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Focusing on multimedia features and fashion-forwarded colors, Sony introduces new line of ultraportable notebooks.
Sony today announced the Vaio CR series of ultraportable notebooks, focusing on entertainment and stylish design. Measuring 13.2 by 1.67 by 9.8 inches and weighing 5.5 pounds, Sony claims the uniquely configured keyboard on the new Vaio CR offers more comfortable typing.
Equipped with a 14.1-inch widescreen display with a 1280 by 800 pixel resolution, a CD/DVD player/burner, A/V controls and instant-on mode for quick access to entertainment apps without booting up the OS, the Vaio CR impresses in the multimedia department. For storage, the Vaio CR offers a 200 GB hard drive, as well as a multimedia card reader that supports Memory Stick Duo, ExpressCard and SD cards. Boasting a 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of DDR2 RAM and 358 MB video RAM, the Vaio CR shouldn't have any trouble loading up multimedia content such as music and movies. Movies can also be watched on most televisions using the included S-video port. Powered by Windows Vista Home Premium OS (the Windows Vista Business edition is an optional upgrade), the Vaio CR also sports a built-in 1.3 Megapixel motion eye web camera. As for connectivity, the new notebook offers Wi-Fi 802.11n and three USB 2.0 ports, while Bluetooth, for easy connection with mobile phones, has been left out. Sony claims the bundled Li-Ion battery will offer up to 5 hours of battery life. The Sony Vaio CR notebook will be available in five different colors in late June, selling for approximately $1,350 US.
Panasonic today unveiled three new rugged notebooks, one claiming the "world's lightest 14.1-inch notebook" title. Panasonic today introduced three new business-centric rugged notebook computers designed for mobile executives, walking workers and road warriors. The new line is comprised of the ultraportable W7 the tablet alternative T7, and the thin and light Y7. All three notebooks sport Intel Core 2 Duo processors, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 and optional built-in 3G mobile broadband solutions from AT&T (HSDPA), Sprint or Verizon Wireless (EV-DO Rev. A). The notebooks weigh from 3 to 3.7 lbs, and are all drop- and spill-resistant. More specifically, they offer magnesium alloy cases and chassis, shock-mounted hard drives and LCDs, and internal flexible connectors for additional protection. In order to optimally run the Intel Santa Rosa processors, engineers from Panasonic and Intel has created a proprietary implementation of Dynamic Power Performance Management technology, designed to continually fine-tune CPU usage based on system load and the tasks being performed. The Toughbook W7 comes with a 12.1" screen, 1GB SDRAM, 80GB hard disk and a claimed battery life of approximately 7 hours. Furthermore, the Toughbook T7 sports a 12.1" touch screen, 1GB SDRAM, 80GB hard disk and a claimed battery life of 9 hours. Lastly, the Toughbook Y7 offers 1GB SDRAM, 80GB hard disk, 5 hours of battery life and is claimed to be the world's lightest notebook with a 14.1" display. The Panasonic Toughbook Y7 is available now at an estimated price of $2500. The mobile broadband-ready Panasonic Toughbook W7 and T7 will be available in December 2007 at an estimated price of $2100.
Convertible 8.9-inch tablet now shipping with 1.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600. Fujitsu updated its P1620 convertible tablet with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor during CES, giving a performance boost to its 8.9-inch ultraportable touchscreen notebook. Designed for primarily for business customers in the healthcare, sales and supply chain industries that need the touchscreen interface and in a form factor that's highly portable, Fujitsu is also including its Portshutter "data leak prevention software" on the updated P1620. Weighing approximately 2.2 pounds, the P1620 includes embedded TPM and a fingerprint sensor for extra security, Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 and gigabit Ethernet. It's available from Fujitsu now, ranging from $1,750 to $2,225.
The Asus EEE PC 901, EEE PC 1000 and EEE PC 1000H offer Intel's new Atom processor and up to 7.8 hours of battery life. Upon reaching the milestone of surpassing 1 million EEE PC sets sold in just 6 months after its launch, Asus has now announced the release of the new EEE PC 901, 1000 and 1000H models. These new iterations of the EEE PC add more options to users, including a shockproof Solid State Drive (SSD) design, Super Hybrid Engine for providing up to 7.8 hours of battery life, web storage as well as large displays for easier viewing. The EEE PC 901, 1000 and 1000(H) models will be available on both Windows and GNU Linux platforms. The new EEE PC 901 offers a 8.9-inch screen while the EEE PC 1000 and 1000H models offer 10-inch screens. Furthermore, the EEE PCs come with a built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam. The EEE PC 1000 models also offer a keyboard that is 92% the size of generic notebooks, aiming to make it more comfortable to type. The new EEE PCs boast Intel's Atom processor as well as 12 or 20GB Solid State Drives (the EEE PC 1000 can be upgraded to a 40GB SSD, while the EEE PC 1000H can be upgraded to a 80GB HDD). For additional storage capacity, users will get up to 20GB of web-based storage. According to Asus, a 3.5G concept sample will also be displayed at Computex 2008, though there is no word on when 3G connectivity will be available to end-users. The Asus EEE PC 901, EEE PC 1000 and EEE PC 1000H will all be available in North America soon. Suggested retail prices have yet to be announced.
Acer's anticipated Aspire 8920 and Aspire 6920 are now available in stores, sporting Intel T9500 processors and high-end NVIDIA discrete graphics. Acer today announced the availability of the Aspire Gemstone Blue notebook PC series, which should be sold through Acer authorized resellers and select retailers in North America. Unveiled in March 2008, the Aspire Gemstone Blue range features the PC market's first 18.4- and 16-inch notebook form factors with full HD capabilities The 18.4-inch Aspire 8920 features an Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 processor, up to 640GB of hard drive capacity, integrated Blu-ray disc drive, memory card reader, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GS (or NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS) discrete graphics. The 16-inch Aspire 6920 features an Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 processor, up to 320GB of hard drive capacity, integrated Blu-ray disc drive, memory card reader, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS discrete graphics. Both the Aspire 8920 and Aspire 6920 notebooks include the second generation Dolby Home Theater technology, including CineSurround, Tuba CineBass boost, and up to five integrated speakers for 5.1 sound output. The Aspire Gemstone Blue notebooks ship with Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate or Home Premium pre-installed. The Acer Aspire 8920 and Acer Aspire 6920 begin at $1300 and $850, respectively, for basic configurations.
HP's new Voodoo Envy 133 notebook measures just over half an inch thin, and will start shipping for $2100 this summer. HP today announced a new portfolio of Voodoo-branded computing devices, initially including the ultra-mobile Voodoo Envy 133 notebook and the powerful Voodoo Omen desktop. Measuring just over half an inch thin and weighing less than 3.4 pounds, the Voodoo Envy 133 was developed using the smallest available Intel Centrino technology (compare the Voodoo Envy 133 to the Apple Macbook Air). Despite its small size, the notebook offers a wide range of functionality, and includes Ethernet and wireless connectivity, a selection of ports as well as a replaceable battery. The Voodoo Envy 133 features a 13.3-inch LED display, multiple gesture touchpad, external eSATA optical drive, backlit keyboard and the following ports: 1x USB 2.0, HDMI, headphone/mic and a shared eSATA/USB port. The Voodoo Envy 133 also come equipped with Voodoo Aura PowerConnect, which establishes a one-to-one wireless connection between the Envy 133 notebook and an Ethernet connector located on the power supply, allowing users to roam free from the wired connection. When it comes to storage, users can choose between a 64GB solid state drive and a 80GB 4200 RPM hard disk drive. The Voodoo Envy 133 will be available this summer for a starting price of $2100. The Voodoo Omen desktop computer supports up to four GPUs and sports advanced thermal engineering. The Voodoo Omen also features integrated copper liquid cooling pipes and a full-functional, secondary 7-inch LCD auxiliary screen. The Voodoo Omen can be configured with 3.2GHz or 3.0GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad-core processors, and Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra or ATI Radeon HD3870 discrete graphics cards (includes support for next-generation Nvidia and ATI graphics cards). The Voodoo Omen also supports Seagate's 1TB 7200 RPM SATA HDD, and WD's VelociRapter 300GB 10000 RPM HDD. Built-in ports include 1x PS/2 keyboard, 2x eSATA, 1x Firewire, 2x Ethernet, 6x USB 2.0, 1x Clr CMOS switch, 1x Optical and 1x Coaxial S/PDIF output. The new Voodoo Omen will be available this summer for a starting price of $7000.
The brand new Toshiba Qosmio X305 and F55 laptops to be released this summer offer gaming-ready NVIDIA GeForce technology and GPS navigation, respectively.Toshiba has come out swinging with their newest Qosmio laptops, both in terms of the hardware design and the internal specs. At the Digital Experience show in New York City, we got another chance to play with these high-end multimedia machines All of the laptops come loaded with some nice standard options, including those deep well Harman Kardon speakers and login software that will recognize the user's face, using the built-in camera. New NVIDIA GeForce technology The Toshiba Qosmio X305 screams gaming laptop, and perhaps it's screaming a bit too loud. The machine's cover is painted in hot red flames, which is a striking look, but it won't be for everybody. With the laptop open, it looks a bit more tame, but there is nothing tame about what's under the hood. The 17-inch Qosmio X305 has options for an NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX graphics processor, with up to 1 GB of video memory, as well as dual hard drives for RAID configurations and storage up to 400GB.GPS comes to notebooks Even the lower-end Toshiba Qosmio F55 managed to distinguish itself from the pack. The machine looks like a smaller version of the G55, and under the 15.4-inch hood the laptop houses a GPS sensor. We definitely like the idea of GPS on a laptop. The sensors have been incorporated onto phones for years now, and a laptop seems like an even more natural fit. Price and availability The Toshiba Qosmio X305 and Qosmio F55 will start shipping in July 2008. Pricing has yet to be announced.
The OLPC XO 2.0 and XO 1.5 laptops will be released in 2010 and 2009, respectively, offering several improvements over the original XO. One Laptop per Child (OLPC) announced today that work is already underway on a OLPC XO 2.0 laptop computer. Leveraging new advances in technology, the primary goal of the OLPC XO 2.0 will be to advance new concepts of learning as well as to further drive down the cost of the laptop so that it is affordable for volume purchase by developing nations. Based on feedback from governments, educators and most important, from the children themselves, OLPC is working to lower the cost, power and size of the XO laptop, according to Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of OLPC. The first generation XO laptop went into production in early November 2007, and there are approximately 600,000 units in deployment in a number of countries including Peru, Uruguay, Mongolia, Haiti, Rwanda, Mexico, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the US and Canada. Key goals for the OLPC XO 2.0 include an even lower target price of $75 than the original $100 price point, reducing power consumption from 2-4 watts to 1 watt, a new design about half the size of the original XO, and lastly adding a dual-touch sensitive display to enhance the e-book experience. The design provides a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in horizontal format, and a flat two-screen wide continuous surface that can be used in tablet mode. Younger children will be able to use simple keyboards to get going, and older children will be able to switch between keyboards customized for applications as well as for multiple languages. The dual-touch display is being designed by Pixel Qi, which was founded in early 2008 by Mary Lou Jepsen, former CTO of OLPC. Availability of the OLPC XO 2.0 is planned for delivery in 2010. XO 1.5 will be released in the spring of 2009 with the same design as the first generation but with fewer physical parts and at lower cost than XO 1.0.
Alienware releases yet another notebook powered by an Intel Extreme X9000 processor, now featuring a 17-inch HD display. The Alienware Area-51 m17x is a commanding and aggressive addition to the newly redesigned Area-51 line of notebook computers. Alienware received a lot of buzz when introducing the 15.4-inch Area-51 m15x earlier this year, and the company has once again upped the ante for its systems. With a 17-inch, widescreen HD display, the Alienware Area-51 m17x is designed for PC gamers, 3D content creators and multimedia enthusiasts. A 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 processor teams with the power of dual, SLI-enabled NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX GPUs. Dual 500GB drives configured in a RAID 0 array plus a 500GB Smart Bay drive for additional storage would give a user a 1.5TB capacity, accommodating approximately 250 games, 375 full-length movies or nearly 400,000 songs. Add 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM, Windows Vista Ultimate and a dual layer Blu-ray burner to the picture, and $6000 will give you a full-equipped Alienware Area-51 m17x. When asked to compare the Alienware Area-51 m17x to its sibling system, the Area-51 m15x, a company spokesperson said, "The Area-51 m15x is ideally suited for road warriors or students who are constantly on the move but still want that boost of power Alienware delivers. The Area-51 m17x is for professionals and hardcore enthusiasts who want pure, unbridled performance with the added benefit of portability." The Alienware Area-51 m17x is available now, starting at $2200 for a minimum configuration and easily climbing to $6000 for a full-equipped system.
New mainstream notebook is 25 percent smaller than previous 15.4-inch Inspirons. With pre-Consumer Electronics Show announcements flying out the door, Dell announced on Thursday an update to its 15.4-inch Inspiron line, the new Inspiron 1525. Replacing the older 1520, 1521 and 1501 models, the new 1525 is both slimmer and smaller than its predecessors. Inspiron is Dell's entry-level line, catering toward the ordinary customer who's not served by the pricier XPS multimedia line or business-oriented Latitude, Vostro and Precision models. With a price range of $500 to $800, the Inspiron 1525 is positioned as a wallet-friendly option for first-time buyers or those who value simplicity over expensive prosumer features. The $500 version comes with Intel's 1.86 GHz Celeron 540 processor, but can be upconfigured to the 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo. The only limiting feature is that the sole graphics option is Intel's integrated GMA X3100 -- there's no option for adding a more powerful discrete graphics solution. Dell is also offering several intriguing wireless options on the 1525. Not only can you choose between integrated wireless broadband from Sprint or Verizon -- which allows you to download at DSL-type speeds over cellular networks -- but for $150, Wireless USB can also be added. For $25, customers can select a custom color for their 1525, from midnight blue to flamingo pink, or one of four different patterns, like "commotion" or "chill." The 12 different customizable options add a nice style flair to the otherwise conservative world of black, gray and silver notebooks. Standard features on all 1525s are an 8-in-1 flash memory reader, Windows Vista as the default OS, 4 USB 2.0 slots, HDMI, VGA and 1394a FireWire ports. The Inspiron 1525 is available now.
The professional-strength laptop gets the Macbook Air's trackpad, and all the laptops get an update to Intel's Penryn chip. Apple today announced an incremental update to their Macbook and Macbook Pro laptop lines. Most significantly, the Macbook Pro will get the multi-touch trackpad that we've been enjoying on the Macbook Air. Unfortunately, Macbook buyers won't see the same trackpad as the pro models, as Apple has inexplicably decided not to update that machine's pad. Perhaps Apple thought a 13-inch laptop with multi-touch would cannibalize sales of the Macbook Air? In any case, both the Macbook and the Macbook Pro will also see upgrades to Intel's most recent mobile processors, code-named Penryn, at clock speeds up to 2.6GHz in the build-to-order options of the Pro model. Available hard disk drive capacities will also see a boost, and Macbook buyers will be able to stock their machines with HDDs up to 250GB, while Pro customers will have a 300GB option. On the Pro side, the 17-inch Macbook Pro will be available with an LED-backlit screen, which provides instant-on brightness for the display, an cuts down on some of the nasty chemicals used in normal laptop screens. For graphics, the Pro models still use the Nvidia 8600 card, but get a video RAM boost up to 512MB. The new devices appear to have the same basic look as yesterday's model. Apple has also continued its strange pricing policy of charging $100 premium for the black Macbook model.
The HP Pavilion dv7, dv5 and dv4 notebooks are geared for budget conscious multimedia enthusiasts.HP today introduced 16 new notebooks in the broadest notebook rollout in the company's history, including five consumer notebooks and eleven business notebooks. The new HP notebooks can be configured with AMD Turion 64 X2 Ultra Dual-Core mobile processors, as well as Intel Centrino 2 and Intel Centrino 2 with vPro technology processors.HP's new Pavilion dv7, dv5 and dv4 multimedia notebooks (compare) feature invisible "magic chrome" controls that light up and become fully interactive upon power up, and one-click access to high-definition TV, photos, movies and music through HP QuickPlay. The new HP Pavilion notebooks also offer optional HP BrightView Infinity Widescreen flush-glass screens.Previously available only in HP business-class notebooks, HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection is now built into the new HP Pavilion dv7, dv5 and dv4 notebooks. This technology automatically detects if a notebook has been dropped and, while the notebook is on its journey to the floor, automatically stops the hard drive from spinning. The series also offers consumers the option of a high-speed eSATA interface for backing up data to external storage drives.The HP Pavilion dv7, dv5 and dv7 multimedia notebooks will begin shipping in July 2008.HP also introduced the HP Compaq Presario CQ40, CQ45 and CQ50 (specs) notebooks, designed for those on the go. The Compaq Presario notebooks includes a new industrial design and HP Imprint 2 surface finish, a range of optical drives, built-in wireless technologies and audio, webcam and analog microphone capabilities (full specifications will be posted here soon).In addition, HP announced the new SmartTouch PC series, a media center featuring 500GB HDD, Nvidia GeForce 9300 discrete graphics and Wi-Fi. It'll be available in two models, the $1300 IQ504 and the $1500 IQ506 (with TV tuner), both to ship in July 2008.
