LG introduced today in Korea a new Ultrabook with the U560 that comes with a gorgeous IPS 15.6″ screen! With an ultra thin body of 20.9mm and a weight of 1.95kg, the U560 comes with a 1.8GHz Core i5-3337U CPU, 16GB of RAM (Max), the choice between a DVD Burner or Blu-Ray Driver as well as the choice between an SSD or HDD. Set for an Korea launch only the U560 will hopefully be later available in other countries as well.
Just as we were about to wrap-up the entire day, LG took the crunch time and unveiled the U560 ultrabook. Although the details are short, the translated press release reveals that the U560 ultrabook sports a 15.6-inch display with a yet to be detailed resolution that LG says can deliver crisp and natural colors. It will be powered by Intel’s third-generation Core i5 3337U processors and a high performance graphics that appears to be from NVIDIA, as noted by its support page. It will also offer a dual-storage solution of SSDs and HDDs, three USB ports, and HDMI connectivity. The U560 ultrabook is clearly launching in South Korea for now, but we’re hoping that it will also come out knocking at European and U.S. doors pretty soon. Pricing has yet to be announced as well.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Slides Get Offline Editing Features, SkyDrive Now Features Live Tiles, 
There have already been a few 15-inch Ultrabooks that have pushed the very limits of the thin-and-light category. Still, LG wants its turn at bending the rules. Its new U560 packs a 15.6-inch display and an optical drive that, together, contribute to the PC’s 4.3-pound weight and 0.82-inch thickness — really, it’s a traditional laptop in a slimmer than usual package. Not that we’ll complain too much when it involves an IPS-based LCD, a 1.8GHz Core i5, dedicated graphics (a support page suggests NVIDIA) and both a spinning hard disk as well as solid-state storage. The U560’s launch is limited to South Korea so far, although we wouldn’t be surprised to see Europe and other territories get their turn.
Source: LG (translated)
ASUS‘s VivoBook line has been available for some time now, offering 11.6-inch and 14-inch models, but the company is now offering a middle-of-the-line 13.3-inch VivoBook for consumers looking for a compromise. The VivoBook S300 weighs in at just under four pounds and measures just 0.8 inches thick. Essentially, it has what you’d expect out of a thin-and-light notebook, but without the super-high price tag.
The VivoBook S300 will be available with both premium and budget options, including a Core i7 Ivy Bridge CPU, as well as Celeron or Pentium chips. However, the S300 will pack in a traditional hard drive rather than a more-modern solid state drive. However, you will be treated with a 44Whr battery, a VGA port, two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, and HDMI.
In total, there will be six processor options to choose from, ranging from the Celeron 847 ULV to the most-expensive Core i7-3517U. The four other chips consist of a Pentium, two Core i3 CPUs, and a Core i5. All models will also feature 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, an SD card reader, 2GB to 4GB of graphics, and either a 320GB or 500GB hard drive. The 13.3-inch display will carry a resolution of 1366×768.
Sadly, no pricing or availability details were announced yet, but seeing how you can grab the 11.6-inch model for $499, and the 14-inch model for $699, we’d expect the price range for the 13.3-inch variant to be in the $600 range on average. If you’re looking for a mid-range laptop, the S300 might be the one for you.
[via MobileGeeks]
ASUS VivoBook S300 13-inch notebook quietly unveiled is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
CES is done for another year, but before we can drop the microphone, we need to put together a reminisci-package to summarize the week in notebook computing. This year’s show was chock-full with Ultrabooks, leading many to believe that full-fat notebooks are going the way of the Dodo. However, Intel’s Kirk Skaugen feels that rumors of the laptop’s demise at the hands of the Ultrabook are greatly exaggerated — seeing the latter as merely a subset of the overall mobile PC firmament. Intel announced its power-sipping Haswell architecture and revealed its highly desirable North Cape reference design, which offered us a tantalizing glimpse of what future hardware could be like. However, before we get to that, we need to deal with the hardware hitting stores this year, so if you’d like to know more, follow us after the break.
Continue reading CES 2013: Laptop and Ultrabook roundup
Gigabyte has a trio of notebooks for CES, a pair of ultrabooks and a new gaming machine with a 17-inch display and hefty graphics grunt. The Gigabyte U2142 ultrabook has an 11.6-inch display and a convertible touchscreen, running Windows 8 on a 3rd gen Intel Core processor; it not only has a 256GB mSATA SSD, but up to 1TB of regular storage for the best of speed and capacity.
The larger model, the Gigabyte U2442, has a 14-inch 1600 x 900 display and a 2.5GHz Core i5-3210M processor paired with up to 16GB of memory. There’s NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M 2GB graphics, and a choice of either 128GB mSATA, a duo of 128GB mSATA and up to 1TB HDD, or a single 256GB SSD. Ports include USB 2.0, USB 3.0, HDMI and VGA, ethernet, and an SD card reader, plus there’s WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0.
Finally, the Gigabyte P2742G is the company’s new gaming monster, with a 17.3-inch Full HD display, 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-3630QM processor, up to 24GB of DDR3 memory spread over three slots, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M 2GB graphics. It can be fitted with either a 750GB hybrid HDD (with 8GB of flash caching memory) or a 128GB SSD/1TB HDD duo.
A Blu-ray drive, ethernet port, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and an 8-cell 5200mAh battery round out the key specs in what’s a 3.2kg machine. No word on pricing or availability for any of the three.
Gigabyte outs touchscreen Ultrabook, gaming laptop monster and more is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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
By now, you should be familiar with all the Windows 8 options flooding the market and here on the CES 2013 show floor, LG’s showing off its latest Ultrabook entry: the Z360. The thin and light device measures just 13.6mm and weighs in at 1.15kg making it easily openable with just one finger. Of course, since the Z360’s 13.3-inch 1080p IPS panel doesn’t support touch input, there’s an array of dedicated “Metro” hot keys along the left edge of the keyboard. Inside, you’re getting a fourth-generation Intel Core i5 processor (alternate Core i3 and i7 configurations are also possible) which allows for the device to cold boot in just eight seconds. On the Z360’s bottom right, you’ll find two slots for microSD slightly hidden, as well as HDMI and wired ethernet ports around the device. LG hasn’t made its pricing or release details known at this time, so stay tuned for those additional details.
Gallery: LG Z360 Ultrabook hands-on
Continue reading LG’s 13.3-inch Windows 8 Ultrabook Z360 hands-on
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.
Just about a year after Samsung first announced its mid-range Series 5 Ultrabooks, it’s refreshing them with a higher-end aluminum chassis, backlit keyboards and touchscreens. The laptop, which will be available with a 14-inch screen only, will be offerred in black, red and navy (same as the GS III). It will come standard with a touchscreen in the US, though the version on display here at CES wasn’t touch-enabled.
Perhaps the biggest difference — aside from the touch bit — is that the design has a considerably more upscale feel than the last-gen models. Here, you have a brushed aluminum lid that takes after the high-end Series 9 line. In fact, every surface here is made of metal, save for the bottom, which is plastic. The keyboard layout is more similar to the last year’s model, though, except that now it has backlighting.
As before, the chassis is thick enough to make room for a tray-loading optical drive. Other amenities include three USB ports (one of them 3.0), an Ethernet jack, HDMI-out, a headphone port, DisplayPort (swapped in for VGA) and a lock slot. A Samsung rep told us it will be sold in two configurations in the US: a $749 model with a Core i3 processor and a 4GB of RAM and an $899 model with Core i5 and eight gigs of memory. Both will have 1,366 x 768 resolution (a minor disappointment) and a 500GB hard drive paired with 24GB of ExpressCache for faster boot-ups and application launch times. In the US, at least, you’re looking at integrated graphics only, though in other countries it will be available with an AMD Radeon HD 8750 GPU. Look for these in February and for now, enjoy the hands-on shots below.
Gallery: Samsung Series 5 hands-on (2013)
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