Netbook Updates

Toshiba NB520 Netbook Harman Kardon Finally Hits Europe

shc-boomer — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:17:28 +0000

The NB520 is a 10.1 inch Netbook running an Intel Atom N550 1.5GHz Processor, 1GB DDR3 RAM & a 250GB Shock resistant Hard Drive. Connectivity wise we’ve got the usual, bluetooth, wifi, 3 USB 2.0, vga, audio jacks, SD card reader, kensington lock, ethernet & the option for 3G. Taiwan will not be offered the 3G option on this early release. Its also got a few luxury extras such as its textured finish, sleep charge function as well as sleep music function which will allow you to plug in an mp3 player while the unit is off and use its amazing speakers. It comes in two variations a Intel Atom N550 or an AMD C-50. I picked up the AMD C-50.

News Source: Netbook News

HP Mini 210 gets 2nd update – vibrant colors, Beats Audio, 6-cell battery

shc-boomer — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:16:49 +0000

HP has announced an update to the HP Mini 210. That makes it the second time HP has updated the design of their flagship netbook. We’re mostly looking at design tweaks; different curves, new punchy colors, edge-to-edge screen and a flush trackpad and buttons with specs largely unchanged, except the 6-cell battery (9.5 hours) looks better integrated and Beats Audio for better sound. You’ll still get the same dual core Atom N550 (and probably N570), integrated GMA 3150 graphics and the usual specs that go along with it. The new HP Mini 210 range is expected out in June 15 with pricing starting at $299.99.

News Source: Netbook News

ASUS HQ Makes Official Statement on Transformer Tablet Shortage

shc-boomer — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:41:50 +0000

Living in Taipei we’ve often noticed that marketing people overseas don’t really know what’s going on with their products, not like the head quarters does anyways. There have been a lot of rumors floating around the internet around shortages of the ASUS Transformer first about volumes due to component shoratges, then from a ASUS UK rep talking about quality control issues. Then we heard that the Transformer shortages were already being openly addressed here in the Taiwanese media after the ASUS earnings call last week. So we contacted ASUSTek Spokesperson David Chang to get to the bottom of things.

When tasked with the question of how many Transformers are you currently producing monthly? We got a concrete response of an expected 100,000 units in May and 200,000+ units to be hitting the streets in June.

When asked when the shortage will be over Chang expects that “we will see a significant alleviation in the month of June”. This confirms what we’ve already been hearing about volumes increasing mid June. Chang also noted that “If the demand continues to increase substantially then we will have to continue to ramp up production in order to fulfill our customers’ demand.” Which is good news since the message appears to be loud and clear that we need more, a lot more!

Rumors around component shortage causing the tablet to be in short supply we not confirmed. ASUS simply didn’t expect such high demand for the 10 inch tablet with docking station, so the shortage is actually being caused by the high demand. Chang stated that “It really depends on the demand. The current demand surpasses our expectations by far.” So they are ramping up volumes next month, and looking at their projections for Q2 they are on track to achieve and surpass current sales goals of 300,000.

So it seems that all we had to do to get to the bottom of this was to head on over to the ASUS Head Quarters here in Taipei where they’ve been openly talking about the ASUS Transformer shortage for the past week! Until the next round of rumors appear, we’ve got word from the head quarters (not the word of some marketing guy in the UK) that the ASUS Transformer will be easier to get a hold of in June.

In the mean time while Transformer is hard to get you can check out our video review of the elusive tablet which we picked up (after a 3 hour search) here in Taipei.

News Source: Netbook News

Cedar Trail Atom N2600 and N2800 SKUs detailed

shc-boomer — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:42:56 +0000

Intel officially went public with Cedar Trail last month in China (see our coverage) but the whole affair was rather lackluster and focused more on Oak Trail. We didn’t hear any details on SKUs, see performance nor did we see any new netbook designs taking advantage of its 32nm design process. We expect more to be revealed down the line but in the meantime Fudzilla has leaked some details on SKUs.

Two new SKUs in fact. The Atom N2600 and N2800. Cedar Trail jumps to four digit numbering. First, the higher end N2800. Dual core with Hyper-Threading, clocked at 1.86GHz with Intel GMA 5650 graphics (640MHz), support for DDR3-1066 RAM, 64-bit OSes (not new to Atom) and a TDP of 6.5W. For comparison, Pine Trail Atom N550 (1.5GHz) and N570 (1.86GHz) both have a TDP of 8.5W. The lower end N2600 will have slightly weaker specs but will make up for it with a lower TDP. No details mentioned here.

These SKUs are expected to launch in Q4 at the latter end of this year.

News Source: Netbook News

VIA launches Nano X2 E-Series low power chips

shc-boomer — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:42:40 +0000

Chip maker VIA has unveiled a new version of its Nano X2 processor called the VIA Nano X2 E-Series. It’s a dual core 64-bit chip designed for embedded systems. In other words, you probably won’t find the E-Series in a netbook or tablet anytime soon, but it could be used in televisions, set-top-boxes, point-of-sales systems (ie: fancy cash registers), or other commercial or business environments.

The VIA Nano X2 E-Series will come in 1.2 GHz and 1.6 GHz models. Both chips are built using a 40nm design and support Windows Embedded Standard 7, Windows CE, and Linux. The chips are pin-to-pin compatible with VIA Eden, Eden X2, C7, and VIA Nano E-Series chips which should make it possible for system builders to switch to the new chips with minimal fuss.

VIA is sampling the new processors to customers right now, and expects systems using the Nano X2 E-Series to ship in the second quarter of 2011.

News Source: Liliputing

HP 3105m AMD powered business notebook now available for $449 and up

shc-boomer — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:42:22 +0000

The HP 3105m is an 11.6 inch business notebook with an AMD E-350 dual core processor and Radeon HD 6310 graphics. To put it another way, it’s the HP Pavilion dm1z, dressed up as a business notebook and sold through HP’s business division. Recently we discovered a spec sheet for the previously unannounced laptop, and after meeting with an HP rep, I discovered that the laptop is already available for purchase for $449.

HP did a soft launch of this model without drawing much fanfare. Apparently enterprise customers had been asking about the availability of the dm1z, so HP decided to begin offering the laptop as part of its business line. The key differences between the HP 3105m and the Pavilion dm1z is that the business version ships is available with Windows 7 Professional and a number of other upgrade options.

The base model still comes with 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, Windows 7 Home Premium, and a 55Whr battery. But HP will offer additional configuration options including freeDOS, up to 8GB of RAM, and a range of wireless configurations.

Only a few variations will be available from the HP web site, so if you want some of those advanced options, you’ll probably have to contact HP directly to work out pricing.

News Source: Liliputing

MSI Windpad 100W Hands On and Preview

shc-boomer — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:20:04 +0000

MSI launches its new WindPad 100W Windows 7 Tablet powered by Intel Melow Processor Z530 running at 1.60 GHz Clock Speed. The new WindPad 100W Tablet Specs offer a 10-inch capacitive multi-touch screen display with 1024 x 600 pixels resolution, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 32GB SSD storage, a USB 2.0 port provides high speed data transfers, mini HDMI port connecting the large LCD and Plasma TV’s, in built SD card slot, inbuilt 1.3 mega pixel front camera for Video chat, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and also comes with excellent battery life 6 hours.

We can’t see this making too much of a splash on the scene since the processor is going to be out of date shortly.

News Source: Netbook News

Intel Atom N2800 Cedar Trail chips due later this year

shc-boomer — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:19:41 +0000

It looks like we’ll be able to stop calling Intel’s next-generation netbook chips “Cedar Trail” later this year. Fudzilla reports that the actual model number for the new chip has been uncovered: Meet the Intel Atom N2600 and N2800.

The new chips will replace the Atom N4xx and N5xx chips that dominate the netbook space today. The new model chip features a 32nm design (current Atom chips are built with a 45nm process) which helps reduce power consumption while offering similar or better performance.

The Intel Atom N2800 will be a dual core 1.86 GHz chip with a TDP of 6.5 watts. It will feature GMA 5650 graphics running at 640 MHz. The chip supports 64-bit operating systems and DDR3 memory.

Intel will also launch an Atom N2600 single core version with lower power consumption.

The Intel Atom Z670 Oak Trail chip is expected to hit the streets this summer, but that processor is geared toward low power tablets and similar mobile devices. The Cedar Trail line is designed for netbooks and low power laptops, offering much better overall performance than Oak Trail.

The Intel Atom N2600 and N2800 chips are expected to launch during the fourth quarter of 2011.

The news comes hot on the heels of reports that Intel will launch D2500 and D2700 Cedar Trail chips for desktop computers later this year as well. Those models will be a little faster than the netbook chips, but they’ll also consume more power with a TDP of about 10 watts.

News Source: Liliputing

Target is apparently cancelling Eee Pad Transformer orders

shc-boomer — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:19:24 +0000

A few days ago we reported that Target was offering a coupon for $40 off the price of an Asus Eee Pad Transformer, bringing the cost down to $360 (plus tax and shipping). But now a number folks who took advantage of the deal are reporting that Target has cancelled their orders.

The retailer is sending an email to customers saying that orders are being cancelled because none of Target’s suppliers has the tablet available.

But some users have noted that after contacting Target they’ve discovered that the orders are still good, while others have been able to reinstate their orders.

News Source: Liliputing

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 Unboxing in a Taipei Taxi

shc-boomer — Tue, 03 May 2011 16:41:22 +0000

The ASUS Transformer Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet is in high demand especially since we’ve heard that they’re only able to produce 10,000 units a month. This 10 inch tablet is one of the most affordable options for a Honeycomb tablets so far this year. The Transformer is priced at $400 but since we picked it up here in Taipei and tablets are a little more we got it for $500. We couldn’t help our selves so we decided to unbox it in a Taxi, so

Eee Pad Transformer Specifications:
Android 3.0 Honeycomb
10.1-inch touchscreen (1280×800)
1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor
1GB of RAM
16/32 GB of internal storage
5 MP rear facing camera / 1.2 MP front-facing camera
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, with bluetooth 2.1
2 USB ports
Mini-HDMI
Attachable keyboard dock

News Source: Netbook News