Best Multimedia Laptops

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p: a 6-pound hunk of multimedia muscle

If you're not a hardcore action gamer but you need a powerful laptop with a great screen for playing movies, casual gaming, and editing photos and videos, you can get an excellent multimedia performer without completely draining your bank account. The best multimedia laptops typically have big high-res displays, discrete graphics and quality speakers. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display (Est. $1,500 and up) and 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display (Est. $2,200 and up) excel here; see our separate section on Apple laptops for more.

Among Windows multimedia laptops, the best according to reviews is the Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p (Est. $1,100 and up) . "Put simply, this system is a steal," says Laptop Magazine, where it's an Editors' Choice.

It all starts with powerful components. Experts bypass the base model with a lower-res screen and single Nvidia graphics processor and test a step-up version (Est. $1,300 and up). It gets the latest Intel Core i7 Haswell CPU, 16 GB of RAM and a speedy 24 GB SSD in addition to the 1 TB hard drive. It also features not one but two Nvidia GeForce GT750M GPUs with 2 GB of VRAM apiece.

That's an incredible spec sheet for the price, experts say, and the IdeaPad Y510p delivers. Even with its pre-Haswell chips, the Lenovo sails through photo and video editing tests. It's a fairly powerful gamer, too: The Haswell version blazes through "World of Warcraft" on Ultra settings at a smoking 81 frames per second in Laptop Magazine's test and handles "Bioshock Infinite" capably at lower settings.

Everything looks and sounds fantastic, thanks to a stellar 15.6-inch 1,080p HD display and JBL speakers. When it's movie time, just slip the second GPU out of the swappable UltraBay on the laptop's side and slide in a Blu-ray Disc drive. You could also swap in a DVD burner, second hard drive or extra cooling fan, all sold separately.

The drawback is the laptop's bulk. At 6 pounds and 1.4 inches thick, the Lenovo Y510p isn't really all that portable. Battery life is pretty dismal, too. Laptop Magazine editors manage just over 3 hours of Wi-Fi web surfing, even with the ultra-efficient Haswell chip, so prepare to haul your power cord wherever you go. In yet another glaring omission, there's no touch screen.

A slimmer, sleeker alternative

For a more svelte multimedia machine, try our runner-up Asus Zenbook UX51VZ (Est. $1,870 and up) . It's the closest you can get to a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, Windows-style, which experts say is a very good thing.

A Retina-fighting, ultra-high-res display has reportedly already popped up on UX51VZ models in Germany but hasn't shown up in U.S. models yet. Neither has Haswell, as of this update. For now, the UX51VZ sports a third-generation quad-core Core i7 processor, 8 GB of RAM, a single Nvidia GPU and smoking-fast dual 128 GB SSDs. If that's not enough, try the upgrade with dual 256 drives and a more powerful Core i7 version. It even handles many games, although the most demanding ones make it run much too hot.

Movies look fantastic on the 15.6-inch, 1,080p HD anti-glare display. Music sounds rich, with a tiny 3.5-inch portable subwoofer that adds depth to the on-board Bang & Olufsen ICEpower speakers. It's all packed into a beautifully slim aluminum case that commutes comfortably at 4.6 pounds and just under 0.8 inch thick.

Asus backs the Zenbook UX51VZ with an outstanding 1-year warranty that covers accidental damage for drops, spills, power surges and fire damage; 24/7 tech support; free two-way standard shipping; and a 30-day flawless display guarantee. Only a few imperfections emerge: There's no touch screen, battery life is limited to 4 to 6 hours of web surfing or video playback, and there's no built-in optical drive although an external one can be added.