Laptops and Other Mobile Computers - News, Reviews, and Deals

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Crysis 2, Battlefield 3, and Batman: Arkham City are currently among the most popular 3D game titles for PCs. Youtube user SimonAllanSAS has uploaded gameplays of these titles, all made on a Clevo P170HM3 laptop with an overclocked Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M, the fastest single video card for notebooks.

The Open Pandora, a laptop-like handheld computer based on an OMAP processor and Linux OS will go into mass production next month, after four years of waiting, and is available for pre-order now. Pandora’s design and features are based on suggestions and requests by open source comunity gathered on the gp32x forums. The device runs a modified version of Angstrom-Linux distro and is primarily oriented toward game emulations. It has a 4.3″ resistive-touch screen and game controls on the base, alongside the QWERTY keyboard.

On today’s market, you can find an iPad 2 and a bunch of Android tablets for under $500, but those based on Windows 7 OS usually carry higher price tags. Fortunately, these prices drop. We have made a comparison of the two most serious Windows 7 multi-touch tablets with sub-$500 prices – the Dell Inspiron Duo 1090 and HP Slate 500. Windows 7 is not optimized for touch input like Android or iOS and the battery life with PC-use processors is generally shorter than on ARM-based slates, but if you want a cheap tablet and depend on Windows, this comparison

On dell-lab.posterous.com, you can often find rumors about Dell’s future products and from our past experience, info provided there is pretty accurate. This time, software engineer Eric G. says the Dell Alienware 2012 gaming laptop lineup will include (starting from the smallest) the M14X R2, M17X R4, and M18X R2.

Asus has quietly released the Asus Eee PC R051BX, a budget 10.1″ netbook with an AMD processor and HDMI output. The R051BX has the first generation AMD Fusion C-series C-50 1GHz dual-core processing unit with integrated Radeon graphics and full HD video decoder. The downsides of this laptop are RAM and battery. The memory size is 1GB and it’s solidered on the motherboard, so RAM on this netbook is not upgradeable. The battery is a 3-cell unit, without 6-cell option. The R051BX has only two USB ports, a webcam, and media card reader, besides HDMI.

Here’s a great Windows Tablet PC deal. Microsoft Store is offering the Samsung Series 7 Slate XE700T1A-A04 for $999, with its docking station included and a $200 Microsoft Store coupon for future purchase.

In the US, Hewlett-Packard has launched the HP Mini 110-4100 series, the latest addition to their netbook line. The new HP Mini 110-4100, also known as 1104, is aimed at the business and education markets. It’s based on the Intel Atom “Cedar Trail” N2600 1.6GHz dual-core processor with the GMA 3600 graphics and has a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 display.

Sony has announced refresh of their laptop line, including new configuration and color options for the VAIO Z, new internals choices for the S and E series, and new finish designs for the VAIO C.

After a long time, here’s an announcement of a netbook with built-in mobile broadband. AT&T has started offering an Acer Aspire One A0722 11.6-incher with built-in HSPA+ connectivity, a low-end AMD C-50 dual-core 1GHz processor, a 320GB HDD, 2GB RAM, HDMI, and Windows 7 Home Premium.

Do you need a free backup software for your Windows laptop, tablet, or desktop PC? You can get a free copy of True Image Personal 2010 by a well-known sofware maker Acronis today only via Download Crew. With Acronis’ application, you can manually backup your selected files or an entire HDD partition, or schedule an automatic backup. Restore can be done partially or you can do it for the whole partition, even if your Windows installation won’t boot.

We haven’t seen an announcement of an Intel-Celeron based laptop since mid-2008, but at 2012 CES, Samsung unveiled a Series 5 Chromebook with Intel’s bugdet processor.

MSI has showcased at the 2012 CES Show the GUS II, an external graphics card enclosure prototype, which adds dedicated desktop-class GPU power to laptops with a Thunderbolt port.

Please take this with a grain of salt, because we are not confident in reliability of the source, but we have to share with you what we found on a Vietnamese website – a listing for the Lenovo ThinkPad T430u Ultrabook with an Intel Ivy Bridge processor.

Fujitsu ARROWS Tab, a waterproof Android tablet, has been put on sale in Japan. With prices of ¥59,800 ($779) for the 16GB FAR70A model and ¥67,800 ($883) for the 32GB FAR75A, the ARROWS Tab offers a 10.1″ multitouch display, OMAP4 1GHz dual-core processor, and Android Honeycomb, all packed into a water-resistant case.

The Archos Internet Tablet Arnova 7b G2 can be pre-ordered now for 99 euros ($127 U.S.) at Amazon.de.