Budget Laptops: Dell Chromebook 13 7310

There are a lot of Chromebooks on the market today, however most of them are cheap and clunky. The Dell Chromebook 13 is more refined and the target market are business class users who prefers more durable and professional Chromebooks.

The Dell Chromebook 13 prices range from $400 all the way up to $800. The first thing that you'll notice about Dell Chromebook 13 is that it looks sturdy and has an elegant style. The exterior is made from carbon fiber, and the chasis is magnesium alloy unlike most Chromebooks which are made of plastic. The viewing pleasure if sharp and clear with its IPS screen (1920×1080 matte). The keyboard has backlit, soft to type, and it is very responsive.

It's really fast even with a Intel Core i3 i3-5005U. In terms of connectivity, it has USB 2.0 port on the right and a USB 3.0 port, HDMI port, microSD card slot, and combo headphone/mic jack on the left.

Dell Chromebook 13 13.3" Notebook - Intel Core i3 i3-5005U Dual-core (2 Core) 2 GHz - Black RTGY4 $493.87

North America Smartphone Sales Dropped 6.5% in the fourth quarter of 2015

Smartphone business is now highly saturated specifically in the high end models from established Samsung and Apple and, from Chinese makers like Huawei and Xiaomi. According to a report from GfK a research firm from Nuremberg, Germany smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2015 reached $23.9 billion in North America which decreased from $25.6 billion for the fourth quarter of 2014.

In the U.S., smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2015 was $20.5 billion, down from $21.8 billion for the same periods.

Other region which experience major declines in the fourth quarter of 2015 was Latin America, which saw a 12.7% decrease. In Cenral and Eastern Europe the sales in value decreases by 10.8% though their unit sold actually increased by 3.6%.

However, in China smartphone sales are experiencing huge increase of 12%. China’s influence is massive, with double the number of smartphones sold compared to any other region, at 106 million for the quarter, GfK reported.

iPhone
Samsung
Xiaomi
Huawei

HP Elite X3, designed to replace your smartphone, laptop and PC

HP is trying to launch a major comeback with their innovative gadget called the "HP Elite X3" that is designed to replace your smartphone, laptop and PC. HP Elite x3 has the power and productivity of a PC, the portability of a tablet, and smartphone connectivity in a sleek and secure device that can dock with your screens and keyboards when you need to work big.

The sleek and very powerful HP Elite X3 runs on Windows 10 Mobile. It's a huge phone at 5.9-inches. They battery is 4150mAh. Inside is 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 820.

HP Elite X3 allows the user to connect the phone to desktop monitor, ethernet and USB. The Windows 10 continuum when the phone is docked the OS converts from mobile to desktop.

HP which chosed concentrate on more successful ventures like PCs and printers, is now back in the smartphone business with a really powerful smartphone.

The HP Elite x3 is designed for business, it has business-grade security, HP support, and durability that’s dust and water resistant and designed to pass MIL-STD 810G testing.

HP Products

Budget Laptops: HP Stream 11

 
Key Features: 11.6-inch screen size, 1,366 x 768 display; weights 1.28kg; 2GB RAM; 32GB internal storage; SD card slot; USB 2.0; USB 3.0; HDMI
Part Number: N5X87UA#ABA

The HP Stream 11 is an awesome budget friendly laptop for casual users. If you are a heavy user you'll find it very limiting. It is particulary target students. Even though that it has a basic specs, for its price it's well worth it. It is encased in a simple plastic shell with different colors to choose from - blue, purple and silver. It offers a decent battery life. It is a Windows-based PC that lets you store your content in the cloud for easy access anywhere you are.

The keyboard has large keys, easy for speed typing that is essential for multi-tasking. The 2015 version of HP Stream 11 is powered by Intel Celeron processor which is powerful enough for web surfing, writing documents, playing light graphic games, or streaming HD videos.

The internal storage is limiting at just 32GB, that will even be less after you've taken out the Windows 10 files. The laptop is more of a cloud and streaming device. Connectivity included are single USB 3.0 port, microSD-card reader and an HDMI output.

Price:
HP Stream 11 $199.99 Amazon

Product specifications

Operating system: Windows 10 Home 64
Processor: Intel® Celeron® N3050 with Intel® HD Graphics (1.6 GHz, up to 2.16 GHz, 2 MB cache, 2 cores)
Processor technology: Intel Turbo Boost Technology
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics
Display: 11.6" diagonal HD anti-glare LED-backlit (1366 x 768)
Memory: 2 GB DDR3L SDRAM (onboard)
Hard drive: 32 GB eMMC
Wireless: 802.11b/g/n (1x1) and Bluetooth® 4.0 combo
Power supply: 45 W AC power adapter
Battery: 2-cell, 37.69 Wh Li-ion polymer
Ports: 1 USB 2.0; 1 USB 3.0; 1 HDMI; 1 headphone/microphone combo
Expansion slots: 1 multi-format SD media card reader
Energy efficiency: ENERGY STAR® certified; EPEAT® Silver registered
Webcam: HP TrueVision HD Webcam (front-facing) with integrated dual array digital microphone
Audio: DTS Studio Sound™
Pointing device: HP Imagepad with multi-touch gesture support
Keyboard: Full-size island-style
Dimensions (W X D X H): 11.81 x 8.1 x 0.72 in
Weight: 2.6 lb

Google Play Store: Up to 50% Off for In-App Purchases

The Google Play Store which boast over a million apps for Android users is having a big sale, they are offering up to 50% discount on in-app purchases built into several games available on the Play Store. All the 57 games included in the offer are free to download and install, and the discount that’s being offered is only valid on in-app purchases within those games only.

The discount is applicable on a wide range of games like Mobile Strike from Epic War, The Sims FreePlay from EA, Jurassic World from Ludia Inc. Cookie Jam from SGN and other popular titles on the Play Store.

Amazon Fire Tablet 7"

Amazon Fire, 7" Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers. $49.99 

Amazon Fire is an amazing product, you can do a lot with it. For me it's the best entertainment gadget, you can watch movies, TV shows, listen to music, surf the web, play games, read E-books etc.

Amazon Fire has 7" inches IPS display (171 ppi / 1024 x 600) and it runs on 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. It has 8 GB of internal storage, so plenty of space for your games, photos, movies, Ebooks and music. It also comes with free unlimited cloud storage for all Amazon content and photos taken with Fire devices. Internal storage is expandable with a microSD card for up to 128 GB of additional storage.

Battery life can go up to 7 hours for reading, surfing the web, watching videos, and listening to music.

The user interface is Fire OS 5 designed for quick access to your apps and content plus personalized recommendations that make it easy to discover new favorites.

Amazon Underground, a one-of-a-kind app store experience where over $10,000 in apps, games and even in-app items are actually free - including extra lives, unlocked levels, unlimited add-on packs and more

Enjoy more than 38 million movies, TV shows (Amazon Video, Netflix, HBO NOW), songs, Ebooks, apps and games. However, it doesn't have 4G connectivity.

The best thing about the Amazon Fire Tablet 7" is the price it's only at $49.99 on Amazon.


This really works for me since I used it mostly on Ebooks, web surfing, listening to music, light games, some movies and TV shows. However, if you are a gamer or a movie junkie who loves to watch with a clearer and crisp display and you have money to spare then go with the Fire HD:

Fire HD 6" $99.99
NEW - Fire HD 8" $149.99
NEW - Fire HD 10.1" $229.99



Full Specification Amazon Fire Tablet 7":

Display:    7" touchscreen, 1024 x 600 resolution at 171 ppi, SD video playback, with IPS (in-plane switching) technology and advanced polarizing filter
Size:    7.5" x 4.5" x 0.4" (191 x 115 x 10.6 mm)
Weight:    11.0 ounces (313 grams)
Actual size and weight may vary by configuration and manufacturing process
CPU & RAM:    Quad-Core 1.3 GHz with 1 GB of RAM
Storage:    8 GB of internal storage (4.5 GB available to user). Add microSD card for up to 128 GB of additional storage for even more movies, TV shows, music, photos, personal videos, and apps. Some apps may require that they are installed on internal storage.
Battery Life:    Up to 7 hours of reading, surfing the web, watching video, and listening to music. Battery life will vary based on device settings, usage, and other factors such as web browsing and downloading content. Actual results may vary.

Charge Time:    Fully charges in under 6 hours using the micro-USB power adapter included in the box, or slightly longer with other micro-USB power adapters that you may already have
Wi-Fi Connectivity:    Single-antenna Wi-Fi. Supports public and private Wi-Fi networks or hotspots that use the 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n standard with support for WEP, WPA, and WPA2 security using password authentication; does not support connecting to ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) Wi-Fi networks.
Ports:    USB 2.0 (micro-B connector) to connect to a PC/Macintosh computer, or to charge your device with the included power adapter; microSD slot for external storage
Audio :  3.5 mm stereo jack and integrated speaker
Content Formats Supported:    Kindle (AZW), KF8, TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible Enhanced format (AAX), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, PCM/WAVE, OGG, WAV, M4V, MP4, AAC LC/LTP, HE-AACv1, HE-AACv2, MKV, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, HTML5, CSS3, 3GP, VP8 (WEBM)
Sensors:    Accelerometer
Camera Specs:    VGA front-facing camera. 2 MP rear-facing HD camera
Location Services:    Location-based services via Wi-Fi
Available Colors:    Black
Additional Features:    External volume controls, built-in Bluetooth with support for A2DP compatible stereo headphones, speakers, microphone, and LE accessories support
Accessibility Features:    VoiceView and Screen Magnifier enable access to the vast majority of Fire tablet features. VoiceView features IVONA's award-winning natural language text-to-speech voice. Fire OS 5 also includes system wide closed caption settings, adjustable font sizes up to 50% larger, and a variety of book reading text adjustments such as adjustable colors and text spacing. Also includes adjustable font sizes/color, and built-in Oxford dictionary

CES 2016: Budget 4K HDTVs (UHD) TCL, Hisense, Sharp, and Vizio

Ultra high-definition (UHD or 4K) televisions are also ultra expensive that can leave a huge hole on your wallet. Good thing TCL, Hisense, Sharp, and Vizio have unveiled budget friendly and midrange 4K television lines for the coming year.

Vizio
Vizio unveiled their 4K D-series HDTVs - D series is a budget HDTV line. 50 inches and above have UHD resolution (3,840 by 2,160). Price: 50-inch D50u-D1 $729.99, 65-inch D65u-D2 $1,299.99

TCL
TCL announced the 2 new lines of 4K-capable Roku TVs, connected televisions that use Roku's interface and streaming media ecosystem.

The US5800 and UP130 series are the first UHD Roku TVs to hit the market.

Price: 55-inch US5800 less than $600, 65-inch US5800 less than $1,000

The UP130 series features will have better design and a remote control with built-in microphone and headphone jack, and will retail for approximately $100 more than the equivalent US5800 models. Both lines will be available in 43-, 50-, 55-, and 65-inch versions this spring.

Hisense

Hisense ULED 3.0 technology high-end models. The latest version of ULED will have up to 576 separate lighting zones for local dimming, quantum dot technology capable of 91.2% of the Rec.2020 color space, and a peak brightness of cd/m2. ULED 3.0 will be featured in Hisense's 55H9 and 65H10 series, though only the H10 will incorporate quantum dot technology.

The 55-inch H9 and 65-inch H10 will be available in February, both have curved screens and be capable of displaying HDR content.

Price: 55H9 $999.99, 65H10B $2,799.99.

Hisense also announced the H7 and H8 4K HDTV lines. These HDTVs won't be able to show HDR content as intended, but they will be able to decode HDR content to fit the capability of their panels, and will be much less expensive than the H9 and H10 models. The H8 line uses local dimming to improve contrast, while the H7 series uses constant backlighting (or edge lighting for the 65-inch model). The H7 series will ship in February and range from $399.99 for the 43-inch 43H7C to $1,299 for the 65-inch 65H7C. The H8 series will ship in April, and include the 50-inch $599.99 50H8C and the 55-inch $699.99 55H8C.

Sharp

Sharp Aquos new flagship N9000 series boast the SPECTROS quantum dot technology and featuring HDR capabilities.

65-inch LC-65N9000U $2,999.99  Sharp's first curved 4K HDTV
70-inch LC-70N9100U $3,299.99 Flat panel
70-inch LC-70N8100U model support HDR but it does not have the quantum dot technology.

Other set in the N8000 series, the 65-inch LC-75N800U will only be able to decode HDR, and not be specifically HDR-capable in what it can display. The 70N8100U and the 75N8000U will retail for $2,299.99 and $2,999.99, respectively, when they ship in March alongside the 65N9000U. The 70N9100U will be available in July.