Sony Vaio X dissected – engineering marvel

The super-skinny and luxurious Sony Vaio X has been taken apart to see just how Sony’s engineers pieced it together. The guys over at TechOn have a seven part hands-on and teardown that shows the skill involved in creating such a gorgeous piece of hardware.

The engineer who took it apart certainly appreciated the efforts Sony has taken to get the Vaio X into the market. He felt that it needed a close collaboration early on between designers, engineers and production plants. The cost of manufacturing such a device is double that for a normal notebook. Well it probably helps those who paid the massive premium for what is an underpowered device to sleep well at night.

Via Slashgear.

Netbook failure rate 20 percent higher than laptops

SquareTrade, a large independent warranty provider, has analysed the failure rates for over 30,000 laptops and netbooks covered by its warranty plans with some revealing insights. It found that just under a third of laptops will fail within three years and that netbooks are 20 percent more likely to fail.

Breaking down the results, SquareTrade found that 20.4 percent of laptop failures were due to hardware malfunctions and 10.4 percent were from accidental damage. Whilst one would expect netbooks to suffer a higher rate of accidental damage to their portability, apparently netbook hardware malfunctions were 20 percent higher than laptops. Read more

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta released; GPU accelerated flash for ION netbooks

Adobe has released the pre-release of Flash Player 10.1 for PCs and netbooks (this is not the mobile release for Android, webOS, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile).

This version of Flash has created a lot of buzz, mainly down to the fact that it supports hardware decoding of H.264 video. This means that those of you with ION-powered netbooks will benefit from being able to play HD YouTube videos with ease. This new release also comes with multi-touch support.

You can download the pre-release right now from Adobe Labs. The supported GPUs for this release can be found in this PDF.

Via TechCrunch.

CrunchPad tablet still alive; to cost between $300 – $400

Mike Arrington’s CrunchPad tablet project is still underway and on schedule despite rumours to the contrary. Speaking on the Gillmor Gang video, he reaffirmed that the “CrunchPad is steamrolling” and that “costs keep coming down”. In terms of the price tag, Arrington expects the cost to sit somewhere between $300 and $400.

Interestingly, he expects the device to be supported by “soft revenue” from “sponsorships”. Further news is expected very soon according to Arrington, who hopefully will give further detail on how adverts will be implemented. This may involve preloaded links or adverts, however Arrington has promised that they will be used “without impacting the user experience”. You can check out the video after the break, with the CrunchPad action starting at around the 39 minute mark. Read more

Lenovo Pineview-powered 10-inch netbook hits FCC

Lenovo is set to launch a new 10.1-inch netbook based on the new Pineview Atom processor according to a new listing over at the FCC. The Ideapad netbook, codenamed FL5-B3, sports a 1.66GHz N450 Atom CPU, 2GB RAM and a 250GB HDD.

It is interesting to see the netbook armed with 2GB RAM, which likely means that it will come with Windows 7 Home Premium, given the licensing restrictions over Windows 7 Starter. The 10.1-inch display has a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels and 5,400RPM hard drive.

It uses a chiclet keyboard and, unusually, the touchpad has no buttons that I can make out. Apart from that, the design is mostly similar to existing Lenovo Ideapad netbooks. It does have glossy internals though, making this a fingerprint magnet. This model will probably make an appearance at next year’s CES trade show in January.

Via Wireless Goodness [via SlashGear].

HP Pavilion dm1 CULV ultra-thin gets video unboxing

HP’s 11.6-inch Pavilion dm1 CULV-based ultra-thin has seen its first unboxing video courtesy of Netbooked. Initial impressions suggests a build quality that sits somewhere between the Lenovo IdeaPad U150 and Acer Aspire 1410 ultra-thins.

The dm1 SKU that Netbooked unboxed has a 1.2GHz dual core SU2300 processor, GS45 chipset, GMA 4500MHD graphics and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. It comes with an 11.6-inch (1366 x 768) display, 250GB HDD, 2GB RAM, 5-in-1 card reader and two USB ports. The 6-cell battery should be good for around 8 hours.

The dm1 is available to pre-order in the UK from Amazon for £469.99. Check out the video after the jump. Read more

Netbooks with Windows XP only around until New Year?

Microsoft has publicly committed to offer Windows XP for a year after the Windows 7 launch. However, the reality for Windows XP netbooks could be quite different. You may even start to see them disappear from shelves shortly after the New Year according to The Register.

Don Paterson, director of netbook PCs in Microsoft’s Windows client group, said that: “We will continue to make Windows XP available for those devices [netbooks], but it doesn’t make sense to put marketing effort behind those devices. As much as we make Windows XP available for a year, we won’t see it last in the market that long. We will get through the holidays. My gut [feeling] is we will walk away from the holidays and see that it’s not worth keeping it in market.” Read more

Asus Eee PC 1201N hits US pre-order

Surely there must be some official news on the dual-core ION-powered Asus Eee PC 1201N soon. Just last week it appeared for pre-order in Italy and now it has hit pre-order in the US. Excaliber PC has the 12.1-inch netbook listed for $499 including free shipping. The model listed (1201N-PU17-BK) confirms what we’ve previously heard.

It has a dual-core 1.6GHz Atom 330 processor, ION graphics, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD & Windows 7 Home Premium. Other features include a 0.3MP webcam, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), HDMI and a 6-cell battery.

This certainly looks like the netbook that many have longed for, the only thing that may work against it is battery life. Asus UK said an official announcement on the 1201N was expected this week, but we’ve not heard anything so far.

Thanks Bob!

Qualcomm shows Lenovo smartbook to launch with AT&T

As expected, Qualcomm’s CEO, Paul Jacobs, revealed one of the first smartbooks expected to hit the market. The device was announced at a Qualcomm investor day in New York. Information on the new device is sparse, however what we do know is that the new smartbook will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset, manufactured by Lenovo and sold in the US through AT&T.

There is a crude image of the device lifted from the investor webcast that shows a red device with a homescreen split into six widgets. Jacobs said that the device was thinner than a Palm Pre and it certainly seems very thin. The device will also have full Flash 10.1 support and sport a high-resolution display. A formal launch is expected during CES in January 2010. Check out the first image of the device after the break. Read more

Netbook battery times worse-off using Windows 7

The news is hardly a surprise, but Laptop Mag did a number of battery tests confirming that battery times using Windows 7 are not as good as when using XP. For their testing they looked at three netbooks (Toshiba NB205, Asus Eee PC 1008HA and the ION-powered HP Mini 311) and measured battery life whilst continuously web surfing over wireless.

On all three machines, the battery lasted longer on XP than it did for Windows 7. The Toshiba lasted an extra 33 minutes, the Asus lasted an extra 57 minutes and the HP lasted an extra 51 minutes. Getting nearly an hour extra, as is the case with the Eee PC 1008HA is certainly nothing to scoff at. Read more

Consumers unaware over Windows 7 Starter missing features

A survey conducted by Retrevo has found that over 60 percent of 1,100 consumers surveyed did not know that Windows 7 Starter lacks some key features. This includes the inability to personalize the desktop, support for multiple monitors and DVD playback, all standard fare on Windows XP.

Once people were informed of these missing features, 56 percent said that they would not be satisfied with Windows 7 Starter. With 23 out of 28 netbooks currently running Windows 7 Starter, it looks like quite a few will be opting to upgrade to Home Premium.

However, this may cause negative sentiment towards Microsoft. “I think most users will feel angry with having to pay the $80 for an upgrade to get those features,” said Andrew Eisner, director of content for Retrevo. To get round this issue you could always buy a Linux netbook and there’s still a sizeable number of XP netbooks around too (for now).

Via ComputerWorld.

Qualcomm to announce first smartbook on 12th November

Qualcomm is expected to announce its first smartbook device tomorrow (12th November) at an analyst meeting in New York. It is unknown whether this will be a prototype or whether it is the finished article and to be announced along with an OEM. For those that are interested the meeting starts at 10AM Eastern Time and you can listen to the meeting here.

Smartbooks are a new category of device that sports an ARM chipset and is always connected to the internet through a SoC (System on Chip) that combines 3G, wireless and GPS. The chips are also said to be highly energy efficient, which means long battery lives. Qualcomm says that 40 Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered products are in the works from 15 different manufacturers.

Via Forbes [via Netbooked].

Litl Webbook unboxed [Video]

Following on from the Litl Webbook launch last week, we’ve come across the first unboxing video of the device. Now this isn’t just another netbook unboxing video as it’s quite clear that the company has spent a lot of time and thought in both the packaging design and trying to incorporate the company’s ethos into it.

Litl has spent a lot of time keeping the packaging to a minimum and it’s nice to see that the box has been designed so it is easy to return the company, in case of a fault. You also get fourteen illustrated cards, which uses images to get across the company’s philosophies. This includes “less is more” and how they to try to “reinvent the wheel” when it comes to user interface. Check out the video after the break. Read more

Samsung X120 review roundup – poor battery life

The 11.6-inch Samsung X120 CULV ultra-thin has now seen its first reviews. Despite a short 2.5-hour battery life, Cnet UK claimed it was their favourite 11.6” ultra-thin released so far. The liked its portability, nice screen and comfortable keyboard.

TrustedReviews also reviewed the Samsung X120 and found that it was let down by poor battery life, this is despite being well-designed and having good performance. The mouse buttons are placed on either side of the touchpad that is another minor annoyance. Read more

Nokia Booklet 3G review roundup – let down by slow CPU & HDD

Reviews are starting to trickle out for Nokia’s first entry into the netbook segment. It seems that the Booklet 3G has had a bit of a mixed reception. Yes, it has superb build quality and a long battery life, but most of the negatives mirror our initial take of the device back in early September.

Crunchgear found that the Booklet 3G was too generic and underpowered to be considered a great product. Even in general use, the netbook was laggy when it came to rendering web pages and loading YouTube videos. As this netbook will mainly be sold on contract they also felt it was “folly” to be locked into a contract for 2 years given the lack of power under the hood. Read more

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