Friday 23 December 2011

Distro Issue 19: Peter Rojas plays 20 questions and Zach Honig boards Boeing's 787 Dreamliner

If you caught our release of Distro for Android tablets, you know we're in the mood for giving. In keeping with that sentiment, issue 19 ushers in two new weekly (and exclusive) features: "Recommended Reading," a guide to the best writing happening outside of our fine publication(s), and "Q&A," our take on the Proust questionnaire, answered this week by Engadget founder Peter Rojas. Of course no issue of Distro would be complete without a generous collection of reviews, and this one's packed full: Zach Honig takes a ride on Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, Richard Lai covers Meizu's MX, Dana Wollman puts Samsung's Series 7 Slate PC through its paces, Tim Stevens tackles the Motorola Xyboard 8.2 and last, but most definitely not least, we examine Verizon's LTE Galaxy Nexus. It may not be your own private Watson, but it might just give you something to do between swigs of eggnog. So hit the appropriate download link and enjoy.

Asus Zenbook UX31 Review

Ultrabooks are slowly, but surely getting into the notebook segment, as they are emphasizing more on the key aspect of a laptop, i.e. ‘portability’, than previous gen notebooks. However, as this segment is still in its nascent stages, Ultrabooks are selling at ‘ultra’ high prices. Asus has announced the launch of its latest Ultrabook, the Zenbook UX31. We put it through its paces in our labs and let’s have a look at how it fares.
13.3 inch screen with a 1600 x 900 res!!
13.3 inch screen with a 1600 x 900 res!!


Design and Build Quality
The UX31 looks quite stunning with the all metal finish. It’s thin, tapering, stylish and can be easily mistaken for a laptop sleeve. The exterior sports a similar concentric circle design as the Transformer Prime. There’s a tiny rubber casing that runs across the full length of the flap. The matte silver around the keyboard adds to the look and the entire laptop is practically fingerprint free. There’s ample handrest below the keyboard and very little elevation, so it’s comfortable for long hours of typing, but we’ll delve further into that in our performance section.
Dangerously thin
Dangerously thin


It’s extremely thin and only the most important ports have been included. The right consists of the power slot, the USB 3.0, the micro HDMI slot and the mini VGA slot, whereas the SD card reader, second USB slot and the headphone jack are located to the left. The heat sink is located at the back. We have mixed feelings about the build of the Zenbook, though. The power slot is extremely delicate and wobbly when the charger is connected. So much so, that a slight push or nudge might just break the connector or the port. The hinge, however, is surprisingly sturdy and the only time it does feel a bit loose is when you turn the flap to its max position. The area around the LCD has been reinforced well with the aluminium casing, but the LCD itself does feel a little cheap and the panel doesn’t seem to be of the best quality.
The connectivity ports on the side
The connectivity ports on the side


In terms of design, the Zenbook clearly holds its own in this huge market full of similar looking laptops. However, build quality could have been better.

Features
The 13.3 inch UX31 Zenbook has quite a high resolution of 1600 x 900 and is powered by an Intel Core i7 – 2677M CPU running at a frequency of 1.8GHz. There’s 4GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and Intel’s integrated HD Graphics card 3000 onboard. All this is kept together by the 64 bit Windows 7 Home basic operating system. The UX31 comes with the latest Bluetooth Radio 4.0 + HS, Wi-Fi b/g/n, a webcam and Bang and Olufsen ICE power speakers.
Hinge is sturdy
Hinge is sturdy


The laptop comes pre-installed with various utility software - a virtual camera app, a secure delete application, a power management utility, a driver update app and a Live Update software. You wouldn't find yourself using them, too often, still they’re pretty good in terms of functionality.

Speaking about portability, the bundled adapter is quite miniscule and compact, unlike the bulkier ones we see often. Also, Asus has acknowledged that users might require a LAN port or a VGA port over a period of time, and have bundled them along with the Ultrabook. It’s basically a USB to LAN port and a USB to VGA port, so all those complaints about Ultrabooks missing some crucial ports have been put to rest.


Performance
Boot up times are exceptionally quick, at an average of sixteen seconds, so you’ll be started off with your work within no time. The brightness levels of the laptop are brilliant, infact they’re almost blinding even if you’re in a low light environment. Naturally, they do have a direct impact on your battery life, so it’s best that the laptop functions at fifty percent brightness, because it’s not too hard on the eyes, and does not consume too much of the battery. The Bang and Olufsen ICEpower speakers flex their muscles when you’ll play media content on the UX31. They’re quite loud and will cater well for personal usage.

Keyboard leaves a lot to be desired
Keyboard leaves a lot to be desired


The trackpad is the biggest flaw of this notebook. The keys are normal-sized, but the feedback is extremely poor. More often that not, key presses weren’t registered and as compared to most other laptops, we just couldn’t type quickly on the keyboard without making errors. That said, probably it could be just an issue with our test unit, but the trackpad did leave a lot to be desired. The trackpad isn’t as bad as the keyboard, but it isn’t one of the smoothest ones, either. It borders a little on the erratic side and maneuvering using the trackpad isn’t exactly quick. Also, it’s placed bang in the centre, so you’ll have to be careful to not accidentally register touches, while typing.
Looks like the T. Prime from top
Looks like the T. Prime from top


The biggest problem with ultra thin laptops is heating. However, the Zenbook does a brilliant job at managing that and the brilliant heat dissipation ensures that the laptop doesn't get too hot when you’re using it. We put the laptop through a couple of synthetic tests and the SSD clearly flexes its muscles. We’ve compared it to the Lenovo U300s Ultrabook we reviewed earlier and we compared the scores in the chart below.

A good performer
A good performer


Battery Life
The Zenbook UX31 comes with a powerful 50Whrs non-removable battery. In our Battery Eater Pro test, the notebook cranked out 3 hours and 40 minutes of non-stop usage with performance and brightness settings maxed out, which is definitely an impressive feat. Under normal usage, you will easily be able to double that to around six and a half hours.
The Zenbook UX31
The Zenbook UX31


Verdict
The Zenbook UX31 is priced at Rs. 89,999 (MRP). For those on-the-go; a powerful battery coupled with portability is always a brilliant feature to have in your laptop and the Zenbook does exactly that. However, the biggest drawback the UX31 has is the glitchy keyboard and trackpad. If you’re paying big bucks for a notebook, you’d pretty much get at least a decent keyboard. In comparison to the Lenovo U300s, this one definitely has better looks and performance. But, simply for the want of a better keyboard and trackpad, we would recommend the U300s over the Zenbook UX31.

Nokia brings back Snake this Xmas season

Remember that classic game, Snake? The game that got many of us hooked to our old Nokia mobile phones, which we played day and night. For most of you out there, memories of this game bring back some nostalgic moments and we certainly wondered why Nokia decided to phase it out. This Christmas season, however Nokia has decided to bring it back via an app on their Facebook page.

Enjoy the classic game once more

Enjoy the classic game once more



The game is a lot more colourful, than it was back then. Instead of eating rodents, the snake now eats Xmas gifts. For those who had missed out on the game, which featured on virtually all Nokia phones before, the game allowed the player to maneuver a snake by pressing four navigational buttons. The aim of this game was to eat as many rodents as possible, without accidentally touching the four walls or biting a part of the snake. In the Facebook iteration of the game, it features the new tile look, which Nokia uses now. With this version, the colourful snake goes on to gobble on Christmas gifts. Like the old version, one cannot accidentally hit the wall or eat a part of the snake.

This is a festive app and once you accidentally lose the game, you can quickly start over. You can also share your score with your friends on Facebook or challenge friends to a game. One however, would need to have Adobe Flash installed on their PC to play it. This game, as mentioned before is highly addictive.

HTC EVO View 4G on Sprint Finally Sees Its Honeycomb Update

There is a major update headed out to the HTC EVO View 4G (aka Flyer) on Sprint. The tablet shipped Gingerbread, but is now making the upgrade to Honeycomb 3.2.1.

Right now, in order to make the upgrade you have to manually get things started, but Sprint will start pushing it out to users sometime early next year. The transition from Gingerbread to Honeycomb is obviously more convoluted than most, and you'll have to put up with a few inconveniences, like losing the way your home screen is set up.


With Honeycomb installed, you'll start navigating throughout the OS using its onscreen virtual Android buttons, with hardware capacitive set now disable. One of the EVO View 4G's most interesting features is its support for HTC's Scribe stylus, and this update greatly enhances its use. Post-update, you'll be able to use it for input all across the operating system, free from previous limitations.


Besides the big Honeycomb changes, there are few little device-specific bugfixes, and some behind-the-scene changes that will really only interest those administering EVO View 4Gs for a corporate IT department. To get started with the update, head to your System Updates menu and check to see if it's available.