LAPTOP Reloaded March 6-11: iPad 2, Lenovo’s 20-Hour Ultraportable, and More

Reviews

Apple iPad 2 –The game-changing tablet goes on sale today, and it’s set to impress. Apple ups the ante with dual cameras, an innovative Smart Case, and more than 11 hours of battery life.

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 — Combining light weight, 20 hours and 18 minutes of battery life, and an Intel 2nd Generation Core i% processor, this 12.5-inch machine is one excellent ultraportable.

Unique Thumb Drives Roundup — You can’t take it with you—at least, not if your backup drive is a massive beast that weighs 10 pounds. These highly portable, high capacity thumbdrives offer faster and more secure backup than uploading to the cloud, plus they’re packed with innovative features like fingerprint readers, one-touch backup, and super fast USB 3.0 transfers.

Insights

The Geek’s Geek: The Cost Is Too Damn High — With the first-gen iPad now starting  at $399 and the new model just $100 more, you’d think that Apple’s competitors would take notice and price their tablets accordingly. But you’d be wrong: Instead of listening to consumers, the bigwigs at companies such as Motorola have been channeling Gordon Gecko by not only pricing their products higher than the market leader, but also trying their best to chain customers to long-term, expensive data plans they don’t need or want.

G Styled: The Alienware M17X — Kanye West “All of the Lights” Approved — This week I checked out the Alienware M17x gaming laptop. I was supposed to compare it with an MSI rig, but after seeing “All of the lights” from the M17x, I completely pushed the MSI notebook aside.

Coming Up: CTIA Wireless 2011

We’ll be live at CTIA Wireless 2011 to cover all the highlights. Though the three-day conference doesn’t start till March 22nd, but the rumors about upcoming products are already abounding.

• CTIA Wireless 2011 Preview: 5 Trends to Watch — The biggest wireless show in the U.S. starts March 22nd, and 40,000 people are expected to flock to CTIA Wireless 2011 to see what’s next in mobile. As per usual, all the major carriers will have a presence at this year’s show, which is taking place in Orlando. In fact, we’ll be able to hear the CEOs  for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless during the opening keynote. No doubt 4G will be a big topic during that roundtable discussion and over the course of the three-day show. We also expect tablets to share–if not steal–the spotlight from souped up smart phones.

• Mystery Samsung Event to Showcase “Significant” Tablet? — Last week, CTIA VP Rob Mesirow hinted that a “significant” new tablet would be unveiled at this year’s CTIA in Orlando. As one of the key individuals charged with overseeing the event, he probably knows what he’s talking about. Of course, he didn’t exactly say what or who would be launching  this “significant” tablet.

• Spring Launching EVO 3, EVO View Tablet, and Nexus S 4G at CTIA? –  Just because Sprint lost out on the iPhone 4 and iPad doesn’t mean the carrier can’t compete with AT&T and Verizon. If what we’re hearing from Engadget is true, the  nation’s third largest wireless player hopes to make a big splash at CTIA with three new devices. Here’s a quick rundown of the rumors.

• Submit Your Product for LAPTOP’s Best of CTIA Wireless 2011 Awards — LAPTOP is headed to CTIA Wireless 2011 in just a couple of weeks to discover the best of what’s new in smart phones, tablets, apps and more. This year we’re continuing our Best of CTIA Awards program with categories for Best Smart Phone, Best Tablet, and more.