Notebook Sleuth » Bluetooth

Thin Reasoning: The Dell Vostro V13 Laptop

Derek — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:43:36 +0000

Dell is always good for some slim and slick designs for their desktops and laptops, and this is no exception, for certain. It’s a economical and ultra-take on the traditional power business laptop, the Vostro V13 line.

It’s thin all right: measuring only 16.5mm thick and weighing an absurdly light 4 lbs, this wafer rocket includes a decent sized 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 LED-backlit screen, a Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor (for power savings), an Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics card (the top among the integrated cards), roomy 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, a 1.3MP webcam, Bluetooth, and MS’s Windows 7 OS.

Price starts at around $449, so even the most budget minded can carry around something pretty modern and nice to do their business on.

Price and Looks: The Sony VAIO Nebula FW

Derek — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:52:48 +0000

Sony always had nice looking laptops, even if early models were pricey and not super reliable, it seemed. It appears Sony has put those days behind them as they unveil the Sony VAIO Nebula FW into their catalog.

It’s mega-slick, stylish, and has some muscle behind it to back up the looks. Specs include: a 16.4-inch LCD display, a Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a ATI Radeon HD 4650 512MB graphics card, (up to) 8GB RAM (default is 4GB), your choice of a 500GB HDD or 256GB SSD, Blu-ray drive, Bluetooth and Windows 7 OS. Now that’s a package that can take on pretty much anything.

This slick unit starts at around $809.99.

Slim Fast (not the drink): ‘World’s Thinnest’ Notebook HP ProBook 5310m

Derek — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:25:53 +0000

Let’s face it; thin in very in with most gadgets these days from TVs to music players, to notebooks definitely. HP has taken this to a new level with their upcoming HP ProBook 5310m, which they’ve dubbed the World’s Thinnest Notebook.

Measuring only 0.9-inch thin and weighing in at only 3.7 pounds, HP latest creation is called the world’s thinnest full-performance notebook (not a netbook, mind you).

Featuring an aluminum display enclosure (for street cred, no doubt) and a magnesium alloy case for the bottom, this ultra-stylish, skinny machine sports a 13.3-inch LED display, an option of either Intel Core 2 Duo or Intel Celeron processor (price difference), up to 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, 2MP webcam, WiFi, Bluetooth, a 4 cell battery and Windows 7 OS too. Sounds good to us.

The ProBook 5310m will begin shipping in the US to stores on October 22 for $699 (Intel Celeron) up to $899 with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (recommended by us).

Good Things Come in Small Packages: The Samsung Ultra-Thin X520 Notebook

Derek — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:40:07 +0000

Samsung is famous for their interesting change-ups on traditional notebook design principles, and this one: their newest ultra-thin and light notebook they’re readying for launch, the Samsung X520, isn’t any exception. It uses less power and weighs less too than most notebooks.

Based on the Intel’s Consumer Low Voltage (CULV) platform released not too long ago, the new X520 includes a decent sized 15.6-inch display with 1366 x 768 resolution, a 1.3GHz Core 2 Solo SU2700 CPU, 4GB RAM, a nice sized 320GB hard drive, webcam, WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI output port, 6-cell battery and Windows Vista Home Premium too.

Pricing or exact release date haven’t been released, but the grapevine is telling us it’ll list around €699 ($1,004 USD or so).

Beastly Gaming Laptop: The Maingear eX-L 18

Derek — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:56:35 +0000

If you’re looking for a powerful laptop that can do pretty much anything a desktop can do (and more in some cases), your search is over, assuming you have deep pockets.

Called the World’s most powerful gaming laptop (according to the maker), Maingear’s eX-L 18 has an Intel Core 2 Extreme quad processor (that’s 4 cores, folks) and dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M GPUs. This should tackle any sort of game with vigor.

The powerhouse also comes with an 18.4-inch full HD display with 1920 x 1080 resolution (that’s true HD), up to 8GB DDR3 memory (the fastest memory around right now), 3x 2.5? SATA SSDs, a 3MP webcam, a 7.1 channel audio system. Other inclusions: Windows Vista, WiFi, Bluetooth and and FireWire, among other connective ports.

The price befits a beast like this: The Maingear eX-L 18 starts at $2,999.

Listening in Action: Sony launches new lower priced laptop with the VAIO NW

Derek — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:28:13 +0000

After being known for rolling out a lot of overpriced notebooks the last few years, Sony has gotten the hint and lowered their prices to compete with the rest of crowd. Now they’re upping the ante with a blu-ray notebook for under $900? Indeed they are.

The Sony VAIO NW is its name, and this stylish package comes in three colors: walnut brown, birch white and rattan silver, and has a sizable 15.5-inch widescreen HD display with 1,366 x 768 resolution too. Style hasn’t ever been a problem with Sony, to be fair….their laptops have always looked pretty nice. But the insides of this one are just as nice.

More specs include a Intel Core 2 Duo processor, an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics card, a nice chunky 4GB of RAM, a cavernous 400GB hard drive, webcam, Blu-ray drive built-in, WiFi, Bluetooth, an HDMI port, and Windows Vista OS.

The VAIO NW notebook will be released at the end of the month and will start at around $880. Not bad at all, Sony.

Power + Small Size = Acer Aspire One 751

Derek — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:06:40 +0000

Usually smaller netbooks are pretty underpowered, but Acer wants to change those traditional rules with their new release, the Aspire One 751, soon to be released and available for pre-order now at Amazon.

It starts with a sharp 11.6-inch display with 1366 x 768 res, a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 processor (one of the higher end Atom processors), a Intel GMA500 graphics adapter (not really for high-end games), 2GB RAM (double the usual amount), a 250GB Hard Drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, a webcam and includes Windows Vista OS.

You can pre-order this netbook for $399.99 (3-cell battery) and $449.99 (the longer life 6-cell version).

Acer is positioning themselves quite well in the netbook market with this release.

Netbook Joy: The MSI Wind U123

Derek — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:07:39 +0000

Netbooks have become the darlings of the laptop industry of late, and this is just another example. They’re small and easy to carry, and are perfect for on the go business needs. MSI is a company specializing in tiny, efficient netbooks, and they released their latest model in the US finally.

The MSI Wind U123 is finally shipping in the US via Amazon. The price: a very reasonable $349.99 with a 6-cell battery in two colors, red or blue.

This mini-laptop comes with a 10.2-inch screen with a solid 1024 x 600 resolution (enough for browsing and e-mailing; not really a heavy gaming system), a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 processor (pretty zippy), 1GB RAM, a sizable 160GB hard drive, a webcam, and all the network goodies, as you’d expect: WiFi, Bluetooth and comes with the Windows XP Home OS, fairly standard on netbooks.

A model with a longer lasting 9-cell battery can be pre-ordered for $379.99 as well.

New Players: Verizon to launch their first netbook

Derek — Wed, 13 May 2009 00:07:56 +0000

You might think with the downturn in PC sales that this would be a bad time to break into the industry. Apparently, Verizon doesn’t think so, and is prepared to knock out pricing on their new systems.

Verizon Wireless is set to announce and launch their very first netbook/computer model, titled the HP Mini 1151NR, which will be available on May 17th via retail and other channels.

The netbook will retail at, get this: $199, but with the provision of a 2-year contract and after mail-in-rebate. In addition, you’ll have to spend $40-$60 monthly for data/wireless internet access (where Verizon steps in, no doubt).

So here’s the specs: a 10.1-inch display screen, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, Intel 950 graphics, 1GB RAM, an 80GB hard drive. It’ll also include full WiFi, Bluetooth support and a 3-cell battery built-in. Not a bad deal at all for the price.

Light as Air: Asus U Series Notebooks

Derek — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:31:13 +0000

Asus has announced more stuff regarding its super-slick and ultra-thin U series laptop that traces its design lineage to the Apple MacBook Air (which is a compliment).

The line breaks down as follows: The 12-inch U20A, 13.3-inch UX30 and 15.6-inch UX50V, and they have all the very power-sipping Intel Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV), ranging from the solid yet unremarkable 1.2GHz Celeron M in the U20A to the powerful 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo in the UX30 and UX50V.

All models have very solid features, including 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, up to 500GB HDD, and up to 4GB of RAM (both of those on the top model).

The first two models, the U20A and UX30 use Intel’s GMA 4500 graphics (solid for general purpose stuff, but not high-end games and the like), while the UX50V has a dedicated GeForce G 105M with 512MB of video memory.

The thinnest model is the UX30 that measures a wire-thin 0.9-inch thick and weighs a svelte 3.5 pounds, a very Apple like figure indeed. The design of these should turn a few heads, and the middle/high end models have more than enough muscle to get things done.