APPLE’S IPHONE 6: BIGGER AND FASTER (PART II)

DISPLAY

The first impression of iPhone 6’s screen is absolutely larger, its size is 4.7 inches, compared to 4 inches of iPhone 5S or 3.5 inches of first generations. The change of screen’s size is a big change in Apple’s opinion. Former Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, said he believe that a 3.5 inches screen is the most suitable, it is large enough to read news or do usual tasks you want your smartphones do, but it is also small enough to hold on your hand or put it into your pocket. But many things changed, people tend to use smartphone longer, replace personal computer, laptop… by smartphone, so they need a larger screen to help them feel convenient when they use smartphone for a long time. Apple fulfills user’s requirement by a larger screen for iPhone 6. Although iPhone 6’s screen is larger but Apple increased the resolution to guarantee the screen displays well, the resolution is 1334 x 750 pixels with 326 ppi. Apple has some technologies to make its screen can display better than others though its resolution seems to be lower than other smartphones, example Nexus 5 has a 5.5 inches screen with 445 ppi, but iPhone 6 displays sharper and more beautiful, the colours are natural and bright. iPhone 6’s screen also has a LED – backlit IPS panel helps it still can display very clearly though you use it outdoor.


PERFORMANCE   
iPhone 6 has a new SoC, Apple A8, with a dual – core 1.4GHz inside it. This SoC is very strong because it is 64bit processor compared to 32bit processor of other smartphones, it means iPhone 6 can run very fast and it can fulfill 4GB Ram or more. Apple shows us a graph which compare iPhone 6’s performance to its predecessors, it is really impressive

With other test, iPhone 6 proved its strength, it has 1627 point if it runs single core and 2924 point if it runs multi core with GeekBench 3 test, iPhone 6’s performance  is better than HTC One M8 (869 point with single core and 2409 with muti core) or Samsung Galaxy S5 (949 point with single core). If you need a beautiful and strong performance smartphone with a preeminent operating system, iPhone 6 is an excellent choice.

BATTERY
iPhone 6’s battery is 1810mAh, it is the same with iPhone 5S’s battery but you should not worry about it, although iPhone 6 has a larger screen, but it has new SoC, Apple A8, the power is used more efficient. iPhone 6 can play videos in about 13 hours, it is enough to view 9 standard movies, if you use it for the tasks that consume less power, iPhone 6 can be ran longer.

APPLE’S IPHONE 6: BIGGER AND FASTER (PART I)

Apple recently released a new generation of iPhone, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus. This release is one of the most expected events in 2014. From the first generation was released in 2007, each year, Apple has introduced a new generation and all of it had created a big bang, a blockbuster of the year. The latest generation (iPhone 6 and 6 plus) marks a newly important change of Apple about the screen’s size, instead of using standard 3.5 inches screens as previous generations, Apple equipped bigger screens for iPhone 6 (4.7 inches) and iPhone 6 plus (5.5 inches). In this article, I focus on reviewing iPhone 6, the phone which I think many people will buy it because its screen is large enough to bring and fits with usual demands (iPhone 6 plus is too large, maybe it fits with women more than men because women usually wear big bags and they can put a big thing like iPhone 6 plus into their bags).

DESIGN
Design is one of strongest point of Apple, its products are very beautiful and iPhone 6 is not an exception. As Apple’s other products, iPhone 6 is designed very carefully, when you look at an iPhone 6, you will feel it is really charm. iPhone 6 is little thinner than iPhone 5S but the larger screen will make you feel it is thinner than iPhone 5S very much, it is also very light, weights only 129 gram, compared to 112 gram of iPhone 5S, it means iPhone 6 is 17 gram heavier than iPhone 5, but do not forget iPhone 6 is 20% larger than iPhone 5S. This point shows us Apple’s endeavour to make a bigger smartphone but its weight must be acceptable. So you can comfortably hold iPhone 6 without any tiring.

The corners of iPhone 6’s sides are curved, it helps customers can hold iPhone 6 easier although it is large. It also has a metal case making it robust and reliable. Because of bigger size, Apple changed power button’s position from on top of 5S to right side of iPhone 6 to help user press it more convenient.
Apple offers 3 colours Gold, Space Grey and Silver for iPhone 6 instead of standard black and white on previous iPhones, but I think these colours are suitable with iPhone 6’s new design and it is very elegant.

CAMERA

Apple has never participated any megapixels – racing of cellphone’s camera, but Apple’s cameras on their products like iPhone or iPad are always respected because pictures or videos have been taken by Apple’s products have high quality and very beautiful. iPhone 6’s camera is the same, it just has a 8 megapixels camera, f/2.2 lens and 1/3 sensor with 1.5 micrometer pixels but it has a new sensor and Focus Pixels, this addition helps it is faster and more accurate when it focus on a perspective, so you can exactly take pictures as you want, the picture’s quality will be better. Video’s quality is very good, of course you can not compare it to professional camera, but it is better than other smartphone’s cameras.

ALIENWARE 17: SUPER LAPTOP FOR GAMERS (PART II)

KEYBOARD
Alienware 17 has a full size keyboard including a numeric part. The keyboard is designed very well, the keys is large enough to type easily, each key was created with a curved surface to make it fit with fingertips. The keyboard is sensitive enough to react any press of yours, you will feel good with this keyboard. Dell added 4 function keys to support gamers to play games better.
Another wonderful addition is you can choose four different backlightings for keyboard, it is worth because some laptop manufacturers just equip only one standard colour backlighting for their laptop, if you do not like that colour, you have to accept it because there are no other colours, with Alienware 17, you can choose the colour you want (or close to it).
Alienware 17 also has a touchpad, it is good, sensitive and large, but gamers usually use a professional mouse instead of using touchpad because using a mouse is faster and it gives a better feeling than using a touchpad, so I do not focus on review Alienware 17’s touchpad in this article.

AUDIO
Sound is one of the most significant things make you feel, make you live with your games, your characters… Thank Dell, they give us a high quality audio system, Alienware 17 has Klipsch speakers provide powerful sounds, your room would be full of sounds when you turn on it. Alienware 17’s sounds are loud and clear, bass is very strong…it make anyone satisfied with its quality.

PERFORMANCE
The first thing you want to see when you look at the configuration of a gaming laptop is its Graphic Card, this device decides the quality of game performance, I have not ever seen any gaming laptop with a poor graphic card can play any hard game well. Dell equipped a Nvidia GeForce GTX 880M graphic card for Alienware 17, it is supported by an onboard graphic card (Intel HD 4600) to help the laptop runs better and save battery when it does not play games.
Alienware 17 scores 146845 point with Ice Storm Unlimited test, compared to 119000 point of Asus G750, 131959 of MSI GT60 or 134175 of Digital Storm Krypton. Alienware achieved 82 fps at 1080 resolution when it had run Metro: Last Light game, compared to 75 fps of MSI GT60 or 81 fps of Asus G750… these indexes are the strong evidences to prove Alienware 17 is one of the best gaming laptop now.

Alienware 17 has not just strong graphic card, its configuration is also impressive, it has a Intel core i7 4800MQ CPU with 2.7GHz or you can upgrade to core i7 4910MQ with 2.9GHz, and Ram is 16GB, enough to run smoothly any 64 bit operating systems. This configuration helps it score 5838 point with PCMark7 test, better than 5496 point of average test of other laptops have the same configuration. With OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro test, Alienware 7 just needs 3:29 minute to match 20000 data, compared to 3:40 of GT60 and 4:03 of G750. Alienware is really a strong laptop and it can do well any missions you give it.

ALIENWARE 17: SUPER LAPTOP FOR GAMERS (PART I)

Playing game is one of the most popular demands of people. In this era, many people play games on their personal computer (PC), smartphones, tablets… However, these devices have some weaknesses, some of mobile devices like smartphone, tablet or handheld game consoles are easy to carry and you can play game wherever you want, but its configurations are not enough to play many hard games which require strong configurations, its screens are usually small, so the feeling when you play game on a mobile device is not excited as when you play on a PC. In contrast, many PCs are built with very strong configurations which can play all hard games, its screens are large and high resolution, you can play game on it with satisfied feelings, but PCs are too big and you can not carry it to anywhere easily.

The solution is creating gaming laptops. Manufacturers can equip large screen for laptop with highest resolutions, laptops also have enough space to put strong equipment into it to make it has a performance as well as you want. Because of solving a big problem for gaming market, as a result, there are many gaming laptops have been built by many manufacturers like Dell, Asus, Gigabyte, Razer… and one of the best gaming laptops has ever created is Dell Alienware 17.

DESIGN
Alienware 17’s design is very attractive, if you see it first time, you will think it looks like a spaceship, its side walls and angles were bevelled sharply, the anodized aluminum shell, strengthened by a magnesium frame helps Alienware not only looks nice but also can protects other devices efficiently.
Alienware 17’s heating vent is placed logically and it helps this laptop can radiate heat well. This point is small but very important because gaming laptop usually runs for long time with many tasks, so it radiates heating so much, if the laptop has not a good heating vent, it would be too hot and its performance can be lower.

SCREEN
Because of being a gaming laptop, Dell gave Alienware 17 a very good screen to help it can display all highest resolutions that games require, its resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels. The screen has a very good contrast, black is diplays deeply        , the colours are bright and natural, it is useful when you play adventure games with colourfully and lively frameworks. The 17.3 inches screen of Alienware 17 help you have good views, a large screen is also helpful when you want to play game for many hours, it protects your eyes without tiring.

LENOVO THINKPAD HELIX – A LAPTOP OR A TABLET OR BOTH? (PART II)

Lenovo is one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world. After acquiring IBM’s personal computer (PC) part in 2005, Lenovo has released many high quality computers and laptops for business class like T or X series…but it is not enough, many famous people in technology field like Bill Gates of Microsoft or Steve Jobs of Apple called this period is the post – personal – computer era (post PC), so computers have to be mobilized and personalized. Therefore, many technology corporations focus on manufacturing mobile devices like smartphone and tablet… However, these devices have a big problem, it tends to be built for entertaining purposes, it is not fit with business.

Lenovo seems to have a solution for this problem, Lenovo created a mixed device between laptop and tablet, you can use it as a laptop if you want, but when you lift Helix’s screen, you will have a tablet.
KEYBOARD

IBM designed a wonderful keyboard and Lenovo inherits and continue developing it, so do not be surprised when you have an amazing feeling when you touch Helix’s keyboard, although Lenovo cut down some keys, but Helix’s screen still has necessary keys, these keys are large enough to make you feel easy when you press, it is sensitive, so you just have to type softly to order Helix.
There is just a weakness of Helix’s keyboard, it has no backlight, so you will feel difficult when you want to type in darkness.

PERFORMANCE

Helix is a device for business class, so it has some best equipment for a laptop, you can choose a core i5 or core i7 with 1.7, 1.8 or 2.0GHz CPU for Helix, its Ram is up to 8GB, enough to run any application. Helix also has a SSD (there are 3 options: 128, 180 or 256GB), SSD makes Helix can start windows and run apps faster. All devices are gathered in Helix and make it has a strong performance, it has 4507 point (with core i5 CPU) and 4811 point (with core i7 CPU) with PC Mark 7 test, it nearly equals many renowned laptops like HP Elite Book Revolve or Acer Aspire S7 with core i5 version and defeats all laptops participated the test like Windows Surface Pro, Dell Latitude 10 or Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 11S…with core i7 version.

BATTERY
Helix has 2 batteries, a battery in tablet helps it can 6 hours (if you just use tablet), a battery in keyboard – dock helps it can run about 5 hours. It is enough for a day – working and when second battery runs out of, you can use Helix like a tablet and charge keyboard – dock’s battery in that time, so Helix can run 11 hours, it is very good.

LENOVO THINKPAD HELIX – A LAPTOP OR A TABLET OR BOTH? (PART I)

Lenovo is one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world. After acquiring IBM’s personal computer (PC) part in 2005, Lenovo has released many high quality computers and laptops for business class like T or X series…but it is not enough, many famous people in technology field like Bill Gates of Microsoft or Steve Jobs of Apple called this period is the post – personal – computer era (post PC), so computers have to be mobilized and personalized. Therefore, many technology corporations focus on manufacturing mobile devices like smartphone and tablet… However, these devices have a big problem, it tends to be built for entertaining purposes, it is not fit with business.
Lenovo seems to have a solution for this problem, Lenovo created a mixed device between laptop and tablet, you can use it as a laptop if you want, but when you lift Helix’s screen, you will have a tablet.

SPECS

CPU	CORE I5 (1.7 or 1.8GHz) CORE I7 2.0GHz
GPU	Intel HD 4000 Graphics
DISPLAY	11.6 inches Full HD (1920 x 1080), multi touch, IPS
STORAGE	SSD 128/ 180/ 256GB
NETWORK	WIFI N USB 3.0
BATTERY	3-cell 42Whr (tablet) 4-cell 28Whr (dock)
WEIGHT	1.73 IBS (tablet) 3.54 IBS (all)

DESIGN
Lenovo Helix was designed for business class, so it looks strong and enduring, Lenovo painted matte black on Helix with 2 red – line make it more remarkable. Helix’s weight is 3.54 Ibs with all equipment and 1.73 Ibs if you just hand its screen (Helix’s tablet). Helix is quite small, it is 0.46 x 7.37 x 11.66 inches, you can easily hold it and move to anywhere without any inconvenience.

Helix’s screen can be lifted to be a tablet, this is an intelligent design to help businessmen can use it anytime, example when they are presenting, they have to stand and move, so it is uncomfortable if they have to keep a laptop, but if they have a Helix, it is simple, they just have to lift screen and present, when they finish, they just put screen into keyboard to use it like a laptop… Helix’s design is really good, especially with businessmen.
DISPLAY

Helix has a multi – touch screen with 1920 x 1080 pixels (full HD), screen’s size is 11.6 inches, large enough to help you read documents or news conveniently but it is also small enough to help you move it easily. Lenovo also equips an IPS for Helix, so the colors display on Helix very smoothly and sharply. A full HD screen helps users can view all videos with high quality or they can see game’s characters lively when they use Helix for playing game. This screen is also helpful when you need to read document, contract, graph, table or charts…you can see letters or lines very clear.

LENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARBON: THE SUCCESSOR OF RENOWNED IBM THINKPAD (PART II)

Thinkpad is a laptop series designed for business class, it has created its renown by high quality, endurance and long battery life… Lenovo acquired Thinkpad series from IBM in 2005 and countinue producing many excellent Thinkpad laptops. One of latest Thinkpad, X1 carbon, has been released with many features can satisfy fans of Thinkpad.

PERFORMANCE
Any thinkpad laptops have an excellent performace, it is a laptop series for businessmen, so it has to be quipped good components to make it strong and enduring. Like predecessors, Thinkpad X1 also has a very strong performance, with an Intel core i7 – 4600U 3.3GHz CPU and 8GB DDR3 (1600MHz), you can do many tasks with X1, especially when you have to compute a huge data of businesses, X1 helps you resolve it in a flash, running multi tasks is not a problem with X1, you can use Excel, Word, PowerPoint, play games, surf websites… at the same time on X1.
There is just a little weakness, because of being designed for business class, so X1 just has a VGA onboard (Intel HD Graphics 4400). Thus, you just can play game without requiring of best displays or highest speed of frameworks (maybe Lenovo’s engineers thought businessmen have no time to play games, so they do not need to add another VGA for X1).

BATTERY
Thinkpad X1’s battery can helps it runs about 8.6 hours, it is good because businessmen has many works so they usually need to use laptop in a long time. X1 also has a special charge called Rapid Charge, it can help you charge 80% of battery within an hour.
KEYBOARD

Keyboard is one of the most important things when someone remembers a Thinkpad, many people had chosen Thinkpad just because of its keyboard. There are some changes on X1’s keyboard compared to its predecessors, but it is still very good, you can feel soft, easy to press, and the buttons are arranged logically. It is worth with your spending.

LENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARBON: THE SUCCESSOR OF RENOWNED IBM THINKPAD (PART I)

Thinkpad is a laptop series designed for business class, it has created its renown by high quality, endurance and long battery life… Lenovo acquired Thinkpad series from IBM in 2005 and countinue producing many excellent Thinkpad laptops. One of latest Thinkpad, X1 carbon, has been released with many features can satisfy fans of Thinkpad.

SPECS

PROCESSOR	4th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-4600U (3.30GHz 1600MHz 4MB) 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-4300U (2.90GHz 1600MHz 3MB) 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-4200U (2.60GHz 1600MHz 3MB)
STORAGE	128GB SSD M.2 Intel 180GB Opal SSD 256GB SSD M.2 eDrive Capable Intel 240GB Opal SSD 512GB SSD M.2
RAM	4GB DDR3L SDRAM 1600 MHz 8GB DDR3L SDRAM 1600 MHz
DISPLAY	14.0" WQHD (2560x1440), 260nit, IPS with 10-point multitouch
GRAPHICS	Intel® HD Graphics 4400
WLAN	Intel® Centrino® 7260 (Wilkins Peak 2 BN) 2x2 AC + Bluetooth 4.0
BATTERY	UP TO 8.6 HOURS
OS	Windows 8.1 Pro 64     Windows 8.1 64     Windows 7 Professional 64

SCREEN AND DISPLAY

I just can say X1’s screen is really really good, it has an IPS panel like on smartphones and this IPS panel helps X1 displays very sharply, you can view it with wide angles, the black color is very deep. Moreover, screen’s resolution is 2560 x 1440 pixels, it’s higher than 1440 x 900 pixels of Macbook Air, this resolution helps X1 can display all HD videos with high quality, you can also view pictures, graphs or anything else on X1 with true colors, brightness and smoothness…the screen on X1 is a touch screen, so if you want to command X1 does anything, you just need to touch it. Touch screen will help you use laptop better, especially with new OS designed for using touch to like windows 8.1.

KINDLE FIRE HDX: EXCELLENT TABLET FOR READING (PART II)

PERFORMANCE
Kindle Fire HDX was built by many good equipments, it has a SnapDragon 800 CPU with 2.2GHz qual – core, 2GB Ram and Adreno 330 GPU… these equipments help Kindle Fire HDX has an impressive performance. Amazon had built HDX as an intermediary product to help Amazon sells its products and services, so HDX has to have a strong configuration to guarantee HDX can run smoothly all Amazon’s products like games, videos or music…therefore, don’t you surprise when you see the performance of a HDX, it’s really really fast.

Amazon had also customized some versions of Android to create a new version OS for HDX and other Kindle Fire’s generations, it called Fire OS. With this customized OS, HDX can run better if you compared to it runs original Android, so you will see HDX can run faster than other tablets have the same configuration.

BATTERY
Kindle Fire HDX’s battery can help this tablet runs up to 12 hours with reading ebooks, magazines, surfing the web, listening to music, watching videos… its battery life is very good and you can read a very long ebook without any worries about battery.

PRICE OPTIONS
Amazon offers many options for customers when they want to have a HDX. There are 3 options about storage with 394usd, 444usd and 494usd for 16/ 32/ 64GB. If you want to pay lower, you can choose With Special Offers option and Amazon will discount about 15usd for each tablet but you have to accept Amazon can display advertisement on your screen.