Centrino 2 announcements galore

Sony VAIO FW, one of many laptops unveiled last night

(Credit: Sony)

Last night, while the East Coast was crawling into bed and the West Coast was tucking into dessert, Intel was officially launching its new mobile platform, Centrino 2. In addition to new processors, the platform includes an 802.11n wireless card and new integrated graphics with support for high-definition content. The platform also supports graphics switching, which lets you choose between integrated graphics (for longer battery life) and discrete graphics (for better performance).

Laptop manufacturers were quick to adopt the new platform, and many took the opportunity to significantly revamp their laptop lines. For your convenience, the first five major announcements, which describe a few dozen new laptops, are linked below:

Lenovo announces small-biz laptops, updates ThinkPads
Fujitsu launches LifeBooks with Centrino 2
Sony unveils four new VAIO lines
Toshiba's Centrino 2 offering: 3 business laptops
Lenovo adds color to IdeaPads

Over the coming weeks, stay tuned to Crave and our laptop reviews page as we highlight and review even more systems that feature Centrino 2.

[J Rankin]

What about dell? I want them to revamp their XPS line.

[thatcherm]

We contacted Dell; the company is not offering any notebooks for the Centrino 2 launch. The company is, however, "committed to offering it on our notebooks in the future," according to our contact.

[cybervipr]

That's really annoying. I really want the 1530 with the new P9500 and was waiting for the centrino 2 to launch to get a 1530 and now they're not going to offer it? What's your opinion on "the future" is?

[thatcherm]

You never know with these things--maybe Intel couldn't meet Dell's volume needs in the first few weeks of Centrino 2's release, or maybe Dell's planning to make a big announcement after all this launch news has dissipated. (I actually don't know the reason myself.)

Dell does have to stay competitive, though, so I'd expect to see at least a refresh of existing lines within the next 6-8 weeks.