The U36J is pretty thin and light for a 13.3-inch laptop. At just 3.7lbs., it feels as light as my 12.1-inch Asus UL20FT. The thin profile only allows for the biggest port (the VGA port) enough room to fit from top to bottom of the body.

The lid comes in a matte finish and crawls right inside up to the palm rest area. It’s still prone to some slight smudges but not that much to be a bother.

The battery pack at the back protrudes downwards in a cylindrical shape which also serves as a stand to offer some ventilation. It’s rated at 5600mAh (83wH) and offers between 4 to 6 hours of battery life on a single full charge depending on the power mode.

The 13.3-inch display has a glossy finish but is crisp and bright. The standard resolution is in place — at only 1366×768 pixels — though I’d wish they’d offer something higher. The screen is prone to glare but that’s expected of glossy finish.

Keyboard lay-out is wide and comfortable with chiclet-type keys. Some of the keys are are smaller though, like the left Shift key and the Enter key (reverse L-shape but smaller) which can affect typing accuracy sometimes.

The trackpad is spacious, smooth and easy to use with the left and right click buttons separated by a biometric scanner (fingerprint scanner) in the middle.

Aside from the sleek form factor, the specs of the laptop seems pretty decent. The inclusion of the standard voltage Intel Core i5 460M running at 2.53GHz is a bit surprising since I’m used to seeing ULV processors (in the 1.2GHz to 1.73GHz range) in the thin and light category.Here’s the full list of specs, as indicated by Speccy:

Asus U36Jc
13.3-inch display @ 1366×768 pixels
Intel Core i5 460M @ 2.53GHz (2 cores, 4 threads, Turbo Boost 2.8GHz)
3GB DDR3 RAM
Nvidia GeForce 310M + Intel HD Graphics
500GB HDD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
HDMI port
2 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x USB 3.0 port
3-1in-1 Card Reader
Fingerprint scanner
Webcam
Windows 7 Ultimate
8-cell Li-Ion battery 5600mAh

Laptop performance is above with the CPU getting a sub-score of 6.9 on Windows Experience Index while the GPU got a 5.8 sub-score on gaming.

Battery life is actually impressive — I’m getting around 4 hours on High Performance Mode and just over 6 hours on Power-Saving Mode, thanks to the 5600mAh (83wH) Li-Ion battery. Asus claims this unit can reach up to 10 hours of battery life at very optimized settings though I doubt that’s achievable in real world scenarios.

Asus sacrificed the ODD and dropped it from the unit in order to achieve the slim form factor. It’s a trade-off but something expected for its category. Would have been nice if they bundled an external ODD though.

The Asus U36J is a very capable laptop with very decent specs. It’s a good workhorse that’s also very portable and light to carry around (weighs 1.6kg and 19mm thin). We’re still not sure how much this rig would cost when it hits the market and have not really yet seen it yet in stores (my guess is north of Php35k).

Related posts:

1. Asus K42J Review

Much like it’s bigger sibling, Archos 101, the Archos 70 seems like just the right fit for a portable tablet. It’s very light and slim (as far as the 8GB variant is concerned; the 250GB variant is a bit thicker) with a solid build.

The back panel is covered with a combination of hard plastic and thin sheet of metal (brushed aluminum) with all the four corners peppered with a tiny rubber pad that serves as a stand when the tablet is placed on its back.

For better viewing, there’s also a kickstand at the back so you can position it at and angle on a table or flat surface — great for when playing movies or running a photo viewer.

The screen is bright though not really that crisp (probably has got to do with the resolution or pixel density) nor have that sharp contrast which is understandable for a regular LCD screen. At 800×480, it’s got the same resolution as the 4.3″ HTC Desire HD (so that explains it). It works just fine but don’t expect it to be as sharp or crisp as the display of the iPad or even the previous-generation iPod Touch.

Running a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor really helped in the performance of the device. Apps fire up fast, the videos play smoothly and web browsing is pleasant. HD movie playback is smooth and great; viewing angle is wide enough, maybe over 100 degrees across. Sound quality is good and volume is decent with the speakers all situated at the front.

The tablet does have the Android Market (so are all other Google Apps/Services) out of the box although you can always install it manually. Archos has an alternative app store called AppsLib though it’s not as extensive as the original one. The UI is pretty much basic to Android with up to 4 sliding panels.

Didn’t bother using the VGA camera as it doesn’t take any decent-quality photos. There’s a mini-HDMI port so you can hook up the tablet to an external display (probably to watch HD movies on a bigger screen) while the micro-USB port helps you connect the device to a PC or laptop so you can easily transfer files to and from it. There’s no microSD card slot on the 250GB but there’s one on the 8GB model (corrected).

Archos promises up to 10 hours of battery life on a single full charge. The claim is doable on the 8GB variant but I don’t think the 250GB variant can do the same due to the power-hungry disk drive.

Archos A70 Internet Tablet
7″ display @ 800×480 pixel capacitive screen
1GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU
720p HD video playback
VGA camera
HDMI, USB ports
8GB Flash or 250GB HDD model
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1
Archos 70 250GB price: Php16,990
Archos 70 8GB price: Php15,490

Between the two variants of the Archos 70, I think I’d prefer the 250GB version since it allows me to store more video and music though there’s the obvious drawback in the thickness of the device and slight degradation of battery life. At under Php17k for both, they’re already a good buy though.

No related posts.

With a matte finish on the lid coupled with some kind of textured design (which stretches around the unit up to the palm rest), the FX400 looks a bit classy but nothing too huge fuss about. Still, that fixes up the usual problem with smudges and fingerprints.

The full keyboard features chiclet-style keys although they seem to be cramped a bit in the center when there’s still enough room. It’s still comfortable to use even when you’re touch-typing. There’s an additional column of keys on the right side to include page scrolls (Pg Up, Pg Dwn, etc) which can get confusing since the keyboard layout was altered.

The trackpad is relatively wide and spacious, a bit flushed to the left and with left and right clickers distinctly separated. The trackpad has a pimpled surface to give it a better control and there’s a dedicated button just on the top left side to disable tracking.

The 14-inch display screen is bright and crisp but maxes out at 1366×768 pixels. Why most of the big-sized (14 & up) laptops nowadays settle for that resolution is still open for debate.

MSI collaborated with THX for the engineering of the sound & speakers in this system. Sound quality is great and audio is crips though volume is not a little on the moderate side.

MSI FX400 specs:
14″ display @ 1366×768 pixels
Intel Core i5 450M @ 2.4GHz w/ Turboo Boost
2GB DDR3 RAM*
NVidia GeForce GT 325M 1GB
Intel HD Graphics
500GB HDD
CD/DVD+RW
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1
3 x USB 2.0 ports
eSATA port
HDMI port
1.3MP webcam
SD/SDHC/MMC
GigaBit LAN
6-cell 4400 mAH battery
Windows Home 7 Premium

*The specs sticker on the laptop indicates 4GB of RAM (2x2GB) but Speccy shows only 2GB. Looks like one 2GB stick of RAM was removed from the slot. Probably because this is just an engineering/review unit. The ones available has a slightly different specs.

Performance of the unit is good. Windows Experience Index gives the Core i5 CPU a 6.8 sub-score while the NVidia GeForce GT 325 got a 6.0 sub-score on gaming.

There’s a dedicated button on top of the keyboard to change the mode of the system which optimizes movie viewing or 3D gaming. The Turbo button (P1) sits beside the power button in the middle which cranks up performance of the discrete graphics card.

The inclusion of an eSATA and HDMI port as well as GigaBit Ethernet is great but it lacks support for USB 3.0.

The 6-cell battery can do just around 2.5 hours on a single charge when the NVidia graphics is used. It can extend to well over 3 hours when the integrated graphics is used.

There are two configurations available for this model — a Core i5 450M 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 320HDD retails for Php39,995, and a Core i3 350 2.26GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD sells for Php35,995. The unit prices don’t come with Windows 7 pre-installed.

No related posts.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 looks the same as the first generation ThinkPad Edge back in January. The main differences are all found under the hood and among them is the ultra-low voltage (ULV) Core i5 470UM running at a just 1.33GHz.

The thin and light category of laptops was never lost with low-powered Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Solo (running 1.3GHz and 1.4GHz). Even the new Core i3, i5 and i7 processors from by Intel also have similar equivalents.

The ThinkPad Edge’s edgy design is somewhat reminiscent of original line of ThinkPads; only this time, they’ve added some eye-candy and color. It’s either you like it or you don’t — and I seem to be leaning towards the latter.

Nevertheless, once you open up the lid, you’ll be greeted with that familiar keyboard-trackpad-trackpoint combo that’s always a signature of Thinkpads since the days of IBM. To those unfamiliar, that small red dot in the middle is the trackpoint (also sometimes called the nipple mouse). I think ThinkPad owners seldom use that but it’s been an iconic design accent for many years so it will stay there even if un-used.

Great keyboard, though the layout is a little different especially with the Fn key on the lower far left end which is a bit annoying if you’re used with the Ctrl button in there (and I’ve told Lenovo execs about this a couple of times). It’s got a generously sized trackpad and you get a double serving of the click buttons (both above and below the trackpad).

The glossy 13.3″ display has a resolution of 1366×768 and is clear and crisp although I found setting the brightness to the highest level doesn’t produce the brightness I expected. The glare and smudges that’s attracted by the screen is very common to glossy displays so that’s to be expected.

The specs of the unit is a mix of good stuff and not so impressive ones either. The Core i5 processor used in this unit is pretty interesting — an ultra-low voltage dual core (with HyperThreading) running at 1.33GHz that can Turbo Boost to 1.87GHz which consumes less power to help increase battery life. And while the Intel HD Graphics isn’t that impressive, it was a logical move to make the system guzzle as very little power as possible.

Note: This review unit was for the US market so the specs will be a little different when it hits commercial release this October. For one, that Qualcomm Gobi modem will surely be absent.

Windows Experience Index shows us these scores with the graphics getting the lowest sub-score of 3.2 while the CPU got a good 5.3 rating.

Performance scores on PassMark tests shows pretty decent numbers. The lower scores for the Core i5 CPU (compared to the regular Core i3 and Core i5 we’ve tested in previous laptops) is primarily due to the ULV nature of the model.

PassMark PerformanceTest:
CPU Mark: 1564.7
2D Graphics Mark: 165.1
3D Graphics Mark: 148.8
Memory Mark: 684.8
Disk Mark: 690.0
PassMark Rating: 643.4

As for battery life, this unit is probably the only Core i5-series laptop I have tested that was able to last over 3 hours on regular use (the benefits of using ULV and Intel HD Graphics combo). BatteryBar gave a decent rating of 3 hours 40 minutes full lifetime. The 6-cell 5600mAh battery protrudes towards the bottom, not the back so there’s an open space for better ventilation.

When Lenovo first introduced the ThinkPad Edge series early this year, the whole line was running on low-powered Intel Core 2 Duo and AMD processors. The upgrades to Core i5 is a pleasant addition to the line especially for those looking to get some power and portability on a notebook. There’s also no built-in optical disk drive (ODD) in the thin and light category so that’s one drawback to consider.

Coming out this October, the Intel-based Lenovo ThinkPad Edge will come in a variety of configurations with a starting price of about Php38,000.

Local price: Php39,000 to Php42,000

Specs:

• Processor: Intel Core i5 470UM @ 1.33GHz (Turbo Boost 1.87GHz)
• OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
• Display: 14″ WXGA (1366 x 768, Glare Type)
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics
• HDD: 500 GB HDD
• RAM: 4GB DDR3
• Optical Drive: none
• Ports: USB 2.0 x 3, Gigabit LAN, VGA, HDMI, eSATA, SD/MS Card Reader
• Wireless Connection: WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1, WWAN (Qualcomm Gobi 2000 HS-USB Mobile Broadband Device 9205)
• Battery: 4400mah 6-cell Li-Ion
• Weight: 3.8 lbs.

Related posts:

1. Lenovo ThinkPad X100e Review
2. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 price, specs in the Philippines

The laptop feels a bit heavy and thick on the side — not something you’d prefer lugging around with. The unit has a black glossy finish (with a slight dark printed accent) from the lid right up to the palm rest (expect this to be messy with finger-prints).

The usual ports are found on both sides — 3 USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, VGA and LAN. The SD/MMC card reader is slightly hidden smack in the bottom front, right below the trackpad.

The full-sized keyboard comes with chiclet-type keys, spaced generously for comfortable touch-typing. Keyboard orientation seems normal with no odd placement of keys or additional special keys although would have been nice to have a bigger Enter key in here.

The trackpad is a little flushed to the left and inherits the same design and polished surface as the palm rest but is a bit recessed. The trackpad area is a bit small considering the size of the laptop and the clickers are not separated between the left and right buttons.

The 14-inch display is bright and clear, with a basic resolution of 133×768 pixels (which is usually the standard resolution of most laptops nowadays).

For a summary of the laptop’s specifications, here’s a screenshot from Speccy:

The processor is a dual-core 2.26GHz Core i5 with 4 threads and can go up to 2.53GHz on Turbo Boost.

On a related note, this is the second time I’ve encountered that “EG Park” in the specs but if my additional digging is correct, it looks like an ATI Radeon HD5450 with 1GB DDR3 RAM.

The Radeon HD5450 is an entry-level graphics card for laptops that supports DirectX 11. It should be able to perform just barely enough (low to medium detail settings) at its maximum resolution of 1366×768.

Windows Experience Index gives the Core i5 430M a sub-score of 6.7 and a base score of 4.9 due to the graphics performance.

PassMark Ratings:
CPU Mark: 2630.4
2D Graphics Mark: 281.9
3D Graphics Mark: 338.0
Memory Mark: 559.2
Disk Mark: 826.8
Passmark Rating: 1019.7

The laptop comes with only a 4400mAh Li-Ion battery, which is not really that much so it’s not a surprise that the unit can only do around 2 hours of battery life on a full single charge.

The unit also comes with a pre-installed facial recognition software that works using the built-in webcam so you can login to Windows by merely posing at the camera when prompted.

We’re not sure with the exact price of this specific model (there are like over a dozen different configurations) but if my guess is right, it’s between Php39k to Php42k.

Local price: Php39,000 to Php42,000

Specs:

• Processor: Intel Core i5 430M @ 2.26GHz (Turbo Boost to 2.53GHz)
• OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
• Display: 14″ WXGA (1366 x 768, Glare Type)
• Graphics: ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB DDR3
• HDD: 500 GB HDD
• RAM: 3GB DDR3
• Optical Drive: Super-Multi DVD+RW
• Ports: USB 2.0 x 3, VGA, SD/MS Card Reader
• Wireless Connection: WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.0
• Battery: 4400mah 6-cell Li-Ion
• Weight: 5.01 lbs.

Related posts:

1. Asus U36 Review

The review unit that we got was this marine-blue (metallic teal, they say) one with a clear-coat layer on top of subtle patterns starting from the lid all the way to the palm rest.

This 14-inch model of the Vaio E is relatively large and heavy — not meant to be carried around a lot but really intended to be mostly on the desk. The Vaio logo somewhats floats and casts a small shadow on the lid.

There are a plethora of ports and slots peppered around the sides of the unit — 3 USB 2.0, LAN, HDMI, eSATA, VGA, SD card and HG Duo slots. Even the WiFi has its own physical switch while the DVD drive is placed on the right side of the unit.

The full-sized keyboard features chiclet-type keys, typical of a Vaio laptop, and spaced considerably apart from each other. The recessed trackpad is fairly-sized and has a textured surface (more like pimpled) in contrast with the smooth palm rest while the left and right click buttons are separated.

The 14-inch glossy display is bright and crisp with 8 levels of brightness you can set to control screen contrast and power consumption. However, the glossy display is also prone to glare in the outdoors or against bright light sources.

The speakers are lined up across the entire length of the laptop just above the keyboard. The speaker volume is somewhere between mid to high and although there’s a noticeable lack of bass on the system, it’s very usable when watching movies.

The Vaio E is powered by an Intel Core i5 520M processor (2 cores, 4 threads) running at a base clock speed of 2.4GHz but can go up to 2.93GHz via Turbo Boost.

Graphics is provided by an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 with 1GB GDDR3 which is a mid-class DirectX11 GPU that is capable of running graphics-intensive games. Add to that a 4GB DDR3 RAM and you have a pretty decent all-around workhorse for a laptop.

Windows Experience Index gives it a base score of 5.7 with the CPU getting a nice high sub-score of 6.7. Battery life suffers due to the discreet graphics card and the powerful CPU — we only get just over 2 hours on a single full charge. BatteryBar gives it about 2.5 hours with the 6-cell 5600mAh Li-Ion battery. If Sony added a switchable graphics feature using at least an Intel HD, it would have helped in power-saving mode.

The unit also comes with an Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 AGN so it is capable of doing Intel Wireless Display.

The Sony Vaio E comes pre-installed with a 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium and retails for Php76,999 which puts it the the top of the heap (in terms of price point) among Core i5 laptops in the market.

Local price: Php76,999

Specs:

• Processor: Intel Core i5 520M @ 2.4GHz (Turbo Boost to 2.93GHz)
• OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
• Display: 14″ WXGA (1366 x 768, Glare Type)
• Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5650 1GB DDR3
• HDD: 500 GB HDD
• RAM: 4GB DDR3
• Optical Drive: Super-Multi DVD+RW
• Ports: USB 2.0 x 3, VGA, HDMI, eSATA, Gigabit LAN, SD/MS Card Reader
• Wireless Connection: WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1
• Battery: 5600mah 6-cell Li-Ion
• Weight: 5.18 lbs.

Related posts:

1. Sony Vaio E series mainstream laptops
2. Sony Vaio P Review
3. Sony Vaio X Review

The unit is fairly heavy but is expected in its category — not meant to be lugged around but, IMO, more like a desktop replacement unit. The 14.1-inch screen has a maximum resolution of 1366×768 pixels. The display is bright and crisp although I found that cranking the brightness to the highest setting makes it a bit washed out.

The dark glossy lid has those subtle striped lines but that didn’t prevent the surface to be a fingerprint-magnet. The inside surface is the same except for the dark-gray brushed-metal finish on the palm rest area.

The laptop comes with a full-sized keyboard feature that Acer-signature flat, island-type keys that maximizes the keyboard real estate. The extra-large trackpad is flushed to the left side and, although the left and right buttons are not separated, the larger-than usual size makes up for it.

The Aspire 4553G is un-assuming and what you’d expect from a workhorse laptop — a mix of good specs and an affordable price point. Check out the specs of the review unit we got (with Linpus OS pre-installed):

From what I’ve read around, the triple-core Phenom II X3 is actually a quad-core X4 CPUs with one of the cores disabled. The crippling of that single core allowed AMD to offer a mid-range CPU between the dual-core X2 and the more expensive quad-core X4 CPUs (see the CPU ID screen shots below).

The CPU runs at a maximum speed of 2.1GHz for each of the 3 cores (each core has 1 thread only). The graphics is switchable between the more powerful ATI Radeon HD5470 with 512MB of DDR2 RAM and the on-board ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 used in power-saving mode.

The HD5470 is still an entry-level DirectX 11 graphics card so don’t expect this to be able to handle high-detail settings when playing games.

Since the laptop did not come with Windows OS pre-installed, I had to load it up with Windows 7 Ultimate so we can get the Experience Index scores.

The X3 N830 processor got a sub-score of 6.2 on Windows Experience Index (sits between a Core i3 330M at 5.9 and a Core i5 520M at 6.7). The graphics card (ATI HD5470) got the lowest sub-score of 5.0 but it’s still a pretty decent score nonetheless.

As for battery performance, I got split results depending on which graphics card I used in the testing. When running on the discreet graphics, I get a battery rating of just over 2 hours. However, when using the integrated graphics, battery life improved and can go close to 4 hours on a single charge (set in power-saving mode).

The Acer Aspire 4553G looks to be a good mid-range laptop considering the specs that came with it. With a retail price starting at Php29,990 (without OS), it can still hold its ground even when compared to counterparts running Core i3 CPUs.

Local price: Php29,990

Specs:

• Processor:AMD Phenom II X3 N830 2.1GHz
• OS: LinPus
• Display: 14″ WXGA (1366 x 768, Glare Type)
• Graphics: ATI Radeon HD5470 512MB
• HDD: 320 GB HDD
• RAM: 2GB DDR3
• Optical Drive: Super-Multi DVD+RW
• Ports: USB 2.0 x 3, VGA, HDMI, SD/MS Card Reader
• Wireless Connection: WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1
• Battery: 4400mah 6-cell Li-Ion
• Weight: 4.8 lbs.

Related posts:

1. Acer Aspire One D150 Review
2. Acer Aspire 4740 Review
3. Acer Aspire One 721 Ultraportable

Design

The GT660 is just huge and for a 16-inch notebook, it’s just heavy (7.7lbs) and is like a beast of a laptop. It may not be as cool-looking as an Alienware M17x but it’s got some design inspiration from the latter with all that chiseled corners. Even the lid cover reminded me of the Mazda 3′s hood.

Open up the lid and you’d be greeted with an extended keyboard that includes an alpha-numeric keypad on the right side. It’s a nice addition but if you’re a regular laptop-user, the orientation is confusing that you always tend to hit the wrong keys when typing. One needs some time to get used to the extra keys and learn to familiarize where the Enter button is.

The chiclet-type keys are appropriately sized with special color labels on the gaming keys (asdw) and the arrow keys.

And while it’s glossy black on the outside, it’s rough and textured in the inside — the palm rest has this honeycomb finish and the trackpad feels like sand-paper and is somewhat flushed to the left. The left and right click buttons are not separated but shaped accordingly to differentiate the two.

Display & Audio

The 16-inch display is bright and crisp with a maximum resolution of 1366×768 pixels (I was actually expecting it could be higher, somewhere in the 1600×1200 range, because of the large real estate). The glossy display is also prone to glare in the outdoors and against bright light sources.

Above the keyboard are light indicators with the power button in the center. On both sides are two huge stereo speakers powered by Dynaudio. The speakers are impressive, offering good sound volume to appreciate movie playback even at a distance. The audio quality is somewhere between good to great with a strong, deep bass and probably is the best laptop speakers I’ve tried so far.

Performance

The MSI GT660 is powered by Intel’s Core i7 720QM with 4 cores and 8 threads that runs at a base clock speed of 1.6GHz for each core but can boost up to 3.2GHz. This chip is among the most powerful processors to be fitted in a laptop. With 3 or 4 cores active, it can go to 2.26GHz; with 2 cores active, it can boost speeds to 3.06GHz and with only 1 core active, it tops at 3.2GHz.

Couple that with an nVidia GeForce GTX 285M with 1GB GDDR3 VRAM, 6GB of DDR3 memory and you get a beast of a gaming machine. The GT660 is also the very first notebook I’ve seen that sports two (2) hard disk drives — it has two 500GB HDD for a total of 1 terabyte (would be interesting if it can do Raid 0/1 here).

Windows Experience Index gives it a base score of 5.9 due to the HDD but the CPU got a sub-score of 7.0 and the graphics got a 6.9 sub-score.

Battery Life

As expected, battery life suffers from all the power requirements. Even with a high-capacity 9-cell (7800mAh) Li-Ion battery, the notebook only lasts just over 2 hours on a single full charge (as indicated by BatteryBar in the screenshot above).

As a desktop replacement and gaming rig, I reckon you’d always be plugging this notebook to a power outlet so battery life isn’t a big issue for a laptop in this category although I can appreciate MSI’s effort to put in a 9-cell battery here.

To make it more interesting, MSI retrofitted several red lights around the notebook to make it look meaner (front and side as well as the edges of the lid) but forgot to include a backlit keyboard.

Conclusion

The MSI GT660 has a premium price tag but the specs of this gaming rig is very impressive to somewhat justify that. It’s not your regular multimedia notebook and this kind of combination is hard to come by.

Local Price: Php109,990

Specs:

• Processor: Intel Core i7 Core i7 720QM (Quad Core @ 1.6GHz)
• OS: Genuine Windows 7 Home Basic (64-bit)
• Display: 16″ WXGA (1366 x 768, Glare Type)
• Graphics:NVidia GeForce GTX 285M 1GB DDR3
• HDD: 2 x 500GB HDD (1TB total)
• RAM: 6GB DDR3 Dual-Channel
• Optical Drive: Super-Multi DVD+RW
• Ports: USB 2.0 x 3, VGA, HDMI, eSATA, SD Card Reader
• Wireless Connection: WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1
• Battery: 7800mah 6-cell Li-Ion
• Weight: 7.7 lbs.

No related posts.

I’ve been playing with it for the past couple of weeks now and here’s my review of this laptop.

Design

The lid of the Aspire 4740 has a simple, glossy, dark blue coating. No textures or patterns but still looks classy. The palm rest on the inside however, has a bluish gray textured finish (see photos below).

The circular power button on the upper left portion emits a blue glow to add a bit of personality to this basic laptop.

The keyboard looks like that of their Timeline series and the layout is pretty standard which is good. The keys are evenly spaced and provides good tactile feedback. The Home, Pg Up, Pg Dn and End keys on the rightmost side also alternate as multimedia controls. I didn’t have any problems typing this review on this laptop.

On the right side are six very useful buttons. One quick-button where you can assign an application or a website. WiFi button that also blinks when you’re connected to a WLAN. A Bluetooth button. A one-key button to launch Acer Backup Manager. And finally, the most useful buttons, volume control.

The touchpad has a dedicated scroll area on the right which I like and it can also handle multi-touch gestures. The only drawback for me is the rocker which is slightly recessed and far from the edge making it hard to click with the side of your thumb. There’s also a button to toggle the touchpad on or off in case you’re going to do a lot of typing.

Display and Audio

The LED glossy display can do a maximum of 1366 x 768 resolution which is pretty standard for 14-inchers these days. Glare is expected in this type of display and viewing angles are a bit limited.

I also have to mention that there’s no indicator for brightness so you have to play it by sight if you’re going to adjust the brightness setting.

The top part of the keyboard is dedicated to the speaker which is powered by Dolby Home Theater with Virtual Surround Sound. It’s not that powerful really when left on its own but you will appreciate it once you put on a pair of headset. I highly recommend it especially when you’re watching movies with a lot of “oomph”.

The Crystal Eye webcam is optimized for low-light video chatting and you know what? It works! I compared it with my netbook’s standard cam and this one gives better results in a low-light setting.

Performance

This Acer Aspire 4740 comes with a 64-bit Windows 7 Home Basic OS and powered by an Intel Core i5 430M (2.26GHz) processor. Sad thing that the default RAM is only at 2GB. Upgrade to 4GB immediately to maximize the 64-bit OS. Anyway, here’s its Windows Experience Index:

Comparing it to the previously reviewed Core i5 laptop from Neo (B4105), the Aspire 4740’s processor seems to be well-used at a score of 6.7. Or maybe we have to attribute it to the 64-bit OS? Real-life usage won’t show much difference anyhow.

If you’re not familiar with the difference between a Core i3 and a Core i5 processor. It’s the Turbo Boost Technology which allows a Core i5 to automatically overclock a single core when needed and if other cores are not being used. Pretty useful really for applications that do not utilize multiple processing threads.

Facebook games and YouTube HD are being handled really well. One thing I noticed is the slow boot time. For a fresh laptop, it takes a minute and 10 seconds to launch an application. I’m not sure if it’s due to Windows 7 or the bunch of Acer crapwares that are installed by default but my 2 year-old netbook running on Windows XP boots faster.

Battery Life

Common problems with powerful laptops such as this is the toll it takes on the battery. The Aspire 4740’s 4400mah 6-cell battery doesn’t help that cause either.

Here’s what BatteryBar has to say about it:

It says that the battery can give you 3 hours and 48 minutes on a single charge. To try it out, I employed my primitive but effective way of testing a laptop’s battery life. WiFi always on, brightness at medium setting, browsing, playing Facebook games and watching YouTube vids, I was only able to get 2.5 hours out of it. You can probably squeeze 3 hours max on light to regular consumption.

Heat isn’t an issue with the Aspire 4740 which is nice for a Core i5. It gets warm but its very tolerable even when it’s plugged in and charging.

Conclusion

Well what can I say? It’s a very basic Core i5 laptop. I would want a more powerful battery on it and maybe a couple GB more RAM but it’s a decent choice for an everyday laptop. Do note that you can sprout bigger biceps lugging this 2.3kg baby around.

What I really like about it is the surround sound. I kid you not, you should really try it out with a pair of headsets. Oh and the low-light webcam is very nice as well if you often do video-chats with relatives.

The price is a little bit on the high-end for a basic Core i5 laptop. Villman priced it at Php40,900 but there should be better deals in other stores.

Local price: Php40,900

Specs:

• Processor: Intel® Core i5 430M Dual Core Processor (2.26 GHz)
• OS: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Basic (64-bit)
• Display: 14″ WXGA (1366 x 768, Glare Type)
• Graphics: Integrated Intel® GMA HD
• HDD: 320 GB HDD
• RAM: 2GB DDR3
• Optical Drive: Super-Multi DVD+RW
• Ports: USB 2.0 x 3, VGA, HDMI, SD/MS Card Reader
• Wireless Connection: WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1
• Battery: 4400mah 6-cell Li-Ion
• Weight: 4.8 lbs.

Related posts:

1. Acer Aspire 4553G Review
2. Acer Aspire One D150 Review
3. Acer Aspire One 721 Ultraportable

Design

On the outside, the NEO B4105 is coated with a scratch-resistant film with horizontal line patterns. It’s the only thing that gives the B4105 some sense of style because on the inside it’s as basic as it gets. It is quite thin compared to their previous line of  Basic laptops.

Although the design inside is plain black, it doesn’t look that cheap at all. The inside, including the keyboard, reminds me of the Acer Timeline but without any additional coating whatsoever.

The keyboard is also plain yet functional. Each keys are in their usual position and NEO didn’t get flashy by adding more keys or changing the size on some. Think default layout and size which is good in my book.

My only complain with the keyboard is the uneven tactile feedback that I get. It maybe isolated to this unit but pressing some keys doesn’t quite feel the same as the others.

The touchpad features a single rocker for the right and left click buttons which reminds me of a black MacBook. However, it is positioned far from the edge that the thumb doesn’t naturally fall on the rocker’s position. Multi-touch is quite sensitive that I find myself accidentally zooming my display in and out quite often while typing.

Ports are pretty standard. There are three USB 2.0, an HDMI, VGA, LAN and the useless modem line port. The DVD-RW drive feels like it isn’t screwed tight so better check yours before you buy.

Display & Audio

The 14” glare-type display gives you a 1366 x 768 screen resolution which is standard for its size. Watching YouTube HD trailers here was quite a treat. It doesn’t look viewable outdoors though.

There’s no visible speaker but audio is quite loud for the B4105 which was a surprise. Audio seems to be coming out from underneath and all available holes. I had no problem listening to the movie inside a room even if a TV is on at the same time.

Performance

The NEO B4150 comes with a Windows 7 Home Basic 32-bit OS. I ran the Windows Experience Index like I usually do and here’s what I got.

I was surprised with the low subscore for its class on the graphics component considering that the MSI CR420 Core i3 laptop got a 4.5 on that area. I even tried rerunning the Experience Index but got the same results. The other subscores however are as expected.

Just like Core i3’s, a Core i5 is capable of HyperThreading which allows it to handle four processing threads at once making it a pseudo-quad core. However, an advantage of Core i5 laptops over the Core i3’s is the TurboBoost Technology which automatically overclocks the processor when needed and if the temperature permits.

This makes a good laptop to do some light video editing or media conversion. I was able to convert a 2:31 1080p movie trailer to iPod Touch format in 1:33 using CyberLink’s MediaShow Espresso. A 40-minute 350MB TV series was converted in less than 17 minutes.

Playing Facebook games and watching HD Flash videos were handled pretty well which is what I would expect from a Core i5 processor.

I have to mention here that the NEO B4105 gets awfully warm on the left side underneath the chassis after an hour’s use with or without the battery plugged in. It’s quite common from laptops manufactured two or three years ago but something I seldom encounter with newer laptops.

Battery Life

One glaring issue I have with the NEO B4105 is the single-charge life of its 4400maH 6-cell Li-Ion battery. It’s one of the most important thing that I look for in a laptop.

Here’s what BatteryBar has to say about it.

It says that the included 6-cell battery can only run for 2:19 hours on a single charge. I did my primitive test of draining the battery. With WiFi always on, Bluetooth off and Brightness at 50%, I used the laptop doing regular tasks. Writing, surfing the net, played a little in Facebook and watching movies while downloading. On a single charge, the NEO B4105 only gave me around 2.5 hours of usage before the battery ran out.

I don’t know if it’s because of the powerful Core i5 processor but if there’s an option to upgrade the battery to a higher capacity then you should go for it unless you want to stay connected to a power source most of the time.

Conclusion

The NEO B4105 is quite a decent powerful laptop for its price. If you can live with the heat issue and the short battery life, you can be contented with this one. However, be sure to try out every aspect of the unit first especially its physical parts. Based on the unit sent here, I don’t think this one went through a rigid quality test. Or maybe I’m just too fussy when it comes to gadgets?

Anyhow, what concerns most people buying NEO laptops is the poor quality of support that they are getting. NEO reps assured us that they have improved their support service. No need to wait a long time for available parts especially on their new line of laptops. They’re even planning on lending a replacement unit if repair would take a while.

Local Price: Php35,999

Specs:

• Processor: Intel® Core i5 430M Dual Core Processor (2.27 GHz)
• OS: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Basic (32-bit)
• Display: 14″ WXGA (1366 x 768, Glare Type)
• Graphics: Integrated Intel® HD
• HDD: 320 GB HDD
• RAM: 2GB DDR3
• Optical Drive: Super-Multi DVD+RW
• Ports: USB 2.0 x 3, VGA, HDMI, SD/MS Card Reader, ExpressCard
• Wireless Connection: WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1
• Battery: 4400mah 6-cell Li-Ion
• Weight: 4.8 lbs.

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