Massive Tech Haul Unboxing! ▻MSI X299 XPOWER GAMING AC: http://bit.ly/2eMjEAJ ▻Send me stuff and I will unbox it in these videos! PO BOX 2012 Santa ...
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David Egbert's Geeky Blog
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
So Many PC Parts! – What’s In The Box | EP 24
How To Use a Microphone Properly
In this video I give a tutorial on how to get the best audio quality out of a typical microphone like the Blue Yeti. There are several tips on how to get the most out of ...
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Tuesday, August 1, 2017
August Brings With It Back-To-School Deals, Sales On Windows 10 Home/Pro/S Devices, And 0% Interest Payment Plans On Surface Devices
A couple of back-to-school deals were announced today by various retailers since today is the first day of August 2017. And in addition to deals and sales, Microsoft also announced their Surface Plus program for anyone who wants to buy a Surface device through 0% interest monthly payments.
If we start with Microsoft’s offer, their financing comes in two versions. One for businesses called Surface Plus for Business, and another one for personal customers simply called Surface Plus. With Surface Plus, anyone can buy any Surface computer, ranging from tablets such as Surface Pro or Surface Book, to Surface Laptop, Surface Studio, and even the 55-inch Surface Hub, from $34 a month.
There are a couple of additional benefits with the Surface Plus program, which includes things like Surface training, a “health check” of the computer in store, and the opportunity to upgrade to a new device after 18 months. A couple of new Windows 10 tablet sales were also added today.
HP has a large amount of Windows 10 devices, and through August, HP will have a $150 sale off quite a lot of them with the coupon code “150BTSDEAL”
BestBuy have also launched something called Student Deals in their Student Hub, with some minor sales on all kins of computer products, ranging from Apple Macs to Android tablets, Chrome laptops, AIO computers, Windows tablets, and computer accessories.
And Lenovo too have joined the back-to-school August deals by launching the brand new Windows 10 S laptop Lenovo N24.
This is Lenovo’s first Windows 10 S laptop, which costs $309 with the Intel Celeron N3450 processor, and $349 with the Intel Pentium N4200 processor. Both laptops have 11.6-inch screens, 4GB of DDR4 RAM at a snappy 3200 MHz, 64GB of storage, and comes with an active digitizer pen.
– Tom Bowen
Top 5: Affordable Cars Under $20K (2014 Edition)
It's an excellent time to be in the market for a new, fast, and fun car. Due to improved technology, showrooms are stocked with stylish vehicles that offer solid ...
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65″ Sony 4K Ultra HD TV Unboxing & Overview (XBR65X900A)
PRICING & AVAILABILITY Sony 65-inch 4K Ultra HD (US) - http://bit.ly/10QeWSg Sony 65-inch 4K Ultra HD (CA) - http://bit.ly/12N9PlU Welcome to my Sony 4K ...
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FreeSync vs G-Sync Input Lag Comparison
Is there a final answer in the FreeSync vs G-Sync debate? We set out to find it... Vote for Turnip shirt: http://teespring.com/vote4turnip Pricing & discussion: ...
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Setup Wars – Episode 113
A contest where 5 setups get chosen and only 1 takes home a prize! ▻Skullcandy Crusher: http://bit.ly/2u6DL1z 20% Off Code: Crusher20-2 Vote here: ...
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Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Review
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 / II Review for Sprint Hit up the Like button and subscribe for the giveaway! In this video I review the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 for Sprint.
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‘More metal’ Moto G5S and dual camera Moto G5S Plus break cover with reasonable price points
In case you were wondering, the S in the oft-rumored Moto G5S and G5S Plus stands for “special edition.” The two “premium” new mid-range Android devices are already official, just a few months after standard-edition G5 and G5 Plus phones went on sale stateside and internationally.
While we’re still puzzled by Lenovo’s overcrowded Moto-branded lineup this year, the Chinese company’s US-based subsidiary does a decent job spelling out the differences between the S duo and regular G5/G5 Plus pair in its latest press release.
“Made for more”, the 5.2-inch Moto G5S is not only physically larger than the 5-inch G5, with a slightly bigger 3000 mAh “all-day” battery also in tow, as well as improved TurboPower charging capabilities.
Priced at 249 EUR, the revised handset is “stronger than ever”, thanks to an “all-metal” unibody design, and it features an enhanced 16MP rear-facing camera too. Oh, and the 5MP wide-angle front shooter is equipped with LED flash this time around. The rest of the specs are likely unchanged, but all in all, you get plenty of extra oomph to justify this “special” global launch.
The same probably goes for the €299 Moto G5S Plus, which doubles down on 13MP rear cams, bumping up the selfie unit’s sensor to 8 megapixels while also adopting front-facing LED flash.
Unfortunately, we can’t say we’re impressed with the 3000 mAh “all-day” battery of this “all-metal unibody” 5.5-incher, and little else is altered or upgraded, based on information made public at this time.
The “new Moto G’s” are coming to the US “this fall”, preceded by “various countries globally” that should receive the two “starting this month.” Obviously, pricing will vary from region to region.
1 Million Subscriber Special
Thank you guys :) Justin's Version: https://goo.gl/D92Jli Mahmoud's Version: https://goo.gl/kDP0ZD Julian's Channel: ...
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#TeamCrispy Edition – Ask Me #030
Time to get crispy. Jonathan's Channel: http://www.youtube.com/tld Lew's Channel: http://www.youtube.com/unboxtherapy In this special Team Crispy edition of ...
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Monday, July 31, 2017
Foldable Samsung Galaxy X Phone/Tablets Certified?
Samsung have been working on foldable tablets/phones for years, on and off at various stages, and while two models technically could have been launched at the start of the year, Samsung were soon rumored to wait until the market shifted a little while their technologies also matured more, and there were even talks of postponing the developments of the devices because of reshuffles within Samsung.
Since then, the first real leak or rumor from a official document in public that could possibly be pinned to Samsung as evidence of a foldable Samsung tablet coming sometime soon, was the Samsung Galaxy X trademark back in February, which certainly included a foldable mobile device category based on the official definitions of products for the Samsung Galaxy X when filing for the trademark.
The last weeks however there have been two unknown new Samsung devices in the phone category that have been officially Bluetooth certified. The first one was Samsung OWY on July 16, with the newest Bluetooth 5.0 standard. But now today, Sammobile believes that based on their own few pieces of information so far about a foldable mobile device from Samsung, the Samsung SM-G888 is the model number for the foldable Samsung Galaxy X.
The Samsung SM-G888NO was listed last Friday on July 28, with Bluetoth 4.2, also in the phone category. This device had previously Wi-Fi certified back in April, with dual-band Wi-Fi and Android 6.0
With these model numbers, the closest related model is the Samsung Galaxy S5 mini (SM-G800), with a 4.5-inch AMOLED display. But in order to replicate something like the size of an 8-inch tablet, we would need 3 of these phones side by side, to recreate the same screen size of an 8-inch tablet.
– Tom Bowen
My Ultimate Setup – Episode 1
LG UC97 Ultra Wide Display - http://amzn.to/1UCcTfi Welcome to episode 1 of my new ultimate setup series. More to follow, make sure to subscribe! Check out ...
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Intel Haswell 4th Generation Core i5 & i7 Overclocking Guide
If you have a 4770K or 4670K, then this overclocking guide is perfect for you! This video overclocking guide was sponsored by Intel. Sponsor link: ...
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Setup Wars – Episode 107
A contest where 5 setups get chosen and only 1 takes home a prize! Vote here: http://getnice.com/c/Techsource/ ...
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iPad Pro vs Surface Pro 2017!
Apple iPad Pro 12.9" vs Surface Pro 2017 - time to replace your laptop? Microsoft Surface Pro 2017 on Amazon: http://austin.tech/surface2017 Apple iPad Pro ...
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Nokia 8 inches closer to release with new gold-copper photoshoot, benchmark and pricing rumors
After many months of uncertain speculation and often-conflicting inside information, the story of the first flagship Nokia-branded smartphone from HMD Global has started to clear up in recent weeks.
One by one, the puzzle pieces are now falling into place, including a very plausible branding theory, official announcement timing and a premium design we can visualize with our eyes closed.
The latest unauthorized online dissemination of pre-release Nokia 8 imagery further corroborates that love-or-hate gold-copper color combo, along with fairly chunky screen bezels by today’s high-end standards, a side-mounted home button and dual rear-facing camera arrangement.
Zeiss labels are still nowhere to be found around the handheld’s main shooter, suggesting this is yet another super-early prototype product. Then again, the device does boot up, so maybe HMD’s partnership with the German optical specialist will only bear fruit further down the line.
Meanwhile, a Nokia 9 benchmark logged earlier today keeps the branding mystery going. Just don’t expect two separate flagship HMD launches anytime soon. Either the Nokia 8 or 9 is coming, powered by a Snapdragon 835 processor in combination with 4GB RAM, also featuring a 5.3-inch Quad HD display, Android 7.1.1 Nougat, 64GB internal storage, as well as 12 or 13MP rear cameras and a single 12/13MP selfie shooter.
Last but not least, sketchy rumors out of Romania hint at recommended Eastern European pricing of €520, down from €590, as suggested in Scandinavia a little while ago. Both figures could prove authentic, of course, translating to anywhere between $500 and $600 stateside. The closer to $500, the better chances this has of measuring up to costlier, prettier new hero devices from Samsung or LG.
Possible Samsung Galaxy Note 8 dual camera features include 3x optical zoom and ‘depth application’
Samsung will arrive surprisingly and unfashionably late to the dual rear camera smartphone party upon the introduction of the Galaxy Note 8 in a few weeks, but in fairly predictable manner, the chaebol’s “next big thing” should blow its top-tier imaging rivals out of the water.
One of Samsung Group’s many electronic component-making subsidiaries, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, is expected to be in charge of the very ingenious dual cam solution’s production, with several of its proprietary tricks apparently detailed early on the company’s official website.
Now, these features aren’t explicitly advertised as headed to the Galaxy Note 8, and some may need a little more R&D time. But analysts have long deemed 3x optical zoom as an “inevitable” selling point for this fall’s Note 7 redemption effort.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics supplies a couple of sample shots to illustrate the major difference between 3x optical and 3x digital zoom, previewing a technology dubbed “Smart Zoom” that could give the OnePlus 5 and iPhone 7 Plus quite a run for their money. Not sure about the iPhone 8, though.
Other possible Note 8 dual shooter functions and skills include a neat Background Effect for artistic blurriness, Perspective View rotation at 45 degrees each way, and yes, depth sensing for quick and sharp refocusing. Overall brightness will also be improved, not to mention High Dynamic Range and low-light performance, aka Super Night Shot functionality. It seems like shutterbugs have plenty to look forward to here.
Asus VivoBook Max X541UA Review
With the new school and college year under way, it’s time to focus on the new ‘back-to-school’ offerings in the laptop market. The mid-range and mainstream laptop segments these days offer a good mix of features and performance and you can find various form factors as well to suit your working style.
Today, we’ll be testing Asus’ newly launched VivoBook Max X541UA, which is a mainstream laptop targeted at students or anyone looking to buy a budget laptop for general work. With a large display and a full-sized keyboard at hand, let’s see if the new VivoBook Max makes for a worthy contender.
Asus VivoBook Max X541UA design and build quality
Given its mainstream target, the body of the X541UA is mostly plastic. The fit and finish are decent, but the quality could have been better. Take the lid for example, which flexes very easily and isn’t very thick. Despite this, we didn’t see any major warping when we applied pressure on the lid, but we did notice a slight ripple at the left edge of the display when we opened and tilted the lid, which isn't a very good sign.
The lid of the Asus VivoBook Max X541UA has a textured pattern that doesn’t attract fingerprints. We have more plastic on the lower half of the laptop, but it feels more durable. The palm rest area is spacious and has a similar texture as the back of the lid. You get a full-sized keyboard but the cutouts for the chiclet keys feel a bit crude as there’s visible excess plastic. The keys themselves are well spaced and are pretty comfortable for typing. Despite the 2.3mm travel distance, they don’t feel floaty or spongy.
All the ports are placed on the left. We have one USB Type-C (USB 3.1, Gen1) port, two standard USB ports (1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0), 10/100 Ethernet, VGA, HDMI and a headphone/ microphone combo socket. The SD card reader is placed on the front, just below the power and battery status LEDs, and there is a DVD writer on the right. While a Type-C port is a nice addition, there are only two full-sized USB ports, which, in our opinion, are a lot more useful for most people. The bottom is completely sealed off and the battery is not removable. There are intake vents underneath while the hot air is vented out from the vents on the left.
The Asus VivoBook Max X541UA comes with a full-HD resolution screen, which we appreciate, as more often than not we have to settle with a 1366x768 display at this price point. With a 15.6-inch screen size, text and icons are a lot less jagged, which makes reading a lot better. However, colours and viewing angles range from average to quite poor. This anti-glare panel produces slightly pale colours and there’s visible banding across gradients, even with high-resolution 4K video files. Vertical and horizontal viewing angles are also very narrow, so if you’re not sitting dead centre with the lid tilted to the optimal position, you’re going to see distorted colours. Even with the Asus Splendid screen tuning software, we couldn’t improve this. It’s also important to note that the display only supports 45 percent of the NTSC colour gamut so this is not the best tool for photo editing or any other colour-sensitive work.
Physically, the VivoBook Max X541UA is like any other mainstream laptop. The nearly-all-plastic construction doesn’t give you any sense of premiumness. Like most 15.6-inch laptops, it is a bit on the heavier side at 1.9kg and a thick too at 27.6mm. We also would have liked better spacing between the USB ports as you could run into an issue with thicker devices or dongles.
Asus VivoBook Max X541UA specifications and features
The VivoBook Max is powered by Intel’s Core i3-7100U CPU, which is based on the Kaby Lake architecture. This is a dual-core CPU with a maximum frequency of 2.4GHz and HyperThreading. Along with this, we have a single 4GB stick of DDR4 RAM and a 1TB 2.5-inch mechanical hard drive. Graphics duties are handled by the CPU’s onboard HD Graphics 620 capabilities. Since this is a low-end CPU, we didn’t encounter any overheating and the exhaust fan ran silently. However, the vibration of the hard drive can be felt across the palm rest area and the keyboard, which is quite distracting when you’re trying to type. The hard drive in our unit also made an annoying intermittent ‘ticking’ sound, which was faintly audible even when the drive was idle.
The rest of the specifications include a VGA webcam, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, stereo speakers and a 3-cell, 36Whr battery. Asus ships the X541UA with Windows 10 Home 64-bit and like always, there are a bunch of programs pre-installed with it. There’s a limited-time subscription to McAfee LiveSafe, a trial version of Office 365, and a suite of applications from Asus including Spendid, ICEpower for audio, USB Charger+, Live Update, and Giftbox, which shows a curated list of apps that you can download.
Asus VivoBook Max X541UA performance and battery life
As a general-purpose laptop, the VivoBook Max is good for those who need to type a lot. The well-spaced-out keys and good tactile feedback make this a very comfortable experience. We used the laptop for a few hours over the course of our regular work day and didn’t have any fatigue issues. The high-resolution screen also helps here as text and smaller images don’t have the usual jaggedness that you typically find in HD displays around this price point. We also like the fact that you can use the VivoBook Max comfortably on your lap even when it is charging as it doesn’t get too hot.
Having said this, Windows performance is quite sluggish, which could be down to having just 4GB of RAM. On average, we found roughly 900MB of free RAM available, that too with only a few browser tabs open and small apps such as Paint running in the background. According to Asus, the laptop supports a maximum of 12GB of RAM so an upgrade should help smoothen things out.
Performance in synthetic benchmarks is just about average. We got scores of 2600, 2284, and 2500 in PCMark 8's Home, Creative, and Work test suites. In Cinebench R15, we got a CPU score of 235 and OpenGL score of 30fps. While this laptop isn’t suited for gaming, less intense titles from the Windows Store do work. The trackpad works well with Windows 10 gestures too. We found the quality of the VGA webcam to be quite poor as the footage was noisy even in a well lit room.
The laptop boasts of stereo 3W speakers and Bang & Olufsen ICEpower audio enhancement. The AudioWizard app lets you cycle between equaliser presets. Audio quality is actually pretty good, especially for movies. Vocals are distinct and loud, and sound isn’t all that tinny. Since the speakers sit above the keyboard, audio is always clear no matter where you place this laptop.
In our Battery Eater Pro test, we managed to get around 2 hours and 17 minutes of runtime, which is not great. PCMark’s battery test, which cycles through a bunch of media and browser related tasks, ran for 3 hours and 39 minutes. With actual usage, we managed to get a little more than 4 hours. This is still below average and won’t get you through a full workday.
Verdict
Asus’s new VivoBook Max X541UA is one of the least expensive laptops available with a full-HD screen and 7th gen Core i3 CPU. It’s is currently available at retail chains such as Croma as well as smaller local shops, but you might not have much luck finding it online.
Its closest competition is the Dell Inspiron 15 5567, which is priced slightly higher. The VivoBook Max scores well for its comfortable keyboard and decently loud speakers. The full-HD display also delivers relatively sharp text and images. However, performance is a bit sluggish overall in apps and in the Windows UI, which is to be expected with just 4GB of RAM. The quality of the display is also not that great and we expected much better battery life. The fit and finish could use some finesse too. If budget is your primary concern, this is a choice you can consider.
Price (MRP): Rs. 37,990
Pros
- Comfortable keyboard
- Good speakers
- Full-HD display
Cons
- Screen colour banding, narrow viewing angles
- Hard drive vibration is distracting
- Build quality and finish could be better
- Weak battery life
Ratings (Out of 5)
- Design: 3
- Display: 3
- Performance: 3
- Software: 3.5
- Value for Money: 3.5
- Overall: 3
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