Review Whenever I ask people what they want in a tablet, I usually get the following answers in descending order of importance: a price tag south of £200, a 7in screen to keep things compact and the ability to play any video or music files you care to mention out of the box plus the option to play them out from HDMI. The Archos 70 fits that bill to a tee, if you shop around.
The Archos 70: available as an HDD version too
Put your hand down the front of its trousers and the 70 is much the same as the 101 I looked at a few months ago, but after my recent experience with the Archos 32, which makes rather more sense than the 43, I thought it wise to see if the same was true of the relationship between the 70 and the 101. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Imagine my joy when asked to try out a 3D entertainment centre built into a Sony Vaio notebook. Imagine my disappointment, then, when I discover that the notebook in question is actually too big to fit in my notebook bag.
Sony’s Vaio VPCF21Z1E: don’t think of it as an overgrown notebook but as a very portable gaming PC.
Less a notebook than a 1,000-page grimoire with oak covers, the nattily named VPCF21Z1E/BI is one of those portable computers probably intended to replace a Desktop computer. This is true, in the sense that it’s about the same size as my Desktop computer. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Aimed squarely at those of us who simply don’t see the point of Android or iOS, Acer’s Iconia Tab W500 is a Windows 7 Home Premium slate complete with decent graphics, a handy detachable keyboard, a sizeable chunk of storage and a realistic, if not cheap, price tag of £520.
Acer’s Iconia W500: use it as a tablet…
Aesthetically, the W500 is a rather amorphous lump though the slightly sparkly screen surround is a nice visual touch. There’s no question marks over the built quality, though: it’s as solid as a rock, and the W500′s rounded corners and edges make it comfortable to hold. Read the rest of this entry »
As a multi-media laptop the Asus NX90 is undoubtedly desirable but it’s as big as a barge, weighs a ton and costs an arm and a leg. However, now you can get the same Bang & Olufsen sound system, full HD screen and the latest Sandy Bridge i7 processor in the altogether more practical N73.
Sound prospect: Asus’ N73SV
After coughing up the best part of a grand you’ll expect your laptop to look and feel the part and the N73 doesn’t disappoint. To start with, the lid is made from brushed aluminium, which does away with most of the wobble that can all too often make even premium laptops feel flimsy. The keyboard deck is aluminium too and the speakers sit behind a rigid metal grille that occupies the space between the rear of the keyboard deck and the bottom of the smart, gloss black screen bezel. Read the rest of this entry »
Launching an affordable lightweight laptop that appeals both to lifestyle and business markets is a fine idea and one lenovo clearly thinks has mileage in it. The new ThinkPad Edge is a stylish and affordable machine that is tasked with getting the ThinkPad brand into the world’s coffee shops, as well as its board rooms.
Previous ThinkPads tended to have both eyes fixed firmly on solidity and functionality rather than style and, while the Edge is still no beauty queen, it’s a clean and sober piece of design with enough appeal to straddle both consumer and corporate camps.
Besides a choice of either matte or gloss lid finishes, for the first time with a ThinkPad you get a choice of colours. So, besides the usual Henry Ford black, you can also have your Edge in a rather fetching heatwave red or the rather less adventurous can opt for the greyish, midnight black. Looks are only slightly let down by the exterior lid design, which does rather remind us of the trays used in motorway service station cafeterias. Also, the wide plastic screen bezel on the inside which looks a little cheap. Read the rest of this entry »
