Unevenly Matched Mini-Trio: MSI vs. Shuttle vs. Saintsong
Saintsong Latte P4: Espresso With Lots Of Foam, Continued
In any case, the computer is well on the compact side and the variety of interfaces - from FireWire, USB 2.0, SP/DIF, S-VHS to modem and network - leaves nothing to be desired. Problems cropped up in the benchmark test, where the 2.5" hard drive got in the way of most test categories. Although the onboard graphics (SiS 651) theoretically allow screen resolutions of up to 2048 x 1536 dpi, the display quality is suspect even at 1280 x 1024 dots. The image is very blurry and far from flicker-free - not practical even for sustained office use. Under heavier system capacity, the Latte P4 calls attention to itself with its loud operating noise, which occurs because the fan in the processor cooler operates at a high rpm. All that remains to be said is that Saintsong should rework the Latte P4 from the bottom up. Otherwise, many users will be wondering why they shouldn't just buy a notebook at this price level. Then, in any case, you would at least get the better screen and be rid of the loud CPU fan.
A view of the Latte P4 without the case.
Back of the Latte P4.
Looks like a prototype: Latte P4 with 2 GHz desktop processor.
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