Does anyone actually use dynamic contrast?

Friday, September 18th, 2009

Playing around with Samsung’s XL2370 TFT this week, I hit a bit of a wall. In fact, not so much hit it, more slammed my head straight through it in sheer, irate frustration. You see, it uses an LED backlight, which Samsung’s press bunf confidently told me would produce a level of contrast the old CCFL kind simply can’t match.

And it does. Not just any old contrast, but MEGA contrast! Yes, MEGA, in capitals. In non-marketing speak that converts into a figure of 5,000,000:1, or 5,000 times higher than the standard contrast ratio on most of today’s TFTs.

Except the XL2370 doesn’t manage that at all. (more…)

Samsung X-Series: First Look

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

The first two days of the IFA trade show in Berlin saw a couple of laptop-related surprises: first, Sony unveiled one of the most alluring machines we’ve ever seen in the form of its 14mm, 640g X-Series, before Samsung unleashed its very own X-Series notebooks the very next day.

Samsung’s trio of new laptops may not be quite as slim as Sony’s latest crowd-pleaser, but they still have some pretty enticing vital statistics: the 15in X520, for instance, is 24mm thick and weighs 2.09kg. And even though that’s more than three times as heavy as the Sony, it still feels incredibly light for a 15in notebook. The X120 is even more lightweight at 1.36kg.

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The digital camera that makes babies happy

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Those clever camera manufacturers will stop at nothing to enhance our lives, and increase the already near-unbearable mirth of the everyday, by means of clever electronics. And so to London’s Imagination Gallery this afternoon, where Samsung was showing off its latest round of cameras. The most interesting of which sports not one screen, but quite literally double that number. Yes that’s right, two screens! One on the back (soooo last season) and one implausibly positioned (hold on to your seats) at the front. And look how happy it seems! (more…)

First look: the Virgin Media Freedom netbook

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

While mobile broadband dongles are undoubtedly well-matched with netbooks, most mobile broadband firms offer third-party netbooks with their respective dongle deals: T-Mobile bundles its dongle with an Eee PC 904HD, Vodafone entices customers with a Samsung NC10 and Orange lets prospective buyers choose between HP, Asus, Samsung and Toshiba models.

Virgin Media, meanwhile, is the first mobile broadband company to release its own netbook and, while it’s undoubtedly very similar to Zoostorm’s offering – even sharing the same name, the ambitious “Freedom”, – it’s an interesting move and a good-looking product.

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The PC Pro Father’s Day gift guide

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Father’s Day is this Sunday and, as the big day looms ever closer, there’s now little time left to go out and hunt for the ideal gift. Just turn to the PC Pro A List, then, for the perfect presents that you can rush out and buy before it’s too late.

Those with photographic fathers are spoilt for choice: there are superb choices available no matter what you’re looking for, whether it’s a compact, DLSR or video camera.

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First look: the Ion-powered Lenovo Ideapad S12

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Lenovo’s Ideapad S12 is one of the first netbooks we’ve seen to use Nvidia’s Ion platform, which can allegedly “turn a netbook into a notebook” thanks to its combination of Intel Atom CPU and Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU.

It’s a new part that’s only been used by Acer up until now, in its netbooks and A-Listed Aspire Revo R3600.

That ambitious claim comes courtesy of Matt Wuebbling, a senior manager in Nvidia’s notebook division, who’ll understandably talk up the chances of his own product in the face of endless scepticism. However, having been hands-on with Lenovo’s latest offering and seeing the Ion in action, we’ve seen plenty of evidence to support his claims.

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First look: Samsung’s new display range

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Samsung’s monitor range has been hugely successful over the last couple of years, combining excellent image quality with living room design, and after seeing the 2009 additions today I can safely say that winning formula looks set to continue.

The majority of the displays on show were impressive refreshes, such as the polished and angular ‘Lavender’ line and the ‘Ecofit’ low-power models – all of which we’ll be reviewing over the coming months. But in amongst them a few interesting additions caught my eye.

The first was the so-called ‘lapfit’ display (LD220 and LD190N), which is essentially a widescreen monitor without the traditional stand. Instead it rests on an arm in the same way as a picture frame.

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First look: Dell Mini 10

Friday, April 17th, 2009

The Dell Mini 10 hasn’t had the smoothest of births thanks to grocery juggernaut Tesco, which accidentally revealed its existence before the machine could be officially launched. We haven’t yet been able to get our hands on Dell’s latest netbook until this morning, though, when one arrived in the Labs.

First impressions are good, with the Mini 10 oozing class: the screen sits flush with the wide bezel, the red lid looks inviting and classy rather than garish, and the lack of chrome around the rest of the case, aside from the small power button, leaves the Dell looking more mature than most netbooks.

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Will Linux ever hit the mainstream?

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

Reading today’s story about the chief exec of Red Hat admitting he was unsure if Linux had a future on the desktop reminded me of a conversation I had just two days ago, at the Samsung European Congress in Vienna. The big news here was Samsung announcing three new netbooks (all running Windows XP, including the highly unusual Samsung N310), and after the big speech five of us UK tech journalists were offered the chance for a roundtable chat with a couple of Terribly Senior People from Samsung.

As is usual with Terribly Senior People, they were quite resistant to actually giving away any information that might be considered useful, but one thing came out loud and clear: initially Samsung did seriously consider a Linux netbook, but after speaking to retailers it won’t be dabbling with Linux any time soon. (more…)

Where next for the TFT market?

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

For a while now I’ve been blathering on to anyone who’ll listen (and plenty who’d rather not – Ed) about falling TFT prices, while marvelling at the bargains that can currently be had. Large-format TFTs have gone from expensive luxuries to affordable commodities in a remarkably short period of time, so I wasn’t surprised to read today that the head of LG Display, Kwon Young-soo Kwon, believes the industry has “hit the bottom.”

I’ve just finished writing a TFTs Labs for next month’s issue so I know first-hand just how crazy the market has become. We had one 22in TFT for £80 plus VAT, a 24in model for £140 plus VAT and even a monstrous 28in for a little over £200 plus VAT. If I remember correctly, some of these prices are cheaper than 17in and 19in TFTs reviewed just months previously.

It can’t be healthy for a whole industry to plummet so quickly in order to chase declining sales, and the remarks from Kwon at LG back this up. (more…)