Acer’s 11.6-inch Aspire 1810TZ to feature dual-core CULV processor Review

We already know about the Acer Aspire Timeline 1810 11.6-inch ultra-thin, however it appears that a more powerful version may be on the horizon. The Aspire 1810TZ has appeared on the official Acer China site and the extra Z denotes the inclusion of a 1.3GHz dual-core SU4100 chip. This compares to the 1.4Ghz single-core SU3500 processor found in the 1810T.


Both chips come with the same 800MHz FSB and are based on the 45nm Penryn core. The SU4100 has a 2MB cache compared to 3MB for the SU3500. As you would expect the TDP of the SU4100 is nearly double (10W) than that of the SU3500 (5.5W).

There’s no word on which regions the 1801TZ is expected to appear in, however it is also listed on the US-based Energy Star site that could mean a US release. The other specifications remain the same. We’ll bring you more information as we have it.

via netbookchoic

For Acer’s 11.6-inch Aspire 1810TZ Service Manual,User Guide,or Compare this Notebook please try search Here

HP dv2610us User Review

At this point, I figure I change hardware as often as I change my underwear. Such was the case when my ASUS F9Dc-A1, which I just reviewed here, turned out to be a dud for me. It's by no means a bad laptop - quite the opposite in fact - but the battery life was wrist-slashingly frustrating, the 12" screen proved too small for me (scaling up fonts in Windows Vista makes the whole experience stunningly Speak-and-Spell), and honestly I'm just interested in having a nicer looking notebook.

Since I had a friend interested in buying the Asus off of me for most of what I paid for it, I found myself in the position to rectify my mistake.


Realizing I go through these things so fast, I figured I should probably curb my spending as much as humanly possible and just go for a "functional" notebook. Living on campus means no great need for a gaming notebook since my obscene desktop is always just a few minutes away. What I really need is something enjoyable to use that can last for more than five seconds on the battery. Can it take notes? Can it run Final Draft? Excellent, hired.

But it needed to be portable, too. When I had my ASUS A8Jm, I'd been profoundly hateful of the 14.1" screen and its (lack of) quality. So the market didn't seem terribly interested in finding me a new, cheapo laptop to do the job and do it right. Two models I expressed interest in were the Gateway T-1616 for $649 at Best Buy, and the Toshiba Satellite U305 for $899 at Best Buy and Fry's. I was particularly excited about the Gateway, but reviews online noted poor battery life - in the neighborhood of 2.5 hours tops. I'm a fan of Gateway after having the awesome 7510GX; I like their designs and they're always well-priced, and the T-1616 was frankly pretty sexy. But...the battery life kills, and without being able to confirm the existence of an extended battery available for purchase online, I had to sadly rule it out.

The Toshiba U305, at 13.3", is beautiful on the inside, but the outside shell is hideous, with that massive TOSHIBA logo on the lid. Elegant lines are woefully lacking on the unit, and the gorgeous keyboard has flex you can really feel when you type on it. Plus, online reports of battery life were all over the map.

With nothing compelling but a need to go to Fry's to get a new wireless adaptor for my desktop, I found "the one." I'm a big big fan of the styling of HP's current notebooks, and the dv2610us on display seemed to fit the bill. Oh, and what's this? All this can be mine for $699? And there's a $50 rebate on top of that? Surely you have none in stock! But wait...you say you have twenty-four, and that because you're the best retail store for computer nerds in the world, you keep massive stocks of most of your stuff?

SIGN ME UP.

The price was right, the specs were right, and with 2GB of replacement notebook RAM in hand for just $50, the dv2610us came home.


SPECIFICATIONS

The HP dv2610us is specced out as follows:

* CPU: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 (1.9GHz dual core, 65nm process, 31W TDP)
* RAM: 2GB (2x1GB stick) Patriot DDR2-667 (upgraded from 2x512MB generic HP DDR2-667)
* Hard Disk: 160GB 5400rpm Hitachi Travelstar
* Optical Drive: DVD-RAM w/ Lightscribe
* Graphics: nVidia GeForce 7150M Integrated Graphics
* Wireless: Broadcom 802.11b/g and HP Bluetooth
* Battery: 6-cell Li-ion
* Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
* Accessories: Built-in webcam and media reader, modem, ethernet, etc.
* Includes: Microfiber cleaning cloth, a pair of earbuds, and a media center remote that fits snugly into the ExpressCard slot.

Ordinarily not terribly exciting, but at $699 ($649 after rebate), come on. That's a lot of power for a low price, although the 1GB of RAM it ships with is grossly underpowered for Windows Vista. But given the RAM upgrade brings it to a still respectable $749 ... let's be realistic, it's the pricetag that's winning this war.

by Dustin Sklavos

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Dell Studio 14z Review

Dell's latest premium 14-inch consumer notebook, the Dell Studio 14z, promises to give students everything they want in a high-performance notebook for the back-to-school season. The Studio 14z is indeed the thinnest and lightest 14-inch notebook Dell has ever produced and promises more than 6 hours of battery life, but you might have to make a few sacrifices. Keep reading to discover what we found after spending a few weeks with the Studio 14z.


Dell Studio 14z Specifications:

* Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB L2 cache)
* OS: Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64 bit)
* Memory: 3GB Shared DDR3 at 1066MHz
* Storage: 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
* Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G
* Screen: 14.0” High Definition (1600 x 900) LED Display with TrueLife
* Software: 15-month McAfee SecurityCenter subscription, Microsoft Works
* Other: Ruby Red lid, LED Backlit keyboard
* Wireless: Dell 1515 Wireless N
* Battery: 8-cell 74Whr Li Ion Battery
* Dimensions: 0.79"-1.2" x 13.2" x 9.0" (H x W x D)
* Weight: 4 lbs, 9 oz
* Retail Price as configured: $979


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Samsung R610 review

The Samsung R610 is a new notebook by Samsung which blurs the gap between portable notebooks and multimedia notebooks offering nice performance. It is priced quite right at around $1000 and offers th right mix of portability, multimedia capabilities and decent performance. It is one of the more stylish notebooks with a cool glossy, red and black color scheme and has nice build quality.

f you wanted a portable notebook, but didn’t want to buy a netbook which skimps on screen real estate, this is probably a good deal for you. It competes against the Acer Aspire 6930 and the HP Pavilion HDX 16 which we reviewed sometime back. In this review, we check out the Samsung R610 and check out its features, design, performance and see whether it cuts out a good deal.
Samsung R610 Specs:

* Dimensions: 14.9 x 10.4 x 1.5 inches
* Weight: 6 lbs
* Processor: 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5800
* RAM: 3 GB DDR2 RAM
* Display: 16 inch LCD Display, 1366 x 768 pixels
* Graphics: Nvidia 9200M GS 512 MB VRAM
* Hard Drive: 250 GB SATA HDD, 5400 RPM
* Optical Drive: 8X DVD +/- RW DL
* Wireless: Wi-Fi - 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v 2.0
* Operating System: MS Windows Vista Home Premium
* Ports: 4 USB 2.0, Ethernet, HDMI, VGA out, Headphone, Microphone, Modem, 3 in 1 card reader, Expresscard, Kensington Lock slot

Design and Build Quality:

The Samsung R610 sports a nice stylish glossy design composed mostly of black and some red. The design is clean and has a nice attractive finish. The glossy black lid, the black interiors with a gradient red finish towards the front edge, and the status indicators LEDs to the left all blend in to give the notebook a very nice look. At dimensions of 14.9 x 10.4 x 1.5 inches, it is easily one of the thinnest 16 inch laptops in this range. It weighs just about 6 lbs, which again is an achievement for a 16 inch notebook.

The build quality is superb and the chassis is strong and solid. The notebook is made mainly of metal and plastic. From the looks of it, it should easily last about 3-4 years and pssibly more with normal usage.
Display and Speakers:

The Samsung R610 sports a 16 inch LCD Display with a native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. The resolution is good, but much less compared to the expected full HD resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels you would normally expect from a 16 inch screen. The display quality is nice and the brightness is quite good, while the contrast levels are decent. The viewing angles are nice, both vertical and horizontal and the the glossy screen has decent legibility even under direct light. The video playback quality is quite good but the low resolution means you can’t see movies in HD. Other than the low resolution, there isn’t much to complain about from the display. Just above the display, you find a 1.3 MP webcam which has decent image and video capture quality. It should do for casual video conferencing.

The speakers of the Samsung R610 are loud enough but lack quality, we would definitely recommend the use of a nice pair of headphones if you take your music seriously.


Keyboard and Touchpad:

The Samsung R610 sports a full keyboard with a numeric keypad, just like other notebooks its size. The keys feel nice and have adequate spacig and travel. They also offer decent feedback with a distinct click. The keyboard is superb and suited for you if you are a touch typist.

The touchpad lies just below the keyboard and offers a good grip with adequate response. It also has optimum sensitivity making it easy to navigate around your desktop. The two mouse buttons below the touchpad can be easily pressed, all in all, no major complaints from the keyboard and touchpad. It should be noted that the Samsung R610 doesn’t sport touch sensitive media controls despite being positioned as a multimedia laptop.
Performance:

The Samsung R610 sports a not so cool configuration - 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5800, 3 GB DDR2 RAM with the graphics department being handled by Nvidia 9200 M GS 512 MB. The specs look a bit stale compared to most new laptops, but maybe this is how they were able to keep the prices down. It can run Windows Vista easily and does well in multitasking multiple apps. It sports a 5400 RPM 250 GB HDD which has decent data transfer speeds. You should be able to do some casual, light gaming on this machine, but don’t expect the relatively underpowered 9200 M GS to allow you to frag bots in Crysis at full glory. Overall, the R610 offers average performance, a tad less than its competitors - the Acer Aspire 6930G and the HP Pavilion HDX 16.
Battery Life and other features:

The Samsung R610 comes bundled with a 6 cell battery which lasts just about 2 hrs and 30 mins on a full charge with moderate usage. To increase the battery life, clock down your system volume, lower the display brightness and turn off Wi-Fi when not in use. You can easily manage about 3 hrs then. These figures are decent compared to the category average which is about 2 hrs and 20 mins. If you want more endurance, you can get the optional 9 cell battery which should give you about 6 hrs of juice.

The Samsung R610 has nice Wi-Fi recpetion and data transfer speeds. It also has a wide range of expansion ports and slots - 4 USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, HDMI, VGA out, Headphone and Microphone jacks, Modem, 3 in 1 card reader, Expresscard and a Kensington Lock slot.
Pros:

* Nice Design
* Good Keyboard

Cons:

* Low Battery Life
* Bad Sound Quality
* Relatively Outdated COnfiguration

Final Words:

The Samsung R610 is a nice notebook with a stylish design, light and portable form factor and decent performance. There are some better options to the R610 like the Acer Aspire 6930 and HP Pavilion HDX 16. If you are looking for a portable notebook instead of some cramped netbook then this is a good option. But it doesn’t exactly excel at multimedia playback, which it should considering that it is positioned in that segment. It also has an older hardware configuration compared to most new notebooks. There aren’t many things going for it except the design and portability.

via digitgeek

Gateway MD7826u Review

At a penny shy of $1000.00, the MD7826u is the most expensive of Gateway's MD series. As Gateway's website puts it, “Stylish and powerful, these beautiful MD Series laptops will get you noticed while you breeze through even the most power-hungry tasks.” In this review, we'll see if the notebook can live up to Gateway's description.


The notebook I reviewed was a special review unit, which means it may have some slight differences from the retail version. For instance, instead of being listed as the MD7826u, Vista's system properties, as well as the label on the bottom of the unit, list it as the AJ2. Also, according to Futuremark, the CPU in my review unit was an engineering sample of the P8400, which may have slightly different tolerances than the retail version. It also was equipped with Bluetooth, which isn't listed on Gateway's description of the notebook's specs. I'm not sure if that means the retail unit doesn't include Bluetooth or if it is included but just not mentioned. Despite these possible variations due to the computer being a review unit, it seems to have specs otherwise identical with those listed on Gateway's site. And speaking of those specifications, here they are:

Specifications

* Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor (2.26 Ghz, 1066 Mhz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache)
* Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) operating system
* 4GB 667 Mhz DDR2 dual-channel memory
* 320GB 5400RPM hard drive
* Intel Wifi Link 5100 802.11a/b/g/draft-n wireless card
* 6-cell 48.84 Whr battery
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 graphics card (512MB dedicated video memory)
* 15.6” WXGA screen (1366x768, 16:9 aspect)
* 4 USB ports, VGA, HDMI, card reader
* Gigabit ethernet and modem
* 8x Dual Layer DVDRW/DVD-RAM with LabelFlash
* 1.3 Megapixel webcam

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Gigabyte T1028X netbook Review

Gigabyte has unveiled a new netbook that uses a convertible tablet form factor called the T1028X reports SlashGear. The netbook uses the Intel Atom N280 CPU at 1.66GHz and has a display with 1366 x 768 resolution. The screen of the device is 10.1-inches.

Other features include a 6-cell 54wh battery and an optional HSPA mobile broadband modem for on the go connectivity. The netbook has an ExpressCard 34mm slot, something missing on many netbooks available


Memory for the machine is 1GB of DDR2 RAM and storage is to a 160GB HDD. The little machine also includes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, as you would expect. The screen is also touch capable for use as a tablet. The official pricing for the US is unknown at this time, but based on the European price it would be around $700.

via i4u

Viliv S7 Mobile Internet Device Review

Viliv is launching the S7 Productivity “Hand-Top”, an Atom-based mobile internet device with a QWERTY keyboard. Three models are being offered, the S7 I-LOG 3X gets 32GB SSD while the S7-DLOG 3X packs addition DMB digital TV Tuner.



Viliv S7 MID Specs:



* Intel Atom Z520 1.33GHz CPU
* 1GB RAM
* 60GB Hard Drive (S7 I-LOG HX) or 32GB SSD (S7 I-LOG 3X and S7-DLOG 3X)
* 7-inch Touchscreen Display
* DMB Digital TV Tuner (S7-DLOG 3X)
* Optional WIMAX
* Windows XP

Pricing:

* S7 I-LOG HX: 729,000 Won
* S7 I-LOG 3X: 799,000 Won
* S7-DLOG 3X: 849,000 Won

via laptopnext