Sharp design and good build quality; comfortable keyboard and touch pad; backlit keys; lengthy battery life without bulky battery; two-year warranty

Awful speakers, even for a midsize laptop

As a general purpose productivity machine, the Toshiba Satellite E105-S1802 strikes a number of right notes. Its dreadful speakers, however, limit its entertainment value

Amazingly powerful for a 15-inch laptop; highly configurable; adds 16:9 display

Configuration options can get expensive; far from portable

Alienware's big and bulky 15-inch M15x pulls out most of the stops, thanks to a superpowered CPU.

Very thin; solid design; good battery life

Slower than a typical Core 2 Duo laptop; no Bluetooth

The design and portability of the Asus UL50AG make it one of the slickest 15.6-inch DVD-drive-equipped laptops we've seen, but an ultralow-voltage processor compromises its computing power.

Affordable thin-and-light; strong battery life

Tinny speakers; no Bluetooth

For a budget Windows 7 thin-and-light that won't need to recharge often, you could do a lot worse than the Toshiba Satellite T135-S1309.

Good configuration and performance for the money; simple, straightforward design

Minimal port assortment; glossy plastic build

The Dell Inspiron i1545-4374PBU is a good, if basic, laptop with a strong price-to-performance ratio.

Nice display; very good feature set, design

A couple strange design choices; weak processor

The Gateway NV5207u is certainly above average for the money, but its processor is a dog.

Large screen, great speakers; excellent battery life

Heavy; massive battery; no Bluetooth

Good design and some really nice-sounding speakers round out the Toshiba Satellite A505-S6980, a very affordable mainstream laptop with excellent battery life for its size.

Ridiculously affordable; large screen

Slow, older CPU; no Webcam; terrible battery life

While it's hard to argue with a $350 laptop, the old-fashioned-looking L455-S5975 cuts some serious corners to get you a package that will suit only basic users.

Amazingly thin and light; great battery life with extended battery; faster than other Netbooks; big 128GB solid-state hard drive

Underpowered for such an expensive system; default battery is short-lived

Sony's bold experiment--a high-end luxury system with essentially Netbook components--makes an enviable coffee shop conversation piece, but one that includes some serious sticker shock.

The Archos 5 Internet tablet/portable media player offers a large, high-resolution touch-screen display, Wi-Fi, music playback, photos, Flash video and game compatibility, Bluetooth, e-mail, a Web browser, a built-in speaker, an integrated kickstand, ...

GPS signal reception is poor enough to make the feature useless; many popular Android apps are unsupported; Flash video support is hit or miss; no multitouch support for keyboard or gestures; text copy and paste is a chore; and the glossy design shows ...

The Archos 5 is a great video player, but it disappoints as a premium Android Internet tablet and GPS unit.