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Facebook apologizes for ad platform 'mistakes'

2007-12-06T00:53:00.000-08:00

by Glenn Chapman Wed Dec 5, 6:10 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday apologized online to members for "mistakes" made implementing a new ad platform and gave them a way to switch it off.

Last week the hot social networking website changed its nascent "Beacon" advertising platform to an opt-in system to soothe members outraged by what they saw as an assault on their privacy.

On Wednesday, Zuckerberg gave members a way to turn Beacon off.
"We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it," Zuckerberg wrote in a posting at the Facebook website.

Beacon lets "partners" track Facebook members' visits to their websites and relay messages letting users' friends in the social networking community know what they bought in a tactic referred to as "trusted referral" advertising.

Originally members were fodder for the ad platform if they didn't exert the effort to "opt-out."
Internet civic and political action group Moveon.org said that 55,000 of Facebook's 50 million members electronically signed a petition titled "Facebook: Stop invading my privacy."
The petition calls for Facebook not to spread word of what members buy to their friends without explicit permission.

The uprising caused Facebook to change the system so that members are asked to click on an "OK" icon if they want stories about their activities at advertisers' websites to be sent to friends via automated news feeds.

If members do nothing with the notices, no stories are sent, according to Facebook, which acts as intermediary between advertisers and members. A privacy tool released Wednesday lets members permanently opt-out of Beacon.

Facebook launched Beacon in early November in a move awaited by analysts wondering how Facebook will cash in on its booming popularity.

"It took us too long after people started contacting us to change the product so that users had to explicitly approve what they wanted to share," Zuckerberg wrote.

"We've made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we've made even more with how we've handled them. I'm not proud of the way we handled this situation and I know we can do better."
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 while he was a Harvard University student.

Facebook partners in the ad program include Overstock.com, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Sony Pictures Television, and Blockbuster.

Zuckerberg, 23, billed Facebook Ads as a way to target ads at members in a "referral" manner mirroring the social nature of the website.

"Sites like Facebook are revolutionizing how we communicate with each other and organize around issues together in a 21st century democracy," said Moveon.org civic action spokesman Adam Green.

"Facebook's policy change is a big step in the right direction, and we hope it begins an industry-wide trend that puts the basic rights of Internet users ahead of the wish lists of corporate advertisers."

Facebook Chooses Microsoft Over Google

2007-10-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

Facebook will sell Microsoft a $240 million minority stake.

Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 2:00 PM PDT

Facebook Inc. will sell a $240 million minority stake to Microsoft Corp., which as part of the deal will also expand the advertising services it provides to the social networking phenom, the companies said Wednesday in a statement.

The size of the ownership stake Microsoft will take during Facebook's next round of financing puts Facebook's valuation at a whopping $15 billion. Google had reportedly been courting Facebook as well.

In addition to the ownership piece, Microsoft will also extend its existing agreement to provide banner ads to Facebook in the U.S. With this deal, Microsoft will become Facebook's exclusive third-party ad platform, as well as provide Facebook ads internationally.

"This is about placing a big bet on the future of Facebook and positioning Microsoft possibly for an outright acquisition later, as well as keeping Facebook away from Google," said analyst Greg Sterling from Sterling Market Intelligence.

The Deal

During a conference call after the announcement, Owen Van Natta, Facebook's vice president of operations and Chief Revenue Officer, didn't acknowledge Google was one of the company's suitors.

He said Facebook chose Microsoft because of its reputation as one of the world's top technology providers. "We were fortunate to have a lot of folks who wanted to partner with us around advertising," he said.

Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's Platforms and Services Division, called the deal a "big vote of confidence" for Microsoft's advertising strategy.

However, he said advertising is just one area of convergence for the companies, though he declined to mention specifically in what other areas of technology or business the two companies will collaborate.

Facebook will likely devote the cash influx from its next financing round to bankroll the torrid growth it is expecting in the coming 12 months in usage and headcount.

"This is clearly good for Facebook, as they get a big pile of cash to expand, and Microsoft has given them the valuation they were looking for," Sterling said. "So Facebook gets a big chunk of money and a massive valuation."

With about 300 employees now, Facebook expects to have about 700 a year from now, its CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said last week at the Web 2.0 Summit.

Meanwhile, the site is growing its usage at breakneck speed, with about 250,000 new users registering every day.

Facebook's Background

Founded in 2004, it currently has about 49 million active users today, up from 12 million in December. Over half of its active members return to the site daily. Some 59 percent of its users are outside the U.S.

Earlier Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post reported that Facebook was in the final stages of making a decision on whether to do this deal with Microsoft or Google.

For Microsoft, which hasn't attained as strong a position in online advertising as it had hoped, and lags behind Google, landing this deal could be a major win, as long as Facebook proves to be as attractive an advertising vehicle as expected.

Microsoft and Facebook signed their original advertising deal in August 2006 and months later extended that agreement through 2011.

The Journal reported later on Wednesday that Facebook expects a profit of about $30 million this year, on revenue of $150 million.

Google and Yahoo provide ads for Facebook rival MySpace.

A "Must-Win" for Microsoft

Since News Corp. bagged MySpace in 2005 and Google bought YouTube last year, "for Microsoft, this was a must-win," said Allen Weiner, a Gartner Inc. analyst. "They needed to do whatever it took."With this deal, Microsoft sends a clear message that it is serious about its intention to be a major online advertising platform player, Weiner said.

Still, questions remain about social networking sites' full potential for advertising, since most of their content is largely unregulated and created by millions of individuals, resulting often in material that is vulgar and objectionable.

"There is some merit to those questions about social networking sites as viable advertising vehicles," Weiner said. However, these sites will probably evolve and look very differently in five years, when, in addition to their core social networking functions, they'll also likely be platforms for delivering media content to its members, Weiner said.

Facebook Advertising

Facebook plans to share more ideas for revving up its advertising business on Nov. 6, at an event in New York to which it has invited what it calls "its closest advertisers."

"As part of [the event], Facebook executives will discuss new approaches for advertising online," a Facebook spokeswoman said via e-mail. "We are not sharing any further details."

Facebook, MySpace and others are also under close scrutiny from law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad because sexual predators use social-networking sites to stalk and victimize people, in particular minors.

According to Hitwise, Facebook.com was the ninth most visited site in the U.S. during the week ended October 20. Within the social networking category, Facebook.com received 15 percent of U.S. visits during that week, placing second behind leader MySpace, which got 76 percent of visits, according to Hitwise.

The Journal first reported Google's and Microsoft's pursuit of the Facebook investment a month ago.

SAP agrees 4.8-billion-euro buyout of Business Objects (AFP)

2007-10-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

Sun Oct 7, 7:02 PM ET

PARIS (AFP) - Germany's SAP, a world leader in business software, announced late Sunday that it had agreed with France's Business Objects on a buy-out worth just over 4.8 billion euros (6.8 billion dollars).

"The Business Objects board of directors has approved the tender offer agreement between the two companies and anticipates recommending the offer to its shareholders subject to fulfillment of certain regulatory requirements," said a statement on the two companies' websites.

AFP/File Photo: A man speaking on a cellphone in front of the logo of software developer SAP....

The deal involves a cash offer from SAP of 53.4 dollars (42.00 euros) per share of Business Objects, which posted a turnover of 1.3 billion dollars (886 million euros) last year.

"Together, SAP and Business Objects intend to offer high-value solutions for process- and business-oriented professionals," said the joint statement.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, but Business Objects will operate as a stand-alone business as part of the SAP Group, the companies said.

"Business Objects customers will continue to benefit from open, broad and integrated business intelligence solution," said their statement.

"The acquisition of Business Objects is in keeping with SAP's stated strategy to double our addressable market by 2010" to reach 100,000 clients, Henning Kagermann, CEO of SAP AG, was quoted as saying.

SAP currently has around 41,200 clients and sold software licenses worth 3.1 billion euros last year.

The purchase marks a radical change of strategy for SAP, which in contrast to its US rival Oracle which spent more than 25 billion dollars on acquisitions since 2004, has instead opted more for organic growth.

SAP also bought management software producer Hyperion in March for 3.3 billion dollars.

IBM Targets SMBs With 'Express' Versions Of Rational, Tivoli Tools

2007-10-07T23:57:00.000-07:00

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek Fri Oct 5, 12:00 PM ET

IBM on Friday unveiled new software tools designed to help small and mid-sized businesses compete on a more even footing with larger enterprises.

The IBM Rational Build Forge Express Edition offers a software development environment tailored for SMBs that lack a large programming staff. Among other things, the product provides a foundation for agile development processes that favor a standardized and iterative approach to application development.

IBM Rational Build Forge Express Edition will be available starting October 23rd at a price of $49,000 per server, IBM said. IBM obtained the foundation for the software when it acquired application development specialist BuildForge in 2006 for an undisclosed sum.

Another new tool introduced Friday by IBM, the Tivoli Network Manager IP Entry Edition, gives IT staffers at mid-sized businesses the ability to monitor their network performance in real time. Pricing details were not disclosed.

IBM has spent considerable efforts in launching "Express" versions of its middleware products. Rational, WebSphere, DB2, Tivoli, and even Lotus all have less expensive versions available for smaller companies to run or as evaluation software for larger corporations.

SMBs represent an important growth market for IBM, whose sales to large enterprises have been relatively flat in recent years. Researchers at AMI Partners say IT spending by SMBs will grow by 10% in 2007 -- driven by high double-digit growth in emerging markets such as Brazil, India and China.

IBM's total sales, adjusting for currency, increased 5.9% in the second quarter, while software sales rose 9.1%.

To help build out its own software developer product plans, IBM has said it plans to acquire development tools maker Telelogic. However, the proposed $745 million acquisition of the Swedish vendor is now the subject of a European antitrust investigation, EU officials said Friday. Europe's second highest court recently upheld antitrust penalties against software maker Microsoft.

FTC Cracks Down on Health Sites' Claims

2007-10-07T23:56:00.000-07:00

Grant Gross, IDG News Service Sat Oct 6, 8:00 PM ET

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed complaints against seven online sellers of alternative hormone replacement therapy products, alleging that the Web sites made health claims for their natural progesterone creams without supporting evidence.

Six of the sellers have signed consent orders barring them from making unsubstantiated claims in the future, the FTC announced Friday. The seventh Web site did not respond to repeated efforts to contact it by the FTC staff, and its case will be heard by an administrative law judge, the agency said.

"Millions of women seek safe, effective alternatives to hormone replacement therapy," said Lydia Parnes, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "These companies violated their trust by making claims they just couldn't prove."

The sellers claimed that their natural progesterone creams were effective in preventing, treating, or curing osteoporosis; were effective in preventing or reducing the risk of estrogen-induced uterine cancer; and did not increase the user's risk of developing breast cancer, or were effective in preventing or reducing the user's risk of developing breast cancer.

The FTC complaints, filed earlier this year, alleged that the sellers did not have substantiation for these claims and, in some cases, misrepresented that clinical testing proved the products were effective.

The products allegedly sold without proper health-claim substantiation included: ProBalance transdermal cream; Elation Therapy Natural Progesterone Cream; Preserve Progesterone Cream; Restored Balance progesterone cream; Serenity for Women Natural Progesterone Cream; Nature's Precise Cream; Eternal Woman Progesterone Cream.

The consent orders settle the FTC's charges against the following people and businesses:

-- Lawrence A. Jordan and Stephanie L. Jordan, doing business as Springboard and Pro Health Labs of Spring Valley, California;

-- Elation Therapy Inc. and Robert Rutledge, an officer of the company based in Marietta, Georgia;

-- Merilou Barnekow, doing business as Women's Menopause Health Center of Surfside Beach, Texas;

-- The Green Willow Tree LLC of Asheville, North Carolina, and manager Robert Burns;

-- Health Science International Inc., of Port Orange, Florida, and David Martin, an officer there;

-- Shelly Black, doing business as Progesterone Advocates Network of Trabuco Canyon, California.

Under the terms of the orders, sellers are required to have reliable scientific evidence substantiating claims about the health benefits, performance, safety and side effects of any dietary supplement drug, or health-related service. In addition, the orders prevent the sellers from misrepresenting the existence, validity or interpretations of any research.

Finally, the orders contain 20-year record-keeping provisions designed to ensure the sellers comply with their terms.

The charges against Herbs Nutrition Corp. of Torrance, California, and Syed M. Jafry, an officer there, have not been settled, and the case will be tried by an FTC administrative law judge.

The FTC is not aware of any competent and reliable scientific evidence to support claims that natural progesterone products are safe, or that they are effective in preventing osteoporosis, increasing bone density or preventing, treating, or curing cancer, heart disease or other diseases, the agency said. When evaluating health-related claims for any product, consumers should talk to their primary-care doctor or pharmacist, the FTC recommended.

The FTC staff identified the respondents through an Internet search of Web sites advertising products that claimed they were natural alternatives to hormone replacement therapy. The FTC sent warning letters to 34 Web site operators informing them that they must have reliable scientific evidence to support any health-related claims made for their products. The FTC advised the marketers to revise or delete any false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims.

Twenty-seven of the 34 Web sites modified the health claims about hormone replacement therapy after the FTC letters.

Do eBay Ads Go Overboard? (PC World)

2007-10-07T23:54:00.000-07:00

Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service Sun Oct 7, 9:00 AM ET

EBay Inc. has significantly boosted its advertising revenue since last year, but some sellers worry that the company's efforts in this area are driving potential buyers away from the online marketplace.

Last year, eBay signed deals to run ads from the Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. networks in order to better capitalize on the massive traffic it draws to its Web sites, primarily its core eBay.com marketplace.

The strategy seems to be working: In 2007's second quarter, ended June 30, eBay's advertising revenue almost doubled compared with the same period in 2006.

The very influential Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA), a group of large eBay sellers, has been watching from the sidelines with increasing concern and skepticism.

"Having those ads on the Web site we view as very negative. Encouraging people to leave eBay can never be good for the seller who is paying to be on the marketplace," said Jonathan Garriss, PESA's executive director.

While eBay has had advertising on its Web site for years, sellers generally hadn't perceived it as a major threat, for a variety of reasons.

For instance, the advertising program that the Yahoo deal replaced in May of last year was run in-house by eBay and was designed to let eBay sellers promote their products in the marketplace. In other words, the ads didn't link outside of the eBay Web sites.

Also, whenever eBay has allowed external ads in its sites, as it did in the late 1990s and early 2000's via a deal with AOL LLC, the ads weren't as precisely targeted as is possible with the current ad-matching technology from Google and Yahoo.

Now, with Google and Yahoo delivering ads that are contextually relevant to the eBay pages on which they run, eBay sellers feel that the barbarians aren't just at the gates, but inside the marketplace's walls, luring buyers away.

The deal with Yahoo made it the exclusive provider of pay-per-click (PPC) text ads and banner ads for eBay sites in the U.S., while the Google deal, signed a few months later in August 2006, is for PPC text ads in eBay sites internationally.

In the second quarter of 2007, eBay reported $76 million in advertising and "other non-transaction revenue," an increase of 96 percent from the same period in 2006. An eBay spokesman acknowledged that most of that revenue came from advertising.

Making some rough calculations, Garriss believes that eBay visitors clicked about 250 million times on the Yahoo and Google ads during the second quarter. "The biggest issue is seeing ads that compete with products already on eBay," Garriss said.

Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman, acknowledges that the company has fielded concerns from sellers about this issue, but he argues that the worry is unwarranted.

"Our first priority is always to encourage buyers to transact on the site and click on our sellers' listings. If our sellers aren't successful, they're not paying eBay fees, and then we're not successful," Durzy said.

In an ideal world, every visitor to eBay would end up buying something in the marketplace, but research has shown visitors don't always come to buy. Often they do research or browse, he said.

Thus, eBay can potentially monetize those visits and improve those users' experience by showing them relevant, targeted ads, Durzy said.

"Our strategy is to serve ads differently based on what we think you're most likely to do, in order to ultimately give you as a buyer the best experience," he said.

An increase in buyer satisfaction ultimately benefits sellers. "Serving relevant, compelling ads in certain situations makes for a better buying experience," Durzy said.

Still, eBay is considering reactivating the in-house ad program for eBay sellers that it cancelled last year, because it recognizes that it had some value. "We're examining parts of that [program] that we can reconstitute within the context of our deal with Yahoo," he said.

What's not negotiable is the existence of external ads on eBay. "We continually test what's the best mix and how to improve our targeting so that we serve the right ads to the right people and avoid that thing which sellers legitimately fear," Durzy said.

Recently, Steve Hartman, eBay's director of on-site advertising strategy, addressed these issues in a blog posting. "We want buyers to transact on eBay," he wrote. "But we also want to offer alternatives when we believe it will improve the buying experience."

EBay won't claim that the ads have never driven a potential buyer away from the marketplace, but those situations would be exceptions, not the rule, Durzy said.

"Our initial testing period shows no significant impact to our core transaction business, which means no significant impact to our sellers' revenue, because the two are inextricably linked," Durzy said. "We feel very confident that our strategy is working."

Garriss, also CEO of Gotham City Online, an apparel store on eBay that also has its own site, isn't convinced.

"We think it hurts the sellers, while eBay benefits from the ad money," he said. "This is one of our fastest-growing concerns."

Major Internet hubs see lesser influence (AP)

2007-10-07T23:50:00.000-07:00

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer Sun Oct 7, 1:48 PM ET

NEW YORK - The recent rush by major Internet portals to buy advertising companies and extend their sales networks is a sign that the business of being a one-stop shop for information and entertainment isn't what it used to be.

Gone are the days of emphasizing ways to attract and keep visitors — the way television networks long have operated — by creating destinations with anything people might need for work, leisure or companionship.

Instead, those companies are now more aggressively trying to follow Web surfers elsewhere — and bring lucrative advertising to them.

As people increasingly turn to blogs, social-networking sites and other sources of user-generated media, Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL have spent more than $10 billion collectively this year to acquire companies and technologies that help extend their online advertising networks.

So instead of relying solely on being portals for consumers, the major companies are creating one-stop shops for advertisers, who are increasingly wanting to buy ads centrally and place them where the eyeballs are. The networks take care of feeding the ads to smaller sites.

"We're not interested in building yesterday's portal," said Ron Grant, AOL's president and chief operating officer. "Consumers are finding what they are looking for is coming from more and more fragmented places. We need a way for advertisers to take advantage of that fragmentation."

That shift is important for the major Internet businesses to grab a substantial share of the marketing dollars expected to flow at the expense of television and print.

For consumers, the development means greater freedom and a further erosion of artificial walls designed to keep visitors from leaving sites.

According to comScore Media Metrix, the U.S. audience for the four major Internet brands grew over the past year. But the total time spent at Yahoo and AOL dropped about 10 percent, while Microsoft's MSN-Windows Live services saw an 8 percent decline.

In other words, these sites are attracting more people but are keeping them for shorter durations as users find what they need elsewhere.

Google was the exception, with a 57 percent jump in total time spent, but even the company recognizes that "no individual property will have all those products and services" a user might want, said Tim Armstrong, Google's head of North American ad sales.

"The Internet is basically being built and scaling (faster) than any one property on the Internet is," Armstrong said. "Companies in the Internet space are changing their business models to have models which are consumer driven, not property driven."

That's not to say the major Internet destinations are ceding their own properties.

In a few cases, the large companies have bought wildly popular sites. Google spent about $1.76 billion last November to absorb the leading video-sharing site, YouTube. It also owns the blogging service Blogger, while Yahoo has the photo-sharing site Flickr.

They are also innovating. AOL revamped its video search site in August, while Yahoo retooled its core search engine this month to try to make it more engaging and lure back those who had defected to Google.

"Everyone still wants to be your home page. They are always going to battle for that," said Nick Nyhan, chief executive of market research firm Dynamic Logic. "But they have to think beyond that. Consumers aren't going to just take your stuff."

Google, Yahoo and AOL still make most of their ad money from sites they own and operate (Microsoft did not break down figures in its regulatory filings). Google and Yahoo even reported relative growth there in the second quarter.

Ad networks set the stage for the future and help the large Internet companies ensure they will have enough inventory to sell in the years ahead.

Ford Motor Co. can, for instance, come to Google and buy ads that run not only there but also at The New York Times' Web site and thousands of others within Google's AdSense network. Ford wouldn't have to deal with all those sites individually; third-party sites wouldn't have to expand their sales team.

Meanwhile, Google gets a cut of ad revenues — without spending a dime developing those specialty sites.

Although this concept isn't new, what is changing is the scale.

In agreeing to acquire DoubleClick Inc. for $3.1 billion, Google is looking for better ways to deliver multimedia display ads to supplement the small, text-based ads the company already does well.

The still-pending acquisition also extends Google's reach beyond AdSense to all the outside sites for which DoubleClick now distributes advertising.

Likewise, in buying Tacoda Inc., AOL not only gets Tacoda's technology for targeting ads, but also extends its reach to NBC Universal, Scripps Networks and the Times (sites can join multiple ad networks). AOL also has a network through its 2004 acquisition of Advertising.com and separately bought companies this year serving international markets and wireless devices.

Yahoo, meanwhile, paid about $650 million for the 80 percent of Right Media Inc. it did not already own and agreed to buy BlueLithium Inc. for $300 million. Microsoft bought aQuantive Inc. for $6 billion.

"It's not that networks are going to supplant these mass-market sites, but they will have less influence as networks have more," said David Hallerman, a senior analyst at the research group eMarketer, which projects U.S. online advertising spending at $44 billion in 2011, more than double the $17 billion last year.

The shift didn't happen overnight. Many factors are involved, including online hangouts like Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace commanding more of a user's time over the past few years. Web sites big and small are making features available, through tools called widgets, for viewing directly at those sites.

Of course, the major brands would still prefer visitors going to them directly, as they wouldn't have to share ad revenues with another site.

But as audiences disperse, advertisers have become reluctant to concentrate their spending at a traditional portal.

Besides standardization, efficiency and diversity, advertisers get better targeting with networks. Say you are trying to reach Seattle natives with a propensity to fly to the remote Arctic island of Svalbard. On a portal you might find 10. On a network 100 times larger, you'd find 1,000 without changing your campaign.

There are drawbacks, though.

U.S. and European regulators are reviewing Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick. Critics complain Google would have too much control over online advertising and personal information collected on users.

And despite the efficiencies, consolidation could hamper flexibility, said Jason Turner, vice president for interactive at advertising agency Ignited.

"When there were four television networks, you were beholden to those four, (who could say), `Here are the rules. This is what it's going to cost and if you don't like it you're not going to get on TV,'" Turner said.

Nonetheless, ad networks are here to stay.

"Advertisers are going to need to start to use the Internet the way people always use the Internet, spreading out in hot pursuit of the things they need and want," said Jarvis Coffin, chief executive of Burst Media Corp., an independent ad network. "It's much easier to fish where the fish are."

T-Shirt Helps Find Hotspots (PC World)

2007-10-07T23:48:00.000-07:00

Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service Sun Oct 7, 4:00 PM ET

With at least one municipal Wi-Fi project being proposed or abandoned seemingly every day, and big carriers such as BT Group PLC turning to their subscribers' Wi-Fi routers to make Wi-Fi available, it's hard to know exactly where you can get online these days. But a T-shirt going on sale late this month could solve that problem for you and everyone around you.

The Wi-Fi Detector Shirt, which the online store ThinkGeek Inc. will sell for US$29.99, has glowing bars on the front that light up in waves when there's an IEEE 802.11b or 802.11g network in range. As with a network strength indicator on a cell phone or PC, more bars light up as the signal gets stronger. A cartoon of a classic radio tower and the simple expression "802.11" say it all for people who are looking for this kind of thing. ThinkGeek employee Ty Liotta developed the shirt, which is only available in black.

Until Power Over Ethernet (IEEE 802.3af, but you knew that) goes wireless, a glowing, network-detecting T-shirt still needs batteries. The three AAA cells for this one are concealed in a pocket sewn inside the shirt, according to ThinkGeek. When it's time to wash the shirt, you can take them out and then peel off the glowing decal, which is attached to the shirt with hook-and-loop fasteners. A ribbon cable concealed inside the shirt links the batteries to the decal, and it can go through the wash-- as long as you hang dry the shirt.

One thing the shirt can't tell is whether the network in range is open or encrypted. It also can't detect the very latest certified Wi-Fi technology, 802.11n Draft 2.0, which is several times faster than 802.11b and 802.11g networks. There aren't enough of 802.11n networks yet, explained Jennifer Kuropkat, a spokeswoman for ThinkGeek, in Fairfax, Virginia.

BT on Thursday became the latest service provider to let ordinary home broadband users share a portion of their Internet connections with the public using software from Fon Technology SL and a Wi-Fi router. The carrier hopes users of the free service will flood suburban streets all over the U.K. with wireless Internet signals. However, Wi-Fi is invisible to the naked eye.

Asked whether the Wi-Fi Detector Shirt will solve a critical problem for users, Gartner Inc. analyst Ken Dulaney said, "Probably for a very few people in the world, yes."

Online Ads: Slowing but Still Growing

2007-10-07T23:45:00.000-07:00

Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service Sun Oct 7, 7:00 PM ET

The growth in online ad spending on U.S. Web sites slowed in the first half of 2007, compared with the same period last year, but the market is still experiencing a boom, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Ad spending hit almost US$10 billion in the first half of 2007, up 26.4 percent from the same period in 2006, and featured the first ever quarterly revenue of over $5 billion, the IAB said Thursday.

"We have every reason to believe, based on torrid sequential growth quarter after quarter, and year after year, that robust growth will continue," said David Doty, an IAB senior vice president.

Growth slowed compared with last year's first half, when spending increased 37 percent over 2005's first half. However, that is mainly due to the fact that spending this year is so much higher than last year, Doty said.

"The growth is on a much larger number. Both quarters and the half year are historic highs in pure dollar amounts," Doty said. "The results are very encouraging."

In the second quarter, revenue reached almost $5.1 billion. "Advertisers understand that they need to move their dollars here [to the Internet] to reach their audiences," he said.

Once again, the search ad format was the largest one, nabbing 41 percent of the spending during the first half, followed by the display format (32 percent), which includes types like video and banners.

Regarding pricing models, performance deals, such as pay per click, accounted for 50 percent of the first half's spending, while impressions accounted for 45 percent. The rest were hybrid deals involving both pricing models.

Interpol in rare global appeal for Web pedophile

2007-10-07T23:42:00.000-07:00

By Mark Trevelyan Sun Oct 7, 8:10 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Interpol on Monday launched an unprecedented worldwide public appeal to track down a man shown sexually abusing children in images posted on the Internet.

The man appears in around 200 photographs featuring abuse of 12 young boys, which investigators believe were taken in Vietnam and Cambodia, possibly in 2002 and 2003.

Reuters Photo: An undated handout photo of an unidentified man is issued by Interpol, October 7, 2007....

The pictures had been digitally altered to disguise the man's face with a swirly pattern, but computer specialists at Germany's federal police agency, the BKA, worked with Interpol's human trafficking team to produce identifiable images.

The global police body said it was making the unique public appeal because, despite extensive efforts through its network of 186 member states, the man remained unknown.

"For years, images of this man sexually abusing children have been circulating on the Internet," Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said.

"We have tried all other means to identify and to bring him to justice, but we are now convinced that without the public's help this sexual predator could continue to rape and sexually abuse young children whose ages appear to range from six to early teens."

Photographs of the man are available on Interpol's Web site, www.interpol.int and anyone with information on him is urged to contact their local police or Interpol's human trafficking unit.

Anders Persson, a Swedish police officer seconded to the unit, told Reuters the dark-haired man in the photos was thought to be a European aged around 35-40.

He said a child abuser seeking contact with like-minded individuals on the Internet would sometimes post pictures of himself in the act of abuse as a kind of "ID card" to prove he is a genuine hard-core pedophile.

The inquiry began when the first pictures of the man were found by German police in 2004. A link to a Vietnamese hotel emerged from advertising material seen on a bedside table in some of the pictures, Persson said. But checks against passport photos of people on the hotel's guest list drew a blank.

Other photos were taken at outdoor locations in Cambodia that were recognized by police there.

Interpol runs a huge database of images of child sex abuse and uses sophisticated software to find connections between them, even analyzing tiny details like wallpaper and fabric patterns in apparently anonymous indoor settings.

Now containing more than 520,000 images submitted by 36 member states, the database has helped police identify and rescue nearly 600 victims from 31 countries to date.

Turkish hackers target Swedish Web sites (AP)

2007-10-07T23:39:00.000-07:00

By MALIN RISING, Associated Press Writer
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Hackers in Turkey have attacked more than 5,000 Swedish Web sites in the past week, and at least some of the sabotage appears linked to Muslim anger over a Swedish newspaper drawing that depicted the Prophet Muhammad's head on a dog's body.

Around 1,600 Web sites hosted by server-provider Proinet and 3,800 sites hosted by another company have been targeted, Proinet spokesman Kjetil Jensen said Sunday. Jensen said hackers, operating on a Turkish network, at times replaced files on the sites with messages.

According to Swedish news agency TT, the Web site of a children's cartoon called Bamse was replaced by a message saying Islam's prophet had been insulted.

The incidents have been reported to the police.

Islamic law is generally interpreted to forbid any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry. Dogs also are considered unclean by conservative Muslims.

The Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published the drawing by artist Lars Vilks in an Aug. 19 editorial. It triggered protests from Swedish Muslim groups and formal complaints from Muslim countries, including Pakistan and Iran. An insurgent leader in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, put a $100,000 bounty on Vilks' head.

Similar caricatures of the prophet, first published in 2005 by a Danish newspaper and reprinted in other European newspapers, triggered furious street protests in Muslim countries.

Stefan Grinneby, head of the Swedish communication watchdog's Internet incident center Sitic, said attacks against Swedish Web sites from Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, have increased in the past three weeks. Some contained messages alluding to the drawing.

"You would need a very large police investigation to establish the connection to the prophet drawings, but considering the increase in recent weeks it is a fair assumption to make," he said.

Vilks said recently that he has no regrets about his portrayal of Muhammad, despite receiving death threats. He said Muslims living in the West would have to get used to disrespectful drawings of their religious symbols, "because here in the West we mock everything."

He also said he may convert the dispute into a musical, with prominent roles depicting Iran's president, Sweden's prime minister and al-Qaida terrorists.

New prototype phone gives fitness check

2007-10-07T23:34:00.000-07:00

By HIROKO TABUCHI, Associated Press Writer Sat Oct 6, 7:17 AM ET

CHIBA, Japan - It can take your pulse, check your body fat, time your jogs and tell you if you have bad breath. It even assesses stress levels and inspires you with a pep talk. Meet your new personal trainer: your cell phone.

The prototype Wellness mobile phone from Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. targets users with busy lives who want a hassle-free way of keeping track of their health, according to company spokesman Noriaki Tobita.

The phone, unveiled this week at the CEATEC electronics show outside Tokyo, has an inbuilt motion sensor that detects body movement and calculates how many calories you burn.

The sensor can tell whether you're walking, running, climbing stairs, or resting, and counts the calories accordingly to tally daily totals, Tobita said.

"It's with you wherever you go, like a portable personal trainer," he said.

Like Nike Inc.'s +Nike technology, the handset also keeps track of jogs, letting users set targets and keeping track of time, distance, and calories burnt — all while listening to music through headphones.

Hold the phone with outstretched arms, and it turns into a mini body fat calculator. A sensor at the top of the phone takes your pulse from your fingertip.

Worried about bad breath? Use the phone's breathalyzer. After Tobita blew on a tiny hole on the side of the handset for about three seconds, the screen flashed, "Not too bad."

The Wellness phone, developed by NTT DoCoMo and Mitsubishi Electric Corp., also asks questions to assesses stress levels and offers advice.

When the busy spokesman answered "Yes" to a series of questions — including "Do you feel lethargic?" and "Do you go to bed after midnight?" — a message appeared on the screen warning he was under a lot of stress.

"Don't worry, tomorrow's a fresh new day," the phone then flashed. "Keep your chin up!"

NTT DoCoMo is still testing some of the phone's other technology, including a function to keep track of meals and calculate calorific intake, as well as a networking capacity to let users share data, Tobita said.

Japan has some of the world's most advanced cell phones, enabling users to surf the Web, check in at airports and play motion games.

DoCoMo has not set a release date or price for the Wellness phone. The Tokyo-based company's phones are not sold overseas.

Dell Vostro 1400

2007-09-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

Submitted by Jason on Monday, August 06, 2007


Manufacturer:	Dell
Model:	Dell Vostro 1400
Screen Size:	14.1 inches
Weight:	5.4 lbs
Processor Options:	Core 2 Duo
Graphics Options:	nVidia Go 8400m (Dedicated)
Description:	The Vostro 1400 packs power into a stylish, thin and light system and gives the frequent traveler extensive technology options including enhanced wireless connectivity, exceptional durability, great service options and a 14-inch widescreen display.

by Jason K.

The Dell Vostro 1400 is a 14.1" screen business notebook recently released. Dell is targeting small business buyers with the Vostro line of notebooks, but given the sturdy build, excellent price and option for installing Windows XP and less bloatware, models such as the Vostro 1400 might appeal to consumers as well.

Specifications:

Core 2 Duo T5470 (1.6Ghz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
14.1” Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife
1GB DDR2 667Mhz
128MB Nvidia Geforce 8400GS
120GB 5400RPM SATA
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
8x CD/DVD Burner w/ double layer DVD+ write capability
Integrated High Definition Audtio
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini Card
Integrated 2.0 mega pixel web camera
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)
1 Year Limited Hardware Warranty with Mail-in Service

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Reasons for Buying:

Ever since selling my XPS M140, I have been keeping my eyes open for another notebook deal. For a while, I was seriously considering the Asus W3j, but I just couldn’t justify the high price. Instead, I bought a desktop to hold me over.

I wanted a notebook that was portable and had good battery life (4 hours or more was my goal). I also wanted something in the $600-$800 range. I wanted my future notebook to have a 12-14” widescreen display, have discreet graphics, have a built in webcam and microphone. The Vostro 1400 met all of my needs and at a great price!

Shopping

I had my eyes on the Vostro 1400 ever since the day of release and before that. On the day of release I was playing around with different configurations, all which came out to be around $850-$900. The next day to my amazement I saw that it had dropped down to $700 for the configuration that I wanted. I ended up ordering the notebook for $700+ tax.

Between ordering and delivery it took about two weeks for me to get my notebook. I selected shipping via DHL 3-5 days, but it took only about 24hrs to get to me!

First Impressions

The Vostro 1400 came nicely packed in a brown Dell box. As I opened it up, the power supply CD’s and some instructions were revealed. Underneath that was the notebook itself. It was surrounded by 1" thick styrofoam.

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Construction:

I pulled the notebook out of the Styrofoam and examined it very carefully. The looks and everything exceeded my expectations. Though one thing I did notice right away was that the battery didn’t snap in very well. It rattled a little bit after being inserted and was not a snug fit, but it’s something I have seen in other notebooks as well. I found a simple, but inelegant solution to the problem. A small wedge of paper between the notebook and the battery solved the problem and was not visible, unless removing the battery was necessary.

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Everything else on the notebook felt very sturdy. The build quality greatly exceeds the Inspiron e1405 (Dell’s previous 14” notebook). There is little to no keyboard flex. There is very little screen flex. The screen and hinges feel especially sturdy. The notebook’s lid closes very nicely. Unlike previous Inspiron notebooks, the Vostro 1400 has no latch, which is very nice for easy one hand opening and closing.

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Ports and layout:

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The picture above shows the front microphone input and headphone outputs. On the left is the 9in1 card reader.

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The picture above shows the Optical drive, s-video out, two USB 2.0 ports, and an RGB output.

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The picture above shows the kensignton lock slot, the AC input, a heatsink, an IEE 1394 firewire port, two USB 2.0 ports, and an express card slot.

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The picture above shows several blue activity LED’s, the 9in1 card slot, and wi-fi catcher button.

Keyboard:

The keyboard is a typical Inspiron keyboard. It feels just like the e1405. I personally am not super picky about the keyboard. Although it is not a high-quality Thinkpad keyboard, it still is very comfortable to use, and is relatively quiet (good for taking to class).

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Touchpad:

The touchpad is very similar to the Inspiron e1405, it is dark grey in color. The touchpad is easy to use and I haven’t had any problems with it. I still prefer an external mouse if I’m using the notebook for extended periods of time.

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Screen:

I selected the Vostro 1400 with a 1,280 x 1,024 WXGA display with TrueLife. I love the display. The colors are very bright, images and text are crisp, and it provides quite a bit of contrast. There is minor light leakage around the edges.

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The viewing angles on the Vostro 1400 are good from left to right. But if you look from the top, the screen looks dark and it is hard to make out anything. The backlight is very bright.

Webcam:

Built into the trim of the screen, I selected the 2MP webcam (a $30 upgrade at the time of this review). The webcam is more than worth the money. It does exceptionally well at taking pictures of close up objects and people. When taking pictures of landscapes, it doesn’t do as well. The camera can capture at resolutions up to 3200x2400. However, there isn’t much point of capturing pictures at this resolution as the quality is about the same as at 1600x1200.

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Here are some sample pictures I took:

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As far as video recording goes, the 2MP camera can record up to 1600x1200 resolution at very low FPS however (Around 2-3FPS). Video quality at this resolution is quite blurry when there is movement. The video does reasonably well at 640x480, and very well at 320x240. When using the webcam over an instant messaging client, you can select for the camera to use face tracking. With face tracking it will actually zoom into your face and pan in and out as you move.

The webcam also features a blue LED indicator light, that tells you when your webcam is active.

Sound:

The Vostro 1400 has two tiny speakers on the left and right side above the keyboard. They appear to be quite a bit smaller than the previous Insprion e1405 speakers. For their size they really do quite well, and on max volume get loud enough to easily fill a small to medium room. The quality of the speakers is just average. The volume these speakers put out is more than enough for one to enjoy a game or a DVD.

Microphone:

The Vostro 1400 comes with two digital microphones which are located in the top trim of the screen, on both the left and right side of the webcam. Both microphones capture audio very well. This is great for skype or other VOIP applications.

Operating System:

I selected the Vostro 1400 with Microsoft Vista Home Basic. I have never used Vista much besides the Beta versions. There are some really great features that I like a lot in Vista. But some of the features in Xp that I am used to have seemed to disappear or are harder to find. It will take some time to get used to, but it sure is a nice looking interface.

Software:

Dell finally started listening to their customers as far as software goes. You have the option to select if you want various Dell utilities installed on your computer. Dell also gives you the option to select or not to select trial software and other freebies.

I said no to all of the freebies and trial software. I did go ahead and opt for installing a couple of Dell utilities. Even though I didn’t select much, the computer booted up and was running about 60 processes! In the past when I have purchased a Dell notebook, the first thing I always did, and advised others to do, was to reformat. Dell would just install so much junk that it made a new computer seem slow. Out of the box, the machine booted up in about 35 seconds. After adjusting the startup processes using Microsoft’s “msconfig” utility I was able to shave that number down to about 30.

Benchmarks and Performance

I ran Super Pi to 2 Million digits of accuracy and got 1m 10 seconds as a result. That’s nothing super fast, but it's not bad for a budget processor.

Super Pi comparison results:

Notebook	Time
Dell Vostro (1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5470)	1m 10s
Fujitsu E8410 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500)	0m 55s
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 58s
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	1m 01s
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
HP dv2500t (1.80GHz Intel 7100)	1m 09s
Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T7300)	0m 59s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo T7200)	1m 03s
Toshiba Satellite P205-S6287 (1.73 GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T5300)	1m 24s
Toshiba Satellite A205 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 34s

PCMark05 comparison results:

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Dell Vostro 1400 (1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5470, NVidia 8400m GS)	3,853 PCMarks
Fujitsu E8410 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA 8400M)	4,618 PCMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,377 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,591 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks

With stock drivers, out of the box, the notebook scored 2,942 on 3DMark05

3DMark05 comparison results:

Notebook	3D Mark 05 Results
Dell Vostro 1400 (1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5470, NVidia 8400m GS)	2,942 3DMarks
Dell Latitude D830 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Nvidia Quadro NVS 140m 256MB)	3,063 3DMarks
Fujitsu E8410 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA 8400M)	1,925 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	910 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	3,116 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6510b (2.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, Intel X3100)	916 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	2,013 3D Marks
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	1,791 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4,236 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,092 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,273 3DMarks

HDtune:

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Heat and Noise:

The Vostro 1400 is very quiet. The fan stays off unless I start playing a game or run some other demanding application on it. It puts out a little bit of heat out from the left side of the notebook, but for the most part it runs cool and I can’t feel any heat coming out.

Battery Life:

I ran a battery benchmark application that maxed out the CPU to 100% load and put the sytem under a lot of stress, including the graphics card as it rendered 3D graphics. The notebook kept going for 2 hours 24minutes, until it shut down with 3% battery life to spare. This would be the worst case scenario. I can’t imagine ever getting under 3 hours with the 9 cell battery.

Dell claims that the Vostro 1400 can get up to 8hrs. So far the longest I have seen is 6.5hrs.

The battery is an 11.1 Volt, 9 cell 85Wh Li-ion battery. The battery cells were made in Japan. Similar to previous batteries, there is a battery tester right on the battery showing you how much of a charge it has. Right under the battery, I was surprised to find a SIM card reader. I didn’t pay extra for it, and don’t think it is active, but there might be a way to enable it.

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Service and Support:

The day after I purchased the notebook, the price dropped by $50! So Immediately I went to the Dell small business site, and tried to chat with someone from Dell small business. I was connected with a guy from Dell home, who was unable to help me request a $50 refund, or to help me cancel my order and re-order. He just gave me Dell small businesses’ number and told me that they only work Monday-Friday. So, I was unable to contact them. I eventually decided just to write Dell an email asking for $50 credit back.

The next day I was surprised to receive a response, I thought Dell Small Business only worked Money-Friday? In the email, the rep told me that he would issue me a $50 refund after the notebook had shipped. I agreed and waited. A few days after I received the notebook, I got my $50 refund, which dropped the price down to $650+ tax! (I also used fatwallet to save an additional 1.5% or $10)

What I have concluded from this and previous experiences with Dell is that, they are really hard to get a hold of usually. You will usually have to play the Dell “game” of phone tag, or wait online from a rep and chat with them. It usually takes a few tries to get a hold of someone with the authority to address most problems. Once you do get a hold of them, they are usually quite responsive and help you with the problem right away! In the past, I have had Hard drive replacements and optical drive replacements sent next day air by Dell, and arrive the next day!

Conclusion:

The Dell Vostro 1400 is an excellent choice for the price! It offers a wide variety of special features, including a webcam (optional), microphone, discreet graphics card (optional). It also provides impressive battery life for its size and price. The notebook is very business looking and has some tough features which include: a magnesium alloy chassis, spill proof keyboard, and shock resistant hard drive.

Pros:

Excellent Price!
Impressive build quality
Optional Webcam and dedicated Graphics
Great battery life, especially with the 9 cell battery.
Great looking screen, bright and crisp

Cons:

Battery didn’t snap in as tight as it should.
Notebook lid easily smudges and shows your fingerprints
Dell’s always hard to get a hold of

Dell Inspiron 6400

2007-09-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

Submitted by abaxter on Wednesday, August 30, 2006


Manufacturer:	Dell
Model:	Dell Inspiron 6400
Screen Size:	15.4 inches
Weight:	6 lbs
Processor Options:	Core Duo, Core 2 Duo
Graphics Options:	Integrated
Description:	The Dell Inspiron 6400 is a 15.4" screen notebook with the latest Intel processors. Buyers seeking a versatile solution with a larger display for mainstream multimedia and productivity tasks should choose this notebook.

by Andrew Baxter

The Dell Inspiron e1505 is a 15.4" widescreen notebook now available with the impressive Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The Inspiron 6400 is available through the Dell Business site and is the same as the e1505. The e1505 is a well rounded mainstream notebook, highly customizable and available at a competitive price. Now that it comes with the Core 2 Duo at similar prices to the original Core Duo you'll be getting even more value for your dollar.

Dell Inspiron e1505 (view large image)

The e1505 reviewed here is configured as follows:

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7200 at 2.0 GHz per core.
15.4" Ultrasharp WSXGA+ display with TrueLife
1GB DDR2 667MHz RAM in dual channel mode
ATI X1400 256MB graphics card
120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X DVD +/- dual layer recorder
9-cell lithium-ion battery
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
Dell Wireless 1500 (802.11n)

Build and Design

The Inspiron e1505 matches much of the Dell lineup clad in painted silver with white trim on top and a black underside. The color scheme is simple and there's nothing to rave or rant about honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the white trim "bumpers" though.

The notebook is sturdy enough to feel comfortable lifting it by one corner. It's not rugged or as well built as many business laptops, such as a ThinkPad or Dell's own Latitude line -- the screen latch is plastic as opposed to metal on a Latitude for instance. But the e1505 is not flimsy by any means, the only real flex I could find on the casing was at the top just above the keyboard.

Left side view of e1505 open (view large image)

The back of the screen is plastic, but very sturdy and a hard push won't make ripples appear. The hinges seem sturdy and well damped. As mentioned before, the screen latch is plastic, but I'd rather have a plastic latch than the magnetic opening mechanism that some manufacturers are using -- they're so invariably hard to open.

Screen

The screen on this e1505 is the WSXGA+ (1680x1050) Ultrasharp with TrueLife (glossy). The Ultrasharp screen is listed at having significantly higher viewing angle, higher resolution, and slightly higher brightness. Overall the screen is very sharp with nice saturated colors and high contrast. Brightness is excellent, next to my everyday ThinkPad T43 it certainly stands out as being much better. There is some light leakage near the bottom of the screen, but nothing major. The backlight in use must be quite strong because I can actually feel quite a bit of heat coming from the bottom of the screen. You could bump the brightness down (using Fn + Arrow Down) to level four of seven and still have very comfortable viewing.

Speakers

The speaker performance of the e1505 is fine. In the world of notebooks, they are quite good even. Of course there is no bass but they seem to play low enough to make voices sound natural. They also play loud, for a notebook, without distortion. They point forward, and project the sound into a room so several people could easily watch a movie.

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor and Performance / Benchmarks

The Core 2 Duo is fast, no doubt about it. It appears to be about 10% faster than the proceeding Core Duo. That's probably not enough benefit to rush out and get a new processor if you already have Core Duo, but if you're using a Pentium M machine the extra performance and 64-bit capabilities of the Core 2 Duo might tempt you to upgrade sooner or later.

The Core 2 Duo processor in the e1505 is the T7200 that runs at 2.00GHz. For the sake of comparison I'll use a ThinkPad T43 using a Pentium M 760 that also runs at 2.00GHz. Below are the laptops relevant stats that are being compared:

Dell Inspiron e1505 relevant stats

Intel Core 2 Duo T7200

2.0GHz
Dual Core
32-bit or 64-bit support
Front Side Bus: 667 MHz
L2 Cache 4MB

ATI X1400 256MB graphics card
120GB 5400 RPM HD

IBM ThinkPad T43 relevant stats

Intel Pentium M 760

2.0GHz
Single Core
32-bit support
Front Side Bus: 533 MHz
L2 Cache 2MB

ATI X300 128MB graphics card
80GB 5400 RPM HD

PCMark05 CPU Test Suite Detailed Results

Test	Dell e1505 Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz	ThinkPad T43 Pentium M 2.0GHz
File Compression	8.93 MB/s	8.47 MB/s
File Decompression	132.11 MB/s	111.28 MB/s
File Encryption	54.94 MB/s	48.43 MB/s
File Decryption	55.19 MB/s	48.12 MB/s
Image Decompression	28.31 MPixels/s	23.06 MPixels/s
Audio Compression	2,546.99 MPixels/s	2,034.17 KB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Compression	8.9 MB/s	4.36 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Encryption	53.71 MB/s	24.16 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / File Decompression	65.7 MB/s	28.67 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / File Decryption	27.29 MB/s	12.02 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Audio Decompression	1023.78 KB/s	425.93 KB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Decompression	14.16 MPixels/s	5.91 MPixels/s

Not surprisingly, notice that when we start dealing with Multithreaded benchmark tests (highlighted in aqua) the Core 2 Duo trounces the Pentium M. In the single core CPU tests we see about 10% performance boost from the Core 2 Duo. In Multithreaded tests it's a 100%+ performance increase in every case.

3DMark05 Overall CPU Results

Test	Dell e1505 Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, ATI X1400 256MB	ThinkPad T43 Pentium M 2.0GHz, ATI X300 128MB
Return to Proxycon Graphic Test	9.2 frames per second	4.3 frames per second
Firefly Forest Graphic Test	6.3 frames per second	2.5 frames per second
Canyon Flight Graphic Test	8.3 frames per second	4.4 frames per second
CPU Test 1	3.1 frames per second	1.7 frames per second
CPU Test 2	4.8 frames per second	2.7 frames per second
3D Mark Score	1,958	907
CPU Score	5,753	3,155

To factor out the fact the e1505 has a better graphics card, we should deemphasize the graphics tests and look more closely at the CPU related scores. In the CPU Test 1, CPU Test 2 and overall CPU Score we can see performance increase is about 75% in regards to the processor performance for 3DMark05.

Screenshot of final 3DMark Score for e1505 (view large image)

SiSoft Sandra 2007 CPU Results

SiSoftware Sandra is an information and diagnostic utility, and can be used to benchmark your PC. We used two different benchmarks from Sandra 2007 -- the Processor Arithmetic and Processor Multi-Media tests. Only parts of the benchmarks that were comparable and use SSE2 instructions were used (the Core 2 Duo can support SSE4 while the Pentium M does not).

Test	Dell e1505 Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz	ThinkPad T43 Pentium M 2.0GHz
Processor Arithmetic Dhrystone ALU	18,150 MIPS	6,366 MIPS
Processor Multimedia Float x4 iSSE2	58,852 it/s	20,561it/s

The Core 2 Duo floating point operation dominance is quite clear in these numbers.

Screenshot of processor arithmetic results for e1505 Core 2 Duo(view large image)

Cinebench CPU Results

Cinebench is a good rendering benchmark tool based on the powerful 3D software, CINEMA 4D. Its rendering tasks can stress up to sixteen multiprocessors on the same computer. It is a free benchmarking tool, and can be found here: http://www.cinebench.com. The basic CPU test provided the following results:

Test	Dell e1505 Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz	ThinkPad T43 Pentium M 2.0GHz
Single Core rendering mode	325 CB-CPU points	222 CB-CPU points
Dual Core rendering mode	592 CB-CPU points	not available

In single core mode the Core 2 Duo wins quite handily, in dual core mode utilizing both processor cores to render an image, the Core 2 Duo almost twice laps the Pentium M.

Screenshot of Cinebench benchmark results for e1505 (view large image)

Super Pi Results

And we won't forget our perennial favorite benchmark, calculating Pi to a few million digits of accuracy. Our usual calculation to 2 million digits shows the Core 2 Duo to be 42 seconds faster in calculating Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy than the competing Pentium M 2.0 GHz processor.

Pi Calculation Test	Dell e1505 Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz	ThinkPad T43 Pentium M 2.0GHz
32K digits	0s	0s
64K digits	1s	1s
256K digits	05s	08s
512K digits	11s	18s
1M digits	25s	45s
2M digits	1m 02s	1m 44s
4M digits	2m 23s	3m 55s

Dell e1505 Core 2 Duo Super Pi Results

ThinkPad T43 Pentium M Super Pi Results

Noise:

The Dell e1505 is commendably quiet -- most of the time. Even while watching a DVD, the fan remained off. The hard drive makes a subdued, but noticeable hum.

Only under heavier tasks does the fan come on. It has three speeds. The lowest is very quiet, and more of a pleasing low pitched hum than an annoying whine. Running benchmarks (which can cause sustained full processor usage, something most programs rarely do) will often cause the fan to quickly bypass first and kick into second and then third gear. It seems that when the fan starts, the CPU continues to warm for a few moments while the cooling begins to take effect, triggering a higher fan speed that is not really necessary. After a while it will slow back down and stay there. If the fan is already running at a lower speed when the benchmark starts, it usually won't speed up. After 10 minutes of simultaneous 3DMark05 and Super Pi, the fan did go from the lowest to the middle speed.

Heat:

After about two hours of DVD watching, both sides of the palm rest became warm, but never got hot. The keyboard and area under the screen generated more heat. The underside of the notebook was also slightly warm at the front and warmer, but not hot at the rear. As with all notebooks, heat is more of an issue when used on an insulating/air-restricting lap. Overall the e1505 can be commended for keeping its cool.

In terms of processor heat, the Core 2 Duo actually stayed much cooler than the Pentium M in my T43. The e1505 T7200 processor idle temperature was about 35 C, after running Super Pi it went up to 42 C, and the hottest I saw it get was 46 C (temperatures were taken using Notebook Hardware Control). The Pentium M in my T43 hit 56 C after running Super Pi to 2 million digits. Cooling and heat dissipation in the e1505 is easier since it's a thicker notebook though, a lot of the heat buildup is as much a factor of the overall hardware design and cooling system as the processor itself. Thin and light laptops with a Core 2 Duo will obviously run warmer as they're notoriously harder to keep cool.

Battery:

With the 9-cell battery and a powerful new processor the Dell e1505 lasted longer than expected. At maximum brightness, it played a DVD for 3 hours and 12 minutes. With normal light tasks such as wi-fi on and the screen dimmed to half, I was able to eek out just over 4 hours of battery life. The 9-cell is a greater capacity than the standard 6-cell, but this type of battery life in a 15.4" screen notebook is excellent, so I highly recommend the 9-cell if you can afford it. The 9-cell battery is flushed with the back of the notebook and does not stick out.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

Dell Inspiron keyboard and touchpad view (view large image)

The keyboard has good tactile feel and is firm -- there's no mushiness to it. The touch is light which allows for fast typing -- but contrarily provides easy chance to mistype if you're not accurate. There is almost no flex, except at the very rear where the whole notebook casing flexes in when pushed hard.

The touchpad is slightly recessed so it's hard to accidentally touch. There is a vertical and horizontal scroll area. The two mouse buttons respond well. I miss having a pointing stick like I do on a ThinkPad, but such an input device is the realm of business notebooks and not consumer.

Ports:

The E1505 contains the standard array of newer, non-legacy ports. The four USB 2.0 ports are split between the rear and right side of the notebook, which is much better than all in one place. There is no old parallel printer port or serial ports. Sadly, the e1505 lacks the DVI port of its big brother the e1705, although the external VGA connection is capable of driving a big 24" LCD with 1920x1200 resolution.

Dell Inspiron e1505 left side view with optical drive (view large image)

Right side view of e1505: ExpressCard slot, SD card reader, microphone jack, headphone jack, 2 USB 2.0 ports, FireWire port (view large image)

Dell Inspiron e1505 back side view: Power jack, modem jack, ethernet jack, 2 USB 2.0 ports, S-Video port, VGA monitor out (view large image)

Dell Inspiron e1505 front side view: Multimedia buttons, speakers (view large image)

Wireless:

The Dell wireless e1505 under review came with the new Dell 1500 802.11n card. 802.11n is a new wireless range that is an improvement on current 802.11 technologies (such as 802.11b and 802.11g). The faster speeds and increased range of 802.11n are enabled by a sophisticated antenna system that manages the transmission and receipt of multiple simultaneous data streams (Multi-Input, Multi-Output or MIMO). Dell is using the Broadcom Intensi-fi implementation of 802.11n as their guaranteed compliance implementation. Wireless routers, such as the Netgear WNR834B RangeMax router that Dell provided me with for testing, are already available that support the Intensi-Fi 802.11n implementation.

Netgear draft-802.11n wireless router with Intensi-fi compliance (view large image)

Buying Choices for the Netgear WNR834B RangeMax Next Router

view detailed pricing from 25 stores starting at $83.00

I don't have much use for exchanging files fast over a home network, I just don't transfer large files wirelessly between PCs or other devices that often. For those that work with multiple computers networked wirelessly, 802.11n is the way to go for improving throughput and sharing files though.

What I do have use for is the longer range offering of 802.11n! I just so happen to live on the top floor of an apartment building and have access to the roof on which I'll sometimes sit and lounge to watch the world go by. With my 802.11g router I'm not able to detect my wireless from the part of the roof I'll sit on. With the 802.11n I can -- what a treat to surf outside on Wi-Fi! Well, if the sun isn't too direct and bright thus washing out the screen that is. I'd estimate I can get good range and download speeds on the 802.11n up to about 150 feet away, while on the 802.11g I'm limited to about 100 feet. This will make a big difference for those in a house that really want strong Wi-Fi coverage throughout. 802.11n is definitely the way to go to make sure all the kids can get a wireless signal in their bedroom. Make sure you get the right 802.11n router to work with your 802.11n card though.

If you opt for an 802.11n Dell 1500 card it will still work with 802.11 a/b/g wireless routers as well so your flexibility and future proofing is maximized.

Operating System and Software:

Dell includes "Media Direct" software that can be accessed without booting into Windows. Media Direct allows you to play DVDs, access and play music files from the disk or simply to view images on your hard drive. The advantage is very fast startup time if you don't need full-fledged Windows. This is a nice to have.

On the desktop and system tray there is a fair amount of bloatware -- junk that many people won't use. Dell did install Google Desktop, which can be useful. It finds files on your computer far faster than a Windows search does, and includes other useful features. One day, Google will rule the world. Overall though, I'd prefer to do without 90% of the preinstalled stuff. Oh well, it indirectly keeps costs down for Dell to include this software so we can't have our cheap laptop and eat cake too I guess.

Conclusion:

The Dell Inspiron e1505 with Core 2 Duo and X1400 graphics card is a great performer for the price. If you can utilize this notebooks dual core capabilities for applications such as Photoshop and other rendering software, or if you do lots of multitaskng and gaming, then the Core 2 Duo offers a big advantage over the 2-generation old Pentium M. If your only concern is how fast Internet Explorer opens when clicked, then you'll notice little if any performance advantage because the Pentium M could already do that just fine. At the end of the day, the greatest thing is that Dell is offering the faster Core 2 Duo e1505 but charging about the same price we saw on yesterday's notebook configurations -- and who can argue with paying the same but getting more?

Pros:

Top-Notch computing performance with the Core 2 Duo, great for multi-taskers
Very respectable battery life
Quiet under normal use
Mostly cool running
Good keyboard
802.11n wireless offering

Cons:

Not much of a looker in terms of design
No non-glossy option for high resolution or expanded viewing angle
Some annoying pre-installed software (AOL, NetZero, MusicMatch etc.)
No DVI port

Pricing and Availability:

The Dell Inspiron e1505 is available from Dell.com and price varies depending on configuration. You can also buy the Inspiron 6400 from the Dell business site which is virtually the same as the e1505.

Lenovo (IBM) ThinkPad T60

2007-09-30T22:08:00.000-07:00


Manufacturer:	Lenovo (IBM)
Model:	Lenovo ThinkPad T60 2007 - Core Duo T2400 1.83 GHz - 14.1
Screen Size:	14.1,15.4 inches
Weight:	5.6 lbs
Processor Options:	Core Duo
Graphics Options:	ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (Dedicated)
Description:	The Lenovo ThinkPad T60 can be configured with a 14-inch or 15-inch screen in varying resolutions. The T60 feature a Core Duo processor and can be configured with an ATI X1400 graphics card. The T60 is the upgrade to the popular T43 laptop. The T60 weighs 5.4 lbs with the 14-inch screen and 6.4lbs with a 15-inch screen.
Specs:	5.3 lbs, Intel Core Duo (1.83 GHz) , 512 MB DDR II SDRAM , 14.1 in TFT active matrix , Microsoft Windows XP Professional

by Alex Chiu

Introduction

Thinkpads. They are the Hummers of business laptops. Only until recently did the Thinkpad name come from IBM. In 2004 Lenovo, one of China's biggest PC makers, took ownership of IBM's "Think" PC division, including the ThinkCenter and ThinkPad business. Ever since then, Lenovo has been changing the existing lines while also introducing their own. They have still maintained to keep IBM's level of quality, performance, and ruggedness to maintain the Thinkpads’ legendary status.

Reasons for Buying

As a college student, I wanted something that would last me through my education as well as through the daily tasks and environment of a college dorm. While I would be mainly using it for simple tasks like note taking and internet usage, I did want to have the power and capability to do more if necessary.

Being an employee of Best Buy, I had seen many of the multimedia laptops that we carry and decided that I would not want one that had the fancy webcam, dual mics, and special media controls that were mainly seen on laptops such as HP and Dells. I essentially wanted a business laptop - a no-frills laptop that has plenty of power and ruggedness to last. After looking around at HP's nc8430 (I had heard that the fan on this laptop stays on quite often due to the X1600 video card), Dell's Inspiron 6400 (I did not like the asthetics / bulkiness), I finally landed on Lenovo's website, and immediately became attached to the T and the Z series. The Z series was most interesting because it had an option for a titanium lid, which appealed to me as I have a few titanium products that have proved to be very durable. However in the end I decided on the T60 Widescreen as it was more inclined to my needs and it was also lighter/thinner as well.

Purchasing

I bought my T60 Widescreen laptop direct from Lenovo on their website. The buying process was very easy - I went into the notebooks section, chose the Thinkpad line of notebooks, then the T series. From there it is very much like any other CTO website - you have options which you choose and the price gets updated. After ordering I found out that I wouldn't be getting my laptop for nearly a month! While I was somehwat disappointed in that (HP and Dell had both quoted delivery within 2 weeks), I did learn that all of the system building / parts will be coming from China. The funny thing is that in the end I received my laptop only FOUR days after leaving Hong kong, China. My laptop consisted of the following specs: (Note: Just like any notebook manufacturer, Lenovo does not use one exact brand for some of the parts. I will be listing the brands of specific parts, as they are "the best" according to feedback I have received in learning from the forums)

Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 2.0Ghz CPU
2 x 1 GB DDR2 667 RAM
15.4" 1680x1050 LG Phillips Widescreen Display
NMB Lenovo Keyboard with UltraNav
LG 8x DVD Dual Layer Burner
Thinkpad 802.11 a/b/g (Atheros AR5006EX Chipset) mini PCI express Wireless Adapter
ATI 128 MB X1400 Graphics Card
100 GB Seagate Momentus 7200.1 8MB Cache 7200 RPM SATA HDD
Integrated soundMAX audio chipset
9 Cell Sanyo Battery Pack

Unpacking

While it took nearly three weeks for the laptop to be built, it took only four days to come all the way from Hong Kong, China to my university in Merced, CA. Talk about fast!

It’s here! (view large image)

Accessories Box: 9-cell Battery, manuals, phone cable, AC adapter, misc manuals/documentation, screws for securing UltraBay, and UltraNav eraserhead caps (view large image)

UltraNav eraserhead caps – default cap not shown. (view large image)

The T60 Widescreen. (view large image)

Left ports, from left to right – Exhaust vent, VGA, modem, Ethernet, Kensington Security slot, Microphone, Headphone, USB, and Expresscard/PCMCIA slots (view large image)

Right Side: 8x DVD DL Burner, 2 x USB Ports (view large image)

Laptop open (view large image)

Top View: You can see the 9 cell battery poking out the back. (view large image)

(view large image)

UltraBay: The LED to the left of the 2 USB ports lights up when the unit is powered on and there is a device in the UltraBay, which in this case is the DVD Burner. Pressing the switch to the left of it releases the lever underneath the burner, allowing you to hot-swap and pull out UltraBay devices with the laptop still on.

Closeup View: Infrared and Wireless Switches. Note that the green is painted, and not an LED, although there are LEDs for the Bluetooth and WiFi on the lower part of the front screen bezel. (view large image)

(view large image)

Underside of the laptop – Note how there are no direct vents for the fan, but rather several vents located throughout the laptop’s underside to help cool the entire laptop.

Software

This is one spot that I believe that there is a bit too much. There was a lot of software on here from Lenovo, while it may not have been as excessive as some other manufacturers, there was still quite a lot. Because I use my computer a lot I did not want to bog my computer down with so many programs, and therefore proceeded to uninstall nearly everything that came with the laptop except for Lenovo's Access Connections, Active Protection System, System Update and ThinkVantage software. I kept these programs as I thought that they were the most useful for my needs. Lenovo did include other software, such as Client Security Solution (a solution designed in part with Symantec, giving you Symantec Antivirus Corporate edition, which is a nice touch, as well as Symantec Personal Firewall), and Rescue and Recovery. Another note about the software - a majority of the Lenovo software was outdated! I had to update and restart several times to be fully updated with the software that I had chosen to keep on the laptop. Lenovo does constantly improve and update its software, though, as nearly 4 updates have been released since I received my laptop. The one gripe I have is the video card drivers. ATi's Catalyst drivers are not the latest on the T60, and while I probably can simply download Catalyst 7.2 directly off of ATi's website, their online tool says that I should stick with Lenovo's drivers instead.

Rescue and Recovery

There is a 4.5GB hidden partition on the hard drive that contains restore information as well as other tools offered by Lenovo as part of the ThinkVantage technologies. By pressing the blue ThinkVantage button upon startup, you can backup, restore, and even browse the Internet through a limited version of Opera! One thing I did like is that even though I uninstalled Rescue and Recovery from my laptop, it is still part of the hidden partition, meaning that despite it not being accessible through Windows I can still access it through the bootup ThinkVantage. Being a computer enthusiast, I use Acronis True Image Home and had no problems backing up / restoring my laptop using the full image that I made, which took about 8 minutes to create, and 20 minutes to restore.

Usage

(view large image)

If there's one thing that Thinkpads are extremely well known for, it's the keyboard. They are supposedly the best keyboards in the world for laptops, and I have to agree. As I am typing this review right now on my laptop it is very comfortable to type on. It is not noisy and provides ample amount of feedback. In particular, the keyboard that my laptop came with was made by NMB. Lenovo uses three different manufacturers for their laptops, NMB, ALPS, and Chicony, and best to worst is in that order.

As for the mouse, the UltraNav system is excellent. I have become accustomed to using the eraserhead and was surprised to find out that there is a feature for the eraserhead similar to the tapping mechanism available for touchpads - simply tap the eraserhead and it will register as a click! The touchpad is also equally as useful, although I seem to be using the eraserhead more as it is more convienent from a layout perspective. I would have to agree with the popular opinion that the touchpad is a little bit on the small side. I have a roommate who has a Dell Precision M65, which is built to a similar grade and caliber to my T60, and his touchpad is substantially bigger. However, his is also bigger and heavier. The laptop also came with two other caps for the eraserhead, although I am using the default one. Carrying the laptop around is very easy due to its slim size and weight. While I carry it in a slip case picking it up and taking it with me is not a problem at all.

Heat and Noise

I always use my laptop on a flat surface and not directly on my lap. Even so, the laptop barely gets warm, even after extended use. The only moderately warm areas are the lower right palmrest (hard drive underneath) and the upper left, where the vents are located. One interesting note is that unlike most laptops, there is no direct vent in which the laptop's fan sucks air in from. There are a multitude of intake vents located all across the underside of the laptop from which the fan pulls air in from and then expells it out both on the left upper side as well as out the back vents. The vents themselves are very open and free flowing. As for fan noise, there is very little. The fan comes on only every now and then, and even when it does it is barely audible even in a near silent study room. So far I have only been able to distinguish two different fan speeds, and again both were very quiet. I would like to make a point that I am very sensitive to noise, and therefore a quiet fan to me is most likely near silent to others.

Wireless

In the wireless arena, Atheros is one of the best. I can say from both experience as well as opinions from many users that Atheros does easily beat the Intel wireless chipsets in performance. That said, my laptop easily accesses the university's A, B, AND G networks without any problems, especially with the help of Access Connections, a client utility from Lenovo that manages profiles and adapter settings. The only problem that I have yet to solve is that one of my friends owns a 5 month old Gateway tablet PC with a Intel 3945ABG wireless chipset, and when we are both on the A network with our laptops next to each other connected to the exact same access point he is able to get nearly 25mbps down whereas I am only able to get 6. I have tested with several other laptops running Intel 3945ABG and Broadcom chipsets and they have produced results similar to mine. Maybe my friend is running a hacked firmware, I don't know ;)

Battery Life

I went with the 9 cell for my laptop as I knew that I would be using my laptop for long periods of time without being able to plug in. That said, the battery on my laptop lasts about 6 hours on medium brightness with the wireless on and using mainly Word, Excel, and Firefox. I believe I could probably get about 7 or 8 hours if I dimmed the screen to its minimum and disabled the wireless (and maybe even undervolted), however those options make the laptop uncomfortable to use as the screen becomes *very* dim towards the lower settings. One good thing about Lenovo's Power Manager utility is that it does have an option to optimize charging for maximizing battery lifespan. It also includes the usual settings for dimming the screen after a set amount of time of inactivity, turning off the screen, sleeping, turning off the hard drive, and even has a PowerPoint presentation mode.

Screen

(view large image)

I am exceptionally happy with my choice to go with the WSXGA+ resolution for my laptop. I have become so accustomed to the WSXGA+ resolution that anything less makes me feel as if everything is extremely large. Even after using my laptop for a while returning to my 21" LCD makes me want to get a 1920x1280 24" LCD! The contrast is excellent, there were no dead pixels on my laptop. There is minimal light leakage along the bottom, and is overall a great LG Philips panel compared to the Samsung panel that I have heard so many bad stories about.

Speakers

There is nothing really much to say about the speakers here. As most have said in the forums, the speakers are a bit on the quiet side. Even at maximum volume they are similar to desktop speakers at normal volume. As with most laptop speakers, they lack bass, but still do sound pretty decent for playing music with nearly no distortion at maximum volume.

Other Thoughts

Thinklight in broad daylight with display off. (view large image)

Thinklight at night with lights off and display showing blank screen. (view large image)

One thing that I was not aware of was the ThinkLight. It caught me off by surprise when I first opened the laptop. I had thought that it was only an option on the Z and R series, and that I believe one of the series uses an orange LED whereas the other uses a white. In my case, mine uses a very bright single white LED to illuminate the keyboard, and does a very good job of doing it. Granted, some may see it as a gimmick, but it has come in handy every now and then, especially in some of the classrooms with very dim lighting or no lighting while the instructor is giving a presentation via projector. The picture makes it look brighter than it really is, but needless to say, the ThinkLight is a great feature.

Another surprise was the fact that the T60 comes with BOTH an ExpressCard AND a PCMCIA card slot. Granted I do not think I will ever need to use either slot, it is exciting to know that the laptop has support for both expandability options for laptops available nowadays. One last thing about the laptop that is somewhat of a letdown is the lack of FireWire / few USB ports. Granted, the T60 is designed for business users who would not have a need for FireWire at all, and would also use very few USB devices, it is still somewhat of a letdown.

Performance and Benchmarks

The Seagate 7200 RPM HDD is extremely repsonsive and quick. It is also very quiet in comparison to the Hitachi 7K100 that my roommate has in his Precision M65. The Active Protection System is also responsive, parking the heads of the hard drive to prevent damage when it detects any sudden movements. Following is the performance results from HDTune for the hard drie:

(view large image)

3DMark06 Graphics Results

I ran 3DMark06 at the default ATi driver settings and default 3DMark06 settings:

Notebook	3DMark 06 Results
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0 GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	923 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB)	1,528 3DMarks
Dell Precison M90 (2.16GHz Core Duo, nVidia Quadro FX 1500M)	3,926 3DMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60 Nvidia GeForce Go7800GTX)	4,085 3DMarks
Compal HEL80 (2.0GHz Core Duo, nVidia Go 7600 256MB)	1,654 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1710 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia 7900 GTX 512MB)	4,744 3DMarks

PCMark05 System Results

PCMark05 was also run with the default settings:

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0 GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook A6010 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo, Intel GMA 950)	2,994 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Toshiba Tecra M6 (1.66GHz Intel T2300E, Intel GMA 950)	2,732 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks
Sony VAIO FE590 (1.83GHz Core Duo)	3,427 PCMarks

Detailed results from PCMark05:

PCMark05 Detailed Results
HDD – XP Startup	7.554 MB/s
Physics and 3D	166.419 FPS
Transparent Windows	335.116 Windows/s
3D – Pixel Shader	41.410 FPS
Web Page Rendering	3.311 Pages/s
File Decryption	54.410 MB/s
Graphics Memory – 64 Lines	777.755 FPS
HDD – General Usage	4.645 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / Audio Compression	2200.313 KB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / Video Encoding	349.557 KB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Text Edit	134.284 Pages/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Decompression	26.836 Mpixels/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / File Compression	4.647 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / File Encryption	25.940 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / HDD – Virus Scan	28.171 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Memory Latency – Random 16 MB	7.825 Maccesses/s

Conclusion

In closing, I believe I made the right choice in purchasing a Lenovo. It has performed beautifully to my standards and surpassed my expectations. After customizing it to my preferences, I believe that this laptop truly is one of the best laptops out there overall. While it may not be appealing to the gaming community, for everything else this laptop has it. I finally have my dream laptop. :)

Pros:

Extremely sturdy
Comfortable keyboard
ThinkLight
Quiet fan
Thin and light
Great screen

Cons:

Few USB ports
Small touchpad

Toshiba Satellite A130 / A135

2007-09-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

Submitted by tripinva on Monday, April 16, 2007


Manufacturer:	Toshiba
Model:	Toshiba Satellite A135-S4487
Screen Size:	15.4 inches
Weight:	7 lbs
Processor Options:	Core Duo, Core 2 Duo
Graphics Options:	Integrated
Description:	The Toshiba Satelite A135 series is a 15.4-inch mainstream Core Duo or Core 2 Duo based notebook with optional dual hard drives and Windows Vista operating system.

by Trip Ericson

Overview

My grandmother's Toshiba Satellite 1805-S207 has never been a speed demon, and to say that it was slow was an understatement. This unit would crawl from one screen to another, and even my grandmother would leave a Solitare window open so she could “play a bit while the computer caught up.” When her birthday rolled around this year, I suggested purchasing her a new laptop computer. Upon checking the circulars on Easter weekend, a Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527 was on sale for $599 at Best Buy. So, with her consent, we went and purchased it.

Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527 (view large image)

I can't say that I looked up any others; I've always been a Toshiba loyalist myself. My grandmother, cousins, several friends, as well as the school system I attend and work for all have Toshibas, and all have fantastic track records. Some friends who have Dell, Acer, and HP have all had major problems. So it was only natural that I would continue to buy Toshiba.

The system has very nice specifications for the price:

Processor: Intel Core Duo T2080 (1.73GHz)
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
RAM: 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 RAM
Hard Drive: 120GB Hitachi SATA
Screen: 15.4” Tru-Brite WXGA (1280x800)
Optical Drive: DVD±RW/DVD-RAM Drive
Graphics: Intel GMA950 Graphics
Slots: Type II PCMCIA (left), 5-in-1 Card Reader (front)
Ports: 4 USB 2.0 (two right, one left, one back), 1 4-pin Firewire (left), 1 VGA output (left), 1 S-Video output (left), 1 Headphone jack (front), 1 Microphone jack (front), 1 RJ-11 phone jack (back), 1 Power jack (back), 1 RJ-45 LAN jack (back)
Wireless: Atheros 802.11g

The Screen

The first thing that I looked at when I opened the box was the screen. I've been annoyed by the prominence of the high glare screens in most notebook computers sold today, and took the opportunity to see just how distracting my reflection and the glare would be. The “Tru-Brite” screen isn't nearly as annoying as I thought it would be, though it is more annoying than my laptop's matte screen. (I have a Toshiba Satellite A15-S157) It is certainly much brighter than mine, though that could also be explained by the fact that my system is nearing four years old and has been almost constantly used during that time. I also notice fingerprints beginning to show up on the screen, which are more distracting than the various reflections and glare.

(view large image)

The screen itself was of good build quality, seeing as it had no dead pixels that I could see. There is no leaking at the edge and the backlighting seemed very even. Even when I booted Kubuntu and had just a command line, the lighting seems to be quite even. The screen on the unit, especially with the “Tru-Brite technology,” exceeded my expectations with its quality.

Build Quality

The case is a thick plastic that is black on the inside and on the bottom, with a gray finish on the outer shell. It feels well-built, as there's not much “give” to it when pressed on. Pressing on the screen from the inside or from the shell causes no change in the appearance of the screen, and it feels well-protected from normal pressures, especially compared to my current Toshiba. I attempted to twist the screen and though it was definitely not flimsy, it does twist a little bit.

Top view of Satellite A135 (view large image)

The screen is held on by two hinges on the unit, and they provided a nice amount of resistance. My laptop's hinges failed after two years of heavy use and were repaired under the extended warranty, but initially felt just as sturdy as these, so only time will tell as to the quality of these hinges.

Underside view of Satellite A135 (view large image)

Speakers and Sound

One of the first things I noticed about the Toshiba is that the classic sound dial on the front of the machine was no longer a hardware control. The dial now controls the master software volume control, and for this reason was quite a bit less sensitive. It took several turns of the dial to adjust it from high volume to no volume, though I imagine this could be adjusted in software.

The speakers themselves seemed to be of moderate quality. I did not try to max them out, but after a certain point the sound did become distorted on the music I was listening to, a Q8 Ogg Vorbis recording downloaded from Jamendo.

The sound jacks are on the front of the system, which is somewhat of a mixed blessing. My current laptop has the sound jacks on the side, and this makes angled connectors favorable in all conditions. By moving them to the front, they seem more awkwardly placed. Without an angled connector, it seems that a plug could be easily pulled or leaned on, but with an angle connector the cable would then go out to the sides better. However, it seems that by putting them on the front, you gain a greater ability to reposition yourself with respect to the system without worrying about pulling too much on the cord if you pull too far to one side or the other.

Processor and Performance/Heat and Noise

The system features a Core Duo processor, a last generation chip, but for the simple tasks my grandmother will be using it for, it functions just fine. In fact, the system was quite snappy in its response compared to what I expected from a system running Windows Vista.

One thing that sticks out about this system was how cool the area under the processor fan is. Unlike my current system (Netburst Celeron 2.2GHz), which can get too hot to touch, this system never felt hot to the touch underneath, and even the air that blew out of the side never got very hot, even under stress. The processor fan is also much quieter than my own system's fan, and the palm rest stays cool.

Benchmarks

Following are some benchmarks that were run on the Satellite A135-S4527 so you can have an idea of how it stacks up to other laptops.

SuperPi Benchmark Results

Super Pi tests the speed of a processor, in our test we force Super Pi to calculate the number Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy:

Notebook	Time
Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527 (1.73GHz Core Duo)	1m 38s
HP dv9000t (1.6Ghz Core 2 Duo, nVidia Go 7600 256MB)	1m 37s
MSI M677 (1.8 GHz Turion X2)	1m 53s
LG S1 (2.16 GHz Core Duo)	1m 11s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Toshiba Satellite M100 (2.00GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo)	1m 29s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s

PCMark05 System Results

PCMark05 measures the overall system performance, here's how the Satellite A135 stacked up to other laptops:

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527 (1.73GHz Core Duo, Intel GMA 950)	2,816 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook A6010 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo, Intel GMA 950)	2,994 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Toshiba Tecra M6 (1.66GHz Intel T2300E, Intel GMA 950)	2,732 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks

Below are the detailed results from the PCMark05 results:

PCMark05 Detailed Results
HDD - XP Startup:	5.38 MB/s
Physics and 3D:	59.24 FPS
Transparent Windows:	1628.47 Windows/s
3D - Pixel Shader:	7.12 FPS
Web Page Rendering:	1.32 Pages/s
File Decryption:	42.42 MB/s
Graphics Memory:	64 Lines 188.76 FPS
HDD - General Usage:	3.93 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / Audio Compression:	1649.88 KB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / Video Encoding:	230.99 KB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Text Edit:	68.72 Pages/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Decompression:	19.72 MPixels/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / File Compression:	3.42 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / File Encryption:	20.24 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / HDD - Virus Scan:	36.6 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Memory Latency - Random 16 MB:	7.24 Maccesses/s

HDTune Benchmark Results:

Below are the results of HDTune when run on the A135, HDTune measures the hard drive speed and performance

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Keyboard and Touchpad

The A135 line looks to be the last line to use the classic Toshiba keyboard layout, that puts the Windows and Menu keys at the top right, and the Ins and Del keys below the right hand. I've always preferred this layout on laptops, seeing as I am primarily a Linux user and the Windows key could easily be replicated with Ctrl+Esc.

As far as the construction quality on the keyboard itself, it seems to be well-made. It has almost no flex to it, and the keys are much quieter than the keys on my current system. The keys are shifted to the right on this system to allow for the power button and four media buttons to be placed to the left of the keyboard. These keys seem to perform their purpose, though admittedly I haven't spent much time with them.

The touchpad is correctly placed so that one can easily type without touching it. As with both old systems, this unit will also scroll by sliding up and down the right edge of the touch pad. I was disappointed to find that the included software would not emulate a middle-click by clicking both buttons at once, but this is a driver issue rather than a hardware issue.

Input and Output

The system is covered in ports.

Slots:

Type II PCMCIA (left)
5-in-1 Card Reader (front)

Ports:

4 USB 2.0 (two right, one left, one back)
1 4-pin Firewire (left)
1 VGA output (left)
1 S-Video output (left)
1 Headphone jack (front)
1 Microphone jack (front)
1 RJ-11 phone jack (back)
1 Power jack (back)
1 RJ-45 LAN jack (back)

Front view (view large image)

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Left view (view large image)

Right view (view large image)

Back view (view large image)

I don't understand the logic in placing two of the USB ports on the right side right where one would be using a mouse, but it's good to at least have them.

Battery

I timed the battery on the system, and during an intense session of uninstalling default software and then installing things that were required, the battery life hit 3% after 121 minutes. This is a bit shorter than my current system's battery when new, and I wish that Toshiba could have squeezed an extra half an hour out of it. However, it is difficult to know how it would perform when merely surfing the Internet.

Wireless

The wireless card included in the unit is an Atheros card. My grandmother's old laptop had no internal wireless, and thus was connected with a D-Link PCMCIA wireless card. This system works flawlessly all over her house, whereas the old system would lose signal in the Family Room where she would watch TV most often. The unit also includes a switch on the front to turn this functionality on and off.

Windows Vista

My expectations were so low for Windows Vista that it should come as no surprise that I was mildly impressed by it.

The first thing that struck me was how slow it was to start up, given how Microsoft had claimed to speed up the boot time on Vista. After sitting on the BIOS screen for 13 seconds, Vista then took 2:01 to get to the desktop, with system tray applications still loading.

The 3D effects and translucency were all very nice, and I'm finding that I miss those now that I'm away from that system. They certainly add to the experience and make things feel smoother.

Another thing that annoyed me was the sluggishness of I/O operations. File transfers seemed to take forever and a day. I tried to move 300MB worth of files off of the hard drive and onto a USB disk and gave up after the first twenty minutes.

The system came with much less junk software than I'd expected. It came with a collection of quickly-removed Wild Tangent games as well as a McAfee Security suite that was also quickly removed. I left the Office 2007 trial on it as well as Works 8, which I have not yet tested.

Kubuntu Linux

I took a few minutes to boot up the Kubuntu 6.10 Live CD on it and see how it responded. Naturally, the Atheros wireless card was detected but was not in a functional state. In addition, though the 5-in-1 card slot was detected and even detected when disks were inserted, apparently the driver that actually reads the card does not exist. With those exceptions, the system seems to run Kubuntu just fine.

Conclusion

For the typical user who only plans to surf the Internet and use a laptop for light use, this machine seems perfect. It is no high-end monster, but it's adequate for the common non-gamer. My grandmother is very pleased with it and its capabilities, though she's still getting used to the changes that Windows Vista brings.

Pros:

Inexpensive
Feature-packed
High build quality
Stays quite cool
Amount of junk software is relatively small

Cons:

Battery life is short
Tru-Brite screen shows a lot of glare and fingerprints

I would definitely recommend this machine to anyone in the category of users who aren't looking for the most powerful machine for the heaviest of tasks, but are light users and are not so demanding on a computer.

HP Pavilion dv6500t

2007-09-30T22:01:00.000-07:00

Submitted by JasonB on Tuesday, July 17, 2007


Manufacturer:	HP
Model:	HP Pavilion dv6560us (Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Vista Home Premium)
Screen Size:	15.4 inches
Weight:	6 lbs
Processor Options:	Core 2 Duo
Graphics Options:	nVidia Go 8400m (Dedicated)
Description:	The HP dv6500t is a 15.4" screen laptop with Centrino Duo technology, optional web camera and Nvidia graphics or integrated
Specs:	Intel Core 2 Duo (1.8 GHz) , 1 GB DDR II SDRAM

by Jason Brill

Introduction

The HP Pavilion dv6500t is a “Santa Rosa” equipped update to the very popular dv6000t series of mainstream laptops, which topped the NotebookReview.com Most Popular Laptops chart for quite a while. A 15.4” widescreen, consumer-oriented laptop, it delivers a solid, well-rounded package that updates the HP lineup nicely.

Specifications and Pricing

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz, 4MB L2 cache), PM 965 “Santa Rosa” chipset @ 800 MHz FSB
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
RAM: 2GB DDR2 SDRAM @ 667MHz (2 x 1GB)
Hard Drive: 120GB SATA @ 5400 RPM
Screen: 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280 x 800)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, 128MB dedicated VRAM + up to an additional 256MB shared
Optical Drive: Super Multi 8X DVD+/-/R/RW w/double layer support
Audio: Reaktek High Definition Audio with digital output
Battery: “High capacity” 6-cell lithium ion
Wireless: Intel PRO/Wireless 4965 802.11 a/g/n + Bluetooth
HP Imprint (Radiance) finish + 2 Microphones + Fingerprint reader
Ports/Slots: one IEEE 1394 (FireWire); HDMI; three USB 2.0; 5-in-1 memory card reader; VGA monitor out port; S-Video out; RJ-45 Ethernet LAN; RJ-11 modem; Express Card; IR receiver; Expansion Port 3; two headphone/speaker jacks; microphone/line-in jack
Remote: HP Express Card IR media center remote
Warranty: 1 year standard warranty + 1 year extension (see below)
Weight: 6.14 lbs.
Dimensions: 14.05" (W) x 10.12" (L) x 1" (min H)/1.69" (max H)

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Design and Build

The build of a laptop is important, especially one that will be carried around and used constantly, but I do not equate a solid feel with ultimate build quality. I am pleased with the apparent quality of the dv6500t, but only time will truly tell how it fares. The case is plastic but feels solid, with the top a shiny black coated plastic and the base a more standard matte black. The area around the screen and keyboard also has a shiny finish that reflects less than the top. The screen flexes significantly under stress but I cannot produce any ripples in the screen. The hinges are solid and keep the screen in place. The only flex found in the case is under the optical drive in the center right of the base and a slight amount to the right of the touchpad. I can pick up each corner of the base without feeling any sag. Nearly all ports are on the left; only a USB port, the optical drive, the express card slot, and the power connection on the right. The express card slot has a plastic placeholder rather than a true cover, but the media center remote is stored in this slot, anyway, so a cover would be superfluous. All vent openings are placed on the back and bottom. This arrangement does allow some of the vents on the bottom to be blocked without completely obstructing the air flow. The front lip holds an IR receiver, a microphone/line-in jack, and two sound output jacks.

The lighting adds a very classy touch to the design. The row of media controls at the top of the keyboard glows an iridescent blue, as does a ring around the power plug when the AC adapter is connected. The media buttons are all touch sensitive and very responsive. A click sound accompanies a press, but this feature can be turned off in the BIOS. The mute button turns orange when activated, as does the icon above the touchpad when disabled via a hard button. The caps-lock and number-lock keys have blue lights beside each of them to indicate activation. Finally, three small lights in the bottom left corner show power, charging state, and drive activity.

The one big consideration in all of this shiny, fancy, coated plastic is how easily it can accumulate dust and fingerprints. A microfiber cloth comes standard, and neat freaks, including myself, will wipe down the top and area around the screen at least a few times a day.

The media buttons and Altec Lansing speakers. (view large image)

The included media center remote. (view large image)

A macro view of HP's imprint finish. (view large image)

Screen

The dv6500t’s glossy WXGA LCD sports a 1280x800 screen resolution with HP’s Brightview technology. The colors of the glossy screen really stand out in comparison to a matte display, and the accompanying reflection has not bothered me. Brightness and contrast are outstanding. Adjusting the backlight can be done in very small increments, and even at half brightness the image looks brilliant. I have found that in a dark room with the brightness at full, I have to squint due to the amount of light coming from the display. The horizontal and vertical viewing angles stretch across a wide range with even lighting in all areas. Light leakage is undetectable. In short, this display might be one of the best I’ve seen, even with its standard resolution.

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Speakers

Again unapologetically inserting my opinion here, I do not expect much out of the built-in speakers of a laptop. The Altec Lansing speakers in the dv6500t sound fine from this perspective, and with the volume at maximum they are powerful enough to project sound into a fairly large room with only some distortion.

Processor and Performance

The 64-bit T7300 runs two cores at 2.00 GHz and includes the Santa Rosa chipset’s ability to dramatically shift power from the second core to the first when a single-core process demands it. The benchmarks and battery test below show first-rate processing ability and improved efficiency.

The GPU, an NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, lies at the lower range of their new line-up. The GS runs slightly more slowly than the GT, which is a slower version of the 8600m GS. From the benchmarks, don’t expect great gaming performance. I do not have the time to play too many games during the normal week anyway, but this card does manage to handle the older games I have. Running a demo of Armed Assault requires most settings turned down to medium for a smooth experience. Aero effects in Vista run smoothly. The X3100 integrated option is also available for $80 less.

Benchmarks

Super Pi comparison results:

Notebook	Time
HP dv6500t (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 58s
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	1m 01s
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
HP dv2500t (1.80GHz Intel 7100)	1m 09s
Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T7300)	0m 59s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo T7200)	1m 03s
Toshiba Satellite P205-S6287 (1.73 GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T5300)	1m 24s
HP Compaq 6515b (1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52)	2m 05s
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T2400)	0m 59s
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 02s

PCMark05 comparison results:

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
HP dv6500t (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,079 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,591 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks

3DMark05 comparison results:

Notebook	3D Mark 05 Results
HP dv6500t (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	2,288 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	3,116 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6510b (2.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, Intel X3100)	916 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6515b (1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52, ATI x1270)	871 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	2,013 3D Marks
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	1,791 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4,236 3DMarks
Alienware Aurora M-7700(AMD Dual Core FX-60, ATI X1600 256MB)	7,078 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,092 3D Marks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI x700 128 MB)	2,530 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,273 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1210 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia Go 7400 256MB)	2,090 3D Marks

3DMark06 comparison results:

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
HP dv6500t (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,334 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,408 3DMarks
Samsung Q70 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 and nVidia 8400M G GPU)	1,069 3DMarks
Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB)	2,344 3DMarks
Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB	2,183 3DMarks
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1526 (1.66 Core Duo, nVidia 7600Go 256 MB)	2,144 3DMarks
Samsung X60plus (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7200, ATI X1700 256MB)	1,831 3DMarks
Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB)	1,819 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	794 3DMarks
Samsung R20 (1.73GHz T2250 and ATI 1250M chipset / GPU)	476 3DMarks

HDTune results:

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Everest: 2011 MB/s read, 1199 MB/s write, 87.8 ns latency

Heat and Noise

The case does not heat up beyond what I would call warm during even intense operation. The touchpad, of all places, remains warmer than the surroundings whenever the laptop is on. The left center of the bottom also warms up during normal use, but not enough to become uncomfortable. The fan runs nearly constantly when the laptop is on external power. The sound created as it speeds up is more than I expected. On battery power, this sound reduces to nearly silent. In other words, if you are taxing the processor, expect a fair amount of fan noise.

There is a noticable amount of warmth and noise despite the number of vents on the bottom and back of the dv6500t.(view large image)

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard feels very similar to my old Thinkpad, with perhaps a little more flex. The keys travel a good distance, and a slight, unobtrusive noise accompanies each movement. Some of the larger keys, like the carriage return/enter key, do have a louder click as they are hit, but the noise would not be enough to bother anyone in a quiet room. Keyboard flex is moderate in the middle and bottom, but only with firm pressure does it start bending. As mentioned before, the right palm rest flexes slightly with heavy pressure, although this would not be noticed under normal use.

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The touchpad is relatively large and matches the dimensions of the screen. Straight out of the box, my fingers would not glide over its surface easily, but after a day’s use, a little oil from my hands apparently coated the touchpad and made it feel smoother. Personally, I find that somewhat strange, but it does work better now. One nice feature is an on/off button located directly above the touchpad allowing you to deactivate the touchpad when you use an external mouse. A red-orange LED lights up when the touchpad is turned off ... which helps if you forget you turned the touchpad off.

I/O Ports

The dv6500t features a good selection of ports (more than most notebooks in this price range):

VGA monitor out port
S-Video out
RJ-45 Ethernet LAN
Expansion Port 3
RJ-11 modem
1 IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
HDMI
3 USB 2.0
5-in-1 memory card reader
Express Card
IR receiver
2 speaker jacks, with digital out
Line-in jack

Front view with IR receiver, microphone in, and dual headphone ports. (view large image)

Right side view with Express Card slot, optical drive, USB port and DC jack. (view large image)

Left side view with lock slot, S-Video out, VGA out, Expansion Port 3, Ethernet, modem, HDMI, two USB ports, FireWire and 5-in-1 card reader. (view large image)

The back view doesn't offer much except hinges and the fan vent. (view large image)

Wireless

The newest draft-N wireless comes as part of the Centrino Duo package, though I don’t have a wireless-N router to actually use or test this with. The adapter does pick up the 802.11g router in the area with no problem, and the Bluetooth adapter works well. This integrated Bluetooth and the 802.11N come together as an option, priced at $45 extra.

Battery Life

If you need something that can last at least two hours on a charge to take notes during class, the dv6500t’s 6-cell battery more than accomplishes that. Rather than select the 12-cell which lifts the back and adds about an inch to the thickness, I opted for the “high-capacity” version of the standard 6-cell, which has a 16% increase in capacity. While word processing and moving a few files around, with wireless off and screen brightness at a lower but acceptable level, the battery lasted 4 hours and 1 minute. The 6-cell lasted for about 3 hours while watching a DVD with the screen at half brightness.

OS and Software

This laptop comes with a minimum of bloatware, and I thank HP for that. Expecting enough pre-installed junk to mandate a fresh install of the OS, I uninstalled only 3 programs after booting up for the first time. I also immediately turned off Vista’s User Access Control. The included programs I have found most useful include VeriSoft’s biometrics software, which is very intuitive and integrated seamlessly with other programs to remember passwords, with loads of customizable settings for the fingerprint reader. Vista’s photo viewing and editing utilities are a welcome addition and make simple fixes quick and easy. HP’s Quickplay software requires a full Vista boot, but it works well and makes for a flashy way to show off media.

Vista took 58 seconds to reach the desktop during a cold boot, including several seconds for fingerprint verification and log-on. I’m favorably impressed with the OS itself, and many tasks take a significantly shorter time than in XP, like Microsoft Update. The plethora of shortcuts seems designed well and with the end-user in mind. My one complaint is the lag in opening folders in the Start menu under battery power. I have never experienced this lag in XP, and I fail to see why a menu under All Programs should take several seconds to show its contents in Vista. When running under external power, this pause disappears.

Conclusion

The HP Pavilion dv6500t performs admirably in all fields, with only a few issues that may or may not concern an individual buyer. If you need a well-rounded laptop with outstanding performance without giving up battery life, this should be on your short list. The whole package, starting at less than $1,000 if you are really on a tight budget, shows how a mainstream laptop can excel.

Pros:

Great performance
Looks that turn heads
Outstanding display
Good battery life
Responsive keyboard
Reasonably priced

Cons:

Glossy chassis requires a lot of wiping to keep fingerprint-free
Dedicated graphics option lacks true gaming power
Moderate fan noise at high RPMs

Dell XPS M1330

2007-09-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

Submitted by chuck232 on Tuesday, August 21, 2007


Manufacturer:	Dell
Model:	Dell XPS M1330
Screen Size:	13.3 inches
Weight:	4 lbs
Processor Options:	Core 2 Duo
Graphics Options:	nVidia Go 8400m (Dedicated)
Description:	The Dell XPS M1330 is a 13.3" screen ultraportable from Dell that uses the new Intel Santa Rosa platform, has a dedicated NVidia 8400GM video card, built-in web camera, slot loading DVD drive.

Introduction

Dell launched the new line of Inspiron laptops and desktops with much fanfare on June 26th, 2007 at a Macy's department store in New York. The flagship laptop, the XPS M1330, garnered a lot of press coverage. The launch coincided with a revamping of Dell's marketing efforts in an attempt to lose the 'beige-box' manufacturer cachet and move more upstream by making the brand more appealing to a wider demographic.

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Aside from the redesigns to the notebook line-up, Dell was also touting the multitude of colored lids that the new laptops would ship with, allowing a bit of personalization by customers. In addition, the XPS M1330 was touted as the thinnest 13.3" notebook and boasted a radically new design for Dell, challenging manufacturers such as Sony and Apple, who were traditionally viewed as more 'stylish' companies, known for their design. There was substantial press coverage for the launch as well as for the new product line, something that hasn't been terribly common for Dell in recent memory. After years of building my own computers, I decided to give Dell a try and ordered the XPS M1330.

The XPS M1330 with its 13.3" widescreen display falls somewhere between the thin-and-light and ultra-portable categories. Its weight, at just under 4 lbs with the 4-cell battery and LED backlit display, puts it squarely in ultra-portable space, but its relatively large footprint means it's not an ultra-portable in the strictest sense of the word. Nevertheless, at under 0.9 inches thick at its thinnest point, with the LED backlit display, it's a very stylish and small laptop, convenient for carrying around and using in all but the tightest of spaces.

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My system was purchased with the following configuration.

Core 2 Duo T7100 1.8GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache
2x1GB DDR2-667 RAM
13.3" widescreen LED backlit display WXGA (1280x800) with VGA webcam
NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS 128MB GDDR3
120GB 5400RPM HDD (Hitachi 5K160 series, 8MB cache)
8X DVD+-RW slot load ODD
Intel Pro/Wireless 3945abg
Fingerprint reader
6-cell and 9-cell batteries
Microsoft Vista Home Premium
Dimensions: 12.5" (31.8cm) x 9.4" (23.8cm) x 0.87"-1.33" (2.21cm-3.38cm)
Weight: 3.97 lbs w/ 4-cell, 4.3lbs w/ 6-cell

Total price: $1,831CAD after taxes

Reason for buying

I entered university two years ago with a pretty powerful 15.4" notebook, the ASUS Z71V. At the time, I wanted something powerful enough to satisfy my gaming itch that was 'luggable'. For a dorm, a laptop is quite useful as there isn't much desk space. I envisioned myself bringing the laptop to class to take notes on.

Unfortunately, that idea fell through. In addition to my books and notepads, I found carrying the almost 7lb notebook to be excessive in my day to day travels around the campus. Plus, I eventually noticed that even with a semi-powerful graphics card, newer games were starting to bog down. Short of an 8lb+ desktop replacement system, I wasn't going to find something that would give me the gaming performance I wanted. After my first year was completed and I moved out of residence, I purchased parts for a new desktop system. As a result, the notebook just sat there, unused.

Now going into my third year of studies, I find myself playing games far less frequently, if at all. As a result the need for something small and light to take to class greatly overshadowed any need for gaming performance. In addition, I found myself babying my previous laptop too much, so I wanted something well built, perhaps a business-grade laptop, which I could throw around without worry. Initially, I strongly considered the MacBook. With its relatively small size and good battery life, not to mention fair price, it was popular at my school. However, build quality wasn't its strong suit. I also considered the Lenovo Thinkpad T61, Dell's Latitude D630 and various 14.1" HP business laptops. However, when Dell launched the XPS M1330 at a decent price, I knew it would be my next laptop. It is lighter than the MacBook and I couldn't deal with the awkward bezel of the T61, not to mention its less than spectacular battery life. HP's business laptops are limited in their configurations in Canada and I couldn't find something I was completely happy with for my budget.

Where and how purchased

There have traditionally been a few ways of purchasing Dell laptops, such as online, by phone or through their kiosks, (even more now, since moving into the retail space) but I ordered mine through their website, taking advantage of a 15% Mystery Coupon that was available through Dell Canada. I ordered the system on July 4th, a little more than a week from the launch of the system. Having spoken with a sales representative prior to purchase, I was ensured that it wouldn't take more than 10 to 15 days from purchase to delivery, but I was less pleased when I was instead given an August 22nd ship date estimate in my order confirmation.

However, I'd heard that Dell is oftentimes very conservative with their estimated ship dates, typically getting them to the customer well before them. I paid a decent price, $1,831CAD including taxes, less than what a comparable Sony SZ would cost, certainly. I held out hope that what the sales rep told me, 10 to 15 days, would be more accurate. Needless to say, he was quite wrong.

Unboxing

A popular trend these days is to take pictures of the unboxing process, so who am I to disagree. Here they are.

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Along with the XPS M1330 itself, Dell provides a few goodies for proud owners. The most substantial inclusion is the Dell XPS branded laptop sleeve. As well, Creative EP630 earbuds and an IR remote that fits into the ExpressCard slot are included. The earbuds are quite good, and retail for around $40CAD, adding to the value of the laptop.

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Reinstall discs are provided for most of the software pre-installed by Dell. That includes:

Windows Vista Home Premium
Microsoft Works 8.5
Dell MediaDirect
Dell Webcam Manager
Roxio
Dell Drivers and Utilities

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A decent-sized owner's manual is included as are product information and contacting Dell guides. A very basic 'Getting Started' pamphlet is also included, although if you don't know how to plug in your laptop ... well, you may have other, more pressing concerns.

Design

Just spectacular. If anyone could say it better, it would be the friends that were over when I opened up the box. Words like, 'wow', 'sleek', and 'awesome' were uttered by them and in my mind, they were right on the money. I was also told by a few people that the M1330 is the best looking laptop they've seen, bar none. Those are pretty strong words for a laptop from a company that is more typically known as the ultimate 'beige-box' provider. Congratulations, Dell, for designing something eye-catching for all the right reasons!

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It goes without saying that the M1330 bears a striking resemblance to the Sony SZ series, from its wedge-shaped design to the 13.3" form factor to its use of an LED panel. Nonetheless, it's a good design that Dell has implemented well. Let's take a virtual tour of some of the more interesting design features.

Using the 13.3" widescreen display popularized by companies such as Sony and Apple, Dell mated the chassis with an optional LED backlit display to achieve what they say is the world's thinnest 13.3" laptop. It sneaks in just under the thickness of the Sony SZ at the front, but slopes up towards the back, until it is thicker than the Apple MacBook, which is of uniform thickness from front to back. It is on par with the SZ in terms of weight and around a pound lighter than the MacBook, with the 6-cell battery.

The LED backlit display is about 2.5mm thinner than the CCFL. (view large image)

I opted for the color that Dell calls 'Tuxedo Black'. The finish of the lid is matte and, unfortunately, picks up a lot of fingerprints, which are difficult to remove. I chose the black color as I wanted it to look professional - something I wouldn't be embarrassed to bring to a business meeting at one of my co-op jobs. The chrome effect on the Dell and XPS logos add a bit of flair, but the overall statement is muted. Don't worry; this laptop doesn't need flashy colors or lots of lights to get noticed.

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Open up the screen and you'll notice a very harmonious design. The silver of the keyboard and palm rest complements the black region up the center, bordering the display. At a glance, the keyboard looks like it might be made of aluminum as well, but upon closer inspection, this is not the case. A few people who saw the laptop were definitely fooled initially.

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There is no mechanical latch to keep the lid closed. Instead a hinge spring snaps it shut and keeps it closed securely. Even though a larger portion of the weight is distributed towards the rear of the laptop, opening the lid can still be a one-handed task. There's no need to hold the base down while opening the lid; the laptop doesn't tip backwards. Dell even provides a little protrusion at the front of the lid to give you a finger grip to open the display more easily. The VGA (0.3MP, 640x480) webcam is by Creative and is mounted above the screen, between two microphone pick-ups.

Dell made an interesting design choice for the display module. The hinge design is quite aesthetically pleasing, but the implementation leaves a bit to be desired. The hinge is of the 'bamboo' type, which rotates around a central pillar. In most cases, this type of hinge reduces the height of the screen when opened, since part of the bottom bezel may be swivelled behind the back of the laptop. However, Dell has decided to keep the screen at a higher level, by increasing the thickness of the bottom bezel, negating one of the advantages of the bamboo hinge. In addition, due to the added thickness of the bezel, the laptop itself has become deeper in dimension, measuring in at 9.4" compared to 8.92" of the MacBook, which is of similar form factor. In fact, at 9.4" deep, the M1330 rivals the Vostro 1400/Inspiron 1420 in terms of depth. On the other hand, Dell may have decided that the design of the MacBook's (and the Pro for that matter) hinge leaves the display too close to the keyboard and isn't as comfortable for viewing. Another possible reason is that Dell wanted their logo to be visible on the bottom bezel. As well, due to the hinge design, the display cannot be opened up to 180 degrees, instead, stopping at around 140 degrees.

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The 4-cell and 6-cell batteries bit flush with the system. The 9-cell protrudes from the bottom of the laptop, providing an incline for the keyboard and helping airflow, but makes it a bit awkward to use on one's lap.

Is it even fair to compare it to a D810? (view large image)

Overall, there is little I can fault the XPS M1330 for, in terms of design. The hinge design is terribly nitpicky on my part and to be honest, I rather prefer the proportionality of the screen bezel, aesthetically speaking. It doesn't affect the way I use the laptop at all, but does mean there's an extra centimetre or so that could be shaved off.

Build Quality

Here's where I can't give Dell full marks. Whether it's due to the more complex manufacturing processes required for the M1330 or because Dell has been rushing systems in an effort clear out the backlog, fit and finish is decidedly weak for what is a flagship system. Many customers have received systems with physical abnormalities from a gap at the top of the LCD panel to hard drive bays that stick out slightly. My system came with an uneven base, which results in a slight wobble with the 6-cell. In addition, the 9-cell battery feet don't contact the desk surface properly, exacerbating the wobble when that battery is used. Finally, the brushed aluminum palm rest in the bottom right corner is starting to separate from the base of the chassis. I have since contacted Dell and an exchange system is being built for me.

Despite these issues, in terms of materials and solidness, this laptop rates very highly. Picking up the M1330 from a corner, even with it open, does not produce any bending, creaking or groaning from the system. The materials used are fantastic. A big contributor to the structural rigidity of the M1330 is the magnesium alloy base. Additionally, the brushed aluminum palm rest not only looks great, but it also ensures that there is absolutely no flex.

Mmmm... brushed aluminum. (view large image)

The lid of the LCD is also well constructed, even though it is fairly thin. It seems to be made of a strong plastic that doesn't cave at all when pressed. Instead, if enough pressure is applied the entire display will flex, due to the thin design. Little to no ripples show through, except possibly due to extreme force, forces which I am not willing to test or plan to subject the laptop to during regular use.

Fit and finish has been an issue, but are related to manufacturing, not the design and materials used. In fact, overlooking the manufacturing problems, this laptop absolutely feels like a premium piece of equipment, with very sturdy and appealing materials. Nonetheless, it's rather disappointing to receive a system with problems. Luckily Dell has been very prompt at setting up a replacement, while I continue to use this system in the meantime.

Inputs/Output Ports

Given the limited space available, the number of I/O ports is relatively limited on the XPS M1330. The back of the laptop is completely devoid of ports, with the space taken up by a fan vent and the battery.

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The front of the laptop has a mic input, two headphone outputs, and an 8-in-1 card reader for various types of SD cards, MMC, xD and Memory Stick.

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The right side is home to the slot-load DVD burner, an attachment for a computer lock, as well as a single USB port.

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The left side is busier, with a 4-pin Firewire, HDMI, another USB port, 10/100mb Ethernet, a HD-15 VGA output and the power jack.

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That there are only two USB ports is the most troubling part. However, chances are with a near ultra-portable on the go, you won't have too many things hanging out of the ports anyways. It's a fair compromise for the size.

Display

One of the main features of the XPS M1330 is the optional LED backlit display, which touts better color reproduction, higher brightness, lower power consumption and a thinner panel. In Canada, the LED backlit display is a $150 option, and in my opinion, well worth it. I received the Chi Mei Optoelectronics panel while Toshiba-Matsushita LED backlit panels are also used. The panel is of WXGA resolution (1280x800) and is the only resolution available for 13.3" notebook displays. Coming from a 15.4" WSXGA+ laptop, and using a 20.1" WSXGA+ desktop panel, the resolution is rather low, but suffices for the purpose.

I've never used a glossy LCD panel before, so I wasn't certain what to expect. When turned off, it can easily serve a dual purpose as a mirror, but when turned on, it makes colors pop.

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Brightness is also impressive. At the highest brightness setting, the LED backlit display of the M1330 easily beats out my desktop's LG L204WT at 80% brightness, which I'm used to using. The display of the M1330 is very bright.

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Viewing angles, at least horizontal, are easily among the best I've seen on a laptop. Even at extreme angles, the colors and brightness are still quite good, although the practicality of actually using the screen at such angles is another story altogether. The glossy finish of the screen also starts to reflect more and more as you move off the centerline. Vertical viewing angles are decidedly mediocre, very indicative of the TN panel that is used.

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The display continues its almost flawless performance through the areas of dead pixels (none), stuck pixels (none) and backlight bleeding (so little, I'm apt to just say none). You may noticed a slight unevenness of the backlighting at the bottom - I believe this is due to the discrete nature of the LED backlight, with many spaced out around the display. Overall, brightness is extremely uniform.

Games such as UT2004, which are very sensitive to panel response time, and fast-paced movies showed no signs of ghosting with this panel. This is somewhat surprising given the 25ms response times of the panel, according to Chi Mei's specifications.

Overall, the M1330 is outfitted with a pleasant display to work with. Color, brightness, and viewing angles are all well above average. I only wish that the display brightness controls were divided into finer increments. I find there is too big of a difference between adjacent brightness levels. (Dell allows 8.)

Processor and Performance

I chose the T7100 processor as it was an additional $120 to upgrade to the T7300 at Dell Canada. Since this laptop was intended to be a complement system to a much more powerful desktop, I decided to save the money. I did strongly consider the T7300 if only for the larger L2 cache (2MB to 4MB); however tests showed that the biggest performance increases were in multimedia encoding applications and some games. I do not plan on doing any multimedia work on the go and gaming will be limited by the 8400M GS card long before the CPU. Performance of the 4MB processors is typically 2-4% faster than the 2MB processors in other applications, which wasn't necessary for me.

Intel added an additional feature to its Santa Rosa platform - Intel Dynamic Acceleration. While software is beginning to take advantage of parallelization, many applications are still capable of using only a single core. As a result, the potential of multi-core processors is lost. Intel has come up with an innovative way to boost performance in single-threaded applications, while staying within the same power and thermal envelope, by overclocking the core being stressed. In this manner, single threaded applications can take advantage of the higher frequency, without compromising thermals. With the T7100, the FSB can be overclocked by 15MHz, or 7.5%, to give a final CPU frequency of around 1.93GHz.

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Benchmarks

Here are the obligatory synthetic benchmarks. There isn't anything out of the ordinary here.

SuperPI 2M - 1 min 8 seconds

3DMark 2006 - 1336 at 1280x800

PCMark05 - 4300

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Cinebench - Single CPU - 1900, Multi-CPU - 3391

HDTune - Avg transfer rate: 35.9MB/s

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WEI - 4.1

I'd like to focus a little more on graphics performance. Aside from the XPS M140, which I never considered part of the XPS family (rebranded Inspiron 630m), the XPS M1330 is the first XPS not to focus on gaming performance. Outfitted with a relatively weak NVIDIA 8400M GS, Dell had to compromise on performance to keep size and thermals under control. The similar Sony SZ6 series is also outfitted with the 8400M GS, although that laptop has a toggle for switching between the 8400M and the integrated Intel X3100.

So, with the 8400M GS clocked at 400MHz/600MHz and using the 162.22 drivers, what games can you expect to play and at what sort of image quality? I set to find out with some games I've enjoyed in the past.

Oblivion - 848x480 with bloom or 960x600 without bloom

When Oblivion was released, it brought just about every system to its knees. The lush landscapes and awesome HDR effects stressed even the most powerful systems. The 8400M GS provides playable frame rates at 848x480 with detail sliders around the 1/3 mark, except viewing distance which was set to max with Distant Lands enabled, and with bloom enabled. If you can make do without bloom, 960x600 is also playable. Turning down the Item Fade distance would increase performance significantly at the loss of some detail.

Rainbow Six: Vegas - 800x600 or 960x600 (slightly slower)

Rainbow Six: Vegas is one of the most strenuous games out there, with a desktop 8800GTS 640MB barely able to pull off 30FPS average at 1600x1200. It's not surprising that the 8400M GS struggles, with the maximum playable resolution being 800x600 or 960x600, if you want to stretch it (both in terms of performance and to a widescreen resolution) a bit. Settings had to be turned to low, with HDR off. Frame rates averaged around 25FPS, with dips occasionally down to a bit less than 20, which made aiming accurately a challenge at times.

Company of Heroes - 1280x800

Company of Heroes was widely considered one of the best games of 2006, in part due to the level of graphics, which was rare for the RTS genre. Luckily, the detail settings are very customizable and at medium-low settings, the game plays very smoothly at the native resolution of the M1330.

Unreal Tournament 2004 - 1280x800

Unreal Tournament 2004 is an older game, but still looks good with image quality settings turned up. The 8400M GS can power this game at native resolution with all the advanced image quality settings enabled and maintain 40FPS+, which is essential for the twitch shooter game.

Speakers and Sound

The speakers are located at the top of the laptop, above the media controls and are what you'd expect for a small laptop. They can get pretty loud, but there's minimal bass response and mids and highs can become quite shrill at high volume.

There are two headphone ports on the XPS M1330, both situated at the front of the laptop. While this is useful for headphones where two people could listen in on a movie, it presents a problem for speakers, which would require the cord to wrap around a significant portion of the laptop, possibly becoming a nuisance when typing.

The left jack does have a little bit of the oft-talked about static while the middle one is completely devoid of it. Hooking up speakers or the included earbuds gives much, much better sound quality. I'm no audiophile, but music and games sound great.

Input Devices

The keyboard is fairly firm, with the slightest bit of flex if keys are pressed firmly. In terms of keystroke, it definitely has a 'different' feel from a Thinkpad keyboard. It has less travel and feels a little less crisp. Whether you like it or not will be of personal preference. The flex on could use some work, but I'm happy overall with the keys' feel. The keys are slightly loud, especially when typing quickly.

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The keyboard layout is standard for a laptop, and makes good use of the entire width of the M1330. The left Control key is situated in its normal desktop position, outboard of the Function key. Most keys are full-sized, aside from the right Shift, which is shortened to make room for the up arrow key. The Delete key is located in the top right corner, which I'm used to and the navigation keys (Home, Pg Up, Pg Dn, and End) are located in a column at the far right of the keyboard.

The touchpad is responsive, albeit a little bit small for my liking. The pad has some texture to it, but isn't 'grippy' so your finger moves smoothly over the surface. The touchpad buttons feel very nice, with a good amount of travel and no loud click, which is to my liking. Unfortunately, there is no dedicated switch for turning on and off the touchpad.

The media keys are touch-sensitive as opposed to mechanical buttons found on the rest of Dell's notebook range. Luckily, they are very accurate and I haven't had any problems getting touches to register. The eject key for the slot-load disc drive is also touch sensitive. Feedback is provided by a nice blue rectangle light that fades in and out around the pressed key.

I never use a webcam, but since there wasn't a webcam-less option from Dell Canada, came with the laptop. The Creative webcam can take video at up to 640x480 resolution while still pictures can be taken at up to 1280x1024 (I presume this is using digital upscaling as the webcam is 0.3MP, or 640x480). A quick test showed that video quality was quite satisfactory while images were decent as well. It's nothing special, but gets the job done if you're interested in video conferencing or taking vanity photos.

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I also ordered the UPEK Biometric upgrade. While there is plenty of discussion about the security merit of fingerprint readers, I purchased it exclusively for the convenience factor. Swiping a finger is much quicker and more convenient than typing in a password and provides a level of security that will prevent random people from accessing my computer in class, short of stealing it to retrieve the password.

Wireless

The Intel Pro/Wireless 3945 device supports 802.11a, b, and g. Initially, I had planned on getting the 4965agn card for draft-N support; however Dell Canada did not and, as of right now, still does not offer that card with the XPS M1330. The other option was the Dell 1505n card, but after reading of compatibility issues between multimode G and N wireless signals with many routers, I decided to play it safe and go with the 3945.

The card and antenna implementation are good, with no dropped connections and is able to connect properly to even weak signals. The Wifi-Catcher is also a useful little tool for checking whether there hotspots in the vicinity without requiring the laptop to be turned on. You can even specify the minimum signal strength to look for.

Battery Life and Power Consumption

For me, the ideal battery combination is a 6-cell for situations that might include tight, cramped locations, such as on a plane or bus, as well as a 9-cell for lots of battery life, such as during my endless university classes. However, Dell did not offer this combination, only a 4-cell and 9-cell combo. Justifying the fact that I could probably get away with 2 to 2.5 hours of battery life in cramped conditions, I decided on the 4-cell and 9-cell.

However, a few weeks into my order, Dell stopped offering the 4-cell battery with the dedicated NVIDIA graphics solution, citing incompatibilities. I'm not certain how they could be incompatible, but I'd venture to guess that the 4-cell wasn't providing reasonable battery life with the dedicated graphics. My 4-cell and 9-cell was bumped up to a 6-cell and 9-cell, free of charge, which is what I wanted in the first place. It seems like I lucked out.

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Perhaps it's the highly touted LED backlit display, or perhaps it's the Santa Rosa platform's new power saving techniques, but whatever the contributing factor, the M1330 has great battery life.

With Wi-Fi enabled and the screen at 6/8 brightness, the 6-cell battery lasts for 3:30 while browsing the internet and word processing, give or take 10 minutes, depending on how heavy the web content is. Browsing around here at Notebook Review, doing some comparative shopping at Future Shop's website and reading the news at CBC.ca and CNN.com netted 3 hours 35 minutes at the above settings. With the 9-cell, that number jumps up to 5 hours 27 minutes.

The following is a compilation of the power consumption under different load types. To measure these values, the system was used in the indicated fashion for 10 minutes. The average power consumption was measured by subtracting the battery capacity at the end of the test from the battery capacity at the start of the test and multiplied by 6 (for power consumed per hour). Battery life is given assuming a 6-cell, 56WHr battery with the webcam disabled. The 9-cell battery provides 51% more power than the 6-cell, so you can safely multiply the battery life by 1.5 to get the time for the extended battery.

Wifi enabled, display brightness 6/8, idle - 12.6W (4:27)
Wifi enabled, display brightness 6/8, web browsing - 15.6W (3:35)
Wifi enabled, display brightness 6/8, watching DVD - 23.8W (2:21)
Wifi enabled, display brightness 6/8, video from hard drive - 21.4W (2:37)
Wifi enabled, display brightness 6/8, video from USB drive - 21.6W (2:36)

The T7100 in my configuration can downclock to 1.2GHz (200MHz FSB x 6 multiplier) at 0.938V. For even further power savings, it can clock down to 800MHz (100MHz FSB x 8 multiplier) at 0.850V. This is significant and shows one of Santa Rosa's power management enhancements over Intel's previous mobile platforms. Instead of lowering the multiplier only for reducing clock frequency, the FSB can also change dynamically. This provides a one-two punch for power savings. The FSB contributes to power consumption as well and lowering the frequency in low power modes helps save even more power than only lowering the CPU's frequency.

Battery Life Optimization

Windows Vista's Aero user interface takes advantage of the graphics capabilities of the system to deliver effects such as window animations, window transparencies and Windows Flip. Unfortunately, the by-product of these effects is increased reliance on the graphics card and CPU. Previously, with Windows XP, where the higher graphics performance levels were only needed in applications such as 3D rendering or gaming, the desktop in Vista can, and does call on the power of the GPU. This will invariably lead to lower battery life, but I wanted to take a look at just how big that effect is and what techniques can be used to maximize battery life.

Throughout my testing of desktop use, I found the biggest power hogs to be transparencies and the sidebar. Without either of these two enabled (I typically do not use the sidebar and transparencies are automatically disabled when on battery power under Vista's Power Saver mode) power consumption was on par with disabling Aero altogether. Since there is no measureable difference by disabling Aero altogether, I allowed Vista to take care of managing the visual theme for me.

The NVIDIA 8400M GS also has built-in power management features. PowerMizer is no longer seen in the NVIDIA control panel in the Vista drivers as the graphics card clocks are now directly controlled by Vista's power management system. Using nTune, one can see that there are three power levels for the 8400M GS.

3D Clocks: 400MHz/600MHz
PowerMizer level 1: 275MHz/300MHz
PowerMizer level 2: 168MHz/100MHz

There is an approximately 6-7W delta at idle between the lowest power setting and the 3D clockspeed. I found that, in general, the graphics card clock speeds were too sensitive to increases and not sensitive enough to reduced graphics usage. There seems to be a 5 minute wait before the video card drops down a power level; however if even a window is dragged around the screen, the video card will immediately jump up to the 3D clocks. As a result, more power is wasted than is necessary when performing desktop activities. While it's nice that Vista has integrated all the power management features of the laptop hardware, it also takes away much of the control we previously had through the NVIDIA control panel.

Notebook Hardware Control was not able to correctly read the processor speed, CPU multiplier or voltages. As a result, it is impossible to undervolt the processor through that application. Perhaps the author of that tool will update it to support this laptop.

Display brightness obviously plays a role in power consumption as well. The power consumption delta between lowest brightness and highest brightness is 2.6W. The webcam also increases power consumption by approximately 0.5W, even if it is not being used. Disabling it through Device Manager will prevent it from using battery power.

Noise

The laptop is extremely quiet at idle or under light load. The fan is barely audible with a very hushed tone. There are no shrill sounds, which sometimes occurs with small fans. Under heavy load however, noise starts to pick up. In an especially taxing game, such as Oblivion, the fan and airflow noises become loud. Compromises had to be made to cool the small laptop, so expect it to be rather noisy when you game. Luckily the sound is still relatively smooth, a whoosh as opposed to a whine, so it is more easily drowned out by game sounds.

The slot-loading DVD burner is also quite noisy. The mechanism of inserting and ejecting discs causes a loud sound that is reminiscent of poorly maintained hydraulics. Booting the system or waking from sleep causes the drive to emit this noise, which will be irritating in quiet environments, such as a lecture hall, in which I plan on using the laptop. Reading a disc produces a smooth and fairly low-volume sound, nothing close to the actual insertion or ejection of a disc.

Thankfully, there is a way to save you from embarrassment. Because the intrusive noise is not associated with reading a disc, but rather inserting or ejecting one, you can place a dummy disc in the drive at all times. This way, at bootup or resume from suspend, the drive will just attempt to read the disc as opposed to trying to suck a disc in. No more noise!

Heat

For light use, the XPS M1330 barely heats up and is comfortable to use on one's lap.

An intake vent is found at the top right. (view large image)

Here is a concoction of temperatures I measured through various workloads.

CPU idle at 800MHz - 42C, dropping to 39C when elevated by the 9-cell battery.

Under full load using Orthos, the two cores' temperatures levelled off at 82C and 83C respectively. The bottom of the laptop stayed mildly warm, except for around the air intake vent at the top left corner of the laptop. The much higher temperature is, fortunately, isolated to that area as the heat gets quickly exhausted out the air vent at the back of the laptop. Using the 9-cell battery to elevate the laptop lowers the core temperatures to 78C.

GPU idle on AC at 400/600MHz - 73C
GPU idle on AC at 275/300MHz - 67C
GPU idle on AC at 168/100MHz - 65C

GPU 30 minutes load Rainbow Six: Vegas on AC at 400/600 - 95C

While these temperatures are quite high, Intel's thermal specification for the CPU is 100C, so it's within reason. Core temperature was measured with CoreTemp, SpeedFan as well as Intel Thermal Analysis Tool. CoreTemp and the Intel TAT correctly assume TJunction to be 100C. SpeedFan on the other hand assumes a TJunction of 85C. To get the accurate temperature from Speedfan, 15C was added to its readings. CPU temperature (measured at the midpoint of the two cores) was 59C under full load with Orthos, but this temperature isn't indicative of the hottest sections of the CPU.

Operating System and Software

Dell ships the XPS M1330 standard with Windows Vista Home Premium. Dell does not offer Linux or Windows XP configurations at this time. While there are numerous detractors, I've personally become a fan of Windows Vista. I transitioned several months ago from Windows XP to Vista on my desktop PC where I find it to be much faster than XP for desktop use. The few games I do play work well in Vista and I have not noticed any issues that have detracted from my typical usage. Memory usage is definitely higher than with XP, but with 2GB or more of memory, there isn't much to worry about, except in very special circumstances. I have not yet installed Windows XP on this M1330, but I imagine when and if I do, I will reach the same conclusion as I have for my desktop.

After hearing of the software bloat some pre-built systems from the likes of Dell, HP, and Acer come with, I was certain I'd be performing a format and a reinstallation of Vista. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there wasn't a great deal bogging down the system at all. I went through the Remove Programs list and ended up uninstalling the following programs:

Google Desktop
Google toolbar
Live! Cam Avatar
McAfee
MS Works
Roxio

The system shipped started off with 67 processes, but after uninstalling the above applications and streamlining the processes that start with Vista, I was able to get that number down to 46. I do not see the need to perform a reformat for the M1330, which is very surprising.

Customer Support

I won't go into much detail about my experience with Dell customer support, but needless to say, it was a rather frustrating experience, to wait so long for a laptop. The frustration was mostly mitigated by two extremely helpful contacts I worked with at Dell. I was contacted a couple times regarding my order through my personal website, which was a bit surprising in of itself.
The sales rep I spoke to before placing my order on July 4th told me it would take 10 to 15 days, but my order confirmation showed an August 22nd ship date. Customer Care told me the actual estimated delivery date was August 3rd. In the end, my laptop shipped on August 9th and I received the laptop on August 14th.

Throughout the wait and delays, my contact at Dell Round Rock went above and beyond his call of duty to make certain that I was satisfied and answered all my questions and assuaged my concerns. He showed genuine care and interest in my situation and that meant a great deal to me. He has helped turn the entire problem surrounding the M1330 into one of my most satisfying customer service experiences with any company.

I bet I know the big question you're asking - was the Dell XPS M1330 worth the wait? I'd like to answer that with a resounding YES. While it's unacceptable that there has been a relatively high proportion of build faults with the laptop, Dell is dedicated to correcting these issues. It's far from an ideal situation, but I get to use this system while a new one is built and shipped to me.

Everything else just screams quality. The design is absolutely fantastic and rivals the most aesthetically pleasing designs out there. The materials used are premium and the price is lower than a comparable system. And despite all the things that have been said about Dell customer service, I truly believe that most of the employees are dedicated to making the customer happy, within reason. I know my experience has not given me any reason to doubt that.

Before purchasing this laptop, I was looking for something that was small, light and well built so I wouldn't cringe at the thought of bringing it to classes and business meetings daily. The Dell XPS M1330 serves that purpose admirably. If you're looking for a dedicated gaming machine or a budget laptop, look elsewhere, but if you're like me and want something portable for a fair price, the M1330 should be on your short list.

Pros:

Fantastic design
Premium materials
Great battery life
Gorgeous display (brightness, viewing angles)
Extras included (sleeve, earbuds, remote)
Price is lower than comparable models

Cons:

Fit and finish issues
Only two USB ports
A bit deeper in dimension than similar 13.3" laptops
Very loud insert and eject mechanism for the disc drive
The wait

Sony VAIO SZ2

2007-09-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

Submitted by swisstoni on Thursday, July 13, 2006

Background

The VAIO SZ is Sony's latest thin and light range of notebooks, available in a range of specifications all with dual Intel / nVidia graphics and Intel dual core processors.

Sony VAIO SZ2 (view large image)

I opted for the flagship SZ2VP model with the following specifications:

Intel Core Duo T2600 -- @ 2.16Ghz per core
1GB DDR2 RAM
120Gb 54000RPM hard drive
13.3" LCD with LED backlight, running at 1280 x 800 resolution
Dual Layer DVD +/- RW optical drive
Switchable Intel GMA 950/nVidia GeForce 7400 graphics

Being the limited edition prestige' model, this was only available to purchase through Sony Centres or Sony Style online. After a visit to my local Sony Centre and being told a very vague "we might be able to get one for mid September" I decided to pursue the online method!

Build and Design

Sony VAIO SZ2 setup (view large image)

My first thoughts on unpacking the SZ were "wow...it's small!" This is my first laptop, yet with the top level VP' only weighing in at 1.69 kilos (3.7 lbs) I was very pleased with the size and weight of the unit.

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The VP features a carbon fibre top casing, yet there is much discussion as to how much carbon fibre is actually present in the laptop! The casing does not feature the weave' you would expect from this material, yet it still provides an interesting effect and also contains blue metallic particles visible in certain light conditions.

The palm rest and keypad area have a brushed aluminium finish which makes a great change from the plastic of many other machines and gives great aesthetic appeal.

There are a total of 5 switches located above the keyboard; two shortcut switches, a wireless on/off switch, power button and the graphics switch. It's a shame you can't turn off wifi/Bluetooth independently with hardware switches but it is easily done from the software utility.

VAIO SZ2 right side view (view large image)

VAIO SZ2 left side view (view large image)

VAIO SZ2 front side view (view large image)

VAIO SZ2 back side view (view large image)

Screen

The LCD features LED backlight technology, which gives a very thin screen and lid -- only around 5/6mm thick. Whilst helping to reduce weight and giving a great look to the product, it does make the LCD seem slightly fragile with a little amount of twist (though probably not as much as you'd expect from something this thin).

The 1280 x 800 resolution works excellently on the 13.3" screen. Not having perfect eyesight, I was concerned about a high resolution on a smaller screen but I find it a pleasure to use with absolutely no problems.

It features Sony's X-Black technology, which gives the typical glossy effect to the screen. Not having a massive range of experience with various manufacturers, I can't really compare it to others, yet suffice to say it also seems to feature some kind of anti glare coating which is hard to describe but it seems to reduce the visible reflections from objects behind you. I am also impressed with the very large viewing angle on the screen, far more so than any other LCD's I've used.

The brightness on the screen is excellent and I find myself turning it down from the highest setting when indoors and only using the brightest setting when outside, which still gives a decent picture.

Features and Performance

I'm not a gamer yet I tend to run multiple applications at the same time, particularly resource hogs like Photoshop. The Core Duo seems to live up to the task very well though I can't say it's any faster compared to my desktop running an Athlon XP at 2.17Ghz with the same 1GB of RAM and a lowly graphics card.

The dual graphics are a fantastic feature and allow you to switch between the integrated Intel GMA 950 chipset, or the dedicated nVidia GeForce 7400 with 128mb dedicated memory. Use the Intel while running office applications to conserve battery life, or the nVidia for more extreme use. A restart is required to flick between the two chips, which is a bit of an annoyance yet it is still an excellent innovation and something I haven't come across in any other laptops.

The fingerprint reader is located between the two touchpad buttons and although I considered it a toy in the pre-purchase stage, I now consider it a godsend! It can be used for logging onto Windows, launching applications (assign an app. to each finger) or entering passwords into web windows. It does the job very well and recognises my fingers first go around 95% of the time. To check security I asked a co-worker to try and logon to my system but they were denied access even after 5 minutes of trying! While I'm sure it's not that secure, it is certainly a viable alternative to entering hundreds of passwords.

The optical drive provides pretty much every kind of functionality I could ever dream of with dual layer DVD +/- rewrite ability. My only gripe would be that the disc tray seems a little fragile, yet for the amount I use the drive this is only a minor concern. I suspect this is due to the thin form factor of the laptop.

Expresscard 34 and a PCMCIA slots both feature on the laptop, yet the Expresscard is filled with Sony's included card reader which seems to cope with all the main formats such as SD and MMC. A built-in Sony memory stick duo reader takes care of their own format, but it's a shame they shun the popular SD format to a separate reader in favour of their own cards.

Included media card reader in the ExpressCard slot (view large image)

It also seems Sony were a bit tight on room by only including two USB 2 ports, which although is adequate for myself, I'd have preferred to have seen more.

There's VGA out but no composite video for outputting to a TV, which I consider a major downside on a laptop costing £1800 ($3,000)! Also, my VGA to TV converter doesn't work on this laptop like it did on my Mac Mini meaning it will be difficult to output the image to a standard TV screen.

Heat and Noise

The laptop seems exceptionally quiet, and the fan noise is almost inaudible in anything other than total silence. I've yet to hear the fans totally shut down, but this may be because I primarily use the nVidia graphics. Shortcut button 2 is pre-set to drop fan noise and CPU clock, yet whenever I've used it the difference has been minimal.

The optical drive is far from quiet when in use and during start-up, yet again as I use it so little this is not a problem for myself.

It seems to produce a fair amount of heat when using the nVidia graphics, though no more than I'd expect from a performance orientated machine with dedicated graphics and it never gets annoyingly hot, just quite warm. Again this is something I can live with. Using the Intel graphics allows the laptop to run very cool and quiet.

Keyboard and Touchpad

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After reading various forum reports of problems with the spacebar and keyboard in general on the SZ I was very sceptical. However after using it for a few weeks it seems to have none of these problems. I neither greatly like or dislike the keypad and assume it's something I'll grow to like over time but at the moment I'm still adjusting from my full sized Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard.

The key travel seems about right and it seems relatively quiet in operation. Being a touch typist, I still occasionally hit the wrong key but again, I'm sure this is something I will adjust to over time.

The touchpad has a slightly rough texture to it which works well, and it is easily configurable from within windows for scrolling and tapping speed, etc. Another neat feature is the ability to use the top left corner to maximise, minimise or close windows. Perhaps this is common to other laptops too, but I was still impressed by this simple feature. I later discovered, however, that I kept inadvertently tapping the top left corner while typing and this led to me closing the window I was working in! So this corner functionality has now been disabled; a shame really.

Speakers

I was all set to purchase a cheap pair of speakers to supplement my laptop, yet I think I'll leave this for a while now given the quality of the built in speakers. Peering through the grille results in what looks like a pair of tiny (half-inch) diameter drivers which result in an exceptionally clear and loud sound. Of course, there's no bass but I really wouldn't have been disappointed had the speakers had JBL or similar logos on!

External audio is provided through a 3.5mm line out socket, though the output seems very quiet when using this into my amplified external speakers. There is also a massive amount of hiss/feedback that appears only when the AC power cord is plugged in. If someone uses the external audio a lot then this will prove annoying and the Sony representative I spoke to did not have any idea what it could be. SPDIF optical output would have been nice, especially as this one of the most expensive laptops on the market today!

Battery

Doing everyday tasks as I have been for the past weeks, using the nVidia graphics and wireless and Bluetooth on I reliably get just under three hours battery life. This is using a high/mid LCD brightness setting. I expect 4+ hours easily using the Intel graphics with wireless switched off. Sony offer an extended life battery, but it is far too expensive at around £240 and increases the size and weight of the laptop considerably (see the notebook review forums).

Bundled Software

This is by far and away the laptops worst feature. The amount of bundled useless software was unbelievable and performance out of the box was far below my expectations. Sony make it reasonably difficult to do a clean install, by not providing a separate windows CD (or any CD's... for that matter) in the box. They include a hidden recovery partition on the hard drive and there is an option to create your own recovery discs. The problem with recovery is that it would reinstall all the bundled nonsense!

I have a separate standalone copy of XP pro so I installed this on the laptop with no problems, using the drivers available to download from Sony's website. Though there are many forum posts relating to this issue, I had a problem free clean install and everything works perfectly.

Benchmarks:

Super Pi calculated to 2 million:

Notebook	Time
Sony VAIO SZ2 (2.16GHz Core Duo)	1m 14s
Asus W3H760DD (2.0 GHz Pentium M)	1m 33s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Toshiba Satellite M100 (2.00GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo)	1m 29s
Dell XPS M140 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 41s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

3DMark05:

Notebook Comparison	3DMark05 Score
Sony VAIO SZ2 (2.16GHz Core Duo, nVidia GeForce 7400)	1,851
ASUS W3V (2.0 GHz Pentium M, ATI X600	1,263
Lenovo ThinkPad Z60m (2.0GHz Pentium M, ATI X600 128MB)	1,659
ThinkPad T43 (1.86GHz, ATI X300 64MB graphics)	727
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI Radeon Mobility x700 128 MB)	2,530
HP dv4000 (1.86GHz Pentium M, ATI X700 128MB)	2,536
Toshiba Satellite M100 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	1,660

HD Tune:

(view large image)

Conclusion

I am very pleased with the SZ2VP. Is it a performance machine...is it a thin and light...is it a desktop replacement? It combines extreme performance in an exceptionally lightweight package. I was after a super-fast notebook to take to university and the weight saving is a fantastic plus.

Spending an afternoon reformatting isn't much work for the machine you have at the end, but it shouldn't be a required step.

Pros:

High speed -- T2600 dual core runs at 2.16 GHz
Battery life -- Expected around 4 hours with no wireless and Intel graphics
Lightweight -- only 1.69kg (3.7lbs)
Overall design -- the use of aluminium and carbon fibre make it stand out as something a bit special.

Cons

Terrible pre-installed software -- It shouldn't be there!
Lack of independent wireless switches
No TV out -- For £1800 ($3,000), it really needs this basic feature!
Lack of SPDIF -- Again, for £1800 it would be nice.
Shortage of USB ports

Dell Inspiron 1520

2007-09-30T21:50:00.000-07:00

by Kevin Giberson

The Dell Inspiron 1520 under review here is the latest 15.4” in an ever-growing succession of what can be categorized as “consumer mainstream” notebooks offered by Dell’s Home & Home Office division. Since the release of the 1520, Dell has also made available a very similar machine, the Vostro 1500, which can be purchased from the Small Business site. Unlike the Inspiron 1520, which can be configured with any one of eight different colors, the Vostro 1500 is solid black. The Vostro also provides a Windows XP option, which is unavailable in the Inspiron 1520.

It should also be noted, for the benefit of anyone who is somewhat new to this website, that there is plenty of additional information on the 1520, including an excellent full-featured review by someone who actually purchased the 1520, as well as a side-by-side comparison of the 1520 and the HP dv6500t; this comparison includes a video that is definitely worth watching for anyone considering the Inspiron 1520, the HP dv6500t or any other 15.4” consumer notebook.

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Dell Inspiron 1520 Specs:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 (2.0 GHz/4MB L2 Cache)
OS: Microsoft Vista Home Premium
Hard Drive: 160 GB SATA @ 5400RPM
Screen: 15.4" WSXGA Widescreen (1680 x 1050)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256MB
RAM: 2.0GB DDR2 SDRAM @667 MHz (2 x 1GB)
Optical Drive: 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/Double Layer Support
Battery: 9-cell lithium ion
Wireless: Intel 4965AGN
Weight: 6.4 lbs
Dimensions: 1.47-1.65” (H) x 14.12 “ (W) x 10.59" (D)
Ports/Slots: 1 IEEE 1394 (FireWire); 4 Universal Serial Bus (USB 2.0); 8-in-1 Memory Card Reader; VGA Out; S-Video; RJ-45 Ethernet LAN; RJ-11 Modem; ExpressCard 54mm; stereo in, headphone/speaker out and dual digital mics

Initial Impressions

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This Inspiron 1520 weighs about six and a half pounds and is considered a mainstream consumer notebook. Though Dell allows customization of the lid in up to eight different colors, our model has a conservative looking black lid. Because of that our machine lacks some of the consumer flair a “Flamingo Pink” lid would have offered. Nonetheless, my first impressions had to do with a couple of things that distinguish the 1520 from its predecessors:

The overall look is very different, in a good way.
The hardware, particularly in the form of graphics processing, will allow the 1520 to perform about as well as any notebook on the market, with the exception of outlandishly expensive gaming machines that lack any concessions with respect to size, battery life and cost.

These two characteristics are what make the 1520 such an impressive achievement. I actually briefly owned the previous Inspiron generation's e1705 model, and reviewed the prior-generation e1405 thin-and-light notebook. I must say, the look of the current lineup is immeasurably more appealing. The old silver-and-white style always got me thinking of things like shag carpet and popcorn ceilings: sure, one can make a case for these innovations, just as one can make a case for thick white plastic trim around a notebook, but in the end (which usually comes within a matter of weeks if not months), the style grows tired, the initial promise hollow. The new Inspiron series design is cleaner, simpler and more tasteful. A cousin of the 1520, which shares its look, is the AMD-based Inspiron 1521.

Purchasing Considerations

Though this notebook was sent by Dell for review purposes and not purchased, I wanted to touch on the above topic, simply because there is something of an art to purchasing a Dell consumer notebook. There are many decisions to make, and like all decisions, they carry with them the opportunity for regret or satisfaction. I heartily endorse this web site’s forums for a little glimpse into the thought, action and subsequent level of satisfaction of other buyers.

As of this writing, deliberately moving along the Dell purchasing highway results in:

An Inspiron 1520 with a fairly basic configuration, but one more than adequate for general media and office tasks, for just over $900.
A deluxe performance configuration, virtually identical to this review machine, for just over $1500.

These prices reflect no special discounts or coupons, just today’s standard upgrades and reductions, which are plainly available to anyone who orders a 1520 today. In any case, at the high end particularly, these prices strike me as very competitive, and a savvy shopper who finds coupons, buys their own memory and times the Dell marketing promotions can do better on price.

One thing I found interesting while configuring a couple of 1520s on the Dell site was the price of a RAM upgrade from 2GB to 4GB: $850. Had I selected a higher-priced starting point, meaning a more full-figured set of warranty and support options, the cost of these 2 gigabytes of RAM would have moved away from the direction of a cool grand, but not by much. I saw no mention of this upgrade including a complimentary iPhone or round-trip flight to London, but it is there and available. That said, I would definitely opt for the T7300 CPU and the 8600M GT graphics included in this review model, if at all possible. While these enhancements will probably add three or four hundred dollars to the final price, they are well worth the cost and will almost certainly give the 1520 a longer useful life.

Design

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As noted, I like the look of the Inspiron 1520 and see it as a vast improvement over the Inspiron e1505, the 1520’s predecessor. However, one thing I’ll mention is that my own preference is the black lid of this review model because I find, in pictures at least, that the machines with colored lids have too much color for me. Two distinct colors, in this case silver and black, are just about right. I also like the aforementioned Vostro 1500, very similar to this 1520 and available at the Dell Small Business site, because of the all-black look, including a black keyboard, and the possibility of Windows XP. Though many won’t, I see a black keyboard and XP as decided advantages.

Buying Choices for the Dell Vostro 1500 (Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz, 1.5GB RAM, 120GB HDD, XP Home)

Dell, Inc. | $784.00

83.9% of people recommend this product - view 31 opinions | rate product

Also a welcome change is the placement and position of the keyboard and touchpad. The prior line of Inspirons featured a somewhat odd shaped keyboard that was set very close to the LCD, and a rather large touchpad placed in the middle of a vast sea of silver plastic. While this did allow the palm rests to accommodate even the most monstrous palms, the new Inspiron line, as represented by this review 1520, has a slightly smaller touchpad and a more centered keyboard; this redesign makes for more comfortable typing and touchpad operation, besides being more aesthetically harmonious.

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Build

The Inspiron 1520 feels very solid. The only issue, which has been mentioned elsewhere, is the screen latch, which does have some play. Aside from this lack of a nice, snug fit, the latch did not bother me, and I found nothing in the build quality that would make me hesitant to purchase a 1520. Firm but gentle pushing and prodding revealed no flex or weakness.

Input and Output Ports

The Inspiron 1520 has the following ports selection:

(4) USB 2.0 Ports
Integrated 10/100 LAN and 56K Modem
IEEE 1394a
8-in-1 Card Reader
VGA Video Output and S-Video
Stereo In, Headphone/Speaker Out and Dual Digital Mics
ExpressCard 54mm Slot

Left view of Inspiron 1520 ports (view large image)

Right view of Inspiron 1520 ports (view large image)

Front view of Inspiron 1520 with buttons (view large image)

Rear view of Inspiron 1520 with ports and battery (view large image)

The screen

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Color and brightness were both good on the WSXGA glossy LCD. While I like and would myself choose this option, other resolutions are available: 1280x800 WXGA, in both glossy and non-glossy, and 1440x900, glossy only. This represents improved LCD variety and is a major selling point of the 1520; there is something for nearly everyone. Careful scrutiny revealed only one utterly trivial imperfection in the screen: an eighth of an inch or so of uneven backlighting at the bottom of the LCD, which was only visible when I looked very closely while running a screen saver with a dark background. There has been some discussion in this site’s forums about “grainy” LCDs in the 1520, but I detected none of this. However, I am admittedly not a good cohort for those studying LCD perfection; generally (but not always) I’m okay with the screens I use. Everest Home lists the screen as an SEC3350, a Seiko Epson manufactured LCD.

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Graphics

The NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT is currently among the cream of the crop in notebook GPUs. Athough RivaTuner indicated that the 8600m in the Inspiron 1520 had DDR3 memory, in reality it is DDR2, which may be dissapointing to some. All the same, it's a powerful card and there were no graphics-related problems during my time with the 8600M. For those interested in gaming considerations, there is plenty of real-world information in this web site’s forums.

Sound

As always, or almost always, when discussing notebook sound: more than adequate for getting the gist, feel and intent of what’s being played, but definitely lacking in bass. Headphones or external speakers will provide a much more lifelike experience.

Multimedia Features

This 1520 came with a remote, snugly ensconced in the ExpressCard slot, as well as an array of physical media buttons on the front of the notebook. Both the built-in buttons and the remote worked as expected, forwarding and pausing and muting in accordance with my wishes.

Processor and Performance

Thanks to the very strong components, performance was always good, regardless of the stress put on system resources such as RAM and CPU. The new Santa Rosa platform coupled with an Intel T7300 CPU, together with a stronger GPU, outperformed my “old” T2400-based Dell Precision M65 by a wide margin on all benchmarks.

For prospective buyers, it may be worth adding that this review 1520’s configuration is worth considering if one is looking for excellent performance while keeping the price reasonably modest. The T7300 is the cheapest available CPU that comes with 4MB of Level 2 cache, the 8600M GT GPU will provide optimal graphics performance, and anything less than 2GB RAM will significantly hinder performance.

Benchmarks

Super PI, used as a CPU benchmarking tool by calculating pi to 2 million digits of accuracy:

Super Pi comparison results:

Notebook	Time
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300)	0m 59s
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 58s
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	1m 01s
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
HP dv2500t (1.80GHz Intel 7100)	1m 09s
Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T7300)	0m 59s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo T7200)	1m 03s
Toshiba Satellite P205-S6287 (1.73 GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T5300)	1m 24s
Toshiba Satellite A205 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 34s
HP Compaq 6515b (1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52)	2m 05s
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T2400)	0m 59s
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 02s

PCMark05 comparison results:

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	4,616 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,591 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks

3DMark05 comparison results:

Notebook	3D Mark 05 Results
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	5,348 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	3,116 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6510b (2.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, Intel X3100)	916 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6515b (1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52, ATI x1270)	871 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	2,013 3D Marks
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	1,791 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4,236 3DMarks
Alienware Aurora M-7700(AMD Dual Core FX-60, ATI X1600 256MB)	7,078 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,092 3D Marks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI x700 128 MB)	2,530 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,273 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1210 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia Go 7400 256MB)	2,090 3D Marks

3DMark06 comparison results:

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	2,905 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,408 3DMarks
Samsung Q70 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 and nVidia 8400M G GPU)	1,069 3DMarks
Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB)	2,344 3DMarks
Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB	2,183 3DMarks
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1526 (1.66 Core Duo, nVidia 7600Go 256 MB)	2,144 3DMarks
Samsung X60plus (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7200, ATI X1700 256MB)	1,831 3DMarks
Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB)	1,819 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	794 3DMarks
Samsung R20 (1.73GHz T2250 and ATI 1250M chipset / GPU)	476 3DMarks

HDTune results:

Keyboard and Touchpad

Dell Inspiron 1520 keyboard (view large image)

Keys are responsive and have good travel. Overall, I’d say Dell has done an excellent job with the 1520’s keyboard, both in terms of the feel and the new placement that doesn’t err northward the way the last-generation Inspirons did, especially the e1505 and e1705. Individual key placement makes sense, being more or less standard, and the half-height function keys are consistent with, and just as comfortable as, their larger brethren. The touchpad, which is smaller than that of the e1505, is eminently usable and did everything I expected of it with no discomfort or untoward behavior.

Battery Life

Under fairly heavy usage, e.g., a lot of hard drive activity, wireless going and the screen set to maximum brightness, I managed to run on the battery for almost three hours. Very light usage and a dim display, but wireless still running, yielded an additional hour or so. I expected a greater disparity, given that my usage for the two tests was at opposite ends of the spectrum, but I did have wireless enabled for the light-usage test, and both times seemed fairly strong for a machine with this power. With a little tweaking, I’m sure others could squeeze more life out of the 9-cell battery.

Heat and Noise

The 1520 was remarkably quiet (virtually silent, in fact) the whole time I had it, and heat was never a problem. The bottom of the unit became a little warm after protracted heavy activity, but not unusually so.

Service and Support

I have used Dell support in the past and have always been satisfied, in the end, with the experience, but I had no reason to contact support regarding this 1520.

Software

Being a creature of habit, I removed most of the “trialware,” along with some other common programs I loathe, as soon as I received the notebook. I was barely paying attention while doing this, but the whole process for this review notebook seemed to go very quickly. There were no apparent software issues, though I do find myself longing for Windows XP whenever I use a Vista machine. The availability of XP is reason #2 for my seriously considering the Vostro 1500 if I were in the market for a high-powered 15.4” notebook at a reasonable price.

Conclusion

Much of what I found while using the Inspiron 1520 is consistent with (to the point of being almost identical to) what has been written elsewhere. There was really only one thing about this notebook that bothered me, my preference for the all black Vostro 1500 notwithstanding: the play in the screen latch mechanism when the notebook is shut. Is this a big deal? I would say no, not at all.

There are so many positives, including the overall build quality, and so much flexibility in terms of configuration, the 1520 would seem to make a lot of sense for a wide range of notebook users, and a little bit of latch looseness should not be a determining factor. There are many fine notebook deals in the Sunday ads, as well as online, but there is often something about these machines, such as the keyboard, the graphics or the resolution, that would make me reluctant to purchase one of them. The 1520, or the Vostro 1500, for that matter, can be configured just right. If I weren’t already happy with my two laptops and in no hurry to get a replacement, I’d definitely consider the Inspiron 1520 or its nearly identical sibling, the Vostro 1500.

Pros:

Excellent performance with the right configuration
Solid, inexpensive multimedia notebook with more basic hardware
Good screen
Wide variety of LCD resolutions, configurable by user
Well built
Nice appearance, with user-selectable colors
Very good keyboard
Good battery life
Runs quiet
Stays cool

Cons:

Dual LCD latch does not hold as firmly as it should
Window XP is not an option (though it is with the Vostro 1500)

Lenovo ThinkPad T61p

2007-09-30T21:44:00.001-07:00

Submitted by Kevin on Tuesday, August 14, 2007

by Kevin O'Brien

The T61p is the first widescreen ThinkPad mobile workstation, and the latest high-end offering from Lenovo. It comes with almost every feature a demanding business user could want, and is starting at a very reasonable price point below 1400 for the 14.1” model. This model has also gone under a number of changes from the previous generation, and in this ThinkPad T61p review you will find out how it stacks up.

Lenovo ThinkPad T61p (view large image)

The ThinkPad T61p comes in two sizes, one being 14.1” and the model being reviewed at 15.4”. The key difference between both these lines, besides screen size, is the memory size of the NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M video card included with the system. You receive a 128MB card in the smaller 14.1” model, and double the memory at 256MB in the 15.4” model. The processor selection is the same, spanning from the Intel T7100 to T7700, memory from 1GB to 4GB, and hard drives from 60GB to 160GB in 5400 or 7200rpm flavors. Other options include a fingerprint reader, Bluetooth, Intel Turbo Memory, N-wireless, and an extended battery version.

The following are the features of the 15.4” T61p being reviewed:

Screen: 15.4-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) TFT Display,175 NIT, 500:1 Contrast
Processor: 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 (4MB L2 Cache,800MHz FSB)
Hard Drive: 100 GB hard drive (Seagate 7200.1 7200RPM)
Memory: 2GB x 1 RAM (PC5300, 667 MHz, DDR2 SDRAM) 4GB max memory
Optical Drive: DVD+-R Double layer / DVD+-RW Drive
External Ports and Slots: Three USB 2.0, Firewire 400, one ExpressCard slot, one SmartCard Reader, one VGA, one 4-in-1 card reader, headphone / line-out, microphone-in, modem, 1Gb Ethernet
Wireless: WiFi (Intel 4965AGN 802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.0 w/ EDR
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256MB)
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate
9-cell Li-Ion battery (10.8V, 7.8AH)
Dimensions: (WxDxH): 14.1" x 10.0" x 1.2–1.4"; 358.4mm x 255mm x 29.8–34.5mm
Weight: 6.77 pounds (w/ 9 cell battery, 5.67lbs w/o)

Link to detailed specs for T61p

Build and Design

I’ll have to admit, as a current owner of a ThinkPad T60, I was quite eager to see what had been updated and changed with the T61. The items that gained the most attention out of the box were system operating temperatures, as well as the new LCD cover construction. Lenovo had advertised both items on how they were improved across the board, and I wanted to see just how much.

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Starting off with cooling system changes, I turned on the laptop and opened up tpfancontrol to watch the internal temperatures. CPU temps were very similar, but compared to my T60, GPU temps were 15-20C lower at idle! Obviously something changed under the hood of the laptop besides the wider heatsink grills. To take a closer look, I removed the keyboard from both machines, and compared the heatsinks side by side. The fan structure and CPU pad are quite similar, but the GPU/Northbridge side changed quite a bit.

A look at the GPU and cooling system (view large image)

Key parts changed:

Larger heat absorption block above the GPU chip
Thermal pad connecting GPU heatsink to keyboard base structure as additional passive heatsink.
Redesigned plate that rests above GPU/Northbridge

All these changes account for the dramatically lower GPU temps at idle, even with the higher-end GPU that T61p has in comparison to the T60. Below are some figures clearly showing the differences in temperatures across the board.

When the GPU was put under load, the playing field evened out. Both laptops have roughly the same size heatsink/fan meaning they will dissipate energy just at roughly the same speed. Both laptops had GPU temps peaked around the 80-81C range, with the T61p slightly higher (though it's a much better card than the old X1400 in my T60). Another aspect some might notice is how quiet the new T61 series is under load. At first I was thinking it was a new fan design, but playing with tpfancontrol I noticed you only have 3 fan speeds instead of 7 on the T60. It is quieter under high load because the fan is limited to ~3300rpm, whereas the T60 can go upwards of ~4300rpm. Less noise yes, but also less peak airflow. Speeds 1-3 are roughly the same noise level, but the T61 (with its newer heatsink design) spends more time without the fans on at all.

The LCD cover was also changed on the T61, going from the stamped magnesium piece, to plastic. I am happy to say that not only is the plastic lid just as sturdy, but it has much less flex than the older cover. New on this model was an internal magnesium framework behind the screen for support, and this has obviously helped out a lot. With the old design, although it protected the screen just fine, you could still flex it in if you pressed hard enough with your thumb. On the new design, the internal framework supports the lid completely, preventing almost all flex.

For those curious about items that didn’t change, the AC adapter, battery, and keyboard are the exact same parts found on the previous 15” T60 and Z60m/Z61m. Keyboard is tried and true, and you don’t have to worry about replacing your spare power cords, batteries, or even the docking station.

Performance and Benchmarks

With the broad range of Core 2 Duo processors available, combined with the NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M graphics, the T61p doesn’t fall short on performance. Even with its being targeted towards business applications, it has more than enough raw power for the latest games. Another fun fact for those curious about the video ram configuration, you will be happy to know this laptop has GDDR3 modules, Hynix hy5rs123235b to be exact. To keep system lag to a minimum, this particular configuration also had a 7200rpm Seagate hard drive. The following benchmarks are a testament to this business laptop’s shear power.

3DMark06 comparison results:

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
Lenovo ThinkPad T61p (2.4GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T7700, Nvidia Quadro FX 570M)	3,757 3DMarks
Asus W7S (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M G 128MB RAM)	1,082 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,329 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	532 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,408 3DMarks
Samsung Q70 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 and nVidia 8400M G GPU)	1,069 3DMarks
Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB)	2,344 3DMarks
Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB	2,183 3DMarks
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1526 (1.66 Core Duo, nVidia 7600Go 256 MB)	2,144 3DMarks
Samsung X60plus (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7200, ATI X1700 256MB)	1,831 3DMarks
Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB)	1,819 3DMarks

PCMark05 comparison results

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Lenovo ThinkPad T61p (2.4GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T7700, Nvidia Quadro FX 570M)	5,500 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T7300)	4,084 PCMarks
Toshiba Satellite P205-S6287 (Intel 1.73GHz T5300 + GMA 950)	2,981 PCMarks
HP Compaq 6515b (1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52, ATI x1270)	2,420 PCMarks
Toshiba Satellite A135 (Core Duo T2250, Intel GMA 950)	3,027 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook A6010 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo, Intel GMA 950)	2,994 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Toshiba Tecra M6 (1.66GHz Intel T2300E, Intel GMA 950)	2,732 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks
Sony VAIO FE590 (1.83GHz Core Duo)	3,427 PCMarks

Super Pi comparison results:

Notebook	Time
Lenovo ThinkPad T61p (2.4GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T7700)	0m 51s
Asus W7S (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500)	0m 56s
Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500)	0m 54s
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 58s
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	1m 01s
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
HP dv2500t (1.80GHz Intel 7100)	1m 09s
Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T7300)	0m 59s
Toshiba Satellite P205-S6287 (1.73 GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T5300)	1m 24s
Toshiba Satellite A205 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 34s
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T2400)	0m 59s
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 02s

Windows Vista Experience Index:

Vista index 4.8
Processor 5.3
Memory (RAM) 4.8
Graphics 5.9
Gaming Graphics 5.5
Hard Disk 5.0

Screen

The WUXGA high resolution screen that comes standard on the 15.4” T61p has a very good contrast, and plenty of backlighting. I found the screen to be very easy to read in bright rooms and even outside. Direct sunlight does wash out the screen, but short of a perfect reflection off the screen it is quite readable outside. On higher backlight settings some mild backlight bleed was visible on a completely black screen. Viewing angles I felt were lacking, as colors washed out with vertical movement up or down. Horizontal angles were better, with little color distortion as you moved towards a steeper angle. Those who are worried about the off center screen causing viewing problems; I didn’t notice it once I started concentrating on what was on the screen. If that type of thing bugged you, the matte black finish, squared edges, and industrial looks would have turned you off well before that wider bexel on one edge. Overall the screen was fine for normal use sitting in front of the laptop, but deep down inside I wish some screen manufacturer offered a Flexview screen in this format.

One problem that wasn’t directly related to the screen itself was my eyes viewing the extremely fine resolution. This is a more personal preference than anything, and I would highly suggest that you find a 15” WUXGA screen to play with in person before you make the purchase. My preference is the lower SXGA+ (1400x1050), or SWXGA+ (1680x1050) resolution range for the 15” screen size for ease of viewing.

Keyboard, Touchpad, and Fingerprint reader

The keyboard hasn’t changed much, in fact it is the identical part number to the one found on the older T60. This is great news for those hoping that the trusted layout and feel stayed the same into the new model. Same goes for the touchpad and fingerprint sensor. With many keyboard reviews, you generally see that particular model being compared against the “ThinkPad Keyboard” and this really holds true. You can type comfortably for hours at this keyboard as if it was your desktop in front of you. The support under the keyboard is very sturdy, with absolutely no flex anywhere.

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The touchpad while being on the small side compared to versions found on other laptops is still easy to operate. The semi-rough texture I find to be preferable to polished feel for better control, and it seems to hold up longer to oils on your finger without getting too slick. The Trackpoint hasn’t changed much over the years, and gives the same feel as it always has. The buttons for both the touchpad and trackpoint give a nice solid clunk when pressed, never needing to be forced to register the click. The fingerprint reader works great, although in general they take a while to get used to the swiping motion. If you have never used one before, it may be a few days before you get the single stroke login down pat.

Input and Output Ports

Front and center you find the firewire 400 connector, master wireless on/off switch, and 4 in 1 card reader:

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Left Side we see the VGA port, modem, LAN, microphone/speaker, USB, and Smartcard/PC Card slot:

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On the Right side we have the SATA HD Bay, Optical Drive Bay, USB Ports, and Kensington lock slot:

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The rear side has the battery, and AC connector:

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Audio and Speakers

The onboard audio on the T61p is more than adequate for mild entertainment while traveling, or listening to music in a smaller room. Don’t expect much in terms of bass and midrange from the speakers, and you won’t be disappointed. They provide more than enough volume for most tasks, but don’t compare to the speakers found on some of the media center laptops. The external headphone/speaker jack gave clear and hiss free sound, and had plenty of power to drive a larger set of headphones.

Networking

The T61p comes with Intel gigabit wired networking, as well as your choice of 3 wireless card offerings and a Bluetooth option. This configuration had the Intel 4965AGN card, but an Atheros based 11a/b/g card, as well as the Intel 3945ABG were also options. I had no problems connecting onto networks promptly, and configuration was easily controlled through Windows Vista. I had no problems connecting with “Very Good” signal strength anywhere around my 2500 sq ft brick house, with the Linksys WRT54g located in a central point. The Bluetooth transceiver was plug n play with all accessories I had laying around, although a few items were strict about using the MS Bluetooth stack or the Widcomm stack.

Heat and Noise

The T61p managed heat much better than the older T60 under normal use. In situations where the CPU and/or GPU would be close to an idle state, heat was dispersed passively through the chassis and keyboard with the fan turning on in small intervals. Under heavier loads the fans would come on more, but heat would still stay in acceptable ranges. Fan noise was minimal, with the 7200rpm drive almost always louder. Specific idle and load temperatures are listed in the “Build and Design” section above.

Battery

Off the grid users would be strongly recommended to look into the 9 cell battery for the T61p. With its beefier configuration, it has a tendency to suck down power at a greater rate compared the standard T61 or T60. While my old 15” t60 w/ t7400, x1400, 2gb, and 120gb 7200.2 can string out more than 5 hours on the 9 cell, the T61p comes in below 4 hours running in balanced mode with 50% backlight. It hit 5% on the battery gauge after running for 3 hours and 33 minutes.

Starting at around 1500 for the 15.4” version, the ThinkPad T61p is a great value. With many configurations possible depending on processor speed, ram, hard drive size, operating system, security features, and battery sizes you are bound to find a setup perfect for your needs. This machine offers high performance for both business and leisure (gaming) uses, without sacrificing any of the build quality of previous ThinkPad models. Platform updates from the T60 series seem to all be for the better, with other trusted components staying the same. Overall I find the T61p to be an excellent choice for almost any situation given its midrange price point.

Pros:

Runs much cooler at idle than previous T60
Stronger lid construction and a bit stiffer chassis
Lots of power for anything you can throw at it
Still shares accessories with the T60 so less items to upgrade

Cons:

Temps under load are on par with older T60
T61p goes through juice at a faster rate than more modest configurations

Dell Vostro 1500

2007-09-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

Dell Vostro 1500 Review

The Dell Vostro 1500 is the small business equivalent of the Inspiron 1520. This computer, starting at less than $600, can be configured with anywhere from a Celeron M540 processor to a much faster Core 2 Duo 7500. Unlike the Inspiron model, an AMD option is unavailable.

Configuration: (Total: $877)

Intel Core 2 Duo T5470 (1.6Ghz)
1GB 677Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
120G 5400RPM Hard Drive
nVidia GeForce 8600M GT, 256MB
8x DVD Burner with Double Layer capability
15.4” widescreen anti-glare screen (1280x800)
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)
Dell Wireless 1505 Mini-Card (Pre-802.11n)
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic

Note: Since this machine was purchased, Dell has increased the price of this computer.

First Impressions

Dell Vostro 1500 (view large image)

Upon unpacking the Vostro 1500 and first handling it, I was rather impressed by the build. Upon picking up the system, it’s clear the computer is very sturdy and will hold up over time. Unfortunately, the side effect of this build quality is the heaviness and size. This machine is a beast. I make a note of handing it to people and watching their reaction. Everyone is shocked by the sheer weight of this machine.

Build/Design

The design of this system is rather spartan, but also very professional with the solid black styling. It’s not flashy like a high-end gaming laptop would be, but it doesn’t look bad to my eyes. The LEDs have a nice saturated blue color, though Dell was inconsistent in the styling. Several lights, including the battery level LEDs, the CD drive LED, and the “Wi-Fi Catcher” LED are green. In addition, the low battery light is an odd shade of hot pink, which fits with nothing else in the system. While this is by no means a major functional concern, I would have preferred the colors to be more consistent. I also dislike the hot pink color the battery light turns when the battery reaches a low level.

The build of this system, as noted above, is very good. The back of the screen and bottom of the case appear to be a fairly thick magnesium alloy, which is solid, but has the side effect of adding a lot of weight. My configuration, without the battery, is 6.2 pounds. The battery is 1.1 pounds, as is the charger. In total, the system carrying weight is 8.4 pounds. Clearly, this computer is not designed to move very far. When I pushed around the casing, the only places that gave were in the largest areas of the palm rest, and then only a little bit. The keyboard has no discernable give. I was disappointed, as I was with the Inspiron 1501, with the Express Card release button. In the out position, it’s extremely difficult to push back in for those of us with chubby fingers.

The build of the screen is a not quite as good as the rest of the notebook. Neither twisting nor pushing on the back of the screen yielded any rippling. However, the screen itself is relatively easy to twist, and squeaks when twisted. Pushing on the top of the screen yields only a small amount of wobbling, but not enough to be a problem in my opinion. As noted in reviews of the Inspiron 1520/1521, the screen latches leave a slight amount of room between the rubber pads on the screen and the palm rests, about the thickness of a dime. This is enough to wiggle a bit and make some noise if it’s closed and it gets jostled.

Right side

The right side of the case features the DVD burner, Firewire, two USB ports, the memory card reader, and Ethernet.

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Left Side

The left side of the case includes the wireless card switch, as well as the audio plugs and the ExpressCard slot.

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Back

The back of the case has the modem, the power plug, two USB ports, and an S-Video plug.

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Front

The buttons on the front are the media control buttons, which are mute, volume up, volume down, pause/play, skip backward, skip forward, and stop. Also on the front is the infrared window (receive only).

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Screen:

The screen on the Vostro 1500 is relatively ordinary. I opted for the anti-glare 1280x800, 15.4” resolution model. The vertical field of view on this screen can be described as poor at best, and I frequently find myself adjusting the tilt of the screen to match the way I’m sitting. The horizontal field of view is considerably better than the vertical, and I have no complaints. Even looking closely at the screen, I am unable to distinguish the “Dell noise” that some other reviewers have described. What does bother me, however, is this screen’s ability to attract dust. Cleaning the screen is an ordeal that has to be done frequently to remove the dust from the screen. I do not know if the glossy screen would improve this or not.

In the screen’s defense, it is rather bright when put on full brightness, and colors seem adequately saturated and accurate to my eye. The light leaks are relatively minor on this computer and are only noticeable on a completely black screen, and then only on the top and bottom.

Speakers:

As can be expected of most laptops in this price range, the speakers are nothing spectacular. There is an excess of sound in the 4K range, and not nearly enough in the lower-end range, causing very tinny sounding speakers. I would recommend using an equalizer if you intend to listen to music on this computer. As an example, the following screenshot shows my iTunes EQ settings. Fortunately, these speakers do get rather loud, and due to the position on the underside of the computer, they don’t get muffled by hands.

Processor, Performance, and Benchmarks:

The Core 2 Duo processor is, simply put, awesome. The T5470 that was configured in my system was the slowest processor available in the Core 2 Duo variety, but it still performs tasks with great ease. When multi-tasking, the dual-core functionality of the system really shows what it’s capable of. Having run single-core processors up until this computer, the difference is amazing. It’s possible to do CPU-intensive tasks and still have a perfectly responsive computer at the same time, which is a welcome relief.

Super Pi is an application that calculates Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy and reports the time it took to perform the calculation. The time on the T5470 was 1 minute 16 seconds with no applications running, and 1 minute 27 seconds while watching a DVD in Windows Media Player.

Notebook	Time
Dell Vostro 1500 (Intel T5470 1.60GHz)	1m 16s
ThinkPad X61s (1.6GHz Core 2 Duo L7500)	1m 08s
ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300)	1m 01s
Macbook Pro (2.4GHz Core 2 Duo T7700)	53s
HP 6515b (1.6GHz Turion64 X2 TL-52)	2m 05s
ThinkPad T42 (1.8GHz Pentium M 745)	1m 58s
Sony TX850p (1.2GHz Core Solo U1400)	1m 22s
ThinkPad R60 (1.66GHz Core Duo T2300e)	1m 26s
Lenovo C100 (1.5GHz Celeron M)	2m 19s
VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M 740)	1m 45s

PCMark 2005 is a synthetic benchmark that tests all areas of system performance. The Vostro 1500 was, however, unable to complete this test. I am uncertain why, but it seemed worthy of note.

Unfortunately, the stock 5400RPM hard drive doesn’t always cut it. Since I now use this computer as my standard gaming computer, I’ve loaded games onto it. What I’ve discovered is that with some games, Battlefield 2 in particular, the hard drive loads everything slowly enough that by the time I have loaded the game, the match is half over. If you’re intending to use this computer for gaming and you have the money, spend the extra on the 7200RPM hard drive. If you intend to use it solely for less hard drive-intensive applications, the 5400RPM drive will be fine.

HD Tune is a basic hard drive benchmark that tests the transfer rate and access speed of the hard drive. As is evident, this hard drive sets no performance records, and the transfer rate is inconsistent.

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The graphics card, the 8600M GT, in this computer configuration has been no less than spectacular thus far. Among the games I own, I was unable to find one that I could not run at full graphical settings acceptably.

3DMark 2006 is a synthetic graphics benchmark that is designed to take advantage of the latest and greatest in graphics technology. The 8600M GT performs well for this price range, at 3319 3DMarks.

3DMark06 comparison results:

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
Dell Vostro 1500 (1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5470, Nvidia Go 8600M GT)	3,319 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1720 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT)	2,930 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,329 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	532 3DMarks
Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB)	2,344 3DMarks
Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB	2,183 3DMarks
Samsung X60plus (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7200, ATI X1700 256MB)	1,831 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	794 3DMarks
Samsung R20 (1.73GHz T2250 and ATI 1250M chipset / GPU)	476 3DMarks

Optical drive performance was not what I would consider spectacular. The DVD burner drive appears to be capable of reading and writing at a maximum of 24x for CDs, and is capable of burning DVDs at 8x. Nero InfoTool shows the drive’s capabilities:

Running Nero CD-DVD Speed on an audio CD reveals the drive’s lackluster speed:

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Heat and Noise:

The Dell Vostro 1500 produces an ungodly amount of heat if you run processor or video-card intensive programs. While the system manages to keep itself cool enough to continue operating, it can get almost uncomfortable to leave this computer on your lap while playing games or running processor-heavy applications. The areas I noted that get the hottest are noted below.

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While it does get hot, this computer never gets noisy. The whir of the hard drive and fans remains whisper-quiet even when the fan is on full blast. I often keep the system on overnight because I can hear no difference between having it on and having it off.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

The keyboard and touchpad of the Vostro 1500 are both very sturdy and without flex. The keyboard, as with all laptop keyboards, takes some adjustment to learn the unique positioning of the keys. I am a huge fan of the way Dell laid out this machine’s keyboard. The function key, as seen in pictures, is placed just to the right of the control key, and is the same size as the Windows key (I have on occasion pressed the Windows key instead of the function key). The delete key is positioned in the upper right corner, and it’s probably the most natural spot it can go. It’s out of the way enough not to be accidental, and it’s easy to find. Function keys are fairly standard, and include F1 for sleep/hibernate, F3 for battery status (Which requires installed Dell software to operate), F8 to switch monitors, and the up/down arrow keys for monitor brightness. One gripe I have is that the numpad not only requires numlock to be on, but the function key must also be held down while using it. I also had a key stop working properly for a while. I will explain in the customer support section.

The touchpad is not as good as the keyboard. Dell chose to move down the keyboard in this line of computers, which, while it makes it more attractive and better laid out, shrinks the touchpad significantly vertically. By my own measurements, it’s 3” wide by 1.5” tall -- certainly usable, but far too short for my tastes. The scroll zones at the top and bottom are also difficult to adjust properly using software, and I frequently have trouble getting them to activate regardless of their setting. Large-handed users beware: I often find the edge of my palm rests or taps the touchpad on occasion, causing clicks where they weren’t intended. The large buttons placed below the touch pad are suitably sized, though they are mushy as with the older Inspiron computers. There’s no satisfying click as there is with some touchpad buttons.

Input and Output Ports:

This computer features a host of ports, though surprisingly it lacks a DVI-out port as may be expected. The VGA port is located on the right hand side of the system. Dell designed this system to have 4 USB 2.0 ports, two on the back next to the power plug, and two on the side next to the Ethernet port. Also featured are an IEEE 1394 (Firewire) port on the same side as the VGA plug, 10/100 Ethernet port, and the CD drive. The system also has an 8-in-1 memory card reader, which can read: SD, xD, MMC, SDIO, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Hi Speed-SD, and Hi Density-SD. In contrast to the heavily utilized right side, the left side of the case features few ports. There is a microphone jack, a headphone/speaker jack, and an Express Card slot. The back is also fairly unused, with nothing but the power input, an S-Video output (notably also supporting several adapters Dell will sell you for component video and the like), and the two USB ports I noted earlier.

Wireless:

I opted for my computer to use the Dell Wireless 1505, which features pre-N functionality. The wireless range on this card is fairly average, and it connects to most networks with ease. However, it’s important to note that this card does not communicate with all wireless routers without a fight. My recommendation, for compatibility, is the Intel Wireless card instead of the Dell wireless. It seems to be more compatible according to what I have read (the lower-end Dell cards also seem to have the same connection problems). I do, however, like the wireless switch on the left-hand side of the notebook. This switch allows control (configurable via the Dell software in Windows or through the BIOS) of the system’s internal wireless cards, including, if installed, Bluetooth, 802.11X, and any WWAN cards. This switch has three options: On, off, and a third, momentary switch, dubbed “Wi-fi Catcher.” This technology, if used while the system is off, will turn a small LED green if a wireless network is detected in range of the system within around five seconds. If used from within Windows when the Dell software is installed, a window will instantly pop up with all the wireless networks in range. While it sounds pointless, considering a similar feature is available through Windows, the Wi-Fi Catcher is considerably faster.

Battery:

I opted for the 9-cell extended life battery on the notebook. This battery extends about three-fourths of an inch past the edge of the computer, and spans nearly the entire back. On the underside of the battery are 5 LEDs and a button which, if pushed, illuminates the LEDs to indicate battery charge remaining (20% per LED). I tested the battery life by instructing the computer to standby when the battery got to 2% and to not shut down anything on inactivity. On full brightness, while connected to a wireless access point and watching a DVD, I managed to squeeze 3 hours and 20 minutes out of the battery before it abruptly went into standby. This seems adequate for most purposes, and it is likely that with lower power consumption (Word processing on low screen brightness with no wireless, for example) would yield above four hours, a reasonable amount of time for a desktop replacement machine. Don’t expect it to be a road warrior. If you need the extra battery life, Dell offers a battery that replaces the optical drive.

Operating System and Software:

The Dell Vostro 1500 comes with only two CDs: One to reinstall the Dell MediaDirect feature and the other is a driver CD, including both XP and Vista drivers. No operating system reinstall disk is included, much to my dismay. The Dell MediaDirect install disk appears to be only for Vista, if Vista was the chosen operating system. More on this in a moment.

My system came preconfigured with Windows Vista Home Basic. After a day with Vista, I decided I preferred Windows XP, and promptly began to install the older operating system. This process, which in the past has taken around an hour, took 10 hours to do. My attempts were plagued by the Dell MediaDirect software. MediaDirect, for those not familiar, is a quick-booting Linux operating system accessed using a small ‘home’ button near the power button. It allows one to watch movies, read documents, listen to music, look at pictures, and a few other things. According to the instructions packaged with the disk, the MediaDirect disk is to be installed first, then the operating system is to be installed in the empty partition MediaDirect leaves. I did this. Several times. As it turns out, Dell did not intend to leave a downgrade path. When I tried invoking MediaDirect, the first few times it didn’t install properly. When it finally did, it set itself up then told me it couldn’t access the information on the hard drive. Upon restarting the system, it became apparent that MediaDirect was going to be a problem. It went through its “unable to access the hard drive” routine again- I was stuck out of Windows. Eventually, my solution was to install Windows without MediaDirect and simply not press the MediaDirect button.

The software on the Vostro is surprisingly free of bloatware, as is advertised on the Dell website. I requested my system without security software, and it came exactly as I wanted it: A clean slate. This was a very welcome relief after some systems I’ve worked with that take hours to uninstall the bundled software.

The Dell configuration software is relatively spartan and pales in comparison to the configuration software available in systems manufactured by some other companies, particularly Toshiba. There are a few power setting options, a configuration tool for the Wi-Fi Catcher, some basic screen settings, and that’s all that’s included. There is no option to slow down the CPU to improve battery life that was visible to me.

Customer Support:

Several weeks after receiving the laptop, the ‘a’ key on the keyboard began dropping keypresses seemingly randomly. I contacted Dell technical support on a Sunday evening with my problem. They asked for an address and by Tuesday morning, the new keyboard was at my doorstep. It was a self-install keyboard, which was easy due to the instructions in the substantial manual. When I was done, I put the old keyboard back in the box that was shipped to me and used the included return label to ship the old keyboard to Dell. (If you don’t do this, they invoice you for the replacement keyboard).

On the note of the manual, it is impressive by today’s standards. It’s 222 pages long and covers everything that a basic user could likely need. In the second half of the book is the shortened service manual, which includes how to remove and install the hard drive, memory, keyboard, and wireless cards. For me, having the printed copy was a nice touch.

The Dell Vostro 1500 is a moderately powerful and relatively inexpensive system for businesses and home users alike. Its good build quality and good configuration options allow it to be an excellent and versatile machine for many different applications. Despite some design flaws, the Vostro 1500 is still an excellent machine.

Pros:

Tough construction
Many configuration options
XP available preinstalled
Good keyboard
Quiet
Comprehensive manual
Fast support

Cons:

Heavy!
Mediocre screen
Tinny speakers
Slow hard drive
Picky wireless card

Halo 3 leaked onto P2P networks

2007-09-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

Halo 3 leaked onto P2P networks

File-sharers start downloading dodgy copies of forthcoming shooter
Clement James, vnunet.com 24 Sep 2007
ADVERTISEMENT

Microsoft's much-anticipated Xbox 360 shooter Halo 3 is not due for release until 26 September, but the game has already been leaked onto file sharing websites.

The leak is not expected to do too much damage as users downloading a dodgy copy of the game from a file-sharing site would need a modified Xbox console to play the game.
This would be a feat in itself as Microsoft began banning modified consoles from the Xbox Live network earlier this year.

The company said that the measure is designed to protect the majority of players from those who may have an unfair advantage through a modified console.
Another factor is that the Halo 3 file weighs in at over 6GB, making it a hefty download.
A few sites are blaming the leak on UK retailer Argos, which inadvertently released copies of the game ahead of the launch date after an " administrative error".

However, although Microsoft is none too pleased with Argos, the firm has said that it will not punish owners of a genuine copy of the game for logging on early to get in some game time.

Google is not the only search tool

2007-08-28T02:38:00.000-07:00

Google is not the only search tool

It's easy to forget that Google is not the only player in the search business, even if it has become a verb as far as the Oxford Dictionary. If you feel the need for a desktop search engine it is also worth considering the Windows Desktop Search from Microsoft.

Vista of course has the new search tool built into the Start Menu and it is genuinely very good. Writing a feature on the subject gave me the opportunity to get to know the search tool and it is worth the time getting used to it.

A good place is the Vista Team Blog who wrote a very helpful article on the subject of search.

Windows XP users can add some of the searching ability to their computers with the Windows Desktop Search. It's not quite as fast as the Vista search but does look through documents and Outlook emails.

only

surfcomputer.blogspot.com

Tips-Trick Making Online

Most Popular Software

2007-05-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

Most Popular Software

1. Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition
    Spyware Removers
    Scan your system for ad-supported software components and remove them.
    OS: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP
    License: Free
    File Size: 4.63MB

2. ICQ
    Chat
    Communicate instantly using the latest version of this popular chat client.
    OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
    License: Free
    File Size: 11.07MB

3. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
    Antivirus Software
    Protect your computer from viruses and malicious programs.
    OS: Windows (all)
    License: Free
    File Size: 20.42MB

4. LimeWire
    MP3 Finders
    Search for and download files located in P2P networks and share your files.
    OS: Windows (all)
    License: Free
    File Size: 350.7K

5. BitComet
    File Sharing
    Share and download files from BitTorrent and chat with your friends.
    OS: Windows (all)
    License: Free
    File Size: 6.84MB

6. WinZip
    File Compression
    Handle ZIP files with ease with this popular utility.
    OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista
    License: Free to try; $29.95 to buy
    File Size: 8.95MB

7. BearFlix
    Video Software
    Search and download videos.
    OS: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP
    License: Free
    File Size: 3.24MB

8. Camfrog Video Chat
    Webcam & Video
    Join live video chat rooms hosted world-wide.
    OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista
    License: Free to try; $49.95 to buy
    File Size: 4.93MB

9. WinRAR
    File Compression
    Manage RAR and ZIP archives.
    OS: Windows (all)
    License: Free to try; $29.00 to buy
    File Size: 1,011.01K

10. Avast Home Edition
    Antivirus Software
    Scan your computer for viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.
    OS: Windows (all)
    License: Free
    File Size: 12.71MB

Avast Home Edition

2007-05-16T01:44:00.000-07:00

Avast Home Edition

Avast Home Edition is a complete ICSA certified and Secure Computing Magazine awarded antivirus software for home noncommercial use. Avast includes the following components: On Demand Scanner--with skinnable simple interface--just select what do you want to scan in which way and press the Play button; On Access Scanner--special providers to protect the most of available e-mail clients; Instant Messaging--ICQ, Miranda; Network traffic--intrusion detection--lightweight firewall; P2P protection for Kazaa, BitTorrent; Web shield--monitors and filter all HTTP traffic; NNTP Scanner--scans all Usenet Newsgroup traffic and all operations with files on PC; Boot Time Scanner--scans disks in the same way and in the same time as Windows CHKDSK does.

OS: Windows (all)
License: Free File
Size: 14.18MB

Download If not then click here

WinRAR

2007-05-16T01:42:00.000-07:00

WinRAR

WinRAR is a 32-bit Windows version of RAR Archiver, an archiver and archive manager. RAR files can usually compress content by 8 percent to 15 percent more than ZIP files can. WinRAR's main features include strong general and multimedia compression, the ability to process non-RAR archive formats, ZIP compression and decompression, support for long filenames, programmable self-extracting archives (SFX), repair of damaged archives, authenticity verification, embedded file comments, and encryption.

Unicode is supported in archive filenames, allowing non-English filenames to be handled painlessly. You can manipulate the parameters of many archives at once and view a volume sequence as a single archive. WinRAR can convert other archive formats to RAR and search for specified text and files in archives.

Version 3.62 is a security update.

OS: Windows (all) License:
Free to try; $29.00 to buy
File Size: 1,011.01K

Download If not then click here

Camfrog Video Chat

2007-05-16T01:40:00.000-07:00

Camfrog Video Chat

Camfrog Video Chat allows you to join real streaming video chat rooms where you can hear, see, and chat with many people at a time. Instant message a user to get to know them before you Webcam chat, and add them to your contact list.

This videoconferencing software also works behind most firewalls and routers. Camfrog Video Chat allows multi-user videoconferencing where you can join a room with up to 1000 users and just click a user name to begin seeing someone. Press the 'talk' button to talk to the entire room with audio.

The video chat rooms are hosted by broadband users who are running the Camfrog Video Chat Room Server software so any user can set up their own multi-user videoconference for other users to join. No Webcam is required to see people, but some rooms might not allow users without Webcams. Camfrog Video Chat is optimized for broadband users so it has fast video. Version 3.91.22594 features multimedia and Unicode text compatibility upgrades.
Note: This software comes bundled with several promotional software titles, that can be installed or uninstalled at the user's choice.

This product is a TRUSTe Trusted Download.
The TRUSTe Trusted Download Program publishes a "whitelist" of certified applications. To be placed on the whitelist, downloadable software applications must demonstrate a commitment to protecting consumer privacy, security, and end-user control. CNET Networks is an official sponsor of the Trusted Download Program.

OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista
License: Free to try; $49.95 to buy
File Size: 4.94MB

Download If not then click here

BearFlix

2007-05-16T01:37:00.000-07:00

BearFlix is the fastest video download application on the Web offering access to millions of video titles, all free.

BearFlix is powered by the same engine as BearShare, but optimized from the ground up for video download. BearFlix is 100% clean, with no adware, no spyware, no viruses, no trojans. Just pure video downloads. Share BearFlix with your friends.

OS: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP
License: Free File
Size: 3.24MB

Download

WinZip

2007-05-16T01:35:00.000-07:00

WinZip

WinZip is the original and most popular of all Windows ZIP file utilities. Wizard/Classic interfaces accommodate both first-time and experienced users. With WinZip you can quickly and easily compress and decompress files, folders, and entire folder trees to save storage space and reduce e-mail-transmission time, as well as encrypt and decrypt your sensitive documents.

Features include tight integration with Windows Explorer, support for most Internet file formats, and one-click zipping and e-mail. Version 11.1 adds Vista compatibility.

Note: WinZip is now bundled with Google Toolbar and Google Desktop Search. Installation of these components is optional.

OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista
License: Free to try; $29.95 to buy
File Size: 8.95MB

Download

BitComet

2007-05-16T01:31:00.000-07:00

BitComet

BitComet is a fast and easy-to-use BitTorrent/HTTP/FTP download client. It is P2P file-sharing freeware and one of the most popular P2P protocols designed for high-speed distribution.

BitComet supports simultaneous downloads, DHT networks (trackerless), a download queue, selected downloads in the Torrent package, fast-resume, disk caching, speed limits, auto port mapping, proxies, and IP filtering.

Version 0.87 supports previewing a snapshot before download, and optimizes torrent share.

OS: Windows (all)
License: Free
File Size: 6.84MB
Download

LimeWire

2007-05-16T01:28:00.000-07:00

LimeWire

LimeWire is the world's fastest P2P file-sharing application for all types of computer files, including music, video, pictures, games, and text documents. Other features include dynamic querying, file previews during download, advanced techniques for locating rare files, and an easy, clean user interface.

LimeWire's new spam blocker gets rid of junk results, and automatic updates will keep you sharing faster than ever with the latest version. You can search for Creative Commons and Weedshare licensed files, and publish your own creative works with Creative Commons licensing. LimeWire continues its guarantee of no adware or spyware. Version 4.12.8 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

OS: Windows (all)
License: Free
File Size: 350.7K

Download

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition

2007-05-16T01:24:00.000-07:00

AVG Free Edition (Grisoft)

AVG Free Edition is the well-known antivirus protection tool. AVG Free is available free of charge to home users for the life of the product. Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy to use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements).

Grisoft
Highlights include automatic update functionality, the AVG Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run, free Virus Database Updates for the lifetime of the product, and AVG Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files.

Version 7.5.467 includes improved polymorphic viruses detection and improved help features.

OS: Windows (all)
License: Free
File Size: 20.42MB

Download

ICQ

2007-05-16T01:21:00.000-07:00

ICQ

ICQ 6 provides users with an innovative communication experience and enables quick and simple interaction among users across all communication platforms. ICQ 6 offers the entire suite of digital and mobile communication tools available today, all integrated seamlessly in a single message window. ICQ 6 boasts an entirely new client infrastructure and a completely redesigned UI along with a fresh look and feel.

Innovations and improved features in ICQ 6 include:

* Quick IM--enabling users to send messages to contacts without opening a message window.
* Easy access simple navigation between incoming messages.
* Tabbed conversations--management of all active conversations in one message window by using tabs.
* History--new and improved search history of messages, files, and calls.
* Search capabilities--advanced and easy-to-use search through contacts, on ICQ, and on the web.

OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
License: Free
File Size: 11.07MB

Download

Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition

2007-05-16T01:15:00.000-07:00

Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition

With the ability to scan your RAM, Registry, hard drives, and external storage devices for known data-mining, advertising, and tracking components, Ad-Aware SE easily can clean your system, allowing you to maintain a higher degree of privacy while you surf the Web.

Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition boasts a number of improvements. Extended memory scanning now scans all modules loaded by a process. Scanning uses the all- new CSI (Code Sequence Identification) technology to identify new and unknown variants of known targets. Extended Registry scanning now scans Registry branches of multiple-user accounts and performs additional smart checks to detect dynamically created references. Scanning speed is noticeably faster, and this version offers an Extended Scanning mode for known and unknown/possible browser hijackers.

New in version 1.06: Disk-scan is approximately 30 percent faster. CSI scan is now more efficient. Added "Scan for low-risk threats" option, to scan for targets with low TAC index. Ad-Watch CSI engine performance highly improved; using less CPU and Memory as well as having a smaller footprint. GUI adapted to use the new TAC.

CNET Networks is not responsible for the content of this Publisher's Description. We encourage you to determine whether this product or your intended use is legal. We do not encourage or condone the use of any software in violation of applicable laws.

OS: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP
License: Free
File Size: 4.63MB

Download

IE7Pro beefs up Internet Explorer

2007-05-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

IE7Pro beefs up Internet Explorer

Posted by Peter Butler on May 10 2007

Mozilla Firefox gets a lot of praise for the countless third-party extensions that add features like FTP, download management, and tab customization to the open-source browser. The most popular browser on the market, Internet Explorer, also has its fair share of add-ons, but nowhere near the number or quality of its competitor.

One new download for Internet Explorer, however, adds a number of valuable features that are only replicated in numerous different Firefox extensions. Among its many enhancements, IE7Pro adds tab management, ad blocking, Flash blocking, crash recovery, and the ability to re-open closed tabs to the Microsoft browser. Even cooler, it allows user-based scripts much like Greasemonkey for Firefox. Again, the scripts aren't nearly as impressive as Greasemonkey, but the idea is a good one.

Despite the name, the latest version of IE7Pro now supports both Internet Explorer 6 as well as Internet Explorer 7. I can't understand why anyone would continue to use IE6 by choice, but I also know personally many people who have switched back from version 7, so it's great to see IE7Pro support it.

As mentioned, a lot of the functionality in IE7Pro already exists in Mozilla Firefox or can be duplicated with extensions. IE7Pro adds a few new powers to tab management, such as the ability to retrieve closed tabs via a "tab history" interface and close tabs by double-clicking, but Tab Mix Plus for Firefox blows it away when it comes to customizing the appearance and behavior of your browser tabs.

An ad blocker in IE7Pro comes with a large number of default filters for blocking advertisements from Web pages, and the ability to create your own filter with domain names and wild cards. Adblock Plus for Firefox offers a very similar feature, with the further ability to block out specific images or domains directly from Web pages. However, in my testing, the two were equally effective in filtering out advertisements from mainstream commercial Web sites.

The "Greasemonkey-like" user scripts in IE7Pro appear to have a lot of potential, but they're definitely kludgey. In particular, the Gmail CSS skin, which is supposed to clean up the appearance of the already spartan Gmail interface, caused severe instability and a few full crashes. Stability in general was compromised in Internet Explorer 7 whenever I ran any of the user-based scripts.

Compare the AccuWeather plug-in for IE7Pro (above) with ForecastFox (below) in this split-screen image.

There are a few additional plug-ins for IE7Pro that add even more features, but they're limited right now to three types of additional content in your IE status bar: AccuWeather forecasts; Alexarank and Google pagerank for any Web site; and Web server info for visited sites. When compared to ForecastFox for Firefox, however, the AccuWeather interface in IE7Pro leaves much to be desired.

For me, the coolest unique feature in IE7Pro is the ability to quickly snap screenshots of your browser windows, including full Web pages, even if they stretch far below the edge of your browser interface. The Firefox add-on Snapper provides similar functionality, but it hasn't been updated for Firefox 2.0. I'll likely disable all of the scripts and plug-ins for IE7Pro, but the screenshot and tab-history features definitely make it worth keeping it installed for now.

What Else Is New

2007-05-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

Inside Intel's New Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro

(Santa Rosa)
What Else Is New

The Intel Graphics Meda Accelerator X3100 integrated graphics now offer DirectX10 support and improved gaming performance. Still, this integrated solution is no match for discrete options from the likes of nVidia (as seen in the ThinkPad T61) and ATI (as seen in the E-265M and HDX9000). Intel has also upped the maximum amount of allocated video memory to 384MB (from 224MB), allowing Windows Vista to process its translucent interface and redraw high-resolution screens without hiccups. The bump up to 384MB also means that the graphics core has a bigger appetite for memory. Our suggestion is to boost system memory to 2GB whenever possible, in order to leave enough memory for other functions. Intel's 4965AGN chip is the next generation of Wi-Fi, supporting the draft 802.11n standard. You'll be able to get realistic throughput speeds of 130 Mbps, provided that you have a compatible 802.11n router. The 4965AGN chipset will not, however, have the support for the WiMAX standard that many had anticipated.

NAND Flash or Solid State memory will soon replace the spinning hard drive. For now, many OEMs will be looking into Intel's Turbo Memory, an optional feature in the new Centrino platforms. Intel Turbo Memory consists of Intel's NAND Flash and Intel software drivers. This additional flash component can benefit a laptop in several ways. Flash memory reduces the amount of time it takes for a PC to power up and access programs by a process called caching. Intel Turbo Memory is available in either a 512MB or a 1GB configuration. PC makers can integrate either solution by soldering it separately onto the motherboard or via a plug-in PCI-E module. The ThinkPad T61 takes advantage of this feature by incorporating a 512MB module.

Intel's new Centrino Duo and Pro chipsets are a promising platform. Improvements include faster processors to accompany the speedier FSB, draft 802.11n support, a more powerful graphics core, and the Turbo Memory feature. The Santa Rosa platform has already set the stage for this year's laptops. It's up to you to take advantage of it.

Benchmark Test Results
Check out the details of the benchmark test results for the laptops with the new Centrino platform.

Revved-Up Performance

2007-05-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

Inside Intel's New Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro

(Santa Rosa)
Revved-Up Performance

We used the Dell Inspiron E1705 (Vista) with the previous chipset ("Napa") as our comparison system. For the new Dell, Fujitsu, and the HP dv2500t machines, test results aren't earth-shattering. You'll see gains of 3 to 10 percent with them on Adobe Photoshop CS2, Windows Media Encoder, and CineBench 9.5 tests. As you move to the Gateway, Lenovo, and HP HDX9000 systems, performance gains get into the 10 to 30 percent range, but that could easily be a function of the faster processors. The HDX9000, ThinkPad T61 Widescreen, and the E-265M finished our Photoshop scripts and Windows Media Encoding tests in record time. On SYSmark 2007 Preview Overall, the T61 Widescreen and HDX9000 outscored the Dell Inspiron E1705 (Vista) by 22 and 33 percent, respectively. The Gateway E-265M outperformed the E1705 by a 30 percent margin, thanks in large part to its Windows XP operating system, which has proven to be faster in certain test areas than Vista.

Intel is touting better battery life with its new chipset. On paper, the chipset can dynamically change the speed of the FSB to save power, essentially ratcheting the speeds of the processor and chipset down to a lower gear with what Intel calls its Enhanced Sleep state. Expect to see better battery life and less heat dissipation than the previous Napa chipset. We performed some aggressive battery-run-down tests with a 7-hour DVD made up of video clips from the The Incredibles. As expected, great battery life is still a function of size. Both the Dell Latitude D630 and the Gateway E-265M have monstrous batteries and therefore lasted the longest, surpassing the 3.5-hour mark. None of the new Centrino laptops were uncomfortably warm; all of them had temperature readings, using an infrared thermometer, below 100ºF. To get a better sense of what battery life will be for the new platform, we'll have to wait for BAPCo's MobileMark 2007, an industry-standard benchmark test that'll serve as a better gauge for battery performance. From an anecdotal standpoint, though, the prospects are very good

Which Chipset Is Which?

2007-05-11T19:57:00.000-07:00

Inside Intel's New Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro

(Santa Rosa)

Which Chipset Is Which?

How do you know if your laptop has the new chipset? One sure way is to find out what model processor it uses. If it's an odd-numbered one (such as T7300, T7500, or T7700), you have the new platform. Of course, you can always navigate through the Microsoft Windows Device Manager and figure out which chipset is loaded, but asking for the processor model number is a sure bet. Deciphering between a Centrino Duo and a Centrino Pro laptop will take some investigating, but finding out if it has the Gigabit controller will clinch it. (The other difference is the AMT drivers.)

As usual, PC Magazine got its hands on several laptops—from HP, Gateway, Lenovo, Fujitsu, and Dell—featuring the new chipset. All of the systems tested have the Centrino Duo platform. (We'll be rounding up Centrino Pro laptops shortly.) Performance gains over the old chipset start picking up as you move up the processor ladder, but typical improvements will be in the 3 to 10 percent range. These gains will become more apparent once key components catch up to speed.

That said, the FSB merely provides a link from the processor to system memory. You'll need components that will take advantage of the speed boost. The HP Pavilion dv2500t, the Fujitsu LifeBook A6030, and the Dell Latitude D630 all feature a 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor. Further up the ladder is the Gateway E-265M and its 2.2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 CPU. All the way at the top are the Lenovo ThinkPad T61 Widescreen and the HP Pavilion HDX9000, both with the 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700. Intel is also adding the 1.8-GHz Core 2 Duo T7100, and low-voltage processors using the Core 2 Duo L7300(1.4-GHz) and L7500(1.6-GHz). All of these processors are rated to support the new 800-MHz bus frequency.

In order to take full advantage of the new chipset's capabilities, you really need all the components to be rated at 800 MHz. Although the processors and the front-side bus are already there, system memory still has to catch up. Current memory modules (including those in the new Santa Rosa laptops) are rated up to only 667 MHz. Laptops incorporating 800-MHz SODIMMs, or PC2-6400 modules, will become available later on this year. So far, however, Intel has not said one way or another whether its new Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro platforms will support those 800-MHz memory modules.—next: Revved-Up Performance >

Inside Intel's New Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro

2007-05-10T05:52:00.000-07:00

Inside Intel's New Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro

(Santa Rosa)
The latest Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro platforms give you a graphics makeover, support draft-n Wi-Fi, and take you for a ride on the 800-MHz bus.

By Cisco Cheng

Intel's unveiling of its next-generation laptop technology is practically a yearly tradition now. Last year, it was a new motherboard chipset and a dual-core processor (code-named "Napa" and "Yonah," respectively). This year, all eyes are on a new motherboard chipset. Most of us know it as Centrino Duo, though Intel calls it by its prelaunch code name, "Santa Rosa." To complicate things, Intel is splitting its Centrino brand into two market segments, consumer and corporate. You'll see the consumer version in stores as the next Centrino Duo. Corporate professionals have already gotten a glimpse of the Centrino Pro platform, which launched in mid-April. Intel has created a successful marketing campaign out of the Centrino brand name, while keeping its nomenclature simple for consumers—at least until now.

A new chipset is typically accompanied by a faster front-side bus (FSB), a new graphics core, and a wireless chip that reflects the latest Wi-Fi trends. Because the Intel Core 2 Duo processor (code-named "Merom") is still relatively new, Intel is not introducing a new processor core, but you'll see additions to the Core 2 Duo line that will take advantage of the faster FSB. With Santa Rosa, Intel moves to the Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset, delivering a jolt of speed to the FSB (up to 800 MHz from the 667 MHz of the previous chipset). Integrated graphics get a makeover with the Intel GMA X3100. The Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN portion adds draft 802.11n support. These components, plus the Core 2 Duo processor, make up the new Centrino Duo platform on the consumer side. With Centrino Pro, Intel adds a fourth element—the Intel 82566MM and 82566MC Gigabit Network Connection—that will be a requirement in order for PC makers to be able to decorate their corporate laptops with the shiny Centrino Pro sticker. The Intel Gigabit Controller's most compelling feature is its ability to wake a computer from shutdown state (Wake on LAN), wirelessly.—next: Which Chipset Is Which?

Computer hardware

2007-05-09T05:13:00.000-07:00

Computer hardware
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Computer hardware is the physical part of a computer, including the digital circuitry, as distinguished from the computer software that executes within the hardware. The hardware of a computer is infrequently changed, in comparison with software and data, which are "soft" in the sense that they are readily created, modified or erased on the computer. Firmware is a special type of software that rarely, if ever, needs to be changed and so is stored on hardware devices such as read-only memory (ROM) where it is not readily changed (and is therefore "firm" rather than just "soft").

Most computer hardware is not seen by normal users. It is in embedded systems in automobiles, microwave ovens, electrocardiograph machines, compact disc players, and other devices. Personal computers, the computer hardware familiar to most people, form only a small minority of computers (about 0.2% of all new computers produced in 2003). See Market statistics.

Personal computer hardware

A typical Personal computer consists of a case or chassis in desktop or tower shape and the following parts:

Internals of typical personal computer

Typical Motherboard found in a computer

Motherboard or system board with slots for expansion cards and holding parts
Central processing unit (CPU)
Computer fan - used to cool down the CPU
Random Access Memory (RAM) - for program execution and short term data storage, so the computer does not have to take the time to access the hard drive to find the file(s) it requires. More RAM will normally contribute to a faster PC. RAM is almost always removable as it sits in slots in the motherboard, attached with small clips. The RAM slots are normally located next to the CPU socket.
Basic Input-Output System (BIOS) or Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) in some newer computers
Buses
PCI
PCI-E
USB
HyperTransport
CSI (expected in 2008)
AGP (being phased out)
VLB (outdated)
ISA (outdated)
EISA (outdated)
Power supply - a case that holds a transformer, voltage control, and (usually) a cooling fan
Storage controllers of IDE, SATA, SCSI or other type, that control hard disk, floppy disk, CD-ROM and other drives; the controllers sit directly on the motherboard (on-board) or on expansion cards
Video display controller that produces the output for the computer display. This will either be built into the motherboard or attached in its own separate slot (PCI, PCI-E or AGP), requiring a Graphics Card.
Computer bus controllers (parallel, serial, USB, FireWire) to connect the computer to external peripheral devices such as printers or scanners
Some type of a removable media writer:
CD - the most common type of removable media, cheap but fragile.
CD-ROM Drive
CD Writer
DVD
DVD-ROM Drive
DVD Writer
DVD-RAM Drive
BD
BD-ROM Drive
BD Writer
Floppy disk
Zip drive
USB flash drive AKA a Pen Drive, memory stick
Tape drive - mainly for backup and long-term storage
Internal storage - keeps data inside the computer for later use.
Hard disk - for medium-term storage of data.
Disk array controller
Sound card - translates signals from the system board into analog voltage levels, and has terminals to plug in speakers.
Networking - to connect the computer to the Internet and/or other computers
Modem - for dial-up connections
Network card - for DSL/Cable internet, and/or connecting to other computers.
Other peripherals

In addition, hardware can include external components of a computer system. The following are either standard or very common.

Wheel Mouse
Input or Input devices
Text input devices
Keyboard
Pointing devices
Mouse
Trackball
Gaming devices
Joystick
Gamepad
Game controller
Image, Video input devices
Image scanner
Webcam
Audio input devices
Microphone
Output or Output devices
Image, Video output devices
Printer Peripheral device that produces a hard copy. (Inkjet, Laser)
Monitor Device that takes signals and displays them. (CRT, LCD)
Audio output devices
Speakers A device that converts analog audio signals into the equivalent air vibrations in order to make audible sound.
Headset A device similar in functionality to computer speakers used mainly to not disturb others nearby.

ANTIVIRUS

2007-05-01T02:45:00.000-07:00

ANTIVIRUS

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How to decide what data to back up

2007-04-18T06:04:00.000-07:00

How to decide what data to back up

Published: October 6, 2006

There are many ways you can unintentionally lose information on a computer. A child playing the keyboard like a piano, a power surge, lightning, floods. And sometimes equipment just fails.

If you regularly make backup copies of your files and keep them in a separate place, you can get some, if not all, of your information back in the event something happens to the originals on your computer.

Deciding what to back up is highly personal. Anything you cannot replace easily should be at the top of your list. Before you get started, make a checklist of files to back up. This will help you determine what to back up, and also give you a reference list in the event you need to retrieve a backed-up file. Here are some file suggestions to get you started:

•	Bank records and other financial information
•	Digital photographs
•	Software you purchased and downloaded from the Internet
•	Music you purchased and downloaded from the Internet
•	Personal projects
•	Your e-mail address book
•	Your Microsoft Outlook calendar
•	Your Internet Explorer bookmarks

If you haven't already decided where you want to store your backup copies—external hard disk drive, CDs, DVDs, or some other storage format—and you want to know more about your options, you can read about the types of external storage available.

After you've decided what you want to back up and where you're going to back up, you're ready to learn how to back up.

Basic Computer System Security

2007-04-18T06:03:00.000-07:00

Basic Computer System Security

Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright 1997-2007.
There are two kinds of security: data and break-in. Data security is addressed by having a good backup system (see next section on computer security). Break-in security is often a matter of using passwords to files or systems where possible, locking systems in offices and managing modem dial-in. Have the modem on only when sending or receiving.

1. To avoid losing information stored on your computers when, e.g., a disk breaks (or "crashes"), ensure that computer files are regularly backed up to another media, e.g., backed up onto magnetic tapes, "zip" disk, CD-ROM, etc. Store the media offsite, that is, in a facility other than at your organization. If a disk crashes, you can repair the disk or get a new one and then restore the information from the backup media onto the new disk.Or, if backup media cannot be afforded (most are only a few hundred dollars), ensure files are stored on at least two different media devices, e.g., stored on an internal hard disk and then also on a diskette. Using a diskette as backup simply requires the computer user to occasionally save away his or her file to the diskette in addition to the hard disk. The same diskette can be used to backup files. Label the diskette with the time period during which files were backed up to it. Note that the major software applications themselves (Word, Excel, etc.) do not have to be backed up because the organization usually has the software application's master diskettes. The most important items to backup are usually database files, spreadsheet files and large documents written by users. Conducting regular backups is more a matter of managerial policy than technical limitations.

2. Use electrical surge protectors to ensure your computers will not experience sudden surges of electricity, e.g., during storms, if the quality of your electricity in your building is poor, or is the computer is turned off and on.

3. Protect unauthorized access to computer files by using passwords to log-on to your system, if possible. Critical files can be copied onto two different diskettes (with one as a backup for the other) and both stored in locked drawers. Be sure to label the diskettes such that you'll recognize them later by the name on the diskette label.

4. Ensure that computers remain working as much as possible (that is, maximum their uptime) by recording and testing detailed procedures for all routine, but critical, tasks performed by staff on the computers and associated peripherals, e.g., for computer backups and restores, fixing recurring problems, etc. Locate and label the procedures in a central location of which all staff are aware.

5. Develop competent internal technical support personnel who can help others to conduct basic activities on the computers and who can call outside consultants for troubleshooting when needed. Have one or two internal people who are designated as technical support contacts for other staff members.

6. Instruct staff to report all problems to the internal technical support people. That way, the internal people are aware of all problems and are more likely to detect oncoming problems as early as possible. They also become better trained at detecting and diagnosing problems.

7. Record all important phone numbers for technical support consultants or contacts, and ensure staff can find these numbers when needed.

8. Keep all software documentation, such as manuals and guides, stored in a central location where staff can find them. Post a sheet on the wall so they can check documents out and for control to ensure they are returned.

9. Promptly register all new software with the vendor to ensure you receive notification of regular software version updates and your eligibility to call the vendors for technical support if needed.

10. Keep the serial numbers of all software packages in a clearly visible place for ease of reference when calling the software vendor's technical support. (The vendor usually will ask you for the serial number to verify that you indeed purchased the software.)

11. Note that if you dissemble your computer hardware, you risk losing coverage of your warranty. During your warranty period (which often covers labor during the first 90 days and hardware during the first one or two years), always call the vendor as soon as you suspect any problems. Problems usually occur during the first several weeks if they occur at all.

12. Be sure to install a virus detector on your system. The detector should automatically check any new data brought into your system, for example, from diskettes, downloaded from the Internet, etc.

13. Develop a disaster recovery plan. The plan should address contingencies. It should include procedures to respond to, e.g., if a disk crashes, if the computer quits working, if the network is down, if the building is somehow destroyed, etc.

Introduction and Basic Overview of E-Commerce

2007-04-18T05:53:00.000-07:00

Introduction and Basic Overview of E-Commerce

The Free Management Library will help you address the major considerations in setting up an e-commerce business. The considerations are as follows.

E-Commerce is Like Any Other Business, Except ...

Developing a business over the Internet requires many of the same major activities as starting any other business. You should do some basic business planning. After all, you need a product. You may need funding to get your business going. You need customers. You need to market products to your customers. You need strong customer service. You need to manage purchases by customers, finances, staff and other resources.

Not All Products Are Very Compatible to Sales Over the Internet

But there are some features unique to e-commerce. Not all products are real compatible to be sold over the Internet. For example, they may require a lot of face-to-face selling. They may cost a lot to ship (a primary practice in e-commerce is that customers buy products, and you ship the products to them). You need to make sure that, because your product may be advertised to the world, that you remain in control of your ideas, or "intellectual property".

You Need an Online "Store"

Basically, you need an "online store" to be an "e-tailer". (Don't fret. You may be able to outsource, or hire, a current store to work with you.) Your store will need a "merchant" account, or the ability to process your customers' credit card transactions over the Internet. This includes needing a "secure server", or that your online store be on a computer system that ensures that customers' credit card numbers cannot readily be read by people who are not supposed to read these numbers. You'll probably need some kind of online order form that customers can complete, in order to purchase your products. You may even want your the processing of customers' order to include processing the customers' credit card numbers right away while they're still online and connected to your Website.

Let's read on to understand the very basics of e-commerce.

Obviously, You Need a Website

You need to design and promote a Website. You'll need access to expertise that can regularly design and maintain this Website for you -- and it will require ongoing attention. Fortunately, there is a great deal of free information available to help you with this design and promotion.

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Energy Star and the PC

2007-04-18T05:45:00.000-07:00

Energy Star and the PC

From Mark Kyrnin,
Your Guide to PC Hardware / Reviews.

What Does Energy Star Mean On a PC?

ENERGY STAR was a program that was first developed back in 1992 by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a voluntary labeling program. Essentially, products that met a specific power criteria could display the logo as a means inform consumers they were more energy efficient than the traditional product. They first began this labeling with personal computer products that tended to be left on at all times by corporations.

In 1995 the program expanded beyond computers to include other consumer electronics and appliances. The next year, the US Department of Energy became involved in the program for specific product categories. Most people are probably familiar of ENERGY STAR because this partnership brought the yellow energy guide labels to home appliances such as washers, dryers, refrigerators and dish washers.

Why Does it Matter?

Personal computers and home electronics may seem like they don't use a lot of power, but unlike a light that is switched off when not in use, most people leave their computers turned on.

he combined effect of millions of personal computers even in standby mode can use a fair amount of power. All of this power usage translates into greenhouse gases from the various sources used to generate the electricity. By creating a system that promotes power efficiencies, consumers can help to reduce the amount of electricity consumed that reduces greenhouse gases and also translates into cost savings for the consumer.

New Qualifications For PCs

As technology has changed over the years, the ENERGY STAR program has updated the requirements for the ENERGY STAR program. After all, a PC built four years ago is going to have very different power requirements from systems today that use multiple processor cores and feature a greater number of integrated devices. As a result, a new 4.0 specification is being put in place for all personal computer systems effective July 20, 2007. The new specifications set three new categories of requirements that all new computers must meet to display the logo.

The first and probably the most important of the changes is in power supply efficiency. Computer components run at lower voltages then those provided by an outlet. To do this, a power supply converts the voltages down to those the computer can use. During this process, some of the energy is lost as thermal heat. The more efficient the power supply is, the less power is lost as heat. For example, a 65% efficient power supply would convert 100W of wall current to 65W of power for the internal components. The new ENERGY STAR requirements are that all internal and external power supplies must have a minimum efficiency rating of 80% across all rated output. This is a very significant change.

The second change is what they call “Operational Mode Efficiency” requirements. Essentially this defines how much power a desktop or notebook computer can use when it is in standby, sleep and idle modes of operation. The amount of power for the standby and sleep are set at specific levels no matter what the notebook or desktop hardware is. Idle power levels can vary depending upon the hardware that is inside the PC.

To give a better example of this, a desktop computer system is allowed a maximum of 2W while in standby and 4W when in sleep modes. A basic desktop is allowed to use up to 50W when in idle while a multiple core desktop with dedicated graphics card can use up to 95W. Notebooks are even lower with 1W for standby, 1.7W for sleep and either 14 or 22W for idle.

The final change is for a power management requirement. Users may be somewhat familiar with this settings in Windows control panels that can adjust the delays between sleep and standby for the monitor, drives and the whole system after it has no user interactivity. New computers must have a power management setting of 15 minutes to put the monitor into a sleep mode and a 30 minute setting to put the entire computer into sleep mode. Of course, these are only requirements for the settings when the computer is shipped and they can be changed by the user after they receive the PC.

What Consumers Can Do

The total cost of ownership for a computer is more than just the cost of the computer system. Consumers also pay for the power to run their computers. Then there are other factors to the use of a computer such as the resources made to produce the computer and the cost of properly disposing of the computer. The ENERGY STAR program can help let consumers know that they are taking a step at reducing some of the costs of ownership by reducing the power usage and also helping to save the environment by reducing power generation.

When purchasing your next computer system, look for the ENERGY STAR logo either on the packaging or materials for the PC. If they are displayed with the computer system, then you know that the computer meets the minimum requirements to earn that logo and will typically use less power than one that does not have the logo.

If you already have a computer system and are not looking to replace it, you can still help reduce the power consumption by adjusting your usage patterns and changing the Power Management settings in the operating systems. By helping to reduce the power used by the system when it is idle, you can also help save on power bills and the environment.