Prezenter makes presentations personal

Presentations are easy when you have a large screen and projector setup, but what if you're a traveling salesperson? Should you sit next to your client with your laptop, and potentially make him feel uneasy? Or turn the screen away and hope you have memorized the slides perfectly?

The Prezenter PSR claims to do away with such worries. Unlike conventional laptops or tablet PCs, the PSR has two touch-screen displays. The larger 14.1-inch screen faces your audience while you control the presentation from the smaller 7-inch touch screen. Both displays can be set on "clone mode"--where both show the same images--or "dual mode," a little like an extended desktop setting. The client can also interact with the presentation, drawing circles, or images to point out areas in question.

The battery lasts up to 3.5 hours (with the wireless radio on) and can hold its charge for up to 20 hours on standby. Like most laptops, it has three USB 2.0 ports, VGA output, Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11b/g connectivity. A 1.3-megapixel camera sits above the 14.1-inch display.

Though the company claims that decoding videos is not an issue with this machine, our experience with the AMD Geode LX800 processor makes us doubt this claim. Low bit-rate files may be smooth, but higher-quality videos may stutter during playback. The 512MB memory and 80GB harddisk don't make the Prezenter PSR a powerhouse either. Fortunately, it runs on Windows XP Home Edition, which requires relatively fewer system resources than Vista.

The unit has a recommended retail price of $1,800 and is undergoing trials in the U.S. and Europe. (Get more CommunicAsia 2008 coverage here.)

(Source: Crave Asia)