DesktopReplacement
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Averatec's 15.4-inch 6700 "desktop replacement"
These days, a "desktop replacement" laptop often sports a 17-inch LCD, desktop processor or dual hard drives, but while the new Averatec 6700 bothers with none of those, it still manages some decent specs as far as AMD laptops go. Pulling processor duties is an AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 2GHz chip, accompanied by 2GB of RAM, a 120GB HDD, DVD super-multi burner, ATI Radeon Express 1100 graphics and the usual connectivity frills to be found in a mid-range 15-incher. The 1280 x 800 15.4-inch LCD could do with a few more pixels, but Averatec did squeeze in Vista Home Premium for the 1,399,000 won asking price, about $1504 US.[Via Aving]
Toshiba's fancy new Qosmio G40 desktop replacement
Toshiba has finally shed the frumpy aesthetics of its Qosmio GXX line of desktop replacements and co-opted the clean white lines of the R400 for the brand new Qosmio G40. There's the "usual" 17-inch 1920 x 1200 screen, dual 200GB hard drives, T7300P Core 2 Duo processor (Santa Rosa), 2GB of RAM and other basic necessities like that, but things get extra interesting with the 512MB GeForce 8600M GT graphics, an HD DVD-R drive and HDMI 1.3. The laptop should be come to at least Europe in June, with an asking price of around 3000 euros (about $4004 US).[Via Electronista]
Clevo D900C laptop touts Core 2 Duo Extreme, SLI NVIDIA 8800s
Sure, we've all heard those short-lived (or outright absurd) claims of a world's most powerful laptop, and the term "desktop replacement" has been around the block a few too many times, but a Taiwanese manufacturer is doing the not-so-unthinkable yet again. The Clevo D900c (which could likely be rebadged as a Sager 9260 and / or Pro-Star 9191D) is a 17-inch monster that packs quite a wallop under the presumably toasty hood, including an option for Intel's Core 2 Duo processors, dual 1GB NVIDIA GeForce Go 8800 graphics cards, up to 4GB of RAM, up to three hard drives in a RAID 0/1/5 array, 7.1-channel audio, built-in stereo speakers, the ability to house dual optical drives, integrated TV tuner, 1.3-megapixel webcam, and a flash card reader to boot. You'll also find a smorgasbord of ports and connectivity options, including WiFi, Bluetooth, FireWire, 56k modem, USB 2.0, and DVI / S-video outputs. Of course, with horsepower like this, we highly doubt the 12-cell Li-ion will last much over an hour (if that) under full strain, but we're fairly certain you won't be using this 11.9-pound beast solely on your lap much at all. We know you're wondering, so if you've been eying a mobile gaming rig and have around $2,700 (or much more for the juiced version) laying around, you can snag one sometime in the April / May timeframe.[Via NotebookReview, thanks Andrew]
Asus officially unveils its G1 and G2 gaming notebooks
If you've been holding off on picking up a mobile gaming machine, Asus has officially launched two gamer-focused designs that should pack the power those FPS freaks want need. The 15.4-inch G1 and 17-inch G2 sport common innards and unique styling cues, as the G1 rocks green outer LEDs while the G2 is complimented in red. Beneath the hood of these beasts is your choice of Intel's T7600/T7400/T7200/T5600/T5500 Core 2 Duo processor, up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, up to 160GB SATA hard drive, LightScribe-compatible dual-layer DVD burner, built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam, Bluetooth, and 802.11a/b/g. The G1 sports WXGA / WSXGA Color Shine LCD options and a 512MB NVIDIA GeForce Go7700 graphics set, while the G2 gets a WXGA display and the 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1700 card. You'll also find a fair assortment of ports, including video output, an ExpressCard slot, a flash card reader, and a few USB 2.0 ports to boot; additionally, the outer casing is built to withstand the less-than-gentle travels a mobile LAN machine is bound to endure, and the customizable "OLED instant display" can presumably showcase battery life, performance statistics, or available updates on the fly. While concrete pricing hasn't quite been nailed down yet, both notebooks will supposedly come with the pictured backpack and mouse combination, but we're sure this fairly well-loaded laptop will demand a hefty premium when it hits the market.[Via Electronista, thanks Jonathan]
Eurocom's D900K "F-bomb" gaming notebook reviewed
Okay, so right off the bat: do they even know what it means to drop the f-bomb in Canada? We've seen a lot of ridiculously-named products around here -- Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PooS come immediately to mind -- but this Eurocom model, with its allusion to the most hardcore cuss word in the English language, is by far one of the worst. Besides the unfortunate branding, however, the company's 17-inch D900K gaming notebook sounds like a pretty good performer; according to MobilityGuru the dual core AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800 processor and nVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX graphics card help it to achieve pretty impressive benchmark results. You're also getting a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution display, DVD burner, 802.11a/b/g, DVI out, and 4-in-1 card reader for the $3,500 pricetag, though the 5,200 RPM hard drive and 1GB of pokey 200MHz DDR RAM keep this rig from delivering the outstanding results you'd get from a machine like Dell's XPS M1710. Still, if you can't afford a Dell (we never thought we'd actually say that) and don't mind lugging around 15 pounds of gear to get your mobile computing on, you may not find this particular F-bomb to be all that offensive.
Kensington's Notebook Expansion Dock with Video
Just as we anticipated, Kensington has released that laptop dock we heard about a few months ago featuring Newnham Research's "NIVO" technology for connecting external monitors through a USB connection. Using only one USB hook-up to your notebook, the wedge-shaped (for keeping your machine cool) Notebook Expansion Dock supports multiple USB devices, Ethernet networking, desktop speakers, and a monitor as big as 17-inches at 1,280 x 1,024 pixels and 32-bit color. You can start turning your laptop into a desktop replacement immediately, for $180.
