Listing reveals 3G version of new Chromebook on the way for $329.99

Posted on 19/10/2012 by Daniel Cooper

Well, this has got us scratching our collective heads. Yesterday, Google was fairly certain that its latest and greatest Chromebook would be a WiFi-only affair. Today, however, and a listing has appeared on the company's official website and Amazon that shows a 3G-enabled version is available for $329.99. Neither site mentions network options, so presumably you get the same 100MB a month for two years Verizon data that its brethren receive -- and given that we described it as being "80 percent of the MacBook Air experience for a quarter of the price," the 3G version seems well worth the extra $80.

Filed under: Laptops, Samsung, Google

Listing reveals 3G version of new Chromebook on the way for $329.99 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 03:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

The Verge | source

Samsung, Amazon | Email this | Comments

Dell XPS 12 Windows 8 convertible priced at $1,199 and up, ships this month with pre-orders starting today

Posted on 12/10/2012 by Dana Wollman

Well, that's a form factor you don't see that often. Of all the Windows 8 PCs we've seen so far, the Dell XPS 12 is tough to forget, if only because it's the only one whose screen flips inside the hinge like an easel. We already got hands-on at IFA last month, but now we're learning some key details -- you know, like pricing and availability. Dell just announced that it will go up for pre-order today, starting at $1,199. (It will ship October 26th, the day Windows 8 launches.) That's a princely sum indeed compared to some of the other Windows 8 ultraportables we've seen, but it's important to remember that this runs not on an Atom processor, but an Ultrabook-grade CPU. And while you might assume that 12.5-inch display makes do with 1,366 x 768 resolution, it's actually a dense 1080p panel. Hopefully we'll get to review a final unit soon, but in the meantime feast yourself on a fresh round of hands-on shots below.

Gallery: Dell XPS 12 hands-on

Filed under: Laptops, Dell

Dell XPS 12 Windows 8 convertible priced at $1,199 and up, ships this month with pre-orders starting today originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

Dell | Email this | Comments

Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook gets updated with Ivy Bridge (updated)

Posted on 12/10/2012 by Dana Wollman

File this under things we could've sworn happened already: Dell is updating its nine-month-old XPS 13 Ultrabook with third-generation Core (read: Ivy Bridge) processors. While the rest of the company's Win 8 lineup isn't shipping until October 26th now, the refreshed XPS 13 should already be live on Dell's site, with the same starting price of $1,000.

Update: A previous version of this article reported that the XPS 13 would be available with a touchscreen. In fact, it will still be offered with non-touch-enabled panels only.

Filed under: Laptops, Dell

Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook gets updated with Ivy Bridge (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon pricing spotted in Hong Kong

Posted on 02/08/2012 by Jon Fingas

Lenovo floated the ThinkPad X1 Carbon past us in May without so much as a whisper of what the lightweight Ultrabook's price would be. The company doesn't mind shouting it out in what looks to be a Hong Kong back-to-school promo flyer, though. As long as the Newsmth.net post represents the final pricing, local residents can normally expect to pay about HK$12,880 ($1,660 US) for an X1 Carbon with a 1.7GHz Core i5, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. That's quite the premium if you compare it directly to what we see in the US for a PC like the Samsung Series 9, although it's tricky to tell if prices will be comparable on the other side of the Pacific: there's no sales tax in Hong Kong, among other factors. Even if the price varies by the time of the US launch later this summer, students in the city are already getting a discount to HK$9,180 ($1,184) that suggests at least some wiggle room if competition among Ultrabooks grows especially fierce.

[Thanks, Sam]

Filed under: Laptops

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon pricing spotted in Hong Kong originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 02:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

Newsmth.net | Email this | Comments

Acer Aspire S5 review: is this innovative Ultrabook worth $1,400?

Posted on 20/07/2012 by Dana Wollman

With dozens and dozens of Ultrabooks on parade, you'd be forgiven if one skinny laptop with an ultra-low voltage processor started to look like the next. Even so, it's tough to forget the Acer Aspire S5: of all the ultraportables we've seen these last nine months, this is the only one with a motorized port cover. Yeah, that one. It's an intriguing product, to be sure, and the stakes are especially high given that $1,400 price: you'd have to really enjoy that form factor (and everything else) to choose it over some less expensive ultraportable. So is it worth it? Is that drop-down door anything more than a gimmick? Questions for the ages, and ones we'll tackle in our full review after the break.

Gallery: Acer Aspire S5 review

Continue reading Acer Aspire S5 review: is this innovative Ultrabook worth $1,400?

Filed under: Laptops

Acer Aspire S5 review: is this innovative Ultrabook worth $1,400? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Sony VAIO T13 review: the company’s first Ultrabook targets the back-to-school set

Posted on 10/07/2012 by Sarah Silbert

More Info

Until recently, Sony's name has been conspicuously absent on the ever-growing list of Ultrabook makers. Sure, we've known about the VAIO T series since CES, when the company teased an unnamed notebook behind glass, but it didn't get its official reveal until May, when it hit the European market -- with last-generation Sandy Bridge processors. That's no way to make a splash when Ivy Bridge CPUs are now de rigueur for Ultrabooks and mainstream laptops alike.

Luckily, Sony got things right on the US side, releasing the 13-inch VAIO T13 with Ivy Bridge processors in tow. Other than those new chips, the Ultrabook features identical specs to the European model, not to mention the same brushed silver aluminum design. And while the brand is in for a serious game of catchup as it enters an already-crowded market, its VAIO T is priced to compete at $770. Let's welcome Sony to the Ultrabook game by giving the T13 the full review treatment.

Gallery: Sony VAIO T13 review

Continue reading Sony VAIO T13 review: the company's first Ultrabook targets the back-to-school set

Filed under: Laptops

Sony VAIO T13 review: the company's first Ultrabook targets the back-to-school set originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Switched On: The Netbook Legacy

Posted on 08/07/2012 by Ross Rubin

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

In describing Toshiba's decision to exit the U.S. netbook market, Engadget eulogized that it was "a sad day for those who like their computers tiny." Toshiba, a pioneer in the ultraportable market with the Libretto and Portege, produced what were among the best-regarded netbooks despite entering the market late. Indeed, even with the many aspersions cast upon netbooks by one-time friends (such as Dell and Toshiba) and perennial foes (such as Apple) alike, the accelerating exit of netbooks will leave a void in the marketplace. Many consumers saw the value of a 10-inch device with an integrated keyboard that can run Windows apps, available new in some configurations for $250 or less.

And yet, even as major PC companies flee the field, accessory makers such as Logitech and Zagg, as well as overfunded Kickstarter projects such as Brydge or Incase's Origami case, present new ways to unite the iPad with its most conspicuous missing component: the keyboard. It seems incongruous that a 10-inch netbook is undesirable whereas a 10-inch tablet paired with a keyboard for which it is not optimized is. And most keyboards for the iPad use Bluetooth, the use of which is verboten on flights (even as WiFi has been approved).

Continue reading Switched On: The Netbook Legacy

Switched On: The Netbook Legacy originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Acer launches 11.6-inch Sandy Bridge TravelMate B113

Posted on 27/06/2012 by Terrence O'Brien

4GB of RAM, half a TB of storage, Sandy Bridge and an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 panel starting at €450 (about $563), sounds like a pretty sweet deal on a last-gen ultrabook right? Well, Acer's TravelMate B1113 is actually brand new and, as you dig a little deeper into the specs, this one sounds more like a rather hefty netbook. And we do mean hefty -- this laptop apparently tips the scales at 1.88 Kg, which puts it a touch over the four pound mark. 4.1 pounds certainly isn't shoulder busting, but it's a solid half a pound more than you'd expect from a machine of this size. Then there's the fact that the base model ships with a 1.4Ghz Celeron, and the top shelf €560 version (roughly $700) only sports a 1.5GHz Core i3. We haven't been able to dig up the dimensions on this sucker, but the press pics don't make it look particularly bulky. We can only assume, given its considerable weight and diminutive size, that the chassis is made of cast iron. On the plus side, it does have a matte screen... that's gotta count for something, right?

Acer launches 11.6-inch Sandy Bridge TravelMate B113 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Softpedia | source

Notebook Italia, Fudzilla | Email this | Comments

MacBook Air review (13-inch, mid 2012)

Posted on 18/06/2012 by Dana Wollman

More Info

The last time we reviewed the MacBook Air, we didn't have a whole lot to compare it to. Sure, there was the original Samsung Series 9, but it was more expensive, at $1,649, and ran off a standard-voltage processor, often at the expense of battery life. Companies like Lenovo and Toshiba already had deep experience making ultraportables, but those notebooks generally weren't as light, or as skinny, as the Air. A year ago, too, Ultrabooks, as we now know them were little more than a concept as far as the computer-buying public was concerned.

Today, there are 110-plus Windows-based Ultrabooks on the horizon, leaving consumers with an overwhelming smorgasbord of thin, shockingly powerful laptops. Apple, for its part, has stuck with the same Air design we liked so much the first time around, though it's refreshed the lineup with speedier Ivy Bridge processors and traded those USB 2.0 ports for 3.0. Additionally, the Air can now be configured with more RAM and roomier storage. Oh, and the 13-inch version now starts at $1,200, down from $1,300. (The 11-inch version still goes for $999 and up.)

That sounds promising, making an already-excellent laptop faster and less expensive. Still, with so many comparable products on the Windows side, we have to wonder, does Apple really continue to define the category or have other companies narrowed the gap? Let's find out.

Gallery: MacBook Air review (13-inch, mid 2012)

Continue reading MacBook Air review (13-inch, mid 2012)

MacBook Air review (13-inch, mid 2012) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook arriving this month for $1,400, S3 gets updated with Ivy Bridge and new color

Posted on 14/06/2012 by Dana Wollman

It was only last week that Acer unveiled its first touchscreen Ultrabook, so you'd be forgiven if you forgot about the company's other pinch-thin laptop -- the one that was announced back in January at CES. That would be the Aspire S5, and now, five months later, it's finally going on sale. We just got word that it will hit shelves the last week of this month, with a starting price of $1,400. To recap (in case you've been overwhelmed by all the Ultrabooks on display lately), this is the one with the motorized, drop-down door hiding HDMI, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt ports. If fourteen hundred bucks seems expensive, remember that these specs (a Core i7 Ivy Bridge processor and 256GB SSD) are actually pretty standard for the money. And, at 2.65 pounds, it's lighter than almost every other 13-inch Ultrabook we've seen. Still, at that price we'd expect something a little crisper than a 1366 x 768 display.

For what it's worth, too, the S5 is the first product to ship in the US with the company's free AcerCloud service baked in. In brief, you get unlimited storage for backing up your stuff, all of which you can access remotely using an Android app (Acer has said iOS and Windows Phone versions are on the way). As with other syncing services, your computer needs to be asleep, not powered-off, in order for you to retrieve your files, so avoid shutting down if you think you'll need to reach into your PC later.

In other news, Acer is refreshing its first-gen S3 Ultrabook with a new champagne color, and will now offer it with an Ivy Bridge Core i7 processor and 256GB hard drive. The starting price has dropped to $648 with a Sandy Bridge CPU, with the highest-end models fetching about $1,000. Look for these upgraded models sometime next week.

Gallery: Acer Aspire S5