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Asus PadFone X Mini, the Smartphone-Tablet Combination Comes to the US

October 15, 2014 By Troy Rubenson Leave a Comment

At the beginning of this year, Asus launched a new line of Asus Ultrabooks, slim and smart laptops that are quite amazing. Today, we’ve got some more Asus news: the Asus PadFone X Mini is coming to the U.S. and it might shock a few people. Why? Because it’s a device that is both a smartphone and a tablet, without being a phablet. You put the smartphone inside a docking with a screen and it becomes a tablet!

Asus PadFone X Mini

The Asus PadFone X Mini may not impress with its tech specs, but it’s not meant to do that. What’s special about the smartphone is the docking station which comes with it and which transforms the phone into a tablet with a better display quality. The Asus PadFone X Mini has a 4.5-inch display with a resolution of 853×480 pixels and once you slide it into the docking station, you get a tablet with a 7-inch display with a resolution of 1280×800 pixels. Now, that’s impressive! The docking station also comes with its own 2,200mAh battery, while the smartphone has a 2,060mAh one.

Asus PadFone X Mini Tech Specs

As mention earlier, the smartphone doesn’t impress, but that’s not to say that it’s a bad phone. Not at all! The LTE capable smartphone features a dual-core 1.6 Intel Atom processor, 8GB of internal memory and 1GB of RAM, a 5MP back camera and a 2MP front-facing camera. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat and it costs $199,99 contract-free on the GoPhone prepaid plans of AT&T.

The Asus PadFone X Mini will be available starting with October 24. Are you interested in getting one? How do you find this smartphone/tablet mix? Drop us a line in the comment section below and tell us about it!

The New Yoga Tablet 2 Pro and the Yoga 3 Pro are Here

October 10, 2014 By Troy Rubenson Leave a Comment

This time last year, Lenovo launched two Yoga Tablets that caught our attention. Lenovo went wild yesterday when it unveiled a number of Yoga laptops and tablets, but only two have caught our attention: the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro and the Yoga 3 Pro. In today’s article we’re going to take a quick look at them and see what the fuss is all about.

The Yoga Tablet 2 Pro and the Yoga 3 Pro

To begin with, we must say that Lenovo loves its Yoga line. It seems as if it is trying to concentrate all of its energy into updating and innovating the line and we think it’s doing a great job!

The Yoga Tablet 2 Pro is a nice Android (4.4) tablet. It’s got a 13.3-inch display with an impressive resolution of 2560×1440. The screen of the size isn’t too movie-friendly, but I guess it could work for some people. It has a 4-core Intel Atom processor (1.86GHz), 2GB of RAM and up to 32 GB of internal storage. The Yoga Tablet 2 Pro costs $499 and will it will be available starting with the end of the month. The most impressive feature of the 2 Pro is the tiny projector that will cast a 50-inch picture on any flat surface.

The Yoga 3 Pro is a Windows tablet/laptop with a 360 degree hinge. It’s a smart and sleek laptop: it boasts one of Intel’s new Broadwell chips, it has a 13.3-inch screen with a 3200×1800 resolution coated with Gorilla Glass. The processor will run at up to 2.6GHZ and with the 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of SSD, you’re getting quite a jewel. You can grab the Yoga 3 Pro at the end of the month if you’re willing to pay at least $1,349 for it.

Are you interested in the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro and the Yoga 3 Pro? Thinking about buying one of them? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

The New HTC Re Camera Combines a Great Concept with Good Execution

October 9, 2014 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment

If you love the new HTC Desire Eye smartphone that the company announced yesterday, then you’re going to love the HTC Re Camera! It’s the perfect addition to any tech lover who lives to document their life and take pictures at every step.

The New HTC Re Camera

Unveiled at HTC’s Double Exposure media event in New York yesterday, the HTC Re camera is the company’s first cross platform device whose purpose is to give your smartphone a break.

The HTC Re camera pairs with Andoid and iOS smartphones and it is designed to make picture taking and video recording easier. You simply take the camera out of your bag and snap pictures and record video that will automatically be uploaded on your smartphone.

The HTC Re camera has a nice, sleek design and it looks like a small periscope. It’s made of glossy plastic and it has no power button as it turns as when you pick it up. While that’s a nice concept, it could prove tricky in time. Think about it, when that sensor breaks, your camera will be unusable. A great feature on the HTC Re camera is the fact that it’s waterproof. HTC said that the camera is not meant to be an action camera, but it’s still a nice and useful feature.

It has a 16 MP sensor, a 146-degree angle and fixed-focus lens that can shoot 720p slow motion videos at 120fps and 1080p HD videos at 30 fps. The thing that we absolutely hate about this camera is the fact that it has no display and no viewfinder, making it pretty hard to frame your perfect picture.

The HTC Re camera will cost $199 and is available in white, teal, blue and orange later this month. Are you going to get one? Drop us a line in the comment section below.

Gionee Launched the World’s Slimmest Smartphone

March 31, 2014 By Georgia Dawson Leave a Comment

If you have no idea who Gionee is, then you’re not the only one. Up until the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona in February of 2014 not many people had heard of the company. The thing that made an echo at the convention in Spain was their Elfie S5.5 smartphone, which is, at the moment, the world’s slimmest smartphone.

Gionee is a company based in China which produces mobile phone and smartphones for India, Myanmar, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Middle East. Blackberry broke into the Asian market at the end of last year with the launch of Blackberry Z30, but things are still rough for European or American based companies in Asia. Today, Gionee launched the world’s slimmest smartphone, the Elfie S5.5 in India for the price of 22,999 INR, which is around $384. The smartphone will become available for purchase on April 27, so if you want to grab one, you’d have to book the plane tickets now.

The World’s Slimmest Smartphone – the Details

The world’s slimmest smartphone weighs only 130 grams and measures 145.5 x 70 x 5.55 mm. Yes, 5.55 mm makes it the slimmest smartphone in the world, only marginally slimmer than the previous record holder, the Vivo X3 which was 5.75 mm thick.

The Elfie S5.5 runs the company’s own operating system, the Amigo 2.0, which is based on the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It has a wonderful 5-inch AMOLED display (1080 x 1920 pixels) with great pixel density (441ppi).

It may be small, but it’s powerful – the processor is an octa-core 1.7GHz MTK 6592, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. Unfortunately, that’s all the internal memory you’re going to get with the world’s slimmest smartphone, as there is no microSD card slot. The Elfie S5.5 supports 3G and 4G networks and includes Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and USB OTG.

The front facing camera is a good 5 MP and the rear one has 13 MP with LED flash, which is quite impressive for the world’s slimmest camera. According to Gionee, the battery will last one day, which is pretty good for a 2300mAh battery.

Do you have the world’s slimmest smartphone, the Elfie S5.5? How long does the battery last? Are you happy with it? Drop us a line in the comment section below.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon – A Review

March 21, 2014 By Jack M. Robinson Leave a Comment

When Lenovo makes a new notebook, they go out of their way to make it right. We’re in love with the Lenovo Miix 2, a mix of tablet and notebook, but today something else has caught our attention, the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, and we thought of making a short review for it, so here it goes.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

Before we begin we’d like to say that the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a wonderful laptop that is aimed at corporate users, but it could very well be a great consumer product. What Lenovo does best is the build quality and their new notebook looks and feels amazing. The lid is made from carbon fiber and the hinge can extend to 180 degrees without any problems. It’s one tough cookie, just the way we like our notebooks.

Tech Specs

When it comes to ports, the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon has a Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 ports, Lenovo’s OneLink power connector, a Mini DisplayPort, a full-sized HDMI socket, a headphone jack, but it has no SD card slot the previous model had. The keyboard is now a five-road setup and it has an adaptive panel that takes the place of the dreaded Fn keys. They also shrunk the Backspace key, which we think is a great idea.

The standard model with 4 GB of RAM, a 1080 display and 128 GB SSD costs $1,259. The 2,560 x 1,440 model starts from $1,359 and if you would like touchscreen with any configuration, you’ll have to pay an extra $150.

Let’s wrap up and say that we love the fact that the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is that is very durable and it is very thin and light. The high resolution screen left us speechless and the adaptive keyboard panel is quite impressive. The cons about the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is that the battery life isn’t too great, it has no SD slot (and we miss it) and the touchscreen doesn’t come with standard models.

Are you impressed with the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon? Are you thinking of buying one? Tell us what you think in the comment section below.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Revealed

February 25, 2014 By Deborah Cobing Leave a Comment

The wait for Android lovers has finally come to an end, because the greatest Android phone is finally here! Samsung Galaxy S5 revealed itself yesterday, February 24, in Barcelona, Spain. Samsung’s CEO presented their new flagship phone and it is truly stunning. Let’s take a look at some of the new features this smartphone has to offer.

Adjustable Focus and 4k Video

Samsung Galaxy S5 revealed 4k video capture resolution, and with this Samsung just revolutionized the smartphone industry. 4k video capture is so hi-def that even the Galaxy S5 won’t be able to play it at its true resolution. That’s right, the device can only manage 1080p, so you’ll need to play the video on a high definition television or laptop, to truly enjoy the 4k resolution.

The camera has 16MP and also an added slow motion function (we’re looking at you, iPhone 5s!) and a fingerprint reader on the home button (still looking at you, iPhone 5S). The post-capture refocus selection is something that all people will enjoy. The Galaxy S5 also just became the smartphone with the fastest autofocus – it will lock on in only 0.3 seconds!

Under the Hood

The Samsung Galaxy S5 has a 2.5GHz Snapdragon processor… and yes, it’s quad-core! It has 2GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.0 and you can choose between 16GB or 32GB of storage. It also features a microSD card slot, so you can upgrade your hard drive capacity. Rumors say that the new iPhone 6 will offer 126GB of storage, so Samsung’s move with the card slot was a calculated one.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Revealed Heart Beat Function

The heart rate monitor will track its user’s pulse and provide information through the fitness monitoring app. What do you think about this addition? Would you want to see your heart beat all the time? We think it’s quite a gamble and only time will tell if it’s going to stick.

One area that Samsung seems to have forgotten to improve is the battery life. They keep putting new features that will squeeze the life of the battery, yet it doesn’t do anything to help it out. For example, Lenovo’s S860 was revealed and it has more than double battery life than the Samsung Galaxy S5. Sure, it is more bulky and a lot heavier, but that won’t keep people from buying it.

The phone will come into stores on April 11, but no official pricing has been made available just yet. Start saving, it’s not going to be cheap!