<div>Combine satin red with the sleek, slim clean-cut lines of an ultrabook, and you have quite a looker on your hands — one that you would associate more with pleasure than with business. But the Fujitsu U772 Lifebook (how many books can the world handle?) is kitted out to be a business product. It has the kind of chipset, connectors and security features (such as biometrics) that will be welcomed at work. It has anti-theft protection and an optional port replicator, which allows docking and connection to a corporate network and peripherals. This thin, light 14-inch ultrabook runs on an Intel Ivy Bridge Core i4 processor, has 4GB of RAM and a 32GB solid state drive. The screen is comfortable and I was quickly able to customise the environment. It’s running on Windows 7 for now. It works fast enough, boots up quickly, and the battery lasts for about six hours of not-too-heavy use. Incidentally, you can use the laptop’s USB port to charge a device even when it’s asleep or off.<br /> </div><div>While the look and feel of this ultrabook is premium, specially on the outside, it has one of the worst keyboards possible. The entire keyboard is deeply set in the chassis so that the keys — which are by no means soft and responsive anyway — have no play; no room to be pressed. The result is that the feedback that would normally go back through your fingers doesn’t, and you end up making mistakes, as the space bar also doesn’t press with the right amount of spring, making words run together. The surface of the keys is rough and the notches that denote the home keys for touch typists are confusingly placed. The keyboard is a real pity, considering that the ultrabook has a lot else going for it. But if you can’t type fast enough, no amount of hardware power, security features and looks can make up for it. <br /> </div><div>There are more models in this series of ultrabooks and prices start from Rs 75,900.<br /> </div><div><strong>Enthusiasts, Go Small</strong></div><div>Squeezed into a small, purse-fit black metallic body is a whole lot of capability you typically don’t see in</div><table width="200" cellspacing="6" cellpadding="6" border="0" align="right"><tbody><tr><td><img width="250" vspace="6" hspace="6" height="196" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=7f3bbdc7-c858-4f43-9e8c-1b1fa3cc6522&groupId=222922&t=1350720349997" alt="" /></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); "><strong>SONY CYBERSHOT DSC RX100: A novice-friendly camera that is complex enough for enthusiasts</strong></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div>a compact camera. The recently released Sony Cybershot DSC RX100 is being compared with the Canon S100 which is also at the top end of the point-and-shoot food chain, offering more than just casual photography. This one, as it turns out, is so capable that it’s being referred to as a DSLR in a compact body.<br /> </div><div>The build of this camera is not to be glossed over. It has a solid, high-end finish and finesse, and doesn’t feel like the throwaround point-and-shoots you get these days. It has a 20-megapoxel 1-inch Exmor R sensor and F1.8-4.9 aperture in an extruding Carl Zeiss lens. It’s very fast and has great low-light performance — unlike many devices that promise this and don’t deliver. Focus is great. A beautifully built pop-up flash is instant and can be tilted to aim upwards and diffuse the light. The controls are nice with a function ring around the lens being particularly smooth and intuitive to use. It’s novice friendly and yet complex enough for enthusiasts. And yes, it does handle RAW files.<br /> </div><div>Sony’s WhiteMagic technology is used on this, along with excellent image stabilisation. The colours are accurate and the pictures clear, and you get good depth of field. Obviously, it doesn’t match up to “real” DSLRs, but it certainly holds its own against entry-level ones.<br /> </div><div>The RX100 is now available only from the main Sony Centres. Like everything else Sony, it is by no</div><table width="200" cellspacing="6" cellpadding="6" border="0" align="right"><tbody><tr><td><img width="150" vspace="6" hspace="6" height="258" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=af5603d6-12ac-4593-bd21-2df216b87edb&groupId=222922&t=1350720422808" alt="" /></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); "><strong>SONY XPERIA TIPO: Aimed at the youth, this Android phone is music-focused with preloaded apps for Bollywood songs</strong></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div>means cheap at Rs 34,999. But here’s my disclosure. Not wanting to carry around a big camera, I went out and bought it after spending time with a review unit. The low light capabilities won me over completely. You can’t put the RX100 in your pocket — it’s a little too heavy for that. But in a small case hooked to your belt or slung carefully across to nestle on your hip, you won’t even feel it.<br /> </div><div><strong>Forever Young</strong></div><div>Expected to be picked up by young people who may well be getting their first phone, the Sony Xperia tipo (also known as Tapioca) is priced at Rs 9,999 and comes in colours (red, white, blue and black) that are likely to appeal to the segment it’s meant for. Smartly, there’s a dual-sim (GSM-GSM) variant for Rs 10,449. Inter-estingly, it has also been introduced in the US, though it’s targeted at markets like India.<br /> </div><div>This 3.2-inch phone is well designed and it’s light without feeling cheap. It’s hand-friendly, and allows your fingers curl to around it comfortably. Think one-handed texting. The back is a nice matte finish plastic like the HTC One X’s — that’s the way to do plastic. Buttons are minimalistic. Opening the back to get at the 1200 mAh battery isn’t difficult, but you do stop to wonder whether you might end up scratching the matte cover with your nails.<br /> </div><div>The tipo is a standard Android phone, running ICS 4.0.4 on a single-core 800MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with the expected 512MB of RAM. There’s also the usual 4GB of internal storage and 50GB of cloud storage. The camera is a 3.2 megapixel one and well, don’t expect miracles from it. The screen, a TFT display with 480x320 pixel resolution, is okay. It is music-focused with preloaded apps for Bollywood songs. All in all, the tipo is a worthy contender to the Samsung Galaxy Y, (which has a marginally faster processor but less recent software) and other phones recently been launched in the Android budget category. <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; ">(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 29-10-2012)</span><br /><br /> </div>
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
