Toshiba’s Qosmio X500 is a massive 18.4-inch gaming notebook PC. NVIDIA’s GTX 460M is the GPU of choice. The US$1200 box can be equipped with either an Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU. Other specs include: dual SSD (option), up to 6GB DDR3 RAM, a backlit keyboard. You can also equip the X500 with Blu-ray, which makes a nice coupling with the 1920×1080 pixel format. But even with a regular DVD the company’s Resolution+ technology should make SD/ED look better by up-converting to HD. The Qosmio X500 is available on September 26th. The keyboard is more towards the middle on the X500, but not quite, which is unfortunate. Source: Toshiba via Engadget

The question: which one is the better display? The answer: you’ll need to wait for it. Dr. Raymond Soneira, President of DisplayMate Technologies, is wrapping up his extensive testing of these two displays and will be publishing the results early next week. For now, here’s two major surprises.

Dr. Soneira:

Both the iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy S Super OLED had low screen reflectance, which is very important for smartphones because they are typically used under bright ambient light, but the Galaxy S beat the iPhone 4 by a wide margin.

According to Dr. Soneira, one of the most important features, if not the most important, is screen reflectance. The more there is the worse the display. Well, the Super AMOLED on the Samsung Galaxy S beat out Apple’s iPhone 4. Big time.

The iPhone 4 had by far the lowest power consumption of all of the displays (for the same peak luminance and screen size and for typical white screen backgrounds). The Galaxy S tied the iPhone 4 only when displaying rather dark images.

And this is the big surprise for most folks. We’ve been bombarded with marketing that tells us AMOLED displays consume less power than “conventional” LCDs. That simply isn’t true. The Retina Display on the iPhone 4 is a power miser and the Super AMOLED ties it only when showing dark images.

Dr. Soneira promises there will be even more surprises so make sure to come back to this very post early next week to find out what those are.

The rumor (Rumor: Panasonic GH2) is true and with all the details: 16MP Live MOS image sensor, SD/SDHC/SDXC, Micro Four Thirds mount, 23-point autofocus, face detection, ISO range from 160 to 12800, 3-inch LCD, mini-HDMI out, USB 2.0, 1080/60i (1080/24p @24Mbps too) movie capture.

With Panasonic’s new 3D lens, the H-FT012, the GH2 is able to capture 3D images. You’ll need a 3D display to see them and Panasonic’s got the entire 3D Viera line of TVs for just that. The G2 is slated to become compatible with the H-FT012. Priced at US$900 for just the body. The $999.95 kit includes a 14-42mm lens and if you want the 14-140mm kit lens the price jumps to $1499.95. Source: Panasonic

MetroPCS has launched the first LTE network in the world, in Las Vegas today. And the first LTE phone is the US$299 contract-free Samsung Craft sporting a 3.3-inch AMOLED, a 3.2 megapixel camera and a full QWERTY keyboard. Basic unlimited service is $55 per month. An additional $5 gets you unlimited VOD streaming from 14 networks. Source: MetroPCS

LaCie: The LaCie 324i is a 24-inch IPS LCD monitor sporting a 10-bit P-IPS TFT LCD panel with a pixel format of 1920×1200. In addition the 324i has an anti-glare coating that should greatly improve the viewing experience. Three USB 2.0 ports are onboard with an integrated cable manager, which you’ll need for all those cables.

The LaCie 324i follows tradition and requires a heft upfront investment of US$1249.99. If your budget allows there are hood and blue eye colorimeter options. The IPS LCD Monitor Database has been updated with the LaCie 324i.

Most notebook PC brands, including Apple, outsource the manufacturing to companies based in Asia. Samsung is one major brand that manufactures all of its notebook PCs in-house.

Quanta: 60M target for 2011. Received orders from nine of the top ten notebook PC brands. Samsung being the lone exception. Largest integrator for HP in 2011 with 40% share and will make 80-90% of Apple notebook PCs for 2011.

Compal: 60M target for 2011. Received orders from top six notebook PC brands. 50% share of Acer and 50% share of Toshiba notebook PCs in 2011. Expects to see significant growth in Dell and Lenovo shipments.

Wistron: In #3 with 35-37M target for 2011. Largest supplier to Dell and Lenovo. #2 supplier to Acer and Sony.

Inventec, Pegatron Technology, Foxconn: 20M target each for 2011. Source: Digitimes

The HP Omni100 is the non-touch version of the TouchSmart all-in-one (AIO). The Omni100 sports a 20-inch LCD with a 1600×900 pixel format. Yes, the good-for-nothing pixel format: it isn’t 1280×720 so you can watch 720p HD video and it isn’t 1920×1080 so you can watch 1080p HD video. Scaling isn’t a big an issue as before but if you’re watching HD video content, I recommend non-scaled viewing. I assume HD video is why HP chose a 16:9 LCD panel and an easy-to-remember 1600×900 pixel format. Right?

Other than the less-than-optimal display choice, the Omni100 is powered by a 1.8GHz Athlon II and features 3GB RAM, 500GB HDD, and Radeon HD 4270 integrated graphics running Windows 7 with HP’s MediaSmart UI. The Omni100 is priced to go at US$499.

The most unique feature of the NX100 in addition to an APS-C sized image sensor in a small body is its i-Function: Engadget found it quite, well, functional. Darren Murph:

The 20mm pancake lens on the model we tested was well built, and the i-Function capabilities were downright impressive. It took us a tick to grok how it works, but a good 30 seconds of learning presented us with loads of on-the-fly flexibility. You simply tap the i-Function button with your right hand in order to select what type of setting you’d like to change (exposure, ISO, shutter speed, etc.), and then rotate the wheel on the lens in either direction in order to change the value.

I’m not sure how I feel about the i-Function. I prefer the lens to be just a lens and not some bastard combination of complex electronics. I guess it already is since in most lenses electrons power the mechanics. But I’m not sure about adding even more. Second, the left hand gets a lot more work. If you photograph manually Samsung’s i-Function may be requiring a bit too much from your left hand: focus, zoom, exposure, ISO, shutter speed, etc. without the right hand doing much else but holding the body and pressing the shutter button. i-Function is certainly unique but I’d prefer both hands getting equal amount of work.

BTW, the NX100 is priced at US$599 (20-50mm) and $649 (20mm) and will be available in October. For all your NX10 users out there you’ll be getting support for i-Function lenses in the same month.

Image source: CrunchGear

Thanks to Photokina there’s a lot of digital camera news. Leica announced the M9 Titanium, a limited edition M9. The M9 Titanium replaces everything that was previously regular metal with titanium and a fingerprint-resistant layer. Only 500 copies will be manufactured. Included in the luxurious package is the M9 Titanium, a 35mm Summilux f/1.4 prime lens, lens hood, a newly-designed holster and a new electronic illumination system. The M9 Titanium will be available in November. The price? €22,000. Just a note: the 2.5-inch TFT LCD on the M9s have a terrible resolution with just 230,000 pixels. The LCD just seems too low class on a camera like the M9 and now the even more classy M9 Titanium. Leica: may I introduce you to some folks at LG Display?

Samsung and AVEDA teamed up to bring you the Samsung Galaxy S Femme: A pinkish Galaxy S with an AVEDA traveling kit, a travel kit voucher, 4GB microSD card with AVEDA software that provides skincare recommendations. Nice overall package. Source: Akihabara News

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