HP G60 519WM Laptop Review

HP G60-519WM Pavillion is a notebook for the budget minded buyers who are looking for decent features and performance to accomplish their everyday computing needs including surfing net, watching movie, listening to music, doing some office document management and playing some light 2D games in leisure time. This Windows 7 notebook is exclusively built for Wallmart by HP. Let’s take a closer look at the notebook and find out if it has any con that can be a deal breaker.

Design

The design of the laptop is not what you can call state of the art but it looks like a common everyday laptop though the HP Imprint finish in Black and Silver adds some glamor to it. The all plastic design is not as sturdy as those with metal alloy chassis but the overall build quality is reasonable keeping in mind its price tag. The laptop has minimal flex under pressure and it should do well if you don’t drop it from your desk. The weight of the laptop may be a concern if you are planning to use it outdoors often.

Display

The display is a nice 15.6 inch Brightview WXGA display showing 1366 X 768 pixels which has become the standard for 13-15 inch laptops these days. The display shows vibrant colors and has very good brightness and contrast. Both vertical and horizontal viewing angles are reasonably good to share the screen with a couple of your friends while watching a movie.

Performance

The system is packed with Intel Celeron 900 processor with 800 MHz FSB Speed and 1MB L2 cache. Of course, this is not the best processor available in the market and the overall performance is sluggish though it is packed with a 3GB DDR2 RAM. Multitasking with several programs will be a pain on this laptop but listening to music while typing a document or downloading a file would not be a problem. The integrated Intel 4500 MHD graphics is also underpowered to handle any 3D gaming and at best, it can handle HD movies on its decent sized display. The 250 GB SATA HDD and Lightscribe Super Multi DVD drive has very good speed and we don’t have any complain against it. Using the lightscribe technology, you can also etch custom labels onto the Lightscribe ready disks.

Audio

The budget laptops are known for their crap sound and we didn’t expect a great sound from it but it delivered satisfactory music quality with its Altec Lansing Speakers. Though any bass range sound was absent from the music but the overall sound was better than most other laptops in this price range. For audiophiles a good pair of headphones is recommended as is always.

Keyboard and TouchPad

The keyboard of this laptop is full sized and there is also a number beside the keyboard which is rare to see in laptops these days. Typing on the keyboard is comfortable though the sound of the keys while typing at full speed may be headache to some. You have to admit these things when you are looking for a cheap laptop. The touchpad has very good size but its position is a bit to the left side from the center of the laptop to account for the number pad position. The response of the touchpad was satisfactory but not that much smooth and responsive as the synaptics touchpads.

Ports

The laptop has only bare minimal ports and leaves the space to be desiring for more. It has three USB ports, a VGA output to attach an external display, an Ethernet Port and headphone/microphone jacks. I don’t know why they have an inbuilt 56K modem because we are living in the age of broadband and we are not going to move to the old school dial up connection anytime soon. Good to see that the inbuilt WiFi is in place. But however, I think that there was enough space in its sides to add at least another USB Port or a memory card reader which would not have added much to the overall cost but could have increased its usability mostly.

Battery Life

The battery life was disappointing. The system comes with a six cell lithium ion battery and it provides at most two hours runtime with heavy usage. Do not expect the system to run for more than three hours in any situation. This minimal battery life makes it unusable for the mobile professionals.

Pros

• Very Affordable Price


• Big 15 inch display with ample screen space


• No compromise on RAM and HDD space


• Full Size Keyboard with number pad

Cons

• Poor processor performance


• Weak Graphics


• No built in Webcam or Microphone

Conclusion

The price of HP G60 519WM suggests that it would be competing against the netbooks available in the market. Though it’s performance is not better than any netbook but the bigger screen size and full sized keyboard makes it a better choice for some applications. Those who have to move out with his laptop too often and in place without any power plug, the HP G60 519 is not recommended for its poor battery life and heavy build. But if you don’t have that constraint and want a decent sized laptop at budget price, you won’t find many like HP G60 519WM.

LG Expo Review : Mobile Phone with Projector

LG is not the first name to come to your mind when you think of an innovative organization. This is especially true for those at United States but if you go to their mother country Korea, you’ll see a lot of products which may seem to be really innovative for the folks at US. LG Expo is one of that kind of product. It will have a whole bunch of features like 1GHz Qualcomm processor, built-in fingerprint sensor and optional pico projector to name a few. Let’s take a closer look at the phone’s other features.

Display

The display is a massive 3.2 inch touchscreen with 480 X 800 pixels resolution. The touchscreen is responsive and the overall quality of the display is more than satisfactory level of even the most geek amongst us.

Design

The phone is a reasonably sized gadget without the projector connected to it. The face is 4.5 by 2.24 inches and it is only 0.65 inches thick. There is also a slide out keyboard for easy texting and e-mailing.

Operating System

The system will run on Windows Mobile 6.5 Operating System supporting Microsoft Office Mobile and email as well as calender applications. The phone will have the LG S-Class user interface on top of it to give it a more creative look with its rotating wheels of icons.

Connectivity

Other than common quad band GSM Connectivity, the system is capable of AT&T’s high speed packet access at a maximum of 7.2 MBps. There is also other standard connectivity options such as GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor and FM Radio will be other needed features of the phone.

Speed

The phone is loaded with a 1 GHz Qualcomm processor which the the fastest available in the market right now. Even the ‘fast’ iPhone has a slower ARM Cortex A8 processor clocking at 600 MHz. As you can expect from the 1GHz processor, using different applications at the same time is a breeze on the device.

Mobile Projector

As the phone is mainly targeted towards the enterprise users, they have included an option for attaching a pico projector to the device.The projector can be attached separately and weighs a meager 1.8 ounces so that you can carry it even in your pocket. The projector snaps to the back of the phone and can project any presentation, slideshow or streaming video, whatever you want. The distance of the wall should be a maximum of 8 feet and the maximum image size would be 40 inches which is enough for a device of its size.

Camera

The camera has a no nonsense resolution of 5 MP.

Memory

The phone has a memory card slot that can hold up to a 16 GB memory card.

Battery

The Expo will have a 1600 mAh battery which will be more than enough to run the device even if you forget to charge the phone for a day.

Price

The price of the eXpo is very attractive at $199 with a two year contract and a mail in rebate of $100. The mobile projector, though, have to be bought separately for $179.

Nikon Coolpix S1000pj Comes with a Built-in Projector to play back the captured photos and videos

Combo gadgets are the most hyped gadgets these days,so,here is a Digital Camera that also packs in a small projector within its body. This time it is Nikon who has strengthened their point-and-shoot camera lineup with a new unique camera that has a built-in projector which can project images and videos on any white surface in 10 inch to 6.5 feet range. The projector works well in a dimly lit room in a short range of a couple of feet. The images are sharp and clear in that range but after more than five feet, the images become some kind of washed out which seems reasonable for a gadget of its kind. But at least I can think of some interesting uses of this projector like throwing ‘Kick Me’ sign on someone’s back!

Specification

• Sensor : 12MP


• Lens : 5X Nikkor Zoom lens with 28-240mm equivalent range.


• ISO : Upto 3200 at Full Res and a 6400 at reduced 3MP.


• Display : 2.7 inch Diagonal LCD


• Projector Brightness : 10 Lumens


• Projector range : 10 inch to 6.5 feet

Price

$430

Acer announces Aspire Core 2 Quad 8930G

Now here is a laptop that packs quite a punch but doesn’t exactly break the bank. Acer has recently announced it’s new Aspire 8930G.
Under the hood is a Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000 2GHz processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a GeForce 9700M GT complete with 512MB of video RAM, a 500GB hard drive and Vista Home Premium.
Also included is a Blu-ray/DVD Super Multi combo burner, WiFi connectivity, an 18.4 inch 1920×1080 LCD display with webcam, 6-in-1 media card reader and Dolby Home Theater sound.
All of this packed into the neat little package above for $1,799.99. Not bad

HP releases fresh notebook: Pavilion dv3500t series

It seems as today is a good day to make announcements about small laptops, which means that on top of the Averatec AVN270N, there was another company presenting a new product – HP and the Pavilion dv3500t series.
Believe it or not, this is the first laptop made by HP that has a screen measuring 13.3-inches, and taking a look at the specs + price, it looks like they did a nice job. The computer is already available online, with a starting price of $1,000.
Besides the usual features, there are two details that stand out and will help the users: under-keyboard backlighting, and a LED backlight panel.
Since the Pavilion dv3500t series can be configured by the buyer, it means that are a lot of options available. For example, the Intel Core 2 Duo processor can go from 2.0GHz up to 2.53GHz, while the memory RAM starts at 2GB and ends at 8GB.

Dell to Launch Environment Friendly PC

I am on an environmental writing spree today and after telling you all about the new Credo accessories I simply have to show you what Dell has in store for its buyers. The picture above is the eco-friendly PC which is said to be 70% less energy consumer and 81% smaller than a mini tower Dell PC (but bigger than theAsus EEE). Michael Dell says about it: “These are important issues. When you think about our industry, we produce 260 million computers a year. There’s a responsibility that comes with that.”
It’s only logical for Dell to invest more and more in electronics, specifically in laptops and desktops, meant to reduce overall energy consumption. Further more whether you own one of their products or not, you can be part of this ecological movement by joining one of their programs: “Plant a Tree for Me” (for private buyers) or “Plant a Forest for Me,” (for companies).

Dell XPS 730 H2C Four-Barreled Gaming Horsepower

Dell has just unveiled XPS 730 H2C Four-Barreled Gaming Horsepower Chassis for hard core gamers. Now you can play Crysis at Full 1920×1200 Resolution and 30+ FPS with Quad Graphics. This premium quality Desktop is the most powerful system available in the market. It equips Patent-Pending H2C Cooling Solution that makes the CPU cool. Consumers can choose from the available painted Anodized Aluminum H2C Chassis or Silver Brushed Aluminum Air-Cooled Chassis with Optional X-View Clear Panel.
“There is a measure of satisfaction involved in delivering products that meet the expectations of a unique set of customers who are incredibly knowledgeable, passionate, intense and competitive,” said Arthur Lewis, head of Dell’s gaming group. “With XPS and Alienware gaming systems we’ve been progressively delivering an awe-inspiring experience to gamers and now, with the XPS 730, we’ve set the bar for a truly kick-ass gaming experience.”
Supporting optional quad-core processors and Enthusiast System Architecture (ESA), the Dell XPS 730 H2C is powered by NVIDIA® nforce® 790i Ultra SLI ® chipset with standard ATX motherboard. The system comes installed with four hard drives. While the air-cooled XPS 730 is priced at $3,999, the XPS 730 H2C can be purchased at $4,999.

Top 10 Laptops of 2009

Although New Year has arrived and we have a lot of things planned for this year but before you go i want you to take a look back at the past year to determine the best laptops of 2009. Yes, the year has seen more new laptops than any other year before this and you’ll get tired if I just start telling you the names of those laptops one after the other. Instead we have tried to examine each laptop released this year and compiled a list of the best laptops of 2009. Have a look at the top 10 Laptops of 2009.

1. Acer Aspire 8940G

As you know, Acer laptops means the best configuration for the money spent. This system comes with a Intel Core i7 processor running at 1.6 GHz and 1333 MHz FSM and 6MB cache memory. The RAM is two 2GB memory module to give you the best possible performance and there is also a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M graphics with 1GB dedicated GDDR3 memory that can be used to play any latest game with highest settings. Awesome for a laptop. What do you think?

Pros

• Powerful Processor and Graphics


• Comfortable BackLit Keyboard


• Huge and responsive Synaptics TouchPad


• Good Sized display with above average display quality

Cons

• Too much Heavy

2. Asus G51J

Here comes a gaming laptop from Asus, whom you may be knowing for producing those cheap netbooks. This laptop is by no means a netbook and the processing power of Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia graphics with 1GB dedicated RAM. You’ll hardly have any problem playing any latest games in their highest configurations.

Pros

• High Processing Power with Core i7 Processor


• Price is lesser than the competing models with similar configuration and performance


• Keyboard and touchpad are excellent

Cons

• Battery Life worse than its competitors.


• Overclocking the processor does not improve performance.

3. Asus Eee PC T91

The Asus Eee PC lineup is best known for its netbooks but this is a very good touchscreen netbook at a very very affordable price which makes it a big hit.

Pros

• Tablet PC at a very low price


• Light and Portable


• Build quality better that average


• Battery life is satisfactory


• Nice Touchscreen capabilities

Cons

• CPU performance  below average


• SSD Drive capacity very low to go with


• Small 8.9 inch display


• No high capacity battery option


• Stylus Pen is not handy

4. Lenovo Tablet ThinkPad X200

Tablet PC market is yet to see too many competitors. Lenovo Thinkpad X200 Tablet is one of them. The tablet PC with very good build quality and nice display and performance means it is a very good overall tablet PC.

Pros

• Strong Build Quality


• Nice bright display with decent viewing angle for a touchscreen


• Excellent Performance


• Nice comfy keyboard


• Good Battery Life

Cons

• No touchpad


• Weak and tinny audio


• Multitouch support restricted to only two finger actions

5. Asus UL 80 Vt

Apart from the value for money laptops Asus also makes some really good ultra lite laptop with decent performance. Intel Core 2 Duo Processor along with 4 GB RAM and Nvidia graphics in a sleek light body and attractive price is going to win any business people’s heart.

Pros

• Amazing Battery Life


• Very Good overall performance


• Remains cool even in heavy usage condition

Cons

• Build Quality not at par with other competing thin and light laptops


• Keyboard and Touchpad feels cheap


• Display could have been better

6. Lenovo G550

Lenovo Series laptops are known for their pure value for money offerings and Lenovo G550 is the best example of that. Dual Core processor, 3GB RAM and bigger display than a netbook at a netbook like price means it is going to be a winner on its own.

Pros

• Very good performance for a Budget notebook


• Good Design and Build


• Nice Keyboard

Cons

• Ports selection is bare minimal


• TouchPad sensitivity is not satisfactory


• Average Display

7. Acer Aspire One AOD150

Asus may be the pioneer in the netbook market but Acer has also understood that the key in the netbook market is the low price. Following the path of previous 8.9 inch Acer Aspire One, new 10.1 inch Acer Aspire AOD 150 is also a winner in its category.

Pros

• Very affordable price tag


• Speedy hard drive


• Slim Construction

Cons

• Keyboard a bit cramped for a 10 inch netbook


• Touchpad buttons are not comfortable


• Bluetooth not included

8. Lenovo G530

If you like Lenovo G550 you may as well consider Lenovo G550 and give it a look. This is also a nice option at an affordable price.

Pros

• Good Performance at an affordable price


• Nice build quality for a budget notebook


• Comfortable keyboard and touchpad


• Remains Cool even at high stressed conditions

Cons

• Low Battery Life


• Basic Port Selection


• Doesn’t support high speed  802.11n draft wireless but only more common wireless services

9. Asus Eee PC 1005 HA Seashell

This is the latest netbook in the popular Eee PC Lineup. If you wanted to buy a better netbook with sound build quality, this should be your choice.

Pros

• Build quality is good for budget netbook


• Battery life is amazing


• Port Layout is good for a netbook

Cons

• Thick for a modern netbook
  Weak integrated graphics
  Bad touchpad buttons

10. HP G60 519 WM

It is a laptop for the ultimate budget minded buyers who aren’t satisfied with the small netbook screens but also don’t have budget over a netbook price. The laptop has decent performance and features for the money spent and also does not look like a real cheap laptop. That’s all you can expect from a cheap laptop. Isn’t it?

Pros

• Very Affordable Price


• Big 15 inch display with ample screen space


• No compromise on RAM and HDD space


• Full Size Keyboard with number pad

Cons

• Poor processor performance


• Weak Graphics


• No built in Webcam or Microphone

Dell Studio XPS 16 Review

The Dell Studio XPS 16 is certainly an attractive laptop with amazing display and good performance which comes within your budget. It can serve as a good entertainment laptop without breaking your bank. We have made a review of this stylish laptop. Let’s take a look on the following features.

• Processor,RAM


• Graphics


• Display


• Design


• Ports


• Keyboard


• Touchpad


• Webcam


• Sound


• Battery Life


• Weight


• Wireless Connectivity


• Price


• Verdict

Processor, RAM

The system comes with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 processor and a 4GB of RAM which can be expanded upto 8GB. With this much high configuration, the computing experience had to be very good. While I was playing a DVD and running a virus scan, there was no problem navigating between multiple windows in Internet Explorer each with several tabs open.

Graphics

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3670 discrete graphics chipset with 512MB of memory provides top of the notch graphics that a gamer can be proud of. Though it is not a dedicated gaming system, playing high graphics games won’t be much of a problem.

Display

There are two options for the display one with White LED 720p with resolution of 1366X768 and another with RGB LED with 1080p with resolution of 1920 X 1080 pixels in 16 inch screen size. The RGB LED has a high 300 nits brightness and the picture quality delivered by the display is the best of all laptops currently available in the market. It delivers 100% of the color gamut and excellent contrast which gives brilliant colorful images. Playing Blu-Ray on this device is a treat to watch. Wide horizontal viewing angle ensures that you can watch a HD movie with a couple of your friends without any trouble.
However the edge to edge glass screen gives out heavy and distracting reflections and under sunlight it can be very hard to see anything on the screen because of the screen glare.

Design

Overall design of the Studio XPS 15 is very classy and eye catchy. The system is built on large 15.2X10.0X1.0 inch magnesium alloy chassis. An anodized aluminum strip stretches the width of the top and connects to a pair of thick and study hinges that bear the XPS logo. A panel of black, genuine leather at the base of the lid adds to the aesthetics of the machine. The bottom portion is not unnoticed either. It is covered with miniature X’s pulled from the XPS logo. However the glossy portion of the system’s top picks up fingerprints and smudges very easily. The screws that bind the hinges to the display make it a bit uglier.

Ports

On the left side you’ll find two USB 2.0 ports, and HDMI and DisplayPort connections which is used to stream out visuals to a larger screen, two headphone jacks, a microphone jack, Ethernet, and a Kensington lock slot. The right side has an ExpressCard/54 slot, an 8-in-1 memory card reader, FireWire 400 which can be used for speedy file transfer from external drives, a slot-loading Blu-ray drive for watching high-definition discs, and an eSATA port. The eSATA port doubles as a PowerShare USB port, which lets users recharge USB devices even when the PC is powered down. The front of the machine features illuminated status indicator lights and an IR port, while the back is clean; it contains just the battery and heat-exhaust opening.

Keyboard

The keyboard is backlit with flat sturdy keys. The response of the keys was not very good but typing at a descent speed was not much of a trouble. There a glossy strip above the keyboard that houses the XPS 16’s responsive multimedia touch controls. You can play/pause music, skip tracks, raise/lower/mute volume, eject discs, and toggle Wi-Fi radio on/off using these controls. There is a cool white backlight like the keyboard.

TouchPad

The touchpad is accurate and smooth. The mouse buttons are illuminated with strips and click feeling was very good and responsive.

WebCam

The 2MP WebCam provided clear images though there was some stuttering. The system features a FastAccess facial-recognition technology, which can be used in conjunction with the webcam.

Sound

The speakers were good compared to other laptops available in the market. The 7watt sound system with two large stereo speakers and a built-in subwoofer can a decent sized room with its 7.1 surround sound. However the sound was a bit distorted at full volume.

Battery Life

The powerful graphics and RGB LED screen sucks out the battery fast. The six cell battery pack lasted only around three hours in normal operating conditions. If you stress the system, the battery will run only two hours which is really low for a laptop of this category.

Weight

The laptop feels a bit heavier and is not meant for the frequent travelers. With six cell battery it weighs around 6.4 ounds and with the nine cell battery it would weigh around 6.9 pounds.

Wireless Connectivity

The 802.11a/g/n WiFi connection gives out smooth and fast web browsing experience. Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR is included and you can choose to configure it with 3G. The system is also GPS and WiMAX ready.

Price

Th base model costs around $1100 and with every features like 320GB 7200 RPM HDD, Blu-Ray Drive, 1080p LCD, it will cost around $1600.

Verdict

Dell’s Studio XPS 16 is a solidly built multimedia machine with an incredible 1080p display and very impressive features and you can also get them at an affordable price. Business users won’t find it useful as it has too low battery backup and the laptop is one of the heavy ones to carry around. But at the end it is a good entertainment laptop and movie buffs and gamers would want to die for it.

Dell Studio 15 Review

Dell Studio 15 is claimed to be a Multimedia Laptop that comes within your budget. It is neither a low profile netbook nor a high profile business laptop. It seems to hit the sweet spot between these two categories with good features at an affordable price. We have made a review of this laptop to find if this laptop satisfies its claimed criteria. In this review you’ll find details of

• Design


• Processor,RAM and HDD


• Screen and Graphics


• Keyboard


• Touchpad


• Ports


• Audio


• Heat And Noise


• Battery Life


• Price


• Pros


• Cons


• Conclusion

Design

The Studio 15 takes its design essence from 13.3 inch XPS M1330 and the 15.4 inch XPS M1530 like the wedge shaped profile, drop hinge,slot-loading optical drive and touch sensitive media buttons. The notebook feels a bit heavy compared to other laptops in its category and design look a bit thicker too. Clearly this is not a thin-and light laptop designed for mobility rather one that can be used as a desktop replacement. The overall construction of the Studio 15 is quite solid and it should survive a little drop offs without significant damage.
The matte finish of the laptop gives a smooth rubber-like feel. The metal palmrest of the XPS M1530 is replaced by a nice design in Studio 15.

And oh! I forgot to mention that these laptops are also available with an array of different colored lids and patterned motifs. Of course they cost some extra bit of money but they really nice if you want to get noticed wherever you go with your laptop.

Processor, RAM and HDD

The standard system comes with a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor with 3 GB RAM and 250 GB HDD. The overall performance is nothing to complain about but it is certainly not the fastest one available in the market. There were no problem watching a movie from its Slot Loading DVD Drive while downloading video clips and encoding a video in background. Running Photoshop CS3 at the time of video encoding was no problem either.

Screen and Graphics

The standard display unit has a 1280X800 XGA resolution but you can opt for 1440X900 or 1920X1200 resolution if you want to see more content within the screen. The horizontal viewing angle is great for watching a movie with a couple of your friends and the vertical viewing angle is also standard. The graphics option was disappointing. The standard system comes with a Intel X3100 graphics which is only enough for movie watching. The optional dedicated ATI Radeon HD 3450 is also underpowered to deliver good gaming experience. We would like more dedicated grpahics options.

Keyboard

The keyboard feels quite good with natural click sound while typing. The key travel is pleasurable and key size and spacing is also standard. There is also option for backlit keyboard which is nice to type on darker environments.

TouchPad and Touch Sensitive Media Control Buttons

The touchpad response is excellent and moving fingers over the glossy textured surface gives a nice feeling. The dedicated scroll areas are also useful to scroll through large webpages. The buttons are quiet and have good travel.
The media buttons are touch sensitive with white backlights that stays lit for a fraction of a second after being touched which gives the response of a key press.

Ports

There are more than enough ports for normal usage. On the left side there are two USB, an HDMI, a VGA, WiFi on/off, Ethernet, microphone jack, two headphone jack, an Express Card Slot, a 8 in 1 memory card reader. On the right side there are two more USB ports, slot loading optical drive, a power jack and the power button. There are no ports at the back but an IR port for the remote control sits at the front.

Audio

Th speakers are located at the top of the keyboard above the media buttons. The sound quality is very good with loud and clear voice without any distortion. The only thing that lacks is the presence of subwoofer for distinct bass effects. A good pair of headphone or a dedicated set speakers are necessary to please the audiophiles.

Heat and Noise

The system’s heat management is quite good and it does not get intolerably heated even when the laptop is put to high stresses. The fan moves a good amount of hot air but remains silent most of the times.

Battery Life

The laptop comes with a standard 6 cell Lithium Ion battery which is able to run the laptop for four hours in normal usage and at least three hours on high workload. There is also a 9 cell battery option which is expected to run the machine for six hours. The battery life is pretty impressive for laptop of this category.

Price

The standard model is available at $799 which means the system comes at a good bargain price.

Pros

• Striking design


• Good battery life


• Good build quality


• Lots of customization options


• Nice keyboard, touchpad and media buttons


• Good value for money spent


• Multiple upgrades and repairing will be easy

Cons

• Only one available graphics card


• Intel graphics is not good for HDMI viewing


• Access cover at bottom opens up everything


• Bulkier than some laptops


• Upgrades are pricey

Conclusion

Overall, the Studio 15 is a solid performer at a budget price. It lacks the option for a good graphics and its size and weight is uneasy to carry around but the attractive pricing and good build quality makes it a good choice. Though far from being called a multimedia powerhouse, this laptop is an excellent laptop for average use.

Dell Studio 14z : Colorful, Stylish and Performing Notebook Comes within Your Budget

New Dell Studio 14z laptop is thin (0.79-1.2-inches) and stylish one designed for students and digital downloaders who want a combination of power and exceptional mobility without breaking their banks. Read on to find the specifications.

Specification

• Display : 14-inch 16:9 LED display with HD resolution (720p/ 900p)


• Processor : Intel® Pentium® Dual Core, and Intel CoreTM 2 Duo standard voltage processors up to T9550 (2.66GHz, 1066Mhz FSB, 6MB Cache)


• Graphics : Integrated NVIDIA® GeForce® 9400M graphics5


• Up to 500GB1 HDD capacity


• Digital Video/Audio via HDMI and DisplayPort


• Standard 1.3MP webcam with dual digital array mics


• Starting weight of 4.3 pounds6


• 4W, SRS®, 2.0 Audio w/ discrete tweeters and dual headphone jacks


• Optional 8:1 Media Card Reader via 34mm Express Card slot


• Six-cell battery standard, optional slim design 8-cell battery for up to 6:46 hours of battery life with WLED display option7


• Standard Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth® and mobile broadband


• eSATA connectivity for high speed data transfer rate (up to 6X USB 2.0)


• Optional external optical drive options (DVD+/-RW, Blu-ray DiscTM read-only and read-write drives)


• Available in Six Colors : Black Chain Link, Midnight Blue, Spring Green, Plum Purple, Ruby Red and Promise Pink (U.S. only)

Price

Base Price is $649

Best Home Laptops

Thin and light laptops are best known for their portability and good battery life which is ideal for businessmen or professionals on the go. The home laptops have a different playground with slightly heavier form factor, a good high resolution display, decent performing CPU and probably a bit higher capacity RAM. They are meant to be carried only from one room to the other and some occasional travel outside the home. However, choosing a perfect home laptop can be as difficult as choosing a home or a car or something like that. You have a plethora or different models from various manufacturers. They have different CPUs, different amount of RAM, HDD space and so on. Instead of going into more details and analyzing what will best suite you, here I will suggest you some model from reputed brands that will most likely fulfill your needs.

Best Overall Home Laptop

Dell Studio 15

If you are considering a decent performing home laptop in a moderate to a bit high budget, Dell Studio 15 should be your choice.

• Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3MB cache)


• 4GB DDR2 RAM


• 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)


• 6X Slot Load Bluray (BD) Combo Drive (BD Read Only) DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability, Write or backup data on CD or DVD


• Widescreen 15.4 inch LED display (1366 x 768) with TrueLife


• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100


• Wireless- B/G Card , Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam, Intel High Definition Audio 2.2


• Microsoft Works, Windows Vista Home Premium


• 6 Cell Primary Battery, 125V Power Cord, 65W AC Adapter

Price

About $1300

Best Home Gaming Laptop

Alienware M17X

If you can afford it, there is no better gaming laptop than this one. But don’t ever try to get it out of your home, because it might be too heavy for your back.

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 2.8GHz (6MB Cache 800MHz FSB)


• GPU: 2 x 8800M GTX SLI


• LCD: 17″ WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview Technology – Black


• RAM: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 2048MB


• OS: Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1


• SSD: 128GB Solid State Drive


• Optical: 2x Blu-ray Writer/DVD±RW Burn


• Turbo Mem: Intel Turbo Memory (1GB)


• Wi-Fi: Internal Intel Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card


• Audio: High-Definition Audio with surround sound

Price

Around $6000 for top configuration

Best Cheap Home Entertainment Laptop

HP Pavilion DV2

This Laptop has a decent gaming performance through its dedicated graphics card and good processor. It also no problem in rendering full 1080p movies. The price is very affordable for a laptop of its performance.

• AMD Athlon™ Neo Processor for Ultrathin Notebooks MV-40


• 12.1″ Diagonal WXGA High-Definition (8) HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)


• 4GB DDR2 System Memory (1 Dimm)


• 320GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA), SuperMulti 8x DVD+-R/RW Drive


• Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1


• ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3410 Graphics

Price

About $630

Best Budget Home Laptop

Dell Inspiron 1525

If you want a budget laptop but more powerful than a typical netbook, Dell Inspiron 1525 should be your choice. A large selection of ports and variety of configuration selection option makes it the best choice for many.

• Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 (2.00GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache)


• 15.4″ Widescreen with Truelife for Extensive application use.


• 4GB DDR2 SDRAM


• 500GB Serial ATA hard drive for large video files


• Wireless Internet access 802.11b/g (where available)


• 4 USB Ports, 1 VGA Out, 1 HDMI Port, 1 iEEE 1394a FireWire Port, S-Video Out, 8 In 1 Media Card Reader


• 8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability for DVD RW For DVD and CD Burning


• Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Web Camera


• Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100


• Slim and compact design for business user


• Windows Vista Home Premium

Price

About $960

HP Pavilion DV2 Review

HP Pavilion DV2 is no ordinary notebook. The 12 inch laptop sports a new AMD Athlon Neo Processor which seems to hit the sweet spot between the low performance laptops with Atom Processors and the the high priced laptops with Core 2 Duo Processor. In this laptop you can play the full HD 1080p movies without any problem or can play the 3D games that you can’t play on the netbooks.

But heating is a factor that can ruin a great laptop to a worst one. And AMD processors traditionally has been well-known for their higher thermal outputs. Can this laptop break the myth and produce good output performance even at lower temperatures? We have made a review to find the answer. Have a go.

Performance

The system uses the 64 bit AMD Athlon Neo Processor. It is a single core processor but it isn’t as low performing as the Intel’s Atom Processor. Typical Video encoding time on it was significantly lower than on the one that has Atom Processor. On the other hand, it isn’t as high performing as the Intel’s Core 2 Duo Either. Multitasking handling isn’t as smooth as we normally see on a Core 2 Duo Machine but that’s expected from a low priced notebook like this. However, the system runs 64-bit version of resource hungry Windows Vista without any problem as it packs in a 4GB system RAM in a single module. And multitasking on the device was no severe problem either and don’t get us wrong – we said that the device isn’t that smooth as one with a Core 2 Duo. The 320GB HDD also provides good performance.

Design

The HP Pavilion DV2 looks very modern with smooth and rounded edges. On outside the laptop is very thin but is almost as wide as notebooks with a 13 inch screen because of the bezel around the screen and the keyboard. There is no latch in the lid that can keep it and hold it shut but the hinge is strong enough to hold it in place. The plastic lid is alloy reinforced and the glossy back is stylish enough to catch one’s eye. Overall the less than one inch thick notebook has enough strength to survive under pressure and being glamorous at the same time.

Display

The HP Pavilion incorporates a nice glossy 12.1 inch LED backlit display of 1280 X 800 WXGA resolution. The screen is bright and vibrant and showed rich natural colors. The viewing angles were also great to share your screen with some of your friends. The brightness of the screen is also very good and can be used under bright illumination without any problem. But as with other glossy screens, this glossy display will also create problems when the light is just behind you and shining directly on the screen.

Graphics

This notebook offers discrete graphics that you won’t find in any low priced netbooks. This is a big news for those who are looking to play some games on a low cost laptop. The system comes with a ATI Radeon HD 3410 that plays 1080p full HD movies with ease and provides enough fps in full resolution for a good response from your 3D game. We are really impressed with the gaming capabilities of this machine which is refreshing especially after we have tested some netbooks with integrated graphics.

Keyboard and TouchPad

As the built of the laptop is very compact, it is very unlikely that keyboard will have any flex under pressure. They keyboard matched our expectation and had nice feedback while typing. Typing at good speed was no problem with this keyboard. The touchpad was also responsive without any lag. The touchpad buttons were also very good with audible clicks. The buttons placements were also very good to be controlled easily with your thumb

Ports

The device houses all the necessary ports for everyday use. There are an Ethernet, VGA, an HDMI, 2 USB Ports and a heat vent on the left side and a power switch, a wireless on/off, SDHC Card slot, microphone and headphone, one more USB and a security lock slot on the right. There are no ports in front or back. While we liked the additional HDMI Port which are very rare to see in an ultrathin notebook, we would have liked another USB Port or even better an e-SATA Combo Port for connecting some more peripherals,

Audio

The speakers are quite good for a budget notebook like this. The altec lansing speakers at the front edge produce good volume levels with minimal distortion and good range. The headphone ports were also error free and produced good noise free sound in my headphone.

Heat

This is the most important thing we were eager to check out. From our previous experience with the HP TX2500Z which also runs on AMD, we can say that the AMD processors are really really hot as soon as it is turned on. The AMD Turion processor in the TX2500Z was simply unusable on your lap for its excessive heating. But thankfully this new processor technology uses lesser power and stays comparably cooler than the previous AMD processors. However, during stress condition it does get heated but it is not unusable by any means.

Battery

The system uses a six cell battery and gives out average battery life. Under normal usage in power saver mode expect the laptop to run for four hours and in high workload condition with screen brightness maxed out the laptop should run for about 2 hours minimum.

Pros

• Good Performance at a low Price Tag


• Graphics performance way ahead the netbooks


• 4GB RAM is enough for just everything


• Thin and light ultraportable


• Good Build Quality


• Good Display and Speakers

Cons

• Battery Life lower than average


• Processor performance not enough for heavy multitasking


• No Built-in Optical Drive

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it is a nice portable laptop with good performance at an affordable price tag which is what a laptop is meant for. Netbooks are too much underpowered for watching a decent HD Video without any problem or even editing some high resolution photos from your digcam. Using this laptop you can do these things and can play some 3D games with medium quality settings at a decent frame rate. It does not have too many cons and it would be a nice buy for the budget minded consumers who wouldn’t mind carrying the charger wherever he goes with his laptop.