Have Laptop Will Travel

MSI Wind now available in the US

Originally posted on July 9, 2008 @ 11:48 pm

MSI’s much awaited Wind ultraportable will finally see its US debut soon. MSI has announced that it has begun shipping pre-orders for its U100 model. The MSI Wind is now also available in a number of online and traditional retail stores.

The MSI Wind will be priced affordably at $499 and will feature a 1.6Ghz Intel Atom procie, 80gb HD, and 1GB of DDR2 RAM. The Wind will come packated with Windows XP Home edition and will have a three-cell battery. This coming September, MSI will ship its Linux flavored Wind, which will also have a six-cell battery.

Panasonic Toughbook gets ultraportable

Originally posted on June 25, 2008 @ 9:58 pm

Panasonic’s impressive Toughbook series will now also join the UMPC market with the announcement of the release of the Toughbook U1.

The new device weighs just 2.3 pounds and considered to be tougher than the Toughbook 19. The cool thing here is that it even goes beyond Mil-Spec tests–military standard specifications that certify a product can work even when subject to extreme conditions.

The U1 can withstand being dropped from a height of four feet and can operate even in extreme temperature conditions because it uses an SSD. It also has a QWERTY keyboard that is best used for thumb typing. It will also come equipped with a bevy of nifty features like a barcode scanner, fingerprint reader, webcam, among others. It will be powered by an Intel Atom processor.

The U1 is actually one of the best spec-ed UMPC’s on the market. The only thing where it loses (and I mean LOSE) is in the price department. At $2499, I’d rather get the Alienware laptop of my dreams with change enough to buy me several games.

Laptop and Notebook- A Difference Merely in Name?

Originally posted on August 27, 2012 @ 10:32 pm

What we call portable computers can easily refer to laptops or notebooks.  It is often not quite clear what differentiates these two.  The original differentiating factor which is the size and bulk is no longer applicable as laptops become smaller and lighter with the introduction of new models.  It is not an exaggeration to say that it can be very difficult to know the difference merely by physical appearance.

The bigger size of early laptops was due to the reason that it was designed to be a portable desktop in relation to power and amount of hardware.  The notebook, on the other hand, has been designed ever since for maximum mobility from its design to its contents.  With everything stripped down to the basics, users had to contend with smaller displays, less power and hardware, and less engaging graphics and sound.

Newer advances in technology have made it possible to pack in more power and features into a smaller package thereby totally obliterating the physical difference between a laptop and a notebook.  Portable computer owners never had it so good as now as power and mobility finally merged.  This is only expected to get better as future improvements set in.

Laptops and notebooks perform basically the same functions but since there is still a difference in its contents, each can perform better depending on the task to be performed.  Notebook use is typically limited to quick tasks such as checking of email and is still the probable choice of owners whose everyday activity requires extreme mobility.  Laptops still have  larger capabilities and can accommodate other tasks such as longer work sessions or watching videos.  Notebook typically cannot accommodate more complex systems found in laptops.

Manufacturers tend to shy away from naming their products as laptops because of the preconceived idea of bulk.  Most have opted for alternate branding that seems to attach their products to notebooks.  This is a sure signal therefore that the time will come that notebooks and laptops will completely be the same inside and out.  This would of course necessitate another name for the resulting product.

Image: laptopsarena.com

 

HP Goes on the Attack with Ultrabook Laptops

Originally posted on July 13, 2011 @ 8:45 am

HP Logo

HP Logo

Apple may have the edge when it comes to ultrathin laptops with their MacBook Airs, but I do not expect the status quo to remain for very long. Samsung already has its Series 9 laptops competing with the MacBook Airs – at least in concept, if not yet in sales and demand.

Now Hewlett Packard is going on the offensive as well with its Ultrabook laptops, which are supposed to come out soon. How soon exactly remains a question.

So what in the world is an ultrabook? To be honest, as much as I love gadgets – laptops included, of course – all these terms are starting to get on my nerves. Can you just imagine the average person without much tech knowledge wanting to buy a laptop? Netbook, notebook, Ultrabook, Elitebook, etc. – that list could go on and give someone a headache!

Anyhow, having had that mini-rant, I’ll go ahead and define Ultrabook. I like how CNET simplifies matters: “What is an Ultrabook? In a word, thin.” ((Source))

So basically, the MacBook Airs and whatever other laptops with similar form factors are considered Ultrabooks. Another way to look at it – laptop with features similar to tablets and with a design that is thin and light. We can all blame Intel for this term, as the company is the driving force behind its use. It has even issued guidelines regarding the use of the term and the general specs for this class of laptops.

Going back to HP’s Ultrabook…while there seems to be concrete evidence that the company will be launching at least two Ultrabooks, there isn’t much information to be found right now. All we know are the details for Ultrabooks in general – a maximum thickness of 20 millimeters (0.8 inches); a solid state drive; efficient power consumption; and hopefully, a reasonable price. Although what is reasonable will vary from one person to the next, Intel’s guidelines for this class of laptops states that the price should be less than $1,000. That is definitely a plus for Ultrabooks.

Oh, and there is a little bit more information about HP’s Ultrabooks – they are probably going to use Intel’s Core i7-2677M (1.8GHz) and i7-2637M (1.7GHz) dual-core CPUs. ((DigiTimes)) No surprise there.

What do you think about the Ultrabook concept?

Samsung Series 9 Laptops Are Looking Oh So Sleek

Originally posted on July 11, 2011 @ 8:15 am

Samsung Series 9 Laptop

Samsung Series 9 Laptop

The other day, I was walking around the mall when a huge display caught my eye in what usually is an open space. Samsung was holding a special exhibit, and special it was! The Series 9 laptops have been the talk of the town for a while now, although I don’t know too many people getting their hands on one. It seems, though, that Samsung has struck gold with this series, making their thin laptops a feasible alternative to Apple’s MacBook Airs. And if expanding the line is anything to go by, then Samsung has really done a good job with the initial offerings.

The news is that there are new 13.3-inch versions which are part of the Series 9 laptops. First comes the NP900X3A-B01US, which comes with an Core i5-2467M CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB solid-state drive. This configuration will cost you a nice $1,349.

If the 128GB storage is not enough for you (understandably, if the laptop is going to be your main computer, that storage space needs to be bumped up), then the next model might be more to your liking – the NP900X3A-B02US. It has similar specs to the previous laptop, except that the SSD is 256GB. The price tag for this configuration is $1,649.

Now for the big boy – the NP900X3A-A05US. This laptop has a Core i7-2617M, 6GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD – all for $2,049.

Of course, it is to be expected that the additions to the line up includes smaller sized laptops. The Samsung Series 9 is also welcoming two new laptops in the 11-inch models. The NP900X1B-A02US has a Core i3-2357M processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 64GB SSD. The price is $1,049.

The other option is the NP900X3A-A01US, with the same processor as above, but more RAM at 4GB and more storage space at 128GB (SSD as well). This is priced at $1,249.

My first thoughts – beautifully sleek, but disappointingly pricey. Why would I want to go for these laptops if they are not way cheaper than the MacBook Airs? Then again, for people who want the look without leaving Windows, these laptops are perfect. Another thing going for these laptops is the material used to make the case – duralumin, which is supposed to be twice as strong as aluminum.

Watch out for their release next month, although I hear some stores are already offering them on a pre-order basis.

Via