http://www.enunblog.com/moviechy/ en-us Webligo BlogHoster Sony VAIO T Series 15 (SVT15112CXS) Review and Ratings The Sony VAIO T Series 15—what we'll call the T15 Touch and Sony calls model SVT15112CXS—has a lot going for it, most conspicuously a sleek design and gorgeous 15.5-inch high-def display.Sony VAIO VGN-P50/G Battery And its $949 list price seems to be a thing of the past, with street prices around $880 or even less—attractive deals for a metal-bodied Core i5 portable with a 1080p touch screen and Sony's unmatched multimedia software bundle. It's not a perfect machine; we can grouse about the keyboard, touch pad, speakers, and Webcam. But it's a thoroughly capable one. SONY VAIO T13 Battery The T15 Touch speaks the same design language as the smaller VAIO T13 Touch we like so much, with a brushed aluminum housing and just enough chrome accents to liven things up. The light silver shell looks upscale and modern, and we admire the angular cuts of the front and rear edges that lend a sharp, tailored look. As we've said before, few companies do laptop-as-fashion-accessory as well as Sony. Best of all, the full metal jacket feels solid, an attribute that can't be replicated in a cheaper plastic-bodied laptop. DEll XPS L502x Battery Sony calls the T Series 15 an ultrabook, though we think it a bit bulky and heavy for the label at 0.9 inch thick and 5.2 pounds. But the T15 Touch includes the integrated optical drive many ultrabooks lack. Also unlike some others, the VGA connector and LAN jack are full-sized and do not require dongles. As for other ports, Sony included a USB 3.0 port (which can be used for charging other devices when the laptop is off) on the left side, along with an HDMI-out port; two USB 2.0 ports are on the right edge. DEll XPS L702x Battery As with most notebooks today, the VAIO employs a sealed battery that can't be swapped out during that long flight or never-ending meeting. However, it does seem Sony made some design tradeoffs to keep the T15 Touch under $1,000. While we appreciate the fact that the full-sized keyboard has a backlight and dedicated numeric pad, the keyboard itself is merely OK. The island-style keys are nearly flush with the backplane, and vertical travel feels too shallow. The plus side is that it takes only a light press to click a key—but that can be a detriment to typists who tend to slide their fingers heavily getting from key to key. ASUS ZenBook UX52A Battery And as with so many laptops, you won't find dedicated volume, mute, or multimedia playback buttons, even though the keyboard deck has ample space for them. Those actions require a function-key combination. The touch pad, too, is no great shakes. Unlike other big-screen laptops, which have generally made the switch to equally spacious pads, the T15 Touch sports a 4x2.25-inch touch pad that feels rather cramped. The one-piece pad is gesture-enabled, but the size means you won't be using that feature much. TOSHIBA PA5076R-1BRS Battery Also, we didn't like the feel of the matte coating, and pressing the lower right and left corners to activate the mouse buttons elicits a too-noticeable click. Where Sony clearly spent the money is on the screen. The 15.5-inch LED-backlit panel delivers full 1080p (1,920x1,080) resolution, and the edge-to-edge glass adds to the visual appeal. ASUS Eee PC 1025CE Battery The benefits of such a high-resolution panel are that text is exceedingly crisp and photo and video images look terrific—although the screen has a disappointingly narrow viewing sweet spot for video. The tradeoff of the 1080p resolution, of course, is that text can be tiny unless you set Windows to use large fonts and set your browser to open every window at 150 percent zoom. To better interact with Windows 8—and to quickly enlarge something that is too small to read with middle-aged eyes—the panel also features capacitive touch technology. ASUS Eee PC 1015PX BatteryZooming in and out, scrolling, flicking and other actions are smooth and effortless. The touch panel is also very precise, although given the high resolution of the screen some closely spaced targets (like close/minimize icons) must be tapped carefully so you don't hit the wrong one. One disappointment among the T15 Touch's features was the Webcam. It's only a 1-megapixel camera—one-third the resolution you're likely to have on your phone or tablet—and images are noticeably grainy. ASUS UX21E Ultrabook Battery We also couldn't find a lighting balance the camera liked. With a fairly bright desk lamp, the image exhibited dull colors and lots of motion blur. In daytime office light near a window, the subject was completely oversaturated and colors were washed out. The speakers built into the T15 Touch are par for the course among ultrabooks, which is to say merely passable. Audio quality is fine for videoconferencing, Web video, and even movies (if you don't need to shake the house), but music playback strains the speakers' abilities. DELL Latitude 10 Tablet Battery Playing The Killers' "Sam's Town" CD at top volume resulted in tinny, strident sound. If audio is your thing, consider hooking headphones or a set of powered desktop speakers to the laptop's headset jack. And if audio is indeed your thing, you've come to the right place—at least as far as the software bundle is concerned. Back in its heyday Sony used its war chest of cash to make strategic acquisitions, and it wound up with some top-notch multimedia-creation software in its stable. ASUS C23-UX21 The list on the T15 Touch includes VAIO Movie Creator, an easy, fun program that makes videos from the content and templates you select, as well as the higher-end Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12 for real video editing. For moving those creations to disc, you get Sony DVD Architect Studio 5. But the real gems are for music makers, who will find Sony Acid Music Studio 9 and Sound Forge Audio Studio waiting on the machine's hard drive. Dell XPS 12 Battery Other features of the T15 Touch are typical for a laptop in this price range. You get a 750GB hard drive, which is augmented by a 24GB SSD for keeping operating system files close at hand for notably fast boot (about 20 seconds) and wake-up (8 seconds) times. The optical drive is a multi-format DVD burner, which is fine for the price but a shame given that the 1080p screen begs for Blu-ray. Sony put Memory Stick and SD card slots up front, and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless inside. Sony VGP-BPS24 Battery Battery Life & Conclusion Back in the plus column, we were fairly pleased with the T15 Touch's battery life. It wasn't the longest, but four and a quarter hours is good for a machine with a large screen: Sony backs the T15 Touch with a one-year international warranty, with on-site or in-home service included—a nice bonus for a sub-$1,000 laptop. If only we could get a dedicated graphics chip and a Blu-ray player in the system for this price, we'd be ecstatic. As is, however, you get very good all-around performance in a design that's tough to top. Even with Sony bolstering its lineup with new VAIO Fit and Fit E models, the T Series 15 remains our preferred choice. A32-K55 Battery Here at Computer Shopper, we test hundreds of products a year, including a whole host of categories of laptops. All of them are given an Editors' Rating based on price, performance, and features, as well as other criteria. Price and features are always key purchasing factors, to be sure, but ultimately you need to make sure your PC has the necessary horsepower to handle the workload you'll subject it to. ASUS X75V Battery To measure how well a laptop performs, we run a series of industry-standard and proprietary benchmark tests to see how each PC stacks up against its competitors. We run a handful of tests—PCMark Vantage, Cinebench 10, 3DMark06, Windows Media Encoder, an iTunes Conversion Test, and our own battery rundown test—on every Windows-based laptop we review, be it a budget system or a high-end gaming rig. ASUS ZenBook UX51 Battery In addition, for notebooks that are equipped with dedicated graphics chips (as opposed to built-in, or integrated, graphics), we use the benchmark utility built into the real-world 3D game Company of Heroes to see how well the laptop is suited to gaming or running graphics-intensive applications. For gaming-specific notebooks, we also run the 3DMark Vantage benchmark suite, as well as the benchmarking utility built into the game Far Cry 2. ACER Aspire V5 Battery We run the graphics tests several times, at multiple screen resolutions and various detail settings, to determine how well the graphics processing unit (GPU) can render DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 instructions. These results tell us what level of game play you can expect, not only at a specific screen resolution but with special effects (such as high detail and anti-aliasing) enabled. HP Pavilion m6 Battery Bear in mind that seeing double the score with one laptop over another on any given test does not necessarily signify "twice the speed" or "twice the performance" in an absolute sense. You'll derive the maximum benefit from our lab test scores by comparing the results for a given PC to those of similar systems that you are considering. Doing so will illuminate where a system falls on the relative performance spectrum. Also note that small differences on a given test are more meaningful on some tests than others. HP ENVY m6 Battery The prices of the laptops also factor into this; see the descriptions of each test for more information. A note on general testing procedures. We test notebooks as they come out of the box, without driver updates. (If we update a driver under special circumstances, we mention this in the review.) All tests are done with the system detached from the Internet and local networks; one exception is our Far Cry 2 gaming test, which requires the laptop to be attached to the Internet for license-authentication purposes. ASUS Eee PC 1015PEM Battery Toshiba KiraBook Review and Ratings This will probably make this article seem as dated as disco before too long, but at this writing there is no Apple MacBook Air with Retina Display to go with the 13- and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros. If there were, however, it'd look a lot like Toshiba's KiraBook—a premium or executive-status-symbol ultrabook with an extra-sharp 2,560x1,440 screen, packing 78 percent more pixels than 1080p. Asus G74SX Battery Not cheap at $1,999 for the Core i7 touch-screen version tested, the KiraBook is the first in a new luxury brand from Toshiba—you can expect to see other Kira computers and probably a Kira TV in future—that the company says will showcase not only its finest technology but superior service akin to Apple's extra-cost AppleCare. The ultrabook's two-year warranty features "platinum" support, with 24/7 tech help including setup assistance and the ability to schedule a callback. Dell Latitude D530 battery The preinstalled Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Theft are good for two years, too. The center of all this attention is a 0.7-inch-thick portable that weighs just a hair less than three pounds (2.97 pounds for the touch-screen model; a non-touch Core i5 KiraBook priced at $1,599 is 2.66 pounds) and comes with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive. Compared to the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display$1,479.99 at B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio, the 13.3-inch KiraBook costs $300 more, albeit with a Core i7 and touch screen versus Core i5 and non-touch; weighs 0.6 pound less; and is just a fraction shy of the Retina's 2,560x1,600 pixel count and screen clarity (227 pixels per inch for the Apple, 221 ppi for the Toshiba). toshiba satellite l670d-103 battery We didn't have the MacBook Pro in the labs for a side-by-side comparison, but what Toshiba calls a PixelPure display looks terrific—bloomingly bright and razor sharp. On the minus side, while Toshiba thankfully provides a utility to enlarge icons and text, it's not an equivalent to the fully Retina-optimized programs built into Mac OS X and available from the Mac App Store. The system's sky-high resolution can make screen elements and pull-down menu text appear teeny-tiny; several times we found ourselves all but pressing our noses to the screen and looking through the bottoms of our bifocals, wishing we had a magnifying glass handy. HP Envy 14 battery If you don't have sharp eyes, you want to steer clear of the KiraBook. Similarly, using the touch screen with Windows 8's tiles and the Charms bar was fine; the Connect and Disconnect boxes in the wireless network list and Sleep, Shut Down, Restart choices of the Power menu were just about as small as things could get and still be touchable; and trying to use the touch screen with microscopic menus and dialog boxes in desktop mode was an exercise in frustration, like trying to touch one grain of sand on a beach or press an elevator button with your stomach. FUJITSU FPCBP64 battery The KiraBook is a handsome rounded wedge reminiscent of Toshiba's Portege Z935 ultrabook, though with slightly less sharp corners. Toshiba says its fingerprint-resistant silver-gray lid and keyboard deck are made of a pressed magnesium alloy that's twice as strong as the aluminum alloy used in the MacBook Air. There's some screen flex if you grasp the corners of the display, but none of the keyboard flex or vaguely flimsy feel that characterizes the Z935. DELL Latitude E5520 battery The unit's left side features an HDMI port and two USB 3.0 ports, one with Toshiba's "sleep and charge" functionality for handheld devices. On the right side are an SD card slot, a headphone/microphone jack, and a third USB 3.0 port. Ethernet and VGA are absent, though you can beam or stream the KiraBook's video and audio to an HDTV set with a third-party Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) adapter. Dell Inspiron 1750 battery The chiclet- or island-style keyboard offers well-spaced, square, slightly slippery keys. The layout takes a little getting used to—Home and End are near top right and PgUp and PgDn near bottom right, and all four, like the arrow and Delete keys, are half-sized. But typing feel is excellent, with adequate travel and crisp response. ASUS G75V battery The function keys default to their system control purposes, such as screen brightness and audio volume, with no need to press the Fn key. We also like the keyboard backlighting, which brightly illuminates each key with minimal leakage around the sides (and fades to battery-saving black after 15 seconds of inactivity). The attractive chrome ring around the touch pad doesn't hinder it from working smoothly with both cursor navigation and Windows 8 gestures. As for the glossy 13.3-inch screen, it's practically worth the price of admission. The LED-backlit panel is exceptionally bright, with washday-white backgrounds and inky blacks that, coupled with the lack of jaggies or visible individual pixels, make even plain word processing a pleasure. HP G61 battery Viewing angles are wide, and the screen's 2,560x1,440 sharpness, as you can imagine, lets you have a ball editing high-res images or watching 4K videos on YouTube. The Corning Concore Glass overlay collects fingerprints as does every touch screen we've tried, but the 10-point capacitive touch screen works well (given, as mentioned, the caveat of objects too small to touch). There's some screen wobble when tapping and swiping, but a sturdy hinge keeps it to a minimum. Fujitsu LifeBook C1211 battery Audio from the twin Harman Kardon speakers is impressive, easily loud enough to fill a room and not too tinny. It competes, however, with a cooling fan that whirs up whenever the KiraBook is working hard (and occasionally when it's just idling). During our performance benchmarks, the laptop sounded like a tiny taxiing jet, its noise noticed by coworkers 15 feet away. Toshiba PA3817U-1BRS With its 2.0GHz (turbo up to 3.1GHz) Intel Core i7-3537U processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB SSD, the KiraBook is a fast performer. For our benchmark charts, we compared it to two other Core i7 ultrabooks, the Acer Aspire S7-391-9886$1,529.00 at Amazon and HP Spectre XT TouchSmart$1,299.99 at HP Direct, as well as two Core i5 models—the Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch$799.99 at Amazon and the current 1,920x1,080-screened version of Dell's XPS 13 (tested by our sister site PCMag.com). Lenovo 57Y6601 battery The Toshiba edged the other two Core i7 contenders in our CPU-crunching Cinebench test, which puts a PC through a complex image-rendering exercise to measure its suitability for processor-intensive tasks: Battery Life & Conclusion The KiraBook offers good battery life for a lightweight system. In our strenuous video playback rundown, its 52WHr battery outlasted the other members of our test group, coming within sight of the six-hour mark: Samsung AA-PB9NC6B Configurations & Conclusion In addition to Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Theft, the Kirabook comes with the usual tiles and links (Skype, Netflix, eBay) plus a couple of applications that can make good use of its sharp screen—Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11 for photo and video editing, respectively. The $1,999 configuration also comes with Windows 8 Pro instead of ordinary Windows 8, although the ultrabook itself has no IT manageability features such as Intel vPro or TPM. ASUS K93S Battery As we said, the $1,599 KiraBook carries a Core i5 chip and non-touch screen. We suspect most shoppers will split the difference with a $1,799 model, which offers Core i5 power and Windows 8 but includes the touch screen that makes the latter bearable. All three models come with the PixelPure display, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, Adobe Elements duo, and "platinum" service package. ASUS N55 Battery Even with all that, it's hard not to think that the KiraBook is priced $200 or $300 above where it should be, mainly because of the Retina MacBook Pro-shaped elephant in the room. Both systems make text and graphics look splendid, but Apple has an ecosystem of Retina apps that Windows lacks, with eye-straining results. (The only other 2,560x1,440 Windows PC we know, Dell's XPS One 27 Touch$2,599.99 at Dell desktop, has a screen four times as large.) HP 620 battery Still, everything from its keyboard and speakers to its battery life and performance make us give the new Toshiba a thumbs up. We're eager to see the next Kira product. http://www.enunblog.com/moviechy/220635/ Sony VAIO T Series 15 (SVT15112CXS) Review and Ratings The Sony VAIO T Series 15—what we'll call the T15 Touch and Sony calls model SVT15112CXS—has a lot going for it, most conspicuously a sleek design and gorgeous 15.5-inch high-def display.Sony VAIO VGN-P50/G Battery And its $949 list price seems to be a thing of the past, with street prices around $880 or even less—attractive deals for a metal-bodied Core i5 portable with a 1080p touch screen and Sony's unmatched multimedia software bundle. It's not a perfect machine; we can grouse about the keyboard, touch pad, speakers, and Webcam. But it's a thoroughly capable one. SONY VAIO T13 Battery The T15 Touch speaks the same design language as the smaller VAIO T13 Touch we like so much, with a brushed aluminum housing and just enough chrome accents to liven things up. The light silver shell looks upscale and modern, and we admire the angular cuts of the front and rear edges that lend a sharp, tailored look. As we've said before, few companies do laptop-as-fashion-accessory as well as Sony. Best of all, the full metal jacket feels solid, an attribute that can't be replicated in a cheaper plastic-bodied laptop. DEll XPS L502x Battery Sony calls the T Series 15 an ultrabook, though we think it a bit bulky and heavy for the label at 0.9 inch thick and 5.2 pounds. But the T15 Touch includes the integrated optical drive many ultrabooks lack. Also unlike some others, the VGA connector and LAN jack are full-sized and do not require dongles. As for other ports, Sony included a USB 3.0 port (which can be used for charging other devices when the laptop is off) on the left side, along with an HDMI-out port; two USB 2.0 ports are on the right edge. DEll XPS L702x Battery As with most notebooks today, the VAIO employs a sealed battery that can't be swapped out during that long flight or never-ending meeting. However, it does seem Sony made some design tradeoffs to keep the T15 Touch under $1,000. While we appreciate the fact that the full-sized keyboard has a backlight and dedicated numeric pad, the keyboard itself is merely OK. The island-style keys are nearly flush with the backplane, and vertical travel feels too shallow. The plus side is that it takes only a light press to click a key—but that can be a detriment to typists who tend to slide their fingers heavily getting from key to key. ASUS ZenBook UX52A Battery And as with so many laptops, you won't find dedicated volume, mute, or multimedia playback buttons, even though the keyboard deck has ample space for them. Those actions require a function-key combination. The touch pad, too, is no great shakes. Unlike other big-screen laptops, which have generally made the switch to equally spacious pads, the T15 Touch sports a 4x2.25-inch touch pad that feels rather cramped. The one-piece pad is gesture-enabled, but the size means you won't be using that feature much. TOSHIBA PA5076R-1BRS Battery Also, we didn't like the feel of the matte coating, and pressing the lower right and left corners to activate the mouse buttons elicits a too-noticeable click. Where Sony clearly spent the money is on the screen. The 15.5-inch LED-backlit panel delivers full 1080p (1,920x1,080) resolution, and the edge-to-edge glass adds to the visual appeal. ASUS Eee PC 1025CE Battery The benefits of such a high-resolution panel are that text is exceedingly crisp and photo and video images look terrific—although the screen has a disappointingly narrow viewing sweet spot for video. The tradeoff of the 1080p resolution, of course, is that text can be tiny unless you set Windows to use large fonts and set your browser to open every window at 150 percent zoom. To better interact with Windows 8—and to quickly enlarge something that is too small to read with middle-aged eyes—the panel also features capacitive touch technology. ASUS Eee PC 1015PX BatteryZooming in and out, scrolling, flicking and other actions are smooth and effortless. The touch panel is also very precise, although given the high resolution of the screen some closely spaced targets (like close/minimize icons) must be tapped carefully so you don't hit the wrong one. One disappointment among the T15 Touch's features was the Webcam. It's only a 1-megapixel camera—one-third the resolution you're likely to have on your phone or tablet—and images are noticeably grainy. ASUS UX21E Ultrabook Battery We also couldn't find a lighting balance the camera liked. With a fairly bright desk lamp, the image exhibited dull colors and lots of motion blur. In daytime office light near a window, the subject was completely oversaturated and colors were washed out. The speakers built into the T15 Touch are par for the course among ultrabooks, which is to say merely passable. Audio quality is fine for videoconferencing, Web video, and even movies (if you don't need to shake the house), but music playback strains the speakers' abilities. DELL Latitude 10 Tablet Battery Playing The Killers' "Sam's Town" CD at top volume resulted in tinny, strident sound. If audio is your thing, consider hooking headphones or a set of powered desktop speakers to the laptop's headset jack. And if audio is indeed your thing, you've come to the right place—at least as far as the software bundle is concerned. Back in its heyday Sony used its war chest of cash to make strategic acquisitions, and it wound up with some top-notch multimedia-creation software in its stable. ASUS C23-UX21 The list on the T15 Touch includes VAIO Movie Creator, an easy, fun program that makes videos from the content and templates you select, as well as the higher-end Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12 for real video editing. For moving those creations to disc, you get Sony DVD Architect Studio 5. But the real gems are for music makers, who will find Sony Acid Music Studio 9 and Sound Forge Audio Studio waiting on the machine's hard drive. Dell XPS 12 Battery Other features of the T15 Touch are typical for a laptop in this price range. You get a 750GB hard drive, which is augmented by a 24GB SSD for keeping operating system files close at hand for notably fast boot (about 20 seconds) and wake-up (8 seconds) times. The optical drive is a multi-format DVD burner, which is fine for the price but a shame given that the 1080p screen begs for Blu-ray. Sony put Memory Stick and SD card slots up front, and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless inside. Sony VGP-BPS24 Battery Battery Life & Conclusion Back in the plus column, we were fairly pleased with the T15 Touch's battery life. It wasn't the longest, but four and a quarter hours is good for a machine with a large screen: Sony backs the T15 Touch with a one-year international warranty, with on-site or in-home service included—a nice bonus for a sub-$1,000 laptop. If only we could get a dedicated graphics chip and a Blu-ray player in the system for this price, we'd be ecstatic. As is, however, you get very good all-around performance in a design that's tough to top. Even with Sony bolstering its lineup with new VAIO Fit and Fit E models, the T Series 15 remains our preferred choice. A32-K55 Battery Here at Computer Shopper, we test hundreds of products a year, including a whole host of categories of laptops. All of them are given an Editors' Rating based on price, performance, and features, as well as other criteria. Price and features are always key purchasing factors, to be sure, but ultimately you need to make sure your PC has the necessary horsepower to handle the workload you'll subject it to. ASUS X75V Battery To measure how well a laptop performs, we run a series of industry-standard and proprietary benchmark tests to see how each PC stacks up against its competitors. We run a handful of tests—PCMark Vantage, Cinebench 10, 3DMark06, Windows Media Encoder, an iTunes Conversion Test, and our own battery rundown test—on every Windows-based laptop we review, be it a budget system or a high-end gaming rig. ASUS ZenBook UX51 Battery In addition, for notebooks that are equipped with dedicated graphics chips (as opposed to built-in, or integrated, graphics), we use the benchmark utility built into the real-world 3D game Company of Heroes to see how well the laptop is suited to gaming or running graphics-intensive applications. For gaming-specific notebooks, we also run the 3DMark Vantage benchmark suite, as well as the benchmarking utility built into the game Far Cry 2. ACER Aspire V5 Battery We run the graphics tests several times, at multiple screen resolutions and various detail settings, to determine how well the graphics processing unit (GPU) can render DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 instructions. These results tell us what level of game play you can expect, not only at a specific screen resolution but with special effects (such as high detail and anti-aliasing) enabled. HP Pavilion m6 Battery Bear in mind that seeing double the score with one laptop over another on any given test does not necessarily signify "twice the speed" or "twice the performance" in an absolute sense. You'll derive the maximum benefit from our lab test scores by comparing the results for a given PC to those of similar systems that you are considering. Doing so will illuminate where a system falls on the relative performance spectrum. Also note that small differences on a given test are more meaningful on some tests than others. HP ENVY m6 Battery The prices of the laptops also factor into this; see the descriptions of each test for more information. A note on general testing procedures. We test notebooks as they come out of the box, without driver updates. (If we update a driver under special circumstances, we mention this in the review.) All tests are done with the system detached from the Internet and local networks; one exception is our Far Cry 2 gaming test, which requires the laptop to be attached to the Internet for license-authentication purposes. ASUS Eee PC 1015PEM Battery Toshiba KiraBook Review and Ratings This will probably make this article seem as dated as disco before too long, but at this writing there is no Apple MacBook Air with Retina Display to go with the 13- and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros. If there were, however, it'd look a lot like Toshiba's KiraBook—a premium or executive-status-symbol ultrabook with an extra-sharp 2,560x1,440 screen, packing 78 percent more pixels than 1080p. Asus G74SX Battery Not cheap at $1,999 for the Core i7 touch-screen version tested, the KiraBook is the first in a new luxury brand from Toshiba—you can expect to see other Kira computers and probably a Kira TV in future—that the company says will showcase not only its finest technology but superior service akin to Apple's extra-cost AppleCare. The ultrabook's two-year warranty features "platinum" support, with 24/7 tech help including setup assistance and the ability to schedule a callback. Dell Latitude D530 battery The preinstalled Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Theft are good for two years, too. The center of all this attention is a 0.7-inch-thick portable that weighs just a hair less than three pounds (2.97 pounds for the touch-screen model; a non-touch Core i5 KiraBook priced at $1,599 is 2.66 pounds) and comes with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive. Compared to the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display$1,479.99 at B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio, the 13.3-inch KiraBook costs $300 more, albeit with a Core i7 and touch screen versus Core i5 and non-touch; weighs 0.6 pound less; and is just a fraction shy of the Retina's 2,560x1,600 pixel count and screen clarity (227 pixels per inch for the Apple, 221 ppi for the Toshiba). toshiba satellite l670d-103 battery We didn't have the MacBook Pro in the labs for a side-by-side comparison, but what Toshiba calls a PixelPure display looks terrific—bloomingly bright and razor sharp. On the minus side, while Toshiba thankfully provides a utility to enlarge icons and text, it's not an equivalent to the fully Retina-optimized programs built into Mac OS X and available from the Mac App Store. The system's sky-high resolution can make screen elements and pull-down menu text appear teeny-tiny; several times we found ourselves all but pressing our noses to the screen and looking through the bottoms of our bifocals, wishing we had a magnifying glass handy. HP Envy 14 battery If you don't have sharp eyes, you want to steer clear of the KiraBook. Similarly, using the touch screen with Windows 8's tiles and the Charms bar was fine; the Connect and Disconnect boxes in the wireless network list and Sleep, Shut Down, Restart choices of the Power menu were just about as small as things could get and still be touchable; and trying to use the touch screen with microscopic menus and dialog boxes in desktop mode was an exercise in frustration, like trying to touch one grain of sand on a beach or press an elevator button with your stomach. FUJITSU FPCBP64 battery The KiraBook is a handsome rounded wedge reminiscent of Toshiba's Portege Z935 ultrabook, though with slightly less sharp corners. Toshiba says its fingerprint-resistant silver-gray lid and keyboard deck are made of a pressed magnesium alloy that's twice as strong as the aluminum alloy used in the MacBook Air. There's some screen flex if you grasp the corners of the display, but none of the keyboard flex or vaguely flimsy feel that characterizes the Z935. DELL Latitude E5520 battery The unit's left side features an HDMI port and two USB 3.0 ports, one with Toshiba's "sleep and charge" functionality for handheld devices. On the right side are an SD card slot, a headphone/microphone jack, and a third USB 3.0 port. Ethernet and VGA are absent, though you can beam or stream the KiraBook's video and audio to an HDTV set with a third-party Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) adapter. Dell Inspiron 1750 battery The chiclet- or island-style keyboard offers well-spaced, square, slightly slippery keys. The layout takes a little getting used to—Home and End are near top right and PgUp and PgDn near bottom right, and all four, like the arrow and Delete keys, are half-sized. But typing feel is excellent, with adequate travel and crisp response. ASUS G75V battery The function keys default to their system control purposes, such as screen brightness and audio volume, with no need to press the Fn key. We also like the keyboard backlighting, which brightly illuminates each key with minimal leakage around the sides (and fades to battery-saving black after 15 seconds of inactivity). The attractive chrome ring around the touch pad doesn't hinder it from working smoothly with both cursor navigation and Windows 8 gestures. As for the glossy 13.3-inch screen, it's practically worth the price of admission. The LED-backlit panel is exceptionally bright, with washday-white backgrounds and inky blacks that, coupled with the lack of jaggies or visible individual pixels, make even plain word processing a pleasure. HP G61 battery Viewing angles are wide, and the screen's 2,560x1,440 sharpness, as you can imagine, lets you have a ball editing high-res images or watching 4K videos on YouTube. The Corning Concore Glass overlay collects fingerprints as does every touch screen we've tried, but the 10-point capacitive touch screen works well (given, as mentioned, the caveat of objects too small to touch). There's some screen wobble when tapping and swiping, but a sturdy hinge keeps it to a minimum. Fujitsu LifeBook C1211 battery Audio from the twin Harman Kardon speakers is impressive, easily loud enough to fill a room and not too tinny. It competes, however, with a cooling fan that whirs up whenever the KiraBook is working hard (and occasionally when it's just idling). During our performance benchmarks, the laptop sounded like a tiny taxiing jet, its noise noticed by coworkers 15 feet away. Toshiba PA3817U-1BRS With its 2.0GHz (turbo up to 3.1GHz) Intel Core i7-3537U processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB SSD, the KiraBook is a fast performer. For our benchmark charts, we compared it to two other Core i7 ultrabooks, the Acer Aspire S7-391-9886$1,529.00 at Amazon and HP Spectre XT TouchSmart$1,299.99 at HP Direct, as well as two Core i5 models—the Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch$799.99 at Amazon and the current 1,920x1,080-screened version of Dell's XPS 13 (tested by our sister site PCMag.com). Lenovo 57Y6601 battery The Toshiba edged the other two Core i7 contenders in our CPU-crunching Cinebench test, which puts a PC through a complex image-rendering exercise to measure its suitability for processor-intensive tasks: Battery Life & Conclusion The KiraBook offers good battery life for a lightweight system. In our strenuous video playback rundown, its 52WHr battery outlasted the other members of our test group, coming within sight of the six-hour mark: Samsung AA-PB9NC6B Configurations & Conclusion In addition to Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Theft, the Kirabook comes with the usual tiles and links (Skype, Netflix, eBay) plus a couple of applications that can make good use of its sharp screen—Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11 for photo and video editing, respectively. The $1,999 configuration also comes with Windows 8 Pro instead of ordinary Windows 8, although the ultrabook itself has no IT manageability features such as Intel vPro or TPM. ASUS K93S Battery As we said, the $1,599 KiraBook carries a Core i5 chip and non-touch screen. We suspect most shoppers will split the difference with a $1,799 model, which offers Core i5 power and Windows 8 but includes the touch screen that makes the latter bearable. All three models come with the PixelPure display, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, Adobe Elements duo, and "platinum" service package. ASUS N55 Battery Even with all that, it's hard not to think that the KiraBook is priced $200 or $300 above where it should be, mainly because of the Retina MacBook Pro-shaped elephant in the room. Both systems make text and graphics look splendid, but Apple has an ecosystem of Retina apps that Windows lacks, with eye-straining results. (The only other 2,560x1,440 Windows PC we know, Dell's XPS One 27 Touch$2,599.99 at Dell desktop, has a screen four times as large.) HP 620 battery Still, everything from its keyboard and speakers to its battery life and performance make us give the new Toshiba a thumbs up. We're eager to see the next Kira product. http://www.enunblog.com/moviechy/220634/ Sony VAIO T Series 15 (SVT15112CXS) Review and Ratings The Sony VAIO T Series 15—what we'll call the T15 Touch and Sony calls model SVT15112CXS—has a lot going for it, most conspicuously a sleek design and gorgeous 15.5-inch high-def display.Sony VAIO VGN-P50/G Battery And its $949 list price seems to be a thing of the past, with street prices around $880 or even less—attractive deals for a metal-bodied Core i5 portable with a 1080p touch screen and Sony's unmatched multimedia software bundle. It's not a perfect machine; we can grouse about the keyboard, touch pad, speakers, and Webcam. But it's a thoroughly capable one. SONY VAIO T13 Battery The T15 Touch speaks the same design language as the smaller VAIO T13 Touch we like so much, with a brushed aluminum housing and just enough chrome accents to liven things up. The light silver shell looks upscale and modern, and we admire the angular cuts of the front and rear edges that lend a sharp, tailored look. As we've said before, few companies do laptop-as-fashion-accessory as well as Sony. Best of all, the full metal jacket feels solid, an attribute that can't be replicated in a cheaper plastic-bodied laptop. DEll XPS L502x Battery Sony calls the T Series 15 an ultrabook, though we think it a bit bulky and heavy for the label at 0.9 inch thick and 5.2 pounds. But the T15 Touch includes the integrated optical drive many ultrabooks lack. Also unlike some others, the VGA connector and LAN jack are full-sized and do not require dongles. As for other ports, Sony included a USB 3.0 port (which can be used for charging other devices when the laptop is off) on the left side, along with an HDMI-out port; two USB 2.0 ports are on the right edge. DEll XPS L702x Battery As with most notebooks today, the VAIO employs a sealed battery that can't be swapped out during that long flight or never-ending meeting. However, it does seem Sony made some design tradeoffs to keep the T15 Touch under $1,000. While we appreciate the fact that the full-sized keyboard has a backlight and dedicated numeric pad, the keyboard itself is merely OK. The island-style keys are nearly flush with the backplane, and vertical travel feels too shallow. The plus side is that it takes only a light press to click a key—but that can be a detriment to typists who tend to slide their fingers heavily getting from key to key. ASUS ZenBook UX52A Battery And as with so many laptops, you won't find dedicated volume, mute, or multimedia playback buttons, even though the keyboard deck has ample space for them. Those actions require a function-key combination. The touch pad, too, is no great shakes. Unlike other big-screen laptops, which have generally made the switch to equally spacious pads, the T15 Touch sports a 4x2.25-inch touch pad that feels rather cramped. The one-piece pad is gesture-enabled, but the size means you won't be using that feature much. TOSHIBA PA5076R-1BRS Battery Also, we didn't like the feel of the matte coating, and pressing the lower right and left corners to activate the mouse buttons elicits a too-noticeable click. Where Sony clearly spent the money is on the screen. The 15.5-inch LED-backlit panel delivers full 1080p (1,920x1,080) resolution, and the edge-to-edge glass adds to the visual appeal. ASUS Eee PC 1025CE Battery The benefits of such a high-resolution panel are that text is exceedingly crisp and photo and video images look terrific—although the screen has a disappointingly narrow viewing sweet spot for video. The tradeoff of the 1080p resolution, of course, is that text can be tiny unless you set Windows to use large fonts and set your browser to open every window at 150 percent zoom. To better interact with Windows 8—and to quickly enlarge something that is too small to read with middle-aged eyes—the panel also features capacitive touch technology. ASUS Eee PC 1015PX BatteryZooming in and out, scrolling, flicking and other actions are smooth and effortless. The touch panel is also very precise, although given the high resolution of the screen some closely spaced targets (like close/minimize icons) must be tapped carefully so you don't hit the wrong one. One disappointment among the T15 Touch's features was the Webcam. It's only a 1-megapixel camera—one-third the resolution you're likely to have on your phone or tablet—and images are noticeably grainy. ASUS UX21E Ultrabook Battery We also couldn't find a lighting balance the camera liked. With a fairly bright desk lamp, the image exhibited dull colors and lots of motion blur. In daytime office light near a window, the subject was completely oversaturated and colors were washed out. The speakers built into the T15 Touch are par for the course among ultrabooks, which is to say merely passable. Audio quality is fine for videoconferencing, Web video, and even movies (if you don't need to shake the house), but music playback strains the speakers' abilities. DELL Latitude 10 Tablet Battery Playing The Killers' "Sam's Town" CD at top volume resulted in tinny, strident sound. If audio is your thing, consider hooking headphones or a set of powered desktop speakers to the laptop's headset jack. And if audio is indeed your thing, you've come to the right place—at least as far as the software bundle is concerned. Back in its heyday Sony used its war chest of cash to make strategic acquisitions, and it wound up with some top-notch multimedia-creation software in its stable. ASUS C23-UX21 The list on the T15 Touch includes VAIO Movie Creator, an easy, fun program that makes videos from the content and templates you select, as well as the higher-end Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12 for real video editing. For moving those creations to disc, you get Sony DVD Architect Studio 5. But the real gems are for music makers, who will find Sony Acid Music Studio 9 and Sound Forge Audio Studio waiting on the machine's hard drive. Dell XPS 12 Battery Other features of the T15 Touch are typical for a laptop in this price range. You get a 750GB hard drive, which is augmented by a 24GB SSD for keeping operating system files close at hand for notably fast boot (about 20 seconds) and wake-up (8 seconds) times. The optical drive is a multi-format DVD burner, which is fine for the price but a shame given that the 1080p screen begs for Blu-ray. Sony put Memory Stick and SD card slots up front, and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless inside. Sony VGP-BPS24 Battery Battery Life & Conclusion Back in the plus column, we were fairly pleased with the T15 Touch's battery life. It wasn't the longest, but four and a quarter hours is good for a machine with a large screen: Sony backs the T15 Touch with a one-year international warranty, with on-site or in-home service included—a nice bonus for a sub-$1,000 laptop. If only we could get a dedicated graphics chip and a Blu-ray player in the system for this price, we'd be ecstatic. As is, however, you get very good all-around performance in a design that's tough to top. Even with Sony bolstering its lineup with new VAIO Fit and Fit E models, the T Series 15 remains our preferred choice. A32-K55 Battery Here at Computer Shopper, we test hundreds of products a year, including a whole host of categories of laptops. All of them are given an Editors' Rating based on price, performance, and features, as well as other criteria. Price and features are always key purchasing factors, to be sure, but ultimately you need to make sure your PC has the necessary horsepower to handle the workload you'll subject it to. ASUS X75V Battery To measure how well a laptop performs, we run a series of industry-standard and proprietary benchmark tests to see how each PC stacks up against its competitors. We run a handful of tests—PCMark Vantage, Cinebench 10, 3DMark06, Windows Media Encoder, an iTunes Conversion Test, and our own battery rundown test—on every Windows-based laptop we review, be it a budget system or a high-end gaming rig. ASUS ZenBook UX51 Battery In addition, for notebooks that are equipped with dedicated graphics chips (as opposed to built-in, or integrated, graphics), we use the benchmark utility built into the real-world 3D game Company of Heroes to see how well the laptop is suited to gaming or running graphics-intensive applications. For gaming-specific notebooks, we also run the 3DMark Vantage benchmark suite, as well as the benchmarking utility built into the game Far Cry 2. ACER Aspire V5 Battery We run the graphics tests several times, at multiple screen resolutions and various detail settings, to determine how well the graphics processing unit (GPU) can render DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 instructions. These results tell us what level of game play you can expect, not only at a specific screen resolution but with special effects (such as high detail and anti-aliasing) enabled. HP Pavilion m6 Battery Bear in mind that seeing double the score with one laptop over another on any given test does not necessarily signify "twice the speed" or "twice the performance" in an absolute sense. You'll derive the maximum benefit from our lab test scores by comparing the results for a given PC to those of similar systems that you are considering. Doing so will illuminate where a system falls on the relative performance spectrum. Also note that small differences on a given test are more meaningful on some tests than others. HP ENVY m6 Battery The prices of the laptops also factor into this; see the descriptions of each test for more information. A note on general testing procedures. We test notebooks as they come out of the box, without driver updates. (If we update a driver under special circumstances, we mention this in the review.) All tests are done with the system detached from the Internet and local networks; one exception is our Far Cry 2 gaming test, which requires the laptop to be attached to the Internet for license-authentication purposes. ASUS Eee PC 1015PEM Battery Toshiba KiraBook Review and Ratings This will probably make this article seem as dated as disco before too long, but at this writing there is no Apple MacBook Air with Retina Display to go with the 13- and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros. If there were, however, it'd look a lot like Toshiba's KiraBook—a premium or executive-status-symbol ultrabook with an extra-sharp 2,560x1,440 screen, packing 78 percent more pixels than 1080p. Asus G74SX Battery Not cheap at $1,999 for the Core i7 touch-screen version tested, the KiraBook is the first in a new luxury brand from Toshiba—you can expect to see other Kira computers and probably a Kira TV in future—that the company says will showcase not only its finest technology but superior service akin to Apple's extra-cost AppleCare. The ultrabook's two-year warranty features "platinum" support, with 24/7 tech help including setup assistance and the ability to schedule a callback. Dell Latitude D530 battery The preinstalled Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Theft are good for two years, too. The center of all this attention is a 0.7-inch-thick portable that weighs just a hair less than three pounds (2.97 pounds for the touch-screen model; a non-touch Core i5 KiraBook priced at $1,599 is 2.66 pounds) and comes with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive. Compared to the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display$1,479.99 at B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio, the 13.3-inch KiraBook costs $300 more, albeit with a Core i7 and touch screen versus Core i5 and non-touch; weighs 0.6 pound less; and is just a fraction shy of the Retina's 2,560x1,600 pixel count and screen clarity (227 pixels per inch for the Apple, 221 ppi for the Toshiba). toshiba satellite l670d-103 battery We didn't have the MacBook Pro in the labs for a side-by-side comparison, but what Toshiba calls a PixelPure display looks terrific—bloomingly bright and razor sharp. On the minus side, while Toshiba thankfully provides a utility to enlarge icons and text, it's not an equivalent to the fully Retina-optimized programs built into Mac OS X and available from the Mac App Store. The system's sky-high resolution can make screen elements and pull-down menu text appear teeny-tiny; several times we found ourselves all but pressing our noses to the screen and looking through the bottoms of our bifocals, wishing we had a magnifying glass handy. HP Envy 14 battery If you don't have sharp eyes, you want to steer clear of the KiraBook. Similarly, using the touch screen with Windows 8's tiles and the Charms bar was fine; the Connect and Disconnect boxes in the wireless network list and Sleep, Shut Down, Restart choices of the Power menu were just about as small as things could get and still be touchable; and trying to use the touch screen with microscopic menus and dialog boxes in desktop mode was an exercise in frustration, like trying to touch one grain of sand on a beach or press an elevator button with your stomach. FUJITSU FPCBP64 battery The KiraBook is a handsome rounded wedge reminiscent of Toshiba's Portege Z935 ultrabook, though with slightly less sharp corners. Toshiba says its fingerprint-resistant silver-gray lid and keyboard deck are made of a pressed magnesium alloy that's twice as strong as the aluminum alloy used in the MacBook Air. There's some screen flex if you grasp the corners of the display, but none of the keyboard flex or vaguely flimsy feel that characterizes the Z935. DELL Latitude E5520 battery The unit's left side features an HDMI port and two USB 3.0 ports, one with Toshiba's "sleep and charge" functionality for handheld devices. On the right side are an SD card slot, a headphone/microphone jack, and a third USB 3.0 port. Ethernet and VGA are absent, though you can beam or stream the KiraBook's video and audio to an HDTV set with a third-party Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) adapter. Dell Inspiron 1750 battery The chiclet- or island-style keyboard offers well-spaced, square, slightly slippery keys. The layout takes a little getting used to—Home and End are near top right and PgUp and PgDn near bottom right, and all four, like the arrow and Delete keys, are half-sized. But typing feel is excellent, with adequate travel and crisp response. ASUS G75V battery The function keys default to their system control purposes, such as screen brightness and audio volume, with no need to press the Fn key. We also like the keyboard backlighting, which brightly illuminates each key with minimal leakage around the sides (and fades to battery-saving black after 15 seconds of inactivity). The attractive chrome ring around the touch pad doesn't hinder it from working smoothly with both cursor navigation and Windows 8 gestures. As for the glossy 13.3-inch screen, it's practically worth the price of admission. The LED-backlit panel is exceptionally bright, with washday-white backgrounds and inky blacks that, coupled with the lack of jaggies or visible individual pixels, make even plain word processing a pleasure. HP G61 battery Viewing angles are wide, and the screen's 2,560x1,440 sharpness, as you can imagine, lets you have a ball editing high-res images or watching 4K videos on YouTube. The Corning Concore Glass overlay collects fingerprints as does every touch screen we've tried, but the 10-point capacitive touch screen works well (given, as mentioned, the caveat of objects too small to touch). There's some screen wobble when tapping and swiping, but a sturdy hinge keeps it to a minimum. Fujitsu LifeBook C1211 battery Audio from the twin Harman Kardon speakers is impressive, easily loud enough to fill a room and not too tinny. It competes, however, with a cooling fan that whirs up whenever the KiraBook is working hard (and occasionally when it's just idling). During our performance benchmarks, the laptop sounded like a tiny taxiing jet, its noise noticed by coworkers 15 feet away. Toshiba PA3817U-1BRS With its 2.0GHz (turbo up to 3.1GHz) Intel Core i7-3537U processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB SSD, the KiraBook is a fast performer. For our benchmark charts, we compared it to two other Core i7 ultrabooks, the Acer Aspire S7-391-9886$1,529.00 at Amazon and HP Spectre XT TouchSmart$1,299.99 at HP Direct, as well as two Core i5 models—the Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch$799.99 at Amazon and the current 1,920x1,080-screened version of Dell's XPS 13 (tested by our sister site PCMag.com). Lenovo 57Y6601 battery The Toshiba edged the other two Core i7 contenders in our CPU-crunching Cinebench test, which puts a PC through a complex image-rendering exercise to measure its suitability for processor-intensive tasks: Battery Life & Conclusion The KiraBook offers good battery life for a lightweight system. In our strenuous video playback rundown, its 52WHr battery outlasted the other members of our test group, coming within sight of the six-hour mark: Samsung AA-PB9NC6B Configurations & Conclusion In addition to Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Theft, the Kirabook comes with the usual tiles and links (Skype, Netflix, eBay) plus a couple of applications that can make good use of its sharp screen—Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11 for photo and video editing, respectively. The $1,999 configuration also comes with Windows 8 Pro instead of ordinary Windows 8, although the ultrabook itself has no IT manageability features such as Intel vPro or TPM. ASUS K93S Battery As we said, the $1,599 KiraBook carries a Core i5 chip and non-touch screen. We suspect most shoppers will split the difference with a $1,799 model, which offers Core i5 power and Windows 8 but includes the touch screen that makes the latter bearable. All three models come with the PixelPure display, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, Adobe Elements duo, and "platinum" service package. ASUS N55 Battery Even with all that, it's hard not to think that the KiraBook is priced $200 or $300 above where it should be, mainly because of the Retina MacBook Pro-shaped elephant in the room. Both systems make text and graphics look splendid, but Apple has an ecosystem of Retina apps that Windows lacks, with eye-straining results. (The only other 2,560x1,440 Windows PC we know, Dell's XPS One 27 Touch$2,599.99 at Dell desktop, has a screen four times as large.) HP 620 battery Still, everything from its keyboard and speakers to its battery life and performance make us give the new Toshiba a thumbs up. We're eager to see the next Kira product. http://www.enunblog.com/moviechy/220633/ Sony VAIO T Series 15 (SVT15112CXS) Review and Ratings The Sony VAIO T Series 15—what we'll call the T15 Touch and Sony calls model SVT15112CXS—has a lot going for it, most conspicuously a sleek design and gorgeous 15.5-inch high-def display.Sony VAIO VGN-P50/G Battery And its $949 list price seems to be a thing of the past, with street prices around $880 or even less—attractive deals for a metal-bodied Core i5 portable with a 1080p touch screen and Sony's unmatched multimedia software bundle. It's not a perfect machine; we can grouse about the keyboard, touch pad, speakers, and Webcam. But it's a thoroughly capable one. SONY VAIO T13 Battery The T15 Touch speaks the same design language as the smaller VAIO T13 Touch we like so much, with a brushed aluminum housing and just enough chrome accents to liven things up. The light silver shell looks upscale and modern, and we admire the angular cuts of the front and rear edges that lend a sharp, tailored look. As we've said before, few companies do laptop-as-fashion-accessory as well as Sony. Best of all, the full metal jacket feels solid, an attribute that can't be replicated in a cheaper plastic-bodied laptop. DEll XPS L502x Battery Sony calls the T Series 15 an ultrabook, though we think it a bit bulky and heavy for the label at 0.9 inch thick and 5.2 pounds. But the T15 Touch includes the integrated optical drive many ultrabooks lack. Also unlike some others, the VGA connector and LAN jack are full-sized and do not require dongles. As for other ports, Sony included a USB 3.0 port (which can be used for charging other devices when the laptop is off) on the left side, along with an HDMI-out port; two USB 2.0 ports are on the right edge. DEll XPS L702x Battery As with most notebooks today, the VAIO employs a sealed battery that can't be swapped out during that long flight or never-ending meeting. However, it does seem Sony made some design tradeoffs to keep the T15 Touch under $1,000. While we appreciate the fact that the full-sized keyboard has a backlight and dedicated numeric pad, the keyboard itself is merely OK. The island-style keys are nearly flush with the backplane, and vertical travel feels too shallow. The plus side is that it takes only a light press to click a key—but that can be a detriment to typists who tend to slide their fingers heavily getting from key to key. ASUS ZenBook UX52A Battery And as with so many laptops, you won't find dedicated volume, mute, or multimedia playback buttons, even though the keyboard deck has ample space for them. Those actions require a function-key combination. The touch pad, too, is no great shakes. Unlike other big-screen laptops, which have generally made the switch to equally spacious pads, the T15 Touch sports a 4x2.25-inch touch pad that feels rather cramped. The one-piece pad is gesture-enabled, but the size means you won't be using that feature much. TOSHIBA PA5076R-1BRS Battery Also, we didn't like the feel of the matte coating, and pressing the lower right and left corners to activate the mouse buttons elicits a too-noticeable click. Where Sony clearly spent the money is on the screen. The 15.5-inch LED-backlit panel delivers full 1080p (1,920x1,080) resolution, and the edge-to-edge glass adds to the visual appeal. ASUS Eee PC 1025CE Battery The benefits of such a high-resolution panel are that text is exceedingly crisp and photo and video images look terrific—although the screen has a disappointingly narrow viewing sweet spot for video. The tradeoff of the 1080p resolution, of course, is that text can be tiny unless you set Windows to use large fonts and set your browser to open every window at 150 percent zoom. To better interact with Windows 8—and to quickly enlarge something that is too small to read with middle-aged eyes—the panel also features capacitive touch technology. ASUS Eee PC 1015PX BatteryZooming in and out, scrolling, flicking and other actions are smooth and effortless. The touch panel is also very precise, although given the high resolution of the screen some closely spaced targets (like close/minimize icons) must be tapped carefully so you don't hit the wrong one. One disappointment among the T15 Touch's features was the Webcam. It's only a 1-megapixel camera—one-third the resolution you're likely to have on your phone or tablet—and images are noticeably grainy. ASUS UX21E Ultrabook Battery We also couldn't find a lighting balance the camera liked. With a fairly bright desk lamp, the image exhibited dull colors and lots of motion blur. In daytime office light near a window, the subject was completely oversaturated and colors were washed out. The speakers built into the T15 Touch are par for the course among ultrabooks, which is to say merely passable. Audio quality is fine for videoconferencing, Web video, and even movies (if you don't need to shake the house), but music playback strains the speakers' abilities. DELL Latitude 10 Tablet Battery Playing The Killers' "Sam's Town" CD at top volume resulted in tinny, strident sound. If audio is your thing, consider hooking headphones or a set of powered desktop speakers to the laptop's headset jack. And if audio is indeed your thing, you've come to the right place—at least as far as the software bundle is concerned. Back in its heyday Sony used its war chest of cash to make strategic acquisitions, and it wound up with some top-notch multimedia-creation software in its stable. ASUS C23-UX21 The list on the T15 Touch includes VAIO Movie Creator, an easy, fun program that makes videos from the content and templates you select, as well as the higher-end Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12 for real video editing. For moving those creations to disc, you get Sony DVD Architect Studio 5. But the real gems are for music makers, who will find Sony Acid Music Studio 9 and Sound Forge Audio Studio waiting on the machine's hard drive. Dell XPS 12 Battery Other features of the T15 Touch are typical for a laptop in this price range. You get a 750GB hard drive, which is augmented by a 24GB SSD for keeping operating system files close at hand for notably fast boot (about 20 seconds) and wake-up (8 seconds) times. The optical drive is a multi-format DVD burner, which is fine for the price but a shame given that the 1080p screen begs for Blu-ray. Sony put Memory Stick and SD card slots up front, and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless inside. Sony VGP-BPS24 Battery Battery Life & Conclusion Back in the plus column, we were fairly pleased with the T15 Touch's battery life. It wasn't the longest, but four and a quarter hours is good for a machine with a large screen: Sony backs the T15 Touch with a one-year international warranty, with on-site or in-home service included—a nice bonus for a sub-$1,000 laptop. If only we could get a dedicated graphics chip and a Blu-ray player in the system for this price, we'd be ecstatic. As is, however, you get very good all-around performance in a design that's tough to top. Even with Sony bolstering its lineup with new VAIO Fit and Fit E models, the T Series 15 remains our preferred choice. A32-K55 Battery Here at Computer Shopper, we test hundreds of products a year, including a whole host of categories of laptops. All of them are given an Editors' Rating based on price, performance, and features, as well as other criteria. Price and features are always key purchasing factors, to be sure, but ultimately you need to make sure your PC has the necessary horsepower to handle the workload you'll subject it to. ASUS X75V Battery To measure how well a laptop performs, we run a series of industry-standard and proprietary benchmark tests to see how each PC stacks up against its competitors. We run a handful of tests—PCMark Vantage, Cinebench 10, 3DMark06, Windows Media Encoder, an iTunes Conversion Test, and our own battery rundown test—on every Windows-based laptop we review, be it a budget system or a high-end gaming rig. ASUS ZenBook UX51 Battery In addition, for notebooks that are equipped with dedicated graphics chips (as opposed to built-in, or integrated, graphics), we use the benchmark utility built into the real-world 3D game Company of Heroes to see how well the laptop is suited to gaming or running graphics-intensive applications. For gaming-specific notebooks, we also run the 3DMark Vantage benchmark suite, as well as the benchmarking utility built into the game Far Cry 2. ACER Aspire V5 Battery We run the graphics tests several times, at multiple screen resolutions and various detail settings, to determine how well the graphics processing unit (GPU) can render DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 instructions. These results tell us what level of game play you can expect, not only at a specific screen resolution but with special effects (such as high detail and anti-aliasing) enabled. HP Pavilion m6 Battery Bear in mind that seeing double the score with one laptop over another on any given test does not necessarily signify "twice the speed" or "twice the performance" in an absolute sense. You'll derive the maximum benefit from our lab test scores by comparing the results for a given PC to those of similar systems that you are considering. Doing so will illuminate where a system falls on the relative performance spectrum. Also note that small differences on a given test are more meaningful on some tests than others. HP ENVY m6 Battery The prices of the laptops also factor into this; see the descriptions of each test for more information. A note on general testing procedures. We test notebooks as they come out of the box, without driver updates. (If we update a driver under special circumstances, we mention this in the review.) All tests are done with the system detached from the Internet and local networks; one exception is our Far Cry 2 gaming test, which requires the laptop to be attached to the Internet for license-authentication purposes. ASUS Eee PC 1015PEM Battery Toshiba KiraBook Review and Ratings This will probably make this article seem as dated as disco before too long, but at this writing there is no Apple MacBook Air with Retina Display to go with the 13- and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros. If there were, however, it'd look a lot like Toshiba's KiraBook—a premium or executive-status-symbol ultrabook with an extra-sharp 2,560x1,440 screen, packing 78 percent more pixels than 1080p. Asus G74SX Battery Not cheap at $1,999 for the Core i7 touch-screen version tested, the KiraBook is the first in a new luxury brand from Toshiba—you can expect to see other Kira computers and probably a Kira TV in future—that the company says will showcase not only its finest technology but superior service akin to Apple's extra-cost AppleCare. The ultrabook's two-year warranty features "platinum" support, with 24/7 tech help including setup assistance and the ability to schedule a callback. Dell Latitude D530 battery The preinstalled Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Theft are good for two years, too. The center of all this attention is a 0.7-inch-thick portable that weighs just a hair less than three pounds (2.97 pounds for the touch-screen model; a non-touch Core i5 KiraBook priced at $1,599 is 2.66 pounds) and comes with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive. Compared to the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display$1,479.99 at B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio, the 13.3-inch KiraBook costs $300 more, albeit with a Core i7 and touch screen versus Core i5 and non-touch; weighs 0.6 pound less; and is just a fraction shy of the Retina's 2,560x1,600 pixel count and screen clarity (227 pixels per inch for the Apple, 221 ppi for the Toshiba). toshiba satellite l670d-103 battery We didn't have the MacBook Pro in the labs for a side-by-side comparison, but what Toshiba calls a PixelPure display looks terrific—bloomingly bright and razor sharp. On the minus side, while Toshiba thankfully provides a utility to enlarge icons and text, it's not an equivalent to the fully Retina-optimized programs built into Mac OS X and available from the Mac App Store. The system's sky-high resolution can make screen elements and pull-down menu text appear teeny-tiny; several times we found ourselves all but pressing our noses to the screen and looking through the bottoms of our bifocals, wishing we had a magnifying glass handy. HP Envy 14 battery If you don't have sharp eyes, you want to steer clear of the KiraBook. Similarly, using the touch screen with Windows 8's tiles and the Charms bar was fine; the Connect and Disconnect boxes in the wireless network list and Sleep, Shut Down, Restart choices of the Power menu were just about as small as things could get and still be touchable; and trying to use the touch screen with microscopic menus and dialog boxes in desktop mode was an exercise in frustration, like trying to touch one grain of sand on a beach or press an elevator button with your stomach. FUJITSU FPCBP64 battery The KiraBook is a handsome rounded wedge reminiscent of Toshiba's Portege Z935 ultrabook, though with slightly less sharp corners. Toshiba says its fingerprint-resistant silver-gray lid and keyboard deck are made of a pressed magnesium alloy that's twice as strong as the aluminum alloy used in the MacBook Air. There's some screen flex if you grasp the corners of the display, but none of the keyboard flex or vaguely flimsy feel that characterizes the Z935. DELL Latitude E5520 battery The unit's left side features an HDMI port and two USB 3.0 ports, one with Toshiba's "sleep and charge" functionality for handheld devices. On the right side are an SD card slot, a headphone/microphone jack, and a third USB 3.0 port. Ethernet and VGA are absent, though you can beam or stream the KiraBook's video and audio to an HDTV set with a third-party Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) adapter. Dell Inspiron 1750 battery The chiclet- or island-style keyboard offers well-spaced, square, slightly slippery keys. The layout takes a little getting used to—Home and End are near top right and PgUp and PgDn near bottom right, and all four, like the arrow and Delete keys, are half-sized. But typing feel is excellent, with adequate travel and crisp response. ASUS G75V battery The function keys default to their system control purposes, such as screen brightness and audio volume, with no need to press the Fn key. We also like the keyboard backlighting, which brightly illuminates each key with minimal leakage around the sides (and fades to battery-saving black after 15 seconds of inactivity). The attractive chrome ring around the touch pad doesn't hinder it from working smoothly with both cursor navigation and Windows 8 gestures. As for the glossy 13.3-inch screen, it's practically worth the price of admission. The LED-backlit panel is exceptionally bright, with washday-white backgrounds and inky blacks that, coupled with the lack of jaggies or visible individual pixels, make even plain word processing a pleasure. HP G61 battery Viewing angles are wide, and the screen's 2,560x1,440 sharpness, as you can imagine, lets you have a ball editing high-res images or watching 4K videos on YouTube. The Corning Concore Glass overlay collects fingerprints as does every touch screen we've tried, but the 10-point capacitive touch screen works well (given, as mentioned, the caveat of objects too small to touch). There's some screen wobble when tapping and swiping, but a sturdy hinge keeps it to a minimum. Fujitsu LifeBook C1211 battery Audio from the twin Harman Kardon speakers is impressive, easily loud enough to fill a room and not too tinny. It competes, however, with a cooling fan that whirs up whenever the KiraBook is working hard (and occasionally when it's just idling). During our performance benchmarks, the laptop sounded like a tiny taxiing jet, its noise noticed by coworkers 15 feet away. Toshiba PA3817U-1BRS With its 2.0GHz (turbo up to 3.1GHz) Intel Core i7-3537U processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB SSD, the KiraBook is a fast performer. For our benchmark charts, we compared it to two other Core i7 ultrabooks, the Acer Aspire S7-391-9886$1,529.00 at Amazon and HP Spectre XT TouchSmart$1,299.99 at HP Direct, as well as two Core i5 models—the Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch$799.99 at Amazon and the current 1,920x1,080-screened version of Dell's XPS 13 (tested by our sister site PCMag.com). Lenovo 57Y6601 battery The Toshiba edged the other two Core i7 contenders in our CPU-crunching Cinebench test, which puts a PC through a complex image-rendering exercise to measure its suitability for processor-intensive tasks: Battery Life & Conclusion The KiraBook offers good battery life for a lightweight system. In our strenuous video playback rundown, its 52WHr battery outlasted the other members of our test group, coming within sight of the six-hour mark: Samsung AA-PB9NC6B Configurations & Conclusion In addition to Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Theft, the Kirabook comes with the usual tiles and links (Skype, Netflix, eBay) plus a couple of applications that can make good use of its sharp screen—Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11 for photo and video editing, respectively. The $1,999 configuration also comes with Windows 8 Pro instead of ordinary Windows 8, although the ultrabook itself has no IT manageability features such as Intel vPro or TPM. ASUS K93S Battery As we said, the $1,599 KiraBook carries a Core i5 chip and non-touch screen. We suspect most shoppers will split the difference with a $1,799 model, which offers Core i5 power and Windows 8 but includes the touch screen that makes the latter bearable. All three models come with the PixelPure display, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, Adobe Elements duo, and "platinum" service package. ASUS N55 Battery Even with all that, it's hard not to think that the KiraBook is priced $200 or $300 above where it should be, mainly because of the Retina MacBook Pro-shaped elephant in the room. Both systems make text and graphics look splendid, but Apple has an ecosystem of Retina apps that Windows lacks, with eye-straining results. (The only other 2,560x1,440 Windows PC we know, Dell's XPS One 27 Touch$2,599.99 at Dell desktop, has a screen four times as large.) HP 620 battery Still, everything from its keyboard and speakers to its battery life and performance make us give the new Toshiba a thumbs up. We're eager to see the next Kira product. http://www.enunblog.com/moviechy/220632/ Review Acer Aspire V5-471G Notebook and battery life Acer's V5 series consists of several thin and cheap notebooks of the usual form factors (10 to 15.6-inch). Acer targets price-conscious customers interested in ultrabooks. The Aspire V5-471G-53314G50, is a 14-inch device which will be put through all the tests to determine its worthiness as the right pick for the consumer. Acer TravelMate 292ELMi Battery We have already scrutinized the very cheap V5-431 (Celeron 887, HD Graphics) and two 15.6-inch models of the same series, the Aspire V5-531 (Pentium 967, HD Graphics) and the Aspire V5-571G (Core i5-3317U, GeForce GT 620M). We compare the review sample to Lenovo's IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and Samsung's Series 5 535U3C (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G). Case The Aspire V5-471G is completely made from matte silver plastic, which unfortunately leaves the impression of the device being cheap. Acer TravelMate 292EXC Battery The surface if the case is not textured. The IdeaPad and the Samsung are also completely made out of plastic parts. With a height of 23 mm, the Aspire only marginally exceeds the ultrabook specification (max. 21 mm) and is still very portable. There are some places on the body of the laptop where the different components are not seated properly. The touchpad and the keyboard bezel do not sit flush with each other. Acer TravelMate 292EXCi Battery The base unit is reasonably robust and gives slightly when pressure is applied. But, the palm rests are significantly more rigid. If the base unit is picked up at its front corners, it can hardly be twisted. Even some thicker and heavier notebooks perform worse here. In contrast, the lid can be twisted much more. The hinges hold the lid securely in place, but it tends to teeter. It is possible to open the lid with one hand. Acer TravelMate 292LC Battery Communication The WLAN module is from Atheros (AR5WBW222) and supports standards 802.11 b/g/n. The reception performance is very good. The WiFi control of Windows displays full reception quality in close proximity as well as two floors below the router. The Gigbabit Ethernet chip (RTL8168/8111) of the V5-471G is made by Realtek. In addition, the laptop features Bluetooth 4.0. Acer TravelMate 292LCi Battery A web cam is incorporated in the display bezel, but it does not create really convincing images. They are a little bit blurry and pixelated. Accessories As usual these days, Acer and many OEMs hardly include any accessories. Apart from a quick start poster, a quick start guide and the warranty information, only a breakout cable, which adds a VGA and a Gigabit-Ethernet interface are available in the package. There are no other connection options available on the laptop. Acer TravelMate 292LM Battery Operating System and Recovery The Aspire comes pre-installed with Windows 8 (64 Bit). But, an installation DVD is not included. If you want to replace Windows 8 with Windows 7, you can download drivers for Windows 7 from Acer's web site. Thanks to a recovery partition, it is easy to restore the laptop to the state at delivery. Acer TravelMate 292LMi Battery Unfortunately, it is not possible to launch the recovery by pressing a key combination after powerering on, but only when Windows has booted up. Therefore, the user should create a recovery DVD, which allows launching the recovery in case Windows does no longer boot. The web site "Intowindows.com" provides an English guide on how to create such a DVD. Maintenance Acer TravelMate 293ELC Battery On the underside of the notebook, there is a small maintenance hatch and behind it, there are the two RAM slots. One of them is occupied by a 4 GB module. The notebook supports up to 8 GB of RAM. An additional 4 GB RAM module currently costs about 15 to 20 Euros (~$20 to $27). If you want to replace the hard drive or clean the fan, you have to remove the underside of the case. However, we did not try this at the time of the review. Acer TravelMate 293ELCi Battery Warranty Acer provides a 24 month bring-in warranty for the V5-471G. In case of a defect, the customer has to send the device to Acer. The IdeaPad and the Samsung have similar warranties. The warranty of the Acer can be extended to three years for about 70 to 80 Euro (~$95 to $110), but the warranty extension must be bought and activated within 365 days after the purchase of the notebook. Acer TravelMate 293ELM Battery Performance Our test sample delivers more than enough performance for most users. Text processing, video telephony, internet browsing and videos are not a big challenge for the device. Thanks to its GeForce GPU, it can also play a few 3D games. If the 14-inch display is too small for you, you could consider the nearly identically equipped 15.6-inch Aspire V5-571G. Acer TravelMate 293ELMi Battery The V5-471 series is a different model. If you do not need a GeForce GPU, you can choose a model without it ("G" will be missing from the model id). In addition, Acer also offer models with touchscreen ("P" in the model name: V5-471P). Our test device is priced at about 600 Euros (~$810), and the other models of the series cost between 500 and 700 Euros (~$675 to $950). Acer TravelMate 293LCi Battery Processor Acer use an Intel Core i5-3317U dual core CPU from the Ivy Bridge family in the V5-471G with a base clock of 1.7 GHz. Thanks to Turbo Boost, the clock rate can be increased to 2.4 GHz (both cores) and 2.6 GHz (for a single core). The built-in Core i5 is a ULV CPU, which operates at an especially low voltage level. As a result, its power consumption is lower. Acer TravelMate 293LMi Battery In the Cinebench tests, the processor is able to utilize the Turbo Boost functionality without any losses in performance. The results are on par with other notebooks with the Core i5-3317U like the IdeaPad S400 (Core i5-3317U, HD Graphics 4000). The Samsung (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G) and the IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) are notably outperformed as the AMD CPUs are slower than the Core i5. Acer TravelMate 29X Battery Thanks to its GeForce GPU, the Aspire also wins the GL tests. System Performance The system works smoothly without any delays and the PCMark 7 benchmark confirms our experience with the hardware. The IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and the Samsung Series 5 535U3C (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G) cannot keep up with the Aspire, as their AMD APUs are slower than the CPU/GPU combination of our test sample. Despite having the same CPU and a slower GPU, the IdeaPad U410 (Core i5-3317U, GeForce 610M) delivers a better result as it is equipped with a faster hard drive supported by an SSD cache. The IdeaPad S400 (Core i5-3317U, HD Graphics 4000) performs better too. Acer TravelMate 4050 Battery , Acer TravelMate 4050LC adapter , Acer TravelMate 4050LCi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4050LM Battery , Graphics cards The Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU and the GeForce GT 620M GPU are responsible for the graphics performance. Both graphics solutions support DirectX 11. The Intel GPU is used for everyday applications, while the GeForce GPU is used for demanding tasks like 3D games. The GT 620M GPU is one of the entry level GPUs from Nvidia with clocks at 630 MHz. Its Turbo is not activated (no increase of the clock rate to 715 MHz), in order not to overtax the cooling system. The 3DMark results are as expected. Thanks to its GeForce GT 620M GPU, the Aspire is significantly faster than the IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and the Samsung Series 5 (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G) in all graphics tests. Acer TravelMate 4050LMi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4050WLCi adapter , Charger TravelMate 4050WLMi , Gaming Performance Thanks to the GeForce GPU, the Aspire is also gaming capable. Current 3D games can be run at low to medium quality and native resolution (1366 x 768 pixels). Even demanding titles like Hitman: Absolution run without stuttering at the lowest settings. Several games also run smoothly at higher quality like the Fifa series. However, if you focus on gaming, you should select a notebook with more powerful graphics, like the Geforce GT 650M and something faster. Comparable notebooks often use only the HD Graphics 4000 GPU. These can only run most games smoothly at lowest resolution and low quality. Some games will also run at medium quality. Acer TravelMate 4051 Battery , Acer TravelMate 4051LC adapter , Acer TravelMate 4051LCi Battery , Charger TravelMate 4051LM , System noise The slim case houses decent performance components. Therefore, the notebook requires a powerful cooling system whose design isn't capable of keeping the system noise down. We already measure between 32.5 and 36.9 dB in the idle state. The IdeaPad S405 (30.3 to 31.3 dB) and the Samsung Series 5 (29.8 to 32.1 dB) are significantly quieter. Under medium (3D Mark 06) and full load (stress test: Prime95 and Furmark), it gets really loud with noise levels of 44 dB and 44.9 dB. The Samsung (39.8 dB and 42,3 dB) works quieter than the Aspire. and the IdeaPad (31.3 dB. and 31.5 dB) also works whisper quiet under load. While idle, the device gets only moderately warmer with temperatures between 27.7 and 36 degrees Celsius. This is on par with the Samsung, but the IdeaPad remains somewhat cooler. Acer TravelMate 4051LMi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4051WLCi Battery , Charger TravelMate 4051WLMi , During the stress test (Prime 95 and Furmark), which is not a realistic scenario, the V5-471G gets significantly warmer with temperatures between 27.6 and 49.6 degrees Celsius. Again, the Series 5 notebook reaches similar temperatures, but some parts get even warmer (52.2 degrees Celsius). Only the Lenovo stays relatively cool under full load. In our stress test (Prime 95 and Furmark run for at least one hour), the CPU only runs at full speed (2.4 GHz) for about 5 minutes before it slows down to 1.3 GHz (throttling) on the mains. When the stress test is run on battery power, the CPU always clocks at 1.3 GHz. In contrast, the GPU continuously runs at maximum speed (630 MHz) in the stress test regardless of the power source. We ran 3DMark 06 immediately after the stress test and the result did not differ from the cold notebook's. The CPU temperature levels off at about 70 degrees Celsius on mains. Acer TravelMate 4052 Battery , TravelMate 4052LC Battery , TravelMate 4052LM Battery , Acer TravelMate 4052LMi Battery , Speakers The stereo speakers of the V5-471G are on the underside. "Dolby Advanced Audio" and "Virtual Surround Sound" promise decent sound, which is not available on many devices in this category. It is thin and a little bit tiny instead. Speech is clearly audible. In changing the settings with the pre-installed Dolby Advanced Audio software, you could improve the sound. As an alternative, you can simply connect external speakers or headphones. Power consumption While idle, the V5-471G profits from its frugal ULV processor. We measure a power consumption between 7.3 and 11.7 Watts. Unsurprisingly, the Samsung (7.7 to 14.5 Watt) and the IdeaPad (7.2 to 12 Watt) demand a similar amount of energy as they are equipped with frugal AMD APUs. As soon as the GeForce GPU is active, the power consumption of the Acer increases significantly. We recorded 54.2 Watts under medium load (3DMark 06) and 52.1 Watts under full load (Prime95 and Furmark). The value is lower under full load, as the CPU throttles to 1.3 GHz. The Series 5 (38.1 Watt and 41,8 Watt) and the IdeaPad (26.9 Watt and 25.7 Watt) demand significantly less power under load. Acer TravelMate 4051LMi Battery , TravelMate 4051WLCi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4051WLMi Battery , Battery Life In the idle mode, the Aspire is able to produce runtimes of 5:36 h, which is on par with the IdeaPad's (5:37 h). The Samsung (6:59 h) runs significantly longer. The idle runtime is recorded by means of the BatteryEater Reader's tests with minimum display brightness, active energy-saving profile and disabled wireless modules. The V5-471G runs for about 1:01 h in the load test. The S405 (1:21 h) and the Samsung (1:32 h) are able to keep operating for a longer time. To check the battery life under load, we used the BatteryEater Classic test with maximum display brightness, high performance profile and enabled wireless modules. Acer TravelMate 4053 Battery , Acer TravelMate 4053LMi Battery , Acer 1400 Battery , Acer Aspire 1400XC Battery , Acer Aspire 1403L Battery , Aspire 1200 Battery , With a single charge, the Wi-Fi test runs for about 2:26 h. The Aspire cannot keep up with its competitors here (S405: 2:55 h, Series 5: 4:19 h). During the Wi-Fi test, web pages are automatically loaded in 40-second intervals with active energy saving profile and a display brightness of about 150 cd/m². The DVD test ends after 2:44 h. Unfortunately, we do not have any comparison results from the competitors here. The DVD test is run with the energy saving profile (or higher if the DVD does not play smoothly), maximum display brightness and deactivated wireless modules. It is not surprising that the Samsung delivers the longest battery runtimes. It is equipped with the biggest battery (Samsung: 45 Wh, Acer: 37 Wh, Lenovo: 32 Wh). Acer TravelMate 270 Battery , TravelMate 270XV Battery , The Aspire V5-471G delivers decent system performance which suffices for most users. Thanks to its GeForce GT 620M GPU, it can also run some current 3D games to an extent. But, there are also disadvantages; short battery life (caused by a small battery) and the ever present system noise. In addition, the display has low contrast and narrow viewing angles. However, if you are looking for cheap, gaming capable notebook, there are not many alternatives. If you prefer a matte display and long battery life, you should consider Samsung's Series 5 535U3C. The IdeaPad S405 is a decent notebook for those looking for a very quiet and frugal notebook. http://www.enunblog.com/moviechy/217893/ Review Acer Aspire V5-471G Notebook and battery life Acer's V5 series consists of several thin and cheap notebooks of the usual form factors (10 to 15.6-inch). Acer targets price-conscious customers interested in ultrabooks. The Aspire V5-471G-53314G50, is a 14-inch device which will be put through all the tests to determine its worthiness as the right pick for the consumer. Acer TravelMate 292ELMi Battery We have already scrutinized the very cheap V5-431 (Celeron 887, HD Graphics) and two 15.6-inch models of the same series, the Aspire V5-531 (Pentium 967, HD Graphics) and the Aspire V5-571G (Core i5-3317U, GeForce GT 620M). We compare the review sample to Lenovo's IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and Samsung's Series 5 535U3C (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G). Case The Aspire V5-471G is completely made from matte silver plastic, which unfortunately leaves the impression of the device being cheap. Acer TravelMate 292EXC Battery The surface if the case is not textured. The IdeaPad and the Samsung are also completely made out of plastic parts. With a height of 23 mm, the Aspire only marginally exceeds the ultrabook specification (max. 21 mm) and is still very portable. There are some places on the body of the laptop where the different components are not seated properly. The touchpad and the keyboard bezel do not sit flush with each other. Acer TravelMate 292EXCi Battery The base unit is reasonably robust and gives slightly when pressure is applied. But, the palm rests are significantly more rigid. If the base unit is picked up at its front corners, it can hardly be twisted. Even some thicker and heavier notebooks perform worse here. In contrast, the lid can be twisted much more. The hinges hold the lid securely in place, but it tends to teeter. It is possible to open the lid with one hand. Acer TravelMate 292LC Battery Communication The WLAN module is from Atheros (AR5WBW222) and supports standards 802.11 b/g/n. The reception performance is very good. The WiFi control of Windows displays full reception quality in close proximity as well as two floors below the router. The Gigbabit Ethernet chip (RTL8168/8111) of the V5-471G is made by Realtek. In addition, the laptop features Bluetooth 4.0. Acer TravelMate 292LCi Battery A web cam is incorporated in the display bezel, but it does not create really convincing images. They are a little bit blurry and pixelated. Accessories As usual these days, Acer and many OEMs hardly include any accessories. Apart from a quick start poster, a quick start guide and the warranty information, only a breakout cable, which adds a VGA and a Gigabit-Ethernet interface are available in the package. There are no other connection options available on the laptop. Acer TravelMate 292LM Battery Operating System and Recovery The Aspire comes pre-installed with Windows 8 (64 Bit). But, an installation DVD is not included. If you want to replace Windows 8 with Windows 7, you can download drivers for Windows 7 from Acer's web site. Thanks to a recovery partition, it is easy to restore the laptop to the state at delivery. Acer TravelMate 292LMi Battery Unfortunately, it is not possible to launch the recovery by pressing a key combination after powerering on, but only when Windows has booted up. Therefore, the user should create a recovery DVD, which allows launching the recovery in case Windows does no longer boot. The web site "Intowindows.com" provides an English guide on how to create such a DVD. Maintenance Acer TravelMate 293ELC Battery On the underside of the notebook, there is a small maintenance hatch and behind it, there are the two RAM slots. One of them is occupied by a 4 GB module. The notebook supports up to 8 GB of RAM. An additional 4 GB RAM module currently costs about 15 to 20 Euros (~$20 to $27). If you want to replace the hard drive or clean the fan, you have to remove the underside of the case. However, we did not try this at the time of the review. Acer TravelMate 293ELCi Battery Warranty Acer provides a 24 month bring-in warranty for the V5-471G. In case of a defect, the customer has to send the device to Acer. The IdeaPad and the Samsung have similar warranties. The warranty of the Acer can be extended to three years for about 70 to 80 Euro (~$95 to $110), but the warranty extension must be bought and activated within 365 days after the purchase of the notebook. Acer TravelMate 293ELM Battery Performance Our test sample delivers more than enough performance for most users. Text processing, video telephony, internet browsing and videos are not a big challenge for the device. Thanks to its GeForce GPU, it can also play a few 3D games. If the 14-inch display is too small for you, you could consider the nearly identically equipped 15.6-inch Aspire V5-571G. Acer TravelMate 293ELMi Battery The V5-471 series is a different model. If you do not need a GeForce GPU, you can choose a model without it ("G" will be missing from the model id). In addition, Acer also offer models with touchscreen ("P" in the model name: V5-471P). Our test device is priced at about 600 Euros (~$810), and the other models of the series cost between 500 and 700 Euros (~$675 to $950). Acer TravelMate 293LCi Battery Processor Acer use an Intel Core i5-3317U dual core CPU from the Ivy Bridge family in the V5-471G with a base clock of 1.7 GHz. Thanks to Turbo Boost, the clock rate can be increased to 2.4 GHz (both cores) and 2.6 GHz (for a single core). The built-in Core i5 is a ULV CPU, which operates at an especially low voltage level. As a result, its power consumption is lower. Acer TravelMate 293LMi Battery In the Cinebench tests, the processor is able to utilize the Turbo Boost functionality without any losses in performance. The results are on par with other notebooks with the Core i5-3317U like the IdeaPad S400 (Core i5-3317U, HD Graphics 4000). The Samsung (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G) and the IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) are notably outperformed as the AMD CPUs are slower than the Core i5. Acer TravelMate 29X Battery Thanks to its GeForce GPU, the Aspire also wins the GL tests. System Performance The system works smoothly without any delays and the PCMark 7 benchmark confirms our experience with the hardware. The IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and the Samsung Series 5 535U3C (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G) cannot keep up with the Aspire, as their AMD APUs are slower than the CPU/GPU combination of our test sample. Despite having the same CPU and a slower GPU, the IdeaPad U410 (Core i5-3317U, GeForce 610M) delivers a better result as it is equipped with a faster hard drive supported by an SSD cache. The IdeaPad S400 (Core i5-3317U, HD Graphics 4000) performs better too. Acer TravelMate 4050 Battery , Acer TravelMate 4050LC adapter , Acer TravelMate 4050LCi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4050LM Battery , Graphics cards The Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU and the GeForce GT 620M GPU are responsible for the graphics performance. Both graphics solutions support DirectX 11. The Intel GPU is used for everyday applications, while the GeForce GPU is used for demanding tasks like 3D games. The GT 620M GPU is one of the entry level GPUs from Nvidia with clocks at 630 MHz. Its Turbo is not activated (no increase of the clock rate to 715 MHz), in order not to overtax the cooling system. The 3DMark results are as expected. Thanks to its GeForce GT 620M GPU, the Aspire is significantly faster than the IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and the Samsung Series 5 (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G) in all graphics tests. Acer TravelMate 4050LMi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4050WLCi adapter , Charger TravelMate 4050WLMi , Gaming Performance Thanks to the GeForce GPU, the Aspire is also gaming capable. Current 3D games can be run at low to medium quality and native resolution (1366 x 768 pixels). Even demanding titles like Hitman: Absolution run without stuttering at the lowest settings. Several games also run smoothly at higher quality like the Fifa series. However, if you focus on gaming, you should select a notebook with more powerful graphics, like the Geforce GT 650M and something faster. Comparable notebooks often use only the HD Graphics 4000 GPU. These can only run most games smoothly at lowest resolution and low quality. Some games will also run at medium quality. Acer TravelMate 4051 Battery , Acer TravelMate 4051LC adapter , Acer TravelMate 4051LCi Battery , Charger TravelMate 4051LM , System noise The slim case houses decent performance components. Therefore, the notebook requires a powerful cooling system whose design isn't capable of keeping the system noise down. We already measure between 32.5 and 36.9 dB in the idle state. The IdeaPad S405 (30.3 to 31.3 dB) and the Samsung Series 5 (29.8 to 32.1 dB) are significantly quieter. Under medium (3D Mark 06) and full load (stress test: Prime95 and Furmark), it gets really loud with noise levels of 44 dB and 44.9 dB. The Samsung (39.8 dB and 42,3 dB) works quieter than the Aspire. and the IdeaPad (31.3 dB. and 31.5 dB) also works whisper quiet under load. While idle, the device gets only moderately warmer with temperatures between 27.7 and 36 degrees Celsius. This is on par with the Samsung, but the IdeaPad remains somewhat cooler. Acer TravelMate 4051LMi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4051WLCi Battery , Charger TravelMate 4051WLMi , During the stress test (Prime 95 and Furmark), which is not a realistic scenario, the V5-471G gets significantly warmer with temperatures between 27.6 and 49.6 degrees Celsius. Again, the Series 5 notebook reaches similar temperatures, but some parts get even warmer (52.2 degrees Celsius). Only the Lenovo stays relatively cool under full load. In our stress test (Prime 95 and Furmark run for at least one hour), the CPU only runs at full speed (2.4 GHz) for about 5 minutes before it slows down to 1.3 GHz (throttling) on the mains. When the stress test is run on battery power, the CPU always clocks at 1.3 GHz. In contrast, the GPU continuously runs at maximum speed (630 MHz) in the stress test regardless of the power source. We ran 3DMark 06 immediately after the stress test and the result did not differ from the cold notebook's. The CPU temperature levels off at about 70 degrees Celsius on mains. Acer TravelMate 4052 Battery , TravelMate 4052LC Battery , TravelMate 4052LM Battery , Acer TravelMate 4052LMi Battery , Speakers The stereo speakers of the V5-471G are on the underside. "Dolby Advanced Audio" and "Virtual Surround Sound" promise decent sound, which is not available on many devices in this category. It is thin and a little bit tiny instead. Speech is clearly audible. In changing the settings with the pre-installed Dolby Advanced Audio software, you could improve the sound. As an alternative, you can simply connect external speakers or headphones. Power consumption While idle, the V5-471G profits from its frugal ULV processor. We measure a power consumption between 7.3 and 11.7 Watts. Unsurprisingly, the Samsung (7.7 to 14.5 Watt) and the IdeaPad (7.2 to 12 Watt) demand a similar amount of energy as they are equipped with frugal AMD APUs. As soon as the GeForce GPU is active, the power consumption of the Acer increases significantly. We recorded 54.2 Watts under medium load (3DMark 06) and 52.1 Watts under full load (Prime95 and Furmark). The value is lower under full load, as the CPU throttles to 1.3 GHz. The Series 5 (38.1 Watt and 41,8 Watt) and the IdeaPad (26.9 Watt and 25.7 Watt) demand significantly less power under load. Acer TravelMate 4051LMi Battery , TravelMate 4051WLCi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4051WLMi Battery , Battery Life In the idle mode, the Aspire is able to produce runtimes of 5:36 h, which is on par with the IdeaPad's (5:37 h). The Samsung (6:59 h) runs significantly longer. The idle runtime is recorded by means of the BatteryEater Reader's tests with minimum display brightness, active energy-saving profile and disabled wireless modules. The V5-471G runs for about 1:01 h in the load test. The S405 (1:21 h) and the Samsung (1:32 h) are able to keep operating for a longer time. To check the battery life under load, we used the BatteryEater Classic test with maximum display brightness, high performance profile and enabled wireless modules. Acer TravelMate 4053 Battery , Acer TravelMate 4053LMi Battery , Acer 1400 Battery , Acer Aspire 1400XC Battery , Acer Aspire 1403L Battery , Aspire 1200 Battery , With a single charge, the Wi-Fi test runs for about 2:26 h. The Aspire cannot keep up with its competitors here (S405: 2:55 h, Series 5: 4:19 h). During the Wi-Fi test, web pages are automatically loaded in 40-second intervals with active energy saving profile and a display brightness of about 150 cd/m². The DVD test ends after 2:44 h. Unfortunately, we do not have any comparison results from the competitors here. The DVD test is run with the energy saving profile (or higher if the DVD does not play smoothly), maximum display brightness and deactivated wireless modules. It is not surprising that the Samsung delivers the longest battery runtimes. It is equipped with the biggest battery (Samsung: 45 Wh, Acer: 37 Wh, Lenovo: 32 Wh). Acer TravelMate 270 Battery , TravelMate 270XV Battery , The Aspire V5-471G delivers decent system performance which suffices for most users. Thanks to its GeForce GT 620M GPU, it can also run some current 3D games to an extent. But, there are also disadvantages; short battery life (caused by a small battery) and the ever present system noise. In addition, the display has low contrast and narrow viewing angles. However, if you are looking for cheap, gaming capable notebook, there are not many alternatives. If you prefer a matte display and long battery life, you should consider Samsung's Series 5 535U3C. The IdeaPad S405 is a decent notebook for those looking for a very quiet and frugal notebook. http://www.enunblog.com/moviechy/217892/ Review Acer Aspire V5-471G Notebook and battery life Acer's V5 series consists of several thin and cheap notebooks of the usual form factors (10 to 15.6-inch). Acer targets price-conscious customers interested in ultrabooks. The Aspire V5-471G-53314G50, is a 14-inch device which will be put through all the tests to determine its worthiness as the right pick for the consumer. Acer TravelMate 292ELMi Battery We have already scrutinized the very cheap V5-431 (Celeron 887, HD Graphics) and two 15.6-inch models of the same series, the Aspire V5-531 (Pentium 967, HD Graphics) and the Aspire V5-571G (Core i5-3317U, GeForce GT 620M). We compare the review sample to Lenovo's IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and Samsung's Series 5 535U3C (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G). Case The Aspire V5-471G is completely made from matte silver plastic, which unfortunately leaves the impression of the device being cheap. Acer TravelMate 292EXC Battery The surface if the case is not textured. The IdeaPad and the Samsung are also completely made out of plastic parts. With a height of 23 mm, the Aspire only marginally exceeds the ultrabook specification (max. 21 mm) and is still very portable. There are some places on the body of the laptop where the different components are not seated properly. The touchpad and the keyboard bezel do not sit flush with each other. Acer TravelMate 292EXCi Battery The base unit is reasonably robust and gives slightly when pressure is applied. But, the palm rests are significantly more rigid. If the base unit is picked up at its front corners, it can hardly be twisted. Even some thicker and heavier notebooks perform worse here. In contrast, the lid can be twisted much more. The hinges hold the lid securely in place, but it tends to teeter. It is possible to open the lid with one hand. Acer TravelMate 292LC Battery Communication The WLAN module is from Atheros (AR5WBW222) and supports standards 802.11 b/g/n. The reception performance is very good. The WiFi control of Windows displays full reception quality in close proximity as well as two floors below the router. The Gigbabit Ethernet chip (RTL8168/8111) of the V5-471G is made by Realtek. In addition, the laptop features Bluetooth 4.0. Acer TravelMate 292LCi Battery A web cam is incorporated in the display bezel, but it does not create really convincing images. They are a little bit blurry and pixelated. Accessories As usual these days, Acer and many OEMs hardly include any accessories. Apart from a quick start poster, a quick start guide and the warranty information, only a breakout cable, which adds a VGA and a Gigabit-Ethernet interface are available in the package. There are no other connection options available on the laptop. Acer TravelMate 292LM Battery Operating System and Recovery The Aspire comes pre-installed with Windows 8 (64 Bit). But, an installation DVD is not included. If you want to replace Windows 8 with Windows 7, you can download drivers for Windows 7 from Acer's web site. Thanks to a recovery partition, it is easy to restore the laptop to the state at delivery. Acer TravelMate 292LMi Battery Unfortunately, it is not possible to launch the recovery by pressing a key combination after powerering on, but only when Windows has booted up. Therefore, the user should create a recovery DVD, which allows launching the recovery in case Windows does no longer boot. The web site "Intowindows.com" provides an English guide on how to create such a DVD. Maintenance Acer TravelMate 293ELC Battery On the underside of the notebook, there is a small maintenance hatch and behind it, there are the two RAM slots. One of them is occupied by a 4 GB module. The notebook supports up to 8 GB of RAM. An additional 4 GB RAM module currently costs about 15 to 20 Euros (~$20 to $27). If you want to replace the hard drive or clean the fan, you have to remove the underside of the case. However, we did not try this at the time of the review. Acer TravelMate 293ELCi Battery Warranty Acer provides a 24 month bring-in warranty for the V5-471G. In case of a defect, the customer has to send the device to Acer. The IdeaPad and the Samsung have similar warranties. The warranty of the Acer can be extended to three years for about 70 to 80 Euro (~$95 to $110), but the warranty extension must be bought and activated within 365 days after the purchase of the notebook. Acer TravelMate 293ELM Battery Performance Our test sample delivers more than enough performance for most users. Text processing, video telephony, internet browsing and videos are not a big challenge for the device. Thanks to its GeForce GPU, it can also play a few 3D games. If the 14-inch display is too small for you, you could consider the nearly identically equipped 15.6-inch Aspire V5-571G. Acer TravelMate 293ELMi Battery The V5-471 series is a different model. If you do not need a GeForce GPU, you can choose a model without it ("G" will be missing from the model id). In addition, Acer also offer models with touchscreen ("P" in the model name: V5-471P). Our test device is priced at about 600 Euros (~$810), and the other models of the series cost between 500 and 700 Euros (~$675 to $950). Acer TravelMate 293LCi Battery Processor Acer use an Intel Core i5-3317U dual core CPU from the Ivy Bridge family in the V5-471G with a base clock of 1.7 GHz. Thanks to Turbo Boost, the clock rate can be increased to 2.4 GHz (both cores) and 2.6 GHz (for a single core). The built-in Core i5 is a ULV CPU, which operates at an especially low voltage level. As a result, its power consumption is lower. Acer TravelMate 293LMi Battery In the Cinebench tests, the processor is able to utilize the Turbo Boost functionality without any losses in performance. The results are on par with other notebooks with the Core i5-3317U like the IdeaPad S400 (Core i5-3317U, HD Graphics 4000). The Samsung (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G) and the IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) are notably outperformed as the AMD CPUs are slower than the Core i5. Acer TravelMate 29X Battery Thanks to its GeForce GPU, the Aspire also wins the GL tests. System Performance The system works smoothly without any delays and the PCMark 7 benchmark confirms our experience with the hardware. The IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and the Samsung Series 5 535U3C (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G) cannot keep up with the Aspire, as their AMD APUs are slower than the CPU/GPU combination of our test sample. Despite having the same CPU and a slower GPU, the IdeaPad U410 (Core i5-3317U, GeForce 610M) delivers a better result as it is equipped with a faster hard drive supported by an SSD cache. The IdeaPad S400 (Core i5-3317U, HD Graphics 4000) performs better too. Acer TravelMate 4050 Battery , Acer TravelMate 4050LC adapter , Acer TravelMate 4050LCi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4050LM Battery , Graphics cards The Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU and the GeForce GT 620M GPU are responsible for the graphics performance. Both graphics solutions support DirectX 11. The Intel GPU is used for everyday applications, while the GeForce GPU is used for demanding tasks like 3D games. The GT 620M GPU is one of the entry level GPUs from Nvidia with clocks at 630 MHz. Its Turbo is not activated (no increase of the clock rate to 715 MHz), in order not to overtax the cooling system. The 3DMark results are as expected. Thanks to its GeForce GT 620M GPU, the Aspire is significantly faster than the IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and the Samsung Series 5 (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G) in all graphics tests. Acer TravelMate 4050LMi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4050WLCi adapter , Charger TravelMate 4050WLMi , Gaming Performance Thanks to the GeForce GPU, the Aspire is also gaming capable. Current 3D games can be run at low to medium quality and native resolution (1366 x 768 pixels). Even demanding titles like Hitman: Absolution run without stuttering at the lowest settings. Several games also run smoothly at higher quality like the Fifa series. However, if you focus on gaming, you should select a notebook with more powerful graphics, like the Geforce GT 650M and something faster. Comparable notebooks often use only the HD Graphics 4000 GPU. These can only run most games smoothly at lowest resolution and low quality. Some games will also run at medium quality. Acer TravelMate 4051 Battery , Acer TravelMate 4051LC adapter , Acer TravelMate 4051LCi Battery , Charger TravelMate 4051LM , System noise The slim case houses decent performance components. Therefore, the notebook requires a powerful cooling system whose design isn't capable of keeping the system noise down. We already measure between 32.5 and 36.9 dB in the idle state. The IdeaPad S405 (30.3 to 31.3 dB) and the Samsung Series 5 (29.8 to 32.1 dB) are significantly quieter. Under medium (3D Mark 06) and full load (stress test: Prime95 and Furmark), it gets really loud with noise levels of 44 dB and 44.9 dB. The Samsung (39.8 dB and 42,3 dB) works quieter than the Aspire. and the IdeaPad (31.3 dB. and 31.5 dB) also works whisper quiet under load. While idle, the device gets only moderately warmer with temperatures between 27.7 and 36 degrees Celsius. This is on par with the Samsung, but the IdeaPad remains somewhat cooler. Acer TravelMate 4051LMi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4051WLCi Battery , Charger TravelMate 4051WLMi , During the stress test (Prime 95 and Furmark), which is not a realistic scenario, the V5-471G gets significantly warmer with temperatures between 27.6 and 49.6 degrees Celsius. Again, the Series 5 notebook reaches similar temperatures, but some parts get even warmer (52.2 degrees Celsius). Only the Lenovo stays relatively cool under full load. In our stress test (Prime 95 and Furmark run for at least one hour), the CPU only runs at full speed (2.4 GHz) for about 5 minutes before it slows down to 1.3 GHz (throttling) on the mains. When the stress test is run on battery power, the CPU always clocks at 1.3 GHz. In contrast, the GPU continuously runs at maximum speed (630 MHz) in the stress test regardless of the power source. We ran 3DMark 06 immediately after the stress test and the result did not differ from the cold notebook's. The CPU temperature levels off at about 70 degrees Celsius on mains. Acer TravelMate 4052 Battery , TravelMate 4052LC Battery , TravelMate 4052LM Battery , Acer TravelMate 4052LMi Battery , Speakers The stereo speakers of the V5-471G are on the underside. "Dolby Advanced Audio" and "Virtual Surround Sound" promise decent sound, which is not available on many devices in this category. It is thin and a little bit tiny instead. Speech is clearly audible. In changing the settings with the pre-installed Dolby Advanced Audio software, you could improve the sound. As an alternative, you can simply connect external speakers or headphones. Power consumption While idle, the V5-471G profits from its frugal ULV processor. We measure a power consumption between 7.3 and 11.7 Watts. Unsurprisingly, the Samsung (7.7 to 14.5 Watt) and the IdeaPad (7.2 to 12 Watt) demand a similar amount of energy as they are equipped with frugal AMD APUs. As soon as the GeForce GPU is active, the power consumption of the Acer increases significantly. We recorded 54.2 Watts under medium load (3DMark 06) and 52.1 Watts under full load (Prime95 and Furmark). The value is lower under full load, as the CPU throttles to 1.3 GHz. The Series 5 (38.1 Watt and 41,8 Watt) and the IdeaPad (26.9 Watt and 25.7 Watt) demand significantly less power under load. Acer TravelMate 4051LMi Battery , TravelMate 4051WLCi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4051WLMi Battery , Battery Life In the idle mode, the Aspire is able to produce runtimes of 5:36 h, which is on par with the IdeaPad's (5:37 h). The Samsung (6:59 h) runs significantly longer. The idle runtime is recorded by means of the BatteryEater Reader's tests with minimum display brightness, active energy-saving profile and disabled wireless modules. The V5-471G runs for about 1:01 h in the load test. The S405 (1:21 h) and the Samsung (1:32 h) are able to keep operating for a longer time. To check the battery life under load, we used the BatteryEater Classic test with maximum display brightness, high performance profile and enabled wireless modules. Acer TravelMate 4053 Battery , Acer TravelMate 4053LMi Battery , Acer 1400 Battery , Acer Aspire 1400XC Battery , Acer Aspire 1403L Battery , Aspire 1200 Battery , With a single charge, the Wi-Fi test runs for about 2:26 h. The Aspire cannot keep up with its competitors here (S405: 2:55 h, Series 5: 4:19 h). During the Wi-Fi test, web pages are automatically loaded in 40-second intervals with active energy saving profile and a display brightness of about 150 cd/m². The DVD test ends after 2:44 h. Unfortunately, we do not have any comparison results from the competitors here. The DVD test is run with the energy saving profile (or higher if the DVD does not play smoothly), maximum display brightness and deactivated wireless modules. It is not surprising that the Samsung delivers the longest battery runtimes. It is equipped with the biggest battery (Samsung: 45 Wh, Acer: 37 Wh, Lenovo: 32 Wh). Acer TravelMate 270 Battery , TravelMate 270XV Battery , The Aspire V5-471G delivers decent system performance which suffices for most users. Thanks to its GeForce GT 620M GPU, it can also run some current 3D games to an extent. But, there are also disadvantages; short battery life (caused by a small battery) and the ever present system noise. In addition, the display has low contrast and narrow viewing angles. However, if you are looking for cheap, gaming capable notebook, there are not many alternatives. If you prefer a matte display and long battery life, you should consider Samsung's Series 5 535U3C. The IdeaPad S405 is a decent notebook for those looking for a very quiet and frugal notebook. http://www.enunblog.com/moviechy/217891/ Review Acer Aspire V5-471G Notebook and battery life Acer's V5 series consists of several thin and cheap notebooks of the usual form factors (10 to 15.6-inch). Acer targets price-conscious customers interested in ultrabooks. The Aspire V5-471G-53314G50, is a 14-inch device which will be put through all the tests to determine its worthiness as the right pick for the consumer. Acer TravelMate 292ELMi Battery We have already scrutinized the very cheap V5-431 (Celeron 887, HD Graphics) and two 15.6-inch models of the same series, the Aspire V5-531 (Pentium 967, HD Graphics) and the Aspire V5-571G (Core i5-3317U, GeForce GT 620M). We compare the review sample to Lenovo's IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and Samsung's Series 5 535U3C (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G). Case The Aspire V5-471G is completely made from matte silver plastic, which unfortunately leaves the impression of the device being cheap. Acer TravelMate 292EXC Battery The surface if the case is not textured. The IdeaPad and the Samsung are also completely made out of plastic parts. With a height of 23 mm, the Aspire only marginally exceeds the ultrabook specification (max. 21 mm) and is still very portable. There are some places on the body of the laptop where the different components are not seated properly. The touchpad and the keyboard bezel do not sit flush with each other. Acer TravelMate 292EXCi Battery The base unit is reasonably robust and gives slightly when pressure is applied. But, the palm rests are significantly more rigid. If the base unit is picked up at its front corners, it can hardly be twisted. Even some thicker and heavier notebooks perform worse here. In contrast, the lid can be twisted much more. The hinges hold the lid securely in place, but it tends to teeter. It is possible to open the lid with one hand. Acer TravelMate 292LC Battery Communication The WLAN module is from Atheros (AR5WBW222) and supports standards 802.11 b/g/n. The reception performance is very good. The WiFi control of Windows displays full reception quality in close proximity as well as two floors below the router. The Gigbabit Ethernet chip (RTL8168/8111) of the V5-471G is made by Realtek. In addition, the laptop features Bluetooth 4.0. Acer TravelMate 292LCi Battery A web cam is incorporated in the display bezel, but it does not create really convincing images. They are a little bit blurry and pixelated. Accessories As usual these days, Acer and many OEMs hardly include any accessories. Apart from a quick start poster, a quick start guide and the warranty information, only a breakout cable, which adds a VGA and a Gigabit-Ethernet interface are available in the package. There are no other connection options available on the laptop. Acer TravelMate 292LM Battery Operating System and Recovery The Aspire comes pre-installed with Windows 8 (64 Bit). But, an installation DVD is not included. If you want to replace Windows 8 with Windows 7, you can download drivers for Windows 7 from Acer's web site. Thanks to a recovery partition, it is easy to restore the laptop to the state at delivery. Acer TravelMate 292LMi Battery Unfortunately, it is not possible to launch the recovery by pressing a key combination after powerering on, but only when Windows has booted up. Therefore, the user should create a recovery DVD, which allows launching the recovery in case Windows does no longer boot. The web site "Intowindows.com" provides an English guide on how to create such a DVD. Maintenance Acer TravelMate 293ELC Battery On the underside of the notebook, there is a small maintenance hatch and behind it, there are the two RAM slots. One of them is occupied by a 4 GB module. The notebook supports up to 8 GB of RAM. An additional 4 GB RAM module currently costs about 15 to 20 Euros (~$20 to $27). If you want to replace the hard drive or clean the fan, you have to remove the underside of the case. However, we did not try this at the time of the review. Acer TravelMate 293ELCi Battery Warranty Acer provides a 24 month bring-in warranty for the V5-471G. In case of a defect, the customer has to send the device to Acer. The IdeaPad and the Samsung have similar warranties. The warranty of the Acer can be extended to three years for about 70 to 80 Euro (~$95 to $110), but the warranty extension must be bought and activated within 365 days after the purchase of the notebook. Acer TravelMate 293ELM Battery Performance Our test sample delivers more than enough performance for most users. Text processing, video telephony, internet browsing and videos are not a big challenge for the device. Thanks to its GeForce GPU, it can also play a few 3D games. If the 14-inch display is too small for you, you could consider the nearly identically equipped 15.6-inch Aspire V5-571G. Acer TravelMate 293ELMi Battery The V5-471 series is a different model. If you do not need a GeForce GPU, you can choose a model without it ("G" will be missing from the model id). In addition, Acer also offer models with touchscreen ("P" in the model name: V5-471P). Our test device is priced at about 600 Euros (~$810), and the other models of the series cost between 500 and 700 Euros (~$675 to $950). Acer TravelMate 293LCi Battery Processor Acer use an Intel Core i5-3317U dual core CPU from the Ivy Bridge family in the V5-471G with a base clock of 1.7 GHz. Thanks to Turbo Boost, the clock rate can be increased to 2.4 GHz (both cores) and 2.6 GHz (for a single core). The built-in Core i5 is a ULV CPU, which operates at an especially low voltage level. As a result, its power consumption is lower. Acer TravelMate 293LMi Battery In the Cinebench tests, the processor is able to utilize the Turbo Boost functionality without any losses in performance. The results are on par with other notebooks with the Core i5-3317U like the IdeaPad S400 (Core i5-3317U, HD Graphics 4000). The Samsung (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G) and the IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) are notably outperformed as the AMD CPUs are slower than the Core i5. Acer TravelMate 29X Battery Thanks to its GeForce GPU, the Aspire also wins the GL tests. System Performance The system works smoothly without any delays and the PCMark 7 benchmark confirms our experience with the hardware. The IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and the Samsung Series 5 535U3C (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G) cannot keep up with the Aspire, as their AMD APUs are slower than the CPU/GPU combination of our test sample. Despite having the same CPU and a slower GPU, the IdeaPad U410 (Core i5-3317U, GeForce 610M) delivers a better result as it is equipped with a faster hard drive supported by an SSD cache. The IdeaPad S400 (Core i5-3317U, HD Graphics 4000) performs better too. Acer TravelMate 4050 Battery , Acer TravelMate 4050LC adapter , Acer TravelMate 4050LCi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4050LM Battery , Graphics cards The Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU and the GeForce GT 620M GPU are responsible for the graphics performance. Both graphics solutions support DirectX 11. The Intel GPU is used for everyday applications, while the GeForce GPU is used for demanding tasks like 3D games. The GT 620M GPU is one of the entry level GPUs from Nvidia with clocks at 630 MHz. Its Turbo is not activated (no increase of the clock rate to 715 MHz), in order not to overtax the cooling system. The 3DMark results are as expected. Thanks to its GeForce GT 620M GPU, the Aspire is significantly faster than the IdeaPad S405 (AMD A8-4555M, Radeon HD 7600G) and the Samsung Series 5 (AMD A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G) in all graphics tests. Acer TravelMate 4050LMi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4050WLCi adapter , Charger TravelMate 4050WLMi , Gaming Performance Thanks to the GeForce GPU, the Aspire is also gaming capable. Current 3D games can be run at low to medium quality and native resolution (1366 x 768 pixels). Even demanding titles like Hitman: Absolution run without stuttering at the lowest settings. Several games also run smoothly at higher quality like the Fifa series. However, if you focus on gaming, you should select a notebook with more powerful graphics, like the Geforce GT 650M and something faster. Comparable notebooks often use only the HD Graphics 4000 GPU. These can only run most games smoothly at lowest resolution and low quality. Some games will also run at medium quality. Acer TravelMate 4051 Battery , Acer TravelMate 4051LC adapter , Acer TravelMate 4051LCi Battery , Charger TravelMate 4051LM , System noise The slim case houses decent performance components. Therefore, the notebook requires a powerful cooling system whose design isn't capable of keeping the system noise down. We already measure between 32.5 and 36.9 dB in the idle state. The IdeaPad S405 (30.3 to 31.3 dB) and the Samsung Series 5 (29.8 to 32.1 dB) are significantly quieter. Under medium (3D Mark 06) and full load (stress test: Prime95 and Furmark), it gets really loud with noise levels of 44 dB and 44.9 dB. The Samsung (39.8 dB and 42,3 dB) works quieter than the Aspire. and the IdeaPad (31.3 dB. and 31.5 dB) also works whisper quiet under load. While idle, the device gets only moderately warmer with temperatures between 27.7 and 36 degrees Celsius. This is on par with the Samsung, but the IdeaPad remains somewhat cooler. Acer TravelMate 4051LMi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4051WLCi Battery , Charger TravelMate 4051WLMi , During the stress test (Prime 95 and Furmark), which is not a realistic scenario, the V5-471G gets significantly warmer with temperatures between 27.6 and 49.6 degrees Celsius. Again, the Series 5 notebook reaches similar temperatures, but some parts get even warmer (52.2 degrees Celsius). Only the Lenovo stays relatively cool under full load. In our stress test (Prime 95 and Furmark run for at least one hour), the CPU only runs at full speed (2.4 GHz) for about 5 minutes before it slows down to 1.3 GHz (throttling) on the mains. When the stress test is run on battery power, the CPU always clocks at 1.3 GHz. In contrast, the GPU continuously runs at maximum speed (630 MHz) in the stress test regardless of the power source. We ran 3DMark 06 immediately after the stress test and the result did not differ from the cold notebook's. The CPU temperature levels off at about 70 degrees Celsius on mains. Acer TravelMate 4052 Battery , TravelMate 4052LC Battery , TravelMate 4052LM Battery , Acer TravelMate 4052LMi Battery , Speakers The stereo speakers of the V5-471G are on the underside. "Dolby Advanced Audio" and "Virtual Surround Sound" promise decent sound, which is not available on many devices in this category. It is thin and a little bit tiny instead. Speech is clearly audible. In changing the settings with the pre-installed Dolby Advanced Audio software, you could improve the sound. As an alternative, you can simply connect external speakers or headphones. Power consumption While idle, the V5-471G profits from its frugal ULV processor. We measure a power consumption between 7.3 and 11.7 Watts. Unsurprisingly, the Samsung (7.7 to 14.5 Watt) and the IdeaPad (7.2 to 12 Watt) demand a similar amount of energy as they are equipped with frugal AMD APUs. As soon as the GeForce GPU is active, the power consumption of the Acer increases significantly. We recorded 54.2 Watts under medium load (3DMark 06) and 52.1 Watts under full load (Prime95 and Furmark). The value is lower under full load, as the CPU throttles to 1.3 GHz. The Series 5 (38.1 Watt and 41,8 Watt) and the IdeaPad (26.9 Watt and 25.7 Watt) demand significantly less power under load. Acer TravelMate 4051LMi Battery , TravelMate 4051WLCi Battery , Acer TravelMate 4051WLMi Battery , Battery Life In the idle mode, the Aspire is able to produce runtimes of 5:36 h, which is on par with the IdeaPad's (5:37 h). The Samsung (6:59 h) runs significantly longer. The idle runtime is recorded by means of the BatteryEater Reader's tests with minimum display brightness, active energy-saving profile and disabled wireless modules. The V5-471G runs for about 1:01 h in the load test. The S405 (1:21 h) and the Samsung (1:32 h) are able to keep operating for a longer time. To check the battery life under load, we used the BatteryEater Classic test with maximum display brightness, high performance profile and enabled wireless modules. Acer TravelMate 4053 Battery , Acer TravelMate 4053LMi Battery , Acer 1400 Battery , Acer Aspire 1400XC Battery , Acer Aspire 1403L Battery , Aspire 1200 Battery , With a single charge, the Wi-Fi test runs for about 2:26 h. The Aspire cannot keep up with its competitors here (S405: 2:55 h, Series 5: 4:19 h). During the Wi-Fi test, web pages are automatically loaded in 40-second intervals with active energy saving profile and a display brightness of about 150 cd/m². The DVD test ends after 2:44 h. Unfortunately, we do not have any comparison results from the competitors here. The DVD test is run with the energy saving profile (or higher if the DVD does not play smoothly), maximum display brightness and deactivated wireless modules. It is not surprising that the Samsung delivers the longest battery runtimes. It is equipped with the biggest battery (Samsung: 45 Wh, Acer: 37 Wh, Lenovo: 32 Wh). Acer TravelMate 270 Battery , TravelMate 270XV Battery , The Aspire V5-471G delivers decent system performance which suffices for most users. Thanks to its GeForce GT 620M GPU, it can also run some current 3D games to an extent. But, there are also disadvantages; short battery life (caused by a small battery) and the ever present system noise. In addition, the display has low contrast and narrow viewing angles. However, if you are looking for cheap, gaming capable notebook, there are not many alternatives. If you prefer a matte display and long battery life, you should consider Samsung's Series 5 535U3C. The IdeaPad S405 is a decent notebook for those looking for a very quiet and frugal notebook. http://www.enunblog.com/moviechy/217889/ Review Asus VivoTab TF810C Convertible IFA 2012 was the revival of convertibles. To this point subnotebooks with a classic swivel joint were niche products. For the most part these devices, like the convertible Lifebooks (e.g. Fujitsu T580, T900), Latitudes (Dell XT2) or ThinkPads (X220T) were attractive for the business user. ASUS F55U Battery There have been some Windows 7 consumer convertibles over the last couple of years, but the sales figures were never really high. The most important consumer convertibles: Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t (N450), HP TouchSmart tm2 (Core 2 Duo), Dell Inspiron duo (N550), Gigabyte Booktop T1125N (Intel Core) and Asus Eee PC T91 MT (Z520). Reason for the small demand was the bad touch optimization of Windows 7 and a market that was heavily focused on notebooks. ASUS F55V Battery The massive growth of Android and iOS based tablets and their big performance jumps in a very short period got the attention of Intel and Microsoft. The big players did not want to lose against Android in the long term but sell their own processors for tablets and smartphones. Windows 8 was also optimized to become a touch-OS and Intel made ultra-mobile X86-Atom CPUs (Clover Trail) for tablets and smartphones (Windows Phone). ASUS F55VD Battery The VivoTab TF810C belongs to this "new" category. Atom Z2760 combined with real Windows 8 (no RT-version) and an attachable keyboard. Can the 11.6-inch device connect the typical Windows world and its proven applications with the mobile tablet world? Asus talks about transformed productivity and not only attaches a convenient keyboard but also a second battery. ASUS F55VDR Battery Do mobility and Windows productivity meet the requirements of the 900 Euros (~$1201) price tag? Similar to HP and Acer, Asus decided to use the docking concept. But this is only one way to transform a tablet into a subnotebook. Flipping frame (Review Dell XPS 12 ConvertibleDell XPS 12), slider-mechanism (Sony Vaio Duo 11, Toshiba Satellite U920t), double-sided displays (Asus Taichi 21) and 360-degree hinges (Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga) are other solutions. ASUS F75 Battery Advantage of the docking system: If you do not need the keyboard - or in this case the longer runtime - you do not have to carry a bulky and heavy case. The first look is reserved for the massive metallic joint of the 11.6-inch device. Two bars inside keep the tablet in place and a velvet insert avoids unpleasant abrasions. Moving the joint is very difficult without the cover as lever-arm, it is exceptionally firm. ASUS F75A Battery Accordingly opening the cover with one hand is not possible. The slider on the left tablet side releases the locking mechanism mechanically. The connection has a very good tensile strength, without unlocking the tablet cannot be released. The joint cannot avoid teetering of the cover; it is too loose in the socket. The opening angle of the cover is limited to around 130 degrees and the heavy base unit (weight of the second battery) avoids tipping backwards. ASUS F75A1 Battery Touch inputs encounter a usable fixated surface but the wobbling within the joint is disturbing. The Samsung ATIV Smart PC and HP Envy X2 have the same problem. Especially problematic for Samsung users: The opening angle is smaller, the device can tip due to the unfavorable center of gravity (no battery weight underneath the keyboard) and the display falls back onto the keyboard by itself (no fixation point). ASUS F75V adapter We really like the stability and build quality of both components. The glass has good pressure resistance, only at the border surfaces pressure creates small pressure marks. The brushed aluminum finish of the back side of the tablet is pleasantly cool and avoids slipping of the hands. The ripped plastic stripes at the same place have the same purpose. ASUS F75VD Battery The keyboard-dock leaves the same sturdy impression of the tablet body. It is made of brushed aluminum at the cover and rubberized plastic underneath. The base can only be slightly bent but not dented anywhere. Communication The WLAN module supports the draft-n standard and Bluetooth 4.0, which is pretty much standard repertoire for most Windows devices by now. ASUS F75VD1 Battery Based on our rough evaluation the transmitting power is convenient: With a distance of three meters the reception is excellent (Windows: 5 bars), upstairs (10 m) and outside the house (15 m, 3 bars) still good to low (40 m, 1 bar). The transmitting power of the router (Fritz!Box 7270) is always reduced to 50%. 4G/UMTS is no option for the TF810C, Asus offers no according model. In return you get a GPS module for location. ASUS K45 Battery When you are on the road and use the internet connection of your smartphone via tethering certain applications can display your current position (Google Maps). Common navigation applications, even without internet connection, are also working. The sibling VivoTab Smart ME400C is also available with GPS but still lacks 4G capability. From the Atom competitors only the ATIV Smart PC XE500T1C is equipped with a UMTS. Acer should provide the Iconia W511 with 3G soon. ASUS K45A Battery NFC (Near Field Communication) is a technology to connect external devices in a contactless way with the VivoTab. One example: Hold NFC capable headphones next to the tablet and they immediately start playing. A hardware installation is not necessary. A second contact results in a disconnect. Iconia W510 and Envy x2 11 also have NFC on board. ASUS K45D Battery Accessories The VivoTab is also available without the keyboard dock, the price is 800 Euros (~$1068) in this case. As accessory you get a stylus pen (Wacom, passive, without battery) with five replacement tips in a small box. In addition there is a USB 2.0 dongle for the docking port of the tablet and a cover that can also be used as a tablet stand. The keyboard dock does not fit into this cover. ASUS K45DE Battery Invisible are compass, position sensor and gyroscope (gyrostabilizer, detects the position of the tablet) and an ambient light sensor. The latter acts too exaggerated in our opinion and often reduces the brightness too much. Via function key it can be deactivated very quickly, at least at the dock. The listed sensors are standard for modern tablets. ASUS K45DR Battery Software Here Asus restrains itself and does not waste much space of the very limited storage. Asus Web Storage, Asus@Vibe fun Center and a trial version of MS Office, which is all. From the 64 GB MMC storage 50 GB remains for Windows 8 and software after deduction of the recovery partition and the formatting loss. Windows needs 13 GB so around 37 GB remains for the user. ASUS K45N Battery Performance The System-on-Chip (SoC) Atom Z2760 (Clover Trail) is Intel's first X86 chip with integrated graphics (GMA 3650) for tablets as well as smartphones (e. g. ZTE Grand X). Due to the 32nm process the chip is more efficient than Atom CPUs in netbooks (e.g. N2600) and can keep up with the Nvidia Tegra (ARM) when it comes to runtime and efficiency. ASUS K45V Battery See our efficiency comparison ARM against x86 for more information. The Clover Trail is available for smartphones as Atom Z2000 and Z2580. For tablets or convertibles the Z2760 is the only processor currently available. As an alternative you can get the VivoTab with a Tegra 3 in the VivoTab RT Convertible (Windows 8 RT). Like all Atom convertibles our review unit is equipped with 64 GB eMMC flash storage and 2 GB LPDDR2 RAM (onboard). ASUS K45VD Battery The computing power of the Atom is not on the same level as ultrabooks or cheap notebooks. Even weak Celeron/Pentium processors are 80 to 113% faster at multi core tests. For the comparison we use ultrabook convertibles. With an i5-3317U & Co these subnotebooks are up to 390% faster. The computing power is similar to the 2012 Atom generation but with reduced energy consumption. ASUS K45VG Battery The 2008 N270 (Diamond Ville; Eee PC 1002HA) is 50%, the 2012 N2600 (Cedarview; Aspire One D270) is 9% slower. The consumption under load (see stress test) was almost cut in half compared to netbooks from 2012. The tablet Atom can keep up with the currently fastest ARM chips, which is shown by the multi-platform benchmark Geekbench 2. The competitors from HP, Samsung and Acer are on the same level. ASUS K45VJ Battery The system performance of the VivoTab, displayed by PCMark 7, leaves a better impression. Now the Atom device is only 10 - 17% behind weaker Pentium or Celeron notebooks (low voltage): The reason for this is the flash storage, which outclasses all mechanical hard drives of compared devices by around 40%. The picture below shows the PCMark 7 System Storage Score. ASUS K45VM Battery Systems with conventional hard drives cannot keep up and lose points. However, ultrabooks with real solid state drives are clearly ahead (+ 177 - 127%). The currently available netbook generation (Atom N2600, Aspire One D270 or also AMD C-60, Aspire One 725) is 35 to 46% behind the VivoTab. Compared to latest SSD drives the performance of the eMMC chip is very low (see Vaio Duo 11 in the following diagram). HD-Tune and Crystal Disk Mark determine only 50 and 79 MB/sec for sequential reading, which is even less than the latest hard drives. The results for the 4K tests are better, here the eMMC is almost 100% faster compared to a typical hard drive with 5400 rpm. ASUS K45VS Battery Graphics The PowerVR SGX545 (IGP) is at the bottom end when compared against integrated solutions from AMD and Intel. It can surpass the old GMA 950 and 3150 (Cinebench R10 Shading 32Bit), but cannot deliver the performance of the already slow Intel GMA (Sandy Bridge). The more we look at ultrabooks and HD 4000 the bigger the difference. The HD4000 in the Toshiba U920t Convertible is almost three times faster and delivers ten times the fps in FIFA 13. Compatible ASUS K55 Battery The PowerVR does not support DirectX-10, only version 9. If older test games start at all, there were often graphic errors, for example with FIFA 13 and World in Conflict. In the end the GPU is used for video acceleration when the necessary player and codec are provided. Temperature The VivoTab TF810C does not need a fan, it has the same passive silent cooling solution as similar equipped tablets. This is the case for all Atom based competitors. Ultrabook convertibles (e. g. Vaio Duo 11) need active cooling. The 2012 Atom generation (Cedarview) also needed active cooling (at least the manufacturers always used it). The energy consumption and the created heat of Cedarview were considerably higher. ASUS K55A Battery The produced heat has to be dissipated by the case surfaces. Here, the aluminum cover is an advantage. The VivoTab remains cool, especially if you use little computing performance. During idle we measure a maximum surface temperature of only 25 °C at the front and back. The keyboard dock remains at ambient temperature, it only contains the battery. ASUS K55D adapter During load (stress test Furmark + Prime95) the VivoTab TF810C has a steady CPU clock of 1.8 GHz. Turbo boost is not available. The GPU clocks could not be determined with any tool. We suspect unfinished drivers. The result of the mandatory 3DMark 05 run after the stress test was identical to the plugged in test. By the way, the computing performance remains identical when the battery is used, the CB R11.5 test results (32 bit) were the same.ASUS K55DE Battery Replacement The integrated speakers (back of the tablet, at the edge) deliver reasonable sound at adjusted or maximum volume. The volume is pretty high (no distortions). When you carry the tablet around both hands are exactly above the speakers, but the sound does not suffer in these situations because the fingers cannot cover 100% of them. Low tones and bass are not very inspiring, they are just not present. The sound is more mid tone focused. We did not like the automatic volume adjustment of the sound driver, we could clearly determine adjustments. ASUS K55DR Battery For headphones there is a standard 3.5 mm audio jack that was combined with the microphone. The tablet also has an integrated microphone, for example, voice commands can be used for web URLs or search words. Energy Management Power Consumption The energy consumption is between 1.6 - 4.2 Watts at idle and 5.8 Watts under medium workloads (3DMark2006). The very low consumption is comparable to ARM tablets (Vivo Tab RT TF600) or the X86-competition (Iconia W510 1.7-6.9 Watts at idle). ASUS K55N Battery The Samsung ATIV Smart PC (1.6-4.0) is more frugal although its display brightness is nearly identical. Under high load the voltmeter only indicates 8.4 Watts. The W510 (9.7 Watts) is more power hungry; the rest of the competition is on the same level. Interesting: The TF600 with Tegra 3 and Windows RT needs even more power, 9.1 and 11 Watts respectively (medium, high; similar brightness). Intel Core devices like the Vaio Duo 11 with i5-3317U need 5 - 11 Watts at idle and 34 Watts under load. In return the performance is significantly higher compared to our Intel-Atom system. ASUS K55V Battery The 10 Watts power supply unit is sufficient for the consumption. During continuous load and utilization of the PSU the following charging times could be longer. Battery Runtime Just recently the Envy X2 11 with its dual batteries delivered massive runtimes of 7:07 and 11:55 up to 20:34 hours (load/WLAN/idle). These runtimes can be beaten by our review unit. 33 hours (tablet+dock) is the result for the Reader-test, the consumption was minimized by turning off all wireless connections and the lowest brightness. ASUS K55VD Battery The runtime measurements became an ordeal because the limited energy settings of Windows 8 (there is just one energy profile!) caused the tablet to go into unintentional standby quite often. When we only used the tablet this could be avoided with the "Don't Sleep" tool, but it did not always work when the keyboard dock was attached. Due to these problems we did not get a correct result for the WLAN test even after several days of testing. ASUS K55VJ Battery Based on our evaluation the most realistic runtime is determined by the "Movie 150 cd/m²" scenario. The tablet shows a low resolution AVI movie for almost 14 hours (830 minutes). With the docking station this value is increased to 18:20 hours (1,100 minutes). The worst scenario under load (only tablet, maximum brightness) is seven hours (425 minutes). ASUS K55VM Charger The Reader-test (idle) without docking battery stops after 10:41 hours (641 minutes). The docking station is no charging station; the tablet cannot be recharged with the second battery. There is one disadvantage with two batteries: the pretty weak 10 Watts PSU needs 6:10 hours (both batteries) and 4:07 hours (only tablet battery) for a complete charge (device is turned on). The 2-cell tablet battery has a capacity of 30 Wh (lithium-polymer, 3,950 mAH). The battery beneath the keyboard provides 25 Wh (two cells). ASUS K55VS Battery The competition, also with dual batteries, cannot keep up with these runtimes: Asus VivoTab RT TF600 (16:10 hours/10:18; idle/WLAN), Iconia W510 (19:09/13:35), Samsung XE500T1C (single battery, 14:43/7:14). Asus complements its Windows RT VivoTab TF600 (Tegra 3) with a device for traditional Windows fans, the VivoTab TF810C-1B026W including keyboard dock. ASUS K75 Battery But you really have to be a big fan; the extra charge of 350 Euros (~$467) is immense. For this price you get the X86-platform with real Windows 8. It is only 32 bit but it can run all familiar applications (no limitation to Windows RT apps). At least in theory, similar to the HP Envy x2 11-g000eg, Acer Iconia W510 and Samsung ATIV Smart PC XE500T1C, the performance suffers from the weak Atom processor. ASUS K75A BatteryIf you want to use the TF810C as a desktop replacement on the go (multi-tasking, run apps simultaneously, save lots of data, casual games) you will reach the performance limits very quickly. This is the reason for the title "unbalanced": The TF810C is more expensive than some Intel-Core ultrabooks but computing speed and overall performance are almost similar to netbooks (Atom N2600 early 2012). ASUS K75D Battery But the VivoTab TF810C has its advantages too. 33 hours idle runtime is unrivaled compared to other Cedarview-Atom devices. We can only estimate the WLAN runtime with an additional test: around 17 hours. These runtimes can be achieved with the additional battery in the keyboard dock. Other benefits are the keyboard, which is convenient for frequent writers and the robust, high quality aluminum finish of the base unit and tablet. ASUS K75DE Charger The potential buyer might be surprised by the low HD resolution (1366x768 pixels), but Atom convertibles from the competition do not offer something better (Envy x2 11, Acer Iconia W510 and ATIV Smart PC XE500T1C). If you want a higher resolution in the same or at least similar form factor (Windows 8) you have to choose an Intel Core based convertible, for example the Sony Vaio Duo 11 or Dell XPS 12. ASUS K75V Battery The S-IPS+ panel does not need to hide from the competition, it is very bright during battery use, has a very high contrast and wide viewing angles (best in class). The three listed competitors also have good displays but are not that perfect. Similar (low) performance, identically good panels with the same resolution: Which Atom convertible is the best? With prices of around 900 Euros (~$1201) the Envy x2 11 and our VivoTab TF810C are the most expensive, yet they offer the best runtimes with the additional battery inside the keyboard docks. ASUS K75VD adapter Acer Iconia W510 (500 - 600 Euros, ~$667 - $801) and ATIV Smart PC XE500T1C (under 800 Euros, ~$1068, without UMTS) are considerably less expensive. However, Samsung waives the second battery and with Acer the customer has to live with worse build quality and inconvenient input devices. In return, Acer integrated an additional battery and offers long runtimes. ASUS K75VJ Battery Asus does not want to scare off the customers and sells a technically identical VivoTab Smart ME400C for around 500 Euros (~$667, without dock). http://www.enunblog.com/moviechy/217016/ Review Asus VivoTab TF810C Convertible IFA 2012 was the revival of convertibles. To this point subnotebooks with a classic swivel joint were niche products. For the most part these devices, like the convertible Lifebooks (e.g. Fujitsu T580, T900), Latitudes (Dell XT2) or ThinkPads (X220T) were attractive for the business user. ASUS F55U Battery There have been some Windows 7 consumer convertibles over the last couple of years, but the sales figures were never really high. The most important consumer convertibles: Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t (N450), HP TouchSmart tm2 (Core 2 Duo), Dell Inspiron duo (N550), Gigabyte Booktop T1125N (Intel Core) and Asus Eee PC T91 MT (Z520). Reason for the small demand was the bad touch optimization of Windows 7 and a market that was heavily focused on notebooks. ASUS F55V Battery The massive growth of Android and iOS based tablets and their big performance jumps in a very short period got the attention of Intel and Microsoft. The big players did not want to lose against Android in the long term but sell their own processors for tablets and smartphones. Windows 8 was also optimized to become a touch-OS and Intel made ultra-mobile X86-Atom CPUs (Clover Trail) for tablets and smartphones (Windows Phone). ASUS F55VD Battery The VivoTab TF810C belongs to this "new" category. Atom Z2760 combined with real Windows 8 (no RT-version) and an attachable keyboard. Can the 11.6-inch device connect the typical Windows world and its proven applications with the mobile tablet world? Asus talks about transformed productivity and not only attaches a convenient keyboard but also a second battery. ASUS F55VDR Battery Do mobility and Windows productivity meet the requirements of the 900 Euros (~$1201) price tag? Similar to HP and Acer, Asus decided to use the docking concept. But this is only one way to transform a tablet into a subnotebook. Flipping frame (Review Dell XPS 12 ConvertibleDell XPS 12), slider-mechanism (Sony Vaio Duo 11, Toshiba Satellite U920t), double-sided displays (Asus Taichi 21) and 360-degree hinges (Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga) are other solutions. ASUS F75 Battery Advantage of the docking system: If you do not need the keyboard - or in this case the longer runtime - you do not have to carry a bulky and heavy case. The first look is reserved for the massive metallic joint of the 11.6-inch device. Two bars inside keep the tablet in place and a velvet insert avoids unpleasant abrasions. Moving the joint is very difficult without the cover as lever-arm, it is exceptionally firm. ASUS F75A Battery Accordingly opening the cover with one hand is not possible. The slider on the left tablet side releases the locking mechanism mechanically. The connection has a very good tensile strength, without unlocking the tablet cannot be released. The joint cannot avoid teetering of the cover; it is too loose in the socket. The opening angle of the cover is limited to around 130 degrees and the heavy base unit (weight of the second battery) avoids tipping backwards. ASUS F75A1 Battery Touch inputs encounter a usable fixated surface but the wobbling within the joint is disturbing. The Samsung ATIV Smart PC and HP Envy X2 have the same problem. Especially problematic for Samsung users: The opening angle is smaller, the device can tip due to the unfavorable center of gravity (no battery weight underneath the keyboard) and the display falls back onto the keyboard by itself (no fixation point). ASUS F75V adapter We really like the stability and build quality of both components. The glass has good pressure resistance, only at the border surfaces pressure creates small pressure marks. The brushed aluminum finish of the back side of the tablet is pleasantly cool and avoids slipping of the hands. The ripped plastic stripes at the same place have the same purpose. ASUS F75VD Battery The keyboard-dock leaves the same sturdy impression of the tablet body. It is made of brushed aluminum at the cover and rubberized plastic underneath. The base can only be slightly bent but not dented anywhere. Communication The WLAN module supports the draft-n standard and Bluetooth 4.0, which is pretty much standard repertoire for most Windows devices by now. ASUS F75VD1 Battery Based on our rough evaluation the transmitting power is convenient: With a distance of three meters the reception is excellent (Windows: 5 bars), upstairs (10 m) and outside the house (15 m, 3 bars) still good to low (40 m, 1 bar). The transmitting power of the router (Fritz!Box 7270) is always reduced to 50%. 4G/UMTS is no option for the TF810C, Asus offers no according model. In return you get a GPS module for location. ASUS K45 Battery When you are on the road and use the internet connection of your smartphone via tethering certain applications can display your current position (Google Maps). Common navigation applications, even without internet connection, are also working. The sibling VivoTab Smart ME400C is also available with GPS but still lacks 4G capability. From the Atom competitors only the ATIV Smart PC XE500T1C is equipped with a UMTS. Acer should provide the Iconia W511 with 3G soon. ASUS K45A Battery NFC (Near Field Communication) is a technology to connect external devices in a contactless way with the VivoTab. One example: Hold NFC capable headphones next to the tablet and they immediately start playing. A hardware installation is not necessary. A second contact results in a disconnect. Iconia W510 and Envy x2 11 also have NFC on board. ASUS K45D Battery Accessories The VivoTab is also available without the keyboard dock, the price is 800 Euros (~$1068) in this case. As accessory you get a stylus pen (Wacom, passive, without battery) with five replacement tips in a small box. In addition there is a USB 2.0 dongle for the docking port of the tablet and a cover that can also be used as a tablet stand. The keyboard dock does not fit into this cover. ASUS K45DE Battery Invisible are compass, position sensor and gyroscope (gyrostabilizer, detects the position of the tablet) and an ambient light sensor. The latter acts too exaggerated in our opinion and often reduces the brightness too much. Via function key it can be deactivated very quickly, at least at the dock. The listed sensors are standard for modern tablets. ASUS K45DR Battery Software Here Asus restrains itself and does not waste much space of the very limited storage. Asus Web Storage, Asus@Vibe fun Center and a trial version of MS Office, which is all. From the 64 GB MMC storage 50 GB remains for Windows 8 and software after deduction of the recovery partition and the formatting loss. Windows needs 13 GB so around 37 GB remains for the user. ASUS K45N Battery Performance The System-on-Chip (SoC) Atom Z2760 (Clover Trail) is Intel's first X86 chip with integrated graphics (GMA 3650) for tablets as well as smartphones (e. g. ZTE Grand X). Due to the 32nm process the chip is more efficient than Atom CPUs in netbooks (e.g. N2600) and can keep up with the Nvidia Tegra (ARM) when it comes to runtime and efficiency. ASUS K45V Battery See our efficiency comparison ARM against x86 for more information. The Clover Trail is available for smartphones as Atom Z2000 and Z2580. For tablets or convertibles the Z2760 is the only processor currently available. As an alternative you can get the VivoTab with a Tegra 3 in the VivoTab RT Convertible (Windows 8 RT). Like all Atom convertibles our review unit is equipped with 64 GB eMMC flash storage and 2 GB LPDDR2 RAM (onboard). ASUS K45VD Battery The computing power of the Atom is not on the same level as ultrabooks or cheap notebooks. Even weak Celeron/Pentium processors are 80 to 113% faster at multi core tests. For the comparison we use ultrabook convertibles. With an i5-3317U & Co these subnotebooks are up to 390% faster. The computing power is similar to the 2012 Atom generation but with reduced energy consumption. ASUS K45VG Battery The 2008 N270 (Diamond Ville; Eee PC 1002HA) is 50%, the 2012 N2600 (Cedarview; Aspire One D270) is 9% slower. The consumption under load (see stress test) was almost cut in half compared to netbooks from 2012. The tablet Atom can keep up with the currently fastest ARM chips, which is shown by the multi-platform benchmark Geekbench 2. The competitors from HP, Samsung and Acer are on the same level. ASUS K45VJ Battery The system performance of the VivoTab, displayed by PCMark 7, leaves a better impression. Now the Atom device is only 10 - 17% behind weaker Pentium or Celeron notebooks (low voltage): The reason for this is the flash storage, which outclasses all mechanical hard drives of compared devices by around 40%. The picture below shows the PCMark 7 System Storage Score. ASUS K45VM Battery Systems with conventional hard drives cannot keep up and lose points. However, ultrabooks with real solid state drives are clearly ahead (+ 177 - 127%). The currently available netbook generation (Atom N2600, Aspire One D270 or also AMD C-60, Aspire One 725) is 35 to 46% behind the VivoTab. Compared to latest SSD drives the performance of the eMMC chip is very low (see Vaio Duo 11 in the following diagram). HD-Tune and Crystal Disk Mark determine only 50 and 79 MB/sec for sequential reading, which is even less than the latest hard drives. The results for the 4K tests are better, here the eMMC is almost 100% faster compared to a typical hard drive with 5400 rpm. ASUS K45VS Battery Graphics The PowerVR SGX545 (IGP) is at the bottom end when compared against integrated solutions from AMD and Intel. It can surpass the old GMA 950 and 3150 (Cinebench R10 Shading 32Bit), but cannot deliver the performance of the already slow Intel GMA (Sandy Bridge). The more we look at ultrabooks and HD 4000 the bigger the difference. The HD4000 in the Toshiba U920t Convertible is almost three times faster and delivers ten times the fps in FIFA 13. Compatible ASUS K55 Battery The PowerVR does not support DirectX-10, only version 9. If older test games start at all, there were often graphic errors, for example with FIFA 13 and World in Conflict. In the end the GPU is used for video acceleration when the necessary player and codec are provided. Temperature The VivoTab TF810C does not need a fan, it has the same passive silent cooling solution as similar equipped tablets. This is the case for all Atom based competitors. Ultrabook convertibles (e. g. Vaio Duo 11) need active cooling. The 2012 Atom generation (Cedarview) also needed active cooling (at least the manufacturers always used it). The energy consumption and the created heat of Cedarview were considerably higher. ASUS K55A Battery The produced heat has to be dissipated by the case surfaces. Here, the aluminum cover is an advantage. The VivoTab remains cool, especially if you use little computing performance. During idle we measure a maximum surface temperature of only 25 °C at the front and back. The keyboard dock remains at ambient temperature, it only contains the battery. ASUS K55D adapter During load (stress test Furmark + Prime95) the VivoTab TF810C has a steady CPU clock of 1.8 GHz. Turbo boost is not available. The GPU clocks could not be determined with any tool. We suspect unfinished drivers. The result of the mandatory 3DMark 05 run after the stress test was identical to the plugged in test. By the way, the computing performance remains identical when the battery is used, the CB R11.5 test results (32 bit) were the same.ASUS K55DE Battery Replacement The integrated speakers (back of the tablet, at the edge) deliver reasonable sound at adjusted or maximum volume. The volume is pretty high (no distortions). When you carry the tablet around both hands are exactly above the speakers, but the sound does not suffer in these situations because the fingers cannot cover 100% of them. Low tones and bass are not very inspiring, they are just not present. The sound is more mid tone focused. We did not like the automatic volume adjustment of the sound driver, we could clearly determine adjustments. ASUS K55DR Battery For headphones there is a standard 3.5 mm audio jack that was combined with the microphone. The tablet also has an integrated microphone, for example, voice commands can be used for web URLs or search words. Energy Management Power Consumption The energy consumption is between 1.6 - 4.2 Watts at idle and 5.8 Watts under medium workloads (3DMark2006). The very low consumption is comparable to ARM tablets (Vivo Tab RT TF600) or the X86-competition (Iconia W510 1.7-6.9 Watts at idle). ASUS K55N Battery The Samsung ATIV Smart PC (1.6-4.0) is more frugal although its display brightness is nearly identical. Under high load the voltmeter only indicates 8.4 Watts. The W510 (9.7 Watts) is more power hungry; the rest of the competition is on the same level. Interesting: The TF600 with Tegra 3 and Windows RT needs even more power, 9.1 and 11 Watts respectively (medium, high; similar brightness). Intel Core devices like the Vaio Duo 11 with i5-3317U need 5 - 11 Watts at idle and 34 Watts under load. In return the performance is significantly higher compared to our Intel-Atom system. ASUS K55V Battery The 10 Watts power supply unit is sufficient for the consumption. During continuous load and utilization of the PSU the following charging times could be longer. Battery Runtime Just recently the Envy X2 11 with its dual batteries delivered massive runtimes of 7:07 and 11:55 up to 20:34 hours (load/WLAN/idle). These runtimes can be beaten by our review unit. 33 hours (tablet+dock) is the result for the Reader-test, the consumption was minimized by turning off all wireless connections and the lowest brightness. ASUS K55VD Battery The runtime measurements became an ordeal because the limited energy settings of Windows 8 (there is just one energy profile!) caused the tablet to go into unintentional standby quite often. When we only used the tablet this could be avoided with the "Don't Sleep" tool, but it did not always work when the keyboard dock was attached. Due to these problems we did not get a correct result for the WLAN test even after several days of testing. ASUS K55VJ Battery Based on our evaluation the most realistic runtime is determined by the "Movie 150 cd/m²" scenario. The tablet shows a low resolution AVI movie for almost 14 hours (830 minutes). With the docking station this value is increased to 18:20 hours (1,100 minutes). The worst scenario under load (only tablet, maximum brightness) is seven hours (425 minutes). ASUS K55VM Charger The Reader-test (idle) without docking battery stops after 10:41 hours (641 minutes). The docking station is no charging station; the tablet cannot be recharged with the second battery. There is one disadvantage with two batteries: the pretty weak 10 Watts PSU needs 6:10 hours (both batteries) and 4:07 hours (only tablet battery) for a complete charge (device is turned on). The 2-cell tablet battery has a capacity of 30 Wh (lithium-polymer, 3,950 mAH). The battery beneath the keyboard provides 25 Wh (two cells). ASUS K55VS Battery The competition, also with dual batteries, cannot keep up with these runtimes: Asus VivoTab RT TF600 (16:10 hours/10:18; idle/WLAN), Iconia W510 (19:09/13:35), Samsung XE500T1C (single battery, 14:43/7:14). Asus complements its Windows RT VivoTab TF600 (Tegra 3) with a device for traditional Windows fans, the VivoTab TF810C-1B026W including keyboard dock. ASUS K75 Battery But you really have to be a big fan; the extra charge of 350 Euros (~$467) is immense. For this price you get the X86-platform with real Windows 8. It is only 32 bit but it can run all familiar applications (no limitation to Windows RT apps). At least in theory, similar to the HP Envy x2 11-g000eg, Acer Iconia W510 and Samsung ATIV Smart PC XE500T1C, the performance suffers from the weak Atom processor. ASUS K75A BatteryIf you want to use the TF810C as a desktop replacement on the go (multi-tasking, run apps simultaneously, save lots of data, casual games) you will reach the performance limits very quickly. This is the reason for the title "unbalanced": The TF810C is more expensive than some Intel-Core ultrabooks but computing speed and overall performance are almost similar to netbooks (Atom N2600 early 2012). ASUS K75D Battery But the VivoTab TF810C has its advantages too. 33 hours idle runtime is unrivaled compared to other Cedarview-Atom devices. We can only estimate the WLAN runtime with an additional test: around 17 hours. These runtimes can be achieved with the additional battery in the keyboard dock. Other benefits are the keyboard, which is convenient for frequent writers and the robust, high quality aluminum finish of the base unit and tablet. ASUS K75DE Charger The potential buyer might be surprised by the low HD resolution (1366x768 pixels), but Atom convertibles from the competition do not offer something better (Envy x2 11, Acer Iconia W510 and ATIV Smart PC XE500T1C). If you want a higher resolution in the same or at least similar form factor (Windows 8) you have to choose an Intel Core based convertible, for example the Sony Vaio Duo 11 or Dell XPS 12. ASUS K75V Battery The S-IPS+ panel does not need to hide from the competition, it is very bright during battery use, has a very high contrast and wide viewing angles (best in class). The three listed competitors also have good displays but are not that perfect. Similar (low) performance, identically good panels with the same resolution: Which Atom convertible is the best? With prices of around 900 Euros (~$1201) the Envy x2 11 and our VivoTab TF810C are the most expensive, yet they offer the best runtimes with the additional battery inside the keyboard docks. ASUS K75VD adapter Acer Iconia W510 (500 - 600 Euros, ~$667 - $801) and ATIV Smart PC XE500T1C (under 800 Euros, ~$1068, without UMTS) are considerably less expensive. However, Samsung waives the second battery and with Acer the customer has to live with worse build quality and inconvenient input devices. In return, Acer integrated an additional battery and offers long runtimes. ASUS K75VJ Battery Asus does not want to scare off the customers and sells a technically identical VivoTab Smart ME400C for around 500 Euros (~$667, without dock). http://www.enunblog.com/moviechy/217015/