There are good news for those who wait for Core 2 Duo ultra-portables. “INTEL HAS told its OEM customers that it will launch the L7400 and the L7200 in January, at prices of $315 and $285 respectively. These are low voltage (LV) components with 4MB of cache, clocking at 1.50GHz and 1.33GHz respectively, and with system bus speeds of 667MHz. Intel will also introduce an ultra low voltage component - the U1500 - a Core Solo microprocessor, which will have 2MB of cache, clock at 1.33GHz and have a bus speed of 533MHz.” - writes TheInquirer.net

Though HP already ships ultra-portable Compaq nc4400 with Core 2 Duo, it is built around current “full voltage” T5600/T7200/T7400 CPUs, which are hardly suitable for ultra-portable form factor where small size and light weight are critical and put some limit on batteries size and capacity. Thus full voltage CPUs will drain out batteries in ultra-portable quickly.

This HP’s move can be partially explained by the fact that smallest and lightest HP Compaq nc4400 weighting 3.9lb and measuring 9.25 x 11.22 x 1.19 in is hardly truly ultra-portable like for example Sony VAIO TX series.

This entry was posted on September 21, 2006 and is filed under News.