Here come the "MacBook Air killers" - Computerworld Blogs

Leaked info on a new Thinkpad from Lenovo has started the inevitable "MacBook Air killers" category of ultra-thin notebooks. As you might expect, the Thinkpad is more functional for business, but fuglier than the Air.

There are two kinds of people: those who care how thin their laptop is, and those who don't. Personally I tend to care, not only because thin-notebook technology is neato, but also because I like to carry more than one laptop in a single bag, or take trips where packing light is a must.

And because I'm one of those people, I think the upcoming Thinkpad X300 looks pretty compelling so far, if leaked specs are accurate.

The X300 is three-quarters of an inch thick, sports a 13.3-inch LED backlit 1440X900 screen and weighs just 2.5 lbs. It's powered by an Intel Merom Santa Rosa Dual Core Hybrid LV CPU (2.0 Ghz / 880 Mhz ), a 64 GB SSD, up to 4GB of DDR2 PC2-5300 memory. Lenovo will claim 4 hours of battery life, according to the leak. It has three USB 2.0 ports, Firewire (why?), three internal PCI-E slots, DisplayPort, an ExpressCard slot and other goodies.

The emergence of "MacBook Air killers" is no surprise. The biggest news here is the X300's "Dual Core Hybrid LV," which, to the best of my knowledge, nobody's ever heard of. Some are speculating online that it sponges off of the Intel/Apple development effort for the MacBook Air.

No pricing or availability yet (stay tuned).

Meanwhile, it's time to brace yourself for a year of banal "MacBook Air killer" headlines and a heated public war between the Apple fanboy aesthetes and the who-cares-what-it-looks-like-I-need-three-USB-ports business/practical crowd.

Another "MacBook Air killer" emerges - Computerworld Blogs

I announced Saturday the arrival of a new category of laptop -- the "MacBook Air killers" -- with the leaked specs of the Lenovo Thinkpad X300. Today I'm back to tell you about the second new system to land in this category: The Portege R500 11J and cheaper R500 11I, the details for which showed up this morning on Akihabara News.

The Portege R500 line, of course, has been around for a while, but the 11J will be "tweaked," presumably to compete more directly with the Air. The best thing about it is HSDPA baked right in. It's also lighter: 1.72 lbs. (compared with 3 lbs for the Air).

Interestingly, both Toshiba and Apple claim their own laptop is thinnest in the world. Who is right? Well, that depends on your religious affiliation. The Toshiba is thinner at the thickest point, but the Apple is thinner at the thinnest point. The Air tapers more radically, all the way down to .16 -- and is probably thinner "on average." However, laptop thickness is conventionally measured at maximum thickness, so if you accept this measure then the whole R500 line is thinner than Air.

The bottom line on relative thickness between the two lines is: Who cares? They're both really, really thin, and that's not going to be a factor if you're considering one or the other.

In fact, when you're comparing specifications between MacBook Air and other slim laptops, the Air doesn't stand out at all. Mobile Magazine published a nice table comparing specs on the Air and a smattering of other thin notebooks, which includes the old Portege R500 line but does not include the new Lenovo Thinkpad X300.

The first decision, of course, is Mac OS X or Windows (yeah, I know, you can run Windows on a Mac -- most people won't). The second decision is: elegant or functional? Third is price. And way down on the list is going to be thickness and weight for most buyers.

Here are the specs on the The Portege R500 11J, courtesy of Akihabara News:

Portégé R500-11J

-Price: $3,620

-Intel® Centrino® Duo with Intel® CoreTM2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage U7600 (2 Mb Cache, 1.20 GHz, 533 MHz FSB), Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG network connection and Intel® 945GMS Express chipset

-Windows Vista® Pro

-12.1" WXGA Transflective LED (1,280 x 800)

-64 Go SSD (Solid State Disk)

-2 Gb (2x1Gb) DDR2 (667 MHz), up to 2gb, one slot available

-No optical drive

-Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950, up to 256MB shared

-TouchPad

-Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000)

-Wi-FiTM (802.11 a/g/n), Bluetooth, 3G+

-283 x 215.8 x 19.5/ 25.5 mm, 779 grams

-1 year international warranty



Portégé R500-11I

Price: $2,970

-Intel® Centrino® Duo with Intel® CoreTM2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage U7600 (2 Mb Cache, 1.20 GHz, 533 MHz FSB), Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG network connection and Intel® 945GMS Express chipset

-Windows® XP Pro

-12.1" WXGA Transflective LED (1,280 x 800) monitor

-120 Gb (5400 rpm) S-ATA

-2 GB (2x1Go) DDR2 (667 MHz) RAM, up to 2GB, one slot available

-DVD Super Multi Ultra-slim

-Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950, up to 256 MB shared

-TouchPad

-Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000)

-Wi-FiTM (802.11 a/g/n), Bluetooth, 3G+

-283 x 215.8 x 19.5/ 25.5 mm, 999 grams

-1 year international warranty

Dell launches 10 inch netbook, reveals ‘MacBook Air killer’

Dell launches 10 inch netbook, reveals ‘MacBook Air killer’
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David Flynn12 January 2009, 2:00 PM (20 days ago.)
High-spec Inspiron Mini 10 netbook boasts multitouch, inbuilt GPS, 3G and even a digital TV tuner, while the slim stylish Adamo takes on the MacBook Air.

Times might be tough and budgets tight, but nobody’s told Dell – or perhaps the direct PC vendor simply believes that if you build it, they will come.

Apple proved that with the MacBook Air, and just about everyone else did the same with the netbook. So Dell has chosen to kick off the new year with a daring new entry in each of those categories.



We don't have any shots of the Mini 10 to show you, so instead we'll tease you with a profile pic
of the super-slim Adamo ultraportable (photo: Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com)

Inspiron Mini 10: not just another netbook?
The Inspiron Mini 10 slots into the 10 inch form factor which many consider to be the sweet spot for netbooks: squint-free screens, usable keyboards with minimal compromises, yet still several leagues smaller and lighter than conventional notebooks (especially the budget 15.4 inch clunkers sold at near-netbook prices).

But rather than muddy its own waters, where customers can already choose between the Mini 9 and Mini 12 with their respective 9 inch and 12 inch screens, Dell has engineered the Mini 10 as a deliberately high-spec netbook.

The screen is an edge-to-edge panel clocked for 16:9 resolution for 720p HD content – a bit of an oddball choice for a device without an optical drive, but which makes more sense when you consider the Mini 10 also packs an inbuilt TV tuner. Also on the ‘comes with’ roster: GPS, 3G HSDPA and 802.11n.

The keyboard stretches almost all the way to the edge of the chassis, so that it can be as close to full size as possible – a design choice that’s paid off for HP in the Mini 1000 and Mini 2140, both of which have been praised for their keyboards.

The slightly oversized trackpad with multitouch capabilities which Dell software will support with gestures for going to the ‘home screen’ (which sounds like some kind of uber-friendly UI, similar perhaps to the tabbed home screen of many Linux netbooks), your list of favourite Web sites and automatic scrolling.

The design of the Inspiron Mini 10’s chassis looks to have been modelled on the sleek slim lines of the Mini 12, so it shouldn’t surprise us that the powerplant is the same – Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom Z530. However. Dell hasn’t spilled the beans on the rest of the spec set so we don’t know if this will have 1GB or 2GB of RAM, solid state or hard disk drives or even if it’ll be loaded with Vista or XP.

Adamo: Dell’s MacBook Air killer
The other bullet in Dell’s double-barrel assault on the mobile market is the Adamo – an ultrathin luxury laptop which clearly has the MacBook Air in its sights. Dell briefly trotted out the much-rumoured Adamo during a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (an event perhaps telling held at the Fantasy Suites of the Palms Hotel!), but has yet to dive into details on almost anything but the philosophy behind it. “Precision craftsmanship and design is the name of the game”, according to the company.

There’s little doubt that Dell can deliver on either of those fronts, as the company has invested heavily on its research & design team in the past two years in an effort to move beyond box-builder status and sell more into the high-margin PC segment.



Is this the best-looking Windows laptop ever? (photo: Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com)

The Adamo is also expected to be very much a design statement by Dell - a flagship product which fulfils much the same role as the MacBook Air does for Apple. It doesn’t need to sell by the millions in order to put Dell front of mind for design and then let this flow down to more mainstream products such as the Studio laptop and desktop line.

Indeed, the very address of the adamobydell.com teaser Web sire clearly shows the desire to establish the product’s name as a premium brand and then link this directly to Dell.

Models on show where clad in a brushed metal finish of silver and black. The design is strikingly elegant yet subtly restrained. From first glance, this writer would have to say it’s perhaps the most stunningly beautiful Windows laptop he’s ever seen, and certainly on par with Apple’s best efforts over the years (up until the latest unibody MacBooks, which are on the cutting edge of notebook design and belong more to 2010 than their 2008 debut).



The Adamo was showcased in silver and black, although black remains the more
smudge-friendly of the two (photo: Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com)



Adamo (which is pronounced “A-dahm-o” rather than “Adamo-o” – fans of Battlestar Galacita already have a head start here) means “to fall in love with” in Latin, said Michael Tatelman, Dell’s veep of consumer sales and marketing. “It started off as a project code name and then we fell in love with it too”.



Dell is already experimenting with designer touches: shown above and below are different finishes on
both the main chassis and an eye-catching inset panel on the lid (photo: Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com)



One of the big questions is if the Adamo will rely on Intel’s small package variants of the Core 2, which already power a half-dozen other slim notebooks including the MacBook Air, or if it will sport AMD’s new Neo processor. Given that the Neo is designed expressly for this ‘ultra-portable laptop luxe’ market, and that the company will want to showcase some truly stunning products as early wins, we’re tipping the Neo has not been ruled out.

Intel knows this too – so we’d expect both Intel and AMD will make pilgrimages to Dell HQ with a price list in one hand and a red pen in the other, in order to add the Adamo as a notch in their belt by discounting CPU prices. Dell, ever prudent with its pennies, is no doubt looking forward to a bit of competition as these silicon suitors vie for Adamo’s heart.

The MacBook Air Is Cool, But I'll Take an Eee PC | Maxim Stuff, Apple, Iphone, Ipod, Mac, Mac world, MacBook Air

he MacBook Air Is Cool, But I'll Take an Eee PC

Posted 01/15/2008 10:45 AM by Stan

Filed under: Apple, Iphone, Ipod, Mac, Mac world, MacBook Air

Macbook_Air.jpg



If the MacBook Air was a human baby, the doctor would still be wiping amniotic slime off of it, but that hasn’t stopped just about everyone from passing judgment on it. I hate feeling left out, so I’m going to get in on this action by making this statement: The MacBook Air is not as cool as the Eee PC.



Now, I’m sure many design enthusiasts and Apple, ahem, fanboys are eager to disagree with me, but hear me out...

It’s too expensive for a machine that can’t be your only computer

I understand the point of having a tiny machine you can carry with you. I would’ve loved to have one in college so I could take notes without lugging a giant laptop with me to class. Hell, it would’ve been great out at CES, but for $1,800 I could buy an Eee PC and a really solid desktop, or even another laptop to keep back in the dorm. Then I could even play games or, gasp, watch DVDs and listen to CDs!


Go solid state or go home

With the upgrade to SSD costing a butthole-puckering $1,000 on the Air, the 4 GB and 8 GB drives in the Asus machines seem pretty appealing. They don’t have as much storage as the 80 GB HDD in the air, but they’re tougher and faster.



Hackability

OSX is great, but open source is where it’s at. If there are more die-hard tech fanboys out there than the Apple contingent, then it’s the cult of Linux (don’t be offended Linux people, I mean that as a compliment). The idea of paying extra money for OS upgrades for my ultra portable is less than appealing. And since we’ve established that it’s not going to be anyone’s main PC, all of the stuff built into the Eee should be sufficient for a carry around. Plus, the Air’s specs aren’t exactly blazingly fast, which means it might not be able to take full advantage of all the beautiful elements everyone is getting a boner about in Leopard.


Portability

The Air is definitely thin and light, but so is the Eee. The chubbier form factor of the Eee seems like it would fare better jangling around in my messenger bag, too. After all, it only takes one bad interaction with the door of the subway to turn the world’s thinnest laptop into the world’s most smashed laptop.


Douche factor

It’s only a matter of weeks before every Starbucks in the country is littered with the slick MacBook Airs. If you pay that much for a computer that pretty, you don’t just sit at home typing on it. You take it out and wave in front of people until some idiot gets impressed by it. I’ve used the Eee in public and no one bothered to ask me about it, which left me to actually get some friggin’ work done.


No SD card slot

When traveling, the ability to upload digital photos is key and for a computer that’s supposed to eliminate wires, it kind of sucks to have to carry around a card reader with you.


It’s total mugger bait

Around here, smaller just means easier to steal and the cooler something looks, the better the chance it’s going to get swiped. It’s one of the reasons I don’t park my BMW on my street. The other reason is because I don’t have a BMW.

Samsung SENS X360: MacBook Air Killer? | DisplayBlog

Samsung X360 Specifications

Display: 13.3″ Wide TFT LCD with LED Backlight
Aspect Ratio: 16:10
Pixel Format: 1280 x 800
Webcam: 1.3MP
GPU: Intel X4500
CPU: Centrino 2 ULV
RAM: 1GB up to 4GB
Storage: 64GB or 128GB SSD, 120GB 5400RPM HDD
Connectivity: 7-in-1 Card Reader, USB (3), ExpressCard/34, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Battery: 6-10 hours
Dimensions: Thickness 0.66″-1.2″
Weight: 2.8lbs

Samsung X360: MacBook Air Killer?

Let’s just get the answer out of the way: Not really. Apple’s MacBook Air is the ultra-modern minimalist art piece. Samsung’s X360 does have some nice design elements such as the brushed aluminum cover and piano black finish all around. But design wise, it is a bit of a complicated one with different materials and resulting textures. The 13.3″ TFT LCD sports a 1280 x 800 pixel format and is lit by a LED backlight. As you can see from the picture, everything is glossy and results in quite a bit of reflection. Of course, if you’re sitting right in front of it, reflections are minimized.

Samsung X360: MacBook Air Killer?

The keyboard design is ho-hum and not even as sexy as Sony’s Z or FW series let alone the MacBook Air. From the pictures, the X360 looks like it was designed with the best of intentions but maybe there were too many intentions as it does not look quite in the realm of sexy. So in terms of design the X360 is no match for the MacBook Air. In terms of utility, which is a complete different story, almost any other 13.3″-class notebook PC will be better than the MacBook Air.

Samsung X360: MacBook Air Killer?

There is an abundance of ports for the X360 including HDMI out, in addition to VGA. The X360 beats out the Air in storage category with the option of a bigger 128GB SSD or a faster and larger 5400RPM 120GB HD. Like the Air, there is no integrated optical drive, but there is a docking port where I would assume an optical drive is present. An Ethernet port is right there for you to connect to the Net if there are no WiFi hotspots around and you’re not toting a 3G card. The X360 will keep you running at full speed for up to 10 hours, even more if you carry an extra battery, an option that isn’t on the Air.

Samsung’s X360 is a decently designed 13.3″ notebook PC but does not come close to meeting the sexiness of the MacBook Air. In terms of utility, the X360 can run circles around the Air. If you live in the US, don’t hold your breath since Samsung doesn’t export its notebook PCs to the US. I wish they did.

Source: engadget (1, 2)

Technorati Tags: Samsung, Samsung SENS, Samsung SENS X360, Samsung X360, 13.3″, 13.3″ Notebook PC, 13.3″ Laptop, 1280 x 800, LED Backlight

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* October 10, 2008 -- HP Pavilion dv3500t: 13.3″ Notebook PC
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* November 5, 2008 -- LG XNOTE P310 Premium: 13.3″ Notebook PC
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* July 15, 2008 -- Lenovo IdeaPad U330: 13.3″ Wide Notebook PC

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 9:37 am and is filed under Notebook PC. The entry is associated with the following list of Tags: 1280 x 800, 13.3", 13.3" Laptop, 13.3" Notebook PC, LED Backlight, Samsung, Samsung SENS, Samsung SENS X360, Samsung X360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Samsung X360-34P Laptop Computer | Gadgets AND Portable Electronics Blog

Stay ahead of the game with the Samsung X360-34P Laptop Computer. Weighing only 2.8 lbs. it’s the perfect way to keep you on your toes, light on your feet. Packed with sophisticated features like a revolutionary battery life of up to 10 hours and an LED backlit LCD screen that displays vibrant color with crisp images, it offers nothing but the best. Watch your productivity grow with the Samsung X360-34P Laptop Computer.

49 - 10 - 8

Beginning of the month and Sony Vaio Z-series Linux Macbook Air Killer leads with 49 members, Linux Lenovo X301 follows with 10 and Linux Dell Latitude E4200/E4300 with 8.

Linux and "MacBook Air killers":

* Sony Vaio Z-series and Linux --- any of the Z series laptops.
* Lenovo ThinkPad X301 and Linux
* Dell Latitude E4200/E4300 and Linux
* Samsung X360 and Linux (soon)
* Dell Adamo and Linux (soon)
* HP Vodoo Envy 133 and Linux (soon)
* MSI X-Slim Series X320 and Linux (soon)
* Toshiba Portégé R500-11J and Linux (soon)