US-based e-tailer Excaliber PC now lists the 15.6-inch MSI GX680 and 17.3″ MSI GX780 gaming notebook PCs, featuring a 2nd Gen Intel Core processor and Nvidia GeForce dedicated graphics.
Priced at $1,199 and $1,399 respectively after $100 instant savings, the GX680 and GX780 include the Core i7-2630QM 2.0GHz-2.9GHz quad-core CPU, GeForce GT 555M 1GB GDDR5 video card, full HD displays, and a sound system with four speakers and Dynaudio technology. The former has 6GB of DDR3 system memory and a 500GB hard disk, while the latter comes with 8GB RAM and a 750GB HDD.
The GX780 additionally features a Steel-Series gaming-class keyboard.
The latest gaming laptops by MSI also sport a DVD burner, 720p webcam, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, and HDMI 1.4 output.
Both machines run Windows 7 Home Premium OS and come with a 2-year warranty.
The estimated arrival time for the notebooks is May 30.
We heard of a bezel-hating LG Shuriken display sneaking its way onto Acer laptops recently, but the Korean company has wisely opted to debut that cutting-edge technology in its own portable computers first.
The 14-inch P430 and 15.6-inch P530 mark the start of LG’s new Blade series of laptops, which are the result of some obsessive slimming work at the LG labs — display thickness is 4.5mm and 4.7mm, respectively, while the bezel on the 14-inch model is so narrow as to fit its screen within the dimensions of a traditional 13.3-inch laptop. Weight, at 1.94kg on the P430 and 2.2kg on P530, is also said to be on par with machines offering significantly smaller screens, but that’s not at the sacrifice of construction materials as brushed aluminum is used to strengthen LG’s new slimsters. A Core i7 CPU and GeForce GT520M GPU will provide the internal firepower, though the rest of the hardware specs are as yet unannounced. The P430 will launch in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America at the end of May, to be followed by the P530 in June.
You won’t need to compromise much with Origin’s EON17-S gaming notebook, though a $3,000 dent in your wallet could severely compromise your purchasing power for the next few months.
That’s the starting price for this gaming laptop, with a 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-2920XM Quad-Core processor factory overclocked to 4.5GHz, and maxing the system out with 32GB of RAM, dual 480GB SSD’s, and a 2GB NVidia GeForce GTX 485M GPU will send the price tag north of $10,000. Small price to pay for months of geek cred at your neighborhood LAN party, right? We’d rather use the money as a down payment on a Tesla Roadster, but if helping to rebuild the economy with the best, brightest and heaviest (at 8.6 pounds) computing monster sitting on your lap is just what you need, then look for yours in the mail come May 17th.
MSI is still going stron releasing new netbooks even though they aren’t really upgrading their hardware. The U160DX is being launched in Japan next Friday for 33,600 yen or around $400 USD.
Its running the Intel Atom N455 with 1GB of RAM, a 160GB HDD a 10” Wide WSVGA screen, USB 2.0, WiFi BGN, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a 1.3Mpix Camera in just 1kg. For colours we’ve got a choice of gold brown or black. We do wish that MSI would take the time to upgrade their netbooks, with Cedar Trail coming to market later this year we wonder how they can still be releasing an N455 CPU on a “new” netbook, which is why there are rumors that MSI is going to be acquired by years end.
Optical disc drives may be passé nowadays, but the enclosures usually reserved for them in laptops need not go to waste. Fujitsu has just rolled out its latest line of portables and a pair of them pack a pretty awesome new extra: an integrated pico projector.
The 13.3-inch LifeBook S761/C and 12.1-inch P771/C both fill their ODD slots with a small visualizer, and while the specs of its actual output aren’t clear, the two machines have been fully specced and priced. The S761/C can offer you a Core i5-2520M CPU, a (presumably upgradeable) 1GB of RAM, 160GB of storage, and a 1366 x 768 resolution for a price of ¥219,450 ($2,675). Moving down in size class but up in price, the P771/C matches those specs, but for a squarer 1280 x 800 resolution, and asks for ¥255,150 ($3,110). Both will be available in Japan in mid-May, which is also when Fujitsu will release its LifeBook E741/C, whose claim to fame is the ability to authenticate users by reading the veins in their palms. Sexy!
Chinese PC maker has unveiled two new laptop computers which will eschew the usual Intel or AMD processor for an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core ARM Cortex-A9 chip. The company isn’t showing off the actual laptops yet, but Charbax spotted spec sheets at a trade show in China.
The Malata PC-B1002 is a 10 inch laptop with a 1024 x 600 pixel display, up to 8GB of storage, up to 1GB of RAM, and a 2200mAh battery. It features 802.11b/g/n WiFi and optional 3G and weighs about 2.4 pounds.
The Malata PC-B1301 has a 13.3 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display and a 4400mAh battery. The rest of the specs, other than the size and weight, are pretty much the same as for the 10 inch model.
Charbax says Malata will likely show off the new tablets at Computex in June.
Charbax is in China and he’s come across a Rockchip Netbook with the RockChip RK2918 processor running at 1.2 GHz on a ARM Cortex-A8 processor which supports Adobe Flash.
The netbook looks like a Nokia Booklet knock off but the OS is a tweak version of Android. Its by no means polished as when you try to enter text an on screen keyboard pop up but there is no touch screen supported on the 10.1 inch device. They’ve also added a mouse pointer to help you navigate this touch interface with out touch. You’ll notice that the device has 2 USB 2.0 ports, audio ports and speakers.
When will this device make it to the US, my thoughts are most likely never! But if it does Charbax imagines that you’ll be mobile computing for a ridiculously long time thanks to the ARM processor. Would be nice to see some battery life testing and some 3rd party performance benchmarks on Rockchip’s latest processor.
There was a time when it looked like the rise of low cost netbooks would finally lead to the rise of Linux as a consumer operating system. Then Microsoft slashed Windows prices for PC makers building netbooks and the rest is history. But there’s still a niche market for netbooks that ship with Linux, or with no operating system at all.
French retailer LDLC is getting in on the action with a netbook that ships without an operating system for about 260 Euros and up. It’s actually even cheaper if you forego the memory and hard drive.
The LDLC Mercure NB1 netbook has a 1.5 GHz Intel Atom N550 dual core processor and a 10.1 inch 1024 x 600 pixel display. On the company blog, LDLC recommends installing Joli OS, a Linux-based operating system initially designed to run on netbooks.
We’ve following Joli OS and Jolicloud for the past few years, but this is one of the first times I can remember a PC distributor recommending the OS — unless you count the Jolibook from VYE computers, the only netbook I’m aware of to actually ship with Jolicloud preloaded.
It’s odd, but you rarely see an Ubuntu netbook / notebook that’s cheaper than its Windows counterpart, or a similar model, which has been one of the big promises with non-Windows OSes especially for netbooks, but then again there’s a reason why Windows devices are mostly bloatware affairs. I think the Dell Mini 9 and 10 might be a exceptions, but they did have lower specs than their Windows counterparts. Today’s sighting of a couple of 12-inch Ubuntu notebooks from Australian retailer Kogan are definitely cheap, and I couldn’t imagine a Windows option being cheaper.
The low end model starts at $299 AUD while the high end ‘Pro’ model starts at $319 AUD and both get you Ubuntu 11.04, a 12.1″ 1366 x 768 display, dual core Intel Celeron SU2300 processor, 1GB or 2GB of RAM, either a 250 or 500GB HDD, 1.3MP webcam, VGA, HDMI, 3 x USB 2.0, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a weight of 1.32kg. One downside is a 4-cell 4,600mAh battery which should probably get around 3 – 4 hours at best.
You might even remember the chassis, we’ve seen it numerous times in the past, rebranded from various manufacturers, over the years.
The recently released MSI X370 ultra-thin 13.4-inch notebook PC with an AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Unit is now available in the US in form of the X370-001US model.
Besides the AMD E-350 1.6GHz dual-core APU with the Radeon HD 6310 graphics processor, the 3.1-pound 0.9 inch thin X-Slim Series X370-001US incorporates 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 500GB hard drive with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit pre-installed, an 8-cell battery for up to 10 hours of operation on a single charge, and 1366 x 768 display.
The laptop has a 1.3-megapixel web camera, stereo speakers, wireless and Gigabit Ethernet connections, HDMI and VGA video connectors, a pair of USB ports, and a 4-in-1 media card reader.
The competitor of the Samsung 9 and MacBook Air has a chiclet-style keyboard and a black chassis with checkerboard pattern.
It has a price tag of $599.99 and is currently available only via Newegg.
Priced at $1,199 and $1,399 respectively after $100 instant savings, the GX680 and GX780 include the Core i7-2630QM 2.0GHz-2.9GHz quad-core CPU, GeForce GT 555M 1GB GDDR5 video card, full HD displays, and a sound system with four speakers and Dynaudio technology. The former has 6GB of DDR3 system memory and a 500GB hard disk, while the latter comes with 8GB RAM and a 750GB HDD.
