Lenovo ThinkPad SL400

by Jerry Jackson

The Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 is the latest addition to the ThinkPad family and promises to offer features and performance at a fraction of the cost of other ThinkPads. Lenovos new IdeaPad line of notebooks might give consumers plenty of attractive options, but The new SL series is the first line of small business notebooks designed with ThinkPad styling at an affordable price. Is there more here than just traditional ThinkPad shape and a low price? Our full review of the SL400 shows why this laptop might (or might not) be perfect for you.

The pricing on the SL400 starts at around $799. As configured, the price of our review unit of the ThinkPad SL400 is $1,119. While that puts it above the range of most "budget" laptops, this configuration does offer a new Intel "Montevina" processor, and dedicated graphics card at a reasonable price. Needless to say, this is one of the more budget-friendly ThinkPads on the market. More to the point, Lenovo has gone out of its way to give you multiple reasons to consider the SL series over the competition.

Our ThinkPad SL400 has the following specifications:

• Processor: 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (1066MHz FSB, 3MB Cache)
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS 256MB
• Screen: 14.1" WXGA, Anti-glare (1280x800, 200nit)
• Memory: 2GB(up to 4GB configurable)
• Storage: 160GB SATA HDD (5400rpm)
• Optical Drive: Dual layer CD/DVD recordable drive
• Wireless and Communications: Intel 4965AGN (802.11 a/b/g/n wi-fi), BlueTooth 2.0 EDR
• Battery: 6-cell Li-Ion
• Dimensions: 13.2" x 9.7" x 1.3"-1.5")
• Weight: 5.5lbs with battery
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
• Warranty: 1-year

Build and Design

The ThinkPad SL400 is quite solid in terms of build quality, though the plastics used in the chassis construction do give in to some case flex when squeezed. The entire chassis exterior is plastic and while the appearance is nice, the "feel" of the notebook is a little less rugged than weve come to expect from ThinkPads. Unlike with the other ThinkPads, you dont get a double latch mechanism with button release to make sure the screen is held down when it is closed and being carried. Instead, the SL400 uses hinge tension to hold the screen in place.

Speaking of the tension hinge, the hinge on our review unit didnt provide nearly as much tension/resistance as we would have liked. Specifically, if you pick up the base of the SL400 and lightly shake the base of the notebook forward and back the screen will "flap" forward and back as you shake the notebook.

The glossy black plastic display cover is probably the most interesting design element on the SL400. Lenovo also decided to modify the traditional ThinkPad logo by adding a small red LED to the dot above the "i" in ThinkPad. I suppose someone still thinks "bling is the thing" in the world of small business. In any case, this certainly isnt a boring ThinkPad.
Expandability and expansion are pretty simple with this chassis design. The two access panels on the bottom of the notebook provide access to the wireless cards, RAM, processor and graphics. The side panel on the opposite side of the optical drives allows you to swap out the hard drive for a replacement drive.

Input and Output Ports

The number of ports the SL400 has is fairly good and certainly much better than the average budget notebook designed for small business. Heres a run down of the ports:

• 4 USB 2.0 ports
• Firewire
• ExpressCard slot
• Gigabit Ethernet and modem
• 5-in-1 multi-card reader
• Audio out, microphone in
• VGA monitor out
• HDMI (video and audio)
• Kensington lock slot

About the only thing you might consider "missing" on this notebook is an eSATA port. Since eSATA is rapidly becoming a new standard for external data storage, it would have been nice to see an eSATA port on the side of the SL400. On the other hand, it may only be a matter of time before we see USB 3.0 ports that surpass the performance of eSATA.

Theres also no option for a docking station, you have to go with a USB-based port replicator (or ExpressCard/34) to get the additional ports you would want at a desk. Obviously engineers had to make design trade offs and you cant have it all on a notebook in this price range. Personally, I feel like the SL400 provides an excellent balance of ports for its size and cost.

Left side
Right side
Front side
Rear Side

Performance and Benchmarks

Although its nice that Lenovo is bringing a small business solution to the market for less than $800, the price wouldnt matter if the SL400 cant provide great performance for your dollar.

The Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor in our review unit provided ample processing power and never presented any problems when running applications or encoding video and audio files. The synthetic benchmarks below suggest the P8400 processor is one of the more capable processors from Intel and should satisfy the needs of any business professional.

Likewise, the NVIDIA 9300M GS dedicated graphics card with 256MB of RAM allows you to play most average games at a reasonable frame rate. This certainly isnt the laptop designed to play Crysis, but youll have enough power to handle 1080p Blu-ray movies and some games (during non-work hours, of course).

wPrime 32M time : 34.628s

PCMark05 Score : 5,173 PCMarks

3DMark06 Score : 2,211 3DMarks

Screen

The 14.1" WXGA, Anti-glare (1280 x 800) is nice and reasonably bright at 200nit brightness, color, contrast, and viewing angles are all good. More importantly, the display on our review unit uses a anti-glare matte finish ... something important to many business professionals and something were glad to see.

Like most budget laptop displays, the screen on the SL400 does suffer from some minor color inversion at the lower vertical viewing angles ... but this is rarely a problem unless your laptop is resting on a desk and youre looking at the screen from down on the floor.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the ThinkPad SL400 has zero flex and excellent key travel with quiet presses. The keyboard is remarkably similar to the keyboards on the older ThinkPad R-series notebooks. Theres little to complain about here from a functional standpoint. Sure, its not the most attractive keyboard on the market ... but it works great. Of course, the SL400 wouldnt dream of calling itself a ThinkPad if it didnt include the iconic red Trackpoint pointing stick in addition to the standard touchpad.

The palm rest area is pretty plain: it has a matte black finish so it both feels and looks nice. Its very smooth and the touchpad is nicely textured with a responsive surface. Lenovo also decided to include the standard fingerprint reader for those businesses concerned with security.

Speakers and Audio

The built-in speakers are ... well ... average built-in speakers. In short, the speakers are small, underpowered, and produce tiny sound with plenty of highs and acceptable mid range but almost no bass. This is similar to what weve seen from other laptops in this class such as the Dell Vostro 1510 and Toshiba Satellite Pro L300. In other words, this ThinkPad is designed for small business and consumers who want a laptop that isnt flashy. Dont expect amazing speakers in this type of notebook.

Battery Life

With the notebook power settings in "balanced" mode, wireless on and the screen brightness set to 50 percent, the SL400 drained its full battery after 3 hours and 13 minutes. Interestingly, Lenovos proprietary Power Manager software accurately monitored the power consumption during the course of the battery test as the estimated battery time remaining changed depending on the level of activity. The battery life estimate jumped between a little more than four hours (when the notebook was left idle) to a little less than two hours when I was typing Word document and opening several applications at the same time.

While road warriors will cerrtainly want more battery life than what the SL400 has to offer, the notebook does a reasonable job in terms of travel power and provides battery life similar to the competition in this class.

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Toshiba Satellite A665 Review

The Toshiba Satellite A660 and A665 are 16-inch laptops with a reasonably attractive design and solid performance. If youre shopping for a desktop-replacement notebook the Satellite A665 might be a worthy choice. Keep reading to see what we think of this Core i5-equipped model with Nvidia discrete graphics.



Toshiba Satellite A665 (A665-S6089) Specifications:

• 16-inch 720p (1366x768) display with LED backlighting
• Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
• Intel Core i5 460M (2.53GHz)
• Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics card w/ 512MB GDDR3 dedicated memory (Optimus switchable graphics)
• 4GB DDR3 RAM
• 500GB 5400RPM hard drive (Toshiba MK5065GSX)
• 802.11b/g/n wireless
• DVD SuperMulti (+/- Double Layer)
• Warranty: 1-Yr Parts and Labor, 1-Year Battery
• 6-cell Li-ion battery (48Wh) and 90W power adapter
• Weight: 6.52 lbs
• Dimensions: 15 x 10 x 1.2-1.5 inches
• Price as configured: $879.99

Build and Design
The Satellite A660/A665 is the latest generation of 16-inch multimedia notebooks from Toshiba and is the "big brother" to the Satellite M640/M645. At first glance, the design of the A665 is pretty traditional with sculpted edges, a mixture of smooth and textured glossy plastics, and some attractive LED accent lighting. If youre familiar with the 14-inch Toshiba Satellite M645 and 15-inch Satellite C655 then this laptop just looks like a larger version of those notebooks. The exterior is covered in what Toshiba calls the "Fusion X2 Finish in Charcoal." Personally, I call it black glossy plastic with a textured "chain" pattern imprinted in the surface to help hide fingerprints and dirt. Despite the silly marketing name for the finish, I have to give Toshiba credit here. The textured chain pattern gives you the modern look of the glossy plastics but doesnt look like a horrible magnet for smudges, dirt, or whatever else a student spills on a laptop.


The build quality of the A665 is very good with a durable main chassis that doesnt squeak, creak, or flex even under significant pressure. The screen hinges are a little loose, making it easy to open the laptop with one hand but also making it easy to accidentally move the screen if you bump the laptop. While were on the topic of the screen, the screen lid doesnt provide as much protection as wed like. If you press on the back of the screen while the laptop is running youll see obvious distortions on the screen itself. In addition, placing more than one heavy textbook on the screen lid causes the lid to bend inward sharply toward the screen ... suggesting that the screen lid doesnt offer much protection during travel.

The bottom of the notebook includes two access plates for the RAM and the hard drive. Despite the fact that most consumers buying this type of general purpose or light multimedia notebook dont perform upgrades, Toshiba engineers made is very easy to get inside this laptop. You only have to remove one screw to access the hard drive and one screw to get to the RAM.
Ports and Features
The Satellite A665 features a great range of ports--making this laptop one of the more "future proof" 16-inch notebooks available in this price range. You get two USB 2.0 ports and a combo eSATA/USB 2.0 port in case you want to use fast external storage drives. The A665 also features dual video out ports: a VGA connection for old-school projectors and HDMI for new monitors and HDTVs. More importantly, the A665 includes an ExpressCard slot so you can upgrade this laptop with USB 3.0 ports if you need them. All picture descriptions are left to right.

Front view: Memory card slot	Rear view: No ports
Left side: VGA, Ethernet, HDMI, combo eSATA/USB 2.0, USB 2.0, ExpressCard	Right side: Audio jacks, two USB 2.0, optical drive, power jack and lock slot

Full Review

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First games reviews

i am going to start by reviewing top recent releases: i will start by reviewing EAs top new shooter BLACK my most recent purchase

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Lenovo ThinkPad X301 Review

The new X301 is just a refresh to the X300, and design wise everything remains the same. Internally you have a new Montevina platform Intel chipset and Lenovo also saw fit to add a DisplayPort interface this time around, but other than that were talking carbon copy of the X300 here. Which isnt a bad thing by any means, since the X300 won high praise.

The ThinkPad X301 is as solid as you get in terms of build quality. The internal chassis and roll cage use an advanced carbon-fiber / glass-fiber material that provides both strength and light weight. The case material is made of magnesium, press as hard as you want anywhere on the body of the notebook and it will not flex. Like all ThinkPads, the X301 is designed for accidental abuse and drops. The screen is held down using a latch mechanism with button release, something thats more and more rare these days with notebooks as most other manufacturers move to a latchless design.

The review unit ThinkPad X301 we have comes with the following specs:

• Processor: 1.40GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 (1.40GHz, 3MB L2 cache, 800Mhz FSB)
• Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
• Screen: 13.3-inch WXGA+ (1440 x 900, 300 nit) LED backlit display
• Memory: 2GB (up to 4GB configurable)
• Storage: 64GB SSD (up to 128GB SSD optional)
• Optical Drive: Ultra-thin DVD Burner
• Wireless and Communications: Intel Wi-Fi Link 5100 (802.11 a/b/g/n wi-fi), BlueTooth 2.0 EDR (Verizon or AT&T 3G wireless available as option, not included)
• Battery: 6-cell Li-Polymer extended life battery (3-cell Li-Polymer battery available and multi-bay extended life 3-cell battery)
• Ports: 3 USB 2.0 ports, Monitor out port, AC adapter, headphone/line-out, microphone/line-in, Gigabit Ethernet
• Dimensions: 12.4" x 9.1" x 0.73" - 0.92"
• Weight: from 2.93lbs with 3-cell battery and no optical drive to 3.32lbs with 6-cell battery and DVD Burner in
• Port Replicator: Via USB
• Input: Full sized keyboard, trackpoint navigation, touchpad, fingerprint reader
• Operating System: Windows XP Professional (Windows Vista available in various flavors)
• Other Features: Integrated web camera
• Price: About $3,000
• Warranty: 1-year

Notice the dimensions of the X301, it is well under 1-inch thick, meaning its easy to slip into a bag for carrying purposes. The light weight makes that doubly the case.

The build quality leaves no doubts and the X301 design also makes it standout. That said, theres nothing crazy going on here, the black boxy look of a ThinkPad is still very much so intact. However, the glossy bottom bezel area and the cool light illumination on the ThinkVantage button and power button add a nice touch, plus add to the usability. The speakers located on the front corners of the notebook add a nice design accent. The heat vent grills are painted black to blend with the rest of the notebook design, you dont see any copper colored internals. The screen is centered for those hung up on symmetry. And last and probably most important, the X301 is very thin, a cool look by de facto.

The weight of the X301 with a 3-cell battery and weight saver can get you under the magic 3lb mark at 2.93lbs. If youre going to be unplugged for any duration of time youll probably want the 6-cell battery, which bumps the weight to 3.32lbs. Still a very comfortable weight to be carrying.

Input and Output Ports

The ThinkPad engineers have done a great job of squeezing in as many useful ports in a thin design that they can. Indeed, the X301 adds an extra port to the mix over the X300 in the form of the DisplayPort located on the back.

Heres whats included:

• 3 USB 2.0 ports (2 on the left, 1 on the back)
• Gigabit Ethernet (back)
• Audio out, microphone in (left side)
• Monitor out (back)
• DisplayPort (back)

Three USB ports is very generous for this size and dimension laptop. It would have been very nice to have a media card reader slot, especially an SDHC compatible one so that you could quickly boost storage capacity.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The full-sized keyboard on the ThinkPad X301 remains the same as that on the X300. It has no flex, every key feels individual, and the key travel distance is perfect. Lenovo has added a matte finish to the keys so that they dont wear and get all shiny over time. For added usability the Caps Lock has a green light indicator and the power button a white light to show power is on.

People that like a touchpad and complain about it being missing on the ThinkPad X200-series have nothing to complain about here, a decent sized touchpad with scrolling areas is in place on the X301. This reviewer actually prefers the TrackPoint pointing stick over the touchpad and exclusively uses that method of input, but in testing out the touchpad it was found to be responsive and the size adequate.

Just to the right of the touchpad is a fingerprint reader, a feature common to many business notebooks. The palm rest area is especially comfortable, it has a rubberized paint finish so it both feels and looks nice. Its very smooth and pleasing to the touch, almost satin in feel.

Performance and Benchmarks

The ThinkPad X301 is not built to compete with your Quad Core processor loaded desktop. The name of the game with thin travel notebooks is using a low voltage processor to conserve power and reduce heat build-up. The ThinkPad X301 uses a newly released Intel 1.40GHz Core 2 Duo SU9400 processor from the Montevina family chipset. The X300 used a 1.20GHz L7100 chip especially designed by Intel for that notebook (so Lenovo claimed), but the SU9400 appears to be a more standard processor that other manufacturers might use. Apparently the 45nm fabrication process the SU9400 was developed on shrank things enough to mitigate Lenovo needing any further "shrinking tricks" by Intel engineers.

The SU9400 processor inside the X301 is more than capable of running Office applications and performing any general web related tasks, but will not serve well for 3D graphics applications or any heavy duty rendering tasks. The Intel integrated graphics will allow you to play a few light games, maybe even Half Life 2 on low settings, but in general youll want to stick to e-mail, web browsing, Office and photo editing tasks. In other words, what most normal business people use a laptop for.

The SSD storage really goes a long way to improving certain aspects of performance, the all important boot-up time is a fast 28-seconds from the push of the power button to the Windows hourglass disappearing. It only took 32 seconds to boot-up, have the wireless connection enabled, and a browser window open to its homepage.

Lets take a look at a couple of basic benchmarks so you can get an idea of how the X301 stacks up.

PCMark05 is a benchmark that measures the overall system performance, so it considers the processor, hard drive, memory and OS as part of the mix. Youll notice in the results the X301 takes a 1,000 point leap over the previous score of the X300, and the MacBook Air score is close to doubled:

PCMark05 benchmark results (higher scores are better)

Lenovo ThinkPad X301 (Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 @ 1.40GHz, Intel 4500MHD)=4,457
Lenovo ThinkPad X300 (Intel Core 2 Duo L7100 @ 1.20GHz, Intel X3100)=3,467

The X301 has the new Intel 4500MHD integrated graphics on board. The 3D performance actually gets quite a bump from the previous X300 thanks to this upgrade, over 200 points higher in 3DMark06:

3DMark06 comparison results (higher score meens better performance):

Lenovo ThinkPad X301 (Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 @ 1.40GHz, Intel 4500MHD)=712
Lenovo ThinkPad X300 (Intel Core 2 Duo L7100 @ 1.20GHz, Intel X3100)=475

Battery

Lenovo offers the choice of either a 3-cell or 6-cell Lithium-Polymer battery that rests at the front of the notebook. The 3-cell is lighter and has a quoted life of up to 4.3 hours while the 6-cell is heavier and has a quoted life of up to 6.5 hours. You can also get a 3-cell Lithium-Polymer option bay battery, to install you just pull out the DVD Burner, which is easily done by removing one screw, and then insert the spare battery instead (note, you have to shut down to do that, there is no hot swap option).

We did a couple of battery tests. In the first test we had the following settings:

• Battery: 6-cell Li-Ion extended life battery
• Radios: Wi-Fi on
• Usage: Idling with screen on
• Vista Power Setting: Power Saver
• Screen brightness: 7 / 15 bars
• DVD Burner: On but never used

Under this non-realistic style usage we achieved 4 hours and 50 minutes of battery life, at which time there was 6% battery left and the X301 went into hibernation.

For a more realistic test, we used the following settings:

• Battery: 6-cell Li-Ion extended life battery + 3-cell Media Bay battery
• Radios: all on
• Usage: used for web surfing, working on review, downloading and installing software
• Vista Power Setting: Power Saver
• Screen: 7/15 bar

With this typical work scenario setting the battery reached 6% remaining and went into hibernate at 7 hours and 12 minutes. Note that the 3-cell battery is used up first and the main battery is then switched to seamlessly, you wont even notice it happen. The X301 does weigh a few ounces more when you put the 3-cell media bay battery in, but the extra weight is worth the battery life if thats what you value most from a laptop.

Screen

The 13.3" WXGA+ matte (non-glossy) screen on the X301 is nice and bright, with its 300 nit LED backlit spec. The screen real estate you get with WXGA+ on the 13.3" form factor is actually more than youd expect, you can quite comfortably fit a couple of web browser or spreadsheet windows open next to each other and compare and contrast things.

The viewing angles are good, especially the horizontal viewing angles. Thanks in part to the bright screen; it is very easy to view things even if you are almost totally off to the side.

Heat and Noise

One major concern with a laptop thats extremely thin is that it will overheat due to all of the components being crammed together. To combat this issue Lenovo went with an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.40GHz low voltage processor, less power draw means less heat. Heat never became an issue with the X301, it was completely comfortable to use in the lap and the palm rests never got warm.

Temperatures on the palm rest and keyboard area remained low

The fan located on the back left side of the X301 ran fairly frequently and at a constant rate. It wasnt particularly loud or annoying, with ambient room noise it was hard to hear the fan at all. Though in a more quiet room the fan is certainly audible.

Connectivity and Wireless

The ThinkPad X301 has a great array of connectivity and wireless offerings. Included in the mix are:

• WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
• WAN (Verizon or AT&T 3G services)
• UWB (optional)
• GPS (optional, available only with Verizon card)
• Ethernet LAN port
• BlueTooth

Notice there is no modem included, youll have to use a dongle modem extension if you want that. We dont miss this port being built-in as its been years since we had to use a modem. The integrated WAN and WLAN will combine to keep you connected just about anywhere on the road, the UWB is an option for roaming wireless but you wont find many cities in the U.S. that offer this.

Audio

The X301 actually has good sound and speakers that are well positioned. For an ultra thin notebook, thats astounding. The ThinkPad X61/X200 contain a puny speaker on the bottom of the notebook, so this is something of a quantum leap for audio quality on the X-series. ThinkPad X301 equipped executives will never have to tote their external speakers to watch DVDs by night in their hotel rooms again.

Conclusion

The ThinkPad X301 takes the original X300 and adds a nice performance jump with the new Intel SU9400 Montevina family processor plus adds a DisplayPort to the mix. Also available now is a 128GB SSD option, though this costs $400 more than the standard 64-bit SSD, if youre buying the X301 price probably isnt too much of a concern for you. The $3,000 laptop market is certainly an exclusive group of buyers, but for many business people their laptop and Blackberry are a lifeline to getting work and deals done, and thereby money made. So at the end of the day if youre a globe trotting executive that needs a reliable and top of the line work tool, the cost of the X301 can be jusitifed and this slim form factor machine can serve you well.

Pros

• Under 1-inch thick, the thinnest ThinkPad ever
• Light weight and easy for carrying around in a bag
• Superb build quality and feel, nice design touches added
• Built-in optical drive for such a thin notebook is a rarity
• Improved performance over the X300. Great for normal business tasks, very fast bootup with the SSD
• Very bright screen for easy viewing

Cons

• No SD media card reader
• No expansion dock capability, USB based port replicator only
• No ExpressCard or PC card slot
• Starting price of $2,500 is out of range for many people

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Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 Review

Lenovo recently updated the Y-series notebook lineup, adding the 14-inch Y460 and 15.6-inch Y560 to the mix. These new models offer faster graphics options than their predecessors, with an ATI Radeon 5650 crammed into the Y460 and ATI Radeon 5730 inside the Y560. In this review we take a look at the smaller of the two notebooks—the IdeaPad Y460—to see how well it stacks up against the competition.
Our Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 Specifications:

• 14.0" HD Wide LED 1366x768
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel Core i5 520M processor (2.40GHz, 3MB cache)
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 with 1GB VRAM and Intel GMA HD Switchable Graphics
• 4GB DDR3-1066 RAM (2x 2GB)
• 500GB 5400RPM hard drive (Seagate 5400.6)
• Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 1000BGN
• Built-in Bluetooth v2.1+EDR
• 8X DVD burner
• One-year limited warranty
• 6-cell Li-ion battery (11.1V, 57Wh)
• Weight: 4.98lbs
• Dimensions: 13.4 x 0.79–1.3 x 9.25 inches
• MSRP: $1,199 ($999 Street)

The new Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 looks completely redesigned from the previous generation. From the outside the lid has a similar dark-colored pattern trimmed with an orange border, but it now has large chromed hinges instead of being concealed previously. Inside, the previously white keyboard and bezel has been changed to a black keyboard with gunmetal paint covered trim. The all-white interior on the old model was hard to stomach for most people and I think the new look is much nicer. Other cool design elements on the new Y460 include JBL speakers beneath the screen and a unique matte and glossy screen cover that helps hide fingerprints.

Build quality is very good for a consumer notebook with durable plastic panels and strong screen hinges. The paint and plastic finishes seem to resist scratching from standard abuse and the unique lid texture does an excellent job of hiding fingerprints. The palmrest and touchpad sections have good support with little or no flex. The keyboard on the other hand has some give on the part above the optical drive, but you don’t really notice it until you try to grip the notebook right in that section. The bottom of the notebook is loaded with lots uniquely shaped cooling vents, indicating that the system might be designed to flow a lot of air when under load. 

Users looking to upgrade components will find it easy on the IdeaPad Y460. Lenovo has three access panels on the bottom of the notebook, containing the Wi-Fi card, WWAN slot, hard drive, system memory, processor and heatsink. One odd feature is the Wi-Fi card can be accessed without the use of a screwdriver. The cover is held in place with a spring tab, which I am guessing is used to access the SIM card slot which would go in that bay. The other covers are held in place with circlip-secured screws that won’t fall out when unscrewed from the notebook.
Screen and Speakers
The Ideapad Y460 includes one screen option; a WXGA resolution 14-inch panel. With its higher-end graphics option and performance inspired components we were kind of hoping to see a WXGA+ (1440x900) or HD+ (1600x900). The lower resolution panel obviously costs less so it might be a price consideration but I would personally pay extra for the option if it was given to me. The panel rates about average with good color and contrast, but falls short of some of the high-end screens like you might find on a HP ENVY or Apple MacBook. At peak backlight levels we measured a max brightness of 218nit, which is high for indoor viewing but not really bright enough for outdoor viewing. Combined with the glossy screen surface you would be hard pressed to view the screen outside unless you were under some very good shade from a building or tree.

The Ideapad Y460 has a leg up on competing 14-inch notebooks when it comes to onboard speakers. JBL and Lenovo teamed up to design the audio system on the Y460 and it easily ranks into the better than average category. It still doesn’t have the deep bass of a large notebook with a dedicated subwoofer, but the JBL drivers do a good job at high and midrange audio. Peak volume levels are good for a small to medium sized room, making it perfect for enjoying a movie in a dorm room or small office. Headphones for travel are still highly recommended and for home use we might suggest using the HDMI-out connection to pass a digital audio stream to a home theater system.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Lenovo kept the same keyboard design on the Y460, with the primary change from the previous model being the shift from all white keys to all black. The keyboard is a full-size design without a numberpad with full function-key access on the top row. Unlike a lot of manufacturers these days who seem to be opting to take the route of secondary functions taking over the function row, Lenovo keeps the old standard. Another nice design element is the location and layout of the home, end, page up, and page down keys on the right side of the keyboard. They are easy to find and useful if you do a do a lot of office productivity work.
The keyboard itself feels very comfortable to type on and requires light to moderate pressure to activate each key. The non-Chiclet keyboard is almost refreshing to see with most manufacturers taking that route on newer notebook designs. Key noise is minimal with each keypress emitting a soft click when the key is fully triggered.

The notebook also offers multiple touch-sensitive media and quick-launch buttons located below the screen. The most interesting button is a slider bar that lets you quickly launch one of eight programs of your chosing. The bar is also used to activate other Lenovo features such as a screen locking mode, desktop wallpaper changing swipe, and a workspace swap. Lenovo includes a large multi-touch enabled Synaptics touchpad on the Y460. It supports two-finger scrolling, pinch zoom, rotation and three-finger flick. The touchpad surface is a glossy textured surface that matches the color of the palmrest and has little dots imprinted on the finish. The one-finger scroll section is defined with a smooth bar and vertical orange dots. Sensitivity out of the box was excellent, but it needed to be adjusted down slightly because it was almost too sensitive for my tastes. The touchpad buttons are large and offer great feedback. They have good travel and give off a soft click when fully pressed.
Ports and Features
The Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 has a good selection of ports and features, making use of every inch of space around the perimeter. The system offers three USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, VGA and HDMI-out, Ethernet, and audio jacks. The system also includes a SDHC-card reader, ExpressCard/34 slot, and a DVD-burner. Outside of including DisplayPort or FireWire I don’t see what else Lenovo could have added to make it any better.     

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Posting hiatus is over

I know it is early than I said it would be. However, I had to end the posting hiatus prematurely for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I have written my Fable 2: See the Future impressions and can see no real reason for keeping them from you! As a sneak preview (Ill be posting it tomorrow) I really enjoyed it, but it didnt have a moral decision, which I felt was odd at best.

Secondly, THQ have just granted me a review copy of Red Faction: Guerrilla (!) which, while I havent covered before, does look very cool (see video below). Also, it looks like it has a Team Fortress 2 style online, which, given how much I am enjoying that, should be good to see. Anyway, as I am being given a copy of this game, I feel somewhat obliged to review it around the time when it was released. The review embargo is until the 5th of June, so expect the review some time around then.



Also, as you may have gathered, I have the Orange Box. Steam were selling it at the outrageous price of £5, so I couldnt refuse. And what a package! I cant work out which game I like most. I have the Cinematic Mod for Half-Life 2 and I am loving every second of this beautifully well paced first person shooter, more than any other FPS ever (except maybe Metroid Prime, but that isnt a real shooter). Then there is Portal, which I am going to devote a whole post to just expressing my shear love for the game. And then there is Team Fortress Two, which was recently patched to include some really cool maps (its like Steam love me). The whole game is that amazingly balanced online experience that hasnt got old yet.

Talking of free maps, Relic have added more maps and even a new game mode to Dawn of War 2. The game goes from strength to strength, with the 2v2 mode adding even more strategy to the game, but Ill be talking more about that too.

And I sold out and got both map packs for Halo 3. I havent really played much of Legendary, but I have made a map that I am pretty pleased with in Sandbox (Ill probably be posting about it on my game development blog). I really got it as I was going to have points left over from Fable, and I wanted Sandbox, so I just got it all so I could play it online.

Oh yes, and the small point that E3 is coming and I best get my predictions in early. And guessing Forza 3 doesnt count as a prediction, its like "predicting" that the sun will rise tomorrow, its all but guaranteed.

Anyway, hope all is well with everyone. I am 3/5s of my way through my exams, I am addicted to Twitter and the weather was fantastic, until today.

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Combat Arms fast and addicting MMO FPS game

Site ( Europe ): http://combatarms.nexoneu.com/
Site ( America ): http://combatarms.nexon.net/

Combat Arms is an online, free-to-play FPS game developed by Doobic Studios and published by Nexon. It is an addicting, fast-paced, strategic shooter with many customization options.

Players start in a lobby where they can join matches or create rooms and host a game.
Successful match brings experience and GP (Gear Points – in-game money). The experience is needed to obtain a higher rank (similar to real life army ranks), and players with higher rank can buy better weapons.

Combat Arms offers many different modes – One Man Army, Elimination, Quarantine, Fireteam. You may wonder what exactly these mode names mean – here is the list of modes and explanations for newbies:

• One Man Army – Free for All Deathmatch
• Fireteam – a cooperative, story-based game, something like team quest
• Elimination – team match. A team must reach an amount of points (kills) first.
• Elimination Pro – similar to Elimination but each player has only one life per round.
• Search and Destroy – similar to Elimination, but one team is in offense (place bombs and destroy the other team fascility) and the other must defend itself.
• Capture the Flag – popular mode in many FPS games.
• Spy Hunt – strange mode where players can become spies through obtaining a special item – Intel Case. All other players hunt the spies but the spies have some advantages like speed and special armor. This mode has a phase 2 where the spy is only one (the person, who has gathered all suitcases), but he is equipped with some powerful weapons to fight all the other players.
• Quarantine (Zombie mode) – Some of the players are chosen to be infected. They must infect all the other players, while the non-infected players must kill them or at least survive the match.
• Snowball fight – Christmas event mode.

The gameplay is fast and addicting. If you are FPS and Combat Arms newbie you may feel a little confused at the beginning but the game is easy to play and fun. I’ll write separate gameplay review after this post.

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Earn to Die 2012 School Bus Fully Upgraded

Just wanted to share what the school bus looks like fully upgraded for the Earn to Die 2012 web version. Play the game here: http://thegamerstop.com/45717-Earn-to-Die-2012.htmlAlso here is a gameplay video with the bus on the last level that you can play...

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Crush the Castle 2

The great thing about game sequels versus movie sequels is that almost always the second surpasses the first. Most movie sequels are gross disappointments (if you thought of The Matrix Reloaded raise your hand). True to form Crush the Castle 2 has taken the best features of the original, left the minor annoyances behind, and all in all is a better game.

The goal remains the same: hurl projectiles at an enemy fortress until everyone inside meets a bloody end. However, this time the complexity of the destruction has intensified. This game is more of a strategic puzzle than its precursor. Instead of simple stones or bombs the player has to switch between remote explosives, wooden logs, fire bombs, jars full of electric eels and acid bombs among others. That is if you’ve gotten far enough to unlock all these weapons, you’ll begin with the humble hunk of wood alone. The sequel has added different scenery, even better graphics and a more complex route of destruction from castle to castle. The best new feature is a toss-up between the fire bombs and the electric eels. Hit a wooden structure just right with the fire bombs and everyone inside will feel the heat. Burning a castle full of people alive…what twisted fun it can be (don’t say you haven’t thought about it). If there are iron floors you’ll want to switch to the eels and don’t feel guilty about laughing when the enemy king begins twitching and turns into a pill of cinders.

If you have played the first you might notice the gravity simulation of the sequel: Crush the Castle 2 is a little different. It may take some getting used to but this isn’t a drawback it still serves to rain down destruction. This time there is also the option to test your skills against user build castles, or like the first game you can construct your own.

Rating: A+

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Samsung vs Apple drop test

Which will win???

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Fable 3

A few days after me making a prediction that Lionhead were working on something big, Lionhead announce Fable 3!

Fable 3 will put you as King or Queen in the land of Albion. The game is set not long after Fable 2 and you will be playing your heros son or daughter. Hopefully this means the game will use your actions in Fable 2 to shape the world that Fable 3 is set in. The press release hints at some election campaigning, where I would assume you can either promise good things or beat people in to submission. It also suggests that you will be controlling policy. It is unclear what kind of game this Fable will be, given these strange implications. However, the employment includes combat animators so I think it will still be an adventure game, at least in camera perspective.

I think it is fairly safe to assume that it will use Natal in some respect. What I hope happens, and would build on from the AI demo at E3, would be you have to talk to your people. This would certainly be a significant step up from Fable 2, where you had to communicate in sign language. If the E3 demo was not staged, then it is not inconceivable that you could give speeches etc. However, given that it almost certainly was, maybe not. All I hope is that I dont have to do the walking in real life.

Fable 3 is scheduled for release in late 2010, which probably means early 2011 which is still 2 years away. This will probably wind up being the game that sells Natal for me. Stay tuned for more updates.

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100th Post

This is the 100th post for thkgamereview.blogspot.com! The first post was posted Saturday, June 25, 2005. For 2005 it was mostly reviews as I had not got in to the news scene at that point. My favourite post is
Age of Empires: A relevation, or more of the same

2006 was a far bigger year with 51 posts in total. Making up over half of all the posts. By the end I was really in to this blog. Favourite post:
Forums

And now we are in to 2007. What looks like to be my best blog year. With the new version of Blogger, my new activites in GS and my web design skills coming along. I have already posted 23 posts. By my maths that means I should have 69 posts by the end of the year. If you want to see what was posted when, remember all my posts are archived and are broken down in to year and then month on the right hand side of the pages.

Thank you for reading my blog, if youve been here from the start or have just started. Remember, I have a podcast (havent done one of them in a while) and spread the word.

Veteran Gamer - Where gamers dont have to go, to be in the know

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Zombies vs Ghosts

Zombies and ghosts are waging a terrible dispute over a large territory. His duty is to get to a safe place to escape the wrath of the ghosts. use the arrow keys.

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Demon Risng Preview

Yesterday, TQ team announced new expansion of the popular MMO Eudemons Online. The new expansion is called Demon Rising and will be launched on 11th December 2009.
The update will offer new maps, monsters and new graphics.

The announcement promises five independent story quests with big bosses at the end of each and some sub Bosses guarding them. The quests are marked as high difficulty. More about the new quests and Bosses can be found here.

You can read the full announcement at the official site.

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Super Mario Bros VC

Super Mario Bros
Platform: Wii Virtual Console
Type: Platformer
Graphics: 6.5/10
Story: 4/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Multiplayer: 0/10 (There IS MP)
Sound: 10/10
Overall: 8/10

This game first came out in 1973 and now is available for download from the Wii shop for 500 points. This game is a direct port with no changes to gameplay whatsoever. The controls work well but the lack of continue button when you die is annoying. Loads of hidden extras add replayability.

The story in this game is very simple: You are Mario, you must rescue the princess, killing various baddies and collecting mushrooms along the way. It is odd that the story is disappointing, as story was one of the few things that shouldnt necessarily improve as time moves on, as it is not dependant on hardware but imagination. However, the story is not important and it hasnt pretended to have a story. It is just a straightforward platformer.

Ironically, the graphics actually stand up quite well. I mean, obviously they are pixelated and 2D but they have a very classy style. Clearly a lot of effort has gone in to everything. At the time of creation, they did not have programs that automatically calculated the shadows on items, so that has to be done by the artist. At no point do you cringe, as the graphics do not get in the way of the game. This is not true for some games were they have tried to over-complicate the graphics and it is difficult to work out what anything is.

The gameplay is simple and has surprisingly more layers than I thought it would. The controls are laid out well on the Wiimote and you never curse the scheme. The depth I mentioned includes combo moves you can perform. Not proper combo moves, but if you kill more than one enemy in one jump you get more points. You will spend time getting jumps just right and working out ways to kill more people from one jump. For example, if a turtle-thing comes towards you, you jump on it to disable it, and once again to kick it. If you time the kick, you can get 2 or 3 enemies in one smooth move as it knocks them over. Furthermore, there are many hidden items throughout the game. The levels are made of boxes. Most of the boxes dont do anything when you hit in to them, but some, with no distinguishing features, will contain coins, health and powerups. It is really rewarding finding one that all your friends missed and encourages you to explore the whole map. Also, even more obscurely, there are invisible boxes that you have to jump in to by chance! One negative thing is the lack of a re-try button when you die. Apparently, there is a way to continue after you die but I have never got it to work. This is annoying if you have got far in to the game, but the levels, thanks to that added depth, are re-playable.

Unfortunately, the multiplayer is useless. It is played hot seat, which is a bad start for a platformer. I was hoping that you would play simultaneously and you both had to keep on the camera. It would be a competition to see who got the most points. However, that was not to be. Second problem is that, despite it being hotseat, you need two controllers to play, wasting more batteries. Thirdly, The game does not swap the player over at the end of the stage, but swaps over when you lose a life. This may not sound bad, but it makes it pretty unplayable for both parties if you have one really good person and one not so good person. Or even two really good people, although less so. To top it off, it does not present the winner and their score at the end, it just returns to the main menu., which defeats the whole point of playing: why not just take it in turns?

Finally, the sound is fantastic. From the classic techno background tunes to the perfect jump sound and the increased tempo when you get invincibility, everything is just right. The music is fantastic and a lot of modern gaming music is inspired from it. You will find yourself humming the tunes all the time and in some respects you can almost play the game as a music game. One example of this is, in the first level, you get the well known mario tune and if you jump just at the end of the intro it sounds cool.

In conclusion this game is still fun after all those years. I got it for half price (see previous post) and it is definitely good value for money. The lack of a continue is annoying but the levels, thanks to the extra depth, are fairly re-playable. The multiplayer may be terrible, but the game was never cut out for MP and can be safely ignored. For the full price a little more thinking is required. It is fun, however, it is very old. If you only have a Wiimote then it is probably the best game on the market, if you love platformers then you will want to get this. In general, I would get it, but dont buy points just for it as it is quite repetitive.

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Kung Foo the parody online

Site: http://foo.perfectworld.com/

Few days ago, Perfect World Entertainment announced their new MMO - Kung Foo. For now, from anything I learned about the game it is going to be fun and parody oriented.

Their first tweet says:
"Preparing to launch a new game, Kung Foo! The game will be a parody game focused on providing a fun spoofy atmosphere for the community."
(You can track the game on twitter - kungfoogame.)

And the teaser site says:
"Kung Foo! is a fun MMO that parodies everything from Kung-Fu movies to game shows. Embrace the foo in you. Only at PerfectWorld.com."

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ORACLE and ASK COM have infected me again!

ASK.COM is an unpleasant little toolbar that desperately wants to infect your computer. It feels like an insidious plague on the world, to be frank. Their toolbar takes up space and provides nothing but a pain in your ass. I fricken hate that toolbar. And I hate Oracle today for slipping it past me once again. Java should not be a virus. It is just one tiny cog in the wheel, so these two should get over themselves.

Back story:

Two days ago I updated Java to run something on a web site. They pester you by popping up a toolbar until you give in and install it (scumbag behavior number 1.) They should just run it until it is truly incompatible (and that is almost never true since they offer “run this time” as an option.) My wits were about me and I refused the Ask.Com installation on the totally unnecessary wizard panel dedicated to infecting your machine (scumbag behavior number 2.)

Yesterday, Java popped up with yet another update for reasons I simply do not understand (scumbag behavior number 3.)

And I was rushed and tired and Ask.Com slipped by me because the default it to have it checked and to ignore the fact that I said no the day before. (Scumbag behavior number 4.)

Oracle and Ask are infecting your computer by using every trick they can to pressure you early and often to run their wizard and they slip it by you if you are even slightly distracted.

This is an evil behavior.

Update: Q: What would make the toolbar even scummier? A: Disabling your ability to get rid of it. Like this …

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Business Software Integration Improves Inventory Tracking

At NCH Software we take suggestions from our customers very seriously. It helps us improve our products when people who use the software ask us to provide features and upgrades that would help them.

For our business customers, tracking inventory is an important part of their daily business processes. Inventoria inventory management software is a full featured inventory system for managing available stock, and many customers have asked us to integrate this inventory tracking with our accounting software Express Accounts, our invoicing software Express Invoice, and Copper our point-of-sale software so that they can better track inventory when selling items using these other business programs.

That integration is now available and weve received positive feedback from users who say that it has helped them in their day-to-day business operations.

Express Invoice, Express Accounts, and Copper can all be set to sync with Inventoria. This means, for example, that if you sell a product using Copper point-of-sale it will automatically update the quantity in Inventoria. Both products can be installed on different computers and as long as those computers are connected to the Internet it doesnt matter where the computers are located. That means that your warehouse could be next door, across the country or around the world and the sale will be reflected in your inventory almost instantly. The sync process works the same for Express Accounts and Express Invoice as it does for Copper.

This integration is a significant improvement to the NCH Software business suite. Weve got many more improvements planned for not only our business software but for our entire product line as wells, so stay tuned and continue to let us know how we can best improve our software for you.

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Dang! I missed the 1 000 000 page view milestone by a month or so …

I lost track of my traffic stats in the last couple of months as I had wanted to post a mini-celebration of the 1 million page view mark. But I brain farted my way through that one … *sigh* …

From inception until today …

The blog has crossed the half million mark for visits and the one million mark for page views. Over 300,000 unique individuals have taken a peek.

Thanks so very much to those who have supported this blog over the years. I realize that a post like this is a little shameless, but I am understandably happy to pass the 1,000,000 views milestone. Of course, a site like DPReview passes it about once every 30 to 45 days, and major news sites pass it every day … so I am quite able to keep this rather minor achievement in perspective :-)

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Canada’s ISS Astronaut sings with the Barenaked Ladies

This is wicked …

Am I the only one that thinks Chris Hadfield looks more than a little like Walter White (Heisenberg) from Breaking Bad?

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Free Download Opera Mini Android Browser Latest Version

Opera Mini Android Browser Free Download

Opera Mini android browser is the world’s super fastest browser. Most of the people use this free

apps all most 250 plus million fan love this awesome browser. There are lots of facilities this browser. Those are given below:

01.Super Speed:

Quick page load & page view with full image and logos very fast.

02.Data Save:

Opera mini is popular for low data cost. It saves up to 90% data.

03.Easy to Use:

It is very easy for use and it have bigger buttons & clear layouts.

04.Free Browser:

Opera Mini free for all so no cost needed for getting this browser

05.Integrate Downloader:

It has integrated downloader for that reason you can easily download, Audio, game, software, movie etc. & page saving facilities.

06.Speed Dial Options:

Here have speed dial option so you can set your favorite websites on the main screen of your browser.

Install From Google Play

Direct Download 

Tags:

apps, update version download,Opera mini APK

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Get Top 92 Forums List for Webmasters

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TMOH 2

One of the designs I really like is my Spider Mech faction.  Theyre built using techniques that Joshua used to make his Fuchikoma Swarmers.  Ive expanded on those techniques to make a few different designs.

Heres a group shot.

The "team" consists of the four Basic Spider mechs (bottom center), the two Leader mechs (center), the two Heavy Assault mechs (outside left & right), an Artillery mech (back left), and a Daddy Longlegs (back right).  I know thats a total of ten mechs, so at game time you have to choose exactly what youre going to play.  At the PAX East demo I left one Basic and the Artillery mech in the box and fielded the rest.

Lets look at them individually.

This is the Basic mech.  It gets 2R @ Direct Fire range for the ventral cannon, 1B for its small size, and 1G for multiple legs.  (2Rd/1B/1G/2W)

This is the Leader mech.  It gets 2B for small size and the clear polycarbonate shell, 1Y for the sensor suite, 1G for multiple legs, and the free Gd8 for having no ranged weapons.  (2B/1Y/1G+d8/2W)

Ive got and idea on how to change these to a 2Y loadout.  Keep an eye open!

This is the Heavy Assault mech.  It gets 2R+d8 @ Direct Fire range for the twin cannons, 1B for small size, and 1G for multiple legs.  (2Rd+d8/1B/1G/2W)

I just modified these.  I took out an unnecessary 2x2 plate.

This is the Artillery mech.  It gets 2R+d8 @ Artillery range for the long guns, 1B for the armored body, and 1G for multiple legs.  (2Ra+d8/1B/1G/2W)

These have been through the most iterations.  Im finally happy with this one.

This is the Daddy Longlegs mech.  It gets 2R @ Direct Fire range for the ventral cannon, 1B for its small size, and 2G for multiple long legs. (2Rd/1B/2G/2W)

You may notice that 80% of the designs have an antenna, yet only the Leader mech actually uses it in its stats.  Its there more for looks and a unified design style than anything else.  Theres room to add 1Y on the basic mech but not on the others.  You could possibly swap out the "1B for small size" for a "1Y for linked comm suite".  Hmmnn.  This might be worth experimenting with.

I also designed some stations to be used with this team.

I havent actually had the chance to use them in a game though.

I have had a chance to put the team on the table for a game.  Ill leave you with an action shot.

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