Today we’re checking out the i5 powered Acer Aspire AS5741-6073 laptop. This unit sports a 15.6 inch display with a $700 price tag, here are the rest of the details on the Aspire AS5741-6073

* Intel® CoreTM i5-430M Processor (3MB L2 cache, 2.26GHz)
* 4GB DDR3 1066 SDRAM
* 500GB hard drive
* Acer® CineCrystal 15.6″ (1366 x 768) TFT display
* Intel® HD Graphics
* 802.11b/g/n WLAN, gigabit LAN
* Webcam
* Integrated Super-Multi drive; 5-in-1 card reader
* Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium ; 64-bit version
* 5.3 lb
* 15.6 inch widescreen display
* Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW optical drive

As mentioned the unit sports a $700 price tag and in fact is only $687 at Amazon. And at amazon it’s already received a five star customer review which doesn’t mentioned any downsides to the Aspire AS5741. PCMag have also reviewed the unit and gave it 3.5 stars out of five, stating ‘Design looks dated. Keyboard design makes it a magnet for dirt and dust.’ as cons, whilst liking processor, battery life, and weight.

Featured Tags acer, laptop


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With 2010 being the year of 3D TV, we’ve sort of forgotten about 2009′s favourite toy the Solid State Drive. So we were pleased to see Intal’s latest SSD offering come across our radar and thought we’d share the SSD joy with you all. The last time we took a look at an Intel SSD was back in January with their X25-V SSD range and less than six months later, their latest range, X25-M Mainstream is available. The X25M SSD range comes in three flavours, 40, 80 and 160 GB with the following specifications

* Serial ATA interface
* Data transfer rates up to 3 Gbps
* Sustained Sequential Read: up to 250 MB/s
* Sustained Sequential Write: up to 70 MB/s (80 GB drive) and up to 100 MB/s (160 GB drive)
* 2.5¨ Industry Standard Hard Drive Form Factor
* 1.2 million hours Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF)
* Intel® Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND Flash Memory

Needless to say the specs are an improvement on the January models, but what about the prices? Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to have been a lot of movement in this area, with the 40GB model still costing around the same $120 mark as back in January. However if you’re keen to upgrade your old ‘moving part’ drives then click on thru below to get to the Intel SSD X25-M range at Amazon.

40 GB - $118
80 GB - $225
160 GB - $430

Featured Tags intel, SSD


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Asus have unleashed the EeePC 1201PN notebook on the unsuspecting world. The 12.1 inch notebook squeezes itself into a market niche somewhere between netbook and mid-range notebook with a MSRP of $499. Judging by comments around the web, despite using Nvidia’s Ion platform for its discrete graphics chip, this EeePc lacks the Optimus technology from Nvidia which consequently means a shorter battery life. If you are still keen read on for a full list of specs on the Asus Eee PC 1201PN notebook

* Intel Atom N450 (1.66 GHz, 512 KB L2 Cache)
* Nvidia ION 2 graphics platform
* 12-inch WXGA (1366×768) LED screen
* 2 GB DDR2 RAM, 2 x SODIMM Slot, 4 GB Max
* 250 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
* Windows 7 Home Premium Operating System (32 Bit)
* HDMI and VGA out
* Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n connectivity
* 0.3 MP Webcam
* 3.1 lb
* 11.65 inches, 8.19 inches, 1.31 inches

Shame about the lack of Nvidia Optimus as an enhanced battery life would have helped the EeePC 1201PN raise its head above the current throng of notebooks around the $500 price tag. We did manage to track down a review for you over at LaptopMag, where it receives 3.5 stars out of 5, not exactly a stellar result.

So it seems the Asus EeePC 1201PN falls a bit short of the mark, but if you really, really want one then you can pop on over to Amazon where you can your hands on one for a slight discount on MSRP at $484.

Featured Tags asus, laptop


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We stumbled across Sony’s flagship home theatre projector today, the VPL-VW85 and thought we’d let you know about it too. Unfortunately the price tag is a lttle extereme but the projector does sport 1080p full HD, 120,000:1 contrast ratio and Sony’s Motionflow technology to make those images super-smooth. So what is that price tag? Well, the VPL-VW85 will set you back around $8000. Still with us? Read on for a fuller set of specifications for the Sony BRAVIA VPL-VW85 projector.

* High Contrast Ratio – 120,000: 1 with Advanced Iris 3 technology
* Crisp, Smooth Action with Motionflow with Dark Frame Insertion
* 1080p Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080
* Digital Picture Processing - BRAVIA ENGINE 2
* Panel Alignment Function
* High Resolution All Range Crisp Focus (ARC-F) Lens
* Superb Low Fan Noise “20dB”
* 1.6x lens zoom ratio
* 2.50 – 3.40 / 18.5 – 29.6mm lens
* 800 ANSI Lumen
* LMP-H201 200W UHP lamp
* 40” - 300” / 1m-7.6m Screen Size (16:9 diagonal)
* 1.2m -14.1m Throwing Distance
* 1.47 - 2.18 Throw Ratio (16:9 diagonal)
* Inputs HDMI, Component, S-Video, Composite
* 3,000 Hours Lamp Life
* Every 1,500 Hours Filter Cleaning Time
* 470 x 179.2 x 482.4 mm
* 12kg

So it certainly has everything you’d expect for that price tag but what’s it really like? We decided to track down a few reviews for you to find out for yourself

Projector Central give the VPL-VW85 5 out of 5 for performance and ease of use and 4 for features and value, stating ‘It has some digital noise and a less-than-perfect frame interpolation system’ as negatives
The unit is a ‘Top Pick’ at Home Theatre Mag whose only criticism is ‘Color management system could be more effective’
Finally Trusted Reviews weighed in with scores between 8 and 9 out of 10 in various categories and a ‘Recommended’ tag

So while there are some concerns over image quality, the reviewers gave the Sony BRAVIA VPL-VW85 a big thumbs up even with its big price tag. If you actually have one of these at home, please do let us know what you think.

Update: Amazon have the VPL-VW85 projector for only $6347

Featured Tags projector, Sony


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It wasn’t that long ago that we were enthusing about the MSI GX640 gaming notebook and here we are two weeks later and MSI have unleashed yet another one on the alien-bashing world. The latest unit, the GX740, sports a 17 inch display, powered by a quad 1.6 GHz Core i7 processor with a Mobility Radeon HD 5870 grahocs card with a go-faster red trim. The price tag will be around $1400, so if you’re still interested feel free to check out the rest of the details

* 17 inch TFT-LCD Widescreen Display
* Quad 1.6 GHz Core i7 processor
* 4GB memory
* Mobility Radeon HD 5870 graphics card (with GDDR5 1GB VRAM)
* 7.1-channel audio output
* Built-in subwoofer
* 5 SRS Premium Sound™-certified high-fidelity speakers
* 500GB, 7,200RPM HDD
* Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity
* HDMI output
* 2.0 Mega Pixel Webcam

The MSI GX740 certainly seems to sport the necessary specifications for a gaming laptop with a nice price tag of $1400 at Amazon. As for reviews, PC Advisor give it the thumbs up with a slight reservation about the lack of a full HD display and Notebook Check give the MSI GX740 a thorough test review with a glowing final verdict.

Featured Tags laptop, msi


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AT&T have just added the Pantech Pursuit to their cellphone lineup. The Pursuit is aimed at text-messaging users with a neat slider QWERTY keyboard under the display. AT&T are offering the Pursuit for a meagre $50 after rebates but require customers to have a $20 a month messaging plan over and above their two year voice plan. As well as a QWERTY slider, the Pursuit has a touchscreen interface, 2.0 MP camera along with mobile email and easy-to-use Quick Messaging.

* 2.8 inch 320 x 240 res 262K TFT LCD display
* GSM/GPRS/EDGE Quad-Band 850/900/1800/1900MHz
* UMTS/HSDPA Dual-Band 850/1900MHz 3G
* EDGE high speed data network
* Bluetooth connectivity
* Predictive text for fast typing
* Backlit Keys
* 930 mAh lithium ion battery
* Up to 5 hours talk time
* Up to 15 days standby time
* 4.58 ounces
* 3.67 x 2.51 x 0.58 inches
* microSD memory
* 2 MP 7x zoom camera
* Supported music formats MP3, MIDI, iMelody, WAV, MMF, WMA, 3GPA
* Text Messaging
* Instant Messaging (IM)

The Pursuit comes in two colours, blue and green with glossy black being a notable exception. So much for all the numbers, the burning question is what is the Pantech Pursuit actually like? Well, it has already acquired a 4.8 out of 5 rating on the AT&T website, while over at CNet it’s received a 3.5 score out of five from the editors and testfreaks give it nine out of ten. Negatives noted in the reviews included small screen and a low spec camera whilst positives include good design and interface.

We do like the look of the Pantech Pursuit, so if you’re up for a funky-looking slider touchscreen cellphone then AT&T may just have what you’re after. If you’ve already taken the Pursuit plunge, do let us know what you think.

Featured Tags at&t, cellphone, pantech


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Sanyo have just lifted the lid or may be the lens cap on a couple of short-focus projectors, the PDG-DWL2500 and PDG-DXL2000. Each of these models can toss up a large image whilst being only a short distance from the display screen using a newly developed ultra short-focus mirror projection optical unit. The DWL2500 can manage an 80 inch image at only 12.6 inches whilst the DXL2000 requires to be 15.1 inches away for a similar sized image. But wait there’s more, these Sanyo projectors are also 3D ready. Here are the full details on these short-focus projectors

DWL2500

* 16:10 Aspect Ratio
* 1280×800 res
* 2,500 lumens
* 2,000:1 contrast ratio
* 60” – 110” screen size
* Inputs - HDMI 1.3a (with Deep Color support); D-sub 15 pin x2 (RGB or Component input with adaptor); S-video; Composite RCA
* 12.6 (W) x 6.7 (H) x 15.2 (D) inches
* 14.3 lbs.

DXL2000

* 4:3 aspect ratio
* 1024×768 res
* 2,000 lumens
* 2,000:1 contrast ratio
* 55” – 90” screen size
* Inputs - HDMI 1.3a (with Deep Color support); D-sub 15 pin x2 (RGB or Component input with adaptor); S-video; Composite RCA
* 12.6 (W) x 6.7 (H) x 15.2 (D) inches
* 14.3 lbs.

These puppies aren’t available until July but when they hit the shelves they’ll have the following price tags $1795 (PDG-DXL2000) and $1995 (PDG-DWL2500). Not cheap but then the projectors are compact and sport great features. It’ll be interesting to see how they stack up against other projectors.

Featured Tags projector, sanyo


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