Panasonic has launched three more “rugged” models to their present 7 series toughbook notebooks. The models launched are Toughbook W7, Toughbook T7, Toughbook Y7 which are drop-proof, spill-proof and shock proof.
New toughbook models offer bonus durability without a high price tag as they comes with magnesium alloy chassis, shock mounted hard drives and LCDs. Panasonic engineers teamed up with Intel to create “Dynamic Power Performance Management Technology” in which CPU continually tune itself as per system load. These new models also have new Hybrid Cooling System which enables users to manage the fan speed based on the environment they are working in.
Toughbook W7 weighs just 3 pounds and comes with 12.2 inch anti-glare LCD, DVD drive, ultra-low voltage Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 1 GB SDRAM. It has a battery backup of approximately 7 hours which is really good for a notebook of this size. This notebook will cost $ 2,099.
The Toughbook T7 is a lightweight tablet which has a touch screen, ultra0low voltage Intel Core 2 duo Processor, 80 GB hard drive, 1 GB SD RAM and battery backup of 9 hours. This notebook will cost $ 2,099.
The Toughbook Y7 is the world’s lightest laptop which comes with 14.1 inch screen, ultra-low voltage Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1 GB SD RAM, 80 GB hard drive and a battery backup of 5 hours. This laptop will cost $2,499.
GETAC’s launched four ruggedized notebook-tablet models namely V100, M230, P470 and W130 which are water-proof, drop-proof and shock-proof and can be used in harsh environmental conditions such as wet, dusty, vibrating, extreme hot or extreme cold.
The tablet, V100 comes with 10.4 XGA LCD screen that rotates by 180 degree, Intel Yonah U2500 Core Duo ULV 1.2GHz processor, 512 MB RAM (expandable upto 2 GB), 120 GB removable HDD, Bluetooth, waterproof camera and unique fan-less design. The 10.4 inch screen can be upgraded to 12.2 inch WXGA screen, as well as optional integrated GPs, 3G and 802.11a/b/g which enable users to have wireless connectivity. 4.9 pound,, water resistant magnesium alloy case.
The M230 fully rugged notebook comes with 14 inch XGA screen, Intel Centrino Core Duo L2400 1.66 GHz processor, 2MB L2 cache and 512MB DDR2 RAM (expandable to 4GB). It also includes optional touch screen, TPM 1.2 and Kensington lock, GPS receiver and a smart card reader.
The P470 comes with 14.4 inch XGA widescreen, Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T7400 2.16Ghz processor with 4MB L2 cache and 1GB DDR2 (expandable to 4GB) and shock-mounted 120 GB removable HDD. Security features include TPM 1.2, Kensington lock and fingerprint scanner with optional WWAN, WLAN and Bluetooth.
W130 comes with Intel Dothan 1.6 GHz processor, optional touch and sunlight readable screen and WWAN.
All of the above mentioned notebook-tablet are complaint with MIL-STD 810F and IP51 standards and are presently available through GETAC authorized resellers.
Fujitsu today made an announcement that it is going launch one of its kind HDD which has a storage capacity of 320 GB and the spindle speed of 7200 RPM which has never been heard of before in a Laptop HDD.
It has been named as MHZ2 BJ series. The size of this laptop HDD is of 2.5-inch and the thickness is 9.5 mm only. This, clearly shows where the laptops are heading in terms of size and speed and functionality, it is heading for up north with such amazing stuff being offered mostly for laptops.
It can be operated at 2.3 W of power when writing or writing operation. It has a serial ATA 3.0 GBPS interface and a 16 MB cache memory. And what more is that it is ROHS compliant for any laptops.
This new Fujitsu series of Laptop HDDs will come in the range of 80 GB to 320 GB. Fujitsu will start sending these HDDs to the laptop manufacturers at the end of June and start of July 2008.
Although the price for these laptop HDDs were not announced but is expected to be at premium at least during the launch phase. With this launch Fujitsu has indeed proven that it is not lagging behind with the competition in this market.
Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook S6410 is the first notebook which offers 10 hours battery life which means you don’t have to worry about recharging it when on move. It also comes with a special EcoButton which reduces the processor clock rate, display brightness and power down other laptop components that also saves a lot of energy which enable it to deliver 10 hours run time without a recharge.
Lifebook S6410 weighs just 1.7 Kg and comes with 13.3 inch widescreen, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, WLAN, Bluetooth, Intel X3100 graphic chipset, small ConfCamera, strong magnesium chassis, UMTS/HSUPA module which offers download speed upto 7.2 mbps and upload speed upto 1.4 mbps and spill proof keyword. It also have Intel turbo Memory technology which load programs faster as hard drive is accessed less frequently.
Lifebook is a part of Fujitsu Siemens computers long-term strategy who aims to make environmental sustainable PC’s and servers. Many years ago, Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo became the first PC to get “Blue Angel” environmental certification which is really tough to get. Recently, Blue Angel criteria were adjusted, making requirements tougher in terms of electric consumption, noise levels, eco friendly and recyclable materials.
On Tuesday, Samsung Electronics announced that they could provide 1 TB of storage to meet the growing demand of laptop users through their latest hard disk Spinpoint M6.
Andy Higginbotham, director of hard drive sales at Samsung said that they were able to fit three 167 GB platters in a small frame to make a 2.5 inch 500 GB hard drive which spins at 5,400 RPM. Two drives can be combined and fitted into commercial and multimedia laptops to make 1 TB of storage.
Samsung also announced another hard disk Spinpoint MP2 which provides 250 GB of storage and comes with an optional chip that protects hard drive from vibrations caused by other components in the laptop. This model has been aimed for use in desktop replacement notebooks, workstations and blade servers. MP2 is much faster than M6 as it spins at 7,200 RPM.
This is not the first time that 1 TB storage has been offered in a laptop, Hitachi also attempted to do this by combining two 500 GB hard drives in Asus M70S laptop.
Both hard drives costs $299 which also have an optional free-fall sensor, which turns off the hard drive in the event of a fall which will protect the data on it.
RM, a United Kingdom based educational software supplier has teamed up with its hardware partner Asus to release a new laptop “Minibook” which would weigh less than 1 kg and would cost £ 169 for basic model.
Minibook will enable its users to use all normal programs which can run on Linux operating system and do not require high system configuration. Its users can create and edit documents, view photographs, send and receive email, play music and video and browse internet.
MiniBook comes with 7 inch screen, Intel Celeron-M ULV 900 MHz processor, 256 MB to 512 MB RAM, 3 USB ports, VGA port and 2 GB to 4 GB solid state hard drive.
Other features include integrated web cam, microphone and speakers, internal wireless 3G module, card reader and an Asus developed Linux based operating system.
Tim Pearson, CEO of RM expects MiniBook to be a success as it includes everything what a student would need and moreover this student device is in the same price range of an Apple IPod.
MiniBook may struggle to play the latest games but its size, price and portability surely makes it a strong contender for back to school list.
After the launch of a special laptop for movie lovers by Acer, now it is the time for LG to introduce similar Notebook which is designed only for pure entertainment purpose. This LG Notebook comes in two models E200 and E300. This notebook has a wide screen especially for those who want to watch movies in a wider screen and for better viewing experience. The size of the monitor is 12.1 inch for E200 and 13.3 inches for E300.
Just like other laptops this is also powered with Intel Core 2 Duo processor. It has a vivid bright light technology in its LCD screen making it very bright and watching movies and images indeed a pleasure. This also comes with the regular features like DVD writer, and LG Web cam, etc. This notebook also comes with an extra feature of multimedia card reader and express card slot.
This LG laptop comes in black color only and comes with a glossy appearance. The High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is what makes the quality of the video crystal clear as well as the audio quality making this notebook a must have for those die hard movie fans. This laptop is priced between Rs. 51,000 to Rs. 57,000 which comes to around 1300 to 1460 USD.
It seems that the entertainment notebooks are the order of the day this time of the year, as every major Laptop makers are introducing their own version of entertainment laptop or laptops designed mostly for the movie lovers.
After solar lamps, solar water heaters, and even solar cars and now is the time for solar laptops. Yes, you heard it right, it is indeed solar powered laptop. It is designed by a designer named, Nikola Knezevic, who might have got inspired from many such solar products described above to develop this solar laptop.
This solar laptops have got a solar panel on top half of it which is actually a foldable panel which can be opened up when there is sunlight to get it more charged when you are using it outside. It can be used to charge when you are not using it and while closed so as to you get maximum battery power whenever you want it and don’t have to depend on electricity to recharge it at all.
This is indeed a great way to protect your environment. This solar laptop has its own advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it is much more cheaper than the regular laptops and even after the purchase the usage charges in terms of electricity is much lesser than that of the regular laptops. You don’t always have to depend on electricity for charging every time and can be used even during power failure. And above all it is environmental friendly which is the need of the hour at this very moment. With everyone talking about global warming, every one who is responsible should be taking such steps to protect our own earth for our future generation.
The disadvantages would come in terms of looks and the way we use it. It may look odd or embarrassing at times when you had to open up that solar panel in public places to get it charged while you are working. But considering you are doing a great cause for the mother earth, that could be nothing and can be ignored.
Overall, such laptops should be welcomed with both hands and be used by all, there are no two words about it.
Acer has just launched a new version of laptops named as Gemstone Blue and is designed specially for those movie buffs out there. The specialty of this laptop is that it is made very much for those who prefer to watch movies on their laptops while on the go or anywhere else. Acer named these laptops as Aspire 8920 and 6920 series.
The biggest attraction of this laptop is its sound system which has Pro Logic 2.0 surround-sound audio system for the special out of the world movie experience to watch the movies on the laptop! This speaker also includes a subwoofer with 6 speakers and supports 5.1 surround sound. This is the first of its kind laptop which is fitted with such advanced sound system. Apart from its sound system, it also boasts a very special high-definition HD LCD screen for a really great movie experience visually too. Thus making it an ideal laptop for all your multimedia experiences.
Another plus for this laptop is that it has Blu-Ray disc drive too. These notebooks comes with Intel Core 2 Duo processors. The built-in OS is Windows Vista Ultimate or Home Premium.
The price that they fixed up for this series is around 2000 USD. This series of Gemstone Blue Notebooks from Acer is launched only in U.S. right now and they are planning to expand it soon to other part of the world too.
This is the latest entry-level laptop from Acer after its fellow competitors like HCL and Panasonic launching the cheapest laptops. But this Aspire 5315 is a way bit higher priced than the cheapest laptop from HCL.
The operating system for this Aspire 5315 is Linux, expectedly, just like many others who offer cheapest laptops bundled with Linux rather than Windows, which is said to escalate the cost of laptops too much. But still for entry-level laptops one would expect to get Windows preloaded rather than Linux, as the target group for these laptops would either be newbies or students who would not be much familiar with Linux.
Anyway, this laptop is powered by Intel Celeron M550. It has 120 GB and 1 GB RAM, super 8x double layer DVD, and a built-in web cam. It supports Intel Wireless Wi-Fi. It also comes with a 15-inch TFT LCD monitor. The other important feature of Aspire 5315 is the 3D sound system, which brings a video and audio output just like a home theater.
Acer’s main drawback seem to be its battery life, for this notebook too the battery life is just two hours and hope that they will improve it further on their future notebooks. The price of this notebook is fixed at around Rs. 22,000.