HP Reveals a Handful of New Laptops

HP's latest Envy 14 laptop.(Credit: HP)

As sure as the sun rises in the East, every few months you're going to see some new laptops from leading PC maker HP. That time is here again, and the latest additions include new versions of the high-end Envy, the Netbook-size Mini, and even a few professional-level ProBooks and Elitebooks. Here are some of the highlights:
 
HP Envy 14

The Envy 14, part of HP's premium Envy line, gets a refresh with Intel's 2011 Sandy Bridge CPUs, which offer better performance and battery life than the 2010 models. While it looks the same as previous Envy models, HP promises that the large clickpad is more responsive (multitouch gestures were a little wonky on the current versions), and USB 3.0 gets thrown in as well.
We've generally been big fans of this line, as it's one of the few high-design, gamer-friendly series of laptops from a major brand. You won't be able to get one of these new 14-inch models until June, and they start at $999.

The HP Mini 210.(Credit: HP)

 
HP Mini 210

It turns out Netbooks aren't totally dead after all (just mostly dead). The new Mini 210 is pretty much the same as last year's, with a dual-core Intel Atom CPU, and this is one of only a handful of new Netbooks we've heard about so far for 2011 (by this time last year, we were flooded with 2010 models).
But the new Mini 210 does add some new lid colors (including sweet purple, charcoal, crimson red, luminous rose, and ocean drive). Despite still being only about 1 inch thick, it works in a streamlined six-cell battery, and, surprisingly, the Mini 210 includes a Netbook version of the same Beats Audio technology found in the high-end Envy laptops, which is something of a bold move.

Also available in June, these will run $300-$330, which is still the standard for basic Netbooks.

The HP Pavilion dv4.(Credit: HP)

HP Pavilion dv4

Other than a few vibrant new colors, the most notable thing about the Pavilion dv4 is the new version of HP's Cool Sense technology it includes. This is basically a user control panel for the cooling fans, but now it actually includes some recommended user settings, instead of leaving it all for you to figure out.
The Pavilion dv4 is coming May 18, starting at $599.

Corporate and business users shouldn't feel left out; there are a handful of new ProBook and EliteBook models as well. The $799 ProBook 5330m is a slim 13-inch with Intel's newest Sandy Bridge CPUs and a backlit keyboard, as well as TPM and Intel vPro technology (which are important for corporate IT departments).

The HP ProBook 5330m.(Credit: HP)

The EliteBook 2560p and 2760p are aimed at high-end business users, with metallic finishes and thin designs. The $1,100, 12.5-inch 2560p is a traditional clamshell, while the $1,500 12-inch 2760p has a swiveling convertible touch screen. All three should be available in May, and our sister site ZDNet has some additional details on the business systems, but the part we're most interested in is the pay-as-you-go 3G data plans, which is something we haven't seen in a laptop before.

The system is called Data Pass, and with it, users of select HP laptops with 3G antennas can buy small chunks of data on an a la carte basis. The service is provided by Sprint, and seems like a good idea for those who need only occasional access, but the prices did seem steep--$5 for 75MB of data, which could easily be a single PowerPoint document, or up to 1GB of data for $30.

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Toshiba Satellite E305-S1990X Review

Processor: 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410M Memory: 4GB RAM Storage: 500GB hard drive Optical Drive: Blu-ray reader/DVD±RW combo Screen: 14 inches (1,366x768 native resolution) Graphics: Integrated Mobile Intel HD Graphics Weight: 4.9 pounds Dimensions (HWD): 1.25x13.5x9.1 inches Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

 

Toshiba Satellite E305-S1990X Review

If you’re not sure what will sell, try asking your customers. (What a novel idea!) That’s what Best Buy did, and it resulted with the superb Toshiba Satellite E305-S1990X, a top-notch, low-price notebook chock-full of features and performance without the extras that can sometimes weigh a notebook down. Best Buy calls such customer-guided systems "Blue Label" laptops, and they're made with features that Best Buy's clientele specifically asked for. Toshiba collaborated with Best Buy on this model and built this machine with that guidance in mind. Best Buy will sell this system for $899. (Alternately, if you have money burning a hole in your pocket, you can get the same model directly from Toshiba for $1,089.) With excellent performance, above-average battery life, a durable chassis, and a slick-looking design, the Satellite E305 is one of the best thin-and-light laptops on the market. Design From the first glance, the Toshiba Satellite E305 looks like a winner. It features a sharp-looking aluminum chassis with a slight pale-green tint to it. (No, the images here aren't off-hue.) The exterior feels solid, obscures fingerprints, and could work for a business user or general consumer. The machine weighs 4.9 pounds, which is lighter than Toshiba's comparably equipped 5.4-pound Satellite M645-S4118X, and it measures 1.25x13.5x9.1 inches. It's light and sturdy enough for frequent travel, though we'd still recommend a smaller ultraportable (by definition, an under-4-pound machine) for truly constant travelers. The Satellite E305 has a better-than-usual array of ports for a thin-and-light laptop. You get USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports (one of each), an eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port with Sleep and Charge (which lets you recharge USB devices while the laptop is off or napping), an Ethernet port, a VGA-out connector, a microphone jack, a headphone jack, and a Kensington lock slot. Additionally, a Blu-ray reader/DVD writer, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity, 4G WiMAX support, and Bluetooth connectivity come standard. And under the front lip is a flash-card reader that works with the SD, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick (MS), and MS Pro formats.   The aluminum finish on the outside of the E305 obscures fingerprints and feels sturdy in the hand. Also onboard is a 500GB "hybrid" drive that decreases boot time. (The drive is a standard platter-based hard drive, augmented by some speedy flash memory for caching and faster performance.) According to Toshiba, it should be 50 percent faster. We didn't see anything that dramatic, but bootup was fairly fast; we clocked the machine at a 34-second boot time. By contrast, the Asus U31JG-A1—which has a 500GB 5,400rpm hard drive, 4GB of RAM, and a Next-Gen (a.k.a. "Sandy Bridge") Intel Core i3 processor—booted in 50 seconds. Unfortunately, all these powerful components make the e305 run a little loud, with the internal cooling fan getting noisy during Blu-ray viewing or other resource-intensive tasks. Features The Satellite E305's VGA (0.3-megapixel) Webcam is embedded in the bezel, right above the screen. When it's enabled, a blue light glows next to the sensor. Images were average as far as VGA Webcams go; stills and video shot under low-light conditions did not convey color and detail well, but still shots taken under better lighting came out with decent exposure. The keyboard on the E305 looks sharp and performs well. It's a black-plastic Chiclet-style keyboard with white LED backlighting. Typing was smooth and accurate, and the top row of keys features full media controls, including volume and brightness. Above the keys, on the top right, is a two-button control that toggles the Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) feature, which lets you transmit audio and video from your monitor to a compatible HDTV screen, and Toshiba's Eco Mode, which helps conserve power and save battery life. Note, though, that to make the WiDi work, you'll need to use Netgear's Push2TV adapter on the HDTV end, which is included in the $899 price or sold separately for $99.99.   The Satellite E305's Chiclet-style keyboard is comfortable and has white LED backlighting. Surrounded by a glossy black bezel, the 14-inch TruBrite display features a 1,366x768 native resolution. The bright screen provided detailed images and videos. To test its HD-playback quality, we watched some of 2009's Star Trek on Blu-ray, as well as the Star Trek trailer streaming from YouTube. In both cases, the movie looked crisp, and color replication was excellent. The speakers, which sit under the front lip, can get moderately loud and fill a small room. Unfortunately, sound is flat, and audio detail doesn't come through. For example, the song “Judas” by Lady Gaga has all sorts of strange computer-made noises and loud bass, and the E305's speakers handled it barely passably. The speakers had only moderate treble and couldn't convey any of the song's quieter tones. The E305 has a microphone jack, a headphone jack, one USB 3.0 port, and HDMI and VGA-connectors on its right side. One quirk with the E305's sound was that even at full volume, the sound on a Blu-ray movie was barely audible. We used the default Corel WinDVD BD program, but no settings would make the movie louder. Whether it's for movies or music, headphones are your best bet for decent sound quality. Performance The Satellite E305 offers particularly good performance for its $899 price. The machine has a powerful 2011-model Intel CPU (specifically, the 2.3GHz Core i5-2410M), along with 4GB of RAM. Rather than a separate graphics chipset, it relies on the Mobile Intel HD Graphics circuitry that comes integrated into that Sandy Bridge processor. On the 64-bit version of PCMark Vantage, which measures overall system performance, the Satellite E305 scored a very good 7,511. That's considerably better than the same-priced Samsung QX410's 6,108 (which was running on a previous-generation Core i5 processor) or the Toshiba Satellite M645's 6,233 (which also ran on a previous-generation Core i5 CPU). We suspect that the pairing of the faster hard drive with a Next-Gen Core i5 processor really helped boost the E305's numbers. The Satellite E305's knack for application performance also showed on the 64-bit Cinebench 10 benchmark test, which is a CPU workout that exercises all cores. The E305's score of 9,651 topped the Samsung QX410's 8,066, and it came in barely lower than the Satellite M645's 9,721. This is an excellent score, over 2,000 points above average and demonstrates very strong multitasking abilities. And the Satellite E305 delivered phenomenal results for a laptop in our media-file-conversion tests. For example, in our Windows Media Encoder test, in which we convert a 3-minute-and-15-second video clip to a DVD-quality format, the E305 finished the job in 3 minutes and 31 seconds, the fastest result we've seen on a thin-and-light laptop. In comparison, the QX410 took 4:01 on this test task, while the M645 had a nearly identical result (3:32). We also saw super-speedy results on our iTunes Conversion Test, which entails converting 11 test-standard MP3 tracks to AAC format. The E305 completed this task in 2 minutes and 35 seconds, which was faster than QX410's 3:37 and the Satellite M645's 2:36. On the left side, the Satellite E305 has a power port, Ethernet jack, USB 2.0 port, a USB 2.0/eSATA port with Sleep and Charge, and a Blu-ray drive.   To evaluate the capabilities of the Satellite E305's graphics (which, as we mentioned, are built into the processor), we ran our 3DMark06 test. On this test, the E305 delivered above-average scores of 4,963 (at 1,024x768 resolution) and 4,385 (at its native resolution, 1,366x768). The Samsung QX410 was a fair bit behind, with a 4,188 at 1,024x768 and a 3,679 at native. However, the Toshiba M645, thanks to its dedicated graphics processor, blew away both machines on this test (7,361 and 6,654 at these resolutions, respectively). With its six-cell battery, the E305 performed well above the 3-hour-and-30-minute average we've seen among thin-and-light laptops. On our harsh DVD battery-rundown test, in which we loop a DVD of the movie The Matrix (with the screen set to 50 percent brightness) until the battery dies, the E305 endured for an excellent 4:17. The Samsung QX410 performed slightly better (4:28), while the Satellite M645 faltered a bit and ran for 3:51. Conclusion Finally, what sets this notebook apart from a standard Toshiba laptop purchase is an unusually good array of preinstalled software and a better-than-average warranty. Usually, Toshiba includes a standard one-year warranty on parts, labor, and battery, but this notebook comes with a two-year warranty on those items. For software, you get one year of Norton Antivirus and three years of Intel PC Theft Defense; the latter allows you to lock down your data remotely if your laptop is ever lost or stolen. We also appreciate that Google’s Chrome browser is preinstalled, sitting in the Windows 7 taskbar alongside Internet Explorer 8. You also get an ad-supported version of Microsoft Office, as well as a password-tracking utility and a face-recognition app. (The last lets you log on to your machine with your face via the Webcam, instead of by typing in a password.) We did encounter some minor annoyances with the installed software. The first involved an app called HDD Protection, which pops up a notification every time you move the machine around. This is, in a way, a good thing, in that it’s tied to an accelerometer that senses when the system is falling and parks the hard drive heads to protect your data. The problem is that Toshiba’s settings were too sensitive for us; we were able to adjust the sensitivity to our liking. Another stumbling block was the installed Best Buy PC App, which pops up automatically and allows you to buy (or download for free) additional software for your PC. While this feels like a hard sell at first, when you consider the alternative (having Toshiba preinstall a bunch of software that you don't necessarily want), you may prefer this approach. For $899, the Toshiba Satellite E305-S1990X is a remarkable package. When you take into consideration the standout design, excellent performance, longer-than-average battery life, and two-year warranty, it's the best all-around thin-and-light available now. The $899 Samsung QX410 is the closest competitor we've tested with similar specs, but it only tops the E305 in the battery-life department. The also-excellent Satellite M645 comes in at $1,099, but it only tops the E305 in any meaningful way in 3D performance. And in both of those categories, even though the E305 isn’t the best, it's still very strong, making for a remarkably balanced and well-priced notebook. Price (at time of review): $899.99 (at Best Buy, as tested) www.toshiba.com 800-915-1849

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15.6-inch Laptop Lenovo G560 Review 2011

When you come across a 15.6-inch laptop with a sub-$700 price tag, you’re probably going to assume that it must be riddled with compromises in order to sell for several hundred dollars less than most other mainstream laptops. The Lenovo G560—which sells direct from Lenovo for $699—comes with its share of concessions. But it doesn’t drop the ball in the areas where it really counts; it dishes out excellent performance and battery life. Further defying expectations, the G560 even comes with a few surprising features, including HDMI and eSATA ports, as well as an ExpressCard/34 slot and an integrated media-card reader.

The G560 is part of Lenovo’s Essential G-Series line of laptops for basic, everyday computing, which is made up of a variety of 14- and 15.6-inch models that share similar designs and features. The G560 measures 1.4x14.8x9.9-inches (HWD), which is typical for a laptop with a 15.6-inch display; its weight of 5.7 pounds, however, puts it a bit on the heavy side for its class. The all-black chassis has a glossy lid with a faint tread-like pattern; but we found that the lid was one of the worst fingerprint-smudge magnets we’ve ever seen.

Instead of a Chiclet-style keyboard, which is all the rage right now, Lenovo chose to use a traditional-style keyboard and even threw in a dedicated mini-number-pad. We liked the sturdy feel of the keys, but as we moved to the right side of the keyboard, it became increasingly mushy as it flexed underneath the weight of our fingers. The keyboard includes brightness and volume keys; but unlike other laptops where these are dedicated keys, on the G560 you must press the Function key to access them. Above the keyboard are dedicated buttons for the OneKey Recovery utility (which can be accessed during boot up or when Windows is running) for system backups and restores, and the Lenovo Energy Management utility for quick changes to the power management settings.
 

The all-black chassis includes a glossy lid that is, unfortunately, a fingerprint-smudge magnet.

 
The G560 uses a single-piece touch pad, which integrates the mouse buttons directly into the touch pad. We had some trouble using this configuration, as our fingers frequently missed pressing the mouse buttons. In addition to not clicking when we thought we were clicking, a secondary problem was that with a finger already mistakenly pressed down in the touch pad area instead of on a mouse button, the touch pad became unresponsive to our trying to move the cursor with our other finger.

The G560 uses an LED-backlit display that has a native resolution of 1,366x768 pixels, which is the norm for 15.6-inch laptops. We watched a few movies on the screen and were impressed with how crisp the colors looked and the display’s wide contrast range—a boon for when watching movies that have dark scenes. Unfortunately, the display wasn’t as bright as we’ve seen on other 15.6-inch laptops; plus it had a very narrow viewing angle, and the glossy screen too easily caught annoying reflections. These issues all go away when you are sitting in front of the laptop in a dark room. The stereo speakers pumped out impressively loud audio and did so with minimal distortion even at the highest setting. That said, as is typically the case with laptop speakers, the speakers emitted virtually no bass response.

For a budget-priced mainstream laptop, the G560 includes a surprising collection of connectivity features. In addition to the requisite VGA-out and three USB 2.0 ports, the G560 also comes with an HDMI-out port, an ExpressCard/34 slot, and a five-format media-card reader. Another added bonus is that one of the USB ports is a combo port that also works with eSATA devices. Networking capabilities are taken care of by the 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi radio and the Gigabit Ethernet port. The G560 doesn’t come with a Bluetooth radio, but we wouldn’t necessarily expect one to be included at this low price point.

 

The keyboard includes a mini-number pad.

 
With a 2.13GHz Intel Core i3-330M processor, 4GB RAM, integrated Intel GMA HD graphics, and a 320GB hard drive, the G560 has almost identical specs as the $649.99 Gateway NV5933u. Unlike the NV5933u, which comes with a Blu-ray drive, the G560 comes with a standard DVD±RW drive. Including a Blu-ray drive in an under-$700 laptop is almost unheard of—as such, with such similar components under the hood, the NV5933u might seem like a better choice for anyone looking for an inexpensive multimedia machine. But before you dismiss the G560 outright, consider that it has a number of advantages over the NV5933u—which might have greater appeal to you, depending on your needs.

Two of the G560’s advantages are the eSATA port and ExpressCard slot that the NV5933u lacks. But perhaps the biggest differentiator between the two laptops is that the NV5933u’s meager battery life of 1 hour and 36 minutes is more than an hour behind that of the G560’s 2:45 on our demanding DVD-movie drain test. In fact, the G560’s battery life is even a bit longer than the average of roughly 2:30 for mainstream laptops. In our casual usage, the G560 lasted over 3.5 hours.

As to our other performance measures, the two laptops were a much closer match. On nearly all of our tests, the two laptops performed very similarly, with only two notable exceptions. On the 64-bit PCMark Vantage test, which is a good measure of a system’s overall performance, the G560’s score of 5,059 was a bit faster than the NV5933u’s 4,824. On the primarily CPU-based iTunes encoding test, where we convert 11 MP3 files to AAC files, the G560’s 4 minutes and 2 seconds pulled even further ahead of the NV5933u’s 4:31. Regardless, the overall performance for both laptops is notably speedier than the average performance we’ve seen from mainstream laptops.

 

The left side of the keyboard is stiff; but the right side is mushy.

 
Users on a budget who need speedier performance—and are willing to spend another $100—might want to look at the $799, 2.26GHz Core i5-430M–based HP ProBook 4520s. On our other CPU-heavy, media-conversion benchmark—the Windows Media Encoder test—the G560’s encoding time of 5:08 can’t keep up with the 4520s’s snappier time of 4:33. With a score of 6,138 on our Cinebench 10 test—which stresses all the available cores of a system’s processor—the 4520s skates past the G560’s showing of 5,525. The 4520s comes with a significant caveat, however, in that its battery life of just over 2 hours is about 45 minutes shy of what the G560 is capable of.

All three laptops use integrated graphics engines that are built into their Intel processors; and as such they all have very poor 3D graphics performance. On our 3DMark06 test at the laptop’s native resolution, the G560 turned out an unimpressive score of 1,883. For gaming specifically, we ran our Company of Heroes DX9 test at native resolution, and the best the G560 could do was a lackluster 12.1 frames per second (fps). Integrated graphics should be fine for watching HD videos and playing less demanding games such as World of Warcraft, but any game that needs more 3D power will require a system with a discrete graphics chip, such as the $1,249 Sony VAIO F-Series VPC-F113FXH. The VPC-F113FXH garnered a much higher 3DMark06 score of 4,135 and a passable 20.1 fps on Company of Heroes. But as is evident by the VPC-F113FXH’s higher price tag, you’re going to have pay well over $1,000 for a laptop that can be used for real 3D gaming.
 

Connections on the left side of the G560 include Gigabit Ethernet, VGA-out, two USB 2.0 ports (one of which is also an eSATA port), HDMI-out, and an ExpressCard/34 slot.

 
The G560 is a set configuration that cannot be configured-to-order like some manufacturers let you do with their laptop models, such as Dell or HP. On the Lenovo Web page for the G560 there is a “Customize & buy” link, but the available options are relegated to extending the warranty beyond the basic one-year parts-and-labor and adding additional software.

A number of useful applications come standard with the G560, such as facial-recognition security software and the Lenovo DirectShare file syncing app. Thankfully, the G560 doesn’t have much preinstalled bloatware, but the 60-day trials of McAfee Security Center and Microsoft Office will be of questionable value to many users.
 

The right side of the G560 includes mic and headphone jacks, the DVD±RW drive, and another USB 2.0 port (for a total of three USB ports).

 
With its $699 price tag, the Lenovo G560 is a very good deal for a 15.6-inch laptop. It is powered by decent components and delivers performance and battery life that are above-and-beyond the average for its class. For $50 less you can grab the similarly configured Gateway NV5933u, which adds a Blu-ray drive to the mix; but in doing so you’ll give up the G560’s impressive battery life and its eSATA port and ExpressCard slot in the process. Unless you can’t live without the NV5933u’s Blu-ray drive or don’t care how long the battery lasts, the G560’s is the superior machine and the better value.

Price (at time of review): $699 (direct)

See all of our Lenovo G560 coverage

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Apple iMac (21.5-Inch, 2011 Version) Review

Don't you just hate overachievers? Like that good-looking, star athlete in high school, the Apple iMac, year after year, outshines all the other all-in-one (AIO) desktops—Windows or Mac—in its class. It gracefully sprints ahead in performance, and it looks good in just about any situation. (Grumble, grumble.)

Still, we can't help but feel respect for, rather than jealousy of, this AIO computer. This time around, the iMac proves itself the prom king of AIOs, with stronger CPU and graphics power, along with the new Thunderbolt port that promises high-speed data transfer. We'd like to see some additional entertainment features to pair with the iMac's gorgeous screen, but we recommend this AIO to anyone focused on productivity and performance, and willing to work within Mac OS X.

The body of the 21.5-inch iMac is about 1.5 inches thick.

With this first 2011 update of the iMac, each member of the new iMac line gets a strong boost in processor and graphics above 2010's machines. Apple is offering two 21.5-inch models. The $1,199 base model (our test unit) packs in a 2011-model 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor (from the new generation of Intel chips known as "Sandy Bridge"), a 500GB hard drive, and an AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics card with 512MB of discrete memory. For $300 more, you can upgrade to a 2.7GHz Intel Core i5 processor (also a quad-core chip), a 1TB hard drive, and AMD Radeon HD 6770M graphics with the same dollop of memory.
Apple is also offering two 27-inch models: a $1,699 version with the same specs as the higher-end 21.5-inch iMac, and, for another $300, a beefed-up model that features a 3.1GHz Intel Core i5 quad-core CPU, a 1TB hard drive, and AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics with 1GB of dedicated memory. You can upgrade various components of all of the models at the time of purchase...for a price, of course.

Design & Features

While the guts of the iMac have gotten a compete overhaul, the exterior is almost exactly the same as the previous version. But that's certainly not a bad thing. Like all of Apple’s products, the  iMac’s design is sleek and minimalist. It's encased in a single-piece aluminum enclosure much like the ones that the Apple MacBook Pro and Apple Mac Mini lines also sport, giving the whole Mac family a unified look.

On the right side of the screen is an SD-card reader (which also supports the SDXC format) and a slot-loading optical drive. Unfortunately, the latter is not a Blu-ray reader, something that Apple has yet to feature on any of its systems. That's a shame, with this beautiful screen. Other than the power button, which sits almost invisibly on the lower-back-left side of the body, and a little patch of ports, you won't find any other features to interrupt the iMac's mostly bare rear panel.
 

On the rear of the iMac, you'll find a strip of ports, the power connection, a power cord, an Apple logo...and that's about it.

 
The super-spare design helps draw your eyes to the gorgeous 21.5-inch LCD, which is glossy and LED-backlit. Its wide-screen aspect ratio (16-to-9) and 1,920x1,080 native resolution make for an impressive HD viewing experience. Like all glossy screens, this one is prone to some glare off of ambient lighting, but the colors represent nicely, and, unsurprisingly, we noted no motion blur when viewing video. However, considering this beautiful screen, notably absent from the iMac—apart from the Blu-ray player—is an HDMI port. That would be useful for connecting a gaming console and making dual use of the display.
One new feature that comes to the iMac with this generation is a built-in ambient-light sensor. (It lives, almost invisibly, on the top strip of the screen bezel, next to the Webcam lens.) This sensor governs the brightness of the screen depending on the brightness of the room you are in. We applaud Apple for bringing this feature, which has been on its MacBooks for a few generations, to its desktops. (You'll know the value of this feature if you've ever tried looking at a bright screen in a dark room. Talk about an instant headache.)

The Magic Mouse features laptop-touchpad-like features such as finger swiping.

The iMac’s body sits nicely on an aluminum base that provides a stable anchor for the rest of the body; it's the very same base as on the previous model. The screen is tiltable, and the adjustment motion is refined and smooth. There's no left/right swivel adjustment (apart from moving the whole machine, base and all), but Apple claims that its iMacs have a 178-degree off-center viewing angle, and that minimizes the need for fine swivel adjustments. (Based on our testing, we believe it; we noted no appreciable deterioration of color or viewability when we looked at both video and still images far off center.) Plus, the iMac is light enough to drag around your desk, if need be.

The iMac ships with either Apple's Magic Mouse or the company's Magic Trackpad.

You previously had to pay an extra $69 to get the Magic Trackpad separately; now, you can get it bundled with your iMac instead of the Magic Mouse, for no additional charge. The Magic Mouse works almost like the touch pad of a laptop. Looking like a tiny spaceship, the Magic Mouse has no buttons—or rather, like its MacBook touch-pad counterpart, it’s one big button. (Click here for our full review of the Apple Magic Mouse.) The Magic Trackpad, on the other hand, actually is the touch pad of a laptop, lifted off and made a free-standing peripheral. If you've used the touch pad on a MacBook Pro, you'll be very familiar with how this unique pointer works. (Click here for our full review of the Magic Trackpad.)

You can now choose to have your iMac ship with a

Magic Trackpad instead of a Magic Mouse.

Along with the Magic Mouse, the iMac also ships with a wireless Bluetooth keyboard that adheres nicely to the Apple minimalist aesthetic. About three-quarters the size of a traditional keyboard (partly thanks to the elimination of the numeric keypad), it’s almost completely flat except for a rounded area in the back that holds the batteries and props up the keyboard slightly in the rear.

Despite its diminutive body, we didn’t find the keyboard hard to type on. Like the mouse, it bears a striking resemblance to Apple’s laptops, with the Chiclet-style keys rising only slightly from the body of the keyboard. It's tiny and may take some getting used to, but if you're an Apple fan, it will definitely fit your style.

 

The super-thin keyboard comes with built-in Bluetooth and requires two AA batteries.

 
Apple's new 720p FaceTime HD camera lives in the middle of the top of the screen bezel, along with a camera-indicator light, which lights up to warn you when the camera is on. The FaceTime camera features three times the resolution of the iSight camera that came on previous iMacs. We first used the FaceTime camera when it made its debut on the latest line of MacBook Pro laptops, and we were immediately impressed with it. This could have been one of those improvements that might not matter to the average consumer, but we think the dramatic difference won't go unnoticed. As far as using the camera, we noticed no lag, and it performed well even in a dimly lit office. You can make FaceTime calls to other Mac devices that have a camera and the FaceTime app installed. (You can download the app from the Mac App Store for 99 cents; it also comes loaded for free on new iMacs and MacBooks.)

The built-in speakers are located on the right and left side of the underbelly of the bezel. They deliver a loud, bass-filled sound that could easily fill a small room. (As a matter of fact, our neighbor in our office asked if we were having a dance party in our office during our testing.) You'll want to consider hooking up some external speakers, though, if you plan on pumping music from the iMac to entertain at a party, as it doesn't quite have the sound to fill a large room

Connectivity

On the back-left side of the body is a single-file line of ports. From left, they are audio-in and -out jacks, four USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port, a Thunderbolt connector (don't worry, we'll get to that probably unfamiliar one in a minute), and an Ethernet jack. In the middle, behind the base, is the power connection. The power cord snakes out through an opening in the base.
 

The iMac's ports include, from left: headphone and microphone jacks, four USB 2.0
ports, a FireWire 800 port, the new Thunderbolt port, and an Ethernet jack.

 
These iMacs are the first desktops to feature the Thunderbolt port, which replaces the mini-DisplayPort connector from previous iMacs. Thunderbolt is based on Intel's Light Peak technology, which supports both high-performance peripherals and high-resolution displays. You get one Thunderbolt port on the 21.5-inch iMac, and two on the 27-inch model, to support additional peripherals. (This means, for example, you can hook up two additional displays to the 27-inch iMac.) Apple claims the technology can provide data transfer at 20 times the speed of a USB 2.0 port, and, from what we saw during an Apple-administered demonstration the morning of this computer's release, we believe it. (We'd have tested it ourselves, but no cable or device was available for us to lug back to our labs. Estimates are, though, that Thunderbolt cables and compatible devices will be available in the late spring or early summer.)

The Thunderbolt port doesn't just work with Thunderbolt-equipped peripherals; it's also compatible with USB 2.0 and 3.0, FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet, VGA, DVI, and HDMI connectors via an adapter. (Adapters are expected to be available for each connection type soon. Keep in mind, though, that with the adapters, you’ll still be running at the speed of your original connection.) A final aspect of it is a serious flashback: The Thunderbolt port also allows you to daisy-chain up to six devices off of it, much like old-school SCSI.

The iMac's power cord runs through this gap in the stand.

 

Performance

While the outside of the latest iMacs may look identical to the previous generation, the inside has seen a wholesale component revamp, with more powerful graphics and CPUs. As we mentioned previously, our test unit was the base model of the line, built around a current-generation 2.5GHz Intel Core i5 CPU and an AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics card with 512MB of memory. The Sandy Bridge processors have already wowed us on the Windows side, setting all kinds of speed records at low system price points. And with this kind of power now backing the iMac, this machine blew its predecessor—and most of the competition—straight off the test bench in our testing.

The first set of trials we ran tested the iMac's raw CPU performance. We started with our Cinebench 10 test, which stresses all the cores of a given processor in rendering a test image. The iMac scored 13,631, a 56 percent increase over the previous version of the 21.5-inch iMac. This number is also impressive next to comparable Windows-based AIOs. It bests the Gateway One ZX6951-53's score of 10,031, while it didn't quite measure up to the HP Omni 200 Quad's 14,658. (The HP Omni 200 was running a 2.8GHz Intel Core i5 processor, though, which we would expect to be a little faster than this iMac's CPU.)

Our next CPU-centric test was our iTunes Converstion Test, in which we encode 11 standard audio tracks from MP3 to AAC format. Here, the iMac's time of 2 minutes and 16 seconds to perform the test task beat the previous version's time by almost a full minute. It also handily beat the HP Omni 200 Quad and Gateway One ZX6951-53 by more than 20 seconds.
The new, more-powerful graphics in this line of iMacs also impressed us in our testing. With the previous version of the iMac line, Apple for the first time brought a dedicated graphics processor to its low-end iMac. This time, the trend toward better graphics continues with the AMD Radeon HD 6750M in our test machine. This bump up in graphics power prompted us to run one of our more intensive game tests on this machine in Boot Camp. We used the test game Far Cry 2, which has a built-in benchmark test; we achieved a frame rate of 29.4 frames per second (fps) on our 1,920x1,080 DirectX 10 run of the test. When we dropped the resolution to 1,680x1,050 (while keeping the rest of the graphics settings pushed to High), we got a more playable 32.6fps. (30fps is our typical threshhold for playability.)

What this tells us: You’ll likely have to dial back the resolution and graphics settings a fair bit in cutting-edge gaming titles, but this machine should make most current games playable. If gaming is a priority for you, though, we’d upgrade the system to one of the higher-end graphics-card options.
 

The FaceTime camera, ambient light sensor, and camera-live indicator are located at the center-top of the bezel.

 
Overall video-playback performance was solid. We watched a DVD copy of The Bourne Identity; the film displayed crisp and clear, with no motion blur to be seen. (We would have loved to have watched a Blu-ray disc, but as we noted, alas, there's no support for that.) MOV video files that we shot on our inexpensive Canon point-and-shoot camera also played back without glitches.

While this kind of performance isn’t up to the same level you’ll find in an Apple Mac Pro tower or another high-end desktop, this system delivers plenty of CPU muscle for multitasking, as well as demanding tasks such as high-end image and HD video editing. Professional users will, of course, want to step up to one of the faster CPUs for the time that they’ll save in rendering, but for everyone else, even this low-end model’s CPU should be more than sufficient for just about all mainstream tasks.

Conclusion

The iMac comes bundled with the 10.6 version of the Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system, as well as iLife ’11 (comprising the superb iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, and GarageBand applications). The latter is as good a starter set of media-centric programs as you'll find with any modern desktop computer. The iMac also comes with a one-year limited warranty and 90 days of toll-free phone support. (An extended AppleCare warranty will cover your system for two more years; it costs $169 extra, and that upcharge was not factored into the cost of our test unit.)

With a little new on the outside and a lot new on the inside, the 21.5-inch iMac continues to be our overall top pick for an all-in-one desktop computer. Dramatic improvements in CPU and graphics power send it hurtling to the front of the AIO pack, and its stylish design would fit perfectly in a living room as well as an office. Even though its improved graphics performance makes it a viable gaming machine, we'd like to see more entertainment features, such as an HDMI port or a Blu-ray drive. But as a productivity PC, the iMac is as powerful as it is beautiful.

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Alienware M17x 3D-Display Technology Ready For Its 3D CloseUP

Clear the grand staircase :Alienware is ready for its 3D close-up. We've already seen entertainment and gaming laptops featuring true 3D-display technology descend, from the suspects you'd expect (and one or two you wouldn't), so it was little surprise that Alienware made its inevitable, bold entrance with an update of its brawny, big-screen M17x. It’s no Norma Desmond has-been, either: This 17-inch desktop replacement has been updated with the latest Intel processor architecture (the "Sandy Bridge" line of chips) and Nvidia’s GeForce and 3D Vision technology. And like its predecessor, it's a no-doubt gamer-geared rig with dazzling chassis-lighting effects and a gorgeous display.

The 3D revision of the M17x has all the accoutrements we’ve come to expect from an Alienware portable—including the also-inevitable hefty price. In the model we tested, though, the price seems to contain a bit of "Alienware tax" for the distinct design and brand. And while it packs considerable graphics muscle, it's by no means a league leader and is actually outscored by a few much cheaper competitors.

Prices on the updated M17x start at $1,499 for the base model, which lacks a 3D-ready display and comes with a lot less storage than the particular machine we tested. The pumped-up M17x we did test will set you back about double that: $2,994, at the time we wrote this. While this particular configuration does sport a cutting-edge processor chip, it didn't use the latest in graphics processing chips (GPUs), and that showed on our tests. For nearly $3,000, this system doesn't quite live up to its high price and celebrity reputation.

Design

In place of the aluminum chassis used on Alienware's earlier version of the M17x, this latest iteration is done up in the same rubbery-feeling finish (in a color dubbed Stealth Black) that was used on the Alienware M11x R2. (The company also offers this machine in a red shade called Soft Touch Nebula Red.) This matte finish helps keep fingerprint smudges to a minimum and provides a nice background for the lid’s illuminated alien-head logo.

In fact, the M17x looks like a much bigger version of the M11x R2; it sports the same Corvette-like beveled lid and backlit grillework, and it uses a heavy-duty dual-hinge mechanism that gives it a solid, well-built feel. At 10.1 pounds, this desktop replacement is no lightweight, but it is 2.6 pounds lighter than the version of the Alienware M17x we reviewed in 2009. Its beast of a power brick brings the total travel weight up to 12.2 pounds, however.

The keyboard deck sports the same soft finish as the lid. Down here, you'll find a full-size keyboard and number pad, a touch pad, an alien-head-shaped power switch, a set of media-file transport buttons (volume, play/pause, fast-forward, rewind), an optical-drive eject button, and a switch for turning the Wi-Fi on and off. Also present: a hot key that launches the machine's Alien Command Center software, which contains a utility (AlienFX) that controls the chassis-lighting scheme. It's remarkably customizable: You can illuminate the keyboard (or not), and if you do, even separate it into four zones, with different colors for each zone.

The AlienFX utility lets you assign custom colors to the keyboard, touch pad, grilles, media-control buttons, and more.

You can also use AlienFX to light up the media keys, the power switch, the Alienware logo on the bezel beneath the display, the front speaker grilles, and a strip bordering the touch pad. Each object can have a different color, and you can even program them to respond to specific events, such as the arrival of e-mail.
The keyboard itself is firm and roomy, and the touch pad offers great cursor control. The dual mouse buttons that supplement the pad are responsive and whisper-quiet. Overall, we found very little not to like about the input scheme on this machine.
 

The keyboard and touch pad are roomy and colorful.

The audio output from this machine was also mostly satisfactory. Mounted in the base are two Klipsch speakers that were loud and distortion-free with our test audio. The bass response was better than average, too, though it could still use some help from a subwoofer to round out the sound.

Features

The M17x is jam-packed with I/O ports. On the left side of the notebook are two USB 3.0 ports, an Ethernet jack, a pair of headphone jacks (for sharing music or movie audio with a buddy), and microphone and S/PDIF audio ports. Also packed in here are video outputs for HDMI, DisplayPort, and VGA connections.

Over on the right side is a slot-loading Blu-ray/DVD±RW optical drive, as well as a card reader that supports the MultiMediaCard, SD, Memory Stick (MS), and MS Pro media formats. Alongside are two USB 2.0 ports, and an eSATA/USB combo port that supports PowerShare, which allows you to charge USB devices without having to power up the notebook. Finally, on this edge you’ll also find an HDMI input. That item is rare among laptops, and it comes in handy if you want to play video directly from a camcorder (or any device) with an HDMI output.

Wireless networking comes by way of Intel’s Centrino Ultimate N-6300 integrated Wi-Fi adapter and a Bluetooth radio. Alienware offers WiMAX broadband capabilities as a $50 option.

A wealth of ports is located on the left side of the M17x. From left: Ethernet, VGA, HDMI-out, mini-DisplayPort, two USB 3.0, optical audio out, microphone, and two headphone jacks.

A 3-megapixel Webcam is embedded in the display’s upper bezel, along with a dual microphone array. The camera captures significantly more detail than the 1.3-megapixel cameras we’re used to seeing, and it does very well in low lighting conditions. You can use an included utility, Creative Live Central, to capture video and still photos; it’s a fun utility that lets you add all sorts of effects to your photos and video-chat sessions, such as wacky backgrounds that make you appear behind bars. You can also use face effects to, say, add facial hair or turn your image into a werewolf.

On a laptop this big, though, the make-or-break physical feature is the LCD. Here, it doesn't disappoint: The M17x’s 17.3-inch display is stunning. Edge-to-edge glass covers the 1,920x1,080-pixel panel, giving it an ultramodern, seamless look. Colors are crisp and vibrant, and high-definition imagery is highly detailed. Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland on Blu-ray looked excellent on the big screen, and the display’s wide viewing range allowed three of us to watch the movie, seated side by side, without experiencing any color loss when looking at the display from an off-center angle.

As with the Acer Aspire 5745DG-3855, another notebook we tested recently with Nvidia's 3D technology inside, the M17x’s screen has a 120Hz refresh rate. When used with Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology, a screen with that spec can display stereoscopic (dual) images for viewing in 3D. (A typical notebook screen or LCD monitor has a 60Hz refresh rate.) To see the 3D effect, you'll need to look at this double image through the set of active-shutter glasses Alienware provides. These glasses are outfitted with LCD-equipped lenses that "open" and "close" in sync with the screen’s refresh rate (60 cycles a second for each eye). It results in a remarkable 3D experience that makes games and video come alive.

The 3D glasses can become uncomfortable after extended use.

Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology supports close to 300 games, most of which are rated "Excellent" by Nvidia’s 3D-quality standards. One of the games we use to measure graphics performance, Far Cry 2, received an Excellent rating, so we loaded it up, donned the glasses, and settled in for some multi-dimensional gaming.

For the most part, the 3D quality was very good. We did see a few instances of crosstalk, which we expected. Crosstalk is a double image artifact that is a common side effect of PC-based (as well as HDTV) 3D technology, but it did not detract from the overall experience. Game play was smooth, and the 3D effect provided plenty of depth. We also tried out some content from Nvidia’s 3D Vision Live portal, which offers a nice selection of 3D photos and video clips. A trailer for the movie The Green Hornet looked great in 3D, as did Dinosaurs—Giants of Patagonia. Even Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space, arguably the worst movie ever made, looked awesome in 3D mode.

Of course, you have to wear the glasses to view anything in 3D, and we found while reviewing the Acer Aspire 3D laptop, they are bulky and can cause discomfort around the bridge of the nose after an extended period of time. We also experienced some eyestrain after 20 minutes of fast action gaming. And make sure you keep that pair of glasses in a safe place (especially out of the couch cushions), since additional pairs cost $139 each if you buy them from Dell. (Nvidia sells them for $119 each on its site.)

 

The right edge of the machine: two USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA/USB combo port, an HDMI input, the flash-card reader, and a slot-loading Blu-ray/DVD combo drive.

 
Our review model was configured with two fast (7,200rpm) 750GB hard drives set in RAID 0 format, giving it a whopping 1.5TB of total storage space. You can shave hundreds of dollars off the price if you opt for less storage, or, for maximum speed, you can opt for dual 256GB solid-state drives (SSDs), which will add $950 to the cost of the notebook.

Performance

Powered by Intel’s Next-Gen (Sandy Bridge) 2.3GHz Core i7-2820QM processor and 8GB of DDR3 system memory, the M17x delivered very good scores on our productivity benchmark tests. On our 64-bit PCMark Vantage test, which measures overall system performance, its score of 10,091 was more than 3,600 points higher than the $1,699 HP Envy 17 and more than 4,000 points higher than the $1,499 Acer Aspire 8943G-9429, two similarly big machines that use a first-generation Core i7 chip. Still, it came up short against the $1,999 Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q898 (10,458), which uses a faster first-gen Core i7 than the HP and Acer systems and has the benefit of a speedy solid-state drive.

The M17x prevailed on our CPU-intensive Cinebench 10 test, however, which taxes all the available cores of the CPU. Its score of 20,347 was significantly higher than the HP (10,250), Acer (10,206), and Toshiba (11,045) notebooks, thanks to the processor’s faster clock speed and enhanced Turbo Boost capabilities, which enable it to speed up one or more processor cores on the fly. Only the hyper-pricey $5,325 Malibal Nine X7200 (26,565) and $4,250 Eurocom D900F Panther (25,961) have produced higher scores for us among laptops.

Multimedia performance, measured via our media-file-conversion tests, was also top-shelf. The M17x finished our iTunes Conversion Test (in which we convert 11 standard MP3 files to AAC format) in 2 minutes and 14 seconds, the fastest time of any desktop-replacement laptop to date. It also completed our Windows Media Encoder test (in which we convert a standard 3-minute video clip to DVD-quality format) in just 1 minute and 55 seconds, lagging behind the $5,325 Malibal X7200 by a mere single second and beating out the HP, Acer, and Toshiba notebooks by several minutes.

These numbers were overall very satisfactory for the price, but you're likely not buying an Alienware machine just to putter in spreadsheets or bulk-convert MP3 files. Fueled by a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M graphics processing unit (GPU), the M17x turned in respectable scores on our graphics tests, but we expected much better performance from a gaming rig with a $3,000 price.

First, we ran our real-world Far Cry 2 DirectX 9 gaming test at the laptop's native resolution (1,920x1,080). Here, the M17x churned out 37.9 frames per second (fps), which is certainly a good frame rate but significantly slower than the HP Envy 17, which used an ATI Radeon HD 5850 GPU in our test unit and produced a far superior 103.5fps. In contrast, the Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q898 used the same GeForce GPU as our Alienware M17x and delivered a very similar 38.4fps. On the DirectX 10 version of Far Cry 2, the M17x’s score of 47.3fps lagged behind the Qosmio by around 5fps, and it was much slower than the HP Envy 17's 65.2fps.

We then moved on to the older, but still-demanding, test game Company of Heroes. On this test, the M17x gave us 69fps in DirectX 9 mode, while both the HP Envy 17 and Toshiba Qosmio trounced it with scores of 139.7fps and 94.6fps, respectively. The Acer Aspire 8943G also beat the M17x, with a score of 86.7fps. Results from the DirectX 10 version of the test were similar: The M17x simply could not match the frame rates of the less expensive HP, Acer, and Toshiba notebooks.

Battery life was typical for a big-screen notebook. The M17x’s nine-cell battery lasted 2 hours and 5 minutes on our Battery-Rundown Test, in which we loop playback of a DVD movie until the battery gives out. That’s a full 7 minutes better than the average across desktop replacements we've tested (1:58) and 10 minutes longer than the Toshiba Qosmio above lasted on this test. It's also in-line with competing mega-laptops: The HP Envy 17 endured just 1:42, while the Acer Aspire 8943G held out a bit longer, lasting 2:39.

Conclusion

The M17x comes with a basic one-year parts-and-labor warranty, which includes in-home service that Alienware/Dell can authorize once you’ve completed a remote diagnostic session. Toll-free technical support is available 24/7, as is Dell’s online technical chat service. You can boost the coverage to up to four years’ worth of basic support. The first year is free; beyond that, you pay $199 to add a year, and up to $399 for an additional three years. Alternately, you can choose an Advanced plan; it covers damage from accidental spills and drops. Advanced plans include the basic service and start at $69 for the first year and go up to $519 for four years. (See Alienware's M17x configurator for the full breakdown of options.)

Bundled software includes Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) and the Creative Live Central utility we mentioned earlier. Also, the previously mentioned Alienware Command Center software includes a couple of handy elements in addition to the AlienFX utility we discussed. Using one of them, AlienFusion, you can choose among three power plans or create your own to save battery life. The other, AlienTouch, lets you adjust the touch pad’s sensitivity, tapping, and scrolling settings.

Another utility, AlienReSpawn, comes preloaded, as well. It lets you create recovery discs, though you’ll have to upgrade to the $39.99 Premium version of this software to perform backup and restore functions; we'd really have liked to have seen this included for this machine's lofty price. If you're willing to do manual backups to optical media, Roxio Creator, another program that comes standard, helps you back up files to blank CD/DVD media and provides an easy, icon-driven menu for selecting which files to archive.
Our bottom line? No doubt, the Alienware M17x remains one of the top gaming laptops on the wow-factor scale. Its cool lighting and edgy look will appeal to serious gamers, and it offers the latest components, a boatload of storage, and all the I/O ports you could want. It also does a fantastic job of displaying games and other content in 2D and 3D mode.

Two of the key areas—the 3D, and the graphics oomph—disappoint a bit, though. Though the 3D rendering looks great, we wish the shutter glasses were more comfortable. And while this rig can handle productivity tasks with ease, its graphics performance, though good, won’t quite earn you the bragging rights you'd expect for the money, given what we've seen from less-expensive notebooks like the Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q898 and HP Envy 17. You'll have to determine your top priority in your gaming laptop, and choose accordingly.

Price (at time of review): $2,994 (direct, as tested)

www.dell.com
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See all of our Alienware M17x (2011 3D Version) coverage

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