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Intro
Staying true to tradition, Apple completed it's annual revamp of the MacBook Pro lineup in early 2011. The announcement came close to CEO Steve Jobs' birthday.
Although in appearance all the 3 MacBook Pros i.e., the 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch look identical to the previous generation, it's under the hood where these machines have truly been upgraded. So does the new hardware pack a punch or is the upgrade incremental? Read on to find out!
Packaging and Contents
The packaging and content is typical Apple with the aluminum unibody 13-inch MacBook Pro in the standard compact white briefcase-style box. Open it up and you have the device, below which rests the charger, manuals, a soft cleaning cloth and two Apple logo stickers.
First Impression
At first, the device appears to be exactly the same as its predecessor, as beautiful and as sturdy. Even in its simple design, the device is an eye catcher. The only new addition that you will find in the appearance of the device is a small lightning bolt symbol above the mini display port. This is the new high-speed Thunderbolt I/O from Apple. Although there are no devices available in the market that support this interface, they are expected to launch soon.
Performance
The first thing that you will notice in the performance of the device, especially if you are a MacBook Pro user, is that the device feels a bit snappier. Under the hood, this beast is powered by an Intel Core i7 2.7 GHz dual core second-generation processor. Apple has ditched the NVIDIA GeForce 320M that was present in the previous gen 13-inch for integrated graphics. The battery life has improved owing to the new age processors and the absence of a dedicated graphics card. But don't expect to get some serious gaming out of the device as the integrated graphics card will not give you the best of results. You can juice out anywhere between 5 to 7.5 hours of battery life depending on how you use the product.
The full size keyboard is great to type on and is backlit, making it very comfortable and easy on the eyes in the dark. The ambient light sensor on the device ensures that you never have to adjust the keyboard light or the brightness of the screen manually.
The legend-daddy of track pads too is present here. The 13-inch device houses Apple's glass multi touch touchpad, which is undoubtedly the best in the business supporting up to four-finger touch recognition.
The biggest addition to the performance - and, sadly, we can't test it - is the Thunderbolt port which occupies the same physical space as the display port. On paper, the Thunderbolt port can support speeds of up to 10Gbps, but we will have to wait and see if that is true in performance.
The left of the device houses the standard mag safe charging port, Ethernet port, FireWire 800, Thunderbolt/Mini Display port, Two USB 2.0 ports, SD card reader and a headphones port. The disadvantage (and this was there with the previous gen 13-inch pro as well) is the absence of a microphone port. Sure, the onboard mic is accurate but an option would have been nice. Also by now, we would have liked to see USB 3.0 on the MacBook pros. Even if it hasn't turned up as default, a customization option would have been truly satisfying.
The left of the device also houses the battery life indicator, similar to the previous generation Pro.
The right of the device houses the 8x Super Drive that can read/write dual layer DVD's. Again here, the option of a Blu-Ray drive would have been appreciated.
The web cam in the 13-inch MacBook Pro supports 720p HD video for video calls. Apple's FaceTime app also comes pre-installed on the device, which is otherwise available for $0.99 on the App Store for previous generation devices. FaceTime is a great app and works really smoothly. We chatted between the MacBook Pro and an iPhone. The experience was smooth, audio was clear; there was virtually no lag and this reviewer was made dizzy by his colleague constantly rotating the iPhone and changing the orientation on his screen!
In terms of testing the device, it took about 3 min and 30 sec to copy a 8GB .mkv file to the device via USB from a portable HDD.
Converting the same video, which was 1hour 50 minutes in duration and had a resolution of 1920x818 via the free software Handbreak to .m4v (same resolution) took us a whopping two and a half hours!
On GeekBenck (64-bit), the device has an overall score of 7500 as compared to the 2010 model that scored 4012. (Higher score = better performance)
On Xbench the 2011, the 13-inch MacBook pro scored 178.09 as compared to the 2010 model that scored130.99. (Higher score = better performance)
Multimedia
Apart from the regular typing and web browsing, multimedia is what you will primarily use this for. The 13.3-inch LED backlit display has a 1280x800 resolution, which is great for watching 720p HD movies. However, if Apple could give theMacBook Air's display a resolution of 1440x900, why not integrate the same with the new generation 13-inch MacBook Pro?
HD movies stream smoothly on the device. Although 1080p movies ran smoothly on the device we really couldn't take full advantage of the video, as the screen isn't full HD. We watched a bit of Megamind, Iron Man, Tangled and some music videos and the colours were vibrant and the picture detailed. Although, if you sit with the device in an out door coffee shop, you will have some trouble with the glare on the screen.
The sound quality from the in-built speakers is good but the volume could have been better. You can however use third-party software like Perian to improve the audio output. Like its predecessors, the speakers are clear and the audio doesn't distort at high volumes but the speakers lack bass. For everyday music and video needs, the speakers perform very well.
iTunes and iLife comes pre-installed on the device. iLife comprises of the latest version of iPhoto, GarageBand and iMovie. iPhoto is very engaging especially if you are a photos buff. The app is among the best photo managers and it is easy to sync with your iPhone, iPod andiPad with absolute ease.
Verdict
Apple has once again produced a winning notebook. It has great ergonomics, upgraded hardware, superb battery life and the integration of an HD webcam is nice for video chatting. We do wish they had bumped up the screen resolution as they did on the MacBook Air and the option of USB 3.0 and Blu-ray would have been nice as well. But if you around Rs. 85,000 to spend on a new 13-inch laptop, you might want to consider the Dell Alienware M14x or the HP Envy 14.
Specifications:
2.7 GHz dual core Intel Core i7 processor (sandy bridge)
4MB shared Level 3 cache memory
500GB 5400rpm HDD
13.3-inch LED backlit display with a resolution of 1280x800
Intel HD graphics 3000 processor 384MB DDR3 SDRAM shared with the main memory
Built in 720p webcam
8x Super Drive slot
Thunderbolt I/O port
SD card slot
Two USB 2.0 ports
Wi-Fi
Bluetooth
Backlit keyboard
Pros
Strong ergonomic build
Upgraded second generation Core i processors
Great battery life
Well laid out keyboard
Large Multi-touch trackpad
Cons
No dedicated graphics card
Screen resolution could have been better
Thunderbolt cannot be used to its potential yet
No option for USB 3.0 or Blu-Ray
Price: Rs. 84,900
RATINGS:
Performance: 4
Price: 3.5
Ease of setup: 5
Ergonomics: 5
Wow Factor: 5
Overall: 4
Make way for the touchbook - Acer's new dual touchscreen laptop. The device has two touchscreens and no physical keyboard whatsoever. In fact, apart from the power button and the display keyboard button, there are no physical buttons on the device. Put simply, the device looks like two 14-inch tablets glued together on a hinge.
So is the Acer ICONIA dual screen laptop just another trophy for your 'show off' wall or does it pack in some utility as well?
Packaging and Contents
A standard briefcase style box contains the device along with the manuals, CD, charger, a power filter adaptor and an external card reader.
First Impression
The device is quite heavy, weighing in at over 2.5 kgs. Open the lid and instead of seeing the usual keyboard, you will find two 14-inch HD touchscreens screens. The device is quite thick and you'd expect such a thick device to house a CD drive at the least but it doesn't. It doesn't even house a card reader, which is an extra accessory available with the device. An upside - the device houses one USB3.0 port.
Multimedia
Are two 14-inch screens better than one? Well, yes and no.
Both the displays have a resolution of 1366x768. The upper display is a standard touchscreen where as the lower display has gorilla glass making it scratch resistant.
The touch response on the upper display is pretty bad. The close, maximize and minimize icons along with the scrolling bar have been increased in size to make the touch inputs more responsive but it's the little things such as trying to control the volume/navigation on VLC, clicking on File, Menu, etc. that becomes quite problematic. The overall experience of touching the monitor to launch, close or perform any action feels quite inconvenient and after some time this reviewer's arm started hurting with the effort of keeping it up to use the touchscreen.
The bottom touchscreen, however,is an entirely different story. Its response is fabulous,much better than expected. A nifty feature - put all 10 fingers on the display to launch the keyboard, put 5 fingers on the display to launch the Acer ring.
Typing on the keyboard takes some getting used to. The keys are well spaced out and you do get an audio feedback for every key you press a key but the experience isn't the same as a regular keyboard. In fact, the experience feels rather odd. Especially since we are used to a physical keyboard.
The trackpad on the device is very disappointing. There is no way to distinguish whether your finger is on the trackpad or not. So many times while navigating, this reviewer's finger subconsciously left the track pad with resulting confusion about why the mouse wasn't moving. The trackpad could have been bigger and had a different feel to distinguish it from the rest of the surface.
You also have the option to put custom skins on the keyboard display, which is nice.
One Ring to rule them all:
As mentioned earlier, upon touching thesecondary display with 5 fingers, the Acer ring launches. Conceptually, the Acer ring is a good idea. Practically, it's a bit buggy, which is to say that the applications crashed sometimes.
Gesture Editor is a cool feature. You can customize and assign specific gestures to launch certain programs or applications. For instance, one swipe of the finger and your browser pops up, or draw the symbol "D" to show the desktop.
You also have certain essential optionssuch as screen brightness, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, screen saver, hibernate, sleep, shut down, etc. on one click of the Acer ring. Although this feature isn't a game changer, the availability of the option is nice.
The ring feature also offers one touch access to your music, movies photos and web browsing. Here, the Social Jogger app deserves special mention. This app integrates your social networking and YouTube streams under one roof. The visual representation looks a lot like tweet deck.
Another way in which you can use the dual screen is by expanding the web browser on both the screens. This will reduce the amount of scrolling you do on a particular page but the experience of reading the information feels disjointed. Plus, it's very inconvenient trying to read text on an inclined screen and then text on a flat surface.
In terms of audio, the speakers on the device are average performance-wise. The midrange and vocal output is good but the speakers lack bass. Movie playback on the device was good. We ran Iron Man 2 in 1080p .mkv format and the movie played without any hiccups. The only way to take advantage of the 2 touchscreens while watching a movie is use the second screen for the controls through the videos app in the Acer ring.
Performance
Performance as a notebook is where the Acer ICONIA dual screen laptop truly disappoints. If you do not get used to the touch keyboard typing will be tedious. You would think that integration of touch on the monitor would add to convenience but there are times when it just frustrates you. Good luck trying to see the virtual keyboard if you are sitting out in the open with a lot of direct sunlight hitting the device.
The device is really heavy and scores low on portability factor.
In terms of connectivity, the device has the charging port, HDMI out and two USB 2.0 ports on the left. The right has the Ethernet port, VGA out, one USB 3.0 port (nice!!) and the headphones and microphone port. A display keyboard and power button is present at either side of the hinge. The device also boasts of a 1.3MP camera for video chatting and Bluetooth 3.0.
A disappointing factor is that the previous generation Intel core i5processors and not the Sandy Bridge powers the device. It also lacks a dedicated graphics card so don't expect great gaming results. On the 3D mark 06, the device had a score of 2728. The PC mark Vantage gave a score of 6150.
The battery life of the device is bad. The device possesses a 4-cell lithium ion battery that powers two LED displays. Pushing the device to itslimits, the battery barely lasted an hour. But use the device conservatively and you may be able to touch the three-hour mark.
Verdict:
The device has some interesting features such as the Acer ring app and USB 3.0. But the device needs some serious dedicated apps to justify the use of dual touchscreens. As a multimedia device,it is an unique and fun experience but falls short when you decide to use it as a notebook. If you want a new toy to show off then by all means this is for you, but if you if you want the biggest bang for your bucks -all 70,000 of them -look elsewhere, as the Acer ICONIA dual screen notebook is pretty much only good for novelty value.
Pros:
Cool Acer ring UI
USB 3.0 support
Great touch response on the lower display
Innovative design
Cons:
Uncomfortable typing experience
Small trackpad
Monitor touch experience is disappointing
Heavy
No CD Drive
Price: Rs. 69,990
RATINGS:
Performance: 3
Price: 2.5
Ease of setup: 5
Ergonomics: 3
Wow Factor: 3.5
Overall: 3
Specifications
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS
Intel core i5-480m 2.67 GHz processor
Dual 14-ich Acer CineCrystal Display with a resolution of 1366x768
Integrated Intel HD graphics
4GB DDR3 RAM
802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 3.0
1.3MP webcam
4-cell li-ion battery
Benchmark scores:
PC mark Vantage scores:
PC Mark: 6150
Memories Score: 3420
TV and movies score: 4042
Gaming Score: 3421
Music Score: 6376
Communication Score: 5220
Productivity Score: 5620
HDD score: 3783
3D mark 06: 2728
Battery mark:
By test results: 48 min and 45 sec
Forecast Windows: 3 hours, 43 min and 54 sec
