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Tech Review: MSI Modern 15 Laptop

By Amazon, Reviews, Shopping, TechnologyNo Comments

MSI are traditionally known for making high performing gaming desktop and laptop computers. But it seems that they have now branched out into middle of the range productivity laptops, like the Modern 15, which is available to buy on Amazon.

The Modern 15 laptop was recommended to me by a friend as it has a pretty decent specification for the price, including: 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD. It also has a Backlit Keyboard keyboard and 15 inch screen, both which are must haves for me.

I’ve been using this laptop for a couple of months now and there’s just a few disappointments. The first major disappointment is the sound – the laptop is so quiet, even on maximum volume. This makes watching things or listening to music on the laptop practically impossible. The other disappointment is a minor irratation and that is the plastic of the body is very prone to showing up finger marks.

Overall it is a good laptop, but it could have been a great laptop if MSI had have sorted out the quietness of the internal speakers. I probably wouldn’t buy it again, purely because of this.

Review soon,

Antony

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Tech Review: CHUWI 13 Inch Laptop

By Amazon, TechnologyNo Comments
CHUWI 13 Inch Laptop (1)
CHUWI 13 Inch Laptop (2)

I recently bought myself this CHUWI 13 Inch Laptop. Here are its features:

  • 13 Inch Screen
  • 12GB RAM
  • 256GB SSD
  • Wifi
  • It’s Thin & Light-weight
  • Backlit Keyboard
  • Touch Pad
  • Comes with Windows 10

Here are the Pros and Cons to help you decide if it’s the right laptop for you.

Pros

  • Great Battery Life and power-saving options.
  • It’s fast and with the 12GB RAM tasks are instantly completed.
  • It’s cheap, being only £399 on Amazon at time of this review.
  • It’s easy to set up, use and is obviously made for productivity.
  • I love the backlit keyboard, it really helps me type well in low lighting.

Cons

  • It comes with only 1 USB port.
  • There is no HDMI connection.
  • There is no Ethernet connection.
  • The charging wire is too short – being less than 2 metres.
  • The touch pad is a little stiff and not the most sensitive. This might be because it is new.

Overall it’s a great laptop for the price. Review soon,

Antony

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My iMac and The Blue Screen of Death

By TechnologyNo Comments

I’m sat here writing this post on an old, dodgy and excruciatingly slow old Windows 7 laptop. Why? Because my iMac (see iMac Part 1 & iMac Part 2) has shown me: a black unresponsive screen, several not-booting-up grey screens and the infamous blue screen of death.

I won’t bore you with the tedious details of how this occurred; but when the Recovery software wouldn’t work I knew I needed a genius appointment.

apple-mountain-lion-hard-drive-icon Steve & I booked an appointment with an Apple Genius in our local Apple Store and went along. The genius did some testing and discovered that the hard drive had failed. I’ve never been so thankful to be in the European Union (EU).

I’ve had my iMac about a year and a half. EU law means Apple have a two year warranty rather than their standard one year warranty (without Apple Protection). The genius arranged for the repair, told us they’d pay the cost and that it would take about a week.

For the next week I have no access to photos, music, TV, films (both downloaded and DVD’s) and a limited ability to browse the internet. These are things I can easily live without for a week. But there’s never a convenient time for a computer to break and the timing is particularly bad.

This week I have some important documents to write and need to reference some other documents in my Documents folder. This will create some hassle and difficulty.

Luckily, I learned the important lesson about backing up files some years ago. I use Time Machine which saves a backup volume to a separate hard drive and then copies new or changed files once an hour. I can’t use Time Machine’s backups or access the folders/files until I get my iMac back.

That’s where my manual backup on another separate drive comes in. I backup important files (Documents, Pictures, Music & Movies Folders) whenever I make significant changes to them. So at least I’ll be able to access the reference documents I need while the iMac is away for repair.

I bought an iMac because I heard loads of people say: “It just works.” I’ve told many of my family & friend’s how great the iMac is for that very reason. I was disappointed to learn that Apple use Seagate hard drives, which are notorious for problems. If you don’t believe me just do a Google search. With the price of the iMac you’d expect good quality. But after learning about the use of Seagate hard drives I’m starting to worry about what other low quality parts are in my iMac.

I’ve become a bit disillusioned with Apple not standing by the iMac for more than their standard one year warranty (outside the EU). Do Apple really expect customers to buy such an expensive device for it only to last a year? Probably not. But the fear of problems with such an costly device and a short warranty is most likely a deliberate act to sell it’s Apple Protection to customers.

When I bought the iMac I was an Apple enthusiast; but not so much so any more. I just want a reliable hardware with software that “just works.” If Apple can’t provide this, then perhaps I’d be better back on Windows? At least with Windows I know where I stand.

I’ll give you an update on the iMac when I get it back. In the meantime I’m using the free time enforced upon me to catch up on some reading.

Hopefully write soon,

Antony

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Yuletide Preparations

By Education, Friends & Family, Home2 Comments

With Yuletide (or Christmas) on it’s way, I had a week off this week to prepare. Monday I bought a real Christmas tree, named Trevor:


(Click on image for full size image, Trevor was decorated by me at some point in the week!)

I manged to spend time with my Grandma on Wednesday, leaving time for mum on Thursday evening and Saturday. I caught up with my good friend Simon on Thursday as well. In between times, I crammed in my assignment for my Leadership module (see A general update). Finally finishing it yesterday (Friday). So now I can relax, well apart from the last minute Christmas shopping.

My poor laptop is starting to die though, so I had to buy a new one online. Hopefully once it arrives and is up and running I will get back to normal blogging and facebook habits.

Take care all,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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