January 26, 2013
Dell Latitude E6330 PC Notebook Reivew
Our review model, which costs £1,281 as configured (on a semi-permanent dicsount from £1,73
, has a third-generation Intel Core i7-3520 processor, 6GB of RAM, and a 128GB solid-state drive. The Latitude E6330 also sports a dual-pointing backlit keyboard, an Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 wireless mini card, and a DVD-RW drive. Like many business-oriented laptops, the Latitude E6330 can be optionally fitted with 3G or 4G networking service, though our review unit did not come with either of these. The E6330 runs the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional.
The laptop's interior isn't very stylish, but it is businesslike. A thick, matte-black plastic bevel frames the matte screen. The wrist-rest area is made of a soft rubbery material, and the keyboard is slightly indented and surrounded by a brushed-aluminum border. On the left side of the keyboard are small lights that indicate Wi-Fi connectivity and whether the
Dell Latitude E6430s battery is charging, and on the right side are volume-up, volume-down, and mute buttons. The power button is located above the keyboard, on the right side.
Get the performance you need in a compact and lightweight laptop. The Latitude E6330 monitor has a 13.3-inch display and is designed for the purpose of being on the move.
The keyboard features pseudo-island-style keys, or keys that are not completely separated but have flat tops. The keys are slightly curved and offer excellent tactile feedback, which makes them excellent for typing on. The orange-accented keyboard is backlit and has a
Dell Latitude E6230 battery spill-proof design (holes on the bottom of the machine allow any spilled liquid to run right through it).
The Latitude E6330 sports a 13.3-inch matte LED-backlit display with a native resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. Business-oriented laptops aren't expected to have breathtaking displays, but the E6330's screen is a little disappointing, even so. It's not very bright, even at its brightest setting, though the antiglare coating does help a tiny bit in brighter settings. The antiglare coating seems to do more harm than good, though, since fluctuations in display quality are noticeable when you move even slightly to the side. Color looks accurate but a little washed out, and HD video plays with lots of
Dell LATITUDE E6330 battery artifacting and stilted movement.
The Latitude E6330's 128GB SSD booted Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) in a modest 46 seconds, just 6 seconds faster than the category average. However, the drive took just 30 seconds to complete the LAPTOPFile Transfer test, which involves copying 4.97GB of mixed media files. That's a rate of 169.6 MBps, five times the category average.
Without any pricing to go on, the ultimate appeal of Dell’s Latitude E6320 hangs in the balance. But as a business laptop that manages to blend the indestructible feel of a rugged Panasonic Toughbook with the sex appeal of Apple’s MacBook, this year might see the Latitude series genuinely come of age.
The back houses an HDMI port, a Kensington lock slot and an Ethernet connector. The left side contains a SmartCard slot, a headphone/mic jack, a VGA port and a USB 2.0 port. Click to EnlargeThe 1.3-megapixel webcam provided sharp, noise-free images, even in low light. However, colors were bland and our face appeared shadowed, even when we were sitting in a well-lit room.
Our review model, which costs $1832 as configured, has a third-generation Intel Core i7-3520 processor, 6GB of RAM, and a 128GB solid-state drive. The Latitude E6330 also sports a dual-pointing backlit keyboard, an Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 wireless mini card, and a DVD-RW drive. Like many business-oriented laptops, the Latitude E6330 can be optionally fitted with 3G or 4G networking service, though our review unit did not come with either of these. The E6330 runs the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional.
The Latitude E6330 sports a 13.3-inch matte LED-backlit display with a native resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. Business-oriented laptops aren't expected to have breathtaking displays, but the E6330's screen is a little disappointing, even so. It's not very bright, even at its brightest setting, though the antiglare coating does help a tiny bit in brighter settings. The
Dell LATITUDE E6230 battery antiglare coating seems to do more harm than good, though, since fluctuations in display quality are noticeable when you move even slightly to the side. Color looks accurate but a little washed out, and HD video plays with lots of artifacting and stilted movement.
Thanks to the frugality of Intel’s Sandy Bridge platform,
Dell Latitude E6330 battery life even on this pre-production model was immensely promising. It’s clear Dell has had to sacrifice battery capacity to retain the E6320’s figure – the three-cell, 2,620mAh battery is hardly capacious – but with the battery lasting 3hr 45mins on a single charge in our light use battery tests, Sandy Bridge’s efficiency isn’t in any doubt. With optional six-cell batteries and clip-on nine-cell battery slices soon to be available as optional extras, as well as a three-cell battery which replaces the optical drive, we wouldn’t be surprised to see that figure stretch close to the 20-hour mark with a fully kitted out E6320.
The E6330 is housed in a sturdy, if not terribly fashionable, plastic chassis. The cover features a dark gray brushed-aluminum plate, which adds a little style to the otherwise mediocre design. Unfortunately, this aluminium plate is a fingerprint magnet. There's a mirrored Dell logo in the centre of the cover, and a matte-silver plastic border around the plate.
The Latitude’s tough-guy exterior looks and feels every inch the luxurious business laptop, and ergonomics are no exception. The twin touchpad and trackpoint is a winning combination, and the backlit keyboard is superb. The rigid chassis makes for zero flex in the keyboard’s base, while every keystroke finishes with a soft, padded thunk that feels great under the fingers.
By hitting Fn + right arrow, we were able to configure the keyboard's backlighting, choosing between five modes: off, 25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent and 100 percent brightness. Even at 100 percent, the light was not particularly bright, and it shined up from the crevices between the keys.
While it feels a bit heavy and expensive for average consumers to look into, the addition of the Tri-Metal casing and the impressive spec sheet may have folks thinking twice. This
Dell LATITUDE E6430s battery is perhaps one of the sexiest "rugged" laptops you'll find, and considering that even the keyboard is resistant to spills, we're fine with labeling it as such. For $1745, we expected the $99 NVIDIA NVS 5200M GPU option to be tossed in; the integrated GPU occasionally bottlenecks the overall performance of an otherwise aggressive machine. If you're lucky enough to have your IT manager put one of these on your desk, however, you can safely know that you have a pretty darn good gig.
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January 09, 2013
Review: Dell XPS 14 Laptop
Nowadays, the high-end laptop market is full of some pretty machines. Dell XPS 14, which belongs to Dell's ultrabook range, is one such laptop. But we have seen that getting aesthetics as well functionality right has proved a bit difficult for most laptop makers.
The base model of the XPS 14 will come with a 400-nit brightness 1600×900 display, an Intel Core i5 processor with HD 4000 GPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive. Just about everything can be configured, so you can bump the CPU up to a Core i7, the RAM up to 8GB, add in NVIDIA’s GT 630M GPU, and swap out the standard hard drive for a 512GB SSD at the top end. Ports for the laptop includes two USB 3.0, HDMI, DisplayPort, Ethernet, and an SD card slot. Overall thickness isn’t too bad at 0.81-inches, and all in all it weighs around 4.6lbs.
Whereas the XPS 14 was designed for portability and
Dell XPS L401x battery life, the XPS 15 is more focused on performance. The 15.6-inch model ships only in discrete graphics configurations with either Nvidia's GeForce GT 630M or 640M under the hood, up from last year's GT 525M. The cheapest variation comes stock with 6GB of RAM, whereas the mid-range and high-end versions come with either 8GB or 16GB. Storage ranges from the 500GB HDD/32GB SSD combo found in the XPS 14 to a full 1TB HDD with secondary 128GB SSD. Dell has also bumped up the screen quality, making 1920 x 1080 resolution standard across all models. Unlike its driveless sibling, the $1,299 and $1,399 XPS 14 ship with a DVD-RW drive, while the $1,699 and $1,999 configurations come standard with a read-only Blu-ray drive.
Dell's software bundle is fairly typical, including the starter edition of Office 2010 (with ad-supported, limited-functionality versions of Word and Excel), Skype, Windows Live Essentials, and the annoying 30-day trial of McAfee Security Center (annoying because you have to uninstall it to stop the constant appearance of pop-up nag windows), as well as Dell-branded webcam and online backup software.
Dell’s new 14 inch notebook is a thin and light laptop that has all the features you’d expect from an ultrabook — but one of those features is optional. In order to meet Intel’s requirements, an ultrabook has to have a solid state disk, but Dell is offering the XPS 14 with the choice of a SSD or a slower (and cheaper) spinning hard drive.
Thoughtful design.It’s a design that goes beyond beauty. Your
Dell XPS 17 battery is less than 1 inch (20.7mm) thin, built for maximum portability. Machined alumi:
Intel Core i7 3517U Processor 1.9GHz
8 GB DIMM RAM
500GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD and 32GB mSATA SSD
14-Inch Screen
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
After spending several days testing the Nvidia GeForce GT 630M-equipped laptop, we discovered the video game framerates on our particular notebook were extremely erratic, regardless of the game or configuration.
The speed and responsiveness that Ivy Bridge affords. Considering this isn't targeted towards the casual email checker or a video editor, the XPS 14 took everything I could throw at it and performed admirably. With 50 or so tabs open in Chrome (loaded with resource-heavy pages, mind you), along with Chrome and the machine was still able to play back an Vimeo video in full screen HD.
Back to Dell's promise. The Reader’s test by
Dell XPS 14 battery Eater simulates the reading of an e-book with minimal brightness, wireless modules turned off and the processor graphics active. With these settings the XPS 14 exceeds the manufacturer's claims and reaches the convincing 12 hours and 32 minutes. In everyday use the
Dell XPS 15 battery runtime is anywhere between 4 and 8 hours, depending on the load of the system.
The unit feels solidly build overall. We didn't experience any bending in the chassis (which is aluminium) or keyboard tray, and the hinges that hold the screen are strong. The lid did bend a little when we applied force to it, and this produced puddling on the screen, but it wasn't too bad. The Gorilla Glass protects the screen from the front, but the downside is that its glossy finish will reflect lights, which
Dell XPS L401x AC adapter can be very annoying unless you turn up the brightness. The screen is very bright on this notebook, and this will mitigate a lot of reflections. Be sure not to use the maximum screen brightness in a dark environment — we found it to be too bright and uncomfortable to look at . A lot of the time, we used the lowest brightness setting.
While the XPS 14 roughly performs twice as fast as the included Intel HD Graphics, it still couldn't manage our most forgiving test, Batman: Arkham Asylum at lowest detail, making us wonder why the 630M was included, at all. It is technically more capable, but not by a useful amount.
It doesn't come cheap, but if you're looking for performance on the move and don't want a chomped apple shape on the front of your laptop, the new
Dell XPS 14 battery is definitely worth checking out. Also weigh up the excellent Samsung Series 9 for around the same price.
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November 14, 2012
Lenovo ThinkPad W700 Review & Speces
The Lenovo W Series is a range of laptops aimed at the workstation market, with the Lenovo ThinkPad W700 (£3053 inc. VAT) being the
Lenovo ThinkPad W700 battery second model in the range. This machine is a hulking 4.3kg desktop replacement that has been designed with the professional photographer in mind.
Lenovo is offering hardware options which Apple isn't close to touching with their new W700. With the Lenovo W700, you can configure systems with quad-core processors, up to 8GB of memory, multiple hard drives in RAID, and Nvidia's latest lineup of mobile QuadroFX graphics processors, none of which are available on the PowerMac lineup today. Not only does the W700 offer what Apple can't, it also offers configuration options which are unique to the rest of the
Lenovo ThinkPad W520i AC adapter PC space as well.
Lenovo Thinkpad W700 is a 17-inch laptop designed for photographers. It’s a big monster due to the large display. The unit's 17in screen has a Full HD native resolution of 1920x1200 and is one of the W700's highlights. Not only are images displayed clearly and with great contrast, it has an effective colour calibration system that uses a series of small sensors above the digitiser and HueyPro software. The performance is perfect when running large graphic softwares like PhotoShop, Auto CAD, etc. So it could be the best laptop for photographer. With a workstation’s power (and price) in an understated package, this laptop is built for road-ready digital graphics artists.
The first of these is an embedded version of Pantone's Huey, which Lenovo says adjusts the color quality settings up to 60 percent more accurately than doing the job without it. It works with an on-screen utility and a tiny hardware
Lenovo ThinkPad T410i battery calibrator built into an area beside the trackpad buttons; you click a button and close the lid, and the calibrator does all the work. When finished, you can view the before-and-after settings. The changes produced by the calibrator were noticeable and, to my eye, correct.
Even an R50p keyboard still found in editorial use, which is already now an over 4 year old pro-device, but as the "low-priced" plastic edition, shows itself even after years of intensive use considerably more user-friendly and with a more pleasant type feel than the current keyboard of the W700 test sample at hand. Fortunately, they stayed loyal to the accustomed quality of trackpoint and touchpad. Both let themselves be employed perfectly and make even an unproblematic use of the notebook without an external mouse possible.
This machine manages to ï¬t in an Intel 2.53GHz Core 2 Quad processor without signs of growing hot to the touch. Overall, we found the performance of the ThinkPad W700 to be excellent. The Windows Experience Index (WEI) gives the user an
Lenovo ThinkPad W520 charger indication of how well his machine will run under Windows Vista. A typical machine will score 3.0, while the W700 ranks in at 5.9 – the highest score we've ever seen using WEI.
Although it is convenient to have a built-in digitiser with you when travelling, its very small size of 128(L)x80(W)mm greatly reduces its usefulness and makes it difficult to draw with; this isn't helped by the pen being too small. In spite of this, we found that our pen strokes were recognised with relatively good accuracy once we customised the settings and became used to it.
The Quado FX 3700M’s large 1GB frame buffer may make you think that it’s made for gaming, but many content creation apps actually need the large frame buffer more than games. While it’s not intended as a gaming part, it does OK but it won’t outpace the Gateway P-7811 FX gaming notebook and its GeForce 9800N GTS part. We also fired up Crysis and tried to push it at very high at 1920x1200 and the results weren’t pretty. It ran but we wouldn’t play the game that way. It’s better suited for playing Crysis at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 instead. The W700 is more than enough to play
Lenovo ThinkPad W701 charger Unreal Tournament 3 and is capable of 48 fps at 1920x1200 resolution. So while it’s capable of gaming, it probably doesn’t make sense to buy the W700 if that’s your only purpose. The Gateway P-7811 FX is a better fit and far cheaper.
A prominent role is assigned to the graphic card in the package of the Thinkpad W700. Lenovo offers two variations for the notebook. Either the Nvidia Quadro FX 2700M or the, in our test sample integrated, Quadro FX 3700M. This, optimized and certified for CAD applications, graphic card, in regards to its architecture is equivalent to the Geforce 9800M GTX but offers 128 Shader units
The architecture is also closely related to the current Geforce GTX 280M, which is also based on the G92 core but is manufactured in the 55 nanometer process (FX 3700 – 65 nm).
Finally, a mobile workstation made for professional photographers! The Lenovo ThinkPad W700 is unlike any other workstation—or laptop, for that matter—breaking ground in areas that once seemed out of reach. It's the first and only laptop with an internal color calibrator. Placing a
Lenovo ThinkPad W530 charger digitizer on the palm rest is also ingenious, and a secondary display is something that all laptops could use but only Lenovo has accomplished so far. Obviously, at this price, the W700 isn't for everyone. But if time is money in your field, the W700 will save you tons of it.
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November 09, 2012
View Of Lenovo IdeaPad U410 14-Inch Ultrabook
When you're looking for a decent laptop then Lenovo is one of the brands to consider. The Chinese company that once took over IBM's Thinkpad product line is trying to get a foothold in the
Lenovo IdeaPad Y430g battery European market. They are bringing relatively big guns to accomplish this, such as this Lenovo Ideapad U410 Ultrabook that's available for £799.
The IdeaPad is still pretty thin, measuring just 21mm at its widest point, but it’s also heavier than many ultrabooks, at 1.85kg, which does stretch the classification slightly. Its build feels solid, albeit not as solid as the unibody MacBooks it emulates. Where the Apple notebooks use a single piece of metal for the entire palm rest and keyboard surround, the U410 uses multiple elements, which makes it appear a little less refined. The lid and base of our sample were blue, but there are red and sober
Lenovo IdeaPad V450 AC adapter graphite grey options if your tastes differ.
The $759 base model has a 1.8-GHz Intel Core i3-3217U processor, 6GB of RAM, and a 500GB 5,400-rpm hard drive with a 32GB SSD cache. The top-end model, which costs $899 after an eCoupon, comes with a 1.9-GHz Intel Core i7-3517U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB 5,400-rpm hard drive with a 32GB SSD cache.
One of the advantages of having a Lenovo is that the firm doesn't mess about when it comes to the important parts of building a laptop. The keyboard here is quite excellent, which is something that isn't as common as we would like on laptops. The keystroke is noticeably better than on most other laptops. The touchpad works well also. It's large, has multi-touch and no physical buttons. The IdeaPad has one
Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 battery special button on the left side next to the on/off switch. When you are experiencing difficulties with the computer, you press that button and it will take you to a special recovery mode.
The IdeaPad U410 comes with a trial version of Absolute Data Protect, the standard McAfee security center (in this case we’re working with McAfee Emerald 11.0), Adobe Reader X, and OneKey Recovery, which will help you backup your data and restore the system if anything ever goes awry. The fact that the IdeaPad U410 doesn’t come bogged down with a lot of pre-installed software is a big plus, and Lenovo earns extra points for including some programs that are actually worthwhile.
Using Lenovo VeriFace 4.0 face recognition software, you can also log into the U410 with just your mug. After creating a Windows password, we were instructed to look at the webcam. Lenovo IdeaPad U410 WebcamClick to EnlargeFrom there, a funky
Lenovo IdeaPad V450 battery blue circular icon spun around our right eye in the VeriFace screen as the camera scanned our face. The software was a bit exacting, forcing us to find just the right lighting and angle for the webcam to scan our face. We prefer Toshiba's more intuitive Face Recognition software.
The U410 provides just enough ports minimize complaints. It has two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI-out, an ethernet port, and a multicard reader (SSD/MMC). Something you won’t find, but may not miss, is an optical drive. (With everything going digital, optical drives tend just to get in the way and add weight.)
Lenovo packages the IdeaPad U410 with a useful set of apps and utilities. Lenovo One Key Recovery is a quick, relatively painless way to back up and recover system files. The Power Management utility, reminiscent of a car's odometer, is fun to look at, but, more important, easy to use as we switched
Lenovo IdeaPad Y430 adapter power profiles. Third-party software includes Adobe Reader X, Google Chrome, Oovoo, Microsoft Office Starter and Windows Live. There's also a 60-day free trial of McAfee AntiVirus Plus software and a 90-day free trial of Absolute Data Protect.
Lenovo IdeaPad U410 is a great notebook that comes in at a nice price. And it is very similar to the U310, if you want better graphics than you go for the U410. You are running Windows 7, and the U410 can run Windows 8. It is always important to know that you can get the next operating system. In terms of preloaded applications you get Windows Live Essentials 2011, Veriface 4.0, YouCam 3.0, Microsoft Office 2012, Adobe Reader, and more!
We like the U410 a lot. It's well-designed, sturdy and has plenty of power. We have some slight concerns about the battery, and you certainly won't see Lenovo's quoted maximum of nine hours, not unless you cast some sort of power saving spell over it anyway. It's also one of the best-connected machines
Lenovo IdeaPad V430A adapter we've used of late, with bundles of USB sockets, and the old favourite - Ethernet - to keep our broadband speeds up to their maximums. All in all, we like this machine a lot. But do yourself a favour, get it in red, because it's fabulous!
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November 06, 2012
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E530- Review
Our mind can't help but shift to a specific preconception: "relatively expensive business laptop.This under-$700 laptop is a
Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds battery classic get-what-you-pay-for proposition. It performs well, but many business users will prefer the better-looking screens and richer-sounding speakers of higher-end ThinkPad models such as Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E530.
The overall build quality of the ThinkPad Edge isn't great, and our test model creaked a lot at the front where the bottom and top pieces of the chassis come together. Furthermore, the side that has the optical drive bends a lot and clicks can be heard when the notebook is picked up from this side; these clicks are the chassis colliding with the
Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds AC adapter front bezel of the DVD burner. Basically, it feels like a budget computer system, despite the modern, cutting-edge CPU that it houses.
The ThinkPad E530 is a 15.6†screen small business targeted laptop. The ThinkPad Edge series is very similar in design to the regular ThinkPad line, but certain design touches do separate the two. For starters, you get a red color option for the lid, so you’re not restricted to just the all black finish used on a normal ThinkPad. Another thing you might notice is the fact the "i†in ThinkPad has a red lit dot forming part of the letter, you get this design touch on both the lid and keyboard deck area.
This keyboard is valued by most users as convenient for frequent use. Be it for writing long emails, or surfing the net, most users will be satisfied with the comfort and the speed this keyboard provides for
Lenovo ThinkPad W700 AC adapter. If your professional life requires long typing hours, along with the highest levels of comfort, then you might want to consider a keyboard with higher rates. The responsiveness of this keyboard allows for most users to be satisfied with individual key feedback. The keys do require some pressure for efficient typing, without being either too soft or too stiff for manipulation. Most users will find this keyboard supportive for long typing hours as the keys can be pressed down without any difficulty and they respond back quite fast.
The trackpad is positioned conveniently providing ample space for palm-rest. Nevertheless, critical tests have revealed it to be somewhat flimsy. Right clicks and click-and-drag movements failed invariably and this could leave users disappointed. Apart from that, it works fine with
Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds AC adapter three-finger flicks and two finger scroll movements.
Lenovo offers several configuration options for the E530. This review unit includes an Intel Core i5 2nd generation processor, 4GB RAM and Intel HD 3000 graphics. The notebook includes 500GB of storage as well as Bluetooth and WiFi. Don’t plan on gaming or running processor intense applications for specialized fields, but office workers will not be left needing more power. Business notebooks aren’t known for audio quality and the E530 doesn’t deviate from this with tinny sounding speakers. Audio is sufficiently loud, but users should look for a good pair of headphones or external speakers.
The laptop, at times, is also reported to bend towards the side which houses the
Lenovo ThinkPad W700 adapter optical drive. The clicking sound is often loud which results from the chassis brushing against the optical drive. By and large, the ThinkPad Edge E530 will not give you the impression of a high end laptop despite having a powerful processor.
3D performance was poor, as expected. 3DMark 11 would not run because Intel HD 3000 does not support DirectX 11. 3DMark 06 reached a score of 3,739, which is among the lowest we’ve recently recorded. You can play some old 3D games on this laptop, but demanding new titles are out of the question.
Many mainstream notebooks, such as the aforementioned Qosmio, last just over two hours in this test. Even notebooks such as the Core i3-based, 15.6in Medion Akoya E6228, which has a similar battery rating, last only just over three hours. The last iteration of the Lenovo ThinkPad T420, which is a 14in laptop with a 57 Watt-hour battery, lasted 3hr 30min, so the Edge 530 is better than that notebook, too. Basically, its battery life is impressive for a such a big unit with so much power under the hood.
Still, the Lenovo proved both sturdy and serviceable, and it comes with a strong complement of expansion ports and security options, including a fingerprint reader for keeping
Lenovo G550 battery intruders out. All in all, while the ThinkPad Edge E530 offers little to thrill small-business shoppers, it's as safe a buy for them as the company's more costly ThinkPads are for corporate IT departments.
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October 30, 2012
Best-of-Breed Ultraportable IBM ThinkPad X220
Lenovo's X-series laptops have always been high-end ultraportable machines for business travelers who need to work on the go with a
Lenovo ThinkPad R500 battery minimum amount of compromise. The X220 continues this tradition and adds a few new twists at the same time. The biggest design change is a move to a 12.5-inch display--a very unusual size. This allows the chassis to be a tiny bit wider, which in turn leads to a more spacious keyboard, and one that feels very different from that of just about any other laptop on the market.
The keyboard is an old-fashioned layout that looks a world away from the sleek black isolation-style keys seen on an HP Envy 17 or Macbook Pro. But it quickly becomes apparent that the keys are excellent for typing on. The keyboard takes up all the available
Lenovo ThinkPad R500 AC adapter space, and the large, embossed keys are comfortable.
The unfortunate caveat is that the touchpad is very cramped. The integrated click buttons curve over the palm rest at the bottom and can be awkward to hit. Lenovo has included a TrackPoint pointer as an alternative, but we still found the touchpad easier to navigate.
The X220 managed an incredible nine and a half hours in our light-use test. You’ll be able to work all day without having to reach for the power adaptor. This is partly because the X220 uses Intel’s integrated GPU to power the display, rather than more power-hungry dedicated AMD or Nvidia graphics. It’s fine for high definition video, but not for games – our Dirt 3 test produced an unplayable 14.3fps. You’ll have to drop detail settings or stick to older
Lenovo ASM 92P1130 battery titles to get playable frame rates.
The 720p webcam, which supports Skype HD calls, provided crisp but washed out images. Making a Skype call from our dimly lit living room, our facial features were clearly visible, but colors were muted. Under bright overhead lighting, details were sharper, but had way too high of a white balance at both auto modes; tinkering with the settings didn't help. At one point during our testing, the webcam even stopped working and displayed a black block instead of an image. This problem persisted until we finally powered off the system completely for a few seconds before booting again.
Graphics are courtesy of Intel with their new Intel HD 3000 graphics. That’s perhaps the most exciting part of Sandy Bridge: Intel made significant improvements to integrated graphics
Lenovo ThinkPad R500 battery and the Lenovo X220 is thus capable of some decent 3D gaming. The Intel HD 3000 in the X220 scored a respectable 3812 on 3DMark 06. Not bad for a business ultraportable. You can indeed play Left 4 Dead 2 in the hotel room after a long day of meetings (see our gaming video review below).
Connectivity, meanwhile, is excellent, easily at the top of the class for a 12in laptop. On the left we have a single USB 3.0 port, VGA and DisplayPort for analogue and digital video respectively, a second USB port of the slower USB 2.0 variety, and a handy wireless switch. What makes the X220 stand out from the crowd though is the 45mm ExpressCard slot also found here, which can be used to add all kinds of expansions
Lenovo ThinkPad R500 adapter and accessories, such as extra eSATA or USB 3.0 ports, or external graphics.
The X220 includes the gamut of wireless connections, including the latest, longer-range Intel WiFi chips, Bluetooth, GPS, 3G (via Gobi), and 4G technologies. It's equipped with a 320GB, 7200rpm hard drive, the fastest spinning hard drives available on ultraportables, with upgrade paths to higher capacities or solid state drives. Otherwise, the three USB ports, Ethernet, and an SD card slot are common finds in most laptops.
Better yet, the X220 can now handle 3D games without a discrete graphics chip, as the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 is more than 4 times as powerful as the previous iteration, as indicated by 3DMark06 tests (4,083). With more-advanced titles, like Crysis and Lost Planet 2, however, you'll need to crank down the eye-candy.
The textured surface is pleasing to the touch, but Lenovo has foregone separate buttons in order to maximise the size of the touchpad in a very cramped area. The bottom portion of the touchpad wraps around the end of the palm rest, and to click you press on these corners of the pad. Unfortunately
Lenovo ASM 92P1130 battery, something's off with the engineering of this: The pad misses clicks all the time, and it makes the cursor stutter badly when you're (subconsciously or not) resting a thumb on the pad as you prepare to click. Great idea, but the execution isn't there.
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October 26, 2012
Asus Eee PC 1008P Seashell (Karim Rashid Collection) Review
The Asus Eee PC Seashell 1008P Karim Rashid Collection netbook, we find a wrinkly
Asus Eee PC 1218 AC adapter, rippling textured case top and bottom, replete in a metallic pink gloss. Perhaps not at the forefront of Mr Rashid's mind, those wibbly panels are not just bizarrely tactile for the fingers, but actually aid in the picking up and carrying of the portable, with less chance of slippage from your hand.
Basic Specifications:
10.1″ 1024 x 600 display;
1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU with Intel NM10, GMA3150;
2GB RAM;
250GB HDD + 500GB ASUS Online WebStorage;
Windows 7 Starter;
802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, Gigabit LAN;
2 x USB, 1.3MP webcam, card reader, Mini VGA port, mic and headphone out;
3-cell battery (5.5 hour battery life).
The hot pink model has a shiny metallic finish and possibly won’t be to everyone’s taste, but the coffee brown colour is matte and a bit more restrained. The idea behind the Eee PC 1008P is to turn low-cost ultraportables into fashion accessories(including
Asus Eee PC 1005HA charger) and both models are certainly trendy enough to tout around under one arm.
The glare type display can't score and is beaten by its matt colleagues by lengths. The "plate" put in front of it looks great but leaves ugly marks on the screen and annoys with reflections in adverse light conditions.
The chiclet keyboard is winning and only the shift key that turns out a bit too small dampen the picture. The noise and heat development are within an acceptable range, at least in practical use. The touchpad still has a somewhat rough surface but the multi-touch gestures have improved in the meantime.
The textured touchpad is also pretty good, providing plenty of feedback, same good is the
Asus Eee PC 1201K charger. It supports multi-touch gestures in Windows 7, as well. We're not normally fans of single 'see-saw' touchpad buttons, but the 1008P's is responsive and easy to use by feel alone.
Apart from a multicard reader and audio ports, the Eee PC 1008P comes with a mini-VGA port. If you flip the Eee PC 1008P upside down, you'll notice a hidden compartment near its spine, inside which sits a mini-VGA to VGA converter--just in case you want to connect the netbook to a projector or external display. Even the battery compartment is pretty sleek and a little displaced from its traditional place near a netbook's spine hinge--you get two interchangeable 3-cell batteries with the Eee PC 1008P.
Intel announced its new Pine View platform for netbooks just before Xmas and CES 2010 was awash with
Asus Eee PC 1201T adapter new models that made use of it. The first to hit the Mobile Computer office is the ASUS Eee PC 1008P Seashell Karim Rashid Edition but, as the name suggests, there’s a bit more to this netbook than a new processor. The Intel Pine View platform isn’t much to get excited about, but the Eee PC 1008P that’s wrapped around it is a really nice looking netbook that makes a refreshing change from the plain designs of other manufacturers.
It's fair to say that the 1008P's beauty is only skin-deep. Beneath the flashy surface, it's just another netbook. Inside, it uses an Intel Atom N450 CPU clocked at 1.66GHz, 1GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive. A further 500GB of free storage is available via Asus' WebStorage system, which lets you stash your data online.
Asus' Eee PC 1008P Seashell Karim Rashid isn't the best netbook on the market. Arguably, almost any of the other machines in the Seashell range are superior
Asus Eee PC 1215 charger. But, if you don't mind its limited battery life, and you really want a netbook that stands out from the crowd, it'll probably be right up your catwalk.
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October 24, 2012
Review Lenovo Thinkpad T410
The T410 has been designed for the use in a low load range with typical tasks like office
Lenovo ThinkPad R32 battery or internet applications . The use of Optimus technology helps achieving longer battery runtimes. Otherwise, not much has changed in terms of performance features in comparison to its predecessor. Lenovo uses the upgrade and installs a somewhat brighter display.
Quick Specifications
Processor: Intel Core i5 i5-520M / 2.4 GHz ( Dual-Core )
Memory: 2 GB / 8 GB (max)
Hard Drive: 320 GB - Serial ATA-300 - 7200 rpm
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Display Type: 14.1 in TFT active matrix
Max Resolution: 1280 x 800 ( WXGA )
Graphics Processor: PCI Express x16 - NVIDIA NVS 3100M
Optical Drive: Plug-in module DVD-Writer
Having put the latest ThinkPad T410 through its paces, we're hardly surprised by most of the results. ThinkPad has always been renowned for their build quality
Lenovo Thinkpad SL500 adapter and durability, and the T410 is no exception. It may not look as stylish as other laptops (depending on your definition of style), but no business user would ever feel bad about carrying around a modern ThinkPad. If you're in the market for a business notebook (or if you run an IT department), you'd be remiss to skip the ThinkPad without at least testing a unit.
The display components have a good torsional stiffness and pressure resistance, even if the display lid unlikely will reach the T400's qualities. It twists a bit when it's picked up at a corner and image distortions turn up on the enabled screen, as well. The hinges yield first before image changes can evolve
Lenovo ThinkPad R32 battery under selective pressure. Image falsifications can also be noticed by moderate retention and medium pressure. Additionally, the display bezel yields considerably under pressure, whereas image deviations also become visible.
In regards to viewing angles, the T410 doesn't differ from the reviewed predecessor and thus doesn't really stand out from the majority of laptop competition. Subjectively, the work area can be called wide on the horizontal plane. In return, slightest deviations
Lenovo ThinkPad R32 adapter from the ideal, perpendicular viewing angle lead to image changes, perceived as dimming, respectively bleaching and consequently to color misrepresentations.
The update from the T400 to the T410 was more significant than it might have seemed at first glance. In addition to the move to Core i5 (a significant step on its own), the system got a revised chassis, more external ports, an improved trackpad, and more. It probably isn’t enough to have T400 owners giving their computers away but it’s a significant change, especially for people running Vista machines.
Overall, the ThinkPad T410 is certainly an excellent business mobile platform that balances size and performance. The excellent
Lenovo ThinkPad R50 adapter Lenovo keyboards and trackpads make it a joy to work on and the long battery life and strong performance are all great features. Of course, the ThinkPad brand does carry a price premium but it is well worth it for many business users.
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October 16, 2012
Lenovo ThinkPad T430 Specs
Despite all the traditions the ThinkPads get frequent overhauls and upgrades
Thinkpad power SL400 adapter. After we recently tested the models T530 and W530 we want to discuss the models of the T4xx series from the 2012 generation, more precisely the ThinkPad T430. This succeeds the T420 and will be equipped as well as the other models with the recent Ivy Bridge generation of Intel.
Laptop type Mainstream
Operating system Windows 7
Screen size (diagonal) 14 inches
CPU brand Intel
CPU family Sandy Bridge
Graphics type Integrated
Weight 4.77 pounds(without the
Thickness 1.18 inches
Integrated GPU model HD Graphics 4000
Optical drive type Tray-loading
Carrier options Verizon Wireless, AT&T
Lenovo Thinkpad T430 has a good display screen that has an LED backlight along with anti-glare feature. Camera is placed on top of the screen which provides good resolution with clear pictures. UltraNav feature is available for TrackPoint
Lenovo IdeaPad Y560d AC adapter and also TouchPad. Optical DVD±RW which is recordable and provides multi-burner facility is a notable feature of this gadget from Lenovo.
The T430's keyboard is a departure for Lenovo; they switched to the increasingly popular Chiclet style with extra spacing between the keys. This has the most encouraging tactile feedback out of all the variants I've tried. It has a slightly more clicky sound than the traditional ThinkPad keyboards and the key travel isn't as long, though the feedback doesn't suffer as a result,
ThinkPad SL400 charger, dare I say it feels even more solid. Lenovo is offering a backlit keyboard courtesy of this new design, a first on a 'real' ThinkPad. It still has the Think Light for die-hard fans, though.
Beneath the hood you’ll find a 2.8GHz third generation (Ivy Bridge) Intel Core i5-3360M processor, alongside 4GB of RAM. It’s not amazingly powerful in spec, but its benchmark scores are outstanding. For CPU-based tasks, it smashes most of the recent laptops we’ve seen. Only our top-performing second generation Intel Core (Sandy Bridge) Ultrabook, the Asus Zenbook, comes close, but the T430 has scores around 20% better across the board. However,
ThinkPad X120e charger, the benchmarks also reveal the lack of graphics grunt - most scores were around half those of Ivy-Bridge-based Ultrabooks with discrete graphics.
The ThinkPad T430 generally remains the king of 14-inch business notebooks though I have a few reservations. Bad news first: the base 1366x768 screen has too little resolution to get quality multitasking work done if you work with spreadsheets or multiple windows. The higher resolution 1600x900 upgrade is a must. Secondly is the keyboard. What?! A complaint about a ThinkPad keyboard? Lenovo 'upgraded' to a Chiclet-style model; it feels great and as a ThinkPad owner
Lenovo IdeaPad Y560d charger I'm not disappointed but the layout is not the same. The multi-colored keys are also gone. It's still a great keyboard but no longer true to its roots.
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October 10, 2012
Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201 Review: A Breakthrough Performer
The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime is an Android Honeycomb tablet that can be coupled with
Asus Eee PC 1215N AC adapter an optional keyboard dock. The Transformer Prime features a 10.1-inch Super IPS display with a 1280 x 800-resolution, a backside-illuminated 8-megapixel rear camera with an f/2.4 aperture plus a 1.3-megapixel front cam, and is the first to be powered by Nvidia's Tegra 3, quad-core mobile processor formerly known as Kal-El.
The first thing that will catch your eye about the Transformer Prime is its svelte design. It measures 10.35 by 7.12 by 0.33 inches, and weighs 1.29 pounds. That's a net reduction in size and weight from the original Eee Pad Transformer TF101,
Asus Eee PC 1201N AC adapter, which measured 10.7 by 6.9 by 0.5 inches, and weighed 1.4 pounds. The TF201 also ranks as among the thinnest and lightest tablets on sale to date: Only Apple's iPad 2 (0.3 inches deep and 1.33 pounds) and Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 (0.34 inches and 1.24 pounds) best it today.
The Android interface also doesn't have a quick way to easily flip between several windows. You can say the same about iOS, of course. But I have the Prime next to my Windows 7 netbook right now, and I'm missing the fluidity of being able to have two windows on a screen or to flip between tabs of things without poking the multitasking button at the bottom of the Android interface. The Prime's hardware can do a lot of things at once, but the software doesn't spotlight that.
The Prime is the first tablet
Asus Eee PC 1201HA AC adapter to house Nvidia's new quad-core processor, the Tegra 3. The Prime also includes 1GB of RAM and comes in either 32GB or 64GB varieties. It has 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi support, , Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a gyroscope, and GPS.
The Mobile dock includes an extra battery that--while connected--"feeds" the Prime its power, meaning that the dock's battery will deplete its reserves before the tablet's.
Through its Micro-HDMI port, you can connect the tablet to an HDTV or monitor and play full-screen
Asus Eee PC 1215N adapter Android games using both wired Xbox 360 and PS3 game pads, as well as supported wireless game pads through the use of an USB dongle.
In terms of design, you may have already noticed the Prime sports the same spun aluminum digs as the company's Zenbooks, though this is the first time we're seeing clear, close-up shots of it -- and in two colors, no less! At 8.3mm (0.33 inches) thick and 586 grams (1.29 pounds) without the dock, it's a smidge skinnier than the iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1,
Asus Eee PC 1201N adapter, which means, unsurprisingly, that your old Transformer dock won't be compatible. Finally, ASUS coated both the display and metal cover with a hydro-oleophobic coating that makes it more fingerprint-resistant.
Despite cutting down the thickness, Asus has been able to keep the tablet itself well stocked on ports; there's a 3.5mm headphone jack, Micro HDMI port, and a Micro SD card slot. If you’re looking for those full-size ports, you’ll have to go for the $149 keyboard dock — more on that later. I will end this section by saying something I haven’t said of any of the competing tablets out there: this is first tablet that
Asus Eee PC 1201HA adapter actually rivals the iPad on design, build, and size, while not just copying it.
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September 28, 2012
Enterprise War: iPad Vs. Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2
Unlike many other blue-chip Windows OEMs, Lenovo has been doing very well recently
Battery For Lenovo ThinkPad W700 Series — and the Tablet 2 will likely be expected to do heated battle with Microsoft's own Surface in the waning months of the year. Look for it to launch in October around the same time as Windows 8 (likely even the same day); pricing is yet to be announced.
There's no doubt that the iPad has taken the tablet market by storm. Its sprawling collection of apps and eye-catching display have made
Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds AC adapter it the clear-cut winner in the consumer market. And with the bring-your-own-device trend picking up the pace, Apple's flagship tablet has been inching its way into the hearts of enterprise users, as well.
There’s full sized USB, that old favorite the TrackPoint, and the option for integrated 3G/4G for road warriors. Pull out the stylus – as long as you’ve specified the active digitizer option
Lenovo ThinkPad W700 AC adapter– and you can use handwriting recognition and sketch in OneNote. We do wish Lenovo had gone for a bigger pen, however, as Lenovo’s barrel is a little thinner than we’d like.
There are still a few glitches with screen responsiveness that the company is working on, but overall, the tablet seemed snappy and responsive. As for the hardware itself, the build quality is solid,
Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds battery if not entirely having that premium feel thanks to the use of annoying port covers and a plastic shell that's not the world's most rigid. But the lightness and slimness of the tablet makes those annoyances more bearable (especially considering this is an enterprise device first).
Lenovo refers to an "upcoming Intel Atom" processor with Intel x86 architecture, which suggests an as-yet-unannounced Intel CPU will be at the heart of the tablet. In tablets running Windows 7,
Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds AC adapter however, we've seen Atom-powered systems fall short of what we expect from a Windows device.
Lenovo says that this tablet has been developed in partnership with Intel, so it's likely that the unannounced hardware offers a bump up in processing power. But until specifics are known it's a big question mark. Whether or not the new
Lenovo ThinkPad W700 adapter operating system and hardware make a winning combination is yet to be seen.
On top of that it has a new keyboard and trackpad that's coated in a rubberlike material. It's also the lightest 14-inch laptop on the market. It starts at $1,299 and while it runs Windows 7 now, it is
Windows 8 ready and will only cost $14.99 to upgrade at the end of October.
The price, so far, Lenovo is only saying the tablet will be available in October, when Windows 8 starts shipping. For now, we've got a mix of glossy press shots for your viewing pleasure, along with some hands-on photos we took in advance of tonight's announcement.
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September 20, 2012
Lenovo ThinkPad X220
Weighing only 1.7kg(without the
Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 AC adapter), the ThinkPad X220 can easily be carried around for a day and its briefcase-friendly 306 x 232 x 33mm dimensions make it an excellent choice for a regular traveller.
Quick Specifications:
12.5″ HD Premium LED B/L (1366×76
AntiGlare w/o Camera
i7-2620M 2.70GHz Processor w/ HD3000
Intel QM67
Intel AMT
Gigabit Ethernet
No Modem
Bluetooth
Ultranav (Touchpad and Trackpoint) w/ FPR
Express Card Slot
4-in-1 Media Card Reader
3 Year Carry-In
Power Supply 65W
Win7 Pro 64 Sticker
160 GB Solid State Drive No HW Encryption
4GB PC3-10600 1333MHz DDR3 SODIMM SDRAM
ThinkPad Battery 29++ (9 Cell) for X220
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 – 802.11 a/b/g/n
WLAN activate
The ThinkPad X230 updates the lineup not with brand new looks, but with the new Precision Keyboard layout and the all-important Ivy Bridge chipset under the hood. Otherwise, exterior qualities remain largely the same as last year’s model. Although seemingly trivial at first glance,
Lenovo G460 AC adapter these two changes directly affect the user experience and can actually make the X230 feel like a different beast compared to the X220 despite their similarities. In this review, we investigate the changes both inside and out and give our final thoughts on the rather controversial keyboard update.
At barely 4 hours of video playback time, battery life has taken a hit from the nearly 5 hours on a single
Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 adapter charge the X220 offered, despite similar brightness levels.
And then there’s the keyboard. With its Ivy Bridge units, Lenovo is migrating all its laptops to island-style keyboards. And if you’re familiar with the IdeaPad keyboard, you know what to expect. Like many, I’m already nostalgic for the old design. Lenovo’s chicklets are better than most vendors’ renditions,
Lenovo ThinkPad E40 adapter but I continue to make more mistakes typing on them than on the rightfully lauded old keyboard. The backlash, I’m sure, is going to be palpable.
You will find a full feature set on this laptop computer. A 720p HD webcam is included, along with dual microphones, which make video chatting and web conferencing possible on this laptop. This device offers several features ideal for video chats including a private chat mode. This eliminates background noise during a call. There is also a keyboard suppression feature that lowers the noise made from typing on the keys during video calls.
There are several ports and slots located on the laptop including three USB ports, an SD card reader,
Lenovo G460 adapter, a 54mm express card reader and a combo port for both a microphone and a headphone. This device also has Hard Disk Drive Retention, which will secure the hard drive if the laptop falls. This security feature is a must-have to protect your hard drive and all the information you store within it.
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