LG 42LE4600 Jazz LED Review, Features And Price

LG 42LE4600 Jazz LED Review, Features And Price

When LG first introduced the Jazz series LCD TV, it was clearly the best sounding LCD TV we had come across by miles. Although the sliding speakers were a bit gimmicky it was able to deliver the goods. Then later LG tried to rekindle the Jazz series with the Jazz Theater which boasted of nine speakers scattered across the rear. Amazingly, it sounded better than the older Jazz, the bass was a lot more pronounced and the highs and mids were clear with enough volume to easily fill a large hall in your home. It looked the part as well with cool LED lights on either sides of the TV.

Today, with all the LED hype that's around, first time buyers generally won't look at anything that's non-LED and in a way that's a smart thing too since the advantages of LED are pretty clear. The only way for LG to spruce new life into their older models is to infuse them with the LED tag and that's exactly what they've done to the Jazz. Today we have the 42LE4600 which is a 42-incher LED version of the Jazz series.

Design and Build 

 The exterior has gone through a makeover once again and this time LG has gone with a more contemporary design unlike the in-your-face look of the Jazz Theatre. This is not a bad thing, as the new design looks equally good with a glossy black bezel and red bit at the bottom. The backlighting is Edge LED and the panel is an IPS type, which means very good colors and viewing angles. The panel has a matt finish and isn't protected by any glass covering. The speakers are placed at the bottom of the TV and face downward, so they use the surface to disperse sound more evenly. Other features include 100Hz refresh rate, DivX HD Plus through USB and four speakers (10W RMS x2, 13W RMS x 2) plus a sub woofer hidden in the stand. 

 A good set of connectors fill the rear of the TV. There are plenty of HDMI and other analogue connections for all your devices. There is no LAN port, which means no DLNA or internet apps. 
 
The woofer is placed in a stand with vents facing the sides and the rear. The silver bit in the front is just decorative and is not a vent. The Jazz Theater had two woofers facing the wall in the rear of the TV which gave it the extra punch. Let's see how this arrangement favors the Jazz LED. 
Performance

Regular cable TV is watchable provided you sit at a good distance. The LE4600 is able to produce very good colors and has good brightness levels. The menu system makes it very easy to adjust the picture to suit your liking. The noise reduction feature helps a little as well but we've seen better. There is no ghosting or trailing issues over here, action sequences are rendered well. The edge enhancement is best turned off, as it causes a lot of aliasing in the picture. TruMotion works but not as well as Samsung's implementation of it. Overall the picture quality is good but not as great as LG's higher end models.  

 The buttons on the TV are placed on the rear with the labels placed in the front. The remote has well spaced buttons that are large and easy to operate. We feel it's a bit too long though and if you hold it in the center you can't reach the USB controls at the bottom. If you grip it further down then the volume controls are out of reach. LG has added a new option on the remote and called it 'Cricket', which essentially changes the video and sound mode together. This is nothing but the 'Sport' just renamed for Indian audiences.

USB Playback

The USB port supports NTFS hard drives so large portable storage is not a problem. We plugged in our 500GB Seagate GoFlex and set to work. The music player lets you select basic playback modes like Shuffle and Repeat. You can also change the sound mode here. 1080p video playback is a breeze as well, MKV, AVI, MOV, etc all playback perfectly well without any glitch. Black levels are good without any noticeable bleeding.
 
Sound quality is mixed bag

The Jazz Theatre set a sort of benchmark for TV speakers and this LED version had some big shoes to fill. The overall sound is loud and clear and certainly a notch above most LED TVs in the market. I still feel the Jazz Theatre had better definition to the sound and it could handle almost any music without buckling. The Jazz LED wasn't able to handle the deep bass and varying sounds in Tron Legacy. In 'Cinema' sound mode, the sound gets garbled during action sequences. Switching to 'Standard' mode helps a little but if you listen closely, you can still hear the slight distortion. The satellites are otherwise very clear, reproducing rich vocals and mids, it's the lower end that takes a beating.  

Pricing and Verdict

 LG has priced the Jazz LED 42LE4600 at an MRP of Rs. 83,990 while the street price should be closer to Rs. 77,000. We feel this is still a bit expensive and needs to drop to around 55-60K for it to be considered a good buy. The LE4600 is a very good TV as far as picture quality is concerned. The lack of the glass covering on the panel makes the colors pop a little less, but it's not a deal breaker by any means.

DivX HD playback is certainly a big feather in LG's hat and we are glad to see that feature being implemented in their lower end TVs as well. Finally coming to the sound, which is the whole showcase of the Jazz series, it's certainly better than most TVs in the market but sadly is not as great as their earlier Jazz Theatre series.

The sound is loud and clear for the most part but there is some amount of noticeable distortion when there is a heavy use of lower frequencies. With its current pricing, it's a bit on the expensive side considering it doesn't have any DLNA feature. It would be a good buy for around 55-60K.

Symbian 3.2 And 5.0 APP To Get Updated

Symbian 3.2 And 5.0 APP To Get Updated

There's plenty going on in the Symbian camp. First, we saw the release of a few promising devices including the Nokia X7 and E6, then the leaked images of upcoming 1 GHz Symbian devices. Furthermore, Nokia is now rolling out updates for Symbian 3.2 and Symbian 5.0 based phones. Which means that if you own a Nokia smartphone powered by a version prior to Symbian^3, you'll soon be getting new features.
One of the key updates is the v7.3 browser, the same as seen in Symbian Anna devices. It will reportedly speed up browsing, and will have support for Arabic and Chinese language pages.

Ovi Maps is another updated feature in these handsets, but there are two different versions to take into consideration. Ovi Maps 3 SR4 will be available in Symbian 3.2 devices, while Symbian 5.0 phones will get the Ovi Maps 3 SR6 update. The added features will include indoor positioning through Wi-Fi, as well as travel and recommendation services.
Nokia has also listed a few of the devices running on the said platforms, in order to provide a better picture.
Symbian 3.2
 Nokia E72
 Nokia E52
 Nokia E5
 Nokia C5-00
 Nokia 6700 slide

Symbian 5.0
 Nokia C6-00
 Nokia C5-03
 Nokia 5230
 Nokia 5235
 Nokia 5250
 Nokia X6
 Nokia N97 mini
 Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
 Nokia 5530 XpressMusic
The updates for devices such as the C6-00 and 5230 will be available for download as early as today, while the rest will have to wait for a few weeks more. Hence, it would be wise to fire up your Nokia SW checker once in a while.

Dell Latitude E6420 ATG Review Specification And Price

Dell Latitude E6420 ATG Review Specification And Price

If the Dell Latitude E6420 ATG seems familiar, it should. It's the semi-rugged version of the business-centric Latitude E6420, which has a stylish, durable design and a great keyboard. Dell has built on those strengths by beefing up the system's durability and ruggedness, and adding a solid state drive for even greater performance. Our configuration even includes a touchscreen, which field workers might appreciate. But do those improvements warrant the $3,012 price tag?

Design

Like the E6420, the E6420 ATG's MIL-STD810G tested, Tri-Metal chassis is designed to withstand almost anything business users can throw at it, including drops, extreme heat and cold, and dust. Its lid is covered in sharp gray, anodized brushed aluminum that is bordered by a black, textured scratch-resistant hard plastic, which helps make the lid feel exceedingly sturdy. The lid also has two conveniently placed status lights in the upper right-hand corner that turn on when the system is in use and running low on battery power. The underside of the unit is protected by the same black, powder-coated magnesium base found on the E6420. Other features carried over from the E6420 are the system's metal hinges and sturdy closing latch, but on the ATG, the ports are protected by rubber covers.

Open the E6420 ATG's lid and what you'll find is essentially a carbon copy of the E6420. It features the same comfortable, spill-resistant keyboard, complete with adjustable touch-activated backlight and pointing stick. A bright orange pinstripe surrounds the keyboard and adds some personality to the Latitude's design.
The E6420 ATG's matte-black deck offers a comfortable palm rest and includes a set of volume buttons on its right-hand side. On the deck's upper left-hand corner are three indicator lights that give the status of the system's battery, hard drive, and wireless signal. To help protect the E6420 ATG's display, Dell has reinforced the screen's frame and equipped it with a spill-resistant seal.
The price you pay for all of the E6420 ATG's protective features is its sheer size. Measuring 4 x 9.7 x 1.5 inches (with its port covers) and weighing in at 6.6 pounds with its nine-cell battery, the 14-inch E6420 ATG is larger and weighs 0.4 pounds more than the E6420 (which includes the same battery back) and 2 pounds heavier than Toshiba's Tecra R840 (S8430).

Ruggedness

In terms of durability, the ATG sits between the business-rugged E6420 and the fully rugged E6420 XTR. While the standard E6420 can withstand some dings, the ATG is meant to take the type of damage that a business traveler would likely throw at it, such as additional bumps, knocks, and spills. The XFR, however, is meant for police work and the military, and can withstand intense rain, extreme temperature changes, and drops of up to 6 feet.
Dell claims the E6420 ATG passed 16 MIL-STD810G durability tests and the IP5X dust test. According to Dell, the laptop can survive 26 drops from a height of 30 inches onto a 2-inch piece of plywood with the system powered down and its lid closed. Dell also claims the system can withstand a 1-inch diameter ball bearing dropped onto the screen from a height of 30 inches 20 times, and up to 6 ounces of water spilled on the keyboard.
With the E6420 ATG closed and turned off, we dropped it once off of one of our desks onto a carpeted concrete floor, a distance of 30 inches. The laptop didn't sustain any cracks, and the notebook booted up right away.
We then poured approximately two ounces of water on three evenly spaced locations on the keyboard. After tilting it on its side and letting it drain for two minutes, we turned the system back on and it functioned normally. However, roughly an hour later, the E6420 ATG's keyboard stopped working. No other functions were affected.
We tried traditional troubleshooting methods (restarting the system, turning it off and removing the battery), but nothing seemed to work. As a last resort, we turned the unit off, propped it up on its side, and left it overnight. In the morning the keyboard was fully functional, but that's a long time to be unproductive.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The concave keys on the E6420 ATG's keyboard were sturdy, offering little give and providing excellent feedback. Using the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, we scored an average of 63 words per minute with an error rate of two percent; that's the same rate and error percentage we scored on our office desktop. Depressing the keys also activated the keyboard's adjustable backlight.
We found the laptops's recessed pointing stick to be somewhat difficult to control. However, the stick's three programmable buttons (above the touchpad) proved quite useful. The E6420 ATG's nicely proportioned, matte-black 3.1 x 1.7-inch touchpad and two rubberized buttons were smooth and accurate, offering excellent feedback. Multitouch gestures such as two-finger pinch-to-zoom, rotate, and three-finger quick launch features worked similarly well, although each needed to be activated upon initial startup under Dell's touchpad settings menu.

Ports and Webcam

On the right side of the Latitude E6420 ATG are an ExpressCard/54 slot, DVD drive, two USB 2.0 ports, and one USB 2.0/ eSATA combination port. The left side of the system offers an additional USB 2.0 port, VGA, a combination microphone/ headphone port, and a smart card reader slot. On the back of the unit are HDMI and Ethernet ports and a Kensington lock slot. An SD card reader is located on the front of the system. All of the ports are protected by rubber covers. The underside of the E6420 ATG includes two covered slots from which users can connect a carrying handle. Conspicuously absent from the unit is a USB 3.0 port, which we expect on a system this price.
The 2-megapixel HD webcam on this notebook functioned very well, providing crisp images in both light and dim environments. When we used the webcam in a cubicle, image quality was excellent. The Dell Webcam Central software lets users upload and share their photos and videos with the software's integrated e-mail, YouTube, and Photobucket support, and a custom avatar creator helps users make and share their own avatars for video chats.

Samsung New Launches Slimmest 1 TB Harddisk For Laptop Review And Price

Samsung New Launches Slimmest 1 TB Harddisk For Laptop Review And Price

Can't fit a 1 TB laptop drive in a standard 9.5 mm deep HDD bay? Samsung has answered your prayers by announcing its latest Spinpoint M8 hard drive. The M8 crams in two 500 GB platters in its diminutive 2.5" footprint, thereby delivering a capacity of 1 TB that also fits into standard portable drive bays. This areal density is achieved with the help of Advanced Format Technology (AFT), which uses the wonders of perpendicular recording technology to store more data per square inch.

Samsung's brand new Spinpoint is the first 2.5" drive to include two platters, which is the secret behind its slim profile. Similar capacity offerings from rivals Western Digital and Seagate cannot squeeze into the 9.5 mm limitation because they are weighed down by three bulky platters. The M8's reduced platters and the resulting increased areal density translates into improved seek times and better transfer rates. The drive is compatible with the 3 Gbps SATA interface and features a buffer of 8 MB.

The Korean electronics major claims that minimised moving parts (platters and heads) will also lead to better reliability. The HDD gets a redesigned chassis that's engineered for enhanced shock resistance. Samsung also includes its existing EcoSeek and NoiseGuard implementations for optimised power draw and silent operation. No word on the Indian availability yet, but it won't be long before it reaches your local hardware haven. The Spinpoint M8 is currently available offshore for an MRP of $129.

Acer Iconia 6120 Touchbook Review Specs And Price

Acer Iconia 6120 Touchbook Review Specs And Price

The Acer Iconia 6120 isn't the first dual-screen Windows 7 tablet on the block. The Toshiba Libretto W105 had two 7-inch displays and was about the size and weight of a paperback, but its short battery life and lackluster software doomed that device to collectible status. The Iconia is different. It's more like a coffee table book, a book that features two large 14-inch displays and innovative touch-enabled software, plus a Core i5 processor. But does this $1,199 tablet-book represent the future of laptops, or is it just a pricey experiment destined to appeal only to early adopters?

Design

The Acer Iconia 6120 has a fairly sophisticated look. The lid and bottom are both a champagne-colored metal. The bottom, one solid panel, has two rows of small square cutouts for ventilation and speakers, and can be removed easily with two sliding latches. There are only two physical buttons on the Iconia: The right hinge has a power button, and the left hinge activates the virtual keyboard. The Iconia's two touchscreens are each 14 inches, surrounded by a glossy black bezel.
While the Iconia's dimensions--13.5 x 9.7 x 1.2 inches--are typical for a 14-inch system, the notebook is on the heavy side: 6 pounds. We definitely noticed it carrying it home in a messenger bag. That's the price you pay for two displays.
Keyboard
For a virtual keyboard, the Acer Iconia's was fairly easy to type on, though not perfect. Aside from using the physical button on the left hinge to turn on the keyboard, we could also activate it by pressing our palms down simultaneously on the lower display; a neat shortcut.

The keyboard extends almost the entire width of the screen, and the Iconia 6120 presents the keys in a chiclet-style layout. On the upper right is a set of shortcuts that can be switched between media controls and editing tools (i.e., save, cut, paste, and print). When you press a key, the Iconia 6120 makes a click, not unlike a typewriter. You can adjust the volume or turn off the sound completely in the settings, as well as set skins and even calibrate the key pitch to best suit your typing. The keyboard also comes with a predictive text option (XT9), but we found that it was easier to type without this feature activated.

 While we weren't able to type as fast on the Iconia 6120 as with a real keyboard, we did manage a fairly quick rate after about half an hour of practice, so much so that a fair amount of this review was written using the virtual keyboard. We had to be much more careful with what we did with our non-typing fingers, though. Any errant grazing of the screen, and we'd end up with a wrong letter. Overall, we made many more mistakes compared to a traditional keyboard, but it worked.

An icon in the upper left also lets you switch to a notepad, where you can add text by writing with your finger. We found this method to be much less accurate. When we scrawled "The Quick Brown Fox," for example, it ended up as "The quick brunet."
The virtual touchpad was a smallish 2.5 x 2.1 inches, but we were able to use it as easily as a real touchpad. There are two virtual mouse buttons below, but considering the whole thing is a touchscreen, why not just make it a virtual clickpad, à la an Apple MacBook?

Display and Audio

The dual 14-inch (1366 x 768) displays on the Iconia 6120 are made out of the more durable Gorilla Glass. The fingerprint-resistant coating helped somewhat, but you'll want to keep a cloth handy. Both screens have a glossy finish, but that only proved to be an issue with the upper display, as its vertical orientation reflected more lights. Colors were somewhat muted; while watching the trailer for Captain America, the red, white, and blue of the uniform didn't really pop. Horizontal viewing angles were good enough so that three people would be able to comfortably see the screen, but vertical viewing angles were quite narrow. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but when you consider that the display can tilt back 180 degrees to lie flat on a table, it becomes an issue.
Both capacitive touchscreens were very responsive, interpreting our finger gestures accurately. Interestingly, given all that we could do with the lower touchscreen, we didn't find ourselves using the upper touchscreen much at all.
Speakers located on the underside of the Iconia 6120 pumped out a fair amount of volume, and there was a respectable amount of bass. However, the mid and high range were very muddy.

Ports and Webcam

On the left side of the Iconia 6120 are two USB 2.0 ports, as well as HDMI. On the right is a USB 3.0 port, Ethernet, VGA, headphone and mic (which doubles as an S/PDIF port), and a Kensington lock slot. Sadly, there's no SD card slot. (Seriously.)

The Iconia's 1.3-megapixel webcam was excellent; capable of capturing video at resolutions up to 1280 x 1024, it accurately recorded our skin tones, and even picked up the flecks of brown in our hazel eyes.

Heat

After playing a Hulu video for 15 minutes at full screen on the Iconia 6120, the area around the virtual touchpad measured 87 degrees Fahrenheit, the space between the G and H keys was 90 degrees, and the middle of the underside was 95 degrees. That last measurement is on the border of what we consider uncomfortable.

Acer Iconia 6120 Touchbook Us Price Is $1,199

Facebook New Software For Android Updated To Version 1.6

Facebook New Software For Android Updated To Version 1.6

Facebook is the most widely used social network in the world. This means that all platforms have to take special care of the social networking application to keep the users happy. The Android version of the application has now been updated to version 1.6. This update will bring along some improvements in the news feed, support for Facebook pages, and the ability to add videos to your Facebook profile.

The pages support will bring the ability to browse through pages while within the app, instead of getting redirected to the browser. This comes very handy, and will save a lot of time. Pages on Facebook are an important part for a user and improved support will only make users happy.

 The video upload feature will let users upload videos from the device to their profile on-the-go. Facebook users are less inclined towards uploading their own videos onto the site, and are rather more into sharing of videos. This feature may prove instrumental in reversing the trend. The tweaks to the News Feed will include the display of new types of posts such as pages, which when tapped, will open on the application itself like we already mentioned above.

The Facebook application for Android still needs some tweaks when it comes to usability. We can expect to see some more features coming to the app in the coming days. What would you like to improve about Facebook for Android? Let us know in the comments below.

Intel's 700 SSD Series Drives Details Leaked

Intel's 700 SSD Series Drives Details Leaked

Despite optimisations such as wear levelling, longevity has been a major concern with SSD drives. However, if information leaked on Intel's upcoming 710 and 720 SSDs is to be believed, we may have a credible solution on our hands. These 2.5" drives will feature a 3 Gbps SATA interface and incorporate more durable multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash chips. The 710 series drives will sport a 25 nm MLC flash that will last for 500 TB worth of writes over the life cycle of a 100 GB drive. To put this into perspective, Intel's current 320 series SSDs are rated at only 15 TB for a 120 GB drive.

One of the reasons for such improved reliability figures of the prototype drives is a healthy over-provisioning of 20%. SSD over-provisioning is the inclusion of extra memory capacity that's inaccessible for user storage. This lets the drive replace bad memory blocks for longer life. The 710's specs include sustained read and writes speeds of 270 and 210 MB/s respectively. The drive is rated at 36,000 IOps in 4 KB random reads and and a mere 2,400 IOps for writes.

Unlike the 710, the 720 is designed with speed in mind. It runs on a much faster PCI Express interface and includes 512 MB of cache memory, which allows it to hit claimed read and write rates of 2,200 and 1,800 MB/s respectively. The IOps figures are similarly off the charts, with random 4 KB reads pegged at 180,000 IOps, while random writes are claimed to go up to 56,000 IOps. The 720 series drives feature more durable 34 nm Single Level Cell (SLC) flash memory modules that deliver 18 petabytes worth of writes over the lifespan of a 200 GB drive.

There's still no official word on these figures, but such rock-solid reliability will make the extra cost of SSD drives more palatable.

Acer Aspire One 722 Review Specs And Price

Acer Aspire One 722 Review Specs And Price

Ever since AMD's Fusion processor made their first appearance in January, the affordable ultraportable category has seen some seriously sweet entrants at enticing prices. Now that Acer has joined the party, along with HP, Sony, and Lenovo, we're seeing a more netbook-like price, undercutting them all with the $379 Aspire One 722. To offer that low price, Acer uses AMD's C Series APU instead of the more powerful E Series. However, this streamlined design (with eye-catching lid) offers more pep than Atom-powered netbooks along with long battery life. Is this bargain machine right for you?

Design

The Aspire One line has a look that's now becoming classic, but we're not complaining. The 722 looks sleek, thanks to the tapered edges and clean lines. The ripple effect on the lid, which evokes a pool of water disturbed by a single stone, is a nice touch. It helps the 722 to stand out without being gaudy. Given this effect, we prefer the aquamarine version of the model, especially as the color extends from the lid to the deck. For those who aren't a fan of blue, the Aspire One 722 also comes in black.
Unfortunately, the glossy lid picks up smudges easily (it doesn't help that we were drawn to touch the ripple all the time). This problem doesn't extend to the deck, where the plastic is matte. Even with the eye-catching color, the overall impression of the notebook under the hood is clean, not busy. Aside from the keyboard and touchpad, there's just the power button on the upper left and the status lights on the lower left.
Measuring 11.2 x 7.9 x 1.0 inches and weighing 3 pounds, the Aspire One 722 is relatively light and portable. At almost half a pound heavier than most netbooks, we did notice the weight in our bag, but we had no problem carrying this ultraportable around all day.

Keyboard and Touchpad

We've always had mixed feelings about Acer's FineTip keyboards, and this one did not impress. The keys lacked good tactile feedback and springiness, and the keyboard flexed noticeably when we typed. This caused us to make more errors than we usually do. We never got comfortable with the layout, but it gets the job done.
By contrast, the large 3.2 x 2.0-inch touchpad on the Aspire One 722 didn't give us any trouble. The matte surface is the same texture as the deck, but it sits in a small indentation, so you can find it by feel. The single mousebar underneath is long enough that we didn't confuse right and left click. We found it responsive and appropriately clicky.

Display and Audio

The Aspire One 722's LED-backlit 11.6-inch, 1366 x 768 resolution display has a glossy finish, though it wasn't too reflective under fluorescent lights. Colors are slightly muted, which is unusual for a glossy screen, and even at 100 percent brightness the panel seems slightly dim. Horizontal viewing angles aren't super wide, but three people sitting together should be able to see the screen without encountering color distortion or darkness. While watching an episode of Murder, She Wrote on Netflix, we found that pushing the display past about 25 degrees (when looking at it head-on) made colors look darker and in shadow, so there isn't a wide vertical range, either.
The two small speakers under the Aspire One 722's front lip don't produce very loud volume - we had to turn the notebook up to 100 percent to get decent audio when playing some Adam Lambert tracks.

Acer Aspire One 722 Laptop Price is $379.99

ASUS New Launches The ROG MATRIX GTX 580 Graphics Card

ASUS New Launches The ROG MATRIX GTX 580 Graphics Card

ASUS has been synonymous with high-quality and high-performance PC components, and its Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand has been something that hardcore gamers would swear by. Continuing its series of ROG MATRIX high-end graphics cards, the company has launched the ROG MATRIX GTX 580 Series, which combines a proprietary dual-fan DirectCU II thermal design and 19-phase Super Alloy Power components. It also comes with a new set of overclocking and performance tools.
 The PCI Express 2.0 card sports a triple-slot design, thus you will need a spacious PC cabinet to house it in. Power is drawn via two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors, the adapter for which is bundled along. The minimum system power requirement for this card is 600 W. Output is available via one HDMI, one Display Port and two dual-link DVI ports, thus allowing you to connect it to just about any display device.

While the GTX 580 is clocked at 816 MHz, it comes with a massive 1.5 GB GDDR5 memory running at 4.8 GHz, leaving it with enough firepower and bandwidth for any current or upcoming games at the highest graphics settings. The dual-fan DirectCU II thermal design claims to help keep the card running at around 35 degrees Celsius cooler than the reference card, especially during overclocking, thus increasing the lifespan of the card by up to 2.5 times, and allowing for better overclocking. This cooling design involves copper heat pipes placed in direct contact with the GPU for efficient cooling, and twin sound-dampened fans capable of pulling 600% more air than those which come with reference design.

The 19-phase power circuitry provides stability to the GTX 580 when it is overclocked. There is also a multi-coloured MATRIX LED load indicator on-board, which provides the user an at-a-glance, colour changing visual indication of the card's overall load in real-time. The card also comes with a nifty set of new tools such as GPU Tweak, TweakIt, and ProbeIt to adjust on-the-fly, the clock frequency, voltage, fan speed, and save up to four profiles, to help in getting out the maximum performance. There is even a Safe Mode button for instant restoration of stable settings, should something go wrong.

Western Digital My Book Essential 3 TB External Harddisk Review

Western Digital My Book Essential 3 TB External Harddisk Review

While portable hard drives have become larger in capacity, it cannot be denied that backup drives belong to a completely different breed. The only limiting factor with backup drives has been the bottlenecked data transfer speed of the USB 2.0 interface. Things have changed for the better with the introduction of USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface, guaranteeing speeds rivalling those of SATA hard drives. WD has provided us with a review sample of the 3 TB version of their new My Book Essential backup drive. We have tested this with USB 3.0, as well as USB 2.0 interface.

The first thing that we noticed on opening the box is that drive comes securely packaged in a box with plastic damping material to protect it from mechanical shock damage while in transit. The accessories are neatly packed, thus reducing the chances of them getting lost.

 Bundle
* WD My Book Essential 3 TB
* USB 3.0 Micro-B cable
* Power adapter with cable
* Quick Install Guide

As is usual, WD has provided all the necessary cables required to be used with this drive. No disk was provided with this product, because the software is on the drive. Unlike the My Book 3.0, this drive didn t come with a USB 3.0 card, because it is a value product. A USB 3.0 adapter card is useful for using the drive with older computers with PCI Express slot, which can be instantly upgraded to the newer and faster interface without having to buy a new expensive motherboard.

Design And Features

The My Book Essential is shaped like a small reference book - the reason for its moniker. It has a sturdy black polymer casing with a smooth glossy finish on the larger sides, while there is a shiny WD logo at the front bottom. The spine of the drive has ventilation grills on three sides to facilitate cooling of the WD30EZRS 3 TB 3.5-inch SATA hard drive inside.
There are two rubber feet on the underside of the drive to prevent it from moving around while in use. A power LED present on the front, glows white and blinks during drive activity.

The USB 3.0 port is present at the back of the drive. The new interface is a combination of two interfaces, of which, one is the micro-USB. This can be used to plug in an older USB 2.0 cable if you happen to lose your USB 3.0 cable. Needless to say, the data transfer speeds using the USB 2.0 cable will be similar to what is expected of the older interface. The USB 3.0 cable is thicker than a normal USB cable and seems to be more durable. There is also a socket to connect the power adapter plug, a power button and a Kensington lock at the lower back.

If you connect the My Book to a USB 2.0 port, or if you connect it using a USB 2.0 cable, then you get a pop-up message that suggests you to connect it to a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port.

The drive comes with SmartWare backup and restore software, which is an improvement over the one provided with previous drives. Unlike previous My Book drives, this software is not actually present on the drive itself, but is integrated in the controller circuitry, thus making it impossible to accidentally delete it. When the drive is plugged in, it shows up as a virtual optical drive with the WD SmartWare and a 3 TB removable hard drive.

   WD SmartWare is very easy to use - all you need to do is simply plug in the drive, and SmartWare runs automatically. The Backup software automatically makes backup of your photos, videos, movies and other important files.

This software provides Visual Backup, which allows you to actually see the files present on your computer (on the left) and the files you have backed up to the My Book Essential (on the right) with proper categorization in a graphical format. Continuous incremental backup means the files are continuously backed up as soon as you make any change to the file in your computer. You can choose to save up to 25 versions of a file.

Security is taken care of by 256-bit hardware-based encryption by password protection, thus preventing unauthorized access to your data. Restoring a file is also easy as you can selectively retrieve a particular file or restore the complete backup set.

WD SmartWare available for Mac as well, though we could not test them.

Performance

We used the SiSoftware Sandra Professional synthetic benchmark to gauge the drive's performance and also performed real world file transfer tests. We tested the hard drive by connecting it to USB 3.0 as well as USB 2.0 ports, to get an idea of the performance benefits of USB 3.0 port, and to find out how well it works with the older interface.

SiSoftware Sandra Professional: We created a fresh NTFS partition on the test hard drive and ran the File System benchmark module on the freshly-formatted partition.
The drive index was found to be 101.42 MB/s for USB 3.0, and 28.48 MB/s for USB 2.0, which are good scores.

The File Copy Test: We copied 4 GB of assorted and sequential data to and from the drive, and obtained the following results.
The end results of all these tests indicate that the USB 3.0 interface does speed up things to a great advantage. The drive exhibits satisfactory performance with USB 2.0 as well. To give you some idea, you can transfer 4 GB in just under two and a half minutes.

Power Consumption

We have started taking into account the power consumption of USB hard drives too. The WD My Book Essential consumes 4 W in idle state, while the power consumption increases to 8 W in the ready state. 9 W is the maximum power that it consumes while data transfer is being done internally.

Verdict

The WD My Book Essential 3 TB proves that USB 3.0 is the best thing that has happened to external backup drives in a very long time. Along with the transfer speeds as good as an internal SATA hard drive or an eSATA hard drive, there is the convenience and hot-plug feature of USB. This means that you will no longer have to wait for too long to transfer huge files, such as HD movies, to the hard drive and back. The same applies for backing up entire computers.

Unlike the general impression that a backup drive is supposed to be boring, this one exudes elegance due to its casing with a premium finish and it is built ruggedly as well. It even works with a USB 2.0 cable, just in case you happen to lose the USB 3.0 cable that comes along with it.

If we were to mention some cons, then it would be that this drive does not have a backup button, which would have made life a lot simpler. The WD My Book Essential 3 TB is available at an MRP Rs. 10,990, with a two-year warranty, which makes it a lot more expensive than the 1 TB version available for Rs 4,999 or even the 2 TB for Rs 7,499.

Performance: 4.5
Design and Build Quality: 4
Features: 4
Value: 3.5
Mojo: 4
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5