Green Pixel's 13th Annivesary (Source: adhugger.net)

As those examples receive more votes, more fingers crossed actually, the agency’s team will consider to be more protected in this year of activity. The activities are rather fun to read about and to imagine, but not to happen. They hope every user has some fun with the application and the agency to receive some more recognition.

Green Pixel has managed to sustain an impressive number of digital projects for companies in Romania and received a lot of awards and recognition. They hope to be able to continue their activity and their aim is to consolidate their position on the market.

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Green Pixel On The Verge Of Good Luck (Source: adhugger.net)

Green Pixel in an interactive agency which was founded back in 1999, meaning that this year they are turning… yes, 13! Well, since they are known for their creativity, the team thought that an app where people could keep their finger crossed and with them good luck, could prevent bad things from happening. Of course, this is all a fictive thing, but it is said that if you really believe in something, the whole universe will conspire in your favor. Actually, I think only Coelho said that.

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Toshiba Satellite L655-S5161x (Source: us.toshiba.com)

As you would expect from a laptop that has an Intel Core processor, this Satellite model comes with an integrated HD 3000 graphics chip that borrows the necessary memory from the system’s RAM. This means that this isn’t the laptop to get if you plan on playing games as it can run World of Warcraft in autodetect mode at 42 fps, a great result but no way near in comparison to laptops with dedicated GPUs.

You mustn’t worry about the heat generated by this notebook as the Intel-powered model remains mostly cool at all times, with the highest registered temperature being near the vent where it hits 96 degrees. The AMD version is not only warmer than the Intel one but it also runs considerably louder.

Connecting to a Wi-Fi network is done with the help of the Realtek RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n wireless card which can provide mixed results as sometimes it offers great download speeds while from time to time the download and upload speeds are quite low.

Toshiba Satellite L655-S5161x (Source: us.toshiba.com)

Let’s talk about the software that comes bundled with this Toshiba Satellite L655-S5161x. It comes with support for built-in recognition, Toshiba App Place, Bulletin Board and Book Place which is an e-reader powered by Blio. In addition, the laptop comes pre-loaded with Microsoft Office Starter Edition, Google Chrome, Skype and a trial version of Norton Internet Security.

If you don’t know whether to get the Intel or the AMD version, we would like to recommend getting the former as even though it is a little bit more expensive it manages to be a lot faster, has a better battery life and it also runs cooler and more silent. Other similarly priced laptops that you might want to consider include the attractive Samsung RV511 or the HP G6x.

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Toshiba sells this model with various finishes, including Helios White, Helios Red and Helios Brown. The keyboard has a glossy black finish, while the laptop’s underside has a matte black plastic construction. It weighs 5.4 pounds and measures 14.9 x 9.8 x 1.5 inches so it should be easy enough for most people to carry it around from one room to the other, but we’ve seen lighter and slimmer laptops in this segment.

Toshiba L655-S5161x (Source: us.toshiba.com)

It comes with a glossy black keyboard that has a dedicated numeric pad sitting on the right. This is a spacious keyboard but the spacebar could have been a little bit bigger for a more comfortable use. In addition, we would have preferred that the function keys were inverted so that it wasn’t necessary to press the Fn key to do various simple tasks like muting the audio or dimming the screen.

The touchpad sitting below the keyboard measures 3.25 x 1.6 inches and has a matte finish which provides a suitable amount of finger resistance. It’s large enough to do multitouch gestures without any problems, while its rounded mouse buttons are recessed into a shallow oval well, overhanging the touchpad’s edges by approximately 0.5 inches on both sides.

The Toshiba Satellite L655-S5161x comes with a standard 15.6-inch screen that has a maximum resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels which manages to provide good color accuracy and it gets quite bright as well.

Toshiba L655-S5161x (Source: us.toshiba.com)

It has the same selection of ports as its AMD-powered sibling, except for the fact that it doesn’t come with the eSATA / USB combo port. Sitting on the left spine is one USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port, the Kensington lock slot, as well as the microphone and headphone jacks. To the right you’ll have access to two additional USB 2.0 ports along with the SuperMulti DVD burner. Below the right mouse button of the touchpad sits the five-in-one memory card reader. This laptop also comes with a VGA webcam that produces only dull images and videos so it’s not suitable for those of you that plan on doing a lot of web chatting.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about the hardware specifications of this Toshiba Satellite L655-S5161x, along with mentioning a few things about the software included and the performance of the battery. Stay tuned.

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ASUS N43SL Jay Chou Special Edition (Source: asus.com)

On the left side of the laptop you are going to find two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI port, Ethernet jack, as well as the usual headphone and microphone jacks. On the right spine Asus has installed another USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.0 port, along with the Blu-ray optical drive. On the back of this special N43SL laptop is the VGA port as well as the power. On the front right side sits the SD card slot. There’s also a two megapixel webcam of below average quality which takes mostly blurry and grainy shots while the colors are washed out.

At the heart of the Asus N43SL Jay Chou Special Edition is a second-gen Intel Core i5-2430M processor running at 2.40 GHz. It is configured with 6GB of DDR3 memory which allows the laptop to score a little over 2,000 points in PCMark07 which is less than the average in this segment. For storage it has a large 750GB SATA HDD rotating at a speed of 5,400 rpm which can boot the Home Premium version of Windows 7 in about 1 minute and 20 seconds, a lot more than other similar laptops. For example, HP’s Envy 14 will boot the OS in just 50 seconds while the Dell XPS 14z needs a minute.

ASUS N43SL Jay Chou Special Edition (Source: 2.bp.blogspot.com)

Where this Asus laptop is better than other similar models is in the graphics department where it packs the integrated Intel HD 3000 chip and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 540M which has 1GB of VRAM. The notebook comes with Nvidia’s Optimus technology so it can automatically switch from one GPU to the other depending on the demand of the application. Thanks to the dedicated GPU, this special N43SL will score almost 9,000 points in 3DMark06 which is a lot more than the average in this segment.

It has been fitted with a six-cell battery that can provide enough juice for about four and a half hours during the LAPTOP Battery Test that does Internet web surfing from a Wi-Fi network. The laptop is bested by the Envy 14 from HP which lasts for almost 5 hours while the Dell XPS 14z can run the test for almost five and a half hours.

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The plastic lid has a glossy black finish and it’s wearing a baroque circular pattern that has a cooper color finish. The design of this special edition laptop includes musical notes and clefs, along with the French playing card suits: clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds. At the top left of the lid there’s an “incredible J” logo.

ASUS N43SL Jay Chou Special Edition (Source: asus.com)

The laptop’s keyboard and the deck have a black matte finish while running on the deck’s bottom is a selection from the sheet music to “Secret”. You will also notice Jay Chou’s signature at the right bottom corner of the palm rest, while the letter J on the keyboard has a font which reminds us of the Old English typeface. At the top of the deck sits the generous speaker grille which has the same copper color that we’ve already seen on the laptop’s lid.

The Asus N43SL Jay Chou Special Edition measures 13.8 x 9.5 x 1.3 inches and it weighs 5.4 pounds which makes it heavier than the Dell XPS 14z but lighter than the Envy 14 from HP. For that black matte keyboard Asus has decided to adopt a traditional layout so the spacing is a little bit cramped but even so typing on this keyboard is a joy thanks to the fact that the keys are providing a suitable amount of travel. Although it costs about one thousand dollars, the laptop lacks a backlight for the keyboard which is a minor drawback in our opinion since there are other more affordable notebooks that have this feature.

ASUS N43SL Jay Chou Special Edition (Source: asus.com)

Below the traditional keyboard is where you’ll find the ELAN touchpad that measures 3.2 x 2.2 inches which can handle multitouch gestures like two-finger scrolling for example. However, we noticed that it doesn’t offer support for pinch-to-zoom which most of today’s touchpad have. In addition, its size is not that big since the touchpad is smaller than the one found on the XPS 14 and also on the Envy 14. We do appreciate the mouse buttons of this touchpad which remain silent upon press and are also comfortable to use.

Asus fitted this model with a 14-inch LED display that has a native resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels. This is unfortunately a little bit dim but at least the viewing angles are wide and the images are rendered quite crisply.

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Samsung Series 5 NP530U4B (Source: www1.pcmag.com)

On the left side of this ultrabook is the power jack, VGA out, HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports, along with a headphone and microphone combo jack. On the right spine you will have access to a USB 2.0 port, a four-in-one memory card reader and that tray-loading DVD/RW optical drive. Above the display embedded in the bezel is the 1.3 megapixel webcam which manages to be quite good when there’s enough light in the room.

Sammy has fitted this ultrabook with a second-gen Intel Core i5-2467M processor clocked at 1.60 GHz which works together with 4GB of DDR3 RAM, allowing the system to score about 2,000 points in PCMark 07. Aside from the regular 500GB hard drive, this Series 5 ultrabook benefits from a 16GB ExpressCache which improves boot time and it also allows the system to resume from sleep significantly faster. However, it’s still no way near as quick as a proper solid state drive (SSD).

According to the Korean company, this Series 5 model can boot the OS in 20 seconds thanks to the implemented Fast Boot Technology, while waking from sleep mode takes no more than three seconds.

Since this is an ultrabook, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that it lacks a dedicated video card. Instead, you get the usual Intel HD 3000 graphics chip which comes with shared system memory. This is powerful enough to handle 1080p video streaming and other day-to-day tasks but don’t expect it to run the latest games as it can’t. It should however be able to handle some casual and light gaming but no more.

Samsung Series 5 NP530U4B (Source: best-price-india.com)

When it comes down to pre-installed software, the ultrabook packs a 30-day trial of Norton Internet Security, the Starter Edition of Microsoft Office 2010 and WildTangent Games. It also comes with the company’s Easy-branded apps such as Easy Settings, Easy File Share and Easy Software Manager, along with a Software Launcher utility.

The battery that Samsung has installed in this Series 5 NP530U4B ultrabook will last for approximately five and a half hours in LAPTOP Battery Test which is not a very good performance when compared to other laptops in this segment. However, it’s still a good runtime which should last you for most of the day, depending on what you’ll be doing with the ultrabook

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However, this isn’t as svelte in comparison to 13-inch ultrabooks but nevertheless it’s lighter and thinner than most 14-inch competitors. The NP530U4B measures 13.1 x 9.0 x 0.82 inches and tips the scales at just four pounds so it’s thinner and lighter than the Lenovo U400s and the Dell XPS 14z. Like most laptops from Samsung are, this Series 5 ultrabook has a stylish design which we appreciate, especially the aluminum lid that has a silver-gray look, the same finish seen on the deck. Not only does it look very nice, but it also does a good job at keeping away fingerprints and smudges. The ultrabook’s bottom panel is made entirely from plastic and feels quite durable.

Samsung Series 5 NP530U4B (Source: ecx.images-amazon.com)

It comes with an island-style keyboard which is a joy to use as the matte black keys have a generous size and also feature a gritty surface, while the key travel is great so the response you get while you are typing is nice. The only drawback of the keyboard that we could find was the lack of the backlight, but we guess that this is one of the compromises that Samsung had to make in order to keep the ultrabook affordable, which they’ve succeeded.

Sitting below the great keyboard is a large touchpad from Elan that measures 4 x 2.1 inches which allows the user to perform multitouch gestures without any problems, while the two left and right discrete mouse buttons sitting below are large and easy to use, with a satisfying click when you hit them.

Samsung Series 5 NP530U4B (Source: ecx.images-amazon.com)

The Samsung Series 5 NP530U4B has a 14-inch display with a native resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels (720p). The Korean company says that this is a 300-nit display which makes it considerably brighter than the average in this segment, but there are others that perform better, such as the Asus UX31 and the Toshiba Portege Z835. A rear feature among ultrabooks and consumer laptops would have to be the matte coating on the screen which diminishes glare, but the bad news is that the viewing angles are quite limited so the colors will start washing out right away. For a better screen, you might want to opt for the Series 9 model with its 1,600 x 900-pixel resolution display but that ultrabook is way more expensive than this budget-minded Series 5.

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Eurocom Monster 1.0 (Source: diit.cz)

It might not impress you with its size but once you find out what’s under its hood you will certainly be amazed. At the heart of the Eurocom Monster 1.0 is a third-generation Intel Core i7-3720QM processor based on the Ivy Bridge platform, a CPU that runs at a clock speed of 2.70 GHz. In the memory department it packs 8GB of DDR3 RAM, allowing the gaming laptop to score 4,273 points in PCMark 7 which is better than many other systems, such as the IdeaPad Y480 from Lenovo which costs $1,000 or the considerably more expensive MSI GT783-625US which will set you back no less than about $2,600. The latter would have to be a much larger 17-inch gaming laptop.

Let’s have a look in the graphics department where we find the now standard Intel HD 4000 integrated chip with shared system memory, along with the dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 650M video card. It is a mid-range GPU which allows the Eurocom Monster 1.0 to score 726 in 3DMark 11 which is considerably lower than the 1,056 points achieved by the MSI GT783-625US. This difference is understandable since the latter is powered by a high-end Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M.

Eurocom Monster 1.0 (Source: hothardware.com)

Even so, the 11-inch Monster 1.0 still has plenty of power, being able to run Crysis at medium quality settings at 1,024 x 768-pixel resolution at 85.7 FPS while at the native resolution with the highest graphics settings turned on, the system can score 39.3 FPS which makes the game more than playable. Although this result is slower than the 97.3 FPS and 41.3 FPS, respectively, achieved by the MSI, it still makes it faster than the Alienware M11x r3 as well as the Lenovo Y480.

Eurocom has fitted the Monster 1.0 gaming laptop with a six-cell 62Wh battery which during a MobileMark 2007 test is capable of providing enough juice for approximately three and a half hours, which is a great performance taking into consideration the powerful hardware components of the laptop. It might not offer the longest battery life seen in such a small 11-inch laptop, but it is without any doubt one of the most powerful on sale today, especially now since Dell has decided to stop making the above mentioned Alienware M11x r3 so there aren’t a lot of options to choose from.

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It doesn’t look very interesting since it is based on a rather boring W110ER chassis from Clevo. It measures 11.5 x 8.3 x 1.5 inches (H x W x D) and tips the scales at exactly 3.96 pounds, which makes it probably the lightest laptop of its kind, as compared to the previously mentioned M11x r3 which weighs four and a half pounds. As far as the design is concerned, you’ll probably think at a first glance that this is a business laptop rather than a portable gaming rig.

Eurocom Monster 1.0 (Source: www7.pcmag.com)

It comes with a matte black lid that has a rubbery finish which manages to keep away smudges and fingerprints. This lid is wearing a textured pattern while right in the center is a glossy silver Eurocom logo. The 11.6-inch display of the Eurocom Monster 1.0 has a native resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels while its glossy coating makes the colors pop but at the same time it makes it a reflective screen so it’s not suitable for using it in a bright environment. The viewing angles are satisfactory but for this hefty price tag we were expecting for something better, especially the vertical angles.

Eurocom has fitted this 11-inch gaming laptop with an island-style keyboard that manages to be firm and quite comfortable for typing despite the small size of the laptop. This model lacks the special gaming keys and the lightning effects found on the Alienware M11x. Both the wrist rest and the touchpad adopt a similar rubbery finish as the lid so fingerprints won’t be an issue. That touchpad is capable of providing a silky smooth cursor control while the mouse buttons sitting below are quiet and responsive enough.

Eurocom Monster 1.0 (Source: www4.pcmag.com)

On the left side of the Eurocom Monster 1.0 are the HDMI and VGA video output ports, which are sitting next to the two USB 3.0 ports, an Ethernet port and the usual headphone and microphone jacks. The right side is holding  one USB 2.0 port and the power jack, while on the front edge of the chassis you will have access to the nine-in-one memory card reader.

Located under the chassis’ underside are the small speakers which get quite loud but the sound coming out is muffled. To tweak the sound settings you can utilize the bundled Creative THX TruStudio Pro.

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