24
Reviews
25 May – 7 June 2022 • Issue 632VERDICT Well built, has a great
keyboard, and is easy to upgrade, but
some rivals are faster★★★★★
ALTERNATIVE Honor MagicBook 16
£850 Honor’s similarly priced laptop
offers better
Windows
performance
thanks to its
newer AMD
processorSPECIFICATIONS
Four-core Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor •• 8GB RAM- • 14in IPS 1920x1080-pixel resolution screen •• 256GB
M.2 SSD •• 720p webcam •• Wi-Fi 6 •• Bluetooth 5.2 ••
1x HDMI port •• 2x USB-C ports •• 2x USB 3.0 ports ••
Windows 11 Pro •• 18.9x324x221mm (HxWxD) •• 1.45kg - • One-year warranty http://www.snipca.com/41844
The keyboard also has backlighting.
There are no frills in the compact
touchpad, but it’s effective and includes a
fingerprint reader. Alternatively, you can
use the 720p webcam to log into Windows.
It’s a reasonable camera for a built-in
option, capturing decent levels of detail
(albeit, lacking in richness of colour). It
also has a handy privacy shutter.
The dual microphones subdue some
background noise, but temper your
expectations when it comes to audio
output: the built-in speakers are fine for
speech, but they lack subtlety and bass.
It may lack such fineries as serious
speakers and a vibrant screen, but
this is a reasonable laptop for general
Windows use. It has a solid build and is
compact enough to carry around. There
are faster laptops around for a similar
price, though.This laptop won’t turn any heads when
you take it out of your bag, but it’s solidly
built and has a practical design. It’s made
from tough plastic that should guarantee
durability. It’s also extremely portable. It
may not be the lightest model we’ve ever
seen at 1.45kg, but its modest dimensions,
particularly its 18.9mm thickness, ensure
it will slip easily into rucksacks and
briefcases alike.
Battery life is respectable, powering
through almost 10 hours in a test
that’s designed to mimic modern office
work, and almost 14 hours on idle,
dropping to eight hours when playing
back video constantly. The supplied
charger takes you from zero to 40 per
cent in half an hour, though it can also be
charged from any compatible USB-C
charging device.Two USB-C ports sit on the left edge
along with HDMI and USB 3.0 ports, and
a 3.5mm jack, while on the right there’s a
a second USB 3.0 port, Gigabit Ethernet
socket, a microSD card slot and, in our
test model, a smart-card slot (though
these are generally only used by businesses
as an alternative way of logging into
Windows). Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2
round everything off nicely.
What you don’t get is a 12th-generation
Intel processor – it has a mid-range
11th-generation Intel Core i5-1135G7
instead. In our benchmark tests, which
measure Windows performance, it scored
a modest 4,469.
For comparison, the £1,000 Huawei
MateBook 16 (see our review, Issue 631)
scored 6,341, with its faster AMD Ryzen 7
5800H processor doing most of the heavy
lifting. If you’re looking for something
closer in price to the Tecra A40-J-101, the£850 Honor MagicBook 16 (reviewed
Issue 628) scored 6,085 in this
performance test.
The Tecra A40-J-10 comes with 8GB of
RAM, but it’s easy to increase this yourself
at a later date should you want to speed
up everyday Windows use. There’s a
spare slot for memory, which is accessible
via the underside of the case by removing
nine standard crosshead screws.
It’s also straightforward to replace
the 256GB SSD, should you need more
storage in future, though the supplied
drive proved nippy enough in our tests,
with read speeds of 2,101MB/s and write
speeds of 1,564MB/s.
The screen won’t win any prizes for
brightness levels or colour range, with
a peak of 232cd/m 2 and 61 per cent
coverage of the sRGB colour standard.
Still, we found it was perfectly fine
indoors when at maximum brightness,
while the matt finish means reflections
are kept to a minimum.
The keyboard is far better than you’d
expect in a laptop at this price, with
good-sized keys. The Enter and Backspace
keys are particularly generous; the cursor
keys are well spaced out; and there are
even dedicated keys for PgUp and PgDn.LAPTOP | £872 from Misco http://www.snipca.com/41844Dynabook Tecra A40-J-101
Solid choice
A portable machine
that’s solidly built and
easy to upgrade, but
there are trade-offs