The workstation notebook is an interesting computing platform as it attempts to recreate the desktop in a mobile form which leads to some very impressive performance results compared to your run of the mill notebook.

AnandTech has a look at the Dell M6500 workstation notebook and its ability to handle all manner of high-end design applications:

Part of what we like about the M6500 is the flat design; there’s no sloping keyboard or chassis here. Many notebooks with a high-end CPU and GPU will have a thicker back to accommodate larger cooling configurations. Dell has put some real effort into keeping the chassis as slim as possible. Make no mistake, it’s still a 17″ chassis, but compared to many other such notebooks the M6500 looks and feels a bit smaller. It also fits into my “standard” 17″ notebook bag quite easily, which isn’t always the case. The slim slot-load drive also helps with the chassis design.

A slick design that should make your co-workers quite envious.

Netbooks have had a nice effect on portable computer manufacturers. They’re putting out newer designs up and down their product lines which sport energy efficient hardware and slimmer form factors which people that have to lug their machines around are quite happy about.

Gateway’s EC14D07u ultraportable notebook takes the trend towards small to heart by using a low-voltage processor and 11.6″ display yet, somehow, manages to slot in an optical drive. TweakTown has the review:

The Gateway EC14D07u is a rarity in the ultraportable world today in that Gateway crams an optical drive into the machine. The drive is a DVD player and can burn both CDs and DVDs if needed as well. Typically, you don’t get an optical drive in this class and this is what makes the Gateway EC14D07u really stand out in a crowded market.

Of course its wireless N connection could transfer files over a network faster than you can read from a DVD but it’s still a nice feature to have.

When you’re lugging around a laptop wherever you go you tend to want something that takes up little space and doesn’t weigh so much, fortunately for everyone the trend in portable computing has been edging towards smaller computers.

The Asus UL30A trims the fat on a fully featured notebook and makes use of ultra low voltage processors to improve on battery life. InsideHW has the details:

Asus UL30A has a dualcore Core 2 Duo at 1.3 GHz, and his performance is obviously much better than most competitors. Given the low clock speed of CULV processor, one core is relatively easy to overload, so the presence of two cores is very easy to feel even in everyday usage. If you find that it’s not enough, the processor has a simple setting in BIOS that can overclock it by five percent. Graphic card is Intel integrated X4500MHD, and the last part of the label says it is able to assume part of the job when the system is decoding HD video, which leaves space to performing other tasks at the same time.

A slick little notebook for those with less than demanding needs.

Notebook manufacturers, well some of them at least, try very hard to eek out every last bit of power saving in their products in order to supply longer battery life and many more kudos compared to the competition, this time one company takes it further.

The Asus UL80JT sports some very aggressive CPU clock throttling and a pair of GPUs, a Nvidia GeForce 310 and an Intel GMA 4500 IGP, to switch between depending on power saving modes and performance needs. arstechnica has the details:

The same principle applies to the dynamic CPU clocking. ASUS includes a desktop widget to track CPU clock speed. While using the UL80JT, I could see it moving up and down with what I did—up with program openings and CPU-intensive processes, and way down at idle. Between the GPU switching, dynamic clocking, and ASUS’s other power management features, the UL80JT manages to consume less than half as much power as the unibody Macbook while browsing.

Do make note that while they may label the Nvidia GeForce 310 in their article as a high-end chip the reality is that it’s a low-end model that’s not likely to perform very well in modern 3D games.

New chip releases used to mean considerable time until you would find the products in the mobile realm which, for the on the go crowd, meant delaying a purchase or settling for some older model.

Asus K42F comes prepped with Intel’s new mobile Core i5 processor which should make for some great performance and longer battery life. The Tech Report has a review:

Clarkdale’s performance is quite impressive on the desktop. Despite squeezing into a much smaller power envelope, Arrandale isn’t much slower in the Core i5-540M implementation we’ve looked at today. There’s ample power for mainstream notebooks, then, and plenty of grunt for high-performance portables that don’t need the excess of a quad-core, eight-thread Clarksfield CPU.

A slick notebook although some extra added graphics performance would have been nice to see.

It’s somewhat difficult to innovate in the laptop segment, after all there’s a limit on how slim you can go before you start losing the thing between the couch cushions. So for inspiration some developers go to great lengths to bring new ideas to the mobile PC user.

The Acer Aspire AS5738DG sports a 3D LCD display which should pop your images, videos, and light gaming right off of your screen. PC Magazine has the hands-on:

Perhaps the neatest gimmick this year, and a first on an inexpensive laptop such as the AS5738DG, is the built-in 3D hardware. It’s laid on top of a generic-looking 15.6-inch widescreen that houses 1,366-by-768 resolution display (this resolution is a must for optimal 3D viewing).

Yes you’ll have to wear a pair of shutter glasses for the 3D effect so you’re bound to get the odd looks while on the road and not just at home.

Normally there isn’t much to be excited about when you’ve got yourself a notebook with integrated graphics but with some careful tweaking and a beefy enough processor sometimes you can get something special out of it.

The Dell Studio 14z sports Nvidia’s somewhat capable low-end 9400M chipset with the speedy Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz CPU. The Tech Report has the details:

At least the GeForce 9400M has escaped the clutches of MacBook exclusivity and made its way into more affordable systems, such as Dell’s Studio 14z. Starting at $750, the Studio 14z pairs the 9400M with a Core 2 CPU, a 14″ display, sensibly up-to-date connectivity, and a slew of configuration options covering everything from the screen resolution to keyboard backlighting to the color scheme. In many ways, the Studio 14z feels like the anti-MacBook. But is it any good?

A bit of dedicated memory for the integrated graphics chip would’ve been nice but, overall, it’s a potent portable.

Stepping up to a performance laptop usually means settling for a design that stands out like a sore thumb…of course there are those that enjoy that sort of thing but you’d rather blend in now wouldn’t you.

TrustedReviews has a look at the Toshiba Satellite U500-178 notebook computer and its sporty Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processor combine with discrete Nvidia graphics power:

What’s most likely to excite potential buyers is the range of features and options on the U500. There are several different models, ours being the top-of-the-range effort that runs to a cool £899.99. A lot of money, granted, but with a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 processor, 4GB of RAM, a generous 500GB hard drive and a 512MB nVidia GeForce G210M all on-board, you’re getting a lot for your money.

It’s quite pricey and its gaming prowess isn’t all that stunning but if you’re in the market for a solid notebook it’s a good choice.

Most laptops shoot for one of two extremes: the cheap route which, while usable, doesn’t exactly offer inspired performance and the high-end gaming option which is a bit extreme in most cases and isn’t the most portable of devices.

The Acer Aspire 5738PG combines a solid processor choice in Intel’s Core 2 chip and AMD’s Radeon HD 4570 graphics for some decent middle of the range performance. TrustedReviews has the rundown:

Despite the 5738PG’s relatively powerful discrete graphics, battery life is fairly good thanks to the 4,400mAh (46 Watt-hour) capacity battery. In MobileMark’s Productivity benchmark, for example, the 5738PG managed a decent three hours and six minutes, while two hours and ten minutes under the DVD test with screen brightness at maximum (though it’s perfectly visible at lower settings) is long enough to watch most films.

A nice option if you’re in the need for something with a decent amount of horsepower without opting for a beast of a machine.

In the struggle to bring thinner and sleeker notebooks to consumers there are usually many trade offs you’ll have to endure in order to get as thin a profile as possible…but damn does it look good.

The Dell Adamo XPS crams components into every nook and cranny in order to get to its insanely thin profile. Digital Trends has all of the juicy details:

This thing has a ton of cool tech in it, and one of the first things you’ll notice is that it doesn’t open like any other laptop; It has a capacitive memory wire latch. To open the laptop, you swipe your finger over a sensor, the memory wire heats, and the keyboard unlocks and drops out of its nest in the display. Once open, the keyboard cantilevers out from the display, both angling the keyboard and allowing the display to sit up several inches higher and provide a better screen angle for your eyes. This also helps the laptop run cool (the MacBook Air tends to gate its processor significantly because of heat buildup, which means you typically are only getting 800 MHz, regardless of the speed of processor you buy).

It’s not the speediest machine out there but as far as portability is concerned it’ll take the travel burden off your shoulder.