OCZ Octane 512 GB SSD Review: Meet Indilinx's Everest Controller By Andrew Ku published 28 December 11 What? A performance SSD from OCZ not based on SandForce's tech? The new Octane SSD features an Indilinx controller. Does OCZ rectify the controller company's past mistakes, or does it need more time to marinate? The truth lies somewhere in the middle.
SSD Performance In The Office: Nine Applications Benchmarked By Andrew Ku published 15 December 11 A number of metrics are used to quantify storage performance. If you're a regular Joe, you have to be wondering how such dry terminology can apply to office work. Rather than telling you, we're going to dissect several routine computing tasks.
Motorola's Xoom Family Edition Review: Not Just For The Kids By Andrew Ku published 2 December 11 Don't let its name fool you. Motorola's Xoom Family Edition is one of the best values in tablets that we've seen up until now. It offers almost everything we want. If you're in the market for an Android-based tablet, this one deserves your attention.
Exploring SSD Performance In Battlefield 3, F1 2011, And Rift By Andrew Ku published 25 November 11 We use a ton of terms to quantify storage performance. If you're a gamer, you have to be wonder how such dry terminology can apply to having fun. Rather than telling you, we're going to dissect three more popular titles to illustrate for you instead.
The Amazon Kindle Fire: Benchmarked, Tested, And Reviewed By Andrew Ku published 24 November 11 A low price is earning Amazon's Kindle Fire a lot of press. We take a fine-tooth comb to this new tablet and turn up some surprising results. While there's a lot to like, there are also plenty of quirks. We go over the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Sony Tablet S Review: The Media Enthusiast's Dream Tablet By Andrew Ku published 22 November 11 Are you a home theater enthusiast building the ultimate man cave? Sony's Tablet S is the strongest Android-based contender offering unique features for that specific segment. With DLNA compliance and IR remote control apps, it deserves special attention.
Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime Unveiled and Detailed By Andrew Ku published 9 November 11 Asus finally unveils its much anticipated Transformer Prime. It's going to be the first tablet to feature Nvidia's Tegra 3 SoC. While it's not going to ship with Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich, Asus promises a few more surprises beyond just more horsepower.
Nvidia Tegra 3: A Whole New Level of Mobile Gaming By Andrew Ku published 9 November 11 The final details on Tegra 3 have finally been unveiled. It's not exactly a revolutionary design, but Nvidia's new SoC promises to deliver notebook-level performance.
24" LCD Round-Up: Acer S242HL, Dell U2412M, And Samsung T24A550 By Andrew Ku published 4 November 11 Another batch of monitors just landed. This time, we're sampling 24" screens. If 27" is too big (and too expensive), and 23" is too small, this round-up is just what you need. We put three screens through the usual paces to find a definitive winner.
HP TouchPad's History: Lessons Learned, Bidding Adieu By Andrew Ku, Jane McEntegart published 1 November 11 The race to the virtual checkout is over. It's now time for some reflections on the Touchpad Firesale. HP's out of the tablet fight, but Google would do well to draw lessons from the eleventh hour TouchPad craze if it wants to unseat Apple as tablet king.
Toshiba Thrive Review: The Swiss Army Knife Of Tablets By Andrew Ku published 1 November 11 Another day, another new tablet from an aspiring mobile contender. Toshiba packs many features into its Thrive, which is why we consider it the Swiss Army Knife of tablets. But how does it stack up to the competition? We run it through expert analysis.
Intel SSD 710 Tested: MLC NAND Flash Hits The Enterprise By Andrew Ku published 31 October 11 Take note, enterprise customers: the successor to Intel's vaunted X25-E is here, and it doesn't center on SLC flash. Instead, the company is turning toward High Endurance Technology MLC. We dig deep to find out what this means for speed and reliability.
Apple iPhone 4S, Part 2: Battery, Camera, And Display Quality By Andrew Ku published 25 October 11 Despite the fact that it looks identical, the iPhone 4S is significantly different from its predecessor. To begin, it offers better performance without a big battery life penalty. Plus, we uncover display differences that Apple didn't bother to mention.
OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid: Solid-State Speed With Hard Drive Capacity By Andrew Ku published 24 October 11 If you're tempted to buy a PCI Express-based SSD and add your own conventional storage, OCZ's RevoDrive Hybrid could might suit you. A 120 GB SSD and 1 TB of disk space come together on a four-lane PCIe card to serve up an advanced caching solution.
Does The USB 3.0 Controller On Your Motherboard Matter? By Andrew Ku published 20 October 11 Given a lack of chipset vendors integrating USB 3.0 support into their core logic (with the exception of AMD's Socket FM1-focused A75), motherboard manufacturers are forced to lean hard on third-party solutions. We take a few for a test drive.
Apple iPhone 4S, Part 1: More Horsepower, Better Hardware By Andrew Ku published 15 October 11 Apple's latest iPhone, the 4S, is here. Is it evolutionary, or all-new? Most of us already know it's a small step forward. Still, we take a technical look at what makes the iPhone 4S different, noting why you shouldn't judge a phone on appearances alone.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1: A Second-Gen Android Tablet By Andrew Ku published 4 October 11 The iPad 2 enjoys the benefit of being one generation ahead of everyone else. But what happens when the competition catches up? Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the first second-gen Android-based tablet. Can it hold its own against the iPad 2 in our testing?
Windows 8 In Videos: An Operating System Reimagined? By Andrew Ku published 3 October 11 Microsoft showed off a pre-beta build of Windows 8 at its BUILD conference in last September. We got our hands on a copy and took it for a spin in the lab. Is the company's effort to unify PCs, phones, tablets, and its gaming console actually coherent?
Hands-On: Amazon's Fourth-Gen Kindle Refresh By Andrew Ku published 1 October 11 Amazon's Kindle was recently refreshed for the third time. A silver, keyboard-free chassis is the most obvious alteration. We take the company's newest e-book reader through a quick speed test and peek under the hood. Some changes are big; some are small.
Samsung Goes 6 Gb/s: Is The 830-Series SSD King Of The Hill? By Andrew Ku published 23 September 11 Samsung's 830 is a late entry to the 6 Gb/s SSD market, but the company claims impressive performance. Can it unseat the incumbent SandForce-based drives? Let's just say this new offering shakes up the SSD world in a major way. Other vendors, beware.
More Details Emerge on Nvidia's Kal-El: Quint-Core? By Andrew Ku published 20 September 11 Nvidia's Kal-El chip's been touted as a quad-core solution, but we've found an additional core that will give the four others some needed companionship.
Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101: A Tablet In Disguise By Andrew Ku published 13 September 11 The Eee Pad Transformer is aptly named; there's more to this thing than meets the eye. Asus is the first to market with a tablet that pulls double-duty, attempting to replace your notebook, too. We put it through the paces to see how it really stacks up.
Universal Laptop Power Adapters For The Air, Road, And Wall By Andrew Ku published 2 September 11 Are you tired of your notebook running out of power away from a wall wart? We're looking at three universal adapters able to get your battery charged again, whether you're on the road, in the air, or sitting down next to an AC plug.
Picking The Best Ink And Paper For Your Inkjet Printer By Andrew Ku published 1 September 11 The subject of printing has the potential to be super boring. But it's fun to break technologies down and explore how they work. If you're a true techie, you'll dig the tests we're performing to get the best quality out of our inks and printer paper.