laptop battery news

Getac considers the 9213 a “business-rugged” computer capable of absorbing a degree of rough handling and demanding environmental conditions. The computer, of course, is quite light, but it’s also tough and sturdy. There aren’t any rubber bumpers that would add extra protection but also bulk. As is, the solid construction of the machine, the shock protection of the hard disk, and the shock-mounting of other sensitive components combine to let the machine survive drops from 2-1/2 feet when off and a foot and a half while operating.
As for environmental specs, the 9213 has an operating temperature range of 32 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit.

So using it in freezing temperatures or desert climates is out. The computer can handle non-condensing humidity from 10 to 90%, and also the occasional liquid spill onto its keyboard or touchpad. The 9213 does not have an IP rating. As stated above, Getac also rates the 9213 as crushproof with a maximum of 265 pounds onto its surface and 33 pounds onto its thin LCD housing.

HP has done a bit to get all the life it can out of this webcam, with a number of ingenious enhancements. They realized that the two most important aspects of a webcam are decent video capture in low light, and reasonably fast frame rates to make video conferencing effective. They strived to meet those goals by using a physically larger image sensor, albeit with a lower resolution image. The drawback? Not the best picture sharpness. However, it produces video at an excellent rate and handles itself well in less than optimal lighting. I’m not an avid user of webcams, although this does cover my basic needs.

There are also two blue-labeled function keys flanking the space bar. They provide access to the 12 function keys as well as a few extra functions on certain keys. Those are kept to a minimum, and as a result, all keys are clearly labeled with large white letters and symbols, which makes the very readable (as opposed to some tiny smartphone keys that have two or three symbols on them).

The rated capacity and voltage of the 6-cell lithium ion battery is 4700 mAh and 10.8V, respectively. Battery performance is sufficient, but unimpressive. Users will see around 4 hours on average, which is reasonable given the extra power that the digitizer draws in order to provide the tablet capabilities. Since the  battery is a small block which pops into the underside of the notebook, there is no room for an extended size battery.

Intel has conducted plenty of research into silicon photonics, in which lasers are built into processors themselves, but Light Peak uses more conventional technology for the optical modules that convert ones and zeros into light at and vice versa. Ziller said Intel is using optical modules from mainstream manufacturers such as Avago Technologies, SAE Magnetics, and Foxconn.

Linking two wires is well understood, but how exactly does that work with two fiber optic lines? In Rattner’s demonstration featured a hot-plugged Light Peak cable, so evidently Intel has an idea how to make it work economically.

http://www.shopokey.com

I had a lot of fun with this, and yes, the HDX comes with an integrated HDTV tuner and antennae. Using HP’s Quickplay program, you can scan your area for available HDTV stations via your analog tuner and antennae. If you have an actual HDTV digital connection, you can set it up to run through the notebook as well. After a 5 minute scan process, I was able to pick up at least 15 HDTV stations in my area. A pretty excellent addition.

Unlike netbooks, the Getac 9213 neither compromises performance nor functionality. Its efficient yet powerful 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 processor provides speed and responsiveness very close to that of Getac’s larger rugged and semi-rugged computers. You also get adequate onboard ports and connectivity as well as quick SATA disks up to 250GB and a flexible media bay with a DVD Super Multi drive. There is plenty of onboard security, including a fingerprint scanner. An integrated 1.3 megapixel camera allows video conferencing.

The MR-1’s battery snaps onto the bottom of the device. It is actually an integral part of the design, sitting in a magnesium shell, and adds a bit of thickness to the overall housing. Our original review unit came with a 29 watt-hour capacity battery whose flatness suggested Lithium-Polymer technology but was, in fact, Lithium-Ion. The battery snaps onto four sturdy metal hooks. To remove it, you depress two levers, then glide the battery to one side. The picture on the right shows the battery undone and sitting on top of the computer’s system unit.

The software setup is as easy to use as any other we’ve come across. Simply select which finger you want to register, scan the appropriate finger three times successfully, and you’re good to go. As with most fully featured fingerprint software, Toshiba’s solution allows you to password protect the hard drive with the fingerprint scanner as well as associate website logins with your fingerprint.

Plenty of Intel ideas have flopped, but the company does have more experience than most introducing complicated technology. And it’s not putting on the hard sell for Light Peak.

“We’re talking hundreds of millions of ports over next the few years, which really will help drive the costs down and make it an attractive technology,” Rattner said. “Fundamentally, we believe the time has come for the optical technologies to go high volume.”

On that note, I can type quickly, accurately, and comfortably with this keyboard. The keys are soft and feel light when depressing them (not as stiff as the ThinkPad T60, but just as soft as the MacBook Pro) with a minimal spring, allowing them to be quite responsive and exhibiting little noise. The keys depress at a comfortable 2.5 mm of depth which feels good to type with and actually feel very similar to the Acer Ferrari 4005WLMi. Thanks to the computer’s wide frame, the keyboard is centered nicely with 1.2-inches of room on each side, allowing sufficient room around the palm rest area to ensure that your wrists enjoy a comfortable typing experience. This is certainly a solid keyboard that compares favorably to the likes of the Lenovo ThinkPads and even the Apple MacBook Pro!

http://www.shopokey.com

To match the laptop’s overall wide-aspect design, the touchpad is also wide, offering sufficient amount of surface area (measuring 3-inches wide and 1.5-inches in length) for comfortable gliding of one’s finger. Like the palm rest area,  the black flush surface is clean and smooth; accurately sensitive to touch and responds well to movement. As with most touch pads, it also allows for tapping to execute an action if you prefer not to use the click buttons.

That’s what this laptop is really all about. I use the term laptop merely in the nostalgic sense. There’s nothing about this notebook that is conducive to putting it on your lap. It weighs almost 16 pounds, and is wide enough to eclipse even the most generous of thighs. That’s because of what’s under the hood, which is the most impressive aspect of this Intel Santa Rosa Core 2 Duo platform.

The frugal processor, LED backlight, properly sized battery, and efficient design of the 9213 make for excellent battery life.

In terms of wireless communications, there’s Bluetooth and an integrated Intel WiFi Link 5300 module supports 802.11a/b/g/draft-n.

GD-Itronix is now shipping the MR-1 with an extended 8,000 mAh pack. That’s twice the capacity of the original battery, almost 60 watt-hours. It is thicker, about 0.6 inches compared to the original slice that was 0.3 inches, but that is a more than acceptable trade-off for much longer life. The original, smaller battery provided about three hours, the extended one more than six hours. Our battery draw-down benchmarks also suggested over six hours.

The Thinkpad X60s was set to run at full performance by setting the power scheme set to ‘Home/Office Desk’ with the AC plugged in, meaning that the CPU will not underclock while running the tests. For the battery performance test, the power scheme was set to ‘Portable/Laptop’. This activates Intel’s Enhanced Speedstep technology, which lowers CPU speed when not needed, thus increasing battery life. Screen brightness and audio were both set to 50% and Wi-Fi were turned on. Each test was repeated 3 times to ensure accuracy. Before each test was run, the laptop was rebooted and its hard drive defragmented.

The MacBook has a 13.3-inch TFT glossy widescreen display with resolutions up to 1280×800. Some users may be concerned by the glossy display, but it really is not as intrusive in real life as it appears photographed online (camera flash increase the shine). As for the brightness , this display gets extremely bright. It literally gave me a headache after an hour of use, but my solution was simple: I turned the brightness down. By turning the brightness down to about 2/3rds I easily could view the screen all day without strain, and the glossiness became less apparent as well. Overall, the display is a significant improvement over the iBook and past PowerBook displays, and can also easily be viewed outside when on full brightness.

http://www.shopokey.com/

The MacBook also features an ‘Extended desktop’ that allows users to connect an external LCD display at up to 1920×1200 resolution. Essentially, this allows you to plug in a larger display and use it concurrently with the MacBook’s built-in LCD. This is not mirroring, but an actual extension of the desktop granting users more workspace on the external display. Using the MacBook’s Mini-DVI port and DVI, VGA, or S-video adaptors the MacBook can connect to just about any modern display, projector, or television.

To the right and bottom edge of the surface area, the touchpad has a function to scroll vertically or horizontally. This allows you to scroll in applications like Internet Explorer when sliding your finger in the appropriate direction. For added convenience,  there is a useful center click button that serves as a four-way scroll button to scroll up or down and move left or right within a page. The left and right click buttons are brushed in silver metallic for added elegance.

The Video Card is a ball-busting ATI Radeon HD 2600XT Graphics with 256MB DDR3 dedicated graphics memory. Finally! A laptop with dedicated graphics. Shared memory is something I’ve always abhorred in laptop systems, but I understand the necessity. When you’re looking for a portable workstation, energy conservation rates above Battlefield 2142 framerates, and rightly so. The HDX can’t be concerned with kitschy buzzwords like “conservation” and “energy management”. This notebook has the RAM to spare though, with 4096MB of DDR2 SDRAM powering it (twice as much as my desktop). All you’d need to round this out is a beefy processor, or maybe two. Intel provided their Core 2 Extreme X7800 processor rated at 2.6 GHz to churn ones and zeroes at an impressive rate.

The 9213 comes with a bright 13.3-inch display that uses the “wide” 1280 x 800 pixel format with a 16:10 aspect ratio. Thanks to very effective optical coatings and filters, the screen offers excellent sunlight viewability with only modest reflections.

The General Dynamics-Itronix thermal engineers are absolute wizards. I have seen them in action at the Itronix plant in Spokane. Modern technology generates heat, and that heat must be managed,distributed and dissipated. Even though the sturdy magnesium chassis of the GoBook MR-1 is a good heat sink in itself, the rather powerful Intel processor and other components still need sophisticated thermal management.

In this scenario, the content creator creates a product related website targeting a broadband and narrowband audience. The user first renders a 3D model to a bitmap, while preparing web pages using a web site publishing tool. The user opens a video editing package, creates a movie from several raw input movie cuts and sound cuts and starts exporting it. While waiting on this operation, the user imports the rendered image into an image-processing package; modifies it and saves the results. Back in the 3D modeling software, the user modifies a 3D model and exports it to a vector-graphics format.

Once the movie is assembled, the user edits it and creates special effects using one of the modified images as input. The user extracts content from an archive. Meanwhile, he uses an animation creation tool to open the exported 3D vector graphics file. He modifies it by including other pictures and optimizes it for faster animation. The final movie with the special effects is then compressed in a format that can be broadcast over broadband Internet. The web site is given the final touches and the system is scanned for viruses.

http://www.shopokey.com

The touchpad and mouse buttons have sort of a black mirror finish that looks very elegant, but can result in unwanted reflections.

The overall design theme of the Getac 9213 is matte-black, gloss-black and a bit of powdercoated silver. It’s a very elegant combination and a very elegant  understated design. It also feels remarkably solid for such a light machine. The only drawback is the elegant matte-black brushed top of the computer is smudge and fingerprint prone.

That’s unfortunate as the Dell XT2 hits a nice compromise between performance from its efficient yet powerful 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 processor, weight (well under four pounds), decent battery life, and a nice complement of ports. Our review machine came with a silent and very quick 128GB SSD. However, no internal optical drive; that comes in a separate external package, and also no integrated camera. There is plenty of onboard security, including a fingerprint scanner.

As far as I can tell, this oddball number comes as a result of a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, effectively lopping off a horizontal stripe from an otherwise 12.1-inch screen. There seems to be a real push toward 16:9 for both laptops and LCD monitors, so why not netbooks too? It’ll be good for movies, assuming it can handle the video processing.

The upcoming Aspire  laptops are expected to debut in time for the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7, which will also be the operating system that will be enabled on the two designs. Price-wise, expect the two to become available for £499.99, featuring a dedicated graphics processing unit, while a £449.99 price tag will be available for a configuration with an integrated GPU.

Just yesterday, reports of ASUS’ upcoming Core i7-based portable systems hit the web, with details on two new models, the M60J and the gaming-ready G60J. It now appears that the Taiwanese company has finally decided to officially announce the two products, providing customers with a choice for Intel’s next-generation Calpella platform, specifically designed to enable the Nehalem microarchitecture on the next generation of portable computer systems. Both systems have been designed for ultimate performance, combining Intel’s latest mobile processors with NVIDIA’s GeForce GPUs for notebook PCs.

Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a secure cryptoprocessor added to enterprise class laptops by many manufacturers. Without TPM support, Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group, says, “Successful netbook deployments in the enterprise are unlikely.”

While insiders say off the record that TPM and biometric support are ordered on laptops far more often than implemented, some customers demand them. Price will keep TPM and biometrics off netbooks for the foreseeable future.

Even Microsoft has figured this out, albeit slowly. Microsoft’s Windows 7, based on preliminary reviews, is leaner and faster than Vista. (Yes, there’s Windows Mobile 6.5 but I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying that this isn’t the future of smartphone operating systems.) Intel has got religion too. Its Atom and ultra- low-voltage (ULV) processors both offer significant power savings over standard Intel chip designs.

http://www.shopokey.com

In terms of performance, notebook computers generally require a compromise between performance and battery life. Faster processors need more power, which means a larger Battery , which means higher weight. If prolonged use away from a power outlet is anticipated, a manufacturer will use a frugal processor that still delivers good performance. That is what Getac did by selecting the Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400, an ultra-low power dual core processor using state-of-the-art 45 nanometer lithography and running at 1.4GHz. Thermal design power (defined as the maximum amount of power a computer’s cooling system needs to dissipate and used by Intel as a measure of power efficiency) is just 10 watts, only a fraction of what more desktop-oriented mobile processors use.

The bright 12.1-inch display offers 1280 x 800 pixel wide-format resolution. It has very effective anti-glare coating and can be used outdoors. N-trig DuoSense technology offers both touch and pen. It works well, but the much advertized multi-touch functionality is not up to par yet. Do not expect iPhone elegance here.

In terms of wireless communications, there’s Bluetooth and your choice of integrated Intel or Dell modules support 802.11a/b/g/draft-n. You can also add WWAN on AT&T, Sprint or Verizon.

Revealed in London yesterday, the Acer Aspire One 751 gets its juice from an Intel Atom Processor, Intel Mobile US15W Express chipset, and a 6-cell 5200mAh battery good for eight hours of enjoyment. Rounding out the specs are a 160GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G options, Dolby Pro Logic sound, multi-card reader, and WXGA backlit LED display.

As far as technical specifications go, the two laptops have both been designed on the same chipset, Intel’s new PM55, delivering support for the chip maker’s new Core i7 mobile processors, including the 1.6GHz Core i7 720QM and the 1.73GHz Core i7 820QM. Both processors are available as configuration options for the two ASUS laptops, but also for the G51J model, providing customers with a wider range of options in terms of design.

Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a secure cryptoprocessor added to enterprise class laptops by many manufacturers. Without TPM support, Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group, says, “Successful netbook deployments in the enterprise are unlikely.”

While insiders say off the record that TPM and biometric support are ordered on laptops  far more often than implemented, some customers demand them. Price will keep TPM and biometrics off netbooks for the foreseeable future.

Are those days over? No, but it’s safe to say that at an even more profound level, personal computing is moving to smaller gadgets which, by necessity, use efficient operating environments running on efficient silicon. The iPhone comes to mind. Tiny Netbooks are another good example. In short, despite the obvious compromises that small size imposes, many consumers are realizing that they can do what they need to do with less.

http://www.shopokey.com

We benchmarked the Getac 9213’s performance with Passmark Software’s PerformanceTest 6.1 that runs about 30 tests covering CPU, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, memory, and disk and then computes scores for each category and an overall PassMark score. For comparison we added the results of Getac’s own fully rugged B300 notebook as well as those of the semi-rugged Getac P470. The benchmark results show how it all fits together:

As you can see, Despite its frugal nature, the Getac 9213’s SU9400 processor provides very good performance. Anyone considering a Getac machine but wondering if performance might be much less than that of Getac’s rugged notebook  lineup will find that the new machine is remarkable quick, with benchmark performance within 5% of the B300 and 20% of the P470 despite its power-efficient processor and lower clock speed.

Overall, the Dell XT2 is a elegantly designed but quite expensive machine that seeks to offer more. It succeeds in some respects (overall notebook functionality, dual digitizer, flexibility), but less so in others (no integrated optical drive or camera, very limited multi-touch implementation). This is a machine for those who want something different and special, even at a higher price.

As far as technical specifications go, the two laptops have both been designed on the same chipset, Intel’s new PM55, delivering support for the chip maker’s new Core i7 mobile processors, including the 1.6GHz Core i7 720QM and the 1.73GHz Core i7 820QM. Both processors are available as configuration options for the two ASUS laptops, but also for the G51J model, providing customers with a wider range of options in terms of design.

Enhanced security may come from elsewhere, however. One vendor says it is working on facial recognition software that uses the Web cam built into the lid of their netbooks for security authentication. They’re not yet willing to go on record about their plans.

Even Microsoft has figured this out, albeit slowly. Microsoft’s Windows 7, based on preliminary reviews, is leaner and faster than Vista. (Yes, there’s Windows Mobile 6.5 but I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying that this isn’t the future of smartphone operating systems.) Intel has got religion too. Its Atom and ultra- low-voltage (ULV) processors both offer significant power savings over standard Intel chip designs.

3 USB 2.0 ports, Firewire, and a 5-in-1 card reader make this a pretty fully featured tablet. Unfortunately we have two problems with the layout: the rear ports and lack of ExpressCard support. Used as a traditional notebook, ports on the rear of the notebook are a hassle. While being used as a tablet, users will probably not care where the ports are as they are all equally accessible.

Disappointingly, Toshiba elected to use the more common PC Card slot instead of the more recent ExpressCard format. While this is good news for mobile users who may rely on a device only available in PC Card format, we prefer notebooks that support the latest standards to increase “future proofing.” With more and more devices being announced in ExpressCard format, in general we recommend users to elect for the newer technology.

http://www.shopokey.com

Now how about battery life? In the specifications on its website, Getac claims up to 12 hours of battery life for a system that is equipped with the optional secondary battery. The 9213’s standard battery is a very compact 11.1 Volt/5,200mAH (57.7 watt-hour) Li-Ion pack that fits flush into the backside of the computer. That’s a good supply of battery power for such a compact and light notebook and we eagerly awaited the results of our BatteryMon power drawdown test.

At over 1.5″ thick, Toshiba certainly had room to fit in a robust cooling system. At idle while clocked at 1GHz, the relatively power thrifty Core Solo T1300 is in the mid-30 degree Celcius range. Bump the CPU up to Maximum Performance and the temperature will idle at 40 C. Pegging the CPU won’t flog temperatures too much, staying in a relatively comfortable 50 C range.

It’s one thing to have extremely high resolution, it’s quite another to convert that into a display where things don’t look microscopic. This is where perfect sharpness, perfect stability and that difficult-to-describe “rock solid feel” come into play. You know it when you see it, and the MR-1 display definitely has it. Yes, the text and icons are all tiny as Windows XP isn’t capable of elegantly adapting to extreme screen sizes. But the display is so crisp and sharp, you have to see it to believe it. Colors are as vibrant as it gets. Anything displayed on the screen looks as if it were printed on high quality paper.

There are different kinds of consumers in the notebook market. Some people prefer laptops that are smaller, thinner, and more portable. Other people can’t live without the larger display and they’re willing to lug around something bigger as a result. Acer wants to accommodate both sets of desires.

While the two gaming rigs, the G60J and G51J, are available with 16-inch and 15.6-inch LED-backlit displays, respectively, the M60J boasts a multimedia-ready 16-inch screen, offering support for a maximum resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. The ROG laptops are available with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 260M graphics chip, featuring 1GB of DDR3 VRAM, while the M60J comes with the slightly lower-performance GTX 240M, also featuring 1GB of DDR3 VRAM. The laptops can be configured with up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, dual 500GB hard disk drives, a Super-Multi DVD/Blu-ray combo optical drive, built-in 2MP webcam and all the connectivity options you’ll require.

The vast majority of netbooks today ship running Windows XP Home, an operating system that does not play well with enterprise directory services. Windows 7 Starter Edition won’t support enterprise domain integration, either. HP and Dell both offer OS customization and configuration services, and companies can image the hard drive of netbooks using their own Microsoft licenses. But that extra time and expense eliminates some of the cost savings as a driver for netbook adoption.

Apple  wants to go a lot further than “Wintel” has gone, however, just as Ford wants to out-mpg GM in the fuel-efficiency race. The argument can be made that Cupertino is offering a sleeker operating system in preparation for devices to come. Maybe a tablet. Maybe something that has yet to be reported. What is clear is that Apple is focusing a lot of its in-house development on small, efficient technology. Both silicon and software.

http://www.shopokey.com

We didn’t notice any abnormal hot spots around the notebook, on the palm rest or otherwise. This is another testament to the cooling system of the M400, especially in a 12″ chassis. Fan noise isn’t noticeable or even present except under the highest load situations.

Unfortunately the M400 is a mixed bag with regards to upgrades. The hard drive is easily accesible via a removeable panel on the bottom, but system RAM is under the keyboard. Should one get ambitious, the CPU looks to be easily upgradeable as you can see it through grill on the bottom side.

As it turns out, idle drawdown is a very low 7.2 watts, and that is with all the default settings. With the brightness at its lowest (but still completely visible) setting and wireless off, we saw as little as 6.1 watts (see screen capture to the right). That is remarkable. Divide 57.7 watt-hours by 6.1 watts and you get almost 9.5 hours right there. Real world battery life, of course, depends on usage and operating conditions. Running resource-intensive applications such as video will use more power, but depending on power settings, the system will also go into stand-by and thus extend battery life.

What’s almost equally amazing is how the display quality holds up under different lighting conditions. Most transmissive LCDs look great in dimly lit rooms and immediately start washing out in brighter light. Not the MR-1’s. It remains jewel-bright in very well lit rooms, and even if you take it outside into the shade. In bright sunlight it still remains readable thanks to General Dynamics-Itronix’s matchless DynaVue display technology (see related article on DynaVue technology) that combines anti-reflective coating with a circular polarizer. Of course, no LCD display can compete with direct sunlight in terms of brightness.

Instead, the display needs to reduce as much as possible the light reflected back in order to preserve as much contrast as possible. That’s what DynaVue does, and the result is that you can still see the display in direct sunlight. It is no longer as bright and brilliant, of course, Battery ,but you can still see it. The two military pictures above exaggerate direct sunlight viewability a bit, in my opinion, but not by much. What happens in direct sunlight is that the picture is still there and has decent contrast, but it now looks like that of a reflective LCD as opposed to having the vibrancy of a transmissive display indoors.

Acer has officially added two new laptops to its Aspire line and the two could not be more different. The Aspire 3935 is small and nimble, whereas the Aspire 8935G is big and burly. The choice, of course, is yours.

Airline passengers used to play Solitaire on their laptops but today they play DVDs. No netbook offers an internal optical drive, although all have USB ports that support external drives.

For security reasons, some companies disable CD and DVD drives to stop users from loading unauthorized software, so this may be a wash. Enterprises use desktop automation software,not optical disks, to install applications. Traveling employees can go back to Solitaire.

ASUS, one of the world’s leading vendors of computer hardware and portable computer systems is expected to announce the debut of yet another Calpella-based system, in addition to the M60J we mentioned in one of our previous articles. The new rig will be designed to take advantage of the performance features of Intel’s Core i7 720QM processor and provide an alternative for gaming enthusiasts, as it’s meant to be part of the company’s ROG (Republic of Gamers) family of laptops.

http://www.shopokey.com

As is, the Getac 9213 seems to be an exceptionally power-efficient system. In fact, of the dozen or so of Intel Atom-based systems we’ve benchmarked at RuggedPCReview com, only one was able to draw less power at idle than the much more powerful Getac 9213. Six to eight hours of continuing operation ought to be possible on the main battery, and so the 12 hours claimed by Getac with the secondary battery installed seems achievable as well.

The Toshiba Portege M400-S933 uses Intel’s Core Solo processor, the single core T1300. This CPU sports a 2MB L2 cache, runs on a 667 MHz Font Side Bus, and is built on a 65nm manufacturing process. The maximum power dissipation (Thermal Design Power, TDP) of the Core Solo models is at 27W, compared to Core Duo’s 31W, but average power of this CPU should only be slightly less than Core Duo. To save space and power, Intel’s 945GM chipset is used with the GMA950 integrated graphics solution. It is worth noting that GMA950 supports the Windows Vista Aero interface. All of the 945 chipsets support dual channel DDR2 667 RAM, although our M400-S933 came equipped with one 512MB module.

The remarkable thing here is that the GoBook MR-1’s stunning screen performance is achieved with a transmissive rather than a transflective or reflective display. The latter two are compromises that improve direct sunlight readability but the price is a significantly dimmer, murkier picture indoors.

Starting with the Acer Aspire 3935 (top), you get a 13.3-inch 16:9 display, 3G of RAM, 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor, DVD burner, 802.11n Wi-Fi, 250GB HDD, touch-sensitive hot keys, webcam, biometric fingerprint scanner, and a digital card reader. Tipping the scales at 4.1 pounds, the Aspire 3935 retails for $900 and is available now.

Dubbed G60J-JX042V, the new ASUS portable gaming machine is expected to measure 395 x 277 x 44 mm, while weighing 3.5 kg, with a 6-cell battery pack. The laptop has been featured with a large 16-inch LED backlit display, enabling users to deal with a high-quality visual experience and a resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. Designed for gaming enthusiasts, the laptop has also been featured with an illuminated keyboard.

Portability comes at a price, and that price is screen and keyboard size. Those with large fingers or weak eyesight will balk at the netbook’s smaller keyboards and screens. If a user can’t type on the keyboards that range from 88% to 94% of regular keyboard size (some 10-inch netbook keyboards feel much smaller than that), it won’t matter how well the netbook fits on the airplane tray table.

The same thing can be roughly said about Ford. Its highest profile cars these days are the Fusion, Focus, and Escape–all relatively small, fuel-efficient cars (two are sold optionally as hybrids). All the polar opposite of the most popular cars in its gas-guzzler heyday: the Explorer, Expedition, and Excursion.

The hard drive included in our machine is a 2.5″ 80GB Toshiba MK8032GSX, spinning at 5400RPM with 8MB cache. You can see how the IDE version of this drive fared against others in our 160GB Seagate 5400.3 drive review. In a perfectly silent room, you might hear a little clicking as the hard drive spins away, but its unlikely. Performance is excellent on this hard drive and the 80GB of storage space is extremely useful.

http://www.shopokey.com/