Hasta La Gadget!

When we reviewed ASUS’ first bamboo laptop, we raved about more than just its unconventional looks — we were also impressed with its solid performance. So we’re pleased, although not at all surprised, that ASUS is refreshing the line with Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge processors. The U43SD doesn’t appear to stray from its predecessor’s industrial design (save for its bigger 14-inch screen), but it steps up to the latest Core i3 and Core i5 processors, along with NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M graphics with 1GB of video memory. You can also choose from 5,400RPM and 7,200RPM hard drive options and either a six- or eight-cell battery. While the company was at it, it also quietly unveiled another Sandy Bridge laptop, the U41SV, which offers the same configuration options as the U43SD — and a plainer design. No word on pricing, and a cursory search turned up no availability. For now, though, you can have a gander at some official photos lifted from ASUS’ own product pages.

[Thanks, Jon and Danijel]

ASUS’ bamboo-plated U43SD laptop graduates to Sandy Bridge, so does plain-jane U41SV originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Graphics card companies don’t live and die by the enthusiast market alone. That may be where the glory is, but it’s the budget cards that really bring in the bacon. For the entry level, AMD just unleashed a trio of sub-$100 cards, the Radeon HD 6670, 6570, and 6450. How do they perform? Well, let’s just say you get what you pay for. Reaction from reviewers has been one of mild indifference. Depending on manufacturer, fan noise does appear to be an issue, possibly precluding the cards from being a viable HTPC choice. Otherwise, even the lowly, $55 6450 is a worthy upgrade over an integrated graphics chip or a two-year-old discrete card, but it can’t match the performance of NVIDIA’s GT 430, which can be had for only a few dollars more. Consensus was that, with prices of the older 5000 series being slashed, purchasers can get more bang for their GPU buck by sticking with last generation cards (like the Radeon HD 5750) if they’re looking for pure gaming prowess. That said, the GDDR5 flavors of the 6670 provide perfectly playable performance on most modern games (it averaged 45 FPS in Call of Duty: Black Ops) for just $99 (the 6570 runs about $79). Just beware those models shipping with GDDR3. Benchmarks galore below.

Read – Hexus
Read – techPowerUp 6450
Read – techPowerUp 6670
Read – Guru3D
Read – Tech Report
Read – Tom’s Hardware 6670 and 6570
Read – Tom’s Hardware 6450
Read – TweakTown
Read – AnandTech
Read – HotHardware

AMD elevates the low-end with trio of sub-$100 cards: Radeon HD 6670, 6570, and 6450 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I always imagined skydiving to be a frantic, chaotic experience. Okay, maybe you get 15 seconds of “whoa this looks cool” before panic sets in as you start zipping down the air and plummeting to earth—don’t freak out, oh MY GOD PULL THE CORD, PULL THE EFFING CORD ALREADY YOU JOKESTER. This slow motion video, taken with the Melbourne Skydive Centre, is nothing like that. More »

Excellent all-around picture quality combined with improved features and styling should make the Panasonic TC-PGT30 TV a favorite among bigger-spending plasma seekers.