Thread: Anandtech News

Not content with one big press event this week, Samsung is breaking some new and curious ground at their IFA keynote. Along with the LTE variants of the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy S II, they are adding some new phones and a tablet, or is it a phone, a tablet-phone and a tablet. Either way, each one features a Super AMOLED display and unique features that will certainly set them apart. Read on to find out more.


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Toshiba is joining the race to produce the thinnest possible tablet with their newly announced AT200 tablet, successor to the Toshiba Thrive/AT100. Eschewing the full sized ports and chintzy swappable backs of its predecessor, the AT200 will feature TI's OMAP 4430 (seen here in the Droid 3) running at 1.2 GHz and backed up by 1 GB of RAM, running Android 3.2. At 7.7 mm thin, this is a full millimeter thinner than Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, while sporting a similar 10.1" display. We're excited to see how Honeycomb fairs on non-Tegra platforms and Toshiba's effort seems impressive for its form factor, hopefully its user experience will be a bit more refined than the Thrive that came before it. We've linked the PR below and will update this post when we have some decent press shots in our hands.
Source: Toshiba

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One thing that SandForce based SSDs have lacked since their introduction has been a Mac supported firmware updater. Updating the firmware has required Windows installation, which is something that not all Mac users prefer. Some other brands, such as Intel, offer OS-independent updaters, but this has not been the case with SandForce SSDs. There have been workarounds like OCZ Linux method, though it's not very user friendly.
Finally, OWC has brought a Mac friendly firmware updater to their SSDs. OWC has been talking about the updater for quite awhile now, which may suggest that the updater was cumbersome to code. This is the first and only Mac-based updater for SandForce SSDs as of today. Other brands have not revealed any plans of releasing Mac based updaters.
The update procedure seems to be fairly easy. You simply download a file from OWC's site and burn that to DVD. Then you boot from the DVD you created and follow the on-screen instructions. This is different from the Windows updater which runs inside Windows - this appears to be more like an OS-independent updater (i.e. could be used with any OS).
Right now, the updater is limited to OWC SSDs with SF-1200 controllers (Mercury Extreme Pro 3G and its variants). It's also limited to only certain Macs and for example the 2011 MacBook Pros are not supported (yet). OWC is aware of this and support for more Mac models, as well as support for 6Gb/s SSDs with SF-2200 controllers, are on their way. OWC is claiming September 7th for SF-2200 updater, so stay tuned.
For Mac users with OWC SSDs, this is wonderful news. SSDs get firmware updates every now and then. Sometimes they include just bug fixes but sometimes they also bring performance increases, like in Crucial's case. As SSDs are still fairly new technology and issues are fairly common, being able to update the firmware without a big hassle (and possible extra expenses) is essential.
Source: OWC


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The last time we checked out an NZXT enclosure, we saw in their H2 a lot of fantastic ideas done in by a single poor design choice. NZXT's engineers are clearly thinking on their feet and the company stays in the enclosure conversation with good reason, and today we have on the slab their new Tempest 410 Elite mid-tower. Geared towards excellent performance without breaking the bank (remember when that was what overclocking was about?), should the Tempest 410 Elite be on your shortlist for an economical build, or were too many compromises made?

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In the next few months, thin-and-light laptops bearing Intel's Ultrabook moniker are going to begin showing up in the marketplace, and Lenovo revealed their first entry today: The IdeaPad U300s.
The U300s promises Sandy Bridge ULV processors (a 1.6 GHz Core i5-2457-M and a 1.8 GHz Core i7-2677M are mentioned in the spec sheet), up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, up to a 256GB SSD, a 13.3" 1366x768 display, a 720p webcam, and up to 8 hours of battery life in a 2.9-pound 0.6-inch thick package. With the exception of screen resolution, it's roughly in 13" MacBook Air territory, but it also includes an HDMI port, a built-in gigabit ethernet port (wi-fi and bluetooth are a given), and one USB 3.0 port (along with one USB 2.0 port) - depending on your usage patterns, this port layout may be more useful to you than the Air's Thunderbolt port.
The Lenovo product page for the device doesn't mention pricing details or width and depth measurements, but it does say that the U300s will be available in November in two colors, the business-friendly Graphite Gray and the very distinctive Clementine Orange.
Source: Lenovo


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It feels like just yesterday that I was finishing up the review of Bigfoot Networks' Killer Wireless-N 1102, but in fact it has been a whole three weeks. My, how time flies! We noted in the review that Bigfoot was using Atheros hardware with their own custom firmware, software, and drivers. It looks like Bigfoot has managed to attract enough attention with their efforts that Qualcomm (who already purchased Atheros earlier this year) has decided to gobble them up...er...bring them into the fold.
In a brief note on the acquisition, Qualcomm Atheros states that they believe "Bigfoot’s technology and expertise will help to deliver an enhanced end user networking experience. With Bigfoot’s technologies, Qualcomm Atheros will be able to deliver its customers with intelligent solutions for managing multiple, rich-media streams for a superior online experience across online games, streaming HD video and audio and real-time communications."
We're actually quite interested in seeing the result of this acquisition, as Bigfoot could certainly benefit from additional resources, and we'd love to see improved networking hardware on more laptops. If we get more 5GHz enabled laptops at lower prices, that will be great. Bigfoot's Killer 1102 Wireless-N chip impressed us with generally better overall performance compared to the competition, and we look forward to seeing where Qualcomm takes their expertise—Killer networking in a tablet/phone SoC, anyone?
As for existing Bigfoot Killer Ethernet and Wireless-N owners, Qualcomm Atheros will continue to support them. In other words, it's business as usual, but Bigfoot has undergone a change in office location and at some point in the future we should see the fruits of this merger.


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With the relaunch of their XPS branding, Dell has released quite a few interesting laptops during the past three quarters. Their latest addition to the line is the thin XPS 15z, and if you haven’t read or hear about it yet let’s be clear: it takes more than a few design cues from Apple’s MacBook Pro 15. We could also look at the HP Envy line and say that Dell borrows a few ideas there as well—though admittedly, "let's make a thin laptop with an aluminum exterior" isn't exactly a revolution in industrial design concepts. The result is still something different than what Apple and HP offer, but if imitation is a form of flattery, Apple in particular should be feeling quite pleased right now. When we get to the details, however, the outward similarities start to disappear.

The 15z might look something like a MacBook Pro 15, but the options are different from what you’ll get out of Cupertino. Some of the changes are for the better, some are merely a different take on what hardware works best, and others are for the worse. We also need to point out the major advantage Dell holds over the MBP15: the base model 15z starts at just $999; even with the 1080p upgrade, it’s only $1099. Pricing as usual isn’t somewhere that Apple competes. The result is a laptop that might just be everything you’ve been looking for as you prepare to head back to school, or it might leave you wanting more. Which category you fall into will depend on how you want to use your laptop, so join us as we dig into the 15z and find out what makes it tick.


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Approximately a year back, we reviewed the ASRock Core 100 HTPC which was a pioneer of sorts in the small form factor (SFF) HTPC space. Till that point, the pre-built SFF market was restricted to the anaemic Atom / ION based nettops. Core 100 was powerful enough to impress us and recommend it as a HTPC for buyers in the mid-range market.

Fast forward a year, and Intel has now moved forward from the Arrandales to the mobile Sandy Bridge CPUs for the notebook segment. ASRock has followed up their Arrandale based Core 100 with the mobile SNB based CoreHT series. In addition to the improvements that have been brought by the mobile SNB, we will also look at what ASRock has brought to the table in this review.



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If you're a lucky owner of a Nexus S, Google's second flagship device that launched in December, chances are that you're well aware of the rather nagging voice search bug. Users have complained about voice search getting activated automatically in apps, which occasionally made the phone completely unusable.
Well today, Google has finally issued an incremental update to fix the issue, bringing the candy-flavored operating system to version 2.3.6. Google has started rolling this out as an OTA update and according to this thread over at Google, some people over in Canada have had the update pushed to them already, so I'd reckon the wait shouldn't be too long.
Of course what most Android owners are waiting for is the next iteration of the OS dubbed “Ice Cream Sandwich” which should finally bring a consistent UI across devices regardless of screen size when it launches sometime in Q4 2011. Till then however, this bug-squashing update should keep users quite happy.
Source: GSMArena


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In an investor webcast yesterday, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime confirmed that Diablo III would enter a closed beta “later this month,” though it appears some friends and family may already have access. According to MMOsite, Blizzard has also issued beta invitations to members of variousDiablo/Warcraft fansites.
If Diablo III releases in December 2011 (as has been speculated for a while now), Blizzard will have had four solid months of beta testing to iron out any major kinks. Beta participants will have access to all five character classes and roughly four hours worth of early-game content. A version of Diablo III’s controversial Auction House, which allows for player-to-player transactions of in-game items, will also be in the beta, though it’s not clear if this feature will be available at launch.
You can join the opt-in pool for the Diablo III beta through Battle.net. If you don’t receive an invitation, you can always keep an eye out for footage and screenshots that will surely flood the Internet over the weeks to come.
Source: MMOsite, Blizzard


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