Processor battle: 10 high-end notebooks tested

TPG Widescreen Notebook (AMD)

TPG Widescreen NotebookAs mentioned, this TPG notebook has obviously been designed and manufactured in the same factory as the QDI machine. There are differences such as the screen and processor, however the keyboard and cursor control are all identical. Both the TPG and QDI machine had one bright pixel out on their LCD displays.

The TPG has a Mobile AMD Athlon XP 2000+ CPU, 512MB RAM, a 30GB HDD unit. The notebook also has a CD-RW/DVD Combo optical drive, but no floppy disk or wireless LAN.

This is a very neat notebook, but the lack of a floppy drive, wireless LAN, flash memory card support, serial ports, etc. -- as well as only having a single PCMCIA socket and only three USB ports -- mean the features are a little light. However these missing details can possibly be overlooked particularly if the user is looking for a widescreen display.

 High-end notebooks

 Notebook reviews:
 Acer Travelmate 800
 Acer Ferrari 3000LMi
 AOpen B165
 Dell Latitude D505
 IBM ThinkPad G40
 Pioneer Powerbook AMD 8355
 QDI Alacritas 520-K8
 Sony Vaio PCG-GRT40
 Toshiba Tecra M2
 TPG Widescreen Notebook

 Specifications
 How we tested
 Look out for...
 Sample scenarios
 Editor's choice
 Final words
 About RMIT
Product TPG Widescreen Notebook
Price AU$1447
Vendor TPG
Phone 1300 360 855
Web www.tpg.com.au/online
 
Interoperability
Average feature set.
Futureproofing ½
Less than average expansion capabilities.
ROI ½
Very cheap, but this is reflected in the performance and features.
Service ½
One-year warranty is average.
Rating ½

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Talkback 3 comments

    I'm surprised that in a 'high- ...Anonymous -- 30/04/04

    I'm surprised that in a 'high-end desktop replacement notebook' category Dell didn't think to submit their new Inspiron 9100.

    To quote from Reuben Lee, ZDNet, 04 March 2004

    'The Inspiron 9100 is probably one of the best notebooks around that can truly replace the desktop PC, offering speed and excellent 3D graphics performance.'

    Having just purchased one I would have to agree.

    I would have truly liked to have seen this cat set amongst these pigeons.

    What was Dell thinking?

    Hi... great review... althoug ...Anonymous -- 24/05/04

    Hi... great review... although a little thin on specific details. I'm just wondering if it is really fair to strip any additional memory if (for the indicated price) that is what is included in the package. In the end, are we not buying the laptop for the package and performance as the manufacturers provide and intend to?

    Also, I'm very interested in the new LG/IBM Xnote series laptops. Are there any specific reasons as to why LG didn't provide you with their latest laptop? Could it be due to the lack of supply (as I have learnt that they have all but been sold out)? Could you please do a review on the LG laptop, separately, and verify their claim of having 10 hours of battery life?

    Thank you!

    I've just bought the A-open B1 ...Anonymous -- 06/07/04

    I've just bought the A-open B165 and am very happy with it. This system can be bought without an operating system, with any size 3.5" hard disk (E-IDE or SATA), any Pentium IV Celeron or Northwood processor and any combination of RAM modules. The Optical drive is removable and can be replaced with a DVD-writer, and the monitor can be removed (for those who just want to carry their work system off-base every night and take it home to plug into an external CRT/LCD). All up, it's an extremely flexible platform and suits my needs very well. As for the lack of Infra-Red, Bluetooth, PCMCIA and Compact Flash: why be paying for these 'feautures' if you're not going to use them? It does have a parallel printer port, Firewire and 5 USB 2.0 ports and that suits me just fine.

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