Sony proudly led the Windows 8 charge with its VAIO Duo 11 hybrid, and now it¡¯s the turn of the VAIO Tap 11. Unlike its hybrid stablemates, the VAIO Tap 11 treads a more conventional path ¨C it unites a svelte Windows 8 tablet with a featherlight wireless keyboard.If first impressions count for anything, the Tap 11 gets off to a flying start. At a whisker less than 11mm thick, it¡¯s 3mm thinner than Microsoft¡¯s Surface Pro, and it¡¯s lighter, too; indeed, Sony¡¯s 780g tablet makes the Surface Pro feel decidedly overweight. As a result, it doesn¡¯t feel quite as rock-solid and substantial as a result, but it isn¡¯t plasticky or lightweight. The Tap 11¡¯s body feels taut and well constructed, and the soft-touch matte plastics at the rear and the rounded, rubberised edges make it comfy to hold and easy to grip.Hidden magnets clamp the keyboard on top of the tablet when it¡¯s not in use, and a tiny row of electrical contacts keep its internal battery topped up. With the keyboard in place, the Tap 11¡¯s overall thickness swells to 15mm, but it adds only 290g to the weight ¨C with both in a bag, the combined weight of 1.07kg is incredibly light, even by the standards of top-flight Ultrabooks. There¡¯s an active stylus thrown in, too, but you¡¯ll have to carry this separately, as there¡¯s no way of attaching it to the Tap 11 (unless you resort to sticky tape, that is).
Sony has hidden the Tap 11¡¯s connectivity behind pop-out flaps. There¡¯s a full-sized USB 3 port, a micro-HDMI output, microSD and a SIM slot for the optional 3G adapter. The laptop-style power adapter connects to the tablet¡¯s bottom edge via a proprietary connector which, as a safety measure, unclips if the cable is yanked too hard.In fact, there¡¯s precious little missing. Sony has crammed in dual-band 802.11n, Bluetooth 4 and NFC, and it¡¯s even found room for a decent set of internal speakers, which, with Sony¡¯s Clear Audio technology enabled, are reasonably loud and surprisingly clear. The pair of cameras are less impressive, however. While the front-facing 0.9MP camera is fine for basic purposes, the 8MP sensor at the rear disappoints, with noisy, heavily compressed images.
The Sony¡¯s touchscreen is the star of the show. With a Full HD resolution crammed into a 11.6in diagonal, text and images are absolutely pin-sharp, viewing angles are wide, and images look gorgeous. The maximum brightness isn¡¯t as high as some tablets we¡¯ve seen, but at 384cd/m[sup]2[/sup], it¡¯s bright enough for outdoor use, and the measured contrast ratio of 817:1 is solid. Colour accuracy is great, too, and unlike some of its peers, the Sony¡¯s panel covers almost every corner of the sRGB gamut, serving up a wide array of bold, saturated hues and lifelike skin tones.Inside, Intel¡¯s Haswell platform takes pride of place. The processor in question, the Core i5-4210Y, operates at only 1.5GHz, with Turbo Boost pushing clock speeds up to 1.9GHz when required, but its ultra-low-voltage design draws a maximum of only 11.5W. Yet, with 4GB of DDR3L low-voltage RAM and a Samsung 128GB SSD alongside, the Tap 11 feels anything but underpowered. Windows 8 feels slick and spritely, and an overall result of 0.54 in our Real World Benchmarks proves there¡¯s sufficient power for heavyweight applications, such as Adobe Photoshop or Sony Vegas Pro.
Intel¡¯s thrown plenty of money at its Ultrabook brand and, while they¡¯ve gained plenty of column inches, these super-thin laptops have remained resolutely high-end machines. HP¡¯s latest laptop, the Envy 6, aims to bring Ultrabook luxury to the budget end of the market ¨C and it does so by opting for one of AMD¡¯s Trinity chips.HP calls its AMD-powered Ultrabook rival a ¡°Sleekbook¡± and, at first glance, there¡¯s little difference between this ¡ê499 inc VAT machine and many of the Ultrabooks we¡¯ve seen. The brushed-metal finish and red detailing lends the Envy a sense of style that¡¯s up there with many more expensive Intel-powered rivals. Its 15.6in display means that it isn¡¯t as svelte as many of its Ultrabook rivals, but it isn¡¯t far off: at 20mm thick and just over 2kg in weight, this is as impressively honed as any ¡ê499 laptop we¡¯ve seen.Behind the scenes, it¡¯s AMD¡¯s Trinity platform that takes centre stage. AMD prefers to describe its processors as accelerated processing units, or APUs, and HP has used the A6-4455M ¨C the lesser of two low-power APUs ¨C in the Envy 6. The dual-core CPU architecture runs at 2.1GHz, and uses AMD¡¯s Turbo Core to dynamically overclock to 2.6GHz. That sounds impressive, but the HP¡¯s modest benchmark score of 0.37 is way behind the Intel-powered Ultrabooks ¨C by comparison, Asus¡¯ Zenbook UX31E scored 0.62.
As ever, though, it¡¯s the graphics performance that buoys the AMD APU¡¯s appeal. A Radeon HD 7500G core has been crammed into the A6-4455M, and the GPU contains 256 stream processors with stock and Turbo clocks of 327MHz and 424MHz.We couldn¡¯t get Crysis to run on the AMD chip, but the Radeon core proved its worth in Just Cause 2 and DiRT 3 when compared to the Intel HD Graphics 4000 core found in most Ultrabooks. In Just Cause 2 and DiRT 3¡¯s Low quality tests the HP averaged 30fps; the Intel core scored 10fps and 17fps in the same benchmarks. It isn¡¯t enough power to allow for high-end games but, crucially, the Radeon core here will play plenty of titles, albeit with reduced quality settings.Processing power may not be the HP¡¯s forte, but battery life is highly impressive for a 15.6in machine. In our light-use test the HP lasted for 7hrs 27mins before it ran out of juice, which isn¡¯t far off the stamina we¡¯ve seen from many Intel Ultrabooks.
When you first install Windows 8.1, there are plenty of new experiences in store, both large and small. Some are big changes that you¡¯ll notice right away: the enlarged Start screen tiles, for example, jump out at you as soon as you power up your PC. But there are also plenty of advanced, under-the-bonnet upgrades that make Windows 8.1 much more than a service pack. Here¡¯s ten of the most powerful features in 8.1 that will benefit power users, businesses and developers.Windows 8 is designed for out-and-about use; increasingly, this means laptops and tablets with mobile data connections. Windows 8.1 introduces the ability to share a 3G or 4G connection with other devices over Wi-Fi, turning a Windows tablet into an ad hoc hotspot. If you¡¯re logged into a client device with the same Microsoft account as the gateway device, no configuration is required, and connected clients will automatically detect that they¡¯re using a tethered connection and default to ¡°cost-aware¡± mode.There¡¯s also a new settings interface specifically for mobile connections, which lets you manage your mobile network, set and change your SIM PIN, and keep track of estimated data usage.
Per-display scaling is a welcome improvement for those using multiple monitors
It¡¯s long been possible to scale up Windows¡¯ fonts and icons to a maximum of 500%. But what¡¯s right for your main screen isn¡¯t necessarily going to work for a secondary display. For example, the Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus boasts a 3,200 x 1,800 display, which is ordinarily scaled to 200%. If you connect this laptop to a 1080p TV, that scaling factor produces absurdly oversized text and icons.Conversely, high-end TVs are already starting to hit 4K resolutions (3,840 ¡Á 2,160); hook up a regular laptop set to 100% scaling and everything will appear tiny.Windows 8.1 solves this by letting you scale each screen independently. To access this new setting, right-click on the Windows desktop, select Screen Resolution from the dropdown menu and select ¡°Make text and other items larger or smaller¡±.
SkyDrive now lets you keep your files synced without taking up unnecessary disk space
Windows 8.1 integrates cloud storage into the OS; a SkyDrive dropdown now appears in the navigation pane of every Explorer window. However, this isn¡¯t the basic syncing service we¡¯ve seen before. Although your files appear to be right there on your desktop (or in the SkyDrive tablet app), the SkyDrive view is now actually a window into your cloud storage space. The files you see don¡¯t take up any space on your local disk until you double-click to open them, at which point they¡¯re quickly downloaded and opened. When you¡¯ve finished with them, they¡¯re quietly synced back to the cloud.Samsung is pushing SSD capacities to new heights with the launch of a 1TB drive in the compact mSATA form factor.
Samsung claims it's the first company to offer a terabyte of storage in this form factor, which is normally deployed in devices such as ultra-slim laptops and tablets. The drive is around a quarter of the size of a regular 2.5in SSD drive, and at 3.85mm it's less than half the thickness. It weighs a mere 8.5g.The drive, which forms part of the company's 840 EVO mSATA SSD line-up, will be launched later this month. Samsung is keeping mum on the price for now, but one thing is certain: it won't be cheap.The drive will also be available in 120GB, 250GB and 500GB versions and is capable of sequential read and write speeds of 540MB/sec and 520MB/sec respectively, according to the company.Furthermore, Samsung claims its bundled Magician 4.3 software can push read speeds past the 1,000MB/sec mark, although we'll wait until we see one in the Labs before endorsing such lofty claims.
Fusing the best of both laptop and tablet worlds is a tricky ask, but the VAIO Fit 14A multi-flip ¨C the middle child of Sony¡¯s new 13in, 14in and 15in hybrid family ¨C is hoping to manage the feat. And despite the Full HD display and novel design, the price comes as a pleasant surprise ¨C the cheapest model starts at ¡ê699 inc VAT.Whichever specification you opt for, the Fit 14A¡¯s striking physique remains the same. Brushed metal spreads across the lid and keyboard surround, a fissure running through the centre of the lid accommodates the ¡°multi-flip¡± hinge, and soft-touch black plastics curl around the lid¡¯s edges and cover the base. If the silver finish is too showy, the Fit 14A is available in a more sombre black; and if it isn¡¯t showy enough, it also comes in pink.
Initially, there¡¯s little evidence you¡¯re looking at a hybrid device at all: the Fit 14A is indistinguishable from a standard laptop. Until, that is, you glimpse the switch along the keyboard¡¯s top edge. Flick this to the side and the catches securing the display release, allowing it to spin backwards through 180 degrees. It¡¯s necessary to use two hands to unhook and spin the display around ¨C strong, hidden magnets hold the display in place even once the catch is released ¨C but, that done, those same magnets snap the display solidly into place in its secondary position.
- (cliquez ici pour suivre le lien)
- (cliquez ici pour suivre le lien)
- (cliquez ici pour suivre le lien)