There are now three low-cost lightweight Windows 8 laptops on market that are getting good reviews and appear to be selling very well. Here’s a round-up of the HP Stream 11, ASUS X205 and Acer E11 laptops with pro’s and con’s. Each looks to be a good value purchase but there are important differences between them that will affect customer choices.
I bought an Acer E11 Windows laptop. It’s pretty much an Acer C3 Chromebook running Windows. Same N2840 CPU. Same 2GB of RAM. Same 32GB eMMC SSD. Same weight and sizing. Over the last two days I’ve tested it hard and now have my first set of thoughts about the Windows vs Chromebook experience. I’ll go deeper into this topic over time and add videos and long-term thoughts as my experience grows but I wanted to get thoughts out there as soon as possible to help people in the run up to holiday-season buying. This could be one of the most interesting market fights we’ve seen since Android and IOS. Chromebooks and the new wave of Windows netbooks fit different user types, but do the potential customers know that?
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In 2008 we were measuring netbooks with a test called Crystalmark. It was a quick and simple test that allowed us to do compare across the devices we used it with. Two CPU tests, three GPU tests, a memory test and a disk test were all we needed to get a feel for the performance of a device. In late 2011 we got hands-on with a Core i5 Windows 7 tablet from Samsung and were impressed with the scores. The cost and weight were high and the battery life was low. Today we’re seeing Atom-based platforms beating that Core i5 from 2.5 years ago.
I ran a last-minute Google Hangout this evening which worked out well because not only was I able to present 5 Windows 8.1 tablets, I was also able to answer questions from the viewers. During the session I recorded a higher quality video for YouTube and both videos are embedded in this article.
A lot of you have asked about the differences between the Lenovo Miix 2 10 and the ASUS Transformer Book T100 so I’ve been onto Intel Germany and they’ve helped us out with a T100 for us to test with. All your questions will be answered soon!
Late last week I added new features to the product database. You can now filter the database in real-time by selecting a form factor, touchscreen technology or by simply typing in the search field. Today I’ve added the comparison feature.
Not only does the comparison page allow you to view much more information in-line, it allows you to sort more fields than in the normal database overview. In addition, it completes a short process you can use to drill down into Ultrabooks like never before.
I’m sure many of you have been in and looked around the product database. We’ve kept it up to date with every Ultrabook and it’s been extremely popular. 20% of our site traffic is now going to the database.
Over the last year we’ve built tools around the database to try and make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for but today I updated the interactive list with a couple of new features that will help you navigate through the next wave of Ultrabooks that will be offering more features in new form factors.
The iPhone is the biggest selling connected camera in the world. It’s pretty smart too and with iPhone 5, Apple were really pushing the quality, speed and features at the launch event.
Image via Tech2
Images are starting to appear online now and so it’s time to start the analysis. I’m taking a look at low-light performance here because I think it’s an area where only the best smartphones can compete.
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