Spotted first crawling its way through the FCC, then on the floors of CES and most recently at WMC with some LTE inside we're going to go ahead and say the Samsung N150 has earned its new stripes, err rainbow colors. Trying to add some brightness to its well stocked Pine Trail netbook line up, Sammy has gone and painted the $379 10.1-inch N150 in Flamingo Pink, Bermuda Blue and Caribbean Yellow, though kept its internal 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 250GB hard drive and 1GB RAM unprimed. Interestingly, in some countries the netbook has acquired Samsung's affordable mobile phone Corby brand, though here in the U.S. that doesn't seem to be the case. We'd probably just stick with the black hue, but that doesn't mean we couldn't go for some sort of tropical-flavor candy right about now.
It's not Courier, but HP's rumored slate PC is here, now. Steve Ballmer and his hardware specialist Ryan Asdourian just showed it off, and man is it cute. Updated with VIDEO Update:Adrian just spotted this official video: "They're more powerful than a phone and almost as powerful as a PC. Perfect for reading, surfing the web and taking entertainment on the go," said Ballmer at his CES 2010 opening keynote. He says that it will be available this year. HP says they'll provide information on the slate after the keynote, but wouldn't say anything in the meantime. We're calling it a "slate"—well, Microsoft is calling it a slate, to differentiate from the pen-and-screen dealy that Bill Gates intro'd in 2001—but that's not its name. It's a Windows 7 touch device, so it's nice in an accessible, netbooky (yeah, I'm guessing relatively cheap) context. But it's not exactly the Courier we have lusted after from Microsoft in our dreams (and waking hours). Here you can see it in its various modes, movie mode, ebook mode and PC mode: Fun fact: Asdourian, shown above with Ballmer, moonlights as a (or the) Seahawks mascot.
Apple makes some of the most specialized mainstream devices around, but the gear is never very cheap and, let's face it, it stinks for any one company to own your wallet. So here are the best alternatives for each iProduct:
Apple iPhone 3GS ($199) -> Motorola Droid ($199)
When the iPhone was released, it was a generation, at least, beyond the entire smartphone market. Now, many manufacturers have worked hard to catch up. And while the iPhone is still my personal favorite, I understand wanting a phone on the Verizon network rather than AT&T. Besides, the Droid hardware is fantastic, and its software, Android 2.0, feels far more like a full-featured OS than the original. Just as we said in our full review, "It's this simple: If you don't buy an iPhone, buy a Droid."
I know, I know. Why buy a Zune? If you're heavily invested in iTunes albums, the answer is, no reason. But for those who are willing to break from the Apple music infrastructure, the Zune HD is actually an awesome PMP. The aluminum case is very sharp, with an OLED screen that's richer than any iPod (though slightly worse in the sun). The Zune software, coupled with optional unlimited download subscription packages, is every bit as hip and convenient as Cover Flow and iTunes, provided you run Windows. Oh, also, you don't need to drop $300 to get a decent amount of storage and you get HD TV-Out and a not-so-bad TV interface to boot. So when you're sick of the little screen, you can go as big as you'd like.
The obvious contender to the iPod Nano used to be the Zune 16. But now? You can't even get that model of Zune. And with a built-in camcorder, be it a bit on the crappy side, the Nano truly is a unique contender in its space. However, I ask you this: Don't you already have an MP3 player? Seriously, it's not possible that you don't. OK then, just buy the Flip Ultra HD, the best bang for your buck pocket camcorder on the market. And use your old iPod because it probably still works fine.
What you gain:
• HD video
What you lose:
• I mean, it's not an iPod, or any kind of media player, obviously
The new Shuffle is basically nonexistent, a device that, while remarkable in terms of minimalist design, may be a tad difficult to wield when you just want to play that one song you want to hear. Enter the Sansa Clip+, an chunky but still tiny MP3 player lauded by audiophiles (if such a thing is possible) that supports up to 16GB of MicroSD expansion. Save even more money by buying the 2GB version (just $40) and sticking in a spare MicroSD. And as we said in our review, the Clip+ is "the best low-end mp3 player on the market, without question."
No matter what direction you go, you're pretty much always better off not buying an Apple TV. It's basically a closed box that hates supporting not only external codecs but external drives, too, and you can forget about navigating to files on your own network—even ones stored on your precious Time Capsule. The $99 Asus O!Play is our favorite budget way to play media in any codec under the sun, from files on a Mac or PC formatted drive or streamed from pretty much any NAS drive. As for watching movies on demand, chances are, your cable box already does that. Need more options? The LG BD390 is an excellent Wi-Fi-equipped Blu-ray player with Netflix and Vudu video, and DivX support. And heck, I'd even recommend the $199 Xbox 360 as a Netflix/DivX machine with Windows Media Center Extender capabilities. Basically, you can't go wrong here. Everything is better than Apple TV, unless you have a library full of purchased iTunes music and movies, and if you do, you probably have Apple TV already, so go enjoy it.
What you gain:
• Mega codec support
• Ability to stream your video files from computers and NAS drives
• Cash in your pocket
What you lose:
• The iTunes video ball and chain
MacBook ($999) -> Dell Studio 14z ($750)
As Mark Spoonauer said in our best Windows laptop roundup, "Think of it as the poor man's MacBook-with better specs." No, the Dell Studio 14z doesn't run OS X, but the Core 2 Duo laptop weighs .3lbs lighter than a MacBook while offering 1GB more RAM (base), 70GB more storage, a backlit keyboard and nicer built-in speakers.
I'm not sure anyone should actually choose the 13-inch Envy (full review) over the 13-inch MacBook Pro (full review), but the Envy is the closest knock-off on the market. For the $500 Envy premium, you do shed .8lbs off the MacBook Pro, coming in at just 3.7lbs (which is crazy-light for a laptop of this size). And you'll score an extra GB of RAM along with a more powerful, discrete Radeon HD 4330 graphics. But we're still talking about $500 extra for a computer that, ultimately, doesn't feel as solid as a unibody Mac. Plus, if you really want to run Win 7, that plays just fine on the MBP, too. As for the MBP 15, there's really no ideal alternative. And if you were considering the 15-inch Envy, think again.
The latest iMac (full review) is a beautiful machine, no doubt. But there are alternatives to this famed all-in-one. Our favorite is the HP TouchSmart 600 (full review), which is sort of the souped-up Civic to Apple's classic Porsche. Both will do a quarter mile in the same time—with Core 2 Duo processors—but the TouchSmart has the shiny detailing and LED underlighting of a street racer, while sprucing up the package with a decent touch display coupled with special Twitter, Facebook and even recipe box apps designed for the system. Especially as a kitchen computer, the HP TouchSmart is a valid alternative to the iMac.
What you gain:
• Larger, touchscreen
• Glitzy accents with customizable LED underlighting
There's only one laptop on the market that can confidently purge alongside the MacBook Air, and that's the Dell Adamo XPS. While the price premium seems absurd at first, keep in mind that the Adamo XPS, at about half the thickness of the Air, is loaded with a 128GB flash drive and 4GB of RAM stock (while the MacBook Air will run $1800 in a similar SSD configuration and maxed at 2GB of RAM). If you're considering an Air, you want a computer that says "I'm good at spending money." And the Adamo XPS will most certainly fulfill that need.
What you gain:
• 1 USB port
• Ethernet jack
• 2GB of RAM
• A clasp that opens from the heat of your finger
What you lose:
• OS X
• About $500
Mac Mini ($600) -> Acer AspireRevo R3610 ($330)
If I had the choice between a Mac Mini (full review) and the AspireRevo R3610—spending someone else's money—I would still choose the Revo for its HTPC prowess. The Mac Mini has always been a promising system falling just short of its potential in terms of both price and performance. Meanwhile, the absurdly cheap Revo, equipped with Ion tech that's more than happy to handle 1080p video outputted to your TV through HDMI (as opposed to Apple's need for funky wiring and/or hard-to-find specialized adapters), is kind enough to include 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, HDMI, eSATA, VGA, 6 USB ports, card reader, wireless-N and a wireless keyboard and mouse for roughly half the price of a Mini. The only thing the Revo isn't optimal for is browsing Flash pages, that is, until we finally see an update that makes Ions and Flash play well together.
What you gain:
• HDMI out
• 1 USB port
• eSATA port
• Wireless keyboard and mouse
• Like $300
What you lose:
• OS X
• FireWire
Time Capsule (1TB, $299) -> D-Link DIR-685 (Expandable, $215)
The convenience of a Time Capsule, a combination wireless router and NAS, is tough to beat because it's so unique. But I wouldn't call the task impossible. The D-Link DIR-685 (full review) is a wireless-N router with a range that's competitive with Apple's own AirPort Extreme. You choose your storage capacity by sticking in your own 2.5-inch drive. Oh, plus it's a photo frame, BitTorrent downloader, iTunes server, FTP server, network file sharing with user management and even a UPnP streamer to video players. The only thing it isn't? Time Machine compliant. I know, I know. If you're willing to part with the built-in router, however, then another excellent choice is the Iomega Ix2-200 NAS (full review)—and that is Time Machine capable.
What you gain:
• Swappable storage
• Tons of advanced networking features
• BitTorrent downloading
• Media flexibility
• Digital photo frame
What you lose:
• Time Machine support (if this is a problem, check out Iomega's alternative)
There is one reason you want to buy a Mac Pro, and that's for OS X. So I'm not going to waste time by pretending there's any suitable alternative by someone like Dell or HP. Your best bet is to build a Hackintosh, a custom PC with a bootlegged OS X. Just keep in mind, you won't be able to build this system like any old Windows PC—you'll need to follow a guide with pretested hardware to construct something you can be sure will work. Luckily, such a guide is available, built by our friends from Lifehacker (see it here).
What you gain:
• Literally, thousands of dollars
• Gaudy case mods
What you lose:
• Peace of mind (there's always the slight chance of Hackintosh deactivation)
• Easy component upgrades
It was inevitable that Apple would take their unibody manufacturing prowess from their MacBook Pros and focus it on the MacBook line. We just never expected the new MacBook to be as enticing as the 13-inch Pro.
It's Basically a White Macbook Pro
To illustrate just how good the internals are on the MacBook, just compare them to the current base 13-inch MacBook Pro. Both have a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo with a 3MB L2 cache, a 1066 MHz frontside bus and a 2GB default RAM. They also have a really similar LED backlit display, which eliminates the problem of narrowed viewing angles that we docked the first generation unibody MacBooks for, and both now have the same contrast ratio. The only difference is that the Pro has a 60% greater color gamut.
The new body
The rounded edges and a reduced number of seams make the new MacBook appear to be a flattened marshmallow. A glossy, rubber-bottomed marshmallow. It's an immediately more appealing shape than the previous generation of white MacBooks, marking the end of the transition of Apple laptops to unibody construction. That rubber bottom is also pretty satisfying, both in the fact that it grips surfaces better to not slide around, and because it's a more thigh-friendly material when the machine heats up. The whole body is more solid, thanks to an aluminum sheet and some more structural supports found in the teardown.
Otherwise, there are many other small design changes you'll appreciate. The trackpad is now the standard glass multitouch type found on the Pros, the screen has a more prominent bezel and the iSight is circular instead of square. Keyboard layout is the same, but on-key shortcuts have been updated to the latest standards. It also comes with Apple's new 60W power adapter, which has a tip that looks more like the MacBook Air than any of the previous chargers.
In general, the build quality is more solid and more "Pro" than ever before, despite the material being polycarbonate instead of aluminum. It's like trading up from a Toyota Yaris to a Camry—not luxury, but it's a noticeable difference.
Benchmarks and Battery Life
Comparing the 13-inch aluminum unibody MacBook of 2008 to the 13-inch aluminum unibody MacBook Pro to the 13-inch MacBook now shows that there really isn't a big difference between the three models. The small discrepancies fall inside the margin of error, and some change can probably be attributed to the fact that the first two machines were running Leopard, whereas the machine we have now is running Snow Leopard.
Point is, this MacBook isn't really that much faster or slower than the one last year.
Just as the transition to non-replaceable batteries increased MacBook Pro runtime, so too has the transition benefited the Macbook. Except for the fact that there's no external battery display on this unit for some reason, and that there's no infrared port for Apple Remotes.
The new MacBook ran 4 hours and 12 minutes, longer than the two most recent MacBook Pros, using the same metrics as we did before: Wi-Fi on, keyboard backlight on low, non-stop H.264 movie playback. In real-world circumstances, that battery life can only get better. Our testing is processor-intensive.
What's also interesting, according to the teardown, is that the battery is only 60 watt-hours vs. 55 on the old one, yet it gets a lot more battery life. This is probably due to internal optimizations that Apple made, not just because there's a fatter battery.
Some new problems
• A consequence of having an improved, unibody construction is that you can no longer replace the battery yourself. It also means that native battery life will be longer, as demonstrated in the testing above. In fact, unlike Pro machines where people really do want to swap batteries for extended field use, an improved internal battery will serve regular users much better.
• For some reason, Apple decided to make the entire area surrounding the keyboard as glossy as the outer shell, meaning that your wrists have a more sticky feel when you're typing. It's not a huge deal, but it is less usable when compared to previous generations or the MacBook Pro line.
• Again, like the Magic Mouse, the white polycarbonate (plastic) will get scratched easily, and will show scratches if you look at it from a certain angle. It doesn't diminish performance, but it is annoying if you're anal about your stuff.
Where does that leave us?
Right now is the brief window in time when MacBooks just got bumped up in specs to match the low-end MacBook Pros, in order for the MacBook Pros to have room to grow without leaving the entry-level machines too far behind. If you're in the market for a MacBook, this could be the best time for you to buy and feel good about your purchase, knowing that you'll get the same performance as a machine that costs $200 more.
But keep in mind, this development basically implies that the MacBook Pros will be getting the Core i5 and i7 processors some time in the next year.
The unibody construction was an inevitable upgrade to the MacBook line, and one that brings many more benefits than it does faults. There shou
ldn't be a drastic change in the MacBook design any time soon, so now is probably the furthest away from the next generation as you're going to get. [App
Polycarbonate unibody construction looks, feels great
Has just about the same specs as the 13-inch MacBook Pro, so you're getting a good deal
Finally get Pro stuff like the multitouch glass trackpad
Glossy wrist area is slightly too sticky
Can't swap out batteries, but you do get longer life in return
Mac Mini ($600) -> Acer AspireRevo R3610 ($330)
Otherwise, there are many other small design changes you'll appreciate. The trackpad is now the standard glass multitouch type found on the Pros, the screen has a more prominent bezel and the iSight is circular instead of square. Keyboard layout is the same, but on-key shortcuts have been updated to the latest standards. It also comes with Apple's new 60W power adapter, which has a tip that looks more like the MacBook Air than any of the previous chargers.
In general, the build quality is more solid and more "Pro" than ever before, despite the material being polycarbonate instead of aluminum. It's like trading up from a Toyota Yaris to a Camry—not luxury, but it's a noticeable difference.
Comparing the 13-inch aluminum unibody MacBook of 2008 to the 13-inch aluminum unibody MacBook Pro to the 13-inch MacBook now shows that there really isn't a big difference between the three models. The small discrepancies fall inside the margin of error, and some change can probably be attributed to the fact that the first two machines were running Leopard, whereas the machine we have now is running Snow Leopard.
Just as the transition to non-replaceable batteries 
Polycarbonate unibody construction looks, feels great
Glossy wrist area is slightly too sticky
Firewire port is gone