laptops

Your intrepid editor returns from vacation and resumes her roundup of the week's laptop news.

It was a big week for laptop announcements, fueled by the DigitalLife tech show in New York and the upcoming holiday buying season. (What, you haven't started your holiday shopping yet?)

Sony hit the ground running, pimping the water-resistant keyboard on its Vaio G series laptops and announcing its cheapest Vaio yet, the $750 NR series. We also saw the Vaio brand attached to this slick, holographic laptop concept that's straight out of Minority Report.

Meanwhile Acer announced an update to its … Read more

Taking a run through the early, underpopulated hours of the DigitalLife expo here in New York, we were pleased to see at least three new laptops that mobile gaming fans will be interested in.

First up was Dell XPS m1730, making its official debut. Of course, this may go down as one of the most-leaked "secret" laptops in history, with Dell itself sending a preorder advertising e-mail to its XPS mailing list earlier this week. Now that it's officially out, we'll politely feign surprise, but our excitement is genuine as this is a sorely needed update … Read more

Panasonic has added four new laptops to its Let's Note line in Japan. Though they're sold under the ToughBook brand here in the States, the shiny portables aren't exactly what we'd call rugged. They are engineered to survive a drop from 30 inches--about desk height--and incorporate a spill-resistant keyboard, but we've always felt the greatest strength of the Let's Note line has been the laptops' remarkably light weight. These new models are no exception: The lightest laptop of the bunch, the 10.4-inch R7, weighs just 2.1 pounds. The 12.1-inch W7 weighs … Read more

The Vaio NR popped its head up in Germany a few weeks ago, and Sony announced yesterday that its new budget laptop will make its U.S. debut next month. With a starting price of $750, it undercuts Sony's current budget model, the Vaio N, by a hefty $200. Despite its low price, Sony didn't skimp on design, outfitting the 15.4-inch, 6.2-pound with a textured chassis it describes as "fabric-like" and "pleasing to the eye and cool to the touch." You'll have your choice of three colors, which Sony calls wenge, … Read more

Well, not literally. But the VAIO Zoom concept laptop looks like it could be part of John Anderton's arsenal of tech tools. Composed of two sheets of thin glass hinged together, the Zoom relies on holographic technology for both the screen and the input devices. When the laptop is turned off, the screen becomes completely transparent and the keyboard opaque.

Being technology critics, we have to wonder: Where's the power source? What are the components? How comfortable can it be to type on a flat panel? Can an object made entirely of glass be all that portable?

But … Read more

Say what you will about Sony computers, but they've always been at least a finalist in laptop version of The Biggest Loser--the most recent lightweight contender being the first to break the 2-pound barrier with its Vaio G series. Yet the latest upgrade to that line apparently has a feature that has little to do with weight but is extremely close to home for some of the less coordinated road warriors among us.

According to Engadget, the G series now has a waterproofing function that discharges your spilled Red Bull or chai latte through a "water pit&… Read more

With the Digital Life expo coming up this week in New York, you can expect plenty of new product announcements from consumer technology companies. Toshiba is stepping up with some new laptop news, and we'll get the exciting part of it out of the way first.

We're pleased to see the company adding Nvidia SLI technology to its Satellite X205 gaming notebook series. That means two graphics processing units (GPUs) inside, just like high-end gaming desktops. Two new models, the Satellite X205-SLI1 and the Satellite X205-SLI3, will offer twin Nvidia GeForce 8600GT chips, which are DirectX10 compatible (if … Read more

I woke up Monday to the announcement that starting September 24, the XO laptop (famous as the little laptop that could) will be made available to buyers in so-called first-world countries, in quantities less than 100,000 units. In fact, for less than $400 you can give one and receive another--an excellent solution to an age-old moral dilemma.… Read more

The $200 Asus laptop won't be making its appearance this week after all. While earlier rumors were pointing to a late September release of the Asus Eee PC, it now looks like we'll have to wait a couple more weeks for the 2-pound, 7-inch, Linux-based laptop. I spoke with my contact at Asus' new PR agency earlier today, and he confirmed that the Eee PC will go on sale sometime in October. (Three models are available for pre-order on AllAsus.com and are estimated to ship in early October. They range in price from $259 to $399; the … Read more