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Review: Dexpel And Laptopskins Skins, Who’s The Best Skin Maker In Pakistan?

Most of us love to personalize our gadgets, to make them such that they can be distinguished from others. Sometimes a bare laptop lid just doesn’t cut it.Â That’s what the laptop skin industry thrives on, our need to customize our portable computers such that they are more aesthetically pleasing. The laptop skin concept isn’t a new one in Pakistan. It was first introduced by Lahoreonline.org (now known as Laptopskins.com.pk ) about 3 years back. Sadly, it wasn’t well received at that time. Overtime two other companies joined in to give competition, Dexpel and TechnoChameleon. Â Further on, a few other companies also started to offer laptop skins, but these three were the largest. Since then, the quality and value of laptop skins has increased drastically. Each company holds special offers and discounts and grows larger in fanbase.Â We decided it was time we did a review of these skins, and then decide which one of these is the best laptop skin manufacturer in Pakistan.

Before starting this review, I would like to thank all the 3 companies for taking the time to participate and send in the review units. Unfortunately, TechnoChameleon’s skin was redirected to a different city due to an address issue and couldn’t be recovered by the shipping company. So we would just be covering the skins by both Dexpel and Laptopskins.com.pk and then decide which one is the better.

A little information about the skin manufacturers:

Laptopskins.com.pk was previously known as Lahoreonline.org and was the first manufacturer to introduce laptop skins in Pakistan.Â As with any other product, the first batch of skins wasn’t well received. Since then, Laptopskins.com.pk has improved on the overall quality of the skins drastically and are now a force to be reckoned with. The company is based in Lahore and operate on a delivery only basis.

Dexpel is undoubtedly the skin manufacturer which has the largest fanbase and is the most well advertised one. It was started around 3 years back and has been growing ever since. Dexpel offers innovative offers such as snap’n’share discounts and Eid offers. The company is also based in Lahore and operates on a delivery only basis.

Our testing criteria includes the quality and overall feel of the skin, cost, shipping time and handling of the skin, scratch resistance, water resistance, ease of application of the skin on the laptop and whether the skin leaves any residue on the laptop. We would be giving a score out of ten based on how the skin holds up in the criteria.

Cost:

The laptop skins from laptopskins.pk are priced at 350 PKR with 120 PKR on shipping, for a total price of 420 PKR. Payment options include “Telenor easy paisa” money transfer, Online bank transfer and cash on delivery for lahore residents.

Dexpel skins are priced at 400 PKR a piece. But there are no shipping charges on the skin whatsoever, so the total price of the skin is 400 PKR. Payment options here include cash on delivery all over Pakistan, Western Union money transfer for international customers, Telenor Easy Paisa money transfer and online bank transfer.

Considering that laptop skins in UK retail for about 44 pounds, both the skins are priced quite reasonably considering the high quality material that is used in the manufacture. Dexpel does lead here but only by a small margin due to the cash on delivery option for anywhere in Pakistan.

Dexpel: 9/10Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Laptopskins.pk: 8.5/10

Shipping time and handling:

We received the skins from Laptopskins.com.pk 8 days after they had agreed to send in their skins.Â But there was one huge problem with the package. The courier company had handled the skin very carelessly and had kept it folded. There were rifts along the skin which spoilt the design and the overall measurement of the skin which was unacceptable.

The skins from Dexpel were received 5 days after Dexpel had agreed to send in the units. We were very pleased that Dexpel had tagged a “Do not fold, handle with care” tag, thus ensuring that the skins would not be subject to folding and mishandling. The skin, when received, had no visible rifts on it whatsoever and maintained its original form. Dexpel leads in the shipping and handling department by a huge lead, both in the shipping time and handling of the package by the courier company.

Dexpel:Â 9/10Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Laptopskins.pk:Â 5/10

Ease of application:

Laptopskins.pk wins this criteria. The skin by Laptopskins.pk required a lesser effort to apply. All that was needed was to remove the back sheet of the skin and then apply it on the laptop. Due to the skins firm nature, It didn’t bend or form air bubbles at all. Infact, we applied the skin properly on our second try. It was that simple

Dexpel skins are fairly more difficult to apply and the given set of instructions are needed to be followed. It is quite hard to apply the skin along the exact edges of the lid and 4-5 tries are needed to avoid air bubbles and rifts along the skin.

Dexpel: 7/10Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Laptopskins.pk: 9/10

Quality:

This was a very difficult criteria to judge. The skins from Laptopskins.pk were undoubtedly sturdier then the dexpel skin. It had a rugged feel to it, almost suggesting that the skin was impact resistant too, though that isn’t the case. But the Dexpel skin had a more premium feel to it, due to its glossy nature. But then I took note of something. The skins from Laptopskins.pk didn’t fully stick onto the laptop and left some gaps between the skin and the lid. The skin couldn’t fully stick onto the laptop on all sides. There were also rafts in the skin and we suspect it was due to the mishandling by the courier company. In comparison, the Dexpel skin did not have any gaps between the surface and the skin, suggesting a better quality of material used for the skin and sticking agent.

Dexpel: 9/10Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Laptopskins.pk: 8/10

Overall look and feel:

The skin by Laptopskins.pk was very vibrant in colors. The design which they had sent us gave us an idea of the excellent contrast of the skin. It made the laptop look aggressive due to the awesome design and apparent sturdiness of the skin. The skin was matte so the design was easily visible at all angles, along with giving a better impression of the colors on the skin. The same can’t be said about the feel of the skin though. The skin was somewhat rough, which made our hands sweaty when placed on the skin. The sweaty hands somewhat reduced our grip while handling the laptop, though it wasn’t so much as to make it a serious issue. The overall look and feel of the skin was very nice to say the least.

The skin by Dexpel was easily the best looking skin we had seen by far. The glossy skin gave the HP G62 a MacBook like premium feel. The skin just looked amazing from all angles. The colors were very vibrant and the image was very detailed. It perfectly fit the G62 and wasn’t cut off or in excess from any side. The black plastic of the G62 gave a perfect contrast with the reflective green laptop skin.Â We also felt that this laptop skin was much smoother then the one by laptopskins.pk, and our hands remained sweat free while placing them on the skin.

This criteria depends entirely on preference. Both the skins have excellent vibrancy and definition of colors. The skin by Laptopskins.pk definitely looks more aggressive, which I feel would appeal more to the younger crowd. But the skins by Dexpel gave the laptop a premium feel, with its excellent design and fitting. It was according to me, the best looking skin I had yet seen on a laptop. Also, the overall feel of the Dexpel skin is much better.

Dexpel: 9.5/10Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Laptopskins.pk: 8.5/10

Scratch and water resistance:

For the scratch resistance test, we used a pin to make slight pressure scratches on the skin. This was because in daily use, these skins would be subject to slight wear over time. True to its claim, both Dexpel and Laptopskins.pk skins were scratch proof. There were no visible scratches on the surface of the laptop. But during the scratch tests, we did notice that the skin by laptopskins.pk tore to a certain extent due to its rough texture, while the Dexpel skin had still kept its original integrity due to its much smoother surface, though now with a few scratches.

For the water resistance test, we placed both the skins on 2 separate cardboard sheets. What we did then was spray both the skins with water and let it remain there for some time. Then, we removed the skins to check for any visible water marks. As expected, both the skins didnâ€™t let any water seep through them and there were no visible watermarks on the cardboard sheet. However, once again, we did notice that the skin by Laptopskins.pk had spoiled due to the colors of the skin mixing with the water. In comparison, the Dexpel skin kept its original integrity and the colors remained intact.

Dexpel: 10/10Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Laptopskins.pk: 8/10

Residue:

We left the skins applied for 6 hours each. There was no residue left on the laptop whatsoever. The laptop suffered no visual damage when both the skins were removed.

Dexpel:10/10Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Laptopskins.pk:10/10

Final Score:

Dexpel:Â Â Â 63.5/70Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Laptopskins.pk:Â Â 57/70

Verdict:

The verdict isnâ€™t an easy one. It was really hard to decide the better skin amongst both the skins, because frankly, this is a more subjective verdict and depends entirely on the taste of the consumer. We personally believe both the skins would appeal to different types of people, the Laptopskins.pk skin attracting the younger crowd due to the sturdiness, ease of application and aggressive nature of the skin while the Dexpel skin appealing to the more mature crowd due to their glossy finish, clean cut corners and premium feel. Dexpel wins the laptop skins review comparison, and therefore, is the best laptop skin manufacturer in Pakistan according to us. But that in no way means that Laptopskins.pk is an inferior company. As you can see above, most of the scoring cut from the Laptopskins.pk skin was due to the careless shipping, which is majorly a fault of the shipping company. A simple â€œDo not fold, handle with careâ€ tag on the package would ensure a safe delivery to the recipient without causing damage to the skin. But till then, Dexpel leads the laptop skins market in Pakistan, with its quick and responsible delivery, flexible payment options and one of the best looking skins we have seen yet.

January 31, 2013
Review: Serif MoviePlus X5 (Box & Screens Included)

MoviePlus is a video editing software by Serif which aims to compete with giants like Adobe After Effects, Apple Final Cut And Sony Vegas. The software has come a long way from it’s initial release back in 2003. Originally MoviePlus was intended to be used for converting MiniDV recorded videos to DVDs but it’s come to support a large array of formats and is now a favorite of many home video enthusiasts.

THE REVIEW

INSIDE THE BOX

Sporting the same colors as its predecessor, MoviePlus X5 comes in a sleek purple-black case.

FEATURES & OVERVIEW

The latest release Serif X5 has added many new features to the already excellent piece of software including the ability to generate MPEG-4, Quicktime and direct High Definition HDV files. As far as hardware requirements for MoviePlus X5 are concerned you need at least a Pentium 4 with Hyper Threading or an AMD Athlon XP processor along with 1GB of RAM but multiple cores are highly recommended.

For beginners there’s a helpful How To panel on the left inside the main program which give quick one click hints and tips which we’ve found pretty useful when we started using the program. There are also mini video tutorials and sample projects that really improve your skills. Overall the program is very easy to use but we still find Adobe After Effects the perfectly idiot proof video editing program.

As far as the interface is concerned the program is really fast, the timeline never lags, video and audio files import almost instantly and the previews never shutter. We’ve found it on par with Final Cut by Apple which is pretty darn fast. The prior mentioned preview function is pretty neat, when you hover your mouse over any video in the media tab it open a small video dialogue playing the video unlike on other editing softwares where you have to open the video in another window to preview then. Another useful feature is how the program renders HD files in lower resolutions when being worked on and converts them back to higher resolutions for the final product. Exactly what does that mean you ask? Well it allows users with slower hardware to get their work done without facing frequent slowdowns.

The effects included in the package are pretty decent, standard effects like image stabilization and noise reduction are helpful as always. We also loved using the chroma key, color correction, masking skins and the excellent text based effects.

There’s one thing that really bugs us about the program: the timeline. Even though it’s pretty quick it gets really crowded once you start applying different effects, adding different audios, etc and to fix that you have to change the height of the tracks constantly, not that much of a problem but it would have been nice to have an option to zoom into the timeline vertically. Another annoying thing with the timeline is that you can only expand and check key frames only one track at a time which simply wastes your time.

TechDeville’s Verdict

MoviePlus X5 is one of the easiest video editors we’ve got our hands on. It’s priced good and very easy to use, what else could you want?.

Links:

For more details on the product: Click Here

January 16, 2013
Samsung Galaxy S II AT&T Variant’s Pictures Leaked, Features A Slide Out QWERTY Keyboard
BGR has received exclusive photos of the AT&T branded Samsung Galaxy S II which is yet to be released in the USA. The most distinctive part of the variant is that it features a slide out QWERTY keyboard like the Sprint variant of the previous Galaxy S: The Epic 4g.

BGR says this Galaxy S II variant manages to maintain it’s slim profile even with a QWERTY slider, could that make it the slimmer keyboard phone ever?

As you can see from the image above it’s indeed the rumored SGH-I927 which was previously thought to be the Windows Phone 7 powered Galaxy S II.

The BGR informant even managed to run some benchmarks which makes one thing clear: it’s bloody fast!

The camera is still 8MP with what it looks like a single LED flash. We’re still not sure that if the innards like the processor have been changed but we can say for sure is that the phone is indeed coming to the United States.

Source: BGR

Stay tuned to TechDeville for everything Tech! Follow us on Twitter (@TechDeville) and like us at Facebook.

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April 16, 2012
Team Fortress 2 Is Now Free To Play
Team Fortress 2, one of Valve’s biggest games is now free to play on Steam. The game has been played by millions of players across the PC, Mac and Xbox 360. It was initially reported that the game is free to play for a limited time but Valve later confirmed that this new change was permanent. Valve has also released a promo video to announce the news which you can check out after the break. What could be the reason behind making one of their best selling games free? Maybe they have Team Fortress 3 under production. Even thinking about it gives me goosebumps, but can Valve really count till 3? Only time will tell.

Source: Steam

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April 16, 2012
New Features Of iOS 5
So the highly anticipated iOS 5 announcement is here. Here is an overview of the new features of the iOS 5 introduced at the WWDC. Keep in mind that these areÂ just a few of the features and there are other less important ones which weren’t announced at the WWDC.

Notification Center

The first feature, which is also the most expected one, is the all new notifications system. At first look, it bears a striking resemblance to the one used in android. Apple has finally gotten rid of those annoying push notifications which plagued the iPhone.Now, the notifications can be accessed by pulling the top bar down, like in android devices. They can then be viewed individually by sliding across to reveal the notification. The notifications can be closed by tapping on the cross. Click here for more information

Deep Twitter Integration

The second feature is native twitter integration of the iOS devices. Twitter applications can now be integrated with other applications.The setup for twitter has been simplified and now it can also automatically update contacts if they have twitter handles. Overall, the Twitter user interface is made smoother and now is much more pleasant to use. Click here for more information

News Stand

The third feature is the news stand. It is more like a virtual newspaper, with magazine and news subscriptions being sent to you virtually on your iOS device. Subscriptions were introduced by Apple a while back, but now the latest editions can be downloaded automatically. They can then be read offline.

Enhanced Safari

Apple has introduced a lot of new changes to the native Safari browser. First and foremost is the Safari reader, which is placed near the address bar. It aligns text together,and is a handy convenience when reading an all text page, such as a story. Then there is the reading list, which basically lets you read pages off line by saving them. Apple also introduced tabbed browsing on the iOS devices. As said before, twitter integration makes its presence here as tweets can be made using the tweet button, which pops up the tweet sheet.

Camera Updates

The native camera application has been upgraded drastically. A camera button has been placed on the lockscreen so the camera application can be accessed directly from there without unlocking the phone.Pictures can be taken by using the volume up button, so it acts like a physical camera shutter key. The pictures can be pinched to zoom like in the previous iOS versions, but now the exposure settings can beÂ adjusted automatically by holding onto the touch. Options for editing to some extent are also present such as red-eye reduction, cropping and one click enhancement.

Enhanced Mail Client

Some features have also been added to the native mail client. These include; Rich-text formatting, indentation control, S-mime, draggable addresses (from To: to Cc: or Bcc:). You can now also search entire contents of messages.

iMessage

iMessage is a new messaging client available on all iOS 5 devices. Messages,receipts,pictures and videos can be sent amongst all iOS 5 devices using WiFi or 3G. One thing to note is that typing notifications are present here, so the receiver gets noted when the sender is typing a message. Click here for more information

PC-Free

With the iOS 5, the iOS devices wouldn’t need to be synced with a PC/Mac to set them up on first start up. The setup is done on the device itself, and software updates are downloaded Over the air, unlike the previous iOS versions wherea computer with itunes was needed to update to the latest iOS version. iTunes library on the device can be synced wirelessly over wifi. Airplay mirroring also lets you display the iPad on a TV wirelessly. Click here for more information.

Reminders

Other features of the iOS 5 include reminders, which can be assigned for any time or location. The dictionary can now be used for all applications downloaded from the app store. It can be accessed by selecting the text and using the define option.

The iOS 5 will be released this fall and for now will support the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 3rd and 4th generations, iPad and iPad 2. However, the developer will be available from today.

Image Courtesy: MacRumors

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April 13, 2012
The Dark Knight Rises Teaser Trailer Is Now Availabe For Everyone In HD
“The Dark Knight Rises” is the upcoming highly anticipated sequel to the blockbuster “The Dark Knight”. Previously this teaser trailer was illegally leaked and made available on the internet, now Warner Bros has officially released this trailer. See it after the jump.

As we can see that the real trailer was indeed leaked after which Warner Bros took action to remove it from everywhere. Now it is available and officially released by Warner Bros so feel free to watch it as many times as you want while you are waiting for this movie of the year. The Dark Knight Rises will be released in the summers next year. See the teaser trailer below.

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January 28, 2012
Download The Google Plus App For Android Here
Yes guys Google’s second run in the social networking race Google Plus (or Google+ as the logo suggests) has finally hit BETA. The network is currently invite only but if you have managed to get one then good for you. Currently there are two options to access Google+ on mobile devices, an HTML 5 version which can be accessed through a mobile browser and a native full blown app for Android with additional features.

The only downside to the app is that it’s not available worldwide so you would need to either fake your provider using MarketEnabler from the Android Market place or directly download the app from the download link at the end of this article and install it using a file manager. There’s also an introduction video to the app below.

Download

Via: WCCFTech

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January 2, 2012
Deathly Hallows Part 2 Breaks All Time Opening Weekend Record

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When studio estimates were released tonight, Deathly Hallows Part 2 was the first movie after 3 years that finally managed to dethrone “The Dark Knight” to claim first spot in the All Time Opening Weekend chart.

While as we previously reported here that this latest potter movie broke the single day gross record by making a massive $92.1 million on its opening day. With such massive launch day gross, it was fully expected that the opening weekend will come close to $180 to $190 million. Sadly it was not the case here, after opening with large numbers the latest potter movie lost some of its steam and in the remaining 2 days it barely made enough to end up with a $168 million weekend gross.

For comparison’s sake, The Dark Knight started with $67 million on its Friday launch day and ended up with a $158 million by the end of its launch weekend. Another thing to consider here is the premium price of 3D tickets. The Dark Knight was not in 3D while in comparison, this latest Harry Potter movie is in 3D as well which means that the estimated attendance is way less then The Dark Knight’s attendance. Since 3D tickets are more expensive then average movie tickets they usually bump a movies gross even though the attendance may be lower.

Still such gross is a great success nonetheless and Warner Bros will be certainly happy with the results. This latest potter movie is setting new records on the foreign box office as well and had made about $307 million bringing its worldwide gross to a astronomical $475 million. This is a new record breaking gross from any movie launching worldwide and this easily beat Pirates 4 to become the top grossing debut weekend for a movie ever.

October 12, 2011
Review: Serif WebPlus X5 (Box & Screens Included)

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Serif is fast-approaching the front-row of premium design software of today. From its arsenal of amazing products comes WebPlus X5, the latest in web-design technology. Serif was kind enough to send us the software with its packaging for reviewing. I’ve personally tested this product for over 2 months and I can safely review this product in the most unbiased mode. This review was done using the latest version of Webplus along with its premium license and features, to experience the best from this software buy the license.

About WebPlus X5

From Serif:

WebPlus X5 is the ultimate website design software for small businesses, organizations and home users. You don’t need to know any HTML – drag-and-drop simplicity, an intuitive interface, and powerful tools help you design sites easily, even if you’ve never done it before.

The Review

The review is going to be divided into basic parts, explaining Webplus X5 in detail:

Inside The Box: Contents

The CD case represents the familiar colors Webplus has been sporting since it first got launched. Elegantly packed and delivered.

INTERFACE

For long-time users, the new interface in X5 will look oddly familiar. The color scheme has been changed from that purple-white to silver, which I absolutely love since it gives it a more professional feel. The welcome screen now has more options for greater accessibility.

BUILT-IN TEMPLATES

WebPlus X5 features a tremendous amount of awesome new templates for users to familiarize themselves with. If you don’t want to design something from scratch, the built-in templates are more than enough to help anyone expose their creative side.

QUICKBUILDER BAR

Porting from previous versions, the Quickbuilder Bar has been tweaked and upgraded. Components such as Flash Movies, Photo Galleries and Images can be created or imported within minutes. Furthermore, the Smart Objects from Serif are pretty useful and can be used by anyone.

NEW NAVIGATION BARS

WebPlus X5 brings along an immense range of custom-made navigation bars for users to choose from. They range from Javascript to Flash to your usual HTML bars. And if they are not enough, more custom-bars can be downloaded or bought from Serif.

PHOTOLAB: PICTURE EDITOR

WebPlus X5 has its very own picture editor called Photolab. It is equipped with all the basic photo editing features which help in quick fixes and super-fast basic editing.

IMAGE CUTOUT STUDIO

For users familiar with Adobe Photoshop, this feature resembles the Extract filter. The Image CutOut Studio is a quick way to crop photos and select the visibility of images. Quickly and easily remove backgrounds and other things from pictures from within WebPlus x5.

LIGHTBOX ENABLED

Lightbox is the most-used feature in websites these days, it is that little option that lets images pop-out and the rest of the page goes dark. This new version of Webplus comes with Lightbox. A few easy steps and you too can make images pop out with the Lightbox.

CROSS-BROWSER COMPATIBILITY

One of the most useful feature in WebPlus X5 is that it lets users preview websites in every browser, to see if there is any difference or error in coding when switching to other browsers. A very helpful feature.

HOW-TO BAR

The help bar has detailed steps for first-time users to help them create their very own websites as fast as possible. They teach everything from the basics to the more harder skills.

TechDeville’s Verdict

Webplus X5 comes on top amongst other html-free webdesign software in the market today. With enhanced features matching the web 2.0 era, this software is a must-have for both novice and expert designers alike.

Links:

To find out more about Webplus X5, visit the official website here.

October 12, 2011