Sandy Bridge notebook discussion

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pwrusr

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I've decided I'm going to wait for the sandy bridge. I see that HP just came out with a SB i7 notebook on their site. But it doesn't fit my bill for the perfect laptop. I can't believe that they want almost $1k for a notebook with a 15.5" monitor and it only does 1366x768.

But I digress, I don't want to start the thread by ranting. I figured you guys would like a place to discuss news/reviews for the new sandy bridge mobile platform.

With that said... Discuss! :cool:
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Links I've found that are updated often...
All the latest news on engadget for sandy bridge



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Videos (youtube):
My shoutout to thinkpad 2011. These laptops look great!
youtube vids:
T420
Nothing on youtube yet on the T520...
w520

and the small and light notebook that has set the bar for 2011:
x220t
x220 unboxing
x220 review


.
 
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Give it some time. You will see everyone roll out with better spec'd unit
 
This is the latest and greatest hardware, that will always command a premium and plenty of people will pay it, that's just how this business works but as EvilV said, you should soon see better units and prices.
 
you guys are both right, though that's part of why I created this thread. If you have any new news on sandy bridge equiped laptops please share here! :D
 
Anantech published an article about SB mobile on 1/3 that said the laptops would be arriving in February. Glowing review - especially if you need good battery time.

I don't really need battery life for the laptop I want to buy, but I figure prices of older tech will drop if I don't find a good deal on a SB notebook.
 
walkman said:
Anantech published an article about SB mobile on 1/3 that said the laptops would be arriving in February. Glowing review - especially if you need good battery time.

I don't really need battery life for the laptop I want to buy, but I figure prices of older tech will drop if I don't find a good deal on a SB notebook.
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I'm mainly after good battery life of at least 6-8 hours of real world use. which is what is drawing me to SB.

walkman said:
BTW, what is it that you don't like about that laptop besides the resolution?
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The resolution is the biggest fault I have with it, but I also think that a i7 is a tad overkill for what I need it for. I think that I'm personally going to go after a i5 if the battery life is much better. Though I'd like to see a i5 vs a i7 in the same laptop with the same batt to see how the battery life is effected.
 
I'm hoping these Sandy Bridge laptops are reasonably priced. I've got a chance to convert the girlfriend from her busted up Macbook that she likes to drop on the floor once a week. Constantly complaining about why the printer won't work, why this and that won't work on her Mac. But it is sooooo nice and pretty... :rolleyes:
 
walkman said:
Anantech published an article about SB mobile on 1/3 that said the laptops would be arriving in February. Glowing review - especially if you need good battery time.
Click to expand...

I couldn't find that article via google, could I trouble you for the direct link to said article?
 
it seems all most (if not all) of the consumer laptops are stuck at 1336*768 screens. You can find machines with better screens but they are few and far inbetween.......even the jumbo laptops are still at 1336*768
 
Is there a legitimate reason for the low resolution of today's laptop screens? A 15.6" screen at 1336x768 gives a pixel density of 99PPI. That's less than a third of the density available to smartphones these days. Is it really that hard to scale up density to larger screens? Or are margins a lot slimmer on notebooks than smartphones?

And when are the thin/light SNB notebooks coming out?
 
Bigger higher resolution screens cost a lot more than smartphone screens and you need processing power to push all of those pixels to boot.
 
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Yeah, pretty much costs. Screen resolution seems to not be enough of an issue for most consumers, so companies are content to push 1366x768 screens. It could simply be marketing too with the HD label being used for those screens for checklist purposes. Wide screen panels are cheaper to manufacture with wider-than-current screens supposedly being even cheaper. I don't think those could be utilized in laptop screens.
 
I couldn't have said it better myself. I don't mind the 1366x768 for small netbook screens of like 10-12" but getting above that to ~14-15" laptops I think it should be better to have 1600x900 15-17" should have 1600x900-1920x1080 :)

With that said... I saw my first SB notebook a day ago at the local best buy. Made by Samsung. I don't see it listed on their website just yet but I recall the price being around $1199.
 
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/26/maingear-throws-sandy-bridge-gtx-485m-into-ex-l-15-laptop/
engadget said:
Here's hoping you don't mind having your existing laptop made antiquated by this one. Just months after Maingear introduced its Clutch-15 and Alt-15 machines, along comes yet another 15.6-incher... and this one's claiming to be the world's fastest in its category. The eX-L 15 packs a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution (with glossy or matte options!), a variety of new Sandy Bridge chips (with the Core i7 2920XM capping things off), NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460M (1.5GB) / GTX 485M (2GB), up to 16GB of DDR3-1333 memory, a 2x Blu-ray reader, HDMI / DVI outputs, gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports and a pair of USB 2.0 sockets to round things off. The starting tag of $1,579 certainly isn't easy to swallow, but where else are you getting a powerhouse like this with a Full HD matte display? Exactly.
Click to expand...

http://www.maingear.com/

Older news:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/25/system-76-brings-sandy-bridge-to-ubuntu-with-gazelle-and-serval/
System 76 has been doing open source right for quite some time now, and it's just unleashed what it claims is the "most powerfull Ubuntu laptop in the world" -- so powerful it needs that extra L. It's the Serval Professional, offering your choice of Intel Core i7 processors ranging from the 2GHz 2630QM to the 2.5GHz 2920XM. Graphics are handled by a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M GPU that pumps 1080p worth of pixel dust to a 15.6-inch, LED-backlit display. Prices for that machine start at $1,379 but you're only a few mouse clicks away from three times that. On the slightly lower-end scale is the Gazelle Professional, with a more limited range of processors and graphics options, but the same 15.6-inch display and a price that starts at $1,239. Both come with any operating system you like -- so long as it's Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat.
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http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=114
 
I'm holding out hope that I can finally get an upgrade.

A price premium won't bother me, as long as it's not a $1000 price premium like on the Viao Z. 1440x900 (well, probably 1600x900 given the move to 16:9) or better, 14inches or under, a dedicated GPU that would be a noticeable upgrade from my 3+ year old NVS135m, and the option of decent battery life. I don't mind if I have to give up an optical bay or buy an extended battery for more--but none of this integrated, small battery garbage.

It doesn't seem like that much to ask, but it apparently is. Had HP had kept the Radiance screen as an option, I probably would have moved to the Envy 14 a while ago, but when it just popped back up recently, I figured we're too close to SB to dump that much on older tech.
 
I'm waiting for the dual-core SB notebooks. Quads in a notebook are still a little ridiculous to me.
 
Wenglish said:
I'm holding out hope that I can finally get an upgrade.

A price premium won't bother me, as long as it's not a $1000 price premium like on the Viao Z. 1440x900 (well, probably 1600x900 given the move to 16:9) or better, 14inches or under, a dedicated GPU that would be a noticeable upgrade from my 3+ year old NVS135m, and the option of decent battery life. I don't mind if I have to give up an optical bay or buy an extended battery for more--but none of this integrated, small battery garbage.

It doesn't seem like that much to ask, but it apparently is. Had HP had kept the Radiance screen as an option, I probably would have moved to the Envy 14 a while ago, but when it just popped back up recently, I figured we're too close to SB to dump that much on older tech.
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My thoughts EXACTLY!

I thought that the envy14 while being a great deal didn't quite do the trick for me in some areas. I'm hoping that a good manufacturer makes a quality laptop with a 13-14" screen and native rez of 1600x900 along with great battery life for under $1k. I mean how hard is that?


Peteman100 said:
I'm waiting for the dual-core SB notebooks. Quads in a notebook are still a little ridiculous to me.
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Ridiculous is this forums middle name :p
That said I must agree with you on this. A good dual core with HT is really all I will need for a laptop :)
 
Will there be any SB laptops around the $500 mark? Im looking for a laptop for college and trying to decide if I should just wait a couple months.
 
I'm not sure there will be any SB laptops priced below $600... At least not yet. If anything I see laptop makers crunching out good deals on older CPU models very soon.

I think the SB based notebooks will be something like $699-799* to start out with.

*please note this is only a guess and NOT fact, at least AFAIK.
 
Alright, now that the notebooks are coming back out with SB I figured that a bump is in order :cool:
 
I am holding out and making due with my Inspiron 9300 till I can get a laptop with the following for under $2k, 1.5k would be better.

Win 7 Home
i7 Sandy Bridge +2.0ghz quad core
Ati 6xxx or nVidia 5xx gaming level graphics card with 1gb+ non shared ram, with i7 on-chip GPU on demand/user customizable profile switching.
8gb+ of 1333 DDR3 ram
128gb SSD(os) and +500gb HD(storage)
15" LED+ 1920x1200 resolution NON-glossy screen
4+ hr battery life with everything on and running hard
Backlit keyboard(lid open only) with media buttons and power button accessible with lid closed when used as desktop/htpc on external monitor.
Large multi touch trackpad with physical buttons
Slot load BR combo drive
SDHC/XC 5 in 1 reader
802.11a/b/g/n(5ghz) multi wireless and latest revision bluetooth
4x USB 3.0, high amp for external drives and phone charging required
1x ESATA 6gb/USB 3.0 combo, 1x HDMI, 1x dsub, 1x nic, 2x headphone, 1x mic, All must be left side or back, nothing should be on the right side other then Combo drive and SD slot, as they get in the way of the mouse.
 
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I think that screen size is kept mostly because of the portability. Not all users who demand more powerful laptop have the need to have it big(or having a bigger resolution) and implementing full HD to 15 inch screen is still kinda bad idea because everything on it is so small. It seems that HP is more likely to be mainstream laptop when prices drop abit.
 
Will these have a SATA 6gbps internal hdd interface? That would be majorly sick to drop a new Intel/OCZ Vertex 3 into a Latitude 64x0
 
Nanan said:
I am holding out and making due with my Inspiron 9300 till I can get a laptop with the following for under $2k, 1.5k would be better.

Win 7 Home
i7 Sandy Bridge +2.0ghz quad core
Ati 6xxx or nVidia 5xx gaming level graphics card with 1gb+ non shared ram, with i7 on-chip GPU on demand/user customizable profile switching.
8gb+ of 1333 DDR3 ram
128gb SSD(os) and +500gb HD(storage)
15" LED+ 1920x1200 resolution NON-glossy screen
4+ hr battery life with everything on and running hard
Backlit keyboard(lid open only) with media buttons and power button accessible with lid closed when used as desktop/htpc on external monitor.
Large multi touch trackpad with physical buttons
Slot load BR combo drive
SDHC/XC 5 in 1 reader
802.11a/b/g/n(5ghz) multi wireless and latest revision bluetooth
4x USB 3.0, high amp for external drives and phone charging required
1x ESATA 6gb/USB 3.0 combo, 1x HDMI, 1x dsub, 1x nic, 2x headphone, 1x mic, All must be left side or back, nothing should be on the right side other then Combo drive and SD slot, as they get in the way of the mouse.
Click to expand...

I don't know that you'll be able to meet all of those requirements.1920x1080 would be a more reasonable requirement for a 15" lappy for one..
 
Nanan said:
I am holding out and making due with my Inspiron 9300 till I can get a laptop with the following for under $2k, 1.5k would be better.

Win 7 Home
i7 Sandy Bridge +2.0ghz quad core
Ati 6xxx or nVidia 5xx gaming level graphics card with 1gb+ non shared ram, with i7 on-chip GPU on demand/user customizable profile switching.
8gb+ of 1333 DDR3 ram
128gb SSD(os) and +500gb HD(storage)
15" LED+ 1920x1200 resolution NON-glossy screen
4+ hr battery life with everything on and running hard
Backlit keyboard(lid open only) with media buttons and power button accessible with lid closed when used as desktop/htpc on external monitor.
Large multi touch trackpad with physical buttons
Slot load BR combo drive
SDHC/XC 5 in 1 reader
802.11a/b/g/n(5ghz) multi wireless and latest revision bluetooth
4x USB 3.0, high amp for external drives and phone charging required
1x ESATA 6gb/USB 3.0 combo, 1x HDMI, 1x dsub, 1x nic, 2x headphone, 1x mic, All must be left side or back, nothing should be on the right side other then Combo drive and SD slot, as they get in the way of the mouse.
Click to expand...
I think alot of that is mostly doable. The screen is the only thing that you might ave a problem with finding. I think that the 1920x1200 non glossy screen will only be found on a prosumer class of laptop, something like a HP Probook or Dell Precision. Overall it sounds like something I'm looking for with a bit more umph... a bit more [H] if you will :D


Acer_Sheep said:
I think that screen size is kept mostly because of the portability. Not all users who demand more powerful laptop have the need to have it big(or having a bigger resolution) and implementing full HD to 15 inch screen is still kinda bad idea because everything on it is so small. It seems that HP is more likely to be mainstream laptop when prices drop abit.
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With Windows7 as the OS screen resolution/size doesn't matter as much since you can easily adjust text size to work better for your eyes via the control panel.
I for one am also looking for a 1080p display on a 15" notebook simply for the vast improvement in screen real estate over the standard issue 1366x768 that's on most notebooks now.
 
FlipBack said:
I don't know that you'll be able to meet all of those requirements.1920x1080 would be a more reasonable requirement for a 15" lappy for one..
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I find it funny that nearly 10 years ago 15" laptops with 1600x1200 resolution were quite common. Today, you can't find anything like that.
 
I will say that the 15-inch MacBook Pro is a surprisingly tempting option in that kind of price range.

It's definitely lacking the expansion and the 128GB SSD / Blu-ray, but think about it: if someone had told you a year ago that you could get a quad Core i7 notebook under an inch thick and with seven hours of real battery life, no matter the price, you'd think they were pulling a fast one.

As a disclaimer: I do think Apple skimped a bit on the GPU and should've had a 6500M or 6600M series graphics core in the base 15-inch MBP. I just think it's impressive to have an actually portable notebook with that kind of performance. I'm not a big fan of notebooks that give you a lot of performance for the cash but die after two or three hours, weigh seven pounds or are as chunky as my Oxford Shakespeare collection.
 
deleted link in this post to add link to first post.
 
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I just don't get it. I have been complaining for a long time now about this crappy 1366x768 WXGA HD resolution trend. I don't know why manufacturers are sticking with that, even for 17" laptops these days.

The worst part is that we don't get a choice anymore. Like with the HP Envy 14. Back in the days, there used to be an option for a better, high-res display. But they're gone. No word on when they will be back. HP may be pushing Sandy Bridge and stuff, but display technology is going in the wrong direction.

Why can't they just give us the option to have something better? I think lots of people wouldn't mind paying a little more for that. And I would have bought a new laptop weeks ago...
 
/rant/, that spells out my feelings exactly!

Heck ten years ago you could choose a 1200x1600 display on a 14-15" notebook. Dot pitch wise that would likely be very similar to a 15" 1920x1080 screen. Consumers had the same eyesight then when they choose to buy the laptops as they do now. I'm sure they wouldn't mind having a full HD or a +full HD screen (1920x1200) on more of their laptops. At the very least a 1600x900 screen on a 14" notebook would be ideal!
 
The fail of this generation will be 16:9's whoever thought up this for a work computer should be shot. More scrolling in things that matter, less usable space. Even tying right now on my x200t most web pages have large unused margins, wider makes it even worse.

For gaming machines I guess it would be cool but I'd prefer we went back to 4:3 on laptops mainly used for work. The trigonometry is not that difficult for same diagonal size you get about 15% more screen with 4:3 as opposed to 16:9.
 
Yes I must agree. For work 4:3 is best. but having 16:10 is tolerable IMHO. but now that every pc maker is jumping on the 16x9 bandwagon it's begining to get to me too,
 
/rant/ said:
Why can't they just give us the option to have something better? I think lots of people wouldn't mind paying a little more for that. And I would have bought a new laptop weeks ago...
Click to expand...

I know some of the sony vaio (EB and the new C series with 2nd gen cpu) have a upgrade option available for an extra 50-100 dollars.
 
Looks like you can now order the T520's from lenovo. I'm not 100% sure if it's a bug or not but it looks like when a new quad core i7 CPU is selected it drops the price about $300!
 
pwrusr said:
Looks like you can now order the T520's from lenovo. I'm not 100% sure if it's a bug or not but it looks like when a new quad core i7 CPU is selected it drops the price about $300!
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Well, if that isn't a bug, what is? :eek:
 
ZoNe said:
The fail of this generation will be 16:9's whoever thought up this for a work computer should be shot. More scrolling in things that matter, less usable space. Even tying right now on my x200t most web pages have large unused margins, wider makes it even worse.

For gaming machines I guess it would be cool but I'd prefer we went back to 4:3 on laptops mainly used for work. The trigonometry is not that difficult for same diagonal size you get about 15% more screen with 4:3 as opposed to 16:9.
Click to expand...

I personally like 16:10 best overall. Good for gaming and movies, as well as my schoolwork. I like being able to view 2 things side by side easily, even if it does mean a bit more scrolling.
 
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