Acer Aspire AS1410-2285 - Best Value in a Shipping Netbook?
October 22, 2009
If you are looking for the best value in a shipping netbook, today is your day. For around $400 plus shipping, you can get the Acer Aspire AS1410-2285 shipped from Amazon
What does $399.99 plus shipping get you? Quite a bit actually, it will get a dual-core CPU with Intel’s 4500MHD graphics, an HDMI port, Windows 7 Premium, and an 11.6-inch display.
Full specifications: Acer Aspire AS1410-2285 (Black casing)
- OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
- CPU: 1.2GHz Intel Celeron SU2300 Dual-Core CULV CPU
- RAM: 2GB DDR2 667MHz
- HDD: 160GB SATA Hard Drive
- Networking: Intel WiFi Link 1000 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N
- Graphics: Intel 4500MHD Graphics (GMA)
- Display: 11.6″ WXGA LED-Backlit Display
- Battery: 6-cell Li-ion Battery (4400 mAh), up to 6 hours according to Acer
-Weight: 3 pounds/1.4 kg
In addition to the above, it’s coming with three USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, and a Multi-gesture touchpad.
Looking at Acer’s other Windows 7 listings at Amazon, it looks like HDMI out will finally be standard. Most of the Acers should be expandable to 4GB of RAM.
While this is a Celeron, expect non-Celeron-based netbooks with dual-core CPUs to be out in the next few weeks. Amazon is showing the Acer Aspire AS1810T-8679 with a Core 2 Duo SU7300, up to 8 hours of battery life, and 4GB of RAM shipping in November.
Dell Studio XPS 13 Unboxing (Engadget)
April 1, 2009
Engadget managed to get their hands on Dell’s Studio XPS 13, their soon-to-be latest 13-inch laptop.
From the gallery and release information back in December of last year, it looks like there have been a few slight changes.
Engadget notes that the display has a lot of glare, as well as the touchpad is slightly off to the left of center, which is very odd. While it’s very sleek and thin, it’s still sporting a full-size keyboard (chiclet-style) and a 13.3-inch display.
The model they received came with the NVIDIA GeForce 9500M graphics chipset, but they didn’t mention whether it came with the slot-loading Blu-Ray drive that was previously mentioned last year. Unless it’s changed, it should have a Hybrid SLI graphics, similar to the 15″ Apple MacBook Pros.
You can see from the photos that it does come with an HDMI port. It may have a Mini DisplayPort as well, which wouldn’t be surprising. Dell does support the DisplayPort standard on some of their LCD displays.
U Leader Design Altro Announced
March 11, 2009
Last week, the 13.3-inch U Leader Design Altro was officially revealed at CeBIT 2009 (it had made a brief appearance in January at CES 2009). The Altro is the first in the new “U Leader Design” series from Olidata S.p.A. It has a very elegant design, and a very competitive price - Under 1.000 Euros ($1280 USD), with availability being sometime in 2Q 2009. While it weighs under 3.5 pounds (1.6kg), it’s still able to compete with the 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air (especially on price), with the optical drive being external as well. That brings the maximum thickness down to 0.86 inches (21.8mm). It’s running on a Intel Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Core 2 Duo/Centrino 2 platform.
Although it’s not as much of a name brand in the US as it is in other parts of the world, Olidata plans on changing that, with widespread availability of this line, according to the CEO of Olidata (Antonio Masenza):
“U Leader Design is not just a new notebook, it will be a line of products that Olidata is developing with support from Intel Corporation. These products represent a mileston in the IT market for two main reasons; first, the stunning innovation and state of the art notebooks we are bringing to the end user at an acceptable price;, second the strategy behind U Leader Design. U Leader Design notebooks will be available worldwide through an international alliance strategy……Thanks to this alliance, all leading OEMs in the computer industry will be able to bring innovative and competitive notebooks to market”.
Apparently, accelerometers will be used in several different ways - as part of the “SmartDisk” function to protect the HDD should the notebook be bumped or dropped, and as a part of the “SmartAlarm” that will trigger an anti-theft application and sound an alarm should the notebook be moved by an unauthorized users. The anti-theft measures can be armed and disarmed through the normal Windows logon process. It can also detect the orientation of the notebook and rotate the screen accordingly.
Features:
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Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Review (LAPTOP Mag)
March 8, 2009
On Friday, LAPTOP Magazine posted their review of the new 10.1-inch Dell Inspiron Mini 10. The Inspiron Mini 10 joins the 8.9-inch Inspiron Mini 9 and Inspiron Mini 12 in Dell’s Intel Atom-powered netbook/ultraportable lineup. The Mini 10 comes with a Z530 Silverthorne CPU, still running at 1.6GHz.
In the review, Joanna Stern mentions this interesting fact: The Mini 10 has a larger keyboard than the Mini 12. It’s slightly deeper, with the bottom row of keys being slightly larger. It’s quite a bit larger than the Mini 9, due to Dell removing the dedicated row of function keys on the Mini 9. The touchpad also has the left and right mouse buttons integrated into the touchpad itself. It can create some issues with the “pinch-and-zoom”/multi-touch capabilities of the touchpad.
In order to keep it thin on the sides, Dell went with an HDMI port instead of a VGA port. They mentioned there wasn’t too much glare even though the display is glossy. The model they tested had a 3-cell battery, and Dell told them that a six-cell would be available in the next few months (along with the 1366 x 768 display).
Read: LAPTOP Magazine
ASUS N10J-A2 Review (LAPTOP Mag)
February 25, 2009
LAPTOP Magazine has reviewed the 10.2-inch Asus N10J-A2, which is Asustek’s high-end netbook. It’s actually really pushing the definition of a netbook, given the features and the price (the reviewed model is $799 and Amazon.com has it for $763).
More important than the price (and what contributes to the high price) that separates the N10J-A2 from typical netbooks is the features it comes with:
- 320GB HDD
- 2GB of RAM
- HDMI Out
- Windows XP Vista (XP Home available as a downgrade)
- Fingerprint Reader
- Two year warranty.
It’s still powered by Intel’s Atom CPU, but there are two graphics chipsets that exist on the N10J-A2. Some N10s may not have both. One is the built-in GMA 950 from Intel that is used to conserve battery life. It shares its memory with the system memory. The other is an NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS with 256MB of dedicated memory. No matter which graphics chipset you have toggled for use, they were still able to get over 4 hours of battery life.
It also features Express Gate which is a Linux-based “Instant-On” OS that allows you to quickly jump into email or browsing the web without having to launch all of the way into Windows.
Read: LAPTOP Magazine
Samsung Enters US Laptop Market (Q310, X360)
October 14, 2008
Samsung is making it official - they are entering the US market, and will be selling through mainstream retailers, including Amazon, Buy.com, and others. We already knew quite a bit about the 10.2″ Samsung NC10 netbook and that it would be coming to the US, but it turns out the NC10 was just a small (no pun intended) part of Samsung’s offerings, which should be available soon.
Samsung has supplied American PC makers in the past with rebadged Samsung laptops (including Dell and some of their 12.1″ ultraportables), but they’ve decided the time is right for them to formally enter the market. They will be marketing their laptops (and themselves) as a “premium band”, including the NC10.
In addition to the NC10 netbook, Samsung introduced a couple of 13.3″ laptops. Both feature a 13.3″ 1280×800 Display (the X360 is LED-backlit), Intel X4500 Graphics, and an HDMI port.
Samsung Q310
- Q310-34G - Amazon - $1149
- Q310-34P - Amazon - $1299
- Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs
- 250GB - 320GB HDD
- Weight: 4.4 pounds
Apple Notebook Event 2008 - Notes
October 14, 2008
Some notes and thoughts about the notebook event that Apple held today. I like the new MacBook design, and keeping the price low enough was very important (redesigned MacBooks start at $1299, older-style at $999). Steve Jobs also left the door open for netbooks in the future.
The new designs:
- They are moving the MacBooks and MacBook Pros to the same design / construction as the 13.3″ MacBook Air
- MacBook Pros are getting a hybrid graphics system, similar to certain Sony models (although the Sony VAIOs using Intel and NVIDIA side-by-side - Apple’s solution is NVIDIA for both). Uses an NVIDIA 9400M and 9600M GT.
- The new MacBooks are getting an LED-lit display, along with the new NVIDIA graphics, a faster bus speed, and faster memory (DDR3).
- For the time being, you can still buy the older style 13.3″ MacBook
- Firewire was dropped from the redesigned MacBooks
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Asus N10 - Available in the US
October 13, 2008
Three models of the high-end 10.2″ Asus N10 netbook have started showing up at online retailers in the US, including some carrying it in stock as we speak. All are powered by an Intel Atom CPU, and come with 1GB - 2GB of RAM, 160GB - 320GB HDD, and either Windows XP Home or Vista Business or Vista Home Premium.
The N10J features nVidia GeForce 9300M G graphics with 256MB dedicated graphics memory. You can actually switch back and forth between the Intel and nVidia graphics. All feature HDMI ports and Bluetooth.
The N10E might have just a 3-cell battery and it might not have a fingerprint reader.
Full specifications/links:
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