Samsung Series 7 700T tablet review: first look

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

We can understand if the mere thought of a Windows 7 tablet is enough to set alarm bells ringing, but Samsung’s Series 7 700T marks the company’s first attempt to revitalise the genre.

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Samsung Series 7 review: first look

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

The super-slim Series 9 laptop drew many an admiring glance, and Samsung’s Series 7 range looks likely to repeat the trick. In a meeting room at PC Pro, we were given an exclusive first glimpse of the 15.6in Samsung 700Z.

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Binatone Android home phone and £99 tablet review: first looks

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

Binatone is a name usually associated with landline phones but, with that market dwindling, the firm has decided Android is the way forward.

Of three new Android products shown off at a launch event, the most intriguing is its iHomePhone 2 – an Android device that, as the name suggests, replaces your landline handset. It’s an unusual idea, but one Binatone is confident can work, with the £99 inc VAT gadget ambitiously aimed at both techies and novices.

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It takes more than a new processor to fix the Windows tablet

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Intel’s “Oak Trail” Atom processor refresh has finally arrived, claiming to reduce heat and power consumption enough to power the next wave of tablets. On those promises it appears to deliver, with the Motion CL900 lasting almost eight hours on one charge – despite the bloat of Windows 7.

But if tablet manufacturers think this is the turning point for the Windows tablet – which, judging by the press releases arriving in my inbox, they do – they’re missing the mark by a mile. Yes, Oak Trail lowers the TDP to 3W to better suit handheld devices. But in doing so it takes a step backwards. (more…)

Sony VAIO Z Series (2011) review: first look

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

***We’ve now published our comprehensive review of Sony’s VAIO Z Series, so click here for the full lowdown *** Sony’s VAIO Z Series is one of the finest ultraportables to ever travel the Earth, but now, several years after its 2009 debut, Sony has ripped up the rulebook and started afresh. At a launch event in London, we caught our first up-close look at the all-new Z Series.

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Lenovo ThinkPad X1 review: first look

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

It’s already made its stateside debut, but over in good ol’ Blighty Lenovo has finally shown off its latest business ultraportable, the 13.3in ThinkPad X1.

From the off, it’s an unmistakeably classic ThinkPad. A sea of smooth matte black – magnesium alloy top and bottom – stretches all around, interrupted only by the occasional flash of red. It’s seriously slim, too, measuring just 17mm thick and adding a claimed 1.7kg to your laptop bag.

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HP Pavilion dv6 and Pavilion dv7 review: first look

Monday, May 16th, 2011

It’s not often we get too excited about mid-range laptops, but HP’s makeover of its Pavilion dv6 and dv7 series laptops has just made our hearts skip a beat. With its all-new brushed aluminium chassis and a selection of Sandy Bridge processors, the Pavilion takes more than a little inspiration from HP’s Envy series.

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Shuttle SX58H7 Pro review: first look

Friday, May 6th, 2011

What do you reckon you’d need to cool a PC powered by one of Intel’s most powerful enthusiast processors and a £200 graphics card? A chunky heatsink? A pair of 120mm fans at the front, another at the back and maybe a fourth at the top to ensure maximum airflow?

Ordinarily, yes – but Shuttle doesn’t like to use the big tower cases that have room for all that. Instead, the SX58H7 Pro has a specification we never thought we’d see in a small-form-factor chassis.

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The Ideal 0101: a hard-disk destroyer with three tons of force

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

Last year we welcomed a DIY-style hard-disk destroyer into the Labs to wreak its havoc on some unsuspecting platters, but technology has evidently moved on – recently the Ideal 0101 HDP from Duplo (not that Duplo) has turned up.

While it looks like a kitchen cabinet from the eighties, it’s actually a serious piece of kit, with a heavy-duty punch that makes mincemeat out of both 3.5in and 2.5in drives.

Duplo International delivered the machine to us with a bin full of already-destroyed hard disks in tow, but we had to give it a go ourselves. Sure enough, the 3.5in disk we dug up from the bottom of the Labs – an IBM Deskstar sporting a capacious 185GB – was soon rendered useless thanks to a punch that pierces disks with between 2.5 and 3 tons of force, as the following video demonstrates. (more…)

Asus Eee Slate EP121 review: first look

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Not wanting to let Android have all the fun with its new Transformer, Asus has also introduced a Windows-powered tablet: the Eee Slate EP121.

It’s a hefty piece of kit, with a massive 12.1in screen and a 17mm-thick chassis weighing 1.15kg – almost twice as heavy as the iPad 2. Still, that makes room for some impressive hardware, with an Intel Core i5-470UM running at 1.33GHz and bringing two cores, Turbo Boost technology and Intel’s latest integrated graphics within a TDP of just 18W.

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