I’m back from CeBIT and have two new Ultrabooks here; the Samsung Series 5 13” and the Toshiba Z830.
There’s only one thing to do, readers, and that’s to get the live cam on them, show you around them, do a live review and let you ask questions.
If you want to find out more about these two devices, or just chat about Ultrabooks in general, join me tomorrow (Sat 10th March) at 2100 CET (Berlin time. Your location listed here.)
We had a monster session with three Ultrabooks this evening. Thanks to all that joined and contributed.
The live videos are available below.
There’s an hour of videos here but they are split into, hopefuly, bite-sized secitions. As usual, the quality isn’t high becuase they are recorded from the live stream but there’s a ton of information in there.
I read two European reviews of the ASUS UX31 yesterday and both of them said that the keyboard was fine. It confused me because I’ve read some bad feedback about the keyboard and my own testing of the UX21 resulted in disappointment in the keyboard department so I decided to venture out today to find a UX31 and test it myself. I found one at Saturn, a large electronics store here in Germany, who are offering the Core i7 / 128GB version for €1099. Sure enough, the keyboard wasn’t bad at all. The keys still have that slightly wobbly feeling that the UX21 had but here I am typing away now on the UX31 with far fewer problems than I did on the UX21. It’s not perfect (the space bar is catching me out at the moment) but I’m giving it a chance. In fact, I’ve bought it and have a few days in which to test it out. If I’m not happy, I can return it.
The Toshiba Satellite Z830 (Z830-10J, Core i5) is here and the waiting is finally over. This is one of the most popular of the Ultrabooks out there right now due to its feature set, weight and, in the USA, an interesting price on the Core i3 version. I’ve unboxed it on video for you below.
Thanks to everyone that turned up at the Acer Aspire S3 Live Review this evening. It was another great detailed session of testing and Q&A. The videos are now on our YouTube channel and embedded below.
Thanks also to @morganmobile who sent his personal Acer S3 over for Ultrabooknews to test. He’s doing tests on Ultrabooks himself so make sure you follow him on Twitter to keep up with his latest thoughts.
The live review and Q&A with the Samsung 900X1B went well on Saturday and we got through the 2 hours without any major issues or showstoppers cropping up. Battery life during the 2 hours was good at a projected 6hrs which included constant Wi-Fi and even some high-performance mode gaming. Wi-Fi, something that’s been highlighted by others as an issue on the 900X1B was stable but in a test across a couple of walls to a remote hotspot we confirmed that the throughput was poor. That’s the only potential issue on the 900X1B, the rest of the device was perfect, as long as you don’t mind those mini and micro ports and adaptors.
The live review and Q&A with the Samsung 900X1B went well on Saturday and we got through the 2 hours without any major issues or showstoppers cropping up. Battery life during the 2 hours was good at a projected 6hrs which included constant Wi-Fi and even some high-performance mode gaming. Wi-Fi, something that’s been highlighted by others as an issue on the 900X1B was stable but in a test across a couple of walls to a remote hotspot we confirmed that the throughput was poor. That’s the only potential issue on the 900X1B, the rest of the device was perfect, as long as you don’t mind those mini and micro ports and adaptors.
The 900X1B looks great, feels solid, performs well, is surprisingly efficient, light, quiet, has an amazing screen and keyboard and with no moving parts is a real contender for an ultra-portable. Only the power adaptor annoys. At 300gm it’s heavier and bigger than it needs to be. You might find a lighter power pack that would be more useful on a day away from the mains power.
The 900X1B is also available with a Core i5 1.6Ghz CPU and 128GB storage for a more carefree user experience and the prices have come down recently although it remains a premium product.
As usual, the live review was captured on video. Quality isn’t exactly HD but if you’re close to buying a Series 9 or considering a UX21, I really recommend watching. In fact, in my opinion, the 900X1B beats the Asus UX21 and is a good contender in the ultra-portable space.
