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A whole gaggle of PR people were waiting to fire us over press releases about new Centrino 2 laptops as soon as Intel pressed the launch button - so here's a roundup
Samsung up first then - and the most noticeable change in design [http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/samsung-launches-new-range-of-notebooks-423442]. The 'Touch of Colour' design has previously been seen on the company's TVs too. We saw the new design when we visited its South Korea HQ back in May and have to say we're not completely sold on it - it looks like you've let your ten-year-old loose with a spraycan of paint!
Top of the new 'R' range releases is the 17-inch R710, swiftly followed by the 15.4-inch R510 and R560 - prices begin at £499. The new models feature DDR3 memory and the R510 features the new Centrino 2 staple graphics - an Intel X4500. However, Samsung does offer the Nvidia 9600M GS graphics in the R560 and the GeForce 9300 or 9600 series cards in the R710.
The company's ultraportables have also had a makeover, with the new £599 Q210 (12.1-inch widescreen) and £699 Q310 (13.3-inch widescreen) notebooks. Nvidia 9200M GS graphics are offered alongside a 6-cell battery. Impressive pricing for powerful portability, too. Oh, and all of Samsung's new models feature a new 'Protect-o-Edge' casing designed for durability.
Next up is Packard Bell, which has released four new models, all with confusing model numbers. A Blu-ray drive and latest-gen 15.6-inch widescreen adorn the EasyNote TN 65 for 16:9 disc playback, while in the portable stakes the EasyNote RS 65 is a 13.3-inch model with a 'moonstone colour scheme.'
In the middle sit the 15.4-inch EasyNote MT85 and EasyNote 17-inch ST85 with HDMI connectivity. All the company's models offer ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 series graphics.
At the performance end, Novatech announced its new 15.4-inch x50mv performance laptop. 'The x50mv is nothing less than set to impress,' exclaimed Kriss Pomroy, Commercial Director, Novatech, in a release that says the laptop 'promises more CPU and GPU grunt packed into a 15-inch platform than ever seen before.'
As well as the performance 'T' series of Core 2 Duos, Novatech says it is also planning to place the forthcoming 44W Core 2 Extreme QX9100 quad core processor, clocked at 3.06GHz - we guess that's the 'promises' bit then.
Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics are also included, while full 7200rpm hard drives are also supplied - though DDR2 memory remains. The top £974 model features the P9500 variant of the Core 2 Duo with a whopping 6MB cache, clocked at 2.53GHz.
Supermarket specialist Medion has also announced its AKOYA S5610 Centrino 2 notebook, which will be available for £600 from Sainsbury's from the end of the month. Weighing 2.6kg, this 15.4-inch model features a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 processor, 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 graphics, 3GB memory and a 320GB hard drive plus an integral HDMI port.
Rocking up next, with its range-topping Rock's Xtreme 780 gaming machine packing an Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X9100 processor, new Nvidia GeForce Go 9800M GTX card and a 17-inch glass screen. It is, however, 3.8kg - though it can be configured with a whopping 8GB of DDR3 memory! An Xtreme 620 15.4-inch variant is also available as are Blu-ray drives on both models.
The Pegasus 520 and 320 have 15.4-inch and 13.3-inch screens, with 1GB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT and 256MB 9300M GS graphics respectively. Final pricing on all models is still to be confirmed.
Finally, there's Sony. We've covered these new models in detail [http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/sony-s-new-centrino-2-powered-vaio-range-422122] but our eye is definitely caught by the new Z series with a dual channel 128GB solid state drive model (the upgrade will cost you £1,150!). The rest of the Z-series will cost from £900. Still expensive, but then it's Sony…
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