Hasta La Gadget!

Been wondering how that new 6Gbps SATA interface and Marvell controller have been treating Intel’s latest SSDs? The answer, it turns out, is really rather nicely. Faced off with OCZ’s awesomely quick Vertex 3 drive, the 250GB SSD 510 from Intel more than holds its own, occasionally flashing ahead and taking the lead. Opting for Marvell’s processing chip has improved Intel’s sequential performance, but has actually led to it taking a ding on random read speeds — the latter being arguably more important on a day-to-day basis. Still, this $584 drive is one of the finest the consumer world has yet had to feast upon and should encourage high expectations from Intel’s 25nm G3 storage units, which are still to come. As to having the extra Serial ATA bandwidth, we’ll leave it to Anand from AnandTech to summarize: “these next-generation SSDs not only use 6Gbps SATA, they really need it.”

Intel’s SSD 510 reviewed, measures up well against Vertex 3 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unless you’re eagerly anticipating your IT department handing one of these to you, something tells us the Stylistic Q550 isn’t the tablet you’re looking for. Why’s that? Everything about the experience screams “corporate,” starting with our time at Fujitsu’s booth earlier today where business dealings to deploy the tablet in some corporate environment were literally happening before our very eyes. There was only one unit in the vicinity — and the suits were relentless in trying to get their paws on it — but we spent just long enough with it to figure out that there are far, far better-suited consumer options out there; as far as we can tell, that’s exactly how Fujitsu wants it. That opinion was further reinforced by the presence of a smart card reader on the side (for secure logins), a fingerprint scanner on back, and old-school pen input, which Fujitsu tells us that legacy tablet users (read: medical personnel and field data entry folks) still want. It can take fingers, too, but we felt like the quality of the display is compromised a bit for the dual-mode support. Interestingly, there’s no place to store the pen in the tablet anyway; you’ll need the accessory case for that.

The company is talking about its custom Windows 7 skin as a key differentiator. The build they had on the demo unit was a little buggy, but at any rate, we came away with the impression that it’s basically just a finger-friendly view to launch apps; fortunately, the full Windows experience — which is just as non-touch-optimized as ever — is just a tap away. We were hoping the Oak Trail guts would keep everything snappy, but the pre-release code here was actually lagging pretty badly as we navigated from screen to screen. Don’t get us wrong: we’re sure these are precisely the specs that some enterprise customers are looking for… but as an individual, gadget-loving, tablet-wanting human being, we’re pretty sure they aren’t the specs that you’re looking for.

Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We didn’t think the previous generation of SSDs, topping out at around 280MBps read speeds, were in any way hampered by their celerity, but Intel’s bringing the future to us whether we like it or not with its new 510 Series SSDs. These Marvell-controlled flash storage drives will zip data to your processing unit at a rate of 500MB per second and write anything you send back at a clip of 315MBps. That’s mostly thanks to the 510 being one of a new breed of consumer SSDs with a 6Gbps SATA interface, which has effectively removed a bottleneck from the performance equation and uncorked the extra vroom now contained within. When bought in bulk, a 250GB SSD 510 will cost you $584, while the slightly slower (450MBps read, 210MBps write) 120GB model will set you back $284. Full press release after the break.

Continue reading Intel outs SSD 510 Series with 6Gbps SATA interface, 500MBps transfer speeds

Intel outs SSD 510 Series with 6Gbps SATA interface, 500MBps transfer speeds originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First they leaked, then they became official, and now they’re at HP’s online store waiting for your name, address and credit card information. The new Pavilion dv6 and dv7 laptops borrow liberally from the higher-end Envy line’s aesthetics — not that we’re complaining — and offer quad-core Core i7 CPUs that max out at 3.4GHz on the i7-2820QM when cranked up using Turbo Boost. The default running speed for that model is 2.3GHz and it has a pair of slightly slower brethren, ticking along at 2.2GHz (i7-2720QM) and 2GHz flat (i7-2630QM), all of which you can own on the dv6t or dv7t. Both machines come with AMD’s 1GB Mobility Radeon HD 6570 graphics chip, while the larger dv7t also brings a two-year warranty as standard. Its 1600 x 900 resolution on a 17.3-inch screen might disappoint those looking for mad pixel density, though few would be able to complain about its price. The dv6t and dv7t start off at $1,000 and $1,100, respectively, and are subject to a $150 instant rebate and free memory (6GB) and hard drive (750GB) upgrades that should make them very appealing value propositions.

HP’s Quad Edition dv6t and dv7t laptops now available, Radeon HD graphics and Core i7 CPUs in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week’s Gadget Lab podcast zooms in on the Motorola Xoom tablet, the upcoming iPad 2 and Intel’s new Thunderbolt connectivity standard.

The Motorola Xoom is a neat piece of hardware. It’s got a 10.1-inch screen (slightly bigger than the 9.7-inch iPad), front- and rear-facing cameras, 32 GB of storage and a 3G wireless connection. Oddly, the audio speakers are on the back, which makes the sound rather poor.

That’s a solid feature set, but the cheapest Xoom costs $800 — which is a pretty disappointing starting price compared to the iPad’s $500 sweet spot that nobody can seem to match. To be fair, the most-comparable iPad is the 32-GB model with 3G, which costs $720. But I argue the starting price will be the most important factor for new adopters who are still figuring out why they need a tablet in the first place, and $800 is way too high.

Nonetheless, the Xoom’s feature set puts Motorola’s tablet ahead of the iPad, so we’re interested to see what Apple has in store for us at next Wednesday’s iPad 2 event. We’re expecting an iPad with two cameras, more memory and a faster processor.

Speaking of Apple, the company introduced a major upgrade for its MacBook Pro family this week, adding the newest Intel processors and a brand-new connectivity port dubbed Thunderbolt. What’s Thunderbolt? Dylan explains it’s a versatile connectivity port that will eventually enable you to plug in just about any type of peripheral, potentially eliminating the need for desktop towers in the future. When was the last time you heard of a connectivity port this cool?

We close the podcast with a quick look at the iPhone game Tiny Wings (sorry, I called it Little Wings thanks to an on-camera brain fart), which soared to the No. 1 spot in the App Store’s bestsellers this week. It’s a cute game that perfectly executes the Angry Birds formula, so no wonder it’s a hit.

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Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds

Or listen to the audio here:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #105

http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0105.mp3