Nokia Lumia 638 quietly went up for pre-order in China with Windows
Phone 8.1 on board. The dual-SIM, LTE-capable smartphone is priced at
1,199 Yuan (about $192).
Like its Nokia Lumia 630 and Lumia 635
siblings, the newcomer features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC with 1.2
GHz quad-core CPU, 4.5” display, and 5 MP main camera. However, the
Nokia Lumia 638 packs 1 GB of RAM – twice as much as the rest of the
budget-friendly lineup.
There is no word on availability of the Nokia Lumia 638 outside of China.
Acer
is swinging for the fences with the new $1,499 Acer Aspire S7-392-6411
Ultrabook. The second generation of the company's S7 series sports some
welcome updates, such as improved battery life, a better keyboard and a
fourth-generation Intel Core i5 processor. But the Aspire hasn't ditched
the aspects of the S7 we loved, namely the super-slim, all-white
chassis and the 1080p touch-screen that continues to turn heads. The end
result is a home run for Ultrabook shoppers.
It's hard to believe, but we're getting close to the one-year mark in
the Windows 8 era. Microsoft's still-controversial operating system was
released in October 2012, and that was long-enough ago that we're now
seeing the second generation of some of the initial-launch-period
Windows 8 laptops and hybrids.
One of my favorite early Windows 8 laptops was the Acer Aspire S7, and it quickly became a favorite for much of the rest of our PC-savvy staff as well. The original S7 scored points by being a new-from-the-ground-up ultrabook, rather than an existing Windows 7
product updated with new software. The new version, the S7-392-6411,
essentially identical on the outside, remains one of the thinnest,
slickest-looking ultrabooks available, highlighted by a white minimalist
chassis and a lid covered with Gorilla Glass.
Since then, we've seen many thin, touch-screen laptops with high-end processors and 1080p screen resolutions, including the Sony Vaio Pro 13 and the Samsung Ativ Book 9, plus impressive hybrids such as the Lenovo Yoga 13. Despite the increase in competition, this remains a
great, eye-catching design, thanks to the bold white-and-silver design
(a nice break from the dark palette of most laptops) and the Gorilla
Glass lid, which promises strength and a lighter overall weight.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The
new Aspire S7 moves to Intel's latest fourth-generation Core i-series
processors. The 2012 version we tested had a previous-gen Core i7 chip
for $1,649, while the 2013 model has a Haswell-generation Core i5 for
$1,399.99, which includes a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) and 8GB of
RAM. That's a premium price, especially for a Core i5 laptop,
considering a 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,099, but it's competitive with similar Sony and Samsung ultrabooks.
This
is a hard laptop not to like, and even though the basic design is about
10 months old, it still feels very cutting-edge, at least visually. The
$1,399.99 price is still a bit of a reach, especially considering that I
don't love the keyboard and touch pad, but it's also very portable and
reasonably powerful, and will look great at a coffee shop.
Design and features Aside from moving a few
ports around and the absence of the words "Professionally tuned" stamped
above the keyboard, this is essentially the same Aspire S7 design we
liked so much last year. It's very thin and light, although the
glass-covered lid feels a bit top-heavy. You may recall that the
original HP Envy Spectre (from early 2012) had a similar design, putting
glass both on the back of the lid and the wrist rest. Here it's just the
lid, which is good, as it never really worked on the wrist rest.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Of
course, this isn't an all-glass laptop (which sounds like a crazy idea,
but I bet someone will eventually pitch one). The rest of the body is
aluminum over a plastic base, and the entire thing has a MacBook-like
feel. White (behind the glass surface on the back of the lid) and silver
is an unusual, but not unheard-of, color combination these days. Most
laptops, apart from MacBooks, tend to be matte or glassy black, with
maybe a little gray or some red accents thrown in. Just by being
different the Aspire S7 achieves an upscale look that stands out.
The
keyboard has flat-topped, island-style keys that sit in a gently
sloping, indented keyboard tray. The keys feel deeper than the original
S7's, based on my memory of that system, making for a less error-prone
experience -- but it may just be that my tolerance for shallow ultrabook
keyboards has grown with repeat exposure. One thing I miss is having a
separate row of Function keys; instead those functions are mapped as
alternates to the numeral keys. It's an odd omission, as there's plenty
of room at the top of the keyboard for an additional row.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The
large touch pad has a great surface with just enough friction, but
multitouch gestures are a bit finicky. Interestingly, this version has a
Synaptics touch pad, rather than the Elan model on the original S7 from
2012. Side by side, I'd say this new S7's touch pad is more responsive,
but it still pales in comparison with what you get from a MacBook.
One
highlight of the system is the 1,920x1,080-pixel-resolution, 13.3-inch
display. Despite some touch-screen laptops making their lids slightly
thicker, the lid here still seems very thin, and is perfectly flat, not
convex at all. The screen has decent off-axis viewing and while it's
glossy, it's not overly reflective.
The screen hinge is designed
with touch-screen use in mind. It acts like any other laptop hinge from
the closed position to about 120 degrees or so. After that, the hinge
stiffens considerably, so tapping and swiping on the screen results in
less shaking or movement under your fingers. It's a small feature, but a
clever one for Windows 8 laptops.
Features
Acer Aspire S7
Video
HDMI and Mini DisplayPort
Audio
Stereo speakers, combo headphone/microphone jack
Data
2 USB 3.0, SD card reader
Networking
802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Optical drive
None
System configurations Acer Aspire S7-392-6411 Windows 8 (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 128MB (Dedicated) Intel HD Graphics 4400: 128GB SSD
Connections, performance, and battery
On a small laptop, you're going to give up a certain number of ports
and connections, but at least the new S7 has two video outputs, HDMI and
Mini DisplayPort. You also get a couple of USB 3.0 ports and an SD card
slot, but no Ethernet jack, which would be tough to fit into the slim
body.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Unlike
the more expensive Acer Aspire S7 we tested in late 2012, this newer
model has an Intel Core i5 CPU instead of a more powerful Core i7 one.
In day-to-day use, the effect is minimal, especially as the Core i5 here
is from the latest generation of Intel CPUs, aka Haswell. In anecdotal
use, just like the roughly comparable Sony Vaio Pro 13 or Samsung Ativ
Book 9, the S7 always felt fast and responsive, including excellent
touch-screen response. It's certainly more power than you're likely to
need for Web surfing, social media, office productivity, and HD video
playback.
Battery life is where the advantage of Intel's Haswell
chips is really felt. The Acer Aspire S7 ran for 7 hours and 14 minute
sin our video playback battery drain test, about 50 minutes longer than
the pre-Haswell S7 we tested in 2012. That's not at great compared with
the 12-plus hours you'll get from a 13-inch MacBook Air, but it's a solid number for a 13-inch ultrabook.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Heat
Acer
outfitted the S7 with a new thermal system designed to keep the laptop
at a cooler temperature. Comprised of a pair of high-speed thermal fans,
the TwinAir system uses one fan to pull in cool air, while the other
blows out hot air.
After 15 minutes of streaming a full-screen
Hulu video on the S7, the notebook's touchpad measured a cool 79 degrees
Fahrenheit. The space between the G and H keys and the S7's
undercarriage were slightly warmer, at 84 and 85 degrees, respectively.
All of these measurements are below our comfort threshold of 95 degrees.
Nevertheless, the previous S7 registered a cooler 75, 80 and 80 degrees
in the same locations.
Toward the back of the S7, near the hinge, we measured a toasty 101 degrees, but it wasn't uncomfortable in our lap.
The Thinkpad Ultrabook Gets a High-End Windows 8 Touch
High performance laptops are nothing new, but until recently
they were hulking beasts that could break one's back if carried out of
the house. Things have changed - it's now possible to have top
performance in ultra-portable packages, as demonstrated by the Lenovo
ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch Ultrabook.
It's hard to classify the Lenovo's direct competitors due to the huge variety of Windows 8
hybrids and laptops on the market. The rulebook has been ripped up and
with a traditional laptop design with an added touchscreen, the Lenovo
ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch is one of the more conservative offerings. High
performance laptop hybrids such as the Sony Vaio Duo 13 spring to mind, as do traditional Ultrabooks such as the Dell XPS 13 and MacBook Pro with Retina display.
The original 2012 Lenovo X1 Carbon was the best ThinkPad money could buy, but now Lenovo has added a touchscreen panel and changed Windows 7 Professional for Windows 8, bringing last year's model right up to date.
The
result is a formidable machine that not only offers the best usability
and performance, but also a fantastic Windows 8 experience. However, the
eye-watering price tag of £1,779 / US$2,139 / AU$2,538 means this
experience doesn't come cheap.
Pick the Lenovo ThinkPad
X1 Carbon Touch up and it's immediately apparent that you're holding a
different class of laptop. ThinkPad has always been a predominately
business brand and you'll have seen the familiar black matt chassis
punctuated by that red mouse pointer in Starbucks and train stations all
over the place.
Being a ThinkPad, the X1 Carbon Touch
retains the looks synonymous with this illustrious range, but the
similarities with bog-standard corporate machines end there. Yes there's
the red mouse nipple, which is bemusing when a touchscreen and
full-sized trackpad are on offer, but it's an example of how important
the look of the X1 Carbon Touch is to Lenovo.
However,
when you pick up the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch for the first
time, the solid, flexless build, smooth rubberised finish and
lightweight chassis can't fail to impress. The fact that this machine
weighs just 1.5kg (3.3lbs) yet counts as one of the most powerful
Ultrabooks on the market speaks volumes about what Lenovo has achieved.
Other
Ultrabooks that have tried to achieve this balance of weight and power
have ended up scrimping on build quality - such as the HP Envy 15 with its awful trackpad or the Acer Aspire S7 and its keyboard, but the Carbon oozes quality from every port.
From
the beautifully spaced and comfortable keyboard that enables immediate,
accurate speed typing to the smooth and responsive trackpad to the
luxurious panel that manages to marry vibrancy and clarity with a
non-reflective finish.
Windows 8 review
It's
not just the weight - or lack of - that makes the Lenovo ThinkPad X1
Carbon Touch such a engineering triumph, it's also the thickness.
Despite measuring 22mm (0.87 inches) at its thickest point - a not
exactly size-zero waistline - the Carbon's wedge shape gives it the
impression of blade-like thinness. It's alluring to look at and commands
attention, attracting admiring comments from those around you.
However,
to ace a TechRadar review, you need more than alluring looks. So let's
get under the hood and see how good the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch
really is.
The expected ThinkPad amenities are standard, including vPro
management, TPM, a fingerprint reader, and even an optional integrated
WWAN (3G) radio. The carbon fiber cover and cage are, in Lenovo’s
parlance, “satellite quality,” and the chassis certainly feels more
durable than Sputnik.
Lenovo also hasn’t forgotten about the things that users actually
care about. Audio is impressive and Dolby-certified. The keyboard is
backlit and fully usable, and the glass touchpad was rock solid on this
go-round with the Carbon. (The 2012 unit I tested had a disturbingly loose one.)
Only two complaints marred my experience with the X1 Touch. Foremost
is battery life. While I managed to score an extra half hour of video
playback versus the old X1, at 3.5 hours of running time, it is still at
the bottom of the heap of Windows 8 laptops when it comes to longevity.
The screen is also relatively dim, and colors look a bit washed out in
comparison to other recent-model laptops.
Of course, there’s also the not-insubstantial price to consider, too.
The X1 Touch starts at $1,350 and, as configured, runs a hefty $1,729.
That’s cheaper than the non-touch Carbon I reviewed in the fall, but
still a huge investment in a laptop, and hundreds of dollars more
expensive than the competition in this space. (Acer’s 14-inch Aspire M may be heavier, but it’s less than half the price.)
If you’re trying to convince your boss to buy one for you, my recommendation is lean heavily on the bit about the satellite.
WIREDExcellent combination of performance,
portability, and durability. Still the best keyboard going. Trackpad
issues resolved. You want bells and whistles?
TIREDProbably the most expensive computer in its
class. Screen not as impressive as the previous generation. Battery life
upgraded, but still not enough.
Specifications
Under the hood is an Intel Core i7
processor 3667U, the U in that pithy moniker indicating that it's one of
the ultra low-power chips designed for Ultrabooks. It packs
considerably more power than the likes of the Asus Zenbook or Samsung Series 9, since it's clocked at an impressive 2GHz.
The
benchmark scores from our lab tests back this up too, with a top-end
performance resulting in roughly 10 per cent more power than rival
Ultrabooks such as the Asus Zenbook.
The
Core i7 chip is also left to handle the graphics tasks in the absence
of a dedicated graphics card. It has become the norm for manufacturers
to leave 3D graphics to the onboard processor now, but it means that
despite the sky-high price tag, the Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 isn't the
best choice for heavy video editors or gamers.
Elsewhere there's a whopping 8GB of RAM, an amount normally reserved for gaming machines or high-end powerhouses such as the Samsung Series 7 Chronos. This helps keep the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch noticeably quick, helping a slick, breathless performance.
There
are several models of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch at a range of
price points, and our model packed a 256GB SSD drive, the highest you
can get. The only criticism here is the lack of usable space, and of the
256GB on offer, only 190GB was usable.
Looking
at the frankly ludicrous price tag, one might be forgiven for
mistakenly thinking that a dedicated graphics chip powered the Lenovo
ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch, but in a laptop this thin all the
pixel-pushing has been left to that Intel Core i7 processor. It does a
good job and performs better than most Ultrabooks, meaning that even the
latest games are within its limitations, if you don't mind sacrificing
some graphics performance.
Of course, the 14-inch, 1600 x
900 resolution panel is a key part of this updated Lenovo ThinkPad X1
Carbon Touch, and while we'd like to have seen 1080p included given the
price, it's still a good performance.
The colours look
great, it's pin sharp despite not being Full HD and it's as great for
watching a movie as it is for working on a presentation. What's more,
the touch sensitivity is as good as we've seen on a Windows 8 device,
and it's miraculously free from smearing.
For
a laptop that measures 22mm at its thickest point, connectivity is
underwhelming, with two USB 3.0 ports, one of which can charge devices
when the laptop is sleeping.
There's also DisplayPort
for connecting to external monitors and an SD card, but no Ethernet,
HDMI or VGA, which will mean carrying extra dongles to your meetings.
However, business users will love the fingerprint reader and hard drive
protection.
Performance
Benchmarks Cinebench 10: 11,498 3D Mark: Ice: 32,650 Wind: 3787 Fire: 512 Battery: 192 mins
With
a score of 11,498 in our processor tests, it's clear that the Lenovo
ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch is a formidable machine. This kind of score
ranks among some of the best performing Ultrabooks on the market, and
even manages to give the next generation of Intel processors a run for
their money.
Other than top multitasking and app
switching speeds, the i7 processor speeds up boot times, enabling it to
go from cold to a usable Windows 8 home screen in roughly 15 seconds.
Even better is the resume from sleep, which averaged around four
seconds, partly due to Windows 8's improvements and of course that
wickedly fast chip.
However,
there's a downside. The high performance third generation Intel Core i7
chip colludes to suck power from the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch,
especially under heavy strain. The result is an uninspiring three hours
of battery life in our test, which involves looping a high definition
clip with full screen brightness until the laptop dies.
Three
hours is one of the lowest Ultrabook battery scores we've seen, and
should ring alarm bells for anyone who intends to use the Lenovo
ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch at high load while away from mains electricity.
Turning the screen brightness down and sticking to
moderate web tasks increases lifespan to around four hours, which is
still underwhelming when you consider the Samsung Vaio Duo 13 running
Intel's latest Haswell fourth generation processor managed six hours in the same test.
If
you spend long periods on the road, you could be frustrated by the
disappointing longevity, especially given the Ultrabook's sky-high price
tag. Intel's new chips, announced in May and being released in earnest
later this year, will offer better longevity and battery performance,
which makes the £1,779 / US$2,139 / AU$2,538 price seem even less
appealing.
As with most Ultrabooks there's no dedicated
graphics, and while games might be playable on lower settings, it's in
no way suited to overly creative tasks or heavy video editing. We
wouldn't normally pull up an Ultrabook for this failing, but then most
Ultrabooks don't cost this extraordinary sum.
Connections, and battery Like
many business systems, the X1 Carbon skips the SD card slot (a security
concern for some), but you do get two video outputs, both HDMI and Mini
DisplayPort. Ethernet requires a dongle, but Lenovo would no doubt like
you to use one of its OneLink docks to add additional connectivity,
including DVI, full Ethernet, and four USB 3.0 ports. That standalone
dock costs $179, a hefty additional investment, but I use an older
USB-powered version, and have found it to be excellent.
In
our benchmark tests, the Core i5-powered X1 Carbon performed as
expected when compared with other recent ultrabooks with
higher-than-1080p displays. Nearly all these systems have fourth-gen
Core i5 CPUs, from Intel's ultra-low-power line (except the Toshiba Kirabook, which has a previous-generation Core i7), and
you'll find any of these more than powerful enough for everyday personal
and business tasks, from putting together PowerPoint presentations to
social media and Web surfing to streaming HD video.
Given all
that, what we're really looking for from the X1 Carbon is amazing
battery life. A slim, on-the-go laptop needs to last all day, and while
the X1 does well, it's not a long-lived as some. The system ran for 5
hours, 41 minutes, in our video playback battery drain test, which is
merely OK, and not in the same ballpark as the 13-inch MacBook Pro,
nor even the Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus or Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro. Keep in
mind that all of the systems mentioned here have better-than-HD
displays.
Conclusion
The third version of the ThinkPad X1 is the best to date, and it
remains one of the only choices for a slim, high-design business laptop
with premium features. The addition of both a
2,560x1,440-pixel-resolution display and the adaptive function key row
is welcome, but these upgrades also drive the price up high enough that
you're likely to have to twist some arms to get your IT department to
get this as your next work laptop.
Looking
at the frankly ludicrous price tag, one might be forgiven for
mistakenly thinking that a dedicated graphics chip powered the Lenovo
ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch, but in a laptop this thin all the
pixel-pushing has been left to that Intel Core i7 processor. It does a
good job and performs better than most Ultrabooks, meaning that even the
latest games are within its limitations, if you don't mind sacrificing
some graphics performance.
