Advanced Micro Devices has its eye on the ultra-low-cost notebook market. Dirk Meyer--the company's new CEO--and other executives discussed this and ways to make the company profitable during the company's earnings conference call Thursday. Meyer--promoted to CEO on Thursday--made it clear that AMD is serious about the so-called Netbook market, where Intel's Atom processor has been the most successful so far. (Though Intel CEO Paul Otellini made a perplexing comment Tuesday about the Atom processor.) » Read the rest of the entry..

Dell will sell you a 128GB solid state drive for an unprecedented $649. But wait. An IDC report claims the performance gap between solid state drives and lower-cost high-performance hard disk drives is not that significant at the system level. Solid state drives are attracting more scrutiny as they increase in capacity and decrease in price. (Dell's $649 drive is a radical price drop since many drives with half the capacity still sell for more than $700.) » Read the rest of the entry..

Just when you thought 30 pages of laptops in one day was enough, we present to you the last model in the new Sony Vaio range -- the Vaio BZ Series, more specifically known as the entry-level VGN-BZ11MN, the VGN-BZ11XN and the top-end VGN-BZ11VN.

If you've been reading the rest of our hands-on coverage of the new Sony Vaios, it may not come as the biggest surprise in the world to learn that Intel Centrino 2 CPUs are the hamsters running the wheels inside the BZ Series, starting at speeds of 2.26GHz and maxing out at a tasty 2.4GHz. » Read the rest of the entry..

The ever watchful eye of Crave spied Acer's Aspire One Netbook on a few online resellers last week (while our British brethren got their hands on one last month), and today Acer makes it official by announcing the U.S. availability of its 8.9-inch Netbook. The company outlines three models, which range in price from a very low $379 to $449. By comparison, the latest Asus Eee PC 901 comes in at $599, while the MSI Wind is priced at $479.

All three Aspire One models use the 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor (which is what we saw in both the Eee PC 901 and the MSI Wind) and an 8.9-inch, LED-backlit display with a 1,024x600 resolution and a Webcam above it. You also get three USB 2.0 ports, two media card slots, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, and 10/100 Ethernet. » Read the rest of the entry..

If you just can't decide whether you want a laptop for business or personal use, point your viewing spheres towards Sony's new Vaio SR Series: the entry-level VGN-SR19XN and the top-end VGN-SR19VN.

The SR Series is set to be a stonking all-rounder from what we saw, regardless of whether you're out on business or making musical photo slideshows at home (have you noticed that's all PC manufacturers seem to think people want to do on a computer?). » Read the rest of the entry..

It's not just the business end of the market getting all of Vaio's attention. A slinky new consumer model showed its face this week in the form of the Vaio FW Series: the entry-level VGN-FW11E, the VGN-FW11M, the VGN-FW11S and the VGN-FW11ZU rocking at the top.

Sony's 16.4-inch silver-backed FW Series is geared for entertainment, enjoying Blu-ray drives in all but the entry-level configuration. A true 16:9 LCD display will let you enjoy those HD movies when it's not convenient to output their 1080p picture via the built-in HDMI socket. » Read the rest of the entry..

Out here in Berlin, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty fugly, Sony has been treating us to a plethora of pleasures. It unveiled to Europe its four latest lines of Vaio laptops -- two aimed at business users, one aimed at families and one aimed at business users with families (no, really). The most exciting was the Vaio Z Series, led by the top-end VGN-Z11VN/B. This powerful little Intel Centrino 2-powered midget of a laptop comes with a 2.53GHz CPU, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, 320GB hard disk, Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS graphics, Bluetooth, 802.11 a/b/g and Draft-N Wi-Fi, plus an embedded SIM slot for truly mobile broadband, supporting HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps. » Read the rest of the entry..

Summer is the season for sequels, and Intel's hoping to match the blockbuster success of Centrino Duo with the latest iteration of its mobile platform, Centrino 2. Essentially a marketing term, Centrino 2 (code-named Montevina) is used to describe a raft of new technologies from Intel, including a handful of new Core 2 Duo processors; a new chipset with a faster front-side bus; a new graphics solution with support for high-definition content and switchable graphics; and updated wireless and wired connectivity. » Read the rest of the entry..

Last night, while the East Coast was crawling into bed and the West Coast was tucking into dessert, Intel was officially launching its new mobile platform, Centrino 2. In addition to new processors, the platform includes an 802.11n wireless card and new integrated graphics with support for high-definition content. The platform also supports graphics switching, which lets you choose between integrated graphics (for longer battery life) and discrete graphics (for better performance). » Read the rest of the entry..

With tiny, cheap netbooks the new flavour of the month, it's difficult to see much of a future for ultraportables. They tend to be slightly bigger, marginally better equipped and far more expensive. That isn't stopping Fujitsu Siemens, though. It's forging ahead with its ultraportable P series, the latest of which is the £1,495 LifeBook P8010.

It's designed for anyone who wants a lightweight, easy-to-use machine with a business focus. As such, it comes with a fingerprint reader, data protection features and an optional docking station.

Design The LifeBook P8010 is relatively compact. Not in an Eee PC sort of way, but in a "you can carry it without snapping a wrist" way. It weighs slightly more than 1.3kg, which is MacBook Air territory, and measures a relatively svelt 274 by 29 by 210mm. » Read the rest of the entry..