Samsung is maneuvering to get into the best market position this 2008. This is not as hard as it sounds, due to the customer satisfaction and reputation for quality products that the company has nurtured over the years. HWM was invited to attend their year-opening press event held at The Manila Peninsula on January 30, 2008. We bring you the sights of the biggest collection of product releases ever to grace our market from the Korean giant, Samsung.

                                             Our EIC gets down to business trying to describe his fishing trip during the weekend.

HP has come out with an All-In-One in the tradition of the old 1210, called simply the 915. While the old versions of HP’s all in ones were priced nearly in the tens of thousands, the 915 performs all of the same tasks as the 1210 did better, for thousands of pesos less.

                                             Note the big, bold buttons on top.
 

Picture this: your old man takes a picture of you when you were a kid. Of course the camera used was a film camera with a viewfinder that enabled the shooter (in this case your dad) to compose the shot before actually committing the scene to film. A steady hand and some experience were essential for a photographer in those days not to end up with a lousy picture; you only got one chance to shoot a good picture per frame.

                                              I can't help but think that the Asus Eee PC had something to do with the naming of this device..
 

You won’t see them in the world of superhighways and wide avenues in the highly developed countries of the world, but in countries like ours, and in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the like, the three-wheeled vehicles clogging the side streets and the by-ways are both indispensable and irritating. The Philippine version is of course the tricycle; the Vietnamese version is called the tuk-tuk, while the bajaj makes its home in Indonesia.

The Blue W351UI, as far as I can make out, lacks a proper name so typical of the brand - like "argon", "guru", or "helium". This is probably due to the new-ish nature of this model - one that is again an attempt to fill a niche / requirement in our ever price-conscious local market. As such we can already expect at this early stage an underwhelming experience when it comes to high-end gaming and heavy usage, but this model holds a few aces up its sleeves that bear mention and must be considered when looking around at laptop options.

Nvidia’s 8800GT was the first videocard based on the G92 core process, and was released with a long and slim cooler/heatsink that was unexpectedly quiet. For most manufacturers though, quiet doesn’t cut it anymore, and they go out to enhance these products, lure in the customers, claim bragging rights, and milk a bit more pesos from the consumer, all in one go.

The Nforce 630i / 7000 series chipset from Nvidia no longer incites as much excitement in the reviewer as it did a month ago. With releases from Palit, Emaxx, and a host of other motherboard manufacturers, the buyer is faced with the enviable task of comparing and determining the best among the choices arrayed in the market. Which would you choose if the chipset is all but identical in all of the releases?

                                             You'd expect a high end motherboard in a box like this.
 

Definitely a risqué title, if a bit misleading. Sega, best known for their early success in the game console wars and their game productions, is now segueing into the almost – neglected “adult” toy market – “toys” in the most common meaning of the word that are meant to be sold to adults and not kids.

The arms race continues, but only in more subtle, gentle ways than before. While nuclear weapons and “Star Wars” Space Defense Initiative lasers are already out of vogue, an enterprising British hobbyist with a lot of time on his hands created the ultimate weapon for one-upmanship – the DISINTEGRATOR.

                                             What's a mini gun without some kind of tripod?

The Logitech G15 Keyboard has just recently received a full refresh both physically and functionally, although it retains the same purpose of being as an all-out gaming keyboard made for gamers. As with most computer parts and peripherals, keyboards are usually represented by the generic white or black board with a set of keys in the QWERTY configuration with some additional function and keypad buttons. Strictly speaking, there is no real need for a dedicated gaming keyboard with the generic “board’s” basic capability – but when you consider the extras that you get with the G15, it is easy to change your mind.

                                                             The almost normal-sized G15 Refresh lights up nicely.

It was not so long ago that we were looking over the X38 chipset and marveling at the fact that it supported “up to” 1600 FSB – even if it was only through overclocking. Now Intel has come out with its replacement as the top dog in the chipset pile – the X48 – and has declared that this chipset has the advantage over the X38 due to its “official” support for FSBs of up to 1600MHz! So what’s going on? Did the X38 actually deserve the attention given to it, or was it just holding a seat for the X48’s eventual attendance of this chipset party? Read on and find out.

                                             Testosterone-filled packaging is the norm, claws, diamond plate, airships, aliens, you name it.                        
 

I’m a bit miffed by the state of PC component availability here in the Philippines. While it’s true that most high-profile parts make their way through to our shores much sooner than later (especially due to our proximity to Taiwan and China) – certain products seem to get passed over by other, better marketed contemporaries.

                                             Not a very imaginative name, but I've seen worse.

Boys and their toys – what could be more…. lucrative? The boys at Detroit and in car makers in particular seems to know this by instinct, and the products coming out of their design labs are slowly becoming more “fanboy-centric” than ever.

                                             Depending on your age, this could be futuristic or game-centric.

It’s a never ending cycle: new product comes out; people get to see how it works. People buy the product and make it successful, and not a moment too soon, a lawsuit on whatever kind of infringement comes out of the blue to beat up on the company’s lawyers from here to six ways from Sunday.

                                            An eight-year old video showing remarkably similar dynamics to Nintendo's Wii.

An interesting trend related to Nokia’s newly released cellular phones has been emerging recently to both fascinate and befuddle the common consumer. I am referring to the increasingly common “fake” cellphones that’s been cropping up around tiangges and electronic stores.

                                             No, there's no official PDA version of the N95.