Hands-on review: IFA 2016: Asus ZenBook 3

There's a saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – but not for Asus. The ZenBook 3 is the Taiwanese electronics firm's latest 12.5 inch MacBook-killing Ultrabook. It doesn't just so much imitate as it does completely destroy Apple's ultrathin laptop in specs and price.

Weighing in at a scant 2 pounds and 11.9mm (0.46-inches) thick, it's both thinner and lighter than 0.51-inches (13.1mm) and 2.03 pounds (0.92kg) Apple MacBook. And while Apple had to sacrifice key travel and performance components to make its laptop as thin as possible, Asus says nay to all of that and goes with the full might of Intel Core i7 processors and a lower price to boot.

Design

If you've seen a Rose Gold MacBook before, this particularly colored ZenBook should look awfully familiar. Both machines share an almost identical silhouette, that said there are some distinct differences if you look closely enough.

For one thing the ZenBook 3 is thinner, but it's also a bit wider and not as deep thanks to its 16:9 screen ratio as opposed to the 16:10 Apple MacBook. Asus has also reversed the position of its ports, moving the charging/data USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port to the right and headset jack on the left.

The ZenBook's distinctive spun metal finish makes a return and you'll also find a radial pattern concealing two of the laptop's four speakers – the other two are located on the machine's underside.

The model 3 also takes Asus' diamond cut chamfered edges to the nth degree. You'll find the chamfered edge starts on the inside at the top of the screen lid, it rolls onto the outside as it makes its way to the hinge.

MacBook imitations aside, the ZenBook 3 is a sharp little Ultrabook. It features an all-metal body, but Asus used a specially blended form of aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, which it claims to be 40 percent stronger than the material used in other Ultrabooks.

Specs

Aesthetics aren't what really set the ZenBook 3 apart, it's hard core specs that do. Despite also being thinner and lighter than the ZenBook UX305, this ultra-slim system is a powerhouse starting with Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and 256GB SSD for $999 (about £687, AU$1,379).

Users can also get a richly specced machine with an added Core i7 processor, 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM and an added fingerprint scanner built into the corner of the touchpad for $1,999 (about £1,374, AU$2,760).

While, other notebooks this thin have often gone with Intel Core M-series chips, Asus managed to get away with Core I-series CPUs thanks to integrating a newly developed 3mm fan. The 12.5-inch display has also been fitted with a sheet of Corning Gorilla Glass 4 for extra durability, though, screen resolution is limited to Full HD only.

Asus claims users can expect nine hours of usage and they should be able to top off an empty machine back to 60% in 49 minutes thanks to fast charging through the USB-C port.

Early verdict

The Asus ZenBook 3 sounds like a winner on paper. How can you go wrong with Intel Core I-series power in a two-pound laptop? I'm chiefly wary of battery life and how much Asus really managed to squeeze into such a thin design and it's something I look forward to finding out in my full review.

Additional reporting and photography by Lucy Wang

from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1XcdIzu

Top 10 iOS Apps of August 2016

We've compiled a 'Top 10' list of our favorite iOS apps to hit the App Store in August 2016. The apps highlighted in this video include Alto, Rate My Professor, Six!, Mimo, Jam Looper, Super Atomic, Duo, Riptide GP Renegade, Laughly, and BLUK. Which app is your favorite? 

Apple

Apple iPhone 6s Plus

from PhoneDog.com - Latest videos, reviews, articles, news and posts http://ift.tt/2c9T7aS
via IFTTT

Nexus could use a rebranding

I’m not a big fan of change. I never have been. However, I’ve gotten to a place in life that when changes happen, I’m pretty quick at adapting to them in one way or another – but usually not until after I’ve undergone a brief period of shock and disbelief (which usually amounts to a simple “What?” and “No,” before coming to terms with whatever the change is).

Google

Samsung

Apple

from PhoneDog.com - Latest videos, reviews, articles, news and posts http://ift.tt/2bCzPiW
via IFTTT

ZTE Nubia 11 coming to the U.S., U.K., Italy, and more

Following its official debut back in June, ZTE today shared the details of the Nubia 11’s availability outside of China.

The Nubia 11 will launch in Germany, Spain, and Italy starting in September. Pricing will start at €499 ($556 USD) for the standard 4GB/64GB version and go up to €599 ($668 USD) for the 6GB/64GB variant.

ZTE

from PhoneDog.com - Latest videos, reviews, articles, news and posts http://ift.tt/2bWouqF
via IFTTT

Sony Xperia XZ, Xperia X Compact shown in leaked images ahead of IFA 2016 reveal

Sony are expected to take the wraps off of a couple of new Xperia X phones tomorrow, but before they do, some official-looking images of the devices have leaked.

Sony

from PhoneDog.com - Latest videos, reviews, articles, news and posts http://ift.tt/2bDHAlX
via IFTTT

Hands-on review: Getac S410

If there was a fashion competition for laptops, the Getac S410 wouldn't win it. And that's fine, because this chunky system is a semi-rugged model designed to be used by field operatives based out in the great outdoors who need a device that's reliable, solid and won't weigh them down. Too much, anyway.

People who might use one include the police, professional services, vehicle operators and professionals who work in public safety and manufacturing. Where rugged tablets like the Panasonic CF-20 make more sense when portability is paramount and the device has to be held with one hand, the S410 offers a more traditional laptop experience with a full-sized keyboard and 14-inch display.

In terms of design, the S410 resembles a laptop you might have bought in 2002. To call it chunky would be something of an understatement, its thickness wading in at a substantial 1.4 inches (around 35mm). Still, that's an improvement on the previous model, the Getac S400, which measured 1.93 inches (around 48mm) thick - so Getac is moving things in the right direction with this brand-new design.

All of that chunk lends the S410 a reassuringly solid feel in the hand. It's near impossible to detect any flex in the device's body, except for the keyboard part - and even then you have to press down really hard to get the plastic to bend. The solid chassis is what sets the S410 apart from regular laptops and quite literally forms the bulk of the laptop's basic cost. It starts at £1,149 (around US$1,518 or AUS$1,990) and rises north of that sharply as the specs increase.

Compared to other rugged devices like the aforementioned Panasonic ToughBook CF-20. the Getac's display is a let down. It's 14-inches in size, but the pixel-resolution is a meager 1,366 x 768. Forgetting sharpness for a second, this provides a distinct lack of screen real-estate and pinning two apps side-by-side is a compromised experience. There's no issue with using one app at a time in full-screen, but multi-tasking is frustrating at best.

The display is also difficult to see outdoors due to lackluster brightness. The S410 can be configured with Getac's 1000-nits Lumibond display with sunlight readable technology, but we can only assume that it was missing on our review sample as it barely looked like it was reaching 400 nits to our eyes. Colours appear washed out and lifeless, and viewing angles are poor due to the TFT panel used.

The S410's keyboard posses no challenges to typing, with decent sized keys - even if they're not particularly satisfying to type on and sound cheap under the fingers. Getac has done a better job with the trackpad and its accompanying buttons, which despite being small are responsive. Unfortunately there's no touch operation here, so forget using a digitizer or your fingers.

You can, of course, hook up a mouse to the machine into one of the ports. Connectivity options include four USB ports, Wi-Fi (802.11c), audio, VGA, HDMI and an SD-Slot.

Getac has outfitted the S410 with Intel's ultra-low voltage Core i5-6200U processor clocked at 2.3GHz (Turbo Boost to 2.4GHz), backed up by an insubstantial 4GB of main memory. There was no dedicated graphics option to speak of in our review sample, with the processor's integrated HD Graphics 520 taking on graphics duties alone.

Benchmarks

• Cinebench R15: OpenGL: 28.38 fps; CPU: 284 points
• Geekbench (Single-Core): 2,691 points; (Multi-Core) 5,732 points
• Battery test (1080p looped video streamed over Wi-Fi in Edge, 50% brightness): 5 hours 24 minutes

The S410 produced fairly low benchmark results, and while the system was nippy enough most of the time with apps loading instantly, it did produce occasional moments of lag when performing tasks such as opening the Settings or Action Center panel. You won't have any problem running legacy apps on this machine, but the S410 would struggle under more CPU-intensive scenarios.

Even battery life isn't particularly up to scratch, despite the low-resolution display, with the S410 reaching a barely acceptable 5 hours and 24 minutes away from the plug socket. That's fine for, say, an Asus UX305 ultrabook, but the Getac is designed to be used away from a plug socket for hours on end.

Also, the test was conducted with the screen's brightness set to 50%, which rendered it nearly impossible to see outdoors in bright sunlight. Even though you would eke out a few more hours of battery, it would be at the expense of actually being able to do any work on the display.

Early verdict

It feels like the entry-level version of the Getac S410 has potential, but the unit we received to test was way too compromised to recommend. Its design, although chunky, is a clear improvement on the S400 and houses a comfortable keyboard, practical carry handle and a healthy selection of ports. However, the machine's display, average-strength processor and low amount of main memory render it unsuitable for working out in the field. When that's the primary objective of the device, that's not particularly heartening.

from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/2bIaEFX

Review: Updated: Xbox One

Review: Beats Pill+

Let's get this out of the way; the original Beats Pill wasn't my favorite Bluetooth speaker – it was bass-heavy and uncontrolled. I didn't like its bigger Pill XL sibling, either, as I'm not a huge fan potential fire risks.

But both those products came out before Apple purchased Beats for $3 billion (about £1.79b, AU$3.25b). Apple's had a far better track record when it's come to audio products – I mean, these are the people that made the iPod.

So, have Beats products prospered under Apple's tutelage? In the case of the Beats Pill+, the answer is yes.

The Beats Pill+ improves on the original Beats Pill in just about every way, including sound quality. However, in the time that it's taken Beats to catch up, the market for $200 portable Bluetooth speakers has become insanely crowded – and, unlike the iPod before it, the Beats Pill+ just isn't good enough to stand out from the crowd.

Design

The Beats Pill+ continues the iconic design of the first generation, but with a larger chassis. While the speaker is slightly bigger than the original Pill it's still quite portable, measuring in at 2.5 x 8.27 x 2.72 inches or 6.36 x 21 x 6.92 cm (H x L x D) and weighing just over 1.5 lbs (0.75 kg). That's not all that heavy, but it's not as totable as, say, the UE Roll 2 or JBL Clip 2.

Likewise, while it isn't waterproof like the UE Boom 2 and JBL Charge 3, the Pill+ is built like a tank with a metal and rubber chassis. The rubber flap protecting the USB, aux and Lightning ports means the Pill+ has some splash resistance, but you probably shouldn't bring it poolside with you.

On top of the speaker, you'll find rubber-coated buttons that control power, pairing and volume. The buttons provide a good tactile feel and their rubber coating will withstand abuse, though the exposed and illuminated Beats button may get scratched over time. There's also an included carrying bag that offers some protection when taking the speaker with you on the go.

Inside the chassis, the Pill+ features two tweeters and two woofers to help disperse sound through its mesh metal grill.

Performance and features

While the design felt like a small iteration, performance-wise, the Beats Pill+ offers a massive improvement in sound quality over the original Pill – it's clearer and suffers from less distortion than it has in the past. Apple hasn't messed with the Beats "V-shaped" signature sound, though: there's still a lot of bass, a ton of highs and slightly muted mids.

Like the original, I thought the Pill+ laid the bass impact is strong, but it frequently sounds muddy and uncontrolled. Highs are energetic, but too much so at times. To that end, high frequencies from cymbals and violins can be a bit piercing, especially at high volumes.

Speaking of high volumes, the Beats Pill+ gets really loud. It had no problem filling my garage with sound and can be heard above the noise while I wrenched on my car.

That said, while it can get quite loud, sound quality suffers at high volumes. The distortion is "crunchy" and fatiguing so I don't recommend maxing out the volume if you can help it. (Those looking for a louder-than-comfortable Bluetooth speaker should check out the Sound Blaster Roar 2.)

Likewise, battery life for the Beats Pill+ is good, but definitely not what I'd consider class-leading. You'll be able to squeeze out 12 hours of music playback and can even use the Pill+ to charge your phone in a pinch.

There's a handy battery level gauge next to the power button so you're not left guessing how much power you have left, and once your speaker goes down for the count, the Pill+ charges from dead to full in about 3 hours using the included charger and Lightning cable.

If you feel compelled to rock out to two Bluetooth speakers, Beats does let you pair up two Pills+ speakers for stereo playback or to amplify sound, however you'll need to download the Beats Pill+ app for Android or iOS in order to take advantage of the feature. Besides dual playback, the app also lets you and a friend "DJ" together by controlling a playlist and playback from two separate devices.

So who is the Beats Pill+ good for? Anyone looking to put style over substance. With myriad other better-performing bluetooth speakers out there, the big draws here are a solid build quality and bass-heavy approach to playback.

We liked

First off, it can't be overstated how much better the Beats Pill+ is over the original speaker. Not only is its build quality excellent, but sound quality is good, too … as long as you don't mind Beat's signature bass emphasis. The speaker doubles as a battery pack and speakerphone as well, which are nice additional features.

We disliked

That said, it's hard to justify spending $230 (£190, AU$360) on the Beats Pill+ when there are at a least a half-dozen better speakers available for much less money. It's not waterproof or include NFC. It can't pair with multiple devices and its battery life is merely average. However, the biggest knock against the Beats Pill+ is its sound, which might be good for playing back rap, electronic and pop music, but falls flat with every other genre.

Final verdict

Compared to the competition, the Beats Pill+ is just too expensive and middle-of-a-crowded-road to recommend.

I found the JBL Charge 3 beat the Beats Pill+ in every performance category – the Charge 3 lasts 8 hours longer, is waterproof and offers rich, balanced sound for $80 (about £60, AU$106) less. The UE Boom 2 is also slightly less expensive than the Pill+ and features waterproofing, a 15 hour battery life and pairs with up to 8 devices.

The speaker is average at best but comes with a premium sticker price. For much less money, you can get better sound and more features from speakers like the JBL Charge 3 and UE Boom 2. If you're upgrading from the original Beats Pill and are committed to sticking to the brand, however, the Pill+ will be a major upgrade to your audio arsenal.

from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/2crGLzb

Top 10 Android Apps of August 2016!

We've compiled a 'Top 10' list of our favorite Android apps to hit the Google Play Store in August 2016. The apps highlighted in this video include Duo, Navbar Apps, Dropple, Conscient, smartWake, Mars: Mars, Edge Glow for Note 7, WallRey, Verne: The Himalayas and Riptide GP Renegade. Which app is your favorite? 

Google

Motorola

Moto Z Force

from PhoneDog.com - Latest videos, reviews, articles, news and posts http://ift.tt/2bDqgNW
via IFTTT

HTC hints at Sept. 20 announcement with #BeEdgier teaser video

HTC have an announcement coming on Sept. 20, and today they took to Twitter to tease the news.

HTC today posted a teaser video that offers a glimpse at the corner of a phone in the dark. The caption reads “It’s coming. 09.20 #BeEdgier”.

nUKWW7Jieto

HTC

from PhoneDog.com - Latest videos, reviews, articles, news and posts http://ift.tt/2bDpMad
via IFTTT

Moto Z Play debuts alongside Hasselblad True Zoom Moto Mod

The wave of announcements at IFA continues with Lenovo and Motorola, who are announcing a new handset and a fresh Moto Mod module.

First up, the Moto Z Play is the latest addition to the Moto Z family. It’s got a 5.5-inch 1920x1080 Super AMOLEd display and a 5-megapixel camera on its face, and there’s a 16-megapixel snapper around back.

Motorola

Lenovo

Verizon Wireless

from PhoneDog.com - Latest videos, reviews, articles, news and posts http://ift.tt/2bCAsTD
via IFTTT

Hands-on review: IFA 2016: Lenovo Yoga Book

If Apple, Microsoft and their lot are the Thomas Edisons of the computing industry, then Lenovo has become the Nikola Tesla. Whereas the de facto founders of Silicon Valley established (and consistently update) the status quo for computing, Lenovo has constantly questioned and toyed with just what computing is since it bought IBM.

Lenovo's latest wild experiment? The company that pioneered the convertible hybrid laptop design has taken that concept to what might be its logical conclusion: the Yoga Book.

Why make such strong allusions? Because, like so many of Tesla's works, the Yoga Book really could either be the cool, ingenious, tablet-driven future of laptops that just makes sense. Or, it could be a flop to be forever remembered by diehard fans and hipsters.

Keyboard, begone!

This is because the Yoga Book, a 10.1-inch laptop-tablet hybrid that comes with either Android Marshmallow or Windows 10, has no keyboard. Rather, its "bottom" half, attached via a variation on Lenovo's signature 360-degree watchband hinge, is a capacitive touch surface.

This magnesium-aluminum alloy surface (found across the tablet), called a Create Pad by Lenovo, can conjure a touch-based keyboard for you instantly. The Create Pad also features haptic feedback – and, living up to its name, can double as a veritable Wacom digitizer replacement with Lenovo's Real Pen stylus.

Just sit on that for a moment. A computing device that can operate as a laptop, a full blown tablet and a digital art tool without so much as a button press between them. It sounds like one of those too-good-to-be-true scenarios, doesn't it?

Having played with the Yoga Book for a few minutes during a briefing recently, we can say that is not necessarily the case here. We'll be upfront in saying that typing on a Yoga Book involves a rather steep learning curve.

We're all used to typing on screens because they're in the front of our faces – we can always see in plain sight where our fingers are. That's not the case with a laptop. In fact, some might say the mark of a skilled typist is that she doesn't have to look at the keyboard at all.

Upon first trying to type on the Yoga Book, your eyes will probably struggle to stop from involuntarily looking at the keyboard. The haptic feedback helps fill in for the physical touch and force of plastic keys, but we're hesitant to say whether it's a worthy replacement.

At the very least, it is incredibly close.

Typing on the device admittedly feels a bit strange and discouraging for someone that prides himself on his typing accuracy. But, coupled with practice and some awfully strong auto-correction software, you might not be missing your laptop before long. (I certainly wasn't.)

However, with this comes a conundrum facing the Yoga Book: at least from when we last tried out the device, it's clear that either Lenovo or Microsoft has to work on the Yoga Book with Windows 10's auto-correction software. Frankly, it's far less advanced than Google's.

We had noticeably more trouble typing out sentences on the Windows 10 model than the Android one during our time with both, which is a shame considering Microsoft's superior position in pen recognition and general productivity. Hopefully, these discrepancies will be fully resolved before the devices' launch this October.

Death (or rebirth) to the pen

The typing experience only covers one half of the Yoga Book's incredibly unique selling proposition. The device can double as a drawing tool with the included Real Pen. The palm rejection is on point, as is the pressure sensitivity – all 2,048 levels of it.

But, what if you like good old pen and paper? Lenovo's thought of that, too. Using the firm's Book Pad, really just a yellow note pad with a magnetic strip to hold on with, you can instantly back up your handwritten, analog notes into digital representations.

This is accomplished through what is known as electromagnetic response (EMR) technology. Basically, the pen – which can swap between real ink and plastic tips – generates electromagnetic electricity that the tablet's Create Pad picks up and translates into legible characters, words and sentences.

The technology in action was a bit mind blowing to see for the first time, to be honest. Being able to interact with a single device in this many ways, and effectively, is nothing short of amazing.

The best of the rest

Lenovo powers this futuristic experience with a quad-core Intel Atom x-series processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and 64GB of flash storage – all behind an FHD (1,920 x 1,200) IPS display. And, that's on both Windows 10 and Android.

An 8,500 mAh battery said to last up to 15 hours of general usage keeps the 0.38-inch-thin (9.6mm), 1.52-pound (690g) slate running. (Of course, we couldn't test this during a hands on review.)

The Windows 10 version of the Yoga Book comes solely in all Carbon Black, while the Android version offers Gunmetal Gray and Champagne Gold.

Early verdict

Honestly, this thing could come in purple and this editor would still buy in. (Actually, that would look pretty cool.) That's partly because, for the tablet, a Real Pen, ink cartridge refills and screen tips, and the Book Pad, Lenovo wants just $499 (about £391, AU$664) for the Android version and $549 (about £419, AU$731) for the Windows variety to start.

Sure, this is a low-powered device no doubt, but nothing that you couldn't complete basic productivity tasks with, like what some of us at TechRadar use a Surface Pro 4 every day for.

Ultimately, to focus on things like specs and power is to completely miss the point of the Yoga Book. The point is to show us a different way of computing that has been a long time coming, the first truly exciting and genuinely interesting attempt to push the laptop into the next phase of its storied life.

And, it actually works.

from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/2bVWvaF

Hands-on review: IFA 2016: Lenovo Yoga 910

After sticking with the same design for two years, Lenovo is giving the Yoga 900 a dramatic makeover and it's fair to say the Yoga 910 is completely different 2-in-1 laptop. Lenovo has tweaked or completely changed every element of its flagship convertible with everything including a slimmer chassis, larger 13.9-inch UHD screen, smaller bezels, revamped keyboard layout and the Intel 7th generation processors.

However, all these little improvements have made the Lenovo Yoga 910 a slightly more expensive device starting at $1,299. But even with the higher price tag, this still feels like the best hybrid machine on the market.

Design

Lenovo claims the Yoga 910 the world's thinnest Intel Core i7 powered convertible measuring in at just 14.3mm thick (0.56 inches) – 0.6mm (0.02 inches) thinner than the Yoga 900. Along with dropping some extra bulk, this new hybrid has a new sleeker and sharper styling rather than the slightly curvy frame of yesteryear.

The Lenovo Yoga 910 follows a starkly modern design with straight lines forming sharp angles including places you wouldn't expect such embellishment. For example, the top and bottom half of the notebook meet to a slightly indented V-shape and an even more prominent gap near the watchband hinge.

The modern touches are a welcome change after seeing practically the same design for the last two years, but at the same time it feels like Lenovo went too far in certain respects. The leatherette interior was one of the most comfortable aspects of the Yoga 900 and now it has been replaced with cold aluminum sheet.

Thanks to the slimmer design, you also lose Lenovo's full-sized USB-A charging port in exchange for the new USB-C standard. That said, there are plenty of new elements to enjoy here including the a newly added fingerprint reader and one of the most impressive screens ever seen on a 13-inch.

Larger screen with none of the bulk

The Dell XPS 13 and XPS 15 blew us away by packing full-size screen into smaller chassis, and now Lenovo is trying to capture the same magic with the Yoga 910.

The display panel size has been bumped up to 13.9-inches and a new 4K resolution without drastically increasing the size of the chassis. In fact, this laptop features some of the thinnest bezels we've ever seen on a Lenovo device.

This is thanks to slimming down the bezels along the top and sides while moving the webcam to the sizable chin beneath the screen. It effectively uses the same Infinity Screen layout first introduced by Dell and the only real discernable differences is Lenovo has placed the webcam in the center of the screen rather than off to the left.

That said, the Yoga 910 uses its clever convertible abilities to avoid displaying a worm's-eye view during video calls. Users can simply switch the laptop into tent mode and have it sit on its front edges to have a video camera that meets them at eye-level.

One downside to this new design is the bottom bezel is nearly two inches tall and largely featureless. Thanks to the webcam's positioning, Lenovo had to leave out a Windows button soft key, which would have added some much needed some flair to hybrid's extra-large chin.

Everything is new

Lenovo introduced plenty of other little tweaks here and there to make the Yoga 910 an even better laptop-tablet.

The keyboard, for example, no longer has any of those annoying right-handed shortcut keys to get in the way of you hitting the enter key. Meanwhile, the trackpad is appreciably larger and there's even a newly added fingerprint reader to help get you signed through Windows Hello with a simple finger press.

The Lenovo Yoga 910 features some bumped up specs including Intel's freshly announced Intel 7th generation processors with up to 1TB of PCIe SSD storage and 16GB of memory. Battery life has also seen a significant bump to 10.5 hours on UHD model and 15.5 hours with Full HD variants – but those are only estimates we plan to take to task.

Early verdict

The Lenovo Yoga 900 perfected the 2-in-1 laptop formula and now the Yoga 910 seeks to elevate the series to all new heights. There are plenty of welcome elements here including the larger screen, edgier design and revamped inputs. However, some of the changes aren't sitting well with us including the marginally higher price and the new bare metal keyboard deck.

In the past the Yoga 900 series has blended a good mix of affordability with performance, but this latest iteration may skew things too far into the luxury category. We'll have to see how the other configurations stack up as well as how this machine performs before we can deliver our final verdict, but we're optimistic that Lenovo has knocked it out of the park once again.

from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/2bBUaES