Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in sarah willson's Blurty:

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Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
4:37 pm	Fujitsu Lifebook T5010 Tablet PC Today in LaptopLogic’s lab we have Fujitsu’s LifeBook T5010 VGP-BPS8. The T5010 is a tablet notebook sporting some pretty useful features, not least among them enough size and power to use the computer like a regular notebook. The Lifebook T5010 sports a modern Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 Sony VGP-BPS8 at 2.40GHz, 2GB DDR3 RAM, and a 160GB HDD. This muscle, in concert with the 13.3” LED backlit display, gives the computer enough firepower to make it more than “just” a tablet. On the flipside, the weight and the battery life aren’t quite up to snuff for ultraportables, and you’re paying a premium price for a tablet that tries to do it all. Case look and feel Fujitsu Sony VGP-BPS9 has designed this tablet with the business professional in mind, so the overarching design theme is your traditional black and boxy. The lid is black with a relatively muted Fujitsu logo at its center and a glossy black stripe at the top. The frame around the active digitizer display is dark grey, although on the sides the glassy black display is almost flush with the edges. On the top of the display is a silver enclosure for the webcam and display latch, while on the bottom you will find a few dull grey buttons and a small blue power switch. The bidirectional swivel hinge shines metallically at you from beneath a white Fujistu Sony VGP-BPS9/B logo, and is surrounded by the last bit of dark grey before we hit the all white keyboard and wristrest. The touchpad is nestled just left of center and sports silver dots on the right denoting the scroll wheel. There are lusterless grey rubber strips on either side of the keyboard and a few blue status indicators at its base, which are the only things to mar the minimalistic white design aside from the handful of customary stickers. For some reason, the Bluetooth sticker is on its own on the left side – it would have been nice to have one side free of the unattractive advertisements.Sony VGP-BPS9/S battery Size & Weight The LifeBook T5010 Sony VGP-BPS9A/B is a little large and heavy for an ultraportable and a little light and small for a standard laptop – which, in my opinion, puts it at the sweet spot for portability and usefulness. The display is 13.3-inches, and the overall laptop dimensions are 12.56 x 9.61 x 1.44-1.52 inches. The weight is between 4.5-4.9 lbs, depending on whether you are using the optical drive (we are) or the space saver. It was thick enough to feel sturdy and light enough to lift with one hand, although of course we always recommend handling laptops with two hands. We personally had no problem carrying it on our shoulder for over a mile as we walked around town on a summer day.latitude d630 battery Keyboard & Mouse The keyboard is full sized and surprisingly comfortable to type on for a laptop lenovo t61 battery of this size, featuring a reasonably spacious 19mm pitch. There is no flex in the keyboard and the key stroke, while it’s no ThinkPad, is still decent. The standard keys are all full sized, although predictably the non standard keys such as Fn and pg up/pg dn are a little shrunken. The only annoying part in all of this was that home/end are now functions on the pg up/pg dn buttons, causing me much frustration as these are keys I use all the time and hitting that tiny Fn button isn’t easy while touch-typing. The touchpad was a decent size and the buttons and scroll wheel were easy to use and responsive. Both the keyboard and the touchpad buttons were a little loud, but nothing intolerable.thinkpad t60 battery Display Quality The 1280x800 resolution is nothing to write home about, but it’s not that bad for a tablet, and the roomy 13.3” screen keeps viewing easy on the eyes. Also helping that case is the excellent overall quality of the glossy display, which was bright and sharp, although there was still some glare when viewed outdoors (for those who really want to avoid that, Fujitsu lenovo t60 battery offers an indoor/outdoor display upgrade for $50). As might be expected from a tablet, the viewing angles on the display are excellent all the way around, only dimming slightly at extremes. Connectivity The T5010 dell inspiron 1525 battery has enough ports to get you by, but nothing too exceptional. There is no HDMI and ours did not come with WWAN, though you can upgrade to that if you need to. Making spacious use of the entire rear housing, the back of the laptop inspiron 1501 battery from left to right has a USB port, an Ethernet jack, a hidden VGA port beneath a protective casing, another USB port, the modem jack and a lock slot. The left side features the power jack, the fan exhaust, audio in/out, the third and final USB port, and FireWire, followed by a card reader tucked beneath the slightly antiquated PC Card slot. There is also a slot for the stylus here.xps m1330 battery The front features a place to grab the stylus from to get it out from the left side slot, but not much else. The right side has another lock slot and the optical drive. Upgrading Fujistu inspiron e1505 battery gives you a few options if you’d like to upgrade your LifeBook. If a power saving P-series CPU isn’t powerful enough for you, the laptop can sport up to a 2.8GHz T9600. It can handle up to 4GB DDR3 RAM and the hard drive can be upgraded to as much as 250GB, or you can opt for the 64GB SSD. It comes standard with a dual layer multi-format DVD writer, but you can shave a few bucks as well as ounces by ordering one with no optical drive at all, or alternatively you can raise the price by simply replacing it with a modular 6-cell 3800mAh battery bay. There is also an option to go with an indoor/outdoor display for those who plan on using the tablet frequently while outside. Features The LifeBook T5010 inspiron e1405 battery is a tablet first and a laptop second, thus the most interesting features revolve around the tablet functionality. The touchscreen display has an active digitizer, ensuring that it will only respond to the Wacom stylus. The stylus comes with a right click button and an “eraser” on the back, allowing the user to simply flip the pen over and erase errant text. There are also programmable Pen Flicks, allowing one to flick the pen in any of eight directions to perform a shortcut function like forward/back or copy/paste. Handwriting recognition was good to start, and can be easily trained to your individual penmanship. The hinge is sturdy and bidirectional, allowing swiveling 180 degrees in either direction, and the latch can be rotated to secure the display in tablet mode as well as laptop mode. There is a button to change from portrait to landscape mode in just 2 seconds as well as several other programmable function buttons on the tablet screen. A sensitive “Scroll Sensor” for scrolling and a fingerprint reader can be found along the base.fujitsu lifebook t4220 battery As for more standard laptop features, the LifeBook Dell GD761 comes with dual microphones, an integrated webcam, 802.11n WiFi, and Bluetooth. There is also a dual layer DVD writer, which is something you don’t often see in a tablet notebook. The optical drive slot is modular, so you can also replace it with an extra battery or with a weight saver as described above. Performance The LifeBook T5010 fujitsu lifebook t5010 battery is strong enough to be used as a standard notebook as well as a tablet, but it still sports a mere 2GB RAM and an integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics card, so our expectations were tempered. We expected it to form adequately for normal tasks but to be nothing exceptional. For a full explanation of how we test our laptops. Windows Vista Experience Score Overall 3.8 Processor 5.3 Memory 5.9 Graphics 4.1 Gaming Graphics 3.8 Primary Hard Disk 5.4 Surprisingly, the RAM gets a strong rating here – must be the DDR3 – as does the HDD. Unsurprisingly, the graphics drags the overall rating down to a 3.8 in the end. PCMark Vantage Pro Lenovo ThinkPad T400 3746 Toshiba Tecra R10 3546 Fujitsu Lifebook T5010 3329 HP Pavilion HDX16 3320 Lenovo ThinkPad X301 3308 Sony VAIO FW270j 3235 The T5010 posts a fairly strong PCMark rating overall, edging just ahead of the multimedia-centric HDX16 and business-oriented X301. WorldBench 6 Toshiba Tecra R10 98 Lenovo ThinkPad T400 91 Toshiba Satellite E105 83 HP Pavilion HDX16 80 Fujitsu Lifebook T5010 77 Sony VAIO FW270j 74 The LifeBook fares slightly worse in relative Worldbench standings, although a score of 77 is still acceptable for day to day tasks. Battery Performance – Regular Use Runtime in minutes Lenovo ThinkPad T400 334 Lenovo ThinkPad X301 235 Toshiba Tecra R10 230 Fujitsu Lifebook T5010 183 Sony VAIO FW270j 181 HP Pavilion HDX16 156 The T5010 just managed to sneak over 3 hours of regular use in our testing, which wouldn’t be bad if it were a multimedia clunker like the FW270j or the HDX16, but is a bit low for a portable unit. Battery Performance – DVD Playback Runtime in minutes Dell Studio 1537 206 Fujitsu Lifebook T5010 152 Lenovo ThinkPad X301 117 Toshiba Tecra R10 113 Sony VAIO FW270j 101 HP Pavilion HDX16 80 Fujitsu’s tablet managed to notch a high percentage of its general use time for DVD playback, easily lasting through a whole film and then some. Real-life usage The notebook wasn’t especially quiet when the fan kicked in, but it didn’t bother us overly much. Heat managed a similar impression, with an average amount of heat being generated (focused on the left side of the keyboard), which was noticeable but not problematic. The laptop felt comfortable on our lap and was easy to carry around. We’re were also glad of the full sized keyboard in a portable machine, and in tablet mode were very impressed with the sturdy hinge, excellent stylus tracking and accurate handwriting recognition. Conclusion Overall, the Fujitsu LifeBook T5010 is an adequate notebook and an excellent tablet, all rolled up into one expensive package. The Intel Core 2 Duo P8600, 2GB DDR3 RAM and 160GB HDD will serve well for everyday tasks and, despite the integrated GPU, probably some casual gaming as well. In tablet mode, the Wacom stylus is responsive and there are enough tablet-friendly features to make its use convenient. The overall size and weight strike a balance between portability and productivity, with a 13.3” display and a weight of 4.5-4.9lbs. Unfortunately, the battery life is nothing exceptional and the price is fairly high, but in return you are getting a tablet that can comfortably be your regular laptop as well. On the whole, the T5010 tries to meet a lot of different needs and, in our opinion, does a better job than most at playing a “jack of all trades.” If you’re in the market for a tablet, we heartily recommend this laptop. (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
9:03 pm	Lenovo G530 Review Lenovo inspiron e1405 battery offers three lines of notebooks VGP-BPS8; the ThinkPad, IdeaPad, and the not-so-frequently-mentioned "Value line" series. The Value line currently only includes the G530, a 15.4” notebook offering either an Intel Pentium dual-core or Core 2 Duo processor and Intel integrated graphics. With a starting price of $429, is the Lenovo G530 Sony VGP-BPS8 value notebook worth considering? Read our full review to find out. Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3400 (2.16GHz, 1MB L2 cache, 667MHz FSB) Microsoft Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (w/ SP1) 15.4-inch glossy 16:10 display (1280x800) Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD 3GB DDR2 667MHz RAM 250GB 5400RPM HDD SuperMulti DVD+/-RW Optical Drive Broadcom WiFi (802.11b/g), 10/100 Ethernet, Modem 6-Cell 11.1V 53WHr Battery Limited 1-year standard parts and labor warranty Dimensions: 14.1 x 10.1 x 1.45 Weight: 5lbs 13.9oz Price as configured: $499 Build and Design The design of the Lenovo G530 Sony VGP-BPS9 is simple yet stylish, having a black MacBook-ish appearance when the notebook is closed. The edges are rounded off and the lid has a matte black finish that is smooth to the touch. The interior of the notebook shares the same color as the lid, but is textured with a rougher matte finish similar to what you would find on unpainted sections of a ThinkPad. Lenovo took the back-to-basics route with the color scheme on this notebook, making it entirely black inside and out. The chassis is constructed entirely of plastic, but where most budget notebooks might feel flexible or flimsy, the G530feels like a solid block of sturdy material. When talking about the palm rest on most notebooks, including ThinkPads, notebooks with good support still show some flex under a very strong grip. Somehow squeezing the palm rests on the G530 latitude d630 battery feels like you are trying to squeeze a rock. Other areas of the notebook share the same toughness, including the keyboard and surrounding trim. To upgrade components the G530has easy access panels to the memory and CPU, wireless card, and hard drive on the bottom of the notebook. No components, including the processor, had “warranty void if removed” stickers, making it very easy to handle upgrades or repairs in the future. Display The 15.4” LCD is above average compared to most 15.4-16” notebooks lenovo t61 battery thinkpad t60 battery, with bright and vibrant colors and decent viewing angles. The panel used is an older 16:10 1280x800 panel, instead of the newer 16:9 1366x768 versions we see in most notebooks today. The screen offers a glossy surface, which helps improve colors and contrast at the cost of added reflections and glare. Compared to “frameless” displays the reflections were tolerable as long as you were not outside under direct sunlight. Screen brightness was adequate for viewing in bright office conditions, but might not cut it outside unless it is an overcast day. Vertical viewing angles were adequate with a broad viewing sweet spot measuring 30 degrees forward or back before colors started to wash out or invert. Horizontal view angles were much better, showing no color distortion at steep angles.lenovo t60 battery Keyboard and Touchpad The keyboard is easy to type on, sharing the same comfortable and durable feel as my ThinkPad T60 lenovo t60 battery keyboard and only differing in layout. Individual key action is smooth with no audible click when pressed. The keys are textured with a smooth matte finish, giving decent traction for typing ... unlike the glossy keyboards we are seeing on a greater number of notebooks these days. Keyboard support is excellent, with no hint of flex under strong typing pressure. Media-related keys are limited to touch-sensitive mute and volume up/down buttons located above the keyboard. The G530 dell inspiron 1525 battery inspiron 1501 battery uses a Synaptics touchpad that has good sensitivity and no discernable lag during use. The surface texture is a smooth matte finish that is easy to slide a finger across even when moist. The touchpad buttons are large and positioned directly under the touchpad. I found them easy to trigger, needing only light pressure to activate. Feedback from the buttons was minimal, giving off only a sharp click when pressed. If you prefer to disable the touchpad, the keyboard has a function key that will disable it and light a blue LED in-between the touchpad buttons.xps m1330 battery Ports and Features Port selection is limited compared to other full-size notebooks inspiron e1505 battery, offering only four USB ports, VGA-out, and audio jacks. eSATA and HDMI would have been greatly appreciated, but we understand that sometimes in order to cut costs some things have to be sacrificed. Speakers and Audio The onboard speakers are fine for occasionally playing music or watching video, but they were fairly unimpressive as far as notebook inspiron e1405 battery speakers go. Bass and midrange were lacking, but given the low-cost nature of this notebook fujitsu lifebook t4220 battery it was expected. Peak volume levels were fine for a small room, but for the best possible audio quality a pair of headphones connected through the audio jack is the best option.fujitsu lifebook t5010 battery Performance and Benchmarks System performance of the G530 Dell GD761 was good considering it was equipped with an Intel Pentium T3400 dual-core processor instead of a Core 2 Duo like most of the budget models we review. Graphics are limited to integrated only, with the Intel X4500 chipset used in this notebook. While it can’t handle the latest games, it easily copes with standard applications such as Microsoft Word, Firefox, iTunes, and other media applications. It can also handle playing HD movies, but with only VGA out, external video connections are limited. Overall for basic small business or student use this notebook would work just fine. (Comment on this)
Friday, January 1st, 2010
1:55 pm	Toshiba U505-S2980 Gets in Touch With Multitouch The Toshiba U505-S2980's VGP-BPS8 main gimmick is a multitouch touchscreen. Outside of that, it is, for the most part, a decent laptop, even above average in many ways. But that one gimmick is the root of my issues with this 13-inch notebook--and helps raise its cost to a somewhat pricey $1050 (as of 11/24/09). Because the panel is a touchscreen, the U505-S2980 Sony VGP-BPS8 suffers from grainy picture quality. This exacerbates a more basic problem of the screen just being dim. Viewing angles and backlighting are all right--the hinge actually sets the screen to the perfect angle when the unit is fully open--but the screen is really not bright enough. What you wind up with is a display that's made too many compromises for an idea that just doesn't work in practice. (In all fairness the touchscreen variant of the Lenovo ThinkPad T400s and the Dell Latitude TX2 VGP-BPS9 were also a little dim--it's not something unique to Toshiba). I suspect Toshiba Sony VGP-BPS9/B wants you to use the touchscreen more than anything else, but I'm just not sold. The 13-inch screen runs at a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels, far too fine for a proper touch interface without a stylus. Sure, you can up the font size, but it grossly reduces usable space on an already cramped resolution. Multitouch also seems silly, given how awkward it is to reach forward and manipulate the bundled multitouch application when the notebook is upright. That bundled app--software for posting notes and images like a blackboard--is in itself quite cute, but hardly practical. That said, with the touchscreen, it's a breeze to zoom in and out of images or Websites. And if you want to do some on-screen doodling in something like Photoshop, you can.Sony VGP-BPS9/S battery If the screen is problematic, the good news is that the mousing touchpad is pretty stellar (though a bit small), offering up multitouch capability, too. So if the using the display via touch turns you off, at least you have a reliable alternative. Now if Toshiba Sony VGP-BPS9A/B could just get the keyboard part down. The glossy, flat-surfaced, backlit keyboard is a pain. The cheap plastic used for it squeaks and squeals when you slide your fingertips across it, and it's just not comfortable to use. But the touch-sensitive buttons above the keyboard are nice, and the visual styling with the white LED backlighting is really beautiful and a welcome change from the world of blue LEDs elsewhere in the market. Another user might find the keyboard style to their liking, but to me it remains a gaudy reminder of Toshiba's over-glossed yesteryear. The performance of the U505 latitude d630 battery is pretty reasonable--though it's hardly a speed demon--but the now-standard 4GB of DDR2 comes coupled with a meaty 500GB hard drive, which is virtually top of the line for capacity in modern notebook drives. The 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor isn't going to win any awards, but backed with 4GB of DDR2 RAM and that big hard drive, it scores an 87 in WorldBench 6. That's more than adequate for general use. The Intel integrated graphics preclude any real gaming performance, but high-definition media playback worked very well, with no stutters or hiccups. The trade-off for that performance is reduced battery lenovo t61 battery life--you get 3.5 hours if you're lucky. The average for an all-purpose machine is about 4 hours, 14 minutes.thinkpad t60 battery The speakers on the body below the screen fare at least a little better. Though still tinny as notebook lenovo t60 battery speakers are wont to be, they at least make some effort made to produce at the low end, and you get plenty of volume. At 60 percent volume the speakers are plenty loud enough for either video or music.dell inspiron 1525 battery,inspiron 1501 battery I find myself quite liking the overall look of the unit, even though it is a little bulbous for a 13-inch laptop xps m1330 battery , inspiron e1505 battery,(it measures 12.5- by 9.1- by 1.5-inches and weighs 4.7 pounds). A pleasing texture to the lid and the inside (similar to what we saw on the NB205 line) give a modern, toughened style and a comfortable texture for the palm rest. The U505-S2980 is very firm, with no creaks or flexing in the chassis. Port selection is excellent, with three USB ports (one of which is a combo e-SATA port), along with VGA- and HDMI-video outputs, speaker and mic jacks, gigabit ethernet, and even an olde-tyme modem port. You'll also find an ExpressCard slot, plus an SD/MMC card reader on the front. These connections are very nicely placed, too, with two of the USB ports near the front. And finally, hats off to employing a slot-loading DVD drive instead of the flimsy tray-loading ones more commonly found in laptops.inspiron e1405 battery Though I find a lot to like about the U505, it's ironic that the main selling point is also what's holding this laptop back--the touchscreen. A user's experience with a notebook is often going to depend chiefly on the keyboard and the screen--the two most direct ways of interacting with it. You can fit all the hardware you want under the hood, but if these two don't hold up their end of the bargain, people aren't going to want to use it. The touchscreen is a cute gimmick whose poor visual quality unfortunately brings the whole thing down a peg.fujitsu lifebook t4220 battery,fujitsu lifebook t5010 battery (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
10:51 am	Dell Inspiron 14z Review Dell Sony VGP-BPS8 spent most of 2009 making their laptops as thin and light as possible. Dell even went as far as adding a "z" to the names of the thinnest and lightest notebooks that offer the best battery VGP-BPS8 life in each category. To that end, the Inspiron 14z offers consumers a laptop that promises "66% better battery Sony VGP-BPS9 life" for a modest price increase. Is the Inspiron 14z as impressive as it sounds? Keep reading to find out. Dell Inspiron 14z (Cherry Red) Specifications: Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CULV SU7300 (1.3GHz, 800MHz, 3MB) OS: Windows 7 Premium (64-bit) Memory: 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz  Storage: 250GB 5400rpm HDD Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD Display: 14.0” HD (1366x768) WLED Display and webcam Optical Drive: 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD/-RW/R) with Dual-Layer  Wireless: Intel Wireless 5100n  Battery: 6-cell Lithium Ion battery (48.8 WHr) Dimensions: 1.0"-1.5" x 13.3" x 9.4" (H x W x D) Weight: 4 lbs, 9.9 oz  Build and Design Sony VGP-BPS9/B The design of the Inspiron 14z looks virtually identical to the Inspiron 14. The chief differences here are that the Inspiron 14z uses an Intel CULV processor, 6-cell battery and WLED display ... all of which are intended to extend battery life. At first glance, the Inspiron 14z looks like an average budget notebook with a 14-inch display. The plastic construction, average screen resolution, and lack of a backlit keyboard certainly don't give this laptop the same premium look and feel as the Dell Sony VGP-BPS9/S battery Studio 14z. The Inspiron 14z feels pretty durable despite the fact that the notebook Sony VGP-BPS9A/B chassis is constructed from relatively thin plastics. The only areas that suffered from flex were just above the keyboard next to the battery and the back of the display lid. If you press on the lid with your fingers you will create screen distortions, and you'll hear some minor plastic creaking if you press down next to the battery. There is some minimal flex on the top of the right palmrest next to the optical drive, but you have to press pretty hard to make that happen When closed the Inspiron 14z looks thin compared to budget laptops from several years ago, but the weight of the 6-cell battery latitude d630 battery makes this system a bit too heavy to quality for the "thin and light" category today. The "Cherry Red" screen lid gives the Inspiron a nice candy-covered look, but Dell charges a $40 premium for the privilege of selecting red instead of black. Usually I don't complain about that type of surcharge from the Dell Design Studio which offers your choice of more than 100 different designs by various artisits, but charging $40 to stick a chuck of red plastic on a notebook is a little excessive. The bottom of the notebook features the battery lenovo t61 battery and access plates for the hard drive and RAM. There isn't much to talk about here other than to briefly mention the location of the two speakers on the bottom of the front edge (more on that later). Screen and Speakers The 14-inch high-definition (1366 x 768) panel on the Dell Inspiron thinkpad t60 battery 14z isn't quite as nice as the vibrant 1600 x 900 screen used on our review unit of the Studio 14z. The colors on this screen are generally good but contrast wasn't as impressive. The WLED backlighting in our review unit is pretty even and offers a range of brightness settings. Yes, it is a 16:9 screen ratio, but that's the new standard ... we all have to live with it. Horizontal viewing angles are extremely good, so you won't have any trouble sharing a movie with the person sitting next to you on a plane. Vertical viewing angles are average or below average with colors quickly washing out when viewed from above and colors begining to distort and invert as you move the screen back.lenovo t60 battery  I was pretty impressed with the stereo speakers on the Dell dell inspiron 1525 battery Studio 14z, but I can't say much in favor of the speakers on the Inspiron 14z. The stereo speakers produce average sound quality and are located beneath the front edge of the notebook palmrests firing downward at your lap. I usually call this type of audio "crotch speakers" because the speakers aren't pointed up toward the user. If you're using the Inspiron 14z on a desk then the audio from the speakers "bounces" off the hard desk surface and it sounds okay, but if you're using this PC as a "laptop"inspiron 1501 battery then the sound is going to be muffled. Bottom line, the speakers aren't horrible ... but the location isn't helping matters. You'll probably want to use a good set of headphones with this notebook, and the headphone jack produces clear, distortion-free sound. Keyboard and Touchpad The keyboard on our review unit has full-sized keys with acceptable key spacing and an excellent depth to the key throw. Each key has a textured black finish and a relatively flat surface. The keyboard is extremely firm so you won't have to worry about keyboard flex while typing. There is a hint of flex in the keys on the right side of the keyboard directly above the optical drive, but you have to press down very hard to create flex in this area. My only minor aggravation is that the keyboard isn't available with optional backlighting ... making it harder to type in a dark classroom or dorm room.xps m1330 battery The multi-touch, gesture-based touchpad is pretty average for a 14-inch notebook and the dual touchpad buttons have deep feedback with quiet clicks. The touchpad itself is an Synaptics model that uses Dell inspiron e1505 battery inspiron e1405 battery proprietary touchpad drivers, though I found the standard Synaptics drivers work as well. The touchpad was reasonably responsive with good sensitivity and very little lag. Touchpad accuracy was a bit off at times, but that may be correctable by tweaking the drivers. Ports and Features The port selection on the Inspiron 14z is retty average for a budget 14-inch notebook fujitsu lifebook t4220 battery,fujitsu lifebook t5010 battery with one or two exceptions. Dell included three USB ports, VGA and HDMI video out ports, Ethernet, and a multi-format memory card reader. Unlike the Studio 14z, which sacrifices an optical drive for the sake of portability, the Inspiron 14z includes a standard 8x CD/DVD burner with dual-layer support. The Inspiron 14z lacks an ExpressCard slot, FireWire, and eSATA, so if those ports are important to you then you'll need to look elsewhere. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
10:54 am	IBM Lotus Symphony 1.3 Review IBM Sony VGP-BPS8 Lotus Symphony is Big Blue's free alternative to MS Office. Can Symphony win a battle of the bands with Microsoft's productivity heavyweight, or does it ring hollow? We sound it out in this review. Symphony is a forward-thinking and relatively full-featured productivity suite, but it lacks polish in some key areas. It's solid, but I wouldn't pay for it; luckily, it's free. This clunkiness starts with the download process, which involves over a half-dozen screens, requires the creation of an IBM ID Sony VGP-BPS9, tries to opt you into affiliate e-mail newsletters, and insists the user actively decide between using IBM's Java-based downloader or a regular browser HTTP download. It's that needless lack of user-friendliness that mars an otherwise great app suite. IBM Lotus Sony VGP-BPS9A/B Symphony gets high marks for supporting multiple operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, and multiple flavors of Linux. It loses marks for its format support, in that it can open multiple file types but can really only save to to handful - notably excluding MS Office 2007 file save options. Interface and Usability Symphony shares some ancestry with OpenOffice -- it's based on OpenOffice 1.1.4 source code -- but the two products diverged several iterations ago. Like most office suites, Symphony includes a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program, but it integrates them in a somewhat unusual fashion. Lotus Symphony 1.3 looks and feels like a recent generation Web browser - in fact, it has a somewhat feature-crippled Web browser built in - in that it employs a tabbed interface for its applications.Sony VGP-BPS9/S battery Essentially, Symphony lets you open a new spreadsheet, presentation, or document just like you'd open a new tab in Google Chrome or Firefox. Each of these tabs shares a standard menu layout, which means commands don't move around like they do in the current MS Office ribbon interface. When you open a specific tool set, it often generates a sidebar or menu-bar that stays onscreen until you close it. This is handy, but opening too many sidebars can crowd out the actual document.Sony VGP-BPS9/B The tab system also has the advantage of letting you toggle between multiple docs and sheets easily, though I recommend not doing the same with the extremely poor built-in browser. Web connectivity is nonetheless quite essential to Symphony, even though it's conventional software and not a Web app. An online user wiki is your best source of help information, and you can link directly to document templates, plug-ins and widgets from the Symphony Web site.Dell latitude d630 battery Widgets are somewhat like Google Gadgets crossed with MS Office Macros, in that they can analyze data in your documents and process them in the sidebar. For example, you could write a widget that reformatted addresses on the fly. They're a good idea in principle, but I had trouble finding a practical application for them.lenovo t61 battery, lenovo r61 battery,lenovo r60 battery,lenovo t60 battery Lotus Symphony Documents Lotus Symphony presents a document interface very similar to a MS Word 2003, though there are just enough quirks to give Word power users pause. For example, Symphony has a very solid spellchecker but no grammar-checker or thesaurus. Robust functions that aren't found in most Web-based apps - like mail merge - are present and usable, though not spectacular.dell inspiron e1505 battery, dell inspiron 1501 battery My personal acid test for word processors is the ability to use the find/replace function to making formatting changes. Like OpenOffice, Symphony honors a list of regular expressions that let you create complex find/replace command strings. While I could accomplish most of the same power-tricks that I regularly use in Word, Symphony made me jump through more arcane hoops to get there. Symphony passed my personal hurdle, but it didn't exactly leap over it.dell xps m1330 battery Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets As I do with every new spreadsheet, I threw the most complicate, graphics-laden, macro-and-formula-infested file I could find at it to see how it held up. Despite warning of conversion errors, Symphony handled the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition multipage autocompleting character sheet with ease. No obvious function breakdowns or layout problems occurred.dell inspiron 1525 battery When we used Symphony to create basic spreadsheets, all the standard formulary functions were present, and in fact the sidebar system proved useful in dealing with multiple commands at once. What isn't present are the SQL database hook-ins and pivot tables that MS Excel power users may depend on for heavy data-crunching. Symphony is a solid spreadsheet handler, but don't expect it to displace Excel for your custom uses.fujitsu lifebook t4220 battery Lotus Symphony Presentations Symphony was decidedly schizophrenic when it came to presentations. It failed to properly convert our sample PowerPoint 2007 document, breaking some layers and graphs. That said, Symphony offered almost too many customization options when it came to building spreadsheets. A hefty clip-art library, multiple transitions, and 3D object generators were almost dizzying in their possibilities. For once, I think MS Office power users will; be comfortable with an alternate app, as there was little that PowerPoint can do (aside from Sharepoint hook-ins) that Symphony couldn't Except, of course, competently handle PowerPoint 2007 slideshows.fujitsu lifebook t5010 battery Conclusion IBM Lotus Symphony is the ignored stepbrother of OpenOffice, in that both are free, traditional software alternatives to MS Office, but that OpenOffice is the one that has been embraced by the open source community. As such, it is OpenOffice that has the final shine and polish -- and template and extension support -- that Symphony lacks. Using Symphony is hardly a bad choice -- especially given the price tag -- but there's nothing Symphony does that OpenOffice doesn't do better. In the end, that's the worst criticism I can offer. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
6:29 pm	Apple 15-inch MacBook Pro (mid 2009) User Review Apple updated its line of Macbooks sony vgp-bps9 and Macbook Pros on the 8th of June 2009 with faster processors, SD card slots, increased battery life, and improved displays. This review looks at the standard top end 15-inch Macbook Pro purchased in the United Kingdom (model number MB986B/A), how it performs compared to other computers and Macbooks, and the advantages and disadvantages of these new changes. The standard top end Macbook Pro sony vgp-bps8 has the following hardware specifications: CPU: Intel T9600 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo (6MB cache, 1066MHz FSB) Memory: 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM (1066MHz) GPU: nVidia Geforce 9600M GT with 512MB GDDR3 SDRAM (dedicated) AND nVidia Geforce 9400M with 256MB DDR3 SDRAM (shared) Display: 15.4” glossy LED-backlit TFT active-matrix (1440x900) HDD: Hitachi 500GB 5400rpm SATA II Battery: Integrated 73 W/Hr Lithium Polymer battery (up to 7 hours) Optical Drive: 8x DL slot-loading “SuperDrive” (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) Keyboard: Full size backlit keyboard (UK) Mouse: Multi-touch trackpad Case: Aluminium unibody case with catch-less magnetic latch Ports: Gigabit Ethernet port; FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps); Mini DisplayPort (up to 2560x1600); 2xUSB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps); SD card slot; Audio line in; Audio line out (Intel HD Audio); Kensington Lock slot Wi-Fi: AirPort Extreme (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n) Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Webcam: built-in iSight webcam Dimensions: 0.95in x 14.35in x 9.82in (2.41cm x 36.4cm x 24.9cm) Weight: 5.5lbs (2.49kg) OS: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Warranty: 1-year worldwide AppleCare Build and Design Since their introduction in October 2008, the unibody Macbook Pros have been manufactured from one single sheet of aluminium. Apple sony vgp-bps9a/b has improved on this design with the latest Macbook Pros, by removing the battery panel from the underside of the laptop. This results in a perfectly smooth finish on the bottom of the Macbook, but at the same time removes the ability for the user to remove the battery sony vgp-bps9/s battery. Build and Design Since their introduction in October 2008, the unibody Macbook Pros have been manufactured from one single sheet of aluminium. Apple has improved on this design with the latest Macbook Pros, by removing the battery panel from the underside of the laptop. This results in a perfectly smooth finish on the bottom of the Macbook, but at the same time removes the ability for the user to remove the battery sony vgp-bps9/b battery. Manufacturing the entire laptop from one single sheet of aluminium results in a rigid chassis void of joins. This means that there is less chance of fractures or breaks developing on the case. Also, given the properties of aluminium, the laptop is very unlikely to crack or break. However, aluminium is a relatively soft metal, so it might deform should heavy pressures be applied to it, such as physically sitting on the laptop Dell latitude d630 battery. Aluminium is also a conductive material, so the heat is spread through the entire computer, providing more effective cooling, but also making the entire computer mildly warm to the touch after long periods of intensive processing. This is especially noticeable when running Windows Of course, the Macbook Pro display still falls short when compared to a stand-alone MVA, PVA, or IPS display. But for a laptop, it is definitely one of the best in the market to date. One particularly nifty feature of the Macbook Pro is how it adjusts the brightness of the display depending on the brightness of the environment. This feature has been available in Macbooks since Apple lenovo t61 battery released the unibody models, and can be turned off in the System Preferences. The speakers in the Macbook Pros, like speakers in most notebook models, haven’t improved much over the years. They are louder than their 13” counterparts, but a pair of decent stereo headphones or dedicated speakers will sound much better. Keyboard and Touchpad The 15” Macbook Pro has a full size backlit Chiclet keyboard. I personally greatly enjoy the Chiclet design, and find it very easy and quiet to type on. Of course, the Macbook Pro display still falls short when compared to a stand-alone MVA, PVA, or IPS display. But for a laptop, it is definitely one of the best in the market to date. One particularly nifty feature of the Macbook Pro lenovo r61 battery is how it adjusts the brightness of the display depending on the brightness of the environment. This feature has been available in Macbooks since Apple released the unibody models, and can be turned off in the System Preferences. The speakers in the Macbook Pros, like speakers in most notebook models, haven’t improved much over the years. They are louder than their 13” counterparts, but a pair of decent stereo headphones or dedicated speakers will sound much better. Keyboard and Touchpad The 15” Macbook Pro lenovo r60 battery has a full size backlit Chiclet keyboard. I personally greatly enjoy the Chiclet design, and find it very easy and quiet to type on. Having been a user of Apple keyboards for several years, I have overcome all the initial difficulties I had when I first switched. But, some users might need to get used to the narrower “Return” or “Enter” key, as well as the lack of a dedicated forwards delete key. However, once new users realise that the Command key should be pressed with the thumb instead of their little finger, they should have no difficulties in adjusting to the Macbook lenovo t60 battery Pro’s keyboard. The backlighting on the keyboard is activated automatically in low light conditions, illuminating the entire keyboard. Just like the automatic adjusting of the display’s backlight, the automatic illuminating of the keyboard can be disabled in System Preferences, and the brightness of the illumination can be adjusted with the keyboard on the fly. Having been a user of Apple keyboards for several years, I have overcome all the initial difficulties I had when I first switched. But, some users might need to get used to the narrower “Return” or “Enter” key, as well as the lack of a dedicated forwards delete key. However, once new users realise that the Command key should be pressed with the thumb instead of their little finger, they should have no difficulties in adjusting to the Macbook Pro’s keyboard. The backlighting on the keyboard is activated automatically in low light conditions, illuminating the entire keyboard. Just like the automatic adjusting of the display’s backlight, the automatic illuminating of the keyboard can be disabled in System Preferences, and the brightness of the illumination can be adjusted with the keyboard on the fly. The multi touch trackpad on the 15” Macbook Pro has no physical buttons. This is because the bottom part of the trackpad can be pushed down, acting like a physical button. This design, which was introduced with the unibody Macbooks dell inspiron e1505 battery, has received mixed feelings from users, some praising it while others find it impossible to use. I personally find it not too different from the conventional trackpad with physical buttons, and think it is a very good way of achieving the aesthetically pleasing design without compromising on functionality. In terms of performance, the trackpad works flawlessly in Mac OS X. There is also an array of options for performing a right click, from tapping the trackpad with two fingers, to physically pressing down on different areas of the trackpad. dell inspiron 1501 battery In Microsoft Windows however, it is a totally different story. The default Boot Camp drivers offer very limited configurations and customisations for the trackpad, and the sensitivity of the trackpad is slightly oversensitive, making it flimsy to operate. This issue might be fixed with the release of Snow Leopard and new Boot Camp drivers, but in the meantime, I can only recommend users to get an external two-button mouse for use in Windows. Heat and Noise The Macbook Pro dell xps m1330 battery has excellent temperature management in OS X. It will remain silent almost all the time, and will cool down rapidly once idling. It is a very different story in Windows however, where the laptop runs noticeably warmer even when idling, and it takes longer to cool down. Still, the two fans in the Macbook Pro are very quiet, as is the default 500GB Hitachi hard drive. Apple has included a SD card slot in their Macbook dell inspiron 1525 battery models. This is very welcoming for users who have been requesting the feature for many years, but the slot is not multi-purpose and only supports full size SD cards. On the 15” Macbook Pro models, Apple has removed the Expresscard slot. This has infuriated many users who rely on Expresscard devices for expansion. The Firewire port on the Macbook models have also been changed from Firewire 400 to Firewire 800. The increase in speed is a welcome change, but the Firewire 800 port is not directly backwards compatible with Firewire 400 devices. An additional converter is required to connect Firewire 400 devices to a Firewire 800 port, and this has received strong criticism from many users. The Mini DisplayPort port on the Macbook Pro fujitsu lifebook t4220 battery supports external displays up to 2560x1600. This means that it is possible to connect the 30” Apple Cinema Display to the Macbook Pro and run it at full resolution. However, Mini DisplayPort is licensed by Apple, and therefore requires an additional adaptor to convert it to other more mainstream display connectors, such as VGA, DVI, and HDMI. All Macbooks and Macbook Pros have slot loading optical drives, meaning that mini-discs cannot be used on the Macbooks as they will become stuck in the drive. The battery indicator at the side of the laptop is an entertaining feature, although its usefulness is rather limited. Both USB ports on the 15” Macbook Pro are located on the left side of the laptop fujitsu lifebook t5010 battery, which would significantly handicap users who require the port in a more convenient location on the laptop, such as right handed users of the Apple wired Mighty Mouse. The only area in terms of ports where the 15” Macbook Pro improves on the 13” Macbook Pro is the presence of separate Audio-In and Audio-Out ports. At home, I personally have my Macbook connected to my gigabit Ethernet network, hooked up to a 24” monitor which has a built in USB hub, and wired up to a 2.1 sound system. In that respect, having all ports on one side is useful. However, those with slightly different requirements than mine might experience difficulties and limitations when expanding their Macbook Pro with peripherals (Comment on this)
Monday, December 28th, 2009
11:34 am	Sony Vaio VGN-NW270F/S The Sony sony vgp-bps8 sony vgp-bps9/s battery Vaio VGN-NW270F/S is a stylish, spacious laptop for high-definition fans with low budgets. For a reasonable $699 at Best Buy, the Vaio NW270 outclasses the majority of its mainstream competition by including a Blu-ray drive. Blu-ray movies look crisp and sharp on its wide-screen 15.5-inch display, and they even sound respectable using the Vaio NW270's integrated speakers. Our only real disappointment is with the laptop's battery life; we'd like to see Sony sony vgp-bps9 do what Toshiba does with its Satellite E105-S1802 and include a long-running eight-cell battery that sits flush with the system. Aside from the BD-ROM drive, the rest of the NW270's configuration follows the standard mainstream recipe of the day: Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of memory, and integrated Intel graphics driving Windows 7 Home Premium. It's thin and light for its size, making it worth considering for a primary, do-it-all laptop, but the best usage scenario for the Sony sony vgp-bps9a/b Vaio VGN-NW270F/S is as a smaller, cheaper alternative to a 17- or 18-inch desktop replacement. Price $699 Processor 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 Memory 4GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz Hard drive 320GB at 5,400rpm Chipset Intel GM45 Express Graphics Intel GMA 4500MHD Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium Dimensions (WDH) 14.6 x 9.8 x 1.2 inches Screen size (diagonal) 15.5 inches System weight / Weight with AC adapter 5.7 / 6.4 pounds Category Mainstream Calling a laptop stylish can be an insult because it could mean it's overdesigned to the point where it interferes with its functionality. The Vaio sony vgp-bps9/b NW270 boasts a unique look and feel but remains comfortable and easy to use. The plastic chassis is textured, with a grooved pattern looks like a fine wood grain, almost bamboolike in appearance. The textured plastic covers the lid as well as the keyboard deck. This model is silver; you can also fine the same configuration in white, pink, and brown. The touch pad, too, is textured, but in its case, it's a grid of raised dots. The feel is an acquired taste. For the first hour we had the NW270 Dell latitude d630 battery, the touch pad felt too rough, as if we were moving the cursor by dragging a finger over a piece of fine-grit sandpaper. After a short time, we began to like the feel it provides--the polar opposite of the overly glossy touch pads found on lenovo t61 battery，lenovo r61 battery,lenovo r60 battery,lenovo t60 battery HP Pavilions--and found it to be very responsive. The touch pad also features wide vertical and horizontal scroll regions along its right and bottom edges, respectively. The mouse buttons border on being clacky, but they're far from egregious offenders in this regard. The keyboard mimics the look of Apple's MacBook, with white, Chiclet-style keys. The keys are widely spaced and create a very comfortable typing experience, with good travel with nary a key shortened. Unlike the 15.6-inch HP Pavilion dell inspiron e1505 battery, dell inspiron 1501 battery, dell xps m1330 battery , dv6-1375dx, which crams in a separate number pad to the right of the keyboard, Sony wisely leaves it off on the Vaio NW270. As a result, the keyboard is centered beneath the display and feels very roomy. Despite its obvious entertainment appeal, the Vaio NW270 doesn't feature a strip of media control keys; you'll need to use the F keys to pause, fast forward, rewind, and control the volume. In addition to the power button, only three other buttons reside above the keyboard: a mute button, a handy Web button opens your default browser, and a third that turns the display off and on. The 15.5-inch screen features a cinematic 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1,366x768-pixel native resolution, making it a perfect fit for 720p dell inspiron 1525 battery HD video. Despite the presence of a Blu-ray drive, it's not a full 1080p display. The screen has a glossy coating to spiff up the appearance of movies and photos, and while it does help make colors pop and movement look smoother, it might be the least-glossy glossy screen we've seen, so glare and reflections are not a problem. Also not a problem: the integrated speakers, which reach a respectable level and max volume, even if we've heard better.   Sony Vaio VGN-NW270F/S Average for category [mainstream] Video HDMI, VGA VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort Audio Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks Data 3 USB 2.0, mini-FireWire, multiformat memory card reader 4 USB 2.0, SD card reader, eSATA Expansion ExpressCard/34 ExpressCard/54 Networking Ethernet, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband Optical drive Blu-ray player / DVD burner DVD burner You'll find a useful assortment of ports and connections on the NW270. HDMI is featured, for outputting video to an HDTV, as is VGA for connecting to older computer monitors. FireWire (i.Link in Sony's parlance) makes the cut, joining a trio of USB 2.0 ports. Rounding out the expansion options are a multiformat media card reader and an ExpressCard/34 slot (not that we can recall the last time we ran across an ExpressCard/34 device). fujitsu lifebook t5010 battery The NW270's highlight feature is its optical drive. It's capable of playing Blu-ray discs and reading and writing DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray support typically shows up on larger, pricier laptops, though it has started to trickle down the price ladder. To wit, the 17.3-inch HP Pavilion dv7-3065dx features a Blu-ray drive and costs $729. On CNET Labs application benchmarks, the Vaio NW270 is well-matched among the current crop of mainstream laptops. It does so at $699, which is at the low-end of the price scale for laptops featuring a Core 2 Duo T6600 processor or an equivalent chip. It uses 800MHz DDR2 memory, slower than the 1,066MHz memory found in competing laptops, but its performance scores show that the difference in memory doesn't add up to any discernible impact. In fact, the NW270 posted the best scores (by the narrowest of margins) on CNET Labs' Photoshop and iTunes tests. The Vaio NW270 uses a standard six-cell battery and lasted 3 hours, 36 minutes on CNET Labs' demanding battery drain test. That's nearly an hour longer than the similarly configured Sony Vaio fujitsu lifebook t4220 battery NW125's time of 2 hours, 49 minutes when we reviewed it earlier this year. The Toshiba Satellite E105-S1802 uses an eight-cell battery, however, and provides almost an hour more running time on a single charge. (Comment on this)
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
11:16 am	HP ProBook 5310m Review Article Contents HP promises that the new ProBook 5310m sony vgp-bps8 is a "stylish" business notebook that packs performance, battery life, and value inside a thin-and-light 13-inch notebook. Is the ProBook 5310m truly a lust-worthy business laptop, or is it just another black box? Continue reading to find out. Our review unit of the HP ProBook 5310m sony vgp-bps9 features the following configuration: • Intel Core 2 Duo P9300 Processor (2.26GHz, 6MB L2 cache, 1066MHz FSB) • Microsoft Genuine Windows 7 Professional (32-bit) • 13.3-inch LED-backlit anti-glare HD display (1366 x 768) • Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD • 2GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM • 320GB 7200RPM HDD • WiFi (802.11a/b/g/draft-n), Ethernet, Modem, and Bluetooth Connectivity • 4-Cell 41WHr Battery (14.8V) • Limited 1-year standard parts and labor warranty • Dimensions: 12.9 x 8.7 x 0.93 inches • Weight: 3.81lbs Build and Design For those people who aren't already familiar with HP's ProBook laptops sony vgp-bps9a/b, the formula is very simple: Take HP's popular EliteBook line of durable business-grade notebooks and make them more affordable so small and medium businesses can buy them. This is where the new ProBook 5310m comes to the table ... and it's why this is the first laptop with the "ProBook" name on it that we really, really like. The previous generation of ProBooks all tried to deliver a good balance of features and security at a low price. Unfortunately, those notebooks sacrificed build quality and design (two of the hallmarks of HP's EliteBooks) in order to create a low-cost business laptop. The new ProBook 5310m sony vgp-bps9/s battery is the first ProBook that lets you have your cake and eat it too. The 5310m succeeds where previous ProBooks failed by offering a thin-yet-solid magnesium alloy chassis with durable rubberized paint, aluminum display enclosure and a design that looks like a premium business notebook rather than a budget laptop. Sure, like the rest of the ProBook line, the 5310m has a square, industrial-looking exterior, but that's part of the "all business" look that made the EliteBook line such a success. So how did HP Dell latitude d630 battery go from an all-plastic ProBook to this new-and-improved design and still make it thinner and lighter than previous models? The answer will probably get a mixed reception among our readers: HP got rid of the optical drive. That's right. There's no built-in DVD or Blu-ray drive with this laptop dell inspiron 1501 battery. Honestly, as someone who frequently travels for business, I can tell you I never use my notebook's optical drive. However, there are still plenty of business travelers who like to watch DVDs during flights, so the lack of a DVD drive might bother some business buyers. The outer shell of the screen casing, as previously mentioned, is made of aluminum. This is significantly more solid than the plastic-covered screen on older ProBooks, and along with the magnesium alloy bottom chassis the 5310m should survive anything a typical business traveler will throw at it. While I wouldn't recommend standing on this notebook, you could easily stack a dozen or so heavy books on top of the 5310m sony vgp-bps9/b without any concern for the safety of the laptop. The 5310m lenovo t61 battery also features the now standard hard drive shock protection in the form of HP 3D DriveGuard which will help to protect your hard drive in the event the laptop gets dropped or violently bumped. HP also includes HP ProtectTools with drive encryption, Device Access Manager, HP Spare Key (a program that helps employees access their computer in case they forget their password), HP Disk Sanitizer, File Sanitizer, and McAfee Security Solution for those small businesses that need reliability and ease of use but don't have the resources of a dedicated IT department. The outer shell of the screen casing, as previously mentioned, is made of aluminum. This is significantly more solid than the plastic-covered screen on older ProBooks, and along with the magnesium alloy bottom chassis the 5310m lenovo r61 battery should survive anything a typical business traveler will throw at it. While I wouldn't recommend standing on this notebook, you could easily stack a dozen or so heavy books on top of the 5310m without any concern for the safety of the laptop. The 5310m lenovo r60 battery also features the now standard hard drive shock protection in the form of HP 3D DriveGuard which will help to protect your hard drive in the event the laptop gets dropped or violently bumped. HP also includes HP ProtectTools with drive encryption, Device Access Manager, HP Spare Key (a program that helps employees access their computer in case they forget their password), HP Disk Sanitizer, File Sanitizer, and McAfee Security Solution for those small businesses that need reliability and ease of use but don't have the resources of a dedicated IT department. One of our primary criticisms about the older ProBook 4510s lenovo t60 battery and 4710s was the fact that it was too difficult to make upgrades to those notebooks. Thankfully, HP engineers made it quite easy to access the RAM, hard drive, and wireless cards inside the 5310m. RAM and the hard drive are located on the bottom of the notebook beneath the palmrest area and the WWAN card is easily accessed after removing the battery. Speaking of the complexity of making upgrades, it's also worth mentioning that buying a pre-configured model is still the only way we can recommend purchasing the 5310m (or any ProBook) at a reasonable price. This configuration of the ProBook 5310m is available for only $899 on the HP website as a pre-configured system, but if you attempted to customize a 5310m dell inspiron e1505 battery with identical specs it would cost you more than $1,100! That's a painfully overpriced premium to charge for custom orders. Screen and Speakers The ProBook 5310m dell xps m1330 battery comes equipped with a 13.3" anti-glare display with a 16:9 widescreen ratio. At 1366 x 768 pixels, this 720p high-definition display is perfectly usable and features good color and contrast. The LED-backlit panel offers excellent brightness and we typically left the brightness set to between 50% and 70% when using the notebook indoors. We know many people are concerned about the transition from 16:10 to 16:9 ratio screens (because this means less vertical resolution) but the difference between 1366 x 768 and 1280 x 800 is pretty minimal. Horizontal viewing angles are pretty good and you only start to notice some color shift after you get 75 degrees off center. Vertical viewing angles are only average as the screen begins to wash out from above and colors begin to invert from below after about 45 degrees in either direction. HP generally impresses our editorial staff with the quality of the speakers used in their notebooks. Unfortunately, this isn't the case with the ProBook line. The speakers in the 5310m dell inspiron 1525 battery are good enough for watching a webcast or hearing system sounds, but the built-in speakers sound tinny and lack a good range of highs, middles, and lows. The highest volume settings are loud enough to fill an office with sound for a presentation, but the audio sounds distorted at the highest volumes. The combo headphone/microphone jack on the 5310m works well with the two different brands of earphones I used during the test. No static or other noise was noticed through the jack besides imperfections in the audio source itself. Keyboard and Touchpad The full-size keyboard on the 5310m fujitsu lifebook t4220 battery is a chiclet style design and provides fantastic spacing between keys for typing. Each key is relatively flat with a nice matte texture and the keys sit above a glossy black support frame. The support frame surrounding the keys is quite firm thanks to the design of the chassis which adds additional support for the keyboard. On the larger ProBook 4510s and 4710s we noticed some flex in the keyboard above the optical drive, but the keyboard on the 5310m fujitsu lifebook t5010 battery is quite firm and a joy to use. The individual key presses are quiet without loud clicking sounds as you type. The depth of each key press is excellent, though some people may dislike the flat, chiclet-style keys. Overall the keyboard layout is extremely nice for a budget 13-inch laptop. The touchpad is very responsive to my touch with a scroll zone on the right side that works exactly as it should. The glossy touchpad texture is okay, but the low-cost material used is sure to develop wear over time and use. The plastic touchpad buttons are about the right size and have the correct amount of depth or throw when pressed. We would have also liked to see a dedicated touchpad disable button (like the ones HP uses on their consumer notebooks) so that you can disable the touchpad if you're using an external mouse ... but that's a minor complaint for what is otherwise a great keyboard and touchpad.   (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
11:40 am	Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi Introduction The Acer Travelmate 8200 Latitude D630 battery is a high-end business laptop from Acer, designed with durability and performance in mind with a reasonably light-weight chassis. It has done fairly well in this respect, with Acer using Intel's new Core Duo processor coupled and an ATi Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics card, all packed into a laptop weighing in at less than 6 pounds. The Acer TravelMate 8200 incorporates the high-end features business pros demand, including Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology. The display is a wide-screen 15.4” with 1680 x 1050 resolution. Stunning visuals are a given thanks to the ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1600 graphics processor with 256MB on-chip memory. However, the 8204WLMi sony vgp-bps8 does seem to have some heat issues regarding heat dissipation -- the heat generated from this laptop vents directly onto the hand I use to move the mouse arround. Also, I find that Acer's signature curved keyboard (smile shape) takes some getting used to for first time users. Reason for Buying I bought the Acer 8200 laptop to replace my aging Dell Inspiron 8600 vgp-bps9/b battery. I needed a machine that could meet all of my computing needs for the next 3 years. I develop applications using PHP and the .NET Framework and also play games on my laptop. I also wanted a reasonably light laptop for travel purposes. Specifications The Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi seems to have different specifications in Asia as compared to the model available latitude e6400 battery in North America and Europe. Here are the specifications for the 8204WLMi I purchased in Singapore, in blue are the different specs you'll get with the 8204WLMi in Europe / North America. The ports available are adequate for my use as both my phone and my PDA can be synchronized with Bluetooth built into the system. I would have rather preferred the use of 6-pin Firewire rather than 4-pin, although most laptops I have seen use the 4-pin version. I would also have preferred the Ethernet port to be on the back of the machine. Above is an example of a picture taken inspiron 1545 battery with the built-in 1.3MP web camera Build and Design The design was very nicely done, with the carbon fiber cover for the screen lenovo t61 battery lid and the elegant curves of the main chassis, winning the iF Design Award for 2006. When pushing in on the lid there of the 8204WLMi there is no rippling of the screen whatsoever -- obviously the carbon fibre lid provides excellent protection. The overall build is generally solid with very little flex on the screen and the fit between the various components that make up the chassis is tight. The smiley design keyboard was also solid with no flex. Heat Dissipation The only heat dissipation vent that I can find on this laptop is on the right hand side of the lenovo t60 battery laptop, where unless you're left handed, you'd normally be using an external mouse. This caused some minor discomfort on my hand due to the relatively hot air being blown out through the exhaust vent.   The large heat vent and fan on the right side of the 8204 lenovo r60 battery causes discomfort for the hand holding the mouse as hot air gets blown onto it (view larger image) Screen The screen is reasonably bright, with no dead pixels whatsoever. The screen is at lenovo r61 battery 1680 x 1050 and is just the right size (in my opinion) for a 15.4" screen, much better than some of the 15.4-inch displays that give you a 1,280 x 768 resolution. The screen is a normal matte screen with no TruLife glossy finish (reflective), ostensibly because this is designed to be a business laptop and not an entertainment style consumer laptop Speakers I would say that the quality of thelenovo t400 battery speakers is average, and I would recommend decent headphones for listening to music. Processor and Performance The laptop is fast and responsive even when doing heavy development inspiron e1505 battery work in Microsoft Visual Studio and performs very well in multi-tasking due to the fact it has the new Intel dual core processor (Core Duo). However, Acer's various drivers and helpers seem to take up more RAM than I expected. Here's CPU-Z with processor information for the 8204 WLMi:   Below are the results gained from running Super Pi inspiron 1501 battery , a program that forces the laptop's processor to calculate Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy. As you can see, the new Intel Core Duo processor smokes any previous processor at this calculation, no previous notebook reviewed on this site even comes close to the 1m 15s achieved by the 8204WLMi: Below are the results gained from running 3DMark05 on the Acer 8204WLMi, again you can see that the Acer beat out all past competitors with higher end cards except for the Dell XPS2 gaming machine with the nVidia Go 6800 Ultra card: Keyboard and Touchpad: The keyboard is a full-size keyboard with the signature Acer 5 degree curve. xps m1330 battery It takes some getting used to but is fairly easy to type on. There is not flex with the keyboard. The touchpad is quite good and is wide like the screen, but is nothing spectacular and basically your average touchpad.   Acer 8204WLMi keyboard (view larger image) Wireless: The laptop comes with the new Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG with inspiron 6400 battery Acer's SignalUp technology. The card has great reception. The Bluetooth also works as it should. Battery: I managed to get 3 hours of battery life working on a Word document and surfing lifebook t4220 battery the web via wireless with the 8204WLMi -- not bad at all! Operating System and Software: The laptop comes with Windows XP Professional, with no bloatware but a lot of Acer's "Empowering Technology" applications, which is basically a pretty interface for various features of the laptop. Conclusion I would recommend this laptop to anyone demanding very high performance and a high quality build at a reasonable price. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
3:36 pm	HP pavilion dv6000z review This notebook is available with the shiny piano black glossy type HP sony vgp-bps9a/b custom finish, as well as the oldschool rough plastic type. The vgp-bps9 notebook price ranges from usually around $500USD to anywhere in the area of $2000USD being that it is a CTO. The build quality of this vgp-bps8 battery notebook is great, it’s solid and sturdy. The LCD hinges give little if any flex while opening and closing with ease. There is a little rippling on the LCD when the top bezel is pressed with some force, but I’ve seen much worse. The touchpad works amazingly well, however the buttons are somewhat flimsy and feel cheap, though this doesn’t matter if you use an external mouse most of the time. There are an abundance of input and output connections on this notebook. It’s somewhat strange however they are all on the sides, with the exception of the headphone jacks in front. Most notebooks tend to have some ports on the back, the headphone jacks in the front do get quite annoying when hooking a stereo or surround sound into them. Possibly one of my favorite features on this notebook happens to be the media card slot. Not many vgp-bps9/b notebooks have integrated media card readers; this is definitely a plus for avid digital photographers. I believe this notebook dell latitude d630 battery would fall somewhere in between a desktop replacement and portable. I wouldn’t take this notebook mountain climbing or throw it out of a window like some have claimed to do with the IBM T40s, however for the everyday person, bringing this to school; work or whatnot is pretty easy. Weighing in at about 6 pounds this isn’t super light but at the same time, it’s not quite as heavy as the all around desktop replacements that I’ve seen. Though, keep in mind that with a 12-Cell Lithium-Ion battery and AC adapter this notebook would weigh somewhere around 8 pounds which isn’t fun to carry around all day. HP dv6000t bottom view (view large image) Audio: This dv6000 battery notebook comes equipped with Altec Lansing stereo speakers which are located in between the LCD bottom and the one touch buttons. I was quite impressed with the quality of sound that these can blast out. When using Cyberlink PowerDVD to boost the volume they get somewhat distorted however. With my older notebooks I found myself plugging in my surround sound speakers a lot more than I do with this model. Screen: HP dv6000t front view (view large image) Probably the most important feature when buying a lenovo r61 battery and fujitsu t5010 battery laptop is having a good screen. If you’re going to be staring at it for thousands of hours it might as well be comfortable to look at. I received this laptop with an LG Philips 1280x800 WXGA Hi-Definition Brightview Widescreen with no dead pixels. I can easily say this is the nicest LCD I have ever owned. The screen has a very crisp picture, and no light leakage whatsoever. Viewing angles from the left and right are perfect, and do not look washed out. Vertical viewing angles however sometimes can be washed out when viewing from too far away. Using the included software you can customize your LCD’s color to your liking with the Nvidia Settings Manager tool which I thought was a plus. Graphics: Windows Vista ran well on the dv6000t (view large image) I chose the Nvidia Geforce Go 7400 Series GPU for this lenovo t61 battery and aspire 3680 battery notebook. This is the best available graphics chip for this model notebook. It seems to perform very well for average use and can play most new games at medium settings. The 128MB of shared “turbocache” doesn’t slow this PC down at all and it runs Vista Aero very smoothly. Most people considering this notebook seem to be worried about having enough graphics power for Vista which I did as well. After running Windows Vista Enterprise Edition for about two weeks I can safely say that it was a very nice experience (visually) and there were no quirks with the graphics processor. I had to use modded .inf files as the official Nvidia drivers aren’t out yet, however it still ran better that I had thought it would. Windows Vista seemed to actually run faster than XP Professional even with all the Aero features enabled. Another good benchmark test for the Go 7400 is F.E.A.R. which I play quite a bit. F.E.A.R. seems to run best with Processor set to Maximum, Graphics set to low, and the display at 1280x800. It will play at medium graphics settings however personally I would rather have a higher resolution. Heat and Noise: After owning a lenovo t60 battery and lenovo r60 battery notebook with a desktop Pentium 4 HT chip, I have learned to appreciate noise, or lack thereof. This notebook is very quiet; it’s about as loud as my older HP AMD Sempron notebook with cool and quiet technology. I guess Speedstep is basically the same thing. The only time I hear the fans come on is when I’m playing graphically intense games or running my CPU to 100% (Seti@home.) In addition, this notebook also stays pretty cool; the right of the touchpad feels warm on occasion, but not hot. Nothing I can really complain about there. Keyboard and Touchpad: HP dv6000t as dell latitude e6400 battery keyboard and touchpad (view large image) The keyboard is very well laid out for a 15.4” inspiron 1545 battery laptop. It feels...Solid! None of the typical loud clickity-clackity type sounds emit from it, which is nice. The touchpad, as I said before, is very good. It’s sensitive and responds very well. It has a built in scrolling feature which is a bonus, however doesn’t always work 100% of the time. The touchpad buttons are alright. They feel kind of cheap and seem like they would break easily if pressed too hard.   Customer Support: HP as well as apple a1175 apple a1185 basically all other computer manufacturer companies have sent their customer service department over to India. This isn’t a bad thing as it keeps the prices of electronics down considerably and creates jobs for Indian people, however it is at times hard to understand the reps because of the language/culture barrier. Overall however the HP customer service is very good, as long as you don’t mind waiting awhile on the phone, and eventually speak to someone that knows what they are talking about. Conclusion: The dv6000t is a great customizable notebook for all kinds of people. Whether you need just a basic laptop to surf the web and write documents, a medium range gaming machine, or something to just crunch lots of data this notebook can do it all when configured appropriately. It’s hard to find things wrong with such a beautiful and well built laptop, I can’t stop admiring its zen-type design even while I type this. Overall I think this is very balanced and priced very well comonentwise. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who needs a powerful machine, while still retaining stylish and futuristic looks. Pros: Great multitasking Decent Battery Life Comfortable Keyboard Beautifully Designed Cool and Quiet Quality Audio Excellent LCD Media Card Reader Cons: Max GPU is Go 7400 Missing a HDMI Port No PCMCIA Port Fingerprint magnet Way too much Bloatware No Recovery DVDs Easily Scratched (Comment on this)
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
11:27 am	Fujitsu LifeBook T5010 Review Fujitsu recently announced the addition of the LifeBook T5010 to their Tablet PC line-up. The T5010 battery is the successor to the T4220 battery and it sports a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor. The T5010 also has a 13.3" active digitizer display that is very nice looking. This business focused tablet is great for taking notes and giving presentations. Check out what we think about this sleek new LifeBook and how it performs. It converts to tablet mode easily and only weighs in around 4.5lbs. It has that simplistic feel to it. Great for taking notes and browsing the Web, very functional. It has a good variety of features, but the price may need to drop a little more to entice consumers. However, I think the T1010, the T5010's baby brother, is focused more toward the consumer market. The T5010 as the vgp-bps8 battery is more for business users, although it would be great for college students as well. Display The T5010 as vgp-bps9a/b has a nice 13.3-inch display. I always love Fujitsu's screens. The colors are bright and vivid. It's very easy to read and has a resolution of 1280 x 800. The screen has a little reflection to it, but nothing major. Some users prefer the gloss screens. I like that there isn't much graininess because that is a huge plus for a tablet. It makes the screen look more like a notebook. The T5010 as latitude d630 battery and latitude e6400 battery has an active digitizer and the pen is very accurate. I had no problems opening applications or taking notes with it. The bi-directional hinge is sturdy and a bonus feature unlike any other tablet except Fujitsu's because the screen can rotate in both directions, great for presentations. The viewing angles are good as well. You get a little color bleed on the right side of the screen, but not much. Even in tablet mode the screen is easy to read and it automatically changes orientation. Performance and Benchmarks The LifeBook T5010 as acer aspire 3680 battery sports an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26GHz processor and a 80GB hard drive. Well, this preproduction model we have does. I would go with the better processor and hard drive option if I was purchasing one though. It also has the Centrino vPro technology. I thought browsing the Web was fast and easy and even downloading benchmarks went fairly quick. It's PCMark score is good and it didn't have any problems running multiple applications. I did notice the left side of the keyboard and palm rest do get pretty warm when running benchmarks and the fan runs too. It's a nice work-horse as long as the battery life stays acceptable. Battery The T5010 as fujitsu lifebook u810 battery stands up to everyday life, but in High Performance mode you are going to need your power brick. In High Performance mode I got under two hours of life (1 hour 40 minutes). Once you change the settings to Balanced mode you get a nice boost in life and still enough performance to do everyday tasks. I was getting almost four hours in Balanced mode and the Power Saver gives you even more, but I find it hard to work with such a dim screen. You can always get the extra modular bay battery to for all day computing power. Speakers The speakers don't get covered in tablet mode on the T5010 and lenovo v100 battery , so you can still listen to music. However, I recommend going with headphones, this isn't an entertainment tablet. At high volume levels the music sounds distorted. This isn't an iTunes machine, but with a good pair of headphones you could listen to music quietly or view videos. The speakers run across the backside of the tablet under the screen, so even in notebook mode they still put out decent sound. The touchpad on the T5010 as apple a1175 is responsive. I like that it is indented in the palm rest area, so your finger doesn't loose its place. The touchpad has a textured feel to it as well, which hides your fingerprint grease. The right and left click buttons work as expected, but do have that cheap plastic feel. The pen that comes with the T5010 and a1185 is your standard tablet pen. It is made of a solid lightweight plastic and is easy to write with. It is accurate on the screen with the digitizer and it even has an eraser, so you can flip the pen over and erase away those mistakes. A bonus when you're in a hurry and trying to take notes fast. Tablet Features In tablet mode the T5010 as dell inspiron 1150 battery is easy to carry around and great for note-taking. The screen is bright and can be rotated in both directions. The webcam is fun to use for chatting with family and friends while away on business or at college. Since it's a tablet and the screen can turn in either direction, the webcam can take pics of your surroundings without moving the notebook. The active digitizer works accurately with the pen, but beware the pen sometimes gets stuck in its silo. There are a couple of programmable buttons on the screen of the T5010, which make for great shortcuts when in tablet mode and the keyboard is covered. The speakers don't get covered in tablet mode, so you still can get some sound, although I recommend using headphones. Heat and Noise The T5010 does put out some heat. Remember I have a preproduction unit though, so this may get fixed. The left side of the keyboard and palm rest area get pretty warm. Enough that typing can get to be uncomfortable. I noticed it getting really warm when I was running benchmarks or over-working the tablet. The bottom gets a little warm, but not like the keyboard area and it only seems to be the left side where the vent is. One a cold day it might be nice, but during these hot summer days the heat from the T5010 t4215 battery is uncomfortable. When the T5010 isn't in High Performance mode it doesn't get as hot, but the performance gets knocked down a notch. The T5010 isn't a loud tablet at all. It makes noise though when working. When running multiple applications or benchmarks the fan definitely was kicking on and off. It sounded like I was blow drying my hair. In a class room environment this may get annoying to your peers. However, when the T5010 is set to save battery power on Balanced mode, the fan doesn't kick on as much. So if you don't want to hear the fan kick on and off multiple times just changed the power settings. Ports The T5010 and lenovo t61 battery has a nice array of ports. I know some users will want more, but it does have the basics. The optical drive is swappable for the optional 6-cell battery too. I know an HDMI port would be nice, it does seem like Fujitsu is a little behind the times. Wireless The wireless features worked fine on the T5010 lenovo t400 battery . I had no problems connecting at my office or home. The Atheros XSPAN (802.11a/b/g/draft-n) works well. You can also get Intel WiFi Link 5300 AGN as an option. No matter where I went I could connect to a network and the antenna strength is pretty strong too because my neighbors network kept popping up, not that I used it. Bluetooth comes on the T5010 and is always a nice feature for those external devices like wireless mice. Conclusion Overall my impressions of the T5010 are positive. It rendered Web pages fast and browsed through applications with no problems except the left side of the keyboard getting excessively warm. The new processor update is a bonus. It has a solid design and I like the bi-directional hinge and 13.3" display. As I mentioned Fujitsu has nice bright screens. It does have the Wacom active digitizer unlike the T1010, which is passive. For being the successor to the LifeBook T4220 though I don't like the pen location. It gets stuck in the silo sometimes. The design is similar though, except for the black lid, which seems to be trademark for Fujitsu now. Their tablets and notebooks have that simple yet functional look, as the T5010 does. Pros Vivid, bright colored active digitizer display Solid design, functional and simple Bi-directional hinge Modular bay swappable battery option Cons Left side of keyboard and palm rest get hot Pen can get stuck in silo Pricing and Availability The LifeBook T5010 is available now for ordering on Fujitsu's website. Pricing starts at $1,769 for the basic configuration. (Comment on this)
Friday, December 18th, 2009
5:42 pm	Dell Latitude E6400 Review The Dell Latitude E6400 battery is a 14" laptop targeted towards businesses that need good performance, solid design, and a commonality of parts for an entire workforce. This notebook competes against such notebooks as the vgp-bps8 battery and Fujitsu LifeBook t5010 battery. The E6400 offers a wide range of hardware configurations, as well as Solid State Drives (SSDs) for the businesses that require extreme ruggedness and extreme performance. Should your company rush out and purchase the latest generation of Dell business notebooks? We took a closer look to find out. Our review unit of the Dell Latitude E6400 inspiron 1545 battery came with the following options: Windows Vista Business (32-bit) Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P9500 (2.53GHz) 2GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM (maximum capacity 8GB) 160GB Hitachi HDD (7200rpm) 14.1" diagonal widescreen matte TFT LCD display at 1440x 900 (WXGA+, matte) 256MB nVidia Quadro NVS 160M (256MB dedicated plus shared memory) 8x DVD (+/-R double layer) drive Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n) Bluetooth 2.1 Dimensions: 1.1-1.3"(H) x 13.1(W) x 9.37"(D) Weight: 5.56 lbs 90W 100-240V AC adapter 9-cell (85Wh) Lithium Ion battery Price as tested: $2,148 (starting price: $1,139 ... $879 after instant savings) Build and Design Unlike the previous generation of Dell Latitude noteboks vgp-bps9/b that featured rounded edges and curves, the Dell Latitude E-series features "down to business" industrial design. The chassis is entirely made of magnesium alloy with plenty of 90-degree edges and sharp angles. While the look is reasonably modern, it's also a little "old school" and could be mistaken for a 5-year old laptop from a distance. Still, the build and design speak volumes in terms of the overall durability of this notebook. During testing no plastic creaks or squeaks could be heard thanks to the magnesium alloy structure. The entire bottom shell is a metal alloy which gives the laptop a strong footprint on your desk, and gives enough strength to resist bending if you hold the laptop by the edge of the palm rest walking around the room. The only downside to the chassis is that the alloy is thinner than expected in a few locations (more on that later). Another minor issue we noticed is that the bottom access panel on the E6400 vgp-bps9a/b really needs one extra screw on the bottom right corner next to the hard drive bay. The magnesium allow base plate Dell's Latitude t61 battery team takes a great deal of pride in the development of the new ControlPoint software. This one-stop control center for power management, display settings, network connections, and security settings. ControlPoint is indeed a great interface for novice computer users or anyone who wants to control these features in one location. However, if you're used to using the Windows power management interface, you're in for a rude awakening when you change settings for screen brightness, or sleep mode only to have the Dell ControlPoint software override your changes and reset them to what it believes they should be. Of course, if you simply use the ControlPoint software everything is fine, or you can just turn off the ControlPoint application if you prefer to use the Windows interface. In any case, more than four hours of battery life gives you more than enough time for taking notes, surfing the web, or responding to emails throughout the day away from an outlet. For those road warriors who require "all-day" computing, Dell also offers a 12-Cell High Capacity Battery Slice ($399) that connects to the bottom of the E6400. Dell claims the when the E6400 as r60 battery is running on both the 9-cell battery and the 12-cell battery slice it can provide a full 19 hours of battery life. Unfortunately, we didn't have access to a battery slice for testing, but it's safe to say that such a configuration would easily produce double-digit battery life with the screen brightness turned down. Conclusion The Dell Latitude E6400 x60 battery is a great performer and a solid replacement for the Dell Latitude D630. It seems to be built well enough to be thrown around in day-to-day use, and it's clear that Dell is trying to improve the Latitude line and offer compelling features ... like 19-hour battery life. We really couldn't find any major reason to dislike the E6400, but there are a number of "minor annoyances" that could make some businesses look elsewhere. As we mentioned, although the E6400 fujitsu u810 battery proved to be quite durbale during our tests, the alloy chassis is thin in some locations which makes the notebook "feel" less durable than it actually is. We're certain latitude d630 battery the thinner alloy sections where used in order to keep weight as low as possible, but flex is something you don't want to see in a business notebook. Overall, corporate clients who are looking for the next generation of business notebooks from Dell have plenty of reasons to buy the E6400. Dell made every effort to improve the Latitude family, and the E6400 acer 3680 battery is a great 14-inch business notebook. That said, there is some pretty strong competition such as the Lenovo ThinkPad T400 and HP EliteBook 6930p ... and those notebooks might prove to be better alternatives for some. Pros: Very tough structure and rugged overall chassis design Excellent selection of ports and fantastic docking station Excellent battery life ... particularly with extra battery slice Solid performance Remains very cool where your body comes into contact with it Cons: Industrial design (although cool) looks a little "unfinished" Build quality is durable, but alloy chassis feels thin in some spots ControlPoint software can be frustrating Trackpoint/touchpoint is better than the one on the D630, but still not great   (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
2:05 pm	External hard drives External hard drives are the perfect solution for people who need more storage in addition to what is included inside your laptop. Not only do external hard drives provide space for your music library, but you can use them to backup you main hard drive in the event something happens to your notebook. A-DATA is taking that reliability one lifebook u810 battery step further with the new A-DATA Sport SH93, a shockproof and waterproof external hard drive that promises to keep your important files safe. Is the SH93 as fantastic as it sounds? We spent a month testing it to find out. A-DATA Sport SH93 Specifications: Device Interface: USB 2.0 HDD Interface: 2.5" SATA Interface Transfer Rate: 480Mb/s Data Transfer Rate: Approximately 30MB/s LED indicator for power and activity Shockproof: Rated for MIL-STD-810F 516.5 procedure IV (transit drop test) Waterproof: Rated for IEC 529 IPX7 (water depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes) OS Supported: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.4, Linux Kernal 2.4 Dimensions: 5.0 x 3.75 x 0.8 inches (LxWxH) Weight: 11.8 ounces Build and Design The A-DATA Sport SH93 as vgp-bps8 looks rugged and stylish when you compare it to some of the other portable hard drives we've seen in recent years. The external case is a little larger than most portable external hard drives on the market today, but that's because A-DATA wanted to make this drive as durable as possible. The SH93 also looks a bit larger because of the wrap around USB cable storage built into the enclosure. The USB cord is conveniently stored into the slit on the side of the HDD, so you won't have to worry about losing the cord. The SH93 comes in two colors: "racing car yellow" and "chili pepper red." Capacities come in 320GB, 500GB and 640GB, so one of these drives should provide more than enough storage for a video library and all your important files while you're on the road. The case feels very strong and durable like lenovo v100 battery with very little flex when you squeeze the covers in on each side. The bright yellow top and bottom sections as well as the black edges of the enclosure are made of rubber to help protect the hard drive from shock in case you drop it. After a month of being tossed around in a backpack and being dropped (while idle and unplugged) several times in our lab, the case doesn't show any obvious signs of wear and the drive continues to work. The rubber exterior also helps hide obvious fingerprints and scratches ... unlike external hard drives that have polished, glossy plastic enclosures. The drive sits perfectly flat on a desk surface and the rubber exterior works like a giant silicone foot making the hard drive extremely stable on your desk. Despite the apparent durability of the SH93 latitude d630 battery, we were hesitant to test the full waterproof and shockproof features of this drive in our lab. If you visit the A-DATA website and look at the product page for the Sport SH93 you will notice some interesting fine print at the bottom of the page regarding the shockproof and waterproof certifications listed in the product specs: "It is a labotary certification which we do not guarantee that hard drive device, data, and housing would not be damaged with the usage at any condition or environment. Please do not drop, smash or splash on this product on purpose." In other words, while the SH93 looks like a durable hard drive, even A-DATA admits it might not be as durable as it looks. In fact, the IEC 529 IPX7 waterproof certification was done with the USB port plug closed ... and since the hard drive enclosure lacks any additional waterproofing around the USB port, this means the drive is only waterproof when it's not in use. If A-DATA had included a water seal around the internal USB port then the drive might have remained waterproof even when in use. Performance and Benchmarks As previously mentioned, the A-DATA SH93 is offered in three sizes, 320GB, 500GB, and 640GB, which like a1175 and a1185 gives you the space to store basically anything you want or need. Since most netbook hard drives are limited to 120GB or 160GB, an external hard drive such as this one makes perfect sense. Not only can you store hours and hours of video and music to keep you entertained on the road, but you can backup your entire laptop onto the external drive for safe keeping. The performance of the SH93 is almost exactly what we expected for a USB 2.0 hard drive. USB hard drives always max out at around 30MB/s transfer speed thanks to the limitation of the USB 2.0 interface. This is much slower than even basic 5400rpm notebook internal SATA drives. Although Firewire or eSATA would make this drive much faster, USB is still the ideal solution since it's compatible with every modern notebook. We measured the speed of the drive using the supplied USB lifebook t5010 battery cable. Using just a single power/data connection the drive was slightly slower than the latest generation of the Western Digital My Passport Elite. Transfer speeds stayed just below 30MB/s. Average transfer speeds measured by HDTune was 27.7MB/s, which was less than 2MB/s slower than the Western Digital drive we used for comparison. Heat and Noise The SH93 remained perfectly silent during our testing. The only time we managed to vgp-bps9a/b hear any noise coming from the drive was when we tried to connect three USB external hard drives to an unpowered portable USB hub plugged into the HP Mini 311 and the drive kept clicking on and off. You won't be able to hear the drive during normal operation as long as the drive is getting the power it needs from a single USB port. External heat output was minimal, and the exterior of the enclosure never exceeded 87 degrees Fahrenheit in our lab where ambient temperatures ranged from 70-74 degrees Farenheit. Conclusion The A-DATA SH93 is an attractive and durable external drive with good build quality acer 3680 battery and solid performance. That said, we can't help but question the true durability of this drive. The SH93 is only rated as "waterproof" when the drive is not in use and the USB port is sealed with the built-in port plug. When A-DATA includes fine print on their website telling you not to splash the drive on purpose it makes us question the waterproof nature of the drive even more. Still, the SH93 t60 battery is a nice external hard drive offered in a range of capacities up to 640GB and retails for between $85 and $150 depending on capacity. If you need a reliable external hard drive for daily use then the SH93 makes a good choice ... we just can't guarantee it makes a good choice for white water rafting. Pros: Very small and attractive Durable rubberized coating Solid performance Cons: Not as rugged as it could be (Comment on this)
2:03 pm	Online Video Service Buyers Guide 2009 Netflix or Hulu? Amazon or Laptopbatterymag.com? Which online latitude d630 battery service offers the best combination of video quality, selection and price to command your loyalty for (legally) watching movies and television shows on your computer? We break it down in this buyers guide. THE CONTENDERS Netflix Watch Instantly Amazon Video On Demand Laptopbatterymag.com Video Hulu JUDGMENT FACTORS In each of the following categories, the contending software applications will be graded as the overall Winner, Pass, or Fail. A rank of Winner will confer two points, a rank of Pass will confer one point, and rank of Fail will confer zero points. The overall points-winner will be crowned as Editor's Choice for 2009 Online Video Service from NotebookReview.com. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Winner: Netflix Watch Instantly -- In general, you can watch Netflix video from any mainstream browser so long as your PC has a broadband Internet connection, a 1.2 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, and Windows Media Player 11. That's the lowest bar to cross for any of the services, and one that even a few netbooks could muster over, you can find the best vgp-bps8 lenovo v100 battery here . Pass: Amazon, Hulu, Laptopbatterymag.com -- Worst case scenario, if you have a DirectX 9-compatible video card with 64 MB of memory, 512 MB of RAM, and a 2 GHz processor, you can watch online video without reservation. To consume the high-definition content, you may need a gigabyte of RAM, but even that's hardly an outlandish requirement on modern PCs. Fail: Nobody -- Each of these services has reasonable systems requirements, unless you've got a somewhat aged machine or you're trying to view on a netbook. PLAYBACK QUALITY Winner: Laptopbatterymag.com Video -- Laptopbatterymag.com is the only service to offer something close to true high-definition content. Granted, you'll be downloading multi-gigabyte movie files to enjoy this quality, and there's no real way to directly stream the content, but the picture you get in exchange for this sacrifice is top-notch fujitsu t5010 battery . Pass: Hulu -- Hulu has a limited selection of 720p content, but most of their library is available in at least 480p resolution. Solid, if not spectacular. Fail: Amazon, Netflix -- Amazon and Netflix both fail here because they let somebody else handle their video compression, which means far too much of their streaming content suffers from compression artifacts. Unless you like darker scenes to flicker and pixelate, this is a problem. PRICE Winner: Hulu -- It's free. Completely. This may change in the future, but as of now, you can't beat it. Pass: Netflix -- Netflix offers a number of monthly subscription levels, most of which provide all-you-can-watch streaming video options. For the avid video viewer, this is the smartest buy for content you actually pay for. Fail: Amazon, Laptopbatterymag.com -- Both these services charge on a per-download basis, though Laptopbatterymag.com does bundle some television seasons into bulk purchases, and occasionally offer free movies and shows. Overall, you're not getting any break from the prices you'd pay at the corner rental shop. SELECTION Winner: Amazon Video On Demand -- This one was close, but Amazon's multitude of relationships with movie studios and distributors gives it far more content than Netflix, and slightly more than Laptopbatterymag.com. (Exact selection figures are hard to come by, mostly because none of the services are eager to divulge them.) No service competes with the selection available from traditional DVDs, but Amazon comes closest. Pass: Laptopbatterymag.com, Netflix -- Laptopbatterymag.com has a near-Amazon level of titles to choose from and really excels with current television shows. Netflix is constantly improving and isn't that far behind. Unless you are looking for a cult title, both services probably have what you're looking for. Fail: Hulu -- If it's not a recently aired major network television episode, it's not on Hulu. It's a great service for catching up on what you recently missed, but you won't do any serious movie-watching here. ADDITIONAL FEATURES Winner: Laptopbatterymag.com Video -- Laptopbatterymag.com wins out here both for the quality of its interface and for its nascent Home Sharing feature, which lets you stream Laptopbatterymag.com content between two PCs on the same network. Home Sharing still has some bugs and limitations, but the basic feature set is there, and Laptopbatterymag.com otherwise has the richest, most DVD-like interface and control set of any of the services. Pass: Hulu, Amazon, Netflix -- Amazon has an Unbox player that lets you view purchased movies offline. Hulu has a very solid desktop app that accommodates HD content. Netflix streams to Roku set-top boxes and to your Xbox 360. None of them have an interface that will get in the way of solid viewing. It's simply a matter of which features appeal to you most. Fail: Nobody -- Every service has some nice value-adds that make it unique, and none of them are missing the basics. CONCLUSION 2009 Notebook Review Editor's Choice for Online Video Service: laptopbatterymag.com All of these services are still in their infancy, but Laptopbatterymag.com has the most polish -- as you'd expect from an Apple product. The Laptopbatterymag.com 9 software, with its Home Sharing feature, is robust but you'll need a slightly more modern PC to take advantage of those features. You'll also pay the most for Laptopbatterymag.com content, but you generally get the most high-quality video experience for your money. The most economical choice remains Netflix, but they just can't compete with Laptopbatterymag.com interface or HD playback. Hulu remains a tide-you-over service where you can watch free (but commercial-ridden) TV shows while you wait for them to appear on DVD or on one of the other full-featured video services. For my money, I recommend Laptopbatterymag.com. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
6:57 pm	You Grade The Brands: Dell Notebooks From now until the end of the year we’re taking a holistic look at notebook brands such as vgp-bps8 and how vendors fare when we aggregate data from our reviews, research, and third-party data. Generally, we focus on individual systems, but over time we’ ve been able to identify trends based on the vendor. One company might always offer great design and excellent keyboards, another can be counted on to produce notebooks that get too hot. Each vendor has its strengths and its Achilles heel. Until a few months ago, Dell lenovo v100 battery held the number 2 position in notebook sales worldwide. Though recently passed by Acer, the company shipped over 10 million units in the third quarter of this year alone. Check out the brand’s strengths and weaknesses, its 2009 review scorecard, and overall rating. Then sound off in the comments and tell us what you think of the brand and about your own experience. Without your input, our report card will be incomplete. Strengths Performance – Dell’s latitude d630 battery notebooks consistently impressed us in 2009 on overall performance and sometimes brought the graphics muscle. The XPS Studio 16 multimedia machine blew away the averages on our benchmarks, then later in the year the Studio 17 with Core i7 blazed through them again. We were pleased to see several notebooks offer solid state drives as an option. The Latitude E4300’s SSD gave it a performance edge over systems with traditional hard drives. Displays – We also often praised Dell’s displays for offering bright, popping colors, true blacks, and excellent viewing angles. Dell took a leadership position in offering LED-baclkit panels and in experimenting with new technologies like RGB, which offer a wider color gamut. Personalization – Dell does a good job with its consumer fujitsu lifebook t5010 battery fujitsu u810 battery notebooks when it comes to customization, both in terms of allowing customers to build their systems with the specs they desire but with a wide range of color options. Dell Studio gives shoppers an opportunity to pick artist-inspired lids, as well as MLB teams, for about $65 a pop. Weaknesses Battery Life - Over the past year the major weakness of Dell’s vgp-bps9a/b notebook line was poor battery life. This issue cropped up across every category of system from ULV ultraprtables like the Inspiron 11z to the Latitude XT2 business tablet to the multimedia-driven Studio XPS 13 and 16. However, there were some welcome exceptions, like the Studio 14z. Touchpads – Though not as severe an issue as HP’s touchpad dilemma, we often dinged Dell for finicky or undersized touchpads and mushy, hard to use mouse buttons. This was a particular problem on the Inspiron 11z and the Mini 10 series. Best Rated Notebooks Dell XPS Studio 16 dell inspiron 1545 battery Dell Studio 14z ($749.00) Worst Rated Notebooks Dell Inspiron 11z ($683.00) Dell Latitude XT2 ($1,959.00) Review Report Card So far we’ve reviewed 13 Dell notebooks this year. Of those, 38.5% earned a rating a1175 of 3.5 and 4 stars (5 systems each). Only one earned the low rating of 2.5 (Inspiron 11z) and two systems received 3 stars. Out of the 13, we awarded two systems the LAPTOP Editor’s Choice. Tech Support and Reliability Unfortunately, Dell apple a1185 earned a grade of C- in our Tech Support Showdown. According to a study by SquareTrade, Dell laptops have a failure rate of about 18 percent over a 3 year lifespan, which is about average. Overall, the Dell brand can be counted on for good design and performance, though it isn’t often that the company turns out a notebook that we truly get excited about. (The Adamo XPS and Latitude Z both look very cool, but we have yet to review either system.) We’re also looking forward to testing the Vostro V12, Dell’s ultrathin but affordable small business laptop. We’re hoping that more future notebooks will couple the high-end ideals showcased in the Adamo line with the solid performance and value the brand has become known for. Now It’s Your Turn Do you own a Dell laptop? Owned one in the recent past? What does Dell get right and where does it need improvement? Tell us how you’d rate Dell notebooks and why   (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
6:19 pm	lenovo v100 laptop information The latest addition to Lenovo's line of non-ThinkPad laptops for small businesses, the Lenovo 3000 V100 battery walks the line between ultraportable and thin-and-light. With a starting weight of 4 pounds, the V100 combines a relatively small form factor and a 12.1-inch wide-screen display with features you'd usually find on larger laptops, such as a comfortable keyboard and a built-in optical drive. And while the V100 isn't the only "large ultraportable" on the market (the similar-sized Dell XPS M1210 and the Sony VAIO SZ offer a comparable set of features), its $1,099 starting price makes it one of the least expensive models in its class. Our test system included $500 worth of upgrades for a still reasonable $1,599. If you're looking for a laptop that's portable but still has all the features you'll need for work (and some play), the Lenovo 3000 V100 vgp-bps8 is a very good choice. The V100 is the smallest Lenovo 3000 latitude d630 battery laptop available; like its siblings, the lenvo C200 battery and the lenovo N100 battery , the V100 is silver on the outside and dark gray on the inside. Its steel hinges and relatively sturdy construction reflect its ThinkPad heritage, though it doesn't have the ThinkPad's drain holes, shock-mounted hard drive, or keyboard light. The V100 weighs 4 pounds and measures 10.5 inches deep, 14 inches wide, and 1.5 inches thick, so it's a bit larger than the Dell XPS M1210. Total travel weight with the V100's modest AC adapter is 5.2 pounds, striding the line between ultraportable and thin-and-light. There are certainly lighter laptops on the market, including Lenovo's own ThinkPad X60s, but the V100 is reasonably portable for regular travel. Like the XPS M1210, the Lenovo t60 battery features a 12.1-inch wide-screen display with a sharp 1,280x800 native resolution and a glossy finish that's great for watching movies. (The Sony VAIO SZ features a larger 13.3-inch display.) Our review unit included an optional 1.3-megapixel Webcam above the display; it'll prove useful for Web videoconferencing, but it doesn't rotate like the camera found on the Asus W5F. Corresponding to the lenovo t61 battery wide-aspect display is a wide, comfortable keyboard that harkens back to the laptop's ThinkPad lineage. Like all Lenovo 3000 laptops, the V100's touch pad feels a bit small, and the touch-pad buttons don't provide as much travel as we'd like. Next to the touch pad sits a fingerprint reader, which lets you securely log on to your computer, network, and favorite Web sites with just the swipe of a finger. Above the keyboard are three handy external volume controls and a button to launch Lenovo's MediaNow application (the extent of the V100's dedicated multimedia controls), plus a button that summons the useful Lenovo Care system-management and help utility. Along the front edge, two speakers emit hollow but passable sound, while the right edge of the case holds a handy hardware on/off switch for the system's built-in Wi-Fi radio. In part because of its bulky size, the Lenovo 3000 V100 lifebook t4220 battery includes a few more ports and connections than you'd find on a typical ultraportable. There are VGA, four-pin FireWire, and three USB 2.0 ports, plus headphone and microphone jacks. In addition to an ExpressCard/54 slot you'll find a five-in-one media-card slot that supports Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, and xD formats. Networking connections include modem, Ethernet, and 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi; our test unit's price includes an optional Bluetooth radio. Unlike many ultraportables that jettison the optical drive to save weight, the V100 incorporates an optical drive; ours included a DVD burner. The $2,687 XPS M1210 has all of that plus one more USB port and WWAN connectivity, while the Asus W5F includes an S-Video port. The laptop runs on Windows XP Home or Pro; the standard software bundle includes the Corel Small Business Center (with WordPerfect 12), a few disc-burning apps, and a number of homegrown connectivity and backup utilities. Priced at $1,599, our Lenovo 3000 V100 a1175 test system includes some pretty sweet components: a 2GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 1GB of fast 667MHz RAM, a roomy 100GB hard drive spinning at a brisk 5,400rpm. About the only average part of the configuration is its integrated Intel graphics card that borrows up to 128MB of system memory. The V100 performed admirably on CNET Labs' mobile benchmarks, almost matching the performance of the Dell XPS m1330 battery , which has a faster processor and a graphics card with dedicated memory. Like the consumer-focused XPS M1210, the V100 should handle multitasking very smoothly. The V100's 4-hour, 5-minute battery life was a bit above average for an ultraportable and should carry you most of the way through a cross-country flight; however, the XPS M1210's battery lasted 15 minutes longer, while the Sony VAIO SZ's battery held out for more than 5.5 hours. Lenovo keeps the inspiron 1525 battery price low by backing it with a one-year warranty; the industry standard for most business laptops is three years. You must carry your system in to an authorized repair center, but upgrades for longer terms and onsite repairs are reasonably priced. The company's support Web site includes a handful of troubleshooting topics, as well as the expected driver downloads; the site lacks interactive features, such as customer forums or the chance to chat in real time with a technician. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 9th, 2009
5:01 pm	google docs with some intriguing sharing features built in. Is less really more, or are the free-to-anybody Google Docs worth what you pay for them? Read our full review to find out. PRODUCT OVERVIEW Google Docs Acer Aspire One battery is Google's on-line competitor to Microsoft Office 2007. Featuring a word processing suite, spreadsheet suite, presentation suite, and data collection/form suite, this product is clearly aiming its sights at Microsoft's solutions. After creating a free account with Google, users will also have access to tools for email communications, calendaring, photo sharing, and personal website hosting. Clearly, this suite can give Microsoft a run for its money. When multiple users are signed up, it is also possible to collaborate with each user able to edit and change the same document vgp-bps9 vgp-bps8 via the Web. Because all the documents are hosted online, this also means that you can access your work from any computer anywhere else in the world -- but it also means that without the Internet you cannot access your work. INTERFACE & EASE OF USE Understanding the layout of Google Docs, and the meaning of all the a1185 little buttons in the interface, should be a fairly easy task if you have previously used any kind of word processor. Indeed, if you use the posting tools on our website forum you will already be familiar with a large number of icons and symbols used in Google Docs and many other tools. The front page of Google Docs is also fairly simple to understand. compaq presario v3000 battery Open up a new document and Google will ask if it is a word document, presentation, or spreadsheet. Forms are available that can be emailed out to anyone, with the responses submitted to Google and their results compiled for you. Documents of all types can be easily grouped together into different folders and moved around as needed, and the user's view can also be restricted to a specific folder or organized according to date or name. Using each of the programs outlined in this review was fairly user-friendly, though compaq presario v6000 battery we did discover that Google Docs does occasionally err by deciding what text format you really want to use or what indent you should use for this paragraph. The issue did not happen often, but just often enough to be memorable. Each program also had the ability to export its files to the appropriate Office 2003 format,hp dv2000 battery which did not always go smoothly but it did work for the most part. When appropriate, files can also be exported to PDF, text, OpenOffice extensions, or other file formats. Google Docs supports uploading files of various formats as well, but Microsoft Office compatibility is similarly dodgy. GOOGLE DOCUMENTS After opening up a new document from the Google Docs homepage, a rather robust editor comes hp dv6000 battery into view that features an armada of useful editing tools. The single menu bar allows user to change pretty much any aspect of the document using relatively small list of fonts, styles, and text sizes. The formatting options are noticeably reduced compared to Microsoft Office, but the necessary options are certainly there. (Who needs Office's 48 point blue text in Gigi or Webdings scripts anyway?) What is included in t60 battery the suite is more than enough to create resumes, letters, thesis documents, or anything else needed in an academic or professional setting. Other must-have features like bullet lists, highlighting, superscripts, and subscripts are easily available in the tool bar or the menu bar at the top of the screen. For those needing even more advanced editing features, Google Docs also allows the user to modify the HTML or CSS of the document in question. Yes, Google Docs is a borderline web page creator. So if you are unable to find a way to accomplish a particular effect or appearance using the standard menu tools (Google Docs does not have the feature to select multiple cells in a table for instance), some HTML and CSS knowledge might get you there easily. It is nice being able to edit the raw file, but some users may find that too intimidating. HTML editing might also be needed to change page margins, page orientation, t61 battery or the number of columns in the document -- there is no easy way to accomplish these tasks from what we can tell. Images and drawings can also be edited into documents much like competitors, but charts are not to be found in this program. It is not as easy as copying and pasting into the document since users need to manually upload the images, which can be tedious. Imagery and charts t400 battery can also be aligned to the left, right, and center, but we never found a way to inspiron e1505 battery float text around the documents or do any advanced layouts without manually editing HTML code. It is even possible to import hand drawn images into the document using Google Docs "insert drawing" feature. College students should take note that Google Docs is missing one inspiron 1420 battery feature you might have learned to love -- an equation editor. In Office, complex equations and derivations can be easily written out, but no similar feature can be found in Google Docs. If a complex equation needs to be placed on screen, you might have to resort to an unprofessional drawing of the equation or use another tool like LATEX to generate an image. While Google Docs does have a word/spelling checker feature, it does vostro 1400 battery not check the spelling of the document in real time like Office; the tool has to be manually invoked through the menu bar. Google Docs does not have the ability to check the actual grammar or language of the document, so there's no easy way out of trying to figure out if you have any incomplete sentences. But Google Docs does have one very interesting revision control feature; it lets users browse through the history of the document, view changes between revisions as the document is edited over time, and helps divulge which users have made what edits and when. That is really useful for when you want to put retrieve that paragraph you deleted a week ago -- it is as simple as browsing through the history of the document. GOOGLE SPREADSHEET Spreadsheet definitely gives Microsoft Excel a run for its money. While pa3534u-1brs the interface might not be as sleek as the ribbon layout of Excel, this tool basically does everything that Excel is capable of. It has a very limited set of supported fonts and sizes but it has the necessary basics. Formatting particular cells for financial spreadsheets, engineering or math homework, or other needs is noticeably more user friendly than Office 2007. Google's solution also supports sorting through columns and inserting "gadgets" which can be used to create graphs, charts, maps, and other visual presentations of information. We were not particularly crazy that non-Google gadgets could be used without being able to view their source code, however it is possible to create your own "gadgets" should you we willing to learn the Google API. More powerful features of spreadsheet programs such as advanced formulas,pa3535u-1brs look-up functions, and data validation are found in Google Docs as well. It is difficult to check that Google Docs meets Office 2007's list of functions and equations feature for feature, but it certainly seems that all the important stuff is there. Google Spreadsheet also had equation solvers that help minimize or maximize particular equations and criteria; a useful feature for businesses trying to keep costs down and profits up. Just note that the importable file size is limited to one megabyte, so those monster data sets you're used to appending to your Excel spreadsheets won't fly here. GOOGLE PRESENTATION Google Presentation is perhaps the least refined of the products in this suite. Gone are the numerous styles and templates, the charts and graphs, or even the most basic of slide transitions. There are only five layouts and fifteen themes that can be applied to any slide; doing anything more complex requires the user to continually add text boxes and other objects and place them manually. Simple style changes that can really impact the professionalism of a presentation are just not there, and we are really not digging the fact that full-screen presentations still have a bottom bar advertising Google. All of the menu-based text editing tools found in Google Documents can also be found in Presentation, but the advanced HTML and CSS editing tools (which could really improve this program) are nowhere to be found. All in all, this particular tool feels quite clunky and not user-friendly. The presentations made using this toll will appear, if not childish, certainly unrefined. But it is free, and it can work for basic presentations if need be. CONCLUSION We can never really complain (too much) when something is free, but in Google Docs' case we do have a winner. Some of the tools may not be as refined as Microsoft Office's solutions, but most of them can hold their own against their larger competitor. If a particular feature is not available, users might be able to code up their own solution or Google may implement the feature in a future revision of their continually improving suite of products. While Google Docs does suffer the same vulnerabilities as cloud computing (if Internet access is not available, work cannot be accessed), but this suite certainly offers a host of collaboration and productivity tools that are definitely worth a try for home and office users alike. PROS Solid Word & Excel alternative Robust CSS/HTML tweaking Import/export most filetypes CONS Weak presentation program Breaks some MS Office files Requires net access (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
5:36 pm	LogMeIn Free Review by Greg Ross LogMeIn Free's remote access software promises access to your computer's data from any Internet-connected PC.Acer Aspire One battery Is this the frequently traveler's dream application, or just another kludgy third-party replacement for Windows XP remote desktop. Read our LogMeIn Free review to find out. Account Creation and Program Installation In order to install LogMeIn onto any computer, vgp-bps9 or access any computer from the Internet, users need to first create a LogMeIn account . LogMeIn offers several products tiers; this review will focus on the LogMeIn Free product offering. Signing up costs nothing but a minute of time, though opting out of some of the information and offers emails might be advised. In general, the LogMeIn signup process is bit drawn out and has a few quirks, but nothing terribly cumbersome. Among the minor oddities: LogMeIn asks for a description of the computer. This a1185 does not have to be the computer's name or Internet address or anything like that. This description is merely what LogMeIn will call the computer later on when you try to access it. If your computer's administrator account does not have a Windows password, LogMeIn will ask the user to create a new access code for the computer. This security measure does not create a new Windows password, it just protects the computer from prying eyes. LogMeIn asks for proxy settings that apply to the compaq presario v3000 battery computer in question. Few users will ever need to enter any information here. After the installation is complete, no rebooting or restarting is compaq presario v6000 battery necessary. The computer is now ready to be accessed from any 'net-connected PC. Installation of LogMeIn is a bit longer than preferred, but it is not too long nor too complicated. Despite this, the program only took a few trouble-free minutes to install. Program Interface In order to access the target computer from another location, users hp dv2000 battery will need to log back into LogMeIn from their mobile computer or public access station. When a computer is offline it will show up in the main menu as a grayed out option. If the target computer is online and working a blue link will appear instead. Clicking on the blue link will start the remote access session. The main screen for the remote session presents a compact list of options in the sidebar. Users can either choose to jump right into the remote control program or go through the help or preference pages. The preferences page presents a series of pages and settings that are all a few hp dv6000 battery clicks away. Advanced remote control settings can be configured, security can be altered and additional levels of protection can be implemented, or various other network settings and log files can be accessed. The program also gives the user the option to restart LogMeIn on the target computer, or completely reboot the target computer, in order to solve any issues that might come up with the computer. While it is not a feature that will probably need to be used often, being able to remotely reboot a computer will certainly help in the unlikely event of a computer or application crash. There are a few settings in particular that we want to bring to our readers' attention. By t60 battery clicking on the Remote Control option within the preference page, users can access some very important settings, particularly the Security section. Unless users are tutoring someone else watching the target screen, it would be advised to disable the target's keyboard, mouse, and monitor during the remote control session. If that is not done, someone else will be able to see everything you do and get in the way by typing or taking control of the mouse. These options can be configured during the remote control session as well. From within the Remote Control session itself, the target computer's desktop t61 battery is the centerpiece of the application. The sidebar is the same one previously discussed, while the top bar now pops up to present a wide variety of new options. The layout is very user-friendly, and the options are easy to understand. As mentioned before, the screen, keyboard and mouse can be disabled on the target computer here as well. Training or help sessions could also be run via LogMeIn as well. A chat screen can be enabled to interact with a user sitting at the target computer, while the Whiteboard feature can draw figures on screen or the Laser feature can point to specific items in a program. The visual quality and resolution of the remote session can also be adjusted. Color quality can be reduced to reduce latency, or enhanced if there is plenty of bandwidth available. The display resolution can also be adjusted as needed, though the available resolutions are somewhat limited (mostly 4:3 aspect resolutions like 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, etc, etc). Full screen mode is also available for users that prefer the appearance of actually working at the target computer's location, and it also makes the best use of available screen real estate. If necessary, LogMeIn can zoom in and out as well. The program also supports multi-monitor viewing in the event the target computer has two monitors. Performance During the evaluation period, the target computer was connected to the Internet via a t400 battery 6Mbit DSL connection. The computer used to access the target was connected to the same DSL connection for a high-speed test, or connected to the Internet using a public WiFi hotspot in the same city. On the target computer, LogMeIn had no impact on the target system's performance and it needed very few system resources to operate. When using home and home office applications, LogMeIn was snappy with little to no latency or stuttering most of the time. Opening, closing, moving, or resizing windows does produce some latency, but it is certainly understandable for a remote connection. Viewing streaming video does produce stuttered video clips, but once again remote access applications really are not meant for it. But to LogMeIn's credit -- and unlike some competing products -- the remote access interface did not lock up when streaming video was playing. Outside of those constraints, LogMeIn did impress us with its capabilities. We had no problem working with the operating system and all the programs installed on the computer; inspiron 1420 battery it was almost like we were sitting at the actual target computer. We could reinstall or run applications, change settings in the OS, open up Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Excel and work on a file, and do virtually any other task the target computer is capable of performing. It is also possible to access your computer using a wide variety of system configurations. We had no issue accessing the target computer using Internet Explorer 7, IE8, Firefox 2, or FF3. LogMeIn also supports Mac computers, which suggest that Safari is also supported, though we did not test this theory. LogMeIn Free also allows the user to remotely control and access any number of computers from anywhere. One account can easily be used to access your work computer, your media server, home computer, laptop, and even your grandmother's computer for free. Limitations and LogMeIn Pro LogMeIn Free, while it does a great job providing access to computers remotely, is a slimmed down version of a much more powerful LogMeIn Pro. LogMeIn Pro costs about $70 per year per computer, though bulk discounts are available. LogMeIn Free is not able to share printers, or directly share files between the two computers, or keep files between two computers synchronized. However, the pay-to-play version LogMeIn Pro does have those abilities. Given the cost of LogMeIn Free (or rather the lack thereof), there are no complaints here. Conclusion LogMeIn Free is a very impressive tool that provides a quick and easy way to remotely access, control, and use computers while away from home or work. LogMeIn Free can be installed on any number of computers in any location, and the program is very snappy and smooth. Since it is freeware, it does not offer remote audio streaming nor file sharing/synchronization, but a more powerful version is available at a fair price for those that need these advanced features. This program has met all of our expectations; it works and works well. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
5:59 pm	acer aspire one laptop review Acer Aspire One battery is a line of subcompact notebook computers, or netbooks, released in July 2008 by Acer Inc. It is based on the Intel Atom platform, which consists of the Intel Atom processor, Intel 945GSE Express chipset and Intel 82801GBM (ICH7M) I/O controller, and is available in several shell colors: seashell white, sapphire blue, golden brown, onyx black, and coral pink. The line is manufactured for Acer Inc. by Quanta Computer.Quanta will be phased out as a supplier to Acer; production of the Acer Aspire One vgp-bps9 line will be shifting to other manufacturers in 2009. Its main competitors in the low-cost netbook market are the Asus Eee PC a1185 line and the Dell Inspiron Mini 9. With recent entries from Asus, MSI, Sylvania, and models from Dell and Lenovo on the way, the Netbook field is becoming increasingly crowded. While many of the second-generation Netbooks are creeping toward mainstream laptop prices, we're pleased to see the smart-looking Acer Aspire One compaq presario v3000 battery holding the line at $379, without skimping too much on features or design. Despite the wallet-friendly price and large keyboard, we have a few reservations. For one, the system comes with only 512MB of RAM, which limits its performance. For another, the battery life is nearly as bad as that of the otherwise excellent MSI Wind; both hover about the 2-hour mark--far too little juice for such a mobile machine. And the Linux OS of our review unit limits its mass appeal, though we're pleased to see that an XP Home version of the Aspire One compaq presario v6000 battery also includes 1GB of memory and a 120GB (spinning) hard drive for only $20 more. Still, this is easily the best all-around Netbook we've seen for less than $400, although similarly priced upcoming entries from Lenovo and Dell may make the Aspire's window of opportunity rather small. Physically, the Aspire One hp dv2000 battery is very similar to the slightly larger, pricier 10-inch MSI Wind, with a reasonably large keyboard that's much easier to use than the tiny almost smartphone-like keys found on the Asus Eee PC 901 or the Sylvania G Netbook. That's because the Aspire is a little wider than the Asus, and it's also a few ounces lighter, thanks in part to only having a small 3-cell battery. We were please to see that it includes dedicated page-up and page-down keys, which are especially useful on devices with smaller screens that require lots of scrolling to get through long Web pages. The touch pad is wide, but not very deep, giving it a letterbox-style look, similar to the one found on the HP hp dv6000 battery 2133 Mini-Note. It's reasonably easy to use, at least as far as the small touch pads on Netbooks go. The mouse buttons are positioned to the left and right of the touch pad--not below it--which may take a little getting used to for touch-typists. The 8.9-inch wide-screen LCD offers a 1,024x600-pixel native resolution, which is the same as found on other 9- and 10-inch Netbooks, such as the Asus Eee PC 901 t60 battery and the MSI Wind. It's wide enough to display most Web pages correctly, but you'll find yourself frequently engaged in vertical scrolling. The Aspire One is generous with the USB ports, offering three, but there's no Bluetooth, so tethering your smartphone for mobile broadband is out of the question (which we've successfully done with the Asus Eee PC 901). Like all Netbooks we've seen up to this point, it lacks an ExpressCard slot, which the upcoming Lenovo IdeaPad S10 is expected to offer, making it easy to use a mobile broadband card. The dual SD card slots are handy for expanding on the 8GB solid-state hard drive, especially since Netbooks with 20GB and 40GB SSD drives are now available (although at higher prices). With Intel's new 1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, specifically designed for low-power Netbooks, you're not going to find the same level of performance you'd get from even an inexpensive Core 2 Duo laptop. The Linux-based system wasn't able to run our usual suite of benchmarks (which use Windows and Mac applications such as iTunes, Microsoft Office, and Adobe Photoshop), but even the light Linux OS felt occasionally sluggish (thanks, in part, to having only 512MB of RAM) when using the preinstalled Open Office suite of productivity software t61 battery , although Web surfing was generally trouble-free. For everyday use, however, our anecdotal tests showed that it offers a faster, smoother experience than another $399 Netbook we recently looked at, the Sylvania G Netbook. The Acer Aspire One ran for 2 hours and 14 minutes on our video playback battery drain test, using the included 3-cell battery. That's barely more than the MSI Wind, which was also saddled with a puny 3-cell battery--and the biggest flaw for both systems. MSI plans to upgrade its battery to a 6-cell version in the near future, and Acer offers a 6-cell battery that we've seen online for $119--a large premium for such an inexpensive laptop. The Aspire One includes an industry-standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty, and Acer has set up a separate mini-site for the Aspire One, including a page labeled "drivers and support." Unfortunately, that support page, and its subpages, have no content aside from a note that says, "Updates coming soon." The regular Acer Web site has some FAQs and driver downloads, but the tech support number is impossible to find (it's 800-816-2237), and the phone support hours are only 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT weekdays, and 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
4:40 pm	laptop battery mag Laptopbatterymag.com sells batteries at discounted prices. We offer a wide range of quality laptop accessories for most major brands including Dell, Lenovo/IBM, Compaq/HP, Apple, Sony, Toshiba, Acer, Fujitsu etc. Our continuing efforts to offer reliable laptop batteries and other battery has put us at the top for replacement parts. Our compatibility information is the best in the industry, as we guarantee 100% compatibility with all of our products. All of our new laptop parts and laptop batteries come with a one year warranty. We believe that Laptopbatterymag.com provides its customers with a superior shopping experience, making buying batteries less of a chore. (Comment on this)