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Intel's Core 2 Duo T7600 mobile processor tested
The Core Duo T2600 (pictured right) has had its time to shine, and while it's had a good run, we're naturally looking forward to the battery savings and speed boosts promised by Intel's new "Merom" Core 2 Duo T7600 chips. Tom's Hardware has the first set of numbers for us, and things look good -- if not exactly mind-blowingly awesome. So far they've only run the more mundane office-productivity tests, but the new chip managed close to Intel's promised 20% speed boost while lasting 7% longer in the battery department. Heftier tasks will probably reveal even greater speed disparities between the T2600 and T7600, but are also likely erase most battery gains. For easy tasks the T7600 can churn through its duties and then shut of elements of the chip once they're no longer needed.
ASUS launches Core Duo-powered W7J ultraportable
Even though everyone and his/her mom are releasing Core Duo-powered ultraportables these days, there are very few that you can actually play decent games on because of the integrated graphics. Not so with the just-released 13.3-inch, 4.2-pound W7J from ASUS, a model we first spotted back in March -- and incorrectly called the W7V -- which features a nVidia GeForce Go 7400 graphics card sporting 256MB of RAM along with that T2600 processor running at 2.16GHz. Other nice touches which you don't always see on a lightweight notebook are a built-in dual-layer DVD burner, 1GB of RAM standard, 100GB HDD running at 5,400 RPM, and all three flavors of 802.11 plus Bluetooth 2.0. Oh yeah, and these models will start at less than $2.000 ($1,935, to be exact) -- um, where do we sign up?
Fujitsu-Siemens' 3G-enabled Lifebook E8210 reviewed
With most manufacturers concentrating on making smartphones ever-smaller, it's refreshing to see Fujitsu-Siemens flip the script and release what may be the world's biggest Windows-powered handset, eschewing CE for XP in the process. Actually, F-S is marketing the six-pound Lifebook E8210 as a laptop, what with its 15.4-inch, 1,680 x 1,050 display, 2GB of RAM, and full-size keyboard, but any data-centric device that can make cellphone calls (thanks to the built in HSDPA-compatible 3G card) is a smartphone in our book. Whatever you wanna call it, the E8210 impresses on many fronts, says Trusted Reviews, who give the 2.16GHz, Core Duo T2600-powered model nine out of ten stars, highlighting its connectivity (802.11/a/b/g, Bluetooth, HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS, PCMCIA/ExpressCard slot, four USB, and even serial, parallel, and D-SUB ports), security (fingerprint reader and Smartcard), and benchmark performance. The only downsides here seem to be the lack of a 3G CDMA option and the ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics, which definitely makes this Lifebook anathema to gamers -- but at over $3,500, the E8210 is clearly being targeted at corporate, and not LAN party, deployment.
