A Note Before You Net on a Book

Gurjot S. Sachdeva with inputs from Amrita Premrajan

We kick-start the discussion with the configuration trends which play a vital

role in deciding our easily “tote-able” notebook. But then the higher end

configurations cost heavier on the buyer, and then making it fit your pocket may

make you lose the desired configuration. So we discuss the trends in

price-segregated categories.

Entry-level (Rs 35k and below): When it comes to processors, we observed that

the entry level segment of the notebooks come mostly powered by AMD processors

options being the Athlon and Turion while the Intel Core i3, being the best

option in this segment, also came in with some basic graphic card options.

However, the usual 320 GB HDD notebooks come with Windows 7 Home as the common

operating system option.

 Mid-Range (Rs 40-50k): The mid range  gives a whole new dimension of

configuration options that makes you almost customize the notebook to suite you

desired requirements. If you are settling down on the entry level, it will

always be a wise decision to stretch your budget. Processors ranging from the

relatively older Intel Core 2 Duo to the newer better performing Core i3 and

Core i5, graphic card options from ATI Radeon family and storage capacities up

to 500GB, are the dominant characteristics of notebooks from this segment.

Besides you get some good features like Gbps Ethernet LAN, eSATA port and many

other useful features.

 High/Ultra-High-End (Rs 55-70k): The high end  and the ultra high end (90k+)

professional notebooks, give you the option not only to get processors of the

performance levels of Intel Core i7 but also come bundled with some high end

security features which might just add that extra edge to pick you right

notebook. With Apple MacBook Pro entering this segment, Mac OS X  Snow Leopard

is an option besides Windows 7.

 Netbooks: Most are powered by Intel Atom N450, 1GB RAM and operating system

being the usual Windows 7 Starter edition. The hard disk is variable, ranging

from 160 GB to 320 GB. The screen size is approximate 10.1 inches, and of

course, the matted ones should be preferred over the glossy ones.

Technology Trends



The basic specs are pretty much standard across most notebooks and netbooks

these days, depending upon the category you choose. If they all have the same

configuration, how do you decide which model or brand to choose? One is to look

at the price, warranty, and the kind of support offered. Two, look beyond the

basic specs and into the new technologies offered by a notebook or netbook. We

found quite a few interesting technologies and features in the notebooks and

netbooks we received for this shootout. Presented here is a glimpse of those

technologies.

USB 3.0



Also known as the SuperSpeed bus, USB 3.0 comes as one of the most

significant technological upgrade and offers throughputs of up to 4.8 Gbps.

Compared to USB 2.0, USB 3.0 is bi-directional which means the data can be read

and written simultaneously without any compromise in transfer speeds from either

side. USB 3.0 derives its high data transfer speed mainly from the dual-bus

architecture comprising of the additional 4 wires (power, ground, and a pair of

data lines) over the same 4 wires present in USB 2.0 for independently receiving

and transmitting data across the host and the device. The second reason for

higher speed of USB 3.0 is the asynchronous data transfer in which the data

packets are sent directly to the desired device than being broadcast to every

USB device attached,the information being stored in the data packet header.

Hence, the concept of polling gets ruled out.

Though the SuperSpeed bus is backward compatible with USB 2.0, the maximum

throughput comes when the port and the device are both USB 3.0 enabled.

LED Screens



LED backlit technology is becoming common in most notebooks and netbooks

available today. The difference lies in that LEDs are used instead of the

conventional CCFL or fluorescent back-lighting as in most of the earlier LCD

screens. The advantages come in the form of brighter image quality, deeper

colors, increased battery life and minimal power consumption.

VisualMedia Touch Pad



The Media Pad in the HCL ME 54 introduces a fresh concept where the

touch-pad comes with multi -media controls and also offers quick access to other

controls like brightness.

Multi-Touch Pad



The multi-touch pad has been another attractive feature which enables you to

perform tasks while using multiple fingers on the touch-pad, like using the

forefinger and thumb can enable you to zoom in and zoom out of a picture (the

pinch zoom)

Chiclet Keypad



The chiclet keypad comes with keys without slanting edges, which makes

better deck space utilization where more keys can fit in and also there is more

extra space between keys. The feature is more preferable when it comes to the

smaller netbooks.

The ECO Mode



With concepts of “clouds” and “eco-friendliness” coming to technology and

business solutions, Fujitsu came with the Green IT directive through which it

enables to reduce the environmental burden caused by IT infrastructure. The ECO

button in Fujitsu T900 and Easy SpeedUp Manager in Samsung N210 (just to name a

few) switch your laptop to minimal battery drain though compromising on a

certain degree of performance.

Related Articles:

Entry Level and Mid-Range Notebooks

Ultra High-end and Gaming Laptops

Instant-On OS



The operating systems usually drain a significant portion of your battery

back-up. Do you really feel the need of booting up your conventional operating

system for browsing and checking mails all the time? The alternate comes in the

form of Linux-based HyperSpace OS, which can co-exist with Windows too. The

HyperSpace OS provides a customizable dashboard like interface which allows you

to browse, email and share and also provides a notepad to scribble important

facts instantly.

Adapter plug charger



Few of the netbooks are coming with the adapter plug charger in that look

neat and also retires the two wire plug in adapter concept.

CompuTrace



This is a software client that resides in the BIOS and on the hard drive of

the computer and can be used to recover the notebook in case of theft or loss.

Of course, the software needs to check in through an Internet connection on a

regular basis to maintain the recovery guarantee.

Penabled Wacom



Not a jargon for graphics designers, this pen (stylus) input sensor

technology from Wacom found in tablets enables you to draw, sketch and input

characters interpreted from your handwriting. The digital pen has a dual purpose

switch near the tip which on pressing at either ends allows one to adjusts

features and the stroke thickness.

Our Evaluation Method



The shootout involved 21 notebooks, 6 netbooks and a special tablet. We ran

the industry standard benchmarks: PC Mark 05, 3D Mark 06 and Battery Mark 4.0.

PC Mark 05 evaluates the overall performance of the PC hardware and its

multitasking capabilities. It also checks the performance of motherboard, CPU,

system memory, etc. 3D Mark 06 checks the CPU-Graphic Card workload balance to

evaluate the graphic capabilities and Battery Mark 4.0 checks the overall

battery backup of the laptop. Higher the scores for these parameters, the better

the laptop. The power consumptions were evaluated in standby, idle and full

performance load. All notebooks were standardized on the Windows OS, so the

actual performance may vary for other operating systems for all scores.

We used the Brown Gibson Statistical Model to weigh every aspect of

configuration, feature, design, price and warranty against each other. Further,

we introduced the normalization factor concept in the model with respect to the

price-wise segregated segments. As per this, the entry level notebooks had a

higher Normalization Multiplying Factor (NMF) for price as compared to the

performance and features. The high/ultra-high ends, of course, were given higher

NPF for performance and feature scores because the price factor is almost

negligible in this segment.

Gurjot S. Sachdeva with inputs from Amrita Premrajan