For about $1000, the Samsung RF510 offers serious, serious power. This 5.7-pound 15.6-inch laptop offers a top-of-the-line i7 processor. It also features 4GB of memory, a LED-backlit monitor, a 1GB NVIDIA graphics card, and a huge 640GB hard drive. Not enough? It's also bluetooth compliant, and it also features two USB 3.0 ports. The bottom line? This laptop is a monster! Throw anything you want at it: design software, movies, the latest pc games -- no problem. The RF510 is an extremely powerful machine, and it's price is tough to beat. The downside? This laptop's battery life is pretty sub-par. However, if you're a power user looking for a new around-the-house laptop this holiday season, check out the RF510!

At about $900, this 16-inch laptop costs about a hundred bucks less than the Samsung. Like the Samsung, it also features a chiclet keyboard, bluetooth compatibility, and USB 3.0. This laptop features an i7 processor (this one is a hair more powerful than Samsung's i7). It only comes with about 500GB of hard drive space and 4GB of memory. However, the N61Jq contains an expansion slot so you can always upgrade to 8GB in the (extremely unlikely) event that 4GB is not enough. This laptop also has a 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon graphics card, so it's a great choice for media, games, and things like that. One other thing to keep in mind: Asus has a great reputation for building quality laptops (they're ranked as the #1 most reliable PC brand in PCMag.com's Service & Reliability Report 2010). So if you're worried about quality, breathe easy: this Asus machine is reliable and powerful.

This $900 13.3-inch laptop weighs several pounds less than the other devices mentioned in this article, so it's the most portable device in this article. However, the Portégé contains an i5 processor. It has 2 cores instead of 4, so it's a less effective multi-processor. But don't misunderstand me -- this i5 is no slouch! It laptop still has 500GB hard drive, a Mobile Intel HD Graphics card, and 4GB of memory (upgradable to 8GB). That's serious power for a 13.3-inch device! The Portégé features a more traditional look (solid black) and greater battery life than the other laptops mentioned. However, it lacks bluetooth compatibility as well as USB 3.0, so look elsewhere if those are dealbreakers. This is a great computer for power users (particularly ones who travel a lot), although you may want to stick with an i7 if you think top-shelf pc games might be in your future.