April 8th, 2008
More competition for low-cost laptops
The Asus Eee PC is about to get a lot more competition in the emerging category of low-cost laptops. This morning HP made its Mini-Note official. Acer is reportedly working on its own 8.9-inch subnotebook. And Intel has big plans for its Classmate PC.
The 2.6-pound HP 2133 Mini-Note PC will be sold in five different configurations starting at $500. All of them have an 8.9-inch diagonal WXGA display and weigh 2.6 pounds. The base configuration has a 1.0GHz Via C7-M processor, 512MB memory, a 4GB flash drive and SuSe Linux. More costly models add more memory, standard hard drives in 120- and 160GB capacities and Windows Vista. The Mini-Note will be shipping later this month.
Acer is planning to launch two low-cost models, an 8.9-inch Aspire and 12.1-inch Slim Gemstone Aspire, according to DigiTimes. The 8.9-inch Aspire will use Intel’s new Atom processor, and configurations will range from $300 to $450 depending on the storage (flash-based SSDs and standard hard drives) and operating system (Linux or Windows XP). No specs or or pricing on the 12.1-inch model yet.
At the Intel Develop Forum in Shanghai last week, Intel announced the second generation of its Classmate PC. The “top range” includes a 9-inch display, an Intel Celeron M processor, 512MB memory, a 30GB hard drive, and Linux or Windows XP. The design is still a bit dull and utilitarian, but a prototype of a much sleeker model got lots of attention at the show. And it won’t be long before Intel updates the Classmate PC with an Atom processor, which should lead to smaller and cheaper versions.
Meanwhile, Asus has begun selling a Windows XP version of the Eee PC at Best Buy. The new configuration includes a 7-inch WXGA display, 900MHz Intel Celeron M processor, 512MB memory and a 4GB SSD. The price is still $400. CNET Labs has an early look at this version, and how it stacks up the Classmate PC. Later this year, Asus will release a new model, the Eee PC 900, with an 8.9-inch display, more memory, a larger capacity SSD and most likely Intel Atom processors.
Though all of these are marketed as student laptops, computer manufacturers are clearly going after a broader market of home and business users who want a second, relatively inexpensive PC that is ultraportable and well-suited for basic tasks such as for checking e-mail and browsing the Web.
Acer aims to sell 5 to 5.5 million of the 8.9-inch Aspires in the second half of 2008, according to DigiTimes’ sources at the contract manufacturers. Intel has dubbed the category “netbooks,” and recently announced that it will sell Classmate PCs in the U.S. and Europe, a surprising move since it puts the chipmaker in competition with its own customers.
Microsoft’s announcement last week that it would make Windows XP available for another two years specifically for these low-cost models is another indication that this category may have legs.
April 1st, 2008
Laptops are bringing the Blu-ray
With HD-DVD dead and buried, computer makers are moving to Blu-ray. Dell is now offering 15.4-inch laptop with a Blu-ray drive for less than $900–impressive since some standalone Blu-ray players still cost nearly as much. HP, Acer and Asus are also offering laptops with Blu-ray drives.
The Inspiron 1525 is available with a Blu-ray drive in the U.S., Canada and Europe. In the U.S., the $879 base configuration also includes the 15.4-inch, 1,280×800 resolution display; 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo T5550; 1GB of memory; an 80GB hard drive; and Vista Home Basic. Choosing the drive adds $180 to the price of the $599 system. You can also select a Blu-ray burner for $480, bringing the total price to $1,079. If you want the high-resolution display (1,440×900), it will add another $50 to the price.
Since the Inspiron 1525 has Intel integrated graphics, Dell is using Broadcom’s media PC technology to shoulder the Blu-ray burden. Media PC is a set of chips that handle high-definition video and audio decoding, and HD-DVD and Blu-ray video playback. Computer makers can put the chips down on the motherboard, or use an add-in card (PCI Express, PCI Express mini-card or ExpressCard). Acer and Toshiba also use Broadcom’s media PC chipsets in Blu-ray and HD-DVD laptops. A Blu-ray burner is also available on the higher-end Dell XPS M1530, which has discrete graphics.
HP offers a Blu-ray drive on the similar Pavilion dv6700t, but you must upgrade from the Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics to the 256MB Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS ($49). A similarly configured dv6700t (15.4-inch, 1,280×800 display; 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo Processor T5550; 1GB of memory; 120GB hard drive; and Vista Home Premium) currently costs $1,039 with a Blu-ray drive. HP doesn’t offer a Blu-ray burner with this model.
Acer sells a 15.4-inch model with a Blu-ray drive, the Aspire 5920 (AS5920-6329), in the U.S. But it is a higher-end model with a 2.50GHz Core 2 Duo T9300, 2GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive, and Nvidia GeForce 8600M GS graphics. CDW is selling it for $1,796. The recently-announced 16-inch Aspire 6920G will also have a Blu-ray drive.
Finally Asus also offers a 15.4-inch model (the M51SN-AS037G) with a Blu-ray drive. It includes a 2.60GHz Core 2 Duo T9500, 3GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive, and 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9500M GS graphics. The M51 series was announced earlier this year, but so far it is tough to find this model in the U.S.
March 19th, 2008
Dell’s tablet, take two
Dell took its time with tablets. It wasn’t until last December that the company finally released its first tablet PC, the convertible Latitude XT–years after competitors such as HP, Gateway and Lenovo introduced their own versions. But it looks like the results have been good enough to convince Dell to stick with this niche for now.
Engadget has posted basic specs and a fuzzy image of what appears to be Dell’s next tablet, the Latitude XT2. The design is unremarkable (so far), but the Latitude X2 will use Intel’s new Montevina notebook platform, which should be released by early June. The Latitude X2 may also have an internal optical drive and an eSATA port for connecting external drives. The advantage of the eSATA interface is that it has a faster maximum transfer rate than USB 2.0 or FireWire 400/800. The Latitude XT2 should be available in November.
Reviews of current tablet PCs:
- Asus R1E [TabletPCReview.com]
- Dell Latitude XT [TabletPCReview.com]
- Fujitsu LifeBook T4220 [ZDNet]
- HP Pavilion tx2000z series [ZDNet]
- Lenovo ThinkPad X61 series [TabletPCReview.com]
- Toshiba Portege M700 series [ZDNet]
March 13th, 2008
In-flight Internet cleared for take-off
I’ve been skeptical of plans for in-flight broadband access. Let’s face it, the airlines don’t have a great track record here. No one used those sad phones in the seatbacks. And Boeing’s Connexion service–once offered by a few international carriers–is gone. But this time it may finally happen.
In the past few months several U.S airlines–Alaska Air, American Airlines, Continental, JetBlue, Southwest and Virgin America–have announced plans to offer Internet access on some routes. Why now? The equipment is cheaper and easier to install, business and leisure travelers are asking for it, and the Open Skies rules, which are about to go into effect, will suddenly give U.S. airlines more competition. Each airline is taking a different approach to the technology, features and pricing.
American Airlines and Virgin America will both offer Aircell’s gogo service, a cellular system that uses a version of EV-DO Rev A to deliver broadband speeds of 2Mbps on flights over North America. Aircell says the basic pricing will be about $12.95 for cross-country trips and $9.95 for flights lasting three hours or less. Starting this spring, American will outfit 15 of its Boeing 767s for gogo. It plans to target business travelers with laptops on popular routes between New York and San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami. Virgin America is taking a different approach. It hopes to offer gogo on all flights and for all passengers via the entertainment system in the seatbacks. No laptop required.
March 12th, 2008
Acer Blue laptop revealed
It turns out Acer’s Blue is a desktop replacement laptop with a bunch of entertainment-oriented features. It’s also not a “concept PC,” as the invitation to today’s press event suggested, but an actual product that will be available in about a month. The marketing department got a bit carried away, but there’s nothing wrong with the Aspire Gemstone Blue. In fact, it has several interesting features.
Aside from the blue color, the most distinctive feature is the display. The Aspire 6920G has a 16-inch display and the Aspire 8920G has an 18.4-inch display. Both are widescreen 16:9 displays with a full HD 1080p (1,920-by-1,080) resolution for viewing HD content from the internal Blu-ray drive or other sources. Though these aren’t the first notebooks to employ capacitive touch media controls, the design of the so-called CineDash Media Control is unique.
Both models have Intel Core 2 Duo (Penryn) processors, up to 4GB of memory, hard drives up to 320GB, and Nvidia GeForce 9500M GS graphics with 512MB memory. The 8920G can also be upgraded to the Nvidia GeForce 9650M GS, also with 512MB. The 6920G has 2.1 surround-sound speakers and the 8920G has 5.1 surround-sound speakers.
Even without exact specs for the starting configurations, the prices also look pretty compelling. Acer says they will range from $900 for basic models to $1,700 for well-equipped systems.
March 12th, 2008
What is Acer’s Blue?
The world’s third largest PC company has been running these ads for a new mystery product. Company president Gianfranco Lanci will unveil the “concept notebook” at a press event in New York later today. Judging by the media controls, it is clearly an entertainment-oriented laptop of some sort. But why it merits the Apple-like marketing treatment is anyone’s guess.
March 6th, 2008
Asus Eee PC 900: The wow starts. . .later?
Asus announced yesterday a new version of its Eee PC at the CeBIT tradeshow. The subnotebook has won a lot of good press and it seems a few fans. But when it comes to the operating system, the wow hasn’t started now. . .and apparently it won’t anytime soon. Among other changes, the Eee PC 900 is now available with Windows, but it’s XP not Vista.
That’s not a huge surprise given the hardware limitations and pricing of the Eee PC. But with similar products trickling into the market and Intel making a big push with its new Atom processor family, I’ve been wondering how quickly Microsoft would move to develop a lightweight version of Vista to compete with the Linux variants showing up on mobile Internet devices and low-cost laptops. Now we’ve got part of the answer.
At the Asus press event, a Microsoft executive reportedly said Vista was not an option because of Asus’s other requirements. “We couldn’t go the Vista route,” said Thomas Bauer, Microsoft’s general manager for manufacturer relations in Europe. “We are in close discussions with Asus [regarding] how to take that forward… in regards to the Windows 7 Europe timeframe.” In other words, it isn’t going to happen with Vista, period.
The Eee PC 900 has several hardware updates including a larger 8.9-inch display with a higher resolution, double the memory (1GB), as much as 12GB of flash storage, a larger keyboard, a better Webcam, and optional Bluetooth and WiMax modules. Both the Linux and Windows versions of the Eee PC 900 will be more expensive than the current models.
Even though Vista isn’t in the cards, Microsoft may view the Eee PC 900 as a nice test-bed for its “software and services” strategy to compete with free and low-cost productivity and communications suites such as Google Docs. The Windows XP version of the Eee PC 900 also includes Microsoft Works and Windows Live services.
I first saw the Eee PC last June at the Computex tradeshow in Taipei. At the time, the company made some bold promises for both the price and shipments. It hasn’t met those goals–so far Asus has shipped 350,000 Eee PCs and it plans to ship 3 million to 5 million in 2008–but it has certainly influenced the industry.
Though many stories on Intel’s plans for Atom refer to $250 laptops, neither the company nor its hardware partners have said much about the hardware or software specs for netbooks or desktops (Intel is calling these net-tops). Even with a tiny, inexpensive microprocessor, it will still be a challenge to build a laptop around that price–with or without Windows.
March 5th, 2008
Samsung bets on SSDs and mobile hard drives
Samsung plans to double the capacity of solid state disks (SSDs) every 12 months. The company said it will deliver samples of 128GB SSDs by mid-year and a 256GB drive sometime in 2009, according to several reports from a Samsung press conference yesterday. At the same time, Samsung is boosting the capacity and speed of its standard hard disk drives for laptops.
There are already several laptops on the market that offer 64GB SSDs including the Dell XPS M1330, Latitude D430, and just-announced Latitude XFR D630; Lenovo ThinkPad X300; Apple MacBook Air; and the Alienware Area 51 m9750 and Area-51 m15x. Though it received almost no coverage, Sony’s updated TZ series not only offers SSDs, but also includes one configuration (the VGN-TZ298N/XC) that has both a 64GB SSD and a 250GB hard drive. And a handful of low-cost subnotebooks like the Asus Eee PC also offer smaller capacity drives using flash storage.
Samsung confirmed that the ThinkPad X300 is using its latest 64GB SSDs with a SATA-II interface, which reads data at 100 megabytes per second (MBps) and writes at 80MBps. That’s about 60% faster than the first crop of SSDs, according to the company.
SSDs use NAND Flash memory rather than rotating platters with a magnetic surface. Because they have no moving parts, SSDs are quiet, durable, lightweight and use less battery power. In theory they are also faster for many applications. The obvious drawbacks are cost and capacity. Choosing a 64GB SSD in place of the 120- to 200GB hard drives on the 13-inch Dell XPS M1330 adds anywhere from $650 to $900 to the price depending on the configuration. But the price of NAND Flash is dropping quickly and the density is increasing. Switching from SLC (one bit per cell) to MLC (two bits per cell) flash memory should also halve the cost per gigabyte.
But all this will take some time and hard drives aren’t going to disappear from laptops anytime soon. With that in mind, Samsung also announced two new 2.5-inch mobile hard drives. The Spinpoint M6 is a 5,400rpm 500GB drive that is only 9.5mm high, which means it is suitable for even the thinnest ultraportable notebooks. Last week Fujitsu announced a 2.5-inch 500GB drive, but at a speed of 4,200rpm. Samsung also announced a 7,200rpm 250GB drive, the Spinpoint MP2. Both drives are shipping this month.
February 26th, 2008
Lenovo X300 ultraportable now available
Right on the schedule, the Lenovo X300 is now available for order. And it looks like Lenovo has the first hit on its hands since acquiring ThinkPad. The reviews (see below) have been overwhelmingly positive, which is no surprise given the ultraportable’s unique specs and pedigree. My take is here.
Currently there are two configurations online. The base system ($2,548) includes a 13.3 LED-backlit WXGA+display; 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SL7100 processor; 1GB of memory; integrated Intel GMA X3100 graphics; and a 64GB SSD. The step-up version is virtually identical but includes the DVD burner for $2,632. Interestingly, these are listed as sale prices (good through March 3) even though the X300 is brand new. The full prices are $3,185 and $3,190, respectively.
The only major strike against the X300 is that, for now, it is only available with a solid-state disk. That limits storage to 64GB and it means the little laptop will remain very pricey. Competitors with SSD options, such as the Apple MacBook Air and Dell Latitude D430, also offer standard hard disk options for much less. But perhaps that is by design since the X300 isn’t meant to replace the popular ThinkPad X61, a more traditional business ultraportable with a standard HDD but no internal DVD drive.
Some of the first hands-on reviews of the Lenovo X300:
- Editors’ Choice: Lenovo X300 [CNET Reviews]
- Recommended: Lenovo X300 [PC Pro]
- Review: Lenovo X300 [CRN]
- Lenovo ThinkPad X300 First Thoughts Review [NotebookReview.com]
February 26th, 2008
Apple refreshes MacBook and MacBook Pro
As expected, Apple refreshed its MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops today. The exterior looks the same, which is sure to disappoint some given how long it has been since the last makeover. But inside Apple has done a lot of remodeling. Key changes include newer Intel Penryn processors; 2GB standard memory; larger hard drives; and, on the MacBook Pro, the Multi-Touch trackpad found on the MacBook Air and the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics with up 512MB memory. All new models are shipping today, and specs and pricing for the new configurations are here.
John Morris is a former executive editor at CNET Networks and senior editor at PC Magazine. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Recent Entries
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- Laptops are bringing the Blu-ray
- Dell’s tablet, take two
- In-flight Internet cleared for take-off
- Acer Blue laptop revealed
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