Hasta La Gadget!

When Vizio entered the PC market last year, we weren’t gushing about its computers, per se, but we found ourselves rooting for the company anyway: for all it got wrong (flaky trackpads, poor battery life), it did a lot of things right. We had to respect Vizio for giving most of its PCs 1080p screens and installing a clean, bloatware-free version of Windows. Not to mention, Vizio kept the price relatively low, the same way it did when it was trying to break into the TV space. Now, the company is completely refreshing its lineup for 2013, leaving only one model from 2012 (that would be its 15-inch mainstream notebook). Starting now, all of its all-ones and Thin + Light laptops will come standard with touchscreens and quad-core processors, including some from AMD (a first for Vizio).

What’s curious is that although Vizio is taking the opportunity to replace most of its PCs, it hasn’t actually made any changes to the industrial design. That means, for better or worse, that these new models will probably be quite similar to the PCs we tested just a few months ago. Same metal chassis but also, the same flat keyboard. What they do promise is faster performance, along with improved audio. Both the 14- and 15-inch Thin + Light Touch are available with either a Core i7 CPU or AMD’s top-of-the-line A10 chip. Likewise, the 24-inch all-in-one is now the All-in-One Touch, and it too will be available with AMD and Intel processors. The 27-inch model, however, will be Intel-only.

As ever, these machines will have that clean, Microsoft Signature install, and almost all will have 1080p screens, save for the 14-inch Thin + Light, which has 1,600 x 900 resolution. No word on pricing, though Vizio says they’ll go on sale in mid-February. We’ll be back soon enough with hands-on shots but for now, check out some press photos after the break.

Continue reading Vizio refreshes its PC lineup: all new models have touchscreens, quad-core CPUs

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Comments

Velocity Micro was busy this December, and it’s not about to let up with CES right around the corner. At the forefront of its Las Vegas launches is the Edge Mini. While we’re sure some companies might take issue with the PC builder’s claims of having the world’s smallest desktop, there’s no denying that the extra-small Edge’s 4 square inches of surface area and 1.5-inch thickness let it slot easily into a home theater. A Core i3 won’t make the Edge Mini the most powerful tiny desktop, either, although its $499 asking price may not be an obstacle for those willing to buy the PC when it ships next week.

The tablet crowd also gets its fill with a pair of 10-inch Cruz tablets (pictured after the break). The D610 and Q610 respectively use dual- and quad-core, 1.5GHz Allwinner processors that help keep the starting price down to $199, a company spokesperson tells us. Velocity Micro expects both Cruz models to ship toward the end of March with Android 4.1 inside.

Continue reading Velocity Micro unveils tiny Edge Mini desktop, Cruz D610 and Q610 tablets

Filed under: Desktops, Tablets

Comments

Source: Velocity Micro

Keeping the Chrome OS party going, Samsung released an updated model of last year’s Series 3 chromebox. Gracefully named the XE300M22-B01US, this cloud-based workstation features the same 1.9GHz Intel Celeron B849 processor, 4GB of RAM, six USB 2.0 ports and 16GB SSD as its predecessor. The only real change here is the system’s appearance, which is now a sterile white plastic shell with a latch covering its front-facing inputs. The computer recently went on sale in the UK for 279 GBP ($453.50) with Samsung remaining mum on stateside release plans. However, if patience isn’t your strong suit and you’ve gotta have this machine now, you can pick up last year’s model (virtually the same hardware) for around $329 or less.

Filed under: Desktops, Software, Samsung, Google

Comments

Via: TG Daily

Source: Samsung

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is from Charles, who’s capping off the year with a fine question about DIY PC chassis. If you’re looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“I work in motion graphics and it’s upgrade time. I’m a DIY and Windows nut, so I’m looking to build my own tower, but the cases are all so horrible! I don’t need a plastic window, or something that looks like it was designed by aliens — just something that’s sharp, solid, good looking and has a respectable airflow. Is that too much to ask?”

Well, we trawled our brains (as well as a fair chunk of the internet) looking for some classy chassis, and this is what we found:

• Corsair’s Obsidian 550D may have a plastic window, but otherwise it’s a monolithic piece of imposing black metal that won’t ugly up your office.
• Coolermaster’s Silencio 650 is hewn from diamond-cut aluminum and drops the plastic window, and given the company’s heritage, should have excellent airflow.
• Finally, there’s the Lian-Li PC-A71F, which can only be described as terrifyingly sleek.

But what about you all? Let’s cap the year off with some stylish PC cases, peace and goodwill to everyone and a very happy New Year to you, the Engadgeteers.

Filed under: Desktops

Comments

The FCC sometimes gets a peek at hardware and reveals nothing but a model number to hint at what’s passed through its labyrinth. The latest filing leaving us scratching our heads is for the ASUS P1801-T, a “tablet” which could be the final version of the Transformer AiO prototype we saw back at Computex. How did we arrive at the AiO? Well, the model number is a possible clue — ASUS’ Eee Slate B121 has a 12.1-inch panel, so P1801-T may point to this device having 18 inches of screen. As ASUS’ dual-OS prototype all-in-one is the only (sort of) tablet we’ve seen with roughly that many inches, we assume the company is getting paperwork done before a proper launch at CES 2013. A “P1801” running Android 4.1.1 has also popped up at GLBenchmark, with Tegra3 graphics, a 1,920 x 1080 graphics and a Cortex-A9 CPU inside. If ASUS is keeping two OS’s as per the AiO prototype, that processor caters for only one Microsoft product — Windows RT. We’ll just be kept wondering until we hear something official, but at least for us, an 18-inch Android / RT super-tablet and part-time desktop sounds like it could be a hard sell.

Update: We noticed that the original PR from Computex 2012 stated that the tablet portion could also “become a wireless display for the AiO PC,” which could mean that the base unit is full-fledged Windows 8 machine with x86 hardware, making it a much more tempting idea.

Filed under: Desktops, Tablets, ASUS

Comments

Source: FCC, GLBenchmark