There are many interesting activities that you can do on a computer or on a laptop, such as: watching movies, playing video games, listening to music and so on. And for all of these activities you will definitely need some sound too. So this is why there are all sorts of computer speakers on the market, with all kinds of different shapes, sizes and prices. Usually when you buy a new computer it comes with a set of default speakers. But these are usually very small stereo speakers, that are also weak and don’t offer such a good audio quality. So that’s why many people choose to buy a new set of speakers. And there are a few possibilities to choose from. You can still buy some stereo speakers, but some that are more powerful and sound better. Or you can buy a 2.1 audio system, which is composed out of 2 stereo speakers and also a subwoofer. The subwoofer is usually a larger speaker compared to the other 2, and it is specialized in playing just the low and deep frequencies – in another words, the bass.  So if using a subwoofer you will get a new dimension to your music.

But if you want something even more powerful, then you can choose a surround sound system. There are 2 kinds of them, the 5.1 systems (that have 4 satellite speakers, a subwoofer and a center channel) and also the 7.1 systems (that have the same components, only they have 6 satellite speakers instead of 4). These systems are powerful and they will give you a good sound for music, but they also have the surround technology, which will bring you new and great sensations when playing a video game or watching a movie.

So these were the choices that you can make for computer speakers. But when speaking of the best laptop speakers, none of these solutions will be good. Of course…you can buy a 2.1 and even a 5.1 system and use it with your laptop. But you will be using it only at home, and nowhere else. An audio system like that has a lot of wires and components, the subwoofer is usually big and heavy, and the system  requires a power source to work. So you will definitely not be able to travel with a 5.1 system in your bag, and use it with your laptop wherever you go. So this means that when you are traveling you will need to use just the internal speakers of the laptop, that usually don’t sound so good.

It is known that the biggest advantage of a laptop is its portability, and that’s why you will also need some small and highly portable speakers for your notebook. And there is a solution for you on the market, and these are the USB portable speakers. These are usually really small and light speakers, so that you can easily carry them wherever you are going. Like their name says, they are connecting with the laptop through an USB port. And here comes the great part…this is the only cable they have. This USB cable is both for power and audio signal, so you won’t need to connect the speakers to any other power source, because they will get their power from the laptop. So it means that you can easily use them with your laptop wherever you go, and as long as you have power on your laptop, you will also have power for your speakers.

There are many models of USB speakers on the market, from different producers. Logitech is one of the best producers of computer and some of the best laptop speakers are made by this company. One example of Logitech USB speakers are the V 20 speakers. These will offer you quite a good and rich sound, including a deep bass. They are small and light devices, and they also come with a protective travel case. They have convenient placed controls and they have a total power of 2 watts RMS. So it may not be very much, but still these speakers will sound good, much better than the internal ones from your laptop. They have a frequency response of 70 Hz – 20 kHz, so they will offer a nice sound through all the sound ranges. And their dimensions are: 6.44″ tall x 6.25″ wide x 1.5″ deep (combined).

These were just an example of portable laptop speakers, but of course there are many more other models on the market. If you already used some of them, please tell us more about them…no matter if they are good or bad reviews. Have a nice day!

There are more than 10 different laptop producers and some examples would be: Hewlett Packard, Asus, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, Sony, Fujitsu, Alienware, MSI and Apple. Each of these companies is offering a few series of notebooks, and each series contains many models from where you can choose from. So there are more than 100 different models of notebooks, each one with its characteristics and features. And since there are so many of them, and also many of the companies above are really good ones, no one can tell for sure which is the best laptop in the world.

Since nothing is perfect in this world, there isn’t a perfect laptop either. There are some that are really powerful, but still there is room for more. So now let’s try to find the features needed for the best laptop, and then give some examples of notebooks that have those features. The “heart” of any computer or laptop is the processor, so this is the first feature you need to search for. A good laptop these days has at least an Intel i3 processor, but a better one would be the Intel i5, and the most powerful processor on the market right now for a laptop is the Intel i7. The next feature to consider is the RAM memory. On most of the laptops that have a price above 600 dollars you will find 4 GB of RAM memory, and this is quite good. Most of the laptops that have 4 GB of RAM memory can be optionally expanded to 8 GB, and the biggest default RAM memory that we found so far on a laptop was 6 GB.

So now you have a good processor, a good RAM memory, and your applications will run as smooth as possible. But in order to store all of your files, you will also need a good hard disc. 320 GB is ok for most of the users, but 500 GB will be even better for a powerful laptop. The next feature to consider is the optical drive. Today most of the laptops have a DVD ± RW / CD-RW drive with double layer support. And this is a good one, because you can write DVD-s with up to 8.5 GB of memory. But the latest technology in this domain is the Blu-ray disc, which can have 25 GB of memory or even more. So in order to benefit from this technology you will need to search for a laptop with Blu-ray support, and usually those that cost above 1,000 dollars are offering this feature as default.

A built in webcam with microphone, a wireless connectivity for easier access to the internet and a digital media card reader are found today on most of the laptops, so you don’t need to worry about these features on a good laptop, because it will definitely have them. Also on all the laptops you will find ports like: USB ports, audio ports, VGA ports and others, and usually only the good notebooks offer a HDMI port too. This port can be quite useful in case you have a High Definition TV, and you want to connect your laptop to it, and watch a movie at the best quality.

So now that we seen most of the technical details needed for a really good laptop, let’s give some examples of models that have these features: the Alienware – Laptop with Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Processor – Black, Model: M 17 X-2308 MBK  (that costs 2,299 dollars), the Alienware – M 15 X Laptop with Intel® Core™ i7 Processor – Cosmic Black, Model: M 15 X-722 CSB (that costs 1,999 dollars), the HP – ENVY Laptop with Intel® Core™ i7 Processor – Brushed Aluminum, Model: ENVY 15-1050 NR (that has a price of 1,799 dollars), the Asus – Laptop with Intel ® Core ™ i7 Processor – Black, Model: G 73 JH-RBBX 09 (that costs 1,599 dollars), the Sony – VAIO Laptop with Intel ® Core ™ i5 Processor – VPCS 111 FM/S (1,049 dollars), Dell – Studio Laptop with Intel® Core™ i5 Processor, Model: S 15 Z-3630 CPN (1,049 dollars), the HP – Pavilion Laptop with Intel ® Core ™ i7 Processor – Black, Model: dv 6-2190 us…and some other models too.

Besides all of these models, the laptops produced by Apple are really powerful too. They have most of the features mentioned above, but they usually don’t have a HDMI port or a Blu-ray disc drive (even the most expensive models don’t). So after all there are many powerful, high end laptops on the market, and all you need to have one is a big amount of money (between 1,000 and 2,000 dollars).

If you don’t already know what a laptop is, then you should know it is a personal computer that was made for mobile use and that is small and light enough to sit on a person’s lap (so here where the name “laptop” comes from). It features almost the same components as a desktop PC (for example display screen, keyboard, touchpad – instead of the mouse, and all the other internal components – processor, hard drive, RAM memory and so on), and all of these components are integrated into one small, single unit. For a laptop to be used anywhere, it has a rechargeable battery,  so you won’t always need a power source. Depending on the model of laptop, this  battery can run somewhere between 3-6 hours. The laptops have different dimensions, and usually the overall size of the laptop depends on the size of the display screen. You can find laptops with a screen of 8-10 inch (and these are the smallest ones, also known as netbooks), but you can also find bigger laptops with a screen of 17 inch, and even some models with a 20 inch display screen. The older models of notebooks were quite heavy, but these days the laptops are really light.

Even though many years ago they were considered just a small niche market, dedicated for just some categories of people (for example accountants, sales representatives, people from the military, engineers etc) today they had become really popular. They are becoming quite important for students, for all kinds of business people and also for the general use. Many even prefer to buy a new laptop instead of buying a desktop computer, so that’s why in 2008 and 2009, there were more laptops sold than PC-s in the United States of America. But even though they are so popular these days, a laptop is still more expensive than a desktop computer with the same features. But if you really want to have a laptop, don’t worry because there are some cheaper models too. And for today we’ll discuss about one of the best laptops for under 500 dollars, and we’ll choose the HP – Factory-Refurbished Pavilion Laptop with AMD Athlon ™ Neo Processor – Black, Model: dv 2-1039 wm | SKU: 9677294. And the price for this one is 499 dollars at Best Buy. And for these money it offers quite good features, that are enough for most of the users.

The processor is an AMD Athlon Neo with a speed of 1.6 Ghz. So this is not such a powerful processor compared to the ones found these days with 2 or 4 cores, but the rest of the features are good…you’ll see. The RAM memory offers 4 GB of DDR 2 DIMM memory with 512 kb on die Level 2 while the hard disc offers a very good disc space of 500 GB. The display screen has 12.1 inch in diagonal and it is a WXGA high definition widescreen LED with BrightView technology (with a resolution of 1280 x 800). So it is not such a big screen, but it is not really small either like on a netbook. The optical drive is good too, and it is a Double layer DVD ± RW/ CD-RW, so this way you can have up to 8.5 GB of space on a double layer DVD. It also features a media card reader and the battery is a 6 cell Lithium Ion battery. Unfortunately the battery life is not available and the graphics engine is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD Premium 3410 with a Video Memory of 512MB (dedicated).

Since it is a budget laptop it doesn’t come with a built in webcam, but it has a wireless connectivity (Wireless- A+ B+ G+ N) and also 10/100 Ethernet LAN (with RJ-45 connector).

Its internal speakers are made by Altec Lansing with SRS Premium Sound and it also has 3 USB ports. The pointing device is a Touchpad with on/off button and dedicated vertical scroll up/down pad and it also features a HDMI port, allowing you to connect it to a High Definition TV. It is also Energy Star qualified and comes with an installed version of the Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit with SP1.

So after all it is not a really powerful laptop, but it is not weak either. It can be a great choice for those looking for a cheap laptop, and it can be a good alternative to the smaller netbooks.

Sometimes to make the best deal when buying any kind of product, not just a laptop, you will need to make a lot of research first. Speaking of laptops, there are many companies that are producing them, so many models available, and also many places from where you can buy one. So you will need to consider all of these aspects before deciding on the model you want to buy.

First of all there are many laptop producers, and the best names in the world are: Hewlett Packard, Asus, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, Sony, Fujitsu, MSI and Apple. Each of these companies offers quite good notebooks, so choosing a model from one of them won’t be a mistake. But since each laptop offers different features, or some models offer the same features for different prices you need to be careful and be sure to choose the best and also the cheapest model. And finally, to make the best deal you will need to be careful at the source where you buy the laptop from. Whether you buy it from a local retail store or from the internet, be sure to compare that source with others and choose the best of them. Sometimes the best and cheapest solution would be to buy a refurbished laptop. In case you really want to have one, but you just don’t have enough money for a new laptop, buying a refurbished one can be a good deal if you are careful at the details and price. A site that offers quite good refurbished laptops (along with a 90 day warranty for each model) is www.geeks.com .

Let’s take an example of a good laptop that comes at a good price from this site, for example the Asus F6A- X 2, which has a price of 489 dollars. It may not seem very cheap but when you’ll see the technical details you will notice that they are quite really good, comparable to the ones found on a much more expensive laptop. So here they are:

-Asus F6A- X2 Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz 13.3 inch Widescreen Notebook
-General Features:
-Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit pre-installed w/CoA
-Intel Centrino technology
-Intel Core 2 Duo T 5800 2.0 GHz CPU
-4 GB DDR 2 SDRAM
-250 GB hard drive
-DVD ± RW DL drive
-No floppy drive
-Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X 4500
-Integrated audio with built-in speakers
-Integrated Gigabit Ethernet
-Integrated 802.11 b/g/n Wireless LAN
-Built-in 5 in 1 digital media card reader
-Built-in 1.3 megapixel Webcam and microphone
-Keyboard with TouchPad
-13.3 inch WXGA LCD (1280 x 800)
-Supported Media:
-Secure Digital (SD)
-Memory Stick (MS)
-Memory Stick Pro (MS PRO)
-MultiMedia Card (MMC)
-xD-Picture Card (xD)
-Expansion Slots:
-One (1) ExpressCard/34 slot
-I/O Ports:
-Three (3) USB 2.0
-One (1) eSATA
-One (1) HDMI
-One (1) 15 pin VGA
-One (1) RJ-45 Ethernet jack
-One (1) Microphone jack
-One (1) Headphone jack
-Regulatory Approvals:
-FCC
-cULus Listed
-CE
-C-Tick
-BSMI
-Gost-R
-WEEE
-VCCI
-MIC

Package Includes:

-Asus F6A- X 2 Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz 13.3 inch Widescreen Notebook
-Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit pre-installed w/ CoA
-Power adapter (Input: 100- 240 V~1.6 A, 50/60 Hz, Output: 19 V, 3.42 A)
-6 cell li-ion battery (11.1 V ~ 4800 mAh)
-Power cord

Additional Information:

-Notes:
-Model: F6A-X 2
-P/N: 90 N-SMEABB 32 C 11 KQL0Y
-Product Requirements:
-Available power outlet

So as you can see, the display screen is not so big, but it’s not really small either. It has just the perfect size to offer both portability and a good video quality. But the best features of this laptop are its processor (a Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz processor) and the RAM memory of 4 GB. These are features that can be compared to premium laptops that are much more expensive. And the hard drive is quite good too, and is offering 250 GB of disk space. So enjoy it, and in case you already have this laptop, please share your opinions and comments with us.

The older persons among us have definitely heard before about a Compaq laptop or computer. But if you will ask a teenager, he probably didn’t heard about this company before. The explanation for this fact is that Compaq Computer Corporation it is a company of personal computers founded in 1982, but which was acquired by HP in 2002. So that’s why some years ago you were able to find Compaq laptops, but you can find them anymore today. Of course you can still find some used models, but there aren’t any new Compaq computers made today.

Compaq was founded in 1982 by Rod Canion , Jim Harris and Bill Murto and the name of the company comes from “Compatibility and Quality”. Before it was taken over by HP (for a sum of 25 billion dollars), the company had the headquarters in Texas, United States of America. It produces all sorts of products such as computers, laptops, servers, telecommunications equipment and software.

We just found out that HP is still producing laptops with the brand Compaq, so we correct the affirmation that we made before. And now we’ll discuss about one of the best Compaq laptops, the Compaq – Presario Laptop with Intel® Celeron® Processor – Black

Model: CQ 60-423 DX. This is quite a good laptop, perfect for the day to day computer activities, and quite really cheap. It has a price of 379 dollars, and here is what it has to offer:

-Warranty Terms – Parts  1 year limited
-Warranty Terms – Labor 1 year limited
-Product Height 1.7 ”
-Product Width 14.9 ”
-Product Weight 6.6 lbs.
-Product Depth 9.9 ”
-Color Category Black
-Processor Brand Intel ®
-Processor Intel® Celeron ®
-Processor Speed  2.2 GHz
-Battery Type 6 cell lithium-ion
-Display Type High-definition widescreen with BrightView technology (1366 x 768)
-Screen Size (Measured Diagonally) 15.6 ”
-System Bus 800 MHz
-Cache Memory 1 MB
-System Memory (RAM) 3 GB
-System Memory (RAM) Expandable To 4 GB
-Type of Memory (RAM) DDR 2
-Hard Drive Type SATA (7200 rpm)
-Computer Hard Drive Size 250 GB
-Optical Drive Double-layer DVD ± RW/CD-RW
-Optical Drive Speeds  Drive speeds not specified
-Direct-Disc Labeling Yes
-Digital Media Reader or Slots No
-Graphics Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500 M
-Video Memory Up to 1309 MB total available
-TV Tuner No
-MPEG Yes
-Built-in Webcam No
-Modem 56 Kbps*
*Capable of receiving 56 Kbps downloads. However, current regulations limit download speed to 53 Kbps.
Networking Built-in 10/ 100Base-T Ethernet (RJ 45 connector)

-Wireless Networking Wireless- B+G+N
-Bluetooth-Enabled No
-S-Video Outputs None
-Audio Altec Lansing
-Speakers Internal
-PCMCIA Slots None
-USB 2.0 Ports 3
-IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports None
-Parallel Ports None
-Game Ports  None
-Laptop Weight Standard (more than 5.5 lbs.)
-Battery Life Not available
-Pointing Device Touchpad with on/off button and dedicated vertical scroll up/down pad
-HDMI Output No
-Blu-ray Player No
-Operating System Platform Windows
-Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
-Included Software Microsoft Works; Adobe Reader; Cyberlink DVD Suite and more
-ENERGY STAR Qualified Yes
-BBY Software Installer No

Even though it doesn’t come with a dual core processor like most of the laptops today, the Intel Celeron processor that it has (with 2.2 Ghz) is quite ok for the day to day activities. And besides this the laptop also comes with 3 GB of RAM memory, meaning that you can do almost any activity, for example browse the internet, write documents, listen to music, watch movies etc. The display screen has 15.6 inch in diagonal while the graphics engine is ok too. And another good feature is that it has a Double-layer DVD ± RW/ CD-RW, so this mean that you can have up to 8 GB of disc space. And the laptop even comes with an installed version of Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. So after all it is a good, and quite accessible laptop with a price of just 379 dollars.