You can consider this as the next logical step – integrating the infrared transmitter for the 3D Vision shutter glasses inside the frame of the laptop’s screen, so that you will no longer need to carry with you a separate transmitter, just the glasses. And Asus just did that in their updated G51JX-3DE gaming laptop with integrated 120Hz LCD panel that is already starting to hit the market, so you can purchase it even at the moment should you decide you need a 3D capable notebook.
Apart for the integration of the Nvidia IR transmitter for the active shutter glasses there are not a lot of changes as compared to the previous versions of the G51 series with 3D capabilities. In this 15.6-Inch laptop you get a 1366×768 LED-backlit 120Hz LCD display, Intel i7-720QM Quad-Core processor at 1.6 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz, Nvidia 360M GTS graphic card with 1GB DDR5 video memory, 500GB 7200RPM hard drive, Blu-Ray Combo Drive which can be used for Blu-ray 3D movies playback with the right software player, 6GB DDR3 1066MHz system memory along with Windows Home Premium 64-bit Operating System.
The good news is that Asus won’t be the first and only one to integrate the IR transmitter inside the laptop, others will do the same and there is some information going around that Acer will very soon also have a new 3D-capable 3D Vision laptop with integrated IR transmitter too, but we’ll have to wait and see if it turns out true.
Toshiba has announced its first 3D-capable laptop and it is called Toshiba Dynabook TX/98MBL for the Japanese market and Toshiba Satellite A665 in Europe (and maybe in other regions). The laptop is equipped with a 120Hz LCD panel and uses Nvidia’s 3D Vision active shutter glasses to provide stereoscopic 3D capabilities. Have in mind that Toshiba Satellite A665 will come in two versions, one without 3D capabilities and one with, so you have to be careful should you decide to go for it in order not to get the non-3D instead of the 3D-capable model. Both models should be available on the market during the third quarter of 2010 throughout Europe and Middle East, so Asus G51J/G51Jx 3D is still the only available mobile solution for 3D Vision for the moment that is currently on the market and it will be for some more time.
Toshiba Satellite A665 is using 15.6″ 120Hz LCD panel with LED backlight, resolution of 1366×768 pixels and 200 cd/m2 brightness which should be OK for a mobile solution. Especially having in mind that the laptop will be based on a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 350M GPU with 96 stream processors (CUDA cores) and 128-bit memory bus. The processor will be mobile Quad Core Intel Core i7, probably the i7-740QM (mentioned in the Japanese market model) which operates on 1.73GHz by default, but when using turbo boost can go up to 2.93GHz. So it should not be very different from what Asus is currently offering with their G51J 3D gaming laptops in terms of performance, and we can only hope to get better quality from Toshiba – brighter display, higher viewing angles and less ghosting.
Toshiba Satellite A665 3D Vision model specifications:
- Intel Core i7 (Quad Core)
- RAM: up to 8 GB DDR3 (1066 MHz)
- 2.5″ HDD up to 750 GB (as of Aug. 2010) with HDD 3D impact sensor
- 39.6cm (15.6”) TruBrite HD display (120 Hz) with LED backlighting, 1366×768 pixels(16:9), 200 cd/m2
- Dedicated graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 350M, 1GB VRAM
- Blu-ray Disc rewritable drive, ready for playback of Blu-ray 3D Disc or DVD Super Multi drive (Double Layer)
- Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, WLAN (802.11 b/g/n), Gigabit Ethernet LAN
- 3 x USB 2.0, 1x eSATA / USB combo port with Sleep-and-Charge and Multi-Card Reader, HDMI
- 1.3 MPixel Webcam with Face Recognition
- Sound: Harman Kardon stereo speakers, Line-In with Sleep-and-Music function, Dolby Advanced Audio
- Analog and DVB-T hybrid TV Tuner
- Toshiba Resolution+, Toshiba Media Controller, Toshiba LifeSpace, Toshiba PC Health Monitor
- Size: 380.5mm x 254mm x 28mm (front) / 35.6 mm (rear)
- OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit)
- ENERGY STAR 5.0 qualified.
I’m starting with Nvidia as they are are probably going to be very active about 3D during Computex 2010. The first announcement from them is the new GeForce GTX 465 GPU and the availability of cards based on it from ASUS, EVGA, Galaxy, MSI, Palit, PNY, Zotac and others with an estimated retail price of $279 USD. Amazon is already taking pre-orders for GTX 465 from Asus and Evga, but Newegg is a bit ahead with GeForce GTX 465 available from MSI, PNY, Gigabyte, EVGA, Palit, Zotac and Asus. The new GTX 465 GPUs come with 352 CUDA cores (stream processors), 1024 MB GDDR5 video memory with 256-bit memory bus and they can be a good more affordable alternative to GTX 480 and GTX 470 for stereo 3D gaming as they still pack quite a lot of processing power.
Until now, getting the NVIDIA 3D Vision experience was mostly for the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) enthusiasts who could purchase a 120Hz, 3D Vision-Ready certified display, install a suitable GeForce graphics card, add the 3D Vision shutter glasses kit and install all of the drivers. But today at Computex during his keynote CEO of NVIDIA Jensen Huang announced the creation of the new 3D PC category, so that consumers can buy a completely configured 3D PC and get a 3D experience right out of the box. And this idea seems to be getting a broad industry support from companies like Asus, Acer, Dell, LG, Toshiba, ViewSonic and many system builders. The prices for the 3D PCs will begin at about $1,500 USD and that price will include everything that you need: 120Hz monitor, 3D shutter glasses and pre-installed drivers. This is about half the price of a new 3D HDTV, making it the least expensive way to enjoy 3D content at home, but if you do purchase a 3D TV later (or if you already have one) you’ll be able to connect your 3D PC to it via HDMI 1.4 to enjoy your stereoscopic 3D content on the big screen using the Nvidia 3DTV Play software.
Another very interesting announcement came from Microsoft who announced that their product Silverlight (an alternative to Adobe’s Flash), a web content development platform now supports streaming 3D content over the web to NVIDIA 3D Vision-equipped computers. NVIDIA and Microsoft also demonstrated a high definition stereo 3D music video (We Are The World 3D) streamed over the internet, but we are expecting to get more details about that very soon.
ASUS is demonstrating its new 15.6″ Asus ROG G53 3D gaming laptop (with 120Hz LCD panel) that has full support for 3D gaming and the new HDMI 1.4 output (does not come bundled with 3D Vision glasses), a new 17.3″ Asus ROG G73Jw 3D-ready laptop that may come with the recently announced GTX 480M GPU combined with a 1080p 120Hz LCD panel. As well as the Asus G51Jx-EE 3D-ready laptop that probably has the Nvidia IR transmitter integrated to support the 3D Vision active shutter glasses. The Asus Eee Top ET2400 All-in-One with 3D capabilities was also shown as wells the Asus CD5390 PC said to be the “world’s most powerful gaming solution,” equipped with two GeForce GTX 480 in SLI and ready for a 3D Vision Surround setup. And we’ll probably also see the 23″ Asus VG236H and 27″ Asus PG276H 3D-ready 120Hz monitors too.
MSI is introducing their 24″ Wind Top AE2420 All-in-one PC with 3D support, a built in 120Hz LCD Full HD panel and touchscreen support (with multi-touch functionality). The PC comes bundled with a pair of active shutter glasses for the 3D functionality, but the more interesting thing is that the GPU inside is ATI Mobility Radeon HD5730. And this raised the interesting question if this will be one of the first implementations with the anticipated shutter glasses from BitCauldron and ATI stereo 3D support? According to MSI their Wind Top AE2420 3D comes with MSI’s exclusive 3D Infinity shutter glasses (whatever they are) and there also seems to be a built-in function for converting 2D videos in to stereo 3D.
Cyberlink will be showcasing Blu-ray 3D Movie Playback that is expected to be available very soon (via a free update) in the PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D software player and the 2D-to-3D DVD Video conversion technology that is already available in the product. Corel WinDVD Pro 2010 with 3D Blu-ray will also be demonstrated at Computex, as the company just announced that its DVD playback software has received Blu-ray 3D certification from the Blu-ray Disc Association. The customers who already own Corel WinDVD Pro 2010 will receive the new 3D capabilities with a free update later this year, so we are still out of luck with no Blu-ray 3D software player actually available on the market yet…
, but Newegg is a bit ahead with
