Handy Computer Guide

Trusted Reviews have published a review of the Toshiba Satellite A350D-202 -16in multimedia notebook. 'As with most consumer-oriented notebooks these days, the A350D-202 sports a piano black finish on the lid. Fingerprints are easily visible, so if you want to keep it looking good you'll be using the included cleaning cloth a lot. Opening the machine up, the 16in screen's matte bezel houses the obligatory 1.3 megapixel webcam and the bottom part of the notebook is again glossy with a grey striped pattern to add some variation. The glossy keyboard is very good overall, with positive feedback and excellent layout. It's mostly a pleasure to type on, though keys can be a tad slippery thanks to their shiny finish and visually it's an acquired taste - to say the least.'

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PC Perspective have published a review of the HP Blackbird 002 LC gaming system. 'The case itself is a solid cast steel enclosure that rests on a raised "leg" of sorts. It has Plexiglas sides on it with a subtle yet cool looking design and the HP logo is gently introduced to the buyer instead of being forced upon them. It looks nice, it looks high tech and it looks high quality. It's heavy and feels like it's worth you money you are shelling out for it and that's an important trait in a world of cheap plastic computers. The top of the Blackbird 002 is built like the entirety of the case and has ridges in it. The back of the top area is actually open and allows air to flow outward from the custom CPU water cooling setup.'

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Digital Trends have published their review of the Alienware Area-51 m9750 gaming Notebook. 'No hardcore gaming notebook would be true to its name without massive quantities of storage, and the m9750 does not disappoint with its dual 7,200rpm hard drives striped into a RAID 0 array . In total they offer 372GB of super-fast storage and file access, and are way faster than what you’d have if Alienware configured it with the much more common 5,400rpm drives. If you’re the cautious type, you can opt to mirror the drives instead of striping them for increased data safety. The difference with a stripe setup is that if one drive fails you lose everything. With a mirrored setup, everything that is written to one drive is written to the other drive, so in case one fails you don’t lose your data. It should also be noted that Alienware is now offering the m9750 with optional Solid State Disks, which are insanely expensive ($1,100 for a 64GB drive) but very fast and cannot “crash” like a mechanical drive can.'

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A review of the Rock Xtreme X770 laptop with Nvidia GeForce 8800M graphics has been posted over at the Register Hardware. 'Considering the epic price of even a basic X770 you don’t get a great many features for your money. The chassis feels good and solid but the keyboard, touchpad and mouse buttons are decidedly average. Going around the ports and connectors there’s a DVI - there's a VGA adaptor bundled in the box - s-video output, four USB ports, a mini Firewire connector, a serial port (!), an ExpressCard slot, modem and Ethernet. Although the chassis carries a TV aerial connector, the TV tuner is an extra that costs a further £76. There’s no flick switch to control wireless LAN or Bluetooth and there’s nothing about the Rock that suggests you’re using more than two grand’s worth of the finest gaming laptop that money can buy.'

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Joseph Spangler writing over at Notebook Review has posted a review of the ASUS V2S Notebook. 'First and foremost, the V2S looks great. It's predominantly black with silver trim/accents. I was initially worried that the integrated swivel webcam would be a distraction, but thankfully it blends rather well into the notebook as a whole (I would still prefer a clean bezel, but the webcam looks much worse in pictures then in person). When closed the notebook appears very sleek, with an all black finish only interrupted by a silver Asus emblem in the middle, and the previously mentioned silver webcam. All of the ports/switches are on the left and right sides, along with the vent, with the exception of the power input (on the back) and a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth switch (on the front). This arrangement takes nothing away from the V2S in terms of looks, and in fact I think it makes it much more comfortable to handle/carry around. The computer feels very solid in-hand, it's not a tank like other business notebooks, but it's not flimsy by any means.'

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A review of the affordable Acer Aspire 4920-1A2G12Mi laptop has been posted over at Pocket-Lint. 'Acer has recently overtaken Dell to become the second biggest seller of notebooks worldwide. It has done this by offering an ever-increasing number of machines at aggressive price points. Until recently, the styling of Acer's budget notebooks has been rather conservative but with the introduction of what the company calls its 'Gemstone' design, the look is neat with a retro twist. The black and cream notebook comes with a glossy lid but matt finish on the interior and is a look that has divided opinions. We like the look but at this price it isn't the most robust of cases. The base and lid feel solid, so will protect the notebook when in a carry case but the finish isn't as robust as we'd like. With an overall weight of 2.6kg, you may be tempted to take this machine on the move with you but we feel the casing hasn't really been designed for mobile use. That said, it's more than adequate for being carried around the house.'

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Posted by Admin at 10:29 PM | Permalink

Personal Computer World have published a review of the lightweight HP Compaq 2710p Notebook. 'The HP Compaq 2710p (reviewed from a consumer perspective in our recent group test) is a hard device to categorise, being something of a compromise between a conventional notebook and a tablet PC. Moreover, with a foot in both camps, it’s inevitably far from perfect, with a number of both good and bad points which need to be clearly understood before making a business buying decision.

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Posted by Admin at 9:46 PM | Permalink

PC World have published a review of the Toshiba Satellite P205D-S7479 desktop replacement PC. ‘Equipped with a 2.2-GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-64 processor, 2GB of RAM, 256MB of discrete graphics memory, and a 4200-rpm 250GB hard drive, the P205D-S7479 earned a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 68. That result is 16 percent behind the average score of 81 earned by 19 currently tested desktop replacement laptops, and 13 percent behind the average score of 78 earned by three notebooks with an Intel chip of the same speed (the Fujitsu LifeBook A6110, the HP Compaq 8710p, and the HP Pavilion dv9500t). Though neither gap is huge, the differences do show that the P205D will lag in some applications.’

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A review of the Medion 6615 PC desktop computer has been posted over at Computeractive. 'The pace of change is continuous, and the Medion 6615 PC is just one example of that, having just been given a £100 price drop in the January sales compared with its price before Christmas. That pitches it at £579, which is a low price for a desktop computer featuring Intel's Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor running at 2.4GHz. Intel's rival AMD has recently started making similar, cheaper processors, but the Q6600 remains faster than any AMD chip we've tested. The 'quad' means it is effectively four processors in one, letting it do more things at once, while speeding up some individual programs and games.'

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Posted by Admin at 10:11 PM | Permalink

IT Reviews have published a review of the Toshiba Portégé R500-10U ultraportable. 'Looking for a laptop that you can carry around all day and not notice it? Then you might want to take a look at Toshiba's Portégé R500-10U. In fact, you could carry this one around all week and still not know it. Why? Because it weighs an almost unbelievably light 760g. However, having a notebook this light isn't without one or two problems. If you are one of those people who hold their notebooks by one corner, beware: if you do it with the Portégé R500-10U you might well hear a nasty cracking sound. As you might have guessed, to make a laptop this light means using a lot of plastic in its construction, and with most of the weight being at the rear of the chassis in the form of the battery, the chassis tends to bend towards the back, hence the potential cracking noise.'

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Posted by Admin at 3:48 PM | Permalink