Windows: The Official Magazine Issue 7 Sample

LIVE DESIRE ENJOY

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LIVE

KITS AND APPS FOR

Ultimate battery life If you’re on the move, you need devices that will run all day on a single charge so you can work and play wherever you are

T

hese days, we take so many things for granted that it’s worth stopping now and again to consider what we actually get our wonderful gadgets, computers and phones to do, and how long we expect them to do it. Consider your mobile phone, for instance. It’s doing the sort of tasks that would have required a full desktop PC a few years ago, but rather than a bulky device running from the mains, it’s a sliver of stylish tech that you can slip in your pocket, and which keeps going for days between charges. Meanwhile, laptops and tablets have revolutionised the way we use computers, and they have only become more powerful over time. We still want the very best battery life possible though, so it’s a good job power-management tech is managing to keep up.

BEST KIT FOR ON THE ROAD Devices that will keep going for hours

BEST FOR CALLS AND ROAMING Samsung Ativ S £414 | $660

BEST FOR BUSINESS HP Envy Sleekbook 6-1126sa £390 | $650

BEST FOR WORK AND PLAY Acer Iconia W700 £530 | $740

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SAMSUNG ATIV S £414 | $660 This stylish Windows Phone 8 handset is the perfect companion when you’re out and about. The 4.8-inch display and thin design make it a phone that your friends and colleagues will covet too. www.samsung.com

Samsung Ativ S

Samsung has made a formidable name for itself in the smartphone market, and the Ativ S is a big and bright Windows Phone 8 handset with an extra trick up its sleeve. It features a powerful processor, support for microSD memory expansions and a thin, stylish design with a generous 4.8-inch screen that come alive with Windows Live tiles, but it also boasts some great features and settings that help you get great battery life when you’re relying on it to keep you in touch with the world.

Mobile devices need good battery life to keep you entertained on long journeys

Indeed, one of the major advantages of the Ativ S is its straight-line battery performance. You’ll easily get a whole day out of this Windows 8 phone, and possibly two before you need to recharge it, depending which features you use, and how much. In fact, if you simply want a versatile smartphone to take with you, you could potentially get up to three days of use out of it between charges (well, two days and 19 hours to be exact) thanks to the great battery reporting features built into Windows Phone 8.

If you’re a particularly heavy user and are likely to be away from a power socket for a long period of time, then you’ll be delighted to hear that the Ativ S boasts an easily removable battery, so you can carry a spare and replace it on the move. This isn’t something most people will have to worry about, but it is a definite plus if you’re a power user who wants to enjoy lots of their favourite games on the move, stream TV shows and films from Netflix, snap lots of shots with the impressive built-in camera, and spend hours browsing the many brilliant apps available on the Windows Phone store and experimenting with any that take their fancy.

HP Envy Sleekbook 6-1126sa

When it comes to processors, Intel has traditionally had the whole laptop arena to itself, but recently AMD has made some inroads, particularly at the budget end of the market. With the Envy Sleekbook, HP has used AMD’s tech to build a Windows 8 laptop that’s surprisingly affordable and offers very impressive battery life.

Intel had the laptop space to itself for so long, there was no impetus for it to make its designs more power efficient. Now that AMD is back in play it finally has some healthy competition, and that’s never a bad thing for consumers – especially when we’re looking at budget machines.

The Envy Sleekbook combines a stylish design with great battery performance. In our tests it lasted over four hours while playing back movies with the screen on its brightest setting.

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LIVE HP ENVY SLEEKBOOK 6-1126SA £390 | $650 This laptop packs in a lot of power for a bargain price.

If you’re looking for a mediafocused machine to use on the road, there’s a lot to love here. www.hp.com

Winspresso

FREE This brilliant suite of system optimisation tools also includes settings for boosting your Windows device’s battery life.

Iff you use your laptop for work rather than play, you should hit the six-hour mark If you use your laptop for work rather than play, then you should hit the six-hour mark fairly easily, especially if you’re happy to drop the screen brightness down to around 60 per cent (a level that’s perfectly acceptable in most lighting conditions).

Windows 8 gives you plenty of control over your machine’s battery performance too, so you can rummage around inside the power settings to set up quicker sleep modes and stretch each charge even further.

Admittedly this isn’t an ultra-

portable machine, and there are laptops (and indeed tablets) that are easier to slip into your bag for a day out. However, the fact that AMD’s processor boasts decent integrated graphics means it can squeeze even more out of the battery without compromising on performance or versatility. In other words, if you take this on the road with you, it’ll handle almost any task you can throw at it.

GREAT BATTERY APPS

Tools to get the most from your mobile batteries

TorchLight

FREE Screens use a lot of power, so dimming the display of your tablet or laptop will make it last longer on a single charge

Acer Iconia W700

Acer has taken a fresh look at the hybrid market with the Iconia W700, and produced something that offers the best of both tablet and laptop worlds. Essentially, this is a tablet that transforms into a full laptop when you slide it into the handy dock. In fact, it’s almost like a mini desktop, as the keyboard is separate from the dock, which is a little large and inflexible to simply pop into your bag.

The good news is that this is a fully functioning Windows 8 tablet that’s packed with the kind of hardware you’d usually expect to find in a laptop.

The Iconia W700 is powered by an Intel Core i3 processor, backed up by 4GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD.

Boost – Speed Up Your PC

FREE (http://boost. en.softonic.com) Keep your machine in shape by making sure your settings are optimised.

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This machine is as happy playing back HD movies as it is crunching spreadsheets

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LIVE ACER ICONIA W700 £530 | $740 This is a great device for work or play, offering a full Windows 8 experience with great battery life.

It’s a little chunkier than normal tablets though, and the size of the dock makes it tricky to pop into your bag. www.acer.com

KEEP GOING FOR LONGER

Solargorilla

£140 | $207 Solar cells have come along in leaps and bounds recently.

The Solargorilla’s clamshell design is home to two large photovoltaic solar panels that can charge your tablets, USB devices and even laptops (up to 40W) to keep you going much longer.

Great for explorers. www.powertraveller. com

Accessories to give you a boost

This means there’s plenty of power to spare for normal tasks, and helps ensure that your on-the-road experience is buttery smooth. The attention to detail doesn’t end there, either – the Icona W700 also features a Full HD 1080p 11.6-inch display.

Despite its small size, this is a powerful machine that’s every bit as happy playing back high definition movies as it is crunching spreadsheets.

The Iconia’s battery performance is very impressive too, especially considering its premium components.

In our tests, one charge kept it going for four hours and 44 minutes under constant use. You can easily extend this to six hours with modest use and a little tweaking of the settings.

Don’t forget that this is a standard Windows 8 installation too, so you can use your favourite desktop power management tools to make sure you get every last drop of power. ■

Sony CP-ELS USB charger

£28 | $40 There are plenty of USB chargers out there, but Sony’s stylish take is more appealing than most thanks to its simple, clean design. Charge it using the supplied cable, and then use the same cable to charge your phone (or other micro-USB device) when you’re on the road. www.amazon.com

Powergorilla

£150 | $225 Imagine being able to take a second battery pack for your laptop wherever you go. That’s what the Powergorilla offers.

It’s a battery pack that plugs into the power socket of your laptop or tablet to give you two to five hours of extra time.

Great for long trips away from the mains. www.powertraveller. com 11

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