Sony SZ7 Series Shipping, Taking Pre-Orders
January 23, 2008
Sony is starting to make available some models of the new VAIO VGN SZ7 series (last month, Notebook Review came across the information on Sony’s website as well as online retailers). At some point it will be fully replacing the SZ6 series.
While it shares many things in common with the SZ6 series (similar 13.3″ LED-backlit displays, Same Hybrid Intel and NVidia graphics system, carbon fiber casing, Vista Business, etc.), it offers several different features, including upgraded memory, larger hard drives, and most importantly, Intel’s new Penryn CPUs. The Penryn line is faster, with better power consumption (and in theory less heat), and in some instances it adds more cache (up to 6MB L2 Cache).
Earliest ship dates (with minimum options):
SZ740 - Maybe shipping now using existing Intel Merom-2M CPUs
SZ750N/C - Ship Date of 2/20/2008
SZ770N/C - Ship Date of 1/30/2008
SZ780 - Ship Date of 2/3/2008
SZ791N/X - Ship Date of 1/30/2008
Differences and prices between models:
- SZ750N/C - $1899 at Amazon/Sony, Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn T8100 (2.1GHz), 2GB Memory
- SZ770N/C - $2249 at Amazon/Sony, Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn T9300 (2.5GHz), 3GB Memory
- SZ791N/X - $2499 at Amazon/Sony, Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn T9300 (2.5GHz), 4GB Memory (May have “Premium” Carbon Fiber Case)
Configure to Order Models (CTO):
- SZ740 - Starts at $1429 - Options vary - see SZ7 page for details
- SZ780 - Starts at $1541 - Options vary - see SZ7 page for details
Lenovo ThinkPad X300 Details Leaked?
January 20, 2008
On Friday, Gizmodo reported on what they claim is leaked information about a Lenovo ThinkPad X300, a new line from Lenovo that would be competing with the MacBook Air from Apple. One advantage it would have is that it has an integrated DVD writer (albeit you pay for the advantage with lowered battery life and increased weight). Some could make a good argument that an optical drive is becoming more and more unnecessary these days, and it appears this ThinkPad maybe like other ThinkPads, and allow you to replace the optical drive with an additional battery, increasing battery life substantially. It also comes with a new style of wide TouchPad.
Anyways, on with the specs (we are treating these as a rumor at this point):
CPU/Chipset: Intel Merom Core 2 Duo Low Voltage (LV) 2.0 Ghz, 4MB Cache, 12W, Intel Crestline GMS, 800MHz Frontside Bus
Front-side Bus: 880MHz
Memory: Up to 4GB Memory
Display/Graphics: Intel Crestline graphics, 13.3″ LED-backlit display, 1440×900 resolution
Storage: 64GB Solid State Drive (SSD)
Connectivity: WiMAX, Intel Kendron MIMO, WWAN, External USB Modem, 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
Dimensions:
Width: 318mm (12.5 inches)
Depth: 231mm (9.1 inches)
Height: 18.6 - 23.4mm (0.73 - 0.92 inches)
Weight: 1.13kg (2.5 pounds) - 1.44kg (3.17 pounds) depending on options
Article: Intel’s Santa Rosa Refresh in Q1 2008
July 17, 2007
VR-Zone has obtained some information concerning Intel’s next major CPU upgrade for mobile CPUs, due out in the first quarter of 2008.
They are going to be 45nm CPUs, dual-core, and have 3MB, 4MB, or 6MB of L2 Cache. Penryn (the code name for the next major upgrade) will introduce SSE4 (Wikipedia article). They will also have an 800MHz Front Side Bus.
In the area of Standard Voltage (i.e. not Low Voltage or Ultra Low Voltage), the 2.1GHz and 2.4GHz versions will have 3MB L2 Cache, and these will probably end up in high-end ultraportables (there are 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz CPUs listed with 6MB L2 Cache, but it’s doubtful they will end up in the lightweight ultraportables).
- Wikipedia article about Intel’s Next Generation
- TG Daily - April, 2007, Rumors about 45nm CPUs.
Ultra-thin, Ultra-light Apple Mac Notebook in 2007?
July 11, 2007
Keep in mind this is a rumor!
MacScoop is reporting that Apple is going to release an ultra-thing, ultra-light Mac notebook before the end of this year.
They are talking about an ultraportable from Apple with a 12.1-inch display and that weighs in at around three pounds and is 0.6 - 0.7 inches thick. The previous 12.1-inch Mac notebook from Apple, the PowerBook, weighed around 4.5 pounds and was over an inch thick.
As Mac Rumors points out, these rumors have been floating around for some time.
I personally would find it very interesting if Apple jumped into this market. At one time they had The ultraportable that people wanted (back when ultraportables weighed five pounds or more). I don’t know about this year, but I don’t think it’s too far fetched. After all, Intel has something to offer Apple, that Apple hasn’t had in a while, a truly powerful CPU/chipset package that could be squeezed in something this small - with the performance of the Santa Rosa-based CPUs going up while power consumption is staying the same or going down…that has to be very appealing to Apple.
Combine that with all of the patents that they’ve recently applied for and/or received in regards to touch screens (I have a hard time believing that they would keep those patents confined to iPods/iPhones) and something has to emerge. Apple has no problem going into an established market and shaking things up (see the afore-mentioned iPhone), and considering that Dell is moving into the ultraportable, convertible Tablet PC market with the Dell Latitude XT, and with all of the other convertible Tablet PC offerings that have come up in the past six months or will be coming out, and you are looking at a market that is ripe for Apple to move in.
Here’s the thing though, sometime late late this year or more likely next year, Intel is moving to a 45 nanometer process (aka Penryn). Penryn adds a new instruction set (SSE4) which may or may not appeal to Apple and Mac OS X, it has a new chipset which supports DDR3 SDRAM. Intel has stated that DDR3 will be important in regards to power requirements and heat generation in mobile computers (i.e. lower power requirements and lower heat generation).
I would expect them to go ahead and wait for the 45nm Penryn CPUs from Intel, since the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines are selling incredibly well right now (and the MacBooks haven’t even moved to Santa Rosa yet). I would also add that it wouldn’t surprise me if such a machine were using flash memory (aka Solid State Drive - SSD) instead of a mechanical hard drive. You never know though.
