Hasta La Gadget!

It’s rare that a device gets the personal seal of approval from our reviews chief, but that’s the the hallowed ground that Samsung’s Series 9 gets to stand upon. It earned praise for its excellent build, battery life, display and performance, and our only gripe was a trackpad that needed a software tweak or two. The question is, outside of our testing laboratory, did it hold up to scrutiny? Did you buy one on our suggestion, and if so, how have you found it? Welcome to How Would You Change.

Filed under: Laptops, Samsung

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We feel for engineers who have to build budget machines. After all, with a limited component budget, do you splash out on a long battery or a better keyboard? Toshiba’s Satellite U845 was designed to navigate those pitfalls, doing “just enough” to combine a reasonable battery life with decent performance and unspectacular build quality. The results is a dependable and solid device for a cash-strapped back to school type, but was it the one for you? Did you think that Toshiba made the right calls here? Welcome to How Would You Change, where you get to lob suggestions over the company’s garden wall and see if they listen.

Filed under: Laptops

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Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 promised plenty, but when we reviewed it, it didn’t quite hit all of its marks. Maybe it was the high price when judged against its plastic chassis, or perhaps that our reviewer really wanted a better display than the 1,280 x 800 LCD that was provided. On the upside, the unit’s multitasking prowess can’t be dissed, but we did gripe that it was still using Ice Cream Sandwich rather than Jelly Bean. Still, we’re sure plenty of people purchased this thing, so why not tell us what you liked and more importantly, what you would have changed?

Filed under: Tablets, Samsung

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Vizio (yes, that one) decided to launch itself head-first into the laptop market with the 14-inch Thin and Light, a staggeringly beautiful piece of hardware. Sadly, what it lavished on a full-metal chassis, SSD and high-res display wasn’t matched in the battery and keyboard / mouse department. That’s why, as much as our reviewer wanted to love the hardware, it wasn’t to be. For those of you who know and love Vizio’s TVs and couldn’t resist trying one out — what did you think, and what do you think the company should do better the second time out?

Filed under: Laptops

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To paraphrase the words of our reviewer, ASUS’ Zenbook Prime UX31A is the third-best thin and light laptop you can buy. That’s high praise indeed when the only two superior devices are the MacBook Air and Samsung’s Series 9. So, why does it deserve such love? That’s probably down to its sleek design, six-hour battery life and smooth performance. The only things it has in the “demerit” column is a wonky trackpad and weak audio, but we can forgive that, can’t we? No, this is How Would You Change, which means we want to know exactly that: what, if you’ve owned one of these units, would you change about it?

Filed under: Laptops, ASUS

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