How we tested
We tested and evaluated each of the notebooks on the following criteria:
- Standard performance and compatibility benchmarks.
- Display quality including evenness of illumination, clarity, colours, and resolutions supported.
- Audio including the audio chip used and sound quality, volume level, speaker/s location, I/O, and ease of use.
- Keypad including key size, spacing, layout, travel, feedback, support, and colour differentiation.
- Pointing device including location, button size, travel and feedback, additional features, and functionality.
- Workmanship and design including ergonomics, robustness, and durability.
- System expandability including the number of I/O ports, upgradability of CPU, memory, and hard drive.
We also rated each of the notebooks in the areas of interoperability, futureproofing, return on investment, and service.
Interoperability: We looked at the number and types of connectors available.
Return on Investment: We looked at the overall cost and performance of the notebook.
Futureproofing: Futureproofing looked at the expansion potential of each of the notebooks, including maximum RAM capacity, provision for a second battery or drive, and the number of PC Card slots.
Service: Service looked at the duration and conditions of the warranty.
Benchmarks
Business Winstone 2001 V1.0.2 is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a notebook’s overall performance when running popular business applications.
Content Creation Winstone 2002 V1.0 is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a notebook’s overall performance when running content creation applications.
Winbench 99 V2.0 is a subsystem-level benchmark that measures the performance of a notebook’s graphics, disk, and video subsystems in a Windows environment.
BMark is a test custom-built by RMIT Labs to measure battery life on notebook computers running Windows. BMark is a command line application that runs a series of number crunching calculations while simultaneously playing an MP3 file.
PS5Bench is a very limited cross-platform benchmark that can be run on either the Mac or PC, which runs a series of filters in Adobe Photoshop. This only measures the relative CPU performance of each platform and does not really exercise the graphics or hard drive subsystems.
