News Bits: New VAIO, New Satellite Tablet PC, Gateway in Stores, New Notebooks January 18

New Sony VAIO FS Series Widescreen NotebookAnnounced

The new Sony VAIO FS series notebook has a 15.4-inch widescreen XBrite display (view larger image)

Sony is a big player in the consumer oriented notebook market andtoday they have announced another enticing option for consumers. The Sony VAIO FS series notebook will offer a 15.4-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) display that includes the gorgeous XBrite screen for vivid color display. The FS series will combine performance, mobility and multimedia capabilities in a svelte package. The lightweight design of the FS series will be good for portability between home and office.

Sony's XBRITE LCD technology ensures that video playback is crisp and vivid, while its Smart Display Sensor makes setting up external projectors and monitors a snap. Users can create and watch DVD movies with the built-in double layer drive, as well as capture, edit, and burn home videos from a camcorder. The FS series also features the Sony software suite for editing and managing multimedia content.

The VAIO FS will feature Intel's Pentium M processor line and will retail starting at $1,600 at the end of January

New Toshiba Satellite R15 Tablet PC/ConvertibleAnnounced

A live picture of the upcoming Toshiba Satellite R15

Toshiba has announced the new Satellite R15-S822 Tablet PC Convertible. The machine will come in at an attractive $1500-ish price point, yet include all the Toshiba quality and features one would expect from the Satellite product line.

Toshiba already has Tablet PC options in its Portege model series, notably the Portege M200 (review: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2127), but this Satellite offering is going to come in at a cheaper price point and be geared more towards the consumer market.

TabletPCReviewSpot.com has all the details on this new offering.

Gateway to enter More Retail Stores

Gateway has already pushed into Best Buy and CompUSA as a channel for selling notebooks. Expect to see Gateway laptops in Circuit City soon too. Gateway is doing a great job expanding the availability of its notebooks, so although things looked not so good for them a year ago, if they can continue to be successful with expansion into other retail outlets you might see this company make a nice comeback.

more: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1746227,00.asp

Intel and Notebook Manufacturers to Announce New Alviso Based Notebooks on January 18

Intel's new Alviso chipset will be officially announced on January 18. When Intel announces this new chipset and what it can do there will be notebook manufacturers alongside them to announce new notebooks that will include this chip. We know that IBM will be standing alongside Intel with their newIBM ThinkPad T43 offering, expect other new notebooks from this manufacturer and others.

 

Yeah, the ThinkPad T43 should be pretty hot. It will have the Alviso chipset architecture, PCI Express Graphics cards (X600 and X300 with 128MB of RAM) offerings or (believe it or not) integrated Intel graphics option. Having one of the PCMCIA slots upgraded to PCI Express will be nice too...although not too many options are available for that type of slot yet there soon will be. 14" and 15" will both be available, and Biometrics too of course. The only big disappointment for me is still no built-in media card reader.

IBM is also, believe it or not, investigating a widescreen format ThinkPad with a glossy screen. I was shocked to hear this, but they think that widescreens have gained such momentum at this point that they need to be there sooner or later.

The R52 should get bumped to the R53 as well.

 

Woot! Alviso! Thanks for the heads up, abaxter! Now I know for certain I'm going to wait out for Sonoma. Especially since a T43 is on its way.

 

Do you think that prices will be extraordinary when the doors open, so to speak? Or will they expect the sales pace of notebook purchases will eventually decelerate and flatline especially into a new, post-holiday quarter?


As much as everyone seems to enjoy the Thinkpads, I'm very excited about the other possible offerings, especially since value is found in mobile multimedia and the new Centrino system seems to complement this very well.

I would love to see an HP dv2000 equivalent with better parts/design.

In a way, I'm glad there was no great Dell deal, it saves me from buying and sending back a 700m.

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by abaxter

 

Unfortunately prices will be high on the T43 when it comes out because the Alviso and PCI Express components will be new technology and priced so. Now, IBM will be offering an integrated graphics option for the T43 so that might help bring the price down on such a configuration (usually saves $100 or so)

 

Anyone have any idea what the weight of the F series will be? Couldn't find any further info anywhere online.

 

2.85 kg (6.3 lb; battery included) for the ones with integrated graphics; 2.9 kg (6.4 lb) for the version with nVidia 6200 GO.

 

Will most all major notebook producers update their notebook line with this new chipset?

For example will the Sony S3 (revision to S2VP) have the new chipset?

 

I don't know about the others, but Sony S3, or more precisely the S3 counterpart in Japan, S92, has been announced with the new architecture. The bummer is it uses nVidia 6200 Go as graphics chipset.[xx(]

BTW, Sony will have three Alviso laptops in the line-up for Spring 2005, the A series, the new FS series (Type F in Japan), and the S series.

 

not to be a noob or anything, but what is "Alviso"?

i did a quick search on google and all i found was california stuff.
Is it a upgraded centrino?

~RaNDoM

 

alviso....

http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/speeches/chandrasekher20040218.htm

[ ]

 

ok so it is a new chip. is it going to be release soon? if so, how much of a price drop should i expect to see from lappys now? 200-300? i am force to wait on purchasing my S6231 because of buying books for spring. semster. i dont mind waiting a little longer if it means saving 200-300.

~RaNDoM

 

Re the next Sony S series - could someone tell me if the new graphics chipset will offer DVI?

 

I too would wish to know if DVI is on S3 and if the fan has been changed ?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>i dont mind waiting a little longer if it means saving 200-300.<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>If I take something home that is the "latest and greatest", I would like to bask in that glory for at least a month or two before being surpassed. On the other hand, sometimes the time to buy is now, as in "needed it yesterday". I have a toshiba with a 5 minute battery life and I refuse to buy a new $99 battery which would give it maybe 90 minutes battery life.

-David

 

Skyshade, what's up with the GeForce Go 6200? Apart from the nVidia's press release I haven't seen anything about it.