Holiday Buyer's Guide: Notebooks
by Dustin Sklavos on November 15, 2010 9:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Guides
- Holiday 2010
Conclusion: Good to Go Mobile
At the end of the day, the buyer's guide isn't just about the best, it's about the best for the money you can get, and that's what we've tried to wrangle here. This holiday season offers some interesting choices, but a lot of old incumbents are still sticking around. We get the sense that the industry is waiting for Sandy Bridge to drop before hitting us with the major refreshes, although Dell's revitalized XPS series is certainly a welcome entrant and worth keeping an eye on. As for the rest, updates seem incremental at best and many of our old recommendations still stand.
The notebooks we have on tap here are all excellent machines, a few are even Editor's Choice winners, but while Jarred and I were scouring the market for our best picks we couldn't help notice that things felt a little thin. Next year should be much more exciting: AMD's Brazos platform looks to be a homerun for netbooks and ultraportables (or at least a base-clearing double) while Intel's Sandy Bridge continues to bring more and more performance to the mainstream along with the most compelling integrated graphics part Intel has ever produced. Later on in the year we'll see AMD's Llano too, which will hopefully bring with it stronger competition in the mobile space from AMD.
In the meantime, the performance demands of most applications (outside of gaming and content creation) have basically plateaued, so while laptops are never going to be as fast as similarly priced desktops, most of the time it just doesn't matter. Perhaps the biggest issue with using a laptop 100% of the time is the screen size/resolution and keyboard, which is why we harp on build quality and displays so frequently. At least Dell seems to be hearing our call for better screens, and ASUS continues to knock out solid options with discrete graphics. This holiday season isn't exceptional, but it's solid and if you're in the market, you could do a heck of a lot worse.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
If you read the text, you'll see we mention this. It's a Windows 7 Starter issue, which is completely lame and another reason for that OS to not even exist.deeyo - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
When HP has coupons floating around, the dm4 is a great alternative to the UJ30. Lighter with a 6-cell battery, and has the option of getting a 9-cell.And everyone hates the touchpad, but since i've practiced tap-to-click, it doesn't bother me anymore
Mumrik - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
Do people seriously consider 13.3" laptops ultraportables?They're too big for my needs and I usually think you need to hit 12.1" or below to fit that category.
Everything below 13.3 isn't a netbook. Netbooks are netbooks because they're the size of ultraportables but are weak.
narayanagame - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
not really.13inch laptops are the right size to consider as ultra portables.
anything smaller than that you ll need to sacrifice either power or ergonomics or battery life.
13inch is right size to do any kind of intense work while carry everywhere daily.
TareX - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
I know for a fact that my next lappie will be the Envy 14... unless I decide to get the beefier Envy 15.... Or if an Envy 16 is announced.Visual - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
I think if you're at all interested in portability, you're going to love tablet convertibles. The HP tm2 is a nice example for those, and worth mention in the ultraportable section. Maybe even worth a separate review.koolh - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
hey guys. any comments on the lenovo ultraportables? i'm referring to the thinkpad x201. i know thinkpads are generally more expensive, but i love lenovo's reliability and customer service. do the recommended laptops above really beat thinkpads in more areas than just price.thanks
deject - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
I'm wondering how well the Acer Aspire TimelineX series stacks up against the Asus U30Jc/U35Jc. On Amazon, they have the Acer Aspire TimelineX AS3820T-7459 for about $680, $70 less than the U35Jc, while their spec sheets seem rather close together. I have not seen too many reviews of the TimelineX series though, so I don't know how they stack up in terms of build quality, design, etc.Josh7289 - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
The ASUS 1015PED-MU17 has a worse processor than the ASUS 1015PN-PU17, so it's not just that latter machine minus the NG-ION.kakfjak - Thursday, May 5, 2011 - link
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