Notebook Review Spec : ASUS X83Vm-X2

If you're in the market for a 14-inch laptop with enough processor power to handle just about anything then there are dozens of options to choose from. Unfortunately, if you want a 14-inch laptop with powerful graphics your options are few and far between. That's where ASUS comes to the rescue with their budget-friendly X83Vm-X2 notebook.

ASUS has habitually bundled decent dedicated graphics in their laptops for as long as I can remember, and their push into the retail space (specifically Best Buy) has forced their prices down and made them a very hungry, very aggressive competitor.

Essentially a retail version of the older ASUS N80 line, the X83Vm-X2 ditches the more robust ASUS warranty, Bluetooth, and Nvidia GeForce 9650M GT in favor of a slightly tackier/more interesting (your mileage may vary) chassis design and a ridiculously low price: $799 for the specs listed below is the kind of deal you'd expect to be screamed at you in an infomercial.

ASUS X83Vm-X2 Specifications:

• Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1, 64-bit)
• Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 (2.13GHz, 3MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
• 14.1” TFT Widescreen display with LED backlighting (1280x800)
• 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz System Memory
• Nvidia GeForce 9600M GS 1GB DDR2 Memory
• 320GB 7200RPM SATA Seagate Momentus Hard Drive
• Dual Layer CD/DVD Recordable with LightScribe
• 1.3 megapixel integrated webcam
• Intel WiFi 5100 (a/b/g/n) Wireless
• Weight: 5.7 lbs.
• Dimensions: 14.3 x 10.4 x 1.4”
• Warranty: 1 year limited parts/labor
• 6-cell 11.1v 4800mAh battery
• Retails at Best Buy for $799

I'll be honest. Losing the Bluetooth didn't hurt that much (a USB adaptor can be had for $15 or less if you know where to shop), and the GeForce 9650M GT ... is still basically here. The 9600M GS easily overclocks to 9650M GT speeds, and actually even faster as I'll get to later.

Build and Design
The X83's build is for the most part quite stable and well-thought out. It's actually one of the more solid ASUS units I've held, and the hinge problem I've seen consistently with older ASUS machines is for the most part ancient history. I still would like them to be a bit firmer, though; I shouldn't be able to pick up the unit and shake the lid all the way open.

The battery also locks securely into the bottom compartment of the notebook, but the real breadwinner as far as this thing's construction is concerned has to be the two HUGE panels on the bottom of the notebook along with all the easily identifiable retaining screws. Put simply, this thing is an absolute delight for freaks like me who love tweaking their hardware.

“But, Dustin,” I hear you say, “won't that void the warranty?” Well, that's a good question, Billy. And the answer is: it depends on what you tweak. The only screw inside that has a warranty void sticker on it – that I can see at least – is the heatsink on the processor. The video card appears to be user-replaceable (careful ...), and of course you can change out the memory and hard disk. The wireless card can also be removed, and it's pretty clear this thing is designed to accommodate a specific Bluetooth module and no one here seems to know the model number.

The video card's upgradeability does seem suspect, though, as it doesn't look like the MXM-II cards on eBay. Also keep in mind that the 9600M GS in here is pretty much the best you're going to find anyhow (at least, overclocked). So do not DO NOT buy this notebook expecting to upgrade the video card later.

There are some issues I need to address about the overall build, though. The speakers are down under the bottom lip of the notebook and very easily muffled. The primary heat exhaust is also at the top of the right side, perilously close to where my mousing hand is. And personally I just don't like having a single small slot-based battery as opposed to one that slides into the back, as it precludes getting an extended life battery for the notebook. Lastly, the optical drive has that same irritating issue a lot of notebook drives do, where when you pick up the unit, if you grip under it you feel like you're squishing it into the system – it just feels loose.

Screen and Speakers
The X83 sports a mind-bogglingly, retina-searingly bright LED-backlit screen. In terms of sheer brightness, I run it plugged in at maybe 50% brightness; on the battery I take it all the way down, though occasionally kick it up a whole step. This screen at 0% brightness is in the neighborhood of 50% brightness on other laptops I've seen.



Unfortunately, in keeping with the low price of the unit, contrast and viewing angles are a big bottle of "meh." It almost feels as though the panel itself isn't quite good enough to take advantage of the LED backlighting, as it tends to just wash out.

Some users will probably gripe at the 1280x800 screen resolution, but between the price of the unit and the horsepower of the GPU, I'd have a hard time asking for a higher resolution.

The speakers are pretty poor, and I've resigned myself to this fact. Even by laptop standards these aren't very good, and that's due in large part to their placement under the front lip of the laptop. On any surface except a solid flat one these get horribly muffled.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Keyboard flex is minimal, but it's somewhat pronounced on the left side. It's not too noticeable and isn't bothersome enough to detract from regular use, and keep in mind that when typing I beat my keyboards like they owe me money. The color scheme for the keyboard, however, is decidedly not good. With the dark brown keys, light brown lettering, and especially the dark red lettering on the function keys ... you might as well be using Das Keyboard (a keyboard without letters) in low light.

The nice thing about the keyboard, though, is that the keys don't quite have the irritatingly glossy finish that Toshiba seems to be hellbent on ruining its notebooks with; that same irritatingly glossy finish is used on the lesser retail model of this unit, too.

As for the touchpad, I've learned to pretty much just tap on it instead of using the mouse buttons whenever possible. The buttons are remarkably stiff and click fairly loudly.

Ports and Features
This is one of the things I absolutely love ASUS for: The X83 is a downright cornucopia of features.

The front of the unit features the speakers and a now ancient infrared port. I don't even know what to use these for anymore, but to hell with it, it's got one.

The left side of the unit features the DVD burner with LightScribe and a 4-in-1 memory card reader above it. To the right is the ExpressCard54 slot and just below that, a USB 2.0 port, a 4-pin FireWire, microphone jack, and headphone jack.

The right side of the unit features two USB 2.0 ports and a remarkably small cooling vent.

And the rear of the X83 finishes off the boatload of features. The modem port is blocked off – no loss there – but there's an ethernet port, an eSATA port, an HDMI port, a VGA port, and two more USB 2.0 ports, bringing the grand total up to five USB ports.

None too shabby.

What bothers me is that the unit still has the indicator light for Bluetooth even though no internal Bluetooth is present. This is common to the line, but it's still lame to have a light for something you don't even have.

Performance
Performance of the X83 is pretty much par for the course. The processor's fast enough to get things done and handle most tasks without issues, and since it's a Penryn core and P series it has a lower 25 watt TDP, meaning it consumes less power and throws less heat.

The hard disk is also a big fat 320GB deal with a 7200RPM spindle speed – surprisingly rare at this price point and a welcome find. Performance there is solid if unexceptional; I have a feeling a Western Digital might be a bit snappier, but that's splitting hairs.

The Nvidia GeForce 9600M GS is basically the same GPU as the desktop GeForce 9500 GT, but it's crippled with DDR2 instead of faster GDDR3 memory. The 1GB of video memory just feels like a waste; the core itself isn't powerful enough to use that much memory, and the low speed of the memory itself (being DDR2) pretty much guarantees the 1GB is a waste. It's a marketing gimmick, and I honestly wish they'd just put 512MB or even 256MB instead given how badly the memory bottlenecks the GPU itself anyhow.

That said, the GPU is extremely overclockable. I got it up to the stock clocks of the 9700M GT, and most games run at native resolution just fine, with the crucial exception having been Far Cry 2. Far Cry 2 is a beast, and I get the sense that the slow DDR2 just hampers it too much. Anti-aliasing is not on the menu for the vast majority of games, though.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

HP Pavilion dv4t (Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz)	26.972 seconds
Toshiba Satellite E105 (Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz)	33.961 seconds
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz)	34.628 seconds
ASUS X83Vm-X2 (Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 @ 2.13GHz)	36.500 seconds
Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 (Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 @ 2.0GHz)	38.125 seconds
Sony VAIO CS (Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 @ 2.0GHz)	38.314 seconds

3DMark06 measures video and gaming performance (higher scores mean better performance):

ASUS X83Vm-X2 (2.13GHz Intel P7450, Nvidia GeForce 9600M GS 1GB, overclocked)	5,378 3DMarks
ASUS X83Vm-X2 (2.13GHz Intel P7450, Nvidia GeForce 9600M GS 1GB, stock speed)	4,211 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, NVIDIA 9300M GS 256MB)	2,211 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv4t (2.8GHz Intel T9600, NVIDIA 9200M GS 256MB)	1,741 3DMarks
Toshiba Satellite E105 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, Intel 4500MHD)	1,030 3DMarks
Sony VAIO CS (2.0GHz Intel T6400, Intel X4500)	899 3DMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 (2.0GHz Intel T6400, Intel 4500MHD)	811 3DMarks
Toshiba U405 (2.1GHz Intel T8100, Intel X3100)	539 3DMarks

HDTune storage drive performance results:

Battery
Battery life is one area where ASUS notebooks have traditionally hopped aboard the S.S. Failboat (unlike their netbooks, which last an unbelievably long time). It's a common sentiment on the forums here that it wouldn't be an ASUS notebook without some kind of fatal flaw, but the LED-backlit screen on the X83 seems to at least mitigate things somewhat. I've been able to get about three hours of useful battery life out of this unit with the wireless on, a USB Bluetooth adaptor plugged in, and brightness dimmed nearly all the way. Remember, as I said before, even at 0% brightness the screen is still extremely legible.

Heat and Noise
Here's one place where the X83 really excels. I can't even quite figure out exactly how it handles heat so well, but sure enough it does. The only hot spot on the unit is where the processor and GPU are, but even at full bore the keyboard and palm rest don't get very warm. The only place the unit gets outright hot is the surface near the vent on the bottom.

Noise levels are really low, too. When the fan is really kicking it has a VERY low hum, but generally speaking the computer is actually quite silent. Even the hard drive doesn't thrash that loudly.

Conclusion
The ASUS X83 has a bunch of tiny little issues, but no deal-breakers, and for the money it's practically a steal. If you're like me and not at all a fan of the push to 16:9 computer screens (which are being basically forced on us whether we like them or not) then you'll be happy to know the X83 still has a good old 16:10.

To me, there are just too many perks for the price to make it anything less than totally worth picking up if you need something portable that you can use for gaming.

Pros:

• GeForce 9600M GS is fast enough to game comfortably
• Minimal heat and noise
• 7200RPM hard disk standard
• LED-backlit screen
• All modern ports, including eSATA
• Remarkably low $799 pricetag

Cons:

• Chassis design may be a turn off for some
• Keyboard color scheme is dreadful
• Dismal speakers
• Bluetooth light without internal Bluetooth

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Notebook Review Spec : Dell Studio 15 (1555)

If you're one of the many consumers around the globe looking for a multimedia family PC with a 15-inch screen, then the updated Dell Studio 15 (1555) probably has all the features you're looking for in a new laptop. Now with more than 200 customizable designs available from the Dell Design Studio, is the Studio 15 the most attractive 15-inch notebook on the market? Let's take a closer look and find out.

Dell Studio 15 (1555) Specifications:

• Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1, 32-bit)
• Intel Core 2 Duo processor P8600 (2.4GHz, 3MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
• 15.6" High Definition (1920x1080) High Brightness LED Display with TrueLife and Camera
• 3GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz System Memory
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics (256MB)
• 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 6X Slot Load Blu-ray (BD) Combo Drive (BD Read Only)
• Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Half Mini-Card
• Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Internal (2.1)
• Weight: 5.8 lb. including 9-cell battery
• Dimensions: 1.0-2.0 x 14.6 x 10.0 inches with 9-cell battery (H x W x D)
• Battery: 9-cell 85Wh
• Dell Design Studio Custom Lid: XenoMayan - Haab3 by Tweeqim
• Warranty: 1 year system
• Retail Price as configured: $1,299

Build and Design
I'm sure some of our readers will be a little confused by this review and wonder, "Didn't NotebookReview.com already review the Studio 15?" The answer is yes and no ... just to confuse you even more. Dell decided that the original Studio 15 (model 1535) needed some improvements, and when LCD manufacturers stopped making 16:10 ratio LCDs and switched to 16:9 ratio screens it gave Dell the perfect opportunity to launch a new Studio 15 (1555).

With that being said, the changes between the original Studio 15 (1535) and the new Studio 15 (1555) are fairly minor. Dell obviously increased the width of the notebook in order to accommodate the wider 15.6" LCD with its 16:9 aspect ratio. The new Studio 15 also features a black screen bezel compared to the silver bezel on the old Studio 15. The only other obvious changes are the removal of dedicated media buttons and changes to the port layout. We'll talk more on those changes later in the review.

Overall, The Studio 15 is still an impressive looking desktop replacement. I use the term "desktop replacement" because most people in the market for a 15-inch notebook aren't planning to haul their notebook everywhere during frequent airline travel.

While the Studio 15 isn't exactly a thin-and-light notebook designed for mobility, it's still a very portable multimedia entertainment notebook. The Studio 1555 takes several design elements from the earlier Studio 1535: the wedge-shaped profile, drop hinge, and slot-loading optical drive.

The Studio 15 is available in your choice of six colors: Plum Purple, Promise Pink, Midnight Blue, Ruby Red, Spring Green or standard Black Chainlink. If those aren't enough options for you, the Dell Design Studio offers the Studio 15 in your choice of more than 200 different designs by various artists. We selected the "XenoMayan" lid design and also went one step further and selected the "Haab3" variation of the design by the Tweeqim artist studio.

When closed the Studio 15 doesn't feel as sturdy as you might expect. The screen lid shows significant flex under very light pressure. Considering the added cost of the fancy lid I don't think it's too much to expect some reinforcement so that the lid feels firm when you hold it. Likewise, the bottom of the chassis shows quite a bit of flex near the center of the notebook. Long story short: The Studio 15 does not feel particularly rugged. I suspect the plastics used will withstand regular day-to-day abuse inside a backpack or on a desk without showing too much wear and tear, but the laptop just doesn't "feel" solid.

The bottom of the notebook features the battery and a single access plate that must be removed in order to upgrade the RAM, hard drive, or replace any additional components. On the bright side, Dell improved the access panel on the Studio 1555 so that you only have to remove three screws to upgrade the RAM or the hard drive. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, the bottom of the notebook doesn't feel particularly sturdy.

Screen and Speakers
The 15.6-inch high definition (1920x1080) panel on the Studio 15 rates fairly average with vibrant colors and excellent contrast. The display panel in our review unit appears to be an LG model (LGD020B). The LED backlighting in our review unit is nice and bright, but we did notice that the brightness was slightly uneven in the upper right corner of the screen. Yes, it is a 16:9 screen ratio, but this is starting to become standard for all notebooks and isn't really a problem when you've got a higher resolution panel like this one. Horizontal viewing angles are extremely good, so you won't have any trouble sharing a movie with a friend or two. Upper vertical viewing angles are above average since the colors don't wash out too much when viewed from above but colors begin to distort and invert as you move the screen back.

UPDATE: When we originally reviewed the Studio 15 (1555) we certainly weren't impressed. The stereo speakers located beneath the screen produced weak and flat sound and we couldn't detect anything from the built-in subwoofer. We sent our review unit back to Dell for service and upon its return all we can say is, WOW!

The subwoofer adds a surprising impressive level of bass to the speakers in the Studio 15. The bass is actually strong enough to feel with your hand on the keyboard. Overall the sound pretty good with crisp high notes from the main speakers and milder bass from the subwoofer. In short, the fixed subwoofer makes a world of difference and is much better than before. I still think the audio could use some tuning to lower the volume of the main speakers to match the subwoofer, but it's a minor issue.

Overall, the built-in speakers and subwoofer are good and external speakers or headphones are only a must-have accessory with this laptop if you want privacy.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The backlit keyboard on our review unit of the Studio 15 is very nice and similar to the one on the original Studio 15. The keyboard is quite comfortable to type on with reasonable key size and spacing. There is some obvious flex when typing pressure is applied around the "L" key, but the left side of the keyboard is reasonably firm. If Dell put some additional reinforcement under the right side of the keyboard then this would be a nearly perfect keyboard.

The biggest difference between the keyboard on the Studio 1535 and the new Studio 1555 is that the new keyboard lacks dedicated media buttons. Instead, the new keyboard moves the media controls to the F-keys on the top row of the keyboard. On one hand I really like this change because of gives you physical controls for several different functions. On the other hand, if you frequently use the F-keys for things like refreshing your web browser you now have to press the Fn key as well.

The Synaptics-based touchpad is large and comfortable to use with a nice texture. Sensitivity is good, accurately tracking finger movement with little pressure on the surface. The multi-touch gestures (such as zoom in and zoom out) are easy to use. The only thing I didn't like about the touchpad is that Dell uses their own touchpad drivers rather than the standard Synaptics drivers ... making it more difficult to adjust settings. The touchpad buttons themselves have excellent feedback with a deep throw and well-cushioned press.

Ports and Features
The port selection on the Studio 1555 is nice, but surprisingly not as good as the original Studio 15 (1535). The new Studio 15 has one fewer USB ports and only has an ExpressCard/34 slot rather than an ExpressCard/54 slot. Granted, many 15-inch notebooks only have three USB ports, but now that most 10-inch netbooks have three USB ports it seems odd when a 15-inch notebook doesn't have at least four. Still, the inclusion of eSATA, FireWire and HDMI for connecting your laptop to a larger HDTV or external monitor are welcome features to have on a multimedia notebook.

Front: No ports or Indicator lights.

Rear: Screen hinges, battery, and heat vent.

Left: Kensington lock slot, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, USB/eSATA combo port, USB port, FireWire, microphone jack and two headphone jacks.

Right: ExpressCard/34, media card reader, Slot-loading optical drive, USB, and power jack

Performance
The performance of the Studio 15 with an Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 processor and ATI Radeon 4570 discrete graphics is exceptionally good. This is the level of performance we like to see from multimedia oriented notebooks with discrete graphics. Whether you're watching a Blu-ray movie, playing a few levels of Left 4 Dead, or streaming video via YouTube HD this notebook has the power to get the job done.

We would have loved to see even more discrete graphics options available on the Dell website, but the ATI Radeon options should provide more than enough performance for average consumers looking to purchase this laptop for multimedia use around the home.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Dell Studio 15 (1555) (Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.4GHz)	32.995 seconds
Toshiba Satellite A355 (Core 2 Duo P7450 @ 2.16GHz)	35.848 seconds
Lenovo IdeaPad Y530 (Core 2 Duo P7350 @ 2.0GHz)	38.455 seconds
Lenovo G530 (Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3400 @ 2.16GHz)	38.470 seconds
HP Pavilion dv5z (Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 @ 2.1GHz)	39.745 seconds
Dell Studio 15 (1535) (Core 2 Duo T5750 @ 2.0GHz)	41.246 seconds

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Toshiba Satellite A355 (2.16GHz Intel P7450, ATI Radeon HD 3650 512MB)	5,842 PCMarks
Dell Studio 15 (1555) (2.4GHz Intel P8600, ATI Radeon HD 4570 256MB)	5,731 PCMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad Y530 (2.0GHz Intel P7350, Nvidia 9300M 256MB)	4,844 PCMarks
Lenovo G530 (2.16GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3400, Intel Intel 4500MHD)	4,110 PCMarks
Dell Studio 15 (1535) (2.0GHz Intel T5750, Intel X3100)	3,998 PCMarks
HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200)	3,994 PCMarks

3DMark06 measures video and gaming performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Dell Studio 15 (1555) (2.4GHz Intel P8600, ATI Radeon HD 4570 256MB)	4,189 3DMarks
Toshiba Satellite A355 (2.16GHz Intel P7450, ATI Radeon HD 3650 512MB)	4,084 3DMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad Y530 (2.0GHz Intel P7350, Nvidia 9300M 256MB)	1,833 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200)	1,599 3DMarks
Lenovo G530 (2.16GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3400, Intel Intel 4500MHD)	730 3DMarks
Dell Studio 15 (1535) (2.0GHz Intel T5750, Intel X3100)	493 3DMarks

All of the 3DMark06 scores for all of the systems listed above were run at 1280 x 800 resolution. However, due to the 16:9 screen ratio on the Studio 15 (1555) we benchmarked the notebook at 1280x768 ... which was the closest resolution available in 3DMark06 for use with the built-in screen.

For those who are interested, the 3DMark06 score at the native resolution of 1920x1080 is 2,985 3DMarks ... still impressive for average multimedia use and gaming.

HDTune storage drive performance results:

Battery
With the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and the Vista power profile set to "Balanced" the Studio 15 stayed on for 3 hours and 42 minutes of constant use. To be honest, discrete graphics and 1080p displays usually result in less-than-spectacular battery life, but we were hoping to see more from this notebook with the 9-cell 85Wh extended life battery. Bottom line, this is perfectly fine for a desktop replacement or for average use around the house, but if you need a notebook to be your constant travel companion then the Studio 15 might not be the best choice.

Heat and Noise
The cooling system does an acceptable job keeping temperatures under control. The area around the hard drive, RAM, and wireless cards produced the most obvious heat on the external surfaces of the notebook, but temperatures weren't hot enough to prevent me from using the Studio 15 as a "laptop." The temperature readings below (listed in degrees Fahrenheit) were taken after stressing the system with performance benchmarks for 30 minutes and should reflect typical external temperatures after more than an hour of serious use.

Noise wasn't much of an issue with the Studio 15. The slot-loading optical drive made some noise when inserting or ejecting a disk but it was average for the slot-loading drives we've had in our office. The cooling fan is loud enough to be noticed in a quiet room, but shouldn't be an issue unless you must have absolute silence.

The hard drive was likewise quiet and it seems as if Dell has done a good job finding ways to minimize the noise coming from the hard drive. We did notice some sporadic CPU/southbridge whine coming from our review unit, but it was extremely high-frequency noise and might not be common to all Studio 15 models.

BUY the STUDIO 15 Laptop (Unknown/NA Empty_option_attribute_value_description Unknown/NA , DDR2 SDRAM 3MB, 250GB)

Dell Home Systems $599.00

see all pricing for the STUDIO 15 Laptop (Unknown/NA Empty_option_attribute_value_description Unknown/NA , DDR2 SDRAM 3MB, 250GB)

Conclusion

The Dell Studio 15 (1555) offers an impressive balance of customizable features and performance at a fair price. The modern looks, custom lid options, and affordable upgrades are sure to make this a popular notebook for many consumers. Unfortunately, the lackluster build quality, and average port selection will probably leave several owners wanting more.

If you're in the market for a nice family PC that has a fantastic range of multimedia features at a good price then the Dell Studio 15 is worth consideration. If you can't look beyond the flexible plastics then luckily there are many alternatives on the market with 15-inch screens.

Pros:

• Great customizable options
• Good value and performance
• Cool Dell Design Studio lids
• Good speakers and subwoofer

Cons:

• Could use more USB ports
• Average build quality

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Notebook Review Spec : Fujitsu M2010

The M2010 is a new netbook to hit the market from Fujitsu, which is their first Atom-based model to date. Offering good looks and good build quality it is marketed as a "Mini-Notebook" aimed at casual users who want a small platform to surf the web or check email. In this review we take a look at all aspects of the M2010, to help you find out if this netbook is right for you.

Our Fujitsu M2010 features the following specifications:

• Operating System: Windows XP Home
• Processor: Intel Atom N270 Processor 1.60GHz (533MHz FSB, 512K Cache)
• Memory: 1GB DDR2 PC2-6400 SDRAM
• Internal Storage: 160GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD
• Display: 10.1-inch diagonal LED-backlit WSVGA (1024x576)
• Graphics: Intel GMA 950
• Wireless: Atheros 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Expansion: 4-in-1 media card slot
• Ports and connectors: (3) USB 2.0 ports, VGA OUT, power connector, RJ-45/Ethernet, stereo headphone/line out, stereo microphone in, 1.3 megapixel webcam
• Dimensions (H x W x D): 10.2" x 7.4" x 1.3"
• Weight: 2 lbs 8.8oz (3lbs 5.2oz with adapter).
• Power: 3-cell Lithium-Ion battery (10.8V, 2.4Ah, 26Wh)
• Warranty: One-year international warranty
• MSRP: $449

Build and Design
From the start Fujitsu made a great looking netbook. The M2010 has an excellent glossy metallic red paint job inside and out with glossy piano black plastic surrounding the top of the Keyboard and around the screen. I really think Fujitsu took a step back and thought before they came up with a netbook to launch into a saturated market ... and found some interesting ways to make it stand out. Whatever approach they took it worked.

Build quality is excellent with no squeaks and creaks around the chassis, and only minor flex from larger plastic surfaces. Even the screen hinges feel great with good tension when pivoting the screen and a very smooth action when in motion. On the bottom of the notebook we find the standard "Fujitsu Felt" underneath the processor location, which helps limit the amount of heat that can transfer into your legs when you are using it on your lap. This is standard across every Fujitsu notebook I have ever seen.

Access to internal components is handled through a single panel on the bottom of the notebook, but it only lets you swap out the wireless card and system memory. The hard drive requires further disassembly ... something that the average user might not want to undertake. Still, this was probably a poor choice, since memory and Storage are the only areas of expansion and upgrade for netbook users.

Screen and Speakers
The glossy display on the M2010 looks great, which is the case with many LED-backlit netbook displays. Colors are rich and vibrant, with deep contrast and excellent black levels. Peak brightness levels were great for viewing in bright office conditions, with my preferred setting right at the 50% mark. Viewing angles rate average, with colors starting to invert 20 degrees forward or back. Horizontal viewing angles were much better, extending until the screen bezel and reflection started to obstruct the view of the panel.

The speakers rate average compared to netbooks, and below average compared to most notebooks. Peak volume levels were fine for listening in a small room, but didn't have much power to fill a larger room. Bass and midrange were not present, with only higher frequencies coming through. Headphones would be preferred for really enjoying music or a movie.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The Keyboard is the primary area that I feel Fujitsu should have spent more time developing. Compared to almost every netbook on the market right now, it has one of the smallest keyboard layouts, which feels really cramped. While HP set the trend for one of the best netbook keyboards, manufacturers such as ASUS have been following a similar path, expanding the keyboard to make it as wide as the chassis allows. Fujitsu keeps a wide border around the keyboard, which looks good with the glossy red finish, but doesn't allow as large of a typing surface. Despite the small size the Keyboard itself feels very good. Support is excellent, with barely a hint of flex under heavy typing pressure. Individual key action is smooth, with very little key wobble when you try to move the top of the key around. Noise is minimal while typing, with a muted high-pitch click when each key is pressed.

The M2010 offers a smaller Synaptics touchpad with a smooth matte finish. During our tests it was easy to operate with no discernable lag (after some settings adjustment). Initially we found the touchpad to coast after you brought your finger off the surface, which felt very similar to a laggy touchpad. We found a Synaptics feature called "Momentum" was enabled, and once turned off made the touchpad motion feel much nicer. The touchpad also offers some multi-touch functionality, including Flick, Pinch, and ChiralRotate, used to rotate a selected object 90 degrees. No option for two fingered scrolling was found. The touchpad buttons are setup with a seesaw button which is flexible enough that both buttons can be pressed at the same time. Feedback when pressed is minimal, with a loud click when engaged.

Ports and Features
Port selection on the M2010 is average compared to most netbooks on the market, with three USB ports, VGA out, headphone/mic, and SDHC multi-card reader, and LAN connection. Fujitsu also includes a Kensington Lock slot if you feel the need to securely attach the netbook while it is unattended.

Front: Activity lights

Rear: Battery

Left: AC power, VGA, one USB

Right: SDHC multi-card reader, headphone/mic, two USB, LAN, Kensington Lock slot

Performance and Benchmarks
Initially system performance of the Fujitsu M2010 was well below average compared to similarly configured netbooks. wPrime, which tests just the processor was giving results in the range of 180 seconds, whereas it should be around 120 seconds. Other benchmarks were also giving results that were much slower than expected. After updating drivers across the board with little success, we hopped into the BIOS to see if there were any odd settings. As it turns out the BIOS allows you to switch HyperThreading on or off, with the default setting being off. Once this was turned back on the M2010 sped up and was performing in line with other netbooks. We don't know if this is a preproduction issue or not, but if you purchase this netbook checking the BIOS option should be the first thing you do after taking it out of the box.

With optimal performance settings the M2010 performs quite well in day-to-day tasks that you might expect from a netbook. HD video decoding and gaming aside, netbooks are great for web browsing, editing photos, typing documents, and just about anything you might want to do while traveling abroad or even to your couch. Boot and shutdown times once the OS had settled from the initial boot were very good, although this is with the AV software removed.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.20GHz)	76.240 seconds
HP Pavilion dv2 (AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 @ 1.60GHz)	103.521 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 1000HE (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz)	114.749 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz)	116.030 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 1005HA (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz)	116.421 seconds
HP Mini 2140 with HD screen (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60GHz)	123.281 seconds
Fujitsu M2010 (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60GHz)	124.499 seconds
Acer Aspire One (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	125.812 seconds
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (2009) (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	126.406 seconds
Samsung NC20 (VIA Nano ULV U2250 @ 1.30GHz)	173.968 seconds

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	2,446 PCMarks
HP Pavilion dv2 (1.60GHz AMD Athlon Neo, ATI Radeon HD 3410 512MB)	2,191 PCMarks
ASUS N10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, NVIDIA 9300M 256MB)	1,851 PCMarks
Toshiba Portege R500 (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	1,839 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1005HA (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	1,637 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	1,564 PCMarks
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,555 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1000HE (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	1,535 PCMarks
Fujitsu M2010 (1.60GHz Intel Atom N270, Intel GMA 950)	1,523 PCMarks
Samsung NC20 (1.30GHz VIA Nano ULV U2250, VIA Chrome9 HC3)	1,441 PCMarks
HP Mini 2140 with HD screen (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GM1 950)	1,437 PCMarks

3DMark06 comparison results against netbooks @ 1024 x 768 resolution:

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
HP Pavilion dv2 (1.60GHz AMD Athlon Neo, ATI Radeon HD 3410 512MB)	1,520 3DMarks
ASUS N10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, NVIDIA 9300M 256MB)	1,417 3DMarks
Samsung NC20 (1.30GHz VIA Nano ULV U2250, VIA Chrome9 HC3)	151 3DMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1005HA (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	127 3DMarks
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	122 3DMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	116 3DMarks
HP Mini 2140 with HD screen (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GM1 950)	112 3DMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1000HE (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	92 3DMarks
Sony VAIO P (1.33GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 500, Windows Vista)	88 3DMarks
Fujitsu M2010 (1.60GHz Intel Atom N270, Intel GMA 950)	83 3DMarks

HDTune measuring hard drive performance:

Heat and Noise
Compared to other netbooks the M2010 runs a bit on the warm and loud side of things. Under normal use temperatures settle in the mid 80's around the top surface, and after it has warmed up the fan likes to stay on. Under any heavier load the fan noise is considerably louder than most notebook fans. This can be common on some netbooks, since the fans are so small they have to spin very fast to move any measureable amount of air.

Battery
The M2010 didn't impress us with its performance in our battery tests. The standard battery Fujitsu includes with this model is a small 3-cell 25Wh battery which doesn't compare well to 6-cell batteries you would get in this price range from other manufacturers. Another problem we ran into was the default BIOS settings relating to HyperThreading being disabled. With it disabled, during our battery test with the backlight set to 50% and wireless active the M2010 managed 2 hours and 17 minutes. With it turned on, power consumption dropped by 1 to 1.5watts at idle, increasing our results to 3 hours and 12 minutes. With a larger battery the system could have easily competed with newer netbooks, but with the 3-cell limitation results were less than stellar.

Conclusion
The Fujitsu M2010 is a late arrival to the netbook market, offering very good looks and build quality, but with a high price and not so excellent performance. Compared to some of the newer netbooks on the market its benchmarks fall towards the bottom of the list, and battery life came up way short with the 3-cell battery. With its good looks and high build quality it seems to be pushed towards business customers, which might explain the higher price. Overall for if the price was about $100 less it would be much more attractive.

Pros:

• Great looks
• Solid feeling chassis with high quality components

Cons:

• High price
• Some odd default performance settings
• Small standard battery

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Notebook Review Spec : ASUS Eee PC 1005HA

It's easy to get confused by all the variety of netbooks on the market today. These low-cost ultraportable laptops generally have very similar features and many even look virtually identical. That said, it's never easy to overlook the latest Eee PC from ASUS. The Eee PC 1005HA Seashell is the newest netbook from ASUS that promises to deliver the perfect balance between lightweight style and functionality. Let's take a closer look.

Our ASUS Eee PC 1005HA Seashell features the following specifications:

• Operating System: Genuine Windows XP
• Processor: Intel Atom N280 Processor 1.66GHz (667MHz FSB)
• Memory: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM (667MHz)
• Internal Storage: 160GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD plus 10GB Eee Online Storage
• Display: 10.1-inch diagonal WSVGA+ (1024x600)
• Graphics: Intel GMA 950
• Wireless: Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Expansion: 4-in-1 media card slot
• Ports and connectors: (3) USB 2.0 ports, VGA OUT, power connector, RJ-45/Ethernet (Gigabit), stereo headphone/line out, stereo microphone in, 1.3 megapixel webcam
• Dimensions (H x W x D): 0.89-1.40 x 10.2 x 6.9 inches (including feet)
• Weight: 2.8 lbs (not including weight of AC adapter).
• Power: 6-cell Lithium-Ion battery (5600mAh, 63Wh)
• Warranty: One-year standard warranty
• MSRP: $389.99

Build and Design
The Eee PC 1005HA is a lower-cost version of the 1008HA Seashell and features a similar clamshell chassis design but is a little thicker and comes with a removable battery. Unlike the 1008HA, which had plastic covers over every port, all of the ports on the 1005HA are easily accessible so you won't have to struggle to plug in a USB flash drive. The 1005HA also isn't as thin as the 1008HA Seashell, but the 1005HA makes up for extra bulk with a high-capacity removable battery.

If you look at the top of the 1005HA it's easy to see the "Seashell" heritage, and thankfully it manages to retain some solid build quality for a budget netbook. The glossy black plastics aren't prone to flex and the keyboard is very firm ... two things you usually don't see on budget notebooks. The various parts of the chassis come together with tight build tolerances like a higher-priced laptop. This isn't the most rugged netbook we've ever seen, but ASUS gave the 1005HA a pretty solid build for less than $400.

One nice improvement on this netbook compared to the last Seashell is the return of an easy-access RAM cover. If you want to upgrade the RAM in your 1005HA all you have to do is remove one screw on the access panel on the bottom of the netbook. I would have also liked to see an easy-access panel for the hard drive, but most netbook buyers aren't going to mess with the hard drive.

Screen
The new Eee PC 1005HA Seashell uses a fairly standard LED-backlit display panel with a 1024x600 native resolution. The glossy screen looks identical to what we saw in the 1008HA: the glossy screen offers good color and contrast, but glare and reflections indoors under strong lights or outdoors under direct sunlight can be a problem. Again, although the 1024x600 resolution is pretty standard for a netbook these days, I'd much rather see a 1366x768 screen in the next Eee PC. Vertical viewing angles are average, with minimal color distortion when viewing from below and some over-exposed colors when viewed from above. Horizontal viewing angles are better with colors staying accurate at extremely wide viewing angles with just a little bit of color wash out.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The 1005HA Seashell uses the same 92% of full size keyboard first seen on the 1008HA Seashell. The keys are slightly smaller than the keys on an average notebook but the spacing between the keys is quite limited. If you prefer the shape and feel of traditional keys then you'll probably like the new keyboard. That said, I personally prefer the "chicklet" style keyboard used on the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE since there is more space between the keys to prevent me from accidentally hitting the wrong key. Still, the keyboard on this netbook is quite usable and should be perfectly fine for typing quick emails or editing documents while traveling.

The Synaptics touchpad used on the 1005HA is likewise identical to the gesture-enabled model on the 1008HA. This allows you to use multi-figure gestures such as "pinching" your fingers together or "pulling" your fingers apart to zoom in or out. You can also use a "three-finger tap" as an alternative to a right click on a mouse. The Synaptics control panel in Windows also allows you to customize these gestures as well. The touchpad surface is covered in dots that provide a clear indication of the edges of the touchpad, but this also makes the touchpad surface too rough for quick finger movement. The left and right touchpad buttons are located beneath a single rocker-style button, but with no separation between the left and right side it's easy to accidentally press the middle of the touchpad button when you're trying to press the left or right side. The touchpad buttons have extremely shallow feedback, so it isn't always easy to feel when you have or have not pressed a button.

The 1005HA lacks a dedicated wireless on/off switch, but ASUS did include a dedicated touchpad on/off button as well as FN keyboard shortcuts for wireless, screen brightness, video output, volume, and Windows task manager.

Input and Output Ports
The 1005HA provides a few more ports than the 1008HA. Namely, you get three USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 media card reader, headphone and microphone jacks, Ethernet port, and the return of a standard VGA out port. The 1005HA lacks the protective port covers seen on the 1008HA, but I personally don't like protective covers since I have to move them to use the ports.

Here is a quick tour around the Eee PC 1005HA:

Front view: No ports here, just clean lines and indicator lights.

Rear view: No ports here either, just the hinges and battery.

Left side view: Power jack, VGA out, USB 2.0 port, security lock slot, and heat vent.

Right side view: 4-in-1 card reader, headphone jack, microphone jack, two USB 2.0 ports, and Ethernet.

The 1005HA is also the first Eee PC to offer a software "dock" on the desktop that ASUS calls "Eee Docking software." In much the same way that the Apple OS X dock or ObjectDock from Stardock software allow you to use quick shortcuts to utilities and applicatiosn, the Eee Docking software provides an easy way to locate utilities, software and digital content. It consists of the following: Eee Vibe (music/media application and Eee download website), Sharing (Data sync, messenger, and Eee Storage), Xperience (Voice Command) and Tools (Parental Control, Font resizer, and Settings), and all of these suites are easily accessed as the software “docks” to the top of the screen and is semi-hidden when not in use.

Performance and Benchmarks
I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's difficult to get excited about the benchmarking a netbook since most netbook have virtually identical specs. If you've read our reviews of other netbooks that use the Intel Atom processors then you know that all Atom-based netbooks have nearly identical performance in terms of actual real-world use. Overall performance with the Intel Atom platform is very reasonable for daily activities like Web browsing, email, using Microsoft Office, listening to music, and even watching movies. If you're in a bind you can even use Photo Editing Software like Photoshop or GIMP for basic image editing.

On a positive note, ASUS includes a proprietary overclocking application on the 1005HA called the "Super Hybrid Engine" that allows you to cycle through pre-set power profiles to maximize battery life by underclocking the processor, keep the processor at stock speed or slightly overclock the processor (from 1.66GHz to 1.70GHz).

Unfortunately, there's only so much anyone can do with Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics. This integrated graphics processor (IGP) is powerful enough to handle displaying a PowerPoint presentation on a projector or watching DVD quality movies, but if 720p and 1080p video playback is your primary concern then you'll want to look elsewhere. That said, ASUS managed to squeeze some pretty solid benchmark numbers out of the Intel graphics in the 1005HA.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.20GHz)	76.240 seconds
HP Pavilion dv2 (AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 @ 1.60GHz)	103.521 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 1000HE (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz)	114.749 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz)	116.030 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 1005HA (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz)	116.421 seconds
HP Mini 2140 with HD screen (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60GHz)	123.281 seconds
Acer Aspire One (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	125.812 seconds
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (2009) (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	126.406 seconds
Samsung NC20 (VIA Nano ULV U2250 @ 1.30GHz)	173.968 seconds

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	2,446 PCMarks
HP Pavilion dv2 (1.60GHz AMD Athlon Neo, ATI Radeon HD 3410 512MB)	2,191 PCMarks
ASUS N10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, NVIDIA 9300M 256MB)	1,851 PCMarks
Toshiba Portege R500 (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	1,839 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1005HA (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	1,637 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	1,564 PCMarks
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,555 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1000HE (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	1,535 PCMarks
Samsung NC20 (1.30GHz VIA Nano ULV U2250, VIA Chrome9 HC3)	1,441 PCMarks
HP Mini 2140 with HD screen (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GM1 950)	1,437 PCMarks

3DMark06 comparison results against netbooks @ 1024 x 768 resolution:

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
HP Pavilion dv2 (1.60GHz AMD Athlon Neo, ATI Radeon HD 3410 512MB)	1,520 3DMarks
ASUS N10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, NVIDIA 9300M 256MB)	1,417 3DMarks
Samsung NC20 (1.30GHz VIA Nano ULV U2250, VIA Chrome9 HC3)	151 3DMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1005HA (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	127 3DMarks
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	122 3DMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	116 3DMarks
HP Mini 2140 with HD screen (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GM1 950)	112 3DMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1000HE (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	92 3DMarks
Sony VAIO P (1.33GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 500, Windows Vista)	88 3DMarks

HDTune for the built-in hard drive:

Audio
The built-in speaker performance on the Eee PC 1005HA is pretty good for a 10-inch netbook. I'm not a fan of the location of the built-in speakers since they're located on the bottom front edge of the 1005HA, but the audio quality is better than what we typically hear from netbook speakers. The speakers produce good volume (enough to fill a small room) and there is minimal distortion even at higher volume levels. The speakers lack much bass, but the range of highs and midtones are fine. Still, the audio output from the headphone jack is free of any obvious distortion and is a better solutiuon when paired with earphones or a good set of external speakers.

Heat and Noise
Temperatures on the new Eee PC Seashell are in line with what we've come to expect from netbooks with Intel Atom processors. Temperature readings taken from the outside of the plastic chassis remained "lap friendly" during normal use. The only time that temperature readings spiked was when I connected the netbook to an external display.

Below are images indicating the temperature readings (listed in degrees Fahrenheit) taken inside our office where the ambient temperature was 74 degrees Fahrenheit.

Battery
ASUS claims that the 1005HA provides "all-day computing" with up to 10.5 hours of battery life on a single charge. As difficult as that might be to believe, it's not completely out of the question. In our test with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and XP set to the laptop/portable power profile the system stayed on for 9 hours and 37 minutes of constant use. If we turned down the screen brightness even more, disabled Wi-Fi, and allowed the netbook to occasionally go into sleep mode then I'm quite certain the 1005HA could have exceeded 11 hours of battery life!

Conclusion
The new ASUS Eee PC 1005HA Seashell might seem like "just another Eee PC" at first glance, but upon closer examination it's clear that ASUS has refined their popular line of netbooks with every variation. The Eee PC 1005A is one of the best eveolutions of the Eee PC line so far.

Yes, on paper there's not much to get excited about with the latest Eee PC since it features the same processor, integrated graphics, and standard 10-inch display seen in almost every netbook, but in this case the whole may indeed be greater than the sum of its parts.

I'd still like to see a higher resolution screen, different graphics solution, and better touchpad buttons in this netbook, but overall there are plenty of reasons to like the latest Eee PC. If you're in the market for a $400 netbook then this is worth your consideration.

Pros:

• Nice build quality
• Excellent battery life
• Good port layout ... for a netbook

Cons:

• Thick for a modern netbook
• Still uses weak integrated graphics
• Bad touchpad buttons

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