Gadgetory

I bet you've noticed all the buzz these days around portable computers centers on ultrabooks that would be the MacBook Air and all those Windows machines that want to be a MacBook Air but I've got a sneaking suspicion you might just be part of that silent majority who just wants a good laptop not a little skinny thing or a wimpy little netbook you don't mind handling a little luggage for a machine that could really get the job done I'm here to help I'm Brian Cooley with just what you're looking for the top five laptops that do it all and do it well number five the samsung series 9 this guy's fresh out of the gate we just reviewed it look how sleek and thin it is kind of Ultrabook like but it's still got a generously large screen that makes it look even sleeker and thinner great to carry if you like attention from hipsters who ironic beards this one's got big buzz around it but for the $1500 price it's basically a little larger version of the much cheaper 13-inch cousin and for that price they should have found a way to wedge in HDMI and Ethernet without using dongles that are bulkier than the computer itself number four the HP Pavilion dm4 39d beats Edition here's a 14 inch laptop it's got one of those cool hybrid hard drives part rotating part solid-state a great matte finish display you don't see that many of those and a red backlit keyboard I could live without the built-in subwoofer as part of what makes it a beats Edition however if you're looking at this one you need to also look at the not much more money HP Envy which we will do in just a minute number three is the samsung series 7 here's a 15-inch model that lets you exit plastic land thank you it's got a metal chassis a thin screen bezel great power a good battery life dedicated graphics all that rolls up to remind you why you spent 1300 bucks on a laptop about all we can find and gripe about on this one is the lack of blu-ray drive and the screen cannot show full res 1080p display which would make this kind of a good value in a home theater to go number two is the HP b15 seriously I don't know why Apple hasn't sued HP over this one see what I mean it looks just like a MacBook slap an apple sticker on the lid and a smug look on your face and people will think you're rolling Cupertino style from five feet away beyond looks this is a great performing 15-inch for about eleven hundred lists and seriousness is important it's got a little wheel for the volume control you won't know how much you've missed that until you try it okay our number one laptop these days is the Apple MacBook Pro yeah still I guess it's only fitting that the one machine that tops that HP we just saw is the one that a Texan looks like the MacBook Pro 15 inch with a 2.4 gig quad-core i7 CPU and dedicated AMD graphics is serious this is that rare laptop on which you can edit video and not watch your grandkids grow up and go to college while things render the touchpad still feels like Apple has a patent on the whole idea and seven hour battery life that's coast to coast and a little bit more now at 2200 bucks the way we reviewed it it's not cheap and the upgrades they go north from there and annoyingly HDMI and built-in blu-ray cannot be among them those are the best laptops we like right now but this market changes all the time folks if you're looking for one make sure you go check out our latest reviews of cnet.com i'm brian coulis thanks for watching