Hasta La Gadget!

Samsung has outed three new netbooks, all refreshes to previous models. On offer is the 10.1-inch NC210, which boasts a dual-core, Intel Atom N550 CPU with up to 3GB of DDR3 SDRAM, a 250GB hard drive, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, LAN, and Bluetooth 3.0. It’s also got a VGA port, three USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 card reader, and a 6-cell battery. The company has also trotted out the NC110, which boasts a 1.5GHz, dual-core Atom N570 but seems to be identical to the NC210 other than that.

In other, rather less exciting Samsung netbook news, the company also rolled out the NF310, and the NS310, the former one being an LTE-packing 10.1-incher, while the NS310 is yet another netbook of the same size with a metallic chassis. There aren’t full specs, pricing or availability yet for any of these models, but you can hit up the source links for more photos.

Samsung refreshes netbooks with dual-core NC210, among others originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 11:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back in 2008, Lenovo’s ThinkPad X200 was getting folks all hot and bothered, and it seems some people never cooled down. If you’re one of the few looking to reignite the flames sparked when your first laid eyes on the laptop, take a look at this impressively rendered knockoff. Despite the absence of a Lenovo logo and slightly off dimensions, it really does look like the X200, — that is, until you look under the hood. The original sports a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor, while the knockoff’s got a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450; the real deal has SSDs up to 64GB, while the fake doesn’t even have the option; and finally, the impostor lacks 4GB RAM upgradability. According to M.I.C. Gadget, the ThinkPad clone rings in at 1900 Chinese yuan (about $286), and can be purchased online, though we couldn’t tell you where. Anyway, you weren’t seriously considering it … were you?

Lenovo ThinkPad X200 clone takes us back, way back originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s something you may not know — OLPC’s XO hand crank has never really worked to recharge the kiddie laptop. Why? Well, the previous versions were powered by x86 AMD and VIA processors that pulled too much power. However, things are different now with the XO 1.75 since OLPC has baked in Marvell’s 1GHz Armada chip. As a result, the entire system now only pulls two watts of power, and thus the battery can be given some more juice with a few turns of that neon green crank. It’s not meant to recharge the laptop completely — actually, according to OLPC’s CTO Edward McNierney, it would take about two hours of cranking to top off the system. Other than the fresh ARM CPU, the new model is identical to the previous versions — it has an outdoor readable PixelQi display, Flash storage, a rubber keyboard, and runs Sugar OS. On a different note, OLPC is hard at work on the tablet version of the XO and, according to McNierney, the only hold up is finding a more durable, plastic display — converting the current system into a tablet should be fairly easy since all the guts are in the display part already. The tablet is still on track for 2012, while the XO 1.75 should be with the hand-cranking children by the end of the summer.

Marvell-powered OLPC XO 1.75 only draws two watts of power, finally charges via hand crank originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do we deliver or what? Just as promised, we went back for seconds with the Samsung 9 Series laptop, and man, it is one beautiful laptop. As you already know, it is incredibly thin, but it also has a very rigid construction thanks to its duralumin build. (Fun fact: apparently they build planes out of the same stuff.) As you will see in the video below, the design is very clean and the sharp edges have been designed to make the system look even slimmer. The lead designer of the system YeoWan Yun told us that the 9 Series was inspired by nature’s beauty, including waves, leaves, and water. But it’s not just the outside of the system that’s beautiful — the matte 400nit, 13-inch display is incredibly bright and crisp and the viewing angles are just top notch. Below that screen is one very nice chiclet keyboard with matte keys. Sammy’s gone with a single button ClickPad, which in our short time with the laptop seemed fine for navigating with our index finger while keeping our thumb on the bottom. Naturally, we weren’t able to get a real sense of the Core i5 performance, but we did notice that the system resumed from sleep rather quickly thanks to its 128GB SSD. Truth is we haven’t been this excited about a Windows ultraportable since the Dell Adamo XPS, we just hope the 9 Series really brings the brawn and battery life with the beauty.

Continue reading Samsung Series 9 hands-on preview (video)

Samsung Series 9 hands-on preview (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD’s Fusion processors might finally be well and truly official, but all the hardware that will wrap around them hasn’t yet filtered through into public knowledge. One such machine is the above, as yet unnamed, VAIO laptop from Sony. It’s an 11.6-inch machine driven by an E-350 Zacate chip (meaning a dual-core APU running at 1.6GHz) and the particular unit we handled also came with 4GB of RAM, 500GB of HDD storage, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth and that utterly delectable pink lid. Construction felt solid enough, with little to no flex in the keyboard and a sturdy display hinge. This HDMI-equipped laptop also feels pretty light in the hand and is easy enough to hold and to adore with just one hand. The one thing that shocked and disappointed us was that once we unplugged it from the mains, the VAIO offered us a measly three hours and six minutes of autonomous runtime. Before you rush to accusing AMD of over-promising with its Fusion chips, do note that it was running an Internet Explorer-based graphical benchmark, which obviously isn’t your typical usage scenario, as well as Sony’s excessively frugal 3500mAh battery. This thing with a beefier power cell could be a pretty gorgeous lightweight mobile computer, in our opinion, let’s see if Sony decides to give us such an option when it makes it official some time soon. The AMD rep informed us that this and all the other Zacate laptops should be making their way to market in the next six weeks.

Sony shows off 11.6-inch VAIO laptop with AMD Zacate goodness inside (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 21:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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