Notebook Review Spec

FUJITSU LIFEBOOK U772-i7

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 07:54:00 +0000

FUJITSU
LIFEBOOK U772-i7
CPU : Intel Core i7-3667U (2.00 GHz, 4 MB L3 Cache, up to 3.2 GHz)
Chipset : Mobile Intel? QM77 Express Chipset
Graphic Chip : Intel HD Graphics 4000
Display : 14 inch WXGA (1366x768) LED
Memory : 4 GB DDR3
Hard Disk : 500 GB 5400 RPM + 32 GB SSD

More details --> http://notebook.mynoxil.com/notebook_4046_ver_FUJITSU_LIFEBOOK_U772-i7.html

Why Dell Inspiron 17R is the best?

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:41:00 +0000

From : http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5941&review=dell+inspiron+17r

The newly designed Inspiron 17R is the latest 17.3-inch desktop-replacement notebook from Dell. Equipped with the Intel Core i3 and i5 processors with Intel GMA HD graphics, this budget-friendly system is aimed at the masses. In this review we take an in-depth look at this new system and see how it performs.

Our
Dell Inspiron 17R (N7010) Specifications:

Intel Core i3 370M processor (2.4GHz, 3MB cache)
17.3-inch 1600x900 display with LED backlighting
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
4GB DDR3 memory
500GB 5400rpm HDD
Intel HD integrated graphics
10/100 Ethernet, 802.11n wireless, and Bluetooth
6-cell Li-ion 48Wh battery
Dimensions: 16.54 x 10.87 x 1.24-1.38-inches
Weight: 6.67lbs starting
MSRP: $679

Build and Design
The newly redesigned Inspiron 17R offers a much cleaner and sleeker look and feel compared to past models. Similar to the Adamo-series, the layout has a hinge-forward design with the screen positioned just slightly in front of the back edge of the chassis. This has the added benefit of moving the screen closer to the keyboard and bringing the action to you. The outside appearance of the new 17R is very stylish, with a faux-brushed metal screen cover. The look gives the appearance of metal, although with an easier to clean painted surface. This look it also shared inside the notebook, with the palmrest and keyboard trim.

Build quality is great with a strong chassis and very durable feeling plastic. Even with its large footprint, the thin chassis resist flex and doesn't creak when you lift it up from the corners. The keyboard and palmrest both have more than adequate support, and don't sag under strong pressure. The screen cover has moderate protection for the LCD, with only strong pressure to the back of the panel causing ripples. The large 17.3-inch screen has no problem staying put with two strong hinges that get the display into position and hold it without any wiggle.

Users looking to upgrade the Inspiron 17R will find it easy through one access panel on the bottom of the notebook. With a few Phillips head screws removed, you gain access to the system memory and hard drive. Components like the wireless card and processor require more disassembly to get at.

Ports and Features
For a budget 17-inch desktop-replacement the Inspiron 17R offers plenty of inputs. We counted three USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA/USB connection, HDMI and VGA-out , audio jacks, and Ethernet. It also featured a SDHC-card reader, but an ExpressCard slot was missing.

Front: Activity lights	Rear: DC-input, one USB 2.0, VGA-out, one USB 2.0
Left: One USB 2.0, audio jacks, HDMI-out, SDHC-card slot	Right: Optical drive, eSATA/USB combo port, LAN, Kensington Lock slot

Screen and Speakers
The main attraction to the Inspiron 17R is its large and rather spacious 17.3" display. The display comes in 1600x900 resolution only, with a glossy or glare-type surface. We didn't find the reflections or glare to be as bad as all-glass style panels, but it was still greater than matte finishes. For a budget system the screen rates slightly above average with a strong backlight, measuring a peak of 215nit with our Gossen Mavo-Monitor light meter. The brightness was a bit low for outdoor viewing, but worked quite well under bright office lighting.

We also measured screen contrast as being 215:1 with an average darkness of 0.98nit and minimal backlight bleed around the edges. Color quality was good, although maybe not as vivid as more recent multimedia-oriented systems. Vertical viewing angles were good to about 15-20 degrees before colors started to sharply invert. Horizontal viewing angles were better, staying true to about 60 degrees off-center before reflections started to overpower the panel.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on the Inspiron 17R is a cross between a Chilet and standard keyboard. The tops of each key are flat with sharp edges, but instead of an inner-bezel they broaden out to meet the sides of other keys. This design is comfortable to type on, although it lacks some of the cupping that is nice to have to center your fingers over each key as you type. The layout is full-size with numberpad, which doesn't feel in any way cramped with the large width of this laptop. The only complaint I have with this keyboard are the directional keys, which are micro-sized for a keyboard this big. They are roughly equal in size to the function keys on the top row. I am guessing it was done this way to maximize the size of the palmrest and get users to use the numberpad for direction keys.

The touchpad is a spacious Synaptics model, which thankfully doesn't incorporate buttons below the touch-sensitive surface. The response times of the touchpad were excellent, exhibiting no lag whatsoever in our testing. The surface texture was a light matte finish that was easy to glide over with a dry or slightly damp fingertip. The touchpad supported multitouch gestures which worked well and with the external buttons, didn't interfere with normal operation of the cursor. The touchpad buttons offered shallow feedback, but they did have slightly more travel than other short-throw buttons. When pressed they emitted a very soft click that didn't make your presence known in a medium to large-sized room.

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance on the Dell Inspiron 17R was great thanks to the Intel Core i3 and i5 processor selection, as well as Intel GMA HD graphics. While our review sample was a budget-oriented configuration, Dell does offer a dedicated graphics option with the ATI Radeon HD5470 and 1GB of VRAM. On compatible systems this option adds $100 to the purchase price.

Overall we were very pleased with the performance of the 17R in our tests. Our base configuration included the Intel Core i3 370M with 4GB of DDR3 memory, and a 500GB 5400RPM hard drive. After a partial cleaning of pre-installed software, the system was quick to respond and handled most of the tasks we asked of it. The Inspiron 17R handles office productivity applications as well as any web-browsing without a problem. Although playing most modern games is out of the question with the Intel integrated graphics, the 17R had no trouble streaming HD video or playing locally stored 720P and 1080P videos. For a "budget" system the Inspiron 17R offered plenty of power.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

PCMark Vantage measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures gaming performance (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Throughout our testing the Inspiron 17R handled heat very well without excessive noise or hot spots. The large chassis handled the Intel Core i3 370M processor with its GMA HD graphics with ease, spreading out the thermal load over a large area. Under normal use the fan stayed off, only coming on in short bursts to cool the heatsink. The fan was very quiet at low speeds, and just above a whisper at high speed. Under a full load while performing benchmarks, the system reached a maximum of 88F on the top edge of the keyboard.

Battery Life
The Dell Inspiron 17R comes standard with a 48Wh 6-cell battery, which worked surprisingly well in our tests. An optional 9-cell 90WH battery is also offered with some configurations if you needed extended runtime. In our tests with the screen brightness reduced to 70%, wireless active and refreshing a webpage ever 60 seconds, and Windows set to the Balanced profile, the Inspiron 17R stayed on for 3 hours and 43 minutes. For a 17.3-inch notebook on a mid-sized battery this was a pretty good time and should easily get you through a few classes or meetings if you so desire.

Conclusion
For shoppers interested in an affordable 17-inch desktop replacement notebook, the Dell Inspiron 17R is a very good choice. Starting at $499, the 17R offers the latest Intel Core processors, Intel GMA HD integrated graphics, optional ATI HD4570 dedicated graphics, and optional Intel Wi-Di for viewing HD movies wirelessly. The new design looks great, with equally impressive build quality inside and out. The full-size keyboard was very comfortable to type on, with a design that crossed between standard and Chilet-style. Overall we were very impressed by all the features of the Inspiron 17R and highly recommend it if you are in the market for a large laptop.

Pros:

Stylish looks
Very good build quality
Comfortable keyboard and touchpad

Cons:

Some options not available on all configurations

Multimedia Laptop with Lenovo IdeaPad Y560d

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 02:16:00 +0000

The IdeaPad Y560d is a consumer multimedia notebook featuring a powerful Intel quad-core processor and ATI graphics. The most interesting aspect of this notebook is the 3D-capable screen. Does this feature make the notebook worth extra money? Read our review to find out.

Conclusion
The Y560d is a typical consumer-grade multimedia notebook with a high-performance core. Highlights of the machine include excellent overall performance (especially for gaming), a good keyboard and touchpad, a thin-and-light design, and fantastic speakers. The downsides of this notebook are significant. At the top of the list is the so-so build quality; the Y560d's flexible plastic construction does not inspire confidence. Furthermore, glossy plastic covers all visible surfaces and is impossible to keep clean. Another design issue is the gaudy-looking tattoo on the back of the lid – what is that all about? The sub-three hour battery life may be a turnoff for some. Last but not least, the low resolution (1366x768) screen hurts usability and productivity.

Despite being one of the least expensive 3D notebooks on the market, the Y560d still demands a premium. Unless you deem the 3D feature worth an extra few hundred dollars, the standard Y560 represents a better value; it is the same notebook minus 3D (and that lid tattoo). I find it tough to recommend the Y560d because of the aforementioned cons. Its small target audience (gamers looking for 3D) will likely be very pleased with this system; but average consumers can find more practical notebooks for less.

Pros:

Excellent overall performance
Fantastic speakers
Good keyboard and touchpad
Thin and light
Runs cool
3D is sorta-kinda cool

Cons:

Low screen resolution
So-so build quality
Weird design on back of lid (why?)
Covered in glossy plastic
Sub-three hour battery life
3D adds a few hundred over the base Y560

Our Lenovo IdeaPad Y560d review unit has the following specifications:

15.6-inch 720p (1366x768) glossy panel with LED backlighting and 120Hz refresh rate
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core i7-720QM quad-core processor (1.6GHz/2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB L3, 2.5GT/s QPI, 45W TDP)
Intel PM55 chipset
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 w/ 1GB GDDR3 video memory
4GB DDR3-1333 dual-channel RAM (2x 2GB)
500GB 7200RPM Hitachi 7K500 hard drive (HTS725050A9A364)
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 AGN wireless
Built-in Bluetooth v2.1+EDR
DVD burner (Slimtype DVD A DS8A4S)
1-year limited warranty
6-cell Li-ion battery (11.1V, 57Wh)
Weight: 5.95 lbs
Dimensions: 15.1” (L) x 8.5” (D) x 0.8~1.30”” (H)
MSRP: $1,599

The specifications are enthusiast-grade; the most noteworthy components are theIntel Core i7 quad-core processor and 1GB ATI graphics card. The Y560d's screen has a 120Hz refresh rate, which is what allows it to produce the illusion of 3D when combined with the included special polarized glasses and TriDef software. The Manufacturer's suggested retail price is a bit steep; however this notebook can often be found for several hundred less online.

Build and Design
The Y560d has an aesthetically pleasing design. The notebook is quite thin and light for its class, coming in at six pounds and just over one inch thin. The chassis has a standard rectangular shape. All corners are generously rounded off, giving the Y560d a soft appearance compared to business notebooks. Numerous white status lights dot the chassis, including a backlit “IdeaPad” logo in the bottom right of the palm rest. The keyboard is flanked by two impressive-looking JBL-branded speakers.

The back of the lid is where the design gets interesting. A gaudy-looking tattoo covers the entire surface; I am not sure what it is supposed to be. It will likely be a deal-breaker for some. Fortunately the standard Y560 non-3D notebook is available with a plain lid. The Y560d is constructed entirely of plastic. The chassis willingly flexes when twisted by the corners, which indicates the internal frame is not that strong. Surfaces around the keyboard also bend visibly when pressure is applied. The lid is again easy to twist, however no ripples appear on the screen when pushed in from behind; there is some measure of protection there. The display hinges are rather weak; I can move them around where they connect to the chassis. The hinges should also be stiffer than they are; the display wobbles for some time after abruptly letting go of the screen while opening/closing it.

The biggest problem I have with the Y560d is the fact that every visible surface is covered in glossy, smudge-prone plastic. It is nearly impossible to keep clean and is not all that durable. Overall, the build quality is below average for a notebook priced north of a grand. The glossy plastic and gaudy lid tattoo may turn off prospective customers.

Screen and 3D
The Y560d has a 15.6-inch screen with a 720p (1366x768) resolution and LED backlighting. Its glossy mirror surface allows colors to stand out but means lot of reflections from nearby light sources. This display is on par with displays in other consumer notebooks; nothing out of the ordinary, in other words. Brightness is good; even 3/10 is quite usable on battery. Colors are acceptable and do not look washed out; contrast measured 184:1 which is satisfactory, with ample black levels and stark whites. The backlighting is relatively even, measuring 214 nit at its peak. Side-to-side viewing angles are good however the vertical viewing angles are rather poor; the display can only be viewed about 10 degrees off-center in either direction before colors start distorting.

The fundamental problem with this display is the resolution (viewable area). 1366X768 might be acceptable on a 11” screen but is out of place on one as large as 15.6”. Such a low resolution hampers productivity – just 768 pixels of vertical space means only one-half of a page in a Microsoft Word document is viewable at a time. Using two windows side-by-side is impractical because not enough of each window can be seen, and lots of scrolling is needed on web pages. Lastly, forget about editing high-resolution photos – not enough detail can be seen without zooming excessively.

Now, the part everyone has been looking for – the 3D experience. The Y560d comes with special polarized glasses that work with the 120Hz screen to trick your brain into thinking you are seeing in three dimensions. This is passive 3D, which is not quite as good as active 3D like Nvidia 3D Vision-equipped notebooks. However, passive 3D is typically less expensive. No matter how much money you spend though, there is no getting away from wearing some kind of glasses.
How well does it work, you ask? It actually works just like it does in the movie theater (and I'm talking about modern 3D movies, not the 1970s red/blue nonsense). That is, the 3D effects are convincing. Image and videos have perceivable depth – but no, you can't touch them (I tried).

3D is only useful for entertainment purposes at this time. One of the problems with 3D right now is actually finding 3D content. All 3D content works through the included TriDef 3D software. Some newer cameras can take 3D photos and there are some videos floating around out there, but otherwise the audience is limited. 3D gaming – perhaps the reason to spend extra for the Y560d -- is another story; as of this review, 210 games have TriDef profiles. I tried Valve's Left 4 Dead 2, which was immersive and a lot of fun. There were some minor issues – for example, my aim was slightly off because the crosshairs location was not exact. I almost forgot I was wearing glasses while playing (read: almost). However, after about a half hour I started to get a headache.

Is the 3D feature worth extra money? It depends on how much money – as it stands, the standard IdeaPad Y560 is the same notebook sans the 3D screen and goes for a few hundred dollars less. For monetary reasons alone I'd say no. 3D is a controversial technology and I’m not totally convinced. While I was playing Left 4 Dead 2, for example, I can’t say I had more fun playing in 3D than in 2D. Additionally, I felt awkward wearing the glasses while looking at a computer screen, and I never quite forgot I was wearing them. Your experience may vary – my recommendation is to go see a movie in 3D and judge the technology for yourself.

It is important to understand that 3D, as it pertains to consumer electronics, is brand new at this point and will take years to mature. There is no single 3D standard yet; early adopters will pay a premium and run the risk of investing in a 3D technology that loses to another (think HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray).

Speakers
The Y560d has two large JBL speakers above the keyboard. They sound positively excellent for notebook speakers; there is ample bass and a good mix of mid and high frequencies. There is very little distortion at max volume.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Something Lenovo has historically done well is input devices; the Y560d is no exception. The full-size keyboard has great tactile feedback and is fun to type on. The Y560d's keyboard has a softer feel than other Lenovo IdeaPads I tested, but that is not a bad thing. Key travel is just right and the keyboard is very communicative as a result. The keys' matte surface firmly holds fingers in place. There is no flex unless abnormal pressure is used. I found it easy to type quickly and accurately on this keyboard. Another positive aspect of this keyboard is that it's quiet – there should not be any issues using this notebook in a library or classroom.

The touchpad has a glossy dimpled surface and two large buttons below. Even with damp fingers I was able to track my fingers across the surface with ease. The touchpad is appropriately-sized for a 15.6” notebook with large buttons that are easy to operate without looking down to see which buttons are in use. The touchpad buttons are quiet and have good multilevel feedback.

Ports and Features
The Y560d has an ample array of input/output ports, including three USB ports, a USB/eSATA combo port, and HDMI. The Y560d does not have USB 3.0 or ExpressCard. All picture descriptions are left to right.

Front: 6-in-1 reader (MMC/MS/MS PRO/SD Card/SDHC Card/, xD-Picture Card), wireless on/off switch

Back: Battery pack

Left: VGA, HDMI, cooling exhaust vent, RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet, 2x USB 2.0, microphone and headphone jacks

Right: USB 2.0, USB 2.0/eSATA combo port, optical drive, AC power, Kensington Lock slot

Performance and Benchmarks
The Y560d is a high-performance notebook housing the latest technology. Key features include a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 4GB of memory, a fast Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM hard drive, and an enthusiast-level Radeon HD 5730 graphics card with 1GB of its own memory. We ran an extensive suite of benchmarks on the Y560d to demonstrate its performance capabilities. The Y560d is one of the faster 15.6” notebooks on the market as shown by the numbers below.
Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

PCMark Vantage (x64) measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures video and gaming performance (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance results:

Gaming Performance
Synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark only tell part of the story; what really matters is how well the notebook performs in actual games. For reference, 30 frames per second (FPS) is the minimum required for playability i.e. without stuttering.

The Mobility Radeon HD 5730 graphics card is quite powerful but is held back by the Y560D’s low resolution screen. Gamers should not have any problems running the latest games at high settings on the Y560D.
Battery Life
I measured two and a half hours of battery life from the Y560d's six-cell battery while surfing the Internet and typing this review. The test was conducted in power-saving mode with the screen at 30% screen brightness. Two and a half hours is on the low side for a typical 15.6” notebook, but not bad for a high performance machine like the Y560d. The powerful ATI Radeon HD 5730 graphics and quad-core Intel Core i7 processor draw a considerable amount of power and take their toll on battery life accordingly.
Heat and Noise
The Y560d makes a moderate amount of noise under full load; the sound is a combination of the fan motor and air escaping. The sound is not annoying; with conversations going on in the background, I doubt it will cause a disturbance. Nevertheless, the sound is not ignorable. At idle the sound is a different story; the fan seems to be on all the time but at a low speed; it is barely audible except in a silent room. For general usage, the Y560d should be suitable for use in any normal environment.
Heat is handled by a single fan jetting exhaust out of the left side. The cooling system does a good job keeping the notebook cool; the only areas of the notebook that get warm are directly above and below the fan exhaust.

From : http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5855&p=2

Performance review MSI GT660R

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 02:09:00 +0000

If you're someone who wants a high-performance gaming notebook packed with 1TB of storage, a 1GB Nvidia GTX 285M graphics card and one of the most powerfulIntel Core i7 processors currently on the market then you better be prepared to pay close to $2,500. Well, that was before the MSI GT660R arrived in stores. This 16-inch gaming notebook is packed with premium components, a fantastic speaker system and the ability to overclock the CPU and the GPU for $1,700. Keep reading to find out more.

Conclusion
The MSI GT660R is an impressive-looking gaming notebook with solid performance, great speakers and the ability to easily overclock the CPU and GPU at the touch of a button. The variety of ports including USB 3.0, the ability to upgrade to 12GB of RAM and the super-fast 1TB of storage make this an attractive choice for gamers looking for a strong system for $1,700 or less.

The weak battery and the thick and heavy chassis are par for the course when it comes to large gaming notebooks, but some consumers might not like the glossy plastics and the fact that the screen resolution is just 1366x768.

That said, when you consider than a similarly configured Alienware M17x costs more than $2,500 at the time of this writing it's hard to pass up a deal as good as the MSI GT660R.

Pros:

Very good performance
Extremely impressive speakers
One-touch overclocking

Cons:

Weak battery life
Glossy plastics
Thick and heavy

MSI offers multiple configurations of the GT660. Our review unit of the MSI GT660R comes with the following features:

16-inch 720p (1366x768) display with LED backlighting
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Intel Core i7-740QM (1.73GHz) Overclockable
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M (1GB DDR3) Overclockable
6GB DDR3 RAM 1066MHz (2GB x 3)
1TB of storage (two 500GB 7200rpm HDD in RAID 0)
Super-Multi/Blu-Ray optical drive
802.11b/g/n wireless and Bluetooth
9-cell Li-ion battery with 150W power adapter
Weight: 7.74 lbs
Dimensions: 15 x 10.25 x 1.78 inches
MSRP: $1,699.99

Build and Design
The MSI GT660 series was designed in partnership with Dynaudio to create a gaming notebook chassis that also offers a "true-to-life sound experience." The speaker housing structures, speaker circuits and overall position of the stereo speakers and subwoofer were designed to combine the extreme performance of a gaming notebook with the rich audio performance of a premium multimedia notebook.

Despite the heavy use of plastics, the exterior surfaces of the GT660R are covered in a scratch-resistant coating to improve durability. The screen lid itself is also covered in "MSI Color Film Print Technology" which is essentially in multi-layer printed image imbedded into the plastic. In this case you can see a faint honeycomb pattern in the lid similar to the texture used on the palm rests when you open the notebook.

The build quality of the MSI GT660R is a combination of good and bad. The solid main chassis doesn't squeak, creak, or flex even under significant pressure. Unfortunately, the keyboard suffers from quite a bit of obvious flex under heavy typing pressure and the screen lid flexes inward with ease. The screen hinges are nice and tight, but the heavy use of glossy plastics means that your fingerprints and smudges quickly cover every exposed surface of the notebook and make it look dirty unless you constantly clean your notebook with a microfiber cloth. The metal-reinforced main chassis offers a fair amount of structural rigidity for the plethora of high-performance components inside, but this also adds to the bulk and weight of the notebook.

The bottom of the notebook includes a single, massive access plate for the RAM, wireless cards and the dual hard drives. The battery also clips into the bottom of the notebook underneath one of the palm rests. The three RAM slots are stacked, making use of the extra chassis thickness necessitated by the high-performance graphics card. Despite the thickness and weight of this notebook, the internal layout helps keep the chassis design as thin as possible. My only complaint here is that you have to remove too many screws to get inside the GT660. Considering that the target audience for this notebook is likely upgrade the RAM or hard drives at some point (possibly as soon as they buy it) we would have appreciated it if MSI made it easier to get inside this notebook.

Screen and Speakers
The 16-inch diagonal TFT display on the GT660R features LED backlighting and a 16:9 aspect ratio with 1366 x 768 resolution. This might just be the single biggest issue that serious gamers have with this notebook. Most 16-inch and 17-inch gaming notebooks have a minimum screen resolution of 1440x900 or 1600x900 ... unless it's equipped with a 3D screen. Since this GT660R isn't being sold as a native 3D gaming system MSI really should have included a higher resolution screen.

That said, we'd give this screen a "good" rating within the narrow vertical viewing angle sweet spot. The backlight in our review unit is even and bright, colors are good at default settings though contrast is a little low. Vertical viewing angles are just as narrow as we typically see with most laptops while the horizontal viewing angles (side view) are nearly flawless.

As previously mentioned, the MSI GT660 series features Dynaudio-branded premium speakers and a built-in subwoofer. For those readers who aren't familiar with Dynaudio, these are the folks who supply car speakers for Volvo, Volkswagen and Bugatti. Like many of the premium speakers on multimedia notebooks, Dynaudio tweaks the audio drivers and equalizer settings to deliver a high standard of sound quality. When I first opened the notebook and tested the speakers I was pretty impressed ... then I noticed that I had left the protective plastic covering the speakers. Once I removed the plastic blocking the speaker grills I was even more impressed. The large stereo speakers and subwoofer produce a fantastic range of highs, midtones and low frequencies that let you hear all the details in your favorite music and hear subtle sound effects in your favorite games.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The Chiclet-style keyboard on the GT660R offers a reasonably enjoyable typing experience and is also fine for hours of gameplay. Individual keys are a little mushy and the center of the keyboard flexes inward under heavy typing pressure, but the individual key action still delivers acceptable feedback when pressed. The typical gaming keys of W,A,S,D feature special red paint to help you quickly identify where your fingers need to be during a game (just in case you didn't already know). Each key is flat with a nice matte texture and a little extra spacing to prevent typos. I was a little annoyed that MSI didn't include an LED backlit keyboard considering that there are multiple decorative LEDs all over the exterior of the notebook. A backlit keyboard would have been far more useful than lights next to the touchpad or under the edges of the palm rests.

The touchpad itself offers a quality interface with a lightly textured surface and excellent responsiveness. The touchpad itself feels just the right size for the notebook: any smaller and it would have been too small and any larger would have made this notebook even bigger than it already is. The touchpad drivers provide excellent accuracy and minimal lag with a range of options. The touchpad buttons are hidden under a single "rocker bar" and have a shallow press with audible "click" when pressed. I really hate single touchpad buttons but at least MSI was wise enough to put a notch in the middle so you can feel the obvious separation between the left and right sides. Although separate buttons are idea, at least you can fell where the left touchpad button ends and the right button begins.

Ports and Features
The MSI GT660 chassis offers a fairly robust collection of ports even for a massive desktop-replacement notebook like this. This gaming notebook is packed with two USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, eSATA port, ExpressCard slot, Ethernet, two video out ports, a media card reader and audio jacks. When so many 17-inch notebooks are starting to lose their ExpressCard slots and limit the number of USB ports to three, it's nice to see a notebook that offers as much connectivity and expandability as possible. That said, we would have liked to see a combo USB/eSATA port instead of a dedicated eSATA port since most people would rather have an extra USB port rather than just eSATA. While we might complain about the fact that the MSI GT660R weighs almost eight pounds it's hard to complain about all the stuff that is packed inside.

Here is a quick tour of the ports on this laptop:

Left side: Heat vent, two USB 3.0 ports, 4-in-1 (SD/MMC/MS/XD) card reader, one USB 2.0 port, and ExpressCard slot.

Right side: Audio jacks, one USB 2.0 port, and optical drive.

Front: Activity lights

Back: Security lock slot, power jack, RJ-45 Ethernet, VGA, eSATA port and HDMI.

Performance and Benchmarks
When it comes to overall system performance, the MSI GT660R certainly doesn't fail to impress us. Starting with an Intel Core i7-740QM processor running at 1.73GHz and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M with 1GB of GDDR3 dedicated memory, this system easily ranks among the best gaming notebooks you can buy for less than $2,000. As impressive as that might sound, MSI wasn't going to stop there.

The GT660 series features a complete system overclocking feature called TDE+ which overclocks the CPU and the GPU simultaneously at the touch of a button. MSI claims this "Turbo mode" provides a "16% performance boost" but our own lab testing shows the exact percentage of improvement varies greatly depending on a variety of factors. Since this is intended to serve as a gaming machine, it's important to point out that different games will react differently to the CPU+GPU overclocking feature on this notebook. In most cases, such as when we tested Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Shattered Horizon and Resident Evil 5, there was an obvious increase in the frame rates while gaming at the native screen resolution with detail settings maxed out. That said, when we tested the overclocking feature with Mass Effect 2 we noticed an odd drop of several frames per second for the maximum frame rate. The bottom line is that the overclocking feature offers some added value for serious gamers but it isn't a magic bullet for all your gaming needs.

standard CPU and GPU speeds

overclocked CPU and GPU speeds

While the processor and graphics card are impressive in their own right, one of the features I appreciated most was the 1TB of super fast storage thanks to the use of two hard drives in a RAID 0 array. For those readers who aren't familiar with RAID 0, this is essentially a method whereby two hard drives are combined to become a single virtual drive that allows you to use the full capacity of both drives and boost the speed of the storage. As you can see in the CrystalDiskMark storage test below, the RAID 0 array in the GT660R provides exceptional read and write speeds that translates into faster game start up and faster level load times while playing.

The only potential down side of a RAID 0 setup is that if one of the two hard drives fail then you lose everything. Combining two hard drives in a RAID 0 array means that both drives rely on each other ... so you better have an external hard drive to backup your files.

The MSI GT660R also include 6GB of DDR3 system memory in three SO-DIMM slots inside the notebook. This means you can upgrade the laptop to a maximum of 12GB of RAM if you decide that you need every little bit of performance possible.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

PCMark Vantage measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
The MSI GT660R does a pretty good job controlling the massive heat generated by a high performance processor, a high-performance graphics card, three RAM modules and two hard drives working overtime in a RAID 0 array. Most of the common external contact points remained in the "lap-friendly" zone with only a few hot spots. The self-adjusting fan speeds range from being barely noticeable to sounding like a jet engine when the system is working hard to push heat away from the internal components. The GT660 series notebooks also feature the "MSI Cooler Boost Technology" which is a dedicated button located above the keyboard that allows you to manually force the fan speed to the maximum setting, making the notebook cooler and MUCH louder.

Battery Life
Let's be perfectly honest: No one buys a high-performance gaming notebook and expects it to deliver great battery life. Between the high-performance CPU, the high performance graphics, the dual storage drives and the giant cooling fans, there is simply a ton of hardware to keep running on a battery. In the "balanced" power mode with 75% screen brightness, the MSI GT660 lasted for two hours and 31 minutes of non-stop use while surfing the Internet and using a word processor. This is pretty pathetic for a general use laptop, but since many gaming laptops deliver less than one hour of battery life we can't complain too much. You can also extend the battery life by dropping the screen brightness to the lowest useful setting. Still, if you need a notebook that can provide hours and hours of battery life this simply isn't it.

From : http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5822&review=msi+gt660+gt660r

Test Netbook from Asus Eee PC 1215N

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 02:02:00 +0000

The ASUS Eee PC 1215N is the latest netbook to offer a 12-inch HD display and a dual-core Intel Atom processor to deliver multimedia entertainment and multitasking productivity for just $500. While this isn't the cheapest netbook on the market, the 1215N promises to be the most powerful. Keep reading to find out more.

Pros:

Excellent netbook performance
Webcam privacy cover
Nice screen

Cons:

Limited upgradability
Bouncy keyboard
Bad touchpad buttons

Conclusion
ASUS has once again shown why the Eee PC line of netbooks remains popular with many consumers. The new Eee PC 1215N offers the best overall performance we've seen from an Atom-based netbook. Battery life isn't as good as the best single-core netbooks, but it is better than the previous 12-inch Eee PC.

In truth, the only things we didn't like about this netbook were all related to design. First, the keyboard was too bouncy and the touchpad buttons are just horrible. We also would have liked to see easier access to the hard drive and wireless cards since many well-informed owners add new hard drives or SSDs to their netbooks.

Still, it's hard to find another 12-inch laptop that offers better performance for just $500 retail price. If you want an ultraportable netbook with a good screen and good performance for less than the price of a CULV-based notebook then the ASUS Eee PC 1215N probably belongs at the top of a very short list.

ASUS Eee PC 1215N Specifications:

Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit)
Intel Atom D525 Dual Core Processor 1.8GHz (1MB L2 cache)
2GB DDR3 RAM (800MHz)
250GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD plus 500GB Online Storage
12.1-inch diagonal WXGA (1366x768)
NVIDIA ION with Optimus
0.3 megapixel webcam
Realtek 802.11 B/G/N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
4-in-1 media card slot
11.65 x 8.19 x 1.31
3lbs 3.5oz (not including weight of AC adapter)
6-cell Lithium-Ion battery (5200mAh, 56Wh)
One-year standard warranty
MSRP: $499.99

Build and Design
The ASUS Eee PC 1215N is the latest addition to the "Seashell" line of Eee PC netbooks and features an attractive wedge design with a very thin profile at the front that gradually thickens towards screen hinge. This shape feels nice in your hands and looks even nicer when the computer is resting on a desk. The combination of glossy black plastics and silver metalic finish help accent the various details in the design of this netbook. ASUS was the company that invented the netbook category with it's original Eee PC, and whether you love them or hate them, netbook sales are still strong enough to suggest that this category of budget ultraportable laptops is going to stick around for a while.

Build quality is very good with the 1215N feeling solid and showing almost no signs of flex. The screen stays firmly shut with a good amount of tension from the screen hinges when closed. Protection from the screen cover is very good; as no distortions appeared on the display when we applied pressure to the back of the cover. Opening up the screen you can tell the hinges should hold up for a long time with strong tension that prevents the screen from flopping around once opened. The body of the netbook seems to be well designed with minimal chassis flex and no obvious creaks from the plastics.

As we've seen on other recent ASUS notebooks, the new Eee PC 1215N features a convenient webcam privacy cover that slides into place over the lens of the built-in webcam when you flip the switch between the "on" and "off" positions. Yes, technically proficient users can disable the webcam using the Windows Device Manager, but many average netbook owners appreciate having a simple way to protect their privacy so unscrupulous outsiders don't use their laptop webcams for spying or stalking. Considering how much value a few cents worth of plastic offers, I'm amazed every built-in webcam doesn't have a switch like this.

One area of the design that didn't impress us was the bottom of the netbook. The expansion bay consists of nothing more than the two RAM sockets. The cover panel is held in place by a single screw, which makes it easy to upgrade the RAM, but ASUS engineers don't give you convenient access to the wireless card or the hard drive. Users interested in making upgrades (a common thing for netbook owners) will have to completely disassemble the Eee PC 1215N if they want to do anything other than upgrade the RAM.

Screen and Speakers
The 12.1" screen on the Eee PC 1215N appears to be the same model used in the older 1201N and is great for browsing the web, editing photos, or even watching HD movies. Color and contrast are excellent thanks to the glossy surface and LED-backlighting. Color saturation is better than average although only in a narrow viewing range. Once you start to tilt the screen forward or back the colors start to look dim or very washed out. Horizontal viewing angles were better; staying visible until roughly 60 degrees where the reflections on the screen start to overpower what is being displayed. Peak backlight brightness was fine for viewing in bright office conditions, but only when the brightness was set to 100 percent. Outdoor viewing was close to impossible unless you were in some serious shade from a tree or other structure.

The onboard speakers were lap-firing and sounded very tinny. The speakers had no low frequency response and just a small hint of midrange. This is fine for listening to streaming music or watching a YouTube clip, but not for sharing a movie in a small room. The speaker orientation causes problems if you have the laptop laying on a bed or pressed against thick clothing on your lap. I was able to easily obstruct the speakers with my legs; making them sound muffled. In short, audiophiles would be better off using a nice pair of headphones or connecting the Eee PC to a stereo through its HDMI-out port.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The nearly full-size keyboard on the 1215N is very comfortable to type although it still has a learning curve compared to regular sized notebooks. Most condensed Chiclet-style (also called island-style) keyboards provide enough space between each key to prevent excessive typos. The keyboard looks quite nice but the keyboard on our review sample suffered from a great deal of flex or "bounce" under heavy typing pressure. Not only does this make typing feel mushy but it can lead to typos when the keys "bounce" under your fingertips. The keys are designed with a rough matte finish on top which helps increase fingertip traction. Individual key action was smooth, giving off a quiet high-pitched click when pressed.

The touchpad on the 1215N is a Synaptics model with great sensitivity and speed. We didn't notice any problems with the touchpad calibration straight out of the box and the lightly textured surface provides just the right amount of traction for cursor movement. The flush touchpad surface is separated from the palmrests by a pair of polished metal strips but I often found my finger moving outside the touchpad area when using the touchpad. Once again, ASUS engineers decided to use a single touchpad button bar rather than two separate buttons. This makes it easy to accidentally hit the wrong mouse button since there is just one button and no dividing line between the two sides. Hopefully one of these days someone at ASUS will read these reviews and stop using touchpad buttons like these.

Ports and Features
Port selection on the Eee PC 1215N is fairly standard for a modern netbook. ASUS gives you three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI-out, VGA, LAN, and audio jacks. It also features a SDHC-card slot for expanding internal storage or just loading images off your camera while traveling. We won't complain about the port selection, but since we're starting to see USB 3.0 on more consumer notebooks we hope it will start showing up on netbooks soon. The only negative aspect of the connections on this Eee PC is the super-tiny AC adapter plug. Compared to any other notebook or netbook (and even some cellphones) it is smaller and potentially weaker. We can't accurately speculate on long term reliability, but we don't imagine this power jack could hold up as well as more robust connectors.

Front View: Activity lights

Rear View: Battery and screen hinges

Left Side View: AC-power, VGA out, HDMI-out, one USB 2.0 port, and media card reader

Right Side View: Audio jacks, two USB 2.0 ports, LAN, and Kensington Lock slot

Performance and Benchmarks
Like the older Eee PC 1201N, the dual-core Atom processor paired with NVIDIA's ION puts the ASUS Eee PC 1215N somewhere in-between the performance level of a single-core netbook and a CULV notebook. General system performance is only slightly more impressive than single-core Atom netbooks, as the 1215N is less "laggy" in a Windows environment but still isn't as responsive as the latest Core i5 and Core i7 CULV processors.

The latest version of Nvidia ION inside the Eee PC 1215N offers several new features not seen in previous ION-based netbooks. First, since the latest Intel Atom processors integrate the memory controller, display controller and integrated graphics processor (IGP) onto the same die as the processor itself, ION is able to use Optimus technology to pair the discrete/dedicated GPU with the CPU and IGP to offer better performance when wanted and better battery life when needed. Thanks to Nvidia ION with Optimus, the ASUS Eee PC 1215N is basically smart enough to know when it needs to use the dedicated graphics for high performance (video and gaming) and it can switch to the low-power integrated graphics when you need to have as much battery life as possible.

In terms of real world gaming this means you can play World of Warcraft on low detail settings at 1366x768 resolution and gameplay has an average framerate of about 45 frames per second. Similarly, you can play Left 4 Dead on low settings at 1366x768 and get average framerates in the low 20s. The bottom line is the latest version of Nvidia Ion works fine for games with low requirements (World of Warcraft,Portal, or Sims 3) but really starts to slow down with slightly more taxing first person shooters like Left 4 Dead or Resident Evil 5. Although this level of performance isn't as jaw dropping as a portable gaming system like the Alienware M11x, the Eee PC 1215N certainly is the most impressive standard netbook we've reviewed to date.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures gaming performance (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Under stress the dual core Intel Atom D525 and Nvidia ION graphics raised the outside case temperature of the 1215N into the "warm but still comfortable" category. After 30 minutes with both the CPU and GPU stressed, some parts of the reached temperatures as high as 89 degrees Fahrenheit. Under normal conditions at or near idle the same spots were about 5 degrees cooler. The system fan worked harder in this netbook compared to models we have tested without the NVIDIA ION or dual-core Atom, but it still stayed below audible levels in a typical office environment. While at or close to idle the fan noise would be comparable to a virtually silent whisper or heavy breath and under load would be a quiet whisper.

Battery Life
The ASUS Eee PC 1215N has a dual-core Intel Atom processor and NVIDIA ION graphics both working against it when it comes to battery life. Despite this, ASUS claims that this netbook can deliver up to 7 hours of battery life depending on the settings and use. In our tests with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 set to the Balanced profile, the ASUS 1215N stayed on for 5 hours and 34 minutes. This is roughly an hour more than the older Eee PC 1201N which used a battery with higher capacity cells. Granted, this isn't as good as some of the older ASUS netbooks that delivered more than 10 hours of battery life, but this is the most powerful Eee PC we've seen so far.

From : http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5832&review=asus+eee+pc+1215n

Test Dell Inspiron 14 (1464) Laptop

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:16:00 +0000

When you need to strike the balance between a desktop-replacement notebook and a laptop for frequent travel you will probably end up shopping for a 14-inch notebook. The Dell Inspiron 14 is one of the most popular laptops in this class and comes packed with the latest Intel processors and a nice range of options at an affordable price. Is this the best 14-inch consumer laptop? Keep reading to find out.

Dell Inspiron 14 (1464) Specifications:

Processor: Intel Core i3 330M (2.13GHz, 1066MHz, 3MB)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Memory: 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
Storage: 500GB 5400rpm HDD
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD
Display: 14.0” HD (1366x768) LED Display and webcam
Optical Drive: 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD/-RW/R) with Dual-Layer
Wireless: Intel Wireless 5100n
Battery: 6-cell Lithium Ion battery (48 WHr)
Dimensions: 13.39 x 9.55 x 1.27 inches (WxDxH)
Weight: 4.8 lbs
Retail Price as configured: $799.99 (currently available for less than $740 in retail stores)

Build and Design
The design of the Inspiron 14 hasn't changed much in the last year since Dell released the Inspiron 14, Inspiron 14z and Studio 14z laptops. As mentioned in the specifications above, our review unit comes with the newer Intel Core i3 330M dual core processor. We're calling this laptop the "Inspiron 14" in our review, but it's worth mentioning that Dell markets this system as the "Inspiron 14" as well as the "Inspiron 1464." You can also find this system selling on the Dell website under the older configuration name "Inspiron 1440" with older Intel processors. Of course, there's also the Inspiron 14z (also called the Inspiron 1470) that uses the Intel CULV processors for extended battery life. Are you confused yet? We sure are.

Moving beyond the superfluous model names for essentially the same laptop, the Inspiron 14 looks like an average budget notebook with a 14-inch display. The plastic construction, average screen resolution, and lack of a backlit keyboard certainly don't give this laptop the same premium look and feel as the Dell Studio 14z. You might think that the palmrests and area surrounding the keyboard are made of metal at first glance, but upon closer examination you'll find that it's just plastic with a fancy metallic finish.

The Inspiron 14 feels reasonably durable despite the fact that the notebook chassis is constructed from relatively thin plastics. The touchpad and palmrests suffer from flexible plastics as does the keyboard itself. The working surface of the laptop essentially bends under heavy pressure, so durability wasn't the main focus for the designers. The screen lid also suffers from thin plastics and if you press on the lid with your fingers while the laptop is on you will create screen distortions.

When closed the Inspiron 14 looks relatively thin compared to budget laptops from several years ago, but the weight of the 6-cell battery makes this system a bit too heavy to qualify for the "thin and light" category today. The "Promise Pink" screen lid gives the Inspiron a nice candy-covered look, but Dell charges a $40 premium for the privilege of selecting pink instead of black. On a more positive note, Dell donates $5 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure for every pink Inspiron 14 that they sell. Sure, $40 is a little excessive for just sticking a chuck of colored plastic on a notebook, but it's nice to know that your purchase is helping a good cause.

The bottom of the notebook features the battery and single access plate for the RAM and wireless card. Removing the hard drive requires more in depth disassembly. There isn't much to talk about here other than to briefly mention the location of the two speakers on the bottom of the front edge (more on that later). The bottom of the Inspiron 14 likewise suffers from the same flexible plastics mentioned previously in the review. You won't notice it if you aren't squeezing the laptop, but if you're running to a class or a business meeting with the laptop in your hands you might feel it "bending" under the pressure from your fingers.

In short, the Dell Inspiron 14 looks cool and is probably durable enough for desktop replacement work, but the heavy use of thin plastics certainly doesn't help the laptop feel as durable as it could be.

Screen and Speakers
The 14-inch high-definition (1366 x 768) panel on the Dell Inspiron 14 isn't quite as nice as the vibrant 1600 x 900 screen used on our review unit of the Studio 14z. The colors on this screen are generally good but contrast wasn't as impressive. The LED backlighting in our review unit is pretty even and offers a range of brightness settings. Honestly, since all 11-inch notebooks/netbooks come with 1366 x 768 resolution displays we feel it's time to make 1600 x 900 the "minimum" resolution of 14-inch notebooks. Horizontal viewing angles are extremely good, so you won't have any trouble sharing a movie with the person sitting next to you on a plane. Vertical viewing angles are average or below average with colors quickly washing out when viewed from above and colors begining to distort and invert as you move the screen back.

Once again, the stereo speakers on the Inspiron 14 class of notebooks failed to impress me. The stereo speakers produce average sound quality and are located beneath the front edge of the notebook palmrests firing downward at your lap. I usually call this type of audio "crotch speakers" because the speakers aren't pointed up toward the user. If you're using the Inspiron 14 on a desk then the audio from the speakers "bounces" off the hard desk surface and it sounds okay, but if you're using this PC as a "laptop" then the sound is going to be muffled.

Bottom line, the speakers aren't horrible ... but the location isn't helping matters. You'll probably want to use a good set of headphones with this notebook, and the headphone jack produces clear, distortion-free sound.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on our review unit has full-sized keys with acceptable key spacing and an excellent depth to the key throw. Each key has a textured black finish and a relatively flat surface. The keyboard isn't as firm as it could be, so if you type with a lot of force you might have to worry about keyboard flexing or lightly bouncing while you type. My only minor aggravation is that the keyboard isn't available with optional backlighting ... making it harder to type in a dark classroom or dorm room. I felt a little cheated since the Dell Alienware M11x comes with a LED-backlit keyboard and sells for the same price as this Inspiron 14.

Still, as long as you type with gentle fingers and don't work in dark rooms then you should find the keyboard on the Inspiron 14 to be perfectly fine.

The multi-touch, gesture-based touchpad is pretty average for a 14-inch notebook and the dual touchpad buttons have deep feedback with quiet clicks. The touchpad itself is an ALPS model that uses Dell proprietary touchpad drivers. The touchpad was reasonably responsive with good sensitivity and very little lag. Touchpad accuracy was a bit off at times, but that may be correctable by tweaking the drivers. My biggest problem with the touchpad is the flexible plastics. There is a gap of about 1/8 inch or more beneath the touchpad surface, and if you use the "tap to click" feature then you will feel the touchpad "bounce" when you press down on the touchpad to tap. Again, if you use a gentle tap then this probably won't bother you. We just don't like to see flexible plastics on a laptop in this price range.

Ports and Features
The port selection on the Inspiron 14 is pretty average for a budget 14-inch notebook with one or two exceptions. Dell included three USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI video out ports, Ethernet, and a multi-format memory card reader. Unlike the Studio 14z, which sacrifices an optical drive for the sake of portability, the Inspiron 14z includes a standard 8x CD/DVD burner with dual-layer support. The Inspiron 14 lacks an ExpressCard slot, FireWire, and eSATA, so if those ports are important to you then you'll need to look elsewhere.

Front: Status light and no ports.

Rear: Screen hinges and battery

Left: Kensington Lock slot, power jack, heat vent, VGA, Ethernet, HDMI, and USB 2.0.

Right: Audio jacks, two USB 2.0 ports, memory card reader, and optical drive.

Performance
The performance of the Inspiron 14 with an Intel Core i3 330M (2.13GHz, 1066MHz, 3MB) processor and Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD integrated graphics is good enough for typical daily activities (browsing the web, watching streaming video, typing documents in Microsoft Office, or making simple edits to your digital photos or videos) but this laptop isn't designed for extreme multimedia performance.

As previously mentioned, the Inspiron 14 comes in a variety of configurations, but the 1464 features Intel's Core i3 processors. Although the dual-core 2.13GHz processor in our review unit provides plenty of performance for daily tasks it also throttles down in order to extend battery life when you aren't actively using the laptop. This gives the Inspiron 14 the advantage of better battery life if you occassionaly walk away from your computer or close the lid to let it go into sleep or hybernate mode. Of course, if you plan to use the laptop non-stop on an international flight then the powerful Core i3 processor might devour your battery sooner than you expect (more on that later in the review).

For the retail price of $799 as configured the Inspiron 14 performs quite well compared to the more expensive 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro. More importantly, the new Inspiron 1464 crushes the older Inspiron 14z and HP Pavilion dm3t with ultra-low-voltage processors.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures video and gaming performance (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance results:

Battery
The 6-cell 48WHr battery does a pretty good job overall. With the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and the Windows 7 power profile set to "Balanced" the Inspiron 14 stayed on for 3 hours and 34 minutes. For use in the classroom or on your lap in front of the TV this amount of battery life was fine, but it isn't quite as impressive as the "4 hours of battery life" Dell claims in the marketing material. That said, it's worth mentioning that the default "balanced" power profile under Windows 7 will automatically dim the screen after a short period of inactivity ... which will extend the battery life even more compared to keeping the screen set to 70% brightness.

Heat and Noise
The cooling system does a reasonably impressive job keeping the external temperatures down. After extended periods of use the keyboard and touchpad areas get warm, but temperatures remain well below 100 degrees Fahrenheit at all times. The temperature readings below were taken after stressing the system with performance benchmarks and web browsing for 60 minutes.

Noise levels are fairly quiet when running on battery as the fan produces a constant weak "hum" as hot air is pushed out. The fan gets louder when the laptop is stressed running benchmarks and plugged into the AC adapter, but the fan should only be noticeable by others in a very quiet room.

Conclusion
The Dell Inspiron 14 is an affordable 14-inch notebook that delivers good performance and acceptable battery life at the expense of durability. If your child or your family is looking for a convenient laptop for general use then the Inspiron 14 can handle daily multitasking with ease. That said, if you're willing to put up with a smaller screen I'd have a hard time recommending the Inspiron 14 compared to the Alienware M11x at the same price.

The fact that the Inspiron 14 includes an optical drive and a Core i3 processor helps make this laptop an attractive purchase. However, the abundance of flexible plastics and lack of special features like backlit keyboard or more advanced ports make the Inspiron 14 far more average than exceptional.

Pros:

Good performance
Optional charitable donation
Attractive price

Cons:

Average battery life
Cheap "fake metal" plastics
No backlit keyboard

From : http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5651&review=dell+inspiron+14

Test Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Wed, 26 May 2010 10:14:00 +0000

The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15 is the biggest notebook in the Edge family that also includes 13 and 14-inch models. The Edge series is known for its stylish looks that set it apart from other models in the ThinkPad series as well as its chiclet style keyboard. In this review, we see if the ThinkPad Edge 15 holds up as well in our testing as the two previous models.

Readers who pay a close attention to detail will notice that the ThinkPad Edge 15 has a lot in common with both the Edge 13 and Edge 14. Some parts of this review are reused for areas with identical components.

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15 Specifications:

Windows 7 Professional 32-bit
Intel Core i3-330M processor (2.13GHz, 3MB cache)
15.6-inch 1366 x 768 WXGA glossy display
Intel GMA HD integrated graphics
2GB DDR3 RAM (2GB x 1)
250GB Fujitsu 5400RPM hard drive
Intel 1000BGN Wi-Fi, Realtek Gigabit LAN
Built-in web camera
6-cell 10.8v 5.2Ah 57Wh battery
Dimensions: (LxWxH) 14.96 x 9.72 x 1.33 - 1.56"
Weight: 5.56 pounds
MSRP: $869 ($649, street)

Build and Design
The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15 is a lower-cost consumer and small-business oriented laptop. Unlike the SL-series ThinkPad the Edge models don't share the common look and feel of other ThinkPad models. The all-black exterior has been replaced with a silver-trimmed border with multiple glossy and matte screen cover options. Our Edge 15 review unit included the glossy Heatwave red screen cover. I think an overlooked design touch would have been changing the ThinkPad logo from silver to black on this model to better contrast against the red background. Lenovo matched the letter background to the lid cover, but it has the same effect as over saturating a picture and losing distinction between the silver logo and red background.

Another change is an LED-illuminated ThinkPad logo with the dot above the "i" glowing red when the notebook is turned on. This replaces all other activity indication lights, which might be problematic if you expect to see hard disk activity or visual indications of the wireless interface being active. Inside the Edge, there is a consumer-focused design with a flat palmrest and bezel set around a Chiclet-style keyboard. While the Edge series includes a touchpad and pointing stick interface, it doesn't have the same contoured ergonomic sections around those items that you might find on other ThinkPads.

The Edge 15's build quality seems to be a step down from the 13 and 14-inch versions. While the Edge series in general feels under built when compared to higher ThinkPad models, the Edge 15 fares much worse. The right side of the palmrest has a moderate amount of flex under strong pressure. The structural support needed for the span across the optical drive bay is inadequate, which shows when you grip the notebook by that area. Pressing the keyboard there - even with a light press - causes the keyboard tray to flex inward. This is unacceptable on any notebook, but on a ThinkPad model, it seems even worse. The smaller Edge 13 and 14 maintained their rigidity since the open spans were smaller than they are on the 15-inch model.

The ThinkPad Edge 15 has easy access to internal components through two access panels on the bottom of the notebook. One panel houses the SIM-card and WWAN PCIe slot while the other is to access the system memory, CPU and hard drive. Most ThinkPad models include a SIM-card slot and extra mini-PCIe slot even if the systems aren't configured with it from the factory. Like the Edge 14, the Edge 15 doesn't have those parts soldered to the board. The larger panel gives you full access to the processor, heatsink and fan, memory slots and hard drive bay. Our review unit was configured with 2 GB of memory using a single memory slot, which allowed one slot to remain open for cheaper future upgrades.

Screen and Speakers
The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15 has a matte-finish 15-inch WXGA panel. Compared to other 15-inch panels on the market, this one rates below average with very poor contrast. Black levels were closer to light grey, which caused a domino effect, muting most vivid colors like red, orange, green or blue. We also noticed a "screen door effect" where individual pixels appeared visible at normal viewing distances. At full screen brightness, the center of the screen measured 225 nit with corners measuring between 160-180 nit. Viewing angles were average with colors starting to invert or wash out after 15 degrees when tilted forward or back.

The Edge 15 has thin speakers incorporated into the screen bezel beneath the LCD. Compared to most speaker drivers, they are fairly small and don't produce the best audio. Compared to consumer notebooks, they would rate below average, but against other business notebooks - which Lenovo is positioning it against - they are average. Sound quality would be fine for video conferencing using the built-in webcam or listening to streaming music or video throughout the workday. The notebook also features HDMI out, which is beneficial for connecting the system to a home theater to watch movies or listen to music.

Keyboard and Touchpad
When I first saw the leaked images of the new ThinkPad keyboard, I have to admit I was unimpressed. The keyboard is among the few remaining original parts of ThinkPad notebooks. The layout has been updated over the years, but the keyboard could always be identified as "ThinkPad." With the new design, Lenovo took a hint from other new keyboard designs hitting the market and blended a combination of form and function.

The keyboard takes a Chiclet/island-style that's common on notebooks ranging from the latest netbooks to the newest Apple MacBook, and merges it with a traditional ThinkPad design. What makes the keyboard unique is that it's the first Chiclet keyboard I have found that's very comfortable and easy to type on. Most Chiclet-style keyboards have flat top keys, different spacing and a shallower throw than a normal keyboard. The ThinkPad Edge 15 doesn't have these problems, creating an ideal hybrid keyboard that I can easily say is among the best implementations I have used to date. The keys have a shallow concave shape that cups your fingers and quickly centers them. For touch-typing the keyboard layout is excellent and is easily adaptable.

Typing pressure and feedback is similar to a typical ThinkPad keyboard, so similar in fact that if you type with your eyes closed, you might not even realize the key shape changed. Throw distance seems to be identical to my T60 with the same type of click sound made when fully pressed. Removing the keytops reveal the familiar scissor-action found in traditional ThinkPad keyboards. My best guess would be Lenovo kept the original frame and action assembly, only updating the keytops and adding an internal bezel structure. The keyboard on the Edge 13 and Edge 14 has excellent support with little flex, but on the Edge 15, has considerable flex even under light to moderate pressure. It had the most flex on the right side of the keyboard above the optical drive.

The Edge 15 offers a generously-sized Synaptics touchpad, having nearly three times the surface area compared to my T60. If you regularly use smaller touchpads, you might have a bit of a learning curve before it becomes second nature. During the first couple of days, I would frequently touch the bottom of the touchpad surface instead of clicking the left or right buttons, which would move the cursor off target. It was annoying until I adapted to its size. Overall, the touchpad was pleasant to use, with a fast response time and no discernable lag. Sensitivity was excellent and no adjustment was needed out of the box. This particular touchpad has some multitouch capabilities, including pinch-to-zoom and pivot-rotation. After extended use, I didn't have any problems with the touchpad texture; its smooth matte finish was easy to glide across with dry or slightly damp fingers. The touchpad buttons seem to have a slightly shallower clicking motion compared to other ThinkPads, but still provided good feedback.

Ports and Features
Compared to the Edge 13, the Edge 15 has additional ports and a spring-loaded SDHC-card reader. The Edge 15 gains eSATA through a combo port that includes three USB ports and one eSATA/USB connection. The larger Edge models also offer an ExpressCard/34 slot for future expansion and an optical drive, making use of their larger chassis.
One aspect of the clean design I disliked on the Edge 15 is its lack of both hard drive indicator and wireless activity lights. Compared to other notebooks, this setup prevents you from seeing if wireless cards are currently powered on, which is handy if you have multiple wireless devices like Bluetooth and WWAN or if some activity is really tasking your hard drive.

Front: SDHC-card reader

Rear: One USB

Left: VGA, eSATA/USB combo port, LAN, HDMI, headphone/mic combo port

Right: Two USB ports, optical drive, AC-power, Kensington Lock slot

Performance and Benchmarks
The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15 is packed with some of the latest Intel hardware, including a 2.13GHz Core i3-330 processor and GMA HD integrated graphics. Even with a simple configuration with 2 GB of system memory and a 250GB 5400RPM hard drive, we found the system to be more than powerful enough for most tasks, excluding gaming. Office productivity applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook loaded quickly and worked with very little lag. Entertainment-related applications worked very well, with the Core i3 processor and GMA HD graphics having no trouble handling HD video playback. Using the latest Flash 10.1 RC4 plug-in, the Edge 15 had no problem playing assorted 720P videos on YouTube, although 1080P Flash videos with a lot of movement caused some stutter. Local video playback was no problem either using the latest CCCP codec pack and Divx.com h264 decoding package. Playing 1080P trailers downloaded off Apple's website showed roughly 20% CPU activity with plenty of overhead leftover for other background activities.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

We also recorded a PCMark Vantage score of 3919.

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
The ThinkPad Edge 15 maintained fairly good thermal performance throughout the duration of our review, including the time during benchmarks, with low keyboard and palmrest temperatures. Lap temperatures under heavy use increased to a level warm enough to be noticed, but still stayed below 100F. Fan noise was low under normal use. The fan was near-silent or off when the processor had no load and just above a whisper level under a continuous load. At full speed, we measured noise between 39 and 40dB at 12 inches with a background noise level of 33dB.

Battery Life
The Edge 15 includes a 6-cell battery in all current configurations. In our battery test with the screen brightness reduced to 70%, wireless active and Windows 7 on a balanced profile, we recorded a time of 4 hours and 10 minutes of battery life. The CULV-based Edge 13 managed 7 hours while the Core-i3-based Edge 14 stayed on for 4 hours and 33 minutes. With a similar configuration, the Edge 15 only cost 23 minutes of life compared to the Edge 14.

Conclusion
The Edge series has brought a lot of changes to the ThinkPad name. Most prominently, the glossy painted lid and Chiclet keyboard. With the smaller Edge 13 and Edge 14, build quality wasn't a huge problem; we only had a few minor concerns like screen protection and hinge quality. The Edge 15, with its larger size, seemed to hit the breaking point where the lack of an internal framework created considerable chassis flex around the palmrest and keyboard areas. The Edge 13 had panels that felt as hard as rock with absolutely no keyboard flex, which obviously didn't carry over as the size was increased past a certain point. In the end, our only recommendation would be to steer toward the smaller Edge 13 or 14 if you like the design or look at higher ThinkPad models if you need a 15-inch screen.

Pros:

Good performance
Comfortable keyboard and touchpad
Quiet cooling system

Cons:

Keyboard and palmrest flex
Build quality not up to ThinkPad standards

From : http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5656

Review HP Pavilion dm3t Laptop

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:11:00 +0000

The Pavilion dm3 is a CULV thin and light notebook series from HP that includes both the AMD-based dm3z and Intel-based dm3t. This notebook packs a 13.3-inch screen, optional integrated WWAN, an optional matching external optical drive, and a wide range of processor options. In this review, we take a look at the Pavilion dm3t powered by an Intel SU7300 CULV processor, and includes 3GB of DDR3 memory and Intel X4500 integrated graphics.

Our HP Pavilion dm3t Specifications:

Intel Core 2 Duo CULV SU7300 (1.3GHz, 800MHz, 3MB)
Windows 7 Premium (64-bit)
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
320GB 5400rpm Seagate 5400.6 HDD
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD
13.3-inch LED-backlit WXGA Display
External 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD/-RW/R) with Dual-Layer
Atheros AR5009 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi , Bluetooth
6-cell Lithium-ion battery (57 WHr)
Dimensions: 12.83 x 9.06 x 0.96 inches
Weight: 4.17 pounds
Price as configured: $939 (With 7200RPM drive instead of 5400RPM)

Build and Design
The HP Pavilion dm3t offers an attractive and durable brushed metal finish on its screen cover that resists smudges and scratches. The perimeter-trim is chromed plastic to accent the gunmetal-gray brushed finish that extends inside the notebook for the palmrest and keyboard surround. The screen trim is a glossy black, which blends in with the LCD when the screen is off. The bottom of the notebook is painted with a matte-black finish.

Build quality is above average with the brushed metal finish helping to give some strength to the top of the notebook. The screen only has some flex under moderate pressure and the cover protects the LCD from most impacts. The quality of the materials used is above average on most areas of the notebook; although the chromed plastic might be at risk to chipping over time if you are not careful with transporting it. The one area that stood out to us as needing improvement is the touchpad finish, which out of the box had some mild scuffing. HP uses a polished-matte finish that doesn't seem to hold up to mild abrasion as nicely as their older painted glossy touchpads. The bottom cover was a big surprise, since unlike other consumer notebooks that only use plastic bottom covers, HP goes all out with a durable alloy body that adds a nice look and feel when holding the notebook.

Users looking to upgrade their dm3-series notebook will find it easy to access user-serviceable components. The bottom has three compartments, one of which is the battery. The two that contain serviceable parts are clearly labeled with symbols showing what parts are underneath. One bay houses the hard drive and WWAN-slot while the other has the system memory and Wi-Fi card. Our model, which didn't include WWAN, still came with the slot soldered in place. No antennas were visible, but at least an upgrade would be possible down the road.

Screen and Speakers
The screen on the dm3-series is a 13.3-inch LED-backlit panel with above average color and contrast. Colors from the screen are bright and vibrant with a cooler or blue hue. Screen brightness is more the adequate for brightly lit rooms with a peak brightness measured at 212nit. We found screen brightness set at 70% was perfect for viewing indoors. Outdoor viewing with the glossy panel would only be possible in a shaded area away from sun glare. Viewing angles were average with colors starting to invert or wash out when the screen is tilted 15-20 degrees forward or back. Horizontal viewing angles were better with the screen staying visible to about 60-degrees off center where it started to dim noticeably.

The speakers on the dm3-series are lap-firing, located near the front edge of the palmrest. Sound quality is above average for a notebook this size with clear upper-midrange and high notes. Low frequency audio is still lacking, but it is hard to get this from even larger notebooks unless you have a dedicated subwoofer.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard is an island-style variant that is very similar to the look and feel of most Apple MacBooks. The keys are painted with a semi-gloss black paint and feel very solid to the fingertips. The lettering is very bright and visible even in dark lighting. Key movement is precise with little wobble with side to side movement. Individual key presses are smooth and require very little pressure to fully trigger. If you like the look and feel of the Chiclet-style keyboards, you will be impressed with the Pavilion dm3t.

The touchpad is a glossy ALPS model with some support for multitouch gestures. The touchpad on average is responsive with very little lag. On a rare occasion the touchpad did become entirely unresponsive and required a reboot before it started to work again. It is unclear if this was a driver conflict or a problem with the touchpad itself. The touchpad buttons are easy to press with the side of your thumb and give off a small click when pressed. They have shallow feedback and require moderate pressure to activate.

Ports and Features
Port selection on the Pavilion dm3t was great with HP making use of nearly all usable space around the perimeter of the notebook. The system featured four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and VGA-out, LAN, audio jacks and a Kensington Lock slot. Other features included a SDHC-card slot and wireless-on/off switch. One unique item on the dm3-series that caused a bit of confusion when it was first taken out of the box was the power button's location. It is located on the right side next to the wireless-on/off button as a small slider-switch.

Front: Power and disk-activity lights

Rear: Nothing

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5847031233357613617
Left: AC-Power, charge indicator light, LAN, VGA-out, HDMI-out, two USB 2.0 ports, SDHC-card reader, audio jacks.

Right: Power on/off switch, wireless on/off switch, two USB ports, Kensington Lock slot

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance was very good for a CULV-based system with its Intel SU7300 processor and Intel X4500 integrated graphics. Users considering this notebook can also configure it with a NVIDIA G105M dedicated graphics option. For normal system activities such as surfing the Web, listening to music, watching movies or using office productivity software, the system performed very well. At times, it seemed the slower 5400rpm drive may have been holding the system back slightly, but we only experienced those slowdowns during the initial installation of software. HD movie playback was fine with 720P content for both local video and online flash video, though 1080P content was hit or miss depending on the encoded bitrate. If you intend to watch a lot of HD movies on this system, it is highly recommended that you opt for the more powerful SP9300 processor, which includes NVIDIA G105M dedicated graphics. This will allow hardware video-decoding by the GPU and offload it from the processor.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

We experienced a strange problem multiple times coming out of standby or hibernation where the screen would appear as if it had video card corruption. Rebooting the system resolved it each time. The common link among these incidents was the machine going into hibernation for the night. Since the system performed fine after a reboot, there is a good chance it was just a driver problem with the system.

Heat and Noise
Thermal performance of the Pavilion dm3t was exceptional even while under a heavy processor load. The metal chassis helped spread out the heat from most areas reducing hotspots and overall just gradually warming up the entire chassis. The hottest measured spot was only 97 degrees Fahrenheit, which was during the middle of our second 3DMark06 benchmark.

Fan noise was minimal on the dm3t even under the constant stress of benchmarking. Under a full load, the fan ran continuously but you could only hear that it was going if you were in a completely silent room and your head was close to the keyboard. Under normal use, the fan stayed off or operated at very slow speeds. If you are worried about loud cooling fans, the HP Pavilion dm3t is an excellent option.

Battery Life
Battery life on the HP Pavilion dm3t was pretty good for a CULV-based notebook with a 6-cell battery. In our tests with screen brightness reduced to 70%, wireless active and Windows set to a balanced profile, the dm3t stayed on for 6 hours and 30 minutes before automatically going into hibernation. At the time of this review, the only battery option for the dm3-series is a 57Wh 6-cell battery.

Conclusion
The HP Pavilion dm3t is a well built thin and light notebook offering a durable metal chassis and plenty of configuration options. Sold in both Intel and AMD variants the Pavilion dm3-series has models ranging from $529.99 for a base dm3z to $974.99 for a dm3t with dedicated graphics. While cosmetics are praised, we experienced some glitches that could have been related to driver conflicts with the touchpad and graphics when the system was brought out of hibernation. Aside from those problems, the system performed very well, even keeping its cool during our stress tests. Thermal performance was excellent with minimal effort from the internal cooling fan. Overall, if you are in the market for a new CULV-based notebook, the HP Pavilion dm3-series is worth checking out.

Pros:

Great build quality
Very good thermal performance
Excellent keyboard

Cons:

Touchpad design could have been better
Some possible driver-related glitches

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Design
Performance
Features
Price/Value Rating
* Ratings averaged to produce final score

From : http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5639&review=hp+pavilion+dm3t

Review netbook MSI Wind U160

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:07:00 +0000

The Wind U160 is the latest Intel Pine Trail based-netbook from MSI boasting an impressive 15 hours of battery life. Like its sibling, the U135, which we reviewed in February, the U160 is equipped with the Intel Atom N450 and Intel GMA 3150. With a slightly larger battery and nearly identical parts configuration, can this new model beat the U135's battery life of six hours and 30 minutes? Read our full review to find out.

MSI Wind U160 Specifications:

Windows 7 Starter Edition (32-bit)
10.1-inch diagonal WSVGA (1024 x 600)
Intel Atom N450 Processor 1.66GHz (667MHz FSB, 512KB Cache)
1GB DDR2 SDRAM onboard (1 slot available)
Intel GMA 3150 integrated graphics
250GB Seagate 5400.6 hard drive
802.11BGN Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
4-in-1 media card slot
Dimensions: 10.24 x 7.09 x 0.74 inches
Weight: 2.4 pounds (not including weight of AC adapter)
6-cell Lithium-ion battery (65Wh)
Retail price: $429

Build and Design
The MSI Wind U160 has a very good looking appearance with a glossy piano black finish inside and out. Compared to the U135, MSI went with a cylindrical hinge design on the U160, which allows the extended battery to blend with the shape of the back of the netbook. Gateway and Sony have also used a similar design on some of their notebooks. The common trend with these configurations is including the power button at the end of the hinge, which MSI also does.

The battery design on the U160 elevates the rear of the notebook with the rear half of the battery pack sticking out under the computer. ASUS uses a similar scheme but works the wedge shape into the design making the lift less noticeable.

Build quality is very good with strong hinges, rigid body panels, and a nearly flex-proof frame. While the screen cover seems to resist flexing under strong finger pressure, the small bit of flex is transmitted into the LCD causing some mild distortion. Besides the screen cover, the rest of the system was very well-constructed. Paint quality was above average and resisted most mild scratches from day-to-day use.

Users looking to upgrade the Wind U160 will find easy access to the system memory, which is a common on most netbooks that only include 1GB of RAM-with an access cover on the back side. The hard drive and wireless card require the entire back panel to be removed to access them. Going that extra step isn't terribly difficult, but it may be overwhelming for someone who hasn't previously dismantled a computer.

Screen and Speakers
The Wind U160 offers a 10-inch glossy LED-backlit display that rates below average compared to other similarly sized netbooks. On our review model, we noticed significant backlight bleed around the edges when the brightness is near the top of the scale. During the boot sequence, this is especially visible when the backgrounds are black.

Turning the backlight down to 50-70% reduced bleed, but it was still slightly visible if you were in a dark room watching a movie. Color and contrast are comparable to other competing netbooks thanks to the glossy screen surface. If there was less backlight bleed, it would be a great machine to watch movies on while traveling.

At peak brightness, the screen is easy to read in bright office conditions and outdoors if you are in an area that the sun wasn't reflecting off the screen. Viewing angles are average with the vertical viewing range spanning 15-20 degrees forward or back before colors started to invert. Horizontal viewing angles are better, keeping colors looking true even at steep angles.

The speakers on the U160 are lap-firing, meaning that if you have the netbook on your lap, the speakers sound muffled since they can be easily blocked by your clothing. When sitting on a flat desk surface, the speakers sound very crisp with clean high notes and some midrange. Low-frequency response is nonexistent, but expected for almost all smaller netbooks and notebooks.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The MSI Wind U160's keyboard is a nearly identical to the keyboard on the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE. They are Chiclet-style keyboards and share the same layout, key size and key shape. The only visible differences are the printed labels that appear bolded on the MSI version. Comparing both models side-by-side and the U160 feels more solid and attached to the frame, whereas the 1005PE's keyboard bounces slightly. Tactile feedback is nearly alike, with the same key strength and noise when fully pressed.

The touchpad on the MSI Wind U160 seems rudimentary compared to most other notebooks and netbooks. Compared to the U135, MSI took a step in the right direction by including driver support. Webpage scrolling is limited to only touchpoints. I had to go into the menu to realize that you don't scroll with a finger swiping action; instead you hold your finger in one of the finger-sensing zones to scroll. While it's better than before, it still feels like a huge step back when compared to the latest multitouch touchpads on most notebooks and netbooks.

Ports and Features
Port selection on the MSI Wind U160 follows the industry average with three USB 2.0 ports, VGA-out, a SDHC-card reader, audio jacks, LAN and a Kensington Lock slot. The Wind also features a dedicated wireless on/off switch to quickly disable the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth card without fumbling with keys or software settings.

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance of the Wind U160 with the Intel Pine Trail N450 processor and newer GMA 3150 integrated graphics is better than previous generation netbooks, but still leaves a bit to be desired after seeing CULV-based notebooks we reviewed recently. The system can handle low-stress activities without problems; including listening to music, watching SD and HD movies, browsing the Web, and using office productivity applications. HD video decoding was limited to 720P files as 1080P movies would start falling behind in sync. HD flash was unplayable even with the newer Adobe Flash 10.1 plug-in.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Thermal performance of the MSI Wind U160 was slightly below average when under load. The system fan, while active under many situations, seemed to flow less air than needed to keep the netbook cool under heavy demands. We found a few hot spots near the processor and wireless card reaching upward of 100 degrees Fahrenheit while stressing the system. Under a light load, temperatures remained reasonable. Fan noise was noted throughout our review, with the fan staying on at idle load as well as full load. The noise, while minimal, could still be heard in a very quiet room.

Battery Life
MSI claims the Wind U160 can reach up to 15 hours of battery life, but in our mild-duty battery test it was only able to get a fraction of that. With the screen brightness set to 70%, Windows 7 on the Balanced profile, and wireless active the U160 stayed on the 8 hours and 21 minutes. This is an improvement from the 6 hours and 30 minutes we saw on the U135, but still well under the 12 hours on the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE. With all these netbooks having nearly the same hardware configuration our only guess is the level of power tweaking on the MSI Wind U160 is not as great as the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE

Conclusion
The MSI Wind U160 is essentially a redesigned U135 with a slightly larger battery. System components are nearly identical between the two models, with the U160 having a 7Wh larger battery. While MSI advertises an impressive 15 hours of battery life, in our tests we only managed to see 8 hours and 21 minutes with very light activity. MSI prices the U160 $100 above the U135 with the only changes being the design and an increase of about two hours of battery life. Consumers interested in picking up a Wind netbook should probably pocket that extra $100 and get the U135, or look at the Asus Eee PC 1005PE, which costs only $379.99.

Pros:

Good looks
Solid build
Comfortable keyboard

Cons:

Falls short of 15 hour battery claim
Minimalistic touchpad drivers

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Performance
Features
Price/Value Rating

From : http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5627&review=msi+wind+u160

Ligth Weigth by HP EliteBook 2540p

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Sat, 08 May 2010 10:12:00 +0000

The EliteBook 2540p is the latest road-warrior ultraportable notebook from HP. The 2540p offers a 12.1-inch WXGA screen, Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors, built-in optical drive with select configurations, and a plethora of storage options. In our review, we put the new EliteBook through its paces to see how it stacks up against the competition.

The 2540p starts at $1,099, though with our configurations, it tops out at $1,629.

Our HP EliteBook 2540p review unit features the following configuration:

Intel Core i7-640LM 2.13GHz Dual-Core Processor (4MB Cache)
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
12.1-inch WXGA anti-glare (1280 x 800)
Intel GMA HD integrated graphics
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2GB x 2GB)
250GB 5400rpm 1.8-inch SATA II
DVD+/-RW optical drive
Intel 6200AGN Wifi, gigabit Ethernet, modem and Bluetooth connectivity
6-Cell 62WHr battery
Three-year warranty
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 1.10 inches (with 6-cell battery)
Weight: 3.97 pounds with 6-cell battery

Build and Design
The HP EliteBook 2540p is billed as an ultraportable business notebook, therefore corporations - and many consumers - expect a high quality of materials, excellent features and an innovative design. HP's other EliteBook notebooks meet or exceed those expectations, but what about the smallest member of the EliteBook family?

The main body of the EliteBook 2540p is covered in the new "HP DuraCase" and "HP DuraFinish," which is essentially a hard plastic and strong magnesium alloy inner shell - similar its predecessor - and strengthened by a brushed aluminum outer shell that even resists scratching from steel wool. The base of the laptop feels very strong and would definitely survive bumps and bruises that other laptops might not. There is absolutely no flex in the solid keyboard. The underside of the notebook is also similarly rigid and strong with just a tiny amount of flex in the area immediately under the notebook's optical drive.

The outer shell of the screen casing is metal, but the inner screen bezel is plastic. Unlike the 15-inch EliteBook 8540p we previously reviewed, the display lid flexes slightly when significant pressure is applied to the center of the lid. But it's still much stronger than what we typically see on other high quality 12-inch business notebooks.

When HP says that the EliteBook 2540p was designed "to meet the military standards (MIL-STD 810F) for high/low temperatures and dust," they mean the notebook is built to withstand years of use and abuse.

With all this rugged durability built into the design, you have to expect a trade-off, which in this case is weight. Some 12-inch business class notebooks tip the scale at 3 pounds or less. The EliteBook 2540p has a starting weight of 3.38 pounds with a 6-cell battery, but the added durability more than makes up for a minor weight increase.

Finally, in the same way that the gray and black exterior and smooth design suits a professional environment, so do the internals. The EliteBook 2540p uses three simple plastic covers on the bottom of the notebook (each held in place with Phillips head screws) so the hard drive, wireless cards and RAM are easily accessible for fast upgrades. There is a fourth tiny expansion slot cover on the bottom of the notebook, which is for the dedicated Bluetooth card. The rest of the notebook interior is protected by Torx screws that should deter employees from messing around inside their work-issued notebooks.

Screen and Audio
The 2540p comes equipped with a 12.1-inch anti-glare widescreen with a typical WXGA resolution. At 1280 x 800 pixels, the display displays fine details without making things too small to work comfortably while on the move. Of course, the resolution might be limiting if you use the notebook as a mobile video and photo editing platform, but most people interested in a 12-inch notebook aren't editing high-resolution photos on the road.

When viewing the screen from straight ahead, colors are rich and contrast is excellent. Full-screen movies look quite good, with deep blacks and good viewing angles. Horizontal viewing angles are particularly impressive so you shouldn't have trouble showing a presentation to multiple people sitting at a desk. The vertical viewing angle from above starts to wash out at extreme angles and colors begin to invert from below, but most users won't view the screen from high above or far below.

The built-in speaker is above average with a good range of highs, middles and acceptable lows that don't sound "tinny" like most mono speakers. High volume settings are more than loud enough to fill a small office with sound for a presentation, but are still clear and not horribly distorted. The only negative about the speaker is its location.

The speaker is located on the bottom front edge of the notebook, so the sound isn't projected upward at the user when the EliteBook is used as a laptop. In fact, our staff usually refers to laptop speakers with this type of placement as "crotch speakers" because the speakers are directing sound to your lap and waist rather than your ears. If you're using the 2540p on your desk, this isn't much of a problem, but if you're a road warrior constantly working from your lap then you might be annoyed by the speaker placement.

The headphone jack on the 2540p works well with two different brands of earphones I used during the test. No static or other noise was noticed through the jack besides imperfections in the audio source itself.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard's layout is slightly different than what you might find on other HP consumer notebooks. The individual key presses are quiet without loud clicking sounds as you type. Keys are flatter and have a little less space in between them. The key spacing had to make room for the addition of the pointstick.

The EliteBook 2540p also includes the same keyboard light as the larger EliteBook notebooks. Press the tiny light bulb button above the screen and a small LED pops out and shines down on the keyboard. The light isn't very bright, but it's bright enough so that if you're on an airplane for example, you can still see the keyboard in the dark without annoying the person next to you.

Above the keyboard rests a series of touch-sensitive media buttons similar to other HP consumer notebooks. There is an Info, Wi-Fi Toggle, Presentation Mode and Mute touch buttons on the glossy strip. Additionally, next to the Mute button is a volume control slider that can be used by sliding your finger across that area. One nice addition on the 2540p is a touchpad disable button that allows you to turn it off and just use the pointstick for moving the mouse cursor.

The touchpad also features DuraFinish so that oils from your fingertip don't build up on the surface and make the touchpad look weathered after just a few months. The Synaptics touchpad was very responsive to my touch, and the two rubber mouse buttons are quiet and about the right size. There is also a secondary set of mouse buttons above the touchpad to work with the pointstick that comes with all 2540p notebooks. The pointstick is amazingly accurate and comfortable to use.

Ports and Features
The EliteBook 2540p offers an excellent port selection, but depending on the model configuration, your options can change. For example the model without a built-in optical drive has a 2.5-inch hard drive and an extra USB port.

Left side: AC-power input, modem jack, one USB 2.0 port, optical drive

Right side: ExpressCard/34 slot, SDHC-card reader, FireWire, headset jack, USB port, VGA-out, DisplayPort-out, docking connector, Kensington Lock slot

Rear side: Ethernet, six-cell battery, two USB 2.0 ports

Front side: There are no ports on the front, just indicator lights and the mono speaker located on the bottom.

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance was very good and above what you might expect to see compared to thin and light notebooks on the market right now. The HP EliteBook 2540p and Lenovo ThinkPad X201 are the smallest powerhouse notebooks available today. We used the ThinkPad X201s for comparison because it has the same Core i7-640LM processor. The faster X201 would be equivalent to the base model 2540p, which has the faster Core i5-540m processor and a 7200RPM 2.5-inch hard drive. Both models excel at offering desktop-level performance in every way except 3-D performance. The Intel GMA HD graphics is better than previous generations but still lags behind a dedicated graphics card.

The Core i7-640LM can easily decode 720P or 1080P video, play HD Flash and even encoded movies in iTunes. The only system performance complaint that we found was the rather slow 1.8-inch hard drive in configurations that come with an optical drive. The model we were sent for review used a Toshiba drive that peaked at just under 50MB/s. Users looking for higher levels of performance should probably go with the non-optical drive setup that lets you install a standard 2.5-inch drive or configure the system with a SSD.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Under normal and even stressful operating conditions, the EliteBook 2540p kept cool and didn't become uncomfortably warm. The palmrest and most of the keyboard stayed just above room temperature, even under a stressful load, which is what we like to see on small notebooks. The bottom half of the notebook formed some hot spots near the exhaust vent, but only when the system was under stress.

Noise under a full processor load - heard only while running benchmarks - was just above what you might consider a whisper. Under normal activity, the system fan either turned off completely or stayed at a very slow speed.

Battery
The HP EliteBook 2540p offers very good battery life, but still fell short of what the Lenovo ThinkPad X201s offered with its 6-cell battery. In our battery test with the screen brightness reduced to 70%, Wi-Fi active and Windows 7 set to the balanced profile, the system stayed on for 6 hours and 1 minute. The ThinkPad X201s managed 7 hours and 13 minutes in the same test, and the primary difference is the lack of an onboard optical drive.

Battery life can also be extended using the "power saver" power profile in Windows 7 or with a 9-Cell (93WHr) battery.

Conclusion
The HP EliteBook 2540p easily ranks among the better 12-inch ultraportable business notebooks we've seen. It offers exceptional build quality and a well-crafted design on par with its main competitor, the ThinkPad X201, and offers a very similar parts configuration. In terms of beating the competition, the 2540p offers a built-in optical drive whereas the ThinkPad X201 doesn't. For some users this isn't generally a problem and the X201 managed to get higher battery life figures from the same hardware configuration sans optical drive even with a higher resolution screen.

When it comes down to which company makes a better business notebook, I think HP and Lenovo both offer exceptional products. Although in the end, it's about the look and feel you prefer. The HP EliteBook series offers a more refined brushed-metal appearance, while the ThinkPad line has a more rugged rubberized-paint old school-look. Overall, both notebooks deserve equal consideration if you're looking to buy a 12-inch business notebook.

Pros:

Great build quality
Good looks
Excellent keyboard

Cons:

Very costly to customize
Slow 1.8-inch hard drive

Thin and Strong with Lenovo ThinkPad X100e

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Fri, 07 May 2010 10:04:00 +0000

Business owners rejoice! The first affordable ThinkPad ultraportable laptop has arrived. The ThinkPad X100e is an 11-inch notebook packed with a low-voltage AMD processor, powerful ATI integrated graphics, and one of the best keyboards we've tested on an ultraportable laptop. Is this the ideal companion for road warriors? Take a look at our review to find out.

Lenovo ThinkPad X100e Specifications:

1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo Single-Core MV-40 Mobile Processor
2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 (667MHz)
Windows 7 Professional 32bit
11.6" WXGA HD anti-glare LED Backlit display (1366x768)
250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
ATI Radeon 3200 Graphics
802.11b/g/n, Gigabit LAN
4-in-1 card reader and 0.3-megapixel webcam
6-Cell Li-ion battery
Dimensions: (W x L x H) 11.1" x 8.2" x 0.6"/1.2"
Weight: 3.3 pounds (with 6-cell battery)
Price as configured: $569.00

Build and Design
If there is a single laptop brand name that is synonymous with business it has to be ThinkPad. Extremely solid build quality, excellent keyboards, precision TrackPoints (that red dot in the middle of the keyboard) and fantastic warranty support have been the cornerstones of the ThinkPad legacy going all the way back to the days when IBM still owned the brand. The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e continues this tradition with one of the best built ultraportable notebooks we've seen in our office.

With a starting weight around three pounds and a simple black industrial design, the designers of the ThinkPad X100e attempted to deliver the ThinkPad heritage at an extremely affordable price. Lenovo admits that their customers have demanded a "ThinkPad netbook" for several years now, but the ThinkPad engineers debated whether it was possible to deliver a durable, reliable, business-class laptop at "netbook" prices.

The solution? Don't call it a netbook. That might sound funny, but it's no joke. Lenovo engineers started from the ground up with the goal of creating an "affordable ultraportable notebook" at a netbook price. In ThinkPad terms, engineers had to deliver a product that was built for business in terms of durability, usability, connectivity, serviceability, and warranty coverage ... all while keeping this laptop as inexpensive as possible. Businesses still demand the best, but in this economy they now also demand it for less money.

At first glance, the exterior of the ThinkPad X100e shares many of the same design features as the rest of the current ThinkPad lineup. Indeed, the 11-inch X100e borrows much of its looks from the 12-inch ThinkPad X200 business notebook. The simple plastic rectangular screen lid on our review unit features a "midnight black" color scheme and, just like the new ThinkPad Edge series, the X100e is also available in "heatwave red" in case your workplace needs a splash of color.

Those customers familiar with the famous ThinkPad keyboards will probably notice the new layout of the ThinkPad X100e's keyboard. The new "Chiclet" keyboard is a radical shift from the traditional ThinkPad keyboards and is again similar to what you'll find on the ThinkPad Edge series of notebooks. That said, this is still a ThinkPad keyboard in every way that matters. Lenovo uses a new keycap design that prevents the caps from popping off like they would on cheaper keyboards. The key spacing and support structure underneath the keyboard help deliver a fantastic tactile feel an prevent typing errors despite the small footprint of the keyboard.

Screen and Speakers
The 11.6" LED-backlit screen on the X100e is similar to the 1366x768 display used on most ultraportable budget notebooks. The biggest single advantage of this screen over ultraportables like the Alienware M11x or the Dell Inspiron 11z is the fact that this screen features a matte surface. Unlike the glossy displays on consumer notebooks, the matte screen on the X100e doesn't reflect sunlight or strong indoor lights, making it easier to read what is on the screen in any environment. Horizontal viewing angles are good out to at least 60 degrees to either side before you start to notice color distortion. Vertical viewing angles are below average as the display becomes over exposed or colors begin inverting after moving the screen 15 degrees forward or back.

Speaker quality is average as the maximum volume output is loud enough to fill a large meeting room with clear sound. There is a little distortion at the maximum volume setting and bass output is minimal, but the speakers deliver good enough quality for a good video conference or webcast. That said, the speaker location on the bottom of the notebook means sound is directed down and away from you rather than up toward your ears. If you plan on using the X100e like a "laptop" rather than using it on a desk then the speakers might be muffled on your lap.

Keyboard and Touchpad
As previously mentioned, the new "Chiclet" keyboard on the X100e is a radical shift from the traditional ThinkPad keyboards. Despite the change, this keyboard maintains the same level of quality that business users expect when they hear the ThinkPad name. Lenovo uses a new keycap design that prevents the caps from popping off like they would on cheaper keyboards. One of the main benefits of choosing a Chiclet-style keyboard is that it allows for more space in between the keys on an ultraportable laptop. This means fewer typos compared to netbooks with cramped keys. The individual keys on the X100e have a springy, responsive action and each key has a curved surface similar to the traditional ThinkPad keyboard. Typing noise is minimal, with no loud "click clack" noises while typing. The palmrests are a little small for average adult male hands but they support the wrists without causing additional stress points while typing.

It's hard to complain about this keyboard since it is genuinely fantastic, but if there is one flaw to the X100e's keyboard it is the lack of backlighting. We're starting to see more and more laptops with backlit keyboards and business travelers would likely appreciate the ability to see their keyboards on dimly-lit airplanes.

The Synaptics touchpad and TrackPoint provide a fantastic pair of control points for moving your cursor in various applications. If you regularly use the larger touchpads found on MacBooks and desktop-replacement notebook PCs, you might consider the tiny touchpad on the X100e to be a little cramped. However, compared to the touchpads on most netbooks, the X100e delivers a great touchpad surface with a nice pair of touchpad buttons. The TrackPoint buttons include the traditional middle button found on most ThinkPads. Overall, the touchpad and TrackPoint were both a joy to use, with a fast response time and no discernable lag. Sensitivity was excellent and no adjustment was needed out of the box. This particular touchpad has some multitouch capabilities, including pinch-to-zoom and pivot-rotation. I didn't have any problems with the smooth touchpad texture even after weeks of use. The touchpad buttons seem to have a slightly shallow clicking depth compared to other ThinkPads, but they still provide a deeper press than most netbook touchpad buttons.

Ports and Features
Port selection is good enough to get the job done while on the road. In fact, the port layout on the X100e looks almost identical to what you'll find on most consumer netbooks. Unfortunately, most ultraportable notebooks with Intel-based low-voltage processors now also feature either HDMI or DisplayPort. In addition, since the X100e is aimed at business professionals we would have liked to see either an eSATA port or a USB 3.0 port for extremely fast data transfers.

Front: Indicator lights

Rear: AC power jack, battery, and VGA out

Left: Heat vent, two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, and combo audio jack

Right: 4-in-1 card slot, one USB 2.0 port, and Kensington Lock slot

Performance and Benchmarks
When we first tested the AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor inside the HP Pavilion dv2 more than a year ago we were reasonably impressed by the performance. While this single-core processor was an excellent choice in 2009 it is starting to show its age in 2010. The Athlon Neo certainly performs better than a single-core Intel Atom processor, but for roughly the same price you can buy a netbook equipped with a dual-core Atom or Intel CULV processor that delivers faster multitasking and quicker application switching.

In terms of day-to-day activities like working with Microsoft Office or browsing the web it's fair to say that most business users won't notice much (if any) performance difference between the ThinkPad X100e and an Intel Atom-based netbook. HD video playback for both 720P and 1080P content was flawless, and unlike Intel-based netbooks, the ATI Radeon 3200 graphics are powerful enough to handle video without stressing the processor. This means you can run Office and a video player at the same time without as much lag.

Indeed, if you compare the X100e against a typical netbook with a single-core Intel Atom processor and Intel integrated graphics then the X100e is an obvious winner. Unfortunately, the performance of the X100e looks less impressive compared to dual-core Atom netbooks and netbooks with Nvidia ION now on the market.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Noise levels were average during normal daily use. The default fan speed is always on at a low setting, pushing hot air away from the CPU and out of the notebook. The fan doesn't get much louder even if you stress the system with a game or video encoding. Unfortunately, the quiet fan means you get higher than normal case temperatures when the notebook is left on for more than 30 minutes. The external case temperatures on the X100e are quite a bit higher than similar-sized netbooks and ultraportable notebooks on the bottom surfaces. The bottom of the X100e nearly reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit after 40 minutes of moderate use (one wPrime test, watching several YouTube videos, and typing a text document). This makes the X100e less "lap friendly" than business netbooks like the HP Mini 5102. You'll probably want to keep it on an airline tray table or a hotel desk when working on the road. All temperatures shown below are listed in degrees Fahrenheit.

Battery Life
Although the AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor offers as much (or more) performance than the Intel Atom in day-to-day tasks, the AMD processor simply didn't deliver as much in the way of battery life. In our battery test with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 set to the "balanced" profile the system managed 3 hours and 41 minutes before shutdown. This is more than enough battery life for business travelers who are only crossing a few time zones during a flight, but if you need "all day" battery life you aren't going to find it here.

Granted, it wasn't too long ago that we used to praise any notebook that delivered more than three hours of battery life. Unfortunately, the ThinkPad X100e competes against netbooks and ultraportables that get six or more hours of battery life on a single charge. Three and a half hours might be "acceptable" to most business professionals, but it isn't as impressive as the competition.

Conclusion
The ThinkPad X100e is an extremely well-designed business ultraportable that will no doubt meet the needs of most business travelers who are looking for a small, ThinkPad-quality laptop at a low price. That said, this configuration of the X100e falls short in two key areas: processor performance and battery life.

Lenovo should have avoided using last year's single-core AMD processor and stuck with the latest generation of low-voltage dual-core processors from AMD. Lenovo will begin shipping the X100e with the dual-core AMD Turion Neo processors soon, and the higher performance and better battery life of the new processors will make the X100e a far more compelling option.

As it currently stands, the ThinkPad X100e is a surprisingly solid little netbook (Yes, I called it a netbook. Sorry, Lenovo.) that would have been perfect if it delivered just a little more in terms of performance and battery life. This configuration falls just a little short of earning our Editor's Choice Award, but we still think it will be a popular choice for a number of business buyers.

Pros:

Great keyboard
Good integrated graphics performance
Solid build quality at a low price

Cons:

Weak processor (as configured)
Average battery life
Keyboard not backlit

Big Screen Feeling with Toshiba Qosmio X505

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Thu, 06 May 2010 09:59:00 +0000

Aimed at both media enthusiasts and gamers, the Qosmio X505 is Toshiba’s largest and most powerful desktop replacement machine featuring a quad core processor and a mid-range nVidia GPU. Does the X505 live up to expectations? Read our review to find out.

Our Toshiba Qosmio X505 review unit has the following specifications:

Intel Core i7 720QM (1.6GHz, 6MB L2 Cache)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit
18.4-inch WUXGA glossy screen (1920x1080)
6GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
64GB Toshiba SSD
500GB Hitachi HDD
nVidia GTS 360M, 1GB VRAM
Internal fixed Blu-Ray optical drive.
Realtek 802.11n Wi-Fi, Atheros Gigabit Ethernet
LED Backlit Keyboard
12-cell 8000mAh battery
One-year warranty
Dimensions: 17.4 x 11.6 x 1.63 inches
Weight: 10.5 pounds, not including the 2 pound power adapter
Price as configured: $1,899

Build and Design
Our first impression of the Toshiba Qosmio X505 is that it is big, heavy and is a champion when it comes to build quality. When it comes to design, the X505 has a very sophisticated look. The piano black finish with metallic red highlights could appeal to people who never would have considered a “flashy” notebook. The glossy surface is a fingerprint magnet though. Even the LEDs on the notebook match with the black and red theme.

Despite the X505's all-plastic design, build quality is superb. The base of the notebook uses high quality plastic that should brush off bumps and bruises easily. The palm rest and other areas of the notebook are satisfyingly firm and gives us the impression that the internal design and structure of the notebook was carefully planned. The LCD housing does a good job of protecting the screen as well. We were not able to produce distortions on the screen with poking or prodding on the back side of the LCD housing, and it also resisted twisting motions well.

A notebook this large has to have a solid screen hinge to support the weight of the LCD, and Toshiba delivers in that respect. The hinge is firm enough to keep the notebook closed and open when needed, but the screen wobbles a little when bumped and the hinge occasionally squeaks. It also takes some effort to open the notebook.

Screen and Speakers
The Toshiba Qosmio X505 comes with a glossy 18.4-inch CCFL backlit screen with a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 (the 16:9 equivalent of WUXGA). Colors are bright and vibrant, text is crisp and sharp and videos are smooth and clear. With a maximum measured brightness of about 141 nits, it is a little dim compared to LED backlit screens and will be unsuitable for outdoor use, but indoors (like on the desk that this notebook will rarely leave) the screen is stunning.

The X505 has eight distinct levels of screen brightness that can be adjusted by using Fn+F6 and Fn+F7 key combinations. The brightest settings on the notebook won't wash out colors or strain the eyes, and the dimmer settings for the screen are great for darkroom entertainment. During normal use, we would usually have to leave the screen at one of the four highest brightness levels for comfortable use.

Notebook screens tend to have poor vertical viewing angles, and the X505 is no exception. Colors and text fade fast when viewing the notebook screen from above or below. Horizontal viewing angles are much better and are quite impressive. Even at the far left or right field, the screen is still easily readable and the visual quality of text, images and videos were consistent throughout.

When we typically see that a notebook with Harman/Kardon speakers, there are high hopes that we are going to have a great listening experience. The two very large front speakers live up to our expectations with excellent audio in the treble range, but the bass range is non-existent. Music fades when there is low volume in the treble range. For a notebook this large, the lack of perceptible bass is a big disappointment.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The X505 has a comfortable keyboard that easily outperforms many other notebooks. The LED backlit keyboard uses a fairly standard layout and design that has a great amount of feedback but is just a hair too springy. The spacing and feel of the keyboard is just about right and we think many people will like it.

At first, the glossy finish on the keyboard was a drawback; the keys seemed to grab our fingers a little bit. After a day or two, with a sufficient amount of oil building up on the keys, that problem was resolved. The only unresolved problem that is that we cannot find a way to turn the LED backlight off on the keyboard...

The large amount of palm rest real estate on an 18.4-inch notebook means that the X505 has a full size keyboard, a number pad and a few inches to spare. Toshiba uses that space by including eight capacitive touch special function buttons to control media playback, volume and power settings on the notebook. It's a nice feature but there are two big problems with these buttons: they are easy to accidentally trigger and they always beep at you when you hit them. Even the mute button beeps at you when you hit it.

Like the keyboard, the touchpad requires a little bit of oil to build up for optimal use. At first we found ourselves running off of the flush touchpad, but we adapted quickly. The tactile feedback provided by the touchpad was excellent and its responsiveness was equally satisfying after we updated the touchpad drivers. The touchpad also has an on/off button (and a giant red LED indicating if that the pad is on or off) that you can deactivate if needed. The two large touchpad buttons are red and hard to miss, but they are also difficult to work with since they require a lot of force to get them to register a click.

The Synaptics touchpad on the X505 also has a few other productivity features like circular scrolling, multi-touch zoom and multi-touch rotation motions, and even two-finger scrolling, which required us to space our fingers uncomfortably far apart for the touchpad to acknowledge the gesture. The rest of the features worked well.

Ports and Features

Let us be real – this is an 18.4-inch desktop replacement machine. Toshiba has the room to put any type of port on this computer that they want, and they did a good job of including the essentials. With three USB ports, one combo eSATA/USB port, audio ports, a Firewire 400 port, SD card slot, Ethernet port, VGA out and HDMI outputs, the notebook has almost everything a user needs. The X505 also has an ExpressCard/54 slot above the optical drive so you can expand upon the notebook as you see fit. There is even space for a DisplayPort connector on the notebook, but we are unsure why Toshiba chose to omit that feature. Our only complaint is that we wish there were more USB ports. The VGA port might baffle you a little, but Toshiba smartly figured that a lot of HDTVs have VGA ports dedicated for computer connections (and not all HDTVs have enough HDMI inputs). Let’s have a quick look around the notebook.

Left: Ethernet, combo eSATA/USB, another USB port, HDMI out, Firewire 400, Blu-Ray optical drive and ExpressCard/54.

Right: Audio in/out, 2x USB ports, a VGA out port, AC power and a security lock slot.

Front: Wireless on/off switch, SD card slot.

Back: Nothing.

Performance and Benchmarks
The Toshiba Qosmio X505 is among the largest notebooks we've seen, and it packs an equally large punch in the performance sector thanks to a powerful quad core mobile i7 processor, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, a strong nVidia GPU and a fast solid state hard drive.

A quick look at these performance numbers reveals that the Toshiba OEM SSD keeps up with the aftermarket competition fairly well. The critical figure, 4K reads and writes, is still 10-15 times faster than a traditional hard drive and as a result, the notebook feels much more responsive. Given our experiences with current aftermarket SSDs, it's difficult to differentiate the performance between the Toshiba OEM SSD and the competition.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 comparison results against notebooks @ 1280 x 800 resolution (higher scores mean better performance):

The Toshiba Qosmio X505 also scored 9250 PCMarks in PCMark Vantage, and 5766 3DMarks in 3DMark Vantage.

CrystalDiskMark hard drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
During light and medium workloads, the X505 is nearly silent. While we can sometimes hear the LCD inverter buzzing and the fans gently running in the background, for all intents and purposes, the machine produces very little noise during normal use. It also produces almost no extra heat, except around the rear center of the notebook. Considering that it comes with a powerful dedicated GPU and a quad core CPU, it is impressive that the notebook is this cool and quiet.

During gaming or benchmarking runs, it was a slightly different story. The hot spot of the notebook got little bit hotter, but the fans were much more noticeable. They were not high-pitched, whiny or obnoxious, but the fans make their presence known. Users playing games or running power hungry applications might want to turn up the volume a little.

Battery Life and Bundled Software
The X505 is stocked with high performance components to help reduce power consumption. Toshiba included the "eco Utility," which is a custom power management suite. Does it affect anything? Aside from altering your display brightness settings, Windows 7 power configuration settings and turning off a few LEDs … not really. When enabled, a little green LED turns on, so you get a warm, fuzzy feeling that you are helping to save the planet.

However, the "eco Utility" is useful for reliable power consumptions readings and shows a graph of how much power the computer is using. Even when the display is down to half brightness and Windows 7 running on a "balanced" power setting, the computer still manages to pull between 35-45W.

With that power draw, the notebook manages to run for one hour and 35 minutes before the battery drops out. It's not great, but it's also not bad for a desktop replacement, either.

But what is bad is the amount of bundled software that came with the X505. Trial bloatware for backup tools, office tools, anti-virus software, financial management software, online/social gaming applications and much more was found on this system. By the time we installed a few of our own benchmarking tools and one game, only 5GB of space was left on the primary hard drive. Between the Toshiba restoration partition, the OS and bloatware, more than 40 GB of the 64 GB SSD was used up. As a point of reference, Windows 7 installation with Microsoft Office included would use about 20 GB of space.

Conclusion
The Toshiba Qosmio X505 is a gigantic notebook that is more than capable of handling many things thrown its way. Designed for both gamers and computing enthusiasts, the notebook offers a great screen, decent keyboard, above average build quality and a high performance platform that stays cool and quiet.

It is not without flaws though. The most pronounced negatives on the notebook is a lack of audio capabilities in the bass ranges and the amount of bloatware that came pre-installed on our test system.

Ultimately, it's a nice machine, but is it worth $1,899? That is a question best left to you, but for the performance and quality that the X505 delivers, it could be.

Pros:

Massive, beautiful, 18.4-inch screen
A ton of power, yet little heat or noise
Nice build quality

Cons:

Poor speaker performance (no bass)
Mouse buttons are difficult
Bloatware and spammed advertisements

Review ASUS Eee PC 1001P SeaShell

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:35:00 +0000

The Eee PC 1001P SeaShell is ASUS's new entry-level netbook offering the Intel Atom N450 processor and Intel GMA 3150 integrated graphics. Designed closely after its higher-class brother, the 1005PE, the 1001P offers many of the same features, minus the Chiclet-style keyboard, larger battery, and larger hard drive. In this review, we see how the 1001P stacks up against other netbooks and if it holds a candle to the more expensive 1005PE.

ASUS Eee PC 1001P SeaShell Specifications:

Windows 7 Starter Edition (32-bit)
10.1-inch diagonal WSVGA (1024 x 600, matte finish)
Intel Atom N450 Processor 1.66GHz (667MHz FSB, 512KB Cache)
1GB DDR2 SDRAM (800MHz)
Intel GMA 3150 integrated graphics
160GB Seagate 5400.6 SATA HD
Atheros AR2427 BGN Wi-Fi, Atheros AR8132 10/100 LAN
4-in-1 media card slot
Dimensions: (H x W x D): 0.89-1.40 x 10.2 x 6.9 inches
2.81 pounds (not including weight of AC adapter)
6-cell lithium-ion battery (4400mAh, 48Wh)
One-year standard warranty
MSRP: $299.99

Observant readers might notice that this review is similar to the Eee PC 1005PE's review. This is because the 1001P shares many of the same components with its predecessor.

Build and Design
The Eee PC 1001P is a lower-cost version of the 1005PE Seashell and features a similar clamshell chassis but offers different lid designs. Our 1001P model comes with a textured weave pattern imprinted on the screen cover. The 1001P lacks some of the 1005PE's glossy flair, and its stylish island keyboard, but overall still retains a simple yet modern look.

At the top of the 1001P, it's easy to see the "SeaShell" heritage, and thankfully it manages to retain some solid build quality for a budget netbook. The matte black plastic isn't prone to flex and the keyboard is very firm, two things you usually don't see on budget notebooks. The various parts of the chassis come together with tight build tolerance, like a higher-priced laptop. This isn't the most rugged netbook we've ever seen, but ASUS gave the 1001P a pretty solid build for $299.

A nice improvement on the netbook compared to the last Seashell is the return of an easy-access RAM cover. If you want to upgrade the RAM in your 1001P, just remove one screw on the access panel on the bottom of the netbook. I would have also liked to see an easy-access panel for the hard drive, but most netbook buyers aren't going to mess with the hard drive.

Screen and Speakers
The Eee PC 1001P uses a fairly standard LED-backlit display panel with a 1024 x 600 native resolution. Unlike the 1005PE, the 1001P offers a matte-finish display which isn't prone to glare or added reflections from brightly lit rooms. Even with its matte finish, the display offers excellent color saturation and contrast. The screen resolution is small at 1024 x 600, though I prefer a resolution of 1366 x 768. Obviously this might not be cost effective on a netbook priced under $300 but I can dream, right? Vertical viewing angles are average, with minimal color distortion when viewing from below and some overexposed colors when viewed from above. Horizontal viewing angles are better with colors staying accurate at extremely wide viewing angles with a little color wash out.

A slightly annoying feature we noticed on the 1001P is related to the low-end Starter edition of Windows 7. Microsoft locks the desktop background to a specific OEM image and prevents the user from changing it through the control panel. ASUS circumvents the problem with a utility in its docking bar that lets you change the background to another selected image.

The Eee PC 1001P's built-in speaker performance is pretty good for a 10-inch netbook. I'm not a fan of speakers' location on the bottom front edge of the 1001P, but the audio quality is better than what we typically hear from netbook speakers. The speakers produce good volume (enough to fill a small room) and there is minimal distortion even at higher volume levels. The speakers lack much bass, but the range of highs and midtones are fine. Still, the audio output from the headphone jack is free of obvious distortion and is better when paired with earphones or a good set of external speakers.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The 1001P has a comfortable keyboard and is easy to type on. ASUS returned to a standard keyboard design like the 1005HA's, instead of a Chiclet-style keyboard on the 1005PE. The keys are slightly smaller than what you find on a full-size notebook, but once you adjust your typing strokes, it isn't much of a problem. I am not sure I would recommend using the keyboard on a daily basis as your primary input method, but for traveling or completing work in the classroom, it's just fine.

The Synaptics touchpad used on the 1001P is likewise identical to the gesture-enabled model on the 1005PE. It allows you to use multi-figure gestures such as "pinching" your fingers together or "pulling" your fingers apart to zoom in or out. You can also use a "three-finger tap" as an alternative to a right click on a mouse. The Synaptics control panel in Windows also allows you to customize the gestures. The touchpad surface is covered in dots that provide a clear indication of the edges of the touchpad, but it also makes the touchpad surface too rough for quick finger movement. The left and right touchpad buttons are located beneath a single rocker-style button, but there's no separation between the left and right side, so it's easy to accidentally press the middle of the touchpad button. The touchpad buttons have extremely shallow feedback, so it's sometimes hard to feel whether or not you're pressing a button.

The 1001P lacks a dedicated wireless on/off switch, but ASUS did include FN keyboard shortcuts for wireless, screen brightness, video output, volume, and Windows task manager.

Input and Output Ports
The 1001P offers the same port selection as the 1005PE. Namely, you get three USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 media card reader, headphone and microphone jacks, Ethernet port, and the return of a standard VGA out port. Here is a quick tour around the Eee PC 1001P:

Front view: No ports, just clean lines and indicator lights.

Rear view: No ports either, just the hinges and battery.

Left side view: Power jack, VGA out, USB 2.0 port, security lock slot, and heat vent.

Right side view: 4-in-1 card reader, headphone jack, microphone jack, two USB 2.0 ports, and Ethernet.

Performance and Benchmarks
The 1001P is equipped with the 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 and Intel GMA 3150 integrated graphics. For normal daily activities, like browsing the Web, typing documents, and listening to music, the system didn't show any lag. In our HD video tests, we played the 720P trailer for "Up!," and the system successfully kept up with the video decoding. But when we tried the 1080P version, the system sputtered. With the Adobe Flash 10.1 beta installed, the system had trouble playing 720P HD flash; enough that the system became unusable until the video stopped playing. Given that the netbook doesn't even offer a screen with a resolution capable of displaying HD video, its inability to play the trailer is not weighted heavily.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 comparison results against netbooks @ 1024 x 768 resolution (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark hard drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Thermal performance of the Eee PC 1001P is excellent with very low power consumption. Even under continuous stress, we still couldn't get the 1001P to form any significant warm spots. For heat-sensitive users, the netbook would be an excellent choice. Fan noise is minimal at worst, needing your ear right next to the exhaust vent to hear it during normal conditions. With the system stressed, the fan speed increased, but it was still difficult to hear over room noise.

Battery
Compared to older Intel Atom processors like the N270 and N280, the 1001P's biggest strength is the newer chipset paired with the N450, which is much more efficient. According to ASUS, the netbook should get an estimated 11 hours of runtime while operating from the battery, whereas the 1005PE, with a slightly larger battery, was estimated at 14 hours. In our battery test with the screen brightness reduced to 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 on the balanced profile, the system stayed on for eight hours and one minute. This is 4 hours below the time the 1005PE managed on battery although it did use a higher capacity battery.

Conclusion
The ASUS Eee PC 1001P SeaShell at its heart is a low-cost version of the 1005PE. Priced $80 less, the 1001P loses the island keyboard, higher capacity battery, 250GB hard drive, N-wireless, and Bluetooth. The 1001P reached an impressive eight hours of battery life, but let's remember that is four hours less than the 1005PE. With the 1005PE selling for as little as $365 through some online retailers, increasing your budget would result in a more capable road-warrior netbook. Overall, the 1001P still provides a great value with eight hours of battery life for $300 retail, but if you can spend slightly more, you gain 50% more battery life.

Pros:

Eight hours of battery life
Durable chassis
Matte-finish display

Cons:

Four hours less battery than 1005PE

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Design
Performance
Features
Price/Value Rating
* Ratings averaged to produce final score

from

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5590&review=asus+eee+pc+1001p

Review Clevo W765CUH

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 07:30:00 +0000

Not everyone wants a mainstream notebook with the same big-name branding. Today, we look at custom notebook seller AVADirect's new W765CUH, a 15.6-inch multimedia notebook sporting a Core i5 processor and ATI graphics card.

Our test notebook of the AVADirect Clevo W765CUH has the following specifications:

15.6-inch 720p (1366 x 768) display with LED backlighting
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core i5-540M processor (2.53GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 512MB DDR2 graphics card
4GB DDR3-1333 Kingston RAM
500GB 7200RPM hard drive (Seagate Momentus 7200.4/ST9500420AS)
Realtek RTL8191SE 802.11n Wireless LAN adapter
Built-in Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
8X DVD Super Multi drive
One year limited warranty
Weight: 5.82 pounds
Dimensions: 14.75” (W) x 10.13” (D) x 1.5” (H)
MSRP: $1,147

AVADirect allows full customization of the Clevo W765CUH. It is available with the quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, up to 8GB of RAM, and a variety of SSDs. Our test notebook has a more mainstream configuration although still a good performer in its own right.

Build and Design
The W765 has a generic look with no outstanding features. The notebook was clearly designed without aesthetics in mind. The W765 masks its somewhat chunky 1.5-inch high chassis with inward-cut sides, making it appear slimmer.

The W765 is constructed entirely of plastic and build quality is acceptable. The plastic exhibits little flex, however, feels somewhat second-rate and makes a cheap rattling sound when tapped. We like that the chassis is nearly devoid of glossy plastic; matte plastic is more durable and easier to clean. Only a thin screen surround is glossy plastic. The matte plastic on the visible surfaces of the notebook has a metallic sparkle to it, which shows up under light.

While the notebook feels cheap, it is actually quite strong. The chassis is just as stiff as other notebooks in its price range; it does not twist willingly, indicating a strong internal frame. The display is stronger than expected and resists twisting very well. Additionally, pushing in on the back of the display does not yield ripples on the screen. Two strong hinges anchor the display to the chassis. One minor annoyance with the notebook is that the screen does not tilt back far, only about 15-20 degrees past vertical. While using this notebook in my lap, I wished it tilted back another 20 degrees. Overall, while the notebook feels and looks generic and cheap, it has above average construction and a strong internal frame.

Screen and Speakers
AVADirect offers the W765 with two different screen resolutions: HD (1366 x 768) and HD+ (1600 x 900) and our review unit has the former. The display is LED backlit and has a glossy surface. The display’s quality is top-notch, with excellent brightness and ample contrast. Horizontal viewing angles are good, exhibiting little distortion. Vertical viewing angles are narrow; colors quickly shift if the display is viewed more than 15 degrees off center either up or down.

The 1366 x 768 resolution is low for a 15.6-inch screen. We would have preferred 1600 x 900 (which is available on this notebook), which is more productive to work on since it has more screen space. A higher resolution means less scrolling and easier multitasking.

The W765’s two speakers are located in the bottom of the display, not a place where speakers are typically found. Sound quality is poor, even for a notebook; it's very tinny and has no tangible bass.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The W765 has a full-size keyboard with separate numeric keypad. It has a “Chiclet” or island-style keyboard, where the keys are raised above the keyboard's surface and have more spacing. The keyboard has a hollow and unsettled feel even though it exhibits little flex, echoing the feel of the chassis. The key action is unsophisticated, yet direct, so typing accuracy is a nonissue. The key spacing and throw is spot-on. We like the matte key surfaces, which should wear well over time.

The downside of the keyboard is a lack of dedicated home, end, page up, and page down keys, which are integrated as secondary functions in the arrow keys. If number lock is disabled they can exist as dedicated keys, but then the functionality of the number pad is lost. Speaking of the number pad, it has an odd three-column layout (as opposed to the standard four-column), however all standard keys are present.

The touchpad is a mixed bag. While it is responsive, this is the first touchpad I tested where I felt the surface was too textured. It feels overly rough to the touch and is not something I would care to use for extended periods. On the positive side, we like the touchpad buttons, which are quiet and give responsive feedback.

Ports and Features
The W765 has a wide array of input and output ports, including HDMI and eSATA. All picture descriptions are left to right.

Left Side: Power, VGA out, Gigabit Ethernet, eSATA, HDMI, 2x USB 2.0, ExpressCard/54 (top), 7-in-1 media card reader (bottom)

Right Side: S/PDIF, headphone, microphone, USB 2.0, optical drive, 56k modem, Kensington Lock slot

Front: Status lights

Back: Display hinge

Performance and Benchmarks
Our W765 houses some mid- to high-end components including the fastest Core i5 dual-core processor available, 4GB of RAM, a speedy 500GB 7200RPM hard drive, and a basic ATI Radeon HD 4570 dedicated graphics card.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

Left 4 Dead 2 benchmark (1024x768, Medium-Low Settings):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

The W765 as equipped puts up some respectable numbers in our tests, however, is not much of a gaming machine. The Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics card is equipped with slow DDR2 memory and struggles to run the latest games; in Left 4 Dead 2, we had to lower the settings significantly for a playable experience.

Heat and Noise
The W765 is cooled by a single fan that vents hot air from the left side of the chassis. We found the fan remains on most of the time and is noticeable; it sounds like a constant rush of air and adds to the ambient noise level. Although we wish the fan was quieter, at the very least, the fan noise is consistent and does not escalate under load.

The cooling system fortunately did an excellent job of keeping internal components cool; the GPU never reached 70 degrees C and the processor topped out in the mid-60 degree C range. These are low temperatures, especially compared to some modern notebooks.

Battery Life
The W765 has a six-cell lithium-ion battery (10.8V, 4400mAh, 47.52Wh). While surfing the Web with minimum screen brightness, we observed a runtime of three hours and 17 minutes. This is a respectable for a notebook with a six-cell battery and dedicated video card.

Conclusion
The AVADirect W765CUH is an unremarkable 15.6-inch multimedia notebook. It has generic look and feels rather cheap and hollow due to an all-plastic construction. Although the outer plastic construction does not reflect its quality; the W765 is actually a well put-together machine. It has little to make it stand out from a crowd other than the fact there's isn't a Dell or Acer label on the lid. We liked the W765CUH’s screen and wide port selection, but would have preferred a quieter cooling system and a less-textured touchpad. The W765CUH’s performance is notable and the low-end graphics card makes it less than ideal for gamers. Overall, the notebook performed satisfactorily in our tests, but has nothing beyond what we expected, and we won't recommend or condemn it against competing brands.

Pros:

Good quality screen
Relatively high performance
Wide variety of ports

Cons:

Looks and feels cheap
Poor keyboard and touchpad
Weak graphics card

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Design
Performance
Features
Price/Value Rating
* Ratings averaged to produce final score

from

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5550&review=AVADirect+Clevo+W765CUH

Review Acer Aspire 7740

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 07:28:00 +0000

The Acer Aspire 7740 is a 17.3-inch multimedia notebook designed for people who want a lot of features for not a lot of money. This notebook costs $749 while still offering an Intel Core i3-330M processor, Intel GMA HD graphics, Blu-ray drive, and a HD+ LED-backlight display. In this review, we take an in-depth look at its performance and see how well it stacks up against the competition.

Our Acer Aspire 7740-5142 Specifications:

17.3-inch HD+ LED-backlit display (1600 x 900, glossy finish)
Windows 7 Home Premium
Intel Core i3-330M (2.13GHz, 3MB Cache)
4GB DDR3 Memory (2GB x 2GB)
Intel GMA HD Integrated Graphics
6-cell 48Wh battery, 65W 19V AC adapter
Dimensions: 16.2" x 10.8" x 1.6-1.8"
Weight: 6lbs 14.3oz
Retail Price: $749

Build and Design
For a 17.3-inch notebook, the Acer Aspire 7740 does a good job of hiding its size with a slim profile. From the side, it appears shorter than expected with the lower chassis standing not much higher than the VGA-port's height. The design tapers off at the front giving the palmrest a nice sharp edge. The color scheme is well thought-out with a glossy, dark-blue screen-cover, metallic blue palmrest and keyboard trim, and black keyboard. The only visible branding is a moderately sized Acer logo displayed front and center. One aspect that concerned us was the amount of space left open around the keyboard that could have been used for multimedia keys or other functions.

Build quality of the Aspire 7740 is above average with a solid body that doesn't have much flex. The screen cover provides decent impact protection for the LCD and doesn't allow the screen to be distorted unless firmly pressed from the back side. The glossy paint on the screen lid resists light scratches and seems to hold up under normal daily abuse from carrying it around. The palmrest and keyboard trim resist smudging and managed to stay clean throughout most of the review period.

Inside, the palmrest and keyboard show little or no flex under pressure. The palmrest doesn't compress one millimeter when squeezed with extreme force. The rigid chassis does a good job of holding up the body panels attached to it and doesn't squeak or creak under normal use. The screen hinges feel strong and hold the screen tightly closed. Overall, the body feels solid enough to survive a typical notebook's lifespan.

Users looking to upgrade the Acer Aspire 7740 will find it easy to get to components through a single cover on the back of the notebook. Taking off the panel gives you access to the wireless card, hard drive, and system memory.

Screen and Speakers
The Acer Aspire 7740 comes with a HD+ screen with a 1600 x 900 resolution. This resolution supports 720P content as well as 1080P content when scaled. For watching movies, viewing images, or just surfing the Web, the resolution is more than adequate for most users. Color saturation and contrast are average compared to other screens of this size. Backlight levels are fine for viewing in bright office conditions, but not bright enough for outdoor viewing with the glossy screen surface. Peak brightness levels measured 248cd/m2 at the center of the screen and decreased to as little as 199cd/m2 at the corners. Colors displayed on the screen stay consistent to about 15 degrees when tilted forward or back. The screen stays visible until about 60 degrees when viewing from the side since the backlight is overpowered by reflections on it.

The speakers on the Aspire 7740 sound above average and are pretty good for a system that doesn't have a subwoofer. In our testing, we found peak volume levels to be more than adequate to watch a movie in the immediate area around the screen. The speakers also support simulated Dolby surround sound that worked quite well if you were centered over the notebook. Sound output is warm with a hint of bass and midrange when the Dolby Audio Enhancer was toggled on and off. For a system priced under a $1,000 and not including a low-frequency driver, we were impressed.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The Aspire 7740 uses a floating island-style keyboard that is comfortable to type on but causes a few hang-ups when trying to type quickly. Since this keyboard doesn't have an internal bezel structure or solid key design, it is easy to hit the top of another key when you finger is fully pressing a neighboring key and trying to slide over at the same time. I got used to it after a few hours and learned to lift my finger fully off the key before sliding to the next key in my typing motion. The keyboard layout takes advantage of the chassis and offers a four-key wide number pad with room to spare on each side.

One thing missing from the keyboard layout is quick-access media keys. It was surprising that a notebook designed entirely around multimedia use with a Blu-ray drive didn't offer touch-sensitive buttons for volume control or media playback. Instead this notebook has quick-access buttons for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, backup software, and a customizable program launch.

The touchpad on this notebook is an ALPS design model with a spacious layout and multitouch gesture support. The touchpad is quick to respond, but we did notice just a hair of lag in fast gestures. Refresh times are great which helps prevent a choppy mouse movement when moving around. Sensitivity out of the box was good but not perfect, and no adjustment for sensitivity was found in the ALPS control menu. For users who don't want to accidentally move the cursor while typing, there's a button located to the right of the touchpad to disable the touch surface.

Ports and Features
The Aspire 7440's port selection is average for a 17-inch notebook with VGA and HDMI-out, four USB ports, audio input and output jacks including S/PDIF out, LAN, modem, and a Kensington Lock slot. We were hoping to find eSATA for faster external storage expansion, but it was probably left out to keep the price low. We were impressed that a Blu-ray drive was included, but decoding software was absent. Blu-ray decoding software can cost as much as $99, with one example being PowerDVD 10 from CyberLink.

Performance and Benchmarks
With its 2.13GHz Intel Core i3-330M processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, and Intel GMA HD graphics, system performance was very good. In our tests, one factor holding back the notebook was its rather slow Toshiba 5400RPM hard drive. The hard drive also appeared to have an over-active power management setting that power cycled the drive more times than we have heard from other notebooks. The Core i3 processor easily decoded 720P or 1080P video and played HD Flash movies on YouTube. Gaming performance was weak with the Intel GMA HD integrated graphics, but still a step up from the older Intel GMA X4500MHD. Startup and shutdown times were fine though we feel there's room for improvement with a faster hard drive.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Thermal performance of this notebook was very good given its size and relatively low-end hardware. The 7740 barely broke a sweat during its benchmarking runs, and during normal use it stayed in very comfortable temperature ranges. Fan noise at idle is low with it only turning on for short bursts. If the load on the system is raised, the fan turns on with higher frequency but is still fairly quiet.

Battery Life
Acer configured the Aspire 7740 with a 6-cell battery with a rated capacity of 48Wh. In our tests, the system used between 14 to 16 watts of power at idle. With the screen brightness lowered to 70%, Windows set to the balanced profile, and wireless active, the 7740 stayed on for two hours and 51 minutes. With battery life coming up under three hours, the notebook wouldn't be the best travel companion, but as a desktop replacement, it's more than adequate.

Conclusion
The Acer Aspire 7740 is an affordable multimedia notebook with solid performance and a good appearance. While some budget notebooks might only offer resolutions of 1366 x 768, Acer went with a 1600 x 900 resolution for its 17.3-inch screen. System performance was very good for its price, reaching close to 5,000 in both PCMark05 and PCMark Vantage. We were also impressed that the system included a Blu-ray drive, but disappointed when it lacked decoding software. Overall, if you are looking for a midrange desktop-replacement notebook and don't want to spend more than $800, the Acer Aspire 7740 is worth checking out.

Pros:

Good screen resolution
Nice-sounding speakers
Comes with Blu-ray drive

Cons:

Doesn't come with Blu-ray software
No touchpad sensitivity adjustment

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Design
Performance
Features
Price/Value Rating
* Ratings averaged to produce final score
from
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5581&review=acer+aspire+7740

Review HP Envy 13

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 07:25:00 +0000

Last year, HP claimed to "redefine the premium notebook PC" when the company unveiled the new HP Envy 13. This 13-inch notebook offers high-performance, power-efficient processors, ATI switchable graphics, lightweight aluminum and magnesium construction, and features a bright screen with amazing color depth for exceptional picture viewing and video playback. On paper, the Envy 13 promises to be everything you want in a laptop. Keep reading to find out if this premium notebook is worth its premium price tag.

Our HP Envy 13 Specifications:

Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor SL9600 (2.13GHz, 6M Cache, 1066 MHz FSB)
3GB DDR3 SDRAM (1066MHz)
250GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive
13.3-inch diagonal High Definition LED HP Radiance Infinity Widescreen Display (1366x768)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 Graphics (512MB) with Intel X4500M integrated switchable graphics
External Slot Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer with 2 USB Ports
Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
Dimensions: 12.59"(W) x 8.46"(D) x 0.8"(H)
Weight: 3.75 pounds (not including weight of AC adapter).
4-cell 41Wh battery
One-year standard warranty
MSRP: $1,924.99

Build and Design
The Envy 13 marks a significant design departure for HP. Gone is the glossy HP Imprint finish that was common to its Pavilion line, and plastic has given way to aluminum and magnesium alloy. The simple magnesium lid doesn't feature any kind of eye-catching design, but we appreciate the emphasis on function over form. This is one of the most durable lids we've seen on a 13-inch consumer notebook and should easily withstand any use and abuse from most owners. We applied significant force to make the lid flex, which means the screen should be well-protected inside your laptop bag or backpack.

Build quality remains very good thanks to a solid chassis and durable components throughout. The etched-metal palmrest provides an interesting combination of style and support. The magnesium palmrests don't flex like typical plastic palmrests and the etched pattern is a subtle way to add a splash of creativity to a typically boring area of the notebook. I suspect the recessed etching might collect dust and dirt over time, but the etching is shallow enough that you can probably clean it with a microfiber cloth.

People who like to upgrade their computers on their own by adding extra RAM, a new hard drive, or other aftermarket features will be in for a rude awakening with the Envy 13. HP built this notebook with an emphasis on the thin form factor and clean lines. There aren't easy-access panels on the bottom of the notebook or quick release tabs for the keyboard. Getting inside the Envy 13 isn't a task for the faint of heart. If you decide to upgrade it yourself, you'll need to remove four rubber feet from the bottom of the notebook in order to expose recessed screws, then remove the battery and several additonal screws before finally removing the entire bottom plate. Given the complexity of disassembly, you're probably better off purchasing upgrades when you buy the notebook rather than trying it on your own.

The ENVY 13 and 15 are packaged in new "green" yet stylish paper carton boxes using minimal ink. To further HP's environmentally-friendly goals, the only paperwork included in the packaging is a simplified setup poster. All additional documentation - from the user manual to the warranty guides - are contained on a SD card in the box. The power adapter, VGA display adapter and optional external Blu-ray drive fit neatly inside storage spaces beneath the notebook.

Screen and Speakers
The 13.3-inch "HP Radiance" display is roughly twice as bright as other notebook displays of the same size – 410 nit brightness – and this helps compensate for the glossy surface covering the screen. It also allows you to cleary see the screen even under direct sunlight. This LED-backlit display offers 82 percent color gamut (versus the standard 45-60 percent on other notebooks), so photos have more intense color saturation and video "pops" off the screen. Of course, if you're a photography enthusiast you might want to tone down the colors on this display since they are a bit too rich compared to natural colors. Viewing angles are average, though at first glance, the screen looks better since the intense color depth masks the typical signs of color shift and inversion at steep viewing angles.

The built-in stereo speakers carry the "Beats Audio by Dr. Dre" branding which suggests a premium listening experience. In our test lab, the results weren't as impressive as the "Beats" brand implies. The speakers produce clear sound with plenty of volume but bass is lacking and the overall sound quality is rather tinny; akin to listening to music from inside an aluminum can. Headphones are the best option to enjoy music and movies from the notebook. Another alternative is using the HDMI-out to pass digital audio to a home stereo.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The full-size island-style or "Chiclet" keyboard is a welcome change from HP's previous keyboards and provides excellent key spacing and support. Most of our editors agree that the 13-inch form-factor is a perfect compromise between size and user comfort when typing. Too small, and the palmrest won't support your wrists. Any bigger, and the notebook ceases to be travel-friendly. Key action is smooth and quiet with a mild click emitted when you fully press a key. Key wiggle is minimal and individual key depth or "throw" is perfect. We didn't notice any keyboard flex on the underlying support struicture even when we pressed forcefully on the keys. In short, the Envy 13 keyboard is among the best we've used on a 13-inch notebook.

The Envy 13 offers a large and spacious Synaptics touchpad with integrated touchpad buttons. HP calls this a "Clickpad" but that name feels odd to me. When it comes to size, this is one of the nicest touchpads I've used on a 13-inch notebook - with a few exceptions. If you are someone who rests your thumb on a touchpad button and moves the cursor with one of your other fingers, you will need to learn to use the touchpad in a completely different way. The cursor will often jump from one finger to another when the thumb is resting since the entire touchpad surface is being used. You can get past this dilemma by using one finger to move the cursor and then use the "tap to click" setting to click on icons. The touchpad is just too sensitive for two fingers.

Ports and Features
Port selection is disappointing on the Envy 13. You get a SD card slot, two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI out and a combo audio jack. This is simply depressing since most 11-inch notebooks offer more. Frankly, given the cost of the notebook and the amount of unused space around the edges, HP could at least add one more USB port as well as FireWire or eSATA. On a more positive note there are three large heat vents on the sides and back, so at least overheating shouldn't be a problem.

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance with the Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600 processor is average and not particularly impressive considering the price. The dual-core processor is more than capable of handling multiple applications with minimal lag, but if you're going to pay almost $2,000 for a notebook, you want serious performance. The SL9600 underperforms against the older Core 2 Duo P8400 used in last year's 13-inch MacBook Pro. That said, the Envy 13 still offers noticeably faster application switching and file conversion than cheaper notebooks using the Intel CULV class processors.

The Envy 13's graphics solution is more interesting than the processor. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 Graphics card with 512MB of dedicated memory and Intel X4500M integrated switchable graphics means the Envy 13 offers the best of both worlds: You get performance for HD video and gameplay and extreme battery life when on the road. HP set up the Envy 13 so that the ATI discrete graphics are always enabled when the power adapter is plugged in and the Intel integrated graphis are always used when it's running on battery power. You can switch these default graphics settings using the display menu in Windows, but we would have liked to see a keyboard shortcut to quickly force the laptop into discrete or intergrated graphics modes.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
System temperatures stayed within normal ranges with the dual-core processor. The hard drive cavity was noticeably warm, but the temperature wasn't uncomfortable. Noise levels were about average for a computer of this size, but the fan runs at a constant low hum even when the notebook is running on battery power. If you need absolute silence in your workspace then the Envy 13 might not be an attractive option. If you don't mind subtle white noise in your daily routine, then you might not even notice the fan when it's running on battery.

Battery Life
Battery life with the 41Wh Li-Ion battery and the L9600 processor is good for a 13-inch notebook running on integrated graphics. In our test with the screen brightness set to 70%, Windows 7 set to the "HP Recommended" power profile, and wireless active, the system stayed on for 6 hours and 55 minutes before going into standby mode. Power consumption during this test floated around 6 watts. When we plugged the external Blu-ray drive in, the battery life dropped to just under three hours while watching DVDs. HP also offers an optional second 6-cell battery "slice" that connects to the bottom of the Envy 13 and covers the entire bottom surface of the laptop. Although this essentially doubles the thickness of the notebook, HP claims it more than doubles the system's running time.

Conclusion
Without a doubt, the Envy 13 is among the most innovative consumer notebooks that HP has ever created. However, it still feels like HP engineers spent too much time and effort trying to make a "MacBook alternative" and missed the mark completely. Yes, the Envy 13 offers exceptional build quality, a fantastic keyboard, good battery life and a stylish design, but it lacks a number of ports and is more expensive than a 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The Envy 13 is a nice laptop, but few of our editors would rush to buy one for its starting price of $1,500. Here's some advice for HP and other PC manufacturers: If you want to make a MacBook subsitute, don't try to copy the MacBook. There are many PCs out there that are more compelling than Macs in terms of design, features, and price, so think outside the box - or, at least, outside the Apple.

Pros:

Excellent build quality
Great keyboard
Cool "green" packaging

Cons:

Expensive
Overly sensitive touchpad
Limited number of ports

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Design
Performance
Features
Price/Value Rating
* Ratings averaged to produce final score

Review ThinkPad X201

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:42:00 +0000

The ThinkPad X201 is the newest 12-inch ultra-portable business notebook from Lenovo. As a refresh to the X200-series, the X201 showcases Intel's latest Calpella platform. One of the most interesting new processor options included in the X201 is the new 32nm Core i7-640LM dual-core CPU clocked in at 2.13GHz. In this review we take a look at the entire X201-lineup including the X201, X201s, and X201 Tablet and see how well they stack up against previous models.

Our Lenovo ThinkPad X201 Specifications:

Screen: 12.1-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) LED Backlit (Matte finish)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional (64bit)
Processor: Intel Core i5-540M (2.53GHz, 3MB Cache)
Memory: 4GB DDR3 RAM (2GB + 2GB)
Storage: 320GB Hitachi HDD (7200rpm)
Wireless: Intel 6200 802.11AGN, Bluetooth
Graphics: Intel GMA HD Integrated Graphics
Power: 94Wh 9-cell, 65W 20V AC adapter
Dimensions: 11.6 x 9.2 x 0.8 - 1.4"
Weight: 3.52lbs
Retail Price: $1,625

Our Lenovo ThinkPad X201s Specifications:

Screen: 12.1-inch WXGA+ (1440 x 900) LED Backlit (Matte finish)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional (64bit)
Processor: Intel Core i7-640LM (2.13GHz, 4MB Cache)
Memory: 4GB DDR3 RAM (2GB + 2GB)
Storage: 320GB Hitachi HDD (5400rpm)
Wireless: Intel 6250 802.11AGN, Bluetooth
Graphics: Intel GMA HD Integrated Graphics
Power: 57Wh 6-cell, 65W 20V AC adapter
Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.3 x 0.8 - 1.4"
Weight: 2.77lbs
Retail Price: $1,335

Our Lenovo ThinkPad X201 Tablet Specifications:

Screen: 12.1" Multitouch LED WXGA (1280x800) panel with Wide Viewing Angle
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional (64bit)
Processor: Intel Core i7-640LM (2.13GHz, 4MB Cache)
Memory: 4GB DDR3 RAM (2GB + 2GB)
Storage: 320GB Fujitsu HDD (5400rpm)
Wireless: Intel 6200 802.11AGN, Bluetooth
Graphics: Intel GMA HD Integrated Graphics
Power: 66Wh 8-cell, 65W 20V AC adapter
Dimensions: 11.6 x 10.1 x 1.04 - 1.31"
Weight: 3.95lbs
Retail Price: $1,900

Build and Design
The ThinkPad X201 carries the same delightfully-intimidating, ultra-portable business-notebook-on-steroids design as all the X-series notebooks before it. At first glance it looks like any other T-series notebook with a boxy frame and rubberized paint but much smaller. With the notebook open, you see that the design is as small as it can be without reducing the size of the keyboard. Keeping the large keyboard on the small frame does have consequences, however, such as a short palmrest that's too short to support most wrists with your fingers in their typing position. The X-series notebook is essentially the smallest ThinkPad that still allows Lenovo to incorporate a full-size keyboard in its design.

Build quality is great compared to many of the small netbooks and CULV notebooks that have hit the market in the past couple of years. Just like the larger T-series counterpart, the X201 retains the strong stainless-steel screen hinges, durable ThinkPad keyboard, strong plastic cladding, and alloy chassis. The thinner design does introduce some minor flex and the screen hinges feel "weaker" when scaled down but this is all relative. For a 12-inch notebook the X201 can easily be tossed around with little worry about it breaking ahead of schedule or wearing out before its useful life is up. Try to do the same thing with cheaper consumer competition and you won't like the results.

End-user servicing is still taken into consideration with easy memory and hard drive access. The X201 retains the side panel to quickly swap out the hard drive and the bottom cover to upgrade the system memory.

Screen and Speakers
While the build quality surpasses many CULV-notebooks one area the X201 really falls behind is in the screen category. Compared to many of the modern 11.6- and 12-inch glossy screens found on new consumer ultraportable notebooks, the panels on the X201 and X201s fall behind in color saturation and contrast. Colors appeared faded and weak while black levels felt washed out. This seems to be the downside to most business notebooks. Vertical viewing angles are average with colors starting to invert quickly when you tilt the screen 10 to 15 degrees forward or back. Horizontal viewing angles are better with colors staying consistent even at steep angles.

The X201 Tablet screen is a step above the X201 or X201s and offers much better color saturation and contrast. Viewing angles are also greatly improved with minimal color inversion even when tilted 45 degrees forward or back. One problem we noticed on our X201 Tablet review model though was the screen appeared very warm (yellow/orange). This gave the screen an aged look and was not very pleasing to the eye.

The backlight brightness of all three notebooks was plenty bright to be viewable in an office setting. The X201 was the brightest of the bunch and measured 250cd/m2 at its brightest point. The X201s was second and measured 232cd/m2 at its brightest point. The X201 Tablet came in third measuring 182cd/m2 at its brightest point. If you plan on using the X201 outdoors, Lenovo offers a high-brightness outdoor-viewable screen on the X201 Tablet as an option.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Each of the new ThinkPad X201-series notebooks we have in for review offers the same keyboard that was previously seen on the X200. After the huge change with the T400s and T410 we were expecting to see a similar redesign with the X201 models but that wasn't the case. With that said the typing experience is everything we have come to expect from the trusted ThinkPad brand. The keyboard size is 100% with the 12-inch widescreen chassis which is an improvement from the 4:3 aspect ratio X61 which had condensed keys along the perimeter of the keyboard. The typing surface has excellent support with barely any flex under moderate pressure. The tactile feel from each key is great with soft clicks emitting very little noise when fully pressed. If you plan on spending hours sitting in front of your computer typing the ThinkPad keyboard is hard to beat.

One entirely new feature on the X-series ThinkPad is a narrow Synaptics touchpad on the X201 and X201 Tablet. The X-series has always had the limitation of being TrackPoint only—which is a huge turnoff for some users. With the majority of buyers preferring the touchpad interface it was a no-brainer to see Lenovo adding it to the X201 to help increase sales. The small touchpad is odd to see at first– it is about half the height of a normal touchpad–but you get used to it really quick. During the review process I favored the touchpad over the TrackPoint and had no trouble using it with common multitouch gestures. The touchpad had an excellent response time with no noticeable lag and each axis offered the same acceleration rate to prevent unwanted ovals.

Ports and Features
Port selection has stayed the same as previous models with three USB ports, VGA-out, LAN, ExpressCard/54, audio jacks and a modem jack. For storage expansion Lenovo also includes an SDHC slot located on the front edge of the palmrest. I was really hoping to see some form of digital video out but as this is a business-oriented model most business users still demand VGA-out for legacy projectors.

Performance and Benchmarks
I have to admit that when I first heard Lenovo was sticking a Core i7 processor in the X201 I had the mental image of a 12-inch gaming or workstation-class notebook. That was not the case as the Core i7-640LM processor included in our X201s and X200 Tablet are dual-core processors designed with power efficiency in mind and not breakneck performance. It also turns out that the low-voltage Core i7 processors are slower than the Core i5 processor we tested—making things even more confusing for the average consumer who might be purchasing a notebook on model numbers alone.

Compared to the Intel P8600-equipped X200 we reviewed more than a year ago, every X201 we reviewed offered a substantial boost in speed, including the X201s with the new Core i7-640LM. Overall system performance went up 30 to 50% across the board depending on configuration. 3D-performance went up 63 to 106% with the newer GMA HD integrated graphics over the older X4500 chipset. Users will note that the GMA HD inside notebooks with the low-voltage Core i7 processors are clocked lower–at a 266MHz base frequency instead of 500MHz–than similarly-equipped Core i5 systems.

If you depend on your notebook to be your "desktop-away-from-home" the newer platform offers plenty of performance to satisfy most users. Multimedia enthusiasts will enjoy streaming 1080P Flash video through YouTube or decoding downloaded 1080P movies with barely making the notebook break a sweat. If you find yourself wanting more power than the standard run-of-the-mill netbook or CULV notebook can provide, one of the 12-inch X201 ThinkPads might be the best alternative.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Thermal performance of the X201 is very good even with the Core i5-540M processor. Under a light load the keyboard and palmrest stayed a few degrees above room temperature. Temperatures increased with the system under a full load but "touch" areas on top of and below the notebook stayed within reasonable levels. The cooling fan was audible in a quiet room but only when the system was being stressed. With our sound meter in a room with a tested 31.5dB ambient background, we measured the system fan on low speed at 33dB, mid speed at 38dB, and high speed at 42dB 6 inches from the exhaust vent.

Battery Life
Battery life across all the models we tested was excellent—even on the X201 with the Intel Core i5-540M processor and 7200RPM hard drive. Each model was tested with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 set to a balanced profile. Note that the X201 is equipped with a 9-cell battery, the X201 Tablet has an 8-cell battery, and the X201s is configured with a 6-cell battery. Our results are shown below:

During the test the X201 with the Intel Core i5-540M and 7200RPM hard drive consumed between 7.5 to 8 watts of power. The X201s with the Core i7-640LM consumed between 6.5 to 7 watts. The X200 Tablet also using the Core i7-640LM consumed between 7.5 and 9 watts of power. If you want the perfect mix of speed and battery life the X201s tested with the 9-cell battery stayed on for 11 hours and 50 minutes!

Conclusion
The Lenovo ThinkPad X201 offers quite a few solid features compared to the older X200. Users who prefer a touchpad interface can now get it on the X201 and X201 Tablet, and even though it is netbook-sized it is still very usable. The newest Intel platform offers a huge boost in overall performance from the previous generation and in some cases doubled the 3D performance. Battery life also increased across the board with the help of the power-sipping Intel Core i7-640LM processor. If you find yourself always wanting a bit more than what most netbooks or CULV-based notebooks have to offer, the Lenovo ThinkPad X201 packs a huge punch in a small package.

Pros:

Great battery life
Finally includes a touchpad
Great performance

Cons:

Screens could be better on the X201 and X201s

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Design
Performance
Features
* Ratings averaged to produce final score

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5546&review=lenovo+thinkpad+x201+x201s+tablet

Review Toshiba Satellite T135D

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:44:00 +0000

The Toshiba Satellite T135 series is a popular 13-inch thin-and-light notebook available in a variety of configurations. We previously reviewed the T135 with Intel inside, but what about the T135D with the latest AMD dual-core processors and ATI graphics? Does the AMD-based T135D offer more than the Intel-based T135 for $100 less? We took a closer look to find out.

Toshiba Satellite T135 (T135D-S1324) Specifications:

1.6GHz AMD Turion Neo X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor L625
4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 (2 x 2GB)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
13.3" WXGA HD TruBrite LED Backlit display (1366x768)
320GB 5400RPM Toshiba SATA Hard Drive
ATI Radeon 3200 Graphics
802.11b/g/n, 10/100 LAN
6-in-1 card reader
6-Cell Li-ion 61WH battery, 65W Power Supply
Dimensions: (W x L x H) 12.7" x 8.78" x 0.87"/1.35"
Weight: 3lbs 12.9oz (with 6-cell battery)
Price as configured: $599.99

Build and Design
The Toshiba Satellite T135-series notebooks are stylish ultraportables that look like previous 13-inch Toshiba notebooks, but in a much thinner and lighter chassis. Toshiba keeps the profile only a fraction of an inch thicker than the USB ports on the side of the notebook, though this is done in large part by cutting out things like an ExpressCard slot and optical drive. For the average user this notebook has all the advantages of a standard computer--a high resolution display, a full-size keyboard and a dual-core processor--but none of the bulk. The black color scheme on our T135D looks nice, although the red exterior of the Intel-based T135 was a nice change of pace. Toshiba offers multiple color schemes for this notebook, so if you don't think black is beautiful then there are other options available for you to purchase.

Build quality for both the Intel and AMD versions of the T135-series notebooks is very nice despite the very thin chassis. In fact, the exterior of the T135D is identical to the exerior of the T135 except for the AMD sticker on the palmrest. Unlike some of the thin-and-light notebooks we've reviewed from other companies, flex and plastic squeaks are kept to a minimum on the T135D, and a metal plate over the hard drive helps keep the vital components safe. The screen cover feels durable as well, although it the screen lid does suffer from some minor flex next to the hinges. In any case, the glossy exterior of the T135D should hold up to typical use and abuse inside a school backpack or an office briefcase. The glossy finish on the body withstands most scratches, but you'll need to constantly clean off fingerprints and smudges if you want to keep your laptop looking new. The imprinted pattern on the lid and palmrests does a good job of hiding small fingerprints, but sooner or later you will need to find a microfiber cloth.

If you're interested in upgrading the internal components on your T135D you'll be happy to learn that the system memory and hard drive are easy to locate beneath a pair of cover plates on the bottom of the notebook. Unfortunately, Toshiba has once again decided to secure the hard drive bay with Torx screws rather than standard Phillips head screws. This means that you'll need to use a set of precision screwdriver bits with Torx adapters if you want to remove the hard drive. This isn't a major problem, but it is something of an inconvenience for do-it-yourself PC owners. The cover panel for the memory slots uses standard Phillips screws, so that will be an easier upgrade. No warranty void if removed stickers were found anywhere, so it should be safe to swap out basic components without risking your warranty coverage.

Screen and Speakers
The 13.3" LED-backlit screen on the T135D appears to be identical to the display panel used on the T135. Colors appear overly saturated (not always a bad thing, but a matter of personal preference) and the contrast ratio looks below average with fairly light black levels. Horizontal viewing angles are good out to at least 45 degrees to either side before you start to notice color distortion. Vertical viewing angles are below average as the display becomes over exposed or colors begin inverting after moving the screen 15 degrees forward or back. Overall screen brightness is good enough for indoor usage under bright office lights or in the shade outdoors. The glossy screen makes reflections something of a problem if you try to use the screen outdoors under direct sunlight.

Speaker quality is below average as the maximum volume output isn't loud enough to fill a large meeting room withn clear sound. The maximum volume setting on this notebook sounds more like what we expect when we set multimedia notebooks to 50 percent volume. Part of the problem is the speaker location on the bottom front edge of the notebook ... which means sound is directed down and away from you rather than up toward your ears. The other issue is the small size of the speaker drivers themselves. Toshiba simply didn't put impressive speakers into this notebook. If this is your only PC for listening to your music library then I suggest purchasing a good set of headphones.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Once again, the full-size keyboard on the T135D is identical to the T135 and we don't have much new information to share with you. The keyboard is comfortable for typing and offers excellent support even under very strong typing pressure. The palmrests are just about perfect for average adult male hands as they support the wrists without causing additional stress points while typing. The individual keys have a springy, responsive action and each key has a flat surface similar to a Chiclet-style keyboard without the additional space between each key. Typing noise is minimal, with no loud "click clack" noises while typing. Consumers who are thinking about buying this notebook for typing long documents or notes during class should have no problems with this keyboard

The Synaptics touchpad was once again a slight disappointment in that it had a very slow refresh rate. Replacing the drivers with the latest ones offered on the Synaptics website didn't improve this issue, so our best guess is that the slow refresh issue has something to do with the touchpad surface/hardware itself. That said, when we uninstalled the drivers the touchpad felt a bit more responsive, so this may indeed be a bug in the Synaptics drivers. We still recommend using the Synaptics drivers since they allow you to use those helpful touchpad features like scrolling or correcting the position of your touchpad/scroll zones. Regardless of the slow refresh issue on the touchpad, the touchpad surface itself is a joy to use. Most of our lab testers agreed that you can easily glide your fingertip across the touchpad surface. The touchpad buttons are made of a reflective silver plastic and don't offer much in the way of comfort. The individual key press is rather shallow and you have to press the left and right buttons along the outside edge ... since the touchpad buttons don't always work if you press near the middle.

Ports and Features
Port selection is fairly good when compared to ultraportable notebooks, but we're starting to get worried about the lack of either an ExpressCard slot or eSATA port on 13-inch and larger notebooks. USB is fine for smaller notebooks, but larger notebooks need to offer a few more options in terms of ports. The T135D includes three USB ports, VGA and HDMI-out, LAN, audio jacks, and a Kensington Lock slot. Expansion slots include just the 6-in-1 SDHC-compatible card reader.

Front: Indicator lights

Rear: Battery

Left: Kensington Lock slot, VGA, HDMI, one USB

Right: 6-in-1 card slot, audio jacks, two USB, LAN, AC power

Performance and Benchmarks
We found the Intel SU4100 CULV processor and Intel integrated graphics in the T135 to offer reasonable performance, but we were particularly excited to see how the T135D would perform with an AMD dual-core processor and ATI integrated graphics. The short answer is that the 1.6GHz AMD Turion Neo X2 processor performs a little faster than the Intel offering, and the ATI graphics clearly perform better when it comes to basic gaming such as World of Warcraft or older first-person shooter games.

In terms of day-to-day activities it's fair to say that most consumers won't notice much (if any) performance difference between the T135 and T135D. That fact alone probably means most consumers should consider the AMD-based T135D since it's $100 cheaper than the Intel-based T135. However, we did stumble onto some issues in terms of battery life (more on that later in the review). HD video playback for both 720P and 1080P content was flawless, but unlike the Intel CULV solution, the T135D with AMD processor and ATI graphics didn't stress the CPU as much when playing HD video. The only test that we ran in our lab that suggested the AMD processorm might not perform as well or better than the Intel processor was the PCMark05 synthetic benchmark, but we've found that this benchmark doesn't always reflect real-world experience. Bottom line, the AMD-based T135D should offer every bit as much performance as the Intel-based T135 ... for $100 less.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Noise levels were great for normal daily use. The default fan speed is always on at a low setting, pushing hot air away from the CPU and out of the notebook. The fan doesn't get much louder even if you stress the system with a game or video encoding. Unfortunately, the quiet fan means you get higher than normal case temperatures when the notebook is left on for more than 30 minutes. The external case temperatures on the T135D are roughly 10+ degrees hotter than what we saw on the T135 next to the CPU and the RAM. This makes the T135D less "lap friendly" than the T135 and you'll probably want to keep it on an airline tray table or a hotel desk when working on the road. All temperatures shown below are listed in degrees Fahrenheit.

Battery Life
Although the AMD-based T135D offered as much (or more) performance than the Intel-based T135 in day-to-day tasks, the AMD processor simply didn't deliver as much in the way of battery life. In our battery test with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 set to the "balanced" profile the system managed 5 hours and 48 minutes before shutdown. This is more than enough battery life for most consumers who just need a laptop for a few hours of web browsing at a coffee shop, but it is obviously less than the 8 hours and 18 minutes of battery life we saw with the Intel-based Satellite T135.

Granted, it wasn't too long ago that we used to praise any notebook that delivered more than 3 hours of battery life. However, 5+ hours just isn't quite as impressive in a world with notebooks and netbooks that can run for 8 or more hour on one battery charge.

Conclusion
At the end of the day Toshiba left consumers with an interesting pair of options for a thin-and-light notebook with a 13-inch display. The Intel-based Satellite T135 offers good performance, a nice notebook design, and great battery life for $700. On the other hand, the AMD-based T135D delivers better performance with day-to-day tasks and an identical design for only $600. Sure, you "only" get five and a half hours of battery life with the T135D and there's a hot spot next to the RAM and CPU, but $100 goes a long way when you're trying to save money.

The Toshiba Satellite T135D is a solid notebook that offers a lot for a modest price. It's not perfect, but if you can learn to live with its flaws then you can save $100.

Pros:

Excellent performance
Great price
Good keyboard

Cons:

Exterior gets hot
Average battery life
Glossy plastics

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Design
Performance
Features
* Ratings averaged to produce final score

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5542&review=toshiba+satellite+t135d

Review Lenovo ThinkPad W510

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:35:00 +0000

The ThinkPad W510 is Lenovo’s 15.6-inch workstation notebook offering an Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M graphics. New to this year’s model is an optional 1080P multi-touch screen with a 95% color gamut and built-in huey PRO color calibration system. In this review, we take an in-depth look at the ThinkPad W510 to gauge its performance as a mobile workstation.

Our Lenovo ThinkPad W510 Specifications:

15.6-inch multi-touch FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit 95% Gamut (matte finish)
Windows 7 Professional (64bit)
Intel Core i7-920XM (2GHz, 8MB Cache)
8GB DDR3 RAM (4GB + 4GB)
500GB Seagate 7200.4 HDD (7200rpm)
Intel 6300 802.11AGN, Bluetooth, Gobi 2000 WWAN
NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M with 1GB DDR3
94Wh 9-cell, 135W 20V AC adapter
Dimensions: 14.68" x 9.65" x 1.35-1.57"
Weight: 7.2 pounds
Retail Price: $2,059 Starting (Exact configuration price unavailable)

Build and Design
Compared to the previous generation 15-inch ThinkPad, Lenovo has made many design tweaks with the W510. For starters, the screen hinges are the same width, whereas before the hinge on the right side was much narrower. Another change is when the ThinkPad is open; the screen itself is centered with equal width bezels on both sides. The uneven screen was found to be annoying by some ThinkPad users and it is nice to see Lenovo finally address that odd design element. As a whole, Lenovo has done a great job of keeping the newer ThinkPad models looking just like previous generations. Some changes have been made to update the touchpad, ThinkPad logo, and port layout over the years but anyone off the street would be able to instantly recognize the brand.

Build quality is very good on the Lenovo ThinkPad W510. Out of the box, this model has a stronger feel to it than most of the smaller ThinkPad models and is fairly hefty. Our model weighed in at just about 7 pounds and is built like a tank. The newer palmrest and keyboard design is solid as a rock with a strong support structure underneath the plastic. Even with a strong grip or a lot of downward force, we saw minimal flex around the palmrest and keyboard. Following with its “overbuilt” (in a good way) trend, the screen hinges are strong enough that it required two hands to open the notebook and even to tilt back the screen once the lid was opened. When fully open, the screen did not have loose wobble or other problems staying firmly positioned. Considering this model offers a multi-touch screen, we found its overbuilt quality to be essential because the entire panel might otherwise push back when pressing on the touchscreen.

The easy access to all serviceable components might appeal to W510 users looking to upgrade. The bottom of the notebook has two covers which houses the hard drive and RAM slots three and four. Removing two screws lets you pop off the keyboard, giving you access to the wireless cards and RAM slots one and two. One point I want to make clear is even with models configured with fewer than four total sticks of memory, Lenovo still includes two open memory slots. We have seen models like the HP EliteBook 8540p that have the spots on the motherboard for two additional memory slots, but don’t solder them in place if the notebook isn’t configured with the additional memory from the factory.

Screen and Speakers
Lenovo includes a brand new multi-touch screen option on the ThinkPad W510. This panel has a resolution of 1920x1080, a high color gamut of 95%, and bright LED backlighting. We measured a peak brightness of 215cd/m2 with the backlight turned to 100%, which is more than bright enough to be fully visible in bright office conditions. Compared to past ThinkPad screens, the W510 ranks just under the X200 Tablet we reviewed in terms of panel quality. Color saturation was well above average, making this screen great for designers but unpleasant for the average user. If you are accustomed to viewing a normal LCD which has a color gamut between 70-80%, viewing this screen will look pretty strange with most colors being over saturated. This isn’t a problem with the screen itself; it’s just an attribute of a high color gamut display. Viewing angles were average with most colors starting to distort or invert when tilted 15 to 20 degrees forward or backward. The high color gamut seems to extend the viewing range slightly, but only because colors still look “normal” even though they have lost most of their potency. Horizontal viewing angles were good to about 70 degrees before the touchscreen layer started to block the light output.

The multi-touch surface was easy to use and responded to a light touch. It supported two-finger inputs like scrolling and zooming. Compared to other touchscreen surfaces, the W510 had only a slightly hazy appearance and didn’t seem to distort the LCD beneath it unless you were viewing the screen from a steep angle.

Another cool screen feature of the W510 is a huey PRO color calibration system. With the screen intended for graphic designers and image editors, one important area is the screen’s color accuracy. The color calibration software helps to correct any color shift as a result of the backlight, color changes over time, or simple screen aging. We actually found that it helped take the over-saturated edge of the screen and helped bring a sense of balance back to the system. Pre-calibration whites had a mild red tint and after calibration they had a cooler look and closer to the normal spectrum. If you opt for the nicer screen, it’s well worth an extra $70 to get the color calibrator if you’re picky about your screen’s appearance.

Speaker quality is average compared to other business notebooks but rates below mainstream consumer notebooks. While the speaker grills might suggest large speakers located under the trim they are in fact very tiny speakers. Peak volume levels are fine for filling a small to medium-size room. Bass and midrange is weak, but this is common for notebooks in this category.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The ThinkPad W510’s keyboard is comfortable to type on and easily lives up to the well-known reputation of all ThinkPad keyboards. It has excellent support showing little flex even under strong pressure. Tactile feedback is great with a precise hinge mechanism and secure key top that doesn’t exhibit any wiggle. The keyboard is the newest design seen first on the T400s and now the T410. The layout changes the position of some of the function keys and adds a row of quick-access sound keys to change the volume level, and mute the speakers and microphones. Another subtle change is a decrease in spacing between each key that supposedly reduces the chance of crumbs getting under them.

The W510 offers a spacious Synaptics touchpad with multi-touch capabilities. Compared to past models, the touchpad surface is textured to reduce friction and prevent your finger from sticking as you slide it side to side. After using the older matte plastic finish version for so long, it is hard to choose my preferred model. Each has its advantages, but only the newer model is multi-touch enabled. The touchpad buttons are easy to use since they are located right along the sloped edge of the palmrest. Feedback is great with a soft touch and a long throw.

Ports and Features
The W510 offers a wide range of ports and features. The port selection includes two SuperSpeed USB3 ports, one USB 2.0 port, one eSATA/USB combo port, FireWire 400, LAN, modem, VGA and DisplayPort-out, and a combo headphone/microphone port. The notebook also features an ExpressCard/34 slot, a SDHC-card reader, and a Blu-ray player.

Front: Screen release

Rear: One USB, modem, AC-power

Left: DisplayPort, VGA, two SuperSpeed USB3 ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, FireWire 400, and wireless on/off

Right: ExpressCard/34, SDHC-card reader, optical drive, LAN, Kensington Lock slot

Performance and Benchmarks
The Lenovo ThinkPad W510 is a mobile workstation that offers a similar performance of most desktops. Our particular configuration included 8GB of DDR3 memory, an Intel Core i7-920XM Extreme Edition processor, and an NVIDIA Quadro 880M FX graphics card. System performance was excellent in every one of our lab situations, and the 920XM barely broke a sweat. Compared to past systems, this configuration did seem to give us benchmark results lower than other notebook components. It’s a result we’ve seen before with past workstation models that have drivers fine tuned for CAD and rendering applications, but not video games.

The only problem we came across was when we tried to use a power brick lower than the 135w model that was supplied. When the notebook detects you have anything less than the stock power adapter connected it severely limits the notebook’s performance. In this situation, it ran about three times slower than it did running on battery power. wPrime in this mode took more than 70 seconds to complete and the PCMark05 returned a score of 2,000. We bring this up because long-time Lenovo users might have a collection of power bricks from past notebooks. Lenovo hasn’t changed the adapter since the T60, which is great for compatibility. This also makes it convenient to use at home, work or during travel trips without bringing the brick with you. However the W510, or at least our configuration of it, will not come close to the level of performance when using the small power adapter.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

SPECviewperf 10.0 workstation performance test:

Heat and Noise
Under normal conditions, the W510’s the heat and noise levels are fairly modest with low fan speeds and comfortable case temperatures. When the system is sitting at or near idle, the case fan cycles on and off at a near whisper level. When the system is under stress -- like while running SPECviewperf for more than 15 minutes -- temperature and noise levels rose considerably. During the middle of the workstation benchmark run, we measured a peak exhaust temperature of 136 F as it was drawing 111 watts from the wall. Case temperatures during this time jumped 10 to 15 degrees, placing the system well into an uncomfortable range. However, we didn’t have a problem with the temperature rise because most users in this situation would be using the portable workstation on a desk instead of their lap.

Battery Life
This particular ThinkPad was a bit of a power hog throughout most of our tests. On the AC-power side, the notebook demands the larger 135w power supply when turned on or it locks the system into a low-power mode which drastically reduces performance. When running off of a battery, the system draws between 16 to 17 watts of power, which didn’t help its battery test results. With the screen brightness turned to 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 set to a balanced profile, the ThinkPad W510 stayed on for four hours and 30 minutes before turning off. This time could be attributed to the Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition processor and the NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M graphics card.

Conclusion
The Lenovo ThinkPad W510 offers great performance, excellent build quality, and a beautiful 1080P multi-touch display with a 95% color gamut. The notebook offers a wide range of high-end features including four DDR3 memory slots to allow a total of 16GB of RAM, an optional Intel Core i7-920XM Extreme Edition processor, an optional multi-touch 1080P display, and an optional built-in color calibrator. For the average user, most of these features are excessive, but if you demand the highest performance from a mobile workstation, the ThinkPad W510 has you covered.

Pros:

Beautiful FHD multi-touch display
Great build quality
Excellent performance

Cons:

Pricey when you add the options

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Design
Performance
Features
* Ratings averaged to produce final score

Review ASUS G73JH

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:34:00 +0000

The G73 is the latest gaming notebook in ASUS’ successful G-series product line. This 17.3-inch monster has a Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and the most powerful mobile video card available, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870. Read on for our take.

Special thanks go out to Justin at XoticPC.com for sending us this unit.

Our ASUS G73JH-A2 has the following specifications:

17.3-inch 1080p (1920x1080) display with LED backlighting
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core i7-720QM processor (1.6GHz/2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB L3 cache)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 graphics card
8GB DDR3-1066 RAM
Two 500GB 7200RPM hard drives (Seagate Momentus 7200.4/ST9500420AS) (Non-RAID)
Atheros AR9285 802.11n Wireless LAN adapter
Built-in Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
8X DVD Super Multi drive
Two-year limited warranty (one year on battery pack) with one year of accidental damage protection
8-cell battery pack (14.8V, 5200mAh, 75Wh)
Weight: 8.5 pounds
Dimensions: 16.3” (W) x 12.6” (D) x 1.8” (H)
MSRP: $1,599

The ASUS G73JH is available as a pre-configured notebook only, though some dealers including XoticPC offer limited customization. Those looking for Blu-ray should check out the G73JH-A1 model, which has the same specifications as our test unit plus a Blu-ray drive for $1,699.

Build and Design
The ASUS G73 is has a “stealth” look, with non-traditional shape with angled surfaces and sharp lines that is clearly influenced by modern stealth aircraft. . The protruding rear end is especially aggressive with its angled exhaust vents.
The physical size of the G73 is intimidating, even compared to other 17-inch notebooks. The chassis is actually angled upward 5 degrees, which gives the notebook a more assertive feel and helps with ergonomics. The notebook has a rubberized shell, which has a pleasant touch and adds a measure of durability.

The G73 has strong build quality; it feels very solid (and heavy) when being held. The notebook is constructed entirely of thick and good quality plastic. The chassis is very resistant to twisting and surfaces like the palm rests barely flex under pressure. The lid has excellent support from two large and strong display hinges. The panel itself has ample support and twists less than most 17-inch notebooks. Furthermore, no ripples appear on the display when pressure is applied from behind the screen. Overall, the G73 is impressive in both the build quality and design departments.

Screen and Speakers
The G73JH comes with a 17.3-inch LED-backlit screen with a full HD (1920x1080) resolution. The display has a glossy surface that helps make colors more vibrant, but suffers from reflections as a result. The display is, in a word, beautiful. It is very enjoyable to use for gaming and multimedia. Viewing angles are about average; there is little color shift from side to side. However, colors quickly wash out and darken from above and below.

The display has a high-resolution as well, which is appreciated. With a full HD resolution, it’s easy to view two windows side-by-side without shrinking them too much. The higher resolution also helps bring out the finer details in games and reduces the amount of scrolling necessary while surfing the Web.

The G73 has two stereo speakers located below the display and a small subwoofer. The speakers get reasonably loud and there is measurable bass. For notebook speakers, these are more than acceptable.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The G73 has a full-size keyboard with a separate numeric keypad. The keyboard has a “Chiclet” or island-style keyboard, where the keys are raised above the keyboard surface and have more than usual spacing. The keyboard has a soft, rubbery feel (not a bad thing) and makes typing easy. While some flex is evident when you type and the keyboard could have slightly better support, these two factors do not affect its usability. The tactile feedback is adequate, though could be improved if the keys had a longer throw.

The G73’s keyboard is backlit and looks good in the dark. We like that the keys have a rubberized non-slip finish, which adds durability and makes them more comfortable to use over extended periods of time. The keyboard’s layout around the number pad is somewhat squashed though all keys are more or less in their expected positions. Overall, we like the keyboard and do not have any major qualms with it.

The extra-large touchpad sits slightly off-center to the left of the chassis to line up with the keyboard. It has a much-appreciated matte surface, which is easy to track on regardless of whether fingers are moist or dry. The right side of the touchpad is a dedicated scroll zone however it required an unusual amount of pressure to use. Unfortunately, the touchpad buttons are subpar. While quiet, they are harder to push down than expected, and we don’t like that they are contained under a single piece of plastic.

Ports and Features
Given its size, the G73 has a relatively limited amount of input and output ports. All descriptions are left to right.

Left Side: Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, optical drive, USB 2.0, microphone and headphone jacks

Right Side: Media card reader, 2x USB 2.0, HDMI, VGA, and AC power

Back: Vent, battery, Kensington Lock slot, and vent

Front: Status lights

Performance and Benchmarks
The G73 is a top-notch performer thanks to its arsenal of high-powered components. The Mobility Radeon HD 5870 is the fastest single mobile graphics card available right now, and coupled with 8GB of RAM and a Core i7 processor, the notebook can handle almost any game on the market at the highest visual quality settings.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

Crysis gaming benchmark (1920x1080 and high settings):

Left 4 Dead 2 gaming benchmark (1920x1080 and high settings):

Mass Effect 2 gaming benchmark (1920x1080 and high settings):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
The G73’s cooling system is perhaps the best we have seen on a gaming notebook. Not only does this notebook handle heat well, but it also makes little noise. The notebook is almost silent at idle and can barely be heard under full load. Surfaces remain cool to the touch on the top and bottom, even while gaming. All external temperatures shown in the images below are listed in degrees Fahrenheit.

The internal components of the notebook stayed well under manufacturer-recommended temperatures. We saw the graphics card top out at 75 degrees Celsius and the CPU at 68 degrees Celsius.

Battery Life
While surfing the Web with minimum screen brightness, we squeezed one hour and 48 minutes out of the G73’s 8-cell battery pack. This is respectable for a large gaming notebook.

Included Accessories
The G73JH-A1 comes with a carrying backpack and Razer Abyssus gaming mouse. The backpack has a quality feel and thick padding for back support. It has ample room for the G73 and a textbook or two. The Razer Abyssus mouse is extremely responsive and is a perfect match for the G73. Its sensitivity is adjustable via a switch on the bottom.

Conclusion
The ASUS G73JH is a phenomenal gaming notebook and a fantastic value. It has more than enough power to handle any modern game while remaining quiet and cool to the touch. The keyboard is pleasant to type on and the screen is beautiful. The G73JH has strong build quality and the stealth-like design is unique. Other than a few minor quibbles with the touchpad, we found very little to dislike and highly recommend the G73 to gamers and multimedia enthusiasts alike.

Pros:

Excellent performance
Beautiful screen
Strong build quality
Runs cool and quiet
Good keyboard
Unique design
Decent speakers
Includes backpack and mouse

Cons:

Touchpad buttons too hard to press
Could use a few more input/output ports

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support
Upgrade Capabilities
Usability
Design
Performance
Features
* Ratings averaged to produce final score

Review Lenovo IdeaPad U150

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:43:00 +0000

Lenovo IdeaPad U150 11-inch battery life of notebook for highly mobile entertainment for the HDMI output, combined with the latest Intel processors, is equipped with Culver. netbook attractive alternative for routine tasks still small enough constant companion eit computer is enough performance. This amazing little notebook you spend $ 750 on the following should I do? Continue reading to find out.

Our Lenovo IdeaPad U150 Specifications:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 Processor (1.30GHz, 800MHz FSB, 3MB L2 cache)
4GB DDR3 SDRAM (1066MHz)
320GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD
11.6-inch diagonal WXGA (glossy, 1366x768)
Intel X4500M integrated graphics
Intel 5100AGN, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Dimensions: (LxWxH) 11.4 x 7.5 x 0.5-1.35 inches
Weight: 2.97 lbs. (not including weight of AC adapter)
6-cell 57Wh battery
One-year standard warranty
MSRP: $749 (configurations starting at $649 at Lenovo.com)

Build and Design

Lenovo is the best company inherited the business known for IBM ThinkPad notebooks, but the new IdeaPad laptops in the consumer market centers, managed, thanks to its unique design and a modest price to generate some calls. Lenovo IdeaPad U150 an attractive 11-inch this trend, offering a Dell Inspiron 11z to compete with the HP Mini 311th Most of the current market value of portable 11-inch U150 netbook based on a full-featured laptop with Intel Celeron - 42 is a fine line. U150 and more powerful than the typical keunhajiman netbook $ 400 price $ 650 - $ 900 from high-end Core 2 Duo with impressive features and the size of a typical laptop computer is not enough. In other words, the U150 definitely matte black, a combination of black plastic and shiny silver space offers an attractive design.

The fabric appears to cover the logo on the cross U150 IdeaPad U350 has a glossy cover and 11-inch laptop can see a good alternative. The bottom half of the chassis is stable thanks to accept, build, we can see more with the structure of the notebook and sheets and plastic panels and plastic cover on screen, palmrest suffer a bit more flexible than the cost of U.S. $ 600. Unless they want to know or palm raised pressure on the screen granted, most of Flex in the plastic case that consumers would not know it, but 11-inch notebook inside the backpack is usually carried out at the school with a heavy book ... U150 So we want to be a bit harder. On the other hand, textured matte cover (again, a combination of thin plastic and metal), as well as imprinting patterns hidden in the day to create harmony risks do not look good everyday abuse. Moreover, the plastic exterior hides blemishes and fingerprints of the notebook cover a very good job. Probably very good IdeaPad U150 will be held until the end of the abuse of user ... But on a laptop, you will definitely not trying to stand.

Who can find U150 (extra RAM, new hard drive or SSD, or a new wireless card) Aftermarket Parts upgrade your notebook computer upgrades, these people are very simple. The second panel of a wireless card and a mini-PCI - E slot can be accessed on a hard disk and RAM for the panel to provide access. Only around inside the laptop, which remove the sticker, but not explicit "that does not guarantee will not find a sticker inside, some Lenovo brand of RAM, WiFi card, the edges of the lid and heat sink screws can be used to represent the modulation power .Who can find U150 (extra RAM, new hard drive or SSD, or a new wireless card) Aftermarket Parts upgrade your notebook computer upgrades, these people are very simple. The second panel of a wireless card and a mini-PCI - E slot can be accessed on a hard disk and RAM for the panel to provide access. Only around inside the laptop, which remove the sticker, but not explicit "that does not guarantee will not find a sticker inside, some Lenovo brand of RAM, WiFi card, the edges of the lid and heat sink screws can be used to represent the modulation power .

Screen and Speakers
1.6 U150 screen is noticeably visible from a shallow angle, contrasting colors and offers decent, but the pain is average. Most thin and light notebooks with low-quality TN screen digital display, but, and "The Color" Te degrees through the forest to produce our images. about 10, had to change the color of your surfing and do not notice the pattern of activity, such as writing documents, pictures and soft colors, but looks a bit dark to see the movie to refrain from viewing. For those who are good vertical viewing angles when you move back and look again to get started. overall, some of the colors in nature, with an angle too steep to hold more. lighting on the screen very far inside, but enlightenment Office workspace is very bright, is not strong enough to overcome placed outdoors in direct sunlight, reflections from the glossy screen.1.6 U150 screen is noticeably visible from a shallow angle, contrasting colors and offers decent, but the pain is average. Most thin and light notebooks with low-quality TN screen digital display, but, and "The Color" Te degrees through the forest to produce our images. about 10, had to change the color of your surfing and do not notice the pattern of activity, such as writing documents, pictures and soft colors, but looks a bit dark to see the movie to refrain from viewing. For those who are good vertical viewing angles when you move back and look again to get started. overall, some of the colors in nature, with an angle too steep to hold more. lighting on the screen very far inside, but enlightenment Office workspace is very bright, is not strong enough to overcome placed outdoors in direct sunlight, reflections from the glossy screen.

Stereo speakers or the occasional TV streaming to listen to the radio, but many lack the basic fine. Since the loudspeaker at the bottom of the front edge of the notebook, audio out "on your laptop using a laptop can tend to sound moderate." However, U150 and sound desk, is the table surface towards the heel and User rest. Still, headphones, so this laptop, thanks to a weak base and mid-range to enjoy music and movies are the best option is built-in speakers. Another option is to use HDMI home theater systems, digital audio is delivered.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Almost full keyboard for typing, you can expect the laptop to the 11-inch chassis is a great good. Tilde key and the spacebar is a little adjustment, but little has been reduced in size as it should please the public key. Even in our office that he was the editor of our "keyboard Chiclete - the desired style from the buttons, such as between the traditional keypad, providing more space to make a fundamental distinction. To be honest, the keyboard preferences of people, most of the problems, so your brain is already 11 Chiclete keyboard and a traditional laptop, the island can continue to inch notebook is the key. The keyboard itself is very firm flex free, no great pressure on the entry. Each button "issues - click, click," the press does not destroy the type of classroom. Great travel and curiosity, or at least the beginning of each key is firmly attached to the scissors mechanism. In other words, U150 keyboard we've seen on a 11-inch laptop is one of the best.

Reasonable IdeaPad U150 offers a Synaptics touchpad, and a 11-inch laptop we've seen the best touchpad. The structure is somewhat uneven plastic surface gives good grip difficult to finger over the surface without it. Speed and accuracy to the default settings as well as in our tests did not notice any lag in the cursor. The frequency of updating on the surface of the touchpad is very good, we have in the past two Synaptics touchpad which I have seen all the "listen" to stop it. Make an appropriate match for each accelerometer to move the cursor on the screen to help with the keyboard, the touchpad on a Dell Inspiron 11z (), and is consistent with the movement of a finger. Touchpad buttons behavior is deeply and calmly and perfectly elastic, "" when you press the Click thanks to the fantastic.

Ports and Features
Surprisingly, works a select IdeaPad U150 good. If you receive a mitneun HDMI VGA - Out Of Gigabit LAN, audio in / out and SD card slot and 3 USB ports (two regular and a combo USB / eSATA one). eSATA port for external hard drive is much faster than you can use with laptop and so, and we Lenovo Combo USB / eSATA not use USB needs of these customers use the eSATA port, because I'm happy. "/ P that"

front SD slot equipped with a spring, and transfers to the U350 card slot, unlike the larger and you can sit recessed in the slot. When you give me your full SDHC to set the standard. Do not expect to see this feature built-in optical drive, laptop computer, so if you reinstall the operating system, or an external USB optical drive, you get DVD of his plans. Multimedia key mute button and Lenovo "OneKey" software to create a recovery backup system for disaster recovery systems, direct-access buttons are limited.

Performance and Benchmarks
SU7300 Culver systems with Intel processors, maximum performance for everyday tasks such as surfing and checking e-mail is reasonable, MS Office, even the basic photo editing, click Edit. In other words, we have some of the latest Lenovo notebook overclocked to 1.73GHz and SU7300 processors in the same way Alienware Asus and losing, "he said. Many programs load faster or to access and compare the Core 2 Duo SU7300, but the information to make a much more powerful processor than the battery life does not give greater benefits. Our test configuration of 4GB memory and 320GB hard drive and a reasonably fast laptop is also very poor in most of the Intel Atom-based netbooks enough for an ordinary PC users do not deliver the package. HD video playback, this pretty well, thanks to the Intel X4500 integrated graphics, an HDMI port works with your laptop can connect to an HDTV. In other words, U150, some delay while the browser and Microsoft Office and multi-tasking is a pain trying to watch HD video. As mentioned, the system can not be a problem SU7300 dual-core processor, overclocked version of the delay is included. IdeaPad U150, so I can see compared to other laptops all that said, here is a quick look at synthetic benchmarks.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Most of the IdeaPad U150 to the surface outside the normal scope of a unit of our analysis of the hot spot next to the RAM, it was a warning. However, the temperature is very uncomfortable for a short time, but rather at the bottom of the laptop, for some users on your knees and keep you warm and also take longer than an hour. If the sound level on the computer of this size was about average, but if your laptop is used to calm the mind can be a fan. U150 running all the time, to fans of both cases maintain low temperatures in some areas the temperature tends to keep the processor. Fan noise is only slightly larger than the noise the hard drive, but if you're away from it with a hair dryer running in the background looks really good to hear.

Battery Life
SU7300 6-cell battery and the battery life is very good. Brightness and 70% in our tests, Windows 7, "balanced" profile settings of energy and a system for wireless communications, active 5 hours, 22 minutes before the changeover to the standby mode has been set. During this test showed 9-10 watts. Perhaps you have less than 30% low battery life and screen brightness of more than 6 hours on a notebook for wireless communication can take you to disable the online status is not.

Conclusion
The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 offers a terrific balance of portability and value combined with enough performance to satisfy most consumers. Compared to similar 11-inch ultraportables like the Dell Inspiron 11z, the U150 delivers a better keyboard and touchpad for a modest increase in price. On the other hand, the IdeaPad U150 looks a little underpowered and expensive compared to the new Alienware M11x, which offers superior graphics horsepower, a backlit keyboard, the addition of DisplayPort, and better build quality for roughly the same price.

Bottom line: If you need a basic netbook alternative with HDMI and eSATA then the IdeaPad U150 should probably be at the top of your shopping list.

Pros:

Good value
Includes eSATA!
VGA and HDMI video output

Cons:

Average performance
Weak plastic construction

Laptop Computer Toshiba Satellite E205 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:47:00 +0000

Satellite E205 is the latest "Blue Label" Toshiba notebook computer for Best Buy. Package 14-inch WXGA display, Intel Core processor to I5, and the latest Intel GMA High-definition graphics, this notebook is a feature that no other model provides Intel Wireless Display. Intel Wi - Tue enables high-definition notebook-quality video streaming to a compatible receiver to your HDTV, so you do not have any cable needed to share the video. The test we have to note that carried the Toshiba Satellite E205-depth understanding, if the Intel wireless card change is the way we use computers to home theater.

Toshiba Satellite E205 Specifications:

14-inch WXGA (1366x678) LED Backlit (Glossy finish)
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Processor: Intel Core i5-430M (2.26GHz, 3MB Cache)
4GB DDR3 RAM (2GB + 2GB)
500GB Hitachi HDD (5400rpm)
Slot loading DVD+/-RW
Intel 6200 802.11AGN, Intel Wireless Display
Mobile Intel HD Graphics
Netgear Push 2 TV Adapter
5800mAh 6-cell, 75W 19V AC adapter
Dimensions: 13.7" x 9.57" x 1.22" without feet
Weight: 5lbs 2.4oz
Retail Price: $899
Warranty: 2 Year

Build and Design
Toshiba Satellite E205 is the first 14 "consumer notebook PCs, which succeeded in maintaining the shape, modern design, thin, while maintaining the look and feel. E205 rounded edges, respectively, including the exhaust port of the CPU I think it's cool . The only part of the proceedings in the wrong, so I was the size of the battery back is exaggerated, because it also depends on the reverse side of the screen and includes port. color looks great blue diamonds, the screen covers the changes in the structure of black and metallic blue diamond pattern decoration. even with their peer-mounted touchpad design, with the same model palm rest and an overview of the special treatment of matt surface inside.

The establishment of quality higher than the average consumer of ultra-thin notebook design, but the structural strength of the screen and include a number of weaknesses. Curved screen for the medium-pressure, but still not subject to distortion, unless your screen wrapped difficult. The current global notebook computer screen inside the frame seems ugly, but found only for the glass like an exact opposite. The keyboard and palm rest show only a very slight bend under pressure. Best Buy exclusive notebook than the previous year, as we recall Satellite E105 - E205 is a significant improvement in quality and design.

Screen and Speakers
Toshiba Satellite E205 is based on an integrated 14-inch screen, rather than 13.3 "- Best Buy since research has shown that most of their customers prefer to remain that size. It offers a 1366x768 WXGA display resolution 720p HD video capacity . screen than the average rate, similar to the screen, light bleeding visible black screen with backlight and a limited vision. to watching movies, viewing photos, or visit the website, we found that the color saturation and contrast when on closer thanks to the smooth surface, while the peak. brightness, problems we see a clear duty on the screen. vertical viewing angles are distorted and colors tend to have started in 15 to 20 degrees average.

And horizontal viewing angle good to about 60 degrees, the former single reflective mirror display.
The Toshiba Satellite E205 is one of the most interesting features to show or Intel Wireless Wi - Tue This technology enables the transmission of high-definition content that you have connected to high-definition TV receivers. Recipient of Netgear, and connect to TV with HDMI connection and streaming video and audio from your notebooks. What we've been using this technology include the fact that there is no performance penalty, depends on the source is considered. USB 2.0 and Wireless USB docking station, I support DVI output is on two-dimensional finite bandwidth. Intel Wireless display the other hand, the full 3D-accelerated video stream, including games, not video quality. Another big advantage of Wi - 2 surface compared to the wireless USB is its scope. We take the case of a break is not connected to our office. Only left our house and closed the metal door down enough for the signal to make a connection. For an average family is not a problem that the wireless display technology from Intel, unless you try to use in your trunk in your garage use.

Intel Wi - in technology have at this time, some limitations. Wi - Not currently only supports 1280x720 video streaming and set limits, such as the wireless display. They are usually limited to only clones, which are lagging behind the number of interfaces can show is a good thing. In tests we have found the video and audio displays, wi - two aspects of one or two short of what is being shown on the notebook computer with the local seconds. This does not mean that the video or audio sync, but Wi - receiver with a larger buffer. Watch from your computer or stream high-definition video performances, it's no problem ... But remember to use this game. Even completed, as surfing the wireless network, the main task, and in this context is intolerable, unless you look at the laptop screen.

E205 speakers in various kinds of shots a round as a rule to determine if you are listening to streaming audio or video, but had a lot to be desired program, if you want to enjoy the film. Because it really is a different problem is that their voices low, when the laptop on your lap or sit very soft surfaces directly. Enjoy music and video while on the road is actually the preferred alternative to headphones. If you watch films at home plan, Intel's Wi - line interface or via the HDMI port directly is the best choice.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Satellite-E205 keyboard, spacious and very comfortable typing. Typing is much shorter than the average laptop keyboard, but as ... do not feel like a chiclet layout of keypad buttons island. Threw a short letter, it seems more likely, it seems that my input speed of normal speed. The keyboard itself has a good layout, I found that almost touch-sensitive buttons are a problem. My finger continues to press a single button and triggered one of the functions. It depends on the size of your hand, you may not have this problem. A handy feature of the E205 keyboard is fully backlit so readily into the lights as you type.

The E205 includes a spacious multitouch-enabled Synaptics touchpad. We found the touchpad to be a breeze to use in our testing with a responsive surface with no discernible lag. The lightly-texture matte surface was easy to slide your finger across when damp and had no hard boundaries around the touchpad zone. The only complaint I could come up with was regarding the stiff touchpad buttons which were hard to press with the edge of your thumb. Even though the buttons are wrapped around the leading edge of the palmrest, to activate a button from the front requires a ludicrous amount of force.

Ports and Features
Port selection was average with two USB ports, one USB/eSATA combo port, VGA-out, HDMI-out, audio jacks, and LAN. The E205 also offered a slot-loading optical drive and flush-mount SDHC-card reader. The biggest feature by far though is the Intel Wireless Display.

Front: Wireless On/Off and activity lights

Rear: Kensington Lock slot, AC-power, LAN, and VGA-out

Left: Heat vent, one USB, and audio jacks

Right: Optical drive, one USB, USB/eSATA, HDMI-out, and SDHC-card reader

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance was very good even with integrated graphics. The newer Intel HD Mobile graphics performed like a champ in light gaming or playing HD video. We had no trouble playing 720P or 1080P movies from this notebook through HDMI or the Wi-Di interface to watch them on an HDTV. The Intel Core i5-430M processor had no trouble handling our battery of system tasks, including typing documents, surfing the web, watching 1080P HD Flash off YouTube, or just compressing movies in iTunes. For its intended market of media-oriented consumers the Toshiba Satellite E205 is more than capable as long as you have no intention of playing many of the latest games.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
The Toshiba Satellite E205 is a very quiet notebook while running in balanced mode. During our tests the fan rarely came on if the notebook wasn't under a significant load. The loudest part about the entire notebook was its hard drive and even that was quiet. If you upgraded this notebook to make use of a SSD you would probably forget it was even turned on. With such a lax cooling system the E205 did run a bit on the warm side which may be a problem for some users. During our battery test where the system is only browsing the web, and not under any significant load, we measured a peak temperature of 96 degrees Fahrenheit on the bottom of the case.

Battery Life
For a recent-generation notebook with integrated graphics I have to say that I was not especially impressed by the power consumption of the E205 running on battery. While operating near idle the E205 consumed between 11 to 13 watts of power. In our test with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 set to the Balanced profile the Toshiba Satellite E205 stayed on for 4 hours and 45 minutes.

Conclusion
The Toshiba Satellite E205 is one of the nicest 14-inch consumer notebooks we have reviewed in a while. It offers an excellent modern design, a great color scheme, and very useful features. Wireless technology has come a long way in the past few years with Wireless USB usually being mentioned the most. Unlike Wireless USB, Intel Wireless Display actually works very well. We had no trouble pressing a single button and automatically connecting with a nearby Wi-Di receiver. Once connected the interface streamed 1280x720 resolution video without any audio/video sync issues and handled 3D-accelerated software as well as HD video. Wi-Di is one feature that I really want to be included in more notebooks and I am glad to see Toshiba bringing it to the market with the E205.

Pros:

Streams HD video wirelessly
Excellent design
Good build quality

Cons:

Touchpad buttons feel stiff
Case gets hot during use

Review Lenovo ThinkPad T410

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:20:00 +0000

The ThinkPad T410 is the latest revision of the popular T-series ThinkPad from Lenovo. This model brings a new line of dedicated and integrated graphics cards, the Intel Core-series processor line, and a completely redesigned chassis. We took an in-depth look at the highly anticipated T410 to see how well it stacks up against all the prior T-series ThinkPads. Does it live up to our expectations? Read on to find out.

Our Lenovo ThinkPad T410 with NVIDIA Graphics Specifications:

Screen: 14.1-inch WXGA+ (1440 x 900) LED Backlit (Matte finish)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional (64bit)
Processor: Intel Core i5-540M (2.53GHz, 3MB Cache)
Memory: 4GB DDR3 RAM (2GB + 2GB)
Storage: 320GB Seagate 7400.4 HDD (7200rpm)
Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW
Wireless: Intel 6200 802.11AGN, Bluetooth, Gobi 2000 WWAN
Graphics: NVIDIA NVS 3100M with 256MB DDR3
Power: 94Wh 9-cell, 90W 20V AC adapter
Dimensions: 13.13 x 9.41 x 1.09-1.26”
Weight: 5lbs 9.3oz
Retail Price: $1,940

Our Lenovo ThinkPad T410 with Intel Graphics Specifications:

Screen: 14.1-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) LED Backlit (Matte finish)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional (64bit)
Processor: Intel Core i5-540M (2.53GHz, 3MB Cache)
Memory: 4GB DDR3 RAM (2GB + 2GB)
Storage: 320GB Seagate 7400.4 HDD (7200rpm)
Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW
Wireless: Intel 6250 802.11AGN, Bluetooth
Graphics: Intel GMA HD Integrated Graphics
Power: 57Wh 6-cell, 65W 20V AC adapter
Dimensions: 13.13 x 9.41 x 1.09-1.26”
Weight: 5lbs 5.1oz
Retail Price: $1,580

Build and Design
To the naked eye very little has changed with the overall design of the ThinkPad T410 compared to past models. It still carries the black rubberized screen lid with ThinkPad logo, still offers the shiny matte-black chassis and palmrest, and still uses the strong and highly visible stainless steel screen hinges. Those are the areas where the similarities stop. The port layout has significantly changed to allow an increase in available ports and even a few new types of connections. Once opened, ThinkPad fans will notice that Lenovo finally centered the screen, so no more thick bezel on one side and a thin bezel on the other. Another change is the shift from a two-piece palmrest and keyboard bezel on older models to one-piece design that is stronger and has fewer gaps to squeak. The bottom has also changed--with a user-access panel being the biggest addition--to let users install more RAM or a wireless card without tearing apart the notebook.

Build quality is a touchy subject for anyone familiar with the ThinkPad brand and how it has changed over the years. Any change to the sacred ThinkPad is seen as negative, even if it results in a stronger notebook. The good news is that overall the redesigned chassis in the T410 still feels as strong as ever ... but the bad news is a few specific areas did lose some strength compared to past ThinkPads. The screen lid seems weaker on the left side which allows pressure applied to the lid to show through as distortion on the LCD. Only the left side of the screen cover shows this distortion but it is still more than past models. Another item is the access panel on the bottom of the notebook that is designed to let users access one of the system memory slots and an open mini-PCIe slot. This is easily the weakest part on the entire notebook ... bowing slightly when installed and flexing more than any surrounding panel. I really wish Lenovo went with a metal panel even if it slightly increased the overall weight of the notebook.

Access to internal components has improved over past models with the T410 no longer needing to have the palmrest removed to upgrade the memory. With the latest redesign Lenovo moved the RAM to the center of the notebook. One slot is accessible through the bottom of the chassis with the access panel removed and the other is underneath the keyboard. The keyboard easily comes out after you remove two screws and slide it out of position. For the average person this makes user upgrades much less complex. As always the hard drive has its own access panel which is removed with a single screw.

Screen and Speakers
The screens offered on the ThinkPad T410 have changed very little compared to ones offered on the T400. The biggest difference is all T410 models come standard with LED-backlighting. With that said we didn’t notice any decrease or increase for that matter in the quality of the displays. The WXGA+ screen on the T410 with dedicated graphics offers good color reproduction with better than average contrast. The WXGA screen on the T410 with integrated graphics also has good color reproduction and contrast but it has a slight blue tint compared to a neutral white on the WXGA+ panel. Backlight levels are stronger on the WXGA panel when both panels are set to the same brightness level. Viewing angles were similar for each notebook with most colors starting to distort and invert when tilted 15-20 degrees back. Horizontal viewing angles were better with colors staying accurate even from steep angles.

The onboard speakers sounded better than average for a business notebook. They were able to get loud enough to fill a small room but bass and midrange was still lacking. For the daily video conference or watching YouTube during a break they should be more than adequate for the intended market. Headphones for travel are also high on the list of must-have accessories.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The T410 has the same redesigned keyboard that we saw debut on the T400s. It has a new function key layout with keys such as the Escape and Delete buttons increased in size while also added a backlit power button and microphone mute button. Another new feature which is located in the BIOS is Lenovo allows you to swap the function and control keys through software if you happen to be one of those people that enjoy the control key being the last key in the row.

The ThinkPad keyboard is still comfortable to type on for hours without creating too much hand strain. The redesigned keyboard has a few tweaks compared to previous models; narrower spacing between keys to lessen the chance of crumbs getting in and a softer typing feel. The softer and quieter typing feedback actually caused some typing troubles since I would type lighter on the keyboard and not fully activate keys. Once you got used to the difference it wasn’t a problem but for those first mistyped passwords it was really annoying.

The touchpad is a textured Synaptics model that is very spacious to handle multi-finger gestures. The T410 supports two-finger scrolling, rotating, and zooming, as well as three-finger press and flick. In general use the touchpad is easy to use with no discernible lag and a very fast refresh rate. The acceleration speeds on both axes were equal… so drawing a fast circle didn’t result in an oval shape. The textured surface was easy to slide across in daily use even if your fingers were slightly damp. The touchpad buttons were easy to use and very comfortable to click. They offered a long throw with a soft clicking action that didn’t emit any noise when fully pressed.

Ports and Features
Port selection on the new T410 is excellent and a huge improvement over previous models. Lenovo added an additional USB port, added FireWire, added eSATA (for compatible models), and even tossed in a DisplayPort connection for digital video out without needing to use a docking station. In total this makes the ThinkPad T410 one of the most feature-rich 14” notebooks on the market, with four USB ports, VGA-out, DisplayPort-out, combo audio jack, modem, LAN, FireWire-400, optional eSATA, as well as an optional SmartCard slot. The T410 also has a SDHC-card slot and ExpressCard/34 slot for expansion.

Front: SDHC-card slot

Rear: Modem, AC-Power

Left: VGA-out, LAN, three USB ports, DisplayPort-out, and Smart Card reader

Right: ExpressCard/34, eSATA, headphone/mic combo, optical drive, one USB, FireWire, Kensington Lock slot

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance on both ThinkPad T410 models was excellent with the Intel Core i5-540M processors and speedy 320GB 7200RPM Seagate hard drives. Both systems offered excellent boot times and had plenty of power to handle anything we threw at them. The T410 with integrated graphics also gave us the highest 3DMark06 score we have seen to date on an Intel graphics model. Pushing close to 2,000 in 3DMark06 the T410 with integrated graphics should be able to handle most previous generation games with tweaked settings. For the average user the T410 in even the basic configuration will be able to handle 1080P HD video without breaking a sweat. For the business user on the road the newest Intel Core i5 processors are closing the gap between “slow” notebook computers and “fast” workstations.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 comparison results against netbooks @ 1024 x 768 resolution (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune hard drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Lenovo updated the cooling fan on the T410 by reshaping the fan blades to mimic the wings on an owl. This change lets the fan still push the same amount of air without producing as much sound as previous generation cooling fans. In testing we found the fan to be quieter but the pitch of the noise it produced went from a low to high-frequency note. In terms of cooling performance the T410 can easily cope with the thermal load from integrated graphics as well as dedicated graphics. After being stressed over a period of about an hour with back-to-back benchmarks the hottest spot on the T410 with dedicated graphics was 96-degrees on the bottom. The rest of the notebook including the palmrest and keyboard stayed comfortable. The T410 with integrated graphics saw a two to three-degree drop across the board with a hot spot measuring 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Battery Life
Users looking to get the most runtime out of their new ThinkPad will love the new 9-cell battery. Lenovo quietly bumped the 9-cell from the previous 84Wh capacity to a new 94Wh model. The change makes the battery look slightly larger but it doesn’t stick out any further from the back of the notebook. The 6-cell battery only got a 1Wh bump to 57Wh. In our battery test with the screen brightness set 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 on a balanced profile the dedicated graphics model with 9-cell battery lasted for 7 hours and 30 minutes while the integrated graphics model with 6-cell battery stayed on for 5 hours and 43 minutes. Power consumption on the integrated graphics model was between 9 and 10 watts during the test with the dedicated graphics model pushing as high as 12 watts.

Conclusion
The full-redesigned Lenovo ThinkPad T410 offers quite a few enhancements over the previous generation T400, including less keyboard flex, an updated keyboard, a nicer touchpad, huge improvement in port selection, and better component access through the chassis. The new design is not without its flaws though as we have seen some areas like the screen cover show more flex than we would like. Overall the pros far outweigh the cons with the new T410 and as always the newest generation offers a substantial bump in performance. Compared to the last T400 we reviewed we saw an increase of almost 100% in 3DMark06 performance and almost half the time in wPrime. While it would be hard to say it is worth upgrading a T400 to this newer model--if you have an aging T60 or T61--now might be the time to upgrade.

Pros:

Very fast
Increased battery capacities
Excellent port selection

Cons:

Screen shows some distortion when flexing
High pitched fan could be annoying

Review MSI Wind U135

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:12:00 +0000

The Wind U135 is the one of the newest netbooks from MSI in the 10-inch form-factor. Packed with the Intel Pine Trail platform this netbook promises increased battery life and performance compared to models still using the previous Intel Atom chipset. Our longest lasting notebook to date is the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE, clocking in at over 12 hours with average use. In this review we put the MSI Wind U135 through its paces and see how well it stacks up against the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE which offers a nearly identical hardware configuration.

MSI Wind U135 Specifications:

Windows 7 Starter Edition (32-bit)
10.1-inch diagonal WSVGA (1024x600)
Intel Atom N450 Processor 1.66GHz (667MHz FSB, 512KB Cache)
1GB DDR2 SDRAM onboard (1 slot available)
Intel GMA 3150 integrated graphics
250GB Seagate 5400.6 Hard Drive
802.11BGN 1T1R Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
4-in-1 media card slot
Dimensions: 10.24"(L) x 7.09"(D) x 0.74"~1.24"(H)
Weight: 2.87lbs(not including weight of AC adapter)
6-cell Lithium-Ion battery (5200mAh, 58Wh)
Retail Price: $329

Build and Design
The MSI Wind U135 offers a simple design with a clean, high-contrast color scheme. The screen is covered with a “Color Film Print Technology” that closely resembles the Imprint finish on HP notebooks. It offers greater durability than a simple painted glossy surface while still allowing artwork to be worked in with the design. MSI went with a very simplistic weave pattern on the U135 that blends in well with the features of the netbook. The pattern is also copied inside the notebook over the touchpad surface. MSI keeps the painted silver look inside the notebook, but instead of keeping the weave pattern, it shifts to a textured silver paint. It has the look of a matte finish while still maintaining the smooth feel of a glossy paint job. The glossy black screen bezel and keyboard tray look great with the silver and move the mirror-finish glossy parts away from where your hands and palms will always be smudging.

Build quality is average compared to most netbooks, with a durable outer shell when the cover is closed and plenty of screen protection. The glossy finish is scratch resistant to a degree but would still show damage if abused. For the average user stuffing it into a backpack between classes or using it for travel it should keep a scratch-free look for a long time. The keyboard and palmrest show some flex under strong pressure but it doesn’t interfere with normal typing.

Users looking to upgrade any components will be in for a surprise when they notice there are no access panels on the bottom of the U135. To swap out the wireless card, hard drive, or add a stick of memory you need to split the case in half. One advantage the U135 has over other netbooks is its open memory slot. The 1GB of base memory is soldered in place, so it leaves one slot open for future upgrades. Netbooks like the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE need to have the 1GB stick swapped out for a 2GB stick which costs significantly more for the same end result.

Screen and Speakers
The Wind U135 offers a 10” glossy LED-backlit display that rates below average compared to other similarly sized netbooks. On our review model we noticed significant backlight bleed around all the edges when the brightness is near the top of the scale. During the boot sequence this is especially visible when the backgrounds are black. Turning the backlight down to 50-70% reduced the bleed, but it was still slightly visible if you were in a dark room watching a movie. Color and contrast are comparable to other competing netbooks thanks to the glossy screen surface. If the backlight bleed was lessened it would be a great machine to watch movies on while traveling. At peak brightness the screen is easy to read in bright office conditions and outdoors if you are in an area that the sun wasn’t reflecting off the screen. Viewing angles are average with the vertical viewing range spanning 15-20 degrees forward or back before colors started to invert. Horizontal viewing angles are better, keeping colors looking true even at steep angles.

Speaker performance is average compared to most netbooks on the market, meaning that they lacked volume and any hint of bass compared to a full-size notebook. For most users the speakers are great if you want to watch a quick streaming video clip or listen to some music in the background, but if you intend on watching a movie, headphones are the preferred option.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on the MSI Wind U135 is a near carbon-copy of the keyboard seen on the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE. They are Chiclet-style keyboards and share the same layout, key size, and key shape. The only visible differences are the printed labels which appear bolded on the MSI version. Comparing both models side-by-side the U135 feels more solid and attached to the frame, whereas the keyboard on the 1005PE bounces slightly. Tactile feedback is nearly identical with the same key strength and noise when fully pressed.

Out of the box the touchpad is disappointing, lacking any specific driver or utility support. Just like the X-Slim X340, MSI didn’t include any sort of manufacturer-specific touchpad support out of the box, instead relying on the basic Windows drivers. The end result is a laggy touchpad with no scrolling or multi-touch capability.

Turning to the internet we found Sentelic touchpad drivers listed on the MSI website for the U135, but they were not originally included on our review model or recovery partition. After installing the software the touchpad sprung to life and even offered various two-finger multi-touch features. The touchpad surface was better than average with a matte finish that was easy to slide across, compared to some of the glossy touchpads we have seen on the latest notebooks. The touchpad buttons shared the same rocker-style switch, but the button was flexible enough that both sides could be pressed at the same time with minimal effort.

Ports and Features
Port selection on the MSI Wind U135 is comparable to competing netbooks, offering three USB ports, audio jacks, VGA-out, Ethernet, and an SDHC-card reader. For security a Kensington Lock slow as also included.

Front: Indicator lights

Rear: Battery

Left: Kensington Lock slot, AC-power, two USB

Right: One USB, SDHC-card slot, audio jacks, VGA-out, LAN

Performance and Benchmarks
System performance for day-to-day activities is good for a netbook but still falls short of a lot of the new ultra-portables coming out with the Intel CULV processors. The trade-off has always been power consumption, with increased battery life on netbooks. We didn’t have any problem surfing the web or going to sites with flash content, including YouTube. HD streaming content is still a problem but SD content showed no stuttering problems. Locally played HD videos in resolutions lower than or equal to 720P played fine, with 1080P content pushing it over the edge. Boot, shutdown, and standby times were very quick, letting you close the lid and pop it into your backpack without the concern that it is going to stay running while packed away. Compared to most netbooks we feel a lot of the speed increases for normal activities came from Windows 7 and not necessarily the faster Pine Trail platform.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 comparison results against netbooks @ 1024 x 768 resolution (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune hard drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
The MSI wind U135 handled heat remarkably well but at the cost of the fan continuously running. Even when left idle for long periods of time the fan on the U135 would stay running at a slow but constant speed. The air blowing out from the exhaust vent was roughly room temperature, making us wonder why the fan wouldn’t just turn off with it being so cool internally. For users with sensitive ears or those who might be working in a small quiet classroom the fan noise is just loud enough to be heard by those directly around you. It is at or very near the volume of a whisper.

Battery Life
With the last Pine Trail netbook managing over 12 hours of battery life, we had high hopes for the MSI Wind U135. Sadly this is not the case, even though they shared the same hardware except for the wireless card and battery capacity (The U135 is 5Wh less). In our battery test with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 set to the “Balanced” profile the system stayed on for just 6 hours and 30 minutes. During the test the U135 consumed between 7.5 and 8.5 watts of power. During the same test the Eee PC 1005PE stayed on for 12 hours and 1 minute, consuming 4.5 to 4.7 watts of power. To bring the systems to an equal playing field we even swapped in the Atheros Wi-Fi card from the 1005PE to see if that was the culprit, but power consumption stayed the same. Our guess is the level of hardware tweaking on the MSI Wind isn’t as extensive as it is on the Eee PC 1005PE, showing that even with identical hardware you can have significant and tangible differences between netbook models.

Conclusion
The MSI Wind U135 fell short compared to the competition in terms of software support and battery life. Out of the box the U135 was missing any sort of touchpad software--including on the restore partition--greatly reducing the features. We later found the drivers included on the MSI support website, which brought multi-touch options, as well as simple features like scrolling. Another huge downside to this particular netbook is the battery life, having half the battery life of the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE with the same hardware and only a slightly larger battery. This massive difference in battery life comes from the increased power consumption: The U135 draws almost 8 watts at idle and the 1005PE uses less than 5 watts. Overall the MSI Wind U135 lacked a great deal of polish, but with improvements in power consumption and software out of the box, it would be a great little netbook.

Pros:

Good design
Capable touchpad with proper drivers
Nice keyboard

Cons:

Half the battery life of other Pine Trail netbooks
Missing touchpad software out of the box

From :

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5514

HP Mini 5102 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Parinya.k) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:56:00 +0000

If you're looking for a netbook with great battery life and good durability then the new HP Mini 5102 might be exactly what you need. You can even configure this netbook with a touchscreen for a tablet-like experience. Keep reading to find out if this business-class netbook is worth the price.

Our HP Mini 5102 features the following specifications:

Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Starter (32-bit)
Processor: Intel Atom N450 Processor 1.66GHz (667MHz FSB)
Memory: 1GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Storage: 160GB 7200rpm SATA HDD
Display: 10.1-inch diagonal (1024x600)
Graphics: Intel GMA 3150 integrated graphics
Wireless: Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR
Expansion: 4-in-1 media card slot
Dimensions (H x W x D): 0.91-1.25 x 10.4 x 7.25 inches (including feet)
Weight: 2.64 lb with 4-cell battery (not including weight of AC adapter).
Power: Standard 4-cell (28WHr)Lithium-ion battery or 6-cell (66WHr) extended-life battery
Warranty: One-year standard warranty
Starting price: $749.00 $599.00 $399.00 as of 2/1/2010

Our configuration of the HP Mini 5102 is not available for sale at the time of this writing. The closest configuration to our review unit currently available is the HP Mini 5102 model WH236UA ($899.00) which features a total of 2GB of system memory and HP Mobile Broadband (powered by Gobi) with GPS.

Build and Design
The HP Mini 5102 looks like a minor update to last year's Mini 5101 ... essentially a netbook version of HP's "ProBook" line of laptops designed for small and medium businesses. In fact, the Mini 5102 looks like what we would expect to see if someone shrunk down the HP ProBook 4510s to something small enough to fit inside a purse. The Mini 5102 is roughly one inch thick and weighs less than 3 pounds despite a very durable chassis that feels like it can handle years of abuse in your briefcase or backpack. The nearly full-size keyboard makes typing quick emails or editing documents a breeze ... even if you have to work on the tray table in coach class during a business flight. The traditional clamshell-like design gives the Mini 5102 a very clean look and the all-metal chassis means serious business. The brushed metal lid features a durable black finish and only suffers from a slight amount of flex under heavy pressure.

When open, the rubberized metal chassis and glossy black surfaces highlight the keyboard and 10-inch display. The thick bezel surrounding the matte screen offers additional protection and a place to keep your fingers off the screen when opening the netbook. The bezel is also needed in order to provide enough space for the larger keyboard. That said, I can't shake the feeling that the Mini 5102 would look better with either a larger screen or a smaller screen bezel. The screen hinges are made of metal and offer the perfect amount of resistance. You can pick up the Mini 5102 by the edge of the screen without feeling like something is going to break. While we're on the topic of carrying the netbook around, you can order the 5102 with an optional handle that is built-in to the chassis next to the battery for easy transport ... essentially turning the netbook into a tiny briefcase PC. The Mini 5102 is also available in red and blue just in case black isn't your color of choice.

HP engineers also added a few nice little features to the design of the Mini 5102 that I really appreciated. First, the battery features a button and LED meter so that you can quickly see how much charge is left in the battery. Four blue lights mean you've got a full charge and three blue LEDs and one blinking LED means you have somewhere between 75% and 100% remaining. Sure, the on-screen battery meter is more accurate but this little feature let's you know if you need to bring your AC adapter without powering on your netbook.

Another nice feature is the quick release switch for the RAM cover. Simply release the battery and then slide the right-side battery release switch all the way to the left and you can instantly pop off the cover for the RAM module. This makes upgrading the RAM nice and easy. I actually wish more netbooks made upgrading the RAM as easy as this.

Screen and Speakers
The 10.1-inch screen on the Mini 5102 is a nice LED-backlit display panel with a 1024x600 native resolution. The matte screen surface is a welcome change compared to the glossy screens we usually see in netbooks. The matte surface helps to prevent glare and reflection on the surface of the screen under bright indoor lights and helps improve sunlight readability. Despite the nice matte screen surface, we really wish the 5102 used an 11.6-inch screen and 1366x768 resolution seen on many modern netbooks. A resolution of 1024x600 is okay in a pinch, but many websites just don't look right without a minimum vertical resolution of 768 pixels. On that note, HP includes at least some software optimized for lower-resolution screens. Corel Home Office (compatible with Microsoft Office) comes pre-loaded with this netbook and the Corel software looks much better than using Microsoft Word or PowerPoint on the tiny screen.

Vertical viewing angles are average with some color distortion when viewing from below and some over-exposed colors when viewed from above. Horizontal viewing angles are better with colors remaining unchanged at extremely wide viewing angles; you won't have trouble sharing a YouTube video with friends using this display.

The built-in speaker performance on the Mini 5102 is good for a 10-inch netbook but it's obviously weaker than a typical 14-inch or 15-inch notebook PC. I'm not a fan of the location of the built-in speakers since they're located on the bottom front edge of the netbook, but the audio quality doesn't suffer from any distortion issues until you get to maximum volume levels. The speakers lack much bass, but the range of highs and midtones are perfectly enjoyable. Again, the only major problem I had with the speakers is that they sound muffled if you use the netbook on your lap.

Granted, most audiophiles will want to use external speakers or headphones for a better listening experience ... but the built-in speakers work well in a pinch. The audio output from the headphone jack produced some high frequency background noise/distortion with one of the headphones we used during testing, but other headphones worked fine with no distortion.

Keyboard and Touchpad
As previously mentioned, the HP Mini 5102 features a large, spill-resistant keyboard that is 95% of full size. Most of the primary keys are the same size as the keys you'll find on a typical notebook and the spacing is likewise normal, but the space bar and some of the keys that are used less frequently are smaller than normal. If you prefer the shape and feel of traditional keys then you may not like this keyboard. That said, I personally prefer the "Chiclet" style keyboard used on this netbook since there is more space between the keys to prevent me from accidentally hitting the wrong key when working in tight quarters. The keys offer just the right amount of feedback and modest amount of "click and clack" noise while typing. I didn't notice any flex in the keyboard even when I applied significant typing pressure. In short, I found the Mini 5102 was a joy to use when typing.

The Synaptics touchpad used on the Mini 5102 is a traditional single-input touchpad. This seems a bit odd since most netbooks now offer multi-touch touchpads with gesture-enabled models that allow you to use multi-figure gestures such as "pinching" your fingers together or "pulling" your fingers apart to zoom in or out. Granted, the touchpad is probably a little too small to make gesture-based controls useful, but it just seems strange to find a single-touch touchpad on a netbook in this price range. Sensitivity and tracking seemed accurate even when you move your finger quickly over the touchpad surface. Speaking of which, the touchpad is covered in a glossy smooth surface that sometimes makes it easy to slide your finger across the surface and other times causes your finger to "skip" across the surface because of the lack of texture/traction. The left and right touchpad buttons are located beneath the touchpad and each button has shallow feedback with cushioned clicks when pressed.

Input and Output Ports
In terms of port selection the HP Mini 5102 offers the average bells and whistles we've come to expect on netbooks. You get three USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 media card reader, dedicated headphone and microphone jacks, Ethernet port, a VGA output and a dedicated wireless on/off switch.

Here is a quick tour around the HP Mini 5102:

Front view: No ports here, just the dedicated wireless on/off switch and speakers.

Rear view: No ports here either, just the hinges and battery.

Left side view: Power jack, VGA out, vent, and two USB 2.0 ports.

Right side view: 4-in-1 card reader, headphone jack, microphone jack, USB 2.0 port, Ethernet, and security lock slot.

Performance and Benchmarks
The new Mini 5102 with the Intel Atom N450 processor didn’t show any obvious performance benefits compared to older netbooks using the Atom N280. Both processors offer the same specifications including a 1.66GHz clock speed, 667MHz FSB, and 512KB L2 cache. The main feature the N450 offers is the newer Intel GMA 3150 graphics whereas the N280 gets stuck with the GMA 950. In our synthetic performance tests the Mini 5102 produced almost identical performance numbers as the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE ... a netbook with identical specs and a much lower price tag.

The newer GMA 3150 integrated graphics gives the system a small boost in 3Dmark06 compared to previous generation netbooks and seems to handle HD video better. In our HD video tests the Mini 5102 had no problem playing our 720P trailer of Up!, but 1080P playback delivered dropped frames and audio sync issues. Flash video had some problems out of the box, but after installing the newest Flash 10 beta we didn't have problems with low-resolution video clips. YouTube clips running at 720P still suffer from some stuttering in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, but not as bad as it was before the updated Flash plugin. Although the Mini 5102 feels a little "snappier" than older netbooks, this has more to do with the system running Windows 7 instead of Windows XP.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 comparison results against netbooks @ 1024 x 768 resolution (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune hard drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
External temperatures on the new HP Mini 5102 are quite comfortable and typical of most current-generation netbooks. Temperature readings taken from the outside of the plastic chassis remained "lap friendly" during normal use. The only time that temperature readings spiked was when I stressed the GPU and CPU when playing games.

The cooling fan runs constantly, but the noise isn't particularly loud unless you are in a perfectly quiet room. Chances are good that you'll never notice the fan in a typical office environment or classroom.

Below are images indicating the external temperature readings (listed in degrees Fahrenheit) taken inside our office where the ambient temperature was 74 degrees Fahrenheit:

Battery
Battery life with the extended-life lithium-ion battery is quite good. In our test with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active and refreshing websites at a regular interval, the Mini 5102 stayed on for 8 hours and 43 minutes of constant use. This means you should be able to spend all day surfing the web at a coffee shop without needing to bring your AC adapter if you purchase the Mini 5102 with the 6-cell battery. If you lower the screen brightness and allow the netbook to enter sleep or hibernate modes then you should easily be able to squeeze more than 10 hours of life out of the battery.

Conclusion (UPDATED)
When we first reviewed the HP Mini 5102 someone at HP had the bright idea to try and sell this netbook for twice the price of similar netbooks. Thankfully, HP has updated the pricing for this excellent business-class netbook and we can update our review. The current starting price of the HP Mini 5102 with 4-cell battery is just $399.00 ... making this one of the best values among current-generation, Atom-based netbooks.

The Mini 5102 offers fantastic build quality, delivers solid battery life numbers, and comes with some nice pre-loaded software. Unfortunately, the screen is only average, the touchpad is "blah" and the overall performance is no better than netbooks costing the same amount of money. We would have liked to see a higher resolution display, a better processor and better graphics, but the excellent build quality and reasonable price should be be enough to justify the purchase for most consumers and small business owners.

As long as you don't buy a configuration priced above $700 the the HP Mini 5102 is indeed a good value for a business-class netbook.

Pros:

Great build quality
Nice keyboard
Good pre-loaded software

Cons:

Too expensive
Weak Atom processor
Average touchpad (no multi-touch)