Acer first took the wraps off its Aspire V5 series at CeBIT in March, teasing the line of notebooks with designs that are 30 percent thinner than other laptops in their category. A few months later, in June, the company officially unveiled the 14- and 15-inch Aspire V5s, with Ivy Bridge processors and prices starting at $630. Rounding out that family is the 11-inch the Aspire V5 171. We have a bit of an identity crisis on our hands with this guy: though it looks like a netbook and weighs a light three pounds, it packs a Core i5 Ivy Bridge processor befitting a full-fledged machine, but it costs a budget-minded $550 ($500 with Acer’s current promotion). Many products in this price range are clunky 15-inchers, so where exactly does this Aspire V5 fit in? Join us past the break as we sort that out.
Primed goes in-depth on the technobabble you hear on Engadget every day — we dig deep into each topic’s history and how it benefits our lives. You can follow the series here. Looking to suggest a piece of technology for us to break down? Drop us a line at primed *at* engadget *dawt* com.
As you’re hopefully aware, this is a gadget blog. As a result, we’re innately biased towards stuff that’s new and preferably fandangled. More cores, more pixels, more lenses; just give it here and make us happy. The risk of this type of technological greed is that we don’t make full use of what we already have, and nothing illustrates that better than the Graphics Processing Unit. Whether it sits in our desktops, laptops, tablets or phones, the GPU is cruelly limited by its history — its long-established reputation as a dumb, muscular component that takes instructions from the main processor and translates them into pixels for us to gawp at.
But what if the GPUs in our devices had some buried genius — abilities that, if only we could tap into them, would yield hyper-realistic experiences and better all-round performance from affordable hardware? Well, the thing is, this hidden potential actually exists. We’ve been covering it since at least 2008 and, even though it still hasn’t generated enough fuss to become truly famous, the semiconductor industry is making more noise about it now than ever before.
So please, join us after the break as we endeavor to explain why the trend known as “GPU compute,” aka “general purpose GPU (GPGPU),” or simply “not patronizing your graphics processor,” is still exciting despite having let us down in the past. We’ll try to show why it’s worth learning a few related concepts and terms to help provide a glossary for future coverage; and why, on the whole, your graphics chip is less Hasselhoff and more Hoffman than you may have imagined.
Origin’s introducing the brawny EON17-SLX to its adoring public of hardcore gamers. The 17-inch laptop comes packing professionally overclocked Ivy Bridge CPUs and the option to add dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M or similarly paired AMD Radeon HD 7970M units — offering performance that might even be able to run Crysis 3. While you’ll only be able to pick up the gear in a traditional-style body initially, the company’s working on custom paint options including matte black and red. The base unit will set you back the very specific price of $1867, with the options beyond limited only to the size of your imagination or, you know, your wallet.
Okay, these might not be quite as elegant as, say, that 10-inch, high-res slate coming out of the famed Cupertino labs, but hey, folks working on construction sites (or doing other types of handy work) need to get some actual work done. Here’s where Motion Computing comes in. The outfit’s just taken the wraps off of its newest rugged tablet PCs, the F5t and C5t — both of which can be loaded with a choice of an i3, i5 or i7 third-gen Intel CPU, also known as Ivy Bridge. What’s more, the company’s also letting users pick between a 64 or 128GB solid-state drive, which can then be paired alongside 2 or 4GB of RAM. As you can imagine, this ruggedized duo isn’t exactly aimed at something like the Nexus 7 crowd, since the starting price point for the Windows 7 Pro couple starts off at around $2,240 ($2,236, to be exact) depending on configuration. Either way, you can give ’em both a better look after the break, thanks to a press shot gallery courtesy of their creator.
The storied ThinkPad line has just turned 20 and, over all those years, the brand has established itself as something that (mostly) successfully straddles the line between boring corporate accessory and classy consumer choice. Stoic is an apt term for the machines and, through those two decades, they’ve only gotten better and better — well, most of the time, anyway.
Welcome, then, to what is the latest and, therefore, what should be the best: the $1,499 ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It’s an evolution of last year’s X1, thinner and lighter than that pre-Ultrabook despite having a larger display. The Carbon moniker here not only describes this machine’s matte black exterior but also applies to the woven and resin-impregnated composite structure within, delivering a rare mix of light weight, svelte dimensions and durable construction. It’s a wonder to behold but can it improve on the previous ThinkPad X1‘s shortcomings? There’s only one way to find out.
This week the folks at Acer have brought forth a lovely new notebook made for business users with both security and impressive performance made to rock. This device has a spill-resistant keyboard to protect your insides, works with a fabulous Ivy Bridge 3rd Generation Intel Core i5 processor with Intel’s Turbo Boost Technology, and will be coming to the USA very, very soon. This notebook has a 14-inch Acer “ComfyView LCD LED backlit display coming in at HD 1366 x 768 pixel resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio right up front and center.
This device works with Wireless Display (WiDi) technology which means you’ll be able to connect wirelessly with a high definition display just so long as it’s got a compatible adapter – more on that as the device is revealed. Also inside you’ve got 4GB of DDR3 memory upgradeable to 8GB as well as a SATA hard disk with up to 500GB of capacity. Also onboard you’ve got Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, and Wifi so you’ll be connected no matter what you need to connect with.
The Acer TravelMate P243 notebook PC has a high-def webcam of unspecified quality as well as built-in microphone for use with Acer Video Conference. As for security, you’ve got multi-level Acer ProShield Security with BioProtection Fingerprint protection – it reads your fingerprint and bang! You’re in. You’ve also got Acer ProShield pre-boot authentication (PBA) that “protects the notebook from the BIOS level all the way to the application level.”
With PBA you’re able to create a Personal Secure Drive (PSD) for storing and encrypting your critical files. With your PSD you’ll be sure that all of your files are secure even if someone steals your notebook. You can access this set of assets remotely if you need to delete them – and you’ve got a File Shredder utility at any time if you need to remove files permanently beyond recovery.
Acer Backup, on the other hand, makes sure you’ve got protection for your media and digital assets galore, and Acer eRecovery Manager brings you recovery of your files whenever you wish. Acer Office Manager (AOM) brings power to small businesses with the ability to deploy security policies, schedule maintenance tasks, and monitor IT assets from one application.
This notebook will be available in early August from authorized Acer resellers across the USA starting at $699.99. This notebook will also be available in a much more conservatively powered and priced iteration with a 2nd Generation Intel Core i3 processor for $599.99.
Acer’s finally offering up the TravelMate P243 here in the US, a business notebook designed for the harsh realities of corporate life. 4GB of DDR3 RAM loiter next to an Ivy Bridge Core i5 CPU and a 500GB HDD, packed beneath a spill-resistant keyboard that’ll ensure that flyaway grande latte only ruins the front of your suit. You’ll be staring into a 14-inch, 1,366 x 768 LED-backlit display with a built-in webcam, as well as a fingerprint reader and the company’s ProShield security suite. You (or more likely, your IT buyer) can grab one of these for $700, while you can still grab last year’s Sandy Bridge-powered P243 for $600.
Eurocom has carved out a strange but soft spot in our hearts for its desktop replacement-level laptops — the insistence on overkill hardware leaves even the vaguely ultraportable Monster packing the kind of power reserved for larger-screened (if also much thinner) counterparts. Nowhere is that too-much-is-never-enough attitude truer than in the just-launched, 17.3-inch Scorpius. While supporting up to 32GB of RAM isn’t unique anymore, the Scorpius can optionally carry two of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 680M graphics chips with the full 4GB of video RAM per piece. That’s more graphics memory than the total system memory of some entire PCs, folks. Eurocom can optionally slot in two of AMD’s Radeon HD 7970M or step down to a single graphics core, and the usual bevy of processor and storage choices culminates in as much as a quad 2.9GHz Core i7 and four drives. The lowest price that will net a fully functioning Scorpius is $1,793, although we’ll admit that it’s very tempting to pick that dual 680M option and come out with a $2,857 bill — not to mention some serious bragging rights with the gamer crowd.
What we have here today is the shiny new HP ENVY 4 Ultrabook sporting a 3rd gen Intel Core-i5 dual-core processor and of course those Beats Audio speakers. It packs a lot of power under the hood and all folded up will only be about 0.78″ thick, but is this enough to earn your dollars? Head down past the break and we’ll find out.
This may not be HP’s ultra high end, but the ENVY series has always been one of their better offerings. Back in May we got our first glace at this Ultrabook, and then late last month we were able to unbox it and dig in a bit deeper. To get you started off with full specs, details, and the unboxing you’ll want to start here.
Chassis
This aluminum wrapped machine hit the shelves last month for about $800 and today we’re going to give you a better look, as well as our review and impressions on the laptop. It certainly isn’t HP’s nicest wrapped device but the aluminum has a great feel. For some reason the tip on top has been replaced with plastic, and the aluminum doesn’t extend to the entire edge of the casing. This gives opening and closing it a rather cheap feel, because the plastic is indeed very cheap. Otherwise the entire body is well built, and feels like it too.
The top has that midnight black brushed aluminum look and the only change is the neat and small HP logo on the bottom corner. As you curve around the sides to the ports however, you’ll quickly notice the aluminum design ends for a soft-touch red matte texture instead. This makes it easy to hold, but causes an area that may separate in the future if it takes too much abuse. The entire sides and bottom are bright “Beats Audio red” and is soft to the touch. This makes it easy to hold, and comfortable to carry.
All in all the ENVY 4-1030us (that we have here) comes in under 4 lbs (3.86 to be exact) and only 0.78″ thick. We’ve seen thicker, but for $800 the package is quite sleek and decent. We’ll talk about ports more below so for now the star of the show is the TrueVision HD front camera for Skype and video chat, and of course Beats Audio.
HP’s integrated dual-stereo surround sound Beats Audio speakers, and they are actually quite decent. Obviously you won’t be getting the bass you’d like, but for music, videos, and even gaming I found them sufficient. Even near full volume the distortion levels are minimal, and I’d give them a solid thumbs up for the price, even if they still have that tin-can sound. Ultrabooks and laptops the speakers can always improve, but these didn’t leave me wanting too much more.
Specs
As far as the hardware specs of the device, if you didn’t catch the full breakdown in my video above here they are again. You’ll get a clear and vivid 14-inch Brightview LED 1366 x 768 display, 1.7 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (3317U), 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 500GB HD (no SSD here) 3 USB ports, Ethernet, HDMI, SD slot for storage, then integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000. There’s no dedicated GPU here, but Intel’s HD graphics were enough for the casual game here. You won’t be playing Battlefield 3, but then you shouldn’t expect to.
The 14-inch 1366 x 768 resolution display is rather decent, but obviously we’d always like a higher resolution. Like the Retina Display Macbook Pro for example — but then again this is only $800. The screen is still HD and playing YouTube videos was a breeze. I even used the HDMI-out on the side to stream some Olympics to my HDTV since NBC failed us on their coverage, and it worked wonderfully.
Keyboard and Trackpad
Now here’s one area that I wasn’t to pleased with the ENVY 4. The keys, while backlit, and chicklet style had a rather cheap feel to them. Being a 14 inch device I wasn’t expecting it to feel very compact and low on space, but I found myself struggling to get comfortable — but that will come in due time. The keys while still feeling cheap have a good firm click during use, but certain areas on the keyboard felt weaker than others. The back-light option has a simple on/off setting, but that was all. Being able to manually control this would be nice but for $800 we’ll gladly just accept the fact we have it.
My biggest concern however was the trackpad. I know HP’s been doing this circular diamond-cut like design for ages, but I find it extremely frustrating. You can see the lines all aim for the center from the image above, but I find this type of feedback to be rather difficult. It makes operation feel rather choppy and the “smooth” feel I wanted was certainly missing. The sensitivity was another minor issue. Nothing you can’t get used to, but even after changing it in settings I still found myself having to repeat my taps. Overall I’d take a few points off here, but nothing major as this is all subjective and depends on user preference.
Ports
As mentioned above, the ENVY 4 Ultrabook has 3 USB ports (two left, one right), Ethernet, HDMI, and full size SD slot for storage. Then off to the right side is your power port, 3rd USB, headphone and microphone ports. They all felt great and weren’t too tight, as I’ve had that issue with newer laptops in the past. Here’s a look at the ports:
Performance
This device runs an Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, which we should all know plenty about by now so I’ll stick to the results. Performance was rather decent, although I quickly replaced IE but that’s just me. Working with a 3rd Gen Ivy Bridge Core i5 dual-core processor and 4GB of DDR3 RAM performance was great, but I’d love to see 6GB for the price point. We have no SSD so hard drive results weren’t impressive, but that was expected.
All this equals a rather powerful mid-range Ultrabook all for a great price. It has a few compromises here and there, but this could still be the device for you. As usual here at SlashGear we’ve ran some Geekbench benchmark tests. You can see those results below and compare with previous Laptop Reviews.
Benchmark Score – Hewlett-Packard HP ENVY 4 Notebook PC
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
5321
6935
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
9500
Memory
Memory performance
6143
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
5192
System – Hewlett-Packard HP ENVY 4 Notebook PC
Manufacturer
Hewlett Packard
Product Type
Notebook
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Motherboard
Hewlett-Packard 1894
Processor
Intel Core i5-3317U
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Frequency
1.70 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
4
Cores
2
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
32.0 KB
L2 Cache
256 KB
L3 Cache
3.00 MB
Memory
4.00 GB DDR3 SDRAM 799MHz
FSB
99.9 MHz
BIOS
Insyde F.0A
Wrap-Up
All in all this is a rather great machine. It’s lightweight, portable, thin, powerful, sounds great, and has a bright and vivid screen. Oh and did we mention affordable. For everything you get this is certainly an affordable Ultrabook, I just wish it had USB 3.0 and possible slightly better build quality. If you’ve ever used a Macbook for an extended period of time you’ll surely notice the build quality differences. Compared to most others in the price range however, this ENVY 4 Ultrabook is impressive, and will leave many in the dust. Using the ENVY 4 for browsing and a few videos on NFL.com I barely managed 5 hours of battery life, so that is one other thing worth mentioning.
This isn’t quite as impressive as the Acer Aspire S5 we recently reviewed, but then it’s also much cheaper too. For the mid-range price and great “Ultrabook” specs this will surely make anyone happy for under $800. Overall the The Envy 4 is fairly named, and some others in this range will “envy” it. Featuring a premium design and attractive use of the color red certainly makes it an Ultrabook worth checking out. Enjoy the pictures and some of our other HP reviews below.
Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon has been a known entity since May, when the company gave us a look at the 14-inch, Ivy Bridge-packing Ultrabook. Up until now, though, the successor to the ThinkPad X1 remained somewhat shrouded in mystery, with no pricing or specific availability information to its name. But no more — Lenovo’s just raised the official curtain on the Carbon, announcing a pricing scheme of $1,399 and up and targeting an on-sale date of August 21st at Lenovo.com. The entry-level model will run a 1.7GHz Core i5-3317U CPU with 4GB, and it includes a 128GB SSD and Intel’s HD integrated graphics. Like on the ThinkPad X1, 3G connectivity will be an optional feature. Head past the break for more info on the business-centric Ultrabook.
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