Laptop Computers

The Buyer’s Guide to Laptop Computers

an Personal Technology eBook contents []The Buyer’s Guide to Laptop Computers

This content was adapted from Internet.com's Hardware Central, and SmallBusinessComputing Web sites. Contributors: Eric Grevstad and Jamie Bsales.

3 Acer Aspire One: No. 1 in Value Eric Grevstad

6 Lenovo IdeaPad U110: An Attractive Idea 3 Eric Grevstad

8 Lenovo ThinkPad X200: A Three-Pound Hatchling Ready to Fly Jamie Bsales

6 8 10 Gateway M-1626: 64 But Not Hardcore Eric Grevstad

14 Lenovo ThinkPad X300: You Know You Want It Eric Grevstad 10 14 17 HP 2133 Mini-Note: Eee-clipse? Eric Grevstad

20 HP EliteBook 6930p: Keep Your Data and Hardware Secure 17 20 Jamie Bsales

1 []The Buyer’s Guide to Laptop Computers

The Buyer’s Guide to Laptop Computers

ith laptop computers available that are e-mail and the Web would be a good complement. about as powerful as a desktop model, The hardware editors at Internet.com review dozens Wthere's no excuse not have a PC you can of computers, accessories, and gadgets every year. take with you when you hit the road. If you're still tied Here's a sampling of the models they tested in the to your desktop computer, then perhaps a new net- past year to digest before you go hunting for the per- book that can go anywhere and keep you in touch via fect system. Good luck and happy shopping! “ …we created this guide for Internet.com members researching mobile computers that keep them in touch wherever they go. ” 2 The Buyer’s Guide to Laptop Computers, An Internet.com Personal Technology eBook. © 2009, Jupitermedia Corp. []The Buyer’s Guide to Laptop Computers

Acer Aspire One: No. 1 in Value

By Eric Grevstad

e have a winner,if not in the sales competition at book wars, the Aspire One. True, "impressed" doesn't least in the nomenclature contest: The low-priced, mean "enraptured"; Intel's new Atom processor's per- Wlightweight laptops inspired by last fall's Asus Eee formance is underwhelming, and our test unit delivered PC and since described as everything from mini-notebooks disappointingly brief battery life. to kneetops to Microsoft's catchy acronym ULCPCs (ultra- low-cost PCs) are now universally called netbooks, after their But the Acer is a handsome and classy ultraportable primary purpose of simple Web and e-mail access. with a high-quality 8.9-inch display, a remarkably usable keyboard, and the familiar environment of Windows XP They're also selling like mad to students Home Edition with an ample 120GB hard disk for and traveling professionals who don't installing applications and storing data, want to carry a heavy full-sized laptop music, and image files. just for going online or doing some word Considering that it cost the processing or presentation work -- and same $399 as the 7-inch, key- who don't want to pay big bucks for an board- and storage-cramped upscale ultralight such as Apple's Eee PC 4G we cheered last MacBook Air or Lenovo's ThinkPad November, we decided fairly X301. That's why Asus has been joined quickly to give it a thumbs up. by HP, Acer, MSI, and (soon) Dell and Lenovo, all trying to find the And that was before Acer low- sweet spot of reduced-but- ered the price to $349. not-too-reduced features and performance ver- Go Get Your sus price. Own, Kid Trouble is, the plunging prices of full- Actually, Acer has introduced what it fledged notebooks are screwing with the sweet calls back-to-school savings on two spot. HP offers a bare-bones, Linux-based configuration Aspire One models. Our review system, of its 2133 Mini-Note for $499, but the top-of-the-line model AOA150-1570, combines Windows XP Windows Vista Business model is a hefty $829. with 1GB of memory and the abovementioned 120GB hard disk. And while the original 7-inch-screened Eee flew off the shelves at $400, Asus' current 10-inch Eee PC 1000 For $329, the Aspire One AOA110-1722 stays closer to costs $700. That's not even mentioning the online buzz the first Eee recipe with the Linpus Linux Lite operating about an Asus presentation this summer that outlined a system, 512MB of RAM, and an 8GB solid-state drive confusing crop of more than 20 Eee-branded PCs at (SSD) instead of a hard disk. Like the Eee 4G's variation prices up to $900. Can you say "losing sight of simple on Xandros Linux, the Linpus platform hides the open- and affordable"? source OS' complexity behind point-and-click icons in categories such as Connect (browser, instant messen- That's why we're impressed with Acer's entry in the net- ger, e-mail), Fun (media player, photo manager), and

Work (the OpenOffice.org word processor, spread- Like all netbooks, the Acer's keyboard reflects some sheet, and so on). downsizing -- the A through apostrophe keys span 7.25 inches, compared to 8 inches for a desktop keyboard Both of the above Aspires come with a three-cell bat- and 7.5 inches for the category-leading HP 2133. tery pack that fits flush with the back of the case. Acer has assigned the $399 price point to a new Win XP But it's considerably more comfortable than the 6.5 configuration (AOA150-1447) with a 160GB hard drive inches of the original Eee PC 4G, with a sturdy, first- and six-cell battery. class typing feel that encourages almost-full-speed touch typing after just an hour or so of practice or con- We'd like to get our hands on the six-pack, because we sciously precise fingerwork. rarely got the One to run for more than two hours unplugged -- maybe two hours and ten minutes doing Considering that we could come up with only one light productivity work with the Wi-Fi radio turned off, minor gripe about the layout -- the lack of dedicated but that proved the best-case scenario. Two hours is all PgUp and PgDn keys (they're Fn-key combinations with right for a luggable desktop replacement, but a toss-it- the Home and End keys) -- you're left with a keyboard into-your-briefcase-or-backpack netbook should last that ranks near the top of the netbook category. much longer. Unfortunately, we can't say the same for the cursor-con- At least Acer's advertised lifespan for the three-cell trol touchpad below the space bar -- it's awfully small, pack -- a maximum two and a half hours with the hard with stiff and noisy mouse buttons mounted on either disk, three hours with SSD -- is less exaggerated than side rather than beneath the pad's perimeter. most notebook vendors' battery claims. So when the company estimates six hours for the six-cell, we can Tinkering with the controls enables handy features such hope for an honest five. as virtual scrolling (moving your finger either up and down along the right edge of the pad, or in counter- or Am I Blue? clockwise circles next to the edge), but these reduce the already cramped room to maneuver. Overall, the The Aspire One measures 6.7 x 9.8 x 1.1 inches and touchpad is tolerable, but a notebook mouse would weighs 2.3 pounds -- an even three pounds with its AC make a good holiday gift for an Aspire One owner. adapter.

It's also available in white, but we vote for the Aspire in Mini-Hyper-Threading our test unit's deep blue, which manages to be both Speaking of scrolling, the Acer's screen's 1,024 x 600 one of the best-looking and best fingerprint- and resolution will oblige you to do a bit more vertical smudge-collecting shades we've seen. There's no pol- scrolling than you're used to, but at least spare you the ishing cloth in the box for buffing the netbook's lid and chore of having to move horizontally to see a whole palm rest, but there's a soft, snug-fitting carrying Web page as the 7-inch Eee's 800 x 680-pixel panel pouch. did.

A tiny slider switch on the Acer's front edge turns the The 8.9-inch Aspire One display is crisp and bright, at 802.11b/g wireless on and off. Microphone and head- least with the LED backlight on the top three or four of phone jacks, two USB 2.0 ports, and an its ten brightness settings. Colors looked great, albeit SD/MMC/xD/Memory Stick flash-card slot are on the sensitive to nudging the screen tilt a few degrees for- system's right side, with a third USB port, VGA and ward or back, with less of the shaving-mirror effect Ethernet ports, and an additional SD card slot along we've seen with other glossy LCDs. If you do want to the left. look at your reflection, there's a bare-bones 640 x 480 webcam above the screen. On the Linux model, this slot performs the nifty trick of merging a memory card with the SSD as seamless main Under the hood, you'll find 1GB of DDR2/667 memory storage, rather than appearing as an additional drive. and a 120GB, 5,400 rpm Hitachi SATA hard drive, as

4 The Buyer’s Guide to Laptop Computers, An Internet.com Personal Technology eBook. © 2009, Jupitermedia Corp. []The Buyer’s Guide to Laptop Computers well as Intel's Atom N270 -- a single-core, 1.6GHz A Real Deal processor with 512K of Level 2 cache and a 533MHz front-side bus. While the netbook has 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, neither Bluetooth nor 3G wireless broadband are included. The watt-saving CPU revives the Hyper-Threading Plugging in a USB dongle can get you the former; Acer Technology that Intel touted before it had true dual- has mentioned an internal upgrade for the latter, but core processors, giving at least a modest boost for mul- there's no hard news as of yet. It's 3G we're thinking of tithreaded applications or multitasking -- the Acer ren- when we say we wish the Aspire One had an dered Cinebench 10's sample scene in a bit over 27 ExpressCard slot like Lenovo's IdeaPad S10. minutes without Hyper-Threading, but less than 18 minutes with the feature enabled. Acer's software bundle is modest. Sixty-day trial versions of Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student and To be sure, 18 minutes for Cinebench 10 -- or 1 minute McAfee Security Center are preinstalled, as are and 15 seconds to boot XP and load the preinstalled Microsoft Works, Yahoo Toolbar, and InterVideo utilities and taskbar icons, or four seconds' wait after WinDVD, presumably for users who'll buy a USB exter- right-clicking the desktop and clicking Properties to see nal DVD drive. The day we registered our McAfee trial, the Display Properties dialog box -- is not dazzling per- we were amused to get an e-mail offering the full ver- formance. Overall, the Aspire One is clearly faster than sion of the security suite for 29 percent off the list price, the VIA C7-based HP 2133, and perfectly adequate for followed a few hours later by an offer for 36 percent everyday applications, but occasionally feels a bit slug- off. We figure if we wait another day or two we'll get a gish. better offer.

Plugged into an external monitor for the sake of our By contrast, we doubt that netbook shoppers will see a benchmark tests' XGA resolution -- the system can better offer than the Win XP Aspire One for $349 either clone its LCD display on an attached monitor or (though we're equally tempted by the six-cell model for work at higher resolution with the LCD switched off -- $399). Right now, the Acer saves you at least $100 and the Acer posted a PCMark05 score of 1,501 (CPU in some cases over $200 compared to competitors 1,478; memory 2,350; hard disk 3,872; graphics 549). from HP, Asus, and MSI. It also seems likely to undercut the latecomers from Lenovo and Dell, unless those ven- And we cry "Oh noooo!" like Mr. Bill whenever we dis- dors come in significantly below their announced or cover that a PC has the old Intel 945GME chipset's anticipated prices. GMA 950 integrated graphics. The Acer upheld the video platform's molasses reputation by meandering to Along the way, it turns the "Since a netbook nowadays 3DMark06 and 3DMark05 scores of 109 and 248, costs the same or more, why not get a real notebook?" respectively, and stumbling through the DirectX 9.0 argument upside down: If you can settle for a plug-in game simulation AquaMark3 at 4 frames per second. optical drive and slightly subpar touchpad, why should you spend more than $400 or carry more than three pounds? This may be the year's best PC value. ■

Lenovo IdeaPad U110: An Attractive Idea

By Eric Grevstad

o you change clothes when you come home from mon with ultralights, there's a larger, longer-lived alter- work? You probably trade your conservative duds for native battery -- a seven-cell pack that protrudes slight- Dsomething more colorful and comfortable (unless ly at the rear and below and hikes system weight to 2.9 you're Superman, who dresses more colorfully when going pounds. to work). If you winced when you read the U110's price, you Lenovo does the same thing: When it supplemented its should take into account that both batteries, like the ThinkPad business laptop line with a series of consumer USB optical drive and a soft carrying pouch, notebooks dubbed IdeaPad, the company gave the come with the system instead of hiding as ultralight IdeaPad U110 not a matte black but a options or asterisks on a lower advertised vivid red case lid, garnished with an ornate tex- price. Also, though the IdeaPad has a tured paisley pattern that's even echoed on the smidgen less sex appeal, it costs the underside with artfully cut cooling vents. same as an Apple MacBook Air with no optical drive or swappable bat- But there's more to the U110 than flash and splash. tery. Once you admit that it's a splurge at $1,899, the 11.1- inch-screened compact is an appealing civilian alterna- On the minus side, while tive to the super-elite $3,000 ThinkPad X300 slimline Lenovo estimates that the lit- we love. tle and big batteries can last as long as two and six hours, Extreme Portability respectively, our U110 fell far short of such endurance. The While the X300 is remarkably four-cell lasted barely an hour and light for a notebook that a quarter in our real-world work ses- includes an onboard opti- sions. The seven-cell averaged about cal drive, the U110 is three hours in mixed-use stints without lighter still, because (spoiler the DVD±RW attached and two hours ahead) it doesn't. Instead, the IdeaPad comes with a when using the drive to watch a DVD. 13-ounce external DVD±RW drive that plugs into the two USB 2.0 ports on the system's left side. (One port Besides the two USB ports, the notebook's left side isn't enough to power the AC-adapter-less drive.) offers a VGA monitor connector and an exhaust-fan vent that can get pretty warm. A third USB port, Setting aside the DVD burner and the system's AC FireWire and Ethernet connectors, microphone and adapter (11 ounces), the Lenovo measures 7.7 x 10.8 x headphone jacks, a six-format memory-card reader slot, 0.9 inches and tips the scales at 2.4 pounds with the and an ExpressCard slot are at the right. Bluetooth is provided four-cell battery pack, which fits flush with the standard, along with 802.11a/g Wi-Fi. notebook for a sleek and trim appearance. As is com-

The small laptop makes room for a full-sized keyboard 2,891) -- decent numbers except for the last, reflecting (8 inches from A through apostrophe), except for half- the leisurely 4,200-rpm Toshiba 120GB hard disk. sized function, Delete, and cursor-control keys. The only layout quirk that takes a little adjusting to is that, The slimline scored 3.5 on its Windows Vista Home while there are dedicated PgUp and PgDn keys instead Premium (Service Pack 2) operating system's 5.9-point of the common and clumsy Fn-key-plus-cursor-arrow Experience Index scale. It rendered Cinebench 10's combinations, there aren't dedicated Home and End sample image in 4 minutes and 36 seconds with both keys -- those are the Fn key plus PgUp and PgDn. CPU cores active. (Pressing the Fn key along with the cursor arrows dials the LCD backlight and audio volume up or down.) The U110's integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (Intel GM965 chipset) graphics do disqualify it We had to adjust to something else during our first for all but the most casual gaming -- 10 and 23 frames hour or two with the U110 -- the keys, like the palm rest per second in the old, low-octane AquaMark3 and below them, are a glossy black that becomes smoth- Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, respectively, with a ered with smudgy fingerprints after about five minutes. 3DMark06 score of 593 (1,280 x 768 resolution with no They actually felt a bit slippery at first, like walking on antialiasing). freshly waxed floor tiles, but our fingers quickly adjust- ed. Call the result a medium-good but not exceptional Take a Look at Me Now typing feel. Most of the IdeaPad's software bundle is what you'd The IdeaPad breaks from Lenovo's ThinkPads in not expect -- trial versions of Norton AntiVirus and having a center-of-keyboard nub or pointing stick for Microsoft Office; CyberLink's Power2Go for burning mouse control, just a smallish touchpad with good- music, video, and photo DVDs and CDs; a handy sized mouse buttons below it. It worked smoothly and EasyCapture utility for taking snapshots with the 1.3- nearly silently in our tests. megapixel webcam above the screen. Shuttle Center II is an eye-candy alternative to Windows Media Center At the risk of getting spoiled, we're rapidly losing our for perusing and using your MP3s, images, and other affection for laptop LCDs without the latest LED back- multimedia files. light technology. The notebook's 11.1-inch, LED-backlit display is crisp and clear, at least at the top two or We were disappointed, however, by one of Lenovo's three of its brightness settings -- when we first read the touted features -- VeriFace, a software solution that system specs we feared that squeezing 1,366 x 768 res- uses the webcam to identify your face and automate olution into the relatively small widescreen panel would your Windows login and Web site passwords, as many make text and icons too tiny for tired eyes, but the dis- notebooks' fingerprint readers do. play proved first-class, superbly sharp with colors that pop. It also fits flush with the surrounding black border It turns out we have a forgettable face. Sometimes instead of having a traditional bezel -- Lenovo calls it VeriFace recognized us and proceeded to Windows "frameless" -- for an even cooler appearance. after just one or two passes of its on-screen scanner (which puts creepy circles over your eyes as part of its It's not just in size and style that the IdeaPad U110 face mapping), but sometimes we spent a frustrating stands comparison with the ThinkPad X300. Thanks to five minutes trying different positions, angles, and gen- a faster CPU -- Intel's 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo L7500, with erally playing peek-a-boo with a scanner determined, an 800MHz front-side bus and 4MB of Level 2 cache -- Mission Impossible-style, to disavow any knowledge of the consumer compact beat the professional model in our actions. We switched the feature off after a couple many of our benchmark tests. of days.

Fitted with 2GB of DDR2/667 memory (one 1GB module Still, the IdeaPad U110 has plenty of attractive features on the motherboard and one in the system's sole memo- for someone seeking an ultralight with more pizzazz ry slot), the IdeaPad posted a PCMark05 score of 3,476 than your average ThinkPad or Portege. And if red's ■ (CPU 4,007; memory 3,737; graphics 1,628; hard drive not your color, it also comes in black.

Lenovo ThinkPad X200: A Three-Pound Hatchling Ready to Fly

By Jamie Bsales

f you've been schlepping around a too-heavy,too-slow integrated graphics via a faster Graphics Media notebook for too long, Intel and Lenovo have given you Accelerator X4500HD chip with hardware-based high- Ieven more reasons to buy a better laptop. The new definition video decoding. Intel boasts that Centrino 2 ThinkPad X200 is Lenovo's latest ultraportable notebook, a both improves notebook performance and extends three-pound hatchling that's ready to fly thanks to Intel's new battery life. Centrino 2 mobile-PC platform. Indeed, in our informal testing, the Core 2 Duo The X200 replaces the ThinkPad X61, slotting below P8400-powered (a 2.26GHz the rave-reviewed but hyper-pricey ThinkPad processor with 3MB of Level 2 X300 in Lenovo's lineup. Instead of the latter's cache) Lenovo generally out- 13.3-inch display, the X200 is built around a performed other ultraportables 12.1-inch screen that gives the system a foot- in the three-pound weight print about the size of a sheet of paper. range, launching and running applications at speeds tradition- Its slim profile tapers from less than an inch ally reserved for larger laptops. A to 1.4 inches thick, and its light weight 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo P8600 CPU is makes it easy to tote to meetings an option. or slip in your bag. The exterior is the familiar If you spend a lot of time away from ThinkPad matte black; an electrical outlet, you'll also it won't turn heads, but does appreciate the X200's battery life, give an appropriately professional which Lenovo estimates at 3.2 hours impression. with the standard four-cell battery and more than nine hours with a nine-cell battery that Beauty on the Inside hikes system weight to 3.6 pounds. While the X200's exterior is buttoned-down, its sex Business-Friendly Features appeal lurks on the inside. Intel's Centrino 2 platform marries the latest generation of speedy Core 2 Duo The ThinkPad has other features a business pro would processors to a faster front-side bus (1066MHz, up crave. Unlike other ultraportables, which make you from 800MHz in previous Centrino solutions), which suffer with an undersized keyboard, the X200's key- helps eliminate performance bottlenecks at the board is full-sized, with the famous feel and respon- system level. siveness long a hallmark of ThinkPad portables. Lenovo also provides dedicated volume and mute Centrino 2 also delivers an improved Wi-Fi wireless buttons (no more fumbling with a Fn-key combo) as chip including 802.11-DraftN support, as well as well as the handy ThinkLight, a white LED above the embedded Gigabit Ethernet networking and improved screen that gives off just enough light to illuminate

The 12.1-inch, 1,200 x 800-resolution screen is bright While the X200 has a lot going for it, it does necessi- and exceedingly sharp. Compared to its X61 prede- tate a few tradeoffs typical of the ultraportable class. cessor's 1,024 x 768-pixel panel, the widescreen First and foremost, unlike the pricier X300, the note- aspect ratio keeps the height of the panel fairly squat, book doesn't have a built-in optical drive. You'll have to which makes the X200 ideal for use on an airline tray invest in a USB-based external drive or opt for Lenovo's table. You can equip the X200 with an 80GB, 160GB, snap-on UltraBase accessory, which adds a modular bay or 320GB hard drive; a 200GB, 7,200-rpm drive with for a CD-RW/DVD-ROM, DVD±RW, or Blu-ray drive or Full Disk Encryption; or a 64GB solid-state drive (SSD) a second battery second hard disk. that uses indestructible flash memory instead of spin- ning platters. If you've ever had a traditional hard The small size of the X200 also means there was only drive die on you, the allure of an SSD is obvious. room for the familiar ThinkPad TrackPoint pointing stick, not the touchpad most portable users have grown With the exception of FireWire, the X200 has all the accustomed to. And while the notebook's built-in ports you're likely to need, including three USB 2.0 speaker is fine for personal use, you'll want to rely on ports; a VGA connector for hooking up a projector or your projector's speakers if you're given a presentation monitor; modem and Ethernet jacks; and a PC Card in any but the smallest conference room. slot. Options include a fingerprint reader for added login security, a Webcam for videoconferencing, and a But these compromises can be said of most every five-format memory-card reader. three-pound PC, and the X200 does away with two of the biggest shortcomings of previous examples: so-so Lenovo also offers optional wireless broadband, which performance and a cramped, substandard keyboard. lets you connect via cellular carriers' high-speed net- Even better, the base configuration starts at a reason- works; the WWAN option has a handy option of its own able $1,199. Considering its cutting-edge features and in GPS navigation. If you often find yourself paying for horsepower, that price makes the ThinkPad X200 a bar- ■ wireless access at airports, hotels, and other W-fi hot gain to boot. spots -- or find yourself someplace without Wi-Fi alto- gether -- this feature can pay for itself quickly.