Systemax intros budget 15-inch Core 2 Duo laptop

PC vendor Systemax has launched a major overhaul of its low-cost Pursuit line that drastically slims down the design while maintaining a genuine performance boost. While considerably sleeker and lower-profile than the earlier model, the updated 15.4-inch widescreen system's 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo can provide as much as a 20% increase in speed over the 1.6GHz Core Duo model it replaces, Systemax claims. It maintains the same 1GB of memory and 80GB hard drive of its predecessor but adds features seldom seen in its price class, such as a 1.3-megapixel webcam and a DVD rewriter. Notably, the system also ships preinstalled with Windows XP Professional and will get a free upgrade to Windows Vista Business when the future OS is released in January. Three USB ports, a FireWire port, and video-out for both S-video and VGA connections provide support for the new Pursuit as a desktop replacement. Systemax plans to ship the revised model soon for $1,000, matching the price of the outgoing version. Click through for a full-sized image.