Acer Aspire R7 review: first look

Friday, May 3rd, 2013

We’ve seen some wacky hybrids in recent months, but the recently launched Acer Aspire R7 has gone further out on a limb than most. Its hinge, dubbed the “Ezel”, resembles the central support strut of an all-in-one PC more than a laptop hinge, and it delivers a surprising amount of flexibility.

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Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra review: first look

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

The Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra might be a bit of a mouthful, but it’s one of the most surprising phones we’ve seen this week at MWC.

It’s set to arrive across Europe in April or May at a price of €359, and there’s one thing about it that stands out above all else: at 6.45mm from front to back, it’s comfortably the slimmest smartphone in the world – thinner than both the iPhone 5 and the Sony Xperia Z.

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HP Slate 7 review: first look

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

The HP Slate 7 and the recently released HP Envy x2 hybrid are HP’s attempts to put the TouchPad disaster behind it.

In contrast to the £800 Windows 8-based Envy x2, this is a 7in tablet aimed squarely at the low-end of the Android tablet market. When it’s released in the US later this year, it will cost $169, and a UK release will follow shortly after. We were told by an HP representative to expect a price of around £129, which is similar to the basic Amazon Kindle Fire.

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ZTE Grand Memo review: first look

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

This year at MWC in Barcelona, big phones and “phablets” have stolen all the headlines, and Chinese manufacturer ZTE is hoping to grab some of the limelight, too. Its Grand Memo is a rival to the Samsung Galaxy Note II and the Huawei Ascend Mate (announced at CES earlier this year), and in terms of size it sits right between the two, with a 5.7in screen diagonal.

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Nokia Lumia 520 review: first look

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

The Nokia Lumia 520 is one of two low-cost Windows Phone 8 smartphones Nokia unveiled at its MWC press conference, and it really is cheap.

It’s set to cost around £120, and yet when we took our turn with it on the Nokia stand after the news conference, we found little evidence of cost-cutting.

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Sony Xperia Tablet Z review: first look

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

After unveiling its flagship smartphone at CES earlier in the year, Sony is using MWC as the platform to promote a new Android tablet — the Sony Xperia Tablet Z — and it’s not only a name that this new product shares with its smartphone sibling.

We’ve just been down to the Sony stand here in Barcelona, and were struck by how similar the styling is between the two devices. Just like the phone, the Xperia Tablet Z is completely flat on the front and back, and just like the phone it’s very, very slim. At a mere 6.9mm, the Tablet Z makes the iPad 4 look positively porky. It’s even slimmer than an iPhone 5.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 review: first look

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

We were as surprised as everyone else at MWC when Samsung quietly announced the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 a day before the show began. So, as soon as we had the opportunity, we scuttled down to the Samsung stand to get hands-on.

If you don’t know already, the Note 8 is the Samsung’s big play in the “phablet” market. It’s an 8in tablet that can also make phone calls. It has a 1,280 x 800 resolution PLS (Plane-to-Line Switching) display, a 1.6GHz Exynos Quad 4412 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 5-megapixel rear camera and 1.3-megapixel snapper at the front, plus an absolutely enormous 4,600mAh battery. Wireless connectivity comprises 3G (not 4G), dual-band Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.
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Nokia Lumia 720 review: first look

Monday, February 25th, 2013

Nokia’s has announced two new Windows Phone 8 smartphones at MWC 2013, but of the pair it was the more upmarket Lumia 720 that caught our attention the most when we got some hands-on time with it at the Nokia stand.

It’s still aimed at the budget-conscious crowd, with a price that comes in at a similar level to the excellent Nexus 4, and yet still boasts high-end features. The first thing we noticed when we picked it up was how slim and light it is: it’s only 9mm thick and weighs a mere 128g. That’s not much heavier than the iPhone 5, which has a significantly smaller screen, and it’s a far cry from the massive bulk of the flagship Lumia 920.

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Microsoft Excel 2013 review: first look

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

Excel might have been been pushed to the back in the main demonstration at Microsoft’s Office 2013 launch event in San Francsico, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored. In fact the two feature improvements highlighted during the demo —  Flash Fill and Quick Analysis — show some real imagination has gone into the new version of Excel.

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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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