Asus is going to launch two new laptops on September 7, 2009, containing Intel’s 45nm Celeron 745 and SUE2300 processors. The laptops are scheduled to be shipped in China, Europe and Taiwan. techtree.com reports:
Intel's two microprocessors - Intel Celeron 743 and Intel SU2300 processors, are priced at $107 (Rs. 5,150 approx.) and $134 (Rs. 6,450 approx.) respectively, in thousand-unit tray quantities.
These new microprocessors are made for entry level products. Like Asus, MSI and Acer are also planning to launch new ultra-thin notebooks. It looks like ultra thin notebooks are becoming the new trends these days. According to Jerry Shen, President, Asustek, in the third quarter of 2009, ultra-thin laptops will account for 10-20% of Asus’ total laptop sales.
Sometimes your strength becomes your weakness and that’s just happened to Acer. Despite posting an impressive sales figure in the second quarter, the world’s third largest PC brand had poor turn over. In its statement, Acer said that it expects shipments to jump up to 40% in the second-half of the year compared to first half. In the April-June quarter, the company earned a net profit of T$2.3 billion which is a 20% drop compared to its T$2.9 billion revenue in the same period last year. What is the cause of such fall? The low priced computers produced by the company are the main culprits. Reuters reports:
Acer leads the pack in the netbook PC segment - one of the brightest spots in the weak technology sector this year -- with research firm IDC expecting shipments to jump about 127 percent this year in a largely steady overall PC market.
"The reality is that prices are coming down, and a major cause for the falling prices is netbooks," said Edward Yen, a UBS analyst. "It seems to me that they're selling plenty of computers, but all cheap ones."
Acers revenue also fell 5% to T$119 billion despite their impressive sales figure. According to Vincent Chen, analyst, Yuanta Securities, the coming months are very much important for the company because Microsoft is releasing its next generation OS MS Windows 7. Release of such softwares basically boosts PC sales. As the popularity of the netbooks are rising it would gradually affect the sales of regular laptops.
Lenovo first came up with the idea of a dual screen laptop. Earlier this year, the company unveiled the Lenovo ThinkPad W700, a dual screen notebook. However, the secondary screen is not much of a use as it is only 10.6 inches long. Now, there is another company who is going for the dual screen laptop and they are quite serious about it. gScreen Corp. an Alaska based company, produced the Spacebook laptop with two slideout 15.4 inch screens. Gizmodo was the one to reveal the laptop. You can visit the website. Here are some of the specifications I collected from Tom’s Hardware:
2 LED backlit display screens- Windows Vista/ Windows XP Pro (optional)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26-GHz
4 GB of RAM (2GB DDR2 SO-DIMM x 2)
320GB 7200 RPM HD
Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT with 512MB dedicated memory (or)
Nvidia Quadro FX 1700M Graphics with 512MB dedicated memory
9-cell battery
IEEE 1394 1 Graphics Card Output (15-pin, D-Sub) X 1, HDMI X 1 Mic-in X 1, Line-in x 1, Headphone X 1 PCI Express Card X 1 AC Power Adaptor Output: 19V DC, 90W Input: 100~240V AC, 50/60Hz universal battery pack Li-ion 9 cells.
Compared to the 11lbs Lenovo ThinkPad W700, which costs $5100, the gScreen Spacebook is heavier (12lbs), but it is lighter in price; less than $3000.
For regular laptop users the dual screen would not make any sense but they are ideal for power users who run multiple applications at the same time. You can check your messenger using one screen and work on the other. You would not have to click through windows to go to your application.
On August 23, 2009, Nokia, the largest mobile phone maker of the world, announced to enter into the laptop market. Nokia is not entirely new into the PC market. Nokia used to produce PCs but it divested its PC Unit in 1991 and focused on mobile phone segment. The current economic recession affected its mobile phone sales. So once again, it is planning to enter into the ever expanding but intensely competitive laptop market with its netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G. The Nokia Booklet 3G is produced by Compal Electronics. Either Compal or Foxconn Electronics will produce the next Nokia computing device. The Nokia Booklet 3G will be out in the market in 2010. Here are some of the specifications of the device collected from different news reports (these are all various speculations):
Width: 2centimeters.
Weight: 1.25 kg.
12 hours of battery backup.
Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional.
1 GB memory.
160 GB HDD
Intel's Atom processor.
10-inch screen.
Webcam.
SD card reader.
3G/HSPA networking.
GPS.
HD display.
HDMI.
Price:
The Nokia Booklet 3G will be priced at $799 which is pretty high for a netbook but Nokia is saying that the Nokia Booklet 3G is not just a netbook but more than that. The device will be subsidized and come with a data plan. Definitely, this machine is not for students but workers who are always traveling to various places, who does not want to have a smartphone but uses a basic phone along with netbook.
MSI has announced that it will start shipping a number of 15.4-inch and 17-inch laptops powered by Intel’s new mobile Core i7 processor in September. These new processors are expected to be targeted at the gamers because it is good at multitasking. However, the price will be very high for these laptops. In fact, these laptops with Core i7 processors are not targeted at the gamers who would not mind spending a handsome amount for their better experience of the gaming world.
Well, Intel will come up with two more processors: Core i3 and Core i5- next year. These processors, made by the company’s platform code-named Arrandale, will target the general laptop users. So, naturally these processors would cost less. The problem with Core i7 processor is that this processor consumes too much power. Well, it is pretty much understandable because these laptops are mainly for the gamers.
Well, I am not sure if MSI would see considerable success with its 15.4-inch and 17-inch Corei7 laptops because the company is focused on a narrow target market. These highly priced laptops could be affected by the recession-hit market.
The great thing about Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810T is its battery backup but the laptop has poor performance and “finicky touchpad and hot keys.” Here is a sneak preview of the machine.
Dimensions and weight:
Width: 13.3 in
Depth: 9.4 in
Height: 1.1 in
Weight: 4.2 lbs.
Technical specifications:
Processor: 64 bit Intel Pentium SU2700 with a clockspeed of 1.3 GHz, 800 MHz data bus speed and 2 MB L2 cache memory.
Chipset: Mobile Intel GS45 Express.
RAM: DDR3 SDRAM (1X1 GB)/(1X2GB).
HDD: Serial ATA 320 GB with 5400 rpm.
Display: 14 inch TFT screen with LED-backlit features. It has a 1366 x 768 resolution. It supports 16.7 million colors.
Other software: Acer GameZone, Acer GridVista, Google Desktop, Google Toolbar, Acer Crystal Eye, Acer Game Console, Adobe Flash Player, Cyberlink PowerDVD, Acer Backup Manager, Adobe Acrobat Reader, NTI Media Maker (OEM), Acer PowerSmart Manager, Acer eRecovery Management, McAfee Internet Security Suite (Trial).
Warranty: 1 year Limited warranty.
Price: Base price starts from $526.87 upto $599.99.
The Acer Aspire Timeline 4810TZ-4011 is a thin laptop with sturdy design. It has a larger hard drive and built-in optical drive. If you are a regular computer user and looking for a lower priced laptop that can fairly handle multiple applications then this is the ideal laptop for you.
The Asus K50IJ-C1 is a budget notebook. If you are looking for something lower in price but gives better performance then the Asus K50IJ-C1 is a good choice. The basic price starts from $699. According to Asus, the K50IJ-C1 is “aggressively priced.” Let’s look at the specifications:
Dimensions and weight:
Length: 37 cm
Breadth: 25.6 cm
Width: 3.1 cm
Weight: 2.6 kg (with 6 cell battery)
Technical specifications:
Processor: You can get three types of processors- Intel Core2 Duo Processor T6500/T6400 (2.1 GHz - 2.0 GHz, FSB 800Hz, 2M L2 cache); Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor T4200 (2.0 GHz FSB 800MHz, 1M L2 cache); Intel Celeron Processor T3000/900 (2.2 GHz - 1.8 GHz, FSB 800MHz, 1M L2 Cache).
Operating system: You can have Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium version or Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic version.
Memory: DDR2 800 MHz SDRAM which can be upgraded to 4GB SDRAM
Chipset:Mobile Intel GL40 Express Chipset/+ICH9M
Display: 15.6" High Definition Display with 1366 x 768 resolution.
Webcam: 1.3 Mega Pixel
Graphics: Intel GMA X4500M (embedded)
Hard Drive:250 GB HDD with 5400 rpm or you can upgrade to 320GB with 5400rpm.
Optical drive: 5.25", 12.7mm, DVD Super Multi
LAN: Gigabit Ethernet
WLAN: Integrated 802.11a/b/g/n
Ports: 4 USB 2.0, 1 audio input, 1 audio output, 1 VGA port/Mini D-sub, RJ45 LAN jack.
For the third time, the transfer of Fujitsu’s HDD business to Toshiba Corp. has been stopped for the third time. This time it has been postponed till October 1, 2009 for a continuing antimonopoly review overseas.
The two companies jointly issued a statement but they did not mention the name of the country. A Toshiba spokesperson said that such regulatory review had been completed in the U.S and Europe. This deal is very much important for Toshiba as it would give the company control over the global market of 2.5 inch HDD market. After the transfer, Toshiba will control 30% of the HDD market which higher than Hitachi and Western Digital Corporation as each of them controls 23%.
Toshiba is now seriously focusing on the HDD segment because its semiconductor business incurred huge losses. On July 29, 2009, the company said that its “group netloss” increased in its first fiscal quarter as the cost of restructuring and loss in chip business went up. The company forecasted a net loss of Y50 billion in the fiscal year ending in March.
MSI introduced its X-Slim series laptops in February 2009 and it was launched in March 2009. The ultrathin and ultraportable laptops got attention for their Mac Book Air like slick body but MSI started to receive complaints was heavily criticized for its poor battery life, keyboard. In the beginning, The MSI X340 was offered with 4-cell battery which had a back-up time of four hours. Now, the MSI X-340 comes with 8-cell battery with a backup time of 8 hours 48 minutes. ZDNet reports:
At its original announcement, the X340 harbored a 4-cell battery rated at just under 4 hours. But rival Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T hit the market with an 8-hour battery, prompting MSI to reconsider the X340’s configuration. (Consumers who already purchased an X340 with a 4-cell battery can procure an 8-cell for $99.)
MSI also improved the keyboard of the MSI X340. The price of the laptop has been reduced to $799 to $899. The only problem is, with the new battery the laptop now weighs 3.4 pounds compared to 2.9 pounds with the 4 cell battery.
There is a slight downside to the added battery life: the X340 now weighs 3.4 pounds, up a half-pound from its original 2.9 pounds.
When you buy a laptop then the first thing that you perhaps look for is reliability. Especially, the price of laptop is decreasing and may be that is why, manufacturers cannot give so much effort to make them reliable so that they do not give problem. In USA, this matter is very important because people do not have that much time to go after tech support. Rescuecom helps with tech support and recently they did a survey and found out that users who bought Apple and Asua laptops had fewer problems.
Rescuecom, a third-party computer repair firm, fielded the fewest support calls to repair Asus and Apple PCs on average, said David Milman, Rescuecom's CEO. The companies offered PCs with high-quality components and excellent support, reducing the need for consumers to service PCs through third-party support companies.
The ratings were based on 11,560 support calls fielded by Rescuecom during the second quarter and adjusted to take into account the market share of each PC maker. Lenovo, Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard held the third, fourth and fifth spot respectively in the PC reliability survey.
The result of this survey is important because this way, many consumers can get information about reliability of a laptop.
Lenovo announced its IdeaPadS12 netbook back in May but it is still not available in the market. The main reason behind the delay is that Lenovo is waiting for the release of Microsoft Windows 7. The Lenovo IdeaPad S12 was the first netbook with High Definition display. The netbook has Intel integrated GMA950 which runs on Nvidia ION GPU, 12 inch WXGA display with a resolution of 1280X800, 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor.
Since Lenovo is not launching its netbook, Samsung was supposed to pick up the opportunity to release Samsung N510 netbook. The Samsung N510 comes with Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU. Priced at $599, the Samsung N510 sports an 11.6 inch LED backlit display, 1.66 GHz N280 Atom CPU, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD. It also has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Webcam, 3-in-1 card reader and 6-cell lithium Ion battery. The Samsung N510 was supposed to come to the market in July but it was postponed till the launch of Windows 7.
Economic recession may have caused lots of problems for millions of people across the world. Many companies got shut down, many people lost their jobs, many became homeless, but still there are some companies who turned their fortune thanks to the cash-trapped market.
Let us have a look at the performance of two Taiwan-based laptop makers Asus and MSI. They hardly had any presence in South Korean market even just two years back, but since economic recession started making its impact in the Korean market, Asus and MSI started getting more ground in the market, and within two years, Asus and MSI have gained a strong foothold in South Korea, besides mighty Samsung and LG. Cash-strapped Korean turned to low-cost netbooks of the two companies.
Acer, a Taiwan-based market leader, is now planning to do the same in South Korea, taking inspirations from its local rivals. Acer once tried to enter into the Korean market, but that was of no avail as it failed to compete with Korean companies LG and Samsung. Now, Acer wants to give another shot to gain some ground in South Korea, by introducing some of its low-priced, book-sized netbooks. No doubt, pricing would be a strong positioning for Acer, the third largest laptop maker in the world.
Acer would initially come up with a number of netbook, laptop and computer models in the South Korean market, but it is pretty much certain that the main focus would remain on its line up netbooks and laptops. For example, the company would launch a netbook which would cost 30 percent less than the current models. Acer Aspire One 751h, featuring Intel Atom Z520 CPU, a 11.6-inch display at 1366×768 resolution as well as 8 hours of battery back up, could be an instant hit among the netbooks.
Overall, Acer seems to be much more prepared this time as it is preparing to enter into lucrative South Korean market. Though Acer vows to outperform the market leader HP within 3 years in Korean market, like it has done in the Western Europe recently, I think Acer would face huge challenge from the likes of HP, and hometown rivals Asus and MSI in the South Korean market.
If you have any time then go ahead and read it. Well, it is written in a funny way but it is very useful. You should be serious about taking care of your laptop and do not destroy it. One of the very important tips is that you should never drink coffee when you are working on your laptop. Just remember that it will not only destroy your keyboard but also can cause some loss to your laptop as well. Well, the worst thing that can happen is that you can totally loss your data and recovering can become a very expensive thing.
It seems to me that best Buy is going to give the netbooks a run for money. Can you imagine a laptop or notebook with just $279? You may wonder that it is the price of a netbook not a laptop. You know that the main problem with netbooks is that they are small in size. I mean they often come with 10” display. However, Best Buy is offering something that will have 15.6" display. I am quoting from Best By website:
What's Included
Acer Laptop with AMD Athlon™ Processor
6-cell lithium-ion battery
AC power cord, AC power adapter
Software: Acer Grid Vista, Adobe Reader and more
So, it has an AMD processor and it also comes up with 2GB RAM. If you want then you can make it to 4GB. 160GB SATA hard drive makes it even more attractive. I just wish that it had more than 2 high-speed USB 2.0 ports. USB ports are important for any laptop.
I like Acer AS5516-5474 mainly because of the price and display size. I wish that I could get this laptop but I do not live in USA. Anyway, if you can then you should get one of this and test it.
The future of netbook seems bleak now with near-standard notebooks coming in a flurry in the price range of netbook. Best Buy has recently offered an Acer Laptop for $279 which was previously available for $299. The specification of Acer AS5516-5474 would definitely catch your eyes.
The Acer laptop offers a 15.6-inch WXGA screen, alongside 2GB of DDR2 Ram and 160GB of storage. A DVD-RW drive is also available in the machine. It features AMD Athlon TF-20 64 processor which is pretty much standard for basic computing. Even the graphics: ATI Radeon Xpress 1200- is not too bad compared to its price range. Weighed at 6 pounds, the laptop runs Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic Edition. For networking, the laptop features 802.11b/g wireless and 10/100 Ethernet LAN.
Overall, Acer AS5516-5474 seems to be an excellent package for those who are not looking for high-end machines. Moreover, the price is really very attractive in this cash-strapped economy. Here, it is noteworthy that Best Buy earlier offered a 15-inch Toshiba laptop only for $299. Normally, this kind of offer comes for a short period of time.
MSI is going to come up with 5 new laptops in its Classic C-series line up. The company has recently announced that five new ultraportables in the C-series including two gaming laptops: CX600 and CX700 models. Both the gaming models are attractive package for the gamers who are finding it difficult to own a high-priced gaming laptop at this time of economic recession.
Both CX600 and CX700 come up with ATi Mobility Radeon HD4330 discrete graphics with 512 MB of video memory. CX600 features 16-inch LCD display with 1366 by 768 pixel resolution. CX700 model come up with a 17.3-inch 1600 by 900 pixels screen.
The other three models are CR600-013, CR600-017 and CR700. The first two models incorporate 16-inch screen, while CR700 includes a 17-inch display. Though these three laptops do not have as powerful graphics as that of two gaming models, but still NVIDIA GeForce 8200M G integrated graphics is pretty much attractive for ultraportables.
Let us now focus on some other features of these five C-series laptops. First of all, all these machines come up with 4GB of memory and 320GB of storage as well as Vista operating system. Some other features of these yet-to-come MSI laptops include 3 USB ports, 1.3 Megapixel webcam and 4-in-1 card reader. Most importantly, these laptops are powered by Intel T4200 Dual Core 2GHz processor, and Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking and a 6-cell battery are all available in these machines.
It is late but it is much better than ever that Sony is going to produce some kind of a special support and extended warranty to the laptop users who bought Vaio Laptops with Nvidia graphics chips. Of course, it is not a problem from Sony but this problem originated from Nvidia. Other laptop manufacturers such as HP, Dell and Apple address the problem much earlier. So, Sunday should have also directed the earlier too. Still, it is nice to see that the company is taking the appropriate action at last.
In July 2008, NVIDIA announced that some notebook computers with NVIDIA graphic processors manufactured with a certain material set were failing in the field at a higher than normal rate. Since that announcement, Sony, in cooperation with NVIDIA, has been looking into any possible effect to VAIO® notebooks with NVIDIA graphic processors. Until recently we had not identified any VAIO models that were affected by this issue.
However, after closely monitoring the situation, Sony has now determined that a very small percentage of VAIO computers with the NVIDIA graphics chips may experience this issue. These PCs may exhibit distorted video, duplicate images or a blank screen due to a failure of the NVIDIA graphics chip.
Applicable Models
This issue only applies to the versions of these VAIO® computer models that came with a NVIDIA® graphics chip:
VGN-AR1xx, VGN-AR2xx, VGN-AR3xx
VGN-FZ1xx, VGN-FZ2xx, VGN-FZ3xx, VGN-FZ4xx
VGC-LT1xx, VGC-LT2xx
You can go to Sony Support Website for more information. Hopefully, the consumers will be happy and they will get good support about this problem.
Dell is has decided not to produce 12 inch netbooks anymore. Dell, Lenovo and Samsung are few of the companies that produce 12 inch netbooks but the problem is when it comes to netbooks, size does matter. Currently, ten inch netbooks are very much popular among consumers. Netbook is mainly a small machine which is ultraportable and which can perform basic computing functions but not good for serious works. However, when the size of the netbook increases, people expect that it should be more powerful which it is not. Dells Mini 12 was not very popular moreover, it ran on Windows Vista. So, Dell is killing its 12 inch Dell Mini netbooks.
In its corporate blog Dell said that the company will continue offering two different the 10-inch netbooks- the Mini 10 and Mini 10V. The Latitude 2100 is being widely used in schools. Dell will also continue selling its Mini 9 and Mini 12 netbooks.
If you are looking for a laptop in the price range of a typical netbook without having to compromise with the features required for basic computing, then Acer Aspire AS5515-5187 is the laptop you are looking for. This non-refurbished laptop is now available for $299.25 (excluding sales tax). Specifications for the laptop are very much attractive too.
With a 15.4-inch LCD screen, the laptop offers a standard display which is rare in this price range. Its 1.6GHz AMD Athlon 2650e processor may not be one of the best, but you are left with no scope for making complain, given it chip price. It features 3GB of memory and 160GB of storage. The laptop comes preloaded with a DVD burner. Acer Aspire AS5515-5187 laptop also has built-in Webcam as well as stereo speakers and some other features necessary for basic computing including e-mail, web browsing and word processing etc.
The laptop runs on Windows Vista Home Basic edition, but it does not have any upgrade offer for Windows 7. Still, Acer Aspire AS5515-5187 seems to be an attractive package for the basic users like students of all stages. Even the business users can consider it as a second laptop which they would like to carry while on the go.
