Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro5500

Any business inkjet had better be fast. The OfficeEdge Pro5500 one-ups the competition by being fast in scanning as well as printing. In our tests it photocopied a simple text document at a brisk speed of 6 pages per minute. When it came to our hardest scanning test, which uses a full-page color photo, the OfficeEdge Pro5500 took just 68 seconds--one of the fastest scan times we've seen here.

Dell XPS 15z

 
Unlike most other Dell laptops, the XPS 15z isn't highly configurable. You can't upgrade the slot-loading burner to a Blu-ray drive: Dell says that the system is too thin to have room for a slot-loading Blu-ray drive. The base model comes with a screen resolution of 1366 by 768, but for $100 more you can upgrade to a full 1920 by 1080. Aside from the full-HD display, Dell offers set configurations with 8GB of RAM instead of 6GB, a dual-core Core i7-2620M CPU, and double the graphics RAM, but most of those enhancements won't make a noticeable difference. Though our review unit was the full $1500 package with all of the higher-end options, the sweet spot is the base configuration plus full-HD screen for $1100.

Sony VAIO Z Series

The 13-inch VAIO Z is ridiculously thin and light. At 0.7 inch when closed, the body is about as thick as the thickest point on a Macbook Air, though the VAIO Z doesn't taper as Apple's ultraportable does. It's even lighter than the 13-inch Air, too, at 2.5 pounds. This is due in part to Sony's having made the body out of aluminum and featherweight, durable carbon fiber. It looks good, and it feels good. And despite the laptop's incredibly svelte size, Sony crams a full-voltage Core i5 or Core i7 processor into it. Our review model came with a Core i7 2620M and 4GB of RAM. It also carried a 256GB solid-state drive, and the combination powered the system to a very impressive WorldBench 6 score of 138--one of the highest scores we've seen for an ultraportable laptop. Amazingly, the battery lasted for 5.5 hours, about an hour less than the batteries on most recent ultraportables have managed, but quite impressive considering the horsepower under the hood.

Dell XPS 13

The version of the XPS 13 that I tested is the entry-level model. For $999, you get a Core i5-2467M with Intel integrated graphics, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB solid-state drive. For $300 more, you can upgrade to a 256GB SSD; and another $200 will boost the CPU to a dual-core Core i7. Our baseline configuration proved to be pretty zippy on its own, delivering a strong WorldBench 7 score of 136. Chalk that performance up to the SSD, which helps the system boot up in about 17 seconds and performs basic file operations very speedily. In our battery tests, the system lasted just a hair under 6.5 hours. However, that number drops precipitously if you crank up the screen brightness, which can get quite bright.

Vizio CT14-A2 Ultrabook

At first blush, the CT14-A2 seems mostly distinguished by its lack of features. Just two USB 3.0 ports are included, one on each side. A lone HDMI port is on the right side, providing the only video output port. The system lacks a wired ethernet jack, and doesn’t include a USB-to-ethernet adapter, as similarly thin Asus Zenbook UX31E. Perhaps the one absent feature that people might really miss, though, is a flash card reader.

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13

The Yoga scores 60 out of 100. This means that the Yoga is 40 percent slower than our baseline testing model, which has a third-generation Intel Core i5 desktop processor, 8GB of RAM, and an Nvidia discrete graphics card. The Yoga’s score of 60 isn’t great for a desktop, but the Yoga isn’t a desktop – it’s an Ultrabook. Its score is actually quite good for an Ultrabook – the only other Ultrabook we’ve tested on WorldBench 8 is the HP Envy TouchSmart 4 (57), which has the same i5-3317U processor as the Yoga, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive.

Huawei Ascend P2

Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei has unveiled a handset it claims has the world's fastest wireless speeds.

During a keynote event ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona the company launched the Ascend P2, a phone that uses LTE category 4 to achieve network speeds up to 150Mbps.

The P2 is part of Huawei's fashion-focused product range and features a 1.5GHz quad-core processor and comes with 1GB of RAM. It runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and displays its wares using a 4.7-inch 720x1280-pixel display, which can reportedly be used even when wearing gloves, similar to Nokia's Lumia devices.

The P2 forms part of Huawei's effort to move away from being seen as a manufacturer of products for other brands and become a brand power in its own right.