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This portable PC sniffs out a Wi-Fi hotspot

Anand Parthasarathy

Dell's new XPS notebook detects wireless network even before the machine is opened

Bangalore: Almost all portable personal computers today — that is, laptops and the smaller notebooks — come factory-fitted with the ability to wirelessly latch on to the Internet. For this to happen, the user must be within range of what is called a Wi-Fi hotspot — and there are plenty of these to be found in public places like airport lounges, hotel lobbies and coffee shops.

Locating a wireless "cloud" is not easy: It involves switching on the machine, then opening the "Network Connections" application and configuring the system to synchronise with the Wi-Fi network, before one can start browsing. If you are too far away or the signal is not strong enough, you have to move and repeat the exercise all over again. Now, comes a portable PC that reduces the hassles of locating a wireless network:

The new Dell XPS notebook launched globally earlier this month and now available in India, incorporates a useful feature that sniffs out a wireless network within seconds.

It's called the Wi-Fi Catcher — and its sensors are positioned on the left outside wall of the keyboard — which means it can be activated by sliding a switch, without even having to power up the machine. The Hindu was provided by Dell, with a unit of the XPS M 1210 — the model that is being launched last week in India — for detailed evaluation.

When this correspondent "let loose" the Wi-Fi Catcher by sliding its switch, it took less than 3 seconds for the winking light to become a steady green — indicating that it had detected the wireless network that was live at the time, with the broadband router positioned about 10 metres away in a room on the floor above.

Once the wireless network has been "caught", no further set-up was required: As soon as the notebook was booted up, a window popped up, identifying the wireless network and characterising the strength as "very good".

The notebook itself is a multimedia machine that comes with the latest Intel Core Duo chip that puts two effective processors on a single slab.

A variety of memory (up to 4 gigabytes) and hard disk (up to 100 GB) options are available and most configurations come with a DVD player-cum-recorder and advanced graphics hardware from nVidia.

Another innovation is a movie web camera that can be swivelled almost 180 degrees and has sufficient quality (over 3 mega pixels) for printable still pictures. Coupled with the optional Internet communication software from "Skype", it can be used very effectively as a video chat tool.

This is possibly one of very few notebooks with a 12-inch screen, which packs so many gaming and multimedia features — while reducing the basic weight without batteries to under 2 kg. This would not qualify as an ultra light portable, but packs a lot of possibilities for the mobile graphics-hungry user. The entry-level configuration costs just under Rs 60,000.

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