Small and cheap, but that’s about it. The netbook’s best days are definitely behind it, when the market is flooded with tablets and cheap laptops as well as Intel’s latest initiative–the Ultrabook concept. Although the latter hardly counts in the ‘cheap’ category, it is certainly a more competent alternative, as it is equipped with considerably more powerful processors, fast SSDs and better performance overall for a reasonable price. Intel’s quarterly report shows that sales of the low-end Atom processor reaches a new record low.

Since the peak in sales two years ago, the revenue from Atom has more than halved and now amounts to only $167 million, from $438 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. The sales curve started to dip in 2010, and this trend has accelerated over the past year reaching ever new lows. On top of that, Intel has not made ​​any more extensive investments in the area, but contented themselves with relatively few launches with no major performance changes. This is it folks, the netbook is doomed.

Via xbitlabs

Sadly after AMD’s new offerings to the netbook market were realeased there were no more new significant updates. I was beginning to think that this year might not really that flashy for netbooks until…

Just this last week of December Intel officially announced that the new platform for the Atom line, Cedar Trail, is already available and will be released by netbook manufacturers on the 1st quarter of 2012.

Cedar Trail is more or less the same as the current Atom platform, Pine Trail, because the use the same NM10 Chipset but the CPU for the Cedar Trail line is manufactured using the 32nm process which means that these CPU’s can deliver more processing performance without drawing more power.

There are currently 2 Cedar Trail CPU’s for the netbook genre namely the N2600 and the N2800 that are clocked at 1.6Ghz and 1.86 and TDP (Thermal Design Point) of 3.5 watts and 6.5 watts respectively. They are packed with 1MB of L2 cache and armed with the GMA 3600/3650 graphics chipset which Intel said can double the graphics performance of its predecessors.

I think it is still early to call it quits on the netbook industry especially now Intel has officially given an answer to AMD’s APUs. A few months from now we will be able to see how these two platforms perform head to head against each other and we’ll be able to decide whose processor will be king of netbook land.

When we tested the first model we could conclude that it is a very good computer but we didn’t notice at the time that it had a problem related to the implementation of wireless networks. However, other users have reported less range and throughput compared to other laptops. Surveys on the Internet have also drawn attention to the fact that many users experience problems with the range. Some have even gone so far as to use a temporary solution in the form of a USB WLAN adapter in places where you could not connect via the built-in WLAN card.

According to Samsung, there is now a new model available where there has been a change made in the antenna design and it also uses another wlan card. Samsung had an unusual antenna design for the 9 series where the WLAN antenna was placed under the keyboard. A more common solution is that the antenna for the WiFi is in the screen bezel, which is what Samsung has done with the new model.

hp laptop

Hewlett – Packard again is to make a major move to catch up with the technological (and financial) world’s constant and brutal demands. It can be recalled that in 1999 a firm called Agilent Technologies came from a spin off of HP’s measurement operations (which by the way spearheaded the birth of the now tycoon IT company). The same tactic has been done again by HP and this time another high revenue department was targeted – PC Division.

This is undeniably a cliché from CEO Leo Apotheker’s statement earlier this year when he described their PC business as a “competitive advantage”. However, we can also infer that HP’s purchase of Autonomy Corp., a firm focusing on keeping track of corporations’ data such as phone calls and emails is what Apotheker is referring with his recent statement he pointed out the need to “invest a lot of capital….in better places”. Take into account that this newly rendered firm will actually bring in higher profit for the company compared to its PC division. In addition to the rumored PC business spin-off, HP tablet and smartphones that were to rival or even surpass Apple’s offerings will be discontinued. I think this will be the end of the WebOS (i hope not).

It has been a surprise among the industry that HP is removing their PC Division from the lineup but will still continue to support and make servers, network and data-storage systems. If I were a consumer I would most probably prefer to purchase a PC brand where I can get all my hardware and that the same time enjoy technical support. Yes, it doesn’t make sense to put in line the back up with nothing tangible fronting it. But then, hypothesizing from known facts like HP’s subtle financial decline in the stock market, this might boost them unto higher ground. After all, other divisions also cave in high revenues. For instance, their tech-services team brought them roughly $9 billion last quarter. And let’s put into consideration that the company is the world’s largest printer manufacturer; getting the most amount of profit from their expensive ink.

Of course, HP’s course of action can be compared to IBM outsourcing their PC Industry to Lenovo back in 2004. Due to its depreciating profit margin IBM chose to take advantage of Lenovo’s lacking managerial skills in running a multinational PC business and maintained several management teams even after the merger. The move turned out to be beneficial for both parties apparently. IBM gained more profit and Lenovo, which came from a name only the techies of all techies know, to a household name. This may not apply to HP though. What HP needs to survive this time is to think clearly on what to would make their business survive without selling or spinning off their PC department. If Bill and Dave would still be alive they would find a way to innovate technologically and not do a maneuver that would compromise the interests of their loyal clients even if that would bring more profit to the company. They need to make new things that would captivate the interest of the people, after all HP’s goal is to “invent”!

The entry-level 11.6-inch model has a Core i5 processor running at 1.6 GHz, 2 GB DDR3 memory and a 64 gigabyte SSD. Anyone who wants a slightly faster ultraportable Mac can customize it with up to a 1.8 GHz Core i7 processor at, 4GB of DDR3 memory and 128 or 256 gigabytes of solid state storage. With the new processors, which have the Hyperthreading feature and thus four virtual CPU cores, the new MacBook Airs should offer at least twice the overall system performance over the previous Core 2 Duo models. Although the integrated graphics are now also from Intel instead of Nvidia, which will probably have a negative effect on gaming.

The 13.3-inch model has a 1.7 GHz Core i5 processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory and 128GB SSD. This one can also be upgraded with a Core i7 processor running at 1.8 gigahertz and a 256 gigabyte SSD. Only the 13.3-inch model has a built-in memory card reader.

As for the battery life, Apple says five hours for the 11.6-inch model and up to 7 hours for the 13.3-inch model. The prices start at $999 for the 11-inch entry model and $1,299 for the 13-inch model. For more information, check out Apples website.

It’s not that the Core2Duo’s performed poorly on the MacBook Air but it is just really awesome to have the performance boost from a 2nd Generation core-i5 or an i7 because gap in power is just too wide that Optimus Prime and the whole Autobot gang can pass through it.

Aside from newer processors, the new Air boasts a new I/O interface called Thundebolt. Engineers from Apple reports that this new data transfer port is 20 times faster than USB 2.0 and 12 times faster than FireWire. This is really an amazing advancement in data transfer technology. To make the deal even better this Mac will be using Solid State Drives (SSD) with capacities ranging from 64GB to 256GB depending on the model. Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will make its first market appearance be on this notebook.

All of these sweet stuff about the MacBook Air comes with a hefty price tag (of course), prices range $999-$1,599, depending on the screen size and SSD capacity. So if you like having a powerful yet very portable notebook and loads of cash to burn then the new MacBook Air would really be a good choice for you.

Specifications ($1,599 variant):

2^nd Generation Intel Sandy Bridge Core i7 1.8Ghz

4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

256 GB SSD

Intel HD 3000 Graphics 348MB DDR3 shared memory

802.11n WiFi

13.3” Display Size

Height: 0.11-0.68 inch (0.3-1.7 cm)

Width: 12.8 inches (32.5 cm)

Depth: 8.94 inches (22.7 cm)

Weight: 2.96 pounds (1.35 kg)

Gateway ID47 is the name of this new laptop with an unusually wide LED-lit display panel designed for 14-inch laptops. This means that the edge of the screen is thinner than ever and the question begging to be asked is: why aren’t all manufacturers doing this? Sure it looks a bit odd at first, but that’s just because we are used to smaller screens in a bigger frame.

The specifications consist of an Intel Core i3 or Core i5 “Sandy Bridge” CPU (2nd-gen Core) with two cores and four threads, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 500GB hard drive, DVD writer, WLAN 802.11n, gigabit network, USB 3.0, card reader, webcam, HDMI and up to 8 hours of battery life. The computer comes in two colors: navy blue, and brushed aluminum.

One of the likely candidates for an update to some of these processors is the upcoming MacBook Air refresh, which is likely to be launched in conjunction with OS X Lion in July. This would be a huge step up from the current Low-Voltage Core 2 Duo found in both of the current MacBook Air 11- and 13-inch laptops, but unfortunately the graphics will take a hit instead when the Nvidia GPU has to go.

The Celeron 847 is the entry model–a dual-core processor with 2 MB of L3 cache and a clock frequency of 1.1 GHz. The price for manufacturers is 134 USD. Next in line is a Core i5, namely the i5-2557M. This is also a dual-core CPU with a frequency of 1.7 GHz. However, in full turbo mode it goes to 2.7GHz. Its L3 cache is 3 MB, and the price is 250 USD. The Core i7-2637M is almost identical, but with an increase in the turbo frequency to 2.8GHz and a larger, 4 MB L3 cache. in this case the price is 289 USD.

On the uppermost end of the new ULV lineup is the Core i7-2677M, which comes with a clock frequency of 1.8 GHz and a turbo frequency of 2.9 GHz. 4 MBs of L3 cache is also included for a price of 317 USD.

Your boss might have said at some point that you can’t mix business and pleasure. Well, Lenovo thinks otherwise when the computer giant released the Lenovo ThinkPad X1. This is their response to professionals who were looking for a notebook which is not only business grade but also a good multimedia platform in a light and sexy package.

Powered by Intel’s Core i5-2520M processor (Sandy Bridge) and with a maximum of 8GB ddr3 memory coupled with Intel’s HD 3000 Integrated Graphics this sophisticated notebook can fill most of our productivity needs and more.  But what is most striking about this machine is that this notebook does not only know how to work but also knows how to entertain. It is equipped with a 350 NIT hi-def display and the sound is driven by the Dolby Home Theater v4 system. That means watching movies or just listening to music using the X1 will be a really good experience. The backlit keyboard makes the experience better in the dark.

Even if the X1 is slimmer and lighter than its predecessors it still retains the toughness and durability of the ThinkPad Series even its 13.3” display is made of Gorilla® glass to prevent scratches.

Lenovo has really boosted the image of the ThinkPad series from just being serious and sturdy, now they added the “hip” and the “cool” factors. To add more likeability points to this notebook Lenovo slashed big bucks from the base model’s original price of $1595 now it is down to just $1,199.00.

You might ask what is cool with this product anyway  when there is not much difference in power than its K8 predecessors  and it is definitely not more powerful than the latest Intel Dual Cores?  The answer would be two things: rock solid graphics and power consumption

This laptop’s AMD Radeon™ 6310 IGP might not be the meanest kid on the block but delivers quite a big punch! It even beats           Intel’s Core i3-350M in terms of graphics processing power and it is way cheaper. This device would be really good for viewing HD videos and will do fine in not-so-heavy graphic games, World of Warcraft maybe?!

Another really cool thing about this laptop is that it is not a power grabber. The power economy features of the E-350 together with MSI’s ECO Engine power-saving scheme would give this machine up to 10 hours of battery life.

Newegg.com sells this machine for $599.99 and amazon has listed this at $579.99

For more info about this product MSI’s website.