Hasta La Gadget!

The folks at Verizon and LG have teamed up to bring you a device exclusive to the both of them here in the USA – the LG Intuition – made to take on the phablet segment of the market with a fury all its own. But what can LG offer the 5-inch display-toting smart device universe that the Samsung Galaxy Note (and now the Note II) haven’t already? Have a peek here at the one and only competing device to take on the larger than a smartphone but smaller than a tablet market currently on Verizon – and see if LG’s convinced us that a 4:3 aspect ratio display is all its cracked up to be!

Hardware

The LG Intuition is the USA version of the device we’ve known up unto this point as the LG Optimus Vu, it having been revealed earlier this year at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The device we’re looking at now is essentially the same as it was in that first showing, here coming with what LG calls its Rubberdium Pen that works with any capacitive display-toting device, two LG Tag+ stickers that you can use to activate different phone modes using the Intuition’s NFC capabilities, and of course a charging cord for good measure.

This device works with a lovely 5-inch HD display at 1024 x 768 pixel resolution at a rather bright 650 NIT. The display is an odd 4:3 aspect ratio, that being the same as the first three iPads, with the same amount of pixels too. Now that those pixels are smashed down into a much smaller display, you’ve got a rather sharp and bright – and colorful – vision in your hand – or hands, as it were.

The back of the device is made of a soft plastic that’s almost rubbery, this making a great case for the idea that this could be a one-handed device – but you’re certainly not going to get away with doing much other than scrolling with one hand unless you’re a giant. Two-handed operation here feels much more natural. If LG’s aim here is to replace your tablet – and it is – then they’re doing it right.

If LG’s aim instead is to replace your smartphone, a smartphone that you’ve gotten used to working with using a display that’s closer to 4-inches for many moons, they may have a bit larger of a challenge on their hands. This device, like the Galaxy Note, looks a bit absurd to be holding up to your head to make a call. LG suggested to us that this device will make a great case for people to be using Bluetooth headsets to avoid such odd looks – but then again that adds another component where this device’s aim was supposedly to replace two.

The Rubberdium pen, too, is interesting to use, but because it really doesn’t do anything that a normal capacitive-friendly stylus wouldn’t be able to – it’s definitely not contending for any top spot in the pen-included smart device market. It’s a sturdy accessory, but it also doesn’t fit in a dock inside the device as Samsung’s S-Pen for the Note does. It feels much more natural to just use your finger for circling items and making notes with the Intuition.

This device has 1GB of RAM inside alongside a dual-core Snapdragon S3 processor clocked at 1.5GHz. That’s basically the same as what we saw in the tiny LG Lucid back in March of this year. LG informs us that the S3 should be perfectly capable of bringing on awesome “multitasking muscle” even if it’s not the newest architecture on the block – and for the most part we’ve seen that to be true in everyday use. Have a peek at a few benchmark tests here to see how it adds up:

Software

Inside of this device you’ll find LG’s newest user interface working with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. You’ve got the regular awesome abilities of ICS such as a Recent Apps button – included in an odd set for this device in the physical row – notice how there’s a menu button in there too, this being a unique set for any Android device thus far released to the market. The lockscreen here allows you to do a simple unlock by swiping across any part of the screen, or you can swipe through any one of five app shortcuts to go there too – pull down your notifications work on the lockscreen as well.

You’ve got facial unlock fully intact, Home Screen folders for your apps, and even icon customization abilities – you can literally draw your own icons or take photos to use as icons for your apps. That’s a move we did not see coming from anybody as it has the potential to make your apps look rather terrible – but if you’re an awesome artist or designer, you could be making something totally lovely.

The standard web browser here allows you to switch between mobile and desktop versions with the tap of a button and you’ll be able to save websites in their entirety for offline reading, too. Then comes the best part – a hardware button at the top of your device that takes screenshots that you can write on.

When you take a shot like this, you bring up a toolbox of icons that have multiple abilities. You’re meant to use your Rubberdium pen at this point, but you certainly do not have to if you don’t want to. The first button you see allows you to take a note with the screenshot you’ve just taken or without – this bringing you to a notepad for your note-taking pleasure. There are forward and backward buttons incase you need to undo or redo, and you can pick your pen type and color as well.

You’re able to share a memo to any of your various social networks and share-friendly apps, or simply save your memo for later viewing – you can save here to your gallery in a brand new folder specifically for notes such as these, or you can save them to your NoteBook. This whole interface is part of your QuickMemo environment, the idea that you’re the type of person that takes notes and memos being a large selling point for this device in the end.

LG has for some time now been working to provide the user with a unique ability – coming from a manufacturer, that is – to switch between user modes. You can use the LG Tag+ NFC stickers to activate your different modes, or you can simply do it yourself with a couple of taps. The LG Intuition comes pre-set with Car, Office, Sleep, and User modes, each of them bringing you a standard setup for their respective environments.

These modes bring you different home screens full of apps as well as settings – for the office, for instance, you could have your Office Mode set to silent, while your Sleep Mode could have your wi-fi and data connections shut off entirely while you snooze. On the Office subject, this device also comes pre-loaded with Polaris Office, this including Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint compatibility.

This device also securely syncs with Microsoft Exchange for secure email action and is able to access your corporate network “without worries” with LG’s built-in VPN. You’ve got DARE – Data At Rest Encryption – at work here, and you can work with items such as secure booting, rooting detection, and remote wipe for relatively hardcore security measures all around.

As shown above, this device once again continues Verizon’s new set of apps as well as Amazon’s apps, yet works with a Google-certified set of apps like Google Play, Gmail, and Play Music. This device also comes with Shark Dash – an insanely odd game to say the least – and Real Racing 2 so you know you can have some fun while you’re making all kinds of doodles all week long.

Camera

This device works with an 8-megapixel back-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front – the back-facing camera taking some relatively lovely photos and videos – the placement of the shooter in the corner of the device makes taking video and photos feel natural with this device, much more so than it does with the Galaxy Note – in that way, this device wins.

Battery and Data Speed

This device works with notoriously battery-hungry 4G LTE connectivity, which though it is a power-gobbler, has nothing on the ability of the Intuition’s display to cut you down to size. Though the Snapdragon S3 processor under the hood doesn’t quite have the same awesome standby power-saving abilities that the S4 does, we’re still seeing some rather standard battery life action going on here.

If you’re a person who uses their device every 10 minutes, you may have to charge the device once halfway through the day. If you’re a regular person who works with their smartphone every half-hour or so, you’ll probably be good to go for your whole workday. This device uses a 2080 mAh non-removable battery, by the way, just a bit bigger than the Motorola DROID RAZR M (which has a 2000 mAh, massive for a device of its size.) This device, once again, runs on Verizon’s 4G LTE network which you can see rocking quite well in the speed tests included here:

Wrap-Up

This device certainly isn’t the magic all-in-one device for everybody – evidenced by the lack of a microSD card slot and 32GB of onboard storage as well as by the S3 processor inside – not quite perfect for future-proof-seeking gamers. On the other hand, the average office-goer will likely find this device to be more than a match for any tablet they’d been using up unto this point – this device is meant to replace the tablet, after all. You’ll have a much more awesome time with a 5-inch display than you have had with a 7-inch display if you’re finding yourself needing a whole extra bag to carry that device around all day.

Here you’ve got a device that’s massive – yet small enough to still fit in your pocket. That’s assuming you’ve got standard-sized pockets, of course. The display is perfectly bright and viewing angles are more than sufficient for everyday browsing and note-taking action, and the phone is, on your average day, swift enough to handle your office-bound needs. This is certainly one of LG’s most impressive devices yet, and though we’re not entirely convinced that we’d not rather have its main competitor in the end, LG does currently have the Verizon piece of the market cornered.

Verizon Intuition by LG Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The DROID RAZR M was revealed at the event where Googler and relatively new CEO of Motorola Dennis Woodside spoke about the “new plan” for the company – a plan that’s starting right here. We got a brief DROID RAZR M hands-on experience at the event and found that it was a surprisingly powerful-feeling device for its status under the DROID RAZR HD devices sitting nearby. With its near-edge-to-edge 4.3-inch display, it’s tried-and-true fabulously powerful dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor under the hood, and a collection of protective elements throughout this device’s chassis that make it, again, an ideal phone for today’s mobile landscape – just as the original DROID RAZR should have been (and still is, for many happy users, to be fair).

Have a peek at some hands-on walkthrough time here with the DROID RAZR M and see if it and the review text (and photos) above and below answer every question you’ve got about the device. If you find yourself still sitting with quandaries at the end of the post, please feel free to post in the comments section. We’ll do our best to expand where necessary!

Hardware

When I traveled from New York City to Minneapolis the day that I was handed the DROID RAZR M, I carried it in my pocket through three airports and dropped it at least 5 times. I’m clumsy. Because of the protective features Motorola was and is being up front about in this device and the other RAZR devices as well, I thought about how awesome it was that the M bounced around and didn’t show a scratch. Of course it’s partially really good advertising, and I can be a sucker for great promotion, but there’s quite a bit of reality in the pitch as well: there are more protective components here than there are fragile bits.

You’ve got Corning Gorilla Glass across the front, one big flat panel. The back of the device is mostly made up of of a panel of DuPont KEVLAR fiber, the rim of the device is either white or black hard plastic, and the frame is made of aircraft-grade aluminum. Inside you’ve also got water-repellent nanocoating, so you’re good in the rain and if you splash a bit of coffee over the top of the device.

The device does not work with legacy accessories that connect with the microUSB and microHDMI combination as seen on our review of the Motorola Lapdock 100 – here with the RAZR M, you’ve just got a microUSB port and that’s it. You’ve also got a standard headphone jack at the top of the device, power button and volume rocker on the right, and a door on the left also with a microSIM and microSD card slot as well.

The device is palm-sized and will be basically the closest device in size and shape to the upcoming iPhone 5 – which will certainly be carried by Verizon once it appears as well. The display will likely be a similar size as well, and the display will be comparable without a doubt. Beyond the basics, on the other hand, these two devices will not be compared unless Verizon workers are asked which device has Android and is basically the same size as the iPhone. More than likely you won’t find a lot of people entering the store with that comparison needing to be made.

Also note – there’s no other device on the market that looks or feels like this. Outside the other RAZR and Motorola devices that’ve been out in the last few months, (like the ATRIX HD), of course. That back panel assures you you’re working with Motorola hardware.

Software

There’s a collection of applications here that you could feel a number of ways about. If you thought that having Google own Motorola meant that they’d be releasing devices with only the Google standard set like the Nexus lineup does, you were wrong. If you’re looking for a device that you very well could potentially work with without needing to download any additional apps, this is it. Have a peek at the full collection of apps coming out of the box here:

You’ve got a “Verizon 4G LTE Edition” of Color here, this app being a social networking connection to photos and videos – including streaming live video via Facebook. Apps like Audible and IMDb as well as NFL Mobile will connect you to media from all directions, Zappos and Slacker Radio and Viewdini also bring you physical product shopping, streaming radio, and video listings. This device also comes with a suite of Amazon apps including Amazon for Amazon.com shopping, Amazon Kindle for ebooks, Amazon MP3, and the Amazon Appstore. What’s interesting here is that while previous Amazon-toting Android devices have worked with Bing rather than Google search, this device uses Google and has the Google Play store as well. You get the best of both worlds.

This device works with Smart Actions like several Motorola devices before, this app able to do things like detect when you’re in a certain area (GPS located) and turn your device’s brightness down. You can turn your sounds down when you enter a meeting (according to your Google calendar event), you can set a notification to pop up to remind you to charge your phone at a certain time of day, and you can turn off data sync when you’re asleep – amongst many others. You’ve also got Voice Commands and Voice Search as provided by Google’s newest Android systems. Note here that this device has been guaranteed to get Jelly Bean by Motorola, but that it currently uses Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich provides you with a Recent Apps button so you can easily switch between apps on the go. It also brings a notifications pull-down menu that’s accessible from your lockscreen as well as your homescreen – there’s a quick access button there to get to your full settings as well. There’s a new feature brought on by Motorola here as well which, when you pull your homescreen over to the right, you get a Quick Settings menu with on/off switches for GPS, Mobile Data, Bluetooth, and other oddities as well.

Below: Motorola includes an easy start guide for anyone unfamiliar with Android in general but especially with their unique user interface. They’ve made it specific to this device, too, with perfectly pointed arrows at the buttons outside the display.

Motorola’s user interface works well here with Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich features, not being overbearing as it was back when it was called MotoBlur. Here we’ve got a collection of easy-to-understand icons in your settings menu, features that are well placed (like the previously mentioned Quick Settings menu), and what’s not a rather quick software build as it works with Qualcomm’s processor. Have a peek at a few benchmark results here as well to see how it adds up compared to the rest of your smartphone and tablet favorites.

Camera

The camera is rather nice – certainly not the most excellent beast in the mobile field right this minute, but more than reasonable for the promises Motorola has made for the device. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 processor has architecture dedicated to image processing specifically, also, so it’s certainly helping out at least a little bit. Have a peek at some examples of photos and video as captured by the DROID RAZR M and see what 1080p video and 8 megapixel photos look like here.

Battery and Data Speed

The battery is a massive 2000mAh and, in combination with the amazing ability of the Snapdragon S4 to keep itself on low-demand while the device is asleep, you’ll have so much standby time that you’ll freak out. See here first what happens when you use the device moderately – lots and lots of time.

Then have a peek at what happens when you turn the device’s display up to full brightness. This chart shows how quickly you can drain the battery – note that this isn’t entirely unique to this device, you can make this happen with the right combination of high-demand apps and display power and data transfer and all that good stuff at once. What you should pay attention to here though is the flatline at the end – when the death drop ends, that’s where I turned the brightness of the display to “auto.”

The DROID RAZR M works with Verizon’s 4G LTE data network and has proven itself as a rather fabulous internet beast – the danger here will be that you get too addicted to the speed and end up using your whole data allowance in the course of a few days. That’s been known to happen with some people, you know. Have a peek here at a set of data speed readings from both New York City (including LaGuardia Airport – also in the demo video above), and Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Wrap-up

This is a rather fun addition to the Motorola collection of smartphones, and Verizon will be better for it having it in the Droid universe as well. You’ll find yourself enjoying the DROID RAZR M’s near-edge-to-edge display especially, with bright, sharp, and colorful delivery yours for the taking. The processor under the hood is more than powerful enough to handle any app, game, or video you’ve got or will get in the next few years on Android, and the whole user interface is quite slick.

This device is made to be its own little beast, not part of the docking and mirroring universe that Motorola smartphones have been almost exclusively for the past year. Because of that, you’ll have lower cost ($99.99 USD with a 2-year contract), and the device can be smaller as well. The battery inside this device is thinned-out in a way that makes it non-removable as well – the same situation as the original DROID RAZR too.

So you’ve got a smartphone that’s not made to come apart and certainly isn’t made to be part of the Motorola lineup from the year previous to this season. This is indeed part of the “new plan” spoken about by Dennis Woodside as Motorola’s tie with Google keeps the company flying high into the future. We’re excited to see if the DROID RAZR HD and HD MAXX are up to snuff as well – soon enough!

DROID RAZR M Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

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.

Hyundai is showing its commitment to recycling, using the same name for two pretty different attempts at the crossover SUV market. 2013 sees not one but two Hyundai Santa Fe models: one – the “Santa Fe” – with seven seats and intended to replace the Veracruz, and the other – the “Santa Fe Sport” – trimming the wheelbase, dropping two of the seats and taking on the Ford Escape and other midrange crossovers. We caught up with the Santa Fe Sport, the first to hit the forecourt, to see whether the brand can handle two personalities.

Design

Some crossovers want you to think they’re really coupés. Some encourage you to feel like an urban commando. Hyundai’s strategy with the Santa Fe Sport is to dilute some of the company’s “fluidic sculpture” design language until it could come up with a mass-market pleaser. No gouged slashes or over-sculpted cladding, just a few deft creases and a striking trapezoid grille.

That’s not to say it’s an ugly car, though certain colors flatter it more than others. Silver is a good choice, helping disguise the slab-sides and diluting the over-chromed grille, and the steeply angled rear-quarter window works if only because there aren’t third-row seats to obscure. From the rear it’s the usual SUV stack of metalwork, some silver trim partially alleviating the swathe of plastic across the bottom edge.

The Santa Fe Sport comes in at 184.6-inches in length – the seven-seater will extend that by 9-inches – and has a 106.3-inch wheelbase, the same as the 2012 Santa Fe it replaces. However, it’s considerably lighter than the old model, with Hyundai’s liberal use of high-tensile steel making for a crossover that’s both torsionally stiffer but 266 pounds lighter than before.

Engines and Performance

Hyundai has a pair of engines from the outset, adding in a third powerplant when the seven-seater hits the market. The entry-level is a 2.4-liter mustering 190 HP and 181 lb-ft of torque, with direct injection and a 22 mpg city efficiency rating and 33 mpg highway rating for the front-wheel-drive (FWD) model; optional all-wheel-drive (AWD) sees knocks 1 mpg and 5 mpg off those figures respectively.

Unfortunately, Hyundai didn’t bring its base-spec engine along to our Park City, Utah test event, instead leaving us with only the 2.0-liter four cylinder turbo. That pushes out 264 HP and 269 lb-ft of torque, with 21/31 mpg city and highway economy for the FWD version and 20/27 mpg if you opt for AWD. Both engines get an Active Eco button easily accessed by the wheel, which Hyundai claims can boost economy by as much as 7-percent by adjusting acceleration and other factors.

A six-speed automatic gearbox is standard, built by Hyundai itself using a torque-converter system. It’s a capable ‘box, shifting quickly even when pushing the turbo through the rarified air of the 8,000 feet elevation Park City, and what turbo lag is present is near-imperceptible. Active Eco mode does make changes to its downshifting behavior, however, encouraging the auto to be less prone to dropping down in the interests of better economy. It’s a noticeable difference, though not one we struggled to get used to after a few miles driving.

2013 Santa Fe Sport testdrive:

Unsurprisingly it’s in a straight-line that the Santa Fe Sport is happiest. Road noise is minimal, aided by twin-layer insulation to the windshield, various suspension muffling elements, and other insulation systems, and there’s little in the way of vibration during highway driving. Happily it also avoids bouncing or wallowing, something which can often turn SUVs into boat-like experiences.

Going round corners isn’t impossible, however, even at speed. Hyundai has fitted a three-mode steering system with a straightforward control on the wheel, offering Normal, Sport, and Comfort settings. Often such systems can be near-imperceivable in what difference they bring, but the Santa Fe Sport does in fact show three altered personalities. The company claims that power-assistance varies by 20-percent going from Sport to Comfort modes, and it’s noticeable. At its firmest, you really start to feel like you’re pitching the Santa Fe Sport directly into turns, while at the other extreme the wheel is so comparatively easy to turn you can do it consistently one-handed.

The usual electronic systems and aids show themselves on the Hyundai’s spec sheet, with Downhill Brake Control (DBC) one the company is particularly proud of. Although even the AWD Santa Fe Sport is unlikely to be taken offroad with any regularity, DBC makes descending steep hills straightforward by automatically controlling the brakes.

Hyundai will offer a 3.3-liter V6 with 290 HP with the seven-seat Santa Fe, when that model arrives early in the new year.

Interior

Stepping into the Santa Fe Sport is generally a good experience, with a futuristically swooping dashboard clad in plentiful soft-touch plastics. You’ll need to tick some of the options boxes in order to get the key good-stuff, however: the 8-inch color LCD touchscreen to handle multimedia and navigation is an option, and you’ll need $2,450 for the leather package, though you do at least get a choice of different two-tone colors and finishes.

Families with younger children might prefer to stick with the standard cloth seats, however, which use specially-treated fabric that’s billed as water, stain, bacteria, and odor resistant. Spill chocolate milk across the rear bench and it will stay floating on the surface of the cloth, rather than soaking in, for easier clean-up.

Unfortunately, not everything quite gels. While there are plenty of good decisions by Hyundai – the easily accessed steering mode control, fuel filler release built into the drivers door handle, and tactile button choices – there are some less than ergonomic decisions too. Making the touchscreen an option means there’s some duplication between touch and button navigation, lending the dashboard a cluttered feel at times.

That’s a shame, because Hyundai’s BlueLink telematics isn’t bad once you get to grips with it. As well as turn-by-turn navigation there’s Bluetooth support for hooking up a smartphone; then, you can stream music through Pandora and other apps. Hyundai plans an iPhone app which will allow for remote-start and lock control, while if you log into the companion website you can set up geofenced limits outside of which the Santa Fe Sport can’t be driven. That’s likely to appeal to parents with young drivers on the insurance.

Front and rear seating is comfortable and – with no third-row to accommodate – space for back passengers is ample. In fact, each seat of the rear bench folds independently, with sliding/tilting and integrated heating available as an option. Drop everything flat and there’s a reasonably sized load area. On the plus side, the rear wheel arches make minimal intrusion at the sides, though the seats themselves don’t fold entirely for a completely flat space. Overall, you get 71.5 cubic feet for your boxes, cases and bikes (or 35.4 cubic feet with the rear seats up), along with a variety of dashboard and underfloor cubbies for salting away bottles and sunglasses.

Pricing

Factor in destination charges, and the entry-level Santa Fe Sport starts at $25,275. You’ll spend $27,525 for the 2.0T version, while upgrading to AWD in either model is a $1,750 option. More expensive are the options packages; in addition to the $2,450 Leather and Premium Equipment Package there’s a $2,900 Technology Package, which also includes the new panoramic moonroof. In general, if you’re content with the base spec, the Hyundai is often cheaper than its crossover rivals, but that advantage is mitigated if you have a taste for extras.

Wrap-Up

Without the seven-seater Santa Fe to compare, it’s hard to know whether Hyundai has scored a one-two punch with its new crossover SUVs. Alone, though, the 2013 Santa Fe Sport is a strong upgrade to the 2012 model. Those paying for it will be pleased by the more flexible engines, improved fuel economy and competitive entry price (just as long as they’re not too distracted by the options), while those along for the ride get comfortable and spacious accommodation.

Those placing particular emphasis on aesthetics may find the Santa Fe Sport too bland in its design for their tastes, though Hyundai’s designers’ restraint should at least broaden its appeal. The 2.0T engine is impressive, punching above its capacity in performance though not sacrificing ride quality. Not, then, a car you buy with your heart, but that’s hardly the recipe for a crossover purchase anyway. The Santa Fe Sport is a capable and affordable option in the midrange segment, and those factors count for a lot.

2012 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport first drive is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Normally when I hear the words “gaming laptop,” I roll my eyes. It isn’t that I find the idea absurd, it’s just that I much prefer desktops because laptops more often than not end up being a letdown when it comes to gaming. iBUYPOWER has a new gaming laptop available – the Valkyrie CZ-17 – but the question is: can the Valkyrie CZ-17 deliver the gaming goods, or is this laptop just another one you should skip? Read on, because I think you might be pleasantly surprised with the answer.

Hardware

We simply have to begin with the Valkyrie’s screen. You’ve got 17.3-inches to work with on this bad boy, it’s LED backlit, and it’s capable of resolutions up to 1920×1080, which obviously means that we have 1080p resolution at our disposal. The screen is nice and bright (though as with most laptops you can adjust the brightness), but even better is that it sports a matte finish instead of a glossy one. Glossy finishes look nice, that’s true, but for gaming they can cause some headaches. Reflection and glare were never fun to begin with, but when you lose a game because of them, things get frustrating really fast. Thankfully, the Valkyrie doesn’t suffer from this problem, which makes this screen a winner in my book.

The build I received comes with an Intel Core i7-3610QM quad-core, eight thread processor. Clocked at 2.3GHz, it provides some significant processing power. Yes, there are other, better processors out there, and indeed if the 3610QM doesn’t meet your needs, iBUYPOWER will let you switch it out for a different processor when you go to purchase the Valkyrie. Still, the 3610QM gets the job done, and it delivers good results when gaming (or doing anything else on the computer, for that matter), so going with it over some more expensive processors might not be a bad idea.

As far as graphics go, iBUYPOWER has included a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M with 4GB of GDDR5 video RAM. Though this card isn’t the absolute best graphics card NVIDIA makes for laptops, it is one of their best (and one of the best period), and as a result makes the Valkyrie a delight for gaming. Make no mistake, you’re working with some serious graphics power, especially for a laptop, and that can’t be understated given the fact that many of us are used to seeing underpowered “gaming laptops.” It should also be noted that iBUYPOWER offers a Valkyrie model with a GeForce GTX 680M, so just in case you want to squeeze a little more power out of your graphics card, you have that option available. Like the processor though, the 675M will meet the needs of most who want to use the Valkyrie specifically for gaming, so jumping up to the 680M is not required by any means.

With RAM you’ll have a full 8GB of G.Skill DDR3-1333 at your disposal, so you’ll be set for the time being. Though some may prefer a little bit more RAM, 8GB is sufficient for any game around these days, and probably will be for a while yet. When you aren’t gaming, the 8GB of RAM keeps the Valkyrie CZ-17 moving along at a nice, quick pace, and when coupled with the processor, you’ve got a laptop that’s plenty fast for pretty much anything you need to do.

The speakers on this beast are actually quite good, though they would have to be considering how disappointing it would be to have a laptop packed with excellent hardware and then some crappy speakers. Using a good pair of headphones will still probably be preferred by most, but if you decide to let the speakers get a little work out, you won’t be disappointed with the sound they put out. Included on the hard drive is THX TruStudio Pro, which will allow you to tinker around with your speaker settings and get them to precisely the levels you want them at.

The keyboard the Valkyrie CZ-17 comes equipped is nice, and due to the laptop’s size, it’s comfortable to use. You’ve got a full keyboard, numerical pad and all to work with, and above the keyboard we have a row of special buttons. Surrounding the power button, these buttons let you do things like change the power profile, put the screen to sleep (instead of the entire unit), and turn Wi-Fi on or off. The keyboard comes with an adjustable backlight, and though it looks nice, it’s rather unnecessary. The screen is bright enough to light up the keyboard when you’re playing in the dark, meaning that the backlit keyboard will just end up draining battery life. Luckily, you can turn the backlight off completely, so if it isn’t your cup of tea, you don’t have to deal with it.

There aren’t any gripes with the touch pad either. It isn’t as sensitive as most, which is definitely a big plus, and it’s stationed off-center of the unit so it’s in the perfect place for your thumbs while you’re typing. The touch pad lights up when you power on the unit as well, but unlike the keyboard light, this one actually comes in handy, as with it you can see the left and right mouse buttons easily.

On the outside, there are a total of three USB 3.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, and jacks for line-in, line-out, headphones and microphone. The Valkyrie CZ-17 comes with a 6x Blu-ray, 8x DVD+/-RW optical drive, which increasingly seem to be disappearing from laptops these days. There are full HDMI and VGA ports available if you want to use the laptop with a bigger display, but with as nice as the screen is, you don’t really need to. There is an also an eSATA port and a Gigabit Ethernet jack to take advantage of. This particular model came with a 750GB HDD, which will be large enough for most, but there are of course additional options, meaning you can choose the hard drive (or SSD) that suits your needs.

As you can probably see from the pictures and hands-on video, this isn’t necessarily a small unit. The Valkyrie weighs in at 6.9 pounds, measuring 16.9-inches wide and 2.2-inches thick. It has a considerable size to it, but thankfully it’s still easily portable. It’s also worth noting that an increase in size is inevitable when it comes to gaming laptops, and with all of that hardware under the hood, the Valkyrie was doomed to be a little on the bulky side from the start.

A few times in this review, I’ve mentioned that you can swap out components and hardware when you purchase the Valkyrie CZ-17 from iBUYPOWER. That’s true for pretty much everything – you can change the processor, upgrade or downgrade the graphics card, increase the amount of RAM, switch out the optical drive the Valkyrie comes equipped with, and choose different storage devices as well. For instance, if the 750GB HDD this model comes with doesn’t float your boat, you swap it out for a larger one, add a second one for more storage, or add a SSD to make things even faster. If you wanted, you’d be able to ditch the HDD entirely and go for a dual SSD setup. The point is the Valkyrie can be whatever kind of laptop you want it to be, so if for some reason talk of this model leaves you unimpressed, that can be changed.

Battery and Eco Environment

Next we come to the battery, which as you may have guessed by reading through the hardware section, leaves something to be desired. The removable lithium-ion 9-cell battery is quoted for 3 hours of continuous use, but when gaming, don’t expect it to last nearly that long. Playing Civilization V with medium settings and the Valkyrie’s Eco Environment turned on (more on that later), I was only able to get about 1 hour and 30 minutes of use before the battery quit. It’s a shame, but it isn’t all that surprising – with all of this high-end hardware and that beautiful screen, it’s inevitable that battery life is going to take quite a hit.

We get some help with battery life from the aforementioned Eco Environment. With Eco Environment, we have a number of different power profiles we can pick from, like gaming mode, office mode, movie mode, and presentation mode. When unplugged from a power source, Eco Environment automatically kicks in, attempting to extend all-too-precious battery life. Game performance takes a significant hit with this power-saving mode on, so you’ll probably have to lower your settings quite a bit. You can turn the power-saving mode off entirely by just switching to gaming mode, but that isn’t recommended, as doing so will probably make the already short battery life even shorter and the end to your session even more abrupt.

The good news is that this battery is removable, meaning you can buy one or two extras to have on hand at all times. It isn’t the most desirable situation, but it’s a hell of a lot better than having a battery that you can’t remove and being tethered to a wall plug all the time. Another perk is that the battery charges very quickly. Obviously, this won’t be the case if you plug in the computer and begin gaming with screen brightness at max and your game settings ramped up, but if you leave the computer alone for a bit, you can expect a recharge time in the area of 45 minutes to an hour.

Benchmarks

Unsurprisingly, the Valkyrie CZ-17 posted some strong Geekbench numbers. These numbers would be good enough for most desktops, but they’re excellent by laptop standards. Essentially, the Geekbench results confirm what the high-end hardware promises – that this is very powerful as far as laptops go, and a considerable gaming laptop to boot. Testing in Cinebench 11.5 gives a similar result – with a CPU score that sits at 6.22 and an OpenGL frame rate of 41.39 fps, the results may not be the best we’ve ever seen, but they are still pretty impressive.

Gaming

Now it’s time to talk gaming, because after all, the benchmarks can say all they want, but if the Valkyrie can’t handle gaming, then those results don’t matter very much. Luckily, that isn’t the case, as the Valkyrie is capable of delivering some impressive gaming performance – at 1920×1080 resolution no less, which is a huge plus (all games tested were tested with 1080p).

Playing Batman: Arkham City with Extreme settings (High FXAA, MVSS and HBAO, High DirectX 11 Tessellation), I was able to get a frame rate that ranged between 25 fps and 35 fps. The high end on that was around 43, while the low end was around 22. If you don’t mind playing a game around 30 fps, then you can play Batman: Arkham City with nearly all of the settings maxed. Playing at 30 fps shouldn’t be a problem for most gamers – even though 60 fps does look noticeably smoother, 30 fps is usually what console games are locked at, and those are typically smooth enough. When playing Batman: Arkham City on the Valkyrie, you’re essentially getting a console-quality frame rate, but you also get to enjoy much better graphics. That isn’t a bad trade-off by any means, especially when Batman: Arkham City looks so good with the graphics settings cranked up.

With Battlefield 3, the results were much the same. Putting all of the settings on Ultra, which includes 4x MSAA, high antialiasing post, motion blur on, 16x anisotropic filtering and HBAO on, I got a frame rate of 30 to 40 fps, with the frame rate staying around or above 30 fps more consistently than Batman: Arkham City. Once again, you’re sacrificing a full 60 fps for all the bells and whistles, but I don’t really see a reason why that would be a major issue.

I was able to squeeze a little bit more out of Skyrim than I was with Arkham City and Battlefield 3. Playing with the settings on Ultra – including 8x antialiasing, 16x anisotropic filtering, and Bethesda’s HD texture pack – produced a frame rate between 40 and 50 fps, only rarely dropping down below 40 fps. That definitely isn’t bad, and there really isn’t much to complain about when you get play with maxed settings and still have a frame rate between 40 and 50 fps.

Wrap-Up

So no, you’re not going to be able to get a full 60 fps with the graphics cranked up at the same time by using the Valkyrie CZ-17. Unless you take frame rate extremely seriously, that probably won’t be a problem. After all, enjoying games with max settings at 30 fps is just as easy as enjoying them at 60 fps. If frame rate is important to you, just bring the graphics settings down a notch, and then you can still enjoy excellent visuals while getting a frame rate that sits right around 60 fps.

It’s also important to keep in mind that this is a laptop, and even though the results when gaming aren’t perfect, they’re excellent by laptop standards. This is one of the best gaming laptops on the market right now, and the $1459 price tag bit easier to swallow than some pre-built desktops that will only deliver a marginal improvement when it comes to gaming.

Really, the only big drawbacks are the battery life and the size of the unit. As stated above though, those are to be expected in a gaming laptop, and concerning the size specifically, it isn’t as if the Valkyrie isn’t portable. It’s slightly more bulky than other laptops that are on the market, but that 7 pound weight isn’t terribly huge. All in all, if you’re looking for a laptop that hold its own when it comes to gaming, you won’t be disappointed by picking up a Valkyrie CZ-17.

Valkyrie CZ-17 gaming laptop Review is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.