Notebook Sleuth » 13.3″

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.

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).

In Between: The HP ProBook 4310s

Derek — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:09:46 +0000

HP has produced some very solid notebooks in previous years, and this recently announced model is no exception to this rule: The HP ProBook 4310s. It’s aimed for more advanced users who need more power than a netbook can provide, yet not a fire-breathing monster for $1,000+.

This one’s starting price is $779 at HP’s official website, and should be available in retail stores soon for probably less than that.

Targeted towards students and business professionals, the 4310s offers a 13.3-inch diagonal LED-backlit HD display (the only downside to this model is the relatively small screen), an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, the powerful ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 graphics card, up to 8GB RAM (we love this), roomy 320GB hard drive, a webcam, a Blu-ray drive, and Windows Vista (soon to be Windows 7 with the exchange program).

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.

Work In The Harshest Environments On The Panasonic Toughbook 29

Notebook Sleuth — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:52:45 +0000

Panasonic Toughbook 29 – Pentium M 778 1.6 GHz – 13.3″ TFT

We usually like to make sure that we never take our laptops into rough environments because computers are expensive devices that are delicate and need our protection. You won’t have those worries with the Panasonic Toughbook because this notebook was designed and built to work flawlessly in the harshest environments. The Toughbook 29 is a rugged notebook made from magnesium alloy that is durable and powerful in size that is easily transportable even with a 13.3″ widescreen monitor. With a 1.6 GHz Pentium M processor, 256MB memory and a 60GB hard drive you’ll have enough power to handle your business in a no-nonsense manner. Take this Microsoft Windows XP Professional computer on the road and you’ll always be able to get online through the 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN antenna or cellular antenna and know where you’re going with the built-in GPS. Although you probably won’t be using this laptop for online gaming, you can be sure that the Panasonic Toughbook 29 will be able to thrive in places where lesser computers would die.

Preorder the Apple MacBook Air the World’s Thinnest Notebook

Notebook Sleuth — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:20:11 +0000

Apple has been known to raise the bar when it comes to consumer electronics, and they aren’t disappointing with their latest laptop computer introduction. Behold the future of mobile computing, Introducing MacBook Air. The world’s thinnest notebook. From $1,799. This amazing 13.3 inch LED widescreen computer, that Steve Jobs showed at the Macworld 2008 conference, is what the world has been waiting for in the advancement for the next generation of computers. At between .16″ and .76″ and weighing only 3 pounds, it’s so light that you’ll be taking this ultra-portable everywhere without it slowing you down. Even being this small you won’t have to sacrifice performance because it comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2 gigabytes of memory with an 80 gigabyte hard drive. As you might expect it has Bluetooth + EDR capabilities and has built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi, so you’re ready for the next generation of wireless connectivity. You’ll even be impressed with the full-size backlit keyboard for working in dimly lit places, and the trackpad borrows functional innovations from the iPhone like pinching, swiping, and rotating.

It doesn’t stop there as it can remotely access optical drives from other computers, both Mac and PC, allowing you install software from an optical drive that isn’t physically connected. You may think that being so small and thin might make this a delicate computer, but with its aluminum skin the MacBook Air is durable as well. Although for some serious hardcore computing people this may not be enough, and Apple will delight you with an optional 64 gigabyte solid state hard drive and of course that will cost you extra, but you can’t put a price on performance. With this purchase you can expect to get the most advanced operating system as well, because it comes with Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard installed. Preorder order your Apple MacBook Air today and you can have it within a few weeks, and change the way you compute.