Hasta La Gadget!

Samsung’s Exynos 5-based Chromebook may have been available since last October, but how about one equipped with WiMAX radio? Graced with the presence of Google and Samsung reps in Kuala Lumpur (including a video message from Google SVP Sundar Pichai), today Malaysian carrier Yes 4G unveiled this rather special laptop for the local consumers. In fact, we should have seen this coming as Google’s official blog did hint this last month, but we failed to catch that blurred “Yes 4G” logo on the laptop in the blog’s photo.

As Google mentioned, the ultimate goal here is to help transform Malaysia’s education using the Chromebook. And now we know that this ambition will be backed by Yes 4G’s rapidly growing WiMAX network — from the initial 1,200 base stations in 2010 to today’s 4,000, covering 85 percent of the peninsula; and the carrier will expand into the eastern side with 700 more sites by the end of this year. This is especially important for the rural areas, where many schools still lack access to water and electricity. As a partner of the Malaysian Ministry of Education’s 1BestariNet project, Yes 4G’s parent company YTL Communications has so far ensured that 7,000 local state schools are covered by its WiMAX network, with the remaining 3,000 to be connected over the next six months.

Filed under: Laptops, Samsung

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Source: Yes

So, it’s not the full laptop setup we were kinda-sorta expecting based on Samsung’s announcement yesterday, but the Korean company’s 13.3-inch 3,200 x 1,800 panel — with a whopping 275 ppi — is still plenty impressive on its own. Though the prototype was connected to a desktop PC rather than installed in a notebook, the demo gave us what we came for: a look at that sheer pixel density. You really have to see it to believe it — with the desktop set to the screen’s native resolution, menus, icons and text all appear tiny. The benefit of such a high resolution, of course, is that you can fit more information on screen, and it’s more than a little reminiscent of Apple’s Retina display. The booth wasn’t equipped with internet access, so we couldn’t test the panel’s mettle with a trip to this very site, but images on the desktop and in Samsung’s pre-loaded PowerPoint looked very bright and crisp.

In addition to playing up the pixel count, Samsung touted its prototype as a “green panel,” claiming 30-percent lower power consumption than existing LCDs. And like the flexible LG display we saw just a bit earlier, this screen won’t stay off the market for long: expect a 13.3-inch version — with touch capability — to ship in the next two months, though it may debut on a third-party laptop, not necessarily one manufactured by Samsung. A rep told us that 14- and 15.6-inch versions will follow. Check out our hands-on video and photos for a closer look.

Filed under: Displays, Laptops, Samsung

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Starting to get bored of the ThinkPad’s classic look but not keen on the Edge series? Then we have good news for you! Earlier today we received a couple of photos that show off two upcoming Lenovo Ultrabooks: the 13-inch ThinkPad S3 (codename “Labatt”) and the 15-inch ThinkPad S5 (“Guinness”). As you can see above and after the break, both aluminum laptops feature a new “floating design” that might have taken a page out of Samsung and Vizio’s book: shaving off the front outer edges of the bottom side to create that slim and floating illusion. Also, these will apparently come with either a black or silver lid.

Some folks on Sina Weibo have received other teaser photos of the ThinkPad S5, with one confirming the presence of JBL stereo speakers. The funny thing is Chinese website Yesky reported on a charity auction that actually sold limited editions of the S3 and S5 earlier this month, but those unannounced Ultrabooks went under everyone else’s radar. If you’re curious, Yesky speculates that a launch is due in China at the end of this month, but you’ll have to stay tuned for the prices and specs.

Filed under: Laptops, Lenovo

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Chromebooks do not have any built-in capability to access local content (LAN) in its native mode because there is no access to the chromeOS filesystem to mount a network shared resource. I wish there was a “browse network” feature in […]

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On top of yesterday’s 4K announcement, Samsung has also given us a quick heads-up on one of the prototype displays it’s planning to show off at this year’s Display Week event. It’s a highly gawp-worthy 3,200 x 1,800 (“WQXGA+”) panel destined for 13-inch laptops that insist on taking things further than the Retina MacBook Pro (2,560 x 1,600) or Samsung’s Series 9 prototype (2,560 x 1,440, shown above). As an added advantage, the panel is promised to deliver “30 percent greater power-savings” compared to existing LCDs thanks to a reduction in the number of driver circuits as well as more efficient backlight units. Display Week starts today, so we should soon have a first-person account of this unheard-of pixel density straight from Samsung’s stall.

Filed under: Displays, Laptops, Samsung

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