Thread: Anandtech News

Samung's still midstride in their IFA presentation, but they've already gone live with their announcements, and if they wanted to move the conversation along from the current news cycle this is it. In the coming months we'll be seeing Samsung release a Note successor and a new line-up of Windows 8/RT and Windows Phone 8 devices. There's a lot to dig through, so let's jump in. 
 

Samsung ATIV S: Windows Phone 8's First Champion

 

We've seen the software a few times, but this is our first look at what an actual Windows Phone 8 device will look like. The ATIV line will cover all mobile centric Windows 8/RT devices from Samsung, and the ATIV S is be their halo Windows Phone 8 device. Inside is a 1.5 GHz dual-core SoC, alongside 1GB of RAM, 16 or 32 GB of NAND (supplemented by microSD) and fronted by a 4.8" HD Super AMOLED display. Connectivity maxes out at 42 Mbps DC-HSPA+, and battery life should be stellar with a 2300 mAh removable battery. We've gotten confirmation that the handset is running Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 processor, most likely the MSM8260A given the lack of LTE connectivity in the specs. It's possible that LTE connectivity could be included in later iterations, in which case the ever ubiquitous MSM8960 would be packaged in. Either way, we're looking at two Krait cores running at 1.5 GHz with Adreno 225. This is relevant for another reason, too; this means Qualcomm remains the SoC of choice for Windows Phone devices. The look of the handset is reminiscent of the Galaxy S II, with a blocky home button up front and a top-centered 8MP shooter around back. 
Gallery: IFA 2012: Samsung ATIV S Gallery


Samsung ATIV Tab

 

With the announcement of Microsoft's own entrant into the Windows RT tablet space, Surface, we wondered if other OEMs would be shy about going up against Redmond. Clearly, Samsung wasn't in any doubt. The ATIV Tab has similar internals as the ATIV S handset, now in a 10.1" form factor with a 1366x768 display. Available in 32 and 64GB SKUs, with the 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 SoC (APQ8060A) and 2GB of RAM, the slate can be mated to a keyboard dock for a more laptop like experience. There's an enormous 8200 mAh battery behind the screen, and though a bit hefty at 1.2 lbs, the 8.9 mm thick body should be easy to handle. Connectivity includes miniHDMI, microSD and microUSB. There's a lot riding on these slates, and it'll be interesting to see just what kind of headway this category makes this holiday season. We'll see how they stack up against the best from Apple and Google in the coming months. There will also be significant competiton amongst the various SoC makers, with TI, NVIDIA and Qualcomm all playing in this space. Notably, Exynos is so far left out of the running. 
Gallery: IFA 2012: Samsung ATIV Tab Gallery


Samsung ATIV Smart PC and Smart PC Pro

 

TIV Smart PC (left) and PC Pro (right)

Samsung isn't quite betting the farm on ARM, though. The ATIV line includes two x86 based tablets, and they mirror the delta between the Surface and Surface Pro closely. The form factor is stretched to 11.6" and the Pro brings a full 1080p panel, where as the lesser SKU sports another 1366x768 panel. That's not the only difference between the two slates. The Pro will have an Intel Core i5 processor, while the non-Pro model will make do with an Intel Atom SoC (Clover Trail) and just 2GB of RAM to the Pro's 4GB. Detailed specs will be laid out below. The design for each will be rather smilar and they will be paired with their own keyboard docks. 

Samsung ATIV Smart PC Tablet Specification Comparison
 	ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity	Samsung ATIV Smart PC	Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro	Samsung ATIV Tab
Dimensions	263 x 180.6 x 8.4mm	304.0 x 180.4 x 9.9mm	304.0 x 180.4 x 11.89mm	265.8 x 168.1 x 8.9mm
Chassis	Aluminum + Plastic RF Strip	Plastic?	Plastic?	Plastic
Display	10.1-inch 1920 x 1200 Super IPS+	11.6-inch 1366 x 768 TFT-LCD	11.6-inch 1920 x 1080 TFT-LCD	10.1 1366 x 768 TFT-LCD
Weight	594g	750g	884g	570g
Processor	1.6GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 (T33 - 4 x Cortex A9)	Intel Atom (Clover Trail) Dual-core	Intel Core i5	1.5 GHz Dual-Core Snapdragon S4 (APQ8060A)
Memory	1GB DDR3-1600	2GB	4GB	1 GB
Storage	32/64GB + microSD slot	128GB eMMC	up to 256 GB SSD	32/64GB + microSD slot
Battery	25Whr	31Whr	47Whr	31Whr
Pricing	$499/$599	???	???	???

While Microsoft has clearly taken a fairly locked down approach with Windows RT and Windows Phone 8, there seems to be more flexibility in software with Windows 8. To that end, each of these tablets will feature Samsung's S Pen hardware and complimentary S Note software. The functionality will mirror that of the Galaxy Note 10.1 and Note II, more on that later. We'll see whether any Note variants of Windows RT or Windows Phone 8 make it to market. 

Gallery: IFA 2012: Samsung ATIV Smart PC and PC Pro


Samsung Series 9 Notebooks

 

And lest you think that Samsung was abandoning the traditional notebook space, we have confirmation that the Samsung Series 9 notebook line will be upgraded to Windows 8. Interestingly, no touchscreen options will be available, rather they're touting their multitouch touchpad as the ideal way to interact combine the desktop environment with the Live Tile experience. There's obviously a long way to go before Microsoft has us all convinced that this tablet-centric UI can be shoehorned into a satisfying laptop experience. No other changes have been made to design, nor Samsung's claims at having the thinnest, fastest notebooks around. Certainly, the Series 9 are attractive and lightweight. Hopefully that touchpad will live up to the dreams, and not be another disappointment. 

There's no way to know for sure when to expect availability for these new devices. If Microsoft's Surface announcement is any indication, the ATIV S and Tab will come first, possibly alongside the ATIV Smart PC, with the PC Pro to follow a few months later. The Series 9 Notebooks should be ready for Windows 8's launch, which is epected around October. We'll bring you more from IFA as the week rolls on. 

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Alongside their upcoming line up of Windows devices, Samsung saw fit to reveal the successor to their Galaxy Note at their IFA press conference. The Samsung Galaxy Note II shares much of the same form factor as its predecessor with significant silicon and software updates. The screen remains a massive 5.5" 1280 x 720 HD Super AMOLED ordeal, and the S Pen has gained a few tricks in the year that passed. The processor is now the same Exynos 4 Quad (Exynos 4412) that premiered in the international Galaxy S III. When the SGS3 landed on these shores it swapped Exynos for the trappings of Qualcomm's MSM8960, and its LTE baseband. Since then Korean variants of the SGS3 have cropped up that include both the Exynos 4412 and LTE. If the Note 2 mirrors the Korean SGS3 LTE variant then it's likely to have the same CMC221 baseband, also seen in the Galaxy Nexus. 
On the software side, the stylus-centric TouchWiz variant on hand is actually running on Jelly Bean and will come with a few tricks not even seen on the recent Galaxy Note 10.1. Popup Note takes the hovering widget concept, which we've seen in other TouchWiz UIs, stretched to include S Note; so notes can be taken with other apps visible and on screen. Air View introduces a new hover behavior, that previews videos and attachments in e-mails or links without the user having to open the appropriate app. There's also a few new functions users can perform within S Note, including Idea Visualizer, which inserts images based on what handwritten keywords. 
Gallery: IFA 2012: Samsung Galaxy Note II Gallery


Samsung's approach to evolving the Note has a lot of potential, and we'll be interested to see how it shapes up. The Note II will launch in Asia, Europe and the Mid East in October; with pricing and US launch to be determined. 

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Earlier today at IFA 2012, Samsung officially announced what will be their first point and shoot form factor camera running Android 4.1. The device is named the Samsung Galaxy Camera, and runs Android 4.1 atop an Exynos 4412 SoC running at 1.4 GHz
This comes just after Nikon's official announcement of a point and shoot of their own named the Coolpix S800c which we're still trying to obtain more information about. Both cameras are physically pretty similar, and include a 16 MP CMOS sensor that is 1/2.3" format. 
Two years ago I was told from a number of different handset vendors and traditional camera SoC vendors to expect an influx of small point and shoot form factor cameras running Android. I've been anxiously awaiting that time ever since, and almost gave up hope until this recent interestingly timed double announcement by Nikon and Samsung. The other main contender in this space is of course the Nokia PureView 808 which doesn't run Android but likewise is more of a point and shoot in the form factor of a smartphone. 
Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Camera


Inside, the Galaxy Camera appears to be very similar to the Samsung Galaxy S 3, including the same set of local wireless connectivity options (dual band WiFi with 40 MHz channels, BT 4.0, GNSS), and includes cellular connectivity that might even include LTE. Samsung ambiguously cites "4G" on the spec page, which makes me think this might be another CMC221 based solution like the Galaxy S 3 for Korea with LTE. I've put together a comparison table below with the details:

Camera Emphasized Smartphone Comparison
 	Samsung Galaxy Camera (EK-GC100)	Nikon Coolpix S800c	Nokia PureView 808
CMOS Resolution	16.3 MP	16.0 MP	41 MP
CMOS Format	1/2.3", 1.34µm pixels	1/2.3", 1.34µm pixels	1/1.2", 1.4µm pixels
CMOS Size	6.17mm x 4.55mm	6.17mm x 4.55mm	10.67mm x 8.00mm
Lens Details	4.1 - 86mm (22 - 447 35mm equiv) F/2.8-5.9	4.5 - 45.0mm (25-250 35mm equiv) F/3.2-5.8	8.02mm (28mm 35mm equiv) F/2.4
Display	1280 x 720 (4.8" diagonal)	854 x 480 (3.5" diagonal)	640 x 360 (4.0" diagonal)
SoC	Exynos 4412 (Cortex-A9MP4 at 1.4 GHz with Mali-400 MP4)	ARM Cortex A5MP1(?)	1.3 GHz ARM11
Storage	8 GB + microSDXC	1.7 GB + microSDHC	16 GB + microSDHC
Video Recording	1080p30, 480p120	1080p30	1080p30
OS	Android 4.1	Android 2.3.6	Symbian Belle
Connectivity and GNSS	WCDMA 21.1 850/900/1900/2100, 4G, 802.11a/b/g/n with 40 MHz channels, BT 4.0, GNSS	No cellular, WiFi 802.11b/g/n(?), GPS	WCDMA 14.4 850/900/1700/1900/2100, 802.11b/g/n, BT 3.0, GPS

From an optical standpoint the Samsung appears to have a bit of an edge at F/2.8 when at its widest, compared to F/3.2 with Nikon. That said, I'd expect the Nikon to have a leg up on the Galaxy Camera purely because there will be more die area on that SoC (which we're trying to obtain more information on) dedicated to ISP than on the Galaxy Camera which simply includes an Exynos 4412 inside. Interestingly enough, the PureView 808 still includes a larger CMOS than either point and shoot, though it of course has a fixed focal length and no optical zoom.
Point and shoot cameras running Android seem to be the next logical progression for camera makers. As an aside it is interesting how the point and shoot business is moving increasingly towards mobile, and the smartphone side is moving increasingly towards point and shoot level performance. There's a new adage that the best camera is the one you have with you all the time, and both sides are fighting over who will control that slot. 
Sources: Samsung Galaxy Camera, Nikon S800c

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I've taken meetings with HP and Toshiba (their press release is impending) in sunny San Francisco, California to see what they have in store for us when Windows 8 launches. Where Windows 7 seemed in many ways to be an effort to perfect the desktop computing operating system, Windows 8 aims to look forward and change user interface paradigms. At the same time, Intel's ultrabook initiative is pushing vendors towards producing thinner, lighter notebooks, a task aided in the very efficient Ivy Bridge technology. The way these two factors are coming together is radically shaking up the way our portables are being designed.

HP's big announcement is the Envy x2, which is their convertible ultrabook in much the same vein as the Asus Eee Pad series. The Envy x2 features the bulk of the system in the 1.5" tablet lid, which features an 11.6", 400-nit IPS display and Intel's Clover Trail SoC. Clover Trail is essentially an Atom-based SoC, meaning "good enough" CPU performance but extremely low power consumption, making it a solid choice for the Envy x2 if a little underwhelming. When plugged into the keyboard base, additional connectivity (USB 3.0, HDMI) is added along with additional battery life for a total of 3.1 pounds of computing. HP is also including NFC, and you're going to find this fairly common with their new releases moving forward. They expect the Envy x2 to be available in time for the holidays, but pricing is not yet set.

The next announcement is their premium Spectre XT TouchSmart Ultrabook. At $1,399 it won't be cheap, but the big selling points here are inclusion of ThunderBolt connectivity and a 15.6", 1080p, IPS, touchscreen display. It also features an mSATA SSD, USB 3.0, and gigabit ethernet, and impressively comes in at 4.77 pounds and just 17.9 millimeters thick. HP's also shipping the Spectre XT with Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements standard; I'm not a big fan of Premiere Elements, but Photoshop Elements is a pretty killer deal. The Spectre XT is expected to be available in December.

Finally, HP is releasing a more entry level ultrabook, the Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4. This is a more traditional 14" ultrabook, with a 14" multitouch display, 4.77 pound chassis, and 23mm thick frame. What you do gain from the added bulk is the option for AMD dedicated graphics, though. This one is expected to be available during the holidays with pricing to be determined later on.
Of course, all of these are just the tip of the iceberg. HP has a lot more in the pipe beyond just these notebooks, and will be parsing out releases over the next month or so. In the meantime, each of these notebooks are ready for Windows 8.

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Today HTC announced the Desire X, a device that resembles their higher end One S, but is targeted at budget minded consumers. According to The Verge, it has a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Play inside. Unlike the Snapdragon S4 SoC we're familiar with, the 28 nanometer model with a pair of 1.5 GHz Krait cores and an Adreno 225 graphics processor, the S4 Play is a 45 nanometer SoC that uses a pair of ARM Cortex A5 cores and the Adreno 203. Performance wise, ARM says that a Cortex A5 can deliver 1.57 DMIPS/MHz. To put that into some perspective, the Cortex A8 delivers 2.0 DMIPS/MHz, and the Cortex A9 that's inside many of today's devices can pump out 2.50 DMIPS/MHz.
Qualcomm's Krait core can do 3.30 DMIPS/MHz, more than double the performance of ARM's Cortex A5.
But back to the Desire X, it has a 4 inch 800 x 480 pixel Super LCD, it runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense 4.0, there's a 5 megapixel rear facing camera that uses a backside-illuminated sensor and a f/2.0, 28 mm wide-angle lens, 768 MB of RAM is inside, along with a 1,650 mAh battery, and there's even a microSD card slot. We sadly don't know much about the baseband. The phone is also a tad on the thick side at 9.69 mm, and we'd like to tell you the other dimensions, but we don't have an official spec sheet yet.
When will this thing hit store shelves? It'll land "in selected markets across EMEA and Asia Pacific" at some point in September. No word on pricing, but HTC says it'll be "affordable".

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With Thunderbolt ports available on both Macs and PCs, as well as Thunderbolt controller costs dropping thanks to the introduction of Intel's Cactus Ridge, the Thunderbolt storage space is alive and well with tons of competition. The market is full of everything from good single drive solutions, to high performance multi-drive RAID arrays. While very few drives exist that deliver the best combination of performance and value, a growing market is bound to develop some winners.
Western Digital was late to the Thunderbolt game with its My Book Thunderbolt Duo. Take two 3.5" Western Digital Caviar Green drives, toss them in a Thunderbolt version of the My Book chassis and you've got the Thunderbolt Duo. The My Book Thunderbolt Duo is good for a bit over 200MB/s of sequential IO, not tremendous by SSD standards but still ok for external storage. Today Western Digital is announcing an even higher performance model: the My Book VelociRaptor Duo. As the name implies, the VR Duo incorporates two of Western Digital's 1TB 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor hard drives in a My Book chassis. The use of higher performance drives is good for almost 400MB/s, which is better performance than we've seen from any prior two-drive Thunderbolt enclosure without resorting to using SSDs.

Read on for our review of the new My Book VelociRaptor Duo.

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ZTE is announcing a new smartphone today, the Grand X IN. It's their first Intel based smartphone, and it makes use of the same Medfield platform we reviewed back in April. That means there's a single core Intel Atom Z2640 inside clocked at 1.6 GHz, with hyper-threading enabled of course, 1 GB of RAM, and Intel's XMM 6260 baseband, which provides 21 Mbps HSPA+. Unlike other Intel based smartphones that failed to deviate from the Intel reference design, ZTE has performed several modifications. The two most noteworthy here are the screen and the actual design.
Starting with the screen, Intel's reference platform ships with a 4.03 inch 1024 x 600 pixel LCD display. ZTE decided to swap that out and go with a 4.3 inch 960 x 540 pixel LCD display. And as for the design, Intel's reference platform was pretty much a perfect rectangle for all intents and purposes. Here ZTE has chosen to add some much needed curves. Without seeing the phone in person it's difficult to judge how pretty it looks, but we'd say it looks somewhat similar to the Samsung Nexus S.
As for the other specs, there's an 8 megapixel rear facing camera, a 0.3 megapixel front facing camera, the battery holds 1,650 mAh, and curiously enough the GSM radio on-board isn't quadband. You get support for 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 1900 MHz, so don't expect to take this thing to America. On the 3G front you're looking at support on the 900 MHz and 2100 MHz bands. The chassis measures 127 mm x 65 mm x 9.9 mm and weighs 140.8 grams.
Expect this phone to hit Europe next month running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Pricing is unknown.

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I had a chance to meet with Toshiba in surprisingly sunny (and toasty!) San Francisco, California and check out their new wares (and some old ones). Like the other vendors, Toshiba is prepped for Windows 8 to land, but the direction the technology is taking to coincide with Windows 8 is fascinating if nothing else. Whether or not you think Windows 8 will flop, the hardware being designed around it is definitely the way things are going.
The big release, and the one that was leaked by the press in Europe, is the Satellite U925t. This is what Toshiba dubs a convertible ultrabook, and is meant to be an ultrabook first and a tablet second. The U925t's three pound chassis is evidence enough of that, but the convergence of tablet and notebook usage scenarios is consistent with what seems to be Microsoft's vision for the future of computing. It's difficult to argue with when you've seen it in action.

The U925t's 0.78" thin and weighs 3.2 pounds, but instead of opening in a clamshell the way conventional notebooks do, the screen hinge slides up similar to the Asus Eee Pad Slider and the Microsoft Surface, revealing a backlit keyboard and small dedicated clickpad. The display is a 12.5" IPS panel at 1366x768 and covered in Corning Gorilla Glass. Consistent with its secondary role as a tablet, there are front and rear-facing cameras along with an ambient light sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer.
The underlying hardware is strong. Toshiba is opting for an Ivy Bridge Core i5, 128GB SSD, and DDR3-1600 (presumably at least 4GB) along with a healthy amount of modern wireless connectivity: 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Intel's WiDi, Bluetooth 4.0, and Near Field Communication on the left side of the wrist rest. Wired connectivity is handled by two USB 3.0 ports and a full-sized HDMI port.
Toshiba is expecting availability on October 26th; MSRP hasn't been finalized yet but should be just slightly north of a grand. Toshiba tends to price their notebooks competitively and there's no reason to expect that to change with the U925t.
The remainder of Toshiba's announcements are more traditional. Given the proximity of the Windows 8 launch to the back to school season, Toshiba's engineers elected to design most of the current generation of hardware in preparation for the impending transition. That means the ultra-widescreen (21:9) Satellite U845W will go essentially unchanged as will the LX835 All-in-One, with both just having the software updated as the hardware is already in place.

With that said, there are still a couple of new kinks in Toshiba's lineup. You'll probably have noticed that "thin is in," as ultrabooks are in many ways dictating the shape of notebooks across the market. To that end, Toshiba will have 14" and 15.6" ultrabooks on hand coming in at very competitive prices. The 14" Satellite U945 is essentially a conventional notebook slimmed down, featuring a Core i3 or i5 processor, 500GB mechanical hard disk with a 32GB SSD for caching, LED backlit keyboard, and USB 3.0 connectivity. Meanwhile, the 15.6" Satellite S955 will be available with both an ULV Ivy Bridge Core i5 or a Trinity-based AMD A8 processor, along with up to 8GB of DDR3 and up to 750GB of mechanical storage.
Finally, the only "full-sized notebook in the bunch," the 14" Satellite P845t features a capacitive touchscreen for Windows 8 along with a 750GB hard disk, 6GB of DDR3-1600, and three USB 3.0 ports.
As with the convertible U925t, these notebooks are all expected to land on October 26th to coincide with the release of Windows 8.

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It has been a busy week for product announcements, with all the major OEMs at IFA announcing and launching new tablets, smartphones, laptops, etc. For Lenovo, that means Ideatabs and IdeaPads today (with more to follow). There are three new Ideatab offerings to discuss, the S2110, A2107, and A2109; on the IdeaPad front, Lenovo has added the S300, S400, and S405.
Gallery: Lenovo Ideatab A2107 and A2109


Starting with the Ideatab offerings, at launch the three new tablets will come with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with the two A-series products targeting more affordable price points. Both the A2107 and A2109 come with metal alloy enclosures and similar design language, but that’s about the extent of their similarities. The A2109 is a 9-inch 1280x800 TN (uh oh!) tablet using the ubiquitous NVIDIA Tegra 3 SoC (T30SL clocked at 1.2GHz), with four-point capacitive input, 1080p output via the tablet’s Micro-HDMI port, and two speakers with SRS TruMedia audio enhancement. (Note that there’s apparently an older A2109 model that comes with an OMAP 4430 1GHz SoC.) It measures 236x164x11.65mm and tips the scales at 570g. Other features include 1.3 megapixel (Mp) front and 3Mp rear-facing cameras, dual microphones, GPS, a Micro USB port, and 8GB or 16GB of storage with MicroSD card support for up to an additional 32GB. That makes it slightly lighter than typical 10.1” tablets, but not dramatically so. Availability should be September for the new Tegra 3 models, with a suggested price of $299.
The A2107 won’t be available until “later in 2012”, and it will be a 7” tablet designed for reading, web browsing, and email. How it will stack up against the Nexus 7 in terms of pricing remains to be seen, but Lenovo will have a standard version as well as a model with 3G support. The core hardware in the A2107 is also different from the A2109, with a MediaTek MTK6575 SoC running a Cortex-A9 core clocked at 1GHz with a PowerVR SGX531 graphics chip and either 512MB (WiFi) or 1GB (3G) LPDDR2 RAM. The display is a TN 1024x600 4-point multitouch offering, and at least the TN part of that equation is quite underwhelming. Lenovo does tout “Professional Level GPS” however, with the ability to get a location lock in 10 seconds as a reference point. The A2107 will also have front- and rear-facing cameras, with 0.3Mp and 2Mp respectively. Rounding out the feature list, you get 4GB/16GB of eMMC storage standard (it’s not clear if the 4GB is for the WiFi or if there’s 16GB storage with an extra 4GB from somewhere else), Micro USB, MicroSD (up to 32GB support), built-in FM radio, and a targeted eight hours of battery life. Some of the specs could still change before the actual launch, but the dimensions are 192x122x11.5mm with a 400g weight.
Gallery: Lenovo Ideatab S2110


Where the A-series Ideatabs target the value sector (and make some sacrifices to hit lower price points), the Ideatab S2110 is more of a premium offering with a textured back cover that provides a more comfortable grip. There’s an optional detachable keyboard dock that includes an additional battery, putting the S2110 squarely into the same hybrid tablet/laptop category as the ASUS Transformer Prime. Measuring just 8.69mm thick (260x178x8.69mm), it’s one of the thinnest 10.1” tablets around and weighs just 580g. The S2110 also includes an impressive 10-point multi-touch 1280x800 IPS display; Lenovo bills it as being ideal for two-player gaming, though I’m sure there are other uses for the extra inputs. Powering the tablet is a Qualcomm APQ8060A dual-core 1.5GHz SoC, which has Krait cores and an Adreno 225 GPU. Like the A2109, it includes a Micro-HDMI port with full 1080p output support as well as an SD card reader a micro-USB port, along with a 5Mp rear-facing camera with an LED flash and a 1.3Mp front-facing camera, 1GB RAM, and 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. Connectivity comes via WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and WCDAMA/EVDO. Battery life is rated at 10 hours. The S2110 should be available now with a starting price of $399 for the 16GB model.
If you want to add the optional keyboard, it measures 260x190x9.85mm and adds an additional 600g. The keyboard dock doubles the battery capacity and provides up to 20 hours of activity. Besides the keyboard interface and extra battery life, Lenovo also includes two additional USB 2.0 ports on the keyboard, a 3-in-1 SD card reader, and a multitouch touchpad. It looks like right now, adding the keyboard dock to the S2110 will increase the price by $100, with the 32GB model adding $30 over the 16GB offering.
New IdeaPad Models
Gallery: Lenovo IdeaPad S300, S400, S405


Lenovo’s new IdeaPad S300/S400/S405 take an interesting path by being ultraportables without the price premium of Ultrabooks. They’re still less than an inch thick (21.9mm), which makes them slightly thicker than an Ultrabook but potentially with better cooling and/or keyboard travel. They use ULV CPUs and weigh under four pounds, with the S405 model will supporting up to A8 series AMD APUs and the S300 and S400 using Intel CPUs. Actually, there are a few other minor differences, so let’s dig into the low-level details on each laptop.
The IdeaPad S300 is the smallest of the laptops, with a 13.3” 1366x768 display that we’ve come to know and loath. The dimensions of the laptop are 12.9”x9.06”x0.88” (330x230x22.4mm) with a starting weight of 1.8kg/3.7lbs. CPU support includes both 2^nd and 3^rd Generation Core i3/i5 Intel processors, along with three Pentium ULV chips at the very low end (ULV987, ULV997, and ULV2117U), and there’s an option to add a discrete AMD Radeon HD 7450M GPU for those that want a bit more graphics power. Storage options consist of 320GB and 500GB 5400RPM and 7200RPM hard drives, with an optional 32GB SSD cache available. Wrapping up the basic specs, the S300 has a single SO-DIMM slot supporting up to 4GB RAM, one USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, a 0.3Mp webcam, and a 4-cell battery rated for up to five hours of battery life, with intelligent energy management features helping to improve long-term battery durability. Connectivity options include 10/100Mbit Ethernet, 802.11bgn WiFi, Bluetooth, and (optional) Intel WiMAX.
The IdeaPad S400 has virtually identical specs to the S300 most areas, with the major difference being the use of a 14” 1366x768 display. It measures 13.2”x9.4”x0.86” (336.6x241.2x21.9mm) and weighs less than 1.8kg/3.75lbs. Basically, it’s just a slightly larger laptop for those who might find 13.3” too small, though I’d suggest that the extra 0.7” of screen diagonal is hardly noticeable. The CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage options all look the same as the S300.
Where the S400 appears to be a slightly larger version of the S300, the S405 branches out into AMD territory and shakes up the spec sheet appropriately. Naturally, you get a similar chassis as the S400, with a 14” 1366x768 LCD and the same port general port configuration, but there are actually quite a few differences. For one, the S405 includes an optical drive, which is interesting as the dimensions of the S405 are still the same 336.6x241.2x21.9mm with a weight of 1.8kg. Lenovo also indicates in their press release that the S405 supports up to 1TB of storage, presumably if you give up the DVD for a second HDD, and it has an optional 24GB SSD cache. The bigger difference of course is in the choice of processor, with the S405 supporting AMD’s A4-4355M, A6-4455M, and A8-4555M APUs. In an interesting turn of events, the A4-4355M and A8-4555M aren’t APUs that we’ve seen specs for previously; AMD’s Ultrathin APU page only lists the A6-4455M and the A10-4655M, so we’re not even sure what sort of clocks or GPU core counts the A4 and A8 APUs will have. We do know that the A4 APU includes HD 7420 graphics, the A6 is the 7520, and the A8 is the 7640, but that’s all we have to go on right now. Like the Intel models, the S405 also has an optional HD 7450M discrete GPU.
All three models are available in a variety of colors, including crimson red, silver grey, and cotton-candy pink (that one’s for Dustin, surely, though it’s not quite as pink as the ASUS offerings we’ve seen in the past); pricing starts at $499. The laptops currently ship with Windows 7, with a $15 upgrade to Windows 8 available. None of the laptops are currently available for purchase, but that should change shortly.

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We've been having a good run of Mini-ITX cases lately, but most of those cases are designed to still be able to support what are essentially fully-powered systems: standard voltage CPUs, dedicated graphics cards, an optical drive and multiple storage drives. Yet part of the charm of Mini-ITX is that it's capable of fitting into a much smaller space than even a Micro-ATX board theoretically could. If you're gunning just to produce a system that's very small and very efficient, but you don't want to just use someone else's build, a Mini-ITX board and the right enclosure can have you covered.

That's where the Antec ISK 110 VESA comes in. This case is about as small as it gets, and includes the necessary hardware to actually mount it to the back of a monitor. Antec has trimmed about as much fat as you could conceivably hope to trim; there's enough room for a Mini-ITX board, two 2.5" drives, and that's it. It includes an external 90-watt power supply and just enough internal power circuitry to drive moderate-to-low voltage hardware. With so little room to work in, did Antec make the right decisions, or was there still more they could do?

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