Notebook Sleuth » Features

Thin Reasoning: The Dell Vostro V13 Laptop

Derek — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:43:36 +0000

Dell is always good for some slim and slick designs for their desktops and laptops, and this is no exception, for certain. It’s a economical and ultra-take on the traditional power business laptop, the Vostro V13 line.

It’s thin all right: measuring only 16.5mm thick and weighing an absurdly light 4 lbs, this wafer rocket includes a decent sized 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 LED-backlit screen, a Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor (for power savings), an Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics card (the top among the integrated cards), roomy 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, a 1.3MP webcam, Bluetooth, and MS’s Windows 7 OS.

Price starts at around $449, so even the most budget minded can carry around something pretty modern and nice to do their business on.

Price and Looks: The Sony VAIO Nebula FW

Derek — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:52:48 +0000

Sony always had nice looking laptops, even if early models were pricey and not super reliable, it seemed. It appears Sony has put those days behind them as they unveil the Sony VAIO Nebula FW into their catalog.

It’s mega-slick, stylish, and has some muscle behind it to back up the looks. Specs include: a 16.4-inch LCD display, a Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a ATI Radeon HD 4650 512MB graphics card, (up to) 8GB RAM (default is 4GB), your choice of a 500GB HDD or 256GB SSD, Blu-ray drive, Bluetooth and Windows 7 OS. Now that’s a package that can take on pretty much anything.

This slick unit starts at around $809.99.

Wal-Mart’s Big Gamble?: The Mirius Netbook

Derek — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:12:34 +0000

Yes, Wal-Mart is a large company that has conquered the globe with their ultra low prices, but their own netbooks? Apparently, they may be giving it a shot with their new line of netbooks designed for bargain prices and basic usage being released soon.

The line is called the Mirius, and here’s the basic specs: A 10.2″ LCD display, 1GB RAM, and a decent sized 120GB hard drive, along with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, a 3-cell battery, and Microsoft Windows XP, three USB ports, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a VGA output, and an SD card slot.

Not bad for its suggested $248 price tag, we’d say. Time will tell if it proves to be a popular line with consumers, with extreme power being so inexpensive these days.

Great Laptop Deal: HP HDX 18t Laptop

Derek — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:08:57 +0000

You wanna talk nice deals? How about this:

LogicBUY is up with another sale, this time they’re offering you this HP HDX18t laptop for just $899.99 shipped (original price $1,449.99). So here’s what you get, an 18.4-inch 1920 x 1080p HP Ultra BrightView infinity HD display, an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz processor, Free upgrade to 4GB RAM, Free upgrade to 500GB hard drive, a Blu-ray drive, WiFi, Bluetooth and Windows 7 OS.

Amazing deal indeed one of the nicest laptops we’ve seen to date. Courtesy of Techfresh.net and LogicBUY. Just more of an indication of how fast and far powerful laptop prices have fallen.

Slim Fast (not the drink): ‘World’s Thinnest’ Notebook HP ProBook 5310m

Derek — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:25:53 +0000

Let’s face it; thin in very in with most gadgets these days from TVs to music players, to notebooks definitely. HP has taken this to a new level with their upcoming HP ProBook 5310m, which they’ve dubbed the World’s Thinnest Notebook.

Measuring only 0.9-inch thin and weighing in at only 3.7 pounds, HP latest creation is called the world’s thinnest full-performance notebook (not a netbook, mind you).

Featuring an aluminum display enclosure (for street cred, no doubt) and a magnesium alloy case for the bottom, this ultra-stylish, skinny machine sports a 13.3-inch LED display, an option of either Intel Core 2 Duo or Intel Celeron processor (price difference), up to 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, 2MP webcam, WiFi, Bluetooth, a 4 cell battery and Windows 7 OS too. Sounds good to us.

The ProBook 5310m will begin shipping in the US to stores on October 22 for $699 (Intel Celeron) up to $899 with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (recommended by us).

Good Things Come in Small Packages: The Samsung Ultra-Thin X520 Notebook

Derek — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:40:07 +0000

Samsung is famous for their interesting change-ups on traditional notebook design principles, and this one: their newest ultra-thin and light notebook they’re readying for launch, the Samsung X520, isn’t any exception. It uses less power and weighs less too than most notebooks.

Based on the Intel’s Consumer Low Voltage (CULV) platform released not too long ago, the new X520 includes a decent sized 15.6-inch display with 1366 x 768 resolution, a 1.3GHz Core 2 Solo SU2700 CPU, 4GB RAM, a nice sized 320GB hard drive, webcam, WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI output port, 6-cell battery and Windows Vista Home Premium too.

Pricing or exact release date haven’t been released, but the grapevine is telling us it’ll list around €699 ($1,004 USD or so).

Power, Cheap: The HP HDX16t

Derek — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:22:51 +0000

Site LogicBuy has a great sale on a powerhouse laptop with some great features: The HP HDX16t Notebook for just $799.99 shipped (original price $1,299.99, so that’s quite a deal indeed). It just shows how far laptops have really come down in price, without sacrificing power or features.

So here’s the start: a 16-inch HD Ultra BrightView Infinity display with crystal-clear 1920 x 1080 resolution, a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor for lots of speed, a 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT for graphics, 4GB RAM, spacious 320GB hard drive, Blu-ray drive (very nice!), webcam/fingerprint reader, and Windows 7 OS will be included too, which is also quite nice indeed.

A “Clear” Choice: The Acer Aspire One D250 with HD screen

Derek — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:28:30 +0000

Watching movies seems to be a new thing for laptops, thus the run on HD level screens on laptops of late. Acer has themselves released a new notebook with an HD screen as well with very solid stats.

The codenamed Aspire One D250 netbook has a 10.1-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution as opposed to 1024 x 600 typical of this level of of laptop. We welcome the trend, as the previous resolutions weren’t suitable for games and the like.

While, the rest of the specs remain solid: 1.60GHz Intel Atom N270, 1GB RAM, roomy 160GB HDD, webcam, and also in a welcome inclusion: Windows XP SP3 OS and a 6-cell battery for slightly longer battery life.

Apparently, this one is already out for pre-order in Norway and should be available in more territories by August or so.

Beastly Gaming Laptop: The Maingear eX-L 18

Derek — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:56:35 +0000

If you’re looking for a powerful laptop that can do pretty much anything a desktop can do (and more in some cases), your search is over, assuming you have deep pockets.

Called the World’s most powerful gaming laptop (according to the maker), Maingear’s eX-L 18 has an Intel Core 2 Extreme quad processor (that’s 4 cores, folks) and dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M GPUs. This should tackle any sort of game with vigor.

The powerhouse also comes with an 18.4-inch full HD display with 1920 x 1080 resolution (that’s true HD), up to 8GB DDR3 memory (the fastest memory around right now), 3x 2.5? SATA SSDs, a 3MP webcam, a 7.1 channel audio system. Other inclusions: Windows Vista, WiFi, Bluetooth and and FireWire, among other connective ports.

The price befits a beast like this: The Maingear eX-L 18 starts at $2,999.

In Between: The HP ProBook 4310s

Derek — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:09:46 +0000

HP has produced some very solid notebooks in previous years, and this recently announced model is no exception to this rule: The HP ProBook 4310s. It’s aimed for more advanced users who need more power than a netbook can provide, yet not a fire-breathing monster for $1,000+.

This one’s starting price is $779 at HP’s official website, and should be available in retail stores soon for probably less than that.

Targeted towards students and business professionals, the 4310s offers a 13.3-inch diagonal LED-backlit HD display (the only downside to this model is the relatively small screen), an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, the powerful ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 graphics card, up to 8GB RAM (we love this), roomy 320GB hard drive, a webcam, a Blu-ray drive, and Windows Vista (soon to be Windows 7 with the exchange program).