We were never very fond of latest glossy plastic Toshiba notebooks but when you get a Toshiba Satellite A660-14C 16 inch Notebook that features Blu-ray RE drive, 512 MB nVidia GeForce 310M, 2.13 GHz Intel Core i3 and 4GB RAM all for under £700 we can forgive the glossyness.

Fancy the looks of HP Envy but it’s over your budget. Worry not HP G62-130EG 15.6 inch Notebook takes design elements of HP Envy notebook series and adapts it to the budget notebook. Now who says fashion has to be expensive. HP certainly not any more. Otherwise the HP G62-130EG packs a 2.13 GHz Intel Core i3 330M, 4GB RAM and dedicated 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5430 graphics. Read the full review at NotebookCheck.

Sebastian Jentsch at NotebookCheck posted a review on the Samsung P530 Pro 15.6 inch Notebook. His verdict was that the Samsung P530 Pro is a solid and durable 15.6 inch notebook.  It features a good laid out keyboard, low heat and noise emissions and an Intel Core i3 processor which isn’t as fast as the Core i5 and i7 processors featuring TurboBoost but is completely adequate. There are some drawbacks such as low capacity battery (4,000 mAh) which produces just enough juice for about 3 hours of general use and lack of dedicated graphics.

Dell today launched new Inspiron R Notebook Series featuring Intel Wireless Display. The new line-up is be powered by Intel Core i3 and Core i5 processors and optional 1GB ATI Dedicated Graphics and comes in 14 inch, 15.6 inch and 17.3 inch displays. As it has come to expect from Dell these notebooks it is available in various colours including Black, Pink, Red and Blue. Read the full story at Engadget for hands-on photos and official Press Release or visit Dell US if you want to get your hands on one starting at $449.

Jerry Jackson at NotebookReview posted a review on the Dell Inspiron 1464 14 inch Notebook. His verdict was that Dell Inspiron 14 is affordable and offers good performance with Intel Core i3 330M 2.16 GHz and decent battery but built quality is somewhat questionable. Read full review for more details.

Following the announcement of the updated IdeaPad U series Lenovo announced a whole new IdeaPad Z series that compared to U series notebooks add an integrated optical drive and metallic back covers. IdeaPad Z series will comprise of 13.3 inch Z360 notebooks, 14 inch Z460 notebooks, 15.6 inch Z560 notebooks that will feature latest Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors while the 15.6 inch Z565 notebooks will come with various AMD offerings from latest AMD Phenom II X4 to Turion II and Athlon II. Hands-on gallery available at Engadget.

Lenovo followed HP with announcing updates to its IdeaPad lineup. Unlike HP it will not support AMD processors but only latest Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 series. Luckily for us Engadget already got some hands-on photos of these new babies so be sure to hit the link to view the gallery.

Not everyone is looking for big and powerful notebooks. Some want a basic notebook with a big screen and a low price tag and Acer is on of the best manufacturers when it comes to producing good value notebooks for people with a tight budget. Kevin O’Brien at NotebookReview tested the Acer Aspire 7740 17.3 inch Intel Core i3 Notebook and found out that the Acer Aspire 7740 is a very attractively priced notebook with decent performance and looks. Acer once again proved that is the king of value computing by adding a 1600 x 900 resolution screen and even a blu-ray drive all for less then $750. Now that’s good value!

Toshiba also put her models through new Intel Core i Series treatment recently. One of the outcomes is the new 13.3 inch portable notebook Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX. We always were fans of Toshiba notebooks but recently not as much as they decided to use an abundance of glossy plastics all over their notebooks including the keyboard. Unfortunately the Toshiba Satellite U500 continues the trend of glossiness. Apart from that we absolutely love the design of the chassis. Rory Reid put the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX to the test and found out that for its size is quite heavy and its touch-sensitive screen spoils the image quality of the screen. It doesn’t sound to good to us. Personally we never got the point of having a touchscreen in a notebook when mouse can do everything much faster and cleaner (no fingerprints on the screen). Read the full story to found out more.