Kindle Fire HDX 7", HDX Display, Wi-Fi, 32 GB - Includes Special Offers (Previous Generation - 3rd)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



Update on Dec 23 2013 - Please scroll to the very end of this review for 2 month use update. [...]



For those who are looking at getting the best tablet out there at the moment, this is the one you should be looking at.



My profile: Heavy tablet users for personal and business purposes. I work on my tablet around 4-5 hours a day (Email / Documents / Spreadsheet / PDF ) and use it 1-2 hours for personal use such as watching movies or reading books/magazine. Tablet is my go-to device for all internet related search I do.



I have the following and/or used the following before:



1) iPad 1

2) iPad 2

3) iPad 4

4) iPad Mini

5) Kindle Fire

6) Kindle Fire HD

7) Kindle Fire HD 8.9

8) Asus Transformer with Keyboard

9) Nexus 7 First Gen

10) iPad Air 16gb Wifi



As you can see, I been through many devices and hope this review with my experience helps users decide if this is the right device for them. This will be an ongoing review for this device throughout this next year. For comparison sake, I will use last year's Kindle and iPad mini as they are the closest size to this HDX 7"



Speed (9/10):



This is leaps and bounds faster than last year Kindle HD. Last year Kindle struggles to go through any HD video content I put in. This year's HDX able to play seamlessly all the HD 1080p contents I added. It is incredible how much the 2.2Ghz quad processor improved vs last year's model Dual 1.2Ghz.



Screen (9/10):

This is the biggest improvement over last year's model. The screen is in true HD 1080p (1920x1080). This means any HD content I throw at it will view in its intended resolution. The screen is crystal clear (much better than iPad mini) and the viewing angle is incredible. I have this Kindle hanged in the middle of the car and at any seat it is view very clearly. Last year's model was not as clear as this. This is excellent for my minivan with my kids watching all the HD movies. The brightness of the screen is also much brighter than last year's model



Sound(8/10):

The sound system in this Kindle Fire HDX is using Dolby Digital Plus with virtual 5.1 surround sound. That gives this device a much better surround sound then previous generation's.



Build (8/10):

This HDX is more "angular" than last year's device. It's slightly rougher to hold in the corners than last year's model due to sharper edges though I doubt any users will hold their tablet by their corners. The device is noticeable lighter (395g for Kindle Fire HD vs 303g for Kindle Fire HDX). This mean you can hold this for longer time without fatigue.



The power and volume button placement on this Kindle Fire HDX is interesting. It is behind the device which allows it to hide away from front view. However, this can cause user to accidentally hit the on/off button or the volume button when not being careful. Aesthetically it is great but it is definitely not a practical solution when you are trying to use this on the go.



It does look sturdy enough to survive minor drop but I highly recommend getting a case for it. Those sharp corners seems more prone to dents than round corners for last year's model.



Battery (6/10):

This is probably the biggest drawback for this device. The battery life is not as good as last year's model. This is quite logical as last year's HD has a 4400mAh battery while running 720p while this HDX runs Full HD 1080p but runs only on a 4500mAh battery (only 100mAh more than last year). The 1080p screen pulls a lot of power vs last year's model when the screen is on, especially when running HD videos. I'm able to achieve 5 hours of heavy use compare to 7 hours for last year's Kindle Fire HD at medium brightness with Wi-fi on all the time. I tend to bring around an external battery pack but prefer something that is integrated (like a battery case)



Software & software compatibility (8/10):

The amount of app is still lacking compare to App store or Play store but has been steadily increasing which is a great sign. Games and software boot time has increased noticeably and compatibility is not an issue



Silk browser has definitely improved compare to last year's tablet with multiple tabs actually now usable on the HDX. For last year's version, it is practically unusable after 2 tabs due to the lack of hardware resource on the tablet (especially when the website is not optimized for mobile use). The HDX has no problem going through any webpages I throw at it.



Hopefully more apps will be optimized to use quad core soon. I'm guessing some of these apps are only optimized for last year's dual core.



I haven't got the opportunity to use Mayday yet but will review about it once I get more update on this.



Complimentary Accessories (3/10):

For all smart devices, one of the most important time is the number of accessories available. At launch, it is understandable the lack of accessories but productivity focus accessories such as integrated case/keyboard are missing at launch. This is rather disappointing as it can be a powerful productivity device with the right accessories attached. Also the lack of case selection is quite astonishing for a flagship product on Amazon. Hope there will be more cases such as battery case (due to above battery problem) or rugged case come out soon.



Price (9/10):

I got the special offer model at 16Gb (lowest end model) and it is enough for me to use. The special offer ads are not intrusive like last year's model and sometimes does reveal some items I want. Compare to the ipad mini, this is practically a steal. For those with the Nexus 7, it is quite comparable in price.



Conclusion in one sentence: Amazon's iPad mini killer (8.5/10)



For people who are justifying if this is a good upgrade, I say YES to that. The speed and screen difference alone is worth the upgrade. The whole user experience just improve drastically with the HDX.



It use to be, for Kindle Fire HD, you will trade low price for slow performance, stutter and lag. It honestly makes you think twice if the price is really worth all that poor experience.



For HDX, this is no longer the case. You get both great price, great screen and great performance that surpasses iPad mini. To me, the HDX is seriously Amazon's iPad killer. It really marks how well Amazon has done to make themselves a worthy competitor in the tablet market. I hope some software upgrade or battery pack can make this the ultimate road warrior!



****************************Dec 23th 2013 - 2 months update *********************************

So I have been using between this HDX 7" and the 8.9" HDX. I also been using an iPad Air 16Gb Wifi and here are some updates, particular on the negative points mentioned previously.



App Store - not so refined still. Downloading and Installing problem occurs

The app store after 2 month is still a bit lacking. There are some freebie deals during cyber monday which I jumped (who doesn't like free stuff?)but still nothing that either the Apple App store or Google Play don't have. Amazon App store really needs some exclusive apps to become a "must get" device.



Now comes the bad part - I tried to download Magic 2014 game (big fan of Magic the Gathering since teen) from the Amazon App Store and the HDX 7" downloads this rather slowly. In fact, I noticed that when it reaches 50% it drops back down to 30% and redownloads the package again! Since I'm not in a rush I really have no issue with this re-download problem. However, this can be problem to some people who have limited bandwidth per month and won't appreciate redownloading the same thing again 2 times (or more but I didn't catch that).



Once it reaches 100%, the app store attempts to install the software. It goes into "Installing..." state for a while (at least couple hours). Knowing that there's something weird going on, I rebooted the HDX 7". Once I rebooted it, the software shows it was never downloaded!



Perhaps there's some application specific problem with this game but this really shows a rather poor experience on the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX. I would expect a brand new top of the line Kindle Fire HDX would have ironed out simple bugs such as this but clearly, the Amazon App Store have 2 things it needs to work on:



1) If this is an application specific error, Amazon needs to proactively test this release on all their devices before allowing it on the Amazon App Store. It's quite obvious if any Amazon App store guys have even tried to install this Magic 2014 game that it just won't install. Literally half the reviews on the review complain about this



2) For these buggy release, Amazon should proactively pull this application from the store - the experience that lead to all the hours of download and wasted bandwidth got the user nothing in the end. I can imagine some users with capped bandwidth or using their cell data to download will be furious if they know an app less than 1Gb rack them couple Gb of download.



App Store is a big part of Amazon's Kindle Fire ecosystem and poor experience such as this really deters client in continued use, especially when all Kindle Fire are locked down to Amazon software ecosystem. When you cannot even use the Amazon software ecosystem, any excellent hardware that this machine has becomes inaccessible and worse of all, a waste of user time to figure out.



Now most people may say this criticism is related to the game(in this case, Magic 2014). I believe this is not the case. The responsibility of Downloading and Installing of the Magic 2014 application belongs to the Amazon App Store (after all, it is Amazon App Store people who authorized this to be released in their store). I start to find all other game download and installation questionable and my own usage time in App store browsing and purchasing drops drastically.



From the above download experience, I did attempt to find some help from Amazon. Here is where the more problem arises.



Mayday - speaking to rep reading off outdated troubleshooting guides



After noticing my Magic 2014 download is gone, I attempted to contact Amazon through the Mayday button. It's really my first time using this function so I don't really have any prior experience in using it.



My Mayday call was picked up by Hayley (if I recall). You can see a big Amazon logo in the background beside the customer service rep and she looks pretty friendly. I explained my situation with the App store problem to Hayley but it seems she wasn't able to help; therefore I got transfer to a "Tech Advisor". This Tech Advisor can't be shown in the video camera and asks for my credentials. She also made me explain the problem again which I explained to Hayley (I would have thought someone will note down my problem as I need to use couple mins to explain again). She then pulls something that you expect from an Indian Call Center by asking me to disconnect my internet modem. I find this rather funny as I mentioned this is a software specific problem with the installation and has nothing to do with my modem or Internet connection. I also mentioned that I am running a server at home and pulling the modem disconnects it from the Internet which breaks other services I am running unintentionally. She seems to be stuck so she forward me to another representative (which if I heard correctly, it is the app store support rep).



Once I got connected to the 3rd rep, they ask me to check my tablet date and time (which is correct). This rep later ask me to press on options that are not the screen. I suspected this rep was reading off an old Fire OS troubleshooting guide as I recently updated the Fire OS system and that some options and buttons are changed. Given the large amount of time spent and there's no resolution, I went to my iPad air and downloaded the game successfully in couple mins while still have Amazon on the Mayday call. I informed the 3rd tech support of this and thank them for their time although there was no resolution in the end.



I very much prefer having the game on my Kindle HDX as the 7" is perfect to bring outside for quick game or two, but the amount of time spent on troubleshooting and resource wasted on this is honestly not worth my time. I ended up having to play this game on the iPad Air larger screen but also paid for in app purchase because the game itself is very good.



It's a good lesson to learn that the whole software user experience needs to be more streamline and fluid on the Kindle. Amazon has done successfully in the physical good purchasing section of the kindle fire (in fact I spent thousands of dollars more on Amazon.com using the kindle fire than on PC and very satisfy with the results) and that if it can bring the same experience to the software app store just like the physical store, Amazon will have a winner here. I use my machine extensively for magazine reading / internet browsing but when it comes to app download, I currently have my doubts if it will be another bandwidth hog and a waste of time.



Display - blue hue appears but not very apparent

Some people ask if the blue hue appears on the edge. I can notice this if I'm reading off a totally white page (like a ebook or magazine). However it is not very noticeable and that your eyes will ignore it eventually. After all, words or graphic don't appear on the edges of the screen.



Battery life - Still needs work on



After the OS update, there seems to be a slight improvement with the battery life. However, still not enough for me to really go through the day without bringing an external battery charger pack along. At the moment, I am still looking for a 2 in 1 case + battery solution but it is not available. I hope this can be my daily driver but without the battery life, it may just be a brick by the afternoon.



Purchasing on Amazon.com - becomes addictive (Could be good or bad for some people!)

I realized my spending on Amazon went up considerable compare to last year thanks to this Kindle Fire HDX. I will be browsing it online and have these items saved on screen, constantly reminding me to get it. Amazon really done a good job at this and really met, if not, exceed their goal in getting users buying from kindle fire. With last year fire, the browsing experience on Amazon.com was not nearly as fluid as this year's HDX. This makes it hard to keep my attention and urge to buy. For people who wants a good purchasing experience, this Kindle Fire HDX will surely provide that. For ones who need to save money, you may want to get your finger off the buy button!



My overall rating stays the same as Amazon keeps knocking off prices for these machines making it still the best bang for the buck.



Apr 28 Update - Family Use

----------------------------------------------



Got my kids an extra Kindle Fire HDX 7" for them to play with. My HDX 7" is still running well with all my Instant Video and newsstand subscription inside.



Since my kids don't treat their new toys with much care, I went and got them and myself a zerolemon EVA Case on Amazon. The case is useful for prevent dents and major falls on your Kindle. Even with my Kindle, the top pantel where the speakers are started to peel off a bit (amazon used glue to assemble the speaker grille top panel). Case works great for hiding some of the blemishes of the kindle fire hdx 7"



Overall still satisfied with my machine and frankly been the best bang for the buck tablet i ever have.



As mentioned, I will update this review periodically. Next time I will focus on physical wear and tear of the machine after couple more months and again on battery life (as all electronics have a diminishing battery duration throughout its course of use). [...] Thanks for reading!



from MIZON http://ift.tt/1sbMtDc

via IFTTT

Dell Inspiron i3531-1200BK 15.6-Inch Laptop

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is no I7 laptop, let's just get that straight. But, it makes a good second back up laptop for me. I'm using it to write this review right now. I ordered mine from dell, at the time it was cheaper than amazon, and dell had them in stock. I did remove the hard drive and replaced it with an SSD I had laying around which helped speed it up considerably. It is a bit laggy at times, but overall it is usable and better than I would have expected for this price range.



Here are the pros as I see them:

-The price, the price, the price

-The weight is much lighter than my I7 high end laptop

-Battery lasts 5-7.5 hours depending on use, many Windows laptops in this price range only last 3 hours so this is a huge advantage.

-The battery is user replaceable, which you can't take for granted anymore in a laptop. Press two buttons and it pops right out!

-Many laptops recently make it very hard to get access to the RAM and Harddrive for upgrades. Several dells require you to completely disassemble the entire laptop to get to the hard drive including removing the screen, motherboard, track pad etc. Which is a huge pet peave of mine. This laptop has an access panel on the bottom to access the RAM and HD which is great!

-A large 15.6 inch screen for a great price

-This CPU doesn't run hot at all and has decent performance for the price.

-It runs so cool it doesn't even have a fan at all!

-Keyboard has a number pad, many don't in this price range.

-Keyboard feels nice and doesn't feel too cheap, we will see with time though how it holds up.

-Trackpad works good, buttons are loud when clicked though.

-Nice to have a Windows laptop for this price, I like chromebooks but I can't connect to my at home Samba server from a chromebook so I gravitate to Windows.



Cons:

-There are the obvious ones like no USB 3, no Bluetooth, no wired ethernet, no CD/DVD Drive. But in this price range I'm ok with that. I have an external USB CD/DVD that I used to install Office on it so that wasn't an issue for me.

-Windows 8.1, is better than 8.0 but if you have never used it before there is a learning curve for sure compared to Windows 7/Vista

-Not blazing fast but you can't expect that from any pc in this price range.

-Case feels cheap, it creaks and groans when I pick it up by a corner.

-The quality of the video is pretty low, but once again it is usable for watching youtube, netflix videos, etc. Just is less sharp than my high end laptop and can be a tad laggy occasionally.



Would I recommend this??? Depends on your needs. If you are on a tight budget and are a light PC user who wants to use it just for basic web surfing, Word Processing, and light youtube/netflix watching this will work fine for most people



If you are a high end, heavy user, I'd only use this as a backup laptop. I would not be happy with this as my primary laptop personally since I'm a very heavy user.



If you are a gamer, you of course know enough to not even look at this laptop as an option.



Upgrade possibilities: If you know what you are doing upgrading the hard drive to an SSD will help it feel more useable. Also, I have not done so yet, but my understanding is that you can upgrade this to 8GB of ram which could help too. It only has one slot for ram so you will have to remove the stock 4gb and replace it with an 8GB. Make sure to get the DDR3L (The L stands for low voltage). You want the 1.35 volt not 1.5 it may work with the 1.5 but will run hotter and use more battery. The laptop comes with 1333mhz ram, but I think 1600mhz will work and run faster. Take this with a grain of salt as have not tried it yet, but I believe the following RAM will work, and this is the type I plan to try upgrading to someday.



http://ift.tt/1x7G9yp



Update 6/23/14: I did buy and install the 8gb of Ram above. It works great, but it does down clock the ram to 1333mhz as the CPU won't handle 1600mhz speeds. But, the 1600mhz 1.35v ram does work great in here. It feels even snappier now. Between the SSD I installed and the 8gb of ram this computer is very usable and fairly snappy for most tasks. The only time I see the video and cpu lagging a bit is if I am on a webpage with heavy adobe flash usage on it. But, right now I have two browsers open and about 30 browser tabs open with now slowdown. I'm still quite happy with this laptop for the money. It is just important to throttle your expectations, this can't be compared to an Intel I7 CPU $1000 laptop, but it is good for basic web browsing!



Update 8/22/14 I noticed several people that complained about the performance realized if they removed the demo anti virus and crapware that it runs better. I reinstalled windows from scratch from my USB DVD when I put in the SSD so I effectively removed all of the crapware by reinstalling and only putting the essential drivers back on. That is probably why mine runs much faster and better than some of the reviewers. I would remove the anti virus and just use the built in windows 8.1 antivirus as that is less cpu and memory intensive. Then uninstall of the other factory junk, like wild tangent games, toolbars etc. If you don't want to do that manually in the past I used a free utility called PC Decrapifier that automated the cleanup and worked pretty good. Also, you might need to change your power saving settings to be less restrictive so it is optimized more for speed. Hope that helps...



from MIZON http://ift.tt/1t6ISZL

via IFTTT

Acer C720 Chromebook (11.6-Inch, 2GB)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



I have an Acer C720 ($199) and an Acer C720P ($299) and both are amazing machines. If you dont mind plunking down the extra $100 for the touchscreen then go for it but really you will do fine without it and save yourself $100 especially if you are buying these as gifts like I did for others in my family.



Here is a list of the APPS I use on both and it runs them fast and flawlessly:

Facebook, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Chrome Remote Desktop (flawlessly connects to my Windows 7 laptop and I can run any windows program remotely with ease and flawlessly connects to my Office Desktop and I can access all my office records which is key since i am a family doc), Google Cloud Print (easily prints documents to all the printers i have set up), MyBible, Kindle, Twitter, Hootsuite, Weatherbug, Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, Google+ photos (automatically puts all my photos taken on my Iphone over to my chromebook), RUNS ALL WEBSITES INCLUDING BANKING WEBSITES and my mobile hospital app FLAWLESSLY WITH CHROME (including adobe flash player sites which my Ipad and Iphone still wont run)



The only CONS i can find so far are no SKYPE app.....If you want to do video calls then need to use GOOGLE HANGOUTS which is much less intuitive than skype....and you CANNOT hook a printer directly to a chromebook but you can use google cloud print to print easily...needs wifi connection to do most things (this is really not a problem for me as i am always connected and they have developed a number of apps that work when not connected including document writer and email offline



Battery Life Amazing! almost 8hrs of use!

Touchscreen good but not like an Ipad (can't use your fingers to zoom in with pinch)

Touchpad very good! (and really dont need the touchscreen because touchpad works so good)

Keyboard very solid,

Can use any wireless mouse with it. (Ipad still cant utilize a mouse)

Screen brightness great.

Sound adequate but a bit tinny

USB port charges devices and can use flash drives to move and transfer files (another thing I still cant do with my Ipad)

2 years free of 100GB Google Drive (this saves you $120 right there)

12 free wifi passes while on planes (i dont fly much but still a nice convenience and saves you the $10 or so connection fee)

Free virus protection



All in all a great economical way to access the internet with ease and lightning speed and do 95% of what most people use a personal computer for this day and age.



from MIZON http://ift.tt/1q88FQ2

via IFTTT

Dell Inspiron i3531-1200BK 15.6-Inch Laptop

Product Description

Size: N2830

Product Description

The Inspiron 15 is the most economical member of the family, offering a great combination of portability and plenty of screen real estate along with a 10-key numeric keypad next to the keyboard.






CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is no I7 laptop, let's just get that straight. But, it makes a good second back up laptop for me. I'm using it to write this review right now. I ordered mine from dell, at the time it was cheaper than amazon, and dell had them in stock. I did remove the hard drive and replaced it with an SSD I had laying around which helped speed it up considerably. It is a bit laggy at times, but overall it is usable and better than I would have expected for this price range.



Here are the pros as I see them:

-The price, the price, the price

-The weight is much lighter than my I7 high end laptop

-Battery lasts 5-7.5 hours depending on use, many Windows laptops in this price range only last 3 hours so this is a huge advantage.

-The battery is user replaceable, which you can't take for granted anymore in a laptop. Press two buttons and it pops right out!

-Many laptops recently make it very hard to get access to the RAM and Harddrive for upgrades. Several dells require you to completely disassemble the entire laptop to get to the hard drive including removing the screen, motherboard, track pad etc. Which is a huge pet peave of mine. This laptop has an access panel on the bottom to access the RAM and HD which is great!

-A large 15.6 inch screen for a great price

-This CPU doesn't run hot at all and has decent performance for the price.

-It runs so cool it doesn't even have a fan at all!

-Keyboard has a number pad, many don't in this price range.

-Keyboard feels nice and doesn't feel too cheap, we will see with time though how it holds up.

-Trackpad works good, buttons are loud when clicked though.

-Nice to have a Windows laptop for this price, I like chromebooks but I can't connect to my at home Samba server from a chromebook so I gravitate to Windows.



Cons:

-There are the obvious ones like no USB 3, no Bluetooth, no wired ethernet, no CD/DVD Drive. But in this price range I'm ok with that. I have an external USB CD/DVD that I used to install Office on it so that wasn't an issue for me.

-Windows 8.1, is better than 8.0 but if you have never used it before there is a learning curve for sure compared to Windows 7/Vista

-Not blazing fast but you can't expect that from any pc in this price range.

-Case feels cheap, it creaks and groans when I pick it up by a corner.

-The quality of the video is pretty low, but once again it is usable for watching youtube, netflix videos, etc. Just is less sharp than my high end laptop and can be a tad laggy occasionally.



Would I recommend this??? Depends on your needs. If you are on a tight budget and are a light PC user who wants to use it just for basic web surfing, Word Processing, and light youtube/netflix watching this will work fine for most people



If you are a high end, heavy user, I'd only use this as a backup laptop. I would not be happy with this as my primary laptop personally since I'm a very heavy user.



If you are a gamer, you of course know enough to not even look at this laptop as an option.



Upgrade possibilities: If you know what you are doing upgrading the hard drive to an SSD will help it feel more useable. Also, I have not done so yet, but my understanding is that you can upgrade this to 8GB of ram which could help too. It only has one slot for ram so you will have to remove the stock 4gb and replace it with an 8GB. Make sure to get the DDR3L (The L stands for low voltage). You want the 1.35 volt not 1.5 it may work with the 1.5 but will run hotter and use more battery. The laptop comes with 1333mhz ram, but I think 1600mhz will work and run faster. Take this with a grain of salt as have not tried it yet, but I believe the following RAM will work, and this is the type I plan to try upgrading to someday.



http://ift.tt/1x7G9yp



Update 6/23/14: I did buy and install the 8gb of Ram above. It works great, but it does down clock the ram to 1333mhz as the CPU won't handle 1600mhz speeds. But, the 1600mhz 1.35v ram does work great in here. It feels even snappier now. Between the SSD I installed and the 8gb of ram this computer is very usable and fairly snappy for most tasks. The only time I see the video and cpu lagging a bit is if I am on a webpage with heavy adobe flash usage on it. But, right now I have two browsers open and about 30 browser tabs open with now slowdown. I'm still quite happy with this laptop for the money. It is just important to throttle your expectations, this can't be compared to an Intel I7 CPU $1000 laptop, but it is good for basic web browsing!



Update 8/22/14 I noticed several people that complained about the performance realized if they removed the demo anti virus and crapware that it runs better. I reinstalled windows from scratch from my USB DVD when I put in the SSD so I effectively removed all of the crapware by reinstalling and only putting the essential drivers back on. That is probably why mine runs much faster and better than some of the reviewers. I would remove the anti virus and just use the built in windows 8.1 antivirus as that is less cpu and memory intensive. Then uninstall of the other factory junk, like wild tangent games, toolbars etc. If you don't want to do that manually in the past I used a free utility called PC Decrapifier that automated the cleanup and worked pretty good. Also, you might need to change your power saving settings to be less restrictive so it is optimized more for speed. Hope that helps...

from MIZON http://ift.tt/1t6ISZL

via IFTTT

Kindle Fire HDX 7", HDX Display, Wi-Fi, 32 GB - Includes Special Offers (Previous Generation - 3rd)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



Update on Dec 23 2013 - Please scroll to the very end of this review for 2 month use update. [...]



For those who are looking at getting the best tablet out there at the moment, this is the one you should be looking at.



My profile: Heavy tablet users for personal and business purposes. I work on my tablet around 4-5 hours a day (Email / Documents / Spreadsheet / PDF ) and use it 1-2 hours for personal use such as watching movies or reading books/magazine. Tablet is my go-to device for all internet related search I do.



I have the following and/or used the following before:



1) iPad 1

2) iPad 2

3) iPad 4

4) iPad Mini

5) Kindle Fire

6) Kindle Fire HD

7) Kindle Fire HD 8.9

8) Asus Transformer with Keyboard

9) Nexus 7 First Gen

10) iPad Air 16gb Wifi



As you can see, I been through many devices and hope this review with my experience helps users decide if this is the right device for them. This will be an ongoing review for this device throughout this next year. For comparison sake, I will use last year's Kindle and iPad mini as they are the closest size to this HDX 7"



Speed (9/10):



This is leaps and bounds faster than last year Kindle HD. Last year Kindle struggles to go through any HD video content I put in. This year's HDX able to play seamlessly all the HD 1080p contents I added. It is incredible how much the 2.2Ghz quad processor improved vs last year's model Dual 1.2Ghz.



Screen (9/10):

This is the biggest improvement over last year's model. The screen is in true HD 1080p (1920x1080). This means any HD content I throw at it will view in its intended resolution. The screen is crystal clear (much better than iPad mini) and the viewing angle is incredible. I have this Kindle hanged in the middle of the car and at any seat it is view very clearly. Last year's model was not as clear as this. This is excellent for my minivan with my kids watching all the HD movies. The brightness of the screen is also much brighter than last year's model



Sound(8/10):

The sound system in this Kindle Fire HDX is using Dolby Digital Plus with virtual 5.1 surround sound. That gives this device a much better surround sound then previous generation's.



Build (8/10):

This HDX is more "angular" than last year's device. It's slightly rougher to hold in the corners than last year's model due to sharper edges though I doubt any users will hold their tablet by their corners. The device is noticeable lighter (395g for Kindle Fire HD vs 303g for Kindle Fire HDX). This mean you can hold this for longer time without fatigue.



The power and volume button placement on this Kindle Fire HDX is interesting. It is behind the device which allows it to hide away from front view. However, this can cause user to accidentally hit the on/off button or the volume button when not being careful. Aesthetically it is great but it is definitely not a practical solution when you are trying to use this on the go.



It does look sturdy enough to survive minor drop but I highly recommend getting a case for it. Those sharp corners seems more prone to dents than round corners for last year's model.



Battery (6/10):

This is probably the biggest drawback for this device. The battery life is not as good as last year's model. This is quite logical as last year's HD has a 4400mAh battery while running 720p while this HDX runs Full HD 1080p but runs only on a 4500mAh battery (only 100mAh more than last year). The 1080p screen pulls a lot of power vs last year's model when the screen is on, especially when running HD videos. I'm able to achieve 5 hours of heavy use compare to 7 hours for last year's Kindle Fire HD at medium brightness with Wi-fi on all the time. I tend to bring around an external battery pack but prefer something that is integrated (like a battery case)



Software & software compatibility (8/10):

The amount of app is still lacking compare to App store or Play store but has been steadily increasing which is a great sign. Games and software boot time has increased noticeably and compatibility is not an issue



Silk browser has definitely improved compare to last year's tablet with multiple tabs actually now usable on the HDX. For last year's version, it is practically unusable after 2 tabs due to the lack of hardware resource on the tablet (especially when the website is not optimized for mobile use). The HDX has no problem going through any webpages I throw at it.



Hopefully more apps will be optimized to use quad core soon. I'm guessing some of these apps are only optimized for last year's dual core.



I haven't got the opportunity to use Mayday yet but will review about it once I get more update on this.



Complimentary Accessories (3/10):

For all smart devices, one of the most important time is the number of accessories available. At launch, it is understandable the lack of accessories but productivity focus accessories such as integrated case/keyboard are missing at launch. This is rather disappointing as it can be a powerful productivity device with the right accessories attached. Also the lack of case selection is quite astonishing for a flagship product on Amazon. Hope there will be more cases such as battery case (due to above battery problem) or rugged case come out soon.



Price (9/10):

I got the special offer model at 16Gb (lowest end model) and it is enough for me to use. The special offer ads are not intrusive like last year's model and sometimes does reveal some items I want. Compare to the ipad mini, this is practically a steal. For those with the Nexus 7, it is quite comparable in price.



Conclusion in one sentence: Amazon's iPad mini killer (8.5/10)



For people who are justifying if this is a good upgrade, I say YES to that. The speed and screen difference alone is worth the upgrade. The whole user experience just improve drastically with the HDX.



It use to be, for Kindle Fire HD, you will trade low price for slow performance, stutter and lag. It honestly makes you think twice if the price is really worth all that poor experience.



For HDX, this is no longer the case. You get both great price, great screen and great performance that surpasses iPad mini. To me, the HDX is seriously Amazon's iPad killer. It really marks how well Amazon has done to make themselves a worthy competitor in the tablet market. I hope some software upgrade or battery pack can make this the ultimate road warrior!



****************************Dec 23th 2013 - 2 months update *********************************

So I have been using between this HDX 7" and the 8.9" HDX. I also been using an iPad Air 16Gb Wifi and here are some updates, particular on the negative points mentioned previously.



App Store - not so refined still. Downloading and Installing problem occurs

The app store after 2 month is still a bit lacking. There are some freebie deals during cyber monday which I jumped (who doesn't like free stuff?)but still nothing that either the Apple App store or Google Play don't have. Amazon App store really needs some exclusive apps to become a "must get" device.



Now comes the bad part - I tried to download Magic 2014 game (big fan of Magic the Gathering since teen) from the Amazon App Store and the HDX 7" downloads this rather slowly. In fact, I noticed that when it reaches 50% it drops back down to 30% and redownloads the package again! Since I'm not in a rush I really have no issue with this re-download problem. However, this can be problem to some people who have limited bandwidth per month and won't appreciate redownloading the same thing again 2 times (or more but I didn't catch that).



Once it reaches 100%, the app store attempts to install the software. It goes into "Installing..." state for a while (at least couple hours). Knowing that there's something weird going on, I rebooted the HDX 7". Once I rebooted it, the software shows it was never downloaded!



Perhaps there's some application specific problem with this game but this really shows a rather poor experience on the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX. I would expect a brand new top of the line Kindle Fire HDX would have ironed out simple bugs such as this but clearly, the Amazon App Store have 2 things it needs to work on:



1) If this is an application specific error, Amazon needs to proactively test this release on all their devices before allowing it on the Amazon App Store. It's quite obvious if any Amazon App store guys have even tried to install this Magic 2014 game that it just won't install. Literally half the reviews on the review complain about this



2) For these buggy release, Amazon should proactively pull this application from the store - the experience that lead to all the hours of download and wasted bandwidth got the user nothing in the end. I can imagine some users with capped bandwidth or using their cell data to download will be furious if they know an app less than 1Gb rack them couple Gb of download.



App Store is a big part of Amazon's Kindle Fire ecosystem and poor experience such as this really deters client in continued use, especially when all Kindle Fire are locked down to Amazon software ecosystem. When you cannot even use the Amazon software ecosystem, any excellent hardware that this machine has becomes inaccessible and worse of all, a waste of user time to figure out.



Now most people may say this criticism is related to the game(in this case, Magic 2014). I believe this is not the case. The responsibility of Downloading and Installing of the Magic 2014 application belongs to the Amazon App Store (after all, it is Amazon App Store people who authorized this to be released in their store). I start to find all other game download and installation questionable and my own usage time in App store browsing and purchasing drops drastically.



From the above download experience, I did attempt to find some help from Amazon. Here is where the more problem arises.



Mayday - speaking to rep reading off outdated troubleshooting guides



After noticing my Magic 2014 download is gone, I attempted to contact Amazon through the Mayday button. It's really my first time using this function so I don't really have any prior experience in using it.



My Mayday call was picked up by Hayley (if I recall). You can see a big Amazon logo in the background beside the customer service rep and she looks pretty friendly. I explained my situation with the App store problem to Hayley but it seems she wasn't able to help; therefore I got transfer to a "Tech Advisor". This Tech Advisor can't be shown in the video camera and asks for my credentials. She also made me explain the problem again which I explained to Hayley (I would have thought someone will note down my problem as I need to use couple mins to explain again). She then pulls something that you expect from an Indian Call Center by asking me to disconnect my internet modem. I find this rather funny as I mentioned this is a software specific problem with the installation and has nothing to do with my modem or Internet connection. I also mentioned that I am running a server at home and pulling the modem disconnects it from the Internet which breaks other services I am running unintentionally. She seems to be stuck so she forward me to another representative (which if I heard correctly, it is the app store support rep).



Once I got connected to the 3rd rep, they ask me to check my tablet date and time (which is correct). This rep later ask me to press on options that are not the screen. I suspected this rep was reading off an old Fire OS troubleshooting guide as I recently updated the Fire OS system and that some options and buttons are changed. Given the large amount of time spent and there's no resolution, I went to my iPad air and downloaded the game successfully in couple mins while still have Amazon on the Mayday call. I informed the 3rd tech support of this and thank them for their time although there was no resolution in the end.



I very much prefer having the game on my Kindle HDX as the 7" is perfect to bring outside for quick game or two, but the amount of time spent on troubleshooting and resource wasted on this is honestly not worth my time. I ended up having to play this game on the iPad Air larger screen but also paid for in app purchase because the game itself is very good.



It's a good lesson to learn that the whole software user experience needs to be more streamline and fluid on the Kindle. Amazon has done successfully in the physical good purchasing section of the kindle fire (in fact I spent thousands of dollars more on Amazon.com using the kindle fire than on PC and very satisfy with the results) and that if it can bring the same experience to the software app store just like the physical store, Amazon will have a winner here. I use my machine extensively for magazine reading / internet browsing but when it comes to app download, I currently have my doubts if it will be another bandwidth hog and a waste of time.



Display - blue hue appears but not very apparent

Some people ask if the blue hue appears on the edge. I can notice this if I'm reading off a totally white page (like a ebook or magazine). However it is not very noticeable and that your eyes will ignore it eventually. After all, words or graphic don't appear on the edges of the screen.



Battery life - Still needs work on



After the OS update, there seems to be a slight improvement with the battery life. However, still not enough for me to really go through the day without bringing an external battery charger pack along. At the moment, I am still looking for a 2 in 1 case + battery solution but it is not available. I hope this can be my daily driver but without the battery life, it may just be a brick by the afternoon.



Purchasing on Amazon.com - becomes addictive (Could be good or bad for some people!)

I realized my spending on Amazon went up considerable compare to last year thanks to this Kindle Fire HDX. I will be browsing it online and have these items saved on screen, constantly reminding me to get it. Amazon really done a good job at this and really met, if not, exceed their goal in getting users buying from kindle fire. With last year fire, the browsing experience on Amazon.com was not nearly as fluid as this year's HDX. This makes it hard to keep my attention and urge to buy. For people who wants a good purchasing experience, this Kindle Fire HDX will surely provide that. For ones who need to save money, you may want to get your finger off the buy button!



My overall rating stays the same as Amazon keeps knocking off prices for these machines making it still the best bang for the buck.



Apr 28 Update - Family Use

----------------------------------------------



Got my kids an extra Kindle Fire HDX 7" for them to play with. My HDX 7" is still running well with all my Instant Video and newsstand subscription inside.



Since my kids don't treat their new toys with much care, I went and got them and myself a zerolemon EVA Case on Amazon. The case is useful for prevent dents and major falls on your Kindle. Even with my Kindle, the top pantel where the speakers are started to peel off a bit (amazon used glue to assemble the speaker grille top panel). Case works great for hiding some of the blemishes of the kindle fire hdx 7"



Overall still satisfied with my machine and frankly been the best bang for the buck tablet i ever have.



As mentioned, I will update this review periodically. Next time I will focus on physical wear and tear of the machine after couple more months and again on battery life (as all electronics have a diminishing battery duration throughout its course of use). [...] Thanks for reading!



from MIZON http://ift.tt/1sbMtDc

via IFTTT

Kindle Fire HDX 7", HDX Display, Wi-Fi, 32 GB - Includes Special Offers (Previous Generation - 3rd)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



Update on Dec 23 2013 - Please scroll to the very end of this review for 2 month use update. [...]



For those who are looking at getting the best tablet out there at the moment, this is the one you should be looking at.



My profile: Heavy tablet users for personal and business purposes. I work on my tablet around 4-5 hours a day (Email / Documents / Spreadsheet / PDF ) and use it 1-2 hours for personal use such as watching movies or reading books/magazine. Tablet is my go-to device for all internet related search I do.



I have the following and/or used the following before:



1) iPad 1

2) iPad 2

3) iPad 4

4) iPad Mini

5) Kindle Fire

6) Kindle Fire HD

7) Kindle Fire HD 8.9

8) Asus Transformer with Keyboard

9) Nexus 7 First Gen

10) iPad Air 16gb Wifi



As you can see, I been through many devices and hope this review with my experience helps users decide if this is the right device for them. This will be an ongoing review for this device throughout this next year. For comparison sake, I will use last year's Kindle and iPad mini as they are the closest size to this HDX 7"



Speed (9/10):



This is leaps and bounds faster than last year Kindle HD. Last year Kindle struggles to go through any HD video content I put in. This year's HDX able to play seamlessly all the HD 1080p contents I added. It is incredible how much the 2.2Ghz quad processor improved vs last year's model Dual 1.2Ghz.



Screen (9/10):

This is the biggest improvement over last year's model. The screen is in true HD 1080p (1920x1080). This means any HD content I throw at it will view in its intended resolution. The screen is crystal clear (much better than iPad mini) and the viewing angle is incredible. I have this Kindle hanged in the middle of the car and at any seat it is view very clearly. Last year's model was not as clear as this. This is excellent for my minivan with my kids watching all the HD movies. The brightness of the screen is also much brighter than last year's model



Sound(8/10):

The sound system in this Kindle Fire HDX is using Dolby Digital Plus with virtual 5.1 surround sound. That gives this device a much better surround sound then previous generation's.



Build (8/10):

This HDX is more "angular" than last year's device. It's slightly rougher to hold in the corners than last year's model due to sharper edges though I doubt any users will hold their tablet by their corners. The device is noticeable lighter (395g for Kindle Fire HD vs 303g for Kindle Fire HDX). This mean you can hold this for longer time without fatigue.



The power and volume button placement on this Kindle Fire HDX is interesting. It is behind the device which allows it to hide away from front view. However, this can cause user to accidentally hit the on/off button or the volume button when not being careful. Aesthetically it is great but it is definitely not a practical solution when you are trying to use this on the go.



It does look sturdy enough to survive minor drop but I highly recommend getting a case for it. Those sharp corners seems more prone to dents than round corners for last year's model.



Battery (6/10):

This is probably the biggest drawback for this device. The battery life is not as good as last year's model. This is quite logical as last year's HD has a 4400mAh battery while running 720p while this HDX runs Full HD 1080p but runs only on a 4500mAh battery (only 100mAh more than last year). The 1080p screen pulls a lot of power vs last year's model when the screen is on, especially when running HD videos. I'm able to achieve 5 hours of heavy use compare to 7 hours for last year's Kindle Fire HD at medium brightness with Wi-fi on all the time. I tend to bring around an external battery pack but prefer something that is integrated (like a battery case)



Software & software compatibility (8/10):

The amount of app is still lacking compare to App store or Play store but has been steadily increasing which is a great sign. Games and software boot time has increased noticeably and compatibility is not an issue



Silk browser has definitely improved compare to last year's tablet with multiple tabs actually now usable on the HDX. For last year's version, it is practically unusable after 2 tabs due to the lack of hardware resource on the tablet (especially when the website is not optimized for mobile use). The HDX has no problem going through any webpages I throw at it.



Hopefully more apps will be optimized to use quad core soon. I'm guessing some of these apps are only optimized for last year's dual core.



I haven't got the opportunity to use Mayday yet but will review about it once I get more update on this.



Complimentary Accessories (3/10):

For all smart devices, one of the most important time is the number of accessories available. At launch, it is understandable the lack of accessories but productivity focus accessories such as integrated case/keyboard are missing at launch. This is rather disappointing as it can be a powerful productivity device with the right accessories attached. Also the lack of case selection is quite astonishing for a flagship product on Amazon. Hope there will be more cases such as battery case (due to above battery problem) or rugged case come out soon.



Price (9/10):

I got the special offer model at 16Gb (lowest end model) and it is enough for me to use. The special offer ads are not intrusive like last year's model and sometimes does reveal some items I want. Compare to the ipad mini, this is practically a steal. For those with the Nexus 7, it is quite comparable in price.



Conclusion in one sentence: Amazon's iPad mini killer (8.5/10)



For people who are justifying if this is a good upgrade, I say YES to that. The speed and screen difference alone is worth the upgrade. The whole user experience just improve drastically with the HDX.



It use to be, for Kindle Fire HD, you will trade low price for slow performance, stutter and lag. It honestly makes you think twice if the price is really worth all that poor experience.



For HDX, this is no longer the case. You get both great price, great screen and great performance that surpasses iPad mini. To me, the HDX is seriously Amazon's iPad killer. It really marks how well Amazon has done to make themselves a worthy competitor in the tablet market. I hope some software upgrade or battery pack can make this the ultimate road warrior!



****************************Dec 23th 2013 - 2 months update *********************************

So I have been using between this HDX 7" and the 8.9" HDX. I also been using an iPad Air 16Gb Wifi and here are some updates, particular on the negative points mentioned previously.



App Store - not so refined still. Downloading and Installing problem occurs

The app store after 2 month is still a bit lacking. There are some freebie deals during cyber monday which I jumped (who doesn't like free stuff?)but still nothing that either the Apple App store or Google Play don't have. Amazon App store really needs some exclusive apps to become a "must get" device.



Now comes the bad part - I tried to download Magic 2014 game (big fan of Magic the Gathering since teen) from the Amazon App Store and the HDX 7" downloads this rather slowly. In fact, I noticed that when it reaches 50% it drops back down to 30% and redownloads the package again! Since I'm not in a rush I really have no issue with this re-download problem. However, this can be problem to some people who have limited bandwidth per month and won't appreciate redownloading the same thing again 2 times (or more but I didn't catch that).



Once it reaches 100%, the app store attempts to install the software. It goes into "Installing..." state for a while (at least couple hours). Knowing that there's something weird going on, I rebooted the HDX 7". Once I rebooted it, the software shows it was never downloaded!



Perhaps there's some application specific problem with this game but this really shows a rather poor experience on the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX. I would expect a brand new top of the line Kindle Fire HDX would have ironed out simple bugs such as this but clearly, the Amazon App Store have 2 things it needs to work on:



1) If this is an application specific error, Amazon needs to proactively test this release on all their devices before allowing it on the Amazon App Store. It's quite obvious if any Amazon App store guys have even tried to install this Magic 2014 game that it just won't install. Literally half the reviews on the review complain about this



2) For these buggy release, Amazon should proactively pull this application from the store - the experience that lead to all the hours of download and wasted bandwidth got the user nothing in the end. I can imagine some users with capped bandwidth or using their cell data to download will be furious if they know an app less than 1Gb rack them couple Gb of download.



App Store is a big part of Amazon's Kindle Fire ecosystem and poor experience such as this really deters client in continued use, especially when all Kindle Fire are locked down to Amazon software ecosystem. When you cannot even use the Amazon software ecosystem, any excellent hardware that this machine has becomes inaccessible and worse of all, a waste of user time to figure out.



Now most people may say this criticism is related to the game(in this case, Magic 2014). I believe this is not the case. The responsibility of Downloading and Installing of the Magic 2014 application belongs to the Amazon App Store (after all, it is Amazon App Store people who authorized this to be released in their store). I start to find all other game download and installation questionable and my own usage time in App store browsing and purchasing drops drastically.



From the above download experience, I did attempt to find some help from Amazon. Here is where the more problem arises.



Mayday - speaking to rep reading off outdated troubleshooting guides



After noticing my Magic 2014 download is gone, I attempted to contact Amazon through the Mayday button. It's really my first time using this function so I don't really have any prior experience in using it.



My Mayday call was picked up by Hayley (if I recall). You can see a big Amazon logo in the background beside the customer service rep and she looks pretty friendly. I explained my situation with the App store problem to Hayley but it seems she wasn't able to help; therefore I got transfer to a "Tech Advisor". This Tech Advisor can't be shown in the video camera and asks for my credentials. She also made me explain the problem again which I explained to Hayley (I would have thought someone will note down my problem as I need to use couple mins to explain again). She then pulls something that you expect from an Indian Call Center by asking me to disconnect my internet modem. I find this rather funny as I mentioned this is a software specific problem with the installation and has nothing to do with my modem or Internet connection. I also mentioned that I am running a server at home and pulling the modem disconnects it from the Internet which breaks other services I am running unintentionally. She seems to be stuck so she forward me to another representative (which if I heard correctly, it is the app store support rep).



Once I got connected to the 3rd rep, they ask me to check my tablet date and time (which is correct). This rep later ask me to press on options that are not the screen. I suspected this rep was reading off an old Fire OS troubleshooting guide as I recently updated the Fire OS system and that some options and buttons are changed. Given the large amount of time spent and there's no resolution, I went to my iPad air and downloaded the game successfully in couple mins while still have Amazon on the Mayday call. I informed the 3rd tech support of this and thank them for their time although there was no resolution in the end.



I very much prefer having the game on my Kindle HDX as the 7" is perfect to bring outside for quick game or two, but the amount of time spent on troubleshooting and resource wasted on this is honestly not worth my time. I ended up having to play this game on the iPad Air larger screen but also paid for in app purchase because the game itself is very good.



It's a good lesson to learn that the whole software user experience needs to be more streamline and fluid on the Kindle. Amazon has done successfully in the physical good purchasing section of the kindle fire (in fact I spent thousands of dollars more on Amazon.com using the kindle fire than on PC and very satisfy with the results) and that if it can bring the same experience to the software app store just like the physical store, Amazon will have a winner here. I use my machine extensively for magazine reading / internet browsing but when it comes to app download, I currently have my doubts if it will be another bandwidth hog and a waste of time.



Display - blue hue appears but not very apparent

Some people ask if the blue hue appears on the edge. I can notice this if I'm reading off a totally white page (like a ebook or magazine). However it is not very noticeable and that your eyes will ignore it eventually. After all, words or graphic don't appear on the edges of the screen.



Battery life - Still needs work on



After the OS update, there seems to be a slight improvement with the battery life. However, still not enough for me to really go through the day without bringing an external battery charger pack along. At the moment, I am still looking for a 2 in 1 case + battery solution but it is not available. I hope this can be my daily driver but without the battery life, it may just be a brick by the afternoon.



Purchasing on Amazon.com - becomes addictive (Could be good or bad for some people!)

I realized my spending on Amazon went up considerable compare to last year thanks to this Kindle Fire HDX. I will be browsing it online and have these items saved on screen, constantly reminding me to get it. Amazon really done a good job at this and really met, if not, exceed their goal in getting users buying from kindle fire. With last year fire, the browsing experience on Amazon.com was not nearly as fluid as this year's HDX. This makes it hard to keep my attention and urge to buy. For people who wants a good purchasing experience, this Kindle Fire HDX will surely provide that. For ones who need to save money, you may want to get your finger off the buy button!



My overall rating stays the same as Amazon keeps knocking off prices for these machines making it still the best bang for the buck.



Apr 28 Update - Family Use

----------------------------------------------



Got my kids an extra Kindle Fire HDX 7" for them to play with. My HDX 7" is still running well with all my Instant Video and newsstand subscription inside.



Since my kids don't treat their new toys with much care, I went and got them and myself a zerolemon EVA Case on Amazon. The case is useful for prevent dents and major falls on your Kindle. Even with my Kindle, the top pantel where the speakers are started to peel off a bit (amazon used glue to assemble the speaker grille top panel). Case works great for hiding some of the blemishes of the kindle fire hdx 7"



Overall still satisfied with my machine and frankly been the best bang for the buck tablet i ever have.



As mentioned, I will update this review periodically. Next time I will focus on physical wear and tear of the machine after couple more months and again on battery life (as all electronics have a diminishing battery duration throughout its course of use). [...] Thanks for reading!



from MIZON http://ift.tt/1sbMtDc

via IFTTT

Acer C720 Chromebook (11.6-Inch, 2GB)

Product Description

Capacity: 16 GB

Amazon.com

Chromebooks are a unique class of mobile computing devices, designed specifically for Web-based tasks. They differ from traditional laptops in a few important ways:



Chromebooks run Web-based apps, not traditional PC applications.

Chromebooks are designed to be connected to the Internet. You can create documents and spreadsheets or edit photos on a Chromebook using Google apps designed for these purposes. The Chrome operating system will not load and run traditional PC software like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop. However, files created in these applications can be viewed and edited using Google apps on your Chromebook or cloud-based applications like Microsoft's Office web apps.



You store your files in the Cloud, not on the machine.

To help make them thin and light, Chromebooks are built without large-capacity drives. So instead of storing your documents, videos, and photos on your computer, you save them to Google Drive (Google's Cloud-based storage service). Your files are password-protected and secure, and you can access them anywhere there's an Internet connection. If you know you'll want access to a file or photo offline, however, you can easily save it to the built-in solid-state drive.



Acer introduces its new Chromebook, the C720 - the best performance 11.6" Chromebook with speed, simplicity and security all built in. Continually updated, always new, the Acer C7 Chromebook keeps getting better and better. It starts in seconds, is powered by the new Intel® Celeron^TM 2955U Haswell micro-architecture processor and has up to 8.5 hours of battery life giving you all day to run your favorite Google apps or access your photos, videos, music and documents from anywhere.

Key Features

• 11.6" Anti-Glare HD Widescreen LED-backlit Display


• Intel® Celeron® Processor 2955U (1.4GHz, 2MB L3 cache)


• Haswell micro-architecture


• Google Chrome Operating System


• 16GB SSD Drive


• 2048MB DDR3L SDRAM Memory


• Intel® HD Graphics with 128MB of dedicated system memory


• Acer InviLinkTM NplifyTM 802.11a/b/g/n (MIMO Dual-Band 2.4Ghz & 5GHz) Wireless LAN


• Bluetooth 4.0


• Built-in HD Webcam


• Two built-in stereo speakers


• 1- USB 3.0 Port


• 1- USB 2.0 Port


• 1- HDMI™ Port


• Full-size Acer FineTip Keyboard


• Multi-Gesture Touchpad


• 3-Cell Li-Polymer Battery Up to 8.5-hours Battery Life


• 2.76 lbs.| 1.25 kg (system unit only)

Learn More

Fast. Light. Portable.

The Acer C720 Chromebook, boots in less than 7 seconds, and automatically stays up-to-date (and virus free) without interrupting you. Powered by an Intel Celeron processor, it delivers a great experience on the web. It can load content-rich webpages quickly and easily, provide crisp video playback, and enable you to multitask effortlessly by allowing multiple pages to run at the same time. This third-generation Chromebook has a design that is 30 percent thinner than its predecessor. Your Chromebook slips easily into a bag or purse, weighs just over 2 pounds and has up to 8.5 hours of battery life. It's equally comfortable at home or keeping up with everything you do everyday, even when you're offline. The 11.6" HD anti-glare display enables students and families to enjoy the Chromebook outside in sunlight for classwork, reading, playing games and more. Crisp resolution brings family closer during video chats, and the HD webcam presents you at your best, too. Want bigger? Extend your view to your big screen via the HDMI® port.

---

Everyday Security

Chromebooks have multiple layers of security to keep you safe and worry free. Plus with automatic updates, the Chromebook downloads security and software upgrades so you don’t have to. No more updates to track. Store and access your photos, music, videos, documents and more from anywhere with Google Drive. It’s simple, and all your files are backed up automatically online, safely and securely. Plus enjoy 100 GB of free storage on Google Drive for two years. Feel safe sharing your C720 Chromebook with friends, family and even the occasional guest. Each user has their own login, files, apps and settings, so you never have to worry about anything getting messed up by someone else.

---

The Best of Google

Chromebooks come with popular Google products built in: Search, Gmail, YouTube, and Hangouts. So you can work, play, and do whatever you want, right out of the box. Create documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings with apps like Google Docs, Zoho and SlideRocket. Enjoy full screen video chat with up to nine friends using Google+ Hangouts. The Chrome Web Store offers thousands of free apps, themes, and extensions to help you make the most of your Chromebook. Watch movies, play games or get work done (if you really have to). The Chromebook will keep it all fresh with automatic updates. The Acer C720 Chromebook stays connected with dual band Wi-Fi. It also comes with 12 free Gogo® Inflight1 passes so you can stay online even when you're not on the ground. 1 Your Chromebook comes with 12 free Gogo® in-air Internet passes (estimated $150 value, redeemable for one year after Chromebook purchase) usable on continental U.S. flights of participating airlines.

CUSTOMER REVIEW



I have an Acer C720 ($199) and an Acer C720P ($299) and both are amazing machines. If you dont mind plunking down the extra $100 for the touchscreen then go for it but really you will do fine without it and save yourself $100 especially if you are buying these as gifts like I did for others in my family.



Here is a list of the APPS I use on both and it runs them fast and flawlessly:

Facebook, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Chrome Remote Desktop (flawlessly connects to my Windows 7 laptop and I can run any windows program remotely with ease and flawlessly connects to my Office Desktop and I can access all my office records which is key since i am a family doc), Google Cloud Print (easily prints documents to all the printers i have set up), MyBible, Kindle, Twitter, Hootsuite, Weatherbug, Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, Google+ photos (automatically puts all my photos taken on my Iphone over to my chromebook), RUNS ALL WEBSITES INCLUDING BANKING WEBSITES and my mobile hospital app FLAWLESSLY WITH CHROME (including adobe flash player sites which my Ipad and Iphone still wont run)



The only CONS i can find so far are no SKYPE app.....If you want to do video calls then need to use GOOGLE HANGOUTS which is much less intuitive than skype....and you CANNOT hook a printer directly to a chromebook but you can use google cloud print to print easily...needs wifi connection to do most things (this is really not a problem for me as i am always connected and they have developed a number of apps that work when not connected including document writer and email offline



Battery Life Amazing! almost 8hrs of use!

Touchscreen good but not like an Ipad (can't use your fingers to zoom in with pinch)

Touchpad very good! (and really dont need the touchscreen because touchpad works so good)

Keyboard very solid,

Can use any wireless mouse with it. (Ipad still cant utilize a mouse)

Screen brightness great.

Sound adequate but a bit tinny

USB port charges devices and can use flash drives to move and transfer files (another thing I still cant do with my Ipad)

2 years free of 100GB Google Drive (this saves you $120 right there)

12 free wifi passes while on planes (i dont fly much but still a nice convenience and saves you the $10 or so connection fee)

Free virus protection



All in all a great economical way to access the internet with ease and lightning speed and do 95% of what most people use a personal computer for this day and age.

from MIZON http://ift.tt/1lS9uVT

via IFTTT

Toshiba Satellite C55-B5298 16-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Celeron N2830 Processor, 4GB DIMM, 500GB HDD, Windows 8.1) Jet Black

CUSTOMER REVIEW



I just received this laptop and here are my initial impressions:



The laptop is super thin. It is pretty close to MacBook Pro territory in terms of thinness. One inch is the sweet spot for laptop thinness in my point of view.



I was comparing this laptop to similarly priced Chromebooks and a similarly priced Dell Inspiron. The advantage over Chromebooks is obvious when you look at the specs. With this laptop you get two USB2 ports and 1 USB3 port. You get a larger screen at 15.6 inches. You get a full size hard drive at 500GB and a full size keyboard. The bottom line is that you get a full computer. I own a Samsung Chromebook and this laptop is better in every regard, except perhaps size and weight.



The advantage of this over the Dell Inspiron is the location of the speaker grills, USB 3.0, and the inclusion of a VGA port and an ethernet jack. As a part-time instructor, the inclusion of a VGA port is very important since I need to plug into a projector that uses VGA.



I purchased a Toshiba Satellite about 8 years ago for my wife. Over time, the power adapter port broke inside the laptop. The power adapter port inside that laptop was a barrel. The power cable and the barrel inside the laptop plug into each other. Somehow the barrel inside her old Toshiba broke off its mount points inside the laptop. Perhaps it was stress on the cable, since it sticks out quite far from the laptop when plugged in. It still works, but it is dangling inside, making the process of plugging it in more difficult. Additionally, the left mouse button broke on her old Toshiba.



Why do I mention this? I mention this because this laptop has the same barrel-style plug. The mouse buttons also feel very similar to her old Toshiba. They even have the same hollow clicking sound as her old laptop. I am afraid this laptop may exhibit the same issues over time. I recommend taking good care of this laptop to hopefully avoid these issues.



The keyboard of this laptop is super low profile. It looks great, but there is practically no movement of the keys. While this is an exaggeration, there is some truth to it too, because these keys are amazingly flat and short. I get the impression that these keys can't take a beating. I am used to Lenovo Thinkpad keyboards at the office and a Thinkpad SL510 at home, just so you know what I am comparing this laptop's keyboard to.



It feels well-built and solid, despite my past history with my wife's Toshiba as described above. Only time will tell if the power plug, keyboard, and mouse buttons hold up to use.



The design style of this laptop is nice. I like the textured look and the black color. The sculpted lines of the sides of this laptop are attractive as well.



I have been using Windows 8 since the beta test, and I still find it awkward. This laptop did not come with a restore CD, so I suspect there is a restore partition, like most PCs.



The Celeron inside is not fast at all, but is good enough. I suspect the additional software bloat, like the included 30 day antivirus package is weighing its performance down. I will probably uninstall the software and just use the Microsoft antivirus that is built into Windows 8.



On Geekbench, this laptop scored 991 single core and 1701 multicore on the 64-bit benchmarks. On the 32-bit benchmarks, it scored 870 single core and 1367 multicore. These scores are lower than my Thinkpad SL510 with a Core2Duo chip inside from a couple of years ago (64-bit: 1184/1939 and 32-bit: 1094/1846). Then again, I paid three times as much for that laptop.



This laptop is good for its price. I'd say that price is its leading feature. For its price, you get a full size, fully capable PC laptop that can handle day to day tasks. I'd recommend this over a Chromebook for sure.



If I had to sum this up in one sentence, it is amazing how much computing power is included for the price.



As I use this more I will provide further updates.



from MIZON http://ift.tt/1svzeQp

via IFTTT

Asus X551MAV-RCLN06 16-Inch Laptop PC (2.16GHz Intel Celeron N2830 Processor 4GB Memory 500GB Hard Drive Windows 8.1 64-bit) Black with DVD±RW/CD-RW and Webcam

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is an excellent entry-level laptop with decent performance, a nice bright screen, and a light footprint at about 5 pounds. It also has a smaller a/c adapter sort of like an iPad instead of the older style "bricks" which is nice - I'm surprised it's taking manufacturers so long to copy Apple's lead in the small a/c adapter area. The keyboard does feel exceedingly cheap (much cheaper than my $299 HP Chromebook) and the entire keyboard vibrates as you are typing. If you push down on the "G" key with normal force, you will see that entire part of the keyboard (T,F,H,V,B) sink in which is a little disconcerting. The keyboard is definitely the weak link in this system. ALSO, it pays you to shop around.... there is a major price war going on and I was able to buy this at a local office supply chain which matched the price at the big box electronics store down the street....both of which were significantly less than the current price here on Amazon. ONE MORE TIP: There are two models of this computer that are identical EXCEPT one has a DVD player and one does not. As of this writing the one without has been hovering around $200 and the one with the DVD player is around $220. It is very easy to get them confused as they have the same box and almost the same model number, so be sure to look for the full model number when you are searching: X551MAV-RCLN06. Both boxes will say "X551" in big letters but you have to read the small print next to the serial number to make sure you are getting the correct one. I ordered this one and was shipped the non-DVD drive unit by an Amazon seller and had to return it.



Wow, this keyboard is really cheap.. I'm typing this review on it and it keeps dropping letters as I type. I will update this review as I'm concerned if it's this bad in week one it will not last.



Pro's and Con's...



Pro's:

- Price

- Basic black, not stylish but doesn't scream "cheap"... just looks like a basic laptop

- Great screen - bright, good resolution

- Fast enough for word processing and internet surfing. This is obviously not a gaming computer.

- Small profile a/c adapter brick, one piece

- NO bloatware preinstalled.... no "Click on this for Ebay" links or trial versions of bad virus software

- Really fast boot... 2-4 seconds

- Windows 8 not so bad once you install free utility called "Classic Shell" which makes start button etc work like Windows 7

- Major price war going on with this computer, so you will get a good deal

- USB ports, one of which is 3.0, also HDMI out and ethernet connections. Everything you could need.

- DVD player / writer, works well... still need one of these.



Con's:



- Touchpad sensitivity.... way too sensitive and I've searched all the ASUS gesture configurations and there seems to be NO adjustment for sensitivity. Google ASUS touchpad sensitivity and there are major threads on this so clearly a significant issue that ASUS is not effectively addressing.

- Keyboard. Exceedingly cheap. OMG. As I type this it sounds like a rock rolling around on a dashboard of a car as you drive it. The whole thing shakes and shimmies. I think I can live with this but will update this review if I can't. Try it out at local store first if you can.



For me, the pro's outweigh the con's, with a lingering concern about the keyboard. If there is interest, I will update this review as I use this system more, but overall I think it's a good one and I will end up keeping it.



Hope this helps!



from MIZON http://ift.tt/1pTj3GD

via IFTTT

Apple MacBook Air MD760LL/B 13.3-Inch Laptop (NEWEST VERSION)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



If you're looking to buy a macbook to use as a desktop replacement, or to use as your primary computer, then the Macbook Pro may be a better choice due to it's faster CPU, slightly stronger GPU, and retina display.



If you are looking for a laptop that you will be using primarily for traveling, or on the go (library, coffee shop, flights), then look no further than the Macbook Air.



It's what you'd expect in this model. It's very sleek, light, and portable. It runs very quiet. The price is significantly lower than the Pro, and the battery life is excellent. Considering the tasks that most people will be running on the Air, it's performance will be more than plenty for most people. The Core i5 and the HD5000 GPU can handle gaming surprisingly well. And normal tasks like web browsing, iLife applications, and movies, music, and web, will run very quickly and smooth.



The 11" is a nice choice as it gives you better mobility, and fits better into small spaces, like the food tray on a coach seat. However, battery life is shorter. But unless you intend to use it non stop on a 12 hour flight, the 9 hour battery will last you for most any situation. The 11" model also puts the laptop in a price range that gives it a great value that macs are typically not associated with.



Startup and shutdown time is very snappy as you'd expect with the mac. The keyboard is very brisk, and I find that my typing is the most fast and accurate than on PC laptop keyboards. The trackpad is very large, has a glass surface, and it has lots of gestures (all useful and practical), and it is a joy to use, unlike the small, plastic, unresponsive trackpads that other laptops have.



Apples standard 1 year warranty is the best in the industry. Especially when its augmented with your local Apple store and genius bar, and especially if you decide to purchase AppleCare. Unlike other brands where you only have a 15 day store warranty, and any issues for the next 11.5 months require an RMA claim, and shipping your system to the manufacturer which can take a month. Or for less serious issues, long calls to indian call centers where you are transferred a dozen times, put on hold for long periods of time, and are put through lengthy warranty validation processes.



For this latest iteration, the hardware has been bumped up, and the price has been reduced $100 which makes it a great value. This helps to offset the non retina display.



However, not all is perfect. I have to deduct one star because of one major caveat. The macbook's RAM is soldered to the motherboard. This means that you cannot upgrade the RAM in the future. RAM upgrades are simple, easy to do, and play a major part in extending the lifespan of your computer. RAM requirements go up faster than CPU and Disk Space needs, because richer content requires more RAM. I have an iMac from 2008 that I still use today thanks to the fact that I was able to double the RAM. If it was not possible, I would have had to sell it on eBay several years ago.My advice is to spring for the extra RAM now if you plan to own this laptop for more than 4 years.



What I enjoy about the macbook is they are good to go as soon as you take it out of its box. You don't have to spend hours uninstalling two dozen junkware programs that came installed on your system that are taking up valuable space. You don't have to run registry utilities to clean up after that. Nor do you have to install anti virus scanners and malware and adware removers. You don't need to download and install 96 critical updates in order to patch all the security holes in the operating system, just to keep it safe and afloat.



There's no bios to worry about, no blue screens of death, no driver conflicts, and freezing and crashing is extremely rare, instead of a common occurrence it is with PC's. Macs tend to retain their optimal performance, and you won't find the need to defrag your drive every 6 months, and format and reinstall the OS every year to combat performance degradation as I always had to do with my PC desktops and laptops.



OSX is Unix based, which is very solid and stable. It's the same platform that mission critical enterprise servers use in corporate data centers. Windows is based on DOS, which is less stable and robust, and more prone to security issues. I have also become frustrated by the design choices in Windows 10, like the removal of the start menu, and the way it is designed to be used with a touch screen as if it's an operating system for a tablet. Even with high end touch screen laptops, I did not use these touch screen features.



Another perk is that the whole iLife suit is included for free. And much like iOS, the OSX App Store has great new software that is either free or low cost, coming out every week, giving more incentive to use this platform.



So basically, if you want a macbook that is the best for traveling, and has the best value, this should be your first choice.



from MIZON http://ift.tt/1v5sl6L

via IFTTT