Building a thin and light ultraportable notebook means making a few concessions, and in some cases, that includes removing the optical drive. Not so with Gateway's new EC series, the company's first ultraportable to sport an integrated DVD drive. Kicking off the new series is the 11.6-inch EC14D01h.

"Customers understand how convenient it is to have a notebook PC that is portable enough to take nearly anywhere to stay connected and have fun -- and the new EC14D01h brings a new element of entertainment to customers with the ability to watch DVD movies, play games on CD and DVD and more," said Chris Chiang, product manager for Gateway Canada. "The integrated DVD drive in such a compact device will be a huge benefit for customers who want the flexibility to enjoy and share different movies, music, photos, and more stored on a DVD or CD."

Other hardware consists of an Intel Peniu. SU4100 ULV processor (1.3GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 800MHz frontside bus), integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, 4MB of DDR2-667 memory (upgradeable to 8GB), 320GB hard drive, memory card reader, Wi-Fi, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and S/PDIF, multi-gesture touchpad, 6-cell battery,a nd Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Gateway said it will begin shipping the EC14D01h later this month in Canada for 580 moose bucks ($574 USD). No word on when, or if, Gateway plans on shipping this one south of the border.

Image Credit: Gateway

Building a thin and light ultraportable notebook means making a few concessions, and in some cases, that includes removing the optical drive. Not so with Gateway's new EC series, the company's first ultraportable to sport an integrated DVD drive. Kicking off the new series is the 11.6-inch EC14D01h.

"Customers understand how convenient it is to have a notebook PC that is portable enough to take nearly anywhere to stay connected and have fun -- and the new EC14D01h brings a new element of entertainment to customers with the ability to watch DVD movies, play games on CD and DVD and more," said Chris Chiang, product manager for Gateway Canada. "The integrated DVD drive in such a compact device will be a huge benefit for customers who want the flexibility to enjoy and share different movies, music, photos, and more stored on a DVD or CD."

Other hardware consists of an Intel Peniu. SU4100 ULV processor (1.3GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 800MHz frontside bus), integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, 4MB of DDR2-667 memory (upgradeable to 8GB), 320GB hard drive, memory card reader, Wi-Fi, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and S/PDIF, multi-gesture touchpad, 6-cell battery,a nd Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Gateway said it will begin shipping the EC14D01h later this month in Canada for 580 moose bucks ($574 USD). No word on when, or if, Gateway plans on shipping this one south of the border.

Image Credit: Gateway

Even as early as this morning, industry sources were quoting March 22 as the release date for Acer's revamped Timeline notebooks. Coming in ahead of schedule, however, Acer today officially unveiled its Aspire TimelineX 1830T thin and light laptop, as well as a handful of other models.

Built around Intel's Calpella platform, the TimelineX 1830T sports an 11.6-inch display and weighs 3 pounds. Acer didn't get too specific with the processor, saying only that it feature an Intel Core 2 Solo chip, but reports suggest it will come outfitted with Intel's Core i5 520UM CPU clocked at 1.06GHz.

Other accouterments include Wi-Fi, a pair of memory card slots, HDMI port, optical audio, three USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth 2.1, and up to 8-hours of run time on the 9-cell battery (a step up from the 6-cell battery found on previous Timeline models).

Other specs are so far unknown, including RAM and hard drive capacity. So too is the price.

Image Credit: Acer

HP came under fire recently when it was reported that several laptops sold in China were faulty. The problem stemmed from overheating videocards, prompting affected consumers to seek out a law firm to help handle the issue. They may not need it.

HP said it is extending the warranties on motherboards in certain laptop models, covering Chinese owners for two years if the mobo was already repaired. The OEM is also offering to test laptops for free, and is currently discussing potential compensation for buyers who already paid postage or repair fees for their motherboards.

"We believe this [plan] will eliminate clients' concerns," HP said in a statement.

But is it enough? Not according to Liu Yongbin, a lawyer at Beijing Yingke Law Firm, which prepared the initial complaint. Youngbin claims that the "warranty extension cannot fundamentally solve this problem," and instead wants HP to recall the affected laptop models.

MSI is pretty stoked about the latest entry to its gaming notebook line, the 17-inch GE700. The new notebook couples an Intel Core i5 processor with ATI Radeon HD 5730 graphics (with 1GB GDDR3 memory), along with a few other noteworthy goodies.

Among them are two "cinema-class" speakers and a subwoofer, an HD webcam capable of 720p video up to 30fps, two hard drive bays for up to 1TB of storage, MSI's exclusive GPU Boost technology (switch between the integrated and discrete graphics solutions), HDMI output, eSATA, 4-in-1 memory card reader, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Windows 7 Home Premium.

MSI put a bit of attention into the GE700's styling, including a "super-cool exterior" with a glossy black finish. You'll also find luminescent touch-sensitive hotkeys.

No word yet on price or availability.

Imagw Credit: MSI

HP could soon find itself in court, as over 100 Chinese consumers are none too happy with what they claim are faulty laptops, a lawyer for the group said this week.

According to Reuters, Jiang Suhua, a lawyer at Yingke Law Firm in Bejing, claims the problems have to do with overheating videocards ultimately causing the laptops to malfunction. Suhua said there are about 170 complaints so far for a problem that apparently dates back to 2007.

"Yes, we can bring it to court, but right now it has not reached that state," Suhua said.

HP says it had a program in November 2007 to offer a free repair to anyone with an affected laptop, but the OEM stopped short of commenting on this specific complaint.

Image Credit: greenpeace.org

MSI has once again beefed up its Wind notebook line, this time with a pair of AMD-based models built around a 12.1-inch form factor. The new Wind12 U230-033 and U230-040 replace the Wind12 U210, "a favorite among netbook users looking for a larger screen and more computing power," MSI claims.

The U230-033US ships with an Athlon Neo MV-40 processor, ATI Radeon HD3200 graphics, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, 1.3MP webcam, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI-out, 4-in-1 memory card reader, a 6-cell battery, and Windows 7 Home Premium.

Upping the ante, the U230-040 trades the Neo processor for an Athlon X2 L335 and swaps the 250GB hard drive for a 320GB HDD. All other specs remain the same, including MSI's EDS (Ergonomic De-stress) keyboard with keys that are 51 percent larger than those on a standard keyboard.

The 033 and 040 models are available now for $430 and 480, respectively.

Image Credit: MSI

As 2009 came to a close, the top five PC makers each held their position, but it's the battle for second place that's particularly interesting. According to iSuppli, Acer grew by 21 percent in 2009, ending the year with 38.5 million shipments, up from 31.8 million in 2008. No other top five PC maker enjoyed more growth.

Meanwhile, Dell was the only top five vendor to post a decline in shipments for the year, dropping 9.9 percent from 43.3 million PCs to 38.96 million. That means Dell shipped enough to maintain a lead over Acer as the second largest PC vendor, but only by a hair (0.2 percent).

"Acer's 2009 success was driven by the notebook PC market," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms research, for iSuppli. "Notebooks accounted for nearly 80 percent of Acer's shipments ni 2009. This allowed the company to capitalize on the fast-growing mobile-computing segment while limiting its exposure to the moribund desktop segment."

Acer may have already leapfrogged ahead of Dell by now (we won't know until the quarterly numbers are tallied), but even if it hasn't, given the continued growth of notebooks, we fully expect Acer to stand in the No. 2 spot by the end of the year. Watch out HP.

Arrandale is proving to be quite the popular platform of late, with the newest entry coming from MSI. We're talking about the X-Slim X360, which the company claims offers up to 9 hours of battery life.

Underneath the 13-inch hood sits an Intel Core i5-520UM processor, Intel HM55 chipset, up to 4GB of DDR2 memory, up to a 500GB hard drive, 2-in-1 memory card reader, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 1.3MP webcam, HDMI, two USB 2.0 ports, and either a 4-cell or 8-cell battery.

In an attempt to combine style with portability, MSI touts its exclusive rhombic pattern and Color Film Print, along with an ultraportable chassis measuring less than 1-inch thick and weighing just over 3 pounds.

No word yet on price or availability.

Image Credit: MSI

Arrandale is proving to be quite the popular platform of late, with the newest entry coming from MSI. We're talking about the X-Slim X360, which the company claims offers up to 9 hours of battery life.

Underneath the 13-inch hood sits an Intel Core i5-520UM processor, Intel HM55 chipset, up to 4GB of DDR2 memory, up to a 500GB hard drive, 2-in-1 memory card reader, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 1.3MP webcam, HDMI, two USB 2.0 ports, and either a 4-cell or 8-cell battery.

In an attempt to combine style with portability, MSI touts its exclusive rhombic pattern and Color Film Print, along with an ultraportable chassis measuring less than 1-inch thick and weighing just over 3 pounds.

No word yet on price or availability.

Image Credit: MSI