Hasta La Gadget!

Lenovo seems to have developed a clear two-pronged strategy: for business, it leans on the knowhow and tradition it purchased from IBM with the demure Think line, and for the consumer end, it’s developed its own, oftentimes flamboyant, Idea range of computers. Prime example of the latter is the IdeaCentre A300, which features an edge-to-edge glass screen, chrome accenting aplenty, and an unhealthily thin profile. As such, it’s one of the more unashamed grabs for the hearts and minds of desktop aesthetes, so we had to bring it in for a test drive and see what we could see. Lenovo also sent us one of its diminutive Multimedia Keyboard remotes to have a play around with. Follow the break for our review of both.

Continue reading Lenovo IdeaCentre A300 and Multimedia Keyboard review

Lenovo IdeaCentre A300 and Multimedia Keyboard review originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Jun 2010 17:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Prior to heading across town to his own press event, ASUS‘ CEO (Jerry Shen) managed to show up donning a face-engulfing set of 3D glasses at NVIDIA‘s shindig in downtown Taipei. Aside from congratulating NVIDIA on its successes in the 3D category, the bigwig also took time to announce a trio of new PCs. Described as “3D PCs” — an all new designation which ensures that computers include a pair of 3D active-shutter glasses, a 120Hz 3D-capable display and a discrete graphics processor — the company is hitting just about every computer segment save for the ultraportable, netbook and tablet PC. But for the worrywarts out there, we feel pretty safe in saying that a 3D slate is somewhere on NVIDIA’s workbench.

Kicking things off was the ASUS G51Jx-EE, a 3D-ready laptop that cuts out the IR emitter and relies on NVIDIA’s 3D Vision active shutter glasses. Secondly, the Eee Top ET2400 provides similar capabilities on an all-in-one desktop (you know, for bedroom movie watchers). Finally, the CD5390 tower was hailed as the “world’s most powerful gaming solution,” equipped with a GeForce GTX 480 GPU and out-of-the-box support for a trio of 3D LCDs. Sadly, no further details on any of these rigs were shared, but we’re hoping to hear more during ASUS’ own presser.

Update: We’ve learned that the Eee Top ET2400 will roll with USB 3.0 support and a 23.6-inch LCD, but the other machines are still shrouded in mystery. We’ll be scraping the show floor to find out what we can.

Continue reading NVIDIA ushers in the ‘3D PC’ with ASUS G51Jx-EE, Eee Top ET2400 and CD5390

NVIDIA ushers in the ‘3D PC’ with ASUS G51Jx-EE, Eee Top ET2400 and CD5390 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 04:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Golly. We never thought to invest in a 20-inch all-in-one PC just to watch converted versions of Free Willy in 3D, but darn if we’re not reconsidering now. NEC has today revealed its Valuestar N range, with the VN790/BS being the standout in the range. The machine offers up a native 1,600 x 900 resolution panel, integrated Blu-ray drive, 4GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, WiFi, six USB 2.0 sockets, an undisclosed Intel Core 2010 CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), and of course, native 3D support. You’ll need to spring for an optional (but not really) pair of glasses to fully enjoy the third dimension sans intense headache-inducing blur, but given that they aren’t of the active variety, any ole set will probably get you through. Pricing looks locked at ¥220,000 ($2,422) for a June debut in Japan, with approximately none of that actually going to save the whales. A crying shame, we say.

NEC’s 3D Valuestar N all-in-one PC: orcas all up in your retinas originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 16:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, now this is just getting ridiculous. We know Onkyo has a long history of building iPod docks, but to see the company build an entire all-in-one PC around the feature is a little much, especially when — once again — the iPhone isn’t invited to the party. No, when the E713 series ships in Japan next month at or around the ¥99,880 (about $1100) price point, it will include up to a Core i5-650 processor, 4GB of RAM, a digital TV tuner, Blu-ray drive, 1TB hard drive and loads of ports behind that 23-inch, 1920 x 1080 LCD screen, but a slide-out iPod classic / nano / touch dock that apparently can’t accommodate the iPhone’s portly frame. That’s discrimination, right there — or at least we’ll keep on telling ourselves that, since we’re all out of sour grapes.

Onkyo’s E713 all-in-one PC is the space station to your starfaring iPod originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 May 2010 04:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s another exhibit that we could (literally) touch at the British Museum today — Samsung’s new all-in-one touchscreen PC, the U200. We won’t go into another pixel density rant about the 20-inch, but the colors and optical touch sensitivity were good. As for the keyboard, it seemed to have similar issues we dealt with on the P580 laptop, but at least you can just throw it out and get a better one with the U200. Anyhow, help yourself to the rest of our hands-on photos.

Samsung U200 all-in-one desktop hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 20:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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