The Fujitsu LifeBook A6120 is a good performer, carries a reasonable price tag, and comes with most of the features you'd expect from a well-rounded machine--except good battery life.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Fujitsu Lifebook A6120
Fujitsu Lifebook N6460
Fujitsu's new flagship desktop replacement laptop spoils graphics professionals with a stunning work environment and tons of storage. That's one big thing it has in common with its predecessor, the LifeBook N6420, but the newer N6460 is also a better entertainment unit. Battery life is shorter--it ran out of juice in less than 1 hour in our recent tests--and it still leaves Bluetooth fans out in the cold. But all in all, the Fujitsu LifeBook N6460 is an improvement over the N6420.
Sony Vaio VGN-UX390N
In designing its VAIO Micro PC VGN-UX390N, Sony has condensed a standard notebook computer into a device only a little larger than--and about twice the weight of--a BlackBerry. And it did a good job, with two critical exceptions: The 4.5-inch display is too small for easy viewing even at arm's length, and a finger on the keyboard is a typo waiting to happen. If you plug in an external monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse, however, you'll see the better half of the UX390N's split personality: An ultramobile PC that's right at home on your desktop.
Toshiba Satellite P105-S6217 Notebook
Toshiba laptops are wildly popular and for a reason: They offer good quality and they're eminently affordable. The $1649 (as of April 11, 2007) Toshiba Satellite P105-S6217 isn't a high concept notebook, but it makes an excellent second PC at home or a solid small-office desktop replacement.
Toshiba Satellite U405
Ultraportable laptops priced under a grand are still relatively rare. The same can be said for slim, sexy notebooks that weigh close to 4 pounds. That's changing, though, and Toshiba's $949 Satellite U405-S2854 satisfies in all the important areas: It offers decent performance, an enormous hard drive, and even bundled Microsoft office applications.
Toshiba Satellite P105-S921 Notebook
A terrific screen, rich sound, and superior performance make the Satellite P105-S921 gaming notebook from Toshiba really stand out. The system's $1999 price--quite reasonable considering what you get for it--only sweetens the deal.
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.
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
Updated 3/6/2009 The final retail unit does not have a shared USB-eSATA port as originally reported.
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 XPS M1710
Dell's XPS M1710 is the notebook for the power desktop user who's ready to go (sort of) mobile. Packed with high-performance hardware, it's one of the fastest notebooks we've tested. But neither its price nor its weight is for the weak of heart.
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.)
Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600 Notebook
As if the first Qosmio Windows Media Center Edition notebooks didn't kick enough multimedia booty with instant-on TV, a slot-fed DVD burner, awesome Harman/Kardon speakers and a cool volume dial, the latest Qosmio adds hi-fi sound.
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.
Sony Vaio VGC-RA842G
The Sony VAIO VGC-RA842G is a great multimedia system, best suited to the enthusiast who wants a complete audio, video, and graphics package out of the box. This VAIO offers a quiet, liquid cooling system, but even though it was configured with a dual-core 3-GHz Pentium D 830 CPU and 1GB of DDR2-533 SDRAM, it doesn't have the horsepower to appeal to graphics professionals or hard-core gamers.
HP Pavilion D4000E
The HP Pavilion D4000e is a reasonable choice for any business or individual seeking an economical power system rather than a top-notch gaming or graphics platform.
HP Pavilion DV7T
The Pavilion dv7t is one of HP's "entertainment powerhouse" notebooks, just one step down from the ludicrously oversize 20-inch HDX. Beyond the 17-inch screen, and under the cool "liquid metal" exterior, lies Intel's new Centrino 2 processor. The result: high-octane performance in an extremely shiny package.
HP Pavilion A1510N Desktop
The Pavilion a1510n puts together an appealing mix of performance, cost, and features for anyone seeking an affordable, basic PC.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Gateway GM5632E
Designed primarily as a multimedia or media-center desktop PC, the quad-core Gateway GM5632E (sold as the Gateway Q6600 at Best Buy) is a pre-built retail system available in only one configuration. Though its expansion options are limited, its base price (without monitor) of $1200 (as of November 2, 2007) may appeal to those who rarely open the case. For this review, we looked at the GM5632E bundled with Gateway's excellent 24-inch wide-screen LCD ($600), which raised the system's total price to $1800.
Gateway FX400XL
Priced at $2200 with a 19-inch LCD monitor, the FX400XL delivers solid value to multimedia enthusiasts looking for a user-friendly PC that can handle work with sound and video.
Compaq DX2250
The dx2250 is the least-expensive PC in HP's Compaq business PC line. Although you can get a very inexpensive dx2250 if you skip the extras, even a judicious amount of optional equipment can jack up the price substantially--so much so that it can end up costing as much as or more than many of HP's more sophisticated business PCs, such as the Compaq dc5750 we tested a few months ago. Our test configuration cost $1413 (as of 7/24/07) with a 19-inch monitor and a three-year warranty.
Compaq DX2200 Desktop
As its name implies, the HP dx2200 Business Desktop targets workplace users. This compact system's low price of $738 (as of November 6, 2006) makes it a good match for small and home offices on a budget.
Acer Veriton VM460-UD2180C
If you're looking for a basic desktop computer with lots of expandability options, the $748 (as of 2/7/08) Acer Veriton VM460-UD2180C has more growth potential than most budget desktops.
Acer Aspire Predator
Acer's Aspire Predator is a peculiar power desktop. We see this particular configuration more as a sturdy base with room to grow than a power PC in its own right; a little more detail work on its guts could push it toward the top of the category.
Falcon Northwest Mach V
Falcon Northwest's Mach V gaming desktop is a firecracker inside a beautiful aluminum chassis. While the Silverstone Temjin TJ03 full tower case itself is nothing new, the Mach V's internal setup represents the fastest PC we have ever tested on nearly every benchmark we could toss at this overclocked monstrosity.
Dell XPS 630
Dell's XPS 630 is a stylish and competitively priced mainstream gaming PC that can be souped up with extras such as an Ageia PhysX accelerator, a Blu-ray Disc drive, and up to 4GB of DDR2-800 Corsair Dominator memory. And though Dell recently integrated its XPS and Alienware development teams for future products, a spokesperson confirmed that the company will fully support current XPS notebooks and desktops (such as the high-end 730 H2C, the multimedia-themed XPS 420, and the iMac-rival One) for the remainder of what is typically a 12-month life-cycle for these products. The company declined to confirm when the first Alienware/Dell hybrid systems are likely to appear.
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