Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Nikon D800 slips out for an early bird preview, to be officially unveiled tomorrow
Toshiba Satellite U840 goes official for Australia, still waiting on its US passport
Canon unveils new PowerShot A-Series cameras, brings image stabilization to its entry-level
Canon welcomes ELPH 530 HS / 320 HS, SX260 HS and D20 to PowerShot lineup
Those who roll Rear Window style may want to check out Canon's new SX260 HS, which packs a 25mm wide-angle lens that boasts up to 20x optical zoom. Like the latest ELPH's, it also offers the DIGIC 5 processor and captures 1080p video. Unique to the SX260 HS, it features GPS for location tagging and a burst shooting mode that captures a continuous 10.3 frames per second. It'll be available in March for $349 and is set to come in black, green and red finishes. Lastly, the D20 offers up a few ruggedized features for outdoor enthusiasts. It features underwater shooting abilities (including a specific macro mode), and is also said to be shock-proof and freeze-proof -- no mention of it tolerating heat, though. The D20 incorporates a 12.1 megapixel sensor, captures 1080p video and features a 5x optical zoom lens. It also offers GPS, but unlike the other cameras here, it uses the DIGIC 4 image processor. If you're considering the D20 for your next adventure, it'll be available in May for $349. You'll discover more about these four additions in the PR, after the break.
Nokia Lumia 800 to be available in white
The Nokia Lumia 800, dubbed the first real Windows Phone has been turning heads, ever since it was launched, back in October. It's currently available in cyan, magenta and black colours. We weren’t overly impressed with the phone per se, but neither did it do too badly.
Like this?
Now, the time is white for the Nokia Lumia 800’s fourth colour. And here it is, finally dressed in snow-white. In this colour, the polycarbonate unibody case offsets the curved ClearBlack touch screen. It has a minimalist colour scheme to emphasise the simplicity of the phone’s design, allowing the live Windows tiles and images on the display to appear brighter and without distractions. And, it adds a fourth choice to the Nokia Lumia 800 package in stores.
We’d seen the N9 have a similar design and now the Nokia Lumia 800 follows suit. This is no spray-on finish. Like the other Nokia Lumia 800’s colours, the unibody polycarbonate is dyed all the way through and milled like metal to give it the high-tech feel. And, like all Nokia Lumia 800s, this white edition has all the features of that the other 800s have, including Web browsing, apps, music, Nokia Drive (the free turn-by-turn navigation system), and Nokia Maps. The white Nokia Lumia 800 is due to be rolled out first in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Finland, Poland and Switzerland, with other countries to follow.
Snow white
What distinguishes the white Nokia Lumia is that it’s white right through – a process that involves working with the best dye houses in the world to source a proper pigment, and then stir it into the polycarbonate liquid to make a mould. According to their designers, the concept of a white phone evolved from the identity of the N9 and Lumia series. Colour and material designer Tiina Aarras was inspired by the CMYK colour group used in printing. What makes the crispness of printing colours stand out is the whiteness of the paper. The exact ingredients, and making, of the white Lumia 800 is, of course, a closely guarded secret – but their designers worked through hundreds of variations. A phone is not just a design icon, but something that is used and handled dozens of times a day. In layman’s terms – it gets dirty. Of all colours white is perhaps the most pure, profound and definite.
Galaxy S III rumoured to measure 7mm in depth
There are several rumours floating around regarding the upcoming flagship handset from Samsung. The most prominent of these rumours have been speculations on the launch of the Galaxy S III at the Mobile World Conference event at Barcelona. However, Samsung has confirmed that they will not announce the handset at this year’s MWC event and instead unveil the smartphone at a later date. Samsung stated, “The successor to the Galaxy S2 smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product.” This, however, doesn’t stop the rumours from flowing in with the latest one being that it will be 7mm at its thinnest.
As per a report by OLED-Display, the website states, “Samsung announced that the new Galaxy S3 has only 7 mm thickness. They can reach the goal because the printed circuit board (PCB), connector parts, chips can be produced 10 to 20 percent thinner than conventional parts. The S3 has also a HDMI port a quad core processor LTE and Android 4.0 says our source.” This gives us a bit of more information on what the handset will feature. We already knew in the past that this will be a quad-core handset and it was rumoured to have a HD resolution display, along with a 12MP camera.
Apart from this, a related report by GSMArena who have got information through Korean news site, ETNews states that there may be more than one version of the Samsung Galaxy S III with the others said to feature a 3D Display and with one supporting a stylus. The report goes on to add there may be as many as seven variants of the Galaxy S III that may be announced this year.
Though the handset may measure a mere 7mm in depth, it is expected to retain the bump for the camera, which was found on the Galaxy S II making its thinness inconsistent throughout the length of the device. As the rumours keep on flooding in, lets hope that the launch date is sooner than later, as the handset is expected to hit shelves by May.
Just 7mm at it's slimmest (Image Mock Up)
As per a report by OLED-Display, the website states, “Samsung announced that the new Galaxy S3 has only 7 mm thickness. They can reach the goal because the printed circuit board (PCB), connector parts, chips can be produced 10 to 20 percent thinner than conventional parts. The S3 has also a HDMI port a quad core processor LTE and Android 4.0 says our source.” This gives us a bit of more information on what the handset will feature. We already knew in the past that this will be a quad-core handset and it was rumoured to have a HD resolution display, along with a 12MP camera.
Apart from this, a related report by GSMArena who have got information through Korean news site, ETNews states that there may be more than one version of the Samsung Galaxy S III with the others said to feature a 3D Display and with one supporting a stylus. The report goes on to add there may be as many as seven variants of the Galaxy S III that may be announced this year.
Though the handset may measure a mere 7mm in depth, it is expected to retain the bump for the camera, which was found on the Galaxy S II making its thinness inconsistent throughout the length of the device. As the rumours keep on flooding in, lets hope that the launch date is sooner than later, as the handset is expected to hit shelves by May.
Asus U32U Review
We’ve got neatly classified genres in laptops, notebooks – the normal ones, ultrabooks – ultra thin, but ultra expensive, and netbooks – cheap and portable, but relatively small and with lesser power. But, what do you get when there’s a cross between the good points of an ultrabook and a netbook. Yes, something that’s not too small, not too expensive and is quite thin. You get something that looks like the new Asus U32U notebook. But, does this one withstand our litmus test? Let’s find out.
Design and Build Quality
The U32U comes dressed up in a dual tone colour of silver and black. The exterior has a matte finish to it, so fingerprints aren’t too much of a problem. The interiors have also been well designed. The U32U has a demure, modest look with the shades they’ve chosen, but that doesn’t make it any less appealing.
The left side consists of a USB 2.0 slot, an HDMI slot, and a VGA port along with a heatsink vent. The right consists of a Kensington lock, the power slot, an Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 slots, a headphone jack, the SD card slot and a microphone jack. The inclusion of an Ethernet port is good news, as the laptop tapers out towards the end. But this form factor also means that the DVD writer slot needs to be eliminated.
The LCD panel has some good support with two sturdy hinges. They’re quite strong and tough and offer some good resistance to the screen wobbling problem that we so often see in laptops. The 13.3-inch screen itself has been reinforced pretty well from all sides. It’s thin, but durable. There’s some good amount of metal on the bottom panel as well.
The design may appear to be plain to some, but it didn’t disappoint us one bit. Also, the thin profile gives the U32U that oomph, which we mostly reserve only for Ultrabooks, like the Zenbook UX31, we reviewed earlier. Obviously, it’s not as thin as that one, but we’ll suggest you have a look at the price tags before you complain. In terms of build as well, the UX32U impressed us quite a lot.
Features
The notebook is powered by an AMD E-450 APU at a clock speed of 1.65 GHz. It’s got a whopping 8GB (!) of RAM and a 320GB hard disk. The U32U comes with an integrated graphics card – the AMD Radeon HD 6320 and has a display resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. Connectivity options, include a camera, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth. All this is held together by the 64-bit Windows 7 operating system.
The U32U comes with a few pre-installed software. There’s the AMD VISION engine control centre that’s basically your one stop shop for all your tweakings and settings. It’s got a range of presets also including – gaming, battery saver and web browsing. Asus also have included a few utility softwares, including USB charger plus, a recovery app, boot optimizer software and a secure delete application. It’s well loaded with the basic stuff you’ll require to configure and manage your laptop.
Performance
The boot up times didn’t impress us, it took us roughly 47 seconds to log onto Windows. Memory heavy applications might slow down the laptop a little, but for light usage like surfing and viewing content, the laptop works just fine. The viewing angles are pretty decent as well. The speakers are loud enough for personal usage.
The U32U has a standard-sized keyboard, without a numpad. The keys have the right amount of feedback and the chiclet-styled keyboard ensures some pretty long hours of typing without any discomfort. There’s ample space below the keyboard as well. The trackpad is quick and responsive, but the keys are rather hard, so you’ll have to get used to that. In our tests, the laptop didn’t face any heating problems, so that’s a plus. It’s got a slim profile and is definitely more portable than your average notebook.
We put the laptop under a couple of synthetic tests as well and here’s what the scores look like.
We also compared it to the MSI U270-powered by the E-350 and they both pretty much compete with each other. The Asus won in the CPU arithmetic scores, while the MSI won in PC Mark Vantage. In real world tests, the MSI did noticeably better in our video encoding tests. The MSI recorded 8 mins 40 seconds, while the U323U did it in a time period of 5 mins 39 seconds, and it’s lower the better in that test. In POVRay, the ASUS laptop came out on top clocking in 1 min 29 seconds, as compared to 1 min 34 seconds that the MSI recorded.
Battery Life
The Asus U32U is strapped with a rather powerful battery (and a slower processor, which means better battery life, anyway). In our high performance, more enabled, Battery Eater Pro test, the laptop gave us a full 3 hours and 21 minutes of battery life before giving way. That’s quite impressive, but you do have to remember the processor it’s powering. Under normal usage, you’ll easily be able to get more than six hours on your laptop, which means your traveling and on-the-go options are pretty much taken care of.
Verdict
The Asus U32U notebook with 8GB of RAM is priced at Rs.34,990. Alternatively, you do get a 2GB model for Rs.30,990 with DOS pre-installed. Anyway, back to this model that we reviewed - it’s quite pricey, because you’re paying quite a bit for the processing power equivalent to a netbook. True, you’re getting more estate space, but that’s about it. The Lenovo Z570 and G570 might be a little more bulkier and may vary slightly with the price, but they’ve got a much faster processor. If the U32U would have been priced around 30k, it would have made for a much better buy. Right now, it’s just a netbook that's a tad expensive with a bigger display. At this price tag, we’d recommend you consider the other options.
Notebook?Netbook?
Design and Build Quality
The U32U comes dressed up in a dual tone colour of silver and black. The exterior has a matte finish to it, so fingerprints aren’t too much of a problem. The interiors have also been well designed. The U32U has a demure, modest look with the shades they’ve chosen, but that doesn’t make it any less appealing.
Connectivity ports on the right
The left side consists of a USB 2.0 slot, an HDMI slot, and a VGA port along with a heatsink vent. The right consists of a Kensington lock, the power slot, an Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 slots, a headphone jack, the SD card slot and a microphone jack. The inclusion of an Ethernet port is good news, as the laptop tapers out towards the end. But this form factor also means that the DVD writer slot needs to be eliminated.
The LCD panel has some good support with two sturdy hinges. They’re quite strong and tough and offer some good resistance to the screen wobbling problem that we so often see in laptops. The 13.3-inch screen itself has been reinforced pretty well from all sides. It’s thin, but durable. There’s some good amount of metal on the bottom panel as well.
No heating problems
The design may appear to be plain to some, but it didn’t disappoint us one bit. Also, the thin profile gives the U32U that oomph, which we mostly reserve only for Ultrabooks, like the Zenbook UX31, we reviewed earlier. Obviously, it’s not as thin as that one, but we’ll suggest you have a look at the price tags before you complain. In terms of build as well, the UX32U impressed us quite a lot.
Features
The notebook is powered by an AMD E-450 APU at a clock speed of 1.65 GHz. It’s got a whopping 8GB (!) of RAM and a 320GB hard disk. The U32U comes with an integrated graphics card – the AMD Radeon HD 6320 and has a display resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. Connectivity options, include a camera, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth. All this is held together by the 64-bit Windows 7 operating system.
Slim profile
The U32U comes with a few pre-installed software. There’s the AMD VISION engine control centre that’s basically your one stop shop for all your tweakings and settings. It’s got a range of presets also including – gaming, battery saver and web browsing. Asus also have included a few utility softwares, including USB charger plus, a recovery app, boot optimizer software and a secure delete application. It’s well loaded with the basic stuff you’ll require to configure and manage your laptop.
Performance
The boot up times didn’t impress us, it took us roughly 47 seconds to log onto Windows. Memory heavy applications might slow down the laptop a little, but for light usage like surfing and viewing content, the laptop works just fine. The viewing angles are pretty decent as well. The speakers are loud enough for personal usage.
Brilliant keyboard
The U32U has a standard-sized keyboard, without a numpad. The keys have the right amount of feedback and the chiclet-styled keyboard ensures some pretty long hours of typing without any discomfort. There’s ample space below the keyboard as well. The trackpad is quick and responsive, but the keys are rather hard, so you’ll have to get used to that. In our tests, the laptop didn’t face any heating problems, so that’s a plus. It’s got a slim profile and is definitely more portable than your average notebook.
We put the laptop under a couple of synthetic tests as well and here’s what the scores look like.
Benchmark chart
We also compared it to the MSI U270-powered by the E-350 and they both pretty much compete with each other. The Asus won in the CPU arithmetic scores, while the MSI won in PC Mark Vantage. In real world tests, the MSI did noticeably better in our video encoding tests. The MSI recorded 8 mins 40 seconds, while the U323U did it in a time period of 5 mins 39 seconds, and it’s lower the better in that test. In POVRay, the ASUS laptop came out on top clocking in 1 min 29 seconds, as compared to 1 min 34 seconds that the MSI recorded.
A comparison chart
Battery Life
The Asus U32U is strapped with a rather powerful battery (and a slower processor, which means better battery life, anyway). In our high performance, more enabled, Battery Eater Pro test, the laptop gave us a full 3 hours and 21 minutes of battery life before giving way. That’s quite impressive, but you do have to remember the processor it’s powering. Under normal usage, you’ll easily be able to get more than six hours on your laptop, which means your traveling and on-the-go options are pretty much taken care of.
Worth a buy?
Verdict
The Asus U32U notebook with 8GB of RAM is priced at Rs.34,990. Alternatively, you do get a 2GB model for Rs.30,990 with DOS pre-installed. Anyway, back to this model that we reviewed - it’s quite pricey, because you’re paying quite a bit for the processing power equivalent to a netbook. True, you’re getting more estate space, but that’s about it. The Lenovo Z570 and G570 might be a little more bulkier and may vary slightly with the price, but they’ve got a much faster processor. If the U32U would have been priced around 30k, it would have made for a much better buy. Right now, it’s just a netbook that's a tad expensive with a bigger display. At this price tag, we’d recommend you consider the other options.
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