From PC World. Electronics product reviews and advice for best reference
Showing posts with label Touchscreen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Touchscreen. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Lenovo N20p Chromebook: This $329 laptop has a touchscreen display that can flip 300 degrees
World Tech Update 3 days ago | By Melissa Aparicio World Tech Update: Ballmer bids farewell Also this week, hackers steal data on 4.5 million U.S. hospital patients, Sprint launches a bezel-free smartphone, and a Silicon Valley hotel tries out a robot bellhop.
Saturday, August 23, 2014
NEC MultiSync E232WMT touchscreen monitor review: Get the tablet experience right on your desktop
The Windows 8 user interface is designed for touching, tapping, pinching and swiping, but desktop touchscreen displays just haven’t gained the popularity that monitor makers had hoped for. At a time when you can buy a very good 23-inch non-touch monitor for less than $300, NEC’s MultiSync E232WMT doesn’t make a strong enough case that you should spend twice as much for a model that supports 10-point touch.
The MultiSync E232WMT has an interesting dual-hinged stand that easily collapses into a flat position. This renders its touchscreen more comfortable to use than when it’s vertical. The stand connects to the display by way of a standard 100x100mm VESA mount, which means you can replace it with most any third-party mount (such as an articulated arm).
The MultiSync E232WMT's double hinge allows it to be adjusted to almost any angle, including flat as a tabletop.
The E232WMT connects to your PC via HDMI, DVI, or VGA, but it does not support DisplayPort. The high-quality AH-IPS screen has native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, and mercury-free LED backlighting. Niceties include a built-in webcam with a stereo microphone for video conferencing, a 4-port USB 3.0 hub, a headphone jack, and a pair of internal 1W speakers. As you might imagine, the speakers sound pretty thin, but they’re good enough for system alerts and such.
No extra software is needed to use the E232WMT’s 10-point touch features with Windows 7 and later. Mac users are out of luck. I used the NEC with Windows 8.1 and found the display’s touchscreen to be responsive when tapping, using gestures, and typing with the onscreen keyboard.
NEC's engineers wisely placed the control buttons on the side of the bezel, where they're less likely to be pressed unintentionally.
The IPS panel provides a wide angle of view. I saw no shift in color or loss of contrast when moving my head to the left or right from the center of the display. Text was clear and legible, even at small point sizes. Photos looked good, with accurate colors, lots of detail, and smooth skin tones.
The only issue I had with the display was the glare from its very glossy screen. Our offices, like many business environments, have overhead lighting. When I moved the display into a flatter position to use the touchscreen, the glare was very strong.
If you need a touchscreen for your desktop, NEC’s MultiSync E232WMT should be on your list to consider. Its high-quality screen, responsive touch capabilities, and flexible stand render it a strong—albeit expensive—contender.
From PC World. Electronics product reviews and advice for best reference
Saturday, August 31, 2013
HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11z-e000 review: A budget 11.6-inch touchscreen laptop that runs at a snail's pace
HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11z-e000 $430.00 If you must have a notebook with a touchscreen, HP delivers a lot of computer for very little money. But you’ll need to be patient with this one’s performance. HP’s Pavilion TouchSmart 11z-e000 is one the smallest, lightest, and least expensive notebooks we’ve ever reviewed. It’s also one of the slowest, finishing dead last on nearly every criterion in our five-system roundup except two important ones: weight and battery life.
Despite carrying a price tag of just $410, this Pavilion has a touchscreen. It measures just 11.6 inches, but delivers ten-point touch and the same 1366-by-768-pixel resolution as the other budget notebooks we looked at. Once you get over its diminutive size, you realize that the display is actually pretty good. Though it has a minor issue with vertical off-axis viewing, it’s much better than the screen on the Toshiba T Satellite L55Dt-A5253. Augmenting the Pavilion’s touchscreen is a trackpad that supports Windows 8 gestures such as two-finger scrolling, zoom, and rotate. Mechanical right and left mouse buttons are situated beneath the pad.
HPThe HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11z-e000 is a very inexpensive touchscreen laptop. Apart from its small size, the Pavilion doesn’t look like a cheap PC. Though its case is composed almost entirely of plastic, the finishes on the lid and chassis are dead ringers for brushed aluminum, and the computer feels very sturdy despite being just 0.86 inch thick. Although this laptop was one of the lightest we considered for our roundup, its 3.4-pound heft is not especially impressive for its overall size.
As you might expect, the most powerful notebooks also had the shortest battery life. If you have large fingers, you won’t like the reduced size of the Pavilion’s non-backlit keyboard. The keys are only slightly smaller than average, but the difference drove me crazy during touch-typing sessions. The laptop is too small to accommodate a numeric keypad, too—and I loathe its arrow keys’ design. Rather than laying them out in the familiar inverted T formation, HP made the right and left keys oversize, and the up and down keys half-size—and bookended by the other two.
The Fn keys have common tasks (such as volume and media player control) assigned to them by default, so you don’t have to hold down a second key to use them for those purposes. Speaking of media, the Pavilion has surprisingly good speakers, augmented by DTS Sound+ audio-processing software.
Benchmark performance
Egad, is this computer ever slow! Much of the blame can be laid at the 1GHz AMD A4-1250 processor that runs the show. This is paired with 4GB of DDR3/1333 memory, which HP says is upgradeable to 8GB. But since the machine has only one DIMM slot, you’ll need to toss the existing 4GB DIMM to do so (unless you buy the 8GB version at the outset). Our review model came with a 500GB hard-drive upgrade (the stock machine packs a 320GB hard drive), but both drives spin their platters at an unhurried 5400 rpm. There is no SSD option available, and the only optical drive option is external.
Our Notebook WorldBench 8.1 suite includes a broad array of benchmarks for evaluating a notebook's performance. The Pavilion TouchSmart’s pitiful Notebook WorldBench 8.1 score of 64 matches that of the $539 Dell Latitude 3330, but its scores on most of the other benchmarks are significantly worse than the Dell’s. For example, the Latitude earned a PCMark 7 Productivity score of 932, versus the Pavilion’s mark of 348. And the HP’s scores on our media editing and encoding tests were off-the-chart bad. On the plus side, the superior graphics processor integrated into the AMD A4 processor helped level the playing field in at least some of our gaming benchmarks.
Connectivity and conclusion
One of the ways that HP kept this computer’s price so slow was by provisioning it with cheap networking capabilities. The Realtek RTL8188EE Wi-Fi adapter is a single-band 802.11n model that supports a maximum physical link rate of just 150 mbps, and its hardwired ethernet adapter maxes out at 100 mbps.
HPHP's Pavilion TouchSmart is less than 1 inch thick, but it's rather heavy for its size. For better wireless networking performance, you can plug an adapter into one of the Pavilion’s USB ports. It has two USB 3.0 ports and one USB 2.0 port, plus a multiformat media card reader. HP provides both HDMI and VGA video outputs.
The HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11z-e000 is tough to beat on price—you get a lot of computer for the money. Its closest rival in price—Dell’s Latitude 3330—costs $100 more, doesn’t have a touchscreen, and carries a smaller hard drive. The Dell is slightly faster and has a larger display, but I think the TouchSmart 11z is a better value in the long run.
Editor's note: This notebook was reviewed as part of a roundup for back-to-school season. You can read that story, along with reviews of the five notebooks we compared it to, here.
From PC World. Electronics product reviews and advice for best reference
Monday, May 20, 2013
Toshiba Kirabook review: The first Ultrabook with a higher-than-HD touchscreen
Toshiba Kirabook i7 Touchscreen $1,999.99(Lowest Price) The Kirabook looks the part of a luxury laptop, and it’s the first Ultrabook to compete with Apple’s Retina lineup. But Toshiba made some disappointing decisions on the way to a $2000 price tag.Toshiba's luxurious Kirabook is the first Windows laptop to feature a display rivaling Apple’s Retina technology. The Kirabook is also thinner and much lighter than Apple’s MacBook Pro, and it’s outfitted with a touchscreen. While I wish I could report that Toshiba has crafted a masterpiece that fully justifies its $2000 price tag, this machine suffers from a couple of significant flaws.
With a native resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels, the Kirabook’s 13.3-inch display delivers a pixel density of 221 pixels per inch—just shy of the 227 ppi that Apple packs into the 13-inch MacBook Pro’s 2560-by-1600-pixel display. If you think Apple’s computers are overpriced, consider the fact that a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a 3.0GHz Intel Core i7-3540M processor sells for $100 less than the Kirabook, which runs on a 2.0GHz Intel Core i7-3537U CPU. Apple, however, doesn't currently offer any full-blown computers with touchscreens (the iPad doesn't count).
Like many touchscreens we've seen, the Kirabook's is highly reflective. Clock speeds aren’t everything, of course. The processor that Toshiba picked boasts a TDP (thermal design power) of just 17 watts, versus the 35-watt TDP of the chip that Apple uses. (Thermal design power refers to the maximum amount of power that a computer’s cooling system must dissipate. A lower TDP is desirable for a mobile computer, because it improves battery life. In our test, the Kirabook’s battery lasted an impressive 5 hours, 14 minutes.) The Kirabook’s other key components include 8GB of DDR3-1600 memory and a 256GB solid-state drive. I’ll get into the Kirabook’s performance in depth later.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Review: Asus VivoBook S550CA offers Windows 8 and touchscreen in mainstream package
Attractive, touchscreen-equipped laptops running a full version of Windows 8 are getting cheaper than you might think. Some newly announced Sony touchscreen-equipped laptops start around $600 for 14-inch and 15-inch models. But for just a little more money, Asus’ 15.6-inch VivoBook S550CA has an MSRP of $750—and you can find our review model online for as low as $630.
That’s right—the VivoBook S550CA costs just as much as a souped-up 16GB iPad, but it’s also got a full-size keyboard, an optical drive, and the touchscreen. If you’re looking for a deal, this is a pretty good one.
The VivoBook S550CA is the largest of Asus’ low-cost VivoBook line. It’s 0.86 inches thick, and it weighs 5.7 pounds. Asus calls it an Ultrabook, but, as we’ve already determined, Asus seems to be bandying that term about recklessly. The VivoBook S550CA isn’t even technically an Ultrabook—while it does have a 24GB SSD boot drive (alongside a 500GB hard drive), and it does start up in just under 15 seconds, the S550CA is 0.04 inches too thick to be an Ultrabook. Intel’s guidelines do state, after all, that Ultrabooks with screens larger than 14 inches have to be under 0.82 inches thick.
That said, the S550CA cuts a slim profile for a 15.6-inch machine. Our review model is housed in a black and silver chassis, with brushed-aluminum detailing on the cover and wrist-rest and cheaper matte plastic on the bottom. The black cover is unfortunately prone to fingerprints, which sort of messes with the sleekness of the look.
Despite being just 0.86 inches thick, the S550CA does have a tray-loading optical drive—a Super-Multi DVD drive, to be exact—located on its right side. That may seem quaint, but many mainstream laptops still include it. It’s also got a couple of USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, HDMI and VGA outs, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. Connectivity is good (there’s also built-in Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0), but it would be nice to see two or three USB 3.0 ports, instead of just one. However, the full-sized HDMI out is a nice touch.
The S550CA’s input devices are a mixed bag. The touchscreen is very good—it’s responsive, accurate, and easy to use. The only minor issue I have is that the touch sensitivity doesn’t extend past the bezel of the screen (and it’s an edge-to-edge glass screen, so this could easily have been implemented), and that makes certain Windows 8 gestures, such as swiping from the right side of the screen, more difficult than necessary. Many of the higher-end laptops I’ve seen do extend the touch sensitivity just past the edge of the screen, which makes for a much smoother Windows 8 experience. However, it is an otherwise excellent touchscreen for the price, so I can’t complain too much.
The laptop’s other input devices aren’t quite as impressive. The full-sized keyboard has black, island-style keys and a 10-key number pad. The keys are lightly textured and evenly spaced, but the keyboard is shallow—so shallow, in fact, that it’s almost impossible to type quickly and accurately. The large touchpad below the keyboard is a little better, but it also suffers from shallowness: It hardly depresses when you tap the built-in buttons, which means that right- and left-clicks are often disregarded. It is a touchpad, though, so you can tap to left-click, and Asus’ Smart Gesture technology (such as pinch to zoom and two-finger scrolling) works smoothly.
The S550CA is a good performer in our benchmarks, with a 1.7GHz core i7 CPU and 6GB of DDR3 memory. The exception is media playback, which is a little disappointing.
The S550CA has no discrete graphics card—just Intel integrated graphics. HD streaming video looks OK, but you will see a lot of artifacting and blurring in scenes with a lot of high-motion content. In other words, video playback on the S550CA is about as good as you can expect on a machine with integrated graphics and a low-res screen.
Also, the screen has a paltry resolution of just 1366 by 768 pixels—par for the course on 11-, 13-, and even 14-inch notebooks, especially cheap ones, but definitely dated on a 15.6-inch screen. The low resolution is unfortunate, because the S550CA has an otherwise excellent-looking screen. Not only is it extremely bright, but colors look crisp and accurate, and off-axis viewing angles are good.
Mike HomnickThe 15.6-inch screen is bright and crisp-looking, with accurate colors, but the resolution is a disappointing 1366 by 768 pixels. Battery life is mediocre, too: We clocked just under three and a half hours in our rundown tests. This is a laptop you could take around town with you, but not on a long airplane trip, without AC reinforcement.
Audio playback is a little better, however. The speakers, which are located primarily on the bottom of the laptop, produce loud, full sound. Asus’ SonicMaster sound-enhancing technology offers up a decent simulation of surround sound, though it’s certainly not the best sound I’ve ever heard. The only issue is that the main speakers are on the bottom of the laptop, and are situated so that sound gets muffled if you rest the laptop on anything, such as your lap or a desk.
Getting the full Windows 8 experience—touchscreen and all—doesn’t have to be expensive. The Asus VivoBook S550CA falls short in some performance areas and features, but for many mainstream users, it's still a decent computer for a great price.
Sarah is a freelance writer and editor based in Silicon Valley. She has a love/hate relationship with social media and a bad habit of describing technology as "sexy."
More by Sarah Jacobsson Purewal
From PC World. Electronics product reviews and advice for best reference
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Reviewed: Three touchscreen displays that bring Windows 8 to life
You don't necessarily need a touchscreen monitor to use Windows 8, but swiping your finger to invoke the Charms bar is a lot more fun than holding down the Windows key and pressing C. I'll admit that initially I had to force myself to use the new touch gestures, but after a short time with the OS I found myself reaching out to touch even my MacBook Pro's screen.
Since the debut of Microsoft's latest operating system, monitor manufacturers have been working to bring touchscreen support to desktop users. At first it was near impossible to find a display that responded to all the gestures in Windows 8, but now we're able to review three 23-inch models with 10-point multitouch support (meaning the monitors recognize all 10 fingers on both your hands).
We put the three monitors through a gauntlet of tests to find which one offers the best value, quality and feature set to win a spot in your workstation.
Acer's T232HL is a 23-inch, 10-point touchscreen LCD monitor with a resolution of 1920 by 1080. It uses environmentally friendly LED backlighting and a high-quality IPS panel for wide viewing angles.
The T232HL offers VGA, HDMI, and DVI inputs. Acer thoughtfully includes cables for each connection type in the shipping box, but we still found the initial setup to be a bit tricky. The T232HL’s stand uses a hinged design that lies flat against the display for shipping. It took a lot of force (and courage) to open the stand, but eventually we were able to pull it into position. A note in the setup guide would go a long way to alleviate fears of snapping the base off your newly purchased monitor. The stand doesn’t allow for height adjustment, pivot, or swivel, but it does tilt back to a 45-degree angle very easily, once you’ve set it up.
Acer's T232HL touchscreen display has the edgiest design aesthetic of the three models we reviewed. We connected the display via HDMI, and our test PC recognized it automatically as a Windows touchscreen device, booting directly into its native resolution without issue. The T232HL delivered impressive performance as we ran the display through our battery of test images. On our solid-color screens, we found no stuck or dead pixels, and color and brightness were uniform across the screen. Its viewing angle was top notch, losing contrast only at extreme angles. Its glossy surface, which can be problematic in terms of glare, helps to enhance the appearance of photographs. Even gray tones appeared neutral at its default color settings.
While no one would confuse the T232HL with a Retina display, text was legible even at small point sizes. We also watched test clips of HD video, and the action played smoothly without any obvious artifacts. The built-in speakers are okay, if a little tinny. The speakers are located in the back of the display, and they sound like it.
As for touchscreen performance, the T232HL was responsive and accurate. We didn’t have any issues using the gestures, closing open windows, or selecting menu items. The stand’s ability to lean back to a 45-degree angle made the touch features—especially the on-screen keyboard—easier to use for extended periods of time.
Despite a little trouble in our initial setup, the Acer T232HL is a nice display that uses high-quality components. It performed admirably in our text, motion, color, and uniformity tests, and it would definitely be worth considering even without its 10-point touch capabilities.
Acer T232HL, $549 (street price)
Pros:
10-point touchscreenWide viewing angleAccurate colorsSmooth gradientsCons:
Stand is difficult to set up and offers no height adjustmentBottom line:
This is a terrific display, but we do wish it allowed height adjustments.
4 stars
LG Flatron 23ET83V-W
The LG Flatron 23ET83V-W is based on a high-quality IPS panel with 1920 by 1080 resolution and an LED backlight. Sporting a white plastic case with a thin black bezel, this glossy-screened monitor connects to your PC via HDMI or VGA.
LGLG's Flatron 23ET83V-W doesn't offer the great off-axis viewing experience we've come to expect from IPS displays. A red light illuminates a thin, translucent, crescent-shaped plastic tab on the bottom edge of the screen that reflects off the desktop. The tab is not a button, but it sits just below the buttonless touch power control. Although the absence of physical buttons might make for a cleaner, simpler-looking design, we prefer the tactile response of a button. Maybe we’d get used to the menu system over time, but we found ourselves frequently hitting the wrong buttons and having to exit and reenter the menus.
Aside from a few degrees of tilt, the LG display’s stand offers little ergonomic flexibility. You can’t adjust the height, pivot it into portrait mode, or swivel the screen from left to right. Other touchscreen monitors we’ve looked at can lean back farther, making it easier to use touch gestures without having shoulder fatigue setting in immediately.
A quick note about the setup: When attached to an AMD graphics card, the display would boot up underscanned, with about an inch of black space around the screen. The LG’s on-screen menus have an Overscan setting, but turning that from its default off position to on did not fully correct the problem. We had to turn off overscanning on the display and then go to the AMD Catalyst Control panel’s advanced settings and move the overscanning slider to zero. In addition to the unwanted space, the screen was blurry in this underscanned mode, and that affected calibration. When we attached the monitor to a system with an Nvidia-based graphics card, the proper resolution came up automatically and the image filled the screen as expected.
Once we had the screen properly set up, the 23ET83V-W performed well in most of our image tests. We found no stuck or dead pixels, and colors were uniform. Text was legible even at small point sizes, and photographs looked good, although making out details in shadowy areas of the image was hard. In some of the DisplayMate gray-level test patterns, we were unable to see differences in the first few gray-level patches. Switching the display’s Black Level control setting from its default Low to High resolved the issue.
The LG’s viewing angle wasn’t quite as stellar as that of other IPS screens we’ve seen. Color shifts weren’t an issue, but at extreme angles it was harder to see what was on screen. This minor drawback is probably attributable to the touchscreen coating.
Speaking of the touchscreen, the 23ET83V-W performed admirably in that regard. It was responsive and accurate, and we had no problems using Windows 8 touch gestures or closing windows and choosing menu items on the Windows 8 desktop.
The LG Flatron 23ET83V-W is a capable touchscreen display. Its viewing angle isn’t as wide as that of most IPS screens we’ve tested, but is still very good. Its controls were a bit of a hassle to use, and we needed to make adjustments to the black-level settings to help the display look its best. While those are admittedly minor grievances, the monitor’s lack of ergonomic agility could reduce the amount of time you end up using its touch capabilities.
LG Flatron 23ET83V-W, $550 (street price)
Pros:
10-point touchIPS panelLED backlightCons:
Limited ergonomic flexibilityBlack levels require adjustmentBottom line:
This is a very good display, but its controls are more difficult to use than they should be, and its viewing angles aren't as good as other IPS monitors we've evaluated.
3.5 stars
Viewsonic TD2340
Viewsonic’s TD2340 display is built like a tank, weighing a hefty 20.4 pounds. It features a 23-inch, LED-backlit, IPS panel that delivers a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, and it supports 10 touch points.
The TD2340 has a heavy-duty, dual-hinged base that offers a few inches of height adjustment, the ability to pivot into portrait mode, and even the option to tilt the display down so that it sits completely flat like a tabletop. At a height of 6 inches above the desk, however, the flat orientation seems like an awkward way to work. The best position we found for typing directly on screen using the touch keyboard was tilting the panel back to a 45-degree angle and lifting the bottom-front edge a couple of inches off the desk. This position allowed us to type on the screen without reaching as far, while still being able to keep our physical keyboard and mouse in front of us.
ViewSonicYou'd never guess by the ViewSonic's TD2340 Frankenstein feet just how limber this display can be. You can connect the TD2340 to your computer via HDMI, DisplayPort, or VGA. To use the touch capabilities, you need a USB connection as well. The on-screen controls are simple and easy to use, which we find refreshing. Button 1 brings up the menus, while button 2 selects with up and down arrows for adjusting color, brightness, contrast, volume from the SRS speakers, the on-screen menu position, and much more.
The TD2340 offers a wide viewing angle, which is helpful if you collaborate with other people around your screen or if you take advantage of the aforementioned flexible stand to position the screen at nonstandard angles. Text was legible even at small point sizes, and colors were uniform across the screen. We found no stuck or dead pixels when testing the display. The glossy screen helps to give photographs more depth, but glare can be an issue. You'll need to consider where, in relation to windows or other fixed light sources, to position a glossy-screen display like the TD2340.
The Viewsonic’s 10-point touch capabilities were impressive. Input was responsive and accurate, and we didn’t have any issues using Windows 8 gestures or maneuvering around the Windows 8 desktop.
Of the Windows 8 touchscreen monitors we’ve evaluated, the Viewsonic TD2340 is the most capable. Its wide viewing angle, its agile yet bulky stand, and numerous little touches such as the SRS speakers, multiple inputs, and easy-to-use menus combine to make the TD2340 a great choice for Windows 8 users. It’s more expensive than some other touchscreen displays, but it earns its price tag.
Viewsonic TD2340, $600 (street price)
Pros:
10-point touchscreenWide viewing anglesVersatile standDisplayPortCons:
Not very attractiveBulky and heavyBottom line:
ViewSonic's TD2340 is more expensive than other monitors in its class, but it delivers enough features and value to warrant the difference.
4 stars
From PC World. Electronics product reviews and advice for best reference
Friday, April 5, 2013
OptiPlex 9010: Dell delivers a more usable touchscreen AiO
The launch of the touch-centric Windows 8 spawned a host of new all-in-one (AiO) designs, most of which leave something to be desired. But with a little patience and forethought, Dell has delivered a considerably more usable touchscreen AiO: the OptiPlex 9010. And all they had to do was to put the touchscreen within easy reach.
Dell worked this minor miracle by engineering a double-jointed stand that allows you to move the display up and down and slightly forward, along with the tilt adjustment most AiO's provide. Even better, the 9010 has a standard VESA mount point, so you can also use a fully articulated wall- or desk-mounted arm for truly versatile placement. Add a minor landslide of options, top-notch security features, excellent service and warranty options, and you have an AiO that corporate America can embrace.
Dell also remembered something that many vendors seem to forget: It's not just about looking sexy; reducing cable clutter and wasted space are equally important. In a market filled with AiOs that block the usable surface area behind them, the 9010's minimal footprint leaves all the surrounding area accessible. This allows you to either fill it up with other stuff, or to enjoy the serenity delivered by an uncluttered vista.
To keep cables to a minimum, Dell ships the 9010 with a wireless mouse and keyboard. This keyboard is one of the first Chiclet-style units we've seen on a desktop. Its action is just a hair soft, but thanks to the support of the surrounding plastic, the keys don't have the sloppy feel that you get with some Dell units. The mouse tracks well and has a nice heft, thanks to the battery inside.
Any doubts that the 9010 AiO is aimed at the corporate world are dispelled by the presence of PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports found on the back of the unit. The back is also home to VGA and HDMI video outputs, gigabit ethernet, an audio output, two USB 3.0 ports, and four USB 2.0 ports to meet more modern peripherals needs.
DellThe absence of an HDMI input will render the OptiPlex 9010 less interesting to consumers. On the left side are two more USB 3.0 ports, headset and microphone jacks, and a 8-in-1 card reader. On the lower right hand side of the display, you'll find the eject button for the optical drive, on-screen display, and power buttons. The absence of an HDMI input renders this system less attractive to consumers, because you can't use it as a display for a gaming console or a set-top box.
Our test 9010 AiO came configured with most of the top-of-the-line component options including an Intel Core i7-3770S, 8GB of DDR3/1600 memory, and a Samsung PM830, 128GB SSD. Needless to say, the machine was fast, scoring 113 on our WorldBench 8 test suite. Gaming was nothing to brag about, but the integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics did manage playable frame rates at about 1024-by-768 and lower resolutions. We didn't receive a Blu-ray player, but got a DVD-RW burner in the bay.
The 9010 AiO's display is a 23.6-inch, 1920-by-1080 widescreen that provides a very sharp picture, and even behind the thick digitizer, plenty of usable brightness. The speakers deliver adequate volume, a tiny amount of bass, and a generally sonorous experience. The unit also has a 1.3-megapixel webcam, plus dual-array mics designed to reject background noise.
The 9010 is fully secured via Intel’s Trusted Platform Module (TPM), and Intel Standard Manageability provides out-of-band management capabilities (Intel vPro Technology is available as a $10 option). Out-of-band management enables a remote admin to take control of the system whether or not it’s powered. A three-warranty with onsite service after remote diagnosis is standard. Four- and five-year warranties are also available.
The 9010 AiO is available in a ton of configurations: Drives range from 3.5-inch 250GB mechanical models to the 128GB SSD that our test model used. CPUs run the gamut, from Pentium Dual-Core to Core i3's or the Core i7-3770S that we tested. At the time of this writing, you could get a non-touchscreen 9010 AiO for about $850 and be at slightly less than $2000 after adding all the available options (touchscreen models start at around $1200.)
Dell got touch right with the OptiPlex 9010. The design of its stand makes using the computer via touch a lot easier than most other AiOs we've seen, and the inclusion of a VESA mounting point renders it suitable for almost any work environment. From a purely practical point of view, it's one of the best AiOs on the market.
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
From PC World. Electronics product reviews and advice for best reference
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Finger-Friendly AT&T Unite Touchscreen Mobile Hotspot Announced
Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.
From Laptopmagazine. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center Here
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Tesla Announces All-Electric Model X with Wing-Style Doors, Touchscreen Console
If you’re going to make an all-electric car, why not give it a wicked-modern design to go with that forward-thinking fuel approach? That at least seems to be Tesla Motors’ modus operandi with its just-unveiled Model X crossover. In addition to its eco-friendly pedigree, the X rocks wing-style doors, which Tesla calls Falcon Wings.
Back to the Future-style doors aren’t the only high-tech features this car has in its favor. The center console has a huge display for the car’s infotainment system and climate controls.
Tesla says the Model X will start around $50k, though TechCrunch estimates that the fully configured model (largest battery pack and all) will top off at about $90k. Production is set to start in 2013, with models hitting the market the following year, but you can reserve an X of your own now.
via TechCrunch
From Laptopmagazine. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center Here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)