The Maingear Nomad 17

What you should know: 
The Maingear Nomad 17 starts at $1,579, but our tricked-out configuration came in at $2,099, and included an Intel Core i7-3740QM CPU and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M GPU. By way of comparison, a nearly identically configured Origin Eon17-S laptop comes out to just about the same price (with one year of warranty coverage for each).
This is not a sexy laptop. Despite the glossy red lid and the brushed-metal accents, it screams mid-'00s.
One bright spot is that the Nomad 17's top lid comes with your choice of colors, all done in automotive paint the company says uses "the exact same materials found on supercars around the world from Ferrari, Porsche, and others," at no extra charge.

Price: $2,099 / $1,579

Processor: 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-3820QM

Memory: 8GB, 1,600MHz DDR3

Hard drive: 750GB 7,200rpm

Chipset: Intel HM77GraphicsNvidia GeForce GTX 680M / Intel HD4000

Operating system: Windows 8

Dimensions: (WD)11.4x16.9 inchesHeight2.1 inches

Screen size: (diagonal)17.3 inches

System weight / Weight with AC adapter: 8.4 pounds / 10.7 pounds

Category: Desktop replacement

What it offers: 
A hefty investment if nicely configured, the Maingear Nomad 17 delivers for serious gaming, although the look may not be for everyone.The keys are deep and widely spaced, making them good for PC gaming, where many games rely on not only the WASD keys for control, but also the spacebar and left Shift and Ctrl buttons. The large touch pad is a decent size for a desktop-replacement laptop, but it is an older-style pad, with separate left and right mouse buttons, rather than the buttonless clickpad design seen in so many current laptops.

The advantage: 
The Maingear Nomad 17 offers fast performance and deep configuration options, and Maingear has a great rep for support.
The unfavorable: 
A $2,000 laptop really needs a better keyboard and touch pad, and a less generic body.



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The House of Marley's Smile Jamaica

What you should know.. 
The fact that these headphones are around $30. The headphones use sapele, which is a sustainable African wood used also in the manufacture of guitars. The headphone is capped by an aluminum piece (red in the case of the Rasta version), which holds the driver and ear bud in place

What it offers.. 
Like many celebrity-endorsed headphones, the House of Marley Smile Jamaica has a bass-heavy response, but an excellent price and build elevate it above its peers.

The benefits. 
The headphones feature a microphone/single-button remote on the left earphone, and making calls and starting/stopping tracks was a breeze. Unlike the Stir It Up headphones, the cable is quite micro phonic transmitting noise into your eardrums when moving against your face or clothing.

The advantage: 
The House of Marley Smile Jamaica headphones feature amazing build quality for a very small price. The bass response is full without becoming "one note" or bloated. The features are well-thought-out with a one-button mic remote, which works for iOS and Android and a fabric wrapped cord.

The unfavorable: 
The bass can unduly dominate rock music or pop music. Other headphones have greater sparkle or detail. The cable can be micro phonic.

The price:
$22.49




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The Toshiba Satellite U845W-S430

What you should know.. 
The Toshiba Satellite U845W, an ultra-wide-screen ultrabook boasted a funky 21:9 aspect ratio, 1,792x768-pixel display crammed into a long, slim laptop. The U845W-S430 is that very same laptop, for the most part, with Windows 8 added.

What it offers.. 
Toshiba's experimental extra-wide-screen ultrabook gets a Windows 8 software upgrade, but it turns the Toshiba Satellite U845W into a computer imperfectly matched for what Windows 8 has to offer.
Toshiba offers a split-screen utility for auto-snapping apps to fill part of the screen, but the uses for this service are limited. I preferred stretching out windows myself to fit the content.

The benefits. 
The 14-inch 1,792x768-pixel display amounts to a lot more pixel resolution than your average laptop, arranged in a very odd, super-stretched way. It's a clever idea in some ways: you could watch a movie with no letterboxing, theoretically, or even look at full Web pages and documents side-by-side with relative ease.

The advantage: 
The wide-screen Toshiba Satellite U845W-S430 has an extra-long, higher-resolution screen, Harman Kardon speakers that pack a punch, and an attractive, compact design with plenty of ports.

The unfavorable: 
The keyboard and touch pad are uncomfortable, the wide screen isn't a perfect marriage with Windows 8, and the screen doesn't always play nicely with all streaming video content.



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The Toshiba 40E220U

What you should know.. 
The Toshiba 40E220U is a sub-$500 television with a lot to offer the bargain-minded consumer. It has fairly deep black levels, a better selection of inputs than most competitors, and rich, vibrant colors. Image processing is quite good, with a crisp picture and very good off-axis performance.

What it offers.. 
The Toshiba 40E220U is a value-for-money television offering decent contrast and bright, vivid colors.

The benefits. 
Unlike the smaller 32C120U, the 40E220U has a full 1080p screen resolution, but there's no further added functionality beyond that TV's fairly basic feature set. If you're interested in multimedia playback, though, the Toshiba can play back JPEG images and MP3 tunes via the USB port.

The advantage: 
The Toshiba 40E220U features crisp images with a decent amount of contrast. The TV offers a good value and is one of the better units under $500. Colors are well-saturated.

The unfavorable: 
The TV shows uniformity problems and some of the colors are inaccurate. Shadow detail is lacking compared with the cheaper TCL P60.

The price:
$377.00



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The Acer Aspire 7600U

What you should know.. 
Acer deserves some credit for the look of the Aspire 7600U. The system mostly has a clean and tidy appearance, with a familiar edge-to-edge display framed in glossy black plastic. The chromed plastic trim is clean enough, and the ports on the back sit neatly under a straight-lined overhang. Even the power cable received some attention, connecting directly into the chromed kickstand.

What it offers.. 
The computing components and a dominant high-end all-in-one from Dell hurt Acer's high-end, visually compelling Aspire 7600U.
The benefits:
When you compare the Acer with the Dell. With respect to the other PCs in our charts, the Acer is the third most expensive all-in-one, behind the XPS One 27 and the $1,999 27-inch 2011 iMac, but only a middle-of-the-pack performer.

The advantage: 
Acer's new attention to look-and-feel shows in the Aspire 7600's clean appearance and responsive touch input.
The unfavorable: 
The Aspire misses on price vs. performance, and Dell's 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution XPS One 27 makes 1,920x1,080-pixel screens like this one feel pedestrian.

Comparing with other brand

	Acer Aspire 7600U	Dell XPS One 27	Apple iMac 27-inch (spring 2011)
Price (at time of review)	$1,899	$2,299	$1,999
Display size/resolution	27-inch, 1,920x1,080	27-inch, 2,560x1,440	27-inch, 2,560x1,440
CPU	2.5GHz Intel Core i5 3210M	3.1GHz Intel Core i7 3770S	3.1GHz Intel Core i5 2400
Memory	8GB 1,333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM	8GB 1,600MHZ DDR3 SDRAM	4GB 1,333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM
Graphics	768MB Nvidia Geforce GT 640M	2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 640M	1GB AMD Radeon HD 6970M
Hard drives	1TB, 5,400rpm	2TB, 7,200rpm	1TB, 7,200rpm
Operating system	Windows 8 (64-bit)	Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)	Apple OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.7

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The Sony Alpha NEX-5R

What you should know:
Little has changed the kit lens still sports the close to de-facto 18-55mm range, equivalent to 27-82.5mm on a regular 35mm camera. Maximum aperture at wide angle is F/3.5, and at full telephoto it's F/5.6, with minimum aperture ranging from F/22 to F/32 depending on the level of zoom -- a very decent range. Zooming is fully manual, although there's a powered lens if you prefer, and you can take focus in hand, too, with a manual focus ring at the front of the barrel.
The NEX-5R can act as a password-protected wireless hotspot to which you can connect an Android or iOS device to download your images directly.
What it offers:
The two most compelling features however -- Bracket Pro and Multi Frame Noise Reduction -- each cost £3.99. Bracket Pro lets you bracket photos by shutter speed, aperture, focus or flash, and Multi Frame Noise Reduction, which features on the high-end Alpha SLT cameras, lets you shoot several images in low light which are then combined to create a high sensitivity equivalent image with low noise.

The benefits. 
The NEX-5R is one of those cameras that's great fun to use, and really encourages you to head out and take more shots. Build quality is excellent, the built-in features are great.
It does have the edge on the Samsung NX210 -- just -- in terms of human interface and usability, and it boasts a wider range of native lenses, too. By the end of November there will be 11 E-mount lenses to choose from. The Samsung NX system currently comprises six lenses, plus three hoods and adaptors, the latter of which do open up access to Pentax K-mount accessories.

The price:
The NEX-5R is considerably more expensive at around £600 to £670, depending on where you shop -- a price that represents a 20 per cent hike on that of an NX210. That difference is significant, and may sway your hand when it comes to making a choice.

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