Download: Review Roundup: This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar

Saturday, 19 November 2011

Review Roundup: This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar

Review Roundup: This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar:

This week we got our hands on Nokia's first Windows handset, the Lumia 800, and in the camera world, we spend some time testing the new Canon S100 and the Pentax Q.

We also enjoyed the Beats Audio equipped HP DV7-6103ea laptop, while the £99 Huawei Blaze Android phone left us less impressed.

Read on for this week's top reviews on TechRadar…

Nokia Lumia 800 review

The Nokia Lumia 800 shares its exterior styling with the previously substantially less hyped Nokia N9, a Meego-based smartphone, although the screen size is reduced from 3.9-inch to 3.7-inch to conform to the Windows Phone spec list. The CPU increases from the 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 to the 1.4GHz MSM8255 Snapdragon/Scorpion which certainly helps add snap to the Windows Phone Mango OS.

One thing's for certain: this is the best Nokia smartphone we've seen for a while (well, apart from the N9, but we're not allowed to mention that in the UK, remember?). It's got a great camera, really premium design and should come with a lower price tag to boot.

Canon S100 review

The new S100 sits immediately below the Canon G12 in the Canon compact camera line-up, a spot previously held by the now discontinued S95. Like the S95, the S100 can be slipped into a shirt or trouser pocket, whereas the larger G12 is more of a coat-pocket-sized model. Naturally this makes the S100 more attractive as a 'take anywhere' camera for keen enthusiasts.

It's the first camera to feature Canon's new Digic 5 processor, which is claimed to have 6x more processing power than the Digic 4 system. It is a very worthy successor to the S95 - Canon has used technology from across its whole imaging business (video, SLR, lens and compact camera) to produce what appears to be an exciting pocket-sized camera.

Canon s100

HP DV7-6103ea review

HP's surprising partnership with hip-hop producer Dr Dre has bumped it up in the cool stakes, and brought some much-needed quality to the beleaguered world of laptop speakers. While HP's mid-range multimedia DV7-6103ea isn't quite as sleek as the company's Envy range, it has pilfered the same design finesse and also comes with the superior Beats Audio experience. It also has AMD's Quad-Core A6-3410MX fusion GPU and CPU, which is great mobile tech for enhancing battery life.

With a generous 6GB of memory, we had no lag or stutter on video playback or when multi-tasking. If you're looking for a smart new multimedia machine for movies and music, the DV7-6103ea is a great choice that won't break the bank.

HP dv7 6103ea

Pentax Q review

In attempting to create a new niche, Pentax has created a niche camera. Many photographers looking towards interchangeable lens cameras do so to be rewarded with higher quality images. Although the Pentax Q offers a good range of features, and controls to please photography enthusiasts and beginners alike, the image quality achieved isn't leagues ahead of many compact cameras that employ the same backlit CMOS sensor technology.

Pentax q

Huawei Blaze review

The Huawei Blaze comes in a surprisingly stylish little chassis, but there's clearly not enough power in here to make it a serious contender for anyone other than undemanding new Android smartphone users.

Huawei blaze