CES 2007

So what happens the day after Windows Vista is available to consumers? Will you still be able to buy a laptop or desktop with Windows XP, or are you going to be forced to upgrade with a new computer purchase? We polled system vendors, including Gateway, HP, Toshiba, Fujitsu, and Lenovo, and the answer is unanimous across the board.

According to every system builder we talked to, starting with Vista's January 30 launch, systems aimed at consumers will include only the new operating system, with no option for sticking with XP.

On the other hand, business users (or consumers who buy from a vendor's small business or corporate lines) will have a choice between XP and Vista. Most corporate users will want to stick with the older OS for now, at least until they come up with a rollout plan for installing Vista across their networks, which could include hundreds or thousands of PCs. Microsoft will continue to support XP sales to business users, at least through 2008.

Laptop docking stations have always been a bit on the awkward side, requiring you to slide your laptop into the dock, properly lining up the connectors. Usually, we end up banging the pieces together for a few seconds until they fit.

Toshiba showed us a new docking station for the company's Portege R400 Windows Vista convertible tablet that takes care of a lot of the limitations of traditional laptop docks. The wireless Ultra Wide Band Toshiba Wireless Port Replicator connects to the R400 automatically whenever it's within a few feet. It's not the first wireless dock we've seen, but with the bandwidth for streaming video clips with no problem to an external monitor and a DVI connection, it seems like a must-have accessory for the buzz-heavy Portege R400.

While the R400 itself will be available at the end of January, the Wireless Port Replicator, price to be determined, won't hit stores until the second quarter of 2007.

Some of the coolest products at CES are destined never to make it onto store shelves or into homes. They're prototypes and mock-ups, designed to test new features or solicit industry feedback.

Fujitsu had a series of mobile PC prototypes on the show floor, each highlighting some interesting technology that may eventually trickle into mainstream consumer products.

One prototype was called the Ultra Mobile 2007. It's about the size of Mac Mini and is a handheld touch screen UMPC. Fujitsu describes it as, "A futuristic interpretation of an ultraportable tablet PC, fully operable via touch screen, a stylus pen, and operation buttons. Like the Ultra Mobile 2005, this is designed to be almost the same size as a CD jacket."

A second item we saw was a folding UMPC with a full keyboard. It folds up into a small blue square, then you can flip up the screen and watch media files using a few media control buttons or flip the keyboard open for typing (as pictured).

Like flashy concept cars, these exact models will most likely never see the light of day, but the hope is that some features or design elements will make it into the next generation of mobile devices.

Looking to upgrade the weak graphics of your otherwise rockin' laptop? Before you rip apart the machine to get to its innards in what will most likely result in a failed attempt for more frames per second, take a peek at the Asus XG Station. That's X for external, and G for graphics--the world's first external graphics-card solution for laptops. The XG Station connects via an ExpressCard slot and houses a x16 PCI Express graphics card and a sound card that supplies 5.1 Dolby audio. Asus will ship the XG Station with a GeForce 7900GS card, and there's no reason why you couldn't swap in an 8800 GTS. An 8800 GTX card, however, is too long to fit inside the unit.

The XG Station's control panel provides a variety of system information, from GPU clockspeed, fan speed, and temperature to volume and frames per second. The large dial to the left of the display lets you adjust the settings, including cranking up the GPU's clock speed. With a couple of USB 2.0 ports onboard, you can leave your game keyboard and mouse connected to the XG Station for an instant game docking station--just add laptop.

Asus gave a quick demo of the XG Station, which we mentioned briefly over the weekend. While a laptop without an XG Station chugged through a game, the same laptop connected to an XG Station provided very smooth gameplay on a huge LCD hooked up to the GeForce card's DVI port. Asus told us it's still working out the pricing details, but expects a 7900GS-equipped XG Station to go for roughly $599 when it's released in April.

We really liked the recent 15.4-inch Gateway NX570 laptop. It was a highly configurable system that could run anywhere from $699 to almost $2,000, but the brushed metal accents and fingerprint-resistant design made it seem like a much more expensive system than you'd expect based on its low starting price.

The sequel keeps a lot of what we liked about the original but shrinks it down to a 14-inch package. The more-portable Gateway NX270 (replacing the NX260) should be available February 1, right after the Windows Vista launch and will have a similarly affordable starting price--$699--and much of the same configuration flexibility.

Putting Ohio State's poor showing last night in the BCS Championship game behind them, Ohio-based Micro Center had a few Vista desktop and laptop prototypes on display at CES. The big news on its PowerSpec desktop line is the addition of a Lian Li chassis for its high-end gaming PCs. The Lian Li chassis is an all-aluminum, tool-free unit that will be used on two highest-end models, the G450 and the G430. Lian Li makes some of the best PC enclosures around, and it should help the PowerSpec name garner some respect among gamers.

Likewise, Micro Center's WinBook laptop line will get refreshed when Vista is released. Borrowing from the Zune, two new WinBook laptops, the 15.4-inch GL and the 13.3-inch TL, will come draped in a glossy, brown chassis. Micro Center is dressing up its WinBook laptops as it leaves the budget market to focus on midrange and performance notebooks.

Micro Center is also stepping up its support, promising a 48-hour turnaround time for repairing your PowerSpec or WinBook machine. Disclaimer: The clock starts when Micro Center receives your busted PC, whether you ship it back or drop it off at a Micro Center store.

Micro Center is not sharing the specs and pricing of its new models until the machines are launched in conjunction with Vista's consumer release at the end of the month. Systems will be on store shelves in Micro Center stores and also available online at the Micro Center and WinBook Web sites.

Last year's OQO ultramobile PC (or UMPC) was a great-looking, high-concept piece of equipment that was perhaps a little ahead of its time. Poor battery life and anemic performance kept the palm-sized PC from capitalizing on the system's initial buzz.

The eagerly expected follow-up, the OQO model 02, keeps the original's sliding screen design but adds upgraded specs; a new, ergonomic, backlit keyboard; and options for every flavor of wireless connectivity out there.

The OQO2 uses a VIA processor, up to 1.5GHz, and can hold up to 60GB of data on its shock-mounted hard drive, along with 1GB of RAM and an 800x480 display. We especially liked the built-in HDMI port for outputting to an external monitor.

The OQO model 02 should be available by the end of March and starts at $1,499.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

An Intel Core 2 Duo processor, two high-end Nvidia graphics cards, two massive hard drives--the spec list for the Alienware Area 51 m9750 had us seeing double on the CES show floor today. The Vista-based 17-inch gamer (a follow-up to the m9700 we reviewed earlier this year) is the first laptop to hit the market with two Nvidia GeForce Go 7950 graphics cards in a scalable link interface for fast gaming performance. Add to that the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors (overclocking is an option, of course) up to 2GB of quick 667MHz RAM and two 7,200rpm hard drives with up to 400GB total capacity, and you're looking at one smokin' machine. For gamers who are also media hounds, the Area 51 m9750 includes an integrated TV tuner as well as a Blu-ray drive.

The icing on the component cake is the price: Though it's subject to change before the laptop's official release later this quarter, Alienware tells us they're striving to bring the Area 51 m9750 to market for less than $2,000--which would make it one of the most affordable gaming laptops available.

We've already reviewed HP's new, Vista-equipped TouchSmart PC, announced here at CES 2007, but what we didn't talk much about was the new custom support application that HP sent with it, and which will come in all new HP laptops and desktops. We sat down with HP this morning to talk about it, and we came away more than a little impressed.

Total Care Advisor is an HP-made suite of support tools designed to help you stay proactive in maintaining the health of your HP system. The software clearly breaks down the various areas of your system via large icons and simple explanations, and clicking an icon leads to more specific information about the current and potential problems within the specified area. If your PC is connected to the Internet, the support application can talk to HP's servers in order to run diagnostics, install updated support tools, and in general help keep your computer, as well any peripherals connected to it over your home network, up to date and running well.

Total Care Advisor's main screen.

(Credit: HP)

HP joined Dell and Gateway in 2006 in offering remote tech-support services in which you can give tech personnel clearance to take over your PC over the Internet and drive any necessary software changes. If HP's Total Care Advisor works as advertised, it prevents you from having to make that tech support call in the first place. Another idea we like about Total Care Advisor: it's designed to corral those nagging pop-ups from the Windows Update Advisor and other auto-updating programs.