Latest Gadget Review

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition improves everything that bothered us about the original, and it's quickly become one of our favorite Android 10" tablets. That goodness comes at a price though: the Note 10.1 2014 Edition costs $50 more than the outgoing model. The WiFi 16 gig is $550 and the 32 gig is $600.


Other goodies include the new faux leather back in your choice of white or black, dual band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0, a GPS, a consumer IR blaster and Samsung WatchOn for AV remote control of home theatre gear, a front 2MP camera and rear 8MP camera with LED flash and HDR. Samsung's usual TouchWiz is on board on top of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and you get that Samsung software army including Multi Window, Air View, S Voice, KNOX security (look out, those of you who flash custom ROMs, KNOX may tattle on you), S Translator, S Note and Samsung's own video, music and app stores. All the standard Google apps are here too: email, Gmail, Chrome and the old webkit web browser, Maps, Google Play Store and related Google Play apps and Gallery.

Specs Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition:

• Display: 10.1" TFT capacitive touch screen. Resolution: 2560 x 1600. Has ambient light sensor, accelerometer and proximity sensor.
• Battery: 8220 mAh Lithium Ion Polymer rechargeable. Battery is not user replaceable.
• Performance: 1.9GHz Samsung Exynos Octa 5420 quad core processor. (ARM A15) plus 1.3GHz quad core companion ARM A7 processors for lower power tasks. MALI T-628 graphics. 3 gigs RAM. 16 or 32 gigs internal storage. LTE 4G model with have Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad core CPU with Adreno 330 graphics.
• Size: 9.6 x 6.8 x 0.3 inches. Weight: 19.5 ounces (1 lb. 3.5 ounces).
• GPS: Has GPS with aGPS.
• Camera: 2MP front camera and 8MP rear camera with LED, HDR mode. Can shoot 1080p video.
• Audio: Built in stereo speakers, mic and 3.5mm standard combo mic-headphone jack.
• Networking: Integrated dual band WiFi 802.11b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.0.
• Software: Android OS 4.3 Jelly Bean and Samsung TouchWiz software. Standard suite of Google Android applications including webkit web browser, Chrome web browser, email, gmail, YouTube, Maps, Navigation, Search and the Google Play Store. S Pen Optimized Apps: S Note and Air View apps. My Files, Media Hub, ChatON, Samsung Apps, Polaris Office 5, and AllShare Play dLNA.
• Expansion: 1 SDXC microSD card slot compatible with cards up to 64 gigs.

Start Price: $549

Acer Aspire S7 2013 is Like the last gen Aspire S7, the SSD is configured in RAID0 for improved speed, and our 128 gig SSD's speed matched and sometimes modestly exceeded the PCIe SSD in the Sony Vaio Pro 13. We're also thrilled that Acer went with 8 gigs of RAM on this machine, since memory is soldered to the motherboard and you won't be able to upgrade it later. Even if you never exceed 4 gigs of RAM, it's nice to know it's there for the future.

Acer Aspire S7 As noted with other recent Intel Haswell Ultrabooks like the Sony Vaio 13, Intel's fourth generation doesn't bring significant CPU or graphics performance, but it does extend battery life, and that's something the original S7 needed. Our machine runs on the Intel Core i7-4500U dual core CPU with Intel HD 4400 integrated graphics. As with most Ultrabooks, especially one this thin and light, there's no dedicated graphics option.

Specs Aspire S7:

• Display: 13.3" full HD IPS multi-touch display, 1920 x 1080. Intel HD 4400 integrated graphics. HDMI port and Acer Converter port. Supports WiDi wireless display.
• Battery: 4 cell, 6280 Lithium Ion rechargeable. Battery is sealed inside.
• Performance: Fourth generation Intel Haswell ULV CPUs, all with Turbo Boost. 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U, 1.8GHz Core i7-4500U (with HD 4400 graphics). Mobile Intel HM77 Express chipset. 8 gigs of DDR3 LPDDR3-1600MHz RAM. 128 or 256 gig mSATA SSD options (RAID0).
• Size: 12.72 x 8.78 x .51 inches. Weight: 2.87 pounds.
• Camera: 720p webcam.
• Audio: Built-in stereo speakers with Dolby Home Theatre v4, dual mics and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack.
• Networking: Integrated Intel Centrino Advanced-N7260 dual band WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0.
• Software: Windows 8 64 bit.
• Expansion and Ports: 1 SD card slot.

Price: $1,699

HP ElitePad 900 comes with 1.5GHz dual core Intel Atom Z2760 CPU with Turbo Boost to 1.8GHz, and ElitePad 900 comes with 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM (not upgradable) and 32 or 64 gigs of eMMC flash storage. The Hp tablet has dual band WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and most models have HSPA+ 3G (but not LTE) on T-Mobile with 200 MB/month included. There's an option to get a 3G HSPA+ module that supports both T-Mobile and AT&T.

Display HP ElitePad 900

Though not particularly high resolution, the HP ElitePad 900's display is excellent. At 10.1", we don't crave full HD resolution because Windows scaling and some third party applications don't scale well on tiny screens. Give me readable text and icons that are big enough to touch. Text is sharp and the display is very bright with pleasing colors and good contrast. The display is on par with the also excellent HP Envy x2 display and it's better than the TN panel used in the HP Split x2.

The 1280 x 800 multi-touch display responds well to fingers, but the Atmel pen HP promised early on never materialized. The display is clad in Gorilla Glass 2 for durability and the 16:10 aspect ratio will please business users who appreciate not having to scroll down quite so often.

Performance HP ElitePad 900

As with all Intel Atom Z2760 Clover Trail machines, performance isn't a strong point. This isn't an Intel Core CPU and it's best suited to lightweight tasks like email, web browsing, MS Office and remote database access. You can do casual photo editing using Photoshop and it plays 720p video with ease, but this isn't a machine for software development or video editing. It's not a gaming machine either--forget World of Warcraft during downtime. Windows 8 app store casual games play fine though, so you can enjoy a bit of Plants vs. Zombies or solitaire. Go easy on the multitasking: 2 gigs of RAM means that you can run at most 5 programs concurrently (stick to 2 for better stability and performance).

RAM is capped at 2 gigs (a limitation of the CPU), and it's 533MHz (again, a limitation of the CPU's chipset). It has 32 or 64 gigs of eMMC storage (you get the idea, a limitation of Clover Trail) rather than the faster SATA interface that Ultrabooks with SSD drives use. The dual core 1.5GHz CPU can boost to 1.8GHz when needed.

Specs HP ElitePad 900:

• Display: 10.1" IPS touch screen, 1280 x 800 resolution. Gorilla Glass 2. Intel HD GMA integrated graphics. HDMI and VGA via optional expansion jackets, dock or dongle adapters.
• Battery: 25 WHr Lithium Ion rechargeable.
• Performance: 1.5GHz dual core Intel Atom Z2760 (Clovertrail). 2 gigs RAM, 32 or 64 gigs eMMC flash storage.
• Size: 10.24 x 6.98 x .36 inches. Weight: 1.38 pounds (tablet only).
• Camera: 1080p front camera with privacy LED and 8MP rear camera.
• Audio: Built-in stereo speakers with SRS enhancement, mic and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack.
• Networking: Integrated dual band WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 HS. HSPA+ 3G option on some models (T-Mobile only or T-Mobile & AT&T).
• Software: Windows 8 32 bit.
• Expansion and Ports: Power/docking port, 3.5mm combo audio and microSD card slot.

Price HP ElitePad 900: Starting at $749 for 64 gig tablet

Website: www.hp.com

Laptop Asus ROG G750JX is perfect for gamers laptop with skin 17.3" , Asus ROG G750JX has suported with Intel Haswell inside along with the very impressive NVIDIA GTX 770M with 3 gigs of DDR5 VRAM. This quad core beast can chew through the latest games on high settings without breaking a sweat. It stays remarkably quiet and cool when gaming: yes you'll hear the fan but it won't roar and blot out your game's audio track, no it won't toast your hands or singe the hair off your legs. Though at 8.75 lbs. you probably won't be gaming with the G750JX on your lap.

If you are is Republic of Gamers machine, you get good value and our G750JX-RB71 2.4GHz Core i7-4700HQ model with a matte full HD display, 12 gigs of RAM, the GTX 770M graphics card, WiFi 802.11AC, DVD burner and a 750 gig 7200 RPM HDD retails for $1,499. You'll find other variants, including models with a gloss 3D full HD display, a 128 or 256 gig SSD plus HDD setup, a Blu-Ray drive and up to 16 gigs of RAM (32 gigs is max for this machine). Bluetooth 4.0, an excellent backlit keyboard, stereo speakers with a subwoofer, a DVD burner and a full HD display are standard features. The ROG has two 2.5" drive bays and two easily accessible RAM slots (the other two slots require a lot of disassembly for access). It has 4 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and mini DisplayPort/Thunderbolt that worked fine with our Apple Thunderbolt Display.

Design, Keyboard and Trackpad

This looks every bit the ROG, which is to say a hunky, chunky gamer with unique lines and a soft touch black finish. The keyboard deck has a unified matte finish rather than the faux metal keyboard surround and matte black wrist rest of the outgoing ROG G75. The Asus G750 isn't as understated as the Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 and Y510 crossover gaming-multimedia-general purpose powerful 15.6" notebook, but it's much more staid looking than the glossy, red Toshiba Qosmio that screams gaming. And the front end looks like a normal notebook vs. the aggressive front edge plus multi-color LED lights of the Alienware 17. For those who want their gaming rig to flaunt its identity, the ROG might seem ever so slightly well mannered looking, but for those of you who will take this to the office or college, it's just the ticket... though no one will mistake it for a standard laptop.

The G750 feels well made and solid and there's no flex in the keyboard deck. It has four USB 3.0 ports (two on each side), an HDMI port, Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45), a mini DisplayPort/Thunderbolt port that worked fine with our Apple Thunderbolt monitor, 3.5mm stereo out with SPDIF, 3.5mm mic and a VGA port. The 8 cell battery is removable.

The backlit keyboard with number pad is very good and I find it at least as comfortable and responsive as the SteelSeries keyboard on the competing MSI GT70, though it doesn't have enlarged gaming keys (WASD, Control and Space). There's no annoying flex, key travel is good, tactile feedback is pleasing and it's a pleasure to type on as well as game with. The very large Elan trackpad with right and left mouse buttons is very responsive and worked well with multi-touch gestures. The trackpad has a slight hint of texture and overall we found it much more usable than the tiny trackpad on the competing MSI GT70.

Gaming Laptop

We'll let our gaming demo tell the story. We test out several of today's demanding 3D games: BioShock Infinite, Skyrim, Crysis 3, Batman Arkham City and Mass Effect 3 at full HD resolution with graphics settings on high (we show you the settings used for each game). Suffice it to say it can handle any hot 3D title fluently on high to ultra settings except Crysis 3 where we had to drop down to medium settings at 1920 x 1080 to keep frame rates in the low to mid 40's. The ROG G750 lives up to its promise, and it stands in nicely as a gaming desktop replacement.

Display G750JX

Our model has the matte full HD 1920 x 1080 60Hz display. There's a model with a glossy full HD 3D 120Hz display for those who prefer those options. Having gamed with the glossy full HD on the second generation HP Envy 15 for 2 years, I vastly prefer the matte option to gloss when it comes to seeing details in typically dark game worlds. The matte display is brighter than average at 350 nits, and it's 100 nits brighter than the last generation Asus ROG G75. The greater brightness combined with the lack of glare make for wonderful gaming and movie watching, and contrast is excellent at 950:1. Color gamut is also very good and the display covers 95% of sRGB and 74% of Adobe RGB, making it workable for graphics and video pros. In fact, it matches the excellent displays on the Sony Vaio Pro 13 and Sony Vaio Duo 13 for color gamut. Games look rich and vibrant and movies have lively color and good detail in dark areas thanks to good black levels. Our only complaint is that the anti-glare coating creates some grain that's apparent on white backgrounds like web pages and Word documents. Viewing angles are better than average among non-IPS displays, but this isn't an IPS display, so you won't get 180 degree viewing angles. That said, viewing angles are sufficiently wide that you won't have to move the display back and forward with excruciating exactness to find the sweet spot, and side viewing angles are good enough for three people to watch a video together.

Performance Asus ROG G750JX

Here's where the Asus ROG G750JX shines, as do other serious gaming laptops. The full mobile 2.4GHz (Turbo Boost to 3.4GHz) Intel Core i7-4700HQ quad core CPU with 6 megs of level 2 cache walks circles around ULV Ultrabook Core i7 CPUs, and it's perfect for gaming, HD video editing, CAD work and number crunching in Excel. Combine that with the high end NVIDIA GTX 770M graphics card with 3 gigs of DDR5 memory and you've got one of the top laptop gaming machines on the market. In the NVIDIA line, the GTX 770M is bested only by the significantly more expensive, hotter and more power hungry GTX 780M in graphics performance and it's a powerhouse even if the 780M beats it at considerable cost, power and thermals.

The G750 has the latest generation 2.4GHz quad core i7-4700QQ Intel Haswell CPU and that's more important for battery life than performance. Granted, Intel integrated graphics on their fourth generation platform show improvement, but that's irrelevant here since the G750 runs full time on dedicated NVIDIA graphics. There's no NVIDIA Optimus switchable graphics here, and we're not complaining much since this is a gaming machine and we don't have to fuss over graphics settings to ensure that a program or game is using our dedicated graphics card. When unplugged, the G750's graphics will switch to a lower wattage for better battery life, that's surprisingly comparable to Intel HD 5000 graphics for performance and battery life. Plug in the AC adapter, and you'll get maximum performance.

Benchmarks

PCMark 7: 3804 (6163 with Samsung PM 840 SSD boot drive)

3DMark 11: P5019, E1715

Geekbench 2: 15,140

wPrime: 8.3 seconds

Windows Experience Index:
Processor: 7.9
RAM: 7.9
Graphics (for desktop): 7.6
3D Gaming Graphics: 7.6
HDD: 5.9 (8.1 with Samsung PM 840 SSD)

Sound

The laptop has a headphone amplifier, and sound through headphones or a good set of speakers is excellent. The ROG has stereo speakers that fire from under the keyboard and a fairly large subwoofer on the bottom (enlarged from the G75). Overall, built-in speaker audio was surprisingly quiet for a 17" gaming machine, but sound quality is balanced with a bit of bass thanks to the subwoofer and none of the shrillness you hear from small laptops. We did note a bug that when gaming, the speakers would crackle (just loud enough to notice) and muting then unmuting the speakers via the Fn key got rid of the crackling until the next reboot. That tells us it's a software bug and not a hardware issue. Asus uses MaxxAudio with a variety of customizable settings, and we found the gaming setting the best for overall use.

Battery Life

Asus G750 has decent battery life for this class and at 50% brightness with WiFi on it averaged almost 4 hours of unplugged use time for productivity work (not gaming, you don't want to game unplugged and give up performance). The machine has a removable 8 cell, 5900 mAh Lithium Ion battery, and that's not very large in terms of capacity or physical size, so we're surprised at the passable runtimes. Haswell is good at conserving power and NVIDIA's graphics card power management gets the job done.

Networking

The Asus ROG G750JX has wired Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.0 and Broadcom dual band WiFi 802.11ac (some models have 802.11n). Wireless with our 802.11ac adapter was well behaved with no drop outs and good throughput, even when 25 feet from the router with two sheetrock walls in between. It typically held onto a 300Mbps connection at that range.

Price Asus ROG G750JX: $1,499

Website: www.asus.com

Google Nexus 7 is Google's second generation 7 inch Android tablet, and it sells for just a little bit more than the first generation model. Like the first Nexus, it's still reasonably priced given the very good hardware, and the WiFi 16 gig version is $229, while the 32 gig model is $269. Google says an unlocked $359 4G LTE model will follow later that's compatible with Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile 4G LTE. The tablet's full HD IPS display is the centerpiece in terms of hardware and the pure Android Jelly Bean 4.3 OS that will get updates first is the software highlight. When the first Nexus 7 shipped, we were impressed with its display and speed--amazing how quickly technology moves. Now its resolution is just average and it's not the speediest tablet on the block, though Google's frequent OS updates often didn't sit well with the elder Nexus 7 and caused some of its performance issues (not the norm, usually OS updates make Nexus products even better).

The 2013 Nexus 7 isn't a flashy looking tablet, in fact its minimalist design won't offend anyone, but I doubt it will excite anyone either. The black plastic back has a matte finish that's not as grippy or interesting as the stippled soft touch material covering the first Nexus 7, but it's still not likely to slip out of your hand. It's also easier to hold since it's narrower than the first Nexus 7, and you won't feel like you're palming a basketball when you hold it with one hand. The slim tablet is well made and doesn't look cheap. Asus manufacturers the new model, and they made the last generation Nexus 7. The controls are in the same location with power and volume on the upper right and the micro USB / SlimPort at the bottom and the headphone jack up top. There is no SD card slot.

The stereo speakers on the back are a significant improvement over the first Nexus 7 that was weak and timid sounding. The new Nexus' speakers get quite loud for a 7" tablet and they're reasonably full. Asus and Google placed the speakers at the sides (relative to landscape mode) for better stereo separation. Again like the last Nexus, some amenities were axed in the name of affordability, so there's no haptic feedback but the new Nexus 7 does gain a notification LED. They've gone with the newer SlimPort standard for display output via wire, just when you were getting used to MHL. That means you'll need to hunt down a still hard to find SlimPort display adapter to connect the 2013 Nexus to your TV via HDMI.

The Nexus 7 second gen performs well on benchmarks, and it gets a graphics performance boost from Android 4.3's added support for OpenGL ES 3.0. It has 2 gigs of RAM and 16 or 32 gigs of storage. Google detests removable storage and thus like previous Nexus tablets, it has no microSD card slot. In fact, it doesn't even support mass storage devices like flash drives via a micro USB to USB host OTG adapter, though the app Nexus Media Importer (available on the Google Play Store, no root required) gets mass storage devices working. The tablet runs on a 1.5GHz quad core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU, much like last year's high end Android phones and the Sony Xperia Tablet Z. It uses the QCT APQ8064 FLO with Adreno 320 graphics, which is a bit tweaked from last year's smartphone offerings and it has updated cores and uses the faster DDR3L RAM rather than DDR2. Does it feel fast and responsive? Yes it does, and the stock Android UI no doubt helps. Will it be the fastest tablet of 2013? No, but it will likely be one of the faster 7" models of 2013. Honestly, today's top Android tablets have more horsepower than most users will ever need, and Android is mired in the same speeds and feeds quagmire as Windows PCs where specs bloom purely for competition's sake.

Display Google Nexus 7

The full HD 1920 x 1200 IPS display is the 2013 Nexus 7's claim to fame. It is indeed extremely sharp and even small text is easy to read. It's also bright, but color balance and saturation are just average among IPS tablet displays, as are black levels. The display has a cool blue-green bias that you likely won't notice unless you place it next to a display that has more neutral colors. While some folks think that pixel density is everything, I'd argue that brightness, color saturation and balance are also very important and the Nexus 7 does an average job of handling colors and blacks. It does have very wide viewing angles and is very, very bright. And yes, it's hard to argue with the highest resolution 7" tablet and it's 323 ppi pixel density, especially if you use the tablet primarily for reading. Even magazines from Zinio and the Google Play Store are readable thanks to the high pixel density and apparent sharpness--I generally find it difficult to read magazines on anything less than a 10" tablet.

Pure Android, Quick OS Updates

You probably know the drill by now: Nexus products get OS updates first since they're Google's own devices. Nexus tablets and smartphones don't run custom UIs like Samsung's TouchWiz or HTC's Sense, so there's less to get in the way of quick updates or slow down your device. Community development is always strong for Nexus products since they're easily rootable and you can unlock the bootloader to install custom ROMs. For those who don't know root from boot, this means less. Once upon a time Nexus products were meant for Android developers and hackers (the good kind), but now they've become retail products that are readily available in stores, and for you regular guys and gals a custom UI and manufacturer added apps might actually be a selling point over vanilla Android. For example, Google's camera UI continues to baffle us with poor usability, there's no Office suite pre-installed nor the nifty bells and whistles that you'll find on other tablets like IR remotes to control your TV or software enhancements to put some controls closer to your fingertips. While you can't add hardware features like the TV remote, you can buy and download an MS Office compatible suite from the Google Play Store, and you'll find alternate camera apps there too.

Camera Google Nexus 7

Finally, a rear camera on a Nexus 7! And it's not half bad either, though at 5 megapixels it won't overpower your high end Android smartphone's shooter. That said, it autofocuses quickly, does a decent job of exposure and colors are pleasing. We didn't see any of the Asus Transformer camera problems (they have a tendency to mismanage high contrast and bright outdoor shots) and the images are certainly good enough for your Facebook page. The rear camera can shoot 1080p video that's reasonably smooth with natural colors if lighting is good and our only complaint is Google's camera UI with the evil pop-up arc of settings that's as ever hard to control. What's wrong with a simple control strip along the side of the viewfinder, Google? For video chat and selfies, the 1.2MP front camera manages reasonable exposure and fast focus times.

Battery Life

The new Nexus 7 has a 3,950 mAH battery and it ships with a 5.2v, 1.35 amp compact charger. It's less picky about chargers than the original Nexus 7, and we were able to charge it with a Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 8.0 charger, an HTC One charger and our iPad charger. It also supports Qi wireless charging and there's no need to buy an optional back or accessory other than the Qi charging unit. We tested it with our Energizer Qi charger and it charged properly. For those not familiar with wireless charging, there are a few competing standards, but Qi is fairly popular and you'll find it on devices like the Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Lumia 1020 (with optional charging back) and Nexus 4. Google claims the battery will last up to 9 hours of actual use time on a charge (screen-on time) and we found it lived up to their claims. In a mix of tasking including lots of web browsing, reading an ebook, watching an hour of Downton Abbey streamed via Netflix and playing music via headphones, it indeed did last 9 hours. If you use the tablet for GPS navigation, play 3D games or stream hours of HD video, expect shorter runtimes.

Price: $229 for 16 gig model, $269 for 32 gig WiFi model, $369 for 32 gigs with 3G/4G LTE

Website: www.google.com/nexus/7/

Apple iPhone 5s is no exception to the delightful gadget experience we've come to expect from Apple. iPhone 5s is pre-loaded with iOS 7, Apple's latest OS for mobile devices, and though the icons and minimalist style are at first shocking, day-to-day operations remain familiar. It's not easy to change things so much while maintaining continuity (just ask Microsoft, re: Windows 8). Apple added new and much needed features like real webOS style multi-tasking instead of a kludge, an improved notification center and access to quick settings via a swipe gesture. Watch our iOS 7 Walkthrough video below to learn more about the OS.

The iPhone 5s is now available in three colors: Space Gray with a black face that's even inkier black than the iPhone 5, silver with a white face and gold with a white face. The gold actually looks lovely in person and is more of a tasteful champagne color. At launch gold was the hardest to obtain, so Apple had to ramp up production by 30%. The iPhone 5s still has a 4" Retina Display, 4G LTE, good call quality and data speeds, dual band WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0, a GPS with GLONASS, 1 gig of RAM and 16/32/64 gigs of storage, but there are several important changes under the hood. There's a wickedly fast Apple A7 dual core CPU that's kicking the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 in synthetic benchmarks, front and rear cameras with larger pixels for better low light photography and the new Touch ID fingerprint sensor. The new M7 motion processor tells your iPhone to stop searching for WiFi hotspots when driving. It can switch maps from driving to walking directions if your speed drops for a long enough period of time, and it could be handy for fitness apps in the future. For an "s" release, the changes are fairly significant even if the phone looks nearly identical to the iPhone 5 it replaces.

The iPhone 5s is available on all major US carriers and an unlocked version will be forthcoming for use on any GSM carrier. The AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are the same model, but are locked to their respective carriers with the exception of Verizon (Verizon had to agree to sell their phones unlocked due to an agreement with the US government in order to gain 700MHz spectrum). Sprint uses a different version from the other three carriers.

Retina Display Redux

Design iPhone 5s

This won't be long: it's the iPhone 5 with a dual LED True Tone flash on the back and slightly wider side chamfers. The colors have obviously changed with the previous black model replaced by Space Gray (gunmetal) and gold as a new offering. The silver model looks like the iPhone 5 white model. The Touch ID sensor on the front replaces the standard home button and it gets a contrasting metal trim ring on the white and gold models (it's black on the Space Gray model). The phone weighs just 3.95 ounces, and is lighter than the iPhone 5c. It's put together with insane precision: there's nary a seam or gap to bother OCD types. It looks and feels expensive. Heck, it is expensive. The body is made of aluminum with glass insets top and bottom on the back for antenna reception. As Steve Jobs intended, it's still the Leica of smartphones.

Performance iPhone 5s

Not that the iPhone 5 felt slow, but the iPhone 5s makes it seem obsolete thanks to the new Apple A7 CPU that benchmarks twice as fast. We sometimes fault Android for chasing feeds and speeds rather than features that really matter, and Apple's equally guilty here. Not to come down hard on a company that's made this insane kind of processing leap; that's great. It's just not the first thing you'll notice when using the phone because the A6 hadn't yet grown long in the tooth. That said, iOS app developers are a crafty and creative bunch, and I'm sure they'll find use for all those CPU and GPU cycles, especially when it comes to 3D games. The new A7 will likely be more interesting in the iPad 5 since that tablet has become a go to device for mobile gaming and it sports an extremely high resolution display that demands more from the processor and graphics. I am impressed that Apple manages to get so much performance from the A7 when it's clocked at just 1.3GHz and has two cores. Lesson learned: clocks speeds and the number of cores doesn't always indicate performance levels. The 2.26GHz Snapdragon with four cores doesn't beat the A7 in benchmarks.

Where will you notice faster CPU? HDR photos are quick to capture and process. The phone can easily handle switching between slo-mo and standard motion video recording. Big games launch up to twice as fast.

Benchmarks iPhone 5s

Geekbench 3: 1363 single core / 2404 multi-core
3DMark, Ice Storm test (extreme): 9951 (graphics 10,968, physics 8050). Demo: 47 fps
Sunspider: 422

Camera iPhone 5s

Both the front 1.2MP FaceTime camera and rear 8MP iSight camera get bigger pixels (1.5u vs. the iPhone 5 and 5c's 1.4u on the rear iSight camera) for capturing more detail and color with less noise, particularly in low light. This is the same route HTC went with the HTC One and its 4MP equivalent rear camera. The One uses even larger pixels, but the camera resolution is half the conventional low end norm for camera phones these days, and that hurts when using the photos for larger placements on a web page or when printing. Apple went with the right balance of megapixels (we're not giving up any compared to the iPhone 5) vs. pixel size to please most folks. The rear lens is also faster: f/2.2 vs. the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c's f/2.4 lens. The iPhone 5s uses a 5 element lens (made of plastic) and it has digital image stabilization (we'd love to see Apple move to optical image stabilization, but there's probably not enough room in the iPhone's small chassis). Lastly, the True Tone flash is a combo of one white and one amber LED flash that improves color balance when doing flash photography. In practice, it has improved flash photos in our tests.

Are photos better? Markedly so, and that's impressive since the iPhone 5, despite the lack of in-camera settings and features, was one of the better shooters among smartphones. Colors and exposure are the standouts, particularly in low light scenes. Details like our cat's fur in a dim room are impressive and there's less noise. Nighttime photography is particularly improved: photos that were mostly murky black on the iPhone 5 now have content. I suspect the camera will be one of the most popular improvements.

The front camera is also improved, and FaceTime video chats no longer look like blocky impressionism. Our video chat partners could see strands of hair and the sharply lined rim of eyeglasses, and colors are improved as well. Both front and rear cameras have backside illuminated sensors and they can record video. Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S4 and LG G2, you can't record using front and rear cameras simultaneously. You can shoot photos while recording video, as a consolation.

iOS 7 brings new camera features, though the UI is still very simple. You have control over the flash and HDR, a selection of live Instagram-like effects, and there's a slider on the bottom where you can choose from photo, square photo, panorama, video and slo-mo video. Slow motion video is recorded at 720p/120 fps rather than the usual 1080p/30 fps. The beginning and end of slo-mo video play at standard speed, and that makes for a more dramatic effect. Oddly, if you use a USB or WiFi sync to transfer slo-mo videos to your computer, they'll simply play at standard speed. If you upload them to YouTube or email them, the slo-mo is intact. This means you'll have to fudge getting slo-mo videos onto your computer by emailing them to yourself (at least for now). If you AirDrop the videos to other iOS devices, they'll maintain the slow motion feature. Only the iPhone can record slow motion video as of this writing.

Battery Life

Apple slightly increased battery capacity to 1560 mAh on the iPhone 5s. Since the new CPU likely consumes a little more power, we haven't noticed much change from iPhone 5 runtimes. That means the phone is competitive with other smartphones on the market, but it doesn't pull ahead. Again, Apple's insistence on staying with a very small form factor limits them; there's only so much room for a battery inside and the iPhone's is smaller than most big Android phone batteries. Of course, the iPhone 5s doesn't have to power a big 5" display or full HD resolution, so it doesn't need as big a battery.

In a real life setting the iPhone 5s lasted through the day with moderate use that included 30 minutes of gaming, phone calls, push email (including the Gmail app), listening to music with the screen off while streaming to an AirPlay speaker for one hour, watching 40 minutes of HD video and browsing the web using Safari and Chrome. Playing games significantly reduces battery life, and FaceTime video chats can eat through a full charge in 3 hours of actual chat time (the phone gets warm when video chatting too). Beyond that, we averaged the same amount of screen on time as our HTC One, beating out our Samsung Galaxy S4 but not the power-frugal Moto X.

Price: $199 on contract and $649 retail for 16 gig, each storage increment adds $100 to the price.

Website: www.apple.com

Review Laptop Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus is one of the most gorgeous industrial designs you'll ever see in an ultraportable, a rigid metal casing that could dent a wall, a stunning full HD display and good performance. How do you make that better? Update it to 4th generation Intel Haswell CPUs, add a touch screen for better Windows 8 usability and further increase the resolution. You might wonder if full HD isn't plenty good enough on a 13.3" panel, and honestly it is. But Apple started the resolution craze with their Retina MacBook Pro models, so PC manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon. Actually Samsung leapfrogged it: instead of matching the 13 or 15" Retina resolution like the Toshiba Kirabook and some upcoming Asus models, Samsung surpassed it with near 4k resolution: 3200 x 1800. Blimey, that's a lot of pixels! Even if you run it at 1920 x 1080, it beats the 13" MacBook Air with Haswell not just for resolution but for color quality.

Specs Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus

The Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus, not to be confused with the much lower spec-d and priced ATIV Book 9 Lite, weighs 3 lbs., is extremely thin at 0.51" and is clad completely in metal. It has Samsung's usual Mineral Ash Black matte finish, which has a hint of indigo blue and a backlit keyboard. The laptop runs on an Intel Core i5-4200U 1.6GHz dual core Haswell CPU with Intel HD 4400 graphics. It has 4 gigs of RAM and a 128 gig SSD drive. The 9 Plus has dual band Intel WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and a webcam. The Series 9 / ATIV Book 9 is Samsung's top of the line (despite the confusing addition of the middling 9 Lite) Ultrabook, and it's never been cheap. This machine costs $1,399, making it one of the more expensive Core i5 Haswell Ultrabooks on the market.

Design and Ergonomics

Nothing has changed here from the ATIV Book 9 and Series 9 full HD models, and that's a good thing. This is one of the best looking Ultrabooks on the market, and attention to detail from machining to seams to the silky smooth hinge are all fitting of a high end machine with a price tag to match. Clearly you're paying extra for three things here: design, manufacturing quality and the high DPI display. You do get what you pay for. The all metal body (with not a hint of plastic anywhere except the keyboard keys), the rigid casing, the super slim design are all perfect. The teardrop side taper and complex curves are unique and I find it more compelling than the MacBook Air. It's incredibly thin yet built like a tank; seriously it could dent wallboard. What's different from the older models? Previous 13" Series 9 and ATIV Book 9 models weigh an impossibly light 2.55 lbs. while the 9 Plus weighs 3.06 pounds. The display can be laid flat on a desk via a 180 degree hinge that has a detent point at the commonly used 110 degree angle.

The ATIV Book 9 Plus has 2 USB 3.0 ports (one on each side), micro HDMI, mini VGA (adapter to full size VGA sold separately for $40), wired Gigabit Ethernet (via included dongle adapter that doesn't use a USB port) and 3.5mm combo audio. The SD card slot lives under a spring-loaded metal door on the side under the curve, and the card sticks out a few millimeters.

Despite the thin metal body, the Book 9 Plus doesn't get uncomfortably hot when working on MS Office documents or streaming 1080p video. The internal twin fan cooling with copper heat pipes effectively keeps heat under control. Air vents on the bottom and near the back edge get the job done nicely and the machine was silent or near silent unless installing copious Windows updates or playing a demanding 3D game. Our CPU ran at a safe 41 degrees Centigrade with moderate demand (100 degrees is max allowable), while the bottom surface rarely got hotter than human body temperature except when playing 3D games like The SIMS 3 and Civ V.
You can remove the bottom cover by unscrewing 10 Phillips head 0 screws, but the only upgradable parts are the wireless card and the M.2 SSD drive. Removing the bottom cover does provide access to the nominally "sealed inside" battery should you need to replace it. The laptop has two 2.0 watt stereo speakers that fire downward from grilles on each side near the front. They deliver pleasing audio that's much louder and richer than most Ultrabooks. Samsung does a fantastic job with audio here, and the 9 Plus outperforms many larger notebooks.

Performance Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus

Samsung starts with just one 9 Plus model, though we have hope that higher end configurations will follow. The machine runs on the 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U fourth generation CPU with Intel HD 4400 graphics. It has 4 gigs of DDR3 RAM soldered on the motherboard and a 128 gig SSD drive. Our SSD was made by Toshiba and it uses the M.2 gum stick format with a SATA3 interface (sorry, not the even faster PCIe). It benchmarks very well, though Sony's PCIe Vaio Pro 13 is even quicker, as is the Acer Aspire S7's RAID0 SSD. Will you be able to tell the difference? No. According to CPUz and SiSoftware Sandra, RAM is dual channel, though the Windows Experience Index score of 5.9 is typical of single channel RAM. We reached out to Samsung and they state that it's single channel. I respectfully disagree. Memory is listed as two 2 gig modules in BIOS, and I really think it's dual channel from benchmarks and system utility reporting. Why does dual channel matter? Integrated graphics use system memory (RAM) as video memory, so faster RAM speeds up graphics a bit. That's even more appealing when driving an extremely high resolution display.

Some of you lament 4 gigs of RAM, and for some power users that use VMs, do heavy software development or edit full HD video professionally, that's warranted. For the rest of you who use MS Office, a web browser with 10 tabs, email, Photoshop and edit HD video occasionally for work or play, 4 gigs is fine. I routinely have IE with 10 tabs open (Chrome is nice but its touch support is weak and each tab grabs lots of RAM), Photoshop CS, Dreamweaver, Word, email and social networking. I have never exceeded 4 gigs of RAM even when running at 3200 x 1800 resolution. Most games are 32 bit and thus don't use more than 4 gigs of RAM (Civ V uses 1.5 gigs at full HD), and this isn't really a gaming notebook anyhow.

The Intel Wireless-N 7260 + Bluetooth 4.0 card is socketed and upgradable, as is the SSD drive. Note that the SSD drive uses the newer and less common M.2 format, so a standard mSATA SSD won't fit. The drive uses a SATA3 interface (M.2 is a form factor, not an interface), and you'll find just a few M.2 SSD drives available aftermarket if you want to increase storage capacity. The 128 gig drive has the usual recovery partition, though you can use Samsung's excellent Recovery program to migrate the contents of the partition to a 32 gig USB flash drive, if you wish to recover that space. After Windows updates, the drive has the usual 65 gigs free (add 20 gigs if you do remove the recovery partition).

Benchmarks Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus

(Core i5-4200U, 4 gigs RAM and 128 gig SSD)
PCMark 7: 5050
3DMark 11: P877
wPrime: 22.8 sec.
Windows Experience Index:
Processor: 6.9
RAM: 5.9
Graphics (for desktop): 5.9
Gaming Graphics: 6.5
HDD: 8.1

WiFi

Laptop Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus a compatibly with Intel's new WiFi ac module, found in the Vaio Pro 13 and MacBook Air with Haswell, had growing pains, but even Sony's Broadcom 802.11n in the Duo 13 has some folks complaining. Older Samsung Series 9 models with 802.11n earned their share of complaints, but Samsung addressed that with an improved antenna design. The good news? In our tests the ATIV Book 9 Plus has excellent WiFi with good range, good throughput and no drops. It occasionally fails to reconnect after 10 sleep/wake cycles but toggling flight mode revives the connection. We test using a dual band 802.11n network, and test both 2.4 and 5GHz. The Intel 7260N supports Intel WiDi wireless display. Bluetooth 4.0 is built-in.

Battery Life

The Series 9 was no slouch for battery life, and things get better with the ATIV Book 9 Plus thanks to Intel's Haswell platform whose strong point is power savings. The large 55 Wh (7300 mAh) battery also helps. The battery is sealed inside, but as noted it's easy to open up the laptop and the battery uses a connector rather than solder, so you could replace it yourself if it dies of old age. Samsung uses the same very compact charger with tiny charging tip as with their other Ultrabooks and Windows tablets. The pin isn't fiddly or stubborn like the Series 7 Ultra / ATIV Book 7, and it's easy to plug in. Not that you'll be plugging it in often: battery life is superb. It falls between the Sony Vaio Pro 13 and Vaio Duo 13 Haswell ultraportables and is closer to the long-lived Duo 13. We managed 8.5 hours of actual use time with brightness at an ample 50%, WiFi turned on and adaptive brightness enabled, all while using Samsung's default power plan. In our test we do a mix of MS Office, email, social networking, HD video streaming from YouTube and Netflix and photo editing in Photoshop CS 6.

Price Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus: $1,399

Website: www.samsung.com