Micromax Canvas Lapbook is A Portable pleasure pre-installed with Windows 10
To be productive on the hoof, presents a peculiar challenge: If you go for pocket-sized, feather-weight devices, you severely limit the applications that you can port. If you want the full desktop experience on the move, be prepared for some heavy lifting. I was elated, when smartphones and tablets came with quad and octa-core chips under the belt and the consequent ability to do a lot of PC things — word processing, spread sheets and presentations. But the euphoria was premature. The shrunken keypads challenged my slow and fat fingers. I longed for a lightweight computing device with enough processing muscle for a standard office suite and a standard keyboard — at a price that is not too far from that of a phone or tablet.
I have been looking in vain for a year now — till, this Diwali, Micromax answered my prayers with LapBook — a laptop, notebook hybrid that’s light enough to carry on tours — 1.3 kilos — yet with a 11.6-inch 720 p HD screen and good twin speaker sound for viewing movies — with the latest Windows 10 OS pre installed.
I should mention upfront that the asking price of the Micromax, Canvas Lapbook L1161 was so attractive — Rs 13,999 that I did something I rarely do, ordered one online based only on the specs.
The sturdy packaging, decent-sized screen and the standard keyboard were tops on my wish list — so no regrets on that score. But let me level with you on the pluses and minuses after a week’s use. The quad Atom chip is as good as any notebook. The RAM is 2G — par for the course; but the Flash storage is just 32 GB — effectively 28 GB out of which 10 GB has gone in preloaded software like the Windows OS. What is left — 18 GB — is insufficient to load any serious application.
I added the max external storage it can take — a micro SD card of 64 GB — and now save all my work on it. The 5000 mAh battery is good for about 10 hours. The front camera is just VGA, not even a megapixel — most phones have better MP ratings .
However, I am thrilled that an Indian maker has stolen a march over so many MNC brands who, three months after the launch of Windows 10 are still palming off Windows 7 machines, leaving the upgrade to you. Microsoft, said at launch that all major outlets and chain electronics shops will do a legal upgrade for free. Forget it; not happening.
The advantage of Win 10 is that if you are cool with Win 8, it looks even better; but if like me, you are used to Win 7, then you can switch to a look and feel of the classic Windows.
On the downside, the Office 365 is only a trial version and after a few months, you have to subscribe at Rs 420/month — or find an Open Source clone on the web. With 2 USB ports and an HDMI port, Bluetooth as well as WiFi, you have enough external connection muscle to match any laptop.
I found the Windows 10 startup and shutdown incredibly fast compared even to many Android tablets — but you have to keep remembering that that is a device that has very little space on board.
