In my guide to awesome Windows 7 PCs, under “All Around Great Everyday PCs” I listed the Toshiba Satellite U500. Courtesy of Toshiba, I had the pleasure of living with the Toshiba Satellite U505 for a few weeks this summer.

So let me start off with the specs for the Satellite U505:

• Windows 7 Home Premium x64
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P7350 @ 2GHz
• Memory: 4GB (Supports up to 8GB)
• Display: 13.3” Widescreen |1280x800 Resolution | Native 720P HD
• Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
• Network: 10/100/1000 Ethernet | Intel Wi-Fi Link 5100AGN 802.11a/g/n Wireless
• Storage: 400GB (5400 RPM) Serial ATA
• Optical: DVD SuperMulti Drive

The Satellite U505 has a textured design to it and comes in Luxe Red, Luxe White, and Luxe Brown. The Satellite U505 I have is Luxe Brown.

 

This Toshiba laptop comes with 3 USB ports (USB 2.0), a LAN port, modem port, and an eSATA/USB combo port. This eSATA/USB combo port comes with something a little extra: USB Sleep and Charge. That means while the Satellite U505 is asleep or off, you can plug USB devices into this port and have them charge. I had been out traveling with laptop and ended up leaving the charger for my cell phone at home. I was able to use the Satellite U505 to charge it overnight without leaving it on. It worked great. The Satellite U505 also has a VGA port to connect a monitor as well as a HDMI port to connect to an HDTV.

The TouchPad on the Toshiba Satellite U505 has multi-touch controls and can be enabled and disabled. It also comes with a LED backlit keyboard and just above the keyboard are media control buttons for mute, media, playback controls and volume controls.

The Satellite U505 also comes with an ExpressCard slot and a Memory Card Reader that supports Secure Digital, Secure Digital High Capacity, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Multi Media Card, and xD Picture Card. You could certainly use the Memory Card slot to quickly add some more memory using Windows ReadyBoost but the fact the Satellite U505 comes with 4GB of memory and is expandable to 8GB tells me you likely won’t need to.

For more on the Toshiba Satellite U505, click here. Price starts at $698.99. You can also find the Toshiba Satellite U505 on Windows PC Scout as well.

After using the Satellite U505 for a couple weeks, it’s certainly a great everyday PC and perfect for Windows 7. The Toshiba Satellite U505 is packed with some great specs that give you the flexibility to use this laptop for a wide range of scenarios based on your needs – from video editing to multimedia hotness with Windows Media Center to simply being your workhorse PC.

Oh, one other thing – Toshiba has released updated models of the U500 series Satellite laptops that support Windows Touch in Windows 7 available today!

Lenovo announced today a new T-Series ThinkPad Laptop called the T400s. Lenovo’s T-Series laptops cater to business customers looking for a powerful and thin laptop. Lenovo put a lot of effort in designing this laptop to be light, durable, robust, and powerful – key elements to a great business laptop for the mobile worker. I’ve had the chance to play with a T400s here in my office for the last few days and it has been a great experience so far.

The T400s will ship with the following specs:

• Choices of Intel 2.53 GHz Core2Duo processors and graphics
• Choices of up to 128GB SSD or 250GB hard drive storage
• 9.5 mm slim DVD burner or Blu-Ray player
• Ethernet (Gigabit) & WiFi
• Optional WiMAX, WWAN, Bluetooth and Ultra-wideband Connectivity
• 34mm Express Card slot or 5-in-1 multimedia card reader
• Almost 6 hours of battery life
• Display Port and VGA connectors (Supports 2 External Monitors!)
• Energy Star 5.0 Compliant
• 2 Built-in USB Ports
• 1 Built-in eSATA/USB Combo Port (Total of 3 USB Ports)
• Fingerprint Reader
• TPM 1.2

As you can see, with these specs the T400s is quite powerful. It also can come jam-packed with network connectivity options (including support for Mobile Broadband) helping keep you connected no matter where you go. Because security is super important to the Mobile Worker – the T400s comes with a Fingerprint Reader and TPM 1.2. With TPM 1.2, BitLocker can be used in both Windows Vista and Windows 7 to secure the laptop. You also get your choice of storage. My T400s had a 250GB hard drive.

The design of the T400s is pretty slick. The T400s uses Lenovo’s “Top Cover Roll Cage”, which they first introduced with the X300, in the construction of its frame. This roll cage is made out of reinforced monocoque carbon fiber which is the same stuff they use on airplanes and super-fast cars. This keeps the T400s pretty light. It weighs in at just under 4lbs (with a 6 cell battery) which is about 20% less than its T400 predecessor. A non-SSD hard drive may also add some weight to the laptop as well as they tend to be a little bit heavier. But Lenovo gives you the choice to choose (as mentioned above).

This is a pretty thin laptop, measuring in at 0.83 inches (yes, I measured!). Part of the ability to keep this laptop so thin is that Lenovo uses a very thin 14.1 inch LED screen.

For the T400s, Lenovo tweaked the keyboard a bit. The keys are much closer to each other – likely to prevent gunk from getting underneath. The Delete and ESC keys are also larger.

The touchpad is now flush with the palm rest and is textured to help people feel its location.

I also discovered that the T400s has an “always on” USB port in the back. This means that if the system is in sleep/standby or hibernate mode you can still plugin devices like MP3 players or mobile phones and have them charge off the laptop’s battery.

Another very interesting aspect of this laptop is how Lenovo optimized it for VoIP. Many businesses are utilizing VoIP for their communications. This laptop can essentially serve as your communication hub when you’re out-and-about. Lenovo added a new toggle switch at the top of the keyboard so that you can easily increase and decrease your system volume – putting the user in more control of their audio. I’m told this will become a standard for all Lenovo laptops going forward. The speaker volume has been amped up to be more than 2x greater than audio levels see on the T400. And the speakers themselves have been moved to the sides instead of on the palm rest area seen on the X300 series laptops.

Lenovo put 2 digital microphones in for better recording. The dual microphones are expected to cut down the amount of ambient noise picked up during your VoIP calls and improve clarity with sound. And of course you can have audio without video. The T400s comes with built in 2.0 megapixel webcam that can shoot video up to 30fps. The webcam also has “Lower Light Capture Capability” to capture decent video is very low-lit conditions.

Lenovo puts Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate on their business laptops. The T400s I have came with Windows Vista Business.

However I decided to put Windows 7 (the Windows 7 RC) on it. Instead of upgrading from Windows Vista, I did a clean install. Windows 7 picked up most of the drivers with updates to many of them available for me on Windows Update. I had everything up and running very quickly.

With Windows 7 and the T400s, I am able to secure the laptop with a variety of features from Windows 7. Windows 7 has BitLocker (which we introduced with Windows Vista). Using TPM, I was able to encrypt the hard drive of the laptop to ensure if the laptop ever gets lost so that no one can get the data off the hard drive.

Windows 7 has a new biometric framework and in combination with UPEK’s biometric software – I was able to quickly enroll fingerprints for a further enhanced security. UPEK takes advantage of Windows 7’s biometric enhancements. This process was incredibly easy. As mentioned above, the T400s can come with built in Mobile Broadband. Windows 7 brings enhancements that take advantage of Mobile Broadband making it easy to connect and stay connected.

I had fun playing with this laptop. Special thanks to Lenovo for the opportunity!

The Lenovo ThinkPad T400s will become available at www.lenovo.com starting at $1,599.

Put some spunk in your Acer One notebook with this Zen Designed shell from artist UFO-Hayashi. The upshot is truly a work of art, which every art lover and design-conscious fellow will appreciate.

He has painted the netbook by using traditional Japanese Zen painting called kyo-yu-zen, which was introduced to Japan from the continent in the 8th century. This painting describes the spring of the life. It means that the spring must come after the long winter in your life. Since the artwork takes a long time to complete, Hayashi creates limited pieces.

It looks so delicate that you will think twice before carrying it along on the move. If you can think you can really handle the slick thing, the bidding for this ultraportable but expensive Aspire One will end on May 1.

Source

Toshiba comes out with another great laptop to consider getting. Toshiba added to their S300 line today with their Satellite Pro S300-EZ2521. It’s a perfectly decent laptop, but doesn’t fall squarely in that much-talked about “high-end” category or much-revered “low cost but decent specs” category. Rather, it’s just somewhere in the middle.

This laptop is pretty average when it comes to specs. Measuring in at 15.4-inches, it features a 250GB hard drive, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, a WXGA resolution panel, GMA 4500MHD graphics and a SuperMulti DVD burner. Other features include Wi-Fi, a web-cam that’s built-in and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. And that’s really about it.

This laptop from Toshiba may seem to be the ultimate solution focused on the business market. But today, we are all aware that the business sector is aching for various demands as far as mobile computing is concerned. And from the past years, we all know that Toshiba has focused its genre in the business market although some people may want to have it for some other purpose.

Source

I’m probably not going to make it a habit to blog about each and every TV ad we do but I thought it would be nice to highlight the next ad in our Laptop Hunters series. This time we’re introduced to Giampaolo, a recent college grad and engineer. Giampaolo is looking for a laptop that has portability, battery life, and is powerful – for under $1,500. Here’s how his “hunt” went:

Laptop Hunters #2 - Giampaolo

In case you missed my introduction to Laptop Hunters (and the first Laptop Hunters ad with Lauren) – you can read my post here. 

 

Today we’re introducing the next chapter in the ongoing Windows Brand Campaign - an exciting new series of ads called Laptop Hunters. These new ads trace real people as they go on a hunt for a new laptop. For many people looking to buy a new computer today, it is likely that if they make purchase it will be a laptop. Laptop sales increased more than 20% last year.

The Laptop Hunters are not told they are taking part in an ad campaign by Microsoft. Instead, they think they are participating in market research. Each participant set their own budget for a laptop to meet their own unique needs. We then provide the participant with cash and sent them out to find and purchase a laptop – all in a single day. We followed them with a camera crew throughout the course of their hunt and recorded their experiences. Everything is completely unscripted. Once the participant finds and purchases their perfect laptop – we inform them out in the parking lot that it’s actually Microsoft and this was part of our Windows brand campaign. The participant can of course decline to be part of the ad series if they so wish.

In the ad making its debut today, we’re introduced to Lauren who is on the hunt for a new laptop under $1,000, a budget she set herself. She is out to find a laptop that has “speed”, a comfortable keyboard and a 17” screen. Here is Lauren’s hunt:

Laptop Hunters #1 - Lauren

Lauren’s hunt is a good example of real people finding Windows PCs a better fit for their whole lives with the right value.

We define the right value as simply benefits + cost. Windows PCs offer more “bang for the buck”. Competitors offer laptops that often cost quite a bit more, even though they have less powerful hardware, and can’t offer technologies such as Blu-ray, HDMI, eSATA, and 3G wireless broadband connectivity. When buying a laptop, after all, purchasing a laptop is an investment right?

The current state of the economy is forcing people to cut costs and save as much as they can, which means that people are looking for laptops with the most value at the lowest cost possible. According to NPD data as of February 2009, 74% of people looking at buying a new computer rated price as their most important purchasing factor.

Windows PCs have the benefits people want at the price point they like. They also offer choice and flexibility. If a person is a gamer, they can get a gaming PC for example.

In the coming weeks, you can expect to see more from Laptop Hunters as we follow real people on the hunt for a laptop.

Be sure to check out the Laptop Hunters website on Windows.com too!