Review: Toshiba Satellite S50D-A-10G

Introduction and design

Toshiba is a reliable choice if you're looking for a solid mid-range laptop, and the S50D-A-10G aims to continue that tradition with a tempting price of £480 (around US$820, AUD$870). At this end of the market, there's an interesting battle going on between Intel and AMD: while many systems still make do with Intel Core-branded chips, more than ever rely on AMD's APUs.

The S50D is one such machine. It's powered by an A10-5745M, which is the most potent APU that AMD currently puts inside laptops. It's got four cores, and each of those uses the Piledriver architecture – the same design that's found inside AMD's full-fat desktop processors.

Those four cores run at 2.1GHz, and they'll hit a peak of 2.9GHz using Turbo mode. APUs usually impress thanks to integrated Radeon graphics cores, but Toshiba has gone one step further with this machine: instead of relying on the Radeon HD 8610G core, it's fitted an HD 8550M discrete GPU.

The discrete chip and the integrated core both have 384 stream processors, with the HD 8550M clocked to 650MHz – a little faster than the 626MHz top speed of the HD 8610G. When more graphics power is needed, both cores can work together to deliver more grunt than the APU provides on its own.

Chipping in

This isn't the only recent system that's arrived with an AMD APU inside. The HP Pavilion TouchSmart 15-n070sa used an AMD chip from the ultra-mobile Kabini range, and Toshiba's own C50D-A-13G also deployed Kabini silicon.

Another Toshiba rival, the M50-A-11C, relies on Intel Core i5 hardware, and a left-field competitor comes from Lenovo: its IdeaPad Yoga 2 11 is an affordable hybrid device that uses an Intel Pentium processor.

The S50D looks strong with that AMD APU inside, but the rest of its specification isn't as enticing. 8GB of RAM is what we expect from mid-range machines these days, and the 1TB hard disk has plenty of space – but its 5,400rpm spindle speed suggests poor performance.

The screen's 15.6-inch diagonal is decent, but the 1,366 x 768 resolution is low – and it's not a touchscreen, either. At least there's a DVD writer, which is often omitted from laptops.

Ports and connectivity

There's little to shout about on the connectivity front. Bluetooth 4.0 is another standard inclusion, but the Ethernet connection isn't Gigabit, and the 802.11n Wi-Fi is single-band. Around the edges are two USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 connection, HDMI and D-SUB outputs, an SDXC card reader and two headphone jacks – a standard load-out.

The exterior is typical Toshiba. It's mostly plastic, with a thin layer of aluminium used across the wrist-rest and to coat the back of the lid, and glossy black elsewhere – so it can't be accused of being ugly, but it's not going to draw any admiring glances either.

Build quality is mixed; the wrist-rest didn't move much when depressed, but the plastic underside feels weaker – and the middle of the screen is similarly flimsy. We'd advise slipping the S50D inside a case before it leaves the house. The 2.38kg weight and 24mm-thick body aren't impressive, either; this machine is thicker and heavier than three of its rivals, with only the Toshiba Satellite C50 proving chunkier.

The Scrabble-tile keyboard is made from glossy plastic, and it has a good layout. Toshiba has found room on the wide S50D to fit a numberpad, and most of the keys are large enough, with big backspace and shift keys and a double-height Return button – we'd only quibble about the tiny spacebar.

Quality is serviceable, too. The keys don't have enough travel, but that's not a huge problem: they're heavy and consistent enough to provide solid feedback without feeling too weighty, and the base is strong. We quickly got up to speed – an improvement on most of the other systems mentioned here, which combined low-travel keys with flimsy bases.

Little stands out about the trackpad – its surface is fine and the two buttons are light and clicky, although they feel a little too cheap for our tastes.

Performance

PCMark 8

Home test, High Performance: 2611

Home test, Power Saver: 1475

Home battery, Balanced, screen 50%: 3hrs 52mins

Home battery, High Performance, screen 100%: 3hrs 7mins

Home battery, Power Saver, screen 25%: 4hrs 17mins

3DMark

Ice Storm: 44,210

Cloud Gate: 4,616

Fire Strike: 1,102

DiRT 3

1,366 x 768, High quality: 37fps

Bioshock Infinite

1,366 x 768, Low quality: 32fps

Cinebench R11.5

OpenGL: 15.48fps

CPU: 1.31

Cinebench R15

OpenGL: 17.38

CPU: 118cb

The AMD APU wasn't troubled by our PC Mark 8 benchmarks – as its benchmark score of 2,611 demonstrates. That result is better than the Lenovo's Pentium chip, and it's also quicker than the modest AMD hardware inside the HP Pavilion and the Toshiba Satellite C50. Only the Toshiba Satellite M50, with its Intel Core i5 silicon, was faster.

That impressive processing result was backed up in Cinebench. This machine was easily quicker than the HP Pavilion, Toshiba Satellite and Lenovo IdeaPad, although it still fell behind the Intel-powered Toshiba.

The Radeon HD 8610G graphics core inside the A10-5745M proved its worth in benchmarks, too. Its 3D Mark Ice Storm result over 44,210 is better than three of its rivals – again, only the Toshiba Satellite M50 was quicker because of its discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 740M graphics card.

That reasonable theoretical result means that it's possible to play top games – as long as you're prepared to drop down to lower quality levels. We ran older racing title DiRT 3 at High settings and 1,366 x 768, and the game scored a smooth 37fps, and at Bioshock Infinite's Low quality level and the same resolution this more modern game ran at 32fps.

Toshiba hasn't installed a particularly big battery in this machine, so it's no surprise that its longevity didn't impress. In Balanced mode with the screen at 50% brightness the Toshiba lasted for just shy of four hours, with this figure extending to 4hrs 17mins with Power Saver mode enabled and the screen's brightness turned to 25%. That's shorter than every other laptop we've mentioned here, albeit not by much.

We turned the screen to full brightness and activated High Performance mode, and the Toshiba lasted for 3hrs 7mins – another mediocre result. However you cut it, this machine just won't last a full day away from the mains.

Screen issues

The screen's 1,366 x 768 resolution is what we expect on affordable consumer machines, and the glossy panel isn't a touchscreen. That low resolution is about par for the course on consumer systems, and it's not exactly generous – it makes it difficult to work with two windows open side-by-side, for instance.

Quality isn't high, either. The brightness level of 230:1cd/m2 is reasonable, but the black level of 1.02cd/m2 is dreadful – and it means the contrast of 225:1 is just as bad. That means the Toshiba's screen delivers a narrow range of colours, with a lack of punch at the top-end and black tones that look more like insipid greys.

The colours that are displayed aren't accurate, either. The colour temperature of 6,947K is on the cold side of the 6,500K ideal level, and the average Delta E of 11.31 is one of the worst we've seen. The final nail in this coffin is the sRGB gamut coverage: the Toshiba's screen could only display 59.2% of this undemanding range.

The screen is only capable of handling basic tasks, light work and low-end games, and it's paired with mediocre speakers. Volume is reasonable, and the mid-range is suitably crunchy, but the high-end is dominated by tinny sounds, and there's not nearly enough bass.

As with most other machines at this price, the Toshiba has a 1TB hard disk rather than a pricier, smaller SSD. The 2.5-inch mobile hardware inside this machine ran through our sequential read and write tests at 106MB/s and 100MB/s – entirely average results. The lack of solid-state pace means that application and OS loading times are slow, and the 24s boot time is poor too – around half the speed of the best SSD-powered devices.

Conclusion

Building a budget laptop always involves compromise, so you'll have to figure out exactly what you want before taking the plunge with a system like the S50D.

The AMD APU, when combined with the discrete graphics card, makes this the most powerful AMD-powered budget laptop we've seen recently, and it's also got more grunt than machines equipped with Intel's low-end chips. The rest of the specification doesn't break any speed records, but the 1TB hard disk and DVD writer provide versatility.

The concentration on components does mean the screen is poor, and the exterior is uninspiring, with this laptop having a rather mixed build quality overall.

We liked

The core components in this system performed well: the S50D has enough processing power to outpace any machine unless it's got a Core i5 processor inside, and there's enough gaming grunt here to run modern titles – albeit with the quality settings toned down.

The rest of the specification is versatile, and it's wrapped inside a reasonably sturdy exterior.

The keyboard has a comfortable typing action and a solid base, and all this costs less than £500 (US$855, AUD$900) – which means it's around the same price as the slow, Pentium-powered Lenovo hybrid and much cheaper than the £630 (US$1,080, AUD$1,140) Toshiba Satellite M50.

We disliked

The use of good components has meant cost-cutting elsewhere, and the most obvious area where the budget bites is the 15.6-inch screen.

It's not a touchscreen, and the 1,366 x 768 resoulution rules out serious work on this system – and it's not good enough for 1080p films, either. The screen's quality is sorely lacking. It's just about bright enough, but it falls down in every other benchmark, from black level and contrast to colour accuracy and gamut coverage.

The speakers are mediocre, the connectivity options aren't any better, and the battery life is similarly middling – if that's a chief concern, more longevity is available elsewhere.

And, while build quality isn't bad, this machine certainly has the occasional structural weaknesses, and the plastic and aluminium exterior won't turn any heads.

Final verdict

The Toshiba has its issues, then, but none of them are deal breakers if you're searching for a budget laptop – rather, they're things that just have to be accepted.

If you want a system for general computing and light gaming and you'd rather concentrate on processing power, it's an ideal buy thanks to the combination of an AMD APU and discrete graphics core. If screen quality or battery life are more important, though, look elsewhere.

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iPhone 6 display leak highlights 5S dwarfing

We've seen plenty of iPhone 6 leaks over the last couple of months, but as yet we haven't seen any images of the actual display cover, however that might have just changed.

9to5Mac received several photos supposedly showing just that. The images were sent by Sonny Dickson, a prolific Apple leaker, and show the 4.7-inch model both on its own and alongside the front of an iPhone 5S.

Bigger but similar

The most obvious difference in the iPhone 6 model is that it dwarfs its predecessor, but many other things look the same. The top and bottom bezels for example seem to be a similar size and the overall shape is similar too.

On the other hand the size bezels are perhaps slightly smaller and there's a new hole to the left of the earpiece.

This could just be a repositioned FaceTime camera or it could be some kind of new sensor, which wouldn't be surprising as the iPhone 6 has been rumoured to feature additional sensors.

Otherwise the device looks broadly similar, at least based on the display panel. The home button cut out is bottom centre as always and the earpiece is top centre. It's worth noting also that the iPhone 6 is photographed in both black and white, so it's likely to arrive in both of those colours come launch.

• After something cheaper and available already? Consider the iPhone 5C.

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Two Android Wear apps briefly hit Google Play

Android Wear may only just have been announced but two apps built for the platform briefly made their way to Google Play.

They're not terribly exciting, there was a calculator app called 'Wear Calc' and a compass named 'Wear Compass', which is almost entirely pointless as Android Wear devices come with a built in compass anyway.

However both apps have already been pulled so unfortunately you can't try them out even if you're lucky enough to already have an Android Wear watch.

App overload

Their brief moment in the sun is worth noting though as it goes to show that developers are already busy beavering away at Android Wear apps, so hopefully they and many other more exciting apps will be available soon.

Of course you can already interact with many smartphone apps through Android Wear devices, but these are apps that are built specifically for Android Wear and don't require an Android phone to function.

We've already heard about other more interesting apps from the likes of PayPal and Pinterest so with any luck Android Wear will quickly find itself home to a rich selection of apps, the first of which are likely to start appearing properly in the coming days, as the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live go on sale.

• Good news stock Android fans, Android Wear's UI is locked down.

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Interview: The 3D printers that print themselves: how RepRap will change the world

We don't how many RepRap 3D printers are in existence, and that's because everyone who owns a RepRap can use it to make another - and another, and another. The RepRap's creator, Adrian Bowyer, designed it to be self-replicating. We sat down with him to talk about the international community of enthusiasts that brought RepRap to fruition, and how open-source hardware can help propel a low-cost design to popularity and world domination.

TechRadar: How did RepRap start?

Adrian Bowyer: I've always been interested in the idea of an artificial, self-replicating machine. As a child, it seemed obvious to me that human beings don't make things in the right way.

Plants make things in the most efficient way. The plant is a self-replicating object, entirely composed of self-replicating cells. So if you want to make things, you start with things that can make themselves. That's the basis of what was going on in my mind.

I bought a couple of 3D printers. They were big commercial machines - the only type available then - and the cheapest one was worth £250,000. We started using them, and found them to be a very useful resource.

As an engineer, it was complete liberation. I could just think of something, design it and have it in my hand. It also occurred to me that we had a technology that was versatile enough to replicate itself. That's where the idea "we'll make a 3D printer that prints itself" came from.

I realised we had to make this open source. This is because if you have a self-replicating machine and try to close it off and copyright it, you're basically saying you're trying to stop the one thing that you designed the machine to do.

TR: How long was it from the initial start to having a working printer?

AB: Work actually started in 2005 and we had our first functioning machine two years later in 2007. A year later, that machine had printed 
a complete set of parts to make a copy of itself.

Obviously, there were tweaks and changes along the way. We made the very first copy in May 2008. Therefore, by that point we'd reached a partially self-replicating printer.

We never thought from the beginning it would be able to print 100% of itself. The idea was to print all the fiddly pieces and make sure all the other bits required to make the machine were widely available. It's about 50/50 - 50% printed parts and 50% bought parts. We've got the specialist parts down to just one or two.

TR: What was the first thing that you printed?

AB: One of the very first things we printed was a coat hook. An economist once told me that the world market for coat hooks is bigger than that of jet engines. When you think about it, it isn't that surprising - it's just you never think of coat hooks as being major engineering products in the same way as jet engines.

TR: And that model could be uploaded?

AB: We did upload it, so anyone who wants to print that part can. The whole law of intellectual property is quite interesting. If you're Ford or whoever, you can't patent a bonnet latch like an idea.

You can patent the design, but that just stops people copying the computer files - they can't stop you copying the object. You can't copyright a 3D object unless it's a sculpture.

TR: Do you see this causing changes in the law further down the line?

AB: That's difficult to say - how would it be policed? We have copyright for music and it's effectively ignored by millions of human beings. So if you try and pass a law that makes what everyone does in the privacy of their own home an offence, it's never going to work.

That's the position the music industry found itself in, and therefore had to adapt and now we have Spotify. That seems to be the way things go: the established industries find that their market is being undermined by some new technology, so it tries to regulate.

TR: Talking of legislation, there were the guys that printed their own gun…

AB: There's a law that says you can't export designs for weapons in the United States and I suspect there is probably something similar in the UK too. I don't know. Distributing a file in that case becomes illegal.

The printed gun was frightfully, frightfully depressing from my point of view. Not because of the gun - the gun is useless and it represents no real danger. The thing that was terribly depressing was the horrible exposure it gave to the complete ignorance among journalists and politicians about how things are made.

If you want to make a proper gun - a real gun that works - get a lathe. People have owned lathes for 200 years, ever since the industrial revolution. You can go on Ebay and buy one for about the same cost as a 3D printer. My recommendation to anyone buying a 3D printer to make a gun is not to bother.

TR: Do you have any numbers on the uptake of 3D printers?

AB: We certainly don't know how many RepRaps are out there. Our company sells thousands per year, and we are just one of 
a score of such companies. We don't know what the ratio is between private builders and commercial companies selling kits. There must be tens of thousands out there, possibly even hundreds of thousands - we simply don't know.

There was an attempt a few years ago to do a statistical survey to estimate the population of RepRaps. Rather cleverly, using some of techniques that biologists use for assessing populations - such as evaluating how many foxes there are per square mile - you can carry out statistical estimates of numbers. You obviously can't go and count them all!

So three or four years ago, they came up with the answer of several thousand. The number has increased exponentially since then.

TR: They've been busy replicating themselves!

AB: Well, quite. An awful lot of people print machines for their friends. One of the things I can tell you is that the ratio of uptake between private individuals and commercial organisations is about 80:20. About 80% of machines go into private hands, while 20% go to schools, companies and the rest, which I find quite encouraging.

TR: We presume these are tech-savvy folk?

AB: Yes. Occasionally people get a little out of their depth when they're building a machine. But of course, because the instructions are online, people can read them all. Before even getting a machine, they've got a pretty clear idea of what's involved and can either be put off or can say, "Yeah - I can do that!"

TR: Where do you see 3D printers going?

AB: They're becoming easier to use and put together. We've got a new RepRap coming out that's deliberately designed to be far easier to assemble. The previous machine would take about 20 hours, when being assembled by someone who knew what they were doing. In contrast, this one will take two hours and we want to progress in that direction.

If you've got a machine that is genuinely self-replicating, then any time required for human intervention is a significant impediment to its reproductive success in biological terms. If you can put one together in five minutes, then that's much better. So all RepRap companies are working towards improving 
the self-assembling machine.

There's another thing that you can do with the machines. We have a bendy plastic and 
a rigid plastic, and you can vary proportions so you have an object that's rigid at one end and bendy at the other.

There is virtually no other conventional technology that lets you do that as a single item. But it's a trick biology uses all the time - this bit's bendy [pushes nose] and this bit is rigid [points to arm].

TR: So do you see this opening up new manufacturing techniques?

AB: And new types of products that are simpler but with more complex functionality. If you can change the material properties of an object in 
a controlled way, then you can achieve an awful lot more.

Virtually everything that has been manufactured is made of different materials, but there is a sharp transition and they're made in different processes.

If you can make them all in one process and have graduation between them and mixtures between them, then you can do an awful lot more. It liberates you in terms of how you design things and how machines work.

• 3D printing explained: what's it all about?

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TechRadar Deals: Microsoft drops Surface Pro 2 prices by $100

With pre-orders for Surface Pro 3 well under way, Microsoft has dropped the price of the Surface Pro 2 by $100 for each model.

The 64GB model will now set you back $919, while the 128GB model will cost you $1029 and the 256GB will have you putting down $1369.

If you bundle up the Office 365 Personal, Microsoft will give you a $20 discount, charging you $69 instead.

Of course, the Pro 3 will be out in a couple of months, so you could wait and see if the Pro 2's price drops further. Yet, if you need a tablet now and are eyeing the Pro 2, you won't be disappointed.

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Microsoft siezes 22 No-IP domains in malware crackdown

Microsoft has filed a civil case, naming two foreign nationals from Kuwait and Algeria as the masterminds behind a concerted scheme to infect millions of computers with Bladabindi and Jenxcus families of malware.

Detailed in a company blog post, the move marks one of the company's most audacious efforts, its tenth to date, to disrupt what it says is one of the most prolific conduits between hackers and their victims.

It also highlighted the role of No-IP, a popular dynamic DNS provider, as a vital cog in that scheme. Microsoft wrote that it successfully gained control of 22 of its most commonly-used domain names, effectively shutting it down.

It is not clear whether there was a deliberate attempt by No-IP (or one of its employees) to play an active role in the cyberattacks, and there is confusion as to whether the two parties worked together to crack down on the malware authors.

Sufficient steps

Microsoft's Richard Domingues Boscovich, Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, wrote that "despite numerous reports by the security community on No-IP domain abuse", the company "did not take sufficient steps to correct, remedy, prevent or control the abuse or help keep its domains safe from malicious activity."

However, writing in a No-IP blog post, Natalie Goguen argues that "Microsoft never contacted us or asked us to block any subdomains, even though we have an open line of communication with Microsoft corporate executives."

The crackdown means that millions are likely to be affected with Vitalwerks Internet Solution, which owns No-IP, pointing to the fact that Microsoft's heavy-handed approach benefits no one.

• Looking for the best antivirus suite?

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Is this our first look at the Sony Xperia Z3?

Sony has gone flagship mad lately, releasing a new one every six months or so, so it's about time we caught a glimpse of the Sony Xperia Z3...and we might just have done that thanks to a leaked image.

The photo, posted to Digi-wo, shows the front of a white Sony smartphone and there's not a whole lot to take away from it. It has the same OmniBalance design as many other Xperia handsets but if anything it looks more like the Sony Xperia T3 than the Xperia Z2, though unlike the T3 it's likely to have a glass back.

There's also a smaller black handset next to the Z3 and that's purportedly an Xperia Z3 Compact, which may mean Sony is skipping over the Z2 Compact.

Suspect specs

Rumours accompanying the images suggest that both the Z3 and the Z3 Compact will have Snapdragon 801 processors, however earlier rumours pointed to the Z3 having a 2.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor, alongside 3GB of RAM and an Adreno 420 graphics chip clocked at 500MHz.

Whispers also claim that it will have a 1080p display and a PVD coating, which will give the phone extra scratch and impact resistance.

We've heard nothing else at all about the Z3 Compact, but going by the Xperia Z1 Compact we'd expect the specs to be much the same, albeit with a smaller and possibly lower resolution screen.

The only release date news we've heard suggests that the Xperia Z3 could be here as soon as August, in which case a lot more information and photos are likely to show up soon.

However, it's much more likely to show up at IFA 2014, which was the site of the Xperia Z1 launch - so it could be another phone readying to take on the iPhone 6 in the battle for your pocket.

• Will the Xperia Z3 be a match for the Samsung Galaxy F?

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