Apple iPad (2012)

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Apple single handedly defined the tablet genre with the launch of the original iPad way back in 2010, and, that the competition still has not been able to catch up!

With the launch of the Asus Transformer Prime boasting of the powerful NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and Super IPS+ 1280 x 800 display, a ray of hope started to emerge for the competition (check out our first impressions). Then Apple went and did what it does best. Revolutionize the iPad to an extent that it has blown the competition straight out the window.

With quad-core graphics, a better rear snapper and a tiny thing called the Retina Display, has Apple raised the bar for the tablet industry? In a word, yes, but read on to see why and how!

What’s in the Box?
Look at the box of the iPad 2 (read our review) and the New iPad and you will see absolutely no difference. The packaging is the same and minimalistic with the box housing the iPad, 30-pin connector and a wall plug for charging along with the manuals.

Design
If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it! We placed the New iPad and the iPad 2 in the hands of virtually everyone who walked into our lab and while the display was off, none of the users could make out the difference between the 2 devices. Some of the people who were iPad 2 users complained about one being heavier than the other and they guessed which was which.

In terms of its design, the New iPad is identical to the iPad 2 (just like the iPhone 4 and the 4S). The only difference lies in its weight. Just to put things into perspective, here’s a look at the dimensions of the iPad 2 and the New iPad.

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Particulars	New iPad	iPad 2
Weight and Dimensions	Wi-Fi Height: 9.50 inches (241.2 mm) Width: 7.31 inches (185.7 mm) Depth: 0.37 inch (9.4 mm) Weight: 1.44 pounds (652 g) Wi-Fi + 4G Height: 9.50 inches (241.2 mm) Width: 7.31 inches (185.7 mm) Depth: 0.37 inch (9.4 mm) Weight: 1.46 pounds (662 g)	Wi-Fi Height: 9.50 inches (241.2 mm) Width: 7.31 inches (185.7 mm) Depth: 0.34 inch (8.8 mm) Weight: 1.33 pounds (601 g) Wi-Fi + 3G Height: 9.50 inches (241.2 mm) Width: 7.31 inches (185.7 mm) Depth: 0.34 inch (8.8 mm) Weight: 1.35 pounds (613 g)

As you can see, the upgrade in weight is only incremental and first for time users, it won’t make much of a difference.

Display
What will make your jaw drop to the ground is the new Retina Display. Once you switch on the display, there is no going back to whatever tablet you used before this. It’s the same experience users had when they decided to switch from the iPhone 3GS or any other smartphone to the iPhone 4.

No matter how close you go to the screen of the New iPad or how much you zoom into the text, you will see no pixilation. The resolution of the 9.7-inch display is 2048x 536. That’s 264 PPI (Pixels Per Inch). The Retina Display is twice the resolution of the iPad 2, which sports a resolution of 1024 x 768 (132 PPI).

To the naked eye, the display on the New iPad may seem slightly less bright when compared to the iPad 2, but we have never seen a crisper display on any device.

We tried a bunch of apps that are present on the iPad 2 and have been optimized for the New iPad. Some of the free apps are Readability, Pulse, Planetary and Remote. All of them looked absolutely stunning on the New iPad.

Even watching 1080p videos on YouTube made a world of difference between the two devices. Details on the New iPad look phenomenal.

New Features to iOS
iOS has seen its fair share of tweaks since its inception and Siri was one of the biggest highlights last year when Apple announced the iPhone 4S. We all expected to see Apple’s voice controlled personal assistant make an appearance on the New iPad, but we were all left a little disappointed. Instead, Apple has added a simple voice dictation feature to the device.

Users can tap the microphone icon to the left of the keyboard, dictate, hit the button again and viola! The device understands what you say. Well almost...When we tried the dictation app with our Indian accent, we were not very successful. The app refused to identify a lot of neutral words and if you try to dictate Indian names and places, be prepared to pull your hair out!

As awesome as the dictation feature is in an American accent, it is equally frustrating in an Indian accent. 

Samsung Galaxy Tab 750

Price: 36,200

Despite their best efforts, the likes of the Motorola Xoom,Acer Iconia and the Asus Transformer haven’t been able to dethrone the Apple iPad. But the challenge seems to have finally arrived, at least as far as putting up a good fight is concerned - the Samsung Galaxy Tab 750. Just to clear out the confusion, the Tab 730 has a 7-inch display, while the Tab 750 has a 10-inch display.

Look & Feel

Significantly, the Tab 750 outdoes the iPad 2 in two significant aspects – the weight and the thickness. Apple iPad 2 weighs 607 grams while the Tab 750 weighs only 565 grams. While the purists will point fingers at the plastic finish that Samsung has applied on the 750, but it has done the job. The iPad 2 has an 8.8mm thickness while the Tab 750 has a 8.6mm thickness – not much but the figures speak for themselves!

In terms of overall build, there is a lot of difference in the materials used. And the iPad fanboys will criticise the Tab’s plastic body, but what that has done for Samsung is that it has given them an advantage both in terms of weight as well as slimness – without sacrificing on build quality.

Features

We always expect brilliant displays from Samsung devices, based on the past trend. And the Tab 750’s 10.1-inch display is much better than all other comparable Android tablets. While the resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels is the same as the rivals, the display is just a lot brighter and vivid. The iPad 2’s display is still a bit crisper though, despite the 750’s higher resolution. Brightness wise, the Tab’s display does well at 50% setting. Any more, it is just too bright for normal usage scenarios. Watching videos on this one is a lot of fun. The Galaxy Tab 750 does not have a memory card slot, has a proprietary dock connector, 3.15MP camera at the back and a 2MP video call camera and 16GB built-in storage.

Comes preloaded with Android 3.1 and the UI is exactly as we have seen on the other Android tablets recently – thanks to the NO CUSTOMIZATION rule. We like that rule, since it doesn’t let OS performance get sacrificed. However, it is creating a problem for the tablet makers, since their UI card cannot be played to distinguish from the rivals.

Performance
An ARM Cortex A9 dual core 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and the Tegra 2 chipset power the Tab 750. Performance wise, Android just felt slicker on this than the Xoom or the Iconia A501. However, Android as an OS just lets down the tablets, and the Tab 750 faces the brunt too. The sudden jerkiness and stutters are just disappointing. The rivals it is taking on, the iOS namely, does not have any of these annoying characteristics!

The TouchWiz UX UI is quite nicely hanging around in an understated fashion. While it does retain the characteristics we saw on the Galaxy SII smartphone, it does it in a more silent fashion - mostly because, Google now frowns upon UI skins on top of Android 3.0 and beyond.

Battery life is comparable to the iPad 2 – about 12 hours. That is a huge relief, because the tablets we have reviewed recently have flattered to deceive more often than not.

Our Take
We will just keep this very short and very simple - If you want an Android tablet today the Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 is the one to buy. If you want just a tablet, the Apple iPad 2 is still the one to buy.

Price: Rs. 36,200

Specs:
10.1-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution, 1Ghz dual core processor, 1GB RAM, 16 GB storage, 3G capability with standard SIM card, 3.2MP rear camera & 2MP video call camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, Android 3.1

Ratings
Features: 7.5
Performance: 7
Build: 7.5
Value: 6.5
Overall: 7

Contact: Samsung India
Phone: (Prefix Local STD Code) 3030 8282

Sony Xperia Sola

Sony's Xperia Sola, featuring the much-hyped 'floating touch display', is now available for pre-order at online shopping site Flipkart. Priced at Rs. 19,999, the device is expected to release in the fourth week of May.

Xperia Sola's availability comes shortly after Sony's another Xperia device, Xperia U, went up for pre-order. To refresh your memory, Sony hadannounced Xperia Sola in February this year. The Xperia Sola previously codenamed Pepper MT27i, will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread out-of-the-box, but has been promised an ICS update sometime in Q2 2012.

The Sola has a 3.7-inch 854x480 pixel display with the Mobile Bravia engine, a 1GHz dual-core NovaThor U8500 processor, 512MB of RAM, a 5MP autofocus camera with LED flash and 720p HD video recording, and 8GB of built-in storage.

The 9.9mm-thick Sony Xperia Sola weighs 107 grams, and will be available in black, white and red colours. As for connectivity options, the Xperia Sola features 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA and hotspot functionality, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR and A2DO, microUSB 2.0, stereo FM with RDS, and NFC - the device will come with two NFC Sony SmartTags.

It runs on a 1,320 mAh battery, rated to deliver up to 470 hours of standby time, 6 hours of talk time, and 40 hours of continuous music playback.

Sony introduces 34 new Cyber-shot digital cameras in India

Sony introduces 34 new Cyber-shot digital cameras in India

Sony India has launched a whole new range of Cyber-shot cameras in the country, with 34 new models, priced between Rs. 5,490 to Rs. 27,990 . Eight of the new models come with the new Super High Zoom feature, delivering optical zoom up to 30X, while another eight, deliver Compact High Zoom with up to 10X optical zoom.

Most of the new Sony Cyber-shot cameras are powered by the combination of Optical Zoom, Optical Steadyshot (with Horizontal-Vertical Shake Protection and Gyro-sensor Correction), Superior Intelligent Auto (Superior iAuto), and Superior Quick Focus, apart from being available in “exciting colours.”

Sony will be expanding its distribution and retail network in the country, and intends to have 3,000 counters in FY12, up from 2,500 counters in FY11, which are distributed amongst 300 Brand Shops, 1,200 Photo stores and 1,000 consumer electronic stores including National Retailers.

The company has experience great growth in FY11, rising by 45% (Qty.). It intends to consolidate its No.1 position in the Indian digital still camera market with an aim to capture a very dominant 45% share (Amt.) in FY12.

Mr. Masaru Tamagawa, Managing Director, Sony India, spoke about how the company has been doing in the Indian market, and its growth last year: “We have received a lot of love for Sony Cyber-shot in the Indian market and we will continue to innovate and create, bringing new technology, design and excitement to our customers. The High Zoom in our new Cyber-shot line-up helps capture exceptional picture quality and great detail, even when zoomed in considerably, thus being an absolute delight to photography connoisseurs. Sony innovation will continues to drive the world of imaging forward, and ensure that our products will keep breaking new ground and earn customer acclaim.”

Zebronics launches ZebMate Cinema 3.0+ touchscreen PMP, at Rs. 2,900

The ZebMate Cinema 3.0+ comes with 4GB of built-in storage, which can be expanded via microSD to up to 16GB. Its lithium polymer battery is rated to deliver up to 9.5 hours of audio playback, and 2.5 hours of video playback. Wisely, it comes with a 3.5 mm audio jack. The ZebMate Cinema 3.0+ is apparently also a diminutive offering, weighing in at 52 grams, and measuring 11 mm in width.

Formats supported include:

Audio: MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, APE, AAC, AC3, ATRA, DTS

Video: MPEG-1/2, MPEG4 XVID, DIVX, H263/264, WMV9/VC-1, RMVB

Touch Mouse Logitech

Price: 3,999

Summary

The only issue with the M600 is the price. For about Rs. 500 less, you get the Microsoft Arc Touch mouse, and the M600 doesn't really offer anything extra over that one. While we like the M600's overall package and performance, we believe the pricing is completely wrong. Just under Rs. 3000, and it would have hit the sweet spot in terms of price and functionality.

Digital Camera Canon powerShot

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Summary

At Rs. 47,995 it has a ridiculous pricing for a high end point and shoot camera. Taking the large sensor size into consideration, we just keep wondering how wonderful it would have been if the camera was an interchangeable-lens one. The PowerShot S100 is still a great camera for its price, although it comes with a smaller sensor. The Nikon V1 comes at Rs. 45,450 which is still quite high a price point but you get the option to change lenses. Canon G1X with its price clearly targets photography enthusiasts, who most likely own a DSLR or those who are comfortable with manual operational modes. The only issue we see at this price point is that it is in direct competition with some mirrorless ILCs in the market which offer you the choice to use...

Price:-47995

To know about more product:-Nikon,Sony,Apple

Apple iPad-29500

Apple iPad

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Summary

At an MRP ranging from Rs. 29,500 for the 16 GB model, to 46,900 for the 64 GB model with 3G support, the iPad 2 is only slightly costlier than its predecessor, but more expensive than any other tablet on the market. However, its leagues ahead of the mob too, and makes a great, (if expensive), addition to your gadget collection.

4G services launch at Bangalore by AIRTEL

Almost a month after it launched its fourth gen wireless broadband services in Kolkata, teleom giant Bharti Airtel has announced the launch of 4G services in Bangalore/Bengaluru. Airtel has also come up with a “Smartbytes” plan, which features add on packs that allow customers avail 4G services even after exhaustion of the monthly data limits. Airtel’s 4G network in Bengaluru was inaugurated by Karnataka CM D. V. Sadananda Gowda.

Commenting on the occasion, Sanjay Kapoor, CEO – India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel said, “As seen the world over, the total data usage is exploding and is doubling each year to grow to nearly 3.6 hexabytes by 2014. With the launch of 4G, India will move from being a follower in technology to matching the world in this domain. Leading from the front, Airtel is now the only operator that gives citizens of the Information Technology capital of Bengaluru, access to entire spectrum of broadband services including 2G, 3G and now 4G - thereby giving the customers never seen before data experience”.

As part of an introductory offer by Airtel, customers subscribing to 4G services will now be given a cashback for the CPE / dongle - thus bringing device cost to customers zero. Airtel believes the offer will help pave way for mass adoption of 4G services. Airtel 4G is now also available in an 30GB pack priced at Rs. 2,999.

Airtel is also offering 10 Bollywood movies free of cost for customers during the first month. With a monthly subscription of INR 149, customers can watch unlimited movies.

Last month Bharti Airtel launched its fourth generation mobile services in Kolkata, becoming the first telecom operator to do so. Airtel owns 4G license for Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai) circles. According to reports, Huawei will assist Airtel plan, design, supply and deploy TD LTE in Bangalore. Airtel had similar deal with ZTE in Kolkata.

Meanwhile, the telecom operator says it will be launching its 4G services in other circles as well

iberry Auxus AX02

The Rs. 10,000 price point has seen the rise of quite a few tablets in the past year from brands such as iBall, Mercury, Beetle, Viewsonic and Reliance to name a few. In trying to break the price barrier, some of these devices compromise on features such as build, battery life, camera and the power under the hood. Until now, these devices ran Android version 2.2 or 2.3.

We have finally seen the rise of budget tablets running Google’s latest operating system, Android 4.0 ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich), with ICS tablets hitting the streets from iberry,Zync, Micromax and HCL in India.

Today we have amongst us the iberry Auxus AX02 tablet running ICS. Has this budget tablets finally outdone the competition or has it skimmed off on too many features?

Look and FeelOn first impressions, the device is very well built. It has a black plastic body that feels really well built for its price point. The matte finish is nice and refrains the device from becoming a fingerprint and dust magnet.

The front of the device houses the 7-inch display that boasts of a resolution of 480x800. The front also has the 0.3MP camera and a home button. The rear-facing snapper is 2MP. In terms of connectivity, all the ports are at the bottom of the device. The device has a mini USB port, mini HDMI out, a headphones jack, microSD card slot, DC in and the power button. That may seem like a lot of ports but they are neatly laid out. On the top of the device (when held in landscape mode) is the volume rocker.

Switched off, you could easily mistake this device for any other 7-inch budget tablet, as there is nothing new here to distinguish it from the crowd.

Features and PerformanceStraight out of the box, the device runs on Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich. Under the hood, the device is powered by a 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU and has 1GB RAM taking it beyond the competition that offers 512MB RAM and runs on Android 2.3. The touch screen is capacitive in nature, eliminating the need of a stylus. The capacitive screen on this device has a lot better response and is smoother than what the competition has to offer. Finally, a good touchscreen on a budget tablet.

Playing Angry Birds, Pool Master Pro on the device was a fun experience. The touchscreen response was nice, graphics were smooth and the audio was surprisingly good.

Browsing the web on the device was a good experience. The keyboard is smooth and easy to type on, web pages rendered nicely and the overall experience was better than the Android 2.3 budget tablets we’ve seen so far.

The iberry Auxus AX02 claims 1080p video playback support and we were more than happy to put this claim to the test. We ran two 1080p trailers in .MP4 format on the device and they ran absolutely smoothly without any jitters. The display though crisp lacked brightness. The device cant boast of great viewing angles as well.

The rear of the device has a 2MP camera that takes pictures in a maximum resolution of 1600 × 1200. The images from the camera aren’t exceptional and very average. The same can be said for the front facing camera. It is a 0.3MP camera and can shoot stills in 640x480. The videos from both the cameras are very poor with a very low frame rate.

The device also comes with a mini USB to full USB adaptor enabling the device to connect to a 3G dongle to connect to the Internet. The device however isn’t perfect. It lacks a slot for a SIM card and doesn’t have Bluetooth either. We can live without a SIM card slot but the lack of Bluetooth leaves the device handicapped when trying to connect to third party peripherals.

With average use, the device lasted us under a day, which is expected from a device in this category. You can expect the device to last for 4 to 6 hours at a stretch depending on your usage.

The device comes with a file manager, which is nice as it enables seamless transfer of content from your Mac/PC and the device.

Since this tablet is one of the first budget tablets to run ICS, we will give you a quick run through the OS. The interface is a lot like Honeycomb without all the bugs. There is a simple and quick access to the settings and all the apps and widgets are neatly laid out.

The settings give you access to a variety of features such as data monitoring (if you use the internet via a 3G USB dongle), back up and restore and more. The interface is very smooth and snappy and the improvement over Android 2.3 tablets is startling.

The only drawback to the new OS is that apps downloaded from the Google Play Store automatically show up on the home screen. This can get a little irritating especially if you are a hope page customization freak like us. Thankfully, this feature can be manually disabled via the settings.

Nikon 1 V1 Review

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Summary

Nikon has finally arrived to the mirrorless camera party with its Nikon V1 and J1. Though a tad bit late, one could say Nikon was taking the time to not only develop their own proprietary sensor, but also come up with a hybrid contrast-phase-detect focusing system. However, it seems like they may have overlooked a few key aspects of what a mirrorless camera should be like. Pricing is definitely steep on this one, especially given the lack of some basic features like the lack of access to manual mode through the mode dial on the back. We just can't seem to gather the heart to shell out Rs. 45,450 for a camera that should be in the "DSLR-replacement" camp, but seems to fit better in the "point-and-shoot" segment.

Nikon Price List

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Best Blu-ray player options today

If you look at all the Blu-ray players stacked one on top of the other, there really isn’t a lot of difference. But each of them is unique in their own little way.

Philips BDP3200:

The fascia is divided into two parts - the glossy top portion, and the slightly angled bottom portion with a fake brushed metal finish. The glossy portion is where the Blu-ray drive sits towards the left and the USB port towards the right. If you aren’t careful, the surrounding area will be quite badly scratched in literally no time. All four hardware keys sit on the angled portion below the drive and the USB port. Circular buttons are well marked, and the power key lights up in red in stand-by mode. The top portion is completely metal with a classy light black finish. On the back is the business end for all the majority of the connectivity options. Since this player doesn’t have Wi-Fi integrated, there is a second USB port for a Wi-Fi adapter.

Sony BDP-S380:

 

Looks very classy without looking very different. The centre of the fascia has the usual combination of stuff - the Blu-ray drive and the display. Below this is an angled ledge that hosts the hardware keys. Between these two elements is a space, and the USB port sits snugly there. When switched on, there is a slightly arced pale blue (some would call it white!) LED in the middle of the fascia, lending it a very classy look. All AV ports are on the back, along with the LAN port. Quite well built, mixed with the metal finish of the rest of the body.

Philips BDP5200:

While it is more expensive than the BDP3200, the looks don’t really betray the differing price tag. So much for being siblings! But that’s not really a bad thing, since the looks are quite understated and matter to fact. You will notice that the Blu-ray logo on the BDP3200 has given way to the Blu-ray 3D logo on the BDP5200.

LG BD670:

This is like a Volkswagen Beetel in the midst of a bunch of run of the mill family sedans – the looks are quite different, and the host of logos make this the shoutiest of the lot - flamboyant stickers reminding you that the BD670 can do 3D, has integrated Wi-Fi, is DNLA capable and can play back content from an external HDD. The power key, play/pause, stop and drive eject keys are clearly highlighted in silver. The BD670 brings something that we haven’t seen on any other players in this test - a cover for the USB port. While we appreciate this, the implementation does have two issues - slightly flimsy build quality, which we fear will break after some time, and opening it every time will ensure a scratched part on the front side hurting the looks. The BD670 is well put together, even though it isn't as understated as the Philips or Panasonic ones.

Panasonic BD110:

Carrying forward the trend set by the Philips’ siblings, the BD110 looks very similar to its younger sibling – the BD75. But the difference is the front panel that can be opened top down, or will automatically open when the drive is ejected. Isn’t as deep as the other players in this test.

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Performance goodness?
Despite largely similar feature sets, each Blu-ray player has something that sets it apart from the nearest rival.

Philips BDP3200: The interface doesn’t have a lot - very basic design elements and functionality on the home screen, and is largely blue. The upside is, you really cannot go wrong with it! For browsing files, the three-column layout is quite helpful, considering you may have files segregated into folders. Will not read some AVCHD files, but does handle AVI, MKV and even MP4 files quite well. Blu-ray disc performance is quite good. But visuals do feel a tad on the softer side, and the lack of any sharpness settings doesn’t help. You cannot change any picture settings on the fly, and will have to stop video playback and go back to the home screen. Limited web services in this model, with only You Tube available on the device. We do hear that Picasa is making its way on to these Blu-ray players soon, via a software upgrade. The remote is excellent - remains small-ish, clean layout, well marked keys and the fingers can easily remember button placement. There is a smartphone app as well, for Android and iOS devices.

Sony BDP-S380: It has the quickest starting time of the entire lot. Surprisingly, the startup times varied by a few seconds every time we booted the player - complete shutdown, unplug, plug back and restart. Once on, the Interface will clearly give out the influence of the ones on the PlayStation 3 and the new Bravia television range. There are a lot of options and setting up front – no submenus and sub-submenus. The UI allows you to quickly get to what you want, and off you go, on your way. There is no second or third layer of screens, enhancing navigation speeds. Blu-ray picture quality is excellent, and the image is definitely crisper than what we saw on the Philips BDP3200. The remote is well laid out. Lack of DivX support means quite a few AVI videos wont play back off USB drives. The smartphone remote app does need to be registered once with the device before it can work, a step that none of the other remote apps required.

Philips BDP5200: Despite similar outwardly looks, has a significantly different UI from the younger sibling, the BDP3200. Partly because it has more web based services to offer. The remote remains the same as the BDP3200, which we had appreciated for being comfortable to use and recall. Setting up the Wi-Fi is a simple task. This has a fairly quick startup time, slightly quicker than its sibling. Blu-ray playback is very similar to that as well, and with similar video and picture settings, they look just the same in terms of the final output. 3D playback is impressive overall, if the disc is originally 3D – will not upconvert 2D -> 3D. At this price, this is probably the most inexpensive branded Blu-ray player available that offers agreeable 3D performance. This player literally read every MKV, MP4 or even AVI file we threw at it, via a DVD or a USB drive. No AVCHD files would play nice though, but knowing Philips, this could easily be solved with a future firmware upgrade. For a USB drive, up to 500GB portable ones were read with ease. Net TV services include You Tube, Dailymotion, Funspotetc, but are largely region specific. You will not get to access all the services on the platform in all regions. No connectivity issues, and the videos would stream as smoothly as on a PC.

LG BD670: Oh damn! Yet another app store! That is what LG touts as the big feature in the BD670. To start off, we liked the Blu-ray and 3D playback quality. Both of which were crisper than the Philips BDP5200. The interface is the most colourful among all the Blu-ray players we have tested here. However, we find that it tends to hang quite a bit. Happened with us a couple of times when trying to play AVI and MKV files off a USB drive. The promised app store wasn’t a part of the firmware that was on the device. Filled with curiosity, we searched for an update, and it immediately showed there was an update available and prompted us to download. However, despite trying that thrice, the download didn’t even begin. We switched from Wi-Fi to LAN as well for the third attempt, but that didn’t help. Rather than risk bricking the unit, we decided to continue with the tests. We assume this is an isolated problem with this particular unit. The BD670 has the quickest startup time for a Blu-ray disc. While we did not get the Apps store on the player, there was a Premium section. This was content powered by Indiatimes - news, updates, photo galleries and videos. Navigating through this was quite slow, and surely not because of the broadband speed which was a consistent 2Mbps throughout the tests. Overall, because of certain issues this was a bit of a disappointment, and we honestly hope these issues are solved in a future software update. After all, this player has quick boot and playback start times, very good playback quality and the interface is something that all other Blu-ray players should learn from.

Panasonic BD110: This is the only player that allows you to upscale 2D videos to 3D. And for that alone, it deserves a standing ovation! No other Blu-ray player does that, even though some can play back 3D discs. Things don’t start off well though - it has the slowest boot time of all players here. However, things steadily improve from there on in. The Blu-ray playback is excellent, and the image is definitely slightly crisper than its lesser-priced sibling, the BD75. Any video that you play, unless it is original 3D, will start in the standard 2D mode. There is the 3D button on the remote, which will give you a pop-up of what type of 3D to upscale to - Full HD 3D and Side-by-side 3D. Select the one that you want, we used Full HD 3D, and the display blanks out for anywhere between 5 and 15 seconds. Incidentally, the video doesn’t automatically pause during this process. Upconverted and original 3D quality is quite good, but then again, things like depth and colour reproduction are dependent on the individual 3D TV and on the viewer’s perception. Upscale quality of SD files to HD is quite good, be it off a DVD or a USB drive. Speaking of which, the BD110 did have some issues reading one of the 3 USB drives we were using in this test. This was a 16GB one in the Fat32 format with some MP4 and AVI files on it. It read the other two promptly (albeit both are in NTFS format), which makes us wonder what really is the issue here. Cannot be the USB drive, since all other players including the Panasonic BD75 read it perfectly. We groaned at the sight of the user interface, which follows a similar selection via direction key, which is bound to confuse new users! However, it does look a lot more colourful and better laid out, with multiple screens as you go deep into the options. You will need to get a compatible web camera for video calling to work. Within the apps interface, we like the window look. However, page 3 and beyond, where some services aren’t available in India, these windows are blank.

Toshiba Satellite L740

Toshiba Satellite L740

The moment you take the Toshiba Satellite L740 out of the box, you know it is a budget laptop. Primary reason being the limited attention paid to bulk and secondary being that the build quality. But that should not cloud the fact that this could actually be the budget laptop that performs well.

Look & Feel
Straightaway, the glossy black finish is a bit of a turn-off - for being a scratch, dust and fingerprint magnet. The same finish continues through the entire lid and all areas around the keyboard except the touchpad. There is a neat imprint design on it though, which reminds us of when HP first started to do the wave imprint on the Pavilion DV range of notebooks a few years back. This one isn't as profound, but is subtly relevant.

Above the keyboard are the stereo speakers and the power key. No dedicated keys for multimedia playback or accessing the web. Whatever quick access keys are there are on the shared with the FN keys. The LAN port, HDMI out, 2 USB ports and the headphone/ mic jacks are on the left side. A considerably profound cooling vent is there as well. On the right are the optical drive, another USB port, and the DVI connection. Nothing on the back, since the hinge placement ensures that the lid goes all the way down when opened.

To the left of the touchpad, just on the side is a cluster of notification lights -charger connection, power, battery, hard drive, memory card and Wi-Fi. They aren’t marked very well, and you’ll have to squint considerably to know which one means what. Till you remember that by heart, that is! The memory card slot is just below that.

Overall, while this is a well-built laptop with no evident rough edges, what gives away its price is the bulky design and the complete plastic treatment throughout. Slightly slimmer, and it would have looked a lot better.

Features & Performance
While it isn't an old processor (considering it was launched in the second quarter of 2011), it isn't the newer gen Core i3 or Core i5 either. The Pentium B940 (Sandy Bridge family) clocks at 1995MHz and is paired with 3GB of RAM. Toshiba preloads the laptop with Windows 7 Home Basic in the 32-bit version. If you do consider upgrading the RAM to 4GB or more, we suggest switching to a 64-bit version of the OS. Graphics are the Intel HD 2000 series, which isn't going to allow for gaming at all. Except solitaire that is! We were surprised with the PC Mark Vantage score of 4195, which slots it cleanly in the “I am not a slouch by any stretch of the imagination” category. The Graphics score brings down the Windows Experience Index of 5.0. The processor gets a score of 5.8, while the hard drive scores 5.9. All these scores are out of 7.9.

The 14-inch display is the basic LCD one, with a resolution of 1366 x 760 pixels and 16:9 aspect ratio. What impressed us the most was that this display isn't reflective at all, making it very comfortable to use - be it outdoors or in a typical office environment with lot of overhead lighting. Partly because of the non-reflective nature of the display, the viewing angles are much better than a lot of other laptops. While it does not have a very vivid colour handling, the crispness helps equally with multimedia viewing and anything to do with documents.

With a humongous 640GB hard drive, we are sure you wont run out of storage space anytime soon. The drive performance is quite good as well - it copies a zipped 4GB file in almost 103 seconds and 118 seconds for the unzipped 4GB folder.

Battery life is quite disappointing though. This one will run out of juice in an hour and 40 minutes, from full charge to complete discharge. You may get a bit more if the brightness is turned down and connectivity reduced to the bare minimum, but this still wont really cross 2 hours.

Our Take
For a price around Rs 30000, this is essentially a budget laptop that could fit well in the role of a desktop replacement. The performance is quite stable, and should not slow down under most heavy usage scenarios. No gaming though, since this only comes with integrated graphics. Built well, albeit a bit bulky. The real delight is the amazing display, and we thank God that there is some sense out there to put non-reflective displays on laptops. Alternatively, you could also consider the Lenovo G560, which will come with a newer Intel Core i3 processor, same 3GB of RAM, smaller 320GB hard drive but a bigger 15.6-inch display.

Price: Rs. 28,490

Contact: Toshiba India
Phone: +91-124 - 4996600
Email: http://www.toshiba-india.com/writeus.aspx

Brand	Toshiba
Model	Satellite L740- P4210
Price (Rs)	28490
Specifications
Processor	Intel Pentium B940
Speed (MHz)	1895
RAM (DDR3)	3GB
Graphics	Intel HD Graphics 2000
HDD	640GB
OS	Windows 7 Home Basic (32-bit)
Screen Size (Inches)	14
Type of Panel	LCD
Screen Resolution (Pixels)	1366 x 768
Weight (kg)	2.3
No of USB ports	3
No of USB 3.0 (Y/N)	1
Connectivity (LAN / Bluetooth / Wi-Fi)	Y / Y / Y
E-Sata / Thunderbolt (Y/Y)	N / N
Display (VGA/DVI/HDMI/Display Port)	Y / Y / Y / N
Headphone/Mic	Y / Y
Memory Card Reader (Y/N)	Y
Fingerprint scanner?	N
Optical Drive (Y/N)	Y
Inbuilt Webcam (Y/N)	Y
Benchmark scores
PCMark Vantage Score	4195
Memory Score	2946
TV and Movies Score	0
Gaming Score	2715
Music Score	5175
Communications Score	4347
Productivity Score	3448
HDD Score	3776
3D Mark 06 Score	3054
Maxxon Cinebench R11.5 (CPU Score)	1.4
Battery Meter (in mins)	01:41.3
Speaker volume (at 50%)	7.5
Speaker clarity (at 100%)	6.5
HD video playback test (So 10)	8
4GB single file copy (secs)	102.78
4GB folder files copy (sec)	118
100 MB File Conversion (VOB-to-DivX) (secs)	157

Sony Vaio S (VPCSA35GG/T) Review

Sony Vaio S-Summary

Price: 79990

stand out in a crowd. A combination of good performance and good build is more than enough to entice anyone who is looking to buy a slim laptop. We have run out of words to express how happy we are with the matte display! However, a very disappointing battery life and a price tag that is slightly on the higher side gatecrash the party.


What we have here is a laptop that looks pretty impressive on the spec sheet - Intel Core i7, 6GB of RAM, a 750GB hard drive and dedicated graphics - AMD Radeon HD 6630M (1GB RAM) and the integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics. However, what dresses it is what really catches the eye - Glossy Brown, and that too multiple shades of that. So much so that the lighter one actually comes very close to Gold! But, does whatever glitter really gold? Let us find out.

All ports are on the right side. You will get three USB ports, one of which is a USB 3.0 port, card reader and HDMI out as well. There is the well sculpted optical drive on the left side, and you might not notice it there because of the MacBook-esque placement of the eject key above the keypad. The 3.5mm headphone jack is placed just above the optical drive.

No vents on the sides, but the major outlet are on the rear side, below the display. However, we noticed a major design flaw with this. Thanks to the chunky design of the hinge, the vent space is severely compromised when the display is completely tilted back. Trust us, people do tilt the display that far back, and even we do it. What that does is heat up the machine a lot quicker, particularly if you are on the dedicated graphics mode. Within 20 minutes of being switched on for a bit of web browsing and some You Tube videos, the cooling fan was growling like the way it did on the older gen Xbox consoles - time for take-off!

While the build quality is worthy of a laptop this expensive, we don’t think everyone will appreciate this colour. This laptop is also available in a conventional black coloured finish, and we suggest you consider that. However, you will need a cooling pad for this for the most part, since this becomes very warm thanks to the flawed vent placement

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Sony Laptop Price List:-

SPECIFICATION & PERFOMANCE

Processor: Intel Core i7-2640M @ 2.8GHz (Turbo boost to 3.5GHz); RAM: 6GB; Display: 13.3-inch (1600x900 pixels); Graphics: AMD Radeo HD 6630M / Intel HD Graphics 3000; Storage: 750GB hard drive; Optical drive: Yes; memory card slot: Yes