As much as I like what Samsung is doing with its new Go netbook (known as the N310 overseas), the company is about this close to surpassing Asus as the king of the shotgun-delivery method, releasing netbooks every 2 minutes. Never mind my cattiness, ...

Stylish, rubberized design ; Good keyboard

Obnoxiously large logo on the lid

Of course, all of this beauty comes at a price: The Go skews slightly toward the costly side, selling for $479 (as of 7/30/09; you'll probably see it for $449 online). Is it worth the cash? On paper--and considering my initial experiences--it would ...

The Asus N90SV-A2 desktop replacement laptop is roughly the size of two 15-inch notebooks turned vertically and placed side by side. Movies and games look great on the large (18.4-inch diagonal), bright, full-HD-resolution (1920 by 1080) screen. (Asus ...

Giant HD screen ; Tons of hard drive space onboard

Bulky design ; Mediocre performance for its class

The N90SV-A2 has an appealing price, but I'd rather have a faster chip set, faster RAM, and a faster GPU than so much hard drive space. The screen is impressively large, but not great in color or contrast. And the overall notebook design is uninspired ...

Though Lenovo's ThinkPad business laptops have a reputation for no-nonsense design, the company also produces low-priced, consumer all-purpose laptops that look as good as they feel. Just take a look at the IdeaPad Y450, a 14-inch multimedia laptop ...

Solid keyboard ; good looks ; Great value for the included features

Way too much bloatware ; Vertical viewing angle a bit uneven

Unfortunately, the Windows Home Premium-powered Y450 also has more than enough bloatware to drive you up a wall. Some of the software seems useful at first, but the implementation is poor. The unintuitive but good-looking MediaShow media organizer, ...

The MacBook Air is a product that lives on the margins. It's the slowest laptop--indeed, the slowest computer--in the Mac line. It omits many features that are standard on other Mac laptops, such as multiple USB ports, FireWire ports, an ethernet port ...

Incredibly lightweight ; Bright, beautiful screen

Slow performance ; Only one USB port

But if the specs that matter most to you are light weight and small size, the MacBook Air is the system for you. These new models aren't much faster than their predecessors (according to Macworld's findings)--in fact, the high-end system is slower ...

The Acer Aspire 3810T, aka the Acer Timeline, has two things going for it: This model is one of the first laptops out the gate to use an Intel CULV processor (in this case, the 1.4GHz U9400). The 3810T also has a sharp style that's sure to grab ...

Great performance for its class ; Thoughtful software selection

Keyboard is a potential dirt magnet ; A little too much bloatware

Overall, the Acer Aspire 3810T is a handsome-looking portable masquerading as something more powerful than it truly is--and that could be a bit of a problem for this slightly oversized netbook. The large, comfortable keys and the 13.3-inch screen ...

When Apple released the aluminum unibody MacBook in October 2008, the differences between the MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop lines narrowed to a point where folks began to wonder when Apple would decide to merge the two lines into one. With the ...

FireWire 800 port ; Bootable SD card slot

No matte screen option ; No video adapters

With its lower price, the return of FireWire (woo-hoo!), a better-looking display, and a new built-in SD Card slot that you can boot from, the newest member of the MacBook Pro makes an impressive debut. But check back and we'll update this story with ...

In search of a handheld that bridges the gap between netbook and iPhone? The Viliv S5 Premium strives mightily to straddle that divide--and it does so with some success--but some drawbacks (including an awkward software keyboard) will probably ...

Fast Win XP device with 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth ; Battery life seems decent

Software keyboard can be awkward ; Skimpy documentation, 3G performance spotty

As UMPCs go, the Viliv S5 delivers on many of its promises, although the disappointing 3G performance will deter some people and the software keyboard makes it a poor choice for anyone who frequently wrangles Office documents. But for $599, you can ...

Fujitsu has dabbled in ultra-ultraportable machines for a while now, having released the LifeBook U810 and U820 tablet PCs. Now the company is ready to take baby steps into the netbook market, with its M2010. To be honest, though, this isn't the bold ...

Crisp, colorful screen

Poor battery life Fairly average design

Fujitsu doesn't add much to the mix beyond Bluetooth and a few bits of bundled software. Roxio Creator LJ saves files out to external drives, as does the simple but extremely effective MyRecovery software (a three-button interface for creating and ...

As computers shrink to the size of Pop-Tarts boxes, the Fujitsu Lifebook U820 promises to lead the charge--and still be functional. Unfortunately, it needs to have a better interface and to make smarter use of its meager resources. As it stands, the ...

Incredibly small size GPS and WWAN capability

Form throttles function Underpowered components

The U820 also has a mobile broadband modem, which allows you to hop onto AT&T's EDGE service (with a subscription). And then there's the built-in GPS functionality, care of Garmin. While it won't replace your standard GPS unit, it works--most of the ...

While Toshiba's new Portege R600-ST520W hits the ground running with a base weight of 2.4 pounds (3 pounds with the power supply included) and a thickness just over the 1-inch mark, its price tag of well over 2 grand and its so-so hardware reduce the ...

Thin and light - even for ultraportables Room for an optical drive

Mono speaker, poor sound

The R600's design looks stylish enough, at least with the lid closed. It features a brushed metal surface in silver--subdued but not boring (and it's nice to see Toshiba move away from high-gloss, high-fingerprint surfaces). With the lid open, the ...