Those who envy their friends owning a precious Sony Vaio laptop have a chance to smile now since the new Vaio C15 that has been launched in Taiwan comes for a budget price of NT$39,800 (about $1,200 US) still packing a good stuff of features. The Vaio C15 rocks a 13.3-inch display, Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66 GHz processor, NVIDIA GeForce 7400 graphics, 512MB of RAM, an 80GB HDD, Bluetooth and well a DVD burner too. Though the machine weighs 5 pounds and we can’t put that in ultraportable category but the insertion of ExpressCard slot and Memory Stick reader covers that thing. For now, it has not been confirmed whether the laptop will cross the Taiwanese borders or not but Sony is certainly gonna rock with Vaio C15.
Core 2 Duo
The cost of Core 2 Duo machine drops under the $1000 tag with the new Systemax Pursuit that goes for $999. Though it’s not the only one to cross this threshold but with such a meager price, it manages to pack 15.4-inch screen, 80GB hard disk, 1GB of RAM, DVDRW, Intel Extreme Graphics 2, 1.3-megapixel webcam, and a 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo T5500 processor. The Systemax Pursuit comes with Windows XP Professional and for the connectivity purpose, you have three USB ports, a FireWire port, a VGA port, 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi radio, an Ethernet jack, and a modem. Well, looks are not so attractive but we can compromise on that owing to the price tag of $999.
The Gigabyte will be offering two series of notebooks in Japan the series have been named W251U and W551N. The W251U series will be a core 2 Duo laptop with Intel graphics card and a 14-inch WXGA display. This notebook has an 80 GB SATA hard disk and a 512MB RAM which can be boosted up to 2GB. The notebook is Bluetooth compatible and has 3945A/B/G Wi-Fi. The W251U comes with 1.3 Megapixel webcam and weighs only 1.9 kg. The other series W551N has a 15.1-inch display and in additions to all the above features of W251U it has a DL DVD burner and a GeForce 7400. The weight of this notebook is 2.8 kg. These will be available from next week on GeekStuff4U.
Toshiba has powered its Core Solo based Portege M400 tablet PC by adding Core 2 Duo might and the HSDPA technology. Now, the device rocks a 2GHz Intel T7200 CPU, 12.1-inch SXGA+ display, 80GB SATA drive, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, dual-layer DVD burner, integrated stereo speakers, and the mandatory built-in UMTS / HSDPA SIM card slot 3G flavor. Other than that, the Portege M400-3G boasts a PCMCIA slot, 4-pin FireWire connector, S-Video / VGA outputs, 5-in-1 flash card reader, gigabit Ethernet, 56k modem, built-in WiFi / Bluetooth, three USB 2.0 ports, and a slice expansion battery. While there are no words about its pricing, the Portege M400-3G will hit the shelves in Middle Eastern shores in first quarter of 2007.
What does Apple has in store for its Mac users? We discussed about that two days back. Now, let us take a deep look at the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros with respect to their technical specifications. The new Macs offer full value to the consumers with higher performance and speed as compared to the earlier ones. Here is a brief analyzation of both the new models. The new MacBook Pro is indeed a Pro The features of the new MacBook Pro that appeal to me the most are its business-styled make, capability to hold up to 3GB RAM, enhanced graphics card ATI’s Latest News about ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB RAM, and more powerful processor. While in the MacBooks, there is an Intel graphics processor with 64MB RAM shared with main memory. MacBook Pros are available both in 15-inches and 17-inches models. The 15-inches MacBook Pro comes with a 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, the highest clocking Core 2 Duo processor to date. The 17-incher seems to be a perfect choice for an on-the-move filmmaker or a photography enthusiast. Pricing start at $2,799 for the 17-incher and $2,499 for the 15-incher with the T7600 processor, and $1,999 for the 15-incher with the T7400 processor. Apple has made its machines as powerful as their Windows counterpart. Other than that, the new Pros run cooler than the earlier one and offer a 10% speed bump. MacBook also worth a pick The MacBook that costs somewhat around $800 less than that of MacBook Pro will not let the users down as it comes stuffed with tempting set of features. The new MacBooks coming in a new improved model boasts an Intel Core 2 Duo processor clocked at 2.0GHz, up to 2GB of RAM, and 160GB hard drive. Anyway, the users can go for 200GB hard drive with both the MacBooks and the MacBook Pros. Along with the chic make, the MacBook features built-in WiFi, good sound quality, good number of ports, and iSight camera. Other than the Mac OS, users can also run the Microsoft Latest News about Microsoft Windows with Parallels Workstation software. Moreover, Apple has also planned to roll out Blu-ray drive equipped Macs in the month of February. Well, whether you go for a MacBook or a MacBook Pro, they will prove out to be true value for your money.
Lenovo has upgraded its flagship ThinkPad T60 notebook with a widescreen display. It doesn’t come as a surprise as lenovo’s competitors Dell and HP has already treated their machines the same way. Now, the 5.1-inches ThinkPad T60 boasts a 15.4′ display (WXGA and WXGA+), Intel Core 2 Duo processor, ATI Mobility Radeon X1500 GPU, and up to 4GB DDR2 memory. The Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, 802.11n and 3G WWAN take care of the connectivity options. The new 15.4-inches widescreen ThinkPad T60 is priced at $1,399.
LG Electronics have presented there new 12.1-inch wide notebook PC series ‘Xnote Z1 series’. The note book has a 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 duo T5600 under its hood with a 100 GB SATA hard drive. The graphics are powered by ATI Mobility Radeon X1350 and it also has two built in speakers that give 3W of output. It will also come pre-loaded with two new sound technologies ‘SRS WOW HD’ and ‘SRS TruSurround TX’. This 1.89 kg notebook is expected to be priced at 1,840,000 Won which is round about $2000 USD.
AsusTek will be very soon launching its 17-incher widescreen barebone ASMobile Z84Jp laptop for the Asus aficionados. The new 8.8 pound machine will come rocking a 1680 x 1050 display, Intel Core 2 Duo processor (up to 2.33GHz), Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics card with 512MB of VRAM, 4GB DDR2 RAM, and S-video out. Other key specs of the multimedia whitebox laptop include HDMI out, ExpressCard, PC Card, and 7-in-1 media reader. The ASMobile Z84Jp comes with a carrying bag and is adorned with a piano-black finish. Though there is no info about the pricing of the new machine (it won’t come cheap as far as I think), it will most probably get an official launch in the late January.
MSI has again announced another laptop but this time in ultra portable category the ‘PR200′. This laptop is also based on still unannounced Intel’s 965GM chipset and flaunts a 12.1-inch widescreen that has the resolution of 1280 x 800. This new chipset are the part of new platforms of Intel slated for the Q2 2007 release and looks like this PR200 will also be released then. It will have Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 1.3-megapixel webcam and 4-in-1 card reader. For connectivity there are also options for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g (no 802.11n). It will also sport built in super-multi DVD burner and the graphics will brought to you courtesy another unknown product till now X3000 series. Not much is known about other specs but we will soon hear of them as the release date nears.
NEC has dropped the new cool looking LaVie J ultraportable and LaVie G series multimedia notebooks. The LaVie J series ultraportable comes rocking an Intel Core Duo U2400 processor, up to 120GB of hard drive space, Intel’s 945GMS Express integrated graphics set, up to 2GB RAM, dual-layer DVD burner, three USB 2.0 ports, 802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, SD / SDHC slot, PCMCIA, audio in / out, and VGA out. The vista equipped laptop comes in grain or urban black and will hit the shelves next month for an estimated price of �200,000 ($1,660). The LaVie C series multimedia notebook boasts a 15.4′ widescreen with resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels, 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7200, a 160GB hard drive, and is packed in a size of 374x292x45.2 – 55.5mm. It also comes with a blu-ray drive but considering the screen resolution, it won’t be too cool to watch high-def movies on it. Engadget/Newlaunches
