Leaders Of The Pack

Test Center engineers looked at several of 2005’s notebooks, and three lines came out on top when it comes to features and channel compatibility. Lenovo’s ThinkPad Z series, Hewlett-Packard’s NX series and Toshiba America Information Systems’ Tecra product line.

Selecting a winner from these three competitors was difficult, but after considering all the variables, Toshiba’s Tecra edged out the rest, especially in the form of the Tecra M4, a high-performance convertible that offers portability yet can function as a desktop replacement.

Toshiba offers a partner-friendly channel program, which promises easy access to products, good support and decent margins. Test Center engineers specifically focused on Toshiba’s M4-S515, which sports a 2GHz Intel Pentium M760 processor, 512 Mbytes of RAM, 80-Gbyte hard disk and features a 14.1-inch display, which can be used as a tablet. Although a little heavy at around 7 pounds, most users will find that a small price to pay for desktoplike performance, convertibility and portability.

With notebook sales currently outpacing desktop sales, Toshiba’s product features, channel program specifics and versatility combine to make the Tecra M4 a winner. —Frank J. Ohlhorst