Intel’s “Centrino 2” blasts off into a notebook near you at last

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 16 July 2008 11:18

Opinion and Analysis

I asked Philip Cronin, Intel Australia’s General Manager, about WiMAX, and he explained that WiMAX was proceeding in the US, Japan and the UK on the 2.5Ghz spectrum, with companies such as Clearwire and Sprint in the US busily working away on its WiMAX network.

With these big markets in play, Cronin said that Intel is focusing its WiMAX efforts there first, as Australia’s WiMAX networks will run on the 2.3GHz frequency, not the 2.5Ghz used elsewhere.

When I asked what this specifically meant for the introduction of WiMAX in Australia, Cronin responded that a mid-2009 timeframe was what he was looking at for Australian WiMAX, and in the meantime users had the choice of Wi-Fi a/b/g/n solutions and 3.5G broadband solutions as well.

I then asked if Australian notebooks would come with a dual-band WiMAX solution, offering 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz compatibility for global roaming capability, with Cronin saying that 2.3GHz compatibility would be offered for the local market first, although dual-band solutions would come in the future, although anyone travelling overseas would still have regular Wi-Fi at their disposal, plus whatever 3.5G broadband connectivity they were already using.

So... if you’re in the market for a new notebook computer, getting one with a Centrino 2 platform inside promises (as always) the fastest performance, longer battery life, stutter-free HD video playback, faster wireless and thinner and lighter designs, or so Intel’s demonstrations all showed. It’s something that will be thoroughly benchtested over the coming weeks by the tech press across to world to ensure that Intel’s marketing hype lives up to reality.

But it’s also obvious that as retailers seek to clear out stocks of older “Centrino 1” platforms, there should be some great clearance deals that will still mean notebooks with plenty of everyday power at what should be great prices, putting pressure on the already inexpensive $700 notebook segment often powered by Celeron on “Pentium Dual Core” processors, instead of the faster Core 2 Duo processors.

So... choose wisely when buying a new notebook, carefully compare the prices of “Centrino 2” powered models with any clearance models and if Centrino 2 models aren’t much more expensive, go for one of those instead so you’re not buying 2007 technology half way through 2008!