Nexus 10

The Nexus 10 uses a micro-USB port to charge it, and that is obviously not a very efficient way to charge a powerful, high-end tablet. Charging the Nexus 10 overnight will not be a problem, but if you're in a hurry, you're in trouble.

Why might the Nexus 10 be the next top Android tablet? Well, maybe because it has a beautiful screen, with a display sharper than most tablets, and is probably the most comfortable 10-inch tablet to hold in your hand. It's durable enough to survive a drop from a few feet away. It is also the very first Android tablet to run 4.2, which brings with it a ton of new features.

The Nexus 10 has an incrediblely sharp screen display, it is light, convenient, durable, and of course, has the fastest processor of any Android tablet so far. Google's new features are improving and much more diverse.

Though the Nexus 10 might not be better than the newest generations of the iPad, it is still one of the top tablets on the market. If you don't plan on owning an Apple product/device, then the Nexus 10 should be one of your first priorities.



Design

The Nexus 10 is an excellently designed 10-inch tablet, and only weighing in at 1.33 pounds. Due to its light weight and its rounded edges, the Nexus 10 doesn't dig into your palms when your holding it. The back feels grippy and comfortable to hold, and as a bonus, also acts like protection for the Nexus 10 itself.

On the left side of the device is the headphone jack and micro-USB charging port. And, on the left corner is is the power/lock button and volume buttons. Lastly, on the right edge, is the micro-HDMI port, with a Pogo Pin charger on the bottom edge.

Along the top of the tablet's back is a textured strip, which is also removable. Sitting in the center of the textured strip is a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera, next to an LED flash and a mic. And on the front, in the middle of the top bezel sits the 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera and a light sensor. Of course, smack in the middle back of the Nexus 10 is the Nexus logo.

Hardware

-1.7 GHz dual-core Exynos 5250 CPU

-Mali T-604 graphics processor

-2GB of RAM

-support for 802.11 b/g/n (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), MIMO Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and NFC

-Gyroscope, barometer, accelerometer, digtal compass

Screen

The Nexus 10's PLS display is the best by far on any Android tablet and its amazing to look at. Truthfully, it is difficult to see a difference between the Nexus 10's beautiful display and the new iPad's 2048x1536-pixel Retina Display. Images are sharp on both tablets, and it can be hard to distinguish which one is clearer dispite the fact that the Nexus 10's display is a 2560x1600-pixel resolution.



Performance

The Nexus 10 is the fastest Android tablet so far. Navigating menus and opening apps shouldn't be a problem for you, and keeping up the constant speed of its performance and its high-resolution display shows the power of its Exynos processor.

Screen responsiveness has been built to be incredibly accurate and sharp. Pages and slides scroll by as you swipe and taps are almost never accidentally misread. Typing is also much more accurate than other tablets, including the iPad. Because of its size, the Nexus 10 gives your fingers more freedom.

The tablet charges by using a micro-USB port, and though it charges fine, its very, very slow. The charger has a hard time keeping up charging enough battery for you to play certain graphic-intense games, like Riptide GP and/or N.O.V.A. 3.

Conclusion

The Nexus 10 is an incredible Android tablet, even though it does has some troublesome issues, such as using a micro-USB port for charging. You'll probably want an iPad instead, but if you're going for Android, this could be perfect for you. Though you might want to get an Asus Transformer Infinity instead, the Nexus 10 is still superior in design, comfort and performance.

Google Nexus 7

The Nexus 7 has a relatively low price, an incredible battery life for prolonged use, a sharp screen with an excellent display, and topped off with a complete and open Android 4.2 software, and overall, the Nexus 7 is probably the best tablet you can get, even for its low price.

     

Even after so many months ever since its release, the Nexus 7 is still one of the top-selling tablets. The 8GB version is no longer available, and it starts at $199 for a 16GB version, and $249 gets you the 32GB version of the Nexus 7, add $50 to that and you get a 32GB Nexus 7 with HSPA+.

Design

Other than the SIM card slot and a heavier weight, the HSPA+ version of the Nexus 7 is pretty much identical to its Wi-Fi-only version. The Nexus 7 has a nice and grippy back texture for it, and though it might not seem like much, it will probably be one of the most comfortable tablets to hold in your hand. Along the borders of the Nexus 7 is a thin bezel, but thicker on the top and bottom of the Nexus 7.

The Nexus 7 is also significantly lighter than the Kindle Fire HD and some other tablets. It  has approximately the same thickness as the Kindle Fire and just a tad bit thinner than the Nook. The 1.2 megapixel camera of the Nexus 7 sits on the front of the Nexus, on the right edge near the top is the power/lock button, and close to that is the volume button. And on the bottom of the Nexus 7, is a headphone jack and and of course, a micro-USB port in the middle. Above that on the back of the device is the speaker strip, and the HSPA+ version has a micro SIM card slot near the middle left of the device.

Unfortunately, there is no way of memory expansion, and no back camera. The exclusion of these features is probably a money-saving measure, which is also why the Nexus 7 is a lot more inexpensive than most other tablets who have those features.

Hardware 

The Nexus 7 has a 1.3 GHz Tegra 3 processor, and of course, 1GB of RAM. It also includes b/g/n Wi-Fi support, Bluetooth, accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS, and support for Android Beam.



Performance

The Nexus 7 boasts a crispy-clear 1280x800-pixel resolution IPS display, but the Kindle Fire HD still has a sharper, more vibrant screen with dramatic colors. The Nook also has a higher resolution, but that doesn't make the Nexus 7's screen seem terrible. The Nexus 7's screen is also very responsive to touch and swipe around on, but sometimes the swipes are shorter. Unfortunately, the Tegra 3 processor is beginning to fall behind. On some graphic-intense games, the frame rates were usually from fair to poor.

New iMac 2012 Review

The new iMac is is beautifully designed, with a third-generation Intel Ivy Bridge processor, Nvidia's latest graphic cards, a larger hard drive, all from the 2012 PC trend line. The new iMac is fast, great to look at, and it comes with a ton of features for its price. Anyone could easily recommend the all-new 27-inch iMac for those who want a fast, all-around computer.


-Design-

Though the iMac may look very thin from the front, there is actually an enormouse bulge on its back. Even with the bulge, the iMac still has an excellent design, and the bulge won't be noticed unless viewed at an extreme angle. Apple has made the 27-inch screen of the new iMac a lot less reflective. It's not perfect, but reflections are made more subtle and harder to notice. The design of the new iMac is surprisingly sturdy.

-Performance-

The iMac Geforce GTX 680 MX is the best mobile graphic card, and the most powerful GPU (graphics processing unit) in any all-in-one computer, other than the HP Z1. The iMac's powerful graphics card can run almost virtually anything, including some of the most demanding games for the OS X, such as the Witcher 2, at max settings.
The iMac includes a Fusion Drive, which means it has 1TB (terrabyte, or 1024GB) mechanical hard-drive and a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD), together forming about 1.2TB. The files that are used most frequently are loaded from the solid-state drive. Fusion basically speeds up application loading times, transferring of files, and just about any drive-related activity. Launching just about anything on the iMac happens almost instantly.


-Conclusion-

The design is probably the most interesting feature about the iMac. A nice, thin bezel would be nice, but apparently that doesn't speed up processing power or overall utility. This all-new 2012 iMac is probably best for hardcore/serious, performance-driven users, those who need a high resolution display, incredible graphics, and disk performance.

Acer Aspire M5 481PT: Review

With all these different types of Windows 8 computers, laptops, convertibles, clamshell, touch-screen, which do you want to buy? The Acer Aspire M5 is probably the safest bet. At only $729, the Aspire M5 still has some features Ultrabooks don't have: a 500GB hard drive and a DVD drive. The M5 also has a touch-screen, and it works just like a normal laptop with an excellent battery life.


The Aspire M5 is covered in a dark aluminum with a brushed metal effect, a lot like the Windows 7 version of the Aspire S7. 0.81 inches may not be mind blowing  but just remember that it includes a DVD drive, as well. At 4.4 pounds, it is slightly heavier than the standard weight of Ultrabooks, but it's lighter and a bit thinner than a typical midsize laptop.

For a cheaper price, you get a similar processor, hard drive, and screen resolution, more battery life, and a couple GB more of RAM. In fact, it is indeed far more affordable than the thinner and lighter Acer Aspire S7. The M5 is an excellent all-around computer, even if it doesn't have a dedicated Nvidia graphics card.

The Aspire M5 includes a large multitouch clickpad and chiclet-style keyboard, surrounded by aluminum. The upper lid feels pretty dimunitive, because at first glance you wouldn't have known its screen was a touchscreen until you landed a finger on it. Multi-touch capacitive gestures work very well on the touchscreen, finger contact is slick and precise, as if you were using an iPad. The screen resolution isn't "terrible," it's just not IPS. The quality of the picture, color, and brightness significantly deteriorates at extreme viewing angles. The lid also bends back almost 180 degrees, which allows you to get a more comfortable into a lap-friendly orientation.

The backlit keyboard is also quite comfortable; the keys have good travel and well-spaced, no keys are awkwardly misplaced or shaped. Speakers underneath the Aspire M5 have a decent sound quality so that you can enjoy a movie or stream music in a room. The speakers are decent, but not great.

The Acer Aspire M5 has dual USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, and of course, an Ethernet jack. With that is an SD card slot and headphone jack. There is also a tray-loading DVD drive on the left.

A third-generation Intel-core i5-3317U processor at 1.7 GHz packs quite a bit of power, helping you load and use Windows 8 applications zippy fast. The laptop has a 500GB hard drive, with a 20GB solid-state drive (SSD) cache for the application you use most frequently. And with 6GB of RAM (Random Access Memory), it's 2GB more than the typical-budget 4GB of RAM laptop.

Unfortunately, this laptop does not include Nvidia graphics, although the previous M5 model did. Adding the Nvidia graphics card would have completed the package completely, although the only type of person who would miss it would be a gamer.


The Acer Aspire M5 has an excellent battery life, lasting 6 hours and 2 minutes while playing back videos. Very few laptops in this category of laptops do better than the M5. Acer also includes a standard 1-year warranty.