Razer Announces 'Blade' Gaming Laptop

Razer has finally revealed the product behind its mysterious "PC Gaming is NOT Dead" website, which declared in a rather V for Vendetta tone that on August 26th the company would turn the PC gaming upside down.

At 12 noon EST Razer unveiled its "Blade" gaming notebook, declaring it the "World's first true gaming laptop." The last bit of marketing bait left us a tad puzzled; surely Razer's audience has heard of such manufacturers as Alienware and Voodoo PC. But the machine does look stunning: it has that simple Apple aesthetic with nothing more than Razer's green logo adorning the lid. Its chassis is also made of a dark aluminum material.

The Blade's 17 inch screen display outputs true 1080p HD. For its size, the chassis is relatively light, weighing only 6.9 pounds compared to other 17 inch gaming laptops like the Alienware M17x that weighs in at 9.8 pounds. The Razer Blade is also extremely thin, measuring about .88 inches thick. Part of the reason for its slim form factor is Razer dropped the optical drive, a smart move as most gamers nowadays get their fix from digital retailers like Steam.

The Razer Blade's true popping feature, however, is its user interface. The full-size chiclet keyboard swaps out the usual numeric keypad for 10 dynamic adaptive tactile keys, which gives you easy-access to hot-key commands. There's also an LCD pad underneath it that displays in-game information when you're using an external mouse or switches to a multi-touchpad for navigating.

Inside the chassis, the Razer Blade features a 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 2640M processor, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GT 555M (2GB) discrete graphics chip with Optimus technology, which will help extend that 60Wh battery's life span. There's 320GB (7,200rpm) of hard drive space, a bit on the small size. It comes with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 (for connecting wireless peripherals), Ethernet port, a USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, and 3.5mm headphone and mic combo jack.

The Razer Blade will be available in the fourth quarter of this year, and will be sold for $2,799.99.

By Natalie Shoemaker

MSI X460-004US and X460DX-008US

MSI just release their two new 14 inch multimedia notebook in US market, called MSI X460-004US and X460DX-008US. Designed for business and home users, both of the X460DX-008US and X460-004US features Exclusive Cinema Pro Technology, two stereo speakers with support THX TruStudio Pro which offer great audio experience found in live performances and deliver the fullest, great audio experience for movies, music and games.

Basicly, the MSI X460-004US and X460DX-008US notebook has similar specifications and features. The difference betwen both of them are : the X460DX-008US notebook powered by a 2.1 Ghz Intel Core™ i3-2310QM Processor paired with 4GB DDR3 of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M graphics card with 1GB DDR3 VRAM and 500 GB HDD (7200rpm) for storage, while the X460-004US laptop powered by a 2.0 Ghz Intel Core™ i7-2630QM Processor (up to 2.9 Ghz with Turbo mode) paired with 6GB DDR3 of RAM, Intel HD 3000 Graphics cards, a 750 GB SATA Hard disk (7200 rpm) for storage and support Intel Wireless Display to stream your content to another device on your home.

MSI X460DX-008US and MSI X460-004US also ships with a 14 inch LED backlight display with 1366 x 768 resolution, Intel HM65 chipset, DVD Super Multi, 2 in 1 Card Reader (SDXC/MMC) and a 1.3 Megapixels HD Webcam that capable to capture 720p high definition (HD) video quality at 30 frames per second. In term of connectivity, both of new MSI machines will be equipped with one USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.0 port, VGA and HDMI port, 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 3.0 and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi.

The 14 inch new MSI X460DX-008US and X460-004US laptops is slim and light machines. With measure in 13.35 x 9.43 x 1.0 inch with wight at 4.3 lbs, also powered with a 6 cell battery for up to 8 hours of battery life and pre loaded with Genuine Windows 7 for operating system. The X460DX-008US and X460-004US is available now for order with starting price at $1,099.99 for MSI X460-004US and MSI X460DX-008US will be sold with starting price at $749.99 with 1 Year Limited Warranty.

The Fate of PCs at HP

HP the world's largest PC manufacturer announces that they aren't really into the whole "building PCs" thing anymore, thanks to double digit profit margins in many of the other facets of their corporate portfolio. 

It's a sensible (albeit dramatic) decision, but one without a conclusion; options are being mulled, while foundries continue to crank out desktops and laptops that could very well need a new logo within the next year or two. This leaves lots of questions on the table.

If HP's brand power is off the table, where will consumers turn.!

HP was the largest PC manufacturer (by volume), and a household name for time immemorial. Sure, there are plenty of other manufacturers out there, ready to sell you a desktop or a laptop. And while they certainly offer excellent products, the names Acer and Toshiba aren't necessarily the first that'll come to mind for the average consumer. Will these players to step in and fill the void for consumers looking for a Windows machine, Or is Dell out stocking up on champagne.

Is this IBM

Spinning off their still profitable PC business will help the company "focus on enterprise and SMB [small and medium size business] segments where we can best leverage our value-add." That's a fair approximation of HP CEO Leo Apotheker's statement during Thursday's earnings call, in response to why HP is considering ditching the PC business. Only that quote comes from IBM CFO Mark Loughridge from a conference call back in 2004, when IBM announced they were leaving the PC business for the greener pastures of Enterprise support and software development.

That deal proved to work out in the long run for both IBM who has gone on to make strides in supercomputing and AI development and Lenovo, who has since become an international player in the PC market. If HP does sell off their Personal Systems Group, will their future be as bright.

Who would buy HP's PC division, anyway!

Back in March, the rumor mill was buzzing (briefly) that HP was planning to sell off its PC business, with Korea's Samsung as the most likely candidate to make an offer. Those rumors were quashed as merely rumors by all parties involved, but, in light of yesterday's announcement, could a deal be back on the table? It would make sense for Samsung the corporation has made a strong showing with its laptop wares, with machines like the Samsung Series 9 ultraportable making a strong impression. Snapping up a juggernaut like HP could make a lot of sense for Samsung.

If a foreign company did take the reins, what happens to the HP brand and employees!

When Lenovo purchased IBM's PC business, IBM received a chunk of cash and an 18.9 percent stake in Lenovo. Lenovo took over manufacturing the hardware, while IBM remained the "preferred services and customer financing provider." Lenovo also got to keep the IBM branding for 5 years, as well as absorbing 10,000 IBM employees. What would the future hold for so valuable a brand.

What happens to my warranty!

When Lenovo took the reins of IBM's PC business, IBM stuck around to offer technical support customers who suddenly found themselves owners of a Lenovo IBM PC. I can't speak to the fates of the relative handful of hopeful consumers who grabbed an HP TouchPad or WebOS smartphone. But HP's PCs are in millions of households around the world there would be a lot of angry consumers if HP didn't follow suit and offer warranty and technical support, in addition to driver updates so that folks don't find themselves holding an orphaned PC.

Can HP's PSG group survive as its own entity, on the strength of its products.

TouchSmart, Envy, Elitebook, Pavilion from All in One to desktop replacement laptops, HP has its fingers in quite a few PC. If HP's PC business is spun off, will it be able to survive without the extensive resources of the HP mothership? Truth be told, an HP PC business that was left to its own devices (pun intended) might do a lot of good, by cutting the crust and focusing on polished, premium wares and leaving the low end market behind.

Will whatever remains of the PSG take the same approach toward forward thinking, with Synergy and WebOS.

HP had a lot of great ideas on the table that they'd yet to implement. Remember "Synergy?" Actually, you probably don't back in March, HP announced that they were drafting plans to bring WebOS to all of their devices. In other words, desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets would all share a single ecosystem. Shared contacts and calendars, tapping devices together to share webpages and information, while you'd have to be invested in the WebOS platform (and HP's ecosystem) to take full advantage of the project, it was an exciting prospect.

With WebOS devices killed off and the future of the platform uncertain, will it be up to Apple (once again) to bring that dream of a unified device ecosystem to fruition.

What happens to the TouchSmart? And more specifically, TouchSmart software!

The All in One is what's next for desktops. Large, lush, multi-touch screens coupled with massive hard drives and plenty of connectivity ports deliver the flexibility and performance we've grown to expect from large, stationary PCs. And you'd be hard pressed to find a similarly specced laptop that can compete on price, leaving room in your wallet to pickup an inexpensive All-Purpose laptop for on the go computing or even one of those new-fangled tablets everyone's talking about.

And when it came to All in One PCs that didn't have an Apple logo, HP often came out ahead, serving up speedy machines with a palatable price.

But the TouchSmart line stands out. Even if they didn't always top the charts, TouchSmart All in Ones to be doing something different in the space. The TouchSmart software package made great strides towards making sense of Windows 7's multi-touch gestures, giving users a legitimate reason to set the keyboard and mouse aside and get hands on with their PC. Beats audio offered a legitimately improved aural experience often a sore point for the All in One form factor. And then there's the HP TouchSmart 610, equipped with a unique mechanism that slides the 23 inch screen down to a 30 degree angle, encouraging use of its multi touch screen like never before.

But more importantly, TouchSmart PCs got better and better with every update. PC manufacturers are... stubborn. Case in point; Laptop manufacturers' struggle to compete with Apple's Macbook Air. HP bucked the trend here. Other companies (Apple included) leave their All in Ones largely unchanged a slimmer chassis here, a curvier bezel there. HP consistently sought out ways to change and improve the user experience on their machines, from a software and hardware perspective. Would an independent PC division have the drive (or more importantly, the research and development resources) to carry on this tradition.

Is this (finally) the end of Compaq!

Oh right, Compaq. A familiar tune; they went from being the largest supplier of PCs in the world to being picked up by HP for $25 billion back in 2002. Their technology and products were shuffled into the PSG group's various product lines. With HP's PC business in limbo, what will become of this vestige of a vestige.

Should consumers steer clear of HP's products!

This one is tricky. An HP desktop like the TouchSmart 610 is still going to be a fine machine a week from now. But PCs are long term investments, HP might not be out of the PC business just yet, promising that it's business as usual while they investigate their options. With no clear idea of the PC business' fate, should someone hoping to pick up a new laptop or desktop consider HP, with the knowledge that their PC's support network might be owned by an entirely different company well before their warranty is up.

Acer Ultrabook Gets Early September Ship Date to Compete with Asus UX21

Hewlett Packard may be spinning off its PC business, but that doesn’t mean the PC is dead: competition among Ultrabook manufacturers Acer and Asus is alive and well. Acer is reportedly pushing to release its upcoming ultrathin and lightweight Acer Aspire 3951 in September, a month before expected, to directly compete with the Asus UX21 Ultrabook.
It remains to be seen whether Intel’s new class of ultraportable laptops can save falling laptop sales (affected in large part by the iPad). Acer certainly hopes its Ultrabook will revive its laptop sales. The first Ultrabook to market, however, may have an advantage over the others.

The Asus UX21 was the first to be announced back in May and is expected to appear on retail shelves next month. Now Acer is planning on ramping up its development schedule for a September launch as well for its Aspire 3951 Ultrabook. The 13 inch Aspire 3951 has already had its internal design revised twice, however, and it has not yet entered mass production, sources say, so Acer definitely has their work cut out for them.

The good news is we should finally see these slim and light laptops start popping up in a few weeks and hopefully at the sub $1000 prices promised. Perhaps the increased competition will help make this so.

Acer Aspire 3951
Acer will be release their up coming notebook to compete with Apple MacBook Air. Acer Aspire 3951 laptop, the up coming ultra thin and light notebook from Acer comes with large trackpad, aluminum casing, chiclet keyboard and has an ultra thin design with measure in 13mm thick and 1.4 kg weight.

Acer Aspire 3951 notebook will be powered with a 2nd generation Intel Core Sandy Bridge processor, a 250GB hard-drive for storage with able to upgrade up to 500GB HDDs, or optionally to a 160GB SSD for additional storage, 13.3 inch display (no word on resolution), Chiclet keyboard, large single trackpad, an HD capable webcam, a card reader and a battery provide up to 6 hours of battery life per charge or 30 day standby time and a 1.7s delay from moving between sleep to wake.

In term of connectivity, the ultra slim Acer AS3951 is equipped with WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, USB port and an HDMI port if you want to connect the machine with other bigger monitor. Acer 3951 thin and light notebook also pre loaded with Dolby Home Theater latest v4 for enhanced audio experience and runs on Windows 7 for operating system,  with starting price at $770 - $960 (€540 - €670) depending on your configurations.

Asus UX21 Ultrabook

Another new laptop innovation from Asus is the Asus UX21 Ultrabook which is ultra slim laptop recently unveils by Asus at Computex 2011 in Taipei. Design of the Asus UX21 glance similar to Macbook Air are wrapped with aluminum metal that looks very luxurious.
The Asus UX21 specs features a 11.6 inches display screen size with a sloping design that is 7mm at the back and tapers to 3mm at the front. Weight of the UX21 is only around 2.2lb. The Asus UX21 runs on Intel Core i5-2557M (1.7GHz) processor (up to Core i7).

Another feature that is owned by The Asus UX21 are two USB ports USB 3.0, mini-DisplayPort, mini-HDMI port, a storage capacity of 64GB or 128GB, a glass touchpad and metal chiclet keys. Another advantage possessed by the Asus UX21 is the ability to wake up after idle in just 2 seconds.

The Asus UX21 price is still uncertain, but the expected price of the ultrabook less than $1000 for the intel core i5 processor. However, these prices will not be a problem if you want something stylish and luxurious as those offered by the Asus UX21.

MSI's Affordable Slim X-Line

Notebook maker MSI beefs up its slim line of X-series notebooks Wednesday claiming new X460 and X460DX systems are the lightest models available on the market to pack Intel's Core i7 quad core processors. Weighing in at 4.3 pounds, with 14 inch displays, 1 inch thick, systems start at $800.

You probably missed it, but last month MSI trumpeted the release of these notebooks leading up to Wednesday's release with slightly different specs than what we are seeing with actual shipping models.

For one thing, looking at the new specs and press release, support for a second internal hard drive even a SSD one is no longer available. (We thought it was unusual for those to be options when we first got a peek at these ultrathins.)

Great Specs, Good Prices

Still, both laptops are attractive for their 1 inch thinness, 4.3 pound weight, and an impressive estimated 8 hours of battery life.

The X460 has the higher-end specs, with Intel’s Core i7 processor and 750GB (7200rpm) HDD. As a result, it has the higher MSRP of $1200.

If you want a more affordable version of this slim laptop, the X460DX starts at $800. With a choice of either Core i5 or Core i3 processors, the X460DX also has an advantage for entertainment and gaming buffs: an Nvidia GeForce GT540M dedicated graphics card. Although MSI has dropped the X460’s “lightest laptop packing Intel Core i7 processor” claim to fame and you won’t find an unusual second internal drive in these laptops, the X460 and X460DX are more attractive options for the growing set of slim and sleek laptops.

Asus Eee Pad Slider

The Asus Eee Pad Slider, an Android tablet with a slide-out keyboard announced way back in January at CES, may actually be available for purchase soon. Well, maybe. Sources say the Eee Pad Slider will hit store shelves next month, and a new Eee Pad Slider product page at Asus reveals the full specs for this mythical tablet.

Recall that one of the other tablets Asus announced in January, the Asus Eee Slate, went on sale at the end of that month, and the Slider was expected in May. With summer nearly over, if you’ve been waiting to pick up this tablet you might have been disappointed by the lack of a firm release date.

Notebook Italia reports that an Asus Italy representative assured them the Eee Pad Slider would arrive in Italy in September, and there would be two models: a version with 16GB of storage and one with 32GB. Notebook Italia reports that the 16GB model will cost $400 and that the 32GB version will be $500. This is comparable to the price cuts on the HP TouchPad and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, making the 10.1 inch tablet an attractive option if and when it arrives in the United States.

Asus has listed, for the first time, the complete specs for the Eee Pad Slider, revealing the tablet will ship with Android 3.1 but be upgradable to Android 3.2. Other specs listed confirm what we already knew of the Slider, including its Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of memory, and 1280 by 800 resolution. Now, however, battery life is listed officially as up to 8 hours (up from 6 hours) and a thickness of 0.68 inches, not bad for a tablet with a built-in keyboard, but not the “under half an inch” we were expecting either.

Dell Refreshes Inspiron, Vostro Laptops

Two new laptops for its Inspiron and Vostro lineups with prices that start at less than $600. The new PCs are designed for users who want "ultramobile" and "ultrathin" laptops.

The 14z features modern specs such as a Sandy Bridge Core i3 or i5 processor and several USB 3.0 ports, but the device tips the scales at 5 pounds. The Vostro V131, meanwhile, may impress with its thin profile that measures 0.83 inches at its thickest point (the $1000 MacBook Air is a little thinner at 0.68 inch), but you'll have to deal with a much slower 1.1 GHz Celeron processor.
 

Dell Inspiron 14z

The best of the two new laptops, the 14z has a 14-inch display with 1366-by-768 resolution, your choice of a Sandy Bridge 2.2 GHz Intel Core i3-2330M or 2.3 GHz Core i5-2410M, and 4 or 8 GB RAM. Ports include two USB 3.0, one USB 2.0, mini DisplayPort, HDMI, and an SD card reader (also supports MS and MMC).

You also get a DVD player, 1 megapixel Webcam, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0. Storage options are a 500GB, 640GB, 750GB hard drive or a 128GB solid-state drive. The Inspiron 14z comes standard with Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) and pricing starts at $600.

Dell also launched a 13.3-inch version of the 14z called the 13z, currently available only in Asia.

Vostro V131 

The small business-focused Vostro V131 includes a 13.3-inch display with 1366-by-768 resolution, 1.1 GHz dual-core Intel Celeron 847 processor, up to 2GB RAM, a maximum 320GB hard drive, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, and 3G and 4G mobile broadband options. Similar to the 14z, you get two USB 3.0 ports and one USB 2.0, as well as an 8-in-1 card reader and 1-megapixel Webcam. The Vostro V131 starts at $500 and runs Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit).

If you're looking for a bargain-priced smaller laptop, the new 14z or V131 may fit the bill; but if you're willing to trade off the 14z's Sandy Bridge processor and USB 3.0 ports or the Vostro's thin profile, you can probably find a better value. A quick search on Best Buy, for example, shows the big box retailer is selling a 15.6-inch Dell Inspiron laptop with a non-Sandy Bridge 2.53 GHz Core i3, 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive for $400. There was also a similar Toshiba Satellite laptop with a Sandy Bridge chip for $380. The downside is both laptops tip the scales past 5 pounds and neither had a USB 3.0 port.

The Vostro V131 and the 14z are available online now from Dell.com.