With the world becoming more and more involved in technology you may be thinking of buying a loved one who has been kept in the dark their very first computer or notebook this Christmas. If you are one of these people then there are definitely a few things you should think about before you go out and purchase one.

The first question you should ask yourself is what the person you are buying it for will be using it for. There would be no point spending a lot of money on the top of the range gaming laptop when all they will be doing is surfing the internet. Similarly, you wouldn’t want to buy them a laptop that is used solely for surfing the internet when they are a keen gamer. Finding out which laptop will suit them best is the most important decision you will make when purchasing one.

If you are not too sure what type of laptop you will need, there are plenty of experts out there or websites that can help you decide. A simple search on the web will bring up lots of results from people who have been in a similar situation.

Once you have found the laptop or computer that you think would be best, the next important thing you should do is compare the prices. If you buy it from the first website you come across you could end up paying a lot more for it if it were to be cheaper on another.

The best way to find the cheapest price is to use a trusted comparison site such as Moneysupermarket.com. Moneysupermarket will try and find the best deal that suits you as well as your pocket.  http://www.moneysupermarket.com

Chinese-based company, Optima has recently showcased their latest netbook at IFA 2009. Dubbed as the Optima Mini Laptop, the machine has a 12.1-inch WXGA LCD screen, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, a 1GB RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, WiFi and Windows XP OS

Here’s another affordable 10-inch netbook from a Chinese company named BlueGear. This mini laptop packs a 10.2-inch display with 1024 x 600 resolution, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, a 1GB RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a 1.3MP webcam, a 3-in-1 memory card reader, WiFi, a 3-cell battery and Windows XP Home Edition OS. The BlueGear 10-inch netbook is now available for purchase via QVC’s online store for just $399.

Acer has unveiled their new Ferrari-inspired netbook called the Acer Ferrari One. This mini laptop is based on Acer’s 11.6-inch (1366 x 768) netbook and features an AMD Athlon X2 L310 processor with two running cores at 1.2GHz and 1MB L2 Cache, a M780G chipset, an integrated ATI Radeon 3200 graphics card, a 4GB RAM, a 160GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, a six-cell battery and Windows 7 OS. The Acer Ferrari One will start shipping on October 22nd for €499 (about $729).

Samsung has released a special edition of the 10-inch (NC10-11PBK) netbook. It comes with a higher capacity 6-cell battery, that provides nine and a half hours of operating time. The new NC10 also features a user-requested larger trackpad and a glossy screen. Unfortunately, the netbook is priced at $499 with free shipping, which is $50 more than the original price tag. You can now pre-order the special edition NC10 netbook.

This was a guest blog by Steve who writes about mobile phones at DAP. Grab the RSS feed for his daily updates.

Japanese laptop manufacturer Mouse Computer comes back with its gaming laptop series from the NextGear-Note M750W-WS. This gaming monster has a huge 17 inch WUXGA (1920×1200) display with either Microsoft Windows XP or Vista OS. The company provides the low-end model that comes equipped with a Core2Quad Q9000, 4GB of DDR3 PC3-8500, a 120GB OCZ Apex Series SSD, a Blu-ray drive, an NVidia GeForce 9800M GTX with 1GB of VRAM, and 2GB of Turbo Memory only on the Vista version. Read the rest of this entry »

Asus has decided to introduce their latest high-end gaming notebook at CES 2009. Known as the ASUS W90, the laptop provides a 18.4- or 17-inch display, depending on model with the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2 or HD 3850 X2 dual graphics, or a single NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GS GPU, and the Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The W90 also uses Intel X38 chipset and has three SO-DIMM slots for up to 6GB of DDR2 memory. Other kewl features include up to 1 terabyte of hard drive storage space using two HDDs, a DVD burner or Blu-ray optical drive, six built-in Altec Lansing surround sound speakers, an optional TV tuner, the AI Touch Media, a 2MP webcam, 802.11 Draft N wireless, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet LAN, and a 56k modem. Its Turbo Gear function allows users to overclock the machine by “up to 25%”. There are also HDMI and VGA outputs, four USBs, an ExpressCard slot, Firewire, and an 8-in-1 media card reader. Uou can use this laptop like a Television on PC .The Asus W90 runs on Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit OS.

The U115 Hybrid is the very first netbook computer in the world that is capable of operating both SSD and HDD hard drives simultaneously, combining all the features of SSD and HDD. The U115 Hybrid functions primarily with the SSD system, offering a reliable, shock-absorbent, and speedy operating environment. The SSD can be chosen to boot Windows, while the hard drive can be used for file storage.

HP has updated its TouchSmart laptop series with the new 12-inch TX2. The tablet PC comes with a capacitive touchpanel that can track two points simultaneously, operates with fingers or a stylus, and comes with the Mediasmart 2.0 interface customized for the notebook. Weighing 4.5-pound, The TX2 is powered by a 2.1GHz AMD Turion X2 processor, ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD 5400 RPM, Bluetooth, integrated webcam, 8x DVD burner, VGA out and a digital pen. The 12-inch HP TouchSmart TX2 tablet PC is priced at $1,149.

Lucky Japanese friends across the Pacific will enjoy the new red version of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook. They can also take the latest model of the Inspiron Mini 9 Platinum Package that comes with a larger 32GB SSD for approximately $565 after taxes. There is no word on a worldwide release date.