14 DAY TRIAL // Itek is an Italian company that talked about a pretty revolutionary concept last year, which implied offering customers the opportunity to create their own laptop from scratch.
Now the idea has become reality and the company is offering a bare bone notebook which comes completely devoid of hardware with the exception of the motherboard and the display, available in 11-,14-,15- and 17-inches (via Notebook Italia).
Itek aims to provide a tremendous level of flexibility by letting users build they own notebooks, corresponding to their particular needs. Granting users maximum configuration capabilities will ensure customers can create the perfect balance between performance and cost.
Itek's outer shells come boasting an elegant, clear look, being made of aluminum alloy. Now let’s see what options are being provided. One can build a base model using an 11.6-inch display fitted with a HD panel and an Intel Celeron 1.80 GHz 1037U processor coupled with 8GB of DDR3 RAM. Traditional hard disk drives or solid state drives can also be accommodated.
Furthermore, users can opt for 3USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, VGA, audio jacks for headphones and microphone, plug in for the Ethernet LAN and 9-in-1 reader (MMC / RSMMC / SD / MiniSD / SDHC / SDXC / MS / MS Pro / MS Duo). Modules 10/100 LAN, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 can complete the picture overall.
The choice is even more varied if you go for a 14-inch HD screen. We’re talking processors, so you’ll be able to have either Intel Celeron, Pentium or Core (up to Core i7-4702MQ) fitted with up to 16GB of RAM. There’s also support for mSATA and SATA drives and an optical drive.
Moving on to the 15.6-inch option, customers get to choose between HD or Full HD option, while everything else is the same as with the 11.6-incher, except there’s an extra USB port.
Last but not least, the 17.3-inch lappy boasts an HD+ resolution and can be configured with a host of powerful processors, including the Core i3-4000M clocked at 2.40GHz or Core i7-4900MQ clocked at 2.80GHz. Apart from that, the specifications are similar to the 15-incher, except the extra USB port turns into an eSATA.
Pricing will vary greatly for these models, but if you buy one as a bare bone you can pick it up starting with €275 / $382.
