Samsung Galaxy S4 Specs

The recently announced Samsung Galaxy S4 is one beast of a smartphone. With a powerful Quad-Core Cortex A15 and a Quad-Core Cortex A7 all in one phone, an incredible GPU, 13MP camera, this phone is truly one of the best smartphones on the market. Below are basic specifications for the smartphone.



Dimensions: 5.38x2.75x0.31 in

Weight: 130g (4.59 oz)

Display type: Super AMOLED Display

Resolution: 1080x1920 pixels, 5.0 inches, ~441 ppi

Multitouch: Enabled

Speaker: Yes

3.5 mm headjack: Yes

Memory Card Slot: Micro-SD, up to 64GB

Screen Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass

Storage: 16/32/64 GB, 2GB RAM

Bluetooth: Yes, v4.0

NFC and Infrared Port: Yes

USB: Micro-USB

Back Camera: 13MP, Resolution: 4128x3096

Front Camera: 2MP

Video: 1080p at 30FPS

OS: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean

Chipset: Exynos 5 Octa 5410

CPU: Quad-Core Cortex A15 1.6 GHz, Quad-Core Cortex A7 1.2 GHz (Both Quad-Cores in one phone)

GPU: PowerVR SGX 544MP3

Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, temperature, humidity, and gestures

Browser with: HTML 5 and Adobe Flash

Radio: Not Included

GPS: Yes

Java: Yes

S4 Colors: White Frost and Black Mist

Battery: Li-Ion 2600 mAh Battery

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2

Remember the ThinkPad Tablet that came out way back in the fall of 2011? Some people liked it, some people didn't, and the ThinkPad Tablet sold with many mixed reviews. A little less than an year and a half later, Lenovo released the ThinkPad Tablet 2, in the form of a 10.1 inch, Windows 8 OS, and it's also much lighter, its weight reduced by 0.28 pounds (1.58 down to 1.3). The battery life for the Tablet 2 lasts more than 10 hours, with the original ThinkPad Tablet at only about 8 hours.



The new ThinkPad 2 has a soft, rubber-ish feel to it, and the Tablet 2 has a slate-like feel, which is good. The ThinkPad 2 is very comfortable to hold in your hands, especially because of its rubbery surface and the rounded edges and corners. In my opinion (and probably in yours, too), the ThinkPad 2 is much more comfortable to hold, due to its soft edges, unlike other rectangular tablets, such as the first iPad. The ThinkPad 2 also includes a full-size 2.0 USB port. The ThinkPad 2 is charged using a micro-USB port.

The tablet also includes a headphone jack, pen slot, dock, HDMI output, volume button and the lock/power button. Fortunately, 4G LTE is available in the US, only with AT&T. But if you're in another country, it's HSPA+, which isn't as greate as LTE (obviously).
The ThinkPad 2 also has two incredible cameras. The front camera is a 2 mega-pixel camera used mainly for self-portraits and video chatting, while the camera on the back is an 8 mega-pixel camera, the standard for modern smartphones.

Like most other tablets, the ThinkPad 2 has a resolution of 1366 x 768. Though the pixel count might not be as impressive as other tablets, the IPS display still make it an enjoyable sight. One problem, though, the ThinkPad 2 can become extremely difficult to distinguish what's one the screen in direct sunlight outside.

Device Specs:
Device Type: Tablet

Operating System (OS): Windows 8, 8 Pro

Dimensions: 10.34 x 6.48 x 0.39 inches

Screen Size: 10.1 inches

Resolution: 1366 x 768

Pixel Density: 155 ppi

Battery: 25 days on stand-by

System Chip: Intel Atom Z2760

Processor: Dual-Core 1800 Mhz

GPU: Intel Integrated HD SGX545

RAM: 2GB (2048 M)

Max Built-in Storage: 64GB

Camera: 8 MP, 2MP

Recording Resolution: 1080p HD

Lenovo IdeaPad K900: Big Size and Big Power

The Lenovo K900 is a rather large phone, which technically makes it a "phablet", such as the Samsung Galaxy Note. The phablet is rather large, at 5.5 inches. Its screen has a 1080p display with more than 400ppi (pixels per inch). The K900's vibrant and natural colors on its screen make it a pleasure to look at. The Lenovo K900 has a thickness of 6.9 millimeters, which is not surprising for a phone this size. The stainless steel casing of the K900 gives it a rather sleek and durable feel.



The K900 sports a Z2580 2GHz dual-core processor, which is a part of the Clover Trail + platform. It also includes the Android 4.1.2 OS, an excellent 13-megapixel camera, 16GB of integrated memory, media player, and many more.

Note: The K900 has not yet been released yet.

IdeaPad Yoga 11S: Windows 8 Convertible

The famous 13-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga was one of the most popular convertible Windows 8 devices. Lenovo has also recently created a new 11-inch version of the popular IdeaPad Yoga, this time also with a Windows 8 operating system.



Shrinking down the 13-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga creates a device when in tablet mode, feels closer like an iPad or a Nexus 7 or 10 than other convertible or hybrid laptops. The Yoga 11S can also have its screen folded back approximately 270 degrees, making it like a small, touch-screen device. It's great for sharing media, such as videos, in a group.

The 11-inch Yoga 11S can have up to an Intel Core i5 processor, but only at a low voltage, which means not a ton of power. The Yoga 11S also has a pretty decent IPS display, 1600x900 pixels. Besides just the common color for tablets and laptops, black, are other colors: orange, pink and gray.

The 11-inch IdeaPa Yoga will not be available until June 2013, although the popular 13-inch IdeaPad Yoga and the 11-inch RT Yoga are still widely available. Prices for the future Yoga 11S start at an approximate price of $799. A review will be done on the new IdeaPad Yoga 11S in the near future.

Full-Voltage Into the Samsung Series 7 Chronos

Modern Ultrabooks and thin laptops are rarely seen with a with full-power processors (CPUs) and a discrete graphics card (GPU). Fortunately, the Samsung Series Chronos is an exception to the majority of those laptops and ultrabooks.



The Samsung Series 7 Chronos boasts a quad-core Intel i-Series processor, a maximum of 16GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storage, and dedicated AMD Radeon HD 8870 graphics. The screen is a 15.6-inch display that has a sharp 1920x1080-pixel resolution, which is what you would expect from such a powerful multimedia laptop.

The sharp high-resolution display is also a touch-screen, which is increasingly common in Windows 8 devices, but found more in super-thin ones than in midsize laptops. Fortunately, the Chronos is only a tad bit thicker than the average Ultrabook, at 20.9 mm. It leans a little to the heavy side, weighing in at 5.2 pounds, but its packed with power. The Series 7 Chronos also lacks an optical drive, which is something most thin laptops or Ultrabooks lack.

As of 1/3/2013, There is not yet a release date, though it should be out very soon.

Acer Aspire S7 Review: An Exceptional Ultrabook

When Acer first announced the S7 series, a series of touch-screen laptops, it was the company's first touch-screen ultrabook, and was easily the best-made by Acer. The previous S3 and S5 series were a bit boring design wise, while the S7 is made of aluminum with either a metal or Gorilla Glass lid, depending on which model you choose (11 or 13-inch).

The Aspire S7 has a 1080p IPS display, which looked very nice. With in a choice of an Intel Core i5 or an i7 processor and a RAID 0 SSD configuration, and you can easily achieve the fast performance on the S7 series. Does the $1,400 Acer ultrabook get enough things right to justify the starting price?

Made out of smooth glass, sharp edges, and cool aluminum, you can forget Acer's reputation for putting out laptops made of cheap plastic; the S7 is as nice to the touch as it is to look at, and is easily the best designed and tactile laptop the company has ever made. On both 11 and 13-inch models, the keyboard deck is fashioned out of smooth aluminum, with a large trackpad and keys.
                           
Though it looks like the screen of the S7 has a bezel, it's actually an edge-to-edge full glass display, with a border to match the white lid. The model with the white lid is the 13-inch model, and though its white surface can easily pick up fingerprints, it doesn't scratch.

At 2.86 pounds, the 13-inch version of the Aspire S7 weighs even less than the S5, which was also indeed very light for an ultrabook. The 13-inch model is thinner too-- (0.47-inch vs. 0.59-inch), which is an achievement, given that the S5 was once deemed the world's thinnest ultrabook. The Aspire S7 really does feel a lot slimmer and lighter than other competitive 13-inch ultrabooks.On the bottom of the S7, it is sealed in such a way that you cannot easily remove the cover to access the battery and its RAM. (This is normal for ultrabooks). At the bottom is where you will find the speaker strip, which is somewhat unusual, as most laptop speakers are located in the keyboard area or around the edges/sides.

As for ports, the Acer Aspire S7 offers almost everything that you would expect from a typical ultrabook -- 2 USB 3.0 ports, a 3.5 mm headphone jack and an SD reader. You can also get USB-to-Ethernet and micro-HDMI-to-VGA adapters.


Keyboard and Trackpad-
In any case, whatever considerations Acer had when designing its keyboard has finally paid off -- you could easily start typing at a rather brisk speed with very few typos, and when you happened to make a mistake, the largely sized Backspace key was easy to hit. The trackpad does a fine job at handling native Windows 8 gestures, but still isn't as good at single-finger navigation.

Display-
The S7's 1920x1080 HD IPS display is among the most lovely and aesthetic laptop displays, putting some other laptop's display to shame. You would probably think that 1366x768 is sufficient enough for a 13-inch screen, but once you use the S7, its kind of hard to turn back. Everything on the screen looks nice and crisp. Color reproduction is also very nice, blacks are deep, white are bright and colors aren't overly saturated.

The IPS technology displays incredible viewing angles. Unfortunately, you might encounter screen glare, because the S7 has a very glossy screen. The IPS display is also viewable almost edge-on, with the colors still looking potent on off-angles. The screen of the Aspire S7 can be pushed all the way back, so it is laid out completely flat.

Performance and Battery Life-
The Acer Aspire S7 runs on both Intel Core i5 or i7 processor which is plenty fast. The cooling fan, however, makes an annoying and loud fan noise. Like the S5, the S7 has two SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration, which gives it extreme read/write speeds. Acer claims the 4,680 mAh battery can last up to 6 hours, but in battery tests, it only lasted about 4 hours and 20 min.

Software-
Acer is not the only PC maker to do this, but it has definitely filled the S7 with a ton of bloatware. You'll find bloatware like 7digital, eBay, Skitch and Evernote, Acer Explorer, Encyclopedia Britannica, iCookBook, ChaCha, TuneIn, Amazon.com, Amazon Kindle, Netflix, StumbleUpon, newsXpresso, and a trial of McAfee Internet Security Suite. Wow. 
Like most other ultrabooks, the Acer Aspire S7 comes with a 1-year warranty.

Conclusion-
The Aspire S7, it's the best ultrabook Acer has ever released, with a stunning 1080p IPS display and incredible speed. Only one problem, though: Acer needs to improve the battery life. The S7 has a relatively short battery life compared to other touchscreen ultrabooks. If you don't mind carrying a charger wherever you bring the S7, this is one premium laptop. 


Review by © 2012 Andy Chin & Grant Han

© 2012 Acer Inc.  

Intel Launches 8-Core Itanium 9500

Intel's Itanium processor launches are few and far between. It's new Itanium 9500 certainly is a beast of a processor. The chip is an up-to-date 32 nanometer Poulson architecture that basically doubles the cores to eight cores, increases the interconnecting speed and supports as much as 2TB, that's right, 2TB of RAM for extreme multitasking. With the help of an error-resistant buffer, Intel sees the new Itanium 9500 2.4 times faster than the Tukwila-era design its replacing. The new 8-core Itanium 9500 has a brisk clock speed of 1.73 GHz to 2.53 GHz. The new server processor starts at $1,350 per chip in bulk, and climbs to an eye-watering $4,650 for the fastest chip.


Post by © 2012 Andy Chin

© 2012 Intel Corporation
    

Best Intel / AMD Processors For Your PC

Picking out the best CPU (central processing unit) can sometimes be a very difficult task, especially if you do not know what to choose. There are many, many choices are there, but  there are only two major companies as of right now that develops processors. There is AMD and Intel, but which one should you choose?

AMD vs. Intel 

Intel and AMD have been developing processors for years now. For many years, Intel has always been preferred over AMD, for specific reasons you'll see down below.

Top AMD Processor:

AMD FX8150 8-Core

This bad boy is the best of what AMD has to offer. The FX8150 is the first native 8-core desktop processor, and it works incredibly well when it comes to multitasking. One simply cannot deny the speed of the AMD FX8150, but unfortunately, it falls behind an Intel Core i5, which basically means it won't even be a match for the Core i7. The price is what makes this powerful processor stand out. 


Clock Speed: 3.6 GHz

Cores: 8

Price: $189.99 (Amazon)



Top Intel Processor:

Intel® Core™ i7-3940XM Extreme Edition

This monster of a processor here is the fastest Intel Ivy Bridge processor as of right now. Those who require incredibly raw power for their new systems, should definitely get this processor.

Clock Speed: 3.0 GHz, up to 3.9 GHz

Cores: 4

Price: $1096.00 



Post by © 2012 Andy Chin 

© 2012 Intel Corporation
© 2012 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 

Kupa UltraNote Windows 8 Modular Tablet

     It is a 0.6 inch (15mm) thick device powered by an Intel Core i7 with 4GB RAM and a 64GB SSD. It features a 10.1 inch 1920 x 1200 pixel IPS display with a ten point capacity multitouch layer. Other features include WiFi a/g/n. Bluetooth 3.0, and 3G/4G LTE radios along with dual cameras, NFC and fingerprint reader. There is also a SIM slot, headphone jack, mini HDMI output, and two USB 3.0 ports on the right side of the UltraNote. It is the modular design that make this new device unique in its own way.
     
There is an ASUS Transformer-like keyboard dock which includes an additional battery, SD card slot, Ethernet connecter, VGA output, and two additional USB 3.0 slots. The Kupa Ultranote Tablet weighs a surprisingly light weight of 760 grams, or 1.67 pounds only.



Review by © 2012 Andy Chin