back to article The year's best... laptops

2010: it's a wrap Apple's MacBook Air was undoubtledly the stand-out notebook of 2010, particularly in its compact 11.6in form, even though the bigger, 13.3in model is the better of the two: not a lot less portable, but faster, more functional and with a longer battery life. However, the 11.6in Air is a beast that can span …

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  1. Steve 154

    No mention of the Sony VAIO Z?

    Quite surprised there's no mention of the refreshed VAIO Z. It's easily the best laptop released this year IMO. It includes everything most power users could possibly want, all in a tiny 1.5KG package...

  2. Radio

    Not enough information

    Why do mayn of the mentions not have prices, e.g. the Toshiba Portégé R700? It'd be a lot better if the bottom grey section was in a proper table including price, speed and memory alongside the rating.

  3. David Gosnell
    Thumb Up

    My goodness

    As quite probably the only laptop there with a sane screen aspect ratio, I have to agree with the 13.3" MBA as the de-facto winner. Wonders never cease.

    1. Rebajas
      Boffin

      What...?

      What aspect ratio? Thought it was just 16:9 / 16:10 like most of the others listed?

      1. David Gosnell

        Ratios

        Most, if not all, the others are 16:9. The extra vertical 11% of 16:10 makes a significant difference for those wanting more than a DVD player with a keyboard, and also helps with compactness.

  4. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

    New Netbooks vs Old...

    " the newer netbooks didn't really deliver any significant benefit over older ones."

    This is probably true. It is almost true for me, but I have a pretty tooled up Eee. That said depending on what you use it for, any one of these may (or may not) be significant.

    1) Most other makes have improved their battery endurance

    2) More cores, 64 bit capable.

    3) GPU (Ion has 8 CUDA cores).

    Personally, I'd like a 1015N, Points 2... and perhaps 3 look tempting.. But... hey're optional extras since I can always get to another machine.

    Battery life on my Eee is great even after a year. 1024 x 600 is quite usable - I'm not pushed but would welcome bigger but in about 10 inche's... really, 1024x600 is quite ok.

    What I'd like to see in these machines is

    1. more memory, 4 Gb would be nice. The option to expand to 8 would be nicer. 2 Gb is usable but ... swap is always annoying.

    2. matte/non-reflective screens.

    3. Easy access to HD and ram.

    4. Options of a beefier GPU ( ie Ion) or NOT. Asus did a nice thing with the 1015 line.

    5. Don't care for this myself, but some folk want internal wireless broadband modems.

    6. Some sort of high speed external expansion. eSATA or if USB3.0 takes off, that.

    7. Linux drivers for all bits released (ideally with source)

    8. Err... ARM? PPC? :P

    9. 3D Screen. Ah no.. Just kidding :P

    1. Doug Glass
      Go

      Battery Life

      EeePC 1000HE with Windows 7 HP gets from 5 to 9 hours battery like. 5 if used hard (DVD burning or something like that) and damn near 9 just surfing and basically doing nothing. I can live with that. Of course it pays to understand how to tweak the power options, which seems a mystery to most common users.

  5. IL_BISCOTTO
    WTF?

    inexplicably missing

    Why didn't you mention the LENOVO X201s? That little beast is lightyears ahead of the competition! It may be expensive, but it really demonstrates what clever engineering can pack into a 12" form factor.

  6. Steve 13

    Best 13" with decent graphics?

    The Dell XPS 13 and HP Envy 13 were both discontinued... And there is no Alienware between the 11 and 15 sizes... So what is the best 13" core i, SSD fitted, discrete graphics laptop on the market? The only option I've found is the Sony Z and it's a very expensive option!

  7. Sekundra
    Happy

    13" laptop with SSD, Core I processor, graphics etc.

    Steve 13 - have a look at the Sony Y series, configured to taste as you describe it's about £1300 inc VAT... I'm waiting for some Christmas cash and then...

  8. DS 1

    M11

    The M11 has a pretty disasterous fatal flaw on the hinges. And they fail with dire consequences to the point that you do not want one of these out of warranty.

    Until Dell seriously fix the issue, please stop recommending the units.

    1. richard 7

      Dell, admit a flaw?

      HAHAHAHAHAHA Lets see

      Dozens of models of Dell laptop miss identifying power supplies and batteries and not playing becasue it thinks they arent from Dell

      Least 4 other models with crap hinges

      GX270 and GX280, nothing more said. Along with half a dozen others

      I could go on, but I'm gonna take the dog for a walk instead.

      1. DS 1

        No, thats not the issue

        All manufacturers get problems of varying degrees. However, my point was a simple one, why are people recommending a laptop that implodes very badly and within warranty?

        Its time where people stopped doing a 2010 roundup based on only 'new' reviews. All of the models quoted in here should have had a background check on their post purchase state. That is patently obvious.

  9. Bruno Girin

    Business laptops?

    It would be great to have a similar article about business laptops, such as the Lenovo T410s, Dell Vostro 3300, HP ProBook/EliteBook, etc.

  10. Steve 13
    Thumb Down

    Y Series

    Low voltage CPU and 3 generation old graphics... It's £700 cheaper, but not really in the same playing field as the Z Series...

  11. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Le Tit

    I'm bored. My eeepc901 has never gone wrong. How am I to find an excuse for a new toy^H^H^H work tool.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    Core i7

    Thought this was an IT site? No distinctions between dual- and quad-core flavors of i7? A quad-core i7 will never have the battery life of a Macbook Pro, but it'll beat the crap out of it performance-wise. Useful for running a full stack or multiple VM's. Like OSX.

  13. Kabi
    Thumb Down

    Why didn't they mentioned?

    Because they mention only the ones, what they get paid for.

  14. Shingo Tamai
    Stop

    The M101z...

    ...is not a netbook.

    The dual core CPU wipes any Atom processor away.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    I'd never buy another Sony

    I spent an awful lot of money (£1600) myself on a beautiful Sony laptop only to have the hinge break and the screen die 15 months in (i.e out of warranty). Sony more or less said it serves me right for wanting to open and close the lid a lot. We had a whole bunch of similar Sony failures on work laptops. I'll never again buy Sony. Give me boring reliability over looks any day. All the Dells I've had/used (and there have been a lot over the years) have been very reliable except for the XPS M1730 , two of which I've seen die heat related deaths after 2 yrs, luckily covered by the 3 yr warranty.

  16. J 3
    Coat

    It wasn't the only 11-incher to surprise this year.

    Fnar, fnar, fnar... I don't believe no one has said it. My mind must be elsewhere...

  17. Roger Gann
    Alert

    Acer pricing

    The Aspire 5741 is available for £370 - if you ignore the VAT. Otherwise it's more like £420.

  18. Doug Glass
    Go

    Oh Yeah!

    Re: ".... saddled with just a gigabyte of memory and Windows 7 Starter Edition, the newer netbooks didn't really deliver any significant benefit over older ones."

    $42 for Crucial 2GB RAM module and $40 for Windows 7 (1/3 of Family Pack @ $120 from newegg.com) and my EeePC 1000HE has new life; quick and stable. Sorry guys, but over here on this side of the pond things are priced just a bit better.

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