Sandy Bridge laptops are finally starting to trickle into the market, from the usual gamut of manufacturers. Chances are, if your favorite vendor isn’t selling several SNB notebooks already, they will be by the end of April. But with all the SNB brouhaha going on, ASUS has decided to release one final update to their U-series laptops using Arrandale processors.

We’ve got the newly christened U41JF on the test bench today, though the U31JG comes with very similar specs and tips the pricing scale at a very attractive $699. Yes, Sandy Bridge processors are faster than their Arrandale predecessors at the same clock speed, but ASUS has a few tricks up their sleeves (as usual) to keep the tried-and-trusted Arrandale platform in the running. Read on for our full review and thoughts on ASUS’ latest additions to their ultra mobility U-series.

The past week shook up the whole computer industry with Intel’s announcement that a potential flaw in their Cougar Point chipset required a respin to fix. In the ensuing chaos, we’ve had quite a few reviews put on hold or pulled altogether as we await the revised chipset. We also have a few other items to discuss in regards to the mobility sector, so if you’re debating purchasing a new laptop/notebook vs. waiting for “fixed” hardware, we hope to shed some light on the situation.

Just four months ago, NVIDIA released their top-to-bottom 400M lineup. Since the announcement, it took about a month but we then got the ASUS G73Jw (460M), Dell XPS L501x (420M), Clevo B5130M (425M), and ASUS N53JF (425M) in rapid succession. All of these were decent offerings, with a nice blend of performance and features at reasonable prices. Of course, Core 2010 products are last year’s news, and with the launch of Sandy Bridge the whole industry is moving to 2^nd Generation Intel Core Processors (aka Core 2011). With an improved IGP threatening low-end discrete GPUs, what better time for NVIDIA to refresh their mobile parts?

Unlike the desktop GTX 580, the new 500M mobile parts are all using existing architectures; there are even a couple of new 400M parts to round things out. The major change is that we’re getting higher clock speeds, both on the GPU cores/shaders as well as the memory. In a few cases we also have additional shaders available, as well as clearing up some potentially confusing part names (really!). Read on for details on this year’s NVIDIA laptop offerings—coming soon to a Sandy Bridge laptop near you!

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a 15.6” notebook walks into the AnandTech labs, sporting NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 425M and a 1080p display…. Yes, for the fourth time in under two months, we have a midrange 15.6” 1080p notebook on our test bench. So far, we’ve praised the displays as being universally great, though other design elements have been lacking. Now ASUS offers up their N53JF, with a Blu-ray combo drive and Bang & Olufsen ICEpower speakers. On paper at least, this looks like a notebook that could even topple the Dell XPS 15 L501x from its lofty perch. As always, the devil is in the details, but let’s see if this devil is willing to make a deal.

Finding a mainstream notebook with a high resolution screen can be harder than pulling teeth. Outside of the new Dell XPS 15 and the odd business-class machine, a resolution higher than the dismal 1366x768 on a 15.6" screen can be extremely difficult to locate and may even force you to compromise and buy a bigger machine than you'd intended. Fortunately there are options and we've tracked one down in the form of the Clevo B5130M. Sporting NVIDIA's new GeForce GT 425M and a 1080p high-resolution screen, is this notebook enough to steal the crown from the Dell XPS 15?

As we discussed a couple weeks back, Dell has relaunched their XPS brand for laptops, with a focus on quality and "mainstream performance". The latter means that unlike previous XPS laptops, you won't find the highest performing GPUs in the new models—Dell will continue to serve the needs of mobile gamers with the Alienware brand. The former is the more interesting aspect, as Dell's XPS laptops will have better build quality and improved LCD panels. Dell sent us their new L501x, the 15.6" chassis with NVIDIA's Optimus Technology and a new GeForce 420M GPU (our first look at the mainstream 400M parts!), and they included the upgraded 1080p B+GR LCD panel. Read on to find out just how good the new XPS is, and whether it's worth the price of admission.

The original ASUS G73Jh was an instant classic: a great performer with a good screen, build quality and cooling at an amazing price. Six months later, ASUS is coming out with a “new and improved” version with a few updates to make things interesting. Most of the upgrades are straightforward but sensible: the i7-720QM has been replaced with the new i7-740QM and USB 3.0 support is now part of the package. The far more controversial changes come courtesy of the GPU: AMD’s HD 5870 is out and NVIDIA’s GTX 460M is in, which also means HDMI 1.4 is now included. While the HDMI update is nice (but mostly useful if you want 120Hz 3D output), the GPU performance is a tougher call. Is this a better overall notebook or mostly a lateral move? That’s what we’re here to find out.

When Fermi first launched on the desktop, we wondered how long it would take to trickle down to the lower end markets—and the mobile team also wondered if we'd ever see Fermi make it into notebooks. NVIDIA managed the latter with the GTX 480M, a lower clocked chip harvested from the full GF100. Now they're ready to launch the rest of their mobile lineup, with product schedule to start shipping later this month. Want to see what NVIDIA's brining to the table? We've got the official specs, though we do have to note that there are a few areas NVIDIA isn't discussing just yet. Regardless, we'll see plenty more Optimus Technology laptops and notebooks, and mobile GPUs may actually get the kick in the shorts we've been longing for!