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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Red hot laptops March 19, 2003 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/hardware/laptops/soa/Red-hot-laptops/0,2000065761,120272930,00.htm
 
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. Check out our Australian review of 5 supercharged notebooks. 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 Connectors 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 Graphics 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 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 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. Acer TravelMate 650
The TravelMate 650 is an exciting new notebook from Acer—thin and stylish, it is nevertheless slightly on the heavy side. This new Acer features an Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz processor, 256MB of RAM, a 40GB hard disk drive, and a DVD/CD-RW combo drive. It has a Smart Card reader as well as a single Type II PC Card Slot. There was no shortage of USB ports—four in total—and what surprised us was that it still managed to house all the common legacy ports on the back of the notebook. Unlike any of the other notebooks, it has a Smart Media slot, which will come in handy for transferring images from your digital camera. There’s also an SD slot on the front of the notebook. The Acer was quite fast in all of our tests. The Acer ran all the tests at 1024 x 768, which is its native mode. The other notebooks had higher native modes. The main reason for this was the fact that the display was limited in terms of display resolution and in terms of image quality the display was very poor.
Apple PowerBook G4
The Apple Titanium PowerBook G4 has had some major upgrades since we last had a look at it some six months ago. It sports a faster 1GHz G4 processor and a 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics accelerator. The PowerBook is still only 2.54cm thick and only weighs 2.5kg, making it the lightest notebook in this review. This is quite remarkable considering it has a 15.2in screen display. And the display quality was absolutely stunning. You can now for the first time watch DVD movies on your notebook in a widescreen format (outside work hours, of course). From the outside, the PowerBook is all silver-grey. It looks very reserved but modern and stylish at the same time. The PowerBook also features a huge 60GB hard disk and 512MB of RAM, which can be expanded to 1024MB. Also featured is a one-inch thick slot loading Super Drive. The Super Drive (DVD-R/CD-RW) will let you read and burn data CDs, as well as DVDs that can be played in most consumer DVD players. Unfortunately, we did not benchmark the PowerBook simply because there aren’t any comprehensive cross-platform benchmarks that can run on both a Mac and PC. We have used Photoshop benchmark in the past but that only really measures the relative CPU performance in Photoshop. We should also make you aware that a new top-of-the-line PowerBook G4 has just been released in the US that has a huge 17in LCD display as well as built-in Bluetooth and a built-in AirPort Extreme card (54Mbps).
Dell Latitude C640
Like the IBM T30, the Dell Latitude C640 has been floating about for some time now. It hasn’t changed at all since we last saw it at the end of last year. It’s still charcoal black, even the standard and function keys are this colour. Dell has also continued to offer both a track point and glide pad. On the back you will find the most common legacy connectors but it fails to deliver more than one USB connector. It doesn’t feature FireWire, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth and the optical drive is only a DVD/CD drive while the other manufacturers went one step better by offering at least a DVD/CD-RW drive.
The Dell was the fastest notebook we tested in the December issue. It however hasn’t taken very long to make it the slowest this time around. Despite this, it’s still very fast in both 2D and 3D. You can expect the battery to last almost three hours, which is also very good. The Dell isn’t a bad notebook but we must say that most of the leading manufacturers have surpassed this model in more ways than one.
IBM ThinkPad T30
The IBM Thinkpad T30 combines plenty of punch and portability. It weighs only 2.5kg making it, together with the Apple, the lightest notebook we reviewed. It features an Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz processor like most of the other notebooks as well as the same graphics processor, hard disk and DVD drive. But what makes this unit so special is the way IBM packages each notebook. The titanium composite used in the top and bottom covers makes the notebook robust and light. This T30 notebook offers Wi-Fi, and features a dual antenna built into the display for better wireless performance. The T30 comes with a ThinkLight, which is a small light that illuminates the keyboard. This is a great feature that gives you the flexibility to keep working in low-light conditions. Another nice feature are the differently coloured function keys. Having the option of using either a trackpoint or glidepad controller for the mouse is also nice. On the performance side of things, the T30 was fast enough to handle any office or desktop publishing type applications. It’s also very good in 3D. Despite it working harder at 1400 x 1050 it still had enough punch to record some high scores. Its battery life wasn’t too bad—it managed to run for 2 hours and 45 minutes in our test.
Toshiba Satellite 5200
Toshiba has only just recently launched this product. We were lucky enough to be one of the first to get to play around with it. We can assure you we were sad to see it go back. This Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz-based notebook houses the first DVD-RAM/DVD-RW/DVD-R/CD-RW/CD-R drive. So not only will users now be able to burn back up copies of their movies, users can also benefit from the high-capacity/low cost DVD-RAM storage format. It also features 512MB of RAM, a 60GB HDD, 15in display (native 1600 x 1200) and nVidia’s new GeForce 4 460 graphics processor together with 64MB of video memory. This notebook is very large and heavy and you may find it a bit of a beast to cart around. However, with all the size available to this notebook, Toshiba has made sure it’s well equipped. Apart from the modem and LAN jacks (which pretty much come standard with every notebook these days) the Toshiba also offers Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It also offers heaps of common connectors as well as an S/PDIF jack, which will enable you to connect up to digital speakers. It doesn’t end there. There’s an SD slot as well as a single Type II PC Card slot and a Style bay that can house a second battery. You will also find a great pair of Harmon Kardon speakers and a subwoofer. Now for the really cool features (if the above aren’t already enough): there’s a set of control buttons on the front of the notebook that will let you play CDs without having to turn the notebook on. With these buttons you can also control your DVD player. Furthermore there’s an LCD display that will display the mode you are in as well as other things like the time and date and the battery charge level. What we loved was the fact that we were able to operate all this from a remote control. You can even power the notebook on and off from the wireless remote control. This is also a very fast notebook. It offered not only the best graphics performance but the longest battery life as well. It was a tiny bit slower than the IBM and Acer in Business Winstone this was because it had to run this test at a higher resolution, which would have ultimately affected its score. You can run this notebook at a lower resolution but we suggest you use stick to its native resolution as it offers the best image quality. We unfortunately couldn’t run Multimedia Content Creation Winstone on this Toshiba. This was mainly a software issue with the benchmark.
How we testedWe tested and evaluated each of the notebooks based on the following criteria:
We also rated each of the notebooks in the areas of interoperability, futureproofing, return on investment and service. Interoperability: We looked at the number of USB, FireWire, and legacy connectors that were available. Return on Investment: We looked at the overall cost and performance of the notebook. Futureproofing: With futureproofing we were basically concerned about the expansion potential of each of the notebooks. We looked at the maximum RAM capacity, the size of the HDD, and whether the notebook had provisions for a second battery. Service: With service we looked at the duration of the warranty. NB: We tested the Toshiba Satellite 5200 with the supplied 512MB of memory and also with 256MB to bring it in line with the other notebooks tested. BenchmarksBusiness Winstone 2002 v1.0.1 The list of 10 business productivity applications includes five Microsoft Office 2000 applications (Access, Excel, FrontPage, PowerPoint, and Word), Microsoft Project 98, an e-mail application (Lotus Notes R5), a compression program (NicoMak WinZip), an anti-virus program (Norton AntiVirus), and a Web browser (Netscape Communicator).
Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2003 v1.0
Business Winstone 2001 BatteryMark
3DMark 2001 SE
Specifications
Sample scenarioCompany: Cuff Enterprises. This company wants to provide highend notebooks for its top executives and IT managers. Approximate budget: $7000 per notebook. Requires: Five notebooks with at least 256MB memory, 14in or larger screens, at least 30GB hard disk, Windows 2000 installed. Concerns: Notebooks should inspire warmandfuzzy feelings of loyalty in employees, and envy in their friends and colleagues. Performance and connectability are also important factors. Best Solution: The Toshiba Satellite 5200 stands out as a clear winner here. It’s a fresh new notebook with some great new features that none of the other notebooks would dream of having. Things like the DVD-RAM/DVD-R drive and the Cpad are great new features that will inspire envy in your colleagues. This notebook is also extremely fast, it has a large screen, a variety of connectors, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, and it also has a long-lasting battery to top all that off. We also decided to give the Apple PowerBook a mention. The PowerBook is full of class but watch out for the new 17in display PowerBook. What to look for when buying a notebook:
Subscribe now to Australian Technology & Business magazine. About RMIT Test Labs
RMIT IT Test Labs is an independent testing institution based in Melbourne, Victoria, performing IT product testing for clients such as IBM, Coles-Myer, and a wide variety of government bodies. In the Labs’ testing for Technology & Business, they are in direct contact with the clients supplying products. Their findings are their own—only the specifications of the products to be tested are provided by the magazine. For more information on RMIT, please contact the Lab Manager, Steven Turvey.
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