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TrustedReviews Awards 2008

Author	TrustedReviews
Published	25th Nov 2008

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1st Place: Lenovo ThinkPad X300

This was one of the easiest awards to decide. Ever since Lenovo unleashed the ThinkPad X300 all the way back in April we've been looking for something to surpass it, but nothing has.

Its combination of power and portability married to the timeless ThinkPad design produced a notebook of unsurpassed accomplishment. Had it not been for a slightly sub-par screen it would have walked away with a 10/10 and an Editor's Choice Award, something we haven't given any notebook.

This, more than anything, demonstrates why this is the Best Portable Notebook of 2008.

Read the full review of the Lenovo ThinkPad X300.

2nd Place: Sony VAIO VGN-Z11WN/B

Sony has a rich history of producing superb portable notebooks and the Z Series is one of its best. Despite featuring full speed Intel processors, an optical drive, discrete and integrated graphics and a six-cell battery, it weighs a mere 1.5kg.

But it's not just the internal features that impress, the incredibly vibrant 1,600 x 900 resolution screen is the icing on the cake with its high resolution and rich colours. Indeed, was it not for the X300's epically good build quality the Z Series might have been worthy of even greater honours. As it is, it's just extremely good, rather than astonishingly good. It's a fine line.

Read the full review of the Sony VAIO VGN-Z11WN/B.

3rd Place: Samsung Q210

It might not be a glamorous ultra-portable like the above, but while many swoon over netbooks, the Q210 is the best value portable notebook you can find these days.

Available from around £500, it offers excellent processing power, a capacious hard drive, battery life approaching fours hours and Intel's latest mobile platform.

Throw in an excellent screen, a good keyboard and solid build quality and you've got a compelling option for anyone who needs a powerful notebook on the move, but doesn't want to break the bank.

Read the full review of the Samsung Q210.

Latest 4 of 83 Comments

Have your say: Leave a comment below about this article.

Sivart said on 1st December 2008

Just read the awards article & then looked forward to the comments.

Big disapointment to find it dominated by a fruitcake with a grudge and an old pals reunion d... more

Ardjuna said on 5th December 2008

@Sivart: yes, it would have been nice to see some more comments about the actual products, and about awards other than the arguably least important 'style' one. Still, it... more

AlexMck said on 11th December 2008

Great job Riyad. Have been following the site for a long time but only just decided to register.
Rsaeire and Singularity -- have ye any lives to lead? I should think that,... more

PaulW said on 11th January 2009

@Sivart .. I agree with you to a degree. I dont have the funds to be fortunate to be able to buy a B&W Zeppelin, and therefore look forward to reviews of such products here @ TR. No matter what Riyad (other TR staff say)says, there will also be some contention. I bought a Samsung G600 phone for Xmas .. mainly because of the brilliant review here. As it happens, i dont like it & have gone back to my Nokia 6300. I also have a Nokia E71 (which another user was raving about) & I aint too keen on that either.

So what am I trying to say? Well this .. I find the TR site just about the most "accurate" place to go to read products reviews, and generally I find the conclusions produced "weigh in" with my own needs. I bought a Canon Pixma MP610 on the strength of its review & its brilliant! I also bought a Fuji S9600 camera purely on the review here & what a blinder! Brilliant choice & a brilliant review - altho very controversial at the time! 10 / 10 for a camera that I bought for £199!!

The arguments put forward about B&W Zeppelin as an iPod docking station do produce a smile on my face. I can many years ago, someone in Hi-Fi News stating "the wider you open the windows, the more the muck flies in", and having an iPod myself, I cannot but agree with this statement .. as the audio quality of the Apple iPod is well documented to be "questionable". Poor audio in - poor audio out!

BUT .. at least TR do actually carry out reviews of products tested. Some years back (in an earlier life) I was involved heavily in the PC MIDI market & ran a well know UK PC MIDI company distributing such products as Music Quest MIDI cards, CardD DAW card & Cadenza sequencing software (Gordon .. are you reading this? You & I have had several chats in the past about some of these products.)

On one occasion I was approached by a well known MIDI Music mag (no names mentioned, but their offices were in Bath!) asking for a sample Music Quest card for "head to head" review. I had always had my suspicions about the "authenticity" of reviews carried out by this Mag, & so I sent off a card that I knew to be faulty! It simply didnt work!

We came 2nd in a head to head shoot out with other popular MIDI card! We werent asked to replace the faulty card, yet we came in 2nd place! Amazing eh?

Thanks goodness we have moved on & we have sites like TR.

Well done guys .. whilst I dont agree with all that you say, I am darned glad that you have presence on the web! Sorry for going off topic a tad!

Happy New Year!

@Sivart .. I agree with you to a degree. I dont have the funds to be fortunate to be able to buy a B&W Zeppelin, and therefore look forward to reviews of such products here @ T... more

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