Samsung + Sandy Bridge

Hi does anyone know when to expect Samsung Sandy Bridge processor notebooks in the UK?

I'm about to take the plunge and buy a R780 i3 but I'm still wondering whether to hold off and possibly wait for a R780 i3-2330 version.

Although I'm not entirely sure that the R780 will continue to be made once Sandy Bridge comes out.

Any ideas on release dates?

 

I think the official release date for Sandybridge is late February. I don't know what, if any, products Samsung will be offering at that time. One way to try and forecast what is happening is to rummage through the Samsung downloads site. In the past, new models tended to get onto the downloads site once they started production. This could be a month before reaching the shelves assuming that new models get airfreighted. The manuals on the download site also provide some useful info about what the new models contain although the specifications tend to be very broad (Samsung give their regional marketing offices a lot of choice about what to order from the factory).

Sandybridge offers a substantial improvement in the performance of the Intel graphics. The increase in the CPU performance is somewhat less. Notebookcheck's estimated rankings are here. Sandybridge does not include USB 3.0 support. That's not to say it won't be included in the new notebooks, but Samsung would need to add another chip.

John