Laptop Thoughts: News & Reviews on Laptops, Netbooks, Slates, and More.

"T-Mobile is ready to re-position the T-Mobile G-Slate as one of the best tablets on the market given its recent price drop. According to this internal document T-Mobile is claiming that they have received “legal approval” to “definitively” state that the G-Slate is more than “2x faster than the iPad2 on AT&T and Verizon, and over 3x faster than the Motorola Xoom.”"

T-Mobile is referring to carrier data speeds here. Marketing the LG Slate based on it's "4G" connectivity is a questionable move because the G-Slate can only do 14.4Mbps, not the full 42Mpbs that T-Mobile's 4G network is capable of. Also, they're comparing to a 3G Xoom which will get upgraded to LTE at some point. I think it would be a better idea to market the G-Slate based on it's price and features. To me, a $400 tablet with an 8.9" 1280x768 3D display, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of storage built in, 5MP rear cameras for 3D, a front 2MP camera, and 1080P 2D recording with Honeycomb all for $400 on contract sounds like a great deal to me!

What are your thoughts? Do any of you have the G-Slate? Does the carrier network connectivity speed make that much of a difference to you on a tablet?

"We knew something was going on with Dell's branding with the resurrection of the XPS laptop line, and this morning we caught up with a few of the company's executives to learn all about the entire restructuring. As you can see above, there will now be three core brands -- Inspiron, XPS and Alienware -- all focusing on different "performance seekers."

Dell's product line up has grown bloated and out of control over the years, and this is a much-needed effort to streamline it. Will it help change the perception that people have as being Dell as a "budget" provider of computers? Maybe - but I think Dell also needs to focus more on releasing fewer, but better, products. Releasing a new laptop every month means less engineering and design effort put into each product - and Dell needs to do better in both.

The delightfully stupid image above comes courtesy of Engadget's post on the Samsung N230. Engadget's gallery on this netbook has more images like the one above; is this really how Asian companies such as Samsung perceive North Americans? Do they really think that marketing their products like this is the best way to sell them? I often marvel at how impactful Apple's TV ads are, but when your competition is using marketing approaches like this - women in a field of grass playing with bubbles and holding your product - there's not much of a marketing battle going on. If you're going to advertise a netbook with a 13+ hour battery life, you need to show a business mobile worker, using your product throughout their busy day without needing to stop and recharge it - and it doesn't matter if that "worker" is a mom, a student, or a salesperson. Just please don't use "hot chicks" playing with bubbles - that's how you sell a whole different type of products, and netbooks aren't amongst them.