The IdeaPad Y450

Did you think it was impossible to find an reasonably inexpensive, big screened laptop with a full size keyboard and loads of multimedia features? Well, Lenovo has changed that train of thought with their IdeaPad Y450.

The IdeaPad Y450 has a different look than any previous laptop. It sports a black cover like many other laptops on the market, except for the fact that the cover is not the traditional glossed-over top but instead a textured honeycomb pattern that gives the lid a coarse, grainy feel. This will certainly assist in promoting less fingerprints and smudges on the laptop’s cover. The edges of the lid are trimmed in a copper tone, while the inside is a stark white. This all unites to produce a stylish, modern looking laptop.

The Y450 measures 13.4 x 9.2 x1.4 inches (HWD) and weighs about 5 pounds. It features a 14-inch widescreen with 1,366 x 768 resolution. It also includes three USB ports, FireWire, Ethernet, a built-in webcam, and excellent speakers. Added bonuses not normally included in laptops in the Y450’s price range are the DVD burner, eSATA, and HDMI-out ports. Another important fact to consider is the Y450’s 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 processor.

This impressive, budget-friendly laptop can be purchased in retail stores for around $599. Yes, there are plenty of other thinner and lighter laptops on the market, but they will dig a lot deeper into your pocket. The IdeaPad Y450 has excellent features, a slick design, and a heart-warming price tag. I think this is certainly a laptop that can satisfy most average people laptop needs.

The New Acer Aspire One

The new Acer Aspire One is now thinner and lighter than any previous Acer netbook. Acer managed to eliminate a sizeable amount of plastic within their best-selling netbook design to allow for these qualities, while still maintaining their reasonable price point.

Netbook design is not really one of Acer’s strengths. Although the plastic-topped Aspire One does not win any beauty pageants, there are many qualities that make up for the netbook’s lack of style. The Aspire One beats most comparable netbooks with its mere 0.8-inch thickness. This makes it thinner than the Samsung N120, the ASUS EeePC 1000HE, the ASUS EeePC 1008HA (Seashell), and the HP Mini 1000. The new Acer netbook is now also lighter. With the three-cell battery, it only weighs 2.4 pounds.

Considering other aspects, the Aspire One retains the standard 10-inch screen, 1,024 x 600 resolution, and customary keyboard. The 89 percent keyboard is certainly a feature that Acer needs to attend to. Acer was able to include mutitouch capabilities into the Aspire One, but with the limited space you have to work with performing such actions can be difficult at times.

The Aspire One features three USB ports, VGA-out, an Ethernet port, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, 802.11 g WiFi, and a 4-in-1 card reader. It also has a 160GB hard drive, which is the same or better than all other netbooks currently on the market. The Aspire One contains a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1 GB of memory, and Intel integrated graphics.

Even with the new updates found in the Acer Aspire One, Acer has managed to retain its affordable price. The Aspire One is the most reasonably priced netbook to be found at about $300, which is the reason why the previous Acer model was the best-selling netbook available. The Aspire One is lighter, thinner, and cheaper than most other netbooks out there. If you’re looking for an inexpensive netbook, this is definitely one to check out.

MSI X-Slim X320 13-inch Notebook

The MSI X-Slim X320 is the worlds thinnest and lightest 13-inch notebook on the market right now. The X320 should not be mistaken for a low quality netbook. The latest X320 model comes with a 250GB Hard Drive and 2GB DDR2 RAM. Some low notes though is it comes with a Intel Atom 1.6GHz Processor that will be sure to bottle neck the notebooks performance. It also only comes with a 4 cell battery, but with such a barebones laptop you could probably expect the battery to be more than suitable.

The real selling point for the MSI X-Slim X320 is its size, weight and low cost. The laptop is 6mm at its thinnest and 20mm at its thickest. Also with the low weight of 2.8 pounds you should never have to worry about the hassle of carrying around your laptop. The price really makes it a great buy. Coming in at only $599 right now on sites like newegg.com you can expect this to be a hot seller.

The 13″ 16:9 glare type display has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and uses LED backlight.

The MSI X320 also comes with a 1.3MP web camera, speakers, wifi, Bluetooth, an ethernet port, thre USB ports, card reader, and a VGA port. One feature that is a real disappointment is the MSI X320 lacks an optical drive to read cd’s and dvd’s. This is no doubt due to its extremely thin design, but it seems like an almost necessity to have in a laptop for watching movies, installing programs, and ripping music. Overall a great ultra thin and light notebook that lacks some features, but makes up for it with the price point of only $599.