Hasta La Gadget!

A Windows 8 PC that can be used in a tablet mode? Those will come a dime a dozen this fall. But what’s fascinating is how each PC maker has approached the challenge of mixing a touchscreen with a more traditional mouse-and-keyboard setup. For some OEMs, this means going the hybrid route, with 10- or 11-inch tablets that slot neatly into an optional keyboard dock. For others, it means a full-fledged PC with a slide-out touchscreen. And for a few, it means a laptop whose screen can fold down, leaving you with what can only be described as an oversized slate.

That’s how we would describe the Dell XPS 12, a 12.5-inch notebook whose screen flips inside its hinge, allowing you to use the machine in tablet mode or, if you prefer, with the screen facing away from the keys. (Yes, Dell is giving this form factor a second try.) It starts at a relatively steep $1,200 but then again, this is a fairly premium machine we’re talking about: it combines all the ingredients of an Ultrabook (lightweight build, Ivy Bridge processor and a solid-state drive) with a 400-nit, 1080p, Gorilla Glass touchscreen. So what’s it like to use this form factor? And how does it fare as a regular ol’ Windows 8 PC? Let’s see.

Continue reading Dell XPS 12 review: with the launch of Windows 8, ‘convertible’ takes on a new meaning

Filed under: Laptops, Dell

Dell XPS 12 review: with the launch of Windows 8, ‘convertible’ takes on a new meaning originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve heard it before: the more things change the more they stay the same. It wasn’t that long ago that we reviewed LG’s flagship Optimus 4X HD, the world’s first quad-core HSPA+ handset. Despite representing the company’s best engineering and design effort to date, it wasn’t quite able to match the competition’s global offerings — Samsung’s mighty Galaxy S III and HTC’s lovely One X. Today, just a few months later, quad-core LTE superphones are the state of the art. Samsung’s selling the global Galaxy Note II, HTC’s just announced the One X+ and LG’s betting everything on the Optimus G — the first handset to feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro together with an LTE radio.

The Optimus G is a pivotal device for the Korean manufacturer, especially in the US, where rival Samsung is massively popular and LG’s success has been hampered by a series of forgettable products (hello, Intuition) and a lackluster track record for software updates. It’s so critical that LG even invited us to spend some quality time with the Optimus G at the launch event in Seoul last month. In the US, LG’s partnering with Sprint and AT&T and there’s strong evidence that Google’s upcoming Nexus will be based on the Optimus G. So, does the company’s latest powerhouse measure up to the competition? How different are the US versions from the Korean model? Does LG finally have a winning formula with the Optimus G? Find out in our review after the break.

Continue reading LG Optimus G review: a quad-core powerhouse with Nexus aspirations

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, LG

LG Optimus G review: a quad-core powerhouse with Nexus aspirations originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s taken nearly half a year for Lenovo’s transforming IdeaTab S2110 to go from CES reveal to retail shelves and it’s arrived barely unchanged. But despite the initial fanfare, the company chose to slip this slate into the marketplace quietly, ahead even of its official launch at IFA. In that time, ASUS managed to announce and ship a new hybrid tablet of its own, the Transformer Pad TF300 — a keyboard-optional rival offering the same 10-inch, 1,280 x 800 IPS display and Android 4.0 experience, along with a quad-core Tegra 3.

While Lenovo’s offering may not come with four cores or an unskinned version of Ice Cream Sandwich, there is a very contemporary dual-core S4 inside, clocked at 1.5GHz and buffered by 1GB of RAM. Alongside that, the tab’s also outfitted with a 1.3-megapixel front-facing shooter and 5-megapixel rear camera capable of 1080p video capture. Other specs include radios for WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, a battery rated for up to 10 hours of browsing (augmented to 20 hours when connected to the dock) and either 16GB or 32GB of built-in storage. At $430 for the base model alone, it’s already positioned as a higher-priced alternative to the TF300. Add the dock and full storage, and you’re looking at a cool $580. So, will this be a case of “too little, too late” for Lenovo? Can the S2110 lure undecided customers away from cheaper similarly specced offerings? Read on as we attempt to answer all that and more.

Continue reading Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 review: a competent Transformer competitor running Android 4.0

Filed under: Tablets, Lenovo

Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 review: a competent Transformer competitor running Android 4.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, the Belarusian tech site Onliner.by made waves yesterday by publishing the clearest photos yet of the alleged LG Nexus, the E960. Now the site has published a quick and dirty review of the unannounced phone, which may go down as one of the worst kept secrets in smartphone history. An editor at the site claims to have scored a prototype version of the handset, and as such, any judgements made should be taken with a grain of salt. There were plenty of bugs, including serious issues with Android Beam, which in our experience has never really worked as well as advertised anyway. This model also only comes packing 8GB of storage, which will most certainly change before launch given its lack of a microSD slot. The site found that both the screen and the 8-megapixel camera were a vast improvement over the Galaxy Nexus, however benchmarks showed that while it’s quad-core Snapdragon outpaced last-year’s Nexus, it didn’t put up the staggering numbers many were expecting. For the complete review hit up the source.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Alleged LG Nexus 4 reviewed by Belarusian tech site originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Keyboards aren’t always high on the list of considerations for folks buying a new computer or looking to upgrade an old one. Some may be more likely to splurge on a high-end monitor, or cram in as much RAM as possible. For this writer, though, the keyboard is one of the most important components of a computer, if not the most important. For the past 10 years or more, that’s meant a split-design ergonomic keyboard in the vein of Microsoft’s Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 — at least when not exclusively using a laptop. That style certainly takes some getting used to, and is always guaranteed to start a conversation, but it has some clear benefits for comfort (not to mention the well-being of your wrists) over the long term.

More recently, however, that old standby has given way to a mechanical keyboard with a traditional design — the Matias Tactile Pro 3, specifically. A split-design mechanical keyboard would be ideal, but those are unfortunately quite a rare breed. While a something like the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 has advantages over your average keyboard in terms of overall comfort, it still feels like a regular keyboard. That is, it’s slightly mushy and generally less tactile given its use of a rubber membrane for the keys instead of the individual switches found in a mechanical model like the Tactile Pro.

As anyone who’s used both can attest, the difference is immediately noticeable. With a good mechanical keyboard, you don’t have to worry about a key press not registering; the keys have more spring to them for a crisper feel and (here’s the contentious part for some) they make more noise. It’s not a typewriter-level racket, but there’s a good chance you’ll be frowned upon if you’re sharing a desk with someone, or are trying to take notes while on a conference call. It’s that potential issue that led Matias to try something different with its latest keyboard — one that it claims is the world’s quietest mechanical keyboard. Did it deliver? Read on to find out.

Continue reading Matias Quiet Pro review: a mechanical keyboard with less clickety-clack

Filed under: Peripherals

Matias Quiet Pro review: a mechanical keyboard with less clickety-clack originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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