Back-to-school laptops: we have a winner (two, actually)
Entry-levelYou can spend less than $700 and find a very respectable laptop. Our favorite among the Entry-level group is the Sony VAIO NR430E/L. We were surprised to see a Sony lead the pack here, since its VAIO brand is more commonly associated with high design and high prices. But Sony cooked up a winner with the VAIO NR430, which we like at $699 and love at its current discount of $599 at Best Buy. This 15-inch laptop features a sturdy and attractive design, awesome keyboard, and leading performance and battery life among its class. Runner-up: Dell Inspiron 1525-121B.Gateway T-6836BudgetIf your budget allows you to spend up to $800, we'd point you toward the Gateway T-6836, our pick among what we're calling the Budget category. While most laptops here weigh in around 6 pounds and feature a 15-inch screen, the Gateway saves your shoulder about a half pound or more of weight while still serving up a 1,280x800 resolution found on most 15-inch displays and packing it in its 14-inch display. It's also the only system in this group to serve up 64-bit Vista and 4GB of RAM, which helped it lead the way in labs testing. It also fared well on our battery drain test. Again, we like it at its $799 list price, but Best Buy's site currently has it for sale with a sizable $150 discount. Runner-up: HP Pavilion dv2915nr.A trend we soon discovered after getting these systems up and running in the labs (and you can see clearly illustrated by any of the performance charts in the reviews) confirmed what we've known for a while: Intel's mobile platform is superior to that of its rival AMD. On our multitasking, Photoshop, and iTunes benchmarks, the Intel-based systems clearly outpaced the AMD-based systems. While we'd be willing to give up a bit of performance for increased processing efficiency and better battery life, the AMD systems delivered merely average battery life at best, making it hard to recommend an AMD-based system unless you stumble across one at a deep discount. As it stands now, our current winners and runners-up of the Entry-level and Budget categories feature an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Perhaps this trend will change as we move up in price. We'll be posting reviews of the large mainstream category over the next week or so. Check back on this earlier Crave post, which lists all the back-to-school laptops we have reviewed and will be reviewing. We'll update it with links to the new reviews as we move along.See more laptops in CNET's back-to-school gift guide.
The 404 319- Where Dan the Mantern is locked in
The 404 319: Where Dan the Mantern is locked in
Apparently, EA sent out packages of brass knuckles for the release of its video game version of "The Godfather II."Unbeknownst to them, it is a crime in most states to send brass knuckles, as they are in the same category of weapons as switchblades and gas guns.Also on today's show, we cover Vermont legalizing "sexting," a special eBay auction just in case you need to tell someone off, and Disney releasing a controversial animated movie featuring a black princess.We've got a special treat for you today, as well.If you check your RSS or iTunes feed, you'll discover that we've officially pushed to you The 404 ringtones, including our main theme courtesy of Mr. Jamie Lewis and a Tom Merritt-inspired "Calls from the Public" ringtone.Also, if you have an iPhone, we've got special instructions on how to use our ringtones on your Jesus Phone.But wait, there's more!Yes, because of popular demand, we're pushing out acoustic versions of Jonathan Coulton's performances of "Codemonkey" and "Re: Your Brains" performed in our very own podcast studios.Don't you just love us?!?!Remember to mark Thursday, April 16, as the day your life changes when Bore Out Loud and the Snore Oh Four battle to the death in a dance off (bring your tap shoes).Be sure to RSVP.We'll be partying hard at the whole upstairs floor of The Delancey in New York City at 7:30 p.m.EPISODE 319Download today's podcast |Â Subscribe in iTunes |Â Subscribe in RSSSome one at EA might be going to jailVermont legalizes "sexting"An eBay auction in case you need to tell someone offDisney release a controversial animated film featuring a black princessFollow us on Twitter!The 404Jeff BakalarJustin YuWilson TangDan the Mantern
Apparently, EA sent out packages of brass knuckles for the release of its video game version of "The Godfather II."Unbeknownst to them, it is a crime in most states to send brass knuckles, as they are in the same category of weapons as switchblades and gas guns.Also on today's show, we cover Vermont legalizing "sexting," a special eBay auction just in case you need to tell someone off, and Disney releasing a controversial animated movie featuring a black princess.We've got a special treat for you today, as well.If you check your RSS or iTunes feed, you'll discover that we've officially pushed to you The 404 ringtones, including our main theme courtesy of Mr. Jamie Lewis and a Tom Merritt-inspired "Calls from the Public" ringtone.Also, if you have an iPhone, we've got special instructions on how to use our ringtones on your Jesus Phone.But wait, there's more!Yes, because of popular demand, we're pushing out acoustic versions of Jonathan Coulton's performances of "Codemonkey" and "Re: Your Brains" performed in our very own podcast studios.Don't you just love us?!?!Remember to mark Thursday, April 16, as the day your life changes when Bore Out Loud and the Snore Oh Four battle to the death in a dance off (bring your tap shoes).Be sure to RSVP.We'll be partying hard at the whole upstairs floor of The Delancey in New York City at 7:30 p.m.EPISODE 319Download today's podcast |Â Subscribe in iTunes |Â Subscribe in RSSSome one at EA might be going to jailVermont legalizes "sexting"An eBay auction in case you need to tell someone offDisney release a controversial animated film featuring a black princessFollow us on Twitter!The 404Jeff BakalarJustin YuWilson TangDan the Mantern
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