Category: Laptops

Lenovo ThinkPad X390

Posted by – March 14, 2019

Lenovo Thinkpad X390 is a 13.3″ Open Rich Display business laptop with a 12″ footprint, the follow on to the long lasting Lenovo X200 series, with 18 hour battery can be charged to 80 percent capacity in 60 minutes, up to 13.3″ FHD (touch & non-touch), IPS, HD, 400-nit touchscreen with PrivacyGuard. Lenovo Thinkpad x390 features up to 8th Gen Intel Core i7 with vPro, up to 1TB fast PCIe SSD storage, up to 32 GB 2400 MHz soldered DDR4 RAM. Lenovo Thinkpad x390 offers up to 32gb of ram and 1tb ssd. The Lenovo Thinkpad x390 features an optional LTE modem. Prices start from $1300 USD. PrivacyGuard, PrivacyAlert, ThinkShutter, dual far-field microphones and Dolby Audio Premium, global LTE capability, 1.22kg weight. 12 military-grade requirements and more than 200 quality checks, USB-C side mechanical docking station, optional Hybrid IR (infrared) camera, optional touch fingerprint reader.

Lenovo ThinkPad X390 Yoga

Posted by – March 14, 2019

ThinkPad X390 Yoga is a 13.3″ FHD (IPS, 300-nit, anti-reflective, anti-smudge) 2-in-1 laptop for business with integrated ThinkPad Pen Pro, enhanced security, long 14.5 hours battery with fast 60min charge to 80 percent capacity, dual far-field microphones, optional global LTE-A WWAN capability, and more. Connects to ThinkPad Pro Dock via USB-C side mechanical docking, optional Hybrid IR (infrared) camera and touch fingerprint reader to securely log in with Windows Hello, ThinkShutter physical camera cover. Runs on 8th Gen Intel Core processors with Intel UHD 620 GPU, with fast PCIe Up to 1TB SSD storage, Up to 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4, enhanced audio with Dolby Audio Premium. 2.93 lbs (1.32Kg) weight.

Huawei MateBook 14, 1.49 kg, 15.9 mm

Posted by – March 10, 2019

At about $500 cheaper than the Huawei MateBook X Pro New with the same 8th generation Intel core processor, 2 GB GDDR5 Nvidia MX250 GPU performance, 1.49 kg, 15.9 mm thick, comes with 90% screen-to-body ratio and wide 3:2 aspect ratio 2160×1440 display with 100% sRGB and Huawei Share OneHop.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Dex on Lapdock, faster, smoother, doesn’t take over phone display

Posted by – March 3, 2019

The new Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+/S10e/Fold enables the fastes PC Mode from a phone yet, here tested on upcoming http://lapdock.net project (check back for more videos on Lapdock and when it might be available for purchase). Galaxy S10 is powered by the extremely fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. There even is a 5G version to be available.

OXI on Gemini PDA, Cosmo Communicator, PC Mode UI with Windows apps on Android on external display

Posted by – February 27, 2019

At MWC 2019, Planet Computers CEO Dr Janko Mrsic-Flogel introduces Auxens who has ported OXI OS to the Gemini PDA and same will be available on the upcoming Cosmo Communicator. While the potential for Displayport support on the Cosmo Communicator is maybe yet still to be confirmed, as the Cosmo will start shipping to their Indiegogo backers in June.

USB-IF Standards Group promotes Lapdock and iPad USB Type-C Power Delivery and Display

Posted by – February 21, 2019

USB-IF Standards Group shows USB Type C enabling the HP Lapdock to use a phone to power productivity on a Lapdock display. And they also show the Latest iPad that uses USB Type C that takes advantage of charging via Type C and Display output.

OXI on Lapdock, runs Windows 10 apps in Android

Posted by – January 13, 2019

Laurent Alaguero of Auxens shows their latest version of OXI the Desktop productivity user interface for Android phone’s external displays, such as here demonstrating running on the BQ Aquaris X2 Pro which has Displayport USB Type-C support. Here demonstrating OXI running with the Lapdock launched on crowdfunding on Indiegogo starting at $100. OXI can bring in and run Windows 10 apps in resizable Windows inside of this Android user interface, no need to boot all the way into a Windows 10 remote desktop just pulling in the needed Windows apps over the Internet, using virtualization, streaming, with servers that can nearby and served through Enterprise’s existing Windows server infrastructure. The Windows 10 apps can feel like they are running locally on Android with minimal lag. Auxens is now reaching out to Smartphone manufacturers to try to pre-install OXI on shipping phones with Displayport USB Type-C support. Hopefully they can integrate by getting some API access with http://shadow.tech cloud PC service and hopefully OXI comes with the Cosmo Communicator that is being developed and which I filmed here

Colorii $4 USB-C to 4K HDMI adapter, Lapdock at CES 2019


Colorii CH1 is the world’s smallest USB Type C to 4K 30Hz HDMI adapter, it works with phone or laptop. Colorii also shows USB 3.0 to VGA adapter, USB 3.0 to HDMI/VGA dual display adapter, USB 3.0 to HDMI/DVI adapter and more at Colorii’s CES 2019 booth. Colorii also shows the Lapdock project which is now as a working sample crowdfunding starting at $100 at http://igg.me/at/lapdock

Distributors can contact Colorii for distributor prices here:
Gennie Peng, Sales Manager
sales@colorii.cc
Mobile: +8615013777080 (Wechat/Whatsapp)
http://colorii.cc

Cosmo Communicator display shown at CES 2019

Posted by – January 8, 2019

Planet Computers are showing their latest prototype of the Cosmo Communicator now crowdfunding for $569 on Indiegogo here which is an upgrade of their very successful Gemini PDA which I used as my main phone for the past 9 months and you can see some videos I filmed about it here the Cosmo Communicator upgraded the CPU to MediaTek P70, Memory, the keyboard gets backlit, an external OLED display is added to be able to use the phone without having to open it, a fingerprint reader is added that is a combo with being a selection button, an external high quality 24 megapixel camera is now also default. The new design also allows for better antennas for a stronger LTE signal and possibly also for a stronger Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support too.

$100 Lapdock on Indiegogo

Posted by – December 23, 2018

Now crowdfunding the Lapdock project on Indiegogo at http://igg.me/at/lapdock starting at $100. The future of Laptops will not have a powerful CPU in them but will be modular when you buy them, they can be powered by your phone, or you can buy a small compact ARM Powered internal or external Type-C Stick to run them off of. Laptops are all about getting a great keyboard, mouse and display, but the CPU, Memory, Connectivity, those things can be swapped according to progress in the industry. I will be posting updates on this project at http://Lapdock.net and on the Updates tab at http://igg.me/at/lapdock if this project gets funded by at least $100 thousand, then the suppliers in Shenzhen China will be able to deliver the Lapdock at this price. If Lapdocks can become a larger success with a lot of demand then prices will be able to reach sub-$100 for high quality components, high quality keyboard, mouse pad, display and batteries also that last at least 20 hours on a charge. With a lot of support, this concept will also bring high performance and affordable USB Type-C Sticks to run all sorts of productivity user interfaces based on Android (such as the OXI UI) or Linux OSes or even Microsoft can bring Windows support to the Lapdock. This form factor could also bring the developers who use development boards closer to the mass market consumers, as all work done around the development boards of the future (very compact and affordable USB Type-C Sticks) will directly be able to impact also how end consumers can use devices for actual real work and productivity. The Lapdock will also move Smartphone market more towards their “PC Mode” as Samsung and Huawei already support each their PC Modes, and that is great because Samsung and Huawei are the two biggest Smartphone manufacturers in the world, yet most consumers don’t even know that the PC Mode is there. With Lapdocks, the performance of latest 7nm ARM Processors in phones will be tuned further for multi-window, multi-tasking and for running more advanced productivity apps on Android. 2019 will hopefully be the year where ARM Powered productivity finally reaches mass adoption and the mass market and I think that the Lapdock will be at the center point of that major electronics industry upgrade.

Chromium OS on Snapdragon 845


At Linaro Connect Vancouver 2018, some engineers are showing the Open Source Chromium OS running on the 10nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. With some talk on the status of using Freedreno for hardware accelerated GPU support in that Chromium OS demo. Over the past few months this solution has been upstreamed into the mainline kernel, display driver, audio driver, wifi driver, all the connectivity and periferal storage drivers, all to make Chromium OS work on that chipset. Running the 4.18 kernel with very few additional patches, it has hardware accelerated video playback using the open source freedreno driver. This could be a clue towards what I think could be an ultimate ARM Powered Laptop, a Snapdragon 845 Powered Chromebook would be so awesome, with Gigabit LTE, with good ARM single thread and multi-thread performance, with smooth Android and Linux apps supported, perhaps even it would be nice if Microsoft could contribute full x86 and ARM compiled Windows 10 apps support directly on this device.

Martin Riddiford interview, designer of Psion, Gemini PDA, Cosmo Communicator

Posted by – November 6, 2018

Martin Riddiford talks about the Psion, which he designed in the 90ies it was a ground-breaking PDA design with a full mechanical qwerty keyboard. Trying to combine laptop functions in a pocketable size. In partnership with Planet Computers, Martin Riddiford is happy to have been able to bring back the full keyboard design in with Android on the Gemini PDA and now into the upcoming Cosmo Communicator design that is now being crowdfunded for $549 on https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cosmo-communicator

$549 Cosmo Communicator interview, now on Indiegogo

Posted by – November 6, 2018

Planet Computers launches the Cosmo Communicator for $549 for early backers at Indiegogo, powered by MediaTek P70 Octa-core quad ARM Cortex-A73, quad ARM Cortex-A53 with Mali-G72 MP3 GPU, on TSMC 12nm FinFET. It comes with WorldMode LTE dual-SIM (one is likely eSIM) support. Strong antenna with good signal, and now it also comes with a second 2″ touchscreen display, a toggle switch with fingerprint reader, a 24 megapixel high quality front facing camera with flash, and a backlit keyboard. The CPU is thus a performance upgrade over Gemini PDA, it also comes with 6GB RAM, 128GB Flash, MicroSD card slot, headphone jack, dual Type-C ports, dual speakers and microphones and a 4220mAh battery. Planet Computers shipped over 9500 Gemini PDAs to their backers over the past several months which I filmed here previously I have been using Gemini PDA as my main phone over the past 7 months and it has been an awesome experience. The backlight keyboard, fingerprint authentication, high quality back facing camera, improved phone calls support, better signal reception with a stronger processor, all these things are very welcome in their new flagship. Planet Computers intends to continue selling both Gemini PDA and Osmo Communicator as two in their range of devices available for 2019, with continued support and software updates coming on both. In this video they show a working Android 8.0.1 firmware on Gemini PDA and they are talking about Project Trebble, Android 9, new Sailfish releases to be supported, hopefully hardware accelerated improved Debian and other Linux distributions also to be supported throughout. Within less than a day, they have already reached more than 200% funding on crowdfunding here on Indiegogo with shipments scheduled for May 2019, as they optimize and develop everything, impressive working samples are going to be shown in the months to come.

$150 KONKA Laptop, $40 Tablet, $300 Dancing Robot, $90 Smartphone


$150 http://www.konka.com.hk Kogan Ultra Slim Pro laptop. 13.3-inch, matte screen, 2560 x 1440, non-touchscreen IPS LCD; 900MHz-2.2GHz Intel M3-6Y30 processor; 8GB RAM; 256GB SSD; Intel HD Graphics 515; 802.11AC WiFi; 37.1Wh battery; 1.15KG. https://ift.tt/2PYDJkM $40 Tablets MQWG101. With Screen size 9:7”(4:3) Resolution 1024*768, MTK8392 Quard Core A7 1.7Ghz,RAM 512MB ROM8GB,OS Andriod 4.4 with USB, Battery 4000Mah. $300 Dancing robot. Arm featuring 7-DOF + 1-DOF interchangeable gripper hand including tools, 2-DOF torso, 2-DOF head equipped with 3D camera and 5MP 2D camera, 2-DOF base for horizontal and vertical movement, high-performance AI embedded CPU/CGU, 802.11 ac WiFi + Bluetooth, 2.5 kg payload, Aeolus ROS operating system. $40 Konka AR magic guns real mobile games augmented reality smart children’s toy. Size 311*162*46, Battery 2 section 1.5V AAA bettary OS 4.4. https://ift.tt/2D1QYPa $40Android SmartWatches . 2.5 D curved surface KONKA Smartwatch OLED Screen 0.96 display, 60 days Standby IP68 50m Waterproof Swimming Sport Activity Tracker Smart Watch for Android 4.4 IOS.$90 KONKA 711 Fingerprint 4G Smart phone. CPU: MT6737T 1.45GHz, Display: 5.5″ In-Cell FHD Screen, Front camera: 8.0MP, Rear camera: 13.0MP, RAM: 3GB, ROM: 32GB, OS: Android 7.0, Battery:3000mAh.

https://youtu.be/Rvfi0gtanQg

System76 wants to make a high-end ARM Laptop and Desktop

Posted by – September 24, 2018

System76 is a computer manufacturer based in Denver Colorado specializing in laptops, desktops and servers running Linux. System76 talks about their upcoming efforts to move manufacturing in-house, and what that may mean for the future of the ARM Powered Linux Laptop and Desktop.

Analogix 10Gbit/s ANX7440 Re-timer USB Type-C DisplayPort for PC Mode phones, laptops, monitors

Posted by – June 27, 2018

Analogix shows their latest ANX7440 solution for 8.1Gbit/s DisplayPort 1.4 for video output and 10Gbit/s USB3 Gen2 data transfer. Now ready for mass production, its ANX74xx family of USB-C re-timer solutions are for laptops, 2-in-1 convertible laptops, desktop PCs, monitors, and USB-C accessories, the Analogix ANX7440 is the first protocol aware re-timing mux bridging DisplayPort and USB 3.1 interfaces for ARM Powered Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Windows 10 laptops like the HP Envy x2, Intel, AMD, and Nvidia CPUs/GPUs to the USB-C connector, is the first USB-C re-timer to pass interoperability at USB-IF and VESA plug-test. They are pure USB-C re-timers using Separate Reference Clock Independent of SSC (SRIS) and Bit-Level Re-timer (BLR) architectures, guaranteeing a loss compensation to recover up to 23dB channel loss for USB 3.1 Gen2 10 Gbps; They are fully compliant to the latest USB 3.2 Appendix E requirements supporting 4-re-timer connectivity, with seamless daisy-chaining of four re-timers, meeting the USB 3.2 CTS requirements; They are complete DisplayPort re-timers with Link Training Tunable PHY Repeater (LTTPR) mode and transparent mode with AUX snooper, guaranteeing a loss compensation to recover up to 20dB channel loss for DisplayPort HBR3 8.1 Gbps.

The ANX74xx product family includes:

ANX7440 – integrated 10 Gbps re-timer and USB-C switch for DisplayPort over USB-C ports;
ANX7430 – integrated 10 Gbps re-timer and USB-C switch for USB 3.1 Gen2 USB-C ports;
ANX7490 – integrated 10 Gbps re-timer for USB 3.1 Gen2 USB Type-A, Type-B, and USB Type-C ports;
ANX7496 – integrated 8.1 Gbps DisplayPort re-timer for mini-DP, standard DisplayPort, and USB-C ports.

Qualcomm Press Conference at Computex 2018

Posted by – June 6, 2018

Qualcomm launches the Snapdragon 850 for Windows 10, with representatives of Microsoft and Samsung participating in the keynote too. You can see my extensive video interview about Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 for Windows 10 Laptops here.

Nvidia Press Conference at Computex 2018


Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of Nvidia, Announces Jetson Xavier which I have filmed a separate interview about here, he does not launch the rumored GTX2080 or GTX1180 next-gen graphics cards yet, provides update on Max-Q thinner full GPU gaming laptops, talks DGX-2 supercomputer “The World’s Largest GPU” (an update on the DGX which I filmed here) with 2 petaflops of performance in one node, 512GB frame buffer which has set 5 world records: fastest single chip, fastest single node, fastest at scale, fastest inference, and highest inference throughput.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 for Windows 10 Laptops

Posted by – June 5, 2018

35% performance upgrade compared with Snapdragon 835 Windows 10 Laptops such as the Asus Novago which I filmed here features Qualcomm Kyro 385 which is their customized Octa-core quad ARM Cortex-A75 and quad ARM Cortex-A55, going up to 2.95GHz with less throttling. Samsung announces that they will be making Windows 10 on Snapdragon 850 device. Other manufacturing partners Asus, HP and Lenovo are also going to release new devices featuring this chipset. The Snapdragon 850 features 1.2Gbit/s LTE using the X20 modem on SoC (20% faster than 835), fast Wi-Fi, 3x faster AI performance than 835, up to 25 hours of continuous usage. Qualcomm Aqstic enables virtual surround sound, native DSD support, aptX HD as well as 4K capture (possibly up to 4K video-conferencing possible). Microsoft has published this session video from their recent Build conference explaining how developers can compile, build and optimize ARMv8 versions of any Windows app, on stage they showed how to compile the Windows VLC app for the ARM64 Windows 10 platform. Working with Gemalto, Qualcomm demonstrates Integrated SIM (iSIM) on their Snapdragon 850 trusted secure hardware element, to be able to select, load Telecom packages full securely, perhaps eventually also load and store any SIM card into the device and switch between each one.

ARM Cortex-A76, Mali-G76, Mali-V76

Posted by – June 4, 2018

ARM Cortex-A76 is a new microarchitecture based on DynamIQ technology, delivers 35% faster 7nm laptop-class performance (Intel Core-i3, Core-i5 comparable performance) with 40% improved efficiency maintaining the power efficiency of a smartphone. ARM Cortex-A76 also delivers 4x compute performance improvements for AI/ML at the edge. The new ARM Mali-G76 enables higher performance gaming, cross-platform experiences 30% more efficiency and performance density, as the gaming market is expected to reach $137.9 billion in 2018 and possibly as high as $180 billion by 2021 where 60% of that might be on mobile. ARM Mali-V76 support 8K60 video decode, it can also support simultaneous 4K encode and decode for 4K video-conferencing.