Handy Computer Guide

MobileTechReview have published a review of the feature-rich Sony Vaio Z550 Notebook. 'The 13.1" Sony Z550, available at retail locations and online, is one of the first notebooks running on the Intel Montevina platform (Centrino 2). It has an updated 25 watt (that's really low power for a non-ULV Core 2 Duo) 2.4GHz Intel P8600 CPU that uses the 45 nanometer process. This Core 2 Duo CPU plus Montevina's improvements make for a very powerful, yet power-frugal system that's future-proof enough to keep most owners satisfied with performance and features for 3 years. What does Montevina, the successor to Santa Rosa, offer?

A significantly smaller motherboard that allows manufacturers to shrink designs (hence the smaller Z compared to the SZ), more powerful Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics with an HD option that decodes HD video, support for lower power consumption CPUs (translates into longer battery life and cooler temps), a faster implementation of WiFi 802.11n, a 1066MHz FSB (up from Santa Rosa's 800MHz) and support for DDR3 RAM.'

Read: Sony Vaio Z550 - MobileTechReview.com

Posted by Admin at 10:09 PM | Permalink

PC Magazine have published a review of the Gateway DX4710-UB002A multimedia desktop PC. 'The DX4710 sits in a new chassis for Gateway, which is a relief, as the older DX minitower case was looking a bit tired. The new one is not a lot different, but its chiseled façade conveys a more powerful feel than the older curvy faceplate. Inside, you'll find a tidy interior housing a Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor, 6GB of DDR2 SDRAM, 640GB hard drive, and ATI Radeon HD 3650 graphics card. There's also an ATSC/HDTV tuner, a wireless 802.11g network card, and a 56K modem.

The built-in IR blaster port is good for people who need to control a set-top box such as a satellite or cable TV tuner. You can trash the modem if you're not on dial-up and you want the PCI slot for expansion. There is space for a couple of extra SATA hard drives, but that's about it. Since the system is so chock-full of goodies, the fact that you can't shoehorn anything else into the case isn't really a drawback.'

Read: Gateway DX4710-UB002A - PC Mag

Posted by Admin at 10:12 PM | Permalink

CNET have published a review of the sleek Dell XPS M1330-126B Notebook. 'One of the few competitors to the MacBook is Dell's 13-inch XPS 1330, which we first saw in the spring of 2007. The system hasn't had a serious overhaul since then, but this fixed-configuration retail model, the $1,149 1330-126B, offers a decent mix of components and features for just north of the $1K mark, along with more than three hours of battery life. It's still hard to beat the best-selling 13-inch MacBook, but XPS 1330 at least offers a stylish Windows-only alternative. Physically identical to the first XPS 1330 we looked at last year, the system is slightly wedge-shaped, going from 0.87-inches in the front to 1.4-inches in the rear. It also manages to come in about a pound less than the Apple MacBook.'

Read: Dell XPS M1330-126B - CNET

Posted by Admin at 2:40 PM | Permalink

HotHardWare have published a review of the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 ultraportable. 'The X200 is unmistakably a ThinkPad notebook. From the flat black paint and utilitarian design to the angled logo on the right palm rest, the X200 couldn't be anything else. While we wouldn't say they are necessarily "pretty", ThinkPads are certainly iconic and distinguished. At first glance, the X200 looks like a miniaturized version of a ThinkPad, shrunken to 3/4 the size of its 15.4" stablemates. This is true in many respects. Despite its smaller size, the X200 shares most of the same special features as the rest of ThinkPad product line. Features like a semi-rugged design, shock-mounted hard drive, fingerprint reader with full-disk encryption, spill-resistant keyboard with drainage channels and full-sized keys, are all standard equipment.'

Read: Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Ultraportable Notebook - HotHardWare.com

Posted by Admin at 10:08 PM | Permalink

A review of the Toshiba Tecra A9-S9021V Notebook has been posted over at Laptop Magazine. 'With the Tecra A9, Toshiba took an old-school approach to addressing the corporate notebook market: Make it as bland as possible so as not to offend anyone. While the gray and black plastic chassis would be appropriate for a sub-$1,000 machine, at the Tecra A9’s price, we’d like to see richer materials. The machine is the typical size for a 15.4-inch notebook, but a little more effort could have gone into shaving some bulk. In fact, at 14.4 x 10.6 x 1.5 inches and 6.4 pounds, the Tecra A9 is nearly identical in size and weight to the new Sony FW Series—which has a screen that’s an inch larger.'

Read: Toshiba Tecra A9-S9021V - Laptop Mag

Posted by Admin at 1:54 PM | Permalink

DesktopReview have published a review of the Dell Studio Hybrid desktop PC. 'The Studio Hybrid is a computer that wouldn't look out of place in a living room, media room, bedroom or even kitchen. In fact, the only place it would seem out of place is an office, simply because it looks so great. It comes with a buyer's choice of slate, emerald, quartz, ruby, topaz or sapphire plastic sleeves at no additional cost. For $130 more, you can also request a bamboo sleeve to give it a higher-end look. While I think it's obvious that Dell is charging too much for the bamboo sleeve, it looks fantastic. It really adds a sense of elegance and refinement to the largely plastic construction.'

Read: Dell Studio Hybrid Desktop Review - DesktopReview.com

Posted by Admin at 10:08 PM | Permalink

PC World have published their review of the MSI Wind NB U100 Netbook PC. 'The Wind manages to one-up earlier mini-notebook designs with a 10-inch, 1024-by-600 resolution display and a keyboard reasonably appropriate for human hands to type on. It's also larger (10.23 by 7.08 by 1.24 inches ) than most other mini-notes, and its construction seems solid (bonus points for the well-constructed hinges inside the case). The Wind comes with three USB ports, a Webcam/mic that camps atop the display, an SD Card slot, and ethernet and VGA-out jacks. Most current mini-notebooks offer the very same features.'

Read: MSI Wind NB U100 Mini-notebook - PC World

Posted by Admin at 10:09 PM | Permalink

A review of the Lenovo T500 ThinkPad Notebook has been posted over at Notebook Review. 'The design of the T500 has changed a bit. The changes are subtle to the untrained eye, but they are there. The right side is now gently sloped similar to what can be found on the older T4x series, where the sides angle inward instead of dropping off flat. First clue about this is the optical drive bezel which sports a nice beveled edge. The rubber feet have also been slightly tweaked, now feeling softer than before, meaning less sliding on your desk surface. Moving past the minor case design changes, the ThinkPad is every bit as conservative (boring) as all of those preceding it. We have the same paint, same durable rubbery texture, and we still have our ThinkPad logo.'

Read: Lenovo T500 ThinkPad Review - Notebook Review

Posted by Admin at 10:09 PM | Permalink

IT Reviews have published a review of the feature-packed Asus Lamborghini VX2SE Notebook. 'Asus's Lamborghini range has been around for a little while and the VX2SE is the latest incarnation of the series, powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 processor clocked at 2.5GHz, with an 800MHz FSB speed and 4MB of L2 cache. This is backed by 4GB of PC2-5300, 667MHz, DDR2 memory, the most the motherboard supports, so it should see you through all your daily office needs comfortably.

Powering the graphics is Nvidia's 9500M GS chipset with a 475MHz core clock and 512MB of dedicated GDDR2 memory clocked at 400MHz, which gives it some useful gaming potential. When tested at a 1,024 by 768 pixel resolution with 3DMark06 it produced a reasonable score of 3,834. Using a real life game test it gave a frame score in F.E.A.R of 38fps; barely playable, but this was with all the game detail settings set to maximum, so by dropping the details down a notch you should get playable frame rates.'

Read: Asus - Lamborghini VX2SE review - IT Reviews

Posted by Admin at 12:52 PM | Permalink

Pocket-Lint have published a review of the Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo Mobile V5505 notebook PC. 'The design of Esprimo Mobile V5505 is rather boxy and plain and matt plastic is used throughout. We found the build quality to be more than acceptable, with plenty of protection behind the screen, as well as solid palm rests. This is a typical business machine with a standard 15.4-inch TFT screen. With no glossy coating, images look good when you’re using this machine out and about. However, images tend to look a little flat. This is also true when running multimedia applications. The use of an integrated GPU means you won’t be able to play games either.'

Read: Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo Mobile V5505 notebook review - Pocket-Lint

Posted by Admin at 10:45 PM | Permalink

Digital Trends have published a review of the MSI Wind U100 sub-notebook. 'Although you’ll never mistake the Wind for a full-size notebook, we found we could comfortably browse almost any Web page without side scrolling, and text was easily readable. You probably wouldn’t want to perform an extensive research project on it, or read A Tale of Two Cities, but for routine Craigslist browsing, e-mail reading, and IM, it’s up to the task. As for display quality, our model seemed to have a pronounced bluish tinge with the default settings, but Intel’s display drivers made this easy to correct. The powerful LED backlight left little to be desired in terms of brightness, but we were slightly disappointed with the viewing angle, which had us constantly twisting and turning to make sure we were looking at it dead on.'

Read: MSI Wind U100 - Digital Trends

Posted by Admin at 10:27 PM | Permalink

A review of the Gateway P-7811FX gaming laptop has been posted over at ZDNet. 'The new P-7811FX manages to fix most of the issues we had with those earlier Gateway budget-gaming laptops. It bumps the processor all the way up to a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo P8400 and the Centrino 2 platform, adds Nvidia's new GeForce 9800M GTS graphics card, and ups the screen resolution to an HD-friendly 1,920x1,200. Amazingly, it does all of this for $1,449. Sure, the P-7811FX costs about $100 more than those previous models, but for the PC gamer on a budget, we don't know of a better deal on a laptop right now.'

Read: Gateway P-7811FX - ZDNet

Posted by Admin at 1:39 PM | Permalink

The Register Hardware have published a review do the Acer Aspire One A110 Netbook. 'Out of the box, the AA1 - as fans call it - is a petite 249 x 170 x 29mm and weighs in at a correspondingly featherweight 995g (2.19lbs). So the portability box is well and truly ticked. It's wider than the Eee: about 25mm more than the Eee 900, for example. That's to accommodate the AA1's larger keyboard, which Acer claims is 85 per cent of the size of a full laptop keyboard - larger and less cramped than the one on the Asus and, consequently, easier for bigger hands to use.

Overall, the AA1's build quality is excellent. The keyboard is well laid out, firm and responsive, the screen hinge is solid, and the fan is never intrusive once it fires up to cool things down. It has a decent colour scheme as well, the black screen surround nicely setting off the white of the lower half of the device, though we're not entirely sure what the red rims on the lid hinge are all about. There's a pleasing lack of stickers too, with only the Intel Atom label besmirching the palmrest area.'

Read: Acer Aspire One A110 - Register Hardware

Posted by Admin at 11:36 PM | Permalink

PC Magazine have published a review of the Fujitsu LifeBook T5010 Notebook PC. 'The T5010 straddles the line between portable and "maybe I should leave this at home," but a lot can be forgiven when you put in a 13.3-inch widescreen and an optical drive. At 4.8 pounds, it weighs the same as its predecessor, the LifeBook T4210, which has a smaller 12-inch screen. Not everyone needs an optical drive, which is why Fujitsu offers the LifeBook T2010—you can lose over a pound by eliminating the extra spindle. The "heaviest tablet"award belongs to the 5.1-pound HP Pavilion tx2000z. Meanwhile, the Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet is better suited for those who spend more than 25 percent of their time on the road during the year. With an extended battery (but no optical drive), it weighs 4.4 pounds.'

Read: Fujitsu LifeBook T5010 - PC Mag

Posted by Admin at 10:05 PM | Permalink

CNET have published their review of the Acer Aspire One (Linpus Linux Lite, White) Netbook. 'Physically, the Aspire One is very similar to the slightly larger, pricier 10-inch MSI Wind, with a reasonably large keyboard that's much easier to use than the tiny almost smartphone-like keys found on the Asus Eee PC 901 or the Sylvania G Netbook. That's because the Aspire is a little wider than the Asus, and it's also a few ounces lighter, thanks in part to only having a small 3-cell battery. We were please to see that it includes dedicated page-up and page-down keys, which are especially useful on devices with smaller screens that require lots of scrolling to get through long Web pages.'

Read: Acer Aspire One (Linpus Linux Lite, White) - CNET

Posted by Admin at 10:03 PM | Permalink

A review of the Willcom-D4 (Sharp WS016SH) ultraportable has been posted over at Pocketables.net. 'The Willcom D4 (Sharp WS016SH) UMPC is currently the smallest-screened Centrino Atom device running Windows Vista in the world. Launched alongside the Kohjinsha SC3 on July 11th in Japan, the 40GB slide-and-tilt handheld computer is an unlikely candidate to see an official release outside of Asia, but that doesn't mean it can't make it to American soil. With the help of an importer like Conics.net, anything is possible,'

Read: Review: Willcom D4 (Sharp WS016SH) - Pocketables

Posted by Admin at 3:53 PM | Permalink

Laptop Magazine have published a review of the Gateway P-7811FX gaming laptop. 'Using the same design and color scheme as the P-6831FX, the P-7811FX is done up in a glossy black finish with a copper and silver trim. At 15.8 x 11.8 x 1.7 inches and 9.2 pounds, it’s a cool-looking chassis without too much bling. A checkerboard pattern and FX logo grace the lid, which opens to reveal a stunning 17-inch, high-resolution (1920 x 1200) widescreen display.

The full-size keyboard is spacious and comfortable and features a full numerical keypad, both of which are surrounded by copper trim. Sandwiched between two average sounding speakers are a flush-mounted, orange-backlit media player control panel and a sliding volume control. The touchpad was responsive and is conveniently positioned to provide easy access to the keyboard without requiring too much wrist movement. Nestled between two mouse buttons is a biometric fingerprint reader.'

Read: Gateway P-7811FX - Laptop Mag

Posted by Admin at 10:13 PM | Permalink

Computeractive have published a review of the Medion Akoya S5610 Notebook. 'Medion's Akoya S5610 is the first to use Intel's new Centrino 2 technology, which means it should in theory have better battery life than previous models, as well as better wireless network performance. The heart of the computer, which is only available in Sainsbury's shops, is an Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 processor. This is a fairly fast model from the middle of the range, and it's accompanied by a decent 3GB of memory and a capacious 320GB hard disk.'

Read: Review: Medion Akoya S5610 notebook computer - Computeractive

Posted by Admin at 10:03 PM | Permalink

Perry Longinotti writing over at Notebook Review has posted a review of the Acer Extensa 5220-2516 laptop. 'Starting with the CPU; the Celeron M 550 is based on Intel's Merom architecture (standard-voltage, 65 nm). Merom is the previous generation of Intel's Core microarchitecture. It supports: MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, Intel 64 (Intel's x86-64 implementation), XD bit (an NX bit implementation). With 2 GHz clock speed and 1024 KB of level 2 cache performance it is inline with the Pentium M 760 CPU of yesteryear except the Celeron has the added benefit of SSE3, SSSE3 and Intel 64. Not too shabby.'

Read: Acer Extensa 5220-2516 User Review - Notebook Review

Posted by Admin at 1:31 PM | Permalink