Touchpad Reviews

Mobile Phones & Touchpads guide

Is the iPad 2 Really Worth Grabbing?

March 10th, 2012

If this is the first time you’ve been hearing about Apple within your own personal space, it’s time to take away your nerd card. Big time. However, we’re just pulling your leg — we know that you know Apple, and Apple certainly wants to get to know you. They want to make sure that you know about the iPad, and not that pesky Kindle Fire or any of the other tablet type devices that are hitting the Internet. Apple is all about the cool factor, and the cult of all things Apple is still going strong.

Don’t get us wrong — we’re pretty Team Apple around here, but we still think that you might need to take all of the Apple love with a grain of salt. Like most technologies, there are some flaws and there are some strengths. It’s going to be up to the user to figure out what they want to get out of the platform, and how they think that the device in question is going to benefit them.

So is the iPad 2 worth getting? Well, the price point of $499 and up might get you down, but the Apple machine has really cranked out a great device. No, really — there’s a lot to love in the iPad 2.

You can buy it in two flavors — Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi + 3G. We like this because the 3G part only covers Verizon and ATT, and it’s probably likely that you want to make sure that you can go with the iPad even if you don’t have either one of these carriers.

Bluetooth technology is standard no matter which model you pick up, and there’s lasso plenty of storage to be found here — all the way up to 64GB. It’s highly unlikely that you will need that much space, but a lot of people like to be prepared just in case. It all depends on how often you update your technology as well. By the time you even begin to fill up 64GB, you will probably be ready for another tablet.

The screen has standard multi-touch technology, so if you’re used to your experience on the iPhone this will translate over well. it’s better to make sure that you’re going to be able to manipulate the screen as you see fit rather than struggle to get this done. It can feel weird to actually touch the screen so much if you’re used to a physical keyboard, but Apple has made sure that the virtual keyboard experience really isn’t so bad.

We think that the iPad 2 is worth getting if you really want something portable. Watching multimedia is a treat on a device like this, and there isn’t a lot of clutter. You load up what you want and go — which makes for a much faster experience than what you would normally find with say, your laptop.

Still, this tablet isn’t going to do everything, and if you needed to do some intense work for a long period of time, you would want to make sure that you can absolutely handle that type of thing as well — along with using the right tool in the first place. This is not really a laptop killer, more like a laptop replacement. Keep these points in mind, and there’s no doubt in our minds that you could really get a lot of good use out of the iPad 2!

Toshiba Excite X10 – the thinnest tablet in the world has some respectable hardware under the hood

February 10th, 2012

Toshiba has already attempted to enter the tablet market last year, with the Thrive being pretty much a complete failure. The fault didn’t lie in poor hardware, though – on the contrary, the Thrive had a lot of features that other tablets don’t, including a full size USB and HDMI ports and a SD card reader. The reason why it failed was poor marketing (people didn’t even know that it hit the stores!) and, to a lesser degree, the bland design of the device. But this year, Toshiba is back in action, with a completely new tablet that is sure to rock everyone’s socks off – the Excite X10.

Exterior design

Unlike its predecessor, the new Excite X10 is all about design. It is the thinnest and lightest tablet on the market, being only 0.3 inches thick and weighing only 1.18 pounds, and it’s not made out of cheap plastic either. Instead, you have a full metal and glass design, with the front being covered by a big sheet of Gorilla glass and the back cover (which is non-removable) having a very nice brushed finish and a big Toshiba logo in chrome letters. The sides of the tablet also have a groove that makes it look unique and pretty cool.

Hardware features and performance

Despite the ultra slim and trendy design, the Excite X10 hasn’t lost any of the important hardware features – it has everything you’d ever need on a tablet and more. The 10.1 inch display is the first thing that amazes you when you turn the device on: the IPS LCD unit is simply great, with a sharp picture thanks to the 1280×800 pixels resolution, near perfect viewing angles and of course, excellent colors, contrast and brightness.

The other hardware specs are everything you would expect from a modern, high end tablet: there’s the standard Wifi N, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS radio combo, a set of sensors for normal operation, as well as a micro SD card slot, 3.5 mm audio jack, micro USB and micro HDMI ports – there’s nothing the Excite X10 can’t accomplish. There are also 16 or 32 GB of storage space inbuilt, and with a micro SD card, you can extend that by up to 32 GB more.

There are two cameras on the X10: a 5 megapixels unit on the back with an LED flash for photos and HD videos (1080p video recording is supported), and a 2 megapixels unit on the front for video calls and occasional self-snapshots. The quality of both cameras is great and either one can be used for photos to be posted on Facebook or sent via IM, for example.

Software

Toshiba will be shipping the Excite X10 with Android 3.2 Honeycomb out of the factory, but there’s an OTA update to Ice Cream Sandwich coming up, so there will be no issues with outdated software on this tablet. The user interface has a few customizations made by Toshiba, but it’s nothing extensive and you can enjoy a mostly vanilla Android experience (which is great compared to iOS, for example –there’s so much you can customize and do) out of the box.

Price and Availability

The Excite X10 will cost $529 and $599 for the 16 and 32 GB versions, and while it’s a bit on the high side (especially with sub-$500 quad core coming up), the high quality of the tablet and the hardware features can definitely be worth it. Toshiba hasn’t yet announced a release date, but the tablet should become available in stores by the beginning of spring, so it won’t be long before we can buy or at least pre-order it. I just hope that Toshiba hires a better marketing and PR firm for this device, so that it doesn’t repeat the Thrive’s mistake.

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga – the first Ultrabook-tablet hybrid has an impressive array of features

February 8th, 2012

Lenovo has released quite a few devices at CES 2012 this year, but among the half a dozen laptops and a couple of tablets, the IdeaPad Yoga definitely stood out the most. It is basically a Ultrabook/tablet hybrid, but unlike convertibles like the Dell Latitude XT3, the Yoga has a different mechanism by which it transforms into a tablet, which is unique and, in many ways, better than a single rotating hinge.

The tablet heavily depends on Windows 8, which is coming out as a Beta at the end of February, and should be released as a final version by the end of summer, which is when the Yoga will be released, as well. Until then, you have plenty of time to decide if it’s worth it, and this short review can help you with that.

Exterior design

When closed, the IdeaPad Yoga looks just like any other Ultrabook – it’s slim, light and has a pretty nice exterior design, which reminds a lot of its bigger brother, the IdeaPad U300s. It has an all metal build, with a big sheet of glass covering the display and offering a decent amount of scratch protection, and you won’t find any flexing or creaks anywhere. The lid has a matter aluminum finish, as does the underside, while the palm rest and the frame around the keyboard is covered with leather, which prevents scratches and makes it easier to hold the laptop when in tablet mode.

The tablet mode transformation is simple – just open the lid and continue pushing it backwards, up to 180 degrees – it’s pretty wicked when you see it the first time, but you get used to it. Obviously, the laptop is thicker and heavier than your usual tablet (at 17mm and 1.5 kg), but you get a big 13 inch IPS display with a 1600×900 pixels resolution in exchange, plus of course some very powerful hardware inside. The keyboard is exposed on the back, but it won’t be damaged by everyday use, since it’s sunk into the housing.

Thanks to the 180 degrees opening angle, you can use the tablet mode on a desk without an additional stand, or watch movies, surf the web, read documents or play games with the display closer to you, which is more comfortable on a bed, for example.

Performance and hardware features

The performance of the IdeaPad Yoga will be quite respectable, thanks to the Core i7 Ivy Bridge processor with the next generation Intel graphics adapter (which is two to three times as fast as its Sandy Bridge counterpart), 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD in the top configuration. The battery life won’t suffer either, both because Ivy Bridge is very energy efficient and because Lenovo is using a pretty massive 54 W/Hr battery in the Ultrabook, which will last around 8 hours of continuous use.

The other hardware specs are nothing special – as is the case with most of the other Ultrabooks and tablets, the Yoga has a Wifi N and Bluetooth adapters inside, as well as a slew of ports on the outside: two USB ports, a HDMI out port, a Thunderbolt port, a 3.5 mm audio jack and a SD card slot.

Software

The IdeaPad Yoga relies heavily on Microsoft’s new Windows 8 OS, which is still in the early release stages, although it will definitely hit the market in time, by the looks of it. The new Metro UI makes it easy to use the tablet mode, and you still have the full power of a desktop Windows in laptop mode – you can use it to work with Photoshop, Microsoft Office, the powerful desktop version of Mozilla Firefox and other great software that you won’t find on any ARM tablet yet.

Price and Availability

As I already mentioned, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga will be available by the end of the upcoming summer, so there’s still a pretty long way to go. The price is expected to be $999 for the base model (with Core i5, 128 GB SSD and 4 GB of RAM) and $1299 for the top model, but I believe that it will decrease by the time the device is released since there will be more competition, for sure. The Yoga is a perfect universal computer for those who need performance, portability and flexibility in one package.

Lenovo IdeaPad S2 – IPS display, keyboard dock and Qualcomm’s new 4th generation Snapdragon

February 6th, 2012

Among Lenovo’s many devices set for release in the first half of 2012, one of the most attractive is the IdeaPad S2 – a consumer-level high end tablet that is set to take on the Asus Transformer Prime 700 and has everything it needs to actually succeed, including powerful internal hardware and a keyboard dock that is remarkably similar to the Transformer’s accessory.

Exterior design

The IdeaPad S2 is not that unique when it comes to the exterior design – it looks and feels like your usual 10 inch tablet, with the big screen on the front and pretty much nothing on the back. The display is covered with a big sheet of Gorilla glass, and the back has a nice metallic texture finish that feels and looks great. By itself, the S2 is very slim and light – more so than the Transformer Prime 700 series, actually, and even with the special keyboard dock, which includes a battery and several ports, it weighs only 1.1 kg – an impressive achievement for what is practically a sophisticated netbook.

Performance and hardware features

The performance of the Lenovo IdeaPad S2 will surprise you. In the specs sheet you’ll see that it runs on a dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, with the processor running at 1.5 GHz per core – big deal, no way it can compare with the Tegra 3, right? Well, that’s where everyone is wrong. The Snapdragon under the hood of the S2 is actually Qualcomm’s next generation MSM8960 Krait, an SoC capable of competing on equal terms with the quad core Tegra 3, even though it’s dual core.

It matches the Tegra 3 in benchmarks, and it’s actually faster in real life use because Android is still pretty bad at managing 4 cores, so two higher clocked cores perform better in most apps. The Adreno 225 graphics adapter is also new, competing on equal grounds with NVidia’s GeForce, and the 1 GB of DDR2 RAM in dual channel mode keeps things smooth even if you’re running a dozen different apps in the background.

The other hardware is equally as impressive – aside from the usual Wifi N, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS radios, the IdeaPad S2 has a USB port, HDMI out port, 3.5 mm audio jack, a 2 megapixels camera on the front and an 8 megapixels camera on the back with 1080p video recording support, 4G speeds of up to 42 Mbps download and a slew of sensors needed for everyday operation. The 10.1 inch display may not be Full HD like on the Transformer Prime, but its IPS technology make the 1280×800 pixels more than enough for any kind of applications.

The keyboard dock is very similar to that of the Transformer Prime, and it also comes as an optional accessory. It’s got an integrated battery that increases the lifetime of the tablet from 10 to 20 hours of continuous use, a great island style keyboard and several ports, including two full sized USB ports and an SD card reader (which can be used for extra storage space).

Software

Obviously, the new IdeaPad S2 will be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the factory, and Lenovo has also installed their custom skin on top of it – an iffy decision, I’d say, but as long as it doesn’t interfere with the normal operation of the tablet and it doesn’t lag, I’d say there’s no need to worry about it. Plus, the tile based home screen looks pretty sleek.

Price and Availability

The Lenovo IdeaPad S2 will be released in the second quarter of 2012, by the end of spring, probably, and the cost will be comparable to that of other high end tablets on the market, i.e. around $500-600. Not a bad price, although if you want the keyboard dock, you’ll have to pay extra. I hope that Lenovo releases the tablet before the iPad 3 to give it a fighting chance, but even with Apple’s next revolutionary tablet on sale, I think the S2 will do just fine.

IdeaPad K2 – quad core processor, Full HD display and four speakers in Lenovo’s new flagship tablet

February 3rd, 2012

This year at CES, Lenovo seemed to be focused more on laptops than other products, but alongside the dozen or so different ThinkPads and IdeaPads, they did somehow manage to announce and demonstrate not only several tablets, but also a couple of smartphones (one of which was the K800 – a Medfield prototype).

One of the more interesting tablets was the IdeaPad K2, which was running Android and had a pretty impressive feature set that could easily be compared to that of the current flagships Asus Transformer Prime, Acer Iconia Tab A500 and of course, the iPad 2. In fact, the IdeaPad K2 is better than its competition in a few ways, and if it makes it to the market before the iPad 3, it sure would deserve a potential buyer’s attention.

Exterior design

The IdeaPad K2 looks pretty good on the outside – it certainly is more unique than the other tablets on the market. The front has the beautiful 10.1 inch IPS display with a 1920×1200 Full HD resolution, as well as two conspicuous grills, which of course hide the four audio speakers. That’s right, there are four of them on the K2, and all of them are aimed towards the user for the best audio quality on a tablet – there’s even Dolby Surround support, and unlike all the other tablets, it’s actually pretty good at creating a good 3D audio image.

The back of the device has a brushed metal finish and a distinct look, with the fingerprint reader being visible on the left side. It’s actually pretty useful, seeing as Android Ice Cream Sandwich has full on-device encryption, and it should be a great way of keeping your data safe and still being able to quickly access your device with one swipe instead of typing a password. The overall build quality of the IdeaPad K2 is simply great – it is made mostly out of metal, after all.

Performance and hardware features

The performance of Lenovo’s new flagship Android tablet is at the highest level, thanks to the latest Tegra 3 platform, which features a quad core 1.3 GHz processor, and a new GeForce GPU with 12 cores, both of which are two to three times as fast as the components of the previous Tegra 2. That’s pretty impressive considering the whole SoC consumes the same amount of power. There’s also a full 1024 MB of RAM to keep things smooth when running multiple apps at the same time or loading a particularly intensive game or application.

The other hardware features are everything you would expect from a modern high end tablet. You’ve got the usual Wifi N, Bluetooth and GPS radios, as well as a 3.5 mm audio jack, HDMI and USB out ports, a micro SD card slot for storage space (in addition to the onboard memory), and two cameras – a 2 megapixels unit on the front for video calls and occasional quick snapshots, and a bigger 5 megapixels unit on the back with LED flash and support for 1080p video recording.

Software

The IdeaPad K2 will be running the all new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, and that’s great since the new OS brings a lot of improvements over previous versions, all of which are important. Aside from the full encryption support, Ice Cream Sandwich also has a new interface, universal APIs, a lot of fixes and improvements, new Google Apps and a slew of useful features like Face Unlock and Android Beam. It’s definitely much better than Honeycomb, and it will be the mainstay Android OS for at least a year or so.

Price and Availability

The Lenovo IdeaPad K2 is expected to be available by the end of spring this year, and the price is confirmed to be around $1000, making it one of the most expensive Android tablets to hit the market. The reason for the high price is that the IdeaPad is aimed at the business and corporate markets, bringing a few unique features to keep data secure, plus the build quality is simple awesome – this thing can take a beating! Hopefully the price will come down though, making the K2 a good choice for consumers, as well.

HP touchpad 32gb Reviews

January 1st, 2012

HP has issued a touchpad wi-fi series with great ability and affordable prices. You can store more files on the go with this tablet that is designed to work like you want it to do.

This tablet is great for organizing your activities into card stack, you can connect, surf the web and share your files more easily. It comes with a great 9.7-inch diagonal LED backlit multitouch display.

With the support of flash you will have full experience surfing every site on this great tablet. With the front-facing camera and microphone, live video calling will give you a great experience.

What we found most positive with this tablet is the easy way of multitasking where everything is kept in synch. It is easy to connect your email, calander and your Facebook.

The most negative about this tablet is the HP app market. There is not much there yet but hopefully it will come in the coming months.