Mobile Buyers' Guide: 14" and Larger Notebooks and DTRs
by Dustin Sklavos on June 30, 2010 12:53 AM ESTNotebook and DTR Wrap Up
The more astute readers are liable to have noticed certain patterns in our picks, in that some manufacturer names come up more than others. We've listed a fair number of alternatives, but a few names generally fail to make the grade. HP, Lenovo, Fujitsu, and to a lesser extent MSI and Toshiba could all use work.
At a basic apples-to-apples level, HP notebooks are frankly just not price competitive in the metrics we're examining. HP charges $200 to upgrade to the Mobility Radeon HD 5650 in any of the notebooks that support it, and that's highway robbery compared to what Acer and ASUS offer. They also almost completely rule themselves out for serious multimedia work, as there isn't a single modern HP notebook with FireWire or ExpressCard. It's a strange thing to keep harping on, but if you've sat in a class with other video students who are just trying to find the best deal they can for cameras and the hardware to edit with, it definitely matters to some and at least a few notebooks from any vendor should support these features.
All is not lost for HP, as their ENVY products have good build quality and look nice; find one of HP's periodic sales and the ENVY line is worth considering, but at the current prices it's substantially more expensive than the competition. HP also has business notebooks that are quite nice, with magnesium alloy frames that make typical consumer laptops feel like they're made of cheap plastic… probably because they are. The ProBook and EliteBook lines compete with the likes of Lenovo ThinkPad and Dell Latitude/Precision notebooks, but we didn't spend a lot of time looking at business options in this guide.
Speaking of Lenovo, the ThinkPad line has traditionally been solid and easy enough to recommend, but like most business laptops it's pricy. The IdeaPad line, on the other hand, has shown itself to be somewhat schizophrenic. Lenovo can't seem to settle on a style for their IdeaPads, and the notebooks are often overpriced for what you get. If you do want something extremely solid, a ThinkPad becomes easier to recommend, but even their screen quality has gone the way of the consumer (low resolution 16:9 widescreens). That's something you might need to research for yourself to determine if you want to make the trade-off.
Speaking of overpriced, but speaking concisely, Fujitsu notebooks often simply don't offer the same kind of power as other notebooks in their price class. If you want something business-class, you're still better off shopping at Dell, HP, or Lenovo, and for the tasks we're putting our notebooks through in this round-up, most of Fujitsu's current line is a tough sell.
Toshiba's offerings come down to a matter of taste. Toshiba notebooks are very distinctly styled in the marketplace, but they're inexpensive and make a reasonable alternative to Acer/Gateway machines in most of the lower price classes. The Qosmio is still overpriced and ugly compared to what ASUS offers for high-powered gaming and media notebooks, but Toshiba's less expensive notebooks can be compelling. Helpfully, Toshiba and Acer both have a strong retail presence, so you can check them out for yourself and determine which vendor's machines you like better. Personally, we prefer the wider selection of machines equipped with solid discrete GPUs in Acer notebooks, but your mileage may vary.
MSI notebooks do remain another healthy alternative, but unfortunately their retail presence is scattershot and mostly confined to their cheaper, less powerful notebooks. This is a shame, because anyone willing to take a gamble is liable to find a fairly well-built and well-specced machine. Like Acer, though, the keyboards can be frustrating enough to completely mar the experience.
Wrapping things up, there are also a lot of whitebook vendors that use Clevo and Compal-based notebooks. Clevo machines are monsters, but if you simply must have ultimate power at any expense, they're generally a good choice. The Compal systems we've seen on the market look reasonable as well, though price-wise they simply can't compete with the mass produced big OEMs. AVADirect, Sager, and others will sell you highly customizable notebooks, but you pay for the privilege (and it's a shame Clevo still hasn't come out with a good keyboard layout).
Hopefully it's clear that our recommendations aren't meant as the end-all-be-all; prices fluctuate, matters of taste and aesthetics come into play, and different people weigh different features with varying degrees of importance. At the end of the day, though, we're confident that our picks are going to be among the best options for the various market segments we've listed. Vivek will have a separate ultraportable guide up next week, with a focus on smaller sized laptops with better battery life. In the meantime, if you have other notebooks you think deserve a mention, or if you happen to come across an amazing deal, our comments section is open for input.
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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.