A "turbo" button that will crank up your laptop's performance without re-starting? This, Intel and even more inside.
| Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 |
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 Probably our favorite new notebook introduced at CES, Lenovo's IdeaPad Y710 is a significant departure from the company's inherited IBM ThinkPad heritage. With a glossy exterior and a redesigned keyboard space, Lenovo is demonstrating that it is no longer afraid to assert its own brand identity. A couple of cool features on the Y710 include a "turbo" switch that will crank up the clock speed of the CPU (even while the system is in use, according to Lenovo reps); a mini-LCD that displays date, time and battery usage; and unusually large directional buttons to accommodate gamers. While ATI's Mobility Radeon HD2600 probably isn't going to outpace 17-inch gaming notebooks with Nvidia's SLI setup (i.e., two graphics working in tandem), this is still one of the more innovative designs we encountered during the show. Release: January 2008. Price: $1500.
Pros: Turbo button to increase CPU clock speed, mini-LCD display, big directional buttons
Cons: ATI's Mobility Radeon HD2600 only graphics option
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| Alienware Area-51 m15x |
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 Alienware officially unveiled what may be the most powerful 15.4-inch laptop at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Sunday. The new Area-51 m15x, scheduled to be released later this month, not only comes with the kind of monster specs you expect from a high-end gaming rig--Intel Core 2 Extreme CPU, 512MB Nvidia GeForce 8800GTX graphics chip, a 320GB SATA HDD and a Blu-ray optical drive--but may be the first 15.4-inch notebook to offer full 1080p HD resolution. Most of the current 15.4-inch HD notebooks only offer 720p, a full step beneath the current max HD standard. The Area-51 m15x will also offer a binary graphics system that allows you to switch to integrated graphics if you want to extend the battery life. This could easily take the crown as the best 15.4-inch notebook available when it hits the market later this month. Release: January 2008. Price: $3600.
Pros: Full 1080p HD resolution; binary graphics system allows you to switch between integrated and discrete; illuminated keyboard
Cons: May have a price point to match its extraordinary features
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| Dell XPS M1730 Warcraft |
Specs » Gallery » |
 Dell's tricked-out version of the XPS M1730 carries a high price tag -- it starts at $4,500 -- went on sale December 4 but was on display at CES with custom World of Warcraft decals. One of the more popular sites on the CES floor for gamers, this 17-inch desktop replacement is one of the very few laptops to carry AGEIA's PhsyX processor, a special CPU aiming to do what dedicated graphics processors did for the PC industry 15 years ago. While we're not sure this is worth the $1,000 premium over the regular XPS M1730, you can't question the incredible specs on this machine. Release: December 2007. Price: $4900.
Pros: SLI graphics, custom WoW decals, powerful specs
Cons: Super expensive, battery life probably nonexistent
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