Turion64
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Averatec's almost ultra-portable AV2260-EK1 reviewed
PCMag got their hands on the top dog in Averatec's "ultra portable" – although at 4.2-pounds and 1.43-inches thick, we would classify it as more of a thin-and-light – 2200 series, and the verdict seems to be a resounding "meh". The AV2260-EK1 sports some solid specs, like a built-in DVD burner, 1GB of RAM, 80GB of storage and a 12.1-inch WXGA screen with Averabrite, but the AMD Turion 64 MT-32 can't keep up with most of the new Core Duo machines and dropped battery life to a pitiful 1 hour 42 minutes with the included cell. You can add an extended life battery for an extra $100, but that puts a hurt on the $1079.99 retail price, bumping it to about the same level as the thinner, faster Macbook or Dell's shiny M1210. All that plus a "cramped" keyboard lead us to believe we should keep scrimping and saving until we have enough for something truly ultra-portable.
Alienware's SLI-enabled 19-inch mALX and 17-inch m9700 laptops
Alienware unveiled two new SLI-enabled gaming laptops today, one 19-incher with a slick color-shifting paint job, and another that may be the first 17-inch notebook on the market with two graphics cards. As far as features go, both machines sport almost identical specs to the other SLI models we've seen: XP-powered AMD Turion 64 processor, two 256MB nVidia GeForce Go 7900 GTX cards, anywhere from 512MB to 2GB of RAM, WiFi (Bluetooth optional), 4-in-1 card reader, and your choice of hard and optical drives. Available for preorder immediately, the 19-inch mALX starts at $4,500 ($500 less than Voodoo's similar Envy u:909) while the 17-inch m9700 (pictured after the break) goes for $2,000 and up.
