The Ultrabook, a new class of ultraportable laptops defined by Intel, has been making waves lately as the next major step in laptop design. These ultraslim and lightweight laptops promise to combine the conveniences of tablets with the functionality of larger notebooks. If Intel and Ultrabook manufacturers...

It’s a critical time for laptops and the PC in general, with mounting signs that tablets (specifically, the iPad) are cannibalizing laptop sales, and the fact that HP–one of the largest PC makers–may give up on the consumer PC business altogether. But the laptop isn’t down and out, thanks to...

The good: The affordable Toshiba Satellite P745D-S4240 has better-than-average hard-drive space and RAM for its price, and decent graphics performance thanks to the AMD A6 processor. High-quality Harman Kardon speakers and USB 3.0/Bluetooth are also included. The bad: The AMD A6 APU is slower than...

The good: The Toshiba Qosmio F755-3D290 offers surprisingly good glasses-free 3D video playback, built into a decent high-end midsize laptop, with eye-tracking software to adjust the image on the fly. The bad: The 3D effect works best for a single viewer, and can still be finicky at times. Games and online...

Ultrabooks, a new laptop category introduced by Intel, are the computers of the future. They’re less than .8 inches thick and lighter than 3 pounds, and anyone who has used one will tell you it’s hard to go back to a heavy, boxy, full-sized laptop. The svelte new models don’t appear to want for...