Long battery life ; solid performance for the money ; great-sounding speakers ; HDMI out

Glossy design is fingerprint magnet ; slick keyboard ; no Bluetooth

Good components and a big battery push the Toshiba Satellite A505-S6960 in front of other retail budget laptops.

Good keyboard and touch pad ; decent 16x9 screen

Worse-than-average AMD processor and battery life ; no Bluetooth

For $549, the HP Pavilion G60-235dx has a mediocre processor and performance in a package that's not much of a bargain.

Subtle improvements to Alienware's dorm-room-chic design ; amazingly fast and powerful ; highly configurable

Good configs can get very expensive ; no 16:9 display ; garish lights don't scream "high end

Alienware's new version of the M17x makes some welcome design tweaks and offers the best laptop gaming hardware you can get. Just be warned: it ain't cheap.

Attractive design ; large LCD for the money ; touch multimedia controls ; great speakers

Slow performance ; short battery life

The Toshiba Satellite P505D-S8930 is perfect if you need a large-screen portable computer, but you're not too much of a multitasker or in need of a long battery life.

Dual-core CPU for about the same price as a Netbook ; 16:9 wide-screen display

Very stripped-down design ; missing some basic features

The Dell Inspiron i1545-012B is one of the better deals you'll find for a mainstream laptop priced less than $500.

Ridiculously affordable ; decent screen ; handles streaming video well

Slow, older CPU ; thick and boxy ; no Webcam

While it's hard to argue with a $350 laptop, the underpowered L305-S5955 is, basically, a Netbook in a larger case, with slightly better video playback.

Features a dual-core processor for a very aggressive, entry-level price

Unattractive, bulky design ; missing useful features such as Bluetooth or a Webcam

For a price just north of Netbook territory, Toshiba's chunky 15.6-inch Satellite L505D-S5965 has a solid, but uninspiring, selection of specs that at least won't hinder your basic computing needs.

Subtle, attractive design ; comfortable keyboard ; very good battery life, performance for its class

Limited growth potential

As long as you won't need more than what it already has, the budget-friendly Asus K50IJ-RX05 is money well spent.

Good components for cost ; secondary instant-on Linux OS ; separate number pad

Big, heavy, and power hungry ; mixed performance ; lights can't be completely shut off ; no dedicated media controls

The Asus G71GX-RX05 is a solid gaming-oriented desktop replacement, but with a few shortcomings that could make or break a purchasing decision.

Plenty of RAM and a big hard drive ; slick, attractive design ; discrete graphics ; quad-core CPU

Screen resolution is low for the price ; no Blu-ray drive

HP makes excellent, slick multimedia machines, such as the Pavilion dv7-2185DX, but we'd still trade its quad-core CPU for a full HD 1080p display and Blu-ray.