Alongside offering a fairly casual technology news blog, TB Tech offers professional technology advisory, setup and maintenance services to our small business contacts.
We like Sony very much - their VAIO notebooks last and are quite reliable - for us. It came as little surprise then, that when it came to recommending new notebooks for one of our closest business contacts, we chose from within Sony's range of VAIO business laptops.
The 13" lightweight VGN-SZ56 model turned out to be the choice, and today we picked up the five ordered for that contact. Of course, we had to spend five minutes checking it out.
The SZ56 has a premium feel to it - the mixture of brushed aluminium with chrome accents really appeals. The SZ originated Sony's tapering idea - now seen best in the ultralight VAIO TZ series - the notebook starts out fairly thick, and tapers down to a thin front panel. This design gives the notebook a lightweight - and thin - feel.
Speaking of weight, at 1.93kg, the SZ56 certainly isn't heavy, and it's fairly thin by Windows notebook standards anyway.
The full-size keyboard isn't backlit like Apple's MacBook Air, but it is very comfortable to use. The keys are naturally tilted a bit further up from the palmrests because of the notebook tapering - this adds to the ergonomic feel.
We would have preferred the SZ to have a wider touchpad, like the pads found on Apple notebooks - alas, it is a square that, although big enough, offers fairly little room for the fingers.
As the five notebooks have to be set up with our contact's internal servers, we didn't power our photoshoot model up and see how Vista Business ran - however, we're sure that the 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor will be quick.
We'll wait for a report back from our contact on the everyday use of the SZ56 - but our expertise and first impression tells us that it will be a lasting machine for heavy business use.
See: The Sony VAIO SZ56 in pictures
Monday, 24 March 2008
5 Minutes With: Sony's VAIO SZ56 notebook
Saturday, 2 February 2008
New Dell Latitude E-Series leaked
Our friends over at Engadget have garnered a very official-looking snap and some early details of a new series of Dell notebook called the E-Series, which will be available in 12", 13.3", 14.1" and 15.4" sizes - quite a family.
Both the 14" and 15" models feature WXGA displays, with the big boy featuring a WGXA+ LED backlit screen. DisplayPort, eSATA, numerous USB ports and possibly PC / ExpressCard slots on the 14/15" models can be expected.
Finally - both the larger models are amazingly light: the 14.1" model weighs in at just 1.93kg, while the 15.4" variety clocks in at 2.27kg. This can only lead to a conclusion that the 12" and 13.3" models must be, well, ultralight.
We'll have more news, as it comes.
[via Engadget]
Monday, 28 January 2008
HP adds Penryn to its Pavilion consumer notebooks
HP has (very) quietly rolled out the latest update to Intel's mobile Core 2 Duo processor, named Penryn, into its Pavilion dv2700, dv6700, and dv9700 consumer-targeted notebooks.
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
Next-gen MacBook Pros to like multi-touch
AppleInsider, one of the hundreds of sites dedicated to sifting through the constant rumour-mill associated with the Cupertino-based corporation, has apparently 'learned' that Apple's next-gen MacBook Pros will gain the multi-touch trackpad ability of the recently-announced MacBook Air notebook.
Although this rumour is highly safe, as it wouldn't have been long anyway until Apple installed the latest 'thing' into its premium tier of notebooks, AppleInsider is offering that the 'Pros could be updated in the coming weeks.
Also posed in the article is the fact that Apple meant to release the updated MacBook Pros at, or around, the Macworld 2008 expo, but too much time needed to be allocated to the Air to make this possible.
The source also states that the new MacBook Pros would be the first Apple notebooks to feature Intel's new Penryn-based Intel Core 2 Duo processors, as well as featuring the oversize, multi-touch trackpad as featured on the new baby Mac notebook.
The new processors are slated to be clocked at around 2.5 to 2.6GHz, with 6mb of Level 2 cache.
An improved battery would also be likely, with one test published in the publication AnandTech seeing a 2.6GHz Penryn-based Pro lasting an extra 55 minutes over a similarly-configured 2.6GHz Meron-based system. That's an almost 16.5% increase.
Read: AppleInsider - "Next-gen Apple MacBook Pros to gain multi-touch trackpad"
Image courtesy of Apple.
Friday, 18 January 2008
Review: HP Pavilion dv2632tx notebook
Over the week since I received my evaluation model of the HP Pavilion dv2632tx notebook computer, I have tried my hardest to test this computer in almost all my everyday tasks, in a variety of environments, as I do with all notebooks.
I’ll cover the different aspects of this notebook in categories.
Design
The design of the Pavilion dv2632tx is, like most of the new consumer HP laptops, lovely. All of the usable surfaces – the lid, the palm rests, screen and keyboard surrounds – are glossy plastic. When you first take the Pavilion home – or as I saw after receiving it from a courier through HP’s media program – you see the intricate and beautiful ‘Radiance’ theme on the black, glossy lid. It’s just a fancy array of circles and swirls... but it really does thrill for the first little bit of using the computer. After that, it looks great, but it’ll just become a fingerprint nightmare.
On the inside, the palm rests are decorated in the same fashion. If you think the pattern is subtle, you’re quite mistaken. It’s there, and the ‘Radiance’ pattern wants to be noticed.
The keyboard, many will be pleased to note, is not glossy, or decorated. It is made of a durable, matte material that feels nice under the fingers and gives the feeling that the keyboard can handle greasy fingers, crumbs, and hard use. Around so much glossy plastic it feels a little out of place, but it doesn’t feel cheap.
Along the palm rests, from the right, you’ll find a fingerprint scanner. This is a great help if you don’t want to remember all of those passwords you use for various websites, clubs, emails and the computer itself. The biometric scanner can keep them all under one umbrella and simply accept your own finger.
The touchpad is glossy, which sometimes can become a little annoying, as are the mouse buttons. You can also switch off the touchpad, via a button above, which is a nice feature if you work with a mouse.
Finally, above the keyboard, there is a row of touch-sensitive buttons, which are a really nice touch. They’re for controlling QuickPlay, HP’s own media manager. QuickPlay is somehow a little bit contradictory to Windows Media Centre, which comes standard with this computer as it is running Windows Vista Home Premium. However, they do work for most other applications. The best of these touch buttons is the volume up/down – to control it, you just swipe your finger up or down. This is quite lovely, and definitely gives this computer a more expensive feel.
Screen
The dv2632tx, I believe, has a great compromise when it comes to the screen. Most people go for a 13.3” laptop if they want a portable machine that still has a widescreen. However, many other people don’t need so much portability so they go for a 15.4” laptop, which affords more screen space and higher resolutions.
The mid-size screen on the Pavilion, at 14.1” is fantastic. It offers the portability of a 13” laptop, with the screen of a 15” notebook. I have very much enjoyed working with a screen of this size, and would preferably buy a laptop with this screen size for myself.
The screen is glossy, as well, which everybody knows will reflect the light quite a bit. And this one does. But with the way colours look on this laptop, you’d never care. The screen is particularly beautiful. Once again, I compare this laptop to the MacBook – and this screen is better.
Performance
Ah, the wonderful dual-core processor. They offer faster performance, quicker response and smaller wait times. Fantastic, one thinks. The dv2632tx does have a dual-core processor, in fact, an Intel Core 2 Duo, which is a good one. However, since it’s only powered at 1.5Ghz, it’s not exactly a screamer. However, although it’s processor speed seems to be fairly low, we need to take into account the fact that the dv2632tx is a Dual Core notebook – so therefore usually 1.5GHz Core 2 Duo will be quicker than say, a 1.8GHz Pentium 4 or Centrino.
The speed of the Pavilion is fine. It’s definitely not slow – this laptop would be perfect for students, home users, mums, or perhaps for some light office work.
Expansion
You can find more detailed ports expansion information on our main review site (http://web.mac.com/tom.bakes/tbtech).
For just a moment I’ll talk about the DVD drive: This is fantastic, as it has LightScribe labelling. So, with a blank disc that supports LightScribe, you can create your memories on DVD with the included Windows DVD Maker, then laser a nice label onto the DVD right there in the disc drive. Ingenious! Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to try out the LightScribe feature, but I have used it on an HP desktop and it works well.
Operating System
The dv2632tx comes standard with Windows Vista Home Premium, an operating system that both suits it and runs very well. In the week that I have tested this notebook, Home Premium has suited the Pavilion to a ‘t’, except for the large annoyance I suffered when I discovered that Home Premium does not support the Samba (SMB) server networking environment. My home Windows servers run on the SMB protocol and for it to be left out in Home Premium is not good in TB Tech’s books.
For home users, contrary to the beliefs of many tech review sources, is better suited to home users than Windows XP Home or Professional, TB Tech finds. On average, it was easier for the average home user to navigate the Vista operating system as a first timer than it was to navigate XP. We did not have any hiccups with Vista over the week of testing, either, and all basic to moderate tasks were easily completed.
Portability
As I previously commented, 14.1” is a very nice size for a notebook – offering easy portability with a good size (wide)screen.
The Pavilion is no exception to this. It is light, at only 2.43kg (official weight for Pavilion dv2500), and it could easily be carried around every day, but you’d want it in a bag. The glossy surface of the lid makes it a bit difficult to carry securely in the hand.
Carrying this to a local cafe, to work, or just around the neighbourhood would an easy task.
Battery
The battery lasted between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 hours on our tests here at TB Tech. On average, with word processor use, spreadsheets open, browsing the internet over WiFi and listening to some music occasionally, we got approximately 2 3/4 hours of battery. Watching a DVD reduced this down to between 2 and 2 1/2 hours.
These numbers are quite respectable, as the screen is quite bright even at lower settings, and multimedia and internet on this device looks and sounds great.
Conclusion
The Pavilion dv2632tx has been a pleasure to use. The interesting and rare perks of the hardware, like the 2 headphone jacks, or the touch-enabled media controls, should be features in more notebooks.
If you are a home user, student, busy mother, or perhaps someone who does a balance of home use with light work use, the Pavilion dv2632tx could certainly be the notebook for you.
You can find the HP Pavilion dv2632tx Entertainment Notebook at many electronics or computer stores. It retails for $1,599.
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
Asus EeePC - 8 and 9 inch this year + Eee 801 pic
Asus, creator of the interesting EeePC - an ultraportable, ultra-affordable notebook computer aimed at students, has announced that it will be manufacturing these little wonders in 8, and 8.9 inch forms - so basically 8 and 9 inch screens.
At the same time, Asus also announced that the EeePC 701 could be configured to work in the US with Sprint Nextel's XOHM WiMAX service (standard wireless speed internet anywhere). Don't expect that for down under until Telstra introduces WiMAX on the Next G network, which we don't think will be soon.
Asus, however, didn't have the EeePC 801 or the Eee 901 on display - however, a Taiwanese blog called Pixnet has managed to get its hands on an 8" 801 model, compared next to a 7" 701.
They certainly look similar - same size and footprint, only the 801 uses more of the colossal space on the lid for a bigger screen. I certainly feel that the 801 looks 'cleaner' as gone is the black speaker grille around the screen - it's now white.
Whether these pictures represent the final product, we'll find out in Q2 2008 (April-June), when Asus is slated to officially release the new Eees.
[via Pixnet Blog (Taiwan), translated page]
Acer introduces 'Panoramic' Aspire notebook
With CES usually comes lots of semi-impressive laptops, but this year there's only been a few standouts. This particular Aspire isn't exactly impressive, but it still deserves a bit of coverage.
Also, although it has that oh-so-special 'Panoramic' label, there's no extra screen space over any other widescreen 17" laptop, but this Acer does offer quite a few nice features and shows some reasonable specifications, at a more-than-reasonable price.
It packs an Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 processor, 250GB hard drive, 2GB RAM, 256mb of dedicated NVIDIA GeForce 8400M graphics, and 802.11g WiFi + Gigabit Ethernet, as well as Acer's now pretty standard Gemstone design and Vista Home Premium.
They say it's high definition, but we're not exactly sure what they mean, as it's not quoted as having a 1920x1200 screen. We'll have to clarify. It does come with Dolby Home Theatre sound, though, so it should be half-decent with movies.
We're a bit surprised that we haven't seen draft 802.11n WiFi in this model, but you get what you pay for. It's shipped now in the US at US$1049, currently about A$1,200 which is an absolute bargain for what this packs.
[via BusinessWire]
Friday, 4 January 2008
HP's laptop updates... nothing special
Along with its barrage of new media desktops that we saw yesterday, HP has also given light to the new Pavilion tx2000 tablet and revamped the huge Pavilion HDX (the 20" HD notebook).
The tx2000 replaces the tx1000 in the 12.1" convertible tablet slot in HP's range. The tx1000 was released this time last year, perhaps hinting at yearly updates.
Specs are vague at best for the tablet but we know it'll feature HP's QuickPlay software, an integrated microphone and a webcam. We'll find out more by/during CES for sure.
As for the giant (the 20.1" HDX), we'll be seeing a full WUXGA 1080p display at 1920x1200 resolution with HP's UltraBrightview technology, a 512MB NVIDIA 8800 GTS video card, an optional Intel Core 2 Extreme processor, four Altec Lansing speakers with subwoofer, room for two hard drives, a digital TV tuner with hybrid analogue, a media remote, and an eSATA port.
Also new for the HDX is updated optical drive choices (keep in mind these all have additional CD/DVD read/write capability):
- the standard HD-read drive;
- an optional HD-read/write drive, and
- an optional Blu-Ray read drive.
In that case, the Pavilion tx2000 tablet should retail for around A$2,300 and the standard, non-custom HDX for A$5,000 or under.