The AOpen OpenBook is a reasonably inexpensive notebook with decent competitive performance figures and good battery life.
Inside the OpenBook you will find an Intel Pentium 1.8GHz M processor which is the fastest mobile processor submitted. It also has 512MB of RAM which can be increased to 2GB, ATI graphics, and a 60GB HDD make up the engine room.
The OpenBook has a good collection of input/output connectors including FireWire, SPDIF, and a 3-in-1 memory card reader. It even has a parallel port -- the only notebook to do so. It also has Wi-Fi, 100M LAN, and modem.
The keys on the keypad are all blue/purple in colour. We don't know why manufacturers do this -- it makes more sense to distinguish the standard keys from all the other keys. Positioned above the keys are a set of play buttons which are used to play CDs even when the notebook is turned off.
The OpenBook uses a 15in LCD which has a native display resolution of 1400x1050. The HP is the only other notebook which is equipped with a 15in screen and out of the two the OpenBook has the better picture quality but it doesn't have the panel support that the HP has. The OpenBook performs extremely well in our tests, especially in our battery life test recording a time of four hours and five minutes.
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Sorry guys, but the reviewed x86 machines seem rather lame to me.
On 10th September 2004 I bought a Clevo M375E notebook that beats nearly every specification of the reviewed units.
This unit has a Fujitsu 100GB HDD, Intel Dothan 2GHz, 2GB of PC2700 SDRAM, Pioneer single layer 2x DVD-RW burner, 54MB WiFi, build-in camera, 3 format card reader, 15.6" wide-screen LCD @ 1680 x 1050, S-Video out, dual display support, FireWire, Gigabit LAN, v.92 modem, IR, 3 x USB2, 1 x Type 1 PCMCIA and serial port.
It is the fastest PC I have ever worked on, easily beating most P4 desktops in everything that is not hard drive or CDROM intensive.
The only thing it lacks is BlueTooth, which was available as an option.
The 2GB of RAM dent the battery life a little, as do the 2GHz Dothan and huge screen resolution, but I still get over three hours of practical work on a single charge with the WiFi turned off.
When I bought it, the RAM was very expensive, but this has come down considerably since.
This unit retail now for less than $4500.
For taxation reasons, I normally replace my notebook once every financial year. If this reviewed collection is exciting the "envy crowd" now, I may hold on to this unit for another year. I can't see that updating only to get dual-layer or BlueTooth is worth my while...