Overview and Introduction

I’ve always liked small, pretty things. That’s what drew me to the Sony VAIO TX850p, a sleek little notebook from Sony’s ultraportable VAIO TX line. It appears that Sony wishes to target “travelling professionals” with the TX line, which is why aesthetics, small size, and battery life appear to be emphasized in its design

The TX850p was the newest TX when it appeared on the market at the end of summer 2006, until Sony released the TXN series which coincided with Microsoft’s release of Windows Vista. Having seen and used a TXN25, I can say that currently, the only difference between the TX and TXN series is that the latter comes with Windows Vista Business and has a slightly faster processor (a Core Solo ULV U1500 at 1.33 GHz).

Sony VAIO TX850p

Sony VAIO TX850p specifications:

• Intel Core Solo processor Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) U1400 (1.2GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB)
• 1GB DDR2 RAM (expandable to 1.5)
• 80GB 4200-RPM hard drive
• Built-in DVD+/-R burner
• Intel GMA 950 integrated display adapter, supported by the Intel 945G Express Chipset
• 11.1″ WXGA Display (1366×768 resolution) with XBrite Technology
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional w/ SP2
• Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 A/B/G Wireless LAN
• Integrated Bluetooth
• Fingerprint Reader
• PCMCIA slot
• Memory Stick/SD Memory Card slot
• 2 USB ports/D-Sub VGA out/Port Replicator/Microphone/Headphone
• Dial-up modem/FireWire/Ethernet
• Instant ON DVD/Music player

Note About Processors:

Intel currently has two processor product lines with the word “core” in their names: Core and Core 2. When choosing a processor, please be careful to check which series the processor is in (Core or Core 2) as well as the actual model name (Solo, Duo) (obviously, not all processors from Intel are Core or Core 2). Most importantly, not all Core 2 processors are dual-core. For instance, a Core 2 Solo processor is a single-core processor with Core 2 architecture (actually, it is a dual-core processor with one core physically deactivated). Conversely, a Core Duo processor is a dual-core processor with Core architecture. Core 2 processors are generally regarded as superior to Core processors, but Intel has yet to develop and release Core 2 ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) and Core Duo ULV processors. This is why the TX850p only comes with a Core Solo; it’s the only Core/Core 2 ULV processor on the market.

Intel has probably chosen these confusing names for its CPU lines in hopes of taking advantage of uninformed consumers who may think that Intel is the only manufacturer of dual-core processors.

As of this writing, there aren’t many applications which take advantage of dual-core processors’ capabilities, but it would seem that they are the processors of the future, and more and more developers are writing for dual-core architecture. Thus, a dual-core machine is more “future-proof” - that is, less likely to become obsolete in the near future.

Reasons for Buying

My search began as one for the most affordable ultraportable laptop I could find, which led me first to Averatec, a little-known notebook manufacturer, with its 1000 series which has a 10.6″ screen, decent specs and, at the time, an attractive £890 price tag. But when I saw the VAIO TX850P, my budget quickly skyrocketed. I also considered the Lenovo ThinkPad X60 for its small size, Core Duo CPU (which is a dual-core processor as opposed to the TX850P’s single-core Core Solo), and legendary ThinkPad build quality.

Where and How Purchased

This laptop was purchased at my university bookstore for £1500 which was just about the lowest market price at the time (October 2006). It is a bit steep, but half a year later, I still feel that it was an excellent purchase for my needs.

Build & Design

Aesthetic design is one of the TX series’ best attributes. The keyboard and lower potion of the laptop is a cool grey supporting a razor-thin black screen housing. The case is made of carbon fiber, which allows for both flexible strength and light weight (Sony quotes 2.75lbs with the standard battery).

Top view of the TX850p

Sony has managed to squeeze a ton of features and gadgets into this tiny machine, and yet I find the placement of the various ports, switches, and buttons to be absolutely optimal, and they look good, too. The power button, which is translucent and lights up green when the laptop’s on, is located on a raised hump near the bottom of the screen, along with a row of other multimedia buttons and an soft-eject button for the optical drive. The Wi-Fi/Bluetooth switch as well as mute and volume +/- buttons are located at the front, just below the right hand when typing; they’re functional and solid. Props to Sony for this.

Unfortunately, build quality is one of the lesser qualities of the TX850p, though it isn’t horrible. Because the case is thin carbon fiber, it flexes a small amount, though I don’t doubt its strength. However, there are definitely weak points in the construction (see pictures):

• There is a cover over one of the USB ports and the modem port. I don’t really think this is necessary, as it hinders access to the all-important USB ports. The flap itself also seems to be quite flimsy, which makes me afraid to use that port for fear of breaking the cover over time. To fix this problem, I use a powered USB hub to quickly attach several USB peripherals using the one readily available port.
• Sony placed the Kensington lock slot directly above the open USB port. This makes it impossible to simultaneously lock the computer and have a peripheral plugged in to that port.
• The tube at one of the corners of my laptop broke, allowing the cap to be pushed inward. This probably happened because the laptop is put into a sleeve which goes vertically into a backpack. But the laptop has been babied throughout its lifetime, so this breakage is a bit unreasonable.
  Broken hinge tube area
• 
• The screen does not wobble easily and hardly moves when typing, but it will ripple fairly easily with pressure or twisting. However, it’s not likely that this will happen by accident; it does take willpower. I also wish that the hinges were a little more substantial, but it shouldn’t be a big deal as long as you don’t try to use the thing as a rowing machine.
• The weakest link is the optical drive. Located on the right side, the tray is light but flimsy and shakeable - it can be moved way too much when it’s open. By comparison, the optical drive trays in Dell laptops are rock sturdy. There are technically two eject buttons: a “soft”-eject button which is software-based, and a teeny-tiny eject button on the drive tray which sends the eject command directly to the drive. And by “teeny-tiny” I mean tiny. It’s also underneath a ridge, which makes it harder to get to - I almost never use it. Luckily, the soft-eject button is very accessible and works quite well. My biggest qualm with this laptop in general is with the optical drive, both in behavior (see Processor and Performance) and in build quality. But I don’t use it all that often and other ultraportable users probably won’t need to, either.

On the plus side, the casing is smooth yet matte enough to shrug off fingerprints and is easy to clean. Overall, no unbearable problems with build quality, and again, the TX850p looks phenomenal. This laptop has no trouble getting comments from friends and even passersby … if you’re in to that sort of thing, of course.

Screen

Sony TX850p screen

The display is the place where the TX850p shines (no pun intended). It’s glossy, crisp, vibrant, has no dead pixels (or, at least mine doesn’t), almost never glares, and has the widest brightness range of any notebook computer I’ve ever seen. There are 9 levels of brightness, and I never go above 6. The lowest setting is about as bright as a piece of paper and is great for dark rooms or just saving battery power.

Its maximum resolution is 1366×768, which has a 16:9 ratio and is great for watching widescreen videos, as they fill the entire display. This resolution is also higher than most of the TX series’ competitors, such as the aforementioned ThinkPad X60 (max resolution 1024×768) and Averatec 1000 (1280×760). There is also a keyboard shortcut (Fn + F10) which instantly lowers the resolution to a 4:3 ratio’d 1024×768 if you really need to see something small. I almost never use this function as I don’t have any trouble reading text on the 11.1″ display. It might be handy though, if you often find yourself hunched over or squinting (but if that’s the case, you might want to consider a laptop with a larger display).

As with all glossy screens, it is quite vulnerable to fingerprints and visible dust. I give mine a gentle wiping-down about once a day with a soft cloth (or a cotton sleeve) and a good cleaning with iKlear wipes once a month.

The display is also unique in that it’s lit by LEDs at the bottom rather than the conventional cold cathodes used in almost all modern laptops. LEDs are more power-efficient than cold cathodes, which require some power conversion; this leads to improved battery life. More on that later.

Speakers

Onboard speakers are never the high point of a laptop review, but the TX’s speakers are actually not all that bad. These tiny (1/2″-diameter) speakers can’t compare to name-brand laptop speakers like Harman Kardons, but one thing I’ve noticed is that they are clearer than other laptops’. This makes them seem louder than the others, especially when watching videos where understanding dialogue is important. A DVD that was extremely hard to hear with full volume on an Apple MacBook and a Dell was easily interpretable on the TX. But, the TX’s speakers are inferior to the others in terms of low frequency response, and they distort easily (again, because of the small diameter). I personally keep the onboard soundcard disabled to save battery power and plug in a USB DAC when I’m at my desk.

Processor and Performance

In the CPU department, the TX850p has an advantage over its predecessors, which had Pentium M processors, in that it has the new, more efficient 65nm architecture in its Core Solo processor.

The optical drive is annoying. Not only is it of lesser build quality as mentioned before, but unlike most optical drives which, when accessed, spin up to full speed and keep spinning at that speed for about a minute or two after the disc stops being accessed, this one does so only a few seconds after the drive stops being accessed. This means that if you stop reading from a disc, even for a few seconds, the drive slows down. So, if you’re browsing the directories of a data disc, by the time you decide which directory to choose or which file to open, the disc has stopped spinning. When you open the next directory or file, you have to wait for the disc to spin up to full speed again, and then the command is executed. This process makes no sense, as not only is it a great deal slower, but it requires more power since it takes more energy to start a mass spinning than it does to keep it spinning.

The TX series uses a tiny 1.8″ hard drive - the same type of hard drive that you find in iPods and other hard drive-based portable devices. Naturally, this helps allow for the TX’s diminutive size and long battery life. Also, the 80GB size is quite good, and on par with much larger laptops. However, these hard drives only spin at 4200 RPM, while most ultraportables use 2.5″ 5400-RPM drives, which should make the TX slower than its competitors. Also, there have been many reports that, while the 2.5″ drives are interchangeable (i.e. upgradable), the TX’s 1.8″ drive is not. I have not noticed the TX850p to be all that slow in loading time, but perhaps users coming from faster rigs would be frustrated. If you use many memory-thirsty programs, I recommend expansion of the RAM from the stock 1GB to its maximum 1.5GB as soon as possible to minimize paging, which may slow down the computer significantly. Note that the stock RAM configuration is 2 x 512MB sticks, and one of them is soldered directly to the motherboard - you can’t even access it from the underside. This means that the only way to reach the maximum amount is to replace the other 512MB stick with a 1GB.

Overall, the TX850p is quite snappy in my everyday use, which is probably all that a prospective ultraportable consumer needs. Temporarily switching to other, faster laptops and then back to the TX850p doesn’t leave me hanging, either.

Benchmarks

Following are some benchmarks to give you an idea of how the TX850p performs.

Super Pi Comparison Results

Super Pi gives an indication of overall processor speed.

It would seem that the 65nm Core architecture has a decent advantage over the Pentium M in this test; the 1.2GHz Intel Core Solo ULV processor performed nearly as well as a 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M at regular voltage.

Comparison table for PCMark05

PCMark05 tests overall system performance.

On the flip side, it appears that the Core Solo has no advantage over the Pentium M in PCMark05, and might even be at a disadvantage due to its lower clockspeed. Take that as you will, but remember that benchmarks sometimes have little bearing on real-life applications.

3DMark05 Comparison Results

3DMark05 tests the 3D performance of a notebook — obviously not a strong point of any ultraportable.

Enough said. The Intel GMA 950 just really isn’t up to rendering in 3D. But it will definitely be able to handle anything 2D; StarCraft ho!

HD Tune

HDTune measures the hard drive performance:

Heat and Noise

The TX series deals with heat quite well. Because the optical drive takes up about half of the laptop’s footprint (seriously), all of the other internal machinery is located on the left side. This is why only the left side of the TX series warms up, and it’s also where the only cooling fan is located.

Interestingly, the TX gets warm faster when it’s on a wooden desk than when it’s in my lap. It could just be my room conditions. Only rarely does it get too hot to comfortably have on the lap, and it’s never too hot to type. Note that in most room conditions, the fan will almost always come on eventually, no matter what you’re doing with the laptop. It’s not silent, unfortunately, but it is fairly quiet, even at full speed. In a classroom, work office, or meeting, the fan is inaudible. Since earlier reviews of the TX series report issues with noise and constant fan-spinning, I am tempted to say that Sony might have improved the TX850p in this regard.

Keyboard and Touchpad

In short the keyboard and touchpad are a joy to use, which is a significant factor in the long-term enjoyment of using a laptop.

I now prefer this keyboard to all others — both laptops’ and full key-travel keyboards. Sony has done an excellent job shrinking the keys down to fit onto this little notebook; I don’t notice at all that it isn’t a full-sized one. The keys feel extremely solid, and there is no flexing of the keyboard under normal typing pressure. Some things to note about the keyboard:

• As with most laptops, there is a function (Fn) key, which must be pressed in order to use the Scroll Lock, Pause, Break, Home, Page Up/Down, and End keys, as well as to change the screen brightness. The Home, Page Up/Down, and End keys are located on the left, up/down, and right arrow keys, respectively, which I like very much. The Delete key is also in the extreme upper-right corner, which makes it easy to find.
• There is no indigenous number pad on the keyboard, obviously, so it is marked on the main part of the keyboard in orange numbers which are a little hard to see. They can only be used by turning on the Number Lock, so I don’t use the number pad all that often. This is one thing about full-sized keyboards that I do miss; using the Windows Calculator is painfully slow.
• Even other laptop users who have tried my TX’s keyboard say they like it.

The touchpad has an immediate and responsive feel to it, and is of good size; not too small, not too big. The drivers allow for the configuration of the right and bottom edges to be used as scrolling areas, so sliding your finger up and down the extreme right of the pad will scroll the current page up and down, and doing so along the bottom of the pad scrolls the pad right and left. One thing to note is that if you install drivers for an external mouse with more than 3 buttons, the original touchpad drivers will be overwritten (see the Customer Service section).

I’ll include comments on the fingerprint reader in this section. The fingerprint reader and its Protector Suite program are a biometric defense against self-proclaimed “haXXs0Rz.” Once a user inputs their fingerprint (it can store up to ten - one per finger on each hand), sliding their finger across the reader can substitute for a password at the Windows login screen, and once logged into Windows, sliding a finger across the reader brings up a menu of options including “Lock computer,” “Unlock My Safe” (which is an encrypted part of the hard drive that can only be accessed with a finger swipe), and Web forms can instantly be filled out once the information is registered with the Protector Suite. I have only used the fingerprint reader for logging into Windows. The reader works quite well, although every once in a while it decides not to remember me. On these occasions, the password can easily be entered instead.

Input and Output Ports

The TX series has the following ports:

• 2 USB 2.0
• dial-up modem
• 9-pin FireWire
• D-Sub video out (can output resolutions up to 1600×1200 @ 60 Hz - Note: the drivers for the Intel GMA 950 integrated display adapter are a bit limited in that they don’t allow for custom resolutions, so you’re stuck with either 16:9 or 4:3 ratios. Not even PowerStrip can fix that - I tried. This was a bit disappointing because I have a 16:10 LCD monitor that I won’t be able to use to its fullest potential.)
• Ethernet
• SD and Sony’s Memory Stick Pro/Duo card reader - quite useful since I happen to have a Sony camera. All I have to do it pop out the card from the camera and slide it in to the TX.
• 1/8″ Headphone out and microphone in
• Port replicator on the bottom

This seems to be quite a good amount of places for plugs to go for such a small laptop. The inclusion of FireWire is particularly impressive; many larger laptops don’t have it.

Left side view of the TX850p
Right side view of the TX850p

Front side ports and buttons on the TX850p

Looking at the right side upside down

Wireless

The TX850p comes with an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 A/B/G card, which is a nice step up from the older TX’s 2200 B/G.  The reception seems to be on par with laptops of any size, so no problems there. It also has built-in Bluetooth, which I don’t use so I can’t comment on it. Sony includes a handy little program which can be used to easily select which wireless devices are controlled by the Wi-Fi switch on the front of the laptop. So my Bluetooth stack is always off and the wireless card comes on when I flip on the switch.

Most VAIO TX laptops also includes a WAN device which allows the user, for a monthly fee, to access Cingular’s Wireless National EDGE Network, which can provide wireless broadband Internet access almost anywhere. But it wasn’t included in my model.

Battery

Finally. The battery. When I ask most other people how long their laptop battery lasts, the answer is usually between 2-3 hours - sometimes a little more, sometimes less.

As a TX850p owner, I can proudly say that I don’t think I could get my battery to run out in 3 hours if I wanted to. I suppose maybe if I plugged in and started defragmenting a few external hard drives, ran HD Tune on the internal hard drive, turned on the wireless card and connected to an extremely weak signal, and watched a movie with the screen on maximum brightness, then maybe the battery would only last a few hours.

The battery life of the TX850p is far superior to that of any other laptop that I know of. Here are a few examples of the battery life that I’ve experienced with FireWire, the modem, and the optical drive disabled, and the CPU power management set to throttle the CPU to 50% at idle and ramp up to anywhere from there to 100% under load:

• Watching a DVD in InstantON mode (see software section) with speakers on full volume, screen on high brightness: 2.5 hours
• Editing audio, encoding video, compiling code, etc. with screen brightness medium and Wi-Fi on: 4.5 hours (the lowest Windows time I’ve seen)
• Wireless web browsing with screen on medium brightness (remember, medium brightness is bright): 8 hours
• The same with an extremely weak signal: 6-7 hours
• Taking notes in Notepad with screen brightness on low and Wi-Fi off: 10 hours (predicted by Windows - appears to be accurate because the battery is at ~90% after one hour)
• Idling with screen closed: 14+ hours

This is with the standard battery! Sony offers an extended battery as well, which would probably drive the upper range of the battery life to about 20 hours, with 10 hours being a reasonable expectation for moderate use.

The AC adapter is quite small, well-built, doesn’t make any noise (not even any high-pitched notes - I’ve heard some loud ones out there), and there’s a velcro strap on the cable to hold everything together during transit.

Please note that I have been absolutely meticulous in keeping the number of Windows services low, the amount of spyware as close to zero as possible, and the number of programs running in the background to be minimal (a total of 29 processes at idle). These figures are also a bit optimistic. Even so, it’s not unreasonable to expect 6-7 hours out of the TX with constant moderate use, and the TX will literally run all day long if it’s put into standby or the screen is closed when not in use. I also have high expectations for the TX’s battery life once I get it dual-booting with Gentoo Linux.

One final note is that one should remember that in order to achieve this long battery life, performance was sacrificed. The Lenovo ThinkPad X60s, with its dual-core processor, should be a good deal faster at certain tasks; but even with an extended battery, the X60s doesn’t last quite as long as the TX with a standard battery.

Operating System and Software

The TX series comes with Windows XP Professional, including SP2. Unfortunately, no backup discs are provided, which bothers some people more than others. Regardless, the no-disc approach is becoming more and more common with most manufacturers. Sony does include a utility that can be used to burn recovery discs (2 DVDs), so that should be one of the first things to be done with a new VAIO TX.

As with most laptops, part of the hard drive is partitioned off as a recovery sector, which can be used in conjunction with the included VAIO Recovery software. It can be used to completely restore the hard drive to the state it was in when it left the factory, or it can only reinstall the drivers or software that the user chooses. I haven’t used a full recovery yet, but the reinstallations I’ve done so far have all gone well.

The included VAIO Power Management offers options far more extensive than those that are available with Windows alone, which is great for a computer control freak like me. A few of them include disabling the optical drive, the modem and/or the FireWire port, throttling the CPU (down to 50%), and setting the maximum fan speed.

The TX comes with a moderate amount of “bloatware,” including Sony’s SonicStage media and portable device management suite and various other media-based rubbish. Luckily, there is no “Special Offer!” or trial software. Also, several of the including VAIO programs are quite useful, such as HDD Protection (locks the drive head when a certain amount [three selectable levels] of shock is detected), Power Management, Backup Utility, and Recovery. There is also a VAIO Central program which provides quick access to all of these. If you really want to go extreme, there is a program that allows you to slow down the DRAM clock from 533 MHz to 400 MHz for an extra boost in battery life. So before you go on a rampage in the Add or Remove Programs window deleting everything with “Sony” or “VAIO” in it, read the program name carefully and maybe try to find and run it on the hard drive to figure out exactly what it does before uninstalling it.

One of the more intriguing software capabilities of the TX is its InstantON mode. If the AV Mode button is held down when the laptop is off, it will go in to a sort of DVD/music player mode where DVDs or audio CDs can be played without booting into Windows. However, the comparatively short (in contrast with its Windows-based times) 2.5 hours that the battery yielded in this mode (with full volume, brightness) makes me wonder if it would be better to watch DVDs from Windows? Nonetheless, the ability to turn one’s laptop into a dedicated portable DVD player is neat.

Customer Support

Customer support can be contacted by phone, by e-mail, or by live chat. It turns out that my particular VAIO TX (I’m unsure as to whether they’re all like this) is bad at finding its own drivers. For instance, when a USB hard drive is connected for the first time, my laptop is unable  When I installed a five-button mouse on the TX and unknowingly overwrote the touchpad’s drivers so that it no longer functioned, I had trouble. In order to restore the drivers, I had to manually tell the Add Hardware Wizard to look for drivers in C:\Windows\inf because it doesn’t know to look there itself.

I learned this by contacting Sony’s customer support through live chat. It took a little while for the technician to understand my problem, but once they did, they quickly told me how to fix it.

The TX comes with a one-year parts and labor warranty. It does cost more to extend the warranty, but I have yet to find a link for the price on Sony’s website.

Conclusion 

I would highly recommend the Sony VAIO TX850p for the travelling user (or one who, like me, just likes small devices), who isn’t power-hungry, who is versed in computer cleanup and doesn’t mind giving their machine a little TLC.

I would not recommend this laptop to someone with a budget, gamer, a user who deals with the manipulation of multimedia (i.e. video encoding, audio compression, etc.), or an inexperienced or clumsy user.

Pros

• Absurd battery life
• Excellent screen
• Minimalist, yet functional design
• Great keyboard, touchpad
• Small, light, and thin
• Good connectivity for such a small device
• Built-in optical drive on the tiny thing
• Aesthetically pleasing
• You get to chuckle to yourself as you watch other laptop users crawl around looking for outlets

Cons

• Expensive
• Subpar build quality
• A bit on the slow side
• 4200-RPM hard drive isn’t upgradable

   For price and availability www.portableuniverse.co.uk

data from www.notebookreview.com

Core 2 Duo power, blazing 3D graphics, and wireless-N will make you the envy of every LAN party.

Earlier this year we reviewed Dell’s XPS M1710 and liked what we saw. In terms of design, not much has changed, but this time around Dell gave this 8.8-pound gaming rig a faster, more powerful processor and is now offering it with an 802.11n wireless network adapter and a wireless-N router bundle that is sure to make a big splash at your next LAN party. Unfortunately, only those with the deepest pockets will be able to afford this £2338 powerhouse.
 
We received the Special Edition Formula Red model, but you can order the XPS with the more subtle Metallic Black shell. The shiny, silver-and-red lid sports a Dell logo in its center, and the two XPS logos on either side of the lid are accented by red backlighting, as are the fans and speaker grills. All three lighting areas can be changed to one of 16 color choices using Dell’s QuickSet utility, which also configures networking and power settings and displays system information.
 
Pop open the lid and you’ll find a stunning, 17-inch, high-res (1920 x 1200-pixel) widescreen display framed in silver and a spacious keyboard with a red backlit touchpad. The TrueLife screen is a high-gloss panel that does a good job of diffusing glare and an even better job of displaying movies and 3D games, delivering bright, bold colors even when viewed from an extreme angle.
 
As with the earlier model, the M1710’s keyboard is very responsive and well spaced but lacks a number pad. The backlit XPS touchpad is evenly centered on the wrist rest, and we love the oversized mouse buttons. The power button is located above the keyboard, along with the MediaDirect button, which launches Dell’s instant-on MediaDirect applet for playing multimedia files without booting Windows. This button also serves as a hot key for invoking the Windows Media Center menu while the computer is powered up.
 
Below the keyboard are two 2-watt speakers that, along with an integrated 5-watt subwoofer, provided better-than-average sound for a portable system. Between the speakers is a set of multimedia buttons for controlling DVD and CD play.
 
In addition to six USB ports and a FireWire port, the XPS provides a useful selection of multimedia connections, including VGA, DVI, and S-Video ports, component video and S/PDIF audio outputs via a dongle, headphone and microphone jacks, and a 5-in-1 media card reader. A fast 7,200-rpm 100GB hard drive provides plenty of room for games and storing music, video, and digital images, or you can use the versatile dual-layer DVD burner to archive your files or create your own DVD and audio CD projects. There is an ExpressCard slot on the right side of the system, but support for PC Cards is lacking.    Driven by Intel’s 2.3-GHz Core 2 Duo T7600 processor, 2GB of speedy DDR2 memory, and a 512MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 graphics card, the XPS delivered a top-notch MobileMark 2005 score of 312. This is an impressive improvement over the previous version’s score of 296. We also saw healthy scores of 19,918 and 4,841 on our 3DMark03 and 3DMark06 tests, respectively, compared with 18,319 and 4,700 the Core Duo version. With the settings maxed out, the M1710 managed a solid 73 fps on our F.E.A.R. tests, proving that this rig can handle today’s 3D gaming titles with aplomb. Surprisingly, this wasn’t a huge improvement over the earlier M1710’s score of 72 fps. The battery lasted 2 hours and 24 minutes with Wi-Fi enabled, which is typical for this class of machine and about the same as the Core Duo M1710.
 
Dell bundles NetGear’s RangeMax Next Wireless Router and 802.11n card with the M1710, although you can save £150 if you decide to stick with a standard 802.11a/g Wi-Fi card and skip the router. Draft-N boasts twice the throughput of 802.11g and five times the range. For gamers who compete over a LAN, this is the holy grail of wireless connectivity, especially when six or more contestants are blasting their way to glory in one of today’s graphics-intensive 3D games.
 
To test the speed of the Draft-N bundle, we transferred a 1.9GB video file from a desktop, wired to the router, to the M1710. It took 14 minutes and 51 seconds to complete the transfer in “g” mode. In “n” mode, the transfer took only 6 minutes and 23 seconds to complete. Likewise, in “g” mode, wireless signal strength degraded from fair to extremely low at around 65 feet from the access point, but in “n” mode we maintained a very good signal at that distance and beyond. In fact, we couldn’t find a weak spot in the entire house, including the basement.
 
We like that Dell provides a two-year warranty for this system, but at these prices a three-year package would be even better. Along with Windows XP Media Center Edition, this configuration includes Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business, MusicMatch Premium Roxio Creator Basic and MyDVD Basic, and Sonic Cineplayer.
  
The M1710’s price tag will likely cause a good deal of sticker shock for all but the wealthiest hardcore gamers. Still, if you take your gameplay seriously and have the financial resources to afford a top-of-the-line portable rig with superior networking capabilities, the XPS M1710 should be at the top of your wish list. 

BIOS has written a review of the Lenovo 3000 C100 note book and gives it a rating off 6.5. They write -’Nevertheless, for a starting price of just £599, it might just be the perfect system for your number-crunching workforce. But with the advent of the Intel Core Duo processors and more powerful offerings from Dell and HP, you may want to keep your options open. And if you do need more multimedia jazz, maybe you should look at the company’s N Series.’

Read more about the Lenovo 3000 C100

Trusted Reviews has posted a review of the Lenovo 3000 C100 and writes - ‘At first, the Lenovo doesn’t seem anything special and its 1,024×768 panel seems quite limiting. However, when taking the price of £575.97 and the close to six hour battery life in to account, you realise that this is a really good value notebook for taking on the road. The ThinkVantage software is excellent and offers peace of mind for those who aren’t PC savvy - allowing an IT manager to safeguard everyone’s data without them even knowing it. If you’re looking for a hardware rollout for a small to medium business, this Lenovo could fit the bill perfectly.’

Pocket Lint reviews the Lenovo 3000 C100 and writes - “Yes, compromises have been made in the choice of processor but this helps keep the price so low, it’s hard not to be impressed. What really stands out about the Lenovo 3000 C100 is the build quality and the battery life, neither of which we were expecting in a machine costing so little. If you can live with the basic performance, then you have yourself one bargain notebook.”

www.portableuniverse.co.uk

Another notebook computer from Acer that can be easily brought anywhere because of its portable design. The TravelMate C210 has a slick sliding track mechanism making it easy to convert from a notebook mode into a slate mode.

It has a maximum performance powered by Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor with Intel® Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T) that gives you the speed even in handling multi-thread applications. The TravelMate C210 gives you the best display with its NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7300 with up to 256 MB TurboCache™ on its high-contrast 12.1″ LCD. Upgrade it of upto 4 GB DDR2 533/667 MHz dual-channel support delivers multitasking performance for work that involves multi-threaded applications.

Other features includes integrated TravelMate biometric fingerprint reader that could give you better security, the Acer Soft Button (a unique onscreen user interface, centralizes key application icons in one convenient location), and applications that could manage security, performance, and power usage.

www.portableuniverse.co.uk

Are you a gamer? Then Dell gives you Dell XPS M1710, a notebook designed with gamers in mind. From its cutting-edge design that features brushed metal accents with your choice of Special Edition Formula Red or Metallic Black armor to its maximum performance, playing in it is such a cool experience.

Powered by Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor, its performance is spiced up even more with the best graphics with its advanced graphics card GeForce Go 7900 GTX GPU. And enjoy its display at a 17” widescreen display with true high-definition resolution.

Even CNET believes that it is a good choice for gamers who have the money to purchase this kind of model. Its review says that:

The good: Best-in-class gaming performance; top-shelf processor and graphics engine; attractive illuminated case; solid multimedia features; full assortment of ports and connections.

The bad: Very expensive; display not remarkably bright.

The bottom line: If you’re a hard-core gamer looking to play the newest games at the highest settings, this is the best system that (a lot of) money can buy.

You may check out other features and specifications at Dell’s website

Are you a formula 1 fanatic? Even notebooks are now inspired by these lightning fast vehicles. Acer gives you a special edition the Ferrari 1000 that is an ultra-portable 12.1” notebook. Very easy to bring anywhere that even lets you connect to the net anywhere with its great wireless technology. Road-ready carbon fiber keeps the machine in tip-top condition wherever you may roam.

It is built on AMD’s Direct Connect Architecture, AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology that utilizes two 64-bit processing cores for awesome computing power. Store all data you want on its fast and reliable Serial ATA hard disk drives of up to 160 GB.

The Ferrari 1000 gives a great display on its high-brightness (200-nit) Acer CrystalBrite™ 12.1″ widescreen LCD letting you enjoy watching DVD movies or browsing pictures taken from special occasions. And easily share pictures and files having a DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive that reads and writes all popular DVD and CD formats.

The HP Pavillion DV900t is HP’s flagship desktop replacement notebook PC with a nice crisp 17” screen, full 101-key alphanumeric keypad (with numpad), and various other entertainment options such as an optional webcam, Bluetooth, TV Tuner, and HD-DVD drive.

The HP Pavilion dv9000t Entertainment Notebook

I first started looking around for a laptop around Feb 20^th when my previous HP dv4000 mysteriously died on me. While I could have gotten it fixed, I decided it was easier to upgrade to a more modern notebook. I had settled on getting a HP dv6000t until I saw the HP dv9000t. The glorious screen and video card at only 7.8lbs was irresistible. Most people would consider 7.8lbs too heavy to carry for a college notebook, but my previous dv4000 with a 12-cell weighed about the same, so I was set! I also considered the Dell Inspiron e1705, but the dv9000t was more affordable, plus I didn’t need the power (and heat) a 7900 GS would probably give off.

HP dv9000t specs:

• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
• Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo T5200(1.60GHz/2MB L2Cache)
• 17.0″ WSXGA+ BrightView Widescreen (1680×1050)
• 256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7600
• HP Imprint Finish + Microphone + Webcam
• 512MB DDR2 System Memory (1 Dimm)
• FREE Upgrade from 80GB 5400RPM to 120GB 5400RPM!!
• Super Multi 8X DVD+/-R/RW w/Double Layer Support
• Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network w/Bluetooth
• No TV Tuner w/remote control
• 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• Microsoft(R) Works 8.0

£699.00 incl. vat and delivery from cheap-it.com .

The dv9000t in my dorm room. If only I could hide those cords too…

First Impressions:

The screen is huge and the notebook itself is very slim. Previous 17” laptops from HP were very bulky weighing 9.8lbs, but it’s nice to know that the dv9000t is easy to carry when needed. Believe it or not, I actually carry this thing around every day (some people would call me crazy), but it is manageable. The fingerprint finish is also a nice touch that HP has now put on desktops and laptops that really makes the laptop shine.

Top of dv9000t with HP Fingerprint Finish

The top is also a fingerprint magnet.

Design and Build:

HPs design on this laptop is a process I’ve seen evolve over the years to make a much better product. It looks like it’s worth more than you paid for it, especially with the suave imprint finish applied to the top. One thing to be weary of is that the latch requires 2 hands to open, and the hinges don’t seem as solid as my previous laptop. It looks great on a desk, but it’s not a ThinkPad in terms of durability so no one should treat it as such. I compared the dv9000t to my previous 15.4” dv4000 and found that it weights just as much with the 12-cell battery while being MUCH slimmer. That’s definitely an improvement in that area.

Only marginally longer

But slimmer too

The Screen:

The screen is amazing on this laptop. The only downside is that there is a bit of light leakage on the very bottom middle portion of the screen. The good thing is that it’s not noticeable unless you want to stare at it. I guess not everything can be perfect.

Graphics

The system comes with a Geforce 7600 Go, with either 256MB or 512MB of video RAM. It should play today’s games decently at max resolution with some special effects off. I suggest getting the lower 1440×900 resolution if you intend on gaming a lot so the GPU doesn’t struggle too much. At the price point of £699, I couldn’t find any other laptop with a much better GPU.

Sound

The built-in Altec-Lansing speakers sound great. Sound doesn’t distort at higher volumes and it retains clarity. The SP/DIF support also allows you to hook up your laptop to a surround sound system if needed.

Processor and Performance

I got the lowest Core 2 Duo possible (Intel T5200 at 1.6Ghz) so that I could upgrade myself later if I wanted. It runs fast enough for my needs of watching movies and general computer tasks.

Benchmarks

A note for the benchmarks, I upgraded my RAM to 2GB DDR2 533Mhz RAM and all scores reflect this.

3DMark06:

3DMark06 is a benchmarking tool that tests the graphical performance of a notebook, below is how the HP dv9000t with its nVidia Go 7600 stacked up to other notebooks.

SuperPi Benchmark Results

Super Pi tests the speed of a processor, in our test we force Super Pi to calculate the number Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy:

HDTune

HDTune measures hard drive performance, below is a screenshot of the results for HDTune when run on the dv9000t:

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the dv9000t is probably one of the better ones I’ve used. Each key is very springy, allowing for feedback, similar to desktop keyboards. The additional numberpad is also a big plus, as few laptops have them at all. One minor thing is that the right shift key is now half-sized, just like other keys to accommodate the closer position of the arrow keys. The touchpad itself is ok; not bad and not great. It does have an off switch, but the feel of the pad itself is rather slick. Sometimes there is just too much drag on the surface to use easily. I switched to an external mouse and keyboard to solve my problems.

Input and Output Ports

The clinching factor that really made me purchase this laptop is the bevy of ports available. It comes with 4 USB ports, a built-in memory card reader, an expansion slot, 2 headphone inputs, ExpressCard slot, and probably best of all, an HDMI port. The beautiful part about HP’s newer laptop series is that all of them include an expansion port that allows you to connect to a specific HP dock that replicates most of these ports so you can connect just 1 cable to your laptop. Pretty sweet, no?

USB Port, ExpressCard slot, DVD+/-RW Drive, USB Port, AC Adapter Jack

S-Video port, VGA Port, Expansion Port (for HP QuickDock), Ethernet & Modem Jacks, HDMI Port, 2 USB Ports, Firewire 4-pin Jack, Multimedia Card reader (with SD card inserted)

BatteryLife

The 8-cell battery lasted around 2 hours before it died with medium brightness and Wifi. I suspect this probably has to do with the state of nVidia’s drivers for Vista that still need some work.

Heat and Noise

The notebook fans are usually on most of the time when on AC but there is no way to control them. Heat comes from the left hand side where the HD is, and from the back near the fan. It makes some noise when it’s quiet, but not enough to be annoying.

Wireless

No problems with the Intel 3945ABG. The wireless switch is very handy when want to quickly turn off WiFi and switch to Ethernet when I reconnect to my HP QuickDock.

Service and Support

HP’s service is moderate compared to other companies. It’s not the best and it’s not the worst but somewhere in between. Personally, online help was more receptive when I was exploring my options about my broken dv4000 compared to phone help so that avenue was much better. I haven’t dealt much with tech support at all before that, so I can’t make much of a decision.

Software:

HP has a LOT of software pre-installed on my notebook, some of it I quickly removed but others I did keep, most notably HPs Total Care Advisor. It’s a helpful program that keeps track of the state of your PC, advising you on certain updates for drivers, basic support, and browsing HP accessories. It was useful enough that I kept it. Be aware that HP uses a recovery partition as a “worst case” backup instead of discs, so you’ll need to make them yourself. One thing I dislike is that reinstalling Windows Vista from the recovery partition and discs installs all the other unnecessary software as well; I might just have to get a Vista RTM disc and install Home Premium myself. HP does easily offer all the downloads for installed drivers, so that is a huge plus.

Vista

Running Windows Vista Home Premium on this laptop has its ups and downs. As a whole, my PC runs smoothly but certain areas like copying large amounts of files needs a LOT of work. HP includes all the drivers in a folder called SwSetup, so if you ever install a bad driver, you can easily reinstall the old one without going online. I’d recommend at LEAST 1GB, preferably 2GB RAM in order to run Vista smoothly. There’s still a lot of minor things that need to be worked out, but on the whole, it’s a pretty good upgrade from Windows XP.

Conclusion

I’ve used this notebook for a few days and have no regrets purchasing it. Vista runs pretty well after a 2GB upgrade and has caused no trouble while using it. Most of my programs worked flawlessly when installed. It’s slim enough to be carried around for a desktop replacement and certainly wowed my friends. The screen is great, the keyboard works well, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. I do wish there were more battery life, but it’s not possible to have everything!

Pros:

• Large screen
• Number pad
• HDMI output
• Touchpad on/off switch
• Slim profile give the laptop size

Cons:

• Fingerprint magnet (cloth included however)
• Touchpad has some drag
• Right Shift key is smaller
• Media keys make noise (turn off in BIOS)
• Fans run quite often
• Notebook lid is a bit flimsy when closed

For price and availabilty www.portableuniverse.co.uk

data from www.notebookreview.com

Forget Roy G. Biv–the rainbow according to Sony includes such colors as sangria, cosmopolitan, dove, and indigo. At least, those are the shades the company offers for its new VAIO CR series laptops. (City-dwellers, take heart: they’re also available in black.)

Warning: this laptop may induce toothaches.

(Credit: Sony)

Sony has long led the laptop-as-fashion-accessory movement (see previous C series models and the FJ series that started it all), offering laptops in wild colors when other manufacturers were just starting to experiment with hues beyond black and gray. The CR series is no different, featuring a case that is saturated with color, right down to the touch pad. Sony’s press release also touts that each CR series laptop comes with “funky VAIO branded wallpaper” as well as the option to purchase a matching carrying bag and mouse. And proving that flashing LEDs aren’t just for gamers, the VAIO CR series includes a pulsating LED beneath the laptop’s trim.

Those of you who still believe that it’s what’s inside that counts can rest assured: the 5.5-pound thin-and-light laptops will include Intel’s latest Centrino Duo platform, with Core 2 Duo processors, integrated graphics, and an 802.11n wireless card. The 14.1-inch wide-screen display includes a fairly standard 1,280×800 native resolution, and the display bezel has room for a built-in Webcam and microphone.

The six new CR series models start at £999 and will start shipping at the end

News of the upcoming 11.1″ screen Sony VAIO TZ notebook that was leaked last week came without much information and no images. Thanks to some information from a French website we now have images and full specs for the VAIO TZ11MN/N and VAIO TZ11XN/B.

The VAIO TZ11MN/N appears mostly the same as the TZ11XN/B except for the silver lid coloration instead of black on the XN/B, you get 1GB of RAM instead of the 2GB with the XN/B and the hard drive is 80GB instead of 100GB on the XN/B. The XN/B is rumored to have a carbon fiber lid — though the specs sheet does not confirm this. No release date is set, but a summer launch is assumed.

Some highlights for the VAIO TZ11 are:

• 2.62lbs of weight
• Integrated optical drive
• Unique rounded hinge design
• LED backlight screen
• 1.06GHz Core 2 Duo processor
• Built-in Motion Eye camera

Detailed specs and images for each model are below — anyone think that keyboard redesign looks a lot like the MacBook keyboard?

VAIO VGN-TZ11MN/N

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo U7500, 1.06 GHz
• OS: Windows® Vista Professional
• Memory: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM (max 2GB)
• Hard Drive: 80 GB Ultra ATA (4200 rpm)
• Optical Drive: DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM
• Screen: 11,1” X-black LCD with LED backlight, WXGA (1366 x 768)
• Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• Ethernet (1000Base-T / 100 BASE-TX / 10 BASE-T);
• Modem: V.92/V.90
• Wireless:Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR support
• Microphone integrated
• Protection: Shock protection G-Sensor Hard Drive
• Instant On technology
• Ports:
  • 1 i.LINK (IEEE1394, 4 Pin), 400 Mbps port
  • 1 DC in
  • 1 Audio out
  • 1 RJ-11 Modem
  • 1 RJ-45 Direct Port (Network)
  • 2 USB 2.0 Port
  • Fingerprint reader
  • 1 VGA port connection
  • 1 Microphone
  • 1 SD card Slot
  • 1 Express Card 34mm
  • Memory Stick Reader (Duo, Memory Stick PRO duo, MagicGate)
  • “Motion Eye” Camera ( 20 Images per second), 0.3 Mega Pixels, max video resolution VGA (640×480)
• Dimensions: 7.8-in x .89-in - 1.17in x 10.9-in (198 ,2 mm x 22.5-29.8 mm x 277 mm)
• Weight: 2.62lbs

VAIO VGN-TZ11XN/B

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo U7500, 1.06 GHz
• OS: Windows Vista Professional
• Memory: 2GB DDR2 SDRAM (max 2GB)
• Hard Drive: 100 GB Ultra ATA (4200 rpm)
• Optical Drive: DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM
• Screen: 11.1” X-black LCD with LED backlight, WXGA (1366 x 768)
• Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• Ethernet (1000Base-T / 100 BASE-TX / 10 BASE-T);
• Modem intégré V.92/V.90
• Wireless: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR support
• Microphone integrated
• Protection: Shock protection G-Sensor Hard Drive
• Instant On technology
• Ports:
  • 1 i.LINK (IEEE1394, 4 Pin), 400 Mbps port
  • 1 DC in
  • 1 Audio out
  • 1 RJ-11 Modem
  • 1 RJ-45 Direct Port (Network)
  • 2 USB 2.0 Port
  • Fingerprint reader
  • 1 VGA port connection
  • 1 Microphone
  • 1 SD card Slot
  • 1 Express Card 34mm
  • Memory Stick Reader (Duo, Memory Stick PRO duo, MagicGate)
  • “Motion Eye” Camera ( 20 Images per second), 0.3 Mega Pixels, max video resolution VGA (640×480)
• Dimensions: 7.8-in x .89-in - 1.17in x 10.9-in (198 ,2 mm x 22.5-29.8 mm x 277 mm)
• Weight: 2.62lbs

For pricing and availability www.portableuniverse.co.uk

HP Pavilion dv6000t Review

by Aaron Goldman

Overview and Reasons for Buying:

It was a hot summer’s day, so I waltzed into Best Buy to check out the latest gadgets and to cool off. The first thing I saw was the glimmer from HP’s shiny new notebook, the dv6000z. The design was what caught my eye, a perfect balance of art and performance. I was looking to replace my somewhat old AMD Turion 64 notebook with a dual core system anyways. I wasn’t really impressed with my previous AMD system so I went online to browse and see if HP planned on releasing an Intel based notebook in this series. I had read up about the new Intel Core 2 Duo Chip (Merom) and definitely wanted a notebook with that kind of power. After a couple weeks of pestering HP techs on the phone I finally got a release date and waited. September 30^th 2006 the dv6000t series was finally available from Portable Universe . I ordered mine on the first day and tracked its status until it was delivered. My first experience using the dv6000t was playing F.E.A.R. Multiplayer online. I had been using my older HP dv5130us notebook with an ATi Xpress 200m GPU and a Turion 2.0GHZ processor. The dv6000t blew it out of the water in terms of speed and FPS. I was quite impressed to say the least, especially seeing as I had to use a 900MHZ Celeron desktop until my notebook arrived from China. Weeks after that I joined the Gameslaptops.co.uk forum. I wasn’t alone; many others were also very impressed with this notebooks stylish looks and power.

Availability:

The dv6000t is available from Portable Universe, and many retailers as preconfigured models. The ability to customize a notebook is great because you don’t need to buy any extra hardware that you can’t afford or don’t need.

This notebook is available with the shiny piano black glossy type HP custom finish, as well as the oldschool rough plastic type. The notebook price ranges from usually around £499.

Reviewed dv6000t CTO Notebook Specs:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.0GHZ with 4MB L2 Cache) “Merom”
• Hard Drive: Fujitsu 120 GB SATA -5400RPM
• Screen: 15.4″ LG Phillips “LPL” WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280 x 800)
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce Go 7400, 128 MB Dedicated + 128 MB Shared
• RAM: 2GB 667MHZ DDR2 SDRAM
• Addition: HP Imprint Finish + Microphone + Webcam
• Optical Drive: Super Multi 8X DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer with Lightscribe
• Battery: 6-Cell Lithium-Ion
• Wireless: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11 a/b/g + Bluetooth
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional w/ Upgrade to Vista Business
• Dimensions: 1.0” - 1.69” (H) x 14.05” (W) x 10.12” (D) (Weight: 6.09 lbs)
• Ports/Slots: 1 IEEE 1394 (FireWire 400); 3 USB (USB 2.0); 5-in-1 memory card reader; VGA monitor out port; S-Video out; RJ-45 Ethernet LAN; RJ-11 modem; Express Card; IR receiver; Expansion Port 3; (2) headphone/speaker jacks with SPDIF
• Accessories:HP Expresscard TV Tuner, and Mobile Remote Control.

Build and design:

The build quality of this notebook is great, it’s solid and sturdy. The LCD hinges give little if any flex while opening and closing with ease. There is a little rippling on the LCD when the top bezel is pressed with some force, but I’ve seen much worse. The touchpad works amazingly well, however the buttons are somewhat flimsy and feel cheap, though this doesn’t matter if you use an external mouse most of the time. There are an abundance of input and output connections on this notebook. It’s somewhat strange however they are all on the sides, with the exception of the headphone jacks in front. Most notebooks tend to have some ports on the back, the headphone jacks in the front do get quite annoying when hooking a stereo or surround sound into them. Possibly one of my favorite features on this notebook happens to be the media card slot. Not many notebooks have integrated media card readers; this is definitely a plus for avid digital photographers.

HP dv6000t top view

I believe this notebook would fall somewhere in between a desktop replacement and portable. I wouldn’t take this notebook mountain climbing or throw it out of a window like some have claimed to do with the IBM T40s, however for the everyday person, bringing this to school; work or whatnot is pretty easy. Weighing in at about 6 pounds this isn’t super light but at the same time, it’s not quite as heavy as the all around desktop replacements that I’ve seen. Though, keep in mind that with a 12-Cell Lithium-Ion battery and AC adapter this notebook would weigh somewhere around 8 pounds which isn’t fun to carry around all day.

HP dv6000t bottom view

Audio:

This notebook comes equipped with Altec Lansing stereo speakers which are located in between the LCD bottom and the one touch buttons. I was quite impressed with the quality of sound that these can blast out. When using Cyberlink PowerDVD to boost the volume they get somewhat distorted however. With my older notebooks I found myself plugging in my surround sound speakers a lot more than I do with this model.

Screen:

HP dv6000t front view

Probably the most important feature when buying a laptop is having a good screen. If you’re going to be staring at it for thousands of hours it might as well be comfortable to look at. I received this laptop with an LG Philips 1280×800 WXGA Hi-Definition Brightview Widescreen with no dead pixels. I can easily say this is the nicest LCD I have ever owned. The screen has a very crisp picture, and no light leakage whatsoever. Viewing angles from the left and right are perfect, and do not look washed out. Vertical viewing angles however sometimes can be washed out when viewing from too far away. Using the included software you can customize your LCD’s color to your liking with the Nvidia Settings Manager tool which I thought was a plus.

Graphics:

Windows Vista ran well on the dv6000t

I chose the Nvidia Geforce Go 7400 Series GPU for this notebook. This is the best available graphics chip for this model notebook. It seems to perform very well for average use and can play most new games at medium settings. The 128MB of shared “turbocache” doesn’t slow this PC down at all and it runs Vista Aero very smoothly. Most people considering this notebook seem to be worried about having enough graphics power for Vista which I did as well. After running Windows Vista Enterprise Edition for about two weeks I can safely say that it was a very nice experience (visually) and there were no quirks with the graphics processor. I had to use modded .inf files as the official Nvidia drivers aren’t out yet, however it still ran better that I had thought it would. Windows Vista seemed to actually run faster than XP Professional even with all the Aero features enabled. Another good benchmark test for the Go 7400 is F.E.A.R. which I play quite a bit. F.E.A.R. seems to run best with Processor set to Maximum, Graphics set to low, and the display at 1280×800. It will play at medium graphics settings however personally I would rather have a higher resolution.

Playing F.E.A.R.

Processor and Performance:

The Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 2GHZ Processor in this notebook is lightning fast. In fact, the only time that I’ve hit 50%-100% CPU usage was while running SuperPI and Seti@home. My main reason for buying this dual core notebook was to edit and convert audio and video with Adobe Audition and Premier Pro. This is really where the dual core systems seem to shine, with this one being no exception. I also chose 2 GB of RAM, which seems to help encoding chug along quite nicely. The Intel Speedstep Technology also clocks down the processor until it’s needed to save battery life and prevent avoidable battery loss and overheating. The Core 2 Duo is a good choice as programmers are starting to create multithreaded programs and with the 64-Bit computing age on the horizon.

Benchmarks:

Super Pi measures the overall performance of the processors ability to crunch numbers by calculating Pi out to 2 million digits of accuracy.

Super Pi

PCMark05 Comparison results:

PCMark05 measures the overall system performance of a PC, you can see the dv6000t performed well:

Futuremark’s 3DMark05 graphics benchmarking software gave results consistent with a mid-range dedicated GPU:

3DMark05 Comparison Results:

HDTune

HDTune measures the performance of the system hard drive, in this case a 120GB 5400RPM Fujitsu drive.

Heat and Noise:

After owning a notebook with a desktop Pentium 4 HT chip, I have learned to appreciate noise, or lack thereof. This notebook is very quiet; it’s about as loud as my older HP AMD Sempron notebook with cool and quiet technology. I guess Speedstep is basically the same thing. The only time I hear the fans come on is when I’m playing graphically intense games or running my CPU to 100% (Seti@home.) In addition, this notebook also stays pretty cool; the right of the touchpad feels warm on occasion, but not hot. Nothing I can really complain about there.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

HP dv6000t keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard is very well laid out for a 15.4” laptop. It feels…Solid! None of the typical loud clickity-clackity type sounds emit from it, which is nice. The touchpad, as I said before, is very good. It’s sensitive and responds very well. It has a built in scrolling feature which is a bonus, however doesn’t always work 100% of the time. The touchpad buttons are alright. They feel kind of cheap and seem like they would break easily if pressed too hard.

Input and Output Ports:

Included in this notebook are (3) USB 2.0 ports,1 IEEE 1394 (FireWire 400); a 5-in-1 memory card reader; VGA monitor out port; S-Video out; RJ-45 Ethernet LAN; RJ-11 modem, Express Card, IR receiver, Expansion Port 3, (2) headphone/speaker jacks with SPDIF, and a Line in port. This notebook unfortunately does not have an HDMI port or a PCMCIA card slot.

Front view of dv6000t

Left side view of dv6000t

Right view of dv6000t

Back view of dv6000t

Wireless:

This notebook has (3) types of built in wireless capabilities. The Intel 3945 802.11 A/B/G wireless card, Integrated Broadcom Bluetooth, and an integrated infrared RC6 receiver. I have had no problems with any of the wireless capabilities in this laptop thus far, in fact I use a Belkin wireless router and it stays connected always. My past notebooks had Broadcom cards and it seemed like I would always get dropped connections.

Battery:

I purchased a 6 and 12 Cell Lithium-Ion battery when I bought this notebook. The 6-Cell seems to last around 2.5 hours and when the screen is dimmed significantly it will almost make it to 3. I ended up selling the extra 12-Cell Lithium-Ion battery because I actually never used it. The 12-Cells’ should get around 6 hours or so as they are essentially two 6-Cell batteries conjoined.

Operating System and Software:

My dv6000t came with Windows XP Professional pre-installed along with 20 GB of bloatware and partitions.

I used them as soon as I received my notebook to do a clean install, however using the recovery DVDs did not give me a clean install. HAH! I think that’s a joke, they installed all the original bloat — everything back again. I would recommend purchasing a retail copy of XP just so you don’t have to go through the de-bloating trouble. I purchased XP Professional and did a clean install after going through all the de-bloating trouble and noticed that the system ran faster. The only downside of installing a retail copy of XP is hunting down the drivers for the laptop, so if you plan on doing this yourself be sure to copy or burn the C:\swsetup folder first. The swsetup folder contains all the system drivers and whatnot which need to be installed after installing a new OS. Be careful however, the bloatware is also in the swsetup folder, you will need to pick it out folder by folder, good luck. At the time I purchased the notebook came with a free upgrade to Vista, but now it is being sold pre-installed.

The dv6000t is a great customizable notebook for all kinds of people. Whether you need just a basic laptop to surf the web and write documents, a medium range gaming machine, or something to just crunch lots of data this notebook can do it all when configured appropriately. It’s hard to find things wrong with such a beautiful and well built laptop, I can’t stop admiring its zen-type design even while I type this. Overall I think this is very balanced and priced very well comonentwise. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who needs a powerful machine, while still retaining stylish and futuristic looks.

Pros:

• Great multitasking
• Decent Battery Life
• Comfortable Keyboard
• Beautifully Designed
• Cool and Quiet
• Quality Audio
• Excellent LCD
• Media Card Reader

Cons:

• Max GPU is Go 7400
• Missing a HDMI Port
• No PCMCIA Port
• Fingerprint magnet
• Way too much Bloatware
• No Recovery DVDs
• Easily Scratched

For price and availability www.portableuniverse.co.uk