Sep 03

Samsung X Series thin-and-lights sport dual-core CULV procs, 9 hour battery life

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, laptop, samsung, thin and light, ThinAndLight, Today's Chili

Samsung just debuted its new X Series line, a trio of fairly thin big brothers to the new netbooks Samsung is also launching today. The X420 (14-inch), X520 (14.6-inch) and X120 (11.6-inch, pictured) all hover around 0.95-inches thick, and range from 3 ounces to 4.4 pounds in weight. Samsung is touting its new design language for the laptops, though at a glance it doesn’t seem too special — the scratch-resistant UV coating for the glossy finish is a nice touch, though. Under the hood we’re a little short on details, but an unannounced dual-core Intel CULV processor makes an appearance somewhere in there. Otherwise there’s the fairly standard WiFi, Bluetooth, card reader, and HDMI plug. Samsung claims some special mojo to squeeze 9 hours of battery out of its 6 cell batteries (in the X420 and X520, the X120 does 4 cell), with 6 hours of movie playback also claimed — we’ll believe it when we see it, but we want to believe. Prices range from 699 to 899 Euro (about $1,000 to $1,286 US), and the line should ship this month in Europe and Asia.

Gallery: Samsung X Series thin-and-lights

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Samsung X Series thin-and-lights sport dual-core CULV procs, 9 hour battery life originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 01

BenQ endows S35 and S43 Joybooks with CULV, kicks ’em out the door

Posted in: thin and light, ThinAndLight, Today's Chili, ultraportable

It’s not quite on the scale of the netbook revolution, but the CULV ultraportable uprising does seem to be gathering steam. Latest on the scene is BenQ, with its 13.3-inch S35 and 14-inch S43 Joybooks, sporting a choice between a single core SU3500, dual core SU7300, or some old and busted Celeron 723 / 743 chips. From what Acer’s Timeline series has shown, the 1.4GHz SU3500 is a major step up from Atom machines, while making for ridiculous battery longevity. BenQ claim you’ll be able to squeeze more than five hours of juice from the default batteries and there’s an eight cell option on the S35 that is rated for 11+ hours. Hard drives clock in at 500GB, Bluetooth, WiFi and the like are all present, and the S43 also gets an ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 GPU option to make it stand out. The announcement is for Asia only so far, but we see no reason why these laptops shouldn’t make it to more familiar shores as well.

[Via Engadget Chinese]

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BenQ endows S35 and S43 Joybooks with CULV, kicks ’em out the door originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 29

MSI’s AMD-powered U210 up for pre-order, still not ‘official’

Posted in: AMD, msi, netbook, pre-order, thin and light, ThinAndLight, Today's Chili, ultraportable

Who needs press releases? You can snap up an MSI U210 pre-order right this second on Amazon, so why bother waiting MSI to actually confirm the thing for a Stateside release? Morality. That’s why. Kids these days think they can just drop $430 on any old Athlon Neo MV-40-powered (the same chips at the heart of HP’s dv2) 12-inch XGA ultraportable with 2GB of RAM and a 250GB HDD and 802.11n and not have to pay the consequences. Well, we’re not standing for it. That read link right below? Not an implied approval of these illicit activities.

[Via Mark’s Technology News]

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MSI’s AMD-powered U210 up for pre-order, still not ‘official’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 29

Review: Toshiba U505 Is a Butt Ugly Notebook With Performance Chops

Posted in: Notebooks, thin and light, Today's Chili, Toshiba

u505For a computer that’s supposed to be “thin and light” the Toshiba U505 really isn’t. It’s thick 2.8 inches because of an enormous battery that juts out on the bottom. And it’s heavy, at 5.6 pounds. But does it perform? It does! From Christopher Null:

Fortunately all is not lost with the Satellite U505: The laptop turns
in solid benchmark scores for a 13.3-inch machine, besting most of its
similarly-sized compatriots by a (ahem) thin margin. It’s also awfully
cheap for a notebook with a 13-inch screen (resolution is 1280 x 800
pixels): $950 gets you a 400-GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM, and a
respectable 2-GHz Core 2 Duo processor. That battery also does more
than give you a pain in the back while lugging the U505 around. It
gives over four hours of battery life with the optical drive
continuously engaged, and lasts more than half a day in ordinary heavy
use.

You want more, don’t you? Read the rest of the riveting review right here.


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Aug 22

Gateway’s 11.6-inch EC1803h CULV ultraportable surfaces in Canada

Posted in: thin and light, ThinAndLight, Today's Chili, ultraportable

All the cool kids are building CULV-powered 11.6-inch miniature wonders, and Acer-owned Gateway is no exception. This new EC1803h unit (a rebadge of sorts of Acer’s Timeline 1810T) just popped up in Canada, and has a lot in common with Gateway’s LT2000 netbooks — though somehow knowing there’s a “real” processor underneath makes it seem just a bit more sexy. Unfortunately, the $600 Canadian (about $550 US) pricetag isn’t quite as grand as the $400ish CULV laptops that Acer and Dell have been showing, but it’s hard to fault the 3GB of RAM, 6 cell standard battery and 250GB hard drive. No word on when this will head to the States.

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Gateway’s 11.6-inch EC1803h CULV ultraportable surfaces in Canada originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 21

MSI Wind 210 with AMD Athlon Neo announced for Europe

Posted in: thin and light, ThinAndLight, Today's Chili
We see what MSI is doing. First, they released a followup to the Intel-packin’ X-Slim X600 with an otherwise-identical AMD-based machine called the X610. And now they’re making the MSI Wind U200 available with an AMD processor as well. And what do you think they’re calling it? the U210, of course. Starting at €399, the Wind U210-002 sports an Athlon Neo MV-40 1.6GHz processor with 1GB memory, 160GB HDD, and XP Home. The Wind U210-010 ups the ante a bit with 2GB memory, 250GB HDD, and Vista Home Premium, going for €449. We don’t have the exact release date, but we’re sure by then the company will have more laptops to shove an AMD processor into.

[Thanks, Tom]

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MSI Wind 210 with AMD Athlon Neo announced for Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 19

MSI X-Slim X610 leaked, reviewed by Russians

Posted in: AMD, msi, reviewed, thin and light, ThinAndLight, Today's Chili, ultraportable
If the gang at 3D News are to be believed (and why not?), this familiar looking notebook isn’t MSI’s X-Slim X600 at all, but the not-yet-announced X-Slim X610. And if a leaked ultraportable isn’t enough excitement for you, wait’ll we tell you that they actually got their hands on one of these beauts and gave it the full-on review treatment. As you’d expect from a machine that shares chassis, specs, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 graphics, a 250GB hard drive, 4GB RAM, and all but one digit of its name with the original, there is not too much to report. The major difference is that the X610 foregoes Intel’s 1.4GHz SU3500 CPU in place of an AMD Athlon MV-40 (1.6GHz), which results in some slower benchmarks, but not enough that you’d readily notice in everyday use. And then there is battery life — the new guy clocks in at slightly less than two hours, or around 20 percent less than the X600. Same machine, same specs, poorer performance — not really a step in the right direction, MSI. Perhaps you can at least give consumers a break on the price?

[Via SlashGear]

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MSI X-Slim X610 leaked, reviewed by Russians originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 18

Dell’s 11.6-inch Inspiron 11z thin-and-light now on sale for $399

Posted in: intel, netbook, thin and light, Today's Chili

Dell may have ditched the 12-inch Mini netbook, but for those still looking for something a touch larger than 10-inches, there’s the all-new Inspiron 11z. Strictly classified as a “thin-and-light,” this three-pound machine measures in at just one-inch thick and ships with a 1.2GHz Celeron 723 processor, a 1,366 x 768 LED-backlit panel, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 250GB (5400RPM) SATA hard drive, GS45 integrated graphics, WiFi, a 3-cell battery and nary an optical drive to speak of. There’s also a 1.3 megapixel camera, twin stereo speakers, an Ethernet port, three USB sockets, a 3-in-1 multicard reader and an HDMI output, though we get the feeling Windows Vista won’t be too happy with the hardware. Thankfully, you can drop your $399 now and snag Windows 7 on the cheap here in just a few months.

[Thanks, Joe]

Gallery: Dell’s 11.6-inch Inspiron 11z thin-and-light now on sale

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Dell’s 11.6-inch Inspiron 11z thin-and-light now on sale for $399 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 12

Dell’s slim new Inspiron Z family is totally carb free

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, Features, hands-on, thin and light, ThinAndLight, Today's Chili

Dell’s got a new lineup heading your way this fall, this time taking its low-cost Inspiron laptop brand to thin land. The Inspiron Z “family” isn’t anything stunningly slim, and the 11.6-inch, disc drive free Z in the low end looks positively netbook-ish, but all the laptops are CULV-powered and should probably be arriving at pretty trim price points to fend off the likes of Acer’s Timeline series. Hopefully we’ll have more details soon (Dell sure does love to tease when it comes to CULV), but for now there are some ultra-exciting laptop stacking pics below to keep you entertained.

Gallery: Dell’s slim new Inspiron Z family is totally carb free

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Dell’s slim new Inspiron Z family is totally carb free originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 10

MSI X-Slim X600 reviewed: an ‘attractive choice’

Posted in: msi, reviewed, thin and light, ThinAndLight, Today's Chili, ultraportable

MSI’s X-Slim X600 may not be the quickest, most nimble or most powerful 15.6-inch laptop on the market today, bit with a thickness of just 0.75-inches, it’s definitely got the ultrathin motif down pat. The kind lads and ladies over at Laptop Mag recently secured one of the machines for review, and they seemed adequately impressed with the combination of a low-power CPU (1.4GHz Core 2 Solo SU3500) and a multimedia-friendly discrete GPU (ATI’s 512MB Radeon HD 4330) — a tandem that’s hard to find anywhere, let alone for $799. All told, the machine performed satisfactorily across the board, notching decent scores in a wide array of benchmarks and looking good all the while. Still, critics noted that Sony’s VAIO NW would be more suitable for those with a Blu-ray craving and that Gateway’s $599 NV is probably better for those looking for raw horsepower. If style is atop your list, though, it’ll be tough to dodge the “buy” button on this one.

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MSI X-Slim X600 reviewed: an ‘attractive choice’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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