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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jazzisjazz - Thursday, July 1, 2010 - link
Just a day or two ago I was asked for a recommendation for a truly budget notebook <5-600 out the door.I saw the title of the article and thought I had hit the jackpot. Nope. Where can I truly find information that doesn't cater to the larger pocketbook but spies out the manufacturer(s) and model(s) that are offering just that little bit more in quality, performance, reliability, and maybe even design so that I know I have done the best by my hard earned dollars, few though they may be. I went to the guide section and checked out the December article and there was a little more information there including a cautionary reference to buying used. I think it says something about the quality of the review that a portion of the folks who could really use an article that considers the full range of budgets will find better information in a hot deals buyer's thread than at the premiere online pc/tech site. I'm just sayin.........
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, July 2, 2010 - link
The problem is that spending between 5-600, you just aren't gonna get much notebook. Just about everything there is gonna be running off of integrated graphics (the cheapest machine I found on NewEgg that had dedicated hardware was a Toshiba with a Mobility Radeon HD 5145, basically a Mobility Radeon HD 4530, at about $660.)I'd say in that market it's really going to be a crapshoot in terms of reliability, and the picks in our guide often push the budget as low as it will go while still offering decent performance. Go cheap and you'll often get what you pay for, and you may wind up having to get another machine a lot sooner than you would have if you'd spent up a bit for something decent; even if it doesn't break down, the performance is going to be pretty anemic.
Now, ALL THAT SAID, I do like Toshiba and HP if you're working a very low budget, and in those circumstances I am 100% an AMD man. You're not going to get good battery life, but AMD offers great performance on the cheap and the best integrated graphics in the business (outside of the more expensive IGPs Nvidia sells in isolated cases). An Athlon II or Turion II is bound to serve you pretty well. I'd personally avoid Intel chips in this bracket; they're all going to be running Intel's last generation technology, and AMD hardware will likely be much more competitive clock-for-clock against the cut-down Intel hardware you're apt to find.
jazzisjazz - Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - link
What you regard as a problem I see as a self set reasonable limit.I'm not asking you to somehow magically make something available at my price point but rather to thoughtfully evaluate whatever is available.
I don't buy your argument about a crap shoot in quality because I do believe that you could provide useful information about reliability.
I say that because my neice was unfortunate enough to buy one of the hp laptops with the nvidia chipset/graphics problems of a few years ago which turned out to be @$750 wasted on a company that despite it's great history has declined to the point that it wouldn't do right by its customers.
While I keep a HP deskjet 722c printer in operation for when my and everyone elses "new" printer goes on the blink, I can not see ever buying an HP PC ever again, under any circumstance.
Perhaps the article was a missed opportunity to suggest that manufacturer's put out something with an unimportant feature or two less, a total lack of flash but a solid build and clean look, that just plain works well and reliably. Novel idea Huh?
As long as it runs the software I need in a manner that is acceptable to me,
the best for what I have decided to pay, your calling it anemic won't bother me at all. I'd still like for you to provide the information. That's why I come to this site.
At least your response has provided information sorely missing from the original article. Thanks for responding to my post.
EddieBoy - Saturday, July 3, 2010 - link
HEY! I am typing this on a Dell E1505. It may be an "eyesore" (I'll admit that) but it has been a workhorse for me for several years. And it runs Windows 7 just fine.Bron5 - Sunday, July 4, 2010 - link
I highly recommend the MSI GE600 in the budget gamer category - would love to see your impressions of it. Switchable graphics works flawlessly and it has the nicely matched ATI 5730 card (perfect for the 1366x768 rez). Runs very quietly in normal use, slight whoosh when gaming, but much quieter than most. Very compact for a 16" unit. Runs cool and is a nice looking rig. Typical screen is nothing to write home about, but adequate. i5-430m processor is fine for gaming and the laptop has better than average sound as well. Games sound great when you activate the built in woofer (using the CinemaPro switch). Great presence and soundstage. Currently selling for $899, it plays all current games well on medium or high settings (most on high), the 5730 supports DX-11, the ports are nicely located and overall design is good.I was considering the GX640, but went with the GE600 for the switchable gfx and cooler, quieter operation. Had mine about 3 weeks and very happy with it.
Akv - Monday, July 5, 2010 - link
Maybe I have not read everything correctly, but I would have preferred more insistence on heat and noise production.For my use (of a laptop) those presented here all reach a sufficient level of performance and equipment. For gaming and video editing and such I have a large tower with a large screen, and it wouldn't occur to me to do heavy work on a laptop.
Maybe some article on 15" and 15" laptops with i3 and Intel graphics, or other ULV solutions, would be useful. Kind of for those who want ultra low noise and ultra low heat like in a netbook, but still with a decent screen to do office work and watch a few movies when traveling.
5150Joker - Monday, July 12, 2010 - link
Asus G73 has:1. GSOD issues
2. Failing 5870s
3. Proprietary MXM slot and card (probably why it fails so much)
4. Cheap build quality
5. Terrible mail in service warranty
6. Missing keystroke issue (must disable the touchpad in the bios to fix it)
7. no eSata and other ports
Yeah you get a lot for the money but at the cost of quality in a big way. You get what you pay for with DTRs.
Now with an M17x-R2, especially if you look for EPP discounts, coupon codes or use the Dell Outlet you can get a slightly more expensive M17x-R2 with the following:
1. Aluminum chasis/lid, best build quality of any DTR.
2. Triple fan/heatsink cooling
3. RGB LED Display with >100% color gamut
4. Option of dual ATi 5870s in Crossfire
5. Alien FX lighting
6. Dell next business day home service
7. True full sized keyboard
8. More ports/eSata etc
9. Standard MXM 3.0b support (no proprietary garbage)
Anandtech of course leaves all those little bits out and pimps such a fail laptop from Asus.
Yasha613 - Monday, July 12, 2010 - link
Can someone explain to me why x1080 or x900 is a SELLING point for a DTR? It's difficult to even find a decent one at 17, and I don't see any that new ones that hit 1920x1200 anymore.I've had my Dell XPS 1710 since inception. I had thought by the time I'd really be thinking about upgrading or worrying about it dieing all together from 24x7 on use that I could get a 19'+ DTR that would kick it's arse, be half the weight, and be at x1600. W....T.....F?
Am I alone in my disappointment? I'd actually like to upgrade so I can play some modern games at a decent frame-rate, get a chipset that is 64bit of course, and reap the other benefits of an overall modern laptop rig, but it seems the main interface is going backwards..
Ryes - Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - link
How long does the k42jv battery last for?Also I do see that Optimus might be available http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/19-2.j...
Alexo - Thursday, July 15, 2010 - link
"Vivek will have a separate ultraportable guide up next week, with a focus on smaller sized laptops with better battery life."A week has passed. And another one...
Is there an ETA on the ultraportable guide?
I'm looking to get a 13" with decent performance and good battery life and I'd love to see comaprative reviews of new models, such as the Asus UL30JT (or better, PL30JT with a matte screen) or the Acer TimelineX 3820tg
Thanks,
Alex.