February 3rd, 2009
Is it possible to build a $20 laptop?
The unveiling of the $20 laptop-the result of a major project involving the government, universities and the private sector in India-so far hasn’t done much to clear up the mystery surrounding the ultra-inexpensive notebook. All we really know about the device is that it will have a low-power chip (it consumes about 2 watts), 2GB of memory, and Ethernet and WiFi connectivity.
Like the OLPC’s XO laptop, the Sakshat laptop (translation: “before your eyes”) has lofty goals. But several reports have raised the obvious question: Is it possible to build a laptop for that price?
Currently 1GB of memory would cost a manufacturer about $8.50, meaning the 2GB of memory alone would cost nearly as much as the entire device. The processor and chipset, display and battery are all costly components as well. Even the most basic netbook sells for about $300, and the XO laptop ended up costing nearly $200 (though the foundation is reportedly working on a XO2 that it says will cost around $75).
There are a few ways a device like this might be manufactured for less than $100.
First, it’s possible the laptop doesn’t have its own display. According to a local report, the government’s Secretary of Higher Education, RP Agarwal, stated the Sakshat will have “the capability to project on a screen.” The trouble with this theory is that the photo accompanying the story-the first I’ve seen that claims to show the laptop-clearly depicts an integrated display. The device looks like a cross between a netbook and a convertible tablet PC.
Second, it’s possible that the laptop is more of an e-book reader than a full-fledged PC. Major textbook publishers have reportedly been working with the government to develop content for the device. Still the fact that it will have Ethernet and wireless indicates it would need many of the same hardware and software components as a netbook. After all, the Amazon Kindle with wireless and a basic keyboard sells for $359.
Third, it could actually use 2 gigabits–not 2 gigabytes–of memory. A laptop with 256MB of memory may sound implausible, but if it uses a lightweight, Linux-based operating system and only a handful of basic apps, it could be done. In fact, the minimum system requirements for Ubuntu 8.10, a full-featured Linux distribution, include 256MB of RAM. Even so, other components would still push the laptop well north of $20.
Finally, there’s always the possibility that the government will heavily subsidize the device, which is part of a broader effort to reduce the digital divide between cities and rural areas in India. That would make sense, but most reports say it’s not the case. Though it hasn’t announced a manufacturing partner yet, the government promises to begin selling the device in about six months, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see whether (and how) it can deliver.
Christopher Dawson has more coverage of the $20 laptop on his ZDNet Education blog.
January 29th, 2009
Graphics market shrank last quarter, but AMD-Nvidia battle continues
As the PC market goes, so goes graphics cards. After “defying gravity” in the third quarter of 2008, the market for graphics processing units (GPUs) came crashing down to earth in the fourth quarter, according to Jon Peddie Research.
The industry shipped a total of 72.4 million GPUs in the fourth quarter, compared with 100.5 million in the same quarter a year earlier and 111.3 million in the third quarter. That’s the first time that shipments have dropped from the third quarter to the fourth quarter since the year 2000, though the steep drop-about 35%–was due as much to an unusually strong third quarter as it was to a very tough fourth quarter.
Everyone experienced the pain–AMD, Intel and Nvidia all shipped fewer GPUs in the fourth quarter. But after a difficult year, Nvidia started to gain back some share. Both Nvidia and Intel increased shipments of notebook GPUs and gained some market share, while AMD’s share shrunk to 17%–about where it was a year ago. Desktop GPU shipments have been declining overall, but AMD and Nvidia both picked up a little market share from Intel during the fourth quarter.
Nvidia now has a much stronger product lineup including the GeForce 9400M hybrid graphics solution in Apple and Toshiba laptops, and more recently, the GeForce 100M series for mainstream notebooks and GeForce GTX 285 and GTX 295 high-end desktop graphics solutions, which were announced at CES earlier this month. Both desktops solutions use an updated version of the GT200 GPU (compared with the 65nm GTX 280), but the GTX 285 has a single GPU while the GTX 295 has two GPUs. Though $500 cards only account for a fraction of GPU sales, the GTX 295 is important because with it Nvidia clearly regained bragging rights to world’s fastest card from AMD, which owned the title for much of 2008 with its 55nm dual-GPU solution, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2. Here are some recent reviews of the GeForce GTX 295:
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 [CNET Editors' Choice]
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 Graphics Card Review [ExtremeTech Approved]
- GeForce GTX 295 review - BFG [Guru of 3D]
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 Unleashed [HotHardware]
- BFG GTX 295 Review: Dual-GPU showdown [Neoseeker]
- BFG GeForce GTX 295 1796MB and Quad SLI Review [PC Perspective]
- Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 285 and 295 graphics cards [The Tech Report]
- GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 295 Graphics Card [TweakTown]
In response, AMD has cut its suggested prices on graphics cards based on the HD 4870 X2 from $549 to $449. Many sites have also speculated that AMD will also release 45nm, or even 40nm, mid-range and high-end GPUs sometime on the first half of 2009. At CES, AMD also updated its mobile graphics lineup with the release of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series.
January 26th, 2009
MIDs haven’t made it, but Intel is undaunted
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. . . BusinessWeek reports that Intel is readying a big push for a new class of handhelds known as MIDs, or Mobile Internet Devices.
Intel has been talking up MIDs–devices that sit awkwardly between a smartphone and a netbook–for the better part of two years. Despite its efforts, the MID seems like a product that exists only at tradeshows, where the Intel booth is often jammed with prototypes from Aigo, BenQ, Gigabyte, Lenovo and others that virtually no one uses in the real world.
What is new is that Intel is getting set to release its Moblin 2 operating system for these devices. Moblin is based on Linux (Intel has apparently been hiring some noted Linux developers) and it will be distributed by Canonical (the Ubuntu people) and Novell. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, Intel plans to announce several new MIDs–including ones from new hardware partners–based on Moblin 2, according to the BusinessWeek story.
Why is Intel doing all this? The original rationale was that it needed a home for its Atom processor, which is too power-hungry for smartphones but not powerful enough for full-fledged notebooks. Instead Atom found its niche in netbooks. During a horrible fourth quarter, Atom sales actually grew into a $300 million business.
But the surprising success of netbooks has a downside for Intel, Microsoft and the PC companies. It may be cannibalizing sales of higher-priced laptops–though the extent of this is a matter of debate–and is almost causing notebook prices to fall even faster than usual. (See “$200 Laptops Break a Business Model” in today’s New York Times.)
In addition, Intel has long-term plans to compete against companies such as Samsung, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, all of which develop ARM-based application processors for smartphones. The handset market dwarfs PCs, and smartphones are the fastest growing segment. The next version of Atom, code-named Moorestown and due out late this year or early 2010, was supposed to get Intel into smartphones, but lately the company has been signaling that it will also be used in larger devices. All of this explains why Intel still hasn’t given up on MIDs, which are really an interim step.
The conventional wisdom is that MIDs are destined to fail because they occupy a no-man’s land between smartphones and laptops. No one wants to carry a third device. There’s some truth to this, but I don’t think that’s the main issue. After all, there already is one successful MID: the iPhone/iPod Touch. Sure, the iPhone has voice as well as data so, strictly speaking, it isn’t a “third device.” But I know plenty of people who carry both a BlackBerry and an iPhone. The bottom line is that the iPhone and iPod Touch are really great mobile Web browsers–which is Intel’s chief argument for the MID as well.
In other words, a good MID could carve out its own market. The bigger issue with MIDs may be that they pit Intel against some of its own customers and partners. Apple doesn’t use Atom, but it does use Intel chips in Macs. Microsoft had to scramble to beat back Linux on netbooks (successfully, it seems), and now Intel is developing a Linux platform that competes with Windows Mobile? It’s little surprise that neither Apple nor Microsoft sees much of a future for MIDs.
Initially Intel was counting on Mobile WiMax to jump-start the MID market. That seemed like a smart strategy because it would let Intel and its hardware and software partners do an end-run around the wireless carriers and offer wireless broadband at a lower monthy rate. But because of Sprint’s business challenges and other issues, the buildout of the WiMax network has been slow, so expect to see a lot of new MIDs that offer both WiMax and standard 3G options. Ultimately the market for mobile devices that provide fast and complete access to the Internet anywhere, anytime will be so large that there should be room for gadgets of all shapes and sizes from smartphones to ultraportables–regardless of what we call them.
January 22nd, 2009
Quad-core price war breaks out
AMD has already cut prices for its flagship 45nm processor–which the company announced on January 8–for competitive reasons.
The 3.0GHz Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition is now priced at $225 and the 2.8GHz Phenom II X4 920 is selling for $195. At launch, those two chips were priced at $275 and $235, respectively.
Mark Hachman at PC Magazine first noticed that AMD’s new Phenom II X4s were selling for a lot less than the listed prices. AMD apparently confirmed that it had cut prices, but a spokesperson said the company wouldn’t make any announcement or update its price list because it was in a “quiet period” prior to reporting quarterly earnings later today. Nevertheless AMD’s processor price list now reflects the 17-18 percent price cuts.
On Sunday Intel slashed prices on many of its Core 2 Quad processors. Intel cut the price of the 3.0GHz Core 2 Quad Q9650 a whopping 40 percent from $530 to $316. The prices of other Core 2 Quad processors were cut 16-20 percent. The 2.83GHz Q9550, 2.66GHz Q9400, 2.50GHz Q8300 and 2.33GHz Q8200 now sell for $266, $213, $183 and $163, respectively.
With the release of the Core i7 chips in November, the Core 2 Quad are no longer the fastest horses in Intel’s stable, but reviews (links below) show that that they still compare favorably to AMD’s latest and greatest on benchmarks. That is probably why AMD is already feeling compelled to cut prices.
AMD Phenom II X4 reviews:
- AMD Phenom II X4 940 & 920: A True Return to Competition [AnandTech]
- AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Review [ExtremeTech]
- AMD Phenom II X4 940 Processor Review [Legit Reviews]
- AMD’s Phenom II processors [Tech Report]
January 21st, 2009
Studio + XPS looks like a winner for Dell
Dell hopes the stylish Studio XPS laptops, announced at CES a few weeks back, will help shake up its image, and it may be working. CNET, Laptop Magazine and PC Magazine have all posted reviews of the 16-inch entertainment notebook, and the latter two awarded it an Editors’ Choice.
The Studio XPS 16 is Dell’s first 16:9 16-inch notebook. It starts at $1,199, but all three tested a higher-priced configuration with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600, 4GB of memory, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3670 graphics with 512MB, 320GB drive and a slot-loading combo drive that can play Blu-ray movies and burn DVDs. Laptop Magazine and PC Magazine state that the price as tested is $1,804, but when I configure it at Dell’s site, it comes to $1,649, which is also the price listed on the CNET review. The key upgrade here is the full HD (1,920×1,080) LED backlit display, which is well worth the extra $250.
CNET wasn’t as impressed by the new design with its “superfluous” leather trim, but they gave Dell points for adding a few nice features–full HD, LED-backlit display, backlit keyboard and DisplayPort–to a “fairly standard set of components without jacking up the price too much.” Laptop Magazine loved the edge-to-edge display, which displays 100 percent of the RGB color gamut, is very bright and has a wide viewing angle:
The bottom line is that anyone on the hunt for a multimedia notebook with top-notch performance, Blu-ray, cutting-edge features, and plenty of style will find that the Dell Studio XPS 16 meets those criteria in spades.
Sony has a desktop replacement with an 18.4-inch display, the VAIO AW series, that can also display 100 percent of the Adobe RGB color gamut, but it starts at more than $2,000 with that option, and similarly-configured it would cost around $2,250. PC Magazine gave the Studio XPS 16 an Editors’ Choice because it delivers the benefits of an RGB-LED display–among other features–”without paying outrageous prices.”
The chief competitor to the Dell Studio XPS 16 is the HP HDX 16, though there are several other 16-inch, full HD contenders including the Acer Aspire 6930, Sony VAIO FW series and Gateway MC series. That’s a tough field, but based on these reviews, the Studio XPS 16 stacks up pretty well in all areas–features, performance and price.
The other new Studio XPS model, the Studio XPS 13 has a 13.3-inch display, which is available with or without LED backlighting. Dell could use a bit of good news–in the fourth quarter the company’s PC shipments in the U.S. dropped more than 16% compared to the same quarter a year ago, according to IDC’s preliminary results.
Dell Studio XPS 16 reviews:
January 15th, 2009
First Sony VAIO P Series reviews: On second thought. . .
You can’t judge a netbook by its cover. With its amazing looks, the Sony VAIO P Series landed a spot on nearly everyone’s Best of CES list. But only a few days after the curtain came down, the first full reviews have been posted, and it looks like the “LifeStyle PC” may not be the showstopper it seemed.
It’s easy to see why so many tech journalists fell for the P Series. The extra-wide 8-inch display results in a netbook that is uniquely long and lean, weighing only 1.4 pounds. Despite its tiny size, it has a good keyboard and features not found in most netbooks such as a high-resolution display (1,600 x 768, in this case), integrated 3G and GPS. So far so good.
Then came the actual tests. How’s this for a list of “cons” for a netbook that starts at $900 from PC Magazine’s review:
Underpowered. Bloated with software. Three-cell battery yields only 2 hours of battery life. Needs another price adjustment.
In its review, Laptop Magazine wrote that, while performance was “adequate for light productivity chores,” overall it was “less than stellar” noting that the P Series was “struggling to redraw the screen when merely closing programs or moving windows around.”
Keep in mind that both PC Magazine and Laptop Magazine were actually testing a $1,199 configuration that includes a 64GB SSD, which ought to enhance performance. The base $900 configuration has a 60GB hard drive. Both sites also said the P Series became “uncomfortably warm” when in use.
It’s tough to know how any laptop will perform until you run a full battery of tests, but in this case the problem was predictable thanks to the combination of an Intel Atom Z series chip and Windows Vista. At CES, I spent a only a few minutes with the P Series–opening and closing dialog boxes, launching Word, creating and saving simple documents–and it was obvious that performance was an issue.
Even if you didn’t get a chance to try it, the specs tell the story. There’s a reason the vast majority of netbooks run Windows XP–Atom simply isn’t up to the task of Vista. (That’s why Microsoft has taken pains to note that Windows 7 will run comfortably on a netbook.) Even with Windows XP, the 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 found in nearly all netbooks isn’t noted for its performance. But the P Series uses an even slower chip–the 1.33GHz Atom Z520–that was originally designed for MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices). Throw in Sony’s notoriously hefty software bundle (25 VAIO-branded apps alone?) and the poor P Series can barely get out of its own way. Sony insists the P Series is a true notebook–not a netbook–but even compared to netbooks that cost half as much, it performed poorly on tests.
Sony says performance isn’t the point. The target audience is women, and eventually college kids and young professionals. And as PC Magazine’s review states: “According to Sony, women aren’t too concerned about what’s inside the system; how it looks is more important.” I’m going to give Sony the benefit of doubt here and assume that this is a bit of an oversimplification. I’m sure women do care about how the products they use look, but they need a functional PC just as much as men do.
To be fair, Sony is hardly only company to try this tack. Ask HP execs why the HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam edition costs $275 more than an identically-configured HP Mini 1000–both of which are very good netbooks–and they just smile.
The Sony P Series is a sleek two-seater with the engine of an econobox. The design is absolutely compelling–and I believe there is a market for a go-anywhere subnote with 3G–but Sony needs to open up the hood and do some work. If the design won’t allow for a faster processor and chipset–and I’m almost certain it won’t–then kick Vista to the curb, drop Windows XP in there (even if you must knock the memory down to 1GB), and get rid of all those bundled apps.
That should buy some time until Windows 7 ships–and, if the rumors are correct, Intel releases a (slightly) more powerful Atom platform–both of which would make the P Series a better proposition. Still, it is one great-looking laptop.
January 14th, 2009
The best of the “Best of CES”
The Consumer Electronics Show wrapped up on Sunday, and by now the many Best of CES lists have been posted. Every year there are a few blockbusters that show up on nearly everyone’s list. This year the darlings were the Palm Pre and the Sony VAIO P Series, a tiny subnotebook with an 8-inch widescreen display.
But there were some differences of opinion as well. SanDisk’s slotRadio MP3 player is a polarizing product–reviewers either love it or hate it. And the same race car simulator that PC World included among the Best of Show landed on Popular Mechanics’ list of “Tone Deaf Products in a Recession” thanks to its $40,000 price tag. Then again, PC World was one of the only sites that didn’t fall head over heels for Sony’s $900 netbook Lifestyle PC.
CNET is the official arbiter of the Best of CES, so it makes sense to start there. The Best in Show was no surprise. After its annus horribilis, Palm needed a miracle and nearly everyone agreed that it delivered with the Palm Pre. The hardware is fine, but the “the real highlight of the Pre is the user interface and OS.” The Palm Pre wasn’t just a critical darling–it also picked up the People’s Voice award. (By the way, Palm also deserves some award for keeping the wraps on the Pre until CES, at a time when nearly every vendor seems to be playing games with NDAs and leaks on gadget blogs.)
Sony picked up two CNET awards for its incredibly-tiny VAIO P Series ultraportable and the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-G3 WiFi digital camera. I had some hands-on time with both at the show, and they are compelling products, though I suspect when reviewers actually test the P Series, performance will be an issue. Home theater winners included Panasonic new plasma TV line; Samsung’s home Blu-ray theater-in-a-box; and EchoStar’s set-top box with Slingbox on board. Samsung’s P3 really is one awesome MP3 player, but at this point does it really matter? Even Microsoft may be throwing in the towel, though the company (sort of) denies it.
PC World didn’t bestow a single Best of award, but it did compile a very broad list–the filming of Jeopardy on the show floor made the cut, for instance–of show highlights including, of course, the Palm Pre. It was nice to see a list that included a good dose of software and services, most notably the Yahoo Connected Widgets TV platform–which was all over the place at the show–and the Slacker and Flycast streaming Internet radio services for smartphones.
PC World compiled a separate slideshow of products that “missed the mark.” Some were fairly obvious–too many iPod and iPhone cases, for example. But there were some interesting contrarian picks as well including the Sony P Series with its tiny, high-resolution display (”The P Could Stand for ‘Pain’–Eye Pain”) and SanDisk’s slotRadio MP3 player, which the company unfurled at a press conference headlined by Akon (”not just a bad idea, but an anachronistic bad idea”).
Popular Mechanics loved the P Series, as well as 17 other products at CES including the LG Watch Phone, due out later this year; Yahoo TV Widgets; Panasonic’s SDR camcorder with 70X optical zoom and image stabilization; and the eco-friendly Sony Bravia VE5 series HDTVs. I’ll reserve judgment on Polaroid’s PoGo digital camera with built-in printer until I’ve seen a few reviews. The “Postcards from the Edge of CES” feature highlighted oddball products such as an electric-shaver powered by a hand crank and speakers that look like fruits and vegetables.
One of the more distinctive CES lists, “5 Tone Deaf Products in a Recession” included a $60,000 turntable, $1,400 headphones, and predictably Monster Cable, which this year was hawking HDMI cables ($200 to $1,800 depending on length) with a transfer rate sufficient for displays up to 480Hz, “which is kind of like saying it’s the perfect saddle to strap onto a unicorn.” Actually LG was hawking a 480Hz LCD TV at the show, though it’s sleight of hand–it is actually a 240Hz set that uses a scanning backlight. Toshiba and Vizio use the same technology in their 240Hz sets, which technically operate at 120Hz.
Laptop Magazine mostly hewed to popular picks such as the Palm Pre, Sony P Series and Panasonic camcorders. HP’s Pavilion dv2, the first laptop with AMD’s Athlon Neo chip, is an intriguing ultraportable that deserved a spot on more lists. Laptop Magazine also singled out the Casio Exilim EX-FC100 as best camera because it puts novel features first introduced in the Casio EX-FH20–slow-motion video, burst shooting at 30 frames per second–in a compact, point-and-shoot.I’m a bit skeptical of D-Link’s SideStage, a secondary, USB-powered 7-inch display for laptops. It won’t be out until the spring and D-Link hasn’t announced pricing yet, but the number I’ve heard sounds a bit high. It’s also not unique. Samsung was demonstrating its SyncMaster D190SX Sidekick, a larger, wireless secondary display, which was one of the many CES Innovations Awards honorees. It seems a bit early to honor Nvidia’s Ion platform, which pairs an Intel Atom with the GeForce 9400 GPU, but Laptop Magazine said one look at a reference PC running Call of Duty 4 and playing HD video “without a hiccup” on a large TV sealed the deal.
Yahoo Tech’s picks–Palm Pre, Sony P Series, LG Watch Phone–were fairly predictable. Blogger Christopher Null also liked the 3D TV technology that Panasonic, Samsung and Sony all demonstrated. He’s also a fan of the SanDisk’s slotRadio, concluding that “If you just want to listen to a whole lot of advertising-free music all day and not mess around with playlists, syncing, and the like, the $100 price tag of slotRadio is a compelling deal.” Though nearly everyone covered Microsoft’s release of the beta of Windows 7, Yahoo Tech was one of only two major reviews site I saw (the other was PC Magazine) that mentioned it among the best of CES, in this case because it is “more polished, refined, and prettier than Vista ever dreamed of.”
Though not strictly a best of list, Wired’s list of innovations at CES included many of the same gadgets. More interesting selections included a Motorola CDMA femtocell that doubles as digital picture frame, a Plustek scanner than automatically converts scanned books into MP3 audio files, and a remote from a company called Hillcrest Labs that claims to improve on the Nintendo Wiimote.
CNN fell for the “Get Smart” gadgets at the show. They were in good company with the Sony P Series and the LG Watch Phone. But most of the other picks such as a $2,000 Motorola cell phone made of stainless steel and sapphire crystal, the LiveScribe Pulse pen, an alarm clock that responds to voice commands, and a Sharper Image keychain/MP3 player seem more like novelties.
PC Magazine just posted its list this morning. Many familiar names–Palm Pre, Sony P Series, Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-G3 with WiFi, LG Watch Phone–are on there. Samsung has a true 240Hz LCD TV line, the 8000 series, which PC Magazine chose for its frame-rate technology, LED backlighting, slim design, and low power consumption. Two other laptops made the list, the MSI X320, which is a poor-man’s Apple MacBook Air, and the Dell Studio XPS 16, a new model with a 16-inch widescreen display. PC Magazine has already posted a full review of the Dell Studio XPS 16 and awarded it an Editors’ Choice.
Like CNET, PC Magazine singled out EchoStar’s HD DVR/Slingbox and the Samsung P3 MP3 player, but it went with Vizio’s first Blu-ray player, the VBR100, largely because it should be available starting in April for as little as $150. The Clickfree Transformer Cable, a very simple back-up system, was an interesting choice. The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg gave Clickfree a favorable review last week. In addition to PC Magazine’s overall picks, my boss, Michael Miller, posted his own picks on his blog, Forward Thinking.
There were several other peripherals that showed up on lists time and again. Samsung’s MBP200 Pico Projector is a tiny DLP projector that connects to a cell phone and displays video, images or PDFs at sizes up to 50 inches. PC World, Popular Mechanics and Laptop Magazine all gave it the nod. Over the years, I’ve seen several attempts at wireless chargers for cell phones and MP3 players, but Powermat claims to be the first solution that can charge wirelessly at the same speed as conventional wall plugs without burning a hole through your desk. PC Magazine, Popular Mechanics, Laptop Magazine and Wired all picked Powermat. The latest OQO ultra-mobile PC (you remember UMPCs, right?) also made it onto a few lists. I still don’t get UMPCs, but I had a chance to try out the OQO model 2+, which now includes an Intel Atom processor and Qualcomm’s Gobi 3G wireless, and I have to admit that the new OLED display looked great.
List of the Best of CES 2009 lists:
- Best of CES Awards [CNET]
- People’s Voice [CNET]
- New year, new toys: eight highlights from CES [CNN]
- Best of 2009 CES [Laptop Magazine]
- The 15 Hottest Products at CES 2009 [PC Magazine]
- My favorite CES gadgets [PC Magazine]
- Best Products of CES 2009: Let Us Introduce You [PC World]
- CES 2009: Some Gadgets Missed the Mark [PC World]
- Top 18 Products at CES 2009: PM Editor’s Choice Awards [Popular Mechanics]
- Postcards From the Edge of CES: Oddball Inventions We Want to See in Best Buy [Popular Mechanics]
- 5 Tone-Deaf Products in a Recession: CES 2009 [Popular Mechanics]
- Gadget Roundup: Innovation Is Back at CES 2009 [Wired]
- The best of CES 2009 [Yahoo Tech]
January 9th, 2009
Adamo is a near no-show, but Dell ships Studio XPS laptops
The scraps of news Dell parceled out on its mysterious Adamo laptop at CES left reviewers disappointed, but the company did announce several new laptops and one desktop, the XPS 625, at the show.
The new laptops meld together two Dell brands, the mid-range Studio and the high-end XPS (Inspiron is budget brand). Dell already sells a 13-inch XPS M1330–a popular model that is available both direct and in stores such as Best Buy–but the Studio XPS 13 is a new design. And the Studio XPS 16 is Dell’s first model with a 16-inch widescreen display, not counting the low-end Vostro A860 with a 15.6-inch display.
Both Studio XPS models are part of Dell’s effort to revamp its image with flashier products. The case is glossy black with aluminum and leather accents. Like many laptops I’ve seen lately, it has an edge-to-edge 16:9 widescreen display, which hides the bezel and gives it a clean look. And both models use slot-loading DVD drives. Overall the new design looks great, but all of that metal and leather apparently adds a bit to the system weight. At 4.9 pounds, the Studio XPS 13 weighs nearly a pound more than the Studio M1330 and more than competitors such as the HP Pavilion dv3 and Lenovo IdeaPad U330.
The Studio XPS 13 starts at $1,199 with a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, 4GB of DDR3 memory, Nvidia GeForce 9400M G graphics and a 320GB hard drive. The optional GeForce 9500M GE with 256MB supports Hybrid SLI ($100 extra) and an LED-backlit display at the same resolution adds $125 to price. The Studio XPS 16 starts at the same $1,199 with the same processor, memory and hard drive capacity, but it uses AMD’s ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3670 graphics with 512MB of memory. But the better display with Full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,080) and a broader color gamut adds $250 to the price. Both systems are now available.
At its press conference at CES earlier today, Dell also announced that it will round out its netbook line with a new Mini 10, which as the name implies will have a 10-inch display and sits right between the current 9- and 12-inch models. Later this quarter, Dell will also start selling a $50 USB TV tuner for all three netbooks (it works with Windows XP, Vista and Ubuntu Linux 8.04). This could be the start of a trend–during a booth tour Asus told me it is working on an Eee PC with a TV tuner and Sony’s P series netbook Lifestyle PC comes with one as well. No details on the Mini 10 price or availability yet.
There were even fewer details on Adamo, which started as an internal code-name but is now the official name for a full-fledged laptop with “better capabilities than you’d expect” from the quick glimpses of its thin case, according to CNET’s coverage of the event. Dell’s Adamo site still says simply “Coming Soon.” By my count that gives Dell a grand total of seven different laptop brands: Mini, Inspiron, Studio, Studio XPS, XPS, Vostro and Latitude.
- [Read the Dell Studio XPS press release]
- [Read the Dell USB TV tuner press release]
January 8th, 2009
SanDisk boosts speed, lowers price of SSDs
SanDisk announced today a new line of SSDs that not only offer larger capacities but, according the company, are twice as fast as competing SSDs that have hit the market in the past year (which are themselves already significantly faster than standard hard drives on many tasks).
Intended as the hard disk drive replacements in laptops for consumers and business users, the G3 series SSDs will be available at 60GB ($149), 120GB ($249) and 240GB ($499) capacities. All three capacities will be available for laptops that use either 1.8-inch or 2.5-inch drives.
Like most laptop SSDs, SanDisk G3 series is based on less-costly MLC (Multi-Level Cell) NAND flash. The drawback to MLC is that its performance and endurance is inferior to the pricey SLC NAND in enterprise-class SSDs. In this case, however, SanDisk is promising some big performance numbers–sequential read performance of 200MB per second and sequential write performance of 140MB per second. That’s twice as fast as most SSDs and five times faster than a 7,200rpm hard drive, SanDisk says. Intel’s 80GB X18-M and 160GB X25-M SSDs–which are generally regarded by reviewers as the top performers–have a maximum read speed of 250MB per second but a write speed of 70MB per second.
Why are the SanDisk drives so fast? SanDisk says it has to do with several new technologies: its ExtremeFFS file system; 43nm NAND flash using a different design known as an all bit-line (ABL) architecture; and SanDisk’s latest controller.
To date, netbooks have been driving the SSD market. SanDisk and several others offer PATA-based drives at lower densities for this market. Earlier this week SanDisk announced its second generation of these modular drives for netbooks in 8-, 16-, 32- and 64GB capacities. But the comany thinks pricing has finally reached an “inflection point” where higher-density laptop SSDs will be competitive. If these lower-priced SSDs can really deliver on the promises of faster booting, quicker application launching and longer battery life, they could start to catch on. That would be a welcome development for an industry awash in excess NAND flash chips. As SanDisk Chairman Eli Harari said at the press conference, “demand creation is job one for the industry.”
January 8th, 2009
AMD’s Dragon, Phenom II get official
AMD is taking its second stab at a desktop platform–this time with a more promising processor as its foundation. The Phenom II X4, which AMD officially announced yesterday, is the final piece in its new Dragon platform for high-end desktops. The other components are the ATI Radeon 4800 series graphics and 7-series chipset–both of which are already in wide use.
With the exception of the price, the details of the new chips were already well-known. The 2.8GHz Phenom II X4 920 is priced at $235 and the 3.0GHz Phenom II X4 940 is priced at $275. AMD emphasized that this isn’t just a shrink of its troubled 65nm Phenom processor. The new 45nm version scales to higher frequencies, has 4MB of additional cache, will soon work with faster DDR3 memory (though the initial AM2+ platform is DDR2 only) and has other enhancements that allow it to handle more instructions faster. In all, AMD says it will deliver a 20% performance boost over AMD’s fastest Phenom X4, the 2.6GHz Phenom X4 9550 (now priced at $174).
Even AMD admits that’s not enough to match Intel’s Core i7, but it does put them back in the game and the real question is how Dragon-based desktops will match up to Intel desktops at the same price. Phenom II X4s are already shipping and at CES I’ve seen Dragon desktops from Dell and its Alienware gaming group. HP is already selling a Pavilion Elite m9500z desktop with Phenom II. Several enthusiast sites have posted numbers for the Phenom II X4 (some links below), and Computer Shopper has posted a full review of the Dell XPS 625.
AMD Phenom II reviews coverage:
- AMD’s Phenom II processors [Tech Report]
- AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Review [ExtremeTech]
- AMD Phenom II X4 940 Processor Review [Legit Reviews]
John Morris is a former executive editor at CNET Networks and senior editor at PC Magazine. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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