Time to look around.
Step one:
List of major laptop manufacturers I would be interested in, no presumptions made at this stage:- Acer
- Apple
- ASUS
- Compaq
- Dell
- Fujitsu
- Gateway
- Hewlett-Packard
- Lenovo
- Panasonic
- Samsung Electronics
- Sony
- Toshiba
Step two:
Get rough expectations based on the old model:- screen size: ideally like my old box, 12.1-inch. (not smaller than 11, but not bigger than 13.3)
- resolution: minimum 1280 x 768
- processor: definitely more powerful than 1.1 GHz ideally more than 1.3 GHz
- HDD: more than 120GB
- all of the usual conectivity options (Bluetooth, WiFi, USB2 etc.)
- weight: ideally not more than 1.5kg
- battery time: minimum 5hrs.
- no netbooks, I actually want something I can run some lower specced games on.
- price: tough decision. I don't want to spend too much as this is going to be my backup machine. Let's say I'm willing to pay less than I've paid for my little one back then, which is below £860. After all laptops get more and more popular, thay should be cheaper. So... Let's aim at £600.
Get list of models that fit above parameters:
- Acer
All of them have
| Display Resolution | 1366 x 768 pixels |
| Display brightness | 200 cd/m2 |
| Display diagonal | 13.3 " |
| Display | WXGA TFT LCD one has: HD LED TFT LCD |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:9 |
| Number of colours | 16.7 |
Resolution and screen: fine
Four models only with 1.4GHz CPUs
All of those have HDDs and networking standards meeting my criteria.
Battery time between 8 and 9 hrs. Tick.
Weight.... All above 1.5kg. not much, but still. 1.6 to 1.65kg
Price: all within range, now on offer for £499.97
- Apple
- ASUS
Display 13.3" HD TFT (1366x768, Color-Shine, LED)
Weight: 1.50 kg
all, other criteria met except:
CPU: 1.3GHz. fail. (It is still fairly ok, so let's see..)
- Compaq
Two 11.6" models, both slightly below 1.5kg.
Prices look very promising too, more in the field of netbooks. Why?
CPU: 1.6 GHz but it's and Intel® Atom™ Processor :(
- Dell
LCD Display 13.3" (34 cm) HD WLED True-Life (1366x768)
CPU: Dual Core: Turion II Neo K625 (well benchmarks are actually quite good for this one)
Weight: 1.78 kg (awww)
Battery time: 5hrs
- Fujitsu
11.6-inch LED HD display
500 GB hard disk
Weight: 1.49 kg
Battery life: up to 6 hours
CPU: 1.3GHz
- Gateway
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-620M !!! that is a 2.66GHz sweetness.
Display: 13.3" HD 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, LED-backlit TFT LCD
HDD: lots to chose from
Battery time 8hrs, networking fine too.
Weight: 2.1kg (not good, but it's with a bigger battery than the other mentioned models)
One problem stays though: Where do I buy one?! I can't seem to find them online in any shops!
- Hewlett-Packard
- Lenovo
- Panasonic
- Samsung Electronics
Processor: Intel® Pentium Processor ULV SU4100 (1.30GHz, 800MHz, 1MB)
Display: LCD 11.6" LED HD (1366 x 768) 16:9 Gloss
HDD: 250GB
No Bluetooth!!!
Weight (kg) 1.36kg
- Sony
All VAIO models from series Y and Z too expensive for my needs.
- Toshiba
SATELLITE L630 SERIES seem to fit my needs best.
CPUs 1.86 GHz to 2.26 GHz
Hard disks 320 GB or 500 GB
Display 33.8cm (13.3") | Toshiba TruBrite® HD TFT High Brightness display with 16 : 9 aspect ratio and LED backlighting
battery : up to 4h50min
weight : starting at 2.10 kg
Step four:
Draw some conclusions and adjust my expectations:
As it seems my criteria, even though I thought I'm pretty low speccing them, are not met by any of the models available.
Also it's quite hard to start looking if you do not know what's in store when it comes to processor power. See my note about that Atom processor above? It's supposedly 1.6GHz, but in reality it's not comparable that way to a normal desktop processor.
And as this is THE MOST IMPORTANT reason why I'm willing to change my old toy for a new one I have to be very picky.
So, let's first take a look at who's left, excluding only those companies, who have nothing to offer at all, or are way too expensive:
- Acer
- ASUS
- Compaq
- Dell
- Fujitsu
- Samsung Electronics
- Toshiba
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo SU9400 / 1.4 GHz (Acer)
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo SU7300 (Asus, Fujitsu)
AMD Athlon II Neo K125 (Dell)
AMD Turion II Neo K625 (Dell)
Intel® Pentium® Processor SU4100 (Fujitsu, Toshiba, Samsung)
Intel® Celeron® Processor 743 (Fujitsu)
Intel® Core™ i3-350M (Toshiba)
Intel® Pentium® processor P6000 (Toshiba)
Intel® Pentium® Processor SU2700 (Toshiba)
I'm not going to go into details of every CPU. I'll just go easy way and benchmark them. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php is showing results for almost every one. Let's see how they compare:
| 2074 | Intel® Core™ i3-350M |
| 1486 | Intel® Pentium® processor P6000 |
| 959 | Intel® Core™ 2 Duo SU9400 |
| 954 | AMD Turion II Neo K625 |
| 890 | Intel® Core™ 2 Duo SU7300 |
| 840 | Intel® Pentium® Processor SU4100 |
| 521 | AMD Athlon II Neo K125 |
| 481 | Intel® Celeron® Processor 743 |
| 446 | Intel® Pentium® Processor SU2700 |
My old Latitude's Passmark CPU Mark was... 292 :)
Theoretically then even the lowest specced from the above would be 100% more power, but... I want to use it in the future. Possibly for as long as I've used the little one. And seeing the gap between the first two and the rest, that leaves me with Toshiba only.
Weight is another factor that bothered me, as this is going to be a "portable device" so it has to be light, but it seems, normal laptops don't come in what my old one had, unless those are netbooks and that is totally out of question. I'll have to settle for a bit more than 1.5kg.
Step five:
Lets compare what Toshiba has (just the differences).
| Satellite L630-130 | Satellite L630-13M |
|---|---|
Price £ 599.00 | Price £ 549.00 |
Processor Intel® Core™ i3-350M Processor | clock speed : 2.26 GHz | Front Side Bus : 1,066 MHz | 2nd level cache : 3 MB | 3rd level cache : 3 MB | Processor Intel® Pentium® processor P6000 | clock speed : 1.86 GHz | Front Side Bus : 1,066 MHz | 2nd level cache : 3 MB | 3rd level cache : 3 MB |
System memory 4,096 (2,048 + 2,048) MB | maximum expandability : 8,192 MB | technology : DDR3 RAM (1,066 MHz) | System memory 3,072 (2,048 + 1,024) MB | maximum expandability : 8,192 MB | technology : DDR3 RAM (1,066 MHz) |
Hard disk 320 GB | Hard disk 500 GB |
My "simple colouring method" ;) shows that for 50 quid extra I'll get better processor, less HDD space, more memory to start with (although as max expandable is the same for both models it's not that important).
Come to think of it, 320 GB hard drive is enough for me, as I store all my files, music, videos and works on an external netdrive anyway. So I'm not that fussed about getting smaller drive.
Step six:
final thoughts about the model:
Looks.
It's pretty much your average nice looking black laptop. Nothing very exciting about it, but then again it's not the most important factor. Full-size flat keyboard on the other hand is nice.
OS:
Not important for me, as I'm going to install Linux on it anyway, but I suppose for an average user it's cool to have newest Windows on board.
Display:
LED one. Resolution 1366x768 which is a standard today.
Graphics:
Intel HM55 Express Chipset with Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD
Supports HD, has Blu-ray support
It is a pretty solid chipset, adting Jan 2010, so hopes for good in this field as well.
Sound system:
Supported audio format: 24-bit stereo, built-in stereo speakers.
Manufactured by Toshiba Bass Enhanced Sound System with Dolby Advanced Audio.
OK for this little one. Not like I'm going to use use it to listen to my music a lot ;)
Battery:
Maximum life: up to 4h50min. That is something that bothers me a bit, as it's exactly the same time my little one had. It's still ok for short plane flights or train trips.
Weight:
2.10 kg
Not the lightest... True. And I don't like it. It's almost 2 times heavier than my Latitude. But looking around, only the poor specced ones are around 1.5kg, all other reaching 2.
I'll have to think about it... What do you think?
