If nothing else, the debut of Windows 8 and Windows RT (the lower-powered ARM tablet version of Microsoft’s latest operating system) has brought an increase in system flexibility—and we mean that in the dexterous physical sense, not in the sense of systems actually doing more. Over the past few months, we’ve seen notebooks, tablets, and hybrids whose screens flip, turn, and detach every which way. The convertible tested here, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11, literally bends over backwards.

Apart from its smaller stature, the 11.6-inch Yoga 11 looks identical to the 13.3-inch IdeaPad Yoga 13 we reviewed back in November 2012. However, except for the innovative 360-degree hinge connecting the screen to the keyboard, the two are quite dissimilar in terms of power, capabilities, battery life, and software availability.

With its third-generation Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB solid-state drive (SSD), the Yoga 13 is a full-blown Windows 8 laptop capable of running virtually any Windows program. The Yoga 11, on the other hand, has an Nvidia Tegra 3 CPU, 2GB of memory, and 64GB eMMC flash memory drive in the $949 configuration discounted at presstime to $599 on Lenovo’s site.

It’s basically, despite its non-detachable keyboard, a Windows RT tablet, limited to the apps it comes with—not an inconsiderable set, since Microsoft Office Home & Student is included—and other RT titles you can download from the Windows Store. Rather than the Yoga 13, it should really be compared to Microsoft’s Surface RT and Asus’ VivoTab RT.

What makes the Yogas similar, of course, is the articulating hinge (highlighted in the image below) that allows you to position and hold either Lenovo as a laptop, a tablet, or to manipulate it into a couple of useful in-between positions, which we’ll discuss on the next page:

These 360-degree hinges permit you to place the Yoga 11 in several interesting positions.

The Yoga lets you fold its lid (the back of the display panel) back until it meets the bottom of the chassis (or back of the keyboard), which in turn lets you position it into four different setups or what Lenovo calls modes: notebook, tablet, stand, and tent. At first glance, this flexibility appears to be highly innovative and useful—and yet so simple that you may be asking yourself why somebody hadn’t thought of it sooner. After spending a few days with it, even though we liked it overall, we also found a few drawbacks to this design. (More on that, too, on the next page.)

You can buy the Yoga 11 in either silver or orange, in either of two storage-size configurations, 32GB or 64GB. Lenovo sent us a silver one with the higher storage capacity—listed on Lenovo.com, as mentioned, for $949 but given an “eCoupon” discount to $599. The 32GB eMMC model is $849 with no discount, which we think answers the question of which one to buy.

The Yoga 11 comes in either silver-gray or orange.Compared to the 10.6-inch Surface RT and 10.1-inch VivoTab RT, the Yoga 11′s screen is larger as well as non-detachable. Aside from the huge difference of the attached, articulating keyboard, the Yoga 11 came configured and performed much like the other RT devices. As we see it, the flexible keyboard, then, is the primary reason for choosing this model over the others.

Overall, as Windows RT devices go, we liked the Yoga 11 enough to recommend it—as long as you understand the limitations, what Win RT can and can’t do, before you take the plunge.

See complete review at Computer Shopper.

Here we are just a couple months into 2013, and, as we predicted, this year has started with an explosion of Windows 8 tablets, hybrids, and convertibles. Some tablet makers, such as Acer, with its recent debut of its 11-inch Iconia W700, have come up with some rather creative designs, especially when it comes to accessories. While we aren’t always impressed with the results (see the W700 and its ungainly three-piece docking station/keyboard/carrying case), we do appreciate it when a manufacturer ventures out and tries something unconventional.

Unconventional—that’s also an apt description of Dell’s recently released Latitude 10 Windows 8 tablet (which, depending on the configuration, sells on Dell’s Web site for between $499 and $849). Like the W700, the Latitude 10’s docking station and keyboard accessories are departures from the norm. Instead of the traditional attachable keyboard dock, which folds over the tablet’s screen, mimicking a laptop, this slate’s docking station is…well, merely a stand for holding the tablet upright and expanding connectivity options.

In fact, as we wrote this (mid-February 2013), Dell wasn’t even offering a keyboard accessory specific to the Latitude 10. Instead, the company suggests that you purchase one of its PC-geared wireless keyboard and mouse accessory kits. (We’ll discuss the keyboard or lack thereof, the docking station, and other accessories in the Design & Features section on the next page.)

Dell’s docking- and input-accessory design choices, though, are not the only ways in which the Latitude 10 breaks the conventional tablet mold. Designed as a business-oriented slate, it’s one of very few we’ve seen with a swappable battery. This feature—the ability to simply change the battery when it’s low—can greatly increase runtime in environments without ready AC power sources. In addition, Dell offers an oversize battery that doubles your unplugged runtime. (We’ll discuss battery life and optional power solutions in detail in the Battery Test & Conclusion section at the end of this review.)

Some of the Latitude 10’s other somewhat uncommon business-oriented options include a SIM-card slot for connecting 3G and 4G cellular networks, support for full-size SD memory cards, a full-size USB port for connecting flash drives and peripherals, and support for an optional stylus. (We’ll look at all of these features and more on the next page.)

As to performance, our Dell test unit did about average for a slate running on Intel’s low-power Atom processor. As we’ve discussed in several reviews of Atom-powered Windows 8 tablets, such as Acer’s Iconia W510 and HP’s Envy X2, the trade-offs, compared to slates built around Intel’s laptop-grade Core i5 chips, are raw processing power and capabilities. Tablets running on Core i5 chips, such as Microsoft’s Surface Pro and Acer’s Iconia W700, are faster, more capable, and more expensive, than Atom-based slates. On the other hand—and the Latitude 10 is no exception—Atom-powered tablets deliver much greater battery life.

Overall, we liked the Latitude 10. It performed well for a device in this class, and it outlasted a few of its competitors on our demanding battery-rundown test. However, its lack of a suitable, easy-to-carry keyboard/docking station solution makes it less than practical for road warriors. Between the docking station itself, and the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, you’ll wind up with far too many parts and pieces to pack, unpack, set up, and pack again.

Most users, we suspect, will opt to travel with just the slate itself, leaving the keyboard and docking station behind. As we see it, the Latitude 10’s accessories feel designed primarily for desktop use, which is fine, if that’s what you’re looking for. But then, too, there’s the swappable battery (and the optional oversize battery’s long life), which makes the Latitude 10 ideal for toting around your company’s construction yard, warehouse, or factory floor. A tailor-made detachable keyboard might have made this a mighty appealing hybrid machine for business use rather than just a good Windows tablet.

Read entire review at Computer Shopper.

Introduction

With Windows 8, Acer took a sharp turn. Acer’s late-2012 Windows 8 slates, compared to the company’s previous Android-based models, were, in terms of design, accessories, and features, huge departures from past products. Case in point is the Iconia W700-6465, a slick, aluminum-encased, high-resolution slate that we reviewed a few weeks before the subject of this review. We found the Iconia W700—the tablet itself, anyway—a sleek and impressive piece of hardware, although we were underwhelmed by Acer’s supplementary accessories for it.

While the Iconia W510’s physical appearance is similar to that of the Iconia W700, these two models differ greatly in several ways—especially in performance, due primarily to the processor family, system RAM, and type of storage memory. The 11-inch Iconia W700 runs on a laptop-grade Intel Core i5 CPU, whereas the Iconia W510 is built around a slower and less-capable Intel Atom processor. (We’ll talk more about the CPU in the Performance section.) In addition, the Iconia W510 comes with only 2GB of system RAM and flash-memory storage, versus the 4GB of RAM and the solid-state drive (SSD) used in the W700.

This substantially less peppy configuration makes for a slower slate, but it also allows for a cheaper tablet with a smaller and lighter chassis, as well as increased battery life. But the differences don’t stop there. We were not enthused with the W700’s three-piece design of docking station, keyboard accessory, and slate. The W510-1422, on the other hand, comes with a nicely designed, detachable keyboard dock, which turns this tablet into a more conventional Windows 8 hybrid laptop.

In a sense, you get both a tablet and a light laptop with this configuration of the W510. But the trade-offs with the Iconia W510 are big ones when compared with its W700 sibling. With the Iconia W510, you might get a much easier-to-use keyboard and touch pad (the Iconia W700 has no pointing device at all), but you also get a more sluggish, less capable processor and an overall lesser hardware configuration.

If resource-intensive tasks are part of your daily workload (such as editing high-resolution images with Adobe Photoshop or processing digital video in Adobe Premiere), the Iconia W510 is not the slate for you. But we liked it well enough for running standard Microsoft Office Suite programs (such as Word and Excel), and it was certainly up to snuff for Web browsing and e-mail, as well as photo, music, and digital video consumption. And the battery life was extraordinary. Because of that last factor, we deem it, potentially, a nice companion for long-haul business travel—though in that scenario, you might want to opt for the $50-pricier configuration with Windows 8 Pro.

Read full review at Computer Shopper.

It’s not often that we see full-fledged under-$500 notebooks, and, when we do, they’re usually cheaply constructed and don’t perform well, making them difficult to take seriously. Hence, our pleasant surprise after spending a few days with Acer’s recently released Aspire V5-471-6569, a $498 Walmart model ($498.00 at Walmart.com) that passed through our labs. While this budget laptop won’t win any beauty contests—and it’s certainly no powerhouse—it’s more than sufficient for running standard productivity applications such as Quicken and Word, as well as for Web browsing, social-media surfing, and e-mail.

Often, when writing about low-priced machines like this one, we find ourselves discussing them from a get-you-what-pay-for perspective—in other words, as machines fraught with sometimes unacceptable compromises. In this case, though, the Aspire V5-471-6569 provides exceptional value for the money. Here, “entry-level” doesn’t mean intolerable sacrifices—that is, unless you crave a notebook for playing the latest resource-intensive games. No model at or near this price can do that.

High-end gaming, professional-grade media editing, and intensive 3D-graphics rendering may be out, but the V5-471-6569 is equipped to pull off everyday computing tasks, including moderate multimedia consumption. Its screen, while not dazzling, displays text, images, and video acceptably. It has an optical drive, a decent set of ports for connecting to peripherals, and a memory-card reader, making it a well-rounded entry-level laptop.

Still, when you spend under five C-notes for a notebook, you have to expect some corner-cutting. Here, rather than sacrificing useful features, Acer made trade-offs mostly in the internal components—its use, for example, of Intel’s relatively slow and dated second-generation (a.k.a. “Sandy Bridge”) Core i3-2367M processor, paired with a modest 4GB of system memory and a tepid 5,400rpm, 500GB hard drive.

While this combination of components may not add up to fiery computing power, it allowed Acer to offer a fairly capable laptop at a very affordable price. This configuration is, in terms of overall computing muscle, a bare minimum by today’s standards, but we still got passable performance from this model on most of our benchmark tests.

If you’re looking for fast and snazzy, this isn’t it, but then, you won’t land an exceptional laptop for $500. You’ll have to dig deeper for that—perhaps much deeper. But the Aspire V5-471-6569 is a good all-around light-duty machine at a fair price, making it a good buy for first-time buyers, families seeking a third or fourth PC, certain students, and, yes, even some business users.

See full review at Computer Shopper.

We’re open-minded about our laptops here at Computer Shopper. That said, when we’re offered a Lenovo ThinkPad for review, our mind can’t help but shift to a specific preconception: “relatively expensive business laptop.” Most of the time, that image fits—unless it’s one of the many iterations of the company’s small-business-friendly ThinkPad Edge models.

The Edge family includes multiple, highly customizable configurations of models with a 14-inch screen (the Edge E430) or a 15.6-incher (the Edge E530 or E535). When you take advantage of the “Customize & Buy” option on Lenovo’s Web site, you can end up with a ThinkPad Edge for a bit under $500, well above $1,000, or anywhere between, depending on the options you choose.

Indeed, the Edge models are bit tricky to categorize, since they’re so configurable. Depending on your budget, for instance, you can equip your Edge with any number of processors, ranging from the somewhat dated and slow second-generation (“Sandy Bridge”) Intel Core i3 all the way up to the speedy third-generation (“Ivy Bridge”) Core i7 chip. In all, Lenovo offers more than half a dozen CPU options, as well as several memory (4GB to 16GB) and hard drive size and speed (5,400rpm or 7,200rpm) configurations, for these models. You can even specify that your ThinkPad Edge come with or without a built-in Webcam.

For our review, Lenovo sent us a moderately equipped ThinkPad Edge E530. As we wrote this, early in September 2012, the model we tested listed for $729, with an instant “eCoupon” discount on Lenovo’s site that reduced the price to $656. It featured a second-generation Intel Core i5-2450M processor (smack-dab in the middle of Lenovo’s CPU choices for this model), 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive, as well as a Webcam. Overall, while the hot-rodder in us was disappointed to find a Sandy Bridge rather than Ivy Bridge processor here, the realist in us was pleased that it wasn’t the Pentium or Celeron you can find in some bargain 15-inch laptops. Indeed, the Edge E530′s scores on our suite of benchmark tests were on target, with no notable surprises for a laptop in this price range.

We weren’t thrilled with our test unit’s mediocre display panel, however, and its Webcam and sound system both left us wanting more. In comparison, we liked the sound reproduction on a few other entry-level systems, such as the recently reviewed 14-inch Acer Aspire V5-471-6569 and Lenovo’s own $729 IdeaPad Z580, better.

Granted, you can get a faster, better-performing ThinkPad Edge by spending a little more money to uptick the CPU and RAM, but Lenovo doesn’t offer upgrades to the Webcam and sound system. You do, though, get a metal lid and deck with this model (the one we tested, anyway—it’s an option), which is unusual for an under-$700 notebook. The IdeaPad Edge E530 is attractive and well-built, but it’s also a bit thick and heavy for our liking.

Still, the Lenovo proved both sturdy and serviceable, and it comes with a strong complement of expansion ports and security options, including a fingerprint reader for keeping intruders out. All in all, while the ThinkPad Edge E530 offers little to thrill small-business shoppers, it’s as safe a buy for them as the company’s more costly ThinkPads are for corporate IT departments.

Read Review at Computer Shopper.

It’s not often that we see full-fledged under-$500 notebooks, and, when we do, they’re usually cheaply constructed and don’t perform well, making them difficult to take seriously. Hence, our pleasant surprise after spending a few days with Acer’s recently released Aspire V5-471-6569, a $498 Walmart modelBest Deal: $498.00 at Walmart.com that passed through our labs. While this budget laptop won’t win any beauty contests—and it’s certainly no powerhouse—it’s more than sufficient for running standard productivity applications such as Quicken and Word, as well as for Web browsing, social-media surfing, and e-mail.

Often, when writing about low-priced machines like this one, we find ourselves discussing them from a get-you-what-pay-for perspective—in other words, as machines fraught with sometimes unacceptable compromises. In this case, though, the Aspire V5-471-6569 provides exceptional value for the money. Here, “entry-level” doesn’t mean intolerable sacrifices—that is, unless you crave a notebook for playing the latest resource-intensive games. No model at or near this price can do that.

High-end gaming, professional-grade media editing, and intensive 3D-graphics rendering may be out, but the V5-471-6569 is equipped to pull off everyday computing tasks, including moderate multimedia consumption. Its screen, while not dazzling, displays text, images, and video acceptably. It has an optical drive, a decent set of ports for connecting to peripherals, and a memory-card reader, making it a well-rounded entry-level laptop.

Still, when you spend under five C-notes for a notebook, you have to expect some corner-cutting. Here, rather than sacrificing useful features, Acer made trade-offs mostly in the internal components—its use, for example, of Intel’s relatively slow and dated second-generation (a.k.a. “Sandy Bridge”) Core i3-2367M processor, paired with a modest 4GB of system memory and a tepid 5,400rpm, 500GB hard drive.

While this combination of components may not add up to fiery computing power, it allowed Acer to offer a fairly capable laptop at a very affordable price. This configuration is, in terms of overall computing muscle, a bare minimum by today’s standards, but we still got passable performance from this model on most of our benchmark tests.

If you’re looking for fast and snazzy, this isn’t it, but then, you won’t land an exceptional laptop for $500. You’ll have to dig deeper for that—perhaps much deeper. But the Aspire V5-471-6569 is a good all-around light-duty machine at a fair price, making it a good buy for first-time buyers, families seeking a third or fourth PC, certain students, and, yes, even some business users.

Read this review at Computer Shopper.

Finding the best all-around notebook for home, school, and light business use—you know, a machine that displays photos, plays music and videos, and runs mainstream office applications well—can be daunting. There’s just so many of them, and they vary so widely in price and features. Wouldn’t it be easier to just throw up your hands and buy a more costly laptop that does everything well?

That’s fine—if money doesn’t matter. Otherwise, not taking the time to match your notebook to your needs could easily entail spending more—perhaps several hundred dollars’ worth of more—than you have to. That’s a lot of money for most folks, nowadays. Here’s one viable suggestion: Lenovo’s recently released $729.99 IdeaPad Z580, which should do everything—well, almost everything—well enough for the majority of students and business buyers.

If you need powerful graphics processing for high-end gaming and other sophisticated 3D-graphics-rendering tasks, though, you might want to step up to a machine like Lenovo’s IdeaPad Y580 (we’ve got a review of that model forthcoming), or perhaps the IdeaPad Y480 we reviewed last month. These models have discrete graphics processors for speeding up graphics rendering. You can pick up either for around $1,000, depending, of course, on screen size and other options.

If you don’t need a graphics workhorse, though, this particular $729 IdeaPad, which Lenovo touts as primarily a multimedia machine, is an impressive all-around everyday-computing notebook. Its roomy 15.6-inch screen displays images, videos, and Web sites respectably for a machine in this price range, and it comes with an impressive array of expansion ports and connectivity options. In addition, it’s built around Intel’s latest Third-Generation (“Ivy Bridge”) dual-core processor. That, in particular, makes it more powerful and more viable long-term than most other machines in this price range, especially some earlier low-cost 15-inch models.

Is it perfect? Well, no. You can’t expect perfect at this price. But it’s practical, and it does what it’s designed to do reasonably well. We liked this laptop—the Dolby-enhanced sound system particularly impressed us, as did the large 750GB storage capacity and generous 6GB allotment of RAM. So did its overall performance. It turned in strong scores on our slate of benchmark tests, and even the removable battery (a feature less common than it used to be) lasted longer than on several competing models.

Our take overall? The IdeaPad Z580 is a well-built, strong-performing notebook well worth its $729 price.

Read full review at Computer Shopper.

Some laptop makers opt for ultra-thin, ultra-light, and ultra-sleek when making an ultrabook. With the $999 Folio 13, HP has taken a more utilitarian and practical approach: As Samsung did with the $949.99 Series 5 14-inch Ultra, HP provides more by way of features and ease of use, rather than focusing on a strikingly slender design.

The Folio 13 is a bit thicker, heavier, and blockier-looking than the average ultrabook, and unlike Asus’ attractive $1,199 ZenBook UX21E and several other models in this class, its chassis is not constructed entirely of metal. Instead of a MacBook Air-inspired work of art, it’s an average-looking slate that won’t turn any heads.

But it’s no ugly duckling, either. In fact, its comfortable, easy-to-type-on, backlit keyboard, as well as some business-friendly features such as Windows 7 Professional and an embedded TPM security chip, may make it more attractive for folks who work on their laptops for a living. The Folio also performed reasonably well on most of our tests—turning in above-average scores on some of them, including our battery-life benchmark trial—and comes with a respectable complement of ports.

Aside from a less-than-stellar screen (in terms of very narrow viewing angles), we found little to dislike about this machine. It’s more expensive than the Series 5 Ultra, however, and that ultrabook has a larger, better-looking screen and comes with an optical drive. Overall, though, the Folio 13 is a strong, thin, and light business-oriented laptop at a reasonable price.

If you seek an even more reasonable price, HP also offers an $899.99 base model that comes with Windows 7 Home Premium instead of Professional. Aside from the operating system, though, both models are essentially the same, right down to their identical Intel Core i5-2467M processors, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB solid-state drives.

See the review at Computer Shopper.

Somebody woke up the giant. In desktop and laptop PCs, it’s been a quiet last couple of years for Nvidia, but the big graphics powerhouse isn’t keeping it down any longer. Nvidia’s big-splash news in early 2012 was its new-to-market, long-awaited revision of its graphics architecture, code-named “Kepler.” Touted since 2010, Kepler showed up in the company’s speed-monster (but power-stingy) GeForce GTX 680 desktop video card, an able competitor to AMD’s best. (See our March 2012 review of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 680, as well as a look at AMD’s leading 2012 video card, the AMD Radeon HD 7970.)

In early March, two of our editors ventured to sunny San Francisco to attend Nvidia’s 2012 Editors’ Day conference, where the company gave us a sneak peek at the GTX 680. But there, they were surprised to see something that’s potentially even more of a game-changer: the GeForce 600M Series, a suite of new graphics-processing units (GPUs) for laptops.

Of course, manufacturers always tout new hardware of this kind as an epochal breakthrough, destined to change the tech landscape. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes, less so. This time, though, we have to say that the new graphics processors Nvidia showed us looked, at least from the claims on the table, nothing short of impressive. And our preliminary tests bear some of this out.

Read the full article at Computer Shopper.

HP Pavilion dm4 Beats Edition - great notebook, great price!

Blame, or thank, the MacBook: Most of the notebooks showing up in our labs lately are coming encased in brushed- or polished-metal chassis—an understated, elegant look that catches the eye. The only problem with the big move to metal: It also makes them look very much alike.

That can’t be said of HP’s Pavilion dm4 Beats Edition, though. This stylish laptop’s all-black aluminum chassis, with a bright-red Beats Audio logo in the center of the lid, definitely distinguishes it from the pack. Its hip appearance gives it a charm all its own, and it definitely won’t be mistaken for any other laptop, HP or otherwise.

The Pavilion dm4 Beats Edition’s different-drummer design is not all it has going for it, though. Lately, you’ve probably seen the Beats Audio logo bobbing around on the sides of the heads of plenty of hipsters and regular folks; the over-ear Dr. Dre Beats headphones are phenomenally popular. The Beats Audio technology has been integrated into the sound system of this laptop, and it makes for a top-notch media-playback machine with excellent sound reproduction. Plus, the generous 1,600×900 resolution on the 14-inch display allows for more screen real estate than on several other similarly priced 14-inch laptops. And the machine has a respectable selection of ports.

In addition, compared with similarly priced and equipped notebooks (such as the $999 Dell XPS 14z), the dm4 Beats Edition performs well. All told, this laptop offers a well-rounded set of features for a very reasonable price, making it a terrific value for the student in your life.

Read the review at Computer Shopper.