Review After years of computer journalists telling me – erroneously, I hasten to add – that my next Desktop PC will be a laptop, it’s pleasing to see manufacturers such as HP trying to make it happen.
Viewing spectacle: the Envy 17 3D is a big beast but HP has managed to keep it looking clean and stylish
What do I hate about laptops? A keyboard with lots of keys missing; a pointing device less accurate than a Star Wars Stormtrooper; a crappy graphics card that struggles with its own half-arsed display let alone a second one; gaming frame-rate akin to a slideshow; less memory than the £5 USB stick in my pocket; less hard disk space than the £40 portable drive in my other pocket; and a price tag that would buy me three Desktop PCs – better ones, too. Read the rest of this entry »
Review The lightweight, streamlined design of the MacBook Air is undeniably attractive, and still leaves most of its ultraportable PC rivals looking like a chaotic collision metal and plastic. However, that sleek design has always come with something of a premium price – especially given the relatively modest specification of its processor and other components.
Unlike the new Mac Mini, this latest Air update doesn’t get any kind of price cut but it does at least get a very decent speed bump. Both the 11in and 13in models replace last year’s Intel Core 2 Duo processor with the Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 kit, and they use faster RAM too, stepping it up from 1066MHz to 1333MHz. Read the rest of this entry »
Toshiba’s Satellite P775 is a good example. The key points I jotted down while putting it through its paces are not the 2GHz Intel Core i7-2630WM quad-core processor – many laptops have one of those – the 750GB hard drive – ditto – or the Blu-ray Disc drive – a less commonplace component, but not one to stir the passions, either – but its backlit-keyboard and its looks. Read the rest of this entry »
Review It’s not unusual for Desktop replacements to have a bit of heft, but Samsung’s RF711 positively throws caution to the wind. Tipping the scales at an obese 2.9kg and measuring 416mm across (almost one-and-a-half feet), it’s only a laptop in the sense that the screen folds down to cover the keyboard when you’ve finished using it. In short, it looks like a prop from The Borrowers – use it on your lap and you can expect to lose circulation to your feet.
Going large: Samsung’s RF711
Its size brings with it some real portability issues. Simply heaving it from one place to another is exhausting enough, but you can forget about using it, say, on an aeroplane tray table. And, while you could use it on the tables you get in train carriages you should steel yourself for some dirty looks from your now-ousted neighbours.
Still, its enormous case shields some top-end components. You would expect a machine this big to come with a decent amount of computational poke, and the RF711 doesn’t disappoint. The quad-core Intel Core-i7 2360QM at its heart is a 2GHz Sandy Bridge number, and there’s no less than 6GB of DDR3 RAM on-board. The RF711 fairly flew along under heavy use and produced a spectacular set of numbers under PCMark, with an overall score of 7073. Read the rest of this entry »
Review I have always been a fan of ThinkPads, ever since my father brought home a beaten 560e featuring a 150MHz Pentium which was rejected from the corporate pool due to travel abuse. Even though half of its 1GB disk was bad sectors I ran it well into this century and with all the cheap tat that is flooding the market these days, I’ve not used anything that felt quite the same.
Business values with a consumer style: lenovo‘s ThinkPad Edge E420s
Now though, I have my hands on the lenovo-built ThinkPad Edge 420s which seems to hark back to the good old days of the IBM ThinkPad era. There are no gimmicky features to be found here, except perhaps the fingerprint reader. The TrackPoint ‘nipple’ is a comforting sight, yet now somewhat redundant with the multi-touch trackpad also fitted to the E420s.
Although this arrangement are effectively provides two mice, fortunately lenovo hasn’t tried to cram in a second keyboard. Instead, it has produced a very comfortable keyboard with ample-sized keys and great tactile response which, although it isn’t backlit, does feature a keyboard light mounted above the screen.
The shell has a matte soft-touch finish and features actual chromed metal edge trim – a flourish to broaden its appeal beyond the boardroom. Indeed, the E420s certainly maintains the impression of quality that is associated with the brand. Even the sound is better than most, listenable rather than tinny and supporting Dolby Home Theatre. Read the rest of this entry »
