ASUS' K-series notebooks promise a blend of value and performance. The K40IN is a 14-inch notebook with Nvidia graphics and an $800 price tag. How did it hold up in our testing?
Our ASUS K40IN-B1 review unit has the following specifications:
14-inch 720p (1366x768) display with LED backlighting
320GB 5400RPM hard drive (Seagate Momentus 5400.6/ST9320325AS)
802.11n wireless (Atheros AR9285)
DVD Super Multi drive
Two-year warranty w/ one year accidental coverage
6-cell Li-ion battery (11.1v, 4400mAh, 46Wh)
Weight: 5.3 lbs
Dimensions: 13.4” x 9.5” x 1.4-1.5”
MSRP: $799.99
Build and Design The K40IN has a traditional notebook design and shape; it looks like an ordinary notebook and is visually uninspiring. Corners are rounded off to give the notebook a soft look. Nearly all surfaces of the K40IN save for the keyboard are glossy plastic, which is a dual-edged blade. On one hand the glossiness makes the notebook look more attractive, but on the other hand it reduces durability and makes it a real chore to keep clean.
The physical build quality of the K40IN is satisfactory. The quality is consistent; no particular area seems to be stronger or weaker than another. The base of the notebook resists twisting well and the palm rests barely flex under pressure. This lid is one of the better-reinforced lids I have seen on a value-oriented notebook; it is resistant to flexing and pushing in on the back of the lid does not yield any ripples on the screen. The hinges anchoring it to the base of the notebook are strong and display wobble is minimal.
Overall the build quality meets expectations; it is not outstanding and matches up to the competition at the very least. The design is rather plain though not unattractive. However, the glossy plastic will be a turn-off for some.
Screen and Speakers The K40IN has a 14-inch diagonal display with LED backlighting and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The overall quality of the display is 'very good'. Brightness is excellent and contrast is reasonable. Pictures and movies are a pleasure to view on this display. The viewing angles are above average; side-to-side are nearly flawless, and while the colors wash out and darken from above and below respectively, the picture is fine for about thirty degrees vertically off center. The backlighting is not even with a significant amount of bleed at the bottom; fortunately it is not noticeable during normal use.
The display's 1366x768 resolution is a standard resolution for mainstream notebooks. The horizontal resolution is adequate, however only 768 pixels of vertical space means a good deal of scrolling while surfing the Internet and only enough space to view about one-half of a page in a Microsoft Word.
The K40IN has Altec Lansing speakers located underneath the palm rest. Simply put, the K40IN has two of the worst speakers I have heard on a notebook; my ears cringe every time a sound gets played. The speakers are muddy, tinny, and too quiet. Using the included SRS WOW software enhancer distorts the sound and put this odd pressure on my eardrums that I cannot stand. The headphone jack is fortunately static-free and the best way to get audio signals out of the notebook.
Keyboard and Touchpad The K40IN's full-size keyboard is responsive and pleasing to use. The keys are large and flat and have a matte texture, which may wear over time. There is no noticeable flex unless a lot of pressure is used. A nice aspect of this keyboard is its quietness; it does not click or clack. It is also good to see the keyboard has a standard layout; all keys are more or less in their expected places.
The touchpad is a mixed bag. The glossy surface can be difficult to track on with moist fingers and the touchpad buttons are loud. Another complaint is the lack of a dedicated scroll zone.
The status lights on the K40 consist of three tiny circles below the touchpad buttons. From a functionality standpoint, they should be larger and brighter for better visibility.
Ports and Features The K40IN suffers from a lack of ports relative to its competitors. HDMI is noticeably absent; the notebook's only video out option is VGA. Furthermore, there is no ExpressCard or PC Card slot for wireless broadband cards and other add-on devices. All picture descriptions are left to right.
Left side: DVD drive, 2x USB
Right side: headphone and microphone jacks, 2x USB, VGA out, 1000Mbps Ethernet, power jack
Performance and Benchmarks The K40IN is a good performer thanks to its Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, and speedy 320GB hard drive. This machine is more than capable of handling everyday tasks and even more intensive applications like Adobe Photoshop.
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:
Graphics performance from the integrated Nvidia G102M will only suffice for older games; newer games are out of its league. Despite having 512MB of its own memory the G102M simply lacks the processing power necessary to play modern games. I question ASUS' decision to use Nvidia graphics in this notebook versus Intel integrated graphics, which have lower power consumption. The extra power consumption of the Nvidia graphics versus Intel graphics is not justified since this machine cannot play modern games and its HD video acceleration capabilities will go unused since the K40IN lacks a Blu-ray drive.
Something to note about the Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 processor is its lack of VT (Virtualization Technology). This means that the K40IN will be unable to utilize the virtual Windows XP mode in Windows 7. For most users this should not be an issue.
Heat and Noise The K40IN excelled in managing heat and noise. Even under stress the surface of the notebook never got warm and the palmrests remained completely cool – there is even a sticker on the palm rest showing this off stating "Feel the cool comfort – 25% cooler than body temperature." The bottom of the notebook also remained cool, only getting warm in a few areas.
The heat exhaust fan is located in the center of the back of the notebook. This is a convenient location since it keeps heat as far away from the user as possible. The fan is nearly silent even when under load, and is barely audible at idle in a silent room. Well done, ASUS.
Battery Life In power saving mode with 25% screen brightness, the K40IN lasted for four hours, thirty-five minutes while surfing the Internet and using a word processor. This is a good number for a notebook that packs a six-cell battery, standard voltage processor, and Nvidia integrated graphics. If ASUS had used Intel integrated graphics instead of Nvidia, the battery life would likely have been a bit longer.
Operating System and Software The K40IN comes with Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit and a ton of pre-loaded utilities. There are at least ten utilities installed – managers for this, monitors for that, and so on. Many of them are startup items which increase log-on time. If ASUS could consolidate all of them into a central control panel then this would not be such an issue. The sheer number of them at present is unnecessary.
Conclusion The K40IN has good build quality, a pleasing keyboard and screen, and gets over four and a half hours of battery life. Unfortunately the K40IN's value proposition is questionable. It lacks an HDMI port and is priced $100-$150 more than competitors with the same specifications minus the Nvidia graphics. The Nvidia graphics are a puzzling choice for the K40IN; they are not powerful enough to play modern games and consume more power than Intel graphics. The only advantage the K40IN has over its competitors is better warranty coverage. Overall we like the K40IN but are hard-pressed to recommend it for the stated reasons.
Pros:
Reasonable build quality
Great screen and keyboard
Four and a half hours of battery life
Good system performance
Runs very cool and quiet
Two year warranty and one year accidental damage coverage
Cons:
No HDMI port or ExpressCard slot
Weak graphics
Horrible speakers
Price point too high versus competitors
Glossy plastic difficult to keep clean
Loud touchpad buttons
Too many pre-installed utilities
Review Dell Latitude E4300 18.12.2009 3:14:0 +0000 The Dell Latitude E4300 is Dell's most powerful ultraportable machine released to date. This 13.3" notebook is powered by low voltage Intel Core 2 Duo processors and boasts an incredible battery life with no compromises in performance.
6-Cell 60WHr Battery, with 6-Cell 48WHr Battery Slice
3-Year Warranty with On-Site Technical Support
Dell E-Port Docking Station, with Dell Flat Panel Monitor Stand
Dimensions: 12.2" x 8.6" x 1.1"
Measured Weight: ~ 3.7lbs
The Latitude E4300 starts at $1,349, which is fairly average for an ultraportable business machine. However, we all know that the extra options and features always cost more - this notebook as configured will set you back by a staggering $2,054 before taxes.
Build and Design Our first impressions of the Dell Latitude E4300 were quite positive. The notebook itself has a small LCD bezel and a tightly integrated chassis design, so not only is the notebook rather thin it also presents the smallest footprint that is possible for a 13.3" notebook. Dell also adopted a much more modern looking design featuring sharp lines and a black finish with the new series. The back of the LCD housing has a brushed aluminum appearance to it, which adds a nice bit of flair to an otherwise safe professional design. While the finish is designed to impress, it is a fingerprint magnet. The black matte finish on the rest of the notebook looks equally sharp, but wears down on and around the edges of the notebook.
Build quality is above average, and quite frankly the construction feels ver solid. The base of the chassis is built from magnesium alloy and packed with parts, resulting in a design that protects its internals well. The right palmrest has a little bit too much flex, but there is little to no flex to be found anywhere else on the base of the chassis. Magnesium alloy is also used in the LCD housing, and the screen housing does a really good job of protecting the screen from impacts. We were never able to produce distortions on the LCD screen. The extra bulge at the top of the LCD lid is for the WWAN antenna. While it sticks out only a little bit, that top bulge had just a little bit of give to it.
The screen hinges are well built, as the display never wiggles yet provides a comfortable level of resistance to movement. When closing the notebook there is no latch for the LCD, it is held shut by magnetic force. The design provides enough resistance that the notebook is not going to open accidentally, but it is not difficult to open the computer up either.
The keyboard is well supported on the Latitude E4300, and there is very little flex to be found so even violent typers should find themselves at ease with how sturdy the keyboard feels. While other Dell Latitude notebooks have a modular bay design to accomodate an optical drive or hard drive or a weight saver module, Dell choose to build in a fixed optical drive so the E4300 will not support two hard drives. Because upgrading the optical drive is more difficult than it would be with other Latitude notebooks, the E4300 starts with a DVD+/-RW optical drive that is capable of everything a consumer needs except perhaps Blu-Ray capability. Fortunately, a fixed Blu-Ray optical drive is available for a not so low price when ordering the computer.
Perhaps the only shortcoming in the design of the Latitude E4300 is the battery. Dell appears to have dropped the 3-cell battery option from their ordering system, leaving only the 6-cell battery which sticks out from the back of the notebook by about half an inch. While I do not mind the extrusion, others may take issue with it. However, we have a difficult time imagining that the 3-cell battery could have provided adaquate battery life so we think the 6-cell is worth it.
The Latitude E4300 also has a wide range of expansion options, available via the docking connector at the bottom. If you need legacy ports not found on the computer, Dell has a legacy port extender for Latitude notebooks. The notebook can be docked to one of two different Latitude series docking stations, and each dock supports up to two external monitors. If the 6-cell battery does not provide enough longevity, a battery slice can also be purchased ($199) that will work in tandem with the standard battery to provide a much longer battery life. The hard drive can be upgraded easily by removing two screws and pulling the drive out, and by removing the middle access panel on the bottom of the notebook both the RAM and Latitude ON cards can be upgraded. WiFi cards and WWAN cards can be installed by removing the corner panel as well. Screen and Speaker The Dell Latitude E4300 comes with an LED backlit screen with a native resolution of 1280x800 (WXGA). The screen resolution is a perfect fit for a 13.3" notebook, and the panel looks nice when viewing documents, videos, and other content. The notebook has fifteen distinct levels of screen brightness adjustable by using the Fn+Up or Fn+Down key combinations. The dimmest screen levels are great for indoor viewing and low light conditions, and it was amazing to see that the screen was quite readable in bright outdoor environments when the screen was set to maximum brightness. It gets so bright, in fact, that colors start to wash out a bit on the highest settings.
We normally expect vertical viewing angles to be quite poor on notebook displays (because of the type of LCD technology they use). The E4300 defined a new level of poor. When viewing the screen from above colors quickly wash out and become unreadable, and when viewing the screen from below the screen fades away ever so quickly. Horizontal viewing angles were fortunately fairly good. Viewing the screen from almost any position to the left and right of the notebook still produced a very readable display even though colors would start to wash out.
This section was called "Screen and Speaker" for a reason. The Dell Latitude E4300 comes with one lowly speaker at the front of the notebook. It sounds tinny, there is absolutely no bass, and at the higher ends of the volume range it sounds muddled. It works for business use, it works for those to are listening to audio on the road, but do not expect premium sound out of this notebook.
Keyboard and Touchpad While there are certainly a lot of reasons to praise the Dell Latitude E4300, the high quality keyboard one of the most prominent reasons. While the layout of the keyboard is slightly different than what can be found in the rest of the Latitude E series, the Dell Latitude E4300 offers the same high quality typing experience as any other Latitude E series notebook with a backlit keyboard. While some Latitude E series notebooks have an option for a non-backlit keyboard, after comparing the backlit versus non-backlit keyboards we can say with confidence that the backlit keyboard offers a superior typing experience. One of the unique features found on the keyboard is, of course, the LED backlights that serve to illuminate the keyboard in dark environments. This backlighting is user adjustable and it can be tied in with the Ambient Light Sensor for automatic backlight adjustments.
Like the previous generation of Latitude notebooks, the keyboard provides just the right amount of tactile feedback and firmness while never flexing under stress. The new keyboard design raises the quality bar - it looks and feels like each key has its own distinctive personal space to it and it is almost impossible to accidentally hit multiple keys. Over time, it actually felt like my typing accuracy and speed was improving.
Perhaps the only drawback of this keyboard is the layout of some of the keys. The half height function keys, and the location of the Home/End/Insert/Delete keys (upper half height row) and the Page Up/Down keys (next to the arrow keys) take a little getting used to. Once we got used to the locations of the Page Up/Down keys it was actually easier to navigate through webpages, documents, and tabbed interfaces.
When comparing this keyboard to the keyboard of other Latitude E series notebooks, they all provide about the same typing experience but it just feels like the E4300's keyboard is a little more firm. If it seems like we cannot stop praising the keyboard, you are right. Best. Keyboard. Ever.
While the touchpad is not bad, it does not provide as stellar as an experience as the keyboard does. The touchpad itself is quite smooth, but it felt like there was just a little input lag on the touchpad. When using the touchpad, occasionally the touchpad would randomly stop working for a moment or two. It does not happen often enough to be a serious issue, and the problem always corrects itself, but I have to be a tough grader on a machine with this high a cost.
The touchpad redeems itself with a few extra features. Having two sets of mouse buttons is a plus, as is the third mouse button found on the upper row of touchpad buttons. Dell also includs a pointer stick in the middle of the keyboard. Perhaps the best feature about the touchpad is what Dell calls 'circular scrolling.' When moving your finger up or down the scrolling area on the touchpad, if you keep moving your finger in a circular fashion the touchpad will continue to scroll through the active window on your desktop. The direction of the scroll can be changed just by alternating the direction of circular movement as well. The touchpad supports both horizontal and vertical scrolling, which means that in combination with circular scrolling any document is going to be easily navigable.
Ports and Features Despite not having a lot of real estate to work with, Dell managed to include a surprisingly useful array of ports though we wished a third USB port could have been included. One USB port, one combination USB/eSATA port, VGA out, SmartCard reader, SD card reader, ExpressCard/34, audio in and out, Firewire-400, 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) Ethernet LAN, and a Kensington lock slot are available on the machine. It would have been nice to have had a DisplayPort or DVI output instead of a VGA output, but we suppose VGA out is still an important feature for business notebooks.
Left: VGA, USB/eSATA, fan vent, and SmartCard Reader
Front: SD card reader
Right: ExpressCard/34, DVD+/-RW, audio out, audio in, Firewire-400, and USB
Back: Gigabit Ethernet, Battery, AC Power Input, Kensington Lock Slot
Dell also has two docking station solutions for the new Latitude E series notebooks, one of which is the E-Port Replicator that was included with our unit. With the docking station, the E4300 can be transformed into a full desktop workstation that supports up to two digitally connected monitors.
Back: Connector for additional Dell docking products, eSATA/USB, Gigabit Ethernet, 2x USB, VGA, DVI, DisplayPort, AC Power Input
Performance and Benchmarks The Dell Latitude E4300 might be a small notebook, but it packs a big punch thanks to the 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and the Western Digital Caviar Black 80GB 7200RPM drive. While the laptop can only be configured with the Intel 4500MHD IGP, graphics performance with the laptop is certainly adaquate for any non-gaming application. Multimedia performance was certainly good even without a dedicated graphics card, as we had no issues displaying 720P content or 1080P content that was scaled down to the LCD's native resolution.
The 80GB 7200RPM hard drive was certainly fast (perhaps the fastest laptop drive I have personally tested to date), but the limited storage capacity could be a problem for users that need to use a lot of applications and store a lot of data on the drive. The E4300 by default comes with a 160GB 5400RPM drive for $10 less, and hard drive upgrades are reasonably priced. But if you want to abandon the traditional hard drive for a solid state drive, users should be advised to purchase an aftermarket SSD to save money and/or get a higher performing SSD than the (most likely under-performing Samsung) OEM SSD that Dell will include.
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 Dell Latitude E4300 is certainly a performer, but having this much power inside a small frame presents some design challenges. The notebook itself only has a single fan that vents out to the side and bottom of the notebook, and during normal use temperatures hovered in the mid 80's.
However, the single fan can only provide so much cooling power during our extreme stress test where parts of the E4300 soared into the triple digit temperatures. The images below show the external temperature readings in degrees Fahrenheit while stressing the CPU, GPU, and hard drive at the same time. It is hot enough that you do not want to place it on your lap, but fortunately the keyboard and touchpad remain at acceptable temperature levels. It might be a good idea to stay away from the fan vent if running intensive tasks on the computer, as the ambient air coming out of the vent topped 110F.
In an office or home setting, running your typical tasks, the laptop was as quiet as a mouse. The only time the fan was even noticably intrusive was during the extreme stress tests, when the fan was running at full tilt. Even then, it was not too loud nor was there any high pitched whine.
Battery Life Dell built in a handy array of useful power saving features with the Latitude E series notebooks. The Dell Control Panel is your portal to extreme power management where it is possible to lower the refresh rate of the LCD screen, completely deactivate the power hungry optical drive, automatically turn on/off Windows Aero, and selectively turn off or power manage most of the ports on the notebook. It does not hurt that the Dell Latitude E4300 has an LED backlit screen either, which uses less power than CCFL backlighting found in most other notebooks.
Latitude notebooks have traditionally had support for running two batteries in tandem, and the Latitude E series continues this tradition with the "battery slice." It fits on the bottom of the notebook and adds about a quarter inch to the thickness of the laptop. It adds a significant amount of weight to the machine, but the extra battery life is worth it if longevity is essential.
Dell also includes a program called the Dell Control Panel with its Latitude E series notebooks. It is a very useful program that allows users to selectively shut down or reconfigure peripherals on the notebook, to enable users to get the most of of their battery. Even though it sometimes forgot one or two settings after resuming from standby, it clearly demonstrates its use during our battery tests.
After four really long battery tests, it is clear to us that the Dell Latitude E4300 is a winner in this department. The results are almost unbelieveable for a notebook of this size.
Standard Battery, All Power Savings
6 hours 31 minutes
Standard Battery and Battery Slice, All Power Savings
12 hours 23 minutes
Standard Battery, No Power Savings
3 hours 10 minutes
Standard Battery and Battery Slice, No Power Savings
5 hours 45 minutes
During the tests with power savings enabled, the screen was at 33% brightness, wireless was on, Windows 7 was set to the 'Power Savings' power profile, and all the power savings features in Dell Control Panel were enabled (except the one where the LCD screen automatically reduces the backlight level during periods of inactivity) while we casually browsed the internet and worked on general office tasks like writing this review. With a maximum battery life of 12 hours and 23 minutes, all day computing is certainly an option with the E4300.
Tests with no power savings were more intense for the notebook. No power savings features were enabled, Windows 7 Aero was running and the power profile was set to 'High Performance,' the LCD backlight was set to 100%, and we watced the DVD movies the entire time to keep the machine actively processing while we edited documents. Flash games were also playing in the background to further stress the processor. Despite the heavier workload, the E4300 is more than capable of lasting through several feature films during long distance travels.
Conclusion The Dell Latitude E4300 is a power house of a notebook that is as small as can be. Designed for business use, built with quality in mind, and can handle any office or media related task thrown at it. It has an incredible battery life, great power saving capabilities, and the wide range of display brightnesses and keyboard brightnesses are great features not found in most notebooks. The speaker is a bit below average, the touchpad slightly above average at best, and the chassis has one or two flex points that should not be there in a notebook at this price range. Even with those flaws in the design, there is a lot to love about the Dell Latitude E4300 should you need the power, portability, or longevity of one of the smallest Latitude notebooks released to date.
Pros:
Above average build quality, lightweight
Best keyboard and useful touchpad features
Extremely long battery life
Cons:
Subpar speaker
Twitchy touchpad
High priced upgrades
Review HP ProBook 5310m 14.12.2009 4:5:0 +0000 HP promises that the new ProBook 5310m is a "stylish" business notebook that packs performance, battery life, and value inside a thin-and-light 13-inch notebook. Is the ProBook 5310m truly a lust-worthy business laptop, or is it just another black box? Continue reading to find out.
Our review unit of the HP ProBook 5310m features the following configuration:
13.3-inch LED-backlit anti-glare HD display (1366 x 768)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
2GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM
320GB 7200RPM HDD
WiFi (802.11a/b/g/draft-n), Ethernet, Modem, and Bluetooth Connectivity
4-Cell 41WHr Battery (14.8V)
Limited 1-year standard parts and labor warranty
Dimensions: 12.9 x 8.7 x 0.93 inches
Weight: 3.81lbs
Price as configured: $899
Build and Design For those people who aren't already familiar with HP's ProBook laptops, the formula is very simple: Take HP's popular EliteBook line of durable business-grade notebooks and make them more affordable so small and medium businesses can buy them. This is where the new ProBook 5310m comes to the table ... and it's why this is the first laptop with the "ProBook" name on it that we really, really like.
The previous generation of ProBooks all tried to deliver a good balance of features and security at a low price. Unfortunately, those notebooks sacrificed build quality and design (two of the hallmarks of HP's EliteBooks) in order to create a low-cost business laptop. The new ProBook 5310m is the first ProBook that lets you have your cake and eat it too. The 5310m succeeds where previous ProBooks failed by offering a thin-yet-solid magnesium alloy chassis with durable rubberized paint, aluminum display enclosure and a design that looks like a premium business notebook rather than a budget laptop. Sure, like the rest of the ProBook line, the 5310m has a square, industrial-looking exterior, but that's part of the "all business" look that made the EliteBook line such a success.
So how did HP go from an all-plastic ProBook to this new-and-improved design and still make it thinner and lighter than previous models? The answer will probably get a mixed reception among our readers: HP got rid of the optical drive. That's right. There's no built-in DVD or Blu-ray drive with this laptop. Honestly, as someone who frequently travels for business, I can tell you I never use my notebook's optical drive. However, there are still plenty of business travelers who like to watch DVDs during flights, so the lack of a DVD drive might bother some business buyers.
The outer shell of the screen casing, as previously mentioned, is made of aluminum. This is significantly more solid than the plastic-covered screen on older ProBooks, and along with the magnesium alloy bottom chassis the 5310m should survive anything a typical business traveler will throw at it. While I wouldn't recommend standing on this notebook, you could easily stack a dozen or so heavy books on top of the 5310m without any concern for the safety of the laptop.
Tthe 5310m also features the now standard hard drive shock protection in the form of HP 3D DriveGuard which will help to protect your hard drive in the event the laptop gets dropped or violently bumped. HP also includes HP ProtectTools with drive encryption, Device Access Manager, HP Spare Key (a program that helps employees access their computer in case they forget their password), HP Disk Sanitizer, File Sanitizer, and McAfee Security Solution for those small businesses that need reliability and ease of use but don't have the resources of a dedicated IT department.
One of our primary criticisms about the older ProBook 4510s and 4710s was the fact that it was too difficult to make upgrades to those notebooks. Thankfully, HP engineers made it quite easy to access the RAM, hard drive, and wireless cards inside the 5310m. RAM and the hard drive are located on the bottom of the notebook beneath the palmrest area and the WWAN card is easily accessed after removing the battery. Speaking of the complexity of making upgrades, it's also worth mentioning that buying a pre-configured model is still the only way we can recommend purchasing the 5310m (or any ProBook) at a reasonable price. This configuration of the ProBook 5310m is available for only $899 on the HP website as a pre-configured system, but if you attempted to customize a 5310m with identical specs it would cost you more than $1,100! That's a painfully overpriced premium to charge for custom orders.
Screen and Speakers The ProBook 5310m comes equipped with a 13.3" anti-glare display with a 16:9 widescreen ratio. At 1366 x 768 pixels, this 720p high-definition display is perfectly usable and features good color and contrast. The LED-backlit panel offers excellent brightness and we typically left the brightness set to between 50% and 70% when using the notebook indoors. We know many people are concerned about the transition from 16:10 to 16:9 ratio screens (because this means less vertical resolution) but the difference between 1366 x 768 and 1280 x 800 is pretty minimal.
Horizontal viewing angles are pretty good and you only start to notice some color shift after you get 75 degrees off center. Vertical viewing angles are only average as the screen begins to wash out from above and colors begin to invert from below after about 45 degrees in either direction.
HP generally impresses our editorial staff with the quality of the speakers used in their notebooks. Unfortunately, this isn't the case with the ProBook line. The speakers in the 5310m are good enough for watching a webcast or hearing system sounds, but the built-in speakers sound tinny and lack a good range of highs, middles, and lows. The highest volume settings are loud enough to fill an office with sound for a presentation, but the audio sounds distorted at the highest volumes.
The combo headphone/microphone jack on the 5310m works well with the 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 full-size keyboard on the 5310m is a chiclet style design and provides fantastic spacing between keys for typing. Each key is relatively flat with a nice matte texture and the keys sit above a glossy black support frame. The support frame surrounding the keys is quite firm thanks to the design of the chassis which adds additional support for the keyboard. On the larger ProBook 4510s and 4710s we noticed some flex in the keyboard above the optical drive, but the keyboard on the 5310m is quite firm and a joy to use.
The individual key presses are quiet without loud clicking sounds as you type. The depth of each key press is excellent, though some people may dislike the flat, chiclet-style keys. Overall the keyboard layout is extremely nice for a budget 13-inch laptop.
The touchpad is very responsive to my touch with a scroll zone on the right side that works exactly as it should. The glossy touchpad texture is okay, but the low-cost material used is sure to develop wear over time and use. The plastic touchpad buttons are about the right size and have the correct amount of depth or throw when pressed. We would have also liked to see a dedicated touchpad disable button (like the ones HP uses on their consumer notebooks) so that you can disable the touchpad if you're using an external mouse ... but that's a minor complaint for what is otherwise a great keyboard and touchpad.
Ports and Features The 5310m features a good number of ports on all sides, despite the lack of an optical drive, so let us take a brief tour ...
Left side: Here we see the power jack, heat vent, one USB 2.0 port, DisplayPort and Ethernet jack.
Right side: Heat vent, memory card reader, combo audio jack, two USB 2.0 ports, and Kensington Lock slot.
Rear side: The battery and hinges.
Front side: Nothing here but a status light and more heat vents.
Performance and Benchmarks Our ProBook 5310m came with the Intel Core 2 Duo P9300 processor, clocking in at 2.26GHz, and Intel integrated graphics. This gives the ProBook a fanstic level of performance without losing too much in the way of battery life. If battery life is a concern, you can also purchase the ProBook 5310m with the Intel Celeron CULV Processor SU2300 which will give you more tie on battery at the expense of speed thanks to the 1.2GHz low-voltage processor. A 320GB 7200RPM hard drive was also included, which helped applications load without much lag. This notebook didn't really exceed our expectations in terms of performance, but the 5310m sits near the top of the pack in its class and has more than enough power to handle Microsoft Office or even very basic video work.
The obvious bottleneck in terms of performance here is the use of Intel graphics, but considering the small and medium business buyers interested in this notebook don't care about the ability to play video games or edit HD video, this isn't a major concern.
With that said, let's jump into the performance 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 During normal use (browsing the web or working on a text document) the ProBook 5310m remained quite cool and very quiet. The exhaust fan wasn't audible even when running performance benchmarks or stressing the CPU and graphics. You won't have to worry about bothering coworkers or clients with unwanted noise coming from your laptop in a quiet office.
Finally, we recorded the following external temperatures using an IR thermometer after running two consecutive PCMark05 benchmarks. This should serve as an indicator of how hot the notebook will get after about 30 minutes of serious use. All temperatures are listed in degrees Fahrenheit. It's obvious that the bottom of the notebook near the wireless card and RAM are the hottest parts of the notebook.
Battery HP offers the ProBook 4310s with a 4-cell 41WHr Lithium-Ion battery. The battery life of the standard 4-cell battery is quite a bit better than the previous generation of ProBooks. During our timed tests, with the laptop set to "balanced" mode, wireless active, and 70% screen brightness, the 4310s lasted for 5 hours and 51 minutes. Battery life can also be extended using the "power saver" power profile in Windows 7 ... or you can purchase the 5310m with the Intel Celeron CULV processor.
Conclusion From the first moment I picked up the HP ProBook 5310m to the last minute while writing this review I kept thinking, "Why didn't HP release this ProBook sooner?" Honestly, if HP had released this notebook at the beginning of 2009 then every other SMB notebook manufacturer would be running scared by now. Unfortunately, HP released several less-than-spectacular ProBooks before this one, and that will probably make some potential buyers overlook this excellent business laptop. The ProBook 5310m finally delivers on HP's original goal to create a more affordable EliteBook. Sure, you have to buy the pre-configured models if you want that lower price, but if you can live without an optical drive then the ProBook 5310m makes a fantastic choice for small and medium businesses.
Pros:
Excellent build quality and design
A good price (when pre-configured)
Nice keyboard and touchpad
Cons:
No optical drive
Custom configurations are overpriced
Limited configuration options
Review Dell Studio 17 (1747) 10.12.2009 16:48:0 +0000 The Studio 17 is a 17-inch multimedia and gaming desktop-replacement notebook from Dell. This system can be configured with Intel Core i7 processors as well as high-end ATI Mobility Radeon graphics cards to compete against powerhouse systems like the Acer Aspire 8940G or Asus G51J. Dell has one trick up its sleeve with the Studio 17: it's the first large consumer notebook to offer an optional multitouch display.
Attentive readers might notice that we already reviewed the Dell Studio 17 last year. However, this isn't the same Studio 17. The system we're reviewing here is the new Studio 17 (1747) which uses a completely new chassis with 16:9 ratio widescreen display, new speakers, and support for the latest processors.
320GB Western Digital Scorpio Black 7200RPM Hard Drive
Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g
8X DVD burner
Three-year limited warranty
9-cell battery (85Wh)
Weight: Starting weight of 7.87 lbs
Dimensions: 16.28 x 11.04 x 1.1-1.54"
MSRP: $1,164
Build and Design The Dell Studio 17 has a sleek wedge-shaped side profile that helps mask its large footprint. The sloped design reduces the thickness of the notebook, and if you don't count the bulging 9-cell battery, it is basically as tall as my ThinkPad T60 when closed. The red screen cover looks very nice and is also available in other colors if you custom configure the notebook. The painted cover has a great rubbery texture that gives the notebook a soft feel and helps to increase grip for your fingers. The inside of the Studio 17 is glossy plastic and a flush-mount color-matched touchpad. The palmrest trim is painted with a silver metallic finish with the trim directly surrounding the keyboard being glossy painted black plastic. Both finishes appear to resist light scratches, which is a godsend for glossy notebooks that need to be wiped down constantly to look clean and smudge-free.
The one Dell-specific design element that really bugs me is the battery design. I greatly prefer the method of extended-life batteries that extend out the back of the notebook. The lower-mounted method used with the Studio 17's battery prevents the notebook from sitting perfectly flush on your desk surface. The only problem with using a battery that extend out the back with this notebook is the hinge design which would interfere with extended batteries.
The chassis feels very strong and when the notebook is closed it feels stiff enough to stand on (though we don't recommend standing on it). Dell did an excellent job perfecting the solid frame and really nailed it with the precise fit of the body panels. Every panel is securely held in place with even gaps around mating surfaces. The panels themselves feel durable and resist flexing under moderate pressure. The only surface on the notebook that seems to have any flex is the keyboard tray that flexes slightly under strong pressure.
The bottom of the notebook has a clean appearance with a single access hatch to user-replaceable components. Users looking to upgrade the Studio 17 will find two hard drive bays, three mini-PCIe slots, two memory slots, and the BIOS battery. Our configuration left one hard drive bay open, as well as slots for a WWAN card and TV tuner card. The graphics card and processor were not accessible through the main access panel, so to change either of those would require further dismantling of the notebook. No "warranty void if removed" stickers were found anywhere inside or outside the computer.
Screen and Speakers The 17.3-inch display on the Studio 17 looks above average with good color saturation and excellent contrast. Dell picked an in-between resolution of 1600x900 in this model, which is better than WXGA but still less than the 1080P displays that are standard on almost all competing models. With that said Dell does offer RGB-LED display upgrade options for this model where none of the competing models offer similar displays.
The standard display has good vertical viewing angles where colors don't start to invert significantly until the screen is tilted 15-20 degrees forward or back. Horizontal viewing angles are better with colors staying true to roughly 80 degrees in each direction. Backlight levels are pretty good in terms of even brightness and peak brightness. With the screen displaying an all-black background there is minimal bleed around the edges at normal brightness levels. As you increase past 80% the black levels start to appear washed out, but that is normal for bright panels. The backlight is strong enough to comfortable view the display in bright office conditions or outdoors if you find a spot of shade.
The Dell Studio 17 includes JBL stereo speakers with a bottom-firing subwoofer. The primary drivers are top-firing through the corners of the palmrest which is much preferred over lap-firing speakers which can sound muffled. In our tests the Studio 17 speakers rated well above average when playing both movies and music. Midrange and high notes came through clearly and the subwoofer added some bass which is usually lacking from many notebooks. Peak volume levels were above average and more than capable for filling a small or medium sized room with sound.
Keyboard and Touchpad The keyboard on the Studio 17 is very nice and very comfortable to type on with such a massive palmrest. With the notebook sitting on the edge of a desk or on your lap your wrists are fully supported to your forearms. The soft rounded edge of the front of the notebook doesn't seem to cause any pressure points, which can be a problem with some notebooks. The keyboard layout takes full advantage of the massive surface area of the Studio 17. The keyboard is full-size with no condensed keys and it includes a four-key wide numberpad. The layout is Dell-standard with the function keys being secondary and the access keys being primary. To give you an example you can adjust the brightness directly by pressing F4 and F5, but to refresh a webpage you would need to click FN+F5. You can notice some flex of the keyboard under strong pressure but under normal typing it isn't that apparent. Individual key action is smooth with a very soft click emitted when each key is fully pressed. The configuration we reviewed doesn't offer a backlit but it can be included as a $25 option. After using the Studio 17 a few nights in front of my TV I really found myself wishing that the backlight came standard.
The touchpad is a very large Synaptics model with some multitouch support. Advanced gestures include two-finger scrolling, rotating, pinch zoom, and a three-fingered flick. Sensitivity is excellent with the touchpad picking up even the slightest touch without a problem. This did cause some problems if you barely brush your palm against the touchpad while moving the cursor towards a target. The touchpad would detect the second input and make the cursor freeze until you let off. No amount of adjusting the settings corrected this but with enough practice you learn to move your hand farther away from the touchpad boundaries. Touchpad speed is great with no discernable lag noticed even during quick movements. The surface texture is a light matte finish and very easy to slide your finger across dry or moist. The touchpad buttons are also very nice with a deep throw and a soft click when pressed.
Ports and Features Port selection is very good even with no ports or slots added to the front or rear edge of the notebook. Dell included two USB ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, VGA, HDMI, and Displayport-out, LAN, two headphone jacks, audio-in, LAN, and finally a FireWire-400 port. Expansion slots include an ExpressCard/34 slot and SDHC-card reader. One additional port that wasn't used in our configuration is the antenna jack that connects to an internal TV-tuner. We did have one problem with the USB port layout; the right side has spacing far enough apart from each other to prevent you from using some dual-pronged cords.
The Dell Studio 17 includes an accelerometer to protect the hard drive in the event of a physical system crash. If it detects the notebook is dropped it will rapidly park the hard drive to help minimize damage. This is common in many business notebooks, but unlike every other implementation we have seen, this one was the first to cause problems. If you tilt the notebook too far in any direction it will directly alter the direction movement on the screen. We first noticed this during our testing phase when the notebook was resting on an elevated stand. If the Studio 17 is tilted forward dialog box selection will randomly switch back and forth. If you tilt the notebook to one side it will start moving the selection box up and down. To only way to correct this is to uninstall the ST Micro ScreenDection driver. This problem is also reported on the Dell Community forum.
Performance and Benchmarks The Dell Studio 17 is no slouch with its Intel Core i7 720QM processor and ATI Mobility Radeon 4650 graphics. While playing Left 4 Dead at 1600x900 resolution with high settings we saw an average framerate of 60FPS, a max of 87FPS, and low of 38FPS. Even with hordes of zombies around the main characters the notebook never dropped below 30FPS. Although this system is more than capable of playing Left 4 Dead at high settings, it still fell behind the ASUS G51J and Acer 8940G which included better graphics cards. Since the Studio 17 is a notebook more focused on all around multimedia performance we didn't have a huge problem with this. The downside is users need to upgrade to the Alienware M17x or switch to the Studio XPS 16 to get better graphics cards options from Dell. Both alternatives have a much higher starting price - around $1,600- that could be hard to swallow if you are working on a smaller budget. HD video was not a problem for the Studio 17 with the 1.6GHz Core i7. The CPU never broke a sweat playing 720p and 1080p video with plenty of overhead room left for other activities.
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 Thermal performance of the Dell Studio 17 is above average when you consider that a single fan is handling the cooling for a quad-core processor and mid-range graphics card. Under normal use the case temperatures stay within very reasonable levels with few hot spots. Under stress some areas near the processor and touchpad warm up, but still not up to uncomfortable levels. Fan noise during all conditions is minimal, but it does get higher pitched and more frequent under load.
Battery Life Our configuration of the Studio 17 included a 9-cell battery that helped squeeze out some impressive time from this Core i7-equipped notebook. In our battery test with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 on the balanced profile the notebook stayed on for 4 hours and 19 minutes. During the test the Studio 17 consumed between 17 to 19 watts of power.
Conclusion The Dell Studio 17 performed very well as a multimedia-oriented desktop-replacement notebook. The system includes everything you might want, including great speakers, very nice screen options, a fast processor, and a very capable graphics card. Compared to the ASUS G51J or Acer 8940G which offer NVIDIA 260M and 250M cards respectively, the Studio 17 does fall behind in gaming performance with its lower performing ATI Mobility Radeon 4650. No other higher performing card can be configured with the Studio 17, meaning you would have to jump to the Studio XPS 16 or Alienware m17x which have much greater starting prices. Overall the Studio 17 blows away the competition in custom options -- including an optional RGB-LED backlit panel or touchscreen -- and it offers a very low entry price for its Core i7 configuration. Keep this system on your list if you plan on buying a 17" notebook anytime soon.
Pros:
Great build quality
Very good speaker system
Low starting price
Cons:
Some minor keyboard flex
No high-end graphics card option
Faulty accelerometer driver
Review HP Mini 311 9.12.2009 3:38:0 +0000 The HP Mini 311 promises the best possible netbook experience thanks to the use of Nvidia's Ion graphics. Can this netbook with an 11-inch screen, HDMI, and a great keyboard overcome the limits of Intel's Atom processor? Keep reading to find out.
Our HP Mini 311 (311-1000NR) features the following specifications:
Operating System: Genuine Windows XP (32-bit)
Processor: Intel Atom N270 Processor 1.60GHz (533MHz FSB)
Memory: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
Storage: 160GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD
Display: 11.6-inch diagonal WSVGA+ (1366x768)
Graphics: Nvidia Ion LE
Wireless: 802.11a/b/g
Expansion: 4-in-1 media card slot
Dimensions (H x W x D): 0.78-1.20 x 11.4 x 8.0 inches (including feet)
Weight: 3.34 lb (not including weight of AC adapter).
Power: 6-cell Lithium-Polymer battery
Warranty: One-year standard warranty
MSRP: $399.99
Build and Design The HP Mini 311 looks like an obvious evolution of the HP Mini design. In fact, if it weren't for the larger size of the 311 you could easily mistake this netbook for the old Mini 1000. In short, nothing substantial has changed in terms of the build or design of the latest generation of Mini netbooks. That said, this isn't a bad thing. HP engineers did a lot of things right with the earlier Minis, and the Mini 311 likewise offers a nearly fullsize keyboard, large touchpad, and acceptable build quality at a low price. The clamshell-like design gives the Mini 311 a very clean look and the "Black Swirl" Imprint finish features a nice spiral pattern design that looks like either a bunch of black/silver galaxies bumping into each other or a bed of black roses. This Imprint design not only gives the lid a distinct appearance, but also helps protect the lid from scratches.
When open, the glossy black plastic extends around the glossy 11-inch screen. The entire exterior of the chassis is a combination of glossy black plastic, glossy silver plastic, and matte black plastic. Obviously, whenever we look at a laptop with this much plastic we're concerned about build quality ... and the Mini 311 was a bit of a mixed blessing. On one hand, the keyboard feels nice and firm with no flex. Likewise, the screen and rear of the netbook feel quite solid even under significant pressure. On the other hand, the front of the netbook suffers from some annoying "creaking" in the plastics of the palmrests. if you pick up the Mini 311 from either palmrest you will hear some unpleasant creaking sounds and feel some uncomfortable flex in the plastic. That said, we suspect the Mini 311 will hold up about as well as any plastic netbook priced below $400. The various parts of the chassis come together with tight seams and good attention to detail. The Mini 311 is also available in white just in case black isn't your color of choice.
Screen and Speakers The new 11.6-inch screen on the Mini 311 is a nice LED-backlit display panel with a 1366x768 native resolution. The glossy screen surface helps to improve color and contrast, but we noticed the colors look a bit "washed out" or "pastel" compared to what our test desktop background looks like on other laptops. Although the 1366x768 resolution is a nice step up from the 1024x600 resolution seen on most netbooks the washed out colors made the viewing experience less than perfect. 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 311 is extremely good for an 11-inch netbook. 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 is quite good. The speakers produce excellent 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 perfectly enjoyable.
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 dual-function headphone jack/microphone jack produced some high frequency background noise/distortion with some of the headphones we used during testing, but other headphones worked fine with no distortion.
Keyboard and Touchpad As previously mentioned, the HP Mini 311 features a nice and large keybaord that is 92% 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'll probably like this keyboard. That said, I personally prefer the "Chiclet" style keyboard used on many netbooks and ultraportables since there is more space between the keys to prevent me from accidentally hitting the wrong key when working in tight quarters. Still, the keyboard on this netbook is quite usable and should be perfectly fine for typing quick emails or editing documents while traveling.
The ALPS touchpad used on the Mini 311 is a multitouch gesture-enabled model that allows you to use multi-figure gestures such as "pinching" your fingers together or "pulling" your fingers apart to zoom in or out. The ALPS control panel in Windows also allows you to customize these gestures as well. Sensitivity and tracking seemed accurate even when you move your fingers quickly over the touchpad surface. Speaking of which, the touchpad is covered in a glossy smooth surface that sometimes makes it east 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 loud clicks when pressed.
Input and Output Ports In terms of port selection the HP Mini 311 offers a few more bells and whistles than your average netbook. You get three USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 media card reader, dual-function headphone/microphone jack, Ethernet port, and two video out ports in the form of VGA and HDMI.
Here is a quick tour around the HP Mini 311:
Front view: No ports here, just clean lines.
Rear view: No ports here either, just the hinges and battery.
Left side view: Security lock slot, power jack, vent, USB 2.0 port, and HDMI.
Right side view: 4-in-1 card reader, dual-function audio port, two USB 2.0 ports, VGA, and Ethernet.
Performance and Benchmarks The performance section of a netbook review is generally the most boring part because all netbooks have virtually identical performance. That said, HP hopes the Mini 311 will change that thanks to the use of Nvidia's Ion graphics. In this case, our test configuration comes with Nvidia Ion LE ... basically standard Ion with some of the features crippled via software. Despite this, our performance benchmarks indicate Ion indeed gives the Mini 311 a nice boost over netbooks that use Intel GMA 950 graphics.
Unfortunately, Nvidia'a Ion graphics can't do anything to overcome the performance bottleneck of the Intel Atom processor. Although the latest version of Flash Player supports GPU acceleration, we didn't see much (if any) improvement in HD Flash playback because of the weak processor. When we tried to watch Hulu HD on this netbook there was significant lag and the video and audio playback was out of sync. In fact, if you watched a Hulu HD clip with a man and woman having a conversation the audio was so out of sync that it looked like the woman's voice was coming from the man and the man's voice was coming from the woman.
Overall performance with the Intel Atom platform is very reasonable for daily activities like web browsing, email, using Microsoft Office, listening to music, and even watching standard definition movies. If you're in a bind you can even use photo editing software like Photoshop or GIMP for basic image editing. Unfortunately, the Intel Atom N270 processor still feels painfully weak for general computing ... which means multitasking. Typical multitasking (such as switching back and forth between a full-screen web browser and Microsoft Office) was sluggish at best and frustratingly slow at worst.
All of the synthetic benchmarks we use to rate the performance of a laptop show the HP Mini 311 offers slight improvements over typical netbooks, but "real world" use is still limited by the weak processor. For example, games like World of Warcraft play flawlessly, but games like Counter-Strike: Source dropped to an unplayable 12-15 frames per second at the lowest detail settings whenever the CPU had to handle a large level map.
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 Temperatures on the new HP Mini 311 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 often kicks on, particularly when the netbook is plugged in, but the noise wasn't particularly loud. If you are very sensitive to noise then the fan might bother you in a quiet room, but chances are you'll never notice it.
Below are images indicating the temperature readings (listed in degrees Fahrenheit) taken inside our office where the ambient temperature was 74 degrees Fahrenheit:
Battery Battery life with the integrated 6-cell lithium-ion battery . In our test with the screen brightness set to 70%, and wireless active, the Mini 311 stayed on for 6 hours and 18 minutes of constant use. Although some netbooks offer closer to 10 hours of battery life, the battery also has to feed the power-hungry Nvidia Ion graphics and larger 11-inch screen. All things said and done I think it's safe to say 6 hours of battery life will be fine for most people.
Conclusion At the end of the day HP created a very nice netbook with an 11-inch screen, reasonably powerful graphics, and a nice keyboard ... and then crippled it with Intel's Atom processor. If all you want to do is very basic web browsing, email, social networking (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and play World of Warcraft then the HP Mini 311 is a great ultraportable laptop.
Unfortunately, the Intel Atom N270 processor is still painfully weak for general computing. Although the latest version of Flash Player supports GPU acceleration, we didn't see much (if any) improvement in Flash playback because of the weak processor. Translation: don't try to watch Hulu HD on this netbook. Typical multitasking (such as switching between the web browser and Microsoft Office) was sluggish at best and frustratingly slow at worst.
In short, the HP Mini 311 gives you a netbook that's better than a typical netbook (one that uses Intel GMA 950 graphics) but still suffers from one of the same problems as other netbooks: a weak processor. Although the Mini 311 is a nice netbook we have a hard time recommending this netbook at this time considering that there are a number of Intel CULV-based ultraportables and soon a variety of AMD-based ultraportables for the only $50 to $100 more.
Pros:
Nvidia Ion graphics boost performance
Improved port selection
Good battery life
Cons:
Still using weak Atom processor
Good graphics limited by CPU
Touchpad surface isn't great
Review Dell Inspiron 14z 4.12.2009 9:52:0 +0000 Dell spent most of 2009 making their laptops as thin and light as possible. Dell even went as far as adding a "z" to the names of the thinnest and lightest notebooks that offer the best battery life in each category. To that end, the Inspiron 14z offers consumers a laptop that promises "66% better battery life" for a modest price increase. Is the Inspiron 14z as impressive as it sounds? Keep reading to find out.
Dell Inspiron 14z (Cherry Red) Specifications:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CULV SU7300 (1.3GHz, 800MHz, 3MB)
OS: Windows 7 Premium (64-bit)
Memory: 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
Storage: 250GB 5400rpm HDD
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD
Display: 14.0” HD (1366x768) WLED Display and webcam
Optical Drive: 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD/-RW/R) with Dual-Layer
Build and Design The design of the Inspiron 14z looks virtually identical to the Inspiron 14. The chief differences here are that the Inspiron 14z uses an Intel CULV processor, 6-cell battery and WLED display ... all of which are intended to extend battery life. At first glance, the Inspiron 14z 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.
The Inspiron 14z feels pretty durable despite the fact that the notebook chassis is constructed from relatively thin plastics. The only areas that suffered from flex were just above the keyboard next to the battery and the back of the display lid. If you press on the lid with your fingers you will create screen distortions, and you'll hear some minor plastic creaking if you press down next to the battery. There is some minimal flex on the top of the right palmrest next to the optical drive, but you have to press pretty hard to make that happen.
When closed the Inspiron 14z looks 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 quality for the "thin and light" category today. The "Cherry Red" screen lid gives the Inspiron a nice candy-covered look, but Dell charges a $40 premium for the privilege of selecting red instead of black. Usually I don't complain about that type of surcharge from the Dell Design Studio which offers your choice of more than 100 different designs by various artisits, but charging $40 to stick a chuck of red plastic on a notebook is a little excessive.
The bottom of the notebook features the battery and access plates for the hard drive and RAM. 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).
Screen and Speakers The 14-inch high-definition (1366 x 768) panel on the Dell Inspiron 14z 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 WLED backlighting in our review unit is pretty even and offers a range of brightness settings. Yes, it is a 16:9 screen ratio, but that's the new standard ... we all have to live with it. 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.
I was pretty impressed with the stereo speakers on the Dell Studio 14z, but I can't say much in favor of the speakers on the Inspiron 14z. 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 14z 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 is extremely firm so you won't have to worry about keyboard flex while typing. There is a hint of flex in the keys on the right side of the keyboard directly above the optical drive, but you have to press down very hard to create flex in this area. 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.
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 Synaptics model that uses Dell proprietary touchpad drivers, though I found the standard Synaptics drivers work as well. 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.
Ports and Features The port selection on the Inspiron 14z is retty average for a budget 14-inch notebook with one or two exceptions. Dell included three USB 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 14z lacks an ExpressCard slot, FireWire, and eSATA, so if those ports are important to you then you'll need to look elsewhere.
Right: Two USB ports, optical drive, and power jack
Performance The performance of the Inspiron 14z with an Intel Core 2 Duo CULV SU7300 processor and Intel X4500HD integrated graphics is good enough for typical daily activities (browsing the web, typing documents in Microsoft Office, or making simple edits to your digital photos or videos) but this laptop certainly won't win any awards for performance.
As previously mentioned, the Inspiron 14z gets its "z" designation from the use of the Intel CULV processors ... in this case, the 1.3GHz SU7300. This gives the Inspiron 14z the advantage of better battery life at the expense of overall performance. In fact, the Inspiron 14z falls somewhere between a budget netbook with an Intel Atom processor and a typical full-featured notebook using a standard Intel Core 2 Duo processor. In other words, the Inspiron 14z has enough power to serve your basic needs as a family PC, but don't expect to play the newest 3D games or run the latest photo and video editing applications at extremely fast speeds. The only thing that might seem a little odd about this level of performance is the price.
In fact, the $799 starting price for the Inspiron 14z exceeds the $699 starting price of the Studio 14z. Considering that the Studio 14z provides superior performance it's hard to justify the price tag of this Inspiron. You can buy a netbook that has better battery life for less money! True, the Inspiron 14z offers better performance than your average netbook, but it's downright odd that Dell is trying to sell this for more than the cost of a superior laptop.
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):
All of the 3DMark06 scores for all of the systems listed above were run at 1280 x 800 resolution (for 16:10 ratio screens) or 1280 x 768 resolution (for 16:9 ratio screens).
HDTune storage drive performance results:
Battery The 6-cell 48.8 WHr 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 14z stayed on for 5 hours and 54 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 we expected based on Dell's marketing of "66% better battery life." 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, VERY quiet room.
Conclusion The Dell Inspiron 14z is a basic 14-inch notebook that delivers good battery life at the expense of performace. If your child or your family is looking for a convenient laptop for general use then the Inspiron 14z can handle daily tasks with ease. That said, the overall price/performance ratio is a little hard to justify when the Dell Studio 14z offers better performance at a lower price.
The fact that the Inspiron 14z includes an optical drive while many CULV-equipped laptops do not provides some justification for buying this notebook. However, if performance is more important to you than battery life then the Inspiron 14z probably shouldn't be at the top of your shopping list. Still, if you want a notebook with more power than a netbook and better battery life than the average notebook then the Inspiron 14z is worth a look.
Pros:
Good battery life
Attractive design
Firm keyboard
Cons:
Weak performance
No ExpressCard slot
No backlit keyboard option
Review Acer Aspire 8940G 3.12.2009 6:21:0 +0000 The Acer Aspire 8940G is a desktop replacement system packing an Intel Core i7 processor, NVIDIA 250M dedicated graphics, Blu-ray, and a massive 18.4" 1080P display. Acer built this system to not only handle everyday gaming, but also to be the multimedia hub in your dorm room or home office. With extra perks such as a backlit keyboard and touch-sensitive media buttons, is there anything not to love in the Aspire 8940G? Read our full review to find out.
Build and Design Acer shares the same overall look and feel throughout many of their notebook lines. The Acer Aspire 8940G shows quite a bit of resemblance to the Acer Aspire One ... keeping the same hinge shape and position as well as the protruding rear-edge of the main body that you can see when the lid is closed. The side profile of the 8940G doesn't look much thicker than a smaller 15" or 17" notebook. The sloped front and rear edge do a great job of masking thickness even further while also making it more comfortable to carry. Inside you have a completely flat surface containing the keyboard, touchpad, speakers, and multimedia keys. The keyboard is even recessed just enough so the flat keys lay flush with the outer bezel. Acer did an excellent job of making this laptop look user friendly and organized by keeping so many controls within a finger's reach.
Notebook manufacturers face a difficult task when it comes to making large notebooks that feel sturdy but aren't overweight. Wider panels require more bracing to reduce flex and heavier notebooks require stronger panels so they don't flex under their own weight. The Aspire 8940G feels very well built with a solid frame and only minimal flex on the screen cover when the notebook is shut. The palrmest feels durable and shows no signs of flex even under strong pressure. The same applies to the keyboard and upper bezel, which show only minimal signs of flex under heavy pressure. The one complaint I have with the build quality of the notebook is the use of glossy plastics which scratch and smudge easily. If you are a neat freak then those smudge-prone glossy surfaces might get on your nerves over time.
The upgradability factor of this notebook looks great thanks to a single access panel on the bottom of the chassis. Simply remove the panel and you have access to the dual hard drive bays (one of which is unused in this configuration), two system memory slots, two mini-PCIe slots, and a partial view of the processor socket. I saw no "warranty void if removed" stickers anywhere, including the screws holding the heatsink onto the processor. If you want to add a second hard drive you will need to purchase a spare retention bracket, which mounts to the back of the drive, to prevent it from sliding out of place. The open mini-PCIe slot appears to be intended for an onboard TV-tuner, and as such doesn't have WWAN-antennas pre-installed.
Screen and Speakers The 18.4" screen on the Aspire 8940G is an "all-glass" style with a protective layer covering the actual display panel. This gives the notebook a very clean and polished look, but also increases glare and reflections. With the notebook turned off the screen surface resembles a mirror and reflects the entire room around you. These reflections are reduced when the screen is on and displaying bright colors. In terms of overall quality the screen looks very nice with good color reproduction and above average contrast. The screen really draws you in while watching movies or viewing pictures ... as if you were viewing that place in person. Black levels look great and the only noticeable areas of light bleed are near the edges of the screen and only visible with the brightness set to 100%. Vertical viewing angles look good until you pivot the screen forward or back roughly 15 to 20 degrees. Horizontal viewing angles look nice right up until reflections off the screen start to overpower the image being displayed. At peak brightness the screen is still easily visible in bright office conditions as well as sitting near a window with the sun casting over the notebook.
Acer includes a 5.1 Cinematic Surround system on the Aspire 8940G that seems to sound a step above most notebooks. The audio system features five speakers, including a Tuba CineBass Booster to increase low-frequency sound. In practice the speakers produced a great surround experience, but I felt the peak volume levels were lacking. Even with the system volume set to 100%, the speakers were nowhere near being over-driven. This causes some trouble if you expect to use the system to watch a movie in your bedroom with it sitting on a dresser rather than on your lap. This can be avoided though if you use external speakers or a home theater system connected to the notebook.
Keyboard and Touchpad Even though many notebooks are switching to Chiclet-style keyboards these days, Acer still uses a traditional design with thin flat-top keys instead. The design resembles lily patties sitting on a pond with a very thin top and the support structure tucked neatly out of view. The keyboard also offers a backlit which gives you great key visibility in dark settings. The underlying light elements are adequately shielded, preventing "light bleed" unless you view the keyboard at an angle shallower than 45 degrees. The backlight is non-adjustable in brightness, but you can turn it off completely.
The keyboard is very comfortable for typing thanks to properly sized keys and good spacing. The large 18.4" footprint allows Acer to incorporate a full-size keyboard as well as a full number pad. There is almost no "wiggle" or lateral key travel when you move your hand around the keyboard despite the thin looking keys. The keys are easy to trigger with roughly average pressure required and when pressed give off a very small click sound. The broad palmrest works very well for cradling your hands and wrists. Typing for hours at the notebook isn't a problem unless it is on your lap ... in which case your legs might not enjoy the weight.
The touchpad is a very large Synaptics model that rates very high on my list of best touchpads. It is quick to respond to fast movements, showing no discernable lag at any time. The surface texture is a soft matte finish that makes it easy to slide your finger across whether completely dry or slightly damp from sweat. The only significant complaint I have is the size. This touchpad is so much larger than most of the touchpads that I use that I end up clicking the bottom edge of the touchpad instead of the actual buttons. If you like big touchpads you will love the touchpad on the Aspire 8940G. The touchpad buttons are the same width as the touchpad surface and have a very short throw. Each button gives off a higher pitched clicking sound when you press down. Acer also includes a button to disable the touchpad to prevent accidental movement when using an external mouse. This button is located to the right side of the touchpad and lights up when activated.
Ports and Features The port selection on the Acer Aspire 8940G is phenomenal. Acer gives you four dedicated USB ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, Firewire 400, VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort, LAN, and audio jacks including digital audio out. To load pictures from a digital camera, there is a flush-mount SDHC-card slot on the front side of the notebook.
Right: Two USB, BLu-ray drive, one USB, Kensongton lock slot
On the left and right side of the keyboard there are touch-sensitive control keys. The left side has three buttons including one for Wi-Fi On/Off, one for Bluetooth On/Off, and another to access the Acer Backup Manager. The right side offers media quick-access keys including a Media Center button, hold button, skip, play/pause, stop, and fast forward controls, and a switch to enable or disable the touch sensitive buttons. The volume control is a metal rotating dial that gives a slightly more precise method to adjust the volume than a touch-sensitive slider.
Performance and Benchmarks The Asipre 8940G performs very well in games as well as playing high-definition video. The Intel Core i7 processor didn't even work up a sweat while we pushed 720P and 1080P video its way. While it is pretty sure this system would have no problem playing Blu-ray movies, we were unable to test playback since Acer didn't include software to decode Blu-ray movies. PowerDVD or another equivalent software package is usually included with systems that offer Blu-ray drives as an option, but we guess Acer wanted to save on the cost of licensing fees and left this up to the customer. The NVIDIA GTS 250M graphics handled Left 4 Dead at 1920x1080 resolution with high detail settings very well. Playing with multiple zombies on the screen framerates still stayed above 30FPS with the average being in the lower 40s. If the detail settings were tweaked slightly or the resolution was lowered to 1280x768, I don't see any reason why you couldn't get framerates above 60FPS.
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 Acer Aspire 8940G maintains very good temperatures even though it has an Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GTS 250M graphics card. Heat coming through the palmrest and keyboard is minimal while running stressful benchmarks and games. The only hotspot worth noting on the top of the system is near the left side of the touchpad, which crept up to 91 degrees Fahrenheit after stressing the CPU and graphics card for more than 30 minutes. Fan noise is very tolerable when the system is performing run-of-the-mill activities. If the processor and graphics card utilization is low the fan is either off or spinning very slow. While gaming the fan throttled between its slower and faster speeds, neither of which was louder than most notebooks.
Battery Life Battery life is never the strength of large notebooks, even more so when you combine the large screen with a powerful processor and dedicated graphics card. The Acer 8940G stayed on for 3 hours and 10 minutes in our battery test with the screen brightness set to 70%, the power profile set to "balanced," and the wireless active. Power consumption varied between 18 and 24 watts during the test.
Conclusion The Acer Aspire 8940G is a well built and good looking multimedia notebook that can also game. The sound system is great if you can get past the weaker volume levels. The spacious 18.4" display is great for sharing a movie in a small room; something that might be difficult with a 15" or 17" notebook. System performance is very good with the Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GTS 250M graphics ... although slightly less than true gaming notebooks. The biggest strength of the 8940G though is its $1,329 price, which is lower than any other Core i7 system currently on the market.
Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 Review 2.12.2009 8:11:0 +0000 The IdeaPad Y550 is a 15.6" multimedia notebook from Lenovo offered in a mix of affordable and high-end configurations. The top of the list system options include an Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GT 240M dedicated graphics while more affordable systems include standard Core 2 Duo processors and integrated graphics. In this review we look at a model equipped with the Intel T6400 processor and Intel X4500 integrated graphics.
Our Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 Specifications:
Windows Vista Home Premium with SP2 (Now available with Windows 7 64-bit)
Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 2.0GHz (2MB Cache, 800MHz FSB)
Ports and connectors: (2) USB 2.0 ports, eSATA/USB Combo, VGA, HDMI, SDHC-Card reader, RJ-45/Ethernet (Gigabit), stereo headphone/line out, stereo microphone in, 1.3 megapixel webcam
Dimensions: (LxWxH) 15.2" x 10.0" x 1.02" to 1.5
Weight: 5lbs 13.5oz
11.1v 56Wh 6-cell battery
One-year standard warranty
MSRP: $813
Build and Design The Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 has a modern design with a sleek shape and a rather pronounced contrasting color scheme. The exterior view of the Y550 when closed is thin and flat with a thick orange trim piece breaking up the two black halves on the notebook. From a distance the outside color of the screen cover appears to be matte black, but looking at it closer it is actually a faintly embossed surface. This particular design is an overlapping honey-comb finish that gives the notebook a nice subtle look while also giving it a light texture. The inside is a combination of a glossy black and metallic grey with chrome accented speakers and white LED-backlit controls. I really think that the Lenovo design staff has to hold so much back when building ThinkPad models that they really go all out with the IdeaPad series.
The Y550 feels well built compared to most consumer notebooks but still seems like it could be improved in some areas. The screen hinges are pretty stiff and requires two hands to open the cover. The lip of the cover works against you when trying to open the screen since it hugs the palmrest closely. The screen cover has some minor flex but still does a good job at preventing screen distortions when you press on the back of the display. The chassis has some minor flex when you hold the notebook in the air by the edge of the palmrest, but it still feels solid if firmly pressed when the notebook is sitting on a flat surface. The keyboard doesn't flex much, but right above the optical drive if you press hard enough you can get the keyboard base to make a clicking sound. Fit and finish is good overall, but one area stuck out in a nit-picking way. I believe the speaker grills are supposed to sit flush with the bezel above the keyboard and on both speakers one edge sticks up higher than the other.
Screen and Speakers The WXGA display on the Y550 appears to be the highest resolution offered on this model. Even the better configurations are limited to 1366x768. This is lacking when compared to the Dell Studio 15 that can be configured with a 1080p panel in configurations starting at less than $800. The panel offers good color and contrast, ranking middle of the pack compared to most notebooks. Black levels are good at low and middle backlight levels, but show some backlight creep near 100%. Peak brightness levels are great for viewing in bright office conditions with a comfortable home viewing level somewhere between 60 and 70%. Viewing angles appear average with colors showing significant inversion in as little as 10 degrees when tilted back. Horizontal viewing angles look much better, showing no notable color shift even when viewing from the very edge of the screen.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 has above average sounding speakers, making use of two primary speakers up top and a subwoofer below. Listening to music and movies the speakers have good midrange and bass, but is still weak compared to other notebooks with dedicated subwoofers. Peak volume levels sound strong enough to be listened to in a small or mid-size room, but not loud enough to over-power a lot of background noise. For watching feature-length movies in large rooms the HDMI-port is a great way to pass digital audio over to a home theater system.
Keyboard and Touchpad The keyboard is comfortable to type on and has a pretty solid typing surface. Transitioning to this keyboard from my ThinkPad was no problem, especially since the key action felt very similar. The only tactile difference I found between this keyboard and the ThinkPad keyboard is the key shape; the ThinkPad keys have a more "cupped" feel to them.
The Y550 has a spacious Synaptics touchpad with a very nice texture. While some notebook manufacturers might carry the glossy palmrest surface onto the touchpad, Lenovo breaks it up with a barely-bumpy texture that is easier to slide over. Out of the box it was hard to slide across and almost tacky from the multitouch sticker over it, but with some oil build-up over the first few hours it broke in perfectly. Sensitivity is great out of the box... requiring only a light touch to move the cursor across the screen. Lag is not present under any circumstance including very fast movement. The touchpad buttons have a long throw and emit a mild click when fully pressed.
Ports and Features Port selection is adequate although I feel there was enough room left unused to account for an additional USB port. The Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 offers two USB ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, VGA and HDMI ports, Ethernet, and audio jacks. Expansion slots include an ExpressCard/34 slot and SDHC-card slot.
Lenovo also includes a number of touch-sensitive and click-style buttons around the keyboard to control quick access functions. The standard buttons include one to switch video modes, another to load the Dolby audio control panel, and audio switches to adjust volume and mute the speakers. A blinking slider bar in the middle lets you quickly access four pre-set Lenovo applications.
Performance and Benchmarks The Y550 performs well in average day-to-day activities like surfing the web, typing documents, listening to music, and watching movies. If you plan on using it as a multimedia-only rig the shortcomings of the integrated graphics don't become a problem, but if you do intend to game, you might want to look at a better configuration. In our tests the Y550 with Intel X4500 integrated graphics had no trouble playing 720p and 1080p video while still multitasking in the background. Using the HDMI port you could output a video with audio to an HDTV and still use the notebook for surfing the web. If your ideas of gaming include titles like Left 4 Dead 2 or Modern Warfare 2 instead of Peggle, one of the higher configurations with an Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GT 240M graphics would be recommended.
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 is good under normal conditions when the system is not under much stress. The palmrest and keyboard stay just above room temperature which is nice for longer typing sessions. Fan noise is excellent with a very relaxed cooling system. Under light usage the fan defaults to fully off; only coming on when needed. Increased system activity makes the fan stay on in longer intervals but overall the notebook still stays relatively quiet.
Battery Life The Y550 offers reasonable battery life for a 15.6" notebook, but still shows some room for improvement. In our battery test with the screen brightness set to 75%, wireless active, and Vista on the balanced profile the system stayed on for 3 hours and 52 minutes. During the test the Y550 consumed between 13 and 14 watts of power; well above more power efficient notebooks.
Conclusion The Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 is a stylish and well built multimedia notebook offered with a wide array of options. Build quality is good overall with only a few areas sticking out at us as needing improvement. The design is very nice with a subtlety textured lid and an attractive color scheme. The keyboard proved to be comfortable to type on with an equally usable bumpy touchpad. System performance was more than adequate for everyday use with our configuration ... and if you have gaming in mind Lenovo has alternative builds for that purpose. Overall the Lenovo IdeaPad Y550 fits the bill regardless if you are looking for a basic desktop replacement or gaming system.
Pros:
Textured lid design
Better than average speakers
Comfortable keyboard and touchpad
Cons:
Some minor fit and finish concerns
Low 1366x768 resolution with all configurations
Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 30.11.2009 6:22:0 +0000 When most people think of the Lenovo ThinkPad brand, they think of the T-series notebook with the alloy unibody chassis, rubberized black paint, and boxy looks. What most people don't realize is Lenovo offers a small business line, called the SL-series, which offers most of the same features at a much lower price. In this review we take a look at the 15.6" Lenovo ThinkPad SL510, and find out if it is a worthy alternative for users who don't want to shell out for the higher-end ThinkPad models.
Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 Specifications:
Windows 7 Professional
15.6" HD 1366 x 768 WXGA Anti-glare
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 (2.53GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB Cache)
3GB DDR3 RAM (2GB x 1GB)
320GB Hitachi 7200RPM Hard Drive
Intel 5100AGN, Bluetooth 2.0
Intel X4500M Integrated
Built-in 2.0M web camera
6-cell 10.8v 52Wh
Dimensions: (LxWxH) 14.9 x 9.75 x 1.45"
Weight: 5lbs 11.5oz
MSRP: $1,224 ($989 Street)
Build and Design The SL-series ThinkPad is the toned-down version of the more rugged T-series. The exterior shell is entirely plastic, but with a softer finish with rounded edges and a smooth texture, instead of the rubberized paint on the more expensive models. The shape is also different, with sloped sides, instead of the flat sides seen on the higher models. Overall it has a more consumer appearance that might be more inviting to some users. Compared to the SL500, the SL510 has a few aesthetic changes, including a redesigned screen hinge assembly, and a few minor body tweaks. Side by side though, they still look almost identical.
Build quality is nice compared to consumer-targeted notebooks, but a step under the T400 and T500, which offer alloy unibody frames and stronger body panels. The notebook still has a very solid feel to it, with very little chassis flex.
The screen cover provides adequate protection for the screen, preventing visible distortion under moderate finger pressure. The keyboard and palmrest have good support, only flexing under strong pressure. The plastics feel durable enough to resist cracking under mild abuse, and the matte-black plastic finish shouldn't make scratches stand out as much as they would on a glossy notebook. For a small-business user, the SL-series is a nice step up from the average multimedia-oriented consumer notebook without the cost of a high-end business notebook.
Upgrades and expansion are easily handled through panels on the bottom of the chassis. The primary panel gives you access to the processor, system memory, and hard drive. No "warranty void if removed" stickers were found anywhere. The two smaller access panels uncover an open mini-PCIe slot for a WWAN card and a sim-card slot when the system is equipped with 3G.
Screen and Speakers Lenovo offers both matte and glossy screen options on the SL-series, both WXGA resolution. Our review model included the standard matte-panel, but if you enjoy the vibrant colors and increased contrast of a glossy screen, that option is available. The matte WXGA panel was average compared to consumer notebooks, and could have really benefited from a higher resolution. Color and contrast were weaker than normal, but this is common for basic non-glossy displays. Viewing angles were fine for an office setting where the notebook wouldn't be moved around a lot, but on your lap it was easy to see colors starting to shift. In testing we saw colors starting to shift when tilted 10 degrees forward or back. Horizontal viewing angles were better, staying true past 70 degrees from each side. Viewing brightness was perfect for bright office conditions, and with the matte finish partially visible outdoors.
Speaker performance was average for a basic mid-size desktop replacement notebook. Bass and midrange were lacking but for listening to streaming radio or YouTube videos it was fine. The SL510's peak volume level was fine for a small room, but felt lacking compared to other consumer notebooks. For a better experience, using the analog audio out to a pair of external speakers would be a better option. The best alternative would be using the HDMI out to pass a digital audio stream to an outside stereo system.
Keyboard and Touchpad The keyboard was very comfortable to type on and felt very similar to the keyboards on the T-series ThinkPads. The layout is different, missing the extra row of function keys at the top, but the main area has been left intact. Key action was great, with a soft spring movement, giving off a mild click when pressed. Key spacing is nearly identical to regular ThinkPads, with barely any difference noted switching between my T60 and the SL510. The biggest difference is the newer keyboards are slightly quieter. On the left side of the keyboard are some quick-access buttons, used for muting system volume or the microphone, as well as adjusting volume levels.
The touchpad is an ALPS model that looks and feels identical to the newer textured ones seen on the latest ThinkPad models. It is flush mount to the palmrest, and given a soft texture that is supposed to help with traction under varying conditions. I am personally a fan of the old matte plastic style, but given enough time the newer one might grow on me. In general I found the touchpad to be as responsive as the Synaptics model found on higher-end ThinkPad models. The only weakness I saw was tap to select, where the cursor would sometimes not let go of a selected object without a very deliberate click. This is common with many ALPS touchpads, but can be avoided most of the time.
Ports and Features Port selection was surprisingly good, including three USB ports, an eSATA/USB combo port, HDMI, VGA, and audio jacks. Lenovo also included an SDHC-card slot and ExpressCard/34 slot for expansion. The HDMI-out and eSATA were greatly appreciated, and I almost wish they offered those on more ThinkPad models.
Performance and Benchmarks System performance was great, with a quick 2.53GHz processor, 3GB of system memory, and a 7200RPM hard drive helping to keep load times to a minimum. For standard office productivity applications the system had no problems, barely breaking a sweat. Since the SL-series is slightly more multimedia oriented, Lenovo includes an HDMI port on the side to connect the notebook to an HDTV. In our multimedia tests the system had no problem playing 720P or 1080P video in the background while handling more productive tasks up front. Gaming with the Intel X4500 integrated graphics was out of the question for modern games, but previous generation games were possible with heavy tweaking. The 3DMark06 synthetic benchmark below shows how the SL510 provides better gaming performance than other notebooks designed for small business, but doesn't come close to the gaming performance of a consumer multimedia laptop like the Dell Studio 15. For its intended market of small businesses, the SL510 mixes the perfect blend of performance and price.
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 system managed heat fairly well in most area, but did leave a few spots warm to the touch. The panel covering the hard drive was stood out on the bottom as the warmest spot, which is most likely caused by the 7200RPM drive that consumes more power and throws off more heat. Under mild stress the plastic panels stayed within very reasonable temperature ranges, without any uncomfortable areas. Fan noise minimal, with the fan staying off the majority of the time while running on battery power, occasionally turning on to bring fresh air through the system. Under heavy stress levels fan speeds would pick up, but still not get overly loud.
Battery Life Our review unit of the SL510 included the midrange 6-cell battery with a capacity of 52Wh. With its older CCFL-backlit screen, power consumption was higher than the more efficient T-series, using roughly double the amount of power at idle. Under a light load where the T400 or T500 might be using 6-8 watts of power, the SL510 was at or above 12 watts. In our main test with the screen brightness set to 70%, Windows 7 on a balanced profile, and wireless active the system stayed on for 3 hours and 53 minutes. A larger battery would have helped, and is highly recommended if you plan on using this notebook to travel.
Conclusion The Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 proved to be a reasonable compromise between price and quality. While it doesn't offer the nicer touchpad or rugged build quality of the T-series, it retails for almost half the starting price. The SL-series is a good option for users looking for only basic qualities in a notebook like a standard WXGA screen or integrated graphics. It still offers a great keyboard and extended batteries if you plan on typing documents all day without breaking the wallet. Overall if you are looking for a notebook that will be sitting on a desk most of the day and staying out of harm's way, the SL510 is worth taking a look at.
Pros:
Good keyboard
Better than average build quality
Low starting price for a ThinkPad
Cons:
Few power-saving screen options
Higher power consumption than more expensive models
Dell Latitude XT2 30.11.2009 3:11:0 +0000 The Latitude XT2 is Dell's multitouch-enabled business convertible-notebook that now includes Windows 7. The XT2 starts at $1,909 and offers a very thin and lightweight business-rugged chassis with an attractive brushed-metal finish. In this review we find out if the XT2's system performance or multitouch support has improved under Windows 7.
Our Dell Latitude XT2 features the following specifications:
12.1" Premium WXGA (1280 x 800) LED-Backlight Display with 2-finger Multi-touch
Intel X4500MHD Integrated Graphics
3GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM (2GB + 1GB)
120GB Toshiba 1.8" 5400RPM HDD
8X CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive) through docking station
Dell Wireless 1510 A/G/N, Bluetooth, and 1Gb Ethernet
6-Cell 42WHr Battery
Limited 3-year standard parts and labor warranty with on-site service
Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.7 x 1.1"
Weight: 3lbs 13.6oz
Price as configured: $2,830 ($2,262 Street)
Build and Design The Dell Latitude XT2 has a very professional or industrial appearance with an all dark-grey design, sharp lines and edges, and even exposed screws. This notebook is definitely not targeted towards those looking for the next designer laptop. Instead, it is aimed squarely at those who just want to get down to business. The brushed metal surfaces are actually specially painted covers that give the look of metal but with the ease of maintenance that paint gives. The finish resists smudges and is much easier to wipe clean than most brushed metal exteriors. If it was painted matte black and had a Lenovo logo printed on it, you would swear it was a ThinkPad.
I personally love the side profile of the Latitude XT2, which is almost perfectly square at all corners. It has no sloped surfaces, no rounded sides, and sits very low to the desk surface. If you are carrying the tablet around in one arm it takes up such a small amount of space that you really don't mind holding it.
Build quality is excellent, and probably the best construction I have ever seen on a Dell notebook. Panels feel solid with very little creaking or squeaking plastic, and fit and finish are impeccable. Surfaces meet with clean lines and nothing feels out of place. Paint quality is great on every part of the body, with no specs of dust, unpainted edges, or any type of imperfection. The screen hinge is tough and rugged ... giving you the sense that it should hold up well over time. The chassis feels very durable with barely a hint of flex if you squeeze the palmrest or put heavy pressure on the keyboard. The screen lid has some minor wiggle, but the screen doesn't show any signs of color distortion unless you really try to twist the panel
Access to user-serviceable components is easy through two areas. The hard drive is located underneath the battery and has four screws and a frame holding it in place. The RAM, Wi-Fi card, and WWAN card are located under a single access panel held in with two screws. Most upgrade needs can be taken care of in less than five minutes or however long it takes you to swap out a component. One interesting feature that Dell puts front and center under the access panel is a user removable BIOS chip (with a handy pull tab). This lets companies replace it in the event of a failed BIOS update, instead of sending the entire machine in for repair.
Screen and Speakers The 12.1" screen on the Dell Latitude XT2 looks great and is one of the better tablet screens I have seen in person. With the multiple touchscreen and pen input layers that tablets need over the actual display panel, most tablet screens look very hazy or cloudy compared to a standard notebook screen. The 1280 x 800 display on the XT2 looks slightly hazy compared to a normal display, but much nicer than the average tablet screen. One important feature of a tablet or slate screen is wide viewing angles for using the screen from multiple positions without having lots of color distortion. The display on the XT2 is above average in terms of horizontal viewing angles, but still suffers from some distortion when viewing the screen in landscape mode and pushing the screen back.
Backlight levels on this screen are about average with other business notebooks, but not as good as "sunlight readable" displays. Dell does offer a brighter panel for daylight use ... which should hopefully be bright enough to not be washed out in direct sunlight.
The Dell XT2 includes a capacitive touch-screen with a built-in digitizer for pen input. The pen gives excellent traction and feedback on the screen similar to a ball-point pen over a glossy hard cover book. The texture allows precise movement, and it stays consistent across the entire screen. Oils from my fingers touching the screen didn't seem to affect the pen traction too much, although for the best writing surface possible I would suggest taking a microfiber cloth to the screen first. The pen includes two side-mounted buttons for the second mouse click and erase functions. I found them to both work well but the second mouse button is slightly too sensitive ... activating with the slightest touch.
The XT2 supports two-finger multitouch with its capacitive touch display. We didn't see much improvement between the multitouch environment in Windows Vista compared to Windows 7. Scrolling and zooming in Internet Explorer 8 still feels choppy, which makes it very easy to overshoot your intended mark. Switching to other web browsers didn't seem to help much and Google's Chrome only interacted with the zoom feature. I feel when it comes to multitouch Apple's hardware and software support is by far the best. Dell also didn't include any OEM-specific touch software on our Latitude XT2 besides ControlPoint which felt out-dated and redundant compared to Windows 7's own controls.
The audio system on the XT2 consists of a single mono speaker located on the left side of the chassis. It works well enough for listening to the occasional song or movie, but it sounds really off-center because the single speaker is located on one side. Peak volume is pretty loud, but it also distorts when it tries to produce bass or midrange audio. Headphones are a must.
Keyboard and Touchpad The XT2 keyboard looks and feels great with slim keys and high visibility labeling. The layout is easy to follow with full-size primary keys and appropriately sized function keys. Compared to other notebooks the keys have a shallower throw, which is a side effect of the thin chassis. I actually found the keyboard to be quicker to type on compared to the ThinkPad X200, since the shorter throw means less travel before a key activates. The individual keys have no wiggle when you try to move the top of the key side to side.
The touchpad is an ALPS model running proprietary Dell software. Compared to the average Snypatics model it does show some minor lag, but it still feels responsive and easy to use. I think Dell could have gone with a larger touchpad surface, since the XT2 has enough space to incorporate it if you move the buttons more towards the lower edge of the palmrest. Dell also includes a pointing stick, which worked, but doesn't feel as fluid or responsive as other alternatives I have used.
Ports and Features Port selection is excellent ... even when compared to larger notebooks. The Latitude XT2 offers two USB ports, one eSATA/USB combo, audio in/out, FireWire, VGA, LAN, and a proprietary power socket for some Dell accessories. If you need more ports or an optical drive, the docking station gives you four USB ports, serial, DVI, VGA, LAN, headphone out, and of course an optical drive. The docking station feels extremely well built, and has one of the nicest latching mechanisms I have seen. It has a sturdy metal latch arm, which when extended and released has a delayed motion where everything slowly clicks into place.
Front: Lower edge of battery
Rear: AC Power, VGA, LAN, one USB + power jack, tablet controls on display lid
Performance Compared to our previous review of the XT2 running Windows Vista, the same configuration running Windows 7 seems to have taken a performance hit. Under normal day-to-day activities the system doesn't feel up to speed even when compared to new thin and light notebooks. We feel some of this could be blamed on the 5400RPM 1.8" hard drive that is half the speed of common 2.5" 5400RPM drives. Opening up applications such as iTunes felt sluggish and lengthy boot times -- even with the standard bloatware removed- were still near one minute. This could be alleviated by configuring your XT2 with one of the SSD options, but that upgrade drives up the price. The Latitude XT2 also has the disadvantage of slower processor options compared to the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet, which negatively impacts the system performance of the XT2. Gaming performance was weak with the Intel X4500 integrated graphics, but this is true of almost all tablets on the market. HD movie playback was good for 720P and 1080P video, but multitasking in the background while watching an HD movie wouldn't be the best idea with the 1.4GHz 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):
HDTune storage drive performance test:
Heat and Noise Thermal performance of the XT2 is excellent, and the XT2stayed only mildly warm throughout most of our testing. While under a higher load during our benchmarking, system temperatures crept up slightly, but still stayed within very reasonable levels as shown below. Fan noise is minimal, and I can't actually recall the fan coming on once during the review. If it was on, it was spinning slow enough that it was barely moving any air. Overall Dell did a very good job cooling the internals of the XT2.
Battery Life The Dell Latitude XT2 has lower power consumption under Windows 7 than it did in our previous review running Vista. In our battery test with the screen brightness set to 70%, Windows 7 on the Balanced profile, and wireless active the system stayed on for 3 hours and 59 minutes before going into standby mode. This is up from the previous 3 hours and 24 minutes we saw under the same conditions running Vista. For extended battery life Dell offers a 45Wh "slice" battery which is an external battery that attaches to the bottom of the notebook. This more than doubles the power capacity of the system but would also substantially increase its travel weight.
Conclusion The Latitude XT2 is a good looking and well built business convertible-notebook that seems to lag behind the competition. Compared to its main rival, the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet, it uses a slower 1.8" hard drive, slower processor, and offers much less battery life unless you also use an add-on battery slice. One of the XT2's biggest flaws is the use of much slower 1.8" 5400RPM hard drives ... making the performance much slower than other top-tier business machines. Windows 7 multitouch support didn't fix the problems we had under Vista. Simple gestures such as scrolling or zooming feel jerky and make it easy to overshoot your intended mark. Sensitivity adjustments for multitouch in this situation would make a world of difference. Overall the Dell Latitude XT2 would lose many of its downsides if it included faster hard drives or processors and its price came down compared to competitors.
Pros:
Good looking and thin design
Great build quality
Improved battery life under Windows 7
Cons:
Slow 1.8" 5400RPM hard drive
High pricetag
RSS FEED
Compaq nx9600 Laptop Computer Notebook (3.0GHz Pentium 4 w/ HT Technology, 512MB DDR2, 80GB, DVD/CD-RW, Windows XP Pro, 17 TFT) 19.12.2008 8:16:9 GMT Processor intensive operations like large spreadsheets and databases are manageable because this notebook PC is based on the Intel Pentium 4 processors, with Hyper-Threading Technology. The large 17-inch wide-screen WXGA display, combined with high performance ATI Mobility Radeon X300 graphics, can easily handle demanding graphical business software. Work like you are at your desk with the recessed touchpad and 4-way scrollzone that scrolls both vertically and horizontally.
Compaq NX9600 Laptop Computer Notebook (3.2GHz Pentium 4 w/ HT Technology, 512MB DDR2, 80GB, DVD+RW, Windows XP Pro, 17 LCD) 19.12.2008 8:16:7 GMT Processor intensive operations like large spreadsheets and databases are manageable because this notebook PC is based on the Intel Pentium 4 processor, with Hyper-Threading Technology. The large 17-inch wide-screen display, combined with high performance ATI Mobility Radeon X300 graphics, can easily handle demanding graphical business software. Work like you are at your desk with the recessed touchpad and the 4-way scrollzone that scrolls both vertically and horizontally.
HP nx9600 Laptop Computer Notebook (3.4GHz Pentium 4 w/ HT Technology, 1GB DDR2, 100GB, DVD+RW, Windows XP Pro, 17 ) 19.12.2008 7:52:21 GMT Processor intensive operations like large spreadsheets and databases are manageable because this notebook PC is based on the Intel Pentium 4 processors, with Hyper-Threading Technology. The large 17-inch wide-screen WSXGA BrightView display, combined with high performance ATI Mobility Radeon X600 graphics, can easily handle demanding graphical business software. Work like you are at your desk with the recessed touchpad and new 4-way scrollzone that scrolls both vertically and horizontally.
HP Laptop Computer nx8220 Notebook (1.73GHz Pentium M Centrino 740, 512MB DDR, 60GB, Windows XP Pro, 15.4 TFT) 19.12.2008 7:52:19 GMT The HP Compaq 8200 series Notebook PCs combines the processing and graphics power of a desktop with the mobility and convenience of a notebook. If offers users high performance processing and graphics capabilities in a travel friendly, thin and wide form factor. Mobile professionals will like the thin, sleek design combined with the advantages of a 15.4-inch widescreen display and desktop equivalent performance. IT managers will value the full portfolio of integrated security options, breadth of integrated wireless choices, and unsurpassed commonality and consistency with the entire enterprise notebook line. The HP Compaq 8200 series is the ideal choice for enterprise-wide deployment to mobile users who need the power of a desktop and the convenience of a notebook.
Processor intensive operations like large spreadsheets and databases are manageable because this notebook PC is based on the Intel Pentium 4 processors, with Hyper-Threading Technology. The large 17-inch wide-screen WXGA display, combined with high performance ATI Mobility Radeon X300 graphics, can easily handle demanding graphical business software. Work like you are at your desk with the recessed touchpad and 4-way scrollzone that scrolls both vertically and horizontally. 
Processor intensive operations like large spreadsheets and databases are manageable because this notebook PC is based on the Intel Pentium 4 processor, with Hyper-Threading Technology. The large 17-inch wide-screen display, combined with high performance ATI Mobility Radeon X300 graphics, can easily handle demanding graphical business software. Work like you are at your desk with the recessed touchpad and the 4-way scrollzone that scrolls both vertically and horizontally. 
Processor intensive operations like large spreadsheets and databases are manageable because this notebook PC is based on the Intel Pentium 4 processors, with Hyper-Threading Technology. The large 17-inch wide-screen WSXGA BrightView display, combined with high performance ATI Mobility Radeon X600 graphics, can easily handle demanding graphical business software. Work like you are at your desk with the recessed touchpad and new 4-way scrollzone that scrolls both vertically and horizontally. 
The HP Compaq 8200 series Notebook PCs combines the processing and graphics power of a desktop with the mobility and convenience of a notebook. If offers users high performance processing and graphics capabilities in a travel friendly, thin and wide form factor. Mobile professionals will like the thin, sleek design combined with the advantages of a 15.4-inch widescreen display and desktop equivalent performance. IT managers will value the full portfolio of integrated security options, breadth of integrated wireless choices, and unsurpassed commonality and consistency with the entire enterprise notebook line. The HP Compaq 8200 series is the ideal choice for enterprise-wide deployment to mobile users who need the power of a desktop and the convenience of a notebook. 
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