Laptops News - Page 64

CES 2012: Acer started their CES unveiling with quite the bang, showing off its second ultrabook, the Acer Aspire S5. The Aspire S5 is due for a Q2 arrival, is just 15mm thick and weighs under 1.35kg.

It sports an Onyx Black magnesium-aluminum alloy cover, a 13.3-inch LCD screen, chiclet keyboard, an Intel Core processor, a solid state drive, and a MagicFlip I/O port panel, which includes HDMI, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt connectors. Thunderbolt, on an ultrabook? Very good news for 2012 products.

Acer also include their Green Instant On technology which provides super fast booting and resume, and the Always Connect solution which enables users to 'manage their multimedia and data on all their devices at anytime, anywhere'. At the moment, there's no details on Aspire S5's pricing.

A HP employee has sent The Verge a new video showing off a new ultra-think notebook from HP. The video has dramatic music that really, er, sets the mood for the launch of a new MacBook Air competitor.

Is it thinner than the MBA or the upcoming ultrabooks? There's nothing more than a 30-second tease, and then "Spectre" at the end. One thing is for certain, is if HP are showing off (well, at least have a video that an employee can "leak") then the Spectre must be close to release.

CES is next week, so we might actually see some Spectre action in Las Vegas. The Verge reports that it may be the 14-inch HP Envy 14 Spectre, which showed up at the FCC just two weeks ago. Only time will tell, and when that time comes, HP will either hit or miss.

ASUS are reportedly working on a new ultrabook style laptop where they are said to be baking in a swivel design display that transforms the device into a tablet. Since Windows 8 is much more tablet-friendly, this move would actually be quite the bold move by ASUS. DigiTimes says the device will be unveiled at 2012 Computex in Taipei, Taiwan, and might hit retail shelves in time for the launch of Windows 8 next September.

ASUS have been here before, with their Eee PC T91 netbook (as pictured above) in 2009. The device did not sell that well, but with tablets being more popular than ever, and Windows 8 having the OS build a tablet UI directly into the OS itself, it could really work.

There has, to this day, not been a device that could do both. Apple have the iPad and their MacBook range, but nothing that can do both. I personally own a 2011 17-inch MacBook Pro and I've wished for a long time now that I could disconnect my 17-inch display and use it like a big iPad. If ASUS can pull this off, I can tell you now, I'll be all over that in a heartbeat. I can see it now, it'll be called Asus Ultrabot or similar, in line with their "Transformer" line of products. You heard it here first, folks! I call Ultrabot from here on out.

Razer's gaming-themed and feature-packed gaming laptop, Blade, is said to hit shelves and customers hands before Christmas. Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan also explains what has changed since the "world's first true gaming laptop" was unveiled in August, and talks about the Army origins of the laptop's sleek and sexy design.

Something I did not know, is that Tan served in the Army, and is quoted:

When I served in the army, I was sent for survival training in the dense jungles of the tropics. We carried only the most essential gear and one key item in my kit was my KA-BAR combat knife. It was simple, minimalist and utilitarian - and we used it for everything from hunting, to preparing food, cutting rope and building floats. Every night after setting up camp, I would spend my time sharpening it during watch. It was one of the finest knives I've ever used - clean, cold. supremely balanced and lethally sharp.

ASUS' Eee Pad debuted in 2009 and virtually created a new market: netbooks. They were popular from grand parents, to travellers, to modders. Worldwide, they enjoyed success and to this day, still enjoy that success. But, today's market is a different beast with smartphones and tablets carving out most of the mobile market and ASUS are seeing this as a huge change going into 2012.

ASUS expects to ship 4.8 million netbooks by the end of this year, whilst they only have expectations to ship just 1.8 million tablets. ASUS see these roles reversing come 2012, with tablet shipments eclipsing netbook shipments.

In 2010 the Eee PC owners 20-percent of the netbook market, where it's estimated ASUS shipped 6-8 million units in that year alone. This year, ASUS offered just two tablets, the Eee Pad Transformer and the Eee Pad Slider. They've just announced and started shipping the Tegra 3-powered Eee Pad Transformer Prime.

Netbooks started out as this massive craze, where every man and his dog not only wanted one, but somehow, required one. But, the netbook light that once shone so bright is now a fading star thanks to the ever-increasing speed and power of smartphones and the entry of tablets.

Samsung know this and look to be ditching the netbooks and concentrating on more expensive ultraportable laptops and ultrabooks instead, if we believe an e-mail sent to trading partners is to be believed. The e-mail is quoted by French site Blogeee and reads:

Following the introduction of our new strategy in 2012, we will discontinue our 10.1-inch (netbook) product range in Q1 2012, in favor of ultraportables (11.6 and 12 inches) and ultrabooks to be launched in 2012.

Acer and ASUS are working with panel manufacturers AU Optronics and Chimei Innolux separately to develop a new generation of full HD notebook panels with resolutions of 1928x1080, according to industry insiders. This is contributed by the fact that Apple are pushing for their next-generation iPads to sport 2048x1536-capable displays in early 2012.

Acer and ASUS want to push the next release of Ultrabooks in Q1 2012 at the earliest, to feature 1080p displays. At the moment, ASUS' 11.6-inch UX21 Zenbook models sport a resolution of 1366x768, with upgrades of resolution to 1600x900 for its 13.3-inch UX31 models. Acer's 13.3-inch Aspire S3 also includes a 1366x768 display.

Both ASUS and Acer are expecting to deliver between 400,000 and 500,000 Ultrabooks before the end of this year. Upgrading them to 1080p panels should help them compete against Apple's MacBook Air, a lot.

AMD is reportedly set to unleash their first Radeon HD 7000M series GPUs for notebooks on December 9th. There are said to be at least 16 models to be announced, all based on two silicons: "Thames" and "Seymour", and are being carved out of toggling various components within those GPUs.

AMD will launch models across the Radeon HD 7400M series, 7500M series, and 7600M series. Thames and Seymour are brand new chips that are built on the 28nm silicon fabrication process, which will allow AMD more TDP headroom where they can ramp up the clock speeds.

At the moment, there's no details on things like stream processor, ROP, and TMU counts, but ComputerBase.de have compiled a list which shows GPU and memory clock speeds, memory interface widths, and memory type. The table also makes a mention of higher-end GPU models with names of "Chelsea", "Heathrow", and "Wimbeldon".

It's holiday season once again and while everyone is dodging each other for that latest and greatest smartphone or tablet, Google would like to remind you that there are other options. Options such as their Chromebook, which they've now commenced a fresh push on, including an updated interface and some much more competitive, and festive pricing.

Google are slowly changing their Chrome OS to be more like a Windows laptop, or as user-friendly as an iPad. In May, Google introduced a file system and laptops with working SD card slots, which is a huge upgrade from the once only cloud-based launch. While Chrome OS and Chromebooks are still cloud-heavy, you can now side-load files and even download them to an easily accessible file area on the system.

Where Chromebooks make it easy, is beyond the usual Google/Gmail sign-in, there's no setup. Nothing. Nada. Zip. For those with a Gmail account, you just sign in like you do on an Android-based tablet or smartphone (something I utterly love) and from there, it'll sync your data, contacts, e-mail, photos (from Google+ and others). It really is a no hassles, easy setup process.

There are going to be as many as 50 Intel Ultrabooks to be launched at CES in January next year. According to Shawn DuBravac, director of research for show organisers the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), he expects a truck load of ultrathin laptops to be unveiled in Las Vegas. DuBravac told journalists at a CES Unveiled even held in London:

We expect to see 30 to 50 new Ultrabooks launched at CES.

Up to this point, there has only been a few manufacturers who have announced Ultrabooks, as most of them are awaiting the 22nm refresh of Ivy Bridge before releasing their devices. Intel CEO Paul Otellini is set to give a keynote speech in Las Vegas, where Ivy Bridge is likely to be officially released alongside a large amount of new Ultrabooks.