Pioneer Australia offering an 11.6 inch laptop called the DreamBook Lite U11a which looks like it will be available with a discrete graphics option in the future. Right now, the only version of this laptop available for purchase comes with a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor and Intel GMA 3150 intergrated graphics. But on the product page, there’s mention of two additional options:

• 1.83GHz Intel Atom N470 CPU
• Discrete graphic N11x

I’ve seen the N470 option mentioned before, although I’m not aware of any computers sold with this chip today. But the N11x graphics option is a new one. Sascha at Netbook News.de infers that N11x could be a code-word for NVIDIA’s next-generation ION 2 discrete graphics chip. And that seems likely, given that I haven’t really seen any other graphics card makers talking about discrete graphics solutions for Intel Atom-based systems.

The DreamBook Lite U11a has an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 2.5″ hard drive, 78-key keyboard, 3 USB ports, VGA and HDMI output, a flash card reader, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Ethernet, and a 1.3MP webcam. There are also optional Bluetooth and 3G wireless modules.

NVIDIA is introducing a new technology that allows computers with integrated and dedicated graphics cards to seamlessly switch between the two. If you’re surfing the web, you probably don’t need your high performance, energy-hungry NVIDIA graphics card to kick in and suck your laptop’s battery dry. But when you’re watching an HD movie, playing a game, or performing other actions that would benefit from a graphics boost, NVIDIA’s new technology will automatically switch to the higher performance graphics card.

NVIDIA calls the system Optimus, and it’s designed to work with GeForce 200M, 300M, and GeForce M GPUs as well as the as-yet-unannounced NVIDIA ION 2 graphics processor. It supports Intel’s Core 2 Duo, Core i3, i5, and i7 processors and Intel Atom N450 CPUs.

The move makes a lot of sense for a few reasons. First, since Intel’s latest processors integrated the graphics and CPU functions on a single chip, there’s no way for NVIDIA to simply replace the integrated graphics processors with its own chips. And second, on existing systems that have two GPUs, you have to toggle between them manually which takes time and sometimes requires you to close applications.

The Optimus system will let users manually switch graphics. But for day to day use, it will automatically determine which graphics solution meets your needs.

The first laptop equipped with the new Optimus technology is the Asus UL50VF, a 15.6 inch laptop with a 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor, Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics and NVIDIA GeForce G210M. Engadget’s Joanna Stern has been testing the laptop for a few days. She says it made the switch seamlessly when she wanted to watch HD YouTube or local videos. But the Optimus software didn’t recognize the video game she fired up during her test, which meant that the switch wasn’t automatic.

Gizmodo  reports that as many as 50 notebooks with Optimus should be available by this summer. Hopefully that list will include a few Atom-powered netbooks, or better yet, 11 or 12 inch notebooks with CULV processors and NVIDIA graphics.

The Asus UL30VT is a 13.3 inch thin and light laptop with switchable graphics. That means you can either use the integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics chipset when battery life matters more than performance. But you can turn on the NVIDIA G210 discrete graphics processor with 512MB of DDR memory when you need a boost for playing 3D games or other GPU-intensive tasks. And the Asus UL30VT is now available from Amazon for $799.

I don’t spend a lot of time covering laptops with screens larger than 12 inches on this site. But ever since I reviewed the Asus UL30A people have been asking about the UL30VT. The UL30A is basically the same computer, except that it doesn’t come with the dedicated graphics option. I was pretty impressed with the computer I reviewed in terms of overall performance, aesthetics, and keyboard layout.

Most of all, I was impressed by its battery life. I was able to get nearly 10 hours of run time. Clearly, you’ll lose some battery life if you use the UL30VT with the discrete graphics for extended periods. But aside from the GPU, the new model is pretty much the same as the notebook I reviewed, which bodes well for things on the battery front.

Of course, if 13.3 inches is still too large, you can also pick up a 12.1 inch Asus UL20A. But that model ships with a lower capacity battery, less RAM and hard drive space, and no option for discrete graphics. On the other hand, it’s significantly cheaper, running just $609. And Amazon is still running a promotion allowing you to snag a $75 gift card when you purchase the UL20A. In fact, I picked one up for myself a few weeks ago because the effective price of just over $500 was too good to pass up. (The computer was selling for about $30 less when I ordered it).

You can also pick up the Asus UL30A with integrated graphics only for for $691.55 from Amazon.

via Engadget

The Eee PC 1000HV is a new netbook from Asus available exclusively in Italy (for now). It looks almost exactly like the Eee PC 1000HE, which makes sense since for all intents and purposes it’s the same machine with one major difference: The Eee PC 1000HE has integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics while the Eee PC 1000HV has a discrete ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics card.

Eee PC.it has published a handful of benchmarks from a user who has already picked up an Eee PC 1000HV. In most tests, the new netbook achieves the same scores as its predecessor, which makes sense since it has the same processor, hard drive, and other hardware. But it blows away the Eee PC 1000HE and pretty much every other netbook when it comes to OpenGL performance, with a score of 10,564, which is about 15 times higher than the scores found on most Intel Atom mini-laptops with integrated graphics.

The netbook is also the first Eee PC to make use of the High Definition Movie mode in the Super Hybrid Engine, which appears to overclock the CPU to its maximum settings to provide the best possible viewing experience when watching 1080p videos.

While Asus France may be talking about slimming its Eee PC lineup, it looks like Asus Italy is expanding with the launch of the Asus Eee PC 1000HV. Basically, the 1000HV is identical to the Asus Eee PC 1000HE, except that the new model features ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics while older Eee PC models have integrated Intel GMA950 graphics.

In other words, this is the first Eee PC that should be able to handle serious video gaming duties. It should also provide better HD video performance, although I’m not sure how it will handle HD Flash video from sites like Hulu because I don’t know if Adobe Flash can offload some of the processing power to the graphics card. The 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU isn’t really up to the task.

Eee PC Italia reports that the Eee PC 1000HV will be available exclusively through the Computer Discount chain in Italy, for about 449 Euros, which is the equivalent of $627 US.

Here’s a run down of the computer’s specs:

• CPU: 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280
• Display: 10.2 inch, 1024 x 600 pixels
• Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 3450
• RAM: 1GB
• Storage: 160GB hard drive
• Operating system: Windows XP
• Connectivity: 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, Ethernet
• I/O: 3 USB ports, VGA, headphone, mic
• Battery: 6 cell (5 hours)

One thing that’s interesting about this move is that Asus had previously decided that laptops with discrete graphics wouldn’t go in the Eee PC family. The company released the Asus N10 series of mini-laptops with NVIDIA GeForce graphics last year, but refused to slap the Eee PC label on them. Maybe the company is finding that the Eee PC name carries more weight these days than the name Asus?

via SlashGear

The Eee Box B206 is the first member of the Asus Eee Box family to feature discrete graphics and an HDMI port. While most Intel Atom nettops feature integrated Intel GMA950 graphics, this model sports an ATI Mobility Radeon 3450 GPU with 256MB of video memory. It also has an HDMI port instead of the usual DVI port. In other words, while the Eee Box B206 has a low power, low performance CPU, a lot of people were hoping that this wold be the first of Asus’s tiny nettop computers that would make sense to stick next to your HDTV and use as a home theater PC. Register Hardware has posted a review with some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that the Eee Box B206, which comes with a remote control for use from your couch, is better suited for handling HD video than most netbooks. The bad news is that this isn’t saying much. The nettop could handle 720p DivX or H.264 playback fairly well, but struggled with 720p Quicktime and WMV9 videos. 1080p video was another story, with H.264 videos playing reasonably well (if not perfectly), but all other codecs causing the computer to struggle.

Register Hardware didn’t test the Eee Box B206 with online video. But I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that it handles standard definition video reasonably well and chokes up on higher resolution videos. The problem is that Adobe Flash puts a lot of strain on the CPU, and the Intel Atom processor just isn’t up to the task of pumping out full screen Flash video on high resolution displays, as I discovered when I tested the Eee Top all-in-one computer from Asus. If Adobe can work on offloading some of the processing power to graphics processors, perhaps we’ll start to see low power devices like the Eee Top, Acer AspireRevo, and Eee Box B206 capable of playing full screen videos from Hulu, YouTube and other sites.