Saturday, February 26, 2011

ACER ASPIRE AS7741Z-4633 OVERVIEW

The Acer Aspire AS7741Z-4633 is budget-friendly 17.3-inch multimedia notebook. One of the best selling laptops at Walmart, it is now available for just $498.

The Aspire AS7741Z-4633 has an Intel Pentium P6100 dual core processor clocking at 2GHz. Other specifications include a 320GB hard drive, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, Intel HD integrated graphics, DVD burner and a 6-cell battery that will reportedly get up to 3.6 hours of run time. Not bad for a 17 inch mainstream laptop.

The Aspire AS7741Z-4633 runs Windows 7 Home Premium operating system. It also has a 1.3 megapixel webcam, stereo speakers, HDMI, VGA, Gigabit LAN, 3 USB ports, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, a 5-in-1 media card reader and a 1600 x 900 pixels display.

The notebook sports a brown chassis with a mesh-patterned lid. It weighs 7.26 pounds.

SONY LAUNCHES VAIO CA10 AND CB10 NOTEBOOKS

Sony has officially introduced the C series Sony Vaio CA10 and CB10 notebooks. The 14 inch Sony Vaio CA10 and the 15.5 inch Vaio CB10 notebooks feature Intel's second generation Core i5 processors. Select models have the AMD Radeon HD 6630 hybrid graphics, support for Intel's Wireless Display 2.0 technology and Blu-ray drives.

The Sony Vaio C series will be available in Neon orange, Neon green, Lighting White and Bolt Black colors. Other features include chiclet style keyboards with backlights and webcams. While the Vaio CA10 has a standard resolution display, the Vaio CB is also available with optional full HD resolution display.

The new Vaio C series will be up for pre-order on March 13th at Sony's official website. Prices will start at around $800. Availability is expected in spring.

HANVON HPAD A112 ANDROID TABLET COMING

Hanvon is all set to introduce yet another Android tablet at the CeBit trade show scheduled to be held in Germany next month. The Hanvon HPad A112 has a 7 inch display with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels. It will be powered by a 720MHz ARM11 processor and run Android 2.2.


Sure, the tablet doesn't have a powerful processor. But like the Hanvon HPad A116 the company introduced at CES in January, the A112 is also being positioned as an ebook reader and media player for which you don't necessarily have the best processor out there.

The tablet is capable of playing H.264 video of up to 1080p resolution. It also supports other media formats such as MP4, MOV, AVI, ASF, MKV, WMV etc. The HPad A112 also has WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI port, a USB port, a 3 megapixel camera and optional 3G and GPS. It will be available with 256MB or 512MB of RAM and has a 3300mAh battery.

The Hanvon HPad A112 is expected to be available in the second half of 2011. It will run about 399 Euros or $545 US.

DELL INSPIRON DUO CONVERTIBLE TABLET NOW SELLING FOR $399

Microsoft Store is now selling the Dell Inspiron Duo convertible tablet style netbook for just $399. The computer has been available for a while, but at launch it sported a $549 price tag.

Unlike typical convertibles which would let you rotate the display down over the keyboard, the Inspiron Duo has a display that rotates inside the lid. When the display faces inward, you can use the machine like a typical netbook. When the display faces outward, you can close the lid and use the machine as a tablet.

Specs-wise, the computer has a 10.1 inch capacitive multitouch display with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. It is powered by a 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550 dual core processor with 2GB of RAM and a 320GB, 7200rpm hard drive. The device runs Windows 7 Home Premium. It has a 4-cell battery, a 1 megapixel webcam, 2 USB 2.0 ports and WiFi 802.11b/g/n.

DELL INSPIRON DUO CONVERTIBLE TABLET NOW SELLING FOR $399

Microsoft Store is now selling the Dell Inspiron Duo convertible tablet style netbook for just $399. The computer has been available for a while, but at launch it sported a $549 price tag.

Unlike typical convertibles which would let you rotate the display down over the keyboard, the Inspiron Duo has a display that rotates inside the lid. When the display faces inward, you can use the machine like a typical netbook. When the display faces outward, you can close the lid and use the machine as a tablet.

Specs-wise, the computer has a 10.1 inch capacitive multitouch display with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. It is powered by a 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550 dual core processor with 2GB of RAM and a 320GB, 7200rpm hard drive. The device runs Windows 7 Home Premium. It has a 4-cell battery, a 1 megapixel webcam, 2 USB 2.0 ports and WiFi 802.11b/g/n.

ASUS INTRODUCES EEE PC 1011PX WITH ATOM N455

Asus has introduced a new Eee PC. The Asus Eee PC 1011PX is essentially an updated version of the 1001PX which is one of the cheapest and most popular Eee PCs available at the moment. Asus is expected to officially introduce the netbook at the CeBIT trade show in March.

The Eee PC 1011PX is expected to be sold as Eee PC R011PX in some countries. It has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N455 processor (the 1001X has an Atom N450 processor), 1GB of DDR3 RAM, a 250GB hard drive and WiFi 802.11b/g/n. The netbook runs Windows 7 Starter Edition.

The main difference between the Atom N450 and N455 processors is that the N455 supports DDR3 memory. Bear in mind that there will be no major boost in performance.

MOTOROLA XOOM NOW UP FOR PRE-ORDER FOR $800

Best Buy has started taking pre-orders for the upcoming Motorola Xoom Android tablet. The tablet will be available in stores on February 24th. The model that is currently up for pre-order is 3G-enabled and has a price tag of $799.99. Motorola has also confirmed that there will be a WiFi only version of Xoom, however, there is no word on the availability of that model.

Meanwhile Best Buy isn't the only retailer taking orders for Xoom. Wirefly is also taking orders for the same price. Both models are designed for use on Verizon's wireless network. It looks like Verizon has no plans to subsidize the tablet. The data plans associated with the tablet are month-to-month which means you can cancel any time. Plans run between $20 per month for 1GB of data and $80 per month for up to 10GB of data.

Interestingly the Best Buy ad mentions that customers will have to pay for at least one month of service even if they want to use the tablet as a WiFi-only device. And that is kind of funny because devices usually ship with WiFi activated. In this particular case it looks like WiFi will need to be 'activated' by paying an extra fee.