Panasonic SC-NT10

Pros Robust wireless audio performance for the size of speaker and price. NFC-enabled. Ruggedized, dust-, splash- and shock-proof design. Comes with dedicated charger. Can be used as speakerphone.

Cons Design isn't particularly compelling. Long recharge time. Bottom Line The Panasonic SC-NT10 is a solid, weatherproof portable Bluetooth speaker that outperforms some models that cost significantly more.

By Tim Gideon

The $100 price range of portable Bluetooth speakers is a tricky space to navigate—there's no shortage of options, but how many of them actually sound good? You might forgive the $99.99 (list) Panasonic SC-NT10 if it didn't sound superb—it's loaded with features like a splash-proof, dust-proof, shock-proof, and freeze-proof build, and speakerphone capabilities. Its low price doesn't leave much room for high-quality audio performance, and yet, it can get quite loud and deliver sound cleanly and clearly. It's not perfect, but for a speaker of this size and price, the SC-NT10 sounds far better than you might expect, and it even outperforms some more expensive models making it our Editors' Choice for budget wireless speakers.

Design
The SC-NT10 has many strengths, but beauty is not one of them. The design favors function over style, so what we end up with is an approximately 4.7 by 2.2-inch orange-and-black disk with well-labeled buttons that's weatherproof and easy to tote.

On the top panel of the speaker, which projects upward, there are buttons for Power, Volume, and a Play/Pause/Answer Calls button, which also doubles as the Bluetooth pairing button. Both the micro USB charging connection and a 3.5mm Aux input are protected by a snap-shut, rubberized cover along the side of the disk, while in the center of the top panel, there's a Boost button that increases midrange presence.

Panasonic rates the battery life at roughly 8 hours on a full charge—but using it in Boost mode will kill the battery more quickly. If there's a downside here, it's that the SC-NT10 takes about 5 hours to fully charge. Then again, much of the faster-charging competition cannot put out sound with as much power.

The SC-NT10 ships with a dedicated charger, so you don't have to charge by connecting it via USB to your computer—though you can do this, too, with the included cable. There is no included 3.5mm aux cable, however.

The Bluetooth pairing process is quick and painless, and if your phone is NFC-enabled, you can merely tap it against the top panel of the speaker to establish an audio stream. Call clarity through the speakerphone is fine.

Performance
You can't pay $100 for any speaker and expect a sonic masterpiece, especially when the speaker in question is very small and portable. You immediately should expect less bass presence. However, it's not unreasonable to hope for some decent volume and clean performance even when things are relatively loud. In this regard, the SC-NT10 shines.

The speaker may not produce much bass rumble, but it has rubberized feet that accomplish two things: They keep it from dancing off of whatever flat surface you set it on, and if that surface is wood, you might end up getting some extra resonance out of the speaker. This is mainly thanks to the internal passive radiator, and I certainly noticed a richer low and low-mid presence, especially when the SC-NT10 was sitting on top of a wooden desk versus, say, a picnic blanket. 

Impressively, at top volumes on both the iPhone and the SC-NT10, the speaker did not distort on tracks that might easily have caused problems. The Knife's "Silent Shout" is a notorious tiny speaker killer, with intense sub-bass. But not so through the SC-NT10, whether you are listening at top or medium volumes, with Boost on or off. This isn't to say that you hear much in the way of intense bass at all—you don't. But there's a nice richness to the overall sound, and with Boost selected, a bit more clarity and contour as well.

Rock, hip hop, jazz, and classical all sound pretty solid through the SC-NT10, particularly with Boost mode enabled. This mode mainly seems to make things a lot louder, but also helps add definition to vocals and the attacks of percussion and guitar strums. The only complaint I have hear is that, even with volume maxed out and in Boost mode, some quiet classical music passages never seem to get loud enough through the SC-NT10, but this is because of the wider dynamic range most classical recordings have more than anything else.

Basically, if I had $100 to spend on a portable Bluetooth speaker for traveling, I'd probably go with the SC-NT10. Its shape makes it easy to pack, and its audio performance is a steal at this price. Of course, if I had more money to spend, I'd go with the Editors' Choice Bose SoundLink Mini or the Ultimate Ears UE Boom, both of which are in a higher league of audio performance than the SC-NT10. And if you are trying to spend far less than $100, consider the $60 Xmi X-Mini Max—just keep in mind you are getting what you pay for. But the SC-NT10 flattens competition like the Boombotix Boombot Rex, which costs $20 more than the SC-NT10 and sounds $25 cheaper. In this price range, it represents a solid deal.

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Sony, Panasonic show consumer 4K camcorders

Sony is set to become the first company to offer a consumer-grade camcorder that shoots at four times the detail of today's best high-definition images.

In October, the company plans to begin selling its Handycam FDR-AX1, which supports the new 4K Ultra HD standard. Television sets with screens that can show 4K images are also just beginning to appear on the market as the industry pushes hard to make 4K the next big thing in video.

A 4K picture has a resolution of 3840 pixels by 2160 pixels, double the horizontal and vertical resolution of a "full HD" image. For consumers, that means the potential for even finer detail and a better, sharper picture.

In a demonstration at the IFA electronics expo in Berlin, visitors were able to try out one of the cameras. The output from the camera was displayed on a 4K monitor and enabled visitors to see great detail, even when fully zoomed.

Sony Handycam FDR-AX1

The Handycam FDR-AX1 will cost around $4500. To be sure, that's expensive but not perhaps as by as much as it first appears. Prices for equivalent Sony high-end consumer or professional camcorders that shoot in high-definition range from $2800 to $6000.

The first version of the camera will record in XAVC S, a Sony-developed format based on MPEG4 AVC/H.264. The industry standard AVCHD format used by most consumer camcorders doesn't yet support 4K, but an update is expected in mid-2014, according to Sony.

And if you're wondering how to watch the footage recorded on the camcorder, it has an HDMI 2.0 connector for hooking up to compatible TVs. HDMI 2.0 was just announced and is the first version of the HDMI format to support 4K in full quality.

The camcorder was first seen in January at the CES show in Las Vegas, where it was displayed as a prototype. At this week's IFA in Berlin, fellow Japanese electronics company Panasonic is showing a prototype of its first 4K camcorder.

The company offered no details on when it would be available and didn't allow visitors to handle the device themselves.

Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service.
More by Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

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Panasonic KV-S5055C

Pros Relatively fast in scanning to searchable PDF.Scans at up to tabloid size. 200-sheet ADF. Designed for high-volume scanning.

Cons Lacks document management software. USB connectivity only. Bottom Line The Panasonic KV-S5055C is a fast document scanner built for high-volume scanning that can scan at up to tabloid size.

By Tony Hoffman

The Panasonic KV-S5055C is a sheet-fed scanner that can scan documents at up to tabloid (11 by 17 inches) size. It sports a 200-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) and blistering rated scan speeds. Although it fell a little short of its rated speeds, it's still plenty fast, and is relatively fast at scanning to searchable PDF, generally the preferred format for document management.

With an 18.5- by 17.5-inch (HWD) footprint, the KV-S5055C isn't small, but it is dwarfed by the Epson WorkForce DS-60000 Document Scanner (25.2 by 18.5 inches) and the Xerox DocuMate 4830 (22.9 by 19.6), the other two document scanners we've tested that can handle tabloid-sized paper in their ADFs. That's because both the DS-60000 and the 1830 add a flatbed for scanning books and delicate documents a page at a time.

The KV-S5055C is built for high-volume scanning, with a maximum daily duty cycle of up to 15,000 pages. As is typical of document scanners, the KV-S5055C scans at up to 600 ppi. It offers automatic double-feed detection, prevention, and skip. Paper is loaded into the 200-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF). The ADF can hold documents from tabloid size down to business cards. It has an extendable output tray. Connectivity is via USB 2.0 cable. With the optional Panasonic KV-SS1100 ($1,549 list) network appliance, which has a 7-inch screen, the scanner can be added to a wired or wireless network.

Software
As is true of many higher-end document scanners, the KV-S5055C ships with minimal software, as IT departments often want to integrate the scanner with their preferred document management software. Software includes Panasonic Image Capture Plus utility, which lets you scan and save documents to different formats, as well as Twain and ISIS drivers, which enable you to initiate scans from nearly any Windows program with a scan command. (This scanner does not support Mac OS X.) If your business doesn't already have suitable document management or business card software, you'll need to factor in the cost of those as well.

Scanning Speed
For most functions, scanning with Image Capture Plus is a two-step process; when the scanning itself is complete, you initiate the output, in which it converts the scan into the desired format. I tested the KV-S5055C, which is rated at 50 pages per minute (ppm) for simplex scanning and 100 ipm (images per minute, where each side of a page counts as one image) for duplex at its default 300 ppi black-and-white, to image PDF, with Image Capture Plus. It averaged 43 ppm in simplex and lost no time when I switched to duplex; I clocked it at 43 ppm/86 ipm, 86% of its rated speed for each. It's rated at 75 ppm/150 ipm for scanning to image PDF at 200 ppi, and at that resolution it tested at 56 ppm in simplex, 75% of its rated speed.

Though our timed speeds didn't match Panasonic's claimed speeds, they're still within a reasonable range. Note that in our scanning speed tests, we time the scan from the launch of the scan until the scanned file is saved, while manufacturers tend to use just the time spent in the scanning itself for their rated speeds.

I timed the Epson WorkForce DS-60000 at 31 ppm in simplex and 62 ppm in duplex in scanning our test document to image PDF at its default 200 ppi in black and white, in each case about 75% of its rated speed (40 ppm/80 ipm). The Xerox DocuMate 4830, rated for scanning to image PDF at 200 ppi in black and white at 30 ppm for simplex and 60 ipm for duplex scanning, tested at 25 ppm and 51.7 ppm; 80% and 86% of its rated speed, respectively.

The KV-S5055C scanned and saved a 25-page simplex document to 300-ppi searchable PDF in an average of 50 seconds, about 50% longer than its time to scan to image PDF but still a very respectable time.

It took the Epson DS-60000 considerably longer—3 minutes 22 seconds—to scan and save the same document at 300 ppi to searchable PDF, while the Xerox DocuMate 4830 tested at 2:34 at the same resolution. Yet the KV-S5055C doesn't approach the searchable PDF scanning abilities of many Canon document scanners, which lose little or no time when scanning to searchable PDF over their speed in scanning to image PDF. For example, the Editors' Choice Canon imageFormula DR-C125 ($495 list, 4 stars), rated at just 25 ppm/50 ipm, took 1 minute to scan our test document to searchable PDF, losing no time at all.

The KV-S5055C gets the job done as a fast sheet-fed document scanner for high-volume scanning at up to tabloid size, and is easy to recommend as such. Although it didn't match its rated speeds in our official timings, it was still fast in scanning to image PDF, and didn't lose too much time in scanning to searchable PDF.

The Panasonic KV-S5055C has considerably higher rated and timed speeds than the Epson WorkForce DS-60000, and the Xerox DocuMate 4830; like those two scanners, it fell somewhat short of its rated speed in our testing but was still within a reasonable range. The KV-S5055C did especially well in comparison to those models when scanning to searchable PDF. The DS-60000 and 4830 do add a flatbed, enabling you to scan book pages and fragile documents, and come at a much lower price. But for sheer brawn and raw speed, the Panasonic is a formidable scanner that should find a home in mid-sized or larger offices and busy workgroups with significant scanning demands.

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