Normally there isn’t much to be excited about when you’ve got yourself a notebook with integrated graphics but with some careful tweaking and a beefy enough processor sometimes you can get something special out of it.

The Dell Studio 14z sports Nvidia’s somewhat capable low-end 9400M chipset with the speedy Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz CPU. The Tech Report has the details:

At least the GeForce 9400M has escaped the clutches of MacBook exclusivity and made its way into more affordable systems, such as Dell’s Studio 14z. Starting at $750, the Studio 14z pairs the 9400M with a Core 2 CPU, a 14″ display, sensibly up-to-date connectivity, and a slew of configuration options covering everything from the screen resolution to keyboard backlighting to the color scheme. In many ways, the Studio 14z feels like the anti-MacBook. But is it any good?

A bit of dedicated memory for the integrated graphics chip would’ve been nice but, overall, it’s a potent portable.

The the ever shrinking computer got a little more stylish today with Dell’s launch of the Inspiron Zino HD in the US. While you might mistake it as some Intel Atom sporting nettop the machine actually sports much more robust AMD processor options.

The machine offers up configuration options of single or dual core chips, integrated ATI graphics or a dedicated GPU with 512MB of video memory for those Blu-ray playing builds, two eSATA ports, and a slew of colors to choose from.

Their pricing starts at $229 which is a bargain for a PC you can stick just about anywhere.

Source: Dell

In the struggle to bring thinner and sleeker notebooks to consumers there are usually many trade offs you’ll have to endure in order to get as thin a profile as possible…but damn does it look good.

The Dell Adamo XPS crams components into every nook and cranny in order to get to its insanely thin profile. Digital Trends has all of the juicy details:

This thing has a ton of cool tech in it, and one of the first things you’ll notice is that it doesn’t open like any other laptop; It has a capacitive memory wire latch. To open the laptop, you swipe your finger over a sensor, the memory wire heats, and the keyboard unlocks and drops out of its nest in the display. Once open, the keyboard cantilevers out from the display, both angling the keyboard and allowing the display to sit up several inches higher and provide a better screen angle for your eyes. This also helps the laptop run cool (the MacBook Air tends to gate its processor significantly because of heat buildup, which means you typically are only getting 800 MHz, regardless of the speed of processor you buy).

It’s not the speediest machine out there but as far as portability is concerned it’ll take the travel burden off your shoulder.

Consumer level notebooks tend to lack a certain level of quality often times trying to reach magical price points they feel their consumers will jump at rather than focusing on the product itself. Thankfully competition forces different designs.

AnandTech has a look at the Dell Studio 14z which matches up a zippy set of Intel mobile chips with Nvidia’s 9400M graphics chip all in a tidy little package which won’t bog you down while on the go:

The big selling point is of course size; starting at 4.3 pounds and with a relatively small 14.0″ chassis, this is a laptop designed to be carried around rather than left on your desk. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is that Dell uses NVIDIA’s nForce 730i chipset, which means you can get a Core 2 Duo processor and integrated graphics that don’t suck.

A slick machine if you demand portability and good performance.

With Windows 7 just around the corner you’re bound to be hit with the deluge of new computing hardware hitting the market that makes use of many of the operating system’s features.

The Dell Studio One goes for the all-in-one approach and tosses in a touchscreen so you can smudge your screen and not get so worked up about it. It even packs an Intel Pentium E5200 processor paired along side Nvidia’s GeForce 9400M so you can expect decent performance…just not anything ground breaking.

A nifty machine that mixes decent hardware which makes it a nice office/productivity/stick in the kitchen PC.

Source: PC Perspective

If there’s a gadget out there you can bet Dell will eventually get around to taking a crack at it, their printers and PDAs sure were a hit weren’t they? Despite some hiccups along the gadget road the company is planning on launching their mini 3i smartphone in the US sometime early next year.

As for details…well you’ll be able to pick it up on the AT&T network and it’s somewhat based off the Google Android OS platform so there may or may not be a decent number of apps for your future smartphone consideration.

It’s too early to tell how it’ll play out but you can look forward to seeing that lovable Dell branding out in the wild.

Source: eWeek

The all-in-one computer design goes through two distinct phases: popular and forgotten, of course with a whole host of new hardware floating around the new AIO lineup is looking more interesting than ever should you want computing in every nook and cranny.

HardwareZone takes a look at the Dell Vostro 320 All-In-One computer which is more than powerful enough to handle the sort of tasks you’d expect out of this sort of machine:

Billed as an All-in-One desktop, the Dell Vostro 320 packs in an Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale processor that’s clocked at 2.80GHz. Also, the unit comes packed with 2GB DDR2 RAM and a puny 160GB HDD. That’s not a lot of space for sure, but it’s designed for the regular office users and should be sufficient for daily work use.

A nice enough design and it even sports a VESA mount so you can truly clear off your desktop.

What you see before you is Asetek’s custom made liquid cooling kit doing its job on Dell’s new Alienware Aurora PC. That should go a long way to cooling off their gaming rigs without all of that extra fan noise needed to keep those Intel Core i7 processors running cool.

Then again their northbridge seems to be sporting a 40mm fan which just about kills off any benefits.

Gaming laptops have typically come in one form: large and obnoxious looking. As well as they perform sometimes you just don’t want to proclaim your tendency to game to the general public, not that you could as they’re more like desktop replacements than actual portable machines.

Dell has taken things down a notch with their Studio XPS 16 notebook, offering up a more palatable set of color schemes making for a sensible looking machine. HotHardware has a review:

In fact, the machine looks so good that it’s easy to forget that it’s not exactly the thinnest or lightest machine on the block. Now, it’s certainly nimble enough for most, and we’re actually impressed with the overall look and feel considering its screen size. Also, the added room enabled Dell to install a full-size keyboard, more powerful speakers, a 1080p panel and a potent 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon 4670 GPU, which is admittedly the star of the system.

A nice machine but, for the price, they could toss in a battery that actually lasted a decent amount of time.

Netbooks have been one of the largest growing segments in the portable computer market givent heir small form factor and long battery life but they do lack any sort of grunt if you’re trying to do something remotely taxing on a PC, like viewing a high definition movie.

NotebookReview has a look at the Dell Inspiron 11z which puts together Intel’s ultra low voltage Celeron 723 with a GS45 chipset (integrated X4500) for the sort of power current netbooks can’t touch. Here’s a look:

Internally the design of the 11z is very friendly for users wanting to upgrade or replace components. At first you might notice there is no bottom access to components, with a solid panel covering the bottom. Instead Dell put all user-accessible components underneath the keyboard, which can be removed by three screws. With the keyboard off you have access to an open WWAN slot, the system memory, hard drive, and heatsink assembly. The WWAN slot was functional, recognizing the Verizon card borrowed from my D630; but it lacked antennas to allow the card to send and receive data.

A slick machine but a few flaws (namely one big one) may have you second guessing a purchase until Dell gets around to making modifications.