Week in Reviews: Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Amazon Kindle Fire HDX, Galaxy Gear and more

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Week in Reviews: iOS 7, Motorola Droid Maxx, Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus and more

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Week in Reviews: HTC One Mini, Samsung Galaxy Mega, MSI GS70 and more

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Week in Reviews: ASUS Zenbook UX51V, Kyocera Hydro Edge, ASUS N550JV and more

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This Week in Reviews: Nokia Lumia 928, Lenovo ThinkPad T431s and More

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This Week in Reviews: Samsung Galaxy S4, BlackBerry Q10 and More

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This Week in Reviews [April 1-5]

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This Week in Reviews [March 25-29]

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This Week in Reviews [March 11 - 15]

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This Week in Reviews [March 4 - 8]

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This Week in Reviews [January 19-25]

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Ultimate guide to SSDs (plus reviews of 7 new drives!)

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Julliard, and now he power mods his car for kicks.
More by Jon L. Jacobi

Installing an SSD in your PC, be it a laptop or a desktop, is one of the easiest and most effective ways to boost the machine’s overall performance. The change won't be merely noticeable—it will startle you. Your system will boot more quickly, windows and menus will jump open, and programs and data will load much, much faster.

In case you don’t know what an SSD is, the acronym stands for solid-state drive—that is, solid-state as in no moving parts, and drive as in the fact that an SSD appears as a hard drive to your computer. But instead of storing data on one or more spinning platters, an SSD writes and reads data to and from nonvolatile flash memory. In addition, an SSD contains a controller that's analogous to the memory controller in your PC’s CPU or core-logic chipset.

Many vendors sell SSDs, but the devices are far from equal. Flash memory and controller technology have both advanced so quickly that what was fast last year is now second-class. The drives you might find in the bargain bin will be faster than a consumer-grade mechanical hard drive, but they won't deliver the astounding performance boost you'll be looking for after you read this article.

To get the skinny on state-of-the-art consumer SSDs, we brought seven drives from five vendors into the PCWorld Labs and put them through the wringer. We tested Corsair’s Neutron and Neutron GTX drives; Kingston's HyperX 3K; OCZ's Vertex 4 and Vector drives; Samsung’s 840 Pro; and the SanDisk Extreme. We also retested Intel’s 240GB Series 335 SSD using our new benchmarking procedure (if you're curious, read our original review). Each drive delivers either 240GB or 256GB of storage, which is the current sweet spot in terms of price and performance. Each drive we tested proved to be a solid performer that will offer a significant boost over whatever conventional drive your machine has now. Some drives, however, are definitely faster than others.

If you’d like to upgrade a computer equipped with an older second-generation SATA interface (which maxes out at 3 gigbits per second), note that we also checked out the Apricorn Velocity Solo x2, an add-in card that upgrades any computer with an available PCIe 2.0 x2 slot to the newer SATA 6-gbps standard.

But before we dive into those reviews, here’s a primer on SSDs that will tell you everything you need to know about this technology.

The memory/interface controller proved to be a major factor in determining each SSD's performance. Three of the drives we tested use a SandForce SF-2281 controller: the Kingston HyperX 3K, the SanDisk Extreme, and the Intel Series 335 (the controller firmware on this drive is tweaked to Intel’s specifications). OCZ’s Vector and Vertex 4 drives both use OCZ's proprietary IndiLinx controllers, namely the Everest 2 in the Vertex 4 and the Barefoot 3 in the Vector. Corsair is blazing a path with its Neutron series drives (the GTX and Neutron) by using Link A Media's LM87800 controller. Samsung's 840 Pro utilizes the company's proprietary MDX controller.

As you'll see in our performance chart, drives with the IndiLinx, Link A Media, and Samsung MDX controllers boasted significantly faster write speeds than the SandForce-based competition. In fact, counterintuitively, each of the five drives using those controllers wrote faster than they read. The SandForce-based drives were all good readers, but their comparatively slower write speeds dragged down their overall scores.

On the next page (scroll down past product-reviews for the link), I'll discuss memory types, interfaces, and how we measured performance.

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

This Week in Reviews [November 12-16]

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This Week in Reviews [September 3-7]

Welcome to the weekend! Time to kick back, relax, and enjoy This Week in Reviews. We got our hands on two 4G LTE hotspots (from Verizon and Sprint), a waterproof smartphone from Kyocera, a new e-reader from Sony, a hybrid tablet/PC from Lenovo and an affordable 13-inch ultraportable from Dell. Read what we though of each below.

The Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot 890L seeks to repeat the success of the carrier's sickeningly fast $49.99 Jetpack MiFi 4620L. And with the ability to support up to 10 devices, global connectivity and a lower price of just $19.99, it would seem that the Jetpack 890L would be a steal. So is the 890L the best hotspot on Big Red's network? Read on.

Read Our Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot 890L Review

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This Week in Reviews [July 9-13]

Are you ready for some laptops? This week we reviewed six notebooks, including the Sony VAIO E Series 11, ASUS Zenbook Prime UX32VD, Eurocom Racer 2.0 and HP Envy Sleekbook 6z. We also looked at the world’s only 41-MP smartphone camera, the Nokia 808 PureView, Verizon’s version of the Samsung Galaxy S III, and the orb-like Google Nexus Q. See what we thought of each below!

Is a picture worth a thousand words? How about $700? That's the going price of the unlocked version of the Nokia 808 PureView, a phone with a 41-megapixel camera, the highest yet on such a device. The technology behind this camera enables some the best photos we've seen from a phone. Actually, this device is a camera first and a smartphone second, which is why you should wait for Nokia's PureView magic to hit the Lumia line.

Read Our Nokia 808 PureView Review

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This Week in Reviews [June 11-June 15]

It’s the weekend – time to kick back and enjoy this Week in Reviews! This week, we got our hands on the new 15-inch MacBook Pro (with Retina Display!), the new 13-inch MacBook Air, the Toshiba Excite 7.7 tablet, and a few other goodies. Check out what we thought of each!

Just when the laptop competition thinks it's closing in on Apple, the company launches a new product that raises the bar for the entire industry. For the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, it's the screen -- all 2880 x 1800 pixels of it -- that will leave others scrambling to play catch-up. Of course, to push that many pixels you need serious horsepower. And the next-gen MacBook Pro (starting at $2,199) delivers just that with a quad-core Core i7 processor, Nvidia Kepler graphics and super-fast flash memory. Did we mention the MacBook Pro is only 4.5 pounds and is nearly as thin as the Air? Yeah, it's almost not fair.

Read Our Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display Review

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This Week in Reviews [April 16-20]

It’s that time again — time for This Week in Reviews. This week we looked at the Swann HD PenCam, a video camera built in to a pen (just like in the spy movies); Sprint’s brand-new 4G smartphone, the LG Viper; two laptops from Toshiba (the budget Satellite C655-S5542 and the sleeker Portege R835-P88); a secure portable hard drive from Lenovo; the ultra-slim, ultra-sexy HTC One S from T-Mobile.

Unless you're an international spy or an amateur sleuth, you'd be forgiven if you didn't know where to turn in picking out the perfect spy cam. Security-themed accessories maker Swann has a new device to assist you in those undercover missions: the $99.99 HD PenCam. In addition to its function as a writing tool, this USB-rechargeable gadget records video in 720p and holds up to 16GB of footage and still photos via microSD. We were impressed with the video and audio quality, but is the HD PenCam stealthy enough for your next covert op?

Read Our Swann HD PenCam Review

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This Week in Reviews [April 2-6]

It’s the weekend, and you know what time it is — time for the Week in Reviews! This week we reviewed an official Photoshop Touch app for the iPad, a board game for your iPad, a Thunderbolt adapter for Seagate GoFlex portable hard drives, the LG Marquee Android smartphone from Boost Mobile, the Nokia Lumia 900, the flagship Windows Phone, the affordable LG Lucid, and two iOS apps.

Early forecasters who opined that the iPad would only ever be used as a content consumption device have one more reason to eat crow. The Grand Poobah of desktop image editing, Adobe Photoshop, has released a tablet-focused version of its software--and the app is an impressive content creation tool indeed. While (expectedly) not as fully featured as its desktop counterpart, Photoshop Touch packs a lot more functionality than other apps in its category. But at $10, Adobe's Photoshop Touch app costs $5 more than Snapseed and Apple's own iPhoto. Is it worth the extra money?

Read Our Adobe Photoshop Touch Review

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Reviews Roundup: HTC’s Powerful One X is a Hit

Before we dive into the reviews, we’d like to make note of one thing. The One X our colleagues reviewed this week is a world phone version and only offers 3G connectivity. The version we are expected to see here in the U.S. will feature 4G LTE connectivity, and as a result, a different processor. Instead of the quad-core Tegra 3, the One X will launch with a version of Qualcomm’s dual-core Snapdragon S4. The change is a result of issues concerning the amount of power it takes to support both a Tegra 3 and 4G LTE connectivity at the same time.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get to the reviews.

Engadget’s Myriam Joire said the One X is a return to form for HTC and places the company in the upper echelon of Android smartphone makers.  She pointed to the One X’s 8-megapixel rear-facing camera as one that will please both photography buffs and the average user and says it delivers, “one of the best all-round imaging experiences we’ve come across without sacrificing quality.” Joire also heaped praise on the One X’s speedy Tegra 3 processor, which she said was able to handle most everything she threw at it with ease.

Unfortunately, Joire said the One X’s  Tegra 3 performed worse than Qualcomm’s dual-core Snapdragon S4 when put to the test in a variety of benchmarks. She also knocked the One X for its six-hour battery life, which she blamed on the phone’s Super LCD 2 display.

CNet UK’s Natasha Lomas said the One X, while powerful, could prove too much for the average user. She also criticized the phone’s large footprint and poor battery life. Still Lomas awarded the phone four out of five stars, saying it had a classy look and feel, and that its HTC Touch Sense 4.0 was slick and responsive, although in need of some slight tweaks.

Chris Ziegler at the Verge was clearly enamored with the One X saying, “It can’t be overstated what a beautiful device this is.” From its display to its performance, Zieglar sang the One X’s praises, adding “The One X isn’t isn’t just one of the best Android phones I’ve ever used – it’s one of the best mobile devices I’ve ever used, period.” Ziegler even went as far as to say that the One X could be one of the best smartphones ever made if only HTC had hued closer to a more stock Android experience.

Still Zieglar did have some critiques for the One X, specifically that it can become noticeably warm during extended use sessions and only last 4 hours and 22 minutes while using both Wi-Fi and 3G with the screen’s brightness set to its max. When user the phone under what he referred to as “normal” usage, though, Zieglar said the One X lasted roughly 13 hours and 38 minutes.

Phil Nickinson over at Android Central said the HTC One X sets the bar high for the newest crop of Android smartphones and praised the One X’s 4.7-inch 720 x 1280 Super LCD 2 display for its clarity and viewing angels, especially in direct sunlight. We can personally attest to the One X’s display quality having seen it in person at Mobile World Congress in February. As Nickinson pointed out in his review, the display looks more like those simulated screen stickers stores slap on their display models than an actual smartphone screen. It’s that good.

As for the One X’s flaws, Nickinson pointed to the phone’s non-removable batter cover, lack of a MicroSD card slot and bulbous camera lens, which he said can be easily scratched.

The Next Web’s Matt Brian gave high marks to the One X’s stylish design calling it the, “best-looking smartphone we ahve seen from the vendor to date.” Brian, like most reviewers, also offered adulation for the One X’s “supremely fast” 1.5-GHz Tegra 3 processor. He did, however, point to some minor issues with the device, specifically related to its software, but said overall it is a phone that should please both the average user and Android fanatic. 

via The Verge, Engadget, CNet, Android Central, The Next Web

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This Week in Reviews [March 26-30]

Happy Saturday! Time to kick back and enjoy this week’s reviews. This week, we got our hands on the compact but snappy Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G from T-Mobile, the budget-friendly ZTE Fury from Sprint, the sub-$600 Toshiba Satellite L745 laptop, a wireless DVD player/external hard drive from Samsung, an app called Snapseed that gives you a suite of touch-based photo editing tools, 4 alarm clock docking stations for your smartphone, and an inexpensive room-monitoring camera called the iZon.

Not everyone is looking for a big-screen phone like the Samsung Galaxy S II. The Galaxy S Blaze 4G for T-Mobile has a smaller display (3.9 inches versus 4.5 inches) and smaller price ($149 versus $229) than its big brother. But can Samsung shrink the dimensions of its flagship phone without sacrificing the power and performance consumers have come to expect?

Read Our Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G (T-Mobile) Review

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