New tablet/laptop ASUS Transformer Book Duet TD300 Reviews

New tablet/laptop ASUS Transformer Book Duet TD300 Reviews - Hoping to give the iPad a one-two punch to the gut, the ASUS Transformer Book Duet TD300 lets users instantly switch between Android and Windows 8.1 with the push of a button. That means you can get serious work done on this 13-inch laptop-tablet combo using Office and then fire up Google’s OS when you want to access more apps. Starting at $599 (with a Core i3 processor) but available with a faster Core i5 ($599) or Core i7 CPU (Price TBD), the Duet could be the hybrid you’ve been waiting for. 

It's the world's first quad-mode dual-operating laptop and tablet convertible. What exactly does that mean? The ASUS Transformer Book Duet TD300 lets you instantly switch between Android and Windows 8.1 with a push of a button thanks to Bluestacks preloaded software. A 13.3-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel IPS touchscreen display can be detached easily and run off its own 128GB SSD. The keyboard dock, on the other hand, offers 1TB of storage space. Combined the two weigh a hefty 4.2 pounds, but thanks to a slick design this is one good-looking combo.  

Design

The Duet isn’t the first device of its kind, as Samsung announced — but never shipped — the ATIV Q in 2013. That convertible used a flipping display with a shaper 3200 x 1800-pixel resolution, while the Duet packs a 1920 x 1080 IPS screen on the Core i5 model. We actually prefer ASUS’ design, though, because you can detach the display. The cheaper Core i3 version gets a 1366 x 768 display.

Specs and Features

 

ASUS says the Transformer Book Duet will ship with your choice of a Core i3 ($599), Core i5 ($699) or Core i7 CPU (Price TBD), 4GB of RAM and up to 128GB of SSD storage on the tablet. A microSD Card slot lets you add an additional 64GB of memory.The keyboard dock has its own hard drive with up to 1TB of storage. This dock also houses USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and an Ethernet port, though it doesn’t look like there’s a full-size SD Card slot on board.

Other highlights include dual speakers powered by ASUS’ SonicMaster technology.

 he keyboard dock has its own hard drive with up to 1TB of storage. This dock also houses USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and an Ethernet port, though it doesn’t look like there’s a full-size SD Card slot on board.Other highlights include dual speakers powered by ASUS’ SonicMaster technology.

When plugged into its included keyboard dock, the ASUS Transformer Book T100 changes from a light, 1.2-pound tablet into a laptop that will last up to 12.5 hours.  The 10.1-inch IPS display (1366 x 768 pixels) offers a bright picture and wide viewing angles, which are great for watching movies and playing games. And when it's time to get to work, you'll appreciate the bundled copy of Office Home & Student 2013. At $349, tablet hybrids don't get much better--or more affordable--than this.

 

souce:laptopmag

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Best Laptop 2013 Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook Reviews

Best Laptop 2013 Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook Reviews - Acer is swinging for the fences with the new $1,499 Acer Aspire S7-392-6411 Ultrabook. The second generation of the company's S7 series sports some welcome updates, such as improved battery life, a better keyboard and a fourth-generation Intel Core i5 processor. But the Aspire hasn't ditched the aspects of the S7 we loved, namely the super-slim, all-white chassis and the 1080p touch-screen that continues to turn heads. The end result is a home run for Ultrabook shoppe.

The very definition of sleek, the 3-pound, 0.5-inch-thick Acer Aspire S7 Ultranook features a stylish, all-aluminum unibody chassis with a white glass lid. The 10-point touch , 13-inch, 1080p screen provides vivid blues, yellows and greens at a very-high brightness level of 329 lux. An Intel 4th-generation Core series CPU and SSD provide strong Windows 8 performance. Plus, a huge 6,280-mAH battery provides nearly 9 hours of endurance.

  

Design 2013 Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook

One thing's for sure: Acer can definitely make a pretty laptop. Like the Aspire S7-391 before it, the S7-392 rocks a scintillating, all-aluminum, unibody chassis. Covered in Corning Gorilla Glass 2, the lid of the S7 is an absolute vision in white. We love the silver border that lines the lid as well as the light-up Acer logo in the center.

The lid is about a millimeter shorter than the deck, a configuration that is interesting to look at, but makes opening the notebook a bit of a hassle. When closed, the lid shows off the sturdy, rounded, silver hinge that enables the display to tilt back a full 180 degrees.

After opening the lid, we took a moment to appreciate the silky feel of the silver, matte keyboard deck. We love how the sides of the deck curve upward at a gentle angle and how the keyboard resides in a subtle recess.

 

 

Performance 2013 Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook

For such a svelte laptop, the Acer Aspire S7-392 packs quite a wallop. Its 1.6-GHz fourth-generation Intel Core i5-4200 CPU with 8GB of RAM ably streamed an episode of "Breaking Bad" from Netflix while performing a system scan with 8 open tabs in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer.

On the PCMark 7 benchmark, the S7 notched 5,051, well above the 3,800 ultraportable average. The Sony VAIO Pro 13 and its 1.8-GHz Intel Core i7-4500U CPU scored 4,698. The Samsung ATIV Book 9's 2-GHz Intel Core i7-3537U processor posted 4,490.

During Geekbench, the S7 notched 5,184, failing to meet the 6,082 average. However, the S7's score placed it only slightly behind the ATIV Book 9's showing of 5,187. The Pro 13 did somewhat better, with 5,507, while the MacBook Air and its 1.7-GHz Intel Core i7-4650U processor scored 8,333.

The Aspire S7's 128GB SSD booted Windows 8 in an agile 9 seconds, faster than the 23 second average. The ATIV Book 9 (128GB SSD) and the Pro 13 (512GB SSD) both loaded Windows 8 in 7 seconds.

The S7 lost a little footing during the File Transfer Test, duplicating 4.97GB of mixed-media files in 45 seconds. That equals a transfer rate of 113 MBps, slightly above the 101 MBps average. However, the ATIV Book 9 clocked in at 154.2 MBps, while the Air (256GB SSD) and Pro 13 registered a blistering 318.1 MBps and 392 MBps, respectively.

When we ran the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro Test, the Aspire S7 matched 20,000 names and addresses in 5 minutes and 12 seconds. That's faster than the 5:55 category average, but several seconds behind the Pro 13 and ATIV Book 9, which posted times of 5:10 and 5:09, respectively. The Air completed the task in a speedier 4:26.

Graphics 2013 Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook

The Acer Aspire S7-392's Intel HD Graphics 4400 GPU with 128MB of VRAM offers better performance than the last-generation integrated GPU. However, you'll still be limited to mainstream fare such as "World of Warcraft."

On the 3DMark11 benchmark, the S7's score of 895 easily toppled the 749 ultraportable average. The Sony VAIO Pro 13, which also has an Intel HD Graphics 4400 GPU, notched 600. The Samsung ATIV Book 9 and its older Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU scored 597.

During the "World of Warcraft" test, the S7 managed 39 fps on autodetect at 1366 x 768, which dropped to 28 fps at 1080p; both are below the 40 fps ultraportable average. By comparison, the ATIV Book 9 notched just 20 fps at 1080p, and the Pro 13 hit 30 fps. At its native resolution of 1400 x 900, the MacBook Air averaged 50 fps.

Battery Life 2013 Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook

The biggest improvement of this newest edition of the Acer Aspire is its endurance. On the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuously surfing the Web over Wi-Fi), the Acer Aspire S7-392's 4-cell, 6280mAh lithium-ion battery lasted 8 hours and 53 minutes. That's more than double the previous S7 (4:10) and nearly 3 hours longer than the 6:05 ultraportable average. This runtime is also almost 4 hours longer than the Samsung ATIV Book 9 (5:07). The Sony VAIO Pro 13 posted 7:20, but nearly doubled that time to 14:38 with its extended battery. The MacBook Air lasted an epic 12:29.

souce: laptopmag

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Best laptop 2014 HP TouchSmart 11z Review

Best laptop 2014 HP TouchSmart 11z Review - When shopping for a budget notebook, you can usually kiss touch screens goodbye. But HP bucks that trend with the Pavilion TouchSmart 11z-e000, which has an AMD A4 processor, 320GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM and, yes, an 11-inch touch screen. All of this is packed into an attractive 3.4-lb. design that belies its price. But at just $399, what are you giving up?

Who says touch screens have to be expensive? For just $399, the 11.6-inch HP TouchSmart 11z provides a responsive touch screen that helps you make the most of Windows 8 / 8.1 in an attractive, 3.4-pound package. With more than 6 hours of battery life, this affordable portable will have you pinching and swiping for most of a day. 

Design  HP TouchSmart 11z

The TouchSmart 11z has a chic, smooth silver plastic lid with a chrome HP logo in the center. The notebook's silver sides line a brushed black metal keyboard deck with matte, black plastic keys on a bed of glossy plastic. Between its attractive design, thick and sturdy hinges, and its white LED indicators, the TouchSmart 11z rocks a classy, understated look despite the lack of aluminum.

Performance HP TouchSmart 11z

With a 1-GHz dual-core AMD A4-1250 processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 5,400 rpm 320GB hard drive, don't expect blistering performance from the TouchSmart 11z. While these specs are certainly enough to drive Windows 8, don't expect to multitask much. For instance, with Paint and Google Chrome open with six tabs, the gameplay in "Cut the Rope" was choppy at times.

Synthetic benchmarks, such as the general performance test PCMark 7, corroborated our real-world experiences. The TouchSmart 11z scored 1,081 on this test, not even coming close to the 3,817 category average. Both the Q200 and IdeaPad S405 -- with 2.1-GHz AMD A6-4455M and1.4-GHz Intel Core i3-2365M chips, respectively -- edged out this notebook with scores of 1,567 and 1,439.

On our OpenOffice Test, which matches 20,000 names and addresses, the 11z took a whopping 28 minutes and 28 seconds to complete the task. That's nearly five times as long as the average ultraportable (5:55). The IdeaPad S405 took 8:59, while the Q200 completed the test in 11:29.

On the LAPTOP File Transfer Test, which copies and pastes 4.97GB of multimedia files, the TouchSmart 11's hard drive took 4 minutes and 6 seconds for a transfer rate of 21 MBps. That's less than half the category average of 49 MBps, but on a par with the Q200 (21 MBps). The IdeaPad S405 boasted a slightly speedier 26 MBps.

Despite this sluggish performance, the TouchSmart 11z booted Windows 8 in 15 seconds, whereas the category average is 22 seconds. By comparison, the IdeaPad S405 took 35 seconds, while the Q200 booted in 23 seconds.

Graphics HP TouchSmart 11z

The AMD Radeon HD 8180 graphics chip within the TouchSmart 11z won't be able to handle much more than the average casual distraction. You'll get to enjoy spurts of "Cut the Rope" and "Bejeweled" (with nothing else running), but don't even think about anything more demanding.

On the 3DMark 11 benchmark, the TouchSmart 11z scored a paltry 364 -- that's 388 points lower than the category average (752). The IdeaPad S405 nabbed 554 points, though the Q200 was not tested on 3DMark 11.

This laptop ran "World of Warcraft" at an unplayable 22 frames per second at its native resolution and medium settings. However, the Q200 fared much worse, with just 12 fps at normal settings and 1366 x 768. The IdeaPad S405 registered a nearly playable 28 fps.

Battery Life HP TouchSmart 11z

HP promises up to 7 hours of battery life from the Hp TouchSmart 11z, and the notebook came close to meeting that claim. On the LAPTOP Battery Test (Web surfing via Wi-Fi at 40 percent brightness), the TouchSmart lasted 6 hours and 2 minutes. Not only is that time almost on a par with the 6:07 category average, it runs circles around the IdeaPad S405 (3:34) and Q200 (4:19).

souce: laptopmag

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Best Laptops 2014 Lenovo ThinkPad T440s Reviews

Best Laptops 2014 Lenovo ThinkPad T440s Reviews - Lenovo's ThinkPad T Series laptops have a legendary reputation amongst business users or anyone who needs to get serious work done. The 14-inch ThinkPad T440s continues this rich tradition, offering long battery life, strong performance, a best-in-class keyboard and an optional 1080p touch screen, all in a durable, 3.8-pound package. However, with a price of $1,749 ($1,199 to start), this productivity-centric laptop doesn't come cheap. Is the ThinkPad T440s worth the investment?

Lenovo's ThinkPad T series line of business laptops have long been known for their powerful performance, long battery life and superior usability. The 14-inch ThinkPad T440s builds on that rich tradition, offering a gorgeous, 1920 x 1080-pixel touch screen; a durable, MIL-SPEC-tested design; and the most responsive keyboard on the market. With more than 14 hours of endurance with the extended battery, this lightweight powerhouse lets you get your work done in style, anywhere at any time.

Design 2014 Lenovo ThinkPad T440s

 

The ThinkPad T440s has the same chassis as the ThinkPad T431s, which launched in spring 2013, and carries the same design language as other ThinkPads. You'll find a smooth, raven black casing that features a carbon fiber lid and magnesium chassis. Like the T431s, the T440s has a rather plain matte black lid instead of the luxurious soft-touch, rubberized lids Lenovo used on the older ThinkPad T430s and T420s. A ThinkPad logo on the lid provides a splash of color with a red light in the letter "I" that blinks when the system is asleep. The famous red TrackPoint and a couple of red lines on the touchpad add accents to the deck.

Performance 2014 Lenovo ThinkPad T440s

Thanks to its 1.6-GHz Intel fourth-generation Core i5-4200U processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB LITE-ON SSD, our configuration of the ThinkPad T440s offered very strong performance that was good enough for demanding productivity work. On PCMark 7, a synthetic benchmark that measures overall performance, the T440s scored an impressive 4,970, well above the 3,445 thin-and-light laptop category average, the Toshiba Tecra Z40's mark of 2,524 and the T431s' 2,884 score.

With its speedy 256GB SSD, the T440s booted Windows 8 in just 14 seconds, half the 28.4-second category average and a bit less than the ThinkPad T431s (16 seconds). The drive took just 27 seconds to complete the LAPTOP File Transfer test, which involves copying 4.97GB of mixed media files. That's a rate of 188.5 MBps, more than triple the 57.9 MBps category average and eight times the Tecra Z40 and its 7,200-rpm hard drive. 

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display notched a more impressive 299.4 MBps performing the same test in OS X Mavericks.

The ThinkPad T440s took just 5 minutes and 14 seconds to complete the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro Test, where we match 20,000 names with their addresses. That time is more than a minute faster than the 6:21 category average, but almost 30 seconds slower than the Tecra Z40 and its 1.9-GHz Core i5-4300U CPU.

Graphics 2014 Lenovo ThinkPad T440s

The T440s' integrated Intel HD 4400 graphics chip achieved a modest score of 930 on 3DMark11, a leading synthetic graphics benchmark. That's a little below the 962 category average, but well above the Toshiba Tecra Z40 (869) and ThinkPad T431s (530).

When we fired up "World of Warcraft" at the T440s' 1920 x 1080 native resolution, the system achieved a not-quite-playable frame rate of 29 fps, which dropped to just 15 fps when we turned up the special effects. Both rates are well below the 66 and 29.9 fps category averages.

Battery Life 2014 Lenovo ThinkPad T440s

Lenovo sells the ThinkPad T440s with a choice of batteries, a 3-cell, 23.2 watt hour unit and a 6-cell, 72 watt hour high capacity battery that costs just $5 more. In addition to these removable batteries, the T440s has a nonremovable 3-cell internal battery that gets drained after the external pack is dead, so you can change batteries without shutting the system down.

With the 3-cell 23.2 watt-hour battery, the T440s lasted 7 hours and 1 minute on the LAPTOP Battery Test, which involves continuous surfing over Wi-Fi on 40 percent brightness. That time is more than 30 minutes longer than the 6:27 category average, but not as lengthy as the Tecra Z40's runtime of 9:28. (To be fair, though, the Z40 has a much dimmer screen.)

With its high-capacity battery, the ThinkPad T440s lasted an epic 14 hours and 36 minutes, making it one of the longest-lasting laptops we've ever tested, Though the the high-capacity pack costs just $5 more on Lenovo.com, it juts 0.5 inches out from the bottom of the laptop and adds 0.4 pounds.

 source: laptopmag

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Best Laptop 2014 Toshiba CB35-A3120 Review

Best Laptop 2014 Toshiba CB35-A3120 Review - They're starting to look more and more like mainstream laptops. For its first Chromebook, Toshiba skipped past the common 11-inch design and headed straight for a roomier 13-inch display. This $279 laptop boasts a colorful screen large enough for productivity and entertainment and impressively long battery life. Add in powerful speakers and you have an excellent value for those willing to leave Windows behind.

It's not the smallest Chromebook or the least expensive, but Toshiba's 13-inch CB35-A3120 provides a ton of value and performance for its $279 price tag. With a colorful display, loud audio output, a slick design and a powerful Intel Celeron processor, the CB35-A3120 outperforms other sub-$300 Chromebooks. Even better, its 8 hours and 2 minutes of battery life beats its closest competitors by close to two hours. 

Design Laptop 2014 Toshiba CB35-A3120

The Toshiba CB35-A3120 Chromebook reminds us of a low-cost MacBook Air. Its plastic silver exterior is encased in a textured material that makes it easy to grip. Upon opening the Chromebook, you'll see with a smoother metallic design that blankets the entire keyboard deck and display bezel.

Measuring 12.9 x 8.9 x 0.8 inches, the Toshiba CB35-A3120 Chromebook is understandably smaller and thinner than the 14-inch 13.66 x 9.7 x 0.83-inch HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook.

Performance Toshiba CB35-A3120

The Toshiba Chromebook performed smoothly during everyday use. When streaming music on Spotify, browsing six tabs in Google Chrome and playing "Tank Riders" outside of the browser, we didn't experience any hiccups. It took a brisk 11 seconds for Toshiba's Chromebook to load Chrome OS. That's slightly slower than HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook(9 seconds) and the Acer C720P (8 seconds), but still faster than the 16-second category average.

The Toshiba Chromebook's 1.4-GHz Intel Celeron 2955U processor with 2GB of RAM and 16GB SSD provided good performance during various synthetic benchmark tests. The system scored 2,920 during the Peacekeeper browser test, which is much higher than the 2,101 ultraportable category average and the scores of the Acer C720P Chromebook (2,749) and HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook (1,422). 

The Acer C720P comes has the same processor as Toshiba's Chromebook and a 32GB SSD, while the HP Chromebook packs a 1.1-GHz Intel Celeron 847 CPU and a 16GB hard drive.

The Toshiba Chromebook completed the Sunspider Javascript test in 348 milliseconds, which is faster than the 491-millisecond ultraportable category average and the HP Chromebook (631 ms). The Acer C720P Chromebook finished the same test in a slightly quicker in 343 milliseconds.

Battery Life Toshiba CB35-A3120

Toshiba CB35-A3120 claims that is Chromebook offers up to 9 hours of battery life, and we believe it. The laptop's 4-cell, 52-Watt-hour battery lasted a very long 8 hours and 2 minutes streaming Hulu video with the screen at 40 percent brightness. That's nearly 2 hours longer than the Acer C720P Chromebook (6:18). The HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook's 4-cell 51-Watt hour battery lasted 5 hours and 29 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery Test (Web surfing via Wi-Fi). You should expect even more endurance from the Toshiba if you're performing less taxing activities like surfing the Web.

source : topmag

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