MSI rolls out Wind U160DX netbook with 15-hour battery

It may just seem like yesterday that MSI was introducing its Wind U160 netbook at CES, but the company's now already back with an updated model in time for Computex: the Wind U160DX. While it's outward appearance remains mostly the same, the netbook's internals have been upgraded across the board, including a new Atom N455 processor, some DDR3 memory, MSI's own "Turbo Drive Engine" and, last but not least, a 15-hour battery (aided in part by MSI's ECO power management system). Still no word on pricing or availability for this one, but we should be hearing more about it soon enough at Computex, and you can get a closer look at it right now courtesy of Engadget Spanish at the link below.

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ARM blames Flash, netbooks and tablets for smartbook delay, oh my

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.

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Samsung Go N315 grabs a Pinetrail processor

Samsung hasn't yet abased itself to competing head-on with the lowest price netbooks out there, but its Samsung Go can at least vaguely keep up with the times spec-wise, notching up from the N310 to the N315 model name in the process. The $429 rubber-clad netbook has been bumped to an Atom N450 processor, along with Windows 7 Starter, 1GB of RAM and Intel GMA 1350 graphics. Just in case you were scared of getting bored, Samsung and The New York Times are keeping up with their chummy relationship, pre-installing Times Reader 2.0 on the laptop.



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LG's ultraslim X300 launching in Asia, Middle East and South America this month (updated)

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).

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AMD to finally take on netbook space with new Fusion chip... next year

We've always said AMD should go after the gaping hole between netbooks and thin-and-lights by releasing a low-power platform with solid graphics abilities, and it looks like the company's finally coming around -- AMD's John Taylor just told us that the chipmaker will be releasing a netbook-class Fusion CPU / GPU hybrid codenamed "Ontario" with integrated DX11 graphics sometime next year. If Ontario sounds familiar, it's because we've seen it leaked in the past -- it's a part of the "Brazos" platform built around the low-power Bobcat core. Of course, AMD has been promising Fusion chips of all stripes for years now without a single shipping part, so saying that a Fusion chip will get it into the netbook game in 2011 is mildly amusing -- while AMD's definitely turned things around, it's still incredibly late to the low-end party, and Intel's solidly beaten it to the hybrid CPU / GPU punch with the Core 2010 and Pine Trail Atom chips. Add in the fact that NVIDIA's Optimus-based Ion 2 chipset seemingly offers the extended battery life of Atom with the performance of a discrete GPU, and we'd say the market niche Ontario is designed to fill may not actually be so niche when it finally arrives. We'll see what happens -- a year is a long, long time.

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Fujitsu MH380 review

You know what can't be easy? Making a netbook stand out amongst the hordes of them out there, and yet despite run-of-the-mill specs Fujitsu's done just that with the MH380. Maybe it is the rounded red lid or the small crater in its palmrest that doubles as a scroll pad, but the $449 netbook has struck us as more than just another Pine Trail netbook ever since its appearance at CES. We'd like to take that at face value, but given the fact that Fujitsu doesn't have the best netbook track record, we wanted to spend some quality time with it to find out if the 10-inch mini-laptop has the battery life, performance and ergonomics we expect for its higher-than-average price. You can be sure we found out, so hit the break for our full review.
Fujitsu MH380 hands-on


Look and feel

It's hard not to like the MH380's glossy red cover and chrome trim; you can see Tony Stark buying it to match his Iron Man suit. But superhero or not, it's easy to appreciate the unique squircle shape of the lid, the teardrop shaped hinges and the silver inner edge. Though the system is primarily made of plastic, we have to say the manufacturing quality does feel better than most, and overall it feels quite sturdy.

The real bummer for us is that the head-turning design isn't matched by the best portability specs. The MH380 measures 1.4-inches thick, and its protruding six-cell battery adds even more girth in the back. And then there's the fact that the system weighs 3.1 pounds, and feels heavier in hand than most netbooks. Don't get us wrong, it's still a netbook, and small enough to fit in a shoulder bag or carry around the house with one hand, but it's just not the trimmest of the bunch.

Keyboard, touchpad and screen

Those that like a good flush keyboard will have no qualms about the MH380, and while we've become fonder of chiclet style keyboards on netbooks, we were typing at a decent clip in no time. The MH380's keyboard may get ergonomics points, but we can't say the same of the touchpad below it. The 1.8 by 1.6-inch pad -- yes, we pulled out the ruler -- is no bigger than a small sized Post-It or a Wheat Thin, and the result is a very frustrating navigation experience that requires a ton of backtracking and finger cramping. To compensate Fujitsu has sped up the tracking speed which shoots the pointer across the screen at the slightest provocation -- yes, we disabled this function. The reason for this shrunken experience? To make room for the smooth circular divot to the right of the trackpad. In theory the scroll pad's touch sensitive surface is supposed to allow for easy vertical scrolling, but that's not how it worked in practice. We were able to get the the pad to scroll down the length of Engadget at a smooth pace only after we made a number of tweaks to the sensitivity in the Synaptics menu, and though you can set the pad to function as a button to open a program or go back in the browser, it mistakenly launched programs when we just wanted to scroll. Though the whole setup provides a different look, we couldn't hook up a external mouse quickly enough to make the pain go away.

The higher-resolution 1366 x 768, 10.1-inch display is crisper and brighter than most, and those extra horizontal pixels do make a noticeable difference when surfing the web. While we couldn't watch a YouTube HD video because of the MH380's weak GMA 3150 graphics, a 720p WMV video of the Caribbean Ocean looked very crisp. We found vertical viewing angles to be decent when we tilted the screen to different angles, but horizontal ones weren't worthy of the same praise – though better than most, colors still washed out when we tried to view the screen from the side.

Performance and battery life



We've got no complaints about the MH380's Intel Atom N450 processor and 1GB of RAM. Windows 7 Starter edition ran like a champ and handled our normal netbook activities, including writing this review in MS Word 2007, streaming music in Firefox and tweeting from Tweetdeck, with no issue. As usual watching a Hulu.com video at full screen caused some stuttering. The MH380 is equipped with a 250GB of hard drive that's oddly partitioned into two equal sized drives.


PCMark05 3DMark06 Battery Life
Fujitsu MH380 1368 153 6:37
ASUS Eee PC 1008P 1531 152 3:20
ASUS Eee PC 1005PE 1431 157 8:10
Toshiba Mini NB305 1272 156 6:30


Thankfully the larger 63Wh six-cell battery that protrudes out the back results in some good endurance. On our video rundown test -- where we loop the same standard definition video at 65 brightness -- the MH380 lasted 6 hours and 37 minutes. That's not as long as the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE's eight hours, but it will allow you to avoid the outlet scavenger hunt at an airport or coffee shop.

Wrap-up

We have two quite cliche words for Fujitsu's designers: size matters. Putting aside the $449 price point for a second, the larger size and resulting weight of the netbook along with the contrasting diminutive size of its touchpad hold the MH380 from competing with the rest. While we'd probably be able to justify paying a $50 premium for the MH380's design and HD screen, those issues -- the touchpad in particular -- make it out of the question for us. If you are hung up about your netbook's looks the Eee PC 1008p is one attractive netbook that doesn't have usability issues, and the Toshiba NB305 continues to provide the best of the design and performance worlds.

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Samsung's N150 netbook picks up some Corby branding, Starburst color

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.

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LG X300's slack-jawed hands-on

You know, we see a lot of ultraportable laptops these days, it's not like it's virgin territory for us, but we'd say the last time we were this blown away by a form factor was the VAIO X, or maybe the Adamo XPS in all its weird-hinge glory. LG's X300 is simply thin. Cramming 11.6-inches of screen and premium netbook parts (2GHz Atom Z550, HDMI out, up to 2GB of RAM and 128GB SSD, even some 3G and Bluetooth for good measure) into a 0.68-inch thick form factor is impressive, but we're even more struck by how insanely light this thing is -- it feels more like holding an e-book reader in hand than a laptop. The plastic build feels very solid, and the textured pattern on the back falls into the realm of "premium," not "gaudy." The keyboard isn't the best action-wise, but there's zero flex because there's nowhere to go. Our biggest concern is the trackpad: it's nice and big, but there's a "virtual" click mechanism where you tap to click the button portion and get a haptic response -- it might be the evolution of the "click pad" concept, or it might be a pain in the ass. Even the screen was bright and quality, though too glossy for our taste. We're told the laptop is headed to the US, but we're not sure when -- hopefully soon, since it's starting to ship internationally this month. Check out a video walkthrough after the break.



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BPhone netbook / smartphone hyrbid now available to order

Why carry around a netbook and a smartphone when you can have a netbook / smartphone? Why indeed. Especially when you can have something as sensible as the BPhone, which is now finally available for the completely reasonable price of $569.99 (unlocked, of course). That will get you a not-quite-pocketable convertible device with a 5-inch touchscreen, along with a 624MHz Marvell CPU, ARM Linux 2.6 for an OS, 256GB of flash storage, built-in Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS, and quad-band GSM connectivity on the "phone" side of the equation. Sound like just the thing you've been looking for? Hit up the link below to get your order in.

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Averatec outs light as air 10-inch netbook, can move move move any mountain

Averatec's just outed its super thin, super light, 10-inch netbook, the N1200. Available in silver or black, it's a good looking little package which weighs in at just 2.2 pounds. It boasts an Atom N450 CPU, a 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM which is expandable up to 2GB, plus a webcam and 802.11n Wi-Fi. You can get this bad little dude with either XP or Windows 7 Starter. The battery life is apparently about 3 hours, though you can upgrade to a better, 6 hour battery. The N1200 starts at $330. The full press release is after the break.

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LG's ultraslim X300 launching in Asia, Middle East and South America this month (updated)

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).

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LG X300's slack-jawed hands-on

You know, we see a lot of ultraportable laptops these days, it's not like it's virgin territory for us, but we'd say the last time we were this blown away by a form factor was the VAIO X, or maybe the Adamo XPS in all its weird-hinge glory. LG's X300 is simply thin. Cramming 11.6-inches of screen and premium netbook parts (2GHz Atom Z550, HDMI out, up to 2GB of RAM and 128GB SSD, even some 3G and Bluetooth for good measure) into a 0.68-inch thick form factor is impressive, but we're even more struck by how insanely light this thing is -- it feels more like holding an e-book reader in hand than a laptop. The plastic build feels very solid, and the textured pattern on the back falls into the realm of "premium," not "gaudy." The keyboard isn't the best action-wise, but there's zero flex because there's nowhere to go. Our biggest concern is the trackpad: it's nice and big, but there's a "virtual" click mechanism where you tap to click the button portion and get a haptic response -- it might be the evolution of the "click pad" concept, or it might be a pain in the ass. Even the screen was bright and quality, though too glossy for our taste. We're told the laptop is headed to the US, but we're not sure when -- hopefully soon, since it's starting to ship internationally this month. Check out a video walkthrough after the break.



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Intel bringing dual-core Atom D510 processors to netbooks as the N500?

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.

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Bandai Rilakkuma netbook gets touchscreen and CPU boost, as precious as ever

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).

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Sony VAIO M and its Atom N450 heart get unboxed

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?

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MSI Wind U135 should be available for as low as $310

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.

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Wind U100 magically modded into tablet-thing, iPad UI along for the ride

Are you desperate for an iPad-like device, short on cash, and long on the desire to completely jack up your netbook? Well you're in luck, friend, as the proprietor of MSI Wind fansite Insanely Wind has crafted a device which may satiate your tablety desires. By taking a U100, removing the keyboard, relocating a touchscreen display to the bottom half of the unit, and doing some simple rewiring, user alexbates has fashioned a tablet which he says bests a device like the iPad or JooJoo with "10 times the storage, twice the speed, external video (VGA), webcam, USB ports, and built-in multi card reader." Of course, as you can tell by the photos, this mod has a ways to go before it's got the fit and finish of the aforementioned devices, and you'll have rev up a compatible, hackintosh build of OS X to make it appropriately Apple-ish -- but it can clearly be done. While this isn't the first time we've seen this type of modification, it's nice to see the love spreading to various devices (and done in a fashion that doesn't seem overly complicated). From the sounds of things, this project hasn't hit its zenith yet, so we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for a more complete variation of the Windlet (our name). For now, hit the read link and keep up with the unfolding saga.

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Dell Mini 10 TV tuner option coming this summer, Mini 10v goes hands-on

While Dell originally mentioned a TV tuner option back when it launched the Mini 10 in January, it's still working on bringing the feature to market. The latest news is that the configuration will tack roughly $50 onto the price, includes an external antenna (which is only required in low-signal situations), and should be available "this summer." The couple of channels we saw in action seemed plenty good on the quality front, but nothing groundbreaking. Meanwhile, we also got a look at the new Mini 10v, which swaps HDMI for VGA, lacks the flush "glass" styling of the Mini 10 display, and bounces over to the Atom N270 processor. The version we were looking at included a 6-cell battery (a $30 add-on), which added a considerable amount of lift at the back -- it might be ergonomic, but it sure isn't pretty. Unfortunately the TV option won't be available for the 10v, so if you were holding out... maybe you should be spending more time with your family.

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HTC working on an Android netbook for T-Mobile?

Man, the Android netbook hype is just getting silly as we draw nearer to Computex: the whispers today are that HTC and T-Mobile are working on a 3G-capable machine running Google's OS. That vague bit of info is all we have at the moment, but it's not totally insane -- HTC and T-Mobile are bosom buddies in the Android game, after all. We'll keep an ear to the ground.

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Alienware's M11x netbook gets a base price: $799

Whoa, Nelly! We learned back at CES that Alienware's pretty-much-a-netbook would launch in the Spring for less than a grand, but now we know precisely what the base price will be: $799. The starting MSRP of the M11x was delivered courtesy of the company's own website, but not in the most straightforward way. If you surf on over to the M11x microsite and view the source, you'll notice the following blurb tucked within the code:

The Alienware M11x, with over 6.5 hours of battery life and weighing under 4.5 lbs. will start at an amazing $799! Leave it to the folks at Alienware to enable truly mobile performance gaming at an affordable price.

So, a polarizing (albeit vivacious) design, an 11.6-inch display, NVIDIA GT335M switchable graphics and a 6.5 hour battery, all for $799. Shall we sign you up, or what?

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