Ah Laptops! The first true laptop appeared on the scene by IBM in 1986. It was called the IBM PC Convertible, had no hard drive, and was a very slow 4.77Mhz. My how they’ve evolved since then! Today’s laptops have large 300GB hard drives, have speedy dual core CPU’s, and can last up to 12 hours before needing to be recharged. The perfect laptop is just the right combination of power, portability, and battery life. Below are the laptops we’ve recently reviewed.

Let’s look into what Best Buy offers for the business professional. Best Buy’s Toshiba T235-S1352 is a great business laptop because it’s lightweight, has super long battery life, and is will adequately multitask with its peppy dual core processors. The T235-S1352 is has a 13.3″ LCD screen (1366 x 768 resolution) that can play 720p content. The machine comes with a 1.2GHz (Intel U5400) processor that and the Intel HD on-board graphics card; surprisingly it will play full blue ray/high def movies at 1080p. Inside you’ve got 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a larger 320GB (5400RPM SATA) hard drive. The battery life is now up to 8hours, 33 minutes; a definite improvement from the older generation. Also included is an integrated webcam/microphone set and a HDMI output for transmitting to a compatible HDTV set. Other specs include Multiformat media reader, Wireless N & WiFi, 4 USB ports (3 USB v2.0 ports and 1eSATA/USB combo), 1 VGA port, 1 HDMI output port, 1 headphone out and 1 microphone in jack. It comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit. The thing weighs 3.9 pounds and is a little over 1-inch thick.

The Toshiba T235-S1352 is now priced $579 at Best Buy. It’s a store item (not an outlet item) so you can buy it locally if it’s in stock.  Read the rest of this entry »

Best Buy currently has 9 laptops that are designed for gaming. Their top gaming laptop is the Asus G72GX-RBBX05. It’s got a large 17.3″ LCD widescreen,  an (P8700)  Intel Core 2 CPU running at 2.53GHz, 6GB of (DDR2) RAM, and a 500GB (540000RPM) hard drive. It’s (nVidia GTX 260M 1GB) graphics card has enough power to handle most of today’s 3-D games. Everything else that comes with this system is pretty standard: Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW (dual layer) drive, 1.3MP webcame, 8-1 in media reader, wireless N, and gigabit networking. Windows 7 64 Bit Version is your operating system, overall weight is 8.8 pounds. Best Buy indicates that the battery life is 1 hour, 23 minutes…that’s pretty piss poor!

The Asus G73JH-RBBX09 is priced $999.99 at Bestbuy.com. It’s not an outlet item which means that you should be able to buy it at your local store. Read the rest of this entry »

Our Best Buy journey has begun! This month we’re taking a close look at Best Buy’s most popular desktops, laptops, and notebooks. We’ll begin our foray by looking at their most popular gaming laptops.

The Asus G73JH-RBBX09 is the one of the top selling gaming laptops at Best Buy. If you’re looking for a large screen laptop that has oomph to play any of today’s 3-D games this is it. It’s got a larger 17.3-inch LCD which everybody seems to love, an ultra powerful quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (720QM), and a ferocious 8GB of GDDR5 memory. Look under the hood at the Graphics card and you’ll find the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870. This graphics card is today’s most powerful video card for mobile computing. Gamers say it plays Modern Warfare 2 and Crysis on maximum settings “like a hot knife through butter.” Also inside is a 1TB hard drive (7200rpm) and Windows 7 (64 Bit Version). The think  weighs 7.5 pounds and is 2.2″ thin. Unfortunately all this power does come at a price: battery life is just under 2 hours.

The Asus G73JH-RBBX09 is priced $1,429.99 at Bestbuy.com as an Outlet item. Since it ships from their warehouse you’ll have to wait 1-3 days for it to arrive at your local Best Buy store. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you Craving an all-in-one entertainment notebook? HP’s DV6-2162NR won’t disappoint the movie loving multimedia enthusiast. Let’s admit that at 6.34 pounds it’s a little on the heavy side, but it makes up for that by packing some serious CPU firepower! The combination of the Intel’s i3-350M processor (2.26GHz), 4GB of lightning fast (DDR3) memory, and integrated video (1696MB) produce gorgeously vivid blue ray movies. The 15.6″ inch screen is also fabulous! HP has also rolled out the carpet with a large 500GB (7200 rpm) hard drive. Of course you’ll find Wireless N, plenteous ports, and Windows 7. The HP DV6-2162NR going for $799.99 at Amazon. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday Apple released the new Macbook. Looking on the outside reveals that there’s no physical difference between this newer refresh and the previous system…all the glorious changes are inside!  This new machine features a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and the newest Nvidia graphics card (the GeForce 320M). The previous-generation MacBook had a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and used Nvidia’s GeForce 9400M graphics card. The two minor changes to the processor and video card boosts the overall battery life by an additional 3 hours; this newest Macbook now claims a 10-hour battery life. Read the rest of this entry »

This week Newegg’s deal of the week is the Lenovo IdeaPad Y550-41865GU. This Lenovo is a mid range all purpose laptop that can be used to business use, gaming, or everyday computing. It’s got a Intel Core Duo 2.13Ghz processor with 4GB the faster DDR3 RAM, and a 320GB hard drive. Buyers indicate that the NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M video card. They consider it a mid level card that packs enough power to play most games running at mid to high level settings. It comes with a DVD±R/RW optical drive, a 1.3MP camera, wireless N WiFi, and Windows Home Premium. The 6 cell battery typically will last 2-4 hours. The Y550-41865GUsells for $799 at on Newegg, $200 off the regular $999 price.

This machine is somewhat new and therefore only has 11 reviews and a 4 egg rating at Newegg. Read the rest of this entry »

Every week Newegg drops the price of one their machines and features a “Notebook of the Week.” This week’s special is the TOSHIBA Satellite L505D-S5010. This basic system has a little more power than their Satellite L505D-S5986. It’s got a 15.6-inch widescreen display, a 2.0GHz AMD Processor, 4GB RAM, and a 250GB hard drive. You’ve got a DVD burner optical drive and Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit Operating System. Newegg is selling the L505D-S5986 for $450; that’s $150 off the usual $600 price. There’s no additional cost for shipping. Read the rest of this entry »