How to Buy a Netbook

The first batch of netbooks to hit the scene was greeted with awe and surprise. Those tiny laptops, which were once sold at a premium, could be had for half the price of a typical system seemed incredible. Since then, netbooks have taken a backseat to tablets, as the Apple iPad and countless "me-toos" have caused a lull in their production. Furthermore, full size laptops, which used to cost twice as much as netbooks, are now competing in this price range. But that doesn't mean demand for netbooks have fizzled out completely. Sure, the stakes have risen, and netbooks manufacturers are now vying for a spot in a very tight space, which is why the latest crop of netbooks have evolved to include more features, bigger screens and keyboards, and faster parts—all while slashing prices like a Walmart special.

Even though new netbooks aren't launching at a torrid pace, like they were a year ago, the choices are still mind boggling. They're available from all sorts of household names, such as ASUS, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. As a category, netbooks are such a diverse group that it's hard to come up with a single, all-encompassing definition. The best indicators that you're dealing with a netbook are a low price, light weight, and low-powered components. It's likely the system will have a screen on the smaller side and a basic feature set. Still, netbooks vary in screen size, typing experience, and specialty features. On the component side, AMD and Intel are silently going at it, though neither has launched any new chips in a while. Despite their current state, there are certainly enough netbooks that warrant further explanation. Luckily, this netbook buying guide does just that.

Larger Screens, Bigger Keyboards
It's generally easy enough to tell a netbook from other laptops, but to distinguish between systems, you'll need to do a little homework. In the past, screen sizes defaulted to 10-inches with 1,024-by-600 resolutions on almost every single netbook. These days, netbooks are breaking away from this trend. Oversized netbooks like the HP Pavilion dm1z Best Deal: %displayPrice% at %seller% and Lenovo ThinkPad X120e (Best Deal: $600.99 at Amazon Marketplace) are sold with 11.6-inch widescreens, while the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 (Ion) and the Asus EeePC 1215B are shipping with 12-inch ones. And their resolutions, as a result, are upped to HD-capable ones (1,366-by-768).

Once upon a time, full-sized keyboards were few and far between, but now they exist in netbooks as small as 10-inches. Case in point: The Toshiba mini NB305-N600 Best Deal: %displayPrice% at %seller%, Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3, and Acer Aspire One D260-1270 squeezed one in to their 10-inch frames. Since the vast majority of newer netbooks are launching with bigger screens (11-12-inches), a full size keyboard is guaranteed.

Usual Array of Features, Some Exceptions
Most netbooks provide an abundance of USB ports, Webcams, card readers, and built-in Wi-Fi. What they usually don't come with is an optical drive. Some, like the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t and Dell Inspiron Duo Best Deal: %displayPrice% at %seller%, are convertible tablets that have a touchscreen on a rotating hinge. Bluetooth is a frequently bundled feature in netbooks, while embedded 3G modems, which can use cellular signals to acquire broadband speeds, can be found in the HP Mini 5103 (Best Deal: $479.99 at Amazon Marketplace) and Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (HD).

Atom Platform, Mostly
It used to be that the Intel Atom platform, made up of the Atom processor, integrated graphics, and memory (usually 1GB), was the most widely used in a netbook. Now AMD, with its latest Fusion APUs, has become a big presence in this space. Not only are AMD APUs faster any given Atom processor, but they're as battery efficient and have better graphics capabilities. You're also more likely to find 3GB-4GB memory configuration in AMD netbooks than from Intel ones. The AMD E-350 APU, for instance, can be found in the Lenovo Ideapad S205, Acer Aspire One 722-BZ480, and HP dm1z.

Intel is already into its fourth generation of Atom processors, the most recent of which are the 1.6GHz Intel Atom N455 and the 1.83GHz Intel Atom N475. These are single-core processors that have been updated with DDR3 memory support. The dual-core version—the 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550—can already be found in a handful of netbooks, and improves performance by up to 20% over the single-core Atoms, without impacting battery life.

What to Consider
Standard netbook batteries start with 3-cell (less than 30Wh) units, but many netbooks are now standardizing on 6-cell batteries. Our battery tests have shown that the smaller batteries will get you anywhere from 2 to 3 hours of battery life on a single charge, while the bigger ones range between 7 to 10 hours. If your activities include trips abroad and all-day classes, consider looking for netbooks that ship with 6-cell options. You'll also find two hard drive choices: solid-state drives (SSDs) and spinning hard drives. The consensus is that spinning drives offer the best gigabyte-per-dollar ratio, and most of them start with at least 250GB of storage space. While SSDs have faster transfer speeds, are durable, and have longer life spans, they command much higher premiums than their spinning counterparts. In an extreme case, upgrading to a 128GB SSD in the HP 5103 will cost you an additional $400, more than the entire price of our review system.

What You Can Do With Them
Don't underestimate the capabilities of these machines. Netbooks are not just limited to Web surfing, compiling spreadsheets, or word processing. You can offload your photos from a digital camera and edit them using a program like Adobe Photoshop Elements 9. With lots of patience, you can transcode video to another format using Windows Media Encoder 11 or edit video footage using Adobe Premiere Elements 9, or run your entire music library off of a program like Apple iTunes. A netbook can play video from sites like YouTube or a movie from an external USB drive, unmarred by distortions and lag. Businesses, too, are considering these pint-size laptops because you can run various e-mail clients, put them on a network, install a VPN client, and secure them with antivirus and antispyware suites.

At the price points we're seeing in the netbook market—namely $300 to $500—sex appeal isn't off limits either on a netbook. The HP 5103 has a sleek-looking aluminum frame, while the Toshiba NB305-N600 uses colors and textures in its favor. Though the future of netbooks remains a big question mark, what with the tablet boom and full size laptops that can be had for about the same price, the demand for them has not fizzled. There's a wide selection for those who want a pint-sized laptop that won't cost them an arm and a leg.

Laptop Computer Reviews

Why Buy a New Laptop Computer

Laptops are portable, stylish and highly efficient computing devices. They make it possible to continue working away from home or the office, accomplish schoolwork and view multimedia content. With so much available on these small devices, anyone can find some use for these computers, whether it's for business, work or play.

If you're a business professional, laptops allow you to take your work on the road. Their small size makes it easy to slide them in a bag and take them with you wherever you may go. The Wi-Fi connection on the laptop allows you to read, send emails or access the internet. For a student, a laptop is a worthy option for note taking during class; you can easily type papers on the large keyboard or read articles on the 11- to 17-inch display screen.

If you are looking for a laptop for multimedia activities, the best laptops offer webcams and built-in mics for web conferencing and video chats. They offer high-resolution displays and graphics for viewing movies or TV shows and a large hard disk for storing music, photos, movies and other files.

Take a look at our articles on laptop computers for more in-depth information regarding these computing devices. Don’t forget to look at our top-three laptop computers: the HP ENVY 17, Sony S Series and the Dell XPS 15z.

Laptop Computers: What to Look For

When deciding upon which laptop is best for you, you need to determine the type of work you will most frequently use your computer to perform. If you plan to use your laptop to check email, browse the internet or listen to music, you don’t need anything too powerful. However, if you plan to travel with your computer, store many files or documents and access information, you want a device with a long battery life, adequate hard-disk space, a memory-card reader, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections.

Below are the criteria we used to evaluate laptop computers.

Design:
The main purpose of a laptop computer is portability. Each computer offers different dimensions, so it is vital that you look at the device before you buy it to ensure it is not too large. Laptops offer a vast selection of display features. You can find a screen size on one of these devices ranging from 11 inches up to 17 inches. You may find these computers in an assortment of colors from black and brown to bright green or orange. The top laptops are also ENERGY STAR qualified, meaning they have energy-efficient features.

Performance:
The best laptops feature a fast processor. You don’t want to wait around all day for files to download or applications to open. You also need a video card and an operating system that performs well and is user friendly.

Feature Set:
Several connectivity options such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are most often found in some of the top laptops on the market. In addition, you will find options with a webcam and a built-in microphone for video chats or web conferences. Several laptop computer models also include a few extra features such as a Blu-Ray disc drive or built-in security features.

Memory/Battery Life:
The memory and battery life available on your laptop are crucial. Without a large amount of internal memory, you can’t save all your files, applications, music and other content on your device. Most of laptops offer between 2GB and 8GB of RAM memory. In addition, without a long battery life, you may find yourself without power at the most inconvenient times. The best laptops offer up to 7 hours of battery life on a single charge.

Support/Warranty:
Wear and tear happens to electronic devices no matter how well you take care of them. Before you buy, look at the warranty for the device. Most computers feature a one-year warranty, but some may offer more, along with extended warranty options. Also, if problems occur, you need a company with customer-service representatives who will help you resolve your issues. Many manufacturers offer email, phone and live chat support for their customers to help them when technical problems arise.

If you combine all of these elements into one computing device, you will create the ultimate laptop computer. Portability, design, power, speed and space will all come together to give you the laptop that is the best fit for you needs.

Business Laptop - Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt)

As fate would have it, an Intel chipset glitch delayed shipments of almost every laptop manufacturer, save one. Apple, which has typically been last in transitioning to new technology, is now among the first to launch laptops with Sandy Bridge (known officially as second-generation Core CPUs)—and arriving first has its privileges. The Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) ($2,199 direct) is the fastest laptop on our bench, thanks to a component overhaul that involves the first ever quad-core processor on a Mac laptop and a rekindled romance with AMD graphics. And then there's Thunderbolt, a new connection technology that has mounds of potential, but I'll contain my excitement until compatible peripherals ship. This, and a new Facetime HD Webcam, places the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) at the peak of technology's Mount Olympus and earns it an Editor's Choice in the desktop replacement laptop category.

Thunderbolt Icon Is the only Design Change
Design-wise, don't expect a thinner or lighter laptop. The only change to the design is the addition of a Thunderbolt icon next to mini-Displayport. The MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) keeps its wondrous shape and form, since all of the changes are from within. At the moment, I don't see a need to alter its exterior. It's still the thinnest, most streamlined laptop in its class, made so by carving the center out of a thin slab of aluminum. It's at least a quarter of an inch thinner and about a pound lighter, at 5.5 pounds, than the Dell XPS 15 ($1,115 direct, 4.5 stars) (6.3 lbs) and Asus N53JF-XE1 ($1,015 street, 4 stars) (6.3 lbs).
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Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) : Top
Apple MacBook Pro : Angle
Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) : Angle
Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) : Front

The MacBook Pro15-inch (Thunderbolt) has several screen options, all of which require that you pay a significant premium, although I can't think of many consumer laptops that have an anti-glare screen (a $150 option). There are laptops that can scale to higher resolutions, though. The XPS 15 and the N53JF-XE1 either ship or have an option for a 1080p display (1,920-by-1,080); the Macbook Pro 15-inch is available with a 1,440-by-900 or 1,680-by-1,050 display ($100). Still, having screen options is a luxury that few others are willing to offer. The HP Pavilion dv7-4283cl, for instance, is only available with a glossy screen and 1,600-by-900 resolution.

The chiclet-style keyboard carries on the Macbook Pro tradition of black keys that matches the black of the screen's bezel. Backlights, which are found between the keys and aluminum foundation, are absolutely invaluable in low-lit situations. You can also find a backlit keyboard in the XPS 15. The signature Apple clickpad dwarfs all others in terms of size and responsiveness. No other touchpad can recognize two- to four-finger gestures as accurately and fluidly as Apple's, and the reason for this is two-fold: First, it's made of glass, which doesn't wear out over time. Others use acrylic or some lesser material in their touchpad construction. Second, the coding drivers and software for the touchpad are created in-house (instead of through some third-party developer) so that each click, swipe, or pinch works to perfection.

What is Thunderbolt?
The last time Apple led the way with a new connection technology was when it initiated the FireWire standard. Thunderbolt, an I/O technology from Intel (codenamed Light Peak), operates under a similar principle in that it boosts transfer rates to unprecedented levels. The technology lives inside the mini-Displayport, so structurally the port looks exactly like the one in the previous MacBook Pro iterations. But when it's connected to a Thunderbolt-equipped peripheral, transfer rates can hit a theoretical 10Gbps. That's roughly 21 times the speed of USB 2.0 and FireWire 400, 12 times that of Firewire 800, and twice that of USB 3.0.

The Thunderbolt port, as Apple explains it, is essentially taking PCI Express—the channel that every port and slot goes through—out of the box. It's like finding the shortcut that gets you directly onto the five-lane highway. Originally, Intel designed Thunderbolt to work over an optical cable, but because it has yet to figure out how to power external peripherals through this method, copper is used instead. You'll need a new cable that runs from the Thunderbolt/mini-Displayport to the external device. Yes, it can still output to an external display—or connect to any device for that matter. As proof, Apple demonstrated a RAID server (made by Promise Technologies) attached to the laptop, which was then attached to an Apple Cinema Display, in a daisy chain configuration. Thunderbolt is bi-directional, meaning it can have two streams going at the same time—up to 10Gbps for each stream. In practice, for instance, you can simultaneously stream four uncompressed 1080p video clips from the RAID server to the laptop (first stream) and then display out to the Cinema Display at the same time (second stream) without lag or distortion. You can barely stream one uncompressed 1080p clip through FireWire, let alone four. During Apple's demonstration, transfer speeds were peaking at 5Gbps—the realistic speed of Thunderbolt, judging by the throughput meter Apple had in place.

You can also think of Thunderbolt as a universal port. If a company were to create a Thunderbolt hub or adapter, it can work with all sorts of connection technologies, including FireWire, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, eSATA, and Gigabit Ethernet. Remember, all of these technologies go through PCI Express at some point. Before you get too excited, though, Thunderbolt peripherals won't ship for months (the ones that were on display were prototypes), and Apple is rumored to have an exclusive on this technology until 2012. So doubts about its adoption rate is completely understandable. Update: Intel pointed out that there is no exclusivity on Thunderbolt, OEMs are free to implement it when they think the time is right.)

Facetime HD and Usual Suspects of Features
With the new HD Webcam sensor, video feeds no longer look grainy or grotesquely stretched when filling the entire screen. The streams are broadcast at a resolution of 1,280-by-720 (720p), which is about 3 times the resolution of the Webcam in previous MacBook Pro models. Video chatting with the Facetime app, over a Wi-Fi connection, was free of distortions. The MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) isn't the only laptop with an HD Webcam, though. You can find one in the Dell XPS 15, which has a Skype-certified HD Webcam. Lenovo, Sony, and HP have also rolled out laptops with 720p-capable HD Webcams.

Every other port and slot remains untouched from the previous iteration. It has two USB ports, FireWire 800, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and SDXC media card slot. The dual-layer DVD burner will seem generic compared with the Blu-Ray drives found in the Dell XPS 15 and HP Pavilion dv7-4283cl ($999.99 list, 4 stars). And don't expect to see a Blu-ray drive in a Mac laptop anytime soon, as this is a road Apple so far refuses to take. This configuration ships with a 750GB hard drive that spins at 5400rpm; the Dell XPS 15 and HP dv7-4283cl come with faster 7200rpm drives. The MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) offers SSD drives as well, in 128GB ($100), 256GB ($500), and 512GB ($1,100) capacities.

Massive Component Overhaul
Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) With Intel's second-generation Core architecture, this isn't a mere brain transplant where you swap out one processor for another—it's a multi-organ makeover. For the first time in MacBook Pro history, the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) is equipped with a quad-core processor—a 2.2GHz, Intel Core i7-2720QM (past models had dual-core processors). The two extra cores play a vital role in multithreaded tasks, such as those found in professional video and photo editing packages (think Final Cut Pro and Adobe Products). A revamped architecture also means faster memory speeds (up to 1333MHz), although capacities are still 4GB to start, 8GB ($200) maximum.

On our PCMark Vantage test—a gauge of overall performance—the MacBook Pro 15-inch scored 8,315 (under Windows 7 Home Premium via Bootcamp), outpacing the Asus N53SV-A1 (7,257), which has a second-generation 2GHz Intel Core i7 2630QM CPU and 4GB of memory (stay tuned for our review).. The MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) finished Handbrake, a single-threaded video transcoding test, in 1 minute 53 seconds, well ahead of the Asus N53SV-A1 (2:06). It crushed the previous Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5), particularly in Cinebench 11.5 (5.07) and Handbrake (1:53) tests where the gains were doubled. It wouldn't even be fair to compare the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) to the Dell XPS 15, Asus N53JF-XE1, and HP dv7-4283cl, since the other three are running previous-generation Intel parts. Suffice it to say, it was a massacre, but I suppose being first with new technologies on our labs bench has its advantages.

One of the more unexpected changes lies in the graphics. Apple has long been an Nvidia proponent on the laptop side, although it has used ATI (now AMD) graphics chips in the past. But the company believes that the AMD Radeon 6750M is a better 3D chip, and the performance numbers bear that out. This is the first time a MacBook Pro has broken the 10,000 point mark in 3DMark06 (it scored 10,878), edging the Asus N53SV-A1 (10,073) and its Nvidia GeForce GT 540M GPU. The MacBook Pro15-inch (Thunderbolt) blew past the Dell XPS 15 (8,174) and HP dv7-4283cl (4,723) in the same test, although the Dell XPS 15 is being updated with a new Nvidia chip as we speak. At high-quality settings, popular game titles like Crysis (18.8 frames per second) and Lost Planet 2 (30.8 fps) were absolutely playable, as I found out by running them in Windows 7, via Bootcamp.

Apple also found a way to link its Automatic Graphics Switching (AGS) technology with the AMD graphics chip, whereas Windows-based laptops are still performing the switch manually through software. The switch, like the previous iteration, is done automatically by recognizing which apps or tasks require a heavy-duty graphics chip. So plugging in an external display, running 3D games, or transcoding an HD video defaults to the AMD Radeon 6750M, while basic tasks (e-mail, Web browsing, etc) defaults to the integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics. Apple will also let you to force the laptop to run on the AMD graphics, done through system preferences.

Although the size of the battery didn't change and the internals aren't any more energy efficient than the previous platform, the MacBook 15-inch (Thunderbolt) improved its battery score on MobileMark 2007 (run in Windows via Bootcamp) to 4 hours 40 minutes (from 3 hours, 21 minutes in the previous version). It goes without saying that power management and battery optimizations are better tuned in the Mac OS 10 environment than in Windows7, which is why I also looped a MP4 movie file in OS 10 until the battery died. The 15-inch lasted 6 hours 43 minutes in this test. Whether it's in Windows 7 or Mac OS 10, it outlasted the Dell XPS 15 (3:48 on MobileMark 2007) and Asus N53JF-XE1 (3:15).

Final Thoughts
Now, I realize that it's still early in the game, as scores of laptops will eventually arrive on my bench with Intel's second-generation chips and with graphics chips as powerful as the ones found in Apple's new laptops. As it stands, however, the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) is the fastest and fastest shipping laptop to date (you can stroll into Apple store and buy one as we speak), and it's all thanks to an Intel chipset glitch that prevented every other manufacturer from shipping their new laptops on time. Apple has assured me that this glitch will not affect any of the MacBook Pros, since they're all using new and unaffected chipsets from Intel.

As for the new Intel architecture, this happens once every year, if not longer, and Apple made the most of it. The speeds clocked from our full range of performance tests were mind-blowingly fast, as were the graphics frame rates that came from a renewed partnership with AMD. Although Thunderbolt is still very early in its third-party support stages, it's a hot new technology that Apple wrestled away from everyone else. Add the Facetime HD Webcam and the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) is a technological tour de force.