Sony VAIO VGN-CR11H/B

Every so often a budget laptop computer batteries comes along that is so loaded with goodies that you have to double-check the price to make sure you're not seeing things. The Sony VAIO VGN-CR11H/B is that laptop. For just under $630, you get Core i3 processing power, wireless HDMI and WiMax broadband capabilities, good battery life, and a generous selection of I/O ports. Despite its smallish hard drive and slightly loud mouse buttons, this VPC- EB33FM/BJ model is the budget laptop to beat and supplants the Acer Aspire AS5745-7247 ($600 list, 4.5 stars) as our new Editors' Choice for the category.

Design

The VPC- EB33FM/BJ eschews the shiny, high-gloss finish used on so many budget laptops for a more subtle gunmetal black semi-matte finish that has a slight sheen to it. While smudging isn't as noticeable as it is on glossy finishes, the lid does retain fingerprints. A large Sony VGP-BSP9

badge is plastered across the center of the lid, and there's a smaller white Sony logo near the top. The VPC- EB33FM/BJ weighs 5.3 pounds, which is about average for a 15-inch laptop, and has an overall travel weight of 6 pounds when you factor in the Sony VGP-BPS9/S

A piano-black palm rest frames the isolated keyboard and houses a textured touchpad. Fans of chiclet-style keyboards will love the VPC- EB33FM/BJ keyboard's firm feel and good-sized keys. Sony managed to squeeze in a dedicated number pad as well. The touchpad is responsive and the raised finish provides good friction for precise cursor control, but mouse button clicks are a bit too loud. Wholesale laser pointer. There aren't any dedicated media player controls, but there are three quick-launch buttons above the keyboard. The TOSHIBA PABAS057

button opens Sony's Media Gallery app where you play music and videos and view photos, while the Assist button launches VAIO Care, a collection of troubleshooting and maintenance utilities. Naturally, the Web button launches a Web browser.

The brightly lit 15.6-inch display has a 1,366-by-768 resolution, which is the standard for a 15-inch laptop. Colors are bold and image quality is sharp, making this a good screen for watching HD (720p) movies and viewing photo slideshows. Viewing angles are relatively wide, although the screen loses it brightness when viewed from extreme side angles. The VPC- EB33FM/BJ's Sony VGP-BPS8 trebly, but they are loud and can handle maximum volume without distorting.

Features

The Latitude D610 Battery



sports an outstanding collection of I/O ports for a budget laptop. In addition to the basic 3 USB 2.0 ports there's also a combo eSATA/USB port. Video ports include VGA and HDMI outputs, and there's an Ethernet port and the always-present headphone and microphone jacks. Card readers include slots for Sony's Memory Stick Pro and Memory Stick Pro Duo media with MagicGate support, and an SD card slot. There's also an ExpressCard 34 slot, a rarity for a laptop in this price range. A DVD burner and a Webcam are also part of the package. The 320GB hard drive is small compared with the 500GB drives that come with similarly priced laptops such as the Dell XX327 ($630 list, 2 stars) and HP DV6000 Battery ($649.98 list, 3.5 stars). Rounding out this generous feature set is a wireless triple-play; not only does the VPC- EB33FM/BJ support wireless 802.11 a/b/g/n networking, it also comes with an embedded WiMax 4G radio for broadband internet on the go, and it supports Intel's Wireless Display technology (WiDi), which lets you send video and audio signals from the laptop to an HDTV's HDMI port without the need for cables. However, WiDi requires a device such as Netgear's Push2TV adapter ($100 street) to make the connection.

The Sony VGP-BPS13AS

bundle includes a 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium and Sony's Media Gallery entertainment suite and VAIO Care utilities. It also comes with VAIO Gate, which is similar to HP's Dock software in that it offers a single launching point for multimedia apps, browsers, e-mail, and any other program you feel like adding to the launch bar. Trial versions of Norton Internet Security and Microsoft Office 2010 are preloaded as well.

Performance

Fueled by a 2.4GHz Core i3-370M processor and 4GB of DDR3 system memory, the VPC- EB33FM/BJ performed beautifully. Its PCMark Vantage score of 5,339 knocked the Acer Aspire AS5745-7247 (5,252) out of first place, though just barely. However, it crushed the HP Pavilion dv6-3122us (3,810) and Dell Inspiron IM5030-3413B3D (3,376) handily. The Sony VGP-BPS10 and the Acer AS5745-7247 were evenly matched on our Photoshop CS5 (both scored 5:39), Cinebench R11.5 (both scored 2), and Handbrake (3:09 VPC- EB33FM/BJ; 3:08 AS5745-7247) multimedia tests, and the two went toe to toe on our 3DMark06 graphics test (both scored 1,874), which is not surprising, given their identical configurations.

The VPC- EB33FM/BJ's 39WHr battery lasted 4 hours 33 minutes on the MobileMark 2007 battery test, which is just 16 minutes less than the Acer AS5745-7247's time. Still, that's a pretty good time when you compare it with systems like the IBM 40Y6799

(3:36) and Gateway NV53A52u ($599.99 list, 3.5 stars) (3:24).

There's a lot to like about the Sony VAIO VGN-CR11H/B, from its solid performance to its wealth of features, many of which are nearly impossible to find on a budget laptop. And of course, there's that $630 price tag, which may be slightly higher than what you'll pay for the Acer Aspire AS5745-7247, but its money well spent for the WiMax and WiDi functionality. For all of these reasons, the Sony VAIO VGN-CR11H/B takes its place as our new Editors' Choice for budget laptops.

Acer Tries Another 3D Laptop With Aspire AS5745DG

Acer will make 3D part of its holiday laptop lineup with the Acer Aspire 5745DG, but don't accuse the computer maker of joining the bandwagon.

Acer was already pushing 3D notebooks last year, before any television makers introduced 3D sets stateside and began hyping them as the next big thing in home entertainment. Last year's model, the Acer Aspire 5738DG, acer 5100 battery was praised in PCWorld's review for converting 2D movies effectively and excelling at 3D games, but faltered on weak battery life and a cheap-feeling touchpad.

The new acer 5050 battery takes a different approach to 3D compared to its predecessor. Instead of using polarized glasses (the cheaper kind you get in movie theaters), this laptop goes full-bore with active shutter glasses, like the ones used with today's 3D televisions, and a built-in IR receiver. Acer BATBL50L6 says each eye sees a 60 Hz signal as the glasses alternate images between the left and right eyes, creating the 3D effect.

For content, the acer 3680 battery 's main draw will be 3D gaming, using Nvidia's 3D Vision technology (here's a list of supported games, sorted by how well they perform in 3D). But Acer's notebook also packs a 3D Blu-ray player and includes a feature that converts 2D images to 3D.

As for other specs, acer um08a73 battery runs on an Intel Core i5 processor with NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M graphics and a 500 GB hard drive, but no word on RAM. The laptop also includes a webcam and 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi.

Can the 5745DG overcome the battery problems of last year's model? Hard to say, because Acer avoided giving an estimate on battery life in its product announcement. However, the new notebook has a 9-cell battery. Hopefully, that'll outlast the 6-cell um09e71 battery in the 5738DG, which cranked for a measly 2 hours and 28 minutes in PCWorld's tests.

Acer isn't the only company working on a 3D laptop with active-shutter glasses. HP's Envy 17 is coming this holiday season. Toshiba and Sony have also announced 3D laptop plans. Acer's Aspire 5745DG will arrive in late October for a cool $1000.

Althoff tops Jersey in soccer regional

Jersey had visions of upsetting Belleville Althoff in a regional prep soccer match Wednesday, but the Crusaders foiled the Panthers' bid.

Althoff scored four times with a 12-minute stretch to top wholesale jersey 5-3 in a semifinal match of the Waterloo Class 2A Regional. The Crusaders will meet the host Bulldogs in the championship contest. Waterloo ousted Cahokia 13-0 in the other semifinal affair.

Madison Straubhaar scored twice for ac milan soccer jersey , which wound up 5-14-3. His first goal, at the 15-minute mark, put the Panthers in front. Then teammate Harry Arter, assisted by Tate Bohannon, scored at 26 minutes to make it 2-0.

Althoff responded with a chelsea jersey 09-10 on a penalty kick just before the end of the half to make it 2-1. The Crusaders then scored three times in the next 11 minutes and padded their lead. Straubhaar's second goal, assisted by Bohannon at 70 minutes, made it 4-3. Althoff then tallied a minute later and held on for the win.

Belleville West Regional - O'Fallon edged Belleville East 2-1 in overtime and Collinsville scored with chelsea jersey 2010 seconds remaining to beat the host Maroons 2-1 in Class 3A semifinals. The Panthers and Kahoks clash Saturday in the championship match.

PREP VOLLEYBALL

Metro East Lutheran 2, Roxana 0 - The visiting Knights improved to 6-22 by defeating Roxana 25-11, 25-22. MacKenzie Gottlob (19 assists), Erin Henderson (five kills), Jessica Green (five kills), Molly Scharnhorst (four kills, 10 digs and 10 points) and McKenna Judge (10 points, four aces) paced Metro Lutheran.

Sloane Reine (five kills, two blocks), Hannah Metheney (four kills, four aces) and Allyson Hoxey (four aces) led the Shells, now 8-25.

Calhoun 2, Jersey 1 - Host Calhoun shaded nonconference rival Jersey in a three-game volleyball match. The Warriors prevailed 25-11, 2-325, 25-20.

Jessie Kirbach had eight points and six blocks for Jersey. Teammate Emily Garland scored seven points, but the Panthers fell to 8-20.

Dell marketing makeover simplifies brands, kills off Adamo altogether

We knew something was going on with dell latitude d600 battery branding with the resurrection of the vostro 1500 battery

, and this morning we caught up with a few of the company's executives to learn all about the entire restructuring. As you can see above, there will now be three core brands -- Inspiron, XPS and Alienware -- all focusing on different "performance seekers." However, you'll notice that Adamo is nowhere to be found on that flow chart. Turns out, the sneaky disappearance of the Adamo XPS from Dell's site hasn't exactly been a coincidence -- it's completely killing off the premium brand and has actually tamped down volumes of the super thin machines. Now, that doesn't mean systems like the original Adamo and the Adamo XPS won't exist ever again as sony vgp-bps21 tells us similar products will be coming to the HP dv6000 battery line early next year. Simplifying the brands sure does make a lot of sense to us -- all the Adamo XPS, Studio XPS, Studio laptops have seriously confused us over the last couple of years -- but it's all part of a larger marketing campaign that will attempt to move Dell away from being a low cost brand and instead portray the company as providing choice -- a campaign dell replacement laptop battery told Reuters will ultimately cost hundreds of millions of dollars. We look forward to seeing what you've got Dell, but all we know is that we're finally going to say the following words with affirmation: "rest in peace, Adamo."