Notebook Sleuth » Vista

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.

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).

Speedburner at the right price: The Gateway NV5807u Notebook

Derek — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:56:14 +0000

Notebooks are getting more and more muscular, and the price tags are getting smaller and smaller. The latest laptop from Gateway’s latest release serves to emphasize this fact.

Gateway has released out a strong, highly affordable notebook with the NV5807u. This system offers a 15.6-inch Ultrabright LED-backlit screen with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, a 2.10GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 processor (plenty of muscle), an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500 (the only weak link as far as we can tell), 4GB memory, a 320GB HDD, a webcam, DVD burner, Windows Vista Home Premium SP1, WiFi and 6-cell battery for decent battery life. Very strong set of specs.

Best of all: its very reasonable retail price: the Gateway NV5807u will sell for $599.99.

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.

Jumbo Netbook: Panasonic Let’s Note R8 Light Notebook

Derek — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:33:50 +0000

Lots of netbooks are small in specs and features, but this new line from Panasonic ups the ante with netbook features, and leverages SSD while they’re at it.

The new Panasonic Note Light R8 notebook/netbook comes packed with a pretty strong 1.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 CPU, 2GB of RAM (upgradable to 4GB), and a 64GB SSD with lightning fast 220MB/s reading speed. This seems to be creeping more and more into notebook feature sets nowadays.

The Panasonic Lets Note offers a choice of OS: Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 or Windows XP Professional Edition (they’re offering the kind of options with OS we wish more laptop companies offered).

With a $1,750 retail price, it’s pretty far out of typical netbook range, but its also far more powerful than many notebooks in its class. It’ll be released in Japan later this month first, then around the country in July/August or so.

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.

Choices are Good: HP releases ProBook line of laptops

Derek — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:30:22 +0000

HP traditionally releases pretty basic laptops without a lot of style or choices. Now HP is trying to change that perception with their latest release, the ProBook S Series.

It’ll have 3 screen size options: 14″, 15.6″ and 17.3″ sizes. The 17″ model has a large, desktop like keyboard and a slick style that uses less expensive materials without making it obvious.

This line is about choices with processors too: Intel or AMD, your choice. OS: Windows or Linux (unusual choices for a laptop), and you can even have DVD or Blu-Ray as well. Black or Merlot (fancy word for red) colors are available, and prices start at around $529.

Not a bad deal at all (better prices than Dell much of the time), and choices are always a good thing when it comes to a system you’ll spend a lot of time with, more than likely.

Little Package, Lotta Game: MSI announces 14″ Gaming Notebook

Derek — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:50:18 +0000

MSI has let the cat out of the bag, and the cat isn’t all that huge at 14.1″ across. In fact, to slap a notebook that small with a “gaming” badge is pretty unusual. But this one may live up to the billing.

The GX403 is a 14.1″ laptop that is designated just such a way. It will come armed with a Intel Core 2 Duo processor and a GeForce GT 130M 256MB dedicated GPU too, so it has plenty of muscle for some demanding time-passers. It’ll have 4GB DDR2 RAM and a pretty huge 500GB HDD. Sounds good so far.

The only caveat: the 1280×800 resolution of the screen, but that should be just great for most games. You can add on a Blu-ray player for watching movies, though with this resolution it may not be Full HD.

Other specs are typical for the breed: an integrated webcam, 802.11b/g/n, HDMI, eSATA/USB plus 2 regular USBs, a card reader, and other goodies. It’s pretty light too: only 4.8lbs with a 6-cell battery

The machine will come with Vista Home Premium, and pricing or availability have not been announced. This one sounds pretty powerful to us, and if you need your gaming PC in a small package, this might be just the ticket.