Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

3D is now obviously what every major tech gadget producer is aiming at with everything now coming in 3D. As a user I’m still not totally convinced but I’ve only watched the odd football match in 3D and not got my eyes on a decent 3D movie or game yet. LG recently launched the LG R590 3D laptop in Korea and it’s expected to hit our shores soon.

Powered with Intel’s Core i7 processor and 1GB of NVIDIA graphics goodness this 15.6” laptop ops for the polarising 3D effect and comes bundled with a fetching pair of the cheaper polarised frames. The 3D effect comes from the TriDef software we saw on Lenovo’s recently released IdeaPad Y560d 3D laptop, it converts the 2D images on the go into a 3D image, that when fired through a polarised screen into your Joe 90s the image “comes to life”. The laptop is also capable of HD quality sound and has the option for a Blu-Ray drive.

We have no details on the exact date of release or price but LG have also gone on to say they’re planning a plethora of 3D gadgets, including monitors for PC gaming and even 200” projectors with 3D capabilities.

It wasn’t long ago that Chinese Computer firm Lenovo announced its IdeaPad Y560d, it’s first 3D laptop. Well it’s on sale in the States now. 3D technology is a bit of a blur to me sometimes with active, passive technology etc and now it appears there’s another way that this laptop achieves it. Read on for more.

To start with the basic specs which compared to most laptops aren’t that “basic”. Windows 7 Home Premium, powered with that fantastic Core i7-720QM processor and 4GB of RAM should be able to keep the laptop running smoothly, surely running any 3D content types on it’s 15.6” Full HD will be more strain than your average images. It also packs a 500GB HDD.

Now the 3D bit. It uses what’s known as TriDef 3D. A mixture of polarised glasses like your normal 3D stuff. A layer of special coating on the screen and then a 3D software generator that renders standard content into a 3D affair. This means rather than it being true 3D the combination of the three give it what Lenovo say a “life-like 3D experience.” So basically your standard 2D photo snaps could be made to look 3D by the laptop. Sadly 3D inputs, such as 3D Blu-Ray will not be compatible, but the software will give a good go at your movies to make them look 3D too. How good this looks I don’t know.

Available in the States now at $1499 or £990 in English monies, we don’t have an official UK date or price yet.

A lot of laptops we’ve seen recently are trying to be as “portable” as possible whether that being the thinnest, the smallest or the less weighty but usually when you steer down that path the goods that are produced are very limited. Samsung has recently issued the Q series laptop. Its not looking for the worlds thinnest laptop title nor are we looking at a gaming powerhouse with a half hour battery life. It’s just a standard sized laptop with a good spec and above all a nice price range.

Coming in a fabulous 3 sizes, 13.3”(Q330), 14”(Q430) and the 15.6”(Q530) are certainly aesthetically pleasing with a brushed metal look. Running Windows 7  you’ll get a choice of Core i3 or Core i5 chipsets to power the lappy. One can also get an HDD up to the size of 640GB. The 13.3” laptop has the option of GeForce 310M GPU whereas the larger two laptops an get GeForce 330M although what is slightly disappointing is the screen resolutions on all will only get to 1366x768. Also with 3 HDMI ports, N-standard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 it attends to the rest of your needs.

Available this month Samsung say the prices will start at £599.

I think quite a while ago we looked at a prototype of a dual screened netbook/slate type computer substituting the keyboard for another touchscreen with a software keyboard for extra screen space. Well now Toshiba have announced the “clamshell” Libretto W100 a similar affair, obviously taking the simplicity of a DS and adding the functionality of a netbook and smartphone.

The two 7” screens run Windows 7 Home Premium, with an Intel Pentium U5400 Processor. Further look at the specs show it’s no simple pushover either. With 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a 62GB SSD storage, N-standard WiFi, SB, microSD and a 1MP webcam the user also has a choice of built in 3G connectivity too. Sadly the downside is the battery life which Tosh claims is a measly 3 and a half hours.

Everybody was looking forward to a Microsof slate after iPad rocked the world but it never surfaced. This is certainly looking promising as a player in the market and certainly will be interesting to see in action. Bad news is we only know it’s getting released sometime over the summer and there’s no price.

As we touch on the portable computing seen quite a bit, you can see an obvious regular trend. If you want a power house of a machine running top spec applications and games then you have to buy a big bulky power hungry (rubbish battery life) laptop. If you want portability with good battery life you have to get an under specced netbook only capable of browsing the net and sending the odd email. Now obviously computer technology improves at quite a vast rate and it may seem obvious that eventually the low end technology will catch up to the high spec, which in turn will advance further etc……anyway Toshiba have developed a laptop that kinda incorporates both……

The Portege R700 is a 13.3” Windows 7 operated laptop that weighs a mere 1.3Kg. The picture we found courtesy of Electricpig shows that it can be held with one hand at one side and the weight distribution is so spread out it doesn’t feel heavier at one side than it does another.

Spec wise you can choose between Core i3, i5 or i7, up to 4GB of DDR3 and a choice of 320GB HDD or 128GB SSD. It also has 3 USB ports and an HDMI out socket. It’s available with built in WiFi like most machines but also comes with optional 3G connectivity. Now whats also interesting for an ultra light, ultra thin laptop like this is that it has an optical DVD drive. Now what is also surprising, with all that spec, Toshiba claims it’ll do 9 hours of use on a full battery charge.

As per we don’t have a release price but we do know it should be with us next month sometime so if you’re after a lightweight, portable but powerful lappy, this could be for you.

If you’re not a gamer, more of a business user chances are you want an ultra portable laptop that doesn’t leave out all the goods required for a useful, fast computer. Toshiba Satellite laptops have always been reliable and do tend to deliver in their field. Now they’ve release two new models to the line, the thinnest Satellite models yet a mere 17.6mm.

Firstly is the T210. Packing a Intel Pentium U5400 processor this 1.48Kg, 11.3” laptop comes with up to 3GB of memory, 250GB of storage and the usual Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Bundled with Windows 7 Home Premium and a battery life that Toshiba have said will last 8.5 hours.

The second is the T230. A slightly heftier 1.75Kg this has a 13.3” screen, running an Intel Core i3 processor, up to 4GB of RAM and 500GB of hard storage and again Windows 7 Home Premium. What’s surprising is the battery life for this is exactly the same as its smaller counterpart.

Both the Toshiba Satellite T210 and T230 will be available in July, however no pricing has been confirmed.

With smartphone tech getting so good one often doesn’t need a PC to do his/her job or social networking, your phone will pretty much be able to cope with everything. It appears Sony are trying to grab some attention from the market with its new ultra-portable, small and light(only 600g) P Series notebook.

Firstly the basic specs. Now obviously with a lot more power than that of any phone, the Vaio P runs with an Intel Atom processor and 2GB of RAM. With an 8” screen running Windows 7 the Vaio P also has 64GB of Flash memory to keep it light and power-use friendly. Now what they’ve added to the Vaio P to give it smartphone-esque functionality is touchpad, GPS and an accelerometer. You can flick the pad through images and also turn it into portrait mode for easy viewing of things like ebooks. It’s also packing Everywair 3G allowing 7.2Mbps internet use wherever you are.

Available in an assortment of colours (green, pink, orange, black or white) it should be availbale around June time. No price details are available now but when the last P series came out they started at £849 for the lowest specced model. Expect extortion again.

Well almost!! The Dell Latitude E6410 is a laptop designed for the adventurous types amongst us or maybe the military enthusiast. This is down to its “military grade/standard” STF 810G(“tailoring an equipment's environmental design and test limits to the conditions that it will experience throughout its service life” – thanks wikipedia). What that means is it’ll take more flak than your average laptop when coming to shocks(drops or vibrations), humidity, pressure, temperature and altitude. If you have a good working set of eyes you can probably guess that from its bodywork in the picture

Despite it’s rugged looks and abilities Dell have still packed it to the nine’s with top notch gear. Available with the latest Corei5 or i7 processors, up to 8GB of RAM and the option of a 500GB HDD or 256MB solid state drive. It also comes with an option for battery size , allowing the intrepid traveller to go mains free for the maximum time. Despite all the high spec though it doesn’t have dedicated graphics but I’m sure you can do without games or extensive HD viewing out in the Jungle or up a mountain.

Available now on Dell’s site the lappy starts at £1049 with varying options bumping up the price.