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10 Reasons Why Apple iPad Fails to Pass

2010-03-01T22:20:00.000-08:00

No more rumors and speculations. The Apple has fallen from the tree. The much much waited Apple Tablet is here. But at first look, the device looks nothing revolutionary that can be called re-inventing the wheel. It has nothing that would make us stand in awe to salute the device. In short, there is nothing that deserved the hype and the device simply sucks if said politely. Here are some reasons why this device fails to impress us.

1. No Multitasking

Do you know that if you concentrate on only one thing at a time, you can do that more efficiently than otherwise. Apple has come out with its own way to teach us that old proverb. No multitasking on iPad. Come on Apple! We want to listen to music when browsing the net or we want to download some files while we are watching a video. Earlier I said that we have little or no use of multitasking on a mobile phone due to its limited screen size but this is certainly not true for a device that is trying to replace a full fledged laptop or netbook.

2. Uncomfortable Keyboard

This was quite obvious that the iPad would have a virtual keyboard because there is no space for an actual hardware keyboard. And those who have used virtual keyboard, know that typing even an e-mail on it may be a headache and if you are a blogger or just a professional who have to type for a few hours, this is simply not the device for you. From the pictures available on the net, if you thought that you can just put the device on the table and type on the virtual keyboard like a normal keyboard, soon you’ll find it impossible as the device’s back is not perfectly flat and it kind of wobbles when you put it on a flat surface. This makes the virtual keyboard more difficult to use. However, you can connect a Bluetooth keyboard to the device and continue typing comfortably but then I have to say that you can also add two more wheels to your existing two wheeler to ride it like a car!

3. No WebCam

Yesterday I posted that the device should at least have an WebCam that will allow us to conduct video chat over a high speed internet connection. But Apple, with their infinite wisdom has decided that they can allow VoIP calls over 3G. We are very very pleased that you have given us your kind privilege to use the service. Oh! Apple is so generous! A cheap $400 Asus Eee PC Netbook can do VoIP or Video Chat through its WebCam but those devices are cheap anyway and Apple is obviously the synonym of glamor.

4. No Flash Support

Even if the standard smartphones have the flash support built-in their browsers nowadays, neither iPhone nor the iPod has the Flash support. And now, iPad also comes without the Flash support. The lack of Flash support in those tiny display browsers were pardonable but in a device that is going to be competing with the full fledged netbooks/laptops, this is going mean a deal breaker for many. Even the casual internet users won’t forgive those gaping holes in the webpage which were supposed to be making the website more colorful. And also, forget about streaming video on webpage!

5. Ugly Adapters

You need to connect any device to the iPad? You just need to have the adapter for that device. Oh! We are so glad that we can at least connect our devices to it! Thank you Apple for your generosity to us. History will remember this.

6. Go to Apple Store for Apps

iPad can only run apps from the Apple App Store. No other Apps shall be entertained. Period.

7. No HDMI

Want to watch those nice HD Videos in your big HDTV screen when your iPad screen seems too small? No there is no HDMI to view the HD videos you’ve just downloaded from iTunes. And it is a sin that you thought the Apple iPad would connect to some Samsung HDTV. You shouldn’t expect that Apple will allow follow any standard interface. They’ll rather create an interface of their own!

8. Battery

We carry a spare wheel with our car. The Car can go flat. I will then replace that with my spare wheel. But forget this simple things with Apple. Touch their battery and void the warranty. They list that the battery life will last for 10 hours but I doubt if it will run for any longer than six hours. This is too low especially if we keep in mind that some netbooks(=computers) are now able to reach the 10 hour mark.

9. MicroSIM

Did anyone know that such term existed before Apple declared it? Well, I guess not. The device is supposed to be unlocked and you can use any carrier with it but currently, the SIM is only available from AT&T. Therefore, don’t expect to run it on any cheap T-Mobile plans because they don’t have the SIM. Do you know any other carrier that uses this SIM? The answer is apparently, Ahem, No.

Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle : A Conversation

2010-03-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

Amazon Kindle : Hi, newcomer, how are you doing?

Apple iPad : I am doing nothing right now, at least till 27 March when I’ll be available to the public.

Amazon Kindle : Lot’s of people are talking about you right now. I thought I would also talk to you to clear some matter.

Apple iPad : Tell me ol’ fella.

Amazon Kindle : First of all, tell me how are you feeling right now to be the brainchild of great Steve Jobs.

Apple iPad : I owe him a lot, of course. People wouldn’t have bothered to know that I exist if any other man in this world had been my father. I am a celebrity right from the day I am born and shown to the public. I know that there was scuttlebutt that I was coming even before I came to open sunlight.
But look at you, though you also come from a big house of Amazon, people like you only because you add value to their life and not only because of the hype which is the case with me.

Amazon Kindle : Thank You, but then you should also know that I have limited capability. You can show ebooks from iBooks and also from Amazon Kindle Store. There are many other functionality of you such as web browsing, listening to music, watching videos and many more.

Apple iPad : But then, there are so many things that even a lower priced netbook can do that I can’t; the point is not that. Just ask any people to close his eyes and name an ebook reader. He’ll say Kindle. You excel at being an ebook reader. Your eink display does not cause any strain to the eyes. One can do hours and hours of reading without any problem. Whereas I can show ebooks but I am not obviously the best thing to do this. In fact, I am not best at anything but can make do with some more things than you.
Amazon Kindle : Oh! you are so colorful! And I look so dull with my Black & White Screen. And also my 1980’s style is killing me.

Apple iPad : Don’t panic. You’ll get a color screen very soon. And that too won’t hurt people’s eyes.

Amazon Kindle : I get so nervous hearing from people that I will die very soon for your existence.

Apple iPad : They are so fool. They don’t even realize that I have no real war with you.

Amazon Kindle : You are really giving me back my old confidence.

Apple iPad : Also, think about the price factor. You and I don’t even lie in the same price range. One who needs only ebook reading capability, will obviously opt for you because the price is about half of mine. And one who needs to do many other things should opt for a full sized laptop.

Amazon Kindle : Oh! don’t feel bad. You’re so gorgeous. People are running after you like crazy. Do you also want to tell that they are also fools. No, my dear. The Apple App Store is great and you are the best platform to run them. Yes, you heard it right; you are better than any iPod touch or iPhone.

Apple iPad : But you have a battery life more than a week. I can’t match that! I can barely manage to run for 10 hours.

Amazon Kindle : Have you heard anybody to read books more than 10 hours?

Apple iPad : But what about the books? The iBooks are currently priced $5 more than the Kindle books.

Amazon Kindle : They’ll come down very soon.

Apple iPad : But actually what are my uses? I am neither a full featured tablet like HP Slate nor have a pocketable form factor like a smartphone and having said that I perform just like my little brother iPhone.

Amazon Kindle : Trust Me, you’ll fill a specific need for a device that was vacant for quite sometime.

Apple iPad : What are you trying to say?

Amazon Kindle : iPhone came at a stage when the smartphones like BlackBerry and Palm were used by only some people who we call the geeks. People who were not tech savvy were satisfied with the mobile phones that could only make calls. iPhone changed the scenario with its simplistic interface design that even Oprah can use. Obviously, there were some drawbacks of the first iPhone but you have to agree with me that iPhone had some interface that made the whole story different.

Apple iPad : But what’s the connection with me?

Amazon Kindle : Your fate will also lead you to the same consequences. There are many people who don’t use computer but want to enjoy movie on a handheld device like you and also want to do some web surfing on the go. They won’t touch a netbook but would surely like you. You are made for them.

Apple iPad : It was nice talking with you but I have to go now. Lot’s of people are craving to catch a glimpse of mine. I have to be ready for a photo-shoot too. Bye.

Amazon Kindle : Bye. See you soon!

Summary Box: Connected tablets and smartbooks aim to fill gap between PCs and mobile phones

2010-03-01T22:12:00.000-08:00

Summary Box: New kinds of ‘in-between’ devices

IN BETWEEN: This year several companies will be selling tablets and smartbooks, devices that are larger than mobile phones but smaller than laptops and cost a few hundred dollars.

CROWDED NICHE: Apple Inc.’s iPad comes out next month and will be followed by many other keyboard-less “tablet” computers. Other companies will push small laptop-like devices known as “smartbooks.”

THE PITCH: Consumers will have to be enticed to carry another gadget.

Lenovo ThinkPad X201 Tablet Review

2010-03-01T22:10:00.000-08:00

The Lenovo ThinkPad X201 is the latest ultra portable business laptop from Lenovo and it is available both in standard form and one with a Wacom Tablet Screen. This is no meager powered iPad tablet that can only be used for some web based applications but it is powerful enough so that you can view HD videos on it without any problem or you can also play a 3D game on it, if you like so. The new X201 Tablet boasts the new Intel low voltage Core i7 CPU along with a 4GB of RAM. Before spending some $1,900 on the tablet, let us look closer into the tablet to find out if it has any deal breaking cons.

Performance

The system houses a 2.13 GHz Core i7 640 LM CPU and a 4GB RAM. Simply put, this is a powerhouse tablet. Though the Core i7 used here is alow voltage version and the performance of the processor is not like the standard desktop edition systems but it is more than enough to run a system like this. You can run many programs like iTunes, Microsoft Word, GIPM, Skype and at the same time switching between multiple tabs in Firefox does not break a sweat on the system. The 320 GB 5,400 rpm HDD is also fast enough so that launching programs won’t make you crazy. The graphics of this system is the integrated GMA 4500 MHD which is enough to run HD videos smoothly and perhaps some 3D games butdoes not have the performance like a dedicated GPU so don’t expect to run Far Cry at its highest settings on this machine. However, we don’t have any complain with that, after all, it is not a gaming laptop like Alienware.

Build and Design

The ThinkPad sticks to it original ThinkPad design elements. This means that it is a no frill notebook. There isn’t any noticeable design departure from the original ThinkPad root; there is the classic soft touch lid, square edges and the magnesium alloy chassis. The size of the notebook is as small as it can be keeping the standard size keyboard. However, if you consider its thickness, it is a tad bit thicker at 1.3 inches whereas the commonly available netbooks or tablets are merely 1 inch thick. The weight of four pounds also feels heavier especially as a tablet.
The hinge is perhaps the most important thing to look for before buying a tablet PC. This unit has a bi-directional 360 degree hinge that feels solid from the start. There is a latch that keeps it locked in place when positioned on top of the keyboard. Both the tablet orientation and the normal laptop like view operate smoothly on the device.

Display

The system packs a 12.1 inch 1280 X 800 pixels resolution display that is quite brighter than most other touchscreen tablets available in the market and there seems to be almost no lack of brightness due to the extra touchscreen layer on thescreen. The viewing angles are surprisingly good and there is no graying on flipping the screen.

Touchscreen

The touchscreen works very good for both finger input and the stylus input. The capacitive touchscreen recognizes even the slightest touch of our fingers which makes multitouch least painful on the device. However, digging through Windows 7 menus is still a headache. Though there are not so many uses of it right now and you can do some two finger scrolling and pinching to zoom; there are also some Windows 7 touch games like scaring away the digital fish, if you like to spend some time with it.

Keyboard

The keyboard from the Lenovo ThinkPad series had been a pleasure for almost every model they have produced and this Lenovo ThinkPad X201 does not disappoint either. The keyboard is spill proof to incorporate some ruggedness into the keyboard. The keys are firm to push and have a good click effect when pushed. If you are planning to use this tablet’s keyboard for some longtime, there aren’t many competitors to this keyboard.

TouchPad and Pointing Stick

The inclusion of a touchpad in this lineup is always welcome but the size of the touchpad is very small. There are many among us (including me) who don’t like to use the pointing stick at all. This is why they have included the touchapad. Apart from the size, we don’t have any complaint against the smoothness of the touchpad or the clicking button.

Ports

The X201 Tablet has every standard port that you may need for general use. There are three USB Ports, Ethernet, VGA, Express Card 34 and the common headphone – microphone jack. The only thing we miss in this device is a HDMI Port. It would surely be a welcome feature on a powerful notebook like this. Playing HD videos on my HDTV would be more pleasant than its 1280 X 800screen. If the HDMI Port was present we might have forgiven the absence of the Card Reader slot.

Audio

This is not a multimedia system, so we did not expect hifi sound quality from the two speakers residing at the bottom of the device but to our disappointment, the quality of the sound was worse than many netbook speakers we heard. The tinny speakers only qualify to conduct a chat with a friend of yours and nothing else. You must use a good pair of headphones to listen to your favorite music collection.

Battery Life

The system comes with an eight cell battery that sticks its back almost an inch outside the laptop’s boundary. This does not look cool but does provide some decent battery life. The system can easily deliver six hours in normal condition but if you are a heavy user, it can provide at least four hours in the most extreme situations. Options for four cell battery will be available very soon but that won’t provide that much runtime.

Heat and Noise

Heating was one of our concerns when we heard that it would have a Core i7 processor. But the low voltage processor does not create that much heat to be worried about. The noise of the cooling fan was not audible even in a quiet room.

Pros

Great Performance
Display is very good for a Tablet
TouchPad is there if you need it

Cons

Underpowered integrated Graphics
Heavier than other ultra lightweight notebooks

Conclusion

The Lenovo X201 is a device that really doesn’t have any cons that can be a deal breaking one. If an extra pound of weight is not a problem with you or you don’t want to play 3D games on it, you should do fine with the machine.

10 Best Laptops to Buy in 2010

2010-03-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

It was not very long time ago, a laptop would cost an arm or a leg. But now a decent powered laptop would be available at less than a thousand bucks. Unless, you are an avid gamer or you just love anything ancient, you must appreciate the portability and ease of use the laptop provides us. But choosing a laptop is not an easy task. There are a plethora of laptops available under different Brands and models. They have different price ranges and are meant for different types of people with different needs. Instead of getting you the best laptops for every category of people, we have tried to give you a list of 10 laptops that will give you the best bang for your bucks. If you like our list of top 10 laptops of 2009 you’ll also like this one. Here is the list.

1. HP Pavilion DV4-1541US

HP Pavilion PCs are known for their excellent performance and credibility as multimedia and entertainment platforms.

Specification

Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo T6600
RAM : 4 GB DDR3
Hard Disk Capacity : 320 GB 7200 rpm
OS : Windows 7 Premium 64 bit
Display : 14.1 inch WXGA 1280 X 800 pixels resolution
Express Card 54 Slot
Infrared Remote Receiver
LightScribe DVD Writer

Price

About $650

2. Apple MacBook Pro Summer 2009

Yes! Apples are always good and yummy too! There must be an apple in every top 10 list and this is no exception. Previously known as the MacBook, the old 13-inch aluminum unibody laptop is now called “Pro” laptops. In addition to all-metal construction and GeForce 9400M graphics, the 13-inch Pro regains a FireWire port, and adds an SD slot.

Specification

Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz
RAM : 2 GB
Hard Disk Capacity : 160 GB
Display : 13 inch
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Graphics
Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard Operating System

Price

About $1300

3. Dell Studio 15

Though the Dell Studio 15 is nothing new in 2010 but still it is one of the best laptops available in the market, if you ask me. There are lots of configurations available for this laptop and the prices are also very affordable.

Specification

Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 2.0 GHz
RAM : 2 GB DDR2
Hard Disk Capacity : 160 GB 5400 RPM
8X Slot Load DVD RW Drive
Display : 15.4 inchLED Display with 1366 X 768 pixels resolution
Integrated 2.0 MP Webcam
Windows Vista Home Premium

Price

About $1300

4. Sony Vaio VPCZ116GX/S

There are no doubt about the quality of the Sony VAIO laptops. If you can afford the price, Sony’s top-of-the-line 13-inch Vaio VPCZ116GX/S is recommended. It has a speedy Core i5 CPU, discrete graphics, a huge 256GB SSD, and a sky-high price to match.

Specification

Processor : Intel Core i5 520 M
RAM : 4 GB DDR3 1066 MHz
256 GB Solid State Drive
OS : Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
Display : 13.1 Inch 1600 X 900 pixels

Price

About $2200

5. Acer Aspire Timeline AS5810TZ-4274

If you thought that Acer prodecues only cheap quality laptops, you should at least try this one to see how wrong you are.

Specification

1.3 GHz Intel Pentium SU2700 Processor
3072MB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
320 GB SATA Hard Drive
8X DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1)
Over 8 Hours of Battery Life (6-Cell 5600 mAh)
15.6″ HD CineCrystal LED-backlit Display
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD

Price

About $620

6. ASUS UL30A-X5 Thin and Light

Asus may be beter known for their netbook lineup but they also produce some good laptops of other categories also.

Specification

1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo Processor
4GB of DDR3 RAM, 2 slots, 4GB Max
500GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
13.3″ HD LED LCD Display
Intel GMA 4500MHD Graphics
Wi-Fi 802.11 bgn
0.3MP Webcam
Windows 7 Home Premium Operating System (64 bit)

Price

About $680

7. Toshiba Satellite L505-S5993

Toshiba Satellite L505-S5993 is a slim, fast, and affordable package for mainstream users.

Specification

2.1GHz Intel Pentium T4300 Processor
4GB Memory
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive, DVD SuperMulti Drive
15.6″ High-def Display
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, 2 Hours 25 Minutes of Battery Life

Price

About $550

8. Dell Inspiron 14

Dell Inspiron Series are known for the best price to performance ratio.

Specification

Processor : Intel Dual Core T4400
RAM : 2 GB
Hard Disk Capacity : 160 GB
14.0 High Definition (720p) LED Display with TrueLife

Price

About $500

9. HP Mini 5102

HP’s sturdy and stylish Mini 5102 is a slight upgrade to one of our favorite Netbooks, but we had hoped for a little more fresh thinking for 2010.

Specification

Processor : Intel® Atom™ Processor N450 (1.66 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB)
RAM : 2GB
160 GB HDD
OS : Windows 7 Starter

Price

About $650

10. HP Compaq 6730b

Another very good contender from the house of HP.

Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo P8600
RAM : 2 GB
Hard Disk Capacity : 320 GB
OS : Windows 7 Pro
Display : 1380 X 800 pixels resolution
Video / Graphics : Intel GMA 4500 MHD with Maximum of 3 GB Video RAM
Battery Life : 6 hour
Weight : 5.1 Lbs
CD / DVD Burner
1 Year Warranty
VGA Webcam
7-in-1 Card Reader

Price

About $900

Apple Tablet : Is It The Most Important Thing Steve Jobs Has Ever Done?

2010-02-12T00:26:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles (GaeaTimes.com) - If you thought that iPhone is the greatest invention by great Steve Jobs, then be ready for a shock, because Steve Jobs himself doesn’t think so! He thinks that iPhone was just a warm up for the “soon to be launched” Apple Tablet Device. I don’t know when the “soon” will happen because we are reporting the rumors since Aug’09. Till now we have rumors that it may have leopard running on it and it may have a webcam and 3G connectivity but those are yet to be confirmed officially and all other things are simply mysterious to say the least.

The last statement saying that “This will be the most important thing I’ve ever done” by Steve Jobs only heightens the hype as if we aren’t hyped yet! Now, let’s just hold our breath and wait for the moment when the Apple falls from the tree

Apple Tablet Rumor RoundUp

2010-02-12T00:23:00.002-08:00

Display

The display is supposed to be of 10-11 inch size. Any less than that would be uncomfortable to view full webpage contents and any greater than this would simply be inconvenient to carry along always with you. We thought that the display will be of OLED technology to comfortably read the ebooks or something like those but that would also mean that they would not be able to produce the device under $1000 mark. So, an LCD screen seems to be the most possible solution to keep the price under $1,000.

Software / Interface

Earlier we though it may run on Leopard OS but the later reports suggests that it may be running on the iPhone OS. But iPhone OS will surely be too underpowered and we think that iPhone OS is only good for a 3.5 inch screen than to run a full fledged computer. For now, it is still a mystery about the OS but we are sure that it will have some DNA of the iPhone OS.

Keyboard

It will be very challenging to to incorporate a hardware keyboard on the device, so there is no other option than a virtual keyboard.

WebCam

The device willsupposedly have an WebCam to conduct a Skype chat or a VideoCall over internet.

Connectivity

It is supposed to have a 3G connectivity built-in to have access to the high speed internet on the go and certainly there will be WiFi connectivity to access internet at the local WiFi Zones.

Price

The price of the device seems to be tagged at $999 but that solely depends on the configuration of the device that we assume it would be.

Availability

We suppose that the device will be available from the end of March 2010.

Apple iPad Price and Availability

2010-02-12T00:23:00.001-08:00

By jayita, Gaea News Network

January 28th, 2010

LOS ANGELES (GaeaTimes.com) — After a long time speculation, Apple has finally unveiled the iPad, a 10-inch tablet computer, running with the same OS of iPhone. It operates like iPhone. iPad includes 3G model to allow users Internet facility. You can get it at different prices. Prices varies with its sizes. 3 models will be released soon with storage capacities of 16, 32 and 64 gigabytes respectively.

iPad claims to be a revolutionary creation of Apple. The itablet is equipped with most advanced technologies Apple has ever come with. There’s a keyboard dock, which connects underneath in the portrait orientation, support for up to 1024×768 VGA out and 480p composite out through new dock adapter cables. A camera attachment kit will let you import photos from your camera over USB or directly through an SD reader. The device is managed by iTunes, just like the iPhone.

Notable Features

Half-inch thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds

9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display

Running a custom 1GHz Apple “A4″ chip

10-hour battery life and a month of standby.

30-pin Dock connector

A speaker, a microphone, Bluetooth

802.11n WiFi and optional 3G

Price

iPad will be tagged as $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB and $699 for 64GB. For 3G connection you have to pay $130 extra per model. So the price of Wi-Fi + 3G will be $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB.

Availability

iPad is expected to be launched on March 27, 2010.

The WiFi version of the iPad will be the perfect device for people who already have an iPhone data plan and don’t want another monthly fee. Moreover, it will be available in two months (March 27) as opposed to the 3G version which will be available in three months (April 27). You will have to pay extra $14.99 for monthly data plan on 3G that will provide you 250 MB data and if you want to access on unlimited data then you will have to pay $29.99. So, if you find iPad quite innovative and fulfilling your demands, just go and grab it. I mean, just after 60 days!

10 Reasons Why Apple iPad Fails to Pass

2010-02-12T00:21:00.000-08:00

1. No Multitasking

2. Uncomfortable Keyboard

3. No WebCam

4. No Flash Support

5. Ugly Adapters

6. Go to Apple Store for Apps

iPad can only run apps from the Apple App Store. No other Apps shall be entertained. Period.

7. No HDMI

8. Battery

9. MicroSIM

10. Too Big Bezel

Don’t you also think that the Bezel is too big to be called a decent one?

Asus Eee PC 1005 PE Review

2010-01-02T22:59:00.000-08:00

Asus is well known for its exclusive Eee PCs and this new Eee PC 1005 PE is the latest addition to its netbook lineup. It has the latest Intel Atom N450 Processor and is built on its earlier successful notebook 1005 HA Seashell that we reviewed earlier. The new processor makes the device run up to 14 hours as least on the spec sheet of the netbook. Let’s check some other details of the device and decide if it is worth a buy or not.]

Design and Build

There is nothing new in the design itself and looks very much like the 1005 HA Seashell. The overall design is a little thicker with its removable battery but doesn’t look clumsy by any means. The overall build quality is very good for a budget notebook like this and has a pretty solid feel to it.

Performance

The new Intel Atom N450 is not a powerful beast but almost with same processing capability as the more common N270 or N280 processors. But the difference lies as it uses the Intel GMA 3150 graphics while the older Atom 280 processors were stuck with the Intel GMA 950 graphics. The system becomes a bit more capable to handle things like HD Video or an occasional session or image processing etc. Do not try to play any high def 3 D games in this device or you are destined for a disappointment. The 1GB SDRAM is good enough for normal everyday tasks and the 250 GB HDD is also enough to store all your favorite music and videos and every other thing.

Display

The display is a standard 1024 X 600 pixels display measuring 10.1 inches diagonally. The screen is a glossy one which has a very good brightness and contrasts showing live colors but, as usual, it suffers from glares and reflections in bright light conditions. When it comes to viewing angles of the display, I would say that the vertical viewing angles are quite average and the horizontals ones are just a bit better. However, you do not need to be worried about it, as you are not supposed to watch an HD movie in this netbook with a couple of your friends.

Audio

We were impressed with the sound quality nevertheless especially keeping in mind the average quality of the budget netbook speakers. The speakers soundedvery good even at high volume level without any distortion. The high to midrange sound were very good and it is quite obvious not to hear any bass range without a dedicated subwoofer which the 1005 PE did not have. A good pair of headphones are recommended for the audiophiles as is always.

Keyboard

The keyboard is very good and have good springy feedback and response. There is a good click sound response with the keys pressing in and the chicklet style keyboards are good to see functioning very well. We had no problem typing at high speeds in this keyboard though we expected the keys to be a bit bigger.

TouchPad

The touchpad also has very good response with its synaptics technology. The surface of the touchpad is rough and feels very good while moving our finger across the touchpad. It also supports multi finger gestures and you can customize these gestures as well. However, the buttons are not that well. They have very shallow feedback and it is very uncomfortable to click them conveniently.

Ports

It has VGA Out, USB Port, Security lock slot and power jack in the left side and a 4 - in - 1 card reader, headphone and microphone jack and another two USB Port and a necessary Ethernet slot in its right side. It does not miss out on any important slot but it does not also have any advanced ports like firewire or HDMI port. However, the port selection should be more than enough for normal usage.

Battery

The new processor has the biggest advantage of better battery life. In our tests, we managed to get a huge 12 hour runtime with little to no usage breaking all of our previous records. With heavy workload you can expect to run 1005 PE at least 8 hours which is not a joke by any means.

Pros

Astounding Battery Life
Good Build quality for a budget netbook

Cons

Unsatisfactory Touchpad buttons

Conclusion

If you want a power beast, this is not the laptop for you but if you want a power saver, there is no better laptop than this. With its stellar battery life and good overall features and build quality this is definitely a goodlaptop for those who will be using it for normal everyday usage away from the power sources for quite sometime.

Top 10 Laptops for Christmas

2010-01-02T22:57:00.000-08:00

Christmas is here and the year is also nearing an end. This is the time to take a look back at the past year to determine the best laptops of 2009. Yes, the year has seen more new laptops than any other year before this and you’ll get tired if I just start telling you the names of those laptops one after the other. Instead we have tried to examine each laptop released this year and compiled a list of thebest laptops of 2009. Have a look at the top 10 Laptops for Christmas 2009.

1. Acer Aspire 8940G

As you know, Acer laptops means the best configuration for the money spent. This system comes with a Intel Core i7 processor running at 1.6 GHz and 1333 MHz FSM and 6MB cache memory. The RAM is two 2GB memory module to give you the best possible performance and there is also a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M graphics with 1GB dedicated GDDR3 memory that can be used to play any latest game with highest settings. Awesome for a laptop. What do you think?

Pros

Powerful Processor and Graphics
Comfortable BackLit Keyboard
Huge and responsive Synaptics TouchPad
Good Sized display with above average display quality

Cons

Too much Heavy

2. Asus G51J

Here comes a gaming laptop from Asus, whom you may be knowing for producing those cheap netbooks. This laptop is by no means a netbook and the processing power of Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia graphics with 1GB dedicated RAM. You’ll hardly have any problem playing any latest games in their highest configurations.

Pros

High Processing Power with Core i7 Processor
Price is lesser than the competing models with similar configuration and performance
Keyboard and touchpad are excellent

Cons

Battery Life worse than its competitors.
Overclocking the processor does not improve performance.

3. Asus Eee PC T91

The Asus Eee PC lineup is best known for its netbooks but this is a very good touchscreen netbook at a very very affordable price which makes it a big hit.

Pros

Tablet PC at a very low price
Light and Portable
Build quality better that average
Battery life is satisfactory
Nice Touchscreen capabilities

Cons

CPU performance below average
SSD Drive capacity very low to go with
Small 8.9 inch display
No high capacity battery option
Stylus Pen is not handy

4. Lenovo Tablet ThinkPad X200

Tablet PC market is yet to see too many competitors. Lenovo Thinkpad X200 Tablet is one of them. The tablet PC with very good build quality and nice display and performance means it is a very good overall tablet PC.

Pros

Strong Build Quality
Nice bright display with decent viewing angle for a touchscreen
Excellent Performance
Nice comfy keyboard
Good Battery Life

Cons

No touchpad
Weak and tinny audio
Multitouch support restricted to only two finger actions

5. Asus UL 80 Vt

Apart from the value for money laptops Asus also makes some really good ultra lite laptop with decent performance. Intel Core 2 Duo Processor along with 4 GB RAM and Nvidia graphics in a sleek light body and attractive price is going to win any business people’s heart.

Pros

Amazing Battery Life
Very Good overall performance
Remains cool even in heavy usage condition

Cons

Build Quality not at par with other competing thin and light laptops
Keyboard and Touchpad feels cheap
Display could have been better

6. Lenovo G550

Lenovo Series laptops are known for their pure value for money offerings and Lenovo G550 is the best example of that. Dual Core processor, 3GB RAM and bigger display than a netbook at a netbook like price means it is going to be a winner on its own.

Pros

Very good performance for a Budget notebook
Good Design and Build
Nice Keyboard

Cons

Ports selection is bare minimal
TouchPad sensitivity is not satisfactory
Average Display

7. Acer Aspire One AOD150

Asus may be the pioneer in the netbook market but Acer has also understood that the key in the netbook market is the low price. Following the path of previous 8.9 inch Acer Aspire One, new 10.1 inch Acer Aspire AOD 150 is also a winner in its category.

Pros

Very affordable price tag
Speedy hard drive
Slim Construction

Cons

Keyboard a bit cramped for a 10 inch netbook
Touchpad buttons are not comfortable
Bluetooth not included

8. Lenovo G530

If you like Lenovo G550 you may as well consider Lenovo G550 and give it a look. This is also a nice option at an affordable price.

Pros

Good Performance at an affordable price
Nice build quality for a budget notebook
Comfortable keyboard and touchpad
Remains Cool even at high stressed conditions

Cons

Low Battery Life
Basic Port Selection
Doesn’t support high speed 802.11n draft wireless but only more common wireless services

9. Asus Eee PC 1005 HA Seashell

This is the latest netbook in the popular Eee PC Lineup. If you wanted to buy a better netbook with sound build quality, this should be your choice.

Pros

Build quality is good for budget netbook
Battery life is amazing
Port Layout is good for a netbook

Cons

Thick for a modern netbook
Weak integrated graphics
Bad touchpad buttons

10. HP G60 519 WM

It is a laptop for the ultimate budget minded buyers who aren’t satisfied with the small netbook screens but also don’t have budget over a netbook price. The laptop has decent performance and features for themoney spent and also does not look like a real cheap laptop. That’s all you can expect from a cheap laptop. Isn’t it?

Pros

Very Affordable Price
Big 15 inch display with ample screen space
No compromise on RAM and HDD space
Full Size Keyboard with number pad

Cons

Poor processor performance
Weak Graphics
No built in Webcam or Microphone

Sony VAIO FW560F/T: A Capable Multimedia Laptop That Can Handle Gaming Too

2010-01-02T22:56:00.000-08:00

Sony’s VAIO range of laptops is usually associated with elite and niche category of users and they come at a premium, too. However, the VAIO lineup also has some performance oriented models that offer more than eye candy and flaunt value. One such instance is the VAIO FW560F/T. The laptop offers great multimediaperformance and also runs most of the modern PC games at mid resolutions without much fuss. At $999 it is definitely not affordable for the majority of users but offers a good balancebetween price and performance when pitted against typical gaming laptops. It offers Windows 7 instead of its resource hungry predecessor Vista and Blu- Ray playback, a blessing for multimedia freaks.

This VAIO model is powered by a Core 2 Duo P7450 CPU that runs at 2.1 GHz and tackles image editing or media encoding related tasks with aplomb. The 6GB DDR2 RAM complements the fast CPU and the buyers would not need to upgrade the memory in near future. However, a model belonging to high end category should have been equipped with newer DDR3 RAM. Its elegant and sleek looks may remind you of the Apple Macbooks and Sony has used a matte exterior finish in it.

The keyboard has large keys that are a joy to use but Sony could put in a numeric keypad in the model. Its touchpad is also responsive though somewhat smaller in size. The 500 GB hard disk is enough for storing your movie and MP3 collection. While the laptop has some dedicated media control buttons they are not backlit. The speakers used in this model sound good and would suffice for occasional 3D gaming and music playback. The integrated VAIO Multimedia suite offers decent image and media management and editing features. Its 16.4-inch “ultra-widescreen” display offers a 1,600×900 native resolution that is better than HD Ready 720p displays but falls short of 1080p Full HD category. The inbuilt HDMI port is ideal for connecting to larger external displays. The VAIO FW560F/T has USB and Mini Firewire port but lacks an eSATA port. It packs in a dual format memory card reader slot nevertheless.

While the Core 2Duo processor included in this laptop lags behind the latest Core i7 CPUs in resource intensive applications and multitasking, it still offers acceptableperformance for most of the users. While the onboard ATI Radeon Mobility GPU is not the most powerful graphics chip in the market it still allows you to play most of the present generation games with some visual effects enabled. You will get much betterperformance from it compared to the laptops that are offer with onboard Intel GMA graphics solution. While the laptop gets overshadowed by theperformance of rival models like the HP Envy 15, at $999 it packs in enough punch.

The VAIO FW560F/T offers decent battery life but there are many laptops that offer much better performance in this aspect. Sony offers a standard one year warranty with this laptop and the users can avail of the required drivers and updates from Sony’s official website.

HP Launches Mini 110-113dx Tord Boontje Edition To Attract Women Users

2010-01-02T22:54:00.000-08:00

HP has a number of ultra portable and netbooks in the market and the Mini 110 is a popular model. Recently the company has released a revamped version of the laptop with a cool design meant for attracting the women users. The Mini 110-113dx Tord Boontje Edition has an exterior design done by Tord Boontje, a renowned Dutch designer. However, the design may not justify the $50 price hike for most of the buyers except those who love flaunting their gadgets.

Beneath the gorgeous design the netbook has standard components found in other competing models. It is powered by a power efficient Intel Atom CPU and 1GB of DDR2 RAM. While this model has Windows 7 starter edition the graphics chip is not suitable for HD playback. HP’s own Mini 311 offers powerful Nvidia Ion graphics and HD screen at an identical price.

The netbook has excellent quality keyboard though its touchpad could do with a little improvement. The Atom CPU, as expected, can handle office productivity applications and web browsing but gaming is not its forte. Intel is going to release the upcoming lineup of Atom CPUs in the next year and the laptop manufacturers will offer the models fitted with those next generation CPUs soon. Even the present generation dual-core Atom CPUs offer marginally better performance than the N270, which is a single core model.

The netbook uses a three cell battery which results in an average battery life that lasts up to three hours. This is strange considering a number of present generationnetbooks offer battery life above 5 hours.

Review: Netbooks meet luxury in ultra-light Sony Vaio X _ watch so it doesn’t blow away

2009-12-20T04:57:00.000-08:00

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Review: Netbooks meet luxury in ultra-light Sony

NEW YORK — Netbooks have been a hit among laptop buyers because they’re cheap and they’re easy to carry. Now there’s the option to pay a lot more and get a lot less — a lot less weight, that is.

Sony’s Vaio X is the runway model of netbooks: stylish, super-thin and without an ounce of weight to spare. It’s expensive too: the base model is $1,300 at Sonystyle.com and Sony Style stores. The price is nearly four times as much as a standard netbook.

Its carbon-fiber body, just over half an inch thick, houses an 11.1-inch screen and weighs just 1.6 pounds. How light is that? Well, it nearly blew out of my hands one day when I was walking down the street with it opened. I’m not kidding. It makes 2.5-pound netbooks feel heavy. It makes the 3-pound MacBook Air seem like a dumbbell.

Sony says it’s the world’s thinnest, lightest laptop with a screen larger than 10 inches diagonally. Whatever the state of the competition may be, the light weight means that carrying the Vaio X around never really felt like a burden. It was a great companion on my commute, with a screen large enough to read comfortably on, and light enough to hold in one hand when standing, at least for short periods of time. For the ultimate in mobility, the computer has a built-in modem for Verizon Wireless’ cellular broadband network. Service costs an extra $60 or so per month.

Of course, a mobile laptop isn’t much good if it has poor battery life and constantly needs to be tethered to an outlet. The Vaio X does pretty well in this regard, at least if you consider the weight. On battery power, it lasted 1 hour and 47 minutes when playing high-definition video nonstop and accessing the Web via Wi-Fi. In more typical circumstances, this translates into about three hours of use.

The Vaio X also comes with a protruding extended battery with four times the capacity of the regular one. Together, you could get about 17 hours of work from them. The extended battery bumps the weight of the unit to 2.3 pounds.

The carbon fiber and aluminum frame is part of the reason the Vaio X can be so light. Like other netbooks, it uses an Intel Atom processor, which is small and doesn’t run hot, so the Vaio X doesn’t need a big ventilation fan or ducting to carry away heat. The unit also dispenses with the standard, disk-based hard drive. Instead, it has a “solid-state disk,” or SSD, composed of flash memory chips that don’t have moving parts.

The chief drawback of SSDs is that they have low capacities and high prices. The basic Vaio X has 64 gigabytes of storage. There’s a model with twice as much for $1,500.

The small hard drive isn’t likely to be a major impediment, however, because the Vaio X isn’t capable of heavy-duty computing in any case. The Atom processor is good enough for e-mail, Web surfing and office applications, but will crawl when forced to do anything more demanding. Running the premium version of Windows 7 is already a bit of a struggle for it, and it doesn’t have the processor power to play TV shows from Hulu without stuttering.

Other sacrifices to the design include feeble speakers and a somewhat flimsy feeling. The carbon-fiber cover isn’t as good at repelling fingerprints as anodized metal or matte plastic, so the runway-ready looks can get grubby fast. The keys don’t “give” much under the fingers, so extended typing can be uncomfortable.

The Vaio X does have a slot for SD memory cards, common in digital cameras, and an Ethernet jack for plugging into wired networks. Both are missing from the MacBook Air. The Sony model also comes with a GPS chip and navigation software, but I wasn’t able to get it to work.

If you have the money and need something portable, the Vaio X is a nice choice indeed. Like most netbooks, it’s best used as a backup for a standard laptop or desktop.

Need help with a technology question? Ask us at gadgetgurus(at)ap.org.

Acer Aspire Revo 3610: A Haven For The Users With Space Crunch

2009-12-20T04:55:00.000-08:00

Though it does not have an optical drive, you can watch HD content on it without any hiccup. Those who hate the clutter of wires around them would be pleased to known that Acer offers a neat wireless a mouse and keyboard combo with the Revo R3610. However, the buyers need to buy the monitor on their own. The model has a sparking dark blue exterior with glossy white edges. A stand is provided with the model which can be used to place it in a vertical position on your desk. It can also be attached to a VESA compliant display by means of a mounting kit, which is an optional accessory.

In spite of its miniature size, the Revo R 3610 has a number of ports. Apart from the USB ports on its side and front the model has HDMI and Video port along with a Gigabit Ethernet slot. The microphone and headphone ports are located on its right side. Those who need to transfer a lot of data regularly will benefit from its integrated eSATA port which offers fast data transfer. The multimedia buffs will like the multi format memory card readers. The net-top comes with 2GB RAM and can accommodate a total of 4GB. However, it does not offer many options for future upgrade owing to its small form factor.

The keyboard and mouse have a glossy white finish. The keyboard is quite responsive and the users who need to work with long documents and send a lot of emails will like its tactile feedback. However, there is not any separate number pad on the keyboard. The Revo R3610 also comes with a couple of small USB speakers that are amazingly loud.

On storage front it suffers in comparisons with other models in the market. Its 160 GB hard disk seems a compromise as most of the entry level systems offer a minimum of 250 GB storage these days. The Revo R3610 is sold with Windows 7 64 bit edition and the bundled software set is also pretty useful. It includes MS Works 8.5 full version, Nero essentials, back-up software and some Acer utilities.The Revo can cope up with media related tasks but its performance is not as fast as that of mainstream Intel or AMD based CPUs. It also scores well in energy efficiency. When fully functional it requires less than 30 watts of power.

Best Laptop Under Rs 40,000 in India

2009-12-20T04:54:00.000-08:00

Laptops have now become a must have gadget for the mobile professionals and also for the gadget freaks like us at gadgetophilia. A few years ago, purchasing a standard laptop with decent performance would mean selling an arm or a leg but today there are many decent performing laptops available under Rs 30,000 in India or even under $500 in US. Apart from the value for money laptops, there are some good laptops available under Rs. 40,000 in India. Here is a take on them. Have a look at the list.

Best Home Laptop

Dell Studio 15

This is undoubtedly the best laptop in the 40,000 range. It has a Core 2 Duo Processor T5850 and 3 GB Dual channel RAM. The 250 GB HDD will provide you with ample storage space for all your necessary files. The 6 cell Li Ion battery delivers enough battery life to view a movie on it when the power is not available. The slot loading DVD drive also delivers enough performance and runs smoothly.

Best Business Laptop

HP ProBook 4310s

This is a newly launched laptop for the business people. It has a stylish design and a chiclet style keyboard design catches our eye from the rest. The specs won’t disappoint you either. It has aCore 2 Duo processor upto 2.8 GHz processor speed and 6 MB L2 cache, 3GB RAM. The display is standard 13.3 inch 1366 X 768 pixels and there are all other common specs that you can expect from a laptop like this.

Best Overall Laptop

Dell Inspiron 1525

This is the best overall laptop recommended for everyone. It has decent performamance, nice build quality and also comes at an attractive price. For the specs, it has IntelCore 2 Duo Processor T6400 and two 1GB RAM making up a total of 2 GB. The 15.6 inch TruBrite display looks sharp and colorful with standard 1366 X 768 pixels resolution. There is a DVD writer to cater to your everyday optical disk usage needs. The 7 in 1 memory card reader also comes useful at times.

Best Entertainment Laptop

HP DV5

This is a winner laptop from HP that packs in a decent ATI graphics 3200 for those who want to play some game on their laptop. The 2.0 GHz AMD Turion Processor along with 2GB RAM is really a performer when it comes to speed. The250 GB HDD is fast and the 15.4 inch display is a treat to watch movies on. There is also a lightsribe optical drive to satisfy all your movie needs.

Best Value for Money Laptop

Acer Aspire 4930

Ask anyone and they would say that Acer is the synonym of value for money laptop. The Acer Aspire 4930 laptop has a decent Core 2 Duo T5800 Processor clocking at 2.0 GHz and a no nonsense 2 GB memory along with it. The 160 GB HDD is standard and we have no complain with its 14.1 inch CrystalBrite Panel. There is option for integrated Intel GPU or NVidia GeForce 9300M graphics but I think you should go for the dedicated graphics option if you plan to play any 3D game. Other than every common interfaces, it also has the HDMI output to attach it to your LCD TV for a holiday movie watching with your family.

Study Find eBook Readers Easier On Eyes Than Laptops or Smartphones

2009-12-20T04:53:00.000-08:00

HANOVER - All of the competitors in the current generation of electronic reading devices are equally good when it comes to presenting digitalised books. They offer long battery lives and their displays are easier on the eyes than the displays found on smartphones or laptops.

That’s the conclusion reached in a recent comparison of six current models by German computer magazine c’t.

The review showed that each of the tested devices has strengths and weaknesses: the Digital Reader 1000S from Irex, for example, is not a good choice for novel readers, since the model has few options for buying best-sellers. On the other hand, only one single device was capable of handling large-format PDF files.

The N518 from Hanvon offers a good symbol function. Sony’s Reader possesses touchscreen functionality, but quality of the display itself is nevertheless somewhat behind the others. Five of the tested models were available for between 200 and 300 dollars. The Digital Reader 1000S and its 700 dollar price tag was the exception.

Acer Aspire 8940G Review

2009-12-04T21:57:00.000-08:00

he Acer Aspire Laptops are known for providing the best configuration for the money spent. New Acer Aspire 8940G is not a laptop with netbookish configuration nor it has the pricing near it. It is a full sized desktop replacement packing a 18.4 inch display, Core i7 processor, a dedicated graphics card and Blu Ray Drive. The price less than $1500 makes it the most affordable Core i7 laptop in the market. But does it have any serious con that can be considered a deal breaker? We have made a review to find the answer.

Design

The Acer Aspire 8940 has nothing new in its design on the outside and has very common look and feel like the acer aspire one laptops. Though it is a big sized 18 inch notebook, it feels like a smaller 15 inch notebook because of its no frill design. But with big size comes big responsibility of making it sturdy enough so that it does not have too much flex under pressure. The notebook serves well under the responsibility and we don’t have any serious complain against its build quality but making the structure takes toll on its weight factor. The weight of over 9 pounds makes it impossible to carry outdoors and you won’t like it moving to and fro either.

Performance

The system comes with a Intel Core i7 720 QM processor running at 1.6 GHz. It has 1333 MHz FSB and 6MB cache memory. Two 2GB DDR3 memory modules add the the nifty speed and performance of the machine. The dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M graphics with 1GB dedicated GDDR3 memory can run all the latest 3D games but don’t expect frame rates like those in gaming desktop computers and you’ll do fine. Overall, the machine is a powerful beast to meet all your needs under one roof.

Display

The 18.4 inch WUXGA FHD LCD display showing 1920×1080 pixels is the main asset of this notebook. The screen is an all glass style display with a protective layer covering the display. The color reproduction of the display is very good and contrasts are also superb. The brightness levels are also very good to be used in a brightly lit room although there is a problem of glare in bright lighting. Both vertical and horizontal viewing angles are also good enough.

Keyboard

The keyboard is a full sized one with and was comfortable to type on. The backlight feature is a real add on and is very useful to operate the laptop in dark.

TouchPad

The touchpad of the laptop has very good response and is very large compared to most other laptops available in the market. The buttons are average though, with a very shallow travel.

Touch Control Keys

There are touch sensitive control keys on the left and right side of the laptop. The left side has keys for WiFi, Bluetooth and Acer BackUp Manager. On the right side, there are Media Center Button including Hold, Skip, Play/Pause, Stop and Fast Forward Controls. There is also a switch to enable or disable touch sensitive buttons. The volume control is a metal rotating dial with more precision than the touch sensitive slider.

Ports

The Acer Aspire 8940G has a SDHC Card Slot in the front, AC Power, LAN, VGA, Display Port, HDMI, eSATA/USB Combo, an USB, FireWire, Audio Jacks and Express Card Slot 54 on the right. The Blu Ray Drive, two more USB and a Kensington Lock is on the right side. There are every port that you can expect from a laptop and the space on its sides are very well utilized for them.

Audio

The laptop has a 5.1 Cinematic Surround Sound System having quality which is hard to find in laptops these days. It has five speakers including a Tuba CineBass Booster for that thump you need in the sound. The audio quality is simply a leap forward for laptops even in its price range.

Battery Life

The system comes with a 8 cell 4800 mAh Lithium Battery but the Core i7 Processor or the dedicated graphics card is a real sucker of the battery life. The system can run for 4 hours with very low use and screen brightness dimmed down. In normal heavy to moderate usage, expect the system to run for more than two hours which is enough because you are not expected to use it outside your home too often.

Pros

Powerful Processor and Graphics
Comfortable BackLit Keyboard
Huge and responsive Synaptics TouchPad
Good Sized display with above average display quality

Cons

Too much Heavy

Conclusion

If you don’t want to move out with your laptop too often and want a performer within your budget that can play the latest games, there aren’t too many laptops that you can find. Acer Aspire 8940G is recommended to you if weight is not a problem to you.

HP G60 519WM Laptop Review

2009-12-04T21:54:00.000-08:00

HP G60-519WM Pavillion is a notebook for the budget minded buyers who are looking for decent features and performance to accomplish their everyday computing needs including surfing net, watching movie, listening to music, doing some office document management and playing some light 2D games in leisure time. This Windows 7 notebook is exclusively built for Walmart by HP. Let’s take a closer look at the notebook and find out if it has any con that can be a deal breaker.

Design

The design of the laptop is not what you can call state of the art but it looks like a common everyday laptop though the HP Imprint finish in Black and Silver adds some glamor to it. The all plastic design is not as sturdy as those with metal alloy chassis but the overall build quality is reasonable keeping in mind its price tag. The laptop has minimal flex under pressure and it should do well if you don’t drop it from your desk. The weight of the laptop may be a concern if you are planning to use it outdoors often.

Display

The display is a nice 15.6 inch Brightview WXGA display showing 1366 X 768 pixels which has become the standard for 13-15 inch laptops these days. The display shows vibrant colors and has very good brightness and contrast. Both vertical and horizontal viewing angles are reasonably good to share the screen with a couple of your friends while watching a movie.

Performance

The system is packed with Intel Celeron 900 processor with 800 MHz FSB Speed and 1MB L2 cache. Of course, this is not the best processor available in the market and the overall performance is sluggish though it is packed with a 3GB DDR2 RAM. Multitasking with several programs will be a pain on this laptop but listening to music while typing a document or downloading a file would not be a problem. The integrated Intel 4500 MHD graphics is also underpowered to handle any 3D gaming and at best, it can handle HD movies on its decent sized display. The 250 GB SATA HDD and Lightscribe Super Multi DVD drive has very good speed and we don’t have any complain against it. Using the lightscribe technology, you can also etch custom labels onto the Lightscribe ready disks.

Audio

The budget laptops are known for their crap sound and we didn’t expect a great sound from it but it delivered satisfactory music quality with its Altec Lansing Speakers. Though any bass range sound was absent from the music but the overall sound was better than most other laptops in this price range. For audiophiles a good pair of headphones is recommended as is always.

Keyboard and TouchPad

The keyboard of this laptop is full sized and there is also a number beside the keyboard which is rare to see in laptops these days. Typing on the keyboard is comfortable though the sound of the keys while typing at full speed may be headache to some. You have to admit these things when you are looking for a cheap laptop. The touchpad has very good size but its position is a bit to the left side from the center of the laptop to account for the number pad position. The response of the touchpad was satisfactory but not that much smooth and responsive as the synaptics touchpads.

Ports

The laptop has only bare minimal ports and leaves the space to be desiring for more. It has three USB ports, a VGA output to attach an external display, an Ethernet Port and headphone/microphone jacks. I don’t know why they have an inbuilt 56K modem because we are living in the age of broadband and we are not going to move to the old school dial up connection anytime soon. Good to see that the inbuilt WiFi is in place. But however, I think that there was enough space in its sides to add at least another USB Port or a memory card reader which would not have added much to the overall cost but could have increased its usability mostly.

Battery Life

The battery life was disappointing. The system comes with a six cell lithium ion battery and it provides at most two hours runtime with heavy usage. Do not expect the system to run for more than three hours in any situation. This minimal battery life makes it unusable for the mobile professionals.

Pros

Very Affordable Price
Big 15 inch display with ample screen space
No compromise on RAM and HDD space
Full Size Keyboard with number pad

Cons

Poor processor performance
Weak Graphics
No built in Webcam or Microphone

Conclusion

The price of HP G60 519WM suggests that it would be competing against the netbooks available in the market. Though it’s performance is not better than any netbook but the bigger screen size and full sized keyboard makes it a better choice for some applications. Those who have to move out with his laptop too often and in place without any power plug, the HP G60 519 is not recommended for its poor battery life and heavy build. But if you don’t have that constraint and want a decent sized laptop at budget price, you won’t find many like HP G60 519WM.

Lenovo G550 Review

2009-11-15T02:47:00.000-08:00

Lenovo is known for producing value for money laptops and G Series laptops from them won people’s acclaim for that. The budget minded mainstream notebook packs a decent sized 15.6 inch display, Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor and 3 GB DDR3 RAM for a standard configuration. The price of around $500 may seem netbookish but the display size and performance is no nonsense. Let us take a closer look at the laptop to find out if they have omitted anything important to cut down the price.

Design

The laptop is built with total plastic materials which is acceptable for a budget notebook. However, the design looks very classy from the outside with a black weave pattern on it. The plastic body is also strong enough to withstand some pressure and there is hardly any notable flex when we tried to put pressure on some of the key weak design areas such as the back of the screen or the palm rests. Overall, we are quite satisfied with the design or build quality.

Performance

The standard system comes with a Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200 processor clocking at 2.0 GHz with 1 MB L2 cache and 800 MHz FSB. The 3GB DDR3 1066 MHz DDR3 RAM is also enough for all of your necessities of a basic machine like surfing web, playing SD or HD movies and playing some 2D games. The graphics performance of the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500 MHD is also satisfactory unless you are going to play 3D games on it. The 250 GB Western Digital 5400 rpm HDD or Super Multi DVD RW Drive is also quite fast to go with.

Display

The display has a good size of 15.6 inches showing 1366 X 768 pixels in standard 16 : 9 aspect ratio. The screen is a glossy one showing lots of bright colors and contrast but as with other glossy displays, the display glare on brightly lit environments like in the office makes it very annoying to see things on the screen. The horizontal viewing angle was very good to share the screen with a couple of your friends but the vertical viewing angle is not that much good.

Keyboard

We were always a fan of the lenovo laptop keyboards for their durability and smoothness. This keyboard is no exception to that rule. The keys have good smooth travel and feedback. The light matte finish of the keys also feel good to the fingertips. There were also a numberpad beside the keypad which is very rare to see in notebook keyboards these days.

TouchPad

The touchpad, on the other hand was not that much impressive. The touchpad sensitivity is on the lower side and it was a little annoying to find that the movement of the cursor on the screen is actually lagging your finger movement on the touchpad. However, the buttons were comfortable with a nice click sound when pressed.

Ports

The laptop has an USB, Optical Drive and the AC Power jack on the right side and a Kensington lock slot, LAN, VGA and another two USB Port on the left. The wireless on/off switch and headphone and microphone jacks are on the front and there are no ports on the back. We do not expect HDMI or a FireWire port from a budget priced notebook but at least another USB Port was expected from a 15 inch notebook. Also, there is no Express card Slot or Memory Card reader slot to be found on it. We have to say that the laptop only has bare minimal ports leaving the place to be wanting for more.

Audio

We do not expect thumping bass from a budget notebook like this and it turned to be exactly matching our expectation. There was no bass at all but the overall sound is good enough to conduct a webchat. Playing music on the device sounded a bit tiny and a good pair of headphones is recommended as is always.

Battery Life

The system comes with a 5 cell 48 W-Hr battery which is enough for running the system for more than four hours in low to moderate usage with screen brightness turned down. Expect the system to run at least 3 hours with heavy usage and bright screen.

Pros

Very good performance for a Budget notebook
Good Design and Build
Nice Keyboard

Cons

Ports selection is bare minimal
TouchPad sensitivity is not satisfactory
Average Display

Conclusion

The Lenovo G550 is a solid budget notebook with decent performance. If you can withstand with the unresponsive touchpad and don’t need more port than what it has, it is recommended for those who are looking for a mainstream computer on budget.

Wayward pilots were focused on laptop screens not cockpit displays, raising new safety worries

2009-11-02T22:03:00.000-08:00

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New safety worry: Laptops, devices in the cockpit

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators declined to seize and review the laptop computers that distracted two Northwest Airlines pilots so much that they didn’t notice it was time to land their plane, and instead flew 150 miles past their destination.

The pilots of Northwest flight 188 told the National Transportation Safety Board that they were so engrossed in a complicated new crew-scheduling program on their laptops — a cockpit violation of airline policy that could cost them their licenses — that they lost track of time and place for more than an hour, until a flight attendant on an intercom got their attention.

By then, the Airbus A320 with its 144 passengers and five crew members had cruised on autopilot past its Minneapolis destination and was over Wisconsin, at 37,000 feet. It turned out the plane’s radio was still tuned to a frequency used by Denver controllers, even though the aircraft had flown beyond its reach.

The NTSB has not taken or examined the laptops that the pilots were using, spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said Tuesday.

“The pilots said they were using them. So I don’t know what any examination of them” would do to further the investigation, Lopatkiewicz said.

Delta Air Lines Inc., which acquired Northwest last year, has suspended the two pilots pending an investigation. The FAA is also investigating and has warned Cheney and Cole their pilot licenses could be suspended or revoked.

Capt. Lee Moak, chairman of Delta’s pilots’ union, said in an interview on Tuesday that he’s concerned the NTSB’s disclosure of the pilot statements will hurt voluntary safety programs meant to allow pilots to come forward with safety concerns.

“We have an ongoing investigation and we shouldn’t have a rush to judgment,” Moak said.

The NTSB said the pilots — Richard Cole of Salem, Ore., the first officer, and Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Wash., the captain — denied they had fallen asleep, as aviation experts have suggested. Instead, Cole and Cheney said they both had their laptops out while the first officer, who had more experience with scheduling, instructed the captain on monthly flight crew scheduling.

The incident last Wednesday night comes only a month after Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood held a meeting in Washington on distracted driving, bringing together researchers, regulators and safety advocates in response to vehicle and train accidents involving texting and cell phone use.

While Cole and Cheney were able to turn their plane around and land safely, pilots and aviation safety experts said the episode is likely to cause NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration to take a hard look at the use of laptops and other personal electronic devices in the cockpit.

There are no federal rules that specifically ban pilots’ use of laptops or other personal electronic devices as long as the plane is flying above 10,000 feet, said Diane Spitaliere, an FAA spokeswoman.

Delta said in a statement that using laptops or engaging in activity unrelated to the pilots’ command of the aircraft during flight is strictly against the airline’s flight deck policies. The airline said violations of that policy will result in termination.

AP Airlines Writers Harry R. Weber in Atlanta, Dave Koenig in Dallas and Joshua Freed in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

On the Net:

National Transportation Safety Board: www.ntsb.gov

Asus G51J Review

2009-10-24T23:11:00.000-07:00

Asus may be best known for their exclusive netbook lineup but they can also churn out some good performance mainstream notebooks like K50IJ or touchscreen tablet like Eee PC T91. Now they have come out with a 15 inch gaming notebook with Intel Core i7 Processor Power and Nvidia graphics with 1GB dedicated video memory. But it doesn’t cost a pretty penny like the Alienwares and is available at under $1500 to make the budget gaming enthusiasts happy. But does it have any deal breaking cons? We have made a review to find the answer.

Performance

The standard system comes with a Intel Core i7 - 720 QM Processor clocking at 1.6 GHz with 6MB cache and 1333 MHz FSB. There are two 2GB PC3 8500 DDR3 memory modules making up a total of 4GB of RAM. Opening more than 30 tabs in internet browser at the same time with a video being encoded in the background and a music playing, switching between the tabs did not show any sign of lag as expected from the processor that can handle 8 threads at the same time. With its NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M graphics with 1GB GDDR3 memory, decoding a 1080p video was flawless. High end games like Left 4 Dead pumped out very high frame rates ranging more than 60 frames per second. The two 320GB Seagate 7200 rpm hard disks are really fast and loading games from the HDD showed its high performance benefits. The 1.6 GHz processor can be overclocked to 2.8 GHz but it does not significantly improve the performance benefits.

Design

The design of the notebook has subtle gaming design essence but it is not overwhelming like the Alienwares by any means. On the outside the design looks as if the edges are scratched into the glossy surface but if you give it a closer look you’ll find that it is a piece of artwork that stretches from top to bottom of the notebook. However, the inside of the laptop has a very basic look-n-feel. Though the black backlit keyboard, glossy trim around the display and rubberized black palmrest feels good, it can’t be said that the design is revolutionary. The build quality, on the other hand, is very good. The plastic used for making the laptop is very solid and durable and there is no or minimal flex under severe pressure.

Display

A good sized high resolution display with vivid colors is a must for a gaming device and as the Asus G51J is touted as a gaming device, the expectation level is high for it. The 15.5 inch display showing 1920 X 1080 pixels full HD display satisfies the size and resolution constraints but it lacks somehow in the color department. Asus has given a quick and easy way to switch color profiles with the screen which gives out significantly better colors than the ulaltered ones. The other aspects such as viewing angles and backlight were above average for a device of its class.

Audio

While we won’t expect great sound quality from a laptop but as G51J is a gaming laptop, we expected better sound quality than the average laptops. The Altec Lansing speakers sounded very nice but as there was no subwoofer built in, it lacked bass range. The sound from the laptop consisted mostly of the higher frequencies. A good pair of headphone is recommended for the audiophiles as always.

Keyboard

The full sized keyboard was very comfortable to type on and it has a solid feeling while typing on it. The black keyboard has white lettering on it which lights up when the backlit is turned on. The numerical keyboard on the side is a real bonus and the other key placements are also very common and easy to use.

TouchPad

The touchpad is very large and has smooth surface. The synaptics touchapad has very good speed and response. There was no noticeable lag and the touchpad responded very well to quick movements as well as slow but steady movements. The buttons were equally good and was very comfortable to be clicked.

Ports

The port selection was simply amazing and it has almost everything you may need. There are four USB Ports, an eSATA Connection, both HDMI and VGA to connect external monitor, FireWire 400, Ethernet and three audio jacks. There is also an Express Card 54 Slot and SD card Reader. What else do we need? A Coffee Cup holder would perhaps be the choice!

Battery Life

Gaming Laptops are not expected to run without power for hours. And the Asus G51 is not going to break the myth. In fact, it’s battery performance is worse than many other competing laptops in the market. In our test it barely managed to run for two hours with low or no usage at all, its screen dimmed down and several other power saving featured turned on. In full workload like playing a game without power may result your laptop run for less than 1 hour.

Pros

High Processing Power with Core i7 Processor
Price is lesser than the competing models with similar configuration and performance
Keyboard and touchpad are excellent

Cons

Battery Life worse than its competitors.
Overclocking the processor does not improve performance.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, Asus G51J is a high performance laptop that can take on any other gaming laptop with its sheer performance and it won’t cost you an arm or a leg. If you are happy with its hour long battery life and don’t want to use the overclocking feature most of the time, you won’t find a better option in this price range.

Compaq Presario 4010f Details

2009-10-24T23:09:00.000-07:00

HP and Compaq are best known to the customers who are always on their budget. To give them more choice, they have rolled out yet another notebook Compaq Presario 4010f along with Compaq Presario CQ61Z and Compaq 500B Desktop models. We will focus on the Compaq Presario 4010 f which is the budget offering for the consumers who are looking for the most affordable laptop in the market. Let’s take a look at its specifications.

Specifications of Compaq Presario 4010f

Processor : AMD Sempron Processor
HDD : 250GB
Graphics : Nvidia GeForce Integrated graphics

Price

Starting at $309 only
All models will be available from Oct 22

0 Compaq Presario 4010f Details

2009-10-18T05:56:00.000-07:00

Specifications of Compaq Presario 4010f

Processor : AMD Sempron Processor
HDD : 250GB
Graphics : Nvidia GeForce Integrated graphics

Price

Starting at $309 only
All models will be available from Oct 22

Lenovo Tablet ThinkPad X200 Review

2009-10-09T05:00:00.001-07:00

Unlike the netbook market or the home laptop market, the tablet PC market is yet to be saturated. There only a handful of tablet PCs that are worth a buy. We have mentioned the best tablet PCs in our article on Top 10 Tablet PCs and we got our hands on the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 which we had put in the third position in that list. We have given the business tablet a thorough look and and here is the review discussing our experience of using the tablet. Have a go.

Performance

The standard system comes with a Intel Core 2 Duo SL 9600 processor running at 2.13GHz with 1066MHz FSB and 6MB cache memory. There is 4GB DDR3 memory module provided by two modules of 2GB each. The system delivers top notch performance with this configuration and can challenge any top performing mainstream laptop. The X4500M integrated graphics combined with the processor easily played 1080p movies and was also able to play some older games with decent fps. The 160GB HDD is also fast at 7200 rpm and overall, the device performs like a champion.

Design

The basic design, as it feels right out of the box, that the device is made keeping its pure utility in mind. Its all about business and nothing else. The color options are black and only black. The lid, the button, and every other thing is made of black plastic. Lenovo ThinkPad series, as has always been, gives emphasize on form over function. This clearly reflects in the build quality of the device. The chassis is made of strong magnesium alloy metal and the plastics that are used to build the panels are also of very high quality. The laptop body does not show any flex under pressure. The hinge is one of the most important things to look for in a convertible tablet and we also gave a look at it. The single pivot feels very strong and has 360 movement as you would expect. It has locking feel in every of the three positions you may put it into. Trying to tilt it forward or back feels as strong as a standard laptop.

Touchscreen Display

The device houses a 12 inch 1280 X 800 WXGA resolution touchscreen display panel which has multitouch and Wacom tablet capability. The LED backlit panel showed very good viewing angles and brightness though the touchscreen layer sucked some brightness out of it. The wacom support is always welcome on a tablet PC and after calibration it works very accurately. Like the Asus Eee PC T91, it also supports two finger multitouch was also very good and it didn’t need too much pressure to register the touches.

Keyboard and TouchPad

The keyboard feels good while typing and is most durable as we expect from ThinkPad lineup of keyboards. The full sized keyboard is springy and gives good tactile feedback. As there was no space left for a decent sized touchpad, Lenovo has omitted it and decided to go with only a pointing stick. If you have never used pointing sticks, it will take time for you to adjust with the device. We found the pointing stick to be very sensitive and useful.

Audio

The less said about the speaker, the better it will be. The speakers are only good if you use it for some video conferencing or VOIP calls. Listening to some good quality music is not possible with it as it has a very tinny sound. A good pair of headphones are recommended for audiophiles as is always.

Ports

The port selection is very good and covers almost every necessary features. There are 3 USB Ports, a VGA Out, Ethernet, Headphone and microphone jacks. There is also an Express Card 54 Slot as well as a 5 in 1 SD Card Reader. The only things we miss are the FireWire and eSATA Ports but they aren’t absolute essentials and the usage of those ports can be managed by the USB Ports.

Battery Life

Battery Life is one of the most important factors when speaking about notebooks meant for business usage. The system comes with options for a four cell and eight cell battery option. The eight cell battery sticks out from the back and looks quite odd but you need it to fuel your system for longer time. It provided about six hours of runtime with low usage and screen brightness lowered and power saving mode on. With heavy usage expect the system to run at least 4 hours which is not bad at all for a touchscreen device.

Pros

Strong Build Quality
Nice bright display with decent viewing angle for a touchscreen
Excellent Performance
Nice comfy keyboard
Good Battery Life

Cons

No touchpad
Weak and tinny audio
Multitouch support restricted to only two finger actions

Conclusion

The ThinkPad X200 is a really capable device considering its good performance, nice display and battery life. If you are in the market in search of a good touchscreen tablet, you won’t find many like the X200. It doesn’t also have any serious cons that can be a deal breaker. If you can afford the price, it will surely be a possession that you can be proud of.

Asus Eee PC 1201n Netbook Launched

2009-10-06T05:47:00.000-07:00

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Asus is known for its extensive netbook lineup and they seem to be strengthening that even more with a netbook having a 12 inch screen which might not seem to be that netbookish. It is build around NVIDIA’s Ion technology that is expected to boost the graphics performance of the netbook comparable to mainstream laptops. Here is its other specs.

Specification

Display : 12 inch 1366 X 768 pixels
Processor : Intel Atom N270
RAM : 2 GB DDR2
NVIDIA 9400M GPU
OS : Windows 7
HDD : 250 GB SATA 5400 rpm
WiFi
6 cell battery 5200mAh

Best Budget Home Laptop

2009-10-06T05:46:00.001-07:00

Dell Inspiron 1525

Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 (2.00GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
15.4″ Widescreen with Truelife for Extensive application use.
4GB DDR2 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA hard drive for large video files
Wireless Internet access 802.11b/g (where available)
4 USB Ports, 1 VGA Out, 1 HDMI Port, 1 iEEE 1394a FireWire Port, S-Video Out, 8 In 1 Media Card Reader
8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability for DVD RW For DVD and CD Burning
Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Web Camera
Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Slim and compact design for business user
Windows Vista Home Premium

Price

About $960

Best Cheap Home Entertainment Laptop

2009-10-06T05:45:00.001-07:00

HP Pavilion DV2

AMD Athlon™ Neo Processor for Ultrathin Notebooks MV-40
12.1″ Diagonal WXGA High-Definition (8) HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
4GB DDR2 System Memory (1 Dimm)
320GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA), SuperMulti 8x DVD+-R/RW Drive
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3410 Graphics

Price

About $630

Read our Review of HP Pavilion DV2

Best Home Gaming Laptop

2009-10-06T05:44:00.002-07:00

CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 2.8GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)
GPU: 2 x 8800M GTX SLI
LCD: 17″ WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview Technology – Black
RAM: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 2048MB
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1
SSD: 128GB Solid State Drive
Optical: 2x Blu-ray Writer/DVD±RW Burn
Turbo Mem: Intel Turbo Memory (1GB)
Wi-Fi: Internal Intel Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card
Audio: High-Definition Audio with surround sound

Price

Around $6000 for top configuration

You can also take a look at our list of top 10 gaming laptops.

Best Overall Home Laptop

2009-10-06T05:44:00.001-07:00

Dell Studio 15

Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3MB cache)
4GB DDR2 RAM
320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
6X Slot Load Bluray (BD) Combo Drive (BD Read Only) DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability, Write or backup data on CD or DVD
Widescreen 15.4 inch LED display (1366 x 768) with TrueLife
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Wireless- B/G Card , Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam, Intel High Definition Audio 2.2
Microsoft Works, Windows Vista Home Premium
6 Cell Primary Battery, 125V Power Cord, 65W AC Adapter

Price

About $1300

Best Home Laptop

2009-10-06T05:43:00.000-07:00

Thin and light laptops are best known for their portability and good battery life which is ideal for businessmen or professionals on the go. The home laptops have a different playground with slightly heavier form factor, a good high resolution display, decent performing CPU and probably a bit higher capacity RAM. They are meant to be carried only from one room to the other and some occasional travel outside the home. However, choosing a perfect home laptop can be as difficult as choosing a home or a car or something like that. You have a plethora or different models from various manufacturers. They have different CPUs, different amount of RAM, HDD space and so on. Instead of going into more details and analyzing what will best suite you, here I will suggest you some model from reputed brands that will most likely fulfill your needs.

Toshiba Satellite L355 Review

2009-09-21T00:29:00.000-07:00

Toshiba isn’t exactly well known for its comprehensive laptop ranges, especially when there is Apple and Sony with their luxurious laptops, Dell and HP with their standard laptop offerings and Asus and Acer with their vast and cheap netbook collections. Toshiba has tried to enter all these markets with their Portege, Quosmio, Satellite and Tecra Series but all in vein. And now it seems they are trying to define a market of its own with its latest 17 inch laptop with decent performance in the $350 netbook price range.
But does this latest Satellite L355 have any glitches that can be a deal breaker? We have made a review to find the answer. Have a go.

Design

Simply said, the L355 is a basic looking system with some modernized design essence with sleek finish. The lid features a matte finish unlike those glamorous glossy systems that are prone to catching the fingerprints. The size of the system feels like a desktop replacement one measuring in at 15.6 X 11.4 X 1.6 inches. The weight of around 7 pounds is only good for taking it from one room to another and no further! There are no fancy quick launch buttons or multimedia controls either. Clearly, it is a no frill system to give you the bargain price tag.

Display

The display is the main attraction of this full sized budget notebook. The 17 inch glossy display has good color and brightness. It has a 1440 X 900 pixels resolution which is common for a 15 inch notebook display and we would have liked a little higher resolution. But we have no complain with that, after all, it is not an AlienWare costing you a few thousand bucks. However, the screen showed enough details in the webpages and the standard DVD quality video was a treat to watch on this display though lacked some viewing angles to share this screen with more than a couple of your friends.

Performance

This is the section everyone will look for before buying this notebook. The standard system comes with a 2.2 GHz Intel Celeron 900 Processor with 3GB of RAM. While the system memory was enough to accommodate all the processes but the CPU was on the slower side. The system does not have good enough multitasking performance to be considered as a real desktop replacement. We opened five tabs on firefox web browser and the system always took about a second before switching between the tabs. However, the performance is not lower than the netbooks packing in the crap Intel Atom Processor by any means and the speed is quite acceptable for its low price tag.

The system comes with a spacious 250GB 5,400 rpm hard drive which also feels slow considering its copy speed but it had no problem booting Windows Vista Home Basic in less than a minute.

Graphics

The system comes with a integrated Intel GMA 4500M graphics and we expected no gaming experience in this device though it boasted a nice high resolution screen. The 3D games are literally unplayable in this device though we had no problem watching HD movies in this device.

Keyboard and TouchPad

The keyboard sports a full number pad along the right hand side of the full sized keyboard which is expected from a 17 inch laptop. The keys have a matte finish which feels nice and typing at high speeds on this keyboard was no problem either with its nice feedback and response. However, the keyboard feels cheap with its noisy operation at high speeds. The touchpad was roomy and was enough responsive for general tasks. The buttons were also large and very comfortable to use.

Ports

The port selection is minimal and simple. There are 3 USB Ports, a VGA output, an Ethernet jack, an Express Card 34/54 Slot, a headphone and mic port. An 8X DVD Drive is on the right side to playback and burn DVDs when you need it. We didn’t expect an HDMI port on this budget notebook but we expected at least another USB Port or a memory card reader which is a must have thing for a notebook these days.

Audio

The speakers of the device produced quite loud sound to be heard from a few feet apart and there was minimal distortion in the sound and not tinny like other cheap notebooks. There is also a volume wheel on the front edge which are rare to see these days. However, audiophiles will not be satisfied with its sound quality and a good pair of headphones are recommended to them as always.

Battery

The system comes with a 6 cell battery which is enough to run the system for three hours on normal usage and two hours on heavy usage with the screen brightness ramped up. The system is not meant for carrying around with you which makes the battery life quite acceptable on this device.

Price

We were able to grab the system at a really cheap price tag of $350 from Walmart with an offer but you can get a higher configuration with a few more bucks. The system configured with a Intel Pentium T3400 Processor is available at $599 at our amazon store.

Pros

Attractive Pricing
Large HDD and RAM for the price
Loud speakers
Standard Performance

Cons

No webcam
No HDMI or memory card reader slot
Slow Hard drive

Conclusion

Toshiba has given it a good try to take on the laptop market with its attractive price offering but the overall performance is nothing to be proud of. Only group of people who would buy this laptop is those who want a bigger screen with not so better performance at an affordable price tag. However, with a higher configuration this laptop is perfectly usable as a desktop replacement and also has a nice price tag to beat the offerings from Dell or HP. If you are looking for a real price cut and can’t afford the Dell Inspiron 17, this might be the only choice for you.

5 Reasons to Ditch an Acer laptop

2009-09-21T00:28:00.001-07:00

Lenovo G530 Review

2009-09-21T00:27:00.001-07:00

Other than its main ThinkPad and IdeaPad lineup of notebooks, Lenovo also offers some notebooks that gives the consumers the value for their money. The latest G530 is a notebook that has a nice full sized 15.4 inch display, an Intel Pentium Dual Core or Core 2 Duo Processor and 3GB of RAM with a sub $500 price tag. The notebook surely has good enough specs and features under a budget pricing but does it have any glitch that can be a deal breaker? We have made a review to find the answer. Have a go.

Design

The design of the notebook is minimally simple though has some subtle style elements with rounded off edges and matte black finish lid that is smooth to touch. The chassis is constructed of good quality plastics that does not flex under pressure. The overall build quality feels very good for a budget notebook. It measures standard 14.1″ x 10.1″ x 1.22″-to-1.46″ and has a weight of under six pounds with its six cell battery which is good for occasional traveling.

Performance

The standard system comes with a 2.16 GHz Intel Pentium T3400 with a 3GB DDR2 RAM. The pricier models have options for a Core 2 Duo CPU but the Dual Core Processor delivers enough performance for day to day work and far better performance than the netbooks with Intel Atom Processors. Opening multiple tabs in firefox and constantly switching between them was no problem while a video being encoded and music playing in the background. The 5400 rpm 250 GB HDD performance was average.

Display

The 15.4 inch display quality is very good compared to other notebooks of its class. The resolution of the panel is 1280 X 800 with a 16 : 10 aspect ratio unlike the 16 : 9 1366 X 768 widescreen displays. The few pixels of extra height shows some extra lines in the word documents or webpages. The colors and contrasts are very good in its glossy screen but glare is a problem as with other glossy screens in the market. The viewing angles were very good to share the screen with a few of your friends.

Graphics

The system comes with a integrated Intel X4500 graphics chipset which, sadly doesn’t have good enough performance to play any 3D game. The graphics performance feels like the netbooks though it has no problem playing the HD movies in its nice display. Just don’t try to play any current games and you’ll be fine with its graphics capabilities.

Keyboard and TouchPad

The keyboard is smooth and silent and gives good feeling while typing on it. The build of the keyboard also feels good and durable with no flex even when a good pressure is applied to it. Typing at high speed was no problem with this keyboard. The touchpad is also smooth and has no lag. The touchpad buttons are also large and easy to click.

Ports

The port selection is barely minimal if compared to other full size notebooks but we have no complain with that keeping in mind its price tag. The headphone and microphone jacks are at the front and a Kensington Lock Slot, Ethernet, VGA, 2 USB and an Express Card 54 Slot is on the left. There is a modem, 2 USB, an optical drive and an AC Power jack slot in the right. There are no ports in the back. We would have liked to see an eSATA or an HDMI Port or even a memory card reader in it.

Audio

The audio quality is okay for a budget notebook like this. It has enough volume to watch a movie and hear the dialogs clear enough but it does not have enough bass or low range sound to enjoy music on it. But the quality of the speakers are fairly good and we are quite satisfied with our experience while talking to one of our friends via Skype.

Price

The base models start at $429 and you’ll be able to grab a decent performing standard laptop at the $499 configuration. The pricing is really attracting for those who are going to buy a netbook as he can get a full size notebook with decent performance at just hundred bucks more.

Battery

Battery life is the main glitch of this notebook. It comes with a good sized six cell battery but that too can not run the system for more than two hours under heavy usage. Under normal usage and screen brightness dimmed, we got a maximum of 3 hours of runtime. This notebook is clearly not recommended if you need to use it for a long time where there is no nearby power outlet.

Pros

Good Performance at an affordable price
Nice build quality for a budget notebook
Comfortable keyboard and touchpad
Remains Cool even at high stressed conditions

Cons

Low Battery Life
Basic Port Selection
Doesn’t support high speed 802.11n draft wireless but only more common wireless services

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it is a great budget notebook that look good, feels good and performs good. Looking at the price tags and comparing its configuration to the Dell Vostro or HP Probook lineup, the Lenovo G530 seems to be a better deal. If you can live with its unimpressive battery life and basic port selection and don’t want to play 3D games in this device you won’t find a better laptop than this at this price range.

10 Important Points you might miss before buying a laptop

2009-09-21T00:26:00.000-07:00

There are some points you would inevitably look for before buying a laptop such as its portability, display size, Processor, RAM, HDD, graphics capability or even warranty issues or wireless connectivity. But we always miss some important aspects before purchasing a laptop unless you are one of those eagle eyed consumers. Here are some points that we generally miss before buying a laptop but they can be crucially important in some situations. You must read this if you already know the general things that you should consider before buying a notebook, netbook or a gaming laptop.

1. Is the keyboard backlit?

Backlit keyboard means there is a lighting system under the keyboard which can be very helpful to see they keys in dark. The lighting can turn itself on sensing the ambient lighting or you can manually turn it on whenever you feel appropriate. This is a must have feature if you need to use your laptop in poor lighting condition very frequently.

2. Display : Glossy or Matte?

There are two types of display one is glossy type and one with anti-glare matte finish. The glossy displays offer better color and contrasts but they can be a headache under strong lighting with their screen glare. Matte displays have no problem with glare and they do also generally have a better viewing angle than the glossy ones. I prefer matte displays over the glossy ones for their better usability.

3. Hot or cool?

Look for reviews from trusted sites who publish information about heating of a notebook. An overheated laptop is the worst gadget to operate. We specially have bad experiences with laptops powered by AMD processors like the HP tx 2500z. Look for a laptop that would stay relatively cool even in stressed situations.

4. Is there a Numeric Keyboard?

If you are buying a full size notebook of greater than 13 inch display, you should also ensure that it has the numeric keyboard. It is very essential for those who have to type a lot of numbers for their computational needs.

5. Is there a dedicated scrolling space beside the trackpad?

Dedicated scrolling areas are very useful while viewing those long webpages. While most of the laptops today feature this, there are many manufacturers who silently omit this essential feature.

6. Is the battery removable?

If you need to use your laptop away from the power outlet for a long time you may need a larger six to nine cell battery but if that still does not meet your needs, you may need to carry a separate charged battery. And to do this your battery should be removable type without opening the case. While most of the laptops offer this there are some laptops like MacBook Air which does not have this facility. Check it out before buying.

7. How much is CPU’s FSB speed and cache memory?

A processor with higher clock speed is not only the key factor to better performance. A processor with higher Front Side Bus speed can communicate faster with the RAM and is essential for faster overall performance. Also a processor with cache memory of 2MB or larger will perform better than the processors with lesser cache.

8. How the USB ports are arranged?

I know you have checked how many USB ports a laptop has or is there any eSATA or HDMI port or not but perhaps you have not noticed how the ports are arranged. There are two types of arrangements for USB Ports : one is side by by side or horizontally and another is one over another or vertical arrangement. For practical applications I found that in vertical arrangements, you might have trouble plugging two USB devices at the same time one over another if one of them is thick enough. Look for horizontally arranged USB Ports. You’ll have no problem connecting multiple devices to them.

9. HDD Rotation Speed : 5400rpm or 7200rpm?

HDDs are generally available in two common speeds of 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm. The 5400 rpm drives are slower, cooler and eats lesser power but if you need performance you should look for laptops that employ 7200 rpm HDDs.

10. Is there a pointing stick/track pointer?

Most modern laptops come with a pointing stick now and they are becoming more and more popular everyday. Though they are not easily controllable right from the start but after using it for a few weeks you can use it conveniently.

Top 10 Brand New Laptops

2009-09-21T00:25:00.000-07:00

Display : 11.1 Inch 1366 X 768 pixels
Processor : Dual Core 1.2 GHz Athlon X2 L310
ATI Radeon 3200 graphics
WiFi
Bluetooth
Windows 7

Price

Around $724

HP ProBook 5310m

Display : 13 inch
Processor : Core 2 Duo
Weight : 4 pounds

Price

$899

Via eNote

11.6 inch LCD
1.3 GHz VIA Nano Processor
Chrome 2D/3D graphics engine
2GB DDR2 RAM
WiFi
Bluetooth
HSDPA, EV-DO
Weight : 1.3 Kg

HP Pavilion DM3

Display : 13 inch
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Neo
Windows 7
Weight : 4 pounds

Price

$549 for AMD Processor
$649 for Intel Processor

BenQ JoyBook S35

13.3 inch display with 1366 X 768 pixels resolutions
Processor : Core 2 Duo SU7300, Core 2 Solo SU3500, or Celeron 723/743
Intel GMA 4500M Graphics
500GB HDD
DVD Burner
Buyilt-in Webcam
Gigabit Ethernet
WiFi
Bluetooth
4 in 1 Card Reader
HDMI
4-cell battery that support up to 5.5 hours operation time

BenQ JoyBook S43

14 inch LCD DIsplay with 1366 X 768 pixels resolution
Processor : Core 2 Duo SU7300, Core 2 Solo SU3500, or Celeron 723/743
8X Super-Multi DVD burner
Integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 d GPU
500GB HDD
10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
Bluetooth v2.1+ EDR
4-in-1 card reader
3 USB 2.0 ports
RJ-45
HDMI
two-channel sound TruSurround HD.
6-cell battery that support run time up to 5 hours.

HP MIni 311

Display : 11.6 inch
Processor : Intel Atom N270
Nvidia ION LE graphics

Price

Starting at $400

Samsung X420

14-inch widescreen display
1.3GHz Intel Pentium dual core SU2700 processor
Intel GMA 4500M integrated graphics
3GB RAM
250GB hard drive
6-cell (5900mAh) battery that can support up to 9 hours run time
Windows Vista Home Premium
23.2 mm thickness
1.76 kg

Samsung X520

15.6-inch LCD display
1.3GHz Intel Pentium dual core SU2700 processor
4GB DDR3 RAM
320GB hard drive
3-in-1 card readers
3 USB ports
one HDMI port
6-cell battery
Stereo speakers.
24 mm thickness
2.09 kg.

Price

Starting at $1000

HP Envy 13

Thin and Light Notebook
Display : 13.1 inch
ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics
Weight : 3.4 pounds
7 hour battery life
Magnesium coated with aluminum body

Price

Starting at $1699

HP Envy 15

Display : 15 inch
Intel Core i7 Processor
ATI Radeon 4830 graphics with 1GB VRAM
Single Button glass trackpad
Windows 7
1 Inch Thick
Weight : 5.18 pounds

Price

Starting at $1799

Top 10 Thin and Light Ultraportable Laptops

2009-09-21T00:21:00.000-07:00

Laptops are actually meant to give you the most needed portability with their thin and light form factors. You need those thin and light Ultraportable Laptops to meet your computing needs on the go whether you are a globe trotting executive or a campus strolling student. The thin and light laptops are not only easy to carry but they also require less space to operate which is why they are ideal for people on the go. Any way these thin and light laptops aren’t only known for their portability they are also
stylish enough to catch your eyes. Here is the list of the best 10 thin and light laptops that are available in the market.

1. Apple MacBook Air

I think I don’t have to explain why MacBook Air is the best ultrathin and ultraportable laptop ever made.

Thinnest, lightest MacBook ever includes multi-touch trackpad, built-in iSight webcam, and up to 4.5-hour battery life
13.3-inch glossy LED-backlit screen; 128 GB solid-state hard drive; 2 GB of RAM (maximum capacity)
1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor; NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics with 256 MB of shared memory
One USB 2.0, built-in Wi-Fi (802.11n draft plus 802.11b/g), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Mini DisplayPort
Preloaded with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system and iLife ‘08 suite of applications.

Price

About $1,999

2. Dell Adamo

This is Dell’s flagship device for their thin and stylish laptop series.

3.4-inch high-definition display with edge-to-edge glass featuring 1366 x 768 resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio
1.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300 processor with ultra-low voltage for extended battery life
128 GB solid state drive
2 GB of installed DDR3 RAM
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD integrated video processing with 256 MB of memory
Draft-N Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g/n), Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000), Bluetooth 2.1
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) operating system (Learn more)
Up to 5 hours of battery life on a full charge
Dimensions: 13.03 x 9.5 x 0.65 inches (WxDxH)
Weight: 4 pounds

Price

About $1,499

3. MSI X340

This is perhaps the cheapest thin and light laptop having the glamor but not compromising on the performance either.

Energy-efficient 1.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 Processor
2 GB RAM (max)
320 GB SATA Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1 (64-bit version), 4-cell lithium-ion battery
Intel GMA 4500MHD Graphics, 13.4-inch HD widescreen LCD

Price

About $699

4. HP Pavilion dv3510nr

This is a product of Best Buy as they listened to their customers to build this sleek yet loaded laptop.

2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
3GB DDR2 RAM
eSATA and HDMI ports
Fingerprint reader
Backlit keyboard
Remote control

Price

About $1,000

5. Samsung X360-34P

This is a nice ultraportable laptop from Samsung.

13.3” Wide, 1280 x 800 WXGA, 300 nits LED Backlit
Powered by Intel® Centrino® 2 Processor Technology, featuring the Intel® Core™2 Duo U9300 processor, 1.4 GHz
128GB, 1.8” Solid State Drive (SSD), 3 GB DDR3 1066 MHz
Intel® Intel GMA4500MHD shared, 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, 10/100/1000 BaseTX LAN
6-Cell Lithium Ion, Genuine Microsoft Vista® Business - 32 bit, 1.3 Mega Pixel webcam, Kensington Key Lock, 1 year standard parts and labor, 2.8 lbs

Price

About $2,699

6. Apple MacBook Pro

This is another nice and portable laptop from Apple.

2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo Processor
2 GB DDR3 RAM
160 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system
13.3 inch LED Display, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics

Price

About $1200

7. Lenovo X200

This is a top selling laptop from Lenovo.

Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4 GHz Processor
3 MB L2 Cache, 1066 MHz Bus speed
2048 MB DDR2 (PC2-8500) RAM Max - 4GB
160 GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
4-Cell Lithium-ion Battery Pack
Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Office 2007 60-Day Trial, McAfee VirusScan Plus 30-Day Subscription

Price

About $880

8. Toshiba Satellite U405-S2915

This is one of the most portable laptops in this list.

2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 Processor
4 GB RAM (8 GB max)
320 GB Hard Drive, Labelflash dual-layer DVD drive
Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1 (64-bit version)
13.3-inch LCD display, Intel GMA 4500MHD Graphics (1750 MB of available memory)

Price

About $1100

9. Lenovo IdeaPad U110

This is a eye catching fairly priced ultraportable laptop.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6 GHz
RAM installed: 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM
Hard drive size: 120 GB
Dimension : 10.8 x 7.7 x 0.9 inches
Weight : 2.4 pounds

Price

About $1200

10. Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T

This is a budget ultraportable from Acer.

1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU2700 Single Core Processor (2MB L2 cache, 1.30GHz, 800MHz FSB)
4096MB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
320GB SATA Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit, SP1), Over 8 Hours of Battery Life (6-Cell 5600 mAh)
13.3″ HD CineCrystal LED-backlit Display, Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (64MB dedicated memory, up 1695MB shared system memory)

Price

About $550

0 MSI GT729 and MSI EX723 : A pair of Laptops

2009-08-02T02:13:00.000-07:00

With the likes of Dell, HP, Toshiba, Sony, Asus introducing laptops every week or so, why should MSI stay behind? They have come out with a decent pair of laptops GT729 and EX723. If you want a fully loaded laptop for gaming, GT729 can be an ideal one and EX723 is made for optimum multimedia experience. Wanna know the specs?

Specification of GT729

Display : 17-inch LCD
Processor : Core 2 Duo processor
RAM : 3GB
Upto 500GB of HDD space
Graphics : ATI’s 1GB Mobility Radeon HD 4850
WiFi
4.1 audio system
2 megapixel webcam
optional Bluetooth
HDMI / VGA outputs
three USB 2.0 sockets
4-in-1 card reader
audio in / out
ExpressCard slot
Blu-ray drive
Optional 6- or 9-cell battery

The EX723 has same specs except the GeForce G110M Graphics and a HDD of maximim 320GB.

No words on price yet.

HP Mini 2140 Review

2009-08-02T02:11:00.000-07:00

The netbook market is starting to explode and every manufacturer is ready to take the advantage with their exclusive lineup of netbooks. After the success of Mini 1000, HP is quickly shifting its attention to a netbook with a bit more impressive specs. Built after Mini 2133, the Mini 2140 has good and large 10.1 inch screen and a remarkably large keyboard. Can it become the business traveler’s choice? We have made a review to find the answer. In this review you’ll find :

Performance : Average

With Intel’s power efficient 1.6 GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB RAM, the Mini 2140 has the performance you’d expect from a netbook of this configuration. Applications open quickly, surfing web with multiple tabs open doesn’t create problem. The Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics with 64 MB of memory is good for watching movies but you can’t expect to play good graphics games with this underrated GPU.

Price

Starting at a Base price of $499, the standard configured ones have a price of $529 and $575 if you opt for the 80 GB SSD.

Pros

Great Battery Life
Excellent build quality
Great keyboard
ExpressCard slot offers fantastic expansion possibilities
Multiple configuration options

Cons

Base configuration has low-resolution screen
Awkwardly positioned Touchpad Buttons with very narrow touchpad
Screen is too reflective due to second glossy protective layer

Conclusion

If you are satisfied with the low resolution screen and screen glare doesn’t bother you, the HP Mini 2140 may be the ideal choice both for the business professionals and students for its nearly full sized keyboard, outstanding battery life, sturdy design. It isn’t the cheapest netbook available in the market but you get what you pay for.
Share your thoughts with us.

Toshiba NB 205 Netbook

2009-08-02T02:09:00.000-07:00

Toshiba NB 205 line of Netbooks will be available in the US market soon with their standard netbook configuration and an interesting feature that can be very useful while you are somewhere like at an airport. The sleep-and-charge USB ports can charge your USB devices even when it is turned off making it a good makeshift backup battery for your travel gear.
Toshiba offers their NB205 netbooks with two different form factors : one with flat-keyboard and black appearance, dubbed as the NB205-210 and another with raised keys with bright colors named NB205-310. Read on to find full specs.

Specification

Processor : Intel Atom N280 (Which is slightly faster than standard N270)
10.1 inch TruBrite LED-backlit LCD
RAM : 1 GB DDR2 which can be expanded to 2GB
HDD : 160 GB
802.11 b/g Wireless
2 in 1 Memory Card Slot
RGB Port for display connection
Weight : 2.9 pound with six cell battery
Hard drive impact sensor
Windows XP

The NP205-310 model is available with Bluetooth in addition.

Price

$400 for NP205-310 &
$350 for NP205-210

Fujitsu M2010 Netbook: Good looking budget laptop

2009-08-02T02:07:00.000-07:00

Despite some controversies on the the future of netbooks, the market continues its love for it. Every manufacturer is trying to take the attention of the potential buyers with their latest product range. Here is Fujitsu with its new netbook M2010 with standard features and nominal price tag.

Specification

Display : 10 Inch
Processor : 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270
RAM : 1GB DDR2
HDD : 160 GB
Graphics : Intel GMA 950
OS : Windows XP
Built-in Stereo Speakers
Ethernet
802.11 b/g WiFi
Bluetooth
2 USB 2.0 Port
SD Card Reader

Price

$369 for the base model and $449 for top-end model

Asus Eee PC T91 : 8.9 Inch Swiveling TouchScreen

2009-08-02T02:06:00.000-07:00

Among various type of laptops available in the market from every manufacturers, Eee PC family from ASUS has been very popular. Here is another addition to this family, T91 which has a 8.9 inch touchscreen which can be swiveled to any possible angle. With the help of the included TouchSuite Software you can do tasks with just a touch of your fingertips. Another interesting feature of T91 is its storage which consists of 16GB SSD, 16 GB SD Card, 30GB Portable storage and a 20 GB Eee Storage making up a total of 82 GB. Read on to find full specs.

Specs

Display : 8.9″ LED-backlit touchscreen
Processor : Intel Atom Z520
RAM : 1GB DDR2
Storage : 82GB (16GB SSD + 16GB SD Card + up to 30GB Portable Hard
Disk Drive + 20GB Eee Storage)
Wi-Fi 802.11n
Bluetooth
Integrated 0.3 MP camera
high quality stereo speakers
TV tuner
Global Positioning System
Battery life : up to 5 hours
Optional 3G plus (HSUPA) technology for high-speed Internet access
OS : Genuine Windows XP Home
Dimension : 225 X 164 X 25.2-28.4 mm
Weight : 0.96 Kg
Available in black and white colors

Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Review

2009-08-02T02:04:00.000-07:00

Since the last years, the netbook market has been more active than any other. Every now and then we are getting informed about another netbook launch. The market has been flooded with similar spec’d netbooks under $500. The most common configuration of them is 9-10 inch display, Intel Atom Processor, three or six cell battery and a 1 GB RAM. The Lenovo IdeaPad also falls in this category of netbooks. Can it survive in this steep market? We have made a review to find the answer. In this review you’ll find details about :

Design

The IdeaPad S10 looks and feels solid from outside. The design is simple rather than trying to look gorgeous. The chassis is made from shiny plastic but not glossy enough to catch fingerprints. The hinges have a matte steel finish with a hole for the Kensington Lock. The flat rounded edges of the netbook give a very thin look to it. The weight was not on the lightest side though. With the three cell battery it weighs 2.6 pounds which is of the same weight of some netbooks having a six cell battery like the MSI Wind. But the weight is certainly not unbearable to carry around.

Ambient Heat and Noise

S10 feels a bit warmer than other netbooks of this category but the heat generated is not the worst in any situation. Same for the cooling fan noise. In normal situations, the fan noise is barely audible but when its graphics is stressed the fan kicks in harder and the noise may draw other’s attraction in a quiet environment.

Price

Available at a starting price of $439, the standard configured ones will be available at around $479.

Pros

Small and portable
ExpressCard slot offers extra expansion options
Very well built and durable
Easy to upgrade RAM, and hard drive
Comes with Bluetooth
Standard Sized HDD with good speed

Cons

Gets a little hot
Looks something like toy laptop for babies
Only two USB ports

Conclusion

The way the netbook market is being flooded every day, even a little drawback becomes a big hole and a little improvement in a feature seems to be paramount. The S10 does quite good not have too many breaking-the-deal cons. The Express Card Slot and Bluetooth offers good connectivity options and a good capacity standard HDD offers the space and performance. Overall, it makes a good choice providing the value for your dollars.

Acer Aspire Timeline Series Best Reviews

2009-08-02T01:14:00.000-07:00

The Acer Aspire Timeline Series of Laptops makes the use of Intel’s CULV processors which are optimized for better battery performance of laptops and offers better speed than Intel’s Atom series of processors which are mainly targeted towards the low budgeted netbooks. Does the new Acer Aspire Timeline series deliver the eight hours run on a single charge as claimed? We have collected the best reviews in the cyber world to find the answer. In these reviews you’ll get what you need to know before making your choice to buy this laptop.

Key Specs

Processor: 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo SU9400
Memory: 4GB DDR3
Storage: 500GB hard drive
Optical Drive: None
Screen: 13.3 inches
Graphics: Integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD
Weight: 3.5 pounds
Dimensions (HWD): 1.1×12.7×8.9 inches
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit)
Price : $899

1. LaptopMag.Com

In an increasingly crowded 13-inch notebook category, the Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T stands out, thanks to the combination of its low $899 price tag and astounding eight-plus hours of battery life.

ASUS Eee PC T91 displays Windows 7 Multitouch Functions

2009-08-02T01:12:00.002-07:00

The Touchscreen is the way to go these days. Since its introduction, it is becoming more and more popular as the days pass on. From iPhones to the latest ASUS Eee PC T91, they are making their way into almost every gadget you can think of. The T91 is loaded with bundles of touchsuite software that best utilizes its touchscreen. The windows 7 multitouch facilities are simply amazing with this netbook. Take a look at the video. Full article (77 words) »

Apple cuts prices on iPhone and introduces new model with upgraded features

Apple drops price of least expensive iPhone to $99

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple Inc. is dropping the retail price of the least expensive iPhone to $99 from $199 and introducing new models.

Toshiba Satellite A500 and U500 Hits Europe Market

2009-08-02T01:12:00.001-07:00

Toshiba is the world’s fifth largest computer manufacturer but their product lines generally focus to Japan. However, a pair of their Satellite laptops have landed for sale in Europe Market, thankfully at last one. The Satellite A500 is a full featured multimedia laptop with 16 inch screen and advanced audio and video capabilities. On the other hand the satellite U500 is a new 13.3 inch ultraportable which falls in the compact, thin and light laptop category. Read on to find the full specs.

Specs of Toshiba Satellite A500

Screen : 16-inch 16:9 format display, 1366 x 768 pixel resolution
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM : 8GB memory
ATI Mobility Radeon HD GPU (up to 1GB DDR3 VRAM)
TV-tuner for both analog and digital DVB-T programming
Harman Kardon speakers
HDMI ports with REGZA LINK technology
500GB HDD or 64GB SSD
DVD Super Multi drive
Wide format HD webcam
Multi-touch trackpad
Connectivity : WLAN, Bluetooth 2.1, 5-in-1 media card slot

Specs of Satellite U500

Screen : 13.3-inch 16:10 format, 1280 x 800 pixel resolution
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM : 8 GB memory
Hard disk capacity of up to 500GB
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 GPU
Available in Brown Luxe, with either chrome or silver accents
Battery life : over 3.5 hours
Weight : 4.5 pounds
DVD Super Multi drive
Wide format HD webcam
Multi-touch trackpad
Connectivity : WLAN, Bluetooth 2.1, 5-in-1 media card slot

Both will be available in Europe sometime this July for €699 (approx. $975).

Dynamism Viliv X70 Mobile Internet Device

2009-08-02T01:11:00.000-07:00

From Dynamism’s latest Viliv X70, it seems that they are really targeting the niche market of Mobile Internet Devices. These kind of devices have a special type of consumers who don’t like ebook readers as they have very limited capability and they also don’t like the netbooks because they are too much bulky at times. Viliv X70 is ideal for those like to read books in their devices and want to see a movie just after that and then want to search something over the internet or do all of them at the same time. Here is the full specs of this UMPC.

Specification

Screen : 7″ WSVGA display with 1024 X 600 pixels resolution
Storage : 32GB SSD
Processor : Intel Atom 1.33GHz processor
RAM : 1GB DDR2
Built in mic
1.3MP webcam
SDHC memory card slot
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and GPS
Optional 3G HSPA modem
Smart Viliv virtual keyboard with haptic feedback
Capable of playing 720p HD video
29 Wh Lithium Polymer battery supports up to 5.5 hours of movie playback or 150 hours of standby time
Unique Cube UI allows users to add and remove programs for easy access at their fingertips
Instant-on allows users to resume Windows XP from sleep in under 5 seconds
Dimension : 210(W) x 117(H) x 22.5(T) mm
Weight : 1.45 pounds

Price

Starting at $599
No words on availability

Samsung R720 Multimedia Laptop : Really a Lap-Top?

2009-08-02T01:09:00.000-07:00

After the success of its previous R710, Samsung has announced R720 to be the latest addition to their R-series of notebooks which are popular for their multimedia features. The R720 is a biggy with its big 17.3 inch screen and a full numeric keyboard - I wonder if it can really fit in your lap. It is loaded with powerful HD graphics card and 5.1 surround sound effect with dedicated subwoofer to deliver rich multimedia experience to please the movie lovers. Music lovers will be more amazed to learn that they can charge their MP3 players and PMPs with its USB port even when it is powered off. Take a look at the full specs. The only thing I missed in the specification is the HDMI Port.

Specification

Intel Centrino 2 processor
ATI Mobility Radeon HD4650 graphics card
17.3″ LED backlit display
16:9 aspect ratio
4-watt stereo speakers with 3D SRS Audio
Dedicated subwoofer.
17-key full-sized numeric keypad
Four USB 2.0 Ports
eSATA Combo Port
Chargeable USB Port
OS : Windows Vista Home Premium

Price

No words on pricing yet but we expect a price tag around $1000.
Will be available in UK this July

Apple 13 inch Macbook Specification

2009-08-02T01:08:00.000-07:00

At the WWDC, Apple’s 13 inch Macbook received changes more than any other device. Other than feature upgrades for better performance, it has gone through major changes in design also. The aluminum enclosure goes out, comes in a new polycarbonate chassis which is more strong and more light than the previous one. The price also comes to a very affordable range.

Specification

Display : 13.3 inch LED Backlit glossy widescreen display
Processor : 2.26 GHz or 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
RAM : 2GB or 4GB supports upto 8GB 1066MHz DDR3 Memory
Graphics : NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory
Storage : 160 GB, 320 GB or 500 GB 5400 RPM SATA Drive
Optical Drive : Slot Loading Super Multi DVD Drive
Full size Backlit keyboard
Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard (includes iTunes, Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Photo Booth, Front Row, Xcode Developer Tools)
Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi
Built-in iSight camera

Dell Latitude Z Series Pictures Leaked

2009-08-02T01:05:00.000-07:00

The Dell Latitude Z series laptops are expected to have thinner designs like Dell Adamo and low power consumption rating. As per the picture, it seems to have a Intel Centrino Sticker in it and we expect it tobe sporting a CULV based processor, though there is a rumour that it will get an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 15 inch matte LCD Screen, a WebCam, a fingerprint scanner, a display port and a removable battery.

The positioning of the Ethernet Port seems to be around the back which looks very odd.

Scheduled to be released one week from today.
No words on availability yet.

World’s Fastest Gaming Laptop, MainGear eX-L 18, Launched

2009-08-02T01:04:00.000-07:00

Definition of the fastest configuration is always changing and when it comes to laptops or computers they are changing at a more rapid pace than any other industry in the world. But for now MainGear is craving for the World’s Fastest Laptop built till date with their latest addition of the eX-L 18 Laptop which can be configured with Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad Processor, Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M Graphics card, 8GB DDR3 RAM, 18.4 inch screen at 1920X1080 resolution and three 2.5 inch SATA or SSD Drives in RAID configuration and a Blu-ray Drive. Interested about the price? Read on to find out.

Features

2.53GHz Intel Core2 Extreme x9300 quad-core processor
8GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory
Dual 1GB (total 2GB) Nvidia GeForce GTX 280m GPUs in SLI mode.
18.4-inch 1,920×1,080 resolution widescreen display
Up to 500GB SATA (@7,200rpm) hard drive, up to 80GB SSD, and up to 1.5TB SATA (3 x 500GB @7,200rpm) Dual RAID 0 hard drives.
HDMI connector
VGA output port
Integrated HD TV (ATSC) Tuner (Coaxial) – Optional
Internal Intel WiFi Link 5300 a/b/g/Draft-N and Bluetooth v2.1
High definition digital audio, integrated 4 channel support, and up to 7.1 support through digital out
DVD or Blu-ray optical drive
Three USB2.0 ports
IEEE 1394a port
e-SATA port
3MP webcam
7-in-1 media card reader (SD/MS/MSPRO/RS-MMC/MMC)
Backlit keyboard with keypad and instant access buttons
12-cell Li-Ion battery

Price

Base configuration is priced at $3000 but can touch upto $6500 upon configuration. Surely this is another contender for a place in our list of top 10 most expensive laptops.

Averatec N3400 Thin and Light Laptop fills the gap between netbook and pricey laptops

2009-08-02T01:01:00.000-07:00

The netbook category of laptops are vastly popular now-a-days for their portability, long battery life and reasonable performance with an affordable price tag under $500. There are also laptops for gaming or multimedia applications that are priced in the ranges of above $1000. Averatec’s latest laptop is aimed to fill the gap between this two categories with $799 price tag and nice decent performance for those who hate the sluggishness of Intel Atom Processors found in the netbooks. Here are other specs laptop.

Specification

Display : 13.3 inch
Processor : Pentium Dual Core T3400 processor
RAM : 3GB
Hard Drive : 250 GB
Graphics : Intel GMA X4500HD Integrated
External DVD Burner bundled

Price

$799
Source

2009-08-02T01:00:00.000-07:00

The Asus Eee PC lineup is the pioneer of the netbook category of laptops with small size screens, low capacity, lightweight and meager price tags. The Asus Eee PC T91 is a netbook of that genre but boasts nice touchscreen which can also be swiveled upto 180 and can be converted to a mini tablet which also come with a netbook-like price tag under $500. Can T91 eat into the market of standard tablet PCs which are priced nearly double of that of T91? We have made a review to find the answer. Let’s discuss it step by step.

Audio

The audio quality produced by the speakers are very good especially for a netbook like this. While it didn’t have any bass as expected, but it had quite good midrange and high tone output. The loudness of the speakers are also very good though they are placed at the bottom and there is also no noticeable distortion even at high volumes.

Battery

The system comes with a compact 3 cell Lithium polymer battery in place of a more standard Lithium Battery which makes it light and thin. The system runs for about 4 hours in normal light usage and expect it to run 3 hours with heavy usage which is quite impressive for a 3 cell battery but there is no other high capacity battery option available from Asus. So, if you are satisfied or not you have to go with the battery that comes with the system.

Pros

Tablet PC at a very low price
Light and Portable
Build quality better that average
Battery life is satisfactory
Nice Touchscreen capabilities

Cons

CPU performance below average
SSD Drive capacity very low to go with
Small 8.9 inch display
No high capacity battery option
Stylus Pen is not handy

Dell Vostro 1220 Leaked : Beauty and Performance Under One Roof

2009-08-02T00:53:00.000-07:00

There is no word from Dell about its 12 inch budget notebook, but we have managed to get some pictures and specs of the upcoming Vostro 1220. The laptop has good glossy finish and it seems that they have hired some designers to improve the design rather than asking their engineers to do that as with other dull laptops from Dell. The notebook does not score bad on the specs either. Rather than a CULV based processor or Atom processor, it packs a Core 2 Duo Processor, 4GB RAM and 320GB HDD. Here comes a few more pictures.

Specification

Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo T6750 Processor
Display : 12 Inch
RAM : 4GB
HDD : 320GB
DVD Burner
SD Card Slot
Express ard Slot
Fingerprint Reader
Three USB Ports
Ethernet, modem
VGA Port
Audio In/ Out
Handy Touch sensitive media control buttons

No words on release date yet.
Pricing is expected to be cheapest possible, that’s what we know Dell for.

Source

Bumper day for Samsung’s NC-series netbooks

2009-07-30T04:47:00.001-07:00

The netbook conveyor belt at Samsung was working overtime this morning, cranking out netbook upgrades and a whole new product. The NC110 (below) is meant to replace the much loved NC10, increasing battery life to a good 7.5 hours and rounding off its corners. It stays under 1.3kg even with the bigger battery, but the rest of the specs stay the same. Meanwhile, over in colour country, Samsung let slip its newest NC310 range (above) will feature an extended battery life of 11 hours. The specs look rather similiar to the NC110, but colourful cases and a glossy screen will have the style-conscious swooning. Keep up the good work, Sammy.

Samsung launches X460 and NC20

2009-07-30T04:02:00.002-07:00

Two new laptops are hitting the UAE from the Sammy camp: the 14in X460, weighing less than 2kg, and the 12in NC20 (pictured), which boasts over six hours of battery life. More in next month’s issue of Stuff.

Apple MacBook Pro 17″

2009-07-30T04:02:00.001-07:00

Mobile beast or desktop replacement? At 3.1kg the 17″ MacBook version is a tad overweight but with a 1680×1050 or 1920×1200 resolution screen you’ll wow co workers with the clarity and ability to display DVDs (during your lunch break of course).

Processor Speed: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.5Ghz
OS: Apple Leopard 10.5
Screen size: 17″
Hard Drive: 250Gb
Ram: 2Gb
Optical Drive: DVD RW
Wireless: Yes
Bluetooth: Yes
Built in Webcam: Yes
Extras: Remote Control

Dell XPS 1530

2009-07-30T04:01:00.000-07:00

Dell does it again with this sexy speed demon. If you want something light with a large screen then you can’t go wrong with this model. For such a thin laptop it houses a number of port options (microphone in, dual headphone out, memory card reader, two USB ports, VGA out, Ethernet/LAN, Firewall, S-Video out). Phew, so many options, so little time.

Processor Speed: Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo, T7500, 2.2Ghz, 4Mb L2 Cache
OS: Microsoft Vista Premium
Screen size: 15.4″
Hard Drive: 160Gb
Ram: 2Gb
Video Card: nVidia VGA 128Mb
Optical Drive: DVD RW
Wireless: Yes
Bluetooth: Yes
Built in Webcam: Yes
Extras: Card Reader, Remote control, Finger Print security.

Toshiba Satellite A300-15B

2009-07-30T03:58:00.000-07:00

The sleek and sexy A300 series provides users with a 15.4″ TruBrite WXGA TFT High Brightness display.

And what on earth does that mean you may ask?

It means it is super clear and safe on your eyes when confronted by glare. Designed for the home user, this sexy beast will run equally well at the office (although you may have to upgrade to Vista Business or check out the Satellite Pro U300-15T for AED900 cheaper, and have Vista Business preinstalled).

Processor Speed: Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T8300 (2.4Ghz, 3Mb 2nd level cache)
OS: Vista Home Premium
Screen size: 15.4″
Hard Drive: 250Gb
Ram: 3Gb
Optical Drive: DVD RW Super Multi Drive
Wireless: Yes
Bluetooth: Yes
Built in Webcam: Yes
Extras: 1 yr international warranty

Jumbo Electronics: AED 5695

Plug-Ins: AED 5695

Jackys Electronics: AED 5695

ASUS EEEPC 8.9″ Laptop

2009-07-30T03:55:00.000-07:00

At less than 1kg, the ASUS EEEPC is your ultimate travel companion. Perfect for the aspiring travel writer, wildlife photographer, or global jet setter. With a solid state hard drive, the ASUS is ready for all the bumps and bruises that come with a life on the go.

“Due to its lightweight stature, most users will place the Eee PC on their laps or hold them in their hands during use. With the addition of new user-friendly features, users will find it even more convenient to use the Eee PC.” Jerry Shen, CEO of ASUS.

Processor Speed: Intel Mobile CPU
OS: Windows XP Home
Memory: 1Gb
Hard Drive: 12Gb SSD
Display: 8.9” Display, 1024 x 600 resolution
Wireless: Built-in 802.11b/g
Power: Output: 12V, 36W; Input: 100-240V AC, 50/60Hz universal
Webcam: 1.3 MP camera
Storage cards: SD / MMC (SDHC)

The ASUS eeePC is not only light and mobile, it is cheap. Check it out at:

SharafDG for AED 1799

10 newest laptops you may consider buying

2009-07-28T01:20:00.000-07:00

The laptop market is being flooded by the launch of new and newer models of laptops from different manufacturers each and every day. Some of these laptops are just for the sake of launching a new model to be in the news, some of them are improvements over an old flawed model and some are the beginning of a totally new genre of laptops. Choosing a laptop from these lists can be a very hectic task as you have to keep in mind of different factors like performance, style, portability and price. To help you in this regard we have narrowed your search options and made a list of the latest top 10 laptops. Every laptop in this list is worth taking a look at owing to their unique features and pricing. Have a look at the list and choose one that meetss your needs.

Apple MacBook Pro Summer 2009

I think I I don’t need to explain why this is the best laptop ever. And now, with this latest version, the price is also within your budget.

2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo Processor
2 GB DDR3 RAM
160 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system
13.3 inch LED Display, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics

Price

$1159

Dell Studio 15

In our review we found this laptop to be extremely well built with nice design and lots of customizations offered.

CPU : Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 2.00GHz
2GB DDR2 RAM
250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
8X Slot Load DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
Widescreen 15.4 inch LED display (1366 x 768) with TrueLife
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Wireless- B/G Card
Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
Intel High Definition Audio 2.2
Microsoft Works, Windows Vista Home Premium
6 Cell Primary Battery, 125V Power Cord, 65W AC Adapter

Price

$919

ASUS Eee PC T91

This laptop comes with the Asus Exclusive TouchSuite which is a Finger Friendly and Intuitive Touch User Interface that looks like Windows 7 Multitouch applications.

Intel Atom Z520 Processor 1.33GHz
1GB DDR2 RAM, 1 x SODIMM Slot, 2GB Max.
8.9-inch Touch LCD Display
16GB Solid State Drive, Plus a Free 16GB SD Card and 20GB Free Eee Storage
Windows XP Home Operating System
Free T91 Sleeve Case Included

Price

$499

MSI X340

This is one of the latest laptops from MSI that can provide the performance and also the value for money.

CPU : Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 CULV 1.4 GHz Processor, 3 MB L2 Cache, 800 MHz Front Side Bus
RAM : 2048 MB DDR2 (PC2-6400) RAM Max - 2GB
320 GB (5400 RPM) SATA Hard Drive
4-Cell Lithium-ion Battery
65W (100/240v) AC power adapter
Software Bundle : Windows Vista Home Premium
1-Year Limited Warranty

Price

$779

HP Mini 2140

In our review we found this laptop having sturdy design, full sized keyboard and excellent battery life.

CPU : Atom N270 / 1.6 GHz
RAM : 1 GB
HDD : 160 GB
Display : 10.1″ Widescreen TFT 1024 x 576
Graphics : GMA 950 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 3.0
Gigabit Ethernet
WLAN
Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
802.11 a/b/g/n (draft)
Win XP Home
Camera

Price

$429

Acer Aspire One D250

This is another nice looking budget netbook from Acer.

CPU : 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor
RAM : 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM Single Channel Memory
Display : 10.1″ WSVGA Acer CrystalBrite LED Display
HDD : 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
OS : Windows XP Home (SP3)
Over 3 Hours of Battery Life (3-Cell 2200 mAh)
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950

Price

$299

Asus Eee PC 1005HA SeaShell

In our review we found this laptop to be extremely battery efficient and a standard port layout for a netbook.

Intel Atom N270 Processor 1.6GHz
1GB DDR2 RAM, 1 x SODIMM Slot, 2GB Max; Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
Windows XP Home Operating System, Up to 8.5 Hours of Battery Life
10.1-inch WSVGA 1024×600 LCD Display

Price

$332

Dell Inspiron 1525

In our review we found this laptop very well balanced with nice set of features as well as a budget price.

CPU : Intel Pentium Dual Core T2330 (1.60GHz/533Mhz FSB/1MB cache)
2GB DDR2 SDRAM
15.4″ Widescreen with Truelife for Extensive application use
250GB Serial ATA hard drive for large video files
Wireless Internet access 802.11b/g (where available)
4 USB Ports, 1 VGA Out, 1 HDMI Port, 1 iEEE 1394a FireWire Port, S-Video Out, 8 In 1 Media Card Reader
8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability for DVD RW For DVD and CD Burning
Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Slim and compact design for business user.
Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Web Camera
Windows Vista Home Premium

Price

$749

HP ProBook 4510s

This is a standard business notebook with large screen and nice set of performance and also comes at an affordable price. Read our review to know more about this laptop.

Display : 15.6 inch LED backlit HD anti glare 1366 x 768
Intel Dual Core Celeron Processor T1700 (1.83 GHz 1 MB L2 cache 667 MHz FSB) Chipset
Mobile Intel GL40 Express Memory Memory
2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Hard drive : 250 GB 5400 rpm SATA II
Optical Drives : LightScribe DVD+/ RW Super Multi
Graphics : Mobile Intel 4500MHD
Integrated camera VGA webcam
4 USB 2.0, 1 external VGA monitor, 1 microphone in, 1 headphone/line out, 1 HDMI, 1 RJ 45 Slot, 1 Express Card/34 1 media card reader
Battery : 6 cell (47 WHr) Lithium Ion Battery

Price
$600

Lenovo IdeaPad S10

This is one of the best netbooks produced by lenovo.

Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz Processor, 512KB L2 Cache, 533MHz Bus Speed
1024 MB DDR2 (PC2-5300) RAM Max - 1GB
160 GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive
Windows XP Home with Service Pack 2, 3-Cell Battery
10.2 inch screen

Price

$363

Dell Latitude 2100 Review

2009-07-28T01:17:00.000-07:00

Dell has come out with yet another netbook, the Latitude 2100 which has the same common specs with the Inspiron Mini Lineup including same Atom Processor, 1 GB RAM, onboard graphics and a 10 inch display. It diffrentiates itself with its rugged design made for the students and road warriors alike. It is not the cheapest netbook available in the market but does its performance and ruggedness justify its price? We have made a review to find the answer.

Design and Build Quality

The laptop is built for kids who can be rough on their lappies. The system is covered with rubber casing that makes it easy to grasp and protects it from the scratches and bruises. The build quality feels very good with thick plastic exteriors which show minimal flex under heavy pressure. The keyboard is also very firm and screen hinges are excellently robust. Measuring 10.4 X 7.4 X 1.6 inches, the laptop feels larger and heavier than its competitors. However, this rock solid netbook does not feel like a cheap $400 netbook and it would be able to survive those little drop-offs from the desks.

Processor, RAM and HDD

Like other standard netbooks available in the market, this system also comes with a standard 1.6 GHz Intel Atom 270 CPU and 1GB of RAM with Windows XP. The performance was slightly better than average and there was no hangups while conducting video calls over Skype and having several tabs open. The system can be configured with a 250 GB 5400 rpm hard drive or a 16 GB SSD. The SSD is only enough for a student laptop and if you want to use the laptop for any other purpose you have to go for the hard drive option.

Graphics

The Intel GMA Integrated Graphics with 128 MB of shared memory is nothing new in a netbook. Don’t expect to play 3D games on it but it is nicely capable of playing full HD videos in its screen without any problem.

Display

The display is nice and bright 10.1 inch LED backlit LCD with 1024X576 resolution. While 1024X600 resolution has become quite a standard for the 10 inch netbooks, the lack of 24 pixels is not noticeable. I got reminded that I was running a non standard screen when I received a notification in the windows taskbar. The vertical viewing angles were not so good. It looked good only at a specific angle. The horizontal viewing angles were satisfactory though. The colors started to get inverted only at a large viewing angle.

Touchscreen

There is an optional model that incorporates a touchscreen which is the first time I see in an education notebook. The resistive touchscreen is nice and shows very good sensitivity to pressures. The accuracy is satisfying but I think the low resolution screen would be difficult for selecting things on screen for those having large fingers. As there is no touchscreen specific software included by Dell to make intelligent use of touchscreen, you have to use it only for some clicking or selection actions that you had to do with the touchpad or mouse otherwise. Also there is no swivel-able action possible for the touchscreen like tablet PCs which makes it more useless.

World’s Fastest Gaming Laptop

2009-07-28T01:16:00.000-07:00

Features

2.53GHz Intel Core2 Extreme x9300 quad-core processor
8GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory
Dual 1GB (total 2GB) Nvidia GeForce GTX 280m GPUs in SLI mode.
18.4-inch 1,920×1,080 resolution widescreen display
Up to 500GB SATA (@7,200rpm) hard drive, up to 80GB SSD, and up to 1.5TB SATA (3 x 500GB @7,200rpm) Dual RAID 0 hard drives.
HDMI connector
VGA output port
Integrated HD TV (ATSC) Tuner (Coaxial) – Optional
Internal Intel WiFi Link 5300 a/b/g/Draft-N and Bluetooth v2.1
High definition digital audio, integrated 4 channel support, and up to 7.1 support through digital out
DVD or Blu-ray optical drive
Three USB2.0 ports
IEEE 1394a port
e-SATA port
3MP webcam
7-in-1 media card reader (SD/MS/MSPRO/RS-MMC/MMC)
Backlit keyboard with keypad and instant access buttons
12-cell Li-Ion battery

Price

Base configuration is priced at $3000 but can touch upto $6500 upon configuration. Surely this is another contender for a place in our list of top 10 most expensive laptops.

Averatec N3400 Thin and Light

2009-07-28T01:15:00.000-07:00

Averatec N3400 Thin and Light Laptop fills the gap between netbook and pricey laptops

Specification

Display : 13.3 inch
Processor : Pentium Dual Core T3400 processor
RAM : 3GB
Hard Drive : 250 GB
Graphics : Intel GMA X4500HD Integrated
External DVD Burner bundled

Price

$799
Source

Dell Studio 14z :

2009-07-28T01:09:00.000-07:00

Dell Studio 14z : Colorful, Stylish and Performing Notebook Comes within Your Budget

New Dell Studio 14z laptop is thin (0.79-1.2-inches) and stylish one designed for students and digital downloaders who want a combination of power and exceptional mobility without breaking their banks. Read on to find the specifications.

Specification

Display : 14-inch 16:9 LED display with HD resolution (720p/ 900p)
Processor : Intel® Pentium® Dual Core, and Intel CoreTM 2 Duo standard voltage processors up to T9550 (2.66GHz, 1066Mhz FSB, 6MB Cache)
Graphics : Integrated NVIDIA® GeForce® 9400M graphics5
Up to 500GB1 HDD capacity
Digital Video/Audio via HDMI and DisplayPort
Standard 1.3MP webcam with dual digital array mics
Starting weight of 4.3 pounds6
4W, SRS®, 2.0 Audio w/ discrete tweeters and dual headphone jacks
Optional 8:1 Media Card Reader via 34mm Express Card slot
Six-cell battery standard, optional slim design 8-cell battery for up to 6:46 hours of battery life with WLED display option7
Standard Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth® and mobile broadband
eSATA connectivity for high speed data transfer rate (up to 6X USB 2.0)
Optional external optical drive options (DVD+/-RW, Blu-ray DiscTM read-only and read-write drives)
Available in Six Colors : Black Chain Link, Midnight Blue, Spring Green, Plum Purple, Ruby Red and Promise Pink (U.S. only)

Price

Base Price is $649

Asus Lamborghini VX5

2009-07-28T01:06:00.000-07:00

In addition to new Eee PC models, Asus will showcase its new stylish notebooks at the Cebit 2009. These new notebooks include the Asus-Lamborghini VX5, the K-series, the N Series Make-over and the M90Gf with 16GB RAM.

First of all, the Asus Lamborghini VX5, replacing the VX3, is powered by Intel’s Core 2 Quad processor, 4GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M graphics card with 1GB VRAM. It has a Blu-ray combo drive, an illuminated ‘chiclet’ keyboard and a 16-inch Full HD display.

Asus’ new K seires features the Super Hybrid Engine technology for longer battery life. This series has a “internal design with strategically placed heat vents that maintain a low palm rest temperature at an average between 27.7 and 27.6 degrees, even after long hours of use.”

Asus will also present the N Series Make-over that adds the Non-conductive Vacuum Metallization (NCVM) films to the Asus N81, N51, N60 and the N70 series of notebooks.

Finally, the Asus M90Gf is a notebook with up to 16GB of memory, thanks to the NVIDIA MCP79MH chipset

Slim Laptop:-Toshiba Portege R500 Saturday, June 13, 2009

2009-07-28T01:04:00.001-07:00

Toshiba spent two years developing the R500 out of its previous iteration, the R200. Recent advances enabled the company to go all out in miniaturization. The DVD drive is noisy to the point that Toshiba bundles an acoustic silencer in its software package.No respone from the market.
Price:- $1900
Specification:-
Processor - 1.2Ghz Intel ULV Core 2 Duo U7600* RAM - 2GB of DDR2 memory* Hard Drive - 160 GB* Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition* Screen - 12.1″ (1280×800) LED-backlit display* More- Bluetooth 2.0+EDR

Dual Screen Laptop

2009-07-28T01:03:00.001-07:00

A radical new laptop design hides a second screen under the keyboard. The KEYBOARD SPLITS IN HALF to give you access to the other screen. While split, the keyboard still functions. It’s called the “Ergonomic Dual Screen Split Keyboard Notebook Portable Personal Computer Executive,” and it goes on sale this year to OEMs, according to the Ergonomic Keyboards web site.
A laptop that will ship this year, according to the maker, features a keyboard that parts like the Red Sea to reveal a second screen. While split, the keyboard still functions. Is the world ready for this laptop design?
It’s called the Ergonomic Dual Screen Split Keyboard Notebook Portable Personal Computer Executive and, according to the Ergonomic Keyboards site, it goes on sale this year to OEMs. The patents are for sale, too.
No, these aren’t going to take over the market. But I’ve reported before on the coming age of dual-screen laptops, where the keyboard of a clamshell laptop will be replaced by another touch-screen. The problem with this vision is that people may hesitate to give up their physical keyboards.
Will the industry start experimenting with “missing link” or “transitional” laptop form factors where the systems have both two screens and a physical keyboard? If so, this idea is interesting.

Dell Latitude E4200

2009-07-28T01:01:00.002-07:00

up to 13.3" WXGA w/ X @ 1280x800
1200 - 2400 MHz Core 2 Duo
1 G - 4 G RAM, expands to 8 G
64 - 250 GB Solid State Hard Drive
DVD+/-RW Drive, or CDRW/DVD Drive, or DVDROM Drive
only 2.2 - 3.4 pounds
10/100/1000 Mbps ethernet
802.11a/g/n (100Mbps+) WiFi
Linux Pre-Configured (dual boot available)
EmperorLinux user's manual
Three year warranty & One year tech support

Buying the Perfect Netbook

2009-07-28T01:01:00.001-07:00

The netbook form factor offers consumers a low-cost ultraportable notebook in a market segment where notebooks used to cost $1,500 and up. With most netbooks costing less than $400, they are cheap enough to buy one in addition to your full-size notebook. With the vast majority offering Intel Atom processors, these portable computers can handle most daily tasks with ease. In this buying guide we compare the different models we have reviewed to help you find the best netbook to fit your needs.

Buying the Perfect Netbook

Currently the netbook standard is one of the easiest computers for consumers to purchase, with most models on the market offering the same Intel Atom processor and Intel integrated graphics. The only thing that really separates netbook models is the type of storage medium they use, the screen size, and the size of the battery.

If you plan on storing movies and music on the netbook, a higher capacity hard drive model would be a better choice, instead of the much smaller SSD. In some cases it can be the difference of 8GB of storage compared to 120GB. The next area is screen size, with models coming in either the 8.9” size or 10”, but sharing the same resolution. If you enjoy having a larger screen to work with, the 10” models can be easier to read, and you usually have the benefit of a larger keyboard. A new Dell Mini 12 goes even further with a 12” screen and full WXGA resolution, but that is an exception to the netbook market. The last hardware difference comes down to the capacity of the battery of the netbook, with 3-cell, 4–cell, and 6-cell battery sizes offered.

Couch or Classroom Friendly?

Battery size can play a key role in how you intend to use the netbook, with some models spanning a couple of hours, and others working for up to 6 hours. The difference comes with the size of the battery that comes with the netbook. Some models like the MSI Wind or Acer Aspire One come with 3-cell and 6-cell battery configurations, which can mean the different of 2-3 hours or 5-6 hours of battery life. If you just intend to use the netbook on your couch or around the house where external power is not an issue, battery size probably isn’t a big deal. If you intend to use the netbook in the classroom or while traveling, it is highly suggested that you find the biggest battery possible.

SSD or Hard Drive?

Besides the huge storage capacity difference between the SSD and hard drive models, there are a few added perks of each. Most of the hard drive models on the market use a standard 2.5” SATA consumer drive that can be easily upgraded or replaced down the road. The SSD models might be limited by capacity or lack an easy upgrade, but they offer shock protection and better battery life. If you find yourself being rough with portable electronics, it might be wise choosing a model with a flash memory SSD. If you are looking to get increased battery life some SSD models have an edge over HD models as well.

The Market Competition

Below is a listing of the various netbooks you'll likely find in stores and online direct from the manufacturers. This isn't a complete listing of every single netbook offered worldwide, but it does provide a comprehensive overview of some of the more popular models.

ASUS N10

The ASUS N10 is a “corporate” netbook which offers highend features that you don’t find in consumer netbooks models. Offering HDMI out with dedicated NVIDIA 9300M graphics, a fingerprint reader, and an ExpressCard/34 slot the N10 includes what business professionals might want in a portable device. With prices as low as $649 for models including the dedicated graphics, it is priced well under business class ultraportable notebooks such as the Sony TZ or TT. If you don’t need those special features listed above, consumer netbooks like the ASUS Eee PC 1000HA can be had for about $300 less.

ASUS Eee PC 1000

The 10” Eee PC 1000 comes in both SSD and HD flavors; giving consumers the choice of large storage capacity or something more rugged for a netbook that might be tossed around. The keyboard is 91% full-size for cramp-free typing and most configurations offer a large 6-cell battery. Priced slightly above other competing models you do pay a premium for one of these, which most say is worth it considered the larger stock battery. Prices start as low as $399 for a Intel Celeron equipped model, or $349 for the base Intel Atom 1000HA. The 1000HE offers the newer N280 Intel Atom processor, greatly improved battery, and newer keyboard layout for only $374.

ASUS Eee PC 900 and Eee PC 901

The smaller 9” Eee PC 900 and 901 give consumers a smaller netbook option that also happens to get slightly better battery life than its bigger 10” brother. While the 900 series does include both SSD and HD versions, the SSD model is much more popular. With both Linux and Windows XP Home models up for grabs you can find one model that best suits your needs depending on its purpose. The only compromise you make with this model depending on version is the capacity of the flash storage; where the XP model includes a 12GB drive and the Linux model has 20GB one. The SSD equipped 901 models all cost $379, whereas the older 900 series sells for as little as $285 on sale.

Acer Aspire One

Rocking the number two spot on our “Most Popular Notebooks” list at the time of this guide, the Acer Aspire One is clearly one of the more sought after models on the market right now. With one of the lowest starting prices of $299 budget SSD model or $329 for the top tier HD model it can fit in anyone’s budget in a time where everyone is pinching pennies. Offered in a wide range of color options, the 9” Acer Aspire One is a NBR reader favorite.

Dell Mini 9

The 9” Dell Mini recently hit the market at a very low starting price of $249. With an almost fullsize keyboard section that removes function keys to free up space, the keyboard is very comfortable to type on. This netbook is sold with only SSD modules, using either Windows XP Home or Ubuntu Linux, in sizes spanning from 4 to 16GB. Currently Dell only offers a 4-cell battery for the Mini 9, which limits you to around 3-4 hours of battery life, less than others on the market.

Dell Mini 12

The new Dell Mini 12 is the first netbook to offer a higher resolution 1280x800 WXGA screen and a full-size keyboard. With a super thin design that could compete with the Apple MacBook air, this Dell netbook is pushing closer to the ultraportable notebook market segment. With 3 and 6-cell battery options, optional cellular broadband and the newer low voltage Intel Atom processors, this is one of the ultimate low-cost road warrior machines. Prices start at $399 and move upwards of $600 depending on configuration.

HP Mini 1000

The HP Mini 1000 is the newest Intel Atom based netbook to the HP lineup, replacing the slower VIA equipped 2133 Mini-Note offered last year. This model is fully customizable, including the screen size and storage medium. The Mini 1000 uses the same keyboard from the Mini-Note, which we found to be the best keyboard on any netbook we have tested to date. Prices start at $299 for the 9” model or $399 for the 10” version, and move up depending on configuration.

Lenovo IdeaPad S10

The 10” IdeaPad offered in black, red, and white offers one feature not usually found on netbooks. The S10 has an ExpressCard slot on the side for an external WWAN card, to stay connected on the road. It is not surprising to see business related features on this netbook, considering it comes from the company that builds the ThinkPad. Prices start at $349 and currently only a 3-cell battery option is offered.

MSI Wind U100

This sleek netbook offers a handful of color and design options and easy to type on keyboard. While historically high in price, especially on the 6-cell version, prices have started to come down. Recently MSI announced a price cut, bringing the base configuration down to $319. Going rate for a model that includes a 6-cell battery is $399, and hard to find outside of online retailers. The Wind was one of our coolest running netbooks, so if you are sensitive to heat, look no further.

Sony VAIO P

This "Lifestyle PC" (the netbook Sony doesn't want you to call a netbook) is a super high-end model aimed at professionals who want more from your average netbook. The Sony VAIO P has a high resolution 1600 x 768 glossy display, integrated 3G broadband with GPS, Windows Vista, and optional SSD. The size and weight is well under the average for netbooks, just .78” thick and 1.3lbs with the 4-cell battery. Don’t expect to find any amazing deals, as this “not-a-netbook” starts at $899 and goes as high as $1,499 for the 128GB SSD version.

ASUS Eee PC 701

The ASUS Eee PC 701 was the first to the netbook game, but now outdated against the competition. With only a 7” display, Intel Celeron processor, and small flash storage it seems more like a toy these days than a netbook. While you can find larger screens, faster processors, and more storage space on newer models, the 701 might attract some with its super low price. Nearing the $200 mark at some stores as they clear out old inventory it is still a competent portable notebook that can easily run Windows XP. If you don’t need all the features of one of the newer netbooks, this model might be for you.

Other Netbooks

With the low cost to enter the netbook manufacturing market you will find many additional netbook models that were not listed in this guide. Some share the same OEM, making some netbooks identical “clones” of another model. Many of these offer the same great build quality and features that netbooks in our guide have, just under a different brand name. Some of the netbooks that are not in our guide include the Samsung NC10, Sylvania g, Everex Cloudbook, and Medion Akoya Mini.

why to love Apple Mac

2009-07-28T00:59:00.000-07:00

It’s gorgeous. Inside and out.

Since the software on every Mac is created by the same company that makes the Mac itself, you get a completely integrated computer that’s as secure, stable, and powerful as it is elegant and easy to use.

Brains…

What’s inside a Mac? Only the world’s most advanced operating system and a suite of software that’s just as brilliantly designed as the computer itself

and beauty.

Recyclable glass and aluminum. A trip-proof power cord. A stunning display. Even the keyboard is beautiful. Get a closer look at a few of the design details that make a Mac a Mac

Secure. Powerful. Compatible. Right out of the box.

A Mac has all the essentials built right in, including automatic protection from PC viruses, the latest wireless technology, advanced Intel chips, and a rock solid operating system that’s loaded with innovations.

Doesn't get PC viruses.

Designed with security in mind, Mac OS X isn’t plagued by constant attacks from PC viruses and malware. Likewise, it won’t slow you down with constant security alerts and sweeps. Every Mac is secure right out of the box, so you can safely go about your work — or play — without interruption.

High performance.

With the latest Intel processors and other engineering leaps, a new Mac does all the things that only a Mac can do — at an astonishing speed.

Instantly wireless.

A Mac makes wireless easy. Networks automatically appear, and you can get on the Internet with a few clicks.

A conversation piece.

Lots of computers come with built-in cameras these days. But only a Mac comes with iChat software that lets you have four-way video chats,¹ give presentations, and even share your screen with people all over the world.

Made for today

Mac OS X Leopard

No other operating system — Vista included — offers the innovation and simplicity of Mac OS X. With Mac OS X Leopard, the Mac leaps even further ahead with new features that let you do more with less effort.

Jump-start your digital life.

Get a closer look at just a few of the amazing things you can do within minutes of bringing home a new Mac.

iLife

“Out of the box,” says Walt Mossberg, of the Wall Street Journal, “the Mac has better photo, music, video, and DVD-creation software than any Windows computer I’ve seen.” That software is called iLife, and it comes standard on every Mac.

iPhoto Print Products

Make professional-quality books, cards, and calendars

Always up to date.

A Mac regularly checks for updates to Mac OS X and any included Apple software and automatically downloads them. So really, a Mac gets better with age.

It’s a pleasure to buy and own.

We’ll help you shop.

Visit any Apple Retail Store, and you’ll get expert advice (with no sales pressure) on which Mac is right for you. You can even make an appointment online for a Personal Shopping experience.

Welcome to the Apple Retail Store

As you’ll discover in this video, the people, programs, and services at the Apple Retail Store make it the very best place to learn about, shop for, and get the most out of the Mac, iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV.

Take a tour of the Apple Retail Store. Watch the introduction

Can’t get to a store? The Apple Online Store is the fastest, easiest way to configure and buy a Mac online. If you need help, just call 1-800-MY-APPLE.

We’ll help you move.

Buy a Mac at an Apple Retail Store and a Genius will help you transfer all your files from your old computer to your new one. If you’d rather do it yourself, you can use a USB or FireWire hard drive or a local network to transfer photos, music, documents, and more

We’ll give you support.

Every Mac comes with award-winning support, but you can upgrade to the AppleCare Protection Plan for more peace of mind. And face-to-face help is always available at your loca

We’ll help you learn.

A Mac is made to be easy to use. But if you’re used to working on a Windows PC, you may want some help getting started. Luckily, a Mac comes with lots of options. Get customized One to One training at the Apple Retail Store. View hundreds of tutorials on Apple.com. Get help from others in

Acer Aspire 6920-6422

2009-07-28T00:58:00.000-07:00

Product Summary

Manufacturer: ACER

Mfg Part#: LX.APQ0U.090

UPC: 00099802606046

Buy.com Sku: 207994444

Item#: C4GEME

Buy.com Sales Rank: 2680

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Explore the edges of mobile computing with an Aspire 6920-6422 Notebook. It delivers incredible style, power, control, high-definition and sound. At work the Intel Core 2 Duo processor allows you to do more with less effort, and at play it intensifies your digital entertainment experience.

Features

	Maximum Battery Run Time		3.2 Hour
	Processor Manufacturer		Intel
	Network Technology		Bluetooth Wi-Fi Gigabit Ethernet
	Screen Size		16"
	Hard Drive Capacity		250GB
	Manufacturer		Acer, Inc
	Package Contents		Aspire 6920-6422 Notebook Lithium-Ion Battery AC Adapter
	Graphic Mode		WUXGA
	Solid State Drive Capacity		Not Included
	Green Compliance		Yes
	Processor Type		Core 2 Duo
	Operating System		Windows Vista Ultimate
	Manufacturer Part Number		LX.APQ0U.090
	Standard Memory		4GB
	Standard Warranty		3 Year Limited
	Display Screen Type		Active Matrix TFT Color LCD
	Processor Model		T9300
	Green Compliance Certificate/Authority		Energy Star
	Maximum Memory		4GB
	Manufacturer Website Address		www.acer.com
	Optical Drive Type		BD-Reader
	Dimensions		1.7" Height x 15.2" Width x 10.8" Depth
	Widescreen		Yes
	Optical Media Support		BD-ROM
	Processor Speed		2.5GHz
	Memory Technology		DDR2 SDRAM
	Brand Name		Acer
	Graphics Controller Manufacturer		nVIDIA
	Processor Core		Dual-core
	Product Line		Aspire
	Memory Standard		DDR2-667/PC2-5300
	Graphics Controller Model		GeForce 9500M GS
	Product Series		6920
	Product Model		6920-6422
	Product Name		Aspire 6920-6422 Notebook
	Mobile Technology		Centrino Duo
	Product Type		Notebook

HP TouchSmart tx2-1020

2009-07-28T00:56:00.000-07:00

Product Summary

Manufacturer: HEWLETT PACKARD

Mfg Part#: NB220UA#ABA

UPC: 00884420737025

Buy.com Sku: 210499177

Item#:

Buy.com Sales Rank: 2000

Weighing just 4.65 lb. our TouchSmart tx2z is ultraportable. A simple finger stroke on the 12.1" diagonal screen delivers quick and easy access to information, entertainment, and social networks. This tablet PC is also "multitouch" : you can use more than one finger (e.g., index and thumb) at the same time. In addition, this model lets you view and edit photos with MediaSmart, which supplies an awesome digital media experience.

Genuine Windows VistaGet things done, stay connected, and enjoy a variety of entertainment in a protected environment with genuine Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. This series comes with genuine Windows Vista Home Premium, which includes Windows Aero, Windows Media Center, and instant search functionality. For enhanced play and productivity features, choose genuine Windows Vista Ultimate.

Striking designThis sleek, ENERGY STAR qualified, recyclable laptop has a 12.1" diagonal screen. The unique, dual-mode display accepts input from either a finger or a pen. You get:

Features

	Quick and easy selection, organization, and manipulation of digital files via finger swipe
	A digital pen that turns the tx2z into a tablet so you can draw or take notes and then automatically convert to text (the pen stores in the PC's base)
	A convertible design with a twisting hinge that lets you choose from three modes: PC, display, or slate
	A streamlined, glossy, titanium finish and our cool "Reaction" imprint pattern
	Three on-display launch buttons: one for MediaSmart software, another for Windows Vista Mobility Centerto get battery, volume, wireless or display dataand one for "rotating" the screen into slate mode
	A color-matched keyboard and touchpad
	AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual Core Mobile processors for intense multimedia2
	ATI Radeon HD graphics for speedy processing on the go
	An integrated low-light VGA webcam with digital microphone for videoconferencing and VoIP3
	Watching, recording, and playing of live, streamed, or mobile Internet TV in hi-def using HP MediaSmart
	SRS premium sound for amazing, immersive audio
	An S/PDIF jack so two users can listen to movies and music via headphones (sold separately); you can also use this jack to connect to your home entertainment system and enjoy DVDs in 5.1 Surround Sound
	A multitouch display with gestures (sets of finger movements that can be understood by the PC) optimized for HP MediaSmart
	The ability to touch your way through your PC to enjoy photos, music, movies, and more
	The ability to take notes on a tablet with the included digital penyour notes are automatically converted into typed text
	Simplified password management via integrated fingerprint reader (optional)
	An optional stand for mounting the notebook upright, so it's easier to touch (vs. when it's flat)

Tech Specs

	Manufacturer Part#		NB220UA#ABA
	Operating System		Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
	Processor		2.20 GHz AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-82 Dual-Core Mobile Processor
	Display		12.1 inch Diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Integrated Touchscreen
	Memory		4 GB
	Graphics card		ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics with 64 Display Cache Memory AMD
	Hard drive		320 GB
	Networking		Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
	Broadband wireless		Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN & Bluetooth
	Primary DVD/CD drive		LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVDR/RW with Double Layer Support
	Primary battery		6-Cell Lithium-Ion battery
	Productivity software		Microsoft Works; Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition: 60 Day Trial Version
	Security software		Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009 (including 60 days complimentary
	Theft protection		Kensington MicroSaver lock slot; Power-on password; Accepts 3rd party security lock devices; Integrated Fingerprint Reader
	Photography software		Muvee Reveal
	Back-up & media management		HP MediaSmart
	Accessories		HP Mobile Remote Control; OneNote Software, Webcam
	Dimensions		12.05"(W) x 8.82"(D) x 1.23" (min H) / 1.52" (max H)
	Weight		4.65 lbs
	Total memory slots		2 DIMM
	Maximum memory expansion		8GB
	PCI expansion		Expansion port 3 connector
	Front-side bus (processor dependent)		Up to 4400 MT/s system bus running at AC/DC mode 35 watt
	AC adapter		65W AC Adapter
	Expansion slots		ExpressCard/34 Slot
	I/O ports		3 Universal Serial Bus (USB 2.0), expansion port 3, Integrated Consumer IRs (remote control receiver), 5-in-1 digital media card reader, microphone-in, , RJ-11 (modem), RJ-45 (LAN), VGA
	Speakers		Integrated Altec Lansing stereo speakers
	Software - full versions		Microsoft Works; Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition: 60 Day Trial Version
	Software - introductory versions		Symantec Norton Internet Security 2008 (includes 60 days of complimentary live updates; subscription required to continue receiving updates)
	Trial Internet service		HP Total Care Set Up, Microsoft Internet Explorer
	Basic warranty		365 Days (Parts) / 365 Days (Labor)

HCL Infosystems bags Rs 240 cr BSNL IT Deal

2009-07-28T00:55:00.001-07:00

HCL Infosystems, India’s premier information enabling ICT System Integration Company announced that it has been selected to implement ‘System Integration Project’ for state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). The Rs. 240 cr contract involves the implementation of over 60,000 ERP licences, making it the largest rollout in terms of licenses issued for any single project in the country. The prime objective of ERP system is to improve the information flow to facilitate better decision making leading to overall improvement in the performance of the organisation by way of improvements in the productivity, cycle time, financial performance and information transparency.

The project entails installation, operations, maintenance, training and customization by consolidating the different systems onto a single ERP platformAs a part of the BSNL’s business transformation programme, HCL will migrate India’s leading telecommunication company’s Finance, Commissioning & operations functions onto a single ERP system. The project rollout includes setting up of the main Data Centre at Hyderabad and the Disaster Recovery Data Centre at Kolkata. Installation and commissioning at these centres will streamline these business processes, provide a single view of the business, aiding compliance to storage system, security system, enterprise management system, network management systems, access management system etc. of existing data centres. The decision to cover the whole organization country wide by investing in ERP licenses clearly communicates BSNL management intent to create a single seamless platform all over the corporation.