Your Choices

Notebooks Your Choices :

As technology advances, classifying notebooks solely by size and weight proves problematic, because size no longer correlates to the number of features. We prefer to outline your choices as combinations of user type and system size. Some notebook makers classify users by the size of their businesses, but this is often done merely to steer them to the right phone bank of sales reps, since the machines are similar except for slightly different software installations (called preloads or hot loads).

If your decision is solely based on size and weight, there are multiple categories to choose from, including the full-size notebook (or desktop replacement notebook, or just notebook), weighing 6 to 8 pounds, with two or three drives (it's no longer a given that the floppy disk drive is internal); the mainstream thin-and-light notebook, or subnotebook, weighing 4 to 6 pounds, with two internal drives, one of which is typically removable; and the ultraportable, weighing 2.5 to 4 pounds, with just an integrated hard drive.

In this buying guide, we primarily cite system weights (system unit plus battery, plus internal CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive if applicable) so you can compare weights against the manufacturer specs. For a more accurate reading on how much your shoulder bag will weigh, add 8 ounces to a pound for the transformer to get the travel weight, and add the same again for an external CD or DVD drive (the umbrella term is optical drive) for an ultraportable notebook. Add 2 to 3 pounds for an ultraportable's expansion base or slice, typically containing two drive/battery slots. These are your current choices in notebook computers.

	Mainstream. Mainstream users require relatively lightweight units but don't want to sacrifice screen size, keyboard comfort, or a built-in optical drive. IT managers believe that anything not bolted down to the computer eventually gets lost. So they turn to a two-bay device weighing 4 to 6 pounds and with a 13- or 14-inch display (XGA resolution or better). One bay is occupied by the internal hard drive. The second is used for the CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or CD-RW drive; you could also stick in a second battery, floppy disk drive, or Iomega Zip Drive. The screen has a resolution of 1,024-by-768 to 1,400-by-1,050 and a larger viewable area than a 15-inch desktop monitor. In this kind of notebook you won't get the very fastest graphics, the biggest screen, or possibly as many ports and connectors as in a full-size desktop replacement notebook. The connectors you do get, particularly the video cable, should all be full-size, meaning you can plug in a standard cable without requiring an easily lost adapter dongle. If you're not sure what kind of user you are or which type of notebook would be most appropriate for you, start here in the mainstream category. Most often, a mainstream notebook now has two internal drives, not three (the floppy disk drive is external if it's included with the system), and is only about an inch thick. Such notebooks are often described as two-drive notebooks, two-bay notebooks, or possibly thin-and-light notebooks. These two-drive systems account for about half of all notebooks sold.
	Desktop replacement. If you don't move around all that much, weight is less of an issue. Look for a 6- to 7-pound machine with a bigger display, measuring 15 to 16 inches diagonally, and a resolution of 1,024-by-768, 1,280-by-1,024, or even 1,600-by-1,200. If it has a 14-inch display, the model may be considered either a desktop replacement or a value notebook. All systems in this category used to have built-in floppy disk drives and were touted as three-bay or three-spindle notebooks. Now only some do, and others include half-pound external floppy disk drives. Jettisoning the drive saves half a pound of weight. Desktop replacement notebooks are likely to have plenty of connectors; for instance, virtually every such notebook has two to four USB connectors. They're built with a bit more breathing room inside (components aren't packed quite so tightly as on a thin-and-light machine), so they can handle a few more bumps and bruises. A model in this category is likely to be an inch and a half thick. Machines fitting the definition of desktop replacement make up about a third of the overall market. But remember that some lighter and smaller mainstream road-warrior machines are replacing desktop PCs, too.
	Multimedia/graphics or ultraperformance. Take a desktop replacement notebook and add a faster graphics adapter with a chip set from ATI or nVidia, along with lots of video memory (32MB or 64MB, not 4MB or 8MB), the latest Intel Pentium 4 or AMD processor, and a combination DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive and you have a graphics and presentation machine. It's likely to have a resolution of 1,600-by-1,200, which makes for both dazzling graphics and very small on-screen fonts. You may even be able to get built-in IEEE 1394 (also called FireWire or i.LINK), which supports a video feed from a DV camcorder. Note that you can also add 1394 via a PC Card to any notebook for about $100. Road warriors who give presentations to small groups around a conference table (not connected to an outboard monitor or projector) should focus on this category and just learn to live with the extra weight. These systems can be as big as 2 by 13 by 10 inches (HWD) and weigh almost 9 pounds, although most are 7 to 8 pounds. Expect to pay $2,500 to $3,000 for all this technology.
	Ultraportable. This fast-growing category is for the user who wants light weight (2.5 to 4 pounds) with some semblance of practicality. Ultraportables are often quite stylish, a factor that sometimes calls for sacrifices, so it's important to understand what you're getting here: a keyboard that's 5 to 10 percent tighter than regulation size (with 18.5-mm, 18-mm, or 17-mm key spacing, not 19-mm), a smaller display (typically 12 inches diagonally), either a lower-resolution SVGA or very small XGA character set, single PC Card and USB sockets, and possibly no standard ports such as printer, serial, mouse, or keyboard. A system with a 12.1-inch XGA screen and an 18.5-mm keyboard works for many users; conversely, a system with a 10.1-inch XGA display or 18-mm keyboard will be tough on typing accuracy as well as your eyes. (Fonts appear about 30 percent bigger on a mainstream notebook.) Small ultraportables make more sense for document readers (like executives skimming e-mail) than document creators. The hard drive is on-board; the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive is connected by a tethered cable, and it may not always be included in the price. Alternatively, you may get a system with an expansion base that includes one bay for an optical drive and a second for a battery, floppy disk drive, or Iomega Zip Drive. The expansion base increases the unit's thickness to 1.5 inches. If you occasionally need an optical drive and more battery power, an ultraportable with an expansion base makes sense. If you want an optical drive at all times, you really should be looking at a thin- and-light mainstream system, and you'll save a pound of weight in the process. Battery life is shorter than in other categories; sometimes you get a battery pack with just 4 cells and 20 watt-hours of performance (versus up to 12 cells and 60 watt-hours on a desktop replacement). If battery life is important, you'll need a second battery pack—one that has more cells but still fits inside the battery tray—or a clip-on extender battery. Because the components are packed so tightly, ultraportables are less tolerant of bumps and even short falls. If you bought a form-fitting case for your ultraportable, it may not be large enough for both the notebook and the extender battery. Ultraportables make up about 10 percent of the market, and this percentage is growing rapidly, thanks to increased usage in corporate America; in Japan, a quarter of the notebooks sold are ultraportables. Note that the term ultraportable isn't used universally. Some say mini-note or mini-notebook; some apply subnotebook to this category as well as to the 4- to 6-pound category. There no longer seems to be an agreed-on definition of subnotebook in terms of size and weight.
	Value. Value notebooks are lower-cost systems, selling in the $1,000-to-$1,500 range. They use Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium III, or AMD Duron value microprocessors; this kind of notebook has either two or three drives on-board. Value notebooks are often a little larger than desktop replacement notebooks, allowing the use of older-generation technology that causes a bit more bulk. Value notebooks do not have tremendous capacities: The hard drive may be 20GB rather than 30GB or 40GB; system memory may be 128MB, not 256MB, and shared with the graphics memory. (You may see this called UMA, for unified memory architecture.) The graphics chip is often built into the system chip set. The screen is likely to be active-matrix (TFT)—the same as on more expensive notebooks—but it may come from a value-conscious supplier. Typically these machines are bought for personal or small-business use and include software such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Works, an advantage since the advent of serial-number registration, which makes it harder to pirate software. Some notebook makers sell fixed-configuration notebooks, so even if you buy direct, your system can't be configured with different drive sizes or processors.
	Education (college). Think of this category as straddling the mainstream, ultraportable, value, and possibly desktop replacement categories. An education-oriented machine has an Ethernet connection built in (Ethernet is the networking standard on campuses, as it is in business), is relatively affordable, and weighs 5 to 7 pounds (preferably closer to 5 if it goes into a backpack). The number-one accessory for this type of notebook is a security lock. Also consider a wireless Ethernet card (called 802.11b, about $100) to take advantage of wireless connections springing up on campuses, or specify a system with integrated 802.11b. Unless the student is majoring in science or engineering—or taking courses in computer graphics, or playing a lot of games—CPU power is not a big issue. Convenient audio player controls are a bonus.
	Family. This category, too, overlaps the mainstream, desktop replacement, ultraportable, and value categories. Families want affordable computing and the ability to move a computer from room to room. The notebook should have Ethernet networking built in, whether to connect to the Internet at home (cable or DSL) or because it might go off to college in a year or two. Look for software bundles such as office suites, personal-finance programs, and education and entertainment titles. Sometimes you can buy additional titles at a steep discount.
	Tablet. A handful of battery-powered computers are designed to be used as forms-filling, signature-capturing, sketching, or note-taking tablets. Some are targeted toward vertical markets in business, such as running a warehouse inventory. Others would interest business users who prefer a penlike stylus to a keyboard. These notebooks support passable handwriting and shape recognition. They account for only a tiny segment of the market, but this may change as Microsoft pushes to increase their usefulness with the release of Tablet Extensions for Windows XP. Fujitsu has dominated this portion of the market for the past five years, but at least half a dozen manufacturers are poised to enter the market by fall 2002. Expect several form factors (shapes), the most mainstream being a notebook with a single-hinge display that tilts and then rotates to cover the keyboard when it's not in use. The price is about $250 higher than for a comparable notebook: The higher price tag is a result of higher software fees paid to Microsoft, the cost of the digitizer in the display housing, and the hinge mechanism. Another option is a pure tablet with an attachable keyboard, or a combination of tablet, docking module, and wireless keyboard for use when you're at a desk. Mainstream tablets can run Windows XP, but some smaller tablets for industrial work or for use as note takers and e-mail fetchers may run Linux instead.