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Notebook computers are taking over the
PC market because they are much more mobile versions of desktop computers.
In this section, we will discuss the newest technologies of these machines
with their advantages and drawbacks.
Holy Crap!!! We'll start off with
the new Dell XPS notebook. This looks to be quite the computer because
it looks to be the most complete notebook package. It truly
is a mobile gaming machine. I've seen the stats for this product and
they're pretty impressive. It has a 3.40 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
with Hyper-Threading Technology, an 800 MHz front side BUS, a full Gig
of 400 MHz DDR Dual Channel SDRAM, and a 15.4-inch widescreen WUXGA display
which is the highest quality monitor you can get. That's some
impressive tech specs. Did I mention everything I listed comes standard
with the system? That's right, standard. What's even more impressive
is what you can upgrade on this gaming machine. You can add up to 2
Gigs of ram! Finish it up with the 3.40 GHz Extreme Edition processor
for an additional, ehhh, $800! Hmm, worth it? If you've got the
money and love gaming, probably. I'd still love to own one of these
babies.
   
DVI comes standard on this machine.
DVI stands for Digital Video Input which allows you to plug the notebook into a high
definition television and use the TV as your computer. This is a great
feature because I use an s-video output (also standard on the XPS) to
display my computer on my tv sometimes and the image is not nearly the
quality of your computer monitor, so it's quite annoying. The s-video
output is great for showing family pictures on the big screen but if your
looking at actually using your TV as a computer monitor, go with the DVI
because you more than likely won't be able to read any text using the
s-video. Another standard feature is the new Gigabit network card.
If you transfer a lot of files from computer to computer on your network,
this is essential. You'll need a gigabit router or a direct connection
to another computer with a gigabit card in order to use the gigabit feature.
This notebook has an optional 16 cell secondary Lithium battery for those
that need a little extra playtime when away from an outlet. Bottom
line - this notebook is packed great features for
hard-core gamers.
We got on Dell's website and customized
one of these new XPS notebooks and found out that the starting price was
about $2599
with standard options.
That's pretty high for a notebook nowadays but remember, this is the
flagship of Dell's notebooks. Dodge's Viper isn't cheap either right?
Anyway, we went in and customized an XPS with features we would add
ourselves if we were buying one. We can't show the summary sheet
verbatim but I will summarize what we found. We kept the basic 3.40 GHz
processor instead of going for the extreme because of the $800 price
difference. Actually, we kept just about all standard features except
for a few things. We added a
Dell™ TrueMobile™ 1300 DualBand WLAN (802.11b/g 54Mbps) miniPCI card.
We feel wireless cards will become standard on all notebooks very soon so we
encourage every new notebook owner to go ahead and at least get a wireless
card installed so that, in the future, you will be able to utilize wireless
technology. The only other thing we added was a
Belkin Notebook Surge protector because
if your notebook gets ruined by a power surge, your basic warranty doesn't
cover it. You'll need to get the CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service
to protect you from all the little accidents that could destroy your
investment. We did not, however, select this extra protection.
Final price was $3,406 with a 3 year warranty. That isn't really that bad if you're into gaming.
Plus, with this machine, you can get up and go to a different room and play
games without being confined to one room as with a desktop PC.
We're going to look at Tablet PCs in
this section because they're pretty much notebook computers. Tablets
seem to be the direction personal computing is going in.
Let's look at the
Fujitsu Stylistic ST4121. Now there are many new tablet pc products
out there on the market with new technologies we could go into. But
what we've found is a Tablet that has all of those new technologies you
crave. The main thing we look for in a Tablet is thinness.
If you're paying extra to have a tablet pc you don't want to carry around a
big piece of equipment. You want it to be thin, with a nice big
screen, light, and versatile. Well, the Fujitsu Stylistic ST4221 is
THE tablet. Here's some pictures to get you excited about the latest
pc craze...
    
  
The only disadvantage to having this
type of tablet pc as opposed to a notebook that converts into a tablet is
that your processor is going to be dramatically scaled down in order to keep
the total size of the tablet to a minimum. We've come to a conclusion
that you don't really need a super computer for a tablet because you're not
going to be playing hardware-intensive games on it; you're going to be doing
business stuff like excel, e-mail, and the ordinary applications that one
would use in the business place. If you want to play games on a
tablet, go for the notebook-tablet versions out there such as the majority
of the Acer
models. Even though the processor in the Fujitsu isn't fast enough to
play the new games on the market, it is still a very powerful machine.
It's got 256 megs of SDRAM memory, a 60 Gig hard drive, a 933 MHz processor,
a 10.4" XGA TFT indoor display, and my favorite, built-in wireless LAN
capabilities (802.11b). It also comes standard with a three-year
warranty. Did I mention all of these are packed into a computer that
is less than an inch thick?
As you can see in the pictures, you can
get an optional executive leather carrying case. This looks to be very
ingenious in that you can open it up and have a complete tablet pc
workstation at your fingertips. However, what catches my eye is the
very stylish docking station that turns your tablet into a desktop pc.
What's great about this particular docking station is the versatility of it.
You can attach the tablet in a portrait mode or turn it sideways for a
widescreen landscape mode. The wireless keyboard keeps excess wires to
a minimum. It's durable and Fujitsu boasts it's
magnesium alloy lower case as being superior to the other, mostly plastic,
tablet pc's. Durability is a major factor in a computer that you carry
around everywhere you go because you don't want to feel like you're carrying
around a piece of crystal that you're afraid to set down.
There aren't many new technologies in the tablet pc's on the market right
now because, quite frankly, they are the new technology. I played on
an Acer
tablet and I was blown away by the idea that I could carry around a computer
screen and write on it at the same time being connected to the internet.
I tried out the hand recognition software and found it to be much more
reliable than those found in PDAs.
Final verdict? Tablet PCs seem to
be the future of personal computing and prices are falling fast enough that
they'll be pretty competitive with traditional notebook computers very soon.
So keep and eye on them here because we update our site every time a new
technology comes out. That means if a new feature is built into the
tablets or notebooks that is unique, you can find out about it here.
Images courtesy of
Dell and
Fujitsu
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