The Genee Powerboard is incredibly similar to the Hitachi Starboard. It uses exactly the same infrared technology which allows the user to interact with the board using either their finger, pen or any other pointy object. Its software is also reasonably good. Like the Hitachi, you can use your hand to swipe the screen to make your canvas bigger. The toolbar has all the features you’d expect from IWB software and naturally you can use the IWB with any software at all.
The Genee Powerboard’s accuracy is excellent, easily as good as any others. It also comes with a decent 3 year guarantee, which is about average.
The Genee Board has a couple of features that Hitachi doesn’t. Firstly, the board is 78″ in size rather than Hitachi’s 77″, which isn’t really that important! More important is that the board has incorporated the “smart pen” system used in Smartboards. That is, there are three “magic” pens and a duster on the tray of the board. If you pick up one of these, the IWB automatically recognises its function without you having to click on the toolbar, which is useful. Genee have also decided to create their own brands of visualiser and slate which seamlessly integrate with the board, which most others don’t. (Update April 2010) On a sad note, I’ve just learned that Prim-Ed are recommending that dry wipe markers are not used on the Geneeboard. Having said that, I did use dry wipe markers on the board with no problems.
Overall, I actually think the Genee Powerboard is slightly better that the Hitachi Starboard. Because one cannot use dry wipe markers on the Geneeboard, the Hitachi is better in my opinion for schools. One could compare the Geneeboard to the Smartboard in terms of quality. Hitachi also beats it in is its 5-year guarantee and swap-in swap-out next day service. With all that said, from the looks of things Genee are a company that aren’t going away and seem to be growing even in these harsh economic times.
Last Update: August 17, 2017