0 Dell Latitude E6410 Laptop Review

By Admin_AT | At 7:07 AM | Label : Dell | 0 Comments

Dell Latitude E6410 Specifications:

14.1 LED-backlit WXGA+ 1440x900 Display

Intel Core i7 620M processor (2.66GHz, 4MB cache)

NVIDIA NVS 3100M Dedicated Graphics with 512MB VRAM

4GB DDR3 RAM

250GB 7200RPM hard drive (Western Digital Scorpio Black)

Intel Wireless Wi-Fi 6200AGN

Built-in Bluetooth v2.1+EDR

8X DVD burner

One-year limited warranty

9-cell Li-ion battery (85Wh)

Weight: 4.26lbs starting (5.5lbs configured)

Dimensions: 13.2 x 9.4 x 1-1.2-inches

The Latitude E6410 is the latest in a long line of business notebooks from Dell. Sporting a wide range of Intel Core processor options, Intel integrated and NVIDIA NVS 3100M dedicated graphics, and two display options. In this review we see how this Dell business notebook compares to others already on the market.

Build and Design

The Dell Latitude E6410 has a very modern look and feel, with a few changes this generation to give a nod towards past models. The E6400 brought the latest body style, with a black alloy shell. The E6410 this time around keeps the body style, but switches back to the gunmetal gray coloring scheme which was found on the D630 and D620 before it. The finish has a pseudo-brushed appearance (painted, not actual brushed metal like on the HP EliteBook) that seems to resist fingerprints more than the real thing. The lower half of the notebook keeps the black metal design, with a large service panel that lets you access everything in the notebook by removing a single screw.

Inside the E6410 the look is matte black on everything besides the keyboard and model lettering. Compared to what you might find in a consumer model, there are no glossy or reflective surfaces besides the small chrome lettering on the Dell branding logo. This is nice if you use your notebook in brightly lit areas where reflections can be distracting. It also means that smudges and fingerprints won't be a problem from day-to-day use.

Build quality is very good and if feels very durable with the metal panels top and bottom. In the business notebook market not all makers have stuck with metal body panels. After the T60-series ThinkPad, Lenovo switched to a plastic top cover, which has stuck for every generation since then. The HP EliteBook though keeps the metal top cover and retains the image and feel of a higher-grade notebook over a standard plastic consumer model.

The Latitude E6410 chassis felt very well built and resisted any flexing in the usual spots. The palmrest and touchpad showed no signs of sag under heavy prodding. The keyboard directly over the optical drive stayed firm, even though most notebooks do show some signs of weakness in this area. Grabbing the notebook by the palmrest and carrying it around didn't cause any twisting or creaking noises. With the notebook closed the screen cover gave above average protection for the screen and should prevent any keyboard key marks on from imprinting on the LCD after being transported in a backpack loaded with other items. With the notebook open it took a good amount of pressure applied to the back of the cover before it showed any ripples or distortions on the display.

Users looking to upgrade parts of IT staff looking to replacing components will find the Latitude E6410 very easy to service. Dell designed the entire bottom around a single access panel with a single screw holding it in place. After removing the screen (which is retained with a spring so it never gets lost) you simply slide the cover down about a smidge and pop it off. With the cover removed you gain access to the WWAN, Wi-Fi card, memory slots, processor and heatsink, CMOS battery, cooling fan, and the instant-on OS card. Outside of having a cover that removes by the thought of wanting to upgrade alone, the E6410 is probably the easiest notebook we have come across to upgrade.

Ports and Features

The Latitude E6410 is packed with a ton of connections, including three USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA/USB combo port, VGA and DisplayPort-out, audio jacks, LAN, and FireWire-400. Other features include an optical drive, SDHC-card reader, and a SmartCard reader.

modified from notebookreview.com

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0 Sony VAIO EA Laptop Review

By Admin_AT | At 4:38 AM | Label : Sony | 0 Comments

Sony VAIO EA (VPCEA3CFX) specifications:

Intel Core i3 370M (2.4GHz, 3MB L3 cache)

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

14-inch LED-backlit display (1366x768)

Intel GMA HD integrated graphics

4GB DDR3 (1066MHz) system memory

500GB hard drive (5400rpm)

CD/DVD player/burner

Bluetooth (2.1 + EDR)

Ethernet: 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T

Wi-Fi: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (802.11/b/g/n)

Intel Wi-Di (wireless display transmitter)

Standard Capacity Lithium-ion Battery (5000mAh)

Dimensions: 13.60(W) x 1.07(H) x 9.39(D) inches

Weight: 5.2 pounds

Color: Coconut White

Build and Design

The Sony VAIO AE is the latest 14-inch general purpose laptop from Sony. The E-series notebooks are the most affordable full-featured notebooks in the VAIO product line and you can probably argue that the "E" stands for "Economy class." The laptop body is made of a combination of matte black plastics and polished plastics in your choice of Lava Black, Hibiscus Pink, Coconut White, Iridescent Blue, or Passion Purple colors. Our review sample is "Coconut White" but pearl white might be a more accurate description of the color in real life. All of the plastics feel firm with no obvious flex or creaking sounds when you apply pressure to the chassis. Despite being designed as a budget laptop, the VAIO EA feels reasonably well built. The screen hinges offer enough resistance to hold the display in place yet aren't so tensioned that opening the laptop is difficult.

The screen lid, palm rests and touchpad plastics are made with overlapping layers of clear acrylic with different patterns on different layers. The end result is a multi-layer design that looks a bit like the scrolling pixel code in The Matrix movies. Don't let that description prevent you from considering this laptop; the effect is pretty subtle since the layered patterns are done using the same color as the rest of the laptop. Most people won't even notice the design on the lid or palm rests unless they are within a few feet of your laptop.

Users looking to upgrade or tweak the VAIO EA will find plenty to keep them happy once they look at the bottom of the notebook. Sony engineers were kind enough to include two access panels on the bottom of the chassis that allow you to replace the RAM or the hard drive with whatever you want. Since our review unit came with 4GB of system memory and a 500GB hard drive it's unlikely that most consumers will upgrade either, but if you decide to purchase a high-performance solid state drive (SSD) then it's good to know that you can easily put it inside the VAIO EA.

Ports and Features

Port selection on the VAIO EA is excellent. The system has three USB 2.0 ports, one additional eSATA/USB combo port, a headphone and headset jack, VGA output,  HDMI output, Ethernet, and both SDHC card and Memory Stick slots. USB 3.0 would have been handy given the increase in compatible accessories these days, but since the VAIO EA also includes an ExpressCard slot you can add a USB 3.0 adapter.

0 HP Slate 500 Review

By Admin_AT | At 10:43 PM | Label : HP | 0 Comments

 Specifications:

Slate tablet design starting at 1.50 lb/0.68 kg

8.9-inch diagonal LED-backlit WSVGA wide-viewing angle display (1024 x 600 or 1024 x 768 for some applications)

Capacitive multi-touch screen with pen digitizer

Integrated 802.11 b/g/n wireless LAN

Bluetooth 3.0 + HS

Intel System Controller Hub (SCH) US15W chipset and Intel Atom™ processor

64 GB SSD

Secure Digital (SD) slot

Two integrated webcams (VGA inward facing; 3 MP outward facing)

HP Slate Dock, HP Slate Digital Pen, and HP Slate Folio are optional accessories that may be included on select configurations

As a tablet PC user since the launch of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition in November 2002, I've longed for a lightweight, portable and thin slate device that essentially functions as a digital notepad computer, and this is what I believe HP has delivered in the 500. There's nothing new here, the Slate is just a vanilla Windows 7 Professional device with practically no 3rd party applications installed except Evernote and the camera software, but I think that's actually a good thing as it keeps the unit from being bogged down given its adequate but less-than-powerful Atom platform.

Build & Design

The HP Slate 500 packs a lot of hardware into its svelte 5.91 x 9.21 x 0.58 inch body, and it only weighs 1.5 pounds to boot. The unit is impressive with an Atom Z540 1.86 GHz CPU, 64 GB SSD, 2 GB of DDR2 RAM, front-facing VGA camera, rear-facing 3 megapixel camera and an 8.9-inch 1024 × 600 screen with an N-trig Duo Sense capacitive touch and digital pen digitizer. This combines to give the HP Slate 500 topline specs at a topline price compared to most consumer slates. The 500 is sealed with no user replaceable battery or other parts.

The device is physically attractive and the rubberized back with a distinctive textured repeated pyramidal design with the HP logo in the center allows for good gripping either lying on a surface or in one's hand, and the flat back allows the Slate to function well for inking on a desk.

The device is fanless and completely silent but still manages to keep cool most of the time. The back does get quite warm when the device is charging or being taxed, such as when playing HD video. It's not scalding, but it might make your hands sweat.

Ports, connections, buttons & accessories

The Slate has one USB port, a full SD slot, a combination headphone/microphone jack and a combined power/dock connector. There are five hardware buttons along three sides of the machine. On the right in the primary landscape orientation is the combination power and screen rotation lock switch that disables the accelerometer. At the top right is the home button that minimizes all open windows and when held down for several seconds turns off the display backlight. To the left is the Control-Alt-Delete button for domain security purposes. On the top left is a volume rocker and finally on the left side is a toggle button for the Windows Tablet Input Panel.

The dock is lightweight with a folding leg and provides two additional USB ports, a headphone/microphone jack, a power connector that's identical to the one on the HP Slate 500, and finally an HDMI output. The Slate pops in and out of the dock nicely.

The metal digital pen uses an AAAA battery and is very comfortable to hold but the battery cap at the top is a bit flimsy, I've already broken the plastic ring around the top but fortunately it hasn't interfered with the pen's function as far as I've noticed. As with most digital pens on tablet PCs, it has a right click button.

The leather portfolio is form fitted for the Slate and has cutouts for the cameras and a strap holder for the pen. It reeks of professionalism and is a wonderful touch to the package as the Slate 500 is a device many will want to take to professional settings such as meetings.

The total weight of the Slate, dock, AC adapter, portfolio and pen is 3 lbs. according to my postage scale, which is accurate to within two ounces.

Screen

The 8.9-inch screen is bright however, viewing angles are not very good in primary landscape mode. I've found that rotating the screen 180 degrees so that the HP logo is at the top provides better image quality especially for video when viewing the screen outside of 45 degrees.  As is common with slates, the screen is smooth and glossy and does produce glare, but I've not found it distracting in normal indoor lighting conditions though bright and direct sunlight will washout the screen. There is a good amount of backlight bleed around the edges of the screen. It's not typically a problem but it is noticeable with darker colors and blacks, especially during video playback in darker lighting conditions.

Performance

As the HP Slate 500 is essentially an Atom based netbook running Windows 7; it's simply not a speed demon. It has a Windows Experience Index of 2.7, with the 2.7 being the CPU rating, which is a bit higher than first-generation netbooks, and the 64 GB SSD does help to keep things humming along nicely for a netbook.

You'll find that common desktop applications like Office 2010 run wonderfully. Web browsing in IE 9 Beta overall is a solid experience with all of the Flash and other browser plug-ins you've become accustomed to in Windows.

That's not to say that web browsing on the Slate 500 is a super smooth experience in all cases. While most web sites run well, there are some that just don't. Some vertically-oriented sites will often stutter when scrolling, which can be frustrating particularly while using the touchscreen. On the flipside, pure Flash sites like Geforce.com run very well. Major sites like YouTube, Facebook, etc. all run fine. You'll have a blast updating your Facebook page with a pen!

Touch Interface

The N-trig Duo Sense digitizer also has a capacitive multi-touch part that supports four touch points. Touch is responsive and works well in most applications, but since Windows is a desktop OS, most of those applications will not have the beautiful and fluid visuals of the iPad. The tradeoff is that one will usually have more functionality with those programs.

The Office 2010 suite of applications are examples that do provide enough touch awareness to be completely functional via only touch, and Office will generally outpace mobile OS equivalents in features. But even in Office, there are still buttons and menus that were obviously not updated or designed with fingers in mind, and not all of the applications work equally well with touch, including PowerPoint and Publisher. You might have to use a little more care to do certain things but there is rarely something that can't be done via touch in most applications, even if it is not as fluid as it should be.

Video Performance

The Slate 500's video playback abilities are strong gratis Windows. I've used a variety of applications: Windows Media Player & Center, VLC and KMPlayer, and they all perform well, though VLC seemed to provide the smoothest 720p playback. 720p and even 1080p playback over 802.11n Wi-Fi is possible, though 1080p only worked in WMP and WMC as those applications use the Broadcom Crystal HD video decoder out of the box, though it is possible to get KM Player to as well.

modified from tabletpcreview.com

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0 Lenovo G560 Laptop Review

By Admin_AT | At 7:27 AM | Label : Lenovo | 0 Comments

Lenovo Essential G560  specifications:

15.6-inch 720p (1366x768) glossy panel with LED backlighting

Intel Core i3-330M dual-core processor (2.13GHz, 3MB L3 cache, 2.5GT/s QPI, 35W TDP)

Intel HM55 chipset

Integrated Intel HD graphics w/ shared video memory

4GB DDR3-1066 dual-channel RAM (2x 2GB)

320GB 5400RPM Western Digital hard drive (WD3200BEVT)

Broadcom 802.11n wireless LAN card

DVD burner (Optiarc DVD RW AD-7585H)

1-year limited warranty

6-cell Li-ion battery (11.1V, 48Wh)

Weight: 5.73 lbs.

Dimensions: 14.8” (L) x 9.8” (D) x 0.7~1.4” (H)

Our test unit has specifications appropriate for what it was designed for – basic use. The Core i3 processor and 4GB of RAM ensure smooth multitasking. Something this machine will not be able to do is play 3D games since it has integrated graphics.

Build and Design

The G560 has a modest-looking exterior with a few high-quality touches. The palm rest area is inlaid with brushed aluminum, which feels cool to the touch. The G560 is rather thin and light given its 15.6” screen, coming in at a shade under six pounds and about 1.3” thin. Despite its all-plastic construction the G560 has a solid feel. The palm rest and areas surrounding the keyboard have good support and do not flex, even under abnormal pressure. The plastic used in the construction has satisfactory quality; it is thick enough to not feel brittle yet not something I would classify as durable.

Unlike the chassis, the lid is covered in smooth glossy plastic, which attracts dust and fingerprints. This is a con – the glossy plastic gets messy quickly unless a microfiber cloth is kept handy at all times.  The build quality of the lid itself is average and not as good as the chassis. It flexes easily when twisted by the corners and I made ripples appear on the screen when I pushed in on the back. The G560’s overall build quality is satisfactory; my only real complaint is the glossy plastic used on the lid.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The G560 has a full-size keyboard with separate numeric keypad. The keyboard is one of the highlights of this notebook; it feels solid and is pleasing to type on. Even under significant pressure there is little flex. The keys are quite communicative thanks to the just-right travel (the distance between pressed and un-pressed positions) and moderate actuation force (the amount of pressure needed to depress a key); both of these factors help accuracy. The layout of the keyboard takes some getting used to. Lenovo was only able to fit in a number pad by squeezing the keys to half their normal size – this means a bit more precision is required to hit them.

The touchpad is the polar opposite of the notebook – that is, terrible. After reviewing several dozen notebooks, I can safely say this is the worst I have used. The positives first: the touchpad’s mildly-textured surface is a cinch to track on with moist or dry fingers. It is also appropriately-sized for a 15.6” screen. The negatives: its usability; only about half my intended clicks actually registered, which was quite frustrating. There are no dedicated touchpad buttons; this is a “clickpad”, where the entire surface can be pressed down anywhere (supposedly) to register a click. Pressing the very bottom-right simulates a right-click and everything else is left-click. I had to apply an abnormal amount of pressure to get any sorts of clicks to register, especially towards the edges and center. On top of all this, the clicks are loud.

When I use a touchpad I have one hand to click and one hand to track; this does not work with the G560’s touchpad. It gets confused when there are two fingers on it and works sporadically; I had to change the way I used a touchpad to work with the G560. All in all, the G560’s touchpad was aggravating; those planning to purchase this notebook should also invest in an external mouse.

Screen and Speakers

The G560 has a 15.6-inch screen with a 720p (1366x768) resolution and LED backlighting; this is the only available screen. While its glossy mirror surface helps colors stand out and improves sharpness, it also acts as a mirror, especially when there are light sources behind it. Cleaning is also difficult.

The picture quality of the display is passable at best; it has a low contrast ratio of 150:1 and lacks sharpness. Colors appear somewhat washed out. We measured brightness at 210nit at its peak, which is average for a notebook of this size. Side-to-side viewing angles are also average; colors start to shift about 40 degrees off-center. Vertical viewing angles are narrow; it is viewable about 20 degrees up or down off-center before serious color inversion.

The 1366x768 resolution is the number one problem with the display; it makes multitasking difficult and limits productivity in general. Only about one-half of a page in a Microsoft Word document is visible at a time; additionally, lots of scrolling is required in web pages since there are only 768 pixels of vertical space. Using two windows side-by-side is more or less impractical since only 1366 pixels span the horizontal.

Overall, the display is typical of a low-priced notebook; it is hard to find budget 15.6” notebooks with better. To get a better resolution than 1366x768 one needs to go with a business class notebook, and even then higher resolutions are a rarity.

The G560 has two stereo speakers above the keyboard. They actually sound respectable; tinny, yes, and without much bass however quite usable for casual listening; the sound is fuller than I expected. The touch-enabled volume buttons above the keyboard work well.

modified from notebookreview.com

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