New State-of-the-Art Notebooks Offer Something For Everyone

Fujitsu LifeBook N Series
Fujitsu's notebooks have become quite nice in recent years, and Fujitsu won the editor's choice award for its E Series unit in the Test Center's last big notebook roundup in March.

The newer LifeBook N Series is similar in appearance to the E Series, but it's faster, and some of the components have been rearranged to make it more user-friendly.

This is a three-spindle unit, so it has a built-in floppy drive, but it's also heavy, weighing in at just more than 8 pounds.

While the DVD eject button was on the side of the E Series notebook, the N Series has that button on the front, which is more convenient. The N Series' more powerful speakers are mounted on the sides of the unit, whereas the E Series' speakers were on the front underside and therefore produced muffled sound.

The N Series notebook also features an advanced 15-inch display with 64 Mbytes of dedicated video memory and a Pentium 4 processor running at 2.8GHz. It includes 512 Mbytes of memory, a 60-Gbyte hard drive, a DVD-RW drive, 802.11b/54g wireless LAN, a V.90 modem and a 10/100 NIC. In addition, the N Series has four USB 2.0 ports, an IEEE 1394 FireWire port, an S-video Out port and two PC Card slots.

The most interesting feature is Fujitsu's 15-inch Multidomain Vertical Alignment (MVA) SXGA++TFT display, which offers an ultra-wide viewing angle of 160 degrees from all sides and twice the contrast ratio of typical LCDs. The display has a native resolution of 1,400 x 1,050--higher than typical 15-inch displays--which makes it appear even sharper. The display looks unusual right out of the box: Whereas most LCDs have a satiny gray appearance, N Series screen looks like black glass.

The image produced by this disply is as crisp and bright as they come. Fujitsu promises up to two hours of battery life, which is good for a Pentium 4 notebook but only one-half the runtime of some Centrino portables.

On the whole, the N Series desktop replacement notebook is quite powerful and well-equipped, but it's just not terribly portable. If you want ultra portability, consider the following mobile solutions from Panasonic and Sharp.

Panasonic ToughBook CF-W2
Panasonic's new ToughBook CF-W2 is something of an engineering feat. This Centrino notebook weighs less than three pounds even with its 12.1-inch display and "hidden" DVD-CDRW drive.

Those unfortunate enough to have used a notebook computer back in 1995 might remember Panasonic's line of brick-like portables with flip-up keyboards that concealed CD-ROM drives underneath. The CF-W2 doesn't have a flip-up keyboard, but access to the DVD-CDRW drive is through a pop-up door that's nearly impossible to detect on the wrist-rest area.

The CF-W2 features an ultra-low-voltage 900MHz Pentium M processor, 256 Mbytes of memory, integrated 802.11b wireless, a 10/100 NIC and a 56K modem, as well as a Secure Digital media slot, two USB 2.0 ports and one PC Card slot.

Panasonic crams all those features, plus the hidden DVD, into a package that weighs just 2.87 pounds (with the battery) and measures 1.7 inches high by 10.6 inches wide and 8.3 inches deep.

Because it's a ToughBook, the 40-Gbyte hard drive is shock-mounted, as is the display panel, and it has reinforced screen case edges, stainless steel hinges and a scratch-resistant finish.

It's hard to appreciate how light the CF-W2 is, but the box it comes in actually feels empty even when it's not. Thin-glass display technology lends a hand in keeping the weight of this notebook down. The lightweight 12.1-inch LCD has a native resolution of 1,024 x 768 and it's about 25 percent lighter than typical panels of the same size. Users of this full-featured ultra-light notebook don't have to compromise feature set for portability.

Sharp Actius MM10
Sharp's Actius MM10 is designed for people that are on the go more often than not. It has no built-in drives other than a hard disk, and its display is a relatively small 10.4 inches. But the notebook weighs only 2.1 pounds.

Based on a 1GHz Crusoe processor, the MM10's main mission is to conserve power. It also includes a 15-Gbyte hard drive, 256 Mbytes of memory, two USB 2.0 ports and integrated Wi-Fi. And for a limited time, the MM10 comes with a free external DVD-CDRW drive.

Because the MM10 will travel a lot, Sharp included its SharpSync functionality, which lets users synchronize folders or files on another computer. Each time the MM10 is placed in its Connection Cradle, the system automatically synchronizes the folders, ensuring that users are always working with the latest version of their work. The MM10 can be used like an external hard drive; even while it charges in its cradle, files stored on it can be accessed through a USB port.

Although the MM10 is small in size, it's big in quality. The jewel-like fit-and-finish is due partly to the magnesium and aluminum alloys from which the case is made. The MM10 measures 9.9 inches wide by 8.2 inches deep and 0.78 inch high at its thickest point. Also, the notebook runs quiet because it has no cooling fan.

While the MM10's 10.4-inch XGA TFT LCD display is kind of small, it does have a native resolution of 1,024 x 768. The standard battery should last up to 2.9 hours, but an optional high-capacity battery is good for 9 hours of runtime. The unit features one PC Card slot for expansion purposes.

Toshiba Satellite P25-S507
Toshiba's Satellite P25-S507, with its 17-inch-wide display, is the most grandiose notebook ever evaluated by the Test Center. Finished in dark-blue metallic paint, it has Harman Kardon speakers embedded in a gigantic palm rest area. The behemoth weighs 9.9 pounds and measures 1.8 inches high by 16.4 inches wide and 11.5 inches deep, so you wouldn't want to carry it very far.

The Satellite features a 2.8GHz Pentium 4, 512 Mbytes of memory, a 60-Gbyte hard drive, four USB 2.0 ports, a DVD-R/RW multifunction drive and a modular bay that will accept a second optical or hard drive. Other features include a Secure Digital media slot, a FireWire port, integrated 802.11a/b wireless, a V.92 modem, a 10/100 NIC, four USB 2.0 ports, a TV Out port and direct controls for CD/DVD playback.

Last month engineers examined a wide-screen notebook from HP-Compaq, the nx7000. The Satellite beats the nx7000 in terms of sheer presence, and it's more useful on the desktop, but the nx7000 is very portable, whereas the Satellite is not.

The nx7000 featured a 15.4-inch-wide display with a native resolution of 1,680 x 1,050, whereas the Satellite's display has a native resolution of only 1,440 x 900, so the images aren't as sharp as on Compaq's wide-screen display.

Where the nx7000 is ideal for mobile users that want more screen space without sacrificing portability, the Satellite is a luxury portable. But you don't have to be rich to afford a wide-screen Satellite; at $1,999, it costs less than a lot of other high-end notebooks.

The Satellite's huge screen makes it perfect for use on the desktop to display two documents side-by-side. The big display, in combination with an NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 graphics accelerator, makes it perfect for gaming and a pleasure on which to watch a DVD.