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Acer TravelMate 8481 lands late August, £700 price tag in tow
Back in May, we caught a glimpse of Acer's TravelMate 8481, rocking an extra thin bezel and up to 13 nine hours of battery life for the road-weary sojourner. At the time, Acer was touting a mid-June launch, but we've just received word that the Core i7-packing notebook won't make it into carry-ons until late August. As of now, we've only got UK pricing -- £699, to be exact -- leading us to wonder when the thing will make the journey stateside. As per usual, we will keep you abreast of the details as they roll in. Until then, you can peep the full PR after the break.
Sony's new VAIO Z ultraportable laptop with Power Media Dock hands-on (video)
Now that we've seen Sony's new VAIO Z in its luscious press shots, it's time to face reality and lay our itchy hands on this 13-inch ultraportable laptop, along with its eccentric expansion dock that packs both a Blu-ray drive and an AMD Radeon HD 6650M graphics chip (with 1GB of video RAM). Just as we were told by our little birdie, said dock is connected to the notebook via Light Peak -- a first for Sony -- but there's a catch: Sony's only implementing the architecture and not the connector, so for the time being, this sweet high speed connection is only compatible with the docking unit and nothing else. Anyhow, here's a quick recap: what we have here is a 1.18kg feather-light machine packing an Intel Sandy Bridge i5 (also available with an i7), 256GB SSD and 1.3 megapixel webcam, plus a matte LCD display with resolution at 1600 x 900 or an optional 1920 x 1080. Oh yes, for an extra cost, you get some sweet full HD action at just 13 inches. This upgraded display performed well in the relatively dark confines of the press event, but how it fares under direct sunlight remains to be seen. Read on for more hands-on impression. %Gallery-127316% %Gallery-127288% %Gallery-127289%
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3-iSSD motherboard eyes-on
We're not normally all that stoked with motherboards, but Gigabyte's awkwardly named Z68XP-UD3-iSSD just about got our attention at Computex. The highlight here is the Intel 20GB SLC SSD latched onto the board's mSATA slot, which is right next to the LGA1155 CPU socket and the four DDR3 RAM slots (together supporting up to 32GB). Alas, Gigabyte says it won't be offering upgrade options for the SSD, though there are certainly alternatives out there in the wild if you dare to venture. But if none of this interests you, then there's always our multi-screen Angry Birds hands-on video after the break. %Gallery-125344%
Gigabyte M2432 laptop with GeForce GT 440 graphics card dock hands-on
Gigabyte's no stranger in the field of dockable computing devices, and its M2432 laptop shown off at Computex is yet another example proving just this. Let's focus on the actual machine first: here we have a Core i5-2410M (2.3GHz to 2.9GHz) rig packing a 14-inch 1,366 x 768 LCD, Intel HD Graphics 3000, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 500GB 7200rpm hard drive, and a DVD burner that can be swapped with a secondary battery. You'll also find 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, HDMI-out, VGA-out, 1.3 megapixel webcam, an eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port, and two USB 3.0 ports on this Windows 7 Home Premium laptop. All of this weigh 1.8kg (3.97lbs). There's a bit of a surprise inside the expansion dock: by laying the M2432 on top of it, not only are you adding six extra USB 2.0 ports plus DVI-out and another HDMI-out, but you're also kicking up its graphics power with the built-in desktop-class NVIDIA GeForce GT 440 with 1GB video RAM. So essentially, the dock doubles as an external graphics card. No word on prices or availability just yet, so stay tuned. %Gallery-125293%
Acer TravelMate 8481 series laptop shown off with super thin bezel, or so you think
Remember the rumor about an upcoming Acer laptop housing a super thin LG Shuriken display? Well, here it is at Computex. Thanks to the crazy thin bezel, we noticed this TravelMate 8481 series laptop quietly chilling out in a corner at Acer's booth, though upon closer inspection it turned out that the bezel is slightly deceptive. What's really happening here is that while the screen module (which includes the 1.3 megapixel webcam) really is eating away the bezel, the actual LCD (14.1 inches at 1,366 x 768) isn't really touching the edge. Still, it's one helluva slim display thanks to LG's display technology and Acer's carbon fiber chassis. Other highlights include Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GT520M, up to 320GB of hard drive space, up to 13 hours of battery life, USB 3.0 with power-off charging, fingerprint reader, HDMI, and Bluetooth 3.0. Oh, and like some of the ThinkPads, the mouse buttons use the same mechanism as the keyboard keys for better clicking experience, though it might not be everyone's cup of tea. No prices announced just yet, but keep an eye out for a global launch around mid-June. Video after the break. %Gallery-124876%
Apple switching to AMD graphics in 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros?
Back in December, CNET let loose a rumor claiming that Apple would be ditching NVIDIA in favor of Intel and AMD graphics in its future MacBook lineup. Now, here we are with a credible leak showing an entry level 13.3-inch MacBook Pro sporting a Thunderbolt port, Core i5 Sandy Bridge processor, and Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with the laptop's main memory. Today CNET is repeating its original claim while adding that the 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro models will feature an automatically switchable AMD discrete GPU that augments the Intel graphics whenever more power is required. Of course, they'll also feature that new Thunderbolt port and 32-nanometer Core i series Sandy Bridge processors for improved performance and power savings. We'll see soon enough, since the whole thing is supposed to get official later today.
