Good performance, Classy design, Competitively priced, Loud speakers

Awkward touchpad buttons, Design a bit thick, Mediocre viewing angles

The 2.0-megapixel webcam showed pleasant lighting in both still shots and VGA video. Stills, in particular, included an impressive amount of detail, such as the shine in our hair. Video captures looked smooth, but because it's fixed focus, the image ...

Stylish dark brown design, Good performance, Loud speakers, Comfortable keyboard, Helpful Eco utility

Small touchpad, Webcam video a bit dark

The U505 sports a flat keyboard whose layout leaves a good bit of room on either side of the deck. The result is that some of the keys (like the right Shift key) are slightly undersized. However, we liked the feel of the keys themselves, and that ...

Attractive Fusion Finish, Comfortable keyboard and number pad, Dedicated media control buttons, eSATA port for fast backups

Poor battery life, Display has limited viewing angles, Mediocre benchmark scores, Lacks HDMI port

A 1.3-megapixel webcam and microphone above the display provided decent images in a video chat over Skype; while a little drab, a caller could make out the color of our eyes. However, there was a bit of motion blur when we waved our hand about two ...

Stylish, lightweight design, Durable construction, Three-year warranty

Small, slow hard drive, Mediocre performance, Slightly awkward keyboard

The ruggedness of the Getac 9213 compares with that of the Panasonic Toughbook F8 (starting at $2,499), which can withstand as much as 6 ounces of liquid and is drop resistant to 30 inches. The HP EliteBook line doesn't make drop claims, but has been ...

Bright 16:9 display, Comfortable keyboard, touchpad, and touch buttons, Loud speakers, Convenient Dell Dock and backup software

Lacks webcam at this price, No HDMI port

The speaker strip is, in a word: loud. Whereas many budget notebooks' speakers are so weak that we usually leave the volume at or close to its maximum, the Inspiron 15's speaker was so loud we didn't feel the need to crank it past its median setting. ...

High-def display and Blu-ray, Attractive design, Huge 1TB hard drive, Two-year warranty

Low speaker volume, Fingerprint-prone design, Mediocre graphics performance

To the left of the keyboard is a strip that houses four neon-blue backlit buttons that let us adjust the visual settings (Vivid, Theater, Soft, Normal, Gamma Correction), enable or disable the touchpad, switch battery modes (Quiet Office, Battery ...

Above-average performance, Long battery life, Fast boot time, Sleek, understated design

Awkward touchpad buttons, No fingerprint reader

The 2-megapixel webcam produced smooth VGA video, but we wish it were brighter. Also, even though we spoke at a normal volume, the mic didn't pick up our voice well; we had to crank it up to make out our voice, and, even then, it sounded faint. Our ...

Attractive design, Good productivity performance, High-quality Altec Lansing speakers, Responsive touch controls, Fast Wi-Fi throughput

Touchpad has too much friction, Relatively short battery life, Somewhat thick design

Twin Altec Lansing speakers provided very loud, room-filling sound when watching DVDs and listening to music. While streaming tunes from Slacker, songs with strong bass lines (such as Brick's "Dusic") packed a satisfying amount of thump.

Above-average performance, Long battery life, Strong wireless range, Understated, lightweight design, Home and Office modes change the buttons on the chassis

Mediocre webcam, Includes more software and trialware than other SMB notebooks

The ArcSoft WebCam Companion software's white-and-blue interface isn't the sleekest, but its task-oriented main screen makes it easy to navigate. When you finish snapping or recording a capture, you'll see a thumbnail in a pane to the left. A separate ...

Elegant design, Easy to carry, Good battery life, Affordable price

Speakers not very loud, Runs warm

With a generous array of ports, Lenovo has left no consumer need unfilled on the Y450. In addition to such industry standards as three USB ports, audio jacks, VGA, Ethernet, and a 6-in-one memory card reader, this notebook also has an HDMI port for ...