December 15th, 2009

Review: Viliv S7 Premium

True story: About two months back I was walking through my house with the then-new Viliv S7 convertible netbook. I started babbling to my wife while she was tending to the kids about how much I loved this little netbook. Even though she clearly couldn’t care less, I went on to proclaim that if Apple would have gotten in on the netbook craze, its model probably would have been something a… → Read More

December 9th, 2009

New 11.6-inch Acer Ferrari One notebook gets dual-core AMD

Acer has updated its line of Ferrari-inspired notebooks with the newest Ferrari One model. This time around we’re greeted with an 11.6-inch screen, dual-core AMD Athlon CPU, 4GB of RAM, and ATI HD 3200 graphics stuffed into a body that weighs less than 3.5 pounds. → Read More

November 30th, 2009

Review: 2TB G-Drive External Hard Drive

The G-Drive external hard drive line has been out for a bit now. But the latest model is loaded with the Hitachi 2TB 7200RPM 3.5-inch hard drive, which means I had to check it out. Let’s just say, this boy is big, bad, and fast. → Read More

November 25th, 2009

The 5 Rules of Black Friday

Black Friday is almost here. It’s a great time to score some deals, but don’t go at it willy-nilly. Follow these 5 simple Black Friday rules to avoid the scams and wasting time. → Read More

November 24th, 2009

iFixIt Announces Answers: Do Not Return Product to Store

Our buddy Kyle at iFixIt.com has just announced a beta version of iFixIt Answers, a collaborative repair community for gadgets. It might be a great resource for friends and family who can’t figure out how to work the TV remote. How does it work? You ask a question on Answers and then can follow as folks help out and answer your questions. This also creates a database of answers for multiple… → Read More

November 23rd, 2009

A storm is brewing at Best Buy

Here it comes: Best Buy ran a national Black Friday ad inviting the world to celebrate Thanksgiving and Eid Al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice. Fair enough, right? Happy Eid! Well, take a gander at the ad up there and brace yourself. Look closely. You’ll probably miss the good will and wishes, they’re so innocuous. → Read More

November 20th, 2009

Review: ReTrak Universal 90W Notebook Wall Charger

Short Version: A universal notebook adapter with retractable cabling that extends to almost ten feet in length, comes with nine adapter tips, and features two USB charging ports. → Read More

November 18th, 2009

MSI launches 21.5-inch Wind Top AE2220: 1080p and multi-touch starting at $750

Ooh la la, this looks to be an interesting machine right here. Starting at $750, MSI’s latest “Wind Top” all-in-one features a big 21.5-inch 1920×1080 multi-touch LCD, NVIDIA ION graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium, and a wireless mouse and keyboard set. → Read More

November 16th, 2009

Gift Guide 2009: Netbooks

[tab:Intro][flagallery gid=3 name="CrunchGear Gift Guide 2009"] The Year of the Netbook. That’s 2009. You can’t walk into a consumer electronics store without seeing netbooks everywhere. Actually you can’t really walk into a consumer electronics store, period, since they’re closing up faster than costume shops the day after Halloween. But that’s another story for another… → Read More

November 12th, 2009

Review: BFG Deimos

Short Version: The Deimos is the latest addition to BFG’s new line of computers. Intended as specialist gaming machine, the Deimos is big, beautiful, and very fast. Heat, bulk, and short battery life are to be expected from a gaming laptop, and aside from those it provides an excellent experience. → Read More

November 6th, 2009

Review: HP MediaSmart Server EX495

Short Version: HP sure knows how to make a Windows Home Server. The company has been at it for years now and the latest model does just about everything better than the previous models. That’s how it’s suppose to be. → Read More

October 20th, 2009

Review: Apple MacBook [UPDATE]

For weeks – months even – analysts have been telling Apple to make a netbook for the masses, a $299 junker designed for those who surf the web on the couch, their Cheeto-stained hands scrabbling for the TiVo remote while they incessantly refresh Reddit and hope against hope that their Craigslist Missed Connection emails them back. The Air, they said, was too expensive, designed for the… → Read More

October 2nd, 2009

Review: HP Envy 13

Comparisons have been made by the nattering nabobs of Appleism that the HP Envy 13 is just a knock-off of the Macbook Pro 13-inch. This is the cowards way out and I shan’t stand for it. I will look at HP’s latest notebook – don’t call it a netbook! – as a harbinger of things to come. The Envy 13 reflects a few trends in Windows hardware. First, consumers are realizing… → Read More

September 28th, 2009

Review: MSI X-Slim X600

The MSI X-Slim X600 tries so hard – so very hard – to be a full-size, Windows MacBook Air. It has the looks, it has the specs, hell, it even has the same shape. But one huge flaw keeps will keep it from becoming the de facto slim Windows notebook: the trackpad. It’s that bad. → Read More

September 25th, 2009

Review: Alienware M17x gaming laptop

Short Version: Billed by Alienware as “the most powerful laptop in the universe,” the M17x is simply an amazing piece of hardware. It combines the latest in hardware with an extremely high-quality finish to create a laptop that is incredibly fast and well-designed. Unfortunately, it also might be the most expensive laptop in the universe. → Read More

September 25th, 2009

Review: Averatec N3400 notebook

The Averatec N3400 is an ultraportable notebook with a 13-inch screen, “aluminum-clad” shell, external DVD burner, and 3.8-pound body weight. Priced at $799, it’s got a lot to offer. → Read More

August 17th, 2009

Preview Review: Snow Leopard (10A432)

We’re a few weeks away from the official release of Snow Leopard and I’m here to tell you things are really heating up in the realm of Exchange Support, OpenCL, and being able to click on an icon to make all of its windows appear.

Sorry. I’m just a crank. Every time Apple comes out with a new version of OS X I expect bells, whistles, and dancing dogs. This is an incremental upgrade, as we… → Read More

August 6th, 2009

Review: Lenovo IdeaPad S12 netbook with VIA Nano CPU

Quick Version: The Lenovo IdeaPad S12 represents one of the first netbooks to feature VIA’s Nano platform as a configuration option. You’ll gain some extra horsepower over Intel’s Atom setup while saving about $70 off the total system price, making the Nano a good option for those of you who want to watch 720p video. All that power comes at a price, though: decreased battery… → Read More

August 4th, 2009

Review: Gateway NV5214u 15.6-inch notebook

Quick Version: Gateway’s new student-oriented NV series packs a lot of bang for the buck, although the machine is almost too heavy and bulky to function as a truly portable computer. If it’s going to spend most of its time on a desk, though, you get a fully-featured computer at roughly the price of an expensive netbook. → Read More

July 23rd, 2009

Review: Acer Aspire One 751h netbook

Short Version: The $399 Acer Aspire One 751h is an affordable netbook with marathon battery life, a gorgeous screen, and an excellent keyboard. As long as you don’t expect to watch high-quality video clips, this machine makes for a very compelling purchase. → Read More

July 13th, 2009

Video Review: Panasonic CF-30 Toughbook

Panasonic approached us a few weeks ago offering a Toughbook CF-30 to test in any way we saw fit. Rather than a lot of fancy lab tested, we decided to run over the laptop with a Toyota RAV4.

The laptop, surprisingly, survived almost unscathed.

These laptops are huge. The model we received is built like a tank. All of the ports are protected by waterproof flaps and the case itself locks with an… → Read More

July 6th, 2009

Review: Viliv X70 UMPC

The Viliv X70 isn’t the first UMPC, nor is it the most feature-filled. It isn’t the most expensive or cheapest. But I’m willing to bet that it’s one of the most important devices in its class. The X70, and it’s little brother the S5, offer a lot of mobile goodness for a relatively low price. I’ve used the X70 everyday for almost three weeks and I’m more… → Read More

July 1st, 2009

Review: Averatec D1133 18.4-inch All-In-One PC

In a move to offer inexpensive all-in-one computers to consumers, many companies are fitting Intel’s Atom processors into small form factor PCs and selling them for around $500 to $600. Averatec has adopted a similar approach with the D1133 but has instead bumped the CPU up to a dual-core 1.5GHz AMD chip along with ATI Radeon 3200 graphics and then priced the system to move at $599. That… → Read More

June 25th, 2009

Review: Acer easyStore H340

Windows Home Servers are dropping in price and the Acer easyStore H340 is leading the charge; I like that. This server doesn’t offer a lot of extras like the HP MediaSmart line, but it’s amazingly low price outweighs everything else. → Read More

June 18th, 2009

Review and Giveaway: HP LX195 MediaSmart Home Server

Short Version: The LX195 is great back-up solution for both PCs and Macs. It’s a tad overpriced and lacks expandability, but is still a solid Windows Home Server. Oh, and there’s a contest. → Read More

June 15th, 2009

Review: Maingear PC X-Cube 3D

Boutique PC companies have it rough these days, unless they come up with something truly original or compelling, it’s extremely difficult to fight against the bargain brands.

However, for those willing to spend a few extra dollars, some amazing machines are out there. One such brand is MainGear PC, one of the relative newcomers to the game. Maingear recently sent us one of their X-Cube 3D Vision… → Read More

April 23rd, 2009

Review: Alienware M17 notebook

When you hear the name Alienware, most people think of a high-end machine with some funky styling and a premium price. Alienware is trying to shake this image, however, and they are taking a giant step in that direction with the new M17 notebook. → Read More