Top 10 Best Laptops
The Top 10 Best Laptops
Do you want to buy a laptop, but are daunted by the sheer number of choices out there? We winnow down your options to the top 10 best laptops available today.
Shopping for a laptop these days is a pretty daunting task. The sheer number of laptops available online or in a store's electronics section is enough to make your mind spin. Most people have a general idea of what their laptop should look like and what they want in terms of features, but are often intimidated by the choices available. That's where we come in.
The editors of PCMag.com test hundreds of systems each year to help you find the best laptop. There are a lot of laptops out there, from the large-screen desktop replacements to the lightweight ultraportables, and even netbooks, but all share common features. In this story, we help you narrow your choices by collecting the top 10 laptops on the market today.
Featured in this story
HP Pavilion dv7-6163cl
The HP Pavilion dv7-6163cl supplies quad-core performance, switchable graphics, booming audio, and a sleek aluminum chassis at a fair price, making it the affordable media center laptop to beat.
Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Late 2011) The Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch gets new hardware and software, including a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, AMD Radeon GPU, and OS X Lion, while keeping everything that works well, like the thin and stylish unibody design.
Asus Zenbook UX31 The Asus Zenbook UX31 is the clear leader in the nascent ultrabook category, with better overall performance and battery life than any competitor. It also has a brilliant display, superb sound, and solid construction.
Asus U56E-BBL6 The Asus U56E-BBL6 budget laptop has all the desired features, including a fast Core i5 processor, cutting-edge features, and best-in-class battery life, sold for a price few can pass up.
Acer Travelmate 8481T-6440 What little the Acer Travelmate 8481T-6440 business laptop gives up in horsepower, it gains back with a sleek, ultrabook-like design (low volt processor requires fewer clunky cooling fans) and over 11 hours of battery life.
Lenovo IdeaPad V570-1066AJU The Lenovo IdeaPad V570-1066AJU offers excellent performance and a good feature set, for a price few can pass up
Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Tablet The Lenovo ThinkPad X220 takes top honors among tablet PCs, combining choice aspects of a capable ultraportable business laptop with a multitouch Windows tablet.
Dell Inspiron 14z (Core i5) Aside from a few minor annoyances, the Dell Inspiron 14z (Core i5) is a stylish, powerful, and battery-efficient mainstream laptop.
Lenovo ThinkPad T420s The Lenovo ThinkPad T420s is an amazing device when you realize that its power, feature set, and battery yields are usually found in much heavier laptops.
Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) The Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) is a formidable player in the ultraportable space, thanks to a Core i5 processor, backlit keyboard, and Thunderbolt port.
Instrument of Control
Belts of electrodes can control muscles in the forearm to help a beginner play a musical instrument.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have built a system they call PossessedHand that electrically stimulates muscles in the forearm at strategic moments to nudge beginners as they play a traditional Japanese instrument called the koto. One of the researchers, Emi Tamaki, says that people who used the technology were much better at playing the proper rhythm and made fewer mistakes. The prototype system is rudimentary and clunky, but its creators believe it could point the way toward machines that help people acquire other skills quickly and easily.
A. Hand
The device can stimulate seven different forearm muscles that control 16 joints in the hand, encouraging them to move in certain ways and at certain times. However, the stimuli aren't strong enough to make a hand grasp objects or play an instrument on its own.
Look, No Hands Google’s self-driving car.
Google's latest technology experiment isn’t about helping you navigate the Web—it’s about teaching cars to drive themselves. Exhibiting its usual boundless faith in technology, the company says it hopes its work leads to cars that are safer and more efficient. The company has logged more than 140,000 miles in seven modified Toyota Priuses, along with one modified Audi TT, in self-driving experiments, primarily around the San Francisco Bay area.
The company won’t say how much it’s spending on the project, but it’s clear that the equipment is far from everyday: the cars are loaded with sensors that feed data to an onboard computer that, in turn, controls the vehicle.
A. LIDAR LASER
Mounted on top of the car is a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) laser, a technology commonly used in police speed-detection guns. Like any other LIDAR system, it determines the distance and position of surrounding objects by sending out laser pulses and measuring how long it takes for the light to bounce back. On the Google cars, the device makes about 10 rotations per second, gathering data about objects within a circle of roughly 70 meters.
B. RADAR
Three radar sensors in the front part of the car, and one behind, also help detect nearby objects and determine how close they are.
C. POSITION SENSORS
A sensor on the left rear wheel detects small movements. This data, when combined with information from a GPS system and internal gyroscopes, helps the self-driving car calculate which direction it is facing.
D. ONBOARD COMPUTER
A laptop computer inside the car gathers data from the sensors and controls the vehicle through its own onboard computer systems. This makes the steering wheel appear to turn on its own. Data from each driving session is transferred to Google servers for analysis, which is helpful in fixing bugs.
E. VIDEO CAMERA
A video camera placed near the rearview mirror detects important visual cues such as changing traffic lights.
F. MANUAL CONTROL
The red button instantly restores manual control of the car if the standby driver deems it necessary. A person can also grab control by turning the steering wheel slightly or tapping the brake
Sound and Lighting
Screw thiS device into a light socket and it acts as both a wireless speaker
and an Led replacement for a 60-watt dimmable incandescent bulb. Using
two or more bulbs allows a stereo setup; the system can support up to eight
bulbs, controlled from a dock that can accept an iPod or iPhone.
and an Led replacement for a 60-watt dimmable incandescent bulb. Using
two or more bulbs allows a stereo setup; the system can support up to eight
bulbs, controlled from a dock that can accept an iPod or iPhone.
Top 10 Coolest Car ... from Geneva Auto Show
1. TOYOTA HYBRID CONCEPT CAR
2. JAGUAR C-XF
3. X-BOW
8. CARVER ONE
10. ALFA ROMEO 8C COMPETIZIONE
