Dell has come up with certain ideas to regain its top position, which it recently lost to HP, and boost its market. Dell has planned to launch 500,000 sub-$500, 15-inch notebooks with AMD Turion processors by next month, followed by 17-inch models next year. Dell has also announced that it has engineered the energy smart setting in its new OptiPlex desktops, which will provide with a better energy efficiency keeping in mind company’s commitment to the environment. Regarding the environment, it’s heartening to see tech companies taking responsibility for the recycling of their products, and Dell has been including such free recycling with its computers for some time. The recycling program aims to recover 275,000,000 pounds of equipment by 2009-nearly one pound for every American.
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Intel has quietly announced a new Core 2 Duo processor by the name of T5200.The T5200 is cheaper as compared to the previous T5500 owing to its reduced Front Side Bus. While the Merom1.66GHz, the brand new T5500 clocks at 1.60GHz. For now, T5200 can’t be configured on a custom-built machine from the global leaders like HP and Dell. However, the Core 2 Duo T5200 stuffed pre-built laptops are available via online stores.
Dell is finally offering the budget-friendly 15.4-incher Inspiron 1501 that can be configured with AMD processors including the Turion 64 X2 Core Duo TL56/TL50, Turion 64 MK-36 or the Sempron 3500+ processor. The Inspiron 1501 offers upto 2GB of DDR2 RAM, ATI Radeon Xpress1150 256MB built-in graphics, CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive, 802.11b/g, and 80GB SATA hard drive. The pricing range for the budget Inspiron E1501 starts at $549. This levelheaded price tag will certainly attract the eyes of the customers who can’t afford the Merom stuffed high-end lappies.
Around three months back, Dell announced to introduce AMD powered notebooks and a few days back, it came with its Dell Inspiron 1501 stuffed with AMD processor. Now, the second Dell notebook to get the AMD fever is the 15.4-inches Dell Latitude 131L. The Dell Latitude 131L can be equipped with an AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core with costs starting $899 or a Mobile Sempron processor for $629. Other key specs include ATI R485M integrated graphics with 224MB shared memory, 10/100 Ethernet LAN, 56K modem, four USB ports, and a 3-in-1 media memory card reader. Well, we don’t have much info on the specs of Latitude 131L since there is no product page for the machine. We will let you know more about the notebook later.
Following the footsteps of Dell and Acer, Rock has also announced a 20-incher notebook named Xtreme SL Pro that comes packed with a horde of specs as of a full-blown desktop. The machine is targeted at the serious gamers who want extreme from their notebook. The Rock Xtreme SL Pro laptop comes equipped with 2.0GHz AMD Turion X2 TL-60 processor, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX 512MB graphics card, 1GB DDR2 RAM, two 100GB 7200RPM SATA drives, dual-layer DVD burner, WSXGA+ display, 5.1 surround sound output, 1.3-megapixel webcam, and a 4-in-1 flash card reader. The notebook features integrated WiFi / Bluetooth connectivity, a DVI output, FireWire, and five USB 2.0 ports. The notebook will be available just in time for the holiday season for a price of £2,499 ($4,720). Hefty price guys but hefty features too.
Dell is all set to bring EV-DO (Evolution Data Only or Evolution Data Optimized) to few more of its laptop models to provide faster internet access to its users. Dell announced a deal with Sprint to provide integrated EV-DO with its D420, D620, D820, XPS M1210 and M65 laptops. Earlier this EV-DO facility was only provided in D620 and D820. The EV-DO network covers around 220 cities in U.S so you can access net almost anywhere. Now the important question what you need to shell out to get this faster internet connection well the price is $60 a month for unlimited access.
In one of the major news that came out of the IEEE Globecom 2006 Expo is that Intel has finally made a jump to the 802.11n bandwagon. The Director and the GM of Intel, Alan Crouch said that this new technology which is yet to be standardized will be incorporated in future Intel Centrino. Intel will start producing 802.11n Centrino chips form next year. With this incorporation the speed will scale to around theoretical 600mbps though the actual speed will be 400mbps, a range which is 50% greater than speeds which the Wi-Fi now provides. Still it will be a path breaking achievement. The final ratification and standardization is slated for 2008 and now that Intel has also put its weight behind this new emerging technology it will become difficult IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee to jeopardize the whole process The Wi-Fi has seen two major upgrades till now and that are 802.11b which had the speed of 11mbps and 802.11g which provided speeds of 54mbps. Intel is not the first company to do this Dell, Linksys, Belkin and D-link are already providing this new Wi-Fi.
Dell today announced the availability of its first Blu-ray Notebook called the XPS M1710. This note book aimed at the gamers has an Intel Core 2 duo processor and a 17-inch high resolution screen. The graphics are managed by the Nvidia GeForce 7900 graphics card. The high definition format Blu-ray can record up to 50 GB worth of data and the user can both read and write the data on the disc. For the oldies who still bask in the good old days it also has CD/DVD R/W drive. This Dell’s XPS M1710 notebook is priced at $3,699 which comes with Intel Core 2 Duo and 4 GB of memory and 160 GB of SATA HDD.
In honor of the to-be-released World of Warcraft Burning Crusade expansion, Dell has commissioned celebrated artist Mike Lavalee to airbrush two limited edition XPS M1710 laptops with Burning Crusade inspired art. Both the limited edition machines will be auctioned off in order to support World Harvest, an international humanitarian relief organization. The artwork depicts the two new Blood Elf and Drainei races to be released in the Crusade expansion. How much are you going to pay for one?
Dell fans will be exited to know that Dell has jumped into the arena of ruggedized notebook makers including Panasonic, Itronix, and NEC. Dell had revealed its plans to try hands on rugged notebooks and tablet PCs in the year 2007 and it has really done it. The new semi-ruggedized ATG D620 Latitude has been announced by Dell as its first rugged machine. The notebook comes rocks a shock-mounted hard drive, spill-resistant keyboard, port covers, and durable paint. Pansonic must be feeling the heat as the ATG D620 Latitude meets the military standards for vibration, humidity and altitude and is designed to protect against unintended bumps, and moisture. The 14.1 inch semi-rugged machine boasts a resolution of 1280 x 800 and is Microsoft Windows Vista capable. Other key specs include Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB DDR@ SDRAM, and 500 NIT LCD with non-reflective coating. Anyhow, the tough laptop lacks the dedicated graphics. But still, the ATG D620 Latitude is worth a pick for the Dell fanclub. Priced at $2499.
