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What is an Ultrabook and what should you expect from it

Mark — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:41:28 +0000

You know how when shopping for a laptop or even netbook, your eyes linger on some of the last entries in the spec sheet, namely thickness and weight? We’re living in the times of “ultra thin” and we kind of feel that we haven’t got there yet. We don’t have a slim enough laptop, netbook (thanks for trying, Apple and Samsung), and even tablets seem “bulky” at times.

Intel’s Ultrabook concept is the anorexic materialization of our need for ultra light and ultra thin devices, a laptop that will have tablet like features, both in terms of appearance and functionality (like instant boot and stuff like that). Intel says that this is the blueprint of the future when it comes to computers and expects ultrabooks to grab as much as two thirds of the market until 2013.

Is this only a thing Intel does to keep their ego pumping or are we truly moving towards paper thin computers? We’ll try to make sense of what will make an Ultrabook fly or will be just one of those concepts coming and going.

A bridge too far

Intel has a clear idea about what makes an Ultrabook. It has to have a maximum thickness of 0.8 inches (thinner than the thinnest MacBook Air), that meaning that the internals have to occupy very little space. So what type of Intel processor can you put in there? Oh, by the way, considering that Intel patented the term, we won’t see AMD Ultrabooks, but I credit AMD for coming up with a marketable alternative.

Back to Intel, they intend to release, in the next 2 years, two new platforms, called Ivy Bridge and Haswell, which meet all the requirements to find their way to a Ultrabook. Before that, concept ultrabooks from Asus, for example, will run on Sandy Bridge processors, probably Core i5 and i7. Ivy Bridge and Haswell processors are expected to do everything and more with a smile.

An Ultrabook should mix the best features of a tablet and a laptop

Top grade processing speed, 7 times the graphic capabilities of current mobile processors, great power management and top notch security features. The latest probably has something to do with Intel acquiring McAfee a while back. As for Ivy Bridge and Haswell, they will be developed using the designs of Sandy Bridge, but will progressively aim to use less and less power to run, without sacrificing performance.

Atom is not involved in the Ultrabook affair, as Intel has other plans for it, especially in the smart phone and tablet world.

Battery, battery, battery

An Ultrabook is expected to have around 10 hours of battery life, which is a feature we have on a small number of tablets and some netbooks. This will happen thanks to the low power processor and SSD storage technology. The battery will not be very large, considering the ultra thin profile, so it comes down mainly to the power saving technologies the laptop will use.

Tablet features

An Ultrabook will come with a bunch of features we’re used to in the tablet world. For example, resuming work on such a computer should be very fast. Truth be said, there are enough laptops out there with very good sleep modes and Ultrabooks will try to improve that. You’ll probably have a button for powering up the OS out of sleep mode or something. I think it’s going to be difficult to match tablets in terms of out of sleep mode speed, but anything better than looking at the Windows logo for an entire minute is highly welcomed.

Ivy Bridge processors will be ultra low power, but will deliver high performance

Shouldn’t cost you the world

This all sounds very good, Intel, but can casual buyers afford it? Apparently, yes. Top laptops are not cheap, with Samsung, Lenovo and Apple asking regularly over $1.000 for their premium machines- not to say how much you have to pay for a gaming laptop. Ultrabooks, however, should cost under $1000, including top configurations.

That means that a decent spec-ed Ultrabook might go for around 600-700 bucks, which is a good price for a laptop anyway. Considering that Intel and major manufacturers intend to make Ultrabooks the top market player in the next two years, they couldn’t keep prices very high, as most customers will ultimately choose the cheaper model, even if it’s thicker or something.

With this in mind, AMD’s predictable response to this will probably be even cheaper, actually, as AMD was always keen to be the more affordable of the two chip giants.

OK, but will it blend?

An Ultrabook is basically a renamed laptop with an eating disorder. It will do everything a laptop does, meaning you’ll be able to work, watch movies, browse the web, play and more. Of course, it comes down to the hardware you’ll opt for, but running Windows 7 and 8 and being able to run a mixture of entertainment and productivity apps should be a given, also on low spec versions. Gaming Ultrabooks, on the other hand, will probably have a league of their own and will certainly cost much more than a grand.

Asus UX21. Is it worth it?

Probably. The UX21 will be the first Ultrabook and the Core i7 version will cost under $1000. It will have 11.6 and 13.3 inch versions, at least 2 GB of RAM and a maximum of 128 SSD. Looks wise, will have a metal chassis and a glass touch pad. A reason not to buy this September launching machine is that it runs on the Sandy Bridge platform, which will be obsolete once Ivy Bridge will have its coming out party. And, of course, you’ll have to upgrade.

The UX21 will be thinner than the Macbook Air and will run on a Sandy Bridge chip

Conclusions

The Ultrabook was bound to happen sooner or later, as most of our fantasies about mobile computing imply some sort of ultra thin device with an emphasis user experience. The Ultrabook will be the thinnest laptop around and will be able to provide mainstream performance thanks to dedicated platforms that Intel is currently developing. Anyway, we’ll have to wait and see if the devices labeled Ultrabooks will live up to all the expectations when it comes to power management, weight, tablet like boot times and competitive pricing.

Gigabyte T1005 hands on – impressive little netbook tablet

Mark — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:46:01 +0000

Here we have another netbook that can be also used as a tablet. It’s no wonder that it comes from Gigabyte, considering that their notebooks and netbooks were always on the strange (and innovative) side. The company’s new release is the T1005, showcased over at netbooknews.com, a new netbook that turns into a tablet, after we had the T1028 last year. Although the chassis looks the same, there have been made improvements to the moving parts (because surely they would move a lot in the hands of netbook meets tablet enthusiasts). Apparently, the hinge is really tough, being built to last in the region of 15.000 turns.

But there are a lot of differences between T1005 and T1028 and one of them is the USB 3.0 slot present on the right side. Of course, there are two 2.0 USB ports also, but it’s nice to see 3.0 spreading on many netbooks lately. The keyboard seems to be very good, although the keys are slightly rigid and the mouse pad seems very generic, but who cares considering you have a capacitive touchscreen that supports multi touch. You should know that the T1005 looks a little weird in the back; the display and the body don’t have the same size so it looks like you piled a small book on top of a bigger one.

Gigabyte T1005

Specs wise, T1005 delivers in the same “oh, not so great but still good” way that most netbooks do, and the +500 $ price tag exists mainly because of the tablet hybridization. There’s a Intel Atom N550 Dual Core Processor (1.5GHz), 2GB DDR3 SO-DIMM (and that’s the max of RAM you can get), a 250 or 350 GB 2.5″ SATA HDD, the Intel® GMA3150 video chip and the gorgeous capacitive 10.1 inch, HD Ready, WXGA 1366×768 display. It comes with Windows 7 Home Premium and a 6 cell battery.

Check out the video for a quick glance at the T1005 and expect more in the days to come.

Watch a demo of Samsung Galaxy Player 50

Mark — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:48:17 +0000

These days, everything looks like an Iphone. It’s also the case of the new Samsung Galaxy Player 50, first displayed at IFA. Since then, Samsung was ultra silent about this new toy, at least until now. We found a video over at netbooknews.com, teasing us with some really cool features streamed in a posh little video, of course featuring landscape recording of the Eiffel Tower, making it probably the most recorded place in the world.

Moving on, maybe the most important thing about this “media player and more” is that it runs on Android 2.1 OS, being the first one of its kind to do that and it’s always nice to see history in the making. This means we’ll have tons of features on a music player (we’ve come a long way since 256MB, USB stick style mp3 players). Some of them are pretty standard…for a smartphone or tablet!

There’s a quick Google search widget that is really fun to use on the 3.2-inch capacitive screen (but there’s also a voice feature so just say what you want to look for), Google Maps, with a tap tap oriented interface, an organizer for everything from your stocks to birthday calendars and weathers forecasts. Probably part of this data will be retrieved depending on your location and personal information, so you’ll get useful updates.

Samsung Galaxy Player 50

Listening to music or the radio might be as awesome as possible thanks to the sound field effect SoundAlive. You can listen to it with ear plugs or by an external speaker that is pretty loud for such a small device. You can also shoot videos or photos with a 2 MP camera, but the 8 or 16GB internal memory might get insufficient pretty fast, so you’ll have to supplement with a micro SD card.

Watch the video below for some more of Samsung’s Galaxy player 50 that will be available for purchase in November.

Zotac’s new nettop out now

Mark — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:46:53 +0000

Nettops are a relatively new and exciting multimedia home solution and Zotac just released its newest iteration, the ZBOX HD-ID40. As with other nettops, Zotac’s latest product is aimed at energy savvy consumers, who still want to benefit from good video and audio performance and basic tasking, such as surfing the web and editing documents. According to netbooknews.com, there’s no additional info on pricing and availability, but it seems like a “around Christmas launch”.

Like other nettops, this one also looks good and occupies very little space. When you buy one, you don’t just go for the one with better specs, but also choose the most appropriate to suit the style of your living room. As it will probably be positioned around a big screen TV, it should score points in the design department. Also, it hardly causes any noise, as it is powered by an external supply and the solid state disk it packs is nowhere near as noisy as hard disk drives (this happens if you choose the customizable version, because the standard one comes with a 250 HDD).

Zotac ZBOXHD-ID40

What you get for the money (not so much, I might add, if we’re to believe the legend saying nettops are much cheaper than computers) is a Intel Atom D525 processor (1.8 GHz, dual-core), 2GB DDR2, the NVIDIA ION graphics processor with dedicated 512 DDR3 memory, impressive connectivity-802.11n Wi-Fi, 7.1-channel LPCM digital audio, DirectX 10.1 support, 6 USB 2.0 ports and others, but I wouldn’t like to turn this into a spec fest.

Basically, you’ll be able to watch smooth HD and Blu-ray content, either from the internet or by connecting an external hard drive to the device. It comes without an operating system and a disc drive, but it seems hardly a problem considering the advantages.

The 64 GB BlackBerry Playbook confirmed by RIM officials

Mark — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:46:32 +0000

Even though the funky named Playbook was announced for quite a while, there weren’t enough details on the specs and features. The number one question being “will it match or even muscle out the iPad”, we found out from engadget.com that, like its formidable adversary, the Playbook will come in 16, 32 and 64 GB variants.

One thing is for sure: Playbook is almost two times smaller than the iPad, but this doesn’t really count for much until we can see RIM’s next thingy at work. Another strong point of the Playbook is the mothership-like 5,300mAh battery which is good enough to sustain a laptop, so we might expect astonishingly long battery life for this tablet.

The other specs available for RIM’s Playbook position this up and coming tablet really high in the open market battle. It has a 7 inch screen, being beaten only by iPad’s 9.7 display, but equaling the Samsung Galaxy Tab and outmatching Dell’s Streak. The resolution, 1024 x 600, is good enough and the device supports Flash 10.1, which is great considering that virtually any relevant website exploits this technology.

Blackberry Playbook

The processor is a dual core 1GHZ Cortex A9, making it one of the fastest gadgets we heard of (but considering that it will hit the stores only in mid 2011, it might be mediocre on launch day). The same with the memory; it has 1GB and it sounds cool, but it might not be enough for all of the games and apps that will probably be available 6 or 8 months from now. Another strong feature is the small size, being only 9.7 mm thick and considerably lighter than the iPad (0.9 lbs versus Apple’s 1.6 lbs).

Anyway, the only way to get a solid gadget crush on the Playbook is to see it at work so we’re going to eagerly wait for the first hands on with it.

Check out also the video below for a small presentation of the Playbook by RIM co-CEO Jim Balsilli.

RIM Blackberry Playbook- exciting 3D tablet for both professionals and casual users

Asus Eee PC 1015PN now shipping

Mark — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:43:50 +0000

One of the most anticipated netbooks of the year is now shipping. We talked about it before here and we concluded this might be a sweet ride considering the specs. It’s an above the average netbook, better for demanding graphic applications thanks to the NVIDIA ION graphics. For now, you can buy it from Amazon for 425 dollars plus free shipping, according to liliputing.com. It’s not a bad price, considering that other netbooks nowhere near the specs of 1015PN cost almost the same.

If you forgot why this netbook is a must have, let us refresh your memory. The 1015PN has a dual core 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550 processor, 1 GB DDR3 of RAM (but you can upgrade to 2GB and you really should), a 250 GB hard drive and another 500 GB of Asus Web Storage. The NVIDIA ION graphics is the cherry on top of it all, as the dedicated 512 DDR3 VRAM supports 1080p playback while enjoying the 7.1 surround support. If the 10.1 inch display is not big enough, you can connect the netbook to a HDTV through HDMI.

Asus Eee PC 1015 PN available now

Well, it’s not all that perfect, as we said here. The OS is Windows 7 starter, meaning you have to switch between the on board Intel video card and the NVIDIA ION graphics and every time you do it there’s a reboot involved. Of course, you can install Windows 7 Premium and get rid of this problem, but still it would have been nice to come like this straight out of the box. Also, the NVIDIA ION graphics might be awesome for a netbook, but playing newer games is practically impossible.

Anyway, the Asus Eee PC 1015PN is one of the solid entries on the overall mediocre (performance wise) netbook market and it’s definitely worth trying (if you already bought it, share some impressions in the comment section below).

Ergo’s 11 inch Windows 7 tablet launches in Italy

Mark — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:43:08 +0000

Tablet enthusiasts in Italy can now feast their thumbs and eyes with Ergo’s 11 inch Windows 7 tablet, which will be available for purchase this month, that meaning any day now, according to netbooknews.com. This model runs in familiar territory, having the same scope and features as the ExoPC or WeTab. Italian manufacturer Ergo claims however that their product is different from the reference design due to a 2 MP webcam, instead of the standard 1.3MP, an ambient light sensor, a GPS module and 3G connectivity.

As you can see in the pictures, the tablet is pretty big, outmatching some netbooks in terms of display size, so there might be mixed feelings about Ergo’s…ergonomic quality. Are contemporary users willing to carry around a 1kg, 11 inch tablet, barely fitting in bags, not to say pockets? Or maybe this tablet is designed more to be used at home for browsing the web or streaming HD content, even if for that a netbook or a laptop would be much more comfortable?

Ergo Windows 7 tablet

Ergo also came up with a proprietary touch interface to allow users to thumb around Windows 7 until they’ll release the tablet with the up and coming Windows Embedded Compact 7. It looks good and easy to use, but there’s no word on the apps designed especially for it. Like the other tablets in the same class, Ergo’s gadget has a 11.6 inch 1366 x 768 display, Intel Atom N450 processor, 1 GB DDR3, a 32 or 64 SSD, many ports including HDMI and the battery should make it for about 5 hours (and maybe more after Ergo will sell the tablet with the low consuming Windows Embedded Compact 7).

Check out the video below for a little tete-a-tete with this gargantuan but fun tablet.

Android 3.0 out this December

Mark — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 07:41:54 +0000

Google is allegedly wrapping up the last details for their Android 3.0 OS (dubbed Gingerbread, continuing the line of food themed names, like Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, and Froyo) and a release date might be as early as December of this year.

This comes after many big players in the market named their concerns that the previous and current versions of the OS (we’re now at Froyo 2.2, in case you lost track) are not viable for tablets, but only for smartphones, even though many tablets went for Google’s OS. At first, this is all Android was about, namely an OS for the sloppy Google Nexus One, but other manufacturers implemented Android on their smartphones to great success.

But now, according to alltouchtablet.com, the stakes of the 3.0 are high on the tablet market, as Acer, Asustek, HTC, Motorola and Samsung amongst others are desperate to use the new version of Android on their soon to be launched tablets.

We might expect a boost in performance on future tablets due to the dedicated 3.0 and considering that licensing for Android costs 10 dollars in comparison with Windows 7′s hefty price tag of 50$, we just might have on our hands an Android dominated tablet market from now on.

Android 3.0 GingerBread gets on the final line before launch

And 3.0 seems to be only a stepping stone for the 4.0 version of Android, which should come out somewhere next summer, although Google keeps all tabs quiet on this one. What we know about it is that it might be named Ice Cream and will probably be the ultimate tablet OS, as 3.0 might just be what Windows Vista was for 7.

Nevertheless, it’s exciting to have Android tweaked for tablets, as we might have on our hands also a new generation of apps.

Asus UL30JT review – 13 incher with extra-muscles and good autonomy

Andrew — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:35:00 +0000

I consider the 13 inch series of mini-laptops from Asus perhaps the best if you’re looking for a portable computer with more power than a netbook, but also with an affordable price tag. So no wonder the various versions of the Asus UL30A have become so popular all around the globe (in the US they are some of the bet sold laptops). What we have here right now is the Asus UL30JT, the next step from Asus in terms of mobile computing. Shortly, this laptop merges the looks and build quality of the previous generation with a new hardware platform, meant to offer better performance and increased autonomy in the same time. Read the review below to see how exactly is that possible and to find out if the product leaves up to its expectations.

Specifications

Intel Core i5-520UM 1.07 Ghz processor with Intel Boost technology (boosts frequency when needed)
4 GB of RAM DDR3 1067 MHz
2.5″ 640 GB hard-drive 5400 rpm + Online Storage
X4500M graphics + Nvidia GT310M + Optimus
Wi-Fi N, Bluetooth 2.1, Gigabit LAN
3xUSB ports, card-reader, webcam, VGA+HDMI output, speakers
8 Cell battery 5600 mAh 84 Wh
Windows 7 (Ultimate on this particular version, but it will probably ship with Home)
weighs 3.7 pounds (1.75 kg)

Design and build quality

On the outside, nothing much has changed from the previous generation. I remember back when i first got my hands on the Asus UL30A, I considered it one of the best looking laptops ever-made. And I still do. The UL30JT is almost identical to that one, in fact there’s only one thing different: the entire palm rest and the area around the keyboard are no longer made out of a glossy plastic, but a matte one which feels better and catches smudges harder. While the casing of this device is made out of matte plastic, the lid is covered in a brushed aluminum finish. This gives a more elitist aspect and while better than a plastic case when dealing with scratches, it still catches smudges and fingerprints. They shouldn’t be so easy to spot on the silver finish though, so I would get that instead of this black one, if given the choice.

A looker - the 13 inch Asus UL30JT

Build quality is solid, very solid i must say. And based on reviews received by the previous UL30s, the entire computer is very reliable. So you shouldn’t have problems with it on the long run (although that’s something for the future to prove).

Ports and features

Back - only the battery, a big 8 Cell one

Back side

Left side – card-reader, headphones and mic, 2xUSB slots, Ethernet, DC-IN

Left Side

Right side – big heating vent, VGA, HDMI and 1xUSb slot

Right side

Front – nothing but the system LEDs

Front side

Bottom – big battery and the dedicated bays for upgrading RAM and HDD

Front side

Also, see my hands-on clip below:

Keyboard and trackpad

They keyboard on the Asus UL30JT is a chiclet-styled one with independent keys, also 100% Full-size, thus those of you with bigger fingers won’t have any problems with it. Good overall, although the plastic used for the keys doesn’t quite feel right and the flex is a little bit too obvious. If the keyboard kept from the previous generation is a good one, i would have hoped the trackpad with that dimpled texture to have been replaced. It’s not matte anymore, which is a plus, but still responsiveness and overall touch-feeling are not as they should be. Don’t get me wrong, this touchpad does its job, but sometimes won’t be as quick and precise as you would want it to be.

Chiclet keyboard and dimpled trackpad

Display

The Asus UL30JT comes with a 13.3 inch LED backlit display with 1366 x 768 px resolution (perfect for a screen this big). Very good overall and with nice colors, brightness and viewing angles, as long as you use it inside on in poor light conditions. When taken outside or used in direct light, it turns into a mirror, because it’s glossy. The clips in this post stand as proof for that too. So too bad, i wished Asus had a matte display for this device, at least as an option you’d have to pay extra for.d

Screen is glossy

Hardware

The UL30JT proves its superiority over the previous UL30 series when it comes to hardware. First of all, this device packs the Intel new generation ULV processor built on Arrandale platform (32 nm), the Core i5-520UM. Clocked at 1.06 GHz, this processor comes with 3 MB of L3 cache, HyperThreading and 800 MHz FSB, while bringing Intel’s Turbo Boost technology which automatically increases frequency (by increasing the multiplier) in case extra performance is needed. Theoretically the increase is up to 1.86 GHz, although CPUz presented numbers up to 2.4 GHz on this system (but it might be some kind of mistake) The device is based on the HM55 Express Chipset and comes with a hybrid graphic solution (managed by the Nvidia Optimus technology). The two graphic chips used are the GMA X4500 and the Nvidia GT310M. Optimus is the link between the two and seamlessly changes between them based on the operation the computer is performing (and its requirement for graphic power). Thus, when browsing, listening to music, writing, the system uses the integrated chip in order to offer better autonomy, but when watching HD content or playing games, the dedicated Nvidia GT310M chips jumps immediately in action, in order to cope with the requirements.

Good hardware

Also in terms of hardware, the Ul30JT brings 4 GB of RAM (upgradeable to and 640 GB storage. Wi-Fi N, Ethernet (Gigabit Lan) and Bluetooth are present as connectivity options, but there’s no sign of even optional 3G (at least not on this test version I have on my desk – there’s usually a slot behind the battery on in the left-side, but this one lacks it).

Performances and Software

When speaking of performances, this laptop is perhaps right now one of the lords in the 13 inch class. While still using an ULV platform in order to also offer decent battery life, it can run nearly all kind of software and applications.

1080P - Flash

This test version came with Windows 7 Ultimate, but it will probably ship with Home Premium or Professional. Anyway, Asus loads it with quite a lot of bloatware (at least 10 applications you’ll hardly ever going to need) which has some effects over the snappiness of the entire system, thus, if you get this laptop, installing a fresh Windows should be your main priority.

Self stored 1080P on Power Saver

Still, even with the bloatware installed, this notebook is fast. It can run any type of software, including power hungry ones like Photoshop, Corel, etc. Still, don’t expect them to load as fast as on your desktop. What the UL30JT is meant for is multimedia on the go, thus it can face 1080P content both self-stored and Flash, even on battery-more with Power balance profile selected. The screens below prove it. It scores a 3.0 Windows 7 rating, with the poorest mark received for graphics.

Windows 7 rating

But even so, this laptop can handle games. I for one tried Anno 1404 which is a RTS launched late last year and it can run from 20-25 fps (on native resolution with details on medium) to 50-80 fps (on 1024 x 768) with details also on medium. So more than playable. Other games like Counter-strike, Call of Duty, Sims, all should run decently on this laptop as long as you don’t expect to play them on full-details. So overall the UL30JT performs amazingly well for a 13 incher ULV laptop. Better than i was expecting actually. Stay tuned, I’ll get back with some tests later on (if you want me to run a particular test, please post a comment and I’ll see what i can do). Here you can see the results for the benchmarks conducted on this laptop. Also, see this video below for more details on performances in clips and games.

Battery life

Like I said before, this laptop packs an 8 Cell 5600 mAh 84 Wh 15V battery. A pretty big one, but the hardware is needy too. So, expect to get:

around 7-8 hours of life on light browsing on Wi-fi with Screen dimmed to 50% (and no music)
around 5 hours on regular DivX movies
around 3 hours on HD playing and gaming
anywhere in between for a mix of these

All in all, you get good performance and battery life of around 5-7 hours on average, which is more than excellent. And the battery charges from 10 to 100% in around 2.5 hours, so pretty fast.

Sound, webcam, noise, heat and others

The UL30JT comes with a webcam, like all modern netbooks, placed on the upper part of the display. It’s only a 0.3 MPx one, so don’t expect much, but for chatting and Skype is more than enough. Sound quality on the other hand is top notch. The speakers in this notebook are not only loud, but also very good. I reckon there’s some Altec Lansing technology inside, like I’ve seen on other Asus devices. As for noise and heat. I have to say this device is a little bit noisier than the other 13 inch laptops I’ve tested. Having the powerful hardware comes with a price, and especially when playing or watching HD clips, the fan will get quite loud. Not disturbingly loud, but still, you’ll hear it. Also, the bottom-left part of this Asus gets a little bit hot and there’s a lot of warm air dispersed through that vent on that side. Yes, i know, “a little bit hot” it’s not really scientific, but I lack a method or tool to properly measure temperature on the surface, although I’ve been looking for one (suggestions would be appreciated ). So for now, you’ll just have to take my word for it: this laptop gets somewhat hot on the left-bottom side. But is it “Burn my legs hot”? Definitely not, at least for me, and I have low heat tolerance

Where you can get it

You can’t get it yet. This device is not available on the market yet and what I have on my desk is an early sample. However, we should see it in stores soon, probably in the next weeks. I’d reckon prices will get to around 700-800 bucks, but we’ll just have to wait and see what Asus plans. I’ll update this part once i know more. Update: This device is now available in the States for $849 , from Amazon.com . Check this link for more details, pics, reviews and the option to get one

Asus UL30JT - a winner

Final thoughts

If you’ll read some of my other posts on this site, you’ll see i almost never rate a device “top notch”. The UL30A was one of the exceptions and now the Asus UL30JT is another. I i were to rate it, i would give it 9 out of 10. I like the looks, the design and the construction quality. I like the powerful hardware in this light body and the fact that it comes with Optimus, so you get a mix between performance and battery life. Overall, I like it, although I would have given it a 10 if Asus changed the screen with a matte one and the trackpad with a better option (like we saw they’re preparing for the EEE PC 1218 for instance). Still, if Asus manages to get the UL30JT for a fair price, which should be around 700-800 bucks, I’m sure it will quickly become very popular. Because it’s good, bringing portability, power and hopefully a nice price tag under a single roof. And this doesn’t happen too often.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

sleek aspect and solid build quality
light and compact for a 13 incher
bright display, very good inside or in poor light conditions
latest generations ULV hardware from Intel
top performances: can run nearly all kind of applications, clips and even most of the modern games
good full-size keyboard, although with a little bit too much flex for my taste
big battery which translates in good autonomy: up to 8 hours
very good speakers
good connectivity, but no 3G option

Cons:

Glossy display (so unusable outside)
trackpad with the dimpled finish and single-click button will do its job, but is not the best
aluminum exterior still catches smudges and fingerprints and they are noticeable on this black finish
gets noisy and hot on its upper left-side when used in intense applications
there’s a lot of bloatware preinstalled with the OS

All the pictures

Kojinsha Netbook Concept has two monitors

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:33:02 +0000

Kojinsha Netbook Concept

Akihabaranews is showing photos of the new Kojinsha Netbook with dual monitor concept they saw in CEATEC. The netbook packs an AMD Athlon NeoMv-40, 4GB RAM, 160GB hard drive and 10.1″ screen by two.

To keep the size of a netbook, the monitors slide one over the other when you only need to use one of them. This concept will obviously drain your battery faster, so standard batteries will not work very well on this. There’s not much detail about this but I’m pretty sure they will include a more powerful battery pack when the product becomes available to last at least 4 hrs per single charge.

Also, having the extra monitor plus the possibility of larger battery could add up to its weight. And probably to its price.

via Liliputing