Apple MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo Review

by Gerald Edgecomb

When Apple announced its transition to Intel, there was the expectation that hardware updates would become more frequent. So it came as a surprise when Apple was slow to move to the newer, more efficient Core 2 Duo processor. Eventually, not only did Apple switch to the 64-bit processor, they also added many features that were left out of the original MacBook Pro, namely a dual-layer DVD burner and FireWire 800. They also added a larger 120 GB hard drive, 1 GB of RAM, and a now unlocked 802.11n AirPort Extreme. Apple was also able to improve the cooling, which allowed them to speed up a grossly underclocked ATI Mobility X1600 and be more competitive with the competition. On paper, the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro looks more like what the Core Duo version should have been, but does that prove to be true in real world use? Let's find out!

Apple MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo (view large image)

Reasons for Buying

I did not buy this MacBook Pro. It was another replacement in a long line of replacements dating back to June 2006. My last unit was a Core Duo that I had for about 4 months. Unfortunately, the seal on the LCD was not airtight and dirt was able to accumulate. Having had so many problems, I called Customer Relations, who were willing to replace my Core Duo machine with the new Core 2 Duo version. While I question Apple's quality control, their customer service has been second to none. It has taken very little effort on my part to get issues corrected. In the month I have had my Core 2 Duo machine, I have thankfully not noticed any build quality issues.

Apple MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo (view large image)

Build and Design

MacBook Pro box (view large image)

Not much has changed visually from the Core Duo MacBook Pro. What has changed is not initially visible. Apple abandoned the vertical vents in favor of horizontal vents, allowing more air to move freely from the case. This single change has helped to solve the heat issues that plagued many older MacBook Pros. The only other change cosmetically is the new FireWire 800 port on the right side. Other than that, Apple carries over the same aluminum case with a slot-loading DVD burner on the front, ports on the sides, and a large trackpad with a single mouse button. Apple has used this design for several iterations of the Powerbook/MacBook Pro, and while the design is beginning to age, it is still pleasing to the eye. Apple also includes a backlit keyboard and auto-dimming LCD backlight, making it easier to use in low light.

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The build feels solid; however, the aluminum case will dent and scratch eventually, keeping it from being one of the more durable notebooks. The way the notebook feels is good, making it seem worth the money spent on it. Just hope you do not get a lemon.

Thinner than three CDs stacked (view large image)

Screen

The 15.4" screen of the MacBook Pro screen is beautiful. I have the matte version, and the colors do not seem washed out or over exaggerated. The caveat is the lack of a higher resolution. While 1440x900 is acceptable, 1680x1050 would be desirable, especially on a model that is aimed at professionals. Working with large photos can be a bit of pain, and extra resolution would definitely remedy that. Apple has continued to utilize their auto-dimming backlight, which I find works well. The backlight will automatically brighten or dim based on the ambient light. The backlight is fairly even, and there is no light leakage that I can notice. My unit shipped with zero dead pixels.

Speakers

I was initially pleased with the speakers of my Core Duo MacBook Pro, but over time came to realize how bad they are. Not to say they were terrible, but they do not get loud enough and can even have some distortion at max volume. Unfortunately, I have found the same weak performance on the Core 2 Duo machine. The volume is almost always at the maximum or close to it. If you really want good audio performance I would recommend using external speakers or a pair of nice headphones. Apple does include an optical mini-jack giving you the ability to extract the audio digitally.

Processor and Performance

My MacBook Pro is the base model, which comes equipped with a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 1 GB of 667MHz RAM, which I immediately upgraded to 2 GB. In day-to-day use I have not noticed a big jump in performance from my 2.0 GHz Core Duo machine. However, performance increases are present in processor intensive tasks. For instance, the Core 2 Duo showed a large performance jump in the SuperPi benchmark, coming in at 58 seconds, a 20% increase over the Core Duo. The other area that the Core 2 Duo version shines in over the Core Duo is gaming. Due to cooling problems, the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 was severely underclocked in the Core Duo MacBook. Thanks to improved cooling, Apple was able to run the X1600 at a higher clock speed. The increase in clock speed manifested itself in the 3DMark05 score, helping the Core 2 Duo post a whopping 50% increase.

In general day-to-day use, I do not think you will see much of an increase in performance, but if you game or use processor intensive applications then the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro is a significant upgrade over the Core Duo version.

Benchmarks

Super Pi Comparison Results

Super Pi forces the processor to calculate Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy and gives an idea of the processor speed and performance:

Notebook	Time
Apple MacBook Pro (2.16GHz Core 2 Duo)	0m 58s
PowerPro 8:14 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 04s
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T2400)	59s
Asus W3H760DD (2.0 GHz Pentium M)	1m 33s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Toshiba Satellite M100 (2.00GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo)	1m 29s
Dell XPS M140 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 41s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

Cinebench:

Cinebench is a rendering benchmark tool based on the powerful 3D software, CINEMA 4D. Its rendering tasks can stress up to sixteen multiprocessors on the same computer. It is a free benchmarking tool, and can be found here: http://www.cinebench.com/

Cinebench CPU Benchmark:

Test	Apple MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz	Apple MacBook Pro Core Duo 2.0GHz	Dell e1505 Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz
Single Core rendering mode	358 CB-CPU	306 CB-CPU points	325 CB-CPU points
Dual Core rendering mode	675 CB-CPU	577 CB-CPU points	592 CB-CPU points

CineBench 9.5 Detailed Results for Apple MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo:

• Processor Benchmark
  • Rendering (1 CPU): 358 CB-CPU
  • Rendering (x-CPU): 675 CB-CPU
  • Multiprocessor Speedup: 1.88x
• Graphics Benchmark
  • C4D Shading: 434 CB-GFX
  • OpenGL SW-L: 1656 SW-L
  • OpenGL HW-L: 3412 HW-L
  • OpenGL Speedup: 7.85x

3DMark05

3DMark05 is a benchmark used to test graphics performance of a notebook, below is how the MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo performed -- a significant improvement can be seen over the Core Duo version.

Notebook	3DMark 05 Results
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI X1600)	3,870 3DMarks
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600)	2,586 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad Z61t (2.0GHz Core Duo, Geforce Nvidia 6600 256 MB PCI Express Card)	1,332 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad Z60m (2.0GHz Pentium M, ATI X600 128MB)	1,659 3DMarks
ThinkPad T43 (1.86GHz, ATI X300 64MB graphics)	727 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,092 3D Marks
HP dv4000 (1.86GHz Pentium M, ATI X700 128MB)	2,536 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4,157 3DMarks

Heat and Noise

As I mentioned, some of the early MacBook Pros had serious heat issues, but as the line matured, the issues seemed to be less extreme. My last Core Duo MacBook Pro would run hot at times, especially while plugged in or doing any type of video. Once again, Apple has found a solution. The cooling is much better in the Core 2 Duo version. This is evidenced by the fact that while the video card has higher clocks, there is still less heat than before. Average temperatures for the processor are around 50C and close to 45C for the GPU.

As for noise, the original Core Duo MacBook Pros were silent, and while not as quiet, the same mostly holds true for the Core 2 Duo iteration. There is more fan noise than before, but it is still much quieter than an average notebook. If a little fan noise keeps these things cool and allows them to perform better, I am all for it.

Keyboard and Touchpad

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The keyboard and touchpad are unchanged. The backlit keyboard still uses ambient light to brighten and dim in the same fashion as the LCD screen, and the touchpad still has a generous amount of real estate and a single button. The backlight is a nice feature and can get very bright. As for typing, the keyboard is good, but not great. There is a little flex on the left side when I start typing hard. The overall feel of the keyboard is good and I do enjoy typing on it, but I whenever possible I use my external keyboard.

The touchpad is huge, and sometimes this is a bad thing. While typing, there are times when the palm of my hand will hit the touchpad and click something. Apple has an option to ignore accidental inputs and it takes care of the problem for the most part. Other than that, this is by far the best touchpad I have used, and it is all thanks to two-finger scrolling. Instead of using designated areas for something like vertical scrolling, all you need to do is place a second finger on the touchpad and scroll whichever way you like. For those that dislike having a single mouse button, tap with two fingers instead of one and you have a "right" click. I find that the touchpad on the MacBook Pro is much easier to use because of the fluid movements made possible by being able to use one or two fingers to perform different actions.

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Input and Output Ports

Despite all of the other improvements, Apple must have forgotten about the lack of ports on the Core Duo MacBook Pro, because there is still a lack of ports on the Core 2 Duo version. Yes, they added a FireWire 800 port, but how many FireWire 800 devices do you have lying around? I have none. I do, however, have a plethora of USB devices, yet there are still only two USB 2.0 ports. There is plenty of room left over for at least one more USB connection and if there weren't I would gladly trade the FireWire 800 for a third USB 2.0.

Left side ports (view large image)

Right side ports (view large image)

Aside from the 2 USB 2.0 ports and single FireWire 800, the MacBook Pro includes a FireWire 400, gigabit Ethernet, mini optical audio out, microphone in, and a ExpressCard/34 slot. With the Core Duo iteration, the ExpressCard was slightly ahead of its time, but now a full year later, there are many compatible cards available and the list will continue to grow as ExpressCard pushes the PC Card out.

Wireless

The MacBook Pro has two wireless features, the AirPort Extreme WiFi card and Bluetooth 2.0. There was a little secret, however. The AirPort Extreme that ships with the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro is not just 802.11a/b/g compliant; it also can do 802.11n. There is a caveat: you have to pay Apple $1.99 to unlock it or buy their AirPort Extreme Base Station. This set off a firestorm when Apple announced that they would charge for something that was already in the system. Apple claimed that due to accounting rules, they had to charge, but that has been proven a stretch at best. Whatever their reasoning, $1.99 is not much to pay for an internal 802.11n card that most people believed was a 802.11g card when they bought it. I have not tested the 802.11n capabilities, but the 802.11g works well. On my Core Duo MacBook Pro, I noticed that my wife's Intel card was able to pull in a stronger signal and more networks. The new card seems to bring it even with the older Intel 3945.

The Bluetooth also works well. On occasion I use a Logitech Bluetooth mouse and it has no problems connecting and staying connected.

Battery

Apple claims up to five hours of battery life, which I find optimistic. Battery life is improved from the Core Duo model, however. With my Core Duo I would consistently get around three to three and a half hours of use with Wi-Fi, the auto-bright screen, and keyboard on. With the Core 2 Duo I have seen battery life closer to four hours. I suppose if I turned off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and dimmed the screen to the lowest setting I could squeeze close to the stated five hours, but then I would not be able to use my laptop as productively.

Software

OS X is amazing. I was hesitant when I first made the switch over 9 months ago, but since then I have never looked back. I use OS X exclusively for my day-to-day work. My old Windows desktop has become, in essence, a glorified server. That is not to say OS X is better than Windows; I simply find OS X to be more comfortable. I spend less time tinkering and more time actually doing stuff.

Apple includes little bloatware with their machines. The only trials included are iWork 06 and Office for Mac 2004. Everything else is a full working version. That includes the popular iLife 06, which bundles iWeb, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and GarageBand. With the exception of iWeb, all of these are solid programs for hobbyists. If you are a professional or serious enthusiast you may find them a bit lacking. However, if you enjoy making home movies or do some relatively light editing, all of them will fit the bill. I would not recommend iWeb to anyone however. It is not a particularly good web development tool and it does not stick to standards making it difficult to grow into a more complex tool later.

Customer Support

When you have five or six replacements over a six month period, you get a good sense of the quality of customer service. Overall I am satisfied with the support I have received, but there is definitely room for improvement. My worst experience occurred when I sent the same notebook in twice for repairs, and each time it came back with a new issue. AppleCare wanted me to send it in a third time, which of course I was reluctant to. The problem was quickly resolved by calling Customer Relations, who sent me a new unit. With my last unit, there was dirt in the screen. AppleCare wanted me to send it in again, which I understand, but did not want to do. Another call to Customer Relations not only netted me another replacement unit, but they upgraded me to the newest Core 2 Duo model free of charge. So, while it may take a little more work than should be necessary, Apple does seem willing to make things right. On a side note, all of Apple's support centers are located in Canada and the US, so all of the agents are easy to understand. Hold times were always reasonable compared to other support lines I have called in the past as well.

This is Apple's second try with an Intel processor in their flagship notebook and the results are much better. I am not sure what exactly went wrong with the Core Duo MacBook Pro's quality control, but there were widespread reports of issues, not to mention my own trials and tribulations with four different units. So far in the few months that the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro has been available, there have been no widespread reports of serious issues. I think Apple seriously upped the ante with this revision. Not only did they solve their quality control issues, but they also addressed several of the other gripes I had with the previous version by adding more RAM, dual-layer burner, and larger hard drive as standard equipment. Now if they would only add a couple more USB ports the machine would be near perfect.

Pros

• Added larger hard drive, FireWire 800, and dual-layer DVD burner
• 1" thick
• Very portable for a 15"
• Improved battery life
• Great screen

Cons

• Needs more USB ports
• Speakers are weak
• No higher resolution screen available

Acer Aspire 5102WLMi Review

The Acer Aspire 5102 WLMi is a 15.4-inch widescreen home/office multimedia notebook featuring the AMD Turion64 x2 processor. While this is a completely new offering from Acer, it utilizes many components from other Acer notebooks, primarily being from the Aspire 3100. It is so new, in fact, that instead of having its own drivers it shares many of the same drivers as the 3100. So new that many of the specs released by Acer America were wrong. I'll write more on that later.

Acer Aspire 5102 (view large image)

Where and Why Bought:

This notebook was on sale at Circuit City for a mere $849 in store price without rebate. It also came with a free printer, notebook bag, and router. With the Circuit City Advantage Plus Protection plan (which covers for accidental drops and spills), the total price was exactly $1000. I am a college student and need a notebook that I can take to class, run engineering programs on, and play some games. I was originally looking at the Acer Aspire 5672, but this notebook was a steal at the $849 price (or so I thought at the time) since it came with a dual core processor and a webcam for less than the Aspire 5672. Turns out I was missing some key components found on other Acer notebooks. I will get to that later.

Quick Specs of the 5102 as reviewed:

• AMD Turion64 x2 TL-50 (1.6 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache total, 256 KB on each core)
• 1 GB 533 MHz DDR2 RAM (2 x 512 MB)
• 120 GH Hitachi 4200 RPM HD
• 15.4-inch WXGA Acer CrystalBrite screen
• ATI Radeon xPress 1100 integrated graphics card
• Dual layer DVD +/- RW combo with lightscribe? (comes with lightscribe software, but drive doesn't specify if it has lightscribe or not)
• Windows Media Center Edition 2005
• Atheros Wireless 802.11 a/b/g with Signalup high efficiency antennae
• 8-cell battery with a max of 4.5 hrs battery life with settings on low

Design and Build:

Acer Aspire 5102 above view (view large image)

The Aspire 5102 features the common folio design found on all Aspire models. It is housed in silver painted plastic with black trim on the sides. The screen has almost no flex, which is an improvement over some previous models, and the hinges are tight enough that you need two hands to open it, one to hold the notebook down and the other to lift. It is fairly lightweight, at around 6 pounds depending on configuration. At the time that I bought the notebook, only two configurations were available: 1 GB or 2 GB of memory and Bluetooth or no Bluetooth.

Screen:

Screen view of Acer Aspire 5102WLMi (view large image)

The screen is one of the best I've seen on a notebook. It is bright and evenly illuminated. After just 4 days with the notebook, I noticed 2 dead pixels, which isn't enough for a replacement. They are off in the corner and are not bothersome, but even one dead pixel is cause for concern as to the overall long-term quality of the notebook. The screen has a 16 ms response time, although I haven't noticed a difference compared with 20 ms flat panel monitor performance. Talking about flat panels, the Acer doesn't formulate characters (i.e. letters) as well as desktop monitors. While some people complain about the glossiness of most laptops these days, I have found the screen on my Acer to be comfortable for long viewing durations.

Speakers:

The speakers are on the front of the notebook and supposedly have high def. support. Whether that is true or not, I can't determine, as the speaker sounds distant with almost no bass. They are adequate however for everyday tasks.

Processor and Performance:

While this computer does have a dual core processor, it is nowhere as fast as an Intel Core Duo T2300, or even the stripped Intel T2050. After startup, the processor needs time to warm up before it becomes responsive. The included Acer empowering technology utilities allows the user to control overall processor performance, from medium to max. To save battery and lower the amount of heat generated, I consistently use medium CPU speed.

Using PCMark05, it returned a score of just over 2400, which is on par with Intel Core Duo notebooks.

Benchmarks:

Super Pi calculation to 32 million digits was finished in 2 min 22 sec for 1/24 iterations. To 2 million digits, it finished in 2 min 11 sec for all 20 iterations. This is about 40 sec longer than most Intel Duo T2300 processors, and this was accomplished with the CPU set on Max.

SuperPi:

Notebook	Time
Acer Aspire 5102WLMi (Turion64 x2 TL-50 1.6 GHz)	2m 22s
Dell Inspiron 6400 (1.83GHz Core Duo)	1m 22s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Toshiba Satellite M100 (2.00GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo)	1m 29s
Dell XPS M140 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 41s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

PCMark05 returned 2413.

PCMark05

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Acer Aspire 5102WLMi (Turion64 x2 TL-50 1.6 GHz)	2,413 PCMarks
Fujitsu Q2010 (1.20 GHz Intel Core Solo Ultra Low Voltage)	1,943 PCMarks
Gateway E-100M (1.20GHz Intel Core Solo Ultra Low Voltage)	1,648 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron e1405 (1.66 GHz Intel T2300)	2,879 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400)	3,646 PCMarks
Toshiba Satellite M70 (Pentium M 1.86GHz)	1,877 PCMarks

Heat and Noise:

Under AC power, the computer quickly gets warm, especially under the palm rests where the hard drive is located. Most of the time, the fan is off, and like with the Aspire 5672, you can hear the hard drive. This is especially so since this is a 4200 rpm hard drive, and it has to strain itself. I wish it was at least 5400 RPM, but you get what you pay for. To avoid uncomfortable heat, I always use medium CPU speed. When playing graphics intensive games, the fan is constantly on and the palm rests do get hot but not uncomfortable. Just don't do too much gaming if you don't want to hear the fan.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

The keyboard has a spongy feel to it, and towards the center, it flexes. However, it is ultimately comfortable enough. The piano black multimedia keys that were originally listed as a specification is non-existent, and a call to Acer support confirms that they do not intend to include it. Seems like the keys were a misunderstanding / miscommunication. This is one of the few gripes that I have: I wanted those keys! The touchpad is responsive and includes a four-way scroll button between the two buttons.

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A couple of keyboard views of the Aspire 5102WLMi

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Input and Output ports:

The 5102 has three USB 2.0 ports, LAN, and a VGA out port. It also includes a 5 in 1 card reader and a PC card slot. The typical headphone, microphone and line-in jacks are found on the front of the notebook.

Acer Aspire 5102 front view of ports (view large image)

Acer Aspire 5102 left view of ports (view large image)

Acer Aspire 5102 right view (view large image)

Acer Aspire 5102 back view (view large image)

Below is an example of a picture taken using the built-in web camera of the Aspire 5102. It's a picture of all the stuff that came with the purchase (notebook box, printer, bag -- quite a deal).

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Wireless:

The Atheros 802.11 a/b/g wireless card provides strong performance. On initial boot, it detected over 10 of my neighbors wireless networks (most had security enabled).

Battery:

The official Acer specification lists the 8-cell battery as achieving 2 hours of battery life. However, I have discovered that by setting my CPU speed to medium and screen brightness to 20%, I can get over 4 hours of life. Medium speed is more than enough for everyday tasks like email, internet, music, and word processing. Photo and video editing would require high or max speed, and battery performance degrades rapidly. A nice feature is that the battery can be charged to 80% full in a little under 1 hour.

Operating System and Software:

Over the past few years, Acer has earned a reputation with their Acer Arcade software. This was noticeably lacking on the 5102. Instead, it came with PowerDVD and is quite a disappointment since it can't pre-boot. The 5102 comes with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with roll-up 2. It is not as good as XP Professional and I have been experiencing standby/hibernation issues that I have never experienced with Pro. Acer doesn't include a lot of junk programs, and I haven't had to reformat or do a clean install. However, the systems folder indicates a lot of uninstalled software that I guess Acer wants the user to discover on their own. One interesting thing that I discovered is that lightscribe software is included, but the DVD burner doesn't mention support for lightscribe. It is important to note that the 120 GB HD comes in 2 60 GB FAT32 partitions. I just converted to NTFS and left the partitions alone.

Customer Support:

Acer support is horrible, at least through email. They are much better on the phone. When I emailed them twice about two different issues, I received the same email detailing the same step twice: go to their website! The website has most common questions answered, and phone support is quick and decent. They certainly cleared up most of my issues in less than 5 minutes. I guess that was because my questions dealt with what they didn't give me and weren't really challenging. Acer includes a 1 year warranty on hardware and 90 days on software. I purchased Circuit City's Protection Plan for safety as it covers for accidental damage due to drops and spills.

Conclusion:

The Acer Aspire 5102 WLMi is a notebook that will satisfy general users. While the Aspire 5102 lacks some of the features found in other Aspire notebooks, most notably the Aspire 5672, it is still an extremely good buy. With a dual core processor, 1 GB RAM and 120 GB hard drive for under $900, it is a better deal than even many Dell notebooks. It is quiet, offers plenty of power for the average user, and provides decent entertainment. It is a perfect notebook for the college student and mainstream home user who doesn't require extensive calculations or demanding games.

Pros:

• Dual core processor at a decent price
• Brilliant 15.4-inch widescreen
• Strong wireless connection
• Integrated webcam
• Quiet and cool (under med cpu speed)
• DVD burner
• 4.5 hrs battery life after a few tweaks.
• Excellent track pad

Cons:

• Specifications were incorrect
• Need to update ATI drivers to get correct GPU reading
• Slow 4200 rpm hard drive
• Standby/hibernation issues

Dell Latitude D620 With Core Duo 2.0GHz Processor Review

Overview and Introduction:

The Dell D620 setup (view large image)

Following is a review of the Dell Latitude D620 laptop, a 14.1" widescreen business model notebook released earlier this year by Dell. The D620 being reviewed here has the following configuration as customized online via Dell.com:

• Processor: Intel Core Duo T2500, 2.00Ghz
• Screen: 14.1" WXGA+ Wide Screen
• Memory: 1.0GB, DDR2-667, 1 DIMM
• Graphics: Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• HD: 100GB Hard Drive 9.5mm SATA 7200RPM
• Input: Touchpad with UPEK fingerprint reader
• OS: Windows XP Pro, SP2
• 65W AC Adapter
• 8x DVD+/-RW
• Wireless: Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band WLAN (a/g) Mini Card, Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth
• Battery: 9-cell (85WHr) Primary Battery
• Warranty: Next Business Day Parts and Labor with Complete Care Accidental Damage 3 years 6 cell (48WHr) Modular Bay Battery
• Accessories also purchased: D/Dock Docking Station, D/Port Replicator Docking Station, Dell UltraSharp 2007FPW 20.1-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor
• Price: $2617.20 with all above mentioned items (Approximately $1,748.20 for the laptop, minus docking stations and LCD)

D620 in its docking station (view large image)

Reasons for Buying:

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Several circumstances drove my need to purchase this laptop. To begin with, my XP 1700+ custom built desktop was aging into the 6-year range and was not quite keeping up with everything I was throwing at it. I was also thinking a few months down the road to when I would be leaving for a four year university and needing something more portable than a desktop system.

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In my evaluation of laptops, the Dell D620 was actually not even a thought. I was originally evaluating the new Lenovo ThinkPad Z60 series as well as the Asus W3V. Being the unrelenting person I am, I had several criteria for my new laptop:

It absolutely, positively, had to:

• Have a modular bay battery option (or a primary battery that would last six hours)
• Have a widescreen in ~ 14"
• Have a modular optical option
• Be less than 6 lbs
• Be of sturdy build

In the exhaustive searching I did for a laptop that met these requirements, only the IBM Z series and Asus W3V stuck out. Both of these laptops were attractive, but expensive. That was, at least, until the Dell D620 came out. It instantly caught my eye because of it meeting (and beating) all of my requirements with a price tag of several hundred dollars less than the Lenovo or Asus. Also, my employer committed to purchasing the expansion station so I could use my new wonder machine at work with dual screens. This essentially gave me a business workstation with two screens while docked, a home system with one wide screen while docked, and a nice portable computing solution while away from home or work.

Where and How Purchased:

When I was 13, I began to sell, build, and service computers (both custom builds and Dell manufactured). As a result, I used my corporate "Premier" account to get a steep discount. This allowed me to add a docking station for home as well as the 20.1" Wide Screen LCD I had been coveting for some time. All in all, a steal of a deal ($2,617).

Build & Design:

My first impression on opening this up was the sturdy build and sleek professional appearance. This laptop is definitely built to last. The screen does not flex near as much as other similar laptops nor does it feel cheap. It has a strong "solid" feel to it. Professionalism is the name of the game and this plays with a new tenacity. It has a dark but not too dark look that can speak either "businessman" or "relaxed but confident"

Additional upsides are the StrikeZone hard drive technology used by Dell to secure the hard drive, the magnesium-alloy casing, and steel hinges. All of these options contribute to real life stability and ruggedness that I was looking for. I'm absolutely thrilled with both the build and design of this laptop.

Top view of D620 with extended life 9-cell battery in the front (view large image)

Screen:

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Being a particularly picky person, I originally wished I could have ordered the "TruLife" screen. You know, that super glossy, great for DVD watching screen that everyone's been talking about. I'm now actually glad I didn't have the option because of glare and the constant reflection of your face. The D620 has a great screen that's fabulous as long as you aren't an avid graphics or DVD connoisseur. I'm a hard working person that likes to watch the occasional movie, and this works great for me. However, if you're a high school drop out watching movies all day, look to a multimedia crazed laptop for cool screens.

Speakers:

Sound is pretty darned good considering this is a business laptop with one small speaker in the rear left hand corner. It's not fabulous, but it works. You'll definitely need to use a good set of headphones for those movies or music.

The sound card features of the computer are actually exceptionally good. I dock the laptop at home as well as at work and the 2.1 speaker systems I have both sounds very good when plugged into the headphone jack on the left side of the computer. A little word of advice: the sound is "tinny" and very "small" when using the jack on any of Dell's docking stations. Obviously not a D620 issue, but worth mentioning. It took me a few minutes to figure that out.

Processor and Performance:

This new Intel Core Duo is my new best friend. At 2.0Ghz this EASILY outperforms any similar desktop system well into the 3.0 GHz level. I'm constantly running AutoCAD and AutoCAD like programs for work and this crunches through these tasks with ease. I also use Adobe Acrobat 5.0, 6.0, and 7.0 Pro to view, edit, and print large files (60MB or larger) and it handles them exceptionally well.

Besides raw speed, the dual core option boosts performance when using two programs simultaneously. There is a slight but noticeable performance boost when you try to do two things at once.

Benchmarks:

Super Pi Results

Notebook	Time
Dell Latitude D620 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 13s
Compaq Presario V3000z (1.6GHz Turion64 X2)	1m 57s
Gateway M255 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 15s
Lenovo Z61m (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
IBM ThinkPad Z60m (2.0 GHz Pentium M)	1m 36s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
HP Pavilion dv4000 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 39s
Asus V6Va (Pentium M 1.86 GHz)	1m 46s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s

HDTune Results

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PCMark05 Results

Futuremark PCMark05 Scores

	Dell Latitude D620 (2.0GHz, Intel Integrated Graphics)
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Compression	4.562 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Encryption	24.237 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Text Edit	106.307 page/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Decompression	23.875 MPixels/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Virus Scanning	34.672 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Memory Latency 16MB	7.647 MAccesses/s
File Decryption	49.947 MB/s
HDD (XP Startup)	6.547 MB/s
Web Page Rendering	2.755 pages/s
Physics and 3D	74.777 fps
2D Transparent Windows	190.279 windows/s
HDD (General Useage)	4.311 MB/s

Heat and Noise:

To be quite honest, I anticipated a significant heat and noise problem mostly as a result of the speedy Core Duo Processor and 100GB 7200rpm SATA hard drive. The heat starts to get noticeable after the computer has been running average tasks for about four to five hours. Fortunately the heat never seems to reach the palm rest or any other "top" area of the laptop. Over the past month of using this laptop, I never recall an instance in which heat was an issue or concern.

This computer sits on my desk in a docking station for 14 hours per day and I can barely hear it. What a world of difference over my Dell desktop unit that sounded like a 747 Jumbo Jet in comparison. A little sidenote on the hard drive: I noticed in the BIOS that there is an option to use a quiet hard drive mode as opposed to normal. The normal mode boosts performance while the quiet mode decreases the noticeable noise produced by the hard drive. The normal mode is not loud at all, so that's what I selected. The quiet mode makes the hard drive virtually undetectable.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

If I could add one input device on this laptop, it would be the vertical and horizontal scroll on the touchpad similar to those featured on the Inspiron 6000 and E1505. Other than that one complaint the touchpad is great. You can use software in the control panel to adjust and fine tune the speed and sensitivity of the touchpad to your needs.

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Every laptop should, in my opinion, have both a touchpad and an eraser head. But the D620 took the eraser head to a whole new level. Instead of having a hard "eraser" type of head, Dell installed a soft rubbery feeling head. What a novel idea! While I prefer the touchpad, the occasional use of the eraser head is a pleasurable experience thanks to this new innovation.

Input and Output Ports:

Nothing really significant here, just a listing of normal ports:

PC Card: One Type I or Type II

I/O Ports: Serial, docking connector, 4 USB, VGA, headphone/speaker out, infrared port, RJ-11, RJ-45, AC power, integrated microphone , infrared

Back view of Latitude D620 (view large image)

Left side view of D620 (view large image)

Right side of D620 (view large image)

Don't expect an S-Video connection or DVI as they are no where to be found. The DVI is no big surprise, but I'm unsure as to why the S-Video was chopped at the drawing phase. Make sure that projector has VGA support and you have an extra VGA cable on hand for those last minute presentations.

Wireless:

Dell has added some features in the wireless arena that previously only IBM has given consumers. Now with the D620 you have the capability of having either the Verizon (EVDO) or Cingular (HSDPA) data networks built into the laptop; no additional cards needed. That's great for you road warrior salesman that need internet everywhere.

Standard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth work exceptionally well. Wi-Fi reception is average, but very strong. No seemingly odd disconnects or slow downs to speak of. I've used the Bluetooth to connect to my Microsoft wireless mouse with relative ease. No complaints here!

Battery:

I've heard rumors of users complaining of the "extended" profile of the 9-cell primary battery. In my experience, this 9 cell extension on the front of the computer is actually welcome over the 6 cell. The extension offers a 0.9" palm rest when using the touchpad for extended periods of time. Frankly, I won't be trading out my 9 cell any time soon.

I can get around 3hr 30min mark with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on, and screen on level 3 or 4 using the 9 cell. Reports from other users that have the 6 cell put similar usage at 2hrs 30min. If I use both the 9 cell primary and 6 cell modular batteries I can get 6-7 hrs doing normal tasks. On a full charge Windows XP reports I can get 9 hrs 40 minutes. When university classes start this fall I'm going to be able to use my laptop all day without a recharge. That's a huge bonus!

Word of wisdom: when ordering, get the 90W AC Adapter in order to take advantage of the Express Charge feature. Express Charge allows you to recharge a 4 or 6 cell battery to 80% in about an hour and to 100% in just two hours if the computer is off. I learned this the hard way by ordering the 65W adapter and then finding out. However, if you're trying to save space and weight, the 90W adapter is a tad bigger.

Operating System and Software:

Dell is kind enough to offer up the Pro version of Windows XP meaning I don't have to get a license for it somewhere else.

However, big strike on the Wave EMBASSY Trust Suite by Wave Systems. This software is slow, buggy, and I could hardly get it to work. When I initially got the computer, I was very interested in the bio metric features so it was the first thing I tested out. I "enrolled" all of my fingers in the software, enabled the bio metrics only for Windows login, and rebooted. And guess what, it locked me out of Windows because it couldn't recognize the print of any of my fingers. Needless to say, after a system format and a few minutes of frustration, I wasn't about to try that again.

Kudos to Dell for finally cutting all the adware installs that forces everyone to format or spend hours cleaning their factory windows installation. I believe this is something Dell has started to implement on all orders for business type equipment and not just corporate orders.

Customer Support:

Dell's customer support has always pulled through for me, which is part of the reason I got the CompleteCare warranty this time around. My employer's wife had a Dell D600 (older model) with CompleteCare. Time went on and she had an issue which I can't seem to recall, but after one quick support call Dell sent out a replacement D610. The new D610 had more features, a new nylon bag, a 90W AC Adapter, and a USB mouse. The D610 has had several claims on it as a result of several accidental damaging and both times Dell has fixed it no questions asked.

I have 100% confidence in Dell's warranty and that's really what sold me. I know that if my laptop heads south for the winter Dell will have a new one on my doorstep the next business day. And best of all, I won't have to fight them for it.

Conclusion:

I can honestly say without hesitation that I highly recommend this laptop to just about anyone seeking a light, powerful, business laptop. The D620 has been a great machine for me so far, and I am counting on it to continue to serve me well into the next four years.

My only regret is spending more money on docking stations and the new LCD when I could have just saved that money and got, say, one docking station. After it was all said and done, that was bad planning on my part and had nothing to do with the laptop. I am very pleased with this purchase.

Source: notebookreview.com

Sony VAIO FE Review

Overview and Introduction

The Sony VAIO FE is a 15.4" multimedia full featured notebook. This review covers a Core 2 Duo and Nvidia Go 7600 powered VAIO FE-91S purchased in Japan.

Reasons for buying

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Over the last few months I have been spending a lot of time searching for which laptop to buy. I have never owned a laptop before, but I wanted a computer with everything integrated. I wanted a sturdy case, outstanding performance (enough to last a long time), portable size, good battery life and of course as cheap as possible. When I started searching I didn’t know which category size I wanted exactly, but I excluded 17 inch and 12 inch displayed sizes. The 17 inch because it would be too hard to carry around and the screen resolution of the 12-inch size laptop would not be enough.

After a time my requirements became clear. I wanted a fast Core 2 Duo processor, a quality brand, and dedicated graphics card capable of running DirectX 9c as I use this for programming purposes. I didn’t care about the speed of the graphics processor, just the hardware compatibility with DirectX 9c.

Searching was a big problem due to the fact I’m Hungarian and the variety of laptops we have in Hungary is much narrower than in the US. Furthermore, the price of laptops that reach Hungary are much more expensive than those in the US – often double the price. As fate would have I found out I’d soon be moving to Japan and so decided to make a laptop purchase there instead. After researching laptop options in Japan I finally settled on Sony’s 15.4” VAIO FE-91S. The VAIO FE can be considered as a desktop replacement style notebook while still being portable. One cool thing is that this model in Japan even includes Sony’s FeliCa system, which can be used for money transfers using certain bank cards.

Specifications: Sony VAIO FE-91S

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 1,83GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 667MHz FSB
• Chipset: Intel 945PM chipset
• Memory: 1GB DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM
• Screen: 15.4" WXGA "glossy" screen at 1280x800 resolution.
• Graphics: nVidia GeForce Go 7600 128MB (up to 512MB with TurboCache) at 350/700MHz core/memory speeds
• Harddrive: TOSHIBA MK1032GSX 100 GB (5400rpm, 16MB cache, SATA)
• Optical drive: 8x Super Multi DVD±RW and DVD-RAM optical drive (PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K16M)
• MemoryStick Pro Duo reader
• Express Card slot
• PC Card slot
• Wireless: Integrated Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 802.11a/b/g + Bluetooth
• LAN: Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection
• Battery : 53280 mWh battery
• Weight: 2.8 kg

Where and How I Purchased

I purchase the VAIO FE on the Sony Japan website as I wanted to configure it to my needs. The final cost was 214,000 Japanese Yen, which is around $2,000 US dollars. This included the computer and a Sony Protection plan of 3 years. If something were to happen with the laptop Sony would pickup the machine and return it upon fixing the problem. It seemed like a good deal for the latest technology, and a better price than I would have got in Hungary. After I ordered the laptop online it took 2 weeks for delivery.

Build and design

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As you can see in the pictures, the look of the machine is quite elegant. You can take it anywhere you go and be proud of the look – be it a meeting or coffee shop. The body is constructed of a high quality rigid plastic. It feels very sturdy, it is not like some Fujitsu laptops I’ve seen where you can push the plastic in at the front of the keyboard.

The color of the keyboard and the surrounding area is silver and black. There is a white keyboard option, but if you select the GeForce Go 7600, then you have to go with black.

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The closing mechanism is quite unusual in my opinion, but it works well. If you close down the lid then you have to set the switch to lock mode which causes a clamp to come up and lock the lid firmly. It is comfortable even with one hand to close it. It is neither hard nor easy to close it is just optimal.

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Screen and Webcam

Before buying I was afraid of getting a glossy screen because I have seen the reflective nature of some of my friends laptop screens, some are like sitting in front of a mirror. But after getting it the glossy screen is fine, I don’t even notice any reflections most of the time and the colors come out bold and beautiful. The screen resolution is 1280x800, which is fairly standard for widescreen displays.

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The viewing angles are pretty good horizontally, but not so good vertically. This is a common down side, but usually we don’t watch from wide vertical angles anyway. The brightness level of the screen is very good.

I was a little afraid of dead-pixels, as you can’t see the computer before buying it. But luckily I didn’t have any.

I was really happy that the VAIO FE came with a webcam so you don’t have to carry a web cam around seperately. The picture quality is very good and you also get the Vaio Camera Screensaver, which is fun.

Speakers

The speakers are located above the keyboard. I think they are better than many other laptops, this is meant to be a multimedia laptop after all. They’re not loud enough to disturb your neighbors of course, you will need good external speakers to be able to do that! The integrated sound card, hasn’t fulfilled my requirements, so I bought a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX USB external card. If I’m at home, I absolutely do not use the built-in sound system.

Keyboard and touchpad

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As I bought the VAIO FE in Japan the keyboard is Japanese, with a lot of extra buttons for Japanese language typing. If you are buying your computer in Japan, you can also get an English keyboard and English operating system for some extra money.

At first look the keyboard seems good, but after using it, it turned out not to be so sturdy. The M key does not work sometimes. The interesting thing is that the guys at Sony know about this problem, as I read an article on Sony’s website about it.

Otherwise the location of the keys on the keyboard is good, and the typing is comfortable. I only have issues with the location of the direction keys. They should have separated them more from the other keys. On the other hand, I like the large size of the Enter key.

The machine has 6 hardware buttons. There is a Power ON, Mute, Volume-up, -down key and then two more customizable program launcher keys. I setup one of these keys as a brightness switch where I can switch from maximum brightness to 2 notch brightness.

Heat and noise

I expected that this machine would be hot everywhere due to the processor and graphics card. But I was surprised, after hours of working on the computer, only around the fan outtake at the back of the machine became hot. The keyboard was only mildly warm to cool. The under side of the machine becomes warm after excessive use, but not uncomfortable.

Noise is also not an issue with this machine. It has only one very silent fan. It only turns on when I’m using really resource hungry applications. So far I haven’t heard the fan turn on when using the laptop on battery.

Processor, Performance, benchmarks

The processor clock frequency is 1.83 GHz. This is the second lowest possible speed for the Core 2 Duo, but I didn’t want the fastest as it consumes more power. Of course the official TDP (Thermal Design Power) is 34W, but if you have a different clock frequency, then the actual power consumption is a little different.

I was not fully satisfied with the benchmark results. The machine is fast in applications (discussed later), but the slow hard drive and the junk programs on the machine ruin some of the performance. The bootup is relatively slow, which is a result of the above mentioned circumstances.

Comparison Results for 3Dmark05

Notebook	3D Mark 05 Results
Sony VAIO FE-91S (1.83GHz Core 2 Duo, Nvidia Go 7600)	2,978 3DMarks
Asus Z96Js (2.0 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600)	3,842 3D Marks
Alienware Aurora M-7700(AMD Dual Core FX-60, ATI X1600 256MB)	7,078 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,092 3D Marks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI x700 128 MB)	2,530 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,273 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv4000 (1.86 GHz Pentium M, ATI X700 128MB)	2,536 3D Marks
Dell XPS M1210 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia Go 7400 256MB)	2,090 3D Marks

I saw some tests before with the GeForce 7600 and the benchmark I got met my expectations. The results are also correct if you compare it with a GeForce 7400, as the 7600 is 50% faster, just like the amount of the pixel pipeline difference.

PCMark05

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Sony VAIO FE-91S (1.83GHz Core 2 Duo, Nvidia Go 7600)	3,779 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook N6420 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI X1600)	4,621 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus Z84Jp (2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, Nvidia Go 7600)	4,739 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400)	3,646 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks

HD Tune

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I was a little disappointed with the result. I expected the average read speed to be over 30 megabytes per sec.

SuperPI

Notebook	Time
Sony VAIO FE-91S (1.83 Core 2 Duo)	1m 19s
MSI M677 (1.8 GHz Turion X2)	1m 53s
Fujitsu LifeBook N6420 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 02s
LG S1 (2.16 GHz Core Duo)	1m 11s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Toshiba Satellite M100 (2.00GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo)	1m 29s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s

Ports

The port selection is okay. The only problem is with the alignment of the USB ports, and their number. 3 USB port is not enough as I have an external sound card, a mouse and an external hard drive so I cannot connect my usb flash drive. The only solution is buying a USB hub. The location of the USB ports are all on the right side, which is not the best solution if you are using a mouse.

• 1 x Headphone jack
• 1 x Microphone-in jack
• 1 x RJ11 Modem jack for phone line
• 1 x RJ45 LAN Jack
• 3 x USB 2.0 ports
• 1 x IEEE1394 port
• 1 x TV Out (S-Video)
• 1 x VGA Port
• 1 x ExpressCard54 slot
• 1 x PC Card slot
• 1 x Memory Stick Pro Duo slot

Left view of VAIO FE (view large image)

Right view of VAIO FE (view large image)

Front view of VAIO FE (view large image)

Back view of VAIO FE (view large image)

Battery life

I wanted good battery life, but I’m not really using it from battery very much, only sometimes if I’m on a train. The manufacturer rates the battery life from 2 hours up to 4 hours. My expectation was lower than the high limit, as these rates apply for all the FE series and this machine has a pretty hungry graphics card. While surfing the internet with wireless on and medium brightness, I got just over 2 hours of battery life. My expectations were correct, but still, it is disappointing.

Operating software and programs

The machine comes with a pre-installed Japanese Windows XP and with no other CDs. That’s quite common nowadays, but I don’t like it. Unfortunately haven’t had luck with Windows, it is always crashing after a certain amount time. I’ll probably do a clean install of Windows or another OS eventually.

The Windows image has all drivers and unfortunately a bunch of bloatware pre-installed. At work on my desktop computer I have 350 running threads. On my VAIO I have 700. That’s a huge difference. May be you think that’s: okay, I have a good machine it can handle it. But the truth is that every extra thread wastes computer resources.

On the laptop I looked in the task manager, and I figured out that the problem is with wireless drivers. The WLAN, Bluetooth and the FeliCa had 200 threads. The biggest problem is that I don’t know what I can do with these drivers. Everything has to run in order for everything to work properly. This disappoints me, I bought a powerful laptop and I cannot feel the speed due to software installed. The hard drive is a problem with slowness too due to its slow spin.

Optical drive

The placement of the drive is excellent, it is on the left of the machine. I never liked having a drive on the right side, where I usually use my mouse.

The specifications of the drive are promising, but in fact using it is not very enjoyable. When the disc spins up it is usually comes with a lot of noise. When it is copying data at full speed the whole drive starts to shake, which suggests something about the build quality. I don’t think that this is a common problem with laptops. I wish it came with a slot loading device honestly.

Another software problem worth mentioning, I could only use the bundled Roxio software to write DVDs -- Nero didn’t work.

Wireless

The VAIO FE-91S comes with an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 A/B/G. It is connected to one of the PCI-Express lines. This is the standard wireless network connector for all Centrino Duo platform machines. I’m satisfied with this card, it works well. Of course now you can get Intel’s next generation wireless card, the 4965agn, which is capable of using the draft specifications of 802.11n.

I’m using this card to connect to my wireless router. The router is placed one level below my room and the wireless application always reports maximum signal strength. The application is just the common Intel utility. The machine also has Bluetooth, but I haven’t tested this yet because I don’t have any devices that use Bluetooth.

Guarantee and Customer support

The guarantee comes as a 3 year Sony Protection plan. Anything that happens with the computer, even if you drop it, is covered. They will come and repair it or replace it.

Fortunately, I haven’t had to test support yet, but considering the fact that they’ll come and pickup my computer if problems occur, I feel pretty good about it. Since I’m in Japan, every sales or help person is extremely helpful and kind. They will try everything to help you!

Conclusion

Outright I’m satisfied with the machine. There are some compromises that I had to make, such as with battery life and the hard drive. But I think the processor speed, the quietness of the machine and the screen absolutely compensates the downsides.

Pros

• Great performance (If you delete all the unnecessary Sony programs), more than enough for Vista
• Extremely silent
• Runs cool
• Superb screen

Cons

• Problems with keyboard
• Battery life
• Problems with DVD drive
• Too many Sony programs, they are slowing down the machine
• Slow hard drive

Dell Latitude D620 With Core Duo 2.0GHz Processor Review

Overview and Introduction:

The Dell D620 setup (view large image)

Following is a review of the Dell Latitude D620 laptop, a 14.1" widescreen business model notebook released earlier this year by Dell. The D620 being reviewed here has the following configuration as customized online via Dell.com:

• Processor: Intel Core Duo T2500, 2.00Ghz
• Screen: 14.1" WXGA+ Wide Screen
• Memory: 1.0GB, DDR2-667, 1 DIMM
• Graphics: Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• HD: 100GB Hard Drive 9.5mm SATA 7200RPM
• Input: Touchpad with UPEK fingerprint reader
• OS: Windows XP Pro, SP2
• 65W AC Adapter
• 8x DVD+/-RW
• Wireless: Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band WLAN (a/g) Mini Card, Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth
• Battery: 9-cell (85WHr) Primary Battery
• Warranty: Next Business Day Parts and Labor with Complete Care Accidental Damage 3 years 6 cell (48WHr) Modular Bay Battery
• Accessories also purchased: D/Dock Docking Station, D/Port Replicator Docking Station, Dell UltraSharp 2007FPW 20.1-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor
• Price: $2617.20 with all above mentioned items (Approximately $1,748.20 for the laptop, minus docking stations and LCD)

D620 in its docking station (view large image)

Reasons for Buying:

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Several circumstances drove my need to purchase this laptop. To begin with, my XP 1700+ custom built desktop was aging into the 6-year range and was not quite keeping up with everything I was throwing at it. I was also thinking a few months down the road to when I would be leaving for a four year university and needing something more portable than a desktop system.

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In my evaluation of laptops, the Dell D620 was actually not even a thought. I was originally evaluating the new Lenovo ThinkPad Z60 series as well as the Asus W3V. Being the unrelenting person I am, I had several criteria for my new laptop:

It absolutely, positively, had to:

• Have a modular bay battery option (or a primary battery that would last six hours)
• Have a widescreen in ~ 14"
• Have a modular optical option
• Be less than 6 lbs
• Be of sturdy build

In the exhaustive searching I did for a laptop that met these requirements, only the IBM Z series and Asus W3V stuck out. Both of these laptops were attractive, but expensive. That was, at least, until the Dell D620 came out. It instantly caught my eye because of it meeting (and beating) all of my requirements with a price tag of several hundred dollars less than the Lenovo or Asus. Also, my employer committed to purchasing the expansion station so I could use my new wonder machine at work with dual screens. This essentially gave me a business workstation with two screens while docked, a home system with one wide screen while docked, and a nice portable computing solution while away from home or work.

Where and How Purchased:

When I was 13, I began to sell, build, and service computers (both custom builds and Dell manufactured). As a result, I used my corporate "Premier" account to get a steep discount. This allowed me to add a docking station for home as well as the 20.1" Wide Screen LCD I had been coveting for some time. All in all, a steal of a deal ($2,617).

Build & Design:

My first impression on opening this up was the sturdy build and sleek professional appearance. This laptop is definitely built to last. The screen does not flex near as much as other similar laptops nor does it feel cheap. It has a strong "solid" feel to it. Professionalism is the name of the game and this plays with a new tenacity. It has a dark but not too dark look that can speak either "businessman" or "relaxed but confident"

Additional upsides are the StrikeZone hard drive technology used by Dell to secure the hard drive, the magnesium-alloy casing, and steel hinges. All of these options contribute to real life stability and ruggedness that I was looking for. I'm absolutely thrilled with both the build and design of this laptop.

Top view of D620 with extended life 9-cell battery in the front (view large image)

Screen:

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Being a particularly picky person, I originally wished I could have ordered the "TruLife" screen. You know, that super glossy, great for DVD watching screen that everyone's been talking about. I'm now actually glad I didn't have the option because of glare and the constant reflection of your face. The D620 has a great screen that's fabulous as long as you aren't an avid graphics or DVD connoisseur. I'm a hard working person that likes to watch the occasional movie, and this works great for me. However, if you're a high school drop out watching movies all day, look to a multimedia crazed laptop for cool screens.

Speakers:

Sound is pretty darned good considering this is a business laptop with one small speaker in the rear left hand corner. It's not fabulous, but it works. You'll definitely need to use a good set of headphones for those movies or music.

The sound card features of the computer are actually exceptionally good. I dock the laptop at home as well as at work and the 2.1 speaker systems I have both sounds very good when plugged into the headphone jack on the left side of the computer. A little word of advice: the sound is "tinny" and very "small" when using the jack on any of Dell's docking stations. Obviously not a D620 issue, but worth mentioning. It took me a few minutes to figure that out.

Processor and Performance:

This new Intel Core Duo is my new best friend. At 2.0Ghz this EASILY outperforms any similar desktop system well into the 3.0 GHz level. I'm constantly running AutoCAD and AutoCAD like programs for work and this crunches through these tasks with ease. I also use Adobe Acrobat 5.0, 6.0, and 7.0 Pro to view, edit, and print large files (60MB or larger) and it handles them exceptionally well.

Besides raw speed, the dual core option boosts performance when using two programs simultaneously. There is a slight but noticeable performance boost when you try to do two things at once.

Benchmarks:

Super Pi Results

Notebook	Time
Dell Latitude D620 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 13s
Compaq Presario V3000z (1.6GHz Turion64 X2)	1m 57s
Gateway M255 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 15s
Lenovo Z61m (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
IBM ThinkPad Z60m (2.0 GHz Pentium M)	1m 36s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
HP Pavilion dv4000 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 39s
Asus V6Va (Pentium M 1.86 GHz)	1m 46s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s

HDTune Results

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PCMark05 Results

Futuremark PCMark05 Scores

	Dell Latitude D620 (2.0GHz, Intel Integrated Graphics)
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Compression	4.562 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Encryption	24.237 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Text Edit	106.307 page/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Decompression	23.875 MPixels/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Virus Scanning	34.672 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Memory Latency 16MB	7.647 MAccesses/s
File Decryption	49.947 MB/s
HDD (XP Startup)	6.547 MB/s
Web Page Rendering	2.755 pages/s
Physics and 3D	74.777 fps
2D Transparent Windows	190.279 windows/s
HDD (General Useage)	4.311 MB/s

Heat and Noise:

To be quite honest, I anticipated a significant heat and noise problem mostly as a result of the speedy Core Duo Processor and 100GB 7200rpm SATA hard drive. The heat starts to get noticeable after the computer has been running average tasks for about four to five hours. Fortunately the heat never seems to reach the palm rest or any other "top" area of the laptop. Over the past month of using this laptop, I never recall an instance in which heat was an issue or concern.

This computer sits on my desk in a docking station for 14 hours per day and I can barely hear it. What a world of difference over my Dell desktop unit that sounded like a 747 Jumbo Jet in comparison. A little sidenote on the hard drive: I noticed in the BIOS that there is an option to use a quiet hard drive mode as opposed to normal. The normal mode boosts performance while the quiet mode decreases the noticeable noise produced by the hard drive. The normal mode is not loud at all, so that's what I selected. The quiet mode makes the hard drive virtually undetectable.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

If I could add one input device on this laptop, it would be the vertical and horizontal scroll on the touchpad similar to those featured on the Inspiron 6000 and E1505. Other than that one complaint the touchpad is great. You can use software in the control panel to adjust and fine tune the speed and sensitivity of the touchpad to your needs.

(view large image)

Every laptop should, in my opinion, have both a touchpad and an eraser head. But the D620 took the eraser head to a whole new level. Instead of having a hard "eraser" type of head, Dell installed a soft rubbery feeling head. What a novel idea! While I prefer the touchpad, the occasional use of the eraser head is a pleasurable experience thanks to this new innovation.

Input and Output Ports:

Nothing really significant here, just a listing of normal ports:

PC Card: One Type I or Type II

I/O Ports: Serial, docking connector, 4 USB, VGA, headphone/speaker out, infrared port, RJ-11, RJ-45, AC power, integrated microphone , infrared

Back view of Latitude D620 (view large image)

Left side view of D620 (view large image)

Right side of D620 (view large image)

Don't expect an S-Video connection or DVI as they are no where to be found. The DVI is no big surprise, but I'm unsure as to why the S-Video was chopped at the drawing phase. Make sure that projector has VGA support and you have an extra VGA cable on hand for those last minute presentations.

Wireless:

Dell has added some features in the wireless arena that previously only IBM has given consumers. Now with the D620 you have the capability of having either the Verizon (EVDO) or Cingular (HSDPA) data networks built into the laptop; no additional cards needed. That's great for you road warrior salesman that need internet everywhere.

Standard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth work exceptionally well. Wi-Fi reception is average, but very strong. No seemingly odd disconnects or slow downs to speak of. I've used the Bluetooth to connect to my Microsoft wireless mouse with relative ease. No complaints here!

Battery:

I've heard rumors of users complaining of the "extended" profile of the 9-cell primary battery. In my experience, this 9 cell extension on the front of the computer is actually welcome over the 6 cell. The extension offers a 0.9" palm rest when using the touchpad for extended periods of time. Frankly, I won't be trading out my 9 cell any time soon.

I can get around 3hr 30min mark with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on, and screen on level 3 or 4 using the 9 cell. Reports from other users that have the 6 cell put similar usage at 2hrs 30min. If I use both the 9 cell primary and 6 cell modular batteries I can get 6-7 hrs doing normal tasks. On a full charge Windows XP reports I can get 9 hrs 40 minutes. When university classes start this fall I'm going to be able to use my laptop all day without a recharge. That's a huge bonus!

Word of wisdom: when ordering, get the 90W AC Adapter in order to take advantage of the Express Charge feature. Express Charge allows you to recharge a 4 or 6 cell battery to 80% in about an hour and to 100% in just two hours if the computer is off. I learned this the hard way by ordering the 65W adapter and then finding out. However, if you're trying to save space and weight, the 90W adapter is a tad bigger.

Operating System and Software:

Dell is kind enough to offer up the Pro version of Windows XP meaning I don't have to get a license for it somewhere else.

However, big strike on the Wave EMBASSY Trust Suite by Wave Systems. This software is slow, buggy, and I could hardly get it to work. When I initially got the computer, I was very interested in the bio metric features so it was the first thing I tested out. I "enrolled" all of my fingers in the software, enabled the bio metrics only for Windows login, and rebooted. And guess what, it locked me out of Windows because it couldn't recognize the print of any of my fingers. Needless to say, after a system format and a few minutes of frustration, I wasn't about to try that again.

Kudos to Dell for finally cutting all the adware installs that forces everyone to format or spend hours cleaning their factory windows installation. I believe this is something Dell has started to implement on all orders for business type equipment and not just corporate orders.

Customer Support:

Dell's customer support has always pulled through for me, which is part of the reason I got the CompleteCare warranty this time around. My employer's wife had a Dell D600 (older model) with CompleteCare. Time went on and she had an issue which I can't seem to recall, but after one quick support call Dell sent out a replacement D610. The new D610 had more features, a new nylon bag, a 90W AC Adapter, and a USB mouse. The D610 has had several claims on it as a result of several accidental damaging and both times Dell has fixed it no questions asked.

I have 100% confidence in Dell's warranty and that's really what sold me. I know that if my laptop heads south for the winter Dell will have a new one on my doorstep the next business day. And best of all, I won't have to fight them for it.

Conclusion:

I can honestly say without hesitation that I highly recommend this laptop to just about anyone seeking a light, powerful, business laptop. The D620 has been a great machine for me so far, and I am counting on it to continue to serve me well into the next four years.

My only regret is spending more money on docking stations and the new LCD when I could have just saved that money and got, say, one docking station. After it was all said and done, that was bad planning on my part and had nothing to do with the laptop. I am very pleased with this purchase.