It’s no question that these are interesting times in the portable computing market. Smartphones, tablets, and of course netbooks are all playing a field that was almost solely ruled by the humble laptop before. Add to that a huge increase in demand for on-the-go computing and you have the ingredients for a rapidly changing, dynamic product group. Some argue that netbooks will be superceded by the tablet, but we beg to differ. We think there’s room for netbooks, tablets and smartphones. And Acer agree. While Acer plans to launch a line of slate computers soon, Digitimes reports that Lin says netbooks won’t die anytime soon. Instead, he expects them to become a stable segment of the notebook market. Lin suggests that netbooks will account for about 20% of notebook shipments this year, and while he doesn’t expect any major growth in the netbook space next year, he doesn’t expect figures to drop too much next year.
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Acer not giving up on netbooks anytime soon
Lenovo has a new 11.6 inch ultraportable laptop called the ThinkPad Edge 11. It will be available with a choice of AMD or Intel chips. The Thinkpad Edge will not be sold in the States, but it will be making the Edge 11 available elsewhere in the globe . The base model comes with an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel glossy display, an AMD Vision Pro Athlon chip, Windows 7, and WiFi. You can step up to an Intel powered model for $549, with a choice of an Intel Core series processor or a Pentium chip.The laptop is 1.1 inches thick and weighs about 3.3 pounds. Like the ThinkPad X100e, it has both a touchpad and a Lenovo TrackPoint button in the middle of the keyboard. The keys are flat with curved edges, sort of like the X100e. Other options include a 3G or 4G module, a choice of a 3 or 6 cell battery, and an optional Lenovo USB Power Hub (which runs an extra $75). While the ThinkPad Edge 11 isn’t available in the US, Lenovo UK’s web site does show images for the 11 inch AMD and Intel models… it just doesn’t include product pages or purchase links yet.
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Lenovo introduces 11.6 inch ThinkPad Edge 11
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Pixel Qi has announced that they’r working on an external USB (or wireless USB), version of their display. In other words, you can use the Pixel Qi display as a second screen for your notebook, tablet, or desktop computer. The screen is the same Pixel Qi display we’ve come to know and love. It’s a 10.1 inch model with a 1024 x 600 pixel resolution and support for 262,144 colors with the backlight on. The backlight can be turned off and flip to transflective mode which offers 64 color grayscale and a higher resolution of 3072 x 600 pixels for sharper text. Oh yeah, and it uses available light, which allows it to look almost as bright as an E Ink display. All that, while the display uses just 1.5 Watts and is powered by the USB connection. Display Solutions will begin offering the screens in October. There’s no word on pricing yet.
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Pixel Qi to offer low power USB displays
Laptop magazine reviewed one of Asus’s latest netbooks – the Eee PC 1015PEM. The 1015PEM has a Seashell type case, chiclet keyboard and the usual 10 inch screen. It’s almost identical to the 1015PED we took a look at a little while ago, but it swaps out the Atom N450 single core CPU for a more powerful dual core N550 processor. netbook from Asus with a dual core Atom N550 processor. We’ll leave the detailed review to Laptop Magazine, but the the Eee PC 1015PEM reportedly bested the Acer Aspire One D255 in some benchmarks, which uses the same Intel Atom N550 dual core CPU. Of course, it came out much faster than the standard single core netbook models, and finished a transcoding task a full two minutes faster than a typical netbook. In daily use, expect about a 20 percent performance boost in overall computing tasks, It should also handle 720p HD video ust fine, but 1080P or intensive, cutting edge games will still be a stretch. Check out the full review at Laptop Magazine .
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[Review] Asus Eee PC 1015PEM
Chip maker Marvell has announced a new 1.5GHz tri-core processor called the Marvell ARMADA 628. The new ARM-based chip which can handle 1080p 3D video and 3D graphics performance. There are two “high performance symmetric multiprocessing cores,” and a third core which is “optimized for ultra low-power.” The ARMADA 628 supports DDR3 memory and USB 3.0 connectivity. It can support DirectX, OpenGL ES 2.0 and Open VG 1.1. It can project images to 2 LCD displays simultaneously, or pump out HD video over an HDMI cable. The chip supports Android, Linux, Windows Mobile, Adobe Flash, and RIM OS.
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Marvell shows us a 1.5GHz triple core ARM chip
This white MacBook-looking nettop is made by a company called LeThink. It boasts a the option of two user replaceable batteries, a tray loading DVD player, NVIDIA Ion 2 graphics processor, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom D510 CPU, 1GB of RAM built-in (with support for up to 2GB), up to 320GB hard drive, two USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI outputs, a LAN port, and an SD slot. They’re available in China for starting prices of around 2,999 yuan — that’s about $440(or a bit over 300GBP). MicGadget
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Macbook netbook from China has dual batteries, and dual core power
LG is the latest netbook maker to jump on the dual core bandwagon, with the introduction of a new version of the recently released LG X140 10 inch netbook. The X140 features the oh so popular 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550 dual core processor and a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display. It has a 250GB hard drive, 3 USB ports, mic and headphone jacks, SD card reader, and VGA output. The laptop has an island-style keyboard and a kind of small touchpad. Netbook News got a chance to check out the new model this week at the Intel Developer Forum, you can see his hands-on video after the break.
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LG’s X140 netbook gets the dual core treatment
Jkkmobile was there to get one of the first looks at the new netbook convertible from Dell to be called the Inspiron Duo. The most interesting feature of this netbook tablet is the screen which flips through the top lid, which can then be closed to use the netbook as a tablet. Details are still scarce at the moment, but it’s confirmed to have a glossy 10″ capacitive touchscreen and to weight about 1.4kg. The Dell rep in the video (after the break) mentions they are working closely with Intel’s new AppUp store as well which just launched officially . We imagine the rest of the specs will probably include one of Intel’s latest Atom chips, N455 and hopefully the dual core N550, along with 2gb of ram and a 250gb hard drive. Check out the hands-on video after the break. Swivelling 10″ Screen. Capacitive multi-touch 1.4kg
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[Video] Hands-on with Dell’s new Duo convertible tablet.
Intel went official with the AppUp store and officially launched version 1.0 toda y. There are also agreements in placewith Best Buy, Dixons, and Croma to distribute computers with the AppUp center reinstalled in the US, UK, and India respectively. The Intel AppUp center features free and paid apps from third party vendors which can be downloaded and installed. All the apps in the store are designed to to place nice with typical netbook hardware, including low power Atom processors and 10 inch or smaller displays with resolutions over 1024 x 600 pixels. The AppUp Center is also available for download for Windows XP, Windows 7, and MeeGo Linux (click the Moblin link), if you don’t feel like buying a new netbook just yet.
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Intel goes official with the AppUp netbook app store
Asus’s new 1015PED is a 10 inch netbook from Asus with support for DDR3 memory, Bluetooth 3.0, and USB 3.0. There are two versions, one with a 63Whr battery and a 1.83GHz Intel Atom N475 CPU, and a less expensive with a 48Whr battery and 1.66GHz Intel Atom N455 CPU. Liliputing took the high-end model for spin (video after the break). The netbook has a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display. It also has a 250GB hard drive, 0.3MP webcam, and the usual array of ports including VGA, Ethernet, mic and headphone jacks and an SD card reader. Two of the three USB ports support USB 3.0, while one is an old-fashioned USB 2.0 port. How quaint is that? Design wise, the 1015ped certainly has inherited the looks of the typical Asus netbook.. It has a similar “seashell” design, while the lid and display are matte instead of glossy and available in black, white, blue, or red. No word yet on UK pricing or availability, but it’s already available from Amazon for about $360 in the US , so expect it any day now.
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[Video] First look at the Asus Eee PC 1015PED
