Apple MacBook Pro 13 Inch Retina Review

With its sturdy unibody design and high performance, Apple's MacBook Pro quickly became the must-have laptop for on-the-go media professionals. 
Apple's made the baby of the range -- the 13-inch model -- smaller still, with a thinner, lighter chassis. It's packed in a super high-resolution retina display too for ultra-crisp text and photos.
In true Apple fashion this new model doesn't come cheap. Far from it. My review model which included an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD costs a whopping £1,700. Add a beefier processor and a 768GB SSD and it will set you back £2,660.
Is the new design and sharper screen worth the stonking price? All models are available now online or in Apple stores.

Should I buy the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina display?

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro boasts a slimmer and lighter physical design than the previous generation along with an absolutely stunning super-high resolution retina display. It also comes with an astonishingly high price-tag, putting it firmly in the realms of the Premiership footballers of this world.
The older high-end 13-inch model isn't as slim and doesn't have the retina screen, but it has fast components, more storage space and costs nearly £500 less. If you want to take your first steps into the MacBook World, the older style might be the better option.
If you've got the older generation already, it's not worth upgrading unless you crave the best display in the business. For professional video users, the high resolution screen will come in seriously handy, but it's certainly going to be more useful on the physically larger 15-inch model.
If you want power and performance from a super-skinny frame and don't care what operating system you use then Samsung's Series 9 ultrabook is an excellent choice and it will save you several hundred quid.
The new MacBook Pro is undeniably a stunning piece of kit, but it's only really going to be a viable purchase if you've recently struck oil.

Design and build quality

If you just have a quick glance at the new Pro you might not notice any difference from the old one. It's still got the typical minimalist silver stylings with the glowing apple sitting proudly in the middle.
When you get up close you realise how much the physical design has changed. Just as it did with the 15-inch Retina Pro, Apple has shaved a considerable amount off the thickness. It now measures a mere 19mm -- a whole 5mm less than its predecessor. Expect to have a much easier time sliding it into those fancy neoprene sleeves.

Like Flat Stanley, when you turn the MacBook Pro on its side, it all but disappears.

Its other dimensions haven't changed drastically. It's 314mm wide and 219mm deep. A few millimetres have been knocked off, but it's not as noticeable as the reduced thickness. It's quite a bit lighter though, weighing only 1.62kg, down from the 2kg of the previous model. That weight reduction will really help if you intend to carry it around on your back all day.
It still has the same unibody design, meaning that the chassis has been manufactured from a single piece of aluminium. It helps make all the internal components much less susceptible to knocks and bumps. There's zero annoying flex anywhere across the lid, wrist rest or keyboard tray. It'll still pick up scratches, dents and scuffs though, so make sure you don't chuck it down onto that Starbucks table too brutally.
Around the edges you'll find two Thunderbolt-enabled mini display ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a full-sized SD card slot and, for the first time on the 13-inch Pro, an HDMI out port. There's no optical drive, so you'll have to download all your software from the Mac app store rather than from discs.
You also don't get an Ethernet port, which is extremely frustrating if you're wanting to download or upload huge files over a stable high speed connection. Apple offers an Ethernet adaptor, but demands an extra £25 for it.

Screen

The new Pro comes bearing the retina moniker, meaning that it's been given a significant resolution boost. The previous model's 1,280x800 pixel resolution has been upped to an astonishing 2,560x1,600 pixels. Unsurprisingly then, everything looks wonderfully sharp.
Icons on the dock along the bottom of the screen look extremely crisp, even when press your nose right up against it. Text is pin-sharp in both the Safari and Chrome browsers, making reading pages of text for long periods of time much more comfortable.
High-definition images and video look glorious too. Not only are they super sharp, the rich colours and deep black levels make them stand out beautifully. If you're looking for the best quality display in a laptop, look no further -- nothing else comes close.

Images are bright, crisp and bursting with colour.

The screen has a glossy coating, which makes it naturally more reflective than matte displays. It's not too bad though -- throughout my testing, the high brightness levels managed to counter much of the harsh overhead office lights. I've certainly used more reflective screens.
On the 15-inch model, that beautiful screen is of particular help to video professionals. It's debatable however whether the smaller size of the 13-inch model will offer enough room to properly edit videos. The high resolution means that it's possible to view Full HD video within an editing window, but there's still less room for timelines and menus to fit. I'll be passing it over to our excellent video team to see just how feasible this thing is for pro video work.

Performance

Inside that slim new shell is an Intel Core i5 processor clocked at 2.5GHz, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for storage. That's the top model and will set you back an eye-watering £1,700. If, however, you want the extra juice from a 2.9GHz Core i7 chip, you'll have to shell out an extra £160.
Want more storage? Apple generously offers a 768GB SSD option and charges an extra £800 for it. Seriously. That brings the grand total for the top-configured model to £2,660. You can pick your jaw up from the floor now. Oddly, there's no option to increase the RAM, but it would probably limit its appeal to beardy billionaires like Branson.
A Core i5 chip and 8GB of RAM is still a decent set of specs though, and I was pleased to find that it offered a fair amount of juice. On the Geekbench benchmark test it managed to achieve a score of 7,253 -- a pleasing step up from the previous model's 6,082 score. It also scored 2.72 on the Cinebench CPU test, a modest improvement over the 13-inch MacBook Air.

It's a real shame, but the MacBook Pro doesn't pack enough of a punch to justify the price.

In general use I found it to be very competent. Opening apps was swift and jumping into OS X Mountain Lion's Launchpad and Mission control was immediate and free of any annoying delay. It was easily able to handle editing high-definition photos in Adobe Lightroom 4, showing no discernible lag between moving the sliders and seeing the action take place.
As a machine to edit quick snaps on the go, the Pro is well-equipped. For more intense video applications it might not cope so well. It took 8 minutes 13 seconds to encode my 11-minute video into 24fps H264, which isn't exactly lightning fast. That's the same time it took the MacBook Air to do it and the 15-inch Pro almost halved that time.
I've certainly had worse results, but it's far from outstanding. Given the price, you'd be forgiven for expecting blistering speeds all round. It'll cope with quick edits of video clips from your iPhone, but if you're a pro and want to juggle numerous high-definition clips with effects rendering in real time, you're not going to be blown away by the speed.

Conclusion

The updated skinny frame of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro makes it a more portable beast than its predecessor. The whopping number of pixels packed into the screen, together with its great use of colour make text and images look amazing. But, it's not quite as monstrously powerful as I'd hope, which doesn't help justifying the frighteningly high price tag.

Google Nexus 7 Tablet Review

Android tablets have been around for quite some time now, but with the iPad stealing the show, few people have been persuaded that there's a must-have dessert-themed slate. One of the only exceptions to the rule was the Amazon Kindle Fire -- a 7-inch device with stripped back power, screen and storage for a bargain basement price. It took the US by storm but it hasn't been released in the UK.

The huge sales showed Android tablet makers that the way to tackle the all-consuming iPad wasn't by trying to better its specs, but by offering something usable and affordable. This ethos is evidently shared by Google, which has -- in collaboration with tech manufacturer Asus -- launched the Nexus 7 tablet. Like the Kindle Fire, it's a 7-inch device, the cheapest version of which starts with only 8GB of internal storage. Unlike the Fire, it's packing extremely powerful components and a high-definition screen, making it useful not only as a full-featured ebook reader, but also as a tablet in its own right.
As Google's own design, it's the first device running the latest version of its Android operating system, known as Jelly Bean. This brings various interface updates and the handy personal information service, Google Now.
Best of all though, the Nexus 7 starts at a mere £160 for the 8GB model or £200 for the 16GB version and can be ordered from Google's store.
While it's easy to argue that the Nexus 7 isn't a rival to the iPad and they therefore shouldn't be compared directly, it will naturally be lumped into the same category by the average punter on the street looking to buy "any tablet". It's therefore important to weigh it up against all the competition -- not just the cheaper Kindle Fire.

Should I buy the Google Nexus 7?

In a word, yes. The Nexus 7 has elite features that make it not only great for its price, but superb even when compared with the very best tablets.

Packed inside are components that are powerful enough to compete with tablets that are three times the price.

It's running the latest version of Android known as Jelly Bean, which offers a clean and simple interface that's ideal for Android beginners and hardcore 'droiders alike. It brings a bunch of updates including improved notifications, better voice search and smoother, more buttery transitions.
It also offers a new service called Google Now, which aims to provide live, local information based on your position and your habits. It 'learns' what you do and what you search for, with the aim of providing information such as traffic updates or your football team's scores. In its current state, it might not be the most impressive service, but it's off to a good start and Google is working on giving it a lot more features.
The Nexus 7 is not just about the software though. This 7-inch tablet packs a high-definition screen, which makes even small text and icons look crisp and clear. If you hope to get through your favourite ebooks on it, rest assured you'll be able to read for hours without feeling the strain. It's bright and colourful too, making it great for renting movies from the Google Play store or simply watching YouTube clips.
Under the hood is a quad-core processor that gives the Nexus 7 some serious power. My benchmark tests put the Nexus' performance alongside the powerhouse Asus Transformer Prime, which costs a whole lot more. It also beat the pricier 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 by a country mile. With such a huge serving of power, it's easily capable of tackling most tasks you can throw at it.
Best of all though, it comes with a bargain basement price tag of only £160. Most decent Android slates start at around the £350 mark, with the top players charging upwards of £500 or more. Even with the best technology on board, the Nexus 7 still manages to carry a price that's low enough to tempt doubters and iPad fans into the Android tablet world.

Design and build quality

Compared to its 10-inch cousins, the 7-inch Nexus 7 is aimed at being much more portable. At 120mm wide, it sits very comfortably in one hand, giving the impression that you're holding a paperback book. It's a shade under 200mm long so it will easily drop into a small bag or even squeeze into your pockets if they're particularly capacious.

At just 200mm long, the Nexus 7 is a bag-friendly size.

Its size means typing in portrait mode is comfortable as you can wrap your hands around -- your thumbs reach every letter on the keyboard without difficulty. That's less easy in landscape mode -- unless you have giant hands -- so you'll probably find it easier to lie it in your lap and simply jab at it instead.
With a thickness of 10.45mm, it's not as slim as other tablets on the market -- the Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition is a svelte 8.9mm -- but its extra girth makes it feel a little more sturdy in your hand. It weighs 340g, which is about what I'd expect for a tablet of this size. That's not so heavy that you'd feel weighed down by it. I found I could easily hold it up while reading or browsing the web for at least a couple of hours at a time.
The whole front of the tablet is dominated by a sheet of glass that runs unbroken from edge to edge, meaning there's no unsightly plastic bezel -- although the bezel beneath the glass is rather too chunky, in my opinion. The screen sports the Corning Gorilla Glass we've come to know and love on devices like the iPhone 4S. It's designed to be stronger and more scratch resistant than your run-of-the-mill glass, which is handy if you're prone to idly chucking your keys at the screen.
You'll also notice there's no physical home button on the front. Those of you who are used to prodding the home button on the iPad might find the touch-sensitive buttons in its place a little unusual at first. You'll quickly get used to them. They bring up menus and one benefit is they rotate with the screen depending on how you're holding it, unlike the iPad's button, which does, of course, remain resolutely static.
The back of the Nexus has been coated in a rubberised material that's been given a dotted pattern that's quite pleasing to hold. The texture, along with its relative chunkiness, makes it pretty easy to keep hold of, reducing the chances of you accidentally hurling it to the ground every time you take it out of your bag.

A rubberised textured coating on the back ensures it won't flip out of your grasp easily.

It's really not pushing any boundaries in terms of aesthetic design -- the look is one that leans much more towards 'functional' than it does 'beautiful'. Still, you can't expect too much by way of design flair for a device of this size and it gets the job done. I just can't imagine anyone falling in love with its looks.
Mercifully though, it seems well built. There's very little flex in the back casing when you give it a squeeze and there's no loose flaps or dodgy casing peeling away. I'm very confident it can survive a life of being pulled in and out of bags and being casually plonked down on coffee shop tables.
Around the edges you'll find a power button and volume rocker -- they're pretty easy to press, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a micro-USB port. What you don't get is a SIM card slot for 3G data, so you'll have to rely on Wi-Fi connections at home or an open connection in your favourite bar.
There's also no HDMI port, so don't plan on hooking it up to a massive telly for big-screen app action.

You won't find a SIM slot or a space for a microSD card along the sides.

Also conspicuous by its absence is a microSD card slot. Having that would have allowed you to expand the internal storage of the tablet to hold more videos and music. As it is, you'll have to make do with the rather meagre 8GB or opt for a more capacious 16GB model for £200. If you go for the 8GB model, you'll really have to keep an eye on what you're putting on there as you'll quickly run out of room if you keep transferring over your favourite films.
It's important to think carefully about exactly what you'll be using your slate for. If you plan on dumping a lot of your media on it to watch on the plane, you'll almost certainly want the 16GB model. If, on the other hand, your main needs are sofa web browsing and you rely mostly on streaming -- not downloading -- your content, 8GB will be fine.

Camera

Another omission from the outside of the tablet is a camera on the back. Nearly all tablets these days pack a snapper for those quick shots you just can't wait to tell Twitter about. But the Nexus 7 evidently doesn't want to follow the photography crowd.
That's most likely a cost-cutting measure and it's one I can forgive -- after all, taking photos on a tablet isn't that enjoyable and people look pretty stupid holding up their iPad at a concert. I'm personally happy to see the camera ommitted in favour of the extra cash in my pocket.
There's a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front though, so it's not totally without lenses. Oddly, there's no dedicated camera app on the Nexus, indicating that this snapper is only for video calling using Google Hangouts or Skype. Bad news if you were hoping to take some Myspace-style self-portraits.

There's no camera app and you won't spot a hi-res snapper around the back, but who wants to be shooting with a tablet anyway?

Screen

The 7-inch screen comes with a resolution of 1,280x800 pixels. The technologically-minded among you will notice that this falls far short of the whopping 2,048x1,536-pixel resolution of the iPad's 'retina' display. But with a much lower price tag, we really have to forgive it.
It's still high though, especially when you factor in the price. It not only beats the resolution of Amazon's Kindle Fire, but also that of the iPad 2. Given the its smaller size, this results in a much higher pixel density on the Nexus 7's screen.

The Nexus 7 will play back 8 hours of high-definition video, which will see you through a long-haul flight without having to talk to your neighbour.

Small icons and text look particularly sharp and clear. App icons appear very crisp, even when viewed up close, and tiny writing in web pages looks mostly very readable. That's great news if you hope to use it as your ebook reader because the text will be displayed with enough clarity to make reading comfortable for long periods of time.
It's not as easy to read as a regular Kindle screen though as it's not E-ink. E-ink isn't like regular LCD displays -- it uses a different method of displaying text and isn't backlit, resulting in extremely sharp words that look like they've been printed on the screen. E-ink's suited to displaying only black and white words and basic pictures though, so if you want to do anything with your tablet other than reading books, a normal LCD screen is the way to go.

The screen might not be as easy to read as a Kindle, but it's very sharp and perfectly readable for a couple of hours at a time.

Not only is it nice and sharp, it's also rather bright. This helps make it a tad easier to see when viewed in direct sunlight or under harsh office lighting. The glossy screen is quite reflective though, so you'll still want to wrap your hand around it in a vain attempt at shading it.
It's not the boldest screen I've ever laid my eyes on -- especially when you compare it side by side with the AMOLED screens on Samsung's tablets, or indeed Apple's iPad. But it does the job perfectly well for movies, apps and web browsing. Just don't expect it to knock your socks off with vivid colour.

The shiny screen means the display is more reflective than a Kindle.

Android Jelly Bean

The Nexus 7 tablet is the first device you can buy that comes loaded up with the latest version of Google's Android operating system, known as Jelly Bean. Like version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich before it, this new update seeks to provide a unified experience across smart phones and tablets. It also sports subtle tweaks that should help novice tech users get to grips with it.
Like the Nexus devices before it, the Nexus 7 is a reference design for the new software, meaning it hasn't been skinned with extra software like Samsung's TouchWiz interface or HTC's Sense. What you get is a pure, untouched Android experience.

Jelly Bean offers multiple home screens for you to fill with your favourite apps and widgets.

If you're familiar with Android, you won't feel out of place here. The usual multiple home screens are present for you to fill with apps and live widgets. You can dive into larger grids of apps to view the ones you don't want displayed on your home pages. Google has kept the interface fairly straightforward but has made some changes aimed at making it a viable Kindle Fire rival.
Firstly, the row of icons at the bottom of each home page has been littered with shortcuts to your books, movies and music libraries, saving you the effort of digging them out from the app grids. There's also direct access to the Chrome browser, the Google Play store and a handy folder full of Google apps like Gmail, Google Plus and YouTube. Of course, these free apps can be downloaded and placed within quick reach on any Android tablet but it's nice to have them so close to hand as standard.
Google has slapped some big widgets on the home page to show off your library and recommended content, which you'll either find handy or annoying, depending on how used to Android you are already. They're easily removed by pressing and holding and dragging them to the Remove icon.
Pressing and holding was once the way you'd also pop new widgets down onto the home page, but doing that on the Nexus only brings up the option to change the wallpaper. If you'd like to put anything else down, navigate to the apps and widgets list and select what you want. Perhaps Google thinks this is a more logical way to operate and will help new users quickly customise their tablet, but I think forcing someone to dive into an extra menu is counter-productive.

Instead of pressing and holding on a home screen, you'll find widgets in pages with your apps.

It's also no longer possible to view the home pages in landscape orientation. If you've been busy playing Minecraft in landscape and quickly navigate back to the home screen, you'll need to flip it back around. It's likely this has been done to ensure you always get the same view every time you return to the home screen. It's not going to be a huge problem for most people but I think it's a little odd to remove this function.
Swiping around the home screens and loading menus is a very smooth affair. This is not just due to the powerful quad-core processor lurking under the hood, but also because of something Google calls Project Butter, which increases the frame rate of the screen to 60 frames per second. As a result, transitions look delicious and a whole lot better than the often stuttery attempts seen on similarly-priced slates.
It's not just the interface that's been tweaked. The notifications bar has also been given a boost. When you get a new message or an app needs to tell you something, an alert appears in your notifications bar. Previously, notifications wouldn't tell you much, but they now have a lot more info packed in. Each alert expands as it reaches the top of the list, or you can expand any notification with a two-finger gesture. Once they're expanded, you see the actual message or update rather than just a one-line alert.
For example, calendar alerts let you email everybody in the meeting with a pre-programmed response if you're running late, while photos appear as thumbnails and can be shared to Google Plus from the notifications bar, without opening the app. These alerts can be dismissed in one tap to clear them out of the way. If you've got a bunch of stuff waiting for your attention, it's a very quick and easy way to fly through them all without having to open a different app for each item.

Google Now

A swish new feature of Jelly Bean is Google Now. It's a service that tailors info specifically for you based on your location and your tablet search habits.
Rather than using an app icon, you're required to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access Google Now. You'll then be met with a search bar, your local weather information and a card showing nearby restaurants. The idea is Google Now will eventually learn your movements and habits and offer advice based on them.

The first things you'll see on Google Now is your local weather and nearby restaurants -- perfect if you're peckish.

For example, if Tuesday mornings usually see you scuttling across town to a meeting, Google Now will be able to bring up a handy reminder beforehand, complete with directions and traffic information to your location without you needing to search for it. If you're near a train station or a bus stop, it's able to give you live departures information.
Google Now also knows what you like just by your searches. You don't even need to tell your tablet which team you support -- it works that out from your searches and gives you up-to-date news about your team. There are 10 'cards' showing different types of info at the moment, but Google promises it's already in the process of creating more, so Google Now could become more handy down the line.
While the live traffic service does seem particularly useful when you're on your way to a meeting, it's not going to be much use on the Nexus 7 as it doesn't have 3G data. As soon as you leave your Wi-Fi connection, you won't be able to see the updates. Google Now seems like it will be a much more useful service when it eventually comes to smart phones.

Voice control

Jelly Bean boasts an update to Android's voice control service, promising better recognition and improved answers to whatever random nonsense pops into your head. I took it for a spin and found that the updates had in fact made it more usable, even recognising my northern, Yorkshire twang.
When I asked, "Where's the pub?" it immediately brought up a snapshot of the local map and highlighted the pub that was right outside our office -- a perfect result for a pint in a panic. It's also a good deal better than iOS's Siri, which is not yet able to search for businesses in the UK, although this is something that's being addressed in iOS 6 in the autumn.

With its support for UK businesses, Android can tell you exactly where your nearest drink is to be found.

I had a similarly positive result when I asked, "What's the weather like in Barcelona?" The device immediately brought up a five-day forecast and read aloud the current weather.
It's not free from quirks though. When I asked, "Where is the nearest petrol station?" it started well by showing my current location at our office in south London, but oddly decided that that the nearest station was 11 miles away in west London. Interestingly, I don't live far from the location it chose and I had taken the Nexus home with me several times, so I suspect it was trying to be clever and was expecting me to be driving back that way.

An 11-mile drive isn't exactly what I'd call a 'nearby' for a petrol station, especially if I'm running low on fuel.

Still, I did ask it where the nearest petrol station was, and I can't really consider an 11-mile trek to be nearby, so I'm chalking that up as a fail.

It proved more useful in directing me to the Tate Modern, although it's only around the corner.

Books, movies and apps

To help you enjoy your tablet as fully as possible, Google has whacked in shortcuts on the home bar to its books, movies and music sections of the Google Play store. Thankfully, they're rather easy to use. A quick tap on the book icon will immediately bring up your library, letting you browse through titles you already own and head over to the store to get more.

Your books are clearly displayed and you can hit the Google Play store icon to find more titles.

The store is a lot neater now than it used to be, letting you search by category, by new releases and by most popular. There's also a free section if you're desperate for literary treats but don't have any cash. When you click to purchase a book, it will immediately download and save to your library.

The Google Play store lets you browse by category, most popular or even look at what's available for free. It's all very easy.

Getting movies is a similarly easy process. Hit the icon and take a browse at films and videos already in your library -- including any personal videos you've transferred onto it. Hit the Play store button and you can browse what else is on offer. Although you can't yet buy films to own, there is quite a selection to rent.
These range from £1.49 -- the price to rent garden ornament-based animated comedy Gnomeo & Juliet in standard definition -- up to the more pricey £4.49 for Nazi-moon-nonsense Iron Sky in high definition. When you've downloaded the film, you have three days to watch it. Once you've pressed go, you have 48 hours to complete the film, so pick your times well.

Browsing for movies is simple but you'll have to make sure you have plenty of time to watch whatever you rent before it expires.

Other than its Books and Movies services and, of course, the other Google standard services, Gmail and YouTube, the Nexus hasn't been loaded up with much. Thankfully, you have full access to the Google Play store for all the app downloading you could want.
From there you can get Facebook and Twitter -- both have been updated recently, making them slightly more usable on touchscreen devices. Moreover, there are hundreds of thousands of social networking, productivity, shopping or gaming apps to pick from.
The Gmail and Google calendar apps are particularly easy to get to grips with for novice users as they sync easily with the Google account you register your device with. Once you pop in the necessary information, you can choose to automatically sync your email, calendars, contacts and even your Google Plus photos to the tablet. This saves you precious time in not having to input the same details on all the apps individually.

Power and performance

It's not just about the software on board though -- after all, what's the point in having all this fancy functionality if the tablet itself is too weak to power any of it?
To make sure it's got enough grunt to tackle the essentials, Asus has stuffed the rubberised shell with an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and 1GB of RAM. That's the same quad-core processor found in tablet beasts like the £500 Asus Transformer Prime, which I've found to be extremely powerful. So I was very keen to find out exactly what the Nexus is capable of -- especially as it costs several hundred pounds less than the Prime.
To see how it stacks up against its tablet competition, I booted up the Geekbench 2 benchmark test and was given a score of 1,536, which I was extremely impressed with. By comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 -- also a 7-inch slate -- offered only 409 on the same test and comes at a higher price than the Nexus. So in terms of power, Google's own offering seems to offer considerably better value.

The Nexus 7 provided blistering results on the benchmark tests, putting it up there with the tablet elite like the Transformer Prime.

It performed similarly well on the CF-Bench test, where it scored 11,716. To put that into perspective, it managed to beat the £350 Sony Tablet S, which only achieved 5,399 on the same test. It even topped the Prime, which notched up 10,764. In terms of raw scores then, the Nexus 7 comes across as being an extremely potent little thing, and that's exactly how I found it to be in everyday use.
Swiping around the home screens was wonderful -- helped along by Project Butter -- and there was no visible lag when clicking on icons and having the apps open. Menus were swift to navigate and opening the multi-task bar to switch between live apps was instant and didn't trouble the little slate in the slightest.
The same was true when I used numerous apps at once. Even when I had several apps operating in the background -- including playing music in Spotify -- I still found it was able to switch between browser tabs in Chrome without hesitation. There's nothing worse than seeing a device severely struggle to put up with the tasks you really want it to do, but at no point was I in doubt that it was capable.

It's easily able to handle running numerous apps at once and switching between them using the multi-tasking bar was very responsive.

It handled 3D games well too, with Blood & Glory -- Android's answer to Infinity Blade -- rendered extremely smoothly, without the lag and stuttering that tells of a struggling processor. Swiping my finger across the screen to slash my opponent with the sword remained responsive and immediate at all times -- very satisfying.

Conclusion

The Google Nexus 7 might not be the most attractively designed tablet money can buy, but it's packed to the gills with high-performance components, a high-resolution screen and the latest Android Jelly Bean software.
It manages to offer enough power to keep even hardcore gadget geeks happy, while also being user-friendly enough for tech novices to get to grips with. Despite minor gripes such as the lack of a microSD card slot and no 3G connectivity, such an affordable price tag means it's very difficult to fault.

Apple iPod Nano 7th Generation Review

There's a new look for the iPod nano. The seventh generation of Apple's slimline, barely-there mini MP3 player has a screen for putting films, TV programmes and photos in your pocket along with your tunes.
Announced alongside the new iPhone 5 and new iPod touch, the 7th gen nano comes with a new Lightning dock connector and updated earbuds. It's on sale in October for £130 for the 16GB model.

Design

Choose from black, pink, turquoise, green, yellow, purple or silver colours. You can also set up the background of the screen to be the same colour as the case so the screen matches the body, a feature also found in the colourful Nokia Lumia range of phones with Windows Phone software.

You get a choice of snazzy hues but the white fascia feels less premium than older nanos.

Whichever colour you opt for, they all have a white face surrounding the screen, with a white home button beneath. I'm not impressed with the white fascia -- it detracts from the beautiful one-piece style of previous nanos, which felt like they'd been precision-carved from aluminium for that premium feel.
The case is just 5mm thick and we were definitely impressed with how thin and light it is. On the side are buttons to control the volume and quickly play, pause or change songs without looking. The headphone jack and dock connector are set into the bottom.
The new nano, touch and iPhone 5 come with redesigned earbuds, called EarPods. We haven't had a chance to try them yet but anything's better than the terrible white earbuds that have come with Apple devices in the past few years -- they're uncomfortable and leakier than a sieve, which means you have to turn your iPod up much louder than necessary and therefore drain the battery. Fingers crossed these new EarPods are better fitted and keep your tunes in your ears, where they belong.

It would be hard for the so-called EarPods not to be an improvement on Apple's dismal earphones of old.

The connector is for plugging the nano into a dock or attaching your cable to charge and sync -- but it's a different size to the connector on previous models. The new iPhone 5, iPod touch and this iPod nano are the first to use the much smaller connector, called Lightning.
Because it's a different size to all previous iPhones, iPods and iPads, any cables and docks you already own won't fit the new nano. You can get an adaptor that attaches the Lightning connector to the old 30-pin connection, but it will cost you £25. You do get a Lightning cable with the new nano so you don't have to buy anything just for basic charging and syncing with your laptop.
The nano also offers Bluetooth, so if your iPod dock or speakers are Bluetooth-compatible, you can play music from your nano wirelessly without needing an adaptor or cable.

Sports

Each year Apple changes the nano between a tall MP3 player with a big screen like this one, and a small square MP3 player that doesn't do video. Unlike the previous square 6th gen model, this new edition doesn't have a clip to easily attach to your clothes.
If you like keeping your pictures and videos in your pocket, the new nano is perfect -- but if you're looking for a small and sporty back-up MP3 player for the gym or while out running, the small square version is better suited to you.
Now this new 7th gen nano is here, the previous nano has dropped in price if you prefer small 'n' sporty to photos 'n' videos.

The screen dimensions are suited to ogling films on the move.

If you're a sporty type and you do decide to go for the new tall nano, it does come with built-in fitness features including a pedometer and a Nike+ app to talk to your trainers and track your exercise.

Screen

The display is the largest ever built into an iPod nano. It's a 2.5-inch touchscreen and it's in a 16:9 aspect ratio, so there's no black bars around your films and TV.
As well as listening to music, you can view your photos and widescreen videos on the nano. Swipe from side to side on the touchscreen and you'll go to the previous or next song, photo or video.
Tap on the screen, and controls appear on the display so you can play and pause or skip to the next track or video. A slider to scrub through your video appears at the top of the screen. The controls are transparent so they don't interfere too much with your video, and they disappear when you tap Done. To shuffle tracks into a random order, just shake the nano.
As well as playing MP3 songs stored on your nano, you can listen to the radio. Favourite stations can be stored for quick access, or flick your finger to search through the FM dial. Live Pause lets you tap the screen to pause the song or programme so you don't miss anything -- and you can even rewind as far back as 15 minutes.
Apple promises 30 hours of listening to music or radio before you have to recharge.

You get 30 hours of music playback before it conks out.

Outlook

The fact that Apple keeps changing between a screen-packing tall iPod nano and a small, sporty clip-on nano means that if you're not fussed about movies, videos and photos, you can buy the older square model and get a bargain.
But if you do want photos and videos in your pocket, the new 7th generation iPod nano is an excellent choice. It's barely thicker than a couple of credit cards and comes in a choice of nifty colours, although the white face detracts from the expensive feel of previous designs.

Samsung UE46ES5500 TV review

If you can't be bothered with 3D, but still want a feature-rich TV with plenty of style then the 46-inch UE46ES5500 is the model in Samsung's current range that fits the bill.
At around £680, it's pricier than the budget UE46EH5300 we looked at yesterday, but not by all that much. For the extra outlay you get a much slimmer and more stylish looking set with slightly better picture quality and the same excellent smart TV features.

User interface and EPG

The ES5500 may lack the voice and motion control features of the ES8000 and ES7000 ranges, but as I didn't find them all that useful when I tested them, I don't think this is much of a loss. In pretty much all other respects, the user interface is exactly the same as what you get on those TVs, which is all the more surprising when you take into account just how much cheaper it is.
There's no doubt about it -- the menu system used here looks absolutely gorgeous. It's bursting at the seams with colourful graphics, cute icons and neat animations.

The menu system centres on the attractive homescreen.

The core of the menu system is the homescreen, which gives you control over most of the TV's settings and features. It's the place to go when you want to adjust picture controls, change inputs, access the media player and launch apps.
The classy presentation makes it pretty easy to use, but it can still take a while to get your head around all the features it puts at your disposal -- mainly because there are just so many of them. It might have been better to split some of them off into sub-menus though.
The EPG is also very impressive. Its bright and cheery layout makes it a pleasure to browse. An integrated thumbnail video window in the top left-hand corner lets you keep track of what you're watching, while also checking what's coming up soon on other channels.
Once small issue I wish Samsung would fix is that when you hit the 'Info' button on the remote to call up the programme description, it only shows you one line of the summary -- if you want to read the whole summary you have to open the full EPG.

Design and connections

Whereas the EH5300 was shockingly fat, the ES5500 is much slimmer and more in line with what we'd expect to see from a Samsung LED set. Its chassis is quite slim at just 30mm deep and the bezel around the screen is narrow too at 17mm.
The chassis is mostly made from glossy black plastic, but at the edge of the bezel there's a transparent lip. This may be something of an old Samsung design signature, but it still looks quite attractive to the eye, so I'm not complaining. The stand is fixed, so you can't just swivel the TV around on its base to adjust the viewing angle -- you have to physically move the whole set.
I do like the TV's remote, though. It's long and slender, but the slightly rubberised buttons feel comfortable under your fingertips and the layout is good too, so all the key features are within easy reach.

The TV only has three HDMI ports, whereas most 46-inch models now have four.

Unfortunately, when it comes to connections the ES5500 follows the lead of the high-end models in Samsung's range and only comes with three HDMI ports. This is slightly annoying, as pretty much every other brand on the market offers four HDMI ports on their larger screened TVs.
Another issue is that the TV doesn't have Wi-Fi built in. If you want to add Wi-Fi you'll have to purchase the USB dongle, which is overpriced at around £30 to £40. By all means reduce the price of the TV by not including Wi-Fi, but there's no need to rip people off if they want to add the feature later, especially as a PC Wi-Fi dongle now costs around £10.
Nevertheless, the TV does have two USB ports and one of these outputs 1A of power so you can run most USB drives off it without having to use an additional external power supply. The TV also has a set of component inputs as well as a full sized Scart socket and an optical digital audio output, so you can feed surround sound from the Freeview HD tuner to an external amp.
There's also a LAN port for hooking the TV up to a router to make use of its smart TV platform. It's worth noting that all the outputs bar one HDMI port are positioned on the rear, facing out the back of the TV, which could be a bit if an issue if you were planning to mount it on a wall.

Smart TV

Samsung leads the pack when it comes to smart TV platforms, so it's no surprise to find this TV comes with a plethora of premium apps installed. These include stalwarts like BBC iPlayer, Acetrax, Netflix and Lovefilm. You can now also get ITV Player -- which isn't currently available on other manufacturers' smart TVs -- as well as some extra movie rental services, including Knowhow, Curzon on Demand and BFIplayer.
There are also BBC News and BBC Sport apps, as well as a number of weather-forecasting apps and some simple games.

I'm 'appy delighted with the TV's impressive lineup of smart apps.

The glaring omission is 4oD, but as no other TV manufacturer has support for this yet, I can't complain too much about its absence here.
As with most of Samsung's other TVs, this one also has a full Web browser. It does a good job of rendering pages accurately, but it's painfully slow to use via the TV's remote. Also, it's a bit hit and miss as to whether it'll play embedded video on websites.
If you want to play your own videos, view photos or listen to music, you need to make use of the AllShare Play app. It's able to play files either locally from USB keys and drives, or by streaming media across your home network from a PC or networked hard drive.
As with all recent Samsung TVs however, it refused to play MKV files from network devices, even though it does play them locally from USB drives. This is slightly bizarre, not to mention annoying, as streaming does work for Xvid and MP4 files.

Audio quality

Sound quality is not normally a strength of slimline LED TVs, but surprisingly the UE46ES55000 bucks this trend. It's got quite a bit of bass on tap, which helps to make movie soundtracks and music channels sound thicker and meatier than they usually do on LED models. Dialogue is also tight and focused and its high-end frequencies are reasonably well controlled, so it doesn't sound as brittle in this range as many of its slim-line competitors do.
Samsung has also added two SRS sound-processing modes to the audio menu. TruSurround HD aims to spread out the stereo image a bit more, while TruDialog seeks to push dialogue higher in the mix to make it easier to decipher. Both actually work quite well here, although it does depend on which source you're using them with, so it's best not to just turn them on and leave them on, but instead use them with some discretion.

Picture quality

 

Out of the box, the pictures from the UE46ES5500 don't seem particularly impressive. Thankfully though, most of this is down to Samsung's rubbish picture presets. They drive the panel too hard, making it look like its backlighting is coming courtesy of a 1,000 burning suns and that colours have been lifted straight from a child's colouring book.
This is annoying, as most people never bother tweaking their TV's picture settings, but just flick to a preset they think looks okay and leave it there for the life of the TV. But a few quick tweaks really does wonders for this set's image quality. Turning down the backlight a tad, toning down some of the processing and adjusting the contrast makes this set's pictures look deeper and more subtle.
In fact, the TV puts in a strong performance on the contrast front, which helps movies in particular to look quite rich and cinematic. Colour performance is reasonably strong too, as it's able to deliver bright and vivid hues along with more subtle tonal variations in colour with relative ease, especially when dealing with HD sources.

Turning on LED Motion Plus doesn't improve motion performance.

The TV does have a few weaknesses though. Like the cheaper UE46EH5300 model, its motion handling isn't great, so you sometimes get a loss of resolution during camera pans or tracking shots. The only tool the TV has to help deal with this is its LED Motion Plus setting, but it just doesn't alleviate some of the symptoms and also dims the picture significantly, as it simply inserts black frames in between normal ones.
Skin tones have a tendency to look slightly artificial and plasticky too, even if you play around with the dedicated flesh tone setting. And lastly its handling of standard-definition sources isn't as accomplished as competitors' models at a similar price, such as those from Panasonic and Sony, so upscaled pictures tend to look either a bit soft or overly noisy.

Conclusion

A little extra oomph in the picture department would have made the UE46ES5300 a pretty unbeatable package, but the motion blur and upscaling issues put paid to that. Nevertheless, it's still a brilliant offering from Samsung, thanks to its modern styling, excellent online features, good sound quality and relatively modest price tag.

Amazon Kindle Touch E-Reader Review

                                                                                                       Product Design

The first thing that struck me on opening my Kindle Touch is how light it is. It weighs a mere 213 grams, which is significantly lighter than a lot of the books that I read. The design is very simple but I feel that it has a sleek, modern feel to it. It has a 6 inch screen, with a dark grey surround. There is a button at the bottom (in the same position as it would be on an iPhone / iPad) which you can press to access the menu screen and a tiny on/off button right underneath this. At the top of the surround, it says 'kindle' - apart from that there are no other features. On the screen, the advanced e-ink display means that you can always read the text clearly, even in bright sunlight.

Setting Up and Usage

The Kindle Touch is very simple to set up. There is a tutorial feature when you turn it on which takes you through the set-up process in simple steps. You need to link the Kindle to your Amazon account to be able to download books. It has wi-fi connectivity so, assuming you have a decent wireless broadband connection, you can purchase a book from Amazon and start reading it on your Kindle about a minute later. If you have the Kindle app on a phone or iPad, you can also access previously purchased Kindle books through the Kindle Touch - these will appear on the menu screen as 'archived items' (as they are stored on the Cloud), but clicking on a title will allow you to open it. You charge the Kindle with the charger that is provided in the box - once fully charged, you can expect to get many hours of reading time before you need to charge it again. With the wireless connection turned off, Amazon estimate that you can read for half an hour a day for two whole months before you need to charge the Kindle again.Once you have connected the Kindle to your Amazon account and purchased your first book, it is time to start reading. All purchased books are displayed on a menu screen which appears as soon as you turn on your Kindle. You can click on the chosen book and you will instantly be taken to the first page. You move from one page to the next by lightly tapping the screen (on the right hand side to go forwards, touching on the left side will turn back a page). You can also adjust the text size by touching the middle of the screen with two fingers and swiping them apart - this brings up a text size menu where you can select your preferred size. I tend to read on the second smallest size as, due to the relatively small screen size, I find that having the text any bigger means that I am constantly having to change pages. However, if you have any issues with your eyesight, the ability to make the text much bigger is probably a very valuable feature. I find it very comfortable to read on the Kindle as the text is very clear and the e-ink technology means that there is no issue with glare, unlike the Kindle app on the iPad. It is just as easy to read in bright sunlight as it is sitting on the tube commuting to work.

Purchasing Books

As previously mentioned, all books for the Kindle need to be purchased through Amazon. There are many free books in the Amazon Kindle store, including a significant number of classic novels by authors such as Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Amazon also do a 'Kindle Deal of the Day' where a previously full-price book is discounted for a limited period. I have found that generally books are cheaper on Kindle than they are in store, although some new books remain relatively expensive even in Kindle form. I usually use the Amazon one-click system for purchasing books and they literally appear on the Kindle within a few seconds of completing the purchase. Amazon are also rumoured to be launching a library which will give you a free 'library' book for your Kindle every month if you subscribe to Amazon Prime - I'm hoping this is launched before the end of my current free trial period so that I can check it out before commiting to a subscription.

Other Features

To be honest, I really only use my Kindle for reading books, but there are several other in-built features that seem worthy of a mention. You can email PDFs directly to your Kindle which may be useful for people who work on the move, as it is much easier to read documents on the Kindle than on a phone. There is also an 'x-ray' feature which Amazon claim allows you to 'explore the bones of a book' - this allows you to pick out all the passages which mention a particular character / historical figure / place. I feel that this would be a very useful feature for students using the Kindle for their set books as you would be able to choose a protagonist and then find all mentions of them for inclusion in an essay. It also has 'Whispersync' technology which synchronises your last read page across all devices, meaning that if you go out without the Kindle and find yourself with a few minutes to spare, you can pick up your book where you left off on the Kindle app on your phone. Finally, the Kindle has a built-in dictionary and instant translations which means you don't have to Google any unfamiliar words as you come across them.

Price

The Amazon Kindle Touch has actually now been replaced by the even lighter Kindle (which retails at £69) although they are still available from some sellers. To be honest, the features of the Kindle Touch and the features of what Amazon are now simply calling the 'Kindle' (as opposed to the Kindle Fire or Paperwhite) look very similar so I would assume the points in this review will largely cover both devices.

Would I recommend it?

Yes, I would wholeheartedly recommend my Kindle. It is fantastic to be able to carry a whole library of books around with me, particularly for long journeys and holidays. It will make a massive difference to the weight of my holiday suitcase too - I don't really go in for minimalist packing as it is, but the big summer reads I tend to take away with me push me very close to my baggage allowance. It is small enough to fit into most handbags, light enough not to make your shoulders ache and comfortable to read wherever you are. The only minor downside is that sometimes it is a bit 'too' sensitive and you will end up flicking through several pages at once, but this is something that is easily remedied and not a big deal. I don't tend to read in the dark so the issues with it not working as well in dim light don't really apply in my case, but it is possible to purchase cases with reading lamps, or possibly to use a cheaper, clip on reading light. There are still times where I would prefer to hold a proper book but I love my Kindle too.

Apple iPad 2 Tablet Review

A lovely sleek white apple box with lovely packaging inside which was clinging like a well fitted dress onto each part of the device to prevent damage – I was impressed at their packaging (keep reading, I will talk about the device soon, I promise!) Within said packaging there was an operating manual, a plug (in 2 parts as one part is the USB cable) and the IPAD 2 itself. As I took the IPAD2 out of the box I tried to down play my happiness to the jealous people around me – I was smiling pretty hard on the inside. And possibly the outside. Hell, I’d just won an effing IPAD!

Instant Pleasure

Much to my delight the IPAD didn’t need charged immediately; it came with about 70% charge on the battery which meant I was able to play with it straight away. It’s almost like they thought of these things in advance!

The setup was also quick and easy: Once turned on for the first time, the screen comes to life and provides an simple to understand “setup guide” which you tap, click or otherwise fondle (whatever you want to call it) through to setup the various features.

Let’s do the time warp again

The date and time set up is easy as hell as long as you have a clock and know the date. Unlike my mobile, you DO have to set it manually to start with, but really, that’s hardly an issue. Check one of your other devices and I’m sure that won’t be a problem for very long.

You got Wires going in

The wireless setup is quick and painless and the range is more than adequate making it easy to stay connected throughout the house (though I suppose that’s an issue of a bygone era!). If you really want, you can pay someone like Vodafone or O2 extortionate amounts of money and get one with 3G mobile internet, however my model didn’t come with that so I can’t really comment on it. Despite having no 3G it DOES come with some form of GPS which comes in really handy if you want to use your IPAD as a giant sat nav. You can also set up the location function (if you don’t mind apple knowing where you are at all times) which could help tailor search results online to your local area.

Letters to you

The Keyboard will appear automatically when you fondle a text bearing box. It is a QWERTY keyboard (because that’s just the way life works now!) You do need to click another button on the keyboard to make the numbers and symbols appear which, frankly, is daft. The screen is big enough to fit it all in when you are using it sideways and longways (because, like most things now-a-days, you can use it in whichever direction you want, including upside down if you really want to stand apart from the crowd.) You can also purchase a keyboard to plug into your IPAD2 if you can’t stand to use the one on-screen, but I think that kind of defeats the point in owning an IPAD. If apple are hoping the IPAD2 is going to become a replacement for desktop computers…well… I’d say no chance of that happening just yet.

Head in the Clouds

The Cloud, rather than being a ridiculously exclusive gay bar, is a fun little function which allows all of your information, pictures and / or / other to upload to a central server. If you are … “lucky” … enough to own more than one apple product or cloud enabled device, you will instantly be able to access everything about you on every other device you own. Apparently, (said a turtle-necker) “it just works”. Hmm. It does work. It also takes either a heap tonne of bravery, or a large amount of stupidity to allow that much access to your personal information. I mean, come on, apple will clearly be on the Terminators side when they come.

I wanna touch ya and take your picture

There are two cameras on the device, one on the front, one on the back. They are both really good quality as they record in HD at 720 pixels. It also has a 5x digital zoom, not that I’ve needed to take any far away ninja type shots. Personally I’ve been using them to recording videos and take pictures a bit closer up. It’s also good for video chatting to my family in Portugal through the app facetime but you can download “Skype” if you are that way inclined. I would say that the camera function is a bit awkward to use for pictures since the IPad is quite big, so you really need two hands to hold it and another to push the button. All good if you are blessed with three hands, but most of us aren’t.

As for the actual internals of this little machine, they are also great; you will struggle to lag the device down because there is enough memory/processing power contained inside to launch a rocket to the moon. I’m not sure if you’ll get back again since the battery life is ten hours if you are being a bit over zealous in your use, but I’m sure the free-fall will be fun.

The Good

So far it seems the IPAD2 is actually worth the hype that the apple fan-bois spew constantly at people, which hurts me to admit. The screen is very responsive; you barely need to touch it for it to jump to life – it’s totally effortless. It comes pre-loaded with all the basic software or apps (as apple like to call them) you will need to begin with i.e.Safari Internet Browser, Email Client, Memo Function, Music Player, Gallery… the list goes on.

You can purchase or download an absolute tonne of apps for free from the App Store – It contains thousands of games, business apps, Google earth/docs etc. which can all help your experience become something awesome. If you really want to spend more money there are also other apps that you can pay for. Personally I think free is best! The thing that stands out most for me is the battery – One full charge can last for days and the only thing I have found so far that drains the battery, understandably is Netflix, an internet movie streaming app. Throw in the brilliant sound quality that the speakers give off (seriously, it’s better than my boyfriend’s laptop) and you have a fantastic little device in your hands.

The Bad

Now that we’ve covered all the good points, time for me to grumble! The main bad point for me, as always when talking about Apple products is simply the cost – I will never understand why people are willing to fork out so much money when there are other devices out there that can do the same things for half the price.
Enthusiasts will simply answer this question with “It’s Apple and I like it”. Keeping in mind that I *won* my Ipad, I didn’t and would never pay what apple are wanting for them – My unit costs £399.00 which gives a 16GB model (the space you can store your stuff on in the unit – this is quite a low amount of storage space) this rises to £479.00 for a 32GB and a whopping £559.00 for a 64GB version. Anyone that knows about technology knows that storage space does not cost that much so there is no justification for the high prices. Just as an example you can get another tablet with 32GB of storage for just £317, which is a whole £82 cheaper and a whole 16GB of storage more than the model I have.

The Bad. Again.

Another bizarre moment for apple: IPAD2 doesn’t support adobe flash player. This is used for things like YouTube videos, which apple gets around by providing a YouTube app which will stream to your Ipad. This work around is good for YouTube but not for other simple everyday things like playing an online game in your browser (i.e. Facebook’s Farmville or National Lottery’s online scratch cards – these games will not play on the IPAD and there is no intention to change this any time soon).

Further oddities occur around Torrents (which are a popular way for people to download content from the internet). Apple has not allowed any programs that contain support for downloading content onto its App Store, so if you wanted to use torrents, it’s not possible. This mean that you are stuck with the apps that Apple have approved, which can mean missing out on some brilliant Android apps/ features that other devices have no issues with. On a technicality, however, this does mean that Apples app store is more secure in the products it presents.

Do you love me?

Despite the cost and the lack of torrent and flash support, I do actually like my Ipad and wouldn’t trade it in for anything else. It’s sleek, sexy and does most of what I need it to. I do still need to use my windows laptop for some things though. If you have the money, I would (grudgingly) recommend getting an IPAD2, however if flash is important to your daily activities, stay clear and get a windows tablet instead. It will save you some money and give you more freedom with your apps if you desire it. Overall, a really good product from a really annoying company.

Review summary

The iPad2 is a great little device, it is a very good looking device however it is pretty pricey. It does lock you into using apps that apple approve first and there are other products out there that do the same thing but cheaper, but if you've got money to spend, why not!

Apple iPhone 5 Mobile Phone Review

Look Of The Phone

Of course the main feature for me is the change in the frame and screen size of the model of this iPhone in comparison to it's predecessors. It has a 4 inch wide (diagonally) screen face and so this creates for me a longer but thinner screen dimension as opposed to the old models. This allows for there to be 5 apps on the home screen vertically (whereas only 4 could be stored vertically per page before) and still 4 apps stored on the horizontal view. In all honesty I am not sure of the sense in this and how it makes for a better phone! Sure it means if you store loads of apps there may be slightly less pages for you to flick through but otherwise this doesn't make a boring iPhone into a superphone by my standards!
Next up is the modification in colour. My brother has the "Black & Slate" colour model as opposed to the white & Silver model. This is essentially different in that there is a strip on the back of the phone which is Matte Black as opposed to before when the phone was just a shiny black glass surface all over. I remember with my iPhone 4 (one of them anyway I ended up having 3, fully using their 1 year warranty policy as none of them lasted) the back did shatter quite easily and the model was made so they were not replaceable. One can only hope the new design of the back of the phone makes it more resistant to breaking and being more robust as I am the biggest of butter fingers and were this my phone it wouldn't last very long before it saw itself bouncing on the floor from my grasp lol.

Battery & Charging

I was a bit cheeky and found myself using the internet on my brother's phone as he hardly ever uses it, and with my contract on my Galaxy I only get 1GB of data which I seem to whizz through like no man's business. As per usual with the battery, the more the internet is used the faster the little battery bar dwindles. I did find that in comparison I must admit it held it's own a lot faster than my Galaxy does and I could charge it to 100% first thing in the morning and go out for the day and not need to charge it until I got home around 8pm that evening. With my Galaxy about mid-way through the day I need to charge it and give it a bit of life and then charge it AGAIN when I am home so that is definitely a big plus. As a guide the specs state it has 225 hours standby (which I can believe as when I hardly used it the battery life barely moved) and will last up to 8 hours using the internet, 10 hours with Wi-Fi.

Camera

It has an 8 mega pixel camera which I must say is excellent quality and captures shot's beautifully. Similar to my Galaxy it has face recognition and has a setting so you are able to tap to focus on images and can zoom in and out without losing too much quality to the photo.

Navigating Around The Phone

Exactly the same as most formats of a current smartphone these days getting around the phone is easy as it opens with a home screen, and apps positioned on the face of the screen so to speak. Using one finger to swish across the screen will introduce the user to all the different applications and functions. To download apps is simple and straightforward - simply go the app store and using an Apple ID these can be downloaded, some free and some which may cost a few pounds.

*Making Calls & Texts
This is simple, using in the bottom left hand corner there is a small symbol that looks like a phone. This can be used to do outgoing calls from either a contact list or entering the digits manually. I find the call quality to be clear and coherent and I have encountered no problems. Similarly with messaging click on this icon and you are able to easily use the touch screen to type a message to recipients. * Siri
This is a sort of "personal assistant" type feature which is in-built in the phone to answer and questions or set up appointments in the calendar, or send a text etc for us lazy people lol. This is quite useful and easy to do, but in all honesty it seems more work than it's worth so not a big selling point on the phone for me personally.*Maps
The built in navigation system is excellent and very accurate. I would say my Samsung Galaxy is better (perhaps because of the bigger screen I feel I can use it in my car as a substitution for my Tom-Tom) but in terms of standard and delivery they are both easy to use. For example I went to a focus group the other day with no clue how to get there and I decided to use the iPhone as it was the first phone I found in my bag at the time and it got me there in 7 minutes flat walking so I found it extremely useful!*Downloading Music
I love listening to music on my travel to work and couldn't imagine a phone where downloading music was a nightmare. With apple iTunes already on my macbook, setting this up for my brother was a doddle and nothing too complicated. Getting music from iTunes can be purchased with a tap of a screen from the iTunes app already on the phone and they take a matter of seconds to appear in the Music library on the phone and you are raring to go. Using the earphones that come with this phone are also really good quality and of course not a particularly special set of excellent quality, but pretty decent in terms of clarity.*Using the Internet
Connecting to wifi is easy through the settings and works without my constant interference as it will automatically connect to a wi-fi connection provided I have connected to it previously. The in-built internet is fast but of course this will vary depending on the reliability of the network provider for the phone.

Overall

To sum up I think the iPhone 5 is a pretty decent smartphone but in terms of growth and development I see nothing different to the iPhone 4S. Aside from the new slimmer, longer design and the strip on the back there isn't much new about the iPhone 5. Sure it comes with new software (iOS 6) but this can be downloaded onto an older model, and let's face it, apple will surely be bringing out a new software in the next month or so which will just make all this irrelevant. I really cannot justify this phone being worth £529 which is the current RRP from apple (I can go on about 2 holidays with that kind of money!) so for me I am not so sure it is worth the hype and would most likely more recommend someone to just buy the slightly older model, no-one will judge you any less lol.

Nintendo Wii U Review

Nintendo's 2006 Wii console was a runaway success, catapulting the venerable Japanese company back to the top of the gaming pile with its super-accessible gameplay and appealing price tag. Fast-forward six years, however, and the world of console gaming is very different, with the casual crowd finding fun with smart phone and tablet apps, even as long-time gamers remain glued to their more complex Xbox 360 and PS3 machines.
Can the Wii U rock the world of gaming once more, or has Nintendo's quirky approach to hardware hatched a lame duck? And does this shiny box of tricks deserve a spot beneath your telly? Read on to find out.
The Wii U is available now in two versions: the £248 basic pack, which includes 8GB of storage, and the £299 premium pack, which has 32GB.

Should I buy the Wii U?

If you're an occasional gamer who had fun with the original Wii, or thinking of buying the Wii U for someone who's not that into games, you should think carefully before handing over your cash, because this new system is considerably more complex than Nintendo's last effort.
Instead of waving a wand and tapping a small selection of buttons, the Wii U asks you to wrap your mitts around a fully tooled-up controller, as well as mastering tapping a touchscreen and keeping an eye on two screens at once. Long-time gamers will settle in with no problem, but the learning curve for first-timers may prove frustrating, so have a long hard think before buying.
If you belong to the muscly thumbed hardcore crowd, you're unlikely to find the Wii U as satisfying as the Xbox or PlayStation console you probably already own. I noticed a few instances where the Wii U appeared to lag slightly in the graphical stakes, and while the HD visuals are often gorgeous, I haven't seen anything that looks better than what the Xbox or PS3 pumps out. The bulky controller is heavy, and isn't as suited to quick-fire twitch-reflex gaming as its rival peripherals.
The Wii U is a console for those who already know they need to own one. Nintendo isn't likely to start offering Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Pikmin, Donkey Kong, Smash Bros, Mario Kart or any of its other hot properties on rival systems anytime soon. So if you dearly love those games (and who could blame you?), the Wii U will probably satisfy you, even if it could take a while for some key titles to trickle onto the console.

GamePad controller

The Wii U's most important new feature is its chunky tablet GamePad. But how does it feel to use this quirky controller, and what impact does it have on gameplay?
The GamePad fits around your fingers comfortably, leaving your thumbs with plenty of room to grip the analogue sticks or manoeuvre their way to the controller's face buttons.

The GamePad is comfy enough to use as your main controller.

The 6.2-inch touchscreen isn't too tricky to reach using your thumbs, but to reach beyond the edges of the panel you'll need to let go of the GamePad with one hand. The controller feels quite weighty, and while it's not about to pull you to the ground, you will notice the heft during long play sessions.
It's noticeably heavier than the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 controller, and much chunkier than the feather-light Wii Remote. The GamePad feels a bit plasticky to hold as well, and while it's comfortable to grip, you won't get the sensation that you're holding a piece of premium gadgetry.
On the plus side, all the buttons feel good, and the trigger buttons around the back of the controller move smoothly when you squeeze them, without feeling as spongy as those on the PlayStation 3's controller.
Build quality feels high across the board, and I'm reasonably confident that -- unlike an iPad -- this tablet-esque controller could take a few knocks without giving up the ghost. There's a stylus slotted into a hole at the top, but you'll hardly ever use it, as the touchscreen is large enough to make finger prods reasonably precise.
The analogue sticks are comfy to use, but they can feel just a touch slippery, making for unintentionally erratic in-game movement. The sticks feel quite tall under your thumbs, which mean that sometimes simple tasks like running in a straight line can feel slightly wobbly. That's a minor gripe, but one I suspect dedicated gamers will pick up on.
Long-time game folk will also be frustrated by Nintendo's button placement, which sees the four 'face' buttons (A, B, X and Y) placed beneath the right analogue stick, instead of the on-top placement you'll see on Microsoft or Sony's consoles. I was able to adjust to the change quite quickly, but muscle-memory movements still saw my thumbs leaving the right stick to prod hopelessly at thin air.
Based on my testing, you can expect several hours of battery life from the GamePad when gaming constantly, but you'll need to charge it frequently to keep it topped up -- don't expect it to last for days on end.

Second-screen gaming

The controller's second screen is where the Wii U wants to offer innovative gaming kicks, so it's disappointing that the panel itself isn't very impressive. The 854x480-pixel resolution isn't particularly high, and leaves on-screen action looking grainy -- Mario's mustachioed face looks like a jumble of pixels when playing New Super Mario Brothers U.
The screen is also dim, with colours looking drained when compared to the picture you'll get on an HD telly (I was testing the Wii U using a 26-inch Samsung TV). The touchscreen isn't particularly sensitive either, because (like the 3DS handheld) it's a resistive touchscreen, rather than the capacitive kind you get on tablets, smart phones and the iPod touch.

If someone else wants to use the TV you can carry on playing on the GamePad.

That means you need to actually press the screen to register a prod, rather than just touching your digit to the top of the glass. It also means there's no multi-touch, so only one poke at a time will register.
It's a shame the second screen isn't more tactile. A huge plus, however, is that there's no noticeable lag between the display on the tablet and on the TV -- actions taking place on one panel are replicated at almost the same instant on the other, so put aside any fears of lag spoiling your fun.
The dual-screen concept opens the door to all manner of gameplay tricks, such as using the GamePad's internal sensors to scan your surroundings in ZombiU, which is a great use of the technology. That game also offers the opportunity to tap on the GamePad's screen to dismantle barricades, or rifle through your inventory while looking away from the telly screen, during which time you're vulnerable to zombie attack.
The aforementioned undead delivered a real scare, and gave a good taste of what the Wii U's second-screen experience could deliver when put to good use. Other launch titles didn't impress me as much however, with blockbuster ports Assassin's Creed 3 and Mass Effect 3 primarily using the controller panel to display the game's map. Even Mario Bros U, Nintendo's own project, only really uses the touchscreen to display exactly what's happening on the TV.
One advantage there is that you can change the TV's input (possible from the controller using a TV button that sits underneath the GamePad's screen) to normal telly and continue playing on the GamePad. This worked fine with Mario -- though as mentioned before, you'll take a hit on the graphics front staring at the lower-resolution touchscreen -- but didn't work with any other games I tried. Note that you can't use the GamePad as a standalone console out and about -- you need to be in wireless range of the mother console.
In other words, there's fun to be had with the Wii U's quirky controller, but it'll depend very much on what developers decide to stick in their games, and second-screen features are not consistent across games. More on that later.
Finally, and with the caveat that this is a subjective judgement that may not resonate with you at all, I don't think the Wii U conjures up the same fun the Wii did six years ago. Nintendo's previous console was so radically different from anything that had come before that it felt inherently fun just to pick it up and start playing with the then-groundbreaking motion-control tech.
The Wii U, on the other hand, is still an unusual device, but no single aspect of it feels as new, or as fun -- rather it's a mishmash of standard technologies, that when combined don't make for the same gleeful thrill that Nintendo's earlier system conjured.

Launch games

It's fair to say the Wii U launch line-up is hardly inspiring, with only a few games standing out from the worrying pile of forgettable titles. New Super Mario Bros U is the most exciting one -- even though it sees Nintendo flying on full autopilot -- as it's still a chance to play Mario in HD.
ZombiU is another one worth investigating, and is almost certainly the best game to offer GamePad-centric tricks right off the bat. It's a very violent apocalypse survival game, so don't hand it to a young child unless you're happy to foot their therapy bills later in life. Assassin's Creed 3, Mass Effect 3 and Batman: Arkham City are all Wii U conversions of existing games, but stand as great titles in their own right.
I played Assassin's Creed 3 and thought it could look better, with some in-game textures looking worryingly low-res. I still had fun playing it though. Mass Effect 3, meanwhile, looks good and seemed to play very smoothly, and also features a comic book-style introductory episode, which lets you hurriedly select some of the back-story elements you'd get if you had played through the series on Xbox or PS3. Murder-em-up Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is also coming to the Wii U.
I had the most fun with multiplayer minigame-a-thon Nintendo Land, which sees one player using the GamePad and other players using Wii Remotes to play in a series of simple challenges. The fact that one player has access to a second screen that's invisible to other gamers is used to great effect here, and should make for raucous living-room thrills. If you're buying a Wii U for the family for Christmas day, this is a great bet, but be aware that you'll need a sensor bar and spare Wii Remotes, which will be pricey extras if you don't own them already.
There are some definite gems to be found among the dross of Game Party Champions and, er, Funky Barn, but this probably isn't a line-up to keep you occupied for the next 12 months.
The tepid launch line-up could well be bolstered by amazing titles in the years to come, and certainly there are some tempting exclusives on the horizon -- notably Bayonetta 2 and Pikmin 3 -- but equally there's reason to worry that the Wii U will suffer from a lack of decent games.
The Wii lacked good third-party titles, and that stench of uncertainty lingers over the Wii U like a threatening raincloud. Developers may take to Nintendo's oddball system like ducks to water, but I wouldn't be in the least surprised if, a year from now, the prospect of porting a game to the quirky Wii U is too much effort or expense for major publishers to bother with.

Choosing a console

In the Wii U Basic Pack, which costs £248, you get a console with 8GB of storage, one GamePad controller, a power adaptor and an HDMI cable. That's not much for your cash, especially when you consider the 8GB console actually only has 3GB of usable space once necessary built-in software has been installed.
That's hardly any space, and will make finding room for downloaded games next to impossible. Nintendo recommends using a USB external hard drive to increase the capacity, which is possible thanks to a USB socket on the Wii U console itself. If Nintendo thinks purchasing and formatting an external hard drive makes for a fun Christmas morning, however, it's sorely mistaken.

If you've got Wii-motes hanging around in the bottom of a drawer, they'll work too.

Also be aware that the Basic Pack doesn't include any Wii Remotes or a sensor bar, both of which are necessary for multiplayer in several games, including Mario Bros U and Nintendo Land. If you already own a Wii, now's the time to dig those remotes out of the attic.
For around £300 you can get the Premium Pack, which has a console with 32GB of storage, about 25GB of which is actually free for you to use -- a more reasonable amount if you're downloading games. You also get a GamePad charging cradle, a normal plastic stand and black plastic legs for the console itself, as well as the power adaptor, HDMI cable and a sensor bar. Nintendo throws in a copy of Nintendo Land with this bundle.
Calling the Premium Pack generous would be a severe overstatement, but compared with the extremely limited hardware in the Basic Pack, the Premium box is better value, even if it is more expensive.

 

Setup

Setting up the console isn't too tricky, as the Wii U doesn't take up much space. It also doesn't make much noise when it's running, though its power brick is fairly massive. You need to plug the console into your TV (HDMI sockets are present on most HD tellies, but check before you buy, as alternative component cables are not included in the box) and sync the GamePad to the console by pressing a small button on both the controller and the console.
That's about it for the hardware, but I'll confess I was left groaning by the tortuous software setup process. It walks you through setting up the date and time, language and configuring your GamePad to use as a TV control (which worked fine for me, but did involve choosing my TV manufacturer from a drop-down menu and cycling through my telly's inputs to test it was working). Then you have to create or import a Mii avatar and set up an Internet connection.
The Internet connection can be particularly troublesome. If you select the wrong wireless network you'll need to wait until the end of the setup, then go into the settings menu and correct things,

 because even if the Wi-Fi isn't working, it saves that connection to the system.

 

 

For unfathomable reasons the Wii U can only hold a handful of connections in its shiny head at once, so when you try to connect to a new network you may find you need to delete some saved connection options. Moreover, every time you try to connect to a network the Wii U saves it as a new connection, even if you're connecting to the same network you've already tried to access before.
It's bizarre, and if you buy the console I earnestly hope you're able to connect without issue and never have to root around in the settings menu trying to fix things. There's no Ethernet port (though plug-in adaptors are available), so you're stuck with wireless out of the box.
Elsewhere the system software is basic, and sometimes proves frustrating. The homescreen is very much like that of the Wii, with simple squares denoting available apps you can open. Simplicity isn't a bad thing though, and the simple homescreens mean it's easy to see all the games at your disposal.
The biggest software issue is that moving through the Wii U's menus incurs some crippling loading times, even when you're doing nothing more complicated that opening the Settings menu, or returning to the homescreen, which takes a whopping 18 seconds every time. Nintendo could (and certainly should) fix this with a software update, but for now those agonising wait times mean something as simple as quickly popping in to another app becomes a lengthy ordeal.
A mild frustration is that the system menus are, for the most part, displayed on the small GamePad screen, while the TV displays Miis hanging out in a virtual plaza. An on-screen button on the GamePad lets you flip these views but -- bafflingly -- doing so puts the Wii U homescreen on your telly and changes the controls so that the analogue stick causes you to pan scenically around the Mii plaza on the small screen. It's odd that you can't control the actual menu on the TV, and feels like Nintendo hasn't made best use of that massive slab of display real estate.

Online and video on-demand

Nintendo is revamping its online efforts, bringing everything together under the Nintendo Network banner, within which you'll register a Nintendo ID to play games online and download new titles.
First things first -- online gameplay seems to work well, and in a game of FIFA 13 I didn't notice any frustrating lag spoiling my fun -- something that often ruined online gaming on the Wii.
There are a number of factors that could change this in future, however. As more gamers get involved the service could become strained, or things could equally swing the other way, with a lack of Internet-eager gamers making it tricky to find online opponents. For now however, things are working well.
A Miiverse app acts as a Nintendo-brand social network for messaging and seeing who's playing what. The GamePad definitely has an edge over its rivals in this area, because you can use the touchscreen to type messages quickly, instead of agonisingly scrolling from one letter to another, as you have to do on the Xbox or PS3. Handy.

The Wii U's improved Internet features and its controller's webcam mean you can make adorable video calls.

There's an eShop where you can purchase games, but don't expect any bargains -- I saw Mario and FIFA 13 both listed at penny under £50, which is about as expensive as games can get. Games you purchase in the eShop can be accessed by anyone using a particular Wii U system, and that each console allows up to 12 different users. That's very good news if you live with other gamers.
Game demos should be available, but when I pressed the 'demos' button in the Wii U eShop, it took me to a page where I could purchase FIFA 13, with no clear way of downloading a free demo, which is more than a little odd.
Curiously there seems to be some kind of watershed in place for the eShop, as when I tried to view information for the 18-rated ZombiU, a pop-up message told me that it was only available to view at certain times.
The console I was testing had no parental controls setup, so unless there was some kind of profile age verification I hadn't completed, it could be that Nintendo doesn't want you looking at 18+ rated games at any time. I'll update this review if I learn more about why this was happening.
In the US, the Wii U will have access to on-demand video via Nintendo TVii, including clips from Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, Netflix and YouTube. Nintendo TVii is confirmed to launch in Europe next year, but right now it doesn't work. The icon is still present on the homescreen for some reason, but when you open it you're told the service isn't available.
I'd expect Netflix and Lovefilm to eventually be on board, as both of these are already available to Brits, and I'd hope to see services such as BBC iPlayer and 4oD on board soon if the Wii U wants to rival other consoles as a set-top box.
It's worth noting that the Xbox 360 already does a particularly good job in this regard, with Sky Player and a healthy movie library on top of all the services listed above, even if you need to be a paying Xbox Live member to access most of them (and a Sky subscriber to get Sky Player).
Being a trendy Web-connected gadget, the Wii U has apps. Unfortunately as of the time of writing, its store contains only two apps -- Netflix and Uplay, which is Ubisoft's online achievement and multiplayer platform. Uninspiring.
There's a Web browser, which works rather well, so long as you steer away from complicated Web apps. For basic browsing it does the job, and you can use the analogue sticks to move and zoom around the page, if the touchscreen is just too ordinary.

Conclusion

Just a little too complicated for casual buyers and lacking the power and game selection to please the hardcore crowd, it's hard to imagine who'd be best off buying the Wii U.
It's very possible to have fun with the unconventional controller, especially in a family setting where you have enough controllers for everyone to play, but not every game makes best use of the technology. The launch line-up brings some solid titles, but doesn't make me think third-party developers will be rushing to the drawing board to cook up new and exciting ways to use the multi-faceted GamePad.
If you're a dedicated Nintendo fan who's craving the next Mario or Zelda instalment, you'll likely be satisfied with this workmanlike console, but for the less devoted it's hard to recommend this machine over the much cheaper Xbox 360, or even something simple like the similarly priced iPad mini.