Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Peer into the future, without the crystal ball

We kicked off 2012 by visiting not-so-beautiful Las Vegas to attend CES, with the hope of getting a head start on the exciting new products that will launch over the coming year. While we’ll continue to highlight gadgets revealed there on a regular basis, one of the best parts about being on the ground at [...]

Drive-in? Try Fly-in.

GEAR PATROL SPONSORED POST As much as we love our home theaters, they don’t exactly pack well. So, in this second part of the My Life on the Go series we decided to test the ASUS U46E’s prowess at handling one of our favorite off-hour diversions — movies.

Spreadsheets no more

GEAR PATROL SPONSORED POST It’s no secret computers are just as much a tool for serving personal expression as they are tools for business — sometimes the two being one in the same. Recently, we’ve been spending time with the ultra-portable ASUS U46E ($850) laptop to evaluate just how the next generation of Intel-powered laptops [...]

Thin Wins

The design of Dell’s new XPS 15z laptop ($999+) may seem familiar to Mac fans, but it’s still a welcome offering to P.C. users overwhelmed by cheap plastic. Touted by Dell as the “thinnest 15.6-inch laptop in existence”, the XPS 15z measures a willowy 0.97 in. thick while still packing plenty of firepower under its [...]

Slaying the daily grind

A horde of tablets may want your casual digital attention like Hasselhoff wants a cheeseburger, but for those who still require a laptop for more than the occasional Youtube stream, Dell’s new Precision M4600 & M6600 workstations should be the beezneez. In their most ferocious forms, both models can sport an Intel Core i7 Quad [...]

Keep Your Doritos Fingers Away

The Acer Iconia-6120 14-Inch Dual-Screen Touchbook ($1,200) is the latest iteration of a budding computing form factor that wants to walk the line between tablets and laptops. Unlike the petite Toshiba Libretto W100, this king of the Iconia series sports two 14-inch Gorilla Glass touch panels that provide plenty of real estate for all manner [...]

Part Netbook, Part Tablet, All Sexy

Love the idea of a tablet, but can’t bear to part with your keyboard? Well, Dell has heard your plea and developed the “convertible” Inspiron Duo ($550) netbook in the hopes of bringing you the best of both worlds.

Macbook Heir

Well the folks at Engadget leaked it some time back, but now it’s official. The MacBook Air has received a much-needed update and emerged as the new belle of the laptop ball.

Netbook Form Factor, iPad Style Input

Conceptual gadgets with a serious potential to join the legions of other vaporware devices circulating online is typically something we try to avoid covering. In some cases though, the teased device is just too gadgetastic to ignore. Case in the point is the Toshiba Libretto W100 ($1,100). Promised by Toshiba to hit shelves in August [...]

Type & Touch

HP was one of the first PC manufacturers to embrace touch interaction through their Touch Smart All-In-One desktops, and today they showed a further desire to integrate it in notebooks as well. Revamped with a new etched metal casing option similar to the HP Envy, the dv6 is clearly meant to serve as multimedia machine. [...]

Packing an Optical Drive Despite Being Tiny

The Gateway brand may not hold the clout it once did, but by releasing the EC14DO7U, the company has still shown they can create computers with wide consumer appeal. Measuring 11.6-inches with a screen resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, this tiny P.C. still manages to include an optical drive and can easily double as [...]

A Capable Offering from a Computing Unknown

ViewSonic may not be a household name in the world of computing, but that shouldn’t distract buyers from seriously considering the company’s first 13-inch laptop. Called the ViewBook Pro (clearly copying Apple), the laptop’s body is made of an aluminum alloy chassis that tapers to a point along the front edge. Just 1 inch thick [...]

Entry Level for Apple, But Solid None the Less

Updated in the fall of 2009, Apple’s entry-level MacBook packs a bevy of worth while features that make it a promising computer for those uninterested in PCs and with no need for the more powerful MacBook Pro line. Squeaking in just below the $1,000 price point, the white polycarbonate MacBook now features Apple’s new unibody [...]

Between Netbooks & the Ultra Portable Elite

Co-branding on something like a laptop usually hints at some scheme on the manufacturer’s part to up the price on a base model without adding any value in the specifications department. The Acer Ferrari One, however, is an exception that fits somewhere between a high-powered netbook and a low-powered ultra portable. Weighing 3.3 pounds and [...]

A Good Option for Gamers on the Go

Typically, when it comes to computers, gaming power and portability just don’t mix. The Alienware M11X bucks this trend by providing decent gaming performance in a relatively small chassis. Measuring 11.6-inches, its screen size is dangerously close to that of most netbooks, but luckily the M11X packs much more under the hood. Featuring an ultra [...]