LG X300 Ultraslim Netbook
There’s no denying the fact that ‘slim is attractive’. At CES 2010, LG enticed audience with their latest ultra-slim, ultraportable – the LG X300 Netbook. This device is just 17.6mm thick and can easily slip into a manila envelope (watch the video below).
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The X300 sports an 11.6″ screen which stretches end-to-end, giving it a bezel-less look. The lid has a uniform Braille-like pattern. At 970g, it makes for easy mobility too. The keyboard seems well laid out, with space between the keys. The trackpad is looks unique with a border-less design, except for the lighting that marks it’s corners. Stylish craftsmanship indeed! |
| On the inside, this workstation will have the Intel Menlow 2GHz processor driving it. A 2GB RAM will be present too. Instead of a hard drive, a solid state drive will be packed within. This ultra-thin laptop will be equipped with SRS TruSurround HD sound. Thus, there’s focus on entertainment as well. Provision for an embedded 3G mobile broadband chipset is also expected to be present. |  |
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Being slender, the LG X300 laptop is short of ports on the sides. However, on the rear edge, there are 2 USB ports, a card reader, a headphone jack and another port which is apparently called “EX-Port”. A 1.3Mp web camera is integrated within as well. |
The LG X300 Superslim Laptop is supposed to offer a battery life of 7 hours. It is expected to step into markets this month. However, pricing is still unknown.
Images via Engadget and Pocket-lint
The MSI 10-inch Tablet is NVIDIA Tegra Based
MSI had on display an Android based tablet prototype at the Consumer Electronics Show, held in Las Vegas, a few weeks back. The laptop-maker has mentioned that they will be releasing many more tablets into the market. There’s news about one of them now. It is a 10-inch tablet which will be employing NVIDIA’s Tegra platform. This device was recently announced by MSI and is expected to release during the second half of this year.
The MSI tablet will have a colour touchscreen. It will offer WiFi for internet connectivity. This device is said to be capable of music, web-based games, web browsing and ebook reading. The Android OS is expected to be running in this gadget. The ASUS@Vibe platform is supposed to be used for digital content, for delivering music, games, news and ebooks. Other details have not yet been revealed.
The MSI NVIDIA Tegra Tablet is said to sport a thin and light-weight body. It is almost the same size as the Apple iPad (9.7″ screen). They seem to share plenty of common qualities as well (hopefully the MSI tablet does offer 3G connectivity). Their presence in the market can definitely affect each other’s sales. Hence, pricing will play a very important role in deciding which of them will be a better seller. The Apple iPad is expected to release in March, with a 3G enabled version to release in April, this year. Hence, MSI are at an advantage, as they can learn from Apple’s mistakes, if any.
Toshiba Mini NB300 Netbook
Netbooks are devices that are usually designed for high portability. The new Toshiba NB300 Netbook that was introduced at CES, 2010, is a device which can keep you good company while on the move as well as at home. How? Here we go…
This netbook weighs just 1.33kg. Plus, it uses the Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz processor, which helps conserve power. Thus increasing efficiency and battery life. A runtime life of 11 hours is quoted. So you needn’t worry about running out of fuel throughout the day. Moreover, the laptop is designed for durability. There’s also a hard drive Impact Sensor which helps protect the hard drive incase of a fall. All these features make the Toshiba NB300 ideal for carrying around when you hit the roads.
Not just for your day out, the Toshiba NB300 is an equally good companion indoors. It features the Toshiba Media Controller, which lets you share videos, music files, photographs and more with your home entertainment network. You can even stream the files as per your wish using the drag and drop feature of the Media Controller. The gadgets that you can connect to include other laptops, home theatre systems, Xbox 360 and more.
Tech specs wise, the Toshiba NB300 has a 10.1″ 1024 x 600-pixel screen; a maximum of 2GB DDR2 RAM; a 250GB hard drive; Windows 7 Starter edition OS; Intel GMA 3150 graphics; Bluetooth, WiFi and Ethernet LAN connectivity. Along the sides of the netbook you’ll find 2 USB ports on the right, one USB sleep-and-charge port on the left; a VGA port; a 2-in-1 Bridge Media slot; a memory expansion slot; headphone and microphone jacks.
The Toshiba NB300 Mini 10″ Netbook is available in 4 colours. The Frost white, Mocha brown and Royal blue coloured lids, sport a matte finish. The fourth black coloured case comes in a glossy finish.
Pricing in the UK is yet to be revealed.
The Suma Mouse Concept
Plenty of gadgets and technologies have been formulated over the years to interact with computers and laptops. There have been keyboards, mouse and touchscreens, to name a few. And this time round at CES, there has been yet another innovative technique that impressed quite a big audience – the SUMA concept. This has been developed by the Cambridge Consultants.
The SUMA platform is said to be way to interact with computers based on pressure applied in a 3D environment. This pressure is then converted into a format that can be interpreted by the computer. In the SUMA platform, the variations of pressure points and the amount of pressure applied can seemingly be gauged too.
Cambridge Consultants demonstrated the working of this platform in a game, where squeezing the physical interface, caused the ball on the computer screen to shrink in size. Plus, physically turning the interface caused the objects to tilt on the screen as well.
According to the company, the SUMA platform can find use in various fields, like medicine, industries, arts and music as well. There has been no exact information as to which devices which actually come out with this interface. However, a company insider has mentioned that such devices can be expected in 2011.
Gateway EC14D Notebook
The Gateway EC14D Notebook is a special little laptop, as it is one of the few of its kind, to have a DVD drive built in. This notebook sports an 11.6″ screen, which makes it an ultra-portable.
A high definition resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels is offered. The Intel Pentium dual core ULV processor with a frequency of 1.4GHz has been employed for handling processing. Graphics is taken care of by the Intel GMA 4500HD GPU. The RAM housed within is a 4GB one, which can be enhanced to 8GB for better performance. A 320GB hard drive comes built within. The Windows 7 OS drives this notebook.
WiFi and wired Ethernet connectivity are both supported for hooking onto the internet. There are also 3 USB ports, an HDMI port, a web camera and a multi-format media card reader packed in this workstation. A 6-cell battery is supposed to be shipping in this device and is reckoned to offer 8 hours of runtime. The price of this device for the US market is $629, which is quite a reasonable one. A UK release hasn’t been heard of yet.
The Gateway EC14D 11.6″ Netbook was on display at this year’s CES, held in Las Vegas recently. Scott Stein from Cnet has pointed out to a very interesting fact in his article on this notebook. Though a sleek laptop does look very attractive, people still put value before aesthetics. Hence a laptop with an integrated DVD drive is what people would prefer buying even if it is a little bulkier than a slim laptop which lacks it.
Sony’s Dash Tablet
While we await Apple’s mystery tablet, the iSlate, there are many other laptop manufacturers who are coming along with their own tablets which are quite enticing. Hence the yet to arrive Apple iSlate is no longer creating much zeal. Sony was one of the many laptop makers, to sport their tablet called the Dash at CES, 2010. This 7″ touchscreen device is a personal internet viewer, according to Sony.
The Sony Dash supports WiFi connectivity. Applications can be accessed through widgets that are placed on the screen. There are widgets for news, social networking, sport, traffic, weather and games. This device can multi-task as well. Hence you can listen to music as well as use the internet at the same time. It also allows users to create their own profiles.
The Sony Dash personal internet viewer has been designed to be placed on the table as well as on the lap. Hence it can be seated in your kitchen platform, when you’re looking at it for making a recipe. It can sit on your bedroom table as a clock as well.
This device is expected to release in the US in April, 2010, for a price of $200. A UK release is yet to be heard of.
Sony Vaio Z Series Makeover
Sony have given a make-over to the Sony Vaio Z series laptop – the Z890. No. Not on the outside. Only on the inside. The re-modelled Sony Vaio Z890 notebook was displayed at CES 2010, Las Vegas. The exquisite carbon fibre and magnesium exterior has been retained. So is the 13.3″ widescreen which has a resolution of 1600 x 900 pixels. That’s higher than most other notebooks of the same size.
The Sony Vaio Z890 now features the 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 540M processor and a 4GB DDR3 RAM. The hard drive is completely ousted by a solid state drive. You get options of 128GB, 256GB and 384GB SSDs. Solid state drives are faster than hard drives and do not have mechanical moving parts too.
The Sony Vaio Z890 too, incorporates the hot-switching GPU feature, like the Alienware M11x netbook, which has also displayed at CES 2010. The Sony Vaio laptop integrates both the NVidia GeForce 310M and an Intel GMA GPU. A physical setting called Hybrid Dynamic Switch will allow switching between these graphics processors, while the laptop is powered on. The NVidia graphics can be used while gaming and the Intel graphics for general computation. This will increase power efficiency of the device as well.
WiFi and Bluetooth are also supported by this notebook. The connectors present on-board are 2 USB ports, a n ExpressCard slot, an HDMI output, a Firewire port, an SD card slot and a Memory Stick slot. An optical drive is also housed in this notebook.
The price of the classy, yet powerful Sony Vaio Z890 Laptop is $1,899 in the US. The UK availability and pricing details are yet to be revealed.
Dell Alienware M11x Gaming Netbook
You don’t have to be a couch potato when it comes to gaming anymore. The Dell 
Alienware M11x Netbook is a light and portable gaming laptop, which weighs just 1.8kg and has powerful features for gaming. Infact, this can be called the first powerful gaming netbook.
The Alienware M11x has an 11″ screen with a high definition resolution of 1366×768 pixels. The powerful NVIDIA GT335M graphics processor has been used in this netbook. High speed games with demanding graphics can be played smoothly at 30 frames per second and even 50fps. There is a 2nd chipset integrated within this device. When not gaming, one can switch to this chipset inorder to conserve power, without the need to switch off the device.
The mini gaming laptop offers multiple USB ports, an HDMI output, a VGA port and an SD card reader. There is a slot for a SIM card too, for 3G internet access. WiFi is also supported by this device.
The battery life of this netbook is a little less compared to that of other netbooks. That’s a price one will have to pay for the power-packed features it has. It is said to offer 3-4 hours for gaming and about 6 hours for regular computations.
The Alienware M11x Gaming netbook is expected to step into stores in February. The pricing for the US is said to be less than $1000. The UK pricing is yet to be announced.
PsiXpda at CES 2010
This time round at CES, there have been plenty of gadgets which have bridged the gap between a netbook and a smartphone, like the Dell Mini 5 and the Lenovo Skylight Smartbook. The PsiXpda ultramobile PC also belongs to this category. Well, a further look at its specifications make it more apt in the laptop and netbook category because it has an Intel Atom processor driving it. Nonetheless, it can met you make calls as well.
This device has a 5″ capacitive touchscreen and a slide out QWERTY keyboard. The screen can be tilted at an angle to the keyboard. This keyboard has decently placed keys, which are not cramped up. Thus, those users with large fingers should not have problems using it. The right side of the screen can be used for scrolling up and down the pages. Two mouse buttons are seated to the left of the display. The RAM is 1GB capacious and there is a 16GB solid state drive. This UMPC is based on Windows XP OS. Like most netbooks, this gadget supports WiFi. Additionally, 3G technology is supported as well. A VGA camera, USB connectivity, microSD memory expansion and a 2.5mm headphone jack are all housed in this gizmo.
This tiny little device can function as a full fledged PC. However, it has been priced on the higher side. The PsiXpda pocket PC can be heavy on your pocket with its price tag of £500 approximately.
MSI Dual Screen Laptop Wooed Audience at CES 2010
Do you remember the Asus Dual Screen Notebook concept that actually looked like a conventional book? Though Asus was the first to speak about the concept, it was MSI who made the concept a working reality. And what was more, the gadget making giant, brought it along with them to Las Vegas, to woo the spectators at CES, 2010.
There were reportedly 2 models of different sizes. One was a 7″ screen notebook and the other a 10″ one. Though the former was not yet functional, the latter did manage to impress the crowd with its working.
This MSI dual screen notebook has two 10″ capacitive multi-touch screens with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels each. These screens can function independently as 2 separate displays as well as a single large display. When working independently, the lower panel can display a virtual keyboard, and the other panel can play the role of a screen, just like netbooks. When functioning as a single unit, this dual screen device can be held like a book. Windows can be moved from one screen to the other with a finger, in this single display mode.
The screens feature haptic feedback, which lets users know what exactly they have touched to feed in as input. The level of this feedback will be made customizable in the future, revealed an MSI insider at CES.
A Windows 7 based device, the MSI dual screen laptop, is equipped with an Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz processor. It packs in a solid state drive for storage instead of a hard drive to keep its weight low and also to stay slim and trim.
MSI have mentioned that they have plenty of work to be completed on the dual display device. Multi-touch ability, a light battery that would deliver 8-10 hours of life, 3G ability, better viewing angles, customizable haptic feedback and deciding on a name are a few entries in their ‘to do’ list. MSI have plans of making this prototype a commercial one. At this point of time, it seems too early to reveal pricing and availability. Andy Tung, MSI Director of Sales, has however mentioned that this novel device will be affordable.
Images – Via LaptopMag