After almost a year of teasing, Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain game was officially confirmed at the Game Developers Conference (GDC).

As many had suspected, revealed during the Spike Video Game Awards 2012, The Phantom Pain is actually a new Metal Gear Solid game. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain has been confirmed by Kojima Productions boss Hideo Kojima on a GDC panel.

The game will consist of two previously hinted games, Phantom Pain and Ground Zeroes, but the latter could be released before Metal Gear Solid 5.

“Ground Zeroes is a prologue to MGS V. Nine years after that event comes The Phantom Pain,” Kojima explained after the GDC reveal.

“Following the success of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, we have extremely high expectations for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain,” said Konami President Tomoyuki Tsuboi in an official press release. “We hope to use the Fox Engine to expand and revolutionize the Metal Gear Solid franchise while providing fans with the high quality and immersive experience they have come to expect from Kojima Productions.”

In the teaser trailer, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain will see Snake, who has been in a coma for nine years, waking up in a hospital and then having to flee from an unknown enemy.

After being in a coma for so long, Snake is understandably unsteady on his feet, so he spends most of his escape and demonstration at GDC crawling across the floor. Snake is then helped by a bandaged-faced man named Ismael, said to be voiced by Keifer Sutherland.

Described as an open-world game, Konami has confirmed that Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain will be coming to Xbox 360 and PS3. It has yet to be announced if the game will launch on next-gen consoles like the PS4.

The game was unveiled as part of Konami’s demonstration of its Fox Engine, which will power the latest installment in the acclaimed series.

An official release date has yet to be announced, as well as more details on what the game’s storyline will entail. In the meantime, fans will have to be content with the teaser trailer and gameplay demonstration.

Could Metal Gear Solid 5 be one of your most anticipated titles for 2013? Shall you hear David Hayter Snake won’t be voicing? Drop us a message on the TrustedReviews Twitter and Facebook pages or in the comments below.

Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10 Apps and Performance

We’ve already mentioned that Asus has crammed a few extra apps into the MeMO Pad Smart 10 by default, but what do you get out of this?

They’re mostly sensible additions that fill in the gaps left by Google’s own list of apps. Asus Studio is a simple yet comprehensive photo editing app that lets you change things like color saturation and brightness, apply a plethora of filters, add speech bubbles, and paint over your images.

BuddyBuzz is a chat aggregator that lets you connect to Facebook, Twitter, and Plurk in a single app. MyLibrary Lite, on the other hand, is an e-book reader.

The other preinstalled apps, which you won’t get anywhere else, are more security-based. Parental Lock and App Locker let you apply passwords to your apps and content, and App Backup lets you save an image of apps and their data to an SD card.

None of these apps have the swagger or flashy gimmicks you might find in a top-end Samsung tablet, but like so many areas of the Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10, they’re relentlessly practical. The tablet also comes with Asus Webstorage, which gives you access to your 5GB of free cloud storage. You can set the tablet to automatically transfer things like photos to the cloud to limit the time you have to spend transferring the files manually.

In addition to these extras, the Asus MeMO Pad Smart comes with the full list of Google apps, from Mail to Maps and Navigation, as well as access to the Play Store app market. The main Google app to highlight is Navigation – which lies here because the MeMO Pad Smart offers GPS functionality, unlike some cheaper tablets. However, in order to use the tablet as a GPS in the car, you will need to invest in an app that offers offline maps as there is no 3G option here.

Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10 cameras

Another feature the Asus offers that other affordable tablets lack is dual cameras on the front and back of the tablet. There’s a 4MP sensor on the back (but no LED flash) as well as a 1.3MP user-facing sensor for video chats.

We like that the MeMO Pad’s camera offers a lot of fun digital filter effects. In addition to standard vintage, sepia and negative filters, there is a lomo mode and a great color pop mode. This makes images black and white apart from one color – perfect for an artistic appearance.

What we don’t like about the Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10’s camera is the image quality. Images in anything but perfect light are grainy and noisy, and a 4-megapixel sensor isn’t enough to create highly detailed images. The lack of a flash further reduces the camera’s usefulness in low light. We would have preferred to see Asus lower the price and ditch the rear camera.

Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10 battery life

Battery life is another area that comes with fairly unremarkable performance. The Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10 has a 19 Wh Li-Ion battery, which Asus claims has 8.5 operating hours.

For less demanding tasks, that’s a number we can believe. However, if you play a looping video at 50 percent brightness and Wi-Fi off, it takes seven hours. That’s enough for a long flight, but falls short of the 8+ hours of some 10-inch competitors like the Sony Xperia Tablet S. The battery also drains fairly quickly on standby – leave it unused for a week and you can expect it to be flat.

Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10 value

Comparing the features to the pounds spent, the Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10 sounds like value for money. Expandable storage, a 10-inch screen, a decent processor and dual cameras for under £300 seems like a winning combination at first glance. However, the MeMO Pad’s screen is disappointing, both in terms of resolution and picture quality, and you get more features in the Google Nexus 10. At £50 more, this tablet seems an undeniably superior offer.

verdict

Like so many Asus Android tablets, the Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10 excels at being practical. On the plus side, it’s fairly cheap and comes with expandable storage and a decent processor. On the other hand, the screen isn’t that great and the cameras are disappointing too. Its biggest gripe, however, is the Google Nexus 10, which offers a lot more tablet bang for the buck for just £50 more.

How we test tablets

We thoroughly test every tablet we test. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features and we use the tablet as our primary device during the review period. We will always tell you what we find and we never accept money to rate a product.

Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.

Used as our main tablet during the period

Verified against recognized industry benchmarks

Ongoing real tests

Tested with various games, apps and services

points in detail

• performance 7

• value 8

• draft 6

• screen quality 5

• functions 7

• battery life 7

advantages

• Expandable Storage
• Solid connectivity
• Easy customization of the software

disadvantage

• Mediocre screen
• Nexus 10 offers better value for money

key specifications

• Evaluation Price: £269.99
• Body with plastic back
• Tegra 3 quad-core 1.2GHz CPU
• 16GB internal memory
• microSD memory expansion slot
• microHDMI video output

introduction

During 2012, budget tablets suddenly got a whole lot better. For under £200 you can now get a seriously capable tablet that can do almost anything a £500 tablet can. The Asus MeMO Pad Smart is Asus’ latest attempt at an affordable 10.1-inch tablet. It might have less personality than a bag of flour, but it offers a decent range of features at a reasonable price.

Asus MeMO Pad Smart – Design and Features

The Asus MeMO Pad Smart follows a pragmatic design approach. Fancy finishes that impress your fingers come at a cost, so this tablet uses simple, no-frills plastic.

While the MeMO Pad’s chassis is thankfully free of any creaks or groans that might raise concerns about the overall build quality, the device still doesn’t feel particularly premium. It’s a confident sacrifice clearly aimed at bringing down the overall cost of the tablet, but picking up the MeMO Pad after picking up an iPad doesn’t make the Asus feel like it’s in the same league as Apple’s device.

However, the MeMO Pad is neither heavy nor thick. In fact, its dimensions are similar to more expensive tablets, at 580 g and 9.9 mm thick. Aside from a lack of flair, there’s nothing wrong with the bodywork.

Asus is known for making products that techies love, and the Asus MeMO Pad Smart’s connectivity is no different. It uses a microUSB connector instead of a proprietary one and also has a dedicated microHDMI video output, as well as a microSD card slot. Neither is performed with much fuss — there are no flaps and no attempt to hide those outlets — but it’s still a technically challenging exercise that many will appreciate.

The commitment to providing features that are often lacking in cheaper tablets continues with the stereo speakers. The two speaker grilles are located on the back of the tablet and create better sound distribution than a mono tablet when held in landscape mode – the usual orientation for watching movies. The only serious omission is 3G, although this would of course increase the overall price of the tablet and undoubtedly lift it out of the “budget” category.

That would effectively be game over for the Asus MeMO Pad Smart’s chances of finding a decent audience. NFC is also missing, and while one could argue that this is a missed future-proofing opportunity by Asus, it won’t be a huge loss for the majority of users.

As you’d expect as a more affordable tablet, the Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10 has 16GB of internal storage — the least you’ll typically find in a 10-inch tablet.

This is a mercenary board in many ways. The design is all-vanilla in color, from the chunky bezel, lack of style changes — or style point — to the generic construction. If these things are important to you, you’re looking for the wrong tablet. Practicality and flexibility are key values ​​for the Asus MeMO Pad Smart, not fluffy stuff like the thing looks or feels. In a way, that’s even admirable.

Asus MeMO Pad Smart screen

While we can just about live with the utilitarian design, the screen specs are less than bearable. That’s largely because the MeMO Pad’s 10-inch IPS screen, at just 1,280 x 800 pixels, feels more like a throwback to something you’d find on a 2011 or 2012 tablet.

However, IPS (In-Plane Switching) is a great panel technology that quickly became the standard screen technology for tablets after its use in the first iPad. It offers great viewing angles, which are much more important on a tablet than on a laptop, for example.

The MeMO Pad’s IPS screen also delivers these impressive viewing angles, but otherwise the display doesn’t get overly hot. It looks a little washed out and is often heavily blown out at the highest brightness. Now that we’ve been spoiled by high-pixel-density tablets like the Google Nexus 10, the relatively low-resolution screen here feels a little rough and pixelated.

The MeMO Pad uses the same resolution as the smaller 7-inch Google Nexus 7, but 10.1 inches is a bit too wide to expand that resolution these days.

It also lacks an oleophobic coating that reduces the appearance of fingerprints – an inevitable by-product of touchscreen technology. After using the MeMO Pad for just a few minutes, the tablet is covered in squishy fingerprints that are easily visible in strong light. An oleophobic finish is more or less taken for granted on pricier tablets, but if you take that away you’ll certainly miss it.

Asus MeMO Pad Smart – interface, performance

The Asus MeMO Pad Smart runs on Android’s 4.1 Jelly Bean OS with minor Asus customizations. However, these are largely based on the presence of additional apps rather than dramatic UI changes.

However, Asus has made a few visual improvements. The icons in the navigation bar have been redesigned, and by default the Asus MeMO Pad Smart has a snazzy Asus weather and clock widget on its front home screen. The only functional change when using the tablet is a toggle to lock the navigation bar right in the middle of the navigation bar. This disables the other navigation bar buttons so you don’t accidentally press them.

Asus has also built in its own virtual keyboard. It’s more colorful than the standard model and has a slightly different layout that packs more buttons onto the screen, but is it a winner? Not particularly – it lacks Swype-style gesture input and any dynamic word completion. However, when it’s that easy to switch to a different keyboard and the stock Android keyboard is preinstalled, it hardly matters.

We like Asus’ approach to Android customization in the MeMO Pad Smart. The light nature of the tweaks and the use of the speedy Jelly Bean version of Android means the tablet runs on a rather old lick. It uses a Tegra T33 1.2GHz quad-core chip, which is also found in the Google Nexus 7. It’s slower than the quad-core Krait processors found in many phones and tablets from 2013, but the difference will only end in high-end games.

For example, while Real Racing 3 runs smoothly on the MeMO Pad Smart 10, the frame rate appeared lower than the same game on an iPad 4 – despite the iPad’s higher screen resolution. While we’ve complained about the limited screen resolution here, that’s exactly what should keep high-end games running pretty well for a while. Rendering more pixels requires more power.

How we test tablets

We thoroughly test every tablet we test. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features and we use the tablet as our primary device during the review period. We will always tell you what we find and we never accept money to rate a product.

Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.

Used as our main tablet during the period

Verified against recognized industry benchmarks

Ongoing real tests

Tested with various games, apps and services

Pros

• Fantastic screen
• Powerful
• Superb build
• Long battery life

Cons

• Expensive
• A little bit of occasional lag/judder
• So-so internal speaker

Key Specifications

• Review Price: £599.99
• Quad-core Tegra 3 1.7GHz processor
• Android Ice Cream Sandwich software
• 32GB internal memory
• 10.1in 1,900 x 1,200 pixel Super IPS+ screen

Asus makes some of the most interesting tablets in existence. They’re not identikit copies of some other manufacturer’s kit, instead offering something different. The Transformer Pad Infinity, like its predecessors, has a fantastic keyboard add-on that skyrockets the tablet’s battery life into the stratosphere and makes it a dream to type away on.

Design
But what has changed since the Transformer Prime, a very similar-looking tablet? The Transformer range has gotten even more high-end, with a quad-core processor and ultra-high resolution screen. Packing-in such impressive specs has also ensured that it’s far from cheap to buy, though. With the keyboard dock – an essential add-on – the 32GB edition costs around £600. What really shows-up the cost is the Infinity’s cheaper cousin, the Asus Transformer Pad 300.

The difference in build is unmistakable, though. The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity is made from aluminium, making it feel just as expensive as, well, it is. Its lid is finished in a pattern of subtle concentric circles, and the inside with a brushed finish – Asus calls it “spun metal”.

Two finishes are available, “Amethyst Gray” and “Champagne Gold”. And both look the business. The front is topped with ultra-tought Gorilla Glass 2 – not scratched or smashed too easily.

So classy is the look that it’s a pity Asus has had to tone it down a bit since the days of the Prime. At the top of the rear is a strip of plastic that’s home to the camera lens, the power button and the volume rocker – the Prime’s back was a single piece of metal. Why has Asus stepped off the design accelerator pedal? The Prime had GPS and Wi-Fi reception issues due to the design of its bod, and this plastic strip should fix all that.

Aesthetically, it’s a shame, though, as the tablet part’s shell is otherwise a single piece of metal. And knowing the reasons for the strip, the variance in finish doesn’t look too hot.

Specs
You get more than just a fancy design for your six hundred quid. The Asus Transformer Infinity uses the Tegra 3 T33 processor, a higher-end version of the quad-core chip seen in the Pad 300, which runs at a higher clock speed than the Prime. In order to keep Android ticking along nicely with such a high-res screen, the Infinity’s Tegra 3 chip runs at up to 1.7GHz.

There’s 1GB of RAM under the hood, and the tablet comes in 32GB and 64GB flavours – no messing about with 16GB models here. Memory is expandable here too.

Connectivity and Keyboard Dock Design
On the tablet part, there is a microSD slot carved into the metal body, and next to it a microHDMI video output. The USB connector is non-standard – a proprietary jack sits on the bottom edge of the Infinity – but this is easier to forgive than usual as it forms part of the keyboard dock hinge.

Unlike the vast majority of tablets with keyboard attachment, the Transformer Infinity’s one works just like a laptop. The hinge is a high-quality thing too, with enough strength to hold its position as long as it’s about 30 degrees open or more.


It’s a supremely elegant solution. With the keyboard attached the Infinity is still only around an inch thick – the tablet alone is a delightfully slim 8.5mm. And for all the metal on show, it weighs just 599g. It’s a little heavy for prolonged one-handed use, but 10.1in tablets don’t get a good deal lighter than this. With the keyboard attached, the whole bundle weighs 1.14kg, which is around the same weight as a netbook. Not bad, eh?

The keyboard also adds to the Transformer Pad Infinity’s connectivity. There’s a full-size USB port, letting you plug in a mouse or external hard drive with ease, and a full-size SD card slot. On the other edge is the same sort of proprietary connector that sits on the tablet’s bottom – to let you charge the Infinity while it’s in its laptop-like state.

The switch here “unlocks” the keyboard-tablet connection

Keyboard Quality
With a full Qwerty keyboard – minus the numerical pad – and a small trackpad, the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity offers a pretty similar typing experience to a teeny laptop or netbook. Just like the Prime before it, the keys are high-quality and offer a good, crisp action – if a little shallow. There is, predictably, no backlight.

The keyboard makes the Infinity a good replacement for an on-the-go laptop expected to perform basic productivity tasks. However, we’d stop short of recommending it as something to use in place of a full-size 15.6in or larger laptop. Its small size is generally a huge plus point, but to use at home for a mix of work and play, consider an Ultrabook.

Battery Life
The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity’s keyboard module features its own battery to just-about double the tablet’s stamina, but battery life from the tablet part alone is respectable. We left it playing a video on loop with wireless switched off and brightness set to 50 per cent and it lasted for almost dead on eight hours.

Attach the keyboard and this will be boosted to over 14 hours, making the Transformer once again a king of Android tablet stamina. However, it is slightly less than the original Prime managed, thanks to the demands of the additional screen pixels here.  The keyboard battery’s lot in life is to keep the main battery charged, and will start feeding it once attached, ensuring you’ll be able to disconnect and carry on using if you fancy, at any time.

Wireless Connectivity
At present, just the Wi-Fi only version of the Pad Infinity is available. There is a 3G version on the way, but it’ll cost a significant chunk more – and the Wi-Fi edition isn’t exactly cheap to start with.

Other than this, the tablet is well-specced in terms of wireless connectivity. The inbuilt Wi-Fi n offers Wi-Fi Direct, letting two compatible devices talk to each other without any actual internet connection. There’s also Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS, but no NFC. It’s not a terrible loss in a large tablet like this, but the next twelve months should see some interesting innovations within this standard.

NFC stands for Near Field Communication and will let you buy things on the high street with little more than a swipe of the device over a sensor. As such, it’s much better suited to smartphones – swiping a 26cm long tablet over a till is not going to look elegant.

Screen
The main upgrade the Infinity offers over the Prime is an improved screen. Resolution has been bumped up from 1,280 x 800 pixels to 1,920 x 1,200. With pixel density of 224dpi, it’s not quite as packed as the new iPad – which offers 263dpi – but the effect is much the same at normal viewing distances. Text and images look incredibly sharp, and you have to try very hard to see any signs of the underlying pixel structure – you need to push your eyeball right up against the glass front.

A number of tablets this year will offer this resolution, though, including the much cheaper Acer A700. What’s less common is the Super IPS panel type used in the Pad Infinity. Maximum brightness is quite incredible, and normal brightness levels are well down the brightness slider scale. There’s an automatic brightness setting on hand if you want the tablet to take care of business. It uses a sensor up by the user-facing camera to judge ambient light levels.

The “plus” of the IPS refers to a brightness-boosting mode designed for outdoors use – with super-shiny screen finishes tablets generally struggle with reflections when used out in the sun. Max out the brightness and flip on mode and you should have no problems. It’s only really designed for these situations, though, as it will naturally chomp away at the battery and reduces contrast a little.

Used in “normal” mode, contrast is excellent and colours are deep and vivid, but with a natural tone that’s superior to the often oversaturated tones of rival AMOLED displays. Tablet screens don’t get any better than this, yet.

Video
Such a wonderful screen should make the Transformer Pad Infinity the perfect portable movie theatre. The keyboard module comes in handy here too, letting you rest the tablet on your knees easily when on the train.

Inbuilt codec support is pretty respectable as well. Although Windows warned us that the files were not designed to work on the tablet, most of our video test files played back just fine using the integrated Gallery app, all apart from a fairly challenging 1080p x264 MKV sample – including DivX, Xvid and a number of MKVs.

Switching to a third-party video player app that supports software rendering we were able to play all our samples at full speed. The Tegra 3 T33 chip powering the Infinity has much more power on tap than the Tegra 2 of the original Transformer, which famously had trouble handling video files.

You will ideally want to download a separate media player, though, as there isn’t a proper video player app here beyond the Gallery – also home to photos.

Software and Performance
Gallery is a generic Android app, and for the most part Asus has let the Android OS be. The Transformer Pad Infinity runs Android Ice Cream Sandwich, with just a few tweaks and changes.

The icons on the nav bar are a little different, for one, and there are more controls on the pop-up Settings bar. Asus lets you pick between three power modes here – Power Saving, Balanced and Performance. These alter the behaviour of the CPU, making it work as hard as possible in the Performance mode. The Power Saving mode also seems to alter the screen contrast to reduce the rate of juice drain.  In our battery test, we kept the tablet on Balanced mode.

To test quite how marked the difference between the modes is, we tried a few benchmarks. In the Power Saving mode, the Infinity attained 5815 points in the AnTuTu benchmark, which rocketed up to 13597 in Performance mode. The difference is, in a word, massive. The lower score would be typical of a dual-core tablet, demonstrating the Tegra 3 processor’s impressive versatility. A run through the SunSpider Javascript bench resulted in a score of 2226ms using the stock browser (1380ms with Chrome), which is a way behind the new iPad but solid among Android devices.

There are clear compromises in using the lower settings in day-to-day use. Just flicking around the Android interface shows clear – and rather surprising – lag at times in Power Saving mode, which may be in part down to the sheer number of pixels the tablet has to render. Just over 2.2 million, if you’re wondering. Even in Performance mode, there’s a little jerkiness to screen transitions at times.

This should hopefully be alleviated once the Transformer Pad Infinity is upgraded to Android Jelly Bean 4.1, thanks to its more intensive use of processing power across the system. It should arrive within a few months of the tablet’s release.

Pre-installed Apps
Asus hasn’t as drastic changes to Android in the Transformer Pad Infinity as, say, Samsung has with its TouchWiz UI, but it does offer a handful of pre-installed apps. Most are not essentials.

App Backup lets you easily move apps to an SD card, App Locker lets you password protect some or all of your apps – a handy way to keep the kids out of things they shouldn’t be touching. Asus@Vibe is a half-hearted apps, books and music store from Asus. It seems a little pointless when Google Play is right by it on the apps menu.

Other preinstalled apps are more useful. MyCloud is an app that lets you access your Asus Cloud-stored files, and as a Transformer user Asus gives you 8GB of storage to play with.

MyNet is a neat-looking DLNA interface. DLNA uses a Wi-Fi connection to stream media between compatible devices. As there’s an HDMI video output on the tablet, there are other ways to get video piped out to a TV, but it’s good to have a wireless option on-hand.

Last, but perhaps the most useful of the lot, is Polaris Office. This has been used in Transformer tablets since the beginning of the series, and lets you create and edit Microsoft Office documents. As perhaps the best Android tablet for doing actual work on, an Office suite like this is a must-have.

Want more? The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity has full access to the Google Play app store and its hundreds of thousands of apps, and both the 32GB and 64GB editions have plenty of room for hundreds of the things.

However, as yet not a great many apps have been optimised for the “ultra resolution” screen.

Games
Due to the Tegra 3 processor used in the Pad Infinity, games support is relatively good. The tablet comes with the Tegra Zone games portal, which acts as a showcase for games optimised for Tegra 2 and Tegra 3 devices. It’s a hall of flashy 3D games, basically.  

There were 49 downloads available at the time of writing. Yes, it’s not an endless treasure trove of entertainment, but it is very useful as a way to circumvent all the garbage of the Google Play app store.

How good are Tegra 3-grade graphics? They’re impressive, comparing pretty well to the best the iPad has to offer – partly because pretty most of the Tegra Zone games are available on iPad too, and they represent some of the Apple tablet’s prettiest picks. When you’ve run out of Tegra 3 games, there are dozens – if not hundreds – of games worth checking out in the Google Play store.

Internal speaker
To add some drama to your games and movies, there’s an internal speaker, whose grille is drilled into the metal rear of the tablet. Firing away from you and with a mono driver rather than a stereo one, speakers are clearly not much of a priority, and it shows.

The sound is not ugly or distorted, but doesn’t go hugely loud and doesn’t have much warmth or low-end presence – a bit thin. Our tip is to use external speakers or headphones for a proper movie session.

Web Browsing
As it runs Android Ice Cream Sandwich rather than Jelly Bean, the Asus Pad Transformer Infinity comes with the stock Android web browser – Google switched to Chrome in the Jelly Bean edition os the OS. However, Asus has thoughtfully installed Chrome too for good measure. It’s another sign that Asus likes to cater for the enthusiast.

Chrome is the better of the two, with a more attractive interface and the ability to easily hook-up with the info stored in desktop versions of the browser. It’s also a lot faster, having thrashed stock Android in the Javascript SunSpider benchmark.

Cameras
As feature-complete as the Prime, the Asus Pad Transformer Infinity has two cameras, one in the centre of the plastic strip on the rear, and one a little off-centre in the front screen surround. Let’s start with the rear one.

It uses a 8MP sensor, and has an LED flash for low light photography. It’s also equipped with a good number of features. There’s touch focusing, manual ISO, a panorama mode and the usual selection of scenes, exposure compensation settings and white balance modes.

Video fares even better, including the fun face-distorting active effects that arrived alongside Ice Cream Sandwich. And unlike some tablets, the Pad Infinity can grab video at 1080p resolution.

Photos captured are a little noisy and look sharpened, but are surprisingly good for a tablet, when tablet cameras often appear to be little more than afterthoughts. Pick the right mode to shoot in and colours are pretty accurate and vivid, with a good amount of detail rendered. Well done, Asus.

Close-up performance isn’t great, though. The Infinity often struggles to focus on anything closer than 20-30cm away.

Although the front camera is rather more basic, it’s a good example too with solid motion handling and decent colour reproduction. It’s a 2MP sensor that can capture 480p video, and can also make use of the fun distortion effects of Android.

Value
Now that Asus has released its own low-cost model in the Transformer range, the Pad 300, the Infinity absolutely seems like an ultra-premium option. It costs £600, which is £200 more than the 32GB Pad 300.

Can the Infinity possibly be worth the extra? Well, you do get a fair bit for your money – a much higher-resolution screen, a metal bod and a faster processor. For the less picky, the 50 per cent price increase will be just too much. Even the previous top dog Transformer Prime is a full £120 less these days.

However, until the Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 reaches our shores, the Transformer troupe is the only bunch of keyboard-ed Android tablets we can wholeheartedly recommend.

Verdict

The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity is a fantastic Android tablet. It has tweaked the design of its predecessor the Prime, upped the clock speed and shot the screen’s pixel count into the stars. There’s very little to dislike about this tablet, even if it does trade in a few hours of battery life for its upgrades. The price is high but, for now at least, it justifies the premium.

How we test tablets

We test every tablet we review thoroughly. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly and we use the tablet as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.

Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.

Used as our main tablet for the review period

Reviewed using respected industry benchmarks

Ongoing real world testing

Tested with various games, apps and services

Score in detail

• Performance 8

• Value 8

• Design 9

• Screen Quality 10

• Features 9

• Battery Life 9

Other

Display

Pros

• Great Design
• Comfortable to hold
• Excellent Kindle Store integration
• Packed feature list

Cons

• Chunkier and heavier than rivals
• No EPUB support

Key Specifications

• Review Price: £109.00
• 6in E Ink screen
• 213g weight
• Whispernet book transfer
• 4GB internal memory
• Touchscreen with multitouch

The Kindle Touch is Amazon’s new flagship ereader, effectively taking over the spot of the keyboard Kindle. We say new, but it has been available in the US for some time. Has it been worth the wait? Yes it has, but unless you’ll actually use the additional features it offers, the cheaper non-touch Kindle is an excellent alternative.

Design
When the non-touch Kindle arrived last year, it set out its stall pretty clearly. It was the cheapest, thinnest, lightest Kindle model ever, boasting the same great E Ink reading experience in an extremely accessible package.

To drop the price and weight, it shed a load of features. MP3 playback, voice synthesis and the high-capacity battery went. But now they’re back in the Kindle Touch.

As a result, the Kindle Touch is significantly chunkier and weightier than the Kindle. It’s roughly 220g where its little brother is 166g, and the screen bezel sticks out from the paper-like screen more markedly.

Skipping between the two ereaders, you’re liable to ask the Touch whether it should think about laying off the carbs, but it is nevertheless wonderfully comfortable to hold. The extra weight doesn’t feel like an upgrade, but the more curvaceous body does. It sits happily in one hand, and its back uses the soft touch finish that’s become an easy-on-the-fingers staple of ereaders.

More important than the slightly chunky frame, the Kindle Touch has gotten rid of all front buttons bar an iPhone-like home button. It’s made up of four ridged bits of plastic, but is a singular control. This cutting back has let the front of the Kindle Touch keep extremely simple, making it arguably more of a looker than the cheaper Amazon ereader. Like Marilyn Monroe, it’s a bit chunky by today’s standards, but that doesn’t spoil its charms.

Built quality is – as ever in the Kindle range – excellent. A generous strip of dark grey metal covers the ereader’s edges and part of its back, while the main front and back panels are slightly lighter grey and plastic. Wondering why so much grey is involved? It helps to trick your eye into thinking the contrast of the E Ink screen is better than it actually is. Simple, but effective.

Connectivity
Other on-body features are decent by ereader standards. There are microUSB and 3.5mm headphone jack sockets on the bottom, alongside the power button. Although the Kindle is one of the more “closed” ereaders, relying primarily on its own ebook format, plugging it into a computer gives you easy access to its 4GB of internal memory. You can drag across an ebook library in minutes.

Internal memory is non-expandable, but 4GB is more than enough for most – hundreds of books will fit happily. If you’re desperate for a memory card slot, look to the Kobo eReader Touch or Sony PRS-T1.

The Kindle Touch does have one on-body feature they lack, though. On its back are two grills for the internal speaker. Also missing from the £89 Kindle, this lets you use the MP3 player and voice synthesiser functions without resorting to headphones. Predictably, though, its output is pretty quiet and lo-fi.

E Ink screen
Like every generation of Amazon’s Kindle ereader, the Kindle Touch uses an E Ink display. If you’ve used one before, its benefits will go without saying, but if not – E Ink offers a paper-like image that’s much easier on the eyes than LCD. It doesn’t use a backlight, instead relying on ambient light to keep text visible.

In direct sunlight, it’s a hundred times better than reading on something like an iPad, with virtually no screen reflection issues and superb clarity. In darkness, though, you won’t be able to see a single letter unless you use a light.

The Kindle Touch screen is 6in across and has a resolution of 600 x 800 pixels. In a direct comparison with the latest smartphone and tablet screens, this may sound woefully inadequate, but it’s like comparing apples to wicker furniture. An E Ink screen’s image is made up of microcapsules, either white or black, meaning it has none of the gappy look a similarly-specced LCD screen would have – where subpixels are surrounded by an expanse on black on (very) close inspection.

While reading, text looks fairly sharp and contrast isn’t too far off that of a printed page.

Touchscreen
This screen quality is nothing new, and is no upgrade over the £89 Kindle, but what you do get is a touchscreen. The Kindle Touch uses a multi-touch IR touchscreen, similar to that seen in the Sony PRS-T1. Teeny lasers are fired across the surface of the screen, and finger prods cut off their flow thereby letting the Kindle know where you’re pressing.

It’s accurate, quick and has no effect on the screen image, beyond making the screen bezel that little bit more substantial. The main function for the touchscreen is, of course, page turning.

The bezel is a little more raised than the non-touch version

A touch or a swipe works, and flicking through pages is roughly as quick as it is on the £89 Kindle. Due to the way E Ink works there’s a fraction of a second delay between turns, but unless you’re completely new to ereaders, it’s no turn-off.

By default, the Kindle Touch flushes its screen after every five page turns. This is where the screen flashes black in order to get rid of any afterimages left by previous pages of text. There’s also an option to make the screen refresh at every page turn, although some rivals like the Kobo eReader Touch give you much more control over the refresh cycle.

Using an IR touchscreen, it’s quite easy to turn pages accidentally – unlike a capacitive screen it’ll respond to any object big enough, rather than just conductive ones. However, we found that the chunky bezel made this less of an issue than in some touchscreen ereaders such as the Sony PRS-T1 and the capacitive-screened Bookeen Cybook Odyssey.

Pressing on a word brings up its OED definition, as well as options to highlight it, add a note, translate it into another language or search for it on Wikipedia. This is one aspect that benefits hugely from the touchscreen, making looking up words much quicker, taking you out of the “reading zone” much less than fiddling about with a D-pad does.

The touchscreen is also used to alter font size. A pinch gesture while reading lets you make fonts smaller and bigger on the fly, and resizing a book only takes a second or two. You are given some limited control over font style and spacing. While reading, you’re just a couple of taps away from the font menu, which offers three styles and three line spacing options.

Although we find this selection of options more than adequate, it is extremely limited compared to other big-name ereaders. Here you have eight font sizes and three fonts. The Kobo eReader Touch offers 24 sized and seven fonts. Would you want to use most of them? Probably not, but some people appreciate having the choice.

Interface
The Amazon approach to the Kindle Touch’s interface is identical to previous models. It tries to streamline your experience by keeping only the most central, most-often used features front and centre. The home screen is your book list, with just a thin nav bar up top. There are no book covers and no visible links to extra features like the MP3 player. It wants to get you reading as soon as possible.

The potential downside of this is that it can make the ereader slightly harder to get on with at first for those used to plain old main menus full of plain old options. For example, the web browser, MP3 player and the Text-to-speech options are all hidden away within the Experimental sub menu. Kindle veterans will know they’ve been snuck away in there for years (a long experiment, eh Amazon?) but others may get frustrated trying to find out how to do things.

As with self-consciously simple devices like this and Apple’s iPhone, though, once you learn to play its way, the Kindle Touch is blissful to use.

Amazon Kindle Store
There are two versions of the Kindle Touch, one with 3G and one without. Both have Wi-Fi, and simple, integrated access to Amazon’s Kindle Store book shop This is home to more than 1.2 million books, from the latest paperbacks by teenage vampire romance peddlers to cheap classics.

Relying on the Amazon infrastructure, the Kindle Store offers a better experience than any built into an ereader. Its interface is similar and familiar, borrowing its layout from the Amazon website, and you can easily order from a computer and have the book automatically sent over to your Kindle Touch using something Amazon calls. Whispernet. As simple as it sounds, you order online and the thing shows up on your Kindle automatically following an online sync.

The Kindle Store also offers a wealth of magazines and newspapers. Most UK broadsheets are now available, at around £10 a month, as are a bunch of magazines. However, the latter in particular fare better on iPad, often hampered by poor optimisation for Kindle and the lack of colour.  

Format support
A key limitation of the Kindle range is that it does not support EPUB, probably the most common format outside of the Kindle Store. If you’re planning on buying direct from Amazon, it’s nothing to worry about. Also, existing libraries can be reformatted to a suitable format easily enough and online resources like Project Gutenberg already cater for Kindles. So why is it still a biggie?

The issue is that in the UK, libraries now lend ebooks, and they do so using EPUB files loaded with DRM (digital rights management). Want to load books from libraries? Don’t buy a Kindle. Amazon has launched its own alternative, the Kindle Lending Library, for Amazon Prime members, but it’s not available in the UK at the time of writing.

The Kindle Touch can hack, TXT, MOBI, PRC, PDF and its native AZW (Kindle) format. The most notable of these is PDF, which ereaders often trip-up with.

Being able to navigate around PDFs using the touchscreen is an upgrade over the budget Kindle, but it’s still not perfect. Compared to the fairly slick Sony PRS-T1, zooming feels clumsy, limited to steps rather than giving you free rein, and re-rendering of the image is a little slow. If PDF-viewing is your main aim, you’re better off with the Sony rival.

Extra features and online functions
The Kindle Touch can do a few things the similarly-priced Sony can’t, though. Near the top of the list is text-to-speech conversion, which has been an “experimental” feature of the series since 2010.

This turns ebooks into audiobooks, using either a male or female synthesised American reader. It has that slightly “fake” sound, but is nevertheless a neat feature that lets you carry on “reading” while you’re on the move.

Audio playback is also in, after being culled from the £89 Kindle, which lacked both a headphone jack and internal speaker. We don’t imagine many will turn the 4GB ereader into their primary music source, the Kindle Touch does let you play music files while reading. It supports AAC, MP3 and WAV formats – hardly a wide array, but enough for the purpose.

The Kindle Touch doesn’t shout too loud about its bells and whistles, preferring to keep an impression of simplicity, but the more you dig, the more you find. New to the Touch is X-ray, which packs books with information from online sources Wikipedia and Shelfari. This only works with books optimised for the feature, but is likely to become standard from now.

The “Experimental” features menu

Alternatively, you can search for any word or phrase on Wikipedia manually, and even translate between nine languages. Social network integration is also built-in. The Kindle Touch lets you share your highlighted bits of books over Facebook and Twitter. It’s the perfect way to lose followers and alienate your Facebook friends…

Value
The Wi-Fi edition of the Kindle Touch costs £109, and the 3G version £169. A 70 per cent price increase may be a little hard to swallow for the upgrade, but for frequent travellers it’s absolutely worth it. Amazon promises a global 3G service, with no hidden costs to pay once you’ve bought the ereader. With a web browser on-board, it’s an extremely handy way to check your emails without incurring huge roaming costs, too, without considering being able to snag books wherever you are.

But what about value versus the opposition? This is a worthy £20 upgrade over the non-touch Kindle, boasting double the battery life at one month with a half-hour’s use a day, and if you don’t care about PDF reading or book loans, it’s a better all-rounder than the Sony PRS-T1.

Similarly, the Kobo eReader Touch is much cheaper and boasts a touchscreen, but isn’t as well-made. There are good reasons to go for alternatives – EPUB support, better PDF handling and physical page turn buttons at the top of the list – but as an all-round device this is the one to beat.

Verdict
The latest Kindle has gained weight and girth since getting the touchscreen treatment. But it has gained a lot more besides, too – MP3 playback, voice synthesis, and a much larger battery. It is a fantastic ereader, with ease of use benefits that’ll outweigh the flexibility bonuses on offer from other manufacturers. However, we’re not convinced touchscreen operation is better than good old buttons here, and the Kindle Touch doesn’t eclipse the cheaper model.     

How we test tablets

We test every tablet we review thoroughly. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly and we use the tablet as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.

Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.

Used as our main tablet for the review period

Reviewed using respected industry benchmarks

Ongoing real world testing

Tested with various games, apps and services

Score in detail

• Value 8

• Design 8

• Screen Quality 9

• Features 8

• Battery Life 9

Vorteile

• Toller IPS-Bildschirm
• Hervorragendes Tipperlebnis
• Flexibel, erweiterbar
• Hervorragende Konnektivität
• Erstaunliche Akkulaufzeit

Nachteile

• Chunky Monkey
• Schwache Lautsprecher
• Minderwertiges Touchpad

Schlüsselspezifikationen

• Bewertungspreis: 829,99 £
• 12,5-Zoll-IPS-Bildschirm mit 1.366 x 768
• Bis zu Core i7, 8 GB RAM und 160 GB SSD
• Robustes und langlebiges Gehäuse
• Vollständig konfigurierbar/aktualisierbar
• Optionales TPM, 3G

Bevor es Ultrabooks mit hochwertigen PLS-Bildschirmen wie das Samsung Series 9 900X3B gab, stellte Lenovo bereits eine ultraportable Option mit Premium-IPS-Display zur Verfügung: das 12-Zoll-ThinkPad X220. Wir haben die Convertible-Tablet-Inkarnation dieses Laptops – das ThinkPad X220t – letztes Jahr getestet und es hat sich sehr gut gehalten. Aber ohne die Tablet- und Wacom-Pen-Talente des X220t und mit leichteren, dünneren Ultrabooks in Hülle und Fülle, kann das reguläre X220 seinen Preis von über 800 £ noch rechtfertigen?

Nun, es gibt viel zu mögen. Das X220 ist kein dünnes und leichtes Ultrabook, sondern ein klobiges und einigermaßen robustes Gerät. Dies bedeutet jedoch, dass es in viel mehr Konnektivität und eine der schönsten Tastaturen aller Ultraportables passen kann. Sie erhalten auch andere Vorteile wie einen herausnehmbaren – und daher austauschbaren oder leicht austauschbaren – Akku und vollständig konfigurierbare Spezifikationen. Sogar kleine Details wie dedizierte Lautstärkeregler tragen zur Funktion über der Form bei.

In Bezug auf diese Spezifikationen können Sie ein X220 mit einem normalen alten TN-Bildschirm, einer Core i3-CPU, 2 GB RAM und einer 320-GB-Festplatte erhalten. Oder Sie gönnen sich ein Modell mit einem Quad-Core-Core-i7-Prozessor, satten 8 GB RAM, einer 160-GB-SSD, dem Premium-Display und allem Drum und Dran. Auf der Lenovo-Website können Sie es so konfigurieren, wie Sie es möchten, oder Sie können sich für eines der vormontierten Modelle von Drittanbietern entscheiden. Trotzdem bleibt das 12,5-Zoll-IPS-Display des X220 sein größter Trumpf gegenüber den meisten anderen Laptops, und da kein neues Modell eingeführt wurde und es immer noch fast keine Konkurrenz gibt, dachten wir, dass es sich lohnt, es sich anzusehen.

Wie bereits erwähnt, ist das Design des Lenovo X220 reines ThinkPad. Es ist kompromisslos kantig und mit dem erweiterten Akku unseres Testgeräts etwas mehr als 3 cm dick. Im Gegensatz zum Samsung Series 9 900X3B unter 13 mm können Sie mit diesem Laptop keinen Kuchen anschneiden, zumindest nicht, ohne eine echte Sauerei zu machen. Es ist mit 1,66 kg für unser Beispiel auch ziemlich kräftig – bedenken Sie jedoch erneut, dass dies mit dem Akku mit der höchsten Kapazität ist.

Obwohl es für ein 12-Zoll-Gerät nicht besonders dünn und leicht ist oder sogar aus Metall besteht, hat das Lenovo X220 die klassische ThinkPad-Verarbeitungsqualität. Es fühlt sich nicht nur unglaublich solide an, sondern die charakteristische halbweiche schwarze Oberfläche, die auf allen ThinkPads zu finden ist, sorgt dafür, dass es sich angenehm anfühlt und bietet hervorragenden Halt beim Tragen. Besonders Straßenkämpfer werden viel zu lieben finden.

Die Konnektivität ist unterdessen ausgezeichnet und für einen 12-Zoll-Laptop leicht an der Spitze der Klasse. Auf der linken Seite haben wir einen einzelnen USB 3.0-Anschluss, VGA und DisplayPort für analoges bzw. digitales Video, einen zweiten USB-Anschluss der langsameren USB 2.0-Variante und einen praktischen Wireless-Schalter. Was das X220 jedoch von der Masse abhebt, ist der 45-mm-ExpressCard-Steckplatz, der sich auch hier befindet und für alle Arten von Erweiterungen und Zubehör verwendet werden kann, z. B. zusätzliche eSATA- oder USB 3.0-Ports oder externe Grafikkarten.

Auf der rechten Seite befindet sich ein SDXC-Speicherkartenleser, ein USB 2.0 Always-On-Anschluss (zum Aufladen von USB-Geräten, wenn Ihr Laptop ausgeschaltet, aber angeschlossen ist), ein Gigabit-Ethernet-Anschluss und eine Kopfhörer-/Mikrofonbuchse. Es gibt auch die Abdeckung für einen 2,5-Zoll-Erweiterungsschacht, den Sie mit einem Laufwerk Ihrer Wahl ausstatten können.

Wi-Fi N und Bluetooth 3.0 sind Standard, während 3G eine Upgrade-Option ist, die Ihnen zusätzliche 90 £ einbringt. In Anbetracht seiner geschäftlichen Neigungen ist es keine Überraschung, dass eine HD-Webcam für dieses ThinkPad ebenfalls eine Option für 11 £ ist. Ebenso gibt es für Geschäftsanwender optionales TPM, eine Schiffsladung an Sicherheitsfunktionen und Software sowie einen Fingerabdruckscanner. Last but not least erweitern die optionalen Dockingstationen von Lenovo die Konnektivitätsmöglichkeiten noch weiter und bieten Luxus wie mehrere Videoausgänge, eSATA und mehr.

Bei einem ThinkPad ist es ziemlich sicher, dass die Tastatur fantastisch sein wird, und Lenovos X220 ist keine Ausnahme. Für diejenigen, die Chiclet-Tastaturen hassen, ist das X220 eine großartige Wahl, da zwischen den Tasten in voller Größe kein Platz verschwendet wird.

Das Layout ist ausgezeichnet mit dedizierten Tasten für alle Funktionen, die produktivitätsorientierte Schreibkräfte benötigen, einschließlich spezifischer Bild-auf- und Bild-ab-Tasten in der Nähe der Cursortasten. Die einzige Layout-Eigenart ist das alte ThinkPad-Schrecken, die Fn-Taste außerhalb von Strg zu platzieren, obwohl dies im BIOS “umgeschaltet” werden kann.

Was diese Tastaturen wirklich zu einer Klasse für sich macht, ist, dass die Tasten eine leicht konkave Form haben, die sich Ihren Fingerspitzen anpasst, und eine knackige Aktion, die an die alten IBM-Tastaturen erinnert (eine sehr gute Sache). Es gibt viel Federweg und eine positive, federnde Aktion mit einem definierten Klicken auf jede Taste. Wir würden gerne den ganzen Tag auf dem Lenovo ThinkPad X220 tippen.

Leider sind die tastenlosen Touchpads von Lenovo nicht so uneingeschränkt ein Erfolg. Obwohl es uns gut gefallen hat, als wir es zum ersten Mal auf dem ThinkPad X220t gesehen haben, lag das nur an den schrecklichen Beispielen, die es zuvor gegeben hatte. Jetzt, da Windows-Laptops endlich Apple mit den Mattglas-Pads wie der Samsung Series 9 anpassen, schneidet das Touchpad des X220 nicht ganz ab, zumal es dazu neigt, das Drücken seiner „Knöpfe“ mit einer Berührung zu verwechseln oder wischen Sie gelegentlich.

Zum Glück gibt es immer den traditionellen ThinkPad TrackPoint, auf den man zurückgreifen kann. Dieser Miniatur-Joystick ist ein winziger roter Gummiknopf, der sich in die Tastatur schmiegt. Er ist ein wenig gewöhnungsbedürftig, aber wenn Sie einmal fertig sind, ist er gut zu bedienen und verfügt über drei eigene physische Tasten.

Sein Bildschirm ist zweifellos der interessanteste Teil des Lenovo ThinkPad X220, zumindest wenn Sie sich für die Premium-Option entscheiden, die Ihnen ein IPS- statt eines TN-Panels einbringt – und für nur 33 £ müssen Sie schon schwärmen … Ja, nun, Sie sollten wirklich für das Upgrade gehen. Abgesehen von der Panel-Technologie und der schönen matten Oberfläche hat das 12,5-Zoll-Display eine Auflösung von 1.366 x 768. Manche finden das vielleicht etwas wenig, aber ehrlich gesagt ist mehr auf einem so kleinen Bildschirm nicht wirklich nötig.

Das Beste am IPS-Panel ist natürlich, dass die Betrachtungswinkel so gut sind wie bei LCDs, mit nur der geringsten Spur von Kontrast oder Farbverschiebung bei extremen Winkeln – obwohl die Kontrastverschiebung speziell in der Vertikalen etwas stärker ausgeprägt ist, als wir normalerweise finden mit IPS. Auch die Helligkeit leidet nicht unter der halbmatten Oberfläche, mit Farben, die wirklich knallen. Obwohl es sich um genau das gleiche Panel handelt, das im ThinkPad X220t verwendet wird, lässt die unterschiedliche Oberfläche (vielleicht aufgrund des Fehlens von Touch und Digitizer) alles etwas lebendiger aussehen.

Dunkle Details sind gut, selbst die subtilsten Schattierungen sind gerade noch sichtbar, sodass Sie in dunklen Filmen und Spielen nichts von der Action verpassen. Die Hintergrundbeleuchtung ist ebenfalls schön gleichmäßig, mit nur einem kaum wahrnehmbaren Hauch von Blutung von der Unterseite der Lünette. Es genügt zu sagen, dass der Bildschirm einfach schön ist und bei Ultraportables nur von dem der Samsung Series 9 übertroffen wird.

Leider lässt uns Audio zu wünschen übrig, insbesondere in der Lautstärkeabteilung. Die Lautsprecher des X220 hätten Probleme, eine Bürozelle zu füllen, obwohl zumindest das, was da ist, klar und detailliert ist, wenn Sie es hören können.

Die Leistung auf dem ThinkPad X220 ist deutlich besser als auf den meisten Ultraportables, oder zumindest kann es sein, wenn Sie die maximale Spezifikation erhalten. Unser Testgerät ist mit einem Dual-Core Intel Core i7 2620M ausgestattet, der standardmäßig mit schnellen 2,7 GHz läuft, aber bis zu 3,4 GHz turbotakten kann. Dieser Prozessor erledigt Ihre täglichen Arbeitslasten mit Freude, und selbst intensivere Kost wie HD-Videocodierung ist kein Problem.

Es wird von 4 GB RAM unterstützt, die, wie bereits erwähnt, auf 8 GB aufrüstbar sind. Lenovo bietet auch die Wahl zwischen einer langsamen 320-GB-Festplatte mit 5.400 U/min oder einer Auswahl von zwei SSDs: eine ein generisches 128-GB-Modell, die andere ein 160-GB-Intel-Laufwerk. Obwohl unser Testmuster mit Intel ausgestattet war, zahlen Sie über 100 £ für den garantierten Markennamen und zusätzliche 30 GB, was sich wirklich nicht lohnt. Sogar £ 267 für das Upgrade von einer Festplatte auf die 128-GB-SSD-Option scheinen lächerlich hoch, aber Sie können stattdessen immer Ihre eigene hinzufügen.

Gaming ist natürlich ein Schwachpunkt des X220, dank der Verwendung von Intels integrierter HD3000-Grafik. Obwohl es in TrackMania Nations Forever einen reibungslosen Durchschnitt von 59,4 fps schaffte, ist das ein älteres Spiel, und die Einstellungen waren mit 1.280 x 720 und mittleren Details moderat. Bei gleichen Einstellungen erreichte der anspruchsvollere Stalker Diashow-ähnliche 10,4 fps. Immerhin blieb Lenovos Premium-Laptop während unseres gesamten Tests kühl und leise.

Die Akkulaufzeit des optionalen erweiterten 9-Zellen-Akkus mit 7.740 mAh in unserem X220-Modell ist erstaunlich gut und schafft es, dieses ultraportable ThinkPad acht Stunden und 40 Minuten lang mit Strom zu versorgen, allerdings bei einer Bildschirmhelligkeit von 40 Prozent und ausgeschalteten drahtlosen Funkgeräten.

Das sichert sich leicht einen Platz an der Spitze der Langlebigkeitsklasse für unterwegs, und obwohl der Akku auf der Rückseite herausragt, bietet dies tatsächlich einen praktischen Griff, um das ThinkPad herumzutragen. Oh, und wenn Ihnen fast neun Stunden nicht ausreichen, ist auch ein optionaler Akku-Slice erhältlich.

Als letztes kommen wir zum Wert, und – wenn Sie mit dem Design des ThinkPad zufrieden sind – dies ist der einzige Bereich, in dem das X220 nicht sofort ein Erfolg ist. Der Preis beginnt bei sehr vernünftigen 829 £, aber das ist mit einem Core i3, 2 GB RAM, einer 320-GB-Festplatte und keiner der Premium-Optionen.

Unser Core i7-Testgerät mit 160-GB-SSD kostet satte 1.550 £, und das immer noch ohne HD-Webcam. Wenn Sie mit den Upgrades jedoch konservativer sind, können Sie einen Core i5 mit 4 GB RAM, einer 128-GB-SSD, dem Premium-IPS-Bildschirm und einem erweiterten Akku – mit allen wichtigen Highlights, die das X220 zu bieten hat – für 1180 £ erwerben .

Wenn Sie nach einem ultraportablen Gerät suchen und Geld übrig haben, gibt es derzeit zwei Hauptmöglichkeiten. Wenn Sie das eleganteste, sagen wir mal sexyste Ultraportable wollen, ist das 13-Zoll-Samsung Series 9 900X3B genau das Richtige für Sie. Es ist dünner und leichter als alles andere auf dem Markt, hat ein schönes Metallgehäuse und erstklassige Details wie eine Tastatur-Hintergrundbeleuchtung, hat gute Lautsprecher und vor allem einen wunderschönen 13,3-Zoll-Bildschirm mit einer Auflösung von 1.600 x 900 PLS, der einfach unübertroffen ist. Auf der anderen Seite ist es nicht ohne Einschränkungen, einschließlich eingeschränkter Konnektivität und durchschnittlicher Akkulaufzeit.

Wenn Sie Funktion der Form vorziehen und mit seinen klobigen Abmessungen leben können, ist das X220 eine großartige Alternative. Es ist unglaublich flexibel, vollständig aufrüstbar (einschließlich der Seltenheit von integriertem 3G), vollgestopft mit Anschlüssen, verfügt über das zweitbeste Display, das wir auf einem Ultraportable gesehen haben, und bietet das beste Tipperlebnis (obwohl es keine Tastaturhintergrundbeleuchtung hat) und mit erweitert Der Akku hält locker durch den Arbeitstag und darüber hinaus.

Urteil

Es ist vielleicht nicht elegant und sexy, aber das 12-Zoll-Laptop Lenovo ThinkPad X220 hat es, wo es darauf ankommt: ein robustes Gehäuse, eine erstaunliche Tastatur, vollständig flexible und aufrüstbare Spezifikationen einschließlich 3G, ein großartiger IPS-Bildschirm und – das i-Tüpfelchen – eine erstaunliche Akkulaufzeit . Wenn Sie mit seinen klobigen Abmessungen leben können, ein anpassbares Ultraportable benötigen und sich seinen geforderten Preis leisten können, ist das X220 immer noch eines der besten kleinen Laptops auf dem Markt.

Wie wir Laptops testen

Im Gegensatz zu anderen Websites testen wir jeden Laptop, den wir überprüfen, gründlich über einen längeren Zeitraum. Wir verwenden branchenübliche Tests, um Funktionen richtig zu vergleichen. Wir werden Ihnen immer sagen, was wir finden. Wir akzeptieren niemals Geld, um ein Produkt zu bewerten.

Erfahren Sie in unserer Ethikrichtlinie mehr darüber, wie wir testen.

Wird im Berichtszeitraum als unser Haupt-Laptop verwendet

Mindestens eine Woche getestet

Konsistente Benchmarks für faire Vergleiche mit anderen Laptops verwendet

Überprüft anhand anerkannter Branchen-Benchmarks und realer Nutzung

Punkte im Detail

• Leistung 8

• Gestaltung 8

• Bildschirmqualität 9

• Wert 8

• Funktionen 10

• Akkulaufzeit 9

Pros

• Picture quality of downloads is good
• More content and channels available than you might expect
• The service is available at no extra cost to Sky subscribers

Cons

• Presentation is cumbersome
• Programme catch-up service is inconsistent
• True on-demand content not available in HD

Key Specifications

• Mix of HD and standard def content
• Both pre-loaded and true ‘on-demand’ content
• Files download to HDD for viewing
• Content available depends on Sky sub
• Watch on-demand content while it’s still downloading

As of 21 March, Sky has finally opened up its Anytime+ on-demand service to all of its subscribers with HD receiver boxes. And frankly it’s about ruddy time.

Prior to that red letter day, the Sky Anytime+ service, with its extensive catch up functionality, was only available to Sky TV subscribers who were signed up to Sky’s broadband package. Even back in 2010 when the Anytime service first launched this situation seemed blatantly unfair; why should one Sky subscriber be able to get this extensive value-added service FREE so long as they changed their broadband to Sky, while other Sky subscribers paying the same subscription fees but using other broadband platforms weren’t able to get it?

Sky’s suggestion was that it had to be this way so that they could have complete control over the delivery of the service in its formative period. But it’s also hard not to think that Anytime was being used as a rather grimy marketing ploy to try and ramp up subscribers to the Sky broadband service.

Whatever the truth of the matter, though, the ironic thing has been that the longer Sky stuck to its ‘Anytime+ for Sky broadband users only’ policy, the more it’s seemed to us as if the policy has been hurting Sky rather than helping it. For while Anytime+ was ahead of the game in on-demand TV terms, but it quickly had the wind taken out of its sails by the growth of on-demand TV services from other sources – especially Smart TV platforms and, of course, Virgin’s TiVo receiver for cable subscribers. And with Anytime+ such a closed shop, many people have instinctively turned to these rival options for their rapidly growing on-demand needs.

Sky has certainly offered innovation elsewhere since 2010, especially with its rather brilliant Sky Go service. But nonetheless, for at least the past year, Sky not giving the majority of its subscribers a ‘proper’ on-demand service on even its most recent 1TB Sky HD receiver has started to really hurt the platform’s appeal – as well as its reputation as a technology innovator.

The arrival of Sky Anytime to ALL Sky subscribers with a Sky HD receiver and ANY broadband contract is long overdue. But is the service as it stands today really worth networking your Sky receiver for?

First, it’s pleasing to discover that the process for ‘converting’ your HD receiver to Anytime isn’t at all difficult. A quick phone call to Sky or visit to Sky’s website is all it takes yourself for the service, and aside from that all you have to do is connect your receiver to your broadband router via an Ethernet port or optional (£60) Sky Wireless Connector.

If even the above procedures have you shaking in your boots, fear not: for £40 a Sky engineer can be sent out to set things up for you, using a wired connection.

Having followed the above procedures and rebooted our Sky HD receiver for good measure, we were rather surprised not to find the Anytime service being shouted about by anything on the Sky Planner menu. There’s just the same Anytime menu entry as before.

The change when you select the Anytime option, though, is immediately obvious. For in place of the simple text lists of programmes Sky had previously ‘sent’ to the old Anytime section of your box’s memory in the hope you might want to watch them, you’re now greeted by five flashly presented ‘showcase’ programmes, accompanied by swish HD stills from the content they contain. You can scroll across the ‘Showcase’ list, with just over 30 titles available in this initial section at the time of writing.

Some of the programmes in this showcase are actually already installed to hard disk as part of the traditional Anytime service. But many others are truly ‘on-demand’; which is to say they’re stored on Sky’s servers, and have to be downloaded to your receiver when you want to watch them.

It’s worth noting here that some of the programmes available in Anytime are in HD. But these programmes are only those that were already uploaded to your box as part of the normal Anytime service. On-demand content to be streamed to your box is only available in standard definition. More on this later.

Just above the main list of programmes on the Sky Anytime+ screen are sub-category headers to help you find something you want to watch more easily. The categories on offer are: Sky Store, Movies, Entertainment, Docs, Kids, Sports, All, and Channels. And within each of these sub-categories you tend to get similar sets of sub-folders to delve into, usually based around All, Most Popular, Recently Added, Last Chance, and various genre definitions.

Not surprisingly, the free on-demand content available in these sections is largely dependent on the level of subscription you have. For instance, if you’re not a subscriber to Sky Movies, you won’t be able to access films on demand from the Sky Movies library. However, the Store section of Anytime lets all Sky customers with a Sky HD box choose from thousands of titles available to rent. Rental prices range between £1.49 and £2.00, the films take in anything from the latest blockbusters to smaller indie movies and back catalogue titles.

For us, the highlights of the Anytime proposition were the Entertainment, Docs and Sports sections. The Entertainment section, for instance, provides the facility to catch up with previous episodes of some quite high-profile programmes, such as Hawaii Five-O, Touch, Luck, Grey’s Anatomy, and Mad Men.

Some of these programmes have the past few episodes available to watch, some have just the most recently shown episode available to watch, and in a few cases you can even access an entire series.

This inconsistency in terms of how far back the on-demand episode lists go for different channels and programmes is potentially a bit annoying. But then it’s difficult to blame Sky for this situation; after all, different content providers have different rules about how far back they want ‘catch up’ services to go, and it’s actually fairly standard practice in the catch up TV world to only have a single episode of a series available on catch up at any one time.

So you could argue that having more than one episode of any series in the Entertainment section is a bonus. And by that reckoning, having full season collections of some series, such as An Idiot Abroad and Boardwalk Empire, could be considered a major result.

The problem is, once you have found some series available as full on-demand ‘boxsets’ or with a few catch up episodes, you can’t help but expect the same level of provision for every show – no matter how unreasonable such expectations might be.

As a perfect example of this, it’s hard not to feel annoyed that the full first series of Game of Thrones isn’t available to watch on Anytime+ ahead of the second series starting. But of course, the reality of this particular situation is that with Game of Thrones Season 1 recently launched on Blu-ray, HBO was almost certainly never going to give Sky the rights to make the first season available for free on Anytime+. At least for now. Once you give people a taste of something like Anytime+ does, though, it’s just human nature for those people to want more.

However, while issues over on-demand rights to different series will repeatedly cause disappointments for some viewers when they can’t find their favourite programmes available on catch-up, the reality is that the overall amount of content available on Sky Anytime+ is actually pretty high.

This is down in no small part to the high number of channels on-board the Anytime+ system. Look under the Channels banner and you’ll find the following list of on-demand participants: ITV Player, Sky1, Sky Living, Sly Atlantic, Watch, Gold, Dave, Comedy Central, FX, Challenge, MTV, alibi, Sky Arts 1 & 2, Home, bio, Discovery Real Time, Home and Health, Good Food, Sky Movies, Sky Sports, Sky Sports F1, ESPN Classic, Sky News, The Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Wild, History, Military History, Crime and Investigation Network, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, Disney XD, The Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Nick Jr, and Cartoonito. Oh, and the BBC iPlayer is also due to arrive on Anytime+ before the end of the year. Phew.

The amount of content available is arguably greater than the current Anytime+ interface is capable of comfortably handling. There’s certainly a persistent sense that the current presentation format for the Anytime+ listings doesn’t handle the amounts of content particularly effectively, making it a bit of a chore to track down programmes that might not be featured on either the Showcase or Most Popular categories.

To be fair, it’s not especially easy to see how Sky could change the
presentation radically while remaining within the established structure
of its current electronic programme guide. But maybe it’s time for this
while EPG to undergo a revamp? Also, we couldn’t help but think it would be hugely helpful if the Anytime+ content could be added to Sky’s excellent Sky listings app, as this would make finding desired content much easier.

When it comes to actually watching Sky Anytime+ on-demand programming, it’s good to discover that Sky doesn’t insist on making you wait for an entire programme to download into your box’s memory before you can start watching. As soon as you have enough downloaded to support uninterrupted viewing while the rest of the programme downloads in the background, the ‘play’ icon becomes available and you can start viewing.

This ‘viewing point’ is generally reached within just a few seconds of a download starting, even using our bog-standard 6Mbps BT Internet connection.

In terms of file size, this clearly differs radically depending on the running length of what you’re downloading. But as a basic guide, a 90 minute standard def documentary came in at 1.14GB. And you will be pleased to know that none of the on-demand content contains any adverts.

When it comes to the image quality of downloaded material, actually, while it’s a little variable, for the most part it’s not bad at all. Obviously the HD fodder pre-loaded via the standard Anytime+ service looks pretty much pristine. But the standard definition on-demand material also looks less compressed than we’d expected too. There are signs of compression, but they’re generally cleverly hidden away in dark areas or background areas of picture that you’re not really focusing on.

Of course, the quality of on-demand image Sky can deliver is probably helped by the fact that it downloads programmes to hard disk for playback, and so can risk/cope with less compressed data streams than services which have to stream video for viewing completely live.

That the on-demand stuff on Anytime+ is stored to HDD (downloaded programmes appear in your main Planner alongside ‘normal’ recordings made through the EPG) is also beneficial because it means you can watch the download when you like – and pause and restart it when you like.

Given that Sky’s on-demand approach doesn’t require your broadband connection to handle live streaming, though, it’s perhaps a pity that Sky doesn’t provide you with at least the option to download HD versions of its film and TV series if they’re available. Also, none of the standard def downloads appear to ship with Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks when maybe that too could be provided as an option for enthusiasts patient enough to wait for a longer download.

Sky might argue here that it doesn’t have much of a choice where HD and Dolby Digital audio are concerned. After all, there are still some HD receivers out there with pretty puny amounts of memory built-in, and these could quickly completely run out of recording menu if they suddenly find themselves downloading large amounts of on-demand HD content. But for us, at least having the option to downloaded HD versions of suitable programmes would have been appreciated.

As we draw to the end of this review, it occurs to us that you might be thinking that when you already have 200 channels of TV to watch on Sky as it is, it surely isn’t necessary for Sky to add a bounty of on-demand services. But our personal experience is actually that the sheer amount of TV stuff to try and keep up with on Sky means we routinely miss shows. In fact, the lack of any on-demand catch up service on Sky has been a source of irritation for longer than we can remember. So actually Anytime feels like a modern necessity rather than a rarely used luxury.

Verdict
There’s no doubt that Anytime+ has its faults. It should have been made available to all Sky HD box owners regardless of broadband provider a long time ago. Its interface doesn’t do a great job of streamlining the quest for on-demand content. And the rather hit and miss nature of what’s available to watch will inevitably cause irritation from time to time.

But if our experience is anything to go by, for all its flaws Sky Anytime+ overall delivers one of the better-quality on-demand services around, and has enough content available on it to quickly become a big part of your viewing life.

Let’s not forget, either, that if you’re already a Sky subscriber with a Sky HD receiver, Sky Anytime+ is actually free. And the hefty sums you have to stump up for your Sky subscription each month certainly feel substantially easier to live with once they’re also bagging you the Anytime+ service.

Basically, while we’re not sure the new, ‘universal’ availability of Anytime+ will necessarily lure in millions more subscribers to Sky’s platform, it’s an undeniable fact that if you’re already a Sky user with a Sky HD box and broadband connection and you haven’t yet availed yourself of Anytime , then, well, you’re a bit daft, frankly.

Score in detail

• Value 9

• Features 8

• Performance 9

• Design 7

advantages

• Spectacular hack and slash action
• A more approachable Ninja Gaiden
• Fun co-op mode

disadvantage

• Not enough challenge or variety
• Button mashing battle
• Nonsensical story

Available for Xbox 360, PS3 (verified)
You used to know where you were with Ninja Gaiden. A crazy ninja-style hack-and-slash epic awaits you in Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden 2, with some acrobatic platforms, copious amounts of blood splattering everywhere, a slightly incoherent storyline, some vicious bosses and – vitally – one of the most challenging combat systems ever seen in a mainstream action game.

Ninja Gaiden was happy to humiliate his fans. Casual gamers found the initial Ninja Gaiden virtually impossible, and while the Sigma update for PS3 introduced a somewhat ‘easy’ mode, it only did so after telling you exactly how pathetic you found it. On the one hand, the level of difficulty has put many players off, on the other hand, it’s what the fan base is now expecting.

For them, Ninja Gaiden 3 will be a terrible disappointment. With their infamous leader, Tomonobu Itagaki, the series developer, Team Ninja made a firm decision to expand the appeal. The result is a game with simplified combat mechanics, a weapon set containing only swords and throwing knives (not the sickles, scythes, shuriken, claws, and tonfa sticks of previous outings), and a whole load of quick-time events. If the old-school Ninja Gaiden was all about precision, timing, and expert blocking and dodging before unleashing a vicious attack, then the new Ninja Gaiden is, frankly, a bit of a button press.

Since most encounters involve swarms of enemies attacking from all sides, and auto-aim that doesn’t leave much room for real strategy, the biggest decision you’ll have to make most of the time is whether to hit your enemy with the triangle button (or Y) or the square button (or X).

If you’re not an existing fan, this isn’t as much of a disaster as the series’ hardcore fans would have you believe. Combat in Ninja Gaiden 3 still has a comfortable rhythm, and while you rarely feel like you’re in full control, the bloodletting is nothing if not spectacular. While Ninja Gaiden II’s limb slamming and decapitation seem to have been cut down, there’s still some mind-boggling kill-bill-style hack-and-slashery, and when you throw in dash moves and jumps, then there’s something fairly satisfying to send the ninja hero Ryu Hayabusa on his deadly deals.

And if you just want an exciting ride, then Ninja Gaiden 3
has its moments. The boss fights a massive spider tank, a wriggling,
mask-wielding madman, an attack helicopter and a giant cyber dinosaur
well directed and entertaining, and it’s possible to forgive an over-reliance on it
Quick-time events when the on-screen effects are that horrifying or impressive. the
Graphics have their downsides as many characters are under an outdated,
Plastic in appearance, but the rich scenery and scope of the spectacle more than make up for it
high. As much as die-hard Ninja Gaiden fans might not want to hear, Ninja Gaiden 3
can be a fun game – as long as you’re willing to enjoy it in miniature
cans.

You see, the problem is that there aren’t very many
variety here. The lack of alternative weapons doesn’t help, and neither does it
Fact that the number of Ryu’s special attacks was reduced to two: one big
Dragon attack that cleans and heals the area and one that sees you cocking
some high damage attacks together for a limited time. There isn’t enough
different types of enemies that require different types of strategies, and if more
difficult enemies appear, like the creepy robed wizards and gunman
Mutants that appear mid-game are more annoying than
actually challenging.

In the end Ninja Gaiden 3 is a bit of a one trick pony and
The only sure way it knows how to make things harder is to overwhelm you with it
Masses of enemies, some of which are equipped with ranged weapons or increase their toughness
Enemies to give them a greater chance to wear you down. The combat system is one
Problem, but what’s really holding Ninja Gaiden 3 back is that after God of War and
Bayonetta, it just isn’t inventive enough. Team Ninja really should have done it
also something about the vocal samples during the fight. As soon as you “Get
ready for the main course”, “Goddamn that Ninja” and some other variations
a thousand times, it’s really starting to get on my nerves.

The plot, meanwhile, is the worst of all Ninja Gaiden
nonetheless – a challenge if that of the second game was so incoherent that you ended
just trying to ignore the plot. It’s obviously meant to explore the darkness
side of the ninja lifestyle and what it means to be a guy who kills
20 people before breakfast, but it’s terribly clumsy and uninteresting with numerous
stupid twists and actors like a little wordless orphan who you will fight with
don’t care about anything.

If you enjoy the game, you might be able to squeeze out a little more lives
bolstered by a decent co-op challenge mode that balances some cameras
Issues with some cruel ninja laughs. PS3 owners also get Move support,
However, as it is difficult to set up and impractical in practice, it is
questionable whether this is an advantage at all.

verdict

Ninja Gaiden 3 is doing its best to reach a wider audience
alienate the existing fans of the series and prove too repetitive and
frustrating to acquire many new ones. It
is more accessible and there’s enough hack-and-slash extravaganza to keep you entertained
bite-sized chunks, but the latest Ninja Gaiden is far from the best.