Sony claims 'lightest notebook' crown

The fight for the right to claim ownership of the world’s lightest notebook has been won by Sony, the company claimed today, thanks to its launch of the Vaio X.
Weighing in at just 655g, the... ahem... “exquisitely crafted” notebook is apparently “no more than” 13.9mm wide and 2.25mm thick at any point along its choice of gold, black or carbon-fibre frame.

And with the designer looks come some designer features, including an aluminium palm rest, multi-digit touchpad and – although we’re not sure we believe this last one – a responsive keyboard that supposedly provides an "error-free typing" experience.

Sony has created two X-series models: the VPC-X11S1E/B and VPC-X11Z1E/X. Both feature 11.1in, 1366 x 768 displays, but the X11Z1E/X ships with the faster processor – a 2GHz Intel Atom Z550, compared to the X11S1E/B’s 1.86GHz Atom Z540. Both CPUs were designed for handheld net tablets, so don't expect killer laptop performance.

The X11Z1E/X also has a more capacious SSD than its rival – 256GB, compared to 128GB – and is the only version available with that exclusive premium carbon-fibre finish. So exclusive, in fact, that the machine will only be available through Sony’s sales website.

Both models feature 2GB of DDR 2 memory and are equipped with the handheld-oriented Intel GMA 500 integrated graphics core, Sony said.

Neither notebook has an integrated optical drive – that’s an optional USB-connected extra — but do support 3G speeds of up to 7.2Mb/s and 802.11n Wi-Fi. Bluetooth is also present, Sony added.

An integrated webcam – which also features in Sony’s new touchscreen Vaio – can be found on the VPC-X11S1E/B and VPC-X11Z1E/X, as can slots for SDHC memory cards and Sony’s own Memory Stick cards.

Running Windows 7 Professional, the pair will hold out for up to eight hours, Sony claimed. Splash out for the “extended X battery” and you’ll supposedly get 16 hours' runtime from the X series.

Sony wouldn't say officially how much either model will cost, but company insiders told us recently it would be in the €1500-2000 range. Phew. Whatever they cost, both machines

EeePC T91 Touch Netbook by Asus with Convertible Touchscreen Functionality

It seemed like ages ago, but earlier this year at CES 2009, Asus had a T91 touch-enabled netbook prototype on display. Rumors swirled as onlookers debated whether this little convertible supported multi-touch functions.

On Wednesday, Asus officially unveiled the eeePC T91 tablet, and though it doesn't have a multi-touch panel, it is the first touch-enabled netbook to hit the U.S. market. While most of the single-touch gestures were fluid and responsive, the T91 basically took the first generation eeePC 4G and slapped a rotating touch screen on it. That, and the fact that it's expensive ($500), is likely a deal breaker for those who were looking forward to this netbook tablet.

I spent the majority of the time playing with the T91's touch functions. Surprisingly, it's not using Windows XP's Tablet Edition, as that''s usually the go-to operating system for tablets. Instead, Asus developed a layer that works on top of Windows XP's Home Edition, called Touch Gate. There are a couple of ways to enter the Touch Gate interface – via a desktop icon, a physical button next to the display or through Asus's virtual dock – and, once inside, you are presented with four customizable touch icons.

TouchSuite, as Asus calls it, is just one of three panels arranged as a three-sided cube. The other two panels consist of a widget dock, which looks something stolen right out of the Apple operating system, and Windows XP's desktop environment. You can flick the screen to navigate from one pane to the other. Touch one of the icons, and it'll do a rotating dance and launch the application. You can drag and drop different icons into TouchSuite by pulling up a ribbon of icons right below the four main ones.

Most of the touch applications were developed in-house. There's a photo application that does everything that it should do from a touch perspective, including rotating, zooming in and out, panning, and flipping through album pages. Again, it's just a single-touch panel, so you won't be able to pinch and enlarge an image with two fingers – just one. A memo and a notepad application are present as well, both enabling the ability to take simple notes.

Since it isn't based on XP's Tablet OS or Wacom's pen technology, handwriting recognition is very limited. Doodling and jotting simple notes are fine and fun, and there is a virtual onscreen keyboard that you can launch, but this is clearly not a netbook for serious tablet users.

It gets worse from here, unfortunately. Asus had the right idea by making it a convertible, exposing a keyboard with a swivel screen. The 83% keyboard, though, is as small as the one in the original eeePC 4G. Meanwhile, popular netbooks like the Toshiba NB205, the Acer Aspire One (D250-1165) and the Asus eeePC 1000HE have keyboards that range from 92% to full size.

The T91 uses an 8.9-inch widescreen, while others in the netbook category have already standardized on 10-inch ones. A 16-GB solid state drive is the only part that will fit into an eeePC 4G body. Asus attempted to soften this blow by including a 16-GB SD card and 20 GB worth of online storage. Added up, 52GB of "hybrid" storage still pales in comparison to capacities from spinning drives.

In parts, the 1.33GHz, Intel Atom Z520 is the same processor found in the Acer Aspire One A0751h, and we already know that there's some performance degradation compared to more common Atom processors such as the N270 (1.6GHz) and the N280 (1.66GHz). I think the biggest blow to this touch netbook is its $499 price. You're basically paying an obscene amount for a 2 year old netbook with fancy touch inputs.

Sony Announces $500 Netbook

Sony doesn’t make netbooks. The Vaio P, for example is absolutely, positively not a netbook. In fact, in February Sony senior vice president Mike Abary called the whole netbook market “a race to the bottom.”

That’s right. Sony denied that it would make a netbook. So, as night follows day, we now have the Vaio W. A netbook. From Sony.

The Vaio W will be a full-on, 1.6GHz Atom powered, ten-inch screened netbook. The other specs also fail to deviate from the cheap formula: 160GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, an Ethernet jack, Bluetooth and a couple of USB ports. The SD reader will work with MemorySticks, too, of course, and Sony has made one break with tradition: The screen is a high-res 1,366 x 768 instead of the more usual 1,024 x 600, meaning that text will be slightly harder to read.

The Vaio W will cost $500 when it launches in the US in August, and for that you’ll get a plastic case in a choice of three colors (white, pink and, ahem, brown?). A case which looks like nothing more than an MSI Wind with a new logo slapped on. Could it be that Sony, in its hurry to win the race to the bottom, has forgotten that every other netbook maker is selling cheaper, sleeker machines already?

Lenovo T400S ThinkPad, Finding the Perfect Laptop

Lenovo T400S, ThinkPad has long been thought to be the closest thing to the perfect laptop. This is the line that the other OEMs are typically measured against, and it just released a new hybrid product, the T400S, which is a blending of the T400 and X301 in an apparent attempt to create the best of both worlds. Let’s talk a bit about the conditions that birthed the product and the Lenovo ThinkPad line in general.



ThinkPad: Iconic Line with Unique Benefits

One of the things that differentiates the ThinkPad line from all others is the historic consistency in industrial design. Going back to the early 90s when the line was owned by IBM, the ThinkPad laptop has been black, square, and differentiated on its durability and the quality of its keyboard. This is like blessing and a curse to Lenovo’s ThinkPad division. As a blessing, it creates product loyalty that, in the corporate space, seems to rival Apple’s in the consumer space. The curse is that the products tend not to age as visibly as competing products, and churn rates, which generate revenue profit, appear to be lower than those from competing firms.

While the division has pioneered internal technologies like hard drive protection, specialized frames, water-resistant keyboards, and special software packages contained under the brand ThinkVantage technologies, externally changes are few and far between. Recently, just changing the keyboard resulted in controversy but wouldn’t have even been noticed if other vendors had done it. For the IT buyer that wants to contain capital costs and keep products in use as long as possible, this is a clear and distinct advantage. But it comes at a high cost to Lenovo, which still has to compete on price and effectively passes on this benefit for no additional cost.

The T400S Hybrid: Finding the Perfect Laptop

Each of us has different responsibilities and computing needs. The ThinkPad line is bracketed by two distinct product offerings: the ultra thin and light X-301, which optimizes on size but has performance limitations, and the T400 series, which forms the backbone of the line and is generally what people think of when they hear the name ThinkPad. Between the two products there appeared to be a gap that could be filled by a light product with the performance characteristics of a mainstream product. This is the T400S. It is 20 percent lighter than a T400, 25 percent thinner than a T400, has the same 14” outdoor viewable display selection as the T400, has the same processors and chipset as the T400, same drive options as the T400, and the same docking solutions as the T400. It has a different battery selection unique to its form factor, and an updated port out from the prior models.

The product includes one of the first multi-touch trackpads and a simplification of the notification lights from the T400. Finally, price is in line with the T400. The end result may be, for those buying in the ThinkPad line, a new benchmark product, a hybrid if you would, that combines nicely the benefits of the X-301 halo product and the T400 mainstream offering. There are no apparent sacrifices in the durability, serviceability or functionality in this new offering.

Counter Trend

Currently, the trend in the notebook space is to have products that are highly individualized. This drives churn, can improve margins, and is being driven largely by HP, Dell and Acer. Acer and Apple are ignoring IT entirely and enjoying some of the highest growth rates in the industry. ThinkPads have not embraced this trend and are therefore much more IT focused than user focused. This is likely why ThinkPad accounts generally, though not always, have a high level of IT control while accounts that favor other lines are increasingly defined by users and line managers. Currently, the shift of P&L responsibility to line mangers is favoring the latter model, putting pressure on the ThinkPad to find a way to embrace this increasing personalization need.

Wrapping Up

ThinkPads remain the most closely tied to the IT goals of consistency, reliability and service life. The line has yet to address the increasing need for personalization and it is this last need that appears to be driving growth. For those looking at the ThinkPad line, the T400S is likely be their best, no-compromise choice, but it doesn't yet embrace personalization. Sometimes a vendor is defined as much by what it didn’t do as by what it did do.

Dell Shrinks The Vostro Business Notebook Compress to 12 Inches

Dell's new Vostro 1220 Notebook aims at businessfolk wanting ultraportable machines with more oomph - and a bigger display - than a netbook.

Computer maker Dell has expanded its line of Vostro notebook computers with the Vostro 1220, a new ultraportable model with a 12.1-inch 1,280 by 800 display. Traditionally aimed at corporate and business users, the Vostro line had traditionally featured staid looks and an emphasis on basic productivity, security, and IT-friend management. The Vostro 1220 is no exception, but it packs the necessities into a 3.36 pound package that can get as much as 9 hours of use out of a 6-cell battery.

Today's entrepreneurs need a laptop that is powerful and long-lasting, according to this purpose "The Vostro 1220 combines performance, built-in security and long battery life with useful features like video conferencing to be the ideal weapon of choice for any road warrior."

The Vostro 1220 is available with up to a 3 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and supports up to 8 GB of RAM and up to 500 GB of hard drive storage (SSD drives from 16 to 128 GB of also available). The unit sports a 1,280 by 800-pixel display driven by Intel GMA X4500HD graphics, and optical drive options include an 8× DVD±RW drive or Blu-ray combio drive. Of course, the Vistro 1220 offers options for 802.11n and Bluetooth wireless networking, along with an option for a combined Wi-Fi/WiMax card. The unit also offers VGA output, 3 USB 2.0 ports, a 3-in-1 card reader, and a 34mm ExpressCard slot. Other options include a fingerprint reader and trusted platform module; Dell also preloads Dell Video Chat software if the unit is purchased with an optional integrated Webcam. Dell will also pre-configure the system with any flavor of Windows Vista, with Windows XP, Ubuntu, and FreeDOS available as options.

The Vostro 1220 is available today in black and red, with prices starting at $799.