Acer Ferrari 1200 Announced

It looks like Acer will soon be launching a sequel to the 12.1″ high-end Acer Ferrari 1100. Like the 1100, the new Acer Ferrari 1200 is also AMD-powered, running on a dual-core AMD Turion X2 Ultra on AMD’s M780G platform.

The Ferrari 1200 definitely falls into the “luxury class” - it has a carbon-fiber casing, and a unique design: “Unique ventilation design echoes the exhaust pipes of F1 cars and the anodized-metal touchpad resembles the brake and acceleration pedals of a Ferrari car. “ It also features “2nd generation Dolby Home Theater” features for multimedia playback.

Just like the 1100, it comes with a bundled Bluetooth mouse, along with the option for a VoIP phone, both of which have the Ferrari Racing Shield logo.

Looking at the bundled software and features, an emphasis is clearly placed on videoconferencing with the Ferrari 1200, much like its predecessors.

No word on release dates or pricing.

Read: Acer UK Press Release
Thanks to Tim for sending this in.
Note: The above image is the 1100 - the 1200 apparently resembles it very closely.

NVIDIA CEO Interview - Ion, Netbooks, etc. (LAPTOP Mag)

Yesterday we mentioned that NVIDIA is telling people to speak up if they want to see companies selling products with NVIDIA’s new Ion platform. LAPTOP Magazine has conducted an extensive review with Jen-Hsun Huang, the co-founder, president, and CEO of NVIDIA, and he talked about the ION platform as well as netbooks and the impact on various industries (including the software industry).

No word on when Ion will hit the market, but a very nice bit of information to come out of this is that he believes the target price for an Ion-based device is $399. Good news for those of us interested in the Ion platform - this could very well be the biggest thing since the Intel Atom came out, since it’s adding a GeForce 9400M to the mix. The 9400M would be a huge increase in the graphics power of netbooks and would open up a lot of applications.

I believe the most interesting things that Huang discussed were not about NVIDIA’s plans, but about the competition, VIA, and netbooks in general.
Read more

Intel to Push CULV Platform - 2Q 2009

DigiTimes is reporting on a new platform that Intel is developing, to be rolled out sometime in the second quarter of 2009. Their sources believe that it’s targeted at AMD’s Yukon platform.

This Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) platform is a good indicator of Intel’s plans on breaking up the laptop market into four distinct segments:
- Traditional laptops (normal laptop CPUs, storage, RAM, etc.
- What DigiTimes refers to as ultraportables - 11″ to 13″ displays.
- Netbooks (Atom/Pineview/Menlow)
- MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) (UMPCs, some 4″ - 7″ devices) (Menlow)

This CULV platform would be targeted at the ultraportable segment - devices that are priced above netbooks and that would have better performance than typical netbooks. DigiTimes mentions that the top-three vendors have products planned around the new platform and that up to 10 million of these products could be shipped in 2009. Hewlett-Packard is singled out as having had plans to expand the Mini-Note line later in June with a 13.3″ Atom-based laptop, but changed those plans to use the CULV platform instead.

AMD had planned on skipping the “race to the bottom” as some call it, and ignoring the low-end/cheaper netbooks, and instead creating the Consesus/Yukon platform to compete in the market segment that Intel is targeting with the CULV. AMD wants to bring a “full-fledged PC experience” to the $699 and above ultraportables.

Read: DigiTimes

Intel to Produce CPU for Thin and Light Laptops

According to CNET sources, Intel will be rolling out a new CPU later this year, targeted towards cheaper laptops that are just above netbooks in specifications, pricing, and size, but below some of the more expensive high-end thin and light laptops (such as the 12.1″ Toshiba R600 or Sony’s VAIO VGN TT series).

The new CPUs are not meant to compete with Intel’s Atom platform or NVIDIA’s Ion platform, but instead targets the AMD Athlon Neo.

They are looking at the market for ultraportables who fall into the $700 - $900 price range.

It won’t be based on the Atom CPU either, it’ll be based on the existing Intel Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) CPUs that power devices like the Toshiba R600 and Sony TT series mentioned above. It doesn’t look like it’ll be a replacement for the current SU9300 and SU9400 CPUs. It will be in the 22mm range, size-wise.

Read: CNET News

AMD Athlon Neo

Not to be outdone by Intel’s Menlow/Poulsbo/Atom platform, or NVIDIA’s Ion platform, AMD/ATI are throwing their hat in the ring.

Unfortunately we won’t see the results until sometime in March, but AMD is working on a new platform, the 65nm AMD Athlon Neo, which is built for ultraportable devices (but don’t confuse it with the 45nm Conesus CPU from AMD, that’s much later this year). To be fair to NVIDIA and Intel, AMD is aiming slightly higher - as Engadget points out, they have no desire to “race to the bottom” (the cheapest of the cheapest netbooks).

While it might not make it into the low-end netbook market, it could make it into the higher-end markets.

Highlights:
* More powerful than Intel Atom
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3410
* “Smooth” 1080p playback with HD media
* Overall faster in the handling of media (encoding, etc.).

The graphics chipset is definitely much more powerful than what we currently have available. Even if it doesn’t make its way into netbooks, it’s still poised to shake things up in the 11″ - 12″ market.

Read: Engadget

Woot Has a 12.1″ Convertible - HP TX2513CL

This probably won’t last too long, but if you are looking to pick up a fairly recent convertible laptop/Tablet PC for as cheap as possible, then you should head over to Woot.com. They are currently featuring a recertified HP Pavilion TX2513CL for $649.99. That’s a part of the TX2500Z series (I believe - I don’t think it’s in the new batch of TX laptop/Tablet PCs).

Items for sell on Woot.com are clearance/discount items, and depending on the item, they can go fairly fast (in a few hours or less). They only sell that particular item/batch for 24 hours (or less if it sells out).

This features a 1 year HP warranty.

Specifications:
- 12.1″ HP BrightView Touchscreen Display
- AMD Turion X2 RM-70 2GHz Dual-Core
- ATI Radeon HD 3200
- 250GB 5400rpm HDD
- 3GB RAM
- Super Multi DVD Writer w/Lightscribe
- 802.11a/b/g/n
- ExpressCard/34 slot
- Windows Vista Home Premium w/SP1

For $649.99, with an HP warranty, that is a very good deal.

HP TouchSmart tx2z Hands-On (LAPTOP Magazine)

With yesterday’s announcement of the HP Pavilion TouchSmart tx2 / tx2z, LAPTOP Magazine was able to get their hands on the AMD-powered convertible 12.1″ touchscreen laptop.

They mention that it will in fact continue to be sold side-by-side with the current 12.1″ convertible HP Pavilion tx2500z rather than replacing it.

The tx2z is the first multi-touch notebook aimed at the consumer market. The mult-touch 12.1″ Dell Latitude XT is aimed more at the business / professional market.

LAPTOP Magazine has posted a video of the multi-touch features, including a demo of the multitouch features with Microsoft’s Photo Gallery and Internet Explorer.

Read: LAPTOP Magazine

HP Pavilion TouchSmart tx2 and tx2z Announced

It looks like HP is rolling out a replacement to the 12.1″ HP Pavilion tx2500z. It’s the 12.1″ HP Pavilion TouchSmart tx2 / tx2z, and it’s the first true consumer notebook that takes advantage of multitouch navigation when using the HP MediaSmart software.

It’s a convertible - you can convert it between a normal laptop / notebook form factor and a Tablet PC form factor. You can use either the multitouch navigation or a stylus in either of the modes. There is also an HP Mini Remote Control that’s included for multimedia or presentation navigation, and it conveniently fits in the ExpressCard/34 slot when not in use.

The TouchSmart part of it - you can use two fingers with the HP MediaSmart software to zoom in and out and drag images and selections around, among other things.

It’s powered by AMD’s Turion X2 and Ultra X2 CPUs, and takes up to 8GB of RAM (and you can choose 64-bit Microsoft Windows Vista as an option, to take advantage of that memory).

I’m not sure of the availability outside of the US at this time, but it’s already up for pre-order at Amazon (TX2-1020US - 4GB RAM, 320GB HD), and it’ll probably be available worldwide. Ordering the base model (starting at $1,149.99) on HP’s Pavilion Notebook site shows a date of December 8, 2008.

HP TouchSmart tx2 / tx2z Gallery

Thanks to Tim for the links.

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