HASEE LAUNCHES THIN AND LIGHT NOTEBOOKS IN CHINA

Chinese PC maker Hasee has launched two thin and light laptops dubbed UV20-S17 and UV20-S23. These notebooks feature Intel’s CULV processors. Hasee has already built some netbooks with Atom processors. But this is the first time the company has forayed into the CULV segment.

Both models have Intel CULV processors and integrated Intel GMA X4500 MHD graphics. While the UV20-S17 has a 1.3 GHz Intel Celeron 743 single core processor and 160GB of RAM, the other model UV20-S23 has a faster 1.2 GHz Intel Celeron SU2300 processor and 250GB hard drive. Both models are equipped with 11.6 inch displays featuring 1366 x 768 pixels. Up to 1GB of RAM is available.

The notebooks cost between around $366 and $400.

TOSHIBA UNVEILS SATELLITE PRO L450 AND L550 NOTEBOOKS

Toshiba has introduced two laptops aimed at businesses. The Satellite Pro L450 and L550 are expected to deliver decent performance at an affordable price.

The Satellite Pro L450 has a 15.6 inch display. It can be configured with either an Intel Core 2 Duo T5870 processor with 3GB of DDR2 RAM or an Intel Core 2 Duo T6670 processor with 4GB of RAM. The hard disk capacity is 320GB. Prices start at $629.
The L550 has a 17.3 inch display. It is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo T6670 processor with 4GB of DDR2RAM and a 320GB hard disk drive.

Graphics is handled by Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics. As these notebooks are aimed at businesses, there are no discrete graphics cards. Both machines run Windows XP SP3. The L550 is also available with Windows 7 Professional. Prices start at $999.

AMD MAKING CHIPS FOR NETBOOKS AND LOW-COST NOTEBOOKS

AMD processors are known for delivering high performance, but they aren’t necessarily energy efficient. While they are ideal for powering huge desktop replacement laptops, they just can’t be used in netbooks and ultraportables which are expected to give excellent battery life. Needless to say AMD processors are seldom used in low cost notebooks and netbooks. But now 11 and 12 inch laptops with Intel CULV processors are getting popular and AMD has realized that it just can’t ignore this territory.

The company soon plans to release its next generation of chips aimed at thin and light computers. The new chips are part of AMD’s third-generation Nile platform. They are expected to start shipping in 2010 and 2011. AMD claims that the new chips could give 7 or more hours of battery life in ultraportables. AMD is also making new Bobcat chips for netbooks and ultrathin notebooks.

LENOVO UNVEILS IDEAPAD Y550P, U150 AND U550 NOTEBOOKS

Lenovo has unveiled three new IdeaPad notebooks featuring Windows 7. The machines are dubbed Y550P, U150 and U550 and are presently available for customization on Lenovo’s website.

The Y550P has a 15.6 inch display. It is the first Lenovo laptop to be powered by the Core i7 processor. The machine is aimed at multimedia enthusiasts and is equipped with a discrete GPU from Nvidia. It will also feature ‘unique Lenovo tools’ such as SlideNav.

The U150 is a thin and light laptop with an 11.6 inch display. It measures just .53 inches in thickness and weighs under 3 lbs. The U150 will run on an Intel CULV Core 2 Duo processor with up to 8GB of RAM. The U550 is aimed at businesses. It has a 15.6 inch display and sports an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Other features include switchable graphics and VeriFace facial recognition software.

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FUJITSU ANNOUNCES TWO P-SERIES NOTEBOOKS

Fujitsu has announced two new additions to its P-Series of notebooks. The Fujitsu LifeBook P3110 and P3010 are available in beautiful colors with attractive design.

Both notebooks have an 11.6 inch display with 1366x768 pixels. While the P3110 runs on an Intel Pentium SU4100 1.30GHz processor, the P3010 has an AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 1.60GHz processor. Both notebooks come with a DVD Burner. Other common features include WiFi, multi-touch trackpad, 1.3MP camera, Bluetooth 2.1, stereo speakers, integrated graphics and spill-resistant full size keyboard. The laptops are available in three colors – Glossy Black, Glossy Silver and Glossy Red Ruby.

The machines weigh 3lbs and measure just an inch in thickness. The included batteries are expected to give 6.7 hours of up time. No information regarding pricing or availability has been announced as yet.

AMAZON OFFERS GIFT CERTIFICATES WITH THE PURCHASE OF ASUS NOTEBOOKS

In an older post we mentioned that Amazon plans to offer customers a $75 gift certificate when they buy an Asus UL20A thin and light notebook through their online store. Well, Amazon has made the promotion page live, and there are more laptops on offer.

Besides the UL20A, the offer is available with two other models as well. Customers who buy the Asus UL50A and Asus UL80A through Amazon will get a $100 gift certificate. These notebooks are larger and pricier than the 12.1 inch UL20A.

The offer doesn’t knock $75 or $100 off the price. Actually, what you are getting is a gift certificate with which you will be able to buy a product of your choice from the Amazon store. And Amazon sells pretty much everything so this isn’t much different from getting a real discount.

TOSHIBA LAUNCHES NEW BUSINESS CLASS NOTEBOOKS

Toshiba has made new additions to its Satellite Pro and Protégé line of business notebooks. While all the new notebooks offer support for Windows 7, most of them come pre-loaded with Windows XP.

The new additions to the Satellite Pro line have models with 13.3, 15.6 and 17.3 inch display sizes. Prices start at $529. The new Satellite Pro U500 has a 13.3 inch multi-touch screen display. Prices start at $999. The L450 has a 15.6 inch display and starts at $529. The L550 is the bigger model with 17.3 inch display. It starts at $999. All Satellite Pro notebooks run on Intel Core 2 Duo processors with Windows 7.

The Toshiba Protégé M750 is a tablet PC with a better Core 2 Duo processor. It has a 12.1 inch LED-backlit display that accepts both touch and pen input. It comes pre-loaded with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. A Windows 7 Professional upgrade is also available. Prices start at $1,279.

ASUS INTRODUCES 3D NOTEBOOKS

Asus has introduced two laptops with 3D displays – the G51J3D and the G72GX. The G51J3D is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor with 1GB of NVIDIA GeForce 160M graphics processor. It has a 15.6 inch display.

The G72GX is bigger with its 17.3 inch display. Its specifications have not yet been disclosed.

The Asus 3D notebooks are different from 3D notebooks released by Acer. Asus claims that the special glasses it uses on its 3D notebooks allows for better viewing of 1080p HD video playback. The glasses also provide better viewing angles.

Pricing and Availability
The G51J3D is expected to be released in December and the G72GX in the second quarter of 2010. No information regarding pricing is available as yet.

DELL OFFERS TO UPGRADE NOTEBOOKS TO WINDOWS 7

You don’t really have to wait until the release of Windows 7 to buy your next Dell laptop. You can order the device now itself and Dell will ship it with Windows 7 pre-installed.

If everything goes as planned, Microsoft will release its newest operating system – Windows 7 – on October 22 and PC makers are busy announcing their upgrade programs. Dell, for instance, has expanded its Free and Easy upgrade program. Users who want to have Windows 7 installed on their PCs can participate in this program free of charge. Through this program Dell will install Windows 7 Premium on all new Dell PCs before they are shipped to the customers. So buyers will get their notebooks pre-installed with Windows 7 around October 22.

TOSHIBA INTRODUCES ITS DYNABOOK MX/43 AND DYNABOOK MX/33 NOTEBOOKS

Toshiba has introduced two new additions to the Dynabook family of notebooks. The Toshiba Dynabook MX/43 is a 13.3 inch laptop powered by a dual core Intel CULV processor. The other model Dynabook MX/33 has an 11.6 inch display with 1366x768 pixels. It can compete with similarly sized notebooks such as Dell Inspiron 11z and Acer Aspire 1410. Both machines will run on Windows 7.Detailed specifications are not available.

The Dynabook MX/33 runs on a 1.3GHz Intel Celeron 743 single core CPU. Other specifications include 250GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM.

Pricing and Availability
Both notebooks will be available in Japan from October 22. While the Dynabook MX/43 costs around $1300, the smaller MX/33 will have a price tag of $1000.

ASUS ANNOUNCES UL30, UL50AG AND UL50VG CULV NOTEBOOKS

The newly announced Asus UL30, UL50AG and UL50VG will run on CULV processors. Besides being power efficient the new laptops feature a thin design and promises to deliver up to 12 hours of battery life.

Design
The chassis is built of brushed aluminum which lends the laptops an aura of elegance while at the same time keeping the design thin. While the UL30 has a 13.3 inch display, the other two notebooks – the UL50AG and UL50VG – come with 15.6 inch displays.

Specifications
The laptops will be powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.40GHz processor with 500GB hard disk. The UL50VG will come with a switchable discrete graphics GPU. Another power efficient feature is the Turbo Boost option which improves the performance of the laptops by 33%.

The touchpad supports multi-touch gestures. Other features include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi b/g/n, webcam and Altec Lansing Speakers with SRS surround sound.

Pricing and Availability
The laptops will hit the UK market on October 22 with Windows 7. Prices start from £599 for UL30, £699 for UL50AG and £799 for UL50VG.

TOSHIBA ANNOUNCES TOUCH SCREEN NOTEBOOKS SATELLITE M505 AND U505

Toshiba has announced the launch of two touch screen notebooks. These devices will run on Windows 7.

The new touch screen notebooks will be called Satellite M505 and Satellite U505. Both notebooks will feature the Toshiba LifeSpace software package which provides users with a ‘Bulletin Board’ full of ‘touch’ features. Another useful feature is the ‘ReelTime’ software which gives a visual history with which users can find files based on when they were opened.

The M505 comes with a 14 inch display. It is due to be released on October 22nd. It will be powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 2.2GHz processor, integrated 4500MHD graphics, 4GB RAM and a 500GB HDD. The U505 is due to be released on November 1. It will have a 13.3 inch display with similar specifications.

The M505 is expected to cost around $949.99, while the U505 will sell for $1,049.99.

ASUS INTRODUCES CORE i7 POWERED G60J AND M60J NOTEBOOKS

Asus has officially announced two notebooks – the M60J and the G60J - powered by Intel’s Core i7 processor.

The G60J is powered by a quad-core mobile processor with 4GB of DDR RAM and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 260M GPU. Other features include 1GB of VRAM, a pair of 500GB 7200rpm hard drives, Blu-ray combo drive and Altec Lansing speakers. The notebook is available in two display sizes – 16 inch HD panel with 1366x768 pixels and 15.6 inch full HD with 1920x1200pixels. Prices start at $2,999.

The M60J is a multimedia notebook with touch controls. It uses the same quad-core mobile processor, 4GB of RAM, Blu-ray combo drive and 16 inch HD display. The graphics option on this notebook is a slightly slower GeForce GT240M and the pair of 500GB drives spin at 5400rpm. Other features include Altec Lancing speakers with Dolby 2 Home Theatre certification. Prices start at $2,599.

Availability
Both notebooks will be available next month. They will come pre-installed with 64-bit edition of Windows 7 Professional.

ACER TO LAUNCH TWO THIN AND LIGHT NOTEBOOKS

Acer will soon launch two thin-and-light notebooks – the Acer Aspire 3935 and the Gateway EC series. The products were unveiled at a recent press meet.

The Acer Aspire 3935 will have a 13.3 inch display with 1366x768 pixels. It will run on an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU with 4GB of RAM. Acer claims that the device will offer up to 8 hours of battery life. Other features include fingerprint scanner and WiMAX.

The Gateway EC series of notebooks will be equipped with 13.3 inch displays having an aspect ratio of 16:9. The standard storage option on these notebooks will be Solid State drives. Other features include HDMI output, optional 3G and Bluetooth.

No word on pricing is available as yet, but the Aspire 3935 is likely to be pricier than the Gateway EC series.

AMD RELEASES ITS TIGRIS AND CONGO MOBILE PLATFORMS FOR NOTEBOOKS

AMD’s newest mobile platforms for notebooks – the Tigris and the Congo - have been released. The chipmaker claims that the new platforms will improve the multimedia performance while at the same time extending battery life.

Tigris is aimed at the mainstream notebook market. It supports the DirectX 10.1 standard and is capable of decoding full 1080p HD video. AMD claims that it will also extend the battery life by up to 25%. Other power saving innovations on processors based on this platform include me buffer compression, PSI support and dynamic backlight reduction. The Tigris platform will feature the 45nm dual core Caspian CPUs and the Radeon HD 4200 GPU.

The Congo platform is also capable of full 1080p HD video playback and supports the Direct 10.1 standard. This platform will offer a slightly longer battery life by running dual core Neo CPUs and Radeon HD 3200 GPU.

MSI TO RELEASE CORE I7 BASED NOTEBOOKS

MSI will release new notebooks based on Intel’s Calpella platform by the end of this year. These notebooks will be powered by Intel’s soon-to-be-launched Mobile Core i7 (7200M, 8200M and 920XM) processors. The default operating system will be Windows 7.

The Core i7 platform is expected to provide better performance than the Centrino 2 based platforms currently used. Intel claims that the i7 processors will offer better multi-tasking capabilities with improved battery life.

The new notebooks will be equipped with 15.4 and 17 inch screens. They will be priced in the range of $600 and $900.

Meanwhile MSI has delayed the release of new laptops based on Core i5 and i3 until early 2010.

DELL STUDIO XPS NOTEBOOKS NOW AVAILABLE IN ARCTIC WHITE

The Dell Studio XPS 13 and XPS 16 notebooks are now available in Arctic White. Dell already sells the notebooks in red and black.

The Arctic White model will have a slightly different design with a stylish leather accent at the bottom of the lid. The addition of leather will provide better grips as well as making the laptop look sharp. Other design elements will be the same.

The White XPS will have the same specifications as the red and black XPS. But it will cost an extra $40. The XPS 13 and XPS 16 notebooks are powered by a 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor with 3GB RAM and a 250GB HDD. The 13 inch version has an integrated Nvidia GeForce 9400M, whereas the 16 inch XPS comes with a discrete ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3670.

MSI TO RELEASE 5 C-SERIES NOTEBOOKS

MSI has announced five C-series notebooks – the CX600, CR600-013, CR600-017, CR700 and CX700. These budget notebooks will have 16 and 17.3 inch WXGA++ displays.

The new laptops will feature entry level Intel Pentium Dual Core processors. All except the CR600-017 will have the Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200 2.0GHz processor. The CR600-017 will be powered by a slightly faster Dual Core T4300 2.1 GHz. All the models will have 4GB DDR2 RAM. Hard drive capacity will be 320GB 5400rpm.

Despite them being budget notebooks, MSI has decided to equip them with discrete GPUs. The CR-models will have Nvidia Geforce 8300M graphics. The CX-models will use the ATI Radeon HD 4330 GPU.

The default operating system will be Windows Vista Home Premium. Other features include 3 USB 2.0 ports, Wi-Fi b/g/n, gigabit Ethernet, 4-in-1 card reader, 1.3 MP Camera and DVD Burner. The CR600-017 will have a Blu-ray drive instead of the DVD drive.

SONY DISPLAYS VAIO X NOTEBOOKS

Sony’s upcoming VAIO X series is going to break some records – it will be incredibly light with a thin chassis and a long battery life.

Sony recently released a prototype of its new VAIO X series notebook at its IFA keynote. The VAIO X series will have an 11.1 inch display. Instead of the heavier and bulkier aluminum and plastics, these notebooks will be made of carbon fiber which will reduce their overall weight to an incredible 1.5lbs and thickness to half an inch. Sony has not yet released the final specifications of this notebook, but it is expected to have an energy efficient Intel Atom processor.

No information regarding pricing or release date is available as of now.

SAMSUNG TO INTRODUCE TWO CULV NOTEBOOKS

Samsung is expected to announce two new notebooks soon. Dubbed X420 and X520, they will have a CULV processor.

The Samsung X420 will use a low voltage Intel Pentium Dual Core SU2700 1.30 GHz processor. Other hardware specifications include a 250GB 5400RPM hard drive and 3GB DDR3 RAM. The X420 has a 14 inch display.

The X520 has a 15.6 inch display. It is equipped with an ultra-low voltage processor with a 320GB HDD and 4GB DDR3 memory. The graphics on both notebooks will be handled by the integrated Intel GMA X4500M cards. There will be the usual number of ports. The 6-cell battery is expected to give up to 9 hours of battery life. The notebooks are expected to be released after the official launch of Windows 7 in October.