How we tested
We tested and evaluated each of the notebooks based on the following criteria:
- Standard performance and compatibility benchmarks (see Benchmarks).
- Display quality including evenness of illumination, clarity, colours, and resolutions supported.
- Audio including the audio chip used and sound quality, volume level, speaker/s location, I/O, and ease of use.
- 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.
- Workmanship and design including ergonomics, robustness, and durability.
- System expandability including the number of I/O ports, upgradability of CPU, memory, and hard drive.
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.
Benchmarks
Business Winstone 2002 v1.0.1
Business Winstone is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC’s overall performance when running today’s top-selling Windows-based 32-bit applications on Windows 98, Windows 2000 (SP2 or later), Windows Me, or Windows XP. Business Winstone doesn’t mimic what these packages do; it runs real applications through a series of scripted activities and uses the time a PC takes to complete those activities to produce its performance scores.
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).
| Notebook | Score |
| Acer TravelMate 650 | 21.9 |
| Dell Latitude C640 | 19.7 |
| IBM ThinkPad T30 | 22.7 |
| Toshiba Satellite 5200 (256MB) | 21.4 |
| Toshiba Satellite 5200 (512MB) | 23.0 |
Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2003 v1.0
Multimedia Content Creation Winstone is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC’s overall performance when running top, Windows-based, 32-bit, multimedia content creation applications on Windows 2000 (SP2 or higher), Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows XP.
Following the lead of real users, Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2003 keeps multiple applications open at once and switches among those applications. Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2003 is a single large test that runs the above applications through a series of scripted activities and returns a single score. Those activities focus on what we call “hot spots,” periods of activity that make your PC really work—the times where you’re likely to see an hourglass or a progress bar.
| Notebook | Score |
| Acer TravelMate 650 | 29.1 |
| Dell Latitude C640 | 25.7 |
| IBM ThinkPad T30 | 28.4 |
| Toshiba Satellite 5200 (256MB) | Could not run |
| Toshiba Satellite 5200 (512MB) | Could not run |
Business Winstone 2001 BatteryMark
BatteryMark measures battery life on notebook computers running Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
| Notebook | Score |
| Acer TravelMate 650 | 186 |
| Dell Latitude C640 | 168 |
| IBM ThinkPad T30 | 165 |
| Toshiba Satellite 5200 (256MB) | 198 |
| Toshiba Satellite 5200 (512MB) | Not run |
3DMark 2001 SE
3Dmark 2001 SE is the latest installment in the popular 3DMark series. By combining DirectX 8.1 support with completely new graphics, it continues to provide benchmark results that empower you to make informed hardware assessments. The game tests, texturing tests, filtering tests, image quality tests, and others give you an overview of your system’s current performance.
| Notebook | Score |
| Acer TravelMate 650 | 275 |
| Dell Latitude C640 | 366 |
| IBM ThinkPad T30 | 579 |
| Toshiba Satellite 5200 (256MB) | 719 |
| Toshiba Satellite 5200 (512MB) | 734 |
3%
2%
