Ask Engadget: best PC alternative to 13-inch MacBook Air?

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Sheikh Adnan Abdullah, who seems to need a MacBook Air not made by Apple (or a KIRF counterpart). If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“I currently own a Macbook Air, but I’m not a big fan of Mac OS. I’m planning to transition back to Windows. Can you recommend me a 13- to 14-inch Windows PC that is as light as a MacBook Air and provides the same amount of battery life? Thanks!”

We just have to believe that this fellow isn’t in this boat alone, and while the obvious answer is to just install a fresh copy of Windows 7 onto the MBA through Parallels or Boot Camp, it’s quite possible that he’s trying to shake the entire Apple design. So, outside of MSI’s X-Slim series, is there anything on the Wintel side quite like Apple’s thinnest laptop ever?

Ask Engadget: best PC alternative to 13-inch MacBook Air? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Series 9 laptop priced at $1,649, makes our wallets gently weep

The feature-rich and utterly gorgeous Series 9 laptop from Samsung has just received its US pricing and unfortunately it’s a bit of a whopper: $1,649. For that outlay, you’ll be getting a 13.3-inch screen, an LED-backlit display with 400 nits of brightness, Intel Core i5-2537M dual-core processor running at 1.4GHz, 4GB of RAM, and one super-speedy 128GB SSD. It’s an intriguing proposition, as both price and specs are decidedly high-end, but the decision as to which one wins out we’ll leave up to you. Hit up Samsung’s site below for a list of retailers — the Series 9 is listed for pre-order at the moment, but we doubt it’ll be long before delivery trucks start rolling out with ultrathin laptop boxes in tow.

[Thanks, Dave]

Samsung Series 9 laptop priced at $1,649, makes our wallets gently weep originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 10:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ViewSonic’s dual-booting Android / Windows 7 ViewPad 10 tablet now shipping

It sure took ’em long enough, but ViewSonic’s dual-booting ViewPad 10 has finally, really, actually made it to America. A few days after the iPad 2 most likely sucked any remaining wind out of its sails, mind you, but it’s quite possible that the target market for an Android 1.6 + Windows 7 tablet couldn’t care less about a similar one from Apple. If you’ll recall, this one’s rocking a 10.1-inch touchpanel (1024 x 600), 1.66GHz Atom CPU, 2GB of RAM, Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera and a version of Android we forgot about in 1994. You’ll also find a microSD slot and a copy of Windows Home 7 Premium (with a 16GB SSD) or Windows 7 Professional (with a 32GB SSD). Still interested? Just wait until we tell you all about the $599 and $679 price tags, respectively.

P.S. – Yeah, that’s OS X shown running on the ViewPad 10 above. No, it won’t actually do that in real life.

Continue reading ViewSonic’s dual-booting Android / Windows 7 ViewPad 10 tablet now shipping

ViewSonic’s dual-booting Android / Windows 7 ViewPad 10 tablet now shipping originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 hands-on

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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ASUS Eee PC 1015B and 1215B hands-on

Okay, picture an ASUS Eee PC 1015. Got it? Good — now picture it with AMD Fusion internals. Boom: the 1015B is born. We spied versions in both white and black trim here at CeBIT, promising 1080p output in your choice of 1.2GHz single-core and 1GHz dual-core APUs, both with ATI Radeon HD 6250 graphics, 1GB of RAM (expandable to 2), and Bluetooth 3.0 along with 802.11b/g/n WiFi. If you’re looking for something a little beefier, ASUS has a Fusion remake of the 1215, too — the 1215B — with many of the same features but the added benefit of a larger 12.1-inch WXGA LCD, an optional 1.6GHz AMD E350 dual-core processor, and up to 4GB of RAM. No word on when these will be in retail channels, but by all appearances, these are production or very-near-production models on display here at the show, so we imagine they’ll be popping up any time now.

ASUS Eee PC 1015B and 1215B hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI Dual Pad concept eyes-on (video)

Complementing the integrated projector concept introduced at CES last month, MSI brought a new not-for-sale hottie to its CeBIT booth this week in the form of the Dual Pad, which is… well, literally two WindPads placed on top of one another. The idea is that the pads can be taken apart and used as two completely independent Windows 7 tablets when necessary — “you and your girlfriend on a trip” was the example given to us during the press conference — but when you piece them together, they become one mega-tablet capable of operating essentially as a single dual-screen netbook (a hingeless, permanently-open one). Again, it’s a pure concept; there are no plans for commercialization that we could eke out, but we can’t imagine it’d be cheap since you’d effectively be buying two complete tablets. Follow the break for video!

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MSI Dual Pad concept eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI WindPad 110W eyes-on (video)

Joining its Intel-powered 100W cousin at CeBIT this week is MSI’s WindPad 110W, basically an AMD Brazos-powered remix of the original with a slightly different design. You’ve got an optical pad on the upper part of the right bezel that controls a mouse pointer — if you’re into that sort of thing — but hopefully you’ll be touching the lovely 10.1-inch IPS display (which it shares with the 100W) directly most of the time. We would’ve liked to have taken the skinned load of Windows 7 for a spin, but MSI had its demo unit set up on a looping video and kept it under glass or in employees’ gentle hands for the entirety of our time at the booth, so we didn’t get a great sense for performance; they’re targeting mid-year for release, though, so they’ve got some time left on the clock to put some spit and polish on the package. There’ll also be a dock available that plugs into a connector in the bottom of the tablet — it wasn’t on-hand, but the company had some prototype docks connected to WindPad 100A dummy units (showing Honeycomb on their fake displays, interestingly, even though live 100As at the show are running Froyo). Follow the break for a quick video from all angles.

Continue reading MSI WindPad 110W eyes-on (video)

MSI WindPad 110W eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP’s Quad Edition dv6t and dv7t laptops now available, Radeon HD graphics and Core i7 CPUs in tow

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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Fujitsu’s Stylistic Q550 Windows 7 tablet: orders kick off tomorrow starting at €699

Expanding on some tidbits fleshed out last week, Fujitsu has dropped all the details on its Oak Trail-based Stylistic Q550 Windows 7 tablet here at CeBIT this week. Along with your choice of 30GB or 64GB SSDs, you’ll be able to select Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional atop a 10.1-inch WXGA IPS display capable of four-finger multitouch with stylus input, 2GB of RAM, and an optional Gobi radio that’ll push 14.4Mbps down and 5.76Mbps up over HSPA. Pricing will vary by market, but it’s starting at €699 (roughly $966) here in Europe when it goes on sale tomorrow. Follow the break for the full press release.

Update: We just snapped a few glamor shots of Fujitsu Technology Solutions CEO Rolf Schwirz showing off the Q550 here at the company’s CeBIT press conference — see ’em below!

Continue reading Fujitsu’s Stylistic Q550 Windows 7 tablet: orders kick off tomorrow starting at €699

Fujitsu’s Stylistic Q550 Windows 7 tablet: orders kick off tomorrow starting at €699 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 07:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Firefox 4 beta 5 for mobile released, available on Android, N900, your computer

Tired of using the default browser on your smart phone to browse Engadget? Got a thing for Firefox? Great, ’cause Mozilla just pushed out the fifth beta of Firefox 4 for mobile. You might be familiar with the on-the-go version of Mozilla’s creation, but if not, here’s your chance to grab the latest (and probably) the most stable build to date. In addition to the Android and Maemo version, the company has released a Fennec build for use on Windows, OS X and Linux.

We tinkered with the OS X build of the browser on our Macbook Pro and although pages appear to render quickly, we can’t quite figure out how to navigate backwards. You can pinch-to-zoom with the trackpad and scroll with the d-pad, but once you’ve loaded a page, it seems you need to be on a mobile device do any further navigation. Of course, as you’ll see in the gallery below, the beta comes packed with the usual — preferences, downloads, add-ons, bookmarks and Firefox Sync. If you want to give the software a whirl, hit the source link to grab the build of your choice.

Firefox 4 beta 5 for mobile released, available on Android, N900, your computer originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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