The ASUS N61Jv is a looker. It has an exterior that screams “macho” and “elegant,” thanks to its nice curves and modern design. The patterned, glossy lid also adds a tinge of sophistication to the overall look. The speakers, like other notebooks’, are placed above the good-sized keyboard, and the rubberized panel would remind you of the carbon-fiber look of sports cars. There’s no shortage of lights here, with the huge power button owning the show with its white backlight.

From the onset, the N61Jv has that ASUS look – the curvy lid with the sheeny pattern-printed surface, the chiclet keyboard, the minimalist trackpad and screen frame, and that bulky body for standard sized notebooks. Opening the notebook reveals a minimalist design featuring a full keyboard with the numerical pad intact, a multi-touch trackpad, and the noticeably bulging silver grill with ASUS shortcuts on one side – performance mode, mute, volume up, volume down, and play/pause – and the unusually large (but cool) power button on the other. There are two LED slits on both sides of this that acts as both a unique design element and as an indicator of which GPU is being used. Four indicator lights – battery, HDD, Wi-Fi, and Numerical Lock – are positioned at the edge of the notebook, just below the trackpad. While the screen bezel side is of glossy black plastic, the bottom portion, with the exception of the top grill has a soft rubberized finish. This doesn’t extend to the bottom of the notebook, however, and we can still see the usual plastic finish here.

There’s also plenty of curved corners and edges with this notebook, something that’s still very much in vogue today. The notebook also uses a two-hinge design to hold the LCD display, just like other ASUS notebook models. And just like other ASUS designs, most of the interfaces are kept on the left and right profiles, leaving only a card reader at the front and a battery slot at the rear. Again, what’s notable about the notebook is despite its bulk, it feels lighter than it looks.

Toshiba’s Portégé R-Series has been running since 2004, the R700 we’re reviewing today being the seventh iteration. This range has always been about producing the thinnest, lightest laptop possible for business users on the move. In recent memory the R500 and R600  both stuck to this brief strictly, sometimes too strictly. In the R700, however, it appears as if Toshiba might have learnt to stop chasing the headlines, and made a better laptop as a result.

The chassis of both units is stiffened by a framework of honeycombed metal, which adds to the durability of the base and palm rests. Indeed, while we were carrying the machine around by the base’s corner, it did not flex or bend, and we felt as though it could withstand some rough handling.
toshiba portege r700.

When we first put our hands on the previous version, the Portégé R600, our first reaction was, “Whoa!” The system was a design marvel, weighing 2 pounds and featuring a 12-inch screen. So, when we first saw this 13.3-inch, 3-pound system, the “whoa” factor dissipated a bit. It came back slowly, however, as we spent more time with the R700. For starters, we love the brushed black metal of the 1×12.4×8.9-inch body and the contrasting shiny silver hinges. The lid is nearly paper-thin, a feature we’ve come to appreciate, as it increases the system’s sleek aesthetic. The mouse buttons resemble a nickel-plated finish on a flute. That’s a contrast to the shiny, chrome-like hinges at the base of the screen but less distracting.

Asus’ N61 range consists of multimedia machines featuring powerful components and the latest features, including Asus’ own SonicMaster technology standards.

This is also one of the first laptops we’ve seen to feature USB 3.0, the next generation of USB technology. The N61J is a powerful machine for the multimedia user, but there are a few issues here as well. One of the laptop’s key selling points is the aforementioned SonicMaster standards.

We found that while the stereo effect was impressive, sound wasn’t as good across the full audio spectrum, and tracks generally lacked bass and depth. Although better than most laptops, we still wouldn’t use this machine as a replacement for desktop speakers.

In our experience with the N61J, the technology worked as advertised. When running our gaming benchmarks, the discrete card kicked in without any effort on our part. Unfortunately, Optimus couldn’t elevate the N61J’s gaming performance beyond middling. The notebook’s GeForce GT 325M might be based on a new GPU architecture using a smaller 40nm process, but the mainstream card is still an amateur compared to the older GTX 260M in our zero-point notebook. Moderately demanding games like Far Cry 2 are playable, to be sure, but only when run at the notebook’s native 1366×768 resolution with quality set at medium, which yielded 36.75fps.

The N61J is more impressive at productivity chores. Its 2.26GHz Core i5-430M is part of Intel’s new Arrandale family of mobile processors. It’s built on the same 32nm process as Intel’s Clarkdale desktop procs, which include an integrated graphics chip in the CPU. There are numerous other improvements the Core i5 chips offer over the Core 2 Duo, with integrated memory controller, better power management, and HyperThreading among the most noteworthy. So, despite its 800MHz clock disadvantage, the Core i5-430M performed slightly better than our zero-point’s 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo Mobile T9900 CPU in all the content creation benchmarks that are multithread-friendly. Photoshop shows no such bias, leaving the older Core 2 Duo out front.

Red Fox, just like the other home grown names like Blue and Neo, is a ubiquitous brand with the masses in parts of the Philippines. While the latter two are brands who are focusing on notebook computers, Red Fox has been around earlier providing pre-configured and assembled desktop computers and in recent years, notebooks. What we have is one of their recent notebook models that propose a balance between value and mobility: the Red Fox Razer WR113.

From the way things are going, it’s headed for competition from the netbooks and sub notebooks on the lower end of the scale, and its mainstream peers on the other when one takes a glance at its base offering and price. What exactly differentiates this product from what the competition is offering? That’s what we’ll find out.

It looks simple, even with its glossy, blue finish. There’s nothing about the WR113′s looks that will make heads turn.

This notebook sports a 13.3-inch display and a rather wide keyboard that almost takes up the whole width of the computer – a plus, as it does make typing easier which could be an issue in some thin-and-lights. The WR113 is also a bit on the heavy side, tipping the scales at around 1.8kg.

In terms of ports, this Red Fox offers pretty much what you would expect from this kind of notebook. It has HDMI, VGA, and mic ports, a 3.5-mm headphone jack, and 2 USB ports located at the right side of the computer. A 1.3-megapixel webcam sits atop the display, offering basic video-chat capabilities. A 2.5-inch-long vent lines up the left side, constantly blowing up warm air from the computer’s guts.

Typical Apple, the Macbook pro’s presentation was as meticulously done as the beauty of this device. Popping the box open was a breeze and there she was, the 2010 13-inch Macbook Pro wrapped in box perfection and guarded by a thin layer of plastic. The box and the wrapping speaks of obsessiveness for perfection. It didn’t take too long to breach that. A casual observer would find the plastic and the keyboard guard in a pile.

It was cold. The slab of unibody aluminum was great to the touch. The edges were almost sharp. It felt like a slab, which after all it was. That is, until one popped the lid open, and pressing the power button the machine quickly lit up.

About this MacThe process was quiet. The 2010 Macbook pro is as quiet as a ninja. And like all virgin Macs, the registration process rolled in. It asked if it should pickup from a time machine backup, or upgrade from an existing mac. Far from the cave, the choice was obvious one that no, this wouldn’t be about migrating from one mac to the next. In less than five minutes, Mac OS X’s introduction video flew in.

Nearly a year has passed since Apple released its updated 15-inch MacBook Pro , featuring a unibody aluminum construction, SD Card slot, and a longer-lasting lithium ion battery. Now, the Cupertino-based company has  incorporated a few important upgrades under the hood to supercharge this elegant machine (starting at $1,799; $2,199 as configured). These enhancements include the long-awaited Intel Core i7 processor, capable of overclocking on the fly, and automatic graphics-switching technology that makes moving from integrated to discrete graphics mode all but invisible to the user. Best of all, even with the jump from Core 2 Duo to Core i7, Apple has managed to deliver all-day battery life. These are collectively welcome improvements, but are they enough to justify the premium? Yup.