With a 17.3-inch (1600×900) display, the 3kg system starts with a 2.1GHz Dual Core T4300, DVD burner, 320GB HDD, 4GB RAM, 512MB Radeon 4570 and a footprint that can support a slew of ports — two USBs, one USB/eSATA, HDMI, Display Port, VGA and Firewire.

But you can scale the power all the way up to an i7.

The multitouch display (we’re looking for confirmation on whether or not it’s capacitive tech) supports the pre-installed Windows 7 along with Dell’s own touch software.

The Studio 17 Touch is on sale now to ship this December. [Dell via Electronista]

Should we consider $US500 a good deal?

Yes and no. The formfactor is thin and quite small — 3cm thick and just 1.45kg. That’s great. It’s a big-screen netbook… which I guess is a small laptop.

I mean, I’m not arguing that this is probably the most promising netbook of all time. But remember when we were getting Core 2 Duo computers like this from Dell/HP/etc for the same price? Yeah, they were chunky machines. But what happened to those computers? Where did they go?

I know I’m not hallucinating here.

Yes, the 1201N looks like a very cool little laptop, and I’m pumped to use an Eee that can handle HD video on a beautiful screen and through tempting HDMI-out. I’m not really upset about the Eee itself. I’m upset that the budget, jack-of-all trades laptop has virtually died as we’ve seen this artificial performance cap put on the budget laptop market. Then again, maybe Ions have enough power that none of us will mourn the loss of cheaper, fatter Core 2 Duos. When reviews hit and the dust settles, we’ll know for sure.

Until then, read Laptop’s impressions: [Laptop via Netbook Choice via Engadget]

The X100E looks to be a substantial physical redesign from Lenovo, who typically falls so thoroughly on the function side of the form vs function debate that they may not even be aware there is another side. The new chiclet (or “island”) keyboard looks great, much less busy than previous ThinkPad layouts, and the overall design seems to have calmed down significantly. Hell, it’ll even be available in colours. Colours! From Lenovo! (Looks like red, white and black are the extent of the palette, but still).

It should be packing a low-power AMD Athon “Neo” processor, 4GB of memory, up to 500GB of hard drive storage, and boast a 5.1-hour battery life while weighing less than 1.4kg. But the most enticing part has to be the price: Previous ThinkPads have been extremely pricey, often even more than equivalent Macs, yet the X100E is rumoured to come in at $US500 to start. No info quite yet on a release date, but we’ll keep you updated. [Ubergizmo]

The Asus G51J 3D is the first laptop to feature NVIDIA’s new 3D vision technology, and it takes advantage of a high performance, 15.6-inch 120Hz LCD that, when coupled with shutter glasses (yup, you still need glasses) garnered these praises from Laptop:

…unlike the TriDef technology that powers Acer’s 3D laptop, titles optimised for 3D vision give you a great sense of depth without negatively affecting gameplay. On first person shooters, for example, we found it difficult to aim when using the Acer 5738DG. On the Asus G51J 3D, you don’t make any compromises in terms of control or accuracy.

For the 3D tech, you’ll take a resolution hit (there’s no 3D 1080P display option) and pay a $US200 premium, making the full gaming $US1700.

Keep in mind that Acer’s system, while utilising only rudimentary polarised glasses 3D, costs under $US800. [Laptop Mag]

Let’s hope this isn’t another disappointing and unholy union of a smartphone and a netbook. There aren’t many details available about the model as Qualcomm intends to truly show it off at CES 2010, but they do explain that the Snapdragon chip will result in “lower price and longer battery life than what netbooks offer”.[PC World via Electronista]

The key feature about Arrandale, versus current Core i5/i7 processors, is that it’s manufactured using a 32nm process, meaning it’ll be less power hungry. Remember the jump to the Penryn Core 2 chips a couple of years ago? Same speeds, better efficiency? Like that. The three coming out in the first half of 2010 are the Core i7-640UM (1.2GHz), Core i7-620UM (1.06GHz) and Core i5-520UM, all for “ultra thin” laptops.

We’ll also see some 32nm chips for the desktop, codenamed Clarksdale, announced in January. Mmm, chips. [Digitimes]

It varies from netbook to netbook — Toshiba’s NB205 withstood Windows 7’s power greediness better than HP’s Mini 311. It’s somewhat expected though, with features like the fancier Aero user interface to name one probable cause. Personally, I’ll take Windows 7 and the dead battery. [Laptop]

AU: We’re still waiting on a local release date… _-EH

Price

$US300 with two-year AT&T contract, $US600 à la carte

Verdict

Nokia has built a great netbook, but they’ve done nothing to redefine the genre. Their 10-inch Booklet 3G has your typical 1.6GHz Atom, 120GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM. Running Windows 7, that means the performance is just passable. I’d be this close to pounding my head against the wall when a program would begin installing or a video would load.

That’s typical.

What’s ever so less typical is the sharp, 1.3kg unibody-esque construction (complete with sweet MacBook-like under-hatch battery and a hinge that bends nearly 180 degrees), HDMI output (not that you can really playback HD videos smoothly on an Atom) and of course, solid integrated 3G and integrated GPS (though Nokia’s bundled Ovi software apparently requires a phone or PC to activate, and after 30 minutes of fiddling I honestly gave up on mapping.)

The battery life is impressive, too. In non-stop 3G browsing and app-running with the screen at 80 per cent brightness, the machine’s svelte 16-cell battery ran for a bit over six hours and 30 minutes. That was a strenuous test, and dimming the screen and/or browsing through Wi-Fi should truly be enough to get you through the workday sans-recharge. (For instance, CrunchGear’s John Biggs reported a pretty remarkable 10 hours of movie playback.)

But alas, even for a nice netbook, the Booklet’s price is a bit too opulent for what you’re really getting: an ever-so gussied up version of the same machine you could buy from Acer, Asus, HP, etc, for half the price (before subsidies). Meanwhile, there are plenty of ULV systems in the $US700 range with bigger screens, better performance and portable-minded design (of course, they’ll mostly require 3G dongles).

Give me some rhinestones and a bit more power, then we’ll talk. Or just hand me back my iPhone.

Quality build

Long battery life

Plastic monitor back makes whole thing feel cheaper

It’s still a $US600 netbook

If you’re interested, you better hurry – in typical Zazz style, it’s today only…

[Zazz]

The deal is available from some time next week through to the 10th of January next year, while stocks last – and there are 5000 available…

Does this make you want to grab a Regza?

[Toshiba]