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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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We cover every aspect you need to consider in making a notebook purchase in our extensive tech guide.
Notebook specs vary widely depending on what you need to get out of
your portable computer. Manufacturers make trade-offs--slower processors allow
for smaller batteries, for instance--so it's important to know what you'll have
to sacrifice to get the notebook of your dreams. Many vendors offer
configuration choices when you buy your notebook. We've broken out the most
important specs so that you understand your choices.
Options:
Processor | Memory | Display
size What are my processor, screen, and memory options?
Processor
Sometimes
referred to as the CPU, or central processing unit, the processor is the
brains of the computer. It's the most important chip in a notebook, and it has
power-management features that extend battery life. Notebooks use a variety of
processor types depending on their focus. We've explained each in the chart
below:
PROCESSOR
NOTEBOOK TYPE
PROS AND CONS
Mobile AMD Athlon
4
Budget notebooks
Inexpensive but a bit slower than Intel
Pentium chips, according to CNET Labs' tests.
AMD Althon XP-M
chips
Desktop replacement, thin-and-light
notebooks
Still undergoing tests. No conclusion
yet.
Apple PowerPC
G3
Apple iBook (budget
notebook)
Long battery life and relatively inexpensive,
but slower clock speeds limit performance, especially under OS
X.
Apple PowerPC
G4
Apple PowerBooks (performance and
desktop-replacement notebooks)
Excellent performance and reasonable battery
life but expensive, and clock speeds top out at 1GHz.
Mobile Intel
Celeron
Budget notebooks
Extremely inexpensive, slightly slower than
Intel Pentium chips.
Mobile Intel Pentium
III-M
Ultraportable notebooks
Less expensive than many other processors but
not as powerful. Longer battery life allows for lower system
weight.
Mobile Intel Pentium
4-M
Desktop-replacement, thin-and-light
notebooks
Very fast and expensive. Allows for only
mediocre battery life.
Intel Pentium
M
Desktop-replacement, thin-and-light, some
ultraportable notebooks
Part of Intel's Centrino technology, the PM
is both very fast and allows for long battery life. Very
expensive.
Intel Pentium
4
Desktop-replacement
notebooks
A chip intended for desktops, the Intel P4 is
very fast and is less expensive than Pentium 4-M and PM chips, but it runs very
hot and allows only poor battery life.
Every
computer comes with a certain amount of physical memory, usually referred to as
main memory or RAM (random-access memory). Computers store
currently running applications and data in this area. To find out how much
memory you'll need, take into account your operating system and the applications
that you plan to use. A general rule of thumb: You'll need 256MB for Windows XP
or Mac OS X and 128MB for all other Windows and Mac operating systems.
If you're planning to hang on to your notebook for a long time, look for
a laptop with easy-to-access memory slots, as memory is typically one of the
first specs you'll want to upgrade.
Unlike
traditional desktop CRT (cathode-ray tube) monitors, notebooks ship with thin,
liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). Notebook LCDs range in size from 12.1 inches
(diagonal) to 17 inches. For comfortable viewing at the preferred Windows
resolution of 1,024x768, most people like 14.1-inch or larger LCDs.
The ultraportable Fujitsu LifeBook P
series (left) has one of the smallest screens--just 10.6 inches--in order to
accommodate its feather-light, 3.1-pound weight. The giant 17-inch Apple
PowerBook (right), on the other hand, has the biggest notebook screen we've ever
seen.
Notebook LCDs once varied
widely in brightness, colour, and sharpness, but today, you'll find much better
quality across the board. Unfortunately, when it comes to LCDs, the specs reveal
little about actual picture quality, so if you're picky about screens, compare
some at your local dealer.
First, decide how big of a hard drive you need; this will depend on how
much data you store. After that, determine what you'll use your notebook for.
Will you be tackling the most basic computing tasks, or do you worship Scorcese
and plan to make your own DVD movies?
Drives: Hard drive | CD and DVD
drives | Swappable vs. fixed
drives | External
drives
Hard drive
A notebook
hard drive removed from the system.
This magnetic disk provides you with space to save
programs and files indefinitely--or at least for the life of the drive. Notebook
hard drives can be bigger than 60GB, but these giant drives cost hundreds of
dollars more than the default 20GB notebook drives. You'll need only a 20GB or
30GB drive unless you store lots of movies or tons of pictures. Be warned that
capacity alone does not make a good hard drive. The hard disk's rotational speed
also makes a big difference; a 5,400rpm notebook disk delivers significantly
faster performance than a 4,200rpm model. The faster the disk spins, the better
your notebook will perform overall.
Unless
you're going budget, don't settle for anything less than a CD-RW
drive.
You need at least a CD-ROM to install software, of
course. But unless you're buying a budget notebook, don't settle for anything
less than a CD-RW drive so that you can burn your own CDs. For watching movies
and playing monster games on the road, consider a CD-RW drive that doubles as a
DVD drive. Some notebooks now offer DVD-rewritable drives, which can store up to
4.7GB on one disk. But unless you need to store huge files, such as movies, you
may not need the more expensive DVD-RW
drives.
Here is a
media module slipping into a swappable drive. Fixed drives won't let you remove
the module.
The least expensive notebooks come with
fixed (built-in) drives. In other words, if you buy your notebook with a
fixed DVD-ROM, you're stuck with that drive. A swappable drive bay, on
the other hand, gives you optimum flexibility. For instance, you can pull out
the DVD-ROM drive and swap in a combo DVD/CD-RW drive or even a second battery
on many notebooks. We recommend going with a swappable bay if you can afford it.
Keep in mind, however, that the smallest and lightest ultraportable notebooks
may include neither fixed nor swapped optical drives, relying instead on
external USB drives.
This is an
external drive tethered to a Sony notebook.
External drives--storage and media-burning
options that hook up to your notebook via cable--come in many shapes and sizes.
Most of these drives hook up to your notebook's USB or FireWire connector. Drive
choices include external floppy, CD-ROM, combo DVD/CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, hard
drive, Zip, LS-120, and others. There are also smaller external drives, such as
the Trek 16MB USB ThumbDrive, that plug directly into your USB connector sans
cable. These little drives, sometimes called keychain drives, are
brilliant for transferring small amounts of data between notebooks or between
notebooks and PCs. Many notebook users don't need external drives, but there are
scenarios that require them. For instance, if you buy a tiny ultraportable that
lacks a built-in CD-ROM drive, make sure you get an external one so that you can
load software.
To send and receive e-mail, browse the Web, and share files or
printers, your notebook must be able to connect to a network or the Internet.
This is usually done via a modem, an Ethernet hookup, or a wireless connection.
But your notebook has additional connectivity needs, too. Notebooks include a
variety of ports, or connectors that physically link to and communicate
with different kinds of equipment, including digital cameras and external
monitors.
If you can't find the port you want, you can usually buy a
port replicator or a docking station, which adds connectors. These
notebook-expansion options tend to be pricey, however, so you're generally
better off buying a notebook that has everything that you'll need out of the
box. Find out about each type of connection below.
Get connected:
PC Cards vs. mini-PCI | Modems and Ethernet ports | Wireless antennae and radios | Other ports and connectors
PC Cards vs. mini-PCI
The
PC Card, a credit card-shaped device that plugs into a slot on your notebook can
provide a number of connection types--modems, USB connections (say, for your
digital camcorder), and wireless LAN radios are all available in PC Card form.
PC Cards are handy because they're easy to upgrade and because you can buy
third-party PC Card solutions after you purchase your notebooks. However, most
notebooks come with only one or two Type II PC Card slots, forcing you to limit
the number of PC Cards you can add.
The Proxim Orinioco World PC Card
(left) and the Netgear WAB 501 dual-band wireless adapter (right) are two
examples of PC Card wireless adapters with antennae that extend beyond the edge
of the notebook.
The mini-PCI
card, on the other hand, is a smaller, more compact version of a PC Card.
Notebook manufacturers install mini-PCI cards inside notebooks, which has a
couple of advantages: these cards are usually cheaper, and they leave PC Card
slots open for additional uses. Unfortunately, mini-PCI cards are almost
impossible to remove or upgrade because they're integrated, and sometimes they
take power from the notebook's CPU.
If you know you're going to want
802.11 wireless on your notebook, consider a system that integrates these
connections on a mini-PCI card, leaving your PC Card expansion slot(s) free.
Virtually
all notebooks come with 56Kbps-modem (RJ-11) and Ethernet (RJ-45) connections.
Look for a system that integrates these connections on a mini-PCI card, leaving
your PC Card expansion slot(s) free.
Many
notebooks also include built-in antennae for wireless networking (802.11, or
Wi-Fi) so that you need to add only a PC Card to enable wireless networking. Or,
even better, some notebooks include internal mini-PCI, Wi-Fi radio, or
network-interface cards (NICs) embedded in the notebook itself. Intel's new
Centrino technology includes just such a setup, although Centrino itself has
some limitations.
If you
choose a notebook with networking built in, make sure you understand the
difference between the networking standards that are currently on the market,
including 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. Our Wireless networking 101 primer can
help.
If your notebook doesn't offer either a built-in antenna or
wireless mini-PCI, it's fairly easy to find PC Cards that get the job done.
Most
notebooks have a printer port, a VGA port for an external monitor, and at least
one USB port for connecting an external keyboard and mouse, drives, digital
cameras, and MP3 players. If you plan to use your notebook for watching DVDs or
making presentations, look for a notebook with a multimedia jack (a
combined stereo- and video-out). For home use, you may want a stereo input, a
game port, a MIDI connector, and a FireWire port for capturing and editing
digital video or hooking up an external storage drive.
IBM's port
replicator works for many different ThinkPad notebooks.
A docking station contains a mixture of
ports, slots, drive bays, and security features, and it usually attaches to the
notebook from underneath. Docking stations come in a variety of shapes, ranging
from the same size as your notebook, which is often referred to as a media
slice, to much bigger--some stick out five inches past the back of your
notebook. As the name implies, a docking station is where you park your notebook
when you get back to the office, giving you easy access to your network, along
with a bigger monitor, a regular keyboard, additional storage devices, and the
convenience of leaving cables plugged in when you walk away from your desk.
A port replicator, on the other hand, is a smaller, stripped-down
version of a docking station that mainly features--as you might guess--ports,
such as USB or parallel. A port replicator can range from the size of a box of
toothpaste to just shy of docking-station stature. When you're on the road, a
port replicator is a convenient way to increase your connectivity.
A solid
notebook carrying case is worth the extra money.
You're about to drop a couple grand or more on a
laptop, and the last thing you want to do is spend even more money on a carrying
case. So, you save a few bucks by going with the manufacturer's basic case. But
basic bags often lack a padded shoulder strap or internal pockets. You'll be
kicking yourself soon when your nine-pound load is cutting a groove into your
shoulder and all of your peripherals come tumbling out of your bag in a tangled
mess. Dig into your wallet for a sturdy, comfortable carrying case, and your
shoulder will thank you. Look for padded shoulder straps, reinforced corners,
and specialised compartments designed to hold the AC adapter, the extra
batteries, and so on.
The Compaq
Evo N410c features two extra batteries.
If you do even a modest amount of traveling, we
recommend getting a second battery. They range from $100 to $300, and they are
worth the money. Many notebooks allow you to swap them into the main media bay.
Other secondary batteries clip on to the back of the notebook or attach via a
cable. Next time you're trapped on the tarmac, working away on your laptop, and
your primary battery is about to die, you'll thank us for encouraging you to buy
that second cell. If you rarely travel with your notebook, however, and your
laptop is pretty much always plugged in, don't bother with a second
battery.
This is an
external drive hooked via a cable to a Sony notebook.
External drives--storage and media-burning
options that hook up to your notebook via cable--can be a pain to carry around
and hook up, plus they can be pricey. You're generally better off buying a
notebook that has everything you need out of the box. Nevertheless, external
drives are sometimes required. If, for instance, you buy an ultraportable that
lacks a built-in CD-ROM drive, make sure you get an external drive so that you
can load software. Types of external drives include CD-ROM, CD-RW, combo
DVD/CD-RW, DVD-rewritable, floppy, hard drives, Zip drives, and
more.
Working for hours with just a pointing stick or a
touchpad can take a toll on your hand, wrist, and forearm. To save yourself some
wear and tear, invest in a small travel mouse. These can cost as little as $20,
they usually hook up via a USB cable, and they're are very easy to tote. The
same advice applies to typing for hours on your notebook's keyboard. If you
plant your notebook on your desk when you work, hook up a USB keyboard and
relieve your wrists. If you prefer working without wires, get a wireless mouse
and keyboard.
We cover every aspect you need to consider in making a notebook purchase in our extensive tech guide.
Processor
Hard drive
