Standing out from the crowd of netbooks is not so easy, but Samsung’s tweaks to its N150 netbook caught our attention. The N150 Plus packs in a larger hard drive (250GB versus 160GB), a utility for waking the machine up faster and using less power in sleep mode, and a fresh, attractive appearance. The Samsung N150 Plus is sold exclusively at Best Buy, but is it worth the trip to search it out? At about $370, it costs a good bit more than the N150, which you can find for less than $300, and it’s never more than an average performer. Still, it adds enough bonuses to make it rise above the homogeneous competition. It’s the only netbook (or notebook, for that matter) that comes with full versions of Microsoft Word and Excel preinstalled, making this a good choice for students or worker bees who don’t want to purchase Office separately or use up an existing license.

The first thing you’ll notice about the N150 Plus is its deep red exterior, with a dot pattern on the top, flat red sides, and black edging. It looks great: Just bold enough to stand out, yet subtle enough to go anywhere. The left edge is home to an Ethernet port, one USB port, microphone and headphone ports, and a port for the power cord. The right edge holds two USB ports and a VGA monitor port. On the front edge is the power switch, as well as a three-format flash-card slot, which is set low, on the underside of the netbook. No ports reside on the back edge, but we like the shape of the six-cell battery, which is integrated into the body of the netbook better than most and provides a little lift, so that the N150 Plus sits at a comfortable typing angle.

The N150 Plus (N150-11) makes a good first impression with its glossy lid. It’s an attractive deep red and black with a subtle dot pattern, though it picks up fingerprints in a hurry. (The N150 is also available in multiple colors for less cash, including Bermuda Blue, Gloss Black, Flamingo Pink, Matte Blue, and white). A dark red strip wraps around the sides and front of the machine, reminiscent of the chrome strip on the original NC10.

Under the lid we found a matte deck, bezel, and display instead of a glossy red/black deck. This looks a little dull but eliminates the annoyance of fingerprints. The battery raises the N150 Plus’ chassis about a quarter of an inch in the back, making for a comfortable typing angle. Small speaker grills sit just under the front lip of the system.

The N150 Plus doesn’t have a power button in the hinge like older Samsung netbooks; instead, you’ll find a flip switch on the front. Unlike the rounded hinge design of the past, the N150 Plus has a turned-up, oblong flair that mitigates the slight bulk of the six-cell battery in the back.

Since Asus pioneered the humble netbook around three years ago, its Eee PC range has faced fierce competition from almost every other laptop manufacturer out there. From Packard Bell’s Dot machines to MSI’s Wind series, there’s a mind-exploding variety of netbooks to choose from.

Although most of these mini-machines appear identical on paper, there’s actually considerable difference between many of the models. From the incredible battery life of the Acer Aspire One D260, to the solid build quality of the Dell Inspiron Mini 1018, every netbook we see has its own strengths and highlights.

Even though it has the same internal specs as the Eee PC 1215N (Atom D525 CPU, Ion 2 graphics), the VX6 looks completely different. The glossy white lid emblazoned with the Lamborghini logo reminded us (appropriately) of the hood of an expensive Italian sports car. The sides are emblazoned in a subtle matte, chrome color that tapers against a rubberized matte black shade. Inside, the hinge area is one of the most attractive we’ve seen on a netbook, with chrome hinges and mirrored power and turbo buttons above the keyboard with a script Lamborghini logo sitting in the middle of the mirrored surface.

The touchpad and touchpad button have a sleek, trapezoidal shape and a dark mirrored surface, but we found that this area picked up fingerprint smudges. The webcam also sits against a mirrored, trapezoidal background. The palm rest is made of a matte black, rubberized material that was really comfortable on our wrists and attractive to boot. Even the bottom of the notebook has air vents that look like they belong on an expensive car, rather than a netbook.

Specifications

• 1.83GHz Intel Atom D525 dual-core processor
• 12.1 inch screen
• 1366 x 768 pixel resolution
• NVIDIA ION 2 graphics
• 3 x USB ports
• VGA
• HDMI
• 802.11 WiFi
• Bluetooth 2.1
• SD card slot
• Ethernet
• Multi-touch trackpad
• Windows 7 Home Premium

Having only just awarded the Packard Bell EasyNote Butterfly Touch our coveted Recommended Award, we’re now looking at the Acer Aspire 1825PTZ, an 11.6in convertible tablet laptop in the same mould. And when we say “in the same mould” we mean that literally – as Packard Bell (PB) is essentially an Acer subsidiary, the Butterfly Touch and 1825PTZ could have been separated at birth.

Overall the look of and feel of the Acer is good, its very compact and not too heavy, although at 1.72 kg (3.79 lbs) it does begin to feel weighty when using it one handed. The screen is bright and crisp and the 1366 x 768 resolution is perfect for the 11.6” screen size, touch input is accurate on the capacitive touch display and you rarely find yourself having to press multiple times when trying to hit on screen buttons like the classic close program. One of the major downsides to the screen is its highly reflective, probably more so than any other device I have used or owned. This is a major point, when using the screen in a well lit room like an office or for example a hospital waiting room, the viewing angle is tiny, this often means the angle you are holding it at is a strain. I’ve lived with this problem for two weeks and have learnt to deal with it but if you spend a lot of time in well lit places then you must take this into consideration, even more so if you plan to use this device in tablet mode often.

The Acer Aspire 1825′s 11.6-inch touchscreen has a sharp 1366 x 768-pixel resolution and is pleasingly bright thanks to the LED backlighting, which means working into the wee hours is easy on the eye.

A glossy Super-TFT screen has been used and the results are impressive, with colours popping from photographs. The only drawback is the increased reflectivity, which will have you squinting at the laptop’s screen when outdoors or in a brightly-lit office. The screen is attached via a single central hinge, which allows the display to be tilted all the way back to a horizontal position.

Specifications:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
• Intel Core2 Duo processor SU7300 (1.3 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)
• 11.6? HD Acer LED LCD (1366×768), 2 point multi touch
• 4 GB Memory
• 320 GB HDD
• Multi-in-1 card reader
• 802.11a/b/g
• Bluetooth
• Webcam, 6-cell Li-ion battery
• Weight 1.7KG

The VX1 comes in two flavours: black, and the more traditional Lamborghini yellow. Both are attractive, but our yellow review sample makes an instant retina-searing impression straight out of the box, making it the more suitable poser’s accessory. Asus says the laptops use the same paint finish as the iconic cars, incorporating subtle golden paint flecks that catch the light of the sun, as well as the famous Lamborghini logo.

Unusually, Asus has opted not to use a widescreen 16:9 display on the Lamborghini VX1. Instead, you get a 15-inch screen with a native resolution of 1,400×1,050 pixels. This is fine for everyday use, but its 4:3 aspect ratio limits the number of windows you can view side by side, and means you get a letterbox view when playing 16:9 widescreen movies. Some may take exception to the screen’s glossy coating, which is a tad too reflective to use in direct light, but aside from this, we were very impressed with the image quality. Colours were recreated faithfully, and the screen was able to accurately display the subtle tonal differences.

he remarkably slender Asus Lamborghini VX1 measures just 1.1 inches thick, 13 inches wide, and 10.8 inches deep, making it smaller than another recently reviewed 15-inch laptop, the Lenovo 3000 C200. Like the Lenovo, though, the Lamborghini is quite a bit boxier than thin-and-lights with wide screens, such as the Acer Ferrari 5000 and the Dell Inspiron E1505. At 5.8 pounds, the Lamborghini VX1 undercuts all three competitive models when it comes to weight, though its chunky AC adapter adds nearly a pound to the package.

Though the Lamborghini VX1 features a sturdy brushed-aluminum keyboard deck, its plastic case is so thin that it seems just a bit fragile. The optical drive, for example, feels like it could be crushed with a strong squeeze. Fortunately the lid, often a point of weakness on thin laptops, flexes very little and does a good job of protecting the screen.

Acer’s Ferrari 4005 WLMi laptop is the latest in a line of high-end gaming notebooks bearing the Italian motor company’s signature. You don’t have to be a Ferrari fan (I’m partial to Sato myself) to appreciate this notebook’s features though… Starting with the AMD Turion Athlon64 mobile processor purring away at 2GHz, the Ferrari 4005 WLMi represents the state of the art in notebook technology, including its own carbon fiber panel and Ferrari emblem.

This laptop walks a fine line between being a desktop replacement and a portable powerhouse. It’s not a small device at 6.3 lbs, and boasting a large 15.4″ LCD screen, but it is still vaguely portable and less demanding of battery power than it might be due to AMD’s Turion64 processor power-saving technology. The Acer Ferrari 4005 also looks great, whether you like Ferrari or not.

The Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi notebook is powered by an AMD Turion64 ML-37 processor running at 2.0GHz (with 1MB of level 2 cache memory), 1GB of DDR-333 system memory, an integrated ATI Mobility Radeon X700 video card with 128MB of dedicated video memory and a large 15.4″ LCD screen. Storage comes care of a 2.5″ 5400 RPM 100GB hard disk. Network connectivity goes in four directions, with a Gigabit Ethernet adaptor, 802.11G wireless, Bluetooth and a 56K modem all available to the user.

The Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi measures 14.29″ x 10.46″ and about 1.36″ thick. Without the battery it weighs in at 6.3lbs. Part of the top cover is made of real carbon fiber, lending the notebook a unique appearance and putting it in touch with its Ferrari heritage.