MacBook Air 11-inch Laptop Review

Excellent performance despite the thin and light design

Extremely thin and light, sturdy build quality, very good display, comfortable keyboard, excellent trackpad, good battery life, quick startup time, respectable performance despite slow processor

No backlight for keyboard, no external battery status indicator, speakers could have been bit louder, 64GB on base model is too less, 128GB model is too expensive

Expert Rating :

  

The original MacBook Air that launched two years back was a remarkable machine. It was the thinnest notebook at the time of its launch, and even though others soon caught up with it in terms of thinness, the Air still held its own when it came to pure charm. But despite that it wasn't the MacBook of our dreams. It was prohibitively expensive and did not have the performance or the features to justify the price tag, and had very little to offer apart from flaunt value. Even with last year's hardware update, we still weren't quite convinced. Given a choice we would spring for the 13-inch MacBook Pro without hesitation, as it offered a far better balance between portability and performance.

But the new MacBook Air changes all that. The biggest change is in the price, the MacBook Air, at the moment, is significantly cheaper than the older model. It is also slimmer, as you would expect any new generation Apple product to be, and at the same time includes plenty of basic features that the older model left out, such as an additional USB port, an SD card slot and stereo speakers. It also includes higher resolution displays and has now switched completely to flash storage. More importantly, there is now an 11-inch model as well, along with the 13-inch model, which starts at $999, the same as the cheapest MacBook.

But there have been some compromises made along the way, such as the inclusion of a slower processor, limited storage space and the lack of backlight keyboard. But will that affect the overall performance in a significant way? Or is the new MacBook Air still a better machine overall despite the obvious drawbacks? Let's find out. Bundle

• 11-inch MacBook Air
• 45W MagSafe power adapter, AC wall plug, and power cord
• Printed and electronic documentation
• Software Reinstall Drive

As you can see, the 11-inch MacBook Air comes with a smaller 45W power adaptor, compared to the 85W power adaptor that the MacBook Pros come with. Also, this time around Apple is providing the software on a nifty little flash drive. It has the Mac OS X Snow Leopard as well as iLife '11 on it. Unfortunately though, Apple has not included Windows Boot Camp drivers on the flash drive (they have made sure that the drive is not detectable at all on Windows). Thankfully, you get the option to download Boot Camp drivers when you are creating a partition, which you can save on another portable drive and then install separately after you install Windows. Design & Build
The design of the MacBook Air is what separates it from the rest of the MacBooks and what a design it is! The previous generation model was a real looker, but the new one somehow looks even better. Apple has refined the design further, making it slimmer but at the same time more in line with the design of the MacBook Pros. The new MacBook Air has flat sides, just like the MacBook Pros, whereas the older MacBook Air had no side at all, with the base just curving upwards till it met with the edge of the keyboard.

Although it looked attractive and made the MacBook Air look thinner than it actually was, it posed problems when it came to the placement of the ports. Apple's solution of reducing their numbers and placing them under a flap wasn't the brightest of ideas that have come out of 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino.

Now that the sides are flat, Apple has more space to position the ports in a convenient location without compromising on the number of ports. The new MacBook Air comes with the standard two USB ports as on other MacBooks; a headphone cum microphone jack, mini DisplayPort and MagSafe power port. You will also find the microphone on the left side right next to the headphone jack. The headphone jack on the MacBook Air works with the iPhone headset that has a built-in microphone. Unlike other MacBooks though, the port does not have optical audio output. There is also no Ethernet port on the new MacBook Air, as was the case with the older one. There is also no FireWire port or Kensington lock slot.

It's nice to see that Apple has implemented two USB ports on the new MacBook Air. They have also unknowingly taken care of one of the issues we had with the ports on the other MacBooks. The ports are too close to each other, so using a physically large drive in one port tends to partially block the other one, rendering it useless. Now you can use both the ports comfortable knowing nothing will come in the way. However, this only true when you don't have the charger cable connected, as we found that it tends to come in the way of some of the thicker drives we had, such as the Corsair Voyager. Still, you can always connect the port on the other side and make a point to not buy thicker drives in the future. The 13-inch model comes with an SD card slot, which the 11-inch model sorely lacks. Even though we can see a decent amount of space on the outside to fit in an SD card slot there is probably none inside for the card to go in. Or perhaps Apple would want users to get the more expensive model if they want these little luxuries.

Open the lid of the MacBook Air 11-inch and you will notice that even on the inside it looks like a miniaturized MacBook Pro. Apple has used a full sized keyboard on the MacBook Air and except for the top row of function every other key is identical in size to the ones found on other Mac keyboards. The MacBook Air also uses a glass trackpad, which has the exact same width as the one on the MacBook Pro, but the height has been reduced by half an inch. Nevertheless, it is still quite large.

One thing you will notice about the display on the new MacBook Air is that there is no protective glass over it as on the MacBook Pro models and the frame around the side is made of aluminum too. This was probably done to save some space and make the lid thinner. Above the display is the iSight camera and cleverly concealed right next to it is a green LED that indicates when the camera is on. The LED is only visible when it is on, just like the standby light on the MacBook Pros. Speaking of which, the MacBook Air does not come with a standby light on the outside. There is also no infrared receiver for Apple Remote.

But what we missed most on the new MacBook Air is the battery status indicator on the side, which would let us know even when the machine was switched off how much charge is still left in the battery. On the new MacBook Air one would have to open the lid every time one needs to know the battery status, which would consume precious energy.

We also had a complaint with the new MacBook Air's design. We have often complained about the slightly sharp edges of the aluminum unibody MacBook Pros and that is true for the MacBook Air as well, even more so since it is so thin. Not that we ever got hurt during testing but we were constantly wary of them.

Two of the biggest advantages of using a unibody construction is the increased rigidity and reduced weight. The new MacBook Air is phenomenally sturdy for something so thin and light. There is no flex in the chassis, no creaks or groans emanating from anywhere and the entire thing feels like one slab of aluminum. The solidity, coupled with the thin size and light weight makes it excellent for carrying around. I could just throw it in my bag and it would barely take any space. Also, since it is so sturdy, I didn't have to be too careful while carrying it. But it was even better to carry it around in your hand. Thanks to the drop dead gorgeous design, the MacBook Air is a real eyeball magnet. As far as ultra-portables come, the MacBook Air is as good as it gets.

Display, Keyboard & Trackpad
The new MacBook Air 11-inch actually has a 11.6-inch display with a 1366 x 768 resolution, which is even higher than what the 13-inch MacBook Pro has (1280 x 800). Thanks to the relatively small size and high resolution the display looks very sharp. The panel itself is very good, with great colors and contrast. The intensity of the LED backlight is also quite high and the display can get really bright. But due to the small display and the high resolution things do tend to look a bit small, which is especially noticeable if you are used to a Mac with a bigger display.

The keyboard is the same as the one on other Macs, which means it is just as good. There is no cramped feeling that one may associate with typing on a small notebook. Also, since the lower edge of the MacBook Air is so thin and almost on level with the surface it is kept on, placing your wrists on the area below the keyboard almost feels like keeping it on the surface, with no sudden rise in height, making your wrists feel like they are floating. I used the MacBook Air for writing my articles in the duration it was with us and I faced absolutely no problems whatsoever. This would make a great machine for journalists who are on the move and want something to type on while they are travelling.

The trackpad on the MacBook Air is the same multi-touch glass trackpad as on all the other MacBooks. It is a bit shorter in height but in no way does it affect its usability. It is still by far the best trackpad that we have used on a notebook and in fact it is so good we use it as a benchmark for comparing other notebook trackpads with.


Hardware
The MacBook Air 11-inch runs on a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor although it can be configured with a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo at the time of purchase. It has 2GB of DDR3 RAM as standard but can be configured up to 4GB. The new MacBook Air comes with flash memory as standard, which is slightly different from the SSDs found on other notebooks. SSDs have a standard size, so that they can fit inside the standard 2.5mm slot inside a notebook. This ensures that an SSD from any brand will work with a notebook that supports a 2.5-inch drive. But the actual memory units inside these SSDs is very small and the only reason SSD manufacturers cannot make SSDs smaller is because it would make then incompatible with devices that support standard drives.

But since Apple had to make the MacBook Air as small as possible, there was no way they could have managed to fit in a standard SSD inside it. That's why they decided to simply remove the memory modules from inside and solder them onto the motherboard. Obviously this throws the option of upgrading the memory straight out of the window, but it does make the MacBook Air incredibly thin. And for an ultra-portable, that is more important. The 11-inch MacBook Air is available in two memory options, 64GB and 128GB.

Now we have often heard people complaining about the lack of upgradability in the MacBook Air. While it is true that the RAM and storage space cannot be upgraded once you buy the MacBook Air, let's ask ourselves how many times we actually upgrade the RAM and storage space on notebook. And if you do really want to be able to upgrade your memory and storage then you shouldn't be looking at a computer so thin. The only reason why the MacBook Air is so thin is because Apple took a call to compromise on two features that they (and so do we) think people don't use very often. You can either get an ultra thin notebook or one which allows you to upgrade its components. The MacBook Air may not be able to match the upgradability of other notebooks but neither do other notebooks even come close to matching the thinness of the MacBook Air.

Having said that we do feel 64GB on the base model is a bit too less. Apple should have provided at least 128GB as standard, with the more expensive model having 256GB instead. The 13-inch model should have received a similar boost in storage capacity. This is after all a $999 notebook, and 64GB would be over before you could say "High Definition movies".

For graphics, the MacBook Air comes with an NVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU, the same as on the 13-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro, as well as the base iMac and Mac mini. As far as wireless connectivity is concerned, the MacBook Air has Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR.

Performance
Now this is where it gets interesting. When we read for the first time that the MacBook Air will have a 1.4GHz processor, we were quite disappointed. And we are sure that would be the case with a lot of people who would have been put off by the slow processor. Well, there is no doubt about it, the processor is slow but one would be amazed as to how that is not reflected in the overall performance of the machine.

In the three weeks that we have been using it, we never felt that it was ever slow. We have a 15-inch Core i5 MacBook Pro with us for comparison and for day to day tasks the tiny MacBook Air felt just as fast as its bigger brother. Things like web browsing, document editing, working on spreadsheets and presentations, listening to music, watching HD movies, viewing photos, etc. all feel effortless. It's only when we switched to the MacBook Pro that we realized that it was indeed faster, but as long as we were working on the MacBook Air we never felt that there was anything slow about its performance.

A lot of that has to be attributed to the flash memory on the new MacBook Air, which tends to offset the slowness of the processor to such a degree that it no longer becomes an issue. The best part of using flash storage is the quick startup time. Now Apple claims that the new MacBook Air starts instantly and although that is not the case, it still is very fast. Starting the machine from a cold start takes just 17 seconds. In comparison, our MacBook Pro with a 5400-rpm HDD took 33 seconds. Both machines had plenty of software on them, with some such as Droplr and Growl designed to launch at startup, which tend to slow things down. We did this on purpose to get a more realistic figure. Otherwise, the 11-inch MacBook Air is capable of 14.2 second startup time after a fresh install. Installing Snow Leopard itself took just 18 minutes on the MacBook Air, thanks to the fast built-in storage and the flash memory stick provided.

But startup times are becoming irrelevant these days. How often do we really shutdown our computers, especially notebooks? All we do is shut the lid and make them go into sleep mode. So what matters to us is the time it takes for the notebook to be responsive after we open the lid. This is another area where the flash memory on the MacBook Air gives it an edge. In our test it took just 1.61 seconds for the display to turn on when we put it out of sleep mode, which is near instantaneous. In comparison, the 15-inch MacBook Pro took 2.65 second.

We also did some other tests, where we counted how long it takes to initiate Dashboard widgets after a restart (Mac users would know how long it takes them to load for the first time). On the MacBook Air it took 2.65 seconds, on the MacBook Pro it took 4.15 seconds. Both the machines had the same twelve widgets on them. We also launched a few applications on both the machines and counted how many times the icon bounced on the dock before the application opened. Again, the MacBook Air proved to be faster in this test as well.

Then we tried some good old file transfer tests to see how fast the flash storage actually is compared to traditional 5400-rpm notebook hard drives. The flash storage again proved to be significantly faster than its mechanical counterpart.
 

Finally, we also ran our usual benchmarks on the MacBook Air, Geekbench and Xbench. This is where the slower CPU makes its presence felt. The total scores on the 1.4GHz MacBook Air were significantly slower than those on the other Macs we have reviewed. But as we found out in our usage, the actual performance isn't as slow as the numbers suggest and in many cases it is actually faster.

 

Geekbench Scores (Higher values are better)
 

Xbench Scores (higher values are better)

 

Cinebench OpenGL Scores in FPS (Higher values are better)

 

Cinebench CPU Scores in Pts. (higher values are better)

The MacBook Air comes with NVIDIA GeForce 320M and Apple has also mentioned some game benchmarks on their website, so we thought we might as well try out a couple of games even though no one buying this machine would be gaming on it. We tried Portal that we downloaded over Steam and Tomb Raider: Anniversary Demo.

In Portal we kept the graphics settings at default and only increased the resolution to fit the display's native resolution of 1366 x 768. We must say we were quite surprised with the results. The game was actually smooth and very playable. We even forgot that we were testing the game and ended up playing the whole game all over again. Tomb Raider: Anniversary was similarly very playable and although it would occasionally stutter it would only be for a brief period and not very severe.

The game starts in a very wide open space and despite the fact that we had maxed out all the settings in the game, the little MacBook Air was chugging along quite well, loading the whole thing just as fast as the 15-inch MacBook Pro and being almost as smooth. For casual gaming, we cannot possibly ask for more from this machine.

An interesting thing we observed with the new MacBook Air is that it tends to run much cooler than all the aluminum MacBooks we have reviewed. In fact, we could easily keep it on our lap while playing Portal and not feel like we've set our thighs on fire. In comparison the MacBook Pros get hot enough to cook a meal on them.

Apart from gaming, HD video playback too was flawless. We did not have much luck with the QuickTime player even with Perian installed, as it used to choke a bit on 1080p files. But players such as VLC and XBMC had no trouble at all and the MacBook Air managed to play all our test videos with flying colors. In fact, at once point we were running three instances of a 720p movie in three different players and the MacBook Air was playing them all smoothly, as we could see in Expose.

We have a complaint with the built-in speakers though. We understand that the machine is too thin to have powerful speakers on board but at times they felt too weak. Files with louder sound were audible but anything less and we could not tell whether the actors are talking or just moving their lips.


Battery life
With a machine this thin one would think that Apple must have compromised on the battery, but it couldn't be further away from the truth. iFixit's teardown revealed six massive Li-Po cells inside that take up almost two thirds of the space inside the case. As with other MacBooks now, the battery is not user replaceable.
 

Apple claims a battery life of 5 hours on the 11-inch MacBook Air, which is very ambitious for such a thin machine running a Core 2 Duo processor. So to test it, we used it as one normally would, with the web browser open with several tabs, Echofon and iChat open in another Spaces window while working on a text document in Text Edit. We would also occasionally play an HD video within the browser. The Wi-Fi was obviously active and the display was set four notches below the maximum brightness level. We continued working on the machine in this way till the battery ran out. In the end we got 4 hours and 50 minutes of battery life, just ten minutes short of Apple's claim. Impressive!

We also ran a 720p video in a loop to see how long the battery lasts while playing a movie. The display was set at maximum brightness and headphones were connected to play the audio. The machine was allowed to run till the battery ran out. In this test we got 2 hours and 40 minutes of battery life. We could have eked out more by reducing the display brightness but we like our display well lit while watching a movie.

On their own these figures might not seem much, but you also have to consider that the MacBook Air is running on a Core 2 Duo processor, which is not as well optimized for mobile usage as far as battery life is concerned as, say, the Atom processor found in most netbooks. An Atom processor would have enabled higher battery life, but at the cost of severely handicapped performance. The MacBook Air runs silky smooth and is able to attempt feats such as running three 720p movies at the same time, something a machine running Atom cannot even imagine.

We must also consider that the MacBook Air runs on a 35Wh battery, which is almost half the capacity of most netbook batteries and it fits those batteries in a space that is almost half the thickness of most netbooks. So if you think that the battery life is not very impressive, think again. Getting almost five hours of a machine that powerful and that thin is nothing short of an achievement. 

Comparison to a netbook
The 11-inch MacBook Air is often compared to netbooks because of its size. People tend to compare them spec to spec and then say that the MacBook Air is at a disadvantage because it is more expensive. But if you have gone through the review so far, you would realize that the MacBook Air cannot be compared to a netbook because it is not in the same class. If you allow me to make a car analogy; it is like comparing a Honda Jazz to a Tata Indica and saying they are comparable because they are both hatchbacks.

Here are some of the advantages of the MacBook Air over most netbooks that you will find in the market today;

• Thinner and lighter design
• Better build quality
• Higher resolution display
• Much, much better trackpad
• Much higher performance; ability to play high definition files and games without breaking into a sweat
• Respectable battery life despite the faster processor and smaller battery
• Ability to run Mac OS, Windows as well as Linux officially.

In comparison, here are the advantages an average netbook would have over the 11-inch MacBook Air

• Much cheaper
• More connectivity ports
• Better battery life
• Better upgradability
• Much more storage space

As you can see the MacBook Air scores in key areas and as such the premium you pay for the machine over an average netbook is, in our opinion, well worth it.


Verdict
The 64GB MacBook Air is priced at Rs. 60,900 (India price). Now it might seem that the price is a bit on the higher side, but as we found out during the review, you do actually get what you pay for. Let's face it; you will be hard pressed to find a machine that is as slim and light as the 11-inch MacBook Air. And even though it is so slim it does not compromise on performance. The 1.4Ghz processor might seem like a weak link but the flash storage more than makes up for it and as we found out the MacBook Air never felt sluggish or even remotely slow.

In fact, we managed to play 3D games on it at native resolutions and high details and play three streams of 720p videos, something that you cannot even imagine doing on a netbook. And despite all this it manages to give 5 hours of battery life, which although may not be as much as some of the netbooks out there, but considering its performance and size we think it is a respectable figure.

We still think Apple should have provided higher memory on the 64GB model. It wouldn't have hurt to have little goodies such as the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter thrown into the bundle instead of having to pay $29 for it. Also, the 128GB model is prohibitively expensive at Rs. 72,900, considering all it brings to the table is double the memory. Apple should have at least doubled the RAM to 4GB at that price. We see little reason to spend that much on the 11-inch model when we can spend a bit more and get the 13-inch model at Rs. 79,900, which has a bigger display and a faster 1.86GHz processor.

For someone who wants a MacBook but does not want to spend a lot, and is confused between the 64GB MacBook Air and the white MacBook, then it really boils down to what you need. The white MacBook comes with higher memory, better battery life, bigger display and better connectivity options, while the MacBook Air is thinner, lighter and looks way cooler, with performance that is on par with the more powerful MacBook.

If you are, say, a college student, then it would make more sense to get the MacBook Air. It does all the basic tasks that a bigger Mac would, but is much easier to carry around. It would also make a lot of sense for those who travel a lot and don't care much about things like more storage space and optical drives.

Overall, we really liked the new 11-inch MacBook Air. It's one of those things that you fall in love with at first sight and even when you decide to wipe that drool off your face and look deeper below the aluminum skin it still manages to impress. The price may seem steep at first but as we kept saying throughout the review, for the kind of engineering that has gone into making the device what it is, we think it is well worth it.

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Acer Aspire AOD260 Wireless Broadband Latest Netbook

A decent Netbook with Tata Photon+ built-in

EV-DO 3G Modem built-in, thin and light design, smooth and responsive touch-pad, good battery life (even with 3G usage), fair price

Only 1GB RAM and 160GB hard drive, sluggish performance at times, keyboard design causes unwanted input

Expert Rating :

  

etbooks are on-the-go machines built to accomplish basic computing tasks without weighing your bag down. Since surfing the net is one of the primary use of such PCs, all of them come embedded with a Wi-fi chip. In some countries, there have been a handful of models that have been sold with 3G adapters built-in. But most of these didn't really make their way into India, obviously as the country is just waking up to the 3G revolution this year. But this is GSM 3G we're talking of, while CDMA's competitive 3G technology (dubbed EV-DO) has been around in India for some time, providing users with theoretical speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps.

We'd tested the Olive Zipbook, a Netbook that had an EV-DO based wireless modem built-in. Although it was a pioneering attempt in the country, the device lacked the basic deliverables that are expected from a Netbook.

Today, we have the Acer AOD260 - a variant of the "Aspire One" series Netbook from the company, with a 3G EV-DO modem built-in. So, does the AOD260 finally pull off the characteristics of a netbook without the need to have a stick-like object poking out of its USB port? Read on to find out.

Design and Build

The Acer Aspire AOD260 is very similar in design to its Gateway counterpart, the LT23. The glossy black top with the "Aspire One" logo is striking, and oddly enough, the same glossy part is even fitted at the base of the laptop. The AOD260 is pretty thin and light compared to the current iteration of Netbooks; anything smaller than this is going to burn a hole in your pocket. The build quality is also pretty good as the AOD260 does not creak or flex to the point of concern.

The display is a typical 10-inch 1024 x 600 pixel LCD panel that portrays good clarity and brightness. Text appears clear and the viewing angles are also not too bad. On the inside, we have a keyboard design that Acer has been using in quite a few previous generations of its laptops. The keys have an evenly flat level and offer good tactility. But then the size and placement of certain keys, like the area surrounding the arrow keys, makes you accidentally hit the wrong place occasionally.

Below that is a decently sized touch-pad that has a silky-smooth surface that we loved. It is pretty accurate too, except for a few times that it behaved oddly by zooming into webpages. The touch-pad also supports multi-touch gestures like two-fingered scrolling. 

To the sides is the usual array of ports seen on every Netbook since a last few years. There are three USB ports, headphone/microphone jacks, a VGA port, card reader slot and a LAN port. Despite a 6-cell battery aboard, it does not protrude the way older generation Netbooks did, and the laptop will not raise the top too much if you keep it on a flat surface. The speaker grille is placed at the bottom, which delivers acceptable audio quality at a fairly audible volume. The Netbook heated up a bit when the device was charging, but it's not so bad that it would toast your lap.

Performance

The Acer Aspire AOD260 comes with an Intel Atom N450 processor churning clock-cycles at 1.66 GHz. The rest of the configuration include, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, Intel GMA 3150 graphics. This hardware is just about powered to get the Windows 7 Starter Edition pre-loaded to run at a fair pace, but only if you're not going to push it too much.

Working on simple applications like using MS Word or even light multi-tasking will ideally work without any slow-downs. But the moment you do something as heavy as loading a heavy website (ours can be fairly called one at this stage), you can see the Netbook being pushed to its limits. In contrast, the Gateway LT23 came with 2GB of RAM that made things run somewhat smoother than the AOD260. In the PCMark05 synthetic benchmark, it scored a measly 1458 marks overall, which is pretty similar to the score of most Netbooks with specs like this.

The Wireless toggle key on the Function key brings up all three forms of wire-free connectivity to enable or disable - 3G, Wi-fi and Bluetooth. The 3G modem is a CDMA (EV-DO) based one, and our model came packaged with Tata Photon+ wireless service.

In our usage of the AOD260's 3G capabilities when stationary and in motion were almost exactly the same as one would get by connecting a USB dongle. Oh, and what pleasure it was, not to have a long plastic stick protruding out from the side. Having 3G built-in gave a pleasant internet experience on the AOD260.

The AOD260 has got enough power to play standard-definition DivX and XviD video files. We knew it couldn't, but still tried playing 720p and 1080p HD videos, and as expected it choked (a lot worse on the latter than the former).

Battery Life
The AOD260 comes with a 6-cell battery. This was the one place where the Olive ZipBook had fared poorly. But Acer amazingly cleared this hurdle by giving us a good up-time of 6 hours when connected to Tata Photon+ Internet, that too in motion. The brightness was put 2-3 notches below max.

Price and Verdict
The Acer Aspire AOD260 costs Rs. 18,000 + taxes. That is quite a fair price, as Netbooks with configurations like this one cost around Rs. 15,000, plus a Tata Photon+ dongle would cost you about Rs. 2,000. The AOD260 is a pretty decent buy if you're looking for a typical Netbook that'll save you the trouble of carrying a USB 3G dongle every time. Another way of looking at it is this - a built-in 3G modem means you cannot enable any other PC with its wireless broadband internet (unless you make this netbook behave like a Wi-fi router using apps like Connectify).

But then keep your expectations very modest with this one, as the combination of 1GB RAM, single-core Atom processor and Windows 7 Starter cannot take too much load.

Its identical cousin without the 3G powers, the Gateway LT23, costs Rs. 22,700 + taxes. Although the 2GB RAM and 320GB hard drive sounds like a bargain, we think it's somewhat a sore one when you compare it to the HP Mini 210, which has all of that, plus a faster 1.86 GHz Intel Atom processor, not to mention a much better designed keyboard. Only if you don't mind its slightly heavy body weight.

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HP Mini 210 Laptop Review

Sexy looks and color patterns, smooth and fairly accurate touch-pad, comfortable chiclet-shaped keyboard, sturdy build, better specs than usual Netbooks

A little heavy in comparison, battery life not as stellar as others

Expert Rating :

  

When the first Netbook came out three years ago, the only thing that really excited us about it was its size, and more importantly, its price. First-generation Netbooks in comparison to what we've got today were horrible in terms of usability.

Today, we've reached new highs where Netbooks aren't only utilized for the three humble tasks they were originally designed for, like light internet surfing, office productivity and basic multimedia. They play 1080p HD videos these days, and can manage a bit gaming as well.

But that isn't the case with all. Still, most Netbooks today concentrate on affordable pricing, but tend to fall short in terms of quality. HP Mini series of Netbooks have always been known for their hightened level of usability; thanks to a good keyboard and accurate touch-pad.

The HP Mini 210 for test today is the latest variant of this series. It costs a little more than typical Rs. 15,000 (indian price)Netbooks, but aims to give you a few things in return for the extra money you spend. 

Design and Build

The HP Mini 210 is a great looking Netbook; probably the most awesome one we've seen in this price range. The mixture of silver and a solid metallic color is quite a head-turner. Of all the colors available, we simply adored the red one. The build quality also feels sturdy, but more importantly, feels premium. It's no unibody-aluminum like the Macbook Air, but is pretty good in its own way. The screen hinge is also reassuringly stiff.

The design smartly keeps the bottom part of the Netbook flat, while the meaty 6-cell battery's protrusion is right underneath the display. This is a better design as compared to the earlier generation Netbooks, where downward protruding batteries have an ugly bump, which is not comfortable to use as well. The only problem we had with its design was its weight, which in today's day and age felt a little excessive for a Netbook.

On the inside, you've got a typical 10-inch 1024 x 600 pixel LCD display that is fairly good to view, with natural color tones and an adequate brightness. Due to its highly glossy covering, viewing it at an angle isn't good, as you can see reflections. The webcam had a grainy, pixillated quality when viewed under full-screen mode; we hope a smaller video-chat window will have better quality than that.

Underneath the display is what I believe to be one of the best Netbook keyboards I've typed on, period. The chic-let design keys are proportionate to each other, and their placement eliminates typos to a great extent. Even the texture of the keys is smooth, which makes typing a pleasant affair. The Function keys primarily perform frequently used tasks like changing brightness, controlling media playback and volume etc.

Below the keyboard is HP's trademark touch-pad that's seen on its laptops. The 'Clickpad', as it is called, is a spin-off on the Macbook's track-pad, where the entire surface is touch-sensitive and the entire thing moves when clicked. Those demarcations differentiate between left and right click, but that surface is also used to manuvere the mouse pointer. The sensitivity is pretty accurate. Multi-touch gestures like two-fingered scroll work alright; not Macbook-smooth, but fair.

The Mini 210 is loaded with a typical array of ports -- three USB, a VGA, a LAN, headphone and a card reader. The speaker grille is placed smartly right under the curve of the lower-body, and is quite loud to satisfy listening to music or movie dialogues without having to plug in a pair of earphones.

There are no heat dissipation vents at the bottom, instead there's just one vent to the left side along with the ports. In our usage, we did not feel the machine overheating at any point of time.

Performance

The HP Mini 210 comes with slightly meatier internals than typical Netbooks; the Intel Atom N475 processor clocked at 1.83 GHz (the typical N450 model works at 1.66 GHz), 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a 320GB hard drive spinning at 7200 rpm (traditional netbooks have 5400 rpm ones). It comes pre-loaded with Windows 7 Starter.

If you compare synthetic benchmarks, the recently tested Acer Aspire AOD260, with its Atom N450 1.66 GHz processor, 1GB RAM and 160GB 5400 rpm hard drive was able to churn out a PCMark05 score of 1458, while our HP Mini 210 pulled a little further with 1520 PCMarks. Do does this slight bump improve day-to-day usage? I believe so; Windows overall felt a little swifter (actually, less laggy) than typical-spec'ed Netbooks like the Aspire model mentioned above.

720p HD video playback is possible, but not guaranteed -- as some videos played smoothly, while some others didn't. 1080p videos are out of the question, obviously.

Other than Windows, the HP Mini 210 also has the SplashTop 'Instant ON' operating system. It is basically a skimmed version of Linux that boots in a few seconds after you turn the PC on. It has a web browser, a chat client, skype, mail client, calendar, music and photo viewer. Now, in one simple word -- it's useless. The fonts appear blurry, any kind of scrolling does not work (two-finger or even side-scrolling). There is no file manager to quickly access stuff on your hard drive (or possibly, backup files in the case of a Windows malfunction). No thanks, I would rather wait for 20 more seconds and use Windows instead.

Battery Life

The HP Mini 210 comes with a 62 Whr, 6-cell Lithium-ion battery -- a typical battery rating seen on most Netbooks today. But the Mini has a couple of power-sucking components, like the slightly faster Atom N745 processor that takes 6.5 Watts of power as compared to the 5.5 Watts of a regular Atom N450. Then there's the faster-spinning 7200 rpm drive.

In the 720p HD video drain test, with full brightness and sound, the Mini 210 ran for a total of four-and-a-half hours. In our real-world test, where it was hooked to the Internet over Wi-fi, we began typing this article in an online document editor with brightness kept at max. Here, it gave us anywhere between 4.5 to 5 hours on different instances. This is lower than the usual 7 and 8 hour runs of Netbooks in this test, but its still acceptable given the benefits of a noticeably smoother operation.


Verdict

The HP Mini 210's top-end version that we've tested sells for Rs. 19,999. Although it is around Rs. 5,000 more than a usual Netbook, what you get in return is worth it. The excellent keyboard, the responsive touch-pad, the sturdy build quality and charming looks, not to forget the slightly better internals. If you're looking for a Netbook and are willing to spend a little more for finesse, then the Mini 210 will not disappoint.

If you're already sold on the Mini, but want HD playback as well, then hold your horses. The HP dm1z is an AMD Fusion based model that shares all the good design aspects of this model, plus brings in 1080p HD playback, a bigger 11.6-inch higher-res screen, and a supposed 5-hour battery life. It's already selling in the US and we can't wait to get our hands on it once it arrives in India.


Test unit sourced from Genesis PR

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Asus G73JW 3D Gaming Laptop

For the ultimate mobile gaming experience

Striking design, built like a tank, USB 3.0 and BluRay drive, very good gaming performance (2D and 3D), backlit keyboard, good quality speakers

Expensive for most, no physical button for adjusting the depth in 3D mode, chiclet keyboard could have been better

Expert Rating :

  

sus's ROG (Republic of Gamers )line up of products have always had an air of exclusivity to them, whether it was a motherboard, graphics card or laptop. These were somethings any enthusiast would kill to possess and today's G73JW gaming laptop is no exception. This thoroughbred laptop is at the pinnacle of high-end and packs in every feature one can think of today into a stunning package.

The G73 is available in two other flavors; the G73JH, which comes with an ATI Mobility HD5870, and the G73SW that features the same GTX 460M that we have in our review model but is not bundled with Nvidia's 3D vision kit. All three laptops have the same build and finish, the only differentiating factor being the specifications and the bundle.

The G73JW has a stealth fighter inspired chassis that houses a Core i7 740QM processor which is a multithreaded quad core CPU running at 1.73GHz. To keep that CPU company is 8GB of DDR3 memory running at 1333MHz. For storage we have two 500GB 7200rpm hard drives in RAID and for graphics, a GeForce GTX 460M with 1.5GB of GDDR5 memory. Along with that we have a 4x Blu-Ray combo drive, WiFi 'n', 8-cell 75Whr battery and a 17.3" full HD 3D screen.

Unlike the G51Jx, where you had to carry around the 3DVision transmitter everywhere, it's built into the G73JW, so all you need is the 3D glasses and you're good to go. This is a very good move by Asus as the whole setup is a lot neater without wires running all over the place. There is one immediate issue that we see with this set up though, there's no way to adjust the depth of the 3D image while gaming as there isn't any toggle button or scroll wheel on the laptop like on the transmitter. Let's see if that really becomes an issue when we test it.

Apart from one bloke who thought it looked like a scanner (don't worry, he's been taken care of) we absolutely loved the look and design that surpasses the Alienware as well. The entire exterior is covered with a rubber finish with just the Asus logo in chrome. The stealth look goes even further once you check out the rear vents. It reminds you of the taillights of a Lamborghini, it's a shame they don't light up. The cooling system of the G73JW is designed in such a way that cool air is sucked in through the front and only escapes through the rear vents, so even if you were to use it on your lap, it wouldn't get too unaffordable. Well if the heat doesn't do it, the weight surely will - how does 3.8kg sound? This is anyway a desktop replacement and not meant to be used on a lap. 

Design and Build

There are a couple of status indicator lights in the front.

There is no Express card slot but it shouldn't matter much since we hardly use this type of card anyway.  

The palm rest area has ample of space for the biggest hands. The chiclet keyboard is a nice touch but they weren't as comfortable as I expected them to be. The problem lies in the registering of the key strokes which at times doesn't work with a light press. As far as gaming laptops go, the Alienware has the best keyboard we've come across till date. The keys are backlit with different intensities to choose from, but a lot of the light leaks from gaps between the keys and the surface, especially if you lean back and type. This isn't a major issue though, just that it would have been better if just the keys were illuminated. The trackpad is nice and large with two chunky mouse buttons.

The audio is taken care of by THX certified speakers that are quite loud and will easily fill a small room. The three shortcut buttons on the top allow you to toggle the backlighting, activate Turbo mode, which dynamically overclock the CPU and graphics card, and finally a button to toggle between the 3DVision mode. The matt finish full HD screen produces very good colors with more than enough brightness. This is important since once you wear the 3D glasses, the screen dims a bit, so the extra brightness does help.

Next let's have a look at what this puppy is capable of. 

Performance
PCMark Vantage

3DMark Vantage

  

SiSOFT SANDRA 2010

Ergonomics and Multimedia usage

The Asus G73JW is very comfortable when it comes to working on documents and spreadsheets due to the ample room for typing as well as the large 17.3" screen. The notebook is fast for everyday tasks thanks to the speedy CPU and ample amounts of RAM, so little things like audio encoding, watching HD YouTube videos, etc are now a breeze. The internals are designed for cool operation, even during heavy gaming most of the underneath hardly gets warm. All the hot air is aired out directly from the rear vents.

Although the chiclet keyboard is comfortable to use, there were times when the keystrokes weren't registered, so you have to apply a little more pressure when typing. Also, the trackpad is wider than usual so at times the mouse pointer jumps around when your palm accidentally comes in contact with it.

HD movies look great on the screen as it has a good color reproduction and brightness level, which make the picture crisp and vivid. We tried a couple of 3D clips as well using 3DVIsion player and some videos on their website (3DVisionlive.com), which needless to say worked well. The only issue is that you cannot adjust the depth of the 3D video since there is no physical button that allows you to do this.

On the standard 3DVision kit, the IR receiver has a little wheel at the rear that allows you to adjust the depth. In this case you'll have to minimize the application and open up the Nvidia control panel to adjust this. It's something Asus needs to incorporate in their future models as it's quite a crucial feature. Cyberlink's Power DVD does a surprisingly good job of converting 2D to 3D movies.

It is in gaming that the G73JW really shines, especially in 3D. You won't be able to max out all games in 3D mode since the GTX 460M cannot handle that kind of bandwidth. However, since Dead Space 2 recently came out, we gave it a shot not knowing what to expect. The result- with everything maxed out at the native resolution and 3DVision enabled, we were easily getting 30FPS on average. Even with plenty of Necromorphs on screen, there wasn't any slow down. Now given that Dead Space 2 is quite optimized, it was nothing short of amazing to see the notebook handle it so well, which is something one would expect when you pay so much money.

One thing to note here is that the game is only smooth if you are plugged into a power source since the CPU and graphics card run at full throttle. As soon as we unplugged the power cord, the frame rate became instantly choppy. The built in speakers are very good as well. Not only are they loud, but they are also very clear and crisp, we could here every single creak and hiss in the game clearly.

Battery Life
No matter how big a battery you may squeeze in, gaming notebooks are never known for their battery life. The 8-cell 75Whr battery was able to deliver around 2hrs 20min of battery life on Balanced mode and a bit of internet usage. This is not bad actually when you consider the large screen and the beefy graphics card.   

Pricing and Verdict

The Asus G73JW is priced at an MRP or Rs. 1,21,499(india price) and comes with a one-year global warranty. It's an expensive proposition but looking at the features it offers, it's really hard to beat it. Let's look at the competition; there is the MSI GT663R that offers great performance but falls short in the basic ergonomics and not to mention the really high price (Rs. 1.4lac). Alienware is out of the running since we are still being fed old, outdated graphics cards plus a high premium just for the brand name. Until Dell refreshes their line up with the 3D ready models we saw at CES, stay away from them.

The only other option is the Asus, which is not only the cheapest of the lot, but also the most feature-packed. It can certainly hold its own when it comes to playing the latest games in 3D and the BluRay drive and USB 3.0 are good future proofing additions. Although it weighs a ton, it's not designed to be carried around - it's more of a desktop replacement. If you must carry it, Asus bundles a bag and a mouse for gaming, so you're sorted on that front too.

Price is a deterring factor here for many as 1.2 lacs is not a small amount. Also, a dedicated depth control button for the 3D would have been nice since not all games or videos work well at one setting. If you are in the market for the ultimate gaming notebook and have the budget then look no further, the G73JW should be right on the top of your list.

Specifications

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Dell Vostro V130 Laptop Review

The V13 gets more powerful

Good build quality, HDMI, three USB ports, comfortable keyboard, anti-glare screen, light weight

Poor battery life, a bit expensive

Expert Rating :

 

Dell wowed us with its Vostro V13 a year back with its sleek styling and aluminum finish; it was very stylish yet extremely functional. There were some minor drawbacks though like no HDMI port, few USB ports and a slightly underpowered processor. A year has gone by and Dell seems to have listened to our complaints (well, some of them at least) and have brought out a new model called the V130. The basic design and ergonomics have remained the same and Dell seems to have stuck to the philosophy, "If it ain't broke don't fix it" and has made some connectivity additions and upgraded the internals.

The Dell V130 is powered by a Core i3 ULV series 380UM running at 1.3GHz. It does not support Turbo Boost but it has Hyperthreading so it should be a bit faster than the older Celeron 743 which also ran at the same speed. The downside of the Core i3 is the higher TDP of 18W which can take a toll on the battery life which wasn't great to begin with. Other than that, Dell has still maintained the low 1.5kg weight and the comfortable keyboard. Let's see how much of a difference these new improvements have really made.

The design hasn't deviated much from the original and this time, we got a ruby red sample which looks really good. The matt finish has a sheen to it which doesn't attract a lot of finger prints and yet looks striking. The Vostro V130 now comes with three USB 2.0 ports instead of two and an HDMI port as well. What's missing is the Express Card slot which is fine since it's hardly ever used. The V130 now comes with a 4GB RAM by default and a choice of 320GB or 500GB 7200rpm hard drive.

The keyboard remains exactly the same and is very comfortable to use. The power button and the status lights have swapped places on the top for whatever reason. The 13.3-inch anti-glare screen sports a 1366x768 resolution which means images and video look sharp and clear. 

Overall, the V130 is a nice little upgrade to the earlier V13 in terms of horsepower and connectivity is concerned. Now let's have a look at the performance improvement and more importantly, the battery life. 
Performance

The keyboard is taken straight from the V13 so it's very comfortable to type on even for prolonged usage. The anti-glare screen means that it can be used even in sun light without much problem. The trackpad is smooth to use and the buttons have a soft press. On the multimedia front, we tried playing some 1080p flash videos after installing the new Flash Player 10.3 for Internet Explorer. Even though the CPU usage was only at 25 percent, the video wasn't very smooth; there was a slight hint of stutter. Since the onboard graphics is quite weak, we didn't even bother trying out any game. The speakers are not too great as well since there isn't any dedicated vent for sound.

Battery life
The battery is exactly the same one fitted in the older V13 which is a 6-cell 30Whr non-removable battery. In our 720p video drain test, the V130 lasted for 1Hr 47min which is a whole 25min lesser compared to the older model. This is mainly due to the higher TDP Core i3 CPU and possibly the 7200rpm hard drive. Under regular usage, the notebook gave us a slightly better 3Hr 15min of back up time which sadly is pretty average today and could have been a lot better. Since the battery is non-removable as well, you can't even upgrade it to a higher capacity one even if you wanted.

Pricing and Verdict
With prices starting at Rs. 37,290, it's similar to the older model. However, the V130 that we received would cost a bit more, we predict closer to 40K as Dell is yet to give us the final price. For this price, you can get better performing multi-media notebooks but that's not the purpose of the Vostro. The V130 is designed to be a sleek and durable business companion and it does exactly that. The build and finish of the V130 is what sets it apart from the crowd. The revised internals gives it a bit more grunt allowing you to watch HD movies with ease. The extra USB port and HDMI is a welcome addition and the anti-glare screen means it's very usable outside as well. It does not come without its flaws though, with all the changes made to the V130, the battery life has worsened which is quite an important factor. We also feel the pricing is a bit high for what you're getting.

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Asus N53SN Laptop Review

A powerful feature rich multimedia notebook

Sturdy build quality, great performance, powerful components, USB 3.0, decently priced, good bundle, decent battery life, speakers sound good for certain music genres

Trackpad gets in the way while typing, SonicMaster program doesn't work well all the time, no backlit keys

Expert Rating :

    

Just like cell phones, choosing a notebook is no a walk in the park these days. From basic netbooks to multimedia notebooks to high-end gaming laptops, we are spoilt for choice today and while it's still nowhere close to the choice and pricing of the West, I think we are getting there very soon. We've done plenty of Asus EeePCs in the past and quite recently, some of its high-end gaming systems were tested, but we haven't covered the middle playground - notebooks that offer a healthy mix of performance, rich features and a decent battery life to boot. Asus has recently launched a bunch to notebooks catering to this very segment and today, we have one of its top-end models called the N53SN. The entire 'N' series line-up focuses on the audio aspect of the notebook with Bang and Olufsen's ICE audio processing chip inside.

The N53SN is all about multimedia performance and in order to get the best, it is packing some of the latest hardware. For starters, we have Intel's latest SandyBridge CPU, the Core i7 2630QM which is a quad core multithreaded CPU running at 2.0GHz with Turbo upto 2.9GHz. The other big addition is the new Nvidia GT 550M with Nvidia Optimus and 2GB GDDR3 dedicated memory. The rest of the system specifications include 4GB RAM, 750GB 7200rpm drive, full HD 15.6-inch screen and finally a BluRay combo drive. Let's see how all this translates in the real world tests.

Asus bundles along the charger with drivers and instruction manuals. 

Design

The N53SN comes with a single color option, silver and black. The lid has a matt finish so finger prints are not a problem. The hinge area has a curvy design which breaks the monotony of rectangular notebook.


The RAM and hard drive area is not particularly easy to access as all the screws are hidden underneath the rubber feet.

Unfortunately, the keyboard is not backlit, which would have been a nice addition especially for a notebook this pricey. While there is ample of room for your palm to rest comfortably, we noticed while typing the cursor jumps around. This is mainly due to the fact that the trackpad is square shaped rather than rectangular so it gets in the way at times.

Performance

PCMark Vantage

3DMark Vantage

SiSOFT SANDRA 2010

Needless to say, the N53SN performs really well whether it is just simply browsing the Internet, playing a video or some gaming; the N53SN does this without breaking a sweat. Besides the powerful internals, Asus's main focus on the N53SN is the sound quality courtesy Bang and Olufsen. Asus has developed a special software program called SonicMaster which gives you a more pronounced sound. Soft rock and Jazz music sound really loud and clear and it easily fills the entire room. Songs which use few instruments really shine but songs with lots of bass tend to distort quite a bit with the volume set to anything above 50 percent. The SonicMaster software does create a more spatial effect but you have to play around with the settings to get it right. Overall, the speakers are great for Classical music or even Jazz or Lounge music but otherwise the result is a bit of a mixed bag.

Another piece of software that Asus boasts on the website is its Video Magic technology which at first we assumed it was a media player or a software specially designed to enhance low resolution movies. As it turns out, it's just a software that collates other media players like Cyberlink PowerDVD and Media Show Espresso in one place for easy access. So, Asus has just provided a one stop solution to 3rd party media players from other companies.

Touching upon the gaming department, we ran our Dirt 2 benchmark with the resolution set to 1920x1080 and everything 'High' we got 32FPS which is pretty good. Thanks to Nvidia's Optimus, the GT 550M only kicks in when there is a heavy graphical task at hand which means we get a decent battery life as well.

The keyboard and trackpad are very comfortable to use even for long durations. We do wish the keys were backlit though as this is a premium multimedia notebook; it should have been an option at the very least. While the multi-touch trackpad works well, the placement or design could have been better as many times, you'll find the cursor jumping around the place when typing which can get really annoying.

Battery Life

In our 720p video drain test with the brightness set to max, we got a battery life of 2hrs and 46min which is quite good. This means under careful usage, you can easily clock in a battery life of 4Hrs or even more.

Pricing and Verdict

The fully specked out N53SN will set you back about Rs. 73,199 that comes with a 1 year global on-site warranty. This is similar to the one we reviewed except it has 8GB RAM and that bundle does come with a mouse and bag. 

Currently, Asus is one of the few companies (possibly the first) to launch SandyBridge based notebooks in the market and if you compared the specifications with a similarly priced Dell XPS 14, the N53SN ends up offering you more value for the same price. Other than the newer generation CPU and graphics card that it uses, it also packs in more storage, more memory and better accessories. This is a premium notebook for those who want the best of both worlds, great performance and a decent battery life.

We did have small issues with the notebook though like the placement and design of the trackpad tends to get in the way every time while typing. Also, the Bang and Olufsen speakers tend to distort a lot when the music gets a bit complex like Rap, Rock, etc where there are many instruments and bass playing the background. On this front, the Dell XPS really shines with its ability to playback any type of music very well. Overall, we liked the design and performance of the N53SN and though the price tag seems high at first, you should remember that you are getting the latest in terms of hardware with quite a bit of future proofing like USB 3.0 support, something which the competition doesn't even come close to.

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