Reviews Of Laptops And 2-In-1 PCs
Laptop PCs and 2-in-1 convertible tablet/laptop devices are the cornerstone personal computing systems for getting both work and play done on the road. From the big gun firepower of gaming laptops and desktop replacement machines, to ultra-lights and hybrids, we've got you covered here for what's hot in mobile computing.
Earlier this year, Google did something almost ground-breaking when it introduced the Chromebook Pixel. Sure, the Chromebook line as a whole has existed for a few years, but the entire premise of such a range of notebooks revolved around only a couple of design goals. One of those was accessibility, and almost by default, the other was affordability....
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While many full-size gaming rigs are built to elicit oohs and ahs with their stunning looks and high performance, gaming notebooks can sometimes be a little bland. CyberPowerPC has had its share of solid yet non-distinct looking gaming notebooks, but the Fangbook series is a different animal. Built with plenty of alluring hardware...
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Technology marches to the beat of its own drum and the hard part is keeping in step with the rhythm. You may recall, for example, that we already reviewed Dell's XPS 13 Ultrabook a year ago, singing high praise for its edge-to-edge display, stellar battery life, and overall performance, which at the time was the best we'd seen from an Ultrabook....
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Ultrabooks are, in a word, cool. They’re slim, flashy, and lightweight, yet they’re rather powerful and offer users a laptop that can do it all in a form factor that begs to be touched and carried around (especially if it’s a convertible ultrabook, in which case the unit can double as a high-powered tablet). Business-class...
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Business-class laptops don’t get much love these days, due to all the buzz surrounding ultrabooks and tablets. But there are still plenty of jobs that demand the processing power, storage, and general flexibility of a true business-class machine. If you still use optical media like CDs or DVDs in your day-to-day computing,...
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The expression "better late than never" fits like a glove when talking about the recent trend towards 15.6-inch Ultrabooks. We fully appreciate that Intel and its hardware partners made a concerted effort to slim down the notebook without sacrificing performance (unlike the once popular netbook form factor), but limiting the segment to 14-inch...
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Calling the Alienware M18x R2 a laptop is like referring to a Harley Davidson as a bicycle. Both have handlebars and ride on two wheels, but when the rubber hits the road, the Harley's going to leave a Schwinn in the rear-view mirror. So it goes with the Alienware system we abducted from Dell. Technically, it's a gaming laptop, but more...
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Given all the frenzy around ultrabooks, Microsoft's Surface, and the low power potential of future chips like Haswell, you might think that desktop replacement-class laptops had fallen out of favor with modern laptop manufacturers. iBuyPower's CZ-17 "Valkyrie" is proof that they haven't -- and while its size and weight won't appeal to road...
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For all the performance being packed into today’s super-slim ultrabooks, gaming and multimedia are often the weakest links. Most ultrabooks have Intel integrated graphics that aren’t designed to take on graphics-intensive games. Storage space, graphics processing, and display quality can be key areas in many ultrabooks that leave...
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The recent rise and fall of the netbook as a computer category made one thing clear: consumers are willing to sacrifice some screen size and power in the name of portability, but not as much as a netbook requires. On the other hand, many shoppers are willing to pay a premium for a thinner, lighter notebook, and that's where the ultrabook comes...
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There was a time, not too terribly long ago, when a machine was immediately glossed over by average consumers as soon as the "business" label was placed on it. If you've worked in the corporate world within the past 10 to 15 years, you know exactly what we mean. Those dreaded "work laptops" were never ones to be proud of, and while they somehow...
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When Eurocom sent us their latest gaming notebook for evaluation, we expected the usual huge, heavy machine with obscenely powerful components inside. It’s even called the “Monster”, which seems to indicate a particularly beastly rig. But when the box arrived on our doorstep, it seemed far too small to encase anything resembling...
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Give credit to Intel for recognizing the notebook market needed a swift kick in the pants, and for putting a noose around the necks of netbooks, which have all but been eliminated from the market place. Sure, a few straggling netbooks remain, but by and large, Intel is now heavily invested (both literally and figuratively) in the Ultrabook...
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These days, it seems we're hearing more and more about tablets eating away at market share that was once ruled by netbooks and notebooks. Netbooks we can believe -- we haven't seen a compelling wave of new netbooks in months -- but are people really choosing tablets with limited functionality over full-scale laptops? That argument is expected...
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It's easy to understand why the fledgling ultrabook market is exploding with new offerings from virtually all of the major players. The new class of notebooks, seemingly reinvented by Intel's vision (and a $300 million dollar marketing fund) are designed to offer robust performance for everyday tasks and multimedia, in a wafer-thin and...
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The thin-and-light market is seriously heating up, and with CES 2012 just around the corner, Lenovo's hoping to sneak some sales in during the last few weeks of the 2011 holiday season. The IdeaPad U400 is a sleek, sexy machine, understated from top to bottom and aimed at mid-range buyers who have never had so many options. You can't really...
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Earlier this year, we took a long, hard look at one of Dell's most highly-anticipated multimedia notebooks to date. That was the XPS 15z, and we thought pretty highly of it in almost every measurable way, including its delightfully thin dimensions. Fast forward a few months, and in slides the XPS 14z. According to its branding, this unit is...
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AVADirect should include a bumper sticker with its Clevo P180HM notebook that says, "My desktop replacement beat up your Ultrabook and defiled your MacBook Air." Don't get transfixed on the notion that someone would be silly enough to own both of those ultraslim systems rather than choose one over the other. The point we're trying to make...
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Big, bad and unapologetic. These three words accurately describe the Alienware M18x. Unapologetic about its size, this is a desktop replacement notebook that almost defies the entire category of portable machines. Sure, it's portable, in the sense that you can move it from room to room or perhaps pack it up for a LAN, but you're...
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Thin–and–light is back. If you have any doubts whatsoever, just take a look at the notebook landscape as it is today. Outside of those monster gaming laptops and desktop replacements that still demand their own massive amount of real estate, most everything else these days seems to be aiming for thin. MSI's lineup is no different,...
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The Asus line of G73 Stealth notebooks proved to be all-around solid desktop replacements, equally ideal for gaming, multimedia, and productivity. In fact, the Asus G53 and G73 line, from Asus' Repulic of Gamers (ROG) family, has been very successful in the market, praised by press and end users alike. We took a look at the previous generation...
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There's a time and place to act a fool, like at a Ludacris concert for example, or when entertaining your in-laws during a holiday function in which you're trying to encourage a hasty departure. Likewise, there are situations where showboating simply isn't appropriate. Wondering what this has to do with a laptop review? Well, the same...
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