How we tested
- Standard performance and compatibility benchmarks including Business Winstone 2002, Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2003, WinBench 99, BatteryMark, and 3DMark 2001 SE.
- Display quality including evenness of illumination, clarity, colours, and resolutions supported.
- 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.
- System expandability including the number of I/O ports, upgradability of CPU, memory, and hard drive.
Test bench
- Interoperability
Does the notebook have integrated communications such as wireless LAN and Bluetooth?
Futureproofing
Can the notebook be upgraded? Does it have connectors such as FireWire and flash memory cards?
ROI
Price, performance, warranty: you can't go wrong if the manufacturer has got the basics right.
Service
Warranty, especially parts; notebooks get knocked around and spare parts are proprietary.
- Company: Antons Travel. This travel business wants to buy new notebook computers for its sales staff.
Approximate budget:Â $4000 per notebook.
Requires:Â 40 lightweight notebooks, each weighing less that 2kg.
Concerns:Â The sales staff have been complaining that their old notebooks are too heavy, so the weight limit is very important.
Best solution: The Toshiba Portégé is hard to go past here: it's small, light, and easy to carry around, but does not lack in functionality or features.
- Company: Sponar's Fine Foods. This catering company wants to buy notebook computers for its executive staff.
Approximate budget:Â $4000 per notebook.
Requires:Â 5 lightweight notebooks with built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking.
Concerns: Executives travel frequently and want Wi-Fi to connect to wireless hotspots in airport lounges, cafés, etc.
Best solution: Sony's Vaio PCG-TR1 gets the gong here, despite stretching the price a little, for its features and futureproof design.
Editor's Choice: Toshiba Portégé R100, Sony Vaio PCG-TR1
The Toshiba Portégé's ultralight and ultrathin format is what we're talking about when we say "portable computer", but the notebook doesn't seriously lack features or performance as a result.
Sony's Vaio PCG-TR1 may not be the best performer--but performance is not what this review is about. It's small and light, but has some great features such as the internal DVD/CDRW drive and manages quite an impressive battery life.
Final words
There was a broad range of notebooks submitted for this review and we had our work cut out for us looking at them all. Each have its own benefits and therefore suit specific markets. As with a lot of the technology we have looked at in the Test Lab lately, devices are becoming much more focused on specific target markets and clients (which is a good thing). So ultimately, it is best to use this review as a guide and really evaluate each unit for your own particular purposes.
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Disagree with comments on the Sony. While it is loaded with a lot of stuff, the unit is, like just about every other Sony notebook ever manufactured, cheap junk. Tiny worthless little screen, "chicklet" keyboard, horrible, short warranty serviced by third party companies whose success is based on their ability to evaded their warranty responsibilities. The IBM X31 got short shrift in the review, but it is easily the best unit of all. Maybe the best ultralight ever produced. Solid (titanium case), three year warranty, great customer support, superior high quality hardware.