http://www.akkusmarkt.com

December 20, 2016

Acer Extensa 7620G Battery

Google reported earlier this year that a fifth of US school districts were using Chromebooks, which represents about 5,000 schools â€“ up from 2,000 at the beginning of 2013.School sales are more limited in the UK, however: Samsung told PC Pro that it had shipped between 15,000 to 20,000 Chromebooks to British schools in 2013. British PC maker Novatech said it's seen "slow and steady growth in Chromebook sales to schools, but they still account for a tiny proportion of our overall turnover"."Microsoft has been quite innovative in protecting their share of the education market and we've seen the benefit with sales of our Windows machines," said head of marketing Tim LeRoy.Novatech said that Chromebooks have proved less popular in business. "So far, very few businesses have been requesting Chromebooks, but the popularity of Google apps is definitely increasing," LeRoy said.Gartner said companies are considering the platform, but not yet making the move from Microsoft. "So far, businesses have looked at Chromebooks, but not bought many," said Gartner analyst Isabelle Durand. "By adopting Chromebooks and cloud computing, businesses can benefit; they can shift their focus from managing devices to managing something much more important â€” their data."

She suggested that companies such as Acer and Samsung â€“ the first to launch Chromebooks, and the market leaders for the devices â€“ see Chrome OS as a way to shift focus from consumer laptops into the more lucrative business market."While there is less presence in the business market, and a limited product portfolio for mid-size businesses, Chromebooks could open doors to the business market," said Durand.Gartner predicts that sales will triple to 14.4 million by 2017, but that Chromebooks will remain "niche" for at least the next five years. Chromebook shipments of 5.2 million this year represent a tiny slice of the 308 million desktops and laptops that Gartner predicts will be sold.What can Chromebook makers - and Google - do to draw in more users? Durand suggests they need more solid-state storage, faster memory and better user support. "Making a competitive Chromebook is not just a matter of hardware and price; what is most important is to show how the device's cloud-based architecture provides genuine advantages to users," she added.

The Toshiba Kira-101 marks an excellent debut for the Kirabook range, and proof positive that Toshiba really does know how to build a luxurious consumer Ultrabook. It's the best Toshiba laptop we've seen for a very long time, and goes toe to toe with the finest Ultrabooks out there. Despite lacking the fancy hybrid features of the Dell XPS 12 and Yoga 2 Pro, the Kira-101 matches them blow for blow. Our only reservation is that slightly high £1,299 price tag.As Windows devices cram ever more performance into portable packages, the plus-sized likes of the Toshiba Satellite S70-B are becoming an increasingly rare breed. If you're looking for a no-compromise desktop replacement, though, you should be paying attention. With 17.3in of Full HD display powered by one of the latest AMD Radeon R9 graphics chips, this £1,199 laptop delivers a serious amount of power.The Toshiba Satellite S70-B makes few concessions to design or portability. Indeed, it looks just like the desktop replacements of yore, and although Toshiba has attempted to inject a dash of razzmatazz with a metal lid and wristrest, the thick, predominantly plastic chassis and frumpy curves are unlikely to fire anyone's desires. Nor is this a laptop anyone will relish carrying about on a regular basis: it weighs a portly 2.8kg on its own, and a considerable 3.3kg once you factor in the power supply.

Fire up a demanding application or one of the latest gaming titles, however, and the Satellite S70-B is in its element. Its quad-core Core i7-4700HQ is the CPU of choice for most high-end laptops, and Toshiba has partnered it with one of its own 1TB hybrid hard disks and 16GB of DDR3 RAM.In our Real World Benchmarks, the Toshiba sped to an Overall result of 0.87. That's a little behind other laptops we've seen with the same CPU, but we suspect this is down to the Satellite's lack of an SSD. Despite having a mere hybrid hard disk, however, the Satellite S70-B feels surprisingly responsive in all but the most strenuous of multitasking situations. Toshiba's SSHD definitely plays its part here, and in our tests the drive's 8GB of NAND flash was clearly being put to good use. Even demanding applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Sony Vegas Pro sprang into action with SSD-like haste.

Globally, Samsung nabbed 65% of the Chromebook market in 2013, selling 1.5 million devices last year. Acer is in second place with 21%, while HP ranked third.In the UK, Google lists eight models for sale, including its own Chromebook Pixel, and that doesn't include Dell's budget version or Lenovo's devices."Lenovo's Chromebooks are very rugged, compared with the competition, and therefore ideal for primary and secondary school pupils," Gartner said. "However, Lenovo needs to manage its devices portfolio in such a way as to avoid selling so many Chromebooks that it undermines sales of its other ThinkPads â€” which provide better margins."Development of a larger iPad has been spurred by Tim Cook's desire to rekindle sales of its tablet devices, which have been in decline for two consecutive quarters, according to Bloomberg.

At 3in bigger than the current generation iPad and iPad Air, the rumoured device would take Apple toe-to-toe with Microsoft's 12in Surface Pro 3.Apple was already rumoured to be getting ready to target Microsoft's laptop hybrid with [a href="/news/388705/ios-8-to-mimic-microsoft-with-split-screen-functionality"]split-screen functionality in iOS 8[/a], which will allow users have two apps open side-by-side that can interact with each other.These also aren't the first rumours of a larger iPad, possibly called the iPad Pro. In May, photos appeared claiming to be the rear housing of the larger device.Bloomberg reported that Apple "has been working with suppliers for at least a year to develop a new range of larger touch-screen devices" and there are numerous rumours the company will launch a 5.5in iPhone 6L phablet on 9 September.With an updated 9.7in iPad and iPad mini also reportedly in the works, we could expect to see up to six devices revealed next month: the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6L, a new iPad mini, iPad and iPad Pro, and iWatch.

However, it's possible that while all these devices may be unveiled in September, there are indications that the iPhone 6L, iWatch and iPad Pro won't be on sale until early 2015.We weren't sure what to make of the announcement of Toshiba's brand new Kirabook line of Ultrabooks, considering the last Ultrabook-like Toshiba product we reviewed was the underwhelming Portégé Z10t. However, one look at the specification, build and ergonomics of the Kira-101 put our fears to rest; compared to Toshiba's previous effort, the Kirabook is a very different animal. See also: The best laptops of 2014We were immediately struck by the Kira's looks that, in stark contrast to the Portégé Z10t's business-focused frumpiness, prioritise tasteful sleekness over bulky practicality. The back of its plastic lid and the keyboard's base both have an attractive, brushed-metal finish, the bottom of the Ultrabook possessing a more even metallic hue. The corners are softly rounded and the lightweight magnesium-alloy base slopes upwards, rendering the front of the device significantly slimmer than the back, at 9.7mm.

There's no hybrid mechanism to match the Dell XPS 12 or Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro, but this gives it a key advantage; at only 1.25kg and 23mm thick with its rubber feet included, it's more compact and portable than either of its rivals. And, ergonomically, the Kira is a breeze to use: its Scrabble-tile keys are evenly spaced and gratifyingly clicky, and the metal base means there's no visible flex to the keyboard. The buttonless touchpad is even better; gesture-tracking is competent, and for once we were impressed by the responsiveness of the integrated left and right mouse buttons.Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the new laptop, however, doesn't concern how it looks when it's switched off, but what your eyes are confronted with when you hit the power button. The Kira sports a high-DPI, 2,560 x 1,440-resolution touchscreen that simply bursts with life. Although it isn't the brightest screen around â€“ we measured it at 251cd/m2 turned up as far as it would go â€“ the 1,569:1 contrast ratio lends images a solidity few others can match. Colour fidelity was good, too, the Kira yielding an average Delta E of 2.4.

The quality of the display is perhaps down to fact that it uses the same IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) semiconductor technology as employed in the iPad Air, instead of the more prevalent amorphous silicon. This comparatively new technology, which debuted at IFA in 2012, delivers smaller, more power-efficient, transparent transistors.Elsewhere, there's more good news. The Kira boasts a Haswell 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-4500U CPU supported by 8GB DDR3L RAM, which puts it in good company. In our Real World Benchmarks it was able to keep up with our February Ultrabook Labs winner and runner-up, the Dell XPS 12 (0.6 and Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro (0.59), scoring 0.65. The Kira's gaming capability fell in line with what we'd expect from a high-end consumer Ultrabook. With graphical grunt handled by Intel's integrated HD Graphics 4400 chipset, the Kira managed a respectable average of 50fps on Low quality settings in our Crysis benchmark.

Alongside the CPU and RAM is a 256GB Toshiba SSD, which performed admirably in the AS SSD benchmark, racking up sequential read and write scores of 497MB/sec and 456MB/sec respectively. These are fast scores that, as a point of comparison, outdo the SSD in the XPS 12, which scored read and write scores of 487MB/sec and 407MB/sec respectively. The Kira-101's stamina is highly impressive, too, benefitting hugely from the combination of Haswell processor and the efficient new screen technology. In our light-use battery test, its 52wH, 3,380mAh battery lasted 12hrs 45mins, a comparable score to the XPS 12's 12hrs 41mins and significantly superior to the Yoga 2's 7hrs 50mins.The Kira includes surprisingly generous selection of ports, too: along the left-hand side is a full-size HDMI output and two USB 3 ports; on the right edge is an SD card slot, plus a 3.5mm stereo headset jack and another USB 3 port. There's also dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4 connectivity. It's a fine selection for a laptop this small.

Posted by: akkusmarkt at 01:16 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 1855 words, total size 15 kb.

Hide Comments | Add Comment