Lenovo’s ultraslim ThinkCentre 91z All-in-One gets official, starts at $699

Anyone lucid during the past 24 hours won’t be particularly shocked to see the arrival of Lenovo’s slick new all-in-one — though the thing is officially becoming official a day before originally anticipated. Not surprisingly, the company’s really playing up aesthetics with the ThinkCentre Edge 91z, calling it the thinnest AIO, at 2.5 inches — and certainly its thinner than, say, the HP TouchSmart 610. The centerpiece of the system is that glossy 21.5-inch widescreen HD Infinity LED display (1920 x 1200), which is capable of playing back HD video with ease.

The system ships with an optional spill-proof wireless keyboard, featuring the familiar chiclet design we’ve seen in recent Edge model notebooks, and while the omission of Lenovo’s customary pointing stick certainly feels glaring, the bright red clickwheel on the Edge wireless mouse makes up a bit for that loss. The 91z also packs built-in speakers, a 2MP webcam, six USB ports, Windows 7, and a 6-in-1 card reader.

At the high end, you’ll get an Intel Core i7 quad-core processor, AMD Radeon HD6650A 1GB graphics, 8GB of DDR3 memory, and either a 1TB 7,200 RPM SATA HDD or an 80GB mSATA SSD — either way, Lenovo says the system boots 30 percent quicker than “non-optimized” systems, though the latter promises to have you up and running in a breezy 20 seconds. It’ll begin shipping in June, with pricing starting at $699. Press release after the break.

Continue reading Lenovo’s ultraslim ThinkCentre 91z All-in-One gets official, starts at $699

Lenovo’s ultraslim ThinkCentre 91z All-in-One gets official, starts at $699 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s 11.6-inch Series 9 now shipping in the US, priced at $1,160

It’s been about a month since Samsung’s 11.6-inch Series 9 laptop first surfaced for pre-order on Amazon, and now it’s finally available for shipping. Touting a $1,160 price tag, this duralumin-enclosed little beast packs an Intel Core i3-380UM processor, 2GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD. The 2.3-pounder also ships with 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 3.0 and WIMAX 4G capabilities, along with a 1.3-megapixel HD webcam and a 1366 x 768 display with 340 nits of brightness. The newest addition to the Series 9 family is available on Amazon, Circuit City and Tiger Direct, but if they don’t suit your fancy, you can check with Samsung to find a full list of retailers, below.

Samsung’s 11.6-inch Series 9 now shipping in the US, priced at $1,160 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 09:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo adds ThinkPad X1 to laptop comparison guide, outs IPS screen, USB 3.0, and optional SSD

If you’ve somehow not heard of the ThinkPad X1 yet, you join us at a good time. The well leaked laptop has shown up at an X Series comparison site, put together by Lenovo itself, where yet more specs have been made known. The 13.3-inch display is dubbed a SuperBright HD inifinity panel, which to you and us simply means it’s built using IPS technology. There’s also an integrated fingerprint reader, a buttonless touchpad, USB 3.0 connectivity, and a promised 10-hour battery life with a slice battery. Weighing in at 1.36kg (3lbs) and measuring about 16mm (0.625 inches) in thickness, it’s described as Lenovo’s thinnest ThinkPad yet. Last time we heard, we were told to expect it on May 17th, guess those webmasters are getting the show started a little early. One more glamor shot of the X1 can be found after the break.

[Thanks, Jesse]

Continue reading Lenovo adds ThinkPad X1 to laptop comparison guide, outs IPS screen, USB 3.0, and optional SSD

Lenovo adds ThinkPad X1 to laptop comparison guide, outs IPS screen, USB 3.0, and optional SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 02:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 91z leaks out: a 21.5-inch all-in-one desktop with optional boot drive

If you’re looking for a sleek, angular slab of an all-in-one desktop computer, Lenovo may have the machine for you, as we’ve just intercepted plans for this unannounced ThinkCentre Edge 91z, and she’s most definitely a beaut. According to the leaked PDF, Lenovo will fully reveal the 21.5-inch, 1080p desktop in just two days and ship it in June, but for now we can tell you that it can be configured with low-power Intel Core i7 processors, discrete ATI graphics and a 80GB mSATA auxiliary SSD — the latter of which Lenovo says can boot in just 20 seconds. You’ll also find HDMI output and VGA input to connect (or use the 91z as) a second screen, a “spill proof” wireless keyboard, VESA mounting options and a built-in carrying handle. Expect prices to range between $700 and $1200 when it hits the market, if these slides are correct.

[Thanks, Andrew]

Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 91z leaks out: a 21.5-inch all-in-one desktop with optional boot drive originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 May 2011 23:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Details of Samsung’s ‘Alex’ Chrome OS netbook leaked, Atom N550 in tow

As we approach the expected mid-2011 launch for a few Chrome OS devices, it seems inevitable that some details are bound to slip out ahead of time — here’s looking at you, Acer ZGB and Seaboard. The latest victim outed by a Chromium bug report is the Samsung “Alex,” which sports a 1280 x 800 display (probably at 10 inches as previously rumored; like the mockup above), 1.5GHz dual-core Atom N550, SanDisk SSD P4 of unknown capacity, and 2GB RAM. Also listed are a Qualcomm Gobi 2000 3G card, Bluetooth, WiFi, webcam, and a Synaptics touchpad. Well, not long to go now — perhaps the Alex might even make a cheeky appearance at Google I/O in two weeks’ time? Screenshot of the bug report after the break.

[Thanks, Marco]

Continue reading Details of Samsung’s ‘Alex’ Chrome OS netbook leaked, Atom N550 in tow

Details of Samsung’s ‘Alex’ Chrome OS netbook leaked, Atom N550 in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 06:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Chrome Nieuws, BGR  |  sourceGoogle Groups  | Email this | Comments

Intel SSD 720, 710 and 520 Series leak out, Larsen Creek and Paint Creek bring up rear guard

Remember Intel’s Larsen Creek SSD? It’s not alone. By the end of the year, it looks like Intel expects to ship five new solid state storage series in total — some of them even speedier than its current SSD 510 Series flagship. We managed to obtain this leaked roadmap listing the potential additions, and we’re afraid to ask how much the new kings of the hill might cost — the “Ramsdale” SSD 720 Series uses up to 400GB of SLC NAND in a PCI Express card form factor, and the “Lyndonville” SSD 710 series with a similar quantity of enterprise-grade MLC flash. There’s also a direct successor to the current top-of-the-line in the “Cherryville” SSD 520 Series, which will stretch all the way up to 480GB and down to 64GB in Q4 of this year, as well as Paint Creek, which seems destined for boot drives with only 80GB and 40GB capacities to choose from. Still, the most intriguing addition might be Larsen Creek after all, which sounds like it’s been purpose-built for caching data from your existing rotational storage. It’s slated to come in both 2.5-inch SATA and mSATA configurations in Q3 and uses SLC NAND, which suggests it won’t run cheap despite the tiny capacity here. We can’t wait to find out for sure.

Intel SSD 720, 710 and 520 Series leak out, Larsen Creek and Paint Creek bring up rear guard originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel’s Larsen Creek SSDs leak out, courtesy of ASRock’s Z68 motherboard

Manufacturers just aren’t willing to wait for the eighth of May — they want to announce their spiffy new Intel Z68 Express motherboards now, dang it, whatever the consequences. Well, we can’t really complain, especially when said motherboards reveal brand-new Intel products in trade. The above image was pulled direct from a PDF flyer for the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 motherboard, which depicts an intriguing benchmark — if you pair one of Intel’s 20GB Larsen Creek solid state drives with a standard 1TB magnetic hard drive, Intel’s SSD caching technology can allegedly give you much speedier performance. Of course, there’s no such thing as a 20GB Larsen Creek drive, right? This is the part where we’d tell you that Intel may finally be democratizing solid state storage and making it an affordable upgrade to all — except we know full well that Z68 is the company’s premium Sandy Bridge-supporting chipset, so don’t get your hopes up too far.

[Thanks, Anton]

Intel’s Larsen Creek SSDs leak out, courtesy of ASRock’s Z68 motherboard originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Crucial releases m4 SSDs, prices them between $130 and $1,000

Been yearning for more affordable solid state storage built on an even smaller production process? Crucial’s now ready to sate your weirdly specific wants with its 25nm NAND flash-filled m4 SSD, which it has priced at the reasonable level of $130 for a 64GB unit. The company describes it as the fastest drive it has yet introduced, and although early reviews pointed out it’d lost something in read speeds relative to the previous generation, the new m4’s improved write speeds and general performance should certainly make that a compelling entry price. More ambitious archivists will be looking to the 128GB and 256GB models, priced at $250 and $500, respectively, while those without a budget will also be given the option to splash $1,000 on a 512GB m4 SSD. All four varieties come in a standard 2.5-inch form factor, support 6Gbps SATA transfers, and are rated to reach read speeds of 415MBps. Availability is immediate and worldwide, so hit the Crucial link below if you’re keen on getting one for yourself. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Crucial releases m4 SSDs, prices them between $130 and $1,000

Crucial releases m4 SSDs, prices them between $130 and $1,000 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 06:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SanDisk and Toshiba announce world’s smallest NAND flash memory chips for tinier gadgets

20 nanometer manufacturing processes, you say? We say pshaw, be gone luddite. Sandisk and Toshiba just announced the latest product from their joint venture: a 19nm 64Gb (8GB) X2 memory chip; aka, the smallest NAND flash memory chip in the world. At least it will be when it hits production in the second half of the year. They are, however, sampling the monolithic chip this quarter in case you’re interested in stacking a batch of 16 into an ultra-high density 128GB SSD. Anyone?

Continue reading SanDisk and Toshiba announce world’s smallest NAND flash memory chips for tinier gadgets

SanDisk and Toshiba announce world’s smallest NAND flash memory chips for tinier gadgets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 03:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some MacBook Airs sporting faster blade SSDs, probably from Samsung

When Apple released its redesigned MacBook Air in October 2010, much was made of the switch to flash storage using a custom-built Mini PCI Express form factor SSD drive. It took a few weeks but these SSDs would ultimately be released as the commercially available Toshiba Blade X-gale SSD module, model TS128C. Now we’re seeing user reports showing MacBook Airs equipped with a second, even faster SSD with a SM128C part number — the “SM” hinting at its presumed Samsung manufacturing origins. Samsung’s SSD manages up to 260MBps read and 210MBps write speeds compared to Toshiba’s 210MBps read and 185MBps write performance. Of course, it’s hardly unusual for Apple to multi-source components. And a recent decision to source parts from Korea’s Samsung would have been a smart move to keep just-in-time supply lines fully stocked following the spate of disasters in Toshiba’s home country of Japan. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any way of confirming which SSD you’re about to purchase without cracking open the retail box and running the OS X System Profiler. Good luck with that.

Some MacBook Airs sporting faster blade SSDs, probably from Samsung originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Apr 2011 03:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MacRumor Forums  |  sourceAnandTech  | Email this | Comments