HP ProBook 4710s Review

by Jerry Jackson

The HP ProBook 4710s is a low-priced 17-inch business notebook designed to provide businesses with a good desktop replacement notebook without breaking the bank. If your company wants the HP Elitebook 8730w but has a tight budget, the ProBook 4710s might be a good alternative at a starting price of just $899. Is this budget-priced notebook as good as it sounds? Keep reading to find out.

Our pre-production review unit of the ProBook 4710s is configured as follows:

• Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53GHz Processor (3MB L2 cache, 1066MHz FSB)
• Microsoft Genuine Windows Vista Business (32-bit)
• 17.3-inch LED-backlit anti-glare HD+ display (1600 x 900)
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 512MB
• 4GB DDR2 800MHz RAM
• 320GB 5400RPM HDD
• LightScribe DVD+/-RW Optical Drive
• Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/draft-n), Ethernet, Modem, Bluetooth 2.0
• 8-Cell 63WHr Battery
• Limited 1-year standard parts and labor warranty
• Dimensions: 1.26" x 16.17" x 10.63"
• Weight: 6.8lbs
• Price as configured: $1,099

Build and Design
The HP ProBook 4710s, like the rest of the new HP ProBook family, is a low-cost business notebook designed specifically for small and medium businesses. Translation: this desktop replacement notebook needs to have a good balance of performance, security, reliability and extras all at an affordable price. Most notebooks designed for small and medium business tend to sacrifice build quality in order to help lower the cost of production and lower the cost to customers. On that note, the ProBook 4710s looks very similar to a HP EliteBook 8730w with all plastic construction, a new keyboard and all black finish.

The HP EliteBook line uses strong magnesium alloy chassis designs and premium internal components. In order to lower the cost and weight of the 17-inch ProBook 4710s, HP constructed this notebook mostly of plastic. The base of the laptop flexes heavily under pressure, the palmrests likewise bow when pressed firmly, and the back of the screen lid is similarly prone to flex. The plastics used in the 4710s will surely survive the typical use and abuse seen by most office desktop replacements, but the chassis might not survive multiple drops off a desk or the kind of abuse we expect the EliteBook series to handle with ease. The key point to remember in this section is that the ProBook 4710s looks pretty nice, but isn't designed to be a rugged mobile workhorse. Thankfully, HP still offers some good internal components to help make the ProBook 4710s a solid value.

The outer shell of the screen casing, like the rest of the notebook, is made of plastic. The lid is made of reflective, glossy plastic with the HP and ProBook logos printed in silver. The laptop screen housing is a mixture of firm and flexible materials. The frame around the screen is solid enough to prevent me from twisting the screen when force is applied, but the back of the lid is flexible enough that I was able to create ripples on the screen when I pressed on the back of the screen lid.

The simple black design of the ProBook series combines matte and glossy textures for a clean appearance without the personalized style of HP's consumer-oriented Pavilion line. Our review unit comes equipped with the "Noir" black finish but the smaller ProBook notebooks are also offered in a "Merlot" red color ... just in case black is too boring for your office.

Although it's fair to criticize the plastic construction, the 4710s still features hard drive shock protection in the form of HP 3D DriveGuard which will help to protect your hard drive in the event the laptop gets dropped or violently bumped. HP also includes HP ProtectTools with drive encryption, Device Access Manager, HP Spare Key (a program that helps employees access their computer in case they forget their password), HP Disk Sanitizer, File Sanitizer, and McAfee Security Solution for those small businesses that need reliability and ease of use but don't have the resources of a dedicated IT department.

However, I still have a hard time understanding why HP makes it so difficult to upgrade to the ProBook 4710s. Most notebooks have a removable panel (or panels) on the bottom of the notebook to access the RAM, hard drive, and wireless card. Not so with the ProBook 4710s. HP designed the ProBook series with a solid base so that you have to remove 10 screws and the entire top half of the chassis (including separate speaker grill, keyboard, and touchpad area) in order to replace or upgrade components. If you or your small IT department want to upgrade the RAM or replace a hard drive you've got to completely disassemble and reassemble the notebook to do it. Granted, many businesses will never upgrade their notebook and will simply use the stock configuration until the notebook is are replaced ... but the complexity of upgrades and repairs is something to keep in mind.

Screen and Speakers
The ProBook 4710s comes equipped with a 17.3" anti-glare display with a 16:9 widescreen ratio. At 1600 x 900 pixels, this high-definition display looks very nice with excellent details, good color and great contrast. We know many people are still concerned about the transition from 16:10 to 16:9 ratio screens (because this often means less vertical resolution) but since most 17-inch notebooks in this price range had WXGA+ screens (1440 x 900 pixels) the screen on the ProBook 4710s actually gives you more screen real estate ... not less.

Horizontal viewing angles are quite good and you only start to notice some color shift after you exceed 75 degrees off center. Vertical viewing angles are only average as the screen begins to wash out from above and colors begin to invert from below after about 45 degrees in either direction.

The speakers on the ProBook 4710s, like the speakers on the smaller 4510s, fail to impress. HP generally scores well with our editorial staff based on the quality of the speakers used in their notebooks. Unfortunately, while the audio quality from the 4710s is good enough for watching a webcast or hearing system sounds, the built-in speakers lack a full range of highs, middles, and lows. The highest volume settings are loud enough to fill an office with sound for a presentation, but audio begins to sound distorted at higher volume levels.

Despite the weak performance of the built-in speakers, they are well placed above the keyboard to direct sound up and toward the user.

The headphone jack on the 4710s works well with the three different brands of earphones I used during the test. No static or other noise was noticed through the jack besides imperfections in the audio source itself.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The full-size keyboard on the 4710s is a new design that HP unveiled with the launch of the ProBook series. The keyboard provides extra spacing between the individual keys to help reduce typos and even includes a dedicated number pad (a major plus for businesses that use their computers for number crunching or data entry). Each key is relatively flat with a nice matte texture and the keys sit above a glossy black support frame. The support frame surrounding the keys is quite firm thanks to the design of the chassis which adds additional support for the keyboard. The only obvious area of flex in the keyboard is when you press on the number pad keys.

The height of the keys seems a bit much since they sit so far above the surrounding frame that dust or crumbs might settle beneath the keys. Other than that, this is a nice keyboard. The individual key presses are quiet without loud clicking sounds as you type. The throw of each key press is excellent, though some people may dislike the flat, chicklet-style keys. Overall the keyboard layout is nice and large ... like you expect to see on a 17-inch desktop replacement notebook.

The touchpad is very responsive to my touch with a scroll zone on the right side that works exactly as it should. The touchpad texture feels fine, but the plastics used seem to be the kind that will develop wear over time and use. The plastic touchpad buttons are about the right size, but require a deep press in order to register a click. This wouldn't be a problem if the area directly beneath the touchpad buttons was indented to allow the side of your thumb to press the buttons all the way down. Unfortunately, when you try to press the touchpad buttons your thumb hits the bottom edge of the notebook. This problem is compounded by the fact that if you press the outside edges of the touchpad buttons it's possible to press them without the buttons actually registering the click.

We would have also liked to see a dedicated touchpad disable button (like the ones HP uses on their consumer notebooks) so that you can disable the touchpad if you're using an external mouse.

Ports and Features
The 4710s features a good balance of ports on both the left and right sides, so let us take a brief tour ...

Left side: Here we see the Kensington Lock slot, GigE Ethernet, heat exhaust, VGA out, HDMI, an ExpressCard/34 slot, and two USB ports.

Right side: Two USB ports, modem (under a rubber flap), optical drive and power jack.

Rear side: The battery and hinges.

Front side: Media card reader, headphone out and microphone in jacks.

Performance and Benchmarks
Our review unit of the ProBook 4710s came with the Intel P8700 processor, clocking in at 2.53GHz, and ATI discrete graphics. The ATI Radeon 4330 GPU with 512MB of dedicated memory sounds impressive, but this is a fairly entry-level discrete graphics solution for a 17-inch desktop replacement. The 4330 graphics provide enough power for watching HD content, editing video, and even playing some games, but this system isn't designed to handle complex 3D rendering jobs like the workstation-class HP EliteBook 8530w with Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M graphics. A 320GB 5400rpm hard drive was also included, which worked fine, but applications might have loaded faster with a 7200rpm hard drive. This notebook won't likely exceed your expectations in terms of performance, but the 4710s has more than enough power to handle Microsoft Office or even HD video work.

With that said, let's jump into the performance benchmarks.

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

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
HP EliteBook 8530w (Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 @ 2.53GHz)	15.701 seconds
Lenovo W700 (Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 @ 2.53GHz)	15.771 seconds
Dell XPS M1730 (Core 2 Extreme X7900 @ 2.8GHz)	29.477 seconds
HP ProBook 4710s (Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz)	30.341 seconds
HP EliteBook 8530w (Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 @ 2.53GHz)	30.919 seconds
Dell Studio 17 (Core 2 Duo T9300 @ 2.50GHz)	31.574 seconds
Dell Precision M6300 (Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz)	46.797 seconds

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

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
HP EliteBook 8730w (2.53GHz Intel QX9300, Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M 1GB)	8,672 PCMarks
Lenovo W700 (2.53GHz Intel QX9300, NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M 1GB)	8,207 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1730 (Core 2 Extreme X7900 2.8GHz, Dual Nvidia GeForce 8700M-GT 512MB)	7,148 PCMarks
Dell Precision M6300 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M)	7.070 PCMarks
HP EliteBook 8530w (2.53GHz Intel T9400, Nvidia Quadro FX 770M 512MB)	6,287 PCMarks
Dell Studio 17 (2.50GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650)	5,982 PCMarks
HP ProBook 4710s (2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330)	5,739 PCMarks

3DMark06 graphics comparison against notebooks @ 1280 x 800 resolution (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
HP EliteBook 8730w (2.53GHz Intel QX9300, Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M 1GB)	14,271 3DMarks
Lenovo W700 (2.53GHz Intel QX9300, NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M 1GB)	11,214 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1730 (Core 2 Extreme X7900 2.8GHz, Dual Nvidia GeForce 8700M-GT 512MB)	8,536 3DMarks
Dell Precision M6300 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M)	5,335 3DMarks
Dell Studio 17 (2.50GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650)	2,974 3DMarks
HP ProBook 4710s (2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330)	2,823 3DMarks

HDTune Storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
During normal use (browsing the web or working on a text document) the ProBook 4710s remained relatively cool but not very quiet. The exhaust fan seemingly runs a full blast when the notebook is plugged in, so your coworkers might hear what sounds like a distant hair dryer in a quiet office. This is exactly the same problem we noted with the smaller ProBook 4510s, and we suspect the fan is running loud because there isn't sufficient air flow coming from the bottom of the chassis. The solid bottom of the notebook inhibits air intake for the cooling fan, making the internal components run warmer and the cooling fan has to work harder. When doing tasks that stress the processor and graphics, the laptop's fan works extremely hard to keep this laptop cool. Five minutes after running the 3DMark06 benchmark the bottom of the notebook was still hotter than 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

Battery
HP offers the ProBook 4710s with a 8-cell 63WHr battery. The battery life of the extended life 8-cell battery is better than average for a 17-inch notebook, but not amazing. During our timed tests, with the laptop set to "HP Optimized" mode, wireless active, and 70% screen brightness, the 4710s lasted for 3 hours and 35 minutes before critical shut down. Battery life can also be extended by lowering the screen brightness and using the "power saver" power profile in Windows Vista.

Conclusion
The HP ProBook 4710s is a well-configured desktop replacement that probably deserves some attention from medium business buyers. HP did a good job balancing the system specs such as processor, graphics and high-resolution screen with a modest price point.

Still, things like the plastic construction, uncomfortable touchpad design, difficulty of upgrades, and poor cooling might give potential buyers reasons to look at alternatives such as the Dell Vostro 1720 or Toshiba Satellite L550.

Bottom line, the HP ProBook 4710s, like the rest of the ProBook line, is a good notebook for its intended market. However, HP has some room for improvement if they want to turn this laptop into a deal that's too good to pass up.

Pros:

• A great price for a 17" business notebook
• Nice keyboard
• Attractive, conservative design

Cons:

• Sub-par build quality
• Bad touchpad buttons
• Too difficult to upgrade
• Poor thermal design (gets hot)

Read rest of entry

Acer Aspire One D250 Review

by Jerry Jackson

Acer managed to strike gold in the middle of a global economic crisis thanks to their affordable Acer Aspire One netbooks. These low-cost, ultraportable laptops have quickly become popular travel companions for people who don't want to haul a heavy notebook to Starbucks. The latest 10-inch Acer Aspire One, the D250 series, offers a great balance of features at a starting price of less than $300. Read on to find out more about the Acer Aspire One D250-1165.

Our Acer Aspire One D250-1165 features the following specifications:

• Operating System: Genuine Windows XP
• Processor: Intel Atom N270 Processor 1.60GHz
• Memory: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM (533MHz)
• Internal Storage: 160GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD
• Display: 10.1-inch diagonal WSVGA+ (1024x600)
• Graphics: Intel GMA 950
• Wireless: 54g Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
• Expansion: 5-in-1 media card slot
• Ports and connectors: (3) USB 2.0 ports, VGA OUT, power connector, RJ-45/Ethernet (10/100), stereo headphone/line out, stereo microphone in, 0.3 megapixel (VGA) webcam
• Dimensions (H x W x D): 1 x 10.2 x 7.2 inches (including feet)
• Weight: 2.4 lbs (not including weight of AC adapter).
• Power: 3-cell Lithium-Ion battery (2200mAh, 25Wh)
• Warranty: One-year standard warranty
• MSRP: $329.99 ($299.95 Retail Price)
  

Build and Design
The Acer Aspire One D250-1165 is a low-cost version of the new D250 series netbooks and features a smaller battery and no Bluetooth in order to drop the retail price below $300. One very interesting item of note is that the D250 is actually slightly thinner than the original Acer Aspire One 150 series which used a smaller 8.9-inch screen. Like the original Aspire One, the D250 uses glossy plastics on the top of the screen cover as well as around the entire LCD. At times the reflective boarder does get on your nerves if you are in a brightly lit room with many sources of glare.

Build quality looks quite good and the construction feels strong enough to handle being tossed around inside a book bag without much concern for its safety (well apart from possible scratches to the glossy surfaces). We detected some flexing in the LCD lid plastics and bottom of the chassis when we squeezed the D250 while holding it folded in half, but overall this is a solid little netbook.

One nice design feature in the D250 is easy access for upgrades. Compared to the original Acer Aspire One, the D250 is extremely easy to upgrade. Flip the netbook over and you'll find three access panels for the hard drive, RAM, and the mini-PCIe card slot. The mini-PCIe card slot is obviously open for built-in broadband wireless access, so you should be able to buy this netbook directly from wireless carriers depending on the carriers and data plans in your area.

Screen and Speakers
The new Aspire One uses a fairly standard LED-backlit display panel with a 1024x600 native resolution. The glossy screen looks identical to what we're seeing in most netbooks: 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 Aspire One. Vertical viewing angles are average, with some strong color inversion 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.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The Aspire One D250 uses a surprisingly cramped keyboard that is virtually identical to the keyboard used on the original Aspire One 150 series. Considering that the original Aspire One was a smaller netbook with a 8.9-inch screen it's rather disappointing that Acer didn't use a larger keyboard. Despite the small key size, the typing surface feels strong with no keyboard flex and individual keys feel strong with no wobble. One aspect that I really enjoy about the keyboard layout is the dedicated page up and page down buttons.

Still, the cramped keyboard will cause problems for more than a few owners. Since the keys are small and unusually close together you have to look at the keys when typing rather than using touch typing methods. Here's a quick example of what I can type when looking at the keys:

"This is what it's like to type a document on the Acer Aspire One keyboard if you are looking at the keys."

Here's a quick example of what I can type using the traditional touch typing method:

"This is ehat it's like to type a document on the Acer Aspore One keyboard ig you are looking st the screen."

The Synaptics touchpad used on the D250 is a little small considering that most 10-inch netbooks are getting larger touchpads these days. The touchpad is gesture-enabled and this allows you to use multi-finger gestures such as "pinching" your fingers together or "pulling" your fingers apart to zoom in or out. You can also use a spiral motion to activate the "chiral scroll" feature. The Synaptics control panel in Windows also allows you to customize these gestures as well. The touchpad surface provides smooth, fluid movement but the small size takes some getting used to. 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 D250 also includes a dedicated wireless on/off switch on the front of the notebook--something that's nice to have when traveling and isn't available on many netbooks from other manufacturers.

Input and Output Ports
The Aspire One D250 provides a good selection of ports despite the thin profile of the chassis. You get three USB 2.0 ports, a 5-in-1 media card reader, headphone and microphone jacks, Ethernet port, and a standard VGA out port. It's nice to see a standard set of ports considering that several other netbooks sacrifice ports in order to achieve a thin profile.

Here is a quick tour around the Acer Aspire One D250-1165:

Front view: Wi-Fi on/off switch.

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

Left side view: Ethernet, heat vent, VGA out, USB 2.0 port, microphone and headphone jacks.

Right side view: 5-in-1 card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, power jack and security lock slot.

Performance and Benchmarks
There isn't much to be said in the performance section of a netbook review. 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 watching standard definition (480p) movies. If you're in a bind you can even use photo editing software like Photoshop or GIMP for basic image editing.

The weak performance of the Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics combined with the Intel Atom means this isn't going to be your next multimedia laptop. The integrated graphics processor (IGP) is powerful enough to handle displaying a PowerPoint presentation on a projector or watching DVD quality video, but a netbook with this hardware is really only intended to provide "good enough" performance for quick Web access while you're away from your primary PC.

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 D250-1165 (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60GHz)	124.829 seconds
Acer Aspire One 150-1635 (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 150-1635 (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
Acer Aspire One D250-1165 (1.60GHz Intel Atom N270, Intel GMA 950)	1,456 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 150-1635 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	122 3DMarks
Acer Aspire One D250-1165 (1.60GHz Intel Atom N270, Intel GMA 950)	120 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

In our ongoing quest to provide helpful information to our readers we are adding the following video playback table to our reviews of netbooks. Since netbooks are starting to be used for mobile entertainment (watching movie trailers or streaming video) it's important to know how a netbook performs when trying to play a simple video file. We selected a family-friendly movie trailer and downloaded three different versions in 480p, 720p, and 1080p resolutions. We used the CCCP Codec Pack for decoding and Media Player Classic Homecinema (version 1.1.796.0) for playing all of the video files.

Video Playback Performance:

Video Resolution	CPU Usage	Playback Comments
480p	30%-40% (hyperthreading)	Plays flawlessly
720p	40%-50% (hyperthreading)	Plays with a few dropped frames
1080p	55%-70% (hyperthreading)	Plays with severe stutter, dropped frames and broken audio

HDTune for the built-in hard drive:

Heat and Noise
Temperatures on the new Aspire One 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 the CPU was being stressed with video playback.

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

Battery
Acer claims that the Acer Aspire One D250-1165 provides "up to 3 hours of battery life" from the 3-cell battery. Even if the D250 indeed lasted that long it would be relatively pathetic compared to the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA with a 6-cell battery that lasts more than 9 hours.

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 2 hours and 32 minutes of constant use. If we turned down the screen brightness to the lowest setting and disabled Wi-Fi then I'm reasonably sure the D250 could have lasted more than 3 hours. It's worth mentioning that the Aspire One D250 series is also available with a 6-cell battery, and that the 6-cell battery version should provide better battery life.

Conclusion
Although the Acer Aspire One D250-1165 offers a great value for less than $300, I can't help but feel a little less than impressed. Acer used a small keyboard, small touchpad, and worst of all a small battery on what is otherwise a fantastic netbook.

Considering how crowded the netbook market has become over the last year I really expected Acer to deliver more with their 10-inch netbook. Yes, it costs less than $300, but that price looks less impressive when other netbooks have better keyboards, better touchpads, and MUCH better battery life for less than $400.

As I've said before with netbooks, I'd like to see a higher resolution screen and better graphics solution, but when it comes to the Aspire One D250 I'd settle for a better keyboard, touchpad, and battery. Still, if you're looking for a low-cost laptop to take with you to the coffee shop then the Acer Aspire One D250-1165 might prove to be a very good choice.

Pros:

• Low Price
• Nice build quality
• Easy access for upgrades

Cons:

• Poor battery life
• Small keyboard
• Still uses weak integrated graphics
• Bad touchpad buttons

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Dell Latitude E6400 XFR Review

by Kevin O'Brien

The Dell Latitude E6400 XFR is a 14.1" rugged business notebook, based off the standard E6400 with a new chassis built around the same internal components to make it rugged and waterproof. The chassis offers completely dust and weatherproof access panels covering all external ports, rubber bumpers, and a built-in carrying handle for easy transport. One area that Dell stands hand and shoulders above other rugged notebook manufacturers is the inclusion of high-end components, including dedicated graphics, instead of taking a low-voltage and low-heat approach. In this review we put the Dell E6400 XFR through a battery of tests, to see how well it stands up against other fully-rugged notebooks.

Dell Latitude E6400 XFR Specifications:

• Windows Vista Business (64-bit)
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz P9600 Processor (1066MHz FSB, 6MB Cache)
• 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM (maximum capacity 8GB)
• 128GB Samsung SSD
• 14.1" diagonal DirectVue sunlight-readable display (WXGA, matte)
• 256MB nVidia Quadro NVS 160M (256MB dedicated plus shared memory)
• 8x DVD (+/-R double layer) drive
• Dell Wireless WiFi 1510 (802.11a/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Dimensions: (W x D x H) 13.9" x 10.1-11.5" x 2.2"
• Weight: 8lbs 15oz
• 90W 100-240V AC adapter
• 6-cell (56Wh) Lithium Ion battery
• Price as tested: $4,971 (starting price: $4,299)

Build and Design
If you could imagine a Dell Latitude with a huge shell of thick plastic and alloy bolted around it, that is the best way to describe the Dell E6400 XFR. Dell took the same hardware from the business line of notebooks and put it in a redesigned chassis to hold up to the rigors of heavy-duty usage. To the average person the Dell XFR might not look stylish or pretty, but that isn't the point of full-rugged notebooks. Outside of the color scheme the entire design is a matter of function over form. The body panels are molded with internal bracing for enhanced rigidity, the corners are covered with rubber to absorb energy from being dropped, and it even includes built-in handle for easy transport.

Build quality is above and beyond a standard Dell notebook thanks to very tough body panels and super strong screen hinges. To open the notebook you need to release a metal clip that holds the screen shut ... even if you accidentally drop the notebook down a flight of stairs the screen lid won't open. The rubber bumpers are securely attached to the chassis and there's no hint of them wanting to pull or peel off. The built-in handle is designed as part of the chassis and include durable collapsing hinges that let the handle fold in when it is not in use. The only part of the chassis that I think could have been improved is the air vent on the bottom of the XFR, which is made from thin plastic. It flexes more than we would like to see on any notebook, standard or rugged, creating a weak point in an otherwise fully-rugged design.

The Dell E6400 XFR is built to withstand adverse operating conditions, which may include getting caught in a rainstorm, dropped off the back of a truck, operating in a bumpy car, getting stuck at the North Pole, or even running in a desert. Drop conditions are tested from four feet onto a plywood covered surface, to simulate someone dropping it from about waist height. For extreme temperature tests the XFR is rated up to 145 degrees Fahrenheit, and as low as -20F while running, to simulate desert or winter conditions. In our review we tested the lower operating conditions in our kitchen freezer, weather test via water splashed at the XFR while running, and drop tests onto our office floor. In every test the XFR performed as expected, and kept running without problems.

Screen and Speakers
With many rugged notebooks spending a good portion of their time outdoors, the E6400 XFR offers a sunlight-readable WXGA panel with optional touch-sensitivity. To limit the amount of glare, the screen is a matte finish style, but has more "sparkle" than most matte displays. Colors and contrast are below average at higher brightness levels and the backlight bleeds through at higher levels. For many high-brightness LCD's this is very common, although the high-brightness T400 didn't suffer from this as much. The panel felt stronger than most notebooks thanks to a hard front surface, but still suffered from color distortion under mild pressure from touching the panel. In contrast, the Getac B300 rugged notebook offers an impact-proof panel, which can take a direct punch without showing any signs of color distortion. At the highest brightness setting the E6400 XFR screen was easily readable in full sunlight, with comfortable home viewing brightness somewhere between 30-40%. Viewing angles were above average, with a broad vertical viewing sweet spot before colors started to shift.

Speaker performance is average for a rugged notebook, where they work fine for streaming music or VOIP. Bass and midrange support is lacking, leaving only higher frequencies coming through. Overall volume is decent for a small room, but headphone would be a better option for privacy and higher audio quality.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on the E6400 XFR is ruggedized as well, but has the look and feel of a standard notebook keyboard. It is comfortable to type on, with only a light touch needed to activate each key. The key surface is mildly cupped, which can help center your fingers if you are typing with gloves or very cold hands. For typing in dark conditions, the keyboard is fully backlit with white LED's showing through the bottom. The backlit appears to be non-adjustable, with settings only for off, on, and automatic. Noise while typing is minimal, with a muted click given off when a key is fully pressed.

The touchpad is recessed into the palmrest, allowing it to be fully weather-sealed against dust and water intrusion. The touchpad surface is very responsive and has minimal lag in our testing. The surface texture is a rough matte finish, providing enough traction for accurate movement but still easy enough to use if your fingers are wet. The touchpad buttons are covered in rubber cladding, allowing them to have a full range of movement, but remain sealed against the elements. Feedback is surprisingly good, with a long throw distance and a soft click when pressed. Pressure needed to activate the buttons is above average, but not too much to strain your fingers over time.

Ports and Features
All external ports and expansion slots are sealed from water and dust with solid hinged panels, with frequently used ports offering sliding access panels. In terms of ports the E6400 XFR is fully loaded with three USB, one eSATA/USB combo, LAN, DisplayPort, VGA, FireWire, audio jacks, and a legacy PCMCIA slot. Dell also includes a front-mounted SD-card slot with its own little access panel behind the carrying handle.

Front: Carrying handle, SD-card slot

Rear: Modem, LAN, battery, DisplayPort, AC Power

Left: VGA, USB, eSATA/USB Combo, QuadCool exhaust, SmartCard slot, hard drive

Right: PCMCIA slot, Firewire, SIM card slot, 2 USB, Audio In/Out, cable lock slot, WiFi catcher

Performance and Benchmarks
Compared to other rugged notebooks the Dell E6400 XFR is one of the fastest we have reviewed. While other rugged notebooks tend to go with low voltage processors and integrated graphics, Dell packed an Intel Core 2 Duo P9600 processor and NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M dedicated graphics. This allows the E6400 XFR to perform at workstation levels, letting you run more intensive applications out in the middle of nowhere. The only big downside to this approach is less battery life and increased heat, but if you need the speed, you don't have any other choice. For day-to-day tasks the XFR is quite fast with the 128GB SSD, and with the dedicated graphics you can even lightly game if you are so inclined. If you want to serve up 720P or 1080P video in the middle of a forest, the E6400 XFR can easily cope with the load without any hint of lag. Bottom line is that the XFR is the fastest rugged notebook we have seen in our office.

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

Lenovo ThinkPad T400 (Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz)	27.410 seconds
Dell Latitude E6400 XFR (Intel Core 2 Duo P9600 @ 2.66GHz)	29.157 seconds
Dell Latitude E6400 (Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 @ 2.53GHz)	30.497 seconds
Getac B300 (Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 @ 1.6GHz)	52.328 seconds
Getac V100 (Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.2GHz)	73.359 seconds

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

Dell Latitude E6400 XFR (2.66GHz Intel P9600, Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M 256MB)	7,071 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad T400 (2.80GHz Intel T9600, ATI Radeon 3470 256MB GDDR3)	6,589 PCMarks
Dell Latitude E6400 (2.53GHz Intel P9500, Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M 256MB)	5,780 PCMarks
Getac B300 (1.6GHz Intel L7500, Intel X3100)	3,283 PCMarks
Getac V100 (Intel Core 2 Duo ULV 1.2GHz, Intel 945GMS graphics)	2,242 PCMarks

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

Lenovo ThinkPad T400 (2.80GHz Intel T9600, ATI Radeon 3470 256MB GDDR3)	2,575 3DMarks
Dell Latitude E6400 XFR (2.66GHz Intel P9600, Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M 256MB)	1,874 3DMarks
Dell Latitude E6400 (2.53GHz Intel P9500, Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M 256MB)	1,818 3DMarks
Getac B300 (1.6GHz Intel L7500, Intel X3100)	533 3DMarks
Getac V100 (Intel Core 2 Duo ULV 1.2GHz, Intel 945GMS graphics)	107 3DMarks

*All 3DMark06 benchmark tests are set at 1280 x 800 screen resolution.

HDTune storage drive performance results:

Heat and Noise
With most rugged notebooks heat and noise is not much of a concern ... since they usually offer low voltage processors and integrated graphics. Our review Dell E6400 XFR review unit included an Intel 2.66GHz processor and dedicated NVIDIA graphics, which kept system temperatures high during the stressful periods of our tests. The cooling system is partially sealed on the XFR, whereas some rugged notebooks are completely passive-cooled. Dell mounts a heatsink and fan underneath the notebook in a sealed chamber exposed to the elements. This allows higher heat loads to be air cooled through a channel of heat pipes. The only problem we found with this is that under higher loads the fan noise was very loud--above most gaming notebooks. Under normal light usage fan noise was not a problem, only when the system was gaming or decoding multiple HD-videos did the fan become disruptive.

Battery Life
The Dell E6400 XFR offers a standard 6-cell battery, with an optional 12-cell slip-on all-day slice battery. In our tests with the E6400 XFR using the 6-cell battery, with Vista set to the "Balanced" power profile, screen brightness set to 40%, and wireless active the system stayed on for 3 hours and 44 minutes. Normally we test at a higher brightness, but with the high-brightness screen we tried to match standard notebooks in the overall brightness level. Compared to other rugged notebooks we have reviewed like the Getac B300 the results were less than impressive, but the Dell XFR includes much higher-end hardware that demands more power.

Conclusion
The Dell Latitude E6400 XFR is a well built, higher performing, fully rugged notebook. It is based off of the Latitude E6400, with a ruggedized chassis wrapped around it. While it is definitely more rugged than the standard E6400 or E6400 ATG, it may not be as durable as other fully rugged notebooks. Dell chose to use plastic cladding for most of the external panels while other manufacturers use stronger metal panels. The main area of concern with this approach is the cooling fan grill, which showed significant flex, and may be an area that could get damaged in a tumble. The performance of the E6400 XFR is well above other rugged notebooks, but this comes at the cost of battery life. This notebook saw just under 4 hours of battery life, where the Getac B300 with a slower and more efficient processor got almost 9 hours. Overall if you need something that is as powerful as a mobile workstation--but with a fully rugged chassis--the Dell E6400 XFR is a good notebook to consider.

Pros:

• Very fast compared to other rugged notebooks
• Very bright sunlight viewable display
• Optional 12-cell "slice" battery pack

Cons:

• Heavy use of plastic
• High pricetag

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