BytePac: the cardboard hard disk enclosure

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

Say hello to the BytePac. It’s a hard disk caddy made entirely out of 100% recyclable material (yes, cardboard), but before you jump to any rash, mocking conclusions – as half the office did when it arrived – let me explain how it works. (more…)

Amazon Kindle Fire review: first look

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

When Amazon launched the Kindle Fire last year, it made the rather irritating decision not to bring it to the UK at the same time. The rotters didn’t even let us have the Kindle Touch, leaving us with the (admittedly excellent) fourth generation Kindle. If the rumours are to be believed, however, changes are afoot, and with the UK braced to receive Amazon’s latest baby, we’ve managed to get our hands on an import to see what’s what.

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Ice Cream Sandwich on the Transformer Prime review: first look

Friday, January 13th, 2012

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime is currently the pick of the bunch when it comes to Android tablets, but one of its few weaknesses was the lack of the latest version of the OS. Not any more. It’s received its update, so we thought we’d do an update of our own.

You can read about our first encounter with Android 4 – or Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) – in our Samsung Galaxy Nexus review. We were impressed with it, but had a couple of concerns, chiefly concerning the use of soft buttons and the potential waste of valuable screen real estate. That, fortunately, is a non-issue on tablets. We’re already used to it on Honeycomb tablets, and it takes up a negligible amount of room on a 10.1in tablet such as the Prime.

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Sony Reader Wi-Fi review: in-depth first look

Friday, September 30th, 2011

The announcement of the new Amazon Kindles caused all manner of excitement in the PC Pro office this week, until we realised Amazon actually had no plans to release the most exciting products in the UK. What a let-down. Still, that does at least give other manufacturers a chance to steal a march, and that appears to be exactly what Sony has done with its new Reader Wi-Fi, of which we have an early sample.

The first thing to notice when you pick up the Reader Wi-Fi is how light it is. It tipped our scales at just 162g, which makes the current Kindle look positively portly. With no keyboard it’s small enough to slip into an inside jacket pocket, and although it does feel a touch plasticky, it’s well made and the soft-touch plastic rear gives you a nice grippy surface to hold onto.

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Fusion Garage Grid10 review: first look

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Fusion Garage is a company that doesn’t believe in doing things by halves. Not content with mounting the most overblown marketing campaign – “Who is TabCo?” – seen in recent years, it has now gone on the offensive, and slashed the price of its forthcoming Grid10 10in tablet to £250.

That price undercuts pretty much every Honeycomb tablet and iPad currently on the market, so we were keen to see how the tablet itself stacked up. When Fusion Garage CEO, Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan, came in for an interview he was keen to show it off too.

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Samsung Galaxy Note review: first look

Monday, September 5th, 2011

Bravely stepping into the no-man’s land between phones and tablets, Samsung’s 5.3in smartphone, the Galaxy Note, attempts to bridge the divide between the 4.3in Galaxy S II and the newly announced Galaxy Tab 7.7.

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Toshiba Portege Z830 review: first look

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

With several manufacturers at IFA unveiling their vision of Intel’s Ultrabook concept, Toshiba’s 13.3in Portege Z830 takes the thin and light formula even further than ever before.

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HTC Radar review: first look

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

HTC used a swanky London event to unleash its second generation of Windows Phone 7 devices and, while it was the Titan taking most of the plaudits on the night, the Radar could prove to be just as enticing.

The firm’s European product director, Phil Blair, said the Radar was “designed around a social and mobile lifestyle”, and our hands-on time with the device certainly suggested that it’s got enough oomph to make Windows Phone 7’s Mango update feel slick, with no hint of slowdown or juddering as we navigated the various menus and applications. (more…)

Sony Tablet P review: first look

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

With the torrent of carbon-copy Android tablets showing no sign of abating, Sony’s Tablet P is a welcome breath of fresh air. With a lightweight clamshell design, two 5.5in touchscreens and a 1GHz Tegra 2 processor, Sony’s put together something rather extraordinary.

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HTC Titan review: first look

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

HTC has given its phones some odd names over the years, but there’s no denying that Titan is a step in the right direction (even if it is the second time HTC has released a Windows phone of that name). It’s certainly an  accurate description: with a 4.7in touchscreen taking centre stage in HTC’s new Windows Phone 7 flagship, it’s one of the biggest smartphones we’ve ever seen – and the largest to be loaded with Microsoft’s mobile OS.

Truth be told, the sheer size of the Titan made it feel a little awkward in our hands, but HTC has worked its familiar magic on the hardware.

The device feels rock-solid, it comes with the familiar matte rear and glossy bezel around the screen, and it’s also been made from one machined piece of aluminium. Impressively, it’s also only 9.9mm thick at its widest point. (more…)