Arthur Gies

Asus has its work cut out for it in finding a market for the UL80Vt-A1. This laptop has a higher price ($849) than many similarly specced competitors, though it's in the same ballpark as its $800 stablemate, the Asus UL30A. So how does Asus justify the price tag?

The answer is surprisingly simple: long battery life (6 hours on our review unit) and better-than-average flexibility. The UL80Vt-A1 includes both a discrete nVidia G210M graphics system and an integrated Intel alternative, so users can switch on the fly to adjust the laptop's performance and battery life to the task at hand. Another appealing feature is the unit's power-sipping LED backlit display.

With netbooks on one side and desktop replacements on the other, finding room for a laptop that's based around compromise is tough. In the Satellite A355D-S6930, Toshiba clearly aimed for an entry-level media machine with a screen and speakers that defy expectations for the category. Its shot, however, isn't very high caliber.

The netbook onslaught of the past 18 months has forced a sea change. No longer is small size alone enough of an excuse for a notebook to carry an exorbitantly high price. With some good performance levels and a great screen, plus light weight and outstanding battery life, the Toshiba Portege A605-P210 could fit the bill for users who need to get real work done on the go with a netbook-size system--and without murdering the bank account.

While Toshiba's new Portege R600-ST520W hits the ground running with a base weight of 2.4 pounds (3 pounds with the power supply included) and a thickness just over the 1-inch mark, its price tag of well over 2 grand and its so-so hardware reduce the Portege R600 to a good--not great--showing (and it becomes a tough sell when compared to netbooks that cost less than a quarter of its price).

Yet another notebook trend is on the rise: Laptops that try to straddle the fine line between portable media player and desktop replacement. They sport comparatively large displays (and footprints) with lower price tags than one would assume for the privilege. Take Samsung's R610. This notebook shows promise--but also may be a source of mobile frustration. It's attractive enough on the outside, and the $899 asking price is appealing enough, but unfortunately the underwhelming quality of its 16-inch-diagonal screen makes the R610 a tough sell.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y650 is a laptop looking for a niche. At first glance it has all the features of a fairly sexy desktop replacement: The 16-inch LCD screen, JBL speakers, and huge hard drive practically scream "media center notebook." On top of all that, the fairly powerful processor and fast DDR3 memory can deal with just about any video content while handling other tasks, without a hitch. However, considering its low native display resolution and the fact that it has no graphics muscle to speak of, not to mention its price tag of $1299 (on our test unit, as of 4/13/09), we're left to wonder about what, exactly, Lenovo was thinking.

The Y650 has some reasonably powerful components: With a 2.4GHz P8600 Core 2 Duo, 3GB of 1066MHz DDR3 RAM, and a 320GB hard drive, the Y650, running the 32-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium, did really well in WorldBench 6. Notching a score of 98 in our tests, it ripped through tasks at a decent pace--well above the average, in fact. Unfortunately things fell apart in our graphics tests, as the integrated Intel X4500 graphics limped along in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Unreal Tournament III (producing slide-show-worthy scores of 5 and 8 frames per second, respectively).

Acer has put just enough features and perks into the Aspire 8930, its high-end performance laptop. Thanks to a couple of reasonably primo parts, this high-octane portable is a solid choice for mobility-minded gamers. And with a price tag under two grand (our reviewed configuration was $1700 as of 2/22/09), this desktop replacement laptop won't blow your budget.

Running the show are a 2.5GHz Intel T9400 Core 2 Duo processor, an nVidia 9700M GT 512MB graphics card, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and the 64-bit version of Windows Vista. That combo delivered a reasonable WorldBench 6 score of 94. In game tests, it struggled a little with Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Unreal Tournament 3; running at 1680 by 1050, it notched 30 and 35 frames per second, respectively. So, technically, you can still play games on it, but you might notice the occasional slowdown.