The Samsung Series 9 notebook is a sleek and sexy new ultraportable that looks to compete with the MacBook Air in style, power and apparently in speed. Laptop Magazine put the two to a head to head challenge to see which notebook could boot faster, which is important to some users, but also to see which notebook could resume from sleep quicker, which is more important to many mobile users.

The Samsung Series 9 is powered by a 2nd Gen Intel Core i5 processor and is booting Windows 7 off of a SSD and the MacBook Air is running a Core 2 Duo processor and booting Mac OS X off of an SSD as well. Laptop Mag notes that the MacBook Air actually booted faster when it was new, at 15 seconds.

What is actually a more important number to look at is the wake from sleep time, which is 50% faster on the MacBook Air. Sure, that’s only 3 seconds, and not real noticeable when you aren’t comparing side to side, but we we think that mobile users will be resuming from sleep more often than booting with these ultraportable systems.

Head over to Laptop Mag for a comparison photo gallery of the MacBook Air and the Samsung Series 9 as well as a video of shutdown time on the MacBook Air versus the Samsung Series 9.

Samsung Series 9 Vs. MacBook Air Speed Tests: Boot & Wake From Sleep is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

The MacBook Air promises to be one of the fastest booting systems available today. Wake from sleep is said to be nearly instantaneous. Laptop Magazine did a comparison between the new 11-inch MacBook Air and what they call one of the fastest Windows-based notebooks available, the Sony VAIO Z with Windows 7. They also throw in the Apple iPad.

Their results were as you would expect. The MacBook Air booted from the fully off position in about 15 seconds. It woke from sleep in less than two seconds.

The Sony VAIO Z used had a faster Intel Core i5 or i7 processor (depending on which model they used; it is not specified) and a pair of SSD hard drives configured for speed. It is in the same family of the notebook that APC recently called “The best notebook of all time.” And it took longer to get through it’s BIOS system check than the MacBook Air took to boot. Total time was 40 seconds, which for a Windows 7 notebook is very fast. Waking from sleep took about five seconds.

As a way of showing just how fast the MacBook Air is, they also tested the boot time of an iPad, which took 25 seconds to boot. It woke up instantly like the MacBook Air. It might even be faster.

Below is their video that demos all of this.

MacBook Air Boot and Wake Times Compared to Windows Notebook and iPad is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

If you’re disgusted with the length of time it takes your notebook to boot up in the morning you’ll be relieved to know that you’re not alone and people are working on a faster startup.

Those people are part of the UEFI Forum which is working on a replacement for BIOS, that screen you see when you first turn on your computer, which among other things should boot your computer into Windows in seconds rather than a minute and a half.

UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and is a new standard designed to meet the needs of modern computers. Compare this to BIOS which has been the standard for decades.

The idea is that the UEFI boot system will not only bring faster boot times by getting past that 30 seconds of BIOS initialization but also offer better support for USB devices and other connectivity options in the boot environment.

The Telegraph reports that industry experts expect to see UEFI make an impact in computing in 2011, but there’s no word on exactly when we will see consumer devices with the new boot system reach the market. Until then consumers will need to look at SSD options and manufacturer specific solutions to boot up faster.

Image via ryuuji.y

Faster Boot Times on the Way for Notebooks — Bye Bye BIOS is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

I’ve been wishing for this feature for quite some time. You know the routine: your notebook bugs you are needing to be restarted because updates have been installed, or perhaps you just want to restart it because it seems to be running slowly. You hit the restart button and walk away to use the bathroom or make a cup of coffee (knowing that, with many applications, your computer will take several minutes to fully boot up). You expect to leave the room an come back to a freshly restarted notebook (wouldn’t that be convenient?). But alas, when you do return, the computer is waiting for you to enter your password, and won’t really start booting up until you do so. This is such a frustrating process. One shouldn’t need to hold the computer’s hand while it boots up. It is a computer for crying out loud, it should be able to do this stuff automatically. Disabling one’s password isn’t a solution; people usually have passwords on their computers for a reason, whether it be security or privacy, and disabling the password is not an option.

A simple ‘reboot without prompting for password’ option when restarting would be an incredibly simple fix to this annoying issue, and would allow one to restart their notebook, walk away to do something else, then return to a fully booted computer rather than come back, only to be required to enter their password, then wait several more minutes while the computers all the way up” — if you will.

But wouldn’t this sacrifice security? In the unlikely situation that someone steals your computer while it is turned on, couldn’t they use this option to never be prompted for a password? Nope. An easy fix to this potential breach in security is to prompt for the password when the ‘restart without prompting for password on boot’ is selected. This way, the same security is retained by requiring the same credentials, only the order in which the boot/password prompt is rearranged to be more accommodating, when the user so chooses.

I wish that this feature would have been included in Windows 7, its inclusion alone would been a new feature that I’d actually use.

‘Restart Without Prompting for Password on Boot’ Option Would be Awesome is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.

In addition to the touchscreens that Toshiba added to the new Satellite notebook lineup, will be launching with Windows 7, all of the notebooks in the Satellite lineup will also get a simplified desktop and boot up faster.

This announcement is a welcome change from the days when buying a new notebook would require you to spend an hour removing all of the pre-installed crap that loaded at startup. While the situation has improved since 2007, when PCDecrapifier was a must have app, pre-installed programs have still plagued recently sold notebooks with Windows Vista.

Instead of bringing these problems along to Windows 7, Toshiba is focusing on giving users a clean desktop with minimal software running in the background. All of the new Satellite notebooks shipping with Windows 7 will offered the only have the recycle bin on the desktop and as for programs running at startup, they will be limited to an antivirus or similar program(s).

Not only will this lead to better battery life, thanks in part to new power improvements in Windows 7, but Toshiba claims that, “startup, shutdown and Fast Sleep-and-Resume performance will be improved.”

In addition to the Toshiba Satellite U505 and M505 with Touchscreens these usability and battery life improvements will be included on the following new Satellite notebooks.

High Definition Entertainment: Satellite A500 Series

Perfect for home users and tech enthusiasts, the Satellite A500 Series are entertainment-packed performance laptops that combine performance-class processing with Toshiba’s latest design elements. The sleek Satellite A500 Series features a 16-inch diagonal widescreen HD Edge-to-Edge display on select models, harman/kardon^® speakers, optional Blu-ray^® disc players and Fusion Finish and high capacity hard drives. Intel^® Coreâ„¢ 2 Duo or AMD Turionâ„¢ II Ultra processor configurations and choices of integrated or discrete graphics are also available. Pricing starts at $589.99 MSRP.

Desktop Replacement: Satellite P500 Series

Featuring a brilliant 18.4-diagonal widescreen HD TruBriteâ„¢ display, the Satellite P500 Series is designed with digital media enthusiasts and mainstream PC gamers in mind. The premium Satellite P500 Series offers more than an ordinary laptop. Featuring harman/kardon speakers, as well as sleek slot-loading DVD drives and Edge-to-Edge displays in select models, this high-performance desktop replacement also incorporates powerful processing muscle with either Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Turion II processors, and choices of integrated or discrete graphics. Select models also include a Blu-ray disc player and/or illuminating LED backlit keyboard. Pricing starts at $799.99 MSRP.

Everyday Value: Satellite L500 Series

The Satellite L500 Series laptops are ideal for students, home users and anyone looking to enjoy digital media, staying productive, connecting online or casual gaming. Satellite L500 Series laptops are available with either a 14-, 15.6-, 16- and 17.3-inch diagonal display sizes and come equipped with powerful processor options from Intel and AMD, including the new Turion II and Athlonâ„¢ II, hard drives ranging from 250GB to 500GB and Toshiba’s popular Fusion Finish. Starting prices range from $504.99 to $579.99 MSRP.

Ultra Thin: Satellite T100 Series

Also to include Windows 7 Home Premium are Toshiba’s recently announced ultra-thin Satellite T100 Series laptops (starting at $449.99 MSRP¹), which offer the performance, flexibility and functionality of a standard-sized laptop, yet in a highly portable package.

More information on the Satellite T100 Series

Toshiba Cuts The Crap For a Faster Boot! is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

When Xavier was at the Intel Developer Forum yesterday he had a chance to see a cool new bit of tech from Phoenix Technologies that makes booting your computer faster. How fast is it? Well in case you miss it in the video below the bios boot screen is visible for about a second and Windows 7 is running within 13 seconds…from a cold boot.

The new technology takes the BIOS boot screen you normally see, which gives you system stats and a little logo, and replaces it with a 1 second boot process getting you to work faster. The demo is running on a Lenovo T400s laptop and a tweaked installation of Windows 7, but it is still a very impressive startup time. All this speed makes me wonder what role “Instant On” software like Hyperspace will play when you can get to Windows 7 in less than 15 seconds.

The new technology works thanks to a UEFI-based BIOS known as SecureCore Tiano which manufacturers will be able to use in their upcoming laptops.

Sure this isn’t a wirelessly charging netbook, a massive breakthrough in battery technology or something similar but it is cool technology that is ready to address one of the biggest complaints mobile users have; slow startup times.

The only thing I can’t figure out is how I’m going to be able to hit F2 for BIOS options in a 1 second window!

via GottaBeMobile.com

Introducing The One Second Boot Screen! (video) is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.