Dell have announced a new series of 14.1- and 15.6-inch Vostro business notebooks, the 1014, 1015 and 1088. Intended as entry-level machines, they include integrated optical drives, Intel Core 2 Duo processors and EnergyStar 5.0 certification, together with four USB ports, gigabit ethernet and Bluetooth.
Having teased us mercilessly back in July with the banner for their IdeaPad U450p, Lenovo have finally put the 14-inch CULV ultraportable up for sale. Kicking off from $799, the U450p has a choice of Intel 1.3GHz Pentium SU2700 or 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo SU3500 processors and up to 4GB of DDR3 memory.
Sony have admitted that certain models of VAIO notebook may be affected by the notorious NVIDIA “bump” material issue, which can see the GPU overheat and eventually break completely. The nine model types on Sony’s list join the existing roll-call of faulty notebooks, which includes machines from Apple, HP and Dell. In response, Sony are offering free repairs for affected VAIOs, and to extend the standard warranty (on the GPU alone) from the regular 12 months to four years in total.
Apple have delivered on what must be one of the most-requested options for their MacBook Pro range, and made an antiglare display available for the 15-inch model. Priced at $50, the option keeps the 1,440 x 900 resolution and LED backlighting, but does mean you lose the borderless panel.
Those of you interested in the Dell Precision M6400 notebook series, will be pleased to hear that AMD will soon be outfitting them with their ATI FirePro M7740 GPUs, which will offer a serious graphics boost.
Scant details of Lenovo’s upcoming IdeaPad, the U450p, have appeared on the company’s site. While full specifications, pricing and release availability are unknown, the IdeaPad U450p is known to have a “nice” 14-inch display and Core 2 Duo ULV processor (most likely from Intel’s CULV range).
Acer have officially announced the Aspire Timeline 1810T, the company’s latest CULV ultraportable and the effective replacement to the Aspire One 751. Spotted to preorder yesterday, the Timeline 1810T has now made an appearance on the Acer site.
The Foxconn iPhone prototype suicide story continues, with the NY Times suggesting that the company has given ex-employee Sun Danyong’s family the equivalent of more than $44,000 together with an Apple laptop to his girlfriend. However the Foxconn security official accused of mistreating Sun maintains that he merely “became a little angry” and grabbed the engineers shoulder, while Foxconn themselves claim that Sun had “lost” and then rediscovered multiple prototypes before.
Details of Acer’s new mainstream business notebooks have emerged, the Acer Travelmate Timeline series. As the name suggests, the range is based on the existing 13.3-inch, 14-inch and 15.6-inch Aspire 3810T, 4810T and 5810T Timeline models, complete with their CULV low-voltage processors. However the new Travelmates have magnesium alloy chassis for improved durability, together with dedicated anti-shock software and biometric security.
Toshiba may not have the fashionable appeal of Apple, nor the solid reputation of Lenovo, but they do know how to push the envelope. Their Portégé series of ultraportables is already slim, and was the first to offer a 128GB SSD back in 2008; now it’s the first, in the shape of the Portégé R600, to offer a 512GB SSD. Legitimate business tool or shallow one-upmanship? SlashGear decided to find out.
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