Microsoft Surface tablet review

Associated Press, November 03, 2012

I've been conditioned just like any other consumer to expect certain things from certain companies. When it comes to tablets, I expect Apple's to look and feel amazing, Google's to seamlessly blend online services such as Gmail and search, and Amazon's to have easy access to its online store.

So when Microsoft came out with its first tablet computer, the Surface, I wanted and expected a machine that is good for work. After all, its Windows operating system runs most of the world's computers, particularly in corporate environments.

The Surface is Microsoft's first attempt at a general-purpose computer. In the past, it made the software and left it to other companies to make the machines. But to catch the tablet wave led by Apple's iPad, Microsoft felt it needed to make its own device.

The Surface's price tag starts at $499, the same as the latest full-screen iPad, but if you are going to buy one, you'll want to spend the extra $100 or more for an optional cover that comes with a working keyboard.

After several days with it, I felt that Surface comes close to becoming a replacement for my work computer, but it doesn't make it all the way. Some elements designed for "play" make Surface surprisingly good, while others verge on being frustrating.

Interface
There's no doubt that Surface has a split personality, steeped in its very physical design. It's a tablet, but transforms into a personal computer with the keyboard cover, snapped on using its magnetic spine.

Trying hard to be both means compromises. For instance, a kickstand lets you prop up the screen on a flat surface so that it feels more like a laptop with the keyboard attached, but the setup is clumsy for typing on your lap. On the other hand, you can flip the keyboard cover upside down and use the kickstand to form a supportive triangle for the screen. In this position, the device is a comfy companion while watching TV on the couch.

A big aspect of the split personality comes in the software. Surface's start screen has a bunch of square tiles that represent apps - akin to the round icons on iPhones, iPads and Android devices. One touch, and an app opens full screen. But there's also a tile that takes you to a very different operating system called the desktop. Presumably, this is where the "work" begins.

Because the desktop interface takes on the old Windows style of boxes and icons, your suddenly big-seeming fingers become less well-suited to navigating. I had to give up on touch and use the keyboard cover with its trackpad (The pricier Type Cover with real keys is far easier for typing than the soft, flat Touch Cover, by the way). Swiping around on the cover's built-in trackpad quickly brings up the mouse pointer, whose precision you'll both need and appreciate in the desktop world.

Work
The Surface that went on sale Oct. 26 comes with Windows RT, the slimmed-down version of Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 8. While I understand the need for a slimmer OS to run on low-power chips that extend battery life, RT makes the device clearly not a PC.

Although the device has Microsoft's latest browser, Internet Explorer 10, third-party plug-ins that have helped power the Web for years don't work correctly. I couldn't get behind my company's firewall because a Juniper Networks plug-in couldn't be installed. IE 10 is meant to be plug-in free, but the Web hasn't caught up to it yet. Devices with the full version of Windows 8 won't have the same plug-in problem, Microsoft says. But a Surface with Windows 8 Pro isn't due out for a few months.

Surface gives you free copies of the Office programs Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, which is a big bonus. The RT versions of Office operate much like the full versions, but lack some meaningful conveniences such as the ability to email files as attachments with a couple of clicks. Microsoft says that's because Outlook isn't included in the package. Instead, Surface uses a program called Windows Mail, but it makes little sense to me why it can't be integrated with Office.

Still, in my testing I was able to save and access Word and OneNote documents on Microsoft's Internet-storage system, SkyDrive. As a result, I could access those files back on my office computer without the hassles of USB and other storage drives.

Play
Part of the "play" element of Surface should have been the joy of just getting around using the touch screen, but some things made it confusing.

At first, I didn't have a problem with the need to swipe in from the edges to make certain options appear.

Swiping in from the right brings up several buttons including ones for searching, changing settings or returning to the start screen. When you first set up the device, an explanatory graphic pops up to walk you through it. You hold the device with both hands and the screen lengthwise, and you do the swiping with your thumbs. This is very different from the idea of holding the tablet with one hand and touching it with the other, which Apple's iPad seems to favor.

Swiping down from the top lets you either discard an app completely (by swiping through the bottom of the screen) or create a split screen for multitasking (by pushing the app to the left or right until it snaps in place). Swiping up from the bottom brings up app-specific options.

The problem is swiping in from the left. When you do so, it takes you back to the previous app you had open. I was impressed with how snappy the tablet was flipping between programs.

But I got confused sometimes with websites. I wanted to go back a page, not leave the app completely. The difference between these two functions is swiping in from beyond the edge or swiping in from just near it. I often found myself in places in applications without knowing how to return easily.

Also, if you swipe back through apps quickly, you can zip past the one you want, but you can't swipe forward to return to it. As a stopgap, you can swipe in slightly and then back out of the left side to get a list of previous apps. But this is not really intuitive and you have to be careful to touch the one you want when the list comes up.

This painstaking learning takes some of the fun out of having a tablet and makes it maddening to use at times.

Another quirk
The standard font was quite small, forcing me to hunch close to the screen to get a good look. You can scale up the size of everything in the desktop world, but not elsewhere. A function called Magnifier helps make small parts of the screen bigger, but at low resolution. And certain apps let you spread and pinch with your fingers to zoom in and out, but other apps don't. The lack of consistency makes the touch interface less enjoyable.

One other niggling complaint: Even though the screen size should make for perfect widescreen viewing in the 16:9 aspect ratio common for widescreen television, some Netflix movies with wider ratios continued to be shown with big black bars on top and bottom of the screen, wasting valuable screen space.

One big thing Microsoft got right was music. Xbox Music gives you a really clean interface, with beautiful moving graphics, and a "Smart DJ" feature, which plays entire songs in rotation in a genre - much like Pandora. You can also play songs or albums from a catalog of millions; it's free, with ads. In rare cases, you may get only 30-second previews because of licensing reasons, but those songs are also available for purchase from the app.

I liked how Xbox Music plays in the background. When you toggle the physical volume rocker, a little box with pause, forward and back buttons pops up in a corner and fades away quickly. That works with whatever happens to be using the speakers, including iHeart Radio. It allowed me to easily catch up on the morning's news and my email inbox at the same time.

Smart Glass, a feature that allows the Surface and other Windows devices to interact with the Xbox, was interesting but at times confusing. For instance, when I tried swiping through a menu of available videos, games and Xbox apps, I swiped right to left, but the menu on my TV screen went left to right. Same with up and down.

Microsoft says this configuration was intentional based on user research. But for me, it gave the impression that this was not, as CEO Steve Ballmer promised, a delightful product "right out of the box."

Conclusion
The software is far from flawless, but I'm hopeful it will get better over time as apps are developed and software bugs are discovered and fixed.

What's important is that Microsoft got the hardware right - creating a light portable computer that has an ample number of fun features and a decent work environment. That combination could make Surface as addicting and as useful for extending the work day as the BlackBerry once was.

About the Surface
The Surface costs $499 for a version with 32 gigabytes, though about half of it gets taken up by the operating system and pre-loaded software. A Touch Cover costs an extra $100 when purchased with the tablet (It's $120 separately). A Type Cover - with real keys - goes for $130.

For $699, you get the 64 GB version with a Touch Cover included.

The Surface is available only at Microsoft's stores and website.

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iPad mini review

Associated Press, November 08, 2012

I bet the iPad mini is going to be on a lot of wish lists this holiday season. I also bet that for a lot of people, it's not going to be the best choice. It's beautiful and light, but Apple made a big compromise in the design, one that means that buyers should look closely at the competition before deciding.

Starting at $329, the iPad mini is the cheapest iPad. The screen is a third smaller than the regular iPads, and it sits in an exquisitely machined aluminum body. It weighs just 11 ounces half as much as a full-size iPad making it easier to hold in one hand. It's just under 8 inches long and less than a third of an inch thick, so it fits easily into a handbag.

The issue is the screen quality. Apple has been on the forefront of a move toward sharper, more colorful screens. It calls them "Retina" displays because the pixels the little light-emitting squares that make up the screen are so small that they blend together almost seamlessly in our eyes, removing the impression that we're watching a grid of discrete elements.

The iPad mini doesn't have a Retina screen. By the standards of last year, it's a good screen, with the same number of pixels as the first iPad and the iPad 2. The latest full-size iPad has four times as many pixels, and it really shows. By comparison, the iPad mini's screen looks coarse. It looks dull, too, because it doesn't have the same color-boosting technology that the full-size model has.

This is not an entirely fair comparison, as the full-size iPad starts at $499 and weighs twice as much. The real issue is that this year, there are other tablets that are cheaper than the iPad mini, weigh only slightly more and still have better screens.

Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire HD costs $199 and has about the same overall size as the mini. While the Kindle's screen is somewhat smaller (leaving a bigger frame around the edges), it is also sharper, with 30 percent more pixels than the mini. Colors are slightly brighter, too.

Barnes & Noble Inc.'s Nook HD costs $229 and has a screen that's even sharper than the Kindle HD's. It's got 65 percent more pixels than the iPad mini.

Why do tablets from two companies chiefly known as book stores beat Apple's latest for screen quality?

Sharper screens are darker, requiring a more powerful backlight to appear bright. That, in turn, would have forced an increase in the battery size. That's the reason the first iPad with a Retina display was thicker and heavier than the iPad 2. So to keep the iPad mini thin while matching the 10-hour battery life of the bigger iPads, Apple had to compromise on the display.

This can't last, though. By next year, it will likely be even more obvious that Apple is seriously behind in screen quality on its small tablet, and it will have to upgrade to a Retina display somehow. That means this first-generation iPad mini will look old pretty fast.

The display causes a few other problems, too. One is that when you run iPhone apps on the mini, it uses the coarsest version of the graphics for that app - the version designed for iPhones up to the 2009 model, the 3GS. You can blow the app up to fill more of the screen, but it looks pretty ugly. The full-size iPad uses the higher-quality Retina graphics when running iPhone apps, and it looks much better.

Some apps adapted for the iPad screen don't display that well on the mini screen, either, because of the smaller size. Buttons can be too small to hit accurately, bringing to mind Steve Jobs' 2010 comments about smaller tablets. The late Apple founder was of the vociferous opinion that the regular iPad was the smallest size that was also friendly to use.

In some apps, text on the mini is too small to be comfortably read - the section fronts in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal apps are examples of this.

Of course, in some other respects, the iPad mini outdoes the Fire and the Nook, so it isn't just the tablet for the buyer who needs the prettiest and the thinnest. In particular, the Mini is a $329 entry ticket to the wonderful world of iPad and iPhone apps. For quality and quantity, it beats all the other app stores. (Oddly, there's an inverse relationship between screen quality and app availability in this category the Nook HD has the best screen and the fewest apps, while the second-best Kindle Fire HD has middling access to apps.)

The Mini also has front- and back-facing cameras, for taking still photos and video and for videoconferencing. The Kindle Fire HD only has a front-facing camera for videoconferencing. The Nook HD doesn't have a camera at all.

In short, the iPad Mini is more versatile than the competition, and I'm sure it will please a lot of people. But take a look at the competition first, and figure that by next year, we'll see something from Apple that looks a lot better.

About the iPad Mini
The base model of the iPad mini costs $329 and comes with 16 gigabytes of storage. A 32 GB model goes for $429 and 64 GB for $529. Soon, you'll be able to get versions that can connect through cellular networks, not just Wi-Fi. Add $130 to the price.

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Google Nexus 10 review

Associated Press, November 15, 2012

When I first turned on Google's new tablet computer, I immediately thought of it as a mere conduit to Google services.

Besides giving you quick access to Gmail and YouTube, the Nexus 10 steers you to digital movies, books and other content available for sale through Google's online Play store.

Because of that, I wasn't thinking of the Nexus 10 as an alternative to Apple's general-purpose iPad - even with a price tag that's $100 cheaper, starting at $399. It took more thought and time with the Nexus to change that perception. After all, apps available for Android smartphones work on the tablet as well.

Still, the Nexus really shines when it comes to media - especially content bought through Google.

For the past year, Google has been trying to challenge Apple and Amazon by selling digital content.

The Play store is Google's version of iTunes for Apple devices. There, you can get a variety of apps, some free and some for a small fee. You can buy or rent movies and obtain books, magazines and music. Google isn't satisfied with building search engines and selling ads. It wants a bigger role in the digital economy.

Over the summer, Google came out with a 7-inch tablet called the Nexus 7. Just as Apple is making an iPad Mini that's about the size of the Nexus 7, Google is now selling a larger version of the Nexus, about the size of Apple's regular iPad. It starts shipping this week.

On the Nexus 10, icons at the bottom of the screen emphasize Google's media products available through Play. Click on a picture of film to watch movies, headphones to listen to music and a book to, well, read books. Another icon gets you to the Play store to obtain more content and apps.

The Nexus has a rubberized back and fits more snuggly on my lap than the metal-backed iPad. In my hands, I don't feel as if the Nexus would slip out and crash on to the hard floor, as I continually do with the iPad.

There are front-facing speakers going up and down both sides of the Nexus, compared with just one tucked in a corner on the back of an iPad. You feel more immersed watching video with sound coming right at you from the entire device. I hadn't considered that a problem on the iPad, but I began to notice it once I played video on the tablets side by side.

The screen measures 10.1 inches diagonally, which is more than the iPad's 9.7 inches. But the screen isn't any larger because while it's about an inch wider in horizontal mode, it's also about a half-inch less in height. This works well for widescreen content, which completely fills the screen. On the iPad, the latest movies and TV shows often have black bars, no matter how you hold the tablet. In some cases, you might see the sides of video cut off to fit the space, as I did watching this week's episode of "Revenge" on Hulu. Again, I hadn't considered that a problem on the iPad, until I began to notice it.

What makes the tablet's shape good for movies makes it less-than-ideal for magazines, though. There's wasted space on the top and the bottom for magazines on the Nexus. But I watch TV shows and movies online more often than I read magazines digitally, so I'll let it slide.

As for books, text on the Nexus' screen comes out sharp. News sites and apps also look nice. The Nexus has a screen resolution of 300 pixels per inches, slightly better than the 264 ppi for the latest full-size iPad (which itself is far better than the 132 ppi on the older iPad 2 model still available).

True, there are other tablets designed as media players, too. Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble Inc.'s Nook HD come to mind, and both have larger versions out this month. But neither has the diversity of apps available for the Nexus and other full-fledge Android devices (The Kindle and the Nook run on modified versions of Android and restrict apps to what's available through their own online stores).

So what does that mean?

Apps on my Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone automatically appear on the Nexus 10 after signing in with the same Google account. I'll note that the Nexus 10 is also made by Samsung Electronics Co., even though it's branded Google.

Three of my apps, for AccuWeather, Citibank and Dunkin' Donuts, aren't compatible for unknown reasons. But those I use most often - Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare and a slew of other weather apps - all work on the Nexus. The companion app for the TV show "Dexter" also works, allowing me to play trivia games and watch video clips.

Not all apps have been specifically adapted for the tablet's larger screen, but they take advantage of the entire screen, nonetheless, thanks to the way Android lets software programmers build their apps in modules. All the content gets blown up and still looks decent.

Apple's store has a far wider selection of apps, though, including a half-dozen apps for exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. A search on Play comes up with only one.

The Nexus comes with the latest version of the Android operating system, version 4.2. It introduces a new feature for sharing tablets, the way family members can share Windows and Mac computers while keeping personalized settings. You no longer have to fight with a kid who constantly changes the volume or moves apps around. Now, just sign in as separate users.

The Nexus is a tad lighter, while the iPad promises longer battery life and has an option for cellular broadband for $130 more, plus the cost of data plans. Neither has a slot to expand memory with SD cards. Both have two cameras - 5 megapixels on the back for taking photos and video, and a lower-resolution one on the front for videoconferencing.

The iPad remains king among tablets, with its ease of use, variety of apps and dominance in the market. But challengers such as Google offer choice. The Nexus 10 is a good choice if you already have an Android phone and use a lot of Google services. That's especially true if you also watch a lot of movies and TV shows, but don't want to be limited to that.

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Spice Stellar Pad (Mi-1010) review

Anupam Saxena, January 28, 2013

Although Spice had launched its first tablet, the MiTab as early as September 2011, it wasn't really able to get a foothold in the highly crowded Android tablets market, dominated by players like Micromax, Zync and Karbonn, amongst others. The company's sort of made a comeback with a new 10-inch tablet, which it calls, the Spice Stellar Pad (Mi-1010). The tablet with impressive specs has been priced well at Rs. 12,999 and runs Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of Android. We've been playing with the device and here's our take on the mid-economy tablet.

Hardware/ Build & design
The tablet feels solid although it's a bit on the heavier side but the weight has been distributed well. The tablet has a 10-inch screen surrounded by a black bezel on the front, and a silver back, which is made of plastic, with a matte finish. The back also sports the Spice logo, placed right at the middle, two speaker grills and the camera lens at the top. There's some branding at the lower part as well.

There are no hardware buttons on the front, giving it a sleek look. The materials used don't feel cheap, and we can safely say that it's one of the better designed Android tablets available in the market.

On the right side, there are charging and connectivity ports including a USB on the go port, an HDMI port and 3.5mm headphone jack, in addition to a 2.5 mm custom charging port. Thanks to the USB on the go port, you can connect this tablet to PC in disk mode, just like a regular Micro-USB port and then turnaround and act like a PC when you connect a USB drive or 3G dongle to the tablet.

On the flip side, this implies that you need to carry the tablet's custom charger along, which is a bit inconvenient.A large number of devices support charging through micro-USB, eliminating the need to carry multiple chargers, we don't think devices should come with custom charging ports.

There's also a microphone, a reset button, and a memory card (SD/ TransFlash) slot. There are markings for each on the back of the tablet, albeit in grey colour which tends to reduce the visibility since the back is silver. The top sports a Power/ Sleep button and a volume rocker, all in plastic.

Overall, the hardware appears to be durable and is tastefully done.

Display
The 10-inch TFT display comes with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels, which is pretty decent compared to other budget tablets in the segment. The screen is bright, and although we found that it's reflective to some extent, visibility under sunlight was not bad. The display has an IPS panel that facilitates wider viewing angles, which essentially means that more than one person can view content playing on the screen properly, even from different angles. We found that this holds true in the case of the Spice Stellar Pad, and we were able to view media playing on the screen from different angles. There was a slight backlight leakage from the sides and a blue tint towards the right hand side of the screen, but we're not sure if it's limited to our review unit. The touch sensitivity is good, and we didn't encounter any issues while using the device.

Software/ Interface
The Spice Stellar Pad runs Android 4.1 - Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of the operating system, and doesn't include any custom skin. It's a stock build of the OS bundled with a few third party apps including music streaming app, Dhingana, a file browser, the Economic Times and Times of India news apps, Shark Dash- a game, a video player and a Gravity Calibration utility. We like the fact that there's no bloatware.

The Spice Stellar Pad is one of the few tablets that runs Jelly Bean. Unlike the Nexus 7, the tablet's onscreen controls are on the bottom left instead of the centre, and the notification panel and quick access settings (for Wi-Fi, Screen rotation, brightness, sound and shortcut to settings) are located at the bottom right.

During our use, we didn't notice much lag while navigating through menus, and Google's much touted 'Project Butter'makes the overall experience more responsive than tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich.

The other major feature that Jelly Bean brings is 'Google Now', a voice based information assistant and an extension of Google search. You can ask questions and the tool returns answers or search results. It uses 'cards' which are essentially small boxes that offer different sets of information ranging from weather forecast, directions, traffic information, scores, appointments, and currency conversion, among others. Google Now collects information based on the user's behavior, location and even e-mail to offer information, automatically.

We're not sure if the tablet will get updated to Jelly Bean 4.2, but if it does, features like multi-user accounts (different profiles and access for different users) and lock-screen widgets would also come to the tablet.

Camera
The Spice Stellar Tab comes with a 3-megapixel rear camera and a front facing VGA camera. We found that the pictures taken with the rear camera were a bit grainy. It was worse when we tried clicking them in low light. The rear camera does not have auto-focus. Though we're not sure if someone will use the tablet as dedicated devices for clicking pictures, we found that it's only suitable for casual clicks. The front camera is functional at best and does a decent job when used for making video calls.

Performance/ Battery Life
The tablet is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, a quad-core GPU and 1 GB of RAM. We did not encounter any crashes while working on this tablet and multitasking was comfortable. We also did not notice much lag and were able to play tablet optimized games and HD video clips, without a hitch. The tablet comes with the native Android browser and Chrome, and renders all webpages well. Adobe Flash is pre-installed allowing the browser to display Flash videos, banners and other elements. The speakers on the tablet deliver good quality sound at even high volume levels. There's no voice calling but the major omission is Bluetooth connectivity. We're not sure why Spice had to exclude it since all major Android devices offer this feature.

The Spice Stellar Pad comes with a 7600mAh battery and we were satisfied with the backup that it offered, although we had some problems charging it up after the battery was completely drained. It took almost 2 hours to get to 10-15% charge levels delivered but the problem could be limited to just our unit, and we've requested Spice to send a replacement. We'll update our review if we see a difference. We were able to get around 8 hours of video playback, even with the display on full brightness levels. The standby time with push notifications and e-mails on was also decent. With intermediate usage during the day, we were able to get 2 days of backup. The tablet would easily give 8-10 hours of usage on a single charge.

Verdict
As we mentioned earlier in the review, the Spice Stellar Pad is one of the better Android tablets out there in the market. At a price of Rs. 12,999, it offers a good package with decent hardware, a bright screen that supports wide angled viewing and the latest version of Android, Jelly Bean. It's a good value for money proposition. If you're looking for a tablet that also offers voice calling, the Huawei Mediapad Lite is another good option available in the same price range.

Pros

• Runs Jelly Bean
• Good performance
• Display with decent viewing angles

Cons

• Slightly heavy
• Battery charging issues (could be specific to our unit)
• No Bluetooth

Ratings (Out of 5)

• Design: 3.5
• Display: 3.5
• Performance: 4
• Software: 4
• Battery Life: 4
• Value for Money: 4
• Camera: 2.5
• Ecosystem: 4
• Overall: 3.5

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Acer Iconia B1-A71 review

Anupam Saxena, February 04, 2013

Acer created a lot of buzz when it announced its decision to jump into the Budget tablet segment with the Acer Iconia B1-A71, that it first announced during CES, and later, as reported by us, launched it in India at an attractive price of Rs. 7,999. Here's our review of the tablet.

Hardware/ Build & Design
The Acer Iconia B1-A71 is a 7-inch tablet, and accordingly comes in a compact form factor. However, the first thing that you notice about the tablet is that it's very apparent that it's made of plastic. The tablet is light-weight but feels flimsy. The hardware doesn't exude the feeling of durability, and if you put even a little bit of pressure on the screen, you'll see that it creaks and pushes through.

Talking of the design and construction, the front of the tablet has a big black bezel, and the screen peeps through it in a manner similar to a digital photo-frame. The top sports Acer branding at the middle and a VGA camera at the right side. There's a strange Blue-coloured frame contouring the tablet at the sides, and sadly, it doesn't do much to enhance the look of the device. It looks more like a toy, and though we do understand that it's a budget tablet, Acer has cut corners when it comes to the quality of materials used. 

The back has also been done in black coloured plastic. There's some Acer branding, a small speaker grill and certification labels. A Micro-USB port is located at the bottom with a slot for a micro-SD card that is covered with an insert, while the 3.5 mm headset jack sits at the top of the device. The volume rocker and the power/sleep button, also done in black plastic material, have been placed at the right side of the tablet.

Display
The 7-inch (diagonal) WSVGA capacitive multitouch screen comes with a resolution of 1024x600 pixels, which is nothing to write home about. The pixel density is about 170 ppi. The screen is bright, but we found that it's very reflective, and this hampers visibility under sunlight. Also, the colours appear to be washed out and due to the low resolution, images also appear to be less sharp. Viewing angles, especially from the sides (vertically) are bad, and colours appear different from what they should. Although text doesn't appear very sharp, the screen is decent for reading e-books and magazines. The touch sensitivity is excellent and we didn't encounter any issues while using the device.

Software/ Interface
The Acer Iconia B1 runs Android 4.1.2 - Jelly Bean and except for a few tweaks in the notification bar, doesn't include any custom skin. At first boot we also found Google Play apps for Movies & TV, Books and Magazines, but they disappeared as soon as we connected the tablet to a Wi-Fi network - this is likely because of region restrictions. Acer also includes a Registration app. We like the fact that there's no bloatware and Acer has tried to keep the experience as close to stock Android as possible.

Acer Iconia B1 is one of the few 7-inch tablets that run Jelly Bean. Similar to the Nexus 7, the tablet's onscreen controls (for Home, Back and App Switching) are at the centre, and the notification tray and quick access settings (for brightness, screen timeout, Wi-Fi, Screen rotation, Bluetooth, GPS, Airplane mode and shortcut to Settings) are located at the top area in the notification tray, in a manner which is a bit different from the stock build of Android on the Nexus 7. 


There are five customisable home screens that can be filled with app shortcuts and widgets. The standard app-launcher and dock that allows users to place six of their preferred apps are omnipresent across all home-screens. The standard lockscreen allows users to either unlock the device or go straight into the camera. Of course, users can customize it to put a Face Unlock, Pattern, PIN or Password lock.

During our use, we didn't notice much lag while navigating through menus, and Google's much touted 'Project Butter' makes the overall experience more responsive than tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich.

The other major feature that Jelly Bean brings is 'Google Now', a voice based information assistant and an extension of Google search. You can ask questions and the tool returns answers or search results. It uses 'cards' which are essentially small boxes that offer different sets of information ranging from weather forecast, directions, traffic information, scores, appointments, and currency conversion, among others. Google Now collects information based on the user's behavior, location and even e-mail to offer information, automatically.

We're not sure if the tablet will get updated to Jelly Bean 4.2, but if it does, features like multi-user accounts (different profiles and access for different users) and lock-screen widgets would also come to the tablet.

Camera
The Acer Iconia B1 comes with a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera. Although, personally we're no fans on using tablets for clicking needs, some may miss having a rear camera that can be used for taking casual shots or just for scanning some documents. The pictures that we clicked with the front camera, indoors, were very grainy. It's functional at best and does a decent job when used for making video calls over Skype or other video chat apps.

Performance/ Battery Life
The tablet is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor alongside 512MB of RAM. We did not encounter any crashes while working on this tablet and multitasking was comfortable. We also did not notice much lag and were able to play tablet-optimized games, without a hitch, though loading time for apps is on the higher side. We were able to play 720p HD videos but the tablet wasn't able to play 1080p videos.

The tablet comes with the native Android browser and Chrome, and renders all webpages well. The speaker grill on the back of the tablet delivers average quality sound. There's no voice calling or support for 3G data via SIM card or dongles, and the only way to connect to the Internet is through Wi-Fi. In our tests we observed that download speeds were a bit slow compared to other devices. The tablet comes with 8 B of inbuilt storage and a micro-SD card slot that allows users to expand storage. Interestingly, the tablet also features a GPS module, but without 3G or data connectivity of any kind on the road, you'll have to rely entirely on navigation apps that include offline support.

The Iconia B1 comes with a 2710mAh battery, which we feel is a little inadequate, especially if playing music and videos is a major part of your everyday usage. We were able to completely charge the battery in about 3 hours. We were able to get around 4 hours of video playback, with the display on full brightness levels. The standby time with push notifications and e-mails, and intermediate usage, was about a day. The tablet gives between 5-6 hours of continuous usage on a single charge.

Verdict
The main USP of the Acer Iconia B1-A71 is the price. At Rs. 7,999, the tablet packs in a lot of features, and if you're not constantly on the road and don't require 3G connectivity (or use a 3G hotspot), then the tablet is a great deal if price is a major consideration. To offer the tablet at this price, Acer has cut corners when it comes to the overall quality of the hardware, which we feel doesn't appear to be very durable. Other tablets that run Jelly Bean in this segment include the Karbonn Smart Tab 8, an 8-inch tablet that sports a better screen and larger battery, though we're yet to test it. If price is not a consideration, then the Huawei MediaPad Lite (with voice calling) and the Nexus , are other 7-inch Android tablets in the premium segment that you can consider, though the Nexus 7 isn't officially available in the country yet. The Acer Iconia B1 is a great option if you're looking for a tablet for casual web browsing, reading e-books and playing casual game.

Pros

• Runs Jelly Bean
• Attractive pricing
• Decent performance

Cons

• Quality of materials used is underwhelming
• The screen's viewing angles are bad & colours looked washed out
• Battery life could have been better

Ratings (Out of 5)

Design: 3
Display: 2.5
Performance: 3.5
Software: 4
Battery Life: 2.5
Value for Money: 3.5
Camera: 1
Ecosystem: 4
Overall: 3

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Sony launches Cyber-shot W730 for Rs. 7,990

Surbhi Chawla, February 21, 2013

Sony has quietly launched a brand new Cyber-shot camera in the Indian market. Dubbed the Sony Cyber-shot W730 comes with a 16.1-megapixels CCD image sensor. In addition to that the camera comes with Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 8x Zoom Lens.

Sony Cyber-shot W730 has a 2.7-inch TFT LCD display with 230k-dot resolution for viewing pictures and videos. The camera is also capable of recording 720p HD videos at 30fps. Sony has also added Optical SteadyShot image stabilisation with Active Mode in this camera. As per the company this feature helps in compensating for camera shakes and jerks and helps users in getting sharp, blur-free images and videos.

The camera also comes with other handy features such as Picture Effects, Beauty Effects, Face Detection and Smile Shutter, 360 degree Sweep Panorama, iAuto, and Advanced Flash.

This camera is available in host of colours including black, white, blue, green and pink. The dimensions of the camera are 93.1mm x 52.3mm x 22.5mm and it weighs approximately 122 grams.

Sony Cyber-shot W730 is available in the market for Rs. 7,990 and the pack includes the camera, rechargeable battery pack, ac adaptor, multi-USB cable, wrist strap, instruction manual, AC power cord and AC plug adaptor.

Sony is also offering Cyber-shot DSC-W710 and Cyber-shot DSC-W690 cameras. Both these cameras also have a 16.1-megapixels CCD image sensor. Cyber-shot W710 comes with a 5x optical zoom and costs Rs. 5,990. While Cyber-shot W690 comes with a 10x optical zoom and is currently available in the market for Rs. 8,990. The Japanese camera maker claims that Cyber-shot W690 is the world's slimmest CCD-sensor camera at 17.5 mm thickness. It comes with a 3-inch LCD screen.

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Sony RX100 review

David Pogue, The New York Times, June 28, 2012

This is a review of the best pocket camera ever made.

The Sony RX100 has a huge one-inch sensor - the biggest ever stuffed into a pocketable zoom camera

But first, a history lesson.

For years camera makers worried about competition from only one source: other camera makers. But in the end, the most dangerous predator came from an unexpected direction: cellphones.

Today, more photos are taken with phones than with point-and-shoot cameras. On photo sites like Flickr, the iPhone is the source of more photos than any real camera. No wonder sales of inexpensive pocket cameras are going down each year.

Cameras in phones are a delightful development for the masses. If you have your camera with you, you're more likely to take photos and more likely to capture amazing images.

But in a sense they are also great for camera makers, which are being forced to double down in areas where smartphones are useless: Zoom lenses. High resolution. Better photo quality. Flexibility and advanced features. That's why, even if sales of pocket cameras are down, sales of high-end cameras are up.

Now you know why the time is ripe for the new Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100. It's a tiny, pants-pocketable camera that will be available in late July for the nosebleed price of $650.

Or, rather, won't be available. It will be sold out everywhere. I'll skip to the punch line: No photos this good have ever come from a camera this small.

The first reason is easy to grasp. The Sony RX100 has a huge one-inch sensor - the biggest ever stuffed into a pocketable zoom camera. That's not as big as the sensors in S.L.R.'s and other lens-swappable cameras. But it's about four times the area of the previous pocket-camera photo-quality champs, like the Olympus XZ-1 and the S100. (The RX100's shiny black metal body looks exactly like them.)

A big sensor means big pixels, which gives you less grain in low light, better color depth and great dynamic range - the spectrum from darkest to lightest pixels.

A big sensor is also a prerequisite for that professional blurry background look. The RX100 easily achieves those soft backgrounds, a rarity in compact cameras.

The other star factor in the Sony is its Carl Zeiss lens, whose maximum aperture (lens opening) is f/1.8. That's the widest aperture you can buy on a pocket camera. That, too, helps explain its ability to blur the background, and its spectacular results in low light.

(As on any camera, that aperture shrinks as you zoom in. When you're fully zoomed on this camera, you're down to f/4.9. That's still better than the Canon's fully zoomed aperture - f/5.9.)

But you know what? All of that is just shutterbug-speak for, "This camera takes amazing photos." If you want to know what "huge sensor" and "big aperture" mean in the real world, stop reading and savor my annotated slide show of sample photos. There's a small sampling at nytimes.com/personaltech, and a larger one at http://j.mp/LdUu4h.

There you'll see what makes the RX100 such a revelation: insane amounts of detail and vivid, true colors. Hand-held twilight photos. A burst mode that can fire 10 frames a second. And macro shots - supercloseup - that will curl whatever's left of your hair. A typical S.L.R. can't get any closer than 10 inches from the subject with its included lens; the RX100 can nail focus only 2 inches away.

The RX100 is as customizable and manually controllable as an S.L.R., but it also has some impressive automated modes. They include Illustration (turns the photo into a colorful line drawing), High Dynamic Range Painting and the bizarre but sometimes enlightening Auto Crop. It creates a duplicate of your portrait, cropped in what it considers a better way. Sometimes, it's right.

And Sweep Panorama. You swing the camera around you in an arc, pressing the shutter button the whole time. When you stop, there, on your screen, is a finished, seamless, 220-degree panorama. It's the ultimate wide-angle lens. Canyons, crowd shots, Walmart interiors - you won't believe how often it's useful.

For self-portraits, you can set a timer as usual. Or use its even smarter mode, in which the camera waits until it sees your face in the frame. Then it fires a shot every three seconds until you leave the scene.

As usual on today's compacts, there's no eyepiece viewfinder, a loss you may mourn. But the three-inch screen remains clear and bright even in bright sunshine, thanks to an extra white pixel Sony has nestled in among every set of red, green and blue.

The 1080p video capture isn't quite the same festival of crispness as the photos. But you can use all the photo effects while filming. And while recording, you can zoom, change focus and even take still photos.

Sony has taken the debatable step of bringing back in-camera charging. That is, there's no external charger for the 330-shot battery. Instead, the camera is the charger, whenever it's connected to a USB jack, like the one on your laptop, or a wall outlet. Pros: No charger to pack and lose. Cons: You can't charge a spare battery while you're out shooting.

As with its role model, the Canon S100, you can program the function of the Sony lens ring. It can control zoom, focus, exposure, aperture, whatever. But unlike the Canon's ring, the Sony's ring doesn't click as you turn it - sounds that get picked up when you're capturing video.

On the hand, you don't feel clicks either. The ring spins freely, which gives it a glassy, skidding feeling when you're adjusting a setting with natural stopping points, like ISO (light sensitivity) or shutter speed.

That's not the only niggling downside. The biggest one, of course, is that there's very little room for physical buttons. All of the RX100's hundreds of functions are packed into five buttons on the back, a mode dial on top, the ring around the lens and a four-way clickable ring on the back.

Novices will find it overwhelming. Then again, it's fairly clear that this isn't a camera for novices. Besides, eventually it all makes sense. You learn to press the Fn button whenever you want to adjust a photographic setting, or the Menu button to adjust a camera-setup setting.

The camera has a 3.6X zoom lens. The Canon S100 zooms more (5X zoom). On the other hand, the Sony takes 20-megapixel photos, versus 12 on the Canon.

Ordinarily I'm not a fan of cramming more pixels into a camera as a marketing ploy. High-megapixel photos take longer to transfer, fill up your hard drive faster and are overkill for most printing purposes.

But on Sony's sensor, these are really useful pixels. You can crop away a huge part of the photo and still have lots of megapixels left for big prints; in effect, you're amplifying the zoom.

One last downside: In certain photos, when I adjusted the overall contrast in Photoshop later, I noticed some vignetting - darkened areas at the corners.

This is an ideal second camera for professionals. And it's a great primary camera for any amateur who wants to take professional-looking photos without having to carry a camera bag.

Of course, $650 is crazy expensive. You can buy a full-blown S.L.R. for that much.

But every time you transfer a batch of its pictures to your computer, you'll understand why you spent that money. You'll click through them, astonished at how often it's successful in stopping time, capturing the emotion of a scene, enshrining a memory or an expression you never want to forget. You'll appreciate that the RX100 has single-handedly smashed the rule that said, "You need a big camera for pro-quality photos."

And if you care at all about your photography, you'll thank Sony for giving the camera industry a good hard shove into the future. 

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