Top 10 Notebooks Now
March 9th, 2012 by LAPTOP Editors We here at Laptopmag have once again updated our list of the best notebooks available right now. For your convenience they are sorted by how you would use them, so you can be sure you’re getting what you need. As newer and better machines come out, rest assured we’ll update this list accordingly.
Best Value Notebook: HP Pavilion g6
The HP Pavilion g6-1c77nr 15-inch laptop offers bargain-hunters plenty of pep for everyday computing in a handsome design.
Lowest Price: $588
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November 26th, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Good stuff.
November 28th, 2011 at 7:13 am
I have owned four Lenovo laptops and was always satisfied until I bought my latest one, an x100e in late 2010.
I have only used it for an hour or so in the last 11 months because it is beset by problems–problems that I have been unable to solve by numerous requests to Lenovo US, Lenovo Finland and Lenovo Argentina.
A few months ago while I was working in my Helsinki office I had numerous discussions with Lenovo about the ultraportable. Finally, they agreed to pick it up via DHL and ship it to their service facility in Germany.
The first schedule pickup never happened and they didn’t have the courtesy to phone me.
When they finally picked it up, they shipped it to Germany and returned it to me in Helsinki with the same barely operative trackpad that had made the machine unusable.
Last week I called a friend in New York from my Buenos Aires location and he reported that he had the same, exact problem with his identical Lenovo ultraportable.
A Finnish friend who is an IBM executive then told me that she and her colleague at IBM were’t able to get competent service any longer at Lenovo and she had just bought a Mac PowerBook.
Is this the end of an era of Lenovo excellence?
It is sad.
Richard Tihany
December 18th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
I am reading this from my Seoul, Korea apartment, trying to decide which laptop to buy my mother, who lives in Texas, for Christmas. Of course, I’ll have to fly to Hong Kong to finish up work before my trip to New York where we’ll have Christmas as my sister just moved there from DC. I travel a lot, don’t know if you noticed.
Another thing you might not have noticed is that the HP Pavilion G4 does not cost $379.99 as this site claims. Actually, it cost $490 from Best Buy and $457 from Amazon. This is a price increase of 29% at Best Buy / 20% at Amazon. LapTop, why you deceive me!?
December 24th, 2011 at 1:57 am
I just purchased a ThinkPad x220, and the experience has been great. I called customer service just once before I actually received the laptop because I was interested in installing a mSata. Overall, it has been great switching from a Mac to ThinkPad for me.
December 29th, 2011 at 11:08 pm
I was using a 17″ laptop while working aboard the international spacestation and I noticed that the lack of gravity made it feel incredibly light. I want to get my sister one on my way to Swahili (she lives in Osaka, but I’m a heart surgeon/astronaut) to perform an operation. I don’t have a lot of friends, I don’t know if you can tell.
Another thing you might not be able to tell is that the price of a laptop looks a lot more expensive in Yen than it does with the Euro. Did I mention I’m shopping at Tarjey in France for my mother who lives in Enid, OK? Anyhoo, my father-in-law, a Texas billionaire, thinks this laptop is junk but that it should be absulutely fine for anyone in the 99% club.
December 31st, 2011 at 2:51 pm
I just purchased a ThinkPad x220, and the experience has been great.
January 6th, 2012 at 4:34 pm
@Dave, just curious as what made you switch from mac -> pc?
January 11th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
Very Good. It is an excellent computer for my son because it has a processor ideal for college work HP is a good quality product, the offers are tempting impossible to miss … shipping and delivery are excellent
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Q9T7IW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=emjay2d-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004Q9T7IW
January 13th, 2012 at 8:49 am
sony and hp goooooooooooooooooooooood
January 13th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
I lv sony Bcz of its disply quality
January 17th, 2012 at 3:50 am
I made the switch because I was having tons of issues with my last few MBPs, and with the amount of money I have spent on Apple products, it just wasn’t worth it anymore. During the past 20 years, I believe my computer ownership 90% Macs vs. 10% PCs. After using my x220 for the past six months, I can say that it has bested my last few Macs in overall experience for less than $900 (though for some reason it is hard to find an i5 x220 at that price right now). Even Windows has improved to the extent where I find OS X superior in some ways but inferior in others. I won’t go into my issues with MBPs in detail, but some of issues with MBPs generally can be researched and discovered through Mac forums (search battery bulge, overheating, noise, Lion installation, etc.). I think reviewers tend to overlook many of these issues with Macs vis-a-vis PCs. My x220 has not exhibited any of those issues thus far. Knock on wood. It also helps that it has a much better screen (I forgot how much an IPS matte bests glossy).
My brother has an MacBook Air, which I think is slick, and frankly, is the only Mac that is worth the price in my opinion. It is kind of weird to think to I used to be so gungho Apple before. I wouldn’t be opposed to purchasing another Apple product (I am in fact looking for a laptop for my wife and am thinking about a MacBook Air (but leaning towards a ThinkPad or Vaio)). At the same time, it is hard to justify paying the Apple tax when I personally find Windows 7 to be overall superior (albeit very slightly) and hardware that usually bests Apple hardware from a cost benefit perspective.
January 17th, 2012 at 4:02 am
@fadi It’s been 3 not 6 months so who knows if my initial favorable experience will change by this time next year.
January 18th, 2012 at 9:00 am
@fadi
I’m going to post only one more time because I just hit an epiphany while laying on my couch primarily web surfing and editing photos on my x220. Right now, with just a pillow underneath, I am using my x220 at about 70% brightness, playing music on Foobar, with Corel Paintshop Pro, Picasa and seven tabs in Chrome open. Prior to this, I was watching a YouTube video, watched parts of a game using NBA League Pass, had a large Excel spreadsheet open, and played a bit of Fallout 2. The battery is still at a healthy 50% (on a 9-cell), and I still have about 5 hours of juice left. Not once did the x220 get uncomfortably hot during this time. I haven’t heard the fans blaring for any significant amount of time. In fact, they are silent now (no hard drive noise either since I installed a mSata), and all I hear is the nice sound of travel from a ThinkPad keyboard. I cannot get this experience from a Mac, period. It would be too hot, too noisy, too slow and suck up juice way to quickly. My wife is sitting on the couch next to me watching the tv, and she is also amazed that she doesn’t hear the noise or feel the heat that my previous laptops have exhibited. I know not all PCs are like this, but damn, I really didn’t know what I was missing!
January 22nd, 2012 at 2:10 am
My budget is US$ 600. Could you help me which laptop would you recommend to me? Thank you please send to my email. madesudarsana2002@yahoo.com.
Thank you
January 23rd, 2012 at 7:01 pm
you people are pathetic. Google it and make your own decision. Are you still being bottle fed at home????????????/
January 24th, 2012 at 2:51 am
Apple is junk mbp is over priced for the equipment in it. But they have a great marketing department so people that dont know much about computers buy them. Btw these were the top 10 laptops? Based on what? Too random of a selection
February 6th, 2012 at 7:38 pm
Any Apple users here??? want to get a pc in bout a mnth. Im thnking Apple macbook pro 15, mac air 13 or dell xps 15. whats the best choice?
February 9th, 2012 at 9:08 pm
I am in the middle of the most heinous customer service nightmare with Dell over a laptop. DO NOT GO DELL!!! It broke within the first week, HD fail. When I sent it back, they LOST it, sold it to someone else from their outlet, wouldn’t talk to me at first because my product key# didn’t match their name and address, privacy issues ya know. ??!! Later told me they didn’t have contact information for the name they had.
Then 2 1/2 months later (Bought it from Costco Nov. 3rd 2011) when I finally get the refurbished one with ‘upgrades’ they sent to make up for all my extreme hassle, it’s defective too. The promised upgrades are not there, and while typing, the cursor randomly goes up into other text I’ve typed and inserts itsself! Every few words I have to backspace, fix it, bring it back to where I was. It’s been horrible. Every new barely understandable tech person tells you they will fix it. They never do. It’s like I’m caught in Groundhog Day for laptops. If their tech support ever says they’re going to “escalate your case”? Know that you are screwed. It will only pass by more supervisors, you’ll be called by yet another person that promises to call back, after approval from yet another supervisor, and it just goes on until you get your next defective peice of garbage. DO NOT BUY FROM DELL. You’ve been warned.
February 13th, 2012 at 6:02 am
@Fool Buster, shut it…the whole point of reviews are so the rest of us don’t have to waste as much time as you do by researching our entire lives away on what notebook is the best. I’m glad there’s people out there like you that the rest of us can trust to ALWAYS do the tedious/dirty work for us, that way we don’t have to it ourselves…thank you so much for cleaning my house and washing my car FOOL
February 13th, 2012 at 11:43 am
@Made – Check out the HP Pavilion dm4. http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptop/hp-pavilion-dm4t-2011.aspx A well-built machine that starts at $549.
February 16th, 2012 at 3:30 am
HP LAPTOP IS THE WORST LAPTOP OUT OF ALL BRANDS I AM THE ONE OF BEST EXPERIENCED PERSON WITH HP LAPTOP
THIS PRODUCT WILL NOT COMPATABLE TO XP O/S , WITH IN 1YEAR YOU WILL GET ALL PROBLEMS LIKE MOTHERBORB FAILURE HARD DISK FAILURE PROVESSOR EVEN MIC FAILURE. CUSTOMER CARE ALSO VERY BAD COMPARE TO DELL
FINALLY WHAT I WOULD SAY IS DELL IS BEST PRODUCT & ULTIMATE SERVICE PROVIDED BY THEM.
February 18th, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Gusomarley, Unfortunately, my response to your question is the dreaded “it depends”. I’ve been a long time pc/DOS/Windows user going back to the 8086 and AT. However, I currently have a Macbook Pro (Intel), iMAC (Intel), a Desktop with Windows 7, Windows 7 laptop and the iMAC has boot camp and Parallels (XP). It has been my experience that the MAC’s are more stable and last longer then the PC’s. Lion had some hiccups when it first came out but has been stable for me ever since and Snow Leopard was rock solid. Window’s (even XP and 7) tend to have more issues for me (but a lot less severe then early xp, 98 etc.). It took me sometime to get use to OSX and there are some things I prefer how to accomplish in Windows. But for casual/home use, I tend to grab the Mac’s 9 out of 10 times. I don’t really game so can’t help there but I’d expect the PC is better for that purpose. There are things that each do better then the other. I will say I like the Mac screens but my laptop is a HP DV7 (Dec ’12) $400 laptop with poor color and viewing angles vs a $1,000+ for MBP. I expect the high end pc’s would have good graphics cards and top notch screens for similar money as the Mac. I wish you the best on your decision!
February 23rd, 2012 at 5:30 pm
@Madhu,
I have owned an HP Pavillion G61-332NR for about two and a half years now. I have no problems with it and it still runs fine. You just may have gotten a “lemon”. For all I am concerned, HP has given me exceptional customer service over the years where as Dell gave me almost nothing service wise when trying to update or solve problems. They had good computers but it was updated rarely and it just wasn’t me in the end. It’s a personal preference. I like software updates. Others may not though for they may say it takes too much HDD space, and I respect that. It also may have been because the updates weren’t compatible with my specific computer, oh well.
All that you stated in your last comment may have been your experience but I can easily find a review just like your’s that goes against Dell. So please next time you want to rant about a company, look at the one you are supporting. I am sure that there are many who are going to disagree. No company is perfect. Don’t punish an entire establishment because of a mishap. Every company has them.
I bet if that Dell goes bad, you will switch to a different company and talk bad about Dell. That never ending cycle is unhealthy. Just enjoy your laptop and stop thinking/posting so much about others.
Thank you,
Brandon Le
February 27th, 2012 at 4:07 am
HP Pavilion g series, had a battery fail after 3mths and tested over phone and had a new one within 5 days over Christmas excellent services and a great everyday laptop!
March 3rd, 2012 at 10:25 am
sony is the Best……………
March 10th, 2012 at 12:30 am
Alienware is one of good brand, but lack of driver update… @.@
March 10th, 2012 at 10:47 pm
I am planning to buy a Dell laptop with features 2/3gb RAM,320 gb hd,14/15″ screen,I3 2nd gen for the use of computer engineering.
my budget is between 25000 to 35000.
please suggest me laptops falling under the range and send me the quotations of the laptops.
can u also help me out with the stores in pune where I can get the best deal and offers or discounts on account of gudhipadwa…
March 12th, 2012 at 4:20 am
The best note book experience bar none is the Samsung 7 series chronos 15.6….A BEAST!…makes the others including the the mac book pro look silly….trust me.
March 17th, 2012 at 8:38 am
For Dell, Aniket expected spec… go with Dell Vostro 3350 series.. good one.
March 28th, 2012 at 2:47 am
I can’t say enough about my Alienware m11x. Fast, quiet, runs everything well. I am an audio producer by trade and I have a Mac Pro tower and a Dell laptop, and while they are good systems, this little beast is fantastic. Everytime I do a batch process on production files, it is quick. I occasionally start to watch something on Netflix or youtube while waiting for files to finish processing but more often than not processing is done before I’m five minutes into a video. Alienware’s build quality is excellent, and I know it’s anecdotal evidence, but I’ve never had any issues with Dell’s customer service, though I haven’t utilized it with the m11X yet.
April 3rd, 2012 at 3:59 pm
I had a Dell and it was absolutely awful. never get a dell. I have a macbook pro now and it is amazing. so happy with it
April 12th, 2012 at 5:31 am
DELL computers are horrible and even the customer service. I’ll NEVER buy Dell again. I need to buy a NEW laptop and this is why i am here. I am thinking about Apple, HP or Toshiba.
April 15th, 2012 at 2:03 pm
My family buys dells for the last 15 yrs and I hate all of them and tell them to never buy them. Not one of them last more then 2 yrs, there customer service is in Indian. You’ll be on the phone for about 1hr before you start fixing the problem and the read off a list of steps, so none of them are real techs. The only one is the supervisor. If this sounds fun to you, then buy all means buy one.
April 17th, 2012 at 4:20 am
I want to buy new laptop in range between 25000 to 33000 , now a day’s which brand running better in india & service also,which model & brand preferred in this range.
April 24th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
dont buy Lenovo. After years of satisfaction buying Lenovo or Thinkpad products, we would always specify them as reliable when reselling solutions. until we bought a T520 for a customer that needed a load of pre-configured software on it. Well it took about a week to install and configure everythnig for trhe client, upon packing it up, we noticed the track pad and some keys started to show wear as if it were a year old already, after just a week. Well the customer took one look at it, said it looked like refurbished which I didnt disagree. It came brand new sealed I know because we opened it. so I took photos of the unit a week old with a keyboard that looked a yrear old and took it back giving the credit to the customer buying another branded laptop. This laptop ended up being our company spare so I took it as my own and its been nothing but problems after auto updates from microsoft it will not boot, I have to uninstall updates running in safe mode. it doesnt run common software and shows signs of high usage when its not that old. I have a 4 year old Thinkpad that looks newer than the T520. I think they are using cheaper plastics. Dont buy Lenovo, trust me. Im now calling Lenovo because certain keys are not functioning or insert into words because the keypad is shot already. The letter R I have to psell check20 times in each email because it keeps inserrting itself due to light vibration even blowing on the keyboard. Crappy computer,
May 19th, 2012 at 5:59 am
I vana buy a laptop and my range is below 30,000rs.plz suggest me which brand is d best with most satisfactory customer service.thanks.
May 22nd, 2012 at 8:17 pm
I am trying to buy a laptop please can you recommend to me the best i had before dell inspiron 1525 core 2interl