El MacBook Pro tendrá rediseño total en 2012

Es un secreto a voces que ya le toca una renovación. Ya han pasado varios años desde que Apple deslumbrara al mundo entero con la renovación del MacBook Pro: fue con la salida del Unibody, el primer dispositivo portátil fabricando en una sola pieza, lo cual le dio una rigidez y un aspecto nunca vistos hasta el momento.

El propio Steve Jobs había presentado al MacBook Air como el dispositivo móvil del futuro, ¿y qué futuro más cercano que su hermano mayor? Ya se vio como la gama Air es en muchas ocasiones más potente que la gama profesional de Apple. Algo que no termina de tener sentido y cambiará en 2012.

Hasta ahora el MacBook Air era una alternativa al MacBook, pero con la desaparición de éste se convirtió en el modelo de entrada para los portátiles de Apple. La gama Pro debe ser superior en todos los aspectos, comenzando por la implantación de un disco sólido como único método de almacenamiento interno.

El nuevo MacBook Pro será casi o igual de delgado que el actual MacBook Air, aunque esto pueda significar el fin del MacBook Pro de 13 pulgadas. Con los nuevos modelos, utilizando discos duros de estado sólido, y eliminando elementos poco desarrollados como la unidad SuperDrive, y los puertos Ethernet y FireWire, Apple puede conseguir adelgazar la versión profesional hasta límites insospechados. Todas estas reducciones conseguirán potenciar el nuevo sistema de Intel, Thunderbolt, conexiones a 10 Gigabytes por segundo, más rápido que los actuales SATA III.

Además traerá una resolución en los monitores al más puro estilo Retina Display, aunque no llegando a esas cuotas, ya que tecnológicamente sigue resultando inviable una pantalla de 17 pulgadas con 320ppp. Las resoluciones que podrían tocar seguramente sean el doble de las actuales, esto supondría 3840×2400 para los modelos de 17 pulgadas; 2880×1800 para el modelo de 15 pulgadas ó 3300×2100 si utilizan la versión de alta resolución.

Sin embargo, el aumento de la densidad de píxeles tiene como inconveniente la disminución del tamaño de pantalla. Por citar, Apple tiene planteado en Mac OS X Lion la tecnología HiDPI, disponiendo de gráficos con resolución doble. De esta forma se puede gozar de gráficos más definidos, lo que permite aprovechar al máximo la resolución.

Los procesadores actuales no pueden procesar imágenes a esta resolución de forma fluida. Para solucionar esto se espera la nueva gama de procesadores de Intel, denominados comúnmente como Ivy Bridge.

Estos nuevos procesadores se encuentran preparados para procesar imágenes a 4K, y además para ayudar a la gestión de estas imágenes deben llegar acompañados de fuertes tarjetas gráficas, tales como la última serie de AMD 7XXX, e incluso la nueva generación de tarjetas Nvidia que incluyen los procesadores Kepler en su interior.

Todo ello está enclaustrado en una carcasa de minúsculo tamaño que permite una batería con una duración efectiva superior a 10 horas (más de una jornada de trabajo), y posiblemente un touchpad que ocupe gran parte del portátil.

Los rumores cuentan que esta nueva computadora podría llegar en abril, pero si no se pronuncia nada en la conferencia de presentación del iPad 3 es probable que no sea hasta septiembre cuando realmente llegue al usuario.

HP Mini 110-4100 Netbook

In the US, Hewlett-Packard has launched the HP Mini 110-4100 series, the latest addition to their netbook line. The new HP Mini 110-4100, also known as 1104, is aimed at the business and education markets. It’s based on the Intel Atom “Cedar Trail” N2600 1.6GHz dual-core processor with the GMA 3600 graphics and has a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 display.

Hardware-wise, this Atom-powered 10.1-incher is obviously a netbook, but HP avoids to call it that way. The company says the 1104 is a “full-function notebook” instead. However, on the software side, the Mini exceeds standard netbooks, since it optionally comes with Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional, alongside netbook-use Win 7 Starter.

Other features include a 3- or 6-cell battery, 93% full-size spill-resistant chiclet keyboard, up to 320GB of hard disk storage, 1GB RAM expandable to 2GB, built-in VGA webcam, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and optional mobile broadband.

Judging from the images, the 1104 has the same chassis shape as the Mini 210, but it comes with a simple black finish.

According to the specs, the Mini 110-4100 is a basic netbook, which doesn’t have an HDMI port or USB 3.0. Instead, there are three USB 2.0 connectors and VGA port, besides a media card reader.

ASUS Unveiled Four New Eee PCs

At the Consumer Electronics Show, Asus has announced the Asus Eee PC Flare 1025C, Flare 1025CE, and Eee PC X101CH netbooks, as well as the Asus Eee PC 1225B ultraportable.

All three netbooks are 10.1-inch models and run Windows 7 Starter on the Cedar Trail Intel Atom processor. The 1215B ultraportable is Windows 7 Home Premium based 12.1-incher and runs on AMD APU. They all come with an HDMI port and will ship in the US in February.

The Asus Eee PC Flare 1025C measures 1.3 inches and weighs 2.7 pounds. It comes in black, white, blue, pink, and red and has a dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom N2600 CPU, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, 320GB hard drive, and integrated graphics. The 10.1-inch LED backlit widescreen has a 1,024 by 600 resolution. It also includes three USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet ports, SD card reader, 801.11n wireless connectivity, and 6-cell (56WHr) battery. The Flare 1025C is priced at $299.

The Asus Eee PC Flare 1025CE weighs 2.7 pounds. It comes in three metallic-finish colors: Addicting Pink, Mysterious Blue, and Plucky Purple. The netbook has a dual-core 1.86GHz Intel Atom N2800, 1GB of DDR3 memory, a 320GB hard drive, SD card reader, built in Ethernet port, 801.11n wireless connectivity, two USB 2.0 ports, USB 3.0 port, and 6-cell (56WHr) battery. The 1025CE’s price starts at $319.

The Asus Eee PC X101CH entry-level netbook and weighs 2.3 pounds. It comes with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N2600, 1GB of DDR3 memory, a 320GB hard drive, two USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port, SD card reader, and 801.b/g/n WiFi. The X101CH retails for $269.

The Asus Eee PC 1225B is a cheap ultraportable laptop. The 1225B weighs 3.1 pounds. The chassis is available in black, white, and red color. The 1225B has a 1.6GHz E-450 dual-core APU, 2GB of DDR3 memory, a 320GB hard drive, two USB 3.0 ports, USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet port, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and Windows 7 Home Premium OS. The 1225B’ widescreen display has a resolution of 1,366 x 768. Like both the 1025C and 1025CE, the 1225 is equipped with a 6-cell (56WHr) battery. The Asus Eee PC 1225B is priced at $399.

Deal: Asus X44H-BBR5 14″ Core i3 Laptop

The notebook comes with integrated Intel graphics empowering the 1366×768 screen, 4GB of RAM, and it has a built-in DVD burner. The main trade-offs on the Asus X44H-BBR5 is a relatively low estimated battery life of “up to 3 hours and 18 minutes” and a low hard drive space of 320GB, whereas some even cheaper laptops on the market include a 500GB HDD. Other drawbacks are a webcam with a small 0.3MP sensor and only two USB ports.

The X44H-BBR5 model is not a thin and light notebook, measuring 1.5″ in profile and weighing 5.4 pounds. It appears to have the same dark-brown color, palmrest finish, keyboard, and touchpad as the Asus K53U we reviewed recently, but the X44H sports a glossy lid.

However, one of them is USB 3.0 and the laptop does have HDMI connector.

Toshiba’s Satellite C850, C855, C870 Cheap Laptops

The 15.6-inch Satellite C850 with 1366×768 screen resolution comes in a black matt textured finish, while the Satellite C855 with the same screen size and resolution is available in a choice of gloss finishes, including a crossline pattern and textured palmrest, as well as a “tile” keyboard. The Satellite C870 features the same design options as the Satellite C850, but has a larger 1600 x 900 17.3” display. The notebooks have new chassis designs with tapered edges.

The C850 / C855 and C870 are pretty much standard affordable notebooks for 2012, without specials such as Wireless Display technology, Blu-ray drives, or 3D screens, but they do include spacious hard drives of up to 1TB, USB 3.0, and HDMI

As same as the mid-range L series the, entry-level Satellite C laptops will hit the market in Q2. Pricing is still unknown.

Acer Aspire One AOD270 with Cedar Trail on Pre-Order in US;

The Espresso Black (Acer Aspire One AOD270-1410) and Aquamarine (AOD270-1679) models are slightly cheaper than the Seashell White (AOD270-1834) and Burgungy Red (AOD270-1835) which are Other than colors, there are no differences in the specifications listed on Amazon. The published specs info is pretty shallow. They list a 10.1″ screen, Atom N2600 CPU, 1GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Win 7 Starter, and an 8-hour battery life, probably delivered by a six-cell battery. Netbooks’ thickness is 1″ and the weight is 2.87lbs. Unfortunately, the specs don’t list HDMI and USB 3.0 which are supposed to be standard in Cedar Trail netbooks, so we are not 100% sure if the offered models actually have them.

Intel Atom Cedar Trail platform for netbooks is already well known, and we knew that Acer will release their AOD270 Aspires with the new Intel chips. But now we have names of the first models for the US market, their pricing, and active pre-order buttons on Amazon.

On the design side, there’s no any noticeable difference when compared to the previous Aspire One netbooks with “Ripple” pattern.

Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 Review

The Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 we reviewed last week is a 17.3″ inch laptop which belongs to the popular and affordable Inspiron R series. The model we tested had a Core i3-2330M processor, the Nvidia GeForce GT 525M dedicated graphics combined with the on-CPU Intel HD, 4GB RAM, a 500GB hard drive, DVD burner, and 1600×900 display resolution.

As you can see on the images above, the 17R N7110 sports an all-glossy design and the finish is a real fingerprint magnet on both the lid and palm rests. Even space between keyboard keys is glossy, not to mention the LCD bezel and the display itself. The only matte surfaces are the touchpad and the bottom of the case. A nice and unique feature on this laptop, like on the other R series, is its switchable lid, which can be easily removed by pushing a button located on the low end of the LCD back panel. The hinges keep the display firmly in a chosen position, but the whole screen panel wobbles considerably. The keyboard is surrounded by chrome-like plastics which gives this budget laptop a somewhat classy look.

Performance
The Core i3 processor used in the review unit belongs to the lower end of the Core i-series family, but it’s a mid range chip if you additionally take into consideration Pentium and Celeron chips. Similarly, the GeForce GT 525M is an entry-level dedicated video card, but on the other side it’s much faster than widely used Intel’s integrated GPUs.

Display

The display is a TN panel, which provides good viewing angles from the sides, but when you only slightly tilt the screen from the ideal position you will notice big contrast and color changes. That’s common for TN-based displays. In terms of colors and contrast, we have nothing to complain about, but brightness could have been better. The 1600×900 resolution is standard for 17.3″ consumer laptops and does provide a noticeably larger work space than 1366×768 15.6″ screens.

Speakers and Webcam

Stereo speakers accompanied by a subwoofer on the Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 deliver a pleasant sound. They provide a decent sound volume, but the problem is their location on the front-bottom of the case so high tones and sound sharpness are reduced.

The 1.0MP camera performs well in lower light conditions, such as room lighting at night. On the other hand, the frame rates are pretty low so you won’t be able to stream a fluid picture.

Keyboard and Trackpad

The keyboard is a chiclet-style one with a large space between the keys, but the keys could have been larger to avoid constant hitting keys’ edges. The keys provide good tactile feedback with a mid-range travel. The flex is present only on the right side of the keyboard – around the enter key and on the num-pad. But, that flex occurs only if you use bigger pressure on the keys. In normal typing, you won’t notice it.

Above the keyboard, there are three dedicated buttons for access to Windows Mobility Center, Dell’s support service, and for turning the screen on and off. Although these buttons can be useful, Dell could have included at least basic multimedia buttons, like volume and mute, besides or instead of them.

We had no problems with the touchpad, which is off the center in order to match the keyboard with numeric pad. It’s spacious and precise, and the separate left and right touchpad buttons have a mild stiffness. However, these plastic keys are pretty loud when clicking.

Asus G75VW Gaming Notebook Gets Listed

The G75 is an update to the current G74 17.3″ gaming laptop and it brings Intel Ivy Bridge processors and the Nvidia GeForce “Kepler” graphics. The Asus G75VW-AS71 includes the Intel Core i7-3610QM quad-core CPU at 2.3GHz and the GeForce GT 660M 2GB GDDR5 dedicated video card, but these are not top-of-the-line parts in their respective product families. The model on offer comes with 16GB of RAM and a 750GB 7,200rpm hybrid hard drive with SSD memory on it.

We have spotted the first model in the Asus G75 gaming laptop series. It’s the G75VW-AS71, listed at Amazon as “currently unavailable”. The same notebook is listed at less known sellers called Guermant and Gadgets Central Station for about $1,450. Actually, you can purchase the notebook now at Guermant and GCS, since the product pages have functional Add to Chart buttons, but there is no info on shipping date.

The G75 is an update to the current G74 17.3″ gaming laptop and it brings Intel Ivy Bridge processors and the Nvidia GeForce “Kepler” graphics. The Asus G75VW-AS71 includes the Intel Core i7-3610QM quad-core CPU at 2.3GHz and the GeForce GT 660M 2GB GDDR5 dedicated video card, but these are not top-of-the-line parts in their respective product families. The model on offer comes with 16GB of RAM and a 750GB 7,200rpm hybrid hard drive with SSD memory on it.

(Update: There’s a Thunderbolt port mentioned in newly published specs. The display resolution on the model is full HD.)

Other specifications haven’t been published, but we’ve noticed four USB 3.0 ports and a DVD burner on the images of the laptop. Asus said earlier this year that the G75 will ship with 1600×900 or 1920×1080 displays, as well as optional 3D FHD screen, optional SSD, up to 1.5TB mechanic HDD storage, and optional Blu-ray drive.

HP Pavilion 2012 Laptop Models to Ship with Sandy Bridge CPUs

The 2012 Pavilions will be reportedly released next week. Although they will include “Sandy Bridge”, these CPUs will be paired with the new Intel HM77 chipset. The HM77 is also compatible with “Ivy Bridge”, so as soon as the new processors become available, they will be very likely offered in the Pavilion configurations. At this time, we are not sure when the Ivy Bridge laptop CPUs will hit the market, but some leaks suggest the first parts will be launched on April 29th.

The refreshed entertainment-oriented HP notebook line will include the 14-inch dv4, 15.6″ dv6, and 17.3″ dv7 high-performance models, as well as the entry level Pavilion G-series g4 (14″) and g6 (15.6″). In this aspect, screen sizes and model naming scheme remained the same, but the Pavilion g7 is missing from the lineup.

The laptops have a new design.

2012 HP Pavilion dv6-7000 (dv6t), dv7-7000 (dv7t) Revealed

The new Pavilion notebooks are made of aluminum and sport curved edges with chrome ascents, as well as soft-touch finish on some parts. HP gave a special treatment to the audio system on the laptops. The 4.1 Beats Aduio-branded speaker system consist of two speakers located above the keyboard, additional two built into the LCD bezel below the screen, and a subwoofer located on the bottom of the chassis. The isle keyboard will optionally have backlighting.

The 2012 Pavilion dv6 and dv7 include DVD burners or Blu-ray optical drives, 1.2MP webcams, and USB 3.0 technology.

Regarding internal components, the laptops will deliver Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors, Italian website reports. But on the other side, it has been reported that the first available models will come with the current Sandy Bridge. CPU choices will include Core i5 and i7 chips, while for graphics there’s the 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 630M. Maximal supported ram is 8GB. Besides the screen size, the main difference between the two models is storage. The dv6 will come with up to 1TB mechanical hard drive, while its larger sibling will ship with up to 2TB of HDD storage, thanks to dual drive bays.

Toshiba Satellite C655-S5503 Deal: 15.6″ Core i3 Laptop

Featuring the Intel Core i3-2350M 2.3GHz dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, a DVD burner, and a 15.6″ 1366×768 display, the C655-S5503 is a capable machine for fulfilling routine computing needs of home and business users alike. The CPU supports Hyper-Threading which enables two separate computing threads per core for better performance and has Quick Sync Video for faster video editing. These two features are main i3′s advantages over Pentium processors found in similarly priced laptops.

This Windows 7 Home Premium based laptop has a keyboard with a separate numeric pad and is made of black plastics with the Trax texture finish. With a weight of 5.3 pounds and 1.6″ thickness, the C655-S5503 is a little on the bulky side.

However, the Satellite C655-S5503 isn’t a great entertainment system due to use of Intel’s integrated graphics only and lack of HDMI port. Another downside is presence of only two USB 2.0 ports, but it does have a built-in webcam and microphone, a multi-in-1 media card reader, and a VGA port.