Processor battle: 10 high-end notebooks tested

How we tested

 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

We tested each of the notebooks with the following benchmarks:

Business Winstone 2004
Business Winstone is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC's overall performance when running business productivity applications including Microsoft Access, Excel, FrontPage, PowerPoint, and Word, Microsoft Project 98, Lotus Notes R5, NicoMak WinZip, Norton AntiVirus, and Netscape Communicator. Business Winstone continues to focus on the hot spots in its applications -- the points that most stress PC performance, and PC users.

Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004
Multimedia Content Creation Winstone is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC's overall performance when running multimedia content creation applications, including Adobe Photoshop 7.0, Adobe Premiere 6.5, Macromedia Director 8.5.1, Macromedia Dreamweaver 4, Microsoft Windows MediaTM Encoder 7.01.00.3055, Netscape 6.2.3, NewTek's LightWave 7.5, and Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 6.0.

Business Winstone 2004 BatteryMark
BatteryMark measures battery life on notebook computers running a workload of leading Windows-based applications, such as Microsoft Office XP, Norton AntiVirus, and Netscape, in a set of scripted activities that drain a notebook's battery in a way that mimics real use.

Testing notes
  • The Sony notebook developed a problem during our testing where it could not fully charge the battery therefore we could not test the battery life.
  • The AOpen machine had no battery as it is designed to run from mains power only and therefore we could not test the battery life.
  • Several of the units supplied came with either 1GB or 256MB of RAM, we attempted to test to a baseline of 512MB by installing/removing memory from the systems.

    Things to look for in a notebook

  • Features, features, features. The more ports and drives, the largest screen, biggest drive, and most memory lead to the greatest level of expansion for any system. This is especially the case with a notebook as it is often impossible to simply pop open the case and insert a new expansion card.
  • Power. As a desktop replacement, you don't need to worry about power for office software users, but if they're doing anything more demanding than Word, notebooks can get rather sluggish unless they've got enough grunt.
  • Battery life. Power and battery life are not generally to be mentioned in the same sentence, but hey these things are notebooks after all. If you cannot watch a DVD movie while you are travelling home on the train then what is the point of having batteries in these units? Just take the chiropractic visits into account when you are calculating your ROI as they are not designed to be light.
  • Warranty. Notebooks are not cheap and you need to ensure that the warranty is the longest possible. All units carry proprietary mainboards and LCD panels, if one of these goes when the unit is out of warranty then you may as well kiss it goodbye. The longer the warranty the better.

    Sample scenario

    Company: Carling Fitness

    This company is looking to purchase desktop replacement notebooks for its office-based staff. It wants to evaluate the difference between Intel and AMD processor-based notebooks.

    Approximate budget: AU$5000 per notebook.

    Requires: 30 desktop replacement notebooks with at least 15in screens, 256MB or more of memory, Windows XP Professional installed.

    Concerns: The company wants to examine which processor gives it more bang for buck in specifications, performance, and battery life.

    Best solution: The best option in this case is the Acer TravelMate 800 -- an Intel-based notebook -- as it provides the best performance matched with an excellent array of features.

    T&B Editor's choiceEditor's Choice

    Acer Ferrari 3000LMi

    Honourable mention: Dell Latitude D505, Pioneer Powerbook AMD 8355, Acer TravelMate 800

    Our pick of the bunch is the Acer Ferrari 3000LMi. It fits all the requirements of a fully featured desktop replacement notebook and has a fair bit of style to it, which is certainly something the IT Industry needs these days. If you're not a Ferrari fan or don't want to stick out like a sore thumb at work, try the Acer Travelmate 800 or the Dell D505.

    Pioneer gets a mention for its Powerbook AMD 8355 with an excellent array of features, quality of construction, and the inclusion of an AMD 64 bit processor with the ability to still maintain a good battery life. Perhaps they should check with the lawyers about that name, though. Dell's Latitude D505 was a hair's breadth away from our best choice for this scenario, and certainly has much to offer.

    Final words

    What an amazing array of notebooks were submitted for this review. The notebook market is definitely a mature one and most of these notebooks we could recommend for further investigation. The list of features for most of these models are great and many users would be hard pressed to tax these units with general business usage. AMD possibly have a little way to go yet however they are getting very close to Intel.

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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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