HP pavilion dv6000z review

This notebook is available with the shiny piano black glossy type HP sony vgp-bps9a/b custom finish, as well as the oldschool rough plastic type. The vgp-bps9 notebook price ranges from usually around $500USD to anywhere in the area of $2000USD being that it is a CTO.

The build quality of this vgp-bps8 battery notebook is great, it’s solid and sturdy. The LCD hinges give little if any flex while opening and closing with ease. There is a little rippling on the LCD when the top bezel is pressed with some force, but I’ve seen much worse. The touchpad works amazingly well, however the buttons are somewhat flimsy and feel cheap, though this doesn’t matter if you use an external mouse most of the time. There are an abundance of input and output connections on this notebook. It’s somewhat strange however they are all on the sides, with the exception of the headphone jacks in front. Most notebooks tend to have some ports on the back, the headphone jacks in the front do get quite annoying when hooking a stereo or surround sound into them. Possibly one of my favorite features on this notebook happens to be the media card slot. Not many vgp-bps9/b notebooks have integrated media card readers; this is definitely a plus for avid digital photographers.

I believe this notebook dell latitude d630 battery would fall somewhere in between a desktop replacement and portable. I wouldn’t take this notebook mountain climbing or throw it out of a window like some have claimed to do with the IBM T40s, however for the everyday person, bringing this to school; work or whatnot is pretty easy. Weighing in at about 6 pounds this isn’t super light but at the same time, it’s not quite as heavy as the all around desktop replacements that I’ve seen. Though, keep in mind that with a 12-Cell Lithium-Ion battery and AC adapter this notebook would weigh somewhere around 8 pounds which isn’t fun to carry around all day.

HP dv6000t bottom view (view large image)

Audio:

This dv6000 battery notebook comes equipped with Altec Lansing stereo speakers which are located in between the LCD bottom and the one touch buttons. I was quite impressed with the quality of sound that these can blast out. When using Cyberlink PowerDVD to boost the volume they get somewhat distorted however. With my older notebooks I found myself plugging in my surround sound speakers a lot more than I do with this model.

Screen:

HP dv6000t front view (view large image)

Probably the most important feature when buying a lenovo r61 battery and fujitsu t5010 battery laptop is having a good screen. If you’re going to be staring at it for thousands of hours it might as well be comfortable to look at. I received this laptop with an LG Philips 1280x800 WXGA Hi-Definition Brightview Widescreen with no dead pixels. I can easily say this is the nicest LCD I have ever owned. The screen has a very crisp picture, and no light leakage whatsoever. Viewing angles from the left and right are perfect, and do not look washed out. Vertical viewing angles however sometimes can be washed out when viewing from too far away. Using the included software you can customize your LCD’s color to your liking with the Nvidia Settings Manager tool which I thought was a plus.

Graphics:

Windows Vista ran well on the dv6000t (view large image)

I chose the Nvidia Geforce Go 7400 Series GPU for this lenovo t61 battery and aspire 3680 battery notebook. This is the best available graphics chip for this model notebook. It seems to perform very well for average use and can play most new games at medium settings. The 128MB of shared “turbocache” doesn’t slow this PC down at all and it runs Vista Aero very smoothly. Most people considering this notebook seem to be worried about having enough graphics power for Vista which I did as well. After running Windows Vista Enterprise Edition for about two weeks I can safely say that it was a very nice experience (visually) and there were no quirks with the graphics processor. I had to use modded .inf files as the official Nvidia drivers aren’t out yet, however it still ran better that I had thought it would. Windows Vista seemed to actually run faster than XP Professional even with all the Aero features enabled. Another good benchmark test for the Go 7400 is F.E.A.R. which I play quite a bit. F.E.A.R. seems to run best with Processor set to Maximum, Graphics set to low, and the display at 1280x800. It will play at medium graphics settings however personally I would rather have a higher resolution.

Heat and Noise:

After owning a lenovo t60 battery and lenovo r60 battery notebook with a desktop Pentium 4 HT chip, I have learned to appreciate noise, or lack thereof. This notebook is very quiet; it’s about as loud as my older HP AMD Sempron notebook with cool and quiet technology. I guess Speedstep is basically the same thing. The only time I hear the fans come on is when I’m playing graphically intense games or running my CPU to 100% (Seti@home.) In addition, this notebook also stays pretty cool; the right of the touchpad feels warm on occasion, but not hot. Nothing I can really complain about there.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

HP dv6000t as dell latitude e6400 battery keyboard and touchpad (view large image)

The keyboard is very well laid out for a 15.4” inspiron 1545 battery laptop. It feels...Solid! None of the typical loud clickity-clackity type sounds emit from it, which is nice. The touchpad, as I said before, is very good. It’s sensitive and responds very well. It has a built in scrolling feature which is a bonus, however doesn’t always work 100% of the time. The touchpad buttons are alright. They feel kind of cheap and seem like they would break easily if pressed too hard.

 

Customer Support:

HP as well as apple a1175 apple a1185 basically all other computer manufacturer companies have sent their customer service department over to India. This isn’t a bad thing as it keeps the prices of electronics down considerably and creates jobs for Indian people, however it is at times hard to understand the reps because of the language/culture barrier. Overall however the HP customer service is very good, as long as you don’t mind waiting awhile on the phone, and eventually speak to someone that knows what they are talking about.

Conclusion:

The dv6000t is a great customizable notebook for all kinds of people. Whether you need just a basic laptop to surf the web and write documents, a medium range gaming machine, or something to just crunch lots of data this notebook can do it all when configured appropriately. It’s hard to find things wrong with such a beautiful and well built laptop, I can’t stop admiring its zen-type design even while I type this. Overall I think this is very balanced and priced very well comonentwise. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who needs a powerful machine, while still retaining stylish and futuristic looks.

Pros:

Great multitasking

Decent Battery Life

Comfortable Keyboard

Beautifully Designed

Cool and Quiet

Quality Audio

Excellent LCD

Media Card Reader

Cons:

Max GPU is Go 7400

Missing a HDMI Port

No PCMCIA Port

Fingerprint magnet

Way too much Bloatware

No Recovery DVDs

Easily Scratched

lenovo t61 review

So how does the lenovo t61 battery excel build-wise? Basically the same as its predecessor T-series notebooks did. The T61 body is a rugged plastic that does not flex. Inside the stiff and thick plastic casing is a magnesium roll cage in both the lid and main chassis. The lid on the previous lenovo t60 battery was a magnesium material, while the lid on the T61 is a plastic composite with a magnesium "roll cage" plate inside. The reason for plastic now being used in the lid is to allow better penetration of radio waves, such as 802.11 and WWAN, thus providing greater wireless range and signal strength.

The keyboard remains the same between the lenovo r61 battery and lenovo t400 battery -- meaning it's once again excellent. The only difference is that now there's more room on the keyboard side areas since the notebook body is wider, the speakers have been relocated to this extra real estate. The keyboard is spill proof and has two drain holes to make sure if you do happen to spill your morning Starbucks coffee, the liquid is carried away from sensitive components and out through the bottom of the notebook

The thick metal hinges that attach the screen are very rigid and ensure the screen does not wobble. You'll need two hands to adjust and open the screen as the hinges are very tight. The double screen latch system locks securely to make sure the screen stays down when being carried around.

The hard drive is protected within the magnesium roll cage and shock mounted. Even if your T61 lenovo x60 battery is dropped the included Active Protection System (APS) software will work with the on board accelerometer to detect a fall situation and end hard drive activity to prevent data loss.

Dimension wise the ThinkPad lenovo r60 battery 14.1" certainly changes from its predecessors, it is wider but not as deep since it has shifted to widescreen. The dimensions of the T61

Important to note is that this review covers the 14.1" widescreen version of the vgp-bps8 . As with any laptop model series, there are going to be widely varying configurations you can choose that will greatly affect system performance. For this review, we're dealing with a T61 with the following specifications:

Specs

Processor: Intel T7300 Core 2 Duo (2.0GHz, 800MHz FSB, 4MB Cache)

Graphics: Intel GMA X3100

Operating System: Windows Vista Business

Display: WXGA+ 1440 x 900 (LG screen)

Hard Drive: 100GB 7200RPM (Seagate Momentus 7200.1)

Memory: 2GB (1GB x 1GB), up to 4GB max

Ports: 3 USB 2.0, 1 FireWire, Monitor out, modem, Ethernet, headphone out, microphone in

Slots: 1 PC Card Slot, 1 ExpressCard slot (optional media card reader and Smart Card reader)

Optical Drive: Ultra-slim Super-Multi Drive

Dimensions: 13.2" x 9.3" x 1.09 - 1.26" (335mm x 237mm x 27.6 - 31.9mm)

Weight: 5.1lbs

Design and Build

The ThinkPad T61 sony vgp-bps9a/b is a premium product with a durable build, it is geared towards business users or simply those willing to pay a bit more to get something that won't fall apart after 1-year of use. For somebody that travels a lot or relies on their notebook to earn a livelihood, the build and reliability factor is probably more important than having the latest and greatest components inside.

The ThinkPad T61 14.1" dell latitude d630 battery and e6400 battery widescreen notebook was recently released by Lenovo as an update to the T60 series. The T61 uses the new Intel Centrino Duo platform (Santa Rosa) and offers a number of design updates

Another thing you may notice about the screen is that it’s off center within the frame -- there’s a greater bezel area to the left than the right. This doesn’t bother me, I know it will some people.

One change that you won’t see, but that is present, is the fact inspiron 1545 battery the lid is now constructed with a magnesium roll cage inside for better protection of the screen area when you shove books on top of the lid. The actual outer lid is now made of a high-tech plastic composite, that actually feels like a metal when tapped (very cool). The benefit of the outer lid now being plastic is that radio waves (Wi-Fi, WWAN) penetrate through the lid more easily and provide better wireless throughput.

Speakers

The T61 as acer aspire 3680 battery speakers are located on the sides of the keyboard, taking advantage of the extra real estate width due to the wide format. The speakers are quiet; you have to be fairly close to the laptop to hear the audio, it won’t work to try and watch a DVD from across the room as the audio won’t carry (especially dialogue). But Lenovo made an interesting move by putting the headphone jack on the front side of the laptop. This is to make it easier to quickly plug in your headphones and get superior audio. The slight downside now is that if you plug in external speakers the wiring running around the front is not as convenient. The move is better for me because I use headphones more, with a portable laptop such as this I think that will be the case for most.

The hardware buttons at the top of the keyboard to quickly adjust audio volume are very nice to have, the quick mute button is clutch in business situations as well.

Processor and Performance

The ThinkPad T61 lifebook t5010 battery now uses the Intel Centrino Duo (Santa Rosa) platform. You get a faster processor front side bus (800MHz), more processor cache (4MB) and an improved integrated graphics solution in the form of the Intel X3100. If all that talk is nonsense to you, then suffice it to say the T61 offers newer and better processing components than the T60. Will this performance be perceivable in helping to run MS Word faster? No of course not, but certain processor intensive tasks such as encoding video will be faster. And even if you won’t be utilizing every ounce of processing power, just knowing the processor is faster and you’re on top of the game is enough to make people like myself want to buy it.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Intel X3100 performance in 3DMark05, it certainly performed much better than the Intel GMA 950 ever scored. Intel claims they’re still working on better drivers for the X3100, so there might be quite a bit of room to grow in terms of performance here too.

Conclusion

The ThinkPad T61 14.1"as a1175 and a1185 widescreen notebook is easy to recommend as a laptop for those that want a highly durable system that provides powerful performance while on the go. The new cooling system design works wonders for keeping the temperature of the notebook down below 50C and limiting the need for the fan to run. The keyboard is as excellent as ever, the sturdy build is great, and the new port options are appreciated. I'd like to see a brighter screen option, in strong office lighting situations the screen can appear pretty washed out. Overall though the ThinkPad T61 does a great job of combining excellent usability features and performance, keeping the T-series well established as the leading portable business notebook.

What Security Will Look Like in 2010

It used to be that end-of-year security predictions were bold and almost science-fictiony. They as vgp-bps8 have become more conservative this year and therefore more reasonable. I've been barraged with them and have attempted to collect the best here.

It's clear to me and many others like lenovo v100 battery that the major security development of 2009 was the emergence of rogue security software, a.k.a. "scareware," as the biggest problem out there for most users. Rogues have been around for years, but their escalation in 2009 was palpable. Many of the 2010 predictions have to do with where rogues go next, and this is a reasonable line of speculation. Rogues are about making money more directly than prior forms of malware, and the predictions deal with how they plan to do that.

Security vendor Fortinet predicts expansion of some of the 2009 rogueware trends: affiliate networks and ransomware. We have reported recently on rogueware that encrypts your files latitude d630 battery and demands money for a decryption key. They also foresee increased sophistication of rogueware business models, including expanded affiliate networks, although these were news over a year ago.

Symantec as a1175 and a1185 has been moving for a while in the direction of relying on reputation as a major factor in determining the security of files and other data, and this factor leads the predictions for 2010 from MessageLabs, Symantec's secure e-mail hosting service. For large companies like Symantec with customers and honeypots world-wide, reputation is an invaluable tool. For smaller actors there have been predictions for years (from yours truly, for example) of more open markets for reputation services. These companies exist and may be doing well, but their rise has been subtle so far. Nothing about 2010 should make them more prominent.

For the most part Symantec's predictions are low-hanging fruit and undifferentiated from the pack: social engineering will be the major hook (it has been for years), rogues will lifebook t5010 battery escalate (everyone says this, it's obvious), social networking third-party apps will be target of fraud (this has been happening this year, of course it will continue and accelerate), URL shortening will be popular with phishers (and has been for a while). They do predict that CAPTCHA technology will improve, which would be good, but that the use of real people in CAPTCHA sweat shops to solve them will increase.

Another Fortinet prediction has to do with the growth of the money mule business, and this too seems reasonable. We first started hearing about as sony vgp-bps9a/b widespread use of money mules a few months ago. A weak economy will make easy money schemes more tempting, but the real news is about schemes by ID thieves to scam other people into laundering funds unwittingly.

F-Secure's Security Threat Forecast 2010 is one of the better ones like sony vgp-bps9/b :

• Windows 7 will sell a lot in 2010, XP will drop below 50%, this will severely cut the amount of low-hanging fruit for attackers—I agree entirely; I've seen this coming for years and I think 2010 is the year it really begins to happen. It as acer 3680 battery could have been earlier if Vista hadn't been so poorly-received.


• IP-based geolocation will allow attackers to localize their messages—Some of this happens already, but it's true that it's growing and it's an obvious way for attackers to grow internationally, or even to customize locally within national markets.


• "We may see a large-scale internal attack lenovo t61 battery against a target such as Google Wave."—Interesting and plausible, but just a guess.


• "Attacks related to online games will continue. Such sites and games are particularly popular in the Asia-Pacific region. Not enough focus is put on securing them and the problem will be further fueled by the fact that many users are younger and therefore more vulnerable to experienced cyber-criminals."—We really don't see so much of this in the US, but it's a big issue in the far east. Perhaps there are ways those attacks could migrate over here.

It's a staple of yearly predictions that heretofore untouched platforms will see attacks for the first time. I can't remember the last time t60 battery that next year wasn't the first year of real mobile malware, and yet it never really materialized, especially in the US. Many vendors make the usual predictions in this regard, but nobody has anything specific to say and it's hard to get too worked up about it. This time it's not just mobiles and the Mac, but Vista and Windows 7, both of which are uncommon targets for malware.

What could make things better in 2010? It's just a business phenomenon, but my money's on application whitelisting, as I argued last month. For years it's been understood by many that blocking (blacklisting) new threats was a strategy losing out inspiron 1545 battery from sheer volume against the tidal wave of new malware variants. Wouldn't it be better to approve what is known to be good and to reject everything else? New business-oriented tools make this practical, whereas in the past it was a difficult approach to implement. Sadly, consumer-oriented whitelisting is only primitive at this point and will remain so in 2010.

I spoke with Sam Curry, Chief Technology Officer, Marketing, at RSA about their expectations for the new year. Curry picks up on the theme of rogue vendors and other malefactors looking for better ways to make money and points to some of the less-obvious trends: They will focus less on the big score and instead find ways to bleed you slowly so that you don't notice that you're being taken. We saw this recently in the case of a bank Trojan that tried to keep withdrawals low enough that they wouldn't get noticed. He also sees rogues looking to offer more actual value to users in an attempt to make the sale. This could include utilities like system optimizers of dubious value, but we've already had reports of rogue products built on free anti-virus systems like ClamAV which are actual AV products, but not necessarily all that good in any one distribution.

Curry's real hope for security is industry collaboration: Security firms already talk to each other a lot and even share research, but a lot more could be done. I agree with Curry that this could help, but I suspect that companies will always be more self-interested than public-spirited, and perhaps they should be. A lot of talking was done last year about the Federal Government acting lenovo r60 battery through a new "cybersecurity czar," but nobody seems to want that position (including RSA's President Art Coviello, who was reported to have turned it down recently).

Coviello sent out his own predictions to press folks like me. He says they see a rise in coordinated attacks with the goal of harvesting PII (personally identifiable information) from systems. Don't be surprised if such information is combined in sophisticated databases with other information, public and semi-public, like Facebook profiles. There's a lot of information out there about you, and if someone could put it all together they might be able to impersonate you with it. To combat these trends Coviello sees cloud-based security services as essential and he's got a point. Such coordinated systems can know a lot more, and stay more up to date.

Websense has their own list of security trends for 2010. Much of it is the same (mobile malware, Macs attacked, etc.) but there are more interesting ones. We saw in 2008 examples of malware distributors going beyond infecting ad banners and lenovo x60 battery instead buying actual ad space. Websense expects more of this and I wouldn't be surprised by it. It takes money to make money. They also predict that "web 2.0" sites will be popular targets. I agree, but I think it has less to do with "web 2.0" than the fact that the sites are popular.

Trend Micro's 2010 Future Threat Report has one observation that has been largely true for a while, but should be uncontroversial by now: Global outbreaks will become extinct and localized, targeted attacks will grow. The closest thing to such an attack we've had recently is Conficker and it's clearly the exception to the rule. Other eye-catching bullet points in the Trend Micro report: "Windows 7 will have an impact since it is less secure than Vista in the default configuration"—(Wow, that's bold. They must be talking about UAC changes. I think the security impact will be minor.) "Bots can't be stopped anymore and will be around forever"—(Sad but true.)

Even cherry-picking lifebook u810 battery aggressively I've covered a lot of ground here. Overall I'm optimistic. Even if we know that some problems can't be solved, I think we know more than ever about how individual users and companies can protect themselves, if they want to take the time and money to do so. New secure versions of products and tools to use are better than ever.

You Grade The Brands: Dell Notebooks

From now until the end of the year we’re taking a holistic look at notebook brands such as vgp-bps8 and how vendors fare when we aggregate data

from our reviews, research, and third-party data. Generally, we focus on individual systems, but over time we’

ve been able to identify trends based on the vendor. One company might always offer great design and excellent

keyboards, another can be counted on to produce notebooks that get too hot. Each vendor has its strengths and

its Achilles heel.

Until a few months ago, Dell lenovo v100

battery held the number 2 position in notebook sales worldwide. Though recently passed by Acer, the company

shipped over 10 million units in the third quarter of this year alone. Check out the brand’s strengths and

weaknesses, its 2009 review scorecard, and overall rating. Then sound off in the comments and tell us what you

think of the brand and about your own experience. Without your input, our report card will be incomplete.

Strengths

• Performance – Dell’s latitude d630 battery notebooks consistently impressed us in 2009 on overall performance and sometimes
  
  brought the graphics muscle. The XPS Studio 16 multimedia machine blew away the averages on our benchmarks, then
  
  later in the year the Studio 17 with Core i7 blazed through them again. We were pleased to see several
  
  notebooks offer solid state drives as an option. The Latitude E4300’s SSD gave it a performance edge over systems
  
  with traditional hard drives.
  
• Displays – We also often praised Dell’s displays for offering bright, popping colors,
  
  true blacks, and excellent viewing angles. Dell took a leadership position in offering LED-baclkit panels and in
  
  experimenting with new technologies like RGB, which offer a wider color gamut.
  
• Personalization – Dell does a good job with its consumer fujitsu lifebook t5010 battery fujitsu u810 battery notebooks when it comes to
  
  customization, both in terms of allowing customers to build their systems with the specs they desire but with a
  
  wide range of color options. Dell Studio gives shoppers an opportunity to pick artist-inspired lids, as well as
  
  MLB teams, for about $65 a pop.

Weaknesses

• Battery Life - Over the past year the major weakness of Dell’s vgp-bps9a/b notebook line was poor battery life.
  
  This issue cropped up across every category of system from ULV ultraprtables like the Inspiron 11z to the Latitude
  
  XT2 business tablet to the multimedia-driven Studio XPS 13 and 16. However, there were some welcome exceptions,
  
  like the Studio 14z.
  
• Touchpads – Though not as severe an issue as HP’s touchpad dilemma, we often dinged
  
  Dell for finicky or undersized touchpads and mushy, hard to use mouse buttons. This was a particular problem on
  
  the Inspiron 11z and the Mini 10 series.

Best Rated Notebooks

• Dell XPS Studio 16
  
• dell inspiron 1545 battery
  
• Dell Studio 14z ($749.00)

Worst Rated Notebooks

• Dell Inspiron 11z ($683.00)
  
• Dell Latitude XT2 ($1,959.00)

Review Report Card

So far we’ve reviewed 13 Dell notebooks this year. Of those, 38.5% earned a rating a1175 of 3.5 and 4 stars (5 systems each). Only one

earned the low rating of 2.5 (Inspiron 11z) and two systems received 3 stars. Out of the 13, we awarded two

systems the LAPTOP Editor’s Choice.

Tech Support and Reliability

Unfortunately, Dell apple a1185 earned a grade of

C- in our Tech Support Showdown. According to a study by SquareTrade, Dell laptops have a failure rate of

about 18 percent over a 3 year lifespan, which is about average.

Overall, the Dell brand can be counted on for good design and performance, though it isn’t often that the

company turns out a notebook that we truly get excited about. (The Adamo XPS and Latitude Z both look very

cool, but we have yet to review either system.) We’re also looking forward to testing the Vostro V12, Dell’s

ultrathin but affordable small business laptop. We’re hoping that more future notebooks will couple the high-end

ideals showcased in the Adamo line with the solid performance and value the brand has become known for.

Now It’s Your Turn

Do you own a Dell laptop? Owned one in the recent past? What does Dell get right and where does it need

improvement? Tell us how you’d rate Dell notebooks and why

lenovo v100 laptop mag

The latest addition to Lenovo's line of non-ThinkPad laptops for small businesses, the Lenovo 3000 V100 battery walks the line between ultraportable and thin-and-light. With a starting weight of 4 pounds, the V100 combines a relatively small form factor and a 12.1-inch wide-screen display with features you'd usually find on larger laptops, such as a comfortable keyboard and a built-in optical drive. And while the V100 isn't the only "large ultraportable" on the market (the similar-sized Dell XPS M1210 and the Sony VAIO SZ offer a comparable set of features), its $1,099 starting price makes it one of the least expensive models in its class. Our test system included $500 worth of upgrades for a still reasonable $1,599. If you're looking for a laptop that's portable but still has all the features you'll need for work (and some play), the Lenovo 3000 V100 vgp-bps8 is a very good choice.

The V100 is the smallest Lenovo 3000 latitude d630 battery laptop available; like its siblings, the lenvo C200 battery and the lenovo N100 battery , the V100 is silver on the outside and dark gray on the inside. Its steel hinges and relatively sturdy construction reflect its ThinkPad heritage, though it doesn't have the ThinkPad's drain holes, shock-mounted hard drive, or keyboard light. The V100 weighs 4 pounds and measures 10.5 inches deep, 14 inches wide, and 1.5 inches thick, so it's a bit larger than the Dell XPS M1210. Total travel weight with the V100's modest AC adapter is 5.2 pounds, striding the line between ultraportable and thin-and-light. There are certainly lighter laptops on the market, including Lenovo's own ThinkPad X60s, but the V100 is reasonably portable for regular travel.

Like the XPS M1210, the Lenovo t60 battery features a 12.1-inch wide-screen display with a sharp 1,280x800 native resolution and a glossy finish that's great for watching movies. (The Sony VAIO SZ features a larger 13.3-inch display.) Our review unit included an optional 1.3-megapixel Webcam above the display; it'll prove useful for Web videoconferencing, but it doesn't rotate like the camera found on the Asus W5F.

Corresponding to the lenovo t61 battery wide-aspect display is a wide, comfortable keyboard that harkens back to the laptop's ThinkPad lineage. Like all Lenovo 3000 laptops, the V100's touch pad feels a bit small, and the touch-pad buttons don't provide as much travel as we'd like. Next to the touch pad sits a fingerprint reader, which lets you securely log on to your computer, network, and favorite Web sites with just the swipe of a finger. Above the keyboard are three handy external volume controls and a button to launch Lenovo's MediaNow application (the extent of the V100's dedicated multimedia controls), plus a button that summons the useful Lenovo Care system-management and help utility. Along the front edge, two speakers emit hollow but passable sound, while the right edge of the case holds a handy hardware on/off switch for the system's built-in Wi-Fi radio.

In part because of its bulky size, the Lenovo 3000 V100 lifebook t4220 battery includes a few more ports and connections than you'd find on a typical ultraportable. There are VGA, four-pin FireWire, and three USB 2.0 ports, plus headphone and microphone jacks. In addition to an ExpressCard/54 slot you'll find a five-in-one media-card slot that supports Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, and xD formats. Networking connections include modem, Ethernet, and 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi; our test unit's price includes an optional Bluetooth radio. Unlike many ultraportables that jettison the optical drive to save weight, the V100 incorporates an optical drive; ours included a DVD burner. The $2,687 XPS M1210 has all of that plus one more USB port and WWAN connectivity, while the Asus W5F includes an S-Video port.

The laptop runs on Windows XP Home or Pro; the standard software bundle includes the Corel Small Business Center (with WordPerfect 12), a few disc-burning apps, and a number of homegrown connectivity and backup utilities.

Priced at $1,599, our Lenovo 3000 V100 a1175 test system includes some pretty sweet components: a 2GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 1GB of fast 667MHz RAM, a roomy 100GB hard drive spinning at a brisk 5,400rpm. About the only average part of the configuration is its integrated Intel graphics card that borrows up to 128MB of system memory. The V100 performed admirably on CNET Labs' mobile benchmarks, almost matching the performance of the Dell XPS m1330 battery , which has a faster processor and a graphics card with dedicated memory. Like the consumer-focused XPS M1210, the V100 should handle multitasking very smoothly. The V100's 4-hour, 5-minute battery life was a bit above average for an ultraportable and should carry you most of the way through a cross-country flight; however, the XPS M1210's battery lasted 15 minutes longer, while the Sony VAIO SZ's battery held out for more than 5.5 hours.

Lenovo keeps the inspiron 1525 battery price low by backing it with a one-year warranty; the industry standard for most business laptops is three years. You must carry your system in to an authorized repair center, but upgrades for longer terms and onsite repairs are reasonably priced. The company's support Web site includes a handful of troubleshooting topics, as well as the expected driver downloads; the site lacks interactive features, such as customer forums or the chance to chat in real time with a technician.

Lenovo 3000 V100 Laptop Mag

The Lenovo V100 battery rounds out the Lenovo/ibm 3000 series by filling in the ultraportable gap. The 12.1-inch widescreen V100 isn't as thin and light as its cousin ThinkPad X60s, but with a built-in optical drive and 1.3 megapixel web camera it's more integrated and perhaps more convenient for some people.

Overall, despite the reflection issues with a glossy display I'm a fan of the richer colors you'll get. It was a good choice for Lenovo to offer this.

The lenovo 3000 V100 battery display is overall pretty good. It could be a notch brighter in my opinion, it's not as bright as some competing 12.1" notebooks such as the Dell XPS M1210. Also, the vertical viewing angles are quite poor, you'll have to choose a perpendicular angle of viewing to get the best screen coloration. Horizontal viewing angles are quite good though. Light leakage is minimal, but there is some at the bottom of the screen.

Build and Design

You right away notice the V100 as lenovo 3000 v200 battery is no ThinkPad because of the rather interesting curvy design. The back of the notebook is curved, evoking the look of some of the curvier cars on the road. In physics many will have learned that a curved back-end tear drop shape is the most aerodynamic form, but I don't think Lenovo had any ideas of accelerating this notebook up to top speeds.

The coloring is an all silver outside with black on the inside. Overall the look is quite plain, it's not exactly exciting but steers away from being brazen, so therefore it could still be carried around as a notebook for business users -- and Lenovo n100 battery does fully intend to sell this to small business types.

The casing is made of a sturdy plastic. The build is durable, there's a slight amount of flex on the palm rests if you push in hard, but nothing that will sink under the light downward pressure of one's palms. The lid offers adequate protection, push in and you'll find some ripples on the LCD -- it's not as convincing as say the mag-alloy ThinkPad lid but more than serviceable. Just don't sit on it while it's in your backpack and there will be no worries.

One thing that struck me about the V100 is that it's not as light as you might think, and it shouldn't be classified as an ultraportable (an ultraportable is a 1.0" or thinner notebook that weighs under 4lbs). With the 6-cell battery it weighs about 4.4 lbs, which is most definitely portable and easy to carry, but 1.5lbs more than the ThinkPad X60s and nowhere near as wonderfully thin as that notebook. Of course, you get a built-in optical drive and other goodies with the lenovo n200 battery V100 that aren't on the X60s battery so you trade weight for features.

Speakers and Audio

The V100 as lenovo t60 battery speakers are located at the very front of the notebook. The speakers are actually not too bad, the loudness is good and clarity decent as well. I was surprised to have even adequate speakers on this sized notebook. They're leaps and bounds better than the Dell battery ThinkPad X60s 12.1" screen notebook that has a speaker located on the bottom side. Still, if you want what can be called very good sound you'll need headphones or external speakers to plug into the line-out port on the left hand side.

Heat and Noise

The V100 as vgp-bps8 is a very quiet system that stays nice and cool. Even when running benchmark applications on this notebook things didn't really warm up and the fan was either inaudible or didn't need to kick in. High marks go to the designers for making a notebook that has a good cooling system. Ever since using an Apple MacBook that runs at 140 F in normal usage, which is apparently considered normal to longtime Apple notebook users, I'm more appreciative of notebooks that don't cook your lap when used.

Despite the fact we're dealing with a smal 12.1" screen notebook, the keyboard on the V100 as vgp-bps9 is full sized. Except for the "Home" and "End" key, all of the major keys are there with dedicated buttons you'd usually use. The top row of keys is slightly undersized to fit properly, but still very usable. The feel of the keyboard is good, it's firm overall with a very slight amount of flex on the bottom right side -- you have to push hard to discover it though. The keyboard is "ThinkPad like" but not as good or the same feel in my opinion. The touch of the keys seems somewhat lighter and the travel not quite as far or as pleasing.

The touchpad is a different story. I miss using a pointing stick that you get on the ThinkPad series, but can handle a touchpad if it is a good implementation. The V100 touchpad is not a good implementation. The mouse buttons are some of the worst I've used, they're very stiff, clicky, cheap feeling and the travel can only be described as awkward. The touchpad is often erratic, despite my playing with the configuration. It's just overall not good. Maybe because I'm so used to the superb usability of the ThinkPad Ultra Nav input I'm being harsh here, but on the competing Dell M1210 notebook I give high marks for the touchpad and mouse buttons so I'm confident saying this is an area in which the V100 simply falls flat. Get a wireless mouse, you'll need it.

You can see that the Lenovo V100 built-in camera performs much better in a typical room lighting situation than both the XPS M1210 vgp-bps9a camera did and also the Apple iSight camera (look at the artwork in the background to see that the V100 camera captured more detail).

It would have been really nice if the camera rotated like it does on the sony laptop battery Dell M1210 vgp-bps9/b, that way this could be a great notebook to take to class and capture lectures on video.

While the camera quality is good, the included "BisonCap" software is absolutely awful. I've used a lot of notebooks with built-in web cams, some have a button on the keyboard that launches the camera and software that makes it easy to then take a picture or video. The V100 and BisonCap does not (make it easy). Check out the "File" menu options (pictured below), this web cam software wants you to allocate file space for a video. Allocating memory and file space is what made some developers run from C++ to Java, the average user looking at this BisonCap application will just plain run away. Hopefully you'll be using a Chat program such as AOL IM / MSN or maybe Skype in conjunction with this camera and not the included BisonCap application.

Battery

The V100 I've been using has the 6-cell longer life battery, it sticks out of the back as you can see from pictures in this review. I unplugged the V100 at 100% charge and then set the screen brightness level to half on the V100 vgp-bps9a/b . I ran a benchmark program, played some music, surfed the web, transferred files, used the camera and did a few other minor tasks on the V100 and then let it simply idle as the battery drained down. After 2:57 mins the battery conked out. This isn't too bad given the fact wireless was left on. You could squeeze more battery life out by lowering screen brightness. If you played a movie with full screen brightness, I'm guessing the battery would run down at about 2.5 hours. I'd definitely recommend going with the 6-cell battery, the 3-cell simply wouldn't provide enough juice.

Software

Lenovo includes an InstantOn software feature that allows you to watch movies, listen to music or view pictures within a quick boot operating system. The Lenovo dell d630 battery Care software makes it easy to update your system and keep it secure. There's also some unwanted trial software on there though, the Corel image application is particularly annoying in that it's automatically associated as the default app to open any type of image and as soon as you plug in an external device with images it will want to open and have you pay to register and use it. Oh well, every manufacturer is including these trial software applications and we all just train ourselves to uninstall it I suppose. Overall though, Lenovo is not as bad as others at loading the system up with junkware and the Lenovo Care software is good to have. I already mentioned how bad the included web camera software is, I won't berate it again.

Conclusion

The Lenovo V100 is a decent portable notebook offering and nice addition to the 3000 series. I think the key for the V100 will be pricing, the 12.1" form factor is turning into a competitive field as is witnessed by the release of the XPS M1210 inspiron 1525 battery and the V100 inspiron 1526 battery on the very same day. If you want to have a small notebook that's simple to carry around and still offers very good performance and attractive features, the V100 should be on your list to consider. The excellent web camera image quality, good keyboard, good selection of ports and of course the advantage of having a built-in optical drive in a 12.1" form factor are key decision components. The V100 as inspiron 1501 battery would fit well for a small business buyer or as a second computer in the home that can be easily carried on vacation or other trips.

Pros

• Good performance with the Core Duo processor


• Runs very quiet and cool


• Good keyboard


• Great image quality on the optional web camera


• Integrated optical drive in a 12.1" form factor


• 5-in-1 media card reader is really nice to have


• Included Lenovo Care software and built-in finger reader offer nice security features

Cons

• Design is ho-hum and not as exciting as some other competing 12.1" notebooks


• Touchpad is poor and mouse buttons are awful


• Provided BisonCap web camera software is clunky at best, borderline unusable


• Not as rugged or well built as the ThinkPad X60 cousin notebook


• Calling this an ultraportable is a stretch, it's about 4.4lbs and heavier than you might think with the 6-cell battery which is absolutely necessary to get 3 hours of battery life. Ultraportable means 1.0" thin and about 3 - 4lbs by most definitions.