Review Motorola Defy Pro Smartphone Tough and Classy

The Motorola Defy Pro has a strong resemblance to a BlackBerry model, but adds IP67 certification which means it is resistant to spills and dust. The Motorola Defy Pro offers a 2.7 inch touchscreen made from Gorilla Glass and is built to take all the abuse that someone with an active lifestyle heaps upon his smartphone.

Speaking of active lifestyles, the Motorola Defy Pro has a special dashboard that helps you track specific outdoor activities such as camping, hiking and a daily workout. There is both a 5MP rear-facing camera and a VGA shooter on front for self-portraits and video chat. Android 2.3 is installed.

Whether it’s the rain or a clumsy cocktail, a sandy beach or a pocket full of change, the MOTOROLA DEFY PRO is ready for whatever life throws your way. It's dustproof and water resistant, with a Corning® Gorilla® Glass display that resists scuffs and scratches too. And with its large capacity (1700 mAh) battery, it’s up to you when the fun stops, not your phone.

MOTOROLA DEFY PRO is not only smart, it's fun! It has our advanced user interface, featuring customizable activity dashboards. The Social Graph grants instant access to your most frequently contacted friends, while the Activity Graph displays your most actively used apps.

Your active lifestyle demands it, and the MOTOROLA DEFY PRO delivers, with front- and rear-facing cameras that allow you to both show and tell. Use the webcam on front, for video chat, or the quality 5 MP camera with auto-focus, LED flash and 4x digital zoom, for great pictures and videos you can easily save or share.

MOTOROLA DEFY PRO has all the functionality you'd expect from a smartphone, plus access to infinite entertainment choices via Google Play™, where there are more than 600,000 apps, games, books and videos at your disposal. It's a complete digital universe, right there in your pocket.

Never miss a meeting (or anniversary) with MOTOROLA DEFY PRO, your lifeline to logistics. Use it as a personal planner, to coordinate your work schedule with family play. A specialized instrument dashboard helps you track specific outdoor activities, with camping, hiking and daily workout views.

When the day is done and it’s time to chill, MOTOROLA DEFY PRO will have plenty of power left in its high capacity battery to entertain. There's an integrated music player and easy-to-use interface, for instant access to your favourite songs.

Motorola Defy Pro XT560 Specification

Datasheet;Views:	7819 views since addition of datasheet (July 06, 2012)
Datasheet;State:	Final specifications
Release+Date:	July, 2012
Dimensions:	66 x 110.8 x 12.35 millimetres
Mass:	116 grams (battery included)
Software:Environment
Embedded;Operating+System:	Google Android 2.3.7 Browse devices running this OS
Microprocessor,;Chipset
CPU;Clock:	1000 MHz
CPU:	Qualcomm MSM7227A Browse devices based on this microprocessor
Memory,:Storage+capacity
RAM+capacity:	512 MiB
ROM;capacity:	1 GiB
Display
Display:Type:	Supported
Display-Diagonal:	2.7 "
Display:Resolution:	480 x 320
Sound
Microphone(s):	mono
Loudspeaker(s):	mono
Audio:Output:	3.5mm
Cellular:Phone
Cellular-Networks:	GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS850 (B5), UMTS2100 (B1)
Cellular-Data_Links:	GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA
Call+Alert:	64 -chord melody
Vibrating-Alert:	Supported
Speakerphone_:	Supported
Control+Peripherals
Positioning;Device:	Multi-touch screen
Primary;Keyboard:	Built-in QWERTY-type keyboard
Directional_Pad:	Not supported
Scroll+Wheel:	Not supported
Interfaces
Expansion_Slots:	microSD, microSDHC, TransFlash
USB:	USB 2.0 client, 480Mbit/s micro-USB
Bluetooth:	Bluetooth 3.0
Wireless:LAN:	802.11b, 802.11i, 802.11g, 802.11n
Infrared_Gate:	Not supported
Multimedia+Telecommunication
Analog-Radio-Receiver:	FM radio (76-90MHz) with RDS
Digital+Media+Broadcast-Tuner:	Not supported
Satellite:Navigation
Built-in:GPS-module:	Supported
Complementary:GPS+Services:	Assisted GPS, QuickGPS, Geotagging
Built-in+Digital;Camera
Main-Camera:	5 MP
Autofocus+(AF):	Supported
Optical;Zoom:	1 x
Built-in-Flash:	mobile light (LED)
Secondary;Camera:	0.3 MP
Additional+Details
Built-in;accelerometer:	Supported
Ingress:Protection;Level:	IP67
Battery:	removable
Battery+Capacity:	1700 mAh

HTC Wildfire review and Spesification

The hardware of the HTC Wildfire isn't exactly 'jaw dropping,' but still great for an 'entry-level' handset for folks on a budget. Specs include a 5 MP camera with geo-tagging & auto-focus, 3.2" inch capacitive that supports multi-touch and gesture input and packed with Android 2.1 Eclair definitely showing the Wildfire is the successor to HTC's other budget phone - the Tattoo.

A fun fact about this phone is the name -HTC ran an online poll to decide what the handset should be called and "Wildfire" came out on top. The name ends up all too fitting.

The HTC Wildfire features HTC's typically fresh stylings, which include an optical trackpad for navigation. It has since seen its successor in the HTC Wildfire S.

The HTC Wildfire smartphone has a very similar design to the Desire, albeit in a smaller, more pocketable form factor. Despite targeting a young, budget-conscious audience, the Wildfire's build quality hasn't taken a hit; HTC has once again employed an attractive combination of brushed metal and solid feeling plastics. Like its more advanced sibling, the Wildfire is a delight to hold and has a distinctive slightly curved "chin". It comes in black and white variants, with the latter exclusively sold through Fone Zone stores on post-paid plans until 28 September, before it is available from all Telstra stores and partners.

The HTC Wildfire includes the same responsive optical trackpad seen on the Desire. Above it are four touch-sensitive keys — home, menu, back and search. They work well enough, but the lack of backlighting means using them at night is problematic. A physical power/lock button on top and left mounted volume controls complete the physical controls.

HTC Wildfire

HTC has kept the handset's price down by cutting a few corners with the HTC Wildfire's display, opting for a regular TFT LCD screen rather than the excellent AMOLED display used by phones like the Desire and the Legend. The result is a low-resolution display that's hard to see in direct sunlight and has poor viewing angles, but at this price, its hard to complain. It uses capacitive touchscreen technology, so it's already a step ahead of some other budget Google Android phones, such as LG's Optimus.

The capacitive touchscreen makes text input a positive experience, and the Wildfire's on-screen keyboard is well designed. Keys are slightly smaller and more cramped than the Desire, but the responsive screen, haptic feedback and excellent spelling correction aid the experience. Our main complaint is slight keystroke lag when typing quickly — the Wildfire is a little sluggish at keeping up with your taps, often taking half a second to register keystrokes on the screen.

The HTC Wildfire runs the 2.1 version of Google's Android operating system and it includes all the regular features and functions of more expensive Android smartphones. Access to the Android Market for third-party apps, an excellent notifications taskbar and automatic and seamless synchronisation with Google services are all part of the experience, as is HTC's Sense UI. The Wildfire can have up to seven home screens for live widgets and shortcuts, and you can pinch the screen to quickly display them and select an active screen.

The Sense UI includes HTC's Friend Stream, which integrates all of your social-networking contacts, including from Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, into one organised "stream" of updates; People, which combines all forms of contact with an individual in your phonebook; as well as News, Facebook, Web Bookmarks and HTC's much-loved weather widget. Finally, Footprints allows you to take a geotagged photo and store the image in a particular category, then instantly share it with others via email.

The HTC Wildfire has a few exclusive features, headed by a "next generation caller ID" function that allows you to see Facebook updates and birthday information when making or receiving a call. The Wildfire also has the ability to import contacts and calendar entries from your old mobile phone via Bluetooth, and includes HTC's Sync software for music synchronisation with your PC.

One of the more impressive features is Swype text input, an option that allows you to slide your fingers over the letters you want to type in a single motion, letting the software work out the word you are trying to write. Swype is an excellent feature and considering the smaller screen size of the HTC Wildfire compared to the Desire, it’s a very smart and thoughtful inclusion.

Although the HTC Wildfire is capable of almost everything the Desire is, most tasks take a second or two longer. In addition to the keystroke lag while text messaging, the Wildfire also chugs along when browsing through images in the gallery, loading web pages, playing videos and taking photos with the 5-megapixel camera. We've clearly been spoiled by playing with faster, more expensive Android smartphones, so the HTC Wildfire's sluggishness is a tad frustrating. When you consider its price though, these minor issues are much easier to live with and are a small compromise to pay for a handset that offers outstanding value for money.

The HTC Wildfire's camera has autofocus and flash, and doubles as a video recorder, but video playback on such a low resolution display isn't ideal. Other standard features include a built-in accelerometer, a digital compass and a GPS receiver, while the web browser displays Flash content and supports multitouch zooming. The Wildfire also has a microSD card slot for extra storage, located behind the rear battery cover.

A real positive of the HTC Wildfire is its battery life. No doubt partly thanks to the low-resolution display, the Wildfire managed to last more than a full day with moderate use — placing it ahead of the iPhone 3GS and HTC's own Desire and HTC Legend smartphones.

Sony Xperia P LT22i Dual Core Review

Sony Xperia P LT22i Dual Core

Sony Xperia P which is the latest generation NXT Series after of Sony Xperia S. This is evident from the slick design carries. Maturity design starts from a packaged sales packaging simple, and efficient. Hold Xperia P for the first time, you will certainly remember his brother body design with which is Sony Xperia Sola. Yups, is somewhat similar, except that the dimensions of the Xperia P larger, wider screens, and there is a transparent strip at the bottom of the phone.

Four corners of a square phone aristocrats, like Hershey’s chocolate sticks. Things are quite unique is Transparent Strip featuring touchkeys towards Back, Home, and Settings. If Sony had the courage to try out most of his body with a transparent section, it is not complicated on the next few years Sony will launch a full transparent phone instead?

Unibodynya impressively simple design, with a few key aide at his side, which is volume buttons, power button, camera shutter. Not only that, a USB port, speaker hole, HDMI port and hotswap on pinned on the right side. At the back of the phone, there is an LED flash, the camera hole, NFC sticker scanner and the Sony logo. While at the top of the phone, there is a 3.5mm audio jack.

Screen and InterfaceLED-backlit LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors; 540 x 960 pixels, 4.0 inches (~275 ppi pixel density); Multitouch; Scratch-resistant glass; Sony WhiteMagic technology; Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine ; Timescape UI

Finishing the screen on this phone is also stylish, with a wide cross-section of 4-inch, 16 million color LCD screen adds to passion for you to browse each page on this phone. Multitouch capacitive touch screen works. Displacement smooth and zippy pages that perform well under finger pressure though.
The quality is quite optimal screen brightness, even when PULSE trials in the sun still bright, it’s not because of the presence of Sony White Magic Technology. Sony Xperia P uses Android 2.3.7 OS and Timescape UI for a slick interface, with a pleasant user experience.

From the page menu is well laid out, with five screens homescreen shortcut for the choice of well-appointed, includes interactive widgets, shortcuts and folders storage applications. Go to page menu, you will find 3 pages menu is arranged in a grid. This amount could be increased later as the increasing number of applications that you are stuffed.

Pushing comfort entertainment sector, Sony Xperia P provides the hardware and software features, as well as access to a shortcut on the homescreen, the Media folder offers quick access to picture galleries, inbuilt music player, FM radio and camera. Although these features can be accessed easily enough through the main menu, the availability on the home page are quite fun and adds to the experience of inclusion.Hardware
CPU Hardware: RionGrande; Dual core ARM v7 Processor (VFPv3,NEON)/ 1GHz; GPU renderer: Mali 400MP; RAM : 772MB; OS: Android v2.3.7

Relying on dual processor, with a frequency of 1 GHz CPU, Xperia P promises a fairly comfortable in venturing into the virtual world. The process of loading and loading pages, progresses rapidly, and do not hang in the middle of the road.

Internet and Connections

Data: GPRS Up to 100 kbps/ EDGE Up to 296 kbps; Speed: HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps Koneksi : WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, DLNA Bluetooth Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, EDR NFC ,USB, microUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go support.

An integral part of the modern smartphone is Internet capability. Sony Xperia P has the performance and reasonably good performance of its class, with a variety of features to enhance the browsing experience. Sony Xperia P through a browser, either via 3G or Wi-Fi internet connection, capable of displaying web pages quickly.

Once page is available image and sharp text with the presence of flash that integrates the ability to display video. Process each page scroll running smoothly, and to do multitabs.

Through Live Ware Manager, Smart Tags and your desired setting, along with his action you have the opportunity to open a second shortcut with NFC technology. With Shortcuts you can open from contacts, gallery, calculator, to your favorite web page. For the record, the NFC capability will not only be used fellow Sony but also other smartphones that support NFC.

Unique FeaturesOffice Suite; Neo Reader, EA Games (Tiger Woods PGA 2012 Dead Space, Need Fot Speed, Plants vs Zombies), Media Remote, ASTRO, Wisepilot
For those of you who are mobile, and want to get all the information quickly through barcode, P Xperia Neo features the Reader that allows you to scan / scan barcodes for mobile then displays the information you need. During scanning, the phone you have the internet connection. There are also ASTRO File Manager which is a feature of modern highly complex and complete. In it, you can set up and there are various panels that help you search for the desired file.

Camera

Primary 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash Features Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, 3D sweep panorama, image stabilization Video, 1080p@30fps, continuous autofocus, video light ; SecondaryCamera: VGA
Quality camera carried by the Sony Xperia P, can not be taken lightly. Image in the room at the shoot under LED lighting is sharp enough and not over the flash compensation. While in natural lighting or outdoor environments, the camera Sony Xperia P is a player who is quite prominent.
Vary your camera to shoot 3D panorama display shoot wide angle.

Audio Sector

MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player, MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player; Radio FM;
In the audio entertainment sector, Xperia P provides a set of features to pamper you music lovers. Start of Play Now service, Track ID searching for a variety of information about the song being played eg on chart songs, lyrics, or information about the artist. xLOUD and 3D surround sound completes the output power becomes clearer sound and no noise.

In addition to working multitasking, you can go directly to the music player and radio through one of the default shortcuts on the homescreen Media. Or if you want practical, use NFC Smart Tags.

Benchmark

Quadrant Standard Edition v2.1 ; Antutu Benchmark v2.8.2
In order to measure performance and CPU performance of this phone, PULSE using Quadrant and Antutu. When tested using the Quadrant Xperia P gain points by 2357. While the performance tested using Antutu Benchmark scored 5319, well beyond the Nexus S and the HTC EVO 3D.

Conclusion
Sony Xperia P is a multimedia phone with an elegant design and features a reliable connection. The sophistication of multimedia features to support applications increasingly felt a Play Now, 3D Surround, TrackID and Sony’s Sony Music Entertainment. Problem tag becomes a relative, due to a variety of innovations and features mature diusungnya, Xperia P deserves to be taken into account and compete with other top Android. (Nariswari)
(+)
• Nice and futuristic design (transparent strip)
• 8 MP camera with full HD recording quality
• Display with Bravia Engine
• Connection NFC and Smart Tag
(-)
• Android OS v4.0 yet Ice Cream Sandwich
• There is no memory card slot
• Using a micro SIM
• Some users will certainly appreciate microHDMI port standard it requires you to carry additional adapters.
New price: US $385
Second price: US $300

Nokia Lumia 820 reviews

Nokia Lumia 820

The Lumia 820 is the midrange version of Nokia's top-notch Windows Phone 8 handset, with wireless charging, Amoled screen, changeable covers and eight-megapixel camera.
It's on sale now for around £380.

Design
Looking very similar to the high-end Lumia 920, the 820 drops a few features along with the price, but still delivers full-fat Windows Phone 8 while still leaving room for some change in your pocket.
Like its cousin it's chunky and heavy (though a smidgeon lighter and thinner) but this one is available with changeable covers in different colours to suit your mood -- there's also a rugged version planned. You don't get any spare cases as standard, though, so you'll need to shell out extra for them. Like the 920, the standard case permits wireless charging, though you'll need to buy Nokia's charging plate to rest it on.

Removable case also means removable battery, as it happens, and underneath you'll find a slot for your SIM card, and for the first time we've seen on a Windows phone, a microSD card slot so you can bump up the 8GB of onboard memory by up to 64GB.

The screen isn't quite up there with the 920's HD display but it's a 4.5-inch AMOLED with a resolution of 800x480 pixels -- not super-sharp perhaps, but perfectly capable of giving a good account of web pages or viewing movies, even if they're not HD. It's very sensitive too, and like the 920 you can use it even when you're wearing gloves.

Performance
It's running a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor -- much the same as on its pricier cousin -- and it seems equally fast in use. And in case you were wondering, that's very fast.

Windows Phone 8 isn't a root-and-branch redesign of the operating system, but it offers quite a few behind-the-scenes tweaks and fixes, as well as some new features like resizable tiles for the Start screen and useful apps like Kids Corner, which allows your offspring to play with your phone without wiping any data or sending embarrassing emails. You can find out more about the new features in Windows Phone 8 in our more in-depth Lumia 920 review.

The eight-megapixel camera is just a little bit below the 920's 8.7 megapixels and includes a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, autofocus and a dual LED flash and f/2.2 aperture. WP8 now gives you the option to download additional "lenses" -- apps that enhance your camera. It's early days but the selection includes Smart Shoot (editing), Cinemagraph (animate sections of your pics) and Panorama, as well as CNN, which allows you to submit your pics for inclusion on the news channel. Picture quality is pretty good overall, certainly better than you'll get from the eight-megapixel camera on HTC's Windows Phone 8X.

Microsoft Office is on board, though not quite as full featured as the version on the 920. However, the selection of Nokia apps goes a long way to make up for it, with free music via Nokia Music, plus free maps and satnav from Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive.

The 1,650mAh battery doesn't quite match the 920's 2,000mAh but at least it managed to last through a full day of fairly heavy use.

Conclusion
It doesn't have all the big-number specs, but the Lumia 820 offers an affordable way to get to know Windows Phone 8 as well as a lot of free extras, including Nokia's impressive music and satnav offerings. Want something even better? The Nokia Lumia 920 might be for you.

Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD

Asus could have stopped when they made one of the best Ultrabooks on the market (twice). Last year's Zenbook UX31E was one of the best Ultrabooks on the market, despite its flaws. This summer's Zenbook Prime UX31A is once again one of our top picks, and it addressed the UX31E's flaws (keyboard, good but not stellar display). As if the 1080p IPS display on the Zenbook Prime UX31A didn't push the envelope enough, Asus has let loose the Zenbook Prime UX32VD, a near dead ringer for the UX31A but with added goodies: dedicated graphics and upgradable RAM and hard drive. Nice.

Like the UX31A, the Zenbook Prime UX32VD has an impressive 1920 x 1080 IPS display, a backlit keyboard, third generation ULV CPUs and a killer unibody aluminum design. Given the extra space required for upgradable parts and dedicated graphics, the UX32VD is a tiny bit thicker and a little heavier (3.2 pounds vs. 2.86), but it shares the same design, materials and attractive look as the UX31A as well as its 13.3" display size. In fact, so much is the same that this review will share some copy with our UX31A review.

Specs

The Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD (who picked those final letters?) is an Ultrabook with a 13.3", 1920 x 1080 IPS display, 1.7GHz Intel Core i5 and i7 ULV CPUs (the 1.9GHz i7 is more prevalent and the i5 is more often found in the non-1080p UX32A), a 500 gig conventional hard drive with a small SSD that acts as an Intel Express Cache to speed boot and resume times, 4 gigs of DDR3 RAM and both Intel HD 4000 and Nvidia GeForce GT620M dedicated graphics. Not too shabby for $1,299. The laptop has a unibody aluminum casing that looks every bit as modern, classy and sleek as Asus' more conventional Ultrabooks. 

It has dual band Intel WiFi 802.11b/g/n with WiDi, Bluetooth and a 720p webcam. Notably absent is an optical drive, which you won't find on 13" Ultrabooks. The machine has three USB 3.0 ports (two on the right, one on the left), an HDMI port, mini VGA, a 3.5mm jack and an SD card slot. Asus provides a USB 10/100 Ethernet dongle and a VGA adapter.

Other Zenbook Prime Models

- The first generation Zenbook UX31E had a lower resolution, non-IPS display and Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs. It looks nearly identical to the UX31A.

- The Zenbook Prime UX31A is available with a 1.7GHz Intel Core i5 CPU (UX31A-DB51) or with a 1.9GHz Intel Core i7 CPU and a 256 gig SSD (UX31A-DB72). A classic Ultrabook by Intel's definition with SSD storage, Intel ULV CPUs and an extremely thin and light design.

- There are custom Best Buy and Amazon models as well. The Best Buy model is the same as the DB51 minus the 1 year accidental damage warranty. The Amazon AB71 has the Core i7 CPU and a 128 gig SSD.

- The Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD has dedicated Nvidia GT620M graphics (a lower end dedicated GPU) and both the RAM and hard drive are upgradable. The UX32VD ships with a conventional spinning 500 gig hard drive and a small SSD drive that boosts boot and resume times. 

- Lastly, the Zenbook UX32A (no "Prime" in the name) is a low spec model with a 1.4GHz Core i3 ULV CPU, 320 gig conventional hard disk and a lower resolution display (not a good pick).

* The word Prime= 1080p display, an SSD drive and a backlit keyboard. 

Design and Ergonomics

The 3.2 pound UX32VD Zenbook Prime looks almost identical to the Zenbook Prime UX31A, and that's a good thing since that machine is simply stunning looking and well made. The casing is metal and rigid, though the keyboard deck is softer and we noted some trampolining in the center that will drive serious typists a little mad. The lid and bottom panel as well as the keyboard deck are very firm in contrast. The UX32VD is just a little thicker than the 0.67" UX31A, but it's still very slim at 0.7".

The combo of a dark metal swirl lid and a brushed stainless steel hinge barrel and bottom look great. The laptop looks and feels like a high quality piece of tech that holds its own against the MacBook Air. Like the Air, it tapers and is 5.5 mm thin at the front and 9mm at the rear. Looks are subjective, but I think the Zenbook Primes are some of the most attractive Ultrabooks on the market. The metal edges are well machined so there's no roughness or sharpness, but the front tapers to a fine point that might bother some folks' wrists.

The keyboard is much improved from Asus' first generation Ultrabooks, the UX31E and UX21E. The Chiclet style backlit keyboard has good tactile feel and travel by skinny Ultrabook standards. My only complaint is the mushy give in the center and right-of-center keyboard area. It's not a deal breaker, but it's not as good as the UX31A keyboard. 

The Elan trackpad is the same as that of the UX31A, and it's much, much better than the UX31E trackpad. However, Asus' drivers are the weakest part of the equation and I found the trackpad behaved better once I removed Asus' trackpad software and stuck with Elan's. Asus has issued a few driver updates for the trackpad, and it's now usable though not better than Elan's software.

1080p Display

The 13.3" matte 1920 x 1080 panel is simply gorgeous: very bright with lovely balanced colors and high contrast. Text is very sharp and black levels are excellent. Asus didn't skimp here. The panel is brighter than most notebooks on the market except the UX31A. The display will likely set the Zenbook Prime series ahead of the competition for some time. Since this is an IPS panel, viewing angles are very wide, and there's no need to angle the display forward and back to find the sweet spot as with TN panels. Whites are wonderfully neutral and the display looks as good as the Retina MacBook Pro. Color accuracy is much better than average for a notebook panel and it should please photo pros.

It wouldn't be an Asus product if we didn't have some light bleed, and though light bleed in IPS displays isn't uncommon, Asus seems to have more than their share. What is light bleed? The display may have lighter spots near the edges when viewing black backgrounds like the black bars in letterboxed widescreen movies. Our unit, which came from a local retailer, has a small amount of light bleed along the bottom edge, but it's nothing we'd call bad (watch our video review to see the display showing a pure black image in the dark). 

The Zenbook Prime has Intel WiFi and Intel graphics: the happy couple that's required for Intel WiDi wireless display, which is pre-installed. With WiDi and a receiver box that plugs into your home theater setup via HDMI like the Netgear Push2TV, you can stream your display's contents to your HD TV, or use your TV as a second monitor sans wires. For those who prefer wires, there's a micro HDMI 1.4 port on the right side and a 3.5mm combo headphone/mic jack. For those who use projectors and older monitors, there's a mini VGA port and Asus includes a dongle adapter that converts it to a full size VGA port. 

Performance and Horsepower

The UX32VD runs on Intel third generation Ivy Bridge ULV CPUs--no surprise there. But the Intel HD 4000 graphics plus switchable Nvidia GeForce GT620M graphics with 1 gig VRAM is news for Ultrabooks. Before you get excited, the GeForce GT620M is based on the older Fermi architecture rather than the just released Kepler architecture. What does that mean? It's not as power frugal as Kepler. And the 40nm, 64 bit GT620M used in the Asus is a low end GPU that outperforms the admittedly decent Intel HD 4000 GPU, but doesn't outperform it by a huge margin. This is an entry level dedicated GPU that will gain you 5-15 fps in 3D games but won't allow you to play the most recent 3D games like Battlefield 3 at native resolution and high settings. The machine can play current games like Diablo 3 and Skyrim at low settings and 1366 x 768 resolution with frame rates in the mid-30's to mid-40's.

The machine uses Nvidia Optimus graphics switching technology to automatically switch between integrated and dedicated graphics based on demand and the application being run, and it generally does a good job. Should you wish to override this, you can right click on an app and select the GPU you wish to use when running that app. 

Unlike most Ultrabooks whose RAM is soldered to the motherboard and thus isn't upgradable, the UX32VD has 2 gigs soldered to the motherboard and a standard SODIMM RAM slot. It ships with a 2gig DDR3 1600Mhz DIMM for a total of 4 gigs of RAM. Should you wish to remove the 11 or so Torx T5 screws that affix the bottom plate (it's not hard at all), then you can replace the DIMM and upgrade to 6 or 10 gigs of RAM using a 4 or 8 gig RAM module.

While the UX31E and UX31A use solid state drives, the Zenbook Prime UX32VD has a conventional 500 gig, 5400 RPM spinning hard drive with either a 24 or 32 gig SanDisk U100 iSSD drive soldered to the motherboard that acts as an Express Cache to speed up Windows and boot and resume times. Our model has a 32 gig SSD, but Asus lists 24 gigs as standard and some users say they've gotten the 24 gig SSD. The SSD doesn't appear under Windows disk manager or the file manager since it's used expressly as a caching drive and you can't access it directly so we're not terribly concerned about the capacity variance.

Benchmarks

PCMark Vantage

PCMarks 7386
PCMark Memories 5080
TV and Movies 3881
Gaming 10,008
Music 10,766
Communications 10,888
Productivity 8187
HDD 18,779

3DMark Vantage 4240
CPU 9117, GPU 3600
Windows Experience Index:
Processor: 7.1
RAM: 5.9
Graphics (for Aero): 6.3
Gaming Graphics: 6.3
HDD: 5.9

Benchmark Comparison Table

PCMark Vantage
Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD	7386
Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A (Core i5)	12,272
Asus Zenbook UX31E (core i5 Sandy Bridge)	10,021
Sony Vaio T (Core i7 ULV Ivy Bridge Ultrabook)	12,120
Lenovo ThinkPad X230 (Core i5 Ivy Bridge)	8152
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Core i7 Ivy Bridge)	12,339
Sony Vaio S 13.3 (Core i5, NVidia GT640M LE)	7575

Battery Life

Like most Ultrabooks, the Lithium Ion polymer battery is sealed inside. The Zenbook Prime UX32VD has a beefy 48 Wh battery but the demands of a spinning hard drive and dedicated graphics take their toll. With normal productivity use (MS Office, web, email, social networking and some streaming video), the notebook lasted 4 hours and 40 minutes on a charge, which is significantly lower than the 5.7 hours we got with the Zenbook Prime UX31A.

Conclusion

The Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD is one of the first Ultrabooks in the brave new frontier that marries typical Ultrabook specs with upgradable parts and dedicated graphics. Our advice? Wait for the second or third generation where dedicated graphics performance improves along with battery life. The NVidia GT620M doesn't offer enough graphics prowess to offset the drop in battery life and the UX32VD isn't a serious gaming machine. It's a "half way" machine that doesn't offer the power of a larger notebook nor the battery life and SSD durability of an Ultrabook. That said, if you love the look and feel of Ultrabooks and wish for a bit more graphics power and upgradable parts, the Zenbook Prime UX32VD offers that in a slim and attractive package. And the display? It's wonderful.

Related:

Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A Review

Ultrabook Reviews

Price: $1,299 with Core i7, 4 gigs RAM and 500 gig HDD

Website: www.asus.com

Sony Xperia Ion

The Sony Xperia Ion is a sweet phone for a great price that's just not getting enough love. For $99 on contract with ATT, you get an award winning design with a sleek glass front and curved metal back, LTE 4G and a 12MP camera. And you thought the $99 Nokia Lumia was a good deal? The Ion tops it for hardware specs. The phone has a 4.6" 720p display with Sony's various marketing names heaped on (Bravia, HD Reality Display) that's simply stunning, and it has HDMI out with an intuitive TV app.




So what's the catch? It runs Android OS 2.3.7 Gingerbread rather than 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. That's doubly vexing when Sony recently updated older Xperia models to ICS. As a consolation, they say the Ion will get ICS too. In the meantime, the Sony UI on top of Android is light, and you get a fairly fresh Android experience.





While the latest top dog phones like the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III run on the fourth generation Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU, the Sony Xperia Ion runs on a third gen Snapdragon S3 clocked at 1.5GHz. It has Adreno 220 graphics, and honestly it's no slouch. Human nature and a fear of obsolesce drive us toward the fastest thing we can buy, but the S3 was this spring's top performer and it's still respectable with a Quadrant score of 3100.




Voice quality is excellent: we noted landline clarity on both ends and good volume. Reception is similar to the competition (One X and Samsung Galaxy S III) and data speeds are excellent on AT&T's LTE network.




The star of the show is no doubt the 12 megapixel rear camera with flash. It has a fast f2.4 lens and a Sony Exmor R sensor that can shoot 1080p video and some of the nicest photos we've seen from a phone. Colors are particularly impressive: rich and accurate. We took some light life street shots and were impressed with the camera's low light color and contrast capture. We'll have samples in our full review.




Specs:

4.6", 1280 x 720 LCD (Mobile Bravia)
1.5GHz Qualcomm S3 dual core CPU with Adreno 220 graphics
Micro HDMI and micro USB ports
16 gigs storage
MicroSD card slot
Quad band GSM, triband 3G, LTE 4G
12MP rear camera with Sony Exmor R sensor and f2.4 lens and flash, 16 digital zoom, 1080p video recording, 3D sweep panorama recording
1.3MP front camera
Android OS 2.3.7, upgradable to 4.0 ICS
WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
NFC
$99 with contract, $449 without contract

Here's our Sony Xperia Ion video review. Our full written review will follow in the coming days

HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE

Is bigger always better? Not for those of you who simply can't stand carrying today's 
 gargantuan phones. The Droid Incredible 4G LTE is all about livin' small. Downsizing. Less is more. OK, this 4" Android smartphone isn't all that small compared to the now diminutive iPhone 4s. But you will notice that your pocket doesn't have as embarrassing a bulge, and you won't need hand stretching exercises to train for your next phone.




The third generation Droid Incredible by HTC may be smaller than the 4.8" Samsung Galaxy S III and other big boys on Verizon Wireless, but it has plenty of top notch features. A sharp Super LCD display running a qHD resolution, a 1.2GHz dual core Snapdragon S4 Krait CPU and a sharp 8 megapixel camera with BSI sensor and simultaneous 1080p plus still photo recording grace the feature list.




The Droid Incredible 4G LTE runs Android OS 4 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense software. Unlike the HTC One X, it has a removable back so you can access the 1700 mAh battery and there's a microSD card slot to expand on the 8 gigs of built in storage. There's no dedicated imaging chip here, but the phone is a capable shooter.




The phone has that distinctive Droid Incredible look with a sculpted waterfall back and red accents (power button, lens ring). The red Beats logo fits right in, and like HTC's other recent Android phones, the Incredible 4G LTE has Beats Audio that enhances audio.




The Droid Incredible 4G LTE sells for $199 with contract, though Verizon's website has a web special for $150. The Incredible's biggest problem on Verizon? The Samsung Galaxy S III that sells for $199 and has every feature except a virtual kitchen sink.

Here's our HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE video review. Our full written review will follow next week.

Lenovo IdeaPad S2109 Tablet

Goodness knows there are plenty of Android tablets on the market now, particularly 10.1" models. So Lenovo decided to differentiate their newest tablet, the IdeaPad S2109 (or simply IdeaPad S2), with a 4:3 aspect ratio 9.7" IPS panel. It runs at 1024 x 768, just like the iPad, and is less oblong than the usual 1280 x 800 Android 10.1" tablet.




The Lenovo IdeaPad S2109 has a bright 420 nit IPS display that's absolutely sharp and lovely. The aspect ratio is better suited to reading eBooks and PDFs, though movies and more recent TV shows will have those big black bars top and bottom. Some folks feel a 4:3 tablet is easier to hold, but I'd say the Lenovo is more pleasant to hold because it weighs just 1.3 pounds and is slim but not painfully skinny.





The tablet runs Android OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on a 1GHz dual core TI OMAP CPU with 1 gig of DDR2 RAM and 8 or 16 gigs of storage (a 32 gig model is coming). It has a microSD card slot for expansion, a micro HDMI port with HDCP copy protection support, micro USB and a 3.5mm jack.




The Lenovo IdeaPad S2109 and the New iPad



The Lenovo IdeaPad S2 is available now, with a $399 list price for the 8 gig and $449 for the 16 gig. That's not wildly price competitive with tablets like the $399 Asus Transformer Pad TF300, 1080p $449 Acer Iconia Tab A700 and the $449 Toshiba Excite 10 with Tegra 3 quad core CPUs, but Lenovo's website has enticing sales. Right now, the 16 gig model is just $349.

Here's our Lenovo IdeaPad S2109 video review. Our full review will follow in the coming days.

source

Motorola Atrix HD

When a seemingly high end phone comes in at $99 on contract, our first thought is "something has to be missing". Yes, AT&T is very aggressive with their contract pricing, but consider the lovely Nokia Lumia 900: awesome phone, but the hardware specs aren't up there with the $199 phones. The $99 Sony Xperia Ion has an elegant metal casing, a stand-out display and a 12MP camera, but it's running Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a third rather than fourth generation CPU. So what's the story with the bargain priced Motorola Atrix HD?

Specs

The Atrix HD seems to have it all: Android 4.0 ICS, a lovely 4.5" "ColorBoost" 720p display, the same 1.5GHz fourth gen Qualcomm Snapdragon dual core CPU as the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X, an 8mp rear camera that can shoot 1080p video, dual band WiFi (nice), Bluetooth 4.0 and a GPS. The only thing missing is NFC, but that isn't a huge deal (yet) on AT&T since there's no way to use it for mobile payments.

Design and Ergonomics

Despite the name, the Motorola Atrix HD is a GSM Motorola Droid RAZR rather than the reincarnation of the last two Atrix Android smartphones on AT&T. It has the beveled Gorilla Glass front and a Kevlar back with the RAZR's distinctive top cap that houses the camera, LED flash, HDMI and USB ports. It's a good looking phone with a sealed casing. That means you can't swap the 1780 mAh Lithium Ion battery since it's sealed inside. There is a microSD card slot on the side though, along with a micro SIM card slot. The Atrix HD's corners are matte and have softer curves than the Droid RAZR, and we confess to prefer the RAZR's edgier design.

4.5" smartphones aren't tiny beasts, but the 4.9 ounce Atrix HD is reasonably easy to hold. I find the hand-centric curves of the HTC One X more comfortable, but the Atrix HD is less slippery than the curvy-glossy Samsung Galaxy S III. Despite its slightly smaller screen size, the Atrix HD isn't appreciably smaller than the One X and GS III. 

I confess to love the patterned Kevlar back for both looks and texture. The subtly curved Gorilla Glass edges give the phone a more polished look and the black on white stripe on our white model gives visual interest. There's a large speaker grille on the back hump, and this is indeed a loud phone with more fullness than most smartphones offer. The small power and volume controls on the right side are a bit hard to press, but we like having both micro USB and micro HDMI ports (no hunting for MHL adapters). 

Display

The Atrix HD has a 4.5" TFT LCD with ColorBoost (Motorola's marketing term). As the name implies, it has excellent colors that are rich yet not unnatural. The 1280 x 720 display is tack sharp and gets plenty bright. Viewing angles are also wide, though the HTC One X's viewing angles are a bit wider with less glare. Moto's display reminds us of LG's IPS displays, and that's a good thing. As Motorola likes to remind us, since this isn't a Super AMOLED display like the Galaxy S III, there's no Pentile Matrix and resulting smaller number of subpixels. The 326 ppi display is thus sharp with no text jaggies upon close inspection.

Calling and Data

The Motorola Atrix HD has simply excellent call quality. In fact, AT&T's top four Android phones all offer excellent voice (Atrix HD, HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S III and the Sony Xperia Ion). Incoming and outgoing voice are extremely clear, full and volume is adequate. The speaker is also better than average in terms of volume and fullness, and it reminds us of the original Droid's speaker.

The phone is quad band GSM with 3G and 4G HSPA+ on the 850/1700/1900/2100MHz bands. It has LTE 4G and download speeds averaged 23Mbps while upload speeds averaged 17Mbps in the Dallas area. Those are obviously excellent data speeds that are similar to AT&T's other top LTE Android smartphones.

Reception is solid on 3G and LTE, as we've come to expect from Motorola, and LTE reception is again identical to the top four Androids on AT&T.

Performance and Horsepower

Don't let the budget price fool you: the Atrix HD has the same 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 "Krait" CPU as the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III on AT&T. That's currently the fastest CPU available on a US Android smartphone, and the Atrix HD indeed feels fast. Motorola's very clean rendition of Android OS 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich no doubt helps speed things along as well. The phone has the usual 1 gig of RAM but only 8 gigs of internal storage (~ 5 gigs available) vs. 16 gigs on the big boys. That's still plenty of room for large app installations, and there's a microSD card slot located on the phone's side so you can further expand storage for media files and documents. Motorola says the Atrix HD is compatible with cards up to 32 gigs capacity.

Benchmarks

	Quadrant	GLBenchmark 2.1Egypt Offscreen	AnTuTu	Sunspider JavaScript Test
Motorola Atrix HD	4627	55 fps	6123	1314
HTC One X	5001	56 fps	7074	1617
Samsung Galaxy S III	5102	51 fps	7011	1825
Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket	3346	33 fps	5367	2237
Sony Xperia Ion	3126	34 fps	6391	2410

Software: Ice Cream Sandwich

I really like what Motorola has done with Android OS 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich; or more specifically I like what they haven't done. This is the cleanest skin on Android I've seen yet for ICS handsets, and that's a good thing. It doesn't bog down the smartphone or dumb down the UI and try to make it look like Gingerbread so folks won't have to learn a new trick here or there. Motorola's custom square icons are here, but that's pretty much it for significant UI changes. One thing they did add (or rather subtract) is a unique home screen treatment where you start with one main screen and add others, as you desire. You can start with templates or just an additional empty screen. For those who don't clutter their home screens with endless widgets and icons, this is much cleaner and you won't be swiping through unwanted and unnecessary screens.

Motorola's Smart Actions from the Droid series is here, and it offers useful settings customizations based on time of day or locale. You can have it use different sounds and email schedules when at work vs. home, for example. When it's bedtime, it can automatically reduce power consumption by increasing sync intervals.

Camera

Well, it isn't all puppies and roses. The 8 megapixel camera is distinctly average, and this is the one area where the Atrix HD falls short of the One X, GS III and Sony Xperia Ion. It has a bright LED flash and it can shoot 1080p video at 30 fps, but photos lack the sharp detail of the competition. Photos have visible artifacts and both photos and video have oversaturated colors (which some folks may like). It's not a horrid camera; it's just not excellent like the 8MP and higher competition on AT&T.

The Atrix HD has a front 1.3MP camera that worked well for video chat using Skype and Google Talk. Our video partners said we looked clear and bright.

Battery Life

Though I own and use phones with sealed batteries that can't be swapped on the road, I'm not a fan. If you're 9 hours into a business trip and your phone runs out of juice, you're either tethered to an AC outlet instead of getting work done or you're juggling external battery packs that trickle charge the phone. Such is the price we pay for thinner and lighter smartphones.

The Atrix HD, like the RAZR, has a Lithium Ion battery that's sealed inside. We do wish Moto and AT&T had gone with the RAZR MAXX's much more ample battery, but this is a $99 phone. That means a 1780 mAh battery that will get average users through the day with the usual regime of nightly charging. If you're a light user, you'll probably go 2 days on a charge. If you're a streaming video addict, play games with gusto or navigate using the GPS for daily trips, the phone may not make it until bedtime. The same is true of the HTC One X (battery also sealed inside) and the Xperia Ion. The Samsung Galaxy S III's 2100 mAh battery earns 20 to 40 minutes longer runtimes, which isn't much, but it does have a removable battery.

Conclusion

We're really impressed by Motorola's first Android 4 handset for AT&T. It has the stylish good looks of the Droid RAZR with the price tag of a bargain smartphone. The 720p display is very sharp and colorful with good viewing angles and outdoor visibility, and the speaker is above average. Call quality is tops as are data speeds and the phone is fast thanks to ICS and the Qualcomm S4 CPU. The sealed battery isn't ideal for road warriors who need 12 hours of heavy use per day on a charge, but for average use it's adequate (and no worse than the HTC One X). Our only complaint? The camera is decent but doesn't hold up against AT&T's top Android phones. But if high quality imaging isn't your top priority and your budget is tight, the Motorola Atrix HD is a winner. 

Price: $99 with 2 year contract, $449 without contract

Websites: wireless.att.com, www.motorola.com/us/consumers/home

Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A

Last year's Asus Zenbook UX31E Ultrabook got top honors with reviewers and shoppers alike. It was a sleek, sexy metal notebook with higher than average resolution and strong performance. It was also one of the first Ultrabooks to hit the market, and that gave it an obvious advantage. Since then many competitors have released Ultrabooks that addressed some of the Zenbook's shortcomings. Asus is an aggressive company that listens to customers and they've not only improved on our complaints, but added a killer feature: a 1080p IPS display.

The Zenbook Prime UX31A is a 13.3" Ultrabook running on third generation Intel Ivy Bridge ULV CPUs. Asus offers it with Intel Core 1.7GHz i5 and 1.9GHz i7 dual core CPUs, Intel HD 4000 graphics, 4 gigs of RAM soldered to the motherboard and 128 or 256 gig SSDs. We take a look at the Core i5 with the 128 gig SSD for this review (model UX31A-DB51). All Zenbook Prime models have a 1080p IPS display, SSD and backlit keyboard. Yes, even the Zenbook Prime UX21A 11.6" model has a 1080p display!

Other Zenbook Prime Models

- The first generation Zenbook UX31E had a lower resolution, non-IPS display and Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs. It looks nearly identical to the UX31A.

- The Zenbook Prime UX31A is available with a 1.7GHz Intel Core i5 CPU (UX31A-DB51) or with a 1.9GHz Intel Core i7 CPU and a 256 gig SSD (UX31A-DB72). A classic Ultrabook by Intel's definition with SSD storage, Intel ULV CPUs and an extremely thin and light design.

- There are custom Best Buy and Amazon models as well. The Best Buy model is the same as the DB51 minus the 1 year accidental damage warranty. The Amazon AB71 has the Core i7 CPU and a 128 gig SSD.

- The Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD has dedicated NVidia GT620M graphics (a lower end dedicated GPU) and both the RAM and hard drive are upgradable. The UX32VD ships with a conventional spinning 500 gig hard drive and a small SSD drive that boosts boot and resume times. 

- Lastly, the Zenbook UX32A (no "Prime" in the name) is a low spec model with a 1.4GHz Core i3 ULV CPU, 320 gig conventional hard disk and a lower resolution display (not a good pick).

* The word Prime= 1080p display, an SSD drive and a backlit keyboard.

Design and Ergonomics

The 2.86 pound UX31A Zenbook Prime is a dead ringer for the first gen Zenbook UX31E, and that's a good thing since that machine was simply stunning looking and well made. The casing is metal and extremely rigid. The combo of a dark metal swirl lid and a brushed stainless steel hinge barrel and bottom look great. The laptop looks and feels like a high quality piece of tech that holds its own against the MacBook Air. Like the Air, it tapers and is 3mm thin at the front and 9mm at the rear.

The Zenbook Prime has two USB 3.0 ports (one charging), micro HDMI, mini VGA, 3.5mm audio and an SD card slot (SD cards stick out and aren't flush with the casing). Like the last Zenbook, Asus includes a USB Ethernet adapter and VGA adapter in the box and a brown ballistic nylon slip case for the dongles and another for the laptop. 

Stereo speakers fire from the left and right edges just underneath the notebook, and volume is decent for a small machine. The tiny speaker grilles aren't positioned directly over the oval drivers inside, and I'd bet that reduces potential volume. The UX31A won't win in a battle with HP's Beats Audio notebooks, but sound is full enough that you can enjoy a few music tracks or a movie without running for the headphones or external speakers. Like the previous generation Asus Ultrabook, the UX31A has Bang & Olfusen ICEpower audio.

Despite the all metal casing, the Asus doesn't get terribly hot when doing productivity tasks. Case temps stay in the low to mi -90's Fahrenheit and the palm rest area is typically 90 degrees. When doing productivity work the fan is nearly silent, and when gaming the fan becomes audible but it doesn't roar. CPU temps are in the upper 20's Centigrade when web browsing and using MS Office (that's quite cool).

Keyboard and Trackpad

Asus has greatly improved the keyboard with much better tactile feel and key travel. Really. I spend lots of time writing and the original Zenbook keyboard annoyed me more each week. I've written 5 reviews on the Zenbook Prime keyboard and it has me smiling. It's not as tactilely delightful as the Dell XPS 13 and Lenovo ThinkPad X230 keyboards, but my typing speeds and error rates were good. The keys are backlit and you can control backlight level via Fn keys or let the ambient light sensor handle it for you. Thanks to the rigid casing, there's virtually no keyboard flex, unlike the UX32VD.

The Elan trackpad is improved as well, with more reliable tracking and multi-touch behavior, but palm rejection is weak. I installed the free utility TouchFreeze to improve palm rejection when typing. Pro tip: uninstall Asus Virtual Touch and multi-touch gestures will work much better! After Asus Live Update installed an update for Asus Smart Gesture (Asus' TouchPad driver that replaces the Elan driver), multi-touch gestures were more reliable and native palm rejection improved greatly so I didn't need TouchFreeze. Bottom line: the trackpad works, but like many Windows laptops, it falls far short of the Retina MacBook Pro and MacBook Air experience.

1080p Display

The Zenbook Prime impresses before you open the lid thanks to the elegant industrial design and sturdy feel. Open it up and the matte 1920 x 1080 IPS display seals the deal. The matte panel is simply gorgeous: very bright, lovely balanced colors and high contrast. Text is very sharp and black levels are excellent. Asus didn't skimp here. The 360 nit panel is brighter than most notebooks on the market (disable the ambient light sensor if you really want to blast your retinas). The display will likely set the Zenbook Prime ahead of the competition for some time. Since this is an IPS panel, viewing angles are very wide, and there's no need to angle the display forward and back to find the sweet spot as with TN panels. Whites are wonderfully neutral and the display looks as good as my MacBook Pro with Retina display, though Mac OS X does a better job of fine tuning fonts in Retina-aware apps. Contrast is likewise excellent with rich blacks that don't invert or look muddy.

It wouldn't be an Asus product if we didn't have some light bleed, but to be fair, light bleed in IPS displays isn't uncommon. What is light bleed? The display may have lighter spots near the edges when viewing black backgrounds like the black bars in letterboxed widescreen movies. Our unit, which came from a local retailer, has a small amount of light bleed along the bottom edge, but it's nothing we'd call annoying (watch our video review to see the display showing a pure black image in the dark). Anecdotally, the Zenbook Prime UX32VD seems more prone to light bleed according to user forums. Interestingly, our UX31A's light bleed decreased after a few days, to the point where it became hard to demonstrate for our video review. Perhaps the glue securing the display panel had finally set?

The Zenbook Prime has Intel WiFi and Intel graphics: the happy couple that's required for Intel WiDi wireless display, which is pre-installed. With WiDi and a receiver box that plugs into your home theater setup via HDMI like the Netgear Push2TV, you can stream your display's contents to your HD TV, or use your TV as a second monitor sans wires. For those who prefer wires, there's a micro HDMI 1.4 port on the right side and a 3.5mm combo headphone/mic jack. For those who use projectors and older monitors, there's a mini VGA port and Asus includes a dongle adapter that converts it to a full size VGA port. 

Horsepower, Intel HD 4000 Graphics and Performance

This is a classic Ultrabook, and that means dual core 17 watt Intel Core i5 and i7 ULV (ultra low voltage CPUs) that use less power and generate less heat than their full mobile counterparts used in standard size notebooks. That said, they're more than fast enough for everyday productivity work like web, email, MS Office and even moderate Photoshop work. 

Streaming and local HD video playback work wonderfully and that's much appreciated given the 1080p display. Ultrabooks rely on Intel HD graphics, and in the case of this third generation Intel machine, that means Intel HD 4000 graphics, which is significantly faster than the Intel HD 3000 used in Sandy Bridge models like the UX31E. That doesn't mean you can play Crysis 2 on high settings at native resolution, but casual and older 3D games play with good frame rates and even demanding current games like Skyrim play at 30 fps on low settings and a less stressful 1366 x 768 resolution. Beyond serious gaming, what else wouldn't I use an Ultrabook for? Editing 1080p video on a daily basis. It's fine in both Core i5 and i7 dual core renditions for occasional vacation footage editing, but is too slow for those who edit HD video professionally/frequently. There is no quad core i7 ULV CPU, Intel stops at dual cores.

The machine has 4 gigs of DDR3 1600MHz RAM soldered to the motherboard, so no upgrades are possible. Look to the Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD for upgradable memory and hard drives. The Zenbook Prime UX31A is available with 128 and 256 gig SATA III SSD drives, and these are made by ADATA and Sandisk. There's no way of knowing which you'll get, since the "Sandforce" sticker that indicates the faster ADATA drive is on the inner box (the same was true with last year's UX31E). That said, the Sandisk drive is much improved over that used in the UX31E, and it no longer means a huge performance drop vs. the ADATA with a Sandforce controller. Our model from a local Microcenter had the ADATA 128 gig drive and the 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U CPU.

Thanks in large part to the SSD drive, our Zenbook Prime UX31A feels very peppy, and Windows boots in well under 30 seconds. Resume from sleep takes just seconds. It scores very high on synthetic benchmarks like PCMark Vantage because of the SSD drive that's so much faster than conventional spinning hard drives, but don't let that fool you: in terms of raw processing power it's not faster than 15.6" and larger laptops with full Intel Core i5 and i7 CPUs. Though we fault PCMark for favoring SSDs so much, it does reflect the perceived performance boost they offer for core functions like launching apps and booting Windows. The machine boots and launches applications much more quickly than a quad core i7 HP Envy or Dell XPS with a conventional spinning hard drive.

Benchmarks

3D Mark Vantage: 2801 (GPU 2310, CPU 7663) on Performance test preset

PCMark Vantage: 12,272  Memories: 7336
TV and Movies: 4625
Gaming: 8920
Music: 13,620
Communications: 12,348
Productivity: 15,158
HDD: 46,609

Windows Experience Index:

Processor: 6.9
RAM: 5.9
Graphics (for Aero): 5.9
Gaming Graphics: 6.4
HDD: 7.9

Benchmark Comparison Table

PCMark Vantage
Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A (Core i5)	12,272
Asus Zenbook UX31E (core i5 Sandy Bridge)	10,021
Sony Vaio T (Core i7 ULV Ivy Bridge Ultrabook)	12,120
Lenovo ThinkPad X230 (Core i5 Ivy Bridge)	8152
Sony Vaio S 13.3 (Core i5, NVidia GT640M LE)	7575
MacBook Pro with Retina (Core i5, NVidia GT650M)	19,174

Battery Life and Networking

The Zenbook Prime UX31A has a 50 watt Lithium Ion battery that's sealed inside. Like the last Zenbook, it comes with a small charger that looks like a gloss black version of the Macbook Air charger. In our tests with WiFi active and display brightness set to 40% (which is quite bright), the UX31A averaged 6 hours on a charge, which is average for an Ultrabook and good considering the machine is pushing extra pixels.

Asus offers 4 custom power plans for performance, entertainment, quiet office and low power consumption. You can tweak these if you like, and we suggest changing the default power management for WiFi: it sets the radio to low power mode, which destroys transfer speeds. A little too power-frugal, Asus!

The UX31A has dual band Intel Advanced-N 6235 WiFi 802.11b/g/n, and range and speeds comparable to other notebooks once we adjusted that darned WiFi power setting. The metal casing didn't cause any problems with download speeds or range. The laptop has Bluetooth 4.0 as well, and 10/100 Ethernet via the included USB Ethernet adapter.

Conclusion

Do we like the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A? Oh yes, in fact we love it. It has superb build quality, one of the most elegant and attractive designs on the market and that 1080p IPS display will spoil you. The MacBook Air's display will be a let down, and even the super color-accurate Sony Vaio Z 1080p display will seem weak for viewing angles and brightness. The much more typing-friendly backlit keyboard, fast performance and dual USB 3.0 ports seal the deal.

Price: Starting at $1,099 for the Core i5 with 128 gig SSD

Website: www.asus.com

Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700

There's nothing like anticipation and low inventory to hype a product. We saw that with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime early this year, and now its successor, the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 is poised to start another feeding frenzy. While the Prime has its problems, the Infinity TF700 is everything the Prime should have been, and then some. 

Wireless radios work perfectly, ports and controls are more robust and the 1920 x 1200 HD display is one of the best we've seen on a mobile product. The rear f/2.2 camera with BSI sensor and 5 element lens likewise is the best tablet camera on the market. Granted, that might not say much given the state of tablet cameras, but the TF700 really does take excellent photos and 1080p video that far surpass the mediocre Transformer Prime and Asus Transformer Pad TF300 camera.

Specs

The tablet runs on the newer and faster 1.6GHz NVidia Tegra 3 T33 quad core CPU with 1 gig DDR3 RAM and 32 or 64 gigs of storage. It feels fast and is fast running Android OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and we can't wait to see how much snappier it gets with Android 4.4.1 Jelly Bean and its touch of Project Butter (Asus has said the TF700 will get Jelly Bean, and knowing them, it will be sooner rather than later). 

The tablet has Wifi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and a GPS (that works). It has a front 2 megapixel video chat camera and a rear 8 megapixel camera. Ports include micro HDMI, the usual Asus proprietary charging/docking/USB port, USB host via the optional keyboard dock or Asus USB host adapter and a 3.5mm audio jack. The Infinity has a full HD Super IPS + capacitive display and a 25Wh Lithium Ion battery. The 32 gig sells for $499 and the 64 sells for $599. It's available in amethyst gray and champagne silver, similar to the Transformer Prime.

Display

Like the new iPad with Retina display, colors are lush and detail is extreme. Images look much more real and text is superbly sharp. Unlike the iPad, the Asus Transformer Pad TF700 has one of the brightest mobile displays available. The Super IPS + display reaches over 600 nits of brightness. That certainly helps outdoor viewability, though the glossy Gorilla Glass 2 clad front reflects plenty in sunlight. 

Is the display night and day different from tablets like the Transformer Prime? Not at first glance. But you'll notice the Infinity TF700 looks more appealing and sharper, yet not as harsh as the Prime whose contrast and coolness amplify sharpness while making things look a bit hard compared to the Infinity. If you own a Prime and are happy with it, there's likely no reason to upgrade. But if this is your first tablet or you're upgrading from an older 1280 x 800 Android tablet with a non-IPS display, you'll definitely notice the improvement. The Infinity's display is sharper and brighter than the HD panel on the Acer Iconia Tab A700.

Design and Ergonomics

The Infinity TF700 has an aluminum back with a swirl pattern and it's available in amethyst gray and champagne gold colors. It's one of the more attractive tablets on the market, and it's also very thin at 0.39" and light at 1.32 pounds. There's a plastic strip along the back upper edge to improve wireless reception (metal interferes with reception). We've enjoyed good WiFi performance and a tenacious GPS that locks onto satellites indoors even with WiFi off.

As with all Transformers, you can get an optional keyboard dock that turns the tablet into a clamshell notebook style. The dock has a keyboard, trackpad, USB port and an additional battery. Asus states that the TF700 and TF201 Prime docks aren't interchangeable, but we've no problems using our Prime TF201 dock with the Infinity. The new dock has a "TF700-dock" part number on the box, but the dock is labeled TF201-dock. Go figure.

We had complaints with the Prime's port and control design. In order to make the skinny tablet seem even slimmer, Asus used an aggressive taper that's more gentle on the Infinity TF700, and the same is true of the Transformer Pad TF300.

 That makes it easier to operate the buttons without your finger sliding down the taper, and ports can be a bit more robust. The dock connector is a bit sturdier though still delicate enough that it ships with a rubber plug protecting it, and the headphone jack still leaves some of the headphone plug exposed (be careful not to short it with anything metal or you might hear feedback in your ears when using headphones). 

Unlike the Prime, the TF300 and TF700 don't ship with rubber plugs in the two holes on the bottom edge for the optional dock's latches. The holes aren't pretty but apparently users didn't take the rubber plugs out of the Prime and thus couldn't get it into the dock (really?!).

With the optional keyboard dock.

Thanks to its light 1.32 pound weight, the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 isn't tiring to hold, though we still think that a tablet can be too thin to hold comfortably. The Infinity TF700, like the Prime and TF300, is so skinny that there's little to hold onto. The straight sides on the Toshiba Excite 10 are actually more ergonomic.

The single speaker grille fires from the rear just where you'll likely put your hand when holding it in landscape mode. Volume and fullness are a disappointment and can't complete with the rich and loud Acer Iconia Tab A700 and Toshiba Excite 10. If the room is quiet, you can use the speakers to watch a movie, but if there's ambient noise you'll want to use headphones or portable speakers.

Performance

Asus is once again the king of tablets when it comes to processing speed. The quad core (plus fifth low power companion core) NVidia Tegra T33 CPU is the newer and slightly faster version of the T30 used on other quad core tablets and smartphones. It's clocked at 1.6GHz vs. 1.3Ghz on other tablets including the Transformer Prime and it is indeed slightly faster on benchmarks. The tablet feels very fast too, in fact it's just as fast as my quad core Nexus 7 tablet running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, an OS that has serious speed optimizations. 

I/O storage speeds have never been top notch on Asus tablets, but in the two weeks I've been using this as my main tablet, I haven't been bothered with occasional hiccups and slowdowns as with some prior Asus models. Asus released a firmware update on July 27, 2012 that improves I/O speeds for those who are having slowdowns when using the tablet while downloading and installing large apps and files. I've installed 50 apps and haven't had performance issues with internal storage.

The TF700 has 1 gig of DDR3 RAM vs. the DDR2 RAM used on most other tablets and it's available with either 32 or 64 gigs of storage. You can augment that with microSD cards (or full size SD cards if you own the dock). We tested cards up to 32 gigs capacity and they worked fine. You can also use USB mass storage devices (USB flash drives and hard drives) that are formatted FAT32 or NTFS via Asus' small USB adapter that plugs into the sync/charge/dock port or the full size USB port on the optional keyboard dock.

As with other Transformer Android tablets, you can use power/speed settings to conserve battery power or run the tablet as fast as possible. The default Balanced setting works for us, offering nearly the same speed as Performance mode. Still, it's nice to have this geeky feature that's normally found on laptops rather than Android tablets.

Benchmarks

	Quadrant	GLBenchmark 2.1Egypt Offscreen	AnTuTu	Sunspider JavaScript Test
Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700	4915	74 fps	12,229	1903
Toshiba Excite 10	4143	63 fps	11,056	1935
Acer Iconia Tab A700	3646	58 fps	10,536	1958
Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime	3801	61 fps	9846	1814
Asus Transformer Pad TF300	3425	69 fps	9559	2257

Wireless

The Transformer Infinity has single band WiFi 802.11b/g/n. Asus really worked hard to improve wireless performance compared to the Prime, and the Infinity has very good WiFi performance in terms of reception and speed. In fact, it managed -5db better signal than some of our laptops, and notebooks generally have better reception than tablets thanks to higher powered radios and longer antennas. 

The tablet has a GPS and digital compass that work well. Even with WiFi turned off, our TF700 found 8 satellites in the first floor of a two story home 15 feet from the nearest window, and it got a location fix with 8m accuracy. Nice. It took 20 seconds to get that indoor cold fix with WiFi off, and it took only a few seconds with a warm start and with WiFi on. Outdoor performance when driving was very good.

The TF700 has Bluetooth 3.0 + HS for wireless headphones, speakers and Bluetooth keyboards among other things. It worked reliably in our tests, though we did note occasional audio track delays when watching streaming videos (a common problem with single chip WiFi/Bluetooth equipped smartphones and tablets). Video didn't stutter and audio didn't sputter as a consolation.

Camera

Tablet cameras generally stink. The HTC Jetstream was an exception, but the rest didn't take photos or video that motivated us to wave a 10" camera around. The Infinity TF700 changes all that: it takes photos that are so good I don't care if I look like a dork waving it around. Images are crisp, colorful and lifelike. The camera has some trouble with extreme outdoor contrast, but it's much improved over the Prime and to be fair, many high end camera phones have problems with this. The camera has touch to focus, and autofocus times are good.

The 8 megapixel rear camera has a flash, BSI sensor and a fast f/2.2 five element lens. It shoots very sharp and smooth 1080p video at 30 fps that's good enough to capture special moments and share them with friends on-screen or over HDMI or dLNA to an HD TV. 

Battery Life

The Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 has a 25Wh Lithium Ion polymer battery that's sealed inside. Asus claims up to 10 hours use, and so far we've managed 9 on average with a mix of email, web, YouTube short clip playback and Polaris Office use. If you use the GPS heavily or game, expect shorter battery life. Video playback times are good, and we got through 3 feature length movies at 50% brightness with power to spare. The optional keyboard dock extends runtimes since it has a 19.5 Wh battery, and Asus claims 14 hours which seems on target in our tests with the TF201 dock that has a 22Wh battery. As with previous Transformer models, the battery in the dock charges the tablet and Asus includes a widget that displays both tablet and dock battery levels.

Software

The Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 ships with Android OS 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich. Asus has stated that the Infinity will get the update to 4.1 Jelly Bean, and they've been good about offering OS updates reliably and quickly so we hope it won't be too long.

Asus doesn't muck much with Android's UI, so you're getting a fairly pure experience. They do add their selection of useful applications. These are the same apps that are bundled with the Transformer Prime and TF300 and they include Polaris Office (view, edit and create MS Office compatible docs), Splashtop HD remote (remotely access your PC or Mac's desktop), an app backup utility, App Locker (prevent the kids from running specified apps), SuperNote (rich notes with text and drawing support), Zinio, Press Reader, dLNA, a decently featured but slow ePub ebook reader and Asus Cloud Storage.

Conclusion

Yes! Finally a high end Asus Android tablet that we can love. My two weeks with the Asus Transformer Infinity TF700 have been truly enjoyable. The HD Super IPS + display is simply beautiful and the tablet is very fast. It's been stable as well with none of the "wait/force close" error messages that plagued my Transformer Prime and occasionally befuddled my Transformer Pad TF300. WiFi works well as does the GPS, and the camera is surprisingly super. We continue to like Asus' bundled software that truly are value-addeds rather than bloatware, and we look forward to Jelly Bean since Asus is always quick with OS upgrades.

If you're looking for a high end HD Android tablet with a versatile dock option, fast quad core CPU, USB host and an outdoor viewable display, we recommend the Transformer Pad Infinity TF700.

Price: $499 for the 32 gig and $599 for the 64 gig model

Website: www.asus.com