Mar 28

ThinkPad Edge E420s now shipping for $699, E220s coming in April

Posted in: availability, CoreI5, laptop, lenovo, now available, now shipping, NowAvailable, NowShipping, on sale, OnSale, shipping, thin and light, ThinAndLight, thinkpad, Today's Chili, video, windows 7, Windows7

Don’t tell us you’ve forgotten about Lenovo’s pair of new Edge machines! Sure, they’ve taken a while to get to market, perhaps having been inconvenienced by a little hiccup with Intel’s Core 2011 chipsets, but the first of them is now well and truly on sale and the other is looking eager and ready to go too. The 14-inch E420s is up on Lenovo’s web store, starting at $699 with a 2.1GHz Core i3-2310M CPU, while its 12.5-inch sibling, the E220s, is expected on the 8th of April, judging by the roadmap doc we’ve uncovered below. The E420s touts what Lenovo calls an Infinity Glass display, meaning simply edge-to-edge glass, alongside a fingerprint reader, a fetching new matte black lid, a HD webcam, 4GB of RAM and 250GB of HDD storage at a minimum, and a 48.8Wh battery. A 1366 x 768 resolution is your only option, unfortunately, though you can spruce up performance by quite a bit if you opt for the i5-2410M, which does 2.3GHz at default speeds or 2.9GHz when only one of its two cores is pushed to the limit … or should that be to the Edge?

[Thanks, Chris and Abdu]

Continue reading ThinkPad Edge E420s now shipping for $699, E220s coming in April

ThinkPad Edge E420s now shipping for $699, E220s coming in April originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 23

ASUS’ K53E laptop gets reviewed, 2.53GHz Core i5-2520M CPU gets praised

Posted in: ASUS, CoreI5, intel, laptop, notebook, reviewed, sandy bridge, SandyBridge, Today's Chili

Never mind the fact that Intel’s outing a mid-range laptop CPU long after the highest of high-end — the 2.53GHz Core i5-2520M is shaping up to be a lovely option for those who’d prefer a budget choice with plenty of horsepower for churning through HD video. The benchmarking gurus over at Hot Hardware recently grabbed hold of the new silicon, and they noticed an “unmatched performance-per-watt profile for mobile CPUs,” not to mention a robust graphics core, “ridiculously low idle power consumption,” a respectable price point and plenty of power for any software title not named Crysis 2. ASUS’ 15.6-inch K53E was the test machine, and with a starting tag of just $899, it’s definitely a compelling package. Based on their testing, this particular CPU was around 15 to 25 percent faster across the board compared to its previous generation 2.5GHz Arrandale counterpart, and that’s with around the same power draw, too. Hit the source link for more charts than you’d care to see on an average workday, and be on the lookout for this chip to hit a whole slew of new rigs in the coming weeks.

ASUS’ K53E laptop gets reviewed, 2.53GHz Core i5-2520M CPU gets praised originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 23

Alienware M11x R3 specs leaked, brings Sandy Bridge to your next LAN party?

Posted in: CoreI5, CoreI7, gaming, intel, rumor, rumors, sandy bridge, SandyBridge, Today's Chili

Alienware’s laptops first hopped on the Sandy Bridge bandwagon when the company’s top-of-the-line M17x got Intel’s second-gen Core processors, and now it appears the more budget-conscious M11x may get some Sandy Bridge love too. According to Dell News and more — who correctly foretold the 3D screen on the M17x R3 before its January debut, among other things — the littlest alien laptop is getting your choice of Core i5-2537M, Core i7-2617M, and Core i7-2657M chips ranging in speeds from 1.4GHz to 2.7GHz. Accompanying the new silicon is an optional 750GB HDD (up from 640GB) and an upgrade from 800MHz to speedy 1333MHz RAM. And, to keep you gaming wherever you please, the company will offer optional 3g, LTE, and WiMAX radios as well. Unfortunately, one minor detail didn’t make it out — how much will the extra goodies cost?

Alienware M11x R3 specs leaked, brings Sandy Bridge to your next LAN party? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 09:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 19

The dual-core Sandy Bridge laptops have arrived! Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Sony start shipping systems

Posted in: CoreI5, CoreI7, HP, intel, Laptops, lenovo, samsung, sandy bridge, SandyBridge, Today's Chili

If your eyes have been glued to Engadget this week, you’ve noticed that there have been quite a few new laptops unveiled. Sure, Samsung’s rail-thin Series 9 stole a lot of the glory, but Dell and ASUS also rolled out a few new Intel Sandy Bridge systems. But something else big happened this week in the portable computer world — a good number of the dual-core Sandy Bridge systems finally started shipping to you laptop-loving people. Wait, but didn’t that happen back at CES? Not quite: while Intel announced the availability of Sandy Bridge back in January, it only started to ship its quad-core chips — now all the dual-core Core i3, i5, and i7s are ready and so are the systems that house ’em. We’ve gathered a list of the rigs that are now up for order or hitting retailers. Hit that read more link for a breakdown, and start deciding if you need some fresh dual-core power in your life.

Continue reading The dual-core Sandy Bridge laptops have arrived! Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Sony start shipping systems

The dual-core Sandy Bridge laptops have arrived! Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Sony start shipping systems originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 18

LucidLogix Virtu in action, discrete graphics and Sandy Bridge together at last

Posted in: AMD, ati, CoreI5, CoreI7, gaming, GraphicsCard, intel, NVIDIA, sandy bridge, SandyBridge, Software, Today's Chili

At CES, LucidLogix’s Virtu software solution promised to get discrete and Sandy Bridge GPUs together in graphical harmony — giving you both Sandy Bridge’s greased-lightning video transcoding and the horsepower of an NVIDIA or ATI rig. The code also lets you watch content from Intel’s forthcoming Insider movie service while running a discrete GPU. Now that Chipzilla’s 2nd-gen Core i5 and i7 CPUs are getting to market en masse, the gang at Hot Hardware put an RC of Virtu through its paces to see what it can do. As expected, the software waxes chumps and smokes fools when encoding HD video, but gaming performance suffered slightly (in FPS and 3DMark 11 tests) with the technology enabled. The other nit to pick was that Virtu renders the control panel of your discrete card unavailable, so any graphics adjustments must be made in-game whenever the software is running. Time will tell if the final release has similar shortcomings. Hit up the source link for the full rundown.

LucidLogix Virtu in action, discrete graphics and Sandy Bridge together at last originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 21:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 18

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 review

Posted in: CoreI5, lenovo, review, thinkpad, Today's Chili

Admit it, when you look at the picture above, all you really see is a laptop with a design that hasn’t changed much in the last ten years. It’s true, based on its professional aesthetic alone, the ThinkPad X220 can’t really be distinguished from the other X Series laptops Lenovo’s released pretty much on an annual cycle, but there’s much more than meets the eye with that there ultraportable. The 12.5-inch machine is filled to the brim with the latest and greatest technology, including a new Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 processor, an IPS display, and a six-cell battery. And if you look even closer, Lenovo’s made some small tweaks to the touchpad and keyboard, which make more difference than you’d ever think. The point is, that all-too-familiar ThinkPad can deceive you with its boring business looks, but it’s arguably one of the best laptops we’ve ever tested. Hit the break to find out why we think it’s so laudable.

Gallery: Lenovo ThinkPad X220 review

Continue reading Lenovo ThinkPad X220 review

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 17

Dell Vostro 3000 updated with Sandy Bridge processors, affordable prices go untouched

Posted in: CoreI5, CoreI7, hands-on, laptop, Laptops, Today's Chili
Not another business laptop updated with Sandy Bridge processors! We know, it’s getting a bit repetitive at this point, but what if we told you this group blends together some awesome features and won’t cost you more than $600? You’d be willing to hear more, right? Well, Dell’s indeed refreshing its 13-, 14-, 15-, and 17.3-inch Vostro 3000 series laptops with those fresh Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, but it’s leaving intact everything we loved about the series the first time around — including, its aluminum build, backlit keyboard, and matte displays. On top of that it’s also adding SRS Pro sound, HD webcams, and a new chiclet keyboard, which is a lot like the one we like so much on the Inspiron 14R and M101z. See we told you the features were worth hearing about. Internally, all four systems will be available with a selection of Sandy Bridge processors (with the 17.3-inch version getting some quad-core options), a variety of hard drive and SSD options, six- and nine cell batteries, and up to 8GB of RAM. We don’t have the exact configuration pricing, but according to the press release below the 13-inch 3350 will start at $599, 14-inch 3450 and 15-inch 3550 at $499, and lastly the 17-inch 3750 at $549. See, mighty tempting prices — especially after you take a look at the hands-on pictures below.

Gallery: Dell Vostro 3000 hands-on

Continue reading Dell Vostro 3000 updated with Sandy Bridge processors, affordable prices go untouched

Dell Vostro 3000 updated with Sandy Bridge processors, affordable prices go untouched originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 16

Samsung Series 9 laptop hits tomorrow for $1,649, 11-inch version coming in April

Posted in: CoreI5, laptop, samsung, sandy bridge, SandyBridge, Today's Chili
Sure, we saw some pricing leaks of the super slim Series 9 this morning, but Samsung is finally coming clean now with all the official details. Starting on March 17th (yep, tomorrow!), the 13.3-inch laptop with its Core i5-2537M processor, 128GB SSD, 4GB of RAM, and Windows 7 Home Premium will be available for $1,649. Sure, it’s a bit more than we expected, but we guess when you consider its solid state storage and 400nit display it makes a bit more sense. Still, there’s a big part of us that wishes there was a more entry-level configuration of the beautiful duralumin machine — in fact the only other configuration will be a $1,699 model with Win 7 Professional. The 13-inch model will be up for grabs at Best Buy, Tiger Direct, Amazon, and a number of other e-tailers.

Wondering about that 11.1-inch Series 9 model that we saw hanging around a few weeks ago? That one is a bit farther out, though not by much. Samsung isn’t releasing pricing on the smaller, 2.3-pound version, but it will be hitting in mid-April with a older Core i3-380UM processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 64GB SSD. It sounds like that one will be kinder on the wallet, but we’re still convinced there are a bunch out there that will opt for the larger screened machine. We’re hoping to bring you a review of the 13-incher very soon, but in the meantime hit the break for the official release.

Update: A few retailers seem to have the 13-inch version up for pre-order already, but Dynamism’s actually showing the 11-incher for $1,149. Samsung still isn’t giving official pricing on that version yet, however.

Continue reading Samsung Series 9 laptop hits tomorrow for $1,649, 11-inch version coming in April

Samsung Series 9 laptop hits tomorrow for $1,649, 11-inch version coming in April originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 16

Samsung Series 9 laptop priced at $1,649, makes our wallets gently weep

Posted in: CoreI5, laptop, price, pricing, samsung, thin and light, ThinAndLight, Today's Chili, ultraportable, windows 7, Windows7

The feature-rich and utterly gorgeous Series 9 laptop from Samsung has just received its US pricing and unfortunately it’s a bit of a whopper: $1,649. For that outlay, you’ll be getting a 13.3-inch screen, an LED-backlit display with 400 nits of brightness, Intel Core i5-2537M dual-core processor running at 1.4GHz, 4GB of RAM, and one super-speedy 128GB SSD. It’s an intriguing proposition, as both price and specs are decidedly high-end, but the decision as to which one wins out we’ll leave up to you. Hit up Samsung’s site below for a list of retailers — the Series 9 is listed for pre-order at the moment, but we doubt it’ll be long before delivery trucks start rolling out with ultrathin laptop boxes in tow.

[Thanks, Dave]

Samsung Series 9 laptop priced at $1,649, makes our wallets gently weep originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 10:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 08

Intel brings vPro to Sandy Bridge CPUs, makes losing your work laptop slightly less painful

Posted in: CoreI5, CoreI7, intel, sandy bridge, SandyBridge, security, Today's Chili

Imagine, if you will, business travelers gallivanting across the globe with nary a care in the world — secure in the fact that should they lose their laptop by hook or by crook, they can disable it with a simple text message. Well, the dream is now a reality as Intel has put its third-gen vPro technology in Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 business chips, giving users the ability to lock down and reactivate a PC remotely via SMS. Not exactly a fresh idea, but nice to see it passed on to more modern chipsets. To further simplify the lives of IT professionals, the new version of vPro also has an encryption login requirement upon awakening from sleep mode, 1920 x 1200 resolution remote management, and host-based configuration to allow the set up of countless PCs at once. Of course, that assumes your employer’s willing to pony up for Chipzilla’s new gear — the economic downturn’s almost over, right?

Intel brings vPro to Sandy Bridge CPUs, makes losing your work laptop slightly less painful originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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