Samsung shiny laptops to sport next-gen Nvidia GPU

Samsung has announced a pair of glossy black laptops, the South Korean giant's bid to build a look as iconic as Apple's MacBook machines and the original IBM - now Lenovo - ThinkPad. Into the bargain, it let slip Nvidia's GeForce Go 8000 GPU. Whoops.

Both notebooks - the Q45 and the R70 - contain Intel Core 2 Duo processors, up to 2GB of 667MHz DDR 2 memory, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi; a six-in-one memory card reader; and Samsung's AVS system, which provides access to media content stored on the machine even when it hasn't been started up.

The Q45 is based around a 12.1in, 1280 x 800 display driven by an as-yet-unannounced integrated Intel graphics core - almost certainly the GMA3000, part of the upcoming 'Santa Rosa' version of Centrino. Expect it to be offered with 3G HSDPA connectivity too.

The R70 sports a 15.4in display, either a 1280 x 800 model or a 1680 x 1050 job. More interesting is its graphics chip: an Nvidia GeForce 8000M, according to Samsung - a chip Nvidia itself has yet to announce.

It will have to do so soon. Samsung expects the R70 to go on sale early in May - pretty much when Santa Rosa is due to launch - though it was more vague about the Q45, which it said would become available "sometime during the first half of the year".

Like the existing R20, the Q45 and the R70 will feature a casing containing particles of silver embedded in the keyboard and the palm rest, the better to prevent nasty build-ups of bacteria in said locations. Or you could wash your hands more regularly...