Ultrathin Laptops Solid Performers

Mossberg offers his annual shopping guide

(NEWSER) - It's time once again for Walt Mossberg's annual computer buying guide, in which the Wall Street Journal 's tech guru runs down the bare minimum the average person should know when buying a laptop. His advice:

• Processors: Intel has a shiny new wave of Core chips, the i3, i5, and i7 models. They're faster, and the i5 and i7 have nifty power-saving features, but there's nothing wrong with older chips for bargain shoppers. Speaking of which...

Boasts big keyboard and touchpad, long battery

(NEWSER) - Toshiba, late to enter the low-end but lucrative netbook field, has finally rolled out its $400 entry, and Walter Mossberg finds that it beats competitors by solving several key problems: It boasts an easy-to-use keyboard, a long-lasting battery, and a large touchpad with big buttons. “The keyboard design resembles that on Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops—big, raised keys with lots of room in between, and good vertical movement,” Mossberg notes in the Wall Street Journal. More»

Batteries can't be replaced, but few do so anyway

(NEWSER) - Removable notebook batteries are convenient in theory, but hardly anyone actually replaces them. Apple and other firms are responding with sealed-in batteries, which, Apple says, can be bigger and thus last longer. Walter Mossberg ran his “own harsh battery test” on the new MacBook Pros and found their sealed-in powerhouses “excellent,” he writes for the Wall Street Journal. More»

(NEWSER) - Dell is desperate to expand its chunk of the consumer PC market and shed its reputation for stodgy design, so Walt Mossberg decided to take a look at two of its flashier offerings: the ultrathin Adamo laptop, and the Studio One 19 touch-screen desktop. They’re not bad machines, he concludes, but they’re not exactly groundbreaking, either. The Adamo is just a belated competitor to the MacBook Air, while the desktop is aping HP’s TouchSmart series. More»

'Adamo' mystery sets tech world abuzz

(NEWSER) - Dell's mystery product Adamo could be a super-slim laptop even lighter than the MacBook Air, but it's proving impossible to get solid information about it, Ashlee Vance writes in the New York Times. The firm has registered the trademark and set up a teaser site, but declines to comment on Adamo. A Dell exec appeared shocked when asked if a lighter-than-Air product was in the works. More»