The Wind U120 will hit at the end of January.
(Credit: MSI)MSI dished to Laptop magazine about its plans for its Wind Netbook.
The previously announced Wind U120 will ship in the U.S. at the end of January. As we learned last month, the U120 will feature the same specs as the U100 but introduce a new design along with WiMAX and mobile broadband connectivity. MSI's Director of U.S. Sales Andy Tung said about the U120, "the price will be about the same as the U100, but the 3G/WiMax may raise the overall price." MSI will continue to sell the U100 but its aim will be "kids and teenagers."
MSI will also release two new Netbooks in late January, the Wind U110 and U115, that will forgo the Intel Atom N270 CPU in favor of the Atom Z530 chip. Both chips feature the same 1.6GHz clock speed, but the Z530 is physically smaller and more efficient. The U100 and U115 models will feature 10-inch screens, which MSI believes is the sweet spot for Netbooks. (I would agree. Anything smaller and I'd rather use a smartphone. Anything bigger, and I'd probably spend a bit more for a more fully functional ultraportable or thin-and-light laptop.)
The U115 will also feature a hybrid hard drive that will include an SSD and spinning hard drive. You'll be able to turn off the hard drive for improved battery life; Tung estimates that the U115 will run for 10 hours on the SSD using its 6-cell battery. He expects the price for the U115 to stay below $699.
Other items of interest: MSI will be demoing touch-screen Netbooks at CES, has no plans to sell Linux-based Netbooks in the U.S., and will introduce a 1.3-inch ultraportable, the U300, that it promises will shockingly thin.
(Via: Gizmodo)
(Credit:
Michelle Thatcher/CNET Networks)
Driving through West Hollywood earlier today, I found myself stopped by a gaggle of paparazzi standing in the middle of the road. I'm not sure who they were trying to shoot, but for the first time I kind of understood how they felt. I mean, we here at CNET were all over the Lenovo IdeaPad U110 like a 'razzo on a starlet. First, there was the news that it had arrived in CNET Labs. Then we posted our initial impressions after using the laptop for a day. And finally, the full Lenovo IdeaPad U110 review. But who were we to resist? The little laptop is simply the most beautiful laptop we've seen in years.
Other laptop-related reviews we posted this week include the Averatec 2575, a reasonably priced 12.1-inch ultraportable, and the Lapworks Futura laptop desk. We also saw more leaks about Dell's new Inspiron line, and the 9-inch Asus Eee PC landed in our Labs.
Also this week, Consumer Reports issued the results of its annual assessment of the computer industry, and we were combing the brand repair history to figure out who makes the most reliable laptops. The conclusion? No one brand stands out particularly prone to problems. That's happy news for Dell, who announced this week that it will fix the funky keyboards that showed up on some Vostros, and for Apple, who announced that it would issue refunds to consumers who had to buy a replacement power adapter for their iBook or PowerBook.
Other stories worth reading: Hitachi busted out a 320GB notebook hard drive; Dell got in touch with its artsy side by issuing a special edition Inspiron 1525; NEC introduced a tough ultraportable in Singapore; and we checked out two kinds of laptop sleeve, both DIY and high-design.
In non-laptop-related news, I visited an open house NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory last weekend and posted a slide show of rover prototypes that were on display. I also put together a short list of tech gift ideas for Mother's Day, many of which can be picked up at your local retailer.
Have a great weekend, and happy Mother's Day!
For comparison's sake: the IdeaPad U110 next to Lenovo's other ultraportable laptop, the ThinkPad X300.
(Credit: Michelle Thatcher/CNET Networks)When the much-awaited Lenovo IdeaPad U110 arrived in our offices on Monday, it went straight to the Labs for benchmark testing (the typical order of operations for a laptop review). I finally got my hands on the review unit this morning, and I've spent the day putting it through my own usage tests to see how this little laptop stands up to the demands of everyday computing.
One of my key questions was whether the keyboard, which is slightly compact, would be usable. The unusual key design added to my concern: the keys themselves are made of the same glossy material as the keyboard deck, they look flat (though closer inspection reveals a slightly concave surface), and there's no space between them. The keyboard did take some time to get used to, but less time than I thought. I've typed a day's worth of work on it, including this post, with few keyboard-induced errors.
The four-cell battery (left) and seven-cell battery (right) for the Lenovo IdeaPad U110.
(Credit: Michelle Thatcher/CNET Networks)My other concern rests with the IdeaPad U110's battery. The sleek package that inspires oohs and aahs among even CNET editors depends in part on a tiny four-cell battery. It's been just more than an hour since I unplugged the fully charged laptop, and the battery indicator is warning me that I have six minutes' worth of juice left--and all I've done is type some documents and surf the Web. It's tough to accept that such a mobile design needs to be tethered to a wall so frequently.
That said, the IdeaPad U110's power brick is the smallest I've ever seen for a laptop--almost identical in size and thickness to my fourth-generation iPod--so it won't take up too much room in your bag. And Lenovo smartly ships a larger seven-cell battery with the IdeaPad U110, though using it adds to the laptop's weight and detracts from its sleek appearance. We tested both batteries in the Labs, so expect the official battery numbers--and the full IdeaPad U110 review--tomorrow.
The MacBook Air, IdeaPad U110, and ThinkPad X300 are the three hottest ultraportables out there. They all sport unique styling outside. And Intel blue inside.
The IdeaPad U110, like other ultraportables, uses an Intel low-voltage processor
(Credit: Lenovo)Styling and design are now so crucial in notebooks that when a model arrives in pink the color change alone is news.
Ditto for the styling imperative for some of the sveltest, lightest, and most impressive of notebooks: the Air, X300, and just-released U110.
Scratch the surface (or lift up the keyboard in this case), however, and you'll find that their unique exteriors house similar Intel core electronics.
Does this have anything to do with nefarious strong-arm tactics on Intel's part? Or just that AMD and Nvidia don't have competitive offerings in this space? The evidence points pretty convincingly to the latter.
Graphics--an increasingly important differentiator in any computer--is the same across all three notebooks: Intel X3100 integrated graphics. No Nvidia option here. No AMD-ATI. Intel across the board. The reason for this is strictly practical. For heat and power consumption purposes, these ultrasmall designs cannot accommodate an extra graphics processor. (It should be noted also that Nvidia and AMD-ATI integrated graphics are typically not used in ultra-low-power designs.)
The processors are all Intel too with some differences. Again, a practical consideration since AMD doesn't offer ultra-low-power x86 processors with relatively high performance.
The newest 11-inch U110 IdeaPad has gone with the Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 processor. It runs at 1.60GHz and integrates 4MB of cache. The low-voltage L7500 has a thermal envelope (referred to as Thermal Design Power or TDP) of only 17 watts. Much lower than the typical 35-watt Intel mobile processor. AMD mobile processors have similar above-30-watt thermal envelopes.
The 13.3-inch ThinkPad X300 uses the Core 2 Duo SL7100 LV chip running at 1.2GHz. This is a 60 percent package "shrink" of Intel's original Core 2 Duo design and draws a mere 12 watts. Why the shrink? These variants consume less power compared to larger counterparts, giving laptops longer battery life.
The Mermon package shrink featured in the X300 debuted with great fanfare in the MacBook Air. The Air uses 1.6- and 1.8-GHz versions of this Intel chip with a 20-watt TDP.
Similarities between ultraportables extend beyond Intel to storage options too. The Air, X300, and U110 all offer either 4200RPM hard disk drive options or 64GB solid state drives. The 4200RPM drives in the U110 and Air can be real performance bottlenecks if a user pushes the usage envelope. The X300 only comes with a solid state drive.
The solid state drives, while expensive, have proved to be able performers, even bettering high-end hard disk drives in some benchmarks.
Chinese laptop maker Lenovo, keeper of fabled ThinkPad business brand, seems like its finally getting serious about making consumer laptops. The eagerly awaited Idea Pad U110 has just landed in the CNET Lab, and we're just as impressed with the design as we were when we first saw it back at CES 2008.
This 11-inch ultraportable reminds us of similar-sized systems such as the Sony Vaio TZ150 or the Toshiba R500--but with a newer 1.60GHz Intel Core 2 Duo L7500, we expect it to be a faster performer. With a hi-res display (1,366 x 768), a 120GB hard drive, Bluetooth, and 802.11n Wi-Fi, it's got a lot over everyone's current favorite small laptop, the $399 Asus Eee PC--but we'll have to spend some more time with it to see if it's worth $1,899.
The IdeaPad U110 certainly looks like an expensive system, with some of the best aesthetics we've seen on a laptop. The red aluminum cover is etched with a subtle swirly pattern, and the large keys are similar to the ones on the HP 2133 Mini-Note, not the tiny finger-busters seen on other ultraportables.
We're currently running the Lenovo IdeaPad U110 through its paces right now, and will bring you a full review later this week.
Lenovo first introduced its new consumer notebook line, IdeaPad, back at CES in January. Now, the smallest--and arguably best-looking--of the bunch is set to ship to consumers very soon.
The U110, Lenovo's foray into consumer-oriented ultraportable notebooks, is now available on Lenovo.com, with other retailers soon to follow.
The U110 IdeaPad from Lenovo.
(Credit: Lenovo)The U110 comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6-gigahertz processor, 120GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, and comes loaded with Vista Home Premium.
The screen is 11 inches wide with no bezel and weighs in at a mere 2.4 pounds. The battery life with the original battery is 2 hours, which leaves a lot to be desired. (But the extra battery increases your mobile computing time to 8 hours, Lenovo's vice president of consumer products, Mike Kuptz, assures me.)
The U110 also comes with Dolby-branded sound with four speakers plus a subwoofer, as well as an integrated camera with face-recognition software so a person's face can be used in place of a password.
But the look is what will lure most potential buyers in. Lenovo's clearly spent a lot of time trying to make their ultraportable standout from its all-gloss white/black/pink competitors. The U110 comes in red or black, but has a great vine-patterned texture on the outside lid. The price, however, is not nearly as appealing. The basic version is $1,899. That's more than a MacBook Air, which is aimed at essentially the same market: the person who's always on the go.
The U110 will be sold in some national retail chains, like Office Depot, Micro Center, and Tiger Direct stores, but it won't be available at the largest outlets for notebook sales, Circuit City or Best Buy stores. It will, however, be available at BestBuy.com, NewEgg.com, TigerDirect, and others.
Make sure to check out the CNET Reviews hands-on video here.
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