MANILA, Philippines - The new year is a good time for notebook PC users to get thin, and by that we mean the actual notebooks they should be using.
A wide range of new IT products in really thin form factors came out toward the end of 2009 and are now expected to become big this year. Those that have shed a lot of weight are new notebooks from Asus, Dell and HP, but even desktop monitors are also losing their heft to sport a much slimmer profile.
Asus UnLimited
Asus rolled out four new notebooks under a new series called UnLimited (UL) that features the latest Intel Core2 Duo SU7300 processor, the exclusive AsusTurbo33 Technology and 12 hours of battery life.
All four new notebooks — Asus UL80, Asus UL50, Asus UL30, and Asus UL20 — feature a slim chassis profile measuring less than an inch and weigh from 1.5 kg to 2.1 kg.
The Asus UnLimited series features a high definition LCD display with a 16:9 aspect ratio and has a robust brushed-aluminum lid. It also comes equipped with an ergonomic chiclet keyboard and full-sized numeric keypad.
Dell Adamo
Dell claims to have the world’s thinnest laptop that measures only 9.99 mm or just four-tenths of an inch. The Dell Adamo XPS features a 13.4-inch high-definition display and is packed with 4GB DDR3 memory and a thin 128GB SSD storage drive and runs on Intel Core 2 Duo (1.4Ghz) ultra-low voltage processor and the new Windows 7 operating system.
The Adamo XPS weighs just over three pounds. When opened, its body is raised so the keyboard is angled to enhance cooling. Its latch opens at a swipe of a finger.
Adamo, derived from the Latin word meaning “to fall in love,” features a chassis milled from a single piece of aluminum featuring precision detailing and a scalloped backlit keyboard as well as a high definition, edge-to-edge glass display. Adamo XPS is available in onyx and pearl colors with a broad range of complementary accessories.
HP Envy
The new HP Envy 13 is 0.8-inch thin and 1.69-kilo light and claims to have the brightest display with its 13.1-inch Radiance Display that is twice as bright as other notebook displays in its class.
The HP Envy 15 is only an inch thin and weighs 2.35 kilos. It offers a choice between two 15.6-inch HPBrightView High-Definition LED backlit displays, including the Full High-Definition LED HP Ultra BrightView Widescreen display with up to 300 nit (a measurement of display brightness).
The HP Envy 15 takes the title of being HP’s fastest consumer notebook PC ever.
HP ProBook & Pavilion
The new HP ProBook 5310m is one of the world’s thinnest full-performance notebooks. Designed for mobile professionals, it weighs 1.72 kilos and measures 0.93 inch thin. It boasts of a 13.3-inch diagonal LED high-definition display and a good eight-hour battery life.
The HP ProBook 5310m has an Intel Core2 Duo SP9300 processor under its hood, but is also available at a scale-down model that runs on Intel Celeron Dual-Core.
The HP Pavilion dm1 and dm3 consumer notebooks are ideal for those who want the portability of a mini notebook and the functionality of a full-featured notebook.
The 11.6-inch HP Pavilion dm1 starts from 1.36 kilos and features a choice of Intel Celeron Dual-Core processor and Intel Pentium processor.
The HP Pavilion dm3 is only an inch thin, weighs 1.91 kilos and is available in brushed-aluminum chassis and multiple processor and graphic options, including the latest Intel Core2 Duo or AMD Neo Dual-Core processors, and Intel unified, ATI or NVIDIA discrete graphics.
AOC V22+ monitor
By using WLED technology, the new AOC monitors obtained very high contrast ratios of 1000000:1 for the V22 model and 2000000:1 for the e2236Vw and e936Vw models. They also come very slim at 18.5 mm, a thin profile that accommodates an analog D-Sub RGB input and a digital HDMI port (HDCP compatible) and other connection options for USBs and all standard signal sources.
The new WLED monitors also feature a 1.3-megapixel webcam in addition to accompanying software, a microphone and two discreet in-built loudspeakers.
A crystal ball isn’t really that necessary to predict if the slimming trend will continue or not. It only just began and the products could still get even thinner and lighter to become the new heavyweights in computing.