News Bits: HP ZV6000, Asus W3 Pre-Order, Light Budget Notebooks, Commodore

HP ZV6000 15.4" AMD Processor Notebook Available, but no Turion Processor (yet)

HP yesterday introduced its new Pavilion ZV6000 notebook that replaces the ZV5000 and ZE5000series of notebooks. We were sort of expecting to see the new AMD Turion Mobile Processor available in the configuration of this notebook, but it's missing. Instead the AMD Sempron and AMD 64 processor family chips are available. This is too bad as it would be better for AMD just to drop the mess of offerings they have for laptops and quickly move to just having the Turion available and getting people to recognize that processor. But oh well, we might see a Turion become available in the configuration soon.

HP ZV6000 Notebook -- that guy might be even happier if the ZV6000 were powered bythe new AMDTurion processor

HP ZV6000 Specs

• AMD Sempron or AMD64 3200+, AMD64 3500+ Processors
• 15.0" XGAor 15.4" WXGA Screen (BrightView option available)
• 32MB or 128MB ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M (http://www.ati.com/products/radeonxpress200m/)
• 256MB to 2.0GB DDR SDRAM
• 40GB - 100GB hard drive @4200 RPM, 60GB - 80GB @5400 RPM
• DVD Burner / CD Burner / DVD optical drive options
• 802.11 b/g Wireless
• 1 PCMCIA PC Card Slot
• 14.25" x 11.18" x 1.8" (W x L x D) dimensions
• 7.97 lbs
• 4 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Ethernet, 1 Modem
• Windows XP Home or XP Pro
• Prices start at $799

Interesting to note is that this might be the first notebook I've seen with the ATI X200M graphics card, and this card is made specifically for AMD processors and supports the Turion processor, so maybe we will see the AMD Turion show up soon. The Radeon X200M is a PCI Express based card and has performance on par with the X300 cardthat we're seeing in Intel based processor notebooks.

Asus W3 14.0" WideScreenNotebook Pre-Order

The Asus W3 will make it to the shores of North America in the next few weeks, and if you want to secure an order for this 14" widescreen Pentium M 750 powered notebook from Asus then head on over to our friends at ProPortable where they're offering up a free Traveling Wireless Access Point as an incentive for pre-ordering:http://www.proportable.com/detail.aspx?ID=107

This offer is only good for the first 100 advanced orders, most of which are now gone. So hurry if you want one!

Asus W3v Specs

• Intel Pentium-M 750 Dothan (1.86Ghz; 533mhz w/ 2mb Cache)
• 14" WXGA (1280 x 768) Color Shine (glaretype) LCD Panel
• Asus W3V w/ Intel 915PM Chipset
• 512MB DDR2 533 (1 x 512) - up to 2GB supported
• Hitachi 60GB; 5400RPM Hard Drive
• ATI Mobility Radeon x600 PCI-Express Graphics w/ 64MB VRAM
• Built-In Intel PRO/Wireless 2915 A/B/G miniPCI
• 8x Dual Layer DVD Burner
• 8-Cell Li-Ion; Approximately 4-5 hours of normal use life
• Windows XP Pro w/ SP2
• 13" (length) x 9.7" (width) x 1.18"-1.28" (height) /
  about 4.6 LBS (with 8 cell and travelers drawer)
• 2 year global parts and labor through ASUS

A nicely designed Pentium M 750, glossy 14" widescreen notebookwith an ATI X600 graphics cardjust can't be scoffed at.

Light, Cheap Laptops

The WinBook LX 300 is light...and cheap!

The heavier the car, such as a Hummer H2 at 8,600 lbs, the more you usually pay ($45,000). A lighter car generally equates to cheaper quality and lower price. Not so with laptops, an ultra light laptop such as the Sony VAIO X505 weighing under 3lbs will cost you $3,000. Go with a bigger laptop, say the 7.6lb Dell Inspiron 6000 with a Celeron processor, and you pay $780. But with laptops, less weight is definitely an advantage worth paying for. Try carrying an 8lb laptop around a college campus for a day and you'll know what I mean. So manufacturers are now making efforts to offer light laptops at a price that won't break the bank. Winbook recently introducedthe LX30012.1" screen laptop for $699. The kicker is it comes with Linux (Linspire OS 4.5)and not Windows at that price. Other manufacturers are making more of an effort to bring down the weight of their budget laptops as budget buyers become more concious and aware of the size and weight issues of laptops. CNET has the full report on this trend:

More: CNET: Cheap and Light Laptops

Targus Canada Unveils Ladies Notebook Cases

Targus has a wide offering of notebook cases targeted at the females here in the U.S., but Canadian gals have been shunned. Until now. Targus announces that ladies in Canada can get in on the fun of red notebook cases too.

More: http://marketnews.ca/news_detail.asp?nid=571

Sale of CommodoreComputer Brandto Tulip Computersis Complete

Tulip Computers and Yeahronimo Media Ventures Inc. announced today the two leading technology entities have reached a final agreement on the acquisition of Commodore International BV. Giving YMV international control of the Commodore brand with a view to a new entertainment concept, the acquisition is commensurate with the Letter of Intent signed by the companies on December 27, 2004.

"We are delighted to reach the conclusion of the Commodore brand acquisition," stated Mike J. Freni, YMV President. "The finalized agreement paves the way for the nostalgic and wildly popular brand to make a strong re-entry to the United States with plans for wide retail distribution."

Tulip computer makes notebooks for the Dutch market, but they plan to expand overseas: http://www.tulipcomputers.de/produkte/mobile/mobile_hauptseite.htm.

Now I ask you, how cool would it be if Tulip Computers were to brand a Commodore notebook? I'm giggling like a school girl at just the thought of that Commodore logo on a laptop case.

Commodore was originally founded as the first company that offered an affordable home computer to the masses: first, launching the $300 VIC 20 color computer in 1981 and the Commodore 64, the best-selling computer in history, just one year later. In 1985, Commodore bought Amiga Inc. and introduced the world's first multimedia computer, the Amiga 1000. In addition to its staple of video games, the Commodore 64 and Amiga 1000 set the standard for cost-conscious computing throughout the 1980s.

More: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050329/latu069.html?.v=6

 

Asus W3 !!!

it looks like a very powerful machine with only 4.6 lbs!!!

Can't wait to see a review on it

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"HP ZV6000 Notebook -- that guy might be even happier if the ZV6000 were powered by the new AMD Turion processor"

Andrew, you are correct in this statement. But I noticed that this machine currently offers a AMD Sempron chip option. This processor not only runs nice and cool. It offers dynamic speed switching and is more powerful than an Intel Celeron M. This value-oriented processor lands you right between a Celeron M and Pentium M for only a fraction of the cost, yet offers outstanding battery life.

Barry J. Doyle
Editor in Chief
TabletPCReviewSpot.com
www.tabletpcreviewspot.com