" ... I must point out that, even though Christmas towers above you like a red-and-green commercial juggernaut, you need not trample old ladies at your local Best Buy on Black Friday to "get yours." Deals have been good all year round, and mobile hardware has been evolving relatively slowly as of late. Centrino 2 wasn't a huge upgrade over previous platforms, and Nvidia's GeForce 9M-series mobile GPUs have a lot in common with the previous generation. Basically, if you bought your laptop last Christmas like I did, you're probably okay. My HP Pavilion dv2500t with a GeForce 8400M GS (featuring a whopping 64MB of video memory) still runs Left 4 Dead, Quake Wars, and Call of Duty 4 pretty well, and those are the only games I really need to run on the go. But if Old Reliable is starting to feel a lot older and less reliable, and your average battery life is around the 30-minute mark, then I suggest reading on.

... First, if you're looking for a simple Internet and word processing machine, a good netbook will probably fit the bill. The netbook guide we published in September remains a helpful resource, although two new and notable contenders have popped up since then. HP has produced a consumer-friendly Mini 1000 netbook lineup, which swaps the somewhat mediocre Via C7-M processor from the Mini-Note 2133 for an Intel Atom while retaining the same delightful keyboard design. Dell has also started selling its Inspiron Mini 12 for $549—that's a little expensive for a netbook, but Dell does provide a 12" 1280x800 display."