Everyday Use

We took the Voyo A1 Plus Ultimate Ultrabook for a spin, just to see how it will cope with our daily routine: going to work, catching up on emails, browsing the news during our coffee break, and watching IPTV or movies in the evening.  It worked like a charm and we couldn’t find much to complain about, so let’s start with these minor issues.

The sound from the speakers is thin, almost without bass, and it is a pity as the device is otherwise great for media consumption, thanks to the excellent 1080p panel and generous battery. If you intend to use it for work, it’s not much of an issue, but if you like to enjoy some video on your notebook, the speakers simply don’t cut it.

The system is very responsive in everyday use, and the display looks good even at 25% brightness. We decided to try out the SD card reader, which is the only practical way of expanding on-board storage, and we were in for a pleasant surprise.

The high speed SD card from our SLR delivered read and write speeds of around 90MB/s  and 50MB/s respectively, maxing out the card as per its spec. Also, both USB ports had enough power to drive a couple of 2.5-inch external USB hard disks we had laying around.

Heavy CPU or GPU bound tasks, or charging the battery, cause the bottom of the device to heat up to about 43 degrees Celsius, but this does not pose a problem.

We managed to get over 6 hours and 30 minutes of battery running time with heavy WiFi usage and video playback. With a more conservative approach and less video, you should get a bit more. A single charge can easily yield a workday worth of work in office applications.

Coming from a traditional notebook, we missed a standard LED activity indicator, which is nowhere to be found on the Voyo.