Deal of the Week: HP’s New TouchPad, Lenovo 14-inch Gaming Laptop, Monitors & Apps for Cheap

It’s summer 2011 and the battle for the king of tablets just got even more heated.  As announced back in February, HP has released their webOS based TouchPad tablet, bringing the popular underdog mobile OS platform to the tablet world.  This is great news for Pre and webOS fans everywhere as the platform gets a shot at making a comeback (although is it a comeback if you never technically left?).

HP TouchPad for webOS Fans

For the webOS loyalist, HP is offering a nice incentive to push along some early adopters for this newly released tablet.  Through the month of July, owners of a Palm Pre, Pre Plus, Pixi, and Pixi Plus gets a $50 rebate on the 32GB model of the HP TouchPad.  If you’re one of these owners in the U.S. and Canada, you’ve probably already received the email instruction on how to get your rebate.

The new TouchPad has slightly more attractive specs than most of the current generation tablets on the market.  Sporting a dual-core 1.2Ghz Snapdragon, the TouchPad comes equipped with a faster processor and a healthy 1GB of system RAM.  Beyond the beefy CPU, the TouchPad’s other highlights are HP’s Beat Audio namesake and the quality speakers that comes with the unit.  By far from most reviewers and user impressions, the TouchPad has one of the best external speakers in the tablet market.

Of course, beyond the hardware side of things, you get the beloved webOS 3.0, a great mobile OS solution with a cult-like following.  The popular card view of multitasking ability is of course built into the TouchPad.  Swiping from program to program works well and seamless, and whenever a new notification or additional windows appear for a program, they “stack” into the card slot, giving you easy ability to organize and multitask.

If you’re a Facebook fanboy/girl, you’ll appreciate the dedicated custom Facebook app built by HP/Palm (with guiding hand and approval from Facebook).  This app is by far much better than those you’ll find in most mobile phones/tablets currently out in the market, the panels are intuitive to browse and status updates are easy to read and stream with.  All in all, a good alternative for those who’s looking for something different than an iPad.

Lenovo Y470 Gaming Laptop

The very popular Lenovo’s Y470 gaming laptop is on sale this week at the lowest price we’ve seen yet. One of the best perk in this 14-inch laptop is the surprisingly beefy GPU, in the form of the GeForce GT 550M.  The 550M comes with DDR3 video RAM with memory speed clocking in at 900 Mhz, core clock at 740 Mhz, and the shader core blazes along at 1.4 Ghz.

All-in-all, with the fast mid-range GT 550M and selections from the 2nd Gen i3 to i7 processor, the Y470 can power through any modern games without a sweat.  Crysis 2 at 720p settings can chug along just fine at high details setting and other similar graphically intensive games such as Bad Company 2.

Other perks from modern GPUs such as this is superb video hardware decode support via Nvidia’s PureVideo HD, letting your CPU off the hook so you can continue to multitask while multiple 1080p clips are streaming in the background. If you’re gamer and you’re looking for a relatively portable laptop (weighs in at 4.85 lb) that  can keep up with the software, the Y470 is a decent choice with its respectable configurations and options.

Computer Monitor Deals:

Hanns-G 27.5-inch LCD Monitor

This extremely popular Hanns-G 28″ class monitor is on a big sale at Newegg, being a very popular model among the cost conscious computer buyers that wants a big screen at a budget price.  With well over 200 positive reviews from buyers, this Hanns-G monitor has been dropping in price from its previous levels of around $300 to now at around $230.  Amazing price for a full 1920 x 1080 resolution monitor with fast response rate and a decent panel.

Asus 21.-5-inch 2ms Response Rate LCD Monitor

If size isn’t your concern and all you’re looking for is a decent monitor with full HD resolution at a good price, this Asus 21.-5inch can also be a great fit.  One of the most popular Asus model out there, you’ll find it for around $140 after rebate these days.  While it doesn’t have a gimmicky LED-backlit marketing, you still get a great panel with very high contrast ratio and great color output (for the price).

This Week’s Apps Deals:

Battle Zone 3D King of the Hill for iOS

Here’s a pretty rare deal.  The Battle Zone tank game usually goes for a steep $5.99 (funny how if an app cost more than 99 cents we all get so riled up), but you can snag it now for free at a limited time at the iTunes store.  The game looks to have okay review thus far, especially consider its previous price tag!

SUDOKU for iOS

Sudoku fans rejoice!  This latest iOS game joins the already crowded field of Sodoku apps.  But this particular version is light weight, easy to navigate, and its friendly and clean design makes playing the game a breeze.  Best of all, this Sodoku game is currently FREE for a limited time!