infoTECH Feature

February 25, 2011

Learn about Notebooks at NotebookReview

IT pros in charge of buying notebooks, supporting notebooks, or doing a bit of both at their respective organizations should find a helping hand in the form of NotebookReview, a Website devoted to, yep, notebooks.

Run by a company called TechTarget, NotebookReview provides news, reviews and discussion forums on the array of notebooks and netbooks on the market today. As such, the site can be useful if you’re trying to determine which laptop or laptops to purchase or if you need to troubleshoot and support your existing machines.

As one starting point, the site serves up the latest news in the land of laptops. You can learn about new models offered by the likes of HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Apple (News - Alert). You can also find out about product defects and other changes affecting different notebooks. You can even narrow down the news to look for stories just about specific vendors, stories that are among the most read, or items that have generated the greatest number of comments.

Of value to those of you shopping for a laptop are the site’s in-depth reviews. You can browse the entire reviews section to find the latest ones or narrow it down to reviews based on specific vendors and models. Each review is quite thorough, detailing all of the notebook’s features and specifications and offering the reviewer’s take on all the key components -- display, keyboard, trackpad, speakers, and overall build and design. The reviews also provide benchmarks comparisons with comparable machines, so you can gauge each notebook’s relative speed and performance. A list of pros and cons and various photos of the laptop supplement each review.

Looking to buy a laptop? Here NotebookReview can help you compare and narrow down the wide range of choices available. You can scan particular product categories, including business notebooks, multimedia notebooks, gaming notebooks, and general purpose machines. Alternatively, you can narrow the search by manufacturer, model, price, and category. For example, if you’re looking for a Lenovo (News - Alert) machine running a Core 2 Duo processor and costing less than $1500, you can enter just those parameters.

In return, the site displays a list of laptops matching your criteria. Clicking on any laptop displays a quick description, price, and a link to the vendor’s Website where you can purchase the machine. You can tag (News - Alert) multiple machines in order to compare them side by side. Those of you shopping for a notebook can also view various deals and coupon codes that can shave off the price of a new machine.

Finally, NotebookReview offers a wide array of discussion forums. You can access forums on how to choose a notebook, how to find the right hardware and accessories, and how to work with Windows. You’ll also find separate forums devoted to each manufacturer and the various notebook models offered. As an example, I found a forum devoted to the HP Envy 14, a laptop that I use. Though the Envy 14 is a good machine overall, it does have its share of quirks. But by following some of the advice dispensed in the forum, I’ve been able to work my way around most of the quirks.

Along with NotebookReview, TechTarget runs several sister sites, including DesktopReview, TabletPCReview, and PrinterComparison, all of them devoted to helping people find and manage the right hardware, either for themselves or for their organizations.


Lance Whitney is a journalist, IT consultant, and Web Developer with almost 20 years of experience in the IT world. To read more of Lance's articles, please visit his columnist page

Edited by Tammy Wolf
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