Reviews of Laptop Computers

Dell offers a suitable competitor to the 13-inch Apple MacBook in its XPS 1330, but we wish this retail version had some more recent components

At its current discounted price, we'd be willing to overlook the HP Pavilion dv5-1004nr's below average performance if the battery life wasn't so bad.

The entry-level Compaq Presario CQ50-115NR looks great, but you can get better performance and battery life for your money.

It’s been almost a year since the original Asus Eee 701 appeared stateside, making traditional ultra-portables look fat with its size and weight, sending prices plunging with its $400 price tag, and triggering a landslide of imitators. In that time, many have tried, but few have succeeded in one upping Asus at its own game. The Wind is MSI’s freshman effort in the emerging subnotebook genre, but the company has managed to run with the best of them by offering a 10-inch display, a fast and efficient Intel Atom processor, and loads of storage.

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We recommend the eye-catching, media-friendly HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr desktop replacement for students who want a laptop that doubles as an entertainment center. Gateway, however, has a slightly cheaper 17-inch model that's better suited to gamers.

The Dell Studio S1535-125B impresses us with its leading performance in the sub-$1,000 category, thanks in large part to a speedy Intel CPU and generous memory allotment. Striking a fine balance between Dell's XPS and Inspiron lines, we recommend this well-rounded 15-inch laptop for students and home users alike.

The Acer Aspire One is easily the best of the current under-$400 Netbooks, but its meager allotment of memory and tiny battery limit its appeal.

The HP Pavilion dv6985se is a well-stocked mainstream machine with a long-living (though heavy) 12-cell battery. We recommend it, provided you like the unique copper-colored case and are willing to schlep around 6.6 pounds of laptop.

While Lenovo’s ultra-sleek X300 may have stolen the show as the company’s MacBook Air competitor back in April, the machine’s astronomic price tag also left most would-be buyers pressing against the window glass like gawkers at a Maserati dealership. To fill the gap between the flagship X300 and the smaller, but far more affordable 12.1-inch X61, Lenovo released the X61’s successor in July, the X200. The reworked machine has grown in width to make room for a new widescreen XGA screen, picked up Intel’s latest generation Montevina mobile chip for better speed and efficiency, and stirred in some extra features and refinements as well.

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Multimedia all-rounder. After the Asus M70S and the M51SN, it is now time for the M50S to be tested. The M50S, like the other notebooks made by Asus, belong to the segment of high performance multimedia notebooks. The hardware equipment and design of our 15" M50S test sample are very similar or even identical with the bigger M70S. This includes a HDMI interface and a Blu-Ray drive.