It
didn’t take long for first manufactures to come up with a custom cooler
for the GTX Titan. Just to be clear, this is just a new cooler, the PCB
is still unchanged.
Unlike GeForce GTX 690,
the new single-GPU flagship from NVIDIA will arrive with a custom
cooling solution. Inno3D was the first company at CeBIT to show a custom
GeForce GTX Titan with a custom hybrid cooler. Artic did in fact confirm today, in a separate press release,
that their Accelero Hybrid and other air-only coolers are compatible
with the latest addition to the high-end graphics card. Inno3D added a
120mm fan to the radiator, few iChill stickers and quite possibly a
higher price tag (which is not yet revealed). Computerbased didn’t ask
the manufacture about more details, so the exact clock speeds are still
unknown.
Browse > Home / / Gigabyte Preparing GeForce GTX Titan with WINDFORCE 3X Cooler
If you thought that NVIDIA would not allow its partners to launch a custom GeForce GTX Titan’s,
then you were wrong. As I predicted in the post about a red TwinFrozr
cooler supposedly for Titan, manufacturers got a green light to prepare a
fully custom air cooling solutions, at least that what this story
suggests.
In fact, there are already a custom GTX
Titans, only with liquid solutions. Gigabyte has showcased its GTX Titan
with WindForce 3X on a special event called Gigabyte Tech Tour. They
presented it’s new peripherals like mouses or headsets, but more
importantly they shown a custom solution for Titan. The cooler is huge,
actually it’s even bigger than the reference board of the Titan (which
this card is using). According to the source, Gigabyte did its best to
increase the wattage of the card, that’s due to the way GPU Boost 2.0
works. By increasing the airflow and power limit they also increase the
clock speeds. The cooler itself received few design changes (in
comparison go other WF3x’s). There are still 3 fans on the top and two
large heat sinks, one covering the GPU and the other over the power
section. There are no external heat pipes visible on the pictures.
NVIDIA did not comment on the story.
from : videocardz.com
Browse > Home / / MSI GX60, la notebook gamer a precio económico
No es de sorprender que tanto para Navidad o Año Nuevo, estén haciéndose la idead de adquirir una nueva Laptop /Notebook Gamer de buen rendimiento, pero que no cueste una millonada, entonces, si es así, permitannos recomendarles y darles a conocer la "MSI GX60", una portátil con muy generosas prestaciones, rendimiento prometedor y precio muy adquirible.
Primero que nada, esta MSI GX60 vendrá en dos versiones, una con Windows 7 y la más reciente con Windows 8, sin embargo, esa será la única diferencia, ya que el resto de su hardware será el mismo. Entre sus especificaciones técnicas veremos que esta MSI GX60 contará con el novedoso procesador de AMD, el gran A10-4600M
a una velocidad de 2.3GHz. Por otro lado veremos 8GB de Memoria RAM
DDR3, disco duro de 750GB + otro disco duro SSD de 120GB, pantalla de
15,6 pulgadas con resolución HD de 1920×1080 píxeles, tarjeta de vídeo dedicada AMD Radeon HD 7970M
de 2GB, conectividad WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, puertos DisplayPort,
Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, Kensington Lock, USB, USB 3.0, VGA, y
claro, la infaltable lectora de SD.
Esta fabulosa MSI GX60 en versión con Windows 7 costará unos 1400 dólares. La versión con Windows 8 no tenemos claro su precio, los mantendremos informados.
Browse > Home / / Versus de 64 tarjetas de vídeo [Comparativa de hardware]
Para aquellos amantes del hardware y en especial de las comparativas de hardware, hoy nos llega un gran "versus" donde tendremos a 64 tarjetas de vídeo (NVIDIA vs AMD) frente a frente demostrándonos su poder gráfico.
Recordemos que este versus de estas 64 tarjetas de vídeo pertenecen a distintas generaciones como la línea Serie 8000 (Nvidia), Serie HD 3000 (AMD) hasta las más actuales, ademas, veremos algunas soluciones dual-GPU como GeForce GTX 9800 GX2, GeForce GTX 295, GeForce GTX 690, Radeon HD 4870 X2, Radeon HD 5970 y Radeon HD 6990, todas estas con sus respectivos DirectX 10, DirectX 10.1, DirectX 11 y DirectX 11.1. Una interesante comparativa que ayudará a muchos decidirse que tarjeta de vídeo nueva comprar para estas fiestas.
At GDC 2013 at the end of March, a room
full of would-be PS4 developers and press got some new details about the
hardware, controller, online and social functions of the forthcoming
PlayStation 4.
Senior Staff Developer
Support Engineer Chris Norden unveiled the news under an overarching
theme of a "frictionless and seamless" gaming experience.
We've
known that the PS4 will track both the controller in a gamer's hand, as
well as their face, since the console's launch in Feb. But during his
GDC talk Norden revealed some interesting ways that this technology will
be implemented in games.
For example,
the old multiplayer standby of split screen, divvying up television real
estate when two or more players go at it, will be aided by this
tracking tech. If a gamer gets up and moves right or left, his section
of the screen will automatically be swapped.
So here's everything we know about the PlayStation 4 so far...
PS4 release date
The
PS4 release date is "Holiday 2013" for the USA. That's the only
official detail Sony revealed at the launch in February and it's unclear
which other territories it applies to, if any.
However, latest rumours regarding the PS4 release date are that the console will in fact launch globally in 2013,
not just in the USA or Japan. This comes from GameStop's Michael Hogan
who said the only question is whether the Xbox 720 will also launch this
year.
Indeed, in an interview with editor of Outside Xbox and TechRadar contributor, Mike Channell, Assassin's Creed 4 boss Gene Guesdon hinted in March that his game would launch on all platforms simultaneously... at the end of October this year.
When
discussing the PS4 and the next Xbox, Guesdon said: "We have a strong
engine and we are always pushing the limits so this year again we are
ready to support such new capacities, new abilities so the game will be
ready for that but also you know we make it for current gen obviously
from a starting point," said Guesdon.
At that, Channell asked, "Is there going to be any delay in the versions or are they all going to release at the same time?"
"Same ship" was the definitive response.
After
the internet melted at the news, Ubisoft rushed out a clarification
saying that Guesdon was not talking about PS4 or Xbox 720, but was
instead referring to Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
We
asked Mike what his view of it was and he had this to say for
TechRadar: "If you look at the answer in context, from 5:05 onwards,
it's part of a discussion that's specifically about PS4 and equivalent
next generation consoles. I don't think there's any misunderstanding
there. He's saying both current and next gen versions will ship at the
same time, which implies the consoles will launch before the game's
publicly announced release date."
Make your own mind up by watching Outside Xbox's video - skip to 5 minutes in:
Officially, Sony has said it wants the
PS4 release date in Europe to be as soon as possible but makes no
promises on whether the UK and other European countries will get a
release date in time for Christmas this year or whether it'll be an
uncomfortable wait until sometime in 2014.
Stock
issues might be the reason for this, and that's exactly what happened
back in 2006/2007 when the PS3 launched. It went on sale in the US and
Japan in time for Christmas and Europe and the rest of the world had to
wait for March the next year.
Zavvi has
actually listed a UK PS4 release date of 31st December which seems
extremely unlikely - launching a few days after Christmas? Surely that's
retail suicide.
Until Sony gives more
details then, it's all just speculation. Even the retailers don't seem
to know when the PS4 will release - so maybe Sony doesn't either. It
could depend on how quickly they can get manufacture going on retail
models, what yield rates are and the capacity of the factories.
Until
we know more, we'll quietly pray to the gods of silicon that the PS4
release date will be Christmas 2013 worldwide. Or better yet, tomorrow!
PS4: Hardware specs
AMD, as we guessed all along, is coursing through this new system's veins.
Post-event,
Sony revealed the system runs on a single-chip custom processor and
utilizes eight x86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU cores, with a next-gen AMD Radeon
based graphics engine powering the way.
So
it's very much a PC-based system then, which is great news for
developers who will find it much easier to code games for the next gen
consoles and for PCs. However, that CPU is hardly next-gen - it may have
been modified for this system but the AMD Jaguar platform is by no
means the fastest of its kind - indeed it's slower than Intel's fastest
by orders of magnitude.
You can pre-order the PS4 from these stores:ShopTo | GAME
However,
with fewer redundancies than a PC has, the PS4 will certainly be able
to make use of every single Watt of power it draws.
The
"highly enhanced PC GPU" is another story. It's another AMD part -
something along the lines of a Radeon 7850 card - and packs 18 GCN
units. That may sound a like a lot of techy mumbo jumbo but what it
essentially means is that the GPU packs 18 processing clusters, each
packing up to 64 cores. That provides a lot of parallel processing
power, and will thus handle the majority of the PS4's grunt work. It
hits 1.84 TFLOPS of processing mojo. This is a far more powerful
component than the Jaguar CPU and is rumoured to have the edge on the
GPU inside the Xbox 720.
Sony announced
at the NYC event that the console will even use GPU compute features to
take advantage of the GPU's raw power - it'll be used for general
computation tasks as well as making games shiny.
Memory
The
PS4 will ship packing 8GB of GDDR5 memory. That's some super-fast stuff
right there and should enable lightning fast performance.
Indeed,
Sony has revealed that you will be able to power down the PS4 mid-game
and then switch it on again in seconds and pick up right where you left
off. That's the sort of loading power that this memory enables.
Other specs
We're
also looking at Blu-ray disk support plus good ol' DVD, plus HDMI
output support as well as Analog-AV out and an optical digital output.
PlayStation 4 Eye
What's
really grabbing though is the development of the PlayStation 4 Eye, a
newly developed camera system that utilizes two high-sensitivity camera
equipped with wide-angle lenses and 85-degree diagonal angle views.
Sony
said the cameras (amounting to 1280 x 800 pixels) can cut out the image
of a player from the background or differentiate between players in the
background and foreground, enhancing game play handily. There's also
mention of logging in using facial recognition and using voice and body
movements to play games "more intuitively."
If you have an eye for details you may have noticed that the PS4'sDualShock 4
controller has no Start or Select buttons. Norden confirmed this,
saying that it will have a so-called Option button instead, as well as
the much bandied about Share button on the rear.
The
analogue sticks have been tightened up to be more precise, and the
controller also features a brand new three-axis gyroscopic motion sensor
with three-axis accelerometer which should be great for getting you
immersed in the games. The camera continuously tracks all four
controllers with precise accuracy. Rotational tracking is provided by
the internal components and.
The
controller has a two-point Vita-like touchpad on the front with a
1920x900 resolution, and a tactile clicking sound letting you know
you've pressed it. The light bar on the front will glow different
colours depending on whether you're player 1, 2, 3 or 4 and will be
tracked by the new PS Eye camera. It also has an Xbox-style headset jack
and a mono speaker inside it.
Video-watchers take note
This new PS4 controller won't accidentally fast forward when you set it
down. Norden said this was one of the biggest complaints his team heard
about the PS3's DualShock. The PS4's controller has triggers designed
not to depress when set down. What's more, Norden even said he'd been
dropping controllers without skipping a single frame.
That
touchpad on the DualShock 4 will be capable of two simultaneous inputs.
The light on the controller will glow blue, red, green or pink light,
depending on whether you're player one, two, three or four.
The Share button
The
PS4's ardware encoder always records the last several minutes of game
play without using any additional resources from the game, by pressing
the Share button you can then upload or save your gameplay and show your
friends or keep it just for your own amusement.
PS4 Streaming
PS4
streaming lets you stream out live gameplay to your friends. This is
all built into the hardware and does not need to be supported by
developers. Users can react to the video by typing comments in real
time. You can do this to friends, or public.
PS4 user interface
The XrossMediaBar (XMB) interface of PlayStations past has been completely ditched in the PS4, with Sony instead choosing to design a new OS that looks a lot more like that of the Xbox 360 than the PS3.
Will the PS4 be 4K capable?
In a chat with Kotaku, Sony has revealed
that the PlayStation 4 will be able to playback 4K/Ultra HD video.
However, it will not upscale to 4K or play games at 4K resolution.
Sony has also confirmed that it will definitely launch a 4K movie service on the PS4 and is looking at ways it can get around the 100GB downloads required.
Backwards compatibility
The PS4 will definitely not offer native support for PS3 games.
However, there will at some point be a service on the Sony
Entertainment Network that offers server-side emulation and streaming of
games from PS One classics right through to PS3 Platinum Editions.
PlayStation Move
Sony
has confirmed that PlayStation Move will play a big part in the PS4
ecosystem. However, it has not yet been revealed whether the PS4 will
launch alongside a new PS Eye camera and new Move controllers or whether
the peripherals are staying the same with all the enhancements made
console-side.
By tracking the light bar
on the DualShock 4 pad and associating it with faces in the image, the
game can identify which player face is connected to which game avatar.
By using facial recognition the game can associate a face with a PSN
profile.
High sensitivity, dual color cameras. Two cameras here.
1280x 800 12 bits/pixel, 60hz
Higher frame rates at lower resolutions
Wide angles – diagonal field of view is 85 degrees
3 axis acceeletromter, tilt sensor
Wide baseline 4 microphone array
Dedicated port, exclusive SCE connector
Game-loop sync can be changed, depending on framerate of game
PS4 Blu-ray drive
Not
only will the PS4's 64-bit x86 architecture and 8GB of GDDR5 memory
blow its predecessor out of the water, its Blu-ray drive will be three
times faster.
"If you're coming from
the PS3 you're probably quite used to the headache of having to split
memory arhchitecture, you can't quite use all of it, the speeds are
really wacky on some of it - we don't have that with PS4," said Norden.
He added that this would offer developers "crazy high bandwidth".
Synergy with PlayStation Vita
Sony
has revealed that the PS4 will launch with the ability to stream games
directly to your PS Vita. In exactly the same way as the Wii U allows
you to switch off your TV and continue playing on the tablet controller,
the PS4 will wirelessly send your games to the Vita.
There will be similar synergy between "all Sony devices" which means Xperia handsets and tablets, Bravia TVs and BD players.
Sony
hinted that there will be more announcements in this area, too. We
think the obvious next reveal in this area is the ability to play PS4
games on your Vita from any location using a wireless connection.
PS4 Instant On
The
PS4 will be one nippy device if Sony is to be believed. It will have an
instant on/off feature allowing your to shut down during a game and
then boot up from scratch in seconds and resume where you left off. The
days of waiting 60 seconds as your console loads up are about to end.
What's
more, Chris Norden has stressed that Sony has three tenets of PS4
design: simple, social and immediate. Gamers will be able to start
playing titles before they've even finished downloading.
And with one button sharing, Norden says the goal is to make it so simple users will "do it without thinking about it."
PS4 price: how much will it cost?
We
really don't know what price the PS4 will fetch. Some rumours suggest a
figure of around $450/£399. But it's pure speculation at the moment.
The sake Zavvi page which lists the UK release date as 31st December 2013 has a pre-order available for £399. Again, we'd take that with a pinch of salt, but if it's their best guess, there might be a grain of something in it.
PS4 launch titles
A number of games have been revealed for the PS4. They Are: Deep Down (Capcom), Destiny (Bungie), Diablo III (Blizzard), Driveclub (Evolution Studios), Final Fantasy (Square Enix), Infamous: Second Son (Sucker Punch), Killzone: Shadow Fall (Guerilla Games), Knack (Sony), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt RED), Watch Dogs (Ubisoft).
US talkshow host Jimmy Fallon was the first to get near Killzone 4...
Second-hand games on the way out?
Sony has yet to discuss this area of the PS4, but you'd think it would dispel the rumours if they're not true.
The rumours suggest that Sony is going in the same direction as Microsoft in that it wants to kill off the second-hand games market.
Current industry wisdom suggests that future PS4 games might be tied to
your Sony Entertainment Network account and will thus have no resale
value. That's a similar approach as used by PC developers using Steam so
we reckon this is a likely development. Doesn't mean we're happy about
it, though.
What will the PS4 actually be called?
It's the PS4, of course!
Browse > Home / / Top laptops: 25 best laptops in the world
Our continually updated list of all the best laptops available today.
Now that Windows 8
is a few months old, we've got a huge number of laptop-tablet hybrids
appearing as well as plenty of traditional laptops using the new OS. And
that's before you get to Apple's hugely successful MacBook line.
No wonder choosing the right laptop for you can be even more confusing than ever.
And
it's not only high end powerhouses that are packing in the performance;
cheap laptops are more powerful and capable than before, while high-end
devices are often perfectly good replacements for your desktop
computer, able to cope with more intensive programs.
Those after a fast boot up time and a lightweight machine to carry might drool over an Ultrabook.
Serious
gamers will want a machine tailored to their graphical and processing
needs, while those after flexibility might fancy a convertible
laptop-tablet hybrid.
Here
we look at some of the best laptops to really excel themselves in our
extensive testing processes this year. We've arranged them into
categories to help you find the best one to suit your needs.
We
also list the current selling prices in the UK, Australia and the US,
although in some cases a laptop listed here may not be available in
every territory.
All of the machines listed here are laptops.
Although we have listed the convertible laptop-tablets that fall more on
the side of laptop than tablet, we haven't listed those that are more
tablet-like. You can find those in our tablet reviews page and buying guides. Similarly, all-in-one touchscreen computers and other desktop PCs are in our PC and Mac desktop reviews page.
PRICING NOTE:
The prices listed here are for guidance only and aren't guarantees of
availability at a certain price. Because of the wildly fluctuating
availability of certain models, we often review laptops by series. As a
consequence it may be that there are tens of models with similar or the
same name, vailable at various price points.
When considering what to buy, think about your needs and your most important
factor, be it laptop battery life or screen size. The most important
part is to be honest about what you need, and you could save a fortune
on getting the best laptop for you.
Best laptop-tablet hybrids
Since
this article seeks to round up the best laptops available, we are only
listing those we have fully tested and reviewed in real life situations.
More laptop-tablet hybrids will be reviewed as soon as we get them in
for testing, so we expect to add more impressive convertible tablets to
this list later.
For now, here are the great machines we have tested and loved so far:
1. Sony Vaio Duo 11 - £900/AU$1,500/US$1,500
A
full Intel Core processor powers the sliding tablet-laptop design of
the 11.6-inch Sony Vaio Duo 11, enabling it to run Windows programs as
well as Windows Store apps. Its design is a welcome change from the many
docking 'transformer' style hybrid devices such as the Samsung Ativ Smart PC and Asus Vivo Tab.
While
it's not a perfect laptop-tablet hybrid, and certainly won't have mass
appeal, Sony has furthered the Windows 8 cause with an exceptionally
powerful device that challenges the perceptions of what tablets can
achieve.
As far as Windows 8
devices go, the attractive, snappy, versatile, and surprisingly
affordable 13-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga is a true flagship device.
Its
flexibility is a huge draw, and of the four positions you can set the
Yoga up in, we used three of them all the time. As much as possible, it
takes complete advantage of the Windows 8 system in its tablet-like
interface, enabling you to delve deeper by simply pulling out the
keyboard and using it more like a traditional laptop.
3. Samsung Series 3 Chromebook - £230/US$330 (around AU$350)
Cheaper
than some tablets, the Samsung Chromebook doesn't run a typical
operating system such as Windows, OS X or even Linux. Instead, it is
designed just to run Google Chrome, the web browser, and related web
apps.
If you think you could do all your computing using Google
web apps, you could well benefit from the good battery life, silent
operation, light weight and portability, simplicity and implicit
security of the Chromebook, not to mention its low price. However, with
no 3G connectivity, it is pretty much limited to use only in Wi-Fi
areas.
The
Acer Aspire V3-571 is an excellent all-round affordable laptop, with a
vibrant 15.6-inch screen that's great for movies and an Intel Core
i5-2450 2.5GHz processor that scored extremely highly in our lab tests. A
laptop double the price would struggle to top this in terms of raw
grunt for photo editing, dealing with large files and multitasking.
The
Acer Aspire V3 is a solid, capable laptop with power that belies its
budget price. The keyboard is the only let down, with low travel, and
the screen does suffer from glare a little. If you're looking for a good
family laptop, this is seriously worth considering.
The
slim and attractive Acer Aspire V5 is a stylish alternative to Intel's
Ultrabook platform, with less power than an Ultrabook, but offering a
reliable computing experience for a much lower price.
It lacks a
Full HD screen and doesn't have a great battery life, but connectivity,
usability and performance are strong. If you want portability and speed
without the Ultrabook price tag, then this could be the perfect
compromise.
6. Asus VivoBook S200 - £450 (around AU$685/US$715)
The
Asus VivoBook S200 offers supreme good looks, touchscreen operation,
slick performance and excellent portability, all for a reasonable price.
This
laptop runs on an Intel Core i3-3217U processor, which means it
provides more than enough grunt to power Windows 8 through any
day-to-day tasks, while keeping power consumption to a minimum.
The
Medion Akoya P6635 is the perfect laptop for the budget conscious.
Lacking a Full HD screen, coming in with a shorter battery life and a
bulkier build, it makes a few sacrifices to keep price down.
But
the easy to use chiclet keyboard, impressive connectivity options,
dedicated graphics and Core i7 processor combine to ensure all-round
excellent value for money.
The
Toshiba P855 is one of the better conventional laptops we've seen of
late, offering a lot of performance for a relatively small price tag.
Though it's in the high-end section of this roundup, it's really more of
a mid-range laptop in terms of its price.
Sporting a
third-generation 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-3201M and 8GB of RAM, the P855 is
certainly no slouch. Its bright screen, Nvidia GeForce GT 630M graphics
card and clear Harmon Kardon speakers mean this is the perfect home
entertainment powerhouse.
Beneath
the stylish exterior of the Asus N56V, there lies a sleeping beast - a
brand new Intel Core i7-3720QM 2.6GHz processor. This new hardware means
staggeringly fast load and response times, unfaltered HD video
playback, seamless photo editing and even high frame rate gaming.
It
features dedicated graphics and a strong battery life compared to its
rivals, along with clear Bang & Olufsen speakers and easy to use
input options. An impressive high-end machine that handles multitasking
well.
10. Sony Vaio S Series 13P - £950/US$1,000 (around AU$1,450)
The
features of this laptop, not to mention the asking price, establish the
Sony Vaio S Series 13P in the top tier of ultra-portable, ultra-premium
notebooks. The boxy, executive design might not appeal to all, but
usability and portability are enviable.
If you need a powerful,
portable business machine, the Sony Vaio S Series 13P should be topping
your list. But if you want a media machine for streaming movies and so
on, look elsewhere.
11. Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch - £1,000/AU$1,350/US$1,200
The
mid-2012 MacBook Pro 13-inch is a significant step up from its older
brother. The new processors and their improved graphical capabilities
give it a considerable power boost over its predecessor, and USB 3.0
ports enable it to connect with high-speed storage peripherals.
The
13-inch MacBook Pro is ideal for those who need a little more
configurability and storage than the MacBook Air can offer, but also
need a very portable machine. Creative professionals and gaming
enthusiasts might be better off with a 15-inch MacBook Pro, though.
While
the Dell XPS 15 doesn't have the skinny credentials to qualify as an
Ultrabook, it boasts a huge spec sheet, and an incredible hardware
configuration inside a great-looking chassis. We're not sure we've seen
anything as impressive on a PC as its Corning Gorilla Glass, Full HD
display, though it doesn't quite have the "wow" factor of the MacBook
Pro with Retina display.
If you're looking for a high-end PC that
marries good looks and superb performance, and are more Windows than
Mac, then you really shouldn't look any further than the Dell XPS 15.
13. Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display - £1,800/AU$2,500/US$2,200
The new Apple MacBook Pro's most exciting new feature is, of course, its Retina display.
With a 2880 x 1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch, it crams over 5.1
million pixels into its 15.4-inch screen. That's over three million
more than an HD TV.
However, it does mean that after-market upgrades are almost impossible,
and sacrifices have been made, such as the lack of a hard drive,
optical drive and Ethernet or FireWire 800 ports. Clearly aimed at video
editors, photographers and graphics professionals, the Retina screen is
beautiful, but the laptop's high price tag will put some off.
Sure,
there is plenty of room for super-skinny, super-slick, ultra-desirable
machines with hefty price-tags, but there is also a demand for more
affordable portable notebooks. That's where the Ivy Bridge Core
i5-toting Lenovo IdeaPad U410 comes in.
Ultrabooks aren't great if
you're looking to do some high-end gaming or intense HD video editing,
but for everything else this is a brilliant machine that is perfectly
suited to meet your digital media demands, with an extremely tempting
price tag.
The
Toshiba Satellite Z930-10X manages balances power with affordability.
Thin, light and powerful enough to handle a wide range of tasks
simultaneously, it boasts a wide range of connectivity options and an
Intel Core i5 Ivy Bridge processor.
If you want an Ultrabook
exclusively for entertainment then we'd recommend looking elsewhere,
since it lacks a Full HD resolution and has integrated graphics and
fairly weak audio compared to other Ultrabooks. But as a mobile
workstation for offices, the Toshiba Satellite Z930-10X is an excellent
purchase.
Although
not technically an Ultrabook, previous iterations of the MacBook Air
were the machines that inspired the creation of Ultrabooks, so we felt
it deserved to sit alongside these rivals. The 2012 MacBook Air is just
as inspiring, with an Intel Core i5 processor, faster RAM and better
connections.
It's easy for us to recommend the newest MacBook Air,
because it's a fantastic machine. But, unlike last year, there are
other impressive lightweight options out there.
A
very strong first laptop offering from Gigabyte, which usually makes
components, the Gigabyte U2442 Ultrabook has a lot to recommend it.
Gamers and power users will appreciate the Nvidia graphics and 8GB RAM,
while everyday users will respond well to the lack of bloatware and
clever features such as Smart Manager.
Adding power through
boosted RAM and extra graphics while keeping the chassis down to a slim
and portable size is what this Ultrabook is about, while the screen is
well suited to both entertainment and processing tasks.
The
Acer Aspire S5 is one of the top-end Ultrabooks, packing genuine power
and marking a change for the manufacturer. If you're looking for a
primary laptop that can handle the rigours of everyday life, but be as
light and svelte as humanly possible, you've found your ideal laptop.
But
it's not perfect, with some niggles and less impressive specs,
including a storage shortage and build quality issues with the MagicFlip
I/O port. A powerful Intel Core i7 processor and bright screen make up
for such shortcomings, though.
19. Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A - £1,350/AU$1,700/US$1,420
When
Ultrabooks were first introduced by Intel, one of the first models to
show us that it could stand up to the gauntlet laid down by the MacBook Air was the Asus Zenbook UX21.
The Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A continues the styling of its predecessors,
and adds a Core i7-3517U processor, Intel HD 4000 graphics and 4GB of
RAM.
But the most notable change is its screen - a 1080p IPS
wonder that dwarfs its competition's resolution. It falls down on
battery life, so you should consider if that's a big issue for you. It's
also expensive, but its performance is admirable.
The
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a fantastic business Ultrabook, with one
of the most comfortable keyboards we've ever used. Fantastic build
quality and lightweight design meet top performance and a range of
useful features, such as a long battery life, huge SSD drive, super-fast
boot times and blistering processor performance.
A few niggles
with the screen and connections aside, if we chose one Ultrabook to be
our business companion, we'd pick the comfortable, high performance and
long lasting Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon every time.
Designed
from the core up as an ultra-portable gaming laptop, this packs a punch
in the processor and graphics. The Intel Core i5 3210M is a capable
workhorse of a chip that will handle all the games you throw at it, and
chew through more serious work as well. The GeForce GTX 640M GPU and low
native resolution enable you to hit great frame rates, but the
11.6-inch screen is small.
The SSD is also too small, but that's
easily rectified online. The undersized screen isn't as easy to fix
though, and we'd advise anyone looking to do work to look elsewhere.
However, as a gaming system there's a lot to love here.
The
Alienware M17x has had an Intel Ivy Bridge flavored refresh for 2012.
The most notable addition is the inclusion of a third-generation Intel
Core CPU. The model we reviewed packed an i7-3610QM processor, a
four-core monster clocked at nominal 2.3GHz, which can be pumped full of
Intel Turbo Boost steroids to achieve a top speed of 3.3GHz.
Combine
this with a seriously powerful GPU courtesy of the latest Nvidia or AMD
graphics technology and you're looking at a top-end gaming machine more
than worthy of its hefty price-tag. There's also Intel HD 4000 graphics
as part of the Ivy Bridge package, meaning DirectX 11 support.
23. Samsung Series 7 Gamer - £1,350/US$1,900 (around AU$2,060)
The
Samsung Series 7 Gamer laptop has the hardware and performance that
gamers care about, and a price tag that we would deem fair. Samsung's
custom UI, however, mostly detracts from the overall experience, short
of one or two niceties, such as being able to disable the trackpad and
Windows keys. It's also quite heavy.
From a purely processor to
pennies perspective, the Series 7 Gamer is worth the money. It's a
gaming machine capable of playing the latest titles at respectable
settings. All its case lights and fancy UI, though, make it a bit like a
party guest who arrives overdressed. You're glad they showed up, but
the bow tie they're wearing just makes them look silly.
The
Toshiba Qosmio X870's price renders it the preserve of hardcore gamers
and 3D aficionados who require the kind of power this laptop can
generate. With both the Ivy Bridge processor and Nvidia GPU firing, the
results are astounding.
Graphics are crisply rendered on the
17.3-inch screen and the Blu-ray capability and stereoscopic 3D give
this entertainment scope beyond just gaming. This is a fully-featured
entertainment machine, and although we quibble at the battery life and
divisive design, when it comes down to sheer performance, this has got
most other gaming laptops beat.
The standout feature on the Razer Blade is its Switchblade touchpad interface - a unique feature that turns the Blade's touchpad
into a fully functioning small second screen that you can use to check
your email, watch YouTube videos or amplify your gaming experience.
The
Intel Core i7-3632QM CPU is powerful, and the sound is crisp, but it is
expensive, the keyboard is a little stiff and the touchpad placement to
the side takes some getting used to. But its long battery life and
comparatively lightweight chassis makes portable, quality gaming
possible.
Browse > Home / / Will Blue meld Windows 8, Windows Phone OS into one?
Chalk this up in the unconfirmed column, but a new report adds an interesting shade to the Windows Blue story.
According to some prognosticating over at DigiTimes, Microsoft is developing Blue to help merge Windows 8
and Windows Phone into one product. The team working on Blue is
reportedly working independently of crews in either of those
departments.
The idea, DigiTimes said, is to create an operating system to compete with Google's Android and Chrome platforms.
The Softies are reportedly skittish about Google partnering with PC brand vendors to create Chromebooks and Android-based notebooks. A report from last week (also from DigiTimes) hinted at "Androidbooks" coming down the line from Google.
Not an easy thing to do
It's unclear if Blue - which will be called something different publicly - will merely serve as a stepping stone in the path towards integration or have immediate mash-up capabilities at launch.
DigiTimes
also mentioned an October release for another, next-gen operating
system Microsoft is developing, though again it's hard to tell if the
pub is pointing to Blue or something else, such as Windows 9.
We've
heard Blue updates will extend to other Microsoft platforms besides the
PC, even catching wind of a Windows Phone Blue revamp, so this new
rumor could tie into Blue's supposed cross-platform applications.
While
intriguing, DigiTimes was quick to point out that fusing PC and mobile
OSes together "will pose great difficulties" for both Microsoft and
Google. It's a bit of a no-brainer observation, but also serves as a
reminder that it could take yet more time before we ever see a
mobile-to-PC crossover from either firm.
DigiTimes didn't give
much in the way of verification for its info, so this could all turn out
to be little more than conjecture. Lucky for us, Blue's mysteries
should get solved in a few short months.
