laptops-reviews.com notebook review

Overview: The Dell XPS M140 is a marriage of performance and mobility. Light and easy to carry, the M140 offers uncompromising performance in a compact design , helping you get the absolute best out of your notebook anywhere and everywhere you go

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. The SZ-110B ships with an Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz processor, 1GB of DDR2 PC2-4200 533MHz RAM, and a 5400 RPM SATA hard drive.

It seems speedy enough during regular office and Internet usage, but that's a subjective judgment. The notebook uses a dual-core processor and certain optimized applications will run much faster, but there should be no significant difference for regular programs. See the Benchmarks below for actual performance data.

The new model weighs less than its predecessor and contains a raft of upgraded components, including Intel Core Solo or Core Duo processors in speeds up to 2GHz; up to 2GB of swift 533MHz RAM and a screaming 7,200rpm, 100GB harddrive. In keeping with its multimedia bent, the 6400's 15.4-inch widescreen display comes in WXGA or WSXGA+ native resolutions. Like its larger sibling, the 9400, the Inspiron 6400 includes Dell's MediaDirect feature which plays CDs and DVDs and lets you access photos and other media files stored on your hard drive without booting up Windows first. There's also a full suite of ports and connectors, including FireWire, VGA, S-Video, four USB 2.0 ports and ExpressCard slots

The Dell Inspiron e1505 is a fairly run-of-the mill notebook for a bargain price, but it offers a few surprises. The new model weighs 0.4 pound less than its predecessor and contains a raft of upgraded components, including Intel Core Solo or Core Duo processors in speeds up to 2GHz; up to 2GB of swift 533MHz RAM; and a screaming 7,200rpm, 100GB hard drive. In keeping with its multimedia bent, the E1505�s 15.4-inch wide-screen display comes in WXGA or WSXGA native resolutions. If you dabble in photography or video editing, or just love watching movies, the E1505's 15.4-inch transflective screen is bright and wide. You also get the Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system, so all your media files can be accessed through MCE's slick interface. There�s also a full suite of ports and connectors, including FireWire, VGA, S-Video, and four USB 2.0 ports, plus both PC Card and ExpressCard slots.

The notebook reviewed is one of the most popular laptops of the season -- Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi. This business desktop replacement houses the latest components -- from Intel's new Core Duo processor to ATi's Mobility Radeon X1600 GPU -- in a sleek and sexy case

The Toshiba Tecra M4-S435 is a full-bore multimedia laptop that happens to have Tablet functionality. The Tablet side of the equation is not served as well as the notebook side and the price is a bit steep, but users looking for an all-purpose machine with pen-input will find enough of both worlds in this model

The Toshiba Satellite A105-S361 is for media lovers who are passionate about editing video, watching movies, and uploading photos. This mainstream unit combines portability with a 15.4-inch widescreen, and though this machine is not meant for gaming, the rest of the components should satisfy your need for speed, and the slim form factor doesn't hog your desk space.

The Dell XPS M1210

Dell-XPS-M1210-ultraportable

The Dell XPS M1210 is a 12.1" screen portable notebook that includes the Intel Core Duo processor and an optional nVidia 7400 graphics card. The M1210 also offers the option of an integrated rotating web camera. Dual headphones, optional EVDO and front located media buttons make this an excellent portable media notebook experience. The next generation of ultramobile notebooks is here. Dell unveiled the new Dell XPS M1210 notebook designed for the mobile professional, with a host of features and blistering performance. Made of highly durable magnesium alloy frame, the XPS M1210 is RoadReady.

It's a bit larger than its predecessor (the Dell Inspiron 710m), but the Dell XPS M1210, measuring 11.7 inches wide, 8.7 inches deep (9.4 inches deep with the extended battery), and 1.4 inches thick, is slightly smaller and thicker than the Lenovo 3000 V100.

The Dell Latitude D820

Dell Latitude D820 notebook Review

The Latitude D820 demonstrates best-in-business laptop design, beginning with its broad, comfortable keyboard that's complemented by a pointing stick and a touch pad, both with their own sets of mouse buttons. If you configure your D820 with biometric security, Dell reduces the size of the mouse buttons to accommodate a fingerprint sensor between them; while we appreciate the sensor option, the accompanying buttons may be too small for big fingers to use comfortably. Three handy buttons for volume up, volume down, and mute lie above the keyboard, while the two mediocre-sounding speakers (typical for a corporate laptop) flank the board on either side.

We evaluated a high-end version of the Latitude D820 that costs $2,290--a good value for such top-notch components, including a top-of-the-line 2.16GHz Intel T2600 Core Duo processor, 1GB of blazing 666MHz DDR2 SDRAM, a big 100GB hard drive rotating at 5,400rpm, a swappable DVD burner, and a cutting-edge Nvidia Quadro NVS 120M graphics chip that has 256MB of dedicated VRAM and borrows another 256MB from main memory. The ThinkPad Z60t costs $300 less and offers the same hard drive capacity though several lesser specs (previous-generation Pentium M processor, slower 533MHz memory, and integrated Intel 915GM graphics).

The system also.....

Dell Inspiron 6000D

Dell Inspiron 6000D Review The Dell Inspiron 6000 is Dell's first notebook to be released that includes the latest Intel Sonoma platform. The Inspiron 6000 is a 15.4" widescreen notebook that best acts as a desktop replacment since it weighs about 7lbs. With a price of around $1500 when configured with a Pentium M 730 2GHz processor, this notebook offers decent performance to cost ratio, but the look and build is rather underwhelming overall. You can see more on the Dell Inspiron 6000's wide screen than on most other 15.4-inch displays thanks to its WUXGA resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels. In fact, you can work with higher-resolution photographs, more spreadsheet columns, and more tiled documents simultaneously on the Inspiron 6000 than you can on some 17-inch wide screens. (The Inspiron 6000 is also available with a 1280-by-800-pixel WXGA screen or a 1680-by-1050-pixel WSXGA+ screen for $150 less or $50 less, respectively.)

Most people know by now that dell runs periodic deals that allow you to get their machines for well under $1000. However, if you want to add options, you'll pay a bit more. Still, after configuring my machine, I checked hp.com, ibm.com, sony.com, etc., and the same machine from any of those manufacturers was more expensive.

The most critical decisions to make on this machine are a) getting the ati graphics card, and b) choosing the proper screen. The ati graphics card is vastly superior to the intel motherboard graphics option. If you don't get the ATI version, you'll never be able to upgrade later. Peformance with the ATI is leaps and bounds superior.