The interior is sparse, with only a backlit keyboard, touch pad, power button, and a pair of large speaker grilles on either side of the keyboard. In many current 15-inch laptops, you’ll find a keyboard paired with a separate number pad, but in this case the speakers eat up that space (and then some). Though very usable, the keyboard looks and feels small, and the shallow island-style keys aren’t the most comfortable for long-term typing. The keyboard is backlit, which is a huge plus for us, but at some angles, the pale silver keys and the white backlight combined to wash out the actual letters, making it hard to see for the non-touch-typists out there.

The large multitouch touch pad is generously sized, but it’s not one of the newer clickpad-style ones we’ve been seeing lately. Instead, it’s a flat pad with two large mouse buttons beneath it. We liked the large surface area, but multitouch gestures, such as two-finger scrolling, were jumpy, which is a problem for just about every Windows laptop.

While Apple fans still have to settle for a 1680 x 1050 pixel picture in a 15-inch chassis, an extra $150 $100 buys the XPS 15z a full 1080p display, allowing for high-res movies, games, and wonderfully roomy split-screen multitasking. It’s a pretty bright, beautiful picture on this particular screen, too, and though the contrast isn’t quite as high as we’d like, Dell’s software will automatically adjust the backlight to give you the best out of your blacks and whites. It’s also quite glossy, unfortunately, and viewing angles are pretty terrible here, as the picture becomes far less vibrant if you shift your head even slightly to the left or right.

XPS 15z may not be a gaming rig per se, but for $999 there’s more than enough power under the hood for a few frag sessions. Even the base model is loaded with a dual-core 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410M processor, switchable NVIDIA GeForce GT525M graphics with 1GB of memory, and 6GB of DDR3 RAM, a 7200RPM hard drive and loads of high-end connectivity. You’ll find a gigabit Ethernet jack keeping the power socket company around back, two USB 3.0 ports on the left-hand side, along with one eSATA / USB 2.0 combo port, one Mini DisplayPort, and an HDMI 1.4 jack, a pair of 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks on the right, and a dual-band Intel 802.11a/g/n WiFi radio inside.

The thinner and more portable a laptop is, the better we expect its battery life to be. While the 3 hours and 30 minutes the Dell XPS 15z ran on our video playback battery drain test was acceptable for a 15-inch laptop (and aided by Nvidia’s Optimus technology, which turns off the GPU when its not needed), Apple’s MacBook Pro ran for twice as long, and even the previous generation of XPS 15 laptops ran for an additional 30 minutes.

Dell typically includes a one-year in-home service warranty with the XPS 15, and though the warranty upgrade options were not live on Dell’s Web site at the time this review was written, based on previous XPS laptops, coverage should be expandable up to four years for an extra $290, or four years with accidental damage protection for $410. Dell’s Web site offers 24-7 toll-free phone service and Web support, including software drivers and documentation that are easy to find.

Samsung claims the Series 9 weighs 2.88 pounds and measures 0.62 to 0.64-inches thick. In comparison, the Air tips the scales to 2.9 pounds and is 0.11-inches at its thinnest point and 0.68 at its thickest. Still, the differences are as minimal in person as they are on paper while the Series 9 does seem slightly thicker in hand, it’s really not a difference you’d notice everyday, and just like the Air, picking it up off your lap or table requires little to no muscle.

The chiclet keyboard and touchpad duo is one of the best we’ve seen on a Windows laptop. The keyboard itself is extremely well laid out and the keys themselves feel nice and smooth. The panel doesn’t bend, though we could have done without the glossy plastic surrounding the keys and the screen. Naturally, we’re just elated to see the backlight and the fact that you can adjust the brightness manually with the F7 and F8 buttons. It really makes a world of difference when you get caught in dimly lit environments something we wish Apple had remembered when it cut out that feature on its new generation of Airs. The touchpad or what Samsung is calling a SuperButton ClickPad has integrated mouse buttons, and it’s actually the best we’ve seen on a shipping Windows laptop.

The 13.3-inch display on the Series 9 is yet another place the it rises above the rest. The 1366×768-resolution, 400-nit screen boasts Samsung’s SuperBright Plus technology, and its one heck of a viewing experience. The matte screen is extremely crisp and colors just look dazzling. The ambient light sensor automatically adjusts brightness, but we opted to disable that function while plugged in and cranked it up to the max.

On both sides of the laptop, you can find dropdown doors that expose a set of ports. They aren’t easy to get to, as you’ll have to lift the laptop or flip it over because they’re practically at the base. The ports on the right side include USB 2.0, a headphone jack, and a Micro SD slot. On the left side you can find another USB port, mini HDMI, and a proprietary Ethernet port that you’ll need the included dongle for. Aside from the Ethernet port, the Air 13-inch’s selection of ports is very similar. Sound from the stereo speakers is blasting out from the side of the palm rests, and its quality is more impressive than I imagined from a laptop this thin.

The Series 9 runs on a 1.4GHz Intel Core i5-2537M processor, as opposed to the Air 13-inch’s two-generations-old Intel Core 2 Duo. It’s the first Ultra Low Voltage processor to arrive at our bench with Sandy Bridge technology, which meant good things for performance.

Give its standard voltage processor, we never really had that high of hopes for the Series 9′s battery life, and actually, we doubted Samsung’s claim of seven hours. However, it fared much better than we anticipated. On our standard video rundown test, which loops the same video at 65 percent brightness and WiFi on, the six-cell 6300mAH battery lasted four hours and twenty minutes. That’s quite a taxing test, and in typical use with brightness hovering around 75 percent, we got closer to five hours of juice. Yes, of course, that’s not as long as the X220 we just tested, but that had a much larger battery and an additional slice cell. Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air lasts 25 minutes longer on a charge on our battery test, but in use we got closer to 6.5 hours of use with similar brightness adjustments. Either way, we’re content with the Series 9′s endurance considering its high performance parts and the fact that dragging around its small, one piece charger isn’t a bother.

Samsung includes a three-year warranty with the Series 9 NP900X3A, which at least adds some value to the high sticker price of the laptop: most other laptops only have one year of coverage.

Design

The Sager NP5125 is a custom notebook built on the Clevo B1500M chassis. It has a pedestrian-looking exterior with no significant design features. Little evidence suggests the designers of this notebook intended it to look attractive. The chassis has a standard rectangular shape with mildly rounded edges. The NP5125 has a light weight for its class, coming in under six pounds and about one inch thin. The construction is all-plastic. The plastic has a matte non-glare surface with the exception of the screen border, which is preferable to the glossy plastic found on many mainstream notebooks. Matte plastic is easier to keep clean and does not show dust and fingerprints as easily.

The build quality overall is unfortunately below average. The plastic is thin and feels cheap, giving the notebook a hollow feel. Some rattling noises can be produced by tapping the plastic with a fingernail. The chassis itself seems to be of reasonable strength; despite the thin plastic it does not flex when pressure is applied in most places. The chassis bends slightly when grabbed by the corners and twisted, though nothing out of the ordinary.

Screen

The NP5125 has a 15.6-inch screen with a 1080p (1920×1080) resolution and LED backlighting. The screen is definitely the highlight of this machine; it is simply gorgeous. Side-to-side viewing angles are near-perfect and there is minimal color distortion from above; from below, colors are accurate until about 20 degrees below center. The backlighting is almost perfectly even.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The NP5125 has an island-style keyboard where the keys are raised above the base. The keys have an unsophisticated plasticky feel when pressed. Fast typing is possible however typing confidence is undermined by rattling sounds; the plastic used in the construction of this notebook really lets it down here; the keyboard does not feel well-settled at all. Like the chassis, the keyboard has little flex. The keyboard would be a lot more pleasant to type on if it felt more solid.

Performance

The overall idea behind the NP5125 is to provide good performance for the money. It is already well-equipped in its base configuration. As the numbers will show, the NP5125 is a viable gaming machine and multimedia notebook.

Battery Life

Three hours and 15 minutes of battery life  using the included 6-cell 48.84Wh battery. The test was run while surfing the Internet with the screen brightness at one notch above minimum.

Conclusion

The NP5125 has its ups and downs. It offers very good performance for the money and is a capable gaming machine. The full HD display is beautiful and makes multitasking easy thanks to its high resolution; not many 15.6″ notebooks, let alone ones under $1,000, offer such a screen. Its excellent cooling system and light weight are also big pluses. A major downside is the subpar build material; the plastics used on the exterior feel fragile and the keyboard is not well-seated, which results in unpleasant rattling sounds.

Design

The Mini 311 combines elements from several of HP’s larger notebooks: its black lid (also available in white) bears HP’s Swirl pattern. A black speaker grille unobtrusively lines the front edge of the chassis, and the silver deck, keyboard, and touchpad remind us of the company’s Pavilion Series. Measuring 11.4 x 8.0 x 1.2 inches, the Mini 311 is roughly the same size as the Acer Aspire 751h and the MSI Wind U210. We were glad to see that HP’s battery is well-integrated with the chassis, and doesn’t jut out the back. With a weight of 3.2 pounds, the 311 isn’t much heavier than other 12-inch netbooks, which weigh around 3 pounds.

Keyboard & Touchpad

The keys on the keyboard have the same slightly scalloped shape and wide faces that we’ve seen on HP’s other Netbooks, such as the Mini 110. It’s a design we approve of, but in this particular case, the keys themselves felt a little loose and wiggly when typing. Likewise, the touch pad did not impress. Made of the same material as the rest of the wrist rest, it offered too much resistance to our fingers. There’s a legitimate reason most laptop touch pads have a distinct, slick surface. We also had to go into the control panel to crank up the pointer speed–perhaps the default settings were created with an older 1,024×600 Netbook in mind. Two sliverlike mouse buttons under the touch pad also felt cheap and insubstantial.

Display

Those hoping to watch HD video on the Mini 311-1025NR will be pleased by the 11.6-inch LED backlit display that features a high 1366×768 resolution. This allows 720p playback on the screen. It is possible to play a 1080p video source on an external display through the HDMI video port. While the screen does have a high resolution, the color isn’t quite up to par with some other netbook screens. This is likely a cost cutting measure to try and keep prices down.

Ports and Webcam

There’s no surprises when it comes to the port selection on the Mini 311. On the left side is a USB and HDMI port; on the right is Ethernet, VGA, two USB, headphones, and a 3-in-1 memory card reader.

Performance

Performance on the HP Mini 311-1025NR is slightly improved not because of the processor which is still the Intel Atom N270 but from the memory system. Unlike typical netbooks that ship with a single gigabyte of DDR2 memory, the Mini 311 uses faster DDR3 memory. In addition, it ships with a two gigabytes over the standard one. This is due to HP using the standard Windows 7 Home Premium operating system license over the netbook restricted versions.

Battery

Despite having a discrete graphics card, the six-cell lithium ion battery in the 311 lasted a very respectable 5 hours and 43 minutes on our battery test (Web surfing via Wi-Fi); while that’s about half an hour short of the six-cell netbook average, it’s a worthy trade-off, given the performance boost.

Design
Unlike the U30Jc or the UL50, the lid of the N61Jv is glossy with a subtle wavy pinstripe pattern, much like the K42F. This looks cool, but it doesn’t do a great job of hiding fingerprint smudges. Inside, however, ASUS has made several interesting design changes. The palm rest is rubberized, making it very comfortable to the touch.

Above the chiclet-style keyboard is the most striking feature: a silver speaker bar perforated by tiny holes. At the right side is a circular chrome power button encircled by a backlit ring; on the other side are buttons to control multimedia playback and to launch the ExpressGate Instant-On environment. At either end of the silver bar are two translucent strips that light up blue when the notebook is on. All in all, it has a very retro-chic look, like something Braun might have designed in the 80s.

Weighing 6 pounds even, the N61J is a bit heavier than most notebooks in its class, most of which have smaller 15.6-inch screens. The Samsung R580, for example, weighs 5.6 pounds. However, the N61Jv, at 15.4 x 10.6 x 1.1—1.5 inches, cuts a thinner profile to the R580’s 16.2 x 10.7 x 1.3—1.6 inches.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The palm rest has a sort of “rubbery” textured plastic found on some mice and keyboards, along with the Alienware M17x and ASUS G73J. The technical description is a “soft touch rubberized painted plastic” surface for the palm rest; whatever it’s called, we like it, and we wish the top cover used the same material. The keyboard is of the chiclet variety and has a good feel and key action. We only have one minor complaint with the keyboard, and that’s the use of a half-size “0″ key for the number keypad. Above are two different keyboards, on the left is the ASUS N61J and on the right is the Acer Aspire 5740G; Acer gets the number keypad right. If a company is going to go to the trouble of fitting a 10-key into a notebook, they need to use the standard layout. Yes it’s a minor quibble, but it’s our only real complaint with the keyboard. We do feel there are better keyboards out there, but that’s largely a matter of personal taste—I’m partial to the Lenovo ThinkPad T410 approach, with raised and contoured keys that feel more like a desktop keyboard. If on the other hand you prefer chiclet keyboards, the N61J won’t disappoint.

Display and Audio
The 16-inch LED-backlit display on the N61Jv was plenty bright, and we liked the crisp colors. While its resolution of 1366 x 768 was adequate for a notebook at this price, its glossy surface kicked back reflections and angles were somewhat limited. Image quality was fair. While watching a 720p episode of Fringe on Fox.com, we could easily make out the wrinkles in the characters’ faces, though a DVD of Heroes looked somewhat grainy.

Despite the fact that the N61Jv has Altec Lansing Speakers and SRS Premium Sound, we were somewhat disappointed overall. There was very nice definition when listening to Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away,” but bass was sadly lacking on this entertainment system. During the chorus, the higher notes drowned out the lower tones, making it sound a little harsh. Tweaking the settings using the SRS control panel did little to help. On the plus side, the volume was fairly loud when streaming Weezer’s “Beverly Hills” on Slacker.

Ports
ASUS provides a single eSATA port and two USB 2.0 ports. The big extra is that ASUS has added an NEC USB 3.0 controller for one more USB port on the left side

Performance
The 2.26-GHz Intel Core i5-430M processor and 4GB of RAM (upgradable to 8GB) powered the N61Jv to an excellent score of 5,841 in PCMark Vantage, which measures overall performance. That’s about 900 points higher than the desktop replacement average, about 40 points higher than the Samsung 15.6-inch R580, which has the same processor, and practically equal to the similarly sized Acer Aspire 5740G. The 17-inch Samsung R780 ($799) has the same processor, but scored about 100 points higher.

Not only is the N61J’s hard drive a relatively spacious 500GB, but it also zips along at 7,200 rpm, enabling it to blow past a number of notebooks in its category. We were able to duplicate a 4.97GB folder of multimedia in 2 minutes and 31 seconds, a rate of 33.7 MBps. That’s 45 seconds faster than the R580 (26.2 MBps), and more than 10 MBps faster than the Sony VAIO E (21.7 MBps). Boot time, too, was a fast 57 seconds.

It’s difficult to think of a single major notebook manufacturer who hasn’t also brought out a netbook by now. Unfortunately, in their haste to get on the mini-mobile-PC bandwagon, many of them have sacrificed considerations like ergonomics. Initially, it would appear Toshiba’s NB100 netbook is yet another casualty of this trend, but let’s find out how it actually holds up in this and other regards. Toshiba offers several different versions of its netbook, being available with a choice of Ubuntu or Windows XP Home, 512MB or 1024MB of memory and hard drive sizes of 80 or 160GB. Of course, core components like an Intel N270 Atom processor running at 1.60GHz and Intel integrated GMA 950 graphics remain constants. There’s also a selection of colours available, though unfortunately these are tied to specific configurations.

Design
The design is worse than just starkly utilitarian – it’s old fashioned, like something found in a time capsule buried beneath Toshiba HQ. With its chunky chassis, black plastic panelling and silver plastic trim around the edges the NB100 is an unwelcome blast from the past which shrieks “Hello, 1980s!” and takes us back to the era when laptops could never be more than boring business tools. That’s a huge disappointment compared to the stylish Toshiba notebooks we’re seeing of late. The NB100’s only concession to this is the glossy lid, coated in shiny black and generously flecked with sapphire blue. However we’re worried this would scratch very easily, especially since Toshiba doesn’t even include a slip case or sleeve to protect the netbook between sessions. Opening the NB100 up reveals a mostly matte black interior, with the small power-button and accenting around the sides and touchpad the only exceptions. To be honest, after the classy and relatively attractive exterior, the interior of Toshiba’s netbook looks plain and dull. This is not helped by the thick bezel around the screen with its integrated speaker grille, or the touchpad which thanks to being a slightly different shade of black than the rest makes the whole affair look somewhat cheap and toy-like.

Display
If you deduced from the name of Toshiba’s netbook that it has 10inch display, we must disappoint you with the fact that NB100 has 8.9inch display with resolution of 1024×600 pixels and average viewing angles. This glare type display with LED backlight didn’t make to positive impressions on us but it does its job correctly. The 1024 x 600 screen uses one of Toshiba’s ‘TruBrite’ panels with a glossy high-contrast finish. This makes for crisp and vibrant images when there’s not too much light around, but is otherwise prone to excessive glare. Weight of this netbook is 1.05kg and it is one of the lightest netbooks that we saw so far.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Another negative that becomes immediately obvious when opening the NB100-128 up is that the keyboard has tiny, cramped keys and our favourite bugbear: the right-Shift to the outside of the upward cursor key, just like on the original 7in Eee PC. Somehow, though, Toshiba has managed to make the keyboard even worse, with squishy and occasionally unreliable feedback. Nor is the touchpad much of a step up. It’s quite a bit smaller than the off-black champagne-bordered section suggests and feels just as cramped to use as the keyboard. In a nice touch, Toshiba has made the main left-click button wider than the right one, but goes and spoils it by making both touchpad buttons a little thin and difficult to press.

Port
All up, we found only a few truly noteworthy features on the NB100. Toshiba deserves a tip of the hat for sensibly locating some ports on the rear of the NB100 rather than the sides. The VGA port sits at the far right, to one side of the extended battery booty, allowing plenty of room for the VGA connector and shroud. Ethernet and AC sockets, which you could imagine often being used at the same time, are grouped together on the left. Audio-wise, things take a few steps back again. Not that the speakers on most other netbooks are anything to write home about, but the Asus Eee PC has shown (or made audible, rather) how it can and should be done. Having said that, they’re perfectly adequate for an episode of your favourite TV show and there’s always the option of using headphones.

Performance
At the heart of it all lives the same 1.60GHz Intel N270 Atom processor as found in most other netbooks currently on the market, which is capable of handling everyday tasks but will struggle with things like decoding 720p video and other CPU-intensive tasks. 1GB of memory should be just about enough to keep Windows XP happy, though you will want to avoid heavy multitasking. So as with every netbook we’ve reviewed to date, everyday usage is fine but it obviously won’t keep up with notebooks when the going gets tougher. The 120GB hard drive is average for a netbook, since there are plenty of models on the market that offer 160GB, but then again there are ones that only have 60GB. In terms of networking, Toshiba hasn’t been overly generous. Ethernet is of the non-Gigabit variety, Wi-Fi is only up to 802.11g and Bluetooth is completely absent. One point that’s remarkable is how quiet the NB100-128 stays during use. Most netbooks are fairly silent little things, but the Toshiba is practically inaudible even under load. Despite this, it never gets uncomfortably warm.

Spec
Processor Intel Atom N270 at 1,6 GHz
Chipset Intel 945GSE
Memory 1GB DDR2
HDD [GB] 120
Optical Device none
Graphic Adapter Intel GMA950
Screen 8,9″ (1024×600)
Connectors 3xUSB, VGA, Bluetooth, Wireless 802.11b/g, card reader
Weight 1.05kg

It ‘clear that a system of this type should have a graphic industry to the occasion. For the occasion, the producer has chosen a video card nVidia GeForce GTS 360M, surely also suitable for use in combination with playful titles of last generation. This solution commands a generous 18.4-inch diagonal display and FullHD resolution 1.920×1.080 pixels.

The budget for the Qosmio X500 is particoalrmente push on other sectors. In fact, this model is able to exploit high-capacity hard disk data storage and has a memory of 6 GB. The audio industry is no less leveraging technology Premium Sound. In addition, the system can be equipped with an optical drive for DVD or a Blu-ray. However, the final configuration leaves some margin of choice for the user who may, therefore, model specifications compared to their needs.

As one might expect, the price is very affordable having regard to the technical configuration in the game. For the Toshiba Qosmio X500 must provide a minimum outlay of about $ 1199. The availability in international markets is expected by the end of the month.

Toshiba also announced the launch of the new Qosmio F60. The thinner signed Toshiba multimedia notebook, designed for those who want a high-performance PCs and advanced features. A device for entertainment, unique and beautifully designed. Qosmio F60 will be available by early 2010 in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Qosmio F60 is often only 29.1 mm and weighs 2.7 kg. For those who like to differentiate, the Qosmio F60 has a unique cover that contrasts with bright red lettering silver. Complete this captivating design an elegant black interior with silver palmrest and speaker blacks.

The Qosmio F60 is really different from other products – not only for its design but also for its performance. It provides all the functionality that users require a PC multimedia screen TruBrite HD 15.6”(39.6 cm) with an LED backlight unit provided by high-performance graphics, Blu-ray rewritable drive that supports content DVD or DVD-SuperMulti (DL) software for Toshiba’s Resolution + upconversion; hybrid TV tuner, analog and digital (DVB-T) and integrated TV formats, which supports the most used web camera HD, and Harman Kardon stereo speakers for improved sound quality.

All Toshiba notebooks are compatible with the criteria set by European Directives WEEE and RoHS to reduce ‘environmental impact due to the limited use of lead, mercury and other harmful substances. In addition, Eco Utility Toshiba reduces energy consumption. The Toshiba Qosmio F60 is ENERGY STAR 5.0 certified.