Samsung unveil transparent OLED laptop

Samsung has revealed its first laptop featuring clear active matrix OLED display.

Such laptops which sport Samsung’s clear AMOLED allow the user to work and see objects placed behind the screen at the same time. The laptop’s display has a transparency that can go as high as 40%.

Of course, the technology is still in the beginning stages but it is interesting to see if and how the screen will be capable of “switching off” the transparency, as end-users may not always want to see directly through it when playing media, reading documents or even playing games.

MSI unveils two new laptops

MSI has revealed two new models, the CX420 and CR420. The mobile laptops are lightweight devices, powered by the latest 2010 Intel processors from the Core i series, and boast design features that complement their performance capabilities with an increased comfort, style and user enjoyment.

The newcomers are based on Intel Core i3 or Core i5 central processors, use up to 4GB of RAM and have hard drives with storage capacities of 250GB, 320GB or 500GB. The CX420 even boasts advanced graphics capabilities provided by the ATi Radeon HD5470 discrete graphics card with 1GB DDR3. In addition, the two devices’ connectivity and I/O options include Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, D-Sub, a six-cell battery, two speakers and a 1.3-megapixel webcam.

Among the aforementioned design upsides of the products are a scratch-resistant Cross-Hatch Color Film Print (CFP) patterning on the lid and palm-rest area and a Chiclet keyboard. The case of the laptops also uses MSI’s “wedge” design, which makes the notebook slimmer and lighter (less than 2.2 kg). Even the touchpad utilizes full-textured cross-hatch CFP for a maximum user enjoyment.

The CX420 and the CR420 14-inch notebook personal computers will be running Windows 7 Home Premium, but have not yet been given price tags or a release date.

New HP laptops leaked ahead of grand unveiling

A shedload of new HP laptops have been leaked ahead of what we presume will be their formal announcement next week. Including desktop PCs, there are 14 new HP releases in total!

No full specs available at present but we do have pricing information, and here are some highlights…

The 14-inch HP Pavilion dv4i, a Windows 7 laptop with a flush display and fingerprint reader that should retail at £499. Up next is the 10-inch Mini 210 HD Edition, which will come in red, black, silver and blue, boast Intel’s brand new Pine Trail platform (a 1.66GHz N450 CPU), plus GMA 3150 graphics. Another goodie here is that this one is expected to ship with Broadcom’s Crystal HD video playback chip. The Mini 210 HD is expected to cost around £249. Logic Buy (the point of origin for all this info) is reporting that these models should ship on or around January 7th, though keep in mind that all of this information is extremely unofficial, so don’t blame us if it all changes!

HP unveils Blu-ray integrated ProBook laptops

HP have launched two new laptops within their ProBook lineup, each powerful enough to act like a desktop machine, yet are compact enough to bring around the office or to travel with.  Let’s have a closer inspection at the new additions to the HP laptops range…

The HP ProBook 6445b is a 14-inch notebook operating on the Windows Vista platform as well as Windows 7. It can run on a powerful 2.4GHz AMD processor or a 2.0GHz AMD processor. In terms of RAM, it allows for as little as 1GB or it can expand to fit 8GB of RAM, allowing it to be a simple machine or a very powerful one. Remember 8GB of RAM is only powerful if the OS is the 64-bit version. In terms of hard disk space, it can go from 160GB to a large 500GB.

The HP ProBook 6545b is slightly larger than it’s brethrin, measuring in at 15.6-inches. Since it has a wider screen, it weighs slightly more – 5.9 pounds. Both models allow for the optional HP Mobile Gobi powered broadband access, but feature WLAN, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth for connectivity; it also uses HP’s native Connection Manager. Again, it has the same support for operating systems (both variants of Windows 7 and Windows Vista) as well as support for the same AMD processors. The dual channel DDR2 SDRAM RAM remains the same, it can go from 1GB to 8GB. Hard drive storage is still 160GB, 250GB, 320GB, or 500GB at 7200RPM.

Did you just say ‘paper laptop’?

The demand to ‘go green’ has spilled over into the laptops sector and one Korean man is hanging about.

Je Sung Park – not to be confused with Manchester United winger Ji Sung Park – has pushed the concept to its limit and opened our eyes to the laptop of the future: a recyclable paper design.

The need to be increasingly environmentally-friendly is emphasised by grim reading on the wastage front; generally, a laptop is upgraded every two years, resulting in an abundance of disposed computers, or ‘e-waste’. E-waste has become a huge problem worldwide – in 2007, only 18% of the estimated 2.25 million tons of TVs, mobile phones and computer products disposed of in the US were recycled. The rest ended up as landfill. In an ideal world, these discards would either be recycled or given a makeover so they can be resold as refurbished laptops.

Park’s brown paper design makes the upgrade process both cost-effective and guilt-free. Because the casing is made from pulp and reprocessed materials, it could easily be broken down when disposed of. The design features layers of the paper materials allowing the user the ability to replace any damaged portions.

It’s just a concept for now; but what a truly remarkable concept it is, and we’re sure to see these in production within two years.

Samsung to launch OLED laptop in late 2010

Remember a decade ago when LCDs were deemed expensive luxuries? Well, fast-forward to now and OLEDs still seem like a costly, far off technology but the reality is that by next year, they’re set to take over.

It’s deemed to be most-anticipated emerging piece of tech, and it could be incorporated into laptops by Christmas next year.

As expensive as OLEDs are right now, Samsung seems to think that it’ll be able to sell a consumer laptop with the display technology by the end of 2010.

“Samsung is the largest OLED screen manufacturer. And as soon as it’s available commercially for laptops we will adopt it,” said Kyu Uhm, head of worldwide sales and marketing for Samsung’s Computing Division.

Lenovo unveils ‘Ideas’ range for Windows7 laptops

Lenovo has followed the new Dell Z Series, by announcing its own independent collection of sassy Windows 7 laptops and we must admit they look pretty damn cool.

The lineup of new IdeaPad laptops – U150, U550 and Y550P – and IdeaCentre desktops – B500, K300 and H230 – are ‘designed to meet the performance, style and usability standards of today’s multi-tasking consumers.’

These new laptops ship with Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system and also include the unique Lenovo Enhanced Experience for Windows 7 – the result of joint engineering by Lenovo in collaboration with Microsoft to provide users with faster system boot and shutdown, richer multimedia features and easy system maintenance tools.

“Our Idea products are designed with the user experience in mind – every aspect of product design and technology is engineered to improve how consumers seamlessly use these products to enrich their daily lives,” said Liu Jun, senior vice president, Idea Product Group, Lenovo.

“Today’s additions to the Idea product portfolio are among Lenovo’s most feature-rich and powerful PCs to-date, providing our customers more choices to find the PC that best meets their unique digital lifestyle.”

HP to offer free music with their laptops

HP have reportedly sealed a deal to offer free music downloads with new HP laptops. In a move that echoes Nokia’s questionable Comes With Music service, anyone that buys a new HP laptop will receive a scratchcard containing a PIN number on it.

Users must then visit a dedicated website and register that PIN number to gain access to a catalogue provided by Universal Music where you can pick up to 1,000 tracks to download.

Early reports do suggest however, that only 120 of those tracks are yours to keep forever – the rest ‘expire’ after one year.

Sandy Monteiro, Universal Music Group’s VP of Digital, remarked: “We are keen to explore such deals to get consumers familiar with the new environment and using devices like computers and mobile phones to listen to music. It incentives them to learn to enjoy music via devices other than traditional hardware”.

HP waste no time as Ion-infused Mini 311 netbook hits the shops

Lenovo’s IdeaPad S12 was the odds-on favourite to be the first NVIDIA Ion-integrated laptop but HP have made a late surge to usurp Lenovo, who dragged their heels waiting around for Windows 7.

HP laptops have long-been popular with consumers and the Mini 311 is now the first netbook ever to possess NVIDIA’s Ion and it’s ready for purchase for around £200. Lots of features can be added at extra price, as usual.

Nice to know that the display will now come with 1366 x 768 resolution as standard.

HP set sights on business market with new ultra-thin laptop

HP have unveiled the ProBook 5310m lightweight business laptop, which features a fairly low-power chip from Intel traditionally used in low-budget desktop PCs for home use.

“The new laptop has the portability of a netbook and adequate performance to run most desktop and high-definition multimedia application”, HP said.

The ProBook costs £425 with a low-power single-core Intel Celeron SU2300 chip. The chip runs at 1.2GHz and includes 1MB of cache. The laptop can be modified to include a standard Core 2 Duo chip usually found in normal laptops.

This proves to be the most featherweight of HP laptops weighing in at just 1.72 kilos and is less than an inch (2.3cm) at its thinnest point. It comes with a 13.3-inch screen, and storage capacity of up to 320GB.

It’s the first HP laptop to be built without hazardous substances like polyvinyl chloride plastic and brominated flame retardants. This is an early step by HP to remove such substances from all of its hardware by 2011, the company said.