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Sony laptops generally tend to be particularly good at being two things: big, high-end media experiences, and small, slim executive powerhouses. The new Vaio F and S series laptops, announced today, offer a bit of both for laptop shoppers willing to spend over $1,000.

The 13.3-inch Vaio S series is only .95 inch thick, and also relatively light: just 3.6 pounds, despite having an optical drive. The closest equivalent we can think of is the Toshiba Portege R835. Unlike the Portege, the Vaio S has a higher-resolution display--1,600x900 pixels--and optional discrete graphics. The Vaio S comes … Read more

Fancy a thin ThinkPad? Lenovo's venerable ThinkPad brand may seem from a distance to look the same every year, since lately the interesting changes have been made under the surface lately. It's also a confusing landscape to navigate, even when you know what size you want. Case in point: the ThinkPad X1 and the ThinkPad Edge E220s.

In one sense, they're completely different laptops. The X1 is a full-powered 13-incher, with a serious professional bent and durable construction. The Edge E220s is a smaller, low-voltage laptop, a 12.5-incher with a more reasonable price tag. And yet, … Read more

Especially in an age of iPads and tablets, thin laptops seem to be back on the rise. Emerging into a landscape full of MacBook Airs, Samsung Series 9s, and Toshiba Porteges--to name a few--is Lenovo's corporate take on the thin, sexy 13-incher, the ThinkPad X1. We've played with one for a week now, and have finally emerged with our review of Lenovo's sex(ier) beast.

The ThinkPad X series has been alive and well for years--the x100e and X201 are recent members of the ThinkPad's ultraportable line--but the X1 is a 13.3-incher that's … Read more

Google SSL Web Search is a free extension that lets you change Chrome's default search engine to Google SSL, or encrypted.google.com. Google SSL is a beta release that promises end-to-end Secure Socket Layer encryption between your PC and Google. Encrypted searching keeps your searches private and keeps third parties from observing your searches or corrupting the results. It doesn't guarantee private or anonymous browsing; it merely secures your data transactions with Google, much like your bank's Web site. Google SSL currently supports only Google Web Search, so other tools like Google Images and Google Maps … Read more

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a popular first-person shooter game, and competition among players can be intense. If you're a fan of the game and like to frequently check stats--either your own or other players'--try Battlefield Bad Company 2 Stats. This extension for Google Chrome lets you quickly view the game statistics for any Battlefield: Bad Company 2 player.

Like most Chrome extensions, Battlefield Bad Company 2 Stats installs easily, requiring not even so much as a browser restart. The extension appears as an icon to the right of Chrome's address bar, and clicking on it brings … Read more

Beauty Guide Lite is a free tool that lets you practice applying makeup to images of faces, even your own. It's basically a slimmed-down graphics editor with brushes and palettes optimized for cosmetics. You can undo, save, and print; sample and alter colors; smudge, lighten, and darken; and flip and rotate images. The software supplies faces to practice on, but you can upload your own images, too, and not just pictures of your own face but also friends, family members, even celebrities and historical figures. It's great for teaching young people how to apply makeup, and it gives … Read more

Evernote offers an interesting alternative to bookmarks, sharing, and other less-than-ideal means of saving Web content. It stores Web content permanently in a free online account that lets you access your saved stuff from your PC, laptop, phone, or other device. With the free Evernote Web Clipper extension for Google Chrome you can access your Evernote account from inside Chrome via the address bar. We tried it in Chrome and Chrome Plus, and we liked it a lot in both. But then, Evernote is designed to work with just about anything and everything, and not just Web browsers.

Evernote Web … Read more

As it is an excellent update to last year's Toshiba Portege R705 (one of the most popular laptops we reviewed in 2010), it's no surprise we also liked the new Portege R835 model. We just reviewed the $929 R835-P56X, with a fast Intel Core i5 CPU and outstanding battery life, and awarded it a very rare Editors' Choice designation.

And now, just as it did with the R705, retailer Best Buy has just put an exclusive version of the R835 on sale at a steeply discounted price. The Portege R835-P50X is $749 at Best Buy, while Toshiba lists … Read more

One of our most popular reviews last year was of the 13-inch Toshiba Portege R705, a slim high-end laptop that managed to pack in a solid set of components for around $800. It became one of my go-to recommendations for people who liked the look and feel of MacBooks, but wanted to either spend a few hundred dollars less, or had to stay on Windows.

But in 2011, the still-popular system was hampered by being stuck on Intel's previous processor platform, while newer laptops moved to the latest Core i-series Sandy Bridge chips, which offered both outstanding performance and … Read more