Notebooks / Accessories

On November 1st two years ago, the first Eee PC 701 arrived on American shores just a couple of weeks after its debut overseas. The 7-inch, Linux-based mini-notebook garnered a lot of attention and a great deal of praise. At the time, laptops that small usually came with soaring price tags. The Eee PC changed the game, offering true mobile computing for around $400.

This year we’re once again celebrating the birth of the Eee PC and the netbook revolution it began. In just two years the mini-notebook category has grown from a small family of computers running Linux to an entire category of systems running several different Linux distributions plus Windows XP, 7, even Vista. Screen sizes quickly shot up from 7 to 8.9 to 10, 11.6 and even 12 inches. Netbooks have changed the tech world from manufacturers down to journalists and, of course, consumers. The new category has taken 20 percent of the market in two years, and netbooks keep evolving.

Just as with last year, we wanted to mark the occasion with an Eee PC birthday bash at LAPTOP HQ. We filmed the occasion and took the opportunity to ask our writers and editors, who have viewed more 10-inch screens than most people, what netbooks have meant to them and what they expect from netbooks in the future. Click here to watch the video and learn how you can help us celebrate.

Bring on the Windows 7 ($74.99) netbooks– or, in this case, non-netbooks. The 12.1-inch MSI Wind12 U230, which popped up on MSI’s Web site, looks like a netbook, feels like a netbook, at 2.9 pounds, and has the same 160GB The storage device that holds your OS, programs, and data.
Learn Morehard drive. But it promises more powerful performance. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium, as opposed to the pared-down Starter Editon, and packs AMD’s Athlon Neo X2 platform, which delivers a bigger performance punch than Atom (albeit, shorter battery battery life).

In addition to a processor that’s faster than a netbook’s (but weaker than a dual-core Intel ULV system’s), it promises impressive graphics performance for the screen size, thanks to an integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics chips are responsible for processing all images sent to your computer?s display.
Learn Moregraphics card. Indeed, the notebook has an HDMI port for outputting HD content (the screen itself has a resolution of 1366 x 768). We’re looking forward not just to benchmarking the system’s graphics card, but to see what kind of games it can handle, and how smoothly it plays 720p video clips.

Again, the tradeoff for this Neo-based system is likely to be battery life.

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With weeks to go before we kick off the holiday shopping season with Black Friday, Lenovo announced two affordable notebooks in its IdeaPad U Series (that’s “U” as in, “ULV” or ultra low voltage): the 11-inch U150 (starting at $585) and the 15.6-inch U550 (starting at $650).

Both notebooks have 16:9 1366 x 768 displays, wireless-N,  optional 3G, 1.3-megapixel webcam with face recognition, and can accommodate Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Both have VGA and HDMI output, headphone and mic ports, an Ethernet jack, and a 4-in-1 memory card reader, but the U150 has two USB ports whereas the 15.6-inch U550 has three. In the case of the 11.6-inch U150, one of those USB ports double as an eSATA port.

The differences between the two begin with design.

Lenovo announced three new Windows 7-powered IdeaPad laptops today – the U150, U550, and Y550P. The first two emphasize portability and long life, but the Y550P’s focus is power. Sporting Intel’s new Core i7 processor (which includes Turbo Boost technology), up to 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce 240M Graphics chips are responsible for processing all images sent to your computer?s display.
Learn Moregraphics card, the Y550P is looking to capture the hearts of gamers and multimedia mavens. Lenovo claims that this is the most powerful laptop with Core i7 inside.

The 15.6-inch system incorporates a 1366×768 HD display and the option for including a Blu-ray drive. Though we often find laptop speakers lacking, the promise of an integrated sub-woofer is intriguing, as is the automatic theater quality audio/video optimization.

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So we got in an NSB/NSS messenger bag and sleeve from Case Logic. It comes in a Brake Light Orange that reminds me of nothing more than Northern Exposure, and its puffed-up, feather-down-vest appearance* just reinforces the reference.

But hey, it’s really comfortable to sleep on.

No, really. We’ve been calling it the Sleeping Bag, and that’s what it looks like: a sleeping bag for your laptop. I can’t exactly say I’d want to sleep on it while I had my laptop in there, but it’s quite comfortable—and convenient—as a makeshift pillow if you’re in the airport or taking an afternoon nap in the office.

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Today Dell invited us to a blogger breakfast roundtable and gave us a closer look at the superslim Dell Adamo XPS. Take a gander at the gallery and tell us what you think.

As you can see, the system uses a new kind of hinge design that elevates the back of the notebook when it’s open. And we dig the capacitive strip on the lid that unlocks the lid to open the notebook–secret angent style. What’s inside this notebook? Alex Gruzen from Dell was adamant that this is not an Atom laptop, and that hinted that ULV laptops offer plenty of power. We also noted that the battery is user-replaceable.

We had a chance to put the Adamo XPS in our hands, and it felt very sturdy and not as heavy as the original Adamo. We still don’t know the price or full specs of the Adamo XPS. But we do know that it’s going to turn a lot of heads when it comes out later this fall.

Check out the gallery below.

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Time was when you had to choose between an expensive, high-quality business ultraportable like the Lenovo ThinkPad X301 ($1,889.00) or the Dell Latitude E4300 ($1,449.00) and inexpensive but bulky small business system like the Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 or Dell Vostro 1520. However, HP has broken the mold with its ProBook 5310m, a 3.8-pound, 13-inch system with incredible build quality, strong performance, long battery life and small business-friendly features.

We’ve just posted our review of the ProBook 5310m and were incredibly impressed with everything from its highly-responsive keyboard to its sleek brushed aluminum lid to the QuickWeb operating system that got us online in 30 seconds and the CPU / The storage device that holds your OS, programs, and data.
Learn Morehard drive combo that make the system so fast. Check out our review for a complete look at this groundbreaking notebook.

For years, tech journalists and users alike have complained about the so-called “Apple tax,” or the premium you pay for a Mac over a similarly-configured Windows notebook. However, when comparing the just-announced $999 MacBook with similarly-speced PCS, such as the Dell Studio XPS 13, Samsung Q320, and Acer Aspire 3935, we found that that the Windows camp no longer really has an edge.

Check out the chart below to see how the new MacBook compares to its main competitors. We would have liked to see Apple add an SD Card slot (you shouldn’t have to jump up $200 to the MacBook Pro to get that feature), but otherwise Apple’s latest portable looks like a very good deal–especially if you care about long endurance.  Stay tuned for a full review.

Click here to compare

We’ve just posted our review of the Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 business notebook ($499.00), the successor to today’s ThinkPad SL500 small business notebook. While we were impressed with the radical design of the original ThinkPad SL series, including both the ThinkPad SL400 and ThinkPad SL300 we reviewed,  the SL510 is a lot more conservative, forgoing a glossy black lid and flashy status buttons for a staid matte look with minimal bling.

Like its predecessors, the SL510 starts a low $529 (our review unit is list priced at $1024), and offers strong value for that price. It has a full size, comfortable ThinkPad keyboard, a multitouch-capable touchpad, speedy Core 2 Duo CPU, and plenty of ports. It comes with a choice of battery sizes, hard drives,  and discrete/integrated graphics options. However, at this point, the only resolution available is 1366 x 768, which offers less vertical screen real estate than the SL500 and SL400 have as both first-gen SLs are available with 1440 x 900 screens and the SL500 can even be configured with a whopping 1680 x 1050 display. Which left us wondering: is 1366 x 768 too low res for a 15.6-inch panel or just right?

Check out our review of the ThinkPad SL510 for more details. And let us know what you think of the screen resolution in the comments and poll below.

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The future’s so bright, you’ve got to wear shades. At least, that’s what Acer thinks. In addition to the touchscreen version of the 5738, (which we just reviewed) the company has also come out with a model that has a 3D screen. That’s why the screen to the right looks so messed up – you need to wear the glasses sitting on the keyboard. Unlike those cheapo cardboard specs with blue and red lenses that you used to get in comic books, these glasses are polarized, and are closer to what you’d get when you go to one of those 3D IMAX movies.

So what does it look like when you put on the glasses? Read on to find out.

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