The machine can be equipped with up to 16 gigabytes of memory, which is a means of future-proofing the laptop, but hardly necessary for most users. Its included 4GB is sufficient in most circumstances, but some users that work with memory-hogging applications like Photoshop might want to upgrade to 8GB. There is no dedicated GPU in the R835-P56X–the graphics are handled by Intel’s integrated graphics processor HD 3000. This one does a satisfactory job when it comes to common applications and video playback, but is not suitable for games. Based on experience with this chip, it is capable of older and less demanding games like World of Warcraft or Half Life 2 with the detail settings turned down. Otherwise the processor is very powerful for a laptop in this size category.

Design and Features

The laptop is equipped with an optical drive–something that most 13.3-inch laptops in this size and weight range do not have. At the same time, most users can get by without the optical drive today, so arguably Toshiba could have saved some weight and shipped the laptop with an external drive, or none at all. In terms of overall design, the R835-P56X is an elegant and sophisticated machine, even if it’s not as slim as the Samsung series 9 or the MacBook Air–none of which have made room for an optical drive.

Compared to a few other 13.3-inch laptops on the market now, such as the aforementioned, the R830 is not among the thinnest, but it is still a compact and convenient PC. If you take into that it comes with an optical drive and a standard-voltage processor, the weight and measurements – 12.44 inches x 8.94 inches x 1.05 inches and just 3.2 pounds – are more than OK. The chassis is a combination of a magnesium alloy and plastic to keep the weight to a minimum.

The display is a glossy “TruBrite” LCD with LEDs used for back-lighting and the overall brightness is good, as is color reproduction. It has a resolution of 1366×768 pixels, which is well suited for subnotebooks–this has become a standard resolution and is often used in laptops all the way up to 16″, but it is much better for 11 to 13-inch laptops.

You can connect to an external monitor (or HDTV) via VGA or HDMI and both display ports are located on the same side of the laptop, along with a USB 3.0 “Super Speed” port. On the other side of the laptop is a USB 2.0 / eSATA combo port. It also has a regular Gigabit LAN port and a memory card reader, as well as headphone/mic jacks.

The R835′s keyboard and trackpad combination is very likable. The keyboard is spill-resistant and quite firm, although it makes some noise while typing. There is some basic multi-touch functionality in the trackpad, and it is not too large or too small.

In terms of preinstalled software, the Toshiba R835 comes with some of the usual bloatware, but also some pretty good software for system monitoring diagnostics.

Performance and Battery Life

The lion’s share of notebooks in the thin-and-light market use LV or ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processors that have a lower power consumption but also significantly lower performance. In the R835-P56X, however, Toshiba has opted for a standard voltage CPU, which does a great deal for performance while the impact on the laptop’s battery life is quite small.

During what you could call “regular use”–opening standard applications and editing documents etc, we managed to get a running time of over eight hours, which needless to say is very good. This was with the screen brightness set to a medium setting. Using it with full brightness will cut off at least half an hour from that number. A full day’s work on a standard voltage processor is nevertheless excellent and more in line with what you’d expect from a throttled low-voltage CPU. During video playback it lasted for about five hours, which is also a good figure.

Thanks to the aforementioned processor, the laptop is very responsive in most applications. There is some noise from the fan under slightly heavier load, but during normal office application use it’s not at all disturbing.

Summary and Conclusion

Toshiba’s Portege series has previously been marketed as a premium laptop with a significant price markup to match. It is arguably still a premium laptop, but thanks to the fierce competition in this segment, Toshiba has had to lower the price even on their ultraportable range. It currently sells for about $799, which has to be considered excellent value for money. Considering this laptop’s low weight and small measurements it also packs a punch in the performance department.

Sony’s VAIO YB line is built around AMD’s new Fusion processor E-350–a dual-core CPU running at 1.6GHz. This processor is roughly comparable to the entry-level Core i3 series from Intel; although the CPU is not as capable, the graphics part easily outperforms the integrated offerings from Intel. That doesn’t turn a mini laptop such as this one into a full-fledged gaming laptop, but the included Mobility Radeon HD 6310 GPU lets you play less demanding games like World of Warcraft and watch HD content without any lag.

Sony VAIO YB Prices:
		$499.99
		$499.99

AMD’s platform also compares favorably from a price/performance perspective. This also contributes to this Sony VAIO laptop standing out from other computers in the VAIO lineup, which tend to be expensive. The YB is equipped with an attractive price tag–from $500 to $600–a very rare sight on Sony laptops and also much less expensive than competitors such as the 11-inch MacBook Air.

Design and Features

The VAIO YB is a lightweight and stylish mini laptop with a glossy 11.6-inch screen with 1366 x 768 pixels–a screen resolution that is perfectly suited for a laptop this size. The very same screen resolution is often found in laptops all the way up to 15-16 inches, but it is much more at home on a smaller screen and allows you to watch 720p HD content. As is customary with Sony laptops, the display offers nice colors and deep blacks, making it a great option for watching movies. It is however not overly bright, so using it in bright daylight might be a problem.

Compared to some of the more expensive VAIO laptops from Sony, the chassis and overall design details are made up of simple materials, although it looks more extravagant from a distance. For a laptop at this price point you don’t really expect fancy alloys like in the Samsung 9 Series, and it helps keep the weight manageable. It is lightweight (3.23 lbs) even when compared to the average 12-inch netbook these days and is available in two different colors–a pronounced pink or a silvery version.

Battery Life and Performance

The new AMD Fusion platform is much more power efficient compared to older ones from AMD,  but that’s still just barely enough to match Intel’s counterparts. As always, the battery life is entirely dependent on how you use the laptop; if you play games on it, don’t expect it to last for much more than 2 hours, but if you are just doing office work it will easily last for 5 hours. We ran PCMark Vantage on the laptop, which produced a score of 2,163. This is on par with other Fusion-based mini laptops and much better than the average Atom-based netbook.

Considering the important factors for this laptop–price, performance and battery life–the VAIO YB is a good buy that offers plenty of value for the money, something that we are not used to with Sony laptops which usually focus on the high end. Some cutbacks have been made in the choice of materials and it’s not as exclusive (or powerful) as the more pricey MacBook Air or Samsung Series 9, but this is hardly surprising. At the end of the day it’s a great laptop at this price point.

Sony VAIO YB Prices:
		$499.99
		$499.99

Specifications

Processor: AMD E-350, 1.6 GHz.
Graphics: AMD Radeon 6310
Memory: 2GB to 4GB.
Storage: 320 GB HDD, 5400 rpm.
Connectivity: 3 USB 2.0, LAN, HDMI, VGA, headphone, microphone.
Wireless: 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.
Display: 11.6 inches, 1366 x 768 pixels
Webcam: 0.3 megapixels
Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium
Weight: 3.23 lbs (1.43 kg)

Thanks to a speedy solid state drive instead of the old and tired 1.8-inch hard drives, the MacBook Air boots from off state to a fully usable desktop in less than 20 seconds–from sleep state less than 5 seconds. The difference between the two available models of the 11-inch MBA is coincidentally the SSD, which comes in either 64 or 128 GB capacities.

Impossible Not to Like

The 11.6-inch aluminum surface confers a genuine feeling of luxury. Anyone who sees this laptop for the first time is invariably impressed by the design and the slim shape. It weighs just over two pounds, which isn’t that much less than the 13-inch MacBook Air but it is exceptionally thin and light nonetheless. Even the most hardened Apple skeptic will have a difficult time pretending not to admire the design.

Thanks to the SSD, there are no moving parts whatsoever except the cooling fan in the 11-inch MacBook Air which helps keep the noise level to a minimum. Even when the fan is active it is barely audible even in an otherwise completely silent room.

Snow Leopard on a Stick

As in the previous iterations, there is no optical drive included. A so-called SuperDrive has to be purchased separately and connected via USB. It is also possible to use remote disks over the network. This works on both Mac and Windows computers and you will find software for this purpose on Apple’s support pages.

A clever and welcome change is that OS X will install from a USB stick (included) instead of a DVD. OS X is of course preinstalled with the laptop, so the USB stick is really only needed when you need to reinstall, troubleshoot or reset the password. It’s still a great idea that we hope to find in more laptops eventually, not just MacBooks. The stick for the MacBook Air is very small, though, so store it in a safe place .

OS X will in fact recognize the USB stick as an optical drive and it is seen by Disk Utility as a read-only drive. In other words there is no option to erase it either unintentionally or otherwise.

Performance and Features

The processor is a low-voltage Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 with a clock speed of 1.4GHz. This isn’t a particularly fast processor by regular laptop standards these days, but it’s several times faster than one of Intel’s Atom CPU that you find in netbooks. Considering the size of the laptop, the SU9400 is most likely the best option.

In combination with the super quick solid state drive it is still a very responsive system. Because of the flash drive, there are certain situations where the MacBook Air will outperform even a MacBook Pro 13 (sans SSD of course) despite its lower clock speed such as file copying. This is no surprise, as we measured its reading and writing speed to about 210/185 megabytes per second. This isn’t the fastest among SSDs but still still four or fie times faster than a regular laptop hard drive.

You will never notice the lower clock speed of the CPU while doing everyday tasks such as downloading of web pages. However, when it comes to heavy-duty calculating like transcoding video or applying filters in Photoshop, the Macbook Air shows that it’s a low-voltage laptop after all.

The base configuration of the Macbook Air is equipped with two gigabytes of internal memory, which can be upgraded to four gigabytes. This is a good investment, as two gigabytes is on the low side for those who want to run multiple applications simultaneously. If you plan on running Windows 7 on it via Boot Camp, it’s an even more important upgrade. It’s also worth noting that the internal memory is located on special connectors and can’t be upgraded easily down the line. So the best alternative is to upgrade right away.

The Nvidia 320M graphics card uses an additional 256 megabytes of internal memory, so you won’t even get the full 2GB with the base configuration. On the other hand the 320M is a very nice addition to the MacBook Air as it accelerates video playback and allows you to play some casual games like World of Warcraft. The 1366×768 display is nice and bright and the resolution is perfectly suited for an 11.6-inch panel.

The battery is built to last for five hours, which is true if you are just doing basic stuff like office work or browsing the web. If you start some power-hungry applications such as video editing with Premiere, you can cut at least three hours off that number.

Keyboard and Speakers

Something that might disappoint users of the previous generation MacBook Air is the lack of an illuminated keyboard. Nowadays this is a feature that is only available with the MacBook Pro. Having a back-lit keyboard is obviously an advantage when using the computer in the dark, and it will be missed by many. For most prospective buyers of the latest version this is hardly a deal breaker, but it’s too bad it had to go.

The speakers are located under the keyboard and just like nearly all other laptops the sound quality isn’t much to write home about. It is certainly adequate for video chat and system sounds, but not much beyond that. Thankfully there is a headphone jack available that only limits the sound quality to the quality of your headphones or headset.

Connectivity

Bluetooth and Wireless N network is included, but just like the last time you will have to purchase Apple’s ethernet adapter for USB if you need wired network access. On the right of the laptop is a Mini Display Port, which can even power Apple’s 27-inch Cinema Display, as well as a USB port.

On the left side sits the MagSafe charger connector and a welcome addition from the previous generation: a second USB 2.0 ports. Also on the left is a headphone jack that can handle iPhone headsets and a tiny microphone.

A Laptop Like No Other

The 11-inch MacBook Air has to be judged for what it is: an ultraportable among ultraportables. It was never intended as an alternative to the MacBook Pro or other high-end laptop. In view of its size, we have to say that it performs admirably–sometimes better than the previous generation and at a lower cost. If it were equipped with a more powerful processor it would overheat quickly and run out of battery power equally fast.  The computer is still perceived as very responsive in most circumstances thanks to its rapid SSD.

Its small netbook-like size and lower price tag will no doubt help it reach a wider audience compared with the old Macbook Air. The screen is of sufficient quality, the keyboard is full size, and the performance is adequate. The comparatively fast 320M graphics card from Nvidia and the addition of an extra USB port makes the MacBook Air 11 interesting for anyone who needs a tiny yet reasonably powerful computer that can can definitely be brought along anywhere.

Specifications

• 1.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor
• 2GB RAM (max 4GB)
• 64 or 128 GB SSD
• Nvidia Geforce 320M
• 2 USB 2.0, Bluetooth, 802.11n
• TN panel, 1366×768 pixels

High Quality Build

Our first impression of the Vostro V130 is its above-average build quality. The impression of the very compact design and generally robust build is reinforced by the fact that Dell has used aluminum and magnesium surfaces for the coating on most of the machine. The design of the Vostro V130 is somewhat unconventional in that it is completely flat on the edges of the front and back, and that part of the laptop protrudes at the back behind the lid.

Despite the slight bulge behind the screen it can be bent quite far back, which might be good to know if you frequently use it on your lap. On the whole, the V130 looks very classy and professional, its $399 entry price point notwithstanding. It is definitely an attractive option in several ways for design-conscious home and business users alike. The LCD panel has a matte non-reflective coating, which is usually the preferred choice in business laptops. This usually means that you lose some of the color vibrancy in exchange for improved readability in bright surroundings, but the panel on the V130 looks colorful enough.

Another interesting design choice is that Dell has placed all ports at the back of the laptop. This is practical in some ways but it wholly depends on how your normal working environment looks. It is good to have all the cables in one place, but you don’t get the same flexibility as if there were USB ports on both sides of the laptop, which is the norm.

Click to enlarge

Usability/Ergonomics
The keyboard has full-size keys and is not scaled back in any way. Dell also deviated from the current trend by building the V130 with a “regular” keyboard instead of the chicklet type which is really popular these days. Which type you prefer is mainly a matter of personal preference. The keys below the track pad are excellent: soft and without any annoying clicking sound.

Overall, we will say that the ergonomics of the Vostro V130 passes with flying colors. One thing to keep in mind is that it takes in air at the back, and the machine becomes very hot if you block these intakes. Otherwise the fans are almost completely silent as long during light use, but they will spin up and give off some noise when you play HD video or perform any other demanding task.

The built-in speakers are OK as far as these things go. You can get a fairly high volume out of them without distortion, but like in virtually all other laptops the sound is tinny and unimpressive–even if the speakers happen to be branded Altec Lansing or whatever. The Vostro is nevertheless above average.

Battery Life and Benchmarks

With all of the power saving measures enabled, we managed to get 3 hours and 50 minutes out of the laptop, which is by no means impressive for an ultraportable. Moreover, the battery is internal and can easily not be replaced when the need arises.

Our PCMark Vantage score – based on a test that spans multiple real-world scenarios – landed at 5698, which is very impressive and probably thanks to the SSD and low-voltage Core i5 in our review unit. In our opinion, the dual-core Celeron ($399) option will probably be sufficient for most home and home office users, but if you upgrade it with an SSD and a Core i5 you will still have a comparatively affordable thin-and-light laptop that can compete with the best in its class for a fraction of the cost.

Also available in red

Conclusion

On the whole, the Vostro V130 is an amazing laptop considering the price tag, our only complaint being the battery life. It is perhaps not quite as eye-pleasing as the MacBook Air or the Samsung Series 9, but it is pretty close, and the mere fact that you can mention it in the same sentence as laptops that cost three to four times as much is impressive in itself. There’s no question that the Vostro V130 is a full-fledged ultraportable.

Specifications in our Review Model

- 13.3-inch WXGA display (HD ready, 1366×768 pixels)

- Intel Core i5 470UM (1.33 to 1.86 GHz)

- 128GB SSD

- 4 GB DDR3 RAM (800 MHz)

- Intel HD Graphics (graphics chipset)

- 3x USB 2.0, VGA, HDMI, Audio In / Out, 5-in-1 Card Reader

- Gigabit LAN (Ethernet), UMTS (3G), WLAN, Bluetooth 3.0

- Full-size keyboard / multi-touch touchpad

- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

- 6-cell lithium-ion battery

The Cupertino company has had great success with its smallest notebook since they lowered the price and updated the lineup with an 11-inch model. It has become something of a benchmark for competitors to respond to. Samsung has created a machine that trumps the 13-inch Apple machine’s dimensions and matches its weight.

Before building the Series 9, the discussion over at Samsung’s R&D department must have went something like this: “Build a computer that’s as thin as possible without compromising on performance. Also use some exotic materials and different design that give a sense of luxury. And by the way, don’t worry about the price tag, we’re not targeting the netbook market with this one. ”

Enter the Samsung Series 9, an ultraportable laptop built from an exotic alloy that includes magnesium, copper and manganese, among other things used in the framework of the airship Hindenburg. The good old hard drive is also gone in favor of a much faster 128GB SSD (solid state drive). Its processor is a low-voltage Intel Core i5 2537M from the latest Sandy Bridge Intel’s integrated graphics chip (actually, in this generation the term “integrated” is as accurate as it gets, as the graphics chip is in the same piece of silicon die as the processor).

Great-Looking and Capable

Samsung is perhaps the first Windows PC manufacturer to actually come close to Apple in terms of build quality and design. Dell has tried with the Adamo, as have others, but this one actually succeeds in matching and even surpassing the MacBook Air on some levels. The Series 9 feels solid even though it is exceptionally thin. The computer is fast enough for most tasks thanks to its speedy CPU (relative to MacBook Air); just about anything can be done on the Series 9 save for playing the latest 3D games.

On the whole, it’s a machine with muscle beneath its thin frame. The surprising speed of the computer is much thanks to the flash disk that has replaced the mechanical hard drive. It boots quickly, almost instantly wakes up from sleep mode and takes care of everything related to reading and writing from disk quickly and efficiently.

Great Display, USB 3.0

Samsung’s high-end ultraportable is exactly what one would expect from its rather hefty price tag and then some. Its display is also something that stands out, with bright colors, excellent viewing angles, and also excellent outdoor properties (again thanks to its generous brightness). Another nice touch is the USB 3.0 connector on one side of the Series 9.

There are only a couple of issues where the Samsung misses the Bullseye. The touchpad is large and comes with more or less the same multi-tough gestures as in the MacBooks, but it’s overly sensitive–responding to the slightest touch and sometimes gets in the way of typing. Another nuisance is the automatic brightness adjustments, which is also overly sensitive.

Conclusion

In spite of these minor shortcomings, Samsung has done an admirable job with the Series 9. The price tag puts it squarely in the premium segment, but compared to Apple’s Macbook Air, which is considerably less powerful, this doesn’t seem justified to complain about; you get a faster processor, twice the RAM, USB 3.0 and an Ethernet port.

The crux of the matter for Mac users is of course that you also get Windows 7 instead of Mac OS X. But as a Windows version of the MacBook Air, the Series 9 is the first laptop to pass with flying colors.

Samsung Series 9 13″/11″ Prices:
	$1149.00
	$1599.00

]]> http://minilaptopzone.com/2011/04/samsung-series-9-review/feed/ 0 http://minilaptopzone.com/2011/03/macbook-pro-13-review-2011-sandy-bridge-refresh/ http://minilaptopzone.com/2011/03/macbook-pro-13-review-2011-sandy-bridge-refresh/#comments Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:36:23 +0000 admin http://minilaptopzone.com/?p=722 My first 2 weeks with my first ever Mac, a 13-inch MacBook Pro, has simply been awesome. Now, I am a freelance tech blogger/writer who spends no less than 16 hours of every day in front of a laptop, prefers to have it running practically 24/7, and has a penchant for turning hotels, coffee shops, resorts, malls, or my car into a workplace. So that should be indicative of the kind of features I’ll be focusing on as I pen my review on this 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Long battery life

Ok, let’s start with battery life because this is the main reason I wanted to get a MacBook Pro in the first place. I like to have the freedom to work anytime anywhere and hate being curtailed by the absence of an AC socket and a dead battery.

The vaunted 7-hour battery life works as advertised. However, since I open at least 20 Web pages simultaneously (including at least 3 on Google Docs), hook up to the Internet via WiFi, and constantly maintain one download in the background, that number goes down to 5 or even 4 hours.

Still, that’s pretty impressive and exactly what I was looking for. Well, you could actually bring the hours back to 6 or even 7 if you only open a couple of Web pages but that would defeat the purpose of spending $1,400 on a laptop, right?

Impressive 13-inch screen

All right, I’m sure some of you folks are wondering why – since I value battery life so highly – I didn’t just get a netbook instead. First of all, I’ve got poor eyesight and even if I wore my glasses, peering into a dull, low-contrast, 10-inch display would force my eyes to give up before the battery would run out.

When netbooks first came out, I instantly believed the perfect ultra-portable laptop was finally born – lightweight, small form-factor, long battery life. But then that was before I actually came face to face with their diminutive displays.

In contrast, this MacBook Pro’s 13-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen (up to 1280×800 resolution) is way more than “just right”. Characters on the screen are clearly defined, videos and images are crisp and sharp. and colors are unbelievably bright. Combine that with the laptop’s overall size and battery life, and you’ve got the ultra-portable laptop you never even dreamed of.

Performance

The first two factors I mentioned earlier easily gave this laptop a head start over the competition. But what really allows this MacBook Pro to pull away even farther is its unwavering high performance. This MacBook Pro has already been with me for 2 weeks and the only times I had to restart it was when 1) I wanted to know how a restart on a Mac would look like, and 2) I wanted to see if restarting would help me detect a shared folder on a Windows-powered laptop.

But mostly, it ran 24/7 (downloading while I slept or ate). As mentioned earlier, I always work with a lot of windows. Watching online videos, reading PDFs, viewing Flash-enabled websites, and opening multiple Web pages simultaneously is all part of my daily routine. In fact, having 50 windows opened at the same time is not far fetched.

But despite what seems to be a CPU and RAM-intensive daily operation, never did I find it necessary to restart nor did I ever notice any lag. Well, just to nitpick, the system may have slowed down a wee bit a few instances but it certainly didn’t reach the point of requiring a reboot or premature closing of windows.

Credit for this awesome performance of course largely goes to the internal hardware. This 13-inch MacBook Pro runs on a dual-core 2.3-GHz Intel Core i5 backed by 4 GB of RAM.

Here’s some Summary and System Info of my system courtesy of Geekbench:

Highly efficient user interface

For the user interface, I’d like to focus more on the multi-touch trackpad because, prior to owning a MacBook Pro, I always relied on a mouse to fast track certain tasks.

Some of my commonly employed mouse gestures include: using the mouse’s scroll wheel to scroll up and down a page; pressing the CTRL button and turning the scroll-wheel to zoom in and out; right-clicking to bring up context menus; and click and dragging to view portions of a large image or virtual map.

With the MacBook Pro’s multi-touch trackpad, I can do the same tasks without taking my hand off the laptop. In addition, all tasks could be performed with just one hand (zooming with the mouse requires pressing the CTRL key).

Here are some illustrations to give you a better idea:

To scroll, just use two fingers. Flick upwards or downwards. If there’s a horizontal scroll bar, you can do a similar horizontal gesture. The trackpad’s inertia scrolling feature and quick response makes scrolling so soft and easy. You can use the same gestures to view different portions of a large document, image, or map.

To zoom out, just draw two fingers together (known as a pinch). Draw them apart to zoom in.

To bring up a context menu, just tap on the trackpad using two fingers.

Here’s another nifty feature. Want to rotate an image? Just use two fingers, twisting clockwise or counterclockwise to rotate accordingly.

Yes, all those are so easy, I even let my 3 year old kid demo for me. But since it costs so much (at least for me), I won’t dare let her near it after that.

Review by John Carl Villanueva

]]> http://minilaptopzone.com/2011/03/macbook-pro-13-review-2011-sandy-bridge-refresh/feed/ 0 http://minilaptopzone.com/2010/09/asus-1015ped-review-eee-pc/ http://minilaptopzone.com/2010/09/asus-1015ped-review-eee-pc/#comments Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:29:19 +0000 admin http://minilaptopzone.com/?p=617 The ASUS Eee PC 1015PED is the latest generation of Eee netbooks and combine an Intel Atom N475 processor clocked at 1.83GHz with 1GB of DDR3 RAM. The size is still the same 10.1 inches with a screen resolution of 1024 x 600. This way it retains the versatility of the netbook form factor while increasing performance (although not by much).

Design and Features

 

The laptop’s design is definitely an improvement on early versions of the Eee PC; 1015PED has a matte finish that doesn’t attract as much fingerprints as the glossy models. When lifting the lid of the Eee 1015PED you will be greeted by one of the popular and nice-looking chiclet keyboards that cover’s the entire width of the computer, and a fairly large trackpad. The latter has support for some multi-touch gestures.

In terms of connectivity, the ASUS 1015PED offers three USB 2.0 ports, 3.5mm ports for audio in and out, an Ethernet port and a VGA port – all part of the standard netbook equipment, but in addition it supports the  Wi-Fi n standard, which is nice, as well as Bluetooth 3.0 for hooking it up to your cell phone and other gadgets. Another small detail worth mentioning is the webcam with a clever lens cap that can be pushed over the webcam. The screen is an LED-backlit variant with a viewing angle that we experience as slightly better than average and with good color reproduction. Of course, with its limited 1024 x 600 resolution you will hardly be using it for photo editing.

Hardware and Performance

 

What’s arguably more interesting than the design on this Asus netbook is that it comes with the new Intel Atom N475 processor. This CPU is clocked at 1.83 GHz with a single core. While it doesn’t offer any massive performance improvements over the previous generation, it is clearly faster. Not fast enough for excessive multi-tasking or heavy workloads, but still with enough oomph to allow for a decent web browsing and office experience. Its PCMark score ended up at 1559 – a decent but not spectacular score in this category.In the Windows Experience Index, the 1015PED gets a 2.5 score thanks to the Atom CPU, whereas the RAM and hard drive scores better (4.5 and 5.5).

A gig of DDR3 RAM is all that’s allowed due to the restrictions for the platform. You can certainly get by with 1GB, but upgrading to 2GB is affordable and highly recommended. The restriction on the hard drive size is now up to 250GB – providing some added storage space.

Asus claims that you should be able to squeeze 13 hours of battery life out of the 1015PED, and maybe you can by turning off the display, wireless and disabling just about everything that makes the laptop usable. In the real world, when you actually do something useful on the computer, the battery lasts for about 7 hours.

Besides Windows 7 Starter, the 1015PED also comes with Asus Express Gate – an “instant on” operating system that lets you access some basic features such as a web browser, Skype and a few other apps.

Pros:

• Looks nice
• Fingerprint resistant finish
• Wi-Fi N and Bluetooth included
• Multi-touch trackpad and good keyboard

Cons:

• Weaker than expected CPU
• Forget about the 13 hour battery life

Asus 1015PED Prices:
	$329.99
	$346.97

]]> http://minilaptopzone.com/2010/09/asus-1015ped-review-eee-pc/feed/ 1 http://minilaptopzone.com/2010/07/asus-ul20a-review/ http://minilaptopzone.com/2010/07/asus-ul20a-review/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:56:27 +0000 admin http://minilaptopzone.com/?p=601 What is most surprising on the Asus UL20A is the price tag, which is way below other small laptops with similar features. It is also an elegant machine with a twelve inch screen and a brushed aluminum lid. Neither is the UL20 heavy in comparison with a weight of just over three pounds. The computer comes in two colors; black and, in this editor’s opinion, a still more elegant silver version.

The computer’s overall performance is significantly better than any netbook. The processor in this variant is an Intel SU7300, which crushes netbook Atom CPUs and keeps pace with others in this segment. As usual, however, the integrated Intel GMA graphics chip is not a good performer.  It can decode HD video and handles 2D graphics efficiently, but it is too slow for any 3D games from the last few years.

Acer Aspire One 10.1" Prices:
		$230.00
		$251.95
		$269.00

This configuration of the Asus UL30A came with two gigabytes of RAM memory, which is good enough for most users and gives you the opportunity to run more than a few apps in parallel. If you only want to do something quickly, like checking your email or chatting on Skype, there is also a mini operating system called Express Gate installed that starts in a few seconds instead of Windows.

Specifications

• 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo Processor
• 2GB of DDR2 RAM, 2 Slots, 4GB Max
• 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM), No Optical Drive
• 12.1″ WXGA LED LCD Display, Wi-Fi 802.11 bgn, 0.3M Webcam
• Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
• 7.5 Hours of Battery Life

Asus’ UL20A is pleasantly quiet. A light sigh from fans is all that is heard. Not even long-term number crunching that puts full load on the CPU, graphics and hard drive causes excessive noise. That, in combination with the excellent battery life of over seven hours are this laptop’s greatest strengths.

Benchmarks

• PCMark Vantage Overall Score: 2535

If you want to use your computer to watch movies, you’ll be pleased by the display, which offers excellent blacks and accurate colors. Unfortunately the maximum brightness is a bit low, which may cause problems for ordinary office work in the bright environments or outdoors. Another good thing for the aforementioned movie is a set of unusually powerful speakers. In all, if you have been considering a netbook, also take a look at the UL20A for comparison. I’m sure you will find that it offers a considerable amount of added value even if it costs a little more (but not much).

]]> http://minilaptopzone.com/2010/07/asus-ul20a-review/feed/ 0 http://minilaptopzone.com/2010/07/acer-timelinex-series-reviewoverview/ http://minilaptopzone.com/2010/07/acer-timelinex-series-reviewoverview/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:39:31 +0000 admin http://minilaptopzone.com/?p=575 The slim and nice-looking Timeline series from Acer has now been given an X at the end. This means a re-design and some pretty significant hardware updates. Instead of the familiar gray appearance, it is now a brushed black aluminum, and this sits well with the rest of the design. It is not a big update of the design–rather a refinement, but why do more and potentially spoil a popular concept? The TimelineX laptops could easily pass for elegant business machines even if their more likely target audience is home users.

Instead of the aging dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs, the new Timelines have been given the significantly faster Core i5 and Core i3 processors, which are also dual-core, but effectively four thanks to Intel’s re-introduced Hyperthreading technology.  The difference between the Core i3 and i5 is that the latter also supports the Turbo Boost feature, which increases the clocks dynamically when the laptop is under heavy load in applications that only utilize one thread (virtual or physical processor core).

What sets the TimelineX (as well as Timeline) series apart from the rest of Acer’s notebook lineup is that all of them are very thin and light compared to conventional laptops. They are available in sizes ranging from the 11.6-inch AS1830T and AS1810T, via the 13-inch AS3820T/AS3810T, 14-inch AS4820T, up to the larger (but also relatively thin and light) 15-inch AS5820T (view the full lineup here). All come with LED-backlit panels with 1366×768 resolution with the 16:9 aspect ratio. Acer also stresses that these laptops are environmentally friendly–manufactured with mercury-free components.

Thin ‘Gaming Laptops’ with Long Battery Life

Another surprise – considering these laptops’ svelte figure – is that some of them are equipped with a relatively powerful graphics card: the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 with 1GB of dedicated GDDR3 memory. This graphics card handily runs games like World of Warcraft, but if WoW feels too old it also runs all of the latest titles – the 5650 GPU is actually faster than the Nvidia GT330M in the MacBook Pro lineup.

A further boost to the media cabability of the TimelineX series is the addition of HDMI output, which are very practical for hooking up your computer to an HDTV or other screen. There is also support for Dolby Home Theater–something that you’ll notice only when the computer is attached to a similarly capable home theater setup.

The screen on all of the Acer TimelineX laptops have the same HD resolution, 1366 x 768 pixels. They are LED backlit and incredibly sharp, rich color display and high contrast. However, the fact that the same screen resolution is used across the entire series means that the smallest, 11.6-inch model has a much higher effective resolution than its 15-inch counterpart. On the largest model, this is barely ebough while it is more than sufficient for the smaller notebooks. Speaking of the screen, the lid is very nice and thin, and all of the models are equipped with a webcam on the inside as usual.

Summary

Acer is one of the major manufacturers today, and often we see quality drop as manufacturers grow too large. This is fortunately not the case here. Acer has created an excellent product in its TimelineX lineup. It has all the benefits–they have updated the design and made it somewhat darker and more elegant, which will no doubt appeal to the business segment as much as to consumers. The laptops are thin (the 14-inch model is less than an inch thich at the palm rest area) and the weight is attractive, so there is no doubt that Acer has focused on mobility here.

At the same time, the notebooks come packed with the latest hardware–Acer has thrown in Intel Core i5 processors, and for those who are familiar with CPU model names, this means that there is a lot more power under the hood now than in the previous Core 2 Duo variants. These machines are capable of a lot more than word processing and web surfing, and the icing on the cake is that battery life is still excellent. We will hopefully have time to go into the details soon, on each of the specific models in the Acer TimelineX series.

]]> http://minilaptopzone.com/2010/07/acer-timelinex-series-reviewoverview/feed/ 0 http://minilaptopzone.com/2010/07/ferrari-one-200-review/ http://minilaptopzone.com/2010/07/ferrari-one-200-review/#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:17:10 +0000 admin http://minilaptopzone.com/?p=569 Acer is again deviating from the Intel Atom norm with its 11.6-inch Ferrari One netbook – it’s more capable than the average netbook, with an AMD dual core processor and integrated graphics capable of some light gaming (like, say, World of Warcraft).

Sony VAIO YB Prices:
		$499.99
		$499.99

The processor is an Athlon X2 L310, to be more precise. accompanied by the Radeon HD 3200 to help with some extra HD video performance and even a bit of 3D performance. In games, the Ferrari One 200 is better than the competition, but to be fair, the competition is by and large non-existent in the netbook segment, as most come with integrated Intel graphics. As a side note, it has an XGP port, which allows for an external graphics card to provide desktop-level gaming performance, but that’s an optional add-on.

In spite of offering up a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, the Ferrari One 200 is not that much faster than its Intel counterparts.  What makes it a lot better than the Intel competition in image editing and hardcore web browsing, on the other hand, are the 4GB of RAM – four times as much as the average Atom-based netbook. On the downside, the heat dissipation is high, just like in most AMD-based laptops. The computer requires relatively aggressive cooling settings most of the time, which also has a negative impact on noise. Battery life is still OK and thanks to a fairly large battery  it manages between 4-5 hours before going into hibernation.

One the whole though, the Ferrari One 200 is a clever machine. It comes with a high-quality keyboard and an excellent track pad. Its ports and buttons are well-placed, and the 11.6-inch display offers good color reproduction and ample brightness. On top of that, it also offers support for top-speed wireless, which is sadly lacking in many other netbooks.

PCMark Vantage: Total 2025, Gaming 1662, Productivity 1956

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