MSI Wind U160 Available For Pre-Order

Amazon has begun taking pre-orders for MSI’s upcoming Wind U160 netbook. Priced at $379.99, this mini laptop offers you the following specifications: a 10.1-inch LED backlit display, an Intel Atom N450 1.6GHz processor, an Intel GMA 3150 graphics card, a 1GB RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a 1.3MP webcam, a 4-in-1 card reader, 3x USB ports, WiFi, Bluetooth, a 6-cell battery and Windows 7 Starter OS.

(Via Laptop Notebook News.)

First Impressions of the Sony Vaio W – Green Netbook

At CES 2010 Sony announced the new Sony Vaio W netbook, which adds a green focus to the netbook and how it’s shipped. I’ve had the chance to use the Sony Vaio W series netbook for a week now and wanted to share my first impressions of the new green netbook. Overall I have found the Vaio W to be a good machine, but I have a few minor quibbles so far.

To start, the Vaio W is a pretty sleek netbook that feels pretty sturdy and looks stylish, except for the battery. Now, don’t get me wrong the prospect of 6-8 hour battery life under real world usage is appealing but I wish the Vaio W didn’t have the snail tail battery that sticks out the back. In the end, it’s no deal breaker and it works as a handle and to prop the keyboard up a bit for a better typing experience so I can let it slide.

Speaking of the keyboard. After a week of usage I both love and hate this keyboard. I love the silver color, key spacing, responsiveness of the keys and the feedback. But the keys are small. While the spacing makes it easier to deal with what really gets me is that the right shift key is one of the smallest keys on the Sony Vaio W. This means I am constantly missing it, which I find annoying.

Then again, when I shared this frustration on Twitter I was asked what I used the right shift key for, so maybe this is a non issue for most of the population. For the record, I have cobbled my own version of home keys meets hunt and peck which serves me well and allows for a pretty crazy fast typing speed so long as  know what I want to say.

One thing that I found really useful as soon as I wanted to write a post on the Sony Vaio W, was that it has a screen resolution of 1366 x 768, This is big enough that I can have two windows up next to each other, snapped to the left and the right in Windows 7, and still see well enough to work. This is a huge improvement over the 1024 x 600 resolution of my HP Mini 1000 and even though some text can be small, there’s no way I can go back.

As part of the green theme of the Sony Vaio W, details below, the brown reusable carrying bag made out of recycled juice bottles with a light green zipper accent. I really like the bag because it fits the Vaio perfectly. You can store the battery in a Velcro slot at the bottom of the bag, or if you want to keep it in the netbook it fits that way too. Not a lot of room for anything else, but I found that I can slide a moleskin notebook in alongside the netbook, so it is good enough for daytrips.

The Sony Vaio W has 3 main green ‘features’:

• 20% of the PC/ABS resin used in the cover, palm rest and incidental parts is comprised of reprocessed plastic from DVD and CD waste
• Electronic user manual in place of the standard 76-page printed manual to save paper
• Packaged in a reusable carrying case that utilizes 100% recycled PET material (material from plastic bottles)

The Basic specs on the Sony Vaio VPCW212AX that I will be reviewing are:

• Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz processor
• 250GB hard drive
• 1GB DDR2 RAM
• ‘Large Battery’ rated at 7-8 hours
• Windows 7 Starter
• Motion Eye Webcam
• Electro-static touchpad
• Wifi b/g/n
• A2DP Bluetooth
• Memorystick slot
• SD card slot
• 2 USB ports
• Mic in
• Headphone out

More info on the Sony Vaio W at Sony.com

(Via notebooks.com.)

A New 17.3-Inch Notebook From MSI

MSI has announced a new addition to its notebook range by unveiling the CR720. Powered by an all-new 2010 Intel Core processor (Core i3/i5/i7), the CR720 is packed with a 17.3-inch 1600 x 900 HD+ LCD display, an Intel GMA HD graphics card, up to 4GB DDR3 RAM, up to 500GB hard drive, a 1.3MP webcam, a 4-in-1 card reader, WiFi, Bluetooth, an HDMI port, a 6-cell battery and Windows 7 Home Premium OS. Sadly, there’s no word on pricing yet.

(Via Laptop Notebook News.)

DigitalRise S1 Slate Tablet PC

DigitalRise has released its S1 Slate, which is a cheaper version of its multitouch-capable X9. The tablet is powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, a 1GB RAM, a 160GB hard disk, a 10.2-inch display at 1024 x 600 resolution, a 3000mAh lithium-ion battery, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, Wi-Fi and Microsoft Windows 7 OS. Additionally, the S1’s screen is dust, scratch, and fire resistant. You should have at least $630 to bring home this tablet PC. [ChinaGrabber]

Sungworld MID to run on Android

Sungworld certainly has a nice surprise up their sleeves for everyone with a new Mobile Internet Device (MID) that has yet to be named. This model will be based on the ARM926 platform, where it will run on the Android operating system while boasting a slew of features that ought to keep any MID user happy, including a 7′ touchscreen display at 800 x 480 resolution, 512MB RAM, a 2GB SSD, Wi-Fi connectivity, 1080p video support and a HDMI port to let you view your full HD videos on a big screen in the living room. Hopefully it comes with a memory card slot of some kind, otherwise its 2GB storage space isn’t going to cut the mustard especially with full HD video content getting more and more popular these days.

(Via UberGizmo, the Gadgets News Blog.)

TG Sambo Averatec Lookie Ultra-thin Laptop

TG Sambo has rolled out its new ultra-thin notebook PC, the Averatec Lookie, for the South Korean market. It is a lightweight laptop that weights at just 1.4Kg and measures 0.5cm thick. The Averatec Lookie is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Microsoft Windows 7 OS, a LED backlit LCD screen, a 250GB HDD, a webcam, an ergonomic keyboard and a HDMI port. Its battery provides up to 6-hour of battery life. The TG Sambo Averatec Lookie is expected to be available for 799,000 Won ($712). [AVING]

A New Gaming Notebook From Sony

Sony has begun selling their latest VAIO F-series gaming notebook ‘F1190X’ via LogicBuy. Priced at $999.99, this powerful system offers a 16.4-inch 1600 x 900 LCD display, an Intel Core i7-720QM 1.6GHz processor (TurboBoost up to 2.8GHz), a NVIDIA GeForce 310M 512MB graphics card, a 4GB RAM, a 320GB HDD, a Blu-ray drive, WiFi, Bluetooth and Windows 7 OS.

(Via Laptop Notebook News.)

Fujitsu LifeBook UH900 unveiled

[CES 2010] Multitouch seems to be the way forward in a myriad of devices, and Fujitsu does not let that fact escape them with the UH900 which tips the scales at just 1.1 pounds despite packing in in a 5.6′ bonded screen display with an Intel Atom Z Series processor running proceedings from within. In order to support multitouch, Windows 7 Home Premium is the operating system of choice. You can double this up as a GPS navigation system thanks to its integrated GPS receiver and Garmin GPS Navigation pre-loaded. Strangely enough, a 62GB SSD (why not 64GB?) was thrown into the mix to complement its Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, stereo microphone and an ECO button that helps prolong battery life. Expect to pick it up from next month onwards for $999. You will definitely have to retrain your fingers to work with its keyboard though since it is really, really small in comparison to netbooks that have grown in size over the years.

(Via UberGizmo, the Gadgets News Blog.)

IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Hands-On: Meet Voltron. He Could Be Amazing.

Let’s clarify two things right away: first, the Ideapad U1 hybrid notebook tablet is still in the very rough stages of development. Second, it’s going to be awesome—if it can live up to its potential.

Let’s review the concept quickly before we get into the details. The U1 is literally two separate devices, joined together and made to play nice. One is a multitouch tablet that runs Linux and has a speedily efficient Qualcomm ARM 1Ghz Snapdragon processor running the show. The other is a Windows 7 notebook with an Intel Core 2 Duo SU 4100 processor.

The build is like Lenovo’s other IdeaPads, except for the translucent red top that houses the tablet. When the base and the slate are linked up, the latter acts as an 11.6-inch, 720p (1366×768) monitor that looked crisp despite being saddled with Intel’s integrated graphics. The (non-chiclet) keyboard is based on the current lineup of IdeaPads, and both it and the touchpad worked smoothly. The U1 we saw wasn’t set up to do much other than web browse, and pages loaded quickly. The notebook has built-in Wi-Fi, but can also run off of the tablet’s 3G connection, which I can see being a pretty great benefit for times when wireless isn’t readily accessible.

The fun part, though, is unclasping the tablet from its shell. It’s firmly latched in, which is more reassuring than frustrating. Once removed from the notebook, there’s a two or three second lag before the Snapdragon processor kicks in. It’s not seamless, but it’s close enough. Tablet mode greets you with a six-panel screen of apps similar to that of Lenovo’s Skylight smartbook. The selection is limited for now, but Lenovo will be opening up the SDK to developers soon to give you more to play with than the standard YouTube, Gmail, and Facebook-type options.

You can also enter a type of content mode, which divides up your stored files between music, video, images, and documents. With the multitouch interface, you can quickly jump among all four, and adjust how much of the screen is devoted to each. The resistive screen was good, but not great—it at times took some pretty insistent pressing to get the response I was looking for. The viewing angles could also use work; unless you’re looking nearly dead-on at the display, you’re pretty much out of luck.

I was impressed by the sound quality—not excellent by any means, but better than I expected from a tablet device. One immediately obvious downside is the total absence of ports on the tablet other than the docking—there’s not even a headphone jack. It’s configured for Bluetooth, but I’d still like the option to plug in my buds. The tablet also currently lacks an accelerometer, so there’s no way to orient documents or images based on its position. This is hopefully something that will be addressed before its release.

I said the two devices are totally separate, and I meant it. There are advantages and disadvantages to this set-up. On the plus side, while the tablet is undocked, you can hook the base up to a monitor and get full notebook functionality. If you remove it during web browsing, the tablet remembers which site you were on and places you there automatically (and vice versa). In fact, when I had Gizmodo in notebook mode and removed the slate, it automatically took me to the mobile version of Giz.

The down side is that right now, web pages are the only things that are transferable this way. If I were working on a document in notebook mode, there’s no on-the-fly transition once I pop out the tablet. You can drag and drop, but a more seamless transfer would be helpful. It would also be nice to be able to control the tablet remotely with the base, but once they’ve separated there’s no interaction between the two. Again, these are things that may or may not be addressed by the time the U1 comes out in the second half of this year.

About that release: it’s up in the air right now as to when you can get your hands on one of these, because of all of the tweaks that need to be made. It will also be crucial for Lenovo to be able to build up a decent store of apps for the U1 and the Skylight if these are going to have any functionality beyond very basic web browsing and media playback. And for an estimated retail price of $999—minus whatever subsidy they’re able to get from a partner carrier—that functionality had better be there.

All in all, the U1 is a slick device, if a little undercooked. If nothing else, I’m excited to see how far they can take this concept once they put it in production. But no rush, Lenovo. If you take the time get it right, it’ll be something special.

gawkerGallery(5440919,11,”);

(Via Gizmodo: Notebooks.)

Acer 532h Netbook With Pine Trail, Pics and Specs Leak

Murmurings of an Acer Aspire packing Intel’s new Pine Trail N450 processor have been doing the rounds for a while, but finally pics and more specs have been leaked, cementing the existence of this still-unofficial model.

It’s a 10.1-inch model with a 1024 x 600 resolution display, and runs on the aforementioned processor, along with an Intel GMA 3150 graphics card, 1GB of RAM, and has either a 160GB or 250GB HDD. A 0.3-megapixel webcam, 5-in-1 card reader, 3 x USB ports, VGA out port and audio jacks round it off, as does the Windows 7 Starter edition OS.

It’ll come in black, red, white and blue colorways, with the leaked prices so far suggesting it’ll be under $300. Expect to hear more on this netbook soon, with CES just over the peak of the hill.

“

(Via Gizmodo: NetBooks.)