High-End Notebooks

In this feature we looked at ten high-end notebooks. All the notebooks had to ship with at least a 600+ MHz processor, 128MB of RAM, 10GB hard drive, DVD player, built-in or PC Card type modem and network cards. There was no price tag set so we were expecting some very fast and well-featured notebooks.

The IBM ThinkPad exhibited a native resolution of 1440 x 1050 (something we had never seen before). The Gateway came with a large 15.7in display, and we also received three different configurations of the same model notebook (Model: Mitac 6120). We asked that all the notebooks submitted come with Windows 98 but some arrived with Windows 2000.

Acer TravelMate 734TL

Acer has always made excellent notebooks. The Acer TravelMate 734TL is nothing less than an excellent all-round notebook. The Acer did not set any world records in the speed stakes, but is still zippy enough to do any tasks you may be doing on the road. The Acer shipped with only 64MB of RAM. We installed some extra RAM from another notebook to make it easier to compare test results with the other notebooks.

That said, the Acer performed quite poorly with only 64MB of RAM. Even with 128MB of RAM the Acer still was the slowest notebook in our Winstone tests. The Acer shipped with an Intel Pentium III 600MHz processor. This gave it less power than any of the other notebooks and it had a hard time keeping up. Where it was absolutely heads above the rest was Battery Mark. The Acer battery lasted for 4 hours and 42 minutes. No other notebook in our test went past four hours and only two other notebooks made it past three hours.

The Acer case is attractive and appears quite solid. The protection to the rear of the TFT was very good. After taking a closer look at the rear panel we realised that there was a pair of speakers mounted to the back of panel. We unscrewed three screws to lift open a panel that covered the two speakers. We also thought the sound would not be very clean since the speakers are firing from the rear of the panel, and we thought if you had the panel up against a wall the sound might suffer. Certainly when we tried this, the sound was a little muddy. But in all other conditions it was quite goodâ€"very loud and mellow.

The Acer has a pair of SO-DIMM slots located under a cover in the base; one was occupied by a 64MB SO-DIMM. A single screw removes the IBM hard drive. The hard drive was in an unusual location: it slides out from the front of the notebook. The DVD drive and battery are also easy to remove from the base of the notebook.

The keyboard is very well laid out; all the keys are quite large, except for the function keys. Travel and feedback was good, but the keyboard bounces slightly when typing. Overall feel, however is still above average. The touchpad is pretty typical and the buttons are quite small. There are three accompanying buttons that are sensibly located and have a reasonable amount of travel.

The quality of the display was above average and there was little to no rippling on the display when we applied some pressure to the back of the panel. The Acer was the least expensive of the name brand notebooks. At $5,999 it offers excellent value and it would probably still be the least expensive name brand notebook if you decided to upgrade the processor to a Pentium III 700. If you happen to have some problems with your Acer notebook you can take your Acer into one of the service dealers, where they guarantee they will have your notebook repaired in two hours.

Asus L8400B

The Asus L8400B is a very conservative notebook. It is quite squarish all over but despite its looks, the L8400B is solid and very robust. There were no complaints about the keyboard. The keyboard was well supported and provided a good feel. The keyboard sits very close to the middle of the base. The reason behind this is the cooling fan and air entry vent located up above the keyboard. Only the Toshiba keyboard sits pretty much in the same position.

The Toshiba notebook, however, has a pair of speakers located in each corner rather than a cooling fan. The other notebooks had their keyboards positioned right next to the bottom of the display. The benefit of this design is that you gain a bit more space to rest your palms.

The Asus L8400B comes with a PIII 750, 128MB of RAM and a 12GB Hitachi hard disk drive. For a 750MHz notebook we were quite surprised that it performed as well as an 850 in some cases. In Business Winstone the Asus was slightly faster than the e@PC which had a PIII 850. In the WinBench CPUMark the Asus scored a bit under the Pioneer and e@PC notebooks. The Asus also scored slightly lower than the Toshiba in CPUMark, which also featured a PIII 750.

The Asus performed quite well in Business Disk and Business Graphics. This is probably why it did so well in Winstone (which tests the notebook's overall performance). It performed a little better than the e@PC notebook in Winstone even though it had a slower processor. The 14.8V 3300mAh Li-Ion battery kept this notebook running for a little under three hours (2 hours and 51 minutes). The battery lifts out from underneath the notebook by sliding a long battery latch followed by a shorter safety latch.

The rear ports are open to the elementsâ€"no protective cover was provided. On the back you will find all the audio connectors (headphone, audio in, and microphone), serial, parallel, docking port, modem/LAN port, VGA, TV out port, PS/2, and two USB ports. These are all the standard I/O ports that you will find pretty much on most other notebooks. A second USB port is not that common and is a nice little extra that will come in handy.

The Asus is not an easy notebook to upgrade. If you wanted to replace the hard drive or DVD drive you would have to remove the entire bottom cover. To increase the memory you must remove the keyboard. Under the keyboard you will find one 144-pin SO-DIMM socket. The Asus shipped to us with 128MB of hard-mounted RAM, so if you wanted to increase memory in your notebook you could purchase for it 16MB, 32MB, 64MB, 128MB or 256MB memory modules.

The Asus L8400B has a clear, vivid display. It was definitely one of the better 14in displays that we had tested. The panel is well supportedâ€"when we applied some pressure to the back of the panel we experienced some rippling but not enough to seriously concern us.

This notebook also proved to be a good companion on the road. It was one of the lightest notebooks we tested. The combination of speed, price and features add up to make the Asus a good deal.

FirstLite 3100 Ultimate Series

The FirstLite 3100 is hard to miss in amongst all the other notebooks. Its greenish-grey case definitely set it apart, but at the same time it looks very elegant and professional. The FirstLite shipped to us with Windows 2000. Because of this we can only fairly compare the performance of the FirstLite to the Mitac 6120. The Mitac also shipped with Windows 2000 and had a native screen resolution of 1024 x 768.

At the heart of the FirstLite 3100 is a Pentium III 750MHz processor, 128MB of RAM and a 12GB Hitachi hard drive. Four out of the ten notebooks we reviewed had a Hitachi hard drive. These are not the fastest hard drives around but they do a good job and are quite reliable. The FirstLite was slightly faster than the Mitac in Winstone and all the WinBench tests. Both the FirstLite and Mitac shipped with 24 speed CD drives. The Pioneer DVD drive that was in the Mitac, however, performed a great deal better in CD WinBench than the Torisan DVD drive that was in the FirstLite.

While the notebook itself only weighs in at 3.2kg, its power supply is fairly heavy, its half a kilogram lifts the notebook up to 3.7kg. Adding the supplied carry case makes the package tip the scales at 4.5kg. The vinyl case looks quite good; it features two pockets that are large enough to fit your battery charger, manuals, and any other extras. The case also provides good protection for your TFT.

The FirstLite was one of the easiest notebooks to service or upgrade. A small cover on the base of the notebook screws off to give you access to the DVD-ROM drive. The hard drive, floppy drive and battery can easily be removed by sliding a latch and pulling them up or out.

There are two SO-DIMM sockets, located under the keyboard and access is not as difficult as one might imagine. Two simple clips at the top of the keyboard allow it to swing up and lift out of the way. You can upgrade the RAM to 256MB by putting in another 128MB RAM module.

The PC Card slots were both used up by a CNET 10/100 Fast Ethernet card and a CNET 56k fax modem. The cards were easy to eject. We have come across many notebooks which have tiny eject buttons that can be a pain to use. With these we have found that a pen or pencil is best used to eject the cards, but in the FirstLite's case, we had no complaints.

The front half of the notebook was devoted to a large and comfortable palm rest. The standard and function keys were coloured in different shades of grey and all the keys were located sensibly on the keyboard. The keyboard was quite pleasant to use and is very well supported by the base.

The 11.1v 4500mAH Li-Ion battery drove the FirstLite a little over two hours. This was quite disappointingâ€" the lowest score we recorded. Be sure to stay close to a powerpoint.

Hewlett-Packard OmniBook 6000 F2087W

The HP Omnibook was arguably the most attractive notebook in our roundup. It was also the thinnest and lightest notebook we tested. It was the only notebook that weighed less than 3kg without its power pack. The case is finished in a nice grey-silver, and the buttons on the keyboard were all black. The keyboard feedback was excellent. We found this keyboard to be one of the nicest and fastest keyboards to type on. The palmrest area was also large and comfortable.

There are two speakers located just above the keyboard as well as a blue sleep button. The HP notebook has a trackball located in the centre of the keyboard and a glidepad with five buttons. There are two buttons that sit below the glide pad and three buttons above. The buttons above the glidepad are there to be used in conjunction with the trackball. The distance between the trackball and the two buttons that are located below the glidepad is quite far and for that reason there are extra buttons on top of the glidepad.

The HP comes with a Pentium III 700 processor, 128MB of RAM and a 12GB IBM hard drive. The HP performed quite well in Winstone. As we had expected, it performed a little better than the Acer (600MHz) notebook and a little slower than all the 750+ MHz notebooks. The HP, however, did not break the three-hour mark in Battery Mark, and this was a little disappointing.

All the standard ports are on the back of the notebook. You will also find a 240-pin port for a docking station on the back. On the right of the notebook is a volume up/down control button and mute button. The audio jacks can also be found next to the volume control button. The modem and network jacks are on the right-hand side as well as the two Type II or one Type III PCMCIA slots.

The HP DVD drive pulls out and can be replaced with a 1.44in floppy drive. (The floppy drive can also be plugged into the parallel port.) The external floppy drive will also take up a little more room on your desk and there's also the chance of misplacing or losing external components when you're carting your notebook around everywhere. You can upgrade the RAM by removing a cover from the base of the notebook. There were two SO-DIMM sockets under the notebook and you could have up to 512MB of RAM in the HP by installing two 256MB RAM modules. The hard drive also pulls out easily. Removing one screw enables the IBM hard drive to be pulled out from the left-hand side of the notebook. There's also a handy clear plastic pocket on the base of the notebook that can hold your business card.

The screen panel is quite rigid but we noticed some rippling on the display when we applied pressure to the rear of the screen. The display was sharp and bright and we found it to be a little better than most of the other 14.1in displays. Priced at $8,269, the HP is a little pricier than most of the other notebooks, but if you take the HP for a test drive you will see that its one of the better built notebooks that are out there.

IBM ThinkPad A20p

There is no doubt that IBM makes great notebooks. The IBM ThinkPad A20p looks very bulky and with its display down it looks very square. The IBM tipped our scales at 3.45kg, which was a little heavier than most. The power adaptor weighs in at 470 grams so in total you will be carrying around just over 3.9kg. The IBM was the second heaviest notebook after the Gateway.

The IBM ThinkPad shipped with a Pentium III 700. It was a bit under-powered in comparison to some of the other notebooks. A nice addition was a 18GB IBM hard drive. All the other notebooks came with 12GB hard drives. The ThinkPad was also the first notebook we tested with 16MB of video memory.

As soon as we opened up and folded back the display we could just feel how robust and solid this notebook really is. The display is extremely well supported and is built to last. The design of the notebook is conservative, and the keypad is all black to match the rest of the notebookâ€"the ThinkPad does not use two different colours to separate the standard keys from the function keys. There are, however, three volume buttons that are grey (volume up, down and mute). The palmrest area is adequate and not as large as many of the other notebooks. There are speakers located on each left and right top corners of the notebook and a trackball located in the centre of the keyboard. The trackball uses three buttons. This is not very common. The third button is used together with the first to select a window. Once you have pressed down on the first button and the third button you should be able to move the window you have selected without holding down any buttons.

The IBM ThinkPad was also shipped to us with Windows 2000. After we had booted up we were surprised that the notebook was running at a native resolution of 1440 x 1050. We also realised that we couldn't compare the performance of the ThinkPad with any of the other notebooks because of this. We figured you would only be using the IBM Thinkpad at 1440 x 1050. If you drop the resolution down to 1024 x 768 the display appears very muddy and the text also appears fuzzy. At its native resolution the display was bright and vivid. It was the best display in the review and probably the best display the lab has seen on a notebook. All the blacks were true black and all the colours really leap out. As mentioned earlier, the TFT was well supported. When we applied some pressure to the back of the panel we were amazed not to see any rippling.

The IBM ThinkPad is also very easy to upgrade. Two SO-DIMM sockets are located underneath the notebook. IBM claims that the ThinkPad can take up to 512MB of RAM. This assumes you are using two 256MB RAM modules. The IBM hard drive also pulls out from underneath the notebook after removing one screw. The ThinkPad comes with a built-in modem and network adaptor. This leaves the two PC Card slots free.

The rear ports are not protected by any cover and are open to the elements. You will find all the standard ports you would find on any other notebook. A docking station was located underneath the notebook, which is not all that common. To the right of the notebook and next to the DVD drive is a video in and video out port.

The IBM battery lasted for 3 hours and 53 minutes. This was the second best time we recorded. Overall, you can expect a lot from this notebook. Despite it being the most expensive notebook in the review ($9169) it truly is an excellent notebook that is made to last. It is also worth considering in the price the three-year warranty that comes with the notebook.

ExplorerBook Pro Series II

Mitac 6120

Pioneer 2000 PowerBook III 850

The TestLab had a close look at the 6120 back in the August issue of PC Magazine Australia. Last time, Pioneer Computers and e@PC had each submitted a 6120 notebook and this time around we received one from three distributors. Mitac is actually the manufacturer of the 6120. Pioneer and e@PC have decided to rename the Mitac 6120 notebook and Synnex, on the other hand, has decided to keep the Mitac name. From the outside the three 6120 notebooks looked exactly the same. The Pioneer and e@PC submissions, however, shipped with PIII 850 processors while the Synnex came with a PIII 750. e@PC also did something different from Pioneer and Synnex. They decided to install an IBM hard disk drive instead of a Hitachi hard disk.

The 6120 is a nicely constructed notebook. There is plenty of space to rest your palms while you type. There are two speakers, one on each side of the notebook. If you ever listen to music while you're typing you may find that you will be covering up the speakers with your wrists. The keyboard demonstrated some bounce and was a little noisy especially when we typed quickly. The keyboard provided adequate tactile feedback and also separates the standard keys from the function keys through the use of different key colours.

The 6120 features a single USB port, single PS/2 keyboard/ mouse port, a serial port, external VGA port, parallel port, an audio line out, and microphone jack as well as an interface for a docking station. The left-hand side of the notebook has an S-Video port and two Type II or one Type III PCMCIA slots. You will also find a built in 1.44MB floppy drive. The DVD drive slides out from the right-hand side of the notebook. The battery also slides out from the right. You must, however, turn the notebook upside down and slide a locking switch in order to release the battery. The battery has a handy battery life indicator. A small button located on the actual battery when pressed displays how much life is left in the battery (when the battery is fully charged four light bars shine, two if it's 50 percent charged).

The Pioneer and Synnex notebooks shipped with a 12GB Hitachi hard disk and, as we mentioned before, the e@PC shipped with an IBM hard drive. We have known IBM hard drives to outperform Hitachi hard drives. On this occasion, however, the IBM hard drive in the e@PC notebook could not match the disk performance of the Pioneer notebook. We even removed the IBM hard drive from the e@PC notebook and installed it in the Pioneer notebook. The IBM hard disk still performed the same and was slightly slower than the Hitachi hard drive in WinBench Business Disk. We then decided to run Windows Disk Defragmenter on the IBM hard drive but that didn't make the IBM hard drive run faster. We couldn't quite understand why the IBM hard drive performed so poorly, especially when the IBM hard drive in the HP performed so well. We can only suggest that the IBM hard drive in the e@PC notebook might have been mildly faulty and the fact that the HP would have a different IDE implementation to the e@PC notebook may also explain why the two identical drives performed so differently.

The 6120 notebook features an 8MB ATI Rage LT Pro graphics accelerator. The Pioneer and e@PC notebooks scored around about the same in WinBench Business Graphics and High-End Graphics. The Synnex notebook was running Windows 2000 so we couldn't make any real comparison between it and the other two notebooks. The Pioneer and e@PC notebooks were a head above the rest with the Pioneer notebook scoring the highest score in both WinBench Business Graphics and High-End Graphics.

In CD WinBench, the Pioneer notebook scored much lower than the e@PC. They both had identical DVD drives and we couldn't work out why the Pioneer scored so badly. We thought maybe a faulty DVD drive may have been the cause but we soon found out once we installed the e@PC DVD drive in the Pioneer that was not the case. The Pioneer had still scored poorly.

Upgrading the hard disk in this notebook may take you a little while. You have to unscrew the entire base cover to get to the hard drive, which is located underneath the floppy drive. The RAM modules were located under the keyboard. There are two RAM slots which can accommodate two 128MB RAM modules. You can also, however, purchase the 6120 with 64MB of motherboard mounted memory. The maximum total amount of RAM would then be 320MB.

The battery life between the three 6120 notebooks was pretty similar. The 12.6v 4800mAh Li-Ion battery drove all the 6120 notebooks well over two hours.

Of the three 6120 notebooks that were submitted, e@PC has managed to provide one that is about $400 cheaper than the Synnex notebook, while Pioneer has provided one for around $300 cheaper. And you also get the 850 processor with the e@PC and the Pioneer.

Toshiba Satellite Pro 4380XDVD

The Toshiba Satellite Pro was sent to the lab with only 64MB of RAM. We had to borrow some RAM from the Acer notebook to test the Toshiba. We were surprised that this was the notebook Toshiba chose to submit because the Tecra range of Toshiba notebooks seem to fit the high-end criteria a little better than the Satellite Pro. The Tecra range of notebooks ship with 128MB of RAM as standard and also include larger hard drives. They both, however, ship with Intel Pentium III 750 processors and 14.1in TFT displays.

The Satellite Pro is all grey and has a curvy modern look and feel about it, but it is also very big and looks to be heavy. The 4.4cm-thick notebook actually weighed in as the third lightest notebook at 3.091kg. The power pack adds another 514 grams.

The TFT was not supported very well and there is very little protection for it. The panel felt flimsy and when we applied some pressure to the back of the panel we noticed some pretty bad rippling. Picture quality was good but not as good as displays we had seen on many of the other brand name notebooks.

The keyboard feels really good. The feedback from the keys is very positive. There's a distinct click at the end of each key press and the positioning and size of the keys is good. The Toshiba has a trackball in the centre of the keyboard as well as four mouse buttons. Of the four mouse buttons there are two that are designed to be used as scroll buttons. The small left button scrolls up and the small right button scrolls down.

Around the back of the notebook is a composite TV out connector, docking interface port as well as all the other standard ports. The Toshiba shipped with a built-in modem but it did not come with a built-in network card. There's provision for a network card but Toshiba did not use it. Under the power button (on the left-hand side of the notebook) is a locking switch that prevents the notebook from being accidentally powered on. There's also a locking bar that will keep your PC Cards securely in place.

The Toshiba proved to be a very fast notebook. When we tested the Toshiba's overall performance in Winstone we saw it outperform all of the -clone" notebooks. The Toshiba was under-powered compared to the Pioneer notebook. In CPU Mark the Toshiba notebook was a little slower than the Pioneer notebook, as was the case with the Business Graphics WinMark. In Battery Mark the Toshiba just fell short of passing the three-hour barrier.

You could increase the RAM in the notebook quite easily. Two SO-DIMM sockets can be found underneath the base of the notebook. The Toshiba hard drive also pulls out quite easily from the right-hand side of the notebook. The Toshiba is quite a good notebook to say the least. It's not as robust as the IBM notebook and not as stylish as the HP. The Toshiba notebook is, however, much faster than the HP and a lot cheaper than the IBM. The biggest concern we had about this notebook was the lack of protection for the TFT.

Gateway Solo 9300 XL Deluxe

The Gateway Solo 9300 arrived too late to be included in the full review. We did get enough time to note that the Gateway features a compact design and competes favourably against the other notebooks. It has a huge 15.7in display and a native screen resolution of 1280 x 1024. It was one of the better displays we saw (besides the IBM display, which had a native resolution of 1440 x 1050).

Inside the Gateway is an Intel Pentium III 850 processor and 128MB of RAM. There is also an 18GB hard drive and an 8MB ATI Rage Mobility 3D Video Accelerator. In our speed tests the Gateway proved to be quite the speed demon. At 1280 x 1024 the Gateway managed to score just as high as many of the notebooks. What we should note is that the all the other notebooks besides the IBM were tested at 1024 x 768. The Gateway has deep palmrests making it comfortable to use. It also offers strong keyboard support to prevent bounce while typing.

On the back of the Gateway you will find a PS/2, parallel, serial, VGA, docking station port, composite in/ out, and S/PDIF digital audio output connector. On the right-hand side is two USB ports, modem, speaker, line in, microphone jack, two PC Card slots, and an IEEE 1394 high performance serial bus I/O connector. The Gateway has two front firing speakers and external DVD control buttons on the front of the notebook.

The Gateway offers heaps of features that you won't find on any of the other notebooks. Overall the Gateway is a very fast portable that looks good and comes with features that truly makes it a high-end notebook. It's a shame the Gateway wasn't sent to the lab on time because it would have given the Editors' Choice Award a good shake.

Editors' Choice

By leaving the price tag open we expected to receive the most diverse range of notebooks. We saw some of the fastest notebooks now available and some very large displays. The HP Omni Book was the lightest notebook making it a breeze to carry around and it was also the most stylish and modern looking. Acer yet again put together an excellent notebook: it offers great value for only $5999 and the best battery life. With all things considered this months Editors' Choice goes to the IBM ThinkPad A20p. Despite an above average price of AU$9,169 the IBM ThinkPad was well and truly the most robust notebook we tested. It had the best display we had ever seen on a notebook and the performance to match.

How We Tested

WinBench 99 V1.1
WinBench 99 is a subsystem-level benchmark that measures the performance of a notebooks graphics, disk, processor, and video subsystems in a Windows environment. WinBench 99's 32-bit tests can only run on Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT systems. WinBench 99 features new, improved graphics tests, improved disk tests, and several all-new tests for all types of storage devices.
WinBench 99's Graphics Playback technology reproduces the graphics operations the Winstone 99 business and high-end applications perform, affording you a better-than-ever measure of your PC's graphics subsystem. WinBench 99 returns the following main results that provide an overview of a notebooks graphics, disk, and processor performance: