Gadget Reviews

The New Samsung Series 9 Laptop

Look and Feel

The first thing most people notice about the NP900X3A is its size. It is only .64 inches thick at its thickest point and weighs a mere 2.88 pounds, which makes it easy to carry and transport. However, this does not mean that it’s flimsy; its chassis is made of duralumin, an aluminum alloy that’s used on aircrafts and has double the strength of regular aluminum.

The Samsung Series 9 laptop also has a stylish design. The case is a dark, brushed black with chrome borders and curved edges, and the ports, which include 2 USB ports, a microSD card slot, a mini HDMI port, an Ethernet jack and a headphone jack, are hidden behind port covers. Its matte screen produces crisp images and vivid colors without any glare, and the screen’s 400-nit brightness adjusts automatically according to light conditions. In addition, this laptop has a backlit keyboard and a large, multi-touch mouse. It does, however, only have a 1366 X 68 screen resolution, which leaves a little to be desired.

Hardware

Samsung Series 9 Laptop Model NP900X3A

Battery Life and Software

Samsung claims that this laptop’s battery can last up to seven hours. In actual tests, however, it only ran four-and-a-half to six hours, depending on the brightness of the screen and what applications were in use. Still, this is impressive for such a thin laptop. In addition, the small charger on the Samsung Series 9 laptop is very easy to carry around.

The NP900X3A doesn’t come with a whole lot of software. It is loaded with several Samsung tools, including Easy File Share, Easy Network Management and Easy Migration, and most models include Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium and Microsoft Office Starter 2010. In addition, the included webcam comes with ArcSoft YouCam software. However, there aren’t many applications on the Samsung Series 9 laptop beyond that.

Conclusion

The Samsung Series 9 laptop model NP900X3A is a serious competitor in the world of ultra-thin laptops. It is stylish, fast and durable, and it contains outstanding hardware. It also boasts an incredibly bright screen, a backlit keyboard and an impressive battery life. For Windows users who can afford the $1600 price tag and don’t mind a 1366 X 768 screen resolution, this Samsung Series 9 laptop may be the perfect option.

Samsung Galaxy S II

The Samsung Galaxy S was one of the best mobile phone releases of last year. In a year defined by several brilliant handsets such as the iPhone 4, Nexus S and the HTC Desire, the Galaxy S stood out even amongst such excellent competition.

You can still get the Galaxy S, and on some very good deal at the moment from all the main mobile phone shops, but it seems that Korean company Samsung feel it is time to move on to fresher pastures. Don’t feel sad though because all this means is that they are launching what they see as a worthy successor to the Galaxy S, the Samsung Galaxy S II.

The first thing that you notice about the new Galaxy S II is just how thin it is at only 8.4mm. There is currently a race going on in the smartphone world about who can make the thinnest phone possible. Currently this crown belong to the iPhone 4 but this phone, once released, will steel that title from Apple.

This is all the more remarkable considering the high specs that Samsung have managed to squeeze inside the Galaxy S II. You will get a super fast dual core 1.2GHz Exynos CPU running the latest version of Android 2.3, 1GB of RAM and a superb 4.3 inch WVGA (800×480) Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen. This resolution is not as good as some of the other high-end Android phones coming to market that use the newer qHD (960×540) resolution though.

As for cameras, this phone has two. One front and one back facing. The front 2MP camera can be used for video calls using a video call app or used with the newly release Google video for Android. The rear facing camera is 8MP and is accompanied by an LED flash. Also, because this phone is dual core, it is able to record video at resolutions up to 1080p!

The Galaxy S was always going to be a tough act to follow but the guys at Samsung have taken on the task with a confidence that shows through a great follow up phone. Let’s hope there’s more to come from Samsung over the rest of the year.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play comes with six games built into its memory, with a further 44 available at the moment for a relatively cheap price. Computer gaming is big business nowadays and since the advent of computer games on phones, with games like snake, it was only a matter of time before something like this was going to happen. Few would argue against the fact that Sony Ericsson, with the Japanese firm’s expertise in the area, are the right people to undertake such as task.

You would be forgiven for thinking that the gaming side of the phone is enough excitement but there are other aspects of the Xperia Play that should prove extremely popular. The rumour that Sony is to include its Music Unlimited service to the phone has left plenty of us eager to get our hands on a phone with this great service on it.

Music Unlimited is coming to the PSP soon with Shawn Layden, CEO of Sony Network Entertainment saying it will “come live on the PSP in a matter of weeks,” he also added that it will be a feature on all Sony Ericsson’s Android phones some point “this year”. Layden went on to reveal the company’s plans for an all encompassing ID for all its products.

“The idea is to make your PlayStation ID your ubiquitous sign-on wherever you go and also allow you to trade off the same wallet,” Layden added, and Music Unlimited is a big part of this.

Acer Liquid Metal

Acer isn’t a company that is normally associated with smartphones and most people only know them for producing laptops and monitors.

This however, is Acer’s latest attempt the break into the mobile phone market. Introducing the Acer Liquid Metal, which is true to its name and is indeed mad of metal. It has a the nice 800×480 WVGA touch screen on the front covered with Gorilla glass (according to rumours). The body of the device looks great on official photos, but we’ll have to wait and see how it actually feels in one’s hand. If it’s anything like any of Acer’s previous smartphones, then it should be of a pretty high quality.

The Acer Liquid Metal will be running Android 2.2 at release which has a lot of new features under the hood compared to older version. One of the most important being ability to play Flash inside the phones browser giving the user a more complete mobile Web experience. Acer have also opted to uses their own skin on Android called Breeze, but we hope users will be able to change/uninstall it (unlike the Motoblur on Motorola Milestone 2) and revert back to “pure” Android.

The technical specs look OK. The phone runs on the new Qualcomm MSM7230 ARMv7 Scorpion, which in this case has a 800 MHz CPU and a video chip that is capable of competing with Samsung’s PowerVX 540, i.e. the best one currently on the market. There are also 512 MB of RAM, which is plenty enough to run even the most demanding apps and have more than a dozen of them open at the same time. An upgrade to Android 3 is also possible with these specs in the future.

Other than that, the phone comes with all the modern features you might need: Wifi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, a 5 megapixels camera with 720p video support, HSDPA/HSUPA of up to 14.4 Mbps and 5.76 Mbps respectively, and support for DLNA. This phone should be available in mid-November 2010 in the UK for a relatively low $499 (Just under £300) which will certainly be of interest of a lot of people and potential buyers.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8

The Sony Xperia X8 looks quite bulky, because of its 15 mm thickness, but it sits quite well in one hand and is very easy to operate. It comes in various colors, with the most popular being of course, black and white. Its full touch capabilities are provided by a medium-sized 3.0 inch capacitive screen with a HVGA resolution (320×480), which seems a bit on the low side, but is really more than enough for everyday use (after all, Apple used the resolution on their first three generations of the iPhone and everyone was happy).

The hardware specs are average at most, but then again this phone is made for the masses, not advanced users who will use the full extent of its capabilities. It runs on a Qualcomm MSM7227 ARM processor at 600 Mhz that is more than capable of playing any music, videos, games and rendering Web pages at acceptable speeds, but the phone only has 168 MB of RAM, which severely limits the amount of apps (or for example, Web pages in tabs) you can open at the same time. The Android 2.1 upgrade makes it even slower, but fortunately, you won’t notice anything if you just use the phone for calls, messages, social apps and the occasional game or Youtube video.

Aside from the above drawback, the Sony Ericsson is more than enough for people who are just getting into the whole smartphone world and want something simple and easy to use, yet with enough power and features if they ever need it.