Sony has launched a new range of VAIO notebooks, the VAIO red edition, adding hand-finishing and some limited-edition allure to several of its portables. The new variants will include models in the VAIO Duo 13, VAIO Pro 11, VAIO Pro 13, VAIO Fit 14, and VAIO Fit 15 ranges, all including touch, and all with
Three years in the making, the new Alienware 17 and Alienware 18 notebooks arrive at a time when gaming is under the spotlight. Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 have thrown new attention on mainstream gaming, but the Dell-owned PC gaming specialist isn’t willing to concede the power crown so readily. Alongside the new
Alienware has a new gaming notebook range, the result of three years of development, and the Alienware 14 may well be our favorite. “Significantly evolved” from the already eye-catching design of the old model, the new Alienware 14 – the “M14x” nomenclature has been retired, Alienware GM Frank Azor says, since nobody outside of the
This week the folks at Apple have revealed a new generation for the MacBook Air at WWDC 2013 with a 4th Generation Intel core processor (Haswell.) This system works with Haswell ULT, made for notebooks to work with smart low-power states with “up to 30 days” of standby time. While the 5 hours of battery
Haswell-infused devices have been stepping out from behind curtains for the past few days, and now Maingear’s ready to unveil its latest gaming notebook with Intel’s fresh silicon: the Pulse 14. Each configuration of the rig comes decked out with a quad-core Core i7 processor clocked at 2.2GHz, a GeForce GTX 760M graphics card with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, 2.1-channel speakers and a 14-inch, 1,600×900 resolution display. As for connectivity, an SD card slot, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet and three USB 3.0 ports all come standard with the machine. Extracting $1,299 from your wallet will net you a respectable 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a 500GB hybrid drive. Ponying up $1,399 will nab you a 1TB HDD with a 32GB caching SSD, while shelling out $1,699 brings in 16GB of RAM and two 128GB solid state drives in Raid 0 backed by a 1TB hard drive. Take a gander at the laptop in the bordering gallery or hit the break for more details in the press release.
There’s something I love about high-quality notebooks. They will keep your notes pristine for years, and can be easily referenced. Naturally, there are plenty of different good quality notebooks available from other manufacturers like Rhodia, but there’s just something perfect about tracking notes and events in a Star Wars Moleskine Planner.
The 2013-2014 Star Wars Moleskine Planners are for those people who don’t like to always refer to their smartphones for their agenda. There are a total of six different designs available, with two new ones for this year. All of them are available in 12- or 18-month versions with customizable covers.
They start out at $8.95(USD) for the smaller versions up to $24 for the largest over at the Moleskine store.
[via highsnobsociety via HiConsumption]
A good notebook can’t just do one thing well these days, it has to multi-task in at least two ways, and so on that front the ASUS Transformer Book Trio is off to a good start. Revealed at Computex 2013 this morning, the 11.6-inch notebook is billed as “the world’s first three-in-one mobile device” with a removable screen section that can flip between Windows 8 and Android, and which can be used both on the desktop and while mobile.
In ultrabook mode, the Transformer Book Trio is a compact ultraportable with a full keyboard and a 1080p HD display. However, it can also be pulled from the keyboard to make an Android tablet, or slotted into a PC Station dock for desktop use.
In the slate section itself, there’s a 2.0GHz Intel Atom Z2580 processor and up to 64GB of storage: that can run either Windows 8 or Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, depending on which mode you switch between. There’s a dedicated key to hop between the platforms, and ASUS says that users should not only be able to access data from the other OS, but stay on the same webpage they’re currently viewing.
The PC Station gets its own, dedicated processor, however: a 4th-gen Intel Core i7 no less. There’s also a 750GB hard-drive, and connectivity for an external display if 11.6-inches isn’t quite your ergonomic ideal for desk-bound operations. The dock recharges the slate section’s battery, too.
ASUS hasn’t confirmed pricing for the Transformer Book Trio, though it’s expected to reach the market sometime in Q3 2013. Whether there are sufficient buyers intrigued enough in a twin-OS hybrid that can only really be used by one person at a time (unlike, say, an ultrabook and a separate Android tablet) remains to be seen.
ASUS Transformer Book Trio runs Android and Windows on lap, desk & in hands is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Once upon a time, glass was a fragile thing; now, thanks to toughening tech, ASUS can splash a slab of the stuff across the top of its new Zenbook Infinity notebook. Topped by a sheet of Gorilla Glass 3, the same toughened material as we’re used to seeing fronting smartphones and tablets, the Zenbook Infinity uses that extra rigidity and strength to drop a dress size, metaphorically speaking, and trim things down to just 15.5mm at its thickest.
That’s a roughly 14-percent cut versus the last-generation of Zenbook models, ASUS says, suggesting that the Gorilla Glass 3 treatment isn’t just an aesthetic one. Not to say it needn’t look good, though; ASUS has sandwiched some graphics inside, and the whole thing shimmers and shines like you’d expect a glass lid to.
Inside, and there’s a 13.3-inch display which is also a full touchscreen, for those moments you want to stab at Windows 8. Gorilla Glass 3 gets a second outing around the keyboard area, too, and the keyboard itself squeezes in backlighting.
Underneath meanwhile, there’s one of Intel’s 28W Haswell dualcore processors, while connectivity includes two USB 3.0, a micro-HDMI, and a Mini Display Port. The ultrabook also gets an SD card slot and a headphones socket.
Look at it from the side and you could be forgiven for thinking of a certain Apple ultraportable, with the wedge profile not dissimilar to the MacBook Air. That’s an accusation that is probably going to haunt ASUS to the market and beyond, though it’s worth noting that the company has managed to make a thinner machine than Apple.
The big deciding factor is likely to be pricing, and that – along with when the Zenbook Infinity will reach shelves – is still unclear.
ASUS Zenbook Infinity wraps super-skinny ultrabook in Gorilla Glass 3 is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
While Acer is pushing forth several machines this week that take on the mantel of an entirely new design in and of themselves at Computex, the Acer Aspire S7 looks, on the surface, to be the same machine as it was earlier this year. Under the surface though is a reboot that means more than just accepting the 4th generation of Intel Core (Haswell) processors. Included in this reboot of the Aspire S7 is 2nd generation Acer TwinAir cooling, new electroluminescent (EL) backlit keyboard technology, and a new option for a display sharper than its already-1080p-wielding predecessor.
Though it seemed almost over-the-top seeing 1920 x 1080 resolution on this notebook earlier this year – see our Acer Aspire S7 review to see what we mean – this new iteration of the machine will have a 2560 x 1440 pixel option. That’s WQHD on a 13.3-inch display, using IPS LCD technology on what’s also the first display to be both WQHD and 10-finger touch for Acer.
This notebook – this Ultrabook, rather – works with an ever-so-slightly thicker body at 12.9mm (where the original was 12.5mm) and remains light enough to compete at 1.3kg. Both sides of the lid (the top and the display) are covered with Gorilla Glass 2 while the bottom bit is made with a single block of aluminum.
NOTE: Above and below you’re seeing the original Acer Aspire S7 – the reboot appears in the gallery below, and is essentially identical save its optional WQHD display.
Acer employs dual-array microphones with this machine with Acer’s own PurifiedVoice technology. This aims directly at making the computer understand, transmit, and record – where necessary – your voice for voice recognition (hello Google) and VOIP applications in as “crystal clear” a manner as Acer is able.
The display’s ability to pull back 180 degrees – flat, that is – allows for more multi-user capabilities as well. “Touch-and-show sharing” they call it, with a hotkey combination flipping the orientation of the display at will. Aside this machine’s 4th gen Intel Core processor is a RAID 0 solid state drive for silent operation and quick read/write times and wakeup from sleep.
Intel’s Haswell generation of Core processors work here to bring on Intel WiDi technology so that this machine can extend or mirror its display to a TV or otherwise big screen monitor wirelessly. Intel’s technology is also implemented here to improve battery life, coming in at 7 hours according to Acer, that ending up bringing a 33% improvement over the original.
At the moment Acer notes that this update to the Acer Aspire S7 will be available in the third quarter of 2013. Pricing and more specific release information will be appearing soon.
Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook gets Haswell reboot with optional WQHD is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This week at Computex, Acer has revealed a set of notebooks and desktop machines that bring on 4th generation Intel Core (Haswell) processor technology along with upgraded features to their units. Here with the Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook line, a bit of an aesthetic change has been made to the industrial design of the machine. Deriving from the successful bits and pieces seen in the Acer Aspire S7, the Acer Aspire S3 now takes on a look that’s a bit more “today”.
Here at SlashGear we’ve done an Acer Aspire S3 review as it existed back in February of 2012, packed with its own Intel Core i7 processor. Back then it was nothing to joke about when it came to entertainment abilities and general comfort in use, but here in 2013, things have changed a bit.
The Aspire S3 now uses Windows 8 and employs touchscreen abilities, working with a dual-torque hinge like the S7 for flat-lying multi-user functionality. This device now employs a light-sensing keyboard with auto-adjusting backlit keys, an aluminum cover sprayed “Sparkling White” with a “mirror-polish” finish to evoke “the family design and visual purity of the S7′s gorilla glass cover”, and the operation area throughout the machine is made from anodized aluminum – smooth and tough, that is.
Inside the Acer Aspire S3 alongside a 4th generation Intel Core processor will be NVIDIA GeForce GT 735M graphics – architecture introduced in April of this year for what was up until this past week NVIDIA’s top-notch graphics processing offering for the laptop form factor.
The Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook will be available with a 7.2mm 1 TB hard disk for storage and will come standard with features like WiDi (Wireless Display) courtesy of Intel’s newest generation of processors. This machine’s 1080p Full HD display works with 170 degrees of viewability with IPS LCD technology and the whole system is able to wake from Sleep mode “in just 1 second” according to Acer with Acer Fast Resume, this and basic booting from complete shut down turning the display on when the display is opened. No more need for a power button!
This 17.8mm thin machine will be available in the third quarter of 2013, while final pricing and exact dates will be available sooner than later.
Acer Aspire S3 2013 reboot nabs design tips from S7 flagship is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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