Latest Offerings Make Some Waves
Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, Calif., is offering a wide-screen notebook in Intel Centrino form for $1,999. Looking back over the years at what $2,000 has purchased in the way of a notebook computer, it becomes apparent what a good value the nx7000 is. It also strikes the perfect balance, looking like a home-entertainment unit and looking like a business computer.
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Notebook computers are now available in so many shapes and sizes, it's often hard for solution providers to know what to recommend.
The HP nx7000 is useful for working on multiple applications side-by-side, high-resolution graphics and any application where lots of screen real estate is a plus. It's also perhaps the best notebook available for watching wide-screen DVD movies. Of course, the notebook's combo drive can play DVD movies, and it also records on CDR and CD-RW media.
The nx7000's 15.4-inch display has a very fine native resolution of 1,680 x 1,050. The unit weighs only 6.5 pounds, even though it measures 14 x 10 x 1.36 inches. It features a Pentium M processor running at 1.6GHz with as much as 2 Gbytes of memory. To comply with the Centrino branding, the nx7000 also features built-in 802.11b wireless connectivity.
Other features include a hard drive as large as 60 Gbytes, integrated Secure Digital slot, JBL Pro Speakers, three USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port, S-Video out, 10/100 NIC, 56K modem and one Type II PC card slot.
The unit is very well-made, with a top-quality fit and finish. Its speakers are quite powerful for a notebook, so everyone in a group of people watching a DVD movie will be able to hear it. Many notebooks just don't have powerful enough speakers. Even with its huge screen, the nx7000 is not too heavy or bulky. The nx7000 is a good indication of where full-size notebooks are headed in terms of design. Test Center engineers expect that wide-screen notebooks in general will be hot sellers in the near future.
Another Centrino offering comes from Nampa, Idaho-based MPC Computers in the form of the TransPort T2100. Featuring a Pentium M processor running at 1.6GHz, the unit weighs only 5.5 pounds even with its 14.1-inch XGA screen. The sleek notebook measures 12.5 x 10.7 x 1.2 inches. The sample T2100 is priced at $2,249 and features a 40-Gbyte hard drive, a DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 56K modem, 10/100 NIC, three USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port, one PC Card slot, S-Video out and SPDIF out. An integrated four-in-one media reader supports Memory Stick, Smart Media, Secure Digital and Multi Media memory cards.
If the T2100 winds up in the wrong hands, an integrated biometrics fingerprint scanner will prevent anyone but the registered owner from using it. The fingerprint scanner can be disabled if sensitive data is not an issue. The T2100 is well-made and looks like it should cost more than it does.
While all Centrino notebooks offer longer battery life and wireless connectivity, few of them are as portable as the Portege M100 from Toshiba America, Irvine, Calif. With its 12.1-inch display, this little notebook measures only 10.6 x 9.8 x 1.3 inches and weighs only 4.4 pounds with the DVD-ROM drive installed. The unit's display has a native resolution of 1,024 x 768.
This tiny notebook has an internal bay for the DVD-ROM drive, so it doesn't have to be connected externally via a USB port like many other ultraportable notebooks.
The sample M100 is priced at $2,199 and includes a 1.2GHz Pentium M processor, 256 Mbytes of memory, a 40-Gbyte hard drive and DVD-ROM drive. Other features include two PC Card slots, 56K modem, 10/100 NIC, integrated Secure Digital slot, a FireWire port and two USB 2.0 ports.
The M100 features a pointing stick but no touch pad. Lots of people like the pointing stick, but those who don't might want to look at a different model.
The M100 is housed in a rugged magnesium case. Anyone doing a lot of traveling will love this little notebook. With a second battery installed in place of the DVD-ROM drive, the M100 can run for more than eight hours depending on the application.