Other type of tablet is that convertible tablet, which appears similar to notebook. Convertible type has the keyboard attached on it. Its screen is able to be rotate in 180 degrees. The screen can be fold and become flat. Slate type is lighter than convertible tablet PC. But on the other hand, the screen owned by convertible is wider compare to slate type. Many people today prefer to use this convertible type. Several professions would need to use convertible type of tablet PC are like lecturers, managers, engineer, lawyers, consultant and others. This type is more flexible to use and wider professions are suitable to use this convertible type.

The third type is hybrid type of tablet PC. This type is the combination of slate and convertible types. There is a removable keyboard that will function as the convertible type if it is put together.  Even though, this type is estimated will be more well-liked but today is still rare to be produced and remain low of demand.

Many customers thought that a size from graphic tablet should be in a big size. But this opinion is not always true. Big size graphic table is not always better than small. The regular size that used by many people are those tablet screen of 4-inch, 5-inch, 6-inch and 8-inch. For those professional artists, they might need a bigger screen graphic tablet, but of course the bigger the screen the more expensive the price will be. Those professionals who commonly use big size of graphic tablet are such as illustrators, CAD consumers, artist, cartoonists and others. The benefit working with big graphic tablet is that the artist can dray in more detail and natural. But on the other hand, this person will need more effort to move that hand in order to result a good drawing. Therefore, common people feel satisfied if they use smaller graphic tablet, in order to minimize the move of hand. As the same progress with technology, manufacturers made production of widescreen aspect ration monitors. This will be very helpful for users that employ several monitors to work with. Numbers of famous graphic tablet sizes are 4×5, 6×8 and 9×12.

Graphic tablet will be connected with the PC via USB. Today’s PC has USB connection. But in case the computer is an old one, you must be sure that that graphic table has the serial interface. This serial interface will connect it with tablet. Graphic tablet will take the power from the PC, meanwhile table with serial interface need different source of power supply. This is the important part that buyers should take a good attention on it. Another option of interface is via Bluetooth. This one connects graphic tablet with PC with no wire. There are numbers of manufacturers that produce graphic tablet with Bluetooth, USB or serial interface.

In order to start drawing, a person will need pen and stylus. Both tools commonly need batteries. This will make the pen feel a bit heavy to use. There are pens that bind, and untie with tablet. Button to turn on and off is also present in certain pens. Customers should find pen that fit best to their hand.

The normal pressure sensitivity of graphic tablet is 256, 512 or 1024 of pressure intensity. It can determine about the thick of a line, precision and color. Bigger the pressure intensity, more reactive the tablet is.

The Satellite T235′s keyboard is one of the best we’ve used on any consumer notebook, even more comfortable than that on the Satellite T645. The keys are generously spaced, offer strong tactile feedback, and have no flex at all. The 3.3 x 1.5-inch touchpad offered just the right amount of resistance, allowing us to navigate around the desktop with ease. It also supports multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom. Its two discrete buttons provided good tactile feedback without feeling stiff.

The 13.3″ LED-backlit screen on the T235D appears to be identical to the display panel used on the T135 and T135D. Colors didn’t appear quite as overly saturated as the screen on last year’s model but the contrast ratio still looks below average with fairly light black levels and a lab test contrast ratio of just 182:1. Horizontal viewing angles are good out to at least 45 degrees to either side before you start to notice color distortion. Vertical viewing angles are below average as the display becomes over exposed or colors begin inverting after moving the screen 15 degrees forward or back. Overall screen brightness is good enough for indoor usage under bright office lights or in the shade outdoors. The glossy screen makes reflections something of a problem if you try to use the screen outdoors under direct sunlight.

Port selection is fairly good when compared to ultraportable notebooks and netbooks, but we’re starting to believe that every notebook (even budget-priced consumer notebooks) should have at least one USB 3.0 port. USB 2.0 is fine for now, but we’re seeing more and more accessories that take advantage of USB 3.0 and laptops need to keep up with the times. The T235D includes three USB ports (one of which is a combo eSATA/USB port), VGA and HDMI-out, LAN, audio jacks, and a Kensington Lock slot. Expansion slots include just the 6-in-1 SDHC-compatible card reader.

With only a 1.2-GHz Intel Pentium U5400 CPU, 5,400-rpm hard drive, and integrated Intel HD graphics, we didn’t expect the T235 to be as snappy as it was. Whether we were playing HD video, transcoding an MPEG-4 file, or circling the globe in Google Earth, the notebook handled each program with aplomb. Only truly demanding tasks, like playing the game Far Cry 2, slowed the system down. The Satellite T235′s 5,400 rpm, 320GB hard drive booted Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) in 63 seconds, which is just slightly below the 60.3-second category average and about the same as the AMD-powered T235D, which took 61 seconds.

On the LAPTOP Battery Test, which involves continuous surfing over Wi-Fi, the Satellite T235-S1350 lasted a strong 6 hours and 11 minutes, which is roughly 40 minutes longer than the category average (5:32) and about 50 minutes longer than its AMD-powered sibling, the Satellite T235D. Still, slower competitors like the MSI X350 (7:05), the ASUS UL30A (9:55), and last year’s Satellite T135 (7:23) lasted longer.

In theory, the Sattelite T235 would make the ideal consumer laptop for many shoppers. In practice, Toshiba falls a little short in execution. The Toshiba Sattelite T230/T235 is a fine thin and light notebook with good overall performance for general use, but it lacks a quality finish (both literally and figuratively).

Build quality falls somewhere between the T-series and Edge-series ThinkPads. The 15-inch L512 didn’t seem to have as much chassis flex as the larger Edge 15 that we reviewed last month, but it still had more than the similarly sized T-series. Screen protection is very good on the L512, showing no distortion on the LCD with heavy pressure applied to the cover.

The keyboard is very comfortable to type on and has a very similar look and feel to the keyboards on the T-series ThinkPads. The layout has been slightly tweaked, using a single row of function keys instead of the two rows seen on higher models. Tactile feedback is excellent from the keyboard with soft key-presses that give off a very mild click when fully triggered. Media buttons have been moved from above the top row as seen on the T-series to the left side of the keyboard. Lenovo still gives buttons for speaker mute, microphone mute and volume up and down.

Lenovo seems to have switched back to a Synaptics touchpad on the L512. The previous SL510 we reviewed used an ALPS model touchpad, so this is a nice update. The touchpad supports multitouch gestures including two finger tap, pinch zoom, rotation, three finger press and three finger flick. Sensitivity is excellent out of the box and once you “break in” the touchpad surface, cursor movement is very fluid. Tap and drag movements were flawless, which can be a weakness with some touchpads, releasing the item too soon or not at all. The L512 also includes a pointing stick for those interested in using that form of navigation over the touchpad. We found the interface very snappy with minimal wandering after you lifted off from the pointer.

Alike L412, Lenovo Thinkpad L512 is also intended for businessman, employees and students. The technologies integrated in it help them to be productive in their day to day activities.

The processor options are Latest Intel core i3 or i5 integrated with Turbo Boost and Hyperthreading technology. The 15” HD backlit display of Lenovo ThinkPad L512 incorporates antiglare feature with 16:9 resolution. Graphics option includes Intel integrated or ATI Mobility Radeon graphics. Other features it incorporates are :

• HDD 500GB with 5400 revolutions per min
• Up to 8GB DDR3 RAM
• Choices of 3G or 4G connectivity
• Gobi 2000 module support for AT&T, Sprint and Verizon
• connectivity- 4 USB ports, combo eSATA/USB port, display port(Audio) VGA
• Operating system Windows 7

The overall features coupled with Windows 7 boost up the booting process up yo 57%. Shutdown process also become faster. As the Laptop is targeted for entrepreneurs, it is integrated with features like powerful web conferencing. Lenovo Thinkpad L512 also comprises of “ThinkVantage” Technologies tools such as Access Connections to enhance the productivity. Same features will also available in Lenovo Thinkpad L412

• 17.3-inch 1080p (1920×1080) display with LED backlighting
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel Core i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz/2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB L3 cache)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M with 1.5GB GDDR5 Memory
• 8GB DDR3-1066 RAM (4x2GB)
• Two 500GB 7200RPM hard drives (Seagate Momentus 7200.4/ST9500420AS) (Non-RAID)
• Atheros AR9285 802.11n Wireless LAN adapter
• Built-in Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
• Blu-ray reader/8X DVD Super Multi drive
• Two-year limited warranty (one year on battery pack) with one year of accidental damage protection
• 8-cell battery pack (14.8V, 5200mAh, 75Wh)
• Weight: 8.79 pounds
• Dimensions: 16.3″ (W) x 12.6″ (D) x 1.8″ (H)
• MSRP: $1,745

G73JW is 100% DX11 compliant – offering all the benefits of the latest graphics standard. It has a beautiful 17.3-inch 16:9 display with a resolution of 1920×1080. Support for 3DTV Play from NVIDIA allows you to project HD images via HDMI 1.4 onto a compatible 3DTV.

A great thing of G73JW is the storage. Two 500GB 7200 RPM hard drives are offered for 1TB of total storage. This is essential for avid gamers that have many games installed at one time. It also supports three USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, Ethernet, VGA and HDMI-out, and a SDHC-card reader.

• 15.6-inch 720p (1366×768) glossy panel with LED backlighting
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel Core i3-330M dual-core processor (2.13GHz, 3MB L3 cache, 2.5GT/s QPI, 35W TDP)
• Intel HM55 chipset
• Integrated Intel HD graphics w/ shared video memory
• 4GB DDR3-1066 dual-channel RAM (2x 2GB)
• 320GB 5400RPM Western Digital hard drive (WD3200BEVT)
• Broadcom 802.11n wireless LAN card
• DVD burner (Optiarc DVD RW AD-7585H)
• 1 year limited warranty
• 6 cell Li-ion battery (11.1V, 48Wh)
• Weight: 5.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 14.8” (L) x 9.8” (D) x 0.7~1.4” (H)

The G560 has a 15.6-inch screen with a 720p (1366×768) resolution and LED backlighting; this is the only available screen. While its glossy mirror surface helps colors stand out and improves sharpness, it also acts as a mirror, especially when there are light sources behind it. It also has HD graphics support and HDMI connector. Unfortunately, the display wasn’t as bright as we’ve seen on other 15.6-inch laptops; plus it had a very narrow viewing angle, and the glossy screen too easily caught annoying reflections. Moreover, cleaning is also difficult.

The Lenovo G560 comes with technologies and features designed to make things easier, including OneKey Rescue System for easy data backup and recovery. The new and improved Lenovo Energy Management provides not only extended battery life and long-term durability, but also keeps noise to a minimum with intelligent fan control, so you can concentrate on your work. It also uses a single-piece touch pad, which integrates the mouse buttons directly into the touch pad. Another added bonus is that one of the USB ports is a combo port that also works with eSATA devices.

Design

The MSI GT660 series was designed in partnership with Dynaudio to create a gaming notebook chassis that also offers a “true-to-life sound experience.” The speaker housing structures, speaker circuits and overall position of the stereo speakers and subwoofer were designed to combine the extreme performance of a gaming notebook with the rich audio performance of a premium multimedia notebook.

Despite the heavy use of plastics, the exterior surfaces of the GT660R are covered in a scratch-resistant coating to improve durability. The screen lid itself is also covered in “MSI Color Film Print Technology” which is essentially in multi-layer printed image imbedded into the plastic. In this case you can see a faint honeycomb pattern in the lid similar to the texture used on the palm rests when you open the notebook.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Chiclet-style keyboard on the GT660R offers a reasonably enjoyable typing experience and is also fine for hours of gameplay. Individual keys are a little mushy and the center of the keyboard flexes inward under heavy typing pressure, but the individual key action still delivers acceptable feedback when pressed. The typical gaming keys of W,A,S,D feature special red paint to help you quickly identify where your fingers need to be during a game (just in case you didn’t already know). Each key is flat with a nice matte texture and a little extra spacing to prevent typos. A backlit keyboard would have been far more useful than lights next to the touchpad or under the edges of the palm rests.

The touchpad itself offers a quality interface with a lightly textured surface and excellent responsiveness. The touchpad itself feels just the right size for the notebook: any smaller and it would have been too small and any larger would have made this notebook even bigger than it already is. The touchpad drivers provide excellent accuracy and minimal lag with a range of options. The touchpad buttons are hidden under a single “rocker bar” and have a shallow press with audible “click” when pressed.

Performance

Starting with an Intel Core i7-740QM processor running at 1.73GHz and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M with 1GB of GDDR3 dedicated memory, this system easily ranks among the best gaming notebooks you can buy for less than $2,000. As impressive as that might sound, MSI wasn’t going to stop there.

The GT660 series features a complete system overclocking feature called TDE+ which overclocks the CPU and the GPU simultaneously at the touch of a button. MSI claims this “Turbo mode” provides a “16% performance boost” but our own lab testing shows the exact percentage of improvement varies greatly depending on a variety of factors.

Since this is intended to serve as a gaming machine, it’s important to point out that different games will react differently to the CPU+GPU overclocking feature on this notebook. In most cases, such as when we tested Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Shattered Horizon and Resident Evil 5, there was an obvious increase in the frame rates while gaming at the native screen resolution with detail settings maxed out. The bottom line is that the overclocking feature offers some added value for serious gamers but it isn’t a magic bullet for all your gaming needs.

Battery Life

Let’s be perfectly honest: No one buys a high-performance gaming notebook and expects it to deliver great battery life. Between the high-performance CPU, the high performance graphics, the dual storage drives and the giant cooling fans, there is simply a ton of hardware to keep running on a battery. In the “balanced” power mode with 75% screen brightness, the MSI GT660 lasted for two hours and 31 minutes of non-stop use while surfing the Internet and using a word processor. This is pretty pathetic for a general use laptop, but since many gaming laptops deliver less than one hour of battery life we can’t complain too much. You can also extend the battery life by dropping the screen brightness to the lowest useful setting.

Conclusion

The MSI GT660R is an impressive-looking gaming notebook with solid performance, great speakers and the ability to easily overclock the CPU and GPU at the touch of a button. The variety of ports including USB 3.0, the ability to upgrade to 12GB of RAM and the super-fast 1TB of storage make this an attractive choice for gamers looking for a strong system for $1,700 or less.

The weak battery and the thick and heavy chassis are par for the course when it comes to large gaming notebooks, but some consumers might not like the glossy plastics and the fact that the screen resolution is just 1366×768.

Design

The 2.8-pound NB30 has the same basic design, features, and size (10.4 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches) as the N210, the main difference being the semi-rugged aspects of the outer chassis. The lid and underside of the netbook feature raised ridges that flow in wavy curves, giving the NB30 a bit of class while providing users with an easy-to-grip surface. Under the lid a matte bezel and deck greeted us, just as on the N210. We were pleased to see the same keyboard layout and matte screen, but not so happy to note that SD Cards still stick out about half an inch when plugged in.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Samsung NB30 features a spill-resistant keyboard with a chiclet-style layout, meaning there are flat keys with a little space between each one. It also features a spill-resistant design, meaning you should be able to spill a glass of water over the keyboard without causing any serious damage to the laptop — a nice feature to have, but not one that I would recommend testing just because you’re bored one day.

The touchpad is a little on the small side, but it works reasonably well. It supports multitouch gestures, including using two fingers to scroll. The left and right buttons below the touchpad, on the other hand, are somewhat small and a little tough to use for two reasons. First, there’s actually just one button with a divider in the middle, making it a little difficult to detect the left and right click areas without looking. And second, you have to press the button somewhat firmly or the clicks won’t register.

Display & Audio

Here’s another notable novelty on the NB30: it has a matte screen. The 10.1-inch wide-screen LCD display offers a 1,024×600-pixel native resolution, which is standard for a screen this size, although we’ve seen 10 inchers with 1,366×768-pixel resolutions more often lately (and some for only $20 more than this model).

Text and icons come across clearly and images looked sharp, but Web-browsing tended to feel a little cut-off at this foreshortened vertical resolution–you’ll most likely need to browse with all toolbars off-screen. Though matte definitely cuts down on glare, the side effect is a slightly grainy look to images and video, but we’ll take that compromise gladly. Built-in stereo speakers do the job for YouTube and basic audio, but they don’t achieve very high volumes and they lack any serious musical clarity.

Ports and Webcam

As with the N210, the NB30 includes one chargeable USB 2.0 port on the left side. Otherwise, the port spread is typical for a netbook. On the left: the aforementioned chargeable USB 2.0, Ethernet, headphone, and mic. On the right: VGA, two USB, and a Kensington lock slot. The front houses a power switch and 3-in-1 media card reader. The 0.3-megapixel webcam delivered images with decent color and backlight balance; we weren’t surprised when our Skype friend noted that our image blurred each time we moved while chatting, even if the motion was slight. Samsung bundles CyberLink YouCam with the NB30 for adding effects to stills and video capture, plus one-touch uploads to YouTube.

Performance

Like most netbooks with a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, the Samsung NB30 offers more than enough power for basic day to day tasks such as surfing the web with multiple browser tabs open. It also supports some light multitasking and you should have no problem, for instance, editing a document while listening to music and keeping an instant messenger window open. The computer can handle 720p HD video playback, but 1080p video looks like a slide show rather than a movie. The computer cannot handle HD Adobe Flash video from the web, since the processor isn’t fast enough to process the video and the integrated GMA 3150 graphics don’t offer hardware acceleration for Flash (or H.264) video.

The new C1 Convertible Tablet PC from Panasonic seams to address especially to medical field, but not only. When projected it, Panasonic considered the case in which you have to carry your tablet PC all day long, so he made it really lightweight – 3.2 lbs (with one battery)/ 3.7 lbs (with two batteries). An other aspect considered by Panasonic was the solidity, therefor the C1 is rugged enough as if you accidentally drop it or spill something on it will not be damaged. Having a magnesium alloy case, a spill resistant keyboard, it was designed to resist at 30” operating drop (to base only), 26 sides 12” drop (non-operating), 225 lb pressurized vibration and 6 ounces spills.

Design

You could try to find a lighter 12-inch convertible, but you won’t. At just 3.2 pounds with a single battery and 3.7 pounds with an optional battery in the second bay, the C1 weighs less than the Lenovo ThinkPad X201 (starting at 3.5 pounds), the Dell Latitude XT2 (3.6 pounds) and every other competitor on the market. On the other hand, this Toughbook is on the chunkier side, measuring 1.2 to 1.7 inches thick. The XT2 has a 1.1-inch profile, and the X201 is 1.3 inches.

What you get in return for that extra girth is serious durability. The C1′s magnesium alloy case has been tested to withstand 12-inch drops to any side (non-operating), as well as a 30-inch drop on the base (while operating). We know this Toughbook is tough because we tried the latter torture test during this review. The first time a rubber bumper on the back right of the machine popped off, but we easily put it back on. The second time nothing happened at all; this business rugged machine just kept running. We even dropped the unit a third time from 30 inches to no ill effect. The C1 also survived a 6-ounce water spill and a 180-pound man standing on top of the lid (with a board in between to evenly distribute the weight).

Whether you’re roaming the hospital or you’re out in the field, the C1 is easy to use and carry. That’s because this convertible features an ergonomic hand strap on the bottom of the unit, along with a raised dome underneath that makes the machine easier to grip with one hand. A unique triple-hinge design–two for opening and closing the lid and one for rotating the screen–makes this tablet less susceptible to failure over time. We needed to use more force than we’re accustomed to when switching into tablet mode and back again, but the screen location lock was reassuring.

Keyboard

As far as ruggedness goes, “business-rugged” means the machine can handle more of the typical abuse notebooks are subjected to. You can spill liquid on the keyboard and it’ll simply drain off rather than destroying the computer, though the C1 is not sealed in a rugged sense. You can drop it from 2-1/2 feet, which is better than most consumer notebooks, though not in the truly rugged class where machines must handle drops from three or four feet or higher. And the C1 can handle 225 pounds of crushing pressure (evenly applied over the entire surface, I assume).

Ports

The left side of the C1 houses two USB ports, Ethernet and modem jacks, and the power connector. You’ll find an old-school PC Card Type II slot on the right side, along with the digital pen holster, a third USB port, and a VGA connector. The front edge of the notebook has a power switch, wireless switch, headphone and mic jacks, and an SD Card slot. This configuration did not include a webcam, but it’s available as an option, as is a fingerprint reader.

Batteries

As for batteries and long battery life, Panasonic did something quite novel for notebooks here: there are two batteries and you can hot-swap them. That is quite common in tablets and slates, and Panasonic uses this arrangement in its H1 tablet. We haven’t seen full battery specs, but they must be pretty powerful as one of the 3,000 mAh batteries is supposed to drive the C1 for five hours, and with both of them you can go ten hours. That’s excellent, and the ability to simply swap out a battery without shutting the machine down is most welcome also.

Display and Audio

Versatility is the name of the game with the 12.1-inch matte screen on the C1 (1200 x 800 pixels), which has a 4:3 ratio. It’s designed to let workers use pen input or touch. This convertible also supports multitouch, so you can zoom in on objects (like photos or maps) with a pinch gesture. These gestures worked smoothly on both pictures and websites. Touch accuracy was also strong.

The C1′s display was plenty bright, but the picture appeared a bit washed out and grainy until we tilted the lid back. Horizontal viewing angles were nice and wide, though. For a business-rugged notebook, the C1 pumps out surprisingly decent sound. The speaker on the right side of the laptop produced loud volume when we cranked some “Quiet Little Voices” on Slacker. That’s good news, since this notebook will likely be used in some noisy environments.

Performance

Performance, finally, is provided by one of Intel’s new 2010 Core processors, the Core i5-520m, to be precise. In Intel’s new lineup of Core processors (which cleverly and instantly relegated Core 2 Duos to being last year’s chips), i3, i5, and i7 processors sort of represent Intel’s “good,” “better,” and “best,” with the differentiation primarily provided via a bevy of Intel technologies such as integrated graphics, Turbo Boost, Virtualization, Trusted Execution, etc., etc., all worthwhile though not always needed for all applications. As is, the dual core Core i5-520m Pana chose for the C1 has integrated graphics, uses speedy DDR 3 memory, can overclock itself to almost 3GHz, and acts like a four core chip thanks to hyperthreading. Its thermal design power is 35 watts, a good deal less than a desktop chip, but a good deal more than some of the low and ultra-low voltage chips often used in tablets and such. So the C1 is likely a pretty fast and powerful machine, and that makes the claimed long battery life even more amazing.

Design

Aesthetically, there’s a lot going on with the GT660. Almost too much. Unlike the GT725 and GT627, which lacked the audacious flair of most gaming notebooks, it seems like MSI pulled together as many cool-looking elements as they could while still keeping the GT660 below two grand. So it’s got some funky cuts along the edges and a glossy, beveled lid complete with glowing MSI logo.

Under the hood you start to notice how busy the GT600 looks. There’s a mix of matte and glossy–though the latter dominates–and the piano black of the display bezel and top of the deck fades into a glossy slate color, which then turns into a textured honeycomb pattern on the palm rest surrounding the touchpad.

Two speakers ringed in red sit on the left and right of the upper deck, and between them is a control deck outlined in red and chrome with touch-sensitive LEDs. Though MSI claims this element evokes a Knight Rider aesthetic, it reminded us more of Aquaman’s underwear. A light tap activates each function, including enabling or disabling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or the Windows key, and switching between power modes. There’s even a button users can program to launch an oft-used app. A shield-shaped power button sits in the center. Though we found this strip very useful, it picked up fingerprints.

Keyboard & Touchpad

Open up the lid and you’d be greeted with an extended keyboard that includes an alpha-numeric keypad on the right side. It’s a nice addition but if you’re a regular laptop-user, the orientation is confusing that you always tend to hit the wrong keys when typing. One needs some time to get used to the extra keys and learn to familiarize where the Enter button is. The chiclet-type keys are appropriately sized with special color labels on the gaming keys (asdw) and the arrow keys. And while it’s glossy black on the outside, it’s rough and textured in the inside — the palm rest has this honeycomb finish and the trackpad feels like sand-paper and is somewhat flushed to the left. The left and right click buttons are not separated but shaped accordingly to differentiate the two.

The touchpad is pretty big–3.2 x 1.9 inches–but it could be even larger if the designers had used more of the available space. The slightly rough touch surface and mouse button has a thick chrome outline that flows down into a chevron shape. Under the single mouse button are status indicators for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Battery, Sleep, and the hard drive are appreciated. Plus, our fingers kept naturally gravitating to the bottom edge of the notebook where the mouse buttons usually sit. On this system they’re higher, which took some getting used to.

Display

The 16-inch display is bright and crisp with a maximum resolution of 1366×768 pixels (I was actually expecting it could be higher, somewhere in the 1600×1200 range, because of the large real estate). The glossy display is also prone to glare in the outdoors and against bright light sources.

Ports and Webcam

MSI was certainly generous with the ports on the GT660. On the left you get two USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, a memory card slot, and an Express Card slot. The Blu-ray drive takes up most of the right edge, leaving room for the other USB port, headphone, mic, audio in and audio out ports. Finally, the eSATA, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet and power ports sit in the center of the notebook’s back edge. The webcam on the GT660 is a surprisingly high-end unit that can capture video in HD: 1280 x 720, 30 fps. Video quality at this size isn’t stunning, but once we adjusted the settings (brightness, hue, saturation, etc.) the resulting images were decent.

Performance

MSI Exclusive TDE+ technology: MSI’s GT660 gaming notebook  is the world’s first NB computer to come with TDE+ technology to enhance both processor and display performance. With MSI’s own TDE+ (Turbo Drive Engine+ technology), you can increase processor, memory, and display chip performance instantly with one touch of the luminescent Turbo hotkey above the keyboard. The power boost gives you crisp response even with resource-hungry graphics applications and more importantly, when you’re slaying orcs or battling baddies on the other side of the galaxy.

Advanced nVIDIA GeForce GTX 285M discrete graphics card: The MSI GT660 gaming laptop comes equipped with nVIDIA’s most advanced GeForce GTX 285M discrete graphics card with 128 3D stream processor and 1GB GDDR3 of display memory and nVIDIA® CUDA™ technology to truly unleash the machine’s image and graphics processing potential, allowing the GT660 to execute such high load tasks as conferencing and ripping with ease. The GeForce GTX 285M discrete graphics card also supports nVIDIA® PhysX™ Technology, introducing you to a whole new world of extreme playing, courtesy of super dynamic and realistic graphics.

Battery

Autonomy is not really the highlight of the GT660. The laptop took 1 hour 46 minutes during our endurance test, despite its new battery cells 9800 mAh. Finally, its size, 16 inches, and weighing 3.46 kg really does not help to nomadism. We therefore speak more portable, but it is the case for all of these machines, apart from some exceptions including Alienware M11x.

Design

The N150 Plus (N150-11) makes a good first impression with its glossy lid. It’s an attractive deep red and black with a subtle dot pattern, though it picks up fingerprints in a hurry. (The N150 is also available in multiple colors for less cash, including Bermuda Blue, Gloss Black, Flamingo Pink, Matte Blue, and white). A dark red strip wraps around the sides and front of the machine, reminiscent of the chrome strip on the original NC10.

Under the lid we found a matte deck, bezel, and display instead of a glossy red/black deck. This looks a little dull but eliminates the annoyance of fingerprints. The battery raises the N150 Plus’ chassis about a quarter of an inch in the back, making for a comfortable typing angle. Small speaker grills sit just under the front lip of the system. The N150 Plus doesn’t have a power button in the hinge like older Samsung netbooks; instead, you’ll find a flip switch on the front. Unlike the rounded hinge design of the past, the N150 Plus has a turned-up, oblong flair that mitigates the slight bulk of the six-cell battery in the back.

Keyboard & Touchpad

Samsung keyboards have always been one of our favorites among netbooks that have been reviewed. It’s never a hardship to get used to it and you can immediately reach your normal typing speed. It’s got responsive and well-sized keys. The touchpad feels a bit cramped though that needs a little getting used to.

Display & Audio

The N150 Plus’ 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600-pixel LED-backlit matte display offered bright colors and deep blacks despite the lack of a glossy finish. We used the netbook in the sun and didn’t notice any glare. We’re also glad that there were no distracting reflections when watching dark scenes in movies or TV shows. Unfortunately, viewing angles weren’t very wide. Netbooks are not known for their good speakers. Most of them make tinny sounds or cracks audio at 100% volume. But the speakers on the Samsung N150 Plus was loud and clear, even at 70%, and audio didn’t distort at full volume.

Ports & Webcam

Along the edges of the Samsung N150 you get three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, microphone and headphone ports, 10/100 Ethernet and an SD card slot. That’s all standard fare for a netbook. However, one of the USB ports is of the ChargeableUSB type, which means that you can charge USB-based devices such as phones and MP3 players while the netbook is not even switched on. It’s not as good as Toshiba’s Sleep-and-charge USB ports, which can also recharge an iPhone, but it’s perfect for when you’re on-the-go and need to top-up any other types of USB-based devices — in our tests it worked well with our Creative Zen. ChargeableUSB can either be enabled from the Windows-based application or from the BIOS. You also get a webcam, Bluetooth and 802.11n Wi-Fi. We don’t like the location of the SD card slot on the front of the chassis; it can get in the way when you use the netbook on your lap, as the card sticks halfway out of the slot. Plus it’s not a springloaded slot.

Performance

The 1.66-GHz Intel Atom N450 processor and 1GB of RAM earned the Samsung N150 Plus a score of 1,300 on PCMark05. This is 133 marks below the netbook average (1,433) and also a bit below scores earned by other systems with this chip, including the ASUS Eee PC 1001P (1,384), MSI Wind U160 (1,406) and Samsung N210 (1,362). We also noticed that the machine betrayed a little sluggishness when we had more than six tabs open in Google Chrome while also running other programs (OpenOffice Writer, Windows Media Player, and Skype).

Design

Easily one of the best-looking notebooks we’ve seen for less than $450, the Aspire One 721 measures just 1 to 1.1 inches thick and weighs a mere 2.8 pounds. We especially like the mesh black textured lid (no fingerprint smudges), which has a subtle cross-hatch pattern. The inside of the machine has a sleek gunmetal gray strip underneath the black keyboard, and the power button is made to look like spun metal. A lighter gray strip wraps around the bottom of the 721, adding to the sophisticated aesthetic. The left side of this ultraportable houses a VGA port, power jack, HDMI, and USB. A Ethernet port, lock slot, two more USB ports, mic and headphone jacks, and a 5-in-1 memory card reader can be found on the other side.

Keyboard, touchpad and screen

The 521 and 721 have the same chiclet keyboards that Acer’s been using on its recent netbooks and laptops, albeit the 521′s is narrower. While the rounded keys are well-spaced and have a slight gap between them, overall we just find them to be too flat. We got used to typing on the very level panel, but the plastic keys still don’t really mold to your fingers. Both systems have rather small touchpads that are flush with the metal-like palmrest. They’re fine for navigating, but the multitouch gestures are very off — two finger scrolling barely worked in Firefox and IE. We like the dedicated right and left mouse buttons, though the ones on the 721 are incredibly stiff.

The Aspire One 721′s display is one of the better screens we’ve seen in this size, an 11.6-inch panel with 1366 x 768 resolution. The picture was bright and crisp when surfing the web, and an HD trailer of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows exhibited an impressive level of detail, right down to the dark circles under Harry’s eyes and his stubble.

Performance

We know, this is part of the review you’ve been waiting for – the part where we answer if AMD has made improvements in battery life, graphics, and heat, and if they can start to really compete with Intel in the small laptop space. Well, the answer isn’t that cut and dry, but we’re happy with what we’ve seen. On the performance side of things, the 1.7GHz Athlon II Neo processor scored right in between Intel Atom and Intel ULV CPUs on benchmarks, which in our opinion is a perfect place to be. We’ll let the benchmarks below speak for themselves, but in everyday performance we found the systems to be relatively snappy – especially after we uninstalled the McAfee Internet Suite. Both the 521 and 721 kept up with our everyday chores, which included simultaneously writing in Microsoft Word 2007, surfing the web in Firefox, chatting in Digsby, and checking our Twitter feeds in Tweetdeck. When we threw in a 720p video into the mix, we noticed it took a few more seconds to open the file, but it played back flawlessly.

Capacity

So how much space do your games, media files, and documents need? High-end games such as Crysis or World of Warcraft take between 10 and 15GB of disk space. However, simulation games such as The Sims 3 tend to use 5 to 7GB. So, with a 128GB drive (a common size for SSDs), for example, you can fit all of this with room to spare:

• Operating System (depends on your operating system, including virtual memory, hibernation files, etc.)–20 to 30GB
• Applications: Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, etc.–10GB
• Music: 5,000 Songs (approximately four minutes each)–20GB
• Photos: 3,200 images–10GB
• HD Video: 5.5 hours (approximately)–20GB
• One Large Game–15GB
• Total Memory Used–105GB

That said, the smallest notebook hard drive these days is 160GB, and it’s not difficult to find a low-cost notebook selling inside a 250 or 320GB unit.

SSD

Before upgrading your notebook’s hard drive to SSD, read reviews of any drive you may be considering. Look for a model with a good quality controller chip. If you’re buying a new notebook with an SSD built-in, you may not know the exact make and model of the SSD your notebook comes with, unless you have the notebook in front of you, or read a review from an objective source. Fortunately, most current notebook vendors use quality SSDs that have high-speed controllers from Intel, Samsung, or Toshiba.

Hard Drive

If you’re getting a notebook with a regular hard drive, speed is key. If given a choice, pick a 7,200 rpm model over 5,400 rpm, because the higher rotation speed means data transfers that are approximately 25 percent faster. Modern 7,200 rpm drives also have solid power-saving features, which means they won’t significantly impact your notebook’s battery life. Even if you don’t need all the storage space, we recommend a hard drive with at least 320GB.

External Drives

If you’re going to go external, you have two options: build your own drive, which can be cheaper (and oftentimes smaller), or buy a ready made external drive.

External drives have two ways of connecting to your notebook: USB 2.0 or FireWire (IEEE1394). Some drives offer just USB 2.0, some offer FireWire, and some offer both, and what you want is dependent on how you’re going to use the drive.

So, what if you want to assemble your own? Well, you can purchase an enclosure for 3.5″ drives, but you can also get one for 2.5″ drives. So if you’ve replaced the drive in your notebook, you can always buy an enclosure for that old one and use it as an external for added storage space. 3.5″ externals always require an external power supply, but the 2.5″ ones can often be powered off of two USB ports, so that’s food for thought if you even want your external drive mobile. But again, that’s a 2.5″ drive, so you’re sacrificing speed and capacity. Assembling an external drive is usually fairly simple and most enclosures come with good instructions.

]]> http://www.primenotebook.com/notebook-hard-drives-component-guide.html/feed 0 http://www.primenotebook.com/viliv-n5.html http://www.primenotebook.com/viliv-n5.html#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 05:35:33 +0000 tito http://www.primenotebook.com/?p=72825 At first blush, the Viliv N5 would seem the perfect device for those who feel that smart phones like the Droid X and tablets like the iPad don’t offer the full PC experience of running a desktop OS with all your favorite applications, but for whom netbooks are too cumbersome to tote around. This 5-inch, 1-pound system is powerful enough to run Windows 7 with all the trimmings and even includes a Webcam and optional 3G broadband. However, with a starting price of $649, the N5 doesn’t come cheap and it’s battery life is relatively short. So is this pocket-size Windows machine more than just a novelty?

Design

The N5′s elongated form factor and incredibly rounded corners certainly have a pocketbook-look, but it’s also very clean and stylish. But you’ll forget about how it looks the moment you discover how it feels. The entire outer casing of the N5 has the softest, smoothest rubber-like finish of any device I’ve ever come across. It’s a texture that you can’t help but stroke/pet; if you let someone else hold it, good luck getting it back! Even when I hold the N5 in both hands to thumb type, I still find myself rubbing the back with my fingers. I hate to use the expression “softer than a baby’s bottom,” but it really is that silky and smooth (my 7-month-old baby girl will be thrilled by this public reference when she gets older, I’m sure).

Complementing the device’s amazing finish is its superb build quality. Viliv products are solid. Period. Everything is sturdy and strong; no creaks, warping, or flexing. It’s very nicely put together. One of the design elements that makes the N5 more unique than other handheld clamshells is that it has the kind of hinge that lets the bottom edge of the screen appear as though it’s underneath the lower half of the unit. The hinges themselves are strong and tight; the device literally snaps shut.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Despite its diminuitive size, the N5 sports a full QWERTY keyboard with fairly large keys (for its size) that provide tactile feedback that reminded us of our favorite ThinkPad keyboards. Don’t expect to do a lot of touch typing, though, because the entire device is just too narrow for an adult (or even a large child) to place one’s hands on the home row.

However, with the N5 sitting on our desktop, we were able to achieve a score of 32 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing test, which is a far cry from our typical 80 word-per-minute rate, but much better than we’d do on most smart phones. Because the keys were so responsive, we had little difficulty typing when holding the N5 aloft, though our words-per-minute were in the mid-twenties when we tried the typing test in that position.

For the most part, keys appear in their typical positions, but to make them this large on a device this small, Viliv had to make a couple of compromises. The most awkward of these involve the placement of the colon/semicolon key, the bracket/braces keys, the hyphen key, the +/= key, and the question mark/slash key. The colon/semicolon characters, which normally sit to the right of the L key, share a button with the single/double quote characters. That means you have to hit the Fn key + quote to get the semicolon and Shift+Fn + quote to get the colon character. The brackets and braces characters, which normally have their own keys to the right of the P key, are available by hitting the Fn key + V, B, N, or M. The hyphen character, the +/= characters, and question mark/slash characters all have their own dedicated keys, but these are located to the right of the space bar, rather than in their typical QWERTY positions.

Display

Like the Viliv S5 Premium, the N5 is outfitted with a 4.8-inch WSVGA display. It isn’t remarkably bright, but it’s a great screen with crisp text, excellent clarity, and accurate colors. We’ve seen this screen size and resolution combination on many MIDs/UMPCs in the past, so there’s nothing new or unusual to report here. If icons and text are too small for your comfort, you can boost the size of them through Control Panel -> Appearance -> Display -> “Make it easier to read what’s on your screen.” You can also adjust the DPI through the “Set custom text size” option in the Display sidebar in the Control Panel.

Ports and Webcam

On a chassis this small, one can’t reasonably expect a lot of ports, and the N5 is notably sparse, offering only a single USB port, a microSD card slot, and a headphone jack. If the N5 had a way to output VGA or HDMI, it would make a great mobile presentation device, but as it stands the lack of video-out options is a huge missed opportunity. The N5 has a 1.3-megapixel webcam, but we were unable to produce an image larger than 320 x 240 either when shooting stills or videos. Worse still, the camera had real trouble handling florescent and low lighting. The low-light image we took at our cubicle looked really washed out, but when we moved next to a window with the sun shining through it, the picture quality improved a great deal.

Performance

The 1.33GHz Intel Atom CPU + 1GB RAM duo housed inside the Viliv N5 isn’t new. We’ve seen it used for the past two years, since Menlow-based UMPCs were first released, with varying degrees of success depending on the operating system that went along with it. Windows 7 isn’t as trim as XP, but I think it’s a good choice for a mobile computer. Windows XP is almost 9 years old . . . and it looks it. Vista, on the other hand, looks incredibly dolled up in comparison . . . but it’s too slow. Windows 7 is the best of both words and it performs well on the N5. It’s obviously not well suited for heavy video editing or extensive multi-tasking, but for the kinds of things that most people do (web, email, Skype, video/music, casual games), it performs well. Faster processor options would certainly have been welcomed, especially since last year’s Viliv S5 shares most of the same specs, but the Z520 has a good power:battery life ratio and doesn’t cause the unit to overheat.

The NV7915u includes a 2.13GHz Intel Core i3-330M processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a bright 17.3-inch display, and all the checkmark items you’d expect. Gateway also offers other NV-series versions of this laptop based on AMD processors and with smaller screens; if you opt for a model with a 2.2GHz AMD Turion X2 processor, settle for a smaller 15.6-inch screen, and make some other trade-offs, you can pick up a base model for as little as $479. Plus, you can add some color to your computing life—the NV-series machines come in gray, black, red, and blue.

Design
Ever since Gateway rebranded itself as a more fashionable notebook manufacturer, the company has been on a roll in churning out good-looking budget laptops, and the NV7915u is no exception. The glossy NightSky Black lid, with its subtle Honeycomb pattern, isn’t as luxe as something like the HP Envy 15, but neither does it look cheap. However, the lid doesn’t hide fingerprints as well as the Midnight Blue color found on the NV5807u. Other design flourishes include a matte silver hinge with the power button built into the side (like Sony VAIOs), a glossy upper deck, and LED lights and touch-sensitive controls that glow red. At 6.8 pounds, this notebook is not one you’re going to tote around much, but it’s lighter than many desktop replacements. The touch-sensitive controls responded to even the lightest tap. While there are volume controls and a mute button, there are no external controls for multimedia playback. However, there are buttons for Launch Manager, MyBackup (more on that later), disabling the trackpad, and enabling or disabling Wi-Fi. When you tap the Launch Manager button (a bold P above the keyboard), you can configure the notebook to automatically launch an application of your choosing the next time you press the button.

Keyboard & Touchpad
The keyboard has a unique look and feel with its wide, flat keys. We found typing to be comfortable; the keys are quiet with perfect travel. A dedicated number pad is integrated seamlessly to the right of the keyboard. Above the keyboard is a row of touch-sensitive keys. It includes standard buttons such as volume controls, turning on and off wireless, and locking the touch pad, and a programmable launch key for opening a file, folder, Web site, or application, and another button that launches software for backing up files. Play, pause, rewind, and fast-forward are mapped to the Function keys.

The touch pad is recessed slightly and offers a pleasing matte finish. It also offers multitouch support, so you can, for example, swipe two fingers to scroll down Web pages, swipe two fingers sideways to jump forward and back in your browser, and zoom in and out by pulling apart or pushing together two fingers. We don’t like the thin, indented border that frames the touch pad; it looks like a spot were dust and dirt could collect. We also don’t like the mouse buttons–or button, as it were. Instead of two separate mouse buttons, the Gateway VN7915u features a single bar below the touch pad. For starters, it’s too thin; we kept hitting the space below it when attempting to click. It’s also wider than the touch pad, which looks odd, and you have to be diligent to hit the right or left side of it to make a corresponding mouse click. We found our thumb constantly hitting the middle of the bar, which does nothing but frustrate.

Display and Sound
The NV7915u’s 17.3-inch, 1600 x 900-pixel display was bright and crisp. While streaming Ghostbusters from Hulu, we noticed nice contrast between blues and reds in addition to rich, deep blacks. While images didn’t reverse colors until we were viewing the screen at extreme angles, its glossy finish kicked back a good number of reflections. The NV7915u’s stereo speakers delivered very good quality and more than adequate bass when we streamed John Mayer’s “Why Georgia” from Pandora. When cranked to its maximum settings, the volume was more than loud enough for movie watching, and we ended up scaling it back to around the medium setting.

Ports
You won’t find many surprises with the ports, which are average for a budget system. They include a five-format card reader, four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and VGA ports, and headphone and mic jacks. Connectivity is provided via 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet, as well as a modem for those desperate times when one must resort to dial-up. As for other hardware, there’s also a built-in Webcam. (It performed well, even in low-light situations.) And on the right side is an 8x dual-layer DVD writer. Unfortunately, Gateway says a Blu-ray-drive option is not in the cards, which is too bad because one would have complemented the huge screen well.

Performance
Armed with a 2.13-GHz Intel Core i3-330M processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium, the NV7915u delivers strong performance. Its PCMark Vantage score of 4,907 is about 400 points above the desktop replacement category average, and just 90 points below the Toshiba Satellite P505-S8010, which uses the same processor but is $300 more expensive. The NV7915u’s 5,400-rpm, 500GB hard drive transferred a 4.97GB mixed media folder at a rate of 24.2 MBps. While that’s just 3.3 MBps slower than the category average, its boot time of 1:15 seconds is 9 seconds longer than average. You’ll definitely want to uninstall trialware and get rid of some startup programs. Anecdotally, we didn’t experience any lag as we switched between tabs in Internet Explorer (one of which was Gmail, sending attachments). We were also easily able to move back and forth between open windows on the desktop while playing music, including Windows Explorer and the Control Panel.

Design
The design of the HP Pavilion dv5t is simply beautiful. It is sleek and ultramodern, with tasteful accents. The entire notebook is streamlined, and no matter what angle you look at it, it looks great. This notebook has a “soft” design with all corners rounded off. Looking at the side of the notebook, the backside is a semicircle, and the front curves up like the bow of a boat. When the display is shut, the back of the notebook has a raked look to it, which is appealing. The display only has one large hinge, which adds to the sleek look. The chassis is relatively thin, at 1.37 – 1.65 inches thick.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The dv5t’s backlit, chiclet-style keyboard isn’t just attractive, it’s also comfortable. Resting our fingers on the soft keys felt natural, even if the right Shift key is undersized (we couldn’t tell while touch typing). Although it wasn’t distracting, we could see and feel the keyboard panel move beneath our fingers as we typed. Still, we scored a decent 81 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, and quickly raised our score to 88 wpm after some more hands-on time.

Touchpads have recently been HP’s Achilles’ heel, and the dv5t is no exception. When we first started using it, the surface felt smooth, and the two integrated touch buttons were easy to press. In fact, we still like the giant button and the satisfying click it makes, but the touchpad became frustrating to use. Often, we would bring the cursor close to where we wanted to click, and then it would suddenly feel sluggish, making subtle movements with the cursor take effort. The touchpad also supports multitouch gestures, although pinching two fingers to zoom is considerably easier than panning back out.

Screen
With the introduction of the HP Pavilion dv5 series notebooks, HP is finally offering high-resolution displays. The dv5t is currently offered with a WXGA or WSXGA+ resolution. The WXGA screen (1280 x 800 resolution) is what most 15.4-inch notebooks in stores have, and the most common resolution on 15.4-inch notebooks. The WSXGA+ display (1680 x 1050 resolution) is what my notebook has. It has 42% more viewable space than the WXGA display, which is the reason I chose it. Higher-resolution screens allow you to see more and scroll less. For example, if I view a large web page, I could see 42% more content on the WSXGA+ display than on the WXGA display. Another example- while viewing a high-resolution picture, I can see 42% more detail on the WSXGA+ display than on the WXGA. WSXGA+ makes it possible to use larger windows side by side; you would be hard-pressed to practically view two spreadsheets side-by-side with a WXGA display, but with the high-resolution WSXGA+, it is more than possible (you could do it without shrinking the windows too much).

HP offers two display finishes in addition to the resolutions – the standard BrightView or the BrightView Infinity. The Brightview display has the standard glossy finish that nearly all new consumer notebooks come with. The Infinity display is a new option introduced on the dv5 series notebooks. The Infinity display is basically a large piece of clear plastic over the entire display. It makes the display look like it has no borders. I have the Infinity finish on my notebook. While it makes the notebook look sleeker and more modern, it does increase the amount of reflections over a standard glossy finish. I personally do not mind the reflections. If you are used to a regular glossy display, the Infinity display is not that different in glossiness. I would choose the Infinity display again, since it makes the notebook look sleeker.

Ports and Webcam
The dv5t’s ports include three USB ports, one of which doubles as an eSATA port for high-speed transfers; HDMI and VGA output for connecting to high-def and standard-def displays; an Ethernet jack; and headphone and mic ports. It also has a 5-in-1 memory card reader. Pretty standard for a consumer notebook. The VGA webcam won’t deliver sharp photos or videos thanks to its low 640 x 480 resolution. They were brightly lit, which someone on the other end of your video calls will appreciate, but the colors were off. Specifically, there was a bluish tint across the entire picture; even our black sweater appeared navy. In general, image quality was noisy.

HP’s MediaSmart Webcam software offers an easy interface in which you can click thumbnails to review photos and videos you recently shot, as well as add fun special effects. The sound quality was also excellent: we didn’t hear any echoes, and even when we moved farther away from the notebook it was still easy to hear us.

Operating System & Software
HP offers 32- and 64-bit versions of Vista on the dv5t. Home Premium is standard, while Ultimate is available as an upgrade. I have Home Premium 32-bit on my machine. I went with 32-bit because some of the devices I use do not have 64-bit drivers. HP unfortunately pre-loads a good deal of bloatware into the factory hard drive image. Upon receiving the notebook, I immediately wiped the drive and did a clean install of Vista using orev’s excellent Clean Install Guide in the forums. This allowed me to start with a fresh install of the operating system and drivers only.

Performance
Our configuration of the dv5t had a 2.26-GHz Intel Core i5 430M CPU, 4GB of RAM, 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium, and a 7,200-rpm, 500GB hard drive. For the most part, this combination proved powerful: the notebook scored 5,725 on PCMark Vantage (a Windows benchmark), which is 1,700 points higher than the average thin-and-light. For its specs, though, the dv5t’s performance is right on the money. The $849 Dell Studio 15, which has the same configuration save for its discrete graphics and lack of a Blu-ray drive, scored an almost identical 5,735. The $829 Samsung R580, which also has identical specs (including a Blu-ray drive) except for a slower 5,400-rpm hard drive, scored even higher (5,804).

The dv5t’s 7,200-rpm hard drive transferred a 4.97GB mixed media file at a rate of 28.8 MBps, while the average notebook in this class does so at a slower rate of 23.4 MBps (the Studio 15 managed a similar 28.3 MBps). Still, the hard drive couldn’t make the notebook boot quickly; its startup time of 1:18 seems sluggish when you consider that the average notebook this size can be up and running within 56 seconds (even the Gateway NV59C09u, which has a slower 5,400-rpm hard drive, booted in 1:03).

The dv5t didn’t hiccup when we ran a full scan using Norton Internet Security in the background while streaming music through Slacker and jumping between open tabs in IE8. As we said about HP’s new Pavilion dm4, however, sometimes this fast laptop felt slower than it should have, thanks to the dragging cursor. We also saw the spinning Windows circle a lot, even when trying such tasks as minimizing our Norton scan or ending a video capture in MediaSmart Webcam. When it came down to more intense crunching, the notebook transcoded a 114MB MPEG-4 file to AVI in 1 minute flat, just 3 seconds faster than the average thin-and-light.

Improving: Help techs report that the the majority of troublesome notebook elements will be the hard drive, screen, and also keyboard. When you probably won’t desire to substitute an expensive laptop computer screen, you aren’t the right tools and even any slight physical inclination could change the hard drive, keyboard, along with other parts, by incorporating affected person tinkering.

Starting your own notebook case may void the actual warranty, therefore if your digestive system is still below warrantee, allow producer cope with maintenance. Notebooks are usually delicate, therefore never force something. Vince Dougherty, that has restored countless laptops for Wine Country Computers inside Healdsburg, California, says the most typical blunder is actually while using the wrong-size screwdriver. A single slide plus your motherboard is actually ruined. Prior to doing other things, remove the notebook’s battery and detach the cord. Make sure to ground yourself before you decide to open the particular case, both having a grounding strap (the most dependable approach), or perhaps simply by pressing an item of grounded metal (a light or even normal water pipe is going to do), whilst pressing metallic component for the case’s outside.

Replace your hard drive: Incorporating a new hard drive to some notebook is usually less difficult as compared to doing the same thing over a desktop Personal computer: You just remove several anchoring screws from the base from the case, go or raise the particular hard drive assembly out of the system, and also exchange a brand new generate in to the set up (always deal with drives through the sides). Many laptop Computers work with a standard a couple of.5-inch hard drive, but ultralights along with other diminutive techniques may use a scaled-down 1.8-inch generate. Drives are also made of different heights; the most common tend to be 12.a few millimeters and nine.five millimeters. Check your laptop’s documentation, or perhaps go to the vendor’s Web site to ascertain the actual drive size compatible with your own machine. The 2.5-inch, 100GB travel less expensive than $200. Third-party vendors such as Drive Solutions and NewEgg.com frequently cost less than notebook producers. Talk with your laptop dealer to learn whether you’ll need a SATA or perhaps parallel ATA product. Buy just through vendors that provide a money-back guarantee–any reliable vendor will give you a single long lasting a minimum of 1 month.

Increase your own RAM: Most laptops come with only a couple of memory sockets, that might abandon absolutely no open slots for updates. Adding memory may well demand that you simply throw out a minumum of one current memory module. The RAM about most notebooks chilling out guiding any detachable cell. The particular modules slide right into a slot and therefore are secured at the comes to an end through clips or even retainers. Crucial and also Kingston will advise you the kind of RAM your laptop requirements. The high-quality adventures they promote are worth the tiny, extra expense over no-name RAM.

Keyboard: Installing a new keyboard usually demands disassembling the laptop’s case, however in other areas it’s simple: Very first snap the old keyboard away, and snap the particular replacement keyboard within. You could expect to pay $50 to $100 for a brand new laptop keyboard. Suitable substitute keyboards might be obtainable just from the notebook’s vendor.

Touchpad: Whenever I am in severe work mode, my personal netbook’s touch pad will not be as simple will be able to use being a mouse. The miniature USB vacation mouse with retracting cord is cheaper compared to $30 from all of these and other suppliers, plus a instant variation (Bluetooth or infrared) expenses somewhat a lot more. I propose the born mouse regarding hectic travelers; there aren’t any power packs to concern yourself with, no tiny Bluetooth or RF transmitter to lose.

Ports: In case your laptop provides only a couple of USB ports, a tiny four-port USB hub is important allowing you to connect more products. Portable printers, scanners, along with other power-hungry USB peripherals may require a self-powered hub just like APC’s $35 4-Port Travel Hub, that is sold with the very own power adapter. To connect a mouse, keyboard, or perhaps thumb drive, the nonpowered USB hub will be all you need.

Hub: A little wireless router enables you to move hotels, an office, or even elsewhere with a set, high-speed World wide web connection. The $60 AirPlus G DWL-G730AP Instant Pants pocket Modem coming from D-Link corresponds a tiny transporting case.

Firewall: Anyone moving from one accommodation or instant hotspot to another requirements firewall defense, and also the firewall built into Windows XP Service Pack 2 simply won’t perform. If your This department prohibits one to set up firewall computer software on your own company laptop, Kensington’s $40 Private Firewall device are able to keep your digestive system safe from criminals although you’re traveling. Merely put the particular thumb drive into a wide open USB interface, perform a fast configuration, and your shields are usually upwards.

Directed: Employing a notebook computer in the darkened airliner or some other light-challenged space can be difficult since you cannot see the keyboard (unless of course it can be backlit). As opposed to squinting from the light from the netbook’s Lcd, test Kensington’s $25 Flylight 3. These devices comes with an Led light on one side of its flexible neck of the guitar, plus a USB connection at the other. The Flylight is smaller than average light enough to adopt anywhere, this means you will illuminate any notebook work area without having disturbing others.

Screen: About extended, boring flights, handful of seatmates may resist sneaking any look or a couple of at your notebook screen. 3M’s Laptop Privateness Computer Filtration slides over the notebook’s screen, and easy-to-attach clips maintain that in position to stop the actual snoop seated alongside you from kibitzing your bet on Solitaire. The screen will be costly, beginning with $45 for a twelve.1-inch design, nonetheless it help keep your own matters private.

Power Adapter: In case you are sick and tired of carrying the stack regarding power stones wherever you go, you will want to industry ‘em in for the one that perseverence almost all your own products? APC, Belkin, Kensington, and also Targus help to make cellular general power adapters with connector tips for laptops, mobile phones, Pdas, as well as other units. Their costs cover anything from $70 to be able to $130, determined by electrical power and also accessories. Tip choice may differ from merchant to vendor, therefore look into the match ups checklist on the businesses Website for each of your electronic units before you decide to lay down your own environmentally friendly.

Dock and cover: A docking station allows you to link a monitor, keyboard, mouse, sound system, USB units, as well as network link to be able to your laptop computer in just seconds. The majority of laptop distributors provide customized docking stations for some designs, but these have a tendency to expense 100′s of dollars. Targus’s $130 Universal Notebook Docking Station With Video clip links to be able to any kind of laptop via USB a couple of.. The only capture: The USB a couple of. link can not match up the speed of a immediate VGA monitor link, so that it may produce a bandwith bottleneck when running fast-moving games or even additional graphics-intensive applications.

Peripherals: Should you continually switch among your own desktop and also laptop Pcs, work with a keyboard-video-mouse change to work possibly Computer through a single keyboard, monitor, and also mouse. Numerous suppliers promote KVM switches that need a lot of converter cables and internet connections, yet Kavoom KVM) is a computer software “switch” in which works more than a network link. An easy simply click lets you toggle in between computers. The program expenses $30 for just two Personal computers, and another $10 for each extra Pc.

Design
While other brands have reinvented themselves several times over, Fujitsu’s business-oriented LifeBook notebooks look more or less the same as they did a few years ago. Underneath the matte black lid, which has Fujitu’s logo printed in understated gray font, the laptop features a lighter interior, including a white, pillowy keyboard and silvery palm rest (the bezel and area above the keyboard are still black, lending the interior a colorblocked effect). The palm rest is slightly bumpy, which makes the notebook look rugged, although this feature is purely cosmetic. The touchpad has a smaller circular one next to it, which we’ll elaborate on later.

More than anything, what makes the S760 look dated are the half dozen buttons above the keyboard (not to mention five LED lights and two discreet speakers). These buttons are meant to unlock the computer before the OS boots (you can choose one of up to 800,000 combinations). The idea is that these buttons aren’t connected to the keyboard, something hackers can track with keyloggers. The idea is a neat one, although aesthetically we still wish that space above the keyboard were blank.

Keyboard
Its spill resistant keyboard is a pleasure to use, and the quirky ScrollWheel is a ‘take it or leave it’ feature which you can simply ignore if it does not feel right to you. It may, though prove a useful ice-breaker in some client meetings. And you might not want to use the Web camera software in view of clients, unless you have preconfigured it to remove some of the more consumer-focussed elements.

Ports
Connectivity is good comprising VGA and HDMI video out ports, three USB 2.0 ports, and an ExpressCard/54 slot for add-in cards. An optional docking port replicator (£91 ex. VAT) provides a second mains adapter, four USB ports, an eSata port, printer and serial ports, VGA and DVI video outputs, and an Ethernet port.

Graphics & Battery Life

We wouldn’t have expected gaming to be one of this 13-inch business notebook’s strengths, but its discrete Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics card and 512MB video memory make it an excellent work-and-play machine. It notched a score of 3,787 on 3DMark06, whereas the average score for an ultraportable notebook is 1,068. Meanwhile, it ran World of Warcraft at an impressive 129 fps at 1024 x 768 resolution and a slower, but still playable 49 fps at 1366 x 768 resolution. Even in Far Cry 2, a more graphically demanding game, the S760 managed an acceptable 33 fps at 1068 x 768 resolution (slowing to 11 fps at 1366 x 768).

Although its fast hard drive, strong gaming performance, and bright display make the S760 a versatile notebook, battery life is its Achilles heel. The six-cell battery lasted just 3:06 on the LAPTOP battery test, whereas the average ultraportable lasts 5:30. The HP EliteBook 2540p and the Lenovo ThinkPad X201s have even better endurance; they lasted 6:54 and 8:31, respectively. You would get more endurance out of this system if you opted for integrated graphics instead or the modular bay battery, but the latter adds another $138 to an already expensive notebook.

Performance
Performance

By most metrics, the S760 offers better than average performance, but we have to wonder if the slight performance boost is worth the price you have to pay. Squeezed into this small machine is a 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5-520M processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 320GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive (as a business machine, it runs 32-bit Windows 7 Professional). Thanks to all these components, it blew away the category average (3,243) in the Windows benchmark PCMark Vantage with a score of 5,890. Still, we saw even higher scores from lower priced systems, such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X201s ($1,659; 6,106) and the HP EliteBook 2540p ($1,624; 6,002).

The S760’s 7,200-rpm hard drive booted in a reasonable 1:10, and transferred a 4.97GB mixed media folder at a rate of 27.2 MBps, which is slightly faster than the category average (25.3 MBps), not to mention other business-friendly ultraportables, such as the X201s (18.8 MBps), the 2540p (18.2 MBps), and the $899 Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 (23.5 MBps).

We had no problem carrying out our usual routine on the S760. We didn’t even notice Norton Internet Security running a full system scan in the background while we streamed music from Slacker and then played clips from Hulu at full screen. At no point did we notice any hiccups in the music or video playback. The notebook was also able to transcode a 114MB MP4 file to AVI in 57 seconds, whereas the average ultraportable takes 2:07.

Design
Unlike the U30Jc or the UL50, the lid of the N61Jv is glossy with a subtle wavy pinstripe pattern, much like the K42F. This looks cool, but it doesn’t do a great job of hiding fingerprint smudges. Inside, however, ASUS has made several interesting design changes. The palm rest is rubberized, making it very comfortable to the touch.

Above the chiclet-style keyboard is the most striking feature: a silver speaker bar perforated by tiny holes. At the right side is a circular chrome power button encircled by a backlit ring; on the other side are buttons to control multimedia playback and to launch the ExpressGate Instant-On environment. At either end of the silver bar are two translucent strips that light up blue when the notebook is on. All in all, it has a very retro-chic look, like something Braun might have designed in the 80s.

Weighing 6 pounds even, the N61J is a bit heavier than most notebooks in its class, most of which have smaller 15.6-inch screens. The Samsung R580, for example, weighs 5.6 pounds. However, the N61Jv, at 15.4 x 10.6 x 1.1—1.5 inches, cuts a thinner profile to the R580’s 16.2 x 10.7 x 1.3—1.6 inches.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The palm rest has a sort of “rubbery” textured plastic found on some mice and keyboards, along with the Alienware M17x and ASUS G73J. The technical description is a “soft touch rubberized painted plastic” surface for the palm rest; whatever it’s called, we like it, and we wish the top cover used the same material. The keyboard is of the chiclet variety and has a good feel and key action. We only have one minor complaint with the keyboard, and that’s the use of a half-size “0″ key for the number keypad. Above are two different keyboards, on the left is the ASUS N61J and on the right is the Acer Aspire 5740G; Acer gets the number keypad right. If a company is going to go to the trouble of fitting a 10-key into a notebook, they need to use the standard layout. Yes it’s a minor quibble, but it’s our only real complaint with the keyboard. We do feel there are better keyboards out there, but that’s largely a matter of personal taste—I’m partial to the Lenovo ThinkPad T410 approach, with raised and contoured keys that feel more like a desktop keyboard. If on the other hand you prefer chiclet keyboards, the N61J won’t disappoint.

Display and Audio
The 16-inch LED-backlit display on the N61Jv was plenty bright, and we liked the crisp colors. While its resolution of 1366 x 768 was adequate for a notebook at this price, its glossy surface kicked back reflections and angles were somewhat limited. Image quality was fair. While watching a 720p episode of Fringe on Fox.com, we could easily make out the wrinkles in the characters’ faces, though a DVD of Heroes looked somewhat grainy.

Despite the fact that the N61Jv has Altec Lansing Speakers and SRS Premium Sound, we were somewhat disappointed overall. There was very nice definition when listening to Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away,” but bass was sadly lacking on this entertainment system. During the chorus, the higher notes drowned out the lower tones, making it sound a little harsh. Tweaking the settings using the SRS control panel did little to help. On the plus side, the volume was fairly loud when streaming Weezer’s “Beverly Hills” on Slacker.

Ports
ASUS provides a single eSATA port and two USB 2.0 ports. The big extra is that ASUS has added an NEC USB 3.0 controller for one more USB port on the left side

Performance
The 2.26-GHz Intel Core i5-430M processor and 4GB of RAM (upgradable to 8GB) powered the N61Jv to an excellent score of 5,841 in PCMark Vantage, which measures overall performance. That’s about 900 points higher than the desktop replacement average, about 40 points higher than the Samsung 15.6-inch R580, which has the same processor, and practically equal to the similarly sized Acer Aspire 5740G. The 17-inch Samsung R780 ($799) has the same processor, but scored about 100 points higher.

Not only is the N61J’s hard drive a relatively spacious 500GB, but it also zips along at 7,200 rpm, enabling it to blow past a number of notebooks in its category. We were able to duplicate a 4.97GB folder of multimedia in 2 minutes and 31 seconds, a rate of 33.7 MBps. That’s 45 seconds faster than the R580 (26.2 MBps), and more than 10 MBps faster than the Sony VAIO E (21.7 MBps). Boot time, too, was a fast 57 seconds.

Design
The T91 MT is currently available in two colours: black and white. We decided on the white variety for the purposes of this review. Because of the glossy surfaces, white has the distinct advantage that the smudges and fingerprints that quickly accumulate do not show up as much. In terms of design, the T91 MT is unobtrusive, with just a few silver elements providing the occasional pleasant accent. Though it is mainly constructed out of plastic, the case still seems of a very high quality, both visually and to the touch. There can be no complaints about the workmanship, with everything sitting well in its place; no sharp edges or other such problems were apparent.

We were not totally convinced by the robustness of the case. The lid is relatively resistant to twisting forces, but putting pressure on the outside of the lid quickly leads to substantial screen distortions. The rest of the casing is surprisingly robust both on the underside and the upper side. The keyboard only flexes a little under heavy pressure. The single hinge, with which the lid can be turned completely around, works extremely reliably and holds the display in the desired position at all times. However one disadvantage is that opening the lid with one hand causes the rest of the case to follow. The T91 MT is tremendously portable with its low weight of only 970g and highly compact dimensions of 225 x 164 x 28.5 mm (length x width x height); there is room for it even when you have very little space to spare.

Ports
Because of its small chassis, the Eee PC T91 has fewer ports than the typical netbook. It comes with two USB ports (rather than the average three), Ethernet, VGA, audio in/out, a 3-in-1 card reader, and a Kensington lock slot.

Keyboard, Touchpad, Touchscreen
The keys are necessarily small, due to the notebook’s small size overall. While the keys on other notebooks are generally around 18mm, the T91 MT’s are only around 15mm. This doesn’t sound like much, but it makes a big difference in practice. If you have less than delicate fingers or are trying to type very quickly you will often hit the wrong key. A couple of keys have been reduced in size still further (the ones with °^ and ‘# on them). Asus has had to play about a bit with the layout too, moving the right shift-key and the ‘# key from their usual places. But on the whole it is easy to get used to the slightly altered layout.

Unsurprisingly, the user will have to do without a separate number pad, but there is a number block integrated into the main keyboard which can be accessed using the function key. We found the T91 MT to be very convincing in terms of the tactile feedback from the keys, and only the noise upon release seemed a little rattly. As already mentioned, the keyboard does flex slightly in places, but this only happens when you apply a considerable amount of force to it.

The touchpad is slightly recessed and can be easily distinguished from the surrounding area due to its silvery colour. It is not especially big, but completely acceptable for a machine about the size of a netbook. While we were testing it the touchpad also proved itself to be extremely accurate. The smooth surface means that your finger glides over it very well. Fortunately Asus has not gone for the dimpled touchpad surface that it has used previously, for example on the Eee PC 1005HA, which is unpleasant to use for long periods. Beneath the touchpad there is a single bar containing both touchpad buttons, which quickly attract fingerprints because of their high-gloss silvery surface. The left-hand button was acceptable in terms of tactile feedback, but the right-hand button seemed to us to have a somewhat spongy feel.

The touch-sensitive surface of the screen works exceptionally well. Whether entering information by hand or with the pen, it is correctly understood every time. The handwriting recognition also works very well for the most part, with only the odd exception here and there. Even if you write very messily, the software converts most words reliably. Unfortunately there is a delay, varying in length depending on how much processing power is free, and this can be a pain, especially during short or time-sensitive tasks. One further shortcoming: it is not possible to rest your palms fully on the display, as this will render the touch recognition either partly or wholly unusable. So after a while some tiredness and tension may start to creep in.

Software
As for software and accessories, you won’t find a whole lot from Asus here. Granted, that’s pretty much par for course when it comes to inexpensive netbooks, but at least Asus does toss in a padded sleeve that works great when trying to keep the T91 from getting scuffed up in your duffle bag. Within the brightly colored box, you’ll find the Eee PC T91, a padded protective sleeve, an AC adapter, an AC plug, a 16GB SDHC memory card, a user CD and a user guide.

The T91 has an easy, 9-point calibration process to get the touchscreen properly responsive. ASUS has also loaded the T91 with some custom-built software — namely the Touch Gate interface. From the regular XP desktop, you can activate the touchscreen interface three ways  via the icon on the desktop, the slider icon at the top of the desktop, or that physical button to the right of the power toggle we mentioned earlier. Hitting any of those brings up the Touch Gate main interface — which is essentially a very simple row of icons that can be rearranged in any order — with up to five icons in the mail row, and others behind it. For now, there is a limited amount of icons on the list — preferences, and four custom-built apps — Fotofun, Memos, Notepad, and Internet Explorer with Touch Capability. We should say that we find the interface to be really clean and pleasing to look at, and the applications are pretty elegantly designed.

Performance
Instead of using the typical 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, ASUS went with a 1.33-GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU for the T91, which we’re assuming was chosen to maintain the small footprint of this device. As we found with the Acer Aspire One AO751h, which uses the same processor, there was a major performance delta between the T91 and other netbooks. The Eee PC T91’s PCMark05 score of 1,226 trails the netbook average by about 160 points, as well as those of its competitors, including the Toshiba mini NB205 (1,496) and the 10-inch Acer Aspire One (1,492), both of which have a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU.

In our everyday usage, the Eee PC T91 felt slow. The system took over 15 seconds to launch the touch-friendly version of Internet Explorer that ASUS includes with its Touch Gate interface; when we opened Internet Explorer while chatting with a friend on Skype, the video dropped out for a few seconds, and again, a few seconds passed before the netbook could overlap these two windows.

The Eee PC T91’s Intel GMA 950 graphics chip delivered a score of 87 on 3DMark06, which measures graphics performance. This mark was a little lower than the netbook average of 97, but, unless you’re planning to play the latest 3D games, you won’t notice a difference. A 720p video clip played smoothly. Using Handbrake, we transcoded a 5:05 MPEG-4 video clip (114MB) to the AVI format in 34 minutes and 45 seconds, which is about 5 minutes slower than the netbook average.