Filed under: Laptops

Dubbed “the best-looking 20-inch laptop on the market” by PC Mag, HP’s monolithic HDX-9000 was recently hoisted onto the test bench and put through a number of paces to see if it really was worth the fortunes it demands. The stunning 1080p display and LED-backlit keyboard were both highly praised, and while one wouldn’t expect a 15-pound rig to excel in the battery life department, it did manage to stay alive for 2.5 hours on a full charge. Unfortunately, the crew was a bit disappointed by the Penryn’s performance, but to be fair, it did play back Blu-ray Discs beautifully and handled most everything that was thrown at it with ease. But hey, it’s not like we can’t understand the lofty expectations given the extraordinarily high price tag. Overall, the newest HDX-9000 didn’t seem to blow any minds, but if money ain’t a thang, you aren’t likely to find a brick more lovable than this.

Read - PC Mag review (3.5 out of 5 glistening stars)
Read - CNET review (8.2 out of 10 golden hoops)

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Filed under: Laptops

Come on Everex, first the CloudBook would be available on January 25th, then February 15th, now the 25th? And to think that you announced this before the Eee PC. How can we trust you? Here, take back your ring, this ol’ girl can’t wait forever.

Update: Uh, Everex, please put down the Whiskey. Now your site says 1/25/2008 at Wal-mart.com. Definitely no CloudBook at Wallys.

[Thanks, JAmerican]

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Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

They may not be the first, but Dell’s 17-inch XPM M1730 “Beast” deserves a warm welcome to the NVIDIA 8800M GTX club regardless. The dual-card update represents a 49% performance gain (3Dmark06) over Dell’s previous top-end, dual 8700M GT card configuration. That puts the laptop on par with the DX10 performance of many new desktop rigs. Available now-ish in the US for $700 more than the dual 8700M GT option. However, orders placed today are estimated to arrive on February 20th with a cautionary footnote of possible delay. Ready for EMEA and AsiaPac regions sometime “soon.” Now, if only Alienware would update us on their M17x availability we’d have our 17-inch, 8800M GTX gaming options sorted.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Sad news brewing in Round Rock this morning. After slashing “dozens” of call center employees in Ottawa yesterday (and scrapping plans for 1,200 more), it looks like Dell is taking its cost cutting initiatives retail. Unfortunately, we’re not talking lower prices here. We have word from a number of sources that Dell’s 150+ Dell Direct Stores are about to meet the business end of the corporate axe. Whether that be in full or a partial reduction we don’t know. Nevertheless, with Dell now firmly entrenched in Wal-mart, Staples, and Best Buy, the mall kiosks sure seem redundant. Expect more on this later in the AM after Michael Dell’s had a chance to address the troops.

Read — Dell Ottawa closures

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Filed under: Desktops, Home Entertainment, Laptops

Just as we feared, Asus is getting ready to dilute their Eee branding until it’s RAZRed down to a hint of its former panache. The new family of low-cost, Eee products will include the E-DT (desktop), E-TV, and E-Monitor. The $200 - $300 E-DT will initially sport a Celeron processor when it ships without a monitor sometime in April or May. The E-Monitor then, is more than that name would have you believe. It’s a 19- to 21-inch all-in-one PC with built-in TV tuner and a remarkable $499 price tag. It’ll be based on Intel’s Shelton platform when the AIO launches in September. The 42-inch E-TV will also launch in September and feature a Linux PC integrated into the LCD. It’s expected to list for a $200 premium over the low-cost 42-inch sets it will compete with. Just don’t get too hung up on those prices, kid. The Eee PC was only supposed to cost $200 when it was announced.

Now for the bad news. ASUS will not be offering a touch-panel in their next generation Eee PC after all — their market research shows limited demand. Not avid Engadget readers, are we ASUS?

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Filed under: Laptops

The last we heard from Japan’s Mouse Computers, it was offering up a cheap’n'easy path to Merom — and true to form, it’s followed that up with a low-cost ticket to Penryn town, the J131. The 1280×800 13.3-inch unit is pretty basic, as things go — 120GB drive, 2GB of RAM, and a 1.3 megapixel webcam — but unlike some other machines on the market, its price is just as stripped-down as its featureset: just

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Filed under: Laptops

We’re short on specifics, but MSI looks to be getting behind Intel’s upcoming 45nm Diamondville processor in a big way — a totally unsurprising turn of events. Diamondville is pretty much built from the ground up for powering low-cost ultraportables of the Eee PC’s ilk, so we’re sure to be seeing it in all sorts of cheap computers in the coming year or so, but MSI is one of the first to announce a budget laptop built around the platform. The chip is due to be formally unveiled in April, and MSI says the “when Diamondville is ready, our project will be ready.” That should be around July or August, and we can’t wait to see those design chops (pictured above) put to good use.

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Filed under: Laptops

Sure, it looks like the Eee, it sports the same CPU as the Eee, heck, it even appears to use the Eee’s OS — but it’s actually the CM900! What does that mean? Well for starters, you’ll pay more money for less computer ($349.99 for a 2GB system, the same price for a 4GB ASUS)… but of course you’ll have that CybertronPC name to fall back on. Honestly, we’d say this was a rebrand if it weren’t for the minor differences in specs, and who knows — maybe it is. If not, however, this is the knock-offingest knock-off we’ve seen in a good long while. Far be it from us to condemn the CybertronPC gang for trying to get in while the gettin’s good, but maybe next time these guys could at least give us a fair shake on the storage / price breakdown?

[Thanks, Brian]

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Available in 160GB, 250GB, or 320GB varieties, these Western Digital My Passport Essential Drives weigh less than 5-ounces — priced from $199.99. Click here for first picture in gallery.

..if you’re always looking for something sleeker and sexier, the new My Passport Essential is likely to satisfy — if only for a moment. Reportedly, these were tweaked to look more like the firm’s popular My Book family

[via Gizmodo - Engadget]

Via Techeblog

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In Wii Fit, “family members will have fun getting a ‘core’ workout, and talking about and comparing their results and progress on a new channel on the Wii Menu.” Video after the break. Click here for first picture in gallery.

As users stand on the Wii Balance Board, included with Wii Fit, their bodyÂ’s overall balance is tied to the game in a way theyÂ’ve never experienced before. Wii Fit also uses the Wii Balance Board for daily tests

Via Techeblog

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