Hasta La Gadget!

It wouldn’t be a CES without a big showing from Sony. We’ll be speaking with the company a few times this week, starting with a conversation about its laptop offerings with VAIO product specialist, David Ng, including Sony’s jump into the convertible world of Windows 8. Jump on after the break to check out the conversation.

Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here!

Continue reading Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Sony VAIO’s David Ng

Filed under: Laptops, Sony

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We were able to sit down with Intel’s PC chief, Kirk Skaugen, and chew through the revelations and news that were announced at the press conference the day before. We wanted to know if Ultrabooks will eventually replace Laptops, what was the motivation behind the decision to make Haswell Ultrabooks touch only and if there’s one form factor from the several available that’s winning the popularity war. Share our curiosity? After the break is where you need to be.

Continue reading Kirk Skaugen reveals why Intel made touch mandatory for Haswell Ultrabooks

Filed under: Laptops, Intel

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Here at CES 2013, LG’s introing a brand-new Windows 8 line: the Tab-Book and Tab-Book Ultra. As you may be able to tell from the naming convention, the devices are intended to offer the best of both worlds, offering a convertible slider form factor and, in the case of the Ultra, the thinness and lightness associated with Ultrabooks. Both models support five-point multi-touch and pack 11.6-inch 720p IPS displays, in addition to ports for HDMI and USB 3.0. But that’s about where the similarities end. The Z160 is the company’s more high-end offering, weighing 1.23kg and measuring in at 19.4mm thick (versus the H160’s 1.05kg and 15.9mm thickness) and also features a third-generation Intel Core i5, whereas its sibling is Atom-powered. Seen from the side, the two hybrids appear a bit chunky, so we’re not entirely convinced the Z160 deserves the extra Ultrabook-like comparison. To access the sliding function and expose the somewhat cramped keyboard beneath, users will have to press a dedicated button along the left edge of the device. In our brief testing, the screen seemed to snap into place quickly and with ease. We’re not sure how comfortable that “Ultrabook” configuration will be for users considering the hard-edged rim that pokes up just above the keyboard and cuts into the wrist. Again, we don’t know pricing or availability for either of these Tab-Books, so for now check out the gallery below and stay tuned for a video walkthrough.

Continue reading LG Tab-Book Ultra Z160 and Tab-Book H160 hands-on

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, LG

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Welcome to “Laptop Porn,” an exciting series hosted by that lady who reviews notebooks sometimes. Here at CES 2013, Samsung is showing off a white version of its 13-inch Series 9 Ultrabook — the same second-gen model that’s been shipping since last year. What’s interesting is that although this has the same magnesium-alloy frame as all the other Series 9 laptops, the finish feels different: it’s smoother, and warmer to the touch. It feels so different, in fact, that we initially thought it was some sort of watered-down plastic version meant to be sold at a lower price.

As it turns out, it’s apparently just difficult to paint metal, and the manufacturing process required to make this laptop in white results in a smoother surface. We’re not sure we prefer it this way, though this finish does have the advantage of masking fingerprints better. Samsung says it hasn’t decided whether or not to bring this to market. In fact, a rep told us the product team is going to listen to feedback at the show to decide whether or not introducing this different material is a good idea. (We already know they take Engadget commenters very seriously!) In any case, in absence of any concrete plans, we’ll leave you to peruse our hands-on photos and have unnecessarily heated arguments about color preferences.

Filed under: Laptops, Samsung

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The PC ecosystem is no longer as simple as it once was — first there were desktops, then laptops, then tablets, then all-in-ones. Buying a PC now is more nebulous than it ever was. You could build your very own rig, piece-by-piece, or you could buy one of the many, many pre-fab options out there (or some mixture of the two, of course). And then there’s even more outside-of-the-box options, like Razer’s recently re-introduced Edge (aka “Project Fiona”), which occupies a space all its own. Part laptop, part tablet, part home console, and part portable console, the Razer Edge is the fruition of Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan’s dream to create a “true” portable PC gaming machine. And weighing in at just two pounds, the Edge is dramatically lighter than Razer’s other portable gaming machine, the Blade (which clocks in at a whopping 6.6 lbs.), making it the company’s first actually portable game console.

Keeping those Blade comparisons rolling, the base level Edge at $999 features a slight step down from the Blade’s Core i7 Ivy Bridge processor to a 1.7GHz Intel’s Core i5 (the Edge Pro at $1299 boosts that CPU to a 1.9GHz Ivy Bridge i7, more closely matching the far costlier Blade). Thankfully, the Edge’s GPU is not only discreet, but also powerful and (thankfully) not fragmented between the two models: an NVIDIA GT640M LE powers the graphics on both, while 4GB or 8GB (respectively) of DDR3 RAM keeps it all running smoothly. The base model Edge holds 64GB of content in a speedy solid state drive (128GB in the Pro model, upgradeable to 256GB). But let’s be honest — you already know most of these specs, right? What matters is how all this stuff pans out, and we’ve just gotten our first chance to find out. Head past the break to see how Razer’s Edge fared.

Continue reading Hands-on with Razer’s Edge, a $999 gaming tablet / home console

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops, Tablets, HD, Mobile

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