Dell XPS Studio 16 Review

Filed under: News

The Dell XPS Studio 16 offers a rather luxurious laptop without spending top dollar. This is a multimedia laptop with little extras such as leather trim and keyboard backlighting. Let’s take a close look at the Dell XPS Studio 16 to see just what is inside of this laptop. We will look at specifications, the build and design, user friendliness, power, capabilities and compatibility. When it comes to choosing a laptop, there is no such thing as being too choosy. So, we will look at all of the details of the Dell XPS Studio 16 to see if this might be the machine for you.

First let’s look at the specifications of the Dell XPS Studio 16. This has an Intel Core 2 Duo PS600 processor, which is to be expected and offers lots of power. The standard memory capacity is 4GB. In regard to graphics, this machine has ATI Mobility, RADEON High Definition at 3670. The display is quite impressive and user friendly at a good sized sixteen inch and is an LCD screen with a built in webcam of 2.0 MP. The optical drive of the Dell XPS Studio 16 is a 4X Blu-ray Disc Combo Drive; this gives a user DVD, CD plus RW and BD Read. The operating system is the Windows Vista Home Premium which is growing more popular all of the time. Some extra features of the Dell XPS Studio 16 are its facial recognition security system, which is great technology to have and Dell Video Chat. This size of the Dell XPS Studio 16 is a small but sturdy 15.15 by 10.02 by 1.34 inches and this all runs on a 6-cell battery. With the battery attached, this weighs a bit over six pounds, 6.53 to be exact.

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Longer-Lasting Batteries for Notebook Computers

Filed under: News

Conventional lithium-ion batteries in laptops quickly lose their ability to store energy and can catch fire if they’re overcharged or damaged. Now researchers at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, IL, have developed composite battery materials that can make such batteries both safer and longer lived, while increasing their capacity to store energy by 30%.

Last month, the researchers took a significant step toward commercializing the technology by licensing it to a major materials supply company, Toda Kogyo, based in Japan. The company has the capacity to make the materials for about 30 million laptop batteries a year, says Gary Henriksen, who manages electrochemical storage research at Argonne.

The new materials are one example of a new generation of li-ion electrode chemistries that address the shortcomings of conventional li-ion batteries. Each has its own trade-offs. For example, another material called lithium iron phosphate has better safety and durability than Argonne’s materials, but it stores somewhat less energy than conventional li-ion batteries. Argonne’s materials improve on the safety and reliability of today’s notebook batteries, while also storing more energy…

Full news: TechnologyReview.com