Thumbs Up:

Attractive looks, power full processor, battery life is excellent, big touch pad,

Thumbs Down:

There are lots of other better multimedia centric laptops, app dock is full of crap advertisements.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

HP Pavilion dm4 is powered by 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 M520 processor. The internal memory is 4 GB DDR2 RAM at 800 MHz. For storing data, there is 320 GB, 7200 rpm hard drive. Chipset type is Intel HM55. Integrated graphics is Intel Media Accelerator HD. The screen is 14 inches big (diagonally) and has resolution of 1,366×768 pixels. The notebook comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS.

Razzle Dazzle:

HP Pavilion dm4’s look is similar to the HP dm13, a 13 inch notebook. Both have metallic exteriors. There is a slight difference though, dm3 has a brushed metal look where as dm4 comes with angular lines on the wrist rest and the lid.

Inside Dope:

We have reviewed quite a lot of HP laptops in the past and we have liked the stylish look of its multimedia centric notebooks. This too looks stylish and the feature set is also good. The design might make you think that this is a high end laptop but it is really a down to earth computer. Our review model costs $979; if you are looking for alternatives, there is the Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 which comes at $1,050. It has the same specs but comes with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphic card as well. HP system can be customized for a graphic card but it will take the price up by $200. On the bright side, dm4 has a 7,200 rpm hard drive where as Lenovo’s hard disk has 5,400 rpm speed. If you are looking for best value for money deal, check out the 15-inch Samsung R580 which comes at a price of $829 and has both Blu-ray drive and graphic card. However, if looks matter a lot to you, stick with the dm4 as it is the sexiest amongst the three.

HP Pavilion dm4’s keyboard is the same as that seen on other HP notebooks. The buttons have a topped layout and the keys are adequately spaced away from each other. The keyboard layout is similar to dm3 but a bigger chassis here gives more room for the buttons. We instantly noticed that the dm4 had standard sized arrow buttons. Above the keyboard, you won’t find any separate media control buttons; instead you will have to use the Fn keys.

HP Pavilion dm4’s touch pad looks quite similar to the ones seen on step-up Envy line up. It is bigger than standard size and is made up of matte black surface. This is much better than traditional Pavilion’s mirrored and sticky pads. For the mouse buttons, you have rocker bar, just like a MacBook. We welcome the bigger size of the touchpad but the multitouch gestures are not easy to use. We struggled even with the basic two finger scrolling gesture. You have to align your finger in a perfect specific position on the plane. We saw this multitouch gesture problem on HP Envy 13 laptops too.
Just like most Dell and Asus notebooks, HP Pavilion dm4 comes with a software dock on the top of the display. It contains links for software and services but the user experience is ruined by tons of advertisement there.

HP Pavilion dm4’s 14.1 inch screen gives a resolution of 1,366×768 pixels which is standard for this size of laptops. The screen is bright and colors look vibrant but be wary of the glossy surface; it reflects lots of light. You can put in a graphic card in this laptop for another $100 or $200 but there is no Blu-ray drive option. On the other side, you can get mobile broadband on this computer for $125. Services are offered by AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint.

You can choose from a wide range of processor options for this computer. They range from Core i5 to Core i7. Our review model had 2.4GHz Intel Corei5 M520 processor, which will meet all the requirements of a typical user. We multitasked on this computer and still it didn’t show any drastic slowdown problems.

If you are a gamer, there is not much to cheer about on the HP Pavilion dm4. You’d be crazy to play games through the integrated graphics card. You can put in a graphic card if you want to play games but since our review model didn’t come with one, we didn’t test this unit for gaming.

HP Pavilion dm4 lived for four hours and 22 minutes in our battery drain tests. Our tests are quite challenging and you can get more from this battery through moderate use. But still this battery life is pretty good considering most of the recent laptops in our labs have had horrible battery times.

HP gives a one year warranty for this product and it covers parts and labor. A three year upgrade option costs another $529. It includes on site service along with additional options for upgrade for ‘accidental damage’. You can visit the HP website for online knowledge base and driver downloads. Finally, there is a 24-7 phone support.

Nitty Gritty:

HP Pavilion dm4 is an attractive looking and powerful machine but we find it hard to recommend a multimedia centric laptop which has no Blu-ray drive option.

Thumbs Up:

Excellent combination of processor and graphics card, attractive looks

Thumbs Down:

Battery life is unimpressive; touch controls are superfluous, expensive as compared to competiton.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 0633 is 13.4 inches wide, 1.3 inches high, 9.3 inches deep and weighs 4.9 lbs. This is a thin and light gaming notebook. It is powered by dual core Intel Core i5 I5-520M / 2.4 GHz processor. The maximum turbo speed is 2.93 GHz. Other feature include Intel Turbo Boost Technology and Hyper Threading Technology. Chipset type is Mobile Intel HM55 Express. The notebook has L2 cache of 3 MB. Preinstalled memory is 4 GB DDR3 SD RAM at 1066 MHz. The RAM is upgradeable to eight GB. For storing data, there is 500 GB SATA hard drive at 7200 rpm.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 0633 has a six in one card reader which supports the following card formats – Memory Stick, SD Memory Card, Memory Stick Pro, MultiMediaCard, xD-Picture Card. The screen is 14 inches big and gives a resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels. The notebook has a power full one GB PCI Express 2.0 x16 – ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 / Intel HD Graphics card. There is a 1.3 megapixel Webcam above the display. Interfaces include Headphones – SPDIF output – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45, Microphone – Input – Mini-phone 3.5 mm, Audio / video – HDMI – 19 pin HDMI Type A, Display / video – VGA – 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15), Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A, eSATA / Hi-Speed USB – 11 pin USB/eSATA

The laptop comes preinstalled with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition. Preinstalled software includes McAfee VirusScan Plus 2009 (60 days of virus definitions), Lenovo Energy Management, Lenovo OneKey Recovery, CyberLink Power2Go, CyberLink Youcam, Lenovo SlideNav, Media Show, Microsoft Office 2007 (60 days trial), Windows Live Essentials, Lenovo DirectShare, Lenovo ReadyComm, Lenovo VeriFace, Adobe Reader, ooVoo. Lenovo gives a one year warranty for this product.

Razzle Dazzle:

This laptop belongs to the IdeaPad line up of notebooks from Lenovo and it is a lot different in terms of looks as compared to the boring ThinkPad line up. IdeaPad series’s laptops are quite underrated in looks, they look much better than other notebooks but Lenovo makes you pay a little more for the eye candy.

Inside Dope:

This is a 14 inch laptop which runs on Intel Core i5 CPU. Along with that, you have a fast and powerfull graphics card. Priced at $899, this laptop is costly. There are other notebooks in the market offering the same specs at a much lower price. Once a notebook goes past the thousand dollar price mark, we compare it with 2 big wigs – 13 inch MacBook Pro and HP’s Envy 14.

Presence of a fast graphic card makes the Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 0633 good for gaming. Don’t expect out of the box gaming experience; if you are looking for that, get the Alienware notebooks. Being a gaming notebook, we would call it an entertainment centric laptop. However, unlike other such multimedia entertainers, there is no Blu-ray drive. Another major gripe is that the battery life is pretty small. 14 inch notebooks are made for guys who travel a lot. So how will they survive if the battery dries up quickly?

Above the keyboard, there is a touch sensitive button strip which is nice to have but this one was quite frustrating to use. The basic buttons like volume control, Wi-Fi and battery work fine but the control strip is awful. The strip has sensitive buttons; you have to slide your finger on the strip and park your finger close to the application icon that you want to launch. We loved the animation strip that came up on the Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 0633’s display for this. But we often ended up starting up the wrong application. For instance, we chose to change the wallpaper desktop but the relevant application didn’t show up on the screen and hence we ended up sliding our fingers time and again on the strip.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 0633’s other touch sensitive buttons work well, they are in fact the best we have ever seen in a laptop. The keyboard as well as the touchpad is quite good too. The keys have flat topped island buttons and it looks like the manufacturer tried to experiment a bit here. Previously, Lenovo laptops had island style keys.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 0633’s 14 inch screen has a 1,366×768 pixel resolution. You can play 720p videos on it but 1080p content won’t run well. The images look bright and clear, the contrast is very much deep and the color too is excellent. The screen is very glossy though, and it reflects a lot of glare. Again we must balk at the lack of Blu-ray optical drive for an entertainment centric laptop like this. For the given price tag, absence of Blu-ray drive is a big bummer. Lenovo doesn’t give you a lot to configure on this laptop. You can play with the processor and graphics card option, that’s it. Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 0633 is runs on Core i5 processor and the performance was quite similar to other Core i5 laptops that we have had in our labs.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 0633 has 1 GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics card which is quite impressive. We played a few rounds of Unreal Tournament III at resolutions of 1,366×768 pixels and got 73.6 fps. New games such as Just Cause 2 also ran smoothly. This is not made for hard core gamers but still gaming performance is quite impressive.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 0633’s battery life is pretty awful. We got just two hours and twelve minutes in our battery drain test which is a bit disappointing especially because of the six cell battery. As compared to this, MacBook Pro gave us around four hours more on a similar test. Even the basic Dell Inspiron 1564, a 15 inch laptop gave better battery life. 14 inch laptops belong to the semi portable line up and hence you’d expect for better battery life on such notebooks. Don’t buy this computer if you stay away from the electrical outlet a lot.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 0633 comes with one year warranty for labor and parts. Three year warranty upgrade costs $107 and with the onsite service, it is $149. You can also visit the manufacturer’s Website for driver downloads, online knowledge base and 24-7 toll free phone line.

Nitty Gritty:

Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 0633 is a good laptop for gaming but it will face stiff competition in the market especially because there are other laptops offering the same specs at much lower price.

Thumbs Up:

Plenty of hardware tweaking options, dual graphic card option

Thumbs Down:

Uncomfortable in ergonomics, chassis looks generic, can get very expensive

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Origin EON18 is 17.2 inches wide, 11.7 inches deep, 1.7 inches high and weighs around 12.6 lbs. The notebooks is powered by Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition I7-920XM / 2 GHz, quad core processor and it has data bus speed of 1333 MHz, chipset type is Mobile Intel PM55 Express. It has L3 cache of 8MB. Installed memory is 8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333 MHz. For storing data, there is a 500 GB SATA hard drive at 7200 rpm and 80 GB SSD

The 7 in 1 card reader supports the following cards – Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, miniSD, RS-MMC. The display is 18.4 inches big and has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. Graphic cards are 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285M in SLI mode of 1 GB GDDR3 SDRAM. Above the display, there is a two megapixel camera.

Interfaces include Audio – SPDIF output – TOSLINK, IEEE 1394 (FireWire) – 4 pin FireWire, 4 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A, Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45, Audio / video – HDMI – 19 pin HDMI Type A, Storage / Hi-Speed USB – Hi-Speed USB / eSATA, Headphones – Output – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, Microphone – Input – Mini-phone 3.5 mm, Display / video – VGA – 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15). Pre installed OS is Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit Edition.

Razzle Dazzle:

We would have liked it if the manufacturer had done a bit more research with regards to the look of the computer. Alienware laptops look sexy and we thought this one too would follow the suit since there are lots of ex-Alienware employees here. The chassis design was outsourced to Clevo and this notebook looks a bit generic.

Inside Dope:

Gaming laptops were once a luxury in notebook market but things are changed now and they do give tough competition gaming consoles. There are big players out in the market like Alienware and Voodoo and the price of their products are going up as the manufacturers assume that laptop gamers can afford to spend big. Contrary to this Origin are offering more of a boutique angle to the gamers and are giving it a personalized touch, variety of components and better customer service.

Origin took off in late 2008 and majority of the staff consists of ex-Alienware employees. Till now, there are laptops EON 18 and EON 15. Both of them come with lots of options for graphics card and processor and.

We liked the EON 18 because it gives tons of options with regards to hardware and it still remains good for portability. But, this isn’t the only manufacturer to give customizable options for the hardware. Our test model had a black exterior but you get options for metallic or solid finish on the lid along with eight different color options. All this will cost you $179 extra. There are also options for airbrushed designs which start at $279 and for $159, you can put in your own customizable requests. You can take off the logo and put something else there but it will further put you back by $499.

Origin EON18 has plenty of palm rest space and it actually made typing a bit uncomfortable. The keyboard too is a bit disappointing even though it is raised. Unlike Alienware, there is no backlighting on the keyboard. The layout of the keyboard is Chiclet style, just like that of Asus laptops. Another similarity is the cramped arrow keys and the number pad. Lack of backlighting makes it hard to locate the keys while in the dark. There are 8 widely spaced buttons which are the only ones to sport backlighting. They are user programmable for gaming and other such purposes. Their size is unnecessarily large and forces the keyboard to compromise in size.

The touch pad of the Origin EON18 is glossy and it demarcated by a blue backlight LED rectangle. We liked that the borders have a lit pad and this makes it easy to locate the pad. It would have been better if there was some kind of physical borders or texture difference. We lost footing when using the trackpad.

Origin EON18 has an 18 inch display with resolution of 1,920×1080 pixels and it has strong brightness and colors. The viewing angle too is good. We played some games and Blu-ray movies and liked the quality of the display. There is a lot desired in terms of audio quality though, the notebook has Dolby Home Theater optimization and it can output the audio to 7.1 surround. In spite of this, Blu-ray movies weren’t loud enough for us. We would recommend getting a headphone set or separate set of speakers. We also had this problem with Malibal Veda and interestingly, both the chassis are made by Clevo.

With the configuration that this computer has, we would call it a beast. Port options include HDMI-in and HDMI-out which is rarely seen in notebooks. You can connect a Blu-ray player (this notebook already has Blu-ray drive), game console or Flip camera to this notebook and use the display like a TV. There is also a TV tuner card put in which makes this laptop ideal for home entertainment.

Highlight of the Origin EON18 is the configuration options. For processor, you can choose from 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo P8700 to quad-core 2.0 GHz Core i7-920XM Extreme. Our review model had the latter processor. For graphic cards you have Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M at the lowest end to dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M GPUs at the highest. Maximum RAM here is eight GB. There are three bays for hard drives, where in you can either put 1 TB hard drives (costs extra $136) or 512 GB SSD (costs extra $1,385). If you unleash all the options here, you might take the bill up to $8000.

Nitty Gritty:

This is a gaming laptop and there are plenty of tweakable options with regards to hardware. We will recommend you this notebook if you are looking for a desktop replacement laptop.

Thumbs Up:

Powered by fast and efficient Core-i series processors, has new Nvidia graphics, you can switch seamlessly between discrete and integrated graphic processors

Thumbs Down:

Costly, no HDMI, 3G or Bluetooth

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Apple MacBook Pro Spring 2010 is 14.3 inches wide, 9.8 inches deep, 0.9 inches high and weighs 5.5 lbs. Processor is dual core Intel Core i5 2400 MHz with 1066 MHz data bus speed. It has L3 cache of 3 MB. The laptop has preinstalled 4 GB RAM DDR3 SD RAM at 1066 MHz. Hard disk installed is 320 GB SATA at 5400 rpm. The integrated optical drive is DVD±RW (±R DL) with read speed of 24x for CD and 8x for DVD. Write speed is 24x for CD, 8x for DVD ±R, 4x for DVD±R DL. Rewrite speed is 10x for CD, 4x for DVD±RW

The screen is 15 inches big and has a resolution of 1440×900 pixels. Graphic processor is NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M / Intel HD Graphics with memory of 256 MB GDDR3 SDRAM. Interfaces include Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45, 2 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A, Audio – SPDIF input/line-in – Mini-phone 3.5 mm / TOSLINK, EEE 1394b (FireWire 800) – 9 pin FireWire 800, Display / video – Apple mini-DisplayPort, Audio – SPDIF output/headphones – Mini-phone 3.5 mm / TOSLINK.

The laptop has Apple Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard pre installed OS and bundled software includes Front Row, Apple iChat, Photo Booth, Apple Spaces, Apple Dashboard, Apple Spotlight, Apple Quick Look, Apple Time Machine, Drivers & Utilities, Apple iCal, Apple iLife, Apple Safari, Apple iTunes, Apple QuickTime, Apple DVD Player, Apple Address Book, Apple Mac OS X Mail, Apple XCode Developer Tools.

Razzle Dazzle:

Just like Apple’s previous notebooks, this laptop too has a unbiody chassis which is made up of aluminum. For the new version, the aluminum block is carved down and it  gives the notebook a sleeker look. At the end of the day, you get a laptop that is both thin and yet feels substantial and solid.

Inside Dope:

Tech enthusiasts around the world always have an eye on what Apple is trying to do with its MacBook line ups. Apple’s experiments for its notebook computers fall mainly in two categories: a change in the outer body (like the transition to the aluminum unibody in 2008) or minor upgrades in specifications like moving to a faster processor or increase in hard disk size. This latest iteration of the Apple’s MacBook Pro falls in to the latter category. The great unibody is retained for this version and we thank Apple for that. The gorgeous glass multitouch trackpad too is still there. But the internal components have been upgraded heavily and hence we won’t call this just another ‘minor’ spec upgrade.

MacBook Pros come in three versions, 13 inch, 15 inch and 17 inch. The latter two have got Intel’s new Core-i series of processors but the 13 incher is still stuck with Core 2 Duo processor. For the other two screen sizes, there are options of both Core i5 and faster Core i7 processors. Apart from that, there is another big inclusion regarding the graphics processor. The graphic card has been upgraded and this time you get a switch to toggle between the integrated graphics and the discrete graphics card.

We got a 15 inch model in our labs for review. The hardware components of the Apple MacBook Pro Spring 2010 are as follows: 2.66 GHz Core i7 processor, four gigs of RAM, spacious 500 GB hard drive, and Nvidia GeForce GT330M discrete graphics card. All this will set you back by $2,199 and it is definitely costly as compared to other notebooks in the market. But if you compare it with previous Apple’s products, you will find that this laptop is cheaper than the previous high end 15 inch MacBook Pro by $100. The cheapest 15 inch model will cost you $100 more than the previous 15 inch iteration from Apple but the latter doesn’t have discrete graphics card. Apple here, is trying to keep the price steady and put in powerful components.

This laptop from Apple still doesn’t have 3G, HDMI or Blu-ray player options but on the bright side, you get blazing fast speeds with the Core i7 processor. The 13 inch model is still stuck with the slower Core 2 Duo processor and hence this 15 inch model which we got in our labs seems to be Apple’s flagship model.

We are still big fans of Apple’s glass trackpad which supports multitouch gestures. The manufacturer’s accomplishment here must be noted since no other laptop maker has managed to come even close to making such a multi touch gesture supporting trackpad.

We got the fifteen inch Apple MacBook Pro Spring 2010 in our labs for testing and this one has a resolution of 1440×900 pixels. It is basically the same as its predecessor. But you might think this is too small if you are a HD video enthusiast. The resolutions of digital cameras and camcorders are also growing steadily so if you are a shutter bug freak, you will yearn for more real estate on the screen. So, Apple offers a 1,680×1,050 pixel option for $100 and if you pay $50 more, you get anti-glare coating. We liked that Apple gave us an option for bigger resolution but we expected this notebook to have a bigger resolution in the first place considering the high price.

The discrete graphics card on the Apple MacBook Pro Spring 2010 is GeForce 330M which has options for 256 MB and 512 MB versions. This doesn’t make the computer a gaming powerhouse but it can still play any current PC game in the market. You will have to tone down the settings though. We got 34.5 fps for Call of Duty 4 when played at 1,440×900 pixels with the high end graphics options like 4XAA turned on. When put at medium settings, we got 59 fps at the same resolution.

Batteries of all the three laptops are still non user removable and Apple says that the battery life is further improved in this laptop due to Intel’s better processor architecture. We tested this laptop in our labs and it stayed alive for a little more than five hours in our battery drain tests.

Nitty Gritty:

These new laptops may look the same but they are now powered by fast processors which make them extremely powerful. All this comes a cost though, pick one up if you have plenty of money to burn and need if you yearn for speed.

Matte screen; sturdy build; phenomenal keyboard

Thumbs Down:

Battery life is not good like other Netbook; underpowered as per its price tag

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is powered with 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor, AMD M780G chipset, and 1GB RAM. The RAM is upgradeable up to 4GB. The ThinkPad has 160GB hard drive and 0.30-megapixel camera. The operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit. The Netbook features AMD virtualization.

The inbuilt devices are wireless LAN antenna, cellular antenna, stereo speakers, and SIM card reader. 11.6 inches matte screen has 1366×768 pixels WXGA resolution that features LED backlight and antiglare. The graphics card is ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 and High Definition CX20582 sound card.

The 4-in-1 card-reader accepts Memory Stick Pro, SD memory card, MultiMedia Card, and Memory Stick. The input devices are TrackPoint, UltraNav, and Keyboard. It features multi-touch technology and spill-proof.

The LAN adapter supports wired networking standards of Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and Fast Ethernet. The ThinkPad 11 b/g/n wireless card supports IEEE 802.11 b/g/n (draft) standards.

The interfaces are 2×Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A, 1×PoweredUSB 2.0 – 4 pin USB Type A, 1×Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45, 1×Audio – Headphones/microphone – Mini-phone 3.5 mm, 1×Display / video – VGA – 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15). The expansion slot is 2(1) ×Memory – SO DIMM 200-pin.

The additional features are Security lock slot, ThinkVantage Active Protection System, Administrator Password, Hard drive password, and Power-on password. The preinstalled software applications are 30 days trial of Norton Internet Security, 60 days trial of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Research AutoCollage Touch, ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery, ThinkVantage Access Connections, ThinkVantage System Update, ThinkVantage Power Manager, Lenovo Online Data Backup, Lenovo Password Manager, Windows Live Toolbar, ThinkVantage Toolbox, Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader, and Skype.

The Lenovo provided one year parts-and-labor warranty with its ThinkPad X100e. The Netbook is ENERGY STAR qualified and its Greenpeace policy rating is 2.5 on December, 2009. The X100e needs AC 120/230V voltage to work and it compliance to the RoHS standards. The six-cell lithium ion battery has a life of 5 hours.

Razzle Dazzle:

The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is 11.1 inches wide, 8.2 inches deep, and 1.2 inches tall and weighs 3.3 lbs. Its overall feel and look is a reminiscent of ThinkPad Edge line. You can basically call it a business Netbook due to its clean and trim profile. The ThinkPad logo is located in the front corner of its lid. The X100e Netbook has racecar red exterior.

Inside Dope:

The Lenovo ThinkPad x200 series offers high-end performance in a compact fram. In contrast, the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e has low-voltage single-core processor – AMD Athlon Neo and low-level ATI graphics. It features matte screen, sturdy build, and phenomenal keyboard. The starting price of the Netbook is $449, but our test model costs $579. Its battery life is low as compared to other Netbooks its class. The X100e is underpowered as per its price tag.

11.6 inches matte screen has 1366×768 resolution that is better than for a 12-inch screen. The Web pages, the pictures and the office applications does not look crowded with their upper toolbars. It provides good clarity and readability for icons and text all around the screen. The videos and pictures may not look crispy, but remember the X100e is a business machine. We are disappointed that the viewing angle performance for the screen is mediocre.

The six-cell battery pops out from the back instead of bulging at the bottom. We like this bulge, but it increases the overall thickness. The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e has full-size chiclet type keyboard and spacious palm rest. The upper lid has satisfactory bezel space above the display to grab while opening and closing. The small power button is located on the top right side of the keyboard. We like that the dual hinges allow the lid to open up to 180 degrees. This is really good for the continuous typing.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e has one of the best chiclet-style keyboards. It is most comfortable and well spacious keyboard we’ve ever used. It has slightly concave and gently curved keys that surpass even the keyboards of Sony and Apple. The keys sizes are not small only except the directional keys. The palm rest is well-weighted for comfortable lean on.

The IdeaPad S10-3 has similar keyboard that feels a bit shoehorned, but the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e has the superior one. On the down side, the rubberized trackpoint control is shared with B, H, and G keys. The trackpoint, the pinch-to-zoom, and multi-touch are a bit difficult to use.

The stereo speakers are located underneath the front side of the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e. It offers better than normal sound quality that is good for basic video/audio playback, and chatting. The Webcam has fine light sensitivity and good resolution. The music playback quality was average while testing.

The ThinkPad X100e offers 3 USB 2.0 ports, SD card slot, and VGA input. You can upgrade for Bluetooth by paying additional $20. All versions of the X100e has 1.6 GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40, and ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics.

$579 priced our test model had 2GB RAM, 320GB hard drive and Windows 7 Professional 32bit. The base configuration of $449 priced Lenovo ThinkPad X100e has 1GB RAM, Windows 32bit Home Premium, 160GB hard-drive and Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit. You can expand the RAM up to 4GB.

While testing, the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e performed better than the Intel Atom featured Netbooks. However, the Acer Ferrari One with dual-core AMD Neo processor performed much better than the X100e. Having AMD processor, the ThinkPad X100e generates more heat and consumes more power than the Intel Atom powered Netbook.

The ThinkPad X100e has preinstalled image of selected Microsoft Office 2007 suites. You just have to purchase the Medialess License Kit (MLK) from Microsoft to activate this software. It means that the professional users can take its advantage without any problem.

We expected that the ATI graphics card will improve gaming and video performance of the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e. However, it was not the same while testing. It performed well for light games and videos, but the Netflix streamed movies did not look good while viewing at the full screen. Please do not expect a powerhouse when you are buying the ThinkPad X100e.

The annual power consumption cost of the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is $3.97, which is better than $5.90 for Acer Ferrari One. However, it is less than $2.61 for Sony Vaio Eco VPC-W212AX.

The six-cell battery has a life of 3 hours 42 minutes for continuous video playback. It is better than Intel Atom Netbook, but very less if you consider the heavy six-cell battery. This is a great drawback for having Neo processor. They generates more  heat, consumes more power and performs less.

Lenovo is providing one-year standard warranty with the ThinkPad X100e with 24/7 toll free number phone support. The company has already published the necessary drivers, support, and knowledge base at its Web site.

Nitty Gritty:

If you need a good performer Netbook with one of the best chic-let type keyboard and does not mind the less better life, then buy – the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e.

Extended warranty; Intel Wireless Display Technology for wireless streaming and Intel Turbo Boost Technology for faster performance; compact form.

Thumbs Down:

Mediocre battery life; similar specifications in less money from other laptops.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The Sony Vaio VPCS111FM/S is powered with 2.26GHz Intel Core i5 processor that features Intel Turbo Boost Technology. It has Mobile Intel HM55 Express Chipset with 3MB L3 Cache and 4GB DDR3 SDRAM. The laptop has 500GB SATA hard drive and DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM optical drive. The operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit Edition.

13.3 inches LED backlit display has 1366×768 pixels WXGA resolution. The graphics card is Intel HD Graphics with 2263MB video memory. The Sony Vaio VPCS111FM/S has High Definition Audio sound card, integrated camera, Bluetooth and Intel Centrino Advanced N6200 wireless card.

The network adapter supports the wired networking standards of Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and Fast Ethernet. The supported wireless interfaces are Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, and IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n.

The connector set includes 1×IEEE 1394 (FireWire)-4 pin FireWire, 1×3.5mm stereo Headphones – Output – Mini-phone, 1×3.5mm Microphone – Input, 1×Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45, 1×Audio/video -19 pin HDMI Type A – HDMI output, 3×(4 pin) USB Type A -Hi-Speed USB, 1×Display/video – VGA output – 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15).

The preinstalled software are 60 days trial of Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007, 30 days trial of Norton Internet Security, VAIO Media Plus Multimedia Streaming Software, Sony Picture Motion Browser, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010, VAIO Help and Support, Microsoft Works 9SE, VAIO Media Gallery, and VAIO Care.

The Sony Vaio VPCS111FM/S is ENERGY STAR qualified and compliance to RoHS standards. It features G-sensor shock protection and its Greepeace policy rating is 5.1. Six-cell 5000mAH lithium ion battery has a life of 5.1 hours. Sony provides two year limited warranty with on-site service and 24/7 phone consulting technical support.

Razzle Dazzle:

The Sony Vaio VPCS111FM/S is 1.2 inches tall, 13 inches wide, and 9 inches deep, and weighs 44.4 lbs. The laptop has angled edges and silver plastic casing. The round tubular hinge has A/C jack on one side and power button on the other side. The back lid also has dull silver color that is prone to scratches.

Inside Dope:

Are you still using the cables to stream the videos and music tracks on your HDTV from a computer? Then this is going to be history, because new Sony Vaio VPCS111FM/S, Dell Studio s15z-2249CPN and Toshiba E205-S1904 – laptops supports wireless streaming of audio/video to the TV. All three laptops have exclusive Best Buy Blue labels and have similar advanced highlights like: one year antivirus protection, Intel Wireless Display technology, excellent battery life, two-year warranty, and 30 days Geek Squad support. What’s more – they ships with free NetGear Push2TV box to receive the wireless video on your HDTV or TV. However, the Vaio VPCS111FM/S is an expensive laptop and costs $1049. It features 13.3 inches display, speedy Core i5 processor, 500GB hard drive, and 4GB DDR3 RAM. In contrast, the Dell s15z and Toshiba E205 has 15.6 and 14 inches screen respectively.

We like the black chiclet type keyboard and textured palm rest. The keyboard has well-spaced and shallow keys, which provide better typing experience like that of MacBook. The touch-pad has normal size and is smooth to work by feel. The buttons are curved and solid built.

13.3 inches LED-backlight glossy display has 1366×768 pixels resolution. The Sony Vaio VPCS111FM/S can automatically adjust the brightness. It exhibits bright images, videos, and text, but it reflects the direct bright light.

The inbuilt stereo speakers are located under a grille above keyboard. They provided loud volume while video playback and voice chat during test. The Sony Vaio VPCS111FM/S can transmit the video/audio wirelessly on the TV via box.

There are two discrete buttons located on the top left of keyboard. One starts Vaio Media Gallery for playing back photos, slideshows, videos, and music tracks. The other button opens up Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) to instantly stream video/audio to the TV via Push2Box. We appreciate the Sony to include the dedicated WiDi button.

The WiDi is a great and welcome concept for the laptops. However, there is a noticeable delay while streaming the audio and video. This delay makes the game playing useless on the TV. On the contrary, the streamed videos looked great at normal TV or HDTV and every one enjoys the freedom with a hassle of connecting wires.

We like that the Sony Vaio VPCS111FM/S has Blu-ray player/DVD burner and still maintains to have a compact shape. The connectivity options are one HDMI port, a VGA-output, audio jacks for microphone and stereo speakers/headphones, three USB 2.0 ports, one min-Firewire, and a card reader slot. The upgrade option is limited to one ExpressCard/34 slot. These options are better than that of MacBook Pro.The Sony Vaio VPCS111FM/S laptop performed good with its Core i5, but similar to the Dell Studio s15z and the Toshiba E205. The Vaio model provided appealing video for both video playback and gaming. It is much better than the cheaper Dell Studio and Toshiba models. The Sony Vaio VPC had performed better than other Toshiba and Dell models in multi-tasking and multimedia applications.

The annual power consumption of the Sony Vaio VPCS111FM/S is $6.18. It has six-cell battery that has a life of 3 hours 26 minutes of continuous video playback. Unlike their large sizes, the Dell s15z and Toshiba E205 has better battery life. Therefore, we will the Sony to increase the battery life, especially for a 13-inch one.

Sony is providing two-year warranty with 24/7 toll free number phone support. You can also take benefit of 30 days Geek Squad support, but they may ask for money after that. Sony has already published necessary drivers & utilities, tutorials, and manuals online at its Web site.

Nitty Gritty:

If you need a compact and fast laptop with Intel Wireless Display Technology for wireless streaming and can afford expensive price tag, then buy – Sony Vaio VPCS111FM/S laptop.

The budget conscious users can also check similar cheaper Dell Studio s15z-2249CPN and Toshiba E205-S1904 with similar specifications and highlights.

Excellent specification as per the price tag; Blu-ray drive; Core i5 processor.

Thumbs Down:

Average battery life; hard to locate touchpad buttons.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US is powered with 2.26GHz Intel Core i5 I5-430M processor, Intel HM55 chipset, and 4GB DDR3 SD RAM. It has 500GB SATA hard drive and Blu-ray drive [DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM / BD-ROM]. The operating system is Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.

The laptop has High Definition Sound card and 1.3-megapixel integrated Web cam. Graphics card is NVIDIA GeForce 310M with 512MB GDDR3 SDRAM video memory.

15.6 inches LED-backlit display has 1366×768 pixels WVGA resolution. 3-in-1 card reader supports SDHC/SD Memory card, and MultiMediaCard. The network adapter supports wired networking standards of Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet. Wireless adapter supports standards of IEEE 802.11b/g/n.

The interfaces are 1 x Headphones – Output – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x Microphone – Input – Mini-phone 3.5 mm, 1 x Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45, 1 x Audio / video – HDMI – 19 pin HDMI Type A, 4 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A, and 1 x Display / video – VGA – 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15).

Preinstalled software are 60 days trial of Microsoft Office Professional 2007, Samsung Recovery Solution, and Adobe Acrobat Reader. Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US has 4400mAH six-cell lithium ion battery. It is ENERGY STAR qualified and compliance the RoHS standards.

Razzle Dazzle:

Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US laptop is 1.6 inches tall, 16.2 inches wide, and 10.7 inches deep and weighs 5.7 lbs. It feels lightweight and thin while taking in hand. There is a 3D style deep red-to-black color pattern on the front. This gives a look of Samsung HDTV line. However, the front pattern mask fingerprints and smudges.

Inside Dope:

Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US laptop has a great combination of price tag and configuration. In $829, it offers 2.26GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard drive, Nvidia Geforce graphic card, 15.6 inches screen, and Blu-ray drive. It has flick finish on outside and looks reminiscent of a high-end Toshiba laptop. However, its battery life is short as compared to others in its class. If you need an affordable laptop with excellent specification, good performance and nice style then we will recommend the Samsung R580 laptop.

The dual hinge set opens the Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US laptop smoothly and align the front screen securely. Bother lower and upper halves flush relatively with each other, while lower lip juts out slightly. Samsung R580 laptop has chic-let type full keyboard with separate numeric keyboard like that of Asus one. The keyboard has sturdy keys, but you may have to press them with little pressure to register your command.

There are dedicated multimedia keys on the interior; still there is a power button as usual. The multi-touchpad sits beneath the keyboard of Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US and is flushed inside the palm rest. We like that it is easily distinguished by four blue LEDs on the corners and its matte surface. The narrow click buttons are flush within the surface and made up of single plastic piece. We do not like that these buttons are hard to locate and we will prefer to have the rocker-styled buttons.

Samsung NP-R580-RJB1US has 15.6 inches wide-screen glossy LED-backlit display of 1366×768 pixels resolution. The brightness is relatively good and colors appear sharp. Again to dislike for us, the screen appeared a bit washed out in bright lights. You may have to adjust the screen to get the best spot for nice off-angle view.

The stereo speakers are located just above the keyboard. They provided deeper sound and felt crisper sound while testing. You will also get inbuilt Web-cam located on the top of screen. Samsung NP-R580-RJB1US comes with pre-installed CyberLink YouCam software for capturing still pictures. We played some Blu-ray movies and got nice display with good surround sound. However, the captured photos looked a bit grainy in low light.

What’s more – You can not only burn the Blu-ray discs, but also write CDs and DVDs. The connectivity options of Samsung NP-R580-RJB1US are VGA output, HDMI port, audio jacks for microphone/speakers, three USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet jack, inbuilt Wi-Fi adapter, SD card reader, and one USB 2.0-cum-eSATA port. For upgrade options, there is a vacant slot of ExpressCard/24. We are disappointed that there is no Bluetooth connectivity in the Samsung R580 laptop.

There is Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics card with 512MB video memory. We know that Samsung NP-R580-RJB1US does not match the graphics performance of others laptop with 1GB video memory card. However, Samsung R580 performed good to handle the multimedia and gaming tasks while testing.

We played some high-end games on Samsung NP-R580-RJB1US, Core i5 powered Asus UL50VT-RBBBK05 and Core i3 powered Toshiba Satellite A505-S6025. The Samsung laptop performed much better than above Toshiba and Asus models. In addition, the Samsung R580 performed better for handling multitasking and graphics application.

The annual power consumption of Samsung NP-R580-RJB1US is $6.45, which is more than $4.81 of Asus UL50VT-RBBBK05, $5.85 of Dell Inspiron i1564-6980CRD, and $6.06 of Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904.

Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US has six-cell lithium ion battery that has a life of 2 hours 31 minutes for continuous video playback. In contrast, Toshiba Satellite E205 has better battery performance up to 3 hours.

Samsung is providing one year industry standard warranty with its NP-R580-JSB1US laptop. Toll-free number support is available from 9AM to 9PM, while chat support is 24/7 available. Samsung has also published drivers, user manual and knowledge base on its support Web site.

Nitty Gritty:

If you need a mainstream affordable laptop with 3D style front pattern and do not mind hard to locate touchpad buttons, then buy – Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US laptop.

If you are a gaming fanatic, then Malibal is custom made for you and with its influential desktop gaming performance it surely will please you. Then there is superb support, service, and pricing policies that lures the consumers.

Against:

Deprived speaker performance; small touch pad and keyboard for a gigantic notebook are some of the flaws in the Veda series that might upset a few consumers.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Measuring, 17.2 in width, 11.7 in depth and 1.7 in height and weighing around 12.6 lbs the Malibal Veda series is a gaming laptop from Malibal which is known for making superb custom-made desktop replacements. Veda comes with 64 bit, Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 / 2.53 GHz processor with data bus speed of 1066 MHz.

Other specifications for Malibal Veda includes 3 MB of cache memory, with DDR3 SDRAM – 1333 MHz 4GB of RAM that can be expanded up to 8 GB and storage hard drive of 320 GB – Serial ATA-300 – 5400 rpm.

The screen specs for Veda includes 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) of Max Resolution for a display type of 18.4 in TFT active matrix. The notebook comes with interfaces including 1 x Display / video – HDMI – 19 pin HDMI Type A , 1 x Microphone – Input – Mini-phone 3.5 mm , 1 x Audio – Line-out/headphones – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm , 3 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A , 1 x Display / video – DVI-Analog/Digital , 1 x Audio – Line-in – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm , 1 x Storage – eSATA-300 – 7 pin external Serial ATA , 1 x Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45, 1 x Audio – SPDIF output , 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire).

Razzle Dazzle:

Despite its atrocious size, the laptop with an 18.4-inch LCD is good looking overall. Further you can load it with Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9300, 4GB/8GB of DDR3 memory, and dual Nvidia GeForce GTX280M graphics cards. The body might not be flooded with branding, but surely has a pleasing look with its pouring colored light from the rear fan vents, a clannish tattoo-like intend on the lid and the front-firing speaker grills. There is a touch-sensitive key given above the keyboard to let you control the colors, you either can cycle through diverse colors or can shut them off. The high gloss plastic covers entire keyboard including palm rests, the string of touch-sensitive keys and the touch pad.

Inside Dope:

It looks like the boutique notebook developer Malibal is all set to see the desktop pass away. Malibal expertise’s in developing custom-made desktop replacements and with its Veda series which can be loaded with Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9300, an 18.4-inch LCD, dual Nvidia GeForce GTX280M graphics cards and 8GB of DDR3 memory. The company brings a top-notch product into the market, and while the components are all superb the design we think could have used a little more help.

In Malibal’s defense all we can say is, that the company has taken good care of what was in its control and the complaints are about things beyond their control, like the design. The system has been designed by laptop OEM/ODM Clevo. But what can be attributed to company is the connoisseur assembly, a guarantee of admirable service and support, generous component offerings, a no-risk purchase policy and most of all its competitive pricing.

Except for the power ports, all the other input and output ports are given on the left and right hand sides, so if at any time you decide to connect it to a speaker or headset, external monitor, mouse, Ethernet and keyboard; you will be having a mess of cables spewing from the sides. Talking about mess brings us to the keyboard, which despite the gigantic size of the notebook had noticeably small keys. But what’s even weird is that the keys actually are pretty good for the gaming purpose, but certainly aren’t ideal for typing. There aren’t any physical borders for the touchpad except for a thin blue line. Also, it’s nice to have eight programmable macro buttons at the left of the keyboard, but they take apparently needless amount of space.

The screen resolution for the notebook is standard for an 18.4-inch wide-screen LCD display and offers a 1920 x 1080 of native resolution. And despite its sleek “Glass View” panel, the performance for the display is pretty well, with decent color and contrast, and exceptional wide viewing angles. Just above the screen is a 3-megapixel Webcam that gave splendid performance in our Skype tests and so did the dual, built-in mics. But, what disappointed us the most was the speaker system, and regardless of having a subwoofer and five speakers, the sound output lacked depth, for movies, music and games. So instead of going for the unimpressive speakers you probably will like to go for the Veda’s S/PDIF output for peripheral headphones or speakers.
The notebook comes equipped with all ports and whether it’s the inputs or outputs, or networking, you name it and its there, so there isn’t anything that we found was missing. The audio I/O jacks are given on the right side amid an eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port and a USB 2.0 port. If you want an external tuner to be connected then there’s an RF-in for it. All the other remaining things are on the left side, which again creates a mess if you use all the ports or even have some of them occupied.

While we were getting our hands on every high-end option in the market that can cost more than $5000 for reviewing, the Veda actually started at $2,272. Though, the specifications for that system are significantly less exciting: a 250GB 5,400rpm hard drive, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700, no operating system and a DVD burner. Even the dual cost for Nvidia graphics card is included in that price.

In comparison we had along with 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9300, the dual 512MB Nvidia GeForce GTX280M graphics cards and three 80GB SSDs. This configuration performed exceedingly well on our multitasking, audio processing and image-processing tests. But the both the configurations were crushed by AVADirect Clevo D900F, though it had a 3.33GHz Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Quad Core desktop processor.

In our gaming test, Veda definitely did not crushed the competitions, but definitely outperformed many of the other laptops including Alienware M17x, that has the same configuration. However, at 1920 x 1200, resolution the frame rates were predominantly good and provided smooth play on graphically demanding games.

Malibal Veda comes with a standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty, and you can avail the Two- and three-year plans for $149 and $269, correspondingly. Those prices are considerably reasonable, considering the expense of system. The US based support can be accessed through a 24-7 ticket, toll-free phone line, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET and live-chat support. You even can get driver downloads and online knowledge base for free. Finally, Malibal Veda comes with 30-day money-back guarantee, of-course minus shipping charges, a low-price guarantee, and a reduced price for the customers paying through money order, Paypal eCheck, bank wire and check.

Nitty Gritty:

Our final verdict for MALIBAL Veda series will be that it might not be the best notebook to type on, or might not have crushed some notebooks in gaming tests, but definitely can outperform many notebooks and is worth considering.

Advanced new designed, better battery life and wide-range of configuration options.

Thumbs Down:

The display is small and has low-resolution. Configuring the options will increase the price quickly. Both keyboard and touchpad are small.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Intel Atom N450 (1.66 GHz) powers the Dell Inspiron Mini 10. It also has 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM and 250 GB hard drive having speed 5400 rpm. The onboard graphics card is Intel NM10 Express, whereas High Definition Audio 2.0 is available sound.

10.1-inch display has a resolution of 1024×600 pixel. The Bluetooth wireless interface can also be included on extra cost. Six-cell 60Wh battery has a life of 7 hours. The inbuilt operating system is Microsoft Windows 7 Starter 32 Bit.

Razzle Dazzle:

Dell has made improvements in the design of Inspiron Mini 10. It does not give toy-like feel while taking in hands. The display hinge is located in the rear and the entire chassis slopes forward gently. It looks quite thin in the front. The keyboard wrist rest and tray have a subtle raised texture that looks glossy and better than flat. Rounded corners provide good shape. Dell offers outer shell in different colors at extra cost of $40. The white body and lid of the test model, with black interiors, give the Netbook an attractive look.

Inside Dope:

Dell is a famous and strong name in the Netbook market. It has a revamped design and is powered by Intel Atom CPU. We thank the Dell’s work to offer various configuration options at reasonable price.

The Inspiron Mini 10 costs around $369 that is greater than the Z-series Intel Atom models. Mini 10 has small-sized 10-inch screen, Windows 7, Bluetooth and six-cell battery. Dell doesn’t offer HD display in the Mini 10.

Dell has announced to offer another Mini 10 series with inbuilt HD video accelerator, which could work similarly to Nvidia Ion graphics. Acer Ferrari and Asus 1201 Netbooks has HD Displays, it comes with dual-core processor which make the device run faster.

The Mini 10 has a cramped keyboard, SD display and the processor is sluggish, so there is not much in here to get excited about. But you can configure the system according to your needs.

Earlier, Netbook keyboards were designed badly and troublesome for small hands. We have seen a good range of these keyboards having wide edge-to-edge and island-style keys. Manufacturers emphasize the surface area for each key and the logical layout occasionally. Dell Mini 10 has general a general layout and important keys like Shift, Alt, Windows, Tab, and Caps Lock etc. have full size for comfortable usage. However, the other buttons are small and they don’t give a good typing experience.

The touchpad is tiny and the right and left mouse buttons are not tactile. The small height of touchpad also makes scrolling a tricky proposition.

10.1-inch display of the Mini10 has a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. There are manufacturers providing 1366×768-pixel resolution in 11-inch and 10-inch displays and they costs only about $30 more. This Netbook definitely lags behind its competitors when it comes to resolution.

Dell is offering various connections on its Inspiron Mini 10. However, there is no HD media accelerator. The Bluetooth wireless interface is available on extra cost of $20. Moreover, the addition of a mobile broadband antenna from services providers like Verizon, AT&T or Sprint will cost $125 extra, along with a monthly/yearly data plan.

We tested Dell Inspiron Mini 10 and other various Netbooks for performance. Dell Mini 10 is good for basic tasks, e-mail and web surfing. However, it is low in performance and is not good for multitasking. The Acer Aspire One, HP Mini and Toshiba Mini performed better than Dell Mini 10.

The annual power consumption cost is $3.09 for Dell Inspiron Mini 10, which is more than that of Toshiba Mini and HP Mini 5102. The six-cell battery gave us a battery life of 7 hours 30 minutes during video playback, which is better than earlier N270 Netbooks. We found that only Asus Eee PC 1005PE has more battery life of 8 hours 14 minutes.

Dell has one-year parts-and-labor warranty which is on par with other competitiors. We thank Dell to provide separate Service Tag number for each product including Netbook for contacting Dell easily. The company has already published the necessary drivers and utilities for Mini 10 on its support website. Free technical chat support is also available and the users can call Dell 24/7 on the toll free number given on the website.

Nitty Gritty:

Dell Inspiron Mini 10 is a basic entry-level Netbook with big battery life and latest Intel Atom Processor. Its wide-range of configuration options gives flexibility to choose a configuration set. The performance is acceptable considering that this is a Netbook, however if you need a HD display, we would advice you to look elsewhere.

Thumbs Up:

Good for light gamming, Blu-ray drive, inexpensive.

Thumbs Down:

The media playback buttons do not have backlighting.

Inside the Trunk:

Power cables and softwares.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Sony Vaio FW560F/T has a 16.4 inch TFT LCD active matrix display, the maximum resolution it gives is 1600X900. The processor is Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 / 2.13 GHz with data bus speed of 1066 MHz. The cache memory is L2 with 3 MB each. The lithim ion battery powers the notebook for about two and half hours.

The notebook has 6 GB DDR II SDRAM which is further expandable to 8 GB. Hard disk used is 500 GB of SATA interface. The graphic card of the computer is ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4650 of 512 MB. Connectivity slots are 3 x USB 2.0 – USB 2.0, 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire), 1 x Ethernet – RJ-45, 1 x HDMI. There is also a Blu-ray drive.

Sony Vaio FW560F/T comes bundled with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium. Software provided is VAIO Multimedia Suite, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Drivers & Utilities and Microsoft Works SE 9.0

Razzle Dazzle:

Sony Vaio FW560F/T is a bit thin than your usual notebook which is what makes it sexy looking. The inside of the computer is all matte black while the out side of the computer is a chocolate brown colored. The outside construction is all plastic but it doesn’t look like cheap plastic, in fact it gives a high end feel to the notebook.

Inside Dope:

Sony Vaio series of notebooks are mainly aimed at multimedia users, they usually don’t make a basic entry level notebooks. So we are naturally excited every time a Sony Vaio notebook lands in our test centers.

This one too doesn’t disappoint you on our features it has Blu-ray drive which makes us wish the display was full HD. But maybe we are getting too greedy.

This laptop is good for light gamming but it is certainly not for high end full fledged gamming. If you push games to its highest limits and play in all its glory, it will bring this laptop to its heels. We tried a few games with the special effects all closed and we had decent game play.

Sony Vaio FW560F/T is not your portable laptop, it is made as a desktop replacement for people who don’t need much clutter on the desk and want some basic mobility. But at weight of about 7.3 pounds with the adapter it won’t be easy to carry this laptop on your back.

The TFT active matrix of the screen is 16.4 inches big and has a resolution of about 1600X900. With a Blu-ray drive built in on this computer a full HD resolution would have been great for watching videos and playing some games too. The resolution is not full HD, which is what keeping the costs a bit low, but watching movies was a good experience on this screen.

The keyboard has keys that are sufficiently raised above the surface of the board for easy typing. Typing is comfortable and there is a lot of space left empty there. Sony could have done with an extra keypad too. The track pad is a bit small but it is easy to use and clicking on those buttons isn’t too hard.

Above the keyboard are the a few buttons to control the media playback. We were surprised to see these keys weren’t touch sensitive and they didn’t have backlighting either. Using these keys will be quite a struggle in the dark.

The speakers of the notebook are placed between the screen and keyboard of the device. We appreciate the placement of these speakers. Speakers are good but lot loud enough for watching a movie. We would rather use a set of headphones for better volume. The sound quality was good when we tested it for music.

On the hinges which hold the two halves of the notebook together, there is a power port for plugging your AC adapter and there is a LED ring which changes its color depending when the battery is charging or when the battery is done charging. It pulses when the notebook is put in sleep mode.

The notebook has a lot of softwares that we are sure you will not need but it is forced upon you by Sony. When you first purchase the laptop you will have to spend some time deleting what you do not need. But we found the Vaio Multimedia suite of software quite useful for photo management and movie editing.

The Sony Vaio FW560F/T comes preinstalled with Windows 7 Home Premium.

The computer has a 500 GB hard disk drive which better than the 400 GB that we got on FW480J/T, it has 6 GB of RAM and though we are satisfied with the quantity we wanted DDR3 RAM instead of DDR2. The maximum this device can take is 8 GB RAM.

There are a couple of ports on the sides of the notebook like HDMI and mini-Firewire. There are three ports for your USB devices, we wanted one more, and there is a dual slot multi media card reader, one for Sony’s proprietary cards and one for regular microSD cards.

The computer comes with a battery which has juice to power up the device for about two and half hours. We know that this is too small but then this is not a mobile notebook but a desktop replacement. And with all the hard ware you get to play mid-range games. There is a tradeoff between low battery life for better hardware. Games will run good on this computer as long as you don’t turn on all the eye candy features.

Nitty Gritty:

Sony Vaio FW560F/T with fast processor, good graphics card, a big screen and Blu-ray drive make a good light gamming laptop.