My Best Laptop

ASUS Eee Keyboard in October will officially launch in North America and Europe in October. And while CEO Jerry Shen is keeping quiet on pricing, the original $400 to $500 estimates should hold-up. The Commodore 64-esque keyboard PC originally announced at CES in January features an integrated 5-inch display, 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of memory, either 16GB or 32GB of SSD storage, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI and wireless UWB HDMI. And given the October launch, we’re expecting this thing to run Windows 7 unlike the XP prototypes we’ve seen so far.

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Best Laptop – Lenovo ThinkPad X200 and T400s getting a little jump on the wave of Windows 7 machines due to hit next month.The new X200 Tablet is pretty much what you’d expect, bringing some newer, faster Core 2 Duo processors into the mix along with a two-finger capacitive multitouch screen, but we’re a little more intrigued by the multitouch T400s update, since the screen is actually a little nicer and can register up to four fingers. To take advantage of all this new functionality, Lenovo’s bundling in a new app called SimpleTap, which brings up an icon-based control panel for settings like volume, screen brightness, and other system functions, as well as quick app and web bookmark launchers. It’s pretty cool stuff, but it’ll cost you: the multitouch T400s will start at $1,999, while the multitouch X200 will open at $1,729. (There’s also a new X200 outdoor screen option for $1,779.)

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Best Laptop – HP ProBook 5310m and Pavilion dm3 “world’s thinnest full-performance notebook,” whatever that means, while the dm3 offers a choice of AMD Neo or Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Both rock 13-inch LCDs, hover around four pounds and measure around an inch thick. The 5310m is available with a Celeron for as low as $699, but to get that “full-performance” Core 2 Duo action, you’re looking at a $899 tag. Meanwhile the dm3 starts at $549 for AMD and $649 for Intel. With thin-and-light prices like these, who needs netbooks? Both laptops should be out on October 22, running Windows 7. Full PR is after the break.

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Best Laptop – HP Mini 110 by Studio Tord Boontje looks like just another intricate pattern printed on the lid, but it’s actually a brand new process called “HP Imprint 3D” which adds layers and depth to the design — you’ll have to see it in person to really get a vibe for it, though you probably know right now if you’re the sort of person to be swayed by high-end lid etching in your netbook purchases. The good news is that unlike the large premium HP commanded for the original Vivienne Tam model, the Tord Boontje is a mere $399.

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Best Laptop – HP Envy 15-1060ea features a 15-inch display, 1600 MHz Intel Core i7 processor-720QM CPU (6MB cache), 320GB HDD, 4GB RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830 graphics, a Night Vision Webcam with IR LEDs for all of you fans of the “Paris Hilton” school of videography, a 6-cell battery, Windows 7 Home Premium.

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New ASUS UL Series Laptop feature Intel’s Core 2 Duo SU3700 CPU as well as NVIDIA’s GeForce G 210M graphics. Asus also claims that it can last half a day (12 hours) thanks to its GraphiX Boost technology, which allows users to conserve their battery power by switching between dedicated and integrated graphics. We have our doubts, but that’s the claim.

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New Dell ultrathin Adamo XPS with 9.99mm is pretty dang thin (thinner than an iPhone, in fact). There’s no other info on this new Adamo, and Dell is calling it the “9.99mm Design Concept,” which doesn’t really help us know how far along it is. Let’s just hope Dell didn’t have to succumb to Atom to get the size down this far.

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Today AMD is introducing a new approach in retail we call VISION Technology from AMD.

Other blogs will give you all the details about what this represents in terms of the brand and the technology – the platform. In particular, check out Pat Moorhead’s blog on our new ultrathin mainstream notebook platform or Ian McNaughton’s blog on how Microsoft Windows 7 and DirectX 11 are also going to enhance users’ computing experiences. And for a simple guide you can check this website www.amd.com/whichvision.

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Acer invited us to Monza today for the launch of its latest Ferrari branded effort, the Acer Ferrari F200 One. As the name suggests this is a netbook, but it’s no ordinary Atom-based bore fest. No, coinciding with AMD’s newly launched Congo platform and the company’s joint sponsorship of the F1 team, the Ferrari One is a step above current offerings.

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The ASUS UL50 is the second CULV processor-powered laptop we’ve looked at recently — we saw the UX30 a few weeks ago. This is a slightly different proposition in that it’s a laptop with a 16.6in screen — hardly an ultraportable, in other words. Even so, at around 1in thick and weighing 2.1kg, it still qualifies as a ‘thin and light’ CULV laptops.

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