HP COMPAQ 6730s Battery

I’m at Tsukuba College, so I took the Tsukuba Express to Akihabara shopping district in Tokyo to look around at laptops. I went to Yodobashi Camera, a large electronics store, as I thought that would be an excellent choice to find a laptop. I looked around for a while, shocked at the very expensive prices, but finally came to the little Kohjinshas. They still had the lower end model Kohjinshas with the 500 MHz AMD processor for about $850. I remember looking at a review of them, hearing about how it doesn’t play movies very well due to the slow processor speed, so I skipped out on it. I then came to the 800mhz version Kohjinsha that had 40GB more HDD space. This version was about $1,100. This seemed like a good deal, but I then saw the 600MHz version for an incredible $770. I didn’t even have to think, I bought it on the spot. You can buy the notebook in either black or white, however there were only white versions of the computer left, which didn’t bother me. Also, if you get a point card at Yodobashi camera, you get 10% added onto the card for an amount off your next purchase. Meaning on y next purchase I can use that point card to get $77 off. Not a bad deal if I say so myself! I believe this was an incredible deal because all the other websites that are importing these to various countries as well as other stores in Japan, and Kohjinshas site itself retails this at around $1000. So I’m incredibly happy with this purchase. If you’re in Japan, go to Yodobashi Camera now and get it. Or if you’re not in Japan, get a friend who can get it for you because this deal is really hard to pass up.

This little computer can either be bought in white or black, both of them look really nice. In my case, it’s white. When you hold the laptop, you can kind of feel that this thing is really built quite nicely. It’s definitely light. In fact, if you put it on your lap, you might even forget that it’s there! This computer is so small, it fits really nicely in just one hand. The screen LCD is pretty thick so no ripples can be seen if you push on the lid. If you touch the screen in the up position, it doesn’t wobble at all. Twisting the frame turns it into a Tablet PC, so go ahead and twist away, that’s what it’s designed for. The laptop is mostly made of plastic except for the metal hinge part that allows you to turn your screen into a Tablet PC. Though it’s made of plastic, it feels extremely solid. The only complaint that I have about the build is the AC adapter input. The plug doesn’t go all the way into the computer, it kind of just hangs there so you can accidentally push it out and not even know until your battery is dead. I wish they would have made it so that the plug went in all the way, and then clicked in. I’m always watching the plug and my battery power to see if it accidentally slipped out.

I am so happy with this screen. Yes, it is only 7 inches, however it’s 7 inches of pure eye candy. The resolution is 1024 600 or 1600×1200 via the VGA port. Meaning, if you want to connect this computer to a monitor, it will allow up to 1600×1200. On the LCD panel itself there are loads of buttons; including a direction pad, pointer, launcher, shutter, rotation, enter, scroll and mouse button. The other button is a brightness control. Even on the lowest brightness setting you can make out everything and on the highest setting it feels like a beam of light shooting a clear image of your desktop at you. I have not noticed any leaks or uneven back lighting, I can only praise this screen because it’s that good. It looks especially good when you’re playing DVD/HD movies on it.

Like any laptop (or most of them anyway), the sound is going to be lacking on internal speakers. It sounds pretty good for what it is. For example, I was in class today and I started up iTunes to play some songs and many people could hear the songs that I played clearly outside (I was on the 2nd floor with the windows open). So it is pretty good for its size, but I suggest buying headphones or external speakers. When you hook headphones up to this, the sound really comes alive. There’s also a switch right next to the headphone input for adjusting the volume of the audio, pretty handy!

change this hard drive out with any 2.5 inch notebook drive. However, given the size of the notebook, it might be kind of hard. This notebook came with 1 stick of 1GB DDR2-400 ram. There is only one slot for memory, so the max you can put in is 2 GB. It all depends on what you do with this laptop. If you play lots of high def movies, you should probably go for the 2GB of ram. However, if you use this to surf the Internet, write documents and watch TV on the TV tuner, then you shouldn’t have any problems. The only time I’ve noticed the computer taking too much time to complete a task is when I have way too many programs open (and I’m talking like ten). So, other than that, I haven’t really noticed any speed problems. I haven’t tried playing games on this laptop, however I don’t think it would be very good due to the speed of the processor. So if you’re a person who loves to play games, stay clear of this laptop.What can I say about the heat and noise about this computer? The computer is completely silent, no noise comes out of it…except for the hard drive when it’s busy. When it’s busy, you just hear small hard drive "seeking" noises, nothing loud at all. The fans are silent, I can’t hear them at all, even on high load. The laptop gets a little warm on the bottom, there is also an exhaust on the right side of the computer that blows out a little warm air, but that’s about it. It’s a very well built machine.

Fujitsu’s base coverage includes a one-year, parts-and-labor warranty with mail-in service and free, 24/7 tech support via phone. Optional warranty extensions include up to three years of coverage with onsite service from a Fujitsu rep. You can also buy screen-damage protection for one or three years, during which time Fujitsu will repair your display twice for any reason. Overall Fujitsu customer support and service is above average. I had no problem returning a port replicator that I decided I did not want even after I’d kept it past the 15-day return period, they were very understanding of my decision to return the replicator due to a change of mind on my part. Fujitsu also has a unique online help site that features chat with live customer support people, visit this page for further information on customer support:

Since this is a Japanese machine, it will have Japanese placement, also some of the buttons are smaller than many people are used to, but the keyboard is very easy to use while taking notes and the keyboard is relatively quiet. The touch pad is very small, but is very responsive. The touch screen works great, I love sitting down, turning the computer into a tablet PC and watching videos.

This laptop has 2 USB 2.0 ports, a CF reader, a VGA output, a Compact Flash card slot, and a Memory Stick/Multi Media Card/ Secure Digital slot. It also has 2 Kensington locks, one on each side for a strap that attaches to the computer, so you’re able to carry the computer around with you.802.11b/g is included with the Kohjinsha, it also has bluetooth built-in. From what I’ve tested so far, the wireless works pretty well. I was able to pick up signals that I wasn’t able to with my S96j computer. I also got better reception on a lot of the signals plus I rarely got disconnected.

The battery is so small, once again you have to see it to believe it. I’m surprised the amount of power this thing can dish out and it’s only a 3 cell battery. While running 720p video, wireless off and full brightness, I got around 3.5 hours of battery. Another example is when I was in class for 5 hours straight, I had wireless off, 2 notches down from full brightness, was playing iTunes, sometimes typing and playing a little video every once and a while, I got 5 hours of battery. Not bad, but if you want more time, you should go for the more powerful battery.

The computer comes with Windows Vista Home Premium, and unfortunately no discs are provided by Kohjinsha. There is a partition on the drive that has a recovery function, although I would have preferred the actual discs. Software that comes with the Kohjinsha includes: IVT BlueSoleil, ebiBookReader Version 3.0J, Adobe Reader, InterVideo WinDVD, and DigBest TV (for the built-in TV tuner) Free software is kind of average, nothing great.

I really love this computer, aside from the few minor problems. I would recommend this to anyone wanting to get a UMPC because this thing can be a regular laptop, then switch to a Tablet PC in a second. If you like videos, iTunes, Internet surfing and typing, this computer is for you. If you like games, intense graphic editing, then this computer really isn’t for you. I used Vista for the review, but decided to switch to Windows XP tablet edition 2005 after and I love it. It’s good on Vista, but it runs better on Windows XP.

HP HSTNN-UB73 Battery

Style certainly isn’t the number one feature to look for in a laptop, after all the main purpose of a notebook computer is to help you get work done, but when you can combine great style with excellent functionality in a highly mobile package then you’re onto something special. The Fujitsu Lifebook S6120 is the notebook computer I’m alluding to in this case. The Fujitsu Lifebook S6120 presents a sharp look with its external silver-magnesium alloy case, it’s sure to turn heads, and at the same time it keeps weight down to 4.3 pounds to provide for a fantastically mobile thin and light laptop that’s small enough to tuck under your arm but big enough and powerful enough to make it a highly functional and easy to use computer.

The Fujitsu S Series line of notebooks all come with a 13.3-inch XGA screen that is well backlit and provides a crisp image. The backlight can of course be adjusted, lower the brightness to save battery power but crank it up when you’re plugged in for a brilliantly lit screen. The keyboard, despite the compact size of the notebook, is big and comfortable to use. There’s of course no number pad such as you’ll get on much larger laptops (i.e. the desktop replacement HP ZD7000 notebook), and certain keys such as the Page Down/Up and Enter keys are compromised in size or accessibility, but in general making key strokes is a breeze and can be used as naturally as a full-size keyboard. There’s no option for a pointing-stick such as you get with IBM ThinkPads — I miss having that option but many buyers could care less. Often with thin-and-lights you’ll find that the screen is scrunched down to 12.2-inches and the keyboard is somewhat cramped but with the S6120 you get a 11.5-by-9.3-by-1.3-inch machine that weighs only 4.3lb, making it a cinch to carry, and it’s still comfortable to use. Another major advantage the Lifebook S has over similar notebooks in its class is that it has an internal, swappable bay. The S6120 single bay supports modular devices such as secondary optical storage drives (CD, DVD, and DVD/CD-RW), as well as a second battery. If you’re on the go and need to pop in and out different modules then you’ll really appreciate this feature. It’s also nice just to know you can upgrade your storage drives and have the flexibility to swap in and out different media format drives.

A front profile view of the Fujitsu S Series notebook A top view shows the beautiful Magnesium-Alloy casing, this great looking material also offers protection in the case of bumps and (to some extent) drops of the laptop The left side of the S6120 includes the Microphone/Headphone jacks, PCMCIA slot and fan output ventThe LifeBook S series offers a great selection of ports and slots. On the left edge of the notebook is the headphone and microphone ports, along with one Type II PC Card slot that includes an embedded smart-card reader. The smart-card reader lets you save and access sensitive info on smart cards. I’m not a very big fan of this feature, smart-cards have gained very little usage in the U.S. even though they have been out for a long time now. Europe has adopted this technology in a much larger fashion, but in my opinion this feature is wasted upon the U.S. market and it’s really sort of a drawback rather than beneficial feature as it takes up space and eliminates room for such things as an SD card reader. In addition to this, to use the smart-card reader you’ll have to buy a smart-card adapter (approximately $25) available through various third parties. Along the back edge, there are VGA, IrDA, 56Kbps modem, Ethernet, two USB 2.0 ports, a switch to turn enable or disable Wi-Fi (if you disable the Wi-Fi radio you can save battery life) and a FireWire port. The built-in FireWire that is standard in the Fujitsu S6000 series allows for blazingly fast transfer of digital media from cameras or digital video recorders onto your laptop. On the right hand side is the modular bay that can house an optical drive or backup battery.

The speakers on the Fujitsu S6120 are standard fare, nothing to write home about really though. You’ll want to buy a set of decent speakers to hook up to the headphone out port if you want to hear bass and treble or have a decent volume. The volume of the speakers don’t go very loud, and the louder you turn them up the more tinny they sound so it’s really not recommended. I’m not saying the speakers are bad, they’re actually pretty much so in line with other laptops in its class (desktop replacement notebooks tend to pay more attention to speaker quality that thin-and-light portable notebooks) but just don’t expect a sound machine that you can jam to tunes on. One thing to mention related to sound on this laptop is that overall the system is very quiet. The fan is located on the left hand side and since the Lifebook tends to run pretty cool (meaning it’s no bother to have it on your lap since it’s not uncomfortably warm) the fan rarely kicked in but when it did it was quiet and certainly not enough to be distracting or drown out speaker sound.

When configuring a LifeBook S series, Fujitsu provides many options. You’re able to choose between a 1.4GHz or 1.6GHz Pentium M processor, 256MB/512MB/1GB of RAM, 30GB/40GB/60GB Hard Drive at 4200 RPM, CD/DVD/CDRW&DVD optical drive, with or without a port Replicator, an optional USB external floppy drive and an optional extra Li-Ion battery. Wi-Fi comes integrated by default, the integrated Wi-Fi is an Intel PRO/wireless 2100 (802.11b) card so this is indeed a Centrino machine. Centrino is of course the Intel marketing terminology for a laptop that includes a Pentium M processor and integrated Wi-Fi. Your CPU choice will play a factor in determining how fast the machine performs, but in general if you’re on a budget and undecided between upgrading the amount of RAM versus processor speed, upgrade the RAM. The difference in speed between a 1.4GHz and 1.6GHz configured S6120 is marginal. However, the difference in performance between a notebook with 256MB of RAM versus 1GB of RAM is like night and day, upgrade the RAM if you can afford it! You can choose from three operating systems for the LifeBook S series: Windows 2000, Windows XP Home, and Windows XP Professional. You’ll also get a few Fujitsu utilities and Norton AntiVirus. Windows XP-based configurations come with Microsoft Works and Intuit Quicken 2004 New User Edition. Systems with a DVD or a DVD/CD-RW drive also ship with InterVideo WinDVD for DVD playback and Veritas RecordNow for CD burning. Overall though, the included software is fairly weak and you’ll end up needing to buy productivity packages such as Microsoft Office.

The Fujitsu S Series competes with notebooks such as the Toshiba Satellite Pro M10-S405 and Sony VAIO PCG-Z1A. When equipped with a 1.4GHz Pentium M processor and 512MB of RAM the Lifebook slightly underperformed the Toshiba M10 and outperformed the VAIO Z1A, the Fujitsu LifeBook S2000 is basically a low-end version of the the S6000, the S2000 comes with an Athlon processor:

Mobile application performance and battery life are measured using BAPCo’s MobileMark2002. MobileMark measures both application performance and battery life concurrently using popular applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Netscape Communicator, WinZip, Adobe Photoshop.One note I’ll add on the battery life, the advertised battery life by Fujitsu is 4.5 hours, and I’m pleased to say that that is indeed what I achieved when turning down screen brightness on a recent flight from New York to Las Vegas. I started using the notebook at the airport in New York and 4.5 hours later after I arrived in Las Vegas the notebook forced a shut down due to low battery power. Usually it’s the case that you’ll get less battery life than what is advertised in the system specs, but the S6120 lived up to the claim on battery life.

The Fujitsu LifeBook S6231 is one of the newest models in the thin-and-light series of notebooks aimed primarily at the mobile business crowd. As I am finding out though, this notebook is well suited for just about everyone, except possibly, the hard core gaming crowd. While the 6231 will handle most average games, the Doom 3 folks should look in the direction of the Fujitsu N6010, Sager, CyberPower or Voodoo for a gaming notebook. The Lifebook 6231 will amaze you at how much Fujitsu packs into a very light-weight, quality built notebook.

I have owned several notebooks from various brands (Dell, HP, Twinhead) going back to the time when notebooks were first introduced. Some were good, some not. I considered an IBM ThinkPad (too businesslike) a Sony Vaio (too pricey) and, of course, another Dell (too chintzy). The 6231 is the first one that excited me beyond belief. My friends and family members are absolutely sick of me shouting the praises of this computer. They avoid me in hallways and no longer take my calls! In any event, I bought the 6231 because it offered great looks, light-weight and good overall performance specs for a thin and light laptop.

After much “shopping” and perusing of internet vendor sites, user forums and price checker services, I bought this laptop from Portable One. The base price was $1499, but configured as above, I paid $1839 delivered via FedEx 2 day service. Portable One swapped in the 60 gb hard drive and changed the memory to a single stick. They also upgraded me to Windows XP Professional SP2 with CD. Windows Media Player 10 and even the Google Toolbar were installed, which was great as I wanted both of these applications. I considered a similar unit from NewEgg for $1804 delivered, but Portable One offered a three year Fujitsu warranty. I think it was a great deal and let me add, the folks at Portable One are top shelf. Their crew is very accommodating and helpful. I couldn’t even tell that they had opened the factory sealed box and reconfigured the notebook. Everything was neatly and perfectly repacked. One of the people from Portable One management called me a few days after the unit shipped to ask if I was happy with the notebook and if he could be of any further service. Now that’s great service!

Lenovo 3000 C200 Battery

The Dell e1405 is a portable media laptop that Dell has recently released to replace the XPS M140. The E1405 has excellent battery life, a slew of multimedia functions that can make a grown man cry and the best laptop processors currently on the market.I was looking for a laptop on the smaller side of 15.4″ that would be easily portable from room to room in my house but also good on road trips where watching a movie could be the only thing to save your sanity. After trying the Compaq V4000T, which ran extremely hot and was bulky, I knew I wanted something smaller and more portable. Given a few months and I narrowed my choices down to the Dell e1405 and the Apple Macbook. But again with heat issues and the new reports of the plastic on Macbooks turning colors, and due to a better price of the Dell machine, I decided to go with the E1405. My configuraton for the e1405 came to $640 + tax due to some pretty good deals going on at the time of purchase.

I really like the Futuremark tests and 3DMark03 is my favourite for single core processors. It not only tests the video performance, but also other interesting features like audio performance. Unfortunately it does not take full advantage of multi core processor capabilities.Dell makes its play for the high-end enterprise market with the Dell Latitude 7440. The notebook looks to compete with Lenovo’s popular ThinkPad series, with its impressive specs and durable 3.9lbs. form factor. Of course those specs and sturdy design don’t come cheap. The Latitude 7440 starts an affordable $1,000, but the more impressive build that Notebook Review tested is currently listed at $1,850.

Can Dell oust Lenovo as the king of business? Read the full review to find out.The Dell Latitude 7440 features a sleek all black design. The display lid is comprised of a durable soft-touch carbon fiber material cover. It features a stylish checkered texture design that produces an attractive sheen when light bounces of the device’s protective surface.The deck utilizes the same carbon fiber material found on the display lid. But underneath the deck the notebook is anything but soft, as Dell utilizes its durable Tri-Metal chassis design. Similar to the roll cage design found on the Lenovo ThinkPad T440S, the Dell Latitude E7440 offers exceptional durability. Through thick and thin this device will hold its form.

Measuring in at 12.2″ x 8.3″ x 0.79″ and weighing in at 3.9lbs the Dell Latitude 7440 also has a similar form factor to that of the competing Lenovo ThinkPad T440s. Other 14″ ultrabooks on the market such as the Acer Aspire S7 (2.87lbs.) and the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro (3.08lbs.) offer more portable form factors, but the Latitude 7440 is still easy to travel with, especially given the device’s durable tri-metal chassis design.As a business oriented device it comes as little surprise that the Dell Latitude 7440 offers solid connectivity. The majority of the machine’s ports reside on the back side of the chassis. There the notebook features a power jack, an HDMI connector, two USB 3.0 ports, a mini DisplayPort and an Ethernet connector. The left side houses a SmartCard reader and an SD card slot. On the right hand side of the chassis the notebook offers a Kensington lock slot, a third USB 3.0 port and an audio and microphone combo jack. The Dell Latitude also comes equipped with a docking connector on the bottom of the chassis.

The Latitude 7440 houses an attractive glossy 14″ 1920 x 1080 touch display. At 198 nits the display isn’t exceptionally bright, but the glossy screen does boast vibrant color contrast. While watching a collection of streams of Notebook Review noticed that reds, blues and greens all read exceptionally well with crystal clarity; making the notebook a joy to watch videos or surf the web. The touch controls also proved to be responsive and consistent, making it a viable option for navigating Windows 8.

Despite having a glossy display, the notebook offers flexible viewing angles. On the horizontal axis image quality holds till around 180 degrees. And the display fares just as well on the vertical axis. Image quality also remains consistent in direct light. A small glint appears on screen in heavy lighting conditions, but it hardly detracts from the viewing experience. While it’s the brightest display on the market, the Dell Latitude 7440 offers beautiful and consistent viewing experience.The Dell Latitude 7440 houses a pair of speakers on the bottom of the chassis. Despite their location, the speakers manage to produce boisterous audio levels capable of comfortable filling an entire room with sound. The speakers also provide solid sound quality as the device was able to accurately detail an orchestral track at 100 percent capacity.

The one area where the Dell Latitude 7440 really falls short is its keyboard. Unlike the durable chassis, the standard LED backlit keyboard feels flimsy, easily flexing when pressure is applied. Key Travel is the one highlight for the keyboard, but the lack of tactile feedback makes each stroke feel shallow. Truthfully the keyboard is still serviceable, but it’s a far cry from premium typing experiences like the island-style keyboard on the Lenovo ThinkPad T440s.

Staying true to the old-school flavor of the enterprise-class notebook the Latitude 7440 houses a pointing stick located directly above the “B” key. The control mechanism proves to be a viable alternative to stand touchpad controls, with accurate and responsive controls.The Dell houses a moderate sized touchpad located directly below the spacebar on the keyboard. The smooth surface allows your fingers to easily traverse over the pad, affording a considerable level of sensitivity and control. Equipped with Alps drivers the touchpad also performs swipes and multi-finger gestures accurately with near instant responsiveness.

The Lenovo V100 rounds out the Lenovo 3000 series by filling in the ultraportable gap. The 12.1-inch widescreen V100 isn’t as thin and light as its cousin ThinkPad X60s, but with a built-in optical drive and 1.3 megapixel web camera it’s more integrated and perhaps more convenient for some people.You right away notice the V100 is no ThinkPad because of the rather interesting curvy design. The back of the notebook is curved, evoking the look of some of the curvier cars on the road. In physics many will have learned that a curved back-end tear drop shape is the most aerodynamic form, but I don’t think Lenovo had any ideas of accelerating this notebook up to top speeds.

The coloring is an all silver outside with black on the inside. Overall the look is quite plain, it’s not exactly exciting but steers away from being brazen, so therefore it could still be carried around as a notebook for business users — and Lenovo does fully intend to sell this to small business types.It’s easy to be captivated by the Samsung Chromebook. It has many of the same attributes of an Ultrabook including light weight, thinness, an 11.6-inch screen, and comfortable keyboard. Great battery life is another plus. All if this priced less than most tablets.

Granted, the Chromebook Series 3 isn’t going to do it for some users, especially those who need a fair amount of on-device storage, need to run applications that require significant CPU or graphics power, or who, for some reason, have significant Internet access restrictions.But as a second or travel laptop, a laptop for casual users, or an alternative to a tablet, the Samsung Chromebook should fit the bill just fine.This laptop is much smaller then I had expected. I had used a 15.4″ laptop in the past was so I was thinking a 14.1″ would be close to the same size. Another feature of the E1405 that struck me is the thickness. On paper 1.5″ sounds deep for a laptop but when carrying it around you don’t really notice it too much. I’m not a fan of the white bumpers that the e1405 and all recent Inspiron laptops carry though.

The build quality on the E1405 is nothing to write home about, but at the same time it isn’t bad. When picking the laptop up from one corner you can hear it creaking, but I still feel confident enough picking it up with one hand. Another weak point is the hinges. When pushing on the inside of the hinges you can hear a cracking sound that isn’t too pleasant. Also, when the laptop is closed if you’re looking at it from the front you can see a small gap on the right side between the laptop and the LCD. It’s almost as if the plastic was warped.

This laptop feels blazing fast. I’ve tried modeling with multiple instances of Rhino CAD software open and it’s been able to do it fine without lagging. It seems to be able to take everything I throw at it. My windows boot time is quick; I’d say barely a minute or so. This fast boot time is enabled by the 7200RPM HD which is one of the fastest 7200rpm drives out there. The 2GB of ram has allowed me to run just about anything and everything at the same time without any lag. It seems to do everything I want it to do extremely fast. It’s exactly what I was looking for.

Heat is an issue if you’re used to a cool running machine, such as a ThinkPad which generally stays pretty cool. The z96j on the other hand keeps your palms and wrist warm on those cold winter nights. The area under the left palm rest houses the hard drive so it warms up a little and the area under the right wrist pad is where the processor and GPU are located. While these areas both get warm, it isn’t too uncomfortable to use, you’ll get used to it and forget about it after 5 minutes. It’s not something that should deter you from purchasing this laptop.

The keyboard is more solid than the Dell I used to own, but not as stiff as a ThinkPad keyboard. Although no one makes a keyboard like a ThinkPad, so that’s an unfair comparison. The Z96j buttons have just the right amount of give for a laptop. No complaints here, it works well thanks to the roomy 15.4″ frame. The touchpad works well; it’s not flushed with the wrist pads like some of the other Asus models. On the top right, there are also buttons that allow easy access to your e-mail, browser and to disable the touchpad.

Lenovo Thinkpad L510 Battery

The touchpad is a different story. I miss using a pointing stick that you get on the ThinkPad series, but can handle a touchpad if it is a good implementation. The V100 touchpad is not a good implementation. The mouse buttons are some of the worst I’ve used, they’re very stiff, clicky, cheap feeling and the travel can only be described as awkward. The touchpad is often erratic, despite my playing with the configuration. It’s just overall not good. Maybe because I’m so used to the superb usability of the ThinkPad Ultra Nav input I’m being harsh here, but on the competing Dell M1210 notebook I give high marks for the touchpad and mouse buttons so I’m confident saying this is an area in which the V100 simply falls flat. Get a wireless mouse, you’ll need it.

We’re seeing more and more notebooks with built-in web cameras and such a thing is a happy addition to the V100 as well. This is no skimpy VGA resolution camera either, it’s a 1.3 megapixel resolution camera. I was most impressed with the quality of images captured by the V100 web camera, even in low light situations. In the same room and lighting conditions, the V100 took much better pictures and video than two other notebooks I have with a built-in 1.3MP camera. Take a look at the pictures below (your author is somewhat shy and at least prefers to keep eye and hair color a mystery):

The Asus W3J is Asus’ premiere high-performance portable notebook (as opposed to a desktop replacement). This review is for the newer W3J model number W3J-H026P. The specifications for this model are as follows:The difference between this model and the old one (H017P) is that this model sports a T2500 processor as opposed to a T2400 at 1.83GHz and one stick of 1GB RAM instead of 2 sticks of 512MB. This makes it easier to upgrade to 2GB of RAM by just having to purchase an extra stick as opposed to two 1GB RAM to replace the 512MBs.

This fall I am set to head to the University of California — Berkeley and I believed the time had come to acquire a new computer for my use. At first I had planned on building a desktop PC, but I soon realized that having a large and un-portable system would not be the most practical thing for a student living in a dorm. Therefore I turned my attention to the world of portable computers. The criteria I used in my search for my laptop was simple yet presented me with quite a few problems. I wanted a laptop that carried the new Core Duo processor and came with a fair amount of RAM as I am I going to be majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Additionally since I was an occasional gamer I wanted a laptop that had a dedicated GPU (video card). Lastly, this laptop had to be at maximum 6 pounds.

To make a long story short, I settled on the Asus W3J after reading numerous reviews and benchmark from a wide variety of laptops including the Dell Inspirion e1705, the Alienware Aurora, and the Acer Travelmate 8204WLMi. At the very end I decided upon purchasing an Asus W3J because I was sold on its superior build quality and because the specifications (listed above) fell into the general area of my requirements while not being overly heavy that I would have to receive a back surgery before my 20s. Furthermore, having lived almost 3 years of my life using a 15″ LCD with a native resolution of 1024×768 on my desktop, I found that I had no problem adjusting to a 14″ screen that was widescreen to boot.

I purchased the notebook via the reseller geared2play.com. Its owner, Eddie, is a participant in the Asus forums with well over 1000 posts. I purchased the laptop for $1729.00 (after a $70 rebate). However with the addition of an extra gigabyte of ram and 3 day select shipping, I ended paying $1910 up front. The price may seem a lot (and it sure did to my father), but I believe that you do pay more for the service rather than the product (in this case the quality of the product).

There is no other way to put it, but to say that the Asus W3J is one sexy beast. As soon as one takes the laptop of the Asus box (which by itself is yet another beautiful looking box), the eyes travel to the brushed aluminum lid. It’s hard to resist rubbing it a few times while soaking in the beauty. The elegance is not limited to just the lid. The beauty continues with the charcoal black color of the laptop, hotkeys that look as if it’s part of the chassis rather than buttons, stylish fonts on the keyboard, a touchpad that doesn’t detract from the design with oddly placed buttons, and an overall eye-pleasing look that cannot be conveyed by any photos.

However the W3J is no fragile beauty. The build quality of this laptop is top-notch. During my extensive testing (read: gaming) and circus acts with the laptop I have yet to hear a sound that strikes fear into my heart. The hinge is strong and sturdy and in fact requires two hands to open. There is none or very minimal wobbling with the screen nor are there any loose joints. Furthermore to a person who almost hurt his back lugging around 10lbs worth of textbooks every day for the past two years this laptop feels as light as a feature (but weighing around 5 and a half pounds still).

My complaints if any, is limited to two design problems. Number one (and the biggest) is the fact that is how the heat vent is placed on the right side and therefore makes it uncomfortable (especially while gaming) to use an external mouse. Secondly I do not like how tight the hinge is, because I constantly feel as if I will snap the screen while trying to open. However this issue is becoming more and more non-existent as I become used to the laptop.

The Asus W3J comes with a 14″ wide XGA with a native resolution of 1280×768. It has a Color Shine’ glossy LCD with Crystal Bright’ (extra bright) technology. My primary concern prior to my purchase was if the glare would be dehabilitating in standard use (i.e. other than for DVDs). Secondly (but not as much) I was worried if the small vertical resolution would be a problem. I am happy to report that neither of these were big problems when it came to using the computer. I never noticed the glare myself while looking straight at the screen, but in a few photos I could see reflections of the surroundings while taken at a slight angle. While on the topic of angles, I would like to report that the viewing angle of the W3J is not very wide. While it can easily accommodate the main viewer and perhaps one person on either side, any more than that and the screen is not very clearly seen. As for the screen resolution, a 14″ screen provides an excellent compromise between a performance and portability. I have yet to be disappointed by the screen resolution. Sure a larger vertical real estate would have been excellent, but the trade off with space would have been too much of a negative factor.

Coming from a desktop system with an excellent speaker system set up, I set my expectations very low regarding sound quality. However I am quite disappointed to report that the sound is too low, even for a laptop. While watching a DVD I had to turn on subtitles or I would miss out on key conversations. At times I even felt my old large DS had a higher volume setting than the laptop. However plugging in an external speaker set or headphones negates this problem quickly. And considering I will be using headphones most of the time (in order to not disturb class or my dorm mates), this will thankfully not be a big problem.

Processor and Performance:The new W3J is unique in that it will probably be one of the last set of laptops that use the Core Duo processors, as Intel is set to release their new Core 2 Duo (Merom) processor in July. However, the fact remains that the Core Duo T2500 is still one of the more powerful processing unit available. The fact that it is Dual Core allows for excellent multitasking, such as watching movie while compiling a program.Those who look to have high performance may need to do an extra step after their initial boot up — reformat, or at least extensive clean up. The system is riddled with bloatware (unnecessary programs), that hog system resources (no matter how extensive they are). At first boot-up I found approximately 40 processes running and over three-quarters were useless to me (i.e. Intel’s wireless utility — I prefer the Windows’ utility).

Weight-wise the Z96j is pretty light. I expected a 15.4″ with 256MB video card to be heavier, but it isn’t. Back to the lid, if you press on the back, there is minimum rippling in the screen. The screen does have a slight wobble, most likely due to the wideness of it. As for flex, it is a 15.4″ so there isn’t much you can do to keep it from flexing if you really try to make it flex.

The screen is awesome. It runs 1680×1050 on a 15.4″ screen. I didn’t receive it with any dead pixels (thank goodness). The screen has a glossy finish and it has very uniform backlighting, more so than the T60 does. So much so that I didn’t realize my T60 had uneven backlighting until I got this z96j. It has 16 different levels of brightness which range from about 5% to 100%. At the dimmest setting you can barely see anything on it. Though changing the backlight doesn’t affect the battery life as much as you’d think. I think the greater drain comes from the monster X1600 graphics card.

Dell Latitude C640 Battery

The team at NotebookReview.com just finished our in-depth look at the latest generation of AMD’s “Accelerated Processing Unit” (APU) technology. Code named “Trinity” this complex processor combines a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processor (GPU) onto a single chip while promising lower power consumption. Keep reading to see if your next laptop should have AMD inside.Those of our readers who stay up to date on the latest processor technology have probably heard about AMD’s FUSION. FUSION is what AMD calls its Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) technology. The first FUSION processors were the part of the Brazos platform of C-series and E-series processors (code named “Zacate”) for the entry-level laptop market. Later in 2011 AMD released its first A-series processors (code named “Llano”) which quickly found their way into a wide range of mainstream notebooks.

The Trinity APUs consists of the three different classes of A-series APUs (A6, A8, and A10) that are divided into two categories; mainstream and ultrathin. The A6 APUs have dual-core CPUs inside while the A8 and A10 chips pack quad-core processors. The important bit of technical minutia to be aware of is that the new Trinity APUs have undergone a radical change in thermal design packages (TDPs). Last year’s A-series processors ran at either 35 or 45 watts … meaning they were intended for mid-range and high-performance notebooks but not ultrathin laptops. The wizards at AMD found a way to DOUBLE the computational performance per watt but at TDPs of just 17 to 35 watts. That directly translates into thinner notebooks and longer battery life.

The base clock speeds for the A-series notebook APUs range from 1.9GHz to 2.7GHz and higher clock speeds are reached via AMD’s “Turbo Core” technology. Turbo Core works in much the same way as Intel’s TurboBoost technology by up-clocking one or more cores depending on the processor demands of the software you’re running. Unlike TurboBoost, AMD’s Turbo Core bases its clock speed increases on the workload of the APU rather than thermal measurements of processor activity.

AMD claims an increase in CPU performance of up to 29 percent and an increase of graphics performance up to 56% over the previous generation of A-series processors. Granted the 29 percent CPU performance boost is pretty impressive, but it’s that 56 percent increase in the GPU that will be of most interest to gamers. Whether you’re a casual gamer who likes playing web-based games or a hardcore gamer who stands in line for every new release in the Call of Duty series, the GPU inside the new A-series APU genuinely lives up to AMD’s label of “discrete-class graphics.” We’ll save the details for the benchmarking section of this review, but let’s just say there’s a reason the GPU takes up half the space on this chip.

The Toshiba Tecra A6 has a silver painted lid and inner surfaces. The bottom, back, sides, screen and keyboard are coloured a flat black. The Toshiba logo on the lid is reflective and surrounded by a square of brushed metal. All in all, it looks quite modern and stylish.The 5 system status LEDs on the front left are all a pleasing green colour and not too bright. However, the “Wireless On” LED is located separately on the front of the laptop and is orange and extremely bright. I find this quite annoying, especially in a dark room. I would have preferred it if Toshiba just used another system LED for showing the wireless status.

The laptop is quite light and fairly solid, I couldn’t notice any flexing of the screen though the screen tends to “wobble” a tiny bit if the screen is pressed, but despite that the hinges feel very solid. The Toshiba Tecra A6 isn’t quite as solidly built as some iBooks and IBM Thinkpads I’ve used in the past but is all in all quite acceptable and much better then some older Toshiba laptops I’ve used.There is quite a bit of warmth just right of the touchpad where your wrists would rest when typing. It’s not uncomfortably hot but it could make your hands a bit sweaty after a few hours of typing.The Tecra A6 features a 14.1 inch Widescreen WXGA display. Unlike a lot of recent laptops the Toshiba uses a matte screen that is more readable in bright light then glossy screens but sacrifices a lot of contrast and some brightness.

Talking about the wireless button — one thing I like about this model is that there is no irritating blue LED’s on the notebook which distract the user (like on some HP’s and Toshibas). Everything is just nice green lights. All the status lights are in a neat row below the hinge of the monitor — and they are all nice looking icons with the light shining through them. Also, application specific buttons are a nice matte silver, none of that tacky looking chrome buttons found on some machines.The notebook gets quite warm under intensive use — the processor temperature remains in the 54 degrees Celsius area when plugged in, and around 49 degrees Celsius when running on battery power. The fan is very efficient and only comes on periodically, about once every ten minute for about 5 seconds when the notebook is being used for intensive tasks like 3D games. The wrist pads get a little warm when plugged in, but nothing to worry about. It can be used on your lap, but this machine is not exactly a X series ThinkPad. It is not uncomfortable, as long as the fan underneath can get some air.

The track pad is nice and big — something which is a plus. I wish it had a Track point type button, but this will do. Anyone who has used a small track pad (like found on some Packard Bell sub notebooks) would know that a track pad has to be the right size to be usable. The track pad has a nice dedicated scrolling area, and the buttons have a nice feeling to them. I hate buttons on track pads that make a lot of noise. It also has a dedicated button which switches off the track pad completely off — it glows green when activated. This is nice for when you have a mouse plugged in at your desk and you have a lot of typing to do.

I’m going to say it straight. This machine has terrible speakers. Very tinny, and not very loud. I also use my Logitech Z2300 speakers instead. There is even a small little subwoofer installed on the bottom, but I don’t think it has any effect. Must say I am disappointed with this part of the notebook. Luckily I use decent desktop speakers at home. On the go, you will have to use headphones I guess.One nice feature is the volume wheel control. I wish more notebook manufacturers will stick with this feature. Most people prefer to turn a knob than to press Fn+F6 quickly silence a notebook.The earphone jack is also a SPDIF optical out (you can actually see a little red light glowing from it). I don’t have a digital amplifier, but it is nice to have because the notebook is equipped with Intel 7.1 High Def audio. With my 2.1 Logitech Z2300 speakers the sound is as good as ever.

There is more software included, but the user has the option of which packages he wants to install. One part I did appreciate was that there was no “crapware” installed like some other brands. Right from the start the user is given a good clean choice of software without skins and other irritating things (like included in Dell and Packard Bell machines).Software is shipped on included CD’s as well, which I like. Some brands these days do not ship with CDs at all — how cheap can you get? For example, Acer notebooks constantly remind the user to burn a software CD.All my software runs without any problems. Most of my apps focus on web development, graphics editing, benchmarking and of course the standard office type applications.Reception on this machine is fine. I have not had any problems using the wireless features. There is support for 802.11 a, b and g formats, so it is versatile in that sense. In many cases where my friends’ Acer would not have reception, I would be happy enough to have reception and at a decent speed too. I have no idea where the antenna is situated.

I really wish there is more wireless options out for the Expresscard slot though. Cellular providers do not have 3G Expresscards out yet, so I will have to wait. Guess that’s the price you pay for having the latest tech.Warranty and support:The machine ships with a standard one year warranty — nothing special. You can purchase an optional 3yr pickup and return warranty, but I did not opt for it. There is dedicated customer care number on the box, and none of that free 90 day nonsense. It works for the length of the warranty.Overall I am very happy with this notebook. I had the option of returning the notebook should I wish (I normally do if I am not one hundred percent happy) but this notebook just perfectly fits my needs. While it is not perfect (I hate the plastic silver look) its performance is great. If I could make improvements it would be better speakers and a black cover. However, the machine is well built and portable enough for daily use.

The IdeaPad S10-2 is the latest generation 10″ netbook from Lenovo, offering the 1.6GHz N270 Intel Atom processor and a 6-cell extended battery. Lenovo redesigned this netbook to make it look slimmer and more attractive than its predecessor, giving the edges a rounded look and a more modern appearance. In our review we see how well the IdeaPad S10-2 performs in our tests, to help you make an informed buying decision.A solid looking metal hinge with integrated speakers holds the screen in place. Hinge tension is good, but the range of motion is limited – you can’t open the HP Mini enough to lay it flat.

Port selection looks like this: On the left side there is a power jack, USB 2.0, proprietary connector (you can buy a VGA cord that fits this port), multipurpose minijack, and Ethernet (with rubber cover). 
On the right side you have an SDHC Card slot, one normal USB 2.0 and one recessed USB 2.0 (HP has a line of flash storage accessories planned for this slot). Whether these ports are sufficient really depends on personal preference and need. I suspect most folks will be disappointed that there are not more ports (standard VGA being a real sore point).

The setup prompts are brief and you’ll be up and running in a minute or two. Pick your username, password, location and away you go. During startup a quick Linux error message flashes on the screen, and you’ll wonder if something is broken. But it does boot so be patient. Likewise when shutting down there is a crunchy static sound blast that emanates from the speakers.Perhaps the most interesting feature is the Mini 1110NR’s operating system. HP has adapted Linux to their needs and the results are very good. Their distribution is called the Mobile Internet Experience and is built on top of Ubuntu (8.04 I think) and the Gnome desktop environment.

Dell Latitude E5400 Battery

I am also somewhat disappointed by the lack of digital S/PDIF audio out, as several ASUS and other laptops with similar specs posses them.The 1.66GHz Core Duo is quite a processor, the laptop boots noticeably faster then my Pentium 4 machine despite having a slower hard disk drive. Because of the dual core Windows tends to temporarily freeze up less, though this still occurs when new hardware is added and some system configurations are changed.I’m not much of a hardcore gamer so I’ve only a tested a few games. Quake 3 is smooth and responsive as you’d expect and Battlefield 1942 had no problems with maximum graphics and AI settings.

Counterstrike:Source on the other hand struggled a bit on the highest graphic settings, however I did notice that the HDD was being accessed nearly constantly and other people have been able to do it with similar notebooks so I believe this problem is caused by the mere 512MB of RAM installed. Heavy gamers would be well advised to upgrade the RAM beyond the default 512MB.Desktop performance is excellent with 512MB of RAM, and it is also quite nice that the graphics card doesn’t eat into this. The fact that this laptop can be upgraded to a full 2GB is also good for the future and should boost performance with Windows Vista.The Toshiba Tecra A6 has quite a nice keyboard, not quite as firm and solid as IBM/Lenovo’s keyboards but definitely comfortable to use. There is no visible flexing and the keys have a nice responsive feel to them.Is the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 the best netbook currently on the market and the best value for your dollar? Well, the answer isn’t simple, particularly considering the way that new netbooks seem to arrive every week. The S10 does several things right that we wish more manufacturers did with their netbooks.

First, Lenovo was smart enough to realize and ExpressCard slot is important if you want to make a netbook useful. The ExpressCard slot gives you the option of adding more USB ports, Firewire, eSATA, or any number of other ports to the S10. More importantly, the ExpressCard slot makes it easy to add a broadband modem to the S10 so that you can stay connected to the internet anywhere with cell phone reception.Second, the S10 has built-in Bluetooth. Frankly, we’re amazed that every netbook doesn’t come with built-in Bluetooth since it allows you to connect devices to the netbook without using one of the USB ports.

Last, but certainly not least the S10 combines the surprisingly capable Intel Atom processor with a standard hard drive. While budget SSDs are nice, most consumers can’t get over the limited storage capacity of SSDs and that is why hard drives still have a place in netbooks.On the other hand, the S10 still suffers from some of the same limitations as other netbooks: relatively high temperatures, small battery, and a cramped screen and keyboard.Ultimately, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 is a great ultra-portable laptop priced below $500. However, if you’re willing to put up with a bulkier notebook then it’s still possible to find a computer with more features and performance for almost the same price on sale.You might be wondering about the SSD. This is not one of the new generation of super fast SSDs, that is for sure. It is a SanDisk PATA (using a ZIFF connector) SSD. Booting time was (41.7 seconds), shut down (20.5 seconds) and restarts (58.3 seconds). These times are OK. Faster, bigger SSD drives (such as Runcore) or 1.8” mechanical drives can be installed with minimal fuss – simply remove two screws inside the battery bay and pop the keyboard off to access the drive. You will need to remove the recessed USB port to make room for a standard 1.8” drive. HP provides full service documentation on their support site.

Cosmetically it succeeds on a hardware and software level. It is thinner than most netbooks in its class, and it offers more attractive styling (at least in my opinion). There are no batteries jutting out of strange places like on the Toshiba NB100 and Dell Mini 12. Materials are well chosen, and the lid’s finish is classy looking.
At a software level HP has taken the standard fecal brown aesthetic of Ubuntu and given it a glossier, sexier sheen. The theme is sharp and HP’s launcher/shell succeeds where several netbook Linux distros failed before it. This Linux OS is very easy to use and everything just works out of the box. This operating system is certifiably ordinary people friendly.

In terms of hardware and performance, there is little to choose from between most netbooks. This particular chassis was made for a 10” screen so the 1110NR’s 8.9” screen looks out of place. Also, the 8GB SSD is simply too small given HP’s current lack of Mi-integrated cloud services. Sadly, the 10” model that comes with a much larger mechanical HDD is only available with Windows XP. I would appreciate being able to buy the 10” model with hard drive running HP Mi (or even a dual boot). The Hp Mini chassis is very nice, but the memory compartment door is flimsy – a really bone-headed design decision.

The HP Mini 1000 Mi Edition (Mini 1110NR) is a cool-looking, low-cost netbook focused on easy Web access and entertainment. It uses the same design as the Mini 1000, but runs the Mobile internet (Mi) software rather than Windows. Mobile internet is an easy-to-use interface built on Linux, but is it enough for most people to enjoy their e-mail, Internet, digital photos, music, and video?Last year’s HP Mini-note 2133 looked great, but it was let down by a pokey slow VIA C-7 CPU and 4200rpm HDD. I can imagine many people who got to handle a 2133 trying to rationalize how they probably didn’t need too much CPU power because of how well-built and attractive the 2133 was. I know I did, but thankfully I came to my senses before plunking down $500 on what was sure to be a disappointing investment.

We’ll never know why the VIA/Centaur C-7 was picked for the 2133 (everyone loves to cheer for the underdog, and I am sure that the VIA Nano will rock when its released in 2012), but its descendants like the HP Mini 1110NR we are reviewing here come equipped with the much better Intel Atom processor. Here are the 1110NR Specs:One thing I love about this keyboard is that the windows and menu keys are located well out of the way in the top right corner. These keys always annoy me on desktop keyboards. Another big plus is that the Control key is located in the bottom left corner where is should be and the function key is to the right of it. I’ve used several laptops where the function key is situated in the bottom left and this is less then ideal. The keyboard is also spill proofThough the lack of multimedia keys (play, fast forward, etc) is somewhat disappointing the quality and layout of this keyboard more then makes up for it Unlike a certain other laptop manufacturers like Dell there is no spyware, adware or much other crud installed by default. Toshiba give you a fairly clean install and you can always delete the installers for everything else.

The install also keeps a 4GB hidden FAT32 partition which contains files used by the recovery CD creator. You can use something like Partition Magic or perhaps a Linux live CD like Knoppix to remove this and resize your windows partition to recover this lost space.With all the controversy surrounding “Trusted Computing” it should be noted that the Tecra A6 comes with a “Trusted Platform Module” chip which stores encryption keys for the “Trusted Computing” platform. The good news is that it can be disabled and reset in the BIOS and is switched off by default.This won’t be an issue for most users but at the moment Linux support for both the wireless chipset and graphics card, along with a few other features is lacking. Intel has stated that their wireless driver will come out first quarter 2006 but ATi has not released any info about the due date of its next driver which will support the Mobile Radeon X1xxx series. As I occasional Linux user I find this quite disappointing that I will have to stick with Windows for a few months until support improves

The Toshiba Tecra A6 is quite a beefy notebook for its very low price, though I have a few minor gripes with it. The power of the Core Duo and Mobility Radeon X1400 ensure that this laptop will make short work of whatever I throw at it. Though the battery life isn’t exactly brilliant it is good enough to get through a few hours of work done while on the run.Under normal use, backlight at 100 percent and using wireless for web browsing and watching several streaming videos at 75 percent volume, the S10 managed to deliver three hours and 43 minutes of battery life. This is similar to what we’ve seen from Atom-based netbooks with 3-cell batteries, so there isn’t much to complain about here. However, as we’ve said in the past when reviewing other netbooks, these tiny laptops would make excellent mobile companions if they just had an option for a 6-cell or 8-cell battery for all-day use. In any case, lowering the screen brightness and turning off the wireless card should provide enough battery life for prolonged use with the 3-cell battery.

Even before we get our hand on the 1110NR configuration of the Mini 1000 Mi edition we can see that HP has really pushed their game up a level. Much like their recent Touchsmart and HDX line, the Mini comes in an attractive black box. In terms of packaging, HP is not quite at Apple levels yet. For example the Mini box is much larger than it needs to be, but HP are giving us a better first impression than Toshiba or Acer. Inside the box, you have a nice startup guide. The Mini is suspended in two nasty plasti-foam blocks (come on HP, cardboard works just as well). Its battery is pre-installed and the power cord is stored in a cardboard compartment and that’s all you will find. There is no case/sleeve nor is there detailed documentation or recovery media. HP’s documentation claims that we will be able to download a Mi recovery disk utility ‘soon.’ For now, a recovery partition on the SSD allows you to go back to factory fresh.

Asus G73S Battery

It was the first of Apple’s notebooks to be designed using the now-famous unibody engineering technique, which essentially carves the computer’s case from a single block of cast aluminum. The CPU was a Core 2 Duo designed to take up only 40% of the room of its more traditional counterparts.The last couple of years, however, have driven the notebook market into a frenzy. Netbooks, buoyed by consumers’ desires to be smaller, lighter and cheaper invaded the industry. The MacBook Air that once stood alone started to get overshadowed. Few of these notebooks were as thin, but they weren’t precisely fat. They were also light and affordable.

Apple finally realized that with the latest refresh of the MacBook Air lineup, something had to change. The 11.6-inch MacBook Air is Apple’s smallest laptop ever, harking back to the days of their original 12-inch ultraportable offerings. Both the 11.6- and 13-inch Airs share the same design trend and some of the same dimensions. Both are 0.68 inches in the back, tapering down to a scant eleven-hundredths of an inch at the front.The iBook comes with a decent software package with the Mac OS X at its core which includes AppleWorks (similar to Microsoft Works with the word processor, spreadsheet, etc), a suite of production software such as Garage Band, iDVD, iPhoto, iMovie, and more. There’s also World Book 2004 and a few full version games installed as well which is a nice addition but a lot of people such as myself will end up deleting to free up the limited 30GB hard drive space. Unfortunately there’s no full version of Microsift Office or even the full version of Quicktime.

Firstly, Apple has a service on iTunes that enables the users, for a small fee, to wirelessly rent movies. That takes care for our movie-watching needs, but what about us Canadians? I can’t seem to find the rentals section on iTunes…Secondly, Apple has a better way of making backups – it’s called Time Machine, and as I’m sure you’re all aware of, it gives the user a simple and effective way to backup the computer. Apple also has a new device called Time Capsule which essentially is a wireless router with a built in hard drive. It allows the user to make wireless backups without plugging into an external hard drive.

Upon inspecting the MacBook Air, you will immediately notice the tiny track pad button. The button is very small and takes some time getting used to, but I assure you that it won’t cause any problems for most people in the long run. I mostly use the track pad to right click, left click, and drag things around, but I still use the button instinctively every now and then and have no problems with its small size.

Both units I used suffered from no screen problems, thankfully. For every Apple device besides the iPod touch, I have never experienced any dead or stuck pixels. Aside from having no pixel anomalies, the two MacBook Airs I used had large viewing angles and very sharp pictures. I prefer matte screens, but that option is not available on the Air. The glossy screen makes the colors look more vibrant, but the reflection is sometimes annoying, and this type of display has more of a tendency to show dust and dirt. The MacBook Air’s screen is evenly lit and suffers from no backlight bleeding. Overall, one of the best screens from Apple I have used. The colors on it are brighter than on my 24" white iMac, although I prefer my iMac’s screen because of its much higher resolution and because it is matte. However, place the MacBook Air next to a MacBook, and you will notice that the MacBook has a pretty narrow viewing angle compared to the Air.Overall, I would say that the MacBook Air has a display superior to that of the MacBook. I prefer the screens of the MacBook Pro and iMac because they offer a higher resolution. The Air has a 1200×800 resolution, which offers great readability and crispness, but I’d prefer a higher resolution screen. I don’t think we’ll ever see that, though, because if the resolution were any tighter on a 13" screen, surely some users with poorer eyesight would have difficulty reading it.

The iSight camera on the MacBook Air is not as high quality as on the MacBook or the iMac. I don’t know whether it’s the resolution or not, but video definitely seems slightly sharper on the latter machines. The performance on the MacBook Air, however, is acceptable. The microphone performs great. I am able to record lectures using Quicktime Pro with ease. The microphone picks up everything, including my typing.For $999 (U.S.) extra, Apple will include a 64 GB SSD. Other reviews suggest that this option is not as fast as anticipated and that the hefty price tag for this option is in most cases not worth it. These drives supposedly offer safer data storage and faster boot times, but it’s not "instant on" as many had hoped for. Also, the gain in battery life that the drive offers is small (some say only 15 minutes longer). Personally, I think it’s ahead of its time, and that in a few years down the road, these drives will be mainstream and won’t cost a thousand dollars to add on. I chose not to be an early adopter on this one. Supposedly, it is possible to change the hard drive in the MacBook Air yourself, but it’s nothing a novice user would want to attempt.

The basic 2GB of RAM is pretty standard these days and is nothing to celebrate. In fact, a major criticism of the MacBook Air is that the RAM is non-upgradeable. So in the future, if you decide you need or want more, you’ll be out of luck. It is important to note that virtually all other notebooks on the market offer this kind of upgradeability. This was a compromise that was made by Apple in order to make this machine so small and lightweight. I’m not the kind of person who will open up their machine and upgrade it, but there are many such people, and they will be disappointed by the MacBook Air’s lack of upgradeability.

Perhaps the most common criticism of the MacBook Air is its lack of ports. On most notebooks, you’ll find an integrated DVD-burner, a couple of USB ports, a card slot, an SD card reader, firewire, and more. The MacBook Air, however, has only a single USB port, a micro-DVI port with digital and analog video, and a headphone jack. Let’s examine this in greater detail.Once you flip the little door down, you will expose the ports. For me, I found it pretty impossible to plug in my USB key without lifting up the entire computer. The problem is that the USB port is simply too close to the surface on which the MacBook Air rests. Given the thickness of the machine, I don’t really see how they could have made it more accessible, but the point is that it’s quite difficult to insert some peripherals into the USB port. The space around the single USB port is very cramped. Once you manage to hook up the USB peripheral, however, it works as expected.

Apple sells an external, USB-powered SuperDrive for $99 (U.S.). The drive appears to be quite lightweight, but still, what’s the point of having an ultraportable if you have to lug around an external optical drive? Well, according to Steve Jobs, most users won’t miss the optical drive. In his presentation at MacWorld, he described the major uses we have for our optical drives: we play movies, make backups, burn music CDs for the car, and install software. According to him, there are better ways to do all of these things.

In doing so, Intel also barred NVIDIA from making chipsets for future Intel processors, starting with the Core i-whatever series of chips. Whether it was appropriate for them to do so is an argument for armchair tech philosophers everywhere, but it definitely tied Apple’s hands. As a result, the 11- and 13-inch Airs featured comparatively weak CPU performance, but more than adequate GPUs.The trouble with many attractive objects is that the act of using them can make them less appealing over time. Notwithstanding the aesthetic of worn-in objects, it is a shame to see a nice finish scratched, scuffed or otherwise diminished.

Notebook computers are subject to the ravages of use. Their very nature makes portable computers subject to more wear and tear – they beg to be carried about and exposed to all sorts of perils. So, when faced with a nice looking notebook and the obvious need to use it; what is a notebook enthusiast to do?If you own certain Apple notebooks, you can employ the Marware Protection Pack to keep your expensive productivity tool looking attractive as long as possible. Packs are available for the Apple iBook, PowerBook, MacBook and MacBook Pro.

The Pack is comprised of two parts: a PVC leatherette hand-rest cover, and a fabric keyboard guard. The latter also doubles as a lint-free cloth for keyboard cleaning.Personally, it was the hand-rest cover that I was most interested in obtaining for my trusty old PowerBook. A drawback of Apple’s anodized aluminum cases is that over time they are subject to corrosion from sweat and body oils. This typically takes the form of black pitting. When these little marks appear, you’ll want to take steps to prevent almost unnoticeable black dots from growing into giant pock marks.

Corrosion is one danger, another is jewelry. Rings, watches and the like can scratch and otherwise damage the finish of your shiny new notebook. Why take chances?Installing the Protection Pack is a breeze. The hand-rest cover has an adhesive backing that is reusable and non-marking. This makes dealing with air bubbles and proper positioning very easy. Once installed, the cover matches the color and look of the PowerBook very nicely. It is also soft to the touch and grippier (great if you like to carry your PowerBook around). Corroded and scratched up hand-rests are now a thing of the past.