Review As the name might suggest, Acer’s TravelMate family of notebooks are aimed at the mobile users, with an eye on business bods after something a little more stylish than the standard issue grey slab. A new addition to the range is the Timeline X TM8481T with just a couple of variants at present.
Road runner: Acer’s TravelMate Timeline X TM8481T
The version I’m looking at here is the memorably monikered 2463G32nkk which is powered by an Intel Core i5 CPU. If you want a bit more grunt then there is the 2634G32nkk which is Intel Core i7 powered and around £150 more expensive. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Don’t worry, the XPS 14z may be one of Dell’s new “thin and powerful” range, but it doesn’t fit into the superslim Ultrabook category so there’s absolutely no need whatsoever for a gratuitous comparison with Apple‘s MacBook Air.
It’s certainly a more stylish affair than the businesslike hardware I’m used to seeing from Dell. The silver-grey aluminium casing and curved edges give it a very smart and classy look, and the 14in unit is just 23mm thick, even though it houses a slot-loading DVD drive. It’s not too heavy either, coming in at a whisker under 2kg.
Prices start at £799 for a model with a dual-core Core i5 processor running at 2.4GHz, 4GB of Ram and a 500GB hard disk, although the unit I tested had 6GB of memory, which bumps the price up to £849. There’s also a Core i7 model that costs £999. Dropping the hard drive and adding a 256GB SSD take the price to £1299. Read the rest of this entry »
Review When Toshiba UK announced the launch of the Qosmio X770 3D – a new gaming laptop with stereoscopic 3D graphics and a 17.3in HD screen, I immediately thought: could this be an Alienware killer? Toshiba has been said to lag behind other manufacturers when it comes to high-end gaming laptops, but after spending time with the X770 I would suggest that’s no longer the case.
Taking the heat: Toshiba’s Qosmio X770
The sample Qosmio X770-10J came in a huge leather case and I did wonder if it was going to unluggable. Indeed, portability isn’t the X770’s forte, but being 3.4kg doesn’t render it immobile. It’s still not comfortable to carry around for significant periods, even in my Crumpler backpack. 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 It’s hard to see who Asus’s supercar laptop tie-ups are aimed at. If you have the money to buy a Ferrari, a Porsche or, in this case, a Lamborghini, will you really be going for a £1,700 portable to remind you what’s in the garage. If you drive a lowered Golf with blue neons underneath, wouldn’t you want a VW laptop? We guess the Asus VX5 is all about aspiration.
Asus’ Lamborghini VX5: more bling than luxury?
A big, Desktop-replacement laptop should be able to handle anything you would throw at its not-so-portable predecessor but, above all, it should remind you of a sports car you’re never likely to afford. Acer dreamt up the idea of supercar tie-ins with its Ferrari laptop and Asus has taken up the challenge with the VX5, which is tied in with another renowned Italian marque, Lamborghini – the Lamborghini Reventon, in particular.
The VX5 comes in black or white and declares its heritage with a Lambo bull badge in the middle of the lid and shallow louvres behind. Open it up and there are a number of other trim tweaks, such as leather covers to the wrist rests in front of the keyboard and metal trim around the edges. There’s a smooth ceramic touchpad and a conspicuous button to the left of the keys, marked ‘speed’. Read the rest of this entry »
