Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet review

The ThinkPad X1 Tablet is Lenovo's first business 2-in-1 tablet since the ThinkPad Helix. The Helix showed promise but its Frankenstein design meant a less than elegant keyboard attachment, and the tablet tended to run a bit hot and loud since Lenovo ambitiously used fan-toting Intel Core i CPUs in a thin design. The X1 Tablet is a simple and elegant product in comparison; an unassuming slim matte black rectangle that looks pleasingly modern and spare in a good way. Its looks are closer to the ThinkPad 10, but it builds on the modularity of the Helix. The 12" Windows 10 tablet/2-in-1 comes with an excellent, albeit small keyboard that lives up to the ThinkPad reputation and it's available with Intel 6th generation Skylake Core m5 and m7 CPUs with 8 gigs of RAM and an SSD. It competes with the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 but it adds a twist: snap-on accessories that seem to be the 2016 trend for smartphones and now tablets. You can add on a projector, or an Intel RealSense 3D camera or a Productivity module with extended battery and a few more ports (HDMI, OneLink+ docking connector and USB 3.0). So far, Intel Core M products haven't been less expensive than their Core i5 competitors, and the ThinkPad X1 Tablet is no exception. Our review unit will retail for $1,350 according to Lenovo, and configurations range from $1,200 to $1,600 (keyboard included along with the ThinkPad Pen Pro). It's priced similarly to Surface Pro 4 Core i5 and the Toshiba Portege Z20t2-in-1 tablet with Core M.

Specs at a Glance

The ThinkPad X1 Tablet has a 12" 2160 x 1440 IPS glossy display that supports touch and the included Wacom AES pen. That's the same resolution and 3:2 aspect ratio as Microsoft's last gen convertible tablet, the Surface Pro 3. It's available with Intel Core m5 and m7 CPUs with Intel HD 515 graphics and 8 gigs of DDR3L RAM. You can get it with a variety of SSD capacities and it has Intel 8260AC dual band WiFi 802.11ac with Bluetooth. The tablet weighs 1.7 lbs. and 2.3 lbs. with the included keyboard (3 ounces less than Surface Pro 4). Modules connect to the bottom edge in a clean and simple way (no complex clamps or plastic baffles like the ThinkPad Helix). The tablet has no fans and is thus silent; a benefit of the Intel Core M platform. According to Lenovo, the back is removable for servicing and upgrading internals such as the battery and SSD (RAM is soldered on and not upgradable). We haven't taken ours apart yet since the method for doing so isn't obvious and the service manual isn't yet available. The tablet has a fingerprint scanner that works with Windows Hello for login.

Design and Ergonomics

The tablet is slim at 0.34" and it's fairly rigid thanks to the magnesium alloy internal structure and a PPS injection molded plastic casing. The ThinkPad X1 Tablet feels like a well-made machine, though some might find the lack of metal on the outside less than luxurious. If you're accustomed to the ThinkPad build, I don't think the matte black plastic exterior will bother you--rather you'll feel right at home.

The companion keyboard is excellent. The keys have decent travel for a thin detachable keyboard and they're backlit. Tactile feel and damping are excellent, and the only issue we'd imagine is with the diminished size since it has to match the 12" tablet. It's obviously more compact than a 13.3" Ultrabook's keyboard, but I suspect only those with very large hands will have issues. The buttonless trackpad and NavPoint with hardware buttons are up to ThinkPad standards. They work well, though the trackpad is a little noisy when clicking thanks to the thin keyboard's design (it resonates, much like the Surface Type Cover).

The built-in stand is an upside down version of the Surface Pro kickstand. Rather than deploying from a hinge on the middle back that drops down, the ThinkPad X1 Tablet's kickstand is a metal plate that attaches along the bottom edge and drops down so that plate of metal rests flat against your legs. That means no thin metal edge will leave a crease on bare legs and it's a bit more stable when using it on the lap. The kickstand releases via a slider on the back and it has a fairly wide usable range, though you can't use it nearly flat nor completely upright at 90 degrees. You can however flip the tablet and use it upside down (the accelerometer will rotate the screen, so it won't really be upside down in terms of screen orientation) if you want it to lay propped up just a bit on a table for note taking or drawing.

The tablet has few ports, and these include the connector on the bottom (hidden under a removable plastic piece) for the optional modules, a USB 3.0 port, a USB-C 3.1 Gen. 1 port for charging and for USB-C peripherals (but not Thunderbolt 3), a 3.5mm combo audio jack and a mini DisplayPort. Thus the ports are similar to Surface Pro 4, but the ThinkPad adds the USB-C port. Like Surface Pro, the microSD card slot is hidden under the stand flap, and there's a nano SIM card slot for optional 4G LTE.

How the Keyboard Attaches

The keyboard with integrated trackpad attaches to the tablet via strong magnets and it has pogo pins for the electronic connection. The magnets are very strong, and like Surface Pro you can dangle the tablet by holding the keyboard and they won't separate, though we don't recommend making a habit of this. Again like Surface Pro and its optional Type Cover, there are two keyboard positions: flat on the table and slightly angled (magnets keep it in place). The keyboard's attachment area is like a flexible book spine and it looks good in faux leather. You can't however wrap the keyboard behind the tablet--you'll have to remove it if you want it out of the way.

Display

The tablet's display doesn't disappoint, and that's refreshing since Lenovo's business ThinkPad laptops often fall short of the consumer competition for color gamut and even sometimes contrast. The tablet represents the full sRGB gamut and 75% of Adobe RGB, as do other laptops and 2-in-1's in this price range. With 365 nits of measured brightness, it's bright enough to combat bright environments and contrast is good at 760:1 with a 0.47 black level at max brightness. The Gorilla Glass 4 clad display is glossy and it has plenty of glare, though the high brightness mitigates this. The display puts up a good fight against the slightly larger and slightly higher resolution Surface Pro 4. it can't compete for over the top vibrance with the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S Windows tablet and its AMOLED display, but Lenovo will be answering that challenge with the AMOLED version of thier lovely 14" ThinkPad X1 Yoga convertible laptop.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet Video Review

Wacom AES Pen

Lenovo has switched from Wacom EMR digitizers and pens to the new Wacom AES technology that has much in common with N-Trig on Microsoft Surface Pro 4, Surface Book and some Vaio models. Both N-Trig and Wacom AES use electrostatic pens where the pen is active (it supplies power rather than the display's digitizer providing power). The Lenovo ThinkPad Pen Pro, which uses a AAAA battery just like N-Trig pens is included. This is a full size pen rather than the toothpick that's included with some of Lenovo's convertible laptops. There's no silo to store the pen, but Lenovo includes a plastic holder that slots into the USB port. The pen has two side buttons but no eraser on the end.

Edge detection and parallax (pen tip offset) are excellent, again like N-Trig and better than Wacom EMR in that respect. Wacom says EMR is still their most precise and premium technology, but it does cost more and adds weight and thickness due to the digitizer on the display. I actually feel that lack of parallax and good edge detection are more important than absolute accuracy, so I'm content with Wacom AES and the latest N-Trig for my writing and art needs.
Palm rejection works well (you can rest your hand on the display when writing and drawing), and the Wacom control panel allows you to adjust the pressure curve to a limited degree. It supports WinTab for those who use older art programs that require WinTab for pressure sensitivity. It's a pleasant experience for art, though there's no pen tilt like the iPad Pro and some Wacom Cintiq pens. The 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity allow for a realistic feel, though the slippery glass and hard pen tip don't feel much like pen on paper.

Performance and Horsepower

Intel Core M Skylake 6th generation CPUs are no slouches, and performance falls somewhere between the Core i3 and Core i5. The benefit isn't cost since these CPUs are priced similarly to the Core i5 dual core CPUs used in Ultrabooks and Surface Pro, rather it's the cooler running fanless design that means no noise and no burning hands when you hold the tablet. The ThinkPad X1 Tablet won't be quite as fast as the ThinkPad X1 Yoga with a Core i5 or Core i7 CPU, nor will it beat the Core i5 Surface Pro 4, but it's faster by a little bit than the entry level Core m3 Surface Pro 4 and it's fast enough for MS Office, photo editing and streaming full HD video. I wouldn't buy it to edit video professionally or to multitask like a demon with many heavy programs running, but it's fine for everyday business and school use unless you're an upperclassman in engineering.

The ThinkPad X1 Tablet is available with 1.1 GHz Intel Core m5-6Y57 and 1.2 GHz Core m7-6Y75 CPUs, both with Intel HD 515 graphics. The HD 515 falls 20% short of Intel HD 520 graphics used in Core i tablets and laptops (the graphics performance divide is greater than the CPU divide). The tablet has 8 gigs of DDR3L RAM soldered on board (not upgradable) and an M.2 SATA-3 SSD that should be upgradable if you remove the back cover.

Battery Life

You'd think the Core M with its lower power requirements would offer longer battery life, but because the CPU can spend so much time in Turbo Boost mode at higher clock speeds to offset the low base clock speeds, it doesn't fare better than Intel Core i CPUs. Our Core m5 review unit averaged 5.5 hours of battery life. The Productivity module with secondary battery adds 5 more hours of battery life according to Lenovo (the module wasn't available during our review period).

The tablet has a 37 Whr battery that's sealed inside, and it ships with a square charger with a thin cable rather than a two-piece laptop style charger. The charger plugs into the USB-C port, so you'll need a USB-C dock or port splitter that supports power-in if you wish to use the tablet with a USB-C peripheral while charging.

Conclusion

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet is a thoroughly modern tablet with a slim and light design and a simple yet sturdy keyboard connection. Optional modules seem to be the in thing for 2016 with everything from smartphones to tablets offering some kind of add-on functionality for a price. The Productivity module is likely to be the most popular since it increases battery life and adds a few key ports. The projector will likely appeal to sales folks who need to give presentations and the Intel RealSense 3D camera could be useful to vertical market business users who need to capture dimensions.

The tablet's high resolution display doesn't disappoint in terms of brightness and color gamut, and performance is perfectly adequate for everyday use. The keyboard is superb, albeit small, and the trackpad and NavPoint are every bit ThinkPad good. The stand is a bit more lap friendly than Surface Pro 4's since you won't have a thin metal edge digging into your leg, but the Surface Pro does fight back with an arugably sexier design and more powerful internals on all but the base model.

12" MacBook Review

Update, April 2016: read our review of the 2016, second generation 12" Retina MacBook that replaces this model. It's 2008 and Steve Jobs stands before a large audience. He pulls something out of a manila envelope--oh my God, it's a laptop! One so impossibly thin and compact that it fits in an interoffice envelope. And so the world of laptops was changed. Years later, Intel wanted to see Windows PC makers offer up something, anything that might compete, and the Ultrabook was born. Apple is hoping to change the world of mobile computing again with the MacBook, a 12" laptop that's not much larger or heavier than the first iPad, yet it's capable of getting real work done. Just as the original 13" MacBook Air was port-constrained, a little slow and expensive, so is the MacBook. Just as the Air had one of the best displays on a 13" laptop at the time, so the MacBook has a stunning Retina display. Like the Air, I wouldn't be surprised if the MacBook gained a port or two in the years to come, and the price might even come down in a few years. The new Apple MacBook, or 12" MacBook or Retina MacBook (whatever you want to call it to differentiate from MacBooks of old) is as polarizing as it is striking. This 2 lb. laptop is one of the most gorgeous on the market, and one of the smallest. It sits between the iPad Air and 13" MacBook Air in terms of size, though functionally it's a Mac and not an iPad. In fact, we suspect Apple is targeting those of you who bought an iPad and keyboard as a laptop replacement, but have since realized it can't handle everything a laptop can. For $1,299 you get a 1.1 GHz Core M CPU with Turbo Boost to 2.4 GHz, 8 gigs of RAM and a fast PCIe 256 gig SSD. The $1,599 bumps the CPU 100 MHz and doubles storage to 512 gigs. Either way you get one of Apple's best displays in years, the 2304 x 1440 IPS Retina display exceeds 100% sRGB color gamut and it has excellent contrast and high brightness. The laptop has dual band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0 and a just OK 480p webcam. Portability Focus What do you get for your money? Not horsepower and not a huge screen. This is meant to be a second computer for folks who have an adequately large and powerful main desktop or laptop. You get a head-turning design, incredible portability (it weighs as much as in iPad Air in a case and takes up virtually no room in a bag) and a phenomenal screen. You certainly don't get ports: it has just a 3.5mm audio jack and a single USB-C port that also handles charging. Like the MacBook Air that Steve Jobs slipped out of a manila envelope in 2008, it's pricey, port constrained and not wildly powerful. Like the Air, it's an attention-getter and a feat of engineering, though some might wonder if this little guy is just too small. Design and Ergonomics It's an Apple Mac, and that means exquisite attention to design, fit and finish. There are no gaps, unsightly seams or pointless design elements. It's clean, well balanced and comfortable in the lap and easy to pass around when open or closed. The lid isn't difficult to open with one hand and the hinge is firm yet not stiff. The machine is available in the usual Apple silver, Space Gray and gold, not unlike the iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2. All are attractive and have a matte aluminum finish that resists fingerprints and maintains grip. As ever with recent Mac laptops, you can remove the bottom panel if you have a pentalobe screwdriver, but there's little point since RAM, the CPU and the SSD are soldered permanently onto the motherboard. The stacked battery isn't all that easy to remove either. The MacBook has a 3.5mm combo audio jack (headphones and mic in one) and a single USB-C port that supports HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2. You'll also use that port for charging via the included compact charger and USB-C cable. If you wish to connect USB peripherals, you'll need a USB-C to female USB adapter that Apple sells for $19 (other companies make them too, and they're often less expensive). You can't charge the laptop and use the USB port for a peripheral at the same time with the $19 adapter, instead you'll need the $79 AV adapter with a charging port, USB port and HDMI. I'm sure 3rd party companies will make all sorts of adapters for the MacBook, but keep in mind that the port doesn't support Thunderbolt, so you won't be able to use Apple's Thunderbolt display or any other Thunderbolt peripheral. Force Touch Trackpad and Keyboard The keyboard is just plain weird, yet it's good. I type thousands of words per week and I'm picky about keyboards. I didn't like the miniscule key travel at first, but after 20 minutes I acclimated and typed as well on the MacBook as I do on my 13" Retina MacBook Pro. Each key has a tactile click thanks to the butterfly mechanical switches under each key, and they provide tactile feel that makes up for the lack of travel. The backlit keyboard has an LED beneath each key for even lighting, and our unit's keys are very evenly lit in soft white (you can adjust keyboard backlight level). Apple makes perhaps the best trackpad on a laptop, regardless of OS platform. Somehow they've managed to make it ever better with the Force Touch trackpad. It might sound like a gimmick, but it's actually more accurate and efficient. On normal trackpads just the bottom edge moves. For large trackpads, it's easy to have the hand and fingers wander higher, where it will do no good because the top half doesn't register clicks (unless you enable tap to click). With the Force Touch trackpad, you can click in any corner and there are four spring-like mechanisms under each spot. Yes, the trackpad actually does move just a little, and your mind will tell you it moves quite a bit thanks to the force feedback that creates the sensation of a tactile click (what Apple calls their Taptic engine--a cross between tap and haptic). You can even adjust the force setting in trackpad settings for a light, medium or heavy touch and feedback. The end result is a trackpad that feels even more responsive and precise. I generally hate clicking trackpads because it slows me down and the required force causes my pointing finger to wander, resulting in errors. Problem solved with the Force Touch trackpad. I've stopped using tap to click in fact, which was my old preferred method even though it wasn't very precise and sometimes resulted in accidental clicks. Even more interesting, there's a secondary deeper click if you continue to press down with some force. That can bring up a word definition in quite a few programs and in Safari force-clicking on a link brings up a small preview of the web page. I'm sure Apple and third party developers will come up with even more uses.  Display The superb 12" IPS display is a selling point for the MacBook, and it's likely one of the reasons folks will consider it strongly vs. the MacBook Air models with their lower resolution TN panels. This panel is every bit as good as the Pro MacBooks, and in fact it slightly exceeds them in color gamut at 102% of sRGB and 80% of Adobe RGB. Contrast is high, colors are accurate and saturated and the panel can get very bright (we measured 350 nits). The brightness ramp is a little odd and it doesn't get very bright until the last few ticks--perhaps Apple wants to conserve power. The 16:10 aspect ratio "Retina" panel has a resolution of 2304 x 1440. Usually Apple does pixel quadrupling for Retina displays, so the effective "looks like" resolution is one quarter of the absolute panel resolution. That makes for efficient performance, but in this case Apple runs it higher at an effective 1280 x 800 resolution, and we set it to 1440 x 900 to match the 13" MacBook Air (that's also my preferred setting on the 13" MacBook Pro with Retina display). The machine can drive a 4K monitor at 30 Hz according to Apple, but we found that the Intel HD 5300 integrated graphics struggled a bit with both the laptop display on and anything higher than a 1920 x 1200 monitor attached. The MacBook really isn't for graphics pros who need to drive very large high resolution external displays--I'd go with the 13" Retina MacBook Pro or the 15" rMBP for that. Even the MacBook Air with Intel HD 6000 graphics can handle high res monitors, including Apple's Thunderbolt display, which the MacBook can't. 12" MacBook Video Review Performance and Horsepower The MacBook runs on the new Intel Core M CPU, a low power 4.5 watt CPU that sits above the Intel Atom and below the 15 watt Core i3/i5 used in the MacBook Air and many Windows Ultrabooks. This is a 5th generation Broadwell dual core chip with Turbo Boost that's paired with Intel HD 5300 graphics that sits below the HD 5500 and 6000 commonly paired with the Core i5. Apple pushes the wattage a bit and the normally 900 MHz Core M 5Y31 can be TDP up-clocked to 6 watts and 1.1 GHz, which is exactly what Apple does for the base model MacBook. There are 1.2 and 1.3 GHz Core M options, but honestly you won't see much performance improvement. You may however like the 512 gig SSD that comes bundled with the $1,599 1.2GHz model if you need lots of storage. All models have 8 gigs of RAM soldered on the motherboard (not upgradeable). Core M has high Turbo Boost speeds, and the 1.1 GHz MacBook has Boost to 2.4 GHz. Turbo Boost offers very short speed bursts to accommodate processor intensive tasks and it can make a low clocked CPU feel considerably quicker. Still, if you compare that to a 5th generation Core i5 like that in the Dell XPS 13 with a base 2.2 GHz clock speed and Turbo Boost to 2.7 GHz, the MacBook is clearly not going to be a performance powerhouse. It's fine for common light loads that include MS Office or iWork, web, email, streaming 1080p video, occasional video editing for fun and even some fairly serious Photoshop work. I wouldn't pick it if you intend to frequently run Parallels (Windows VM), do frequent 1080p or 4K video editing or if you have to compile large programs for software development. It's best as a second highly portable machine for those who have a beefy laptop or desktop to do the heavy lifting. It could however work well as a primary machine for those who have light computational needs. The Core M is also used in the equally expensive Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro (a Windows 8.1 convertible), the $699 Asus Zenbook UX305 13.3" Ultrabook ($999 with a QHD display) and a few other models. As you can see, it runs the gamut in terms of price point and position, even though it's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Mac OS X Yosemite is quite good at processor management and it's not a CPU hungry OS, so the Core M never feels slow in everyday use when doing productivity tasks or streaming video for fun. In fact, the MacBook rarely stuttered with 10 tabs open in Safari while MS Word 2016 and Photoshop CC were running. The fast PCIe storage and ample 8 gigs of RAM help keep things moving along nicely too. But when editing and exporting 15 minute 1080p videos, we found ourselves waiting and grabbing a few sodas during export. Battery Life Apple's laptops generally top the industry for runtimes, and their runtime claims are usually accurate rather than the more common overly optimistic claims from other makers. The little MacBook obviously has less room for a beefy battery, so Apple stacked slices of Lithium Ion polymer to fill the diminutive notebook's every internal nook and cranny. The 39.7 Whr battery is good for 9 hours of actual use time according to Apple, and we found that to be optimistic with brightness set to 50% with ambient brightness enabled and WiFi on. We averaged 6 to 7 hours actual use time in a mix of real world use that included working in iWork and MS Office, editing 10 RAW photos in Photoshop 6, watching an hour episode of Mad Men on Netflix, email and playing a few short YouTube videos. One of our editors prefers brightness set to an eye-searing max (with auto-brightness disabled), and that dropped battery life to 5.5 hours. These runtimes fall short of the 13" MacBook Air's 12 hours and the 13" Retina MacBook Pro's 11 hours. The Mac ships with a compact 29 watt charger that's a bit bigger than the iPad Air charger but considerably smaller than the MacBook Air charger. Though its output wattage is low compared to the 45 watt average for Intel Core i5 Ultrabooks, it provided sufficient power to continue charging the laptop even under load. We charged the MacBook from 8 to 98 percent in 2 hours while the Mac was sleeping.

Conclusion

It's controversial; it's sexy and built as perfectly as any Apple product. That's the 12" MacBook, a 2 lb. laptop that's sturdy enough to throw in your bag with little care, yet it can get any basic computing task done quickly. The biggest problem with the MacBook may be how hard it is to get one. At launch it wasn't available in stores and immediately went to a 4-6 week backorder status. Hopefully, Apple will start cranking them out to meet demand so you can actually buy one if it ticks all the right boxes in your portable checklist. The display is superb, the Force Touch trackpad is the best in the business and the weird keyboard is actually very usable. Clearly this is a second machine for those who have good money to spend, or a primary laptop for those with modest computation needs and great portability requirements. Overall, we left feeling surprised at just how well the MacBook kept up with our daily workload and how easy it is to take anywhere.

Samsung Notebook 9 Pro review

It's tough being a slim, light premium 15" laptop--the competition is top notch with the Dell XPS 15 and the (aging) 15" Retina MacBook Pro at the high priced end and the very reasonably priced $1,500 Asus ZenBook Pro UX501 grabbing the lower end of the top tier market. Samsung's generally played only in the high end range, and their prices used to be a few hundred dollars higher than other brands. This time they've undercut the value-priced Asus (surprise!) while offering their usual perfectionist product. The Notebook 9 Pro has a unibody metal casing that's supremely rigid and it has perfect seams, a metal bottom that mates so cleanly it doesn't need plastic clips, dedicated NVIDIA graphics, nearly every internal part is signed by a QA tester, and the specs are excellent. You want an SSD, 4K display with good color gamut, touch screen, backlit keyboard and a healthy dose of classy design and style? It's all here for $1,399. When Samsung first released it a few months back, they priced it at $1,599, but quickly dropped the price to $1,499 (Samsung's apparently not afraid to start high and drop a price fast with their laptops). Now it's $1,399 on their site and is often priced the same at Best Buy, the largest US retailer offering the laptop.

Of course, not every spec matches the equivalently equipped Dell XPS 15, which is $1,999; you're paying more for the Dell and you should get more. The $1,999 XPS 15 has 16 gigs of RAM vs. the Samsung's 8 gigs, and the Dell uses even faster PCIe SSDs vs. the Samsung's SATA3. Dell gives you a 4K touch screen, 256 gig SSD and backlit keyboard just like the Samsung, but it has the next step up in graphics cards, the GTX 960M vs. Samsung's GTX 950M. Apple's 15" Retina MacBook Pro with AMD dedicated graphics is $2,500. For those who want a 15.6" quad core powerhouse that's highly portable and packs dedicated graphics for video editing, decent gaming and general pro apps prowess, but don't want to drop two grand on a laptop, the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro is worth a serious look.

Samsung initially marketed this laptop as the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Pro, but they quickly switched branding to the Notebook 9 Pro. They are the same product, it's simply a confusing marketing move.

Design and Ergonomics

I confess I love Samsung's design language, even though it hasn't changed much over the years. The curves (expensive to make), distinctive teardrop sides that other companies have copied, the matte black unibody aluminum alloy casing contrasted with straight cut stainless steel finished sides--it's lovely stuff. At 0.7" it's one of the thinnest quad core 15.6" laptops on the market and its proportions are more Ultrabook than powerhouse. It weighs 4.5 lbs. like the also very lightweight Dell XPS 15 (similarly configured) and 15" Retina MacBook Pro. It's lighter than the Asus ZenBook Pro by a half pound.

The laptop is extremely rigid, as are its named competitors. It's like a sheet of slate. Fit and finish are typical of Samsung, which is to say very, very good. All edges are perfectly smooth and machined (even the blunt cut shiny sides that only look sharp), QA seems very consistent across sampled units and there's no flex in the display lid or keyboard deck.

Ports

The laptop has a good selection of ports: 3 USB 3.0 (the Mac and XPS 15 have two), a USB-C 3.1 Gen. 2 10Gbps port (not listed as supporting Thunderbolt 3, though we suspect it's using the required Alpine Ridge controller to get Gen. 2 status), full size HDMI, an SD card slot and 3.5mm audio. If you need Ethernet or a DisplayPort, you'll need to get a USB-C adapter or multiport adapter for those (or a USB Ethernet adapter). Dell does one better with Thunderbolt 3, while we're still waiting to see what Apple will do since their current model is still on Thunderbolt 2.

Keyboard and Trackpad

Though Samsung's laptops are exceptionally thin, they manage to overcome the limitations of space and make keyboards that are a pleasure to type on. Yes, travel is short compared to a thicker Lenovo ThinkPad, but if you're already accustomed to slim laptop keyboards like the Mac's and some of Dell's offerings, then I think you'll find the beveled keys comfortable, ergonomic and well damped. Required force to depress a key feels just right and the keys are uniform in feel. The keyboard deck is extremely firm and multistage backlighting along with high contrast keys make it easy to type in low light and darkness. I've thoroughly enjoyed typing long reviews such as this one with the Notebook 9 Pro's keyboard.

Display

The Samsung Notebook 9 Pro has a 15.6" 4K UHD 3840 x 2160 display, which is considerably higher resolution than the non-Pro Notebook 9 15" Ultrabook with a 1920 x 1080 display. This is a Samsung PLS panel with viewing angles and display characteristics that are similar to IPS. It's a fairly wide gamut display that represents 85% of Adobe RGB, beating the average 75% for much of the competition in this price range, and it covers the full sRGB gamut. The Dell XPS 15's 4K display beats it by a bit at 95% of Adobe RGB, but the Samsung fights back with a better white point. Contrast is decent but not class-leading at 500:1 (the XPS 15 is much higher, the Asus is not). Brightness is very good at a claimed 350 nits (335 measured via our colorimeter using Samsung's Photo Editing color profile preset) and it can hit 500 nits if you enable outdoor brightness mode. The black level at max brightness (again using the Photo Editing preset) isn't good at 0.7, and that's what drags contrast down. Samsung offers color profiles that are similar to their high end Galaxy smartphone profiles, and the auto mode can increase contrast and saturation dynamically. I recommend using it because it works well for videos and you'd swear that contrast is significantly higher than our measured numbers using the Photo Editing preset. Why don't we test using auto mode? Because it's too variable and not always fast enough to keep pace with our colorimeter's quickly changing test screens. A static setting is better when collecting metrics.

Experientially, the 4K touch screen is very bright, vibrant and looks wonderful when viewing movies and it can be calibrated well for professional photo and video editing. The 7,000K hardware white point is typical for high end laptops, and it's above the ideal 6600K, but well below the XPS 15's 4K display with a much too high white point. Gamma veers off to 2.3 at middle brightness settings on the Samsung, likely to improve black levels and contrast, but calibration can help with this. That said, we'd prefer a perfect 2.2 gamma across all brightness levels.

Some will no doubt prefer the striking Dell XPS 15 4K display for higher contrast, but I've found it difficult to work with for pro photo and video editing due to the very high white point (it's absolutely fantastic looking for those who don't focus on content creation though). Asus' ZenBook Pro UX501 last gen used an older Samsung PLS display that doesn't match the Notebook 9 Pro's for color gamut, saturation and contrast, and the newer model still falls behind. The 15" MacBook Pro has near perfect factory color calibration, good brightness of 300 nits and pleasing contrast, but is lower resolution (though still plenty high).

Though this is a glossy touch screen, Samsung works some magic here, as they do with all their 2015-2016 laptops. Glare is greatly reduced and it has noticeably less glare than the otherwise excellent Microsoft Surface Book and the Dell XPS 15. It's similar to the MacBook Pro, and perhaps still a little bit lower. The display angles back around 140 degrees, and I didn't feel the need to drop it back further to avoid glare. The hinges are firm, yet not impossible to move with one hand.

Samsung Notebook 9 Pro Video Review

Horsepower and Performance

This is a quad core, 45 watt CPU that's in a different league from typical dual core Ultrabooks that it resembles. It's much better suited to heavy workloads than the Samsung Notebook 9 non-Pro or the HP Spectre x360 15". If you need to compile large programs, edit video often, work Adobe Lightroom filters or crunch huge spreadsheets in Excel, an Intel quad core laptop is your best choice. The notebook runs Windows 10 on the 2.6 GHz (Turbo Boost to 3.5 GHz) Intel Core i7-6700HQ CPU with Intel HD 530 graphics that dynamically switches with the dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 2GB DDR5 graphics card, depending on the running application (or you can specify the GPU you want used). There is only one configuration with that Core i7 CPU, 8 gigs of dual channel RAM and a 256 gig SSD.

The NVIDIA GTX 950M is the at the lower end of NVIDIA's high end line of graphics cards and it's strong enough for gaming with current demanding 3D titles at 1080p resolution in a mix of medium and high settings. In contrast, the NVIDIA GTX 960M in the XPS 15 (except the base $999 configuration) and Asus ZenBook Pro can manage mostly high settings in games like Battlefield 4. The GTX 950M in the Samsung nets 5-7 fps lower frame rates compared to those laptops (I suggest dropping some quality settings if you want to match them). The Samsung Notebook 9 Pro is hugely faster than an integrated graphics laptop, and is much faster than laptops with the NVIDIA 940M that falls below the GTX family (used in the HP Star Wars laptop).

RAM is soldered on board and isn't upgradable. If you know you need more than 8 gigs of RAM, this isn't your notebook. 8 gigs is fine for video editing (it's worked well for me), software development and general heavy duty computing. If you run several VMs (virtual machines) or need to fluently multitask with Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop and more without hitting virtual memory, then consider a machine with more memory. If your workflow consists of streaming video, working in MS office, Photoshop and video editing, then the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro is much more than capable.

The laptop has an M.2 slot for SATA3 SSDs. It doesn't do the faster PCIe protocol, though unless you typically transfer many, many files daily, you won't notice the difference. We suspect that Samsung went with the standard SATA3 because it generates less heat, as does the NVIDIA GTX 950M vs. the 960M. Heat is a significant design constraint for very thin laptops, and the Notebook 9 Pro does run cooler and quieter than the Dell XPS 15 with a PCIe SSD and NVIDIA 960M. The Asus is thicker and heavier, so it's a bit easier to manage heat there.

Benchmarks

Battery Life

Powerful quad core laptops with dedicated graphics aren't known for their incredible runtimes. Happily, Intel has focused on improving battery life and reducing heat for the past several CPU and chipset generations, and even NVIDIA has brought down power consumption and heat markedly over the years. That means we're no longer limited to 2 hours with these powerful laptops, even extremely thin and light ones like the Notebook 9 Pro that don't have room for big batteries.

The Samsung's 4 cell, 57 WHr battery is nominally sealed inside, which is the trend on slim and even not so slim laptops. You can access it for service by removing the bottom cover, but you can't quickly swap in a spare on the road. Samsung includes a 90 watt charger with a typical two-cord, one brick design. It's smaller than MSI, Acer, Alienware and Asus chargers bundled with laptops of similar horsepower, but not as thin as the Dell XPS 15's curvy and svelte charger. It's a 90 watt charger rather than the 120 to 130 watt charger required for laptops with quad cores and GTX 960M graphics, hence it's smaller and lighter than some of the competition.

WiFi

When WiFi is unremarkable, we don't include a section on it. But the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro manages unusually good reception and throughput with the Intel 8260 AC dual band WiFi 802.11AC card with companion Bluetooth. For a laptop that's completely encased in metal, we're extremely impressed with the Pro's wireless performance that's on par with Killer WiFi in a partially plastic body laptop like MSI's gaming portables. Other laptops use the same WiFi card and 2 x 2 antenna, but Samsung's outdone themselves engineering antennas for excellent reception.

The WiFi card is mounted to a daughterboard rather than being the usual socketed card. That means you could replace it if it dies (though WiFi cards rarely die), but there's no upgrade path. Since this is Intel's latest and best WiFi card, this doesn't bother me.

Conclusion

There's a lot to like here: a pleasing 4K touch screen with low glare, the fast quad core Intel i7 CPU, NVIDIA GTX 950M dedicated graphics, SSD, adequate though not class leading battery runtimes and a very comfy backlit keyboard. The price is nice too--the Samsung is currently one of the least expensive in this premium powerhouse laptop tier. The unibody aluminum alloy casing with matte black finish and contrasting stainless steel sides is stunning, slim and uniquely Samsung. It's light and it doesn't get hot or loud with average to moderately aggressive use. The display, weight and keyboard beat the ZenBook Pro, and the price significantly undercuts the Dell XPS 15. It's not perfect: those who need 16 gigs of RAM are out of luck, and the GTX 950M may run cooler but it doesn't have quite the oomph of the GTX 960M. Still, it's a strong performer with an elegant design, forward looking USB-C port (faster than average too with Gen. 2) and it can handle most any task you throw at it for school, business and leisure use.

Sony A7S II Review

A7S II SUMMARY

The Sony A7S II takes the A7S to the next level. The redesigned camera body, improved autofocus, and bevy of new features make the A7S II a very capable full-frame mirrorless camera no matter the lighting conditions. With its 12.2-megapixel full-frame sensor and native ISO range of 100-102,400, the A7S II is designed to provide excellent performance across a huge range of ISO speeds. Utilizing Sony's 5-axis image stabilization to provide up to 4.5 stops of vibration reduction, the A7S II is poised to provide great images in low light. This impressive camera delivers high-quality results no matter the situation.

PROS

Comfortable and surprisingly compact camera body; Improved low light performance; Built-in image stabilization; Wide range of usable ISOs; More sophisticated autofocus performance; Excellent video capabilities.

CONS

Relatively low resolution; Mediocre continuous shooting performance; No built-in flash; No losslessly compressed RAW option.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

Available since October 2015, the Sony A7S II retails for just under $3,000 USD.

IMAGING RESOURCE RATING

5.0 out of 5.0

After the "Mark II" refreshes of the venerable Sony A7 and A7R cameras earlier this year, the Sony A7S remained the last of the three still in its first generation stage. So, it's no surprise that Sony has come along to bring this large-pixeled, ultra-high ISO shooting camera up to speed with a "Mark II" refresh of its own.

Sporting the familiar, updated A7-series body design, the new Sony A7S II looks practically identical to the A7R II, aside from the model-specific branding. In one minor detail, unlike the A7 II, the A7S II shares the locking mode dial that was introduced with the A7R II. The Sony A7S II also features the much-welcomed ergonomic refreshes that were debuted on the earlier A7 II, including the repositioned front control dial and shutter-release button as well as re-contoured handgrip and all-around beefier, stronger magnesium alloy body and lens mount.

The big changes, however, are all under the hood. Though the Sony A7S II maintains the same unique, large-pixel 12.2-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor as its predecessor, the sensor has been incorporated into Sony's impressive 5-axis Image Stabilization system as in the other Mark II models, which works for both stills and video. With its SteadyShot INSIDE system providing up to 4.5 stops of correction combined with the camera's impressive ISO range up to an expanded ISO 409,600 equivalent (like the predecessor), the Sony A7S II makes easy work of capturing images and video in extremely low-light situations. Furthermore, the BIONZ X image processor features tweaked processing algorithms, with a particular focus on the mid to high ISO sensitivity range, for improved image quality and detail for both still images and video.

Seeing as the Sony A7S model was heavily emphasized not only as a stills camera, but also as a professional video powerhouse, it's also no surprise that the video features of the A7S II get improved as well. The original A7S was the first of the Sony A7 family to feature 4K Ultra HD video capture capabilities, however, it came with a large caveat: you needed an external HDMI capture/recorder device since the camera was incapable of recording 4K video internally to the memory card. The A7R II changed this, being the first full-frame Sony A7-series model to provide internal 4K recording, and the new Sony A7S II now supports this capability as well. This should certainly make A7S video shooters very pleased, as it undoubtedly simplifies the video workflow considerably and makes on-the-go shooting of 4K UHD video with this model much easier. It should be noted that despite its video-centric focus, the A7S II does not support Cinema 4K (4096 x 2160) video resolution.

Like the A7R II, the new A7S II's 4K Ultra HD video recording uses full pixel readout of the large full-frame sensor without pixel binning for reduced moiré and aliasing artifacts. Also like the A7R II, the Sony A7S II allows for simultaneous clean HDMI output up to a 4K 4:2:2 signal, while still recording up to 4K XAVC S video internally (though Sony does specify that the rear LCD display will go blank while streaming a 4K signal). The camera also comes with a nifty HDMI cable lock protector to help prevent the cable from coming loose.

Other video improvements includes new, additional cinema-oriented Picture Profiles called S-Gammt3.Cine/S-Log3 and S-Gamut3/S-Log3. Using these S-Log3 and S-Log2 profiles, the A7S II is said to provide up to 14 stops of dynamic range with 1300% wider dynamic range than a non-Picture Profile video for improved color grading and smoother gradations between highlights and shadows. The S-Log3 gamma profile is said to improve tonal gradation

Sony Xperia X review

Introduction

There's a shift of command in the house of Xperia. The Sony Xperia X and its two siblings are taking over from the Xperia Z. A dynasty has come to an end. We hear the C and M families are being put out to pasture as well, soon it will be all X top to bottom.

So, what's the new face of Sony like? The Xperia X, which will likely form the backbone of the new lineup, persists with the angular aesthetics that debuted with the original Xperia Z back in 2013. It has a metal back, but no more waterproofing (that's exclusive to the Xperia X Performance). Sony's trademark sonic experience however lives on with the on-board stereo speakers and High-Res audio. Another Sony staple, the camera, is more than robust but has an uncomfortable question to answer.

We need to re-draw the Xperia family tree. If we agree that the Xperia X Performance replaces the Z5, then which one is X's predecessor? We think it's the Xperia M5.

Here's the deal: 5" 1080p screen, 13MP selfie camera, 21.2MP main camera with 4K video, IP68 rating. That's the Xperia M5. The Xperia X throws in a metal back and stereo speakers, but it loses 4K and IP68. It's an awkward trade-off to make against last year's midranger.

Sony says that its secret sauce makes the Xperia X more than just a midrange handset and we're sure Sony fans would agree. So, if you want to experience this phone with your heart first - feel free. Starting on the next page, the hard facts and reason are back in the conversation.