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Nintendo 3DS Review

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The new 3DS might not look too different from its predecessor at first glance, but several small hardware changes make this handheld gaming console everything the original 3DS should have been. When we first picked up the new console, which Nintendo says has 3D face tracking to help improve the 3D experience, we were dubious. This feature worked on the original 3DS only if you sat directly in front of the device. Within seconds, however, we found ourselves cranking the 3D slider up to maximum. It’s fantastic. The 3D improvements have been made possible thanks to the introduction of a tiny camera next to the main front-facing camera, which tracks where your face is and adjusts the image accordingly.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nintendo 3DS Review</td></tr>
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The second of the main changes is the introduction of the C Stick and two new buttons: ZL and ZR. Many gamers have been crying out for a second joystick on the 3DS, particularly for games that require you to rotate the screen in addition to moving your character it can get tiresome having to reposition your hand to use the touchscreen for screen rotation, that’s for sure. Nintendo offered a solution for owners of the original 3DS in the form of the Circle Pad Pro, an attachment that added a second joystick and two additional buttons, but also added bulk and weight to the otherwise super-portable device, so it’s less than ideal.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nintendo 3D </td></tr>
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 The new 3DS, however, has a tiny C Stick built in, something we wish Nintendo had thought of four years ago when the 3DS came out. The ZL and ZR buttons, which you’ll find fall beneath your index fingers beside the already present L and R buttons, are another extra that isn’t particularly useful right  now, but we imagine that when developers begin integrating the buttons into their games they could be a real boon and offer further control and gameplay features. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Performance</b></span></div>
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The new 3DS is much faster than its predecessor. Opening and closing apps is now incredibly fast. That’s thanks to improved CPU performance, which means loading times have been reduced, too. What’s more, Nintendo says that “several upcoming games” will be built from scratch specifically for the new 3DS to take advantage of the power boost it’s been given. Nintendo has also updated the 3DS’s web browser to allow for a better browsing experience when using the internet. You’ll be able to use the ZL/ZR buttons to switch tabs, and use the C Stick to zoom in on pages, which we found to be intuitive.<br />
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The original 3DS’ camera isn’t brilliant and nor is the new console’s offering, though it has been slightly improved for photos in low-light conditions. There’s a camera on the front of the device for 2D images, or you can capture 3D images viewable on the device’s display using the dual rear-facing cameras. The device now has NFC built in, which means you’ll be able to play with Amiibo figures on your 3DS as well as your Wii U, simply by placing the figure on the lower 3DS display. These figures work with various different games to help you add new characters or customize them, get special bonuses, level up characters and more. The number of compatible games is growing, with Super Smash Bros for 3DS and Xenoblade Chronicles 3D set to arrive soon.<br />
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Aside from the aforementioned new buttons and C Stick, the overall design of the 3DS is in essence the same. There are two models available: the 3DS with a 3.53in top display and a 3.02in bottom display, and the 3DS XL (priced £179), which is slightly less portable but offers bigger screens at 4.88in and 4.18in, so arguably a better experience overall. The 3DS is available in white or black. There are also replaceable cover plates available to allow you to completely customize your device. The other slight difference between the original 3DS and the new model is the colored buttons, repositioned game slot, stylus and volume slider, and repositioned Start and Select buttons.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Verdict</b></span></div>
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If you consider the new 3DS’s price from a broader perspective, taking into consideration the price of other games consoles, it does seem a bit pricey. You can buy the Sony PS Vita (2014 edition) for around £150, and even the Nintendo Wii U for £160. For most gamers, though, its value lies in the games available, so for Monster Hunter fans, Pokémon fans or fans of Nintendo’s many classics, paying the £150 or £180 for the new 3DS is a no-brainer.</div>
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Nintendo 3DS Review

The new 3DS might not look too different from its predecessor at first glance, but several small hardware changes make this handheld gamin...

UMI eMax Smartphone Review

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We’ve been impressed by what we’ve seen from Chinese phone maker UMI so far, having recently reviewed both the Zero and Hammer. This UMI eMax is an altogether more powerful beast, with an octa-core processor, a standout 5.5in full-HD screen and a massive 3780mAh battery that can even serve as a power bank for other phones. The best bit about the UMI eMax is its price, and right now it’s available for just £115 from Coolicool.com. That’s amazing value for money. Bear in mind, though, that this phone ships from China, so you may also incur import duty when purchased in the UK. Unlike the Zero and Hammer before it, the UMI eMax is a relatively plain-looking, unassuming device. With a 5.5in screen this is a phablet, but it’s still just 148g and with slim bezels reasonably easy to operate in a single hand. From the front, the phone is marred only by the always-visible legends for the Home, Back and Options buttons.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UMI eMax Smartphone</td></tr>
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Switch on the screen, though, and you instantly don’t care: with a full-HD resolution this IPS panel is crystal clear, and as sharp as many flagship Androids at 401ppi. You absolutely should not expect a full-HD screen at this price. Colours are bright and realistic, even with the brightness turned down, and viewing angles are very good. From the rear, the eMax is less attractive, but by no means ugly. We’re confused by the Chinese- English translation in the eMax’s marketing materials, which states: “The one piece art of frame battery cover is made by Polycarbonate with 200 times processing brushed stainless steal [sic].” This phone looks and feels very much like a plastic device to us, although there is a subtle brushed-metal effect to the rear. The rear cover is non-removable, with side-loading trays for the two SIM slots and microSD card.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UMI eMax Smartphone</td></tr>
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A power button and volume rocker are also found on the eMax’s right side, while there’s a headphone jack at the top and Micro-USB charging port at the bottom. Despite its plastic feel the eMax feels very sturdy – not as tough as the Hammer, but tough nonetheless We’re not so keen on the way the phone’s 13Mp camera sticks out at the rear, but this is becoming increasingly common in today’s ever-thinner phones. And this is one of them: at 7.9mm thick, you’d never guess the eMax costs just £115. As is the case on the Samsung Galaxy S6, though, this camera is centred and squareish, so it won’t rock nearly so much when placed flat on the table as, for example, the iPhone 6. Also at the base of the rear is a speaker grille. Usually this is a no-no for us, muffling sound as it fires it into your palm, but this phone’s phablet dimensions stopped this being a problem in our testing.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Hardware and performance</b></span></div>
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Inside the eMax is a 1.7GHz MediaTek MTK6752 octa-core 64-bit processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and an ARM Mali-T760 MP2 graphics processor. We have seen this setup before, such as in the Kingzone Z1, while the Ulefone BeTouch (page 36) adds an extra gig of RAM. But the eMax appears to have put its hardware to the best use – at least if our benchmarks are to be believed. And there in lies the catch: benchmarks can’t always be trusted. Nevertheless, we found the UMI eMax smooth and responsive in real-world use, with no sign of lag. In Geekbench 3.0, the eMax gave its standout performance. We use this test to measure processing performance, but have also recently begun including results from its battery life test.<br />
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The eMax aced both – and the latter is certainly no surprise, given the capacious 3780mAh cell found inside. With OTG support (and an adaptor included in the box), the eMax can even be used as a power bank to charge another phone – it will fillan iPhone 6 twice, says UMI. So, you can expect several days’ life with normal use. The reigning champions of our Geekbench 3 tests are the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, with the S6 scoring 4438 points in processing and 4136 in battery performance, and the S6 Edge 5076- and 4011 points. The UMI eMax got incredibly close to those scores performance, with 4101 points in processing-, and 4006 in battery performance.<br />
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By comparison, in processing performance the UMI Hammer recorded 2203 points and the Kingzone Z1 3689. We also ran the Kingzone through the battery life test, and it scored 3074 points. AnTuTu is another new test to the PC Advisor lab, and with few results with which to compare devices for now it’s rather difficult to understand what the scores are telling us. However, through AnTuTu’s own database we can see that the UMI eMax’s 41,799-point score is faster than both the Nexus 5 and LG G3, but slightly below last year’s flagship Samsung Galaxy S5. It also performed better than the UMI Hammer (32,506) and Ulefone BeTouch (41,661).<br />
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Graphics performance in GFXBench showed something to be desired, and rather than delivering scores to match the flagships the UMI eMax put in a performance similar to that of other budget and mid-range phones, including the EE Harrier, Sony Xperia M2 and Moto E 4G. Casual games will be easily playable on the eMax, but scores of 15fps in T-Rex and 6fps in Manhattan are nothing to shout home about. Our final test is SunSpider, which measures JavaScript performance. We ran this test both in the pre-installed browser, in which it recorded a very good 734ms, and in Chrome to ensure a fair test across  Android phones. Its Chrome score of 840ms is still very good (lower scores are better), and in line with the likes of the Honor 6, Sony Xperia Z3 and Samsung Galaxy S5.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Connectivity</b></span></div>
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Connectivity-wise there’s support for dual-band 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. For positioning, you get both GPS and A-GPS with EPO, with the separate GPS sensor claimed to offer faster results and improved accuracy. NFC is missing, but you do get HotKnot, which is MediaTek’s equivalent. This lets you share files and web pages, play games and more with other HotKnotconnected phones. OTG support is perhaps more useful in the UMI eMax than it is other Androids, given the large capacity battery.<br />
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You could even use the eMax as an emergency charger for powering other devices. OTG also lets you hook up external storage devices, and an adapter is handily supplied in the box. The UMI eMax is a dual-SIM phone that operates in dual-standby mode, accepting two Micro-SIMs. It’s a 4G phone, which is very good at this price, but if you’re buying the eMax in the UK, check that it will work on your network first. The eMax operates on GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, WCDMA 900/1900/2100MHz and 4G-FDD 800/1800/2600MHz.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Cameras</b></span></div>
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As with virtually every Chinese phone we see, the UMI is fitted with a 13Mp camera at the rear, with f/2.2 aperture and an LED flash, and a 5Mp selfie camera with f/2.2 aperture and 1.12um pixels. The primary camera focuses in 0.3 seconds, and we found it did a decent enough job when we switched on HDR, although some detail is missing when you zoom in. You can see our test shots with and without HDR above. Real-time filters are available at the composition stage for both cameras, and both also benefit from a Beauty mode and Picture-in picture. Switch to the main camera and you get more options, including HDR, live photo, motion tracking, panorama and multi-angle capture.<br />
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There’s support for smile-, gesture, and voice-activated capture, too, plus a 40-shot burst mode. Note, however, that the full 13Mp is available only in 4:3 format; in the phone’s default 16:9 stills top out at 9.5Mp. We also tested the video camera. Playback was fine on the phone, but developed a stutter when we downloaded it to our computer. Given that the UMI eMax is sold rooted and with support for Rootjoy, there’s no need to stick with the Android 4.4 KitKat OS preinstalled out of the box unless you want to. An upgrade to Lollipop is available, or you can load up Rootjoy on a Windows PC or laptop, hook up your phone and then install a custom OS of your choice. Rootjoy also lets you load updates, install a custom UI and back up your data. Stick with KitKat, though, and you won’t be disappointed.<br />
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This is a stock implementation of the Android operating system, with full access to Google Play and Google apps. Very little bloatware is pre-installed, and you may find additional apps such as ToDo and File Manager useful. SuperCleaner’s effect is debatable, but it aims to clear away junk files, help you manage your apps and startup items and more to boost performance. In common with the majority of Chinese phones we review, customizable gestures are present. Not only can you double-tap to wake the screen, but you can draw a letter onscreen in standby mode to automatically launch an app of your choice. The sooner this becomes a standard feature of Android, the better.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Verdict</b></span></div>
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The eMax offers superb value for  money. It’s not as good-looking as other UMI phones we’ve reviewed, but it has a big and bright full-HD screen for enjoying media and more, and showed very capable performance in the majority of our benchmarks. Photography is decent at this price, and enthusiasts will appreciate the Rootjoy support. At £115, you can’t go far wrong with the UMI eMax.</div>
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UMI eMax Smartphone Review

We’ve been impressed by what we’ve seen from Chinese phone maker UMI so far, having recently reviewed both the Zero and Hammer. This UMI e...

Ulefone BeTouch Smartphone Review

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Ulefone’s BeTouch is a Chinese phone that’s available to buy in the UK through Geek buying for just £147 at the time of writing. Bear in mind that Geek buying ships the BeTouch from China, so you may also incur import duty. If you do decide to take the plunge and purchase the BeTouch, you absolutely won’t regret your choice. With a 5.5in HD (1280x720) screen, the Ulefone is a large phone and what we refer to as a phablet – somewhere between a phone and a tablet. However, the aviation-grade stainless steel frame and aluminum-magnesium mid-frame help keep down the weight  to just 160g, while the curved screen edges and slim bezels make one-handed use possible. Despite the metal frame, the Ulefone’s rear cover is plastic. It’s a removable cover that, usefully, affords access to an also-removable battery and the dual-SIM and microSD slots.<br />
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It sits flush to the case, which prevents it feeling cheap or creaking in the hand. The 13Mp camera protrudes a little from the rear – it’s not something we particularly like, but it is becoming increasingly common with today’s ever-slimmer flagships. While the BeTouch isn’t as skinny as some phones on the market, at 8.6mm it’s thin for a budget phone. Our sample came in metal grey, although the BeTouch is also available in silk white. The fully laminated display is prone to picking up fingerprints, but the HD IPS display below looks good. At this size and resolution, the screen is a good fit for viewing media, and it displays realistic colors and useful brightness, with good viewing angles to boot.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ulefone BeTouch Smartphone</td></tr>
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You can also invert the screen colors if you find the display easier to read in this manner. The power button and volume rocker are found on the phone’s left edge, which can be a bit of a stretch for right-handed users. However, one of several useful gestures allows you to wake the screen with a double tap, so we didn’t find the positioning a problem in real-world use. Options and back software buttons sit below the screen, either side of a home button that incorporates a fingerprint scanner. The beauty of this fingerprint scanner, and something we haven’t been able to say about any of the fingerprint scanners found on rival cheap Chinese phones, is that it works. Using touch- rather than swipe input, we found the BeTouch recognized our fingerprint every single time, and that means we’re actually likely to use it.<br />
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It’s fast, too, recognizing your fingerprint in a fraction of a second, even when your hand is wet. Six small holes on the BeTouch’s bottom edge allow sound to escape from the built-in speaker. It’s a preferable approach to a rear mounted speaker that can fire sound into your palm, although front-facing would be even better. With a 1.7GHz octa-core processor from MediaTek, 3GB of RAM and Mali-T760 MP2 graphics inside, the Ulefone BeTouch is a capable smartphone. In real-world use, we found it very smooth, and this is no doubt thanks to not only the hardware but a lack of bloatware slowing it down. We ran the Ulefone BeTouch through our usual benchmarks, and the results make for pleasant reading – particularly in Geekbench 3, which measures processor performance. In the multi-core component of this test, the BeTouch scored a staggering 3817 points.<br />
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And that really is incredibly fast, beaten only by the fastest Android phones we’ve ever tested, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. (And the UMI eMax, although the Ulefone shows better performance in other tests.) In the single-core component the Ulefone scored 794 points, which places it in between the UMI eMax and UMI Hammer. In SunSpider, which measures JavaScript performance, the BeTouch did a good job for an Android phone, with this benchmark’s scoreboards dominated by the various iPhone models. We ran SunSpider both on the browser that came pre-installed on the Ulefone, in which it scored 915ms, and in Chrome, which we use to ensure a fair test across all Android phones, in which it scored 975ms.<br />
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In SunSpider a lower score is better, which means it actually did a better job here than did the aforementioned S6 and S6 Edge. GFXBench is used to measure graphics performance, and the Ulefone recorded 25fps in T-Rex and 12fps in Manhattan. Both are very good scores for a phone at this price point, and in line with flagship phones such as the LG G4 and Nexus 6. In AnTuTu, the BeTouch recorded 41,661 points, which is a little below Ulefone’s claims of 45,000 points-plus, and put its performance somewhere between the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Nexus 5. In Geekbench 3’s battery test the Ulefone recorded 2540 points (04:38:40), which is a little behind the LG G4. Arguably, though, /even the best phone battery will quickly be drained by a heavy user, so how fast the phone can recharge its flat battery is also important. Using the included charger the BeTouch can reach 35 percent in just 15 minutes.<br />
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This is a two-pin plug, but Geekbuying will also supply a UK adaptor in the box upon request. Also pleasing is the fact the Ulefone BeTouch’s 2550mAh battery is removable, which means you could carry a spare. With the exception of NFC, the BeTouch has all connectivity bases covered, with dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS and GLONASS and OTG. Plus, not only is it dual-SIM, with one slot supporting a full-size card and the other Micro-SIM, it supports 4G. And, unlike some Chinese phones, wireless updates are available,  making it easy to install software updates. Slapped on the back of the BeTouch is the same 13Mp Sony Exmor IMX214 camera that is found on the rear of many Chinese phones. That’s not a bad thing, though, and the photos it takes are much better than you have any right to expect at £150. The camera is quick to focus once you’ve launched the app, although a dedicated camera button would make doing so even faster. There’s a dual-LED flash and the</div>
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BeTouch stretches to ISO 1600 for better low-light pictures, while the rear camera also supports up to 4K video recording at 30fps and has a tracking autofocus for capturing moving objects. Around the front is a 5Mp selfie camera with an 80-degree wide-angle lens. Both cameras support real-time application of filters, plus various modes including picture in picture, live photo, motion tracking, beauty, panorama and multi-angle. You can trigger a shot with a gesture, smile or voice command, although in doing so the camera switches off its anti-shake feature. Face detection is also supported. HDR is not automatic, but we found photos look better with it turned on (see our test shots above).<br />
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The Android Lollipop operating system pre-installed on this phone is exactly as Google intended, and that makes a refreshing change. There is zero bloatware pre-installed, and we found all but one of the shortcuts fit on a single page of the Nexus launcher app tray – amazing. The only changes Ulefone has made are for the better: there’s the aforementioned option to invert screen colors in the Quick settings drop-down, plus you can set custom gestures that allow you to launch an app of your choice from standby simply by drawing a letter on the screen. The ability to wake the screen with a double-tap also eases managing this phablet in a single hand.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Verdict</b></span></div>
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Ulefone’s BeTouch is an unrivalled deal at £147. It’s fast, it’s dual-SIM with 4G connectivity, it has a working fingerprint scanner for security, the screen is large and with an HD resolution plenty crisp enough for the money, and there is absolutely no bloatware. A few minor quibbles aside, it’s genuinely difficult to fault this phone at this price.</div>
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Ulefone BeTouch Smartphone Review

Ulefone’s BeTouch is a Chinese phone that’s available to buy in the UK through Geek buying for just £147 at the time of writing. Bear in m...

EE Harrier Smartphone Review

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The fact the £199 Harrier is available on EE’s 4G network is exciting not only because it’s fast, but because later this year the phone will also benefit from EE’s Wi-Fi Calling service. This eliminates mobile signal problems by allowing you to route calls and texts over Wi-Fi, without you even realizing it’s happening. At this price, you can’t expect a premium build. On the plus side, the bezels are extremely thin, the phone is reasonably slim for a budget model and also lightweight, and the 5.2in full-HD (1920x1080, 424ppi) screen is fantastic under £200. With an IPS display, the EE Harrier offers realistic screen colors, decent viewing angles and it’s usefully bright.<br />
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At 5.2in – large but not too large – it’s also a great fit for watching movies and viewing photos, which isn’t often something we can say about phones at this price point. (Gaming, not so much, but casual games will play fine on the Harrier.) EE has made an effort to spruce things up, with a brushed-metal effect rear (it’s still plastic) and a gold camera surround; as an own-brand phone you’ll also find a silver EE logo on the back cover. The slightly curved rear and rounded corners make the Harrier fit naturally in the hand, too. But a few things give away this phone’s mid-range price. First and foremost, it’s entirely plastic, and that brushed-metal-effect rear does little to conceal the fact. The removable cover adds to this cheap feel, with the Harrier creaking a little in use. Given that the battery is not removable, we’d have preferred to have seen a side loading tray for the Micro-SIM and microSD card, and a fixed rear.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2rfJCrBfK0DEcBkD0czMZsrRaHPhOmVaBuPyxXscEngt_3xdqSkwfd5VUG17ceFVf1KCLPgHFGG7gWVpL-hNEWUlxl1eR9ZZGvyGjRx5jPa7KI6pAE8JAiwCXaOnrw5egYX59wsBuNbs/s1600/EE+Harrier+Smartphone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="EE Harrier Smartphone" border="0" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2rfJCrBfK0DEcBkD0czMZsrRaHPhOmVaBuPyxXscEngt_3xdqSkwfd5VUG17ceFVf1KCLPgHFGG7gWVpL-hNEWUlxl1eR9ZZGvyGjRx5jPa7KI6pAE8JAiwCXaOnrw5egYX59wsBuNbs/s640/EE+Harrier+Smartphone.jpg" title="EE Harrier Smartphone" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">EE Harrier Smartphone</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAPE1yD6A4RU5gBPX5hyphenhyphenPQbEjpFMHmwYwVS3b8mILTAYA9HRsm9R_DTWpUowvjOT7EOgR2qsFgWkoB5vKxT4eYX7HOVSjjrxE3j7BTK_x1orEAQ30DZma5AJcBBaWLE2HIdT4RdnHhl8/s1600/UK+EE+Harrier+Smartphone+Review.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="UK EE Harrier Smartphone Review" border="0" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAPE1yD6A4RU5gBPX5hyphenhyphenPQbEjpFMHmwYwVS3b8mILTAYA9HRsm9R_DTWpUowvjOT7EOgR2qsFgWkoB5vKxT4eYX7HOVSjjrxE3j7BTK_x1orEAQ30DZma5AJcBBaWLE2HIdT4RdnHhl8/s640/UK+EE+Harrier+Smartphone+Review.jpg" title="UK EE Harrier Smartphone Review" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UK EE Harrier Smartphone Review</td></tr>
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The button placement is bizarre. Unusually, EE Harrier is far more comfortable to use in the left hand than it is in the right. Held in your left hand, the thumb falls naturally over the power button and fingers over the volume rocker; held in the right hand, the distance between the two is simply too great, and all the steps EE has taken to make the phone comfortable to use in one hand quickly become forgotten as you struggle to adopt the awkward hand contortions necessary to operate the Harrier. Sadly, for EE, this reviewer is right-handed, but lefties will love it.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Hardware and performance</b></span></div>
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On the inside, the Harrier is equipped with a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage, which can be expanded via a microSD slot – and you’ll want to do so. Having installed our benchmarks less than half the capacity was available (and they really aren’t that big). A 2500mAh non-removable battery keeps it all going. That sounds like a reasonable specification for a mid-range phone, but during testing we found that the Harrier would take a second or two to think before doing whatever you had asked of it, whether that was launching an app or opening the Settings menu. Remember, though, that this is a £200 phone.<br />
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We’re used to reviewing super-fast handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy S6, which cost three times the price, and what seems like an interminable wait to us an average user wouldn’t batter an eyelid at. For that reason, we also measure performance using several benchmarks. In our benchmarking of the Harrier, we found performance similar to that of Chinese phones such as the ZTE Blade S6 and S6 Plus, Doogee F1 Turbo Mini and Bluboo X6. Some of these devices are significantly cheaper than the  Harrier, but while you might save money buying phones from China (the EE Harrier is also made in China, but sold in the UK through EE), you could also get hit with additional customs charges, and if you need to return a faulty device you could have trouble. By buying direct from EE, you should be able to get any problems sorted relatively quickly and easily.<br />
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In Geekbench 3, which measures processor performance, the EE Harrier recorded 640 points in the single-core test, and 2042 in the multi-core one. That makes it a little slower than the ZTE Blade S6 (2420) and S6 Plus (2095), but faster than the Doogee F1 Turbo Mini (1947) and Bluboo X6 (1940). Comparing it to some other phones with which you may be more familiar, it’s slower than an LG G2 (2271), but faster than the HTC Desire 816 (1503) and new Moto E 4G (1463). Importantly, it’s much faster than EE’s previous own-brand 4G phone, the Kestrel, which recorded 1152 points (at half the price, mind). Next up is SunSpider, which measures JavaScript performance (and in which a lower score is better). We run this benchmark in Chrome to ensure a fair test across phones, and saw 1275ms for the Harrier.<br />
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That places it very much in Microsoft Lumia or Windows Phone territory, with the 640 scoring 1201ms, the 735 1217ms, the 435 284ms and the 535 1295ms. In comparison to Android phones, it’s in the Huawei P6/P7 and HTC Desire 610’s domain – not amazing, but by no means atrocious (the Sony Xperia Tipo still wins that award with 5781ms). A new test for us is AnTuTu, in which the Harrier recorded 29,154 points. We have few inhouse results with which to compare this, but according to other results in the AnTuTu database that makes it faster than the original HTC One (M7), but slower than the Nexus 5 and LG G3. Graphics performance comes next, for which we use GFXBench 3.1. In the T-Rex test, EE Harrier recorded 15fps, which is slightly faster than the Kestrel (14fps), and on a par with the <a href="http://www.sabrez.com/2015/04/best-smartphones-in-2015-samsung-galaxy-s6-samsung-galaxy-s6-edge-htc-one-m9.html" target="_blank">HTC Desire</a> 610, LG G2 mini and Sony Xperia M2.<br />
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In Manhattan we saw just 6fps, which is the same score we saw from the new Moto E 4G. This phone hasn’t been designed with gaming in mind, but you should find it capable of handling casual titles. Finally, we measure battery life performance, and for this we again turn to Geekbench 3.0. As with AnTuTu, this is a relatively new test to the PC Advisor lab, and we have few scores with which to compare the Harrier’s performance. However, of the scores we do have, the phone turned in by far the worst performance with 1424 points (03:33:20). Even its little brother, the Harrier Mini (see page 34), performed better, with 2163 points (05:24:10).<br />
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While you might assume this difference could be put down to the lower-spec hardware on the Mini, the phone that scored the highest in this benchmark was the Samsung Galaxy S6, which has a much higher resolution screen, significantly faster hardware and only 50mAh extra in the battery department. With moderate real-world use, the Harrier should get you through the day, but expect nothing more beyond that. Smart battery options let the Harrier automatically turn off Wi-Fi and data connectivity when the screen is off. You can set this to occur only between certain ‘offpeak’ times, such as overnight when you don’t want to be disturbed, or to happen all the time. However, if you want people to be able to get hold of you, that’s perhaps not the best idea. The Harrier can also show you which apps might be causing excessive battery drain.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Connectivity</b></span></div>
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A key selling point of this phone is its 4G connectivity. At £100 that would be impressive; at the £200 the Harrier costs, it’s a nice extra – not all phones at this price have it, but neither is it a surprise, and especially not in an own-brand EE handset. One of the perks of buying an EE phone, though, is Wi-Fi Calling. This is not yet available to the Harrier, but it will be later this year. Wi-Fi Calling is a god-send if you often find yourself without mobile signal, allowing the Harrier to route your calls and texts over a Wi-Fi- rather than a mobile network. You won’t even notice the difference, and the minutes and texts you use simply come out of your monthly allowance. In other respects all the usual connectivity bases are covered.<br />
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There’s 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC but, unlike many Chinese-made phones, the Harrier is not dual-SIM. On paper, the 13Mp camera fixed to the rear of the Harrier is excellent. It has an LED flash, and a gold camera surround makes it all seem a little bit special. It can capture 1080p (full-HD) video, and there’s also a 2Mp selfie/Skype camera at the front. Very few camera controls are available, but you do get smile-,voice- and touch-activated capture, plus a countdown timer. You can select Auto, Night or Panorama modes, while HDR is on or off, and no real-time filters are available. The results, as you can see in our test shots below, aren’t bad. But you’ll want to switch on HDR (as seen in the second shot), and even then detail is lacking. Colours are natural, though, and for the money the results are acceptable.<br />
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We also ran a video test using the primary camera, but found the footage to be jerky. When it comes to its operating system, the Harrier runs a very plain implementation of Android Lollipop, and even uses the Nexus launcher. There is, however, a lot of bloatware slapped on top, and none of it can be uninstalled. Additional extras include Lookout, My EE, Amazon Kindle, Local, Music and Appstore, Deezer and Games & Apps. By the time we had installed our benchmarks, just 7.89GB of the Harrier’s 16GB of storage was available.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Verdict</b></span></div>
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At £200, EE’s Harrier offers 4G connectivity, a great 5.2in full-HD IPS screen and the promise of Wi-Fi Calling. For many that will make it an excellent deal. But a number of issues prevented us getting too excited about this smartphone: there’s a load of bloatware, relatively sluggish performance, unremarkable battery life, some awkwardly placed buttons, a plastic build, and the camera performance isn’t great. </div>
</div>

EE Harrier Smartphone Review

The fact the £199 Harrier is available on EE’s 4G network is exciting not only because it’s fast, but because later this year the phone wi...

Apple's iMac with Retina 5K Display

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When <a href="http://www.sabrez.com/2015/08/apple-macbook-pro-with-retina-display-review.html" target="_blank">Apple</a> launched the first iMac with Retina display last October, it stood alone in terms of competition from the usual Windows suspects, since no PC maker had anything close in design and performance. But it was also launched as a solitary model in the Apple catalogue, listed as just one standard configuration, although there was some limited scope to upgrade to better processor, graphics, storage and memory. Now we have an additional offthe- shelf Retina 5K iMac with £400 shaved off the £1,999 (now reduced to £1,849) price of the original. Your £1,599 can buy an iMac with the same ultra-high resolution screen and all the usual trimmings, with savings made this time in the main Intel chip, the storage and graphics.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKWz-Xe8JrdsrkWHE7rEAC9YAsATtApO2SJ9WL4XotXKoHF_4PJfQAbo2A3ARBx8LJ6BNfkYIWf21tNGpzzCRSAFwFA6eSnZHx4l6Q7wWjtTytTB1HovSwK88TkLlnisj4qMxc7Q0iRbo/s1600/Apple+iMac+with+Retina+5K+Display.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Apple iMac with Retina 5K Display" border="0" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKWz-Xe8JrdsrkWHE7rEAC9YAsATtApO2SJ9WL4XotXKoHF_4PJfQAbo2A3ARBx8LJ6BNfkYIWf21tNGpzzCRSAFwFA6eSnZHx4l6Q7wWjtTytTB1HovSwK88TkLlnisj4qMxc7Q0iRbo/s640/Apple+iMac+with+Retina+5K+Display.png" title="Apple iMac with Retina 5K Display" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apple iMac with Retina 5K Display</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbmBgVhEvnyxXf3hoH_DFPoHk1kPWP4o4q4ldzc5_CQaCgL9bcFjYd4hWPoeoU4Fhpmjo2EXw0umIiwZ5R74JYWhE0OlIBIZ-Rtni_3nxjIgv03eCF3_E-L5Zrl_KvDbd7_aW6G7DFEGE/s1600/Retina+iMac+5K.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Retina iMac 5K" border="0" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbmBgVhEvnyxXf3hoH_DFPoHk1kPWP4o4q4ldzc5_CQaCgL9bcFjYd4hWPoeoU4Fhpmjo2EXw0umIiwZ5R74JYWhE0OlIBIZ-Rtni_3nxjIgv03eCF3_E-L5Zrl_KvDbd7_aW6G7DFEGE/s640/Retina+iMac+5K.png" title="Retina iMac 5K" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Retina iMac 5K</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Build and design</b></span></div>
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In every respect this is the same iMac with Retina 5K display, using the same chassis with the same formidable build quality, and the same line of ports and connectors along the back. There’s two Thunderbolt 2 ports for high-speed peripherals and external displays, four USB 3.0, gigabit ethernet, and slot for SD cards up to SDXC specification and a headphone jack. In place of the 3.5GHz Intel Core i5 quad-core processor is a slightly slower processor clocked at 3.3GHz. It’s from the same generation, a Core i5-4590 instead of Core i5-4690. Both chips have separate processor cores on the same die, and include Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technology which here mildly overclocks up to 3.7GHz, where the faster processor can reach up to 3.9GHz.<br />
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These are regular four-core chips. In both cases, the processor is fixed at working on four threads, in contrast to the mobile-class processors found in most variants of Apple MacBooks, which include Hyper Threading Technology to give the effect of doubling the number of real cores. The memory quota and specification is the same as before, 8GB from two 4GB SO-DIMM modules, and you can easily upgrade this yourself from a removable hatch on the back In our tests of the main processor, we saw close to the same speed as from the 3.5GHz processor, with benchmark scores around 5- to 6 percent lower. From Geekbench 3, the new iMac with 5K Retina scored 3699 points with one core, and 11,792 while running four cores.<br />
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Those figures are around 5 percent lower than the 3877- and 12,418 points from the original iMac 5K. Cinebench 15 scored the 3.3GHz iMac with 134- and 515 points for its two modes, this time 6- and 5 percent behind the first model’s scores (143- and 544 points respectively). The earlier version of Cinebench 11.5 reported the same story, dropping 5- and 6 percent (1.64 down to 1.56 points, and 6.15 down to 5.79 points).</div>
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<b>Your £1,599 can buy an iMac with the same ultrahigh resolution screen and all the usual trimmings, with savings made this time in the main Intel chip.</b></blockquote>
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At first glance, we have the same graphics processor driving all those 14.7 million pixels with 60 refreshes each second. But there’s something different in the designation, a certain X missing from the end of the device’s name. Where the first iMac 5K has an AMD Radeon R9 M290X, the second has an R9 M290. Technical differences between them are not revealed and we’ve asked Apple if it can explain how they are different. Until we hear more, and based on the tiny measured differences in performance between GPUs, we’d guess it could be something as minor as a difference in the core or memory clock speeds. Graphics processors can be ‘binned’ by selecting the best silicon from the fabrication process at time of manufacture, and setting these parts to run with the highest clock speeds. Those parts that don’t work with stability at the top speeds are set at slower clock speeds, and used in lesser graphics cards. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Graphics</b></span></div>
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As with Intel processor performance, the change of graphics processor see a small drop in the results we measured from the original 3.5GHz iMac 5K. Batman: Arkham City at 1920x1080 pixels and High detail still played perfectly at 84fps, where first model managed 89fps. When pushed to a Retina-mode resolution of 2560x1440 however, we saw a more significant drop in framerate, even if 66fps instead of 85fps is still perfectly usable to play the game without visible glitches.<br />
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Tomb Raider was strangely faster at full-HD resolution when played on the new 3.3GHz model, averaging 64fps against 59fps, for a nearly 7 percent improvement. But pushed to 2560x1440 size again it fell back by 10 percent, hitting 42fps instead of 46fps from the original 5K iMac. The Unigine Heaven synthetic game benchmark was similarly around 10 percent down, but still able to play the test at 27fps even at 2560x1440 and Medium detail. Cinebench’s OpenGL test pushes the graphics processor while rendering an animated car chase scene, and here the new iMac was just 1.4 percent behind the original in version 15 (90.4 versus 91.7fps); and again we saw an anomaly where the non-X-rated iMac turned in a higher score in the older 11.5 benchmark (56.3- beating 45.1fps, for a 20 percent better score in the cheaper Mac). </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Storage</b></span></div>
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As standard the original iMac with 5K Retina display comes with a 1TB Fusion Drive, a hybrid flash and disk system that works seamlessly to give you most of the benefits of a fast solid-state drive, and the bulk capacity of a traditional hard disk. The new entry-level version iMac is equipped with just a simple 1TB disk, which does make this model feel slower in general use. Start-up time is lengthened, even if this yardstick from the Windows PC world is almost insignificant here since Macs excel at sleep mode; and don’t demand restarting every Tuesday to apply weekly security patches from Microsoft. But there is some inevitable lag in the system interface, noticeable when applications take</div>
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a few more bounces in the Dock before they launch.<br />
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The Seagate hard disk inside this new iMac is fast though as disk technology can allow. With the drive nearly empty, it could reach sequential speeds up to around 210MB/s (with reads and writes effectively the same speed); the drag really starts to show when multiple demands are made upon the disk drive, and in small-file random read/write speeds.<br />
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Averaged with data from 4- to 1024kB, we saw speeds of around just 30MB/s. Compare this to the PCIe attached flash drives in other Macs, which would average around 300MB/s in the same latter test – a tenfold difference in speed, which would be even marked when the queue-depth (number of paralleled storage I/O operations) is increased. That’s not to say the diskonly iMac is too retarded to use comfortably. However if you’re used to using a MacBook Air, for instance, you may find a disk-based iMac even with its 3.3GHz quad-core processor may feel subjectively a little slower in daily use.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Verdict</b></span></div>
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For a pound under £2,000 the first iMac with 5K Retina display actually offers decent value,especially with nothing like it to compare, short of gaffer-taping a 4K UHD display onto a Windows tower PC. The new entry version undercuts it by a useful £400, bringing only around 5 percent slower application and 10 percent graphics performance. It does lose out with the slow disk-only storage though, so you might like to consider configuring it with a Fusion Drive or pure 256GB flash drive, either option adding £160 to the price.</div>
</div>

Apple's iMac with Retina 5K Display

When Apple launched the first iMac with Retina display last October, it stood alone in terms of competition from the usual Windows suspec...

Samsung Galaxy A3 Review

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We’ve already reviewed the Galaxy A5, which turned out to be a nicely built mid-range Android phone, but too expensive given the mediocre components inside it. But what about its smaller brother, the A3? Not everyone wants a phone with a huge screen and the A3 offers a 4.5in qHD Super AMOLED display. To unpack the acronyms, this means it has a resolution of 960x540 pixels, which is a quarter of the number in a full HD screen (1920x1080). </div>
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<br />
<a href="http://www.sabrez.com/2015/08/apple-macbook-pro-with-retina-display-review.html" target="_blank">Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display Review</a><br />
<a href="http://www.sabrez.com/2015/08/microsoft-windows-10-review.html" target="_blank">Microsoft Windows 10 Review</a><br />
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Many phones have LCD displays, but Super AMOLED is completely different. Like other OLED displays, individual pixels emit light rather than there being a backlight which illuminates an entire LCD screen. This means contrast is better and AMOLED screens also have more vivid colours, in general. So, given its price, the A3 has a relatively low resolution but good-quality screen. Some will think it looks a little blocky or fuzzy if coming from a phone with a higher resolution screen, but the 244ppi pixel density means it’s acceptable</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4qqhWRPUDJGpZb8yAFUovLeEEJ7cgQoewTkQb599zghW6-IYDLmmh5DPsVgaY8Yu0wgXKFRZesBjCvvlwF_Sh4y2I7HYdIem0p4HUrYSRhKWYudAjqs3l3TPK4N2CMdbzalsMOU4Yq0/s1600/Samsung+Galaxy+A3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Samsung Galaxy A3" border="0" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4qqhWRPUDJGpZb8yAFUovLeEEJ7cgQoewTkQb599zghW6-IYDLmmh5DPsVgaY8Yu0wgXKFRZesBjCvvlwF_Sh4y2I7HYdIem0p4HUrYSRhKWYudAjqs3l3TPK4N2CMdbzalsMOU4Yq0/s640/Samsung+Galaxy+A3.jpg" title="Samsung Galaxy A3" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samsung Galaxy A3</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIKKg2IaJTJAnYkdy5lPvYpsg9em9jiQ6B_d9MIuNEY7Ug_-q0NbgP_59e6TnuayiYl9ZaxRehats8qGBaglrSXbPob2xc3vOWDlfzjfIQdK-C46-ClLHt1yy0U0-pknerts5IqtqOKGc/s1600/Samsung+Galaxy+A3+Review.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Samsung Galaxy A3" border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIKKg2IaJTJAnYkdy5lPvYpsg9em9jiQ6B_d9MIuNEY7Ug_-q0NbgP_59e6TnuayiYl9ZaxRehats8qGBaglrSXbPob2xc3vOWDlfzjfIQdK-C46-ClLHt1yy0U0-pknerts5IqtqOKGc/s640/Samsung+Galaxy+A3+Review.jpg" title="Samsung Galaxy A3" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samsung Galaxy A3</td></tr>
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As with the A5, the A3 has an aluminum uni-body much like an iPhone. It looks stylish and is slim and lightweight at 6.9mm and just 110g. There’s a physical home button, with touch sensitive back and recent buttons either side of it. Micro-USB and headphone sockets can be found on the bottom edge and iPhone-style trays hold a nano SIM and up to a 64GB microSD card on the right-hand side. The sleep/wake button is above the trays, and the volume rocker is on the left. </div>
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Mounted centrally on the back is a camera that’s flanked by an LED flash and the main speaker. You get the same choice of four colors: white, black, gold and silver. Like the A5, the A3 runs Android KitKat. That’s strange given that the new version – Lollipop has been around for six months now. However, an update to Android 5.0 for both phones is rolling out right now. Samsung’s TouchWiz interface masks most of Android anyway, so the upgrade won’t be as noticeable as on a phone running plain Android. </div>
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It’s still worth having Lollipop though for its other features. You might expect the A3 to have the same internals as the A5, but you’d be wrong. Yes, there’s the same Snapdragon 410 processor with the Adreno 306 GPU, but you get only 1.5GB of RAM instead of 2GB and only an 8Mp camera at the rear instead of 13Mp. Wi-Fi is single-band in the A3, so unlike the A5 it won’t be able to connect to 802.11n routers on 5GHz. It’s a non-issue for most people, of course. The front camera is the same at 5Mp, and there’s Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and NFC. </div>
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There’s also 4G LTE support as well as 3G. The A3 is one of few phones with built-in ANT+ support, which could be useful if you have any ANT+ fitness gadgets. Unsurprisingly, the A3 is more or less exactly as fast as the A5. In our tests, it returned roughly the same scores and in general day-to-day used proved fast enough. The problem is that it’s not really good enough for the price: you can buy the Motorola Moto E for just £109, which has the same processor, supports 4G and has basically the same screen size and resolution. </div>
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The battery is rated at 1900mAh which is a lot less than the 2300mAh cell in the Galaxy A5. In general use though, we found the A3 would last a full day with no problems. There’s the same Ultra Power Saving mode as the A5, which extends standby time for over a day even if you’re down to 10 percent. In our battery test, the A3 lasted just a couple of minutes shy of six hours. That’s only quarter of an hour less than the Galaxy A5, despite the smaller battery. </div>
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Overall, it’s a decent result. One area where the Moto E 4G shows its budget nature is the plastic body. But the low-resolution cameras also let it down. In this respect the Galaxy A3 is much better. Photos have a decent amount of detail and are sharp. Don’t expect quality to rival the iPhone 6’s 8Mp camera, but snaps are respectable enough to share with family and online. Bear in mind that both cameras default to a 16:9 aspect ratio, which means they take lower resolution photos (6Mp rear, 3.7Mp front) unless you change the settings to use their native 4:3 aspect ratios. </div>
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Also, the front camera defaults to selfie mode which itself automatically retouches your face giving a strange plastic look. With this disabled, photos from the front camera are very good. Along with the handy options for automatically taking selfies when holding up your palm and a wide-selfie mode, the A3 is a good choice if you take a lot of photos of yourself. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Verdict</b></span></div>
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Samsung’s RRP is £249, but you can buy the Galaxy A3 SIM-free for a little under £200 if you search around online. If you do want it on contract, there should be no up-front cost. But as we’ve said, it’s possible to get a phone with similar specifications for a lot less, so it’s hard to justify spending the extra on the A3 for its cameras or even Samsung’s software</div>
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Samsung Galaxy A3 Review

We’ve already reviewed the Galaxy A5, which turned out to be a nicely built mid-range Android phone, but too expensive given the mediocre ...

Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display Review

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The new 15in MacBook Pro for 2015 has arrived, picking up a trio of component upgrades on the way. Apple’s best laptop features the same design and layout as the first Retina notebook that launched in 2012, and once again two models are available – here we focus on the top model with 2.5GHz processor and AMD graphics. Apple pioneered the trackpad on laptops back in the early 1990s, when Windows laptop factories were still fitting upside-downmouse trackballs or little rubber pointing sticks in the middle of the keyboard. The trackpad is now all but ubiquitous as the way to interact with every notebook computer of any faith. Under Apple’s stewardship, the concept has seen trackpads grow larger in size, increase in precision and sensitivity, and notably gain multi-point touch recognition to allow new hand gestures to guide the user through a computer’s GUI. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4IsjWTqM4Z11W444aASSZx4wyUJOaABa0o-N5oGb4qcLpcCE9Y9hXZ5sipIIkDHNXuC8D9cEChyPPET4hHanIhpFxhytXJU_srDvs1EdXR2f-gVM7HJ56OnKHKPWesQ4jwZjYeNi8x1E/s1600/Apple+MacBook+Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Apple MacBook Pro" border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4IsjWTqM4Z11W444aASSZx4wyUJOaABa0o-N5oGb4qcLpcCE9Y9hXZ5sipIIkDHNXuC8D9cEChyPPET4hHanIhpFxhytXJU_srDvs1EdXR2f-gVM7HJ56OnKHKPWesQ4jwZjYeNi8x1E/s640/Apple+MacBook+Pro.jpg" title="Apple MacBook Pro" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apple MacBook Pro</td></tr>
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The new Force Touch track-pad is something of a departure though, and even though the track-pad looks identical on the surface, it is now a fixed unmoving construct, relying on strain gauges, electromagnet solenoids and additional processors and algorithms to do its work. Superficially, the same as it was in the first Uni body MacBook of 2008 it may be, but still waters run deep. As we found with first the 13in MacBook Pro and then the new little MacBook, the Force Touch track-pad allows you to control the strength of the ‘click’ for normal clicks (Light, Medium, Firm); and additionally to register an extra, deeper click when you press slightly longer and more firmly. The Force Touch concept works well on the MacBook Pro, allowing you to deep click on the fast-forward</div>
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and rewind buttons in QuickTime Player, for example. The harder you press, the faster the speedup. Another useful benefit, if one that takes some mental training to get used to if you’ve been driving trackpads for years, is that you can press anywhere on the trackpad surface with equal pressure to elicit a click, rather than along just the front edge.  </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPJTnbNedqjzULlET2YDjcQ7zGnGNSOMf9BmHtDA8NUXGsgf7wkAXdW4IemwmAnldfCQlYcpy7XgBtnyoklktxEq14q3IsDQCaew8qsUw1QmZcqerL16AKmg5rB_vE8GECla_767X8924/s1600/Apple+MacBook+Pro+15In.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Apple MacBook Pro" border="0" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPJTnbNedqjzULlET2YDjcQ7zGnGNSOMf9BmHtDA8NUXGsgf7wkAXdW4IemwmAnldfCQlYcpy7XgBtnyoklktxEq14q3IsDQCaew8qsUw1QmZcqerL16AKmg5rB_vE8GECla_767X8924/s640/Apple+MacBook+Pro+15In.jpg" title="Apple MacBook Pro" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apple MacBook Pro</td></tr>
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Apple does not seem too partisan when it comes to favoring either of today’s two makers of PC graphics processors, tending to oscillate between fitting either nVidia or AMD’s graphics adapters. Since the 15in MacBook Pro with Retina display was introduced back in 2012, there has been a build using discrete nVidia graphics in addition to low-power integrated Intel graphics, starting with the nVidia GeForce GTX 650M for the Mark I; and for the past two refreshes, the slightly better GTX 750M. Now we see the pendulum swing back to AMD, with the inclusion of a Radeon R9 M370X graphics processing unit. It is fitted with 2GB of GDDR5 video memory, the same quota as the outgoing nVidia part.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Graphics</b></span></div>
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You won’t find this AMD graphics processor on other laptops though as the part seems to be custombuilt for Apple. Note that like all GPUs that Apple has fitted to its professional-label MacBook Pro notebooks ever since the line was launched in 2006, the 2015 MacBook Pro takes a consumer-grade graphics adaptor, here bearing the Radeon name. The AMD Radeon R9 M370X looks to be based on a 28nm architecture codenamed Cape Verde that dates back to 2012, and this particular version runs an 800MHz GPU clock, 1125MHz memory clock (4500MHz effective speed, after the quadrupling properties of GDDR5 RAM) and 128-bit memory bus. It has 640 stream processors for parallel processing and 40 texture mapping units.<br />
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<a href="http://www.sabrez.com/2015/08/microsoft-windows-10-review.html" target="_blank">Microsoft Windows 10 Review</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.sabrez.com/2015/08/schenker-xmg-p505-gaming-laptop-review.html" target="_blank">Schenker XMG P505 : The Gaming Laptop Review</a><br />
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Comparing the AMD chip with nVidia’s graphics is not easy, as its architecture is slightly different, with a specification listing shading units (384) and render output processors (16) besides a count of 32 texture mapping units. However, the previous nVidia GTX 750M did have a slightly faster core-clock speed of 926MHz, the same size 128-bit memory bus, and a faster memory clock of 1254MHz. Apple reports that the new AMD graphics are faster than the outgoing nVidia solution, and these claims were borne out in our testing in every instance, up to and including a 70 percent performance increase in one game. Before the graphics benchmark results, it’s worth reiterating that the CPU is the same as when we last tested the breed in summer 2014.  </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxDmTInzW335VqEwUbu0ipUM87HW7HhJYIE9rvt7KKY4fTiMH73FfPGauLklgWqHo94or2-Bs2zkyNtYdwKhyphenhyphendDa9w9wZl-KnlAAZSn-hu4RWLS05Il2uYwBjSSeSnx98UU6fDgDS7O5Q/s1600/Apple+MacBook+Pro+2015+Review.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Apple MacBook Pro 2015 Review" border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxDmTInzW335VqEwUbu0ipUM87HW7HhJYIE9rvt7KKY4fTiMH73FfPGauLklgWqHo94or2-Bs2zkyNtYdwKhyphenhyphendDa9w9wZl-KnlAAZSn-hu4RWLS05Il2uYwBjSSeSnx98UU6fDgDS7O5Q/s640/Apple+MacBook+Pro+2015+Review.jpg" title="Apple MacBook Pro 2015 Review" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apple MacBook Pro 2015 Review</td></tr>
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We ran the usual processor tests anyway as part of our comprehensive routine to ensure nothing unexpected had arisen, and found figures that were within 1 percent tolerance of last year’s results. This means a single-core Geekbench 3 score of 3717 points, rising to 14,325 points in multi-core mode; Cinebench 11.5 with results of 1.54- and 6.41 points respectively for the two modes; while Cinebench 15 reported 132- and 602 points. For reference, Dell’s comparable copycat computer is the Precision M3800, which runs an Intel Core i7-4712HQ at 2.3GHz, and gives benchmark scores around 5 percent slower in Cinebench, and up to 18 percent slower in Geekbench. Cinebench will also test graphics rendering performance with an OpenGL routine, and in our tests of the mid-2015 MacBook Pro with its new AMD graphics we found 12.5- and 16 percent improvements over the previous nVidia model. Specifically, Cinebench 11.5 framerate rose from 48- to 54fps, while Cinebench 15 advanced from 54- to 63fps. Turning to gaming, we started with Batman: Arkham City and found it would play around onethird faster. </div>
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At the low setting of 1280x720 pixels and Medium detail, nVidia gave us 61fps, while AMD played at 83fps (36 percent faster). Set to 1440x900 size – arguably the best resolution for this MacBook Pro’s 2880x1900-pixel display – the game rose from 50fps through nVidia GeForce GTX 750M, to 66fps through the AMD Radeon R9 M370X, for a 32 percent improvement. Unigine Heaven is a synthetic gaming benchmark, and here the AMD graphics showed around 20 percent improvements on the previous nVidia – moving from 35- to 42fps (1280x800, Medium), and from 29- to 35fps (1440x900, Medium). Most impressive gaming performance lifts were found in the 2013 reboot of the classic Tomb Raider game. In our experience testing Windows machines, this game typically works better through AMD graphics hardware right down to the added TressFX graphics API for DirectX, which optionally shows Lara’s hair more realistically, each strand rendered separately with the help of the AMD Graphics Core Next architecture. </div>
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Sadly this feature has not been ported to the OpenGL version of Tomb Raider for Mac. Set to a modest 1280x800- pixel resolution and Normal detail, framerate was lifted from 40fps under nVidia to 65fps under AMD (63 percent faster). At 1440x900, Normal detail moved from 33- to 56fps (the vaunted 70 percent improvement) and from 31- to 49fps at High detail (or a 58 percent lift). With the help of QuickRes (quickresapp.com,) we also pushed the graphics to their size limit, expanding screen resolution beyond what OS X normally allows, to the MacBook Pro’s native 2880x1800 pixels. At this point, you cannot expect to have playable framerates from anything but the best graphics cards. For the nVidia 750M, it averaged 9fps in Tomb Raider, while the AMD R9 M370X showed us a much better, if still too slow, 18fps. That’s what statisticians and marketeers would call a 100 percent improvement</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Performance</b></span></div>
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We’ve already seen some significant improvements in storage performance in this year’s Apple Mac refreshes, building on the 2013 refresh when Apple kicked out SATA and introduced PCIe attached flash drives to the world. This year saw this strategy developed again by the use of four rather than two lanes of PCI Express. So in the case of the new 13in MacBook Pro with Retina display, sequential read speed from the PCIe attached flash drive doubled from around 750- to 1500MB/s. This year’s 15in Retina MacBook Pro also gains from the doubling in PCIe bus lanes, again from two to four. But it also adds another trick that takes sequential read speed up to a staggering 2000MB/s. In</div>
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place of the venerable PCIe 2.0 standard, we now have a flash drive using four lanes of PCIe 3.0. </div>
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The newer standard has nominal speed of 8GT/s (giga transfers per second), a bump up from the previous 5GT/s of PCIe 2.0. Using QuickBench, we measured storage transfer speeds in excess of 2000MB/s, peaking at 2077MB/s, and averaging 2050MB/s for data sized 20- to 100MB. Sequential write speeds were lower as is typical for SSDs and averaged 1542MB/s. Small-file random reads were almost disappointing, the weakest in measurement at 37MB/s for 4kB random reads, while 4kB random writes hit 118MB/s. Averaged across all small files from 4- to 1024kB, random reads were 533MB/s and random writes averaged 948MB/s. Compared to 2014’s best, which came in at 199MB/s for averaged random reads and 351MB/s for averaged random writes that’s roughly a three-fold increase since the last refresh, and one that will really make the Retina MacBook Pro fly in real-world usage. </div>
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We have seen a clear evolution in Mac storage performance in the past two years; a revolution in terms of the shake-up to the PC industry. Up until the MacBook refreshes of 2013, the best SATA SSDs had read speeds capped by SATA interface at little over 500MB/s. Then Apple replaced SATA with PCIe, giving a 50 percent read speed increase to 750MB/s. Then earlier this year it used twice as many PCIe lanes, doubling that 750 figure to 1500MB/s. And now the lanes have been widened to expand the top speed to 2000GB/s. Last year’s MacBook Pro (Retina, 15in, mid 2014) with the same 2.5GHz Core i7 processor lasted for seven hours 57 minutes, in our test of streaming an MPEG-4 HD</div>
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film over Wi-Fi, with screen set to 120cd/m2 (an 11.75 setting on the 0-16 brightness range available through OS X). This year’s model with the same CPU ran for eight hours 58 minutes, which we’re happy to call ‘nine-hour battery life’. If we had to guess the ‘how’, we’d wager it was either improved power-saving techniques in the Samsung-made flash drive controller; reduced quiescent current draw from the AMD graphics processor; or it could be a little of both, combined with some under bonnet changes in the OS.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Verdict</b></span></div>
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Apple’s latest 15in Retina MacBook Pro maintains its place as a premium mobile workstation laptop, with great performance and a stylish design.</div>
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Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display Review

The new 15in MacBook Pro for 2015 has arrived, picking up a trio of component upgrades on the way. Apple’s best laptop features the same d...

Microsoft Windows 10 Review

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In late 2014, Microsoft took the wraps off the Technical Preview of its next Windows operating system, and in doing so it took everyone by surprise. We expected the next generation of Windows: we just didn’t expect it to be called Windows 10. None the less here is Windows 10: the next operating system for PCs and laptops, smartphones and tablets. And, indeed, an OS for servers and all points in between. Microsoft said that Windows 10 is built from the ground up for a world in which mobile- and cloud computing are key. Execs from the company said it was committed to making Windows 10 friendly for the enterprise, ideal for keyboard and mouse users, but also optimized for touch. Oh, and the operating system will put the same interface on devices with displays ranging in size from 4- to 80in. “One product family, one platform, one store,” says Microsoft. Given the lukewarm reaction to Windows 8, these seem like bold claims. They are necessary, though. Also necessary was Microsoft’s decision to make Windows 10 the most beta-tested product it has ever released. The operating system was tested by over 4 million people around the world before its launch.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Microsoft Windows 10 Start Menu</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>What’s new?</b></span><br />
Critically the Start Menu is back. It contains standard Windows software and Windows apps. Modern UI apps, as they used to be called. Or Metro apps, if you want to go right back to the beginning. But this time the Start menu is improved, and it may even make Windows apps useful. Look to the left and you’ll see a list of your most-used apps, just as in Windows 7. At the bottom we see an ‘All apps’ shortcut, plus shortcuts to File Explorer, Settings and conveniently shut down and standby. And Microsoft has retained the functionality of the Windows 8 Start screen over on the right, with resizable Live Tiles, so that you can immediately check unread mail or Calendar appointments. The Start Menu is customizable, too you can resize it, and rearrange the tiles, create groups of tiles, and also revert to the Windows 8 Start Screen, should you wish to. </div>
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<a href="http://www.sabrez.com/2015/02/best-4k-laptops-in-2015.html" target="_blank">Best 4K Laptops in 2015</a></div>
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The full-screen start menu is really meant for tablet use, where it makes most sense, but you can choose to use it on a PC or laptop without a touchscreen if you like. We’re fans of the tile concept, if not the inelegance with which they’re currently presented. As with Windows Phone, it’s what you can pin that matters. Instead of merely adding shortcuts to apps, you can pin tiles which are shortcuts to specific functions or features within apps. This makes life a lot more convenient when you begin pinning the right stuff. For example, you could pin a particular email or conversation thread from Mail or Facebook, or pin a certain journey (your commute, typically) in a travel app. It saves a lot of time, believe us.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Search and Cortana</b></span><br />
Instead of placing a search box in the Start menu, or hiding it completely as is the case in Windows 8, Windows 10 sticks it front and centre on the Taskbar. This is a smart move, as it’s always there ready to serve up whatever you need to find or what to know. The first time you click on the box, you’ll see a prompt to enable Cortana. That’s because Cortana and search are pretty much one and the same in Windows 10. In fact, search is just part of the virtual assistant’s remit. If you’ve ever used a phone running Windows Phone 8, you’ll probably know Cortana already. The beauty is that you can type or talk to her and it’s the same in Windows 10. It’s much faster to tap the microphone button (or even say, “Hey Cortana”) and reel off your request than to type it. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSf1bo0UCVOB6odHnSC_qacqXYGg6JR9FLMUhi8B86434RegC6JLSQU_p6e9QYvdzBrF1QyDySb51fZzuGl3HpHUCCrFL9sC2rvYrRWLd93QJI5ZLES10nj4gCPogQJriT97R9jJHkIl0/s1600/Microsoft+Windows+10+Cortana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Microsoft Windows 10 Cortana" border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSf1bo0UCVOB6odHnSC_qacqXYGg6JR9FLMUhi8B86434RegC6JLSQU_p6e9QYvdzBrF1QyDySb51fZzuGl3HpHUCCrFL9sC2rvYrRWLd93QJI5ZLES10nj4gCPogQJriT97R9jJHkIl0/s640/Microsoft+Windows+10+Cortana.jpg" title="Microsoft Windows 10 Cortana" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Microsoft Windows 10 Cortana</td></tr>
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 Sticking with search for a minute, you can type in a single word and Windows 10 will return a list of matching apps, settings and files, plus apps in the Windows store. It will also show a list of web results. But there’s lots more you can do, as all the features from Windows Phone are now in Windows 10. So you can type or ask, “What’s the weather going to be like this weekend?” and Cortana will display a forecast. You can also say “Remind me to fill in my tax return tomorrow night” and you’ll get a reminder at the appropriate time. Reminders go even further, as Cortana can tie them to people and places. So you can also say “Remind me to ask James about that money he owes me” and Cortana will ask whether you want to be reminded at a specific time or place. For places, you can say “Remind me to get milk and bread when I get to Tesco” or “Remind me to water the plants when I get home”. </div>
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Cortana will show the top news stories, identify music playing and has a ‘Daily Glance’ which displays a summary of your meetings, today’s weather, information about your daily commute, sports scores and more. If you allow it, Cortana can access information from emails, such as flight numbers and warn you if there’s a delay or if there’s heavy traffic on the way to the airport and you need to leave earlier than you might have. If Cortana can’t answer a question directly, it will launch the new Edge web browser and display search results. Finally, Cortana can set alarms, record notes, play specific music, launch apps and give you directions on a map. We think Cortana is great, and one of Windows 10’s biggest draws. </div>
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Learn how to use her capabilities, and you’ll sure to be more productive. Returning to search and staying with the productivity theme, Windows 10 makes it easier to find your recently used files and frequently visited folders. This is because File Explorer replaces the Favorites section in the left-hand pane with Quick Access. This makes finding files you’ve worked on faster and easier, without having to manually pin things to the Taskbar or add folders to the Favorites section manually. It also means you don’t have to use the ‘last modified’ column to sort and find that file you just downloaded or edited yesterday.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Task View and </b><b>virtual desktops</b></span> </div>
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To the right of the search box you’ll notice an unfamiliar icon. Click it and Task View will open. It’s a lot like the view you get in Windows 7 or 8 when you press Alt+Tab. You can  till use Alt+Tab in Windows 10 but the shortcut for Task View is Win+Tab. Along the bottom of the screen, beneath the app thumbnails is a new bar showing virtual desktops. This is a feature that many Windows users have hankered after, but been forced to resort to third-party software such as Dexpot in previous versions of the operating system. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijovb-QAaVL5v4fls5jimBQw0nmSUmeITTWQgBWpcAzTHv8OlQ1QKagGBrfb5lEo_D5Qj4Zst5VY3_USklK68uAkmPcrNpCA8F3wtAXhmX-x7ZY9AYWuLiL40Mzpj6tRMvy0puFzdJhO8/s1600/Task+View+in+Microsoft+Windows+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Task View in Microsoft Windows 10" border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijovb-QAaVL5v4fls5jimBQw0nmSUmeITTWQgBWpcAzTHv8OlQ1QKagGBrfb5lEo_D5Qj4Zst5VY3_USklK68uAkmPcrNpCA8F3wtAXhmX-x7ZY9AYWuLiL40Mzpj6tRMvy0puFzdJhO8/s640/Task+View+in+Microsoft+Windows+10.jpg" title="Task View in Microsoft Windows 10" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Task View in Microsoft Windows 10</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgFteA0cTQz4jZYD4u9MHEgkM6bjXzgFg1iydQAsQl5h3pgy30C0tfX7SKnMMJKSjlWXUwInVTL_Uh9dm0FVWybZRCf2O9Uo1nnNnltOuyDrDFd6eu1d0RQtGBNf2_DilI89fQNos9Iq0/s1600/Microsoft+Windows+10+Virtual+Desktop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Microsoft Windows 10 Virtual Desktop" border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgFteA0cTQz4jZYD4u9MHEgkM6bjXzgFg1iydQAsQl5h3pgy30C0tfX7SKnMMJKSjlWXUwInVTL_Uh9dm0FVWybZRCf2O9Uo1nnNnltOuyDrDFd6eu1d0RQtGBNf2_DilI89fQNos9Iq0/s640/Microsoft+Windows+10+Virtual+Desktop.jpg" title="Microsoft Windows 10 Virtual Desktop" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Microsoft Windows 10 Virtual Desktop</td></tr>
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Now in Windows 10, you can create virtual desktops right out of the box. It’s a simple case of clicking the Add desktop button and you’ve got a new, blank desktop on which to launch apps. Then you can quickly flip between desktops using Ctrl+Win+left cursor or Ctrl+Win+right cursor. This is much faster than using Alt+Tab and trying to find one Word document from 20 open windows. What’s important to note is that unlike in Windows 8.1 you can use the new-style apps from within the Desktop area. This removes some of the pointless division in Windows on X86 systems. It also helps Microsoft make good on its claim that Windows 10 will feel familiar to Windows 7 users.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Snap Assist</b></span><br />
Unlike in Windows 8 where a snapped app takes up half the screen with Windows 10 up to four apps can be snapped per screen, each occupying a quarter. When you’ve snapped an app, Snap Assist will display an Al+Tab view of some of the remaining open apps so you can quickly fill the entire screen. You can still snap apps to fill the whole screen, or the left- or right hand side, and the same shortcuts apply as with Windows 7 and 8. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_MGMuxAL0m-oLnTR0CaPKtM0bu-kepgh4xBW_2Mc7Ll701uZDKCgfhni4eChe3eWm0fojJ6adEz8RA-MEIiCWP76x0UQVVy4GEE_GfEG1-oX07JM8uYOqGiJmQGSXOmmv68cg_yCuafI/s1600/Microsoft+Windows+10+Snap+Assist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Microsoft Windows 10 Snap Assist" border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_MGMuxAL0m-oLnTR0CaPKtM0bu-kepgh4xBW_2Mc7Ll701uZDKCgfhni4eChe3eWm0fojJ6adEz8RA-MEIiCWP76x0UQVVy4GEE_GfEG1-oX07JM8uYOqGiJmQGSXOmmv68cg_yCuafI/s640/Microsoft+Windows+10+Snap+Assist.jpg" title="Microsoft Windows 10 Snap Assist" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Microsoft Windows 10 Snap Assist</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Notifications</b></span><br />
Although Windows 8 had pop-up notifications, things are much better in Windows 10. There’s the equivalent of Windows Phone 8’s Action Centre, complete with toggle buttons for common settings. If you miss a pop-up notification they appear in the bottom-right corner – you can swipe in from the<br />
right on a touchscreen to display the Notifications bar. Like most similar systems, it divides notifications by app and you can clear them individually or in one fell swoop, the latter being one feature that’s frustratingly absent in iOS. Buttons at the bottom of the bar include toggles for tablet and desktop mode, brightness, battery saver mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, rotation lock, location, flight mode and more. You can expand or collapse the menu depending on how much room you want it to occupy.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Microsoft Edge</b></span><br />
There’s a new web browser in Windows 10, and it offers some unique features. As well as the reading mode you may already be familiar with from other browsers, which strips away page furniture so you can focus on the content, there’s a new annotation feature that lets you highlight things and add notes and crop to a certain area of the page before sending them to others. Having these capabilities natively in the browser is a compelling reason to use it over Google Chrome or Firefox. It has also been a decent performer in our testing. Edge has been designed to have a minimal interface, leaving as much screen real estate as possible for web pages: the whole reason you’re using a browser is to view them, of course. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLCiI-6pGKLIJD44uaYJlHnav9egK93qa23GtsGe5cg0acEToiXBHtShN57dsjXrVHsLIOZjqvJt4gU3njm5bs_upHktQgQDSPo8JYQWrfMJphe7681l8uhhRMVDAhWg3nPjT9OcmAnsA/s1600/Microsoft+Windows+10+Edge+Browser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Microsoft Windows 10 Edge Browser" border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLCiI-6pGKLIJD44uaYJlHnav9egK93qa23GtsGe5cg0acEToiXBHtShN57dsjXrVHsLIOZjqvJt4gU3njm5bs_upHktQgQDSPo8JYQWrfMJphe7681l8uhhRMVDAhWg3nPjT9OcmAnsA/s640/Microsoft+Windows+10+Edge+Browser.jpg" title="Microsoft Windows 10 Edge Browser" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Microsoft Windows 10 Edge Browser</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Built-in apps</b></span><br />
Some may mourn the loss of Windows Media Centre in Windows 10, but few people have PCs with built-in TV tuners and few laptops (and no tablets) come with optical drives for playing DVDs. You do get media playback apps, of course. Instead of the Xbox branding which proved a little confusing in Windows 8, the apps are simply called Music and Movies & TV. The Music app combines your local music with any stored online in your OneDrive Music folder. Plus, it also integrates Microsoft’s music streaming service called Groove formerly Xbox Music which you can access by buying a Music Pass. This costs £8.99 per month, or £89.90 for an annual subscription, making it a bit cheaper than Apple and Spotify’s alternatives. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1RxLxfJPU0A4ko2XY8g-DTlpejqHLUDk_n-FOBhCh2c6LWtBbKQBpRa2FlstRTxLH68MDe0V4r17bP1kAsSvxRbGuhLqR14TLtrRMPOdFaiNV_Xq2Qf_ZSGn8bB4EAzfuR9YxLO5TpOA/s1600/Microsoft+Windows+10+Built+in+Apps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Microsoft Windows 10 Built in Apps" border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1RxLxfJPU0A4ko2XY8g-DTlpejqHLUDk_n-FOBhCh2c6LWtBbKQBpRa2FlstRTxLH68MDe0V4r17bP1kAsSvxRbGuhLqR14TLtrRMPOdFaiNV_Xq2Qf_ZSGn8bB4EAzfuR9YxLO5TpOA/s640/Microsoft+Windows+10+Built+in+Apps.jpg" title="Microsoft Windows 10 Built in Apps" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Microsoft Windows 10 Built in Apps</td></tr>
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The Movies & TV app allows you to buy or rent videos from the new Microsoft Store but, like Apple, Microsoft currently lacks a streaming service to rival Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video. The app is split into three sections: Movies, TV and Videos, the latter of which monitors your Videos folder and shows them in the same easy to use interface. Photos has been updated, but will be familiar to Windows 8 users. The old Windows Photo Viewer is still there if you prefer, and you’re prompted to choose a default app the first time you open a JPEG. It’s worth using the Photos app, however, as in addition to a decent viewing interface, it also lets you edit photos and pulls in photos from your OneDrive. It should be no surprise that Skype is pre-installed, now it’s owned by Microsoft. This means it’s easy to call or video chat with friends, family and colleagues. </div>
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While Office isn’t included it was only ever bundled with Windows RT you do get the Mail and Calendar apps. Mail is a clean-looking email client, which has the ability to handle multiple emails accounts including Outlook.com, Google, iCloud and Exchange (plus pretty much anything else, as long as you can configure the settings yourself). OneNote is also part of Windows 10. If you haven’t used it, you should certainly try it out. It’s a powerful Evernote-style app which lets you create notes that are a mixture of text, lists, images, maps and more. Again, OneDrive integration means that you can access your stuff from other devices even if it’s an Android or iPhone. Maps has been improved, too. Microsoft has added Street side the equivalent of Google’s Street View – so you can take virtual tours of places, as well as getting directions and finding nearby places of interest. For directions, you can choose driving, walking or public transport.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Verdict</b></span><br />
For the majority of home users, Windows 10 is free and this means that there’s really no reason not to upgrade. Unless there’s a specific feature in Windows 7 or Windows 10 that you can’t live without (see page 68) then the new features combined with the familiarity of Windows 7 make the new operating system very attractive. It’s even better if you have several devices that can run Windows 10 particularly a phone as the tight integration means you can set reminders on the go and pick them up on your PC, say, when you get home or into the office. </div>
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That’s just one tiny example, of course. If you use OneDrive to store your music, photos, videos, notes and documents, you’ll be able to easily access them from anywhere. Bear in mind that the ‘final’ version of Windows 10 Microsoft launches on 29 July isn’t final at all. It’s just the beginning: new features, including DirectX 12 support, will be added over the next weeks and months. The bottom line is that Windows 10 is a great operating system. Indeed, it’s fair to say even at this early stage that it’s the best Windows yet. It’s not perfect, of course, and there will undoubtedly be bugs that need fixing, so expect patches and updates soon after launch.</div>
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Microsoft Windows 10 Review

In late 2014, Microsoft took the wraps off the Technical Preview of its next Windows operating system, and in doing so it took everyone by...