Another feature meant to please the crowd is the “HDR mode” that alters the colour of the 1080p display. I’m using quotations when calling it “HDR mode” because it is an infuriatingly confusing feature. HDR is a term currently used to describe two things.HDR in photography, where identical photos with different exposures are layered together to provide a highly detailed image (either static or moving).
HDR in video, where those highly detailed images are then reproduced perfectly on very expensive TVs.
Samsung has introduced a third HDR mode that has nothing to do with HDR and everything to do with the rising popularity of the term. Samsung’s HDR mode is really just “brighter colours and higher contrast at the cost of accuracy.” It’s not so much HDR as a badly named display preset for people who don’t know any better.
Samsung Finally Gave Us the Laptop Apple Should Have
Which is a lot of people! I review displays for a living, so I’ve gotten very good at judging the accuracy of one and I deeply value that accuracy, but I also know that friends and family often find “accurate” to mean “dull and sort of brown.” This mode is absolutely for them — too bad it couldn’t have a different name.As it stands, calling the preset “HDR mode” is bound to lead to people proudly showing off their $US800 ($1,048) laptop and saying it’s got a display that’s better than the one on an $US8000 ($10,481) TV. This would be inaccurate, so if you buy this laptop do not do this.
Should You Buy It?
And you should buy this laptop — at least if you’re in the mood for a not-so-lean but very mean Windows machine. Sending a kid to college? Are yourself a kid headed to college? This is the perfect device for you. It’s what used to be the bread and butter of Apple and Dell. This big guy can go anywhere and do just about anything, and won’t make your bank account cry in the process. Apple take note, this is what people are actually looking for in a laptop under $US1000.You might call this one a long-term review: I've had these headphones now for over six months and I thought it might be worth pointing out what I like about them and why I currently default to them when using headphones.First of all, wireless headphones have huge ergonomic advantages over physically tethered ones. They also have a built-in feature I regularly use: a hands-free microphone that lets you make and take calls without holding your phone up to your mouth.
That said, these Sennheiser headphones have a few other advantages. Their physical styling is about the best on the market, with just the right amount of understated fashion and design. This is obviously in the eye of the beholder, but I'd take these over candy-coloured DJ lookalikes any day of the week.
They're also quite comfortable, which is a crucial consideration. I have a rather big cranium and any unevenness will dig in mercilessly - but the leather used is soft and adaptive. These aren't the cushiest on the market (Sony, arguably holds that crown), but they're just fine.
And the Momentum headphones have active noise-cancelling technology on board. This means that they cut out a great deal of the external clattering and chattering around you to let you focus on whatever your Bluetooth audio source is. Indeed, you don't even need to have something playing - you can simply turn the headphones on and you'll get the advantage of the noise-cancellation. (I use this a lot.)The quality of the playback is very good for wireless headphones. There are some useful physical controls on the headphones, including a volume button and track controls.
Battery life is about the same as any other pair of Bluetooth wireless cans I use - you'll get a week from a single charge if you listen for around an hour a day. It's rechargeable using a standard Micro USB cable.
It's taken a while, but 'convertible' laptops are starting to bring some real extra functionality to portable PCs. Take HP's 13-inch Spectre X360, which I've been playing with for a couple of weeks. Other than some high-end technical specifications, which I'll get to in a second, its main appeal is the screen flexibility that its hinge affords.
Basically, you can flip the screen right around until it backs onto the keyboard. But all points in between make it functional, too - you can stand it up as a single screen if you want to for presentations or simply to watch movies on. Obviously, HP's intent is that this also makes it useful as a 'tablet', although I still have reservations about Windows-based tablets - Windows was, and remains, an awkward operating system for touchscreen operations. It's simply not optimised for this form of input: try to toggle quickly through applications using just the touchscreen features and you'll see what I mean.
To be fair, if you never used any of the Spectre X360's tablet touchscreen features, you'd still have a pretty powerful, slick laptop. The super-slim form factor is gorgeous, with a silver metallic body making it feel like a cross between a MacBook Air and a MacBook Pro.The trackpad on it is huge - almost seven inches across. The backlit keyboard is very comfortable to type on, too.
If you like your physical connections, this laptop has them all with three USB ports, a HDMi port and a memory-card reader. There's also a volume button on the side of the laptop as well as a shortcut key to the home screen. The bright 1080p screen is excellent (it's configurable up to 4K), with very decent speakers built in.
My test laptop had 128GB of storage memory, an Intel i5 chip and 4GB of Ram (although the specs HP gives out appear to stipulate 8GB of Ram as standard).If I was to pick any holes in it, it might be its weight. At 1.5kg this is a little heavier than some other similarly sized skinny laptops out there.
But otherwise, if you need to stick with Windows and are looking for some flexibility, this is an excellent buy.
Serious business users who want a large display and business-class security can't go wrong with Lenovo's ThinkPad T560. The system provides fast performance for heavy multitasking and long enough battery life to get you through a transcontinental business flight, and its top-tier keyboard is just icing on the cake. Other 15-inchers are sleeker and more portable, but the ThinkPad T560 is the most well-rounded.
There are plenty of 15-inch laptops on the market that are slimmer and lighter than the 4.8-lb. ThinkPad T560. Dell's 4.4-lb. XPS 15 stands out as a more commuter-friendly option, though it's not as secure or durable as the ThinkPad T560. If you can live with a slightly smaller display, the ThinkPad T460 is a whole pound lighter.But compared to other business-class 15-inchers, Lenovo's system is actually relatively portable. Dell's 5.6-lb Latitude E5570, for example, is both thicker and heavier. That's less true if you opt for the ThinkPad T560's extended battery, which adds about an extra half pound to the system's weight. The extended battery still comes highly recommended, though, since it nearly doubles the laptop's battery life — but more on that later.
Commuters and frequent travelers will appreciate the ThinkPad T560's extremely durable design. The system sports a glass-fiber-reinforced shell that feels extremely sturdy and rigid; I didn't notice a hint of flex in the lid or keyboard deck. Lenovo says the system has MIL-SPEC-grade durability and was designed to withstand short drops and dings. You get a generous array of ports with the ThinkPad T560. The right edge has two USB 3.0 ports, a mini DisplayPort for connecting to monitors and projectors, and a lock slot for physically securing your laptop at your desk.
Security-minded workers will find a lot to like here. The ThinkPad T560 comes with all the standard business-class security options, including Trusted Platform Module-based hardware encryption and Intel vPro technology that enables corporate IT departments to remotely manage the system. Small business owners will probably get more use out of the fingerprint scanner, an optional feature that can be added for $20. It's a great perk for workers who want to keep their laptops locked down without fussing with a password every time they turn their machines on. Unfortunately, the T560 comes with a swipe-based fingerprint scanner that isn't as reliable as the single-touch scanner on systems like the ThinkPad T460s. It occasionally failed to recognize my print, asking me to swipe a second time.