If you spent any time with the original Arc, then the new Arc S isn’t going to bring much in the way of surprises. The design still feels slick, with the bowed battery cover making the smartphone feel slimmer still than its already narrow 8.7mm, though Sony Ericsson’s plastics still don’t hold up to those used by some other vendors. White is a fashionable finish, but like a beaming bride can leave the Arc S looking fatter from some angles.

It’s the faster processor that is the real draw here, and it does make the Arc S feel swifter. Apps load with less delay and there are fewer pauses during heavy webpage loading and when navigating through a well-stocked Gmail inbox. In terms of pure figures, we ran Quadrant Standard and the updated Sony Ericsson scored 1542, almost exactly what you’d expect for a 40-percent bump in speed over the original Arc’s performance.

Turning to Vellamo, which is a combination test of CPU and memory, Javascript, HTML5, canvas rendering speed, scrolling, network access and other factors, the Arc S scored 998. That’s better than we’d have expected, given the 625 score of the original Arc.

Does it make the XPERIA Arc S worth considering if you’re in the market for a new Android smartphone? Design-wise, the handset still has a great screen, is highly pocketable and the camera – though showing a tendency to make images slightly punchier than is natural – remains among the best. However, dual-core devices offer stronger performance still, it’s WVGA not qHD, and we’d have liked to have seen more metal than plastic in the construction. As a mid-range device, though, there’s plenty to like about a phone that, in effect, comes ready over-clocked and ready for action.

LaCie had two Little Big Disk units on hand, each packing a pair of 160GB SSDs set up in RAID 0 configuration for speed. The first drive was hooked up to a Core i7 MacBook Pro, and then a second Little Big Disk was daisy-chained off that, with the two external drives set up in a second RAID 0 configuration. Off the back of the second drive was a 24-inch Full HD LCD display.

The first demo was a raw speed test, reading and writing to the drives with 4GB files. As you can see in the video, the MBP was able to write at up to 352.5 MB/s, while read speeds reached 827.2 MB/s. The company told us that the same setup had hit 870 MB/s peaks in their own testing.

The second test was playing back three simultaneous video files stored on the drives, each coming in at 1080p Full HD resolution. Again, as in the video, playback was stutter-free whether windowed or full-screen. We were also able to scrub back and forth through the clip – with the two others running in the background – with no lag or pauses.

LaCie tells us that, as well as the SSD Little Big Disk, there’ll be an HDD version pairing two regular hard-drives. That should be more affordable – the company isn’t saying exactly how much the Thunderbolt drives will cost, but a pair of SSDs is never going to be cheap – though with some inevitable impact on overall performance. The SSD version will drop sometime over the summer, with production starting soon; there’s no public timeline for the HDD model.

In CaffeineMark 3, a test of Java performance, the Oak Trail prototype scored 1562, while Tegra 2 tablets like the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Iconia Tab A500 came in at 7194 and 7197 respectively. Quadrant, meanwhile, brought in a score of 1978, besting Android smartphones but falling short of the 2107 we found the Galaxy Tab 10.1 capable of.

Linpack results were even worse, with the Compal slate managing 9.4MFLOPS versus the 42.2MFLOPS of the Eee Pad Transformer. SunSpider, however, was a rare moment of sunlight: the browser speed test came in with a score of 1500ms (lower is better), neatly undercutting the 1888ms of the ASUS.

Of course, there’s more to everyday use than raw benchmarks, but Tweakers say the unit they were using felt sluggish in comparison to its ARM brethren, with apps slow to load and the whole slate getting surprisingly warm under use. Intel has said that it’s still optimizing its x86 Android port and so we’re expecting – and hoping – things will get better before the first Oak Trail based tablets using the Google platform hit the market.

That clears up one lingering question about the DROID3, namely which chipset it would use. Unlike the ATRIX, which is based on NVIDIA’s Tegra 2, it seems Motorola has used the 1GHz Texas Instruments OMAP4430, an alternative dual-core processor.

OS is Gingerbread, at least at time of testing, and the phone scored 45.7 (though, since we’re guessing the firmware isn’t final at this stage, that should probably be taken with a pinch of salt). Other expected specs include a 4-inch display and a front-facing camera for video calls; still unclear is when, exactly, Motorola and Verizon will announce the new QWERTY slider.

[via DROID-Life; via Android Community]

What the Quadrant benchmarking system does is test the CPU, the I/O, and the 3D graphics capabilities of the phone it’s being used to test. Whenever we pick up a device, we’ve basically got Quadrant downloading before we open much of anything else. We do this in order to get a generally fair look at all devices as they sit in their most basic state. This test was done on a pre-release edition of the phone at the HTC event in England.

To see further benchmarks we’ve done, search for either SunSpider or Quadrant in your search box to your upper right.

This second test, the one that goes by the name SunSpider, and if you’ve been following our benchmarks over the past few months, you know this runs inside a given web browser. This test tests the core JavaScript language of the browser it’s running inside, here testing the HTC Sensation’s stock browser.

Update: We’ve spoken to HTC, and they’ve confirmed that the firmware is definitely not “near final” and that their software engineers are busy working on readying the eventual builds for the mid-May release. There are also some questions over how well both of these tests measure the performance of dual-core devices, and HTC is looking into that for us.

Enjoy!

Traditional benchmarking, Blaze suggests, is generally custom-created and doesn’t relate especially well to the real-world. SunSpider and other tools, the company claims, don’t reflect actual user experiences. Instead, Blaze used a homegrown browser wrapper app – available to try from its site – to time loading speeds on 1,000 different sites, loaded onto an iPhone 4, Nexus S and Samsung Galaxy S. The eye-catching “52-percent faster” figure is based on median load times across all of the pages: on iPhone it was 3.2 seconds, whereas on Android it was 2.1 seconds.

The report also points out in the appendix that their tests on both devices were not actually done in the devices browser themselves but rather used the proprietary software Blaze created, noted above, to track the browsers performance.

Nonetheless, Blaze also cites individual site performance, and some of the differences claimed are considerable. WSJ.com, for instance, took 7.5 seconds on Android and 17 seconds on iPhone during its testing. When we repeated the tests using the Blaze timing tool, however, we found an iPhone 4 loaded the WSJ site faster than the Nexus S every time. Blaze CTO Guy Podjarny re-ran the WSJ tests at SlashGear’s request, and found median load times on 18.4 seconds on iPhone and 13.4 seconds on Android; not, he admits, the 10 second gulf previously observed, but “still a clear difference.”

Podjarny concedes that there can be significant differences depending on when you test and with what connection, but insists that there’s more to browser performance than pure JavaScript speed. He describes the Android browser as “smarter in more ways than just JavaScript,” for instance in how it handles image downloads. While the iOS browser seems to download images in the order they appear on the page, the Android browser “seems to use intelligence when choosing which images to download first, trying to download as much from the same server at once as possible.” Meanwhile on Android CSS or JavaScript files, as well as other resources, can be downloaded in parallel, while on iOS, Podjarny says, they happen one at a time.

Interestingly, during the Blaze benchmarking process, the company says it has seen various sites (and benchmarks) that “indicate Nitro is sometimes on and sometimes off.” It’s too early for them to say anything conclusively about it, but Podjarny suggests it maybe be down to memory issues. JavaScript performance alone may be more hyperbole than you’d think, however. Comparing Android 2.2 to 2.3, the JavaScript boost is marginal: an almost 40-percent increase in JavaScript engine performance led to just a 10-percent boost in page load time.

In the end, as Podjarny agreed, the value of benchmarking is always impinged upon by the nature of real-world connections. Blaze used a “fast WiFi connection” at night and during weekends where it could be more confident that network usage was low, but of course that’s not a consistency upon which mobile users can rely on. Stand an iPhone 4 and Nexus S user next to each other and, even on the same cellular network, they could well see different performance from the dumb pipe itself. That’s before it even gets to the rendering engines on either platform.

Podjarny tells us Blaze isn’t conclusively saying that specific sites take longer on one device versus another, but that the testing “does conclusively say which device generally loaded web apps faster.” To that we’d add our own skepticism, both of the inconsistencies in results from Blaze’s software wrapper and the nature of mobile device benchmarking as a whole. We’re also confident that both Apple and Google will continue to polish browsing technologies in the attempt to bring the best possible experience to their users. One thing’s for sure, the battle of the mobile benchmarks is unlikely to go anywhere as manufacturers and software developers compete to brand their offerings “the fastest browsing experience.”

Blaze’s research is available here; we’d be very interested to hear SlashGear readers’ thoughts on it, and how the results match your own experiences with mobile browsing.

SunSpider, for those unfamiliar, tests core JavaScript performance with a variety of tasks intended to replicate real-world behaviors. So, it generates a tagcloud from JSON input, a 3D raytracer, performs cryptography tests and code decompression, and other tasks that might be encountered in everyday browsing.

In SunSpider, a lower score is better, and the iPad 2 proved more than 4x as fast as the iPad overall. The original tablet scored 8594.9ms, while the iPad 2 managed 2121.7ms. Among the individual benchmarks the iPad 2 scored 263.4ms in 3D testing (vs 1202.2ms), 265.0ms in access (vs 1247.1ms), and 142.8ms in cryptography (vs 572.7ms).

Now, there’s more to browsing than just JavaScript of course, but this is a pretty first fantastic showing from the new Apple slate.

Click the image below for the full-sized results; the iPad 2 is on the left, the iPad on the right.

The entry-level 13-inch with the 2.3GHz Core i5 CPU scores 5900; the entry-level version from early 2010 managed 3351. The improvement for the 15-inch and 17-inch versions is even more impressive, with the entry-level 15-inch jumping from 4866 last year to 8804 on this year’s quadcore 2.0GHz Core i7. The 17-inch goes from 5837 to 10026 with its new quadcore 2.2GHz Core i7.

As you’d expect, the faster versions of each MacBook Pro do even better; the full graphi is below. It’s worth remembering that Geekbench only tests CPU and memory performance, not graphics card and HDD, so a speedy SSD and potent GPU will make a difference in real-world usage, but from the outset it’s clear the new MacBook Pro line means business.

This updated version, however, could test iOS devices based on so far unannounced chips. It also tweaks the processor frequency detection on late-model iOS devices, something which could be more important should Apple use a chipset with asymmetric ARM cores that can each be run at different speeds depending on overall load, something which is used to reduce power consumption.

Now, Primate Labs – the developers of Geekbench 2 – might simply be looking to future-proof the app; their desktop version of Geekbench already supports multi-core chips, after all. However, we’re assuming they’ve spent the development and submission time believing it’s worthwhile, and that could well imply a dual-core device – initially, we’re guessing, a dual-core iPad 2 – in the near future.

[via iTechNewsNet]

Video after the cut

We ran Quadrant Advanced on the Adam, and the Tegra 2 powered slate scored 1,836. Now, before you panic, you have to remember that Froyo hasn’t been optimized to take advantage of multithreading, so the number isn’t going to be fully representative of real-world performance. It’s an issue we’re going to see increasingly with dual-core devices like the Motorola ATRIX 4G and LG Optimus 2X.

On top of that is Notion Ink’s own Eden multitasking system, which doesn’t use parallel processing – instead, it only kickstarts the second core when the first core is full loaded. That helps battery life, by minimizing power consumption when two running cores aren’t essential, but it doesn’t do Adam any favors when it comes to on-paper benchmark results. The short of it is, though, that this is one slick, fast-moving tablet, and Notion Ink has done its homework getting the customizations working well.

Notion Ink Adam Quadrant Benchmarks:

Notion Ink Adam Flash Performance:

Beyond that, the hardware details are unknown: we’d guess there’s WiFi and Bluetooth, along with GPS and the usual bevy of digital compasses and other sensors. It looks like there could be a front-facing camera for video calls, too; that almost makes up for Sony Ericsson flipping the control buttons on the front panel, something guaranteed to confuse the muscle-memory of existing X10 owners upgrading.

In benchmarking, the unbranded XPERIA scored 1,553 in Quadrant and 42.5fps in Neocore; impressive stuff. It seems likely Sony Ericsson would be bringing the phone to MWC 2011 in February, though they could surprise us with a CES 2011 debut next week.

[via Android Community and via Engadget]

Video demo after the cut

That digitizer tech seems to have prompted some confusion in the past; Adam won’t have an active digitizer, like a Wacom graphics tablet, instead simply allowing you to use the 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen as a massive trackpad for your computer. Alternatively, with a capacitive stylus, you could use it for drawing; still, this isn’t going to be a replacement for proper artwork production. Adam will also work with USB modems, as long as there are Android drivers for them; that latter point will likely be the stumbling block in most cases.

As for software, as well as a quick Christmas demo of the Adam boot-animation, it’s the browser that has come in for attention next. Possibly the most important part of any consumer tablet, it’s obviously something Notion Ink has spent some time tweaking; Adam scores 51,049 in Rightware’s BrowserMark benchmarking tool, versus the iPad’s 38,620 and the Nexus One’s 23,726. All the controls run down a narrow bar on the left hand side, with pop-out buttons for tab management and the like. Obviously there’s multitouch support, too.

Notion Ink Adam boot-screen

Notion Ink Browser Demo:

Notion Ink Adam Hardware Demo:

Hardware

Our Aspire 5745DG-3855 review unit is certainly an imposing machine, both physically and in terms of the core specs. Measuring a bulky 14.9 x 9.8 x 1.25 – 2.27 inches and tipping the scales at 6.6lb, it’s heavy for a 15.6-inch notebook and the standard 9-cell battery protrudes considerably from the base. Design-wise, it’s in keeping with other Acer machines we’ve looked at recently, with decent plastics and a mixture of glossy and matte silver and black.

Inside there’s a 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-450M processor paired with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB 5,400rpm hard-drive. Graphics are courtesy of NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 425M GPU, though there’s no Optimus switching between the onboard Intel HD GPU and the discrete chip; in fact, the Intel graphics are basically disabled, since there’s no option to use anything but the NVIDIA chip. It powers a 15.6-inch 1366 x 768 display, and though we’d like to have seen some extra pixels in there, it’s a decent – if highly glossy – panel. Viewing angles are good horizontally, though the combination of slightly reduced vertical angles and the gloss finish can make finding the ideal lid position a little trickier.

The broad width of the Aspire 5745DG has allowed Acer to slot in both a full-sized keyboard and a separate numeric keypad, which follows the fashionable chiclet-style design. It’s a good keyboard, too, with nicely weighted response and little bowing during typing. Underneath is a multitouch trackpad, offset to the left to fall beneath the space bar, and Acer also includes a button to turn it off should you find yourself accidentally hitting it.

Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n, gigabit ethernet, HDMI, four USB 2.0 ports and audio in/out (with S/PDIF), along with a DVD burner and multi-format memory card reader. No Blu-ray, however, which seems a bizarre omission on a media-centric machine, nor eSATA, USB 3.0 or ExpressCard. A webcam above the screen and integrated microphone round out the main specs.

In the box there’s also a set of NVIDIA’s 3D Vision glasses, recharged via miniUSB. These take advantage of the 5745DG’s 120Hz display, synchronizing with an infra-red emitter built into the bezel and flicking the view between the two lenses while the GPU serves up each half of a 3D image alternately. The end result is a 60Hz 3D picture.

Software

The Acer Aspire 5745DG runs Windows 7 Home Premium, and as we’ve complained about before there’s the usual array of bloatware and trials pre-loaded. Several of those are of Acer’s own creation, handling webcam, registration and driver updating, but then you also get trials of Microsoft Office and McAfee Internet Security, Google’s Toolbar pre-installed, Skype, Norton Online Backup and more. The end result is a system that feels sluggish at the first power-on, and we wonder when Acer – and other manufacturers – will see sense and sacrifice the referral fees from the software companies in favor of a more favorable first-impression for the user.

NVIDIA’s 3D Vision system is currently supported by over 450 games by the company’s own count, and of course there’s 3D video to think of as well. Since there’s no Blu-ray drive, that content will likely be downloaded rather than supplied on a disc; NVIDIA preloads sample media which performs well, but 3D content online is still in its infancy.

Performance

With no Blu-ray on this particular SKU, you’d be forgiven for assuming the 5745DG-3855 was targeted at gamers. Unfortunately, the mid-tier GPU may present a stumbling block for system-intensive modern titles. We kicked off our benchmarking with Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, and as you’d expect the Core i5 CPU puts in a decent show. The 2.4GHz Aspire scored 4814, roughly on a par with the similarly-specified HP ENVY 14, and around 200 points behind the 2.53GHz Gateway ID49C.

Unfortunately PCMark proved unable to detect the GeForce GT 425M GPU, so we turned instead to Cinebench. The Acer scored 20.67fps in OpenGL and 2.15pts in CPU. In terms of real-world performance, we had no problems with regular daily tasks, such as browsing with multiple tabs and windows open, or simultaneously playing video and audio.

However, recent games such as Call of Duty 2 struggled with the power on offer, only playing comfortably when a knife was taken to the quality settings. It’s worth remembering, too, that 3D games place more of a demand on the GPU than 2D titles: the NVIDIA chip has to create left- and right-eye graphics for each frame, and that can take a significant toll on framerates. Need for Speed: Shift was more successful, with the 3D effect proving impressive.

Ironically, the 120Hz screen actually showed its worth more during regular 2D gaming and multimedia, where – just as on 120Hz HDTVs – faster content such as sports was smear-free. Glasses-free 2D viewing also avoids the inevitable brightness loss encountered during 3D playback, which can leave darker movies and games murky and uninspiring.

Battery

With a 9-cell battery, you’d hope the Aspire 5745DG could offer above the odds in terms of runtimes, but the Core i5 CPU and always-on GPU chew their way through a significant amount of power. Acer quote up to 4hrs normal use from a full charge. The absence of Optimus is a particular frustration, though the GT 425M is able to underclock itself depending on activity and load. Still, it’s not as frugal as Intel’s HD GPU.

With a mixture of browsing over WiFi and some media playback, we managed around 3hrs 30mins of runtime. Playing DVD content continuously sapped that down to just under 3hrs.

Wrap-Up

There’s no denying that NVIDIA’s 3D Vision technology works, although those who already wear glasses or struggle to remember to charge their phone will likely find the necessary 3D eyewear a frustration. The question we’re left asking is why Acer decided to cut corners on the optical drive, given you’d expect the company to want Aspire 5745DG owners to have access to as much 3D content as possible. With no Blu-ray option, that choice is seriously curtailed.

The limitations of the NVIDIA GPU, meanwhile, mean 3D gaming isn’t quite the Acer’s natural forte either. There are plenty of games that run perfectly well on the GeForce GT 425M, but they’re generally not the most recent and that doesn’t bode well for future 3D titles on the Aspire. Mix in the absence of Optimus technology and its impact on battery life, and you’re left with a fair few compromises for the Aspire 5745DG’s 3D offering.

For most users, those compromises are unlikely to be worth the benefits. 120Hz displays on notebooks are relatively rare today, but as 3D Vision gains traction we imagine that will change; holding off will also give GPUs a chance to catch up and offer more future-proofing for system-intensive gaming. A combination of lacklustre content availability and middling performance leaves the Acer Aspire 5745DG-3855 underwhelming.

In fact, where IE9 managed the standard math-cordic test in an impressive 1.0ms, when the tweaked versions were introduced it delivered scores around 20x slower. Similar tweaks to Chrome and Opera produced consistent results, as was expected.

Digitizor suggests that Microsoft has either optimized IE9 to return strong SunSpider results – which they say is “cheating” – or that the company’s engineers have been focusing too greatly on the benchmarking test and have over-optimized the JavaScript engine to suit its requirements. Alternatively, it could be a legitimate bug, and indeed Sayre has filed a bug form on Microsoft Connect.

[via Slashdot]

We ran Quadrant on both phones, an Android app that tests overall performance of a smartphone and then assigns it a single score, having gauged not only core processor speed but I/O and 3D graphics abilities.  The HTC Desire HD scored 1,666, putting it well ahead of other Android 2.2 devices like the Nexus One and Motorola DROID X; however the T-Mobile myTouch 4G scored 1,846, almost 200 points more.

Update: myTouch 4G’s I/O accounts for 2,666 points which is significantly higher than Nexus One.

Now, as Quadrant suggests, there’s more to performance than CPU and RAM – it’s also testing GPU and other aspects of the Android hardware – but the difference between two phones running what’s believed to be very similar hardware is certainly interesting.  Of course, in the end it’s day-to-day performance that makes the lasting impression, and we have no complaints about either device in that respect.  Still, we’re looking forward to seeing what the mod community does with both phones: it looks like there’s plenty of room for overclocking with the MSM8255.

Acer’s Aspire One netbook range has been running almost as long as ASUS’ Eee PC line, and by now the company has got the industrial design down to a fine art. No expensive metal or unnecessary finishes, just a lightweight shell that’s a mere 0.8-inches thick and 2.5lbs, a nicely sprung, full-sized chiclet keyboard, and a broad multitouch-capable trackpad that’s easy to use. We’re not 100-percent convinced by the blue color of our review model, but Acer also offer other variants.

Inside there’s Intel’s latest dualcore Atom processor, the N550 running at 1.5GHz. While it may have a slightly slower clock speed than the N-series Atoms we’re used to seeing in netbooks, it also has that extra core to make up for things. It’s paired with 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard-drive and Intel GMA 3150 graphics. The D255 will support 2GB of RAM (there’s a single slot inside) but it’s not especially easy to open up the casing. Happily you’ll only ever do it once.

The display is a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 panel that’s clear and bright, and has reasonable viewing angles, but we’re disappointed not to see a higher resolution. Rival machines manage 1366 x 768, for instance, which can be a productivity boon. Ports, meanwhile, are par for the netbook course: three USB 2.0, VGA, ethernet, audio in/out and a memory card reader. No HDMI (little point, given the GMA 3150 graphics) or USB 3.0, while wireless connectivity is WiFi b/g/n but no Bluetooth.

We ran Geekbench on the Aspire One D255, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, and the netbook scored 953. That’s considerably less than the 1,301 the Eee PC 1215N managed – with its desktop-spec Atom D525 CPU – but a few points higher than what we’ve come to expect from a single-core 1.6GHz Atom N450. The Toshiba NB305, for instance, managed 940. That leaves the Acer good for multitasking between a few browser windows, music playback and email, but not something you’d want to process audio or video on; don’t even think about gaming potential.

The payoff is battery life, with Acer suggesting users will see up to eight hours of runtime from the standard six-cell battery. We managed 6.5hrs of use, consisting of a one hour 720p video and the remainder browsing over WiFi, which is solid. Meanwhile Acer’s power adapter is considerably smaller than most, which adds to the portability.

There are always compromises to be made when you build to a budget, and Acer has done well with the Aspire One D255 in order to avoid the netbook feeling unduly cheap or underpowered. With a street price of $329.99 it’s affordable and offers decent longevity away from the mains. Anybody with ambitions beyond basic browsing and media playback should look to something more powerful, but for mainstream use the D255 is perfectly sufficient.

Some neat styling decisions has left the ZX6951 resembling a slightly chunky standalone TV or LCD display, making this Gateway a $999.99 machine you could comfortably put on a kitchen counter without it looking like a cubicle. The chassis is predominantly black plastic, with a silver surround and a chromed metal stand to prop the unit up at various angles. There’s also a standard VESA mount of the back, for attaching the Gateway One to your wall, though it’s worth noting that there’s a significant bulge around the back that the thinner edges belie.

Inside, this is no mere nettop. Intel’s 3.2GHz Core i3-550 processor takes center stage, paired with 4GB of DDR 1333 memory and a 640GB 7,200rpm hard-drive. There’s also a Blu-ray drive which will burn DVDs, Intel HD graphics and a 2-megapixel webcam. Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n, gigabit ethernet and eight USB 2.0 ports, along with two PS/2 ports, a VGA output, and a multi-format memory card reader. No USB 3.0 or eSATA, nor an HDMI output either.

Unlike some all-in-ones we’ve seen of late, there’s no HDMI input for using the PC as a display. What you do get is a 23-inch 1920 x 1080 LCD display with a multitouch-capable touchscreen, together with an integrated ATSC TV Tuner. Gateway throw a wireless keyboard and mouse into the box, together with a remote control which positions the ZX6951 as a straight TV replacement. You also get fancy lighting underneath the all-in-one’s bottom edge, which isn’t as useful as, say, Philips’ Ambilight system but does at least look pretty slick.

The touch experience in Windows 7 is a subject of no small number of arguments, but the OS lends itself better to all-in-ones than it does tablets. Freed from the battery constraints of mobile devices – and their generally lightweight CPUs – the platform’s abilities are more obvious. The touch widgets (of which there are both Microsoft and Gateway examples) and other UI enhancements all work slickly and smoothly now, though whether touch actually adds to the regular desktop experience is still debatable.

What it does lend itself to is using the ZX6951 as a media PC, with Windows 7′s native Media Center functionality. Thanks to the TV tuner you can record or pause live TV, schedule recordings using an OSG, and the system will also play streaming content from the internet and access media shared across networked drives. We’d like to have seen a larger hard-drive option from Gateway, considering the HD-capable display and the size of HD-resolution files; unfortunately 640GB is the largest on offer.

We ran Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, to put the Core i3 through its paces. The Gateway scored 5822, unsurprisingly higher than the 2.93GHz Core i3-530 Gateway ZX6900, at 5313, but which actually puts it ahead of Lenovo’s ThinkCentre M90z, with its 3.2GHz Core i5-650 and 3GB of memory. In the real world, that means no problem whatsoever with multitasking between browser, email, media playback and other apps, with only the Intel GMA HD graphics limiting GPU-intensive gaming or video processing. That’s not to say you can’t do the latter, only that it’ll inevitably monopolize the CPU. We had no problem with fan noise during testing, the ZX6951 staying both cool and quiet.

While the touchscreen is a nice gimmick, you could make a strong argument for a version of the Gateway One ZX6951 with a regular display and a $100 or so off the price. Touch is nice, for those few moments it makes sense, but the remote control is more useful for media-center functionality (it saves sticky kitchen fingers from smearing the screen). The absence of a video input is another bug-bear, though it’s unlikely to upset too many would-be buyers; similarly, a slot-loading Blu-ray drive would’ve been more in-keeping with the slick design than the tray-load ODD Gateway has fitted.

In the end, then, this is a handsome all-in-one with power that punches above its station. We’d happily swap the touchscreen for a discrete GPU, and perhaps either USB 3.0 or eSATA for hooking up a capacious external hard-drive full of HD media, but the target audience looking for a kitchen, home-office or kids’ PC probably won’t be too bothered by the omissions. Considering Apple’s non-touch, smaller iMac starts at $200 more, with a slower processor, less storage and no TV tuner, the $999.99 Gateway One ZX6951 is something of a bargain.

Like other ThinkCentre workstations, the M75e is a solemn black obelisk that has no truck with unnecessary styling or design. There’s room for a single 5.25-inch drive on the fascia and a single 3.5-inch drive on the inside. Taking off the side panel is a simple matter of two screws, and while it’s obviously a reasonably tight fit inside, it’s all laid out neatly.

Into that reasonably compact desktop case, Lenovo has slotted AMD’s Athlon II X4 640 processor running at 3.0GHz and paired with 4GB of DDR3 memory. There’s also ATI Radeon HD 3000 graphics, using 256MB of that RAM, together with a DVD burner and a 500GB hard-drive.

Connectivity includes two USB 2.0 ports and audio in/out on the front panel, then a further four USB 3.0 on the back, gigabit ethernet, audio, DVI-D and VGA graphics (both of which can be active simultaneously), serial and two PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse. There are also four half-height PCI-E slots.

Lenovo is keen to stress the out-of-the-box flexibility of the ThinkCentre M75e, particularly how multi-monitor friendly it is. As standard, it can drive two displays (one DVI-D, one VGA) at the same time, either duplicating or extending the Windows 7 desktop, though the company also offers an optional half-height graphics card with a further two outputs, meaning a total of four displays can be chained off the one PC.

We ran Geekbench on the M75e, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, and the workstation scored 6145. Very strong processor scores were pulled down by middling memory performance. Still, it’s around 1,000 points higher than Intel’s 3.2GHz Core i5-650 in the Lenovo M90z (which only had 3GB of memory).

In terms of real-world performance, the M75e is certainly capable of handling Office, web browsing and email. It’s not a natural multimedia machine, lacking HDMI connectivity or, indeed, a hefty GPU for video crunching, but the processor is sufficient for general video editing tasks. Lenovo has also worked its “Enhanced Experience” magic on the start-up time, shrinking it down to roughly thirty seconds. How consistent that will be once start-up drivers and apps sink their claws into Windows 7 will remain to be seen.

Our main criticisms of the ThinkCentre M75e are generally byproducts of its SFF chassis. The reduced space leaves little room for cooling, and while the M75e doesn’t run hot it can get loud: under load, such as during our benchmark testing, the PC’s fan kicked in and was significantly louder than on other desktops or workstations we’ve reviewed. It seems Lenovo has opted for “quick and noisy” rather than “long and low”, since the fan was only running at high speed for short periods.

Our second issue is hard-drive space. With a single 3.5-inch drive bay (though four SATA connectors) we’d like to have seen Lenovo offer larger HDD options than the 500GB maximum supplied on this M75e review unit ($818 from Lenovo direct, or around $680 as the preconfigured 5042A7U from resellers). Considering 3TB drives are on the market now, limiting the ThinkCentre to, at most, just a sixth of that (250GB is fitted as standard) seems short-sighted. There are also no eSATA ports for adding high-speed external drives, nor USB 3.0.

Still, on balance there’s plenty to like about the Lenovo ThinkCentre M75e. No, it’s not the most glamorous of desktops, nor the most powerful or feature-heavy, but it’s also affordable and still manages to pack a solid performance punch. The easy of multi-monitor configuration is useful, and AMD’s Athlon II X4 processor is certainly capable of holding its own against the Intel Core i5 competition.

We’ve seen 12.1-inch netbooks before, of course, but seldom are the specs so strong as with the Eee PC 1215N. The display runs at 1,366 x 768, while the CPU is Intel’s dual-core 1.8GHz Atom D525; they’re paired with a NVIDIA Ion GPU which, thanks to Optimus technology, can automatically switch between the discrete graphics and the lower-power, more frugal onboard graphics when the situation allows.

That lets ASUS claim up to seven hours of battery life, despite the 1215N being capable of Full HD playback via its HDMI port. Other connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, three USB 2.0 ports, VGA, gigabit ethernet, audio in/out and an SD card reader. Some SKUs will also get USB 3.0. Storage is courtesy of a 5,400rpm 250GB hard-drive – with a bundled 500GB of ASUS’ online WebStorage – and there’s a 0.3-megapixel webcam which can be physically blocked with a sliding cover for those particularly paranoid about being secretly observed.

Despite the price, build quality is strong. The brushed-metal effect lid is plastic, of course, but the chassis is generally creak-free and the battery locks into place without wobble. The chiclet-style keyboard is well spaced – the 12.1-inch 16:9 display leaving a decent amount of width for it – with plenty of well-labeled shortcuts. The keys themselves are on the stiff side, which contrasts sharply to the amount of flex across the ‘board; even during regular typing the bending middle section was obvious, and the combination adds up to somewhat odd finger-feel.

Underneath is a broad multitouch-capable trackpad in a metal-effect palmrest, with a single, hinged mouse button. The trackpad itself is responsive and smooth (and can be easily switched off with one of the keyboard shortcuts if you’ve plugged in a mouse) but we wish the button had been a little larger and easier to press. Above the keyboard there’s the power button on the top right, then wireless and the ExpressGate instant-on OS button which quick-loads a straightforward interface for multimedia and browsing.

The main OS is Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit, with a fair few ASUS extras preloaded. In addition to desktop shortcuts for Skype, the Times Reader, eBay and ASUS’ own online documentation, you get trials of TrendMicro security, Office 2010, syncables and CyberLink YouCam. ASUS’ own dock, update tools and other add-ons are also present. The dock, for instance, sits minimised at the top of the screen, and gives you quick-access to the company’s cloud storage, sharing tools and other online components; useful if you’ve bought into the Eee PC ecosystem, but most people will probably choose to uninstall it.

We loaded up Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, and the 1215N scored 1,301 overall. That’s around 400 points higher than a previous-gen Atom N-series netbook would manage on average. We then turned to PCMark Vantage, a more comprehensive test of a system’s various capabilities, and the Eee PC scored 1,907 overall, with particularly strong ratings in the HDD test (3,165), Music (2,380) and TV & Movies (1,611).

In day-to-day use, that adds up to a strong multitasking machine, capable of simultaneously streaming audio, playing 1080p HD video and still having power left over for email and browsing. Thanks to the second-gen Ion GPU, meanwhile (which the system intelligently switches over to from the regular GMA 3150 graphics) the 1215N is even capable of video processing, though we woudn’t want to rely on it as our primary machine. Gaming also becomes an option, as long as you stick to the middle ground in the title’s graphics settings, and of course there’s the HDMI output for enjoying it on a bigger display. Handy, since the viewing angles of the 1215N’s own 12.1-inch panel demand a little extra screen-angle tinkering compared to other netbooks we’ve seen, if you want to enjoy the highly-glossy display at its best.

Battery life is, unsurprisingly, heavily dependent on which GPU is being used; when we spent our time internet browsing over the 1215N’s WiFi connection we managed 5.5hrs runtime. Playing 1080p HD video, however – there’s 1080p Flash, for instance, with hardware acceleration, or the 1215N can handle local 1080p files in H.264, VC1, MPEG and other formats, player depending – and thus stressing the Ion GPU, and that dropped to just under three hours.

Still, it’s a significant step up in performance and connectivity from a regular netbook, only with a fair chunk of the battery life retained and avoiding the price of a standard ultraportable. Intel’s mobility-focused Atom N550 processor will likely err on the side of longevity (the D525 is intended as a desktop chip) but if your multimedia demands fall between the netbook and notebook camps then the ASUS Eee PC 1215N might well fit that gap. For £429/$485 we can forgive the flexing keyboard and missing USB 3.0 since the performance holds up so well.

The DROID X on Froyo scores 1,370, edging ahead of a Google Nexus One running 2.2 and – most importantly – a good hundred points over the same smartphone running Android 2.1 Eclair.  That adds up to a generally faster overall experience day-to-day, and when you consider Froyo also brings with it Flash 10.1 Player support we won’t argue with that.  More DROID X Froyo feedback over at Android Community.

It’s worth noting that the AC100 is currently running Android 2.1, so it’s possible that – when Toshiba release a firmware update to 2.2 – another speed boost could be delivered.  Carrypad also say they’re getting SunSpider JavaScript benchmark results of 9,300, while 13Mbps 1080p H.264 files play with no problems and game Raging Thunder 2 has no qualms at the full 1024 x 600 resolution the Toshiba can manage.

They also did some sleuthing about the person who ran the GLBenchmark 1.1 tests – and who in the past has tested all HTC devices and all available through T-Mobile USA – finding it could well be a T-Mobile employee.  Unfortunately the database doesn’t have any specification details beyond the Android OS and an 800 x 480 display, but the presumption is that this could be HTC’s first device to run the dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU.

Qualcomm began sampling the dual-core Snapdragon back in early June, promising both 1.2GHz and 1.5GHz versions.  There’s no telling which the HTC Glacier might be running – doing some basic sums on the difference between the single-core 1GHz phones leaves the mysterious HTC falling somewhere in-between – but Qualcomm has said that the first devices to use the updated chips could be on the market before the year is out.

[via Android Community]

With an MRSP of $799.99 you know you’re not going to get the most powerful of components, and sure enough the Satellite L675D-S7022 has a pretty modest spec sheet. Toshiba has picked a 1.8GHz triple-core AMD Phenom II X3 P820 processor, paired with a 5,400rpm 500GB hard-drive and 4GB of RAM. Between 256MB and 1,405MB of that RAM can be co-opted by the integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 graphics; already you can guess that this isn’t the machine for gamers.

Meanwhile there’s a Blu-ray reader/DVD burner, WiFi b/g/n, 10/100 ethernet and an integrated webcam, together with two USB 2.0 ports, a combo USB/eSATA port and an HDMI output. No Bluetooth, mind, nor gigabit ethernet or a PC Card/ExpressCard slot. The 6-cell, 48Wh Li-ion battery is rated for up to 3.73hrs runtime. As is usual with notebooks this size, the Satellite L675D-S7022 has a separate numeric keypad to the right of the keyboard, though the spacebar is slightly smaller than we’d expect.

Aesthetically it’s inoffensive but not exactly eye-catching, while Toshiba’s plastics don’t creak or flex but, on the other hand, lack the true quality feel of more expensive machines. The glossy finish to the lid and palm-rest are prone to collecting fingerprints, and at 6.6lbs it’s a heavy machine; Apple’s 17-inch MacBook Pro, for instance, weighs the same despite having a full metal body. Unfortunately, the biggest shortcoming is the display. Toshiba’s 17.3-inch LCD has reasonable viewing angles, is bright and averagely crisp, but with a native 1,600 x 900 resolution falls short of the Full HD 1080p we’d expect.

Given the presence of a Blu-ray drive, the miserly resolution is a real disappointment. It’s not that the Satellite L675D-S7022 is incapable of support HD video, either; to test its performance we used Geekbench, a synthetic benchmarking tool that measures processor and memory, and the Toshiba scored 3,250 (primarily held back by poor memory bandwidth performance). That’s short of the 3,925 scored by the Core i3 based Gateway NV59C we reviewed recently, which also comes in at $799.99 though has a 15.6-inch display.

In terms of real-world performance, the AMD Phenom II X3 holds its own for the usual mixture of browsing, media playback and emailing. We were able to juggle several browser windows, streaming audio in the background and play windowed video without complaints, thanks in part to the 4GB of RAM. Streaming HD video was also manageable too, but the integrated graphics mean anything above the most basic gaming is beyond the Toshiba’s abilities.

Battery life, meanwhile, fell significantly short of Toshiba’s predictions. With a combination of browsing and occasional audio/video playback, as described above, the Satellite L675D-S7022 exhausted itself in 2.5hrs; playing video using the optical drive saw that dip to under 2hrs.

The Satellite L675D-S7022 makes a very good argument for the case that there’s such a thing as too much cost-cutting. We can forgive the notebook its moderate performance and disappointing battery life, but Toshiba’s choice of sub-1080p display on a machine outfitted with a Blu-ray drive seems ridiculous. That the Satellite L675D-S7022 is obviously capable of smooth HD playback, evidenced by its HDMI output, just rubs salt into the wound. Without those extra pixels the Toshiba’s high-def credentials are seriously undermined; if you only ever intend to watch your content on a separate display then the Satellite L675D-S7022 might fit the bill, but we’d rather spend a little extra and get the 1080p experience in an all-in-one package.

Video demo after the cut

That’s primarily down to the new, faster CPU – a Texas Instruments OMAP3630 – and the doubled RAM, 256MB, since the two phones actually share the same GPU.  We’re warned to expect even better performance once Motorola push out Android 2.2 for the DROID 2, since the newer OS version is known to have significant speed benefits.

As for the physical hardware, the keyboard is reportedly better and offers greater feedback during typing, but otherwise changes are minimal.  That includes the 5-megapixel camera, and we can see would-be owners perhaps picking the Motorola DROID X which has an 8-megapixel camera, can record 720p HD (and output it via HDMI), and has a larger, 4.3-inch display too.

[via Android Community]

While the IdeaPad Y460 range kicks off at $799, you’ll need to step up to the $999 version if you want the dedicated ATI Radeon HD 5650 1GB graphics. That GPU is paired with Intel HD integrated graphics and a Core i5-520M 2.40GHz processor, along with 4GB of memory and a 500GB 5,400rpm hard-drive.

The 14-inch LCD runs at 1,366 x 768 resolution, and its LED backlighting is even and surprisingly bright. Colors are richly saturated, and if you’re looking for Full HD there’s an HDMI port on the side which you can use to hook up your nearest HDTV. Other connectivity includes WiFi a/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, along with gigabit ethernet, and there are three USB 2.0 ports, a combo USB/eSATA port, VGA, audio in/out, a six-in-one memory card reader and a 34mm ExpressCard slot. Above the LCD lurks a 1.3-megapixel webcam, while two 2W JBL speakers are tucked above the keyboard and are louder than their amp rating would suggest.

That’s a good thing, since Lenovo’s choice of Blu-ray drive (that doubles as a DVD burner) is on the noisy side for an optical drive. Of course, since the Y460 is Dolby Home Theater certified it’s a simple matter to hook up a decent surround sound system and drown that out, but if you’re trying to enjoy a quiet film without the bells & whistles we’d recommend a set of headphones.

We had high hopes for the IdeaPad Y460′s performance, given its decent processor and healthy chunk of RAM, and the GeekBench results don’t disappoint. GeekBench is a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, and the Lenovo scored 4,930 overall. More impressively, with the discrete GPU switched on, the Y460 flew through graphically-intense games and made short order of video editing; in contrast, the integrated Intel graphics were only really sufficient for mainstream tasks like internet browsing, playing simple streaming video and the like.

As you might expect, though, that sort of graphics grunt takes its toll on the Y460′s 6-cell battery. Lenovo rate the IdeaPad at up to five hours, though we consistently found 3.5 to 4 hours was more likely in regular use; turn on the ATI GPU, however, and runtimes halve. You could certainly argue that the Lenovo switchable graphics system is less elegant than NVIDIA’s Optimus setup, which automatically ramps up its dedicated GPU whenever it sees you need the help, but with the sheer degree of difference in the Y460′s battery life in the two modes we like being able to manually make that choice.

Can you have long battery life, strong processor performance and decent graphics all in one package? Apple’s 15-inch Core i5 based MacBook Pro certainly comes close, but you’re looking at $1,799 for the same processor as in the Y460 (as well as less storage and no Blu-ray support). In contrast, $999 for the IdeaPad Y460 seems something of a bargain, and the ability to toggle between the integrated and discrete graphics does make it something of a Jekyll & Hyde machine. Solidly made, if – at 4.85lbs – a little on the heavy side, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 makes a sensible choice for the road warrior with the occasional need for video crunching.

In fact, according to his benchmarks, while the second-gen Drobo scored 34.3MB/s read and 29.5MB/s write, the Drobo FS only edged ahead in read speed, at 39.7MB/s, while write was actually slower, at 27.3MB/s.  That’s when both units were using empty 1TB Seagate 7,200rpm HDDs; when 60-percent full, the second-gen Drobo fell to 14.3MB/s read and write, while the 40-percent full Drobo FS maintained a healthier 39.1MB/s read and 26.7MB/s write.

That’s considerably slower than a Core i7 iMac Timon benchmarked against, but that isn’t so surprising.  The real benefit is Data Robotics’ BeyondRAID drive mirroring tech, and that’s something that many users prioritize above raw speed.  Still, if you’re looking for the fastest network backup system, you may want to look beyond the Drobo FS, too.

In this latest iteration, Gateway have certainly made the ZX6900-01e reasonably living room friendly. You could almost mistake the black and silver plastic chassis for one of a regular TV, though annoyingly there’s no integrated TV tuner to actually use it as such; for that you’ll have to wait for a new model, due sometime this month, which also bumps the CPU to a Core i5 650 chip.

Instead, here there’s an Intel Core i3 530 processor running at 2.93GHz (from Intel’s desktop range, rather than their notebook line-up), paired with GMA HD graphics, 4GB of DDR3 memory and a 640GB 7,200rpm HDD. In the side of the casing is a slot-loading Blu-ray player (that doubles as a DVD burner), while up front is a 1920 x 1080 23-inch widescreen display. Gateway are quoting 300 cd/m2 brightness, a 5ms response time and 1,000:1 contrast ratio. It’s certainly bright and reasonably crisp; meanwhile the touch system is very responsive and accurate, though Windows 7 Home Premium remains a less than finger-friendly OS. We wish Gateway had developed some sort of touch-pack customization that ran on top, at least for multimedia and internet access.

Connectivity, meanwhile, includes WiFi b/g/n, gigabit ethernet, six USB 2.0 ports – two on the side, four on the back – eSATA and HDMI, along with a multi-format memory card reader. We’re a little disappointed not to see an HDMI input – which would allow you to easily use the ZX6900-01e as a display with your games console – though the native 5.1-channel audio support is handy. Obviously you’ll need a suitable speaker system, though, since alone the ZX6900-01e only has a pair of average-performing 5W speakers for basic stereo. Happily the Blu-ray drive is pretty quiet in use, and so even the integrated speakers are enough to listen to movie soundtracks without straining your ears.

We used Geekbench to put the ZX6900-01e’s hardware through its paces, an artificial benchmark that gauges processor and memory performance. The all-in-one scored a very respectable 5313 altogether, surprising us in fact. That score also holds true for day-to-day use, with the Gateway proving responsive in pretty much everything we threw at it. With the integrated Intel graphics this probably isn’t the machine you’d turn to for video processing, but internet access – including playing 1080p HD YouTube content – together with local HD video playback and multitasking turned out to be a walk in the park for the ZX6900-01e.

At $1,019.99, the ZX6900-01e is larger and cheaper than Apple’s entry-level iMac, as well as packing touch and Blu-ray which aren’t even options on the OS X machine. Still, their respective target audiences seem very different, with the Gateway One feeling more at home in a family, multi-user environment. The addition of a TV tuner would make this one of the best choices for kitchen PC around, though of course there’s always a USB tuner if you can’t wait for Gateway’s updated model (or don’t want to pay more for a Core i5 CPU you might not use).

Frankly, with the surprising level of performance the Core i3 CPU delivered, we reckon most people would be better off adding that cheap USB tuner and opting for the ZX6900-01e. Multitouch works well – despite us wishing there was an operating system that made better use of it – and everything you’d expect from a family PC was delivered in spades. As a package, the Gateway One ZX6900-01e surprised us with its completeness; you can’t really ask for more than that.

Physically, the HTC EVO 4G feels like a blend of the HD2 and the Droid Incredible. Dominating the front is that bright, vivid and crisp 4.3-inch WVGA 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, with little but a row of four touch-sensitive shortcut keys running underneath to distract you. Meanwhile the sturdy, angular case does little to disguise its functionality, though it still manages to look good if only by virtue of its obvious high-end nature. As we said of the HD2, this is smartphone-bordering-on-MID territory when it comes to usability, and while there are no extra pixels than, say, the Nexus One‘s 3.7-inch display, the experience is nonetheless far more user-friendly than on smaller handsets.

Turn on, and you’re faced with Android 2.1 underneath the user-friendly gloss of HTC Sense. Now familiar from several generations of smartphones, Sense is arguably still the best way to bring new users up to speed with what their handsets are capable of. Feature-wise it’s the same as on the HTC Desire or Legend: Facebook, Twitter and Flickr integration with contacts, a Friend Stream aggregated feed of all recent updates, full Exchange integration (with calendar support, rather than just mail and contacts on regular Android 2.1) and various eye-catching widgets for weather, settings and other features. There are seven homescreen panes on which to arrange them, and the EVO 4G flips between them – and indeed between all the menus and apps – without pause or lag.

That’s because under the hood are specifications we’ve grown to expect from high-end Android devices, with Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon chipset core to that experience. Here it’s paired with 512MB of RAM and 1GB ROM (the latter is – on Android 2.1 at least – the only place you can save your applications to), along with a microSD slot (there’s an 8GB card preloaded, held in with an unusual little peg rather than the traditional spring-loaded slot) and 1,500mAh battery. As well as WiMAX and EVDO Rev.A there’s WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and GPS, together with a G-sensor, proximity and light sensors, an FM radio and a 3.5mm headphone socket. On the bottom edge there’s a microUSB port – for charging and data – together with a mini HDMI output for hooking up the EVO 4G to an HDTV; unfortunately Sprint don’t supply the cable necessary to do that in the box.

On the back there’s an 8-megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash (on the front, meanwhile, is a 1.3-megapixel camera for video calls) together with a spring-loaded kickstand for propping the EVO 4G up while playing videos. Even packing all that in, the phone still measures a relatively thin 0.5-inches and weighs 6oz. You’ll notice it in your pocket, certainly, but it doesn’t protrude or bulge uncomfortably.

There are a fair few preloaded apps in addition to HTC Sense, and surprisingly there are some useful titles among the mixture (and a few less than useful, of course). Android 2.1 comes with Google Maps Navigation, which in its latest incarnation supports voice guidance for driving and bicycle routes as well as traffic, but Sprint also insist on loading their own Telenav-powered system (which is bundled into the Sprint Everything Plan). HTC Peep for Twitter is onboard, as is an Office document and PDF reader app, and there’s the Sprint Hotspot app – to turn your EVO 4G into a MiFi-style mobile router and share its 3G/4G connection with various WiFi clients; more on that later – a YouTube HQ app and Qik for video sharing. Finally there’s Sprint TV and, less useful perhaps, their NASCAR and NFL sports apps.

Android is, by now, reasonable familiar, but with the EVO 4G having the largest display of an Android device so far, things like web browsing and media consumption are made all the more attractive. The standard WebKit-based Android browser has, thanks to HTC’s tweaking, Flash Lite 3.1 support, which means certain online animations and streaming video will work in-browser. Pages render quickly and panning/pinch-zooming is jerk- and lag-free. In fact it handles most desktop-version sites well, even if most of the time pages automatically flip to their mobile-versions. There’s obviously full Android Market access, with an ever-growing number of free and paid applications to choose from; at Google IO this week they claimed over 50,000 titles.

Without a physical keyboard, text entry is via an on-screen ‘board using HTC’s own custom layout. We’re big fans of it from previous handsets, and here the extra screen space on offer makes for even speedier input. Both auto-correction and word-prediction are supported, and even the portrait orientation keyboard is large enough for pecking out an email. Flip it into landscape orientation and you can hold the EVO 4G in both hands and thumb-type at a decent pace. The only thing missing, in fact, is a joystick of some sort, without which highlighting text and making more precise corrections can be time-consuming. We imagine its omission was mainly down to an absence of physical space for the hardware.

Voice calls can, at present, only be made over the Sprint 2G/3G networks, not via WiMAX. Audio quality is reasonable, if not outstanding, though the speakerphone is loud – especially if you prop the EVO 4G up on its kickstand. Eventually Sprint will support video calls using the preloaded Qik app and the front-facing video camera, but that functionality isn’t enabled yet. As it is, you can use it to stream video directly from the EVO 4G to an online account – like an instant YouTube that people can watch in real-time – from either camera. What we’d really like is Skype support for video calls, but thanks to Verizon’s exclusivity deal with the VoIP company that seems unlikely to happen.

It’s a shame, because we imagine the 4G connection speed would easily be sufficient for some excellent quality video calls. What users will see obviously depends on the strength of the WiMAX network they’re in – assuming they’re close to one of the relatively few markets where there’s coverage – but we saw healthy 4Mbps downlink and 1Mbps uplink rates when we tested.

As a result, the YouTube HQ app really makes the most of the extra bandwidth and the screen real-estate on offer. Videos are full-screen and as crisp as we’re used to in HD mode on the desktop, and with the kick-stand out and a set of headphones (either wired or Bluetooth A2DP) you have quite the mobile entertainment station. HQ is also supported over EVDO Rev.A, though we noticed a few more glitches in playback when on the slower network.

HTC’s other headline feature for the EVO 4G is its 8-megapixel autofocus camera, complete with two LED flashes as we’ve seen on the Droid Incredible. While on paper this should rival a decent point-and-shoot, in practice results are on the disappointing side. In bright lighting there are more visual artifacts than we’d like to see, whereas low-light conditions confuse the autofocus and can lead to murky, blurry pictures. The flash, like we’ve found with pretty much every other LED example, has a relatively narrow sweet-spot outside of which subjects are either under- or over-exposed. Meanwhile, 720p HD video recording lags behind what you’d expect from a basic, dedicated HD camcorder, and seem to lack the frame rate to go along with the resolution. Still, with the correct HDMI cable it would be handy being able to show them straight away on a nearby HDTV or display.

Take off video from SFO using EVO 4G:

Second sample video taken with EVO 4G:

Load up some prerecorded video content, however, and it’s a much more satisfying experience; we can see frequent travelers using the EVO 4G as their portable entertainment station, bypassing pay-per-view hotel room movies and instead choosing from their own mobile catalog. Holding it back is the absence of broad codec support, admittedly not something limited to this particular device, but we’d like to have seen DivX or H.264 thrown into the mixture. When we met with HTC recently and asked them if they had any plans to include DivX or Xvid, they said it wasn’t something on their immediate timeline; that feels like a missed opportunity in this case.

Battery life on a device like this is always going to be precarious, with WiMAX being particularly power hungry. We’ve managed 5 hours and 20 minutes talktime. Using it in hotspot mode – sharing out the 3G/4G connection via WiFi – saw that drop to more like roughly 3 hours and 30 minutes before we had to plug in the charger. HTC provide a simple homescreen toggle with which you can turn on and off WiMAX if you want to prioritize longevity instead of speed (or simply aren’t in a WiMAX-covered area).

While it’s handy for getting to webpages and streaming audio or TV on the EVO 4G itself, WiMAX really comes into its own when you’ve got a notebook, netbook or other WiFi-only device you want to get online. Sprint’s Hotspot app basically does what a standalone Novatel MiFi – or, indeed, Sprint’s own 3G/4G Overdrive – mobile router does: share out the smartphone’s data connection with up to eight WiFi clients. Setup is straightforward, a matter of punching in your choice of SSID and encryption passcode, and then connecting with your laptop in the usual way.

In fact the irony is that the WiMAX’s success underscores one of the HTC EVO 4G’s key weaknesses: that so little of the US, relatively speaking, supports the network. While that’s undoubtedly Sprint’s fault, not HTC’s or that of the smartphone itself, the problem is still shared by all three. Perhaps the technophile users who’ll reach for the EVO 4G will accept its limitations and go into a two-year contract with their eyes open to WiMAX’s fledgling limitations, but then paying a $10 premium every month for WiMAX access – even if you’re never within sniffing-distance of a signal – could quickly prove frustrating.

That brings us to the second main weakness of the phone: Sprint’s pricing. $199.99 outright for the HTC EVO 4G itself was to be expected; then of course there’s the mandatory voice and data packages for the duration of a two-year agreement. Figure $70 per month for Sprint’s Simply Everything plan, plus that extra $10 for the privilege of dipping into WiMAX speeds. Unfortunately, where Verizon bundle inclusive mobile hotspot functionality into the price of a Palm Pre Plus data contract, Sprint insist on charging a further $30 per month.

So, altogether that’s $110 in monthly fees, or around $2,840 over the course of your agreement. While the core device is certainly impressive, we can’t help but recall Sprint’s boasts that WiMAX data was a relative free-for-all in comparison to traditional 3G, because the network is designed for data use. Still, given you’ll most likely be on EVDO Rev.A most of the time, perhaps it’s not such a great surprise that Sprint are so mean when it comes to sharing your EVO 4G’s connection.

Our final concern is Android itself. Not Google’s commitment to the platform, but HTC’s ability to push out updates to their Sense-enabled devices. By the time the EVO 4G arrives on Sprint shelves the Google Nexus One will have already had Android 2.2 Android 2.2 Froyo for a couple of weeks, with other Android handsets likely following on in the subsequent weeks and months. As we’ve seen before, when you customize a device it then takes a lot more work to update the underlying OS; HTC have said they’re targeting an Android 2.2 upgrade for 2010 model year phones in the second half of this year, but we’ve seen them miss public timescales before. Admittedly, one of the most anticipated features OS 2.2 will bring, WiFi tethering, is already supported via Sprint’s Hotspot app, but that’s not the only appeal of the new version and it’s galling to know your shiny new smartphone may be “outdated” before you’ve hardly got it out of the store.

Still, as we always say, you should buy a phone because it fits your needs now, not because of what it might do however many months down the line. Out of the box, the HTC EVO 4G is comprehensive and highly capable, and there’s a wealth of third-party content in the Android Market that extends its abilities even further. Equally, developers are unlikely to abandon support for previous versions of Android, knowing that HTC’s devices are some of the most popular around.

That reputation should be rightly shared by the HTC EVO 4G. Expensive it may be, scarce its high-speed network of choice and ambiguous in its upgrade timetable, but it’s still one of the most capable and impressive handsets not only running Android but in the US smartphone segment altogether. We’d recommend poring over Sprint’s WiMAX coverage map before you sign up to a contract, just to make sure you’re getting the most from the handset, but as chicken and egg devices go, there are plenty of positives to enjoy while you wait for the network to catch up.

They used an app called Speedy Go! which benchmarks Symbian devices, and which allows the N8 to be tested both with its graphics accelerator turned on and turned off.  Off, the prototype N8 posted a score 54-percent higher than the Samsung Omnia HD and 180-percent greater than the Nokia N97.  Meanwhile the N8 maxed out the FPC Bench 3D graphics testing, ranking 60fps – the highest the app can count – in every category.

According to Finestfones, the improvement in results is because, while some current-generation Symbian devices also have graphics accelerators, the Symbian S60v5 OS isn’t actually coded to take advantage of them fully.  Symbian^3, which will make its commercial debut on the N8, has no such shortcomings.  For more on the N8, check out our hands-on from last week.

Video comparison after the cut

“I took the Intel Atom-based Viliv X70, a 7” tablet with a 1024×600 7” touchscreen running Windows XP Home, installed the latest Google Chrome, locked the CPU to 800Mhz and did some random web browsing tests. Remember that the Menlow platform used in the X70 is very close to the architecture used on Moorestown. The CPU are GPU are architecturally almost exactly the same. I side-by-sided it with an iPad which is, according to my tests with the Archos 5, X10 and HTC Desire (all running high-end ARM V7 architecture cores) the fastest ARM-based browser solution out there” Steve Paine, UMPC Portal

Steve’s thinking is that, since the Menlow platform of the X70 is actually pretty similar to the Moorestown platform just around the corner, the X70′s performance actually makes for a reasonable predictor.  He found that, at 800MHz, the X70 is pretty much on a par with the iPad browser.

Ramped up to 1.3GHz, meanwhile – as high as the X70′s CPU will go, but short of the 1.5GHz the new Atom Z6xx processors will manage – and the Intel-based MID could render pages significantly faster than the iPad could, including Flash support.  With Flash disabled it was even faster.  It’s enough for Steve to state that Moorestown will likely “deliver web pages, process script, decrypt HTTPS, GZIP and images much faster than the best ARM-based solution out there,” and that’s before you get to multitasking support.

For the most part, the iPad WiFi + 3G (which from now on we’ll just refer to as the iPad 3G for the sake of brevity) is identical to its WiFi-only sibling. Both have the same capacitive touchscreen display, slimline aluminum body, iPhone OS 3.2 and either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of flash storage. We’d recommend reading our iPad WiFi review for a full overview of the strengths and shortcomings of the Apple tablet, since here we’ll be concentrating on what sets the iPad 3G apart.

You could argue whether the most noticeable difference between the iPad WiFi and the iPad 3G is the extra cost of the 3G modem on your wallet or the new antenna panel on the back. The flipside to AT&T’s reasonably low priced data tariffs – more on which in a moment – is that the 3G hardware itself isn’t subsidized. Each iPad 3G model costs $120 more than its WiFi counterpart, though the triband (850/1900/2100) modem is supplied carrier unlocked.

Past the financial bump, it’s arguable how much the antenna panel mars the iPad’s clean looks. As with the iPhone, the cellular antenna can’t do its thing with metal in the way, and so there’s an oblong chunk of black plastic along a portion of the top back and edge of the tablet. Otherwise, the only external difference is the microSIM card slot, midway down the side of the iPad, and which uses a SIM tray rather than some sort of door or flap. As with the iPhone, Apple supply a paperclip-style SIM tray removal tool.

Though the 3G modem is unlocked, Apple’s well-publicized choice of a microSIM rather than the more common GSM miniSIM means swapping the card between your phone and your iPad isn’t as straightforward as it could be. The AT&T microSIM Apple provide is preloaded, but you can trim down a miniSIM from another carrier to fit and slot that in instead. Meanwhile multiple carriers outside of the US have announced that they’ll be offering microSIMs for iPad use, so frequent travelers will likely be able to pick up a local card and use that instead of roaming. That’s useful, since international data is priced at $24.99 for 20MB, $59.99 for 50MB, $119.99 for 100MB or $199.99 for 200MB.

In the US, AT&T offer two packages (though of course you can also use the iPad 3G on WiFi only). $14.99 gets you 250MB of data and $29.99 gets you unlimited data; both plans are contract-free and you can activate and deactivate them as often as you want. For instance, if you wanted to have 3G service while travelling for two months out of the year, you could do so and pay $60 for unlimited data for that period. If you had to call AT&T every time that would quickly become tedious, so we’re glad to see Apple implementing an on-device data setup system which bills a credit card (as long as you have a regular, not PO Box, US mailing address) and gives warnings if your 250MB data allowance is running short. It’s worth noting that the 250MB expires 30 days after activation, so you can’t pay $14.99 for a chunk of data and then ration it out over several months.

The affordability of the AT&T iPad plans will depend on what other cellular contracts you’re signed up to. Viewed in isolation, the unlimited tariff is significantly cheaper than, say, a MiFi plan; however, given the iPad 3G is limited to data not voice, it’s more likely to be an addition rather than a replacement to whatever you’re currently paying for your cellphone. If the latter includes a smartphone data plan and the usual line rental – for an iPhone 3GS, for instance – that adds up to a fair amount. It’s frustrating that those already under the Apple umbrella aren’t rewarded with a discount, but that seems to be the price you pay for the flexibility of AT&T’s iPad plans.

Happily, if you do choose to switch on 3G data, you can be rewarded with some excellent performance that, in our experience, soundly bests the iPhone 3GS’ abilities and does surprisingly well against Sprint and Verizon’s EVDO Rev.A networks. For full details, check out our comparison video where we pit the iPad 3G against the iPhone 3GS together with the Verizon and Sprint (see remarks below) MiFis.

iPad WiFi + 3G vs iPhone 3Gs speedtest

iPad WiFi + 3G vs Verizon MiFi speedtest

Results from Sprint MiF doesn’t perform as well as Verizon so for your sanity, I’ve omitted the video from this review since it’s the same thing.

Speed test via Speedtest.net results (kbps):

Now, it obviously goes without saying that your experience with the iPad 3G depends on the strength of the AT&T network around you and, as the iPhone 3GS has shown, that network can prove patchy and frustrating. It’s also worth noting that, while T-Mobile USA GPRS and EDGE will work on the iPad 3G, you won’t see WCDMA/UMTS as it lacks the necessary band support.

Also frustrating are the software limitations placed on 3G use in data-heavy applications. This is predominantly the case then trying to watch streaming video; YouTube and Netflix default to an unimpressively low bitrate, which at times can leave the video almost unwatchable. Elsewhere, other apps simply slice out 3G support altogether, with a pop-up message saying that only WiFi streaming is supported. The limitation is, we’re told, a part of Apple’s iPhone OS streaming policy designed to reduce impact on the cellular network, but the end result is far more jarring on the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen that it is on a considerably smaller iPhone display.

A side-effect of the 3G modem is its integrated GPS receiver, which augments the regular iPad’s WiFi triangulation mode of positioning with a true satellite fix. Functionally this is the same as before – tapping the location icon in Google Maps zooms in to your position – but you get a pulsing blue dot rather than one surrounded by a hoop of location ambiguity; a second tap turns on the digital compass. We found the initial GPS fix to be a little slower than when we compared it to the iPhone 3GS, but once it had a hot fix it seemed to rediscover location quicker after having been indoors or in tunnels. The thought of using an iPad 3G as a PND alternative while driving seems a little odd, but for navigating a new city the true GPS would make a significant difference to accuracy.

One of our biggest surprises with the iPad WiFi was its battery life, which we – and many others – found to exceed the ten hours Apple predicted. It now looks like those predictions may have partially been to accommodate the iPad 3G. Battery life of course varies with use, though in standby the 3G model lasted just as long as the WiFi-only version. Judged from the battery gauge, with reasonably heavy use we’ve found it drops around 4-percent per hour using 3G rather than WiFi. That’s incredibly good. If you’re in a weak signal area then the battery will likely take a heavier hit, as the modem has to work harder.

Is the iPad 3G the version to opt for? There’s no denying that ubiquitous connectivity makes a significant difference to how you eventually use a mobile device: if you can, think of the way your usage patterns changed when you moved from a per-MB data plan on your smartphone to an unlimited plan, and how much more often you reached for the handset. Being free of wherever the nearest WiFi hotspot is a liberating feeling, certainly.

For many would-be iPad users, though, the price difference – both the extra for the 3G modem, and then whatever subscription fees you rack up – may prove a little too great for that flexibility. If you’re using your iPad predominantly at home then WiFi is probably sufficient; it’s also obviously faster than 3G. While a MiFi – or a WiFi tethering plan on a handset like the Palm Pre Plus – is more expensive, it’s also more flexible since you can use that data with more than just the iPad; in contrast, you’re potentially spending $30 per month on a data contract that can only be taken advantage of with a single device.

Nonetheless, $130 still feels a reasonable amount to pay for the convenience of having a device that can connect in most places you might find yourself. Let’s face it, an iPad is hardly a “necessary” purchase in the first place, and so the usual penny-pinching has to be balanced against getting the most from a luxury buy. Unless you know your iPad is destined to be a stay-at-home gadget for the rest of its days, we’d lean toward Apple’s iPad WiFi + 3G.

Western Digital slot the VelociRaptor WD6000HLHX into their enterprise range, but they’re also clear that it’s an enthusiasts drive. Among those enthusiasts are speed-freak gamers looking to balance transfer rates against storage capacity, together with home server builders demanding the same sort of performance as their corporate cousins.

The new WD6000HLHX offers 600GB of capacity, paired with 32MB of cache, and uses the latest SATA 6 Gb/s interface. A 2.5-inch drive in a 3.5-inch “IcePack” caddy, it spins at a whopping 10,000 rpm and Western Digital reckon you’ll see 3.6ms read seek times, 4.2ms write seek times, and just 3.0ms latency. The caddy, meanwhile, bristles with cooling fins that work as a huge heatsink and also allow you to mount the drive. It’s worth noting that, while the core HDD is a 2.5-inch unit, it’s too thick to fit into most notebooks.

In a desktop though – and one with a 6 Gb/s SATA interface, of course – the improvement over previous VelociRaptor drives is more than just speed. Read rates averaged out at around 98 Mb/s with burst rates of around 150 Mb/s, while write rates came in at around 92 Mb/s with burst rates of around 147 Mb/s. That added up to apps loading significantly quicker, as you’d expect from a fast drive, but also in-app performance being higher than comparable HDDs; storage-intensive tasks, such as heavy duty video crunching or adding large quantities of media to libraries.

However the WD6000HLHX is also a surprisingly quiet drive; Western Digital quote 30 dBA when idle or 37 dBA when under load, and while that makes for louder storage than an SSD, it’s nonetheless quieter than most slower-spinning drives we’ve used. Assuming whatever workstation you’re using it with has more than a couple of fans, you can pretty much count out hearing the VelociRaptor when it’s idle.

Finally there’s power, and though the VelociRaptor can’t quite match the green-credentials of some of Western Digital’s own “Caviar Green” range, it’s still more frugal than we expected. Although they quote 5W when idle, we found it more in the range of 4.0W to 4.3W; that’ll obviously rise when active. Still, it shouldn’t break the bank in terms of ongoing power costs.

Of course, those ongoing costs are only encountered when you get past the not-inconsiderable sticker price of the WD6000HLHX. The 600GB drive is currently listed for around $279.99, which is a high for platter-based GB/$ but competitive against the SSDs Western Digital are pitting the VelociRaptor line. It’s worth noting that you’ll need a suitably upbeat system to pair the HDD with if you want to see the benefit of its capabilities; that’s not just a SATA 6 Gb/s port, but a decent processor and ample RAM. It’ll also do better with a fresh system install, rather than swapping the drive out from your existing setup, and we’ve a feeling many users – and their wallets – would be content with the SATA 3 Gb/s model from the same range.

Overkill for most home users, then, but if your priority is speed and you’re looking at building a performance RAID array then the VelociRaptor WD6000HLHX makes for a more cost-effective and capacious choice than an SSD. As long as you don’t expect it to be a silver bullet dropped into a mediocre existing system – it can’t work miracles, after all – there’s plenty to like about the WD6000HLHX.

Introduced about a decade ago, the multi-media card (MMC) based SD card has evolved from Standard 1.1 (SD), 2.0 (SDHC) to 3.0 (SDXC) slowly but surely, with capacity and speed improving from 2GB with a minimum sustained read/write speed of 2.2 MB/s to a whooping 2TB of storage space at a maximum transfer speed of 104 MB/s. While we have not seen such cards on the market with that capability, Version 4.0 is already in development and intends to reveal the full potential of SDXC, tripling data throughput up to 300MB/s.

So far, devices supporting the standard are limited and only one DSLR is known to support it, the Canon EOS Rebel T2i. Though SanDisk has recently shipped a slower-speed Ultra II SDXC 64GB, the speed is fairly basic at 15MB/s. However, Toshiba showcased its first SDXC memory card at CES 2010 earlier this year with read and write speeds of up to 60MB/s and 35MB/s respectively. With video recording on DSLRs becoming increasingly popular – and not requiring much faster – write-speeds – SDXC is an interesting prospect both in terms of capacity and ability to boost performance when needed.

If you have prior experience with SDHC, you’ve probably guessed that backward compatibility for the SD format can be a hassle. Unlike CompactFlash, where cards supporting improved standards are often backward compatible, SD can be more reluctant to play along. Your host devices must support the newer standard, and it’s often been our experience that mismatching such standards could cause permanent damage to the storage card.

SDHC read and write performances

For this review, we repeated the same tests previously performed on the CompactFlash cards to record time consumed to write data onto the same camera and computer – Canon’s EOS 1D Mark IV and a Mac Pro with a 1TB Western Digital Black Caviar HDD – with six Class-10 SDHC candidates from SanDisk, PhotoFast and Lexar Media.

The SDHC reader used to calculate read speed was the SanDisk ImageMate All-In-One media reader with an advertised maximum speed of 30 MB/s read and 27 MB/s write respectively.

• Lexar Professional 133x 8GB SDHC, Class 10, minimum sustain write speed of 20MB/s, $60
• PhotoFast 4GB SLC SDHC, Class 10, minimum sustain write speed of 22MB/s, $69**
• PhotoFast 32GB MLC SDHC, Class 10, minimum sustain write speed of 18MB/s, $179
• SanDisk Extreme 8GB SDHC, Class 10, maximum write speed of 30MB/s, $50
• SanDisk Extreme 16GB SDHC, Class 10, maximum write speed of 30MB/s, $99
• SanDisk Extreme 32GB SDHC, Class 10, maximum write speed of 30MB/s, $190

Pricing based on Amazon online.
**Manufacturer pricing.

From our last test, we’ve seen that top-tier CompactFlash cards could reach 58MB/s on the Mark IV; disappointingly, though, the camera performed around 3 times slower with the SDHC cards. Results are fairly consistently among the cards, data generally being written at 20MB/s with the exception of the 32GB PhotoFast, which trailed around 5MB/s behind the pack.

Oddly, while read benchmarks are normally significantly faster than write rates, the SDHCs on test performed just slightly faster than their write speeds. Again, no significant performance differences were observed among the cards.

As we found in our last review a UDMA card can help in clearing out the DSLR’s frame buffer, managing up to 30-31 frames before hitting the wall. Take the 32GB version of SanDisk’s Extreme Pro CF and Extreme SDHC 30MB/s for comparison. The former held 31 frames and took 10.33 seconds to clear; the latter only managed 27 frames but took as much as 25.17 seconds to clear. To put the numbers into perspective, it extends buffer depth by adding four frames more in continuous burst mode and writes 2.5x faster to clear the queues onto the card and be ready for the next burst.

In addition, if you’re accustomed to formatting your memory card before you start shooting – as you should, allowing your camera to initialize the file system and help prevent write errors – you would have to wait longer with the SDHC cards. The Mark IV camera formatted the SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash in 1.4 seconds but took up to 5.1 seconds on the Extreme SDHC card.

If your priority is camera performance, taking uninterrupted still images of action sequences, you would want to stick with UDMA enabled CompactFlash, preferably a mode 6 card. Our tests show that, right now, DSLRs and card reader compliant with the UDMA standard write and read data far better than with SDHC. Having fast media storage allows for quicker image access, both for capture as well as when formatting. However, with HD video recording increasingly a standard feature for today’s DSLRs, video cinematographers would probably prefer the largest media available, such the upcoming SDXC cards with an outrageous 2TB on offer. Take the Mark IV video recording rate for example: at 5.5MB/s Full HD recording, it would fill a 64GB card in 192 minutes. That’s fine for short interviews, but you’d probably need to pack a few cards to record, say, a short-feature film. Still, for now at least, CompactFlash is ahead of the memory card competition in term of raw performance.

Outwardly, there’s nothing to differentiate this mid-2010 MacBook Pro from the Core 2 Duo model it replaces. To be fair to Apple that’s no great hardship; the MacBook Pro range remains one of the more striking designs on the market, even with its unibody structure a few years old now, and built quality remains high. As before, ports line the left-hand side of the notebook, and you still get an SD card slot, audio in/out, Mini DisplayPort, two closely situated USB 2.0, FireWire 800, gigabit Ethernet and a MagSafe power connector. On the right-hand side is the slot-loading DVD burner, and Apple still refuse to fit a Blu-ray drive.

One of the more tempting options on Apple’s updated spec sheet is a higher resolution display for the 15-inch MacBook Pro; the standard model comes with a 1440 x 900 glossy panel, but for $100 more you can have a glossy 1680 x 1050 screen while $150 gets you the same resolution but an antiglare finish. Our review unit came with the standard screen, however, which is just as bright and color-rich as the LED-backlit panel on the last-gen model. Considering the price difference, if it were our money we’d opt for the extra pixels.

Apple’s other change to this new batch of machines is inertial scrolling for the trackpad. As before it’s a sizeable glass panel the entire surface of which “clicks” when tapped, and it recognizes up to four-finger gestures at a time. Borrowed from the iPhone and iPad, however, is inertial scrolling: you can flick with two fingers up or down to scroll, just as before, but now the webpage, list or document slows to a halt rather than stopping suddenly. It’s an option, which can be toggled in the System Preferences, but it does make for more natural page navigation.

If the outer changes are minimal, on the inside things have become a whole lot more interesting. We’ve been longing for Intel’s Core i7 chips to show up in the MacBook Pro range since before they were even officially announced, and Apple have gone a step further by pairing them with the latest NVIDIA graphics and intelligent switching technology. While the new 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros each kick off with Core i5 processors, our review unit has the 2.66GHz Core i7 with 4MB of shared L3 cache; 4GB of DDR3 is standard (8GB an option) as is a 320GB hard-drive (on the 15-inch; the 17-inch gets 500GB minimum), though our unit has a 500GB 5,400rpm drive.

Like previous MacBook Pro notebooks, there are dual graphics chips: an onboard Intel HD chipset for basic tasks and a discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with either 256MB or – as in the unit we have here – 512MB of GDDR3 memory. What’s different this time around is how the two GPUs are handled. While the last-gen MacBook Pro required you log out and back in again to switch between integrated and discrete graphics, the new range can “intelligently” flip when it reckons you need the extra processing power. Although originally presumed to be using NVIDIA’s Optimus technology – which keeps track of a list of GPU-intensive apps, and automatically turns on the discrete graphics when they are active – the software system responsible – Automatic Graphics Switching (AGS) – is actually of Apple’s own design. Rather than judging need by virtue of a preset list, AGS tracks the graphics requirements of individual software by whether they call on graphics frameworks like OpenGL or Core Graphics, powering up the GeForce GT 330M when it believes it’s necessary.

It certainly works, but while the switching is transparent we wish Apple’s settings were slightly less so. There’s no way to tell which GPU the MacBook Pro is using at any one time, and currently you’re limited to turning the automatic system on or off. Choose “off” and Apple simply keeps the NVIDIA graphics active all the time, which will take its toll on your battery since, unlike Optimus, AGS treats the two GPUs as either/or rather than running them simultaneously. There’s no way to solely rely on the Intel HD chipset, and this time around Apple aren’t offering an entry-level model that only packs integrated graphics.

We loaded up Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, and the new MacBook Pro scored 6309 overall. In comparison, the previous-gen MacBook Pro – with a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo T9600 processor and 4GB of DDR3 memory – scored 4211. That’s almost a 50-percent increase, and the day-to-day effect is a machine that experiences fewer slow-downs under load, that boots up apps quicker, and that can multitask more successfully. Processing a video in iMovie, for instance, still leaves enough grunt to continue working elsewhere without things grinding to a sluggish churn.

For instance, we imported 300MB video files into iMovie and it took less than two minutes; meanwhile processing a 2 1/2 minute video at 960x resolution output was done in less than five minutes. It’s worth remembering that this is a combination of the NVIDIA GPU and the Core i7 CPU’s floating point performance; still, real-life processing is around 15- to 20-percent faster than on the previous generation machine.

While Apple didn’t supply us with an SSD version of the new MacBook Pro, we tried slotting in a mid-range OCZ SSD to see if that would make a difference to the Geekbench results. In actual fact, it fell a little short, scoring 6214. Still, we’d suggest waiting until Apple’s official SSD-equipped versions get benchmarked before making any decisions about whether to opt for the solid-state drive.

Apple suggest that the sealed-in lithium-polymer battery inside the MacBook Pro is good for between 8 and 9 hours of runtime with the wireless switched on, and that AGS is primarily responsible for the increase over the last-gen model. They’re ambitious numbers, and real-world performance is obviously very much dependent on whether what you’re doing is causing the MacBook Pro to flip into NVIDIA graphics mode. Used for basic browsing, some music playback and editing text, we managed to squeeze just under seven hours of runtime from the notebook; as soon as we tried to do an arguably more real-world representative test, adding in some basic video editing, viewing a little SD and HD content and carrying out some Photoshop editing, however, that figure plummeted to around four hours. That’s always going to be the flip side to a fast processor and capable discrete GPU, of course.

Back at the start we asked whether the new 15-inch MacBook Pro was more hyperbole than anything else. It’s certainly still the case that you can’t expect Core i7 performance without compromising on battery life: it’s either top spec crunching or wire-free longevity, and unless battery technology makes a significant leap we can’t see that changing any time soon. Still, use the new MacBook Pro in a more casual way and it’s got the legs to comfortably coast past other 15-inch rivals, safe in the knowledge that – if needed, and if you’re willing to take the battery hit – you can keep pace with desktop machines when it comes to multimedia editing and the like.

Apple certainly listened to complaints about their previous dual-GPU system and streamlined the switching process; now, ironically, we find ourselves asking for a nudge arguably in the other direction, with a more obvious indicator of when the NVIDIA graphics are active. That would certainly allow users to make a more educated choice between processing and runtimes. If you’re coming to the MacBook Pro range fresh then we can’t argue with the power on offer, though you’ll pay a premium price for it: our Core i7 review unit is the most expensive preconfiguration, at $2,199. Existing owners considering an upgrade should think long and hard about whether they actually need the bump in crunching on offer, and we’ll be interested to see how the lower price, Core i5 versions fare in benchmarking. It’s a testament to how much the MacBook Pro line gets right that Apple need only make so few changes beyond refreshing CPU and GPU; they demand deep pockets, certainly, but you’re getting an incredible solid, high-performing machine for your money.

Unboxing Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch Core i7 Unboxing

MacBook Pro 15-inch Core i7 Specification

As well as the last-gen 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, the eCAFÉ EC-1000W gets 1GB of RAM, a 250GB 5,400rpm hard-drive and WiFi b/g/n. There’s also a 4,400mAh 6-cell battery, three USB 2.0 ports, VGA output, ethernet and a multiformat memory card reader, along with audio in/out and a webcam/microphone. OS is Windows 7 Starter, and there’s an eCAFÉ Connect app which attempts to make common tasks – like hooking up to a WiFi network – a little more straightforward for entry-level users.

Design-wise the EC-1000W is reasonably distinctive. Measuring in at 10.8 x 7.7 x 1.3 inches, it swaps hard edges for rounded corners and a framed 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 display that goes a little way to disguising the thick bezel. The 88-percent sized keyboard uses chiclet keys with decent travel but some sluggishness; combine that with the fact that they’re smaller-than-average and typing can be a little slow. In contrast, the trackpad is decently large, though it doesn’t support multitouch gestures. We wish Hercules hadn’t used such stubborn mouse buttons, though.

Like most other netbooks we see, the EC-1000W has a highly gloss-finish display, and that adds up to frustrating reflections during use (especially if you’re trying to work outdoors). It’s a shame, as the LCD panel itself is bright and color-rich, with particularly impressive contrast. While the speakers are confined to key-sized grills right under the netbook’s hinges, that doesn’t appear to impinge seriously on loudness; we were quite surprised by how much noise the eCAFÉ can put out. Of course, there’s a headphone socket for private listening.

Of course, your media consumption will be limited primarily by the hardware specifications. The Atom N270 processor isn’t known for its crunching ability, and the Intel GMA 950 graphics it’s paired with pales next to newer, NVIDIA Ion toting machines. End result is that standard definition streaming video, such as YouTube, plays reasonably well, though 720p proved beyond its abilities. Less ambitious applications, like internet browsing or music playback were more successful, though we learnt to dread sites making significant use of Flash since the EC-1000W would end up sluggish.

We benchmarked the EC-1000W using Geekbench, a synthetic test of memory and processor performance, and the netbook scored 802 overall.  That lags behind the 886 scored by an ageing MSI Wind U100, which uses the same processor but runs Windows XP Home .

Battery life, meanwhile, fell short of the 6hrs Hercules estimate. Used for basic internet browsing over WiFi, the EC-1000W held up for just under five and a half hours, though that figure fell when we watched video. Overall, it’s a lesser showing than machines based on the newer Intel N280 chip, which offers little in the way of a performance boost but can make for a slightly more frugal netbook, and well behind latest-generation Atom N450/N470 machines.

Given the number of netbooks out there with cookie-cutter specifications, price perhaps ends up playing a more significant role than in more mainstream notebooks. Amazon are currently listing the eCAFÉ EC-1000W for $319.99; problem is, they’re also offering the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA – which matches the Hercules’ specs but offers longer batter life – for $284.99. We prefer the ASUS’ keyboard, too, which is a lot less frustrating than the shrunken example on the EC-1000W. Some users may prioritise the eCAFÉ’s distinctive looks as justification for paying a little more, but for those looking for the best balance of price and functionality the Hercules falls short.

Hercules eCAFÉ EC-1000W unboxing video:

When we tested an early – and hardware unoptimized – version of Flash 10.1 on the Nexus One last month, we can’t say we were impressed.  Still, it looks like the prerelease betas have gone through some extra work since then, since Chaize’s tests on the Nexus One look a lot smoother than our video demo.

His benchmarks follow on from similar desktop testing done by The Man In Blue earlier this week, which also found that Flash video performance edged ahead of HTML5.  In the end, though, it will likely come down to who is producing the best code: Chaize reminds Flash developers that they need to take care of their AS3 optimization, while at the same time pointing out that “knowing HTML doesn’t mean that you’ll become a HTML5 expert.”

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/10553088[/vimeo]

[via Recombu and via Android Community]

It’s certainly a distinctive notebook. Like larger Alienware models, the M11x swaps the curves so fashionable in current mainstream laptops for a blunter, angular design. The company have happily shown a little more restraint when it comes to grilles, contours and fluting, but there’s still no doubting the family lineage. The backlit Alienware logo on the notebook’s lid is mirrored by a second, slightly smaller logo just above the keyboard that acts as power button and status indicator.

The keyboard itself, meanwhile, uses Alienware’s stylized font, and the flat keycaps are reasonable to type on. There’s a decent amount of key travel, though it’s not a particularly quiet ‘board, but we’re not 100-percent convinced by the layout. It feels a little cramped in terms of width, perhaps because Alienware have slotted in a row of Home/End/Page Up/Page Down keys on the far right; most frustrating are the unduly narrow arrow keys, and we often found ourselves hitting the Windows context menu button when we meant to press left.

Alienware M11x unboxing video:

As for the trackpad, that’s a discrete textured square with tactile buttons underneath it. The standard Synaptics multitouch gestures – such as two-finger scrolling and pinch-zoom – are turned off by default. If it’s easy to miss the pad, that’s because of Alienware’s LED lighting effects. The entire keyboard is backlit, as is the Alienware logo (both the text under the display and the Alien-head power button), the status indicators on the top left of the ‘board, and the two grills inset into the front edge of the notebook. A manager app called AlienFX is preloaded, from which you can independently set each color from a wheel of different hues, before saving it as an overall color scheme. It’s also possible to choose two different schemes to automatically load depending on whether the M11x is on mains or battery power. It’s perhaps a little gimmicky, but it does lift the otherwise somber gloss-black finish of our review unit.

It also – at least the “Alienware” text – serves to fill some of the space left around the display. The 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 panel has a reasonably deep bezel above and underneath, though the TFT LCD itself is bright and crisp. Colors are particularly well saturated, a side-effect of the otherwise moderately frustrating glossy screen coating that can make finding a reflection-free angle a chore. Not such an issue when browsing or writing emails, but dark, moody games can sometimes leave you trying to peer past your own reflection to see what might be lurking round the corner.

Of course, if the onboard display isn’t perfect, there’s plenty of choice for hooking up external monitors. The M11x has VGA, HDMI and DisplayPort, along with three USB 2.0 ports, a pair of headphone sockets, a single microphone input, FireWire, ethernet and a 3-in-1 memory card reader. That’s more impressive than some 15.6-inch notebooks, never mind an 11.6-inch machine. Standard wireless connectivity includes WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1. There’s also a SIM card slot, for use if you’ve spec’d the optional Gobi 3G wireless module, and a 1.3-megapixel webcam. Another tab in Alienware’s manager app is for Aliensense, the company’s face-recognition app, which over a short period of time can learn to spot your face and automatically log into Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (Professional and Ultimate are options).

All that would be for naught if the M11x fell short when it comes to performance, and thankfully that’s very much not the case. Alienware offer a choice of two processors, Intel’s Pentium SU4100 1.30GHz in the entry-level machine or their Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.30GHz in the more expensive models. Out of the box they come overclocked; our review unit had the Core 2 Duo chip, running at 1.73GHz and paired with 4GB of DDR3 memory. Basic versions get just 2GB of memory, or you can specify up to 8GB. No matter the model, graphics are courtesy of NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 335M with a dedicated 1GB of GDDR3 memory; that’s switchable with Intel’s integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics chipset. Storage ranges from a 160GB 5,400rpm HDD, though 250GB to 500GB 7,200rpm HDDs, and finally a 256GB SSD, and the standard battery is an 8-cell 64 Whr pack (that requires you unscrewing the bottom panel to access).

Unlike other switchable graphics systems we’ve seen, which require you to log out of the OS or even reboot the notebook altogether, Alienware let you flip between the Intel and NVIDIA GPUs by hitting Fn+F6. NVIDIA’s Optimus system – which automatically chooses which GPU to use, based on what the user is asking of the system – isn’t present, but we can see some people preferring the manual control. The first time we flipped from integrated to standalone graphics the M11x had to download some audio drivers from Windows Update, but subsequent changes were fast and painless.

The Alienware M11x, then, is a Jekyll and Hyde machine, though to be fair only when it comes to visual crunching. We ran Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory, and the M11x scored 2502 when on integrated graphics and 2512 on discrete graphics. Either way that’s a huge score given what we’re used to other ULV ultraportables managing; the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13, which has the same processor (though at its regular clock speed) manages just 2086 on the same test.

Where the difference is more obvious is in graphics performance. We switched over to PCMark Vantage, which tests all aspects of the notebook’s abilities and then rates it in categories such as productivity and gaming. Here, running with the integrated GPU, the M11x scored 4,080 PCMarks overall. Switch to the discrete graphics, meanwhile, and the overall PCMark Vantage score climbed to 4,802. That might not sound like a huge increase, but take a look at the individual categories and you get a clearer picture of what the NVIDIA GPU brings to the table. Gaming rose from 3,028 to 5,500, while Windows 7′s speed at crunching photos and importing them almost doubled. Looking at the GPU’s ability to manipulate images, that increased almost tenfold.

Given everything going on inside the M11x, we were concerned as to how hot the system might run. Happily even when under pressure the above-average cooling fan keeps the notebook from getting too hot for comfort. The downside, of course, is that it’s a little noisier than rival machines; not so bad when you’re gaming or watching a movie, since the notebook’s surprisingly decent speaker system is sufficient to drown out the background hum, but you’ll notice it in a normal room.

Alienware reckon you’ll see up to 8.5 hours of runtime from the M11x, as long as you’re only using the integrated GPU. In practice, we saw just under seven hours from a full charge, comprising basic web browsing over WiFI and some audio playback. Turning off the LED backlighting for the keyboard and logos eked out a few more minutes, and if you’re really keen you can head into the BIOS and turn off CPU overclocking. With the NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M active, meanwhile, the M11x made it to just over four hours of HD playback, running a locally-stored 1080p video scaled to suit the 720p-capable display.

Of course, the big question is how much AC-free gaming can you manage from a full charge, and that of course depends on how system intensive the game itself is. It’s worth remembering that Alienware specifically chose not to have the M11x automatically throttle the CPU/GPU when running on battery power; that means you always get the full benefit of the hardware, but it does take its toll on runtimes. Still, we found we could manage around 2hrs 45 minutes of solid gaming before the M11x expired, and notching down the display backlight (and, to a lesser extent, the color lighting effects) squeezed out a few extra minutes.

It’s important to remember that removing the battery itself isn’t straightforward, and requires physically unscrewing the bottom of the M11x; not something you’d want to do while in-transit. There’s a handy five-stage LED power level meter on the bottom, though, which means you can check battery status without necessarily booting up the notebook. Incidentally, a cold boot takes 46 seconds to the desktop (with the system tray fully loaded) while resuming from Windows 7 standby takes under 3 seconds.

There’s certainly plenty to love about the Alienware M11x. The switchable graphics convert this 11.6-inch ultraportable between a mild-mannered, long-legged web workhorse, with sufficient battery life to get you through most of a work day, and a serious gaming machine that’s as happy playing the latest titles while on the train as it is pumping it out through your HDTV. You’ll pay for the privilege, of course; while the M11x starts at $799 in the US or £549 in the UK, our particular review unit (with the 256GB SSD, Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB of memory) comes out to an altogether more hefty $1,539 in the US or £1,169 in the UK.

This isn’t the be-all and end-all in mobile gaming; while the overclocked processor is certainly capable, it’s ULV roots mean it’s not on a par with the latest Core i5 and Core i7 chips you’ll find in bigger notebooks. That’s the payoff for longer runtimes when you’re on integrated graphics. Still, we’ve a feeling that’s a compromise those people keen on an 11.6-inch machine will be willing to make. Non-gamers looking for a graphically-capable ultraportable should also find plenty to like here (though they might wish the design was slightly less “Alienware” and more discrete). All-day battery life with simultaneous gaming is still some way off, but for now the Alienware M11x is ahead of the pack.

Since iBuyPower allow customization on pretty much every aspect of their machines, you can take the spec list with a pinch of salt; it’s configurable depending on your intentions and budget. Our review unit had the 3.33GHz Intel Core i7-980X processor, 6GB of DDR3-1600 memory, a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 motherboard using Intel’s X58 chipset and, among other things, two USB 3.0 ports, and two ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards set up in ATI CrossFire configuration. Asetek 550LC liquid-cooling keeps everything cool and quiet, and there are two drives: a 40GB Intel X25-V SSD for the OS – in this case Windows 7 Home Premium – and a 1.5TB Seagate SATA 7,200rpm hard-drive for data. A 1,000W PSU, both Blu-ray and DVD drives, and a distinctive Coolermaster HAF 922 case round things out, and iBP Labs Level 2 Powerdrive Overclocking service means the Paladin F is already kicking above its weight when it leaves the factory.

Intel’s Core i7-980X Extreme processor is the company’s latest flagship, built on 32nm processors like previous Core i7 chips but packing six cores each running at 3.33GHz. The processor also has more L3 cache than earlier versions – 12MB versus 8MB – and boosted QuickPath Interconnect speed, at up to 6.4 Gt/s; Intel have made better use of that cache, too, thanks to Advanced Smart Cache which can dynamically allocate the memory depending on each core’s workload. Finally you get Hyper Threading and Turbo Boost.

Meanwhile AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card has already carved a niche for itself among gamers, and with good reason. Built on 40nm processes, each card – the Paladin F has two, remember – has an 850MHz core clock speed, 1,600 stream processors and 153.6GBps memory bandwidth. Each card has two DVI ports, an HDMI and a DisplayPort connector, and is capable of 2560 x 1600 maximum resolution.

As you might expect, that sort of specification adds up to superlative performance, and our benchmarking certainly didn’t disappoint. We started off with Windows 7′s own “Experience Index”, which assesses key components on a scale of 1.0 to 7.9. The iBuyPower PC scored 7.3 overall, only held back by its primary hard-drive data transfer rate; it scored 7.8 each for processor, memory, graphics and gaming graphics.

We then moved on to Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, and the iBuyPower system came back with a whopping 15,710 points. Contrast that with Apple’s Mac Pro – a system we’re still awaiting a Core i7-980X update for – the dual-CPU configuration of which we benchmarked seven months ago. Running two 2.66GHz quadcore Intel Xeon processors, the Apple desktop scored 9502 in comparison.

Finally we loaded up PCMark, often used to give more of an insight into how a system will perform in various tasks such as gaming, productivity and entertainment. The iBuyPower scored 19,174 PCMarks overall, with a huge 24,629 in the Gaming Suite category.

If it wasn’t already clear, Intel’s CPU – with the help of a well configured system – has no shortage of power. Users demanding the very highest frame-rates in today’s games, as well as the overhead to handle whatever titles are on the horizon, should frankly look no further. Throw into the mixture the ability to overclock the Core i7-980X to over 4GHz – we’ve seen at least one system builder offering a factory overclock of up to 4.4GHz – and the ambitious PC owner unafraid to tinker with BIOS settings could readily squeeze out even more performance.

The downside is, of course, price. A system using the same core components as our review unit – the CPU, memory, motherboard, dual graphics cards, SSD/HDD combo and PSU – comes in at over $3,000; with the bells & whistles iBuyPower added to our system you’re looking at more like $3,299. Is it worth the price? For everyday users, everyday gamers, everyday video editors… no, perhaps not; for a considerable reduction in price you can have a merely moderate drop in performance. Meanwhile the hexacore processor is to be just the first of a range of chips, and costs will inevitably fall over the coming months.

Still, the people considering the iBuyPower system are doing more than balancing sticker price with functionality, and if you have to have the fastest performing PC right now then you need to have Intel’s Core i7-980X inside. What most users will be asking the iBuyPower system to do won’t probably touch the edges of its capabilities, but that doesn’t undermine the fact that this is an incredible PC.

SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash Cards

Among the contestants, SanDisk is perhaps the most trusted brand in the hands of working professional photographers. With the Extreme Pro, the manufacturer raises the bar even further thanks to a new Power Core controller and Enhanced Super-Parallel Processing architecture to boost performance, level memory block data distribution and improve error correction by four times over the previous generation. The circuit board design is also simplified with fewer components to reduce failure rate.

Internally, the Extreme Pro is coated with RTV silicone for added protection against moisture and humidity. In short, you’re getting a professional-grade CompactFlash resilient to wear and tear that’s capable of 90MB/s read and write speeds.

To reach that speed, though, the corresponding devices must support UDMA Mode 6 such as SanDisk’s own Extreme Pro ExpressCard adapter to transfer the images or videos from the card to your computer. Fear not if your devices aren’t capable of the standard; the Extreme Pro logic controller is backward-compatible in slower modes.

The SanDisk Extreme Pro comes in three capacities, 16GB, 32GB and the 64GB with MSRP ranging from $335 to $895. All models are backed by a limited lifetime warranty.

Lexar Professional 600x CompactFlash Cards

Next to SanDisk, Lexar Media is another renowned NAND memory brand and a well-respected CompactFlash supplier for professional users. An update from the 300x series, the newest 600x line-up has improved the transfer rate by up to 50% and 30% in the Canon 7D and 5D Mark II respectively. “The controllers in Lexar 600x CF cards are developed to optimize the data transfer speeds in our cards and provide the best performance to photographers“ Lexar told us, and they reckon they have the patent portfolio to prove it.

Lexar provided us with two of their newest 600x professional series CF cards for this review, including the recently announced 32GB version, which is a hard item to find in the market. The 600x family is UDMA 6 compliant and offers up to a 90MB/s transfer rate and guaranteed minimum sustained write speed at 80MB/s. As for larger capacities, Lexar told us they would bring 600x 64GB goodness to the market when there is a demand and improvement in device compatibility. Keep in mind that older cameras have size limits in terms of supporting large capacity storage cards.

As for product reliability and warranties, the company is confident with its designs, which tested extensively in the Lexar Reliability Lab to reassure compatibility, performance and durability. Also, the professional cards are backed with a limited lifetime warranty and come with Image Rescue 4 software for both Mac and Windows users. Finally, Lexar provide dedicated technical support for all Lexar professional memory card customers. The 16GB and 32GB have an MSRP of $300 and $500 respectively.

PhotoFast G-Monster series CompactFlash cards

Last but not least is a relatively new product to the US market from a Taiwanese solid state memory maker. PhotoFast may not stand out in the big pool of CompactFlash makers but SSD enthusiasts should have heard of their record setting 1,000MB/s throughput G-Monster PROMISE using the PCI-E standard. Yes, both the SSD and CompactFlash G-Monster not only share the same product name but are also manufactured at the same Taipei facility.

The manufacturer assured us that the G-Monster line-up is built in-house entirely, rather than being a rebrand from other firms. PhotoFast products are not widely available in the US, though, and are currently only sold though one online reseller. You would probably find the same vendor offering the same product at eBay and Amazon.

We also wanted to put another high performance product in the mix, but with price points more affordable to a wider range of consumers. So, we contacted DV Nation and they found us four G-Monster CF cards, ranging from 16GB to 64GB for this review. Two are rated 533x or 80MB/s and the others use PhotoFast’s Plus technology, which “simulates the write performance of the SLC.” We were also told that they would add 64GB cards in the Plus range when their 25nm class NAND is ready, expected to be around the end of 2010.

All PhotoFast cards have a limited lifetime warranty, and the only place you can get them in the US is DV Nation. The reseller told us they will service warranty replacements for the first three years after purchase.

PhotoFast 533x 16GB, 85/75 MB/s, MSRP : $99
PhotoFast 533x 64GB, 90/60 MB/s, MSRP : $299
PhotoFast 533x Plus 16GB, 90/90 MB/s, MSRP : $159
PhotoFast 533x Plus 32GB, 90/80 MB/s, MSRP : $259

CompactFlash Read Speeds

The data transfer rate supplied by manufacturers is based on the time required to copy data from your memory card to your computer, not data in or out of the camera itself. Technically, conducting such a test is challenging as the outcome varies from one computer to another, on the type of card reader used, together with interface controller and hard drive speed.

To benchmark the nine cards, we ran read tests in three different rigs with a total of 4GB RAW image files, and measured the time taken to copy those files to each system. The first test used an Apple Mac Pro with a 1TB Western Digital Black Caviar hard drive and a Lexar FireWire CompactFlash card reader, before repeating the process with a 15-inch MacBook Pro equipped with a 120GB OCZ SSD but with a SanDisk Extreme Pro ExpressCard reader instead. Finally, using the same ExpressCard reader and the 15-inch MBP, we measured again to write data to an external Western Digital Raptor 150 drive though the notebook’s FireWire 800 connector.

As you might expect, the results varied across the three tests and nine CompactFlash cards. To our surprise, the SanDisk Pro Extreme lineup achieved more than the advertised rate of 90 MB/s on the unibody MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard 10.6 (with the OZC SSD drive and the company’s own ExpressCard reader). However, all three of them posted rather disappointed throughputs on the Mac Pro setup using the Lexar FireWire 800 reader. Looking at the 32GB card as an example, the SanDisk Pro is 29-percent slower than the chart leading Lexar 600x, at 79.29MB/s, and 21-percent slower than the PhotoFast 533x Plus at 71.57 MB/s.

Second place is jointly held by two cards, the regular-speed 533x 64GB PhotoFast and Lexar’s 600x 32GB. Data copied at a rate of 90MB/s from the ExpressCard to the SSD. A similar outcome was also observed using the FireWire reader; the pair performed ahead of their competition, but still dropped about 10 MB/s when using the FireWire interface.

The last chart simulates a user with a typical workflow, transferring images from the cards to an external FireWire drive. Here, we didn’t see any major advantage from one card to another. 60MB/s is around the bottleneck for the FireWire interface in that system, but to our surprise the last sample that arrived for this review, the Lexar 600x 32GB, pulled ahead with a clear lead.

With Full HD motion capture becoming a standard feature in DSLR cameras, a high capacity storage card is indisputably necessary to store high-resolution recording. At the Canon 1D Mark IV‘s capturing pace of 5.5MB/s, you’d need around 3.5GB of storage space for 10 minutes Full HD recording; question is, do you need really need all that speed, too? If you only use the camera for video captures then the answer is no: only an 8MB/s minimum write speed is required for uninterrupted recording. If the camera is to be used for action photography, however, such as asking the 1D Mark IV to photograph full resolution still images at 10fps, then yes, a high speed CompactFlash card would improve performance by decongesting the integrated buffer for more uninterrupted action.

Let’s not forget the tiresome wait involved in transferring photos and videos to your computer. No matter your area of expertise in photography, at the end of the day you want to get your hard work – amounting to gigabytes of content – from the storage card to your computer in the shortest time possible. Having a fast card will require a reader of a similar standard; you will need an UDMA-capable FireWire or ExpressCard reader to get the full bandwidth, since a USB 2.0 reader is not going to cut it. To leverage UDMA 6 technology for maximum workflow performance, Lexar have a Professional ExpressCard for CompactFlash reader that promises up to a blistering 133MB/s. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available at time of testing.

Worth noting is that the Lexar FireWire CompactFlash reader has a second-connector on the back of the unit, which allows FireWire devices to daisy-chain. The unit is much bigger than SanDisk’s version, so frequent travelers would probably prefer the latter. We also had some concerns at first as to how the card is inserted. On the SanDisk, it’s a clear snap with little or no effort to put a CompactFlash card in the reader; Lexar’s unit has a larger opening and an eject button with a blue LED indicator, and you need to push the card in hard to get it in. We weren’t sure at first whether it was designed that way, since we know how the pins could easily bend if the card and reader channel aren’t correctly aligned. Turns out that’s how Lexar intend it and you simply have to push harder than with the SanDisk reader.

CompactFlash In-Camera write speed

For our in-camera write testing, camera settings such as ISO, white-balance and lighting were kept constant. We ran three rounds of tests, each with twenty images taken with these fixed manual settings and using a stopwatch to clock when the camera LED write-indicator turned off.

The Canon EOS-1D Mark IV we used to measure real-world performance supports UDMA mode 6, which permits sustained write performance at high levels for continued burst photography, and it didn’t let us down. While read speeds varied between 96.2MB/s to 73.8MB/s in the MacBook Pro SSD system, write performance is much slower in a DSLR. That’s to be expected, but still, the average write throughput of 58.47MB/s marked the highest write speed achieved on a DSLR.

Both the Lexar 600x and SanDisk Extreme Pro series delivered fast writes, but the PhotoFast 16GB 533x plus stood out as a hair faster than the rest. However, the company’s larger capacity 533x Plus card couldn’t sustain the same level of performance compared to Lexar and SanDisk. The Plus version of the 32GB CompactFlash from PhotoFast dropped roughly 6MB/s weighed against its 16GB sibling.

As for SanDisk, the Extreme Pro trio posted the most consistent throughputs. In fact, the write transfer rate actually increased with capacity, something we don’t usually see. In our experience with flash media, the smaller CompactFlash usually perform faster in the group of similar class cards. The same level of consistency was also observed in various read tests.

The 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro has certainly exceeded our expectations. If money were no object, we would want the 64GB in our Mark IV: no more portable multimedia storage, no more card holder and no more missing the shot while swapping out cards. With an estimated street price of $600, however, it’s way out of the price range even for many working professionals.

If you are on a budget, then, give the PhotoFast cards a shot. Their Plus technology 16GB 533x is essentially 600x spec, and in fact a lead candidate in this category but half the cost. Meanwhile the regular-speed 64GB – while 30 percent slower than its SanDisk counterpart in write performance – proves to be excellent when it comes to read rates.

For cards in the 32GB storage bracket, Lexar is our pick for best-in-class. It performed better than its smaller sibling but, most importantly, topped our two reading tests and was just a hair slower in in-camera write tests against the others.

Evidently, it’s difficult to declare a clear winner out of this review, as the top-tier CompactFlash cards dialed in no more than one megabyte faster than the next for in-camera performance, while the card-to-computer performance is more often constrained by reader, interface and overall system than the media itself. Our advice would be to take a close look on the charts, select a suitable card of a capacity you want, and then pick a reader that’s appropriate to your system and budget.

Either way, if you’re coming from the last generation of CompactFlash cards, you’ll notice a significant improvement in formatting, “chimping” and buffer-clearing in your camera.

On a final note of durability, we loaded those cards one by one on the Mark IV, both in the office and outdoor shooting Bird In Flight (BIF) action sequences, thousand of frames and counting, and never once did the cards give us any trouble. It was a pleasure to be able to capture BIF sequences of 30 frames with no buffer stuttering and the write indicator clear in a blink! We included a few waterfowl in action shots taken with the cards in the gallery below.

About the Canon 1D Mark IV Buffer

The shooting buffer on the camera is rated at 121 JPEG or 28 RAW images in continuous burst mode. However, the actual number of frames that are stored in the buffer is dependent on the ISO setting. Generally, the higher the value, the larger the image captured and thus it fills the pipeline much quicker. On a generation old (30MB/s) 16GB CompactFlash, the SanDisk Extreme III, the camera managed 26 frames before hitting the buffer, while the newest Extreme Pro series cards (90MB/s) boosted that up to 30-31 frames at an ISO setting of 400. Four to five frames gain may not sound much considering the unit cost, but these monster-speed flash media allow the camera to write quicker and so offload the queue onto the card faster. In real-world applications such as action sports with extended plays, the sequence of events is often unpredictable and you would want the buffer to clear up more rapidly, pushing a fast camera even faster so as not to miss a single shot.

Note

We also managed to score a few high performance and high capacity SDHC samples for our next Mark IV benchmark. If you’ve been considering picking on up compliment a dual-card Canon 1D series rig, come back next week when we’ll have full benchmarks and more!

Update : SDHC review here

Measuring in at 12.67 x 9.4 x 1.0 inches it’s nicely portable, certainly. Ports include two USB 2.0, HDMI and VGA, 10/100 ethernet, audio in/out and a 7-in-1 memory card reader, and there’s a removable, tray-loading DVD burner too. Pull that out and replace it with the secondary battery, and Viewsonic reckon you can have up to 12hrs runtime.

Under the hood there’s an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV SU7300 processor with 2GB of DDR2 memory, a 2.5-inch 320GB hard-drive and Windows 7 Home Premium. You also get WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. The display, meanwhile, is a 13.3-inch LED-backlit 16:10 aspect panel running at 1,280 x 800 resolution, and it’s one of the most impressive things about the Viewsonic. Not only are viewing angles great, but the screen is clear, vibrant and sharp, with no washing out even at reduced brightness levels.

While we’d rather have seen a more modern chicklet-style keyboard, the VNB131′s ‘board is sturdy and flex-free. There’s obviously no room for a separate numeric keypad, but generally the layout is decent. In-between the trackpad keys there’s a fingerprint scanner for security, which worked as well as expected.

We loaded up Geekbench – a synthetic test of processor and memory performance – and the VNB131 scored surprisingly well. An overall score of 1558 was mainly held back by the DDR2 memory, with the processor steaming ahead in comparison. True, when you contrast that to even a 15 month old MacBook Air, the Viewsonic falls short, but in general use we had no problems multitasking with several browser tabs, email, IM and media open. Even during HD video playback we noticed no extremes of heat being generated.  This isn’t the machine for gaming, but as an everyday ultraportable it’s certainly capable.

As for battery life, while Viewsonic’s predictions were over-ambitious, the VNB131 still showed decent longevity. On the primary battery alone – which the company rates for up to 8hrs use – we managed 6.5hrs of regular use; adding the second battery – which they say boosts runtime by 4hrs, at the expense of the optical drive – took that total to 9.5hrs. That’s obviously short of Viewsonic’s 12hr estimate, but still enough for a solid day’s work with some to spare, and the fact that they include the secondary pack as standard is admirable.

Having been initially dubious at Viewsonic’s obvious inspiration with the VNB131, we’ve ended up surprisingly impressed by the notebook. Light and cool-running, the VNB131 nonetheless punches above its weight when it comes to performance, and the screen is particularly impressive. Throw in decent battery life and you’re looking at a strong ultraportable contender when you consider the $949 price. Those watching them at work might accuse them of secretly wanting a MacBook Pro, but VNB131 owners will quietly know their Windows 7 machine has plenty of strengths of its own.