Hasta La Gadget!

HP has been fleshing out its Ultrabook lineup as of late, most recently adding the metal-clad Envy Spectre XT to the mix, but the company is also addressing the lower end of the market with its Sleekbook line, announced back in May. Confusingly, these thin-and-light systems look exactly the same as the new Envy-branded Ultrabooks, except that the Sleekbooks are less expensive — namely because for one reason or another they don’t meet Intel’s Ultrabook guidelines. One such notebook, the Envy Sleekbook 6z, stands apart from the Ultrabook fold with an AMD Trinity APU — a spec that helps keep the starting price nice and low at $600.

That’s not to say that all of HP’s Sleekbooks ditch Intel processors, but given the choice between and AMD- and Intel-based model we quickly chose the former. After all, the 6z is the first Trinity-powered system we’ve had the chance to test, so we were naturally curious to see how it stacks up against recent Ivy Bridge machines — and we imagine you are, too. So without any further ado, let’s get to it.

Continue reading HP Envy Sleekbook 6z review: an inexpensive thin-and-light with AMD innards

HP Envy Sleekbook 6z review: an inexpensive thin-and-light with AMD innards originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba is one of the few Japanese tech giants to be riding high from a cash standpoint, but the company is still looking for ways to trim the fat — not to mention get some fresh design in the process. The firm is merging the design team for its Regza TVs into the same western Tokyo facility that houses its PC and tablet groups. While there’s a certain amount of cost-cutting involved, the shift will help “fusion products,” Toshiba says, where TV influences PCs and tablets (or vice versa) like so much chocolate getting into peanut butter. The only amount of discord left might be in Toshiba’s TV production, where quality and production controls are being outsourced and more of the production itself is leaving Japan. As much as we’d argue that the Excite 13 is almost too much like a TV to begin with, we’ll only find out whether or not there’s merit to Toshiba’s design nirvana after the groups get cozy with each other later this year.

Continue reading Toshiba unites PC, tablet and TV design groups, aims for hub of digital harmony

Filed under: Desktops, Home Entertainment, Laptops, Tablet PCs

Toshiba unites PC, tablet and TV design groups, aims for hub of digital harmony originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 09:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While parent company Acer eyes deeper pockets and higher margins, Packard Bell is soldiering on with its EasyNote range of laptops for thrifty Europeans. Spotted by the friendly folk at Pocket-lint, the EasyNote TE has just reached stores and should scrape under the €400 (£300, $500) mark — thanks partly to its avoidance of the premium Intel processor found in the EasyNote TV. Instead, the TE relies on AMD’s updated E-Series processor (the slower 1.4GHz E1-1200 version, to be precise), which comes with capable Radeon HD 7310 onboard graphics and supports a USB 3.0 port (in addition to twin USB 2.0) and HDMI output. You’ll also find a 15.6-inch 1366 x 768 display, 750GB of storage and a “multi-in-1” card slot — which means the only spec we’re missing is the RAM. Who’ll take a bet on 4GB?

Continue reading Packard Bell burrows affordable niche with EasyNote TE: 400 euros, 15.6 inches, AMD inside

Packard Bell burrows affordable niche with EasyNote TE: 400 euros, 15.6 inches, AMD inside originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tablet shipments will eclipse those of notebooks in just four years time, according to new research, as Apple’s iPad leads a slate storm that will overshadow traditional mobile computing. While the mobile market as a whole is expected to more than double by 2017, NPD DisplaySearch claims, that growth will be disproportionately driven by tablet sales, shipments of which are tipped to more than triple.

The research team suggests that notebook shipments will grow from 208m units this year to an estimated 393m units in 2017. Meanwhile, tablet shipments will grow from 121m this year to 416m units in the same period, with particular interest from the so-called “mature markets” of North America, Japan and Western Europe which are already showing traditional computing saturation.

“While the lines between tablet and notebook PCs are blurring, we expect mature markets to be the primary regions for tablet PC adoption” NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim says. “New entrants are tending to launch their initial products in mature markets. Services and infrastructure needed to create compelling new usage models are often better established in mature markets.”

Overall, the mobile PC market will grow from 347m units this year to in excess of 809m units by 2017. Tablet shipments will overtake those of notebooks sometime in 2016, it’s predicted.

Tablets to overtake notebooks in 2016 researchers predict is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Announced early May, then officialized early June, Today (Early July) NEC finally gave its LaVie Z its definitive launch date and price line-up. So technically speaker nothing much has changed here, the LaVie Z is still an ultrabook and still comes with a Core-i7-3517U or Core i5-3317U, SSD, a 13.3″ screen with a 1600×900 resolution and lithium-magnesium alloy but comes now in an even lighter package and now weight just 875g instead of the 999g previously announced!
Anyway the first …