If you’re going to have to lug it around, you might as well get a laptop that will make business colleagues green with envy.
In this feature we look at some of the fastest notebooks on the market, as well as many that are very well featured—in other words, notebooks that will drive your friends into paroxysms of envy. Today, there are just about as many different types of mobile users as there are people, and thankfully there is a notebook to suit almost everyone. With the notebooks we looked at in this comparison, no expense was spared. And while that would have meant ridiculous price tags even only a few years ago, you can now get real mobile performers at prices that are (almost) down to earth. Let’s take a look at some of the features buyers should familiarise themselves with before making that purchase.
Displays
All of the notebooks we tested featured 14in or larger TFT displays. At 14in, displays are large enough for you to be able to do a presentation to a small number of people. Then again, you can of course connect any notebook up to a monitor or projector for larger audiences. Note that for those intimate gatherings, Apple has notebooks with 15in and 15.2in screens.
Connectors
For those of you who are after the latest and greatest and who want every connector known to man, this is your class of notebook (and obviously size and weight are not your top priorities). Most of the notebooks we tested here featured all the new and standard connectors that you could possibly need. The Apple and Toshiba, however, didn’t feature any legacy connectors. With the growing popularity of multiple USB ports, you’ll find legacy ports on fewer and fewer new notebooks. DVI didn’t seem to be a very popular interface with most of these notebooks but almost all of them featured a 15-pin RGB out connector and/or an S-Video out connector.
What you will find extra is FireWire and SD Slots, as well as Smart Media Card slots. These are extremely handy if you’re pulling video down from a digital or video camera.
S/PDIF is another connector that you may only find in these sorts of notebooks. This will enable you to improve your cinema experience by being able to connect some digital speakers to your notebook.
Drives
Hard drive capacities varied from 20GB to 60GB, which should be more than enough for most users. You can even get a hard disk for your notebook that spins at 5400 RPM for those of you who require fast access. Combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drives are very common nowadays—more recently, DVD recorders have been made available for notebooks.
Graphics
The two heavyweights in the area of graphics for notebooks are nVidia and ATI. nVidia for some time now has been delivering fast and feature-rich processors from its GeForce range. They come in a variety of model types but what they all do ensure is an increase in overall performance in your notebook, battery life, and DVD and video playback. You will find the Quadro 4 Go GL in many mobile workstations and varieties of Geforce 4 Go in most high-performance desktop replacement notebooks.
ATI has been doing similar things with the ATI Mobility Fire GL 9000. This has been designed for digital content creators and other professionals seeking stable workstation-class graphics performance on a mobile platform. The Mobility Radeon 9000 targets the Geforce 4 Go processors. It delivers fastest 3D graphics and support all the latest games as well as features that enhance all aspects of the visual experience.
In our tests, the nVidia processor came out on top. The Toshiba notebook we tested housed an nVidia processor together with an amazing 64MB of video memory. It’s a shame we couldn’t compare this unit directly with another ATI-based notebook that also had 64MB of built-in video memory.
Networking
Bluetooth and 802.11b (Wi-Fi) are usually standard features with this category of notebook. With Bluetooth, you can link your notebook to devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. The 802.11b (Wi-Fi) technology on the other hand has also rapidly gained acceptance in many organisations as an alternative to a wired LAN.
However, there are still some security issues surrounding this protocol. All the notebooks also featured an integrated 56K modem and 10/100 Ethernet.
Battery life
Intel’s SpeedStep technology is one of the reasons why we have seen such significant improvements in notebook battery life.
However, as processors get faster, screens get bigger, and more external devices are developed for portables, more pressure is put on the battery. Vendors have taken necessary steps to improve battery performance by using utilities that allow you to customise your notebook’s power usage.
You can set the notebook’s CPU to work at slow speeds for certain tasks to save power. The LCD brightness can also be reduced to save power and turned off automatically if the notebook had been idling for even as little as a minute. The same sort of thing can be done with the hard drive.
If battery life is still not up to delivering the performance you need, some models make it possible for you to attach a second battery.
