Technology

Sony Vaio VGN-NW125J/T

2009-12-04T14:37:00.002+05:00

Sony Vaio VGN-NW125J/T

Forget playing games, how about a semi-stylish 15.5-inch widescreen notebook that's built with movies in mind? If this sounds appealing to you, then check out the Sony VAIO VGN-NW125J. For $800, this model offers up a decent experience--and a whole lot of software (some of it even useful).

The big selling points on the stickers scream: "HDMI-output (cable sold separately)!" and "A Stunning LCD!" That's as good a cue as any to tackle some of the multimedia claims for the VGN-NW125J. The 1366-by-768-pixel panel delivers good results on the 15.5-inch screen. Blue colors popped a little when you set the brightness to full blast (and tilt the screen back to a 45-degree viewing angle), but at midlevel brightness and contrast settings, the machine seems a little muted. Its glossy coating doesn't really help matters because it picks up a glare. Trying to watch episodes of Lost streamed over Hulu requires a little more monkeying with contrast than I'm accustomed to, but at least the effort pays off in the end.

Plug the NW125J into an HDTV set through the HDMI port and you can actually get a decent picture from the on-board DVD-ROM drive. Yeah, and that'd be one of my complaints. I know that Sony is trying to keep prices down, but for less than 100 bucks more, you can invest in Sony's VGN-NW180J/S that comes with a Blu-ray drive. Y'know, Sony's own home video format that the company is desperately trying to push on consumers.

On the audio side, the sound isn't exactly full--or cubemate-annoyingly loud. But it is crisp enough and even throws in some of that psuedo-spatial-sound tomfoolery to make it seem more "3D." However, the absence of good bass makes it a little hollow when you listen to Jack caterwauling about wanting to get off, and then back, on the island. In short, it's good for a base-level all-purpose machine, but not great.

For such a big notebook, I found myself hitting the wrong keys a disproportionate amount of the time. Are the keys comfortable? Yes, the cut-out buttons feel springy enough when you're typing--they are plenty large as well. It's even hard to find fault with the function buttons and the few shortcut keys that line the top row (buttons for quick Web launching, muting, and display toggling). I think the problem lies in the spacing of the keys. Though the NW125J is big and wide, the keys feel scrunched a little too tightly. About one and a half inches are on either side of the keypad--not a major gripe, more an observation.

Sony scores back a couple of brownie points by loading this laptop up with every major port or slot you're likely to want: three for USB and one each for HDMI-out (as mentioned earlier), VGA-out, FireWire, PC Express, and Memory Stick and SD cards.

Deeper in the guts, the 2.GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 CPU and 4GB of RAM should be enough to muscle through basic tasks and provide a little extra oomph, but they won't break any land-speed records. The NW125J winds up with a WorldBench 6 score of 80; a similarly loaded, and similarly priced, Gateway U7807u scored 84 in WorldBench 6 a while back, so the new Sony's score is a little disappointing. The lackluster, integrated GPU ensures that you won't be aiming much higher than casual games on this laptop (not a bad thing). As for its endurance, it's able to last 4 hours, 13 minutes in our battery drain tests. In other words it's a fairly average machine, able to last as long as most all-purpose machines already out there--the NW125J just tries doing it for less.

The software bundle looks promising for the most part, with only a couple of dogs in the mix. On the utilitarian side, you have the fairly vanilla VAIO Control Center that parks everything you'd need to tweak on the PC in one place. The SmartWi (for wizards) utility is a little goofy and caused more confusion than help. (Let me interject a little anecdote: I'm trying to set up a wireless connection and the Wireless wizard asks me to....plug in....an ethernet cable! Really?)

The boatload of multimedia-minded apps range from the not-bad to the not-needed. On the positive side: Roxio Easy CD Creator 10 and a couple of basic video- and photo-editing apps are the headliners, but here's something that had potential: the VAIO Content Exporter. Of course, it's only optimized to export content to three settings: PSP, Memory Stick, and Mylo. Would it kill Sony to acknowledge that other devices exist? Another dark-horse app worth noting is the PMB. It lets you manage and organize videos and pictures. A handy calendar view lets you put all your pictures in perspective. The biggest disappointment: The basic MusicBox is a prime example of trying to remake the wheel without rounding the edges. (I know that Sony wants to put its stamp on music software, but do we really need it at this point?)

The NW125J is an oversized and promising machine that does what it says: That is, give your kids the basics they need for the new school year along with a mild multimedia boot in the keister. But with limitations like the lack of a discrete GPU, I'm wondering if Sony could have made a couple of smarter moves to keep the price down at the $800 level.

Other laptops specially configured for retail sale at Best Buy include the Dell Studio 14z, the HP dv4-1465dx, and the Toshiba Satellite M505-S4940. And check out our video coverage of the four laptops from Best Buy in "Back-to-School Laptops: We Review Best Buy's Exclusives."

Processor
Processor class Core 2 Duo T6500
Processor speed 2100 MHz
Memory
Installed memory 4096 MB
Memory technology DDR2-800 SDRAM
Display
Display size 15.4 inches
Maximum resolution 1366 x 768
Storage
Total HD Size 320 GB
Optical Drive Type DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/-RAM
Optical Drive Speed 6
Removable Optical Drive No
Slots
Express Card Slot
SD Card
Memory Stick
Number of Media Slots 2
Battery
Number of Included Batteries 1
Standard Number of Batteries 1
Type of Batteries Lithium ion
Dimensions
Weight (with accessories) 6.4 lbs
Width 14.5 inches
Depth 9.8 inches
Height 1.7 inches
Other Features
Input devices Touchpad
Networking
Bluetooth No
Included network card Gigabit ethernet
Modem Type Not Included
Wireless LAN Type 802.11n
Multimedia
Video chipset Intel PM45 Express Chipset
Video integration Integrated
Software
Included Software
Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 LJ.
Sony VAIO Multimedia Suite
InterVideo WinDVD
Operating system Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit)
Interface Connections
Interface connection
Mini PCI Port
Audio - Microphone In (1/8" Mini)
USB - Universal Serial Bus Port (x3)
Audio - Headphone Out (1/8" Mini)
FireWire Port
Included Devices
Built-In Speakers Stereo
Docking Station Port No
Included devices AC Adapter

Toshiba Satellite L555-S7916

2009-12-04T14:33:00.002+05:00

Toshiba Satellite L555-S7916

If you're looking for an inexpensive laptop with a large screen to park in the kitchen or use as a home-office PC, Toshiba's Satellite L555-S7916 is worth a look. The expansive keyboard, which includes a dedicated numeric keypad, raises the comfort level for word processing, Web site navigation, and spreadsheet editing chores--and that's about it. But you'd be hard pressed to find a desktop-replacement-size all-purpose laptop for less than the $699 asking price (as of August 28, 2009) of our test unit--aside from the odd fire sale at Walmart.

This is no multimedia marvel: You won't want to watch movies or listen to music without external speakers connected. The Intel T6500 cruises along at 2.1GHz, but the notebook's limited (2MB) L2 cache hobbles performance. Still, the Satellite L555-S7916 chugged its way to a WorldBench 6 performance benchmark score of 81, only a few points behind themark of the Asus N90SV-A2, which sports a 2.66GHz CPU and costs two-and-a-half times as much as the Toshiba.

Though the 17-inch-diagonal screen offers 1600-by-900-pixel resolution, the display's overall image quality--particularly when playing back DVD movies--was poor. We popped in our test Serenity andReturn of the King DVDs only to be greeted by blotchy colors, poor response times, and an extremely narrow range of tolerable viewing angles. The Toshiba fared a bit better in photo editing: Colors were bright and saturated, though the viewing-angle range remained very limited.

Unlike most laptops in the desktop replacement category, this Satellite relies on Intel integrated graphics; as a result, it's not well suited for serious 3D games, though it might be fine for a casual Web-based round of Bejeweled. At first, we thought that the built-in Intel Wi-Fi Link 5100 A/G/N would provide good networking performance, but even with a strong 802.11g signal, the L555-S7916 took 10 minutes to copy a 40MB file from a server.

On the positive side, the L555-S7916 ships with a surprisingly useful software bundle. Highlights include Microsoft Works, Picassa 2, Corel DVD MovieFactory, Toshiba's own DVD playback software, Adobe Acrobat Reader, and Symantec Norton Internet Security. It's a wide-ranging package for light-duty office work and casual video or photo editing. The 320GB hard drive offers plenty of storage and seemed reasonably responsive for a 5400-rpm drive.

The Toshiba also includes a DVD-R drive and 3GB of RAM. Ports are situated on the left and right sides of the case, with none on the hard-to-reach back. The left side includes VGA, ethernet, audio, and a combination eSATA/USB 2.0 port, something we're seeing more often in recent units. The right side includes two more USB 2.0 ports, a modem port, and the requisite Kensington lock slot. The dual-duty SD Card/Memory Stick slot is in the front, next to an analog volume control knob. Talk about old-school!

Hard-copy documentation is limited to a resource guide and a setup poster. The user manual--a PDF file on the system--is pretty good, but you'll need to read it on-screen or print out a copy.

Despite the massive screen, the laptop weighs a surprisingly light 6.6 pounds, thanks in no small part to the relatively wimpy guts. Still, at 16.4 by 10.7 by 1.7 inches, the L555-S7916 feels a bit bulky and awkward to tote around town. Battery life was fairly impressive in our tests, at 3 hours, 32 minutes (the average for 17-inch power laptops is in the neighborhood of 2 hours, 30 minutes). Still, we'd trade in the battery life advantage for better performance, any day of the week.

The Satellite L555-S7916 alternately impresses and disappoints. It's works fine for word processing, Web surfing, spreadsheet work, and light photo editing. But the laptop's disappointing Wi-Fi throughput, lackluster performance, and mediocre display quality would make us hesitate before whipping out our credit cards.

Processor

Processor class	Core 2 Duo T6500
Processor speed	2100 MHz

Memory

Installed memory	3072 MB
Memory technology	DDR2-800 SDRAM

Display

Display size	17.3 inches
Maximum resolution	1600 x 900

Storage

Total HD Size	320 GB
Optical Drive Type	DVD+R DL/DVD±RW
Optical Drive Speed	8
Removable Optical Drive	No
Slots	SD Card Memory Stick
Number of Media Slots	2

Battery

Number of Included Batteries	1
Standard Number of Batteries	1
Type of Batteries	Lithium ion

Dimensions

Weight (with accessories)	7.3 lbs
Width	16.4 inches
Depth	10.7 inches
Height	1.7 inches

Other Features

Input devices

Touchpad

Networking

Bluetooth	No
Included network card	Ethernet (10/100 Mbps)
Modem Type	V.92
Wireless LAN Type	802.11n

Multimedia

Video chipset	Intel G45 Chipset
Video integration	Integrated

Software

Included Software	Corel DVD MovieFactory Google desktop Microsoft Works 9 Adobe Acrobat Reader Recovery Disc Creator Picasa2
Operating system	Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32 bit)

Interface Connections

Interface connection

Audio - Microphone In (1/8" Mini)
USB - Universal Serial Bus Port (x2)
Audio - Headphone Out (1/8" Mini)

Included Devices

Built-In Speakers	Stereo
Docking Station Port	No
Included devices	AC Adapter

Samsung NP-Q320

2009-12-04T14:26:00.003+05:00

Samsung NP-Q320

Processor

Processor class	Core 2 Duo P8700
Processor speed	2530 MHz

Memory

Installed memory

4096 MB

Display

Display size	13.4 inches
Maximum resolution	1366 x 768

Storage

Total HD Size	320 GB
Optical Drive Type	DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/-RAM
Optical Drive Speed	6
Removable Optical Drive	No
Slots	Express Card Slot SD Card
Number of Media Slots	1

Battery

Number of Included Batteries	1
Standard Number of Batteries	1
Type of Batteries	Lithium ion

Dimensions

Weight (with accessories)	5.7 lbs
Width	12.9 inches
Depth	9.1 inches
Height	1.5 inches

Other Features

Input devices

Touchpad

Networking

Bluetooth	No
Included network card	Gigabit ethernet
Modem Type	Not Included
Wireless LAN Type	802.11n

Multimedia

Video chipset	nVidia GeForce G 105M
Installed video memory	256 MB
Video integration	Discrete

Software

Included Software	CyberLink DVD Suite
Operating system	Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit)

Interface Connections

Interface connection

Audio - Microphone In (1/8" Mini)
USB - Universal Serial Bus Port (x2)
Audio - Headphone Out (1/8" Mini)

Included Devices

Built-In Speakers	Stereo
Docking Station Port	No
Included devices	AC Adapter

For many people, the pricing sweet spot for the perfect laptop is between $800 and $1000. Full-fledged yet svelte, Samsung's NP-Q320 all-purpose notebook ($949 as of September 10, 2009) has the muscle to serve as your primary work/school/home computer. The laptop is compact and light enough (4.8 pounds) not to break your back, it has a 13.4-inch screen that you don't need to squint at, and it's powerful enough to run most major applications well. Still, this nice all-purpose laptop suffers from a couple of minor usability problems.

Problem number one is the backlit LED screen. Given its 1366-by-768-pixel resolution and at 13.4-inch-diagonal size, you'd expect such a screen to save power and perhaps improve color or contrast. But the NP-Q320's screen doesn't show colors or contrast ratio very well. Images look slightly washed out at maximum brightness, and blacks are not quite black enough. And unfortunately, as you lower the brightness level, the contrast gets worse. The poor range of vertical viewing angles leads me to believe that the NP-Q320 uses a six-bit TN (twisted nematic) panel--a regrettably common component in budget-conscious laptops.

The keyboard is easy to type on, and the trackpad is responsive and accurate, with left and right buttons that permit accurate no-look pressing. Some keys (such as Alt and Ctrl) are a bit narrow, evidently to make room for a seemingly unnecessary menu key to the right of the spacebar. Still, for its size, I found this notebook comfortable to work on.

The right edge hosts a slot-loading DVD drive, a USB port, and a power connector, leaving little room for anything else. As a result, Samsung crowded the left edge with connectors: ethernet, VGA, USB, USB/eSATA combo, HDMI, microphone, headphone, and ExpressCard. Though it's great to see so many options on a smaller notebook, I wish that the industrial design hadn't prevented any plugs from going in the back. Lacking room for an SD card slot on either side, Samsung placed the slot all by itself on the front edge. (The little plastic plug for this slot is nearly impossible to pull out, by the way.) The front edge also hosts a row of blue and amber LEDs to indicate power, hard-drive usage, Wi-Fi, and so on.

The NP-Q320's performance compares favorably with that of other notebooks in the $800-to-$1000 price bracket. The 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor loped to a WorldBench 6 score of 94--impressive for a sub-$1000 laptop. The nVidia GeForce G 105M with 256MB of RAM (the weakest discrete graphics system nVidia sells) handles image production; and it's certainly a step up from any sort of integrated graphics. But while it can manage casual games pretty well, the NP-Q320 is out off its league when challenged by a high-end game. At 1024-by-768-pixel resolution and high quality settings, the laptop managed a frame rate of just 22 frames per second on Unreal Tournament III and 21 fps on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Still, the nVidia chip does a better job with video decoding than Intel's integrated graphics, which can make a big difference if you plan to put the HDMI port to use. The notebook's battery life of 3 hours, 56 minutes puts it a little behind the average for this category. The Acer TravelMate 6293 continues to rool the roost on this measure, with a battery life of almost 8 hours.

At $930 (for the configuration we tested), the Samsung Q320 poses strong competition for other well-equipped 13-inch notebooks, such as the Dell Studio XPS 13. Samsung's model has a little more muscle than that, but it isn't quite as stylish. Overall, the NP-Q320 is a pretty good value for ageneral-purpose laptop. Like the Toshiba Satellite U505-S2940, this machine is a bit heavier than most 13-inch models, but it's compact and lightweight enough to carry around all day at school or work, big enough to work on easily, handsome enough not to walk around with in public, and fast enough to be your primary computer. If the screen were better, the NP-Q320 would be an outstanding bargain.

Asus G51

2009-12-04T14:19:00.003+05:00

Description

The ASUS G51-series is a 15.6" gaming notebook offering dual hard drive bays, NVIDIA GTX 260M graphics, and an optional quad-core processor. To enhance the multimedia experience this notebook offers a 1080p 16:9 display, a backlit Chiclet-style keyboard, and Altec Lansing speakers.

Quick Specs

G51J-A1 Notebook (1.6GHz Intel Core i7 720QM, 4GB DDR3, 640GB HDD, DVD±RW DL, Windows 7 Home Premium, 15.6" LCD)

Detailed Specs

Processor
Processor Class:	Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:	1.6 GHz
Cache Size:	6 MB
Bus Speed:	2.5 GT/s
Memory
Installed Memory:	4 GB
Maximum Memory:	4 GB
Memory Technology:	DDR3
System
Input Devices:	Keyboard\|Touchpad
Interface Connection:	Audio - Line In (1/8" Mini)\|Audio - Line Out (1/8" Mini)\|Audio - S/PDIF (1/8" Mini)\|Bluetooth\|Ethernet - RJ45\|HDMI\|Serial ATA - 7 pin\|USB - Universal Serial Bus 2.0\|VGA
Slots:	Express Card 34\|Memory Stick\|Memory Stick Duo\|miniSD Card\|MultiMedia Card (MMC)\|SD Card\|xD-Picture Card
Display
Display Size:	15.6 in
Aspect Ratio:	16:9
Display Type:	LCD Display w/ Glossy Screen & LED Backlight
Max Resolution:	1920 x 1080
Installed Video Memory:	1 GB
Video Chipset:	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
Storage
Included Drives:	DVD+-RW DL
Hard Drive Capacity:	640 GB
Number of Storage Drives Included:	2
Features
Included Network Card:	Ethernet (10/100/1000 Mbps)\|Wireless Ethernet - IEEE802.11 Draft N\|Wireless Ethernet - IEEE802.11a\|Wireless Ethernet - IEEE802.11b\|Wireless Ethernet - IEEE802.11g
Included Devices:	Built-In Webcam
Software
Operating System:	Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Dimensions
Height:	1.6 in
Width:	14.6 in
Depth:	10.3 in
Weight:	6.5 lbs
Warranty
Warranty Information:	2 Year Limited Warranty
General
normalized-Cache Size:	6
normalized-Display Size:	15.6
normalized-Installed Memory:	4000
normalized-Installed Video Memory:	1000

Lenovo Ideapad Y530

2009-07-30T21:49:00.001+06:00

Lenovo Ideapad Y530

The sweet-sounding Y530 all-purpose laptop is good for work and play.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y530 isn't exactly made for kids, but it sure can kick out the tunes. You can tell it was designed to be a sleek all-purpose laptop that knows how to get down to business and play around a little without costing a fortune (our review unit was $829 as of 2/26/09). Though the Y530 can't run modern games at a screaming pace, it still packs a decent amount of power for its sub-$1000 price tag.

Along with an Intel P7350 2GHz processor, it has 2GB of DDR3-1066MHz RAM. And though it doesn't carry a market-leading discrete graphics card, it does have an nVidia 9300M GS, which should help when the machine is running graphics-intensive programs such as Adobe Photoshop. In our WorldBench 6 tests it earned a score of 82, a little on the low side for laptops in its class, but the result makes sense considering it's one of the few laptops priced below a grand. Just don't try to use it for anything more than playing older or casual games (or playing newer games with very tempered expectations). When we put it through our gaming tests, it performed well enough with older titles such as Far Cry and Doom 3, but had a hard time breaking the coveted 30-frames-per-second barrier for newer games like Unreal Tournament 3 and Quake Wars. Then again, the $999 Gateway MC7803u didn't fare much better.

At least it doesn't kill batteries in a hurry. Our review rig ran for just over 3 hours in tests.

The Y530's 15-inch screen provides solid 1280 by 800 resolution--when you can see the panel, that is. The glare is a pretty significant problem. Even in a room with the blinds closed and only indirect light sources, I could see my reflection staring back at me as I tried to work. Moreover, the colors are muted, with everything looking more opaque than it should. Not that big of a deal when you're listening to tunes, but the color issues and the glare combined can be a big downer when you're trying to get into a movie playing on the laptop's DVD-ROM drive.

Thankfully, the keyboard on the Y530 works splendidly. It has ample room, as well as an array of function buttons (including a ten-key) that make adjusting your brightness and other settings a simple task. And if you love music, you're in for a real treat, as the Y530 features a touch-inductive panel that allows you to control media and even tweak equalizer settings easily. (I'll delve deeper into this audiophile's dream in a second.) The touchpad is standard, and it lacks the scroll bar that numerous other laptops include. It performs just fine, however, and it's positioned far enough from the keyboard that it never gets in the way when you're working hard and your fingers are flying.

Unlike a lot of other laptops these days, the Y530 doesn't go for a glossy exterior. Instead, the machine's visual appeal banks on the notion that matte black can look dead sexy--and it does. The lightly textured exterior feels like that of a lovely old book, and that idea translates to more than just aesthetics. The machine closes tight without the use of locks to hold it in place, and it snaps closed with a satisfying sound that is reminiscent of the closing of a heavy hardcover novel.

The inside of the Y530 is made of a beautiful nonshiny metallic surface that blends perfectly with the exterior of the machine and contrasts nicely with the dark black keyboard and the backlit touch-inductive surface that sits above it. Along with the standard audio, ethernet, and three USB ports, you get a lot of other connections that give the Y530 many more potential uses, including an HDMI audio port, a VGA port, a PCI Express card slot, a multiformat media reader, and a FireWire (IEEE 1394) connector that will allow you to hook up special cameras and external drives. That's a lot of interface options, and they're especially useful since Lenovo managed to fit them all along the sides and on the front of the machine only. And expansion doesn't look like it'll be too hard of a task for the enthusiast tech-head: The battery is easy to take out, while the RAM and the 250GB, 5400-rpm hard drive are easily accessible after you remove just a few screws.

Audio is where this IdeaPad excels. The Y530 features four speakers and a tiny little subwoofer built into the bottom. The result, on music at least, is surprisingly crisp quadraphonic sound. At full volume this laptop gets much louder than others do, but a lot of background noise can still drown it out fairly easily. The system doesn't do nearly as well on movies: In our tests, DVDs that we played in Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center (the only DVD-playback software included) were annoyingly quiet. Still, if the ability to listen to music while working is what you're after, the Y530 would be an excellent laptop choice.

The documentation included with the Y530 is pretty extensive, and it makes the laptop extremely user friendly. From a pullout poster that breaks down all the small things that you'll need to know as a first-time user, to a user guide that explains all the nitty-gritty details about the rig, you'll have more than enough information to get acquainted with your new work partner. The software bundle, on the other hand, is abysmal: This laptop comes with almost nothing besides Windows and CyberLink software for burning CDs and DVDs. Would it have been too much to toss in some awesome DVD-playback software to support the wonderful speakers?

With the Lenovo IdeaPad Y530, "You get what you pay for" isn't a bad thing. The Y530 is a good laptop built for anyone who needs to work and to sneak in a little play time on the side. And, for under a thousand bucks, it is a solid counterpoint to Gateway's MC7803u series.

MSI Wind U123-003US

2009-07-30T21:44:00.002+06:00

MSI Wind U123-003US

MSI's second Wind (netbook, that is) offers more of the same: Decent performance, value, and a hackable Mac OS X box.

It's been a year since the Wind U100, the "big" sibling to the MSI Wind U123, came out--and the similarities between the two netbooks are eerie. Both run Windows XP Home Edition, and both carry 1GB of RAM, a Webcam and mic, and essentially everything else, except the U123 features a bulbous nine-cell battery and the 1.6GHz Intel Atom N280 processor (versus the U100's N270 CPU). In short, same stuff, different day.

That CPU upgrade doesn't amount to much of a difference. Oh, sure, the U123 will finish tasks a hair faster, but it's still in the same ballpark. While the U100 earned a mark of 36 in WorldBench 6 (about the average), the U123 barely edged ahead with a score of 37. As for the U123's large nine-cell battery, however, the PC World Test Center found that it lasted for 4 hours, 34 minutes under constant use, whereas the three-cell battery on the U100 survived for a little over 2 hours less--that's an obvious improvement over last year's model. (Of course, netbooks with longer battery life and more features, like the Toshiba NB205-310, are on the market too.) The only drawback to the U123's beefy battery is that it makes this netbook weigh as much as anultraportable laptop--3.6 pounds, to be precise.

The 10.2-inch LED screen is crisp, and a tad larger than the 10-inch screen found on the U100. Though the workspace is a little tight, Excel spreadsheets seem clear and Web browsing is easy enough to handle. The matte screen allows for fairly crisp colors indoors; though the antiglare surface is nothing special, it does its job well away from direct sunlight. Once outside, however, the 1024-by-600-resolution display appears dull and mediocre. At least it's viewable--most netbook makers prefer to go with a glossy screen that's barely visible outdoors.

The touchpad is extremely responsive, allowing your finger to slide effortlessly across its surface. The one downfall is that the mouse buttons are resistant, a little too stiff and clicky for my tastes. Translation: It's a less-than-ideal choice for use in quiet places such as a library or classroom.

The keyboard is 92 percent of standard size. Of course, while that is common to netbooks, it doesn't take away from the fact that such keyboards are still a little tough to use. Case in point: After an hour of almost constant typing, my small hands started to cramp up and I had to stop. If you put the U123 side by side with a netbook such as the HP Mini 5101, you can see that the U123's keys are just a hair shorter.

Layoutwise, the U123 doesn't veer too far from what you'd expect. The U123 has three USB ports, two on the left side of the unit and one on the right. You'll also find a video port and an audio port for headphones and a microphone, plus a multiformat reader that supports four different types of memory cards (SD, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, and Memory Stick Pro). The 1.3-megapixel Webcam is slightly better quality next to the Webcams on other netbooks in this category; it records video well and captures footage with only a few minor color and sharpness issues.

The only unadvertised feature of the U123 (and one that matters to 0.05 percent of the public) is the machine's openness to hacking. The U100 is a good "hackintosh" box, one that allows users to download drivers in preparation for installing and using OS X on a netbook. Hackers, now you have a newer version to consider ripping apart.

In the end, the MSI Wind U123 will receive compliments on its sleek looks from coffee-shop hipsters. After all, the U123's exterior is eye-catching--even sexy, considering the glossy deep-blue finish of our review model. Look a little closer, however, and this netbook rates as fairly average. In fact, the identically priced Toshiba NB205-310 is equally attractive and offers an impressive number of unique features, and it lasted more than twice as long as the U123 did in our tests. You just won't be able to run OS X on the Toshiba--if that matters to you at all.

Alienware M17

2009-07-21T16:46:00.002+06:00

Alienware M17

Alienware gaming laptops are built to incite envy. Their designs, which resemble a coat of armor with gill-like ridges, topped off by the signature alien head logo, are sleek and otherworldly. Traditionally, these rigs are limited to those with deep pockets, with don't-even-ask price tags. The new Alienware M17 gaming rig takes a slightly different, more affordable approach. At $2,060 (direct), this 17-inch behemoth can be heavy at times, but its sleek Stealth Black case and ATI CrossFireX dual-GPU configuration are well worth the price.

The M17's design—almost an exact replica of theAlienware Area-51 m9750—has moved away from the flashy neon paint jobs found on other Alienware laptops in favor of a stealthier look Batman would love. Its "Stealth Black" frame, as Alienware calls it, is reminiscent of Batman's rubbery yet bulletproof ensemble, complete with a rib cage or what Alienware refers to as its "skullcap gills." The texture feels like rubber, but the material is actually a matte-finished plastic that does a nice job of warding off fingerprints and minor scratches. Of course, the lid wouldn't be complete without the signature alien head logo, illuminated and enhanced by blue LEDs.

I'm hopelessly smitten with the 17-inch widescreen and its 1,920-by-1,200 resolution, but a big screen has its drawbacks. The M17's 9.4-pound frame is a burden on mobile LAN gamers, while the huge AC adapter alone tips the scales at almost 3 pounds. Although it's lighter than the 10.4-pound Dell XPS M1730 (Penryn), its weight exceeds those of the Gateway P-171XL FX and the Alienware m9750 by 3.2 ounces. Alternatively, because of its smaller 15-inch screen, the Alienware Area-51 m15x is a lot lighter at 7.8 pounds but can only house a single GPU.

The full-size keyboard is fantastic for maneuvering through shoot-'em-up games like Crysis, and World in Conflict. Instant messaging and typing up long e-mails were a breeze. The keyboard's LED backlights give gamers a huge advantage during nighttime sessions. By pressing the Fn and the F10 keys, the illuminated keyboard can change colors (red, green, or blue) or be turned off completely—a unique feature. The mouse buttons, however, felt a little loose, and the clicking noises can be loud at times, but most gamers will be using an external mouse, anyway.

Features-wise, you're well taken care of despite the value price. The M17 comes with four USB ports, one of which doubles as an eSATA port for storage expansion. You can also find a FireWire, VGA-out, and Gigabit Ethernet ports. Unlike the Dell M1730, the M17 doesn't have DVI-out, but its HDMI-out port is a worthy replacement, since it carries both audio and video streams. (Another option would be to purchase an HDMI-to-DVI conversion cable.) Other valuable features include a TV tuner that receives over-the-air HD signals and an optical-out port for standalone devices that have this feature.

The speedy (7,200-rpm) 160GB hard drive can be upgraded to larger capacities, and the M17 supports a second hard drive that can potentially bring capacity up to a terabyte. At this price point, a Blu-ray reader would be nice, but you'll have to settle for a dual-layer DVD burner.

As with all Alienware laptops, the M17 comes with a "command center"—a software suite made up of three parts: Fusion, Sense, and Touch. With Fusion, you can create a power management scheme for the system. Though the host of settings it manages is available in Vista, Alienware places them in one convenient location. Sense uses the embedded 2-megapixel webcam as a facial recognition device. The webcam and a fingerprint reader are two extra layers of security that back up passwords in Windows and the system's BIOS. Lastly, Touch alters the sensitivity levels of tapping and scrolling with the touchpad. Overall, the command center places all your settings into one convenient location, but there's nothing revolutionary about it.

A gaming system doesn't necessarily require the fastest processor to score well on gaming tests. The 2.26-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor is modest at best, reflecting the system's price. It comes up well short of the faster Extreme processors found in the Gateway P-171FX XL, the m15x, and the Dell M1730. The M17's 3GB of DDR3 is enough to run any task, but if you intend to use a 64-bit operating system, upgrading to 4GB is better in the long run. I should also note that it's been a while since I updated the Dell M1730 review, so its benchmark test scores don't reflect the latest parts. Still, the Dell M1730 managed to beat the M17 by 9 percent on the SYSmark 2007 Preview Overall score, thanks in large part to an Extreme processor. By the same token, the Gateway and the Alienware m15x delivered higher scores as well. On Windows Media Encoder tests, the M17 couldn't keep up with the pack, and its CineBench R10 score was no match against those of the Gateway and the Alienware m15x. Even battery life, despite a big (96-Wh) battery, was unimpressive, with a MobileMark 2007 score just shy of 2 hours. But this is a minor nit, considering its amazing performance at this price point.

Gaming tests, on the other hand, were the bright spots in the M17's performance. CrossFireX, a brand well known in desktop circles, is ATI's answer to Nvidia's SLI technology, linking dual graphics cards. The M17 is one of the first laptops to use ATI's CrossFireX technology, housing twin ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPUs. For the most part, the M17 performed valiantly on my gaming tests. At native resolution (1,920-by-1,200), its 3DMark 2006 score surpassed those of the Gateway and the Alienware m15x. Even at 1,024-by-768, its 3DMark scores beat those of the Gateway and the m15x, since low resolutions generally favor the faster processors. The M17 performed well at native resolution on both Crysis and World in Conflict tests but showed some weakness at low resolutions. The Dell M1730's one-two punch—a 2.8-GHz Core 2 Duo X9000 Extreme processor and Nvidia SLI GPUs—were too much for the M17 on all facets of 3D gaming.

The Alienware M17 may not have the gaming prowess of the Dell XPS M1730, but it fulfills its purpose as a gaming laptop. Keep in mind, too, that you're paying half as much. Despite the use of a midrange processor, the CrossFireX technology delivered terrific gaming scores and is capable of handling some of the more demanding games in the industry. Add to it a proven design and you have yourself a winner.

2009 Super Zoom Shootout

2009-07-21T16:36:00.001+06:00

2009 Super Zoom Shootout

One of the fastest growing segments in digital photography is the "super zoom" category. These cameras, with lenses greater han 18X, offer an incredible zoom range in fairly compact bodies. If you even could, an equivalent lens for a digital SLR would not only be very expensive, it would weight a ton. Other common features on super zoom cameras include large LCDs, manual controls, and all the usual point-and-shoot features (face detection, scene modes, etc.).
In this article I will compare four super zoom cameras: the Kodak EasyShare Z980, Nikon Coolpix P90, Olympus SP-590 Ultra Zoom, and thePentax X70. This review will be different than what you're used to seeing on the DCRP site. It will be higher level, with very little time spent on mundane details like software bundles and menu options. I'll compare and contrast the four cameras in several areas, including what's in the box, design and ergonomics, features, performance, and photo quality.
Let's start with an overview of the four cameras:
Kodak EasyShare Z980 Nikon Coolpix P90 Olympus SP-590UZ Pentax X70
Street price
(at time of publication) $374 $368 $439 $393
Sensor resolution (effective) 12 MP 12 MP 12 MP 12 MP
Lens focal range 26 - 624 mm
(24X) 26 - 624 mm
(24X) 26 - 676 mm
(26X) 26 - 624 mm
(24X)
Lens max aperture F2.8 - F5.0 F2.8 - F5.0 F2.8 - F5.0 F2.8 - F5.0
Image stabilization Sensor-shift Sensor-shift Sensor-shift Sensor-shift
LCD size / resolution 3.0" / 201k pixel 3.0" / 230k pixel 2.7" / 230k pixel 2.7" / 230k pixel
LCD position Fixed Tilting Fixed FIxed
RAW support Yes No No No
Hot shoe Yes No No No
HD video recording Yes, 720p No No Yes, 720p
Onboard memory 47.5 MB 47.0 MB 22.0 MB 33.6 MB
Conversion lens support No No Yes No
Other features Vertical grip included - Wireless flash support; HDMI output -
Battery used AA x 4 EN-EL5 AA x 4 D-LI92
Battery life
(CIPA standard) 400 shots * 200 shots 340 shots ** 170 shots
Dimensions (W x H x D) 4.9 x 3.5 x 4.1 in. 4.5 x 3.3 x 3.9 in. 4.3 x 3.5 x 3.9 in. 4.4 x 3.2 x 3.9 in.
Weight 415 g 460 g 373 g 391 g
* Test performed with 2100 mAh NiMH batteries
** Test performed with alkaline batteries
Don't worry, there will be a lot more comparison tables as this article progresses. Ready to see these four Super Zooms go head-to-head? Then keep reading, our special review starts right now!
What's in the Box?
Not surprisingly, all four cameras have similar bundles. Here's what you'll find in the box for each:

Kodak EasyShare Z980
Four 2100 mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries
NiMH battery charger
Detachable vertical grip
Lens cap w/retaining strap
Neck strap
USB cable
CD-ROM featuring EasyShare software and full manual
27 page basic manual (printed)

Nikon Coolpix P90
EN-EL5 lithium-ion battery
Battery charger
Lens cap w/retaining strap
Neck strap
USB cable
A/V cable
CD-ROM including Coolpix Software Suite
179 page manual (printed)

Olympus SP-590 Ultra Zoom
Four AA alkaline batteries
Lens cap w/retaining strap
Neck strap
USB cable
A/V cable
MicroSD adapter
CD-ROM featuring Olympus Master software
87 page manual (printed)

Pentax X70
D-LI92 lithium-ion battery
Battery charger
Lens cap w/retaining strap
Neck strap
USB cable
A/V cable
CD-ROM featuring ACDSee software
269 page manual (printed)
None of the cameras include memory cards. Instead, they have memory built right in, ranging from 22MB on the Olympus to 47MB on the Kodak and Nikon. You'll certainly want to add more memory, and all of the cameras except for the SP-590UZ support SD and SDHC cards. Olympus is still stubbornly hanging onto the slow, low capacity xD Picture Card format, though you can use MicroSD cards via an included adapter, if you wish. Regardless of which camera you pick, I'd suggest a 2GB card at the minimum. Spending a little extra on a high speed card isn't a bad idea, though there's no need to go overboard.
Two of the cameras in our group are powered by AA batteries, while the other two use proprietary lithium-ion batteries. Olympus includes alkaline batteries in the box, which will quickly run out of juice and end up in your recycling bin. That means that you'll need to buy a set or two of NiMH rechargeables, plus a charger, in order to get the most out of the camera. Kodak, on the other hand, includes rechargeables in the box, plus a charger. The batteries aren't the most powerful out there, and the charger is very slow, but it's better than nothing. The Nikon and Pentax both use lithium-ion rechargeables, with 4.1 Wh and 3.5 Wh worth of energy, respectively. It takes about two hours to charge each of the camera's batteries using their included chargers. Keep in mind that unlike the AA-based cameras, you can't use an off-the-shelf battery when the lithium-ion battery on the P90 or X70 dies.
Here's a look at how these four cameras compare to other super zoom cameras in terms of battery life:
Camera Battery life
(CIPA standard) Battery used
Canon PowerShot SX1 IS 420 shots 4 x 2500 mAh NiMH
Canon PowerShot SX10 IS 600 shots 4 x 2500 mAh NiMH
Casio Exilim EX-FH20 430 shots 4 x 2500 mAh NiMH
Kodak EasyShare Z980 400 shots 4 x 2100 mAh NiMH
Nikon Coolpix P90 200 shots EN-EL5
Olympus SP-590UZ 340 shots 4 x alkaline AA
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 460 shots CGR-S006
Pentax X70 170 shots D-LI92
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 390 shots NP-FH50
Battery life numbers are provided by the manufacturer
As you can see, the Pentax and Nikon are holding up the rear in the battery life department. It's hard to compare the Olympus with the other cameras, since they used alkaline batteries to come up with the 340 shot number. If history is any indication, using powerful NiMH batteries should yield numbers of over 500 shots per charge, though.

The Kodak EasyShare Z980 with its included vertical grip attached
The other accessories that come with each of the four Super Zooms are standard issue. The one exception is the vertical grip that comes with the Kodak EasyShare Z980. Just screw it on to the bottom of the camera and you can now shoot a bit more comfortably in the portrait orientation. You will have to flip a switch in order to activate the vertical buttons, though -- why they couldn't use an orientation sensor is beyond me. I should also point out that you won't have access to the memory card slot when the grip is attached.
There are just a couple of optional accessories worth mentioning. For the Kodak EasyShare Z980 there's an external flash (priced from $110) as well as an A/V cable (should be a standard feature, but it's not). The Olympus SP-590 is the only one of the cameras that supports conversion lenses, with an available 1.7X teleconverter lens available ($150). This adapter (TCON-17) brings the telephoto end of the lens up to an incredible 1149.2 mm! You'll need to buy the CLA-11 conversion lens adapter (priced from $30) as well, which also allows for the use of 55 mm filters. All four cameras have optional AC adapters as well as the requisite camera case.

Toshiba NB205-312

2009-07-20T23:15:00.002+06:00

Toshiba NB205-312

Toshiba's NB205 is a great value, packed with a collection of fantastic features and a marathon-ready battery life.

Toshiba may be new to netbooks, but the company is no stranger to small. Toshiba's NB205-N310 ($400) jumps into the market and claims a top spot in our rankings. This primo portable not only delivers where it counts with the longest battery life to date, it does so with panache and some great design decisions. In short, Toshiba has come a long way since blazing trails with its Libretto subnotebooksin the 1990s.

I'm going to start this review with the NB205's only real "downer": its pedestrian speed and guts. The guts are a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB 5400-rpm hard drive, which together earned the NB205 a rather standard performance score of 36 in PC WorldBench 6. But that's about the only thing that I'd classify as "average" about the NB205-N310.

Toshiba spokespeople say that the NB205-N310's six-cell battery can last for almost 9 hours. Wrong. In our tests, the NB205 survives a staggering 9 hours, 53 minutes. For a little perspective, that is easily the longest time so far that a netbook has been able to run--and this is with the standard battery on board. That alone catapults this netbook's worth to a top pick on the charts.

A killer keyboard and a touchpad to match are essential for a champion netbook. After all, how useful is a machine if you can't type on it without hurting your hands? Toshiba scores by making the Chiclet-size cutout keys just big enough, and by dropping down a huge touchpad. This is simply the best netbook mouse pad to date. For starters, the surface area of the strike zone is larger than that on many full-size laptops! Next, the beefy mouse buttons camp at the southern edge of the machine--easing hand strain. My physical therapist would approve.

The N310 has good (though occasionally muted) color reproduction and supports a reasonably precise resolution of 1024 by 600 pixels on its glossy 10.1-inch screen. I noticed some dark spots that got washed into a splotch or two--but otherwise, the images looked plenty sharp.

Its configuration looks fairly standard on the surface: three USB ports, an SDHC card reader, a Webcam, one VGA-out, ethernet, and headphone and microphone jacks. But it's put together in a 2.9-pound package and with a sense of style that doesn't look or feel cheap at all.

Toshiba also adds a few extras to the NB205-N310 that are sure to appeal to folks on the go--and even more so to IT departments looking to deploy cheap PCs to a mobile workforce. One notable perk is a pass-through USB port that enables users to charge USB-powered devices while the computer is off. This netbook also provides an internal accelerometer to protect the hard drive in case of falls (much as the HP Mini 2140 does)--and it offers wireless WAN support as an option.

As a quick heads-up, another version of the NB205 is waiting in the wings--the lighter, scrappier NB205-N210. The big differences between these sibling Toshiba netbooks boil down to price (the N210 costs $350, $50 less than the N310), key shape (the N210 has flat, wide keys, as opposed to the N310's cut-out style), and the N310's bluetooth support (the N210 doesn't have it).

But considering all the features packed into the N310--and how well it performs in a pinch--this is an easy-to-recommend netbook that's perfect whether you are a budget-minded businessman or you just need a flexible minimachine for a long day of note-taking. If this netbook ponied up a little more horsepower (a discrete GPU wouldn't hurt), I'd probably use this as my go-to gadget.

IdeaPad Y450 all-purpose laptop

2009-07-20T23:06:00.003+06:00

The IdeaPad Y450 all-purpose laptop offers good looks and a surprising number of features at an attractive price.

Though Lenovo's ThinkPad business laptops have a reputation for no-nonsense design, the company also produces low-priced, consumer that look as good as they feel. Just take a look at the IdeaPad Y450, a 14-inch multimedia laptop that's visually striking yet carries a price tag of just $800 (price as of 7/13/09). In some respects the Y450 is a leaner, meaner version of the IdeaPad Y530, which we reviewed a few months back.

Powering the Y450 are an Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 CPU (2GHz, 800MHz frontside bus, 2MB Level 2 cache), 3GB of RAM, and Intel's GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics chip (a discrete nVidia GeForce 105M GPU is available as an option--which we recommend if you want even a glimmer of hope for playing games on the Y450). Earning a respectable WorldBench 6 score of 86, the Y450 has more than enough juice for handling everyday tasks and playing high-def video content. The score puts it in the middle of the pack. Its battery life is also quite good, as it lasted a comfortable 4 hours, 28 minutes in our stress tests.

Though the Y450 is only a 14-inch laptop, its port and communications selection is comparable to that of larger machines. Included are two USB ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, a four-pin FireWire port, an ExpressCard/34 slot, a five-in-one flash reader, headphone and microphone jacks, HDMI- and VGA-out, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, ethernet, a 1.3-megapixel Webcam, a DVD burner, and an infrared port compatible with Lenovo remote controls.

But even with that dizzying assortment of jacks, ports, and drives, the Y450 doesn't look or feel cramped at all, thanks to clever design and color choices. The overall build quality is excellent, as well, with the only weak area being the flimsy plastic lid, which flexes quite a bit under light pressure. Considering the sturdiness of the rest of the body, it's a shame that Lenovo chose not to use a harder, thicker plastic to protect the back side of the screen. A couple other minor quibbles: The right side of the palm rest can get really warm even when the machine has a light workload, and the power brick's L-shaped connector can block the DVD drive from opening if it's facing the wrong way.

Since Lenovo is marketing the Y450 as a multimedia machine, I was glad to see a crisp and colorful, 720p-friendly screen with a native resolution of 1366 by 768. While I would've preferred a slightly higher resolution, given the screen's 14-inch size and the low cost of the laptop itself, I can't complain too much. Though the screen features a glossy coating, surprisingly the reflections on the plastic cover are fairly subdued. Horizontal viewing angles are excellent, but the shallow vertical viewing angles make it difficult to have color and contrast look even across the screen; that isn't a deal-breaker by any means, but worth mentioning.

Also worth noting is the keyboard. Though the full-size keys here feel a little cheaper than those of the gold-standard ThinkPad keyboard, they have just the right amount of travel and their placement is standard. There's very little flex when you're typing, too. Above the keyboard is a touch-sensitive area with volume buttons, a unique strip for switching applications, a button that activates a "movie" mode (warming the screen colors), and a button that opens the included Dolby Control Center application (more on that in a minute). The touch response is great, though Lenovo made a quirky design decision: A Wi-Fi status LED that looks exactly like a button--but isn't one--sits in the same row as the touch controls. Yes, it's very confusing.

The textured touchpad works reasonably well; because it feels slick to the touch, however, it sometimes seems less responsive than it is. The pad also supports multitouch gestures for actions such as zooming in on pictures and changing text size, but since that works only in some applications it feels more like a novelty than a real feature. The plastic buttons are definitely the weakest link--I'm a little concerned about their long-term durability.

Given that the Y450 has a Dolby-specific shortcut button above the keyboard, a Dolby Home Theater badge recessed into the case, and speakers made by JBL, I had some pretty high expectations for its sound. While the speakers definitely get loud enough, they lack even a modicum of low end. Activating the Dolby bass boost via software helps considerably, but at the expense of a little distortion, even at lower volumes. To get the most out of the laptop, a good set of headphones is the way to go, allowing you to enjoy the substantial benefit of Dolby's software, sans distortion. Overall, though, the system has more than enough power and volume for daily use.

Unfortunately, the Windows Home Premium-powered Y450 also has more than enough bloatware to drive you up a wall. Some of the software seems useful at first, but the implementation is poor. The unintuitive but good-looking MediaShow media organizer, for instance, bogs down system performance and defeats its own purpose. And don't get me started on the VeriFace facial-recognition system--its inability to recognize my face in anything but the most ideal situations renders it as irritating as the antivirus, Microsoft Office, and online-backup trials. Regrettably, the worst software comes from Lenovo itself, the prime example being Idea Central, a confusing application that attempts to meld RSS feeds, online videos, an online store, and paid-for links into one unified interface. The results are not pretty.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 is a well-built all-purpose laptop whose only serious drawback lies in the graphics department. With a price that starts below $600 and tops out at about $900, this is a great-looking and full-featured laptop for everyday home, school, and work use. Just don't expect much more.

Technology

2009-07-19T18:33:00.001+06:00

The fastest changing thing in the World.

Dell Studio 1537

2009-07-08T20:26:00.001+06:00

The Dell Studio 1537 is a sight for sore eyes, with our model coming with a red lid to round out its overall smooth appearance. It also comes with some decent firepower behind that standard Studio beauty, packing a latest generation Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 GHz to go along with 4GB RAM, a 320GB HDD and a dedicated 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 GPU. When you consider that you can get all this for a cost that won’t exceed three digits, the Studio looks like a solid value.

Design

Case look and feel

Like most Studios, the look and feel of the case is very nice. The red lid and silver Dell logo in its center looks stylish and the texture is smooth to the touch. Opening the lid you’ll see a silver frame around the wide, glossy screen, with a tiny webcam peering out at you from above and unfortunately some thin strips of rubber padding for when the lid closes (it’s useful and discreet, but other laptops manage to close fine without them). There is a Dell logo on the bottom of the display, but you’ll hardly notice it as its on a level with the hinge. The silver border extends around the black speakers and backlit keyboard, which is a nice effect, and the trackpad is simply a slight depression in the palmrest. The front of the laptop is tapered slightly so that the back is deeper than the front, avoiding the boxy look. When considering the overall look, the word smooth comes to mind again and again.

Size & Weight

If only it were lighter it might actually be as smooth as it looks, but at 6.11 lbs (more with the 9-cell battery) you won’t be casually lifting up the studio with one hand to show it off (not that we recommend that anyway). With dimensions of 14”x10.3”x1”/1.3” (front/back), the Studio isn’t exactly thin either. Our version came with the extended 9-cell battery, which props up the back at an angle that is not uncomfortable for typing but adds about another .75” to the depth in the back. The Studio isn’t so thick that it looks bad at all, so don’t worry about those style points. It’s just clearly not competing in the thin-and-light laptop category.

Keyboard and Trackpad

First and foremost, the backlit keyboard (optional) looks nice, it really does. It powers up gradually when typing and fades away after about 60 seconds without typing, and can be turned off or dimmed to save power. Overall the keyboard is full sized and comfortable to type on, with a limited but acceptable array of function keys and no dedicated number pad. There is a set of multimedia touch buttons above which light up the same white of the keyboard, as well as a few status lights in the top right corner beneath the speaker bay. The trackpad as well is comfortable to use, set slightly to the left and decently sized.

Display quality

The display quality is great, with the only shortfall being a rather average WXGA 1280x800 resolution. However, the display is LED backlit and extremely bright, making outdoor use a possible even in direct sunlight (the display is glossy, but we were able to see the words on a document clearly through our own reflection). Viewing angles are almost perfect, with a wide sweet spot and very little washout from the sides or below even at extreme angles (from above there is a good but lesser range).

Connectivity description

The Studio 1537 has a capable assortment of connectivity options, including HDMI, eSATA, and mini FireWire. The front and back are virtually barren, leaving just about everything to be handed by the left and right sides.

Starting with the most interesting, on the left side you’ll find a multicard reader, a remote control slot, 2 audio out jacks as well as audio in, Ethernet, 1USB and 1USB/eSATA, VGA, HDMI, a wireless on/off switch and a unique button for Dell’s “Wi-Fi Catcher” software. Not a bad haul.

On the right side the mini FireWire, 2 more USB ports and the slot loading DVD player are found, as well as the power jack and power button. The power button lights up when it’s on, but for some reason the Wi-Fi Catcher button which is symmetrically opposite it doesn’t light up, even when you’re using it, disturbing the symmetry.

The only thing on the front is the infrared sensor for the remote, and the only thing on the back is an exhaust fan. Frighteningly, due to the hinge design of the Studio, when the display is extended backwards about half this fan is covered up, the other half potentially blasting hot air onto the frame of your LCD. Barring some unusual circumstances this situation shouldn’t come up much though.

Upgrading possible?

Upgrading is always possible with Dell, which offers a wide assortment of Studio colors and designs. Beyond that, processors are available from the T4200 to the T9550, HDDs up to 500GB, WUXGA (1920x1200) resolution, and more. Unfortunately for potential gamers the 256MB GPU is as good as it gets, although that should be enough for the optional Blu-ray player to run smoothly. You can also get Vista Ultimate if you want, or at least some 64bit version of Vista, because it’s wasteful that our model came with Home Premium 32bit and 4GB RAM (32-bit operating systems can only utilize 3GB).

Features

The Studio 1537 comes with a few interesting features, some of which make the machine easier to look at and others which make it easier to use. The backlit keyboard and lighted touch-buttons garner obvious style points, and even the power cord itself has a glowing blue ring around it when it’s plugged into the wall. HDMI, eSATA, a biometric fingerprint reader and (optional) Blu-ray, Bluetooth and remote control help round out the feature set. The integrated webcam and accompanying software for easily making videos and other media is nice, and the dual headphone jack is a nice touch so that you and a friend can both listen to audio without disturbing those around you. There’s also a very Mac-like dock installed by default at the top of the screen for links and favorites, which we found to be a little too large and gaudy for our tastes (but fortunately can be easily closed).

Performance & Conclusion

Performance

The 1537, although unable to utilize 1GB of its 4GB RAM, is packed with a powerful processor, a dedicated GPU and ample RAM for most tasks. Although the specs fall short of the top notch, we expected the unit to perform well in testing. For more information on our testing procedures, see here: (http://www.laptoplogic.com/about/test/)

Windows Vista Experience Score

Processor: 5.2

RAM: 5.9

Graphics: 4.0

Gaming Graphics: 4.1

Primary HD: 5.5

An overall score of 4.0 isn’t bad, and it’s clear the GPU is what’s keeping the score from being higher. We expected a little better from a dedicated GPU, but then again, it’s only 256MB.

PCMarkvantage

Lenovo T400 3746

HP HDX16 3320

ThinkPad X301 3308

VAIO FW270j 3235

Lenovo Y530 2872

Dell Studio 1537: 2845

The Studio again performed a little under our expectations here, falling behind multimedia laptops such as the HDX and FW270j as well as the business ultraportable X301. It compared decently to the Y530, although that computer has inferior specs aside from the Nvidia 9300M, also 256MB.

WorldBench 6

Lenovo T400 91

Toshiba E-105 83

HP HDX 16 80

Dell Studio 1537 79

VAIO FW270j 74

Lenovo Y530 70

In everyday task performance the 1537 looks a little better. Here it outperforms the Y530 and is equal or better to the aforementioned multimedia laptops.

Battery Performance, General Use

Dell Studio 1537 357

ThinkPad T400 (Integrated) 334

Toshiba Satellite E-105 260

ThinkPad X301 235

VAIO FW270j 181

HP HDX 16 156

With the 9-cell battery, battery life was exceptional, clocking in at almost 6 hours before turning off. This was at 60% brightness and with WiFi and backlit keyboard enabled… if you really squeeze, you could probably approach 7 hours on this battery.

Battery Performance, DVD Use

Toshiba Satellite E-105 210

Dell Studio 1537 206

Lenovo X301 117

VAIO FW270j 101

HP HDX 16 80

Asus G50 80

Again, the battery life proved excellent here, easily surpassing three hours. That’s enough time to watch two average movies (as we did), or for the adventurous of you out there, one viewing of Lord of the Rings.

Real-life usage

In usage the laptop was fairly comfortable to use, although it has some flaws. The 9-cell battery pokes out narrowly from the bottom of the laptop, which does tilt the machine at a decent angle for typing, but unfortunately makes it very uncomfortable for actually placing on your lap. It also runs fairly warm, in particular in the front under the palmrest (it is less noticeable in the back because of the tilting). The laptop runs very quietly though even when playing Cds, and the sound quality is good.

Conclusion

Overall the Dell Studio 1537 is a stylish machine that is powerful enough to handle your media without breaking the bank. The modern Intel Core 2 Duo CPU along with 4GB RAM and a 320GB HDD go a long way when combined with a dedicated GPU, although not quite as far as we were hoping. Still, the colorful lid, extremely bright display and attractive overall design make the Studio a desirable laptop at a desirable price.

Dell Adamo

2009-07-08T20:23:00.001+06:00

The Adamo is more of a fashion statement than a laptop, which Dell has proven through its mysterious (until now) adamobydell.com teaser website and the short glimpse we got of it at CES.

Not for Gamers

From looking at the specs we understand that it’s not a performance laptop by any means – the base model has an ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, integrated Intel graphics, 2GB of 800MHz DDR3 RAM and a 128GB SSD. The latter will certainly contribute to making it a little faster than the average 1.2GHz laptop, but it’s still a slow machine.

The starting price for this thing of beauty is $1,999, but if you feel like splurging you can upgrade to a 1.4GHz processor and two more gigs or RAM for $700 more. Obviously it’s not performance you’re paying for with the Adamo, but its incredibly thin build and eye-pleasing exterior.

Quality Time with the Adamo

Holding the Adamo actually makes you feel that you’re holding an expensive laptop – its aluminum build is very solid including the keyboard, and the brushed-metal touchpad is surprisingly pleasant to use. It has a very nice-looking edge-to-edge glass display with a 1,366x768 resolution and to save additional space Dell has removed the optical drive, opting for a matching external one (not included) which uses the Adamo’s built-in eSATA port. You may choose between a slot-loading DVD-RW drive for $120 and a Blu-ray drive for $350.

DellBook Air

While we were playing with the Adamo, close by Dell staff took the opportunity (several times) to point out that it’s thinner than the MacBook Air. It is thinner than the MBA at its thickest point, but you would hardly know that from looking at it as the MacBook Air has a tapered chassis. It’s also half a pound heavier.

Unlike the Air, the Adamo comes with a 64-bit copy of Windows Vista installed. Unfortunately Vista does not run all that well on low-end systems, and there’s no option to customize the Adamo with an XP downgrade or Linux. Potential buyers might want to wait until Windows 7 is released, which will work better with slower systems and even netbooks. On the other hand, the Adamo seems to run Vista fairly smoothly, partly thanks to the quick solid state drive.

We will add some benchmarks to this page when we’ve had some extended quality time with a review sample.

ASUS Eee PC 1000HE

2009-07-08T20:21:00.001+06:00

Asus continues to define the netbook standard with the new Eee PC 1000HE. Although the difference compared to previous 10-inch models is quite miniscule it continues in the Eee PC tradition of providing good value for your money.

One of the improvements in the 1000HE is a slightly faster Atom N280 CPU at 1.66GHz (compared to the N270 at 1.6GHz) with a higher FSB speed – 667MHz instead of 533MHz). The difference here is noticeable but just barely.

Design

Asus insists on using glossy surfaces on most of the Eee series netbooks, which looks nice but also attracts a lot of fingerprints. From the front you can see the tilted aluminum colored trackpad buttons even when the lid is closed, and it also has four LEDs to indicate power, hard drive activity, wireless and battery.

The Eee 1000HE makes good use of the limited space available and has a near full-size keyboard (92% of standard notebook size) and an easy to use, large trackpad with forward-angled buttons. The slanting buttons feel a little strange at first, but once you get used to them you wonder why it’s not more common.

Overall, Asus has done a great job with the design of the 1000HE, even if very little has changed since previous models. But why change a good thing?

Features and Performance

In-depth performance comparisons and benchmarking don’t make as much sense with netbooks as with full-size laptops, since most of them use almost identical components. Naturally a 0.06GHz increase in CPU speed does not make for a big performance difference, but it provides a small boost thanks to the increased front side bus speed. On average its performance is slightly above par in the netbook segment.

ASUS claims that it can provide a battery life of up to 9.5 hours, but that probably requires that you keep it on idle with screen brightness turned down and WLAN turned off for the duration, but you can still squeeze nearly transatlantic battery times out of the 6-cell – 7 hours and 10 minutes in our general usage test, a great result nonetheless.

Connectivity

All of the ports are placed on the sides of the notebook – the left side has an Ethernet port, one USB and audio line-in and line-out. On the right side is a memory card reader, another 2 USB ports and VGA out. The Wi-Fi card offers support for draft-n, which gives you access to the fastest wireless technology at the moment.

Conclusion

The ASUS Eee PC 1000HE is a bit bulky compared to some “premium” and more expensive netbooks, but all in all you get a lot more for your money with the Eee compared to other brands. Its keyboard and trackpad are very comfortable to use, and the system is very well built. The best part, however, is the 7+ hours of battery life you can squeeze out of it, which is way better than average

MSI Wind U100

2009-07-08T20:17:00.001+06:00

Today we’ll be looking at the MSI Wind (U100) netbook. This 10” netbook sets some feature standouts at a very nice price point. It has Bluetooth, Wirless b/g/n, LED backlighting, and this model sports the hefty 6-c ell battery pack – toting it’s battery life to nearly 6 hours (3 more than the 3-cell). Of course, the standard now for Netbooks is the Intel Atom CPU - but other variables can occur. This model has 1 GB of RAM, a 160gb hard drive, and came with a nice little carrying pouch.

Design
The MSI Wind – which they’ve coined as a acronym for “Wi-Fi Network Device” is the latest Netbook offering from MSI. This 10” LCD screen netbook comes in a few different configurations and colors – our model we ordered is the “white” model (not the Love edition either which has fun little heart design all over it) and sports some decent sex appeal. The LCD bezel isn’t too large, the latchless LCD design is always a plus. There’s a simple row of LED lights to tell you the status of normal network / HDD operation and it features a unibody touchpad button (which, is something to discuss later)

The size for this netbook is similar, if not almost identical to most other netbooks out there measuring in at 10.23" x 7.08" – with the height ranging from .75” – 1.25” with the battery at the back. It’s a little larger than some, mostly due to the 6-cell battery, which also means it’s somewhat significantly heavier than some at 2.6lbs. The battery however, protrudes downwards helping in providing air circulation / heat dissipation which isn’t bad. It also raises the keyboard to a more comfortable typing angle. All good things, but the size is notably bigger, but the gains are well worth it in my opinion.

Keyboard:
The keyboard on the MSI wind is actually very tactile. It offered great travel distance and the noise was minimal. The layout is very familiar, with the only gripes coming from the crowd either not used to the function key where it is. You can’t win them all – but I have no real complaints against they keyboard. It’s a plus that it’s white as well, (not backlit) but it offered better visibility in extreme dark areas. There was some flex, but not in the amounts that would merit it bad. I did notice however that the keys in some areas were taller than others (corners, edges) and were very, very close to hitting the LCD, time will tell how wel this holds up to the abuse bloggers / travelers will put it through, but my thoughts is that it will hold well.

Display Quality:
Being LED backlit, the LCD on the MSI wind carries a 1024x600 resolution and it has a matte finish. The color push on the MSI seems to be slightly green – but more importantly, the viewing angles on the MSI Wind is amazing compared to similar netbooks. I was successful to have nearly 180 degree left to right without severe color shifting, and even though it was not glossy, the color representation was very nice. You will get darker and better “contrast” with a glossy screen (as in the Aspire One) but the tradeoffs are that it produces extreme glare, and from what I have observed, extremely limited viewing angles.

The contrast is a bit low, but that isn’t a huge concern for a netbook – as it contains no optical drive to fully take advantage of video content (although, you can watch video on it, but not optical media).

Connectivity
The MSI Wind, much with other netbooks, offers some consideration as to how you wish to use the unit for it’s connectivity installed. Most if not all netbooks offer at least one USB 2.0 port but anything after that is sort of up to the manufacturers.

On the left, you have 2 USB 2.0 ports and the poser connection.
The right houses one more USB 2.0 Port, a 4-1 card reader, microphone in, audio out, VGA out, and an Ethernet port. It’s pretty simply for exterior ports.

However, it’s sometimes whats inside that matters to most. With the Wind, this models sports the ability to connect via B/G/ or the new N standard for wireless networks. It also has Bluetooth built in – taking advantage of not using a USB port for using Bluetooth devices that might require a dongle. It’s something that I think should be on the priority of the netbook crowd – purchase one that will fit your current or future needs, not based on price alone.

Upgrading
Upgrading is possible, but not without seemingly voiding some sort of warranty. The RAM and Hard drive can be upgraded, but much further than that isn’t possible. Again, these netbooks are made for a purpose, and modifying past these thresholds often isn’t beneficial, and down right dangerous. There is a small following of how to overclock the Atom processor using software, which we will cover on a later date.

Performance
We take a different approach to testing these specialized machines and is outlined on our “How We Test page” located at http://www.laptoplogic.com/about/test/ We try to run the tests in as a controlled environment / variables as possible. But, sometimes we’re limited to the software / hardware provided. In this example, Windows XP is loaded on the machine, giving us standard benchmark programs to be run.
WorldBench 6: 33
Considering the raw power required by some of these tests, and the paltry processor and specifications provided – a score of this nature isn’t surprising, but it’s notable to see that it can do some of the intensive application test runs (although much slower) If you plan on doing heavy Photoshop or audio rendering, be prepared to either have extreme patience, or a different laptop / computer in mind.

Battery Performance
With a hefty 6 cell battery powering the 10” LED backlit netbook – this thing seemed to last for ages. Granted, not as long as the preposterous near 9 hours with the x200 – but trying to do only so little things efficiently for nearly 6 hours was tiring. I love computers, but when things go on for that long, my eyes hurt, my hands are sore, and usually I’ve got a neck cramp from being hunched over.

Maximum: Running on maximum backlighting, both wireless modes on (Bluetooth) and max volume - I managed just over 4 hours and 20 minutes of battery life.

Medium: With the backlight to 75%, Bluetooth disabled, and volume at 75% I ticked just over 5 hours and 25 minutes of real world usage.

Low: With the backlight on its lowest setting, wireless completely off, and no volume – I managed somehow to finish read that e-novel I’ve always wanted to and squeezed 6 hours and a few minutes out of it. 6 hours is a long time, make no doubts about it, I wouldn’t trade this sort of battery life on a netbook for anything, weight and size aside of it, it makes it a true road worthy companion.

DVD watching isn’t really an option since these carry no optical drives – however, you can load an image of your legal DVD onto the machine to watch, which is exactly what I did. After 5 hours and 10 minutes on full volume and full brightness, the MSI Wind went to sleep hinting that I should plug it in. That was two runs of the same movie…needless to say that if you want to watch a movie first, then do some spreadsheets and writing later on that cross country flight, you’re more than welcomed to, and probably have some battery left over when you land to check those annoying email requests you can’t handle till you get to your office anyways.

Real-life usage:
Using the MSI wind was a nice addition to my very busy life. The major gripes that come with using this device is the lag the processor sometimes inhibits when trying to multi-task some things, but that’s expected from the unit every so often with this CPU. Another gripe I have is with the touchpad – there seems to be some discrepancy of which touchpad the MSI wind will come with – some coming with the Synaptics touchpad with gesture control, and the Sentelic touchpad – which is what this unit came with. I’m not a true fan of any touchpad, although some are better than others, the touchpad on most any netbook leaves something to be desired. More so, the odd control of how the “scroll” functions work with this touchpad leave something to be either learned or adjusted to. I found it too sensitive, wary, and unmanageable at times, and at others, it worked as prescribed. An external mouse is highly recommended (Bluetooth can work out of the box with this netbook, rejoice and save a USB port!)

The screen estate at 10” was just big enough to do exactly what I wanted to do with said unit – it typed well, it showed pictures relatively well – web surfing was easy and watching the few ISO dvd’s I’ve made for such testing somewhat fun. And being that the processor is pretty thermally efficient, placing it on my lap, hand, or any odd place it seemed to do just fine. Noise was minimal on this unit (unlike some other netbooks I’ve come across with e.g Aspire One) and the fan was never more than a louder hum when things were really put to the test for the unit.

Again, when getting a netbook, look for the features it has and the battery life. I’ve opted to review the 6-cell version, and while I’m sure the 3-cell carries all the same features, it seems to be just that much more worthy of taking along instead of my 15.4” widescreen that barely creeps over 2 hours of battery life. Having Bluetooth built in, and pairing it with my cell phones data plan was a snap, and even though a tad slower than the coffee shop Wi-FI available, offered me piece of mind that I wasn’t getting snooped on (as easily anways).

The noticeable improvements can come from the webcam and speakers. The MSI Wind has the least desireable speakers in the form of netbooks I’ve heard, and the webcame was very unresponsive. Compared to the Lenovo S10, and Aspire One – the Wind’s webcam offered less detail, more motion blur, and the worst color rendition of all. This might deter those who will be using it on the road for video conferencing, but for me, was moot for the price and performance and casual use it will obtain. But it’s definitely something to consider.

Conclusion
All in all – a worthy netbook, nothing spectacular about the specs as it matches nearly every other netbook out there, but with a decent hard drive configuration, Bluetooth, Wireless N, and 6-cell options to boot. It may look dull on the outside, but it’s sometimes what’s inside that count, and for this little 10” netbook - the LED LCD with amazing viewing angles, great connectivity, and a nice keyboard all fit the bill. One thing I don’t like is if I want to add Ram, I void my warranty – come on, let’s skip the drama and let people do what they need to do. Asus learned, and I’m assuming MSI will be right behind them.

Bottom Line:
10”, LED, Bluetooth and good keyboard are the standouts on this machine. It makes a great blogging / classroom companion. Anything much more than that and you should consider something a little larger with faster components.

Apple MacBook 2008

2009-07-08T20:15:00.001+06:00

Overview
It's big news whenever Apple announces new products and now Apple’s bestselling consumer notebook receives the long rumored major redesign that is no doubt, another stunner. Just when you thought Apple couldn’t make the previous generation MacBook any better, they come around and offer this aluminum and glass beauty that is even thinner, lighter, and more powerful than before. Now that Apple has brought its renewed MacBooks ($1299 starting) and MacBook Pros ($1999 starting) even closer together by offering the same design, engineering, and -for the first time on the MacBook - aluminum body to both notebook lines, the once straightforward consumer and pro-line product differentiation is slowly fading away. Is this the best MacBook to date? Is it safe to call the MacBook, the MacBook Pro "mini"? Read on.

Design
The new MacBook and MacBook Pro make some significant strides in the design department. First, the MacBook for the first time, joins the MacBook Pro in offering an all-aluminum body, ditching the white polycarbonate plastic that once defined the consumer line. In fact, both machines look pretty much identical to each other - offering a black glass bezel screen and black "chiclet-style" keyboards to reflect the new Apple design direction first introduced with the current iMac and iPhone. It's a stunner for sure. The exterior borrows cues from the MacBook Air using tapered edges that trick you into thinking it's even thinner than it already is. The magnetic latch opens and closes the display with buttery smoothness and without mechanical parts. Aa satisfyingly solid "thunk" can be heard when closed. Available in the more expensive $1599 model are LED backlit keys - a first for the MacBook.

Aside from the switch to a fully aluminum casing that replaces the now-defunct white plastic and/or black matte finish of the previous generation, Apple is touting its new manufacturing process as a technological and engineering breakthrough. Using a full slab of aluminum to construct the MacBook and MacBook Pro, not only does this revolutionary process create a body and chassis that is much stiffer with no flexing, these new notebooks use less mechanical screws, parts and pieces to construct together, and thus allow Apple is able to achieve a lighter and thinner product. The result is a notebook that is so clean and so sleek looking in design, it's devoid of any evidence of screws to piece it together and without any vents, confirms that this new design doubles as an effective heatsink.

While it's nice to see the MacBook now offer the same look and materials as the MacBook Pro, Apple may now run the risk of cannibalizing sales of its own pricier MacBook Pros, as they both look almost identical to each other and features-wise, the line between the two is blurring. Call it the MacBook Pro mini if you will in appearance, Apple has revolutionized a new way to build quality notebooks that are also environmental friendly.

Size and Weight
Impressively, the new MacBook is even thinner and lighter than before, achieving a thickness of only .95 " - the same as the new MacBook Pro. At 4.5 pounds, the new MacBook is 1.5 pounds lighter than the outgoing model with weight evenly distributed across thanks to its unibody construction (read: less parts). At 12.78" x 8.94", the new machines are pretty much identical in dimensions to the last generation models.

Keyboard
Love it or hate it, Apple has now transitioned its entire Mac lineup to the retro-looking "chiclet-style" keyboard with the new MacBooks. Rather than color match the keys with the aluminum body, Apple's new design direction employs the use of black keys to give the notebook an interesting design contrast. The downside of having black keys is noticeable fingerprint smudging from oily fingers; At least it won't look and get dirty like the older white MacBooks. Aesthetics aside, the full-size keyboard is a real pleasure to type on with very solid and satisfying clicks. The keys may be flat and spaced out, but it's oh-so-comfortable to type on with just the right amount of key travel and spring action. The higher end model also offers LED backlit keys for the first time on a MacBook - once again, blurring the lines between the MacBook and MacBook Pro in features.

Display
With a gorgeous 13.3" LED-backlit LCD screen fully encased beneath a black bezeled glass, the MacBook's display is stunning to look at even when powered off. The glossy finish makes colors really pop and adds to its enhanced vibrance, but at the cost of massive glare, making outdoor viewing difficult. Indoor viewing is not as bad, but reflections abound so be mindful of viewing angles and tilt adjustments. At first glance, the display seems identical to the previous MacBook screen with the same 1280x800 native resolution, but thanks to the new LED-backlighting, the display is evenly lit across the screen and noticeably brighter than the previous generation models. Watching movies was a real treat even though you'll find yourself seeing your own reflection in lighted areas. But when compared to the MacBook Pro's larger screen, the MacBook's picture quality is still inferior and you'll notice the contrast and blacks drop out when viewed from an angle - The MacBook Pro's, on the otherhand, looks great at any angle. This is a big reason why Apple would like for you to pay the extra money to go Pro for the better screen. A built-in iSight camera is included as well like before on the top of the display.

Buttonless Glass Trackpad
Apple once again leads the competition by offering zero buttons...no really! Apple has created the first "buttonless" trackpad built entirely of glass that also includes multi-touch technology. The entire trackpad is essential a button in itself where pushing down creates a solid click to confirm depresses. While it takes getting used to at first, the trackpad actually turns out to be very intuitive with a smooth glossy feel. The MacBook Air introduced 3-finger scrolling and the MacBook and MacBook Pro now offer 4-finger multi-touch scrolling for calling upon Expose and Spaces functionality. While quirky, you'll soon appreciate the wonders the new glassy trackpad's buttonless design provides.

Connectivity
Apple has shrewdly and neatly moved all ports to the left side of the notebook (the right side now occupies the lone optical drive), giving it a very clean and organized look so there's no cluttered wires coming out of either side. With the MacBook, you get 2 USB 2.0 ports, gigabit ethernet port, audio in/out jacks, MagSafe charge port, and the new mini DisplayPort that replaces the old mini-DVI out in an effort to save precious component space. Also of convenience is the battery meter on the same side. In a surprising move, Apple has curiously decided to omit FireWire in the new MacBook that was previous made standard across the entire Mac lineup. Now, the only way for media heads to take advantage of FireWire connectivity is to shell up the $700 for the MacBook Pro or buy a pricey adapter. While most people can argue that FireWire's adoption is dwindling in favor of USB, one of the unique things that made FireWire so special for Macs is the target disk feature, allowing the computer to boot OS X off any FireWire external drive. Call it cost-cutting or the death of FireWire adoption, we call it a disappointment.

The DisplayPort is another interesting move on Apple's part to capitalize on a new standard that not only saves component space from the larger DVI and mini-DVI ports, but transitions across all future Macs. Unfortunately, Apple is skimping on the accessories as you'll have to shell the hefty $99 for the mini DisplayPort adapter kit to connect an external monitor. Harsh.

For the common consumer, the MacBook provides just enough of what you need and nothing you don't in terms of available ports. Trimming the fat, Apple still doesn't offer any built-in digital card reader into the unit when compared to the competition and ExpressCard is a feature you'll only find on the MacBook Pro. Limited but more than sufficient.

Upgrading
One of the pains of owning an Apple notebook before was the difficulty in upgrading the basic hardware components. It took a few dozen tiny screws just to get to the harddrive! Not so with these new notebooks. Apple clearly did it's homework when redesigning the MacBook and MacBook Pro, making it very easy to open and upgrade. Only 2 aluminum plates pieces hold the base together, providing easy access into the harddrive compartment and RAM slots through a simple flip of a latche. The big news is the removable battery, now tucked neatly beneath one panel next to the hard drive. Upgrading is limited to your standard harddrive upgrade (SATA or SSD) and adding more RAM (up to 4GB max).
Performance

We've ran the awesome xbench scoring system for the Mac OSX system. The following xbench file has been generated:

Results 166.40
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.5 (9F2088)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBook5,1
Drive Type FUJITSU MHZ2160BH FFS G1
CPU Test 130.27
GCD Loop 231.33 12.19 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 110.01 2.61 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 89.98 2.97 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 161.79 28.17 Mops/sec
Thread Test 223.78
Computation 394.19 7.99 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 156.24 6.72 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 169.95
System 187.15
Allocate 219.84 807.34 Kalloc/sec
Fill 160.39 7798.53 MB/sec
Copy 190.62 3937.16 MB/sec
Stream 155.64
Copy 148.05 3057.84 MB/sec
Scale 147.50 3047.36 MB/sec
Add 165.94 3534.84 MB/sec
Triad 162.89 3484.61 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 156.66
Line 144.27 9.60 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 187.28 55.91 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 153.22 12.49 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 151.91 3.83 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 152.99 9.57 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 137.40
Spinning Squares 137.40 174.30 frames/sec
User Interface Test 263.01
Elements 263.01 1.21 Krefresh/sec
Disk Test 34.41
Sequential 40.08
Uncached Write 60.79 37.32 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 24.75 14.00 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 29.32 8.58 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 113.16 56.87 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 30.14
Uncached Write 11.14 1.18 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 65.17 20.86 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 58.06 0.41 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 96.87 17.97 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Battery Life: 187 minutes Recharge Time: 122 minutes

Features:

The MacBook is a real engineering marvel. It's stunning good looks compliment the bevy of new advanced technology and engineering features. The Intel Core2Duo 2.0Ghz model ($1299) we received proved plenty capable of handling most common computing tasks and comes with a 160gb harddrive and 2gb of RAM (with the 1066Mhz FSB). A 2.4Ghz model is available as well for an additional $300 sticker price and includes a 250Gb SATA drive. Both models offer the option of the pricey but fast SSD drive.

Ditching the weak integrated graphics chipset from Intel, the MacBook finally offers a dedicated true graphics engine in the form of the nVidia GeForce 9400M making for better handling of 3D graphics and video. The results, are quite noticeable in speed and video performance throughout the system. Another great feature with this card is that it results in lower heat generation as the CPU no longer has to work so hard in processing these tasks. However, don't expect the GPU to bowl you over in graphics-heavy applications though (read gaming). But, the 9400M certainly does pack a good amount of 3D punch to your videos, media, and gaming sessions, especially with the likes of the new Adobe Photoshop utilizing thus features.

Wireless-N, Bluetooth, SuperDrive and iSight are all standard features as usual.

Heat and noise wasn't much of an issue with the new MacBooks thanks to the entire aluminum unibody acting as a giant heatsink. The notebook runs warm but not quite as hot as older models and a soft hum can be heard only when the fan kicks in intermittently. No issues here. In our battery tests, watching a DVD yielded about 2:40 of juice, and in basic tasks such as web browsing and word processing, a respectable 4:30 of life.

Conclusion
Overall, we found the new MacBook a real pleasure to use as with all Mac products we've tested. It's a gorgeous, sexy piece of machinery and certainly the best MacBook yet. But we do question Apple's decision to make the MacBook so closely identical in looks and features to the MacBook Pro... Anyway, at $1299 starting, it's a tad more expensive than we had hoped it would be, but you do get a lot for your money namely the aluminum casing, glassy multi-touch buttonless trackpad and of course, the revolutionary unibody "brick" construction and for a whole $700 cheaper than the cheapest MacBook Pro model. Nonetheless it's a excellent buy for one of the best notebooks around on the market. Some may not like Apple's new design direction (myself included) utilizing black keys to contrast the aluminum, but there's no denying this is one of the best looking laptops available.

Bottom Line:
With a dedicated GPU and aluminum body, it might be "safe" to call the MacBook the "true" successor to the highly heralded Powerbook 12". Well...almost - the lack of FireWire is a serious hit and it's still a tad too big. What about calling it a MacBook Pro mini? Not quite but its darn close. A better display and graphics card, Firewire, ExpressCard slot, and LED keys are all that gets in the way of the $700 difference, features wise. Yet, the lines between the consumer and pro models are fading away ever so slightly...Suddenly $1299 feels like a great bargain.

Panasonic Toughbook W4

2009-06-14T09:45:00.002+06:00

Panasonic Toughbook W4

Review

Boom! Bang! Ruff! Those are the sounds your laptop hears when its being shuffled, thrown, and shaken around in its little air-tight bag. You will never know what happened until you power it on to only discover a blank screen.

Frequent travelers face the possibility of their laptop malfunctioning, so it's vital that it can withstand the bumps & grinds inherent in everyday travel. Panasonic introduced a solution with their Toughbook laptop series, designed to handle the rugged lifestyle that seems to be more prevalent than ever for busy travelers. The ToughBook W4 is Panasonic's newest model in the Toughbook series, incorporating a 12.1-inch XGA LCD, a battery efficient Pentium M Ultra Low Voltage processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, and 512MB on board memory (upgradeable to 1GB) to sufficiently handle most office applications.

Built for road warriors, the ultra-portable Toughtbook W4 weighs a mere 2.8 pounds, is wrapped around a magnesium alloy case for added durability, and a battery life advertised to last over 6 hours. Unlike the Lenovo X60/X41 which excludes a built-in optical drive, the Toughbook W4 has a built-in DVD/CD-RW optical drive yet still retains a thin-and-light profile, much like the Sony TX. While the W4 lacks some of the features that the Sony TX and Lenovo X-Series posess, this machine still has everything needed to be productive.

Of course, a laptop built for people on the go has to also look good too, right? The Toughbook W4 is available in a variety of colors, including Galaxy Black, Merlot, Glacier White, or Steel Gray to add style for the road.

Design

Portability
Mobility is in, especially for people who travel frequently where every ounce matters. Classified as an ultra-portable, the Panasonic Toughbook W4 is small, lightweight, and compact just like the Sony VAIO TX we reviewed earlier. The only notable difference is the Toughbook has an obviously thicker LCD lid crafted of magnesium alloy, but when toting it around you will not notice a difference in weight between the two laptops.

Measuring 10.6-inches wide, 8.3-inches long and only 1-inch thick at the front section extending to 1.8-inches thick towards the back, the ultra compact notebook is made to slip inside virtually any carry case or backpack. For a perfect fit, it's recommended to use a carrying case made to compliment its size, such as the Samsonite L25 Ultra Portabl e case. At 2.8 pounds with the standard battery, the Toughbook W4 is intended to accompany you everywhere you go, best suited for heavy travelers such as students and business professionals.

The Toughbook W4 compared to the Lenovo ThinkPad T60 15-inch laptop.

Case and Design
As the Toughbook name implies, the W4 is made to withstand the bumps & grinds that are inherent in everyday travel. The W4's casing is composed of magnesium alloy, which is more durable and stronger than the more standard ABS plastic found in the majority of laptops. Characterized as semi-rugged, it combines durability in a light weight form factor. This is not to be confused with the full-rugged Toughbook laptops that are designed to withstand extreme amounts of abuse, but are more bulky.

The outer top lid has a very rugged look, as the Panasonic emblem sits between two bulging blocks extending outwards. This adds a thick layer on the LCD panel for added stiffness. Compare that to the razor thin panel found on the Sony VAIO TX, which is comprised of carbon fiber and feel more flimsy than the Toughbook.

Don't mess with me!

Besides appearing very heavy-duty the Toughbook W4 is aesthetically pleasing, as it maintains a very simple color scheme of mostly gray with the keyboard coated in white. Panasonic does offer a variety of colors for the top external lid, including white, black, and red if you want to spice up the W4.

Magnesium Alloy chassis adds endurance and good looks.

On the front section of the W4 you will find the power switch that illuminates green when the computer is powered on, the wireless LAN switch & indicator, Economy Mode, and the battery indicators.

Keyboard
The white 83-key keyboard contains all the essential keys, notably the Windows and Ctrl keys at the bottom left of the keyboard; compared to the ThinkPad X41 which does not have the Windows key. The PgDn, PgUp cursor keys are also present but require users to press the function (Fn) key, similar to the embedded numeric keypad on most laptops. Panasonic managed squeeze in a Home/End standalone key, using the Fn key for End. The Caps Lock, Shift, Alt, Tab, Backspace, and Enter keys are small compared to the VAIO TX, so there is a greater likelihood that you might miss them. Despite this difference, the Toughbook W4's keyboard appears quite similar to the VAIO TX, especially having the majority of the keys similar in size. Unlike the Fujitsu P7010 where most of the keys are very tiny measuring about .5-inch wide, making it difficult to hit at times, the majority of the keys on the Toughbook W4 are close in size (.75-inch wide) to the keys found in a full-sized keyboard (Logitech diNovo keys measures .80-inches wide). Only the top row keys (ESC, function keys) are slightly smaller than the rest.

Like most laptop keyboards, there are function (Fn) keys used in conjunction with the F keys to alter the screen brightness, toggle audio volume, put the computer to sleep and switch to an external monitor when connected. When toggling one of these function keys, such as the screen brightness for example, it will activate an on-screen brightness indicator. This helps you identify exactly which brightness settings you want to select. The on-screen indicator applies to other function access buttons as well, including the volume adjustment and battery status. With plenty of room above the keyboard, we would like to see Panasonic incorporate more hot keys for quicker access.

Compact notebook, compact keyboard (Enlarge Image)

Due to the notebook's diminutive size, the 10-inch compact keyboard takes a little practice getting accustomed to (compare this to the Acer TravelMate 8104 keyboard, which is 11-inches wide), as its only 90% of a full-sized keyboard. As I've mentioned earlier, most of the keys are similar in size to the keys of a typical full-sized keyboards which is quite impressive. After typing on this keyboard for some time now, I can type fairly quickly and accurately; and somewhat more comfortable than the keyboard on the VAIO TX. This layout is still rather cramped, making it uncomfortable at times to type, especially for long periods of time. Keep in mind this is normal for an ultraportable machine.

The keys feel moderately stiff when depressing them, but not as stiff as Fujitsu's LifeBook P7010 or the Sony VAIO TX. Key travel length is actually quite comfortable, similar to the LifeBook's 2mm travel distance. Noise generation is minimal when typing, but more audible than the key stroke exhibited from the VAIO TX. Below the palm rest is where the optical drive is stationed.

Touch pad
One of the many unique design elements on this laptop is its touchpad, which is round opposed to the default horizontal shape on most laptops. The touchpad measures 1.8-inches wide and 1.8-inches in length and forms a circle, offering sufficient surface area to allow comfortably gliding of one's finger. The grey flush surface is clean and smooth, sensitive to touch and responds accurately to movement. As with most touch pads, it also allows for tapping to execute an action if you prefer not to use the click buttons.

Since the touchpad is a rounded form, the edge of the surface area has a function to scroll vertically. This allows you to scroll in applications like Internet Explorer when sliding your finger in the appropriate direction. Surrounding the touchpad's surface area is a chrome ring that contains status indicators (i.e. hard drive access, num-lock) and two click-buttons that exhibit minimal noise when clicking.

Design Continued

Connectivity Options
For such a compact laptop, the ToughBook W4 is equipped with a vast array of connectivity options, but still falls behind the robust connectivity options found on the Fujitsu LifeBook P7010 (i.e. S-Video and FireWire). For users who prefer to connect their laptop to an external monitor, television or projector, the W4 supplies VGA output but omits DVI and S-Video.

Front
On the front panel, you will find the power switch & indicator, wireless LAN switch & indicator, ECO (Economy Mode) indicator and battery indicator. The integrated wireless LAN can be activated or deactivated by toggling the Wireless On/Off switch. The headphone/microphone jacks are stationed on front of the computer, allowing for quick and easy access. To the far right is the switch to turn off the optical drive and open the drive's lid.

The LCD panel includes a latch mechanism to secure the display when shut. When shut, the screen hovers slightly over the keyboard and palm rest area, reinforced by two rubber pads to prevent the screen from touching the keyboard and wrist area.

Rear
Nothing to report on the rear side of the computer, just the battery stationed here.

The battery pack doesn't protrude from the rear.

Left Side
On the left-side: power-in, VGA out, port replicator connector, Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card slot, and the PC Card slot.

Right Side
On the right side: two (2) USB 2.0 ports, security lock, LAN and modem port that are protected by plastic covers to prevent dust or debris from filtering through while the notebook is in transit - which is strange since the USB 2.0 port (along with the other ports) are left out in the open.

Heat and Noise
Silent, dead silent. This ultraportable operates at near silent level. Why? The Toughbook incorporates a passive cooling system, meaning there are no internal fans! In fact, there isn't a single air vent on this machine, yet it manages to operate a cool temps. Heat build up on this laptop is minimal. The system becomes slightly warm during heavy loads, but never comes close to reaching uncomfortable levels. Only the bottom section becomes lukewarm. In fact, this notebook is comparable to the Fujitsu LifeBook P7000 and the Sony VAIO TX as being one of the coolest running laptops I've tested. On top of that, the W4 is by far the quietest notebook we've tested to date!

Upgrading and Expansion
Upgrading components of the Toughbook W4 is simple, thanks to the easily accessible memory compartment located on the bottom side of the machine, only requiring a standard Philips screwdriver. Fortunately you can upgrade the memory and hard drive in the W4, where as the VAIO TX only allows you to access the memory. The Wi-Fi mini-PCI adapter is more of a challenge, as it does not offer an easily accessible compartment. Like the Fujitsu LifeBook P7010 laptop, the ToughBook uses the rare and more expensive micro-DIMM (172-pin) memory sticks; compared to the Sony VAIO TX which uses a standard SO-DIMM memory module. Inside the ToughBook W4 came a pre-soldered (non-removable) 512MB PC-3200 DDR2 SO-DIMM module, leaving one empty slot to upgrade.

There is an optional port replicator available to add more functionality and connectivity options for $199.00.

Features

Processor/Chipset/RAM
Using the fundamental components of a modern Centrino notebook, the VAIO TX is powered by the battery efficient Pentium M Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) 753 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz and the Intel 915GMS chipset. The Intel 915GMS Express chipset is part of the 'Sonoma' platform. This platform supports a number of features including DDR2 memory and an integrated graphics solution (GMA 900). The Pentium M Ultra Low Voltage processor uses a front side bus of 400 MHz and has a thermal design power (TDP) of just 5 watts, one can expect this to be a highly battery efficient processor.

As with all Pentium M processors, the 753 supports Enhanced Intel Speedstep where the CPU adjusts its speed dynamically based on system usage. Unlike the processors that run on 533 MHz front side bus, the Pentium M Ultra Low Voltage 753 clocks down to 600 MHz, instead of 800 MHz due to the lower front side bus speed. Even with the processor clocked at 600 MHz, it is still fast enough to watch DVDs or do general-purpose computing (Web browsing, Word processing) with respectable performance; although it does struggle when I tried to edit photos with Adobe Photoshop.

Intel's Ultra Low Voltage Pentium M processors are identical in architecture, features, and overall performance to that of Low Voltage and regular Pentium M chips. They have the same amount of cache memory, run on a 400MHz FSB, and all in all offer the same performance as other Pentium M's. The difference comes when the chips are manufactured and tested by Intel. When a processor rolls off the line, it is tested and labeled using a method known as 'speed binning.' In this process a chip is tested as to how fast it can operate and under what voltages. Chips that can run at lower voltages are binned for Low Voltage and Ultra Low Voltage applications, just like chips that can run at 1.6GHz but not 2.0GHz are binned for their maximum stable speed. The Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Pentium M 753 runs at a mere 0.94 V at 1.2GHz. This is less voltage than a 400MHz FSB Dothan uses at full speed! And low power doesn't mean low performance: if you were to clock a regular Pentium M at 1.2GHz it would perform the same as our ULV Pentium M.

As stated in the preceding section, our Toughbook W4 comes with one 512MB DDR2 PC3200 (400MHz) micro-DIMM RAM already soldered onto the motherboard, leaving only 1 slot for you to upgrade for a maximum of 1GB. The reason for this is to minimize power consumption and maximize space.

GPU
As part of the Intel 915GMS chipset package, it includes an integrated graphics accelerator to power the video of the Toughbook W4 computer. Key features include DirectX 9 hardware acceleration support, Pixel Shader 2.0, 133-320MHz core clock, 4 pixels pipes and 128MB dynamically shared memory (8MB minimum, 128 maximum).

The Intel GMA 900 graphics utilizes shared memory architecture, meaning the system memory (RAM) is shared with the graphics card. Since shared memory is dynamic, it will be allocated for graphics usage based on application demand. Once the application is closed, the memory that was allocated for graphics usage is then released and made available for system use. During general use, the graphics memory uses 8MB of system memory and can barrow up to 128MB during graphic intensive demand. As a result, the system may slow down when heavy graphics from an application are in demand. These limitations will make it difficult if not impossible to play most modern games. But the W4 was not intended for 3D intensive tasks or gaming in the first place.

Users purchasing a notebook now should consider compatibility for Windows Vista. Any GPU will work with Windows Vista, but to take full advantage of all the eye candy offered in Vista you need a minimum level of graphics performance. Those looking for the full Vista experience should choose ATI's Radeon Xpress200 integrated GPU, Intel's GMA950, ATI's Mobility Radeon X-series, NVIDIA's GeForce Go 6-series, or higher level GPU's. Graphics cards like ATI's Mobility Radeon 9000 series or NVIDIA's GeForce Go 5-series probably won't offer full Vista support, and Intel's GMA900 and Extreme2 IGP's definitely won't. Just keep this in mind for current and future purchases!

Display
Panasonic omitted the use of a glossy-type display in lieu of a matte 12.1-inch anti-glare XGA LCD panel. While it's not as impressive as Sony's XBRITE technology, the W4's screen is still sufficiently bright and colorful. In addition, Panasonic uses a standard aspect ration screen opposed to a widescreen panel like found in the VAIO TX and LifeBook P7000 series.

Enlarge Image

In 2D desktop use, it provides sufficient brightness and contrast, with colors appearing a bit faded and not nearly as vibrant as displays with a glossy screen. Text is sharp and legible, thanks to the native resolution of 1024 x 768. The response rate is fast enough to keep up with movies without significant 'ghosting.' In addition, scrolling through a webpage full of text does not exhibit much motion blur.

However viewing angles are below average; viewing the screen from a slight side angle (horizontally or vertically) causes little distortion of the colors and brightness, but viewing the screen from above causes noticeable distortion. When watching DVD movies, video quality is smooth and color rendering was fine. If you prefer, the W4 can be connected to an external monitor at up to 2048 x 1536!

Sound
The on-board stereo speaker is positioned above the keyboard. That's speaker as in singular. That's right, there is only one speaker making it a monaural speaker sound system!

One speaker stationed on the right side above the keyboard

The single-handed speaker produces loud sounds, but lack bass and the clarity that you will find in stereo speakers. Dialogue in movies sounded clear, but overall audio quality is poor compared to standard stereo speakers. Sounds and vocal volume were below average during music listening. I'd recommend you connect a pair of headphones when listening to audio files as it sounds substantially better than the speaker.

Features Continued

WiFi
As part of the 'Sonoma' trio, the W4 is equipped with the Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG card, which can connect to 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g wireless networks. As mentioned earlier in the design section of the review, the W4 includes a switch to turn on or off the Wireless LAN located on the front panel, which helps conserve battery when WiFi is not needed. The only wireless format missing here is Bluetooth, which is becoming overwhelmingly popular.

In regards to wireless performance, signal strength and download speeds were excellent overall. Our tests mainly consisted of connecting to a home and office 802.11b/g wireless network with no difficulty to speak of. Signal strength was reported between 'very good' to 'excellent' while using the laptop in my home and business network, even when being about 30 to 40 feet away from the wireless base station.

Optical Drive - Pop Up
One of the major striking designs found on this computer is the optical drive's unique pop-up lid design. As I mentioned in the preceding section, the drive is built below the palm rest area. Slide the open switch located on the front panel of the laptop to eject the lid. The Matshita DVD/CDRW optical drive gives this ultra-portable even more functionality. It's capable of burning CD-R/RW discs only. The drive operates rather loud in comparison to other drives, but manages to load discs fairly quickly. As with all laptops we review, I burned an audio disc with no problems to report.

To conserve battery life, the optical drive can be shut off with the on/off switch located on the front panel of the computer.

The supported disc formats and burning capabilities of the optical drive are as follow:

Write/Read: CD-R Write (24x MAX); CD-RW Write (10x MAX); DVD Read (8x MAX); CD Read (24x MAX)

Hard Drive
Our model came installed with a Toshiba 40GB (MK4025GASL) 2.5-inch hard disk drive with a low 2MB data buffer cache and a slow 4200RPM rotational speed. Unlike the VAIO TX and the Fujitsu LifeBook P7010, the hard drive is user-upgradeable so you can opt for a faster performing hard drive. Incorporating a rugged magnesium alloy shell wouldn't be complete without a shock-mounted hard drive. The drive comes with a nice cushion material to hold the drive in place to prevent shifting when the laptop is in transit.

The drive is virtually silent when operating, more so in idle mode but seeking is noticeable as it makes a crunching-like noise. The 40GB of storage space is contiguous and comes formatted with NTFS.

Battery - Long Lasting
Evidently, this ultra-portable contains several low power consuming components, which equals to highly efficient battery life. The capacity of the standard lithium ion battery is rated at a reasonable 58 Wh (7800 mAh), making the Fujitsu P7010's standard battery rated at 49.6 Whr (4800 mAh) seem puny. This is equal to the battery capacity included in the Sony VAIO TX. To further prolong battery life, Panasonic loaded its trademark Economy Mode (ECO) utility.

If you need more battery life, you can purchase an additional battery from Panasonic for $189.

AC Adapter
The AC Adapter is a commonly overlooked part of a notebook's features, even though it is the most important part! The included AC adapter measures 3.6-inches long, 1.8-inches wide, and 1.1' thick, making it one the smallest AC adapter we've used on a laptop. The AC adapter is extremely light and can easily slip in a carrying case or backpack pocket. Fortunately, it comes with a Velcro strap to organize the lengthy power cables.

Compact, lightweight and extremely portable.

Software
Panasonic included a vast array of software applications to streamline your computing experience and more importantly, omitting any unnecessary software that basically clutters your operating system. The Panasonic original software is comprised of: Touch pad utility, WinDVD, B's Recorder, Optical Disc Drive Power Saving Utility, Economy Mode (ECO), and battery recalibration utility.

Setup Method

The Panasonic ToughBook W4 was set to run at full performance by setting the power scheme set to 'Home/Office Desk' with the AC plugged in, meaning that the CPU will not underclock while running the tests. For the battery performance test, the power scheme was set to 'Portable/Laptop'. This activates SpeedStep technology, which lowers CPU speed when not needed, thus increasing battery life. Screen brightness and audio were both set to 50% and Wi-Fi was turned on while Bluetooth was turned off. Each test was repeated 3 times to ensure accuracy. Before each test was run, the laptop was rebooted and its hard drive defragmented.

Bapco SYSmark2004SE is popular benchmark suite consists of two different performance scenarios and generates an overall score by taking the geometric mean of the individual scores.

Internet Content Creation: In this scenario, the content creator creates a product related website targeting a broadband and narrowband audience. The user first renders a 3D model to a bitmap, while preparing web pages using a web site publishing tool. The user opens a video editing package, creates a movie from several raw input movie cuts and sound cuts and starts exporting it. While waiting on this operation, the user imports the rendered image into an image-processing package; modifies it and saves the results. Back in the 3D modeling software, the user modifies a 3D model and exports it to a vector-graphics format. Once the movie is assembled, the user edits it and creates special effects using one of the modified images as input. The user extracts content from an archive. Meanwhile, he uses an animation creation tool to open the exported 3D vector graphics file. He modifies it by including other pictures and optimizes it for faster animation. The final movie with the special effects is then compressed in a format that can be broadcast over broadband Internet. The web site is given the final touches and the system is scanned for viruses.
Office Productivity: In this scenario, the office productivity user creates a marketing presentation and supporting documents for a new product. The user receives email containing a collection of documents in a compressed file. The user reviews his email and updates his calendar while a virus checking software scans the system. The corporate web site is viewed and the user begins creating the collateral documents. The user also accesses a database and runs some queries. A collection of documents are compressed. The queries' results are imported into a spreadsheet and used to generate graphical charts. The user then transcribes a document.. The user edits and adds elements to a slide show template. Finally, the user looks at the results of his work (both the slide show and the portable document) in an Internet browser.

Setup Method

Bapco SYSmark2004SE is popular benchmark suite consists of two different performance scenarios and generates an overall score by taking the geometric mean of the individual scores.

Internet Content Creation: In this scenario, the content creator creates a product related website targeting a broadband and narrowband audience. The user first renders a 3D model to a bitmap, while preparing web pages using a web site publishing tool. The user opens a video editing package, creates a movie from several raw input movie cuts and sound cuts and starts exporting it. While waiting on this operation, the user imports the rendered image into an image-processing package; modifies it and saves the results. Back in the 3D modeling software, the user modifies a 3D model and exports it to a vector-graphics format. Once the movie is assembled, the user edits it and creates special effects using one of the modified images as input. The user extracts content from an archive. Meanwhile, he uses an animation creation tool to open the exported 3D vector graphics file. He modifies it by including other pictures and optimizes it for faster animation. The final movie with the special effects is then compressed in a format that can be broadcast over broadband Internet. The web site is given the final touches and the system is scanned for viruses.
Office Productivity: In this scenario, the office productivity user creates a marketing presentation and supporting documents for a new product. The user receives email containing a collection of documents in a compressed file. The user reviews his email and updates his calendar while a virus checking software scans the system. The corporate web site is viewed and the user begins creating the collateral documents. The user also accesses a database and runs some queries. A collection of documents are compressed. The queries' results are imported into a spreadsheet and used to generate graphical charts. The user then transcribes a document.. The user edits and adds elements to a slide show template. Finally, the user looks at the results of his work (both the slide show and the portable document) in an Internet browser.

Bapco MobileMark 2005 is the latest version of the premier notebook battery life and performance under battery life metric based on real world applications.

Office Productivity: The workloads in this category model a mobile professional at a fictitious automobile company. The worker creates documents using Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, accesses email, and creates graphics and animation with Photoshop and Flash to include in a multimedia presentation. An Internet browser is used to view presentations. The user also invokes file compression and virus detection in the background.
DVD Playback: The DVD playback 2005 workload is based on a 1 hours 55 minute movie that BAPCo has created from content provided by BMW. The DVD playback test starts the movie playerapplication, sets up a full screen playback, and the loops over the content on the disk in the DVDplayer. This playback will continue until system shutdown at battery depletion.

3DMark 2001 SE PRO build 3.3.0 measures graphics performance by benchmarking the CPU, memory, and graphics through a series of 21 tests, including simulated games, theoretical tests, DX8 feature tests, and image quality tests. Resolution was set to 1024x768 with all default settings.

3DMark 2003 build 3.6.0 measures DX9 performance through a series of 3D game based sound, graphics, and CPU tests. Resolution was set to 1024x768 with all default settings.

3DMark2005 build 1.2.0 is a graphics intensive benchmark best suited for the latest generation of DirectX 9.0 graphics cards. It combines high quality 3D tests, CPU tests, and is the first benchmark to require Pixel Shader 2.0 support, making this a highly stressful 3D benchmark.

PCMark 2005 Advanced build 1.1.0 is the latest update to Futuremark's popular overall system benchmarking program. The 2005 version adds multithreading, DirectX 9, Windows Media Player 10, virus scanning, High Defintion video playback (WMVHD), and a vast number of other tests to its suite. Testing your computer's CPU, RAM, hard drive and graphics card, PCMark05 drives your computer to the max to determine its strengths and weaknesses.

Configurations

Specifications	Panasonic ToughBook W4	Sony VAIO TX650P	Fujitsu P7010
Processor	Intel Pentium M 753 ULV (1.2 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache)	Intel Pentium M 753 ULV (1.2 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache)	Intel Pentium M 753 ULV (1.2 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache)
Front Side Bus	400 MHz	400 MHz	400 MHz
Chipset	Intel 915GMS	Intel 915GMS	Intel 855GME
Wireless LAN	Intel PRO/Wireless 2915 ABG (802.11a/b/g)	Intel PRO/Wireless 220BG (802.11b/g) Bluetooth WWAN	Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG (802.11 a/b/g)
Hard Drive	40GB Toshiba 2.5" 4200RPM 2MB Cache	60GB Toshiba 1.8" 4200RPM 2MB Cache	100GB Fujitsu 4200RPM 8MB Cache
Memory	512MB (1) DDR2 PC3200 400 SO-DIMM Single Channel Mode	512MB (1) DDR2 PC3200 400 SO-DIMM Single Channel Mode	512MB DDR333 PC2700 micro-DIMM (2 x 512MB) on Single Channel Mode CL 2.5
Graphics	Intel GMA 915GMS integrated video controller	Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 128MB Dynamically Shared	Intel 855GME
Operating System	Windows XP Professional w/SP2	Windows XP Professional w/SP2	Windows XP Home w/SP2
Battery	7,800 mAh	7,800 mAh	4,800 mAh

Performance

Bapco SYSmark2004SE

Internet Content Creation

Office Productivity

Total Score

PCMark05 Advanced
Here are the associated scores (numbers in bold highlights the higher score):

PCMark05 Advanced	ToughBook W4	VAIO TX	LifeBook P7010
CPU	1933	1864	N/A
Memory	1891	1829
Graphics	569	550
HDD	2013	2247

and the PCMark05 Advanced Overall Score:

3D Performance

3DMark 2001 SE

The Intel GMA900 surpasses the integrated 855GME graphics in the Fujitsu.

3DMark03

The Intel 855GME Graphics just cannot keep up with the Intel GMA 900.

3DMark05

It's neck in neck here.

Battery Performance

Thanks to the massive 7,800 mAh rated battery, the VAIO TX and theToughbook W4surpasses the once battery king Fujitsu LifeBook 7010.

Conclusion

Pros:

Rugged magnesium-alloy chassis
Very lightweight and compact
Sleek and durable design
Built-in DVD/CDRW optical drive (Some ultraportables have an external optical)
Decent sized keys
Runs dead silent and extremely cool
Long lasting battery life
Upgradeable hard drive

Cons:

Slow system performance
Slow hard drive
Only 40GB storage capacity available
No DVD burner option
No Bluetooth option
Missing S-Video
Poor sound quality
Cramped keyboard
Missing finger print security
Expensive

Recommendation

With a magnesium alloy chassis and shock-mounted hard drive, the Panasonic Toughbook represents the ultimate portable computer made to withstand the inevitable rigors of travel and everyday abuse. Every user will appreciate the integrated DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive with its unique top-open design, and of course the passive cooling so it operates completely silent. Despite the slow-performing stock 2.5-inch hard drive, this laptop has a user-friendly replaceable hard drive compartment so you can opt for a faster and larger capacity hard drive; check out our latest 2.5 hard drive tests for more information. While it does support all available WiFi formats, Bluetooth is the missing wireless link that appears to be growing in popularity, especially with more Bluetooth enabled mobile phones becoming widely available

Similar to Sonys VAIO TX, this is one of the most energy efficient laptops weve ever tested and perhaps one of the best. Panasonic clearly had battery life in mind with the on/off switch to disable the optical drive when not in use, the Ultra-Low Voltage processor, and the Economy (ECO) mode software. Lasting almost 6 hours and 20 minutes in our productivity battery test, one can expect to use this machine out and about for an overly sufficient amount of time.

With a rugged magnesium alloy casing and with three lid colors to choose from, the Toughbook W4 gives the impression of a tough, yet modern system to accompany your extensive mobile lifestyle. The instant appeal of this laptop is the rugged factor, combined with unique features such as passive cooling for a completely silent operation and built-in optical drive that will appeal to most travelers.

If you need portability that can handle business tasks, durability to handle bumps & grinds, silent computing, long-lasting battery life, and a built-in optical drive, then the Toughbook W4 might be right for you. For users seeking more security features, Bluetooth, and widescreen display can opt for the Fujitsu or Sony. Lenovos Thinkpad X41 is also another top notch option, although it lacks the widescreen format and integrated optical drive.

Weight (with accessories)	6.4 lbs
Width	14.5 inches
Depth	9.8 inches
Height	1.7 inches

Video chipset	Intel PM45 Express Chipset
Video integration	Integrated

Included Software	Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 LJ. Sony VAIO Multimedia Suite InterVideo WinDVD
Operating system	Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit)

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