The best looking notebook, period.

Idea here is simple:

What is your personal favorite look to a notebook?

I've gotta say, the Sony Vaio Z2 in gold, pictures found here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...c-z2-vaio-z-2011-series-owners-thread-10.html

Only design I like over the Titanium PowerBook G4.

 

This one, period
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ack-nebula-red-lunar-silver-nvidia-green.html

 

Being an ASUS guy I have to vote for ASUS-Automobili Lamborghini VX7, the only decision here Black or Orange!

 

I have a soft spot for the polycarbonate unibody MacBooks.

 

A good looking notebook has a 16:10 matte screen or less and a surface that neither attracts finger prints nor is able to replace my bathroom mirror.
That would be all I care for if you're only asking for the looks.

 

Anything thinkpad. /thread

 

+1 for Thinkpads, especially the T series

 

I'd have to agree on the Thinkpads. The design is simple, elegant and timeless, but not probably not for the style conscious. I kind of like the Airs too.

 

I like the simple basic but elegant look of the Sager notebooks.

 

Thinkpads. Used to dislike the look, but now I'd adapted to it and love how serious it looks.



As for the ugliest laptops......



Hardware itself is nice, but those lights....They bother me lol.

 

Sony VAIO Z imo is the best looking laptop for me.

 

@privatejarhead you're just jealous
Those lights can be turned off. side note:
AW keyboard > Thinkpad & Sager/Clevo keyboards

 

Keyboards on both are nice. Anything that isn't island-style.

 

I'm certainly not

Alienware design (IMO) looks like it is screaming "OHH look! Im 12 yr old, my parentz just bought me this thing and i can haz gamez all day! My shiny, plastic laptop is soooo awesome, almost as awesome as myself! it's full of shiny things, sooo many lights! buddiez@school are so jealous!!! OMG!!!".

Thinkpads over everything

 

That's hilarious!
It must have been 1999 or 2000. I was on a small LAN party and at that time nobody came there with a laptop because back then they just hadn't the power to keep up with desktops when it came to gaming.
But one guy showed up with a brand new and incredibly expensive Alienware and his attitude was exactly the way you described. In his favour I have to say that this beast was indeed able to play all the games but he forgot to bring an external mouse and CS simply doesn't work well with a touch pad.

 

A Quadro 2000M plays all my games nicely, except for Minecraft (it's slightly laggy at times, but only because the code behind it is terrible).

 

Macbook pro or hp envy.

Sexy machines.

 

Funny thing about Apple products (as I see it) is that because so many people appear to own them (college environment), that they loose this appeal. Apple products are suppose to be different and unique, except now so many people own them that this becomes a moot point. To me, when I see them being used, I think, "There's another slap of metal...and another...another...etc."

 

This is typical for non AW owners..FYI i'm well over 30 and they're made of aluminium also the lights can be turned off. Nowadays you can get one very close to competition's prices.
Also i would like to see the best thinkpad fighting to render or game as a AW does

 

I wouldn't, since they have different markets/uses. Let the AW keep some of the gaming market (competing against Clevo resellers, Dell XPS(?), HP, and Asus, and individual desktop builders), while the Thinkpad is more for business use and having gaming as an afterthought (either via the Quadro 1000M/2000M, or an eGPU). I don't think it's fair to compare apples to oranges here.

However, if there was a Thinkpad W520 with an AMD 6990M in it.....

 

I really enjoy the thinkpad look. I especially liked the look of the X120e before they redesigned it, or rather slaughtered it, and created the X121e.

Funny thing about Apple laptops is yes, they are fairly common now, especially on campuses, but I have never seen anyone else in person that has the Matte option on the 15" MacBook Pro. Whenever I am in the design studio with it out or taking notes in class there have been numerous people asking me why my bezel is aluminum.

Right now, I wouldn't trade my computer for any other one on the market at this point. I love it. And yeah, while Apples aren't as unique as they were when my mother bought her TiBook in 2002, they are still great looking laptops. I don't think there is any doubt to that.

And actually, studying industrial design, I am learning a lot and have noticed that Jonathan Ive has been using some design techniques that the uneducated person doesn't really notice. It's kind of cool.

 

I've always been partial to my old black MacBook. Even when it died on me a few weeks back, I havent been able to throw it away

 

Maybe you could reuse it as a digital photo frame? Just hook up the monitor to a different computer and ta-da

 

I disagree. Although I loved my alienware keyboards I dont think they come close to thinkpad keyboards. But then again keyboard design and feel is purely opinion based.

 

I see it as such:

(Thinkpad <> AW? [both are traditional style, which I love]) > island-style. I haven't seen an AW in real life, so I can't comment on how the keyboard feels.

 

The current lot of AW keyboards are kind of soft, actually. The key response isn't that great, either. I'm constantly re-typing symbols and parenthesis because you have to press a key in so far to get it to register. I'm sure the ThinkPads are better, if they are anything like the old Dell keyboards, before everything went chiclet-style. Large, firm, short-travel keys are great. They were really durable, too. The AW keyboards also suffer from squishyness in the frame/chassis, not just the keys. Push down on a key at the bottom of it's stroke and watch the keyboard sink in another 1/8 of an inch or so.

As for best looking notebook, the current Alienwares win hands down for wild design that isn't hideous. Macs win for clean, simple design, but that's obvious.

I'd like to see a PC push even farther than the Mac though. A "black box" notebook that is just a black rectangle that opens, with the top 1/3 housing the screen and the bottom 2/3 the chassis, but still with vents on bottom and out the back, so it can be slim but not get too warm.

 

The keyboard problems are only present on the newer models (M17x R3, M18x...), older models have great response and no spacing between keys.
The M17x R3 is a joke, I just hope Dell won't ruin the AW name.

 

If Macs win with cleanness by default, wouldn't the Samsung Series 7 and Sony SA win on those same merits as well? Maybe some of the HP Elitebooks too.

 

Agreed. If I had to choose thinkpad keys or AW I would choose thinkpad, but both are great boards. Dell business is up there with thinkpads for me as well.

I didnt notice too much softness with my m17x r2 or my m11x r1. Both had great boards, but lacked a trackpoint.

As for looks I love the AW design and I think the new style looks alot better then previous models. Just my $.02.

 

The Macbook clones might be close, but they still have rough spots in the design, partly because they probably have to so they aren't a direct ripoff.

I think it's a shame that PC manufacturers are too scared to go beyond the Mac design though, if they eliminated the CD drive, speakers, and just had the bare minimum of ports (using adapter plugs to make up for the rest), they could have an even thinner, even cleaner notebook...and it wouldn't be a Mac.

The earlier AWs probably still used the older style traditional keyboards like the earlier Dells. Most everything released in 2010-2011 from Dell/AW seems to have a poor quality keyboard. They're still useable, they just feel cheap and operate like a cheap keyboard does.

I've never understood the trackpoint thing except when it was the predecessor to the trackpad. I'll never get a notebook with one, it seems annoying and would be in the way. It might make for an interesting alternative to the trackpad in ultra-compact notebooks, though.

 

... and even more impractical.
How can you consider eliminating ports in MacBooks as a benefit?

 

+1

I like hooking up plenty of stuff to my laptop. Why be limited to 2 USB2.0 ports?

Here's what I got on my laptop:
2 USB3.0
1USB2.0/powered
Firewire
eSATA/USB2.0
VGA
DisplayPort
Ethernet

I like the wide selection of connection options

 

That's a great idea! Let's eliminate all the unnecessary hardware! And guess what? Such a device already exists:
Media | Raspberry Pi

Now that's thin, right? Sure the casing needs some rework but you won't find something that is more stripped down.

 

I've been looking at buying it just to toy around with it. Maybe if I had a few hundred dollars, I could build a robot and relive my FIRST FRC days?

 

Eliminating the CD-ROM in favor of an external would be the biggest saver of space. As for ports, it'd mainly just be dropping the VGA in favor of using a USB adapter, which is what those with the smaller 11-13" notebooks already do.

As for the rest of the ports, you could have multiple USB ports (2 on each side, 2 on the back, using 1 for eSATA), firewire, HDMI, audio outs, and displayport/ethernet on the rear.

The thing is it seems notebooks seem to be obligated have a certain thickness to include a CD drive and keep taller ports on the sides. Tossing the drive should make it cost less and weigh less, and you can still have all the ports...actually even more USB ports, just using an adapter for VGA if you ever need it.

I don't think I'd go with a Linux OS, but stuff like that does help to show there doesn't need to be so much hardware to have something that works.

I do like large 17-18" notebooks with huge screens, I just don't think they need to be 1-2" thick. I'm just suggesting the concept of a thinner-than-a-macbook notebook with the elimination of the CD drive and VGA port as a way to go about getting the best-looking notebook.

 

why no love for the Dell Adamo 13? Never owned one, but I always thought they looked pretty nice (more so the Onyx color than the Pearl):
AnandTech - Gallery - Dell Adamo 13: CULV Goes Upscale - 13 Photos

Or even the Vostro V130
Vostro V130 Laptop Details | Dell

And finally, the Sony Vaio Premium Carbon Z
VAIO Signature Collection

 

Well, or get a SA. The silver/chrome one I have is really catching on to me (better than the SC's all plastic).

EDIT: though the Z2's style... seen it in person, lovely laptop.

 

Heat is the main problem - this is why notebooks "need to be 1-2" thick", not because of DVD or VGA. Check out those stories of auto downclock on MBPs because they couldn't dissipate the heat. This is how your example of good designed notebook is coping with heat. You can't win with physics.
And yes, I'm using VGA right now, so getting rid of it is not what I would appreciate.

 

Samsung series 7

Also I agree lets get rid of optical drives, can't an external optical drive hook up with an esata cable and get the same speeds.

Also get rid of vga, new HDMI is all people need. All new screens have hdmi, vga is only needed for legacy screens, for people that still use vga, get an adapter.

Also close second to the Samsung series 7, is the unibody macbook pro, and I really like the look of my cheap Thinkpad Edge e420. Dark, simple and professional.

 

Wouldn't USB3.0 (or even 2.0) have the same speeds as an internal drive? I mean, you can only read/write data on a disc to a certain speed before you destroy the disc, right?

 

I have to agree with privatejarhead and HTWingNut:

Simple notebooks like Sager/Clevo/MALIBAL & Thinkpad are just awesome

 

While I agree that a thin body does make it a PITA to cool, it shouldn't make it impossible. Macs are just a very poor example of thermal design, somehow apple got it into their heads that a computer should run completely silently and rarely ever have the fans spin up.

With people proposing to get rid of the optical drive then that leaves you with a lot more space for cooling, which might make up for the thinner form. I have a hunch that's why the razer blade lacks the optical drive.

Also, if this works and doesn't crap when you move it because it's working like a gyroscope then this could prove interesting. http://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-control.cgi/2010/100258.pdf

 

I wouldn't ever buy a mac because i think they are over-priced and OSX blow imo.


But they are simple and nice.

I'd also like to throw this one out:
Google Chromebook CR-48

Simple and sleek.

 

Simple and sleek indeed. Rather not be limited by the web-browser-as-OS though :/.

 

Samsung rc512 has my vote on sexiest, black with aluminum brush ftw!

 

Vaio Z2. Of course, that's IMO

 

Starting back with the Y650 Lenovo has since put out several really good looking notebooks in the IdeaPad line and they're the first I think of when considering style.

Samsung also gets longer than a poke and a peek with the 9 series.

For a larger more powerful looking machine, Dell's Precision M6600 is my pick.

 

-Sony_Vaio_P (last gen, in black -- VPC-P111KX/B)

I have never seen any notebook that is more visually pleasing than that. Smooth lines, matte body finish, good placement of lights and switches...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/698854-REG/Sony_VPCP111KX_B_VAIO_P_VPCP111KX_B_8.html

 

Toshiba Satellites and Thinkpads are best looking for me. The latest VAIO notebooks are no slouch either.

 

m18x....all the way. I can't imagine any laptop looks cooler/awesomeness then alienware.

I liked ASUS but they have only white LED keyboard.