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1. HP Black 15.6″ 15-f004wm Laptop PC with Intel Celeron N2830 Processor, 4GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive and Windows 8.1  at $159 [Walmart]

• Intel Celeron N2830 processor
  2.16GHz (up to 2.41GHz via Turbo boost)
• 4GB DDR3 SDRAM system memory
  Gives you the power to handle most power-hungry applications and tons of multimedia work
• 500GB SATA hard drive
  Store 333,000 photos, 142,000 songs or 263 hours of HD video and more
• SuperMulti DVD Burner
  Watch movies and read and write CDs and DVDs in multiple formats
• 10/100Base-T Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
  Connect to a broadband modem with wired Ethernet or wirelessly connect to a WiFi signal or hotspot with the 802.11b/g/n connection built into your PC
• 15.6″ HD BrightView WLED-backlit display
  Intel HD Graphics

2. Asus X205TA, 11.6″ HD Laptop at $99 [Staples]

• Intel® Atom Z3735F 2MB Cache, 1.33GHz, up to 1.83GHz Processor
• 2GB System Memory (DDR3L)/ 32GB Flash
• 802.11abgn + Bluetooth 4.0
• UMA Intel HD Graphics
• Inputs: 2x USB 2.0, 1x Micro HDMI port
• 11.6″ HD Display
• Windows 8.1 with Bing
• ASUS Webstorage with 500GB for 2 years
• OneDrive and ASUS Webstorage cloud storage
• OneDrive with 15GB of storage

3. Samsung Silver 11.6″ Chromebook PC with Samsung Exynos 5 Dual Processor and Google Chrome OS $199 [Walmart]

• Samsung Exynos 5 Dual processor
• 2GB memory; 16GB SSD hard drive
• 3-in-1 card reader, WiFi
• Google Chrome OS

4. Dell Inspiron 15.6 Touch Core i3 Laptop w/ 4GB, 500GB at $299.99 [Best Buy]

• 4th Gen Intel Core i3-4030U processor
• 4GB DDR3L memory
• 15.6″ LED-backlit high-definition touch-screen display
• 500GB hard drive (5400 rpm)
• Built-in 1.0MP high-definition webcam with digital microphone
• 1 USB 3.0 port and 2 USB 2.0 ports
• Built in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 4.0 interface
• Weighs 5.3 lbs

5. Acer C720 Chromebook 11.6-Inch, 2GB at $199 [Amazon.com]

• 11.6″ Anti-Glare HD Widescreen LED-backlit Display
• Intel® Celeron® Processor 2955U (1.4GHz, 2MB L3 cache)
• Haswell micro-architecture
• Google Chrome Operating System
• 16GB SSD Drive
• 2048MB DDR3L SDRAM Memory
• Intel® HD Graphics with 128MB of dedicated system memory
• Acer InviLinkTM NplifyTM 802.11a/b/g/n (MIMO Dual-Band 2.4Ghz & 5GHz) Wireless LAN
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Built-in HD Webcam
• Two built-in stereo speakers
• 1- USB 3.0 Port, 1- USB 2.0 Port, and 1- HDMI™ Port
• Full-size Acer FineTip Keyboard
• Multi-Gesture Touchpad
• 3-Cell Li-Polymer Battery Up to 8.5-hours Battery Life
• 2.76 lbs.| 1.25 kg (system unit only)

6. Dell Inspiron 15 Celeron Laptop w/ 4GB, 500GB at $189 [Dell or Walmart]

• Intel Celeron Dual-Core N2830 processor 2.40GHz
• 4GB DDR3 SDRAM system memory
• 500GB SATA hard drive
• 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
• 15.6″ HD Truelife LED-backlit display
• DVD/CD-ROM drive not included

 

The Olympus Stylus 1 has the look and feel of
a top-end camera, and despite not being an
interchangable lens camera with a huge image
sensor, it is one. It is styled like the excellent
Olympus OM-D E-M5, sharing the same EVF
and tilting touch-screen LCD. At its heart is a
12-megapixel 1/1.7-inch image sensor, larger than those
found in most long zoom cameras, and the integrated
28-300mm f/2.8 lens covers an impressive focal range
at a constant aperture. It’s a solid performer, and even
though its zoom lens doesn’t cover as long of a range as
our previous favorite, the 24x Panasonic Lumix DMCFZ200,
we’re naming the Stylus 1 as our new Editors’ Choice superzoom.

DESIGN AND FEATURES

Measuring 3.4 by 4.5 by 2.2 inches (HWD) and
weighing 14.2 ounces, the Stylus 1 is a bit larger than
most compact long zoom cameras. The Stylus has a
noticeably bigger lens that doesn’t collapse fully into the
body, and its excellent integrated EVF (the same
1,440k-dot LCD found in the OM-D E-M5, with a good
1.15x magnification) and 3-inch tilting rear touch
display (with a 1,040k-dot resolution) also contribute to
the extra bulk. The Stylus 1 has a unique lens cover; the
always-on cap (it can be removed to add a teleconverter
accessory) has four hinged doors that automatically
open as the lens extends. The 10.7x lens is a 28-300mm
f/2.8 design, which is an impressive range for a camera
with a 1/1.7-inch image sensor.
Olympus is targeting serious shooters with the Stylus
1, and as such has included a good array of physical
controls. There’s a programmable Fn2 button up front,
which is nestled inside of a switch that toggles the ring
around the lens to either act as manual focus control or
adjust shooting settings. There’s also a power zoom
control on the front, at the left side of the lens barrel.




























On top you’ll find a standard mode dial, a control dial for quick EV
adjustments, an additional zoom rocker (surrounding the shutter release), a
power button, and a record button for video capture. Rear controls include
buttons to set exposure compensation, control the flash, adjust the active focus
area, and control the drive mode. There’s also a programmable Fn1 button, and
the normal menu and playback controls.
The Stylus 1 has built-in Wi-Fi. The setup is identical for iOS and Android
devices: You scan a QR code that’s displayed on the camera’s rear LCD using
the Olympus Image Share app, and that installs a network profile for the SSID
the camera broadcasts. Once you’ve connected to that network you’ll be able to
transfer JPEG images and QuickTime videos to your phone. There’s also a GPS
function that geo-tags your photos—you’ll need to enable a location log and
make sure that your camera’s clock is set correctly to make this work.
Remote control is also available, and works just as on other Olympus
cameras. Your phone or tablet will show the Live View feed and you can choose
a focus point and fire the shutter. The app provides full access to automatic and
manual shooting modes, so it’s possible to adjust shutter speed, aperture, ISO,
and the focal length of the lens. The Wi-Fi is easy to use and the remote control
is one of the best I’ve seen. What’s missing right now is the ability to post
photos from the camera to social networks when a hotspot is available; you have
to transfer them to your phone and post from there.

PERFORMANCE AND CONCLUSIONS

The Stylus 1 starts and shoots in about 1.3 seconds, manages a very short
0.1-second shutter lag at its widest angle, and can focus and fire in just 0.6
second when zoomed to the 300mm setting. Focus does slow a bit in very dim
light; at its wide angle setting the camera requires about 0.9 second to lock and
capture a shot. The Olympus can capture photos at 7.6 frames per second (fps),
regardless of which image format you choose. It can manage that pace for 21
Raw+JPEG, 26 Raw, or 26 JPEG images before slowing. Writing all of those
images to a memory card requires 15.2, 8.8, or 8.4 seconds, respectively.
I used Imatest to check the sharpness that the Stylus 1’s lens is able to
capture. At its widest angle it is just a little bit on the soft side, scoring 1,782
lines per picture height on a center-weighted test at f/2.8; narrowing the
aperture to f/4 gets it to 1,860 lines (1,800 being necessary for a sharp image).
Images at the 28mm setting show 1.8 percent barrel distortion, which causes
straight lines to curve outward in images. That can be removed with some quick
work in Lightroom, but doing so will slightly narrow the field of view of your
image. At 60mm the lens is sharper and distortion disappears. It approaches
2,000 lines at f/2.8 and f/4. As you zoom in further it maintains about 1,900
lines through 200mm. It’s not until 300mm that images become a little soft,
about 1,500 lines at f/2.8, but narrowing the aperture improves the score there
to 1,840 lines.

Chromatic aberration was
an issue for some images. A
few of my test shots showed
quite a bit of purple and green
fringing around trees and
branches. It’s more noticeable in
Raw files than in JPEGs, and in
most cases is easily corrected in
Lightroom. But I did see some
instances where even Lightroom
struggled to remove the color fringing.
It’s more of an issue at wider angles.
Imatest also checks images for noise,
which can rob detail when shooting in
low light. The camera keeps noise under
1.5 percent through ISO 1600, which is
good. More impressively, even JPEG images
shot at ISO 1600 retain a good amount of
detail. As with any camera, you’ll get the best
results at lower ISO settings, but the Stylus 1
impresses through 1600. Noise is more
aggressive at ISO 3200; that detail is lost due to
the in-camera noise reduction. If you prefer a
slightly grainier image with more detail, noise
reduction can be set to low or disabled entirely via
the camera menu. You can also opt to shoot in Raw;
images contain an impressive amount of detail in that
format through ISO 3200, but look considerably worse
above that.

Video is recorded at up to 1080p30 quality in
QuickTime format. Video quality is very good; footage
is crisp and detailed, and the camera refocuses quickly
as the scene changes. But the sound of the lens zooming
in and out while recording is audible on the soundtrack.
There’s no microphone input, so you may want to look
elsewhere if video is a primary concern. The Panasonic
FZ200 is a better camera for recording video; it shoots
at up to 1080p60 in AVCHD format and includes
support for an external microphone. The Stylus 1 does have a micro HDMI
output to connect to an HDTV, as well as a standard hot shoe and a proprietary
USB port. An external battery charger is included; the Stylus 1 uses the same
battery as the PEN E-PL5 and E-PM2. The usual SD card slot is there, as is
support for SDHC and SDXC cards.


The Olympus Stylus 1 has a long list of pros: a long zoom lens with an f/2.8
aperture, a relatively large image sensor for a camera of its class, surprisingly
good image quality through ISO 1600, a sharp touch-screen display, an
excellent EVF, Wi-Fi, and a solid control layout. The lens does show a bit more
chromatic aberration than we’d like, but in most case the JPEG engine can
remove it, and Raw shooters can handle all but the worst cases with ease in
Lightroom. The FZ200 still wins out for video (and costs $100 less), and though
the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 is bigger and nearly twice the price of the Stylus
1, its 1-inch image sensor and Zeiss 24-200mm f/2.8 lens are both top-notch.
For now, however, the Stylus 1 is our favorite bridge-style superzoom camera.

Professional users will pay a premium for certain features such as a 
sharper-than-normal screen or workstation-class graphics. The HP 
ZBook 14 has these features, packed within a highly mobile design 
that’s thinner and lighter than we’ve yet seen on a system of this type. 
Add in performance, battery life, and a terrific display, and you have 
an Editors’ Choice–winning professional-grade mobile workstation.

DESIGN AND FEATURES

The ZBook 14 looks very much like a 14-inch ultrabook, and that’s the point. It 
measures about 0.83 by 13.5 by 9.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.88 pounds, so 
it will blend in with other business ultrabooks rather than stand out like 
previous chunkier mobile workstations we’ve seen. It’s also much lighter than 
full-size business desktop replacement laptops such as the Dell Latitude E6540.
Metal is the finish of choice on the ZBook 14’s top lid
and keyboard deck, but the bottom lid is polycarbonate.

This is one of the ZBook 14’s strengths: The light,
removable lid provides tool-less access to the internal
components, primarily the system’s hard drive bay,
memory slots, and slots for accessories such as the
optional WWAN/4G mobile broadband module, which
is the only way to get GPS functionality. (Dual-band
802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 come
standard.) You can also remove the system’s 50Wh
battery, a feature that you won’t find in most ultrabooks
but that’s important if you regularly compute far away
from a power outlet or car charger.

The system’s components include an Intel
Core i7-4600U processor, 16GB of DDR3L memory (maxed
out), a 256GB SATA SSD (240GB usable), and an AMD
FirePro M4100 GPU. The system uses AMD Switchable
Graphics technology, so it can operate on the
processor’s HD Graphics 4400 integrated GPU when
you don’t need discrete-level performance.
One of the ZBook 14’s greatest strengths is its screen.
It’s a 14-inch 1,920-by-1,080 display, though some
competitors (such as the Retina display–
equipped 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro and
Toshiba Kirabook) feature higher-resolution
screens. Though the ZBook 14 is limited to
1080p, it trounces the other systems by
offering a matte-finish antiglare screen.


Users who need to perform scientific
tasks, do edits, and create content full
time may prefer the larger, more
pixel-dense screens for their day-today work,
but everyone else will be
fine with HP’s choice here. 
The ZBook 14 has ample external ports as well: four
USB 3.0 (one is a stay-awake charging port), a full-sized
DisplayPort, Ethernet (vital for business users), VGA,
Kensington lock, SmartCard and SD card slots, and a
docking port like those you’ll see on other HP EliteBook
laptops. DisplayPort enables multiple monitors
regardless, but the optional dock lets the ZBook 14
support up to five external displays.
The ZBook 14’s comfortable backlit chiclet-style
keyboard has a multitouch touchpad and a pointing
stick, each with its own set of physical mouse buttons
(though you can also use tap-to-click on the touchpad).
There’s no numeric keypad, however—if you need one,
look at larger laptops, such as HP’s ZBook 15 or the
Asus Zenbook VX51VZ-XB71.

Our review unit came with Windows 7 Professional
preinstalled, and includes discs for installing Windows
8 Pro. Because Windows 8 presently has few business
adherents, it’s not a huge deal that there’s no touch
screen, though you can configure your ZBook 14 with
one (something you can’t do with the ZBook 15). The
ZBook 14 comes with a three-year parts and
labor warranty.

PERFORMANCE

The ZBook 14 is, as you’d expect, quite
capable of creating multimedia
projects, but its best attribute is that
it is ISV certified and can work fine
as a supervisor’s machine in the
field. The 13-inch Apple MacBook
Pro was a smidge faster than the
ZBook 14 on Photoshop CS6 (4
minutes 27 seconds versus 6:28) and
Handbrake (1:09 versus 1:11), most
likely due to the MacBook’s slightly fasterclocked processor and speedier PCIe-based flash storage.

On 3D tasks, the ZBook 14 is closer to its peers. Its performance is on par with
that of the Dell Precision M4700 with its 2GB Nvidia Quadro K2000M GPU on
the 3DMark 11 test and our two game tests. True gaming cards, such as the
Nvidia GeForce GT 765M you’ll find in the Digital Storm Veloce, give the best
performance on 3D games and game tests, but the ZBook 14 is certainly capable
of displaying 3D CAD designs in real time as well as working in entertainment
development and testing.

One of the ZBook 14’s main strengths is its battery life. It lasted 6 hours 28
minutes on our battery rundown test, matching the larger Dell Precision M4700
to the minute. The ZBook 14’s big brother, the ZBook 15, only lasted 3:48.
If you’re looking for a nicely priced, full–Windows 7 mobile workstation and
value portability, the HP ZBook 14 should be at the top of your list. It has the
clear and glare-free studio-ready display that you’d expect from a professional
workstation, combined with an ultrabook’s portability and battery life. IT
serviceability is a big plus, especially if you have time-sensitive users who need
to get back to work right now. Any director, manager, or vice president in the
entertainment or engineering industries will be quite happy with the ZBook 14,
especially if they travel.

DESIGN AND FEATURES

The new Mac Pro is an all-aluminum
cylinder measuring 9.9 inches tall and
6.6 inches in diameter, and weighing
10.93 pounds. Though it appears to be
burnished black in photos, Apple calls
its color “Space Grey”—almost a cross
between obsidian and polished chrome.
The chassis is formed whole from a
single billet of aluminum, shaped
through several advanced
manufacturing processes to have just
the right shape, feel, and finish. The
milled edges of the top and the window
for port access are not simply cut into
the metal once; they are then cut and
polished, for edges that are smooth to
the touch. The lock that keeps the cover
in place is almost invisible but smooth to operate.
It’s a futuristic look indeed; from the first unveiling to
the subsequent ads and private briefings, Apple has
pushed the idea that this is the design of the future.
Central to this sleek rethinking are two new concepts.
The first is Apple’s new Unified Thermal Core, which
leverages both materials and design for cooling hot
components. The Mac Pro’s internal components are
mounted onto a triangular aluminum frame that serves
as the primary heat sink for the processor and graphics,
with heat-dissipating vanes further enhancing cooling.
Sitting on top of the whole thing is an exhaust fan,
which pulls air up from intakes on the bottom of the
case and pumps it out through the top.
The second concept is one of peripherals
over upgrades. Apple’s new paradigm does
away with the easily accessible drive bays and
swappable graphics cards of previous models
in favor of an external, modular approach.
About all you can upgrade are the RAM in the
four DIMM slots and the PCIe-based flash
storage. Anything else you want to add must
be done via the rear ports: four USB 3.0, six
Thunderbolt 2.0 (each offering up to 20GBps
of throughput, for connecting up to three 4K
displays or six regular Thunderbolt displays,
external storage, and more), two Gigabit
Ethernet, HDMI, and headphone and audio
line out jacks. The rear panel containing these
ports lights up for easy visibility.
Finally, the Mac Pro has the latest wireless
connectivity options, with Bluetooth 4.0 and
802.11ac Wi-Fi, the new faster connectivity
standard set to eventually replace 802.11n.
This helps further futureproof the Mac Pro,
assuming the CPU and GPUs don’t ever need
an upgrade until you’re ready to replace the
whole system and hand it down.

CONFIGURATIONS

Every configuration of the new Mac Pro comes outfitted with a single Intel Xeon
E5 workstation-class processor, designed to offer plenty of raw processing
power with minimal latency and maximum throughput, along with two AMD
FirePro graphics cards. Unlike consumer graphics cards, which are optimized
for gaming and multimedia, professional GPUs are designed to offer powerful
and reliable processing for media editing and creation programs, engineering
tools (such as CAD), and to drive multiple displays for enhanced productivity.
The entry-level Mac Pro ($2,999) comes with a quad-core Intel Xeon E5
processor and 12GB of RAM, two FirePro D300 graphics cards (each with 2GB
of dedicated memory), and 128GB of local flash storage. At the other end of the
spectrum, a Mac Pro kitted out with the best of everything rings up at $9,566: a
12-core Intel Xeon E5 CPU, 64GB of RAM, two AMD FirePro D700 GPUs, and
1TB of flash memory.
Our $6,799 review unit fell somewhere in between, with a 3GHz eight-core
Intel Xeon E5-1680 v2 processor, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of flash storage, and two
AMD FirePro D700 GPUs (with 6GB of dedicated memory each).
Apple covers the Mac Pro with a one-year warranty, and offers 90-days of free
telephone support. Though this is the standard for Apple products, it falls far
short of industry norms, with other workstations from HP and Dell being
covered by three-year warranties. AppleCare+, Apple’s extended warranty
service, will extend that warranty and technical support up to three years from
the initial purchase date for $249.

SOFTWARE

The Mac Pro comes preinstalled with OS X Mavericks, which includes all of the
same iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand) and iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote)
software that comes with a new consumer-level Mac. This is basic business
software that you would need to purchase separately for a new Windows
workstation, but Apple now includes it for free with every new Mac. Also free is
the latest version of Final Cut Pro for taking advantage of the Mac Pro’s 4K
video capabilities with features such as the simultaneous editing of multiple
video angles, or the option of viewing footage in full 4K on one display while
editing said footage on another.

PERFORMANCE

Peel back the slick marketing and fancy design, and you’ll find that the Mac Pro
is still a potent work machine, built to offer the sort of performance that
professionals need. In CineBench, the Mac Pro scored 13.54—the best score
we’ve seen among single-CPU workstations. It easily outpaced the Dell
Precision T3610 (7.44) and HP Z420 (7.21), but fell behind the Lenovo
ThinkStation D30 (25.31), which uses two eight-core Xeon processors.
The Mac Pro also made short work of multimedia benchmark tests, finishing
Handbrake in 29 seconds and cranking through Photoshop in 3 minutes 3
seconds. The Photoshop performance isn’t shabby, but it is more toward the
middle of the pack than expected—the Lenovo ThinkStation
D30 edged ahead (2:55), and the Dell Precision T3610 fell just
behind (3:16).
With its two graphics cards, the Mac Pro also offered solid
performance in our Heaven 3D gaming test.
Set to 1,366-by-768 resolution, the Mac Pro pumped out 113 frames per
second (fps), ahead of Dell’s and HP’s workstations (which
scored 67fps and 40fps, respectively). The Nvidia-equipped
iMac came closer, with 108fps, and the dual-GPU
gamingoriented systems pulled further ahead, with Maingear’s GTX
Titan–loaded F131 Super Stock leading with 288fps. Even
when I increased the resolution to 1,920 by 1,080 and
cranked up all the detail settings, the Mac Pro still held its
own, its 41fps result putting it ahead of every workstation,
but again falling behind the high-end gaming rigs.
To push the Mac Pro a little harder than our regular testing does, I ran our
Heaven benchmark test again, this time ramping up as far past our regular
settings, with full 4K resolution (3,840 by 2,160, the maximum resolution
offered on the Asus PQ321 monitor), and detail settings maxed out. The frame
rates dropped to 10fps, but even during this test the Mac Pro was virtually
silent. The portable hard drive I plugged into the back made more discernible
noise than the system itself did. Although the Mac Pro didn’t get louder, it did
get warmer, with its exterior reaching 96° F, and air from the top exhaust
hitting 106°.

CONCLUSION

Beneath the blank, inscrutable surface of the Mac Pro, there’s a lot going on,
from the potent processor and graphics hardware to the completely new
approach to hardware expansion. The Mac Pro is expensive, its one-year
warranty and 90-day tech support terms are lackluster, and the lack of internal
expansion will force many professionals to change how they approach their
work. But the Mac Pro offers some of the most exciting updates to desktop
design we’ve seen, and backs it up with powerful professional-grade
performance. The system is our new Editors’ Choice for single-processor
workstations, and one of the best high-end desktops we’ve seen in years.

Sony is ratcheting up the camera phone wars
with the Android-powered Xperia Z1s. Available
exclusively on T-Mobile, the Xperia Z1s is a
waterproof smartphone with a 5-inch 1080p display,
just like its predecessor, the Xperia Z. The Z1s has an
upgraded camera with fun lens effects, a much larger
battery, and a faster processor. The camera still isn’t as
good as it needs to be, and there are some other minor
issues, but the Z1s is an excellent choice if you want a
speedy phone for multimedia or gaming that you can
get wet.

DESIGN, DISPLAY, AND CONNECTIVITY

The Xperia Z1s measures 5.74 by 2.79 by 0.31 inches
(HWD) and weighs 5.71 ounces, which makes it
noticeably larger and heavier than the 5.1-ounce Xperia
Z. It’s still quite attractive, though. The handset has
glass front and back panels, with an IP58-rated
waterproof coating that also supports finger tracking
underwater, and a smoked silver and black plastic band
wrapped around the edges. A covered charger port and
microSD memory card slot are on the left side, along
with a center-mounted docking port. The bottom edge
houses the speakerphone and mic behind a long
rectangular grille. On the right there’s a covered SIM
card slot, a circular silver power button, a volume
rocker, and a camera shutter button; the 3.5mm
headphone jack is on the top edge.
The 5-inch, 1080p Triluminos display looks sharp at a
very tight 441ppi, but not particularly vivid or bright.
There’s a prominent bezel at the top and bottom, with a
much thinner one on either side of the display; this
explains why the phone is unusually tall given the
display size. Typing on the on-screen keyboard is easy
in portrait mode.
The Xperia Z1s supports LTE and HSPA+ 42. Its LTE
modem is Category 4, so it handles the maximum
speeds of T-Mobile’s upcoming 20+20 LTE network. You also get
802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, NFC, and Bluetooth
4.0. In a series of speed tests, the Xperia Z1s averaged 12 to 14Mbps down and 7
to 15Mbps up in Midtown Manhattan on T-Mobile’s rapidly expanding 4G LTE
network. The Xperia Z1s also works as a wireless hotspot with the appropriate
data plan.

CALL QUALITY AND RECEPTION

Voice quality was mixed; we were hoping for an improvement over the Xperia
Z1’s inferior call quality, but we didn’t get it. Through the earpiece, callers
sounded trebly and a bit harsh. There’s plenty of gain available, but it’s not
pleasant to listen to. Transmissions through the microphone had the opposite
problem: They sounded muffled and indistinct, and the Xperia Z1s’s mic let
through plenty of Manhattan street noise. An iPhone 5s on T-Mobile sounded
much better in all cases; it suppressed background street noise, and my voice
was clear, crisp, and still warm-sounding in both directions. The Xperia Z1s also
supports Wi-Fi calling.
Calls sounded fine through a Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset. Voice dialing
worked well enough over Bluetooth using Google’s built-in voice dialer. The
Bluetooth stack is buggy, though; sometimes it took a minute or more to pair
with the Jawbone Era, and once it froze up for a minute while searching for
nearby devices. The speakerphone sounded clear and distinct, but should go
louder than it does. The oversized 3,000mAh battery should be good for extralong battery life.

INTERFACE, APPS, AND MULTIMEDIA

Under the hood are a 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor
with an Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB RAM. The Xperia Z1s runs Android 4.3 Jelly
Bean, and a KitKat upgrade is in the works, but there’s no confirmed release
date. Benchmark scores were excellent across the board; as you’d expect, the
Xperia Z1s is as fast as the Galaxy Note 3 and any top-end Android tablet.
You get five home screens to customize and swipe between. Everything looks
and feels smooth. Sony includes its own Walkman, Movies, and Album apps,
along with PlayStation and PlayStation Mobile for accessing your online PSN
profile, messages, and notifications. Sony is promising a number of “second
screen” PlayStation apps, and you can play PlayStation Mobile games with a
wireless DualShock 3 controller. You also get MobiSystems Office Suite, which
reads and edits Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, and Sony
Select, which froze on startup. There’s also a lot of T-Mobile bloatware, which
unfortunately cannot be removed.
There’s 32GB of internal storage, with 25.1GB free for your apps and media.
The microSD card slot works with cards up to 64GB in capacity. Music tracks
sounded clear and full through Plantronics BackBeat Go stereo Bluetooth
headphones, and the Xperia Z1s also played FLAC, OGG, and AAC files. Fullscreen movies looked sharp, if not exceptionally vivid, at resolutions up to
1080p, and the phone played all the usual formats including DivX and Xvid.
You can also display content wirelessly on a Sony Bravia HDTV.

CAMERA AND CONCLUSIONS

The 20.7-megapixel autofocus f/2.0 camera features a 27mm focal length,
image stabilization, and an HDR mode. It goes up to ISO 6400. The Z1s’ sensor
is larger than the Xperia Z’s and collects more light, and it can also do lossless
zoom up to 3x in a 5MP mode. There’s also a 2MP front-facing camera for
selfies and video chats.
Sony includes five apps dedicated to the camera: Info-eye, which scans books,
wine bottles, and other objects, and searches the Web for information about
them; AR (Augmented Reality) Effect, which adds costumes, glasses, flowers, or
even dinosaurs to your photos; Background Defocus, which lets you adjust the
depth of field for your photos; Social Live, which broadcasts live video on
Facebook; and Timeshift Burst, which grabs a series of 60 shots in rapid
succession and lets you pick the best one.
We’ve tested some 13- and 16MP camera phones in the past, including the
one on the Xperia Z, and they haven’t quite measured up to their ratings in
image quality. Sadly, that’s still true here. The Xperia Z1s takes fine pictures,
and they border on very good outdoors. But contrast is relatively poor, and flesh
tones can come out looking jaundiced indoors. And though Sony says the faster
processor helps with autofocus speed, the Xperia Z1s still takes longer to focus
and fire than the iPhone 5s—that and the Lumia 1020 are still superior cameras.
Recorded 1080p videos played smoothly at 30 frames per second from both
cameras, though you can’t tap to focus the way you can with photos. Image
stabilization was superb; I saw very little shaking in the
various videos I recorded with the Xperia Z1s. And you
can shoot photos and videos underwater, though the
sound will obviously be muffled.
The Xperia Z1s is still surpassed by the thinner and
lighter (if less rugged) Samsung Galaxy S4, which also
has a more vivid AMOLED display and its genuinely
useful TouchWiz UI layer and apps; the iPhone 5 has
the best app selection and a clearly better camera; and
the Motorola Moto X’s form factor falls nicely between
those of the iPhone 5s and Xperia Z1s. Even so, the Z1s
is a very good smartphone, and the only one on
T-Mobile to fuse a waterproof design with top-end
hardware. If that combination speaks to you, you can
buy it with confidence.

Matt Egan looks at how to record the action on an iPad

On a Mac

This method is the simplest, but the video quality 
isn’t great, and you’ll need a MacBook, iMac, Mac 
mini or Mac Pro. You need to turn your Mac into an 
AirPlay receiver. Download and install Reflector from 
tinyurl.com/n955s77. It costs $12, which is about £8
Start Reflector. Switch on your iOS device, and 
connect it to the same wireless network as the 
Mac. Now bring up the Control Centre by swiping 
upwards from the bottom of the screen. The AirPlay 
icon should appear, next to the AirDrop option. Click 
the AirPlay button and select the Mac as your output, 
and the screen of the iPad or iPhone will be mirrored 
on the Mac. Now simply record your Mac’s screen to 
capture what is happening on the iPhone or iPad. To 
do so, start up QuickTime Player then choose File, 
New Screen Recording, and hit record.
In later versions of QuickTime Player it will give 
you the option of dragging across the area of the 
screen you want to record, whereas earlier versions 
can only record the Mac’s screen as a whole.

Use game capture hardware

If you don’t have a Mac you are going to have to 
spend some money. We tested the Elgato Game 

Capture HD, which you can pick up for £149.95 from 
the Apple Store. It’s designed for recording video
from games consoles. It works fine with the iPad, but
you’ll need the £40 Apple AV Adaptor.
Plug the iPad into the Game Capture HD device
using the adaptor and the bundled HDMI cable, and
plug the Game Capture HD into your Mac using its
mini-USB to USB cable. Download the (free) Game
Capture HD software from Elgato’s website and start
it up. Then it’s just a case of adjusting the settings,
hitting record and playing the game.

Jailbreak

If you don’t have a Mac, and you’re not happy
spending £200 on capturing your iPad or iPhone’s
screen, we can’t blame you. But beyond that you
have only one, radical option: jailbreak. If you don’t
fully understand what is meant by ‘jailbreaking’, you
probably shouldn’t do it. For more information look
at issue 79 of iPad & iPhone User. We accept no
responsibility for your decision to jailbreak.
Once you’ve jailbroken your iPad or iPhone you
can access the Cydia app store, where you can find
and buy apps that haven’t been authorised by Apple.
One app you could try is called Display Recorder,
although this has the downside
of not recording

audio.

Don’t forget a thing with Reminders, writes Lou Hattersley



you can easily search through them. Reminders
can be sorted in a list or by date and you can see
a calendar view of all your reminders a month at
a time. If you’re using the iCloud service all your
reminders can be synced across devices. If you set
a reminder on your iPad it will show on your iPhone
and vice versa. If you’re cursed with the forgetful
gene, have no fear, the Reminders app is here. You’ll
never forget your wedding anniversary again. Here
we show you how to use it.

Step 1: Reminders app Open the Reminders app to add 

a to-do item to your list. Here
you’ll see all your reminders
and, if you’re using iCloud,
the account name used to
synchronise reminders.

Step 2: New reminder Tap on an empty line to create

a reminder and the standard
keyboard pops up. Type the
reminder and tap Return. To edit
it further, tap on the reminder
again.

Step 3: Dictate reminder 

If you don’t want to type your reminder, you don’t
have to. Tap on the microphone icon next to the
spacebar and simply speak your reminder. Tap

Done to enter it.

Step 4: Remind me on a day

To change the details about a
reminder simply tap on it and
tap on the Info (‘i’) icon. Tap
‘Remind Me On A Day’ to set
a day when you want the iPad
to alert you.

Step 5: Location-based reminders

You can have a reminder pop
up when you leave or arrive
somewhere. The iPad uses
GPS to track you, and when
you’re at the right spot it sends an alert.

Step 6: See your month 

You can see all your reminders in the month by
tapping the Scheduled item in the sidebar. This
screen lists all your reminders using the ‘Remind Me
On A Day’ setting.

Step 7: Search reminders 

If you can’t see the reminder you’re after, use search.
Tap on the search field in the top-left and enter the
item for which you are looking.

Step 8: Completed tasks 

Once you’ve completed a tasks, you just tick it o by
tapping the circle next to it. The task will be removed
from the list, but you can view it again by tapping
Show Completed.

Lou Hattersley explains how to transfer slow-motion 
movies from your iPhone to a Mac

The iPhone 5s introduced an appealing new 
feature to the iPhone 5s: slo-mo (slow motion) 
video. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to 
record an eye-catching slow motion video, share 
the video with friends, transfer it to a Mac OS X 
computer or upload it to YouTube.
When recording a slo-mo video the iPhone 5s 
captures the scene at an extremely high speed 
(120fps) and then slows it down in the middle.
It’s perfect for recording action shots: like kids 
playing on swings, cats playing with toys or when 

you’re watching a sport event. By capturing the
video in slow motion you can really focus in on
the action. And it’s a neat party trick for iPhone 5s
owners. In this feature we’re going to take a look
at recording slo-mo video, and transferring the
video clip to a Mac.

Step 1: Record slo-mo video

Recording a slo-mo video is pretty easy. Open the
Camera app and slide your finger down the screen
so the Photo setting turns to video, now slide down

again to change the setting Slo-Mo (it will be marked
in yellow). The Camera app will now record the
video at 120fps, but play it at a slower rate. Tap on
the red Record button and capture some action; tap
the Record button again to finish capturing video.

Step 2: Play back

Now tap on the Camera Roll icon (bottom-right)
to view the video you’ve just recorded. When you
play back the video clip it’ll start normally, then
slow down in the middle, before speeding up
again to the end.

Step 3: Adjust the slo-mo e ffect

You can manually adjust the slo-mo settings to time
the slow motion e ffect to time it with the action you
recorded. Tap the screen on the video in Camera
Roll to bring up the onscreen controls. Underneath
The Video Preview bar is a Slo-Mo control bar made
up of small vertical lines. The area in the middle
(where the lines are spaced apart) is the slo-mo
part. You can drag the two black lines left and right
to determine the part where the video will enter
slo-mo mode, and return to normal playback.

Step 4: AirDrop the video

Bring up the onscreen controls and tap on Share in
the bottom-left of the screen. Ensure the video has
a blue tick in it and tap on Next and pick a sharing
method. It’s usually best to use AirDrop to share
video clips between di fferent iOS devices.

Step 5: Sharing the video

If you want to pass the video on to somebody, you
can send video as a Message, Mail or iCloud (as well
as upload to YouTube or Vimeo). Your options may
be limited with longer videos if the file size is too big
for email. But if the video is small enough to send
via email you can always send it to your own email
address and download it from Mail on the Mac.

Step 6: Transfer the video to iPhoto

If you want to import the video to the Mac, then it’s
best to use either iPhoto or Image Capture. Open
the iPhoto app and select the iPhone 5s in the
sidebar now find the video clip in the main window
and tap on Import Selected. You get the option of
leaving the video on the iPhone or removing it. It’s
up to you but eventually you’ll end up with a full
iPhone if you leave video on it.

Step 7: Import a clip using Image Capture

If you work with photos and videos a lot you should
take a look at the Image Capture app (located
in Applications). This enables you to browse the
images and video on an iPhone (or other device) and
copy them directly to the Finder. You can simply drag
the video from the main window to the desktop. Or
you can choose a location using the Import to dropdown menu and click on Import or Import All.

Step 8: Play the video

The video will be a file on the desktop (or other
location) normally named something like IMG_01234.
MOV. You can double-click the video to play it in
QuickTime. Notice that unlike normal videos there
is an extra blue button marked slo-mo. You can click
this to turn the slow motion e ffect on and off .

The angry birds are now racing karts in this free-to-play 
game that’s both fun and frustrating, writes Jim Martin

Angry Birds Go is a fun new free game from 
Rovio. It’s much like Mario Kart and sees 
old and new characters racing against each 
other to earn coins and win gems. 
There are two main tracks, Seedway and Rocky 
Road, and each o ffers five racing modes: standard 
race, against the clock, Fruit Splat (hit enough 
fruit before the finish line), head-to-head (vs) and 
Champion Chase, where you have to beat the bird 
three times to unlock that character.

And you will need to unlock them, since each 

bird gets ‘tired’ after five races and has to recover.
At which point you can switch to another bird or
pay 10 gems to ‘revive’ the one that’s worn out.
This is just one of many ways that Angry Birds Go
will make money, since you can buy bags of gems
from £1.99 to £70. Gems can then be used to buy
coins within the game.

Coins are used to buy kart upgrades, and you’ll
need these not simply to remain competitive but also
because races have ever-higher ‘cc’ requirements:
you won’t be able to enter certain races unless your
kart meets the minimum rating.
You can buy some karts, too, with prices again
ranging from £1.99 to a whopping £35 or more
(see above). However, you can also buy real toy
versions of the karts, called Telepods, which are
recognised (and unlocked) when placed over
your device’s camera. Each character has a unique

power-up which can be used once per race, with
extra uses costing gems. Certain race types have
coins to collect, while others don’t. Within each main
course is a variety of di erent courses, some of
which are in the air and others involving stunts.
To start a race, you catapult your kart when the
countdown clock says ‘Go’, thereby adding a bit
more fun and retaining a link back to the traditional
Angry Birds games. You’ve a choice of tilt or tap
to control your racer and although tilt is more fun,
tapping o ffers more control.

iPad & iPhone User buying advice

Kids and adults alike will enjoy Angry Birds Go,
but you’ll definitely want to disable in-app purchases
and set a strong password to ensure that your
children don’t spend hundreds of pounds buying
gems and karts.

Lou Hattersley reveals how this innovative gadget will 
help you keep track of keys and other objects

The Elgato Smart Key is an innovative new 
gadget and app for iOS users that acts as 
an iPhone proximity and movement alarm. 
You attach the circular dongle physically to your 
keys, and then connect it wirelessly to your iPhone 
using the Smart Key app. Our Elgato Smart key 
review tests the proximity alerts to see if it works 
in the real world.
These kick in when you walk away from your 
keys (because the Bluetooth connection is broken). 
The Elgato Smart Key app also alerts you when 
they are back in range. The Elgato Smart Key 
can also help you locate your keys. It does this 
by providing a map of the last known location, 
and you can get the Smarty Key dongle to emit a 

‘pinging’ noise helping you hone in on the keys.

The Elgato Smart Key has other uses too. You can
leave the Smart Key in your car, for example, and the
mapping function will help you locate it in a large car
park. You can place it in a bag to get an alert that
you’re leaving your bag behind (unless of course,
your iPhone is inside your bag). Elgato suggests
placing it in a camera bag which makes sense to us:
it’s a valuable piece of kit to lose; you can also place
your Smart Key in a suitcase before a flight and it’ll
alert you when it arrives in the baggage hall. We
didn’t actually get to test this final use (next time we
fl y we will).
Each use has a slightly di fferent feature set,
and the Smart Key o ffers the following profiles:

Keychain, Car, Camera, Handbag and Luggage.
Each profile has a slightly di fferent action
depending on when you Connect or Disconnect
to the Smart Key. In Keychain mode it shows
a confirmation message on iPhone on Connect,
and a notification on Disconnect; in a car it
plays a sound when you Connect, and remembers
your GPS position. You can add your

own custom settings too, choosing to
flash the LED and play a sound
on the key; and on the phone you can add custom
notifications and choose from a range of sounds.

On test

The Elgato Smart Key uses Bluetooth 4.0, which
is the newer low energy solution (it’s the same
technology that makes AirDrop possible). But it
still has a drain of sorts, and using the Smart Key
requires you to have Bluetooth turned on all the
time. We’re not too keen on having Bluetooth on
relentlessly on an iPhone, because if the iPhone
connects to a device using an older version
of Bluetooth it drains the battery. But it’s clear
that Bluetooth is becoming a viable low energy
connection for the future.
The range for connect or disconnect appears to
be approximately 20 metres in a clear space. So we
managed to get across the road and start walking
away before the phone made a binging noise. But
it is possible in a larger house to find the connect/
disconnect alerts coming on as you move around.
We tested it in a old Victorian house with thick walls
and with the key in the front door the alert came on
in the kitchen (less than 10 metres away). So if you
live in a larger, or older, house you might find alerts
coming on as you simply move around the home.
The alerts only appear when you move in and out
of range of the Smart Key, however, and you cannot
locate a Smart Key that is out of range of the iPhone
(and especially if it is moving around). This limits the
device somewhat, rather disappointingly it cannot
be used to keep track of the movement of pets,
although it could be used to help locate a missing
cat if you walked around with the iPhone and looked
for the Bluetooth connection to kick in.
Having the alerts come on and o as you walk
around the house can prove to be annoying.
Fortunately you can also set Safe Zones, areas
where the key does not come on or o . Tap Settings
and Add Safe zone in your home and the Elgato
Smart Key app will not give you an alert in that
area. It will wait until you leave the area (using GPS)
and the Bluetooth connection is broken before
issuing a notification. This extend the area that the
phone works, for us we found it kicked in a
little further away (but not much, another 5 metres).
The App does warn you however that
turning Safe Zones on “may drain your battery
more quickly.” We didn’t see any confirmation
of this but assume that because the app is using
Location Services along with Bluetooth to monitor
positioning that it may be causing a drain on
the battery. We used the Battery app to monitor
usage but noted little di fference between using
the Smart Key or not.

Battery

While we didn’t su er from battery drain on the
iPhone from using the Smart Key, the real challenge
is how long the battery life lasts in the Smart Key
itself. Elgato claims that the replaceable battery (a
CR2032) will last six months. This seems credible to
us, and replacements can be picked up for around
£5. This method outlasts the rival HipKey device,
which comes with a rechargeable battery which
needs charging via USB every two to four weeks.

iPad & iPhone User buying advice

There’s little doubting that the Elgato Smart Key
a useful little device, but we don’t tend to forget
our keys so often that we feel the need for a £40
iPhone dongle. But that’s a personal judgement
call and if you’re the sort of person who is forever
forgetting to carry their keychain out the door
you’ll fi nd it invaluable.
So whether the Elgato Smart Key is an essential
device is somewhat debatable. But what is clear
is that the system works, so if you think the Elgato
Smart Key is the sort of device you would fi nd useful,
then it’s certainly the way to go about it.