ultraportable

We said we were noticing a trend in 2010 toward "premium" Netbooks, and that's no joke--it seems as we begin our final descent through this calendar year that true ultraportable laptops are back, in a big way.

The $899 Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T-68U118 looks like a Netbook from the outside, just slightly bigger. An 11.6-inch glossy screen and a full-size flat keyboard are contained cozily in a narrow lightweight chassis with little bulk, resembling an Acer TimelineX in miniature. A six-cell battery is tucked above the keyboard and between the screen hinges, reducing bottom bulk. With … Read more

Owners of Seagate's FreeAgent GoFlex Pro who've been wishing the portable hard drive came with USB 3.0 rather than merely USB 2.0 just got their wish.

Seagate announced today a new portable drive in its FreeAgent GoFlex family, the 1.5TB GoFlex Ultra-portable. The drive not only comes with USB 3.0 standard but boasts 1.5TB of storage, making it what appears to be the largest single-volume portable external hard drive currently on the market.

Other than the amount of storage, the new drive has the same superflexible design as the GoFlex Pro, meaning it can be used with any type of connection--be it USB, FireWire, or eSATA--merely by swapping out the adapters.

The GoFlex Ultra-portable comes with a USB 3.0 adapter, while the GoFlex Pro comes with a USB 2.0 adapter. These two adapters, like all GoFlex adapters, can be used interchangeably.

Note, however, that while the GoFlex Pro supports USB 3.0 too, you'll need to buy a separate adapter that costs around $40. Notably, the GoFlex Ultra-portable is the first portable external drive in the GoFlex family to support USB 3.0 out of the box.… Read more

We've waited for one for months, and now someone's finally done it: an iPad case with a keyboard is finally here. Actually, it's already sold out. The KeyCase iPad Folio with Integrated Bluetooth Keyboard is a thin leather stand-type case for the iPad not unlike other cases we've seen, except with a silicone Bluetooth 2.0 keyboard built in. The keyboard recharges with Apple's standard iPad charge cable and lasts 45 hours.

At the rough equivalent of 90 U.S. dollars, it's not a bad deal for a case that would always be ready … Read more

Despite having an iPad on our desk, a colleague recently paid a visit to expressly check out the Lenovo ThinkPad x100e. That might seem hard to swallow, but believe us when we say that this compact, very Netbook-like ThinkPad-to-go is like a fantasy to business travelers and ThinkPad fans who have been dreaming of an ultraportable to call their own.

Yes, there has been the ThinkPad x200 series, which offers higher performance in a compact frame. The x100e uses a low-voltage processor, but it's not an Intel Atom; rather, it's a single-core AMD Athlon Neo, assisted with some … Read more

One of the more notable moments at CES this year for me wasn't a flashy new notebook announcement or a weird concept device demonstration. It was a quiet reveal at the Acer/Gateway suite of the upcoming Gateway EC14D, an 11.6-inch dual-core ULV mininotebook that has a DVD drive. It's a big deal, for several reasons.

Many readers have written in regarding laptop purchases they'd like to make, and it seems that the capability to play DVDs still ranks high on many lists. A laptop is often an entertainment purchase, and DVDs are still more widespread … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Amid the tablet, smartbook, and smartphone wars, a new conceptual spin on the old screen-and-keyboard-connected-by-a-hinge way of doing things has us wondering if the idea is so crazy, it just might work.

MSI showed off a concept 7-inch mini-laptop/e-reader at CES, and its most notable feature was the swapping out of the keyboard with a second screen. The device could generate a virtual keyboard in the lower space, or another sort of interface--and, of course, the device could be turned on its side like a book, allowing two-page reading in a more book-like format than single-screen e-readers. It'… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Before CES, one of our predictions as to what would be a big story on the show floor was the emergence of smartbooks, or mini-notebooks as they're sometimes called. The term was coined by Qualcomm in referring to tiny laptop-like devices using processors that are derived from smartphone-level CPUs, but are in many cases even more powerful. The two most common CPUs seem to be the Snapdragon from Qualcomm and the Tegra/Tegra 2 from Nvidia, both using ARM-based processors.

Consider the concept, ideally, as a device somewhere between a smartphone and a Netbook--hence "smartbook." Unfortunately, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--How small is too small? For those with an ultraportable obsession, consider this year's pocket-computer of note, the Fujitsu Lifebook UH900 Multi-Touch handheld PC. While there more than a few passing similarities to Sony's Vaio P series of ultra-small laptops announced just one year ago, Fujitsu's adds one or two additional tweaks to the formula. The UH900's 5.6 inch screen has resistive multitouch touch that is more responsive than other pressure-based screens we've tried. While a 5.6-inch display turns productivity into a bit of a joke, at least text and images are … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Lenovo has made an impressive splash at this year's CES and the main halls haven't even opened up yet: its bold new takes on ultramobile notebooks--the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid, Skylight, and IdeaPad S10-3t--have caused a big stir and bigger discussions as to whether each will perform as well as they look. In a one-on-one hands-on today, we got a chance to spend time with all three and their more buttoned-down IdeaPad S10-3, and our impressions are positive but mixed.

To start with, the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid is a fascinating idea. The sleek round notebook has … Read more