The world of tech might be on tenterhooks awaiting the launch of a new iPhone, but we're not treading water.
We've a heap of reviews of the latest kit for you this week, including Sony Ericsson's new Xperia Ray. We've also got hands on with the new Nikon J1 and V1. We've also got a whole batch of motherboard and peripheral reviews, too.
Read on for all this week's TechRadar reviews.
Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray review
The Xperia Arc was the flagship of 2011's Sony Ericsson mobile range.Arriving in the spring, it became the skinny poster girl for the Swedish-Japanese hybrid, showing off its amazing screen presence with the help of the Sony Reality Display (the bit that reproduces colour on the screen and makes it look great) but in the Xperia Ray, Sony Ericsson has gone for a smaller model. Think smaller and thinner than you expect, then shave a bit more off your dimensions. That's what you get.
High up in Sony's "Cinematic" HX Series and just 27mm deep, this Edge LED-backlit LCD TV is a high-end choice indeed. Despite the likes of LG, Toshiba and Philips moving towards the cheaper passive 3D system that requires £1 3D specs, Sony has decided to stick with the trusted – although pricier and somewhat inconvenient – active shutter 3D system on the KDL-55HX823, which arrives with one pair of 3D glasses.But could this be one of Sony's last efforts at active shutter 3D before it follows the others into the passive 3D TV arena?
ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional review
You can understand when Fatal1ty endorses a 1337 gaming mouse, but when a motherboard is emblazoned with the fatal one's name and face, it sends a slightly more confusing message.Is it a no-compromise AMD 990FX-based board capable of outperforming any other with raw performance and features? Or is it a stripped down racing car of a board, equipped with only the features you need? A quick glance over the ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional's spec sheet reveals it's definitely the former.
The U2412M from Dell might look like a P2411H Professional series, but there's one important difference: it's an IPS screen, not a TN. That means better colour representation, better viewing angle and a higher price. The depth of blacks and brightness of whites onscreen were instantly noticeable, but even though we put the U2412M through its paces using some high-colour HD video, it didn't disappoint, rendering 16.7 million colours.
Nikon's new compact system cameras, or, to use its parlance, ACIL cameras, were finally unveiled after months of speculation and internet rumours. Releasing not one, but two cameras onto the market, the J1 is the V1's smaller brother featuring a smaller body design. It loses the electronic viewfinder but does gain a built-in flash. Other than the aesthetics of the camera, the J1's interior specifications are almost identical to the V1. They both use the new CX format sensor, EXPEED 3 processor and Nikon 1 mount. We spent some time with a pre-production J1 to see how it works, how it feels and what you can expect from the camera when the final version is available to buy.
This week's other reviews
Cameras
Cases
Cooling
Corsair H100 Liquid CPU Cooler review
BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro C1 review
Desktop PCs
PC Specialist Vortex M59 OC review
Keyboards
Microsoft Wireless Optical Dekstop 700 review
Monitors
Motherboards
Sapphire Pure Platinum A75 review
ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Pro review
ECS A75F-A Black Series review
Software
Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 review
TVs
Hands on reviews
Cameras
Hands on: Canon PowerShot S100 review
Gaming
