This year SlashGear had 292 product reviews over the 12 months that began with January 2012 with subject matter ranging from smartphones to automobiles, with accessories, computers, and some lovely stand-out apps sprinkled in-between. We’d like to express our extreme gratitude to the PR groups, manufacturers, developers, and every other individual responsible for helping us work with the products and services we need to show you, the readers. Have a peek at what we’ve explored in detail this year!
The most massive category for us this year was Accessory Reviews by a rather sizable margin. With 68 audio products, device cases, power units, and oddities galore, we’ve been working with a set of the coolest tiny (and sometimes massive) products that either assist you in working with your much more expensive products or stand alone as amazing products on their own! One category that broke out this year was Storage Reviews, another was Camera Reviews – never again will we categorize these items as accessories on their own!
The mobile sector continues to bust out as a massively review-friendly sector with Phone Reviews and Tablet Reviews being two more of our largest categories. Every single phone in the phone category was a smartphone, of course, and our total hit 61 while the number of Tablet Reviews we knocked out was a solid 26.
We worked with 20 lovely Laptop Reviews in 2012 while our Desktop Reviews numbered up to 16. In the Software Reviews section we’ve got our epic Windows 8 review as well as 19 other bits of excellent software. This section crosses over into the iOS Review section which this year had a whopping 39 entries on its own.
Another new category for us this year was Sci-fi Movie Reviews with 5 hot-hitting entries. We’re getting into the Entertainment industry with movies galore, too, with not just movies but beasts in gadgety with 14 eye-melting Entertainment Reviews. Another cross-over category this year was Gaming Reviews with a cool 14 entries.
Then one of the most exciting new spaces we’ve got is Car Reviews which stems from our brand new Car Portal – expect one whole heck of a lot more automotive action in 2013 as well!
This year the authors with the most units reviewed through the 12-month period were Chris Davies with 22 reviews, Vincent Nguyen with 28 reviews, and Chris Burns with 178 reviews. In addition to thanking the PR groups, manufacturers, and developers this year, we’d like to thank you, the readers, for making it possible for us to get our hands on these wonderful products so that we might show you what they’re all about.
What we’d like to ask you at this point is what you thought about our reviews this year and what you think we could do better in 2013 – did we leave anything out? Are there products or services you’d like us to cover more extensively in the future? Let us know!
There’s a brand new Ultrabook in town sporting Intel inside from Velocity Micro, with three new models pumped up for the new year. This lineup comes in with three notebooks by the names of NoteMagix U430, NoteMagix U450, and NoteMagix U470, each of them coming in with a unique chassis and no Bloatware at all, whatsoever. These units are pumped up and ready for the big time, too with solid aluminum bodies and less than 4 pounds to any one unit.
Each of the three units here works with a lovely 14-inch 1366 x 768 pixel resolution (WXGA) Anti-Glare display, Panther Point (HM77) chipset, and a 3rd gen Intel Core at i3, i5, or i7, each of their prices reflecting the power. These machines come with 4GB DDR3 RAM and varying hard drives based on the model as well: 500GB 5400rpm and 24gb SSD, 120GB Intel® 520 Series SSD, or 240GB Intel® 520 Series SSD.
Each of these models works with Integrated Intel HD 4000 Graphics, over 6 hours of battery life, and a lovely webcam at 1.3 megapixels. Each unit works with its own ethernet port, two USB 3.0 ports, full-size HDMI out, headphone jack, and multi-card reader. A set of rubbery bumpers on the bottom and a lovely black casing and you’re ready to go!
These machines will be available immediately if not soon online starting at three prices based on model. The lowest-spec’d model is the NoteMagix U430 which will be starting at $799.99, followed by the NoteMagix U450 which starts at $899.99 USD. The biggest and the best in this new lineup is the NoteMagix U470 which starts at $1099.99 USD – that’s the one you want!
Intel is reportedly pushing for voice control as a standard feature of Shark Bay based ultrabooks in 2013, with a combination of hardware and software for speech recognition tipped to join the minimum spec list. The hands-free technology would join touchscreens as part of Intel’s premium feature-set for next-gen ultrabooks, Fudzilla reports, though exactly how such a system would be implemented is unclear at this stage.
Windows 8 already supports speech recognition, with spoken commands being used for dictation, for navigating around the UI, and for triggering features like cut/copy/paste and opening apps. The nature of Intel’s hardware/software mix – and which elements it would provide to OEMs, and which would be sourced from third-parties – is unstated, given Microsoft has the software side under control.
One possibility, however, is that Intel could specify a certain type of digital microphone array, with active noise cancellation for better performance. The chip company already has certain criteria which manufacturers must meet if they’re to use the ultrabook branding, such as around thickness and storage.
In that respect, the new focus on voice control could be more about marketing than new technology. Given Apple is expected to add Siri to OS 10.9 next year, bringing natural speech recognition across from iOS devices to the company’s mainstream Mac line-up, reminding ultrabook owners that their svelte laptops can do something similar (and making sure they have a reasonable experience using it) would be a useful tick on the product sheet.
Shark Bay – aka Haswell – will also include extended battery life, and Intel is supposedly pushing for Full HD display support, at least on ultrabooks priced at $800 or above. Always-connected WWAN and facial-recognition are also tipped to be key selling points for new models.
What’s in a name, really? For some of us, a name would convey the sense of quality, especially so when that particular name has been a trusted one for a long, long time. I guess this is why branding is extremely important, and here we are with two well known companies synergizing to deliver the best (in their opinion, anyways, we just report it) to consumers. I am referring to Harman Kardon speakers that deliver exceptional audio as well as muscular bass to the Toshiba Widescreen Ultrabook, starting with Satellite U845W model in tow.
Basically, if you are in the market for a Windows 8 powered workhorse multimedia laptop that delivers exceptional sound, your ears will definitely tingle (if it works as claimed) as it tunes in to the remarkably thin Toshiba Satellite U845W Ultrabook which is said to pack far more bite than what it looks like at first glance. Sporting a couple of Harman Kardon speakers alongside Odyssey3 drivers, the Satellite U845W is said to offer crisp, robust sound with authoritative bass which is louder compared to other comparably sized laptop or notebook that is in the market at the moment.
Sachin Lawande, executive vice president of HARMAN and co-president of HARMAN Lifestyle and Infotainment, said, “This is the first Ultrabook that doesn’t require the user to attach external speakers to enjoy a movie, MP3 or streaming audio. The Harman Kardon speakers were custom-designed for the Satellite Ultrabook to get the most out of digital music files. The Satellite Ultrabook was built for beautiful sound.”
The Satellite U845W is not the only one from Toshiba to include Harman Kardon speakers, but it will mark a new era, being the first of nine models to do so. It would be interesting to see how the market reacts to such a model (and other models in the pipeline), and whether audio quality is that big of a deal breaker for many. Expect to pick up the Toshiba Satellite U845W with Harman Kardon sound from $929.99 upwards, depending on the configuration you selected. [ Toshiba Ultrabook gets Harman Kardon speakers copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Computer maker Origin has unveiled a new high-end gaming notebook called the Eon17-SLX. As you can probably gather by the name of the machine, it has a 17-inch display. The screen is 17.3-inches, supports 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution, and has a matte finish.
The notebook can also be had with a full HD resolution 17.3-inch LED backlit matte 3-D display using Nvidia Vision 2 3D glasses. The notebook has a customizable backlit keyboard that has three lighting zones and seven color options. Base machines, the single graphics card including the Nvidia GTX 670MX, Nvidia GTX 680M, or AMD Radeon HD 7970M options.
The notebook can also be had with two of any of the three available video cards inside for extra gaming power. The machine has multiple Intel processor options all in the Core i7 family with quad cores. The processors operate at 2.3 GHz all the way up to 4.1 GHz with overclocked options.
There are numerous RAM options ranging from 4 GB all the way up to 32 GB. The machine can be fitted with DVD or Blu-ray burners. Storage options include SSDs with 40 GB up to 256 GB capacity. The notebook also has hard drive slots that can be fitted with up to 1 TB traditional hard drives. Other features include USB 3.0 ports, a memory card reader, integrated fingerprint reader, a two-megapixel front camera, integrated TV tuner, and integrated Wi-Fi. The notebook starts at $1888 and will get significantly more expensive with options.
It’s time again to bring on the fashion-forward collections of Moshi, that accessory maker that’s made some of our favorite Apple-loving cases and coats of all kinds over the past year. The folks at Moshi have today announced three new products, each of them working with a different appendage of yours – starting with Digits. With the Digits touchscreen-capable gloves, you’ll be tapping away not only with warm fingers, but with a user-friendly amount of fit for all sizes – dual-layered with conductive fibers in each fingertip.
Digits features a new solution for glove-wearing touchscreen-loving individuals with what they call GripTalk – this is a silicone pattern that sits inside of each glove for both right and left-handed users, this working well with the gloves’ microfleece inner lining. Available in both dark gray and light gray – hot!
Next there’s the iGlaze for MacBook Pro with Retina Display. This unit you’ll recognize from our iGlaze for MacBook Air and iPad 3 review from earlier this year. This is a precision-tooled polycarbonate hardshell case made to be durable, lightweight, thin, and “nearly scratch-proof.” So they say. It’s actually rougher and tougher than you’ll be able to break through, they’re mostly just saying that just IN CASE you come in contact with a lightsaber.
Finally there’s the Overture, a fabulous protective case for the iPhone 5. This unit works with “all the functionalities of a slim wallet” including three slots for ID, transport, and credit cards as well as a full-length inner pocket for storage galore. This case comes with a “Neato” brand detachable and washable microfiber pad for cleaning the iPhone’s display. This case is made with a strong polycarbonate frame and lined with Moshi’s own proprietary Terahedron microfiber for fabulous protection.
The iPhone 5 case Overture is set to be available in Metallic Black, Sienna Orange, and Falcon Gray – all of which are rather smooth on the eyes and classy in the pocket. Have a peek at a few other Moshi posts we’ve had over the past few months to get a taste of what they’re all about.
Buying a laptop at Christmas is a big-ticket gift, but there are some great options out there if you’ve promised portable computing to someone special. Plenty of people – whether teenagers, students, or parents – are hoping for a notebook in giftwrap this month, and we’ve picked out some of the best to help make your shopping decisions simple. Read on for the SlashGear selection.
If your gift target has a preference for Windows or Mac, they’ll probably have been vocal about it already. If you’re going in blind, whether you opt for a machine running Microsoft’s or Apple’s OS may well depend on your budget. Apple’s MacBook Air line starts at $999, the cheapest portable in the company’s line-up (though there are official refurbs – which the SlashGear team has had good experience with from Apple in the past, being almost indistinguishable from new machines – from $749, albeit from the 2011 range), whereas Windows notebooks can be had much cheaper.
Our budget pick, however, doesn’t run either Windows or OS X – instead it uses Google’s Chrome OS. The $249 Samsung Series 3 Chromebook is a huge step forward over the first-gen Chrome OS machines, delivering Apple-a-like design and lengthy battery life at an impressively low cost. If your gift recipient doesn’t mind living their life in the cloud – and, if most of their time is spent browsing, using Gmail, Facebook, and other popular sites, as most people do – then Chrome OS makes an excellent low-cost option.
If a full OS is essential, then around $500 gets you the Acer Aspire V5 11.6-inch, a good mobility choice. Running Windows 8 and with 500GB of internal storage, the Ivy Bridge powered Aspire V5 starts out with a Core i3 processor, but we’d be tempted to spend the twenty bucks or so more and step up to the Core i5 chip for that bit of extra speed. 5hrs of real-world battery life isn’t segment-leading, but it’s a solid showing for a low-cost ultraportable.
For the mid-range, we have a choice of machines. We thought HP’s Spectre XT ultrabook, with its 13.3-inch display, was great for road warriors, and with the street price now around $800 it addresses our key criticism of price. Those who want a larger display, meanwhile, will find HP’s Envy 4 and 6 (with 14- and 15.6-inch displays respectively) more to their liking, with street prices around $750 and $570. Sony’s VAIO S series is another stylish option, with a 13.3-inch display and a street price around $950.
A 13-inch Windows 8 machine for upward of $1,000 and with an over-rotating hinge might not sound like much, but the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 is perhaps the perfect machine to deliver on Microsoft’s Windows 8 touch experience. Flipping from a great notebook, to an easel-format for comfortable media consumption, and then all the way round to a slate tablet, it ticks all the right mobility boxes with the flexibility of a full copy of Windows 8.
If OS X is the platform on your shopping list, our picks would be the 13-inch MacBook Air and the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. The MacBook Air 13, from $1,199, balances extreme portability with decent battery life and performance, with details like flash storage as standard helping keep things moving swiftly. Those looking for a more impressive gift – and an impressive laptop all-round – should look to the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, from $2,199. Its eye-searingly beautiful screen ands powerful specifications are wrapped in a surprisingly portable chassis, and it’s our pick of the top notebooks.
‘Tis the season for last-minute shipping updates, and not all of them justify some merrymaking. ASUS originally planned for its dual-screened TAICHI laptops to ship in November, but a company spokesperson tells PCWorld at the last minute that the Windows 8 showcase won’t ship sooner than December, and could slip further still. The PC builder doesn’t say why we’ll be twiddling our thumbs that much longer. Online retailers certainly aren’t waiting around for an answer — they’ve simply listed the myriad TAICHI variants as unavailable for now. Yes, there’s a definite sense of déja vu when ASUS is yet again delaying a touchscreen device during the holidays. We’re just wondering if the trip down memory lane will lead to the same fine outcome.
Google is reportedly planning a Chromebook of its own, pushing out a Google-branded touchscreen notebook to follow its Nexus-brand smartphones and tablets. The Chrome OS laptop would be made by Compal, according to the China Times, with the finished product apparently set to ship by the end of 2012.
Two new Chrome OS laptops have debuted in recent weeks, with Acer chasing the budget end of the market with its $199 A7, while Samsung’s Series 3 is only a little more expensive at $249. Although both running Google’s operating system, the two models take different approaches to the underlying hardware: the A7 sticks to Intel’s Atom chip, whereas the Series 3 uses a more frugal ARM-based processor for longer runtimes.
It’s unclear which footsteps Google might follow in with its own machine, with no hardware specifics revealed. Given the company has experience already with ARM chips in the Nexus range, however, and the more impressive battery life such processors generally allow, that would perhaps seem the more likely choice.
Google has apparently ordered around 20m units of the new, unnamed Chromebook, which it’s suggested may be a more tentative move so as to gauge interest in the platform. Alternatively, it could be to seed units with developers, as Google did initially with the Atom-based Cr-48.
The larger of the two big-hitters in the Acer Aspire S7 series Ultrabooks sits here on our desk like a high-powered glass-covered knife, ready to bring the best we’ve seen in touchscreen-toting Windows 8-optimized notebook action to the market. This machine has been delivered to our doorstep in its most powerful configuration, all $1,649 USD of it – complete with a 3rd Generation (Ivy Bridge) Intel Core i7-3517U Processor clocked in at 1.9GHz. The 13.3-inch display here is a beastly Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution widescreen CineCrystal LED-backlit bit of technology with 10 finger touch and a 16:6 aspect ratio. Now we’ve got to see if this is enough to match up with that price – or if after all is said and done, the price will be the last of your thoughts in this next-generation experience!
Hardware
This machine works with a set of two USB 3.0 ports, one micro-HDMI-out port, a combo headphone/mic jack, and a DC-in jack for your power cord. On the right you’ve got a dual memory card reader for SD and MMC, and also included in the box you’ve got a couple of adapter cords, one made for VGA output, the other allowing you to use an Ethernet cord (USB to RJ-45). The camera up front is a 1.3 megapixel HD webcam able to pick up 1280 x 1024 for video chat, the battery inside is a 4-cell lithium polymer at 4680mAh, and you’ve got 4096MB DDR3 dual-channel memory (4GB onboard memory) as well as Intel HD Graphics 4000 to keep that massively dense display high-powered.
This machine works with Optimized Dolby Home Theater v4 audio enhancements with two built-in stereo speakers and high-definition audio support. There’s also a built-in digital microphone for use with your video chat adventures, and under the hood you’ve got a lovely 256GB SSD drive as well. The touchpad is what Acer calls their “ZoomPerfect” unit with single and multi-finger scroll action – that’s up to 5 fingers to scroll, pinch, rotate, flip, and the like.
Weighing in at 2.86 lbs / 1.3kg and measuring in at 17.2″ W x 3.58″ D x 10.67″ H (437mm W x 91mm D x 271mm H), you’ll find this mix of metal and glass to be a joy to use – and to look at. When you open it and feel the unique edges around the touchscreen as well as the Gorilla Glass top, you’ll find yourself dually impressed. This machine is an Acer triumph without a doubt in its hardware build – the aesthetics alone make this easily one of the most beautifully full-looking notebooks on the market – and not just in the Windows 8 category.
The machine folds down to a thinness that’s straight up surprising, making it opening it for the first time an experience that may very well have you skipping the pleasantries and kicking your pocketbook out immediately. But you’ll want to take heed: there are some drawbacks to such a thin beast with a display that’s both touch-capable and incredible sharp, not to mention bright as you could possible want it to be. Battery life – as I’m sure you’re wondering about – will betray you if you’re expecting to go more than 4 hours at full-blast high-action video streaming and interactive touchscreen gaming.
But if you’re a realist and never go anywhere with your notebook computer without a power cord anyway, you’re going to have a bit more difficult a time finding reasons not to want this machine. Of course the price is always going to be a factor here in our present when it’s above $1,600 USD. That’s a massive price for a computer, especially if you only plan on using it to impress your friends and surf the web. That’s not what this computer is made for.
Instead you’re going to want to focus on what you get for the price. Acer has created a masterpiece for the Windows 8 generation. This is the computer Steve Ballmer should be carrying around to show off what Windows 8 can do – it’s that slick.
Peruse the rest of the reviews of this machine as they appear popping up across the web over the next few weeks and see where the low points are – you’ll find many folks saying the price is prohibitive while the rest suggest that the battery life in any notebook should be 6 hours or more. First you should know that we’ve gotten 5+ hours out of the device on multiple heavy-use occasions – great by your average user’s standards. Next you’ll be glad to hear that standby time for this notebook is undeniably great – Acer assures that with “Acer Hybrid Standby Technology” you’ll be able to get 80 days of standby power: that’s intense, and we’ve not seen any evidence yet to suggest they’re telling us anything less than the truth there with months of up-time. These “low points” are completely forgivable for what Acer is presenting here in the Autumn of 2012.
Software
The 10-finger touchscreen you’re working with here includes some software enhancements – most of them aesthetic – that make your Windows 8 experience the best we’ve seen thus far. You get tiny momentarily-visible transparent dots wherever you tap the screen, and as you move your fingers around, you get ghostly trails from your fingertips, allowing you to instantly understand how your tips are touching and moving. Having used several touchscreen PCs before the dawn of Windows 8, we can safely say that this is a major leap forward in real-world usability, without a doubt.
Have a peek also at our full Windows 8 review to see exactly what we’re dealing with here, with a few additions that include mostly new apps and security measures from Acer. You’ve got Acer Theft Shield, Acer Cloud, Acer Backup Manager, ePower Management, and eRecovery Management, and a whole lot more. For the most part, Acer’s additions to the basic Windows 8 build include connections to their own ecosystem – most of which are entirely positive and worth the effort you’ll be using to attach yourself.
System – Acer Aspire S7-391
Manufacturer
Acer
Product Type
Notebook
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 8 (64-bit)
Motherboard
Acer Storm
Processor
Intel Core i7-3517U
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Frequency
2.39 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
4.00 MB
Memory
3.82 GB DDR3 SDRAM 666MHz
FSB
99.8 MHz
BIOS
Insyde Corp. V2.05
You’ll be using your touchpad here in combination with the touch screen, but you’ll be able to use one or the other exclusively if you’re up for it. There’s an on-screen touch keyboard you can use if for some reason you want to move your hands up 4 inches above your perfectly capable physical keyboard, and the touchscreen isn’t necessarily required, so to speak, for anything if you don’t want to. You also get a Bluetooth mouse with the package if you’re feeling like some standard plastic mouse action – it’s standard, and certainly usable, but not a whole lot more than that. The physical keyboard also uses the computer’s light sensing abilities to keep your eyes happy, with backlighting activating as the atmosphere dims.
If you have trouble with “setting up” your computer, you can refer to the included “Setup Poster” included in the box, or you can use your Wireless Setup Card too – Acer has made the process simpler than ever before here – strange since the process includes no more than a few button taps and maybe even a connection with password to your wireless network. Important point here is that it’s simple enough for your parents to do themselves – really!
Have a peek at our standard benchmarking results here with Geekbench and feel the power – it’s a top of the line experience whether you’re cruising through your newest massively power-hungry game or viewing your favorite HD feature film.
Benchmark Score – Acer Aspire S7-391
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 8 (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
6089
8100
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
11149
Memory
Memory performance
7016
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
6638
Sound
The speakers on this machine are good enough for a personal computing experience and accurate even up to their loudest positions. Acer isn’t messing around with the external speaker sound quality here, with two Acer 3DSonic stereo speakers backed up with sound enhancements by Dolby. The fans on this machine, working with Acer TwinAir cooling technology, can get a bit louder than we’d like to hear on a regular basis. It’s not an issue unless you’re working with high-powered gaming or hours and hours of streaming video, and the trade-off is a rather pleasant lap experience – we’ve not felt anything hot going on yet.
Unique Touchscreen Experience
This machine has a hinge that allows it to fold back to 180 degrees – that means you’ll be able to go flat against a table, keyboard and touchscreen included. If you’ve used a machine that folds back further than this, you’ll find yourself feeling a bit limited by the flat-stop. If you’ve only ever used a notebook that folds back to 45 degrees, on the other hand, you’ll be surprised by how often you’ll want to push that screen back further, and further, and further. The viewing angles on the display are also near-perfect, making any angle look as great as the next (unless you count the high-gloss reflection-intense glass, of course).
This will also be a new experience for those of you used to using a tablet computer exclusively, as it really does combine the notebook and tablet experiences into one. If you’ve ever found yourself tapping your notebook screen after extensive tablet use, you’ll fall right in line with the S7′s experience. Windows 8 and the developers optimizing their applications for touchscreen action here in the first Windows 8 wave of app upgrades make this touch-and-tap combination one we’re really, truly enjoying. Working with the Aspire S7 will make you want to convert to this new universe – it’ll make you want to change and be assimilated.
Wrap-Up
This machine is Acer’s best effort yet. It’s an Ultrabook that makes the Windows 8 experience an enjoyable one – and on a personal note, it’s the first in many moons that’s made certain Apple-exclusive family members of mine think about trying a switch (having seen it at Thanksgiving, of course). You’ll certainly have to weigh the benefits of having this top-class machine in your position against the amount of cash you’re going to have to dish out since it’s certainly not the most budget-minded beast on the market, but after that, it’s all smooth sailing.
As with all of our reviews of products large and small, this is not the end of the review – let us know if there’s anything else you’d like to know about the machine and we’ll do our best to let you know what we know! We’ll continue to test this machine into the future and will let you know if anything ground-shattering changes our experience in any grand way – meanwhile feel free ask any and all questions you may have and make requests to your heart’s content!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
