Laptop Details

Plenty of Bluetooth music docks are available in the market. The problem with these devices is that they are a bit difficult to set up and the audio quality isn’t very good. Most of them are also device specific making it impossible to use them with all of your devices. Well, the i2i music streaming device from Aerielle is different. It doesn’t require Bluetooth; can be set up easily and provides good audio quality.

Setup
The device can be set up really easily. The output jack on the top of the device can accept all standard 3.5 audio devices. You can hook this up to all audio devices like headphones, home theater or your car stereo. The input jack is on the bottom of the device. There are two sets of 2.5 to 3.5 mm conversion cables.

Operation
For streaming audio, you need to pair devices. Pairing is quite easy and doesn’t require passwords. All you have to do is to match the color channels on each device. If one device is on blue, make sure that the other too is on blue. Once you have paired the devices connect the transmitting button to your audio player and the receiving button to the device that you want to hear the sound from.

Pros
High quality audio
Universally compatible
Very compact
Wireless range of 30+ feet
Broadcast from 7 colored channels.

Cons
Pricey ( $119.95)
Weak battery life

Fujitsu has announced a hand held PC called LifeBook UH900. The little machine is very similar to the UMID M1 MBook or the Sharp Netwalker.

The LifeBook UH900 has a sunlight readable WXGA multi-touch screen display. And at 5.6 inches, the display is 60% to 80% bigger than the display on mobile handsets. The UH900 is powered by an Atom Z530 processor. The storage option is a generous 62GB Solid State Drive. The machine weighs just 500g and offers full Windows 7 compatibility including multi-touch support. The connectivity options include integrated 3.5G and Bluetooth. There is also a webcam.

The LifeBook UH900 is available in Black, Red and Gold. No word on pricing or availability as yet, but the machine is expected to launch in January.

If youve always been wondering how it would be to unbox the all new Sony Z series than Akihabarna News has fulfilled that fantasy.

MSI spells power through PowerPro

The PowerPro P 15:3 (MSI MS-1651) is a compressed gaming laptop that bundles a full-size punch with a slender 15.4" form factor. This laptop proffers an NVIDA 9600M GT graphics accelerator card, voluntary Blu-ray drive, HDMI out, and all the additional bells and whistles that you would desire from a multimedia motivating force.

Design
The whole intend of this laptop is extremely pleasant with a breezy looking silver on black manifestation. The display lid and keyboard palm rest is completed up of brushed aluminum, which even comprises the touchpad buttons. The media push buttons are flush mounted on a matte plastic panel that is completely tap sensitive except for the main power button.

Specification
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P9500
• Graphics: NVIDIA Geforce 9600M GT with 512MB of GDDR3
• Screen: 15.4" WSXGA Matte Display
• Operating System: Genuine Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium

Performance
Power-Pro presentation with the Intel P9500 Core 2 Duo processor and NVIDIA 9600M GT graphics accelerator card was immense for handling the most recent games with tweaked video settings. Portal effortlessly pushed 90-130FPS at the complete 1680x1050 native resolution of the display. Crysis while being a great deal elevated tasking games pinnacled out at 29FPS on average settings at 1280x800 resolutions. Artificial benchmark scores supported up our real life discoveries, also producing extremely high-quality scores. The 7200.3 Seagate hard drives assisted out quite a bit for speedy boot and shutdown instances, as well as decreased waiting times for new-fangled map loads while gaming.

Battery sprint life with the incorporated 52WHr 6-cell battery gave a astonishing 2 hours and 24 minutes with the Vista "Balanced" profile chosen, screen brightness set to 60%, and wireless enabled and vigorous.

Conclusion
The MSI MS-1651 is a lustrous and stylish 15.4" laptop with a enormous looking brushed aluminum terminate. System presentation was outstanding with the NVIDIA 9600M GT graphics accelerator card, and could with no trouble play the most recent games as long as you gaze at the resolution and settings. Build excellence was enormous and the laptop felt extremely solid with the aluminum finish providing it extra strength than customary plastic found on most laptops. The keyboard could be enhanced to condense the trampoline achieve you get when typing, sourced by the diminutive gap between the keyboard and structure underneath it.

Pros
+ Grand brushed aluminum finish
+ Rock-hard build quality and muscular feel
+ Enormous system recital
+ Full-size keyboard

Cons
- Durable to force down touchpad buttons
- Brushed aluminum finish is inflexible to keep clean

Value For Money

Our Rating

Have you ever pulled out up your notebook and desired it had a pleasant perfume to it? If so, Asus has the laptop for you. Asus, in what is quite probably the oddest notebook design ever, is now proffering their FV6 series perfumed notebooks for $1275. These notebooks come in 4 dissimilar varieties: Blue Ocean, Floral Blossom, Dark Musk, and Morning Dew. The notebooks are intended with a color/print that resembles the recommended aroma of the appliance. If youre just vanishing to get your hands on a perfumed notebook, itll be a little trickier than you think.

Being in the market for a notebook I cant tell you how many different systems I have reviewed, and after finally deciding on my next purchase (or coming pretty close to it) I have found out five options that can either make a notebook good or make it bad. If youre interested in knowing my choice for a notebook continue reading.

1. USB PORTS

In a day and age when everything has gone USB its quite odd to see systems still coming with only 2 USB 2.0 drives. I generally have at least 2-3 USB devices connected to my notebook at once not to mention when I have to sync data from my Blackberry or update my media collection on my Zune. So buying a system with only 2 of these ever useful ports is a no no. And this is not taking into consideration the wireless mouse.

2. Graphic Options

You might not play many video games (or any for that matter) but I can assure you that even if youre just doing web surfing and document editing you need something more than integrated graphics. If you want to know the reason why, one word: Vista. Now Im not against the old man Microsoft but even without all the fancy features Vista Home Premium uses a lot of video resources, I know becuase I still have not converted to Mac.

3. Other Ports

When I say other ports Im talking about everything sans a USB port option. You may not need an HDMI port but basic things such as eSATA, S-VIDEO, Memory Card readers and such are all important. Since you can never upgrade these (unlike RAM, hard drive etc.) it is imperitive that you get what you need because if you dont you might be shopping for a new system sooner than you think.

4. Bluetooth

Everybody hates wires and you can see why with all the peripherals that are out. If you want to cut back on wires get a system with Bluetooth capabilities. While certain things can work over WiFi, others such as wireless phone as modem, mouse, headphones all need Bluetooth to operate. Now you might be tempeted to just buy a Bluetooth adapter later but may I remind you that those precious USB drives will have to suffer? Enough said.

5. Expansion Options

This is probably my biggest concern. Like most people I might not need 4-8 gigs of RAM when I buy my netbook, but I sure as hell would like the option. Or I might like to switch from an HDD to an SDD down the road. The option for that would also be nice. If I cannot find a system that allows me to do some good upgrading when the time comes I forget it and you should too. As software becomes more and more demanding its going to be harder and harder to do things on the existing system specs so being able to patch things up for a while with some new RAM etc would be very nice instead of having to buy a new system.

CONCLUSION:

So you want to know what two systems I decided on? The Sony FW and Z series. I was tempted to go with a Macbook Pro but after noticing its too major flaws (not enough ports, no BD or SSD option) I decided to stick with Sony. FW is upgradable to 8GB of RAM and carries options for both SSD and HDD (on the same system). And if a 16 inch screen is too much you can get everything mentioned above in the Z series (for a little more of course).

The extensive authority of the One Laptop per Child proposal continues to spread out its sphere. Not long ago it was indistinct whether the PC formerly conceived as a $100 notebook for kids in developing countries would ever turn out to be a reality after an elongated series of delays. Now the XO notebook looks on the threshold of fetching a hot item, and all the investigate that went into it is leading down opposing paths. Walter Bender, who just dropped the OLPC proposal to start up its open-source software spinoff, is supposedly in "informal discussions" to obtain its Linux operating system on low-cost notebooks made by 4 producers. The nonprofit spinoff, Sugar Laboratories, is holding discussions with Pixel Qi and is exciting in pursuing an association with Intel, Bender told the news agency. No other producers were listed, though he quoted Asus on Sugar Labs Web site the previous week. Its only the most modern transformation in a long-running chronicle that has witnessed internal strife, resignations, and other disagreement since the projects beginning. Last month OLPC originator Nicholas Negroponte whispered the XO might toggle from Linux to Windows XP, but that transform remains to be witnessed. Stay tuned.

Disk maker Toshiba has announced a 640GB hard disk spinning at 5400rpm. Rival disk maker Hitachi already has a 500GB 2.5 inch hard drive spinning at 7200rpm.

The Toshiba drive has a data density of 528.5 GB per square inch, and because of this high density it can reach the full capacity on just two storage platters. Toshiba claims that such high density makes the drive more environment friendly as less carbon dioxide is released during its making.

The new drive comes with 8MB of buffer memory. It will be available in different capacities of 500GB, 320GB, 250GB and 160GB.

Synaptics Touchpad’s now shore up ChiralRotate & 2-finger flick gesticulations to bring some excitement back to notebooks. Synaptics has declared the accessibility of 2 new progressed gesticulations - ChiralRotate and 2-Finger Flick. These motions inflate gesture gratitude capabilities for Synaptics Touchpad’s utilized in admired laptops and even some tangential keyboards.

ChiralRotate allows users progress 1 finger in a globular motion to revolve images and graphics surrounded by requests, speedily and effortlessly. On the other hand, 2-Finger Flick facilitates customers, depending on the appliance, to either utilize 2 fingers to flick flat to navigate back-and-forth through images, documents and articles, or to flick upright to diminish and exploit an application. Users can evaluate images speedily with 2-Finger Flick and rotate them within admired Windows applications with ChiralRotate, all devoid of taking their fingers off the Touchpad. These gesticulations join supplementary gesture alternatives, such as Synaptics ChiralMotion expertise - an enhanced gesture that affords an inventive substitute to unadventurous scrolling. As an appended expediency, all Synaptics Touchpad settings, together with gesture functionality, can be crooked on or off with the exceedingly innate Synaptics Control Panel that is integrated into most OEM laptop systems. Both the new-fangled gestures are companionable with most submissions for Windows platform

While some people know HP more for its solidly built desktop computers and sleek tower designs, HP is now more visible in the notebook market, offering decidedly more inexpensive models for a market that is always out for more value for money.

What people would certainly notice, especially if they’ve seen the HDX18, an older release, is the HDX16 has a smaller screen- but this slight alteration, along with a few others, has made this newer version, less expensive. Perfect for students and professionals who have small budgets but still want an HP-quality portable laptop computer.
HDX16’s specifications

For gamers out there, this HP laptop can be used to play games, and actually holds fairly decently when you want to play videos and other forms of multimedia as well. It’s not as powerful as HP desktop computers, but nonetheless, if you want the durability that the HP name has to offer, the HDX16 is definitely a good choice.

The HDX16 has been equipped with a 2.8 gigahertz Core 2 Duo processor, now a staple of all brand new lines of laptops (notebooks, netbooks and ultraportables). This makes sure that all the basic tasks of having a computer are met with a bang- word processing, media editing, media storage, multimedia entertainment, including games.

Truly, this little wonder of brawn and beauty has the HP mark of excellence on it. Like all other decent laptops, this one can handle the virtual memory intensive game Doom 3, which wreaks havoc in slower computers, the same way that Prince of Persia wreaks havoc in desktops that have less than 1 gigabyte of memory.

Performance

As just stated, this one packs a mean punch with multimedia entertainment, and can be used as an all-around laptop. However, when it comes to battery life (one of the more important features for anyone who thinks that one or two hours is not enough), we have a few snags with this HP unit.

For one, the battery of the HP HDX16 lasts only 2 hours; which makes it a losing proposition for those who expect that they can work for at least 3 hours before they have to plug in the computer again. Though this impediment can be remedied easily by getting another battery pack or working near power outlets, it’s a general let down for a laptop that promises to be an all around computer.

Yes, it seems that the HP HDX16 would be best left on to its own devices in a fixed place in the house or in the office, plugged snugly to a fixed power source.

If you don’t like weight, don’t get the HP HDX16; you will break your back trying to carry this one if you’ve been used to lighter laptops for the longest time. The HP HDX16 weighs more than 3 kilos- which translates roughly to about six pounds of weight (and add to this the weight of adaptor and wire, too).

We know what you’re thinking as well- it might be a laptop, but it’s not really that portable compare to its contemporaries. In any case, it provides efficient computing power, so if you want a heavy brick, get this one.

Everybody wants a piece of the netbook market, or so it seems. Google reportedly is building its netbook and now UK retailer Marks & Spencer has launched its own netbook. The process is pretty simple: just call up a Taiwanese PC maker and order a few thousand netbooks. All that you need to do next is to slap your name on it and then sell it as your own netbook.

The netbook launched by Marks & Spencer is called MSNB-2009. The MSNB-2009 is manufactured by Elonex. The MSNB-2009 doesn’t have anything special about. It has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive. The 10.1 inch display comes with 1024 x 600 pixels. The device runs Windows XP.

Synaptics Touchpad’s now shore up ChiralRotate & 2-finger flick gesticulations to bring some excitement back to notebooks. Synaptics has declared the accessibility of 2 new progressed gesticulations - ChiralRotate and 2-Finger Flick. These motions inflate gesture gratitude capabilities for Synaptics Touchpad’s utilized in admired laptops and even some tangential keyboards.

ChiralRotate allows users progress 1 finger in a globular motion to revolve images and graphics surrounded by requests, speedily and effortlessly. On the other hand, 2-Finger Flick facilitates customers, depending on the appliance, to either utilize 2 fingers to flick flat to navigate back-and-forth through images, documents and articles, or to flick upright to diminish and exploit an application. Users can evaluate images speedily with 2-Finger Flick and rotate them within admired Windows applications with ChiralRotate, all devoid of taking their fingers off the Touchpad. These gesticulations join supplementary gesture alternatives, such as Synaptics ChiralMotion expertise - an enhanced gesture that affords an inventive substitute to unadventurous scrolling. As an appended expediency, all Synaptics Touchpad settings, together with gesture functionality, can be crooked on or off with the exceedingly innate Synaptics Control Panel that is integrated into most OEM laptop systems. Both the new-fangled gestures are companionable with most submissions for Windows platform

Alienware today launched its most influential laptop to date, the all new Area-51 m17x. The m17x is the much expected stable mate of the present version of the m15x, which was launched quite a few months ago. The Area-51 m17x notebook carries along the following arrangements:

• A choice of either Intel Core 2 Duo Processors (6MB Cache, 800MHz FSB) or the Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme Processors (6MB Cache, 800MHz FSB)
• 17" Wide display WUXGA 1920 x 1200 with Clear-view (1200p HDTV decree support)
• Can be scaled Up to 4GB Double Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
• Dual graphics accelerator cards option of:
• 512MB NVIDIA Geforce 8800M GTX or 512MB NVIDIA Geforce 8700M GT
• Up to 2 hard drives
• Dual speakers with Subwoofer
• 12-Cell Lithium-ION Battery power pack
• Full extent Keyboard with take apart Numeric number pad which is an discretionary Alien-FX backlighting
• Height: 2.1"
• Width: 16.1"
• Depth: 11.5"
• Weighs up to 10.5 lbs
• Exhaust cooling vents is provided towards the rear.

Frank Azor, the Vice President of Alien ware’s product assembly, told regarding the m15x and m17x, "With both systems, Alienware has once again revolutionized mobile performance.

ACER ASPIRE ONE 8.9 INCH NETBOOK - PROBABLY BETTER THAN YOUR OLD LAPTOP!

I have to say this -accepting the risk of sounding like a real geezer- not so long ago, 1 GB of RAM or 1.6GHz of CPU power was sci-fi! Seriously! I clearly remember the articles about the CRAY’s of 10-15 years ago, telling that they have almost 4.5 GHz CPU power (cumulative of course, was it up to 64 CPU’s of 70MHz? Not sure… But the price tag was half a million to two! And if you got regular configuration, they usually were below 1.5GHz anyway…). Today we drive medium budget cars which can outperform the Nascar’s of 30 years ago, $5 watches that are more precise than the Swiss made jewels of 40 years ago and as you can guess, yes, we have the chance to carry laptops which humiliates the super-computers of our youth and childhood. Not to mention that they do much more than James Bond’s legendary carry on computers (they were not called laptops back then!)…

Acer Aspire One 100% fits this definition but with one catch, it also humiliates the other super portable laptops too. I’m serious. Of course there are faster, lighter, more capable models out there, but they usually cost almost 5-6 and sometimes 10 times more!

If you’re looking for an ultra portable, Aspire One is a great choice, since it’s a computer which can do almost 90% of the more expensive ultra portables can yet don’t hurt your wallet even close. At this point you have to ask yourself the question, does it really worth to pay that extra couple of thousands just to get that 10%? My answer is absolutely no! Today, computers have a usage life of 1 or maximum 2 years, and do you really want to invest that much of unnecessary expense for a computer which you’ll change in a year or two anyway?

Ultra portable customers usually expect the same things; conveniency, long battery life and ability to connect the web whenever and wherever they want. And that’s exactly what you get with Aspire One. To begin with, it’s really small –almost just a bit bigger than your first cell phone!- (6.7 x9.8x1.1 inches, 2.2 pounds). Usually, when I want to estimate the total weight of a laptop, I multiply it’s weight by 2 (to calculate the weight of the bag, charger, external mouse and etcetera…), but in this case, even it’s bag will probably be heavier than the laptop itself, so maybe you should make it 2.5 or 3 times! It’s battery supplies up to 5.5 hours of life and if that’s not enough for you, well, go buy a spare battery, it’ll probably be lighter than your Zippo! And unlike the usual fake promises made on the other laptops, you can really take this up to 5.5 hours seriously, since the whole machine spends it’s juice almost like a single led light.

I’m aware of the fact that –right at this point- you might be asking to yourself “what if I want to play games?” or “what if I need more CPU power?”… Well, you won’t… Trust me you won’t. Let’s face it, with the miniscule keyboard and small screen, no ultra portable is ergonomically correct for games. Not to mention that you will not be having a fancy graphics card no matter if you pay 400 or 4000 dollars to your ultra portable. On the other hand, if you’re an abandonware enthusiast like me and enjoy playing old games, then this computer will even do that too! And for CPU power, it’s more than enough for any Microsoft Office program (unless you’re planning to work on a million entry database using Excel and Access at the same time), video playing, online chatting or any other general task…

How about the cons? Doesn’t this netbook have any? Well, of course, but they’re not important when you compare it’s pros to cons… Like I’ve mentioned earlier, you have to forget about ergonomics. It is no good, especially the trackpad is terrible! It’s the worst that I’ve ever seen. It’s as small as a postage stamp (when’s the last time that you used a stamp anyway? I can not remember either!) and the buttons are at the sides! So at this point you face a problem; you either set your pointer scroll speed to very high (and loose your pointer constantly on the screen) in order to use the trackpad like a regular one, or keep the scroll speed at normal levels and find your fingers over the keyboard, desk, your lap or wherever they go, while you try to control the pointer. But then again let’s face it, this is a laptop (or a netbook as they say) that you will use as a complicated cell phone, that’s all. On the other hand, I found the keyboard of this computer somehow comfortable, or at least above my expectations. The keys are well laid, and although you don’t have much of a wrist room, which is a real trouble if you’re planning to write for hours, it’s still easy to use and hard to make mistakes and do overs, unlike other netbooks.

Another con is the display. 8.9 inch display sounds decent at first, but the visual quality of 1024x600 resolution with 262k color depth is still way behind actual “bigboy laptops”… Actually, if you’re planning to see Microsoft Word documents, the display works just fine (of course because of the 600 pixel height, most of the screen is covered with menus, start bar and etc.) but if you plan to use it to view some graphics , well, above mediocre is the correct word to define the performance. But let’s not be cruel here, Acer’s CrystalBrite technology performs much better than most TFT screens, clearer and more importantly –especially because of it’s small size- very economical on the battery! For video, the computer is powered with Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator 950 chipset, which shares the memory. Obviously, it’s not a card for 3D CAD/CAM designs, surface modeling or any other fancy stuff, but it’s more than enough for what you’d expect from a netbook.

Let’s go back to pro’s. The computer comes up with a 160GB harddisk, and believe it or not, I think that’s the best choice to have on such computer. Trust me, solid state drives are either too expensive (a 128 GB solid state drive would probably cost 2 times more than the computer itself anyway!) and since your other system component’s performances are limited (I don’t mean anything bad with this, but let’s face it, they are not a quad chip CPU or thousand dollar graphics card anyway), 5400rpm drive works just great. Here is another thing, if you are using a laptop that you’ve bought about 1 or 2 years ago –like me-, your current hard drive space is probably smaller than 160 GB anyway! (For example, I’m trying to work with a 60 GB, and somehow it’s the combination of two 30 GB partitions! Trust me, I’d trade mine in a heartbeat!) Rival HP comes with a solid state drive but it only has 16 GB of space (less than my cellular phone!) and after standard installed windows, there’s little space left to use (but here is an idea! You can use your ipod as an external hard drive to match with Acer Aspire One! But then again, an Acer Aspire One user can do that as well!).

As you can guess, there’s no CD/DVD drive present in this mini-giant as well (actually, again taking the risk of sounding like a geezer, my first CD-ROM drive was probably bigger than this computer!). If you ask me, that’s not a problem at all. The computer comes with wide variety of wireless and Ethernet connection options. Additionally, the prices of flash disks are really cheap these days, and for 20-30 Dollars, you can always get (unless you already have one!) a 4 GB or bigger flash disk for computer to computer data transfer –unless you don’t want to use wireless connection of course. If you’re still not convinced, this computer comes with a card reader which reads almost anything you can find today…

Connectivity options in this computer are just wonderful for it’s small size. First, you get wireless support for integrated 54g wireless LAN (Acer calls it “InviLink”) thats compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g networks. Like every other Acer notebook, Aspire One has Acer’s Signal Up technology too. This feature really boosts the efficiency of the computer’s wireless antenna and it really captures almost any signal from the air no matter what’s blocking it! Along with this wireless connection option, you also receive a RJ-45 Ethernet port, where you can connect via cable too. You may say “is it really worth to mention a RJ-45 Ethernet port?” but trust me, yes. There are many high-end laptop computers in the market today that lack RJ-45 Ethernet ports, and this little guy has it. For other means of connectivity, the computer comes up with 3 USB 2.0 ports (which you can use to hook up and charge your digital camera, MP-3 player, external mouse, printer, flash disk, external hard drive or CD/DVD drive) and VGA external monitor port. Best of all is the multi format supporting card reader, which is another kind of standard with Acer laptop computers, that supports almost any memory card that you can think of (Secure Digital, MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO and XD Picture Cards). Last but certainly not least, a microphone jack along with a headphone jack, which turn this computer into a MP-3 player / internet phone!

As you can guess, the computer has a pair of internal speakers which don’t sound that good. This may sound weird to you, but that’s not important at all, after all, if you want to listen to music or watch movies from your hard drive, you’ll probably use the headphone jack –somehow!- anyway… The internal soundcard choice is an integrated sound card with Microsoft Direct Sound compatibility and performs well for what it offers.

As I’ve been hinting again and again from the start, I like to think this netbook as a very fancy communications device instead of a laptop computer. After all, unless you’re using a work station desktop or very high end 17” or bigger laptop, most laptop computers are just communication devices anyway! And the designers of Acer know this fact very good I assume. The computer comes with an integrated 1.3 MP webcam, which is really handy for visual chatting, and don’t be fooled, it’s performance is really good too!

When it comes to looks, this computer is a real beauty. It looks really sleek and multiple color choices make it attractive for most (white, black and sapphire blue!).

How about the speed? Well, the computer comes with one of the newest CPU family of Intel –Atom! It’s a 1.6GHz CPU (yes, faster than the CRAY I’ve mentioned at the beginning!) which performs incredible for this computer. It’s new circuitry technology (which is called hafnium-infused circuitry –a great geeky name for the technology!) really uses every spark of electricity for what’s needed, computing! This technology reduces the loss of energy through leakage in transistors and is also another important reason for it’s 5.5 hour battery life…

1 GB of RAM is standard with this netbook (512 MB onboard memory and one 512 MB DIMM, 533 MHz) and you always have the option to add another 512 MB and make it 1.5 GB’s… If you ask me, that’s a very good thing to do, which will ease the workload of the CPU and help battery life –if you’re planning to really use the computer of course, instead of leaving it idle for hours.
The computer comes with Microsoft Windows XP Home operating system, which is pretty stable –at least for a Microsoft product!- and works good with the components. The 1.6 GHz CPU and 1 GB of RAM is enough to run Windows XP, and you can always increase the RAM to 1.5 GB’s. If I were you, I’d definitely install another operating system as well, Linux probably, since this computer is the sweetest geek toy. Seriously, doesn’t it remind you the computer that Sean Connor uses at Terminator 2 to hack the bank’s ATM?

In Conclusion :
Acer Aspire One 8.9 Inch Netbook comes from the family which started the cheap netbook revolution, which showed us a proper laptop can be made cheap and fast enough to meet the demands of most daily computing tasks. Aspire One is a great buy in many aspects, as a communication device, first laptop, or a secondary alternate to your bigger, hard to carry around laptop. It’s great for you even if you’re a student who wants a computer with long battery life to carry it to school and take notes, a business man (or a business woman) who wants to be reached all the time or just a computer aficionado who want a compact and light alternate for the main speed crazy computer. This laptop does equal and most of the time more than it’s rivals with a much cheaper price and the best thing is that it looks no cheap at all!

Photos


Technical Information
• 1.6GHz Atom N270
• 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
• 1.3 Megapixel camera, SDHC and multi-format media readers
• 802.11b/g, Ethernet, three USB 2.0, VGA, and 3.5mm audio out
• One free mini PCI slot for WWAN, 160GB hard drive (2.2 pounds)

Pros
+ Incredible price / performance ratio
+ Looks really good
+ 1.6 GHz Atom CPU is working like a real CPU should, this is not a toy like old examples
+ Ultra portability, light as a feather and very small
+ Long battery life
+ Somehow a good keyboard
+ Large variety of connectivity options

Cons
- The screen could be clearer
- The trackpad is the worst I’ve ever used

Value For Money

Our Rating

Sony’s upcoming VAIO X series is going to break some records – it will be incredibly light with a thin chassis and a long battery life.

Sony recently released a prototype of its new VAIO X series notebook at its IFA keynote. The VAIO X series will have an 11.1 inch display. Instead of the heavier and bulkier aluminum and plastics, these notebooks will be made of carbon fiber which will reduce their overall weight to an incredible 1.5lbs and thickness to half an inch. Sony has not yet released the final specifications of this notebook, but it is expected to have an energy efficient Intel Atom processor.

No information regarding pricing or release date is available as of now.

Quicker transfer velocities
Every single SSD we’ve weathered at notebookbox.com has benchmarked quicker than even the best ever 7200RPM laptop hard drive. Not only are the max out transfer velocities higher but they stay unswerving over the entire drive. Customary hard drives fall off in momentum as you move across segments of the disk, opening off quicker near the edges and steadily dawdling down as you move towards the center of the dish. While the quickest laptop drive might max out upwards of 80MB/s in ideal conditions, the most recent Samsung SSD we evaluated peaked at 150MB/s and the new-fangled 80GB Intel SSD at over 190MB/s.

No moving elements
One of the essential differences between an SSD and a customary hard drive is the lack of any moving elements. While a normal drive might have thin platters that rotate at 5400 or 7200RPM, SSDs integrate thin flash modules fused to a board. What this renders to for the middling consumer is less hazard of data loss or damage if the laptop is dropped or put in a inconsiderate environment such as an sports car.

Subordinate power consumption
Writing and reading information from an SSD is less demanding to your laptop, requiring less authority in most instances when compared to a customary hard drive. The middling spinning drive might devour 2-3 watts of power under customary activity, while the most recent SSD would use less than 1 watt.

Lenovo has set itself as the leader in business notebooks, but of recently they have decided to take a bigger interest in the consumer line. Their latest attempt is the U350 which is in a class of its own. For those who are not interested in the netbook screen size, but would like something as light but a little bit more powerful, we present you with the U350.

DESIGN:

The design specs of this notebook are very good and one of the best that you will get for its price. The 13.3 inch system comes with a glossy LCD screen and black bezel as well as a plastic silver deck that resembles brushed metal.

The system weighs in at 3.6 pounds and is only 0.7 inches at its thinnest point and goes to a max of 1.0 inches. So as you can see the device is made to compete directly with the netbook line. Unfortunately, there are no dedicated media or volume keys. But you do have a power button, mute button and one-touch recovery button (something the Acer Timeline 3810t does beautifully).

Onto the keyboard and touchpad, there is a pretty good design used for the former. Although the keyboard might be a little different then that of the ThinkPad it is still a lot easier to type on then every netbook we have tested. However you might notice that one or two of the keys have been shrunken. The touchpad is well designed also and carries a few ridges to make using it a bit easier (friction). Navigating was smooth but the buttons could use a little more work.

Concerning display, as we said before it’s a 13.3 inch screen. Packing the space is a 1366 x 768 pixel resolution display. There is LED backlight so images and everything are crisp, but you might notice a considerable amount of glare if you view the screen from the sides. While we are on the subject of screen, it should be noted that a 1.3 megapixel webcam is built into the screen which allows for easy videoconferencing. Other then the slight motion blur and pixilation, video conferencing was smooth.

Speakers work great and provide one of the best sound qualities you can expect from a notebook in this price range. Audio is loud enough to be heard clearly 20 feet away and audio settings can be adjusted by the included Dolby Sound Room software.

You should note that this does lack a DVD driver, but other then that everything is here including 3 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and VGA out as well as Ethernet, wireless on/off switch and a four-in-one card reader as well as microphone and headphone jacks.

PERFORMANCE:

The U350 is equipped with a 1.6 GHz Intel Pentium SU2700 ULV processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM and a 320GB hard drive that does its thing at 5400 RMP’s. in general, performance was great and while it didn’t set any benchmarks, it was in line with most of its category specific marks. Transferring data, loading software and other basic tasks were great and seeing that this system is running Windows Vista Home Premium we were quite impressed with the marks.

The integrated Intel graphics didn’t do that much to impress us and as you can expect playing Crysis or Far Cry is not going to be something you want to do unless you’re interested in the 4 frames per second thing.

Playing Hulu, YouTube HD videos or other online media can be done without much glitch unless it is put on full screen which in that case, media starts to lag. On he other hand, online games such as WoW, Runscape, Mabinogi and others do play nicely on the system.

On to battery life! We have to say this was quite disappointing as we the 4-cell battery which is included couldn’t get us anything more then 3 hours and an extra half hour. The average for this category is well over 4 hours. At least Lenovo is promising a larger capacity 8 cell battery in a few weeks for a measly $40.

WiFi was strong and thanks to the Draft N support download was impressive handing out 20 megs of download at 10 feet away from the router and dropping down to 15 at 50 feet away.

CONCLUSION:

All in all we were very impressed with the system. Our only major drawback was the lackluster battery performance and the integrated graphics option. But if you want a netbook with the performance of a notebook the Lenovo IdeaPad U350 is for you, and with a starting price of $749 it is hard to resist.

The Asus Eee PC 1005HA has a sleek and attractive design. It is affordable and comes with an amazing battery life. This is the latest version of the iconic Eee PC.


System Specifications

Processor: 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280
Memory: 1GB, 533MHz DDR2
Hard drive: 160GB 5,400rpm
Graphics: Mobile Intel GMA 950 (integrated)
Operating System: Windows XP
Category:Netbook
Weight: 2.8lbs

This model is slightly thicker and heavier than the other recent Netbooks. The Asus Eee PC 1005HA is available in two colors – black and blue. The keyboard is spacious and the touch-pad works reasonably well. You can disable the touchpad if you are using an external mouse. The 10.1 inch LED display offers a 1,024x600 resolution.

There are 3 USB 2.0 ports and an SD card reader. There is no expansion slot. Networking/connectivity options are Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Performance is satisfactory. It is neither better nor worse than that of other current netbooks using the Intel N280 Atom processor. You can easily perform basic tasks like word processing, surfing and email. The best thing about this netbook is indeed its great battery life.

The Laptop makers are out to a new business that will best suit the vacation times. Asus recently unveiled its news on the release of the brand new XG laptop gaming hardware. This is a mobile video system designed for laptops which will constitute Nvidia GeForce 8600GT graphics card which has a memory of 256MB of DDR3. The laptop can be attached to this product through the express card slot. This is to proffer improved performance in the gaming. The integrated graphics processor such as GMA 950 is a feature which is worthy to be noted. This stylish XG station will have a LCD screen which will have options like volume, readouts, clock speed, Dolby status etc.

Jerry Shen s at it again. This time the CEO of Asus (the netbook inventor), claims that we will see voice control in the Asus Eee PC line by years end.

According to Jerry we will be able to see the fruits of this labor sometime between Q3 and Q4. More importantly were hearing that they are working with third parties to make this possible.

So first it was touchscreen and now its voice recognition. Is it just me or does it seem like Asus wants the Eee PC line to be the little train that could?

Just when you contemplated Nicholas Negropontes hallucination of "One Laptop per Child" was all but the past; OLPC strikes back more sexier looking than ever before. This newest concept for the OLPC comprises a double touch screen crossing point, bridging the opening between conventional notebook and ultramodern tablet PC. What drives it even more inspiring is that Negroponte dreams this is achievable for a measly price of $75 by 2010.

Yes, the One Laptop per Child concept is back with a bang and enhanced than ever with the unveiling of the OLPC XO 2.0 concept. Granted, presently this ground-breaking notebook is nothing more than a dazzling idea and a few CGI press pics ... but yet again Mr. Negroponte fiddles in to generate several serious buzz around the scheme of inexpensive notebooks for kids. There is no info about the practical specifications for OLPC XO 2.0 further than its anticipated to be half the size of the present OLPC with a very fascinating crossing point. What really spices the OLPC XO 2.0 so motivating is the elimination of a conventional keyboard in errand of the use of twofold "indoor-and-sunlight" touch screen screens that are analogous to those presently being employed on the iPhone and iPod Touch variants.

This is a mobile computer so fear not. What it does is still left to be understood as Comfile Technology is not 100% sure. From what it looks like though, the device will be used to control media like inside a home theater or vehicle.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the different versions of Windows 7 that will be making their way to store shelves in the coming months.

The recent talks around the globe are about a new kind of laptop that has the royal and antique looks. They are none but the Retro Laptops. The very sight of the retro laptop will give you a clue of a Victorian music box. But the interesting fact is that the box has a laptop inside. The intricately hand-crafted wooden case consists of a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop. The laptop runs both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. Imagine holding an antique piece of violin and playing contemporary music in it. This laptop is a mixture of pride, antique royalty and technology. The elaborate display of clockworks under glass, engraved brass accents, claw feet, an antiqued copper keyboard and mouse, leather wrist pads, and customized wireless network card and many more are present to excite you. The laptop is not opened by a click but by an antique clock-winding key. A custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts is an explanation for it.

You have speaker grills in violin styles. The whole laptop sounds exciting and it will be the sensation for the forthcoming days. Though it is a sensation now, how long will this trend go on? This is an answer that many have in mind. The sustainability of these styles is a question to be reflected upon.

The 1st Mac-specific presenter on the marketplace, Targus Bluetooth Presenter for Mac comprises several features intended to perk up the presentation familiarity. The instinctive button configuration presents simplicity of use and foils unintentional button presses, with primary awarding controls such as preceding slide, subsequent slide and laser pointer effortlessly specialized from tactile cues; secondary utilities like blank screen and slide show are dug in and out of the way. Versatile functionality switches effortlessly from Presentation form to Cursor form for exercise like a mouse, with touch scroll technology conveying smooth, graceful navigation through extended spreadsheets, PDF manuscripts and other anticipated applications.

Like-minded with both Keynote and PowerPoint, the Bluetooth presenter for Mac comprises remote control for tuning of volume and other purposes plus 2 programmable push buttons that provide users speedy access to applications or functions of their option. In addition, the Bluetooth Presenter for Mac incorporates a laser pointer, permitting users to call awareness to important information within their presentation. Bluetooth technology distributes wireless control of presentations from a remoteness of up to 33 feet and the Presenters comfort-conscious design diminishes strain owing to the ergonomic assignment of its buttons. The Bluetooth Presenter for Mac gauges 5.1x1.65x.98 weighs 3.7 oz and encompasses an MSRP of $79.99.

Sony has initiated a desktop replacement notebook hoping to nullify any reason to purchase a desktop PC in Europe. Confirming to the news from the sources, the new variants will witness an executive UK liberate at the ending of the month the fresh AW series, trademarked as the "Super Notebook" by the corporation, will approach with an enormous 18.4-inch display. Utilizing the identical backlighting system as its BRAVIA LCD TVs, the notebook, which will no doubt be robust in weight, will proffer Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution. To capture improvement of that enormous screen, even though it wont be as large as the HP Dragon revealed last year, Sony has incorporated a Blu-ray Disc drive.
Super Notebook

With its 224 megabytes of graphic display, the Acer AS5633 is ideal for those users who want to play high-end graphics games and watch DVD movies on their laptops. What is more, it meets most of your computing needs.

The Acer AS5633 comes with an 80 GB hard drive, 1 GB of RAM and a 1.68 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor. There is a large 15.4 inch TFT screen ideal for watching DVD movies. There are 4 USB slots, so you can plug-in many applications at the same time. The Acer AS5633 isn’t quite light. It weighs 2.89 kilograms.

Its sound system includes the Sound Blaster Pro sound component, the best among laptop sounds. So you can not only listen to mp3 quality music, but also watch DVD movies with great sound quality. The battery provides 2.5 hours of up time. And there is a wireless connection card inside with which you can connect your laptop wherever wireless internet connection is available.

Acer AS5633 is value for money. It comes with most features you look for in a laptop - be it the Windows Vista Operating System, DVD Super Multi-Dual Layer Drive or the extra hard drive space.

Sony has productively shaped a miniature fuel-cell gadget for portable electronics. Sony has fashioned a first of its kind fuel cell that is minute adequate to fit in your palm. The piece of equipment is a combination of lithium-polymer and backup battery, as well as a power circuit intended for yet-to-developed portable devices. "We have been aiming to swell (a fuel-cell system) in portable campaigns and in conclusion have reached an echelon of saleable design." The trial product uses the combination of methanol as its prime energy resource and just 10ml of the latter is capable of powering 14 hours value of movie screening.

Its effortless to undervalue the significance of the display. Presentation characteristics of computers in broad often take primacy in peoples minds; no one walks up to their friends and articulates "I just got this lovable 15.4 inch screen notebook" when they could say "I just got this sugary Centrino 2 notebook." But the screen is significant, particularly with your notebook. The screen is the most significant part of you interrelate with your computer, and a horrific display can wreck the experience while a huge screen can make it that much more pleasurable. I found on my individual desktop that moving to a 21" wide display made using it added pleasant, and when I completed the jump from a 24" LG to a 27" Dell display, everything became that much healthier. Being able to utilize that 24", as a secondary display, it also dramatically enhanced video editing and even just fundamental effectiveness. Frankly, my computer is a position I really dont mind expending a whole lot of time. Likewise, a bad display can wreck your day and make you crave to use your notebook less. While the display on my HP dv2500t isnt going to win any accolades, its still a superior enough display that it doesnt cause in to whether or not I covet to use the notebook itself, and the backlighting even on the lowly setting is still quite controllable. Likewise, I utilized to have an Asus A8Jm that was a surprisingly powerful notebook with such an awful screen that it made utilizing the computer an errand.

The notebook world is ever expanding. With the world of eco friendly awareness at its stardom, Laptops play a pivotal point in reducing the E-wastes or in simple terminologies the hardware used and later upgraded and stocked as junks are to be reduced. This new-fangled ultra-portable laptop is cheap; to put in simpler and softer means it is economical and small. Are you disenchanted with the tendency of not-so-cheap ultra-portables rising to the never imagined pinnacle levels from the of the block success of the highly famed EEE PC, sporting in at drooling price tags in the $500 assortment?

If so, the Razor book 400 Mini Laptop is certain to be tempting. Featuring a 7" flaunt and full sized keyboard, the 400 Mini weighs with a reduction of somewhere around 2lbs and is ably tag lined at a mere $299. Projected at students and travelers, the specifications are self-effacing - 512MB of DDR2 memory, in-house 4GB SSD, 400MHz 32-bit single core Mobile Processor, incorporated high-quality audio card, high-quality stereo speakers, and a high end capacity 2100mAh battery power pack. It also sports in-house Wi-Fi and has been planted efficiently with 3 USB 2.0 ports. The machine sprints on the able version of Linux.

Youre well aware that you should have anti-virus on your computer. And youre probably aware that if you do not you might get a worm. But what if I told you that no matter how much anti-virus you have, it cannot protect you against a specific type of worm?

Yeah were well aware that the big news from Microsoft this month has been Windows 7 and all the great features that people still cant get over. But on the other hand, those of us who still have to live with Vista have been wondering if their is any form of band-aid.

Well according to ComputerWorld Microsoft is not ready to seal the lid on Vistas coffin just yet. And has been working on SP2 which the RC should be coming out within the next few days to testers of course.

As for an official release date, were hearing that it could come out as early as 2Q 2009. Well that clears up a lot. Hopefully Windows 7 will come out before they have time to work on Vista SP3.

Lenovo is yet to officially announce its 11.6 inch U150 netbook, but its detailed specifications have emerged.

The User Manual posted by Lenovo on its website state that the U150 will run on a dual core Intel SU4100 CULV processor with integrated Intel GMA X4500 graphics.

Ports and Slots
Port selection seems adequate. There are 2 USB 2.0 ports plus an eSATA/USB combo port, Ethernet, 4-in-1 card reader, HDMI, VGA, D-sub, headphone and microphone jacks. Both 3-cell and 6-cell battery options are available.

U150 specifications
The U150 can be configured in a number of ways.
Display: 11.6″ HD LCD or 11.1″ HD LCD
Storage: 2.5″ SATA 160/250/320GB 5400rpm hard drive or 16GB/32GB Mini-PCIe SSD
RAM: DDR3

Selected models will also feature Bluetooth and 3G. All models will have 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi. The touchpad supports multi-touch gestures such as pinching and two finger scrolling. The machine will weigh 3.3 pounds with the 6-cell battery.

Dell has used the ultra-low voltage Celeron 723 and the GS45 chipset on its new netbook, the Inspiron 11z. The Celeron processor when paired with X4500 integrated graphics has a definite advantage over the Atom processors common in netbooks.

Dell Inspiron 11z Specifications
Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1, 32-bit)
Processor: Intel Celeron 723 (1.2GHz, 800MHz FSB, 1MB Cache)
Chipset: Intel GS45 + ISH9M chipset
Display: 11.6" WXGA LED-backlit display at 1366x768
Graphics: Intel X4500 Integrated Graphics
Memory: 2GB DDR2-800 SDRAM (1 Slot)
Weight: 3.05lbs

Build and Design
The Dell Inspiron 11z comes with a plain, black screen cover and chassis. The machine looks neat and elegant with no superfluous features inside. The build quality seems average, but the chassis still feels durable. Dell has placed the user-accessible components just under the keyboard. You can easily upgrade or replace components by removing the keyboard.

Screen and Speakers
The Inspiron 11z has a 11.6 inch screen with 1366x768 pixels. The LED backlit display is great with good color reproduction. Horizontal viewing angles are excellent, but vertical viewing angles aren’t very good. Display has good viewing brightness, but outdoor viewing can still be limited.
The speakers sound reasonably well. Peak volumes are good for watching a movie or listening to music.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The Inspiron 11z has a nearly full-size keyboard which is very comfortable to type on. The all-in-one touchpad comes with multitouch controls, but unfortunately it doesn’t work well. While this is a problem that can be solved by using an external mouse, it takes away from the portability of the netbook.

Ports and Features
There are three USB ports, audio jacks, an SDHC card slot, HDMI and LAN connector. Dell supplies a very good power adapter with this netbook. While it will last longer than the average netbook adapters, it is pretty big.

Performance
The Dell Inspiron 11 has a Celeron processor, which is better than the Atom processors found on most netbooks. Performance is strictly OK for most tasks around the house. You can surf the net, process MS Office documents and watch videos.

Battery Life
The Inspiron 11z has a 3-cell battery. At 3.5 hours, the battery life is average.

Pros:
Integrated X4500 graphics with HDMI out
Good screen
Nice keyboard

Cons:
Bad touchpad
Weak performance from the Celeron 723

Toshiba has unveiled a new hard drive that is big in capacity but small in size. The new Toshiba MKxx33GSG hard drives can hold up to 320GB of data and spin at 5400rpm. These are not the highest capacity hard drives out there but they are better than the 160GB and 250GB hard drives usually found in netbooks. The new hard drives measure just 1.8 inches and can easily fit inside an iPod or a super-thin netbook. They are also available in 250GB and 160GB versions.

Manufacturers are trying hard to make devices thinner and lighter. In fact, 1.8 inch hard drives are ideal for use in netbooks less than one inch in thickness and at 5400rpm, the new hard drives are faster than the 4200rpm drives common in netbooks.
A cheaper model, the MK1235GSL, is also available. It can hold 120GB and spins at 4200rpm.

Im not exactly sure what is the big hype over the new cinema displays Apple has just let loose (oh I forgot they are Apple branded), but either way youre probably wondering if they are right for you (if you have deep pockets).

Well I would normally give you an entire review on the thing but seeing that Engadget has done the job for me Ill just point out some flaws and strong points.

Using the new displays myself I find them quite entertaining and useful. The LED back light is crisp and although it has a high gloss screen the back light takes out most of the glare in well lighted rooms. The only major problem is the inclusion of one port in the display.

The only port you get is a Mini DisplayPort port and if you want anything else you gotta be willing to spend $30 for an adapter for VGA, DVI or S-Video. Not only that but I find no options for HDMI. Come on Apple show a little love to high def. And last but not least no auxiliary port. Some how Im not 100% sure it is worth the money but if you have the extra cash lying around, heck go for it.

READ FULL REVIEW

Crucial has lately entered the laptop Solid State Drive (SSD) bazaar and established unbelievable response at this years Consumer Electronics exhibit. Crucial is lashing home the truth that flash-based storeroom devices that really hold up well under strenuous working scenario, with things like boosted performance and lesser power consumption being runner-up. Read on to reveal if you should mull over if you should make-own one of the Crucial Solid state drives in this drenched market.

It seems to be that solid state drive producers arent driving the extra mile when it comes to building the SSD as cool runner as possible. For investing almost half the amount of your laptop on one, they might incorporate a fancy hologram label across the top with "SSD" in big brave letters. The Crucial SSD is no poles apart, making all hunkies scratch their heads when they glance at the wrapping the drive revealed in, and the drive in itself. It really seems like the very thing that you would take off the shelf in the dollar store. Performance is exceptional in all categories. Average sprinting speeds are the most excellent we have witnessed from an SSD and when pooled with its low seek times; it serves for some motivating situations when running games.

When you think of design supremacy in the laptop world, you generally do not think Dell; most of the times our minds turn Sony, Apple and most recently HP. But in recent months Dell has been stepping up the design aspect of their laptops especially their Studio and XPS lines.

At the top of this is the Dell XPS Studio 13 which is the latest to make it from Dell’s R&D labs. Hot on the heals of the new Macbook’s and HP dv series, the Dell brings something to the table that most the others is lacking, price performance and a damn sexy look.

DESIGN:

I will be honest, when I first heard about the new XPS Studio 13 systems; I was expecting to be greeted by sub-par design and decent performance. But when I went to Dell’s website and checked the system out for myself I was blown away.

As the name suggests the system comes with a 13.3 inch LCD screen that boasts a 1280x800 pixels (LED backlit is available).

Other specs include a standard Intel Core 2 Duo with a clock speed of 2.4GHz (and as we said standard) as well as 4GB of DDR3 (not DDR2) memory. The RAM can be expanded up to 8GB but be prepared to spend some extra moola for that.

The standard hard drive is 320GB wit 7200rpm as well as a slot load Super Multi DVD optical drive (Blu-Ray options is available on the 16-inch model).

Ports include VGA, HDMI, FireWire, 2x USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, 4-in-1 card reader, 2 audio out ports as well as a microphone port.

Wireless technologies include Next-Gen wireless N Mini Card, Bluetooth 2.0 as well as a port for EVDO cards (Sprint, Verizon etc).

Other features include an NVIDIA GeForce Integrated 9400 graphics, 2.0 megapixel camera (with face recognition software), Window’s Vista Home Premium 64-bit and a beautiful back-lit keyboard.

Everything fits nicely into this system which is very compact and easy to use. The back-lit keyboard provides a beautiful typing experience for those who use their computers in the dark. The touch sensitive media controls work beautifully and so far none of them has malfunctioned.

PERFORMANCE:

Thanks to this computer super fast Core 2 Duo clock speed it has blazing fast performance and couple that with the 7200rpm 320GB hard drive as well as the standard 4GB of DDR3 memory, you get everything you need performance wise. The system is able to do multi-tasking effortlessly. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Premier, and many other graphic intense programs run smoothly.

Thanks to the computers integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics chipset you get excellent performance on multi-media and good performance on games. As expected this is not a gaming system so you won’t be able to play Crysis on full 60fps, but games like COD4, NFS Undercover as well as Halo all play nicely on medium graphical intensity.

Battery life is good but could be a little better. If the backlit keyboard is running you can expect to get 2:40 minutes from continuous use (this is a 6-cell battery). On power save mode, this increases to 3:20 minutes.

Since we have been testing the system we have not seen any lag in performance no matter what we have thrown at it. The major reason for this is thanks in part to the 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor as well as the 4GB of DDR3 RAM with 1066MHz FBS.

DRAWBACKS:

Design wise, some have raised concerns about the visible screws on the display panel but personally they lend a cool design notch as they are polished and have the resemblance to titanium.

Also we would have wished that the trackpad were multitouch as well as glass. But more importantly the screen resolution is not as good as it could be. We were really hoping we could get a better one but that is minor.

We do notice that the system runs a little hot depending on what programs is running and the environment temperature so we would not advise resting the device on the carpet for extended tournaments of WOW.

Also LED backlit does not come standard and you will have to shell out some dough for that. Other then that we are very satisfied with the design and performance. We couldn’t ask for more.

Our only major concern was the system crash which happened within a few minutes of the computer starting up. After checking out a few forums as well as reviews we found that some of the earlier versions of the XPS Studio 13 were shipped with defective BIOS software which caused the system to crash or give the “blue screen of death.” A quick BIOS update via the Dell.com website as well as a fresh reinstall of Windows (thanks to the included disk) will fix the problems, although we did not have to do that. After spending a few minutes with msconfig we found out that our problem was a software conflict and that was easily rectified.

CONCLUSION:

So you’re probably asking what is the price and is it worth it? Our system clocked in at just a little over $1,300 from Dell.com. But, this system was rather purchased at Best Buy where we got it for $899 (a $400 savings). There were some surprises in the box also which included 15-month subscription to Trend Micro Anti-virus as well as LoJack for one year.

Cost to value ratio, this is a heck of a steal. This system beats out the specs for the Macbook 13-inch. The Macbook 13-inch only comes with 2GB of DDR3 memory which can be expanded to 4GB. The Dell XPS 13 comes with a full 4GB of DDR3 memory and can be expanded to 8GB (like the Macbook Pro). More importantly Apple shoved a mediocre 160GB hard drive into their baseline Mac. This system doubles that and has the same rpms (7200). You also have the option for a wireless card (something the Mac lacks), and last but not least our system came with touch sensitive controls (which the Mac lacks) as well as backlit keyboard (which is only available on the $1599 MacBook 13-inch).

So is this a deal? Heck yes. We can guarantee you will not be disappointed.