HP Envy 17 3D Review

Wednesday, February 27, 2013 in Laptop/PC

It's been awhile since we've had a large, powerful notebook - the kind that make our arms and backs ache just looking at them. And no - our hearts don't often jump in glee at the thought of a powerful (read gaming) configuration, for no gaming notebook, irrespective of its price, can hold its own with even a desktop priced 40,000 bucks lower, let alone one at the same price. Its tough to shoehorn 200-watt graphic cards into the confined environs that are notebook chassis, and honestly this is a physical limitation rather than a manufacturer's mistake.

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However, our little disclaimer notwithstanding, there are those who are aware of the tradeoffs, and still need something portable, (well not really, but at least it weighs under 5 kilos!), to carry around to a LAN party. And such gaming events typically revolve around Counter Strike, UT, Quake 3, or even DoTA (a popular Warcraft 3 mod) - not exactly demanding titles. For such people, HP presents the Envy - a large beast of a notebook, with good components under the boot, and despite our usual derision for "gaming notebooks", we must admit the Envy was quite a package and it seems like Alienware finally has some worthwhile competition. Sure, it's not a desktop with a Core i7 980 Extreme and dual GTX 580s, but heck - it's a notebook and at least someone's trying...
Look and feel

A huge box, completely black in colour, opens up to reveal a rather large notebook, with neatly packaged accessories, including a pair of 3D glasses, powered by a flat battery - the same ones that power BIOS'. With a 17-inch display, the Envy is a large notebook, but it's also handsome looking. A lot of metal has been used on the body, giving it a somewhat more rigid feel, although an Apple unibody it is not! The lid is completely aluminium. The body is quite thick, a result of cramming more powerful components than what most notebooks have, into a relatively smaller chassis than desktops.

HP Envy 3D 17

You get a nice patterned lid with a rough texture on the outside, and the inside follows a satin-finish - a welcome relief from the piano-glossy finishes that HP uses a lot. A resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels will please gamers, but the glossy display is a major bummer in our opinion, especially for a gaming notebook; a pity matte displays are becoming extinct.

The keypad is well laid out, and nicely spaced, although we feel the keys could have been a bit larger. The smaller keys also mean there's a bit more spacing between them then what most users will be used to, which is good for a gaming notebook, but not so intuitive for fast typing. The trackpad is also larger than most HP notebooks, a point of interest to gamers. It's also quite accurate, although you will pretty much need to use a mouse, as we're yet to see a notebook gamer who doesn't use one. The power adapter is a brick, and a far cry from the sleek units Apple provides. However, it is smaller than some of the previous HP notebooks we've seen, yet will add close to a kilo with its cable to your package.
Features

One of the most talked about features of the model we're looking at is the presence of 3D support. The display on the Envy supports up to 120 Hertz and that was enough to give us a hint, in case the blatant bundling of 3D stereovision glasses wasn't enough. Then there's the high resolution display, which at 1920 x 1080 pixels is something gamers will like. For the 17" notebook, we were a little surprised to find only 3 USB ports though. Generally gamers who connect such notebooks to larger monitors will definitely use at least 2 ports - one each for an additional mouse and keyboard. One of the USB ports doubles as an E-SATA port. An HDMI port supporting the latest 1.4 version of HDMI and a Mini-Display Port for connecting to HDTVs and the like. We received this powerhouse with a 9-cell battery, although a lighter 6-cell one is also available.

The model we received came with a 640 GB hard drive, although HP allows the user to configure up to 2 hard drives, which gamers will salivate at, for speedy RAID 0 becomes a possibility. Alternatively for even more speed, you could consider an SSD and a hard drive for space. Incidentally, the Blu-ray drive that ships with the Envy 17" 3D is also a drive that supports 3D Blu-ray playback - kind of obvious, but essentially making this notebook an expensive, but high quality 3D Blu-ray playback device if you would like to use it thus. We tried a 3D copy of Avatar and needless to say this works pretty well. In fact, the colours are better than we've seen on some TVs, which doesn't mean the display on the Envy is better, but merely that it is implementing 3D better. While such a small display is not cinematic for viewing movies in 3D, it's a good display for the purpose.

Sadly, we couldn't get this to work with most games that we tried. AMD obviously has a few kinks in their 3D component to iron out given that NVIDIA has been doing 3D for awhile now. We tried games like Arcania: A Gothic Tale, Dragon Age 2, Call Of Pripyat, Lost Planet 2 and even Crysis 2, and none of these games worked in 3D! However, we don't blame HP for this, rather AMD is the culprit. If only the Envy 3D 17 came with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570...

The configuration we received was also one of the lower end ones. The Envy 3D 17 is available with a Core i7 quad core processor, 8 GB of RAM and two 750 GB hard drives, but we received one with a dual core processor, 4 GB of RAM and a single 640 GB hard drive. Given this, we found the stated MRP price a little on the higher side, but as we discovered later on, the Envy sells for a lot less on the street.

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Panasonic PT-AE8000EA Projector Review

Wednesday, February 27, 2013 in Laptop/PC

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We have seen a rather unique pattern of growth of the projector market, and the way these devices are perceived by the consumers. You have the projectors on one side that are becoming more affordable - excellent Full HD playback projectors costing around Rs. 70k and above. On the other hand are the really expensive ones, which offer rather similar specification as the lesser-priced alternatives, but with little incremental feature bump ups that justify the extra money. In case of the Panasonic PT-AE8000EA, there is the 3D capability and the ability to up-convert 2D -> 3D on the fly, which makes this worth considering. But is it any good? We shall find out now!

Build & Design
For a full-fledged Full HD 3D projector, the AE8000EA is not very big. By that, we mean the AE8000EA is largely the same size as the LG AF115 projector. In terms of height, these would be similarly thick if you keep 5 MacBook Pro(s) stacked and look that that side on.

The warm gray colour of the Panasonic PT-AE8000EA is a good change from the glossy black finish that most manufacturers offer the projectors with. The positives, apart from the sophisticated look, are that it doesn’t catch fingerprints that much and dust doesn’t show up that much.

If you are looking at the Panasonic PT-AE8000EA head-on, the lens is on the right side, leaving a lot of space on the left side for a cooling vent. One of the sides has an area where all the hardware keys are placed – power, input select, menu navigation, zoom etc. Here also, there is a vent channel. On the back are the video input ports. There are the S-video and Component inputs, along with three HDMI inputs. Switching between sources is a breeze, and we like the multiple input options, particularly for HDMI, allowing you to leave the devices hooked up rather than having to reconnect every time you switch.

At more than 8kgs, the AE8000EA is not a lightweight beast by any chance. It should not be carried around too often, but will work equally well placed on a table or upside down from a ceiling mount.

Features & Specifications
The Panasonic PT-AE8000EA is a fairly loaded projector, and there is good reason why Panasonic have priced this where it actually is. This is a Full HD projector with the lens shift and powered zoom capabilities. Panasonic says that the projection size can go up to 300-inches for 2D projection.

Not to forget, the AE8000EA also has 3D capabilities and can up-convert 2D->3D on the fly. Unfortunately, Panasonic does not bundle 3D glasses along with the projector, and each costs about Rs 5000 in the market. Panasonic says that the projection size for 3D content will go up to 200-inches.

The Panasonic AE8000EA’s lens has the aperture control (f 22.4–44.8 mm is what Panasonic says on the spec sheet of the AE8000EA) has the automatic management of how much light comes out of the lens when projecting an image. We will talk about this feature in detail in the Performance section.

We are truly thankful for the backlit remote that Panasonic has thoughtfully packed in with the Panasonic AE8000EA. Most televisions, projectors, Blu-ray players and HD media players miss out on this critical element, forgetting that these devices are usually operated in a room with the lights turned off to replicate a home theater.

Performance
Testing every projector involves two critical aspects – testing it with content that is native High Definition, and also with content that most people may posses in the form of old movies and TV shows – Standard Definition. And as you would expect, we did that thoroughly!

The Panasonic PT-AE8000EA is not a short-throw projector, and we placed it three feet away from the wall for about 55-inches of projection. Compared to this, the LG AF115 was kept about 2 feet away from the same wall, and that projected about 60-inches. Not much of an issue, but a simple observation for the sake of a comparison. Any which ways, if you are spending this much on a projector, you are better off owning a home that has one room earmarked for the projector, along with hopefully a couple of LazyBoy loungers and a bean bag!

The Panasonic AE8000EA’s startup time is fairly brisk, and from a cold boot to it being ready with the projection of the connected source took 6.5 seconds.

First up, we connected the AE8000EA to the WD Live and played back some 1080p and 720p videos. The performance, in a nutshell, is plainly brilliant. You get crisp and bright videos, with fairly vivid colours.

We watched a Full HD print of Tron: Legacy (2012) on the Panasonic PT-AE8000EA to see how good the black colour depth was. Impressive, because the dark areas remained the way they were supposed to be, without the colour looking dark grey. Since the movie has multiple scenes with lots of vivid colours streaking across the frame, this was a good way to test if the ability to keep certain areas dark has an impact on the brightness of the rest of the frame, and we must say that both things are handled brilliantly. The Lightcycle Battle scene is the best example of how well the colours are handled, both in isolation and when intertwined together, while moving quickly.

Next up was the Full HD print of The Avengers (2012) on a Blu-Ray. We wanted to see how smoothly fast moving visuals were handled by the Panasonic AE8000EA, and the results are impressive. The epic fight scene in New York featuring all the Avengers is one of the better examples. We did not see any pixilation or judder as objects flew around the screen and things exploding in the background.

The reason why the dark scenes are handled so brilliantly by the AE8000EA is because of the automatic aperture setting that manages how much light is emitted from the lens, for that particular scene. Something like backlight dimming that you get to see on most LED-LCD televisions these days. It ensures that there is clear distinction between two areas on the same frame, without either compromising on the experience.

Switching over to SD content, and we were always slightly apprehensive about how the experience would be. The basis of that is the deterioration of the quality, progressively, as you keep increasing the display size of the TV. We first played back some SD content that was upscaled to HD resolutions. Even though it isn’t close to being the same as authentic HD content, but is still a step ahead of bland SD versions. The quality is fine, but you will definitely crave for a little bit more sharpness to the visuals. It is assumed that no one will buy this projector for watching regular TV channels on it, and we hope that is true. As expected, SD content quality suffers, for no fault of the projector. We had connected a Tata Sky HD box via HDMI to the Panasonic AE8000EA, and compared the quality of certain SD channels with their HD counterparts, and the difference cannot be missed. Even the eye-burning colours on the sarees of the characters in the saas-bahu serials were a little watered down.

Brightness levels of the Panasonic PT-AE8000EA are very impressive, and company quotes 2500 lumens for the projector. But we are happier to see detailed settings for colour and picture quality. From the default settings, we increased the contrast by 2 levels, and switched between normal and warm colour tone depending on what we were watching. Turning on x.v.Colour settings makes a lot of difference, for the better. There is a setting for shadow detail, which links directly with the aperture feature on the lens, letting you decide how much exposure you want on the dark areas of a shot. For HD content, we let the sharpness setting at default, but while watching channels like Comedy Central and FX, we had to take that up by 5 levels to make the projected image look crisp. Did not create any edge noise though, which is a huge positive.

Just like we had criticized the LG AF115, we would criticize the Panasonic PT-AE8000EA for neglecting the audio bit quite blatantly. There is no audio out on both the projectors, and that may be fine for the most part, is a glaring omission in other cases. Not everyone may have a setup where the AV receiver will be able to take dedicated audio inputs from the Satellite STB, the Blu-Ray player, the HD media player and in some cases, even a gaming console. The simpler method would have been to route the audio via the HDMI along with the video to the projector, and let it have the option of audio-out to the speakers or the home theater setup. We had the Denon 5.1-channel setup to test this system, and connected the individual sources directly to the AVR-1311 either via optical audio or coaxial audio. If you have multiple sources, with limited inputs on the AVR, you might be left connecting and disconnecting each device.

Speaking of which, 3 HDMI inputs on the AE8000EA is a fairly welcome thing, letting you leave a few devices connected to the projector permanently, only needing to switch sources like you would on a TV.

The Panasonic PT-AE8000EA also has the 3D playback feature. It can play back original 3D content, and even up-convert 2D -> 3D on the fly. The technology used is the Active Shutter one, which means you have powered 3D glasses. The glasses hook up to the projector via the IR transmitters. Unfortunately, we could not test the 3D part because these transmitters are optional accessories you can buy later, and were not a part of the review unit sent to us. What we did test was how quickly the projector up-converted 2D -> 3D, and that was pretty much seamless.

Bottom Line
Contrary to general perception, projectors are becoming fairly affordable and mainstream. If you use a projector for 100-inch or 150-inch projections, the money spent is pretty much worth it. In the case of the Panasonic AE8000EA, you should really be a fan of the 3D experience. Overall, the performance while handling HD content is brilliant, and it makes an earnest attempt to do its best with low quality SD content. But then again, you should not be buying a projector to watch a match on ESPN when you can upgrade your DTH connection to the HD one and watch ESPN HD, for example! If 3D is not very important for you, then you could consider the Panasonic PT-AR100E projector, which is also a Full HD one, costing around Rs 1,50,000 in the market.

The must have devices with a Full HD projector are a Blu-Ray player, an HD media player and a HD DTH connection.

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Sony Vaio S Series (SVS15115FNB)

Thursday, January 24, 2013 in Laptop/PC

Summary

• Processor: Intel Core i5�3210M @ 2.5GHz RAM: 4GB Storage: 640GB Display: 15.5-inch IPS LED (1920 x 1080 pixels) Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GT640M (2GB) Connectivity: 3 USB, HDMI, optical drive, memory card reader, Ethernet OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Impressive, very! The Vaio S-series really is one of the few laptops that are worth this much money. For starters, there is no shortage of power. The battery life is by far the best among all laptops we tested in 2012, and almost closes in on ultrabook territory. But really why you should buy this laptop is because of the 15.5-inch Full HD IPS display, something that is a rather unique proposition. All in all, this one is rather powerful, with a brilliant display and yet remains surprisingly slim.
There are the laptops that stick to one category or the other. You have the ultra-portables. And then you have the desktop replacements that also double up as machines that let you game a bit. But, the best ones are those than can do almost all this, in tandem. The Sony Vaio SVS15115FNB is one such machine. And we are impressed. For the sake of a proper comparison to help with your buying decision, you will see multiple references in this review to the Lenovo IdeaPad Z580.

Build & Design
This is the part that is both good and bad about the Sony Vaio S. First up, all the good stuff. From the moment you fish it out of the box, the matte black finish looks God sent. It does not catch scratches or fingerprints like glossy surfaces do. Alternatively, the one colour throughout look does make it looks rather understated and sophisticated. The lid had a textured matte black finish, and you can feel the slightly coarse finish if you slide your palm on the surface. Open it up, and the same colour now gets a plain finish on the keyboard deck. There is no rough feel here, which makes a lot of sense. The bezel gets a third finish tone for the same colour! Without changing much, Sony has played around well to keep the laptop design and looks interesting.

Speaking of which, the very slim form factor of the Sony Vaio S-series is a huge surprise. Particularly when you consider the specifications sheet, and look at rivals who have a much thicker build. All the connectivity options are on the right side, with the slot load optical drive on the left.
           


Now for the bad parts! The Sony Vaio SVS15115FNB’s lid does seem rather thin and if you put some weight on it, or it has an accidental brush against a hard object, then it looks like it is prone to breaking. Sony has done its best by reinforcing the lid with carbon fiber, because the idea always was to keep it as thin as possible. However, there is no harm in being safe and not subjecting the lid to any sudden impacts.

Overall, the plastic used is fairly high quality, and the carbon fiber reinforcements ensure that the Vaio S doesn’t disappoint, at least in terms of rigidity. However, there seems to be that missing element that would have made the Vaio S look premium. Not to say that it looks ugly or overpriced at the moment, but doesn’t have the unique punch to make it stand out in a crowd. But, then again, it does get the work done, in a fairly stylish way.
           

Features & Specifications
We will get to the more interesting bits in a moment, but first, the customary run through the spec sheet. The test Sony Vaio SVS15115FNB unit that we received was powered by an Intel Core i5–3210M processor, clocking at 2.5GHz. Turbo Boost will take it to 3.1GHz. To help it along, there is 4GB of RAM, and quite frankly, we expected more memory. For around the same price, you have the Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 that is powered by a Core i7 processor and 8GB of RAM. We will compare the performance in the next section, but at least on the spec sheet, the Sony Vaio does seem to have a fairly run-of-the-mill setup.

For your storage needs, there is a 640GB hard drive on the Sony Vaio SVS15115FNB. The Lenovo IdeaPad Z580, on the other hand, has a 1TB drive. The machine comes preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), but both are very much upgradable to Windows 8 under the current heavily discounted upgrade scheme.

Graphics capabilities of both machines are rather robust. The Sony Vaio SVS15115FNB has an Nvidia GeForce GT640M (2GB) and switches between this and the Intel HD4000 during performance and stamina modes respectively.

The real unique point of the Vaio S is the Full HD IPS display. For those of you who are very finicky about the quality of display, or need the best performance because your work profile demands it, this display will suit rather well. From the outset, the brightness levels are impressive, and colours do not get washed out as you go up the brightness graph. Speaking of which, the moment you switch it on, the vividness and colour separation / distinction is very impressive. Put this side by side with any non-IPS display, even with the same resolution, and the difference in display quality is more than apparent. Text handling is brilliant. The most impressive thing is actually the non-reflective nature of the display. And that really helps when things are not reflected off the screen while working for long durations. The display is possibly the biggest reason why someone would consider the Vaio S, though there are a lot more positives too.

The island keyboard has a dedicated number-pad as well. That real estate was afforded because of the 15.5-inch display. Surprisingly, it took me some time to get used to the layout. That usually doesn’t happen with most laptops with a dedicated number-pad on the right, but this one is apparently slightly differently laid out. The big touchpad will be very helpful if and when you do upgrade to Windows 8.

Performance
With this kind of a spec sheet, the performance part of the Sony Vaio SVS15115FNB was never a doubt. The Core i5 offers scores that are pretty much in the range of laptops with the same processor. The PC Mark 07 score of 2589 is pipped only by the HP Envy m6 that scored 2689 – when we speak of laptops with the same processor.

With a very powerful Nvidia GeForce GT640M graphics on board, you would be correct to assume that this would score fairly well in the graphics benchmark tests. However, surprisingly, that was not the case. The 3D Mark 06 score of 8577 is considerably lower than the Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 (9335 – Nvidia GeForce GT630M), Dell Inspiron 14R SE (12635 – Nvidia GeForce GT640M) and the Toshiba Satellite L850 (10498 – AMD Radeon HD7670M). Just to be sure, we double and triple checked the power settings, the graphics configuration and ensured that the very latest official drivers were installed, but the results remained the same. However, this is not to take away from the fact that the Sony Vaio S can do a decent amount of gaming. But if that is what you really want, then the Lenovo or the Toshiba machines probably make more sense.

However, we are a tad surprised that Sony did not even attempt to play with Lenovo on the spec sheet. The fact of the matter is rather simple – the specs matter more on the shop floor. In the same price bracket, the Lenovo comes with a Core i7 processor and 8GB of RAM, and the Vaio S feels rather underprepared in the face of that.

Battery life, however, really brings the Vaio S back into reckoning. The tested battery life was 300 minutes, which is the maximum we have clocked on any laptop this year. Till now, the HP Pavilion G6 had the best score – 280 minutes. This showing takes the Vaio S pretty close to the ultrabook territory, and with a form factor like this, this is pretty much a win-win situation for most potential buyers.

Bottom Line
The Sony Vaio S-series is a very interesting laptop. For what you pay to get one for yourself, you get a fair mix of performance, very slim profile certain gaming capabilities, excellent battery life and an IPS panel that pretty much takes the cake from all the rivals. If you are still weighing your decision on the specification sheet, then the Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 makes a lot more sense. Otherwise, you should consider the Vaio S, for the best display quality and a full HD resolution.

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Dell Latitude 10

Thursday, January 24, 2013 in Laptop/PC

Summary
Specifications & Performance

Processor: Intel Atom Z2760 @1.8 GHz; RAM: 2 GB; Screen size: 10.1-inch IPS LCD; Resolution: 1366x768; SSD: 64 GB; USB 2.0 ports: 1; HDMI port: 1; Battery capacity: 3500 mAh; Weight: 662 grams

Dell Latitude 10 makes perfect sense for business users. But the tablet is also great for someone who wants a device for media consumption as well as to do work. We personally found this useful only in the desktop mode as the modern UI and the apps on Windows 8 are no match for the UI on Apple and Android tablets. The USB port makes things hassle-free. This is probably the only time that we did not bother using the micro-USB port on the tablet, as all copy-pasting work was done directly via the USB port. It is a boon for those who dread and downright hate the hurdles Apple iTunes makes you go through, or for that matter Windows Zune interface makes you go through. With the Latitude it is simple plug and play. Nothing can get any simpler.
While it certainly looks like it’s going to take a while for Microsoft Surface to make its entry into the Indian market, OEMs are surely not going to wait that long. We got our hands on the latest Windows 8 Pro sporting tablet from Dell called the Latitude 10. This is probably the first Windows 8 Pro tablet that you shall see in the Indian market.

Last month we had seen the Samsung Ativ S tablet which comes with a keyboard and battery dock. But the major difference between these two devices is what’s under the hood. While the Samsung Ativ S can easily be a laptop or desktop replacement with an Intel Core i5 processor housed within it, the Dell Latitude 10 has taken a different approach in the tablet segment.

The Latitude 10 houses an Intel Atom Z2760 which you may have realised from the Atom moniker, is not meant to be a performance powerhouse. With the Latitude, Dell is targetting corporate users who want to experience the best of both worlds - modern UI for media consumption and the Desktop UI for work. But before we see how well it performs and if it fulfils what it set out to do in the first place, let us take a look at the build of this beautiful-looking device.

Build and Design
The Latitude 10 comes in an all-black body with a glossy front-finish and a matte-finish on the rear side. A 2.5 cm thick bezel surrounds the actual 10.1-inch display, which may seem like a waste of screen real-estate at first, but makes sense if you take into consideration the gestures on all sides involving you to do a lot of swiping in and out of the screen. There is a single Windows logo button sitting at the bottom-centre of the bezel and a decent 2.0 MP front-facing camera at the top. The Corning glass used for the display is scratch-resistant.

The body is made of magnesium alloy thereby adding a bit of sturdiness to the tablet. All the edges on the Latitude 10 have something or the other: the microUSB port and proprietary charging port on the bottom edge; a volume rocker on the top left-hand edge with the facility to add in a Kensington lock below; on the top edge, you have the SD card slot, followed by the power/stand-by button and an auto-rotation lock key and finally coming to the right hand edge, you have a 3.5-mm audio jack, the USB port and a mini HDMI port. When you look at the front face of the tablet, the only non-glossy element is the thin strip of the protruding edge.

The edges and the rear side of the tablet have a matte-black finish and thanks to the rubbery-feel the grip on the Latitude 10 is quite good. It weighs around 658 grams, almost matching the iPad 4th gen in terms of weight (652 grams for the Wi-Fi version and 662 grams for the Wi-Fi+Cellular version). The rear side has a clean design for majority of its area, except for the top and bottom left and right edges. The 8.0MP camera is housed at the top edge and it also comes with a flash unit beside it. The 2-cell battery on its rear side is swappable thanks to a notch just below it. This is quite thoughtful specially considering this device is targetted at people who are constantly on the move.

The speaker section of the Dell Latitude 10 is located on the left and right hand bottom edges on the rear side. When you hold the tablet in the landscape orientation, your palm completely covers the speakers. This may make one think that the audio coming out of the speaker will be slightly muffled, but that isn’t entirely true. There is a slight gap between where the fingers touch the rear side and your palm touch the edge of the tablet - provided you are holding the tablet with the thumbs pressing onto the front bezel. This tends to form a cup around the speaker grilles thereby giving a slight boost to the volume.

Features and Performance
The Latitude 10 houses an Intel Atom Z2760 dual-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz and has 2 GB of RAM. The unit we got had an SSD of 64GB capacity, but this can be upgraded to upto 256 GB. Looking at the specifications, it is understood that this device is not meant to run heavy applications such as Photoshop. Cinebench R11.5 was crawling when we were running the benchmark which is understandable as the processor is no match for the more mainstream Intel Core i-series processors.

The audio on the device isn’t as loud as we would have liked. You will most definitely be using headphones with the Latitude 10. When we tried playing MKV files on the native video player we faced some issues, but on downloading and installing the K-lite codec pack, things ran quite smoothly. This is the best part about the Windows 8 Pro tablet. You don’t have to always go to the Windows Store to download apps, in case some file is incompatible with your native applications. Just like your desktop, you just go to the browser and download the relevant software.

The USB port on the Latitude 10 allows you to connect your keyboard or mouse and use it as a regular laptop/desktop. We connected a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to it and it worked fine. The finest example of how lag-free the response is the fact that you can play Quake III on this tablet without any lag. But do not be ambitious and install heavy games on the Latitude 10 as its Atom processor will not be able to handle the graphics.

It also comes with a stylus for those planning to use the touch interface on the desktop mode. The pen has a capacitive tip and a button on its side for emulating right click.

The HDMI out port is a boon for corporate users who have to give presentations. The Latitude 10 can be connected to any HDTV which takes in an HDMI port and you can duplicate your tablet’s screen onto a bigger display.

The IE10 browser looks different in the modern UI mode and the desktop mode. While in the desktop mode you have a regular IE10 browser with the address bar on the top, in the modern UI mode, the address bar is at the base. We did not really like the tabs implementation in the modern UI as you need to slide from the top to see open tabs or to add more tabs. It takes more time than a normal IE10 browser where you don’t need an additional slide or click to view open tabs or add more tabs.

We were surprised to find a brick-like charger port as is generally seen on laptops. But thankfully you will not need to carry that all the time, as just beside the charging port, you have the microUSB port which can charge your Latitude 10. This is a thoughtful addition.

The battery life on the Latitude 10 is quite impressive. While performing our video-on-loop stress test we noticed that the tablet lasted for a good 5 hours. On normal usage, you can easily extract over 8 hours from the Latitude 10. This is again a plus point for corporate users on the move.

Verdict
Considering this is a tablet, selling at a Rs. 40,000 price-point, comparisons with the Apple iPad are a given. But let us understand one thing - the Dell Latitude 10 cannot be slotted in the same category as Apple’s iPad and the Android tablets out there. Apart from the obvious difference in architecture (ARM for Apple and Android and x86 for Latitude) one needs to understand that with the Latitude you are getting the full Windows 8 Pro edition. Connect a USB hub in the USB port on the tablet and connect your keyboard and mouse to it and you can use this system as you would use your Windows PC. Of course the low-power Atom processor does not put it in the same bracket as a traditional laptop or an ultrabook which are much powerful.

So, in a way, the Dell Latitude is offering you something more than the Apple and Android tablets in the sense that you have the tablet-specific UI for your entertainment and media consumption needs and you have the desktop mode on which you can do your office work. Sure there are apps available on the App Store and Google Play store specific to your needs, but with the Windows desktop mode, the philosophy is different.

Products such as these are middle-of-the-road products. We cannot really benchmark the Dell Latitude as there are no common apps for doing that which will compare it with Apple or Android tablets. Desktop and laptop related benchmarks do run, but then again, you cannot really compare it with anything other than another Windows 8 Pro device sporting an Atom processor and these benchmarks will be merely indicative and not really prove any point so to speak.

We are not saying that the device is without any flaws. Far from it. While the hardware has no issues as such, the Windows 8 pro modern UI mode leaves a lot to be desired. We found a lot of inconsistencies with apps. With an Apple app you just know it will work well and scale according to the Apple device being used, Android is slowly getting there. But with the Windows 8 apps, a lot of them look as if they were put out too soon.

For instance, while checking out a photo-essay in one app, the photographs would stretch ruining the aspect ratio irrespective of whether you held the tablet in the landscape or portrait mode. Only while using the screen in the 2/3rds mode, did we notice that issue being resolved as the photo has lesser area to keep the aspect ratio proper. Another app showed a huge delay between switching from full-screen video mode to normal screen video mode. Facebook Touch had a horrendous layout. Messaging app would randomly stop working from the app environment, but would run smoothly in the IE10 browser. Barring the native apps, it is not really fair to blame Microsoft, but the end-user is least bothered about whether the app is native or third party. If it’s there on the Windows Store, Microsoft owes it to its users to ensure that the app is optimised.

Dell offers a dedicated productivity dock for power users, which holds up the tablet in the vertical position and it has dedicated USB ports and display ports and so on, for which you will have to pay separately. We would have ideally liked if the Dell Latitude 10 had a simpler dock bundled with the tablet or a protrusion from the rear side that would allow one to rest the tablet upright on a desk.

So, the bottom line is who is the tablet meant for? Well, according to the Dell website, it is clearly targetted at business users or corporates who are always on the move. It makes perfect sense for them. But the tablet is also great for someone who wants a device for media consumption as well as to do work. We personally found this useful only in the desktop mode as the modern UI and the apps on Windows 8 are no match for the UI on Apple and Android tablets. The USB port makes things so hassle-free. This is probably the only time that we did not bother using the micro-USB port on the tablet, as all copy-pasting work was done directly via the USB port. It is a boon for those who dread and downright hate the hurdles Apple iTunes makes you go through, or for that matter Windows Zune interface makes you go through. With the Latitude it is simple plug and play. Nothing can get any simpler.

So yes, the tablet does have its advantages for the discerning users. But with a handicapped experience on the modern UI, you can really have a smoother experience on your smartphones than bother with the un-optimised apps on the Windows Store. The desktop experience is brilliant and as far as tablets go, you can rest assured that this will help you with your productive tasks and office work brilliantly. Again, this makes sense for a business user whose main task involves a lot of work with the Office suite. But for a regular Joe, unless he is looking for a productivity only tablet, it is better to wait it out till the Windows 8 apps really take care of the niggles.

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Acer Aspire M5 Touch

Thursday, January 10, 2013 in Laptop/PC

 

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  Summary

  In case of the Acer Aspire M5 Touch ultrabook, we recommend that unless touch is an absolute necessity for you, you should choose one of the more conventional ultrabooks around the Rs. 60,000 mark, which will offer better overall performance. The HP Spectre XT makes the most sense around this budget.

Processor: Intel Core i3 � 3217U @ 1.8GHz RAM: 4GB Display: 14-inch (1366 x 768 pixel) touchscreen Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GT640M (2GB) and Intel HD 4000 Storage: 500GB HDD + 24GB mSATA SSD Connectivity: 1 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, HDMI out, Ethernet, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi OS: Windows 8

The year 2013 will be big – laptops and ultrabooks will begin to come with touchscreens, and the hybrids will rise up as well, just to annoy the tablet and the ultrabook! The Acer Aspire M5 Touch is one of the first touchscreen ultrabooks to hit the Indian market, and put it through its paces at our test centre.

Build & Design
Acer Aspire M5 Touch has fairly basic looks, but will work with a wide demographic of potential users. This is an ultrabook, but doesn’t shout about its slimness. Packs in an optical drive as well, and that is a huge bonus. The black colour has a matte finish throughout, and that does look understated and sophisticated. A bit bland too, some may counter, but then again, the Aspire M5 Touch will appeal to a wider demographic of users than an ultrabook with a crimson red lid!

The matte black finish on the Acer Aspire M5 Touch is the same on the lid and the keyboard deck. The machine is a tad thicker than most ultrabooks, but has an optical drive on the left side. The right side seems to be absolutely clean, which perplexes us a bit, wondering why Acer wants you to have to reach behind the display to get to the USB, Ethernet and HDMI. It is certainly not the ideal port placement, and could have been implemented a lot better.

The Acer Aspire M5 Touch’s build quality is fairly acceptable, and despite the use of materials that don’t feel very premium when touched, there is still no flex on the chassis. The fan tends to be slightly noisy when the machine is stressed, but with the vents at the back, you will not feel the draft of uncomfortable warm air.

Features & Specifications
The Aspire M5 Touch has a fairly basic spec sheet – Intel Core i3 – 3217U processor clocking at 1.8GHz, and supported with 4GB of RAM. We are a tad surprised to see a Core i3 processor in a machine that sports a price tag slightly upward of Rs. 60,000.

But what is interesting is that the Acer Aspire M5 Touch packs in an Nvidia GeForce GT640M (2GB) graphics chip. This is a fairly powerful graphics package, and the benchmark tests will prove that. We will give you the details in the Performance section.

The Acer Aspire M5 Touch’s 14-inch display has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. In terms of quality, the display is just very good. It has fairly punchy brightness levels and colour vividness is slightly better than the elder sibling, the Acer Aspire S3. Crispness is fairly good, but interestingly, text doesn’t seem that sharp at times. The touchscreen feature is why you are paying a premium for the M5, and for that bit, the response is rather assured. The only issue is the display hinge is not the strongest around, and every time you tap the display, it rocks back. And it isn’t ideal to hold the display with one hand every time and use the touchscreen with the other!

The Acer Aspire M5 Touch’s keyboard is comfortable to use, with good key placement and adequate travel. Pressing hard in the middle does bring out some dip, but that will not be visible when typing normally. The number pad on the right side means that the alphabet keys are left aligned, and that takes a bit of time to get used to. Apart from that, the touchpad has generous amounts of real estate space available.

The Acer Aspire M5 Touch that we got as a review unit has a 500GB hard drive, and Windows 8 (64-bit) preloaded. However, there is just a tad too much preloaded content – apps, trials and utilities, something that could be cut down on, or better streamlined within one app.

Performance
In terms of what the Aspire M5 offers, it is a bit of a mixed bag. The Core i3 processor does have its limitations. The benchmark scores prove that, and even in real life, this machine will not be the fastest one around. While this would have been acceptable for an ultrabook under Rs. 50,000, it surely would seem like a huge compromise at this price. With Windows 8 on board, you will surely get slightly better performance than you would on the same machine with Windows 7, but that does not say a lot. We are not discriminating against Core i3 machines, but at this price, this package is rather unbelievable.

Gaming performance does impress quite a bit. We wouldn’t gloss over the fact that the Core i3 does limit this machine significantly, but for pure gaming, this one is in the league of the HP Envy 4, Samsung Series 5 and the Dell XPS 14. The 3D Mark 06 score of 8336 is beaten only by the 8577 on the Dell XPS 14. The 3D Mark 11 Entry Mode score of 2727 is by far the highest among all ultrabooks, with the Dell XPS 14’s 1938 a distant second highest.

Battery life is the proverbial cherry on the cake (and perhaps the biggest reason for the inclusion of power-sipping Core i3 processor). The tested battery life of 266 minutes is pretty much beating the best out there – 246 minutes scored by the Samsung Series 9 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. This one pretty much is the ultrabook that you need if battery life is critical for you.

Bottom Line
The clear issue with the Aspire M5 Touch is the price. The performance is fairly in line with an ultrabook costing less than Rs. 50,000. The graphics performance is excellent, but with the processor being the bottleneck, overall performance will get reined in quite often. The touchscreen capabilities are rather unique, and work quite well for the most part. The display hinge does make touch somewhat annoying, but that is the feature you are actually paying a premium for. But we are not very sure if you should. Unless touch is an absolute necessity for you, for some reason, we would urge you towards one of the conventional ultrabooks around the Rs. 60,000 mark. The HP Spectre XT makes the most sense around this budget.

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Asus PadFone

Thursday, January 10, 2013 in Laptop/PC

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Summary

As a concept the PadFone works well. It tries to bring the best of three worlds in one device, but at what cost? Rs. 65,000 is a little expensive. We like the idea of using the pen as the phonem but there is no place in the tablet or the keyboard dock to house it, giving it a lifespan of two days. If you are in the market to pick up a smartphone, you can get the iPhone 5 in this budget, or an iPad and a decent Android smartphone. It is not exactly a value-for-money product. But if you are the kind of person who wants one gadget to fulfil your smartphone, tablet and netbook needs, you can consider picking this device up however. If that is the case, we would recommend waiting for the PadFone 2. 

Is it a phone? Is it a tablet? Is it a laptop? Well, it's a three-in-one. Yes, today we live in a world where one smart device doesn't suffice our needs. We need a smartphone for certain tasks, we need a tablet for other things and nothing beats the utility of a physical keyboard for typing.

But what if we had one device that could work as all three? We have seen tablets that come with keyboard docks that give them the utility of a netbook, but nothing that incorporates a smartphone into the mix.
Today we have with us the Asus PadFone. It is smartphone that comes with a docking station making it a tablet that also comes with a keyboard dock that should give it the utility of a netbook. Is this truly a three-in-one device, or are you better off getting three different products?

Design and Build
First, the phone part of the Asus PadFone itself – the build is very nice, and has a very premium feel to it. The rear has a textured, rippled plastic finish to it, similar to what we have seen on the Asus Zenbook ultrabook and the Transformer Prime tablet. The smartphone has a teardrop design which makes it nice to hold in one hand. The side of the phone has this aluminium bezel making it feel premium.

The front of the device has the 4.3-inch super AMOLED display. The rear houses the 8MP camera with the LED flash. The top has the on/off/sleep/wake switch along with the headphones jack and the right has the volume rocker. There is no dedicated camera button and this is missed on the smartphone. The left has the microUSB port for charging and another port that connects the smartphone to the tablet dock.

As mentioned earlier, the Asus PadFone has a teardrop design but this design element isn’t as evident as it is on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. It makes the smartphone very comfortable to hold and its size is great for use with both as well as single hand use.

Moving to the design of the Asus PadFone’s tablet dock, we see it has a 10.1-inch display, clear black borders and the VGA camera for video chatting. The left and right side of the screen have what appears to be speaker grills but that isn’t the case. A single speaker rests at the rear of the device and these grills are more of a design element and have as little utility as adding to the grip.

The left of the Asus PadFone’s tablet dock has the headphones jack and the volume rocker, while the bottom has the charging port as well as ports that fix it in the keyboard dock. The top has the on/off/sleep/wake switch along with a slider that releases the panel where the phone can be inserted. This pocket, where the phone can be inserted, sticks out a bit from the rear of the tablet. It isn’t a bad design choice; it’s just that it's a prominent bulge. This pocket too has the same textured finish found at the back of the phone. The hinge of this pocket seems sturdy and well constructed. Inserting the phone is simple, as all you have to do is align the ports, insert the phone and you’re done.

Coming to the final accessory, the Asus PadFone’s keyboard dock – put simply, it is the same one that is found on the Asus Transformer Prime. The right of the dock has the SD card slot and a full sized USB port. The left has one more full sized USB port, charger connector and a battery indicator. The keys on the keyboard are well laid out and even though the keys do feels a bit small, there is enough spacing between them to feel comfortable during typing.

Features and Specifications
The PadFone (smartphone) has a dual-core 1.5GHz Krait CPU with the Adreno 225 GPU, coupled with 1GB of RAM. The 4.3-inch AMOLED display has a 540 x 960 pixel (qHD) resolution. Not a Retina Display, but quite impressive nonetheless.

It comes with 16/32/64GB built-in storage options, expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. It is powered by a 1520mAh battery. That's the specifications of the phone. The tablet dock has no processing power driving it. It is just a 10.1-inch representation of the content and the power that drives the phone. The 10.1-inch display has a resolution of 1280x800, which is nice, and the whole dock is powered by a 6600mAh battery. It is on the heavier side weighing 724 grams and may be a little difficult to handle with one hand use.

The Asus PadFone runs on Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich straight out of the box, an OS optimised for use on both a smartphone and tablet. The OS is skinned so it isn’t a stock Android experience but the customization isn’t as deep as let us say, the Sense UI from HTC, or the TouchWiz UI from Samsung. It’s much lighter in comparison. You do have some nifty widgets like the power widget, task manager widget and the weather widget that add a bit of variety to the device and you also have the slew of other standard Android widgets to customize the home screen.

The swipe down notifications menu on the Asus PadFone gives you access to the standard slew of settings with one nifty addition – adjusting the brightness. Sure, we have seen this implemented in TouchWiz, but there is something called as outdoor mode, which makes the display a lot more vibrant and more comfortable to use under direct sunlight. The same is available on the tablet as well and it is one feature we truly appreciate.

Since the Asus PadFone functions as a smartphone and a tablet, there is a separate section on the device called Pad Only. This is the place where the tablet specific apps are housed. Another nifty feature is the addition of full USB support from the keyboard dock, making data access on the tablet easy.

You also get a stylus with the tablet. Even though it doesn't have the same diverse functionality as the S-Pen that comes with the Samsung Galaxy Note, Note II or the Note 800, but it does have one very unique functionality – it doubles up as an earpiece and mic for your tablet. Say you have docked the tablet, and are typing a document sitting in a café. You aren’t going to receive a call on the tablet via the loud speaker. It is plain embarrassing. The pen however gives you the ability to have a private conversation, just as you would on a phone. Although using a pen like device in public will make you look like a fool, it may make you feel like James Bond at the same time.



Performance
The performance of the Asus PadFone as a smartphone is really good with one drawback – the onscreen keyboard. The keyboard on the smartphone doesn't have the best layout and even though the touchscreen responds to a feather touch, the keyboard doesn't. Sometimes you have to make an effort to type and that isn’t a good thing.

In its raw performance, the Asus PadFone performed quite well. Its performance was a bit less when compared to the quad-core behemoths flooding the market but it wasn't too far away. In the dual-core race however, the device performed quite well. To put things into perspective, below is a benchmark comparison between the Asus PadFone, LG Optimus 4X HD, Sony Xperia Ion and the Samsung Galaxy S III.
           

In real world usage the Asus PadFone perfomed quite well. The call quality from the phone is excellent. It is crisp at both ends and sounded quite good even in crowded scenarios. The loud speaker on the tablet is good as well, producing clear and audible sound. What surprised us was the call quality from the pen. It was crisper than some of the phones we have tested, and that is a very good thing.

The video playback on both the Asus PadFone smartphone and the tablet was really good. The representation of colour was crisp and nice although the black levels were a bit lower than we’d like. Even in fast action sequences, there was less blur and loss of pixels making this device quite good for watching videos.

Android’s app market (the Google Play store) doesn't have too many tablet specific apps but the ones that are there run nicely on the Asus PadFone tablet dock’s 10.1-inch display. It’s particularly fun to play games on the screen of the tablet.

The battery life on the Asus PadFone is its best feature. Asus claims that combining all three – the phone, tablet and keyboard dock the device will last for 105 hours. The phone itself will last for one and a half days of average use, and that is very impressive.

Bottom Line
As a concept the PadFone works well. It tries to bring the best of three worlds in one device, but at what cost? Rs. 65,000 is a little expensive. We like the idea of using the pen as the phonem but there is no place in the tablet or the keyboard dock to house it, giving it a lifespan of two days. If you are in the market to pick up a smartphone, you can get the iPhone 5 in this budget, or an iPad and a decent Android smartphone. It is not exactly a value-for-money product. But if you are the kind of person who wants one gadget to fulfil your smartphone, tablet and netbook needs, you can consider picking this device up however. If that is the case, we would recommend waiting for the PadFone 2.

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Lenovo IdeaPhone K860

Thursday, January 10, 2013 in Laptop/PC

 Summary

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Processor: Exynos 4412 quad core @ 1.4GHz RAM: 1GB Graphics: Mali 400-MP Display: 5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) Storage: 8GB + micro SD slot Camera: 8MP OS: Android 4.0.4 Battery: 2250mAh

The K860 is a rather impressive phablet, and is quite affordable as well. More importantly, it costs less than the Optimus Vu, with significantly better performance and comfort of use. The only issue with Lenovo smartphones is that their availability is rather limited. And that is the real drawback, but if you can get your hands on this phone, you are one of the lucky people! On that note, Lenovo does need to sort this out quickly, if they are serious about the smartphone market in India.

When you think Lenovo, the first visual element that pops into your head is surely not a smartphone. Laptops, surely… Ultrabooks, most likely… ThinkPad in general, for sure. Which is why, we were admittedly rather apprehensive towards the Lenovo smartphones that arrived in the test centre. However, it didn’t take long for our opinion to change, for the better.

Build & Design
For a device that is essentially a phablet, the Lenovo IdeaPhone K860 remains fairly comfortable for single-hand use. What helps is that it doesn’t have the immediate imposing footprint that comes with the LG Optimus Vu and even the Samsung Galaxy Note II for a certain extent.

Straight out-of-the-box, and you don’t realize that the Lenovo IdeaPhone K860 actually has a 5-inch display. The thin bezel on the right and left sides does have some bearing on this. The earpiece sits above the display, and is on a slightly lower height than the display and the glass. Interestingly, there are no touch sensitive or hardware keys below the display. That is because the Lenovo skin wrapped around the OS takes care of those tasks, on-screen.
   

The right spine of the Lenovo IdeaPhone K860 has the volume rocker, with the circular design for the + and the – keys keeping them rather individual and separate. The left spine has a micro USB port. The top has the 3.5mm headphone jack and the rounded power key, much in same design as the individual volume rocker keys. There is a strip of chrome framing the phone, and looks very classy. It brings a bit of contrast to the other similar colour tone throughout.
   

Flip the Lenovo IdeaPhone K860 over and the matte black finish is a welcome element after the slightly shiny front side. The imprint design and the slightly coarse finish does help immensely while gripping the phone during the single hand operation. Towards the top is the 8MP camera with flash, with a chrome border. The Lenovo logo sits to the right of that.
   

All in all, we are truly impressed by the solidity of the IdeaPhone K860. However, while it is fairly slim at 9.6mm, it does weigh in at an immodest 193.5 grams. It does feel well put together though. Fairly basic looks, but very sophisticated nonetheless. This device is meant to be a phablet, but is by far the most comfortable one to hold and use.
   

Features & Specifications
There is no shortage of power on the Lenovo Smartphone IdeaPhone K860. The processor providing all the power is the Exynos 4412 quad core chip clocking at 1.4GHz. Incidentally, the same processor as the Samsung Galaxy Note II, but clocked slightly higher at 1.6GHz. The IdeaPhone K860 gets 1GB of RAM.

For the storage needs, there is 8GB internal storage and a micro SD card slot for expansion on the Lenovo IdeaPhone K860.

The 5-inch IPS display is rather impressive. The resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels is not something we can fault. The result is pretty positive. Straight up, the text readability is very comfortable on this device. Without actually zooming in on a web page, you can very easily read most of the text. Colour depth is fantastic, and helps with multimedia viewing. The unfortunate part is that the Lenovo IdeaPhone K860’s display is rather reflective, which kind of hurts viewing in sunlight.
   

It is rather surprising that the IdeaPhone K860 comes with Android Ice Cream Sandwich on board, and we have not heard anything about an upgrade to Android Jelly Bean, if at all. While the performance, which we will talk about in the next section, is impressive, the fact that it still has an older OS points to some untapped potential.
   

Performance
This part really surprised us. In the benchmark tests, the Lenovo IdeaPhone K860 trounces the LG Optimus Vu rather consistently, and is in solid second place behind the Galaxy Note II. The Lenovo IdeaPhone K860 scores 5067 in Quadrant test, while the Optimus Vu scores 4781 and the Note II scores 5981. In the AnTuTu test, the IdeaPhone K860 takes the lead with the score of 15823, while the Optimus Vu scores 12131 and the Note II a surprising 13649. These are the benchmark scores putting things in perspective, but our real concern was the real life usage performance. Straightaway, the minimalistic theme wrapped around Android is helpful – does not hinder performance, does not get in the way, and yet has enough useful widgets to remain somewhat relevant. Apps open smoothly, and with 4-5 apps open in the background, there seems to be no lag while opening another app. But, anymore and the phone will visibly encounter slight slowdowns. Not bad for a phone that is aiming to offer very good performance without being vain about it.

Gaming is where the IdeaPhone K860 is definitely better than the Optimus Vu, but strictly behind the Note II. Both the Note II and the IdeaPhone K860 have the Mali 400-MP graphics chip, but are clocked differently. The IdeaPhone K860 scores 52.3FPs in NenaMark 2, while the Optimus Vu is considerably behind with 48.7, while the Note II has the undisputed lead with 58FPs. Gaming experience, however, on the Note II and the IdeaPhone K860 is relatively similar, with only the display quality having a bearing on the overall gaming quality.

The call quality on the IdeaPhone K860 is pretty satisfactory for the most part, but the clarity does tend to get affected in areas where the signal quality is less than 50%. Earpiece quality of sound and loudness is good, but the speakerphone needs to be a bit louder. The good thing is that the IdeaPhone K860 takes a proper SIM card, and not a micro or Nano SIM.

The 2250mAh battery on the Lenovo IdeaPhone K860 will last a day and a bit more on a complete charge, and is fairly impressive. The Note II has a much bigger 3100mAh battery that lasts 2 days under the exact same usage.

The 8MP camera is a bit of an “okay, it is here” kind of a feature. It takes decent enough shots in good bright daylight, but in the evenings and beyond, the images are noisy, colour is completely off and the camera takes very long to focus. Good enough for that spur of the moment pic when meeting friends, but nothing more.

Bottom Line
What we have seen is a rather impressive phablet, and is quite affordable as well. More importantly, it costs less than the Optimus Vu, with significantly better performance and comfort of use. The only issue with Lenovo smartphones is that their availability is rather limited. And that is the real drawback, but if you can get your hands on this phone, you are one of the lucky people! On that note, Lenovo does need to sort this out quickly, if they are serious about the smartphone market in India.

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HP Envy 4-1002TX

Wednesday, September 26, 2012 in Laptop/PC

After the recent update, the Samsung Series 5 had become a cracker of an ultrabook, particularly when you consider the price tag. For quite a while now, we have been recommending the Ivy Bridge version of the Samsung ultrabook to anyone who has been asking for what to buy! But, there us a new challenger on the block, and is taking the battle / providing an alternative, whichever way you look at it, to the Samsung. Yes, we are talking about the HP Envy 4-1002TX ultrabook.

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Build & Design
Ultrabooks, quite simply had just one task to accomplish on the looks front – look sexy. Laptop designs and form factors had gone out of hand quite a long time back, and Intel wanted to retain some good elements, as far as possible, in this new category. The HP Envy 4 does tick most of the check boxes on the design checklist.

There is a generous amount of aluminum used on the HP Envy 4, which gives it a “looks more expensive than it actually is” look. The illuminated logo idea that HP had dabbled with till recently, has now given way to the neat looking logo on one edge of the lid. The lid has a very subtle brushed metal finish, and that carries forward to the areas around the keyboard. While this is completely matte and not glossy at all (there really is a God!), this finish has a very annoying habit of accumulating smudges! The very tip of the lid – near side, if you may, when the lid is closed and ready for opening, correct side on – is plastic. We cannot really understand for this little dash of plastic on what feels very premium otherwise.
       
       
       

The ports are on the sides of the HP Envy 4, as they conventionally are for most laptops, with no testing the idea of placing them behind the display. Also, the muscular display hinge wouldn’t allow for that. What you cannot miss is that the side spines as well as the base are in the soft finish crimson red colour, with a matte finish. Yes, for those who have a more conventional thought process, there is the complete black finish option as well, but we believe this one looks absolutely fantastic. Flip the laptop over, and you will see a very well thought out channel of vents – sucking air, blowing it out as well as for passive cooling.

The only real negative that we can see in the otherwise excellent build of the HP Envy 4 is the glossy bezel around the display, and quite frankly we don’t understand the logic for that at all. When you have the most excellent brushed metal finish for the laptop, why ruin it with this dollop of scratch, dust and fingerprint magnet.

Features & Specifications
The Envy 4-1002TX is powered by the Ivy Bridge series of processors – the Core i5 - 3317U clocked at 1.7GHz, with Turbo Boost taking it to 2.6GHz. There is 4GB of RAM to help it along. On the spec sheet, the Samsung Series 5 (read our review) has 6GB of RAM - however, this maybe an example of how the spec sheet doesn’t really show the whole picture, as we will explain in the Performance section.

The Envy has a 14-inch display, with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. It starts on the correct foot – natively quite bright, but not as much as the Series 5. However, the Envy’s display is very comfortable to use for long periods of time, because it has a slightly softer colour handling. Also, adequate crispness allows you to read text clearly with no visible edge noise. However, the display is rather reflective, and that is something we have deducted points for, in the corresponding ratings. Also, the colours may feel softer and very comfortable if you aren’t using this for multimedia viewing, but the display does feel a tad washed out when you are watching a movie on it.

For your storage needs, there is a 500GB hard drive on the HP Envy 4. However, to speed things along, there is a 32GB flash storage for the caching tasks. Incidentally, the Samsung Series 5 has a 24GB flash storage, but unlike them, HP doesn’t have nifty software that allows you to enable or disable this feature, or to clean up the flash drive periodically.


The island keyboard is extremely confortable to get used to, and switching from a MacBook to test the Envy, it didn’t take too long to get used to it, and rediscover my typing mojo! Adequate key travel and the response is consistent across the keys. The keyboard deck is pretty clean, except for the red Beats Audio key giving it a bit of colour. The HP Envy 4’s touchpad has a brushed metal circular imprint, and is like it is sitting on a raised platform with a trench dug all around it! The left and right click keys are integrated, and some who used this did complain that the keys actually kick in a little too close to the bottom left and bottom right edge. But then again, it is all about getting used to it. Multi-touch gestures work well on this touchpad, and upgrading to Windows 8 should be on your radar.

What we fail to understand is why does this ultrabook come with Windows 7 Basic preloaded on the machine. Considering the price of this machine, and the fact that an ultrabook is considered a “premium” device, at least a Home Premium edition was expected. Just like how almost all other ultrabook manufacturers are doing it! Thankfully, this time around, there is slightly less amount of preinstalled software on the ultrabook. HP has also streamlined its own utilities, features of which can now be accessed via the Support Assistant software. This ultrabook is compatible with the CoolSense feature, but since this is version 2.0 of the software, you can only switch it on or off. It is surprising, considering the older 1.0 version allowed you to choose between multiple settings for fan assisted cooling, and how the processor was clocked down.

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