Nvidia prepping Tegra 2 announcement for CES 2010

Nvidia’s Tegra chipset is similar to ION but differs in that it marries an ARM-based processor with an Nvidia GeForce GPU whereas ION pairs an Intel Atom CPU instead. The benefits of the Tegra SoC (system-on-chip) includes the ability to handle 1080p video, HD Flash, GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G and a huge battery life. All of this while being very energy efficient.

However, Tegra hasn’t taken off as well as Nvidia would have hoped. It is used in the Zune HD but not too many other high profile products. In response to this, Nvidia is set to announce the second-generation Tegra chipset at CES in January. Tegra 2 is believed to be twice as powerful as the original and run on a 40nm dual-core ARM processor. A number of new devices sporting the Tegra 2 chipset are expected to appear at CES 2010. Read more

Packard Bell dot VR46 netbook gets Valentino Rossi theme

Packard Bell is set to launch a new netbook that will celebrate the living legend that is Valentino Rossi, one of the most decorated motorcycle racers in history. There aren’t too many details on the Packard Bell dot VR46, but we do have some pictures to share.

The dot VR46 was created by Aldo Druidi to capture the spirit of nine-time World Champion Rossi. The design showcases his number 46 and the Sun and Moon graphic that adorns Rossi’s helmet. We still await the hardware spec, price and availability but we’ll keep you posted. Until then, feast your eyes on some more pictures of this beautiful device after the break. Read more

Seagate announces world’s thinnest 2.5-inch HDD for netbooks

Seagate has announced a new hard-disk drive that it claims is the world’s thinnest at 7mm. The Seagate Momentus Thin drive will come in two capacity sizes (160GB & 250GB) and will mainly be targeted towards netbooks and ultra-thin notebooks.

The Seagate Momentus will come with 8MB of cache, a SATA 3.0Gb/sec interface and a 5400RPM spin speed. The company claims that over 90 percent of netbooks use 2.5-inch HDDs that are 9.5mm in thickness. There are no details on price right now, although the Seagate Momentus Thin is expected to be available from January 2010.

Point of View intros 11.6” Mobii ULV Slimline ultra-thin

Point of View has launched its first entry into the 11.6-inch CULV ultra-thin segment with the Mobii ULV Slimline. This device is powered by a 1.2GHz SU2300 processor, GMA 4500MHD graphics, up to 2GB RAM and a 160GB HDD. It has a high-resolution (1366 x 68) matte display and comes with Windows 7 Home Premium.

Other features include Wi-Fi (b/g/n), 1,3MP webcam, card reader, HDMI and three USB ports. It only comes with a 4-cell 4600 mAh battery, which we imagine won’t last very long under normal usage. The whole thing weighs 1.4kg and measures just 26.8mm in thickness. The Mobii ULV will be available from retailers in Europe in the next few days with a €479 price point. Check out the technical specs after the break. Read more

Intel Pine Trail chipset to get DDR3 support in mid-2010?

Intel is set to showcase its upcoming Pine Trail Atom platform at an event this coming Thursday according to The Inquirer. However, this chipset is likely to change in the middle of next year with the addition of DDR3 memory support.

Both the upcoming N450 & N470 Atom Pineview processors will move from a DDR2 to DDR3 memory controller. It will support 667MHz speeds and support two SODIMM memory slots.

In related news, Intel will start production of its 1.83GHz N470 Atom processor in the middle of January. Availability is expected in Q1 2010. The price point is believed to some $20 higher than the 1.66GHz N450 Atom part.

Via Fudzilla (1 & 2).

Asus Eee PC 1201N battery life results

We have already seen some hands-on impressions of the 12.1-inch Asus Eee PC 1201N netbook, but we are now treated to some more detailed performance results of the dual-core ION powered netbook. Blogeee did some exhaustive testing on battery life and the results were quite surprising. Noti also did some benchmark performance testing.

Both sites praised the machine and found it to be a great ‘bridge’ device between netbooks and ultra-thin devices. Build quality was reasonably solid although Noti found the battery to be a bit loose. Overall performance was very good with multi-tasking proving no problem for the 1201N. Read more

Kohjinsha DZ dual-screen netbook video review

The guys over at WOW-POW provided us with the first video unboxing of Kohjinsha’s DZ dual-screen netbook. They’ve followed this up with a three-part video review of this unique device. The Kohjinsha DZ netbook has two 10.1-inch (1024 x 600) displays which slide out so they can sit side-by-side.

In terms of the actual sliding mechanism, it appeared to work quite solidly with a sturdy hinge. When fully stretched, the display can wobble a bit due to the weight of the panels. Performance seems reasonable too with the 1.6GHz AMD Neo processor gaining a higher score than the 2GHz Z550 Atom. They are getting around 3 hours on the 6–cell battery.

You can check out all three videos after the break. The first video focuses on the dual-displays, the second video looks at the processor performance, whilst the last video looks at video & gaming performance as well as upgrading components. Read more

LG X30 XNote: 11.6-inch super-slim netbook outed

LG is a company that has released some solid netbooks in the X110, X120 and X130 but hasn’t pushed them aggressively in key markets unlike other manufacturers. Hopefully that will change with the LG XNote X30 which recently passed through the FCC. What we can glean from the specs is that this skinny beauty will sport an 11.6-inch (1366 x 768) LED backlit display and weighs just 1.1kg (2.4lbs) including a 6-cell battery.

It will come with an unspecified Intel Atom processor paired with GMA 500 graphics. Other features include a chiclet keyboard, multi-touch gesture touchpad, Wi-Fi (draft-N), a SSD drive, card reader and two USB ports. It will also come with optional Bluetooth 2.1 and 1.3MP webcam. All of the ports are located at the back that keeps its sleek lines (the sides unusually have no ports whatsoever). There’s little other information, but hopefully we’ll hear something official on the LG X30 soon. Check out some pics after the cut. Read more

Toshiba NB300 netbook hits the FCC

The Toshiba NB300 has passed through the FCC highlighting that a new 10.1-inch netbook is on the way from the company. There is not too much information from the filings but we can tell is that the NB300 is of similar size to the NB200/NB205. It will also come with Qualcomm’s Gobi2000 chipset for 3G coverage.

Apart from that, there’s not too much information. It is likely that the Toshiba NB300 will come with Intel’s upcoming Pineview N450 Atom processor and launch in Q1 2010.

Via Wireless Goodness.

Asus Eee PC 1201N gets hands-on and graphics benchmark

The Asus Eee PC 1201N dual-core ION netbook is not set to hit US/UK shores until next month, but it appears that a lucky few have already got hold of the powerful device. Pierre over at Blogeee has a very thorough selection of photos of the netbook including a number of hands-on videos. The videos are in French but it’s not hard to get the gist of what’s going on.

Pierre also compares the 1201N to other netbooks but unfortunately there are no benchmarks or battery life results, this will come later. However Vention from Noti did manage to do some graphics benchmarks against the HP Min 311 (also ION-powered).

Interestingly, the performance between both machines were very similar. The Asus 1201N was slightly ahead in 3DMark2006, but was behind in 3DMark 2003 and 3DMark2005. I’m looking forward to seeing the results comparing more CPU-intensive tasks to see how the dual-core processor of the 1201N fares against traditional single-core netbooks. Check out the graphs after the break. Read more

Kohjinsha’s DZ dual-screen netbook unboxed on video

The Kohjinsha DZ dual-screen netbook is very much a reality and in stores (well in Japan anyway). The guys over at WOW-POW were lucky enough to get hands-on with this unusual netbook and shot an unboxing video to give us an idea of what’s inside.

The DZ looks very intriguing it has an internal USB port that allows you to attach a USB 3G/WiMAX modem without it sticking out. It will also be easy to upgrade the 160GB HDD as it slides out easily once the single screw is removed. Kohjinsha promises a 4.5-hour battery life with its 5,200mAh battery, although I wonder if that’s a tad optimistic with two 10-inch displays going at full tilt. Check out the video after the break. Read more

HP Mini 210 spotted; launches in February 2010?

References to the HP Mini 210 netbook have been unearthed before, albeit with little detail. The same model has now been spotted on the official HP support site. Before you get too excited though, there’s still no detail in terms of hardware specifications. There is no doubt that this model is on the horizon and I’ve seen it listed on numerous e-tailers (with no hardware specs unfortunately).

One particular site suggests a release date of February 1st 2010. This puts it in the frame to be HP’s Pineview Atom-powered netbook. However, debating what else the HP Mini 210 could feature is just guess work right now. Hopefully, we’ll hear more at CES 2010 in early January. We’ve attached the HP Mini 210 screen grabs listed on HP after the jump.

Update: Spanish retailer Area Integral has some specs of the HP Mini 210. It looks like it will be an Intel Pineview-powered netbook armed with a 1.66GHz N450 Atom processor, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD and Windows 7 Starter. Read more

Jolicloud Pre-Beta now available to download

The Pre-Beta of Jolicloud is now available to download for all, no need to request an invitation. This comes with Jolicloud Express that enables you to install the OS within Windows, without deleting your current Windows install. This means you can always switch back to Windows whenever you want.

The new Jolicloud HTML5 launcher is also part of the release and a screenie is attached after the break. As part of this release, it appears that the Jolicloud website has been revamped and it certainly looks much more professional now. You can download the 600MB exe file from here. Read more

Acer Aspire One 532 discovered; N450 Atom & 720p display

Acer is preparing a new 10.1-inch netbook armed with an Intel Pineview processor. The Acer Aspire One 532 (AO532h) is listed on Acer’s driver pages and it seems that this model is already listed by some e-tailers where the specs were found.

The Aspire One 532 will come with a 10.1-inch high resolution (1280 x 720) display and will be powered by the upcoming 1.66GHz Intel Pineview N450 Atom processor and GMA 3150 graphics. It will also come with 1GB RAM, a 160GB/250GB HDD and Windows 7 Starter.

Other features include a 3-cell battery, 5-in-1 card reader, 0.3MP webcam and three USB ports. It will be available in four different colours (Blue, Red, Black and Silver) and prices look like they’ll start from €299. If that price is true, Acer could have a winner on their hands! Check out the evidence after the break. Read more

Onkyo unveils its own dual-display netbook

Onkyo has unveiled a new DX series of netbooks that will incorporate twin displays, as first seen with the Kohjinsha DZ range. The Onkyo DX1007A5/ DX1007A5B netbooks go one better than the Kohjinsha DZ by including two 10.1-inch displays with high resolution (1366 x 768) panels. The Kohjinsha DZ has two 10.1-inch displays with 1024 x 600 resolution.

The Onkyo dual-screener also gets 2GB RAM and a 320GB HDD, comparing to the 1GB RAM and 160GB HDD found on the Kohjinsha. Apart from these internal differences the devices appear identical, they are probably using the same ODM.

It is powered by a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor, ATI Radeon HD 3200 GPU, 2GB RAM and 320GB HDD. Other features include Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), a 1.3MP webcam, a 3.7-hour battery and Windows 7 Home Premium. It will be on sale at the end of this month in Japan for 84,000 Yen ($953, £585, €646).

Via Akihabara News.

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