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What can today's $1,000 laptops do? For starters, they're entertainment hubs that give you easy access to the fun stuff. Rather than fumble through menus and icons to do something as simple as play a DVD, adjust the volume or skip a CD track, you just press a button on or near the keyboard.
And they're powerful enough for wireless Web surfing and CD/DVD burning, as well as yawn-inspiring activities such as word processing. Standard features include high-resolution color displays, wide keyboards that won't cramp your fingers, and a generous assortment of ports and slots for connecting cameras, printers, scanners and other digital devices.
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Today's best deals fall in the $800 to $1,100 range. Pay less and you'll make compromises you may later regret, such as settling for a heavier machine. Pay more and you'll get features that you probably don't need, unless you're into power-hungry video editing or three-dimensional gaming.
Some models we tested, including the Apple MacBook and some in the Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv5000 series, come with a remote control. Another time saver is the ability to play CDs and DVDs without waiting for the operating system to boot up.
Brainpower times two
Your $1,000 laptop should have a chip that runs at 1.6 gigahertz (GHz) or higher to ensure it's up to the tasks already mentioned. Keep in mind, however, that a lot of factors determine performance, including the processor's design and the amount of random access memory (RAM) installed. Speaking of RAM, you'll want at least 512 megabytes (MB) to run several programs at once without missing a beat.
The latest development in laptop processors is the dual-core design. Both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, the two major chip suppliers, recently introduced processors that essentially split computing chores between two "brains" for faster performance. With two brains, the computer also runs cooler and uses less power.
But the latest gains don't mean much for routine tasks. Jim McGregor, principal analyst with market-research firm In-Stat, says that the average user isn't going to see a big difference with a dual-core processor. Everyday activities, such as burning a CD or watching a TV show on the Web, don't tax the processor that much. And current applications don't take full advantage of the dual-core design, although that should change in the future.
Dual-core systems do benefit power users, however. If you edit and compress large video files or run graphics-laden games, you'll get a performance boost from the dual-core design, McGregor says.
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