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But Acer is not satisfied with the low end niche, and this year they’ve announced yet another Ultrabook – the Aspire S5 – which definitely fits into the high end profile, bringing several features that are absent on the competition, at a price of course.

Design

The design of the Aspire S5 is pretty unassuming at a first glance, but you notice that the laptop is something special as soon as you take a closer look. It doesn’t remind of the MacBook Air, either, which is a good thing, but the design may seem a bit too simple to some people. The whole housing is made of a magnesium alloy, making it much sturdier than the Aspire S3 and making the extreme 15mm thinness possible, as well. The Aspire S5 is actually the thinnest Ultrabook on the market – it’s very impressive to see just how slim it is!

But Acer didn’t forego any of the important ports that a laptop needs to have – instead, they used a special port panel that opens on the back to accommodate them, since they wouldn’t even fit anywhere else. The company calls it the MagicFlip I/O port panel, which is an accurate name, but the mechanical nature of it can make some people wary since it looks like it can easily break – I don’t think that’s the case under normal use, but I do think it could get damaged quickly if you drop the laptop (then again, the port panel would be the last of your worries in that case).

Hardware features and performance

The selection of ports is good for an Ultrabook, but may be too small for power users – there are two USB 3.0 ports, a HDMI out port, a Thunderbolt port and a 3.5 mm audio jack – that’s pretty much it. The display is a fairly standard 13.3 inch LCD unit with the 1366×768 pixels resolution, which is not all that comfortable for intensive work, but it’s good enough for everyday use. The keyboard is also a pretty standard chiclet style one, with short travel and flat keys, which is good enough for normal use but not for writers, that’s for sure.

The performance of the Aspire S5 should be pretty high compared to the current generation of Ultrabooks thanks to the new Ivy Bridge processors that the laptop will be using. Acer hasn’t confirmed the models they will be using, but it’s safe to assume it will be a Core i5 or i7 or an option between the two. The S5 will also have 4 GB of RAM and a 128 or 256 GB SSD – also standard fare for an Ultrabook. According to the manufacturer, the battery life will be up to three times as good as the S3 (which lasts about 4-5 hours) – that is pretty impressive if it turns out to be true.

Availability and Price

The Acer Aspire S5 will be available sometime this spring, most likely in April-May, seeing as Intel will be officially launching the Ivy Bridge processors around that time, as well. The pricing has yet to be established, but judging by the specs, we can expect the S5 to cost around $1000-1200 – not the cheapest Ultrabook, but it may be worth it.

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Samsung Galaxy Note

The Galaxy Note is a very nice hybrid smartphone/tablet that is unlike anything else you’ve seen. It has a huge and beautiful 5.0 inch Super AMOLED display with a 1280×720 pixels resolution, but it’s still relatively small thanks to the slim profile and narrow bezel. The performance is top of the line thanks to the dual core 1.2 GHz Exynos chipset, plus there’s everything you would expect to find on a high end smartphone – 8 megapixels camera, Wifi N, NFC, HDMI out, 16 or 32 GB of storage and more.

Motorola Droid 4

The Droid 4 has been released shortly after the Droid 3 and it has already taken the title of the best QWERTY smartphone on the market. The five row hardware keyboard is really exceptional, and the other hardware doesn’t fail to impress, either – there’s a dual core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 8 megapixels camera, 16 GB of onboard memory and a micro SD card slot, HDMI out port, and more.

Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx

The Droid RAZR Maxx is one of the best smartphones out there, period. Motorola somehow figured out that people want their phones to last longer on a single charge, so they tool the RAZR, added a few millimeters of thickness and a huge 3300 mAh battery and got a phone that lasts 21 hours of continuous use on a single charge – a godsend for anyone who uses their phone extensively. The other specs are the same as on the RAZR, i.e. top of the line features and performance.

Pantech Breakout

If you need high Internet connection speeds but you can’t afford to pay for all the $250+ 4G LTE handsets, the Breakout is for you – it’s a nice midrange phone with a 4G LTE radio and a $100 price tag. The specs may not be all that impressive, but they’re more than enough to make it a good phone for everyday work.

LG Spectrum

The Spectrum is the long awaited LG Revolution 2, and indeed it brings a few revolutionary features with it. It’s got a beautiful 4.5 inch 1280×720 pixels HD display, a blazing fast 1.5 GHz dual core processor, 8 megapixels camera with 1080p support, 1 GB of RAM, a micro SD card slot, NFC sensor, HDMI output and pretty much everything else that a high end smartphones should have.

Sony Xperia Ion

The Xperia Ion is one of the two phones that Sony released under the new brand name (they dropped the Ericsson part, if you didn’t notice), and it’s definitely one impressive beast. It has an all new design, which is very attractive, a 4.55 inch HD display (1280×720 pixels resolution), 16 GB of onboard memory, a 1.5 GHz dual core Snapdragon processor with the Adreno 220 graphics adapter, a very nice 12 megapixels camera with the ultra-sensitive Exmor R sensor, and of course a 4G LTE radio – the perfect high end work horse.

Sony Xperia S

The Xperia S is the second Sony-branded phone, and it’s the Ion’s slightly cheaper brother. It lacks the 4G LTE radio, but keeps almost everything else. The display is a smaller 4.3 inch unit but with the same HD resolution, the 1.5 GHz dual core processor is still there, as is the 12 megapixels camera, HDMI out port and NFC sensor – if you don’t need 4G LTE support (i.e. if you live in Europe or Asia where 3G is really 3G not some glorified EDGE), this may be the better choice.

There are other great smartphones in the line, but so far, the ones above stand out as the best handsets released in 2012 so far. I hope that we’ll continue seeing great phones in the future, as well!

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But while the first generation of Windows Phone 7 smartphones had a pretty poor selection of handsets, there was one device that stood out – the Dell Venue Pro, which has a great build quality, nice design, great hardware and a very nice portrait QWERTY keyboard that can rival that of a Blackberry. It’s still on sale and it’s cheaper than ever, so it makes sense to compare it with the most popular smartphone to see if it’s a good choice for a first time Windows Phone 7 user.

Design

Sure, the unibody polycarbonate design of the Nokia Lumia 800 is very attractive, but the Dell Venue Pro is no sore loser and in many ways it’s even better than Nokia’s flagship. Dell’s phone is often overlooked based on the name alone – somehow, “Dell” doesn’t inspire confidence in the users’ minds, partly because of the poor management of the Dell Streak Android phone, but mostly because their consumer laptops have always been known to break and their consumer customer support is pretty bad, as well (their business laptops and support are top of the line, though).

But the Venue Pro is really something – it has a very high quality build, with a lot of attention to the finish. The front has a thick scratch resistant glass, the back cover has a nice pattern engraved on it, the sides are chromed and the top and bottom have rubber inserts to make opening and closing the keyboard easy. The QWERTY keyboard is great, as well. However, all that makes the phone pretty thick (it’s a whole 15 mm thick), which contrasts with the Lumia 800’s 12mm sleek design.

Hardware features

Both smartphones have a good selection of features when it comes to the hardware. The Nokia Lumia 800 has a beautiful 3.7 inch, 800×480 pixels AMOLED display with Nokia’s own ClearBlack technology (basically a darkened layer over the display), which makes the colors and contrast better. Inside the phone, you’ll find all the features that should be present on a modern phone, including Wifi N, Bluetooth, GPS, DLNA, HSPA+ radio, 16 GB of onboard storage space and a great 8 megapixels camera with support for 720p video recording.

The Dell Venue Pro is not bad at all, either – it has a 4.1 inch AMOLED display which looks just as good as Nokia’s, but with brighter colors and slightly worse black levels. The Wifi N, Bluetooth and GPS adapters are there, as is the HSPA+ radio. The camera is a smaller 5 megapixels unit that also supports 720p video recording, and there’s less onboard storage space – 8 GB, however you can upgrade that using a micro SD card (which should not be removed once inserted since Windows Phone 7 uses it as a main drive). That gives the Venue Pro a few points for those who need more storage space.

Performance

Performance wise, the second generation Lumia 800 is faster thanks to its 1.4 GHz Snapdragon processor and Adreno 205 graphics adapter. The Venue Pro only has a 1 GHz processor and the older Adreno 200 GPU. Both phones have the same 512 MB of RAM, though. The difference in performance won’t be very visible in everyday use, but the newer games and apps may lag or slow down sometimes on the Dell.

Software

Both smartphones run Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, which they received with an OTA update, and the OS runs great on both smartphones – the animations and transitions are smooth and fast on both handsets. I doubt either of these handsets will get an update to Windows Phone 8, but the Nokia Lumia 800 has the better chance if Microsoft decides that a single core processor and 512 MB is enough for Apollo.

Now, obviously on paper the Nokia Lumia 800 is better, but the Dell Venue Pro is not far behind and the hardware QWERTY keyboard, high build quality and the big AMOLED display are worth considering it. You’ll be surprised to see that the Venue Pro is also half the price of the Lumia 800 – that makes it even more attractive, and if you’re getting your first Windows Phone 7 handset, you won’t be disappointed by the Dell, for sure.

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Nikon is already experimenting with a 4K sensor in a compact camera

Nikon’s 1 system, an ultra-compact ILC camera that was designed completely from the grounds up, is capable of shooting 2K and 4K video already, and the company is planning on bringing the feature to a future model sometimes this year. The J1 is the first of the series and it’s pretty popular with the buyers, and 4K video recording would make it even more flexible, plus it would make the camera much more impressive, as well.

Kuel shows off the H10 and H12 styli

Kuel has just entered the stylus market, which is going to explode soon, and their H10 and H12 styli (or is it styluses?) look very simple, elegant and functional. The H12 is a full sized version that resembles a normal ink pen and works perfectly on any capacitive digitizer, be it a tablet, smartphone or laptop (if you didn’t get the news, the newest business laptops now get touch panels, too). The H10 is a shorter version that is presumably intended for smartphones and is easier to carry with you everywhere. Both styli come in multiple colors, and cost only $12.99 and $19.99 for the H10 and H12, respectively – check them out if you want a simple and functional stylus.

The Intoxicase case lets you open beer bottles

There’s many things that the iPhone can do for you, but opening beer bottles is definitely not one of them. Eh, who are we kidding? Of course it can, it just needs a special case for the purpose! The Intoxicase and Intoxicase Plus are exactly what you need to get intoxicated with alcohol at any time if you only have your iPhone with you. Just use one of these cases instead of your usual one (you do have one, right?), and opening bottles will not be an issue. The cases are high quality, and the opener mechanism looks sturdy enough to withstand any kind of use – pretty ingenious, I might say.

RIM gives away free Blackberries to interested Android developers

RIM has pulled a lot of tricks out of their magic hat to market their devices, but there’s one thing that will always work – giving away free stuff. That’s exactly what the company decided to do with their Blackberry PlayBook tablet – if you are an Android developer with a good app on the marketplace and you happen to want a nice Playbook, all you have to do is port your app to their platform, get it accepted and RIM will be shipping the $200 device to you for free – a pretty sweet deal, considering you’ll also probably get more customers.

Avid Studio for iPad has just been released

In software news, Avid Studio (yes, from the same company that makes the professional desktop version) has just arrived on the iPad 2, and it’s ready to kick iMovie to the curb and take its place. Thanks to Avid’s know-how, the app has a lot of great video editing features, and it truly is a great competitor to iMovie – it’s a bit more complicated, though, so you’ll have to get used to it first if you want to edit HD videos on your iPad 2.

Follow Us on Twitter and keep up with the latest developments in the tech and mobile industries, find out about the latest product releases and technologies, read about the devices and gadgets that interest you and more!

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Lenovo’s Racer A (aka K800) smartphone running on the Medfield SoC is pretty impressive

Lenovo has demonstrated the first ever Medfield (Intel’s x86 platform for mobile devices) smartphone, and despite it being a prototype it was pretty damn impressive. The SoC, which contains two 1.6 GHz Atom processors, was built using the older 32nm process, but despite that, the Lenovo K800 (or Racer A, if you prefer) has shown quite a good battery lifetime. The new 22nm process should make the chip even less power hungry. The performance of the chip is impressive – Android ran on the phone like it was on a native ARM CPU. Despite ARM saying that they don’t care, Medfield is definitely a potential game changer – expect to see full x86 software on smartphones in less than 5 years if Intel succeeds.

Toshiba’s Portege M930 is almost like the Asus EEE Pad Slider, only with Intel Inside

If you liked the Asus EEE Pad Slider, but are a fan of Windows rather than Android, you’ll love the Portege M930. The tablet runs on an Intel platform with a fast dual core Core i5 ULV processor, has 4 GB of RAM and a 256 GB solid state drive – that’s much more powerful than the EEE Pad Slider, for sure. The slider mechanism is very similar to the one on the Asus, although the keyboard is better. The device is big and heavy though – it’s 1.1 inches thick and weighs 4.2 pounds – it definitely needs to lower those numbers to be successful.

image: notebookitalia

Toshiba is also investigating the use of 21:9 format displays on mobile devices

Toshiba (again) is also trying to see whether a wider display format would be popular with the users, and the feedback has been positive so far. Their 21:9 format mockups look pretty unique, and while I don’t care for the super wide screen tablets, a long smartphone with a wide screen looks pretty appealing, especially when it can fit in my pocket and still be able to display full size Web pages (with a lot of vertical scrolling, but nonetheless).

Archos is quick to update the G9 tablets to quad cores and Ice Cream Sandwich

Archos is surprisingly quick to get into the quad core game, having announced that their 101 G9 and 80 G9 tablets will be receiving a small upgrade in the form of the Tegra 3 quad core processor and of course, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for software. The G9’s special feature is the huge storage capacity thanks to the use of actual hard drives, and with a quad core and ICS under the hood, the two models are worth a closer look.

ARM is helping startups bring better Augmented Reality to the real world

ARM is helping several startups optimize their AR apps to take full advantage of the CPU and GPU’s capabilities for a real time augmented reality experience. Thanks to their know how, the companies have demonstrated a very quick overlay of information and pointers on the smartphone’s display, as well as a very nice 3D tracking without the need for markers – it looks like AR will become big in the coming months.

Keep up with the industry and find out about the latest product releases and announcements with the gadget news digest on Gadgetmania – follow Us on Twitter!

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Samsung Galaxy S

The Galaxy S is still a very good smartphone for any kind of purpose. It has the same performance as the first iPhone 4, a nice feature set and a beautiful Super AMOLED display, which is still hard to match. Even though it’s single core, it is very fast at rendering Web pages and running any kind of apps. Thanks to the PowerVR SGX540 graphics adapter, it can play HD videos without issues and the game performance is also very respectable. Best of all, if you’re in the US, you can get one for free with a contract from T-Mobile (it’s a limited time offer, though, so hurry up!).

T-Mobile G2X/LG Optimus 2X

The LG Optimus 2X was the first dual core smartphone to be released on the market, featuring NVidia’s Tegra 2 platform and a very nice selection of hardware inside. The 4 inch IPS display is still one of the best on the market, with great viewing angles and color reproduction. The phone has Wifi N, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, HDMI out, a powerful graphics adapter and other goodies. The G2X from T-Mobile works all over the world and is currently reselling for very low prices in stores and online, so if you want a dual core phone that will last for another two or three years performance wise, this is it.

T-Mobile G2/HTC Desire Z

While the new Droid 3 and Droid 4 beat it when it comes to the comfort and quality of the QWERTY keyboard, the good old T-Mobile G2X comes very close. This single core smartphone is still plenty fast for most of the usual daily tasks, and because it’s a single core, it has devalued pretty quickly, making it perfect for anyone looking for a great typing machine that is also well built. It’s perfect for tech-savvy people, too – you can overclock the processor to 1.4 GHz and more (!), bringing it up to par with the newer mid-range phones.

Motorola Droid 2 Global

If you want a hardware keyboard, but prefer Motorola over HTC (maybe you liked the original Droid or maybe you don’t like the T-Mobile G2’s Z hinge), the Droid 2 Global is what you should go with. Sure, the Droid 3 and Droid RAZR are great, but this world phone with a SIM card slot from Verizon can be used anywhere in the world, and has a very nice performance, too. The 3.7 inch, 854×480 pixels display is still one of the best around, and the keyboard is not bad, either. Plus of course, the low price and excellent built quality are hard to beat.

You may have noticed that my recommendations are mostly older smartphones that were once high end and are currently heavily discounted (or free, as you can see). That’s no coincidence, as I think that any phone that was released as a high end device is a much better purchase than a new model aimed at the mid and low end ranges. Compare the prices, build quality and features of all phones and I’m sure that you’ll arrive to the same conclusion. So, if you want a great smartphone and don’t want to spend too much money, check out the above devices – I’m sure they won’t disappoint.

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