Amazon MP3, an app often pre-installed on Android devices, allows you to browse through Amazon's ever growing DRM-free MP3 library and legally purchase music on your phone. With its most recent update, the app can now stream music that has been uploaded to your Amazon Cloud Drive as well as play files stored locally on an SD card.
While Amazon's music library may not be as robust as Apple's iTunes, I found it a bit easier to navigate on the mobile app. When you find a song you want to buy, you are given an option to either save it locally to your device, or to your Cloud Drive. If you save the file to your Cloud Drive, you can later download it onto your device or your computer at no extra cost. Amazon MP3 purchases that are saved directly to the Cloud Drive do not count against your storage quota.
One of the great things about Amazon MP3 is that you can stream your music to any Android device running 1.6 or higher with the app installed onto it. The only real issue I encountered when streaming over 3G was that higher bit rate files (audio files of a higher quality) would need to constantly buffer. That was not a problem when streaming over 4G or Wi-Fi, but if you don't have a 4G phone then it is kind of a moot point.
Playing music off of an SD card went off without a hitch, though the app only accepts AAC and MP3 formats (sorry FLAC fans). I preferred the Amazon music player over the bland stock Android one mainly because of its tight integration with the Amazon MP3 store. Instead of having to exit the app, an arrow at the top of the screen allows you to switch between the music player and the store on the fly.
Amazon MP3 is great for those of us with massive music collections, but lack the storage to carry it all with us. Even if you don't want to stream music, the Amazon media player is still far better than the default one found on some Android devices. It's free and definitely worth checking out, especially if you use your phone as your main music device.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Corel VideoStudio Pro X4 Video Editing Software Offers Speed Improvements
When it comes to video editing, nothing ever happens quickly enough, no matter how powerful your computer. Corel's VideoStudio Pro X4 video editing software ($100, $80 upgrade, as of 3/28/11) tries to speed things up. It's one of the first applications--not to mention video editing applications--to take specific advantage of Intel's new Sandy Bridge CPUs and AMD's Fusion CPUs (recently released or forthcoming); it also supports the GPU acceleration provided by certain Nvidia graphics processors.
Corel says that the enhancements might gain you 100 percent to 200 percent speed improvements in certain operations--for example, converting imported AVCHD video to an MPEG-2 output file--but didn't have more-specific numbers. That could be pretty impressive, though even if those numbers hold true, they won't come close to the exponential speed gains offered by Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 on a PC with a high-end graphics card.
Corel also says that the version I tested had some optimizations for Intel and AMD chips, but that it would be releasing additional "accelerator patches" after Intel and AMD released their own updates, so I did not run performance tests of my own. But I did notice that, even without those patches, VideoStudio ran very smoothly on the systems I tested it with, including a dual-Xeon-based workstation and a Core i7-based laptop; it previewed high-definition footage with no hiccups, its interface operated snappily, and it rendered output files relatively quickly (meaning, relative to how quickly I thought it should output, and relative to how quickly competitor Pinnacle Studio HD 15 rendered files). I experienced no crashes, and I never got the sense that I was overtaxing the application, even with high-definition content. That said, VideoStudio Pro X4 remains a native 32-bit application, so none of its speed gains come from that angle.
VideoStudio Pro X4 remains the only video editing application to offer a proxy editing mode, in which you can work on high-definition video in a low-resolution mode, thereby allowing you to use an underpowered computer. When you're done editing, VideoStudio applies your edits to the high-definition version while you're off having coffee (or sleeping).
Interface: Pretty and Functional
VideoStudio Pro X4 has a nicely revised workspace, too. You can grab the edge of screen elements such as the timeline, sources, and monitor windows and expand their size to meet your needs, and you can arrange them nearly anywhere you want. Drag a window to the the edge of a screen where you'll see small boxes, let go of the window, and it will dock automatically. You can undock windows, too--so that, for example, you can show your preview window on a second monitor, as large as you want it to be. This workspace is similar in function to that of Adobe Premiere Elements 9, but it's also a little simpler to use, because it has fewer options. As with Premiere Elements, you can save custom layouts and load them when you want.
Still, I found two things I didn't like in the interface. As with many consumer video editing applications, you do much of your customization work in dialog boxes with small windows to show the effects of your work, rather than showing your preview in the larger monitor window. Second, to access the help menus, you have to click a button at the top of the window that opens the Corel Guide, a secondary interface that gives you access to extra (free and paid) content, instructional videos, and messages that I assume are marketing communications. From there, you must click on a Launch Help link that then causes an online help system to appear--one that lives on Corel's Website. But I'd just bookmark the site in my browser and skip the button in VideoStudio.
As with Avid's Pinnacle Studio HD 15, VideoStudio Pro X4's keyframing features are rudimentary at best. (Keyframing is the ability to set points at which effects start or stop, and at what intensity.) You must set keyframes in a dialog box with a small preview window, and you can't see the keyframes in your timeline, so you have to open up the dialog box every time you want to change how they are applied. You can't adjust anything between those keyframes, either, as you can in Premiere Elements 9. For example, you can't change how quickly an effect accelerates before and after a keyframe, so their onset and dissipation are totally linear.
Now in 3D
VideoStudio Pro X4 is only the second video editing application to offer conversion to 3D video output (Sony Vegas Pro 10 was the first; I fully expect other video editing applications to add this feature in their next iterations). Unlike Vegas Pro 10, VideoStudio Pro X4 doesn't give you much control over how the 3D output looks. You click the application's Share button, click a file format (YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, or one of several disc formats), then choose anaglyph output or side-by-side output and adjust a 3D depth setting, but with no preview. Because 3D rendering is extremely processor-intensive, you might wait a long time before you can determine whether you had the right settings. Even so, I was able to output a pretty good 720p 3D video to YouTube, with obvious 3D effects; YouTube recognized that it was a 3D file and showed several 3D viewing options.
You can now make stop-motion animations with VideoStudio Pro X4, thanks to a new set of features in the application's Capture mode. You can capture shots manually, by clicking a button, or you can set it to take shots automatically on a regular interval (so you can create a movie of a sunset, or a flower opening, for example). However, once you import the stop-motion movie into a timeline, you can't adjust the duration or the speed of the composition, unless you split it back into individual photos; and if you do that, you lose any effects you've applied to the composition. You can adjust all of the photos' duration at once, but if you want to add an effect, you have to add it to all of your photos. Or you could recombine all the photos--but what if you want to adjust the duration again?
Another new feature lets you create an effective strobe effect by setting VideoStudio to capture every tenth frame, and slow down the overall video at the same time, so it will look like a time-lapse movie. This is very easy to set up, and it creates really neat-looking video, albeit with the same limitations of stop-motion movies.
Other enhancements: You can now place title text in overlay tracks (in addition to your main video track), and you can now export VideoStudio Pro X4 projects so that you can copy them to other computers to work on them there.
Speed Thrills
VideoStudio Pro X4 performs well on a wide range of computers, from the underpowered PCs of yesteryear (using its proxy mode) to more recent models to units with the most cutting-edge CPUs, and Corel is doing a good job of offering the new features that people want in a video editor. It doesn't provide nearly the same level of control as Adobe Premiere Elements 9 does, but it has a few advantages over that application (for example, an easier-to-see interface, and a less-confusing media browser), so I'd recommend it as a worthy alternative for some people.
Google Reader
The Google Reader app for Android has all of the functionality you could hope for. You can choose to look at all new posts or just posts from one site at a time. You can even play most videos right from the app (usually requires Adobe Flash Player). Everything you do on the app syncs with your Web-based Google Reader account, pretty much instantly.
If I've been away for a while and I have hundreds of new posts waiting, I actually prefer to use this app over the Web version. I find it so easy just to scroll through the headlines only, star the ones I want to read later, and press 'Mark all as read' to eliminate the clutter instantly. Later I can go to my desktop to read the starred items on a full-size screen.
This app is a great implementation of something that is normally Web-based. It's fast, it's intuitive, and it's nicely laid out. If you do a lot of online reading, you definitely want an app that works with Google Reader. That said, other choices are out there, such as FeedR and Pulse, which some people would argue offer more features. In fact, if the Google Reader app allowed users to download feeds (with images) in the background to an SD Card and then read them later offline, it would be nice. Some other readers let you do that, and I'm hoping Google adds such an option.
If I've been away for a while and I have hundreds of new posts waiting, I actually prefer to use this app over the Web version. I find it so easy just to scroll through the headlines only, star the ones I want to read later, and press 'Mark all as read' to eliminate the clutter instantly. Later I can go to my desktop to read the starred items on a full-size screen.
This app is a great implementation of something that is normally Web-based. It's fast, it's intuitive, and it's nicely laid out. If you do a lot of online reading, you definitely want an app that works with Google Reader. That said, other choices are out there, such as FeedR and Pulse, which some people would argue offer more features. In fact, if the Google Reader app allowed users to download feeds (with images) in the background to an SD Card and then read them later offline, it would be nice. Some other readers let you do that, and I'm hoping Google adds such an option.
Hands On With Firefox 4
A lot has changed in the browser universe since Firefox 3.0 launched in June 2008. Google Chrome burst onto the scene, and has undergone frequent updates since then. Microsoft released IE 8 and IE 9. Safari advanced from version 3 then to version 5 now.
While Mozilla made some improvements in Firefox 3.5 and 3.6 that improved performance and bolstered the feature set, Firefox started to feel like it was falling behind the curve. Firefox 4 makes Firefox competitive again, with its updated interface and improved performance.
Firefox Gets a Makeover
The first thing you'll notice is that Firefox 4 has a new look. Like many other modern browsers, Firefox 4 is designed to be as streamlined and as simple as possible. The Mozilla designers did a good job at simplifying the browser while maintaining the flexibility that Firefox is known for.
By default, Firefox 4 shows the address bar, a search field, the typical back/forward/reload/home buttons, the tab bar, and an orange "Firefox" button in the upper-left corner. There is no menu bar by default: Clicking the orange Firefox button brings up a single, well laid-out menu that contains most--if not all--of the menu items you're accustomed to using in older Firefox versions. I was a little thrown off by this button, though; most new browsers have their tools menus on the far-right edge of the toolbar, whereas the Firefox button is on the upper-left, but I was able to adjust fairly quickly.
If you're a Firefox power user--or just prefer the old way--you can bring back the classic menu bar by clicking the Firefox button, mousing over "Options," then selecting "Menu Bar" from the drop-down.
Pinning Web Apps
Another Chrome-inspired feature in Firefox 4 is the ability to "pin" Web apps to the tab bar. Open up any Web app (or any Web page, really) in a new tab, right click the tab, then select "Pin as App Tab." This will add a tab showing only that page's icon to the far left edge of the tab bar.
When you close then re-open Firefox, the pinned tabs will remain there. Whenever something in the Web app you pin updates--say, you get a new message in your Gmail inbox--the pinned tab will turn blue to notify you (again, very similar to Google Chrome).
These additions are great if you use lots of Web apps, but they're features that Chrome already has, so it does feel a bit like Firefox is playing catch-up here.
Stop Following Me!
Like IE9, Firefox now includes a feature to prevent sites from being able to track what you do online. This is a welcome addition, but it isn't without its problems. For one, it's an all-or-nothing feature--it's either on or off; there's no way to let some sites through and block others. And it isn't really universal yet: When you enable tracking protection in Firefox, it'll use what are called HTTP headers to tell the site that you don't want to be tracked. A simplified way of putting it is that when you visit a Website, Firefox will send a message to the site that you don't want to be tracked.
The problem is that Websites don't have to honor this request, thus rendering the tracking protection feature useless. Mozilla is working to make this feature an industry standard, so hopefully things will improve in time.
Speed
Firefox 4 also sports a number of new features designed to improve page loading and rendering performance. Firefox 4 can take better advantage of your graphics card than Firefox 3.x could; using it to play videos, for example. Firefox 4 also includes an updated JavaScript engine that should improve performance of Web apps and certain elements of Web pages.
We haven't done any in-depth speed testing of Firefox 4, but we did test its JavaScript performance using the SunSpider 0.91 benchmark. Firefox 3.6 completed the test in 1103 milliseconds (ms) on average, which was the slowest among the major browsers (Safari, IE9, Chrome, Firefox, Opera). Firefox 4 completes the test in 363 ms on average, making it competitive with other current browsers (In my testing, all browsers averaged between 329 and 439 ms.)
Granted, your mileage may vary based on your hardware, operating system, and other factors, but there's no denying the fact that Firefox 4 is much faster at handling JavaScript than Firefox 3.6.
Stay in Sync
New in Firefox 4 is Firefox Sync, which lets you sync your bookmarks, browsing history, passwords, and other data with your other computers running Firefox. (This was previously available via an extension called Mozilla Weave.).
To use Firefox Sync, go to the Options Pane (open the Firefox menu and click Options,) then select Sync from the toolbar. From there, you can create a new Firefox Sync account. Setting up an account is fairly easy--it'll ask you to enter your e-mail address and create a password--but things get a little more complicated after that.
Firefox will give you an alphanumeric "Sync Key" that you'll need to write down, save to your disk, or print to keep safe. You'll need this key to be able to access your Firefox Sync account on another PC or smartphone, and if you lose it, you're out of luck--it can't be recovered.
Setting up a second device (PC, smartphone, etc…) to work with Firefox Sync also requires you to jump through some security hoops as well. For example, if you've already set up a Sync account and you want to set up Firefox Sync on your laptop so it stays in sync with what you have on your desktop, you'll need to go back to your desktop and enter in an authentication code.
If you don't have access to your desktop PC at the moment--say it's at home and you're traveling with your laptop--you'll need to enter the aforementioned Sync Key. If you left your Sync Key at home, you can't access your account. This sort of two-factor authentication is a bit of a double-edged sword; it's more secure than a password alone, but it can be a hassle.
Once you get Sync all set up though, it's easy to use. Everything is handled automatically and in the background, so you won't have to manually re-sync periodically.
A Worthy Upgrade
Firefox 4 is a must-have upgrade if you're running Firefox 3.x. If you've switched from Firefox to Chrome, however, Firefox 4 may not offer quite enough to lure you back, as many of the new features--at least on the user interface end--are clearly influenced by Chrome. But no matter what, it may be worth downloading and taking for a spin.
While Mozilla made some improvements in Firefox 3.5 and 3.6 that improved performance and bolstered the feature set, Firefox started to feel like it was falling behind the curve. Firefox 4 makes Firefox competitive again, with its updated interface and improved performance.
Firefox Gets a Makeover
The first thing you'll notice is that Firefox 4 has a new look. Like many other modern browsers, Firefox 4 is designed to be as streamlined and as simple as possible. The Mozilla designers did a good job at simplifying the browser while maintaining the flexibility that Firefox is known for.
By default, Firefox 4 shows the address bar, a search field, the typical back/forward/reload/home buttons, the tab bar, and an orange "Firefox" button in the upper-left corner. There is no menu bar by default: Clicking the orange Firefox button brings up a single, well laid-out menu that contains most--if not all--of the menu items you're accustomed to using in older Firefox versions. I was a little thrown off by this button, though; most new browsers have their tools menus on the far-right edge of the toolbar, whereas the Firefox button is on the upper-left, but I was able to adjust fairly quickly.
If you're a Firefox power user--or just prefer the old way--you can bring back the classic menu bar by clicking the Firefox button, mousing over "Options," then selecting "Menu Bar" from the drop-down.
Pinning Web Apps
Another Chrome-inspired feature in Firefox 4 is the ability to "pin" Web apps to the tab bar. Open up any Web app (or any Web page, really) in a new tab, right click the tab, then select "Pin as App Tab." This will add a tab showing only that page's icon to the far left edge of the tab bar.
When you close then re-open Firefox, the pinned tabs will remain there. Whenever something in the Web app you pin updates--say, you get a new message in your Gmail inbox--the pinned tab will turn blue to notify you (again, very similar to Google Chrome).
These additions are great if you use lots of Web apps, but they're features that Chrome already has, so it does feel a bit like Firefox is playing catch-up here.
Stop Following Me!
Like IE9, Firefox now includes a feature to prevent sites from being able to track what you do online. This is a welcome addition, but it isn't without its problems. For one, it's an all-or-nothing feature--it's either on or off; there's no way to let some sites through and block others. And it isn't really universal yet: When you enable tracking protection in Firefox, it'll use what are called HTTP headers to tell the site that you don't want to be tracked. A simplified way of putting it is that when you visit a Website, Firefox will send a message to the site that you don't want to be tracked.
The problem is that Websites don't have to honor this request, thus rendering the tracking protection feature useless. Mozilla is working to make this feature an industry standard, so hopefully things will improve in time.
Speed
Firefox 4 also sports a number of new features designed to improve page loading and rendering performance. Firefox 4 can take better advantage of your graphics card than Firefox 3.x could; using it to play videos, for example. Firefox 4 also includes an updated JavaScript engine that should improve performance of Web apps and certain elements of Web pages.
We haven't done any in-depth speed testing of Firefox 4, but we did test its JavaScript performance using the SunSpider 0.91 benchmark. Firefox 3.6 completed the test in 1103 milliseconds (ms) on average, which was the slowest among the major browsers (Safari, IE9, Chrome, Firefox, Opera). Firefox 4 completes the test in 363 ms on average, making it competitive with other current browsers (In my testing, all browsers averaged between 329 and 439 ms.)
Granted, your mileage may vary based on your hardware, operating system, and other factors, but there's no denying the fact that Firefox 4 is much faster at handling JavaScript than Firefox 3.6.
Stay in Sync
New in Firefox 4 is Firefox Sync, which lets you sync your bookmarks, browsing history, passwords, and other data with your other computers running Firefox. (This was previously available via an extension called Mozilla Weave.).
To use Firefox Sync, go to the Options Pane (open the Firefox menu and click Options,) then select Sync from the toolbar. From there, you can create a new Firefox Sync account. Setting up an account is fairly easy--it'll ask you to enter your e-mail address and create a password--but things get a little more complicated after that.
Firefox will give you an alphanumeric "Sync Key" that you'll need to write down, save to your disk, or print to keep safe. You'll need this key to be able to access your Firefox Sync account on another PC or smartphone, and if you lose it, you're out of luck--it can't be recovered.
Setting up a second device (PC, smartphone, etc…) to work with Firefox Sync also requires you to jump through some security hoops as well. For example, if you've already set up a Sync account and you want to set up Firefox Sync on your laptop so it stays in sync with what you have on your desktop, you'll need to go back to your desktop and enter in an authentication code.
If you don't have access to your desktop PC at the moment--say it's at home and you're traveling with your laptop--you'll need to enter the aforementioned Sync Key. If you left your Sync Key at home, you can't access your account. This sort of two-factor authentication is a bit of a double-edged sword; it's more secure than a password alone, but it can be a hassle.
Once you get Sync all set up though, it's easy to use. Everything is handled automatically and in the background, so you won't have to manually re-sync periodically.
A Worthy Upgrade
Firefox 4 is a must-have upgrade if you're running Firefox 3.x. If you've switched from Firefox to Chrome, however, Firefox 4 may not offer quite enough to lure you back, as many of the new features--at least on the user interface end--are clearly influenced by Chrome. But no matter what, it may be worth downloading and taking for a spin.
Asus G73SW: A High-End Gaming Laptop Without the High-End Price
At first glance the Asus G73SW desktop replacement laptop seems to get its inspiration from the F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber. It's all angles, with a matte-black finish that looks both understated and killer at the same time.
Under the hood lurks a quad-core Intel Core i7 2630QM processor that has a base clock frequency of 2GHz but can push to 2.93GHz in Turbo Boost mode. Toss in 8GB of fast DDR3-1333 RAM plus an Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M discrete GPU with a dedicated 1.5GB frame buffer, and you have the guts of a dandy gaming system. The unit also benefits from a 17.3-inch, LED-backlit LCD offering 1920-by-1080-pixel HD resolution.
All that CPU and GPU horsepower won't be too much of a burden on already tight budgets. Our model, with a Blu-ray drive and a pair of Seagate 7200-rpm, 500GB hard drives, costs around $1650 (as of March 25, 2011). On the other hand, while your wallet may not feel the strain, your back and shoulders might if you lug this laptop around regularly. Without the 150W power brick, the G73SW weighs 8 pounds, 11 ounces--not terrible for a laptop in this class. That 150W power supply, however, adds a full 2 pounds to the load. Sure, the battery life is decent for this laptop category at nearly 3.5 hours; but if you plan on extended gaming sessions, you'll want to keep the power brick handy.
Overall gaming performance was a pleasant surprise. I was worried that the GTX 460M might be a little underpowered. Instead, the system chewed through our most demanding Far Cry 2 test, reaching over 56 frames per second. At the "high" setting, F1 2010 ran at 65 fps. Just Cause 2 took the system down a notch at ultrahigh settings, as the laptop eked out only 16 fps, but that game has a large number of settings that you can gradually dial down without causing a substantial reduction in visual quality. The G73SW also performed well on standard desktop applications, powering through our WorldBench 6 benchmark with a superb score of 128.
We found a few niggling shortcomings, however. The G73SW ships with a Blu-ray player, but the Roxio CinePlayer BD application's image quality seemed a little on the soft side; the program would occasionally crash on exit, too. Audio quality is good, provided you ensure that the included Creative THX TruStudio processing software is enabled. If you leave it disabled, the overall audio volume and sound quality are pretty weak. With TruStudio on, the sound quality and volume levels are much more pleasing.
The G73SW ships with plenty of ports, including four USB (two on each side; one of the right side ports is USB 3.0 capable). You'll also find HDMI and VGA video outputs, plus an SD Card slot. The Blu-ray disc-loading tray pops out on the left side, but two USB ports straddle the optical-drive bay. Ethernet and audio jacks also live on the left side.
The Asus design team did a great job of building in good ventilation to keep the unit cooled without generating disturbingly high noise levels. Yes, you can hear the cooling fans spin up under a heavy game load, but the effect is not as objectionable as it is on some other gaming laptops I've lived with. And if you're wearing a headset, you may not hear the fans at all.
The keyboard offers good tactile feedback, but the depth of key presses seems shallow compared with the feel of other gaming keyboards I've used. The spacing between keys is very good, and my overall impression is positive.
The storage configuration on our test unit seemed a little bizarre, however. The G73SW-A1 unit we tested arrived with a pair of Seagate 7200-rpm, 500GB hard drives. That is all well and good, but each drive shipped with two separate partitions, which results in four total partitions you need to manage. In a dual-drive system, I'd much prefer either two drives each with one big partition, or even a RAID 1 configuration for a little added data security.
Overall, the Asus G73SW offers good performance at a reasonable price. It isn't exactly svelte, but it isn't too much of a problem to carry around. Given the overall performance, that's not too big a burden at all.
Lenovo ThinkPad X220: A Best-of-Breed Ultraportable
The Lenovo ThinkPad X220 ultraportable laptop, which replaces the X201, is sure to be a hit with ThinkPad fans--as well as most everyone else. It's fast and light, it has a great 12.5-inch display, and it continues the company's tradition of superb input ergonomics, offering an innovative buttonless touchpad and a long-stroke keyboard. It also provides excellent battery life that you can stretch to a whopping 23 hours with a bottom-mounted battery slice. The downside? Not much, really. The laptop's boxy, businesslike appearance and somewhat cluttered keyboard deck might lack the sex appeal some users are looking for.
Exact prices for the various ThinkPad X220 configurations are unavailable at this time: The starting price should be $979, with additional costs for better CPUs, solid-state drives instead of standard hard drives, and more RAM. CPUs range from an Intel Core i3 to a Core i7, the unit accepts up to 8GB of system memory, and storage options start with a 160GB hard drive and end with a 160GB SSD. The aforementioned 12.5-inch, 1366-by-768-pixel display is available in two flavors: one with an IPS panel for wider viewing angles, and one without.
Our $1299 (as of March 25, 2011) test model--with its 2.5GHz Core i5-2520M processor, 4GB of DDR3 system memory, and 7200-rpm, 320GB hard drive--turned in an outstanding WorldBench 6 score of 122. Not only that, but its integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU actually managed playable frame rates in some of our lighter gaming tests, reaching 41 frames per second at 1024 by 768 in Unreal Tournament 3 with medium detail, and 32.5 fps with high detail. And 1080p movies, even the high-bit-rate variety, play as smoothly as you could wish. Performance for any task outside of enthusiast gaming and high-end 3D workstation applications is of no concern with the X220.
Some of the keys are a tad odd on the ThinkPad X220, such as the extralarge Esc and Delete keys above the main alphabetical keys. However, unlike other vendors' keyboard quirks, they help, not hinder your typing. As usual for Lenovo, the long-throw feel of the keyboard is nothing short of excellent. The touchpad is a buttonless design--you press down on the left or right front edge to click, which makes it easier to use than standard buttons when you're using the thumb and forefinger of one hand. Two normal buttons sit above the touchpad, and Lenovo's TrackPoint eraserhead pointing device is also in attendance. Mute buttons for the dual microphones and the 720p Webcam join the volume rocker and ThinkVantage (toolbox) buttons at the top of the keyboard deck.
The X220's battery life is outstanding, and you can enhance it with options. Our test machine, with its six-cell battery, ran for a cool 7 hours, 15 minutes. You may also opt for three-cell and nine-cell main batteries, for less weight or longer run times respectively, and add a bottom-mounted $179 battery slice. The slide adds 0.4 inch of thickness but nearly doubles battery life to over 14.5 hours. For world travelers, the extra 1.6 pounds of weight and bulk will be an acceptable trade-off.
The ports and connectivity on the X220 are top-notch. The system has three USB ports, one of which is powered (for charging cell phones and the like) even when the laptop isn't turned on. Optionally, with the i7 CPU, one port can be USB 3.0. You'll also find an ExpressCard slot, an SD Card slot, a Wi-Fi switch, a VGA port, and a gigabit ethernet port. A dock is available with a multiformat burner, Bluetooth is on board, and the Wi-Fi is dual-band 802.11n (2.4GHz and 5GHz). Our test laptop arrived with IBM's biometric finger-swipe sensor to facilitate security.
If there's anything you should be wary of with the X220, it's the number of "value-added" applications and unnecessary background processes. The Windows 7 Professional operating system has just about every software feature you need for a laptop, yet on our machine a quick glance at the Windows Task Manager revealed nearly 90 processes running and almost 30 percent memory usage--without one user application running. One or two of the background apps are worthwhile, such as the Bluetooth manager or the tool that shuts down the hard drive in case of a fall, but additional battery meters and Wi-Fi handlers are generally useless. A trial version of Norton Internet Security and Microsoft Office 2010 Starter are bundled.
ThinkPad users won't find anything mind-blowingly different about this latest addition to the X2xx series, but the improvements are noticeable and all enhance the usability of the system. If you're not looking for a supersexy laptop, or if you're trying to get away on the cheap, the Lenovo ThinkPad X220 is the best thing going in an ultraportable.
Exact prices for the various ThinkPad X220 configurations are unavailable at this time: The starting price should be $979, with additional costs for better CPUs, solid-state drives instead of standard hard drives, and more RAM. CPUs range from an Intel Core i3 to a Core i7, the unit accepts up to 8GB of system memory, and storage options start with a 160GB hard drive and end with a 160GB SSD. The aforementioned 12.5-inch, 1366-by-768-pixel display is available in two flavors: one with an IPS panel for wider viewing angles, and one without.
Our $1299 (as of March 25, 2011) test model--with its 2.5GHz Core i5-2520M processor, 4GB of DDR3 system memory, and 7200-rpm, 320GB hard drive--turned in an outstanding WorldBench 6 score of 122. Not only that, but its integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU actually managed playable frame rates in some of our lighter gaming tests, reaching 41 frames per second at 1024 by 768 in Unreal Tournament 3 with medium detail, and 32.5 fps with high detail. And 1080p movies, even the high-bit-rate variety, play as smoothly as you could wish. Performance for any task outside of enthusiast gaming and high-end 3D workstation applications is of no concern with the X220.
Some of the keys are a tad odd on the ThinkPad X220, such as the extralarge Esc and Delete keys above the main alphabetical keys. However, unlike other vendors' keyboard quirks, they help, not hinder your typing. As usual for Lenovo, the long-throw feel of the keyboard is nothing short of excellent. The touchpad is a buttonless design--you press down on the left or right front edge to click, which makes it easier to use than standard buttons when you're using the thumb and forefinger of one hand. Two normal buttons sit above the touchpad, and Lenovo's TrackPoint eraserhead pointing device is also in attendance. Mute buttons for the dual microphones and the 720p Webcam join the volume rocker and ThinkVantage (toolbox) buttons at the top of the keyboard deck.
The X220's battery life is outstanding, and you can enhance it with options. Our test machine, with its six-cell battery, ran for a cool 7 hours, 15 minutes. You may also opt for three-cell and nine-cell main batteries, for less weight or longer run times respectively, and add a bottom-mounted $179 battery slice. The slide adds 0.4 inch of thickness but nearly doubles battery life to over 14.5 hours. For world travelers, the extra 1.6 pounds of weight and bulk will be an acceptable trade-off.
The ports and connectivity on the X220 are top-notch. The system has three USB ports, one of which is powered (for charging cell phones and the like) even when the laptop isn't turned on. Optionally, with the i7 CPU, one port can be USB 3.0. You'll also find an ExpressCard slot, an SD Card slot, a Wi-Fi switch, a VGA port, and a gigabit ethernet port. A dock is available with a multiformat burner, Bluetooth is on board, and the Wi-Fi is dual-band 802.11n (2.4GHz and 5GHz). Our test laptop arrived with IBM's biometric finger-swipe sensor to facilitate security.
If there's anything you should be wary of with the X220, it's the number of "value-added" applications and unnecessary background processes. The Windows 7 Professional operating system has just about every software feature you need for a laptop, yet on our machine a quick glance at the Windows Task Manager revealed nearly 90 processes running and almost 30 percent memory usage--without one user application running. One or two of the background apps are worthwhile, such as the Bluetooth manager or the tool that shuts down the hard drive in case of a fall, but additional battery meters and Wi-Fi handlers are generally useless. A trial version of Norton Internet Security and Microsoft Office 2010 Starter are bundled.
ThinkPad users won't find anything mind-blowingly different about this latest addition to the X2xx series, but the improvements are noticeable and all enhance the usability of the system. If you're not looking for a supersexy laptop, or if you're trying to get away on the cheap, the Lenovo ThinkPad X220 is the best thing going in an ultraportable.
HP All in One 200
Touchscreens are a fairly big deal in the all-in-one desktop category, and when we come across models like HP's All-in-One 200 that lacks such a screen, we tend to get a bit antsy. Apple's offerings have proven that you don't need a touch-friendly display to excel on our chart of the Best Big Screen All-in-One PCs (screen sizes over 20 inches). Still, most models in the category these days offer multitouch, and you just can't help but want to reach out and touch a screen this attractive.
Despite the lack of touch functionality, the 21-inch HP All-in-One 200 ($780, as of 5/1/2010) makes a compelling package (check out our video review). Armed with a 2.7GHz Pentium E5400 processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), the All-in-One 200 earned a score of 104 on our WorldBench 6 test suite.
By comparison, Sony's Vaio L117FX/B and Gateway's One ZX6810-01 offered up a score 105. While these all pale in comparison with Apple's Core-i7 powered, 27-inch behemoth (it scored 128), the All-in-One 200 finds itself in very good company. For storage, HP included a 500GB hard drive--a generous amount, but the rest of the category has moved up to the 1TB range.
While general performance was on a par with the category's leaders, the All-in-One is saddled with integrated rather than discrete graphics, and as a result could not deliver playable frame rates on our Unreal Tournament 3 benchmark, at any resolution or quality setting.
The All-in-One 200 offers a fairly standard complement of interface connections. A pair of USB ports and a multiformat card reader are on the left side of the chassis, with five more USB ports on the rear. On the right side of the machine are the DVD burner and the brightness controls--a rather handy addition.
Missing are advanced connections like eSATA or FireWire, and extras such as an HDMI port would have been nice. The machine does offer 7.1-channel surround sound, which should make it easier to slide into your home theater setup. The audio quality of the built-in speaker bar isn't bad. While the sound might not fill an entire room, it is suitable for smaller spaces. If you're looking for proper bass, you'll still want to pick up a serious pair of speakers, but as it stands the audio quality is good enough.
The most important feature of any all-in-one PC is, of course, its display, and HP here offers a strong contender, with a native resolution of 1920-by-1080 pixels, making it just right for 1080p high-definition content. Video playback was stutter-free, with no motion blur noticeable on action-oriented test content.
Color reproduction on the LED backlit screen is nice, and details are preserved pretty well, without fuzziness or distortion, as we saw in a test image of white flowers arrayed against a white background, for example. The screen remains viewable from all but the most extreme angles, with no noticeable screen glare under standard fluorescent lighting.
As far as extras go, the All-in-One 200 has no real surprises. The bundled mouse is comfortable, but plain. The keyboard is standard HP fare, and comfortable enough to type on. It offers media playback controls by way of a function key, and has dedicated volume buttons. Both peripherals are wireless, which is always appreciated in the space-conscious all-in-one category.
The All-in-One 200's Webcam is less impressive, and likely won't be adequate for users looking beyond YouTube's standards. During our testing the microphone picked up quite a bit of background noise, and the video itself--even at the best quality settings--was fairly grainy.
There's a lot to like here: an attractive, space-saving chassis, strong performance, and a good 21-inch display. It might lack some of the features of comparable 23- and 24-inch models, but extras like a 1TB hard drive and a Blu-ray player would likely have pushed this machine well it out of its sub-$1000 price range. As it stands, if you're still not sold on Windows 7's touch functionality and want a fairly spacious screen (without paying a bundle for Apple's offerings), HP's All-in-One 200 is a great value.
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