HP Envy 17 3D

PROS

• Well built and looks good despite its bulk
• Good components, and a fast graphic solution in the Radeon HD 5850
• 3D display, with bundled glasses
• Good value for money if you're up to spending close to a lakh on a laptop

CONS

• Not for everyone with its high-spec components
• Heavy and bulky - not exactly something you want to lug around
• The HD 5850 can get very hot

Summary

High-end gaming notebooks are a rare breed with few takers. If you are one such person, the HP Envy 3D 17 is a good package - strong graphics, Blu-ray playback and a stereoscopic 3D display with bundled glasses. It's expensive, but a good buy for the discerning gamer who needs a notebook. Of course, you could buy a similar performing desktop for half, if that's your game...

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It's been awhile since we've had a large, powerful notebook - the kind that make our arms and backs ache just looking at them. And no - our hearts don't often jump in glee at the thought of a powerful (read gaming) configuration, for no gaming notebook, irrespective of its price, can hold its own with even a desktop priced 40,000 bucks lower, let alone one at the same price. Its tough to shoehorn 200-watt graphic cards into the confined environs that are notebook chassis, and honestly this is a physical limitation rather than a manufacturer's mistake.
However, our little disclaimer notwithstanding, there are those who are aware of the tradeoffs, and still need something portable, (well not really, but at least it weighs under 5 kilos!), to carry around to a LAN party. And such gaming events typically revolve around Counter Strike, UT, Quake 3, or even DoTA (a popular Warcraft 3 mod) - not exactly demanding titles. For such people, HP presents the Envy - a large beast of a notebook, with good components under the boot, and despite our usual derision for "gaming notebooks", we must admit the Envy was quite a package and it seems like Alienware finally has some worthwhile competition. Sure, it's not a desktop with a Core i7 980 Extreme and dual GTX 580s, but heck - it's a notebook and at least someone's trying...

Looks

A huge box, completely black in colour, opens up to reveal a rather large notebook, with neatly packaged accessories, including a pair of 3D glasses, powered by a flat battery - the same ones that power BIOS'. With a 17-inch display, the Envy is a large notebook, but it's also handsome looking. A lot of metal has been used on the body, giving it a somewhat more rigid feel, although an Apple unibody it is not! The lid is completely aluminium. The body is quite thick, a result of cramming more powerful components than what most notebooks have, into a relatively smaller chassis than desktops.

You get a nice patterned lid with a rough texture on the outside, and the inside follows a satin-finish - a welcome relief from the piano-glossy finishes that HP uses a lot. A resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels will please gamers, but the glossy display is a major bummer in our opinion, especially for a gaming notebook; a pity matte displays are becoming extinct.

The keypad is well laid out, and nicely spaced, although we feel the keys could have been a bit larger. The smaller keys also mean there's a bit more spacing between them then what most users will be used to, which is good for a gaming notebook, but not so intuitive for fast typing. The trackpad is also larger than most HP notebooks, a point of interest to gamers. It's also quite accurate, although you will pretty much need to use a mouse, as we're yet to see a notebook gamer who doesn't use one. The power adapter is a brick, and a far cry from the sleek units Apple provides. However, it is smaller than some of the previous HP notebooks we've seen, yet will add close to a kilo with its cable to your package.

Features

One of the most talked about features of the model we're looking at is the presence of 3D support. The display on the Envy supports up to 120 Hertz and that was enough to give us a hint, in case the blatant bundling of 3D stereovision glasses wasn't enough. Then there's the high resolution display, which at 1920 x 1080 pixels is something gamers will like. For the 17" notebook, we were a little surprised to find only 3 USB ports though. Generally gamers who connect such notebooks to larger monitors will definitely use at least 2 ports - one each for an additional mouse and keyboard. One of the USB ports doubles as an E-SATA port. An HDMI port supporting the latest 1.4 version of HDMI and a Mini-Display Port for connecting to HDTVs and the like. We received this powerhouse with a 9-cell battery, although a lighter 6-cell one is also available.

The model we received came with a 640 GB hard drive, although HP allows the user to configure up to 2 hard drives, which gamers will salivate at, for speedy RAID 0 becomes a possibility. Alternatively for even more speed, you could consider an SSD and a hard drive for space. Incidentally, the Blu-ray drive that ships with the Envy 17" 3D is also a drive that supports 3D Blu-ray playback - kind of obvious, but essentially making this notebook an expensive, but high quality 3D Blu-ray playback device if you would like to use it thus. We tried a 3D copy of Avatar and needless to say this works pretty well. In fact, the colours are better than we've seen on some TVs, which doesn't mean the display on the Envy is better, but merely that it is implementing 3D better. While such a small display is not cinematic for viewing movies in 3D, it's a good display for the purpose.

Sadly, we couldn't get this to work with most games that we tried. AMD obviously has a few kinks in their 3D component to iron out given that NVIDIA has been doing 3D for awhile now. We tried games like Arcania: A Gothic Tale, Dragon Age 2, Call Of Pripyat, Lost Planet 2 and even Crysis 2, and none of these games worked in 3D! However, we don't blame HP for this, rather AMD is the culprit. If only the Envy 3D 17 came with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570...

The configuration we received was also one of the lower end ones. The Envy 3D 17 is available with a Core i7 quad core processor, 8 GB of RAM and two 750 GB hard drives, but we received one with a dual core processor, 4 GB of RAM and a single 640 GB hard drive.

Performance

Let's talk about the display first, since we fired up a couple of games before doing anything else. It's good to see that while the display is glossy it isn't as reflective as some of the others around. In fact, it exhibits decent colour and contrast for a notebook monitor, but is fairly mediocre when you consider its cost and its intended audience. We'd have loved an IPS panel, but we haven't seen 3D versions of those. To put this in perspective, while it's not even close to the likes of the Dell U2410, games look pretty good - good colour, and what's even better a very decent contrast ratio that allow a bit more detail in darker scenes than most notebooks we've come across.

Powered by an Intel Core i5 480M, and a AMD Radeon HD 5850M, the Envy is no slouch. It also has 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, and is thus at par with, or better than many current generation desktops in terms of processing power. As impressive as this configuration is, we must say that we've seen better components from Alienware, but then HP isn't exactly known for gaming notebooks, and this is more a first attempt, and a good one at that.

With 27.16 fps in Crysis Warhead, and 53.1 fps in S.T.A.L.K.E.R Call Of Pripyat the Envy 17 3D is no slouch in the gaming department, and will certainly play most titles you can throw at it, although relatively newer ones like Crysis 2 and Metro 2033 will require some tinkering with eye candy levels. In the US, the Envy 3D is available with a Radeon HD 6850 that is not faster than the HD 5850, but will certainly run cooler.

price fight

A price of Rs. 93,550 plus taxes, The Envy 3D 17 is not cheap, or even affordable by any stretch of your imagination (or ours), but it offers a powerful set of components, and 3D support, which while gimmicky, is certainly something that seems to be the future. The fact is this notebook has very few competitors, and with Alienware machines with marginally more powerful graphics costing over a lakh, we feel the Envy 3D 17 is one of the only sub-lakh gaming options. If we could change one thing, it'd be a Radeon HD 6950 in lieu of the much hotter HD 5850, but this is a pretty potent offering for those who want a powerful gaming notebook. Street prices are reportedly a lot lower, around Rs. 84,000 or so, and at this price, the Envy 3D 17 makes a good buy, but only if you are sure you don't want a desktop to game on!

complete specifications

Brand	HP
Model	Envy 3D 17
Price (Rs)	93550 + tax
Features
Component Specifications
Processor Model No	Core i5 480
Processor Speed (MHz)	2.66 GHz
RAM	4 GB
RAM Type	DDR3
Memory Speed (MHz)	1333 MHz
Chipset	Intel HM55
Graphics Solution	AMD Radeon HD 5850
Dedicated Video Memory (Y / N)	Y
Dedicated Video Memory Size (in MB)	1024 MB
Audio Chipset	Intel HD
Storage size (in GB)	640 GB
Drive type (HDD/SSD/other)	HDD, 7200 rpm
Optical Drive Type / Speed	Blu-Ray ROM
Bundled OS	Win 7 Prof 64 bit
Characteristics
Screen Size (Inches)	17
Type of LCD	TN
Screen Resolution (Native)	1920 x 1080
Weight (Kg)	3.41 kgs
No. of Ports (USB / FireWire)	3 / 0
USB 3.0 (Y/N)	Y / 1
Connectivity (LAN / Bluetooth / Wi-Fi)	Y / Y / Y
E-Sata (Y/N)	Y / 1
Display output (VGA/DVI/HDMI/Display Port)	Y / N / Y / Y
Memory Card Reader (Y/N)	Y
Type of Memory Cards Supported	SD, MMC, MS Pro
Inbuilt Webcam (Y/N)	Y
Webcamera resolution (in megapixels)	1280 x 800
Build (So 10)
Body	8
Keypad	7
Lid, movables	7.5
Ergonomics and Usability
Keypad Tactile Feedback (So 10)	7.5
Key Layout, bevelling, spacing & Usability (So 10)	6.75
Shortcut Keys/Switches (So 10)	7
Trackpad ergonomics, size, position (So 10)	7.5
Trackpad accuracy (So 10)	7
Biometrics (fingerprint/face) login (Y/N)	N
Wi-Fi On/Off Switch or Button (Y/N)	N
Dedicated Bluetooth On/Off Switch or Button (Y/N)	N
Dedicated TouchPad On/Off Switch or Button (Y/N)	N
Performance
Synthetic Scores
PC Mark Vantage
PC Mark Score	6900
Memories Score	4489
TV and Movies Score	4183
Gaming Score	5511
Music Score	7110
Communications Score	5260
Productivity Score	5712
HDD Score	4072
3D Mark Vantage
CPU Score	6502
Graphics score	5712
Overall Score	5892
Maxxon CineBench R11.5 (CPU score)	2.39
Display Mate Colour Accuracy Test (So 10)	7.25
Battery Life Test (in minutes)	85
Wi-Fi Signal Strength Test (Zone 2)	43%
Real World Tests
Speaker Quality (at 50% volume) (So 10)	7.5
HD Movie Viewing (using VLC) (So 10)	8
DivX Encode 7.0 (.VOB to .Divx, default mode)	147.6
WinRAR 3.9 (Compression / Decompression benchmark)	1650
File transfer Test (4 GB test file-sequential) (Sec)	76.1
File transfer Test (4 GB test file-assorted) (Sec)	156.5
Gaming Tests
Crysis Warhead (1280 x 1024, medium details, no AA)	27.16
STALKER Call Of Pripyat (1280 x 1024, medium details, no AA)	57.3
Doom 3 (fps) (800x600, medium detail)	134.6

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BMW i8 Concept Spyder photos

What's most stunning about the BMW i8 Concept Spyder the German automaker isn't the 350-hp plug-in hybrid technology, the laser-powered headlights or the auto-show touches such as folding electric kickboards. It's that BMW plans to build something with most of these features, in a car looking much like this, within a few years.

 Like most auto show concepts, the i8 Concept Spyder moves thanks to a combination of battery and engine -- namely a 96 kW electric motor tied to a 223-hp turbocharged three cylinder engine, for a total output of 354 hp. Unlike most concepts, BMW pledges hard performance targets of 0-60 mph in about five seconds, some 19 miles on electric power alone, a top speed of 155 mph and fuel economy of 94 mpg in European testing.

Sharp AQUOS SH-06D

Sharp's AQUOS SH-06D will most probably never leave the Land of The Rising Sun. That doesn't stop us, however, from lusting after its 4.5-inch. This 720p display also manages 3D, spread across a slinky 10mm frame that houses NTT DoCoMo's recently launched NOTTV streaming broadcast system. The device arrives in pink, white and blue options -- all provided with a matching dock and built-in aerial. Like several eastern phones with the ability to tune into live TV broadcasts, the AQUOS SH-06D has its own extendable antenna built into the side. The device, despite its largely plastic build felt solid in our hand, although the minuscule power and volume buttons proved difficult to manipulate at times. The screen technology is still a closely guarded secret, but it aims to bring both 3D functionality alongside a crisp HD display performance during two-dimensional antics. Viewing angles are great -- a welcome trend we've seen on plenty of handsets at this year's MWC -- but the heavily customized Android 2.3 skin took away some of that sheen. Applications are stowed away into several drop-down menus that took some getting used to -- regardless of any language barrier. Sharp hasn't revealed any plans to join its Japanese competitors in the frenzied global smartphone market, but some import options wouldn't go amiss. See why in our hands-on right after the break.

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Razer Blade review

 

 

Typically, when a company wants to meet, you expect more of the same -- not a change in strategy, nor a decision to enter an entirely new product category. So when Razer wanted to meet us one bright, oddly cold San Franciscan morning last August, we certainly weren't expecting to meet its CEO, Min-Liang Tan, and we definitely weren't prepared to find a 17-inch prototype laptop, henceforth known as the Blade.

Shaving puns aside, we listened to Tan proudly wax on about the results of nearly three years of development, much of which involved recruiting a bevy of talent from the now-defunct OQO. What they'd accomplished, according to Tan, was the "world's first true gaming portable." An audacious statement, sure, especially considering the Blade was to be Razer's foray into the PC market. No matter. Tan's impetus was clear: the outfit would cater to gamers who'd been left in a vacuum after formerly gaming-obsessed companies sold out, leaving the segment to languish. His angle, however, would be different. The Blade wasn't going to be a gaudy, gargantuan, no-holds barred device with outright performance in mind. No, instead the 0.8-inch thick aluminum beaut would attempt to straddle the worlds of portability with performance, seeking to hit a perfectly balanced middle ground.




That sounded reasonable, but judging by reactions from most of you, the decision to stuff this $2,799 rig with a mid-range GeForce GT 555M card wasn't. Nor was the call to kit it with a paltry 320GB of rotational storage. Razer would rectify the latter in December, promising 256GB SSDs for all -- a concession that would push shipments back, well, until now. Still, even after toying with it briefly at CES, our impressions were ultimately shallow, as we couldn't get much of a feel for it in that controlled environment. Which brings us to the present day, and with Razer graciously airdropping a Blade onto our doorstep, does this experimental laptop stand up to its maker's gutsy claims? Or will those who've shelled just shy of three grand be sorely disappointed with its execution? Well, there's only one way to find out, and that's to join us past the break.

Razer Blade review

Look and feel

We hate using the term, but we will anyway: the Blade is sexy. That's a grossly overused word, sure, but if we ever really meant it, that time would be now. The Blade feels premium in a way that's difficult to quantify, but we're sure it has something to do with that sturdy shell and relatively thin profile. There's no question in our mind, though, its inspiration, down to the minutiae, borrows heavily -- and we mean heavily -- from the 17-inch MacBook Pro. Details like its latchless design, sunken chiclet keyboard, to the shape of its outer shell down and its identical hinge. But we're perfectly okay with that, as they've been remixed into something far more arresting.

That luxurious experience begins not with the hardware, but the elaborate packaging. To say we weren't expecting much would be an understatement -- can you remember the last time you unboxed a PC laptop? -- but how could you not, with the faux-carbon fiber weave adorning the box above? Not to mention those gorgeous asymmetrical cut-outs, giving way to a Razer-green layer beneath, subconsciously begging you to peel it away. Lifting off the top half reveals an interior dominated by the rather large laptop, which you'll conveniently lift out with a similarly hued green ribbon. Underneath, you'll find the usual suspects: a pouch containing manuals, stickers and so forth, alongside a custom oblong power brick. So far so good.

Razer Blade unboxing

To achieve that relatively thin 0.8-inch profile, Razer's kitted its offering with a sparser number of ports than you'd find on a traditional "gamer-focused" machine. On the left side, just past the beefy cooling vent, there's power, Ethernet, HDMI, three USB ports (one of the 3.0 persuasion, demarcated in green) and a headphone jack. That's it connectivity-wise, as on the right you'll find another exhaust (identical in size and placement to its leftward cousin) and a Kensington lock slot about half way down. It's around this time you realize the Blade is devoid of an optical drive, so those thinking about installing games the old-fashioned way better invest in an external unit or get cozy with a service like Valve's Steam or EA's Origin. Other exterior highlights worth mentioning are a backlit logo on the lid, which glows green, and an additional set of chrome-accented vents festooning the base.

Lift the lid and you'll see that sparse aesthetic extends onto the laptop's interior. Which, apart from the already mentioned backlit keyboard and LCD-stuffed trackpad, is home to a rather large power button, which glows green when the laptop is powered on, and pulses when the machine's asleep. The only remaining features crammed onto the deck space are a speaker grille that runs the entire length of the hinge, and a chrome-ringed webcam, just north of the screen.

While tastefully designed and well-built, unfortunately not all is perfect in the land of the Blade. There's one niggling flaw that taints the otherwise top-notch experience, and it has to do with difficulties in prying the latchless notebook open. Either the hinge isn't lubricated enough, or the front-portion of the system isn't privy to enough mass, but with the unit shut, attempts to lift the display are met with frustration, as its bottom (read: computer-housing portion) comes along for the ride. You eventually adjust to opening it more slowly and with less force, or by holding the base while you attempt the maneuver -- neither of which, we think, are satisfactory options for a machine this expensive. It's an unfortunate oversight (or engineering compromise, perhaps) and our only real gripe with the hardware, though unfortunately it rears its head every time you open it.

Keyboard and touchpad

While the rest of the Blade isn't functionally different from other laptops, its party piece, the LCD-toting touchpad and the ten configurable buttons directly above it, are certainly novel. We'll begin with the mousing device. As best as we can tell, its top-most layer houses a rather thick layer of tempered plastic, which unfortunately introduces more friction than we'd like, in addition to the fact that it just doesn't feel as premium as the rest of the laptop. Although in fairness, with time (and of course, grease) swipes do become easier. But for what it lacks in feel, the pad makes up for in accuracy: we found tracking excellent and can happily report that for once we've got a trackpad that can actuate two-finger scrolling in a non-frustrating fashion. Like all PC scrolling, it's linear -- there isn't any spiffy physics-induced acceleration of content here -- but the Synaptics pad was more than responsive otherwise. Multitouch also makes an appearance, naturally making that previous two-finger scrolling endeavor possible, as well as a few others: like pinch-to-zoom, two-finger rotations and three-finger swipes which provide a modicum of functionality depending on what app has focus. Those additional gestures weren't nearly as polished, but seeing as they're less generally useful, we didn't mind much, except for the last, which you'll have to be rather deliberate to actuate as you swap between pre-programmed sets of icons in one mode of trackpad.

But stuffing a trackpad with an LCD can only get you so far, which is where the company's Switchblade-UI comes in. After creating or logging into the company's Synapse service, the ten keys above burst into life. From the initial screen above, you can use the touchpad as you normally would, or throw it into one of ten alternative modes -- nine of which hijack all trackpad mousing functionality altogether (leaving all cursor control to a dedicated external mouse). Returning to the default mode is thankfully easy, though, as one hits the dedicated Razer button in the bottom right corner of the keyboard. We spent most of our time in the first mode, which is the one you'll want, as this is the only one in which those delectable ten keys can be configured as you please. To customize them you'll use the company's Synapse utility, which is where you can create and save multiple profiles -- a fancy name for groupings of your button-machinations. Within each profile, you can configure infinite sets of ten keys, which you'll then swipe between with that three finger swipe we mentioned earlier.

From Synapse those buttons can be assigned to mimic any key press, any mouse button, a pre-recorded macro or alternatively launch a program. Once you've assigned a function, you can optionally choose an icon (your own, or one of the company's pre-sets) and voila, you're good to go. While some of you will no doubt painstakingly go through and create multiple profiles for all your favorite games, we reveled in primarily using this functionality as our application launcher. With one-touch access to our favorite ten programs, and only a swipe away from twenty, we nary had to touch the Windows taskbar or desktop shortcuts to launch our browser, Photoshop or whatever game we pleased. It's an Optimius mini-six mini-ten on our laptop and it's the next best thing since sliced bread.

Believe it or not, that's only the trackpad's first view. Tapping the Razer key and returning to its initial screen, the next three options are widget-y type screens: a numpad, a mode to record macros and a pane to enable and tweak settings pertaining to "Gaming mode." Following that is the browser (more on that later,) which also serves as the basis for the following four: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and GMail. Apart from YouTube (which is more customized and gets a custom mapping of buttons), these all load mobile versions of those sites, which can range from workable (Twitter), frustrating (Facebook) or pretty much unusable (GMail). The final and tenth function, is a clock -- something we'd have loved to use as our trackpad's background (instead of the persistent Razer logo), but curiously this mode blocks our mousing endeavors, despite being non-customizable and unresponsive to gestures.

Circling back to the touchpad's browser, it actually runs a separate process of Internet Explorer -- the giveaway being the tell-tale clicking sound effect you'll hear when you tap links. When surfing, the bottom five keys swap to pertain to navigation, with the last two allowing you to bringing up URL and search fields which you populate with input from the keyboard. It's serviceable when you need a walkthrough, but no way to store bookmarks or change the default homepage, we found it simply quicker to pull out a smartphone, reach for a tablet, or even use the Windows key to hop out of a game and open a real desktop browser to find what we were looking for.

That's unfortunate, because while stuffing a screen underneath a trackpad sounds like a geek's dream, the software powering the trackpad is lackluster. In a day and age with mobile devices housing far richer experiences, there isn't any way you'll be using the mobile website of Facebook here, over the purpose-built app on your phone. In our time with it, the trackpad was a conversation starter, sure, but ultimately the widgets onboard need a significant investment of time and resources to make them practical enough for us to recommend them. You could argue that Razer should just run Android on the touchpad instead, and while that would assuage some of our concerns, if given the choice, we'd just dump the screen entirely and put those savings toward a cheaper starting price. Put simply, had the screen beneath the Blade gone "missing," from prototype to production, we'd have been just as pleased in our time with it -- keep the ten customizable buttons above it, though -- those can stay.

When it came to the keyboard, there was better news, as we've got unwavering praise for the tactility of the unit on the Blade. We'd have preferred if the entire deck were shifted a bit northward, allowing for a roomier palm rest, but now we're just nitpicking, as that chiclet keyboard is top-notch. As you'd expect, every key is backlit, though for whatever reason, despite the F-row being backlit, the secondary Fn-based controls that co-inhabit them, aren't. That sets you up for some inconvenience when adjusting brightness or volume in low-light, but we'll hazard that before long you'll have their respective F1-F12 mappings committed to memory. Lastly, we're told it's anti-ghosted too, which might not have made a huge difference when typing this review, but certainly caters to the kind of serious gamers for whom Razer seeks.

Display and sound

If one piece defines our time with the Blade, it's the gargantuan 17.3-inch display. Defining the unit's massive footprint, the full 1080p matte panel (1920 x 1080) is a particularly bright spot. Ripe with color and vibrant from all angles, we had no complaints about the panel's black levels, contrast or brightness. White balance skews a little blue, but nothing that couldn't be rectified with some calibration. Finally, did you hear us say it's matte? Because it is, and that's your only choice. Kudos, Razer -- death to glossy displays.

As splendid as its primary display is, our general feeling of disappointment with secondary LCD found underneath the trackpad continues. Its certainly not of the same caliber, suffering primarily from a lack of brightness and poor black levels. Weak contrast aside, the reflective screen is more squint-inducing than we'd like, rendering it especially dim in bright environments. We also noticed its tendency to diagonally shear while displaying fast-paced content -- say like when rapidly scrolling a webpage, or whilst watching video with fast-paced action. Seeing as you won't be using it much, neither are deal-breakers, but we'd hoped for more when we were told it was equivalent to a smartphone panel. In contrast, the ten programmable keys sitting directly above (all powered by a separate LCD, we'd imagine), are bright and delectably tactile as ever.

Which brings us to the Blade's acoustic performance. Unlike some of its flashier contemporaries, Razer didn't team up with a speaker manufacturer to serve up audio on the Blade. Setting aside the question of whether or not marketing infused tie-ups actually derive better sound, the unfortunate fact is the audio experience on the Blade is woefully subpar. Our unit wasn't particularly loud, but more alarming was the complete dearth of any meaningfully low bass notes. Not unlike listening to earbuds lying on your desk, the sound lacks any warmth -- which is unacceptable, given that $2,799 price tag. You can ameliorate the situation slightly by flipping the included Dolby Home Theater software on, but ultimately software enhancements can only go so far. We know, serious gamers will use plug in a proper headset, but it's definitively the weakest area of the Blade -- so bad mind you, we initially questioned if our unit was faulty.

Performance

	PCMark Vantage	3DMark06
Razer Blade (2.8GHz Core i7-2640M, GeForce GT555M, 8GB)	14,379	11,556
MSI GT683DXR (2.2GHz Core i7-2630QM, GeForce GTX 570M, 16GB)	7,210	16,862
Toshiba Qosmio X775-3DV78 (2.0GHz Core i7-2630QM, GeForce GTX 560M, 8GB)	7,900	15,169
HP Envy 15 (2.4GHz Core i5-2430M, AMD Radeon HD 7690M 1GB)	7,210	8,839
Dell XPS 15z (2.7GHz Core i7-2620M, NVIDIA GeForce GT525M)	8,023	7,317
15-inch Samsung Series 7 Chronos (2.2GHz Core i7-2675QM, Intel HD 3000 / AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1GB)	7,824	8,891
Sony VAIO SE series (2.4GHz Core i5-2430M, Intel HD Graphics 3000 / AMD Radeon HD 6630M 1GB)	5,632	6,898
2011 15-inch MacBook Pro (2.2GHz Core i7-2720QM, Radeon HD 6750M / Intel Graphics 3000)	8,041	10,262

Despite being tuned for balance, the Blade eked out a rather respective showing in our usual collection of benchmarks. Armed with a 2.8GHz Core i7-2640M CPU, it notched a speedy 14,379 in PCMark Vantage. It wasn't nearly as triumphant in the graphics department, where it was held back by that GeForce 555M card, which managed 11,556 in 3DMark06 and P1,536 in 3DMark11.

Performance isn't all about raw numbers, though, and happily the Blade doesn't disappoint in real world use. Throughout our testing, the Blade was able to handle typical computing tasks aplomb: heavy web browsing, Photoshop editing and serving as an Engadget workhorse were all dealt swiftly and without complaint. It's when you ask the Blade to serve as your gaming compatriot, however, things begin to get a little murky. While after-work Starcraft II matches cranked just shy of ultimate posed no problem (with framerates consistently in the high forties to fifties,) we can't say the same about newer titles which invoke strain, even after you reel in the visuals significantly. While playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, for example, we reeled graphical settings all the way back to medium to make the game passably playable -- we're talking frame rates in the high twenties at full resolution [Update: Fresh drivers from NVIDIA drastically improved performance for Skyrim, enabling the game to run on the GPU instead of integrated graphics card. With graphics cranked to high we saw frames hover around high twenties, and in medium a very playable low forties]. With something like Battlefield 3 on the other hand, we had more luck, eking out more respectable mid-30FPS from medium settings, again at full resolution.

When it came to heat dissipation, we had no complaints in our time spent with the Blade. As you'd expect, things get a little toasty while running full tilt, but even then it won't lacerate, and for general purposes it kept decently cool. Fans weren't loud obnoxiously loud either, however, in time you'll notice the fairly aggressive leftward unit which has a tendency to flare up any time you encounter peaky CPU work. We weren't particularly dismayed by the behavior, but it's definitively noticeable, perhaps more so here, as the Blade's SSD makes it silent otherwise.

Finally, thanks to its aforementioned reliance on flash storage, loading times, installs and boots were speedy, with the latter clocking in at 17-18 seconds from a cold start to the Windows login screen. Running the disk benchmark ATTO informed us that peak reads happened at 467MB/sec and writes at 362MB/sec. Finally, we'd like to applaud Razer for making the right choice in delaying shipment to opt for that SSD -- in 2012 as far as we're concerned, it's a must-have in a machine in this price range.

Battery life

Laptop	Battery Life
Razer Blade	2:57
MSI GT683DXR	2:40
Toshiba Qosmio X775-3DV78	1:26
2010 HP Envy 17	2:10
HP Envy 15	4:07
Dell XPS 15z	3:41 (Optimus disabled) / 4:26 (Optimus enabled)
15-inch Samsung Series 7 Chronos	5:47
2011, 15-inch MacBook Pro	7:27

So we've determined it isn't quite the graphical sprinter, but can the Blade still come out ahead in the marathon that's battery longevity? In a word no. As shown above, running Engadget's video-rundown test at roughly half brightness reveals things are a little more complicated than you might have initially thought. Yes, the Blade's less power hungry graphics are primarily responsible for it running circles around its more pudgy, brute-ish rivals. Still, that's not saying much, as being just shy of three hours, it falls considerably short when compared to more mainstream notebooks. Still, that bests MSI's 15-inch GT583DXR by a full 20 minutes despite wielding a larger screen (but with a lesser card) and demolishes the more comparable 17-inch Qosmio X775's by a whopping hour and a half -- all, in a thin profile.

Alas, if you were planning on a sojourn sans charger, you'll be out of luck. Even with casual use and exercising brightness restraint, we were only able to coax just shy of three and a half hours of work out of its 60Wh battery -- dwindling down to around three with full brightness. For those daring to game on the go, unlike other laptops which'll significantly pare down their performance, the Blade will cheerfully run at full throttle for about an hour before simmering down. Ultimately neither are legendary, we know, but compared to other laptops, definitely workable.

Software

Seeing as its exterior is devoid of all stickers -- save for one -- why would Razer go and mess with its innards? Thankfully it hasn't, leaving the Blade free of additional software or crapware, with an almost clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium. And we mean "almost," as you'll still get Dolby Home Theater software and a copy of Razer's Synapse app -- the later of which you'll want to configure that those LCD buttons.

Razer Synapse hands-on

The competition

The market for laptops that cost nearly three large is by no means sprawling, but indulge us for just a moment while we compare the Blade to other systems that compete in this arena. We'll begin with the granddaddy of them all, the Alienware M17x. Though configurations of that beastly guy start at $1,499, it can be stuffed with all sorts of doodads, pushing it beyond the Blade's $2,799 price. To match the Blade's price tag, we began with the $1,899 machine and kitted it with a 2.5GHz Core i7-2860QM, 256GB of solid state storage and opted for the 1080p panel upgrade. Standard on that model is 8GB of RAM (identical to the Blade) as well as the much more potent GeForce GTX 580M. The combination of a quad-core chip and graphics would make mincemeat out of the Blade, but at twice the thickness and double the poundage, we'll leave it up to you if that's worth the trade-off. Still, it merits noting that even the base $1,499 model with its quad-core i7 and Radeon HD 6870M would most certainly give the Blade a run for its money.

Then there's something like the MSI GT780DXR. Like the m17x, it's not as pleasing on the eyes, but at $1,799 it's hard to dismiss its bang-for-your-buck specs, which include: a Core i7-2630QM, 16GB of RAM, dual 750GB drives and the beefy onboard NVIDIA GTX 570M. When we reviewed it's smaller 15-inch brother, we took issue with some of its cheap materials -- like an abysmal keyboard and bargain-basement glossy plastics -- but one can't deny the results of its internals. Ultimately, the same caveat applies here though, you'll have to decide how much you value portability while hulking two-inch thick machine such as this.

We have yet to review it, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention Samsung's Series 7 Gamer. Like some of its contemporaries, it, too, has a quad-core Core i7, 1080p 17-inch display, yet we're unsure on how punchy it'll be with its ho-hum Radeon HD 6970M. You're probably looking at better build quality than say MSI's offering, and we think rather striking in the optional red or marigold yellow hues. We'll find out how good it is when it ships in April, but for $1,799 there's another gaming option at under two grand to put on your radar.

Finally, this is a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison -- insofar that Apple doesn't make a "gaming" focused laptop -- but it's worth mentioning the 17-inch MacBook Pro, as it, too, is known for offering a slim profile, given its otherwise sprawling dimensions. Starting at $2,499, you've got to tack on additional $200 for 4GB of RAM, $500 for a 256GB SSD and $50 for the anti-glare display to rival the Blade in the spec department. For those keeping track at home, that's $3,249 -- a configuration with a faster quad-core i7 paired with a slower Radeon 6770M GPU. That's a hefty chunk of change for a machine thats roughly as thin as the Blade (albeit at 0.9 inches, somewhat thicker), yet also one that's devoid of a hinge and speaker problems that blemish Razer's offering.

So where does Razer's first foray into the PC realm leave us? On the one hand, this is one beautiful, well-made, powerful, impossibly thin laptop. On the other, you'll need a stack of cash to the tune of $2,799. No matter how you slice it, that's a lot of dough to shell on a computer from a company that's just getting its feet wet in the category. Frankly, you wouldn't be crazy to sit this one out, with flaws like abysmal audio, a disobedient hinge and the indisputable fact that most of the latest gaming titles give this guy a run for its money. Additionally, there's that LCD-trackpad, which despite oozing cool, is destined to be more of a gimmick than must-have, at least until Razer invests in some better widgets.

Ultimately, though, the Blade was never about specs, and despite its maker's penchant for calling it a "gaming" machine, it's really just a striking, fast and beautiful laptop. Despite its flaws, the Blade is greater than the sum of its parts. We're cognizant $2,799 is a tough pill to swallow, though, and despite our rational selves saying "no" we've nonetheless grown quite attached after spending a week with it. For those of you with that kind of dispensable cash, go for it -- who knows, you've probably also got enough laying around to build a serious dedicated gaming rig. Personally, we're waiting for Razer to ditch the LCD-touchpad (but keep the customizable keys) and offer a similarly specced 15-incher for around two grand. Razer will really have a winner then, and yes, we'll take two.

amoled oled display

More tablets, PCs, and TVs to adopt AMOLED displays

 

AMOLED (active matrix organic light emitting diode) displays are ideal for tablets and TVs as they offer high contrast ratios, quick response times, and wide viewing angles. The technology also allows for such devices to be thin, flexible, and even transparent, the research firm notes.
On the other hand, AMOLED technology has faced challenges scaling up to screen sizes much larger than those on smartphones. But the latest improvements in the technology are expected to pave the way for its use on bigger devices, though production can still carry a high price tag.
"OLED displays operate through direct emission, as opposed to transmissive LCD or reflective displays, which enables area lighting," Jennifer Colegrove, vice president of emerging display technologies for NPD DisplaySearch, said in a statement. "The technology has made good progress and is ready to enter large-size applications, but low cost manufacturing for large sizes is still a challenge."

 

In December Samsung released a 7.7-inch Galaxy Tab tablet that uses a Super AMOLED Plus display. LG is expected to launch a 55-inch OLED TV sometime this year.
And NPD DisplaySearch sees other tablet and laptop vendors adopting the technology in 2012 as the manufacturing process starts to allow for larger displays in a more cost-effective way.
Revenue from OLED displays overall might have surpassed $4 billion last year, estimates NPD DisplaySearch, around 4 percent of all flat-panel display sales. As more companies latch onto the technology, revenue could shine past $20 billion by 2018, accounting for 16 percent of the entire display industry.

  

Roku's Streaming Stick

Roku's Streaming Stick shrinks the Roku box into a dongle

 

Roku's Streaming Stick packs all the functionality of a Roku box into USB drive-like stick.

(Credit: Roku)

Roku announced the Streaming Stick this morning, which essentially squeezes all the functionality of a typical Roku box (including Wi-Fi, processor, and memory) into a a device that looks like a USB flash drive. It doesn't require an additional power cable or a separate remote, instead allowing you to use your TV's standard remote to navigate Roku's software. Roku's platform currently supports over 400 channels, including Netflix, Amazon Instant, Pandora, MLB.TV, HBO Go, MOG, and Rdio.

 

Roku sees the Streaming Stick as an alternative to individual manufacturer's Smart TV portals, which quickly become out of date and rarely receive updates a year after they're released. Not only is it more likely the Streaming Stick will be updated more frequently, but it's also a lot more affordable to swap in a new, improved Streaming Stick if the current hardware becomes outdated.

The Roku Streaming Stick connects to the back of your HDTV, but it requires an MHL port.

(Credit: Roku)

The big catch of the Streaming Stick is that it requires an MHL port, which is a relatively new connection type supported by only a few HDTVs. That could quickly change over the next week, however, as manufacturers roll out their new lines of HDTVs atCES 2012. There are also MHL-to-HDMI adapters available, although they require power, which considerably cuts down on the Streaming Stick's simplicity. (At that point, you may want to consider an actual box.)

The Roku Streaming Stick won't available until the fall and there's no pricing yet, although Roku told us it will be between $50 and $100. Best Buy's house brand Insignia will be one of the initial partners, although the Streaming Stick will work with any HDTV with an MHL port.

ipad 3

Rumored three iPad model lineup could cut entry price to $299

Apple's iPad 2 lineup. 

The rumored expansion of iPad models this year may reduce the price of entry for owning an Apple tablet, if a new report is to be believed.
Despite having its report on Apple planning to triple its iPad lineup this year firmly rebuffed by many onlookers, Taiwan-based tech site DigiTimes today reiterated that assessment, also claiming that the change could bring big price cuts at the low end.
In a research report issued earlier today, the site once again asserted that Apple plans to expand its lineup of iPads by adding models that serve the "high-end segment" and "the midrange," while continuing to offer the iPad 2.
"With the existing iPad 2, the Apple tablet series may cover all price segments--from entry-level to high-end. Apple's pricing strategy for its iPad series is crucial to the tablet market. It remains to be seen at what price level Apple will set its entry-level iPad. For Wi-Fi-only models, U.S. $299, U.S. $349 or U.S. $399 may all be possible," the outlet said.
A $299 iPad has been available before, but there were caveats galore. It was Apple's first-generation device, and it only sold at fire sale prices through third-party carrier stores following the introduction of Apple's second-generation model.
Since then, competitors have emerged, including Amazon.com and its Kindle Fire, which made waves near the end of last year, selling for $199. While not sporting as big of a display, and missing a handful of hardware features found on the iPad, it sells for less than half the price of Apple's current entry-level iPad, with reports pegging sales at 1 million units a week during December.
Apple has maintained the same pricing structure since the introduction of the iPad in 2010, offering Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models of the tablet at different pricing tiers for its 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models. The entry-level 16GB model with Wi-Fi starts at $499, with each additional tier of storage, plus optional 3G networking, tacking on costs scaling up to $829.
One important consideration is the cost of producing the iPad. A teardown of the iPad 2 by IHS-owned iSupply last year estimated the total cost of Apple's two 32GB models to start at $326.60, with manufacturing costs pushing that total north of $333. iSuppli lists the LCD screen as the most expensive part of the tablet, at $127. Costs could have certainly come down between then and now, but Apple is expected to be utilizing panels with considerably higher pixel density in the next iPad, something that does not come cheap.
Apple has been known to make considerable price cuts on its products, though such moves have been few and far between. The shortlist includes the $200 price cut on the original iPhone, a move that came a little more than two months after its introduction and infuriated early buyers, leading to Apple offering iTunes gift cards as an apology. There was also the $500 price cut on the solid-state version of its first-generation MacBook Air.
The suggested iPad price cut comes alongside price reductions on two high-profile tablets in recent days, with Sony knocking $100 off the price of its S series tablet over the weekend, and Research In Motion dropping the price of its entire line of PlayBook tablets to $299, down from its $499 starting point.
moreover apple iphone 7 is releasing very soon on its release date ,to know more about it check out apple iphone updates because iphone 7 features and iphone 7 specs are going to be awesome .

HTC Cemile

HTC Cemile 1080p Display Phone Runs Android 4.0 With HTC Sense 4.0
hi friends i am back with this new concept phone from htc called HTC Cemile .
This name was chosen as a tribute to the girl the designer loves. HTC Cemile uses a full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel display with a 4.8 inch diagonal, thus becoming the largest Android smartphone out there, unless you count the Galaxy Note as a handset.

This concept HTC also comes with a 16 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, a front 2 megapixel camera, NFC support, Bluetooth 4.0 and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense UI 4.0. The phone relies on a 2500mAh Li-Akku battery for juicing up the machine and the specs list also includes HSPA+ connectivity, LTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and 60GHz support (a new wireless technology). HTC Cemile adopts a metallic case as chassis and it provides 32GB of flash memory for storage purposes.
It also has changeable virtual buttons, that are easy to tweak, courtesy of a special feature from HTC. The handset also gets Wide IO Mobile RAM, a next generation 30nm type of RAM memory, with 50% less power usage compared to the equivalent DDR2 sticks. Also you must know that Cemile is supposed to ship with Beats Audio with Solo earphones. I imagine that the design of this device is pretty thin, looking at this pictures, something like 8mm or so. Fancy this smartphone?

Samsung Galaxy S3 specs reveiled

According to the latest reports, the Galaxy S III is slated to be unveiled during the Mobile World Congress starting in February 2012. Another interesting thing is that the smartphone will be coming with 3D technology.
We are not talking about the mere 3D display that’s abundant in today’s devices. Samsung, the electronics giant is reported to be trying to incorporate the 3D technology as a whole in the Galaxy S III, rather than just the display.

In short, the latest Samsung handset will be coming with a 3D camera that has the ability to capture 3D photos and videos. Along with this, the smartphone can be integrated with 3D TVs, which are popular now.
So far it is rumored that the Galaxy S III will be sporting a 4.6-inch Super AMOLED HD display with 1280 x 720 resolutions. A 1.8GHz dual-core processor is supposed to power the device from the inside, although recent reports suggest that a 2GHz quad-core Exynos 4412 processor will be powering the smartphone.
The handset should obviously be running on Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS. Some of the other features include 2GB RAM, 32GB built-in storage, 12-megapixel camera and LTE connectivity.
It’s still not clear whether the 3D technology will be seen in all the Galaxy S III smartphones or just this one variant of the smartphone. Some say that the rumored handset is the Galaxy S 3D which will arrive in the second half of 2012.

Huawei launches new modem 8586 Mi-Fi

The Huawei May not be well known for its smartphones, but it is one of the best known manufacturers in Brazil, when it comes to modem 3G. The company was one of those responsible to bring the technology to Brazil, along with Nokia, and Sony. Their modems have always been successful in all mobile operators in the country.

Now the company announces a new, its new HSDPA modem + Mi-Fi that works for up to 3 devices at the same time, with good connection – do not know if it would very well in Brazil with this internet of sorts, but in other countries as England, the result can be more satisfying. The Mi-Fi Modem 8586 is capable of increasing the initial speed of the Internet for up to 40%, with a capacity of 21.1 Mbps.

It comes with an OLED screen that shows the amount of data used in addition to showing the current speed of your Internet connection, which can be activated by a specific button. Unlike modems with USB, it comes with a charger, making it even more portable than its predecessors. It is not known whether he will be released in Brazil, and even if I doubt that your connection makes it so special. Sorry for the sincerity, but unfortunately such power means nothing without the infrastructure.