netbooks

The latest company to get into the ultrabook game is Hewlett-Packard. The company today announced the HP Folio, a 13-inch slim laptop that measures 18mm thick.

While it's not as thin as some of the other ultrabooks we've seen, the price is right, at $899, which gets you not only a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) but also an Intel Core i5 CPU. On paper, at least, that beats the Toshiba Portege Z835, which is also $799 to $899 (depending on the retailer), with a 128GB SSD but only a Core i3 CPU. We've also seen ultrabooks from Lenovo and Asus that are closer in look and feel to the MacBook Air, but cost more than $1,000.… Read more

The subtle dark-gray look of HP's Envy line of laptops is getting a serious makeover, with new 15- and 17-inch models that offset a matte black lid and chrome interior with a racing-stripe-style red line surrounding the sunken keyboard.

The new look is quite a departure from previous Envys, which have been among our favorite high-end Windows laptops. The older models, originally in 14-, 15-, and 17-inch versions, were nearly monochromatic. Made of aluminum and magnesium, in a dark gunmetal gray with a black base, they had a subtle pattern of imprinted squares covering the wrist rest and the back of the lid, creating an overall unique look.

The new version is also striking, but the two-tone color scheme doesn't hit our aesthetic sensibilities the same way. We did, however, like the sunken keyboard, surrounded by a bold red stripe--it's a unique look. … Read more

Spending so much time with the latest and greatest laptops (and a few not-so-great ones), it's easy to get used to killer features such as the battery life of a MacBook or the keyboard on a Lenovo ThinkPad.

If there's something about a particular laptop that drives me crazy, I've usually moved on to the next one before it became too big a hassle to deal with. On the other hand, buying a laptop is a big investment for most people, and you're likely to live with that particular unit for at least the next couple of years, if not longer.

So, my question is, having lived with your particular laptop for an extended period of time, what, specifically, frustrates you about it?… Read more

Our latest Prizefight pits one of the new generation of superthin Ultrabook laptops, the Asus Zenbook UX31, against the system it was clearly designed to emulate, Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air.

The Prizefight scoring system is as follows: Each judge rates on a zero to five scale. At the end of each round, we will take an average of the three judges' scores. The final score for each laptop will be an average of all five rounds. … Read more

While last week's MacBook Pro upgrades were mostly minor, and entirely under the hood, I felt it was worth getting my hands on one of the new systems to benchmark and compare with the models we saw earlier in 2011 (read the full review of the fall 2011 15-inch MacBook Pro).

Almost as soon as these system refreshes were announced, I started receiving inquiries via Twitter, e-mail, and other forms of electronic communication (sorry, no telegrams) asking if it was worth upgrading to the new MacBook Pro. Some of these questions were about upgrading from the most recent Pro, others asked about pre-2011 models, and one was from a reader who was considering a MacBook Pro, but wanted to know if a further refresh was coming sometime in the next six months.

To best answer these, it's easiest to start by looking at exactly what's new.… Read more

Earlier this year, we were bombarded with news about Ultrabooks, a new category of laptop given a new name by Intel--these machines were meant to be improvements on the laptop as we've come to know it, with smartphone-like startup speed and wafer-thin, future-sexy designs.

So far, so good: the first few laptops we've seen that categorize themselves as Ultrabooks have all been excellent products. The Acer Aspire S3, the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, and the Asus Zenbook UX31 all lived up to expectations, and all provide valid alternatives to the MacBook Air.

And yet, there's a problem. In my eyes, at least. And it's a big one. … Read more

Within the space of a few short weeks, we've seen the first wave of Ultrabook laptops come to life, making good on Intel's promise to create an entirely new laptop category with the unstated, but unmistakable goal of unseating Apple's MacBook Air as the king of ultrathin laptops.

We've taken plenty of shots over the past several months at the entire Ultrabook concept, calling it an Intel marketing push, rather than an organic new product category; joking about the $300 million investment Intel is said to be making with hardware partners to develop systems; and even making fun of the name (why not "superbook" or "skinnytop"?)

But then a funny thing happened. We got our hands on the first three Ultrabooks across the finish line, from Acer, Lenovo, and Asus, and they were all more than pretty good. In fact, we were downright impressed. None was a perfect product, and there needs to be some more-aggressive pricing (the Acer gets it right, coming in at $899, admittedly with some corners cut), but there's a good chance that the next year or two will see a wholesale change in what consumers expect from laptops, with sub-1-inch systems becoming the norm, and anything larger looking terribly old and clunky.

We've rounded up the first wave of Ultrabooks, as well as the MacBook Air, for you to peruse below. As of right now, the general office consensus is that among the Ultrabooks, the Lenovo wins for design, the Acer for price, and the Asus for overall value. But none outclasses the MacBook Air, and our advice to Ultrabook makers is simple. You can't create a laptop that's just about as good as a MacBook Air and just about as expensive. You need to either make something that's significantly better, or significantly less expensive. … Read more

Whether you're throwing a big Halloween party or just planning a simple night in pretending you're not home and hiding from trick-or-treaters, you'll need a little cinematic entertainment, even if it's just as background noise.

My go-to used to be the nonstop scary movies on AMC, but in recent years the quality has taken a steep dive, abandoning true genre classics such as "Night of the Demon" for pointless schlock (to wit, endless repeats of "Halloween 4-6").

Fortunately, a high-quality alternative has presented itself in the form of the Netflix streaming service, which continues to add great atmospheric fright films on a regular basis.… Read more

The latest generation of Dell XPS laptops, with the "z" designation, kicked off with the 15-inch XPS 15z. Dell claimed that laptop was the world's thinnest 15-inch laptop (Windows laptop, that is), and the new 14-inch XPS 14z makes a similar claim, again with a few asterisks to keep in mind. With the XPS 14z, Dell says that this is the "thinnest fully featured laptop on the planet." What does that mean?

According to Dell, it's a laptop with an internal optical drive and discrete graphics. More impressively, this is a 14-inch laptop screen in a body with the smaller footprint of a 13-inch laptop. We like more screen in less body, but it also has one unfortunate side effect. … Read more