Alienware M17
The Alienware brand conjures images of powerful and elite computing
hardware?think of the nearly invincible antagonist from the 1987 action
flick, Predator. Alienware?s M17 looks the part, but the unit we
received for review was about as dangerous as E.T. Our zero-point
notebook is based on Intel?s Core 2 Duo E6700 and Nvidia?s GeForce Go
8600M, so we?ve grown accustomed to newer challengers gutting it. But
for all its bulk and menacing looks, the M17 proved to be only slightly
faster than that aging reference rig, and it was considerably slower in
our nongaming benchmarks than the HP HDX 18 we reviewed in January.
Despite the presence of two ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPUs running in
CrossFire X, the M17, which came equipped with 64-bit Vista Home
Premium, turned in an anemic performance in our gaming benchmarks, with
Quake 4 clocking in at 119.2fps and FEAR at just 26fps. Compare that to
the Gateway P-7811 FX we examined in our October issue, which pumped
out Quake 4 at 133fps and FEAR at 108fps.? We knocked the HDX 18 for
its portly proportions, but the M17?s lap weight is more than half a
pound heavier, despite having a single 160GB hard drive to the HP?s
dual 320s, 3GB of DDR3 memory to the HP?s 4GB of DDR2, and a 17-inch
screen compared to the HP?s monstrous 18.4-inch display. Could the
extra GPU really weigh that much? Outfitting this particular M17 with
middle-of-the-road components?including an Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile
P8400 and an 8x DVD burner?enabled Alienware to price this review unit
at $1,750. You do get a long list of features for your dough, including
a seven-in-one media card reader, an 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter, Blue-tooth,
eSATA, a webcam, a fingerprint reader, and HDMI, but the aforementioned
Gateway machine had all that (less the nominally useful fingerprint
reader and Bluetooth), delivered better gaming performance, and cost
$350 less. This being a desktop replacement, we didn?t have high
expectations for the M17?s battery life, but we were surprised that its
nine-cell crapped out after just one hour and 38 minutes. The six-cell
battery in HP?s HDX 18 outlasted it by a full 10 minutes. And it?s a
shame that the M17?s speakers sound so absolutely dreadful, because
this system runs almost silently. We do, however, dig the Alienware?s
finish. The glossy piano black that?s so popular these days looks
sexy?until you handle the device, and then every scratch, smudge, and
fingerprint shows up like a cold sore. The M17 is wrapped in a matte
black, rubberlike material that rejected our every attempt to muck it
up; at least until we rummaged through a bag of greasy potato chips.
Even then, it took nothing more than a dry tissue to restore its
luster. As configured, this Alienware M17 doesn?t serve any particular
mission well: It?s too heavy for frequent road trips, it?s not powerful
enough for hardcore gaming, and without a TV tuner or Blu-ray drive,
it?s not much of a media system.
Asus Eee 1002HA
The latest in Asus?s ever-expanding line of Eee netbooks is a welcome
addition to the fold, and much more to our liking than the 901 model we
reviewed in December. Eschewing the previous model?s unremarkable white
plastic exterior for a brushed aluminum shell is a smart move on Asus?s
part. This changed aesthetic adds legitimacy to the product: The 901?s
finish made the device feel disposable, while the 1002HA feels like a
real computer. More importantly, the 1002HA Asus sent us forgoes the
pair of low-performance, ultra-low-capacity solid-state drives that
bumped up the Eee 901?s price while wreaking havoc with its Photoshop
performance (owing to the poor write speeds of cheap MLC SSDs). Instead
of SSDs, the 1002HA sports a much more generous 5400rpm 160GB standard
hard drive. And it really pays off: The 1002HA breezed through out
Photoshop benchmark in just 690 seconds?40 seconds faster than the Acer
Aspire One, our prev-ious champion, and less than half the 1,530
seconds the Eee 901 took to accomplish the same task. With a 10.2-inch
screen and a 2 lb, 12 oz lap weight, the 1002HA is on the larger end of
the netbook spectrum, and the keyboard, thankfully, is much less
cramped than the 901?s, although it?s still janky?after only a few
hours of use, our backspace key began squeaking and our left arrow key
clicked loudly. In fact, the only thing we miss about the 901 is its
six-cell battery. We?re not complaining too much, though; even with a
two-cell battery, the 1002HA lasted for more than three hours on our
video rundown test. That?s a 50 percent improvement over any
three-celled netbook we?ve tested, if not quite the six hours its
predecessor boasted. The rest of what Asus packed under this puppy?s
hood is so standard as to nearly go without saying: a 1.6GHz Intel Atom
processor with 1GB of RAM, an integrated webcam, and Windows XP.
Nothing we haven?t seen five times before. Asus has integrated its
multitouch trackpad again, which is nice?a two-finger dragging gesture
means you?ll never miss your scroll wheel, while a three-finger tap is
a right-click. We dig the Eee 1002HA?s newfound sense of style, more
comfortable keyboard, great battery life (for a two-cell), and kick-ass
Photoshop scores. We still think the Acer Aspire One is a cheapskate?s
best friend and the HP Mini 1000?s keyboard is beyond compare, but we
wouldn?t hesitate to recommend this Eee to anyone who wants a
hard-working, long-lasting netbook.
Samsung R610 Notebook
If it?s odd to see Samsung?s name on a notebook, you?ll likely get used
to it. While the company had previously sold its branded notebooks only
overseas, it recently entered the U.S. market with no fewer than five
notebook lines, ranging from netbooks to the desktop replacement model
we review here, the R610. Actually, desktop replacement is a bit of a
stretch, unless your expectations are pretty minimal. Costing little
more than a grand, the R610 is better classified as a budget notebook.
And on first look, you might be impressed with what can be had for so
little cabbage: a 16-inch glossy screen, a large keyboard and numeric
pad, three USB ports, HDMI, dedicated graphics, and a relatively sleek
and lightweight design. But just a little time using the R610 is sure
to bring out the critic in any power user. Our first disappointment was
with the screen?s image quality. There?s a very narrow sweet spot at
which the picture looks good. Stray from that spot either vertically or
horizontally and the colors fade or reverse and the contrast is
diminished?qualities suggesting this is a 6-bit-color panel, and not a
good one at that. The keyboard feels similarly low rent. It?s no
surprise then that the R610?s performance also underwhelms. The machine
sports a little-known Conroe 65nm Core 2 Duo Mobile CPU dubbed the
T5800. The proc runs at 2GHz, which puts it at a disadvantage against
our aged 2.6GHz zero-point (not to mention Penryn-based notebooks) in
just about every benchmark. In our content-creation tests, the R610?s
scores were inferior to our zero-point?s in all but the Photoshop
benchmark, where a larger hard drive and more RAM likely helped the
R610 achieve its 6.8 percent lead. By comparison, the HP HDX 18
notebook we reviewed last month bested our zero-point in all of the
content-creation tests by 15 to 40 percent. The R610 did score a
surprising 33 percent win against our zero-point in Quake 4. But to put
that win in perspective, the HP HDX 18 from January and the Gateway
P-7811 FX we reviewed in October trampled our test bed in Quake 4 by
235 percent and 375 percent, respectively. Furthermore, the R610?s
9200M GS graphics part did not hold up in FEAR, a better indicator of a
chip?s aptitude with more modern games. The R610?s 6-cell battery
provided us with two hours and 12 minutes of DVD movie watching with
the machine in power-saving mode. Despite our criticisms, we?re
reticent to say the R610 is a bad buy. There are obvious signs of
scrimping and performance is not its strong suit, but we can?t imagine
getting much more of a machine for the price. A power-user notebook
this is not, but it?s a decent deal for serious bargain hunters.
HP HDX 18 Entertainment PC
HP?s HDX 18 Entertainment PC is a notebook, but not in the portability
sense of the word. With an 18.4-inch diagonal screen and a carry weight
of 10 pounds, 9 ounces, you might occasionally move this monster from
room to room, but you won?t take it everywhere you go?certainly not
without the aid of a lifting belt. Of course, the large size does have
its merits. The aforementioned screen, for instance, sports a
1920x1080p resolution for ample desktop space and a true high-def movie
experience, made all the more vivid by the screen?s glossy surface. The
HDX 18 also offers a full-size keyboard and numeric pad that make
typing easy and comfortable. The accommodations extend to a generous
helping of ports, including?but not limited to?HDMI, dual headphone
jacks, three USB ports, and a very cool hybrid USB/eSATA port for
supreme flexibility. The HDX 18 bests smaller, more portable notebooks
in performance too?at least in most benchmarks. Our model?s 2.8GHz
T9600 Core 2 Duo helped the machine beat the 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro
and Dell XPS M1530 from our August notebook roundup in the ProShow,
MainConcept, Premiere, and Photoshop tests by significant margins. For
example, the HDX 18 was more than 10 percent faster than the duo in
MainConcept, more than 13 percent faster in ProShow, and more than 30
percent faster in Photoshop. For even greater processing power, HP
offers the quad-core Q9300 as an option. The HDX 18?s midrange GeForce
9600M GT graphics make for less-impressive benchmark numbers in games.
Yes, the HDX 18 decimated our zero-point rig, but so does every other
modern notebook. In FEAR, the HDX 18 was more than 20 percent slower
than both the Apple and Dell machines, which both use 8600M GT parts.
The rigs were a little more evenly matched in Quake 4, where the HDX 18
had a better frame rate than the MB Pro but was 5 percent slower than
the XPS. We won?t even bother comparing the HDX 18?s gaming numbers
with those of the Gateway P-7811 FX notebook we reviewed in October.
That would be too humiliating. So, clearly, the HDX 18 isn?t going to
be a gamer?s best friend. It?s more of an all-purpose rig with an
emphasis on media. To that end, the rig holds a BD ROM/DVD burner, so
you can make the most of the 1080p screen and Altec Lansing speakers
and a subwoofer for relatively rich audio even at high volumes. But
don?t try to watch a movie on battery power. We got just 1 hour and 48
minutes into a standard-def DVD before the HDX 18?s 6-cell battery
petered out. Another big part of the HDX 18?s feature set is
aesthetics. Touches like the stylish but subtle line pattern inlaid in
the rig?s chassis, the chrome siding and touchpad, the seamless bezel
around the screen, and the illuminated touch-sensitive media controls
that appear above the keyboard when the notebook is powered on all make
for a handsome package. But as nice as the HDX 18 is, we can?t award it
our highest honors. As a notebook, this rig is too cumbersome and
expensive for our tastes, and as a desktop replacement, its weak gaming
scores give us pause.?
Asus Eee 1002HA
A netbook that's stylish and quick on its feet. The latest in Asus?s
ever-expanding line of Eee netbooks is a welcome addition to the fold,
and much more to our liking than the 901 model we reviewed in December.
Eschewing the previous model?s unremarkable white plastic exterior for
a brushed aluminum shell is a smart move on Asus?s part. This changed
aesthetic adds legitimacy to the product: The 901?s finish made the
device feel disposable, while the 1002HA feels like a real computer.
More importantly, the 1002HA Asus sent us forgoes the pair of
low-performance, ultra-low-capacity solid-state drives that bumped up
the Eee 901?s price while wreaking havoc with its Photoshop performance
(owing to the poor write speeds of cheap MLC SSDs). Instead of SSDs,
the 1002HA sports a much more generous 5400rpm 160GB standard hard
drive. And it really pays off: The 1002HA breezed through out Photoshop
benchmark in just 690 seconds?40 seconds faster than the Acer Aspire
One, our prev-ious champion, and less than half the 1,530 seconds the
Eee 901 took to accomplish the same task. With a 10.2-inch screen and a
2 lb, 12 oz lap weight, the 1002HA is on the larger end of the netbook
spectrum, and the keyboard, thankfully, is much less cramped than the
901?s, although it?s still janky?after only a few hours of use, our
backspace key began squeaking and our left arrow key clicked loudly. In
fact, the only thing we miss about the 901 is its six-cell battery.
We?re not complaining too much, though; even with a two-cell battery,
the 1002HA lasted for more than three hours on our video rundown test.
That?s a 50 percent improvement over any three-celled netbook we?ve
tested, if not quite the six hours its predecessor boasted. The rest of
what Asus packed under this puppy?s hood is so standard as to nearly go
without saying: a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor with 1GB of RAM, an
integrated webcam, and Windows XP. Nothing we haven?t seen five times
before. Asus has integrated its multitouch trackpad again, which is
nice?a two-finger dragging gesture means you?ll never miss your scroll
wheel, while a three-finger tap is a right-click. We dig the Eee
1002HA?s newfound sense of style, more comfortable keyboard, great
battery life (for a two-cell), and kick-ass Photoshop scores. We still
think the Acer Aspire One is a cheapskate?s best friend and the HP Mini
1000?s keyboard is beyond compare, but we wouldn?t hesitate to
recommend this Eee to anyone who wants a hard-working, long-lasting
netbook.
Lenovo IdeaPad S10
? For the most part, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 is your standard netbook.
It?s small, lightweight, and sturdy and runs on Intel?s Atom platform.
We like that our review unit shipped with a 160GB 5,400rpm hard
drive?as opposed to the small budget SSDs found in some netbooks. We
also like the S10?s sturdy hinge, bright matte screen, and decent-size
keyboard. It?s not the roomiest keyboard we?ve ever seen on a netbook;
it?s bigger than the Asus Eee 901?s cramped quarters, but slightly
smaller than those found on the MSI Wind or Acer Aspire One. Because of
the S10?s small chassis, we found that our palms hung off the end of
the machine, making it uncomfortable to use for long periods of
time?like when writing this review. And like the MSI Wind, the Function
and Control keys on the S10 are reversed, which we hate. We?re also not
thrilled by Lenovo?s decision to ship this machine with just two USB
ports instead of three, the standard on nearly every other netbook.
Worse, the ports are on opposite sides of the case, so some external
drives that require multiple connectors, like our OWC Mercury OnTheGo,
are left cold. The S10 offers some small surprises in terms of
performance. We ran our standard netbook suite (described in full in
our December 2008 netbook roundup feature) and found the Lenovo S10?s
Photoshop scores best in class, beating the MSI Wind and Acer Aspire
One by nearly half a minute, and coming in at less than half the time
of the Asus Eee 901?s abysmal run. Like the other netbooks, the S10
wouldn?t play Quake Live, but it had no problems displaying
H.264-encoded video. In our battery-rundown test, the S10 performed as
well as the other three-cell netbooks we?ve tested, shutting down at
just a hair under two hours. The S10 shows a lot of promise, and its
style and performance are nothing to sneeze at. At $470, it?s a serious
challenger to the $500 Wind and even boasts twice the hard disk space.
But two USB ports are one too few. And we still maintain that the $350
Acer Aspire One offers the best price/performance ratio in netbooks
today.
Lenovo Thinkpad W700
Let?s face it, the only real difference between a mobile workstation
and gaming notebook has been the sticker and GPU drivers. Lenovo?s
ground-breaking W700 changes that with a slew of features that truly
make it worthy of being called a workstation notebook. But it?s not
just about the W700?s 2.53GHz Core 2 Extreme Q9300 quad core or its
Quadro FX 3700M with 1GB frame buffer alone. To us, it?s the integrated
Wacom tablet that tells us Lenovo just didn?t take a big-ass gaming
notebook and stuff a Quadro in it. It doesn?t hurt that the W700 boasts
a 400nit daylight readable screen either. The screen is bright but not
as brilliant as the dual-tube displays that Toshiba used to use in its
home theater PCs. The 1920x1200 panel Lenovo uses 72 percent color
gamut screen (of Adobe color gamut) which is much higher than previous
designs. Most other notebooks can display only about 42 percent of the
Adobe color gamut. Only Hewlett-Packard?s upcoming DreamColor panel in
the EliteBook 8530p is likely to give the W700 a run for the money in
color gamut. Workstation, does mean ?work? though and the W700 is more
than capable. We?ve seen comments on our forum where readers questioned
if a quad-core was needed in a notebook. In our book, hell yes. Unless,
that is, you like sitting around waiting for things to happen. For
example, the W700 takes 831 seconds to complete our Premiere Pro CS3
test. The dual-core Gateway P-7811 FX that we reviewed in our October
issue takes 2,143 with its 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo. The W700 also takes half
the time to spit our HD slideshow using ProShow Producer than the
P-7811 FX. The Quado FX 3700M?s large 1GB frame buffer may make you
think that it?s made for gaming, but many content creation apps
actually need the large frame buffer more than games. While it?s not
intended as a gaming part, it does OK but it won?t outpace the Gateway
P-7811 FX gaming notebook and its GeForce 9800N GTS part. We also fired
up Crysis and tried to push it at very high at 1920x1200 and the
results weren?t pretty. It ran but we wouldn?t play the game that way.
It?s better suited for playing Crysis at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 instead.
The W700 is more than enough to play Unreal Tournament 3 and is capable
of 48 fps at 1920x1200 resolution. So while it?s capable of gaming, it
probably doesn?t make sense to buy the W700 if that?s your only
purpose. The Gateway P-7811 FX is a better fit and far cheaper. You?re
probably saying that it?s not fair to compare a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo
versus a 2.53GHz Core 2 Extreme but our experience with desktops tells
that even if the dual core was running at 3GHz the quad core would
still stomp it good. The short story is that if you care about
performance and you use multi-threaded apps (and most content creation
apps are today) you need a quad core. To believe anything else is
simply wrong. In amenities, the W700 has almost everything you need ? a
Gigabit Ethernet port, five USB 2.0 ports, dual-link DVI-D, VGA,
DisplayPort and a card reader. An ExpressCard 34 is included a second
slot can be added with either a ExpressCard 54, smart card or Compact
Flash reader. One thing that?s notably missing: eSATA. That can be run
via ExpressCard, of course, but why not include it Lenovo? We?re also
not sure? you need to have Windows Vista Ultimate, but that?s what
Lenovo configured this box with. Fortunately, it?s the 64-bit version
and to take advantage of that, Lenovo installed 4GB of DDR3/1066 DIMMs.
The W700 comes with a 9-cell battery that you gives you just above
dismal in runtime. Let?s just say that you won?t finish watching Return
Of The King without running for an outlet. That?s without cranking up
the quad-core. In storage, our W700 came configured with a pair of
160GB 7,200 RPM drives in RAID 0. While fast for a notebook, it?s not
our top pick. If we needed read speed, we?d run Intel?s new X25-M in
one bay and a 500GB drive in the other. If drive speed can be
sacrificed for safety, a pair of 500GB drives in RAID 1 would make us
feel a whole lot better about our data. One really nifty feature of the
W700
is the built-in HueyPro color calibrator. If you do any serious image
editing, video editing or work that must have strict color control,
calibration is a must have. With the W700, you fire up the HueyPro
applet, hit the start button and close the lid. The W700 beeps when the
display is properly calibrated. Now for what?s going to hang up most
people: the size. This sucker looks huge. In some ways, it even looks
bigger than those huge Pentium 4-based notebooks that were the rage
three years ago. That?s because it is actually a little bigger by about
an inch. We compared the W700 to very old Clevo D900T and the W700 is
about an inch deeper than the Clevo. The good news is that it?s
lighter. As large as the W700, it?s actually only 8.3 lbs. That makes
it a two to three pounds lighter than the Clevo D900T notebooks. If we
were to fire up the W700 alongside those old P4 notebooks of yore, the
performance differences would be astounding. Ultimately that?s what it
comes down to with mobile workstations ? performance. And if
performance matters to you for your job, we think you should check out
the W700.
Gateway P-7811 FX
Gateway struck a nerve with its original low-cost FX P-series notebook,
which gave gamers an affordable way to get good frame rates from a
portable PC. The company applied the same formula to its new P-7811 FX
and again comes up with a winning combination of hardware that?s sure
to please budget-minded gamers. Gateway has the right formula for
budget mobile gaming. What?s so great about this FX? First, there?s
Intel?s new 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo Mobile P8400. This chip is similar to
other 45nm mobile CPUs, but it runs on a 1,066MHz front-side bus on the
new PM45 chipset, which supports DDR3. Gateway also stuffs 4GB of
DDR3/1066 into the unit. The notebook also features the new GeForce
9800M GTS, which is essentially a higher-clocked version of the GeForce
8800M GTS that offers 64 stream processors, a 512MB GDDR frame buffer,
and a 256-bit memory interface. Of course, you can?t stuff all this
hardware into an ultraportable machine. With its 17-inch panel, the
P-7811 FX weighs in at 9.2 pounds. That?s a lot to schlep around, but
other gaming notebooks, such as Dell?s XPS M1730, weigh in at more than
10.5 pounds. The P-7811 FX is fairly thin, and if we had to carry it
somewhere a few times a week it wouldn?t kill us, but it certainly
isn?t a road warrior?s rig. The P-7811 FX?s performance certainly
doesn?t disappoint. In nongaming applications, it compares well to
notebooks that are far more expensive, including Apple?s $2,500 MacBook
Pro and Dell?s $2,000 XPS M1530. In gaming, it destroys both those
models, as well as all others featured in our August notebook showdown.
We can?t compare the P-7811 FX directly to the Alienware Area-51 m15x
we reviewed in June because we?ve changed our benchmarks since then,
but we believe the Area-51, with its faster GeForce 8800M GTX GPU and
Core 2 Extreme X900 CPU, would best the P-7811 FX. On the other hand,
the Gateway costs a fraction of the Area-51?s price. So what?s the
downside? For starters, the speakers. For a notebook this size, we
expect booming audio?the P-7811 FX?s output is just average. We?re also
not fans of the trick-or-treat color scheme, which strikes us as
garish. And the DVD eject button is poorly placed. It?s easy to
accidentally press it while picking up the notebook. Finally, we have a
problem with the power cord?s right-angle plug. One of the most common
failure points in a notebook PC is the port where the power plug is
attached, and much more stress is generally put on a right-angle power
plug due to its orientation. Just repositioning the plug torques the
power port. Still, there?s a lot to like here. The original FX was a
big hit, and this follow-up, with its HDMI and eSATA ports, great
performance, and low price, is sure to follow suit. Who is this
notebook for? Clearly not anyone concerned with mobility. As we noted,
you don?t want to carry this beast every day. But for a gamer who has
limited space options, the FX is a hell of a notebook and a hell of a
deal. ?Ed note: Due to a vendor error, the Gateway P-7811 unit does not
actually include Bluetooth nor the fingerprint reader at the $1400
price point.
