Dell executives at the firm's Dell Storage Forum on Wednesday hinted how solid state drive (SSD) technology could rewrite the rules of enterprise storage, indicating the possible direction future products might take.

Darren Thomas, vice president and general manager for global storage at Dell, said that Flash storage "opens up a whole new realm of possibilities", and described it as the "most exciting technology" that Dell has under development.

While Flash SSDs offer much faster performance than conventional hard drives, they are also much costlier, typically restricting their use to applications where performance is critical.

Enterprise-grade SSDs have been finding their way into datacentres for a while as the top end of the storage hierarchy, either replacing 15,000rpm hard drives at the Tier 1 level, or being used to create hybrid drives with built-in Flash to cache the data.

Now, some vendors are starting to experiment with Flash storage connected to servers through the PCI Express bus, rather than a storage interface such as Sata or Serial-attached SCSI (SaS).

Dell describes this as "Tier 0 or even Tier -1" storage, and said it could potentially deliver a huge boost to the most demanding applications, such as holding transaction logs for a database.

However, the company still sees a place for conventional hard drives lower down in the hierarchy.

"Sata will be around for a long time in my opinion, as people will continue to need low-cost disk drives," said Brett Roscoe, executive director of Dell's PowerVault and Data Management division.

LAS VEGAS: Research In Motion has made a bid to improve the fortunes of the PlayBook tablet by adding several key productivity features to the platform.

Among the most impressive new components in the PlayBook OS 2.0 is the contact system. While users can still manually enter contact info, the PlayBook is now also able to gather and organise information automatically. Services such as Twitter and LinkedIn can connect with the PlayBook and update a user profile directly to the tablet.

The result of this is something of a small dossier on many contacts. When looking for information on a colleague or trying to connect with a possible client or business contact this can save time in researching and data-mining before meetings.

This, however, depends on the user having full and active profiles on sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Without that cooperation from contacts, the contact page becomes a rather boring and empty window. It is also a feature best suited for business. RIM has been dogged in the past by its reputation as a business-only company, and this feature will do little to win over customers who first and foremost want a fun and enjoyable personal device.

Another interesting feature is the revamped scheduling system. While it might not seem like a big breakthrough, the presentation of the calendar itself is quite useful and impressive.

Small numbers indicate days where few appointments have been scheduled, while large numbers indicate days that have little free time left. With a quick glance, you can now tell when you should book that dentist appointment and when you should opt for a quick lunch at the desk.

For more detail on a day's plan, the Playbook sports a handy side menu. In addition to seeing how full a day is, you can view who the appointment is with and bring up contact information and messaging boxes directly from the calendar.

While the Playbook OS update may not contain any radical redesigns that make people forget about the likes of iOS and Android, it does contain some very nice productivity improvements which will appeal to BlackBerry veterans and enterprise users.

Lenovo will be the first manufacturer to ship a smartphone with Intel's Medfield processor, a surprise considering the firm's lack of experience in the handheld market.

The K800 is a large high-end device that sports an angular frame, much like Lenovo's ThinkPad range. One of the best features is the 4.5in display with a resolution of 1280x720. We found the video playback was very vibrant and the screen was a good size.

With a thickness of 10mm, the device appears quite chunky compared to other handsets on the market such as the Samsung Galaxy S II and the forthcoming Huawei Ascend PS 1.

The K800 was running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with a unique overlay. On first glance it didn't even look like the device was running Android. However, we found this to be quite user friendly. Lenovo expects to upgrade the device to Ice Cream Sandwich.

On the home screen there are shortcuts that allow you to access calls, messages, IMs and mails. In the middle is an icon to view contacts. It's not too fancy, and there are options to customise this so we like it. However, questions will remain over how the overlay will impact battery performance. From experience we have seen overlays such as HTC Sense drain a lot of juice.

Performance of the device was very snappy with the Intel Atom Medfield chip running at 1.6GHz and providing more than enough grunt to power applications.
Lenovo provides 16GB of internal memory, but it looks like there wil not be any micro SD support.

It remains to be seen whether the K800 will make it to western markets. We can't help but feel that Intel's reference smartphone is more likely to make an appearance in the UK than this device.

LAS VEGAS: Panasonic aims to provide business users with rugged and durable Android tablet, which is set to launch later this year.

The device sports a white bezel with a black trim and the first thing we noticed was that it was quite heavy to hold in one hand - and seemed to weigh abit more than the 970g touted.

The Toughpad has a 10.1in display with a resolution of 1,024x768. Another feature that is immediately noticeable is the matte finish on the screen, which gives it quite a dull appearance, but makes it easy to view in bright lighting condition. We found the screen responded well to hand gestures and input from the included stylus. The hard buttons along the bottom were a bit awkward to press, but screen will be used to navigate most of the time so this isn't too much of a problem.

Panasonic will ship the device with Android Honeycomb 3.2, and it isexpected to be upgradeable to Ice Cream Sandwich after release. The tablet will be powered by a Marvell 1.2GHz dual-core processor, which comes with a system-on-a-chip FIPS 140-2 level 2 security. This will give it an advantage over regular tablets such as the iPad 2, and be especially attractive to those who want to store confidential information.

Ports include micro HDMI, micro SD and micro USB slots and these are sealed away tightly on the back along with the battery. The manufacturer touts a 10-hour battery life, and Panasonic will allow the cell to be replaced.

Panasonic wasn't keen for us to drop test the device, claiming that it was a hand built prototype. However, the firm is confident that the tablet will be able to survice drops onto hard surfaces from heights of up to 4 feet and will offer a three year warranty to back up its claims.

The Toughpad is set to launch in spring 2012, and it is expected to retail at €850 + VAT for the standard model and €999 + VAT for the 3G edition.

LAS VEGAS: The Transformer Prime is set to drop in the UK on 12 January and will be packing Nvidia's quad-core 1.3GHz Tegra 3 processor.

The sequel to the critically acclaimed Asus Eee Pad Transformer, the Prime has all the making of being another excellent hybrid tablet.

Asus has stuck with the 10.1in screen size, but has upgraded the display to so it is now has Super IPS+ technology. The display is crisp and colours are vibrant even in low light settings. The device has an outdoor setting that aims to make it easier to view content outdoors, and we look forward to testing this.

In terms of design, the Prime is stunning. The 8.3mm chassis is wafer thin and the tablet feels much lighter than the 586g. Asus seems to have hit the jackpot with weight distribution as we found it very easy to hold the device in one hand.

Nvidia has been bigging up its quad-core Tegra 3 processor, so expectations about the performance of the device were high. The chip designer wasn't over-egging its claims as the Prime is one of the fastest and smoothest devices we have handled.

Transition between applications is instantaneously and the device is able to playback HD video effortlessly. The Tegra 3 processor is also going to improve battery life, with the firm claiming 12 hours for the tablet, and 18 hours when it is docked.

Asus has included most of the major ports that you would expect in laptop. The tablet chassis includes HDMI output and a micro SD card slot. The dock features a USB 2.0 port and SD card reader.

The only real disappointing feature was the dock - as we found that the trackpad to be a big flimsy and the letters on the keyboard didn't have as much flex as we would like. On the plus side we do love the way the tablet clips into the dock and it can be carried as a netbook.

With Asus confirming that the 7in Nvidia Tegra 3 tablet will not be made available in the UK, the 10in hybrid could prove to be a popular alternative. The Prime is set to launch in the UK on the 12 January priced at around £400. V3 will post a video demo and full review soon.

LAS VEGAS: Samsung launched the second generation Series 9 laptop at CES in an effort to take on the MacBook Air and a raft of ultrabooks on the horizon.

The 13in Series 9 weighs 1.16kg, making it very lightweight. The 12.9mm chassis houses a 13in IPS display with a 1600x900 resolution. The screen also packs a very impressive brightness of 400nits. Despite being extremely thin and light, we found the device to be quite sturdy.

Samsung offers a choice of Core i5 and Core i7 processors and up to 8GB of memory. The inclusion of a 256GB SSD allows for very fast resume times. The laptop will boot from deep hibernation in 9.8 seconds and wake up in 1.4 seconds.

A Samsung spokesperson also told V3 that the device has been built to ensure users don't lose any work. Even if users find they have run out of battery, the laptop will retain some charge to power the RAM and allow users to restart the device from where they left off when it is plugged in. However, it is unclear exactly how long the RAM will remain charged for.

We weren't too impressed by the keyboard during our hands on test. The keys felt far too shallow, a problem that has plagued many a device – even the MacBook Air.

Connectivity was always going to be limited with the dimensions available. The 13in Series 9 features a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, a headphone/microphone jack and an SD card slot. Samsung has also squeezed in an Ethernet port, as well as HDMI and VGA connectors.

Samsung claims the battery will last around six hours on the 13in, which is not quite all day usage, but will be long enough for most people.

Exact release date and pricing is expected to be announced soon.

LAS VEGAS: Sony aims to get back on track in the mobile market with the launch of the Xperia S handset, a high-end device running the Android Gingerbread OS.

Sony has chosen a simple design, with the only distinguishing feature being a transparent stripe that runs along the bottom of the device. Three touch-sensitive buttons sit directly above this LED illuminated strip and, although it looks nice, we had to resist the urge to keep prodding it.

The standout feature on the handset is the 4.3in HD screen that boasts a 1280x720 resolution. It looks impressive and when we flicked through pictures and watched a HD video, the colour reproduction and playback were excellent.

The device is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260 processor, with 1GB of RAM. We found responsiveness to be smooth, but the overlay that Sony has used could bring some lag with it during everyday use.

Other key features include a 12-megapixel, auto-focus camera with an Exmor sensor and 1080p video recording capabilities. Users are also able to take pictures directly from standby mode with a long press of the camera button.

The handset packs a 1,750mAh battery, but it remains to be seen if this is enough to provide reasonable uptime. Connectivity comes in the form of aGPS, Bluetooth and WiFi. The device is also NFC-enabled, which will come into its own when the infrastructure is in place.

We were disappointed that the device will ship with Android Gingerbread, but Sony confirmed that an update to Ice Cream Sandwich is expected in the first quarter.

It remains to be seen whether the device will carry the Sony branding or will be shipped with the Sony Ericsson moniker. The name change is subject to legal paperwork and it is likely that it will carry the current branding. There is no word yet on pricing either, but it is expected to be the same price as other high-end Android handsets.

LAS VEGAS: Intel's prototype smartphone is not as eye-catching as some of the other devices on display at CES, but is a positive step for the chip manufacturer as it has yet to find its feet in the mobile market.

The Intel design looked like a cross between an iPhone 4S and a Samsung Galaxy S II. Weighing in at around the 130g mark, the device felt lighter and had a block design. Although it was far from ugly, it didn't look as sleek as the Huawei Ascend PS 1, unveiled earlier at the show.

The Intel prototype device boasted a 4.03in display a 1024x600 resolution, but the key factor was that the Android handset was running on a 32nm X86-based chip in the form of the Intel Atom Z2460 Medfield processor 1.6GHz single core processor.

Performance of the handset was smooth thanks to the Intel's graphics media accelerator for video and all Android apps ran on the device. It will be interesting to see just how fast real world performance is compared to dual-core devices.

We had a quick play with Modern Combat 2 and the device rendered detailed backgrounds with minimal lag.

On the back was an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p capabilities, and a 1.3-megapixel snapper was located on the front for video calling. The device also included micro-USB and HDMI connections. Additional features included a dedicated camera button, volume rockers and most interestingly, a micro-SIM slot.

Intel is not expected to bring this to market on its own - the design is just a "reference point" for manufacturers. A manufacturer partnership announcement is expected to be made by Paul Otellini during his keynote, which starts at 4:30(PST)/12:30am(GMT).