Laptop Blog

The size of the Toshiba Portege M700’s LED backlit display with anti-glare coating is 12.1-inch. Its resolution is 1280-by-800 (WXGA) pixels and it supports digital pen and touch screen inputs. Regarding internal components of the Intel 965 Express chipset-based Portege M700, there are an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (T7250, T7500, T7700 or T7800), the Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, up to 4GB of system memory, up to 160GB hard drive, and a built-in DVD burner, as well as an 802.11a/g/n wireless module, Gigabit Ethernet, and an optional Bluetooth receiver. The Tablet PC’s optical drive can be replaced with a second hard drive or weight saver.

A 1.3-megapixel web camera and microphone are integrated on the bezel of the Portege M700. This Tablet PC also features a fingerprint reader accompanied by the Trusted Platform Module v1.2, three USB ports, a PC Card slot, 5-in-1 media card reader, Firewire, and a VGA output.

The Toshiba Portege M700 incorporates the Intel Active Management Technology (AMT 2.6) delivering “the ability to remotely deploy systems and supply proactive security and maintenance measures”.

The M700 has a shock absorbing design and spill resistant keyboard. The system weighs starting at 4.6 pounds and comes with Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 preinstalled.

The customizable Toshiba Portege M700-S7008X model starts at $1,449. There are also the preconfigured M700-S7001X and M700-S7002, priced at $1,699 and $1,799 respectively.

The Toshiba Satellite X205-SLI2 and Satellite X205-SLI4 notebooks are now available for purchase. These 17-inch gaming laptops feature dual Nvidia GeForce graphics and the new Intel Core 2 Duo “Penryn” 45nm processor.

Both preconfigured systems include the Core 2 Duo T8100 “Penryn” CPU at 2.1GHz and two NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics cards in SLI, providing 512MB of GDDR3 dedicated video memory. These laptops incorporate two 160GB 5,400rpm hard drives for a total of 320GB, and a HD DVD optical drive with DVD writing capability.

The Satellite X205-SLI2 comes with 2GB of system memory, a 1440×900 WXGA+ 17″ display, and Windows Vista Home Premium operating system, while the X205-SLI4 ships with 3GB of RAM, a 1680×1050 WSXGA+ screen, and Vista Ultimate. In addition, the SLI4 model includes an external USB HDTV Tuner with a remote controler.

These laptops also feature built-in Harman Kardon stereo speakers with one sub-woofer, embedded webcam, microphone, and fingerprint reader, the Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n) and Bluetooth, and Gigabit Ethernet and 56k modem connections.

Along with HDMI, S-Video, and VGA outputs, the X205-SLI2 and X205-SLI4 have six USB ports, an ExpressCard slot, a 5-in-1 media card reader, and a Firewire port.

The Toshiba Satellite X205-SLI2 and X205-SLI4 are available at ToshibaDirect.com for $1,999.99 and $2,499.99 respectively.

Averatec has introduced the 2575 ultraportable notebook featuring a 12.1-inch display and an AMD processor.

The Averatec 2575 is powered by the AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-64 2.2GHz dual core CPU and the ATI RS690 integrated graphics, which manages the 1280×800 screen. The laptop comes with 2GB or RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and a built-in DVD burner.

The 2575 includes an embedded 1.3-megapixel camera, 802.11b/g wireless, Ethernet LAN, three USB ports, an ExpressCard slot, VGA output, and a 4-in-1 media card reader.

Averatec’s new ultraportable weighs 3.9 pounds and runs Windows Vista operating system.

It is priced at $1,099.

Dell Home has added Blu-ray optical drive options to its Inspiron 1525 15.4-inch consumer laptop.

The offered Blu-ray Disc Combo plays Blu-ray media and can read and write standard DVDs. The new option adds $250 to the notebook’s overall price, when selected instead of a DVD burner.

Customers can also choose a Blu-ray burner drive, which can write up to 50 GB of data on a Blu-ray media. This burner is $450 more expensive than the DVD writer option.

However, Blu-ray Disc Drive selection requires a processor in the Inspiron 1525 that is 1.83GHz or greater, and is not available with the Celeron CPUs.

Dell says its Inspiron 1525 laptops with Blu-ray incorporate Broadcom Media PC technology that allows PCs with integrated graphics to play high definition video. The HD video playback is enabled through a built-in dedicated accelerator located in a mini-card slot.

The 1525 laptop features a 15.4″ widescreen display with 720p resolution, and includes an HDMI port. This notebook is based on the Intel “Santa Rosa” mobile platform and comes with the Intel Core 2 Duo, Pentium or Celeron processor and GMA X3100 integrated graphics.

The cheapest Inspiron 1525 configuration with a Blu-ray Disc Combo and Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 1.83GHz CPU is priced at $879.