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Lenovo Thinkpad SL400

Usually, ThinkPads don't come cheap. You expect to pay dearly for the classy keyboard, rugged chassis, and whatever top-notch parts lie under the hood. That's not quite the case with Lenovo's SL400 series of laptops.

HP HDX 18

HP's HDX line is fairly straightforward--it courts multimedia fiends. From its double-wide demeanor (with ample room for full QWERTY keys and a keypad) to all the plugs and ports offered here, the HDX18--a fairly fashionable desktop replacement--will stand out on your desk. The HDX18 isn't quite a desktop-destroyer like Toshiba's Qosmio X305 (Toshiba's Qosmio line has a well-deserved rep for awesome performance in games and stellar audio--hang in there, we'll have a review of the X305 up soon enough), but the HDX18's multimedia-mindedness proves that HP is ready to put up a fight. (We've also reviewed HP's HDX16, a very similar entertainment-focused laptop; the main differences are a smaller screen, a smaller hard drive, a slightly plainer keyboard--and a lower price.)

Samsung X460-44P

Welcome back, Samsung. You've been laying low in the U.S. market when it comes to notebooks, but after kicking the tires on the X460, I can honestly say you were missed. I mean, you manage to craft a 14.1-inch thin-and-light all-purpose notebook that's perfectly road-ready and goes toe-to-toe with Lenovo's ThinkPad X300--even though the X300 is an ultraportable-class machine.

Asus Eee PC 1000HE Black Netbook

Overall Evaluation: If you buy from this company you better hope the product does not breakdown! I bought a Asus mini notebook and it had a faulty drive and returned it at my own expense. Took a month and a half to get a USED replacement and it had three bad programs installed. I finally corrected two by myself since I did not get any real help from the arrogant so-called technical support after countless phone calls and being sent the wrong manual and recovery dscs. At this moment I am seeking legal advice on what action to take against this company for the worst product and service I've had in my life!

Apple iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 24" Desktop - Customizable

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Micro Express JFL9226

Micro Express has previously topped our charts with affordable portables such as its IFL9025. So our expectations for the company's first machine with Intel's Centrino 2 (the CPU class formerly known as "Montevina") were pretty high. Keeping true to form, Micro Express comes through with the JFL9226, a well-rounded and well-priced all-purpose laptop--though it does have a shortcoming or two.

Acer Travelmate 6293-6889.

Not all slim and light laptops come off the conveyor belt bursting with sex appeal. Take the Acer TravelMate 6293: Battery life, it has in spades. Everything else? Not so much. This entirely black portable is fairly well packaged as far as all-purpose laptops go, but if this machine were to go on a diet and lose 0.6 pounds, it could qualify as a good deal for an ultraportable. No doubt Acer's goal was to cut corners--and some standard notebook connections--to a hit a palatable $999 price point, perfectly acceptable for a business budget. But the result is a laptop that's a tad frumpy.

Acer Aspire 8920

The $2599 Acer Aspire 8920 is a whole lotta laptop, crammed with so many features that we kept checking for a kitchen sink. It has a humongous screen, a Blu-ray drive, six speakers, a giant hard drive, a top-flight processor, and a gadget-laden keyboard. You won't skip the light fandango while carrying this 9-pound monstrosity, but you will get awesome performance (and anemic battery life). In other words, it's a powerful desktop replacement laptop that will take up most of your desktop.

Gateway P-172X FX

A notebook catering to the gaming set is sure to deliver a flashy design and good horsepower. And Gateway's latest racer, the P-172X FX, doesn't disappoint.

Asus EEE PC 1000HE

The final retail unit does not have a shared USB-eSATA port as originally reported.

Apple Macbook Pro

At first glance, it appears nearly identical to its predecessor, but it's not. Inside and out, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops--with speeds of 2.4 GHz and 2.53 GHz--have been remodeled, redesigned, and reengineered. (Note: On December 10, Apple released firmware updates for its new notebooks; this review doesn't cover those updates.)

Apple 13.3" Macbook Intel Core DUO Notebook

The more RAM your laptop has, the faster programs will run and the greater number of windows you can work in at one time. If your needs are simple and you rarely do more than two things at once on your PC, the relatively modest amount of memory that comes installed in inexpensive laptops will be enough. Today the standard amount of RAM shipped in most PCs is 2GB. If you like to multitask--say, you want to launch a search for a file and start backing up data to a disc while you watch a news video--you need more memory.

Apple Macbook Pro.

For people who appreciate finer laptop accoutrements such as a backlit keyboard and a slot-fed DVD drive, Apple has crafted another tasty offering in the form of the 17-inch MacBook Pro. Sleek, powerful, and able to run Windows as well as the Mac operating system, the MacBook Pro makes a strong case for becoming anyone's ultimate notebook.

Dell XPS M1530 Notebook

This laptop, equipped with at least 3GB of memory, will run all of your programs quickly (paired with a high-end CPU, that much memory will make things especially speedy). You'll be able to multitask to your heart's content, too, so go ahead--you can back up the entire contents of your hard drive to a DVD while watching YouTube videos and experimenting with textures on the 2MB photo of your client's art gallery in Photoshop. The main drawback is the extra expense: Loading up with more than the standard amount of RAM (2GB, these days) can add hundreds of dollars to a laptop's price, though it boosts performance by only about 10 percent. Also bear in mind that if you hope to use more than 3GB of RAM effectively, your PC must have a 64-bit installation of Windows.

Dell Inspiron 1720

A powerful laptop does not have to be a boring laptop. Take Dell's Inspiron 1720, a robust system that also happens to be available in seven colors besides black. The 1720 is a heavyish 17-inch notebook, but its multimedia design is outstanding.

Dell Inspiron E1505

Dell's revamped Inspiron E1505, an entertainment notebook, now includes an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Though still a poor choice for gaming, the E1505 is plenty zippy for any other applications, including music and photo editing, and movie viewing. The 6.9-pound E1505 also throws in pretty good speakers, dedicated media buttons, and a cushy keyboard with stylish white trim, giving you a great all-around choice for consumers who don't want to spend an arm and a leg on a desktop replacement.

Dell Inspiron 6000

You can see more on the Dell Inspiron 6000's wide screen than on most other 15.4-inch displays thanks to its WUXGA resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels. In fact, you can work with higher-resolution photographs, more spreadsheet columns, and more tiled documents simultaneously on the Inspiron 6000 than you can on some 17-inch wide screens. (The Inspiron 6000 is also available with a 1280-by-800-pixel WXGA screen or a 1680-by-1050-pixel WSXGA+ screen for $150 less or $50 less, respectively.)

HP Pavilion DV2660SE

The $899 (as of 2/7/08) HP Pavilion dv2660se offers strictly budget performance, but its battery life and a great design make it our winning laptop under $1000.