Tag: laptop

Upcoming trends in Laptop Technology for 2016

Next year will be huge for new developments in technology, especially for laptops. 2015 was a big year in its right, from flexible 2-in-1 laptops finally reaching optimum functionality, to the refinement (and price drop) of touch screens. 2016 tech will be building off the success of this year, and you can bet some big splashes will be made. Read on to find out about four of the upcoming laptop tech trends to look for in 2016.

8K Screens

Once a distant dream that rivaled science fiction, 8K screens will be a reality in 2016. While you still may have to wait for the TV of your dreams, these ultra-high-definition screens will be available in the coming year on laptops and desktops. For comparison, the highest definition mainstream computer screen on the market is the visually impressive Mac desktop, at 5K. Its screen will look dingy compared to these beauties, which are also super thin. However, due to the innovation of this tech, the price tag will still be pretty hefty. If you can afford it, snap one up, but your patience will be rewarded if you wait a while for a lower price.

Weightless

Image via Flickr

Obviously, the new tech can’t be completely weightless, but it can get pretty close. Many new laptops, will be a far cry from the clunky laptops that debuted earlier this century. Lenovo came out with a laptop this past year that is one of the lightest, at 1.72 lbs. Thin is the new small: Since laptop sales have taken a hit the past few years; laptop companies have taken note of the public’s interest in lighter weight laptops that still keep a healthy screen size. When looking at purchasing one of these feather-light computers, make sure you find out what features are included — some companies don’t put ethernet or DVD drives in these machines to help keep them thin, so if those are important to you, keep your eyes peeled for one that better suits your needs.

Longer Battery Life

Battery life seems to get better every year, and 2016 will be no exception. With some companies stating that their laptops will run up to 17 hours while running the full gamut of programs, you’ll be less tied down with wires and more free to travel with your laptop. And longer battery life doesn’t necessarily mean a heavier laptop, making them ideal for travelers. If you’re interested in one of these old computers, check out the stats online before you buy, and expect some degradation over time, which happens with all batteries. There are steps you can take to keep your laptop battery running as well as it did the first time you charged it, including not blocking the air vents by resting your laptop on a pillow or cushion, causing it to overheat.

AI Inclusion

Microsoft’s new AI program, Cortana, made huge waves in the tech community, but it didn’t seem able to reach its full potential on the 2015 computers. However, with the mass roll out of the vastly improved Microsoft 10 on most laptops, you can bet that Cortana will be making an even larger impact in the coming year. With increased functionality, not to mention even more universal usage across all of Microsoft’s platforms, including the XBox One, Cortana will be one of the top, if not the top, AI to look out for in 2016. Microsoft’s program has already shown remarkable promise and will only continue to get better as it is updated and learns from its current users. Office 16 will also be working closely with Cortana, allowing vocal commands and responses that will make her your in-computer assistant.

Next year will see companies building on already established preferences to make them even better and more practical. If you’re thinking of buying a new laptop, it’s worth waiting until the 2016 batch gets released — you may be surprised at the quality and range that will come out in the new year.

Image courtesy: Flickr

November 7, 2015
[How To] define what should your laptop do when you close the lid

March 20, 2015

[Review] Hp Pavilion 15-n012TX Laptop – 4th Gen Core i5, 4GB Ram, 2GB Nvidia 740M Graphics Card and more

HP released a new series of laptops that comes in between the ultrabooks and Notebooks. The new design is not too slim as an ultrabook, but it doesn’t come any closer to the Notebook when it comes to the thickness. Hardware configuration and build quality seems to be value for money, but are we looking at the best buddy in the category? Lets find out.

Build Quality

When we first grabbed HP Pavilion 15-no12TX (Part No. – F2C09PA) out of the box, we were really amazed to lay our eyes on the slim build of the laptop. It is fairly slim for the mid-range category and certainly isn’t too bulky or thick. The laptop still weighs 2.28 Kg, which is slightly heavier than other laptops in this price range (for eg. – Dell Inspiron 15R 5521 which is 60g lighter), but I guess it isn’t that significant.

The mineral black lid with horizontal brush pattern dominates the plastic case, which doesn’t feel cheap. The laptop is firmly built and features some design improvements over the previous HP pavilion series. The new batch of laptops by HP are sleek and beautiful.

The palm rest area and polycarbonate casing along the display bears the black horizontal brush pattern that we saw on the back panel. I really like how HP pavilion is built and packed with premium casing.

The laptop appears to be a rectangular slab, which feels good to work on. The corners are slightly curved with silver bezel at the sides and it looks sleek and beautiful. You might not feel the difference in the images, but, believe me, it is one of the thinnest mid-range laptops. The nonvisual parts (rear, front and back) of the laptop is plasticky and it feels cheap, but again they did well at the sections where you spend your most of your time.

I know, nobody actually care how their laptop appears at the back, just like the rear of your Brand new Television. — You got to admit that HP has really worked on every aspect of its new Pavilion Series.

DigitFreak Rating: 8/10

Hardware and ports

HP pavilion 15 e012TX (believe me I hate it to call it by alpha-numeric code myself), is packed with 4th Gen core i5 4200U processor, which is clocked at 1.6 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.3 GHz, which is optimized for performance.

It has 1.00 TB SATA Hard disk Drive with max 5400 RPM (could be 7200 RPM). The read-writes speed when we copied/moved the files from one partition to another is really great considering the lower RPM (thanks to the Intel Rapid Storage Technology) — We got average 50MBps for the transfers within HDD.

The laptop sports 4GB DDR3 RAM and 2GB Nvidia 740M graphics card out of the box, which is sufficient to play high end games on your system. It can handle the multitasking pretty well, without stressing your processor for post calculations.

It has HP TrueVision HD webcam for video conferencing or video call with built in mic. The test shots from the webcam was considerably good enough and video output was bright and clear during our test call.

The gadget has an awesome port management, which is distributed at the side (left and right) panels. Everything is squeezed at these two side panels and you won’t find anything on the rear or front side panels.

The Gadget features SuperMulti DVD RW Drive with Dual layer support with 8x Read/Write speed. The DTS Sound+ produces High Quality audio and appears to be loud enough for entertainment purpose. The dual speakers boosts the sound output and provides considerable volume for usual requirements.

It has basic/standard communication ports – Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps, Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth v4.0.

It has 1xUSB 2.0 and 2xUSB 3.0, RJ45 LAN, 1xHDMI port, 1xVGA port, Multi-Card slot and 1x Headphone out/Microphone-in Combo Jack.

There are two USB ports on the left panel and one USB port on the right. I felt that there should be one more USB port because if you are using one of the two USB ports on the left, you end up with the other one unusable as there is very dramatically less gap between the ports. But, I guess you can still manage to carry out your work just well with two USB ports at a time.

DigitFreak Rating: 7/10

Keyboard and comfort

The laptop has standard Island keyboard, that you can find in any modern laptop. The chicklet keys are plus feature because it is really helpful for cleaning and maintaining the latoptop’s keys. I am composing this article on this laptop and I never felt any discomfort or noticed any misplaced keyword. The key spacing is perfect for both small fingers and a fat one.

You might find the navigation keys a little awkward because the up and down keys are one single key split into two. If you are a gamers you better stick to the A,W,S,D key system for navigation while playing the game.

This is the keyboard layout you will find in any new HP laptops. The HP Envy series has the same keyboard layout and it is 25% cheaper than them. The keys are well spaced and feel comfortable while typing. The only thing that I wished there should have been being a — backlit keys. If you are like me, who prefer to work at night – then you might wanna consider a better alternative that offers backlit keyboard, Otherwise it should be fine for general usage.

The Multitouch gesture touchpad is real wonder, You can pinch to zoom, scroll pages at the edge, slide page with three fingers and zoom-in ot zoom-out using two fingers. — but, the awesomeness ends at the software tweaks, I find the touchpad in-resposive at some points making, while trying to move the cursor to small distances. If I swipe the touchpad quickly, it would response just fine – but it is not the same when I try to make little movements.

By turning off “palm-Check Enhacned” and decreasing the pointing sensitivity in synaptics touchpad properties, I was able to sort the issues.

DigitFreak Rating: 7/10 (Keyboard) & 6/10 (Touchpad)

Graphics and Display

I am using this laptop since last 8 days and it always felt perfect for general usage. The display is bright enough for both indoors and outdoor usage. HP Pavilion 15-n012TX sports 15.6-inch HD BrightView Backlit Display with 1366×768-pixel resolution. We cannot expect Full HD display for the mid-range segment, but you don’t need to be worried about it, you can carry out your personal affairs pretty well.

It has Intel HD Graphics 4400 for desktop usage and usual software rendering. It is powerful enough to obtain the best output for display while you are not playing games or carrying out heavy graphic hungry tasks.

The display is bright enough to be used under the sunlight and looks good at 10-30% brightness indoors. We didn’t experience and issues with the screen brightness while working on it. Playing games on the big screen is fun and it performed well.

HP bundled 2GB DDR3 dedicated NVIDIA GeForce 740M graphics card for casual gaming needs. You can play almost all current and upcoming modern games without any issues. The only things that I noticed are Laptop heating issue — Laptop gets pretty heated if you play high-end games. I had to use the cooling pad to play Crysis 3 and Need For Speed Rivals at the moderate settings, otherwise you will notice gaming lag due to high core temperature.

I installed additional 4GB RAM to measure the performance of the system while playing the game — it turns out that the system handles games pretty well on extended RAM as well as the default configuration.

You need to manually tweak your on board graphics card and dedicated graphics card because they are initially optimized for a balance between the battery life and performance.

DigitFreak Rating: 7.5/10 (Display) & 8/10 (Graphics)

Software and Features

HP Pavilion 15-n012TX comes bundled with Latest Microsoft Windows 8 Operating system and HP software goodies. The system is stable and OS works perfectly all right with the system configuration. HP default goodies makes sure that all the hardware are aligned properly for best performance.

HP offers automatic system backup and restore points — which means you can restore your laptop to the original state without reformatting your laptop from the scratch. You just need to follow the Windows 8 System Troubleshooting options and you can re-install Windows 8 on your system without any external setup.

It’s also worth noting that this laptop comes without too much bloatware which manufacturers usually fill their machines up with. I uninstalled Norton, a games app & was good to go.

If you are not so intended to use Windows 8 on the laptop, you can switch to Windows 7 or other operating system you prefer. Just make sure you get all the drives and necessary software for the operating system. I installed Windows 7 on the Laptop and searched for all the Drivers on the internet and everything went perfectly smooth.

Windows 8 is not bad either, specially if it is your first personal computer. You will find Windows 8 little more easier to use, but advanced users still prefer windows 7 because they know every bit of it.

DigitFreak Rating: 8/10

Verdict

HP Pavilion 15-n012TX is packed with the best hardware configuration one can have for this price range. The 4th Gen processor consumes less power, which provides good battery backup (up to 5 hours with minimum brightness).

The display is bright enough, 4GB RAM and 2GB dedicated Nvidia Graphics card ensure optimal gaming experience. HP manages Windows 8 with it’s software goodies, which provides smooth transition and makes you like your new laptop even more.

Laptop’s cooling system is very effective — thanks! to the HP Coolsense technology, you won’t notice any heating issues while using it for hours. It get little heated when you play games and you will have to use the cooling pad to play high-end games effectively.

The laptop is good at delivering performance and peace of ming when we talk about multitasking and high end tasks that requires high-end hardware configuration. 1.00 TB Internal Hard Disk read/write speed is a breeze and manages files pretty well.

The material used in laptop’s external body components doesn’t feel cheap and appears to be durable for daily usage. The only drawback we noticed is its touchpad and USB ports being too close to each other. There is no separate Mic-in and Line-out ports and there is no VGA port.

For Rs 45 to 50K, this is the best laptop you can have among any other premium brands. It is a value for money. The only competitor of this Laptop in Home brand is HP Envy 15-J049TX, which costs more than 60K.

Overall Rating: 8/10

In the Box
Sales Package	Laptop, Battery, AC Adapter, User Guide, Manuals and CD
General
Brand	HP
Model Name	Pavilion
Lifestyle	Casual Gaming
Color	Imprint Mineral Black with Horizontal brush pattern
Part Number	F2C09PA
Model ID	15-n012TX
Processor
Processor	Core i5 (4th Generation)
Variant	4200U
Chipset	HM86
Brand	Intel
Clock Speed	1.6 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology Upto 2.6 GHz
Cache	3 MB
Memory
Expandable Memory	Upto 8GB
Memory Slots	2 (Unused Slot – 01)
System Memory	4 GB DDR3
Storage
Hardware Interface	SATA
RPM	5400
HDD capacity	1.00 TB (940 GB Usable)
Optical Disk Drive
Read/Write Speed	8x
Optical Drive	SuperMulti DVD RW Drive with Dual Layer support
Platform
Operating System	Windows 8
System Architecture	64-bit
OS Architecture	64-bit
Display
Screen Size	15.6 inch
Resolution	1366×768 pixel
Screen Type	HD BrightView LED Backlit display
Graphics
Dedicated Graphics Memory Type	DDR 3
Dedicated Graphics Memory Capacity	2 GB
Graphics Processor	NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M
Input
Web Camera	HP TrueVision HD Webcam
Pointer Device	Touchpad with multi-touch Gesture support
Keyboard	Island-style Keyboard
Audio
Internal Mic	Dual Layer Digital Microphones
Speakers	Yes
Sound	DTS Sound, HD Audio, Dual Speakers
Communication
Ehternet	01/10/00
Wireless LAN	IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth	v 4.0
Power
Battery Cell	4 cell
Backup	Upto 5 hours with minimum brightness
Ports/Slots
USB port	1x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0
Mic In	Yes
RJ45 LAN	Yes
HDMI port	Yes, HDMI port with HDCP Support
Multi Card Slot	Yes
Other Ports	1x Headphone Out/ Microphone-in Combo Jack
Security
Lock Port	Kensington Lock Slot
Machine Dimensions
Weight	2.28 Kg
Dimension	385.5 x 258 x 22.6 mm

December 7, 2013

[Review] HP Pavilion 15-e034TX Notebook – 3rd Gen Core i5, 4GB Ram, 1GB graphics card, Free DOS and more

HP pavilion series has been the flagship gadget that represents Hewlett Packard since a very long time. HP is the leading laptop and hardware manufacturing company that has spread its wings in laptops, printers and computer hardware and accessories industry. We received a brand new HP pavilion 15-e034TX (E4X57PA) at our office and we got plenty of time to play with this sleek beauty.

We are pleased to get our hands on this awesome gadget. Going through the general routine to test a laptop, we found it very impressive and value for money.

The specs and overall performance is something that you can only find in the premium laptops. It sports considerable build quality and design. Let’s find out what we found out about this laptop while going through the various aspects.

Build Quality

Being a mid-range laptop, it is firmly built. The material used in the body doesn’t appear to be cheap considering the price range. It surely beats the other laptops in the same category. The laptop hinge, back cover and side panels are strong enough to bear the day-to-day usage.

When I unpacked the laptop from the box, I was amazed to see a silver back cover – traditionally we usually find the laptops with black back covers, unless it is from Apple. The back cover is polycarbonate with darker tiny polka dots all over the silver back and around “HP” logo at the center. Side panel carries the same silver color all over the laptop. Rest of the laptop’s body is painted black, which seems very nice while working on it.

The palm rest area and polycarbonate casing along the display bears the black color with similar polka tiny dots that we saw on the back panel. I really like how HP pavilion is built and packed with the premium casing.

The laptop is slightly thicker at the rear side and slimmer at the front. It has round corners and curved bottom, which adds to the sleekness of the body when viewed from the side. The curves and round corners make it appear slim and trendy.

Rating: 7.5/10

Display and Graphics

The laptop screen appeared to be bright enough while writing this article. The HP Pavilion 15-e034Tx sports 15.6-inch HD BrightView LED Backlit Display with 1366×768 pixel resolution. We can’t expect Full HD display with this mid-range laptop, but the BrightView technology used on the laptop does the job and keeps everything on the screen bright enough.

You’ll need to tweak the display settings of integrated “Intel 4000 HD graphics card” a little, to obtain the best output. The screen appears to be little dull at default settings. I had to increase the contrast and minimize the brightness in graphics setting to achieve the best result.

HP took care of the gaming needs of the user with 1GB DDR3, AMD Mobility Radeon HD 8670M graphics card. The hardware acceleration and dedicated graphics card allows users to run almost any modern games on the laptop without experiencing any glitches.

I played MW3, Crysis 3, Need for Speed Most wanted and Skyrim at their optimal settings. You need to manually tweak your onboard graphics card and dedicated graphics card because they are initially optimized for a balance between the battery life and performance.

Rating 6.8/10

Hardware and ports

HP pavilion 15-e034TX (Model No. – E4X57PA) is packed with powerful 3rd Gen Intel core i5 processor (3230M) with Mobile HM76 Express, which is clocked at 2.6GHz with Turbo Boost Technology Upto 3.2 GHz. This ensures the optimal user experience and multitasking.

It has 500 GB SATA Hard disk Drive with max 5400 RPM (could be 7200 RPM). The overall read/write speed is feasible. We noticed low transfer speed when we copied/moved the file from one partition to other. Transferring files from another media is fast and up to expectations.

The laptop sports 4GB DDR3 RAM out of the box, which helps you play high-quality modern games on your laptop without any issue. While playing games, I didn’t notice any lag or glitches at moderate settings.

It has HP TrueVision HD webcam for video conferencing or video call with built in mic. The test shots from the webcam were considerably good enough and video output was bright and clear during our test call.

The Multitouch gesture touchpad is a real wonder, You can pinch to zoom, scroll pages at the edge, slide page with three fingers and zoom-in to zoom-out using two fingers.

The Gadget also features SuperMulti DVD RW Drive with Dual layer support with 8x Read/Write speed. The DTS Sound+ produces High-Quality audio and appears to be loud enough for entertainment purpose. The dual speakers boost the sound output and provides considerable volume for usual requirements.

It has basic/standard communication ports – Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps, Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth v4.0.

It has 1xUSB 2.0 and 2xUSB 3.0, RJ45 LAN, 1xHDMI port, 1xVGA port, Multi-Card slot and 1x Headphone out/Microphone-in Combo Jack.

HP pavilion 15-e034TX features standard Island Keyboard, which has well-spaced keys. The keyboard is perfectly designed for typing. I am using the same laptop for composing this article so that I get to know about the keyboard layout and how it fits well when it comes to typing a long content — so far it proved to be a good aspect.

If you have been using the smaller laptops before, you might have to get used to the key spacing and a different key placement. The Caps Lock, Wifi on/off and Audio Mute button has an LED indicator that turns itself on/off depending on the current state. It is a very useful feature because you don’t always want to check whether your Wifi/audio/caps lock is on/off.

Rating: 8/10

Software and Features

The laptop doesn’t comes bundled with any software with it. The HP pavilion 15-e034TX is shipped with Free DOS operating system, which is pretty much unuseful for general users. You’ll have to spend some extra cash to buy Windows7/Windows 8 or you can go with any of the Linux Distro ( we would recommend Ubuntu), which is free and performs all the basic tasks that you might wanna perform on your laptop.

I don’t have to mention that you can download the premium OS from the internet? mmm! I shouldn’t have written this. Well, I think you are not dumb enough to know.

Just because the laptop isn’t shipped with any OS, it cuts down the overall price by 15% when compared to the similar model with 500GB extra HDD and Windows 8 (HP pavilion 15-E015TX).

Because the original version is shipped with Windows 8, you won’t find the Windows 7 drivers on the official website of HP support. However, you can ask for the same from your sales person and he will be happy to hand you over all the software and drivers for the preferred OS.

Considering you know how to manage the OS and drivers on any system, the laptop won’t bother you much. I am using Windows 7 and Ubuntu 13.04 dual boot and haven’t noticed any issues.

The battery backup of the device is little disappointing when used at the highest performance settings (Full brightness, power saving mode off and playing games/ watching video). It lasted only ~2hours 15 min while surfing the internet and playing songs simultaneously.

Rating: 7.5/10

Verdict:

HP Pavilion 15-e034TX is packed with some powerful features and hardware specs, which can only be found in mid-to-high range laptops. The notebook is optimal for general purpose usage, but it won’t disappoint the casual gamers.

The display is little dull at default settings, but it can be fixed with a little tweak. It proved to be good at delivering performance and peace of mind when we talk about multitasking. Battery backup is little disappointing, but again you can’t expect groundbreaking performance with Intel M series processors.

The Notebook is well built and material used doesn’t make it look a cheap product. If you are looking for a budget laptop, just go for it.

Overall Rating: 6.8/10

INPUT
Pointer Device	Touchpad with Multi-touch Gesture Support
Web Camera	HP TrueVision HD Webcam
Keyboard	Island Keyboard

POWER
Power Supply	65 W AC Adapter
Battery Backup	Upto 3 hours
Battery Cell	6 cell

WARRANTY
Warranty Summary	1 Year Accidental Damage Protection Warranty on registration on HP Website

DISPLAY
Resolution	1366 x 768 pixels
Screen Size	15.6 inch
Screen Type	HD BrightView LED Backlit Display

COMMUNICATION
Ethernet	10/100 LAN
Bluetooth	v4.0
Wireless LAN	IEEE 802.11b/g/n

PORTS/SLOTS
Mic In	Yes
VGA Port	Yes
Multi Card Slot	Yes
USB Port	1 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.0
HDMI Port	Yes, HDMI Port with HDCP Support
RJ45 LAN	Yes
Other Ports	1 x Headphone Out/Microphone-in Combo Jack

STORAGE
HDD Capacity	500 GB
RPM	5400
Hardware Interface	SATA

SECURITY
Lock Port	Kensington Lock Slot

GENERAL
Brand	HP
Model Name	Pavilion
Model ID	15-e034TX
Lifestyle	Entertainment
Color	SIlver & Black

MEMORY
Expandable Memory	Upto 8 GB
System Memory	4 GB DDR3
Memory Slots	2 (Unused Slot – 1)

OPTICAL DISK DRIVE
Optical Drive	SuperMulti DVD RW Drive with Dual Layer Support
Read/Write Speed	8x

MACHINE DIMENSIONS
Weight	2.35 kg
Dimension	381 x 246.3 x 32 mm
Color	SIlver & Black

GRAPHICS
Dedicated Graphics Memory Capacity	1 GB
Graphic Processor	AMD Mobility Radeon HD 8670M
Dedicated Graphics Memory Type	DDR3

AUDIO
Internal Mic	Digital Microphone
Sound	DTS Sound, HD Audio, Dual Speakers
Speakers	Yes

PLATFORM
Operating System	Free DOS
System Architecture	64 bit

PROCESSOR
Brand	Intel
Chipset	Mobile HM76 Express
Cache	3 MB
Variant	3230M
Processor	Core i5
Clock Speed	2.6 GHz with Turbo Boost Upto 3.2 GHz

IN THE BOX
Sales Package	Laptop, Battery, AC Adapter

September 12, 2013

[Review] Dell Inspiron 15R 5521 Laptop – 3rd Gen Core i5 3337U, 2GB dedicated Graphics and more

Well, when I unpacked the laptop I wasn’t expecting the slim beauty out of the box. I was rather thinking of it as a regular laptops with little bit thicker than it actually is, and being an budget Ultrabook it is real “Slim Shady”.

Dell has really worked on the design and build quality. It’s hard to find fault with this recently updated version of Dell’s Inspiron 15R laptop. It’s competitively priced, smart and well built, and provides good all-round performance and battery life.

Build Quality

The laptop is fairly slim and well built, which can compete with high-range premium laptops. The polymer body of the laptop is fused with brushed metal finish on the back panel and on palm rest around the keyboard.

When it comes to the personal choice, I don’t like the metal body for my gadgets anyway. If it is firmly build, which is rigid and strong – consider it a good gadget. When any gadget uses metal casing, the heating issue is taken care of — the gadget doesn’t heat up, but when they do you can cook your breakfast on it and save some cooking gas.

I really like how Dell Inspiron 15R 5521 is built and rigidly packed, you can’t expect more from a mid-range ultra book. It is slightly round around the corner and feels as a rectangular slab with consistent thickness. It is slim and competitively designed gadget that guarantees performance.

Rating: 8/10

Display and Graphics

Dell provides 15.6 inch HD LED display with true life technology that offers resolution of 1366×768 px. It’s sad that Dell didn’t go for the Full HD resolution, which could have been the killer feature, but again you can’t expect much from the mid-range Laptops. The display is bright enough to be used under the sunlight and looks good at 10-30% brightness indoors.

Dell took care of the gaming needs with AMD Radeon HD 8730M 2GB DDR3 dedicated graphics card. You can play high quality games with ease. There has been no lag when I played MW3, Crysis 3, Need for Speed Most wanted and Skyrim at their optimal settings. You need to manually tweak your on board graphics card and dedicated graphics card because they are initially optimized for balance between the battery life and performance.

I didn’t noticed heating issue while playing games on the laptop. The slight increase in temprature is natural and doesn’t bother much.

The Laptop is round around the corners, which gives a finishing touch to the sharp edge of the gadget. The front panel has 4 LED lights that indicates power, CPU usage, battery and Wireless device state. There are two stereo speakers on the front panel as well, located at the left and right side of the panel.

Rating: 7/10

Hardware and ports

Dell inspiron 15R 5521(Model No. – 5521/5521541TB2S1) is packed with 3rd Generation Intel Core i5 (3337U) processor with Mobile HM76 chipset, which is clocked at 1.8GHz (with turbo boost technology upto 2.7GHz) that ensures good performance during heavy tasks. It is buttery smooth for playing games and multitasking.

The 4GB DDR3 RAM out of the box (expandable up to 8GB) is sufficient for playing high quality games and handling the multiple task you throw at your system to be performed. The laptop offers 1TB regular SATA HDD with 5400 RPM (should be 7200), which doesn’t feel slow. Read/write speed is good enough, which is perfect for daily use.

It comes with a Tray-load DVD RW Optical Disk Drive to play your favorite music collection that you have been proudly collected since the Music CD era. I rarely use the CD/DVD drive, because internet and other storage device is handy if it comes to storing my favorite stuffs for easier access.

There are 4 USB ports (2 x USB 2.0 and 2 x USB 3.0) – three on the left panel and One on the right beside the DVD writer. File transfer rate is optimal and performs fairly well. It comes with the standard Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 Wireless card and offers Bluetooth v4.0 technology for easy file transfers and seamless WiFi access.

The Laptop has Stereo Speakers with Waves MaxxAudio 4 technology. The sound is little bit on the treble side, you won’t notice much difference, but its certainly not the best speaker for entertainment purpose.

It has 1.0 MegaPixel web Camera which offers decent image quality for video calls. The touchpad is responsive enough and doesn’t lag during the general usage. Haven’t tested it for gaming, as I always use my Razer Mamba during the game play.

It has 8-iin-1 multi-card reader, RJ45 Lan port and HDMI port in case you want to connect your Laptop to other devices for output.

The keyboard layout is perfect for typing. I am using the same Laptop for composing this article, and I haven’t noticed any misplaced key placement. You might have to get used to the well spaced keyboard if you have been using the smaller laptops before. The space bar is thicker and keys feels soft during the usage.

Rating: 7/10

Software and features

The gadget has pre-installed full version latest Windows 8 (Metro UI) OS, which is smooth and flawless. However, I don’t like windows 8 for PC or laptops and do a complete format to install Windows 7 OS on new devices.

The Laptop comes bundled with McAfee antivirus with 15 months free license. It isn’t the best antivirus out there but it can protect your gadget against the moderate security risks. If you are worried about the security, I recommend Kaspersky Pure or Kaspersky Internet security.

Rating: 8/10

Dimensions and battery

Dell inspiron 15R 5521 has a standard dimension of 376 x 259 x 25.3 mm and weighs only 2.22 Kg, which is optimal for 15.6″ laptop with the powerful features. The battery backup is decent and delivers performance and consistency. It stayed with for ~2 hours while playing Crysis 3 and around 4.3 hours while surfing the internet using USB dongle.

Rating 7/10

Verdict

If you’re looking for the budget laptop, you are in luck. Dell Inspiron 15R 5521 is the perfect laptop for general purpose and meets the requirements of both professional and casual user. The dedicated graphics card along with the premium hardware ensures powerful performance and optimal user experience.

The display resolution might be an issue, dell could have incorporated Full HD resolution. It isn’t a big deal, but for the price you’re paying for the laptop, it could be the deal breaker. Overall performance is great, you won’t experience any lag or inconsistency during the usage. Dell offers 1 Year full cover Home warrantly.

Dell doesn’t have service center and you have to contact support for any issue you might come along. This might be little frustrating because you can’t meet the representative at dell service center directly. The technical engineer will come at your home, few days after you have placed complaint.

If you are looking for a powerful budget laptop, just go for it.

Rating: 8/10

August 28, 2013
[How to] Some common pratices to Keep your Laptop healthy
You love your Gadgets and so does your gadgets in return, by providing the best platform they can. Every Gadget you use does their job, what they are best at and it is your responsibility to keep them healthy.

Laptops are more delicate objects which performs jobs which are impossible without them. You get most of your work done by it and it never complains, except in some situation where you are the only one “guilty”. You have to take care of it at all situations and not to act lazy.

Here are some common pratices you can adapt to take care of your Laptop (or any other similar Gadget):
- Keep it clean: When you get your new gadget you keep it as if it’s a “King of the world” and after few months it’s your “servant”? You have to change this attitude. Your gadget is your property and it is your responsibility to keep it clean. Always clean your gadgets twice a month for longer life span, cleaner you keep it longer it will be available for you and do your dirty jobs done. Clean your battery’s metal contacts every couple of months with a cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol. This keeps the transfer of power from your battery more efficient.
- Do not use improper sanitation: ok, i am getting little into vacubular disaster, but you have to understand how delicate your gadgets are. They seem tough from outside but are never from inside. Never use manufactured detergents or any other similar household cleaner which contains acetone, ammonia, or alcohol, it can ruin the beautiful coating on your laptop or any other gadget.
- React to the accidents immediately: You dropped your laptop, spilled water on it, bumped it on the desk or it is just banged against the wall, always react to such situations immediately. When you bump your laptop on the floor or spilled water on it, immediately remove the battery and check if anything damaged from the outside or clean the water immediately and make it dry (using your hair dryer or just the natural sunlight will do). Never act lazy. Some people suggests that you can place your laptop in a bag of rice, which helps soaking the water.
- Never leave your laptop unattended for longer: You don’t use your laptop at regular intervals, well that could be the problem, specially when you live at someplace where climate is not stable (sudden temprature drops or environment change). Never leave your laptop in too cold or too hot situation, it might crash your harddisk. Yes you heard it right. Your hard drive can expand and fail in the heat and freeze in the cold if left unattended. Just like liquid, heat, cold, and your laptop are not good bedfellows. Not only do hot and freezing temps suck the life out of your battery, but they also cause damage to your internal components.
- Always use Shutdown button: Some people just put their laptop on hibernation or standby mode. Well these options can come handy at some situations when you are in a hurry, but making it a habbit isn’t a good step for your laptop. Always use proper “Shut Down” process after work, which can help protect your internal delicate components.
- Use Anti-Virus: Some people thinks if they are not using the internet or are just so careful they won’t need an Anti-virus to protect their laptop or computers. Well, this assumption is totally wrong. You must have a gatekeeper to protect your castle, it is not like your home where you live. Your computer stores sensitive data and some personal stuffs which you won’t like the world to see. For such purpose their must be a proper Anti-virus installed on your computer or laptop (DigitFreak suggests “Kaspersky Internet security 2012”). Some virus or malwares are capable of destroying your hard disk or other internal componetns, so better protect it.
- Defrag regularly: The faster your hard drive does its work – less demand you are going to put on the hard drive and your battery. Make your hard drive as efficient as possible by defragging it regularly. (but not while it’s on battery of course!) Mac OSX is better built to handle fragmentation so it may not be very applicable for Apple systems.
- Dim your screen: Most laptops come with the ability to dim your laptop screen. Some even come with ways to modify CPU and cooling performance. Cut them down to the lowest level you can tolerate to squeeze out some extra battery juice.
- Protect your investment: If you’re going to be lugging a laptop around, make sure it’s protected in a padded case.
- Cut down external devices: USB devices (including your mouse) & WiFi drain down your laptop battery. Remove or shut them down when not in use. It goes without saying that charging other devices (like your iPod) with your laptop when on battery is a surefire way of quickly wiping out the charge on your laptop battery.
February 16, 2012