Notebooks, Tablets, Smartphones, Wearables And Gadgets
In-depth product reviews and news of notebooks, tablets, smartphones, wearable technologies and gadgets. We're now living in a contextually-aware computing world and mobile devices can not only help us enjoy the ride but create and capture new experiences as well.
Before you even think about shopping for an Apple MacBook Pro for professional chores on the go, Dell wants you to give a long, hard look at its recently redesigned Precision M3800 Mobile Workstation. According to Dell, the M3800 is a superior product in several ways, and the OEM even put together an infographic showing more than half a dozen reasons why its 15.6-inch laptop is a better solution than Apple's. Assuming you opted for the optional 4K Ultra HD touch display with second generation IGZO technology, one of those reasons is more on-screen real estate. A lot more. The M3800 equipped as such pushes a 3840x2160 resolution, which equates to over 3 million more pixels than a MacBook Pro with...
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Relationships. Some go the distance. Others are of a more mercurial nature, such as the one between me and my iPhone. As much as I loved my iPhone, I've always found iOS to be somewhat immature and not quite serious (a problem that plagues most Apple-produced software), which probably explains why my eye has wandered towards Android phones from time to time. I resisted the urge to explore Android's potentially greener pastures for years, though, opting to stay in my comfort zone rather than navigating the travails of adopting a new OS and workflows, the exasperation of manufacturer-included "bloatware" (Samsung's TouchWiz, for example, was said to be particularly headache-inducing), and...
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Take everything you know and expect from an Android tablet, crumple it into a ball, and throw it away. Done? Good -- none of what you just purged from your brain will do you any good when looking at the Venue 8 7000 from Dell. It's not heavily modified and tied to an online shopping experience like Amazon's Fire tablets, nor does it take a barebones approach like the defunct Nexus 7 from Google. The Venue 8 7000 doesn't even flex an ARM processor. So now that you know what Dell's latest Android tablet doesn't have, let's spend a few moments talking about exactly what it is. For one, it's the world's thinnest tablet, measuring a mere 6 millimeters thick, or 0.24 inches and change if you're...
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Dell has become a very different company since going private about a year ago. It’s quieter, more nimble, and it has dramatically focused its product lines. A company once known for its ability to ship just about anything you could ask for on a custom PC is reinventing itself in a world smitten by handheld devices with tighter profit margins. While the company never found footing in the cutthroat smartphone arena, Dell is still keeping its toe dipped in the tablet waters. Around six months after shipping its initial Venue 8, Dell’s latest edition, the Venue 8 3840, is a vast improvement. The new $179 Venue 8 maintains the same product name as the prior edition, but inside, it’s a different...
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As much as we obsess about the latest and hottest hardware, we sometimes like to take a look at a value system to see what kind of bang you can get for your buck on a tight budget. And with the school year just getting underway, the Dell Inspiron 11 3147 caught our eye as a possible candidate for a highly mobile classmate or conference room colleague. It’s a light, tiny laptop with a screen that folds completely back so you can use the device as a tablet whenever it suits your needs. To a budget-minded student who wants a versatile laptop that won’t feel like brick in his or her backpack, the Inspiron 11 3000 2-in-1 convertible could be a win. We took the system for a spin to see...
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As one of the top-shelf systems in the company's mainstream line-up, the Inspiron 15 7537 is in an interesting position in Dell’s extensive family of laptops and ultrabooks. This laptop is too pricey to be considered affordable by most consumers, and yet it’s not quite in the same class as and doesn't have the luxury features of Dell’s XPS systems. Understandably, Dell’s premium XPS line gets a lot of attention in the press. We recently checked out the XPS 13 ultrabook and XPS 15 laptop and pegged them quality products for serious users. The Inspiron series is more likely to be overlooked by power users because the Inspiron 3000 and 5000 are Dell’s...
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The Dell Latitude E7440 is not quite as sexy as some of the sleek ultrabooks out there, but it’s also not as square as most business notebooks we've been subjected to over the years. The Dell Latitude E7440 thus continues a trend we’ve been noticing lately of companies gussying up their business-class laptops, while maintaining a professional look so as not to distract in the conference room. It’s tough trying to straddle two worlds with a product line, offering a business notebook with consumer features to entice end users, but Dell has been doing as good a job of it as any company. Primarily, that’s because it’s been rolling out a ton ultrabooks, and the...
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Dell's XPS line of laptops have always been about foregoing compromise in the pursuit of a premium mobile experience. The company's latest lineup of XPS 15 touch-enabled systems carry that tradition into a new era of computing, driven by Microsoft's Windows 8.1 operating system. These machines are anything but cookie cutter, and even if you're not a fan of the unified approach Microsoft took with Windows, there's more here than just a touch computing experience. Much more. To begin with, the real star of the show is the optional 15.6-inch Quad HD+ (3200x1800) display. Dell's the first system builder to employ a QHD+ IGZO panel, which trumps any of Apple's MacBooks with Retina-class displays....
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Dell has something for everyone with its Venue 8 tablets, which come in both Android and Windows 8.1 flavors. The Venue 8 is the Android-based model, while the Venue 8 Pro runs the full version of Windows 8.1. Dell isn’t the first to put Windows 8.1 in an 8-inch form factor, but the field is still relatively new and small, so the Venue 8 Pro has been getting a fair share of attention. We checked out both models to see how they compare to each other and their competition. The Dell Venue 8, with Android 4.2.2. Side-by-side, the tablets look similar, but the two are very different beasts, as you’d guess from the price tags: the Venue 8 (Android) sells for $179.99, while the Venue 8 Pro...
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Are business oriented tablets such as the Dell Latitude 10 better suited for the workplace than popular mainstream tablets such as the iPad? Dell believes their solutions are. Last month, Dell issued a press release in which it claimed its Latitude 10 Enhanced Security tablet is "up to 17 times faster and 94 percent less expensive to deploy than iPads in large scale enterprise implementations." Those are bold claims with very specific figures to back them up. Regardless of how you feel about Apple, Dell, or another manufacturer's products, one thing is certain: the use of tablets for business purposes is gaining significant traction. Recognizing that different users have different needs, Dell...
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Ultrabooks are, in a word, cool. They’re slim, flashy, and lightweight, yet they’re rather powerful and offer users a laptop that can do it all in a form factor that begs to be touched and carried around (especially if it’s a convertible ultrabook, in which case the unit can double as a high-powered tablet). Business-class laptops tend to be the opposite. With all due respect, business machines are often almost comically boxy and dull, offering the bare essentials in terms of looks and performance. While it’s true that a fleet of plain yet somewhat rugged mid-range notebooks makes perfect sense in terms of TCO and lifecycle management, you’re already bored...
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Tablets are extremely popular right now, but many users still need a more powerful machine to do serious work. For people who don't want two devices but desire the touch screen controls and convenience of a tablet, as well as the productivity capabilities of a notebook in a single machine, a convertible ultrabook may be a good fit. We're starting to see more and more ultrabooks that convert from a traditional laptop into a tablet. Not long ago, we took a closer look at Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga 13 Ultrabook which features a touchscreen display with a dual-articulating hinge that allows the machine to convert to tablet mode. Today, we're going to take a hands-on look at Dell's XPS 12...
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Business-class laptops don’t get much love these days, due to all the buzz surrounding ultrabooks and tablets. But there are still plenty of jobs that demand the processing power, storage, and general flexibility of a true business-class machine. If you still use optical media like CDs or DVDs in your day-to-day computing, a laptop with an optical drive is essential. The same is probably true if you travel often to give presentations: you’ll need plenty of video and network connectivity options to interface with whatever technology the meeting room or auditorium has available. Many ultra-portables lack optical drives and offer minimal connectivity options. With the...
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There was a time, not too terribly long ago, when a machine was immediately glossed over by average consumers as soon as the "business" label was placed on it. If you've worked in the corporate world within the past 10 to 15 years, you know exactly what we mean. Those dreaded "work laptops" were never ones to be proud of, and while they somehow managed to function, they were typically slow, overloaded with bloatware and unbecoming in terms of design. But things are different these days. Starting with the smartphone, employees began a quiet movement to bring their own devices to work. Eventually, by and large, they won when it comes to phones. Many enterprises are now completely comfortable with...
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