Hasta La Gadget!

If you need evidence that the Ultrabook fad isn’t impressing everybody, look no further than our inboxes. More than a few of you have been inquiring about the Lenovo IdeaPad U400, the 14-inch big brother to the IdeaPad U300s. And we think we understand why. Starting at a more palatable price of $800, it offers the same understated design as the U300s, except it brings an extra inch of screen real estate, along with an optical drive and discrete graphics. The best of both worlds, right? Beauty and a little more brawn? Not exactly. Though it looks the same, the U400 trades various components, starting with the storage disk and continuing on to the touchpad drivers. (Specs, schmecs, are we right?) So how much of a difference does this new set of innards make? Meet us past the break to find out.

Continue reading Lenovo IdeaPad U400 review

Lenovo IdeaPad U400 review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

This article was written on June 26, 2008 by CyberNet.

Dell has a launched a new line of laptop computers dubbed Dell Studio that has raised a few eyebrows. The laptops ship with Windows Vista which isn’t surprising, but the thing that made Gizmodo do a double-take was the Mac-like dock that appeared on the desktop. The dock is used as a way to remove some of the icons from the user’s desktop, and can be customized in a variety of ways (color, location, etc…). Plus you can add your own shortcuts to it.

After a little searching around I came across this article from Notebook Review that was just posted today. That’s where I got the screenshot from at the beginning of the article, and as you can see each main icon serves as a folder for your shortcuts. That way you can group your related shortcuts, and therefore steer clear of cluttering up the dock itself.

The Dell Studio line also includes backlit keyboards, which happens to be one of the biggest features that drew me to the MacBook Pro. That way when you’re in a low-light environment, such as a presentation, you’ll still be able to see the keys on your keyboard. I had been wondering for awhile why Apple was one of the only laptop manufacturers to offer this feature, and so I applaud Dell for offering this.

I’m sure there will be a lot of Mac fanatics criticizing Dell for including these features will their Studio laptops, but the dock they designed actually looks pretty good. The dock isn’t very Apple-like if you ask me, but there will be plenty of other people who will disagree. I wonder if they will be rolling these two things out to their other laptops?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

Dell Laptop EXPLODES At A ConferenceDell Cuts XPS Desktops to Boost Alienware SalesTWO Dell Inspiron B130 Pentium M Widescreen Laptops For $876Get A Free Skin With Your Dell Notebook ComputerDell Inspiron Mini 9 Available with Ubuntu

It was just last week that we got to take home the Acer Aspire S3, the first Ultrabook to go on sale here in the States. Unfortunately, it doesn’t live up to the pillars laid out by Intel: its performance trails similar machines, its battery craps out early and the design, while portable, is too chintzy to make it a bellwether for skinny Windows laptops. Our verdict, in a sentence, was that you’d be better off getting a MacBook Air, or at least considering other Ultrabooks — namely, ASUS’ line of Zenbooks.

As it turns out, one showed up on our doorstep just a few days later. In many ways, the UX31 is everything the S3 is not: it has a gorgeous all-metal design and comes standard with an SSD and 1600 x 900 display (not to mention, a case and two bundled adapters). And with a starting price of $1,099, it undercuts the entry-level (and similarly configured) MacBook Air by two hundred bucks. So is this the Ultrabook we’ve all been waiting for? We suggest pouring yourself a large beverage, settling into a comfy chair and meeting us past the break. We’ve got a lot to say on the subject.

Continue reading ASUS Zenbook UX31 review

ASUS Zenbook UX31 review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

The ASUS ZenBook measures a mere .11 inches (3 mm) at its thinnest point. Image: ASUS

Hoping to shatter the dominance of the MacBook Air in the ultraportable laptop market, ASUS officially launched its slick brushed aluminum ZenBooks yesterday.

The notebooks are available in 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch models, and the 11-incher, the UX21, starts at just under $1,000. It comes standard with a 128 GB hybrid solid state drive, and base models feature an Intel i5 processor (i7 upgrades are available). The ZenBook runs Windows 7 and is part of Intel’s “Ultrabook” line, which includes notebooks that are less than one-inch thick and in the sub-$1,000 price range.

The ZenBook is super thin: 0.11 inches at its thinnest point and 0.35 inches at its thickest, validating claims that it’s the thinnest notebook available (the MacBook Air is slightly thicker at its largest point, .68 inches). The UX21 weighs in at just under two and a half pounds (2.43 lbs), while the 13-inch model, the UX31, tips the scales at 2.84 lbs. Compared to respective MacBook Air models, the UX21 is slightly heavier and the UX31 is slightly lighter.

When the super-thin MacBook Air debuted in 2008, it carved a niche out of the notebook market. Super light and 11- to 13-inches in size, it was perfect for toting in the wild, and more powerful than similarly small but lower-speced netbooks (and, in the case of the 2011 MacBook Air, just as powerful as the larger 2010 MacBook Pros). The MacBook Air proved thin is in, and now there are several lookalikes — er, competitors — available, such as the Acer Aspire and the ZenBook, which we first previewed in May.

The ZenBook features an “Instant On” capability that allows it to boot from standby mode in only two seconds, and can last for up to two weeks on a single battery charge in standby.

The ASUS ZenBook is available now, starting at $999 for the UX21 and $1,099 for the UX31.

This article was written on August 12, 2008 by CyberNet.

Over a month ago NVIDIA came forward and announced that they had shipped some faulty graphical processing units (GPU’s), and that it would cost them between $150-$200 million to cover the damages done. They didn’t announce specifically what cards were affected, but the cause of the issue was a weak die/packaging material that could fail because of temperature fluctuations.

To try and correct the issues the laptop manufacturers were advised to release new BIOS updates that would trigger the fans to turn on more frequently in hopes of lowering the heat. Dell is actually the first one that I’ve seen come forward, admit that some of their laptops are affected, and have already begun taking steps to correct the issues.

So what Dell laptops are affected by the NVIDIA GPU failures? Here’s a list of the models along with any updated BIOS drivers that should be downloaded:

• Precision M2300 (BIOS Update)
• Precision M4300
• Precision M65
• Inspiron 1420 (BIOS Update)
• Latitude D620
• Latitude D630 (BIOS Update)
• Latitude D630c (BIOS Update)
• Latitude D820
• Latitude D830
• Vostro 1310 (BIOS Update)
• Vostro 1400 (BIOS Update)
• Vostro 1510 (BIOS Update)
• Vostro 1710 (BIOS Update)
• XPS M1330 (BIOS Update)
• XPS M1530 (BIOS Update)

The BIOS update won’t do any good if you’re already experiencing the symptoms of a faulty GPU (multiple images, random characters on the screen, lines on the screen, or no video), and you’ll have to contact Dell to have the notebook repaired. They also plan on offering “modified service terms” which likely means they’ll extend your warranty in case you become affected by the problem later on down the road.

The thing that I find the most interesting is that the comments on the Dell blog regarding the faulty NVIDIA GPU’s are people saying that they’ll be purchasing from a different manufacturer next time if Dell doesn’t replace their graphics card… regardless of whether they’re having the problems right now. I understand their frustration, but these people need to realize that Dell isn’t the only one affected by the failures. I haven’t seen any other companies, like HP, come forward saying they’ll replace all of the graphics cards that could cause problems. It’s rumored that all NVIDIA 8400M and 8600M series cards are affected, which also means Apple could be in the line of fire.

Kudos to Dell for stepping forward with information on the faulty GPU’s. It’s apparent that many manufacturers aren’t brave enough to do the same thing.

Update: Dell has announced that they will be offering extended warranties to cover the issue. Thanks Claus for pointing it out!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

NVIDIA Admits to Faulty Notebook GPU’s & MCP’sDell Studio Laptops Get Some Mac-Like QualitiesDell Laptop EXPLODES At A ConferenceDell Cuts XPS Desktops to Boost Alienware SalesMichael Dell’s Ubuntu Laptop…a Little Overkill?