New ultra-light notebook shown at Intel keynote

2 June 2009 18:32 GMT / By Lars-Göran Nilsson

Ultra-light notebooks were the message from Intel today during its keynote speech and ECS was one of many manufacturers that have embraced Intel’s new philosophy. ECS is one of three companies that we saw using this design and we expect it turn up under a variety of brands once it becomes available.

The keyboard of ECS' Falcon T30IL is one of the features that stand out as soon as you look at this notebook, as although it shares some similarities with the keyboard that Apple’s MacBooks have, it has a very distinct design unlike anything we’ve seen before. During the brief period of time we had to play with the Falcon T30IL, we have to say that they keyboard felt very good to type on.

Feature wise you’re looking at the new ultra low power Core 2 Duo
SL9300 processor, which is the fastest low power model on offer from Intel. You also get integrated Intel graphics with HD video playback support and HDMI output. The 13.3-inch display has a native resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and it's one of the thinnest notebook displays we’ve ever come across. The Falcon T30IL only weighs 1.5kg, but this is with a low capacity battery and the high capacity battery would add extra weight.

Two things that we didn’t like about the Falcon T30IL is the lack of a
built-in 3G modem and the fact that it only seemed to sport a single
USB 2.0 port and headphone jack, with no other visible ports. Overall it’s still a very attractive notebook, no matter what brand it will be sold under and we’re looking forward to getting our hands on a retail sample for a closer inspection.