Dell Inspiron 14z

The good: A clean, slim design, a backlit keyboard, very good battery life, strong performance, and an affordable price make the Dell Inspiron 14z more useful than most thinned-down laptops.

The bad: Limited upgrade options and no dedicated graphics might turn off some who need more flexibility, and flip-down port doors are a minor annoyance.

The bottom line: The Dell Inspiron 14z thins down the bulky look of the average Inspiron laptop while sacrificing none of the performance or battery life, adding up to an affordable mainstream notebook that's an excellent late consideration for back-to-school shopping.

Toshiba Qosmio F755-3D290 Glasses-Free 3D laptop

The good: The Toshiba Qosmio F755-3D290 offers surprisingly good glasses-free 3D video playback, built into a decent high-end midsize laptop, with eye-tracking software to adjust the image on the fly.

The bad: The 3D effect works best for a single viewer, and can still be finicky at times. Games and online 3D video don't work yet, although future updates are promised. Playback of 3D content is at a lower resolution than 2D content.

The bottom line: More of a proof-of-concept than anything else, the glasses-free 15-inch 3D display on the Toshiba Qosmio F755 can be impressive when paired with the right content.