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Combing revolutionary design, the power of a notebook PC and the convenience of a tablet PC – the 11.6” Samsung ATIV Smart PC and ATIV Smart PC Pro are Samsung’s next set of smart devices. These provide computing power, with Windows 8 functionality as well as full Windows 7 compatability. Each device features a detachable keyboard-docking system that allows users to easily switch between a clamshell notebook PC and a tablet PC form factor. These devices allow for great mobility with maximum …

Sony just threw itself fully into the touchscreen Windows 8 arena — it’s introducing the VAIO Duo 11 slider tablet and the Tap 20 combination desktop and tablet design at its IFA 2012 press conference. The Duo 11 is a noticeably amped-up realization of the Hybrid concept we saw at CES. Its 11.6-inch, 1080p touchscreen is joined by a proper digitizer stylus for low-lag handwriting as well as some seriously powerful innards for a convertible PC its size: we’re talking an Ultrabook-level Core i3, i5 or i7 as well as a 128GB or 256GB SSD, NFC wireless, GPS, and HD-capable cameras at the front and back. Sony is hoping for a late October release for this beast of a slate, although we haven’t been given that all-important price.

The VAIO Tap 20, meanwhile, is more than just a tilting all-in-one desktop in the vein of Lenovo’s IdeaCentre A720. Despite carrying a 20-inch, 1,600 x 900 touchscreen, it’s still very much battery-powered — you can lug the 11.4-pound PC into the living room and treat it like a tiny multi-touch table, if that’s your inclination. It’s sharing the same processor picks as the Duo 11, but it turns to more conventional 750GB or 1TB hard drives and puts the emphasis on shareable apps like Family Paint and the Fingertapps Organizer calendar. Not surprisingly, there’s only one, front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera here, although NFC does make the cut. The Tap 20 is due to arrive at about the same time as its smaller Duo 11 sibling, although we’re once again without details of how much it will cost.

Continue reading Sony unveils VAIO Duo 11 slide-out tablet, Tap 20 portable touchscreen all-in-one

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets

Sony unveils VAIO Duo 11 slide-out tablet, Tap 20 portable touchscreen all-in-one originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 10:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer first detailed their new Aspire V5 series earlier this year back in March, claiming to offer better laptops over previous generations all while managing to be around 30% thinner than previous models and other laptops in the price range. Now that Acer’s rolled out the lineup to retail stores we’re taking a look at the budget family member in their 11.6-inch Aspire V5. It might come at a budget friendly price but it doesn’t compromise on performance. Take a peek below.

Chassis

To be specific today we’re taking a look at the Acer Aspire V5 171-6867 with an 11.6-inch display. This well rounded little ultra-portable might look like the average netbook, but they’ve managed to pack in a pretty decent punch with the Ivy Bridge Core-i5 under the hood. As far as the chassis you’ll be greeted with a lightweight and rather cheap feeling plastic but the clear coat keeps it feeling smooth, and scratch resistant. That plastic pays off however as the laptop comes in at just 3.09 lbs. Making it rather fun to hold and wander to your nearest Starbucks with. It is 0.8″ thick at the thinnest point, and stretches to barely over 1-inch at the widest thanks to the 4-cell battery.

There certainly isn’t anything new in terms of specs or styling here, but for just over $500 we can’t be expecting anything revolutionary. The price however brings a pretty great laptop considering many in the price range feel flimsy and rather cheap. The Aspire V5 does have a lightweight plastic I’m not too fond of, but it doesn’t ooze of cheapness like some in the past. It looks fancy, but you’ll quickly recognize it’s plastic once you open her up. The rounded edges are nice and smooth, and the slightly textured feeling once opened is rather comfortable during daily use.

Ports

As you wrap around the curved plastic edges you’ll come to the left side full of useful ports. First you’ll notice the large venting system to cool that Core i5 dual-core processor. On the left we also have Ethernet, VGA out, HDMI, and a USB 3.0 port for added speed. Around front you’ll be greeted with the 2-in-1 SD card reader, and some LED notification lights for activity. Then to the right side is the rather bland female charging port, the other two USB 2.0 ports, followed by the micrphone/headphone jack.

Keyboard & Trackpad

Here with the Acer V5 we’ve been quite impressed by both the trackpad, as well as the keyboard. For being a compact 11.6-inch device the keyboard is one of the most impressive ones we’ve used as of late. The island style chicklet keys are comfortable, have a good texture, and the response is decent although a bit mushy. I instantly felt comfortable and was able to type with ease here when other 14-15 laptops have given me trouble. It’s safe to say this is one of the better 11-inch keyboards available to date.

The trackpad along with multiple newer laptops has a texture that I’d absolutely be fine without. It makes sliding your finger around for navigation irritating and doesn’t give you that smooth easy-going feeling. Considering the size of the laptop you get a decently sized trackpad, and usage was fairly acceptable. If you tried to click too high it wouldn’t register, as the lower end had the best response.

Overall the keyboard and trackpad can’t be considered great since we only have 11.6-inches to work with, but considering the circumstances this will do just fine and is certainly among the better options available. My only other main area of concern is the tiny arrow keys that double as volume controls or brightness, and wish they’d be larger. In all other regards this was smooth sailing.

Display & Sound

Here Acer has outfitted the V5 with their 11.6-inch 1,366 x 768 display surrounded by an extremely glossy and fingerprint prone bezel — but what’s new. You do get a 1.3 megapixel webcam, but it wasn’t too great. The Acer CineCrystal LED display was decently crisp although we’ve certainly seen much better in this size range. Again considering the price, the screen is crisp and decent although a bit lacking in the brightness department. We’d love to have a bit more brightness as well as better colors as they felt a bit dull and lifeless at times.

The same could also be said about the sound — dull and lifeless. A good way to explain it would be that usual tin can sound we get in basically every laptop available, but with a bit of a distance and fade to it. Sadly even at max volume the sound was nothing special, although it did get plenty loud for those wanting to blast away. Aiming down the sound was also muffled when using anywhere aside from a computer desk.

Performance and Benchmark

This laptop is running on Windows 7 x64 and as we mentioned above is rather sneaky in the fact that this small size still rocks a 1.7 GHz dual-core Core i5 Ivy Bridge processor. To be specific we have the Core i5 3317U on board. Along with 6GB of slow DDR3 RAM and a 500GB hard drive. I’m used to SSD’s and always enjoy the good ol sound of spinning hard drives these days. Obviously the Intel HD Graphics 4000 won’t be getting you any extreme game performance but as I mentioned in my video above it was enough for some quality video output through HDMI for some Pre-season NFL gametime.

As usual it all comes down to the benchmark performance and we’ve ran a quick Geekbench to take it through the paces, as well as posted up the Windows scores too. While it didn’t perform as good as the recent Aspire S5 we reviewed, it handles its own extremely well. Especially when considering the $500 price segment.

Wrap-Up

All things aside if you are in the market for a quality 11-inch notebook this is certainly one of the better options available. Given the impressive price/performance ratio and specs you’d expect to see in a larger notebook you’ll love the Aspire V5. Of course all that in a tiny package gets quite hot, and if you’re going for an Ivy Bridge and 500GB hard drive you might as well pick up something with a 14 or 15-inch display.

For those that want some top of the line performance while not suffering in the portability and ease of use department — you could certainly do worse. The battery life barely managing 5 hours no matter the task was a problem with the small battery however. For a few more dollars you could get a bigger screen and better battery life with similar performance. Do you need the lightweight and small size? If so this is the notebook for you.

Acer Aspire V5 Review is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The annual Hong Kong Computer & Communications Festival is usually just flooded with discounted computer products and booth babes, so we were pleasantly surprised when we spotted a couple of unreleased Windows 8, dual-digitizer devices at the Fujitsu booth. Pictured above is the Stylistic Q702 “Quattro,” an 11.6-inch tablet-cum-laptop that was announced last month. This particular unit sported an Intel Core i5-3427U chip (capped at 2.3GHz instead of 2.8GHz), a vibrant IPS panel, a fingerprint scanner, front and back cameras, 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD — twice the announced capacity, for some reason. Much like the ASUS Transformers, undocking the tablet was only a matter of pulling the latch on the hinge, but we found the latch to be rather stiff to operate. Hopefully this is just a prototype issue. Other than that, we just wish the final keyboard dock will somehow get a slight weight reduction: for the screen size, 1.88 pounds isn’t too bad for the tablet alone, but together with the heavy keyboard, the Q702 could become a nightmare for regular travelers.

The second prototype lurking at the back of the booth was the bulkier LifeBook T902 “Tercel,” a 13.3-inch convertible laptop that was unveiled alongside the Q702 last month. According to its label, this swivel-hinged machine packed a Core i7-3520M, 8GB of RAM, 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive, Blu-ray burner, LTE radio and a 72Wh (6,700mAh) battery. Oh, and there’s also a fingerprint scanner below the display. While the software failed to reverse the screen rotation after we flipped the screen back to laptop mode, it was in general just as responsive as the Q702, though the hardware felt more solid and ready. With this in mind plus the Windows 7 label and Wacom label below the keyboard, we wouldn’t be surprised if the T902 comes out before the Q702. Until then, feel free to check out our impromptu hands-on video of the Q702 after the break.

Continue reading Fujitsu Stylistic Q702 and LifeBook T902 convertibles show up with Windows 8, we go hands-on (video)

Filed under: Laptops

Fujitsu Stylistic Q702 and LifeBook T902 convertibles show up with Windows 8, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 14:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a special moment in every operating system’s life when it loses its innocent .0 status and grows up. It’s OS X Mountain Lion’s turn to mature, as Apple has just pushed out the 10.8.1 update for early adopters. Most of the fixes are for issues that plague specific use cases, such as audio output from a Thunderbolt Display or crashes in Migration Assistant. There are a few remedies that a wider audience might appreciate — a fix for iMessages that don’t send and an improvement to Exchange compatibility in Mail, for example. We don’t yet know of any surprises lurking underneath, but it can’t hurt to have a smoother-running Mac while we investigate.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Software

Apple posts OS X 10.8.1 update, mends your Mountain Lion originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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