Velocity Micro's latest notebook PC, , is now available in select Best Buy stores. (I guess their website wasn't good enough.) The L80x Ultra sports a 15.4" LCD, an Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz), 2GB of RAM and a 100GB hard drive, along with NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600GS graphics. It even has a built-in webcam and a fingerprint reader, just in case you get into a contest about whose laptop is better. "Ultra" doesn't just refer to the specifications, though; at $1,999, it's also ultra-expensive, if all you're looking for is a good mainstream laptop. The standard L80 is available at Velocity Micro's website for $1655.
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Looking for a laptop boasting the power to glide through the most intensive of applications without the burden of being about as light as a rock? With a 2 GHz Core Duo T2500, a gig of RAM and graphics catered for by a mobile GeForce Go 7400 chip, the Sony VAIO VGN-SZ270P laptop weighing just 4.1 pounds (or 3.7 pounds, should you opt for the premium version) may just be the thing for you.
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Dell and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have issued the recall of over 4 million batteries supposedely manufactured by Sony due to the risk of spontaneous combustion - sometimes rather violently.
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The pink obsession continues. Initially, it was only pink handbags, but now just about anything can be had in pink, from cars to mobile phones and Nintendo DS portable consoles. It seems the fairer sex is really having an impact on the colours gadgets are brought out in.
Well guess what? Samsung have decided to release it's brand new Q40 laptop in pink. Retailing for £1300, you'd expect it to be powered by an Intel Core Duo, have a gig of ram and its graphics fuelled by a nVidia GeForce Go GPU, but no. What you get is a 1.2 GHz ultra low voltage Core Solo processor, 512 MB of RAM and onboard graphics. It seems you're paying a premium to be noticed rather than for a fast laptop.
Ah well, girls will be girls...
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Fancy a muscle powered laptop to go with that brand new Lamborghini parked in your garage. Well now you can have supercar status in your personal computing. If you remember the Acer Ferrari laptop, you'll get an idea of what this beast is all about. Sporting a V12, twin exhaust, 0-60 in 4 secs, 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo T2500 and a Gig of memory under the bonnet, it certainly has the specs to carry the name.
At 1.2 inches thick and 5.7 pounds, it's no lightweight but the 15 inch screen, full size keyboard and leathery touchpad do a good job of representing the Lamborghini name. Let's just hope it has better fuel economy figures than the real thing!
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According to our sources at nVidia, Merom (the codename for Intel's T-series mobile Core 2 Duo processors) based notebooks will soon be supporting it's SLi dual-graphics technology.
Reports suggest that nVidia's executive chairman, Dan Vivoli, attended the launch of Intel's Core 2 Duo range at Silicon valley. This indicates a possible sign of cooperation between both companies, which is rather a coincidence following AMD's takeover of ATi.
Apparently the 945 Express chipset will be powering the upcoming mobile SLi machines, which is interesting as the "945 Express family of chipsets
only support a single PCI Express x16 slot without lane dividing
capabilities to divide the PCI Express graphics bandwidth towards two
slots"
We'll keep you posted on further developments.
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Alienware has announced a new group of Core Duo notebooks
which feature screens ranging from 14" to 17". The Sentia m3450,
Area-51 m5550 and Area-51 m5750 all feature Alienware’s unique lid design and
attention to detail.
The 14.1" Sentia
m3450 can be equipped from Core Duo processor ranging from the lowly T2300
on up to the T2600. Although one normally associates Alienware systems with
over the top excess, you'll only find integrated Intel GMA950 graphics on this
unit to power the WXGA (1280x768) screen. Storage options range from 40GB to
120GB SATA hard drives, while an 8x dual-layer DVD burner can be added to
replace the standard CD-RW/DVD drive. The 4.5-pound unit device features a
webcam, three USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire port, ExpressCard slot and a 4-in-1
media reader.
Moving up a size class, we come to the 6-pound Area-51
m5550. Like the Sentia m3450, this notebook can be equipped with Core Duo
processor ranging from 1.66GHz to 2.16GHz, but it adds discrete graphics to the
option sheet. Customers can choose from a 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 or
256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 graphics card to handle graphics duties.
Customers also have the choice of either WXGA (1280x768) or WUXGA (1920x1200)
screen resolutions for the 15.4" screen. The Area-51 features the same I/O
lineup as the aforementioned Sentia m3450 minus the integrated webcam.
Leading the pack is the 8-pound, 17" Area-51
m5750. It can be optioned up with a speedy Core Duo T2600 processor and
either a 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 or 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1800
graphics chip. The m5750 also has the option for dual hard drives in a RAID-0
configuration. Screen options are WXGA+ (1440x900) or WUXGA (1920x1200) -- both
with ClearView technology. Also included are four USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire
port and a 4-in-1 media reader.
The Sentia m3450 will start shipping on July 10 with a starting price of
$1,099. The Area-51 m5550 and m5750 will both ship on July 24 with a base price
of $1,399 and $1,499 respectively. Considering that Alienware just announced
these models, it's surprising that they aren’t shipping with the option of the
new Core Duo T2700
processor. That 2.33GHz chip is currently shipping and clearly fits into
Alienware's performance strategy.
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Did you know Rock make some of the worlds fastest laptops right here in the UK. Well they do. In fact we like their notebooks so much, we featured their all powerful FX60 Rock Xtreme laptop in our Top Five Buyers Guide laptops. Their range of laptops make Desktop PC's look OAP by combining the fastest processors, DDR2 memory and top of the range Nvidia and ATI graphics chipsets. We're still hoping they will send us one for a proper test featuring the UC Babes, so send them loads of emails saying you want to see their notebooks reviewed at MaXit with the girls!
In the meantime, have a look at Trusted Reviews labs test of the Rock Pegasus 330 notebook.
"Inside there is an Intel Core Duo T2400, which operates at 1.83GHz. At the
moment, this particularly processor offers the best value for money - so a
good choice on Rock’s part. There is also 1GB of DDR2 memory, made up of two
512MB Corsair 4-4-4-12 modules. Being configured like this means performance
should be a little better as it is running in dual-channel, but this makes
upgrading difficult. If you want 2GB, you should specify this in the
configurator and pay a little extra at the beginning."
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Mini systems are great for multi media applications and with recent innovations in technology, they can combine fantastic performance in a very small footprint. Combine them with Windows Media PC and you have the base for a great home entertainment system. PCSTATS take a look at the AOpen miniPC, a rival to the Mac Mini systems.
"The cute little AOpen mini PC MP915-B (Super Multi) system is based on the Intel 915GM chipset and supports Socket 479 Pentium M 400/533 MHz processors. There is a single 200 pin DDR-2 SO DIMM slot which accepts up to 1GB of DDR2-400/533 memory. On devices packed into the dictionary sized PC include a Realtek Gigabit network adaptor, a 5.1 channel sound card, IEEE 1394a, an onboard Intel GMA900 videocard and even a dual layer slot loading DVD writer!"
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Trusted Reviews take a look at the Samsung Q35 Ultra Portable notebook for road warriors on the go.
"When I reviewed the Samsung Q30 back in January 2005 I decided that it was
a great ultra-portable notebook, but the lack of PC Card slot concerned me.
Plus, the fact that the Q30 doesn't have an optical drive is a definite
issue these days, with machines like the Sony VAIO TX2XP sporting a DVD
writer while remaining feather light and wafer thin. I was therefore very
pleased when the Samsung Q35 landed on my desk and addressed both those
issues."
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