Tis the season to....buy laptops? Oh, you may not think portable computing is at the top of you shopping list, but a lot has transpired in a year -- just ask the ghosts of holidays past. These days, you have a wide variety of affordable netbooks that do a whole lot more. Super-slim machines that can do everything from serve as bargain-basement Tablet PC's to cheap multimedia machines. All-purpose notebooks have beefed up on power while prices continue to drop. And then there's been some seriously ambitious new ultraportable designs that don't come cheap. But you need to ask yourself that all-important question: What do you need a new laptop for: Sprinting to your next meeting or calculating complex code? Ultraportables are costly, but key. Many weigh less than three pounds and can keep you productive for a whole day (some laptop makers swear their machines can last up to 10 hours). Other models also offer a good deal of power, depending on how much you care to lug around. Want an elegant alternative to that clunky monitor and PC combo? A beefy desktop replacement machine packs plenty of A/V power (and many desktop replacements are perfectly capable of playing high-end games or Blu-ray movies in high definition). What will you get? That depends upon whether you've been naughty or nice in 2009.

Reports and evaluations of latest models, from thin-and-light models to full-featured.

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