This is the best LCD TV we’ve ever tested. Sony has had a tough ride in the last few years but after a catalogue of mistakes, it’s finally come good in the most spectacular of ways. The KDL-46HX853 takes LCD picture quality to a whole new level, particularly where contrast and motion handling are concerned. The set looks gorgeous too, and features what’s for our money the best – or at least the most sensibly focussed – online service around. This all adds up to an achievement made all the more remarkable when you consider that this outstanding TV is being delivered at a more aggressive price than the usually ultra-competitive Korean brands are offering on their range equivalents. To sum all this up, with the KDL-46HX853 Sony isn’t just back, it’s back with a vengeance.
The way the Toshiba BDX3300 doesn’t bother to disguise its BBC iPlayer, Acetrax, YouTube and Picasa services as apps is somewhat refreshing, since the functionality is identical to much more expensive – and certainly more polished, usability-wise – smart TVs and Blu-ray players. When it comes to pure Full HD picture quality, the Toshiba BDX3300 delivers, and we also like the fact that it can support an awful lot of digital files via USB and over a network. It may lack finesse and at times appears a tad archaic, but we can’t find it within us to criticise anything on a super-slim Blu-ray player that combines the best of the smart TV landscape with a price that hovers under £80/£120. For a simple 2D Blu-ray upgrade with some YouTube goodness, we can’t recommend the Toshiba BDX3300 highly enough.
Asus Transformer Pad 300 review
You can’t release a £399, 10.1-inch tablet and not expect comparisons with the iPad, so we’ll cut to the chase. The Asus Transformer Pad TF300 is currently one of the best 10-inch Android tablets you can buy, and represents better value with equivalent performance than the Asus Transformer Prime. The top-notch benchmark scores, wonderful use of the keyboard docking station, excellent battery life and superb usability make it a top recommendation in our eyes. If you’re platform agnostic and are tossing up between this and the iPad, things get trickier. The Transformer is better value, has double the storage, a fantastic keyboard dock which makes it much more versatile, and Ice Cream Sandwich closes the gap hugely. Individual needs and budget will determine if the Asus Transformer Pad TF300 is right for you, but we applaud Asus for marrying value and performance, and the TF300 comes highly recommended.
The TX-L42DT50B is a relatively high-end TV – that much is obvious from its slim depth and metallic bezel, the latter of which is some achievement considering Panasonic’s rather lacklustre history in this department. Feature-packed inside, we’re able to detect that this isn’t the brand’s flagship set, but there’s really no major flaws aside from a stubborn refusal to include 3D specs. It’s a decision which rather underlines why most brands – including Panasonic, to some extent – is quickly turning to passive 3D system with its 99p 3D glasses.
Toshiba’s 55ZL2 is designed to get any tech obsessive’s pulse racing. After all, it breaks new ground in not one but two huge areas. First it can genuinely produce a watchable 3D picture without you having to wear glasses. And second, to help it achieve its first innovation, it employs a native 4K or Quad HD pixel resolution for the first time on a domestic TV.
Amplifiers
Blu-ray players
Cameras
Hands on: Leica M Monochrom review
Desktops
CyberPower Infinity Achilles review
Gaming accessories
Graphics cards
Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition review
Gigabyte HD 7850 Overclock review
Headphones
Incase Sonic Over Ear Headphones review
Plantronics BackBeat Go review
Laptops
Toshiba Satellite Pro C660-2F7 review
Hands on: Sony Vaio T13 review
Mobile phones
Printers
Processors
Routers
Asus EA-N66 Ethernet Adaptor review
Last week was utterly dominated by the Samsung Galaxy S3, but the merry-go-round of high-tech wares continues unabated and this week we’ve seen some really tasty treats.
The highly competitive cameras market continues to be an area of constant innovation – Nikon has been leading the way and the D3200 looks like being the must-have entry-level DSLR of 2012.
Elsewhere we’ve seen new graphics cards, Blu-ray players, phones and laptops, and we’ve tested them all…
This Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 then is one of the Kepler cards we’ve been desperately waiting for. The second tier cards in the Kepler line up were always going to generate more interest than either of the overly expensive GTX 680 or GTX 690. And they’re going to sell a hell of a lot more too.
The key thing here though is that there is so little difference in performance and architectural terms between the Nvidia GTX 680 and GTX 670. In fact with the frame rates you’re getting with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 it’s going to be rather difficult for us to recommend anyone buying the GTX 680 if they’re going to leave it at stock speeds.
Just 3.7cm tall and less than 20cm deep, there’s not an AV rack around that couldn’t take Samsung’s well-equipped Samsung BD-E6100 Blu-ray player. That fact that it’s 3D-capable will attract many, especially since that feature only appears to attract a premium of £30 or so over a bare bones Blu-ray deck, but in truth it’s only a polished user interface or two away from Samsung’s 2011 crop of Blu-ray players.
It’s a great value 2D and 3D Blu-ray player boasting excellent picture quality, impressive streaming and digital file playback. Samsung’s entry-level Samsung BD-E6100 stutters only on a slow Smart Hub interface that’s cluttered with novelty apps, services and even advertising.
Nikon has delivered an entry-level camera with real photographic punch. Borrowing elements from its more expensive siblings, the D3200 should appeal to a large section of would-be photographers. There’s lots of interesting technology crammed into the relatively small body of the D3200, including things which have trickled down from its more expensive siblings.
Those include features such as the Expeed 3 processing engine, which promises to deliver quicker processing times, low noise and different frame rates for the full HD video recording. Overall, we are impressed by the D3200 and are very much looking forward to properly putting it through its paces when the time comes.
With a serious matt black finish that denotes a enthusiast-targeted piece of kit without even delving into the riches of its feature set, the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC HX200V is one of the more impressively attired superzoom cameras out there.
Hands on: BlackBerry Curve 9320 review
Taking on the budget smartphone market is getting tough these days, but RIM’s new Curve 9320 is well-placed to achieve success. The new phone is a re-tooled version of the last iteration, the Curve 9300, and brings with it a very familiar design.
This week’s other reviews:
Cameras
DECT phones
Archos 35 Smart Home Phone review
Desktops
Zotac Zbox nano XS AD11 Plus review
Graphics cards
Hard drives
Buffalo DriveStation Velocity review
Laptop accessories
ReTrak Retractable Universal 70W Notebook Wall Charger review
Laptops
Acer Aspire Ethos AS8951G-9630 review
Hands on: HP Envy Spectre XT review
Hands on: HP Envy Ultrabook review
Mice
HP Wireless Optical Mobile Mouse review
Mobile computing
Hands on: Kingston Wi-Drive 64GB review
Mobile phones
Hands on: Samsung Focus 2 review
Hands on: HTC Evo 4G LTE review
Hands on: Droid Incredible 4G LTE review
Portable Audio
Printers
Storage
Tablet cases
Hands on: The OtterBox Defender for the new iPad and Samsung Galaxy Note review
Tablets
Hands on: Toshiba Excite 13 review
Televisions
There’s a reason why Apple is suing Samsung in just about every major world territory — it feels threatened, and so it might.
Samsung is now the top-selling phone manufacturer on the planet, and that’s entirely thanks to the wildly popular Galaxy range of Android smartphones. The latest such handset, the Galaxy S3, has enjoyed the kind of build-up and reception normally reserved for iDevices and that’s no mean feat.
The stats don’t lie, either — over half a million people read our hands-on in just 12 hours!
So do check out our Galaxy S3 page below, as well as all our other reviews this week. It’s been a good one. Happy weekend!
Hands on: Samsung Galaxy S3 review
The headline feature of the new Samsung Galaxy S3 is the 4.8-inch Super AMOLED+ HD screen, packing a whopping 1280×720 pixels into a sub 5-inch space.
That means a resolution of 309ppi, which is encroaching on iPhone 4S territory but at a much larger screen size. Under the hood is very impressive too: a 1.4GHz Exynos quad core processor backed up by 1GB of RAM, and will come in 16GB, 32GB or 64GB flavours, with a microSD slot to boot. In your face, HTC One X!
Samsung is on typically aggressive form with the Samsung UE46ES8000, combining cutting-edge features with a gorgeous space-saving design and some of the best picture quality the LCD TV world has to offer.
Particularly impressive are the set’s attempts at revolutionising the way you interface with your TV, the improvements Samsung has wrought to its picture quality (especially in 3D mode) thanks to its dual-core processing, and the additions to Samsung’s Smart Hub online platform.
The really impressive thing about the Asus P8Z77-V Pro is the fact that, despite its relatively diminutive price-tag, it can easily hold its own against the best its siblings and competitors can muster.
When you compare it against the likes of Intel’s own Z77 and the bargainous ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional, it’s definitely ahead of the curve.
The Samsung HW-E551 is arguably the most sophisticated 2.1 system currently available. The hybrid design is neat and the wireless sub behaves impeccably, shutting down when required.
As a sonic upgrade for a TV, it represents fine value, and the punchy sub is a crowd pleaser. Sonically it’s not perfect, but for general TV viewing these caveats are unlikely to prove an issue.
Acer Aspire Timeline U M3 review
Nvidia has been calling the Acer Timeline U M3 the first true Ultrabook. And the big, green graphics giant has good reason to be backing this svelte-looking machine – at its heart beats the very latest in mobile graphics power, the GeForce GT 640M.
This is the big selling point for this otherwise rather middle-of-the-road machine, and without it there is no way we would be anywhere near as enamoured with it.
Desktops
Chillblast Fusion Mamba review
Laptops
Media Streaming Devices
Honestech nScreen Deluxe review
Monitors
Philips Brilliance Blade 2 239C4QHSB review
Motherboards
ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional review
Software
Televisions
TV tuner cards
The endless conveyor belt of tech has been moving fairly rapidly of late, and this week it was the turn of Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPUs and Amazon’s Kindle Touch to take centre stage.
Check out our in-depth reviews of these products and more…
There’s no doubt that the Kindle Touch is a great ebook reader. It’s not a question of whether we recommend it or not – we do – but whether it’s the right Kindle model for you. For academic use, we recommend the Kindle Touch over its £89 sibling. It’s so much easier to search, highlight and annotate using the touch interface that it’s no competition. Similarly, if you like to buy a lot of books on your device on the go, the fact that there’s a 3G option could sway you.
However, if you just want a simple high-quality ebook reader for taking everywhere in your bag and reading your library, the cheaper, smaller, lighter £89 Kindle might be the way to go. You won’t be disappointed with either.
In Intel’s Tick-Tock parlance, Ivy Bridge is a Tick and that means a new process. In simple terms, it’s the 22nm follow up to Intel’s searingly successful 32nm Sandy Bridge processors, which launched a little over a year ago. What Intel hasn’t done, however, is add any more cores. The top Ivy Bridge model, like the Intel Core i7 3770K, sticks with four cores, just like existing 2nd Gen mainstream Core i7 chips for the LGA1155 socket.
The truth is, this Intel Core i7 770K is barely any faster than existing Sandy Bridge chips like the Core i7 2600K. Given how well optimised Sandy Bridge already is, that’s not a surprise. That said, we had hoped the new 22nm process would enable higher overclocks, much lower power consumption or maybe a bit of both. On this first viewing, it doesn’t deliver much of either.
Flying pretty high up the 2012 Viera range, the Panasonic TX-L47DT50 is jam packed with enthusiast-friendly features. It’s also unquestionably the best-looking Viera TV ever made.
Its Freesat tuner is ideal for lapsed Sky subscribers or free-to-air viewers unable to access Freeview come the completion of the digital switchover in the UK. Its multimedia and smart TV talents are diverse, and its classy look finally puts Panasonic on a design par with many of its rivals. It might not raise the bar in terms of design, usability and features but it keeps Panasonic up with its rivals. You’d be hard pressed to guess that Panasonic has no previous form in the 47-inch LCD sector before this year.
Costing £700 in the UK or 0 in the US, with a kit lens, the launch price of the Sony Alpha a57 seems a little steep, particularly given that you can pick up the 24.3MP, GPS-enabled Sony Alpha SLT-a65 for roughly the same price, or even less if you shop around online. That said, once the newcomer has been on the market a short while, the street price will no doubt settle at a more realistic point, bringing it more into line with its DSLR rivals such as the Nikon D5100 and Canon EOS 600D. When it comes to features, however, we don’t feel at all short changed.
Although there may be a few issues that could be improved upon, such as the non-standard USB interface and the iESP metering system’s propensity for overexposure, the Olympus SZ-14 still represents good value for the price.
Ebook readers
Asus Eee Seashell 1015BX review
Logitech m600 Touch Mouse review
Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6) review
F-Secure Internet Security 2012 review
McAfee Internet Security 2012 review
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete 2012 review
PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2012 review
