Filed under: Laptops

We spotted this P300 refresh last week, but Toshiba was kind enough today to bring some actual SKUs out in the open. The 17-inch laptops pack a decent punch for the price, but the 1440 x 900 screens aren’t exactly going to win any points. For $1,050 you can get an Intel Core 2 Duo T5550-powered machine, with 3GB of RAM, a 320GB HDD, DVD burner, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 256MB graphics, a built-in webcam and so forth. Lop off a hundie and you can nab an AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-62 processor, 2GB of RAM, 250GB of HDD and a Radeon X1250 graphics.

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Filed under: Laptops

As should be clear by now, OLPC’s Nicholas Negroponte is never one to shy away from discussing the competition (among other things), and he’s now made some of his opinions on Intel’s new Classmate 2 laptop (a.k.a. Netbook) and other low-cost laptops known in a brief interview with Laptop Magazine. On the updated Classmate, Nick Neg was able to bring himself to say that Intel “made many steps forward” and says that he’s glad they adopted mesh networking, but he adds that the display is “still really very weak” and that “480 lines does not work” (no complaints from us there). He also doesn’t mince words about Intel entering the domestic laptop market with the Netbook, saying that he’s “astonished” that it’s doing so and he “cannot imagine that Dell, HP, Lenovo and others will keep any allegiance to a supplier that competes with them.” Nick Neg further adds that it’s “fine” that others are entering the low-cost, educational laptop space, and that “kids will benefit,” although not necessarily those in the poorer countries OLPC is targeting, where he’s still promising to deliver a $50 laptop sooner or later.

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Filed under: Laptops

We’re not sure if ASUS plans to launch this one outside of China, but there’s certainly plenty to like. The 14.1-inch 1280 x 800 laptop runs on an Intel T2370 processor and measures a passable 1.37-inches thick, and yet retails for a mere 5,499 Yuan — about $784 US. ASUS didn’t skimp on the looks, ports or other internals either, though the integrated graphics is always a sad comprimise of this price range. The X80H237L-SL certainly won’t be revolutionizing anything, unless you count model number gluttony, but it certainly shows ASUS to be right near the top of its game.

[Via Mobilewhack]

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Filed under: Laptops

Back in February, Toshiba saw fit to dish out the Penryn-powered X205-SLi2 and X205-SLi4 laptops; fast forward a couple months, and here we are yet again with two more updates in the X205 series. The latest duo of 17-inchers — the X205-SLi5 and X205-SLi6 — each pack the same pair of 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT GPUs and a 1,440 x 900 resolution panel, but the latter ups the ante with a more powerful 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo T8300 processor. Furthermore, you’ll find room for up to 4GB of RAM along with dual 160GB HDDs, Harman Kardon speakers, 802.11a/g/n WiFi, dual-layer DVD writer, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and a 1.3-megapixel webcam. As for the X205-SLi6, you’ll find a potent 2.5GHz T9300 under the hood along with 400GB of total HDD space, but basically everything else remains identical to that found on its lower-spec’d sibling. Check ‘em out right now for $1,999 and $2,499, respectively.

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Filed under: Laptops

At first glance, Sharp’s blindingly white PC-FW50X reminds us a lot of the PC-CW50T, but thankfully, the innards have improved somewhat since last summer. Packed within the aforesaid machine (

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Filed under: Laptops

It’s just a rumor, though it’s likely spot-on given DigiTimes‘ past success with its well placed ASUS source(s). Remember, they nailed the 9-inch touchscreen (rumor, announcement) as well as the 2nd generation ship date (rumor, announcement) among other notable successes. Apparently, ASUS is looking to get a jump on HP’s new Mini-Note and that upcoming ultra-portable from Acer by launching its second generation 8.9-inch Eee PC early. As such, they’ll have to forgo Intel’s new Atom processor (shipping in June) and slap in an older-generation dual-core ULV instead. Sources claim that ASUS still plans to go Atom in “later versions of its Eee PCs.” What’s unclear is whether this would be an AsiaPac move only, or if ASUS’ entire global rollout strategy has changed. We’ll update you as soon as we know more.

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Filed under: Laptops

It’s a full 24 hours after we expected it, but with looks this hot we’re not surprised the HP Mini-Note 2133 is fashionably late. Specs are exactly what we’d heard and what was up on Amazon earlier: 2.6 pounds, Via C7-M processor, 1280×768 8.9-inch screen, full QWERTY keyboard that’s just 8 percent smaller than normal, and a variety of configurations ranging from a $499 1.0GHz Linux-powered unit with 4GB of flash and 512MB of RAM to a maxed-out $749 config with a 1.6GHz processor, 120GB drive and Vista Business. Laptop managed to score some hands-on time, and from the video it looks like this thing might actually be as popular as HP is predicting — except for those crazy side-mounted vertical mouse buttons, which are totally messing with our heads. Still no word on availability, but it seems like HP’s ready to go — anyone taking the plunge right away?

Read - HP press release
Read - HP specs

Update: Plenty of early reviews are in. Things are looking good so far, check ‘em out:
Read - Laptop hands-on video (scroll down)
Read - jkOnTheRun checks it out
Read - Notebook Review, um, review
Read - Notebooks.com blows it out
Read - PC Mag review (4/5)

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Filed under: Laptops

It looks like the rumors of HP launching the sexy 2133 UMPC today were off the mark, but it certainly does seem like the diminutive laptop is coming soon — placeholder pages for an “HP 2133 Mini-Note PC” have popped up at Amazon and other retailers. That’s the first we’ve heard of the Mini-Note name, which is interesting in terribly uncreative way, but we’re slightly more intrigued by the addition of a 1.0GHz SuSE model with 4GB of flash instead of a hard drive — we’d originally heard that the 2133 would come in such a configuration, but none of the specs we’d seen so far had mentioned it. Of course, an empty Amazon product page with no pricing information doesn’t make the 2133 any more official, but we’ve got a feeling it’s pretty close — come on HP, we know you’re confident, let’s see what you’re hiding back there.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - Amazon product page for the 1.2GHz / 120GB config
Read - Amazon product page for the 1.0GHz / 4GB flash config
Read - Product listing on compsource.com

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

If your pants / panties were in a “bunch” upon hearing news that Windows 7 would be headed into your ever-loving arms “next year,” you might just want to hold off on those party invites for a little bit. Sure, Bill Gates just happened to mention that we’d see a new version of the OS “Sometime in the next year or so,” but it’s looking like that “or so” makes a world of difference. Microsoft wants to chill everyone out with the somber news that its got no plans to introduce Windows 7 any earlier than January 2010 (three years from the launch of Vista), and reassure us that crazy old Gates may have just been talkin’ developer speak. “As is standard with the release of a new product, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its general availability as a means to gain tester feedback,” a spokesman for Microsoft said, downplaying Gates’ statement. Of course, this means that XP’s cutoff will suddenly move even further down the line, which makes us wonder what the point of setting that June 2010 date was in the first place. Why are you toying with us like this, Microsoft?

[Thanks, Tony]

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Filed under: Laptops

We’d already heard a few tantalizing details about Acer’s forthcoming Eee PC competitors, but now thanks to some unspecified “sources at notebook ODMs” speaking to DigiTimes we have a few more tidbits on the low-cost laptops. If this latest report is to be believed, Acer will be shipping both the 8.9-inch Aspire and 12.1-inch Slim Gemstone Aspire in the second half of 2008, with at least the 8.9-incher unsurprisingly based on Intel’s budget-friendly Atom processor. That model will also apparently be available with your choice of Linux or Windows XP, and your choice of SSD or regular hard drives (no word on capacities), with it setting you back between $300 and $450 depending on the configuration (that’s a slight change from the $350 to $400 we heard earlier). Details on the 12.1-inch model are considerably lighter, unfortunately, although DigiTimes says that Acer ordered a million of the 12.1-inch panels in March, and that they cost between $40 to $50 less than other “high-end” panels of the same size. It also looks like Acer is trying to match Asus in the boasting department, with it reportedly declaring that it’ll ship a hefty 5 to 5.5 million of the 8.9-inch models in the second half of 2008 alone.

[Via Electronista]

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