Huawei unveils Ascend D quad, Ascend D quad XL and Ascend D1 Android phones.
Asus announces Padfone tablet/smartphone hybrid
Asus on Monday unveiled the Padfone from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The hybrid device was first announced in May last year, however a bit has changed since the Padfone's initial announcement at Computex 2011. .
Samsung announces Galaxy Note 10.1 with Android 4.0
Samsung on Monday took the wraps off another new addition to its Android tablet lineup, the Galaxy Note 10.1. Like the supersized "phablet" it joins in the Galaxy Note family, the Note 10.1 includes Samsung's S Pen stylus for drawing, note-taking, highlighting and much more..
Samsung Galaxy S III full specs
We reported some exclusive details surrounding Samsung's upcoming flagship Galaxy S III smartphone this past weekend, and now we have received some more information that helps us paint a more complete picture. And as that picture becomes more clear, this sure looks like the baddest Android smartphone the world hasn't yet seen. We reported that the new Samsung flagship would launch in a simultaneous fashion across the globe, but we now have some more detailed specifications to report. Ladies and gentlemen, here is the Samsung Galaxy S III.
Sure, Intel might not be planning for Moorestown-based smartphones to hit the market for at least another six months, and the LG GW990 might have died a quiet death, but that's not stopping Aava from getting right in the game with its Virta Android, an Atom Z600-based reference smartphone designed for developer testing. Slated to ship in Q3, the Virta features a Moorestown processor, a 3.8-inch 864 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, quad-band EDGE radios with AT&T 3G support, WiFi, Bluetooth, a five megapixel video camera, and a microSD slot. We're assuming the shipping version will look a lot like the prototype Aava device we've been seeing for a while now, but Aava has some fancier renders up on its site, so we'll see what happens and how much this costs when this thing arrives. Source
Microsoft isn't kidding around about showing Apple it's serious in regard to competing in the tablet space, and while most of the devices surrounding its Computex booth were locked down tight, we were able to spend a few exclusive minutes with a brand new LG that showed some serious promise. Boasting a 10.1-inch LED capacity touchscreen, the UX10 was one of the most solid tablets we've had the opportunity to touch. The prototype on the floor was equipped with an Intel Atom Z530 processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing webcam, an SD card slot, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a 7200mAh battery and a micro-HDMI output. The entire front was smothered in glass, with an itty-bitty bezel and a striking pearlescent white paint job around back. Though, we couldn't help but notice the similarities in the logo when thinking of a certain Streak. Microsoft representatives couldn't comment on an estimated price, though they did affirm that the device will escape the prototype stage and ship to consumers at some point in the future. Hit up the gallery below for a closer look, and peek past the break if you're a fan of videos.
Oh, hello WindPad! MSI just took the wraps off its 10-inch, Windows 7 tablet during the company's Computex press conference. The tablet is powered by a 1.66GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor, 2GB of RAM, and packs a 32GB SSD that boots Windows 7 Home Premium, though MSI has created a Wind Touch UI layer. While they were showing early prototypes, it will have two USB ports, an HDMI and a webcam when all is finalized. According to an MSI product manager on hand, the WindPad 100 will hit the market later this year for around $499. We just caught a few minutes with the tablet so hit the break for some early impressions and a short hands-on clip. MSI WindPad 100 hands-on
The 10-inch tablet is made entirely of plastic -- it does feel quite cheap, but on the other hand it's incredibly light (it's only 1.7 pounds). The prototype they had out didn't have any of the final ports, but eventually it will have an HDMI jack that should be able to output 720p video to an HDTV. Our biggest concern about the tablet comes with the speed. We noticed it taking a few seconds for applications to launch, and the Wind Touch UI was incredibly sluggish. Speaking of the interface, it's just a basic skin on top of Windows and should provide easy access to applications. The 1024x600-resolution capacitive display did seem responsive, though we would have rather it had a higher resolution.
Reputable Spanish publication Clipset has the first concrete report on pricing and internal specs for HP's Slate. Seemingly obtained from HP itself, the €400 ($546) price tag positions the Slate a notch above netbooks and bodes well for the expectation that it'll undercut the iPad's entry level pricing. Straight currency conversations are inadvisable in such situations, so we'll just have to wait until official stickers for the iPad in Europe are known or HP announces US prices for the Slate. Further info includes an Atom CPU, Flash support, USB connectivity, a memory card reader, and a back-mounted webcam (see it after the break). The launch of this Windows 7 device is slated for June, while retail availability in Europe is said to be expected at some point "before September." It's not clear what all that means for the US, but we doubt HP will be making its home turf wait longer than the rest of the world. Rest assured, we'll be reaching out to HP HQ before they've had their first cup of green tea to find out.
Update: HP's response to our queries has been typically tight-lipped. The company refused to discuss Clipset's specs and pricing, which would suggest that -- even though they may be spot on -- they are not yet official.
It's not easy to launch a new product category, especially if devices don't have a magically-delicious hook, but that's not why ARM thinks it's taken so long to deliver the smartbook. In an interview with ZDNet UK, VP Ian Drew said Adobe's blame was undeniable -- Flash didn't deliver ARM optimization in time for subnetbooks to be viable. Compounding the issue, the tablet craze has manufacturers all atwitter, he said, diverting smartbook resources to the iPad party instead. As far as netbooks are concerned, Drew cited poor adoption of Linux; he reminded us ARM smartbooks can't do x86. Asked if Atom (which can) might be the real reason for delay, he said absolutely, positively no way. The executive said manufacturers apparently hadn't brought up that idea even once. Guess we'll have to take his word on that one.
Considering the almost complete absence of love in the commercial marketplace for Moorestown and Moblin -- and the fact that there's no sign of MeeGo building serious momentum just yet -- we're sure that Intel would've just loved for the drop-dead-sexy GW990 to serve as the platform's crown jewel for 2010. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen, because we've just been able to confirm that the 4.8-inch beast (and potential Dell Mini 5 foil) has been wiped off the product roadmap. Though we don't know exactly what happened, the fact that Moblin is effectively dead and MeeGo isn't ready for prime time might be part of LG's justification for killing it off; if you might recall, the GW990 was introduced before MeeGo was official, and the original plan was to have it on the market in the second half of this year. Then again, this might be just as well -- we weren't impressed by the fact that LG was positioning the phone as a closed device back at CES, and there are still plenty of open questions as to how Intel and Nokia plan to offer apps on MeeGo -- so let's just hope this form factor reemerges from LG's labs soon enough, yeah?
An 11.6-inch display fit within a thickness of 17.5mm. Sure, we're mixing up our measurement systems, but whichever way you slice it, the X300 is one extremely thin device. LG has now announced that availability in the Asian, Middle Eastern and South American markets will be forthcoming this month, though all we know on the topic of price is that it'll "vary country-by-country." With up to 2GB of RAM, integrated 3G, and a 128GB SSD option on tap, we'll even forgive the inclusion of a 2GHz Menlow CPU (Atom Z550) that places the X300 closer to Sony's VAIO X than the Core 2 Duo-driven MacBook Air that it aspires to be associated with. Check out our hands-on pics over here while we wait, hope and pray for a release on more familiar shores.
Update: We've now come across LG's Korean pricing, which is set at 1,590,000 Won ($1,424).
Ever get the feeling that what you see on paper just isn't going to be as good in person? That's sort of how we felt today when we stopped by Gigabyte's CeBIT booth to get a look at its newly announced T1000 netvertible. On the spec front the T1000 has everything we could possibly want in a netbook -- a new 1.83GHz Atom N470, 2GB of RAM, a chiclet keyboard and a 1366 x 768-resolution multitouch display -- but in our few minutes of use things were far from rainbows and butterflies. The resistive touch panel required a pretty firm press, and when in slate mode there's no buttons (or accelerometer) for rotating the device. While we liked the chiclet keyboard, we'll never understand why Gigabyte has kept the two mouse buttons on the sides of the touchpad. We realize that we may be jumping to conclusions too quickly here, so we'll let you decide for yourselves with the help of a short video after the break.
Intel introduced the new Atom N470 netbook CPU back in September and then Lenovo showed off its S10-3t with the new processor at CES, but chipzilla's taking the time today to give its newest Pine Trail CPU a proper unveil. The 1.83GHz N470 joins the 1.66GHz N450 as an option for netbooks, and like the rest of the Pineview integrates the GMA 3150 graphics controller on the same chip and supports hyperthreading. According to Intel, the major OEMs are expected to introduce new netbooks based on this processor soon, but if our experience with the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t is any glimpse into the "performance boost" of this processor we're not sure there's anything to wait for. Our full review of the S10-3t netvertible is almost done cooking, but we can tell you right now the system didn't feel faster in use even with its 2GB of RAM, and on PCMark05 it scored in the same range as other N450 netbooks. While the slightly faster clock speed may be a nice bragging right, at the end of the day Atom N470-based netbooks are still, well, netbooks.
Spotted first crawling its way through the FCC, then on the floors of CES and most recently at WMC with some LTE inside we're going to go ahead and say the Samsung N150 has earned its new stripes, err rainbow colors. Trying to add some brightness to its well stocked Pine Trail netbook line up, Sammy has gone and painted the $379 10.1-inch N150 in Flamingo Pink, Bermuda Blue and Caribbean Yellow, though kept its internal 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 250GB hard drive and 1GB RAM unprimed. Interestingly, in some countries the netbook has acquired Samsung's affordable mobile phone Corby brand, though here in the U.S. that doesn't seem to be the case. We'd probably just stick with the black hue, but that doesn't mean we couldn't go for some sort of tropical-flavor candy right about now.
An 11.6-inch display fit within a thickness of 17.5mm. Sure, we're mixing up our measurement systems, but whichever way you slice it, the X300 is one extremely thin device. LG has now announced that availability in the Asian, Middle Eastern and South American markets will be forthcoming this month, though all we know on the topic of price is that it'll "vary country-by-country." With up to 2GB of RAM, integrated 3G, and a 128GB SSD option on tap, we'll even forgive the inclusion of a 2GHz Menlow CPU (Atom Z550) that places the X300 closer to Sony's VAIO X than the Core 2 Duo-driven MacBook Air that it aspires to be associated with. Check out our hands-on pics over here while we wait, hope and pray for a release on more familiar shores.
Update: We've now come across LG's Korean pricing, which is set at 1,590,000 Won ($1,424). Source
Dell's vanilla Atom N450-based Mini 10 just started shipping a couple of months ago, and if you'll recall, we spotted one slip through the FCC's oh-so-vulnerable database with WiMAX built-in. Today at CTIA, Clearwire spilled the news that it'll be providing the service for a 4G-infused version of the netbook come April 1st. What's interesting is that Clearwire only mentions it being for sale "through select Clear retail locations, telesales and Clear.com," so it's still unknown if it'll be offered up through the Round Rock powerhouse itself (as the Studio 17, Studio XPS 1640 and Latitude E4300, etc. are). The machine will be sold for $249.99 after an instant rebate, though no specifics were mentioned concerning a per-month data plan price. If we were the betting type, we'd say it'll probably run you 40 bones for every 30 days based on existing rates.
It was hard to be anything but disappointed when Intel's dual-core Atom D510 processor started hitting nettops and was found to be no better performing than the earlier D330. Sure, it was more frugal, but most users were hoping for a bit more oomph not a bit less consumption. Soon, netbook users will seemingly get a taste of the same bitter pill, with talk that a netbook version of the D510 is in the works, likely called the N500. This is a rather less than shocking development and while it surely won't mean you'll finally get Crysis running on your Eee it could make for future netbooks that offer slightly better performance than their earlier brethren and yet deliver even longer battery life. Because, you know, if there's one thing netbooks need today it's greater longevity. Source
We've heard some folks (we're not naming names) disparagingly refer to netbooks as "toys" from time to time. Of course, when a manufacturer like Bandai cranks the cute factor up to eleven we can't say that it's an altogether bad thing. Like its predecessor, the Rilakkuma SX features 1Seg TV, webcam, Bluetooth, and WiFi. Putting the "next" in "next-gen," this baby features an Atom Z520 processor, 1GB RAM, 60GB HDD, DVD Super Multi, and an 8.9-inch (1280 x 768) convertible touchscreen. Built by Kohjinsha, this one is reportedly coming to the Bandai Namco online store in June for ¥90,000 (about $995).
Sony's successor to the VAIO W netbook made its debut a little prematurely earlier this month, which has now been followed by its first unboxing and preview. Encased in an appealing matte black plastic, the VAIO M is set for an April launch in the UK at the very reasonable £300 ($456) price point. Unfortunately, the drop in price also means a lower-res 1024 x 600 display, while the W's chiclet keyboard has also been replaced with a more conventional typing surface. With 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a 250GB storage drive, Sony seems to be giving us the bare minimum here, but that's alright with us -- let's just make sure this thing actually has a battery that lasts, shall we Sony?
You better watch it, Acer -- it looks like MSI is getting real close to undercutting your $299 Aspire One 532h netbook with its $309.99 Pine Trail-powered Wind U135. Taiwanese manufacturer disputes aside, not much has changed with the Wind U135 since we brought you our impressions, but we remind you that $305 buys you a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450, 1GB of RAM, an 160GB hard drive and Windows 7 Starter. If you need a bit more storage, you can shell out an extra 20 bucks for the 250GB version. And the cheap netbook race continues... Check the full PR after the break.
Who says you have to pick between a netbook and the coming onslaught of standalone tablet devices? Okay maybe some (eh hem Apple), but Lenovo's trying to have it both ways with the IdeaPad U1 and the S10-3t. In clamshell mode the S10-3t looks like any old 10-inch netbook, but swivel around its capacitive mulitouch display and it turns into that slate device you've been dreaming of. That's not all: the S10-3t is one of the first netbooks (or netveritbles) that has the new Intel 1.83GHz Atom N470 processor. But can the S10-3t straddle both worlds and do it well? And perhaps more importantly, is it worth the premium $649 price tag? That's the question we've been asking ourselves for the last few days, so hit the break for some answers in our full review. Look and feel
There's nothing too jaw-dropping about the S10-3t's design, and we'd actually be totally fine with that if it didn't have the glossiest black lid known to man. While the lid is inlaid with a subtle glitter tint and boxy pattern, you wouldn't know it with all the smudgy fingerprints it collects. And though the plastic chassis feels solid enough, the lid did collect some scratches from being in our bag so you'll want to pick up a case to keep the little guy clean and warm.
For a netbook the .79-inch S10-3t is actually rather trim, and it's noticeably narrower than other 10-inch systems. While it's obviously thicker than standalone tablets or e-readers like the Kindle DX, when equipped with its four-cell battery the 2.7-pound tablet was light enough to hold up in bed while reading. However, that eight-cell bulging battery version that we saw at CES looks like it would be incredibly uncomfortable to hold in arm.
One of the biggest benefits of the convertible form factor is having access to a full size, physical keyboard, but for a netbook we're just not that impressed with the S10-3t's layout and keys. The matte white keys are particularly bouncy and are more cramped than usual. Perhaps it's the fact that we've gotten used to the chiclet keyboard layout, but our first draft of this review was ridden with typos.
As a result of the S10-3t's narrower dimensions, its palmrest is thinner, which in turn means very limited touchpad real estate. The rectangular pad with its integrated mouse buttons is about the size of a USB stick, and provides an incredibly cramped navigation experience. While it doesn't make up for all the backtracking our fingers had to do, we do like the feel of the raised dots on the pad itself. Are we totally crazy for thinking Lenovo should have grabbed a ThinkPad pointing stick and stuck it in the middle of the keyboard?
Screen and tablet performance
Of course, the hope is that you should be able use the capacitive touchscreen to move around in Windows 7 Home Premium, and for the most part it's a decent touch navigation experience. The 1024 x 600 resolution is actually ideal for the 10.1-inch display – desktop icons are large enough to select with a light finger tap, but getting at the smaller menus requires more than a few jabs at the screen. Lenovo does preload Bumptop, which creates a 3D desk-like view of your desktop, but honestly we find the whole interface rather frustrating and would have just preferred Lenovo put on its SimpleTap software for those larger touch controls to adjust the volume or view the remaining battery power.
Multitouch gestures were responsive; we got in the hang of sticking two fingers on the screen to scroll down the length of web pages or pinching to make text larger. As soon as you swing the display around using the S10-3t's fairly sturdy, bidirectional hinge, Lenovo's Natural Touch interface launches. The full screen finger-friendly carousel interface provides large shortcuts to Lenovo's own photo, music and e-book software. We're not sure why you'd choose this multimedia software over Microsoft's Media Player and Photo Gallery, but the e-book software does open PDF or e-pub files and adds note taking and bookmark functions. Though it's a nice piece of software, we preferred Amazon's Kindle for PC app to access our collection of already-purchased titles.
While the touch reading experience was smooth and we enjoyed flicking through pages and pinching to zoom in on text, it was our experience reading the New York Times Reader while laying down that brought out the biggest issue with the screen – its viewing angles. Though the extra glossy screen contributes somewhat to the issues, we encountered major color distortion both horizontally and vertically, and at some angles we couldn't even see what was on the screen. It was especially apparent when we tried to look at an Olympic photo gallery while lying in bed – we had to adjust ourselves and the tablet quite a bit to comfortably flick through the images. Why Lenovo had to use a cheap LCD on this device is beyond us – it craps up a perfectly enjoyable experience.
The device has an accelerometer, but we found it to be a bit flaky; we ended up using the button on the side of the screen more often than not to change the screen orientation, and even when we used this solution we got impatient with the typical five second adjustment period. Lastly, we should mention that Lenovo doesn't include a stylus, so if you want to take advantage of Windows 7's handwriting functionality you're going to need to come up with one of your own or, you know, find a piece of meat.
Performance and battery life
We went into reviewing the S10-3t hoping it would be one of the faster netbooks we've ever used considering its new 1.83GHz Atom N470 processor and 2GB of RAM. However, those dreams quickly faded when we were met with the typical netbook performance. In fact, the N470 scored 1,348 on PCMark05, which is actually lower than the N450-powered HP Mini 210's 1393. That's sort of a letdown for us, but in typical usage -- writing this review and surfing the web -- performance seemed snappy. We did notice it taking a bit of time for certain apps within Lenovo's NaturalTouch to open but we're inclined to blame the slow 320GB hard drive or software for that. With no change made to the GMA 3150 graphics, the S10-3t was fine for playing standard def video, but couldn't handle streaming a 720p music video without stuttering.
PCMark05 3DMark06 Battery Life Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t 1348 160 3:12 HP Mini 210 1393 147 5:15 ASUS Eee PC 1005PE 1431 157 8:10 Toshiba Mini NB305 1272 156 6:30
On our video rundown test the S10-3t's four-cell battery lasted three hours and 12 minutes, but when we actually used the system to write this review and surf the Web we got close to four and a half hours of battery life. In our minds that's not all that bad considering the battery fits flush with the system, but you can always go up to the chunky eight-cell for a couple more bucks.
Wrap-up
As both a netbook and a tablet the S10-3t leaves a bit more to be desired. Sure, we're disappointed that the N470 processor doesn't provide improved performance, but what's even more aggravating is that $649 buys you a tiny trackpad, sluggish touchscreen software and terrible viewing angles. Maybe you can live with those shortcomings, but we're personally holding out for a better netbook / tablet combo to come along.
It would seem like we've recalled our editor from Shenzhen a little prematurely. The land of Yao has gone and answered all the iPad's critics in resounding style: TESO's 10-inch clone tablet features a full-blown Windows 7 install (check), 1024x600 capacitive touchscreen display (check), HDMI output (check), a 1.66GHz Atom N450 (vroom vroom!), 1GB of DDR2 RAM, GPS, 3G, and a 3,000mAh battery. Yep, it's a netbook sans the keyboard, and it might weigh 1.2kg while stretching to a portly 2cm thickness, but are you really gonna let a few well-rounded edges get in the way of experiencing a grown-up desktop OS on that tablet you so desperately need? Couple more pics await after the break.
Update: 9to5Mac has alerted us to the fact that this clone seems to be sporting the same front plate as the one purported to belong to the iPad in the days before its release. Good to know all the engineering that went into inflating the iPhone's bezel up to 10 inches didn't go to waste.
Thanks to the oh-so-revealing pages of the FCC, we already knew that ASUS had yet another multitouch-enabled Eee PC in the works, but there's just nothing quite like the satisfaction of seeing an official portal launched to celebrate the reality of being. The Eee PC T101MT is a swivel-screen netvertible that packs a 10.1-inch resistive multitouch display (1,024 x 600), Windows 7, up to 2GB of DDR2 memory, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a 160GB or 320GB hard drive, 0.3 megapixel webcam and a 6.5 hour battery. You'll also get a VGA output, a trio of USB 2.0 sockets, Ethernet audio in / out, an SD / SDHC / SDXC card reader (nice!) 500GB of internet-accessible ASUS WebStorage and your choice of white or black. Per usual, there's nary of a mention of a price or release date just yet, but you can check out what fun awaits you in the demonstration video just past the break.
Another day, another Android tablet render. This one, the imaginatively titled WePad, is as ambitious as its name might suggest. (You know, because "we" is plural of "I"? Yeah, it's a stretch.) Dwarfing the iPad with its 11.6-inch (1366 x 768) display, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, GMA 3150 graphics, webcam, two USB ports, flash card reader, UMTS modem, and a mooted six hours of battery life, we could see ourselves picking one up -- provided the price point is decent. But that's just the beginning! The manufacturer, Neofonie, also has designs on a WePad app store and, if all goes according to plan, this thing'll sport genuine Google Android and the Android Market. The company also mentions something called the "WeMagazine publishing ecosystem," the basis of a turn-key operation for getting your own branded device out on the e-reader market, so if you're looking to get into the biz just hit the source link to begin your adventure. As for us, we'll wait to see a final product before we jump to any conclusions.
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