Haier’s crazy / crazy expensive laptop

Apparently, in other parts of the world, Haier (a minor brand here in the States) is busy manufacturing highly expensive and totally bizarre laptop computers. The cats over at Engadget Chinese have gotten their hands on info concerning this totally outrageous laptop / tablet PC, apparently an offshoot of the Flybook line, which rocks a Core Duo U2500 processor (coupled with an Intel 945GM chipset), 2GB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, 802.11a/b/g, an 8.6-inch widescreen tablet display, plus a fingerprint scanner, Bluetooth, and an option to go all 3G wireless (should you so desire). Apparently, the system folds down into a tablet, replete with handwriting recognition and all, and can be yours for the fantastically low price of 35,999 Yuan (or about $4,790). We wish you nothing but good luck on finding one, and even better luck on footing the bill.

HP to debut bumper crop of new Pavilions and Presarios

HP has a whole lotta’ new laptops to launch, possibly at a press conference this Tuesday if Notebook Italia is on the money. The designations are a real mouthful, so brace yourself: in all, we could be looking at Pavilions numbered dv2600, d6600, dv9600, and tx1300, and new HP G7000 and HP G6000’s also coming in the form of Compaq Presario F700 and F500 models. There are a crazy amount of specs here, so it’s probably safe to say that there is a machine to suit your requirements. Screen sizes range from 12.1 inch with the tx1300 up to 17 inches with the dv9600, CPUs range from 1.6GHz Core Duos and 1.7GHz Athlons up to 2.2GHz Core 2 Duos and … well, you get the point. Most notably, the new dv models include HDMI among their image output ports, with the dv2600 featuring some kind of fancy new print on the outer casing (pictured above). For a more detailed listing, check the read links below. Fortunately, spec sheets don’t require translation.

Wacom shipping Bamboo tablets in the US

 

We’d heard about Wacom’s small and inexpensive Bamboo input tablets a few months ago, but it looks like the company is getting ready to ship both the $79 Bamboo (aimed at casual photo retoucher) and the $99 (small) and $199 (medium) Bamboo Fun, which costs more because it comes with a mouse and is apparently more fun. Both models feature four ExpressKeys, the “touch ring” zoom / scroll controller, and a textured surface designed to emulate the feel of a real pen on paper. Both models should work well with both OS X’s InkWell and Vista’s Tablet features, so those of you interested in eating up Martha should keep your eyes open.

Fujitsu’s LOOX U50XN ultra-portable PC gets colored

It’s been a tick since Fujitsu’s LOOX ultra-portable PC lineup has garnered our attention, but there’s no better way to do that than offer up the machine in four dazzling colors and bump the hardware while you’re at it. The FMV-U50XN is now available in white, blue, black and red color schemes, and includes an 800MHz Intel A110 processor, up to 1GB of DDR2 RAM, between 20GB and 40GB of hard drive space, a 5.6-inch LED-backlit LCD with a 1,024 x 600 resolution, 802.11b/g, USB 2.0, VGA output, SD / CF card slots, an integrated speaker, and Windows Vista to boot. After you mull over exactly which hue to choose (take a peek after the break for closeups), you can snag your fav for around $1,600 right now.

Dell intros 17-inch Precision M6300 laptop

If you’ve been waiting patiently on Dell’s monster of a laptop, the 17-inch, Santa Rosa-based behemoth known as the Precision M6300, feel free to get really excited. Very soon, all of you business boys and girls will be able to get your hands on the company’s new enterprise-centric laptop (a follow up to the M90), that rocks a Core 2 Duo X7900 CPU (2.8GHz with an 800MHz FSB), Nvidia’s Quadro FX 1600M graphics chipset, up to 4GB of RAM, and a 120GB or 200GB hard drive. Dell also plans to make a SanDisk 32GB SSD available for the road-ready laptop, and is offering a DVD, DVD-RW, or Blu-ray writable optical drive. Of course, the M6300 has all the regular bells and whistles, like 802.11a/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0, DVI, Firewire, plus a not-so-usual optional AT&T HSDPA card. You can also choose between XP, Vista, or RedHat Linux for the OS. No word on price of availability, though it appears these will be landing sometime this month.

Samsung Spruces Up The Q1 Ultra UMPC

When Riyad looked at the Q1 Ultra he mused upon the fact that adding a solid-state drive would make it a much more attractive proposition and suggested that within the next few months we would see a model featuring one. Strangely enough, just two months after we reviewed the original, the SSD fitted Q1U-SSDXP is upon us, along with two other new models. Elsewhere the specs are still the same, so the Q1U-SSDXP offers an 800MHz Intel processor, 1GB RAM and a 7in 1,024 x 600 screen; battery life and heat output should improve though. No UK pricing is yet available, but the US model is $500 more than the same spec machine without the SSD, so expect a reasonable premium in the UK, bearing in mind a separate drive costs around £300. Backing up the most desirable model is the Q1U-XP, which is simply the same specbut with a 60GB hard disk instead. The main problem we see is that eXpansys lists this spec as around £800 and for that money you could pick up a Q45 which is more powerful, offers better performance, similar battery life and 100GB more storage space. At the lowest end of the Q1 spectrum is the Q1U-ELXP, which offers a 40GB hard drive and a 600MHz processor. While this will obviously provide lower performance, it should offer better battery life than the 800MHz models and could therefore actually pose a more attractive proposition to the kind of market that the UMPC form factor aims to target. Either way, while I do like the look of the Q1 Ultra and the latest refresh certainly doesn’t detracts from its desirability I still wouldn’t part with my hard-earned cash for one.