Technology & Gadgets Today

Power on a Budget -> Acer Aspire AS5741Z-5433

noreply@blogger.com (james) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:35:00 +0000

Price: $579.98 list

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With a 15.6-inch screen, dual-core Pentium processor, 4GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Home Premium, the Aspire AS5741Z-5433 (available at Staples) has an impressive list of features for a budget laptop. In addition, its battery life and overall performance places it in the top tier in its category.

Weighing 5.39 pounds, this system is relatively light and has a very subdued design, with a smudge-resistant lid that’s covered in a dark-gray, plastic matte coating that has a textured, mesh pattern, while on its keyboard dock is a smooth, matte-silver metallic surface with light streaks. The Chiclet-style keyboard includes a numeric pad, but lacks dedicated volume and brightness buttons. The keyboard flexed way too much for my tastes, but the touch pad was very responsive.

The 15.6-inch display is surrounded by a glossy, black plastic bezel that also houses a 1.3-megapixel webcam and microphone. You also get an HDMI-out port and an integrated 5-in-1 media card reader. And the presence of bloatware is kept to a minimum.

For a budget laptop, this Acer performs surprisingly well—easily out-sprinting its closest competitors on nearly every test. This system’s CineBench R10 score of 4,992 is a whopping 44 percent higher than the Compaq CQ62-225nr’s score. And the PCMark Vantage test score of 4,204 was still a sizeable 28 percent faster than the CQ62-225nr’s. Not to mention that the AS5741Z-5433 surprised me with its impressive battery life, lasting 4 hours, 20 minutes on MobileMark 2007. This class-leading performance and battery life, combined with a few extra features, means that a tight budget can still get you an Editors’ Choice laptop.— Daniel A. Begun.

Pros Strong performance for its class. Great battery life. HDMI port. Smudge-resistant lid.

Cons Lackluster audio quality. Mushy keyboard.

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Sony 3D HDTV Delivers -> Sony Bravia KDL-55HX800

noreply@blogger.com (james) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:26:00 +0000

Price: $1500 direct

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When the Bravia KDL- 55HX800 arrived in PC Labs, we couldn’t wait to tear open the box. And we weren’t disappointed: Besides delivering 3D, it also has the latest TV tech, including LED backlighting and a fast 240-Hz refresh rate, which translates to a beautiful 2D picture, too.

The HX800 series is the least expensive of Sony’s family of 3D HDTVs, though you wouldn’t know it by this 55-inch HDTV’s hefty $3,400 price tag. And by the time you add in $150 3D glasses for the family and a 3D transmitter, you’re in for around $4,000. That doesn’t include a 3D-capable Blu-ray player or discs. As with most brand-new technologies, you’re paying a premium to be in on the ground floor.

But you won’t be disappointed. With its sleek lines and thin glossy black bezel, the HX800 is one good-looking HDTV.

Other than a couple of small status indicators and a polished chrome Sony logo in the center of the lower bezel, the front of the set is very clean. This model uses a proprietary LED backlighting technology dubbed Dynamic Edge, a hybrid of sorts consisting of edge-lit LEDs and a partial array of LEDs with local dimming. As a result, the HX800 is not nearly as thin as other edge-lit models such as LG’s 47LE5500 and Samsung’s UN40B7000, but it still maintains a reasonably slim profile. The cabinet is approximately 2 inches thick, except for at the bottom, where it extends out an additional 3/4-inch to accommodate a pair of embedded down-firing speakers. On the left side of the TV are two HDMI jacks, a set of composite A/V ports, and a USB port. The HX800 comes with an attractive 8.6-inch matte-black remote featuring a concave face with 43 buttons and a 4-way rocker. There’s also a dedicated 3D button for switching between 2D and 3D mode.

On our tests, the 3D effect was overall well implemented and fun to watch—but not perfect. The picture is not as bright as it is in 2D, due to the darkened lenses. Also, you get some ghosting around 3D images. The HX800 turned in a respectable contrast ratio of 2,814:1, and grayscale swatches from DisplayMate’s LCD diagnostic software showed no signs of tinting or saturation, and colors were very accurate. When it comes to 2D, the HX800 does an excellent job of displaying HD content. And for 3D this HDTV also performed admirably with the limited catalog of 3D content currently available. More important, its 2D image quality is stellar, and the set comes with a full complement of Web apps to keep you busy while you wait for more 3D content to become available.—John R. Delaney.

Pros 3D-ready. Very good 3D and 2D picture quality. Attractive cabinet. Plenty of Web apps.

Cons Expensive. 3D glasses and transmitter cost extra. Some backlight blooming. Glasses are heavy and can become a bit uncomfortable when worn for long periods.

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An All-in-One Winner -> Lenovo IdeaCentre B500

noreply@blogger.com (james) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:19:00 +0000

PRICE: $1,399 direct

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The IdeaCentre B500 eschews trendy features like a touch screen and HDMI inputs in favor of rocksolid HD and multimedia performance. You won’t miss the touch screen once you put this entertainment oriented system on your desk and rock out to World of Warcraft while simultaneously listening to music. Granted, you’ll pay a couple hundred dollars more for the B500 than for its rivals, but that premium is worth it.

The B500 has an angular look, setting itself apart from the more minimalist all-inones, such as the Apple iMac and Gateway One ZX6900 series. The JBL stereo speakers sit low under the 23-inch widescreen and are highlighted by a show-through perforated grill with orange accents.

The system has a decent number of connections and is mostly wireless, with 802.11n and Bluetooth for the keyboard and mouse.

The system comes mostly free of bloatware, but you do get some useful software, such as WinDVD, and you can watch live or recorded TV in the Media Center interface. You also get a motion-control remote.

The B500’s well-appointed components all worked together to give it excellent multimedia and 3D scores. It smoked Windows Media Encoder at only 38 seconds and finished Photoshop CS4 in a speedy 1 minute 32 seconds. And surprisingly, the B500 achieved playable scores on our gaming tests, turning in 56 frames per second (fps) for Crysis and 49 fps for World in Conflict— almost unheard-of scores for an all-in-one.

So if you’re looking for multimedia prowess, and 3D power, the B500 is the one to get.—Joel Santo Domingo.

Pros Bright, beautiful 1080p HD screen. Less screen/bezel reflections than competitor. Discrete 3D graphics. Blu-ray player. TV tuner. Analog A/V in. Wireless keyboard and mouse. Minimal bloatware. Ambient lighting. Motion-control remote.

Cons No HDMI. No eSATA. Bluetooth keyboard and mouse slow to wake. No 5-GHz 802.11a or 802.11n networking. A little pricier than its rivals.
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BlackBerry Goes Touch Screen -> BlackBerry Torch 9800

noreply@blogger.com (james) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 10:11:00 +0000

Price: $450 direct

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The new BlackBerry Torch 9800 with BlackBerry 6 keeps RIM in the smartphone game. It’s the first truly usable touch screen BlackBerry, and it’s packed with new features: a new Web browser, apps, interface, and social networking hooks. Messaging is still clearly at this phone’s core, though, leaving the Torch a strong bet for those who type and chat all day, and still behind the leaders for those who prefer to play games, surf the Web, or watch videos.

The 4.4-by-2.4-by 0.6-inch (HWD), 5.7-ounce Torch is black and silver, with a soft-touch back and a comforting heft. The screen slides up to reveal a BlackBerry Bold–like keyboard, which I found to be flat-feeling but still very useable. And the 3.2-inch, 360-by-480 capacitive touch screen is very responsive. The device has 4GB of on-board storage and comes with an additional 4GB MicroSD card. The new BlackBerry 6 OS offers a great balance of keyboard, track pad, and touch-screen input. You can do almost everything two or three ways, which makes this the best AT&T phone for people who are more comfortable typing on a hard keyboard than on a touch screen.

On our tests, I found that the Torch is a good voice phone but lacks noise cancellation and also has a slight buzz in the sidetone. The new browser is 25 percent faster at rendering pages than the browser on the BlackBerry Bold 9650—but it is still slower than the iPhone 4’s. So in a nutshell, the Torch keeps the flame alive, but it’s not a barn-burner. But if you’re looking for a messaging-focused smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard, this is AT&T’s top choice.—Sascha Segan.

Pros Looks and feels good. Lots of new features. Integrates social-networking well.

Cons Browser still slower than iPhone 4’s. Fewer games and apps than iOS or Android. Poor Microsoft Exchange integration for consumers.

A Workstation For Tight Spaces -> HP Z200

noreply@blogger.com (james) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:05:00 +0000

Price: $2,496 direct

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The HP Z200 small-form-factor (SFF) PC offers workstation-level performance in a surprisingly small package. Sure, you won’t get the myriad expandability options of a tower, but how many of your workers actually need 16TB of hard drive space anyway? The Z200 works best as a workstation for the space-constrained staffer with a heavy multimedia-oriented workload. It’s got many advantages and a few drawbacks, but the main thing that might make potential buyers retract their wallets is the steep price.

The Z200 looks just like the $800 PCs you buy your rank-and-file employees, but at roughly 4 by 13 by 15 inches (HWD), this diminutive workstation hides a good amount of internal power. It supports Intel Core i3, i5, and quad-core Xeon processors and has.....

some expansion room, including a free PCIe x1 and PCIe x4 slot. You also get a media-card reader, FireWire, and a whopping 10 USB ports. Also, this system is bloatware- free, but you do get HP Performance Advisor, a program that lets you and your IT department know what components you possess, poll your system performance, and auto-optimize settings for your workload. This system has EnergyStar 5.0 compliance and EPEAT Gold certification, as well as other eco-friendly features, thus earning our GreenTech Approved seal.

In testing, the Z200 zipped through Windows Media Encoder in 36 seconds and the Photoshop CS4 test in 1 minute, 17 seconds (a score that is faster than any of the rankand- file business systems we’ve seen). It also turned in a decent score on our 3D tests, outperforming the Lenovo ThinkStation E20. So, I can recommend the Z200 over the Lenovo E20 only if your desk real estate outweighs the purchase price difference (more than $1,200). —Joel Santo Domingo.

PROs Compact. Powerful. Expandable. HP Performance Advisor. No bloatware.

CONs Only takes half-height expansion cards. No room for extra hard drives. No eSATA or USB 3.0. Expensive.

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A Gaming-Multimedia Crossover -> Dell Studio XPS 7100

noreply@blogger.com (james) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 09:51:00 +0000

Price: $1,149 direct
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The Dell Studio XPS 7100 is a genre-straddling desktop PC. On one end, it has a quick six-core AMD multimedia processor and 1.5TB hard drive. On the other, it comes with an ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card, so it’s a contender as one of the better entry-level gaming rigs. It’s packed with a lot of future-proof technology, and its price tag won’t break the bank.

The XPS 7100 comes in a silver version of the tower on the XPS 8000. The system is angled, so it appears to be leaning back, making it easier to access the media card bays and optical drives. The XPS 7100 also has some internal expansion room, including space for one PCI card, two hard drives, and one optical drive. You’ll need a screwdriver to get inside, but everything is well laid out and easy to access. Also notable is the fact that this system comes free of bloatware.

In terms of performance, the XPS 7100 was able to complete the Windows Media Encoder (WME ) test in a speedy 38 seconds, and the Photoshop CS4 test in 1 minute 38 seconds—which is reasonably quick. The XPS 7100 also showed totally playable frame rates on three of our four gaming tests, scoring 65 frames per second (fps) on Crysis (at 1,280 by 1,024 resolution) and 82 fps at World in Conflict at the same resolution. Though the Gateway FX6831-01 is still our Editors’ Choice for gaming PCs (offering more bang for the buck and easier upgrading), the XPS 7100 takes the EC crown for multimedia PCs.—Joel Santo Domingo.

Pros Very good gaming performance. 6-core AMD Phenom II processor. Intelligent solution to bloatware problem. 15-month McAfee Security Center subscription. 802.11n wireless. Immobilizing bracket on graphics card. HDMI, eSATA, DisplayPort. Blu-ray.

Cons Fewer legacy technologies. Very little expansion space.

A New Tech Data Projector - Casio Green Slim XJ-A145U

noreply@blogger.com (james) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:32:00 +0000

Price - $999.99 direct

Not many projectors offer both a 2,500-lumen rating and a light source designed to last the life of the projector. In fact, the Casio Green Slim XJ-A145U and a few closely related Casio models are the first to make that claim. The secret is Casio’s innovative Green Slim hybrid light source. Not only does it last a lot longer than the traditional lamps, it has the additional benefit of being mercury free, which makes it a much more ecologically friendly projector than most.

In some ways, the 1.7-by-11.7-by-8.3–inch (HWD) XJ-A145U is a typical lightweight...

XGA (1,024-by-768) DLP projector, but instead of producing red, green, and blue using a standard lamp and a color wheel, it produces red with LEDs, blue with lasers, and green by shining the blue laser light on a phosphor. One of the key advantages of the hybrid light source is its 20,000-hour expected lifetime—which is 4 to 10 times longer than the claimed lifetimes for standard lamps. And adding to the portability of this unit is its ability to read JPG and AVI files from a USB memory key, so you can leave your laptop at home.

I measured the XJ-A145U’s brightness in its brightest mode at 1,927 lumens, or about 77 percent of its rating—and bright enough to throw a reasonably large image, even in a well-lit room. On our DisplayMate tests, the XJ-A145U handled most images without a problem. However, like all DLP projectors, it showed a slight rainbow effect, with light areas breaking up into little red-green-blue rainbows when you shift your gaze or something moves on screen. Also, I saw obvious posterization and a greenish tint to skin tones in videos. So although this projector is not great for video and the rainbow effect is a bit distracting, it is still a bright, portable system that’s environmentally smart and easy on the wallet.—M. David Stone

Pros Lightweight. Mercury-free light source with a 20,000-hour lifetime and 6,000-hour warranty. Reads files from USB keys.

Cons Some image quality issues, particularly for video, as opposed to data, images.