Hasta La Gadget!

According to a new report Intel has started shipping its latest Haswell chip to PC manufacturers. Though it has not officially been confirmed yet by Intel, the chips have reportedly started reaching major manufacturers and products based on it are expected to launch this quarter. It is expected that Intel will make an announcement regarding Haswell chips at the IDF conference, due to take place next week in Beijing. Haswell, Intel’s most power efficient mainstream processor, was touted by CEO Paul Otellini as the single largest generation-to-generation battery life improvement in Intel history.

A range of ultrabooks and tablet/laptop hybrids will be powered by the Haswell processor. According to the latest media note from Intel, the 4th generation Haswell core is on track for a mid-year launch. The Haswell processors retain a 22nm process similar to that of Ivy Bridge processors, though there’a new microarchitechture for improved performance. There will reportedly be 14 new CPUs across the Core i5 and Core i7 brands which will use an entirely new CPU socket called LGA 1150 on Lynx Point chipset motherboards, split in to six standard power SKUs and eight low power SKUs.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Human Brain Can Now Control Rat’s Tail, Firefox Beta Introduces Changes To Do Not Track Options,

The Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch combines the company’s Series 5 Ultrabook with a touchscreen covered in Corning Gorilla Glass, so you know it’s capable of taking all of your abusive pokes and prods for as long as you’re using it. The reason for the inclusion of a touchscreen is so you could make full use of Windows 8 on the laptop, which is able to recognize up to ten points of contact, meaning each finger will be recognized by the UltraTouch’s touchscreen. But does throwing a touchscreen on a laptop equipped with Windows 8 mean you should spend close to $1000 for it? That’s precisely the point of our review of the Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch. So without further ado, let’s get down to business.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung Series 9 Review (NP900), Toshiba Satellite U845W Review,

It’s tough to forget the ASUS TAICHI: out of all the Windows 8 convertibles we’ve seen (and we’ve seen a lot) this is the only one with two screens on board. In particular, it’s got one on the inside, which you’d use in regular notebook mode, along with a touchscreen on the outside that allows you to use the PC as a tablet. If you like, you can shut the lid completely and turn the machine into a slate-type of device, but you can also leave the lid open so that you’re mirroring your desktop, or displaying something different on each one (imagine the possibilities for presenters!). As an added trick, that outer screen also accepts pen input, though you’ll have to splurge on the highest-end configuration to get it with a stylus.

For now, ASUS is selling the 11.6-inch TAICHI 21 ($1,299 and up), though a 13-inch version is going to start shipping later this month. Hopefully, though, our review after the break answers questions you’d have about either model. Namely, what’s it like to use a machine with two screens, anyway?

Filed under: Laptops, ASUS

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Intel’s talking about its new stuff today at CES. Some of it’s new, some of it we’ve heard before. But we’ll let you know everything important that goes down today. More »

With CES looming like an electrically charged storm of news and announcements, it’s time for us to give you our best bets on what you’ll see come January. During the month of December, we’ll bring you a series of CES preview posts, forecasting what you can expect when the news deluge begins. For more of what’s to come, check out our hub.

It’s incredible to think that when CES 2012 kicked off back in January we had only reviewed five Ultrabooks. Yep, five. Enough to count on one hand. Even weirder, we still hadn’t seen that many by the time we wrapped our coverage of the show. Sure, a few companies teased ultraportables they planned to release later in the year, but these only represented a slice of the 100-plus models slated to launch in 2012. And that didn’t even include all the Ultrabook imposters! Ever hear of Sleekbooks? Ultrathins? Whoever said PCs are dead clearly doesn’t have to review them for a living.

Continue reading Engadget’s CES 2013 Preview: Laptops

Filed under: Laptops

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