Design
At 13.3 x 9 x 1.4 inches and 5 pounds, the Toshiba Satellite M645 is light enough to carry in your bag. Given its short battery life (see below), however, plan on carrying its 0.7-pound power brick anywhere and everywhere you take it. The black chassis has a classy, understated aesthetic. The lid and deck are covered in Toshiba’s Fusion X2, a textured matte finish which looks up close like a tiny series of chains and doesn’t pick up fingerprints at all. The grain felt comfortable under our wrists as we typed and made a pleasant record-scratching sound when we ran our nails across it. The light-gray Fusion X2 finish on the touchpad, island-style keyboard, and touch-sensitive control bar all contribute to the handsome look.

Keyboard & Touchpad
The full-size keyboard with LED backlighting on the M645 features Chiclet-style keys that are responsive and provide a little extra spacing to prevent typos. The keys are large and flat and have a glossy texture that shows smudges from your skin oils over time. There is no noticeable flex unless you apply significant pressure to the keys in the middle of the board. A individual key presses are quiet with virtually no “click-clack” noise while typing; making it an excellent choice for taking notes in a classroom or office meeting room. The keyboard also features dedicated multimedia keys above the keyboard and dedicated home, end, page up and page down keys.

The Synaptics touchpad is a fairly nice with a matte texture that provides smooth cursor movement. The touchpad drivers provide excellent accuracy and minimal lag with a range of options. This is a multi-touch touchpad with customizable gestures and overall this touchpad works exactly like you want a touchpad to work. However, the touchpad buttons have very shallow feedback with moderately loud clicks when you press the buttons.

Port
The standard notebook assembly of m645 includes a DVD- drive, which can be updated to Blu-ray. We note the presence of wiFi module, gigabit ethernet port and possibility of wiMAX installation. The cost of base configuration will be $730.

Display and Sound
The Satellite M645′s 14-inch, 1366×768 display provided sharp images and bright colors when viewed head on. However, because its surface is so glossy, images washed out significantly at even 30 degrees to the right or left of center. And if you’re not using full brightness, there’s a good chance you’ll see your own face or the room behind you reflected in the panel.

That said, the Satellite M645 provided smooth, sharp, and noise-free playback of every video we threw at it, from a 1080p WMV file from Microsoft’s HD Showcase to a 720p episode of Fringe we streamed from Fox.com to a DVD of Dark City we played in Toshiba’s upscaling DVD software. In all cases, even dark areas that frequently show pixilation were smooth and colors were bright without looking oversaturated.

With its Harmon / Kardon speakers (powered by Dolby Advanced Audio) prominently mounted above the keyboard, the Satellite M645 produced the best audio we’ve ever heard from a mainstream notebook. When listening to a live version of the Jimi Hendrix classic “Machine Gun,” we could hear a clear separation between the drums coming from one speaker and the guitar from the other, giving us the illusion that we were sitting in the front row of a concert. This sound separation was even more apparent when we listened to the jazz standard “Morning Dance” by Spyro Gyra, which includes many more instruments. At maximum volume, the sound wasn’t overpowering but was loud enough to fill a medium-size room. Best of all, there was not even a hint of the distortion or tininess we normally experience on notebook speakers.

Performance
The Toshiba Satellite M640/M645 offers solid overall performance thanks to the combination of its Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and Nvidia graphics. The Intel Core i5 450Mprocessor is one of the nicer Core i5 processors currently on the market and provides a nice little boost over other 14-inch laptops equipped with slower Core i3 and i5 processors. Honestly, the Toshiba Satellite M645 is one of the best performing 14-inch notebooks we’ve reviewed.

The Nvidia GeForce 330M graphics are similar to the discrete graphics found in the popular Alienware M11x, so the Satellite M645 is a perfectly capable gaming machine. Well, with a few minor annoyances. First, the slow hard drive that I previously mentioned adds several lengthy delays during level and map load times in games. Second, in-game frame rates were sometimes a little slower when playing games like Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins … but the difference was only a few frames per second. Since the Toshiba has a faster CPU, I can only assume that the marginally worse gaming performance is due to the slow drive and the lack of gaming optimization found in Alienware notebooks.

Regardless, the Satellite M645 can still handle most modern games at the native 1366×768 screen resolution and thanks to Nvidia Optimus technology this notebook automatically switches between the Intel integrated graphics (for extended battery life) and the Nvidia dedicated graphics (for better video and gaming performance). You don’t have to worry about pressing any extra buttons to get the best out of this laptop.

Design

Aesthetically, there’s a lot going on with the GT660. Almost too much. Unlike the GT725 and GT627, which lacked the audacious flair of most gaming notebooks, it seems like MSI pulled together as many cool-looking elements as they could while still keeping the GT660 below two grand. So it’s got some funky cuts along the edges and a glossy, beveled lid complete with glowing MSI logo.

Under the hood you start to notice how busy the GT600 looks. There’s a mix of matte and glossy–though the latter dominates–and the piano black of the display bezel and top of the deck fades into a glossy slate color, which then turns into a textured honeycomb pattern on the palm rest surrounding the touchpad.

Two speakers ringed in red sit on the left and right of the upper deck, and between them is a control deck outlined in red and chrome with touch-sensitive LEDs. Though MSI claims this element evokes a Knight Rider aesthetic, it reminded us more of Aquaman’s underwear. A light tap activates each function, including enabling or disabling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or the Windows key, and switching between power modes. There’s even a button users can program to launch an oft-used app. A shield-shaped power button sits in the center. Though we found this strip very useful, it picked up fingerprints.

Keyboard & Touchpad

Open up the lid and you’d be greeted with an extended keyboard that includes an alpha-numeric keypad on the right side. It’s a nice addition but if you’re a regular laptop-user, the orientation is confusing that you always tend to hit the wrong keys when typing. One needs some time to get used to the extra keys and learn to familiarize where the Enter button is. The chiclet-type keys are appropriately sized with special color labels on the gaming keys (asdw) and the arrow keys. And while it’s glossy black on the outside, it’s rough and textured in the inside — the palm rest has this honeycomb finish and the trackpad feels like sand-paper and is somewhat flushed to the left. The left and right click buttons are not separated but shaped accordingly to differentiate the two.

The touchpad is pretty big–3.2 x 1.9 inches–but it could be even larger if the designers had used more of the available space. The slightly rough touch surface and mouse button has a thick chrome outline that flows down into a chevron shape. Under the single mouse button are status indicators for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Battery, Sleep, and the hard drive are appreciated. Plus, our fingers kept naturally gravitating to the bottom edge of the notebook where the mouse buttons usually sit. On this system they’re higher, which took some getting used to.

Display

The 16-inch display is bright and crisp with a maximum resolution of 1366×768 pixels (I was actually expecting it could be higher, somewhere in the 1600×1200 range, because of the large real estate). The glossy display is also prone to glare in the outdoors and against bright light sources.

Ports and Webcam

MSI was certainly generous with the ports on the GT660. On the left you get two USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, a memory card slot, and an Express Card slot. The Blu-ray drive takes up most of the right edge, leaving room for the other USB port, headphone, mic, audio in and audio out ports. Finally, the eSATA, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet and power ports sit in the center of the notebook’s back edge. The webcam on the GT660 is a surprisingly high-end unit that can capture video in HD: 1280 x 720, 30 fps. Video quality at this size isn’t stunning, but once we adjusted the settings (brightness, hue, saturation, etc.) the resulting images were decent.

Performance

MSI Exclusive TDE+ technology: MSI’s GT660 gaming notebook  is the world’s first NB computer to come with TDE+ technology to enhance both processor and display performance. With MSI’s own TDE+ (Turbo Drive Engine+ technology), you can increase processor, memory, and display chip performance instantly with one touch of the luminescent Turbo hotkey above the keyboard. The power boost gives you crisp response even with resource-hungry graphics applications and more importantly, when you’re slaying orcs or battling baddies on the other side of the galaxy.

Advanced nVIDIA GeForce GTX 285M discrete graphics card: The MSI GT660 gaming laptop comes equipped with nVIDIA’s most advanced GeForce GTX 285M discrete graphics card with 128 3D stream processor and 1GB GDDR3 of display memory and nVIDIA® CUDA™ technology to truly unleash the machine’s image and graphics processing potential, allowing the GT660 to execute such high load tasks as conferencing and ripping with ease. The GeForce GTX 285M discrete graphics card also supports nVIDIA® PhysX™ Technology, introducing you to a whole new world of extreme playing, courtesy of super dynamic and realistic graphics.

Battery

Autonomy is not really the highlight of the GT660. The laptop took 1 hour 46 minutes during our endurance test, despite its new battery cells 9800 mAh. Finally, its size, 16 inches, and weighing 3.46 kg really does not help to nomadism. We therefore speak more portable, but it is the case for all of these machines, apart from some exceptions including Alienware M11x.

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

The N150 Plus (N150-11) makes a good first impression with its glossy lid. It’s an attractive deep red and black with a subtle dot pattern, though it picks up fingerprints in a hurry. (The N150 is also available in multiple colors for less cash, including Bermuda Blue, Gloss Black, Flamingo Pink, Matte Blue, and white). A dark red strip wraps around the sides and front of the machine, reminiscent of the chrome strip on the original NC10.

Under the lid we found a matte deck, bezel, and display instead of a glossy red/black deck. This looks a little dull but eliminates the annoyance of fingerprints. The battery raises the N150 Plus’ chassis about a quarter of an inch in the back, making for a comfortable typing angle. Small speaker grills sit just under the front lip of the system. The N150 Plus doesn’t have a power button in the hinge like older Samsung netbooks; instead, you’ll find a flip switch on the front. Unlike the rounded hinge design of the past, the N150 Plus has a turned-up, oblong flair that mitigates the slight bulk of the six-cell battery in the back.

Keyboard & Touchpad

Samsung keyboards have always been one of our favorites among netbooks that have been reviewed. It’s never a hardship to get used to it and you can immediately reach your normal typing speed. It’s got responsive and well-sized keys. The touchpad feels a bit cramped though that needs a little getting used to.

Display & Audio

The N150 Plus’ 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600-pixel LED-backlit matte display offered bright colors and deep blacks despite the lack of a glossy finish. We used the netbook in the sun and didn’t notice any glare. We’re also glad that there were no distracting reflections when watching dark scenes in movies or TV shows. Unfortunately, viewing angles weren’t very wide. Netbooks are not known for their good speakers. Most of them make tinny sounds or cracks audio at 100% volume. But the speakers on the Samsung N150 Plus was loud and clear, even at 70%, and audio didn’t distort at full volume.

Ports & Webcam

Along the edges of the Samsung N150 you get three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, microphone and headphone ports, 10/100 Ethernet and an SD card slot. That’s all standard fare for a netbook. However, one of the USB ports is of the ChargeableUSB type, which means that you can charge USB-based devices such as phones and MP3 players while the netbook is not even switched on. It’s not as good as Toshiba’s Sleep-and-charge USB ports, which can also recharge an iPhone, but it’s perfect for when you’re on-the-go and need to top-up any other types of USB-based devices — in our tests it worked well with our Creative Zen. ChargeableUSB can either be enabled from the Windows-based application or from the BIOS. You also get a webcam, Bluetooth and 802.11n Wi-Fi. We don’t like the location of the SD card slot on the front of the chassis; it can get in the way when you use the netbook on your lap, as the card sticks halfway out of the slot. Plus it’s not a springloaded slot.

Performance

The 1.66-GHz Intel Atom N450 processor and 1GB of RAM earned the Samsung N150 Plus a score of 1,300 on PCMark05. This is 133 marks below the netbook average (1,433) and also a bit below scores earned by other systems with this chip, including the ASUS Eee PC 1001P (1,384), MSI Wind U160 (1,406) and Samsung N210 (1,362). We also noticed that the machine betrayed a little sluggishness when we had more than six tabs open in Google Chrome while also running other programs (OpenOffice Writer, Windows Media Player, and Skype).

Design
Toshiba trimmed down its netbook where it could: instead of the frame being uniform in thickness, as on the NB205, it tapers from 1.4 inches in the rear to approximately 0.5 inches in front, resulting in a svelte look. The front edge is also more beveled, so the system looks more rounded than before. The new screen bezel sports tapered edges; while it’s the same thickness as on the NB205, it doesn’t look as clunky. The major aesthetic change from the NB205 and the NB305 is the battery. The former battery jutted out from the rear, but now it’s tucked in underneath, trimming nearly an inch off the system (although the weight remains constant, at 2.8 pounds). The new position of the battery also adds the effect of slanting the keyboard towards the user; while this is supposedly more ergonomic, the change in angle is so slight that it’s practically nonexistent. Apparently pink wasn’t a big seller, as Toshiba is no longer offering its mini in that color. The NB305 comes in blue, brown, or white.

Keyboard & Touchpad
Under the lid, the NB305 still has one of the best netbook keyboards out there. The chiclet layout works extremely well, and the silver keys are coated in something that makes them feel soft on our fingertips — there’s a $350 version of the NB305 that has a flush matte keyboard. Our one complaint lies with the volume controls, which are located on the number keys; no on-screen rocker appears when you adjust them. Speaking of sound, the speakers on the NB305 seem louder than that on the NB205, but they’re still weak compared to the 532h’s. We appreciate that the touchpad is larger than most, and features dedicated right and left mouse buttons instead of a cramped rocker, but the multitouch pad is too sensitive and we were constantly zooming in on pages. We’ve become quite speedy at switching off this function in the Synaptics menu — a skill that we’re rather proud of.

Dislay
The 10.1-inch glossy LED-backlit screen on the Mini NB305-N410 has a 1,024×600-pixel native resolution. Though this lower-than-HD-resolution screen is common, there are plenty of Netbooks with 1,366×768-pixel resolution displays, including the Sony Vaio W series. Colors and icons are crisp and bright, offering a better-than-average experience once resolution is forgiven. The NB305′s audio has received a welcome bump up from the NB205 series, adding a second speaker for stereo sound. The speakers still lean toward tinny and soft, but they are significantly louder than they were before.

Port
Around the netbook are the standard ports: three USBs, VGA, Ethernet, an SD card reader, and mic and headphone jacks. Many have been asking about the lack of HDMI ports on these new netbooks, and while we’d welcome the additional port for easily hooking up to a larger monitor or HDTV, it’s obvious Atom alone can’t handle even 720p videos, and thus it’s been left off the list.

Performance
Like most newer netbooks, the NB305 utilizes Intel’s new Pine Trail CPU, the 1.66-GHz Atom N450, which offers better power efficiency and a modest increase in performance over the NB205. On PCMark05, the difference was negligible: 1,383 vs. 1,341, respectively—and both scores are about 140 points south of the netbook average. There was more of a gap with Geekbench: The NB305 scored 925, 85 points higher than average, but the NB205-N330BL model reached just 805. Other Pine Trail systems were in the same ballpark: the HP Mini 5102 got 1,408 in PCMark05 and 896 in Geekbench, and the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE-P scored 1,410 and 918 on those same two tests, respectively. The NB305’s 5,400-rpm, 250GB hard drive performed well, copying a 4.97GB folder of multimedia files at a rate of 20.6 MBps, 4.8 MBps faster than average. It booted into Windows 7 Starter Edition in 1 minute and 9 seconds, which is 10 seconds longer than average. When converting a 114MB, 5-minute-and-5-second MPEG-4 video into AVI using HandBrake, the NB305 took 28 minutes and 26 seconds, about 1 minute faster than average, and approximately 2 minutes faster than the NB205. However, when performing the same task using Oxelon Media Converter, the NB305 took 6:03, about 15 seconds longer than the NB205.

We also saw a greater difference between the two systems when it came to graphics tests. While its 3DMark06 score of 159 is about 70 points below the netbook average, it’s still about 50 points greater than the NB205-N330BL. Still, this system is unsuited for gaming. When playing World of Warcraft with the resolution at 800 x 600 and the effects set to default, we only averaged 19 frames per second. If you want to game on a netbook, you’re better off buying an Ion-based system, such as the HP Mini 311, which saw 35 fps at a resolution of 1024 x 768.

Design
The 1201PN looks identical to the 1201N, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Despite its graphics horsepower, the 1201PN remains very easy to carry, weighing just 3.2 pounds and measuring 1.06 inches to 1.3 inches at its thickest point. We still like the black glossy exterior, but the chassis picks up fingerprint smudges. The system also has a few chrome accents, including the power button, touchpad on/off button, and the mouse bar beneath the dimpled touchpad (more on that below). The left side of the 1201PN houses a VGA port, tiny AC adapter jack, HDMI output, and a USB port. You’ll find two more USB ports, an SD Card slot, headphone and mic jacks, an Ethernet port, and a Kensington Lock slot on the right. We like that both edges of the netbook have grooved horizontal lines, a nice touch.

Keyboard & Touchpad
Inside, more shiny black plastic frames an edge-to-edge raised Chiclet-style keyboard. The double hinge on the lid straddles either side of a battery that has minimal bulge on the 1201PN’s bottom and fits right into the back. The keyboard’s easy to type on and comfortable to work at on a desk or perched in one’s lap. The dimpled multitouch touchpad below is flush with the rest of the keyboard deck but responds well to finger gestures. A thin chromed-plastic rocker bar for button-pressing could have been a little more ergonomic. The dimpled black touchpad remains as accurate and responsive as ever, and we like how easy it is to find by feel. Multitouch gestures like pinch to zoom also worked well. However, we really dislike the narrow and stiff touchpad button. We especially found it annoying when trying to select text or crop a photo. In fact, we tried to avoid this button after a day of testing.

Display
The glossy 12.1-inch, LED-backlit display is about as roomy as netbook displays get. The generous 1,366×768 native resolution has a 16-to-9 aspect ratio; it’s a treat compared with the limited 1,024×600 resolution offered by the majority of Pine Trail entrants. And thanks to the Ion 2 graphics, streaming video looks much better on the Eee PC 1201pn than it does on most other netbooks. (Nvidia recommends downloading Adobe Flash 10.1 and browsing in Mozilla Firefox for the highest-quality experience.) Videos on Hulu.com played much more smoothly than on typical netbooks and only seldom stuttered. The HD version of the Avatar trailer (via YouTube) was smooth and completely stutter-free in 720p, although the color and crispness weren’t quite on a par with true HD. (When we watched the same video on the Dell Mini 10, we witnessed the choppy slide-show effect that is common among netbooks without Ion graphics.) Even locally stored HD video, downloaded from Microsoft’s WMV HD Content Showcase, played like a dream in 720p. Overall, we were thrilled by our media experience on the Eee PC 1201pn and prefer it to more affordable netbooks equipped with a Broadcom Crystal HD video decoder, such as the HP Mini 210 HD Edition.

Battery
The Eee PC 1201pn held its own on our battery-life test, given its graphics. Our strenuous battery-rundown trial consists of streaming video wirelessly (with volume and display brightness set to 50 percent) until the battery dies. It’s a test that energy-efficient Pine Trails should excel at. However, high-end graphics always take a toll on battery life, and the 1201pn is no exception. The six-cell battery lasted only 3 hours and 17 minutes, half the time that the Asus Eee PC 1005pe logged (6:34). We expect about five hours from the average netbook; the 1201pn came up considerably short, though it should eke out closer to five or six hours when performing light tasks such as word processing.

Performance
Moving from a dual-core processor to a single-core 1.6-GHz N450 CPU definitely has an impact on speed. In PCMark Vantage, which measures overall performance in Windows, the 1201PN notched a score of 1,329. That showing is higher than the netbook average (1,211) but lower than the older 1201N (1,488). The GeekBench scrore also saw a drop-off (903 vs. 1,064). Even anecdotally the 1201PN struggled at times; we noticed delays when starting video calls in Skype and when opening the AT&T Connection manager software we installed. Otherwise, the 1201PN performed fairly well. The netbook didn’t get bogged down when we had multiple tabs open in Google Chrome—one of them streaming Pandora—while we switched between the browser, WordPad, and TweetDeck. The 1201PN’s 5,400-rpm 250GB hard drive proved faster than 1201N’s, delivering a transfer rate of 23.5 MBps (up from 17.7 MBps) on the LAPTOP Transfer Test (copying 4.97GB of files). Too bad the boot time increased form 53 seconds to 1:07, which is 6 seconds slower than the average netbook.

Design
The first thing anyone notices about the Adamo XPS is its profile. It measures 13.39 inches wide by 10.78 inches long. With the lid closed, it measures 0.41 inches at the thickest part of the chassis (the back) and slopes down to 0.38 inches at the front. Compare that with the original Adamo, which measured 0.65 inches thin all around. The Adamo XPS weighs 3.2 pounds with the standard 4-cell battery. Despite the light weight (no doubt partly attributable to its aluminum chassis) the Adamo XPS felt solid in my hands.

There is a colorless, capacitive touch strip at the front edge of the Adamo XPS’s lid. Simply run your finger across the strip, and the lid opens with an almost inaudible click. It’s this kind of unexpected touch (no pun intended) that I think will distinguish the Adamo XPS from others in the luxury ultraportable category.

Keyboard & Touchpad
When fully opened, the keyboard sits at about a 20-degree angle. It’s an unusual setup, but one that provides a better raised typing experience than the average flat laptop keyboard (although some readers have told us they dislike angled keyboards). We also liked the solid-feeling metal keys and the reasonably large touch pad. The right Shift key is smaller than the left one, but not horribly so, but the row of Function keys is both small and set flush to the keyboard tray surface, making them hard to hit. Still, the overall typing experience is good, and we quickly adapted to the layout and its flat, widely spaced keys. Measuring 3 x 1.7 inches, the touchpad on the Adamo XPS is decently sized, and offered little resistance while sliding our finger across. Multitouch gestures are enabled, and we found it easy to pinch to zoom in on photos and documents. Two discrete mouse buttons below were a touch soft, but were otherwise fine.

Ports and Webcam
adamo-webcamAt the base of the notebook by the battery are two USB ports, one on each side, and a DisplayPort on the left. On the right is a headphone and mic port. Helping make up for this paucity of ports is a dongle that comes with the unit, and allows users to connect Ethernet and DVI. An optional VGA and HDMI dongle costs extra. The 2-megapixel webcam offered fairly good visuals while chatting with a friend over Skype, but he noted that the image froze every now and then; however, this was most likely due to our Internet connection.

Display & Audio
The 13.4-inch wide-screen LED display offers a 1,366×768-pixel native resolution, which is standard for an upscale 13-inch system. Screen images were bight and clear, although the overly glossy screen coating picked up plenty of glare. The stereo speakers, mounted on the bottom surface (which would be raised off the ground when the laptop lid is open) are tinny and underpowered; we suggest headphones for almost all audio use.

Performance

The 1.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U9400 and 4GB of RAM powered the Adamo XPS to a PCMark Vantage score of 3964, 1200 points above the ultraportable average. The only other system with similar specs—the Samsung X360, which had the same processor and a 128GB SSD—scored 3,184. Still, the Sony Vaio Z, which costs $100 more, but has a 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5-520M processor and two SSDs, scored two and a half times higher: 9936. The Adamo XPS’ Samsung 128GB SSD (PB22 JS3) was quite zippy, booting the 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium operating system in just 33 seconds. The drive duplicated a 4.97GB folder of multimedia files in 1 minute and 54 seconds, a rate of 44.6 MBps. While that’s more than twice the ultraportable average (21.6 MBps), it pales in comparison to the Vaio Z’s transfer rate of 127 MBps (which has twin SSDs). Transcoding a 114MB MPEG-4 to AVI using Oxelon Media Encoder took 1 minute and 46 seconds, 12 seconds faster than the ultraportable average, but about a minute longer than the Vaio Z.

Predictably, graphics scores from the integrated Intel GMA4500MHD GPU were pretty low. The Adamo XPS scored just 701 on 3DMark06, about 150 points below the category average, and other recent 13-inch systems, such as the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 (908), and the Sony Vaio Y (906). The Sony Vaio Z’s integrated graphics also proved far superior, notching 1,900 on the same test.

When playing World of Warcraft at 1024 x 768 and with graphics set to default, we eked out just 23 frames per second. Still, the machine was powerful enough to make for a smooth experience when flying around New York City in Google Earth.

Design

As the newest member of ASUS’ Seashell line, the 1005PR shares the same tapered lines, rounded edges, and slim chassis as the 1005HA and 1001P, among other recent Eee PC models. Available in four colors—black, white, pink and dark blue—this 10.3 x 7 x 1.4 inch netbook benefits from a matte outer shell and a fingerprint-resistant checkered pattern on the lid. This adds a touch of style to an already elegant design, making the 1005PR fashionable without being loud. To go along with its sleek look, the 1005PR is also lighter than the average netbook, weighing just 2.4 pounds. The inside of the system is glossy black, and the deck picked up its share of fingerprints.

Keyboard & Touchpad

Under the lid, the screen and keyboard are both embedded into a glossy black bezel, and glossy palm rests flank a flush-mounted touch pad. Also, the six-cell battery sits almost flush with the bottom of the system, something we wish we saw more often. Typing is a mixed bag, since the Chiclet-style keys are responsive and well-spaced, yet tiny overall. The right Shift key, for instance, is smaller than it would be on a full-size keyboard. Furthermore, the keyboard flexes slightly during typing, which makes it feel a bit cheap. Although the keyboard lacks any dedicated multimedia keys, function keys are present aplenty, including an easy screen-resolution manager that lets you toggle between display settings (either 1,366×768 or 1,024×768 pixels) with the press of a button. Located below the keyboard, the textured touch pad responds well to taps and multi-touch input (that is, navigation using two fingers on the touch pad simultaneously). However, its small size makes the pinch-zoom action (in which you pinch or pull two fingers together or apart to zoom in on text or photos) a challenge. On the other hand, we were exceedingly pleased with the shiny seesaw mouse button. It has deep plunge and satisfying feedback.

Display

The 10.1-inch wide-screen display offers a 1,366×768-pixel native resolution, which is much more practical than the 1,024×600 pixels found on most 10-inch Netbooks. That higher resolution is standard on 11-inch Netbooks, but found on only a handful (but a growing one) of 10-inch models. The built-in Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator is the same as we’ve tested on Netbooks from Dell and HP. As in those cases, once the latest Flash player release candidate software and Broadcom drivers are installed (be sure to uninstall the old drivers first), HD video playback, even at 1080p, is very good–from files on your local hard drive. Playing HD versions of Flash video content from YouTube or Hulu, however, is more of a mixed bag: it’s watchable, especially in a windowed viewing mode, but choppy to varying degrees when played full-screen (full-screen WMV and MOV files play fine from the hard drive). Even with special hardware, Netbooks are not quite full-fledged video playback machines yet.

Ports and Webcam

On the left side of the 1005PR is a USB and VGA port. On the right are a memory card reader, an Ethernet port, two USB ports, and headphone and microphone jacks. Above the display, a 1.3-megapixel webcam provided decent images in a Skype video chat. Once we adjusted brightness, contrast, and a few other advanced settings, the camera picked up accurate skin tones and clothing colors. A friend saw little motion blur when we waved quickly and made out details on our face.

Performance

Configured with a 1.66-GHz Atom N450 processor, the 1005PR offered similar performance to netbooks equipped with Atom’s last-generation processors. This Windows 7 Starter Edition system scored 1,319 on PCMark05, more than 100 points below the category average (1,439). When compared to similar netbooks, the 1005PR is a bit behind the curve, coming in under the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with Broadcom Crystal HD (1,412), MSI Wind U160 (1,406), Samsung N210 (1,362) and the $299 Eee PC 1001P (1,384). The 1005PR scored 891 on Geekbench, just a few points higher than the netbook average (867). On our LAPTOP Transfer Test, in which we copy a 4.97GB mixed-media folder, the Eee PC 1005PR’s 5,400-rpm, 250GB hard drive notched a score of 21.1 MBps, which is more than 4 MBps faster than the category average (17.2). Though not quite as fast as the Wind U160 or Samsung N210 (24.8 and 22.7), it does beat the Eee PC 1001P (17.5). Overall, we noticed that the Eee PC 1005PR struggled a bit when we had too many tabs open in Google Chrome or when running more than four programs at once. We also noticed that playing HD video with multiple programs running taxed the CPU so much there was noticeable hitching.

Design
Weighing 3.0 pounds and measuring 1.9 inches thick, the MH380 is one of the heaviest and chunkiest netbooks. The fact that the six-cell battery juts out from the bottom of the system doesn’t help matters, either. Still, this is one of the more attractive netbooks we’ve laid eyes on, thanks to the glossy ruby red lid and deck. This chassis also has modern rounded edges and a classy chrome treatment on the inner hinge. Unlike the earlier M2010, Fujitsu wisely minimized its infinity symbol logo. Too bad there aren’t other color options. Although the MH380 felt solid at first, we noticed that the bezel and hinge creaked a bit as we raised and lowered the display, which raises some doubts about long-term durability. Also, the lid picked up some fingerprints during our testing, though we’ve seen worse.

Keyboard & Touchpad
The Netbook’s upper lid opens up farther than normal, which is useful when typing on small machines such as this one. Oddly, Fujitsu centered the Lifebook’s round screen hinge far back from the keyboard, in line with the bulky battery that juts from its bottom like a long kickstand. It gives the Lifebook a unique appearance, but offers no real value. Fujitsu includes an array of four LED indicators at the top and bottom of the keyboard; however, they mostly served as a distraction. The Netbook’s small chrome power button, which is above the Num lock key, is the only discrete button other than the keyboard’s keys.

As far as that keyboard goes, it’s a throwback and an annoyance: this Fujitsu has one of the few tapered keyboards left in the Netbook world. While the keys have good travel and feel, they’re a little too small, especially on the right side of the board where the comma, period, and shift keys lie. Fujitsu squeezed directional-arrow keys in on the keyboard and changed the relative position of all those keys, shifting the shift key to the left and making other keys hard to find, much less to press. The Netbook’s palm rest space is adequate, but it is not exceptional.

Fujitsu’s keyboard changes are minor compared with what it did to the Netbook’s touch pad. According to Fujitsu, customers requested the design that it implemented on the MH380, which carves off a good third of the touch pad’s real estate and gives it to a circular concave dimple of plastic that acts as a scroll wheel. It took us a while to figure out how to use it, but the wheel lets you dial your finger clockwise or counterclockwise to scroll Web pages or documents. Most touch pads just use the far right strip to accomplish this. The remaining postage-stamp-size square of touch pad is barely enough to work with, and the tiny buttons beneath it are just as bad. If you’re going to be bold enough to introduce a feature like this to grab attention, it had better be an improvement over what it’s replacing in the first place.

The Netbook’s touch pad has a somewhat annoying momentum-scrolling option automatically activated, which makes the pointer slide around the screen as if it’s on ice. You can deactivate the setting in the touch pad control panel, but the software buries it in a number of submenus.

Display and Audio
You might think that a 1366 x 768-pixel display on a 10-inch netbook is overkill (most top out at 1024 x 600), but it makes a big difference when surfing the Web. You can see more of your favorite sites on the MH380 without scrolling. The LED-backlit display is also quite bright, with excellent horizontal viewing angles. Photos looked vibrant and well saturated. A Hulu episode of Fringe looked fine until we blew it up to full-screen mode, at which point playback started to stutter (though that’s a biproduct of weak integrated graphics).

The twin speakers on the front of the MH380 delivered loud and clear sound when we cranked up Coldplay’s “Fix You” in Pandora. We noticed very little distortion, even at 100 percent volume.

Performance
Like most recently released netbooks, the MH380 is powered by Intel’s Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 5,400-rpm hard drive. This netbook turned in a score of 1,389 in PCMark05 (which measures Windows performance), which is lower than the netbook category average (1,466) as well as the scores for the HP Mini 5102 (1,408) and ASUS Eee PC 1005PE-P (Seashell) (1,410). However, this is slightly higher than the Sony VAIO W Series (1,368). On the other hand, the MH380’s Geekbench score of 918 is higher than the category average (854), second only to the VAIO W Series’ 921 among the above systems. The 5,400-rpm, 250GB hard drive took a relatively long 1 minute and 19 seconds to boot into Windows 7 Starter Edition. The MH380 fared better on the LAPTOP Transfer Test, taking 4 minutes and 27 seconds (19.1 MBps) to transfer 4.97GB of mixed media files from one folder to another on the system, well above the 16.2 MBps average but behind the Eee PC 1005PE-P (26.4 MBps).

Design
For two grand your ultraportable had better look luxurious, and Sony delivers. The silver VAIO Z (also available in Premium Carbon Fiber for $50) is decked out in aluminum and magnesium, which gives the system a premium feel. We especially like the brushed metal deck and the circular hinges (complete with the green glowing power button on the right). The black bezel serves as a nice accent, and we appreciate that surface is matte instead of glossy.

Weighing an even 3 pounds—about 3.2 ounces heavier than most netbooks—and measuring 12.4 x 8.3 x 1.3 inches, the VAIO Z is remarkably light given its features. In fact, we barely felt it in our backpack on the way home from the office. Other design elements include four buttons above the keyboard: Assist (which launches VAIO Care software), a shortcut button, a button for launching the VAIO Media Gallery, and an eject button for the optical drive. On the left side you’ll find a switch for the notebook’s graphics system, which you can toggle between Speed, Stamina, and Auto modes.

Keyboard & Touchpad
The Sony Vaio Z has a backlit chiclet* keyboard design that is very nice. The keys are just a hair smaller than usual (Logitech illuminated, Macbook Pro, Vaio SR) but there is ample room in-between keys, and that reduces my typo rate, when compared to a non-chiclet keyboard. I type at average speed (77 words per minutes, or wpm) and on the Vaio Z, the speed is within that range (74 wpm), so I’m very satisfied. The backlight is great in dark settings, but the light sensor is not all that smart. I think that Sony should push that feature to mid-range ($900+ laptops), this is great and once you have tasted it, it’s hard to go back. The touch of the keys is a little soft/”gummy” and I would have preferred something more “crisp”, but it works. Sony could even make the keyboard just a little smaller if they needed extra room on the side (for speakers?).

It is small, but the trackpad surface is decent and feels better to the touch than most pads. The underlying hardware comes from Synaptics, and this means that you have access to many options in the trackpad driver to configure scroll zones and gestures. Having used a Macbook Pro (with Windows 7) for many months now, it’s (very) hard to get back to a smaller trackpad and “primitive” gestures. I miss the two-finger scrolling too…     *

Display & Ports
The 13.3-inch wide-screen LED display has a 1,600×900-pixel native resolution.That’s what we’d expect in an upscale 13-inch laptop; less-expensive 13-inch systems often have 1,280×800-pixel or 1,366×768-pixel displays. The higher resolution makes it good for 720p video, and gives you plenty of desktop real estate. The Vaio Z116 has a standard set of ports and connections for a 13-inch laptop, although for $2,300, we’d expect a Blu-ray drive. Still, it’s impressive the system manages to fit in an optical drive at all; it’s a feature missing from HP’s 13-inch Envy, Dell’s 13-inch Adamo XPS, and even Toshiba’s T-135.

Webcam and microphone
Fast and seamless online communications are vital in today’s highly competitive world. In order to make things easier for the users, the engineers from Sony have equipped the Vaio Z Series notebook with a 0.3 megapixel (640 x 480 pixels) MOTION EYE camera, as well as a microphone. This way, users can take advantage of those IM clients capable of making video calls in order to set up teleconferences and communicate more easily.

Performance
sonyvaiovpcz114gxs_sh1.jpgThanks to the combination of a 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5 processor, dual solid state drives, and discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics, the VAIO Z is the fastest 13-inch ultraportable we’ve tested. It notched a very impressive 9,936 in PCMark Vantage, which is more than triple the category average. The only other system that comes close in this category is the Lenovo ThinkPad X201, which has a 2.53-GHz Intel Core i5 processor but a slower 7,200-rpm hard drive. (We’re in the process of finalizing our review for that system.)

Just as important, the VAIO Z feels fast. This system opened Adobe Reader 9 in under 2 seconds, and most other programs in one second. In fact, we never felt like we were waiting for Windows to catch up with what we were trying to accomplish, which is quite the feat. The VAIO Z booted into Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) faster than most notebooks, taking 50 seconds (versus 61 for other ultraportables). We also noticed that this machine was quicker when installing software than most other notebooks.

So how about those twin solid state drives, one 64GB and the other 128 GB? They’re blazing. When we conducted the LAPTOP Transfer Test, which measures how fast a 4.97GB folder is copied from one folder on the notebook’s hard drive, the VAIO Z blew away the field. Its data rate of 127 MBps is nearly six times faster than the average ultraportable.

Design
The 15-inch MacBook Pro sports the same carved-from-a-single-chunk-of-metal unibody design as its brethren, with a sturdy aluminum chassis and rounded edges. The overall look is classy and modern, though it makes upgrading individual components (like the RAM and hard drive) more difficult, as the entire bottom must be unscrewed.

The MacBook Pro has the same dimensions as before (14.4 x 9.8 x 1.0 inches), but weighs a slightly heavier 5.6 pounds. While we definitely felt it carrying the machine home, it did fit in our messenger bag, which is more than we can say about most 15-inch notebooks. The only system that comes close is the HP Envy 15, which has an equally slim and stylish profile (15.0 x 9.6 x 1.0 inches) and weighs a lighter 5.2 pounds. Regardless, this notebook will take up your entire tray table if you take it on a flight.

Keyboard & Touchpad
The full-size keyboard is a departure from the original one used in the 15-inch (Penryn). The new MacBook Pro adopts the non-interconnecting, groove-less keys from the MacBook Air and the new MacBook 13-inch (Aluminum). Typing is an absolute pleasure, not a chore, and the illuminated keyboard is a great asset in darkly lit areas. Competitors like the HDX16t and the Studio 15 use more traditional keyboards.

Evidently, the thought never occurred to anyone that a touchpad and mouse button can be combined into a single entity, thereby creating a larger surface to scroll, click and navigate. Aside from Apple, anyway. The touchpad slopes downward allowing you to click at the bottom, left and right hand sides of it, but not at the top. Apple even figured out the right sensitivity levels to use for the mouse click button. Clicking the entire touchpad seemed awkward at first, but it didn’t take long for me to get used to it. And then there’s the elusive right click mouse button that in the past could only be triggered with the help of the Control key. In Leopard’s System Preferences, you can designate the touchpad to right-click simply by applying two fingers or a single finger to the right and left bottom corners.

The new MacBook Pros come with gesture capabilities as well. In addition to pinching, rotating, and enlarging with two fingers, you can swipe four fingers to the right or left to switch between applications. Swiping upwards with four fingers will trigger the Expose application, while swiping four fingers downwards will bring up the dashboard. Applying three fingers to it will let you peruse through photos in the iPhoto application. This is very cool stuff.

Display and Audio
As usual, we loved the bright and crisp 15.6-inch display on the MacBook Pro. Its resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels is adequate, though we suspect many photographers and other creative pros will opt for the 1680 x 1050-pixel option. While reflections from the glossy display weren’t overwhelming, it’s also nice to know there’s an antiglare option–though only for the higher resolution display. Still, colors were bright, blacks were deep and dark, and viewing angles were excellent both vertically and horizontally.

Speakers on either side of the keyboard provided very good audio. At full volume, the Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feelin” filled a small room; higher tones were crisp without sounding distorted, and lower notes, such as the bass line in the song, had enough presence without being overwhelming.

Ports
Unfortunately, its feature set is the one place where the new MacBook Pro couldn’t deliver. Built-in media card readers are found in almost every laptop on the market—except those with the Apple logo. With the proliferation of digital cameras, you’d think that Apple would at least include an SD slot. The MacBook Pro, however, did manage to carry forward the ExpressCard slot, for expansion devices like mobile broadband. According to Steve Jobs, Apple’s reluctance to support Blu-Ray drives revolves around licensing and cost issues. If you run down the HDX16t’s features list, you can find things like Blu-Ray drives, a media card reader, E-SATA and HDMI ports—those are features that MacBook Pro users will miss.

At least for current MacBook Pro owners, the features didn’t get any worse. There are 2 USB ports, a Firewire 800 port, Ethernet, optical out and a headphone jack. The slot-loading DVD burner works the same way as older generation drives. The one significant change is cutting off DVI-out in favor of DisplayPort. Apple and Lenovo believe that DisplayPort is the video port of the future, while every other laptop manufacturer is betting on HDMI. Either technology, though, can drive both audio and video to an external display; DVI-Out carries video only. There are minor storage enhancements as well, such as the addition of a 320GB hard drive (5,400rpm and 7,200rpm versions), and an insanely expensive 128GB SSD option ($500). And of course, the MagSafe magnetic adapter, the iSight webcam, and the Apple remote can also be found on the new MacBook Pro.

Performance
Like other systems we’ve tested with the Intel Core i7-620M processor, the MacBook Pro returned superb results, especially considering it was paired with 4GB of RAM. After installing Windows 7, we ran PCMark Vantage in Boot Camp, and saw a score of 6699; that’s nearly double the mainstream average of 3,885, not to mention the previous 15-inch MacBook Pro’s score of 3,285 (which used a 2.66-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB of RAM). The HP Envy 15, which uses a 1.6-GHz Intel Core i7-720QM processor and 6GB of RAM, came in about 500 points lower, at 6,173. However, the Sony Vaio Z, which had a 2.4-GHz Core i5-520M processor, scored a much 9936 (though that system had dual SSDs).

Design
The design of the Qosmio X505 is a clear evolution of earlier Qosmio systems–it shares the same high-contrast red/black palette and rounded chassis, although it has less of a clamshell-like feel than previous versions. It’s still positively huge, and weighs more than 10 pounds, even without the power adapter. Despite the laptop’s heft, the back of its lid flexed easily under our fingers–we wouldn’t rest anything too heavy on the closed lid. With its expansive screen and keyboard, large hard drive, and fast processor, this portable qualifies as a desktop replacement. As the moniker suggests, this laptop could take the place of your desktop PC, as it offers most of the features that people look for in a computer. The screen is spacious enough for you to work on it all day without eyestrain, and the keyboard’s roominess rivals that of a desktop’s. It has only one optical drive, but ports aplenty. Even so, this machine is still portable, light enough to unplug from the wall and easily move to another room–or to a meeting across the country on your next business trip.

Keyboard & Touchpad
The backlit keyboard has large, flat-topped keys and was comfortable to use, with the exception of an oddly shortened space bar. It feels as if Toshiba could have used a full-size space bar on the keyboard, if not for the media control panel that sits to the left of the space bar. Taking up roughly the same space as a TV remote control might, it includes touch-sensitive volume, mute, and media transport controls, and a button for launching the system’s “Eco” mode, which is an energy-efficient power setting preset. Those changes include lowering the screen brightness, turning off the backlit keyboard, and underclocking the CPU’s performance. These are all tweaks one could manually dial in using Windows 7′s power menus, but it’s nice to have them all in one place. One note about the touch-control media buttons. Each gives off an unbelievably loud “beep” when touched–including the mute button, which pretty much defeats the purpose of a mute button. The touch pad is oddly small, taking up very little of the available room on the large wrist rest area. One could fairly say that an 18-inch desktop replacement is more likely than not to be controlled via an external mouse, so the touch pad doesn’t need to be a focus, but that does little to explain why the two giant red mouse buttons dwarf the touch pad.

Performance
This laptop, equipped with over 4GB of memory, will run all of your programs quickly (paired with a high-end CPU, that much memory will make things especially speedy). You’ll be able to multitask to your heart’s content, too, so go ahead–you can back up the entire contents of your hard drive to a DVD while watching YouTube videos and experimenting with textures on the 2MB photo of your client’s art gallery in Photoshop. The main drawback is the extra expense: Loading up with more than the standard amount of RAM (2GB, these days) can add hundreds of dollars to a laptop’s price, though it boosts performance by only about 10 percent. Also bear in mind that if you hope to use more than 4GB of RAM effectively, your PC must have a 64-bit installation of Windows.

After the success of the N140, Samsung took another step towards creating the ultimate netbook with the NC10. The N210 takes all of the elements that contributed to the success of the previous two models: matte plastic for the screen and the inside of the case, a comfortable keyboard and, most importantly, battery life, which has surged forward again thanks with Intel’s new Pine Trail platform. What makes this $379 system stand out is its distinctive, scratch-resistant finish and an instant-on feature with a cool widget-based interface. However, the competition from Acer and ASUS is heating up, with both manufacturers offering long-lasting netbooks under $300.

Design
The 2.8-pound N210 has a similar design to previous N series netbooks but with some welcome aesthetic flourishes. A textured pattern of small rectangles with rounded edges embedded in the pearl white lid (also available in black) is covered by a clear shell. This multi-layered treatment adds a sense of depth while warding off scratches. We’re also pleased that the N210 eschews fingerprint smudges both on the lid and the matte deck under it. The transparent shell also creates a border around the bezel, and viewed from the side, echoes the shape of the chrome strip that borders the keyboard deck. Unfortunately, the power button is still a slide-switch on the front lip of the system; we prefer an easier-to-find button. In addition, SD cards still stick out a half an inch when inserted into the slot on the front edge.

Keyboard & Touchpad
The keyboard uses small flat chiclet keys measuring 13.5 x 13 mm and they’re pretty responsive. Some people will like the look and feel, but others won’t. Samsung has struck a good compromise between robust keys and quiet typing. We’re glad to see that some keys, like Ctrl, Alt and Shift are larger than normal, which makes using them for keyboard shortcuts much easier. The multitouch touchpad doesn’t get left behind either. It’s one of the best we’ve ever seen on a netbook. Moving your finger across it is smooth, fast and accurate, and using it is an excellent experience. You can easily do without your mouse most of the time. Multitouch makes things like zooming or scrolling (with two fingers) easier, and is very handy.

Display and Audio
The N210’s 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600 LED-backlit matte display offered bright colors and deep blacks despite the lack of a glossy finish. In fact, we were able to use the N210 comfortably in direct sunlight. Vertical viewing angles were very good, as we were able to push the display all the way back—about 50 degrees from vertical—and not encounter color distortion. Horizontal viewing angles are a bit narrow, but two people will be able to share the screen with no problem. Samsung made audio quality a priority in their N140, and the N210 follows in that system’s footsteps, pumping better than average sound from the small speakers tucked under the front lid of the netbook. At 60 percent volume the speakers were able to fill a medium-sized room while playing “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z. Even at 100 percent we didn’t notice any distortion.

Ports & Webcam
The range of inputs and outputs is pretty basic, with three USB 2.0 ports (one of which you can still use for charging other devices even if the netbook is switched off); an Ethernet port; a line in and line out; VGA and a three-in-one memory card reader. Bluetooth and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi are also available. Underneath, a single flap opens to give access to the RAM, the only internal component you can change yourself. The 0.3MP webcam delivered images with decent color and backlight balance. At this quality we weren’t surprised when our Skype friend noted that our image blurred each time we moved while chatting, even if it was slight. Samsung bundled CyberLink YouCam with the N210 for adding effects to stills and video capture, plus one-touch uploads to YouTube.

Performance
The 1.66-GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU and 1GB of RAM delivered a score of 1,362 on PCMark05, about 100 marks below the category average. This score is close to the HP Mini 210 (1,365) but still trails the Toshiba mini NB305-N410 (1,383) and ASUS Eee PC 1001P (1,384) a bit. The Geekbench score of 925 is not only well above the netbook average (854) but the same score as the category-leading mini NB305. We experienced snappy performance when we had 3 or 4 programs open, but the N210 struggled once we got up to 6 or 7 at one time. While writing this review in WordPad, we also ran Google Chrome with up to 4 tabs, Internet Explorer, Notepad, as well as Windows Media Player and encountered few problems. Once we upped the number of tabs in Chrome we noticed more lag. The 250GB, 5,400 rpm hard drive completed the LAPTOP Transfer Test in 3 minutes and 44 seconds, for a speed of 22.7 MBps. This score is once again well above the average netbook (16.1) but also ahead of much of the N210’s competition, including the Eee PC 1001P (17.5), mini NB305 (20.6), and HP Mini 210 (17.3). The business-class HP Mini 5102 only beats it by 3 MBps (25.7). Given this speed, we were surprised that it took the netbook 1 minute and 22 seconds to boot into Windows 7 Starter, but suspect that trialware loading at startup is the culprit more than the hard drive itself. The average is just 59 seconds. With Intel’s integrated GMA 3150 graphics driving the N210, its 3DMark06 score of 153 isn’t surprising. The category average is 222, but that figure includes systems with Nvidia Ion graphics. When compared to other GMA 3150 (Pine Trail) netbooks, the N210 is average. We were able to stream a standard definition episode of The Colbert Report but at full screen the clip hitched, even after buffering. Casual gamers will appreciate that gameplay on one of the included Shockwave titles—Dairy Dash—was surprisingly smooth and fast. However, when playing a Facebook game (Pet Society) our virtual creature moved sluggishly.

Battery
A combination of the low-consumption Pine Trail platform and a new six-cell 5900 mAh battery allow the N210 to really do well here, with a battery life of 7 hours 6 minutes in our stand test (video playback with WiFi turned off, headphones plugged in and brightness set to 100 cd/m²). That’s 1 h 33 longer than the Samsung N140, and 2 h 17 longer than the NC10! The MSI Wind U115 is still up there at the front with 7 – 9 h 52 of battery life.

Spec
CPU 1.66-GHz Intel Atom N450
Operating System MS Windows 7 Starter
RAM 1GB
RAM Upgradable to 2GB
Hard Drive Size 250GB
Hard Drive Speed 5,400rpm
Hard Drive Type SATA Hard Drive
Display Size 10.1
Native Resolution 1024×600
Optical Drive
Graphics Card Intel GMA 3150
Video Memory Shared
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n

Bluetooth

Mobile Broadband
Ports (excluding USB) Ethernet; Headphone; Kensington Lock; Microphone; VGA
USB Ports 3
Card Slots 3-1 card reader
Warranty/Support One-year parts-and-labor/24/7 toll-free phone
Size 10.5 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
Weight 2.8 pounds