We took a look at the Asus leather clad laptop, the U2, last year and today we shall take a gander at their ultra-portable offering the U6S another leather unit. Over at HotHardware they have done a full review and give the U6S a thumbs-up despite noting an issue re short battery-life and with it weighing in at 1.57 kg you could argue that it’s not really ‘ultra-portable’. However here are the stats that did grab their attention

* Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.2GHz,4M L2 Cache,800MHz FSB)
* Vista Business
* 2 GB Memory
* 12.1″ LED 1280×800 res display
* 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M G
* 802.11a/b/g/n connectivity
* Bluetooth 2.0, 3G/3.5G, HSPDA connectivity
* 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
* Ultra Slim DVD Super Multi Double Layer
* 300 x 220 x 31.6 mm
* 1.57 kg
* 4 x USB 2.0, 1 x HDMI, 1 x RJ11, 1 x RJ45 ethernet ports

The U6S is indeed feature-rich and with a price tag of US$1650 looks like good value. However the short battery life and weight are real downers for me - surely the idea of an ultra-portable laptop is, err, its portability. I’d rather shell out a few more bucks for a lighter and longer battery life model - but if that doesn’t concern you and you like the feel of leather in your lap then the U6S is probably right up your street!

Source: HotHardware

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The title on Rock’s home page states that they deal in the ‘Ultimate performance gaming laptops and notebooks’. Well their latest offering, the Xtreme XL8, certainly seems to fit the bill and here are the specs to back up the claim.

* Intel X6800 quad processor
* 2 GeForce 8800M GTX video cards
* 1 TB HDD spinning at 5,400 rpm
* 17 inch 1,920 x 1,200 res display
* Wireless connectivity 802.11a/b/g/draft-n
* HD-DVD drive

Of course any sucker stacked full of these kind of features is not going to come with a wafer thin price tag and the Xtreme XL8 is no exception coming in at a range of US$5,000 to US$6,000 depending on spec. However if power computing in a notebook is what your after then the Xtreme XL8 could just be the solution.

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With the Macworld Expo in full swing, Apple have unleashed their latest notebook, the MacBook Air, on an unexpecting world. The ultra slimline notebook measures a mere 0.76 inches thick or a unbelievable 19.4 mm for the metrically minded. The unit sports a 13.3 inch display as well as a multi-touch trackpad enabling similar two finger action as on your iPhone. Other specs include

* 1.8 inch 80 GB HDD (64 GB of SSD storage is available at what we shall call a significant extra cost)
* 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
* 1280 x 800 res display
* mono sound output
* Micro DVI to DVI and micro DVI to VGA adapters (S-Video and composite will cost extra)
* 19.4 x 325 x 227 mm
* 1.36 kg
* 5 hr battery
* Optical Drive? Yeah that’s right an extra US$99 will get you a DVD drive, yes, really

In fact we not sure what you get if you don’t choose any optional extras? Seriously though Apple have obviously stripped all the bells and whistles off the unit to slim it down and thereby create a selling point. Quite good marketing really. Anyway I’m sure these suckers will sell like iPhones hot cakes and every Mac FanBoy will be queuing up for one. The basic model will set you back US$1,799 when it’s out and about in two weeks time.

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Asus describe their latest laptop offering, the U2, as

taking luxury computing to a whole new level

I’m not too sure what they mean by that, as luxury computing to me usually has something more to do with a warm, comfy seat ;)

However if leather laptops are your definition of luxury then the U2 is for you and rather than prattle on about it myself here’s the spiel from Asus

Hand polished stainless steel frame and copper etch detailing exist in sublime harmony with premium leather, creating an interplay of warmth and cool high-tech aesthetic that mirrors the principle of perfection attained from visual and tactile balance.

It sounds very swish, doesn’t it? But what’s under the hood, well the U2 certainly doesn’t disappoint in that department either

* Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology
* 802.11 a/b/g connectivity
* All flavours of Vista
* 11.1″ WXGA 1366 x 768 LED back-lit display
* 80GB/100GB/120GB PATA 1.8″ 4200rpm HDD
* 32GB SSD option
* Up to 4 GB memory
* 277 x 194 x 29 mm
* 1.28 kg (1.25 with SSD)

The combination of a back-lit LED display and 32 GB solid state drive knock this puppy down to a non-bone crushing 1.25 kg, and of course suck less juice than your average display and drive thus saving the planet too. So although the U2 doesn’t exactly take luxury computing to a new level, it’s sure going in the right direction … and look no reference to Bono in the post either ;)

Source: Asus

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Another day, another Blu-Ray drive and today it’s the Optiarc BC-5500A a slimline Blu-Ray drive for your laptop. Unlike yesterday’s Blu-Ray drive, the Sony BWU-200S, this sucker will only read your discs but obviously being able to watch your fav Blu-Ray movies whilst you are out on the road with your laptop could be handy. Optiarc is a joint-venture between Sony and NEC and this is its first Blu-Ray drive for laptops and with a price tag of around US$335 they are hoping it will enable laptop manufacturers to make Blu-Ray drives available in ‘mid-range’ units.

Just in case you were wondering it can burn to single-layer DVD±R/RW at 8x (dual at 4x) and to CD-R/RW at up to 16x.

Source: Reg Hardware

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The guys at Alienware have squeezed a couple of 320 GB 2.5 inch drives into their Area-51 m9750 and Aurora m9700 models. This makes these notebooks the first to sport such a capacity and if you were so inclined to have 640 GB of HDD space available you could squeeze in an amazing 163,000 tunes or 160 movies depending on what your passion is.

On the downside the Area-51 model weighs in at a hefty 8.5 lbs which doesn’t exactly make it a lightweight laptop but then who’s going anywhere when you’ve got so much music and vid to enjoy! It also sports a hefty price tag with a required US$2,400 just to get you the base model with 640 GB of storage. There’s a Solid State 128 GB option available too.

With the increase in popularity of external hard drives and their ever increasing capacity you may have thought manufacturer’s would have given up on trying to squeeze more capacity into a notebook but apparently not. So if you’re looking for a grunty notebook with copious amounts of storage you probably can’t go wrong with one of these offerings from Alienware. Oh yeah, deep pockets a requirement too.

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Samsung have announced that their 64 GB solid state drive (SSD) has been snapped up by Alienware and Dell and is now available in the manufacturers notebooks. Dell is offering the drive on its XPS M1330 ultra-portable notebook and Alienware have got dual SSDs tucked away in its Area-51 m9750 gaming notebook along side a spinning 200 GB oh-so-yesterday HDD.

Despite only having a 64 GB max capacity - that figure will, as with all figures techie, increase over time - SSD does boast a number of advantages over its older sibling the HDD

* No moving parts, so less bits to go wrong
* Noise free
* Produces little heat, always a bonus with a lap-burning laptop
* Handles shocks and knocks better

So hats off to Samsung for getting this little sucker out into the world, another step forward in the endless quest to squeeze more stuff into less space.

Source: BusinessWire

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