NetbookShow

Lenovo’s brand new 11.6-inch AMD Fusion powered IdeaPad S205 is now available to purchase directly from Lenovo.com.

The IdeaPad S205 comes with a 1366 x 768 glossy display, Zacate based E-350 processor, Radeon HD 6310 graphics, 5 hour battery (6-cell), 1.3MP camera, b/g/n Wi-Fi, Windows 7 Home Premium and weight starting at 3.3 lbs. Ports include HDMI, 3x USB 2.0 and a 6-in-1 card reader.

Base price starts at $499 which gets you 3GB of DDR3 RAM and a 320GB HDD (5400RPM). $599 gets you 4GB of RAM and a larger 750GB HDD (still 7200RPM) and tacks on Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. A model for $579 drops the Bluetooth and drowngrades to a 500GB HDD.

We got a dose of details  on Dell’s new Precision M4600 and M6600 workstations yesterday, and though impressed by their specs, we were left without answers to two very important questions: when can we get them, and how much will they cost?

There must be some mind readers in Round Rock, because today Dell revealed that the machines will make their debut on May 10 with prices starting at $1,678 for the M4600 and $2,158 for its 17-inch big brother, though prices surely escalate quickly from there. Turns out, the laptops also have optional IPS and four-finger multi-touch displays for your viewing pleasure and RAID  support for your (and your employer’s) peace of mind. That’s some stellar hardware for some serious coin, so interested parties should start brown-nosing the bossman immediately — or maybe just get a second job.

A couple of days before Google debuted Chrome OS, there was a screenshot leak of a keyboard that supposedly belonged to an Acer netbook with the yet to be released OS. The keyboard showed a layout different from the usual Windows setup and optimized for Chrome OS.

This was probably the cancelled ZGA  device mentioned back in December. However, Acer, along with Samsung did announce they’d be shipping Chrome OS netbooks when the OS is ready, so they’ve got something in the works and today Acer insider Macles has discovered what it is through bug reports.

He’s figured out that Acer’s upcoming Chrome OS netbook, is codenamed ZGB – the successor of the cancelled ZGA model, and that it’ll have a 1366 x 768 display, no size mentioned and HDMI output. It’ll have an Atom chip instead of AMD Fusion as one of parts is a video encoder chip, and AMD Fusion has that built-in already, not requiring an external part. That’s all for the time being. Chrome OS devices are expected to hit within the next 2 – 3 months but nobody’s offically announced anything yet.

It looks like HP is preparing to launch a new 11.6 inch business notebook called the HP 3105m Mini Executive. But if this little guy looks familiar, there’s a good reason for that. It’s basically a rebadged HP Pavilion dm1z.

There’s nothing wrong with that. The Pavilion dm1z is a pretty good notebook. It’s just unusual for HP to slap a business label on one of its consumer notebooks with so few other changes, although it has been known to happen from time to time.

According to the spec sheet, the HP 3105m will have an 11.6 inch, 1366 x  768 pixel display, a 1.6 GHz AMD E-350 dual core processor, AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics, and support for 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of memory.

The laptop has a 6 cell, 55Whr battery, measures 11.5″ x 8.5″ x 0.8″ and weighs about 3.5 pounds.

One area where the business version of the laptop shines is customization options. In addition to support for up to 8GB of RAM, HP will offer the HP 3105m with Windows 7 Starter, Home Premium, or Pro, or FreeDOS. You’ll be able to get a 5400rpm or 7200rpm hard drive. And a variety of wireless options will be available including Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11a/b/g/n, and 3G.

Notebook Italia reports the notebook will be available in May for $449 and up.

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.

The recenly launched HP Pavilion g series consumer-class budget notebook PCs are now available with AMD’s processors.

Previously Intel-only series now includes the AMD Vision-branded Pavilion g4, g6, and g7 pre-configured models, such as the g4-1015dx, g6-1a60us, and g7-1075dx, all with dual-core AMD CPUs and Radeon 4250 integrated graphics.

AMD-based notebooks used to be cheaper than their Intel counterparts, but the prices are very similar in this case. For example, the 15.6″ g6-1a60us with the AMD Athlon II P360 2.3GHz, 4GB of RAM, and a 320GB HDD costs $530.94 (Amazon), while the g6-1a69us with the faster Intel Core i3-380M 2.53GHz CPU, 4GB RAM and a larger 500GB hard drive can be found for $549.99 (HP).

However, advantage of AMD models could be better graphics performance of the Radeon 4250, when compared to Intel’s HD integrated GPUs found in currently available g Pavilions.

Lenovo’s new ultra-slim 13.3-inch notebook – the ThinkPad X1 series – has leaked on the website of Swiss computer seller Tell IT.

The upcoming business-use ruggedized ultraportable has 0.84-inch thin profile and weighs 3 – 3.8 pounds, depending on configuration. It will be the thinnest laptop in the ThinkPad lineup and meets 8 military ruggedness standards. The NWK2NMZ (1294-2NG) model sold by Tell IT is powered by Intel’s 2.5GHz Core i5-2520M processor with integrated graphics. There’s a single RAM slot populated with an 8GB memory module, as well as a 160GB solid state drive.

The X1 is the first ThinkPad to feature a display covered with damage-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass. The LED display is outdoor-viewable providing 350-nit brightness and has a resolution of 1366-by-768 pixels.

Regarding battery, the successor of the X300 series provides up to 5 hours of operation on a single charge. The battery life can be extended to 10 hours with an additional slice unit.

Other notable features include a spill-resistant isle keyboard, Lenovo UltraNav trackpad and TrackPoint stick, Dolby Home Theater audio, 3G mobile broadband, USB 3.0, DisplayPort connector, and a fingerprint reader.

The particular model is apparently a higher-end one and has a 2,585 CHF price tag with taxes and a 3-year warranty. That’s around $3,150 US dollars.

The delivery date for Tell IT customers is May 20th. We have no info on when to expect the notebook in the US.

Remember the Acer Aspire One D257 back at MWC in February?

Probably not as there’s nothing much new with it. It has an almost identical same chassis to many of their netbooks that we’ve seen for years, with the new aspect being the splash design on the lid, with either a dual core Atom N550 / N570 processor with standard integrated graphics and the usual netbook specs.

That said, this news is even less exciting unless you have a color fetish – new AOHAPPY like color additions for the D257 – Blueberry Shake, Banana Cream, Papaya Milk and Strawberry Yogurt. I don’t think this D257 has been released yet, if it hasn’t already been in a few parts in Europe.

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!