Laptop Computers News » Laptop Reviews

Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds Reviewed

dave — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 03:41:47 +0000

Lenovo’s Thinkpad W700ds is the first laptop ever to sport two LCD screens – a 17-inch primary and a 10.6-inch secondary screen. The laptop comes with your choice of Intel Core 2 Quad processors and combined with the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M GPU. It will also comes with up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, and a pair of hard drive/solid-state drive bays for up to 960GB of storage.

While Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds is expected to be available in January 2009, Laptop Magazine has already get their hands on and published a review for this dual-screen laptop. They have rated the laptop 4 out of 5 stars, and here’s the verdict:

“Like previous W700s, the Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds incorporates a slew of innovative features, but its secondary display is truly groundbreaking. Exact pricing has not yet been set, but our configuration is valued at close to $4,600 without the secondary screen, and Lenovo said that the second screen will come with a $500 premium. You can bring the cost down by hundreds of dollars and still get the secondary display if you configure the system with a dual-core CPU, a slower graphics chip, and a single hard drive.

So is a 10.6-inch screen worth an extra $500 when 19-inch external monitors can be had for $100? It is if you need to take that screen with you to a work site and you can’t pack an external monitor in a carton. As mobile components become less expensive, we expect the prices of high-performance notebooks like this one to come closer to those of similarly configured desktops. If you need that kind of mobile horsepower and versatility today, the W700ds is worth every penny.

Though a few lucky souls have already wrapped their paws around Lenovo’s completely unorthodox W700ds, the dual-screened machine has yet to undergo a proper review… until now. Laptop Mag found the rig to be expectedly dominant in all the right areas, with a ridiculous graphics performance and a stunning display. Yeah, display. As in, singular. The main 17-inch panel was nothing short of stupendous, though the pull-out 10.6-inch LCD was said to be “significantly duller and dimmer.” Additionally, the vertical orientation wasn’t well suited for much of anything outside of sidebar applications (chat boxes, Photoshop toolbars, etc.), but you probably knew that already, didn’t you? All told, the W700ds wasn’t deemed the best value in the world with an anticipated price point of around $5,000, but those with highly specialized needs might just pay the premium to make their dreams come true.”

(Read the full review for Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds on Laptop Magazine)

Dell Inspiron Mini 12 Review

dave — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:24:07 +0000

By just looking at the specs and price, Dell Inspiron Mini 12 seems to be a great laptop. In terms of overall performance, Laptop Magazine is rating this laptop 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Here are the summary pros and cons from the review:

Pros
Glossy 12.1-inch screen
Slim design
Excellent battery life with six-cell battery
Nearly full-size keyboard

Cons
Sluggish performance under Vista
Slow hard drive
Quiet speakers

Looks like even though the Inspiron Mini 12 has a good spec, the performance is being dragged down by the Vista. If you are going to get this laptop, you would better get it installed with either Linux or XP.

[Source: Laptop Magazine]

Asus Eee PC S101 Reviewed

dave — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:11:07 +0000

Laptop Magazine has reviewed the Asus Eee PC S101, and given the luxury netbook a rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Overall, they find Eee PC S101 to be best-looking mini-notebook on the market. The multi-touch trackpad and spacious keyboard were both praised. However, the $699 machine shares almost all of the same internal components with the $449 Eee PC 1000H, which means you pay $200+ just for the cosmetic difference.

Pros

* Head-turning, fashionable design
* Multi-touch trackpad
* Spacious keyboard
* Included 30GB of online storage

Cons

* Relatively expensive
* No extended battery option
* Awkwardly placed right Shift key

Read the full review on Laptop Magazine.

Sony VAIO TT Reviewed

dave — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:12:36 +0000

Sony VAIO has been reviewed by Cnet, and get a rating of 4 out of 5 stars!

The good: Sleek, carbon-fiber chassis; includes Blu-ray drive and HDMI port; twin 128GB solid-state hard drives, 16:9 display; excellent battery life.

The bad: Painfully expensive; faster than Atom-powered Netbooks, but still not a speed demon.

The bottom line: Small laptops have become synonymous with low-cost Netbooks, but Sony’s Vaio TT reminds us why some ultraportables can cost almost 10 times as much (hint: the 256GB SSD helps).

The unit that’s being reviewed has Intel Core 2 Duo (1.2 GHz), and 2 GB DDR3 SDRAM. Read the full review from Cnet. Overall, Cnet think that the VAIO TT is a great ultraportable with good performance and pretty design. The only drawback would be the price.

Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Get Reviewed

dave — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:47:21 +0000

The IdeaPad S10 has been reviewed by Laptop Magazine recently. They have given the netbook a rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Overall, they find the S10 netbook to be stylish, having a good viewing angles display, and fast hard drive. But on the other hand, they also find a few drawbacks for the machine, which includes small keyboard, warm temperature, and short battery life.

Read the full review here.

Asus N10 – First Netbook(or not?) Suitable For Gaming

dave — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:14:33 +0000

Mobile Computer has written a great review about Asus N10, and calling it a “gaming netbook”. While Asus says that the N10 does not belong to the netbook category, we can actually see quite a bit of netbook characteristics on Asus N10, such as using Intel Atom N270 processor, 10-inch screen size, and its price which falls into the netbook price range. Anyway, regardless of whether the N10 is a netbook or not, this machine is getting positive feedback from the review. Be sure to check out the full review post here.

The Asus N10 is now available for pre-order online.