Design and Durability
While the Portege R600 sported a silver aluminum body that felt somewhat flimsy, the R700 trades flash for a sturdier-feeling black magnesium cover. The chrome hinges are plastic, as are the darker gray touchpad buttons. The overall look is somewhat subdued but handsome. Those looking for more flair should opt for the Best Buy-exclusive model, which has a dark blue lid. Weighing 3.2 pounds, the Portege R700 is one of the lightest laptops you’ll find with both a roomy 13-inch display and a built-in optical drive. The pricier 13-inch Sony VAIO Z weighs an even 3 pounds, but the R700 is still easy to take anywhere, measuring a compact 12.4 x 9 x 0.6–1 inches. The R700′s durability extends beyond its magnesium finish. Toshiba used a honeycomb rib structure for the base and palm rest for extra resilience. You also get hard drive protection and a spill-resistant keyboard.

Keyboard
The keyboard uses flat, widely spaced island-style keys. While perfectly usable, the keys are noticeably more rectangular than most, as if they were shortened to save space. Typing is also a little on the clacky side, but not so much as to be a dealbreaker. We do appreciate the large dedicated Page-up, page-down, Home, and End keys along the right side–they’re usually relegated to alternate function keys on most laptops. Our biggest complaint is that the keyboard is not backlit. We’ve seen that feature on other Toshiba laptops in this price range, and it’s always an appreciated extra.

Display and Audio
The R700′s LED-backlit 13.3-inch display (1366 x 768 pixels) is fairly bright and looks less washed out than the 12-inch panel on the R600 series. When we watched a 720p episode of Glee on Fox.com, colors really popped, and we could easily make out wrinkles in Mr. Schuster’s forehead. We noticed just a little bit of visual noise, and viewing angles were narrow. When we streamed Phoenix on Pandora, the twin speakers above the keyboard were loud enough to fill a small room. Still, we wouldn’t go past 75 percent volume; The Killers’ “When You Were Young” sounded harsh when we really cranked it.

Port
The inclusion of a combo eSATA/USB port, HDMI and an SD card slot gives the Portege R700 a big advantage over the MacBook in terms of ports and connections. Even though in some countries the system has an Intel Wireless Display transmitter, it’s a shame the R700 does not come bundled with the Netgear adapter required to wirelessly beam video to your television. The first round of Wireless Display laptops from earlier in 2010 all included the adapter.

Performance
The R700 is in a different league than its predecessor when it comes to performance. That’s because this ultraportable packs a 2.4-GHz Core i5 processor, compared to a relatively wimpy 1.4-GHz Core 2 Duo CPU on the R600 we reviewed in April 2009. The R700 scored a whopping 6,657 in PCMark Vantage, nearly triple the R600. That showing is also more than double the ultraportable notebook average, and it beats the HP EliteBook 2540p (6,002), Fujitsu LifeBook S760 (5,890), and Lenovo ThinkPad X201s (6,106). The only ultraportables we’ve tested recently that surpass the R700 are the ThinkPad X201 (7,050), which has a slightly faster 2.53-GHz Core i5 CPU, and the blazing but much pricier Sony VAIO Z (9,936), which sports dual SSDs and Nvidia graphics.

The NV7915u includes a 2.13GHz Intel Core i3-330M processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a bright 17.3-inch display, and all the checkmark items you’d expect. Gateway also offers other NV-series versions of this laptop based on AMD processors and with smaller screens; if you opt for a model with a 2.2GHz AMD Turion X2 processor, settle for a smaller 15.6-inch screen, and make some other trade-offs, you can pick up a base model for as little as $479. Plus, you can add some color to your computing life—the NV-series machines come in gray, black, red, and blue.

Design
Ever since Gateway rebranded itself as a more fashionable notebook manufacturer, the company has been on a roll in churning out good-looking budget laptops, and the NV7915u is no exception. The glossy NightSky Black lid, with its subtle Honeycomb pattern, isn’t as luxe as something like the HP Envy 15, but neither does it look cheap. However, the lid doesn’t hide fingerprints as well as the Midnight Blue color found on the NV5807u. Other design flourishes include a matte silver hinge with the power button built into the side (like Sony VAIOs), a glossy upper deck, and LED lights and touch-sensitive controls that glow red. At 6.8 pounds, this notebook is not one you’re going to tote around much, but it’s lighter than many desktop replacements. The touch-sensitive controls responded to even the lightest tap. While there are volume controls and a mute button, there are no external controls for multimedia playback. However, there are buttons for Launch Manager, MyBackup (more on that later), disabling the trackpad, and enabling or disabling Wi-Fi. When you tap the Launch Manager button (a bold P above the keyboard), you can configure the notebook to automatically launch an application of your choosing the next time you press the button.

Keyboard & Touchpad
The keyboard has a unique look and feel with its wide, flat keys. We found typing to be comfortable; the keys are quiet with perfect travel. A dedicated number pad is integrated seamlessly to the right of the keyboard. Above the keyboard is a row of touch-sensitive keys. It includes standard buttons such as volume controls, turning on and off wireless, and locking the touch pad, and a programmable launch key for opening a file, folder, Web site, or application, and another button that launches software for backing up files. Play, pause, rewind, and fast-forward are mapped to the Function keys.

The touch pad is recessed slightly and offers a pleasing matte finish. It also offers multitouch support, so you can, for example, swipe two fingers to scroll down Web pages, swipe two fingers sideways to jump forward and back in your browser, and zoom in and out by pulling apart or pushing together two fingers. We don’t like the thin, indented border that frames the touch pad; it looks like a spot were dust and dirt could collect. We also don’t like the mouse buttons–or button, as it were. Instead of two separate mouse buttons, the Gateway VN7915u features a single bar below the touch pad. For starters, it’s too thin; we kept hitting the space below it when attempting to click. It’s also wider than the touch pad, which looks odd, and you have to be diligent to hit the right or left side of it to make a corresponding mouse click. We found our thumb constantly hitting the middle of the bar, which does nothing but frustrate.

Display and Sound
The NV7915u’s 17.3-inch, 1600 x 900-pixel display was bright and crisp. While streaming Ghostbusters from Hulu, we noticed nice contrast between blues and reds in addition to rich, deep blacks. While images didn’t reverse colors until we were viewing the screen at extreme angles, its glossy finish kicked back a good number of reflections. The NV7915u’s stereo speakers delivered very good quality and more than adequate bass when we streamed John Mayer’s “Why Georgia” from Pandora. When cranked to its maximum settings, the volume was more than loud enough for movie watching, and we ended up scaling it back to around the medium setting.

Ports
You won’t find many surprises with the ports, which are average for a budget system. They include a five-format card reader, four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and VGA ports, and headphone and mic jacks. Connectivity is provided via 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet, as well as a modem for those desperate times when one must resort to dial-up. As for other hardware, there’s also a built-in Webcam. (It performed well, even in low-light situations.) And on the right side is an 8x dual-layer DVD writer. Unfortunately, Gateway says a Blu-ray-drive option is not in the cards, which is too bad because one would have complemented the huge screen well.

Performance
Armed with a 2.13-GHz Intel Core i3-330M processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium, the NV7915u delivers strong performance. Its PCMark Vantage score of 4,907 is about 400 points above the desktop replacement category average, and just 90 points below the Toshiba Satellite P505-S8010, which uses the same processor but is $300 more expensive. The NV7915u’s 5,400-rpm, 500GB hard drive transferred a 4.97GB mixed media folder at a rate of 24.2 MBps. While that’s just 3.3 MBps slower than the category average, its boot time of 1:15 seconds is 9 seconds longer than average. You’ll definitely want to uninstall trialware and get rid of some startup programs. Anecdotally, we didn’t experience any lag as we switched between tabs in Internet Explorer (one of which was Gmail, sending attachments). We were also easily able to move back and forth between open windows on the desktop while playing music, including Windows Explorer and the Control Panel.

Design
The design of the HP Pavilion dv5t is simply beautiful. It is sleek and ultramodern, with tasteful accents. The entire notebook is streamlined, and no matter what angle you look at it, it looks great. This notebook has a “soft” design with all corners rounded off. Looking at the side of the notebook, the backside is a semicircle, and the front curves up like the bow of a boat. When the display is shut, the back of the notebook has a raked look to it, which is appealing. The display only has one large hinge, which adds to the sleek look. The chassis is relatively thin, at 1.37 – 1.65 inches thick.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The dv5t’s backlit, chiclet-style keyboard isn’t just attractive, it’s also comfortable. Resting our fingers on the soft keys felt natural, even if the right Shift key is undersized (we couldn’t tell while touch typing). Although it wasn’t distracting, we could see and feel the keyboard panel move beneath our fingers as we typed. Still, we scored a decent 81 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, and quickly raised our score to 88 wpm after some more hands-on time.

Touchpads have recently been HP’s Achilles’ heel, and the dv5t is no exception. When we first started using it, the surface felt smooth, and the two integrated touch buttons were easy to press. In fact, we still like the giant button and the satisfying click it makes, but the touchpad became frustrating to use. Often, we would bring the cursor close to where we wanted to click, and then it would suddenly feel sluggish, making subtle movements with the cursor take effort. The touchpad also supports multitouch gestures, although pinching two fingers to zoom is considerably easier than panning back out.

Screen
With the introduction of the HP Pavilion dv5 series notebooks, HP is finally offering high-resolution displays. The dv5t is currently offered with a WXGA or WSXGA+ resolution. The WXGA screen (1280 x 800 resolution) is what most 15.4-inch notebooks in stores have, and the most common resolution on 15.4-inch notebooks. The WSXGA+ display (1680 x 1050 resolution) is what my notebook has. It has 42% more viewable space than the WXGA display, which is the reason I chose it. Higher-resolution screens allow you to see more and scroll less. For example, if I view a large web page, I could see 42% more content on the WSXGA+ display than on the WXGA display. Another example- while viewing a high-resolution picture, I can see 42% more detail on the WSXGA+ display than on the WXGA. WSXGA+ makes it possible to use larger windows side by side; you would be hard-pressed to practically view two spreadsheets side-by-side with a WXGA display, but with the high-resolution WSXGA+, it is more than possible (you could do it without shrinking the windows too much).

HP offers two display finishes in addition to the resolutions – the standard BrightView or the BrightView Infinity. The Brightview display has the standard glossy finish that nearly all new consumer notebooks come with. The Infinity display is a new option introduced on the dv5 series notebooks. The Infinity display is basically a large piece of clear plastic over the entire display. It makes the display look like it has no borders. I have the Infinity finish on my notebook. While it makes the notebook look sleeker and more modern, it does increase the amount of reflections over a standard glossy finish. I personally do not mind the reflections. If you are used to a regular glossy display, the Infinity display is not that different in glossiness. I would choose the Infinity display again, since it makes the notebook look sleeker.

Ports and Webcam
The dv5t’s ports include three USB ports, one of which doubles as an eSATA port for high-speed transfers; HDMI and VGA output for connecting to high-def and standard-def displays; an Ethernet jack; and headphone and mic ports. It also has a 5-in-1 memory card reader. Pretty standard for a consumer notebook. The VGA webcam won’t deliver sharp photos or videos thanks to its low 640 x 480 resolution. They were brightly lit, which someone on the other end of your video calls will appreciate, but the colors were off. Specifically, there was a bluish tint across the entire picture; even our black sweater appeared navy. In general, image quality was noisy.

HP’s MediaSmart Webcam software offers an easy interface in which you can click thumbnails to review photos and videos you recently shot, as well as add fun special effects. The sound quality was also excellent: we didn’t hear any echoes, and even when we moved farther away from the notebook it was still easy to hear us.

Operating System & Software
HP offers 32- and 64-bit versions of Vista on the dv5t. Home Premium is standard, while Ultimate is available as an upgrade. I have Home Premium 32-bit on my machine. I went with 32-bit because some of the devices I use do not have 64-bit drivers. HP unfortunately pre-loads a good deal of bloatware into the factory hard drive image. Upon receiving the notebook, I immediately wiped the drive and did a clean install of Vista using orev’s excellent Clean Install Guide in the forums. This allowed me to start with a fresh install of the operating system and drivers only.

Performance
Our configuration of the dv5t had a 2.26-GHz Intel Core i5 430M CPU, 4GB of RAM, 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium, and a 7,200-rpm, 500GB hard drive. For the most part, this combination proved powerful: the notebook scored 5,725 on PCMark Vantage (a Windows benchmark), which is 1,700 points higher than the average thin-and-light. For its specs, though, the dv5t’s performance is right on the money. The $849 Dell Studio 15, which has the same configuration save for its discrete graphics and lack of a Blu-ray drive, scored an almost identical 5,735. The $829 Samsung R580, which also has identical specs (including a Blu-ray drive) except for a slower 5,400-rpm hard drive, scored even higher (5,804).

The dv5t’s 7,200-rpm hard drive transferred a 4.97GB mixed media file at a rate of 28.8 MBps, while the average notebook in this class does so at a slower rate of 23.4 MBps (the Studio 15 managed a similar 28.3 MBps). Still, the hard drive couldn’t make the notebook boot quickly; its startup time of 1:18 seems sluggish when you consider that the average notebook this size can be up and running within 56 seconds (even the Gateway NV59C09u, which has a slower 5,400-rpm hard drive, booted in 1:03).

The dv5t didn’t hiccup when we ran a full scan using Norton Internet Security in the background while streaming music through Slacker and jumping between open tabs in IE8. As we said about HP’s new Pavilion dm4, however, sometimes this fast laptop felt slower than it should have, thanks to the dragging cursor. We also saw the spinning Windows circle a lot, even when trying such tasks as minimizing our Norton scan or ending a video capture in MediaSmart Webcam. When it came down to more intense crunching, the notebook transcoded a 114MB MPEG-4 file to AVI in 1 minute flat, just 3 seconds faster than the average thin-and-light.

Style
The HP EliteBook 2540p is actually billed as an ultraportable business notebook, consequently corporations — and many buyers — anticipate a superior quality associated with materials, superb functions as well as an innovative design. HP’s other EliteBook notebooks fulfill or even exceed those anticipation, however how about the littlest member of the EliteBook loved ones? The main physique of the EliteBook 2540p is covered within the brand new “HP DuraCase” and “HP DuraFinish,” which is essentially a tough plastic material and strong the mineral magnesium metal inner shell – similar its forerunner — and strengthened by a brushed metal external spend that actually resists scratching through steel wool. The base of internet connected computers seems very strong as well as would definitely endure protrusions and bruises that other laptop computers may not. There’s absolutely no bend in the solid keyboard set. The bottom of the notebook can also be likewise rigorous as well as strong along with just a tiny amount of flex in the region instantly underneath the notebook’s eye drive.

The external spend from the display casing is actually metal, but the inner screen bezel is actually plastic. Unlike the actual 15-inch EliteBook 8540p all of us previously examined, the display cover flexes somewhat whenever significant stress is applied to the biggest market of the cover. However it is nevertheless much stronger than we usually see upon other top quality 12-inch company notebooks. Whenever HP states how the EliteBook 2540p was designed “to fulfill the actual army requirements (MIL-STD 810F) with regard to high/low temperatures and dirt,” these people mean the actual notebook should withstand many years of make use of as well as abuse. With all this particular rugged durability included in the design, you have to anticipate a trade-off, which in this case is actually weight. Some 12-inch business class notebooks suggestion the actual scale from three lbs or even less. The EliteBook 2540p has a starting weight of 3.38 pounds with a 6-cell electric battery, but the added durability more than comprises for a small pounds improve. Lastly, just as that the gray as well as african american outside and sleek style fits an expert atmosphere, so do the actual internals. The EliteBook 2540p uses 3 simple plastic covers about the bottom of the notebook (every locked in place with Phillips head screws) so the hard drive, cellular cards as well as Ram tend to be readily available with regard to quick updates. There’s a 4th small expansion slot include on the bottom of the notebook, that is for the dedicated Bluetooth greeting card. The remainder of the actual notebook interior is actually protected through Torx screws that should deter employees through playing around within their work-issued notebooks.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The secrets about the 2540p tend to be coated within HP’s DuraKey coating, which makes them scratch-resistant as well as allows for a nice, gritty finish. We were able to kind quickly, matching the all-time greatest score of eighty-eight words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing Check. However, we found the layout to be a little flat, whereas the X201s’ keys possess a chunkier feel that appeals in order to contact typists.

Whilst company users will value using a directing stick, we are not really fans of its concave form. We choose the somewhat convex TrackPoint upon Lenovo’s Thinkpad line. Nonetheless, all of us could move the actual cursor over the desktop along with fairly subtle actions, and we never experienced as though all of us didn’t have total control. The corresponding buttons, that have the rubbery complete, tend to be easy—but not really as well easy—to press. Actually, we quickly came to prefer while using pointing stick to the touchpad, especially because the touchpad measures a little two.7 by 1.four inches.

Features
The actual EliteBook 2540p offers an excellent port selection, however depending on the design configuration, your choices can alter. For example the design with no built-in eye drive includes a two.5-inch hard drive and an extra Hardware port.

Durability and Protection
In addition to the the mineral magnesium metal casing, scratch-resistant areas, as well as spill-resistant keyboard set, the 2540p had been examined in accordance with army specifications (MIL-STD 810G), which includes a drop check through several feet, amongst others tests. HP states the actual notebook can also endure up to 300 pounds associated with stress. Protection features include the finger marks reader, and also a 3d accelerometer that parks the hard disk head any time a fall. The actual 2540p additionally comes with a host associated with HP-branded protection tools, including HP Extra Key, which will help you get back to the computer in the event that you have forgotten your password, and also the Disk as well as File Sanitizer utilities.

Overall performance and Benchmarks
Program overall performance was excellent as well as over what you may expect to observe when compared with thin and gentle notebooks available on the market right now. The actual HP EliteBook 2540p as well as Lenovo Thinkpad X201 tend to be the smallest ‘ninja-like’ notebooks available today. All of us used the Thinkpad X201s for comparison since it gets the same Core i7-640LM processor chip. The actual quicker X201 would be equivalent to the base design 2540p, that has the quicker Core i5-540m processor chip and a 7200RPM 2.5-inch hard disk. Each versions master offering desktop-level performance in every method except 3-D performance. The actual Apple company GMA Hd images is preferable to previous generations but nonetheless lags at the rear of a dedicated images card.

The Core i7-640LM can certainly decode 720P or even 1080P video, play Hd Expensive as well as encoded films in i-tunes. The only system overall performance complaint that we found was the actual rather sluggish 1.8-inch hard disk in designs that include a good optical drive. The model i was sent for evaluate utilized a New laptop drive that peaked just below 50MB/s. Users looking for higher amounts of overall performance should probably opt for the non-optical drive set up that lets you use a standard 2.5-inch drive or configure the actual program having a SSD.

Design
The Elitebook 6930P is exactly what they intended it to be – a sturdy, rugged and portable business notebook. At dimensions of 13.0 x 9.6 x 1.2 inches, it is much more compact than other notebooks of its class, however it is a bit bigger than the Dell Latitude E6400, its main opponent. It weighs about 5.2 pounds which makes it very light and portable compared to others. It features a brushed metal design which is both tough and elegant and exudes a rugged feel. It has a anodized aluminium lid with a magnesium alloy chassis which provide a very strong shell to the notebook. It can easily survive some drops and bumps and emerge unscathed.

Keyboard
One handy little extra is a keyboard light which pops up above the display should you want to type, say, on board a darkened ‘plane. Above the keyboard is a series of touch-sensitive controls for Information, WiFi, Presentation, Mute and a Volume slider, while to the right of the TouchPad is a fingerprint scanner for extra security. f you need a robust, hard working notebook with a decent sized keyboard, multiple WiFi options, several specifically useful business and security options plus easy to use controls, then it may be worth joining the Elite.

Display and Sound
The 14.1-inch, 1280 x 800-pixel display indeed looked bright when we watched an episode of Mad Men. The matte screen offered versatile viewing angles; we could comfortably watch when we pushed the screen forward, which is good for presenters and frequent flyers, and even at a near 180-degree angle from the sides. The speakers, located on the front underbelly of the notebook, delivered surprisingly loud sound.

Performance :
The HP Elitebook 6930P is powered by a Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.40 GHz processor with 3 MB L2 cache at 1066 MHZ FSB. It is one of the best mobile processors available today and provides a potent mix of power and power efficiency. It comes with 2 GB DDR2 RAM clocked at 800 MHZ which is enough to run most applications and games. If need be, the RAM can be upgraded to 4 GB. It comes with a 160 GB SATA HDD at 5,400 RPM by default, which can be switched with a 7,200 RPM for increased speed performance. You also have a 8X DVD +/- RW bundled with the notebook. Finally, the base 6930P comes with the Intel GMA X4500 onboard graphics solution which can be substituted with a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 256 MB for increased performance for a nominal cost to obtain much better gaming and graphics performance.

It comes loaded with the Microsoft Windows Vista Business operating system. It boots up in about 1.2 minutes. To instantly access your emails, calendar, tasks and contacts, you can use HP’s Quick Look 2 software before the system boots. In Vista, the performance is great and fluid, with no signs of lags or sluggishness at all. The Elitebook 6930P comes loaded with nifty little utilities by HP like QuickLook 2, SpareKey, HP Privacy Manager and HP File Sanitizer which improve the functionality of the notebook greatly.

Design

After churning out umpteen NV notebooks with updated specs but the same design, Gateway has re-thought this line of laptops. Following a trend set by HP and Dell, Gateway ditched its super glossy lid and instead went with a subtly patterned one whose finish has a bit too much kick to be called matte, but is still subdued enough that it’s not reflective. The result is an attractive, more understated surface that masks fingerprints. The lid and palm rest’s silver color and fine pattern of wavy lines should also prove gender-neutral.

Gone, too, are the touch-sensitive multimedia controls above the keyboard. Instead, there’s a thin chrome strip above the keys that houses LED lights for Wi-Fi and battery status, as well as a discreet power button. The multimedia keys are now baked into the top row of the keyboard, as they are on Macs. In addition to multimedia keys, there’s a dedicated button for launching Social Network Service—Gateway’s own dashboard for Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube (more on that later).

The chiclet-style keyboard—basically, Acer’s FineTip design—is new to the NV series, too, although Gateway still fits in a full number pad, something many other 15-inch systems lack. As a result, though, the touchpad is placed left of center, so that it falls in the center of the keyboard, but not the palm rest itself. The NV59C09u feels surprisingly compact at 15 x 10 x 1.3 inches and 5.4 pounds; it weighs the same as the Editors’ Choice–winning HP G62t and is lighter than the minimalist 5.6-pound 15-inch MacBook Pro and older 5.6-pound Gateway NV.

Keyboard & Touchpad

Its full size keyboard uses very large chiclet keys so that mistypes are rare. Like the R580, a full size numeric keypad lies adjacent to the keyboard—great for accountants and number crunchers. The mouse buttons aren’t completely silent, but their resistance is minimal and pleasant to use. The large, gesture-enabled touchpad responded smoothly to pinching and zooming, as well as to one-fingered scrolling. With a smooth, low-friction surface and an easy-to-press touch button to match, this redesigned NV is an improvement over its predecessors.

Display and Sound

When we watched the first Iron Man movie on Blu-ray, the picture looked bright and sharp on the 15.6-inch screen, as did a lower-resolution SNL Digital Short on Hulu. Still, the benefits of having a Blu-ray drive are mostly lost on a 1366 x 768 display. A higher resolution would have been nice, although we suppose that’s a reasonable trade-off to make in a sub-$800 machine. The speaker strip, barely noticeable above the keyboard, produced slightly metallic bass notes when we played “Telephone” by Lady Gaga and “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones.

Ports

With the built-in HDMI port, the NV59C09u can double as a standalone Blu-ray player—all you need is an HDMI cable and an HDTV. It has your standard connectors, such as 3 USB ports, VGA, audio jacks, and Ethernet port. A multimedia card reader (SD, xD, MS, MS Pro, MMC) can be found in the front bezel. The 320GB hard drive is in line with its peers, although the Samsung R580 also gives you 500GB of storage space and an eSATA port for expansion.

Performance

The NV59C09u’s list of specs echo what we’ve seen on lots of budget notebooks lately: a 2.13-GHz Intel Core i3-330M processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 5,400-rpm, 320GB hard drive. In general, it performs better than the average mainstream laptop. Its score of 4,846 in PCMark Vantage, for instance, falls almost 700 points above the average. Then again, the less expensive HP G62t ($599) comes with the same processor and amount of RAM, as well as a larger, faster 7,200-rpm hard drive, and it notched a much better score of 5,306. The Dell Studio 15, which packs a more powerful Core i5 processor and a 7,200-rpm hard drive, also steamrolls the NV with a score of 5,735. The Samsung R580, which has a 2.26-GHz Core i5-430 CPU and 4GB of RAM, bested them all with a score of 5,804.

The NV converted a 114MB MPEg-4 file to AVI in 1 minute and 4 seconds using Oxelon Media Converter, which is faster than average. The machine was powerful enough that we didn’t notice Norton Internet Security running in the background as we watched a Hulu clip at full screen. Meanwhile, its boot time of 1:03 is right on the money in terms of what you can expect of a notebook this size. However, its 5,400-rpm hard drive transferred a 4.97GB mixed media file in 4:51—a rate of 17.5 MBps, which is slower than the mainstream average of 22.5 MBps as well as the Samsung R580’s speed of 26.2 MBps.

A 48WH (6-cell) battery is a very common capacity for laptops in this class. Based on some of these battery scores on MobileMark 2007—the Dell 1564 finished it in 3 hours 29 minutes, the HP dv6-2150us in 3:46, and the Samsung R580 in 3:42—you wouldn’t expect anything more from the NV59C09u. It scored 3 hours 42 minutes. One notable exception is the Asus UL50VF-A1, which ships with a much bigger battery (84WH) and more energy efficient parts, and consequently, scored 8 hours in the same test.

The Gateway NV59C09u seems like a great value if you’re buying it for the Blu-ray drive alone. With any laptop, though, you’ll have to look at the entire picture. Beyond the Blu-ray drive, everything else—a low-end Core i3 processor, integrated graphics, and a plain design—is just average. Even though our Editors’ Choice, the Samsung R580 ($830) is slightly more expensive, there’s just more value.

Design
For a budget system, the MSI A6200 sports a rather classy design. The glossy black lid and palm rest are adorned with subtle gray pinstripes that reminded us of an upscale business suit.  The touchpad, which sits in a concave area of the palm rest, also carries the pattern. The dek and bezel are also made from glossy black plastic, and the front lip of the system carries a tasteful array of status lights in bright blue and green. Unfortunately, all this gloss adds up to a fingerprint magnet.

At 14.7 x 9.7 x 1.2 inches and 5.4 pounds, the MSI A6200 is no ultraportable but it feels surprisingly light for a 15.6-inch notebook with an optical drive. We were able to carry both the notebook and a pile of textbooks around in our bag all day without feeling like we were lifting something heavy. That’s a bit lighter than competitors like the Gateway NV5934U (5.6 pounds) and the Toshiba L505-ES5018 (6 pounds).

Keyboard and Touchpad
Because of its screen’s wide aspect ratio, the A6200 has room for a numeric keypad and plenty of space to stretch out your hands. The island style keyboard has keys with a comfortable matte plastic surface but less tactile feedback than we’d like. On the Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor test we managed to reach 86 words per minute, far better than our usual 80 wpm rate. However, we also had a 3-percent error rate (worse than our typical 1-percent rate), because the keys didn’t snap back at us as forcefully as we like.

The indented touchpad looks very attractive and provided accurate navigation around the desktop. However, it does not support multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom, a feature most modern notebooks now support. The mouse buttons are paired into a single mouse bar, which is less pleasant to click than two discrete buttons, but offers decent feedback.

Heat
During light use the A6200 stayed relatively cool, but when we played a Hulu video at full screen minutes, it got warmer. After 15 minutes of streaming video, the keyboard reached 95 degrees Fahrenheit, the touchpad heated up to 97 degrees, and the bottom warmed up to 95 degrees. We consider temperatures above 95 degrees to be uncomfortable and above 100 degrees disturbing. The Gateway NV5934u, by comparison, had a keyboard that reached 98 degrees and a bottom that measured 100 degrees.

Ports and Webcam
a6200_sh1For a budget system, the MSI A6200 does not skimp on ports. On its back side are a Kensington lock slot, a VGA-out connection, HDMI port, and two USB ports. Having those connections on the back of the notebook is a little odd, and means you have to reach around behind the system when plugging in devices. The left side contains an Ethernet port, a 4-in-1 memory card reader, audio in/out jacks, and an ExpressCard 54 slot. The right side has one more USB port, for a total of three.

The 1.3-megapixel webcam offered mediocre quality images in normal lighting conditions.  In extreme low light, we were able to get a clear, though largely colorless picture. But when we turned on a light source behind us in an otherwise dim room, the picture got worse as our face became extremely dark in comparison to the background.  When conducting a Skype call, images were sharp but a little jerky.

Performance
The MSI A6200’s 2.13-GHz Intel Core i3 M330 CPU allowed it to get reasonable performance scores that were slightly above the mainstream notebook category average and similar to those offered by other sub-$600 15 and 14-inch consumer notebooks. On PCMark Vantage, a synthetic benchmark that measures overall performance, the A6200 scored a respectable 4,191, which is more than 300 points higher than the category average and far better than the 3,531 turned in by the Toshiba Satellite L505-ES5018. The Core i3-powered Dell Inspiron 14 (4,720) and Gateway NV5934U (4,248) had slightly higher scores, while the HP G62t (5,306) did much better.

Design

Ever since Gateway rebranded itself as a more fashionable notebook manufacturer, the company has been on a roll in churning out good-looking budget laptops, and the NV7915u is no exception. The glossy NightSky Black lid, with its subtle Honeycomb pattern, isn’t as luxe as something like the HP Envy 15, but neither does it look cheap. However, the lid doesn’t hide fingerprints as well as the Midnight Blue color found on the NV5807u. Other design flourishes include a matte silver hinge with the power button built into the side (like Sony VAIOs), a glossy upper deck, and LED lights and touch-sensitive controls that glow red. At 6.8 pounds, this notebook is not one you’re going to tote around much, but it’s lighter than many desktop replacements.

The touch-sensitive controls responded to even the lightest tap. While there are volume controls and a mute button, there are no external controls for multimedia playback. However, there are buttons for Launch Manager, MyBackup (more on that later), disabling the trackpad, and enabling or disabling Wi-Fi. When you tap the Launch Manager button (a bold P above the keyboard), you can configure the notebook to automatically launch an application of your choosing the next time you press the button.

Display
The Gateway NV7915u has a massive chassis and weighs 6.8 pounds. The classy design offers some nice touches, however. In contrast to the smudge-prone glossy finish on the outside, the keyboard and wrist rest have a subtle matte finish. Above the keyboard is a row of status lights (Bluetooth, hard-drive access, etc) as well as touch-sensitive LED’s that let you activate data backup, Wi-Fi toggle, touch pad disable, mute and volume control. THe NV7915u also comes with a good but not spectacular set of interface and media features: a DVD drive, four USB ports, HDMI- and VGA-out, an SD card reader and network and modem ports.

The huge 17.3 inch screen is almost intimidating. It’s large enough for you to multitask effectively and view program windows side by side, which is a big plus for the Gateway laptop. The even brightness and good contrast make text very readable, but it’s not as sharp as on some of the best laptops. The widescreen format is also good for watching movies, but the nonstandard 1600 by 900 resolution may not look so good when you connect it to a monitor or HDTV. The home-theatre video performance will depend heavily on the scaling properties of your AV receiver and HDTV. The NV7915u has a solid screen, but it’s not worth making it the home-theatre.

Keyboard and Trackpad
The keys on the NV7915u are flat, but close together. Even with a full number pad on the right-hand side, the keys were still large enough for us to type comfortably without making typos. The keys’ subtle textured finish made it easy to get a grip, too. At 1.8 inches, the touchpad could be taller, but at least its 3.3-inch width feels roomy. As far as touchpads go, the NV7915u’s feels smooth and doesn’t offer too much friction. On the other hand, although its mirrored design is appealing, we found the mouse bar uncomfortable; it’s a single button, and the strip is too narrow. It took us a while to get used to pressing the far edges of the bar to get better tactile feedback.

Performance
Gateway NV7915u The parts aren’t top of the line, but at least Gateway isn’t giving you a Celeron or Pentium equivalent. An Intel Core i3-330M processor is very respectable in terms of speed, right behind the Core i5s and the Core i7s. In video encoding tests, it fell 7-8 seconds shy of the Dell 1764 (5955IBU) (0:50) and HP dv7-3183cl (0:49), both of which run on a Core i5-430M processor. The NV7915u did really well in PCMark Vantage tests (5,182), breaking the 5,000 mark. All of the systems that run on Intel’s latest Core processor will ship with DDR3 memory only, and most of them run on 4GB—the NV7915u is no exception.

Unfortunately, the price of the NV7915u will only net you an integrated graphics chipset. But if you’re not a serious gamer or a CAD specialist, this isn’t a big concern. Pricier systems like the Acer AS8940-6865 and HP dv7-3183cl ship with Nvidia discrete graphics cards, which are known for their 3D prowess. Regardless of price, battery life will be underwhelming, because the sheer size of the screen eats up a lot of it. The NV7915u scored 3 hours 32 minutes, which fell in line with the HP dv7-3183cl (3:36) and Dell 1764 (5955IBU) (3:01). The size of the battery is important, too. But if you want to maximize battery life, you only have one option with the NV7915u: a 48WH (6-cell) battery. Meanwhile, the Dell 1764 (5955IBU) has an option for bigger batteries.

Gateway may not be the big household name it used to be, but it undercuts the competition without making too many sacrifices. The Gateway NV7915u runs on the latest line of Intel processors, comes with a 500GB hard drive, and has plenty of screen real estate—all this for only $600. It’s hard to complain, but if your budget is a little bigger, check out the Acer Aspire AS8940 series.

Specs

Price $599
Processor 2.13GHz Intel Core i3 M330
Memory 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz
Hard drive 500GB, 5,400rpm
Chipset Intel HM55
Graphics Intel GMA HD
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium
Dimensions (WDH) 16.2 x 11.0 x 1.4 inches
Screen size (diagonal)     17.3 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter     6.9 / 7.8 pounds
Category Desktop replacement

Samsung’s R580 has an heir. The gaming suitable 15.6 incher of mid 2009 combined good graphic performance with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 and a feasible processor performance with an Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 (2.0 GHz) together in an affordable notebook. The R522 was priced around 650 euro in the summer of 2009.

Intel’s new mobile processor generation, Core i3, i5 and i7, found their way onto the wish lists of notebook buyers at the turn of the year 2009/2010. Numerous tests quickly revealed that a mobile Core i5 has the best value for money ratio. The Core i7s are more expensive for OEM manufacturers in procurement and ultimately don’t provide private customers with significantly more performance. Additionally, the quad-core i7′s battery life is considerably shorter than the one of the dual-core i5.

The mobile Core i5, in combination with a middle class graphic card, should exactly meet the wishes of many notebook buyers: An efficient system for multimedia requirements on which many current games run smoothly. All of this should cost a lot less than 1000 euro. Samsung has chosen the Core i5-520M beside Nvidia’s GeForce GT 330M and places them in a red case for a bit more than 800 euro. Does the manufacturer manage to hit the bullseye with the R580 Hawk?

Design

Shiny laminates featuring geometric patterns or floral designs on laptops are nothing new. While others, like HP, Gateway, and Toshiba, went with a single color, the R580 uses two: A deep cherry red stain in the center that fades into a thick black border. Embedded in the cherry/black glaze is a ripple pattern, which, altogether, Samsung is calling its Crystal Wave design. Though the material used is as plasticky as the HP Pavilion dv6-2150us and Gateway NV7915u, the R580 stands out from the crowd. Even so, metal frames, like those found in the Asus UL50VF-A1 and the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch, are more appealing from a design standpoint. At 5.5 pounds, it’s lighter than the Dell Studio 1555-4285MBU (5.9 lbs) and the Acer Aspire AS5740-6378 (5.7 lbs).

The 15.6-inch widescreen provides plenty of viewing space. Its price, though, limits the R580 to a 1,366-by-768 resolution, which is good enough for a 720p HD experience. Media centers like the Acer Aspire AS8940-6865 bump the resolution up to 1,920-by-1,080 for full (1080p) HD, while pricier systems like the HP Envy 15 ($1,800 direct, ) give you the option to upgrade to a full HD resolution. The island-style keyboard is nearly identical to the Asus UL50VF-A1, right down to the adjacent numeric keypad. It doesn’t have a backlit keyboard like the Apple MacBook Pros, but there are LED lights on the corner of the touchpad. The mouse buttons are easy to click, though they aren’t as soft as the ones found on the Dell 1555-4285MBU.

The Blu-ray drive (BD-Rom) is the showpiece of the R580′s feature set. I’ve scoured the Web for the 15-inch systems that have Blu-ray drives, and almost all of them cost more than $1,000. Fact is, Blu-ray titles are coming down in price and you can rent them for as low as $6 a month on Netflix. And if a 15.6-inch screen isn’t big enough, you can use the included HDMI port and take the experience to a bigger display. The 500GB hard drive is also impressive, given that the Asus UL50VF-A1, Acer AS5740, and HP dv6-2150us come with 320GB drives. And basic amenities like 4 USB port (one of which doubles as an E-SATA connection), ExpressCard, an SD slot, and VGA are all present.

Keyboard & Touchpad

As in the R522 predecessor, Samsung applies a chiclet keyboard. The keys are connected by crosspieces. The key gaps have been increased, as Samsung has selected an alternative without a key base. The keys bid the typist a pleasant, distinct pressure point, a long stroke length, and a firm stroke. The keyboard is embedded firmly on almost the entire surface; merely the numerical block yields slightly. The large gaps and the well-executed layout simplify the frequent typist’s work. The numerical block makes it easy to input columns of figures.

We don’t like the squeezed in, too small arrow keys, though. In computer games, as well as Excel, it often results in fingers hitting the “one” or the shift key. If you’re controlling a car race game, you’ll quickly get annoyed.

The mouse substitute is worked into the wrist-rest. A nonslip, transparent coating marks the sensitive surface. Four small blue LEDs light up as soon as we touch the pad so that it can’t be missed in dim surroundings. If you like, you can imagine these to be the lights of a runway. The surface has a vertical and horizontal scroll bar, even if it’s not been made optically visible. It is a multi-touch pad that recognizes two finger gestures. For example, the user can zoom by spreading two fingers on it. The keys click quietly but somewhat clattery and therefore make a low-end impression.

Performance

Samsung R580 The Blu-ray drive is just part of the R580′s appeal. Offering it at this price with the latest Intel Core i5 processor is a feat few can pull off. The 2.27 GHz Core i5-430M processors and 4GB of memory are a solid combination, matching that of the Acer AS5740. According to video encoding (49 seconds) and Cinebench R10 (7,824) tests, the R580 blew away the Core i3 processors found in the HP dv6-2150us and Dell Inspiron i1464-4382OBK ($749.98 list, ). Its PCMark Vantage score (5,779) took top honors, while Photoshop CS4 scores indicate that this is a perfect machine for advanced photo editing.

While an Intel integrated graphics chipset is the popular standard among affordable laptops, Samsung goes against the grain by including an Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics chip. Not only will this chip optimize Blu-ray and HD playback, but it can also muscle through the latest 3D games. Crysis and World in Conflict scores were indicative of a smooth gaming experience, and 3DMark06 scores overtook those of the UL50VF-A1.

The disadvantage, however, of building a laptop around power is that battery life takes a beating. The R580 comes with a 48WH (6-cell) battery, which is consistent with its rivals. A 3 hour, 42 minute MobileMark 2007 score may not seem like much, but remember, this is a desktop replacement laptop that will probably sit near a power outlet most of the time.

The Samsung R580 is the cheapest desktop replacement I’ve seen that bundles a Core i5 processor and a Blu-ray drive. It’s tailor-made for high definition enthusiasts who aren’t ready to pay over a $1,000 for a fancy media center. Aside from some minor tradeoffs (a low resolution and small battery), they won’t matter as much once you realize how much more you’re paying for these amenities elsewhere.

If you asked us in the past if we like HP’s netbooks, we’d tell you, “It depends.” We love the business-focused Mini 5102, for example, because of its great keyboard, sturdy design, and over 10 hours of endurance with its 6-cell battery. But the company’s consumer 10-inch netbooks haven’t measured up to the competition from ASUS, Acer, and Toshiba. HP has put its best foot forward with the Mini 210 ($384 as configured), which takes Intel’s Atom N450 processor and wraps it in a sleek new design with an improved keyboard. This configuration also pairs a high-def screen with Broadcom’s Crystal HD Enhanced Media Accelerator for HD playback. However, this netbook doesn’t last as long on a charge as other Pine Trail netbooks. The bottom also runs warm, and its touchpad requires a bit of a learning curve. Should you make this Mini yours?

Design
The HP Mini 210 is a netbook with better than usual styling and design. It feels almost futuristic with its textured lid and base, edge-to-edge glossy screen and concealed touchpad buttons. Furthermore it has no annoyingly visible and extremly bright status lights – it’s almost stealth-like in this regard. The power, hard drive and battery indicator lights can be found on the sides. The Wi-Fi, caps lock, mute and ‘touchpad disabled’ lights are visible on the top of the system, but only when these features are enabled. Even the panel on the base of the HP Mini 210 netbook seems futuristic: you don’t have to use any tools to remove it in order to get to the single memory slot and 2.5in hard drive bay. Simply remove the battery, press the release buttons and pop off the cover with your fingernails. Admittedly it can be a little difficult to remove and at times it feels like the plastic clips that hold the panel in place might snap, but if you’re slow and careful they won’t. The bottom panel of the HP Mini 210 doesn’t have any vents and it is one single piece of plastic. To keep cool, the internal components rely on an air intake vent on the right side and an exhaust vent on the left through which the small system fan pushes out the accumulated warm air. When you use it on your lap – even after a short amount of time – the vents can get blocked and it gets noticeably warm around the hard drive and CPU areas. This becomes uncomfortable after a short while and it’s not a good thing for a notebook that’s designed to be highly mobile and used on a lap.

Features
The exterior of the Mini 210 is so nice that it’s rather disappointing to discover that underneath the exterior lies a rather plain netbook recipe. Windows 7 Starter edition sits on top of an Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz, 1GB of RAM and an Intel GMA 3150 graphics solution. The display screen is a 10.1-inch 1024×600 LCD panel, same as pretty much every other vendor. Wireless is supported, but it’s only 802.11b/g. Officially HP sells five variants on the Mini 210. There’s the entry-level AU$449 1015TU model, and then five models at an AU$599 price point; the 1016TU, 1017TU, 1018TU and 1020TU. The difference between the top tier models is only in the colour of the lid (Black, White, Red and Blue respectively), but the difference between the sole AU$449 model and the AU$599 models lies in storage, power and integrated Bluetooth. The AU$449 model comes with a 160GB hard drive, no Bluetooth and a three-cell battery. The AU$599 models bump that up to a 250GB hard drive, integrated Bluetooth and a six-cell battery. We tested with the 1020TU, which is the model with the blue casing. Aside from Windows 7 Starter, HP also offers up a quick launch operating system based on Splashtop Linux OS. Being HP, it’s subtly re-branded as “HP QuickWeb” and offers a near instantaneous boot for simple web browsing, music playback, photo browsing, Skype and chat applications. If you don’t like Splashtop it’s easily disabled from within either QuickWeb or Windows 7.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Here’s an instance where we’re glad a notebook maker borrowed design elements from the business side of the house. Like the Mini 5102, the island-style keys of the Mini 210 have a rubber-like matte coating that offered a pleasant tactile feel. Due to its nearly edge-to-edge footprint, the keyboard felt nice and roomy, and we were able to reach our normal typing speed and error rate right away. We appreciated the snappy return, proper placement, and sizing of the keys, even along the edges. As with other HP systems, the Function keys along the top row are reversed so that users have one-touch access to multimedia controls, volume, brightness, the wireless toggle, and more. Generally speaking, we’re not fans of touchpads with integrated touch buttons, but the Mini 210 is one of the better implementations we’ve used on a netbook. The 3.1 x 1.8-inch clickpad fills up as much vertical space as possible, jutting right up against the keyboard above it. We encountered a little more resistance than we’d like when navigating the desktop, but the integrated buttons worked well, offering solid feedback. Nevertheless, we continue to prefer the discrete touchpad and buttons on the Toshiba mini NB305. Multitouch gestures were smooth, though there aren’t many beyond two-finger scroll and pinch-to-zoom. When typing, we didn’t find ourselves accidentally brushing the touchpad (even though it’s so close to the keys), but users prone to this issue can adjust the sensitivity in the mouse properties or double tap the dot on the upper left corner to disable the touchpad altogether.

Display
The screen has a native resolution of 1024×600 and it’s bright enough to use outdoors and indoors with the lights on. It has a glossy plastic pane that extends from edge to edge. This will reflect light, which will possibly infuriate you while you try to view photos and videos. It has a webcam at the top as well as a microphone and two concealed Wi-Fi antennea. The netbook’s lid is strong and the hinges hold it perfectly in place.

Ports & Webcam
The Mini 210 has a typical spread of ports for a netbook: VGA, USB and headphone/mic combo ports on the left; Ethernet, 5-in-1 memory card reader, Kensington lock slot, and the remaining two USB ports on the right. We like that the right USB ports sit closer to the back of the system, keeping connected devices out of our way. HP bundled the Mini 210 with ArcSoft’s WebCam Companion 3, which not only allows users to record video and take pictures, but also to edit and upload them to YouTube or Snapfish directly from the program. The webcam delivered acceptable image quality when chatting over Skype, though the output was somewhat grainy. A quick adjustment of the hue setting resulted in truer colors, and upping the contrast produced richer images. Unfortunately, each time we moved our Skype companion we noticed blur, regardless of how fast or slow we were. It wasn’t distracting, but it was

Performance
The Mini 210′s physical build ensures a pleasant computing experience for the most part. Like most thinner netbooks, heat build-up can be an issue. Likewise, in common with other six-cell models, the bulky battery juts out of the back at an angle that can be a little uncomfortable on the lap, but these are minor quibbles. The keyboard response is excellent with well spaced keys and a responsive clickable touch-pad. Atom processors and PCMark05 haven’t always behaved well together in previous tests, and this was exactly the case with the Mini 210 which crashed the test suite repeatedly. Based on simple application testing and the fact that the Mini 210′s innards are quite standard, you can expect a slow performance out of the 210. 3DMark06 did complete, but its score of 155 puts it solidly in the Solitaire-only camp. We ran the Mini 210 through our standard battery testing regime. This involves switching screen brightness to maximum, disabling all power-saving features entirely and setting a looping XviD file to run to the point of battery exhaustion. It’s a test that’s designed to be brutal and give a “worst-case” battery life scenario. In actual usage — especially with a dimmed screen, less intensive processing and judicious use of Wi-Fi only when needed — you can expect a lot more than we get with this test, which only gives us a base line. The Mini 210′s base line was highly impressive, however, lasting four hours and 45 minutes before conking out. HP has historically placed something of a premium on its netbook designs, so the fact that the RRP of the Mini 210 is in line with the current netbook norm is highly pleasing. Combine that with a great keyboard, instant-on Linux capability and very good battery life and you’ve got an excellent netbook.