you to

switch between work and play with ridiculous ease

which is an intriguing way of saying the R780 laptop is multi-functional. The unit does house 1GB of dedicated NVidia graphics memory whilst other operations are powered by an Intel i5 processor so the R780 certainly doesn’t lack all-round grunt. Here are the rest of the details on the Samsung R780

* Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
* Intel® Core™ i5 Processor 430 M (2.26 GHz, 3 MB)
* 4 GB (DDR3 / 2 GB x 2) memory
* 17.3″ LED HD+ LCD 1,600 x 900 res display
* nVIDIA GeForce GT 330 1GB
* High Definition Audio
* SRS 3D Sound Effect
* 4 W Stereo Speaker (2 W x 2)
* 1.3 MP Web Camera
* 500 GB HDD (5,400 rpm SATA)
* Optical Disk Drive
* Gigabit LAN
* 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
* Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
* VGA, HDMI outputs
* Headphone and Mic ports
* Internal Mic
* PC CardBus Slot
* 4 x USB 2.0
* Multi Card Slot 3-in-1 (SD, SDHC, MMC)
* RJ45 (LAN)
* Standard 6 Cell Battery
* 16.2″ x 10.7″ x 1.25″ ~ 1.56″
* 6.26 lbs

That’s a pretty impressive set of specs and the Samsung R780 has a great price tag to match at $930. We also like the stylish red option for the R780, so for once you do actually have looks combined with performance. But wait, there’s an even better deal out there. Over at Best Buy you can pick up one of these suckers for only $800, unfortunately right now they’ve sold out but it’ll be worth checking back.

So yeah, we do like the Samsung R780 ‘HD Lifestyle’ laptop and we reckon it probably does what it says on the box and allow you to switch effortlessly between work and play. But of course with all that gaming processor power who wants to use it for work!

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