Hasta La Gadget!

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.

Continue reading Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon review: the definitive Ultrabook for pros

Filed under: Laptops

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon review: the definitive Ultrabook for pros originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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.

Continue reading Eurocom intros powerhouse Scorpius laptop, touts more video memory than most desktops

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

Eurocom intros powerhouse Scorpius laptop, touts more video memory than most desktops originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ultrabooks now come in countless shapes and sizes, and we’ve seen display quality vary just as much. Though 1,366 x 768 may still be the norm, 1,600 x 900 panels aren’t unheard of in this ultraportable category. But what about a screen that bucks the 16:9 aspect ratio for an extra-wide 21:9? Toshiba is mixing things up with its new premium Satellite U845W Ultrabook ($1,000 and up), the first laptop to feature that odd aspect ratio.

Styled in the fashion of movie theater screens, the U845W’s 14.4-inch, 1,792 x 768 panel adds more horizontal pixels — ostensibly to enhance the movie-watching experience. In theory, too, that setup should allow for more room to multitask with windows side by side. So how good of an idea is a 21:9 screen in practice? Join us as we put it to the test.

Continue reading Toshiba Satellite U845W review: an Ultrabook with a screen size all its own

Filed under: Laptops

Toshiba Satellite U845W review: an Ultrabook with a screen size all its own originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Aug 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When the MacBook Pro with Retina display is in the game, Apple’s “regular” Pros may seem a bit like also-rans. After all, why would you choose them when you could get a brilliant 15-inch 2,880 x 1,800 IPS panel and a Core i7 Ivy Bridge processor? Well, price, for one thing. While we walked away from our Retina MBP review mighty impressed, that model starts at $2,199. The latest crop of Pros, meanwhile, keep the same pricing scheme as last year’s models ($1,199 and up), but step up to Intel’s third-generation Ivy Bridge processors. We took the entry-level 13-incher for a spin to get a feel for how the dual-core Core i5 CPU, 4GB of RAM and Intel HD Graphics 4000 stack up to the competition. Read on to see how it fared.

Continue reading MacBook Pro review (13-inch, mid-2012)

Filed under: Laptops

MacBook Pro review (13-inch, mid-2012) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There haven’t been many choices in PC motherboards for audiophiles — the ‘real’ kind that might see even a good dedicated sound card as slumming it. Biostar wants to fill that untapped niche with the Hi-Fi Z77X. Along with run-of-the-mill expansion for an Ivy Bridge- or Sandy Bridge-based desktop, the board’s built-in 7.1-channel audio flaunts six 3.5mm analog jacks, an amp and the kind of exotic-sounding language that leads audio addicts to buy $2,000 cables they don’t need. We’re talking “metal-oxide film resistors” and “non-polarized electrolysis electric audio capacitors,” here. Whether or not the changes have an appreciable impact on sound quality, listeners are ironically left out of S/PDIF audio, which exists only as a header on the board unless buyers spend a little more on parts. That said, if we assume the as yet unknown price isn’t stereotypically high — and that audiophiles don’t mind a big, potentially noisy desktop as a home theater PC — the Hi-Fi Z77x could be a treat for those who want to wring every nuance out of music and movie soundtracks.

Filed under: Desktops, Home Entertainment

Biostar Hi-Fi Z77X gives audiophiles 7.1-channel analog sound, overpriced cables thankfully optional originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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