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Tuesday 30 January 2018

ASUS ROG STRIX GL502VT-DS71 Gaming Notebook

Welcome to a Biomedical Battery specialist of the Asus Laptop Battery

Let me tell you one thing you need to know about a gaming laptop: they can be very expensive. They require special components to make your games run nice and smooth, hence the elevated price. ASUS ROG STRIX GL502VT-DS71 with battery such as Asus K62 Battery, Asus P82 Battery, Asus X52 Battery, Asus X67 Battery, Asus A41-X550 Battery, Asus A550 Battery, Asus F550 Battery, Asus P550 Battery, Asus A31-X101 Battery, Asus A32-X101 Battery, Asus X101 Battery, Asus X101H Battery is such a notebook with top-notch components – whether it’s able to run your games or not will be answered below!

The graphics engine inside ASUS ROG STRIX GL502VT-DS71 is excellent pick for gaming. It’s the dedicated GeForce GTX970M which includes 3GB video RAM. You can toss new and/or heavyweight games at it and enjoy great frame rates. Examples include:

– GTA 5, high and 1080p, +60FPS
– Fallout 4, high and 1080p, +50FPS
– The Witcher 3, high and 1080p, +40FPS

Very decent yes, you could probably get away with ultra settings on many games as well.

ASUS ROG STRIX GL502VT-DS71 has one of the popular heavyweight processors, the soldered Intel Core i7-6700HQ. Being a four-core, 2.6GHz (3.5GHz turbo) unit, it gets around 8000 points in the popular benchmark called CPU Mark. As it is, you can also use the system for non-gaming, demanding work such as video editing. The 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) memory will also help with that, and you should be able to upgrade to 32GB.

To be honest, the storage drive doesn’t earn the notebook any extra points. It’s the old school 1 terabyte 7200RPM hard drive which can’t be compared to solid-state drives performance-wise. But there’s nothing to worry, you’ll find an empty M.2 slot inside which you can use to install a solid-state drive!

ASUS ROG STRIX GL502VT-DS71 comes with four USB ports in total. Of those, three are USB 3.0 and one is the newer USB 3.1 Type-C Gen 2 which supports multiple standards. You’re also welcome to hook up an external display through the laptop’s HDMI and miniDP ports.

The notebook doesn’t come with a DVD burner, hence you can’t use discs unless you buy an external optical drive. Card reader is included and it supports at least microSD format.

Wondering about networking? It’s all good, a Gigabit RJ-45 port and 802.11 AC WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 card are included.

The big 15.6″ Full HD matte display is what you will look at. The panel type is IPS. Unfortunately, G-Sync is not supported here. I’ve heard user reports speaking about good image quality.

Battery life is not the strong point of this laptop. You’ll get less than 2 hours under gameplay on the 4-cell battery unit, and an hour or two more if not gaming.

As far as I know, the body is made of aluminum.

You can expect ASUS ROG STRIX GL502VT-DS71 do everything a player requires: to run those games on high settings, without lagging. It also looks neat with orange LED cover and backlit keys. The Full HD resolution can be utilized all the time thanks to the strong graphics card. Just remove bloatware to make the system 100% fast and there’s nothing wrong with the ASUS – thus it’s a recommended choice for serious gamers!

ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360CA Laptop

Welcome to a Biomedical Battery specialist of the Asus Laptop Battery

ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360CA is one of the newest ultrabooks with 2-in-1 feature: the display part has 360 degree rotation. Many people find such a setup useful, but that’s not all the notebook offers: it also promises professional-grade performance with new processor and solid-state drive. All these things are attractive for sure, but let’s see if there’s anything to really back those claims up…

The first thing you notice about ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360CA with battery like Asus X540 Battery, Asus X540S Battery, Asus X540YA Battery, Asus 90-N0L1B3000Y Battery, Asus A31-K52 Battery, Asus A32-K42 Battery, Asus A42-B53 Battery, Asus A42-K52 Battery, Asus A62 Battery, Asus F86 Battery, Asus K42 Battery, Asus K52 Battery is the size. It’s just 0.5 inches thick, weighs 3 pounds and has the compact 13.3 inches display size. This kind of package is excellent for travelers and people who find a larger, cookie-cutter 15-inch laptop uncomfortable. Related to this, the battery life is also appropriate for on-the-go computing: the 3-cell 54Whr integrated battery easily lasts 6 hours under web surfing.

Are you perhaps a graphics designer or otherwise enjoy a quality screen? The ASUS has a sweet 13-inches glossy display to look at. It features IPS panel (= wide viewing angles) and 1920×1080 resolution. For a graphics designer who wants a lot of screen estate this is ideal. The touchscreen feature with 360 degree hinge (which allows the screen lay flat) means you also have a tablet at your fingertips. The 720p webcam on top allows for video chatting and YouTube filming.

The ASUS is also rather power user friendly choice. Don’t be afraid of the Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor listing clock speed at 0.9GHz, the turbo feature will increase it to 2.2Ghz with CPU Mark giving the dual-core chip around 3050 points. That, and the 8GB RAM (maxed out), is enough for heavier work including Photoshop. There’s also a very useful 512GB M.2 SATA3 solid-state drive: that’s a lot of space for an ultrabook, while it also gives you excellent performance in terms of system and program start-up times.

Pretty much the only people who wouldn’t like ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360CA are the gamers. That’s because there’s no dedicated graphics. The integrated Intel HD 515 graphics chip can take some low-level gaming, but don’t expect wonders from it. For example, GTA 5 on this processor and GPU will give ~25FPS using low presets and 720p. There’s also the Counter-Strike: Go, it would run better even when high settings were used. You can try Minecraft as well, it will work without lagging.

Other important features and benefits

For connections, ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360CA offers you two USB 3.0 ports and one USB-C Gen 1, the new multi-use standard. The sole video output is micro HDMI, you can plug that to full-sized HDMI with an adapter or special cable. Thus, it’s possible to connect HDTV to this notebook.

For obvious reasons, the laptop does not have an optical drive (too little space for that). However, SD card slot is present, allowing you to transfer data from those small memory cards.

The default way to connect the laptop to Internet is by using the 802.11ac (2×2) WiFi adapter with Bluetooth 4.1 enabled. If you want the cabled solution, get a simple USB to RJ-45 adapter.

OK, keep in mind there’s no backlit keyboard on this laptop, that’s surely a bummer for some people.

To me, the ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360CA looks like a very decent and compact laptop with the 2-in-1 spicing on top. It is a very multi-use system, ranging from simple day to day activities to heavier software (thanks to quick processor and SSD), and the rotating screen allows you to use it in tablet mode as well. The best thing is the slim and featherweight body, for a busy laptop owner traveling a lot that feature is a must. Indeed, if this all sounds like your cup of tea, I strongly recommend taking a look at the ASUS!

Monday 29 January 2018

ASUS C302CA-DHM4 Chromebook

Welcome to a Biomedical Battery specialist of the Asus Laptop Battery

The peak popularity of Chromebooks was several years ago when they were hyped all over. Now, the storm has calmed down, yet these Chrome OS based laptops still sell rather well. One latest addition to this “family” is ASUS C302CA-DHM4, with some decent performance such as Intel Core i3 processor and also 2-in-1 functionality in the screen. Despite being new it has already gathered very positive user reports!

The processing performance, in comparison to other Chromebooks, is great in ASUS C302CA-DHM4 with battery like Asus X540 Battery, Asus X540S Battery, Asus X540 Battery, Asus X540S Battery, Asus A31-K52 Battery, Asus A32-K42 Battery, Asus A42-B53 Battery, Asus A42-K52 Battery, Asus A62 Battery, Asus F86 Battery, Asus K42 Battery, Asus K52 Battery. It doesn’t have a low-end ARM processor but the real deal from Intel: the Core m3-6Y30. It’s a processor meant for mobile devices, having a dual-core setup running on 0.9GHz clock speed and 2.2GHz turbo. The CPU Mark score it gets is around 3000 so it’s somewhere between Core i3 and i5 in performance. Of course, the design is fanless, so this laptop won’t make any sound.

The memory is fine for a Chromebook. There is 4GB installed which allows you to do multi-tab browsing. Unfortunate for some, the RAM can not be upgraded since it’s soldered on board.

As often is the case with these laptops, also this ASUS boasts eMMC as storage. It stands for embedded MultiMediaCard, a chip soldered on board which is like a budget version of solid-state drive. It can host 64 gigabytes of data which is more than Chromebook’s usual, around 32GB. This eMMC can not be upgraded.

ASUS C302CA-DHM4 has an integrated Intel HD 515 available for lightweight gaming, but do not forget this is indeed a laptop with Chrome OS, not Windows. Installing Windows (= the majority of) games is a tough task, it requires some extensive modification like the use of emulator. If you are not up for that, your choice of games are the browser-based ones. Chrome Web Store has many titles, and you can be sure all of them run smooth on this computer.

You can not praise ASUS C302CA-DHM4 for a great ports selection, yet that is always the deal with Chromebooks. Instead of the quantity, this Asus trusts on quality. Two USB 3.1 Type-C ports are found on the sides which, with the correct adapters, you can use for many things. One example is HDMI – you can indeed hook up a HDMI monitor/TV to this machine no problem.

Chrome systems rely on wireless networking. Inside is an excellent 2×2 802.11ac dual-band WiFi adapter with Bluetooth 4.0 enabled. If you insist on cable, get a cheap USB-C to RJ-45 adapter and you can connect to Internet using wire as well.

There’s a card reader for Micro SD cards. There are two good uses for the card slot. The other is to upload stuff from devices that use these cards as storage, for example digital cameras. Another benefit of this laptop’s card reader is the increased storage. Just slip in a memory card and put files there – you have more space that way!

There is no DVD burner. This computer is a small unit. And Chromebooks don’t even support audio or video discs. Only data discs work with this. So, with that in mind, you can connect external optical drive to the notebook’s USB-C port.

I think the screen is one of the best things in ASUS C302CA-DHM4. It has a compact 12.5 inches diagonal, and combined with 1920×1080 resolution, it will produce crystal-clear picture. It’s also a touch display with 360 degree hinge, so the tablet feature you see in Windows convertibles is also found here.

Webcam of this laptop is located on the top screen bezel. Skype video won’t work because of Chrome OS, however you can use Google Hangouts to say hi to your friends. Or then make the Skype video work with an emulator.

Chromebooks are known for their excellent battery life. This Asus seems to be no different: there are several user reports who are talking about ~9 hour operating time with a single charge. That gets you through a busy day easily. Just remember the battery is built-in, so replacing it will take considerable effort.

This laptop comes with a backlit keyboard. You will have no problems with typing in the dark.

For a Chromebook, ASUS C302CA-DHM4 is quite a heavy-duty unit. Its Core m3 processor and 4GB RAM means your browsing experience will be same than in regular, Windows based laptops. Also the flash storage of 64 gigabytes is double from what you usually see in Chromebooks. The Full HD display is sweet, turning a full 360 degrees, giving you a Chrome tablet to play with. Battery life has been verified as a solid 8-10 hours. Sure, the Asus is tad more expensive than your typical Chrome laptop, but for the money you get excellent quality and performance!

ASUS ROG Strix GL553VE Gaming Notebook

Welcome to a Biomedical Battery specialist of the Asus Laptop Battery

The more features and oomph you want the more willing to pay you need to be. This is the cardinal rule of laptop shopping. The aforementioned things are emphasized in gaming notebooks which have all the bells and whistles and performance you could ever ask for. One newer, interesting addition to the gaming laptop scene is ASUS ROG Strix GL553VE, a 15.6-inches rig with GeForce GTX 1050Ti. Expectations are high given the specs and price, but what will a closer examination reveal us…?

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– GTA 5, +50 frames
– The Witcher 3, +30 frames
– Doom, +60 frames

Settings were mostly at high, some ultra. Resolution was of course 1080p.

One minor quibble can be the missing VR support. Virtual Reality works on GTX 1060 up but unfortunately not here!

Is the performance good for software use?

To answer the above question, easily! The processor is one of the fastest units there currently exists, the Intel Core i7-7700HQ. The Intel uses a quad-core setup and up to 3.8GHz clock frequency with turbo – indeed the base speed is somewhat lower 2.8GHz. As noted, not many other processors can beat its score of ~9000 points in CPU Mark. If you want to make sure your programs (no matter how much they hog resources) run smoothly, this i7 should be your choice number one.

The storage setup of ASUS ROG Strix GL553VE is just perfect. If you’re after a huge data storage you’ll find 1TB 5400RPM hard drive inside. It will eat myriads of data before filling up. On the other hand, if you want the best performance, store your files on the 256GB M.2 SATA part. It will serve the files or programs or games in the blink of an eye!

There is nothing to complain about the memory. After all, 16 gigabytes is installed which is more than sufficient for anyone I can think of. However feel free to add more if you really want to, one free slot is waiting for you. The maximum is 32GB, and the memory type is the newer DDR4.

ASUS ROG Strix GL553VE has a set of useful ports sprinkled on its sides. There you will find four USB connectors. One of them is USB 2.0, the slower standard, while two are the faster USB 3.0. Yet, there is also a single USB 3.1 Type-C port. It’s a sort of All-in-One port because it works with so many interfaces and technologies, including HDMI and DisplayPort. You just need the right kind of cable to be able to benefit from this multi-use USB Type-C!

That being said, the laptop also sports a single HDMI output, spitting 4K resolution to a monitor connected to it. Thus, don’t be afraid of connecting larger televisions to this rig, they should be handled fine.

Nothing is coming in your way of connecting this thing to Internet. You can choose the Gigabit RJ-45 port, or then the WiFi adapter. The wireless adapter is very fast and also has long range thanks to the dual-band, 2×2 ac standard. Bluetooth is supported, too.

To install programs and games the “old-fashioned” way from discs, you can use the notebook’s built-in DVD burner. It also accepts SD and MMC cards through its memory card reader. Those offer a handy way of transferring data using a physically small medium.

Surely the 15.6″ display of ASUS ROG Strix GL553VE is great. The user reports talk about high image quality which is believable given the price and things such as matte finish, 1080p support and IPS-like panel. Thanks to the last feature the screen can be viewed from sides no problem, 178 degree angles. The top panel hosts a webcam which can be used for YouTube filming.

The laptop’s 4-cell 48Whr battery unit is nothing to be proud of. You see, the components inside demand power and will draw the battery empty rather fast. A realistic estimate is 1.5-2 hours if you’re gaming. Double that if just browsing the web. To add insult to injury, the battery is of non-replaceable type.

ASUS ROG Strix GL553VE is a newcomer to the Republic of Gamers family and it doesn’t seem to be a useless addition at all. The Asus does its main job, which is to keep players happy, well: you can throw all kinds of games at this rig without worries of low frame rates – especially if you need not maximum settings on every single one of them. Other components are in check too since there is a new 7th Gen Core i7 powering the system and SSD serving your files fast. The only blunder, which is common in all gaming systems, is poor battery life. If you don’t care about that there are no real drawbacks. So choose this ASUS ROG as your new laptop, that is my advice!

Sunday 28 January 2018

ASUS ROG GL702VM-DS74 Gaming Notebook

Welcome to a Biomedical Battery specialist of the Asus Laptop Battery

In the year of 2017 there is no shortage of gaming laptops. Myriads of notebooks designed for gaming exist, each of them claiming to be better than the other. However, one thing is common for all of them: they’re all pretty damn expensive! ASUS ROG GL702VM-DS74 is not a different item, having extra cash to spend is a must if you want to acquire it. But, perhaps the notebook packs some serious power, it would be only fair considering the price, right? In this short overview I’ll find the answer to these things…

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What is however less common is the size of this unit. The thickness is about 0.9 inches which puts the ASUS right in the ultrabook category as far as that dimension is concerned. For a 17-incher the computer also weighs a little, six pounds. Personally, I wouldn’t find it inconvenient to carry this ASUS around.

The meat and potatoes of gaming laptop is the graphics engine. In ASUS ROG GL702VM-DS74 it is the GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB video RAM) card. It’s the lightweight member of the newish GTX 1000 family, with 1070 and 1080 being the heavy-duty cards. But do not fear, the GTX 1060 is a fast graphics engine, about as fast as the older GTX 970. If you are content with 1080p gaming and don’t need to go beyond that, nothing is coming on your way. For example, the extremely demanding Witcher 3 on very high settings will net you +50FPS. Grand Theft Auto and Battlefield 4 are in the +80 frames per second range.

Given the high price of this notebook you can also expect a lot from the processor department. And yes, a lot is offered, there is a desktop-level Intel Core i7-7700HQ with four cores and 2.8GHz base frequency welcoming you. The unit also has a turbo boost which, when activated, ups the clock speed to 3.8GHz. Not many processors found in laptops can beat its ~9000 score in CPU Mark – your gaming and demanding software sessions are in good hands, really!

The standard memory is 16 gigabytes DDR4-2400 which should please the gaming folks. The RAM is also upgradeable to 32GB as two memory slots are on the mainboard. The other one is free so adding more RAM happens without effort. But if you’re asking me, installing more than 16GB – even for gaming – will probably be an overkill. Unless you plan to multitask a lot at the same time.

Storage drives are all good here. On one hand, plenty of space is offered by the “traditional” one terabyte 5400RPM spinning hard disk drive. But it does not end here. Included is also a 128GB M.2 NVMe solid-state drive. True, it is not big in storage size, but Windows is installed there to make the system operate and boot fast. It also has space for a couple of your favorite games.

A player needs a few ports in his laptop to connect his favorite peripherals. For that, the ASUS ROG GL702VM-DS74 is equipped with three regular USB 3.0 connectors and one USB 3.1 Type-C (Gen 2) port with Thunderbolt support. The latter one you can use with many technologies, like the said Thunderbolt or HDMI, provided you have a right kind of adapter. Indeed, it is said the USB Type-C is the future of ports because it combines the majority of technologies into a single connector. That being said, available is one dedicated HDMI-output and miniDP if you just want the real video port and no play with adapters.

As expected, networking side of things is well thought. If you want the robustness of wired networking you can use the notebook’s Gigabit LAN port. If going wireless is more your cup of tea, please use the 802.11 WiFi AC adapter. It also works with your Bluetooth devices!

The notebook is so thin that finding place for a DVD burner would be a hard task. So, Asus decided to leave optical drive out of this unit. Instead, it is possible to use an external DVD drive with the laptop’s USB port. What might also come handy to you is the 3-in-1 card reader which takes SD, MMC and MS cards.

It is always nice to play games with a big screen. Also the manufacturer knows this and has included a prominent 17.3-inches Full HD display on ASUS ROG GL702VM-DS74. Reading user comments almost everybody likes this matte display, noting that it’s fast enough even for first person shooter games. G-sync is enabled and the viewing angles are up to 170 degree horizontally. If you want to say hi to your gaming buddies, the top bezel hosts a HD webcam for that.

The only outright bad thing with this, and any gaming laptop, is the battery duration. You see, the components are very fast but in turn require a lot of power. And not even a heavy-duty battery can provide power for these hungry components for long. The 4-cell integrated battery on this ASUS will last a maximum of four hours if you don’t play, but under gameplay it changes to 1-2 hour.

Keyboard is an illuminated one but as far as I know the color is fixed to red, it can not be altered.

My original assumption stays true: to get ASUS ROG GL702VM-DS74, one must have deep pockets. But if one has such pockets he will surely get a beast of a laptop. Any game already released or that will be released this or next year will be a smooth sail for this ASUS to run. You might not even need to upgrade it ever (mainly the memory), so solid is the performance right out of the box. The large and sharp screen will make gaming sessions a happy experience. If you can overlook the bad battery there is very little reason to complain about anything. A serious gamer should go for such a serious gaming laptop!

ASUS ZenBook UX330UA-AH5Q Ultrabook

Welcome to a Biomedical Battery specialist of the Asus Laptop Battery

The ultrabook market has recently received a new addition: the ASUS ZenBook UX330UA-AH5Q with battery such as Asus C22-UX31 Battery, Asus C23-UX31 Battery, Asus UX31E-DH72 Battery, Asus UX31E-RY009V Battery, Asus UX31 Battery, Asus UX31A-R4004H Battery, Asus C21N1401 Battery, Asus C21PQCH Battery, Asus X455 Battery, Asus X455LA Battery, Asus X455LD Battery, Asus X455LA-WX082D Battery. People interested in this notebook are probably power users or travelers due to the top-notch performance and portability the ZenBook offers. The older versions of this model have been selling like hotcakes, let’s see if this new ASUS shall be as popular as the past members of this ultrabook family…

As you can see from photos, ASUS ZenBook UX330UA-AH5Q boasts an all-aluminum silver body. Such a material choice gives the laptop a sleek professional look. The only disadvantage of metal shell is that it’s prone to scratches unlike plastic. So don’t be too rough with your notebook and it will stay neat.

Perks of aluminum shell are noticeable in the weight. Including battery, this unit weighs only 2.6 pounds. That is exactly half of what regular 15-inch laptops are! That benefits the portability to a great degree. The same can be said about the thickness – at 0.5 inches height, this unit is extremely slim. It will slip into your bag in just like that!

You bet ASUS ZenBook UX330UA-AH5Q has great performance! Its most important component, the processor, is a late 2016 model: the Intel’s 7th generation (Kaby Lake architecture) Core i5-7200U. The unit in question has a base clock frequency of 2.5GHz, while there is also turbo for more demanding times, taking the clock speed to 3.1GHz. The amount of cores in this processor is two, so admittedly no extra points for multitasking activities are given. Nonetheless, the CPU Mark score the i5-7200U gets is around 4700, putting it right in the powerful laptop CPU category!

The ZenBook uses DDR3 memory, not the newer DDR4. Anyway, there is 8GB RAM installed, a great choice for more demanding work – like occasional photo editing or programming. I am pretty sure that more memory can not be added so you will have to go with 8GB at all times. This, however, should not be a problem for anybody, not even for 99% of power users.

Of the main components, the storage section is probably the best. The laptop’s 256GB solid-state drive is, most importantly, darn fast. You will realize Windows loading up in a matter of seconds right to desktop. Programs you run, such as browser, will also load and respond very quickly. The drive has SATA 3 interface connected to M.2 slot on the mainboard. I’m sure if you open this laptop up, you can also change the storage drive.

Undeniably, there are many better gaming laptops than ASUS ZenBook UX330UA-AH5Q. It is full of solid components but the graphics engine isn’t one of them. You see, there is actually no dedicated graphics card at all, but a slower and simpler integrated one, called Intel HD 620. Its performance is not up for more demanding “Triple A” games: GTA 5 and Fallout 4 would run with noticeable lag on low settings and around 720p resolution. On the other hand, games easier on the system (that are still popular) would run good, those including CS: Go, sports games, H1Z1, Minecraft and Sims 4.

ASUS ZenBook UX330UA-AH5Q has jumped on the USB-C bandwagon, it has one such a port – USB-C Gen 1, max 5Gbps transfer rate. Advantages include reversibility, meaning you can insert the connector both ways and upside down. That being said, if you value familiarity, there are also two USB 3.0 ports to fit that bill for you.

The laptop accepts one external monitor. You can connect that extra display to the ZenBook’s microHDMI output. That way, you don’t have to use the laptop only through its own screen if you don’t like to. There is also a combo audio jack for headphones and mic.

These ultrabooks don’t come with optical drives. The ASUS is no exception, no DVD burner is found here. If you absolutely must use discs you have the option to get an external drive. Such a device costs some 20 dollars and connects to the USB on this laptop. Hence, it’s both cheap and easy to use! Bear in mind the notebook has a micro SDXC card reader which is also good for transferring data, given your files are indeed on memory cards.

As I guessed, the networking options are limited to wireless on this machine. You are free to use the excellent WiFi card supporting long-range 802.11ac standard, WiDi (wireless display) and Bluetooth 4.1. If you need Ethernet support, cheap USB to RJ-45 dongles exist in shops.

A major selling point of ASUS ZenBook UX330UA-AH5Q would be its screen. Like many previous ZenBooks, also this model has the ultrabook-size 13.3 inches display, but with a professional-grade 3200×1800 resolution. In another words, much more than Full HD. You can stuff a great deal of data – such as browser windows – on the screen before it fill ups. This is especially desirable for image/video editing and movies with high resolution. The screen does not support touch. It has a 300-nits luminance, so an average brightness. Refresh rate is 60hz, the panel has anti-glare coating and 72% NTSC color gamut. Viewing angles being 170 degrees it is also IPS display.

There is a 57Whr polymer battery giving power to this computer. There are no early user reviews available yet which would tell the battery life of this Quad HD model. The manufacturer claims up to 12 hours for web browsing is attainable. I would take that with a grain of salt, shooting for ~8 hours would be much more realistic.

The ZenBook comes with a backlit chiclet keyboard. There is no separate 10-key numpad on it – a common thing in these smaller laptops.

The pre-installed operating system on this notebook is Windows 10 Home 64-bit.

I see no reasons to bash ASUS ZenBook UX330UA-AH5Q. On the contrary, I see many a reason to recommend it. First, the price is far from expensive when you take a moment to see what it offers: a Kaby Lake Core i5, solid-state drive, 13.3 inches 3200×1800 screen and professional aluminum body. Such a laptop goes a long way for power users and business travelers interested in performance, style and light weight. Oh, and let’s not forget people in digital arts and Photoshop, they would love the Quad HD screen. As a great addition, there is no bloatware installed – unlike in many cheaper models. Indeed, for these reasons, I can only recommend the ASUS for quality ultrabook seekers!

Friday 26 January 2018

Acer Switch Alpha 12 SA5-271-57QF Notebook

Welcome to a Biomedical Battery specialist of the Acer Laptop Battery

Acer Switch Alpha 12 SA5-271-57QF is not your typical notebook: its screen detaches from the keyboard, completely. So in essence you have a real tablet at your disposal in addition to laptop. It sounds cool on paper, but what other things should you consider? I’ll let you know my thoughts on this below…

You might’ve thought that these smaller 2-in-1 models are slow. Well, not necessarily. Acer Switch Alpha 12 SA5-271-57QF with battery like Acer AS16A5K Battery, Acer AC14B3K Battery, Acer AS16A8K Battery, Acer E5-575 Battery, Acer E5-774 Battery, Acer F5-573 Battery, Acer E5-475G Battery, Acer CB5-571 Battery, Acer ES1-311 Battery, Acer CB3-531 Battery, Acer ES1-131 Battery, Acer B115-MP Battery brings decent processor performance with the Intel Core i5-6200U CPU. It’s easily fast enough for home users with web browsers and YouTube watching needs. Indeed, the dual-core chip features 2.3GHz clock frequency and is equipped with 2.8GHz turbo. In case you’re interested in comparing it to other processors, the CPU Mark score is around 4000.

Inside you will find 256GB solid-state drive, it’s just an excellent choice for such 2-in-1 if you ask me. It’s attached to SATA 3 interface and if you need to upgrade the drive for some reason you can do so.

There’s nothing wrong with the memory section since 8GB is installed. I doubt the RAM can be upgraded but it doesn’t matter since 99% of users are more than happy with the current 8GB.

I have to disappoint you, this Acer isn’t too good for gaming. The reason is the lack of graphics performance, only integrated graphics card Intel HD 520 is installed. If you just casually play simple games like Minecraft, Sims 4 or Fifa you’ll do fine. But throw in demanding titles and you need to turn most eye candy off. On low-medium settings and 720p resolution you can get ~30FPS on GTA 5 and Battlefield 4.

You see, Acer Switch Alpha 12 SA5-271-57QF is darn small unit so the selection of ports is quite limited. There is only one USB Type-C port, however it supports many devices so might be that’s all you need. Indeed, there’s no HDMI port but with USB-C to HDMI adapter/cable you can get that work, too.

Of course, this kind of a small laptop does not include an optical drive. You can use an external one, or if you have memory cards, slip them in to the laptop’s microSD(HC/XC) card reader.

There’s a speedy 802.11ac Wireless adapter built in, it supports Bluetooth 4.0 too.

So, Acer Switch Alpha 12 SA5-271-57QF is a small notebook, but the 12″ touch screen is still pristine. The resolution goes as high as 2160×1440, if you need to work with large images you’ll find this display pleasant. The In-Plane Switching technology should provide viewing angles almost 180 degrees. Also keep in mind the display detaches from the backlit keyboard, and Synaptics digitizer pen is included to use the screen.

The advertised 8 hours battery life doesn’t seem to be true, you’ll be looking at a 4-5 hours in reality. The battery is non-replaceable type.

It’s easy to like Acer Switch Alpha 12 SA5-271-57QF if you’re after a lightweight, compact and fast detachable 2-in-1 laptop. I say fast because the i5 processor and 256GB SSD will make using this notebook feel snappy, and you can surely throw in more exotic programs than a Chrome browser or MS Office suite. The battery life is not magnificent, you can uninstall bloatware to combat with that. All in all, go for the Acer and get a small powerhouse!

Acer Swift 7 (SF713-51-M90J) Laptop

Welcome to a Biomedical Battery specialist of the Acer Laptop Battery

One must have deep pockets if he desires an ultrabook – those laptops are small yet powerful, so many components must be crammed into a small space. That is what increases the price. In this review, I’ll “dissect” one modern ultrabook, the Acer Swift 7 (SF713-51-M90J), and let you know if it’s worth the money or just poor quality…

Acer Swift 7 (SF713-51-M90J) with battery such as Acer AC14B18K Battery, Acer AC14B3K Battery, Acer AC14B8K Battery, Acer KT.0040G.004 Battery, Acer E5-771 Battery, Acer ES1-711 Battery, Acer V3-371 Battery, Acer P236-M Battery, Acer AC14B13J Battery, Acer AC14B18J Battery, Acer ES1-111 Battery, Acer B115-M Battery has a solid-state drive which is always an advantage. Giving 256GB storage it should be enough for most folks. Just keep in mind it’s a SATA drive, not faster PCI-E like with many other ultrabooks.

I don’t think you will have any problems with the display. It has 13.3″ diagonal yet 1920×1080 resolution, so the image will look crystal sharp. That’s a good feature if you have a thing for movies. It does not support touch however panel type is IPS, giving you viewing angles closer to 180 degrees. The top bezel hosts a 720p webcam which lets you video chat in Skype.

There is a 4-cell 42Whr battery giving power for the system. It’s said to last almost 7 hours web surfing which is pretty good for an ultrabook. The battery is integrated so replacing it won’t be an easy task.

Being a small notebook the Acer sports decent processor performance. It has a new (Autumn 2016) CPU called Intel Core i5-7Y54, ultra low voltage chip with two cores, with admittedly low clock speed 1.2GHz but much higher turbo, 3.2GHz. It’s in the same league than some 4th generation Core i5s, for example i5-4200U and this i5-7Y54 get almost the same score in CPU Mark tests. Hence, from web browser to multimedia use to demanding applications this processor suffices.

The memory of Acer Swift 7 (SF713-51-M90J) should be good for everyone as there is 8GB low-voltage DDR3 memory installed. I couldn’t sadly find out if it can be upgraded but I don’t think it can.

The laptop offers two USB ports for your peripherals. The other one is regular USB 3.0 while the other is USB 3.1 Type-C – with the right cable you can use that with, for example, HDMI devices. The computer doesn’t have RJ-45 port because of size limitations but a nice dual-band 802.11ac WiFi card gives you a smooth network access. Bluetooth 4.0 is supported, too.

Naturally, there is no optical drive in this notebook – luckily external one can always be used. As far as I know they didn’t even install SD card slot here.

Pretty much the only thing you can’t do with Acer Swift 7 (SF713-51-M90J) is hardcore gaming. See, it has only integrated graphics, the Intel HD 615 available. Games easy on the graphics are definitely playable at least on low settings, those include Tomb Raider, League of Legends and Dota 2. However, increasing the settings will make most games lag, and new ones (such as The Witcher 3 and Doom) stutter a lot even on minimum settings.

For some reason the keyboard isn’t backlit on this model.

Choosing the Acer Swift 7 (SF713-51-M90J) as your next ultrabook makes sense if neat looks, decent performance and high quality screen are things you value. This computer can do everything for a compact laptop seeking patron, run his YouTube videos, MS Office and even image editors on the go. Indeed, it’s truly a portable notebook with the 13.3″ screen and 2.5 pounds weight. Apart from gaming performance the laptop is all solid, so do check it out!

Thursday 25 January 2018

Acer VX 15 VX5-591G-5652 Gaming Notebook

Welcome to a Biomedical Battery specialist of the Acer Laptop Battery

You might be mentally prepared to shell out a large amount of cash for a gaming notebook. Well, very often that is the case, the components that make games run fast are not cheap to manufacture. But exceptions exist: Acer Aspire VX 15 VX5-591G-5652 is a gaming laptop with battery like Acer AL13B3K Battery, Acer AP13B8K Battery, Acer KT.00403.018 Battery, Acer M5-583 Battery, Acer R7-571 Battery, Acer V5-573 Battery, Acer AC14A8L Battery, Acer V7-581 Battery, Acer VN7-791 Battery, Acer AC15B7L Battery, Acer KT.0030G.001 Battery, Acer VN7-571 Battery in the lower price range. Such a combination might raise eyebrows – hence I have written this review so you can easily figure out if the computer is worth your money or not!

It’s always risky to go for a budget laptop, because things are cheap for a reason. However, with Acer Aspire VX 15 VX5-591G-5652, the situation is quite good. The graphics card is GeForce GTX 1050 (4GB GDDR5), not a heavy-duty engine, but it has enough oomph for 1080p gaming easily. You can max out (or almost max out) settings depending on the game, a few examples including:

– GTA 5, high, +60FPS
– The Witcher, high, ~30FPS
– Doom, high, ~60FPS

There’s nothing coming between you and enjoyable gaming, as you can see. Just be wary of the missing VR support, also more graphics cards can not be added on this unit.

Looking at the pictures, Acer Aspire VX 15 VX5-591G-5652 has a classic, streamlined gaming laptop design with thick case and black-red color theme. Unlike some of the newer ultrabooks that combine gaming capabilities, the Acer does not compete in portability – its weigh is the usual 5.5 pounds with thickness around 1.1 inches.

Acer Aspire VX 15 VX5-591G-5652 is powered by the new Kaby Lake architecture Intel Core i5-7300HQ. It’s truly not i7, but because of the 7th generation technology the i5-7300HQ is still very robust gaming / power user processor, with CPU Mark scoring it well above 6500 points. Contributing to the snappy performance are its quad-core design and 3.5GHz turbo boost (with base clock speed being 2.5GHz).

The notebook contains one 8GB DDR4 2400MHz memory stick which, in my experience, should suffice for almost anybody. To be honest, there are not many games available that can even utilize all of the eight gigabytes. It is mostly the folks doing, say, heavy photo editing who would truly benefit from more RAM. And installing more is possible, one memory slot is free and maximum memory is 32 gigabytes!

The storage engine is 256GB M.2 SATA SSD. If you want a beefier one, you can upgrade it – the M.2 slot also supports NVMe. Moreover, the notebook has a free 2.5″ slot as well. You can utilize that and install an extra drive too, however you might need to order an installation kit from Acer first (it’s free anyway).

The usual configuration of USB ports is available on Acer Aspire VX 15 VX5-591G-5652. As a legacy connector, one USB 2.0 is there, but in addition two newer USB 3.0 ports are featured as well. You can identify the USB 3.0s by the blue marker, they are located next to each other. Using USB 3.0 in most cases is a good idea because they transfer data (move your files etc.) much faster than the USB 2.0. You will also find the newer USB 3.1 Type-C port on this unit.

It is easy to use an external monitor with this Acer as the laptop has HDMI output. Plug your display to it and enjoy the bigger screen!

Access to Internet is provided via the Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45) port for those who like cable. Yet, if you prefer the freedom of wireless, feel free to use the notebook’s dual-band 802.11ac WiFi card. Provided you have a good Internet connection the wireless card will be very robust and there won’t be a weak link there. Also Bluetooth 4.0 works on this machine.

The notebook does not have a DVD burner of any sort, it’s actually a very common thing to leave it out from laptops in this day. Still, a memory card reader for SD format is available, it can provide you a quick way for moving data to and from certain devices.

The 15.6″ screen is what you will be looking at. The resolution does not go any higher than 1920×1080, it’s obvious for such a cheaper model. The display supports IPS which, in the hands of professionals, is desirable due to very accurate color reproduction. The screen does not have touch support, a 720p webcam is installed in the top bezel.

The built-in (integrated) 3-cell battery gives out 52.5Whr wattage. It translates to the usual 1-2 hours when gaming heavy and ca. 3 hours when just browsing the web. I can imagine many people listing the battery life as a disadvantage, but that is how it is for any gaming laptop, believe me!

Currently, there aren’t too many cheaper gaming laptops than Acer Aspire VX 15 VX5-591G-5652. It gives you nice entry-level performance with the Core i5 processor and GeForce GTX 1050. But keep in mind the graphics card here is a budget engine, meaning you have to proceed with low settings if you have a graphics-heavy game at hand. In other regards the notebook is decent, having fast DDR4 memory and a solid-state drive in it. If you are on a tight budget, you would probably find the Acer Aspire VX 15 an adequate gaming laptop.