I can use my mobile to play music, watch video, record video, take photos, create documents, send pictures and text and, if I really want to, make or receive a phone call.

My PSP is quite happy playing games, music, showing me photos or allowing me (quite quietly) to watch a film.

I use software that, once, would have played just video, or just audio, or just a CD, but not can do all three without getting too fussed.

I’ve got two games consoles that are as happy playing games as they are DVDs.

So, why is it that with so many convergence devices, I still find myself using “dedicated” products for their jobs?   I play DVDs on a DVD player, I play CDs on a music system, I use my PSP and games consoles for games and rarely for playing films.  My mobile phone is probably the exception - it’s a Smartphone (too smart, sometimes), so I do use it to play music, store spreadsheets and use it, occasional, as removable storage.  Oh, there’s my laptop too (you read about it, I take it?); I do play music and video on it.  I used to use VLC to play music and video, but I’ve gone back to playing music with Winamp for some reason.

Am I missing a trick?  Is convergence important to people or do we prefer to put a tool to task for that task?

So, after more than three years of service I decided that the time was right to bid farewell to my trusty Toshiba Portege 3500 Tablet PC (complete with 100GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, touchscreen that was unresponsive along a 2 inch column of it, 16MB graphics card that struggled with most things photographic or video and 12.1″ screen - I loved that TPC, it was just getting long in the tooth.)

In my ongoing quest for a suitable replacement - criteria: 12.1″ screen, under 2kg, decentish graphics capability and, most of all, not overly expensive - I’d struggled to find something.  There’s a quite nice Sony VAIO with an 8″ screen for a wedge of cash, all those nice UMPCs that just didn’t seem “right”, the oQo with it’s Transmeta processor (I remember a review that said these ran like a shackled tortoise, that made me laugh and put me off at the same time), and a few other machines that coulda been contenders, Charley.  However, I never found something that really hit me in the face.

Anyway, there I am, in Currys of all places, and there’s the Philips X56 - 1.83Ghz Intel Dual Core 2, 1GB RAM, upto 224MB Intel GMA 950 Graphics Accelerator (224MB! Say what?), 80GB hard drive, 12.1″ widescreen, wireless, 1.85kg, 4 hour battery life (hmmmm).  Quite a nice package and all for £699!  I wanted one.  I would have got one too, if there hadn’t just been a display model in stock.

So, next best plan.  The X55 - 1.66GHz processor played off against a 100GB hard drive for an extra £50.  Actually, in my case and extra £20 since the sales guy, who was quite helpful, thought that it was his stock system that had mistakenly allocated another X56 in stock only to find it was really an X55, but I’m not going to quibble.

Got it home, opened it up.  Surprised to find it’s not Windows XP Home Edition, but MCE, which isn’t bad I suppose - okay, no lock workstation option, but there has to be a utility out there (freeware, anyone?) that’ll do a similar job, in the meantime, Switch User does the trick when I’m at work.  Not quite as snazzy as ctrl-alt-del, but beggars can’t be choosers.  It’s actually a fantastic laptop, I am really quite impressed.  I’ve even gone as far as Divx coding my DVDs (bought the licence for the convertor software and everything), now if only I had to patience to figure out when the sound losses sync halfway through the DIVX files - something to Google, I suppose.  Oh, and the sound card makes funny sounds when it’s hooked up to an amplified setup - so I bought a Creative Xmod and that’s sorted that out!  Apparently, my sound sounds better than sound’s supposed to sound (see, that should have been the products marketing line!)

Then I decide to do some research.  Which reminds me, do the research first before making a big purchase - Dave’s Tip No. 1.

The X55/6 don’t exist on the Philips website.  There’s no downloads for them, no spec sheet and no… errr… nothing (isn’t that a double negative?)

There are reviews of the X56 online, but not the X55 (okay, it’s a newer model, so I’ll give it time).  Overall, people like the X56, except that there’s currently an 11 page discussion on another website about the machine, who makes it and whether it’s any good or not  - it’s apparently a Dixons Group exclusive, possibly a Twinhead unit, possibly not, is either good, okay or excellent, represents good value for money, has some problem with hibernation (my X55 doesn’t!), performs well (except with complicated games) and is wearing a Philips badge when it doesn’t actually have to.

So, who makes this machine?  I can download the graphics drivers from Intel, but what about the other things, like an updated BIOS that allows me to do more than change the date and time!  What about my Windows Vista upgrade available on all laptops purchased from Currys/Dixons/PC World over £399 - Microsoft don’t have a link on their Vista Ready website!  I suppose I’ll have to wait and see on that last one.

In the meantime, if you’re in the market for a decent laptop that doesn’t weight a ton.  The Not-Philips X55 or X56.  You can’t go wrong, except if you want to know who made it, want an extra battery, want to update the BIOS or are desperate for Vista.  Still, I’d buy one.

AN UPDATE

It’s 22 December 2006, 19:32 in the grand old UK.

Just thought I’d pop an update to the bottom of my blog and say my Philips X55 won’t hibernate anymore!  It just kinda sits there with a black screen pretending to be shut down when it isn’t (kinda like having your eyes shut and pretending you’re not there).  I have to switch it off to get it to restart (yes, I’ve tried pressing all the different buttons, moving the mouse and what have you - it just refuses to play!).

Oh well, no hibernation for me as, according to a Dixons Group representative on a forum, the model isn’t meant to hibernate.  It’s a software thing not a hardware thing.  In fact, as for Vista, I should register XP with Microsoft and Vista will be magically made available as a download for me!  That’d be nice, wouldn’t it.  Oh well, I’ll just wait and see what happens, I guess.

Don’t get me wrong, though, the laptop is still fantastic!