News Bits: Intel Penryn Coming January 6th, Dell Vostro 1200, LG P300 Introduced

Intel Penryn mobile roadmap revealed

Intel is planning to reveal its 45nm Penryn Core 2 Duo and Extreme mobile processors on January 6, 2008 according to a DailyTech article. The current T7500, T7700, and T7800 will be replaced by the new T8300, T9300, and T9500. The mainstream T7250 will be replaced by the T8100 and the ultra high-end Extreme X7900's replacement will be the X9000. Expect a large number of new/refreshed notebook announcements from various manufacturers including Apple to follow the new processors. All Penryn processors will have a 35W TDP. 25W models will arrive with the new Montevina platform in Q2 2008.

The processors comingin January are as follows:

Model	Frequency (GHz)	TDP	L2 Cache	Launch Pricing
X9000	2.8	35W	6MB	$851
T9500	2.6	35W	6MB	$530
T9300	2.5	35W	6MB	$316
T8300	2.4	35W	3MB	$241
T8100	2.1	35W	3MB	$209

Dell Vostro 1200 revealed, to land in December

(view large image) Image couresy LesDelliens

According to a forum post (translated), Dell is planning to launch the new Vostro 1200 on December 18. It will be the smallest model in the Vostro lineup, most likely featuring a 12.1-inch screen. Given that the Vostro 1200 will fill a low-price slot in the Vostro lineup, it may be powered by AMD processors as the current base Vostro 1000 is.

Dell and Apple receiving LED BLUs from Kenmos and Nano-Op

It has been confirmed that Kenmos Technology and Nano Electro-Optical Technology (Nano-Op) are now suppliers of LED backlighting units for notebooks for Dell and Apple. Dell is already receiving 12.1-inch LED BLUs and Apple has validated 13.3-inch LED BLUs. This would indicate Apple may soon be releasinga new notebook -- speculation is for that to occur in January.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

LG introduces XNOTE P300 13.3-inch with LED backlight

(view large image) Image courtesy Akihabaranews

LG has introduced its latest notebook, the 13.3-inch LG XNOTE P300. It features a WXGA LED-backlit display and is powered by a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 processor. Graphics power comes from an Nvidia 8600M-GS (other models available with an 8400M-GS) with 256MB of VRAM. Other features include a built-in 1.3-megapixel camera, WWAN, HDMI, and a 1.6 kg weight. The price? About 1900 EUR.

Read More (Akihabaranews.com)
Product Link (LGE.co.kr)

The Asus Eee PC 20GB + Bluetooth mod

(view large image)

A forum member on Eeeuser.com has completed his Asus Eee PC modification, which involved adding 16GB of flash memory (for a total of 20GB) from a Corsair Voyager USB flash stick and internal Bluetooth via a Microsoft Bluetooth adapter. He made use of the empty mini-PCI Express slot and USB connections via the wireless card's mini-PCI Express slot to add both devices on internal USB ports.

Read More (forum.eeepcuser.com)

Wistron gets more low-cost notebook orders from HP, Acer

HP and Acer placed more sub-$600 model notebook orders with Wistron. Dell has added about two million more units to their order while Acer has added about one million. Demand for the low-cost notebooks comes from the US and emerging markets. Sources say many notebook ODMs will put more focus on development of low-cost notebooks.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

Vista counterfeited half as much as XP

According to Microsoft, its new Vista operating system is counterfeited half as much as XP, and the company claims that Vista is better at preventing counterfeiting attempts. Microsoft VP Mike Sievert says Vista's authentication system "is a proven and effective way to combat piracy. Customers want to know the status of their systems, and how to take action if it turns out they were victimized." Microsoft plans to step up piracy prevention with SP1.

Read More (TGDaily.com)

 

Penryn: Alright! I can't wait to see the refreshed notebooks that are based around this new platform!

Vostro 1200: Very interesting. I wonder if there will also be an Inspiron 1220?

LG XNOTE P300 An 8600 in a 13.3"?! Are they nuts? I want one!! (Then again, it's an 8600M-GS not an 8600M-GT. There would not have been a way to stuff a GT in there)

Asus eee PC mod: Yet another reason to get an eee pc. If you're willing to void the warranty, that is....

Vista Counterfeiting: So Vista is being counterfeited half as much as XP. Why am I not surprised?

 

Finally Penryn! But why does an extra 100mhz cost $214 more? =/ am I missing something?

LG XNOTE P300 insane! 8600GS in a 13.3" notebook! wow hope the battery life doesnt suck and it doesnt explode,,,

 

I'd actually say if they did do an Inspiron version (I don't see why not, unless they don't want to cannibalize M1330 sales, even though its priced in a much higher segment), it'd be the 1221, since its an AMD based system. It'd be much more interesting if it was based on Santa Rosa/Penryn.

 

Why aren't they making larger notebooks with LED backlights? Is the supply really that low on them?

 

Well, the demand is lower on larger notebooks, since the actual percentage of difference in power consumption is much lower than with an ultraportable or similar sized notebook. That, and there is very little supply for the 15.4" LED backlit displays, which is why Dell cannot offer the M1530 with an LED backlit display.

 

what other advantages does LED backlit display have over CCFL except battery life?

 

LEDs last much longer, you'll see CCFL displays dim over a long period of usage, but LED screens will keep shining brightly just as they were new. They also have better color reproduction, better contrast, they show whites much better for instance. They also let you have much thinner screens, look how thin the screens are on the Vaio TX, TZ and Premium SZs for example.

Great to see Sony having first used this in the ultraportable TX series two years ago and branching out to all notebooks.

 

LG sure knows how to make some pretty looking notebooks.......

 

If Penryn comes out, does this mean that most laptops will become significantly cheaper within the next 2-3 months? I'm about to buy a laptop right now and I don't want to get screwed too much because of this announcement (although it is good news

 

Wondering if i should hold off on picking up a new notebook until March... The T8100 looks more attractive than the T7250 just for the extra MB of L2 cache.. that said, I really, really don't want to wait for the new year to get a Lappy, plus it seems like improvements are coming on a 6month revolving door, so something newer/smaller/faster is always on the horizon. I'm just waiting for Dell to offer a Vostro 1500 revision with front headphone jacks and DVI/HDMI out.

 

Where do you get the part about the Vostro 1200 filling "a low-price slot in the Vostro lineup"? I can't find anything about it being low-cost or about it using AMD processors on the lesdelliens page, except for one commenter's wild speculation.

We don't know that it's an AMD-based system. Also, since demand for 12-inchers is probably higher among business users than consumers (I'm guessing), it wouldn't surprise me if they skipped the Inspiron version altogether. Of course, they might decide to make one, I don't really know.

Really? I would expect the power consumption difference to be greater, since you need more backlighting to light a larger display.

However, I suspect that buyers of larger notebooks might not care as much about power consumption... since if they wanted to reduce that, they might buy smaller notebooks.

I can definitely believe that. Also, the manufacturing cost difference might be greater in the larger panels due to the need for more lighting.

 

Maybe it's the enhanced authentication, but desirability could have something to do with it too.

 

Read carefully, I said the percentage of difference. Yes, the overall change in power consumption would be higher, but the relative change in power consumption would be lower for a larger, more powerful notebook.

Actually, Engadget had a post about this a few days back as well, they said it was going to be low end and AMD based as well.

 

I think its because everyone is very happy with their "ahemhem" pirated XP, there is no incentive for user to upgrade to Vista. I have to admit, my desktop has the "ahemhem" XP and don't see any reason to upgrade.

 

Oh yeah, ok.

 

hah vista's being counterfeited half as much as XP....
must mean vista is twice as bad...

 

Not necessarily. Just because it isn't stolen as much doesn't mean it's bad.

Look at all the people hacking Vista to get SP1. Is it REALLY going to hurt to wait until the actual release?

 

That's how I took that news bit too, lol.

I'm not sure how much there is to gain by waiting that long simply for a slightly faster processor. If you are going to wait that long then you might as well wait for Montevina to hit the market, which will come out in Q2. Remember the processors I posted are only for the Santa Rosa refresh. If you want front headphone jacks and HDMI, I think the HP dv6500t offers those so take a look at that.

It is unlikely that Intel will change their pricing for the current Core 2 Duo mobile CPUs so no, you won't see any dramatic price decreases.

 

Yep, and that's what the staticians forget. It seems like the primary group of people who pirate are power users and gamers*, those in the know. While piracy is relatively easy, most people still don't understand burning ISOs, torrents or .parity files. They just use their computer to get to the "Interwebs" and to send some pictures of their kids off to friends, maybe watch a movie.

Given that, why would power users or gamers pirate Vista? It's not for them. Vista. Not for you.

* This is just an assumption from what I've seen from over ten years on the net. I have no stats.

 

Dude, holy ****

LG Xnote P300

They are actually going to put 8600 series in .83-1.25 size and 3.5 pound Notebook....

Apparently LG knows how to make thin and light

 

(and if you haven't noticed yet, don't even compare this thing to Vaio TZ... I thought 1-1.5 height 4 lb was really good until this one.)

 

The LG P300 sure has a spiffy looking lid.

 

It looks to me that the new penryn will fit in m1530 without any hardware changes from dell? Can some one confirm?

What are the benefits with a 45nm processor, compared with a 65nm? is it more power efficient? Less hot?

 

dv6500t only has a WXGA screen, i don't want less than WXGA+. That and i go for the more conservative look, i prefer a matte black cover. But thats secondary to the screen.

 

That LG looks awesome - 8600 256mb in a 13.3, and LED backlit to boot?! I really hope Apple's January MBP-Lite is at least this powerful, if not more so.

 

I definitely want a laptop with an LED backlit screen. I still have to wait a bit until I can upgrade though. It'll be another year or two though. Hopefully by that time LED screens make it to the big powerful laptops.

Few people are pirating Vista because few people want it. Nobody is going to pirate something that isn't popular. Microsoft thinks they've made a giant technological step forward but in reality any authentication system they put into place will be pirated. For people to not want to pirate it is a strong indication of its popularity and usefulness. Microsoft is spinning the downturn in piracy of their OS as something positive (it'll make their stockholders happy) when it actually does more harm to them than good. Piracy is not always a bad thing when it's not actually a lost sale. They're not fighting against rival publishers--Microsoft is fighting against the likes of Linux primarily.

 

Totally agree with you. Who the heck would pirate a bloated operating system with bugs due to 64 bit. And who the heck needs all that new graphic garbage; its a operating system, not a toy.

I wouldn't care as much about a new MBP lite so much as a flawless version of bootcamp.

 

I concur with the above. With chicken. ^.^

But seriously. What do they expect? M$ to make something secure without loopholes...?

*coughs*upgrade edition work(ed/s dunno if they fixed it yet) on its own on disk trial version*coughs*

Somehow thats about as likely as... Every game desiging company switching over to a platform independant coding language in the next year flat. Which sadly, is damned unlikely... for valid reasons...

 

Yep, mainly the improvements are the lower power consumption and lower heat output, plus higher clockspeeds, so its faster as well.

To fit into the new M1530 (or any other Santa Rosa based notebooks), all Penryn needs is a BIOS update to support the new microarchitecture.

 

*Sigh*

Q2 2008 can't come soon enough.

Since the mobo on my brother's salvaged Fujitsu just died and he's eying my Averatec pretty badly, I don't know if I can wait that long.

Montevina's 800-DDR3 support, 1067 FSB, and 25W TDP be damned.

 

So what happens to AMD???

 

They are in the process of dying a slow and painful death.

 

Thanks for the news Chaz.

For once it seems I was faster than you when it comes to the news about the Asus Eee mod :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=194449

More capacity or not, I really hope they will put a bigger sized screen in it and fill out that bezel properly. Question is how that would affect the price.

 

so when do you guys think laptops will start shipping with the new cpus actually in them...not in jan right?
as i just bought a laptop with a t7700...so if its gonna be in laptops in the next two months, that would eat it.

 

Hmmm...the upgrade possibilities are interesting to say the least. Given some of my work stresses my T7300 I might eventually upgrade when the prices come down and they're available as processors in a box.