Reviews
A few weeks back, AMD officially launched their Llano-based A-Series Accelerated Processing Units, or APUs, in both desktop and mobile flavors. At the time, we covered the high-end variants of both A-Series offerings; our coverage of the desktop version A8-3850 APU and its companion chipsets is posted here and the mobile...
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Notebook hard drives have generally followed a similar track as other mobile components, in that they're much smaller, lighter and consume less power, but also offer lower performance, features and capacity versus their desktop counterparts. And though technology continues to evolve in notebook architectures, similarly, some may argue that...
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Apple's Mac mini hadn't seen a substantial update for about a year, but with Intel's second generation Core processor family arriving in 2011, it was only a matter of time before one of those chips found favor with Apple's tiniest desktop. The Mac mini design really hasn't changed in the year or so it took the folks in Cupertino...
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Android Honeycomb based tablets are beginning to feel like they're a dime a dozen. 10.1-inch slates are coming out of the woodwork from a bunch of major players, and for all intents and purposes, they're built upon very similar base platforms with NVIDIA's Tegra 2 processor powering them. Capacitive touch displays, integrated...
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Touted as America's first glasses-free 3D 4G device, the HTC EVO 3D features a 4.3-inch, qHD (Quarter High Definition) 3D display as well as dual rear-facing cameras that can capture 3D images and video. Even if you're not interested in this phone's 3D capabilities though, its specs and power under the hood may attract you. The EVO 3D runs...
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One of the downsides to system reviews is that it's usually impossible to evaluate system reliability or performance over an extended period of time. Since boutique builders typically assemble rigs with a focus on solid warranties or top-level components, not being able to properly grade long-term reliability is an area of product...
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There's a time and place to act a fool, like at a Ludacris concert for example, or when entertaining your in-laws during a holiday function in which you're trying to encourage a hasty departure. Likewise, there are situations where showboating simply isn't appropriate. Wondering what this has to do with a laptop review? Well, the same...
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It's becoming more difficult to justify the purchase of Intel's X58 Express chipset with all the new technology looming on the horizon. This chipset came out almost three years ago. Time sure flies, especially in the hardware industry. We still like the fact that the X58 offers support for the six core processors in Intel's...
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There's something about the allure of a gaming notebook. Even mainstream users, not necessarily hellbent on frame rates and decked-out designs, can relate to a powerful notebook with striking good looks. It's no wonder that products like Asus' G73 series of notebooks and Alienware's M series, have been some of the most viewed pages...
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We’ve opened our last few SSD round-ups with comments regarding the break-neck pace at which the solid state storage market has advanced these last few years. At the risk of repeating ourselves, the SSD market continues to show no signs of slowing down. New drives are being introduced constantly and along with updated interfaces, drivers...
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As a long-time competitor in the desktop and laptop space, Acer recently began competing against other Android tablet manufacturers with the launch of its Acer Iconia Tab A500. This 10.1-inch tablet is the company's first in the new Acer Iconia family of tablets. Like many other Android-powered tablets, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 features...
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Google's Chrome OS came close to being labeled vaporeware after its highly publicized initial announcement, at least by some. But at Google, there was never any doubt about its future. Just as they have done with the Chrome Web browser, Google has poured tons of resources into Chrome OS. It's a radical system, no matter how you slice...
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A couple of weeks back, we took a look at AMD's Llano mobile platform, with a mainstream notebook from Compal, and we came away impressed. If you're unfamiliar with Llano, be sure to check out our launch coverage (available here). But to quickly recap, Llano is the codename for AMD's latest Fusion-based product, that combines...
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If you've been reading the pages of HotHardware for any length of time, you've probably noticed that we have an affinity for just about anything SSD related. As performance enthusiasts at heart, it's no wonder why we're keenly focused on the market segment, but even so, there are standout products that tend to pique our interest more...
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It has been a few months since the AMD Radeon HD 6990 initially launched. Since that time, a number of AMD’s board partners have launched their own Radeon HD 6990 cards, but as is typically the case with the first wave of products based on a new GPU, they all conform to AMD’s reference design, save for a water-cooled card from...
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HP webOS, as the mobile operating system is now officially known, was first born in the labs of a revitalized Palm, at a time when the company was angling to take on iOS and Android and offer the world's next great mobile OS. The first real glimpse at webOS came at CES 2009, with the introduction of the Palm Pre. Unfortunately, some would...
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It doesn't matter how hard your earphones pound your eardrums with cranium shaking noise, you can't truly call yourself a power user unless you're ticking off the neighbors and scaring the hell out of the dog with a surround sound setup that rattles the walls and punches copious amounts of bass. Without it, you might as well give your...
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Every so often, a company does something unexpected; something that sets the bar for its competition and really grabs the attention of potential consumers for one reason or another. Dell is a company that is capable of this and has done so in the past in both their desktop and notebook lines. While Dell has been known...
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Motherboards are arguably one of the more difficult PC component to shop for. The magnitude of choices available can make the shopping experience confusing and frustrating. Take for example Intel's heralded Sandy Bridge line of processors and the Cougar Point chipset used on a wide variety of motherboards. A popular online e-tailor,...
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AMD launched the first volley of their Fusion technology salvo late last year and since then thin-and-light notebook offerings from various major OEMs have come to market. AMD's Brazos platform and specifically the Zacate E-350 processor were obvious successes and the company was able to pull down many strong design wins with manufacturers...
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We saw a lot of new and improved products at Computex this year, including NVIDIA's new (and powerful) GeForce GTX 560M mobile GPU. Needless to say, we were excited to get our hands on one of the first notebooks to ship with this new mobile GPU to see what it could do. Although we expect notebooks from a variety of manufactures to offer this...
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The tablet race continues to heat up. The iPad set the stage for this generation's tablet race, and although things have definitely tightened up, Apple's wunderkind, like it or not, remains the industry standard by which all others are judged. Seasoned technology buffs will likely recall that tablets had another go a decade...
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