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By admin, January 25, 2010 3:06 am

Sitting at the higher end of HP’s new Envy sub-brand, the HP Envy 15 offers blazing speed in a thin and light metal chassis that will turn heads. Thanks to Intel’s powerful Core i7 processor and ATI graphics, this $1,799 notebook blows away all other machines in its weight class–including the MacBook Pro–making it potentially well suited for creative pros on the go. However, this 5.2-pound system ultimately isn’t very portable because it lasts only 2 hours on a charge with the standard battery. And though it has a beautiful high-res screen and great sound, hot temperatures makes this system uncomfortable to use. Despite offering some benefits, the big brother to the Envy 13 falls flat.

Design

Like the 13-inch Envy 13, the Envy 15 has a brownish-gray aluminum and magnesium body that reminds us of a MacBook Pro. Its lid has an attractive etched pattern that looks like the skin of a robotic rattlesnake. At 15.0 x 9.6 x 1.0 inches and 5.2 pounds, the Envy 15 is 0.2 pounds lighter than the 15-inch 2009 MacBook Pro (14.4 x 9.8 x 1.0 inches; 5.4 pounds), though the latter has an internal optical drive. The Envy 15 is both thinner and lighter than the multimedia-centric Sony VAIO NW (14.6 x 9.8 x 1.2 inches; 5.6 pounds) and the gaming-focused Alienware M15x (14.9 x 12.2 x 1.9 inches; 9.0 pounds).

Keyboard, Touchpad, and HeatThe color-matching keyboard has brown, island-style keys that offer decent responsiveness and no flex, but typing is still an unpleasant experience. Somewhat unique among notebooks, the Envy 15 has two extra columns of keys: on the far left is a column of shortcut keys that launch apps such as the calculator, e-mail client, and Web browser; on the right is an extra column for the Page Up/Down, Home, and Delete keys.

Because the touchpad is shifted to the right of center, we found it too easy to miss the home row and accidentally hit the wrong keys when touch typing. It was also easy to accidentally brush up against the touchpad when typing. When we tried to use the Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor (www.tenthumbstypingtutor.com), our wrists kept brushing against the pad (which itself is clickable) and taking us back in our browser so we could not complete the test. We finally resorted to holding our hands in the air to avoid the touchpad, managing a weak 74 words per minute and 2 percent error rate—below our normal 80-wpm rate.

Similar to a MacBook, the Envy 15 swaps discrete mouse buttons for a touchpad that clicks right or left. While the pad looks attractive, it can be be difficult to use. Those who use only a single hand or finger to navigate will find the pad acceptable, but those who use the finger of one hand to click and another to move the cursor will have a frustrating experience. Because the buttons are built-in, two-handed users may find the pointer jerking down or to the side slightly at the moment they click. Updating to the latest touchpad driver improved the experience quite a bit, but clicking was still jerky. The pad supports multitouch gestures such as pinching to zoom in/out and rotating images by rotating one’s fingers.

More unpleasant still was the hot temperature of the wrist rest, which made typing uncomfortable. When the Envy 15 was doing nothing more than downloading a file in Firefox, we measured the wrist rest temperature at 103 degrees Fahrenheit, the touchpad at 100, and between the G and H keys at 95. When performing other tasks, the air being vented out of the system heated the desk it was sitting on to 110 degrees. Despite its portability, this is not anotebook that we would use in our lap.

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By admin, January 18, 2010 7:23 pm

Earlier today, I told you about the Jawbone Icon, the newest headset by Aliph, which has consistently won our Editors’ Choice award in the Bluetooth headset category the past couple years. Since the call quality is as clear as ever, I’ll focus on what’s different. One, users now have more opportunities to customize. The first choice they get is which headset they buy: although all six offerings have the same short, chunkier shape, they come in different textures and shapes, each with a twee nickname (our pearly white number is called “The Catch”; the one pictured is “The Ace”).

Each headset, too, has a corresponding voice that announces incoming calls and gives battery life status updates on request, but you can pick and choose different voices on MyTALK, a Web interface announced in beta today. Some other interface changes also make this the easiest-to-use Jawbone I’ve tested. Most importantly, to some folks: the price is now $99.99, not $129, as previous verisons of the headset cost, which brings it in line with other premium headsets.

Read on for some more detailed impressions about the design, and to find out if that voice feature is useful, or just a gimmick

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By admin, January 17, 2010 7:42 am

Sony is the next vendor in the spotlight for our continuing You Grade the Brands series, we’re taking a look back at a year’s worth of Sony notebook reviews to identify which strengths and weaknesses we’ve observed overall to give consumers some guidance on where to begin their search for the perfect laptop. We’ve also factored in the data we collected in our 2009 Tech Support Showdown and third-party data on notebook reliability.

So how does Sony stack up? Read on to see our take on the vendor’s strengths and weaknesses and the 2009 review scorecard below. Then sound off in the comments and tell us what you think of the brand and about your own experience with your Sony notebook or netbook. Without your input, our report card will be incomplete.

Strengths
Design: The mainstream and business notebooks in Sony’s line are notable for good keyboards and touchpads, solid yet thin chassis, and attractive designs. Form and function blend well in these models, and even the more aesthetically-inclined VAIO P and X don’t eschew the basics.
Configurations: Though we only reviewed four Sony notebooks this year, two of these represented a model series with multiple configurations under one design. The vendor’s offerings are pretty diverse, ranging from high-price, high-concept machines like the VAIO X to the modestly-priced multimedia machines in the NW series.
Making Miniaturization Sexy: In the past few years Sony has introduced several small computers based on big ideas. Whether the goal is insanely thin and light (VAIO X), a reinvention of the netbook concept (VAIO P), or packing as much hardware as possible into the smallest practical form factor (VAIO TT — from 2008), the vendor always aims to take your breath away with their smallest laptops.
And The Kitchen Sink: We can usually count Sony to include some extra feature to make their notebooks stand out in the crowd. Whether it’s Blu-ray on a budget or integrated 3G and GPS, the feature set is never understated.
Weaknesses
Price: We appreciate the moderately-priced mainstream notebooks in Sony’s line, but the hype-generating systems are also likely to have hefty price tags. Unfortunately, the cost doesn’t always match the value users get out of the machine.
Form Over Function: We’re always ready to praise Sony for their aesthetic choices because they have a habit of making good-looking notebooks. However, sometimes the look takes precedence over practical considerations. To get the VAIO X super thin Sony went with a low-power processor and no fan, which caused serious heat problems on the underside.
Review Report Card
In 2009 we reviewed 4 Sony notebooks and netbooks. Of those, the VAIO X earned 3 stars, the VAIO NW series and VAIO P earned 3.5 stars, and the VAIO SR series notebook earned 4 stars. None of Sony’s offerings were awarded LAPTOP’s Editor’s Choice last year.

Best Rated Notebook

Sony VAIO SR Series
Worst Rated Notebook

Sony VAIO X
Tech Support and Reliability
Sony received a good score of B+ in our Tech Support Showdown. According to a study by Square Trade, Sony has a fairly low malfunction rate over 3 years — 16.8% — indicating that their notebooks are reliable and, when they break, users are in good hands.

There’s no doubt that Sony creates big-idea notebooks that look stunning. But we’re hoping that the new models we saw at this year’s CES have more of a balance between good-looks and performance.

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By admin, May 29, 2009 3:58 am

The wait is almost over. Nvidia’s ION graphics for netbooks will be available inside the new Lenovo S12 come August for $499. That’s only $50 more than the version that will ship with Intel’s wimpy integrated graphics.

The company has three goals in mind for ION, which is paired with Intel’s Atom CPU: Enable users to play mainstream games like Spore, the Sims, and World of Warcraft; watch high-definition movies (up to 1080p on a TV); and transcode video. In other words, as senior product manager Matt Wuebbling put it when we chatted last week, “ION turns a netbook into a notebook.”

Assuming Nvidia can back up these claims once the S12 becomes available, ION will be a disruptive technology in the best possible sense of the term. At a time when Intel and AMD are trying to get consumers to step up to “affordable” thin-and-light $600 to $800 notebooks powered by their ULV and NEO processors, buyers could wind up asking for cheaper portables with Atom + ION instead. Here are the highlights of our conversation with Weubbling:

• The reason that only the ION version of the S12 has HDMI is because only it is capable of outputting 1080p video, whether it’s ripped, downloaded, or through an external Blu-ray drive. However, ION won’t help when it comes to streaming HD video online.
• ION will allow users to benefit from graphics-accelerated video editing programs like vReveal.
• Although Nvidia’s GeForce processors are still your best bet for the latest 3D games like Far Cry 2, you’ll be able to get “in the mid 20 frames per second” at native resolution for mainstream titles like Spore, Call of Duty 4, and World of Warcraft. “You might see hitching or a missed frame once in a while.” The native resolutoin of the S12 is 1280 x 800.
• Wuebbling recommended this stress test for the GPU once we get our hands on the ION-enabled S12: “Play an HD or Blu-ray moview on the notebook with it connected to an external display at the same time you’re transcoding and you’ll still see perfectly flawless video.” He even said we could even surf the Web at the same time.
• Despite the fact that ION promises 10X the graphics performance, Nvidia claims that it should deliver comparable battery life to integrated graphics. According to Lenovo, the S12 should get 6 hours of endurance, so we’ll have to wait and see if the ION version fairs as well as the Atom-only version of that notebook

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By admin, May 21, 2009 4:33 am

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang accused Intel of unfair business practices, because the chipmaker’s policy of charging lower prices for its Atom CPU + Chipset than for the Atom CPU alone, puts the graphics vendor and its ION chipset at a disadvantage.

“That seems pretty unfair,” Huang told Reuters. “We ought to be able to compete and serve that market.”

These allegations against Intel are nothing new. We’d been hearing off-the-record from vendors for several months that it was cost prohibitive to buy the Atom CPU by itself and labor-intensive to remove the CPU when it’s bundled with the chipset.  But last week, in a conference call last week, Intel CEO Paul Otellini confirmed the rumors, telling our own Mark Spoonauer that “we have historically offered better pricing to people who buy more product.”

What we didn’t know, until now, is how much Intel really charges for an Atom CPU by itself and with its chipset. In his interview with Reuters, Huang stated that Intel charges $25 for the CPU and chipset together, but $45 for the CPU by itself. Add the cost of ION, which we do not know, to the $20 premium for the bare CPU and you have a much more expensive netbook or a much lower profit margin for vendors.

What do you think? Is Intel charging a fair discount or bullying netbook vendors into avoiding ION?

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By admin, May 18, 2009 7:38 pm

Dell has introduced a new 10″ Atom-powered netbook - the Inspiron Mini 10v. It’s intended to be lower-cost configuration of its Mini 10 sibling. Available with Windows XP or Ubuntu OS, the new Mini 10v offers 7 color choices for its lid - Obsidian Black, Alpine White, New Cherry Red, Promise Pink (US), Ice Blue, Jade Green and new Passion Purple.

Similar to Mini 10, the Mini 10v offers a keyboard which 92% of standard full-size. The Mini 10v also features 1.3MP Webcam, 10.1 LED-backlit WSVGA LCD, HDMI port and 1GB DDR2 RAM Optional upgrades include up to 160GB Hard Drive, integrated Bluetooth 2.1, external DVD+/-RW optical drive and 6-cell battery pack.

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By admin, May 16, 2009 8:31 pm

MSI Intros New X-Slim Notebooks

MSI has announced the latest additions to its X-Slim notebook lineup: the 14-inch X400 and 15-inch X600; both will become available this quarter. The X-Slim series of notebooks are based on Intel’s Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) platform. The X400 and X600 are less than one inch thick, have LED-backlit 16:9 widescreen displays, and Blu-ray support. All screens options have a resolution of 1366×768.

The X400 weighs in at 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg), and the X600 comes in at 4.6 pounds (2.1 kg). The X400 comes with a 4-cell Li-poly (as opposed to the traditional Li-ion) battery; an 8-cell extended life battery is available. The X600 is available with a 9-cell extended life battery. All X-Slim notebooks use external optical drives.
Both the X400 and X600 feature Intel Core 2 Solo processors, HDMI, up to 500GB hard drives, and up to 4GB of RAM. A main difference between the X400 and the X600 is in the graphics department; the X400 has an integrated Intel X4500HD graphics card, while the X600 features an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330

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By admin, May 14, 2009 8:14 pm

If you’ve taken a gander at our MSI X340 review, you read that we deemed the machine a very good ultraportable for the price, despite its flaws.  You also would’ve noticed comparisons to the Apple MacBook Air sprinkled throughout, as Cupertino’s notebook was the prototype for super-slim systems. Considering that both notebooks offer roughly the same weight and dimensions, we thought it appropriate to pit them in a 6-round knock-down, drag-out competition to determine which laptop is the best when factoring in price, design, value,  and general usability (while leaving the inevitable Mac OS X vs. Windows arguments aside). Consider it Ali-Foreman for super-thin ultraportables. Let’s get ready to rumble!

Design and Ports
The MacBook Air may have set the new standard for super-svelte ultraportables and served as the inspiration for the X340, but its tiny 12.8 x 8.9 x 0.7-inch frame comes with a number of compromises that the similarly-sized MSI (13.0 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches) doesn’t possess. Save for the MagSafe power cord connection, the MacBook Air’s three ports (USB 2.0, mini-DisplayPort, headphone) are tucked away in the back-right corner of the system in a drop-down flap. The small opening makes it a pain to connect gear, which isn’t a problem that comes with the X340 as all of it ports are easily accessible. MSI also includes several connections that Apple doesn’t: HDMI,VGA, Ethernet, mic, modem, 2-in-1 card reader, and an additional USB port.

In terms of build, the MacBook Air’s aluminum frame is far sturdier than the X340; the latter has a rather hollow feel to it despite being virtually the same weight as its Cupertino rival (2.9 pounds vs. 3.0 pounds). In addition, the MSI’s lid also has alot of flex, and draws all manner of smudges and fingerprints (the latter is nothing that a cloth or paper towel couldn’t take care of). Of course, the X340 we tested was a pre-production model so it’s possible that the frame will be a little bit sturdier in the final build.

WINNER: MSI X340. Easy access to ports (and lots of them!) allowed us to overlook the flimsy feel.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Both notebooks have full-size keyboards, but the MacBook Air’s trounces the X340’s. The MacBook Air features Apple’s familiar Chiclet-styled keys that deliver good tactile feedback. It also has very cool backlighting that kicks in during low-light situations. The multitouch trackpad allowed us to scroll through Web pages, and zoom in and out of photos using pinch gestures.

Despite offering plenty of room for touch typists, the X340’s keyboard simply feels cheap in comparison. Its keyboard has way too much flex, and the keys are mushy. In addition, the right Shift key is about half the width of the MacBook Air’s. Again we must emphasize that our X340 was a late pre-production model so the final version may have a little less flex. Still, the X340’s keyboard would have to be completely different to best the MacBook Air’s.

WINNER: MacBook Air. A solid, comfortable keyboard is conducive to a pleasurable typing experience.

Display
The MacBook Air and X340 both offer similar-size, LED displays (13.4 vs. 13.3), but MSI’s machine serves up a 16:9 resolution at 1,366 x 768 pixels (the Air serves up a 16;10 1,280 x 800). Both screens kicked back too many reflections when viewing Web pages with dark backgrounds, but the X340 better replicated skin tones and demonstrated deeper color saturation when we watched Hulu clips.

WINNER: MSI X340. The sharper colors and slightly crisper visuals one-upped the Apple MacBook Air.

Performance

When it comes to raw processing and graphics performance, the Air has a huge advantage, given its 1.8-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU (with 256MB of memory). The X340, with its 1.4-GHz Core 2 Solo  ULV processor and integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, was designed to offer decent productivty performance and battery life.

To do an apples-to-apples comparison between the Mac OS-based Air and the Vista-based X340, we installed Vista (via Boot Camp)  on the MacBook and ran both systems through a couple of popular performance benchmarks. On PCMark Vantage, which measures overall system performance, the Air scored a whopping 3,684 compared to the X340’s 1,658. On 3DMark06, which measures graphics performance alone, the Air notched 1,385 to the X340’s 643.

WINNER: The MacBook Air, by a mile. Clearly, these two systems are not in the same class when comes to processing power and graphics. However, the X340 was more than adequate for common tasks like surfing the Web, sending e-mail, writing documents in Word, or watching 720p video.

Battery Life
Battery life is a notebook essential that we can all agree is vital, especially in the ultraportable category, as the systems are designed to be toted around town and from office to office. Unfortunately, the MacBook Air dropped the ball here, big time. Our LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous surfing over Wi-Fi) revealed a scant 2 hours and 8 minutes of battery life.

The X340’s endurance, however, was 1 hour and 30 minutes longer, at 3:38, which gives you additional time to work on documents, check e-mail, and watch YouTube clips. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that the Air’s CPU and GPU  offer more computing punch and thus user power juice than the MSI’s processor and graphics card.

WINNER: MSI X340.  The Air may have better performance, but these are both meant to be ultraportable systems, not high-end workstations. You can’t be too mobile when you only get two measly hours of battery life.

Value and Verdict
The MacBook Air certainly offers a lot of power given its svelte design; our $2,499 configuration includes a 1.86-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics (with 256MB of memory), 2GB of RAM, and a 128GB solid-state drive. A lower-priced model is available for $1,799, which offers a 1.6-GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and the same graphics chip but a slower, 4,200-rpm 120GB HDD.

Conversely, X340 is nearly as good a performer but is far more wallet-friendly at $899 — $900 less than the Air’s lower-end configuration. The system houses a 1.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 UL3V processor, 2GB of RAM, 320GB, and 5,400-rpm hard drive. It’s build quality and keyboard aren’t as good as the Air, but these are trade-offs we think many consumers will be willing to make. Some may be turned off, however, by MSI’s limited tech support hours.

Ultimately, selecting a champion in this contest can be tricky, particularly if you favor either the Mac OS X or Windows Vista operating system. But in terms of usability and bang for the buck, the X340 offers a similarly slim design with more easily accessible ports and better battery life for considerably less money.

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By admin, May 12, 2009 4:52 am

The sky is about to open and start raining netbooks and the first drop is Lenovo’s update to its IdeaPad S10. The improved IdeaPad S10-2 picks up where the company’s previous netbook left off with a redesigned chassis and an improved keyboard. Starting at $349.99, the 10-inch netbook may still have the same Intel Atom and Windows XP combo, but its standard six-cell battery makes it a real competitor.

The system is not only thinner and lighter than the original, but its glossy cover is now adorned with a new pattern. It will be available in black, white, pink and gray. The keyboard has also been expanded to 89 percent that of a full size laptop and now has a larger Shift Key. Stay tuned for our hands-on impressions.

All models of the S10-2 will ship with Lenovo’s QuickStart instant-on operating system and its VeriFace facial recognition software.

The S10-2 will be available for $349.99 with an Intel Atom N2170 processor, 1GB of RAM, Windows XP Home, 802.11bg wireless and a 160GB hard drive. A model with 802.11bg and a Sony Ericsson 3G model will be available this summer for $399.99. All models will come standard with a six-cell battery.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 will be available on Lenovo.com in the coming days. We will update this post when it becomes available for purchase.

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By admin, May 4, 2009 7:55 pm

Many moons ago Palm had a product that it hoped would take the tech world by storm. It was called the Palm Foleo, and the goal was to create a smart phone accessory that looked like today’s netbooks and allowed you to interact with your phone on a full size keyboard. Palm pulled the plug on it in September 2007, but it may be digging up the grave.

According to Barron’s Online, an analyst with Global Equities Research claims Palm plans to bring back the Foleo as a $399 netbook zombie running Palm webOS.

The article claims the netbook could use Qualcomm’s GOBI chip, which lets users subscribe to broadband data plans across carriers no matter whether the network is EV-DO or HSPA. The device is said to have been designed by ex-apple employees.

The whole idea sounds enticing, especially since it sounds like Palm understands we don’t need a bulky smart phone accessory. Let’s just hope it runs better than the first netbook we’ve seen running Android