The Acer Ferrari One 200 runs on the AMD Athlon 62 X2 duo-core L310 CPU at 1.20GHz with 1 MB L2 cache. It comes with 4GB DDR2 667MHz RAM in two slots and a 250GB hard drive. Since AMD owns ATI, the Acer Ferrari One 200 has integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics and the AMD M780G chipset. Though the ATI Radeon sounds impressive, the benchmark results (see below) show it didn’t add much to gaming power though movie streaming is quite smooth. For an 11.6” notebook, the Acer Ferrari One has a healthy collection of ports including 3 USB 2.0, VGA, Ethernet, mic in, headphones/speaker line out with SPDIF support and a media reader that works with most memory cards. The netbook has an ATI XGP port for external graphics though we haven’t seen anything available to make use of this feature. The Acer Ferrari One 200 doesn’t have a built-in optical drive, but it worked with all external DVD drives we tested it with. Software installation and file transfers feel fast via USB 2.0 from external optical drives.

As with many AMD powered notebooks, the Acer Ferrari One 200 runs at higher temperatures compared to Intel notebooks, but not by much. The notebook runs at about 38 degrees Celsius when running productivity applications including MS Office, Internet Explorer, Outlook and more. Streaming movies via Wi-Fi raises CPU core temperatures by 10-20 degrees. When playing a 1 hour Hulu movie, the Acer’s temperature rose to 43-53 degrees Celsius; playing movies via Netflix the Core temps went up to 40-50 degrees Celsius. Playing games raised the temps to 60 degrees Celsius. The Acer Ferrari One 200 also takes a bit longer to cool down compared to Intel based notebooks. The fan blows out on the left side of the notebook, and the air exiting the fan is hot when it’s running full blast.

Since the Acer Ferrari One has built-in ATI graphics, we tested gaming. Bundled Casual games by Wildtangent worked smoothly, but FPS games with demanding graphics were unplayable. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 played at 10 fps with all effects turned off, and at that frame rate, the game was unplayable. Consider the heavier and more expensive Alienware M11x if you’re looking for serious gaming power in an 11” design. We also tested movie streaming on the Acer Ferrari One, and it handled it admirably. Netflix movies streamed over WiFi at solid 30 fps and looked smooth with audio in sync with video. If you install the latest Flash 10.1 with GPU acceleration, Hulu movies streaming over WiFi will play at 25 fps, which is very watchable. YouTube streaming over WiFi played at 25 fps at 480p resolution and looked smooth; but at 720p resolution YouTube videos played at about 18 fps and audio went out sync with video. All streaming movies we tested were playing in full screen mode, which reduces fps. 

The Acer Ferrari One has a 6-cell Lithium Ion battery that’s 5600mAh in capacity. That’s a high capacity battery for a netbook size computer, and the dual core AMD CPU needs it. With the power setting at Balanced and screen brightness at 50%, the notebook made it just past the 4 hour mark performing productivity tasks such as editing MS Office docs and surfing the Web via WiFi. The screen is bright enough at 50%; you don’t need to crank up the brightness. Streaming movies from Hulu or Netflix via Wi-Fi lasted 2:15 hours on a charge. The laptop doesn’t charge very fast with the included AC charger (100-240V), taking 2 hours to fully charge from 40% full. So users who are on the go will likely to need to charge the notebook overnight. Standby time is about 2-3 days.

The Acer Ferrari One comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and essential software for media playback and system recovery. Acer bundles its own webcam tool called Acer Crystal Eye and their own Acer eRecovery Management tool. For DVD playback, the Ferrari One 200 has InterVideo WinDVD. MS Silverlight and SQL Server 2005 are preinstalled. Like many notebooks, the Acer comes with the 60-day trial version of MS Office Home & Student 2007 as well as a McAfee Internet Security Suite trial.  There’s some bloatware including toolbars, shortcut icons for Google, eBay, Norton Online Backup, Oberon Game Zone, eSobi and more. But fans of Ferrari will enjoy the included wallpaper, screensaver and the Windows startup sound bite of a Ferrari race car passing by.

The Moto E, not unlike the Moto G, is meant to take the world by storm. Not because it has killer high end features or a huge display but because it's affordable enough to be within reach for many folks on the planet. When Google started the Nexus line of Android smartphones years ago, they wanted to show the world what a high end Android phone could be. Now that's taken care of and companies like Samsung, HTC, LG and Sony are covering the high line with fearless abandon. Really solid entry level Android smartphones? There aren't many on the US and EU markets, and quite a few of those are no-name brands that don't inspire trust.

The Moto E is just $129, no contract. Wow. For a phone with a nice enough design, interchangeable and colorful back covers, the latest 4.4 KitKat OS, a pleasing display and good voice quality, that's crazy. And Motorola's phone business, currently owned by Google but soon transitioning to Lenovo, is a brand you can trust in terms of quality and warranty. This is an unlocked GSM phone that comes in two flavors: worldwide GSM (works on AT&T 2G and 3G but not T-Mobile 3G) and the US GSM version that works on AT&T and T-Mobile 2G and 3G, but doesn't cover all the rest of the world's 3G bands (2100MHz is missing). Motorola says a CDMA version (the type of network used by Sprint and Verizon) is coming soon, but we don't have word on whether companies like Verizon will allow it on their network. So for now, think of the Moto E as a solid choice for AT&T, T-Mobile, wireless providers that piggyback off those networks and overseas GSM networks.

This is a $129, no commitment phone that's unlocked for use on any GSM carrier. It's not a $600 flagship. That means you get a decent but not super-fast CPU, a 5MP rear camera and a 4.3" qHD 960 x 540 display. There's no LTE 4G (uber-budget phones don't generally have LTE) and somewhat disappointingly no front camera. That said, the phone has 3G HSPA 21Mbps for very usable data speeds, a sharp and colorful display and the usual collection of wireless radios including 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, a GPS with GLONASS but no NFC. Honestly, for the price we're pretty impressed with the 256 PPI display, though viewing angles aren't superb and brightness is just OK. The Snapdragon dual core CPU is adequate for everyday tasks that don't include demanding 3D gaming or smooth streaming full HD video playback. The light, near pure Android build no doubt helps keep the phone fluid and responsive. We only saw it falter when playing Real Racing 3 and when streaming HD video (audio sync often was off, but playback was otherwise good).

This is a GSM world phone with voice and 2G EDGE on the 850/900/1800/1900MHZ bands. 3G HSPA 21Mpbs bands vary depending on the variant you purchase. As mentioned, Moto says a CDMA model is coming soon, but we don't know if it will appear in the US and be approved for Sprint and Verizon's networks. Voice quality, typical of Motorola phones, is very good and volume is also good via earpiece. The mono speaker is surprisingly loud for speakerphone calls and multimedia.

Data speeds will vary by region and network, and on AT&T we averaged 7Mbps down and 1Mbps up according to the SpeedTest.net app, which is average for that carrier's 3G network in the Dallas, TX area. That's enough speed to load web pages quickly, download email and even stream video at 720p and modest to moderate bitrates. Since the phone doesn't have a 1080p display, there's obviously no need for speeds sufficient to stream full HD video.

The good news is that you get a name brand, decent dual core CPU. The Moto E runs on the 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 CPU. Our benchmark utilities report the graphics chip as an Adreno 305 rather than the 302 listed on Moto's site. Since Motorola has ordered custom chips before with upgraded GPUs, we'll report what the benchmark and testing apps tell us. In any case, the Adreno 302 is simply a slower clocked version of the 305, so the difference is moot.

The phone has a gig of RAM, standard for non-flagship Android smartphones and a paltry 4 gigs of storage with about 2.5 gigs free for your use. For the price, we won't complain, and this obviously isn't the phone for hardcore 3D gamers in terms of CPU, graphics or storage. The Moto E has a microSD card slot where you can store music, videos and files but not programs.

Motorola has a reputation for making mediocre cameras in their phones. Sadly, the Moto E is no exception, and the camera takes photos that I'd not call vivid or even colorful. Photos are mostly a tad murky and dull, though turning on HDR mode does wonders to improve contrast and color saturation. The camera can shoot 720 x 480 video at 30fps, which is surprisingly low resolution even for a 5MP sensor, though third party camera apps on the Google Play store can drive the resolution higher (not to 1080p, sorry).

The phone has a 1980 mAh battery, and that's a high capacity battery for a smartphone with a small display, lower end CPU and small body. To fit the big battery in a small phone, Motorola couldn't make it removable, so it's sealed in the casing (you can see its outline if you remove the back cover, but there's a plastic plate over the battery to prevent removal). Given the beefy capacity and low demands the Moto E places on the battery, we easily made it through the day on a charge. In fact, we've so far averaged 2 days of use with moderate use including streaming a few YouTube short videos, 30 minutes of calls, checking and sending email, browsing the web for 1 hour, playing Hay Day, reading an eBook for 45 minutes and playing music through earbuds with the display off for an hour.

Perhaps this is Windows Phone's future: very affordable handsets that reach the widest possible demographic. The platform has so far done particularly well there. The Nokia Lumia 635 is one of the least expensive smartphones on the US market. The T-Mobile version used for this review lists for $168 outright (no contract, no monthly pay off) and sells for just $129 on MicrosoftStore.com and $119 on the Home Shopping Network. The AT&T GoPhone version is $99 full retail. And surprisingly, the phone doesn't stink. Quite the opposite: it's nice enough looking, has a decent display, 4G LTE where most ultra-budget phones stop at 3G, a quad core processor and a decent rear 5 megapixel camera.

In the spirit of the Moto E, the Lumia is meant to be a phone that most anyone can afford (T-Mobile does offer $7/month payment plans if the full retail exceeds the contents of your wallet). Yet it ships with the latest version of the OS, Windows Phone 8.1, has a truly good voice assistant named Cortana and important core features like expandable storage via microSD card slot and a replaceable battery. Yes, it lacks features that high and mid tier smartphones offer like a front camera (that will be a deal breaker for some), and it has a paltry amount of internal storage. To a certain extent, you do get what you pay for, so everything is scaled back here to achieve the affordable price tag. Build quality is good and you can get different colored backs for $15 apiece from Microsoft's store.

The Nokia Lumia 635 is essentially the 4G LTE version of the 3G Lumia 630 available overseas. It runs Windows Phone 8.1 on a 1.2GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, and it has 512 megs of RAM and 8 gigs of internal storage (with around 4 gigs actually free for your use). It has a microSD card slot under the removable back cover and it uses a micro SIM rather than the more obscure nano SIM used on some higher end Lumia phones and the iPhone 5s. The smartphone has single band WiFi 802.11n where dual band is the norm, Bluetooth 4.0 and a GPS with GLONASS. It ships with Nokia HERE Maps, HERE Drive+ and Here Transit: all solid offerings. Like all Windows phones, a mobile version of IE and MS Office are pre-loaded. The 4.5" ClearBlack IPS display doesn't win resolution awards at 845 x 480 pixels, but it does have decent viewing angles, good color saturation and plenty of clarity.

There is no front camera! Skype users and selfie artists, this isn't your phone. The rear 5MP camera has no flash (again, budget phone) and it records 720p but not 1080p video. It's a decent camera for well lit environments, and will likely seem like an improvement if you're moving up from a feature phone or older smartphone. Photo colors are pleasing, but the camera tends to wash out lighter colored items in the sun, and noise is average.

The Nokia Lumia 635 has a removable 1830 mAh Lithium Ion battery and it ships with the usual compact 5v charger and micro USB 2.0 cable. Since neither the processor nor the display are particularly demanding, we expected long battery life. In fact, battery life with moderate use was the same as on bigger screen flagship phones: 1 day. Video playback is the Lumia 635's Achilles' heel, where the phone hovered just over the 5 hour mark. Non-multimedia runtimes were better, and the phone held up fine for web, email, social networking and snapping a few photos.

The HTC One Remix is the Verizon Wireless version of the HTC One Mini 2. It's a smaller, lower spec version of the venerable HTC One M8, but it retains the elegant unibody aluminum casing and chic design. In fact, at first glance, you might mistake the Remix for the first HTC One M7 because it shares so much design DNA and is similar in size. The One Remix and Mini 2 have a 4.5" display and HTC's BoomSound speakers, so they're not small phones, despite the Mini name. Yes, they're a bit smaller than the fairly large One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5, but they're still considerably larger than the iPhone 5s.

The HTC One Remix is available now exclusively from Verizon Wireless. It's priced at $49 with a 2 year contract and $450 full retail. For those who are going with 2 year contract or Verizon Edge pricing, it's not priced so differently from the HTC One M8 that Verizon is currently discounting to $99 on contract, and we expect that those who choose the Remix prefer the smaller size and traditional 13 megapixel rear camera vs. the 4 Ultrapixel camera on the M8.

The Remix has midrange specs including the 1.2GHz quad core Snapdragon 400 processor with Adreno 305 graphics and a 1280 x 720 Super LCD 2 display. That resolution might seem low, but given the smaller screen size it results in 326 PPI pixel density, which is the same as the iPhone 5s' Retina display pixel density. I wouldn't say the One Remix's display is as pleasing as the iPhone 5s or HTC One M8: it's extremely bright and fairly sharp, but it doesn't have the same superb color saturation or contrast. Still, it's a nice enough display that's easy on the eyes and it's plenty bright enough to combat sunlight.

The rest of the specs are better than midrange, with 1.5 gigs RAM (sandwiched in between mid tier 1 gig and flagship 2 gigs) and it has 16 gigs of storage vs. the paltry 8 gigs on some midrange phones. The front 5 megapixel camera is clearly better than most in terms of resolution. It's also sharp, less noisy and handles low light fairly well thanks to a BSI (backside illuminated) sensor. The front and rear cameras can record 1080p video. The Android smartphone runs Android 4.4 KitKat with the clean and light HTC Sense 6 UI. HTC Sense and Motorola's software on phones like the Moto X are some of our favorites, and they're refreshing if you find the heavy skins on Samsung and LG phones overbearing.

Business Ultrabooks don't have to be homely. In fact, they don't even have to run Windows 8, if Windows 7 is your company's cup of tea. The HP EliteBook 820 is a good looking Ultrabook that shares a hint of design DNA with HP's attractive consumer Ultrabooks like the Spectre 13. Unlike consumer models, the EliteBook is extremely easy to upgrade--heck it's designed to be opened up for upgrades. No need to fiddle with obscure tiny screws or adhesive strips. It also has more ports than you'll find on the average consumer 12.5" to 13.3" Ultrabook. Even better, while business machines are often priced much higher than consumer models, a decently equipped 820 costs just $874. So what's the catch? Like many business laptops, the screen lacks the boldness and clarity of consumer models, and there's no touch screen on most models (HP does list it as a build to order option). We get the feeling that HP aims the 820 at Windows 7 users, so the lack of a touch screen isn't the end of the world, but we'd love to see better looking displays on business laptops. Since this is a business model, HP includes security features like HP Trust Circles that will only allow assigned contacts access to files on your PC and HP SureStart, which offers BIOS protection and healing. The laptop also has a fingerprint scanner and TPM.

The EliteBook 820 is a surprisingly attractive Ultrabook with a tapered design, contrasting lid and side colors and a magnesium casing. The laptop passed a number of MIL-STD 810G tests for things like dust, drops and vibrational shock. It feels solid and it should appeal to those who feel that ThinkPads are dull matte black blocks. 

 

Perhaps the most enchanting thing in a sea of similarly spec'd and sealed Ultrabooks is the removable bottom panel. This grants easy access to all internals including the battery, socketed WiFi + Bluetooth card, 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD drive bay, a flash cache slot (optional for HDDs to speed them up) and a WAN card slot. HP offers 3G HSPA+ and 4G LTE broadband cards for $109 and $229 respectively. Even better, there are two RAM slots (most 13.3" and smaller Ultrabook RAM is soldered on board and is thus not upgradable). For do it yourself types and IT departments, this sort of easy repair and upgradeability is rarer than platinum and every bit as valuable. Note that the CPU is still soldered on board, as is the case for most all laptops except some big gaming rigs.

The HP has ample ports by 12.5" laptop standards. It has a VGA port (still popular in business settings where old equipment like VGA projectors hang around forever), a DisplayPort for driving modern, greater than full HD monitors, three USB 3.0 ports (two on the right and one on the left with charging), Ethernet RJ-45, a smart card reader, docking port, SD card slot and a 3.5mm combo headphone-mic jack. The laptop has dedicated buttons for wireless and audio mute above the keyboard

This isn't the happy part of our review. The display is somewhat washed out and murky compared to today's sharp and clear consumer oriented panels on similarly priced laptops. When you get close to $1,000, we expect lots of clarity and a wide color gamut... something that the Acer Aspire S7 (both generations), HP Spectre 13, Sony Vaio Flip 13 and Flip 13, Dell XPS 12 (often selling for $799 or less) and the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga and Yoga 2 13" give us. Granted the EliteBook is about $100 cheaper than the $1,000 average for Ultrabooks with great screens, but we do wish that HP offered a good upgrade option. The display resolution is 1366 x 768, and while that might sound low to those accustomed to 1080p Ultrabook screens, for a business laptop I have no complaints: text, graphics and icons are all readable without display scaling and at 12.5", the resolution is perfectly adequate. Viewing angles are limited, but business users might count that as a plus given the privacy it offers, and we love that this is a matte display.

HP makes a good keyboard, though not as good as Lenovo ThinkPads and Dell XPS models in terms of tactile feel. Still, it's more tactile than the Spectre 13 and Sony Vaio laptops, to name a few. This is a standard keyboard with a normal layout and for those who are defecting from ThinkPad land, there's a TrackPoint style eraser stick pointer embedded in the keyboard. The keyboard is water resistant with drain holes and it has very even backlighting. The trackpad is pleasant and predictable and it has mechanical buttons top (for the pointing stick) and bottom (for the trackpad). Those of you who hate the now more common buttonless trackpads will no doubt enjoy HP's more "traditional" trackpad design. We like that the buttons don't require lots of force, as do some buttonless trackpad underlying click mechanisms.

The EliteBook 820 is a standard Ultrabook that runs on Intel 4th generation Haswell ULV Ultrabooks CPUs. It's available with the 1.7GHz Core i3-4010U, 1.6GHz Core i5-4200U, 2.9GHz Core i5-4300U and 2.1GHz Core i7-4600U CPUs, all with Intel HD 4400 integrated graphics. There are two standard SODIMM RAM slots (1600mhz DDR3 RAM required) and you can order it with 4, 8 or 16 gigs of RAM. Note that if you order it with Windows 7 32 bit, you can only order 4 gigs of RAM since 32 bit operating systems can't address more memory. Go with Windows 7 64 bit or Windows 8 64 bit if you intend to install more than 4 gigs of RAM.

Storage options are unusually versatile with the EliteBook 820. The laptop is available with conventional spinning 2.5" SATA HDDs in varying capacities (both 5400 and 7200 RPM drives are available) and a 32 gig caching drive is optional. Alternatively you can order it with an SSD drive (again in a variety of capacities), or get a 120 gig M.2 solid-state drive plus an HDD. The laptop has both a 2.5" SATA drive bay and an M.2 slot for a caching drive or M.2 SSD.

Performance on our fairly middle of the road Core i5-4200U with 4 gigs of RAM and a 180 gig SSD was par for the course among current generation Ultrabooks with Intel HD 4400 graphics. Honestly, there's little difference among Intel Haswell 4th generation Ultrabooks equipped with a Core i5 and SSD. You're buying the design, display, ports and features rather than a performance edge. HP's software load on business machines is minimal, so the EliteBook isn't plagued by bloatware that might slow it down. Likewise, it's a fairly cool and quiet machine. You'll hear the fan ramp up when plugged in and doing demanding tasks like HD video export, but otherwise it's fairly quiet.

Yes! The EliteBook 820 has a removable battery, another rarity on an Ultrabook. Our review unit has the larger 46 Wh battery, and it averaged 7 to 7.5 hours on a charge with average use and brightness set to 50%. We tested in a mix of tasks including email, web browsing, working in MS Office, social networking and streaming a 45 minute episode of House of Cards via Netflix. That's average among Ultrabooks where the MacBook Air lasts the longest at 12 hours and the Sony Vaio Pro and Acer Aspire S7 manage 6.5 hours.