Laptops Arena

The laptops are getting more and more popular these days. They are capable of doing all of the things that a desktop computer does, but they are much smaller, lighter and portable. So you can take it wherever you want and take care of all your business while you are traveling, or while you are anywhere else rather than your home of office. But not only business men are buying laptops, and these days they are bought by all sort of users such as teenagers, students, and people of all ages and all professions. And if they are still going this way, in a few years there will be more laptops than personal computers.
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Usually all the notebooks have the same shape, but they can also differ from one another by color. There are all sorts of colors for laptops, such as: black, white, brown, blue, red, yellow or even pink. And there are also many producers, and some of the bests are: Hewlett Packard, Acer, Asus, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, Fujitsu, MSI and Apple. But all the technologies of a laptop come at a price, at a bigger one compared to a desktop computer with the same features.

So in case you don’t have enough money and you are looking for a cheap laptop, then you can choose a netbook. A netbook is very similar to a laptop, only that it is even smaller. It usually has a display screen of just 10 inch, a small weight and a big battery life. So the netbooks are even more portable than the regular laptops. There are many models of netbooks on the market, and all the producers have at least one of them in the offer. Today we’ll discuss about one from Hewlett Packard, which is the largest seller of personal computers in the world. So you can be sure that the products from this company are really good and reliable.

For today we’ll choose the HP Mini - Notebook 110 - 1134 CL which has a price on geeks.com of just 280 dollars. It has a display screen of 10.1 inch, a Bright View LED – Backlit display with a resolution of 1024 x 600. So it may not be suited for watching movies in High Definition, but it can be just great for basic activities such as browsing the internet or writing documents. Its processor is the Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz and the RAM memory is 1 GB DDR 2 RAM (which can be expanded up to 2 GB). The hard drive is quite large for such a small laptop, and has a capacity of 160 GB and a speed of 5400 rpm. Like any other netbook it doesn’t have an optical drive, and the graphics card is an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 w with up to 128 MB video memory. It also has integrated High Definition audio built in stereo speakers and both wireless and Ethernet connectivity for easy access to the internet.



But this is not all…it also has a built in webcam with microphone and a 5 in 1 media card reader (with support for Secure Digital (SD), MultiMediaCard (MMC) , Memory Stick (MS) , Memory Stick PRO (MS PRO) and xD Picture card (xD). After all it is quite a really good laptop, that offers attractive features for the basic activities, for a very small price.

Today there are many good producers of laptops on the market, and each one is offering a wide variety of notebooks. And some of the best laptop brands in the world would be: Hewlett Packard, Asus, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, Sony, Fujitsu, Alienware, MSI and Apple. But for today we’ll focus on just one of them – Hewlett Packard, or simply known as HP.
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Hewlett Packard is one of the leading producers of laptops on the market, and also the best producer of personal computers  in the world. It is a huge multinational company that offers many more other types of electronic products, including all sorts of notebooks. Some of them are cheaper, others are more expensive…it all depends on the features and technologies that they have to offer. In the offer of the company you can find all sorts of laptops, with any size of the display screen from 10 inch for the netbooks to as high as 20.1 inch for the HP Dragon notebook.

And about this laptop we are going to discuss more today. It is quite a powerful laptop, and since it has such a large display screen it can be used as a desktop replacement and also as a multimedia laptop. Its has the Intel Centrino Duo processor technology with the Intel Core 2 Duo T 7700 processor. This one has a speed of 2.4 Ghz and 4 MB L 2 cache, with a bus speed of 800 Mhz. The RAM memory is good too, and it comes with 4 GB of DDR 2 memory. The display screen is a 20.1 inch WSXGA + High Definition HP Ultra Bright View Widescreen display, with a maximum resolution of 1680 x 1050. so the video quality will be really great, especially for High Definition movies and complex video games.



But a great video quality is not complete without a good graphics engine, so this laptop comes with am ATI Mobility Radeon High Definition 2600 XT with 256 MB GDDR 3 dedicated memory and up to 2048 Total Available Graphics memory. The hard drive has a good capacity and it can store a lot of music, videos, games and so on. It has 400 GB and a rotation speed of 4200 rpm. Actually there are 2 hard drives of 200 GB each one. like most of the other laptops it has both wireless and Ethernet connectivity for easy access to the internet and a 5 in 1 integrated media card reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro and xD picture cards. The sound is really good too, and it has Altec Lansing speakers and integrated HP Triple Bass Reflex Sub Wolfer supporting up to 7.1 external speakers configuration. The keyboard has all the keys, including the numeric ones and the laptop has all the ports you might need, including a HDMI port, a VGA port, 4 USB ports, audio ports, Ethernet port, TV out and others. It is quite a large and heavy laptop, so it is recommended to use it mostly at home. It has dimensions of: 18.7 inch L x 13.4 inch W x 2.3 inch H and a weight of 15.5 lbs. Enjoy it!

Everybody has argued ever since we can remember about the difference between laptop and notebook. Many people say the difference is only in size, other people say that there is no difference between these 2 gadgets at all. On a personal level, I find laptops and notebook pretty similar and I never restrain myself from calling it a laptop and a notebook at the same time. There is no such thing as “a notebook is mainly used for taking notes” and “a laptop is designed mainly to sit on your lap”. Think of the amount of things you can do with your notebook. And what about those 17 inch laptops, are those made to be used on your lap as well?
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If you are really eager to find the difference between laptop and notebook, there is certain classification that we can give you, just to let you know how to make the difference between the 2. They say that a notebook is ultra light and it is designed in such a manner so it can be as portable as possible for the users. in theory, the battery of a notebook is supposed to keep the unit on for 4 or 5 hours of usage. is that really the case all the time? A notebook never comes with an internal floppy drive. The display measures somewhere between 12 and 14 inches and it comes with minimal graphics. Do you remember all the examples of 13 and 14 inch laptop that came with more than decent graphic cards? A notebook does not come with an internal optical drive and it keeps a low profile. It is also said that notebooks have really small keyboard and these keyboard retain the functionality. Notebooks come with Celeron, Centrino or Sempron processor in order to have low power consumption. Now, compare all these fact with all the information you have read so far about 12 to 14 inch notebooks and see how many of the actual specs fit the ones said above.

On the other side of the barricade, we have the laptop. A laptop comes with a display that measures from 14 to a maximum 17 inches in the display diagonal. So far, this information is accurate. Next, it is said that a laptop comes with ATI Radeon or nVidia GeForce graphics card. Hmm… let’s see. I own a 15.4 inch Toshiba and the video card is an integrated Intel X3100. Should this be the exception that confirms the rule? A laptop is upgradeable. And a notebook is not?! Laptops come with full features keyboards. And notebooks don’t?! Laptops come with high quality audio integrated systems.



Well, I have to agree with them on this one, notebook speakers sound awful in most cases. And last, but not least, it is said that a laptop comes with an integrated modem, wireless capabilities and integrated Bluetooth. And here comes my question again: And notebooks don’t? Well, our conclusion is that it doesn’t matter if you call it a laptop or call in a notebook. When you buy such a portable computer, what really matters are the components found inside because they generate performance, not the name.

Under $300 laptops can now be found on a lot of refurbished laptop websites. For instance, check out www.usanotebooks.com and look at the Dell Latitude D410 for as low as $295. It is powered by a 1.73 GHz Intel Pentium M processor which comes combined with 1 GB of RAM. It may not bee the most optimal combination for running multiple applications but it will do if you consider the low price.
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The hard disk storage capacity is 40 GB. The graphics card is the integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 which can support up to 128 MB of video memory. It features a 12.1 inch display which uses the TFT technology. Unfortunately, there is no integrated optical drive only an external CD writer and a DVD reader which add some lbs to the total weight of the laptop. It has both a touchpad and a pointing stick. It has 3 USB ports, one VGA port, one Ethernet port, one port replicator used for connecting a docking station, one modem port, one infrared port and the regular headphones and microphone jacks. You can either request this laptop with the Windows XP Pro operating system or you can pay an extra fee of $20 and get the operating system plus some preinstalled software like an antivirus program and the Microsoft Office suite.

As you can see, these under $300 laptops can easily be found everywhere. For the same price of $295 you can buy the IBM ThinkPad T42 with the similar 1.70 GHz Intel Pentium M processor and 1 GB of RAM. It also has 40 GB of free disk space. The difference between the 2 models is made by the ATI Radeon 7500 with 32 MB of video memory. The 14.1 inch display also uses the TFT technology and offers a native resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. The selection of ports and connections is bit different than that of the laptop mentioned above. Is has 1 USB port, one parallel port, one external monitor port, 2 PS/2 ports and one headphone and one microphone jack. It comes with only one choice for the operating system which is the Windows XP Pro. It also has a 6 months warranty (in fact, both laptops have the same warranty period) and it weights 4.9 lbs which is not exactly the ideal weight when you want a portable unit.

If you are on the market for a very portable unit, check out the Acer Aspire One netbook which can be purchased for as low as $295. It is a 2.8 lbs notebook with the dimensions of 10.2” x 7.2” x 1” and this makes it small and light and highly portable. It has a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor and 1 GB of RAM. It comes with a hard disk which has a storage capacity of 160 GB. The graphics card is also the integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950. The 10.1 display can support the maximum resolution 1024 x 600 pixels. It has 3 USB ports, one VGA port and one headphone plus microphone jack (even if the unit already comes with an integrated microphone).

When it comes to laptop reviews, we seem to have given more attention to certain manufactures like Dell or HP because their models are selling better than anything else. This is why this laptop review is going to be about something else: the MSI GT627.
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We have found that this particular model actually meets the requirement of a gaming laptop, without being as expensive as a gaming laptop is most of the time. This 15 inch gaming laptop has amazed us not because of the specs, but because of its low price. You would normally expect to pay at least $2500 for a decent gaming laptop but that's not the case here. This unit can be bought for $1150 and you the 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 combined with 4 GB of RAM (if I'm not mistaking, we have come across a lot of gaming units which only has 2 GB of RAM and you the more RAM your laptop has, the better). The graphics card is an nVidia GeForce 9800M GS with 1 GB of DDR3 of video memory (we're talking about some quality video gaming here). The capacity of the hard disk can support a maximum of 320 GB. As for the design, this laptop has the typical gaming combination of black and red.

The brushed metal finish makes it look really elegant and yet somehow solid. Since it weighs 5.6 lbs it has the advantage of being more portable than the other 11 lbs gaming laptop we have reviewed so far. This means that you could also take this laptop to the office or at class without breaking your back. The lid of this laptop is not that easy to scratch and since it does not have a glossy finish, fingerprints won't be a problem either. The sad news is that once you buy this laptop, you have to wait 1 year until you can do any kind of upgrades or else you will void the warranty.



As for the display, the glossiness gives the color excellent sharpness and great contrast. Viewing angles are not excellent but for a gaming laptop, what are the chances of friends wanting to gather around and watch you shoot zombies? The disadvantage is that regular gaming laptops usually have 17 inch screens which mean a better resolution. We were surprised to find a numerical pad in a 15 inch laptop but we are never upset of getting extra keys on the keyboard. There was some flex noticed in the keyboard area. Apparently the keys have a slight wobble and a moderate throw when you're typing and these things are uncomfortable for some people. The touchpad is great on the other hand and it doesn't show any signs of lag. The left and right mouse buttons are aluminum brushed but gaming laptop still require an external mouse unless you want to tie up your arm in a knot when you're using both the keyboard and touchpad during game play.



Regular daily computing activities are no problem for the MSI GT627 because the processor and the RAM work great together and give us both speed and the ability to run multiple applications simultaneously. Ports and connections are important no matter what the size of the laptop is. It's nice to see that this laptop comes with 3 USB ports (one of which is an eSATA + USB combo port), one HDMI port, one VGA port, a TV antenna, an Ethernet port, one Express Card slot, a Kensington lock slot, a SDHC multi card reader and the regular headphone and microphone ports. In general, the speakers of a gaming laptop should be above average. They are usually better than the speakers and regular laptop. Unfortunately, this is not the case of this MSI. They are much weaker than the speakers on regular 15 inch laptops. The lack of bass is highly noticeable so when you're playing games, get yourself some decent headphones or maybe regular laptop speakers which are in any case better than the integrated ones. The nVidia GeForce 9800M GS generates a lot of heat since it's very powerful. It's not recommended you start playing games with this laptop in your lap as the temperature may be a little too much for your legs to support. For laptops which have overheating issues, it is recommended you get a special laptop cooling pad if you want to be able to use this unit for a long time. The noise coming out from this laptop is normal. If you are in a quiet room, you will be able to hear the cooler of the laptop but with some background noise, it's barely noticeable.



When it comes to battery life, this laptop can handle things better than bigger and heavier gaming laptop but the number are nothing to be amazed about. If the display brightness is set to 70% and the power management profile of the operating system is set to "balanced mode" with the wireless card active, you will get about 2 hours and 35 minutes of battery life. Like I said, nothing special to talk about here. If you were planning to take this laptop to class and take notes, it won't make it throughout a whole day. This laptop is not a bad choice if you are on a budget but still looking for a nice gaming laptop. It can live up to the expectation you have from the bigger 17 inch gaming laptops and the price is at least reasonable.



Gaming performance may squeak here and there but there are only a few laptops that show 100% capability of running any game. The truth is you won't be able to find many good gaming laptop for $1150 for unless you are planning to save some money and buy an Alienware laptop, go out and get yourself this MSI. Even if the keyboard may be strange to type on, whenever you switch from one laptop to another, you always need some time to adjust to the new keyboard.