Samsung’s latest laptop release snapped for the first time

Considering that the Samsung N510 netbook isn’t due for release until October to coincide with Windows 7, we’re surprised it’s already hit the shop floors in Germany and Italy, leading to this photo which clearly illustrates the sheer size of this netbook.

It’s soon clear that the Samsung N510 isn’t like other netbooks. Apart from being bulkier for an ultra-portable at 11.6-inches, it also features a brand new graphics chipset. The NVIDIA Ion is a new graphics processor which has been specially designed for low power laptops, and NVIDIA believe it generates ten times the performance of a similar system. This results in 1080p HD video without buffering crawl, and the Samsung N510 even packs an HDMI output to make it an all-round multimedia hub.

Not bad for £430.

Hanspree enter the laptop market

Taiwan-based Hannspree are extending their product range from LCD tvs and monitors and breaking into the cheap laptops market by launching the HannsNote netbook.

The 10-inch mini-laptop adheres to the tried and tested formula of 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and Windows XP but features a six-cell battery providing five hours of life rather than the standard three-cell packs. The inclusion of a 1.3-megapixel webcam, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as standard leaves this new netbook in the upper echelons when compared to similarly priced laptops.

The HannsNote is already available in the US and will be hitting the UK at the turn of 2010, priced around £219.

Lanyu unveils the world’s cheapest laptop for £59

Lanyu, a Chinese company based in Shenzen, claims to have made the world’s cheapest laptop.

The eBook LY-EB01, priced at 666 Yuan (nothing evil about that), is powered by ARM and features a a 266MHz AK7802Q216 processor, a 7-inch 800×480 TFT LCD, WinCE 5.0 as OS, WI-FI connectivity, 128M of RAM and a 1800mAH Li-Ion batter.

It weighs in at a featherweight 0.6kg with dimensions of 213.5mm×141.8mm×30.8mm.

From Lanyu’s official website, it seems the company has a foreign trade department, which leads us to believe that they’ll be introducing this cut-price netbook to the international market at some point in the near future, which will truly put the cat amongst the pigeons in the cheap laptops sector.

Virgin Media Announces Broadband and New Laptop Breakthrough

Virgin Media, the UK’s only provider of fibre optic broadband services across the country, makes history this month with the completion of Britain’s first next-generation broadband network. Having spent the last 18 months conducting significant upgrades using the latest DOCSIS 3.0 technology, Virgin Media has tripled its network capacity and is the first company to offer ultrafast speeds of up to 50Mb to over 12 million homes across the UK.

To celebrate the completion of the network roll-out, Virgin Media announced a new pricing structure for its 50Mb service. From 1st September Virgin Media will reduce the monthly cost of its 50Mb service for new and existing customers to GBP 28, when taken with a phone line, or GBP 38 if taken as a sole product, making the ultrafast service ultra-fantastic value. The 50Mb service continues to be free of traffic management.

Virgin Media will also start a new pilot to trial a range of upload speeds of up to 10Mb — much faster than the download speeds of most ADSL connections. In addition to trialling the technical capabilities of the DOCSIS 3.0 network, the trial will explore the demand for higher upstream speeds for bandwidth hungry families, on services such as video conferencing, multiplayer gaming and home working.

This week the company will also launch the “Freedom” netbook, its first ever branded laptop. The bespoke laptop, available in black or Virgin red, has been optimised for 50Mb speeds and will be packaged with top of the line software. Both new and existing customers will be able to get the laptop at no additional charge when they take selected great value bundled packages.

Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, said, “As the first company to bring broadband to the UK ten years ago, the completion of our next-generation network marks another pioneering moment for internet access in the UK. We are delighted with the performance and reliability of our 50Mb service, and with the customer feedback. Now the roll-out is days from being complete, we’re ready to take 50Mb to the next stage of development and reinforce our leading position in the broadband market.”

Virgin Media is currently piloting the real-world deployment of 200Mb speeds in Ashford, Kent.