Tech Gear Guy

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I think it’s no secret that I am a V-moda fanboy. What’s there not to like? They provide great performance generally and great value to boot if you search hard enough. Well they have done it again and here’s their newest creation, over-ear / over-head headphones. So far, their offerings have been various flavors of earbuds and earbud/mic hybrid that are often used for iPhones and Blackberries alike.

As you would find out from my review video, even the packaging is hot. After cutting through a red ribbon to “ceremoniously” unbox the ‘phones, you get to see a nicely packaged yet hip product inside. V-moda provides you with a straight-up 3.5mm stereo cable as well as 3.5mm hybrid mic/headphone cable for using with iPhone etc. Along with a carabiner clip rounds out the package inside a carry case made out of very tactile material which is great to carry the ‘phones around with. Nice shiny metal chrome look coupled with their new(?) dual 50mm driver, these headphone pack a nice punch.

Headphones are such personal item like I stated before. What may suit me great may not be perfect for the next guy. These headphones provide thumping bass, tight mid-range, and crisp highs. Worn over extended period of time, they do not weigh on you and very comfortable. Extra length cable also gives you great flexibility and mobility as well.

All in all, V-moda’s crossfade LP is an exciting addition to their line and I feel that they have outdone themselves with these new headphones. While I am not entirely certain about its price, and how that matches up against other boutique headphones in the market today, I certainly enjoy using these headphones while just browsing through my iTunes library or to monitor myself jamming on guitar.

Popularity: 17% [?]

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Here’s an entry level laptop from Lenovo and not bearing a ThinkPad or IdeaPad moniker. While it’s not wearing one of those tags, it still shows solid build quality from Lenovo. I do have to mention that the G550 sports a “cheaper feeling” plastic material than what we are familiar with from ThinkPads.

The top lid has textured cover while the bottom has well laid out access panels for accessing internal matters for easy upgrades etc. Available ports are well laid out for ease of use. I especially love a HDMI port which makes this laptop easy to use for connecting to high-def displays for media consumption. The glossy 15.6inch screen is bright and crisp even on all 4 corners. Sporting such a large screen only means one thing, and that is how large this laptop is overall. See attached YouTube video of my comparison between the G550 and T400 in terms of size.

The laptop resulted in 2542 Geekbench index which is not bad for a laptop at this price point.

Those who do not wish to shell out serious money or simply looking into a 2nd laptop as a beater, this machine fills that void nicely without sacrificing too much of performance. Well that is as long as you don’t mind the sheer size.

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Popularity: 16% [?]

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I can’t think of another tech gadget or day to day item that you rely on that is more personal than a pair of headphones.  They go deep inside your ear canals and that appears pretty personal to me when something gets wedged into my body part, you know?  Coupled that with different people having different preferences on how audio quality is interpreted, one must look hard to find a headset that he or she find to be “perfect”.

I have been a loyal fan of V-moda headphones for a while now.  Their ‘phones usually have a heavy emphasis on bass frequency and that appears to be somewhat controversial.  While some may perceive this as too “bassy”, I feel that it’s just what is necessary on headphones such as these usually equipped with tiny drivers inside.  Headphones such as these have difficult time accurately reproducing the entire frequency because it’s just not easy to do so with tiny drivers as mentioned earlier.  V-moda however has been able to facilitate nice bottom-end to their headphones and that suits my listening requirement.

While it’s not perfect and you can certainly buy a pair that may be perceived better, it is hard to argue these ‘phones provide good looks, cleary better than average reproduction of audio at very reasonable price point.

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Popularity: 14% [?]

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Over the years I have grown to dislike a lot of things from Dell for subpar equipment, horrible service, and run-of-the-mill design just to name a few.  To me Dell is like Honda.  It works, doesn’t suck, but isn’t the greatest at anything.

However, this recent entry from Dell caught my eyes with some shock value.

Some time ago last year, they came out with Adamo which was beautiful to look at and it rivaled MacBook Air in terms of how thin it was.  Well the problem with that was that it was prohibitively  expensive.  The Vostro V13 I review here is basically a poor man’s Adamo.  It is absolutely thin, has all the elegance of more expensive Adamo, and is pleasant to use.

Its aluminum chassis feels solid when held.  It is obviously light and my shoulders thank me whenever we go out together.  The screen isn’t glossy or matte, but for what it’s worth, bright enough to do the job.  Keyboard is ever-so-mushy but not a deal breaker.  Its Geekbench number of 1590 isn’t going to light anything on fire but is no issue working day-to-day.

Battery life does leave a little room for improvement where it clocks just hair under 3 hours when everything is lit.  There is no way to really elegantly open it up to replace the hard drive or RAM.  Anyone know otherwise?  Let me know!  However, I do feel a bit more comfortable with its eSATA port, SD card slot, and ExpressCard slot.  While it’s understandable to lose some bells and whistles for the sake of portability, the sacrifice doesn’t seem overly bad.

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Popularity: 31% [?]

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This post may or may not read a lot like my review of Lenovo ThinkPad T400.  At least when I refer to its legendary status in today’s corporate computing anyway…

As previously mentioned, The T series ThinkPads have been one of the most popular choice for IT managers worldwide for decades.  However, Lenovo’s attempt to freshen up the series is quite evident in this new model T410 which was released just hours before CES earlier this year.  Gone are the rubbery tactile lid top and top side magnesium roll cage.  WHAT?  No Magnesium roll cage?  Relax…  Not that I would risk dropping this laptop to test how sturdy it is, the unit’s build quality is solid as ever.  I’m not sure whether the visual illusion comes into play or not, but the symmetrical hinges appear to be strong as well.  Up until T400, the T series always used a bigger hinge on left and a smaller hinge on right.

But the real beauty of this new laptop is that you can configure it with up to Core i7 CPU.  This particular laptop registered 4900 in GeekBench benchmark test without any special tweaks and adjustments.  Paired up with 4Gb of DDR3 RAM, this laptop just quietly sits down and handles it all with flying color.  Does it have Vera Wang design lid?  No.  Does it have flames and neon lights on the outside?  No.  It looks all business and it handles all business as it is meant to do.

This reviewer made a mistake ordering Lenovo Port Replicator model 25o4 thinking it would use the same damn dock that T400 uses, but I was corrected the moment I tried to set it down on a dock.  Epic Fail.  The T410 uses Lenovo’s Mini Dock 3 series stuff and will not share its power adapter or a dock with T400.  (T400 uses 65w while T410 comes with 90w adapter)

Trackpad buttons are bigger and the pad itself is larger and somewhat better to use.  It sports a new trackpad that has tactile feedback rather than gliding your fingers on a smooth surface.  Inclusion of a display port is nice and many of familiar ports from old T series have been moved to different spots on the chassis.

All in all, there isn’t much to complain about this model as it is a yet another solid T series laptop from Lenovo.  It is deceptively thicker than what Lenovo’s website shows you and it is exact same dimension as the ol’ T400.  In a way you may feel the T400 could be lighter because the front part is more “wedged” creating a thinner profile.  T410 is more even in terms of thickness front and back.

This reviewer is anxiously waiting for more units to be available to get a few more in.

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Popularity: 100% [?]

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Some time in recent past, All in One computers started to be popular with public.  One can’t ignore venerable sector leader, iMac, in this group.

Whether the Vaio All in One was Sony’s intent to compete against Apple isn’t something I know for sure to comment.  When it comes to design, Sony falls far below the standard setting iMac.  The TV like design wreaks design from Sony’s designs from the ’80’s.  The unit does have most of necessities in SD card slot, HDMI port, a vibrant display, a fast CPU and plenty of RAM.

But this computer is crippled by Vista along with its horrible old school design.  The benchmark result isn’t anything to write home about either.  Other than its stunning LCD display, nothing is worthwhile on this PC unfortunately.  While iMac has its own list of flaws, one can’t ignore how sexy and functionally fast it is compared to this offering by Sony.

I would imagine it would be a fine PC to have in a kitchen where you can quickly check for weather and recipes while kids can look up something quickly in between some fragging sessions of PS3 gaming using its HDMI port.  Other than that, look elsewhere for an all-in-one PC option.

YouTube video review of this computer - Sony Vaio All in One

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Popularity: 5% [?]

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When a small business just needs a bare bone server handling basic tasks, one doesn’t need to go spend on ton of money.  This particular HP server is an excellent example.  Purchased for a small 3 people network, this server has a powerful CPU in a Xeon CPU, 4Gb of RAM, and 2 160Gb SATA drives for RAID.  An on-board Gigabit Ethernet also is a nice touch pushing maximum throughput of this server.

The included driver CD has all the drivers including Linux!

As always, HP bundles a SmartStart CD that makes installation a breeze.  The server is well engineered and a perfect for a small office looking for a performance server at a low cost.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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When I first saw this laptop out of its box, I felt the laptop was on a thick side.  I then compared its height against previously reviewed, T400, and was only thicker by 0.1 inch.  Very weird indeed.

This laptop was geared towards Small Business users and it shows Lenovo’s accommodations.  14.1 inch LCD is bright yet reflective, and inclusion of things like HDMI and eSATA is very nice at this price range.

Plastic used for its lid feel cheap compared to that of T400 but it is what’s expected at this price range.  Not only that, it is a fingerprint magnet.  The keyboard feels great just as in other ThinkPads.

At around $600 for a ThinkPad boasting a Core 2 Duo CPU & 3Gb of RAM, this is not a bad option for some Windows 7 computing at cheap entry price.

Full YouTube review can be found here.  ThinkPad SL410 Review.mov

Popularity: 15% [?]

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Many IT managers over the years have deployed ThinkPad line of notebooks for end-users at a company he or she works for.  Reason?  Quite simple.  ThinkPads are built like bricks and they are well engineered yielding solid usability and performance.

The old venerable T61 has now been replaced with T400 and it is a solid replacement.  Armed with an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and 4Gb of RAM, this is a solid workhorse that keeps working even after you retire to sleep.  The familiar ThinkPad keyboard renders comfort when you are finishing up that report or a story you have been working on.  The screen is bright and crisp.  The Anti-Glare matte LCD reduces glare which is welcome to those who prefer against glossy LCD.

It is superbly built and performance is legendary.  A 65w power adapter it comes with is smaller than many found in today’s laptops and easy to carry.  Along with Type 2504 port replicator, this is a desktop replacement for anyone looking for portable computing with power.

A video review can be found here on YouTube.  Lenovo ThinkPad T400 Review

Popularity: 13% [?]