Though laptops without optical drives have become more and more common, a 14-inch laptop is quite large to go that route. But we’re impressed with the 14z’s benchmarks, mostly due to Nvidia’s 9400M graphics chip—it outperformed other machines in its class at almost every turn, only failing at “greenness,” as it’s not particularly energy-efficient. But battery life was excellent at 5.5 hours, it’s nicely thin and light (only 2cm and 2kg) and the price is certainly appealing: Best Buy is selling a model for $US750 with 3GB RAM, a 320GB HDD, 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo, and HDMI-out, which is great for such a lithe machine. Seems like it’s worth your time if you’re looking for a cheap optical drive-less Windows machine for travelling. [Laptop Mag]

Of course, it could just be a big ol’ splotch of splotchiness, but it would fall in line with moving everything to a semi-consistent design, and would be incredibly helpful with more involved multitouch input.

And here’s the top, all up close—notice there’s no iSight camera. This is all most likely reading way too much into nothing, but the whole thing is odd—where did they get the picture and why are they running it? If you know something, let us know. [T-Systems via Engadget]

As we have yet to see an active screen shot from the MSI Wind we expect that it is still at prototype stage, but that has not stopped MSI churning out blue, silver and pink iterations. The styling is certainly a step up from the Eee PC, but perhaps that Eee body rework we heard about earlier will throw off the new competition. The Wind is expected to be priced between €299 (US$458) – €699 (US$1072), depending on options chosen. All in all, the sizable keyboard, price point and decent display size have our attention for sure. There is no word on a release date as yet, but we’ll keep you posted. [PC World Italia via Notebook Italia]

The idea is that you can do more detailed work with your information using the laptop, but access that shared info using your handset while on the go. While there are currently plenty of ways to sync info between mobile devices and computers, the Couple-IT promises a more thorough coupling using twin SIMs and software. Perhaps a concept like this might be able to hold the fort while we wait for handsets to become more robust convergent devices. [Alloy via 3g via Core 77]

Not only that, the initial setup screen—similar to the part where you enter in your time zone and make a user in Windows on first startup—was not carefully thought through. Why? Because there’s no way to advance past a time zone screen; at least unless you know the crazy Linux alt+click to drag the window UP and reveal that there is a button to go to the next screen. Way to go Everex. Expect tons of returns before the system is even setup. Sounds like a disappointment so far. We’ll see what Laptopmag has to say later. [Laptopmag and Laptopmag]

Laptop has a mini-review done, and here’s what they find. Once it’s running, the web surfing is speedy, the desktop is clean, but the keyboard, touchpad, boot times, Wi-Fi setup, and resolution suck. Also that “window doesn’t fit inside the screen” problem they ran into during setup still occurs in actual use, which is pretty awful. The company says they had the wrong OS install, which might fix things in the final retail version. All in all, it looks like the Eee is a better bet for your US$399. [Laptopmag]

Hotness. [benheck]

Amusingly enough, the device comes in four different varieties: The Planet Rambler backpack, The Planet Business shoulder bag, The Collapsible compact carry bag, and The Junior for small DVD players (and possibly UMPCs). Don’t get me wrong, Its not that they are completely ridiculous —in fact, LapDomes could be quite handy. It just looks completely ridiculous. But hey, at least it is better than this thing. Available for $US24.95 to US$79.95. [Product Page via Geeksugar]