CES Preview: Putting the New in Notebooks (part 2)

by Cisco Cheng

We all know netbooks are taking the world by storm, but how will PC makers raise the bar at the show? Design is going to be significant, since many of the current netbooks – the MSI Wind, the Acer Aspire One, the Lenovo Ideapad S10 – have the same general, lackluster look. There are glimpses of those who have already upped the design ante, like the Asus eeePC 1002HA, which uses a brushed aluminum frame. Intel is expected to launch a Classmate PC convertible tablet, and someone will have a netbook that will blow CES attendees away.

Multi-touch has been the buzz word ever since Apple launched the iPhone. With laptops, the HP Pavilion TX2 was the first convertible tablet to showcase multi-touch capabilities. Expect at least one other player to launch a multi-touch screen. In the meantime, almost every vendor is incorporating multi-touch functionality into their touchpads. Like the ones on the MacBook and MacBook Pros, you pinch, enlarge, and scroll through various file formats by gesturing with two fingers.

Secondary displays, not Vista's SideShow technology, will show up on a few systems at CES 2009. Fujitsu already announced the Lifebook N7010, with a secondary touch display right above the keyboard. And Lenovo is advertising a secondary display that slides out of the Thinkpad W700.

Is this the year that Blu-Ray will go mainstream? Part of it will be up to laptop manufacturers. The Acer Aspire 6930G-6723 is already shipping with a Blu-ray drive for under a $1,000, and others will follow.

DisplayPort is out to make its presence known, competing against the HDMI format. Apple and Lenovo are already shipping with DisplayPort technologies in their laptops. Others will offer that, or both: DisplayPort and HDMI technology in one chassis.

Is this finally the year WiMax will take off? Sprint and Clearwire recently rolled out their WiMax network in Baltimore, which promises speeds of up to 7 Mbit/s, a range that covers an entire city, and prices that average households can afford. Well, PC Makers aren't waiting for more roll outs; they've seen enough. Expect announcements of numerous WiMax-enabled laptops at CES 2009.

source by:www.pcmag.com