Flash-Based SSDs Don’t Help Battery Life?
July 2, 2008
Tom’s Hardware has posted an article that’s generating a lot of buzz. They are saying that flash-based Solid State Drives (SSD) don’t help the battery life of your laptop. Instead, they are saying that it in fact decreases it.
Given that SSDs don’t have the mechanical (i.e. moving) parts of a conventional hard drive, as well as generate the heat that a conventional hard drive does (which causes the laptop to have to work on cooling itself, depending on how it’s designed), this is a pretty interesting view of SSDs.
Read: Tom’s Hardware
OCZ Core SSDs Announced - $479 for 128GB SSD
July 1, 2008
OCZ Technology Group has announced a new line of low-cost Solid State Drives (SSD). They are calling it the “Core Series” and the prices are incredibly competitive and affordable, compared to what we’ve seen in the past.
They use a Serial ATA (SATA) interface at SATA II speeds, in a 2.5″ form factor. Advantages of SSDs included increased battery life, lower heat, reduced power consumption, and increased durability (no moving parts).
Models:
- 32GB - $169
- 64GB - $259
- 128GB - $479
OCZ is claiming read speeds of 120-143Mbs adn write speeds of 80-93Mbs, with seek times running less than 0.35ms, making them incredibly fast when compared to current mechanical drives.
At $479 for a 128GB SSD, this is easily less than half of what existing SSD drives are running for in this capacity (it’s even less than half of what OCZ’s existing 64GB SSDs are selling for).
This should really shake up the market (and quite frankly, I’m surprised we saw such low-cost SSD with this capacity so soon - I expected late 2008 or into 2009 at the earliest).
Read:
- AOL / BusinessWire
Announced: Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1
June 25, 2008
Panasonic has formally announced the Panasonic ToughBook CF-U1, an ultraportable device powered by a 1.33GHz Intel Atom CPU. The device has been shown at various events going back to Cebit Germany, but today marks the official announcement of availability and pricing.
It has a 5.6-inch widescreen touchscreen display (putting it into the same class as the Fujitsu Lifebook U810 and its sequel, the Lifebook U2010). Storage consists of a 16GB or 32GB Solid State Drive (SSD). It will weigh around 1.06 kg (2.34 pounds).
One of the unique features is that the 61-key keyboard is directly under the display - it’s more of a Tablet form factor than a laptop, but it includes a full keyboard (that is split in the middle with a numeric pad taking up the center). There is an optional 10-key keyboard that functions more like an enhanced Tablet PC. It also features a two battery system that, in addition to the up to 7-10 hours of battery life, can allow for the batteries to be hotswapped for continuous use.
As with other Panasonic Toughbooks, it has rubber seals for I/O sockets (USB, etc.) along with other measures, to protect the device from water being accidentally splashed on it or dust getting inside. In addition, its rugged design protects it from accidental drops to the ground/floor.
It will be available in both North American and Japanese markets later this year (availability in Europe and other parts of Asia is not known at this time). North American customers can expect to see it in August, with a starting price in the $2500 range.
Read:
- Panasonic ToughBook page (Panasonic.biz, Translated from Japanese)
Toshiba Portege R500-S5007V Announced
June 24, 2008
While I would take issue with Akihabara’s announcement that the new model of the Toshiba Portege R500 is “The World’s First Laptop with 128GB SSD” (since Toshiba announced the Portege R500-12Q for European customers back in April), it’s still a good sign that Toshiba is releasing more R500s with 128GB Solid State Drives (SSDs), especially as this model is targeted towards North American users.
In fact, this appears to be the first ultraportable laptop in North America with a 128GB SSD. It does appear to be identical to the Toshiba Portege R500-12Q.
Specifications:
- 12.1-inch LED-backlit display
- Transflective display for outdoor viewing
- Intel Core 2 Duo U7700 Ultra Low Voltage CPU (1.33GHz)
- 2GB Memory
- Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics
- Bluetooth 2.0
- 2.4 pounds
- Internal DVD Writer
- Meets EPEAT Gold laptop and Energy Star 4.0 standards
- More than 8 hours battery life (depending on configuration)
- 32-bit Windows Vista Business
You do pay a price for that 128GB of storage: $2,999
Read: Akihabara News
SSD Versus Hard Drive
June 23, 2008
Over at the Lenovo “Inside the Box” blog, Matt Kohut reported on swapping his existing 7200rpm 2.5-inch hard drive for a 1.8-inch 64GB Solid State Drive (SSD) in his ThinkPad. It did involve using an adapter from a 1.8-inch form factor to a 2.5-inch form factor.
This was the same 1.8-inch 64GB Samsung SSD found in the 13.3-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X300.
Using Acronis’ Migrate Easy software, he copied everything over to the SSD using an Ultrabay adapter, then replaced his existing mechanical hard drive with the SSD.
His comments on performance, heat, and battery life are interesting:
The difference was immediate and dramatic. Boot time was cut in half. Our corporate email program and instant messaging program also load in one half of the time they used to. Even opening and closing large MS Office PowerPoint files is a much faster operation than ever before. Though all of those were enough to make me go “Wow!,” here is the most surprising thing of all: my web browsing has become noticeably much zippier. Pages literally just snap into place. I never thought browsing was slow before, so the difference is all the more dramatic. A few more observations:
# This drive definitely runs cooler. I can’t even feel it under my palm rest like I could with my old drive.
# Battery life has definitely improved. When I am actively using my PC, I get about an extra 20 – 30 minutes per charge. When I’m doing something more passive (at least from a system perspective) like email, my battery life is now about an hour longer than before.
Read: Inside the Box (LenovoBlogs.com)
Lenovo ThinkPad X200 - More Details, July 14th Release
June 19, 2008
In a follow-up to details leaked last week about the upcoming 12.1-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X200, more images, specifications, and a release date have been leaked through 51nb.com.
Among the new details, an updated Magnesium Alloy-based chassis that houses a ThinkPad T-series size keyboard (probably due to the 12.1-inch widescreen display) that will be thinner than the existing ThinkPad X61 series.
It will be based on Intel’s Centrino 2 + VPro platform and will handle either 667MHz DDR2 or 1067MHz DDR3 Memory.
Drive options include a 64GB Solid State Drive (SSD) or up to a 7200rpm 200GB Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive.
A July 14 release date is mentioned.
Read:
- 51nb.com (Chinese)
- 51nb.com (translated)
