Feature Rich Notebooks

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Price Range: Rs. 1,00,000 to Rs. 1,25,000, Average MRP: Rs. 1,15,000


Brands:
ASUS, LG, HP, Toshiba

If you just need to have the maximum that a notebook can offer you, with all
the bells and whistles that exist today, then this is the category you should
look at. These are the truly big boys. Each of them costs well over a Lakh of
Rupees. They are all dual core, have 512 MB or more of RAM and an average 75 GB
hard disk. 

These are the notebooks that scored at least a '1' in each of our
score-sheet columns, well almost all of them. On the downside, the ASUS V6J and
the HP NX6320 didn't have finger print readers or TPM chips or smart cards and
neither did they offer you shock protected hard disks. The notebooks in this
category are also among the top performers overall in this shootout, across all
categories. The average 3D Mark score is 2737 and the average MCCW score a high
47.8. We saw most of them clock between 4 and 5 hours of battery time.

Two notes

The two ASUS notebooks in this shootout-the V6J in this category and the F3JM in the next 'Almost Desktop' segment-turned out to be soupedup versions of what is actually sold in the market. The vendor told us that in the market both versions are sold with just 1 GB of RAM while the models we received had 2 GB.We heartily encourage you (our readers) to negotiate with ASUS for 2 GB models when you go shopping. Since we used the 2 GB model for our benchmarks, we found it only fair to use the price of the 2 GB model (about 6K more than the market 1 GB model the vendor says) in our scoring.



The ASUS V6J scores a zero in our MCCW test since it failed more than 10 times in that test.We tried all solutions we knew of and could not get it to complete the benchmark. This handicap sees it drop to last place in this category.



This means they have two out of three things in our score board to offer you:
features and performance. The kind of user we see using one of these notebooks
would be a very senior person who requires a lot of analytical assistance from
his notebook. This user would need hours of backup on battery too. They are not
all widescreens, except for LG T1 and HP NC6400. But, Bluetooth, WiFi, SD/Memory
card slots, S-Video ports, soft buttons to do all kinds of things, from snoozing
your notebook when not needed to locking out your track-pad and track-point,
these models have it all. For that, they each come a in standard notebook sizes,
weighing an equal 2 Kgs. As always, two exceptions: the HP NC6400 is a little
larger to be comfortably on your lap for long and the LG T1 is 0.5 Kg lighter

(1.5 Kg). In fact, the T1 is also a thin notebook.

Because of fewer notebooks in this category, we pick only one winner out of
them, giving higher weightage to features and a little lower for performance.
The price here again wouldn't matter, similar to our budget category, as the
variance is only 2K between each book.

HP NC6400 
+
Great performance and features

-  Price

Quick
Specs
Specs: Centrino Duo (T2400 @ 1.8 GHz), 512 MB, 75 GB HDD, ATI Mobility Radeon X1300/256 MB, 14” XGA, TPM, HDD motion sensor, fingerprint reader, Bluetooth, smart card



Price: Rs. 1,20,000, 3 year warranty



Contact: HP India Sales Pvt Ltd, Gurgaon, Tel: +91-9899599119,
deepak.jagtiani@hp.com 

This notebook is consistently good in performance and that's over the Quadro NVS graphics powered Tecra M5, with an ATI Radeon X1300. The scores are at 3300 in 3D Mark and 49.3 in MCCW that are actually below the Tecra M5 slightly. But its battery life of 4 hours and 17 minutes places it above the M5, although by a small
margin.

Like all well configured (specs) notebooks in this price range, this notebook comes with a fingerprint reader, a TPM chip, motion sensor protected hard drive and a smart card reader. The form factor is small and it is nearly an ultra portable, one with a 2 Kg weight. It also has bluetooth, wireless and gigabit ethernet for connectivity. All this together makes it a good
traveling companion.

The HP NC6400 has a built in microphone and this makes it unnecessary to have head phones or microphone cables dangling while you're on the
move.

One feature we missed? A webcam. That would have nicely rounded off the specs for this one. If this notebook came with a Gig of RAM instead of the 512 MB we found in this model, this notebook could do a lot better in
performance.

BOTTOM LINE: A notebook with the second highest price in the category, but with sufficient features and power to back up that price. If you can afford this budget, this is definitely a buy!

Toshiba Tectra M5
+ Great
features, price, and performance

- None

Quick
Specs
Specs: Centrino Duo (T2400 @ 1.8 GHz), 512 MB RAM, 90 GB HDD, ATI Radeon X1600/256 MB, 17” widescreen S-Video Out, 5-in-1 memory slot, TPM chip, Bluetooth, Docking port 



Price: Rs. 1,28,571, 1 year warranty



Contact: HP India Sales Pvt Ltd, Gurgaon, Tel: +91-9899599119,
deepak.jagtiani@hp.com 

This notebook is aimed at
the absolute top strata of the corporate ladder, at VPs and Directors for
example. It comes with a titanium silver finish that lends it an aura
lucid styling. Like the ThinkPad, it boasts a Toshiba Assist button that
brings up a similar array of applications for security, protection and
connectivity management.

It has a fingerprint
reader and a TPM chip to help you biometrically encrypt sensitive data on
your notebook. The odd thing about it (its keyboard actually) is the
position of the Windows keys-usually found near the spacebar, this one
has it way on top, alongside the function keys. One of the few winners,
this one that does not have a single port along the front edge, though it
does have a rather well hidden and small WiFi switch there. The front
panel also hosts the notebook's LED panel, which makes it a little
difficult to see if you're not using the M5 on a table-top.

The notebook scorches
through the charts for this category with a 3330 3D Marks (second to the
ASUS V6J's 4379) and 52.2 in MCCW. Its battery lasts 3 hours and 8
minutes, the second lowest for this category after the V6J.

BOTTOM LINE: Tons
of features but draws the highest price in the category. A good buy for
your directors and executives.

z
Sahara Tablet PC
+
Tablet PC

- CPU performance, battery life

Quick
Specs
Specs: PentiumM 1.7 GHz, 512 MB, 75 GB HDD, Intel 855GM/64 MB, 14” widescreen, standard tablet pc features 



Price: Rs. 67,999, 1 year international warranty



Contact: Sahara Computers, Gautam Budh Nagar (UP). Tel: (0120) 4307760. E-mail:
mahima.sharma@saharacomputers.co.in 

This is a standard tablet
PC as far as its features go. But, its performance is not that great. It
managed only a 115 3D Marks and a score of 34.9 in MCCW. Battery life is
good standing at just over 3 hours. It is quite heavy weighing 2 Kgs when
most other tablets out there are in the 1 to 1.5 Kg range.

Remember that a tablet is
designed to be held in the arm and used on the move or in difficult
places. This tablet is more suited to working sitting at a desk! The low
performance is attributable to its Pentium M processor (rather than a dual
core-ts performance is actually quite good for a Pentium M) and a rather
old Intel 855GM graphics card with just 64 MB RAM.

BOTTOM LINE: If you're
looking for a tablet PC to buy, this may not be the best in the market.
But it is definitely one of the cheapest.

Model   Key specs   Contact
ASUS V6J

Features: 57.8 Performance: 49.3  

Price: 88.4   

Overall: 360 

Rs.1,14,699

Centrino Duo
(T2500)

2.0 GHz,2 GB,95 GB

HDD,Nvidia GeForce

Go 7400/256 MB,15"

XGA,2 Kg, 02:27 battery
+
2 GB RAM and 95 GB

HDD,Good graphics

system

- Low on features and
Mr.Apratim Sharma,

ASUS India.

Tel: 9892756755. media_india@asus.com 
HP NX6320

Features: 83.2

Performance: 88.3  

Price: 100

Overall: 526

Rs.1,01,429

Centrino Duo
(T2400)

1.8 GHz,512 MB,55 GB

HDD, Intel GMA950/128

MB,14"XGA,2.5 Kg,

04:54 battery time
+
Lowest price in the

category, good performance

and features

- No security features

like fingerprint reader,

TPM,etc common in

this category
Hewlett-Packard
India

Sales Pvt Ltd,Gurgaon,

Tel: +91-9899599119, deepak.jagtiani@hp.com 
LG T1

Features: 88.4 

Performance: 80.3 

Price: 92.2 

Overall: 518

Rs.1,09,990

Centrino Duo
(L2400)

1.6 GHz,512 MB,55 GB

HDD, Intel GMA950/128

MB,14"WXGA,1.5 Kg,

03:35 battery time
+
Slim and sleek design,

good price

- No drive protection

(motion sensor) features
Sunil Narang,Elcom

Trading Co Pvt Ltd, Delhi.

Tel: 91-9810058315. sunil@elcomonline.com

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