2016 is turning out to be an amazing year for augmented reality

 

 

 One way to tell that a new market is coming of age here in Silicon Valley is when special-purpose venture funds are formed to focus on it. Augmented reality has just achieved that milestone, with the launch of Super Ventures. The fund itself is small, but the event served as a great touch point for members of the still-close-knit AR community to come together and provide some insight on the future of AR, both for consumers and developers. It also serves as a sneak peak at the state of the industry ahead of the much-larger annual flagship Augmented World Expo this coming June.

What makes AR special?

Augmented reality is characterized by combining views of the “real world” with computer-generated content. I put real world in quotes because some AR solutions actually allow the user to see their surroundings and project generated content onto that view, while others use a live camera feed of the surroundings with an overlay of generated objects. The former have the advantage that they are much more natural to use, and allow a better sense of context for the user. The later are often simpler to implement, lower on processor power, and can run on standard-format mobile devices — without requiring special glasses.

Running untethered is even more important for AR than for VR. While some AR applications, like CastAR’s tabletop gaming, are confined to a small area, most involve allowing the user to move around in their environment and get an annotated (or augmented, if you will) view of reality. Microsoft’s HoloLens (now available to developers) and Magic Leap’s device (now being demoed privately) have attracted the most press among standalone solutions, but startups like ODG have been shipping untethered AR “smart glasses” for a while now.

AR doesn’t always require a geeky, new wearable

Unlike with VR, many AR applications run on either standard, or slightly-enhanced, mobile devices. For example, ScopeAR was demoing “over the shoulder” industrial coaching applications, where experts can be called in to help a worker in the field by illustrating the steps to take in performing a maintenance or repair operation — all as an overlay on the actual scene being captured by the mobile device’s own video camera. Pre-recorded tutorials can also be used “offline” to walk a user through a process — as long as the system has an accurate baseline image of the mechanism being worked on, initialized by the placement of a small marker device.

ScopeAR showed me how its industrial maintenance applications — like this one for replacing a circuit breaker — could be run on a smartphone or tablet, as long as it has rear-facing video capability

Another AR app that can run on a standard mobile device, WayGo, is one of the first companies to be backed by the new AR-focused Super Ventures fund. It allows the automatic identification (and translation in place) of text in the surrounding environment, as it is captured in real time by a device’s camera. Similar in concept to Google Translate, WayGo says it has better support for automatic text recognition in non-Western languages, and if focusing much of its marketing efforts on selling into commercial applications.

Processing power remains an issue: The cloud provides one answer

One of the biggest problems with mobile-device-based AR (and VR) is processing power. Demoing the creation of a 3D model from simply sweeping across a room with a device is one thing, but having it work in real life is another. We found this when we tried to replicate those amazing Google Project Tango demos in a typical apartment. The results were nowhere near as polished. Startup GeoCV is addressing this issue by adding a cloud dimension to the mix. Your depth-measurement-equipped mobile device (like a Tango or RealSense) is used to gather the initial data, but the processing is done in the cloud — allowing for more complete and more accurate models. Startup Gridraster takes a different approach, and hopes to allow mobile devices to harness the GPU of nearby computers to augment their native capabilities.

Field of view needs solving for AR to go mainstream

Narrow field of view (FOV) has been one of the factors that most limits what can be accomplished with existing AR devices. Part of what made Microsoft’s first HoloLens demo so compelling was its relatively-wide field of view (rumored to have been provided by Waveguide vendor Lumus). Subsequent versions, though, have fallen back to providing only a more narrow image (Microsoft has compared it to looking at a 15-inch monitor from 2 feet away).

Short-term, vendors like Meta are addressing the FOV problem by using a wider reflective surface to form the image. Meta, for example, is demoing its Meta 2 — claiming a 90-degree FOV for the glasses which are now available for pre-order. Unfortunately, the Meta 2 glasses are tethered, making them a prime candidate for a next-generation computer UI — which Meta promotes heavily, and the Meta 1 essentially worked as a second monitor for your PC — or for lab or studio applications, but not as a great option for outdoors or mobile. For developers on a limited budget the Meta 2 developer kit is $950, compared to $2,750 for ODG’s R-7, and $3,000 for Microsoft’s Hololens. Game and VR developers will also like that the Meta 2 supports Unity for development.

The long-term future for AR displays looks even-more promising. In addition to better wave guide modules, a new technology that uses laser projection directly into the retina (it isn’t as scary as it sounds) is on the way. Glyph by Avegant is one of the better-known laser-projecting AR devices, but not the only one. Massively-funded (and hyped) startup Magic Leap is using a type of laser projection technology (also referred to as Virtual Retinal Display or VRD) for its upcoming AR system. Judging by demo videos it has released, the VRD in Magic Leap’s system also does eye tracking to allow selective refocusing of the image based on where the user is looking. I was able to demo a research project at Stanford that allowed refocusing based on eye tracking, and it is a very powerful concept. VRDs can also completely saturate the rods and cones in your eye, allowing for completely opaque objects — and a nearly VR experience if their field of view is wide enough — in addition to supplying an augmented overlay of the real world. That allows what have sometimes been called “mixed reality” applications — ones that can combine the best of VR and AR.

VRDs also have two other potential advantages over more traditional display-based interfaces. Because the image is formed on your retina, and not on a fixed display in front of you, the issue of accommodation and vergence mis-match (simply put, the problem where your eyes think they are looking at something far away while they are focusing on a tiny display an inch in front of your head), which is a big factor in VR-induced motion sickness, is solved. Unlike waveguides, VRDs also don’t need to grow in size as the field of view increases. It is likely that they will become the display technology of choice for at least high-end AR, and even some VR, applications. VR goggle makers are developing their own answers to this problem, including the Lightfield Sereoscope developed by Stanford’s Gordon Wetzstein in cooperation with Nvidia.

Zspace uses a custom 3D monitor, augmented with an active laser pointer and head tracking, to provide an AR-like experience floating over the display. Here, classroom software from Corinth is shown interactively illustrating how volcanoes work.

Given time AR is likely to trump VR

Not surprisingly, most AR advocates (including me) make the case that eventually AR will greatly outpace VR as a technology and a market. After all, there is a limit to how much of the day we are likely to want to spend “head down” in a pair of googles using VR, while subtle AR devices will eventually be no more troublesome than a pair of designer sunglasses — and will be able to provide useful information throughout the day.

Analyst Digi-Capital predicts an AR market of $90 billion annually by 2020, compared to $30 billion for VR. That is the sort of promise that made Super Ventures founding partner, Ori Inbar, explain to me that after years of organizing AR-specific conferences, he was “ready to put his money where his mouth is.” More surprisingly, given the relative amounts of buzz, AR is already a much larger market than VR, with hundreds of commercial, industrial, and military applications provided by literally dozens of hardware and software vendors. Before it goes mainstream, though, at least another generation or two of advances in hardware will be needed.

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Far Cry Primal looks great on consoles, but it’s just another Ubisoft sequel

 

 

 The folks over at Ubisoft are well known for finding a formula that works, and then iterating on that idea over and over again until the public is sick to death of their once-loved franchise. Unfortunately, the well-liked Far Cry series is on the receiving end of that process now. Today, Ubisoft released Far Cry Primal for both the PS4 and Xbox One to decent reviews, but it’s abundantly clear that it’s little more than Far Cry 4 dressed up in a new suit of clothes.

As the title implies, we’re not dealing with a modern setting here. In the same way that Blood Dragon took the Far Cry 3 formula, and applied it to a campy 1980s sci-fi theme, this game applies these well-worn concepts to pre-historic man. Instead of guns and jeeps, you get clubs and saber-toothed tigers. This new direction switches things up a little, but the gameplay is just more of the same.

You’re hunting, crafting, and killing people just as you’d expect, and paying a full 60 bucks for it.

Over at our sister site IGN, this release received a score of 7.9/10. That’s certainly nothing to sneeze at, but there’s clearly diminishing returns here. Far Cry 4 received an 8.5/10, the low-priced Blood Dragon got an 8/10, and Far Cry 3 was awarded an impressive 9/10. Over at Metacritic, the aggregated reviews of these releases show pretty much the same pattern. While the original Far Cry and Far Cry 2 were flawed games, they were at least meaningfully different from each other. Ever since the massive success of Far Cry 3, Ubisoft seems unwilling to deviate from the core of that 2012 release.

 Watch Far Cry Primal PS4 Performance Preview

While Digital Foundry hasn’t taken an in-depth look at the retail versions on each platform yet, they did get their hands on a pre-release PS4 build a few weeks ago. Just like Far Cry 4, Primal delivers a near-perfect 30fps at all times. It did drop a few frames here and there, but the built-in adaptive v-sync means that you’ll only see some brief tearing at the top of the image when it does happen. Meanwhile, early reports of the Xbox One version shows a similar level of performance.

The PS4 version runs at a native 1920×1080, but it seems that the Xbox One version is probably using the same scaled 1440×1080 resolution that we saw used on Far Cry 4. It’s not a perfect solution, but we saw with Rise of the Tomb Raider that it can still look surprisingly solid when implemented properly.

While the PC version will most certainly be capable of delivering a solid 60fps on a relatively modern gaming rig, we won’t know for sure until it’s out in the wild on March 1st. The PC version of Far Cry 4 had some stuttering and controller issues back when it first launched in 2014, but hopefully they’ll get most of that nailed down before launch this time.

It’s also worth noting that the recommended specs call for a Core i7-2600K and a GTX 780, while the minimum specs only require a Core i3-550 and GTX 460. If you’re willing to tweak the settings a little bit, this game should theoretically run acceptably on even the most modest of gaming PCs. Even so, it’s worth holding off on making your purchase until we see how it holds up under real world conditions.

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Samsung Galaxy S7 vs. S6 vs. S5: How does the new model stack up?

 

 Earlier this week, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S7, with a host of refinements and improvements, including improved water protection, a larger battery, and the return of a microSD slot. While we recommend waiting for device reviews before drawing conclusions on whether or not to upgrade, we now the basic specs and positioning of the new hardware. If you’ve already got a Galaxy S5 or S6, should you be planning to jump for the new model?

This is a much easier to call to make if you’re still using a Galaxy S5 or an even earlier device. The Galaxy S7 is 64-bit, whereas these older products were based on 32-bit processors. It uses ARM SoCs built on Samsung’s second-generation 14nm chips, while the Galaxy S5 was built on previous-generation 28nm HKMG. The quad-core Snapdragon 801 / 805 CPUs at the heart of the S5 are still capable processors, but they’ll be thoroughly outperformed by the Snapdragon 820 and the Adreno 330 can’t hold a candle to expected performance on the Adreno 550.

Samsung’s Galaxy S5

The Galaxy S7 has sealed ports (the S5 used flaps for water protection), improved resolution (1440p, up from 1080p), and a somewhat larger screen if you opt for the S7 Edge (5.5 inch, versus 5.1-inch for both the S5 and S7 standard). The base storage on the S7 is twice that of the S5 (32GB vs 16GB) and the front camera is 5MP, up from 2MP.
If you’re currently using an S5 or earlier device, the S7 should deliver a noticeable improvement across multiple domains. If you’re comparing against the S6, however, the situation is a bit murkier.

Evolution, not revolution

The S7 is generally perceived as an evolution of the S6, just as Apple’s “S” smartphones are typically refined versions of the previous model. The S7 will almost certainly be significantly faster than the S6, but that’s only going to matter if you’re the type of user that’s pushing a mobile device for everything it can handle right now.

The S7 offers superior water protection (IP68 certification vs. IP67 for the S6), a larger battery, the much-beloved microSD slot, either Samsung’s Exynos 8 8890 Octa or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 depending on your market, and 4GB of RAM, up from 3GB. The camera bulge is gone on this model, and as we’ve already covered, the overall display quality is amazing. Burst performance should also be better, thanks to the integrated heat pipe.

The Galaxy S6 Edge

On the whole, however, the S7 is an evolutionary step forward from what the S6 offered. That’s not unique to Samsung — as the pace of technological advance has slowed, so has the need to replace devices on a yearly or even bi-yearly basis.

VR could throw a wrench into some of these arguments, and I think it’s telling that Samsung is including a free Gear VR headset with pre-orders for the Galaxy S7. If you’re already going to buy the phone no matter what, I agree, the VR headset is a great added value. If you’re on the fence about it, it may be worth waiting to see if Samsung can create a library of compelling VR content around the hardware. VR on Android hasn’t received the same attention as VR on Windows, and some reports have suggested that mobile battery life takes a serious beating when VR is in-use.

If you don’t have an application that seriously pushes the Galaxy S6, I don’t think the S7 will be a necessary upgrade — but users on older devices will see significant improvements, and cutting-edge users who want to use VR headsets should also benefit.

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Samsung announces new 14nm, octa-core SoC: Exynos 7 Octa 7870

 

 Mobile World Congress is right around the corner, and that means the various SoC vendors are gearing up to talk about their next-generation hardware. Yesterday, Samsung announced a new Exynos processor built on its 14nm technology and aimed at midrange devices — the Exynos 7 Octa 7870.
Samsung’s verbiage implies that this new chip will tap the company’s second-generation 14nm technology (14nm LPP), rather than the 14nm LPE process that powered both the Galaxy 6’s Exynos 7 7420 and Apple’s iPhone 6. The new midrange SoC will feature eight Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 1.6GHz; the Korean manufacturer claims that these chips consume 30% less power than its 28nm HKMG technology while offering identical performance. This appears to be Samsung’s first foray into eight-core Cortex-A53 processors — other companies, like MediaTek and Qualcomm, have launched a number of chips in this family, but Samsung has held off.

It’s not clear how overall performance will compare against other midrange Samsung SoCs. The company’s previous 28nm chips were typically Cortex-A15 + Cortex-A7 cores in a 4+4 big.Little configuration. Data from Anandtech suggests that the Cortex-A53 is as much as 49% faster, clock-for-clock, than the older Cortex-A7 (a direct comparison against the Cortex-A15). Compare the SPEC and Geekbench results for the Cortex-A15 against the A53, and it’s clear that the 64-bit low-power CPU doesn’t compare well against the 32-bit Core-A15 in terms of absolute performance.

Samsung is already expected to launch the Exynos 7 7870 into an updated version of the Galaxy J7 (2015 version pictured here).

While I don’t expect an octa-core A53 to be a high performer, there’s a positive side to this: Samsung is clocking the Cortex-A53 at just 1.6GHz. That’s significantly lower than we saw from MediaTek at 28nm, where its CPUs often hit 1.9 – 2.1GHz — and that means these new cores should be quite power-friendly.

I’m not going to make any promises before we know if smartphones bound for the United States will use this SoC, but Samsung’s 1.6GHz octa-core might make for a great midrange smartphone with modest top-end performance but excellent battery life.

It may face some steep competition from Qualcomm when it launches. The upcoming Snapdragon 625 is also an eight-core Cortex-A53 design built on 14nm LPP at Samsung, but with a top speed of 2GHz. Expect to see both devices duking it out for market share between the two companies, though they may be confined to Asian markets, which have traditionally put more emphasis on CPU core counts.

FCC data suggests that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy J7 will pack a 3300 mAh battery, substantially more than the 2,550 mAh battery used in devices like the Galaxy S6. Combined with the power improvements at 14nm, these new phones should have excellent battery life.  Samsung’s Galaxy S7 is expected to debut the company’s first custom CPU core, but Samsung is leaning on ARM for its midrange products and designs.

P.S.: Samsung, please do something about your product nomenclature before next year rolls around and we’re all forced to say “Exynos 8 Octa” or something equally silly.

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Tech That Should Excite (and Worry) You in 2016

 
For more than two decades, I have written an annual column with tech predictions for the next year. But this year I am deviating a bit from this tradition by highlighting promising technology as well as a few areas of concern. Let me start with the four tech products I believe will be interesting in 2016.

1. Uptick in Windows 10 Adoption
Although Windows 10 did not help the PC market in 2015, it should give it a boost next year, particularly in IT. Researchers and PC vendors I talk to say Windows 10 is the best OS Microsoft has introduced in 10 years, and they are seeing serious interest from IT departments that will be upgrading in larger numbers in 2016. If so, that would mean the PC market will only be off by -2 percent next year rather than -10 percent in 2015. PC vendors have concluded that PC demand will hover between 285-300 million global sales annually for the next three years. But others think that within 3-5 years, we may see only about 225-250 million sold each year, meaning we should prepare for a PC world where only HP, Dell, and Lenovo survive.

2. 2-in-1s and Convertibles Start to Catch On
By the end of this year, 2-in-1s and convertibles will account for less then 10 percent of all PCs sold in 2015. Despite heavy advertising from Microsoft and the PC vendors, products like Microsoft's Surface Pro and others in this category have been slow to take off. Even the iPad Pro £654.99 at Amazon has not helped this segment of the market grow. But that may change in 2016. Both 2-in-1s and convertibles are beginning to make more sense for a lot of laptop buyers since they do add a level of flexibility to the computing experience. Interestingly, if the industry pushed them as future proofing laptops, they would get a lot more attention as people now hold on to their laptops and PCs for years. But they would never do that because they really want people to buy new laptops every 3-4 years, with an eye on making 2-in-1s and convertibles account for as much as 40 percent of all laptops sold by 2018-2019.

3. Android 2-in-1s, Laptops Hit the Market
Although Google is still trying to push Chrome as its OS for laptops, the tide is turning and by the end of 2016 we should see many Android-based laptops and perhaps even Android desktops on the market. We know that at least one or two Android 2-in-1s will be launched at CES next week, but by this time next year, Android fans could have many more to choose from, sources tell me. These types of products would be especially attractive to a younger audience who cut their computing teeth on iOS and Android and have little interest in using Windows or even Mac at work.

4. VR and AR Domination? Not Exactly
I bought myself the $99 Samsung Gear VR for Christmas. It only works with a Samsung phone and needs special Oculus apps to really work. Although the experience is interesting, it is very clear to me that virtual and augmented reality are many years away from delivering a great consumer experience that will have major impact on the way people see and interact with technology. The Samsung Gear VR provides a glimpse of our future, and VR and AR will be a game changer for the overall PC, consumer electronics, and communications industries, just not in 2016. Next year is all about laying the building blocks for an eventual VR and AR experience that could be very cool for everyone.

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No 'Force Awakens' DLC for Star Wars Battlefront

EA has confirmed that content from Star Wars: The Force Awakens won't be added to Star Wars Battlefront.

When asked on Twitter if DLC from Episode VII would ever be included in the latest Star Wars game, EA had this to say:

This was a pretty straightforward answer that leaves no room for interpretation. EA wants to focus its efforts solely on content from the original trilogy for Battlefront.

While this may be the case, it should be noted that the recently released DLC, The Battle of Jakku, is actually related to The Force Awakens. That DLC focuses on the final battle between The Rebellion and The Empire, which takes place on the planet of Jakku, the same location featured in the beginning of The Force Awakens.

Since the game will focus on battles and characters from the original trilogy, it would be reasonable to assume that content from the prequel trilogy will also be excluded.

For a game that has been criticized for lacking more robust content, excluding anything outside the original trilogy seems to be a strange move on EA's part, especially given the popularity of The Force Awakens.
Star Wars Battlefront is currently available on the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

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Lenovo Y700 (17 Inch) Review

If you're looking for a big gaming laptop with a price that'll leave some money left over to buy games, Lenovo's Y700 could be right up your alley. Starting at $1,049 ($1,349 as reviewed), the Y700 offers a colorful 17.3-inch full-HD display, speedy performance from its Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia 960M graphics, and compelling audio from its JBL speakers. While I wish the laptop's keyboard were a little more comfortable and that Lenovo offered a choice of higher-end GPUs, the Y700 is an affordable gaming notebook that can take on all of today's AAA titles. That is, as long as you don't turn the settings up to maximum.

Design

Like a lot of gaming laptops, the Y700 comes with a black-and-red color scheme. It's not ugly, just a little boring.
The top and bottom are made of fingerprint-loving brushed-aluminum panels with a subtle plaidlike pattern, while the inside sports a smooth matte-black plastic deck. There are a lot of hard edges and sharp angles that evoke a sci-fi spaceship design, but when closed, the Y700 doesn't feel as pointed as its design would suggest.
The Y700 measures 16.65 x 12 x 1.10-inches and weighs 7.7 pounds. That makes it a little bigger, although slightly lighter than the Alienware 17 (16.93 x 11.49 x 0.94-1.35-inches and 8 pounds), and predictably larger and more than 1.5 pounds heavier than the 15.6-inch Dell Inspiron 15 7000 (15.1 x 10.4 x 1-inches and 5.9 pounds).

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Y700's blood-red, backlit keyboard features an above-average travel distance, at 1.8mm, but an unusually light actuation weight of 45 grams. (A more typical actuation weight is around 55 grams.) This makes typing on the Y700 less comfortable than on other laptops, because you tend to bottom out hard while putting more weight behind every stroke.
I'm also still not a fan of Lenovo's cut-sized Right Shift key, which is annoying because years of PC gaming has trained me to reserve Left Shift for controls such as walk or crouch in first-person shooters.
MORE: The Best Laptops for Every Need
That said, I still managed a swift 83 words per minute in 10fastfingers.com's typing test, which is slightly above my typical 75-80 wpm range.

With good brightness and rich, vibrant colors, the Y700's display has more pop than competing systems.

The 4.1 x 2.8-inch touchpad features a smooth, matte surface, but like the lid, it picks up fingerprints and smudges with ease. Thankfully, the excess oil didn't impede the system's ability to accurately track mouse movements or multitouch gestures like two-finger scrolling.

Display

With good brightness and rich, vibrant colors, the Y700's screen gives images and videos a little more pop than competing systems do. This was most evident when watching the X-Men: Apocalypse trailer on the Lenovo's display; Beast's deep-blue skin took on a rich sapphire look, and Scott Summer's blinding eye lasers took on an even more saturated magenta tone.
Lenovo says the 1920 x 1080, 17.3-inch nontouch display has an anti-glare coating. While it's certainly not as shiny as many touch-enabled displays, you can still see your reflection staring back at you, especially in well-lit rooms or when looking at bright backgrounds. Fortunately, I enjoyed fairly wide viewing angles.
When we tested the display for brightness, the Y700 produced a solid mark of 319 nits (more are better). The desktop replacement average is 281 nits, while the Inspiron 15 7000 and Alienware 17 registered just 222 and 253 nits, respectively.
The Y700's color range was also above average, with the screen covering 117 percent of the sRGB spectrum. This is why colors on the Y700 looked slightly more saturated than on the Alienware 17 (106 percent) and much richer than on the Inspiron 15 7000 (70 percent).
The Y700 also had strong color accuracy, as it notched a Delta-E rating of 1.11 (closer to zero is better). The Dell Inspiron 15 7000 was slightly better, at 0.4, although the Alienware 17 was a decent ways away, with a mark of 5.4.

Audio

The Y700 features big red-and-black JBL speakers positioned on either side of the hinge. To further enhance your listening experience, Lenovo includes a Dolby Audio app, which can be used to select from various audio presets (dynamic, movie, music, game and voice), or to set up your own using the customizable EQ.
When playing music, the Y700's speakers did a good job re-creating the synthy organ sounds in Metronomy's "The Look," and in Rainbow Six Siege, the bass added impact to exploding grenades while still capturing the sound of enemy footfalls coming up from behind you.

In Rainbox Six Siege, the bass added impact to exploding grenades.

Gaming Performance

When it comes to gaming, the Y700's Nvidia GeForce 960M GPU with 4GB of vRAM is capable of playing modern titles smoothly at its native resolution of 1920 x 1080, but only if you're OK with not pushing all the settings to the max.

HOW THE Lenovo Y700 (17-inch) STACKS UP

On 3DMark's Fire Strike synthetic graphics test, the Y700 earned a score of 4,075. As expected, that's a little better than the $799 Dell Inspiron 15 7000 (3,929) with its less-powerful Nvidia 950M graphics, but half the score posted by the more expensive $1,850 Alienware 17 (8,234) with its Nvidia 980M GPU.


On World of Warcraft, the Y700 pushed out 102 frames per second at full HD and max settings. In the more demanding Metro Last Light, the Lenovo notched a good 77 fps at full-HD resolution on low settings, but it mustered only 17.6 fps with the settings on max.
By comparison, the Inspiron 15 7000's 58 fps was a few frames short of what we saw on the Y700 and about the same as the Lenovo on high settings. The more powerful Alienware 17 reached 32 fps In Metro: LL at full-HD and max settings, although at low settings, it mustered only 58 fps.

Overall Performance

Our Y700 came equipped with a 2.6-GHz Intel Core i7 6700HQ CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and a 1TB HDD for extra storage. That means that, aside from gaming, the Y700 doubles as a good machine for video editing or 3D modeling. Anything less tasking, such as browsing the Web or streaming movies, doesn't even register as work for the Y700. Performance was perfectly smooth even when I had 20 tabs open in Edge browser and two 1080 fps videos streaming from YouTube at the same time.


When we used Geekbench 3 to evaluate overall system performance, the Y700 earned a score of 13,540. That's a good deal higher than the desktop replacement average of 10,791, and the Inspiron 15 7000's showing (8,800), and slightly better than the scores of other similarly sized gaming laptops such as the Alienware 17.
The Y700's Core i7 CPU also blitzed our productivity test, which involves matching 20,000 names and addresses in OpenOffice. This notebook's time of 3:35 was 15 to 20 seconds faster than the Alienware 17 (3:58) and the Inspiron 15 7000 (3:58).
The 128GB SSD copied 4.97GB of mixed media in 49 seconds for a transfer rate of 103.8 MBps. The Alienware 17's transfer rate was higher at 149.7 MBps, but the Inspiron 15 7000 and its traditional HDD were significantly slower, at 34.62 MBps.

Heat

The Y700 remained fairly cool during use, measuring 91 degrees Fahrenheit on the bottom, 89.5 degrees between the G and H keys, and a cool 76 degrees on the touchpad after streaming HD video for 15 minutes. We consider 95 degrees uncomfortable. The screen reached 101.5 degrees, but that's not an issue since this isn't a touch-screen system.

Ports and Webcam

The Y700 features a standard assortment of connectivity options, including three USB ports (two 3.0 and one 2.0), a combo headphone/mic jack, HDMI and an SD card reader.

The 1280 x 720 webcam above the display takes decent pictures, producing a nicely exposed photo that even captured some of the details in the office behind me. My only complaint is that in darker areas of the image, visual noise and grain become more noticeable.

Battery Life

The Y700, like a lot of gaming machines, doesn't offer a lot of battery life. On the Laptop Mag Battery test, which involves continuous surfing over Wi-Fi at 100 nits of brightness, this laptop posted a run time of just 4 hours and 19 minutes, a bit short of the 4:37 desktop replacement average.


The Alienware 17 and Inspiron 15 7000 both lasted over 2 hours longer, with times of 6:25 and 6:45, respectively.

Configurations

All 17-inch Y700s come with an Intel Core i7 6700HQ CPU, Nvidia 960M GPU and 1920 x 1080 anti-glare screens. The $1,049 base model starts with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB, 5,400 rpm hard drive, with prices increasing based on memory and storage. The Y700 maxes out at a relatively affordable $1,499 for 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.
I really would have liked to see more customization options. The Y700's big, boxy case feels like it has room to grow, and it's a shame gamers don't have the ability to select more-powerful graphics cards, such as an Nvidia 970M or 980M, for better performance.

Software and Warranty

The Y700 comes with Windows 10 and a one-year limited hardware warranty. Windows 10 offers some nice gaming features such as built-in game recording (just hit the Windows key + G after setting up the Xbox app), DirectX 12 for better graphics performance, and the ability for Xbox One owners to stream games from their consoles to their PCs (useful for times when someone else is hogging the TV).
Additional software includes the traditional set of Lenovo system-health utilities and a little bloatware, such as McAfee LiveSafe and Candy Crush, but overall, nothing too offensive.

Bottom Line

With one of the best displays in this category, great speakers and an affordable price, the Y700 gives you more for your money. The downsides are below-average battery life, no option for a more powerful GPU, and a keyboard that could stand to be better for both typing and gaming. The latter is a real shame, because Lenovo makes the best keyboards in the industry, and there's a sea of ThinkPads and Yogas to prove it.
While the entry-level Y700 is a good deal, competitors offer better performance for around the same price as our $1,349 review config. With a new lower starting price, the $1,400 Alienware 17 comes standard with the same Intel Core i7 CPU and a more powerful Nvidia 970M GPU. This offers a big improvement for gaming, and will let you turn on more graphical bells and whistles. And Alienware will let you upgrade to a 980M (or the company's beastly graphics amplifier, if you want).
Overall, the 17-inch Y700 is a solid gaming machine that lowers the barrier to entry without lowering expectations.

Lenovo Ideapad Y700 (17-inch) from $1049.00 visit site from Lenovo

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Dell XPS 13 (2015) Review

The best laptop just got even better. With its latest updates, Dell has given the XPS 13, our favorite notebook, a brighter screen, longer battery life, a new USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3 and your choice of Intel's latest 6th-generation Core Series CPUs. Dell also kept all the features we liked on the previous model, including the sexy aluminum and carbon-fiber body, the gorgeous quad-HD infinity display and comfy backlit keyboard on this $1,399 ultraportable ($799 to start). While the location of the webcam still feels out of place and the less-expensive nontouch model offers even longer battery life for less, this latest XPS 13 continues to reign supreme.

Design

Like the previous version from early 2015, the current XPS 13 features a carbon-fiber deck sandwiched between its brushed-metal lid and bottom, which creates an appealing and modern two-toned look. I really like Dell's attention to detail, which is best seen in the bottom-mounted aluminum flap, whose sole purpose is to cover up the ugly service stickers and labels required by the Federal Communications Commission.
When you open the lid, you're treated to Dell's infinity display, which features an almost nonexistent bezel that seems to just disappear into the background. It's intimate and engaging, and when you watch movies, it's feels like the video player is just hovering in midair.
The Infinity display isn't just for looks, either, as the smaller lid means the XPS 13 also has a small footprint. Measuring 11.98 x 7.88 x 0.33-0.6-inches and weighing 2.9 pounds, it's even smaller than some of the tiniest 13-inch systems, including the MacBook Air 13 (12.8 x 8.9 x 0.11-0.68-inches, 2.96 pounds) and the Lenovo Yoga 900 (12.75 x 8.86 x 0.59 inches, 2.8 pounds).

Keyboard and Touchpad

The XPS 13 features a backlit keyboard with two levels of lighting. Dell makes up for the keyboard's somewhat shallow 1.2 mm of travel by adding a good spring at the bottom of the stroke, so even though there's not a lot of room to work with, it's not painful when you bottom out while typing.
On my first attempt at 10fastfingers.com's typing test, I recorded 85 words per minute, which is 5 more words per minute than my typical pace.


The 4.1 x 2.3-inch touchpad features a seductively smooth matte-black surface that my fingers simply couldn't get enough of.
Even better is the feeling of the touchpad's mouse click, which offers a really satisfying snap every time you press down. As expected, mouse movement and multifinger gestures, such as pinch-to-zoom and two-finger scrolling, responded quickly and accurately.

Display

The Dell XPS 13's 13.3-inch quad-HD (3200 x 1800) touch screen is a sight to behold. It features wide viewing angles, and even better brightness and great color range than the full-HD version of this notebook.

The Infinity display is intimate and engaging, making it seem like the video player is floating in midair.

The result is a display whose picture lags behind only that of the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. When I watched the trailer for Gods of Egypt, the radiant blue light of Horus' eye provided a good contrast to the dark and gloomy dungeon. When compared side by side with the nontouch XPS 13, the quad-HD model featured brighter and more saturated colors, although the nontouch model didn't have to deal with the glare from having a glossy coated screen.
When measured with a light meter, the XPS 13 produced 336 nits of brightness. That's more than the Yoga 900 and the nontouch XPS 13 could muster. However, the pricier Surface Book (387 nits) is brighter.
Color range was on point, with the XPS 13 covering 103.6 percent of the sRGB spectrum. The MacBook Air 13's color range was significantly more limited, at just 66 percent, although the nontouch XPS 13 (92 percent), the Yoga 900 (93 percent) and Surface Book (99) percent) weren't far off.
Interestingly, despite good brightness and great color range, the XPS 13's color accuracy is only slightly better than average, with a Delta-E rating of 3.13. (Closer to 0 is best.)

Audio

Even though size is at a premium, the XPS 13 still puts out a lot of sound. When I listened to DJ Mehdi's "I Am Somebody," I was surprised by the Dell's better-than-average bass and overall volume (which was more than enough to fill our testing lab), although I would have liked more crispness from the percussion.

Heat

While the nontouch 2015 XPS 13 stayed cool on the Laptop Mag Heat Test, the touch version did not fare as well. After streaming HD video for 15 minutes, a section near the vent on the bottom registered a disturbing 112 degrees -- far above our typical 95-degree threshold. Other areas, such as the touchpad and space between the G and H keys, were much less worrisome, at 87.5 and 98.5 degrees, respectively.

Ports and Webcam

New on this year's XPS 13 is a reversible USB Type-C port with support for Thunderbolt 3. Though it doesn't charge the laptop, this Type-C connection transfers data at up to 40 Gbps or outputs video to multiple 4K displays over a single cord.
The other ports include two traditional USB 3.1 ports, an SD card reader and a combo headphone/mic jack.

The touchpad features a seductively smooth surface that registered gestures accurately.

Due to the laptop's slim bezel, the XPS 13's webcam is located beneath the display.
The 1280 x 720 camera features dual mics for better audio during video calls, although it's a little awkward to always be looking down at the bottom-left corner. This can often cause shadows to fall on your face. Despite the good detail and sharp focus I saw in a selfie I took in our office, the picture ended up looking a little darker than necessary. 

Performance

HOW THE Dell XPS 13 STACKS UP

Our $1,399 quad-HD XPS 13 review unit came with a 6th-gen 2.3-GHz Intel Core i5-6200U CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB PCIe x4 (aka NVME) SSD. In our tests, this machine multitasked, streamed video and crunched numbers with the best of them. Even when I streamed multiple 1080p 60 fps videos in YouTube with 15 other tabs open in Edge, there wasn't a hint of slowdown.

This machine can multitask, stream video and crunch numbers with the best of them.

On Geekbench 3, which tests overall system performance, the XPS 13 scored 6,374. As expected, the MacBook Air 13 (5,783) with its older 5th-gen Core i5 CPU, didn't score quite as high, although the Yoga 900, with the same i5-6200 U, was in the same ballpark, at 6,264. The Surface Book finished even higher due to its slightly faster Core i5-6300 chip.
When we used OpenOffice to match a spreadsheet containing 20,000 names and addresses, the XPS 13 finished the task in 4 minutes and 28 seconds. While this is a good deal faster than the 8:30 ultraportable average, it was slightly behind times from the Yoga 900 (4:18), Surface Book (4:17) and even the MacBook Air 13 (4:03).
Results were similar on our storage test, which involves duplicating 4.97GB of mixed media files. The XPS 13's 256GB SSD returned a transfer rate of 159 MBps, which is higher than the 153-MBps average but surprisingly low for an NVME disk, which should provide two to three times the performance of a traditional SATA drive. It was also behind the Yoga 900 (181.8 MBps), the MacBook Air 13 (358.4 MBps) and the Surface Book (318.01 MBps), which also has an NVME SSD.

Graphics

The XPS 13 features Intel HD Graphics 520, and while it's not powerful enough to play demanding games at 3200 x 1800, you can still enjoy casual titles, such as Hearthstone, at its native res or older entries, if you step down to 1920 x 1080.
On 3DMark's Fire Strike graphics test, the XPS 13 posted a score of 783, which was a bit worse than the Yoga 900 (840) and the Surface Book (854 without discrete graphics).

Battery Life

The late-2015 XPS 13 provides a small but insignificant increase in battery life over its immediate predecessor. On the Laptop Mag Battery Test (continuous surfing over Wi-Fi at 100 nits), the quad-HD XPS 13 lasted 8 hours and 8 minutes. That's a 44-minute increase from the early-2015 model, which featured a similar configuration.
MORE: Laptops with the Longest Battery Life
When compared to competing systems, the battery life of Lenovo's Yoga 900 was about the same, at 7:57, but the nontouch version of this year's XPS (11:42), the 13-inch MacBook Air (14:00) and the Surface Book (12:29) all had significantly longer runtimes.

Configurations

Our $1,400 review unit, with its 13.3-inch quad-HD touch screen, is the least-expensive touch-enabled XPS 13, but if you're willing to spend more, you can upgrade to an Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD for a grand total of $2,000. If you decide nontouch is the way to go, $800 gets you an Intel Core i3 CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. 

Software and Warranty

Dell includes Windows 10 and a one-year limited hardware warranty standard on every XPS 13, but if you like, you can upgrade to its premium support for up to four years, for a total of $299. The premium tier includes 24/7 tech support, on-site servicing and automatic alerts that highlight potential hardware or software issues.
Don't worry about bloatware on this ultraportable. Our XPS 13 arrived with a clean desktop and just a few nagging apps, like Candy Crush Saga and McAfee LiveSafe, lurking in the Start menu. You do get some useful trials, including 20GB of storage on Dropbox.

Bottom Line

In the end, the XPS 13's biggest competition is itself. For $300 less, you can get another configuration with the same specs (except for a 1920 x 1080 nontouch display) and an extra 3.5 hours of battery life.
Microsoft's Surface Book is also an intriguing option because of its detachable display and long battery life, but a system configured similarly to this quad-HD touch-screen XPS 13 costs $1,699, or $300 more. If you want the best ultraportable on the market, the XPS 13's combination of sparkling display, looks, performance, comfort and portability can't be beat.

Dell XPS 13 (2015) from $799.99 visit site from Dell Home

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Acer Iconia Tab 8 A1 (2015) Review

There's a race to the bottom going on among tablet makers, to see who can deliver the best experience for the lowest price. The Acer Iconia Tab 8 offers an HD display and easy access to all the Android apps and games, Web surfing, and social networking you could want for an aggressive $130 ($99 on sale). However, its cameras and battery life aren't the best.

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Design

From the back, the Acer Iconia Tab 8 doesn't look like a budget tablet. The textured, metal-like back makes for an easy grip and a sleek look. On the top left corner, in portrait mode, sits the 5-megapixel camera, just above the power button and volume rocker on the left side. On the right edge is a microSD card slot for up to 128GB of extra storage, which will come in handy in augmenting the 16GB of built-in memory. Along the bottom, you'll see three rows of dots for the speaker.

When you turn the tablet over, things get less classy looking. A plastic bezel tops the silvery edge, but doesn't sit flush. At the top of the 8-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, is a 0.3-megapixel camera, and the screen is surrounded by a white bezel.

The very top edge of the tablet is home to the headphone and power ports, as well as the mic.

Measuring 8.4 x 5 x 0.4 inches and weighing 12.48 ounces, the Iconia Tab 8 is lighter than the Lenovo Tab 2 A8 (16 ounces) but heavier than the Amazon Fire HD 8 (11 ounces). 

Display

The 8-inch display on the Acer Iconia Tab 8 is colorful, but not very bright. Viewing angles were very good, even at extreme angles. But when I watched a downloaded copy of an HD trailer for The Hobbit, I had to question if I was looking at animation instead of film because everything looked blocky and blurry. Bilbo's hair and the lush countryside of the Shire seemed to turn into Minecraft-like blocks. 

The Iconia Tab 8 offers a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, which is identical to the 8-inch displays on the Lenovo Tab 2 A8 and the Amazon Fire HD 8. The panel isn't particularly luminous, however. We recorded just 289 nits of brightness, while the average tablet puts out 367 nits. The Lenovo scored 368 and the Amazon Fire achieved 403.

The Iconia Tab 8 shows a decent range of colors, reproducing 87.5 percent of the sRGB color gamut (100 percent or higher is better). That's lower than the tablet average and the Lenovo Tab 2 A8's score (both 92 percent), but better than the Fire HD 8's mark (82.4 percent). The Acer pulled ahead with its color accuracy, registering 0.3 on the Delta-E test (closer to 0 is best).

Acer claims the Iconia Tab 8 offers the "most accurate touch and writing experience you'll find on a tablet." The company claims you can use thin-tipped objects like graphite pencils to make notes on the screen. I used the Acer EZ Note app with a series of implements, including a pencil, pen, metal letter opener and stylus, along with my finger. By far, the most effective option was my finger, and that required the same force as I would use to write on an iPad mini or the Fire HD 8.

The pen and letter opener created a series of dashes that no one could consider words, while the stylus and pencil worked for most, but not all, letters in a word.

Interface

The Acer Iconia Tab 8 runs a lightly skinned version of Android 5.0 Lollipop. If it weren't for a couple of minor Acer tweaks to the settings menu, you wouldn't know it wasn't stock Android, meaning this interface is very easy and intuitive to navigate.

The home screen features the Google search bar across the top, just above a widget for the date and time. Along the bottom of the screen sit six quick-access apps below another row of six apps. On the bottom edge is a touch button for Back, Home and All Apps. Swiping left reveals another screen of app icons, and yet another swipe shows the Amazon dashboard widget, used to connect to your Amazon account. Once you've signed in, the widget reveals your current library of books, movies and music, and links to Amazon for more purchases.

Apps

The Google Play store and Amazon Appstore both come preloaded on the Iconia Tab 8. That means you'll have access to more than 1 million apps. Acer preloads a little more than a handful of those apps, including Zinio, Kindle, Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube and the standard Google App fare (Play Music, Play Movies, Play Books, etc.). WildTangent and Gameloft also have apps to load multiple games from those companies.

Acer preloads some brand-specific apps, as well. The EZ Wake, EZ Note, EZ Snap and EZ Widget apps are all designed to make use of the touch screen for extra gestures. For instance, with EZ Wake turned on, you can hold the tablet in portrait mode and touch both thumbs to the screen to wake it from sleep. EZ Snap lets you pinch three fingers to take a screenshot. EZ note is for quickly jotting down your thoughts with your finger, a pencil or a stylus, while EZ Widget makes it simple to bring up a calculator or an alarm clock.

Performance

The Acer Iconia Tab 8 is powered by a quad-core 1.33-GHz Intel Atom processor and 1GB of RAM, which didn't prove swift in my testing.

For example, switching from landscape to portrait mode took more than a second, as did returning to the home screen. On the plus side, the camera app opened in a little more than a second with six other apps open, which was only a bit longer than with no other apps running.

In another real-world benchmark test, we measured how long it took the tablet to transcode a 204MB 1080p video to 480p using the VidTrim app (shorter is better). The Iconia Tab 8 took 8 minutes and 51 seconds, which is better than the Tab 2 A8 (which took 9:13). 

The Iconia Tab 8 fared decently on synthetic benchmarks. On Geekbench 3, a test that measures overall performance, the Iconia Tab 8 scored 2,059. That's better than the Fire HD 8 (1,518) and the Tab 2 A8 (1,781), but worse than the tablet average of 2,672.

On the 3DMark graphics performance test, the Iconia Tab 8's score of 13,601 blew away the Fire HD 8 (10,159) and the Tab 2 A8 (4,959).

It's worth noting that the Iconia Tab 8 doesn't support the fastest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac. Instead, it uses 802.11b/g/n.

Cameras

Since the Iconia Tab I has just a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-MP front camera, I didn't expect stunning photos, but this tablet didn't even meet my lowered expectations.

A shot of the toys on my desk, taken with the rear camera, came out gray overall. My Daredevil and Thor action figures lacked definition, making them look as though the two shared one body. A selfie taken in my apartment with all the lights on looked so dark and grainy that I seemed to have been buried alive.

Battery Life

Acer claims that the Iconia Tab 8 should offer 8 hours and 30 minutes of battery life, thanks to the device's 4,600 mAh battery. On the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which involves continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi, we recorded a time of 7:28.The Lenovo Tab A2 lasted 11:32, while the tablet average is 8:45.

Bottom Line

It's true that I didn't expect much from a $130 tablet not that long ago. Times have changed. For just $50, I can pick up an OK tablet like the 7-inch Amazon Fire that does what I need it to do, albeit slowly. The Acer Iconia Tab 8 is faster and has a bigger HD screen, but with below-average battery life and poor cameras.

In this price range, we recommend the Lenovo Tab 2 A8 ($119), which offers much longer endurance. But the Iconia Tab 8 is worth considering if you want a budget slate that's slightly faster and lighter.

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Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Review

As laptop and tablet hybrids become more common, it's getting easier to find a solid 2-in-1 notebook that doesn't make many compromises. The Dell Inspiron 11 3000 (starting at $330, reviewed at $600) combines an 11.6-inch display that bends back 360 degrees with solid battery life, a comfy keyboard and an accurate touchpad. Does this lightweight, flexible hybrid belong in your bag?

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Design

The Inspiron 11 3000's midnight-blue, soft-touch lid lends the hybrid a touch of class. The notebook's silver deck has a solid feel, though it does flex a little when you lean against it.
With the exception of the Windows key in the middle of its bottom bezel and its thick 0.7 to 0.9-inch bezel, the Inspiron 11 looks just like a traditional, nontouch notebook. The laptop's 0.3-megapixel webcam sits in the middle of its top bezel.
Weighing 3.07 pounds and measuring 0.76 inches thick, the Inspiron 11 3000 is lighter and thinner than the Acer Aspire Switch 11 V (3.2 pounds, 0.8 inches) and HP Pavilion x360 (3.2 pounds, 0.89 inches). The Asus Transformer Book Flip TP200 (2.61 pounds, 0.73 inches) is lighter and thinner, but uses a detachable rather than a bend-back design.
Dell placed the Inspiron 11's power and HDMI ports, along with two USB 3.0 ports and its headphone jack on the notebook's left side. The power and volume buttons live on the right side of the notebook's deck, along with its USB 2.0 port, SD memory reader and security lock slot.

2-in-1 Experience

You can switch the Inspiron 11 3000 between laptop, display, tent and tablet mode by rotating its display on the notebook's zinc-alloy hinge. The Pavilion x360 11 and Transformer Book Flip switch between positions in the same manner, and you detach, reattach and rotate the Aspire Switch 11 V's screen to alternate between modes.


Rotating the Inspiron 11 between positions, I noted that its display stays where you put it. Placing the Inspiron 11 in tent mode, I could can grab it by the corner of its screen or base and shake the notebook gently without any change in the display's position.

Display

The Inspiron 11 3000's 1366 x 768 display isn't full HD, but it did a good job reproducing color and showing details when I watched the Batman vs. Superman trailer. The son of Krypton's billowing red cape and blue suit had accurate hues, and the black of Bruce Wayne's limo was rich and saturated. From the split ends in Jesse Eisenberg's mop of hair to the gauzy fabric of the new Batsuit, the Inspiron 11's display rendered details with clarity. However, the Aspire Switch 11 V offers a display with a higher resolution (1920 x 1080).
The Inspiron 11 registered 282 nits of brightness on our light meter, which is below the ultraportable category average of 302 nits. Acer's Switch 11 V is the brightest 2-in-1 in this price range, with 409 nits. The Transformer Book Flip and Pavilion x360 were dimmer.
According to our tests, the Inspiron 11's display can render 87 percent of the sRGB color spectrum. The Switch 11 V (74.1 percent), Transformer Book Flip (69 percent) and average ultraportable (80 percent) cannot show as many colors.
The Delta-E test for color accuracy (where lower is better) gave the Inspiron 11's display a score of 0.9, which is far better than the average for ultraportable notebooks (4.83). The Pavilion x360 (0.2), Transformer Book Flip (0.3) and Switch 11 V (0.81) show more precise colors.

Keyboard, Touchpad and Touch Screen

Taking the 10FastFingers typing test on the Inspiron 11 3000, I clicked my way to a pace of 72 words per minute with 99 percent accuracy. That's faster than my typical 69 words per minute, and I attribute the uptick to the hybrid's bouncy and pleasant-to-click keys, which give good tactile feedback even though they have a shallow 1.3 millimeters of travel and require a modest 55 grams of force to actuate.
Dell has given this notebook a responsive touchpad that did an excellent job of keeping up with my fingers as I pinched, scrolled and performed Windows 10's three-finger app-switching gestures. Each click of the touchpad has a solid feel and makes little noise.
As I drew in Windows Paint by dragging my fingers on the Inspiron's touch screen, I noticed that the display did a good job of keeping up with all 10 of my fingers, no matter how fast they moved.

Performance

Powered by a 2.3-GHz 6th Generation Intel Core i3-6100U processor, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, our test configuration of the Inspiron 11 did a fine job of allowing me to multitask. With my screen split between two windows -- one with a dozen tabs including Google Docs and Gmail, and the other with video streaming from YouTube -- I quickly moved from tab to tab without lag or stutter.

The Geekbench 3 test for overall performance gave the Inspiron 11 a score of 5,009, which beats the average ultraportable notebook (4,772). The Intel Core M processor-powered Switch 11 V (3,945) and Pavilion x360 (3,992) had lower scores.
The Inspiron 11's 128GB SSD took 1 minute and 15 seconds to complete the Laptop File Transfer Test (which copies 4.97GB of mixed-media files), for a speed of 67.9 MBps. That's faster than the Transformer Book Flip (34.2 MBps), but slower than the Switch 11 V, Pavilion x360 and average ultraportable.
The notebook proved itself in terms of office suite productivity. The system needed only 5 minutes and 27 seconds to complete our Laptop Mag OpenOffice Spreadsheet test, which matches 20,000 names to their addresses. That's faster than the category average (7:44), Switch 11 V (8:11), Transformer Book Flip (15:32) and Pavilion x360 (7:01).

Graphics

I didn't expect any gaming prowess from this ultraportable, and I didn't find any during testing. Playing World of Warcraft at the lowest settings (1366 x 768, automatic graphics), the Inspiron 11 3000 mustered just 23 frames per second. That's well below our 30-fps threshold for smoothness, which the Pavilion x360 (27.2 fps) was also unable to reach.
The 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited graphics benchmark gave the Inspiron 11 a score of 29,567, which bests the Transformer Book (18,154) and the Pavilion x360 (23,664).

Audio

Even with its volume set to only 74 percent, the Inspiron 11 blasted audio at a high level without distortion, filling a large conference room. Listening to Jeremih's "Oui," I loved the strong bass coming from the hybrid's speakers, as well as the clear and distinct percussion instruments and the crisp highs of the singer's voice.

Heat

After the Inspiron 11 3000 streamed HD video for 15 minutes, our heat gun recorded a cool 81 degrees Fahrenheit on the touchpad and 86 degrees on the keyboard. These temps fall below our 95-degree threshold for comfort. Unfortunately, we found uncomfortably hot measurements on the hybrid's underside (97 degrees) and touch screen (103 degrees).

Webcam

The Inspiron 11's 0.3-MP camera shot washed-out, grainy photos of me in our office. While it's not great, it's not worse than many of the other laptops we've tested in this price range. This is on par with most laptops, regardless of price.

Battery Life

The Inspiron 11 3000 may not have the best battery life, but we found it to last long enough to make it through a full workday unplugged. It took 7 hours and 56 minutes for the Laptop Battery Test (continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi) to drain the Inspiron 11's battery.

That's much longer than the Pavilion x360 (6:26) and the Switch 11 V (5:19), near the ultraportable notebook average (8:19) but shorter than the Transformer Book Flip (10:56).

Software and Warranty

Dell's given this laptop a mostly clean installation of Windows 10, save for Candy Crush Soda Saga. The Inspiron 11 3000 also comes with 20GB of free Dropbox storage for a year.
Preloaded Dell-branded utilities include Power Manager Lite for adjusting battery settings, SupportAssist for system maintenance and Digital Delivery for managing purchased software.

Configuration Options

The $330 entry-level Inspiron 11 3000 has a 2.16-GHz Intel Celeron N3050 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of eMMC flash storage. For $350, you can get the same laptop, but with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB, 5,400-rpm hard drive.
Dell also offers the Inspiron 3000 with a 2.4-GHz Pentium N3700 processor, 4GB RAM and a 128GB SSD for $430. We reviewed the $600 version of the Inspiron 11, which has a 2.3-GHz Intel Core i3-6100U processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage. For $650, Dell sells a version of that notebook that has 8GB of RAM.

Bottom Line

With its strong performance, responsive keyboard, powerful sound and solid battery life, the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 (starting at $330, reviewed at $600) packs a lot of great features into a small, hybrid frame.
If you want a high-resolution display and a detachable screen, the Acer Aspire Switch 11 V (starting at $500, reviewed at $600) has similar performance, but you'll lose 2.5 hours of endurance versus the Dell. If you want an affordable 2-in-1 that performs well across the board, the Inspiron 3000 is a strong choice.

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Asus X551MA: Our Take (Mini Review)

 
The 15.6 -inch Asus X551MA ($268) is a no-frills, budget laptop with a 15-inch display and very basic hardware. Though we have not tested this system, we can draw several conclusions based on its specs, user reviews and evaluations from other tech publications.
Check out our Best Laptops Overall or Best Sub-$500 Laptops lists for a series of systems we highly recommend based on our real-world testing.

From $269.99

Amazon

Who is it for?

The Asus X551MA is designed for those who want a very basic laptop for document creation and light Web browsing. With a price below $300, the X551MA makes sense for parents looking to buy a "first time" computer for their children, or those who need a simple "living room laptop." However, its 15-inch, 4.7-pound body isn't particularly lightweight, so don't plan on carrying it back and forth to school every day.

Key Specs and Features

The Asus X551MA has a 15.6-inch, non-touch display with a resolution of 1366 x 768. This laptop is powered by an Intel Celeron N2830 CPU, a dual-core processor clocked at 2.16GHz, which should be good enough for basic tasks like document editing, Web surfing, video viewing and light media editing. With 4GB of DDR3 RAM, the laptop offers enough memory for light multitasking, while the 500GB HDD has plenty of space for movies and music, but is not very fast.
Embedded in the display is a simple 1-megapixel webcam. Interestingly enough, this unit comes with Sonic Master speakers, which reportedly offer a better listening experience for movies and music than speakers found on similarly priced laptops.

Connectivity options include 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet. The selection of ports includes one USB 3 port, one USB 2 port, HDMI, an SDXC card reader and a microphone jack. The system ships with Windows 8.1.

Our Experience with Similar Laptops

We reviewed the similar Asus X555la in August 2015 and appreciated its springy keyboard, high-quality audio and solid battery life. However, we noted some trade-offs, including a hollow-feeling clickpad and a blotchy webcam.

What Owners Say About the Asus X551MA

Despite the X55M1A's shortcomings, most Amazon commenters described it as an excellent entry-level laptop. The screen drew praise for its decent picture quality, and the Sonic Master speakers received high marks for their excellent audio quality. Users also enjoyed the chiclet keyboard, noting its comfortable feel, excellent key response, reasonable spacing and convenient numeric keypad. Users commented that the laptop provides them with enough performance for basic multitasking, such as light Web browsing and document editing.
On the negative side, commenters complained that the Asus X55M1A feels like a "chunk of cheap plastic." They also lamented the low-quality touchpad, citing it as "glitchy" and criticizing the lack of separation between the embedded right and left buttons. Others claim that they got only 3 hours of battery life, a disappointingly short amount of endurance.

What Reviewers Say About the Asus X551MA

A number of professional tech publications have reviewed the Asus X55M1A. According to Laptop Reviewers, it is " no more than an oversized netbook." They cite it as having an uncomfortable touchpad, describing it as "wonky" due to a lack of separation between its right and left click keys. However, they liked that the screen offered a decent, colorful viewing experience.
Notebook Check praised it for being "lighter than many other budget 15.6-inch laptops," and found that it provides enough power for very basic tasks such as Web browsing and document editing. However, short battery life and lack of Bluetooth were listed as major disappointments.
Overall, reviewers praise the comfortable chiclet keyboard, and the laptop's slick, modern design. Despite the webcam's paltry 1-MP resolution, the consensus is that it gets the job done when used for video conferencing. Additionally, journalists report that the Sonic Master speakers provide a better-than-average listening experience. However, like users, professional testers also experienced subpar battery life.

Upshot

If you are looking for a dirt-cheap, entry-level laptop for your family or yourself, the Asus X55M1A is worth considering, provided that you don't plan to lug it around or use it unplugged all that often.

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HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx: Our Take (Mini Review)

 
The 17.3-inch HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx is a large desktop-replacement-style laptop with powerful hardware. At 7 pounds, it's more at home on your desk than in your bag or on your lap, but it promises enough performance to make you ditch your tower.

Although we have not tested this model, we can draw some conclusions based on the Envy 17's specs, comments from product owners and evaluations from other professional reviewers. For a list of our favorite laptops that we have tested, check out our Best Laptops page.

From $1029.99

Bestbuy

Who's it for?

The HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx is best suited for those who are looking to do some major-league media consumption, gaming and content creation. Mini moviemakers (think GoPro enthusiasts), and photographers who rely on Photoshop to quickly touch up photos will benefit the most from this unit.

Key Specs and Features

The HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx has a 17.3-inch, 10-point multitouch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Users who still like to burn media to DVDs or CD-ROMs will be happy with the included optical drive. Furthermore, the laptop features impressive Bang & Olufsen quad speakers with a subwoofer. The Envy 17 is also one of the few laptops that come with an Intel RealSense camera, which allows users to create 3D avatars of themselves or replace the background behind them while videoconferencing.

The HP Envy 17 is powered by an Intel dual-core i7 6500U CPU clocked at 2.5 GHz, a discrete Nvidia 940M GPU and 16GB of DDR3L RAM, which is excellent for rendering large HD video files. However, gamers will want a laptop with a more powerful graphics card, such as an Nvidia GTX 970M or higher. The unit comes with a 1TB HDD, offering plenty of space to save multiple projects. However, its 5,400-rpm speed is rather disappointing considering the high-end components included with this laptop.
Connectivity options include 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and Gigabit Ethernet. There are four USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port, an SDXC card reader and a microphone jack. The laptop ships with the 64-bit version of Windows 10 Home.

What Owners Say

According to reviews on Best Buy, the HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx offers a tremendous amount of performance relative to its price. Users love the design and build quality, commending it for the superb backlit keyboard with a 10-key numeric keypad. The Bang & Olufsen quad speakers provide an amazing audio experience, and the RealSense 3D camera really impresses those who try it out. They also describe the screen as being bright, colorful and easy to view, with the touch capability making it that much more pleasurable to use for simple tasks.
However, some users criticized the touchpad for being "finicky," and some were dissatisfied with the machine's battery life, which they said is only 3 hours. Overall, though, most commenters said the Envy 17 is a good value for the price, noting that comparable systems start at several hundred dollars more and offer the same hardware.

What Reviewers Say

Not many expert publications have reviewed the HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx. Top Laptops wrote that the laptop's screen provides a great viewing experience, with its rich and vibrant colors, and that its backlit keyboard provides hours of comfortable typing.
However, there are a few alleged shortcomings. The laptop's "big and bulky design" and its heavy weight were viewed as negatives. Top Laptops claims that the touchpad is glitchy and the battery life is less than 3 hours, which is poor but not unexpected for a laptop with a screen this size.

Upshot

If you want a powerful laptop with a big screen, the HP Envy 17 m7-n109dx promises strong performance for video editors, creative professionals and movie mavens. At its $1,029 MSRP, this notebook is reasonably priced but hardly a bargain, as you can find similar laptops for around the same cost, including the Lenovo Y70 Touch. Also, if you're really a creative professional, you probably want to spend more for something with a higher resolution and better graphics, like a MacBook Pro. However, if you find it at a good price, the Envy 17 m7-n109dx is worth considering.

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How To Edit Multiple 4K Video Streams on the iPad Pro

One of the highly touted features of the iPad Pro is that its A9X processor is powerful enough to let users edit multiple streams of 4K video on the tablet. Apple's recently updated its iMovie app to give users an easy way to string their video clips together to create their own movies.

While the iPad Pro can't shoot 4K video on its own, you can import 4K video to the tablet if the device keeping the footage and the iPad Pro are using the same iCloud account and iCloud Photo Library is enabled. If you don't have a camera that can shoot 4K video, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus can record video at this resolution, but you need to turn it on in the Photos & Camera menu in the Settings app.
MORE: Apple iPad Pro: Full Review
To enable iCloud Photo Library in the OS X Photos app, select Photos from the menu bar, click on preferences, click on the iCloud icon, and check the box next to iCloud Photo Library. On an iOS device, you need to open Settings, select Photos & Camera and slide the switch next to iCloud Photo Library to the on position.

How To Edit Multiple Streams of 4K Video in iMovie on the iPad Pro

1. Select Create Project.

 2. Tap on Movie.

 3. Scroll left and right to find the movie template you want.

4. Press Create.
5. Select All from the menu on the right side of the page

 6. Tap on the primary video clip you want to use. If you have this clip running alongside —with picture-in-picture or side-by-side — with another video, the default settings will have the audio from the primary clip playing.

7. Tap on the downward pointing arrow to add the clip to your movie.

8. Before you add your second video, drag your clip to the point you want to insert the secondary video. Added video will be placed where the tall white line — the playhead — is placed.

9. Select the secondary clip you want to use from the list.

10. Tap the icon of two vertical rectangles to have your video clips play side by side. The icon to its left will place your second video inside for picture-in-picture.

Now you've got a new movie featuring a split-screen view of your two 4K videos!

If you click on one of the pieces of video, you can raise or lower its volume, split the segment where the playhead (the vertical line) is positioned and perform other edits using the menu that appears on the bottom of the screen.

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