The new Toshiba tablet has apparently shaved some weight too, tipping the scales at a paltry 1.18 pounds. Despite the shedding of millimeters and fractions of pounds, the Toshiba Excite 10 LE still has a reasonable assortment of connectivity options, including microUSB, HDMI, microSD, WiFi, and Bluetooth.

Power comes by way of an OMAP 4430 1.2GHz dual core processor and Android 3.2 Honeycomb, backing up that 1280×800 10.1-inch AutoBrite Display. Ice Cream Sandwich is being promised by the end of spring. Rounding out the specs are a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera. The 16GB and 32GB models will sell for $529 and $599, respectively.

As I mentioned in my review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, though, thinner isn’t always necessarily better, particularly when it comes to tablets. It’s just harder to get a comfortable grip, but I guess that’s up to personal preference.

The post Toshiba Excite 10 LE Android Tablet As Thin As It Gets appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Available for pre-order through J&R, the Samsung Series 5 will have its pricing start at $899.99 for the 13.3-inch model and $949.99 for the 14-inch model. If you want to have an optical drive, you’ll need to opt for the larger version, but the 13-incher gets an extra USB 3.0 port.

The other specs are mostly the same. You get a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-2467M dual core processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 500GB hard drive backed with 16GB of solid state memory, integrated graphics, webcam, Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi, HDMI-out, multi-card slot, gigabit Ethernet, two USB 2.0 ports, and a 1366×768 display. If the MacBook Air is the most important gadget of 2011, will one of these ultrabooks prove to be pretty darn important for 2012? Time will tell.

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We already know that Windows 8 is going to be a platform that is simultaneously geared toward both tablets and regular PCs, but it has now been confirmed by Intel that you’ll effectively being able to get both in one package with touchscreen-enabled Windows 8 ultrabooks.

This confirmation comes by way of Intel CEO Paul Otellini. Ultrabooks are barely out of the gate with their sleek and slim profiles, but adding touchscreen capabilities would also add cost to an already premium product. Ortellini says that they need to “get touch to a lower cost. This is particularly important, as we move to the launch of Windows 8. The iPad and the iPhone have made touch a paradigm.”

He wants to see the touch-based ultrabooks down to the $699 level. “Starting with Windows 8, you have a mainstream operating system incorporating touch. Our view is that in the ultrabook lines, touch is a pretty critical enabler. When users see that new Windows interface, they’re going to want to touch it. If the screen does nothing, you have disappointed [the] consumer.”

This makes sense. To this day, my favorite Android tablet is still the Asus Eee Pad Transformer and a big part of that has to do with the keyboard dock. I get a laptop-like experience, but I still get the touchscreen of a tablet. Here, you get a real Windows machine too, but I have a feeling that $699 still isn’t cheap enough. Starter laptops can be had at $299 and the Eee Pad Transformer with dock can be had for $499.

The post Intel: Windows 8 Ultrabooks To Feature Touchscreens Soon appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Thin and light. Those are the two key characteristics that make ultrabooks so appealing to the masses, especially since they also bring the price points down to a more affordable level. The latest to join in on the ultrabook craze is the recently revealed Acer Aspire S3.

Being shown off at IFA 2011 in Berlin, the Acer Aspire S3 ultrabook clearly borrows some of its styling inspiration from the MacBook Air and possibly the Asus UX-series. The thin metal design narrows down to just 1.3cm at its thinnest point, but you still get a 13.3-inch HD LED display and the full-size Acer FineTip chiclet keyboard.

Power comes by way of Intel Core i3/i5/i7 Sandy Bridge (second-gen) processors, along with your choice of either a 240GB SSD or a 320GB/500GB hard drive with embedded SSD technology. Rounding out the specs are Dolby Home Theater v4, HDMI-out, card reader, webcam, WiFi, and Bluetooth. The Green Instant On technology from Acer also means you get instant resumes, just like what you’d get with a tablet.

I’m totally digging the idea of an ultrabook, because it used to be that you had to spend quite the pretty penny to get this kind of horsepower in this slim a package. The Aspire S3 will start at 799 Euro (about $1100) and ramps up to 1199 Euro. Look for it to launch in “select regions” later this month.

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When you think about crossover vehicles, they typically fit somewhere between a standard sedan and a larger SUV. With the recent leak of the ThinkPad X1 from Lenovo, we find a notebook PC that’s try to straddle between the consumer and business markets.

Does that really work? Well, the average business user probably still enjoys some consumer-friendly features. With the ThinkPad X1, you get that corporate black styling that we’ve come to expect from the ThinkPad line, along with an encrypted hard drive, hardware-based password manager, and fingerprint reader.

But on the consumer side, you also get Dolby audio, a super thin profile that rivals the MacBook Air, HDMI output, and backlit keyboard. You can configure the X1 with a range of Core i5/i7 processors, along with Windows 7 Professional, a USB 3.0 port, DisplayPort, a single RAM slot with support up to 8GB, and a 160GB SSD. As is the case with competitors like the Samsung Series 9, there is no optical drive here.

When you walk into a business environment, you can’t exactly do it with a cherry red laptop. That just won’t demand the same kind of serious respect that a regular black ThinkPad can demand. That said, the X1 offers a slim and svelte package (along with a button-less trackpad and that signature red nub of a TrackPoint) that shows you’ve got style too. Prices start at $1,399 and go up with your upgrades.

The post Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Slices Into Crossover Market appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

When I hear the Panasonic Toughbook name I immediately think of those super rugged (and heavy) notebooks that police officers and other emergency personnel use out in the field. I don’t know if Panasonic wants to shed that image, but they’re certainly going smaller and lighter with the Toughbook S9.

This isn’t a briefcase-sized laptop. Instead, it’s a much smaller 12.1-inch notebook that tips the scales at a mere three pounds. That makes it the lightest laptop of its size with a built-in optical DVD drive. I like thin and light laptops as much as the next person, but Toughbook isn’t exactly the first name that comes to mind for that kind of thing. The lightweight chassis gets backed up with an Intel Core i5-520M processor, 2GB of RAM (that’s it?), and a shock-mounted 320GB hard drive. Despite being a lot lighter, the Toughbook S9 can still withstand a 2.5-foot drop and 220 pounds of pressure on its lid. The spill-resistant keyboard helps too.

Thanks largely to its added toughness, the S9 also comes with a price that’s a little tough to swallow: $2,499.