Toshiba Satellite X205-S9359

This big multimedia notebook is for on-the-go gamers and TV fans. The Toshiba Satellite X205-S9359 handles 3D shooters with aplomb, plus it comes bundled with an add-on TV tuner and remote control for watching shows. For work, productivity applications are also included in the laptop's $2400 (as of 10/9/07) price. Regardless of your pursuit, the big screen and twin hard drives make for very comfortable desktop computing. Just don't count on long battery life.

The X205-S9359 is a preconfigured retail model distinguished by a swirly red and black "carmine flare" lid that for a gaming notebook is downright tasteful. A very similar-looking model, the X205-S9349, is $500 less but has only half the video memory and storage. That configuration might be fine for multimedia dabblers, but for full-throttle entertainment, opt for the X205-S9359.

In our tests, Word and Photoshop ran quickly and 3D games looked good. Equipped with a 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 512MB nVidia GeForce Go 8700M GT dedicated graphics card, the laptop logged a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 76, putting it in the middle of a tightly grouped pack of similarly equipped, high-performing desktop replacements. For instance, a Fujitsu LifeBook A6030 and an Acer Aspire 5920G scored a point better at 77, but the X205-S9359 bested a Toshiba Qosmio G45 AV-680 that earned a mark of 74. Among all currently tested desktop replacements, the X205-S9359 scored one point better than the average of 75. It also aced our gaming tests with a frame rate of 84 in Doom 3 and a scorching 122 frames per second in Far Cry. Battery life was only average for a desktop replacement, though, at 2.5 hours.

The design is good overall. The X205-S9359 is typically heavy at 8.7 pounds (the average among currently tested desktop replacements is 8.8 pounds), but it has two 160GB hard drives and four built-in Harman/Kardon speakers backed by a bottom subwoofer for rich, satisfying sound. The Toshiba USB HDTV Tuner and brick-like power adapter bring the weight to a chunky 11 pounds. Dropped hinges on the 17-inch screen, however, give the total package a remarkably low profile. The screen itself, a 17-inch 1680-by-1050-pixel display with Toshiba's patented TruBrite glossy finish, is reflective; I had to experiment with tilting the notebook and lowering the office shades that were behind the notebook. Otherwise, it's easy to read.

The laptop is plentifully supplied with the kinds of ports, connections, and other features that you might expect of a better-than-average entertainment portable. Chief among them are an HD DVD player, a built-in Webcam, and an HDMI port for connecting a plasma screen. The generous nonmultimedia features include a gaggle of USB ports--six in all--and a keyboard with several nice extras. One is a dedicated number pad; another is Toshiba's unique dual-mode touchpad, which you can switch to a set of virtual quick-launch buttons with the tap of a finger in the upper-right corner. Microsoft Works 8.5 rounds out the offering.

If you're looking for a mainstream or inexpensive notebook, the X205-S9359 will be too much bang for too many bucks. But if a strong gaming notebook that can also feed your TV addiction and comes with Microsoft Word and Excel sounds like the ideal portable to you, look no further.

Sony VGN-NR485

A Windows Vista Home Premium laptop powered by a 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T5750 and 2GB of RAM, the VGN-NR485 bagged a respectable WorldBench 6 score of 75. That's pretty solid performance for a laptop that stands among the cheapest machines on our current Top 10 All-Purpose Laptops chart (as of 10/29/08). It sells for $849 ($200 more than Toshiba's bargain-basement Satellite Pro L300D-EZ1001V, which the Sony bested by roughly 20 points in WorldBench 6 tests). It has the speed to handle almost any kind of application. The only performance problem we encountered was in our 3D gaming tests, which the VGN-NR485 couldn't run because of its lousy integrated Intel graphics chip.

The 6.2-pound laptop managed to last long enough in our battery life tests. It fell just short of 4 hours (3 hours, 56 minutes), ranking toward the top of the leaderboard. Surpassing this value unit was Lenovo's ThinkPad SL400, which costs $1223 and has an optional high-powered battery; it lasted 5 hours, 8 minutes in our tests as a result of the add-on.

As for features, the 14.2-by-10.6-by-1.5-inch VGN-NR485 packs a fair amount of punch, including dedicated front-mounted SD and Memory Stick slots, four USB ports, and an ExpressCard/34 slot. Typical for a sub-$1000 laptop, the optical drive is a standard (not high-definition) DVD burner. Beneath the stylish navy blue waffle exterior lies an impressively large 200GB hard drive. You can't reach it for upgrades, but barring a failure you shouldn't need to replace it. Though the 15.4-inch screen has a high-gloss finish that tends to reflect overhead lights, it's very bright and has an easy-to-read 1280-by-800-pixel resolution.

The keyboard is a matter of taste. If you can ignore the somewhat short stroke, it's comfortable, featuring keys with spacious flat tops. You also get two reprogrammable shortcut buttons, a mute button, and an A/V-mode button that launches the Windows Media menu.

The stereo speakers don't sound very good, not surprising for a Sony notebook. The volume is serviceable for low-key music and system sounds, but the bass tones are almost nonexistent. Don't leave home without your headphones.

One other small complaint: The on-screen manual, while thorough, doesn't link the laptop's labeled parts. Instead of being able to click on a label, you must type the part's name (for example, the A/V-mode button) into the search box to read a description. Pretty lame, but a minor issue.

If keeping to a budget is your top concern, these are small concessions to make. A solid performer with all the most important connections, loads of storage, and an eye-catching dark-blue finish, the Sony VGN-NR485 is a sweet little deal for the under-$1000 crowd

Lenovo Thinkpad SL400

Usually, ThinkPads don't come cheap. You expect to pay dearly for the classy keyboard, rugged chassis, and whatever top-notch parts lie under the hood. That's not quite the case with Lenovo's SL400 series of laptops.

These affordable, all-purpose machines start in the neighborhood of $650 and yet still offer much of the look and feel you'd expect from a more expensive ThinkPad. The SL400 model we received for evaluation was at on the upper end of the series, selling for about $1223 as of October 23, 2008, and it's a fairly solid deal.

Inside lies a reasonably speedy Intel Core2 Duo 2.26-GHz P8400 CPU backed up by 2GB of RAM and a 256MB nVidia GeForce 9300M GPU. Not too shabby. In our tests, this combination performed well, garnering a score of 84 on our WorldBench 6 benchmark test suite. That's well short of the Micro Express Microflex JFL 9290, which notched a 92, but it makes a strong enough showing to finish near the top.

Lenovo rolled out the SL400 before nVidia unveiled its GeForce 9400M, which debuted in the new Apple MacBooks--and the laptop suffers for its bad timing, as nimbler graphics processors will soon appear in new all-purpose notebooks.

Still, this Lenovo is a good performer for the price. Its six-cell battery kept the SL400 working for a little over 5 hours on a single charge--that's plenty of juice to keep you at the keyboard nonstop during a cross-country flight. The laptop's layout, screen, and beefy-meets-boxy 6.1-pound case indicate that Lenovo was shooting for a "strictly business" approach here.

A matte treatment on the screen does a good job of preventing sunlight from bouncing back in your face. The 14.1-inch, 1440-by-900-pixel-resolution panel is amply bright when cranked up all the way, but it's a tad dim in its native habitat (a standard fluorescent-lit office). As a result, in most settings, you'll be tempted to crank it up to full intensity, which unfortunately muddies the colors a little. On the bright side (pun fully intended), you can adjust the brightness for Video Playback mode (or any of five other default settings--or text size) with one click on a Lenovo application in the taskbar.

The SL400 has a fairly full-featured layout for an all-purpose machine. Four USB slots-- two on the left, two on the right--adorn the machine. HDMI- and VGA-out ports cover higher- and lower-end video support. In addition, you get a fingerprint reader, a Webcam, a four-pin FireWire port, a WWAN card, and GPS. The hard-drive bay is easy to unscrew, and popping in a replacement is equally effortless. Less pleasingly, this budget-minded business laptop has a boxier, less-rigid (though still sturdy) case than most ThinkPads have.

You won't buy this notebook for hi-definition audio, either. Music sounds slightly tinny (and hollow), though it got loud enough to distract my neighboring cubemates. Video streamed from Hulu sounded fine, but not robust enough for me to forgo headphones.

One corner that remains uncut is the SL400's keyboard, which--in the tradition of superb ThinkPad keyboards--is solid and buttery smooth to the touch. There was no loud clicker-clack as I typed away on the nigh-silent keyboard, and at the same time I could readily discern every key.

Another familiar ThinkPad trend: The SL400 has both a touchpad and a touch-point navigation device; not many laptops provide both these days. A couple of multimedia shortcut keys appear on the left side of the keyboard, but alt-function keyboard combos handle basic volume controls and practically everything else (for example, Fn + down arrow is the combination for Play/Pause multimedia). The one button to rule them all: a helpful blue backlit key that links to the Lenovo Cares utility suite.

The depth and breadth of the ThinkPad's software bundle goes well beyond what you normally get at first powerup. Many laptops content themselves with a 60-day trial of MS Office or some obnoxious antivirus package. Here, you receive a beefy Lenovo Cares application suite, which provides handy shortcuts and user-friendly apps without getting in your way. Everything from the ThinkVantage GPS tool (which tethers to Google Maps by default) to the proprietary Sidebar gadgets points to a well-conceived package.

Overall, the SL400 is a sound business laptop. Though it doesn't pack the firepower of some high-end machines, it gets the job done handily. Its combination of performance and value places it near the top of our charts.