Smart Buying
Lots of Laptop for a Little Money
These computers handle entertainment as well as the routine stuff.
By Jeff Bertolucci, Contributing Writer
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, September 2006
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Apple MacBook: Stylish Media Mogul
Price: $1,099
Weight: 5.2 pounds
Turn-ons: Its iLife '06 multimedia software makes it easy to edit and organize photos, movies and songs. The MacBook comes with a built-in video camera.
Turn-offs: Small screen (13.3 inches, versus 15.4 inches for the PCs we reviewed), only two USB ports and no memory-card slot.
NEED TO KNOW: Its 1.83-GHz Core Duo processor runs the Mac OS X Tiger operating system (included) or Windows XP (about $200 extra), but not simultaneously. The MacBook's excellent keyboard is among its best features. The keys are separated and raised slightly -- unique for a laptop keyboard -- which makes for comfortable and fast touch-typing. It has a remote for across-the-room music management.
Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv5000 series: Packed PC
Price: $580 to $1,500
Weight: 6.6 pounds
Turn-ons: With our favorite Windows-based PC, you can play DVDs without booting up the operating system.
Turn-offs: We're thinking...
NEED TO KNOW: HP smartly places multimedia controls, including volume buttons, right above the keyboard. You also get a Wi-Fi on/off switch to help conserve battery life. And the double-layer DVD burner (available on some models) can write 8.5GB -- or twice the standard amount. which to pick: For about $1,200, you can get a dv5000-series laptop with 1GB of memory and a very fast Intel Core Duo chip. If you want something less expensive, consider the dv5110us, which HP recently sold for $850 at www.shopping.hp.com. This model has all the entertainment features but less memory (512MB).
Dell Inspiron E1505: Keeps on Ticking
Price: $985
Weight: 6.2 pounds
Turn-ons: Four-hour battery life and Windows XP Media Center operating system.
Turn-offs: A remote control costs extra.
NEED TO KNOW: By pressing one button you can play CDs and DVDs. Plus it comes with Windows XP Media Center edition, a version of Microsoft's operating system that makes it easier to burn and listen to CDs, watch videos and TV, and play games. The keyboard feels a bit cramped, particularly the small Page Up and Page Down keys. We'd also like to see the volume and CD/DVD controls moved up from the laptop's front edge, where they're hard to use. Despite these quibbles, the E1505, which features Intel's Core Duo T2050 chip, is a solid buy.
Toshiba Satellite A105-S2021: Budget Buy
Price: $800
Weight: 6 pounds
Turn-ons: Bright, crisp display, and easy-to-reach volume and CD controls.
Turn-offs: Battery lasts only 90 minutes, so you'll need to spring for a better one if you're going to take this laptop on the road. Upgrade to the six-cell battery ($120), which runs for roughly two hours and 15 minutes, or the eight-cell ($170), good for about three and a half hours.
NEED TO KNOW: It can play movies and music when Windows isn't running, and it comes with a generous 100GB hard drive. The Toshiba uses an older Intel processor, the 1.7-gigahertz Celeron (a dual-core model should be available by the time you read this). Still, we found that the Satellite handled the basics well.
Next: See our slide show for the best laptop and desktop computer buys this fall.