With its strong performance, premium design and good battery life for less than $900, the ZenBook UX303UA is an excellent value. We also like the comfortable keyboard and colorful display, although the sound quality could be better.Asus ZenBook UX303UA If you're willing to spend a little more, you can get the slimmer and lighter nontouch Dell XPS 13 for $1,149, which has similar specs to the Asus and longer battery life. The touch model starts at a pricey $1,449. But if you want to stay under a grand, the UX303UA is an excellent choice.While that’s largely because battery technology has been extremely stagnant compared to other hardware, it’s also because we’ve grown to take battery life for granted for the sake of slim design. At the very least, we’ve become complacent.

This one should go without saying, but our phones are our most oft-used devices. 90 percent of Facebook’s 1.04 billion daily users access the network through their smartphones.

As mobile device and apps become more powerful, the reasons to pull out your laptop become ever less. It’s kind of ironic, then, that we regard battery life on laptops and tablets to be a make-or-break metric, yet it’s treated as more of an anecdote in phone reviews.

Limiting battery life also means that we are limiting what we can do with our phones. Less browsing, less texting, less gaming and less serious work. We shouldn’t have to baby our devices to help them get through a day.

A Hewlett Packard computer and some cash were taken from a restaurant on the 1000 block of Church Street on Jan. 28.

Dell calls this an infinity edge display. There is almost no bezel — that’s the frame around the screen. So the pixels go almost to the edge of the laptop lid.
Which means, in effect, Dell crams a 13-inch display into an 11-inch case. The XPS 13 Touch is smaller than a MacBook Air 13, but with a similar screen size.

And what a screen it is. While most premium computers have impressive displays, I don’t think I’ve seen one this good on any laptop.

It has 3200 by 1800 pixels. That’s more than a Retina MacBook Pro. It makes for a high pixel density. That means crisper, easier to read text along with more image detail.
Although it also means tiny barely readable text when Windows fails to adjust to the resolution — something that happened a few times during testing.

Another notable feature of the display is its brightness. When compared to other similar size screens, the XPS 13 Touch seems far brighter. The white spots seem whiter, without that yellowish tinge. There’s also better contrast.

You can get the same effect from other displays by tinkering with the settings. The XPS 13 Touch does all that for you. It has adaptive brightness. This feature automatically optimises depending on external light conditions and the content being displayed.

While this may be troublesome for, say, professional image work, it makes life easier for those of us who use computers to browse, handle mail and run business productivity apps like Microsoft Office.

All day battery life and then some

The other impressive feature is the XPS 13 Touch’s battery life. These days I’m used to getting eight hours from a computer even if there’s almost nothing in the tank at the end of the working day.
I found the XPS 13 Touch worked for ten hours before it ran out. That’s more than twice the working time I managed with the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. It’s the same that I got from my 13-inch MacBook Air when it was new — these days I get perhaps eight and a half, maybe nine hours.

Dell’s battery does a better job than many alternatives when it comes retaining power. I left a fully charged XPS 13 Touch on my desk through the long Auckland Anniversary weekend. When I returned on Tuesday morning, it still had about 90 percent power and was good for more than eight hours work. In contrast, the Surface Pro 4 would lose almost all of its charge over the same period.

Another plus point: the charger works fast by laptop standards. It can recharge an empty battery in less than two hours.

Give my regards to Broadwell…

• ASUS U50A Battery
• ASUS U50VG Battery
• ASUS U50VG-XX103C Battery
• ASUS Eee PC 1201HA Battery
• ASUS Eee PC 1201N Battery
• ASUS Eee PC 1201PN Battery
• ASUS Eee PC 1201T Battery
• ASUS U46E Battery
• ASUS U46SV Battery
• ASUS U56E Battery
• ASUS B80(All) Battery
• ASUS V2Je-4Q025E Battery
• Asus F50G Battery
• Asus F50SV Battery

Processor chips are rarely worth mentioning in laptop reviews any more. Away from the bargain basement, everything runs faster than most of us need for everyday computing.
That’s not the case here.

The review model has a Core i7–5500U running at 2.5 GHz. That’s powerful by any standard and provides far more grunt than I’ve seen in any Ultrabook-class device. It is also responsible for that long, long battery life. Overall the XPS 13 Touch is noticably faster than any direct rival.

Dell uses Intel’s latest 14 nm Broadwell chip technology. It’s fast by any standards and tiny. It is also responsible for the excellent battery performance. There’s a graphics chip which means the XPS 13 Touch can handle games at high resolution.

What’s not so good?

A few aspects of the XPS 13 Touch are less impressive. While the backlit keyboard is solid and serviceable, it feels cramped. It’s a loser in the trade-off between size and comfort. I found the key action is more like I see on hybrids than on laptops with not enough travel for my taste. I’m an old school touch-typist, so this may not bother you.
During the review I ran into a couple of freezes. I saw something similar with the Surface Pro 4. I’m beginning to think this is a Windows 10 problem and nothing to do with hardware. If you can shed light on this please do so in the comments.

You may also not be bothered by the crapware Dell loads on the computer. I am. My first few days with the machine were marred by constant nagging messages trying to extract more money from me.

While it may be understandable for laptop makers to load up sub-$500 computers with third-party software in an attempt to recover costs, it’s not appropriate on a business machine costing the thick end of three grand.

Dell offers three versions of the XPS 13, only one has touch. There are touchless models selling for NZ$2000 and $2200. Both have i5 processors instead of i7.
I’m not convinced of the value of touch on a Windows laptop. Yes, Windows 10 is designed for touchscreen computing, but I found I barely touched the screen at all during my first days with the review computer. The TouchPad is better than I’ve seen on other Windows laptop and does a great job.

Touch works great on tablets, but lifting your hand from the keyboard to the screen is unnatural. You may disagree.

When I made a conscious effort to touch the screen — and it never felt anything other than forced — I quickly ran into problems with muscle pain in my shoulder and at the top of my right arm. It seems there’s a whole new world of occupational overuse syndrome opening up right there.

If you want a premium touch-screen Windows laptop for business, Dell’s XPS 13 Touch is the best option at the moment. It’s powerful, small and light with a great screen.
While the power of an i7 processor is tempting, if I was spending my own money I’d save myself $600 and choose the touchless i5 version.

Dear Lifehacker, I’m just starting my second year of university and my home laptop is too bulky to take with me. I’m on the hunt for a secondary laptop but since I’m a full-time student, I’m on a bit of a budget. I don’t have too many requirements — just that it is smaller, has long battery life, fits at least 2 USB ports and runs relatively smoothly. I’m really struggling to make a decision here. Any suggestions? Thanks, UniStudent

As luck would have it, we recently published an in-depth guide on this very topic. Rather than regurgitate the entire article, I’m going to touch on the areas that relate to your personal needs. (We’re going to assume you don’t require 3D gaming or other intensive applications for this laptop.)

As this will be a secondary laptop, I think you can afford to go as small as possible; namely 10 to 13 inches. These models are highly portable and also boast longer battery life — two must-haves for any university laptop. On the downside, they tend to use cheaper components and obviously have much smaller keyboards. You should definitely test the typing and speed performance of these models prior to purchase to see how they handle.

When it comes to the central processing unit (CPU), you won’t need anything higher than a Intel Core i5. If you’re primarily using it for web browsing and basic word processing, you could even get by on a lower-end Celeron CPU. This will drastically cut the price of the laptop with some models selling for $300 or less. You should aim for 4GB of RAM; this will provide the best bang for buck and will ensure the laptop remains relatively zippy during basic multi-tasking.

If you don’t mind spending a bit more money, go for a model with SSD storage and at least one USB 3.0 port. This will save a lot of time during file transfers and generally makes for faster productivity. We wouldn’t place too much importance on screen resolution — the smaller screen makes it largely unnecessary; especially if you don’t plan on doing much photo editing on the device.

For specific model recommendations, check out the aforementioned Back To School laptops guide — prices start at just $300.

Alternatively, you may want to consider buying a tablet with a Bluetooth-equipped keyboard. This approach will grant you longer batter life, a smaller/thinner device and the option to leave your keyboard at home. If you go down this route, just make sure that the tablet’s OS is compatible with your laptop to make life easier.

• ASUS B50(All) Battery
• ASUS B50A(All) Battery
• ASUS B50A-AG012D Battery
• ASUS B50A-AP014E Battery
• ASUS B50A-AQ013D Battery
• ASUS N50V Battery
• ASUS N50VC Battery
• ASUS N50VN Battery
• ASUS N51 Battery
• ASUS N51TP Battery
• ASUS N51V Battery
• ASUS N51VF Battery
• ASUS N51VN Battery
• Asus pro59l Battery

We’re also keen to hear what readers think. If you have any cheap laptop recommendations that would suit a university student, let us know in the comments section below.

European Union regulators are investigating companies which make batteries for laptops and mobile phones on suspicion of taking part in a cartel, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

The move by the EU competition authority came two years after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) fined two companies for fixing prices of cylindrical lithium ion battery cells.

"The Commission is currently investigating alleged anti-competitive behaviour in the rechargeable batteries sector," spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said in an email. He did not provide details.

In March Sony said in a regulatory filing that the US antitrust authorities had closed their investigation whereas the EU regulator continued its probe.

In 2013 the DoJ fined Panasonic subsidiary Sanyo Electric Co $10.7 million (roughly Rs. 70 crores) and LG Chem $1.1 million (roughly Rs. 7 crores).

Last week, Europe's second highest court reduced fines imposed on consumer electronics groups Panasonic and Toshiba for their part in a cartel of cathode ray tube producers, while upholding them for four other companies.

In 2012 the European Commission fined seven companies EUR 1.47 billion (roughly Rs. 10,851 crores), the EU's largest ever cartel penalty, for two decades of fixing prices, allocating customers and restricting output for CRTs for televisions and for computer screens.

The Luxembourg-based General Court upheld the fines imposed on Samsung, Philips, LG Electronics and Technicolor. Chungwa was exempted from a fine because it was the first to alert the Commission to the existence of two CRT cartels.

However, the court ruled that the Commission had miscalculated the appropriate fines for Panasonic and MTPD, a joint venture between Panasonic and Toshiba, and that it had not proven that Toshiba was involved in the television CRT cartel at all.

As David Curry reports for Digital Trends, Samsung may be planning to bring most or even all of its apps to iOS. It’s also expected to finally deploy some much-needed updates for its existing set of iOS apps. As Curry notes, Samsung has historically had a few apps for iOS, but currently, most of its main apps aren’t available to users of Apple’s iPhones or iPads. But that’s expected to change soon.

Posted by: akkusmarkt at 07:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 2153 words, total size 16 kb.