Nvidia Tegra 2 Tablet/Smartbook CES Roundup [Video]

Following the official Nvidia Tegra 2 announcement, a whole number of different next-gen Tegra powered products were shown on the trade floor at CES. Rather than creating a post for every single one, we’ve summarised each below and attached any relevant videos. Most of these consisted of tablets, rather than smartbooks, but it gives you a good idea of what to expect over the coming year. Check out the Tegra 2 action after the jump. Read more

Snapdragon & Tegra smartbook push for Q4 2009

A number of manufacturers are preparing ARM-based smartbooks based on Snapdragon and Tegra processors to launch during the fourth quarter according to Taiwanese industry sources. Smartbooks are expected from the likes of netbook heavyweights such as Asus and Acer along with Mobinnova, Inventec and ODMs such as Foxconn, Pegatron and Compal.

These units will launch at a similar time to new netbooks using Intel’s next-gen Pineview processors. However, the smartbooks are likely to be cheaper and smaller devices than netbooks. They are also more likely to be sold through contracts from telecom providers rather than on a standalone basis. Read more

Video: Pegatron Vivid’s Tegra-powered netbook with dedicated web keys

New products from the Computex show continue to roll in, courtesy of NetbookNews. This time round, we are shown the Pegatron Vivid which is an Nvidia Tegra-based device. Where this particular model differs from the rest is in having dedicated buttons on top of the keyboard for Yahoo!, Google, MSN and Skype.

Being a Tegra-powered device you can expect 1080p HD video playback through its HDMI port and strong battery life. The device has a matte display and a sealed battery, although it’s only a pre-production sample so that is likely to change. You’ll also find a fancy speaker integrated into the hinge. No word on pricing or availability right now. Check out the hands-on after the jump. Read more

Video: Pegatron smartbook with Freescale CPU hands-on

Pegatron first showed off this very thin and lightweight smartbook back at CES in January. This particular model reappeared at Computex and NetbookNews.de managed to get hands-on with the unit. The 10-inch netbook was running on a Freescale IMX51 800MHz ARM-based CPU and Xandros Linux. The most notable aspects appear to be a very lightweight, fanless glossy model with 8 hours of battery life.

Storage is catered for by a 4GB SSD meaning that the weight doesn’t creep above 800g. The Pegatron netbook includes a 4-in-1 card reader, USB 2.0 ports and a VGA out. As you would expect with an ARM-based chip, wireless connectivity includes 3G, GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Build quality was found to be good, despite some flex in the palm rest area. The keyboard had good feedback but only had a small right shift key. Interestingly, a second model (with the same hardware) was shown running the Movial OS, which I’ve not heard of before. It was similar to Asus’ Easy Mode OS. There is no idea on cost right now, but hopefully it won’t be too far off the Wistron N900z’s predicted $200 price tag. Check out the video after the jump. Read more

Pegatron prepping ARM-based netbooks for Asus

Asus’ CEO, Jerry Shen, recently confirmed that it was unlikely to adopt ARM/Android netbooks this year. Part of his reasoning was that most consumers are still used to Windows and that the first quarter of 2010 would provide more of an opportunity for alternative processors.

Well it looks like ODM Pegatron Technology is preparing to manufacture these ARM-based netbooks, but is waiting for the green light from Asustek. Pegatron has not received a schedule to mass produce these ARM netbooks as Asus is still apparently monitoring trends in the market place.

Pegatron also has a 7-inch ARM-based netbook and recently received orders from Chinese white-box vendors to sell the device for under $200. It seems, however, that there is low demand for Linux based products in Asia, therefore Pegatron plans to concentrate on the European and American markets.

Via Digitimes.

40 Nvidia Ion Products expected to launch this year

Nvidia held a press conference in Taipei yesterday to unveil two nettops based on the Ion platform, the ASRock ION 330 and Pegatron’s Cape 7. Interestingly, during the conference, Nvidia claimed that over 40 Ion-powered netbooks, nettops and all-in-One PCs are scheduled to launch by the end of this year.

Whilst the number of nettops powered by Nvidia’s Ion platform is growing all the time, we have yet to see it being utilised by netbooks. Hopefully it won’t be long before Ion-powered netbooks are revealed, the latest rumours point to a number of manufacturers releasing Ion netbooks at the Computex show in June. Read more