Neo900 vs Galaxy S4 vs iPhone 5S vs Lumia 1520

Neo900, a true open source phone has just met its pre order goal and will soon go into production. But, how does it compares with iPhone 5S and much much powerful Samsung Galaxy S4. Or what about the huge Lumia 1520 windows phone with all the latest tech sliced in? Well, if you are looking for an established eco system (iPhone 5S) or a screaming fast processor (Think S4 and 1520), or a high resolution display (1520, S4) with ultra high PPI (S4), then you should probably stay away from the Neo900.

Neo900 vs Galaxy S4 vs iPhone 5S vs Lumia 1520

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Intel SoFIA, Broxton Atom Processor Release Date

Intel has announced two new processors – first is SoFIA (codename), and its release date is sometime next year. The second one is Braxton, which is slated to be released in 2015. SoFIA will be introduced in H2 2014, and it is based on the Atom processor. It will feature integrated 3G radio, while will allow laptop manufactures to offer low-powered tablets and thin laptops with built in 3G connectivity.

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Mouse Computer MDV-GZ7200X4 Water Cooled Desktop

Mouse Computer  has released a high end desktop PC equipped with the GeForce GTX Ti 780. Specs include Core i7-4770 (3.4GHz), GeForce GTX 780 Ti (3GB) video card, Intel Z87 Express chipset, 8GB memory, 1TB HDD, DVD Super Multi drive, Windows 8.1  64bit operating system. Price is 189,840 yen, but if you go the higher model that costs 199,500 yen, you will get an extra 128GB SSD to spend up the system.

Mouse Computer MDV-GZ7200X4 Water Cooled Desktop review

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Epson Endeavor NJ3900E Launched

Epson Direct Corporation has launched a 15.6 inch laptop computer called Endeavor NJ3900E. Prices start at 66,150 Yen ($640) for the starting configuration. Specs include 15.6 inch screen, 1366×768 pixel resolution, Intel Celeron 2950M processor, 2 gigabytes of RAM, 250GB hard disk drive, DVD ROM drive, and windows 8.1 64 bit operating system.

Epson Endeavor NJ3900E review

Port and connectivity include 2x USB 3.0 ports, 2x USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, SDXC card slot, webcam, headphone / microphone jack, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and TPM security chip. Battery life is said be 6.6 hours, but with the optional full HD display, it gets reduced to 5.6 hours.

Epson Endeavor NJ3900E specs price

The Epson Endeavor NJ3900E  measures 388 × 265 × 26mm and weighs about 2.4 kilograms. You can find its official product page here.

Logitech Ultra Slim Keyboard Cover for Ipad Air (TF715, TF925)

Logitech has churned out an ultra slim keyboard cover for the Apple iPad Air. Its model number TF715 and it connects via Bluetooth. The package includes cover, stand, the keyboard itself. It is priced at 10,800 Yen in Japan. Choice of color is black or white. The Logitech Ultra Slim Keyboard Cover for Ipad Air measures 240 × 169.5 × 7.3mm and weighs 336 grams. As said earlier, it can be used both as keyboard and stand.

Logitech Ultra Slim Keyboard Cover for Ipad Air TF715

Second keyboard model, TF925 , a k a Fabric skin Keyboard Folio is available in three colors -  carbon black, Mars red orange, urban gray, and is priced at 14,800 yen. This is how it looks like.

Logitech Ultra Slim Keyboard Cover for Ipad Air TF925

The keyboard layout is English and key pitch is 19 mm. Key stroke is 1.3 mm. All come with a built in lithium ion battery too, which can be later charged via micro USB port. It gives you 3 hours of additional time.

Zotac Tegra Note 7 Review

Nvidia has announced 7 inch android tablet for the domestic Japanese market, and it is called Tegra Note 7. It is priced at 25,800 Japanese Yen, and will be released on December 4, 2013. This tablet is sold by Hong Kong’s ZOTAC. This is how its packaging looks like. Specs wise, it is very powerful. You get a Nvidia Tegra 4 five core processor based on ARM Cortex A15 architecture, 1.8 GHz clock speed, 1GB RAM, 16GB flash storage, Android 4.2.2 operating system, 7 inch IPS display, 1280×800 pixel resolution, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, and up to 10 hours of battery life.

Nvidia Tegra Note 7 Review

Back of the Nvidia Tegra Note 7 tablet is very unique. Speaker is on the left and right side of the display. bass is pretty good for such small speakers. There is a 5 megapixel camera on the back for taking pictures.

Nvidia Tegra 4 Note 7 Review

Right now, it runs Android 4.2.2, but the company is promising an OTA update that will upgrade it to Android 4.3 that brings the much needed TRIM support that prevents the tablet from slowing down after some usage.  It comes with a stand which can be positioned in 3 ways.

Nvidia Tegra 4 Note 7 Review stand

It has a stylus on the top left. This is how it looks like.

Nvidia Tegra Note 7 stylus

Tegra Note 7    Nexus 7 (2013)    Nexus 7 (2012)
Ice Storm Unlimited    Ice Storm score    16,001    10,733    3,248
Graphics score    16,748    10,489    2,814
Physics score    13,841    11,682    7,055
Graphics test 1    92.1 FPS    52.9 FPS    12.4 FPS
Graphics test 2    57.4 FPS    39.5 FPS    12.1 FPS
Physics test    44.8 FPS    36.4 FPS    22.4 FPS

Kiano Elegance 9.7 3G Review

Design and Construction

On the right side, we find the RESET button, charging socket, Micro HDMI slot, Micro USB, mini-jack and a single speaker. There are also two physical buttons on the side. It comes with a high-resolution display, and compared to the Wi-Fi only model, it has the SIM card slot, which is located on the bottom, right next to the micro SD card slot. With 240 x 176 x 10 millimeters dimension, it measures same as Wi-Fi model, but weighs slightly more, about 15 grams heavier(605 grams).

Kiano Elegance 9.7 3G Review

Kiano Elegance 9.7 3G Screen

Kiano used a 9.7-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. So we get a density of 132 PPI – this is not a particularly high value and difficult to consider it as an advantage. Since it uses IPS, the viewing angles are excellent, and so are the white balance and color reproduction levels. Brightness on the other hand, is mere 300 cd/m2.

Kiano Elegance 9.7 3G Specs

Dimensions    240 x 178 x 10 mm
Weight    605 grams
Colors    gray / black
Screen    9.7 "
Screen Type    IPS touch screen, capacitive, multi-touch support
Resolution    1024 x 768 px
Processor    Rockchip RK3188, 4-core, 1.6 GHz
GPU    4-core Mali-400
RAM    1 GB RAM
Usable Memory    8 GB
Media    microSD
System    Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
Battery    7800 mAh
Main camera    2 MP
Front camera    0.3 MP
3G Modem    so
WLAN    802.11 a / b / g / n
Bluetooth    so
USB    microUSB
GPS    not
HDMI    yes, Micro HDMI
What is in the box    Tablet, Charger, USB cable, Warranty Card, Manual

Kiano Elegance 9.7 3G Battery life

The tablet comes with a 7800 mAh battery. With brightness set to 120 cd/m2, you can watch a movie for nearly 9 hours in a row / surf the internet for more than 10 hours. 3G web browsing will yield 7 hours of runtime. Brightness levels play  a big part in overall battery runtimes.

Performance and Benchmarks

It is powered by rockchip RK3188 processor that is quad core and based on Cortex A9 architecture. It has clock frequency of 1.6 GHz and has 4 core Mali 400 GPU to handle graphics. Here are its benchmark results.

1. 3DMark – 3381
2. Peacekeeper (chrome / stock) – 684 / 765
3. Sunspider – 1207
4. Kraken – 13470

Kiano Elegance 9.7 3G Review Test

The tablet runs very smooth, and is very optimized. There are no hangups or slowdowns.

Kiano Elegance 9.7 3G Review Summary

Kiano Elegance 9.7 3G tablet is a well designed device. It does not have a high resolution display, but does that affects us? Not at 9.7 inches. Given its price and built in 3G connectivity, you just cannot complain about lack of retina display.