Netbooks

This week, Ty demos Sony's strap-on 3D visor, which we've dubbed the "Headman," while Scott shows us how the OnLive Desktop brings cloud PC computing to the iPad. Also, check out a cool new laptop backpack, and find out what our favorite MacBook Air substitutes are.

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In a recent poll of most-anticipated 2012 laptops, a purely hypothetical product beat out every high-profile system previewed at CES.

More than the glass-covered HP Envy 14 Spectre, Dell XPS 13, or even Acer Aspire S5, a 15-inch version of Apple's MacBook Air was the clear winner among CNET readers, pulling in 40 percent of the total vote.

And this is for a product that, while churning in the rumor mill for the last several months, lacks even the sparse documented evidence that Apple's expected HDTV has (such as this recent spec-heavy Best Buy survey of purported features). … Read more

If you've watched our extensive laptop coverage from CES 2012, only to look down at your own busted-up old clunker of a machine, then 2012 might be the year you buy a new laptop.

And with so many high-end, high-design systems hitting store shelves this year, there are more worthy candidates than ever to choose from, and many of them fall into the still-new ultrabook category.

If you need a refresher on what "ultrabook" means, it's an Intel marketing term (much like Centrino was), encompassing a growing category of Windows laptops that are thin and reasonably powerful (typically under 188 millimeters thick with the latest Core i-series processors), with good battery life and at least some solid-state-drive (SSD) storage.

With all the ultrabooks already confirmed for 2012, it's a fairly safe bet that your next laptop will be a very thin one.

Running from just under $1,000 to $1,500 or more, the 2012 laptops that seem the most exciting aren't exactly the least expensive we've ever seen, especially after several years of falling prices, but at least they all look good.

Our question for you is: based on design, price, components, and features, which of these highly anticipated 2012 laptops are you hoping to buy this year?

Below you'll find a brief executive summary of each one, linked to more in-depth coverage, with our take on why it's a lustworthy machine. Check out the contenders, then vote in our poll. Or, if you have a different choice, let us know in the comments section below. … Read more

This week, we go over some Super Bowl TV tips, including what to do if you're not going to be near a TV at all. Julie talks about developing new battery life tests, and Josh laments the decline of the compact point-and-shoot camera.

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A handful of prototype laptops spotted at CES with Microsoft's Kinect hardware built in are currently generating some serious buzz.

Originally a hardware add-on for the Xbox 360 game console, the Kinect has the potential to be built into a lot of devices, at least those that run Windows. Enterprising hobbyists have already hacked it to work on PCs, and the next step is to take the bulky oversize Webcam hardware and shrink it down so it fits inside a laptop, with no external hardware required.

The Daily originally pointed out these prototypes, and described them as follows: "The devices, which at first glance appear to be Asus Netbooks running Windows 8, feature an array of small sensors stretching over the top of the screen where the Webcam would normally be. At the bottom of the display is a set of what appear to be LEDs."

My colleague Scott Stein was aptly dubious:… Read more

It's not every year that laptops take center stage (or even close to it) at CES. But in 2012, a combination of ultrabook hype and inventive product designs combined to make portable computers the most interesting category of the show.

A few weeks back, during CES, we shot the second version of what we're now calling the Laptop Talk Show. The show was streamed live online, and shot in front of a live audience, but has not been made available for on-demand viewing until now. This year's version features myself, Scott Stein, and Molly Wood going over … Read more

There's no trial by fire for a laptop that matches a week in Las Vegas covering the annual CES show.

It's interesting to note that both members of CNET's laptop reviewing team brought ultraportable laptops (which usually have 11-inch, but sometimes 12-inch, displays) to CES 2011, and then 13-inch laptops to CES 2012. This wasn't preplanned, but it was enough of a coincidence that it's worth looking at the advantages and disadvantages we encountered from both laptop sizes.

It's a perfect stress test for laptops because this kind of work requires long battery life (… Read more

Back from CES, we show off some video clips of our favorite products, Ty tells us why OLED matters, and Scott and Dan debate the best laptop for covering trade shows.

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It's the kind of announcement one expects to hear at CES, not a week or two after. Sony has updated part of its Vaio laptop line with new CPUs and new colors. But don't get too excited, these minor upgrades say nothing about any possible future systems meeting Intel's ultrabook spec, or using the next generation of Core i-series CPUs, expected around midyear.

The high-end Vaio Z (starting at $1,949), is adding a new color, Carbon Silver, to go alongside Carbon Black and Carbon Gold (and Premium Carbon Black, which we believe means "matte"). … Read more