The Criteria:

Our crack team of researchers crunched some numbers, ran some tests, and harassed some subjects to find out what gamers would use a laptop for and how they would like to go about it. What does the laptop offer in exchange for plus one thousand dollars? One answer seemed to be all encompassing:

Portability. What you are buying is the ability to not be tied down in front of your monitor. Freedom to game wherever you want! No longer beholden to some thirty-dollar plywood desk you got at Wal-Mart! See the sights! The living room! The kitchen! Hell, maybe even the bathroom! Maybe even go outside and play at a friend’s house, or at school when you’re supposed to be learning about free market economy or the annual rainfall in the Amazon Basin.

Gamers are, in actuality, social when gaming is shared. The LAN games of the 90’s were rampant before the High-Speed Internet swept them under the fridge. The prospect of unplugging all of your computer equipment and lugging it to another person’s house is not as attractive as playing over the Internet the same game with the same friend(s) in your underwear while your favorite pornographic film plays on the television. Thusly the LAN game became a nostalgic remembrance, upheld only on special occasions. A good laptop should fix this. Combining portability with appropriate gameability, gamers should see the sun again… if only from the house to the car, and the car to your friend’s house.

With all this in mind we waited for it to come. When it did arrive my first mission was to hug the box. After a good ten minutes of intense hugging, we opened the box.