Hewlett-Packard had an artist competition to design the outside of the chassis of their new dv2800t laptop computer. HP received more than 8,500 entries, and the winner graces this powerful and decidedly unique laptop; you can even customize Windows Vista with a matching theme that extends the artist's vision throughout the laptop computer.
Gateway's sleek and inexpensive T-1630 laptop computer offers plenty of power and performance for the price. This laptop features dual-core 2.0GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 processors and 3GB of 667MHz memory; this gives it lots of oomph for handling everything from light gaming to video editing.
Gateway's new P-6860 laptop is a preconfigured model in the company's FX line, which is geared toward gamers and other heavy users. It's an excellent computer to take with you on the road, provided you'll be using it to it's fullest potential; otherwise, a less powerful, less expensive model might be in order.
Hewlett-Packard's mainstream Pavilion dv6700t laptop computers are solid notebooks that are available at very reasonable prices. The baseline dv6700t retails for around $600, although you'll need to spend a little more if you want to make your machine the sort of powerful, versatile computer that will serve you well for years to come.
Apple is good at redefining existing products, and with the MacBook Air, it has redefined thin-and-light laptop computers. Weighing in at just 3 pounds and measuring just a hair over .75 inches thick when closed, the Air is extremely thin and impressively light. There are smaller laptop computers out there, but none with the performance and design that Apple offers.
Toshiba's Satellite U405 laptop computers aren't quite thin-and-light ultra-portables, but these notebooks are definitely easier to carry around than many of their mainstream brethren.The U405s feature a 13.3-inch widescreen display, so their screens are definitely on the smaller side; they do, however, offer the same 1280X800 resolution that you'll find on larger 15.4-inch screens, so although images and text are smaller, they will appear just as crisp.
Toshiba's Satellite A305 laptop computers are mainstream machines that are designed to handle light gaming and multimedia at an affordable price. We took a look at the S6834 iteration of the A305 line, which offers a fairly impressive set of components at a fairly low price point.
Just because a portable computer is thin and light doesn't mean that can't have great power. Take, for example, Lenovo's ThinkPad X60. This ultraportable computer weighs just around three pounds, yet is powered by an Intel Core Duo processor and features a decent set of components for its svelte frame.
You can always count on Sony to introduce the next big style. Take, for example, their new portable computer, the VAIO UX series. It's almost not fair to call these systems "laptops" as they are so tiny, yet they're more robust and powerful than a PDA or other handheld computer.
Dell's M1710 systems are the mid-range of their beefed-up XPS portable computer lines. These laptops offer excellent performance and great components, yet aren't quite as expensive nor as heavy as their big brothers, the M2010 systems.