Mobile Buyers' Guide: 14" and Larger Notebooks and DTRs
by Dustin Sklavos on June 30, 2010 12:53 AM ESTVideo/Multimedia Workstation: Dell Studio 17
If there's one category we know particularly well and have exhaustively researched—if only for personal reasons—it's this one. The aforementioned griping about ExpressCard and FireWire returns, substantially narrowing the field. A need for a high resolution screen narrows it further, and at the end of the day we're left with just two companies seeking to fill this particular niche: Dell and Sony.
Our initial leanings went toward Sony's F series notebooks. These sport Core i7 quad-core processors, can be custom-ordered with 1080p screens (or even found in retail with those screens), and have all of the needed ports and expansion abilities. On top of that, they're just attractive machines and the pricing is fairly reasonable. The only major complaint that can be levied against the F series is the strangely anemic GeForce GT 330M Sony chose to equip them with. The preceding Core 2-based series used a Mobility Radeon HD 4650, making the move to the GT 330M lateral at best. And since the F series uses quad-core i7s, there's no integrated graphics to at least try to justify the GT 330M through Optimus.
Unfortunately for Sony, Dell has an ace in the hole that they just can't touch: the Dell Studio 17 may not have been updated with the refreshed mobile Core i7 chips yet, but that's only a matter of time, and we'd gladly take the performance hit for one of Dell's RGB LED-backlit 1080p screens. If you're doing any kind of color-sensitive media work with the notebook, that screen is going to pay big dividends. Dell doesn't charge an unreasonable sum for the upgrade either: $150 isn't that much to ask for one of the best looking screens you can find on a notebook. Given how dismal the quality of many modern screens have become, and how vital a good one can be for any kind of serious media work, Dell clinches this recommendation. If you want a media workstation, look no further than the Dell Studio 17.
Video/Multimedia Workstation Runner Up: Sony F Series
Of course, if you don't want to shell out for the RGB LED-backlit 1080p screen in Dell's Studio 17, the Sony F series is mighty attractive on its own. The line was recently refreshed with the updated Core i7-740QM, and can be had with a 1600x900 screen for just $1000. That's not bad at all, and it's easy to custom order a fairly reasonable machine from Sony's site. It comes with the standard 4GB of DDR3, a 320GB hard drive, and the aforementioned underwhelming but still decent GeForce GT 330M. At just a grand for an excellent piece of video editing hardware, the Sony F series is very tempting indeed.
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ericgl21 - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Eventhough those Precision models are on the expensive side, they are considered well-built and powerful machines.I wonder why Anand "forgot" about those...
Silma - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Recommending untested products is unprofessional and a joke.sheltem - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Phenomenal laptop but a little pricey, but I was able to swing one for $1861 after discounts. Not a single bit of gloss anywhere, even on the screen. Also has firewire and a expresscard 54 slot that the reviewer was jonesing for :) If you opt for the FirePro 7820, which is the professional version of the Mobility 5870, you can drive up to 4 displays, including the laptop! Tomshardware has a picture here:http://media.bestofmicro.com/,J-Q-243062-3.jpg
They have a premium panel option called Dream Color 2. It's a 10-bit IPS panel. I opted for the standard 1920x1200 panel which is a 8-bit TN panel.
Drag0nFire - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Surprised Lenovo wasn't given any consideration, particularly for the "portability" category. This seems like an oversight. It may not be your personal favorite (and what they did to the screens is a pity), but many people stand by the build quality and overall ThinkPad design. I've never yet met someone who's unhappy about a ThinkPad... and I can say all my friends were jealous of mine in college.racerx_is_alive - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Copied and pasted a few of the winners and suggestions into google, but there were a few that didn't turn up any reasonable responses. Searched amazon and newegg as well, hoping that perhaps some of the recommendations were product families and they'd give me related results. Perhaps the reviewer could include some links to where these laptops can be purchased?JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
All of these should be readily available... we've reviewed many of them. Which ones are you unable to find? I may go back through and try to dig up links, though....JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Or not... it seems Acer has quietly discontinued the 5740G-6979 and replaced it with a much slower HD 5470 model. The 7740G with HD 5650 is still readily available, but it's 17.3" instead of 15.6".A few other options for moderate gaming:
MSI GE600 (i5-430M + HD 5650) for $860:
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSearch_v3.asp?px=FO&...
Sony VAIO VPCEB1PFX/B (i3-330M + HD 5650) for $920:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtool...
Toshiba A665D-S6059 (Phenom II P920 + HD4250/5650) for $860 (review is coming next week):
http://www.antonline.com/p_PSAX3U-002004-GP_822084...
ASUS G51JX-X1/X3 (i5-430M/i7-720QM + GTS 360M) for ~$1100:
http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Gamers-G51JX-X3-15-...
I'm putting in links for the remaining laptops, though.
racerx_is_alive - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
Thanks for putting in those links- The two that I had problems searching for were the Acer one you mentioned, and the ASUS at the beginning. I had searched for the text straight from the heading "ASUS K42J" (without quotes) and it didn't give me anything promising on the first page, mostly a bunch of forums. The link is great though.Thanks
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
The K42J is on NewEgg's site:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
It looks like it has a low rating, but one of the users is mostly just griping about functionality that the majority of modern notebooks don't have (he's upset the graphics aren't switchable in the BIOS, which is absurd).
bji - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
As time goes on I realize that my dream of ever finding a laptop to better my Panasonic Y2 from 2005 are never going to come to fruition. Because in order to beat the Y2, someone is going to have to offer a laptop that:- Has a 14 inch or larger display with a resolution *at least* 1400x1050
- Weighs no more than 3.5 lbs
- Is fanless
I think that with today's tech this is certainly possible; ultra low power Core 2 processors match the power consumption of the Pentium M in the Y2 and should be able to go fanless. Displays are better now than back in 2005 so there's no reason that a 1400x1050 14 inch display is not possible (of course these days it would probably have to be widescreen, but there is no reason that it has to have fewer pixels! 1366x768? That's just pathetic!). And Panasonic already proved that you can build such a machine at 3 lbs 4 oz five years ago. That's 3 lbs 4 ounces including a built-in DVD player/CD-RW drive and a battery big enough for 5+ hours battery life.
Yes, Panasonic did all that (and more!) in 2005, and I have yet to see any laptop in the last 5 years that even comes close. Things seem to just be getting worse with ever new laptop seemingly heavier than the last, with more cheap plastic than ever, lower resolutions, and OH LOOK SHINY displays.
I would gladly plunk down another $2,500 for a laptop that was a reasonable update to the Y2. I use my laptops for 5 years at least (still use the Y2 daily) so I don't think that cost is unjustified for a quality product. Unfortunately, in these days when nobody wants to pay more than $1,000 for a laptop, I suspect I may be the last person on earth in this market and no company is ever going to offer any laptop that is actually better than the Y2. So sad.