Business Articles

Achilles' heel. The ThinkPad S440 is one of the newest ultrabooks from Lenovo: slim, powerful and enduring. With its current components, clever features and a matted multitouch display the Lenovo ultrabook might be able to put itself right at the top of the competition. We found out if it really does.

Big screen tablet. Smartphones are growing so browsing and gaming becomes more pleasant. Tablets are growing so we can work more productively and performantly. Is Asus heading in the right direction?

Austerity measures? Following the exceptional BlackBerry Q10, the Canadian manufacturer releases an even less expensive version on the market dubbed BlackBerry Q5. For an RRP of 399 Euros (~$534), the smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard inherits a lot of traits from its Q10 sister model, such as a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus SoC with 1.2 GHz, 8 GB of flash memory and 2 GB of RAM.

Office giant with stamina. Lenovo offers an inexpensive office notebook with the G700. Despite the good battery runtimes it is however not a very mobile device with its 17-inch display.

Work(station) zone! MSI makes a foray into the realm of professional workstations and challenges the well-established brands with a vivid Full-HD display, SSD RAID, Nvidia Quadro K2000M GPU, and Intel quad-core CPU. The notebook looks like a pretty compelling package - but can it threaten the workstation-elite?

The PC in your hands. Leap Motion wants to revolutionize the way we control our PCs and laptops. A small controller recognizes hand and finger movements and is supposedly significantly more reliable in translating movement than Microsoft's Kinect technology. Is the new control method ready for prime-time?

Red Baron. After the Pro 11 we have a closer look at the 13-inch Red Edition. How much polish can an elitist business notebook handle? How much performance can the just 10 mm thin base unit keep cool? Our review gives the answers.

Haswell. The name of Intel's new CPU generation has been branded in our minds. After meticulous preparations, we reviewed 13 test samples with the new chip in June. Initially, we focused on the Core i7. However, Apple's new Air comes with a Core i5. In addition, we tested many new high-end GeForce models, from GTX 760M to GTX 780M combined with Extreme quad-cores.

Affordable productivity. Lenovo’s latest update to the ThinkPad Edge series brings with it incremental hardware updates and some fresh connectivity options. Can it stand alongside its competition?

One plug to rule them all. While traditional ThinkPad laptops have always been afforded the luxury of a built-in docking port, ThinkPad Edge owners have had to survive with less-than-ideal USB-based solutions. The ThinkPad OneLink Dock looks to change all of that by way of a proprietary combination charging and data port. Is it worth your time?

Dell is quick... and offers one of the first business notebook based on the latest Intel Haswell architecture. For 1,860 Euros (~$2455) you get a powerful Intel Core i7-4800MQ in combination with an AMD Radeon HD 8790M and a small SSD.

Inexpensive business Ultrabook. The 21 mm thin business device from Asus has a 15.6-inch display and combines an Ivy Bridge processor, Nvidia's GT 740M and an SSD cache storage solution with a premium aluminum case. You can buy all that for just 650 Euros ($~851), but what are the drawbacks?

BlackBerry strikes again. May was dominated by Samsung, but June is quite different. The BlackBerry Q10 clearly wins in smartphones, but, we could not elect a sole winner in tablets. Three devices including the waterproof Sony Xperia Tablet Z share the first place.

Solid basis. Toshiba's HG5d series is especially designed for the OEM market and could be used as mass storage devices in notebooks in the future. Transfer rates of about 500 MB/s, 256 GB capacity and a low weight are a sound basis. We checked whether the solid state drive is totally convincing.

Unlimited mobility. A tablet for the meeting, a notebook for the workspace - Lenovo's ThinkPad Helix is supposed to combine the advantages of both devices. The clever ultrabook hybrid ignores conventional wisdom concerning convertibles, leaving a lasting impression due to its mobility and office strengths.

Calm before the storm. The wait for Intel's Haswell generation shrunk the volume of our devices for review - we had a grand total of 15 test devices this month. But we certainly didn't have a dearth of exciting convertibles (an 18-incher!), elegant subnotebooks (IPS panel & Radeon HD 8570M), and even a flat business classic with an HD+ panel.

Back to its roots. BlackBerry has successfully launched the vanguard of its new OS Blackberry 10 with the Z10 model. Now the Canadian manufacturer introduces the Q10 - a purebred business smartphone. The hardware is largely identical, but the Q10 wants to impress with a physical QWERTY keyboard and a 3.1-inch touchscreen. So, is this new blackberry mix tasty?

AMD Elite graphics. HP offers the Elitebook 8570w mobile workstation in several configurations. This one is a combination of the Intel Core i5-3360 CPU, AMD’s professional FirePro M4000 graphics and the mandatory Full HD screen. This is certainly not the ultimate hardware money can buy, but for an affordable workstation, we try to evaluate its suitability.

Mobile business companion. Asus offers a slim, lightweight 15.6-inch office laptop with a matte display for business customers. Thanks to its ULV processor, the PU500CA promises to be an untiring workhorse. Our review will show whether this claim is met.

Samsung offensive. In May, the South Korean group sounded the charge in the categories smartphones and tablets. However, the long awaited Samsung Galaxy S4 top smartphone could not win first place in our top 10. The other devices were not as exciting as the S4. Nevertheless, it was not boring in May.

Business with sound. Slim-business is en vogue. The Taiwanese manufacturer uses its aluminum unibody know-how from the Zenbooks and creates an impressive chassis. The keyboard features a long drop and the maintenance options are A-one. Regrettably, Asus blunders in one vital point.

Chief and Indians. In April, we reviewed a lot of smartphones and tablets - more than ever before. The HTC One from the Taiwanese company clearly stands out from the huge crowd of mid-range models. The pre-series Sony Xperia Tablet Z is an interesting model too.

A reimagined T Series. It is the thinnest and lightest ThinkPad T Series model to date, but does it retain the rigidity and longevity of its predecessors? Lenovo is betting big on a new slimmer design and revamped touchpad to attract the attention of Ultrabook customers. Find out in this review if these hardware tweaks have paid off.

Better displays. More and more test devices attract attention with decent contrast, high brightness and the wide viewing angles of an IPS solution. However, the winners do more than show what a notebook display is expected to deliver.

An intermediate step. Dell's Latitude XT3 is a convertible PC in the classic sense - the display rotates and folds down. While the notebook offers nearly every kind of connection your heart could desire, the inner components lag a little behind the times. Our extensive review assesses the quality of the overall package.

Surprise candidate. It doesn't always have to be a Latitude, ThinkPad or EliteBook when thinking about a professional laptop. Samsung sends a well bundled package into the race with the Series 6 test model, which competes against the established competition. We exhaustively tested whether it is successful in every field.

A classic. The business convertible HP EliteBook 2760p has its roots in the HP Compaq 2710p, which debuted back in 2007. But while HP continually updated the internal components, the chassis remained largely unchanged. How well was HP able to keep the system up-to-date and is it still a viable choice in 2013?

Serious little thing. A 14-inch screen, Intel Core i5-3320M CPU and comprehensive features: Toshiba enters the stage for business notebooks once again and praises the Tecra R940-1FL as the perfect companion for business trips. Our review shows if business customers should have a closer look.

Quiet workhorse. A powerful Core i5 processor combined with a matte display and a 1 TB hard drive; theoretically, these features should make the Lenovo B580 a workhorse for the office. Whether or not this notebook can justifiably be allocated to this category will be revealed by our review.