X-bit labs

Foxconn E-bot Small Form-Factor System Review (page 2)

Category: Mobile

by Platon Scheblykin

[ 05/03/2005 | 10:37 PM ]

Exterior and Functionality

This model seems to have pretensions to originality and quite successfully so. Yes, developers from many companies are now avoiding straight lines when designing barebones, but the E-bot is truly something exceptional. It is even hard to tell what geometrical shape its profile copies: it looks like a square with one angle splayed. It is splayed so heavily that a corner of the mainboard had to be cut off. The outline of the barebone is streamlined, with one edge smoothly transitioning into another. Strangely enough, the E-bot may bring up associations with a toaster – it only lacks the lever and the two slits above. But the E-bot has a useful handle on its top panel instead such slits.

Now let’s take a closer look at the features of this barebone.

The front panel carries a card-reader, a small LCD display, a few connectors and buttons and the eject button of the optical drive. Besides the traditional Power On/Off and Reset buttons there’re also playback/pause, previous/next track, and stop buttons and a volume control almost in the center of the front panel. The fact is the E-bot’s read-only memory contains a special Mini OS whose function is to play Audio CDs and MP3s. That is, you don’t have to boot the main OS, for example Windows XP, for playing music in these formats. You just insert a disc and press the Play button. That’s not the only use of these buttons, though. After you install the SuperMedia utility found on the CD with drivers, the buttons begin to control almost any software player. The Mini OS or the media player can output to the LCD display located under the buttons.

When the barebone is in the Stand-by mode, this display shows an elliptical clock with arrows. When the barebone is working, the display shows a funny penguin running around.

Another distinguishing feature of the E-bot is its integrated card-reader that supports almost all of the modern flash card formats. The reader is located at the top of the front panel, under a small cover. To access the reader, just press on the PUSH label on the case.