When it comes to buying for your business there is are a lot of factors to consider. When it comes to buying technology it seems like a committee is required in order to get anything approved. If you are looking for a new piece of mobile technology, or you happen to be on the decision making committee for someone’s technology purchases then there is one real issue that you need to consider. Should your company be buying a netbook or an ultrabook?

If you are wondering exactly what is the difference between those two types of mobile devices then you are not alone. To the uninitiated a netbook and an ultrabook, but have no fear because today we are going to get you up to speed in no time at all.

Meet The Netbook

A netbooks is like a small laptop. They usually feature small screens and a very light weight that makes then ideal for travel. These machines are smaller than an ultrabook, but generally have less in the way of storage. They’re size means that they are ideal for a worker who travels a lot. Since their smaller memory relies on cloud storage for the bulk of its work this machine may run into security issues so this machine is less of a viable option if you plan on storing customer data on the machine. Using web access to get to your companies secured site then this option should not be a problem at all.

Meet The Ultrabook

The ultrabook is bigger, with a more advanced processor and usually HD graphics capability. These systems are a little bit beefier in both storage capacity and size so they are ideal for workers who might want to work at home, people in graphic design or workers who will need to have software installed on the machine to do their jobs. These machines are also more likely to last in the long term (when it comes to software compatibility) so if you are looking for a long term then this is the way to go.

Which one is right for your company? That’s a decision only you can make.

Most decent laptops can be put into one of two categories — portable or powerful. If you want a powerhouse of a laptop, it’s likely to be big and heavy, but if you’re looking for something to carry around, then you’ll be making cutbacks in processing power.

While the raft of ultrabooks recently hitting the market generally provide a strong enough serving of juice for most tasks, none of them are racy enough to please the gaming crowd.

The Acer Aspire M3, however, packs Nvidia’s latest GeForce 640M processor to chomp through the latest games, while remaining slim and portable. Will it offer enough to satisfy the dedicated gamer?

There’s no word on UK pricing or availability yet, but it’s already on sale in China, so it shouldn’t be too long before it makes its way here. The price has not been announced yet, but I’ve been told it will be around £600, which would be extremely affordable for a viable gaming machine. As soon as this is confirmed, I’ll update this review.

Design and build quality

The world is evidently far too colourful and bright, so in an effort to tone things down, Acer has decked the M3 in an entirely black suit. Unlike my cheap polyester outfit, it’s made of a combination of metal and plastic, which results in a much firmer construction. The M3 is not great at avoiding fingerprints though.

Unusally for a gaming laptop, this one doesn’t push the boundaries of good taste with garish colours and unsightly grilles and lights.

There’s very little flex to be found when you press down on the closed metal lid, nor on the plastic base, resulting in a machine that feels very durable when it’s closed up. I’d have no worries about it being carried around in a bag. The screen is pretty thin though and can be flexed quite easily, so it’s perhaps not as sturdy when it’s open. It’s less likely to get damaged on your desk anyway, so it’s not a massive concern.

Although this machine proudly boasts its gaming credentials, it doesn’t flaunt it with its case styling, unlike most gaming systems. Laptops like the Toshiba Qosmio X770 and the MSI GT680 feature brash design, angry colours and glowing vents that are designed to appeal to the energy drink-guzzling, sleep-deprived fragger inside every excitable 14-year-old teenager.

The M3 dispenses with all that jazz. Instead, it comes with much more subtle, mature styling that would be equally at home on your office desk as in your bedroom. On the other hand, no self-respecting businessman would be seen bringing the GT680 into the boardroom — not unless he was desperately trying to be fired.

It’s nearly three times slimmer than the MSI GT680 gaming laptop.

At 375mm wide and 252mm deep, it’s not exactly tiny, but it’s hardly enormous. It would be easy enough to find a bag to slide it into, and at 20mm thick, it’s considerably slimmer than the GT680, which measures a beefy 55mm. If you want to stick to ultra-skinny ultrabooks, check out the Toshiba Satellite Z830 or the Asus Zenbook UX31, but neither of these will offer the same performance in the gaming stakes.

You’ll find your ports on the back of the computer, rather than on the side. You get two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, Ethernet, HDMI-out and a headphone/microphone jack. On the left-hand side is an SD card slot and a DVD drive, which is pretty unusual for ultra-portable laptops.

Keyboard and trackpad

Under the lid, its looks are just as subdued. The same black has been applied to the wrist rest and around the keyboard, while the keyboard tray has been given a steel-grey colour. It’s quite smart, if not the most exciting design I’ve ever seen.

I made a few errors using the widely-spaced keys at first, but I soon got used to it.

They keyboard uses isolated keys which — I’m really nitpicking — are slightly smaller than I’d like and are spread a little too far apart. It led to a few typing errors at first, but I quickly got used to it. There’s very little flex in the tray and it provides a solid base for typing on. You also get a separate numeric keypad on the right-hand side, which will come in handy if you’ve got a thing for numbers.

Rather than offering separate buttons, the trackpad itself is clickable, so all the space can be used for sliding your finger around. It’s got a slightly rough, matte coating that reduces any kind of stickiness, allowing you to get on with your work that bit easier. It’s pretty responsive and will cope fine with standard tasks, but if you’re a hardcore gamer, you’ll definitely want to plug in a mouse.

Acer has roughened up the trackpad so you can seamlessly switch between your sausage roll and swiping.

Screen

The M3 comes with a 15.6-inch screen that offers a frankly disappointing resolution of 1,366×768 pixels. That’s the minimum amount I’d typically expect to see on 11-inch ultrabooks and most of the 13-inch models offer 1,600×900-pixel resolutions. It’s somewhat annoying to see Acer skimping so much with the display.

Mercifully, it’s fairly bright and does an adequate job of handling colour, but it’s not particularly sharp and it has poor viewing angles — if you want the best view, you’ll have to keep square-on to the screen. It’s fine for office tasks and the odd YouTube clip, but you’ll be disappointed firing up the latest shiny games only to find the resolution seriously restricted.

The screen resolution is the minimum we’d expect and viewing angles are poor, but at least the display is bright.

Performance

The M3 may be packing Nvidia’s latest graphics chip, but for the processor it’s plumped for Intel’s existing Sandy Bridge-based chip, rather than wait and pop in the latest Ivy Bridge chip that’s due to start arriving in laptops this year. The newer ones are expected to provide an extra serving of power while keeping voltages low, thereby preserving battery life.

What you get instead is an Intel Core i5-2467M processor clocked at 1.6GHz, backed up by 4GB of RAM. That should still offer a decent amount of grunt. I booted up the PCMark05 benchmark test and was given a score of 6,087, which isn’t a huge amount — the Asus Zenbook UX31 managed over 10,000 on the same test — but it’s sufficient for most day-to-day tasks.

I found operation to be nippy, with multi-tabbed web browsing handled well. Even when other programs and video files were open, there was no noticeable slowdown. It’s not going to handle rendering high-definition video — not without crying little mechanical tears — but for general computing and a spot of photo editing, it’ll do fine.

Gaming

The draw of the M3, however, is its graphics. It’s packing the latest Nvidia mobile graphics card known as the GeForce GT 640M. Super-light machines don’t normally use separate graphics, so I was very keen to see what sort of gaming performance it gave.

I whacked in a good mouse, cracked open a Mountain Dew and fired up the shiny new Battlefield 3 to shoot some people square in the face. I set the game to full-screen and the graphics options to ‘ultra’ and was immediately impressed at the average 22 frames per second I was shown. Gameplay was mostly smooth. Only in the very intense areas did it become a touch jumpy. For the hardcore gamer, that’s not really going to wash, but unless you’re uber-l33t you’ll find it perfectly playable.

Inside is the latest Nvidia mobile graphics card, the GeForce GT 640M, which will chomp through games at impressive frame rates.

Moving on to Crysis 2 — a game that’s well known for being demanding of a computer’s power — I again set all options to ultra. The M3 achieved an average 21 frames per second, which only dipped a little in the more intense sequences. That’s astounding, considering the slim, portable size of the thing. When I knocked the settings down to ‘very high’, frame rates leapt to around 43fps, which provided super-smooth gameplay, free of any lag.

By comparison, the monster Qosmio X770 was only able to achieve around 18fps with detail set to the max. The M3′s new chip is evidently doing a great job of munching through the polygons. It’s important to bear in mind though that the X770 has a full 1080p resolution screen, so it’s more demanding on the GPU than M3′s lower-res display. That would account for the difference.

Results were similar when I fired up the rally game Dirt 3, which was played at around 50fps with all settings ramped to the maximum. It went up to 80fps when I knocked them down a bit. The X770 achieved around 38fps on the highest settings and the GT680 hit around 40fps.

The M3′s gaming performance really is amazing, especially when you take into account the portable size. Most gaming laptops are huge, burly things that are better anchored to your bedroom desk. The M3, on the other hand, is easily portable enough to play while riding the bus to work. Nvidia’s new chip is commendable and I’m extremely excited to see what other manufacturers are able to squeeze out of it down the line.

Battery life

As the M3 is designed to be carried around, not left at home, you’re going to want it to last. I booted up my strenuous battery benchmark test to see what it can do.

All the ports can be found around the back of the computer, rather than on the side.

It survived for 2 hours 31 minutes on a full charge, which is extremely pleasing. The new Samsung Series 9 managed around 2 hours, and that has nothing like the same graphics power and it has a smaller, less power-hungry screen.

My battery test is extremely demanding though — if computers were living things, I’d definitely be up in front of a judge — so you’ll find you’ll get a better time with cautious usage. If you’ve only got 30 per cent remaining and you’re about to boot up Skyrim, I’d seriously recommend being within running distance of a plug.

Conclsion

The Acer Aspire Timeline U M3 is genuinely a great step forward for mobile computing. Not only is it slim and portable, it has enough power to smash through general computing tasks. The new Nvidia graphics card will let you chew through even the latest games.

If you’re a gaming fan and you’d rather not be stuck at your desk every time you want to pwn some n00bs, the M3 should definitely be on your shopping list. If the £600 price tag we’ve heard is confirmed, you can hardly afford not to buy it.

Not one to be pigeon-holed, the Asus N55SF brings the smart, professional looks of an office laptop, adds the Blu-ray drive of an entertainment machine and tops it off with the powerful graphics processor of a gaming rig.

Even better, the processor’s grunt makes it a good performer in all three areas. With a relatively affordable price tag, it could be a great option if you want one laptop to suit all aspects of your life.

The model I tested came with an Intel Core i7 processor, 6GB of RAM and is available now for £750.

Design and build quality

Unlike other gaming laptops like the MSI GT680 or the Alienware M14x, the N55SF doesn’t make a big song and dance about having a dedicated graphics card shoved inside. Instead of angry colours and glowing vents, you’re met with a mature, even professional look.

The lid is covered in a glossy piano-black plastic with a metallic band surrounding it, giving it an appearance similar to HP’s Envy 14 Spectre ultrabook. It doesn’t have the same premium feel as the Spectre though as it’s not topped with glass. The plastic doesn’t give a lot of flex so it still feels pretty sturdy.

The lid is sleek and stylish — that is, until you slather the grease from your filthy digits onto it.

The whole machine looks attractive. I couldn’t decide though if it’s more smart or stylish. I eventually concluded that it’s both, and it would be equally at home in your fancy, minimalist living room as sat on your desk at work. If you plan on taking it into a meeting with your boss though, that shiny top is a total fingerprint magnet and greasy prints aren’t going to get you that raise, no matter how much overtime you’ve been putting in.

It’s a 15-inch machine with a width of 379mm, making it slightly more portable than laptop giants like the Toshiba Qosmio X770 or Asus’ own gargantuan NX90JQ. At 37mm thick, it’s not exactly what you’d call slim — especially when compared to Asus’ Zenbook UX31 — but it should fit into a decent-sized bag without too much pushing and shoving.

It weighs a not inconsiderable 2.7kg, which might limit your travelling to only a few small staggered steps. I’d personally much rather leave it at home as a media machine on my desk, rather than cart it around town.

Nothing surprising on the left-hand side, but crane your neck around to the other side and there’s a jack to plug in…

On the side you’ll find a Blu-ray drive — a pleasing addition, and one that helps this laptop become a potentially decent media specialist. There’s two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 slots, HDMI-out, VGA-out and microphone and headphone jacks.

A smaller jack is placed on the right for you to plug in the included external subwoofer. It’s not a big speaker (about the size of a small mug), but it adds some extra low-end to your tunes. It does the job rather well, with bass notes being much more noticeable. Your dedicated speaker set is not about to be made redundant, but if the built-in speakers don’t quite do your gaming headshots justice, it’ll be a handy addition.

…this bass-boosting mini monolith. The SonicMaster subwoofer comes packed in the box.

Keyboard and trackpad

Under the lid you’ll find more black plastic surrounding the keyboard, but this has been given a rubberised feel that eschews fingerprints much better than the lid. Above the keyboard is a silver speaker grille that runs across the whole width. It’s quite an unusual design but it’s rather cool.

The keyboard is silver too, contrasting nicely with the surrounding black. Sadly, the keys have been placed very close together, which can sometimes make it awkward to differentiate between them when typing at speed. It seems that Asus has squashed the keyboard in in order to make room for the numeric keypad on the right-hand side.

On the left side of the keyboard you’ll find a few dedicated buttons for controlling the volume. On the one hand, it’s handy having keys specifically for that function, rather than holding ‘Fn’ and jabbing at one of the F buttons. On the other hand, I found it very awkward having them right next to the keyboard — I often pressed the mute button instead of the ‘Ctrl’ button. You might get used to it, given enough time, but it remained uncomfortable throughout my testing period.

The trackpad is made out of the same material as the casing, which is a little sticky to skate around, but is responsive enough.

The trackpad is made from the same rubberised material as the surround and you only know it’s there because of two grooves on each side. The coating results in your finger-sliding being a little sticky at times, which can be awkward if you’re hurriedly navigating around web pages. It’s responsive though, so you can at least be accurate with your strokes.

Screen

The screen is a 15.6-inch affair with a resolution of 1,600×900 pixels. The more eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the slight problem here — it’s not Full HD, which means that it won’t properly display Blu-ray movies. That does slightly diminish its usefulness as a media machine, especially when there are other laptops available that offer full 1080p resolution.

Still, it’s not a long way off, so you’ll be able to enjoy movies without missing out on too much. It’s bright too, and handles colours fairly well so your videos and YouTube clips will look pretty good. It’s been given a matte coating, meaning that reflections are cut down to an absolute minimum. As such, it’s much easier to use in varied lighting conditions, especially under harsh office lighting or in bright sunlight.

The screen isn’t Full HD, but it’s a decent resolution and the matte coating means it’s easy to view under varied lighting.

Performance

Under the lid is an Intel Core i7-2670QM processor clocked at 2.2GHz, backed up by 6GB of RAM. That’s enough juice to power through most tasks so I was keen to take it deep into the CNET UK dungeons to see what it’s capable of.

I fired up the PCMark05 benchmark test and was given the admirable score of 9,600. I was really pleased with that, especially considering its relatively affordable price tag. By comparison, Asus’ own N53SN achieved 8,200 in the same test, as did the Acer Aspire 5750G — both of which went on sale for a decent chunk more money.

In general use, I found the N55SF to be very responsive. Programs and windows opened without hesitation and multi-tasking was handled very well, thanks to the 6GB of RAM. Even when I had numerous web browser windows open, as well as other programs running in the background, I didn’t notice any kind of slowdown.

It’s also packing a dedicated graphics card in the form of the Nvidia GeForce GT 555M, which offers 2GB of VRAM that should happily chew through the gaming polygons. I ran the 3DMark06 graphics test and was given an excellent score of 12,672. By comparison, a dedicated gaming laptop, the MSI GT680, achieved nearly 14,000 on the same test. It’s somewhat bigger and more expensive than the N55SF, so it’s great to see such good performance in a more affordable and smart-looking machine.

To see how it really handled the games, I booted up the recent title Batman: Arkham City and set about beating up some criminals. The N55SF averaged rates of around 42 frames per second, which made gameplay very smooth. Even in the most intense sequences, the frame rate only dropped to around 19fps, but it achieved a maximum of around 60fps, which was excellent to see on such a recent title.

Our benchmark tests saw it perform ably against more expensive gaming machines.

If you’re a hardcore gamer who wants to play the most intense games on ultra settings and want a sky-high frame-rate, it probably won’t do the job. But if — like me — you’re happy idling away a few hours on titles like Dirt 3, Half Life 2, Battlefield 3 and Skyrim and aren’t too fussed about having the settings on max, you’ll be perfectly satisfied with the performance.

Battery life

The N55SF isn’t the most portable thing you could buy, so you shouldn’t expect it to offer the best battery life. Still, it’s always handy if you can at least get some work done if you’re travelling the country by train.

I ran my battery test and the N55SF kept going for 1 hour 15 minutes — that’s about enough time to get me from London Euston to Stoke-on-Trent by train, in which time I could happily watch a couple of episodes of Red Dwarf. It’s a really intense test though, so if you used it wisely, you could easily double that time. Assuming you only plan to do a spot of word processing and won’t be connecting to wireless networks, you shouldn’t need to worry too much about being near a plug.

Conclusion

The Asus N55SF provides a great serving of power for general computing tasks and for gaming, while still remaining smart enough to take into the office. Its Blu-ray player and decent screen also make it a top choice as a media machine, although you might want to invest in a separate keyboard if you plan on typing for long periods.

When it comes to buying yourself a new ultrabook there are a lot of options out there.You could spend a lot of money and get a machine that meets your needs but feels like you spent to much. Or, you could buy a machine that is easy on the budget, but does not give you quite everything that you need. Neither of those things is exactly what you would call a satisfying conclusion.

But, it does not have to be that way. There is a balance that can be struck between your wants/ needs in a computer and the needs of your wallet. The trick is to find those machines, the diamonds in the rough, that the company has set at a budget friendly price point without skimping on the technology.

The Samsung Series 3 NP300V5A-A0EUS is one of those machines, but is it right for your need? Well lets take a better look and you can decide for yourself.

Lets begin with your budget. This machine will set you back a fairly modest $ 651.95. When you consider some of the other machines out there with similar specs you will find that you can end up spending a lot more for a similar machine. This system is sporting an Intel Core i5 2450M Processor that is running at a speed of 2.45GHz, and that processor is backed up by 6GB of DDR3 RAM. That is enough to make even most casual PC gamers happy. As for hardcore gamers, let level with each other, you probably want a machine designed for gaming only. For most of us that’s not an option, but this machine is good enough to let you run WOW and do you work all in one.

The system as 500GB of hard drive space, but also the capacity to add on external storage if you need to store a lot of large files and travel with them. The Samsung Series 3 NP300V5A-A0EUS has a 15.6-Inch Screen that is supported by an Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor, so movie buffs and HD junkies should be happy with their video quality and size. The operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit).

On the whole this machine is well rounded, and can satisfy a number of types of end users, without busting your wallet in the process.

The ultrabook genre has been around for quite a while, with Sony being conspicuous by its absence from the market. The Vaio T Series is here now though, and comes with a slim and stylish design, a 13-inch screen, an Intel Core i3 processor and 4GB of RAM.

With a low resolution screen and an older generation processor, is this too little, too late? There’s no word on pricing yet, but it’s due to go on sale from June. Stay tuned for a full review soon.

Design and build

Although Sony hasn’t specifically made an ultrabook before, it’s no stranger to the thin and light concept. Its Z Series laptop is extremely svelte and the new T Series can certainly be seen as having come from the same family.

Sony employed Cath Kidston to design its latest Vaio T Series… okay, it’s settled for the usual business-standard brushed metal.

At 17.8mm thick, it’s pretty slim, at roughly the same thickness as the stunning Asus Zenbook UX31. It’s a few millimetres chubbier than the Z Series though and at 1.6kg, it’s weightier too. Given that ultrabooks aim to be as slim and as light as possible, it’s a shame not to see Sony at least match its other laptops in the size stakes.

The chassis if made from a combination of magnesium and aluminium, which Sony reckons will make it particularly sturdy. Exactly how sturdy it really is remains to be seen, but I’d hope it’s got a strong enough body to put up with the sort of knocks and bumps it’s undoubtedly going to encounter, given its portable frame.

I think it’s a good-looking piece of kit though. The brushed metal lid is punctuated only by the Vaio logo, which acts as a badge of honour, telling everyone around you that you can afford Sony’s products. You lucky thing, you. The same silver colouring continues around the sides and across the keyboard tray and wrist rest. If you’re more drawn to floral prints and garish patterns then it won’t appeal. But it definitely has a very smart, professional edge to it that might make it more suited to a business class lounge than a table in a greasy spoon.

The size of the Vaio logo is in equal proportion to the inflated sense of self-satisfaction you’ll get from buying expensive Sony goods.

Around the sides you’ll find one USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI outlets, an Ethernet socket and an SD card reader. It’s unusual to see VGA-out on an ultrabook as the size of the port is better suited to larger desktop replacement laptops. It’ll come in handy if you plan on hooking it up to a monitor at work and don’t have an HDMI cable handy.

Screen

Sony has packed a 13.3-inch display into the T Series, which is at the larger end of the scale for ultrabooks — unlike the Asus Zenbooks or Apple MacBook Airs, there’s no 11-inch option available.

It’s got a resolution of 1,366×768 pixels, which is a little disappointing given that the 13-inch Asus Zenbook manages to pack in 1,600×900 pixels into the same space. The T Series’ resolution is what I’d expect to find on an 11-inch model so I’m hoping it makes up for this shortcoming by being extremely bright and vivid.

Sony has a long history of making high-quality TVs and its laptop displays are often excellent so I do have high hopes of it looking great — it’s just a shame that it didn’t try to beat the competition, or at the very least, keep up with it.

The 13-inch Asus Zenbook squeezes more pixels into the same space as the Vaio T series’ screen.

Performance

Sony’s press release states that the SVT1311M1E uses the “latest generation” of Intel Core processors, which suggests the new low-voltage Ivy Bridge chips. What it’s actually packing is a Core i3-2367M chip that’s the older Sandy Bridge model. I’ve asked Sony to clarify exactly what it means by “latest generation”, but I’m yet to hear back.

The i3-2367M could still be pretty nippy though — assuming it’s clocked at a decent speed — and with 4GB of RAM, it should at least be able to handle a good amount of multi-tasking and high-definition video.

There’s no mention of more powerful Core i5 or Core i7 versions, which is a shame, given that these options are available from most of its competitors. It wouldn’t have been a bad idea to offer a high-spec version to keep it feeling current against the oncoming wave of ultrabooks packing more powerful Ivy Bridge processors.

I’ll be putting it through its paces when I get a model for a full review, so we’ll have to wait and see exactly what it has to offer in the power stakes.

Sony claims it’s using the “latest generation” of Intel Core chips but it actually has the older Sandy Bridge processor inside.

In terms of graphics power, it uses the built-in Intel HD 3000 graphics, meaning that you’re not going to be able to tackle much by way of gaming. It will lend a hand when it comes to playing back video though. The latest Ivy Bridge chips claim a 2x increase to graphics performance, so if we did see a model using these, then it might be able to handle more demanding games.

In terms of storage, you can have it with just an SSD drive — which is faster and more power-efficient than traditional hard disk drives (but more expensive), or with a combined HDD and SSD. With the latter, your computer can boot quickly from the SSD but you then use the capacious HDD to store your files.

Sony promises up to 9 hours of battery life from the SSD-equipped models, but how that number stacks up against my brutal battery benchmark tests remains to be seen.

Outlook

With its slim frame and attractive brushed metal top, the Sony Vaio T Series looks every inch an ultrabook. I’m a little disappointed by the low-resolution screen and the relatively low-powered processor, but if the price reflects this, then it might be a good choice for Sony fans seeking stylish computing on the go. Stay tuned for a full review soon

Apple’s MacBook Air has given the whole laptop world a shot in the arm, with loads of other manufacturers keen to forge their own skinny-yet-powerful machines. HP’s latest effort is the Spectre XT, a 13.3-inch aluminium ultrabook that — at first glance — is looking more appealing than the earlier Envy Spectre 14.

I’ve been hands-on with the Spectre XT, so read on for my first impressions. It’s set to land in the UK at the end of June, with prices starting at £899.

Design

The Spectre XT sports the now commonplace wedge shape, intended to signal that ultrabooks are a bit fancier than standard laptops. As well as keeping your patio door open, the sloping design leaves the XT measuring just 14.5mm thick, meaning it’s very portable.

The Envy Spectre XT is no thicko, measuring 14.5mm thick.

At 1.39kg, the XT is rather light as well, so have no qualms about chucking it in a satchel or rucksack and lugging it around with you all day.

There’s a tonne of other wedge-shaped laptops floating around at the moment, built by the likes of Asus or Acer, but happily there are a few design touches on the XT that could help it stand out from the competition.

For example, the Hewlett Packard logo is tastefully etched into the back of the XT, while there’s a boxy, angular look to the whole shebang that puts me in mind of Kryten’s face. The body is made of aluminium and feels sturdy, and there’s a pleasant chrome edging around the chassis and lid.

Boxy is back in vogue, or at least it is at Hewlett-Packard.

Personally, I think the metal lid looks attractive, and I don’t bemoan the loss of the hefty glass covering that adorned the Spectre 14. It leaves the XT resembling the rest of the ultrabook crop, but as long as it looks good, I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.

Keyboard and trackpad

Cracking the XT open like a delicious clam reveals a chiclet-style keyboard that’s very much like the buttons you’ll find on the MacBook Air. Not original then, but the layout looks spacious. It’s a shame HP’s stuck with tiny up and down arrow keys though — trying to wrap your fingers around those little buttons could prove frustrating. A backlit keyboard is a huge plus, so you can keep on typing during powercuts, even as the rest of your family faffs around with tealights.

A backlit keyboard is a positive boon if your lightbulb blows.

The trackpad is spacious, though another HP foible persists, as the buttons are built into the touch-sensitive area, meaning you may find the cursor moving a tiny amount when you try to click.

Beats Audio is in play and the XT packs four speakers. I didn’t get a chance to test the quality of those speakers, but being glued to such a skinny device, I’d be surprised if the noise they kicked out was particularly impressive — laptop audio is generally tinny, even with big-name brands providing the kit.

Beats branding on previous laptops has also meant special audio software and Windows themes, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find those pre-loaded on the XT as well.

Dr Dre’s booming bank balance takes a boost with another Beats Audio-branded device.

Ports, battery and hardware

Happily, the XT doesn’t look to scrimp on port selection, despite its skinny frame. On the right there’s a 3.5mm headphone port, an SD card slot for getting at your camera photos and a USB port.

On the left, meanwhile, there’s an HDMI port (handy for hooking the XT up to a high-def telly), a second USB port and an Ethernet socket, which is partly covered by a little plastic door that you’ll need to pull open if you want to fill the XT with wonderful wired Internet.

There’s plenty of ports on board despite the slim frame.

Battery life is pegged at about 8 hours, but stay tuned for the full review, where we’ll be submitting the XT to our own barrage of battery benchmarks, and seeing how it fares against the competition when unable to suck on its power cable.

Powering this laptop will be Intel’s latest processors, which we’ll be giving an extensive test in our full review. Hopefully we’ll see Core i3, i5 and i7 variants, to let you get as much power as you can afford.

As for space, expect 128GB of solid state storage as standard — if that’s not enough room you can pay to bump up the capacity to 256GB. Solid state drives are better than their mechanical counterparts because they’re faster and lack moving parts, so you’re less likely to lose all your data if your laptop makes a one-way trip to pavement town.

Outlook

The HP Spectre XT makes a good first impression with a slick design. How decent this little laptop ultimately proves to be will turn on whether it offers better performance and battery life than the competition, and that’s something that our full review will determine. At £900, it’s hardly pocket change, so we’ll be expecting something rather special. Stay tuned. In the meantime, check out the first impressions of our sister site CNET.com in the video below.

]]> http://www.laptop10inch.com/hp-envy-spectre-xt-hands-on.html/feed 0 http://www.laptop10inch.com/hp-envy-ultrabook-hands-on.html http://www.laptop10inch.com/hp-envy-ultrabook-hands-on.html#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 23:09:39 +0000 admin http://www.laptop10inch.com/hp-envy-ultrabook-hands-on.html In this review Design Keyboard and trackpad Ports and hardware Outlook HP’s got a couple of new laptops to show off that promise a slim build as well as confusing naming conventions. The machine we’re looking at today is the Envy ultrabook, a laptop that comes in either 14 or 15.6-inch sizes, It’s slightly different [...]]]>

HP’s got a couple of new laptops to show off that promise a slim build as well as confusing naming conventions. The machine we’re looking at today is the Envy ultrabook, a laptop that comes in either 14 or 15.6-inch sizes, It’s slightly different from the similar Envy ‘sleekbook’ option, in that it’s powered by an Intel chip, while the ‘sleekbook’ has an AMD processor and is roughly £100 cheaper.

The name is a shade misleading, as devices like the more expensive Envy Spectre XT and 14 Spectre are also ultrabooks and belong in the Envy family. If you’re on the hunt for those machines, simply click those links.

The 14 and 15.6-inch Envy ultrabooks will be out in the UK in July, and I’ve gone hands-on with the machines ahead of their official launch. The snaps above are of the 14-inch version.

The Envy Ultrabooks at £549, expect that price to rise sharply if you opt for the bigger machine.

Design

Using the ‘ultrabook’ tag to describe these latest PCs seems a tad cheeky, as you probably associate the term with extremely skinny, wedge-shaped laptops. These devices however are a fair bit chunkier at 19.8m.

The slightly cheap-looking plastic bezel is at odds with the other materials used on the HP Envy Ultrabook.

Holding them, they’re not exactly about to shatter your arms, but expect these machines to weigh more than the likes of the HP Envy Spectre XT, for instance. There’s no tapering of the lid either, giving the ultrabook a blocky, boxy feel.

The benefit of rocking a beefier chassis is that the Envy Ultrabook packs more ports than the likes of the XT or the MacBook Air. More on that later.

Style-wise, these laptops have a brushed aluminium effect across the lid, with the HP logo tastefully stuck in a corner. The interior and lid are black, while the chassis is a matte red colour. I saw a silver version too, but it’s hard to know at this point which version or versions will reach the UK. Fingers crossed Brit shoppers are offered a choice of hues.

Audio is provided by Beats — as such there’s a little Beats logo stuck underneath the screen. 

The bezel is surrounded by glossy plastic, which I think looks just a little cheap, especially as it doesn’t match the coating on the chassis surrounding the keyboard. Speaking of which…

The keys are lit up all in white like a tastefully bland Christmas tree.

Keyboard and trackpad

There’s a backlit keyboard, which means you can type in the dark (useful, say, on a long-haul flight), while there’s a gap between each individual button which should help cut down on typing mistakes. HP likes to squeeze its ‘up’ and ‘down’ buttons into a space normally reserved for just one key, so if you’re in the habit of using those pointer buttons a lot, this laptop will likely frustrate you.

The trackpad is notable for its disco-inspired swirling metallic finish, and it’s of a generous size. If you can tear yourself away from the hypnotic effect, you’ll see the click buttons are built into the touchpad. I’m not too happy about that, as with prior HP laptops it’s meant accidentally nudging the cursor when you go to click on something.

Whack on some Boney M and admire the disco finish on that trackpad.

Ports and hardware

There are a healthy number of ports attached to these laptops. On the left there’s an Ethernet port, an HDMI socket for hooking your PC up to an HD telly, two USB ports and an SD card slot.

On the other side you’ll find two 3.5mm sockets for headphones and a mic, another USB port and the power socket. That totals three USB ports, one of which is USB 3.0. The port selection appears to be identical for both the 14 and 15.6-inch versions.

The ample ports offering is the same on both 14 and 15.6-inch versions.

As for storage, you get 500GB of storage on an HDD hard drive with 32GB of SSD cache. Hybrid mechanical and solid-state hard drive options will be available, or you can get an SSD drive as an upgrade. Expect that to drive the cost up significantly, but solid-state drives are preferable as they’re faster and lack moving parts, so are less susceptible to knocks.

Outlook

The most appealing thing about the Envy Ultrabook is the price. Starting at £649 makes it potentially cheaper than rival ultrabooks (the Spectre XT is priced just shy of £899 for example), but as I mentioned earlier, you’re getting a machine that’s less portable and not as slick for that money.

A key question will be whether the Intel processors inside the Envy Ultrabooks can justify the fact that they’re more expensive than the near-identical ‘Sleekbooks’ that are powered by AMD chips. Our full review will set that matter to rest.

Pressure from Apple’s MacBook Air has sent the PC industry into a spiral of thin-and-light craziness. HP’s getting in on the action too, with a new skinny machine called the HP Envy Sleekbook. Powered by AMD and coming in 14 and 15.6-inch sizes, I’ve been hands-on with the Sleekbook ahead of its launch. Read on for my first impressions.

The HP Envy Sleekbook will be available in the UK from July, with prices kicking off at £549. Expect the cost to jump up if you opt for the 15.6-inch version. The images above are of the 15.6-inch edition, but check out our hands-on with the 14-inch HP Envy Ultrabook for an idea of what the smaller version looks like.

Sleekbook? Is that like an ultrabook?

The Sleekbook is exactly like an ultrabook — in fact this machine is visually identical to the HP Envy Ultrabook, which also comes in 14- and 15.6-inch options and was announced at the same time. But Intel owns the ‘ultrabook’ name, and since these PCs are powered by AMD chips, HP has cunningly gone with ‘Sleekbook’.

First ‘ultrabooks’, now ‘sleekbooks’… what next, ‘slinkybooks’? ‘Waifbooks’? ‘Dangerouslyundernourishedbooks’?

Crafty. But the Sleekbook has a starting price £100 lower than the HP Envy Ultrabook, making this a potentially more tempting proposition.

Design

To be brutally honest, using the terms ‘ultrabook’ or ‘sleekbook’ to describe this laptop is slightly misleading, as while it’s reasonably thin at 19.8mm, the Sleekbooks are nowhere near as skinny or classy as the wedge-shaped MacBook Air, or even HP’s own Envy Spectre XT.

The well-spaced backlit keyboard is surrounded by a brushed metal case.

Take heart though — the Sleekbook is still reasonably slim, and for a mid-range laptop it feels decently portable. Having a mildly bulkier chassis also makes room for more ports, which are detailed further down.

The rectangular styling Sleekbook looks decent enough, though the plastic chassis doesn’t exactly ooze class. There’s a brushed metal effect on the lid and keyboard surround, which clashes with the black gloss that surrounds the display. The screen itself packs a respectable 1,366×768 pixels.

The version in the photos above is red and black, though a silver version was also on show — fingers crossed a selection of hues make it to the UK.

Like other HP laptops, the Sleekbook has speakers provided by Beats Audio. As such, there’s a small lower-case ‘b’ sitting on the speaker grille.

The Beats Audio speakers are unlikely to power a block party, but they should provide some welcome grunt over regular, tinny laptop speakers.

Keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard sits within a recessed part of the chassis, with a healthy space between keys that should keep typing errors to a minimum. Helpfully, it’s also backlit, which means you can keep on writing once the lights go out.

The trackpad has a psychedelic, swirled metal look, that I wouldn’t exactly describe as demure, but at least it’s different to most trackpads. Unfortunately, HP is still making the click buttons part of the touch-sensitive surface, which means you’ll likely end up nudging the cursor by accident when you try to click on things.

I like the swirly metal-effect trackpad but I’m not convinced by the buttons being part of a touch-sensitive surface.

Ports and hardware

There’s a hearty port selection on show here. The left side plays host to an Ethernet port, HDMI out, two USB ports and an SD card slot — handy for yanking photos off your digital camera.

Spin the laptop around and along the right you’ll find two 3.5mm sockets for a microphone and headphones and another USB port, which makes three in total — one of which is USB 3.0.

There’s 500GB of storage on an HDD hard drive with 32GB of SSD cache on the 15.6-inch version, while the 14-inch model has a 320GB HDD. Hybrid mechanical and solid state hard drives will be an option, or you can upgrade to an SSD drive. Expect that to make the Sleekbook more expensive — although it might be worth the extra pennies. Solid state drives are better because they’re faster than their mechanical counterparts, and lack moving parts, so are less susceptible to knocks.

The SD card slot is useful for whipping holiday snaps off your camera and onto Facebook, where your ungainly knees will attract the requisite ridicule.

I’m excited to see what performance the AMD chips inside the Sleekbook can deliver — we’ll know for sure once we get this PC into our testing lab, so stay tuned.

Outlook

The design of the Sleekbook doesn’t exactly feel all that sleek, but I’m intrigued by the price. Starting at £549, if performance and battery life are up to scratch, this could be a great value machine.

When it comes to your new ultrabooks you need to accessorize. After all you put a lot of money into your new technology purchase and you are going to want to protect it, and make the most of it, as best as you can. Today we are going to take a look at some of your best accessory options that will give you the best in the way of ultrabook accessories.

Link Depot LD-MCHOLDER Memory Card Carrying Case – Black

If you have an ultrabook you are going to need some extra storage and one of the best ways to do that is with an SD card. Managing all of your SD cards in one padded carrying case is a great way to make it easy. This case is budget friendly and holds a good selection of memory.

Swiss Gear Ibex 17-Inch Notebook Backpack

There are a lot of way to carry your ultrabook, but few of them are as versatile as this bag. It comes with the following features:

• Comp-u-Flex computer pocket keeps your 17-inch widescreen snugly protected; Three main compartments provide space for all of your belongings
• Air-Flow Back Padding: Air-Flow Back padding keeps your back cool even with a full pack
• Shock Absorbing Shoulder Straps: Shock Absorb Shoulder straps distribute weight evenly and keep you comfortable
• Quik Pocket: Quik Pocket holds iPod/MP3 player for easy access to all of your gadgets; iPod/MP3 Player Pocket
• Essentials Organizer in front pocket has pockets and slot for all of your accessories and gadgets; Quik-Access Phone Pocket
• Comp-u-Flex computer pocket keeps your 17-inch widescreen snugly protected, three main compartments provide space for all of your belongings
• Essentials Organizer in front pocket has pockets and slot for all of your accessories and gadgets
• Quik Pocket holds iPod/MP3 player for easy access to all of your gadgets; iPod/MP3 Player Pocket

Logitech Comfort Lapdesk N500 (white/grey)

If you need some ergonomic support, or if you just want to keep a hot netbook off of your lap then this option is great for your needs. Its zen simple and silently efficient.

There you have it, the best of ultrabook accessories. Enjoy your machine.

Like many laptop makers, HP’s current obsession is for super-slim ultrabook machines that are so skinny and light you could skim them across a lake. But the company hasn’t forgotten about good ol’ regular-sized laptops, showing off the new 15.6-inch HP Pavilion m6. But does this mid-range marvel have the power to hold its own against a wave of ultrabooks?

I’ve been hands-on with the Pavilion m6, so read on for a fistful of first impressions. The m6 is due out in the UK at the end of July, starting at £599.

Design

While it’s not technically an ultrabook, the m6 is no monster. It sports a reasonably slim chassis and feels light enough to carry around all day without too much strain. The look of this laptop is similar to the recently-unveiled HP Envy Ultrabooks and Sleekbooks, but there are some minor differences.

I rather like the black brushed metal effect on the chassis…

There’s a fingerprint reader over on the right, for example. The keyboard and trackpad are different too — we’ll get to them in a minute. The m6′s chassis is black and sports a brushed metal effect that looks neat, but clashes with the black plastic gloss that surrounds the screen.

Audio comes courtesy of Beats, though unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to put the m6′s speakers through their paces. Don’t expect much — laptop speakers generally sounds tinny regardless of who’s providing the hardware, but previous HP efforts with Beats have featured special sound programs or Windows themes so don’t be surprised if there are a few software surprises in store.

…but it’s at odds with the plasticky bezel surrounding the screen.

The Beats tie-in means there’s a little lowercase ‘b’ on the speaker grille — how chuffed you are about that will depend on your feelings toward the hip-hopping audio brand. There’s a bit of flair elsewhere, with silver trim around the edge of the lid, and that grey-ish hue is also present on the bottom of the chassis.

All things considered, this design makes a decent first impression. It’s far from ugly, though it’s on the plasticky side, and doesn’t feel as sturdy as the aluminium-addled Envy Spectre XT.

Beats Audio branding is emblazoned on the body, boasting booming bass.

Hardware and battery

HP promises the m6 will play host to “the latest Intel and AMD processors”, while the model I was toying with featured a 750GB hard drive. Discrete graphics are an option if you plan on performing more intensive tasks like gaming or photo editing. The 15.6-inch display crams in a respectable 1,366×768 pixels, and there’s a DVD drive squeezed into the m6′s right flank.

Increasingly laptops are shedding disc drives, prioritising a slim build instead, but if you have a big DVD collection you may appreciate the option to pop in a disc.

Next to the disc drive are two USB ports, while over on the left you get Ethernet, HDMI and VGA out, a 3.5mm headphone jack and two more USB sockets. There’s a webcam above the monitor for video calls.

HP promises up to eight hours of battery life — we’ll be putting that claim to the test when we give the m6 the full review treatment.

An increasingly rare sighting in the increasingly slim laptop habitat, the M6 slots a DVD drive into its girth.

Keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard on the m6 is quite large, and even though the laptop isn’t that massive HP’s squeezed in a number pad. Handy perhaps — though the ‘Enter’ key on this laptop is looking worryingly small — that’ll doubtless see you making the odd mistake as you rattle off emails. A backlight is optional should you want to type in the dark.

The trackpad doesn’t have the eye-assaulting disco effect present on some of HP’s other new machines. Instead your eyes and digits are treated to a more standard black trackpad.

Number crunchers will appreciate the number pad, which has been spared the cut, despite the relatively small size of the laptop.

A very promising sign is that the click buttons seem to be separate from the touch-sensitive portion of the trackpad. HP has a nasty habit of incorporating buttons into its trackpads, which means you often end up nudging the cursor off course when you try to click.

Outlook

There’s not much about the m6 that’s likely to get your blood pumping, but if the decent design is matched by solid performance and battery life, this could prove a dependable laptop. Starting at just shy of £600 it’s at the upper end of the mid-range scale, so we’ll be looking for plenty of processing grunt and impressive battery life when it comes to the full review.