The Samsung I9103 Galaxy R rode in on the NVIDIA Tegra 2 platform and became the first affordable dual-core smartphone from the South Korean company. With a bright SC-LCD screen and brushed metal back, the Galaxy R is just different enough from the Galaxy S lineup to stand on its own.
Samsung has so many variations of their models that sometimes it's hard to say when one model stops and another begins. Take the Samsung I9103 Galaxy R, positioned somewhere between the Galaxy S II flagship droid and the mid-range Galaxy W.
Not that we're complaining - having more options available is always a good thing and all dual-core droids from Samsung were only top of the line so far (S II and its variations, the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy Note phoneblet).
This is where the I9103 Galaxy R steps in in - it offers tangibly better specs than the Galaxy W, while staying a step below the top dogs in specs and price. Here's a summary of what you get with the Galaxy R and some downsides.
Key features
Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
4.2" 16M-color SC-LCD capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution; Scratch-resistant glass
5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, face and smile detection
720p HD video recording at 30fps
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n support; DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct support
GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
8GB internal storage, microSD slot
Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port
Stereo Bluetooth v3.0
FM radio with RDS
Great audio quality
1.3MP secondary video-call camera
Document editor
File manager comes preinstalled
Main disadvantages
SC-LCD has poor black levels
Tegra 2 falls slightly behind Exynos in CPU and GPU performance
No dedicated camera key
Non-hot-swappable microSD card
Depending on how you look at it, going from the Galaxy W to the Galaxy R means getting a better CPU and GPU, a bigger screen and extra built-in storage, or trading in several of the highlights of the Galaxy S II in exchange for a smaller total at the cash register.
Anyway, if you pull the Galaxy R away from the S II's shadow, you'll notice it stands pretty well on its own. Tegra 2 is at the heart of several popular dual-core droids and quite a few tablets too. And a 4.2" WVGA screen doesn’t sound too bad, even if it is an SC-LCD (we'll how it does in our tests though).
The camera could have been better - 5MP and 720p is nothing to brag about. We have seen some excellent 720p shooters lately though.......
The Nokia Asha 300 may not exactly fit in with today’s standards of newsworthy. With smartphones flexing their muscles at venues like CES, sporting ever-expanding app markets, HD screens and multi-core processors, it’s hard to see how an entry-level offering could produce much of a splash.
If, however, price is a factor, or you simply want a phone that is…well, simple, then the Asha 300 could definitely make some waves in your pool. Part of a new line of phones by Nokia, which feature a revamped S40 interface and 1GHz processor, the Asha 300, and its QWERTY sibling, the Asha 303, aim to cement Nokia's place in a market they have traditionally dominated.
The Touch and Type S40 interface is at once the same yet different from the traditional non-smart UI from Nokia. Combined with an app store and a customizable homescreen, there are definitely elements borrowed from smartphones in an attempt by Nokia to extend the functionality while retaining the simplistic feel of the S40. The faster processor and 128MB of RAM are more than sufficient to run the S40 quickly and without hitches.
Key features
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Quad-band 3G with 10Mbps HSDPA and 2Mbps HSUPA
Asha S40 Touch and Type platform
2.4" QVGA 256K-color resistive TFT touchscreen
1GHz processor
128MB RAM, 256MB ROM
5 megapixel fixed-focus camera
VGA video recording at 30fps
Stereo FM radio with RDS
Bluetooth v2.1 (with A2DP)
Standard microUSB port (charging enabled)
USB On-The-Go support
microSD card slot (32 GB supported)
3.5mm audio jack
Asha exclusive Angry Birds game
Main disadvantages
No Wi-Fi (as opposed to Asha 303)
No multitasking
Fixed-focus camera
No smart dialing
No video-call camera
Non-hot-swappable memory card
The Asha 300 walks that fine precipice between designing a phone that is contemporary, yet aims to appeal mainly to an audience where being contemporary is not as important as being simple and not too expensive.
We’ve all heard the expression “I just want a phone that works, don't care about the extra stuff.” With quad-band 2G and 3G support, the 300 does exactly that – it’s a no-nonsense worker bee of a phone. In fact, with Bluetooth, a 5MP camera, messaging and radio it will do even more should the need arise. The only ding in regards to important cost-cutting features is that it does not have the Wi-Fi support of the Asha 303.
All of this in mind, one of the main disadvantages of not having a smartphone is that you don't get multitasking. Save for being able to play music in the background, the Asha 300 will not be able to run multiple applications simultaneously.
Asha is the new name of Nokia's entry level phone lineup. The Asha 303, which we recently reviewed, succeeds the Nokia C3. The Asha 300 in turn is an obvious descendant of the C3-01. Interestingly, while the QWERTY-enabled Asha 303 upgrades its predecessor in almost every way, the Asha 300 looks and feels like a downgrade. That should make it even more affordable.
Nokia Lumia 710 has a tall task at hand. The second brainchild of the Nokia- Microsoft partnership is the budget-friendly option in the lineup. It will try to entice first time smartphone buyers, while battling the Windows Phone establishment in the face of HTC and Samsung.
While the upscale Nokia Lumia 800 is clearly the object of more attention for its impressive build and superior features, the Lumia 710 is expected to sell in bigger numbers and perhaps bring higher profits. From a business perspective, the smartphone is even more important than its flagship sibling.
Just don't take the budget reference to Nokia Lumia 710 at face value. Because of Microsoft's strict hardware requirements for the Windows Phone platform, the smartphone has the same 1.4GHz Scorpion CPU and 512MB of RAM as the Lumia 800, therefore promising identically smooth handling. In order to maintain the budget status and keep the price down, Nokia Lumia 710 has less built-in memory, an LCD screen instead of AMOLED, and a 5MP camera. Its design is less ambitious than the flagship's, but the Lumia 710 is still solidly built, even if not as good looking.
Key features
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Quad-band 3G with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support
3.7" 16M-color ClearBlack LCD capacitive touchscreen with WVGA resolution
Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display cover
5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash, 720p video recording
GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
Digital compass
8GB on-board storage
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack; FM Radio with RDS
microUSB port
Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDR
Deep and coherent SNS integration throughout the interface
Main disadvantages
LCD display's quality is questionable
No Flash or Silverlight support in browser
No USB mass storage (file management and sync pass only through Zune)
No video calls and no front-facing camera either
No memory card slot
microSIM card slot
No native DivX/XviD support, videos have to be Zune-transcoded
Disappointing audio quality
Unimpressive battery life
The level of equipment sets the Nokia Lumia 710 on a collision course with two major rivals in the Windows Phone realm - the Samsung Omnia W/Focus Flash and HTC Radar. The Finnish offering however, has a few exclusive software tricks up its sleeve, which are expected to give it a slight edge over its rivals. The most prominent of course, being Nokia Drive - the exclusive and free lifetime navigation service.
As far as hardware goes, the three devices are almost identical, save for the screen technology and choice of finish.
The Huawei Honor is made in China and proudly so. Designed, engineered and created in the Land of the Dragon, it's nothing like your run-of-the-mill cheap knock-off. It's a genuine Chinese product, not just something put together for someone else – including premium brands drawn by the low manufacturing costs.
The Huawei Honor is a Chinese smartphone – and one with solid specs too. Not as loaded as the Meizu MX, but a lot more subtle too in doing an impression of some of its illustrious contemporaries.
Anyway, most phones in the Huawei lineup looks like a phone you've seen. This is not a trivia quiz though. And we don’t care what phone (or phones) the Huawei Honor brings to mind. There must be more important things to Huawei than coming up with fresh original designs. How much bigger, you ask? Well, how about - pretty huge.
A multibillion multinational, Huawei is - to put it simply - the Chinese version of Motorola or Ericsson. One of the world’s leading network and telecom equipment manufacturers, they've been making mobile phones too for a while now.
Ideos should ring a bell: a small lineup of low-to-mid-tier Android smartphones and tablets. The Honor is the next step for them. It’s pretty much the company’s current flagship. A 1.4GHz-powered Gingerbread-running smartphone with a rather interesting custom skin. The 4” FWVGA screen and the 8 megapixel camera are the other prominent features on the list.
4.0” LCD display of FWVGA (854 x 480) resolution; 245ppi pixel density
8 megapixel auto-focus camera with geotagging and HDR; HD (720p@30fps) video recording, LED flash
Front-facing VGA camera
Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread with custom Huawei launcher
Custom lockscreen with shortcuts to messaging, camera and missed calls
Huawei Cloud + Store offer exclusive content and 16GB of cloud storage
Wi-Fi b/g/n; hot-spot and DLNA connectivity
Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
GPS with A-GPS; Digital compass
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Accelerometer, Gyroscope and proximity sensor
Stereo FM radio
Active noise cancellation with secondary mic
Office document viewer
Powerful 1900 mAh Li-Po battery
Web browser with Adobe Flash 11 support
Smart dialing
Main disadvantages
Cheapish gloss
Real smudge magnet
Poor screen quality
Non hot-swappable microSD card
No hardware shutter key
No native video calling despite built-in VGA camera
Droids come in all shapes and sizes, feature sets and price tags. You’ve heard it all about Samsung’s droids, or Sony Ericsson’s, or HTC’s. And think that’s all there’s to know about Android. Well, apparently Huawei can show a few tricks too.
We're not quite sure about the first impression the Huawei U8860 Honor leaves. You'd do well though not to let it fool you. Plain design and more cheap gloss than we're comfortable with - most people will find it hard to believe they're dealing with a rather impressively spec'd handset.
It’s an easy one to miss but anyone looking for a reasonably priced Android cameraphone should pay attention. It’s time to see if the Honor can do the job and make at least some difference in a crowd filled with class “A” contenders. The Huawei Honor isn’t trying to impress or scare the Galaxy Nexus or the iPhone 4S. It’s a fight they will win even with one hand tied behind their back. It’s users Huawei need to convince and if the Honor turns out credible, they’d be one step closer to their goal.
HP has issued some new coupons for laptops that will be valid starting May 24th through Memorial Day which is Monday of next week. Coupons include a $450 off the dv7t-7000 Quad Edition and $100 off stackable coupon for any HP laptop configured $999 or more. Here are the new coupons (again, these will be active starting tomorrow 5/24):
Use coupon code NBY4296 to get $450 off the new dv7t-7000 Quad Edition laptop
Coupon expires on 6/2/2012 or after 1,000 uses, whichever comes first
Use stackable coupon code NBW9325 to get $100 off any HP Laptop configured $999, this coupon is stackable with all instant offers for up to $400 off!
Coupon expires on 6/2/2012 or after 1,000 uses, whichever comes first
Use coupon code MEMSALE100 at checkout to get $100 off any HP Laptop configured $999 or more, coupon is also stackable
Coupon expires on 6/2/2012 or after 1,000 uses, whichever comes first
These coupons below are still valid today (5/23) and expire at midnight tonight:
Use coupon code NBP8784 to get 33% off the new Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition, dv7t Quad Edition or any HP ENVY laptop that is not an Ultrabook (ENVY 15, ENVY 17 etc.)
Coupon expires on 5/23/2012 or after 900 uses, whichever comes first
Use coupon code NBU5394 to get $150 off the HP Pavilion dm1z
Coupon expires on 5/23/2012 or after 500 uses, whichever comes first
Use coupon code NBF8657 at checkout to get $75 off any HP Laptop configured $750 or more
Coupon expires on 5/23/2012 or after 500 uses, whichever comes first
Excludes HP ENVY 4t, ENVY 6t, ENVY 14, and Folio 13 laptops
It looks like the HP dv7t Quad Edition price will fall all the way to $799.99 after coupon, making it the lowest price it has been so far since release. The dv7t-7000 Quad Edition is priced at $1,249.99 starting, after applying the $450 off coupon code NBY4296 the price falls to $799.99 with the following configuration:
Graphics: NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 630M Graphics with 2GB GDDR5 memory
Memory: FREE Upgrade to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Storage: 1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Screen: 17.3-inch diagonal glossy screen with 1600 x 900 resolution
Optical Drive: Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
With this coupon the dv7t is the same price as the dv6t Quad Edition, the advantages of the dv7t are it has dual hard drive bays and a higher resolution screen standard. Recommended upgrades for the dv7t-7000 include bumping the graphics up to the Nvidia 650M and choosing the 1920 x 1080 Full HD screen. The graphics upgrade costs $100 and the screen upgrade is $150, which would bring the upgraded system total to $1,050 after coupon.
The update to the popular HP ENVY 15 line with Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processorhas showed up on HP Korea meaning the world release is likely imminent by either the end of this month or early June. According to the product specs page (screenshot below) the ENVY 15-3200 series will be available with an Intel Core i7-3612QM 2.1GHz processor and have a standard 8GB of memory. The graphics will be updated from the current series AMD 7690M to the new AMD 7750M. The configuration listed on the Korean site comes equipped with a 256GB SSD, but that’s likely an upgrade and will not be standard. And it looks like the 1920 x 1080 Radiance display is still an option, let’s just hope they’ve fixed that “red looks orange” issue this time around.
The design and features in the updated ENVY 15-3200 series appear to be the same as the earlier ENVY 15-3000 that’s currently available still, there are no cosmetic differences, at least as far as we can tell from the product shots offered. One slight difference noticed is that it appears there will be three USB 3.0 ports instead of the previous two. Nothing to do flips over, but we’ll take any incremental improvements on an already great machine.
As far as gaming performance and improvements that might be seen, the AMD 7750M is not available at the moment and has not been benchmarked, but speculation is that it will be on par with the Nvidia 650M found in the HP dv6t-7000 series. The Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7 series that will be available with this are all Quad Core based and will offer about a 15% processing improvement over the earlier ENVY 15-3000. We were duly impressed when reviewing the ENVY 15 earlier this year so this update will only improve upon a great offering.
For those that missed out on the 33% off coupon for the HP dv6t and dv7t Quad Edition that brought the price of the dv6t all the way down to $770, fret not, it’s back! The coupon had been all used up by Thursday, but HP added it back so others can take advantage. To revise the coupon detals:
Use coupon code NBP8784 to get 33% off the new Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition, dv7t Quad Edition or any HP ENVY laptop that is not an Ultrabook (ENVY 15, ENVY 17 etc.)
Coupon expires on 5/23/2012 or after 900 uses, whichever comes first
This coupon works on both the new Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition and dv7t Quad Edition Intel Ivy Bridge equipped notebooks. After coupon the price of the new dv6t Quad Edition 2012 drops to $770.49 with the following configuration:
Graphics: NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 630M Graphics with 1GB GDDR5 memory
Memory: FREE Upgrade to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Storage: 750GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Screen: 15.6-inch diagonal glossy screen with 1366 x 768 resolution
Optical Drive: Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
That’s by far the cheapest the dv6t Quad Edition with Ivy Bridge that’s been seen and a fantastic deal. You can get a fully loaded system for around $1,000. The biggest recommendation is to upgrade the screen to the 1920 x 1080. Check out the recent first thoughts review of the dv6tqe Ivy Bridge edition I did to see how the laptop fares.
For those that hesitated with this coupon last time, hurry, it’s set to expire on the 23rd but will likely get used up again this weekend.
Apple gave the world the tablet. Samsung gave the world a choice. It’s not as simple of course as narrowing it down to an iPad vs. a Galaxy Tab. Nearly every phone maker out there has a tablet to offer. But the fact is that whatever size you want and whatever screen you like - Samsung most likely have it.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus official pictures
Samsung have tablets stretching from 7 to 10.1 inches of screen diagonal. And these are either Super AMOLEDS or LCDs with the resolution ranging from WSVGA (600 x 1024) to well above HD. There are 3G and Wi-Fi enabled combos or Wi-Fi only versions. Users can choose between 16/32/64 GB of inbuilt storage. With all that variety on offer, it was obviously time to go back to where it all started.
If anyone needed a refresh, it would be the original Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab. A single-core powered Froyo-running tablet has little left to offer and the 7.0 Plus does well to send it into retirement. The slimmer and lighter upgrade more than doubles the processing power and runs the latest tablet-tailored version of Android, Honeycomb 3.2. .
The Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is one of the two tablets of the house (along with the Galaxy Tab 7.7) to use Samsung's very own Exynos chipset - a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and Mali-400MP graphics. As you are about to see, this SoC does quite well in the benchmarks, beating the NVIDIA Tegra2 competitors on almost every count.
Key features
7.0" 16M-color PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen of WSVGA resolution (1024 x 600 pixels)
Weighs 345 g
Exynos chipset: Dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor; 1GB of RAM; Mali-400MP GPU
Android 3.2 Honeycomb with TouchWiz UX UI
Quad-band GPRS/EDGE and tri-band 3G with HSPA connectivity (HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps)
Support for voice calls, texts and MMS
16/32 GB of built-in memory
3.2 MP autofocus camera, 2048x1536 pixels, LED flash, geotagging
HDMI TV-out (adapter required), USB host (adapter required)
microSD card slot
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Adobe Flash 11 support
GPS with A-GPS support; digital compass
1080p DivX/XviD/MKV video support with subtitles
Accelerometer and proximity sensor; three-axis Gyroscope sensor
Polaris office document editor preinstalled
Infrared port, Peel Smart Remote app preloaded
4000 mAh Li-Po rechargeable battery
Main disadvantages
Smallest screen with the lowest resolution in the Samsung tablet lineup
Has a non-replaceable battery
Uses a proprietary 30-pin connector port for charging and connectivity
One of the lowest capacity batteries in the range
7" is the compact class in tablets and you can reasonably expect it to be targeting the budget-conscious. With that in mind, we guess we cannot hold it against the Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus that it sticks with the screen resolution of its predecessor. It's worth noting though that the 7.0 Plus has the improved PLS variety of TFT displays. What's more, the main 7" competitors - HTC Flyer, BlackBerry Playbook - have the same WSVGA resolution.
On the other hand, Samsung seem to have a superior alternative in the Galaxy Tab 7.7. It's powered by the same Exynos chipset - clocked higher - but boasts a WXGA Super AMOLED screen in a gorgeously slim body. All that beauty costs a small fortune though and gives the seven-inch Samsung tablet a space to fill as the affordable option in the tablet line.
But there's still a whole review to go before we can call the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus value for money. Let’s get busy then, shall we? The hardware inspection starts right after the break.
Done pushing megapixels and well into pixel popping, still the good old numbers game. HD screens are the next big thing and they'd better enjoy it while it lasts, with quad-core around the corner and all.
Anyway, is it just another number to brag about or is there really something to the "HD" label. To find out, we're looking at two of the first smartphones with 720p screens - the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the LG Optimus LTE (very similar to the LG Nitro HD).
The two have similarly sized screens - 4.65" for the Nexus and 4.5" for the Optimus - and both push pixel density over 300ppi, the threshold above which eye-watering magic starts to happen.
They are from two different worlds though. The LG Optimus LTE uses a traditional three-subpixel matrix for its AH-IPS LCD display (a.k.a. True HD IPS), while the Galaxy Nexus has only two subpixels per pixel (called PenTile) in its Super AMOLED matrix.
Both have plenty to brag about, but they won't get away with just judging them by their sharpness. LG are shaping up as the standard-setter in display brightness, so that's something to look out for. Viewing angles (a typical weak spot for LCDs) is another thing they seem to have addressed.
There's a lot to test, so let's not waste any more time. We'll be doing both scientific measurements (trying to break down display performance into hard numbers) as well as providing subjective opinions (as hunting for the better spec doesn't always result in the best experience).
Side note: For those of you getting acronym sickness, AH-IPS LCD stands for "Advanced High-Performance In-Plane Switching Liquid Crystal Display". AMOLED is short for "Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode".
Earlier this week Lenovo announced the ThinkPad X230, a 12.5” screen ultraportable targeted at business buyers. While the X230 won’t go on sale via Lenovo.com until June 2012 (keep an eye on this X230 product page for availablility) we were lucky enough to receive an early review sample to try out. As most of you familiar with the ThinkPad brand know, change is generally slow from one generation to the next to keep the enterprise buying folks from getting all worked up. One thing that certainly almost never changed much was the keyboard. Until now that is. The X230 and the rest of the ThinkPad line have adopted a new keyboard styling that uses an island style key layout and drops down to six rows of keys from seven. There are a few other changes and added features, the keyboard backlighting being my personal favorite, but for the most part the X230 is just an evolution of the X220 design wise and of course has updated internal components to boost performance.
Video Tour
First off, there’s nothing quite like the moving image to convey look and design, so check out a quick video tour of the X230:
ThinkPad X230 Video Tour
Keyboard Comparison with X220 Let’s jump right to the part a lot of people are interested in hearing about — the keyboard. Again, a video helps to show exactly what the visual differences are so we’ll show that first and then talk about the perceived usability differences:
ThinkPad X220 and X230 keyboard Comparison
The first concern I had was whether the spacing of the keys was the same or different enough to cause a problem getting used to the X230 keyboard. I was also concerned that the travel distance and feel of the keys would be different. Rest assured, despite the very different look, the keyboard is very similar in feel to previous generations and the typing differences were really only noticeable to me when I had both the X220 and X230 next to each other and I could test the difference. Here is what I found to be different in terms of feel, at least as far as my perception goes:
The X230 keys seem to have a slightly lighter touch, you don’t have to push quite as hard to register a keystroke
The X230 key surface area is slightly larger, I don’t have calipers to measure this exactly, but you can see it’s the case. This is partly why Lenovo is claiming the new keyboard makes typing more accurate.
The X230 keys felt slightly more slippery and not as textured as those on the X220
Keep in mind, those are just the perceived differences in feel. The layout has changed from six rows to seven rows, which forces a repositioning of keys that could trip up users used to the old ThinkPad keyboard. To name just a few:
The “Forward” and “Back” browser shortcut buttons above the left and right arrow keys are gone
PgUp and PgDn move from the top row down to above the left and right arrow keys
The Delete button has shrunk and moved further to the edge of the keyboard, which is almost impossible to reach without lifting the hand
Print Screen and Insert are both moved, the Pause button and Scroll Lock are gone
Home and End have been moved and are actually now more within reach of the pinky than before
All media key functionality using Fn + has been moved to the F1 – F12 function keys, this is a good thing and eliminates the scattered nature of media keys in previous generations
There are probably more differences in positioning, but those are the major ones. I’ll also note that the Enter key is now black instead of blue and they’ve removed the “return arrow”. In fact, a lot of the icons have been axed to make the look more clean, the arrows on the Shift key, Caps Lock and Tab keys are all gone. It certainly does have the result of the keyboard looking more plain and clean.
The real test is of course whether your typing is affected by the changes. I generally type at around 80 WPM so figured I’d do a typing test using this WPM online tool to see how I faired doing the test on the X220 and then the X230. Look, I’m not here to make an advertorial for Lenovo but I got the exact same 76 WPM score on each notebook and was ever so slightly more accurate on the X230 where I made no mistakes. Of course, that’s one trial run, but it’s all I had the patience for and figured it was enough to provide anecdotal evidence that most users should transition just fine.
ThinkPad X220 typing test: 76 Words per minute, one mistake made when I mistyped “M” instead of “N” for November (though there is such thing as Movember and it is a worthy cancer charity I might add)
ThinkPad X230 typing test: 76 Words per minute, exactly the same result as the X220 but no typing mistakes
Another new feature on the X230 is the keyboard backlight. You can toggle between two levels of keyboard backlight brightness or use the ThinkLight positioned in the screen that shines down on the keys. Here’s a video demoing how this looks and works:
ThinkPad X230 keyboard demo And below is a picture of the backlight set at its strongest level:
Bottom line on the keyboard changes, the usability is still top notch and all of the essential keys such as alpha, numeric and common cursor movement keys are in the same location. The biggest challenge with changes will be in regards to remapping your brain to find and reach the keys that moved such as Home, End and Delete. The backlighting option is a definite improvement and recommended upgrade.
Below is a picture of the X220 and X230 keyboard side by side (X230 on the right). Click to see a larger view.
Size and Weight
While the ThinkPad X230 weighs 2.96lbs when you use the small sized 4-cell battery, Lenovo isn’t changing its marketing to call this an Ultrabook. The thickness ranges from 0.75-inches at the front to 1.05-inches at the back due to the slope. The 1” thickness is fat compared to the 0.68” the upcoming ThinkPad X1 Carbon will have. That under 3lbs of weight doesn’t hold for the standard 6-cell battery either, this review unit has a weight of 3lbs 7 ounces (3.44lbs).
Screen
The ThinkPad X230 has the same 12.5” screen size and options as the previous X220. The standard 1366 x 768 resolution screen is a TN variety panel that has 200-nit brightness and so-so viewing angles. The screen on this review model is the premium IPS upgrade with 300-nits of brightness and wide viewing angles. IPS is the same type of screen used in tablets such as the Apple iPad. Below are a couple of pictures with the X220 on the left and X230 on the right, both have the IPS screen and you can see Lenovo stuck with a winning formula here.
Screens tilted back:
Screens tilted forward:
As you can see, color reproduction is accurate no matter how great the angle you view the screen. Assuming Lenovo keeps the screen upgrade price $50 on the X230 when it starts selling, this is a no-brainer upgrade.
Ports Selection
The type of ports available on the X230 have changed slightly, you now get two standard USB 3.0 ports and the regular sized DisplayPort has become a mini DisplayPort. The locations of the ports have not changed though.
On the left side you get two USB 3.0 ports, a monitor out port, mini-DisplayPort and ExpressCard 54mm expansion slot.
On the right side is an SD card reader, powered USB 2.0 port, microphone headphone combo port and Ethernet RJ-45 jack.
Other new features, more to come…
Also new with the X230 is the Dolby Advanced Audio software, rapid battery charge, built-in 4G LTE mobile broadband with contract free option, improved thermal cooling system and of course the new Intel Ivy Bridge chipset offering better processor and graphics performance over previous generations. We’ll save the performance evaluation and benchmarks for the full X230 review so stop back in a couple of weeks for that and if there are any specific requests for the review or questions you have feel free to comment.
