Thinner than some netbooks and more potent than four or five of them combined, Lenovo's ThinkPad T400s aims to hit some sort of sweet spot in between weak ultraportables and battery-draining 15-inchers. The 14.1-inch lappie measures in at a remarkable 0.83-inches thin and boasts a starting weight of under four pounds. Within, you'll find Lenovo's heralded roll cage technology, a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor, your choice of a 128GB SSD or 250GB HDD, a 9.5mm slim DVD burner or Blu-ray player, a multitouch trackpad, Ethernet, WiFi, optional WiMAX / WWAN / Bluetooth / ultra-wideband, a 34mm ExpressCard slot (or 5-in-1 card reader), a battery good for six hours and VGA / DisplayPort outputs. There's also support for the company's ConstantConnect and Protect technology as well as a built-in USB / eSATA port. In a surprising move, Lenovo decided to actually tweak the keyboard that has become a staple of the ThinkPad line; it increased the size of the Delete and Escape keys and tightened up the spaces between the keys to "help avoid crumbs that would otherwise fall below the keyboard." You can check the full release just past the break, and you can call one your own starting today for $1,599 and up.

Intel's doing some spring cleaning on its branding structure, adding new Cores on the block. Joining the high-level Core i7 series will be the mid range Core i5 in the coming months and the lower-end Core i3's early next year. To be more specific, the Lynnfield chipsets will be either i5 or i7 depending on the feature set, Clarkfield mobile chips will be i7, and the 32nm Arrandale will at least at first fall under i3. Of course, with the new gang in town, some older monikers will be going wayside, and getting the slow fade out are Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, and Centrino, the latter being eventually marginalized for WiMAX and WiFi products only. Making the cut are Celeron, Pentium, and the ever-resilient Atom names. We're a bit sad to know there will never be a Core 2 Dodeca, but hey, it's only a name, right?. Hit up the read link for more details, including a video interview with Intel's VP of Marketing Deborah Conrad.

[Via CNET]

Read - Intel's New Brand Structure Explained
Read - Fewer Brands, Greater Impact

It doesn't take an Intel-salaried futurist to see that extended battery life and thin form factors are kind of a big deal going forward, while price and performance aren't getting swept away either -- it's been basically the ongoing state of the laptop industry since time began (as Intel has so helpfully illustrated for us). What is new is that form factors and bang-for-buck is truly getting wild of late, and Intel's latest crop of chips should help keep moving things along. In the high end, Intel's Core 2 Duo processor is breaking 3GHz with the 3.06GHz T9900 in the high end, alongside the new P9700 and P8800 chips. Meanwhile, the Pentium SU2700 is a 1.3GHz ULV chip for stuffing in everybody's next low-cost thin and light, while Intel is also introducing the GS40 Express Chipset as a scaled-down, lower power alternative to the GS45, likely for similar aims. No word on price points or availability just yet.

iBUYPOWER may not yet be a household name when it comes to gaming laptops, but its sure doing its darnedest to take on the likes of HP, Dell, Acer and ASUS with its totally respectable Battalion 101 CZ-10. This 15.6-inch lappie arrives with a 2.66GHz T9550 Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, ATI's 512MB Radeon HD 4650 GPU, a 500GB 5400RPM hard drive, 8x dual-layer DVD burner, a 6-cell battery and a WXGA (1,366 x 768) panel. You'll also find an HDMI output, three USB 2.0 sockets, a 2 megapixel webcam, inbuilt microphone, 3-in-1 card reader and a fingerprint scanner. Best of all, the outfit throws in its accidental damage protection plan, all for the completely reasonable asking price of $1,235. It's available to order now for those who can't resist, and the full release is after the break.

We thought it'd be a good idea to get all touchy-feely with Dell's latest -- and its most family friendly -- all-in-one, the Studio One 19, and while there are things we like, there are certainly a bunch of things that we wish they had done differently. Although it's already gotten some lukewarm reviews, we decided to put it through its paces and check it out for ourselves. Click on after the break for more of our impressions and what we really thought about this interesting machine.

With 512GB SSDs already announced it was just a matter of time until OEMs slapped that slim slab of solid state silicon into a laptop. Now our patience has paid off with Toshiba's 12.1-inch Dynabook SS RX2/WAJ; a world's first laptop to feature Toshiba's own 512GB SSD. Oh sure, ASUS announced its S121 with 512GB SSD back at CES but Toshiba's laptop is the first to actually ship. Remember, the Core 2 Duo SU9400-based SS RX2 is already the mother of ultra-portable badassery with a 12-hour battery stuffed into a slim 19.5 ~ 25.5mm sled weighing just 1.1-kg (less than 2.5-pounds). But with the SSD alone priced at about $1,500, well, you can guess how much the SS RX2 will cost configured (hint: over $4,000).

Update: As noted by tipster Grovester, the US version of this RX2 -- the Portege R600-ST4203 -- with the same 512GB SSD lists for just $2,999. Not bad.

Update 2: Toshiba contacted to let us know that the $2,999 listing (see Google cache) was apparently a mistake -- the real price is $3,499. Not so good.

Waiting for official confirmation on that R522 that was spied a few weeks back? It doesn't look like you're going to get it, at least not yet, but that hasn't stopped TrustedReviews from giving one a proper once-over regardless. The site's 15.6-inch review unit sports a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T6400 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 320GB disk -- plenty of power in a fairly small and nicely styled package. Decent battery life, too, clocking nearly 3.5 hours under mixed use. However, cable-free connectivity options were somewhat less impressive, lacking 802.11N, Bluetooth, and any sort of cellular wireless. So, a solid choice if you're not looking for the latest in connectivity options or don't mind toting along an external adapter. Prices are said to be between £550 and £600 ($800 to $875) with availability over there starting next month. Samsung's still staying mum about a release on these shores.

Looking for a perfectly average 16-inch multimedia laptop? Look no further. ASUS' 6.3 pound F50SV-X1, which first peeked its head out back in mid-January, is now available here in the United States. Within, you'll find a 2GHz Core 2 Duo T6400, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, a Super-Multi DVD drive, NVIDIA's GeForce GT 120M (1GB) and a paltry 1,366 x 768 resolution. You'll also find integrated WiFi, Windows Vista Home Premium, a six-cell Li-ion battery and the usual array of ports. All yours right now for $799.99.

[Via Laptoping]

Not that we're far removed from Stealth's last fanless mini PC, but hey, there's no harm in having options, right? The company's latest, dubbed the LPC-625F, is a 7.9- x 7.9- x 2.4-inch machine that somehow houses a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of RAM, your choice of 2.5-inch HDD or SSD, integrated Intel graphics, gigabit Ethernet and a surprisingly plentiful array of ports including HDMI, eight USB 2.0, RS-232 and DVI. The stock configuration sits at $1,595, but it doesn't take too many tweaks to cross the two large mark.

Today's laptops are slim and trim (with some notable exceptions), and as smaller cases demand smaller components Intel is doing its best to keep up, announcing two new CPUs specifically designed for the "ultra-thin" notebooks. They are the 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo SU9600 and 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo SU3500, both joining its existing line of consumer ultra low voltage (CULV) chips to create three tiers of efficient and dainty processors: Celeron, single-core, and dual-core. No word on where these chips will be first making an appearance, but we can think of one upcoming lithe lappy in which they'd be right at home.

While QNAP's 4-bay TS-439 Pro Turbo NAS was perfectly fine for the average home-based storage junkie, small businesses need something with a bit more potential. Enter the TS-809 Pro Turbo, an 8-bay behemoth capable of housing 8 SATA hard drives (up to 16TB, or .98 million copies of Friday the 13th, when 2GB HDDs are widely available). The unit gets powered by a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, which definitely means that your next NAS may posses more processing power than the antiquated PC it's connected to. Additionally, there's 2GB of DDR2 RAM, read / write rates of 126MB/s and 111Mb/s (respectively), and support for a litany of business-related advanced features. Mum's the word on price, but you can bet it'll be up there.

Eagle-eyed Engadget readers have spotted two new listings on JR.com for dv6-series HP Pavilion laptops. The $800 dv6-1030us houses a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400, 320GB HDD, and Bluetooth, while the $1,050 model has a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo P7450, 400GB HDD, 2 firewire ports, and a GeForce 9200M GS (oddly enough, the 1050 model has no mention of Bluetooth capabilities). Both laptops have a 16-inch, 16:9 screen, 4GB RAM, DVD±R/RW, a webcam, 802.11a/g/n and Vista Home Premium 64-Bit. The devices aren't listed on HP's US site, although support documents for the dv6 series are. No release dates given, but both models are currently available for pre-order.

[Thanks, Rodrigo]

Read -- JR.com listings
Read -- HP Pavilion dv6 series support page