Slashdot Log In
Centrino Laptops Reviewed
Posted by
Hemos
on Wed Mar 12, 2003 10:30 AM
from the wireless-machine-run dept.
from the wireless-machine-run dept.
Jeff Mancuso writes "CNET seems to be the first out with full reviews of the new Centrino Pentium M laptops. The performance looks solid, the features are great, designs are thin and battery life runs up to 4-7 hours on these machines." Yeah, I had hoped that we would make it on the review list, but alas, no such luck. Nice looking machines, though.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Logo (Score:1)
(http://kitanokikori.tripod.com/)
Damn it (Score:5, Funny)
(http://home.mchsi.com/~toasty/)
Re:Damn it (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Damn it (Score:5, Funny)
(http://journal.agallagher.com/)
"anywhere from 256MB to a big 2GHz of speedy 266MHz DDR SDRAM"
Whoa, 2GHz of RAM? So big and new, they had to change the units of measure
"It's never a good day to buy a computer" (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.networkmirror.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday July 05, @04:34PM)
Battery Life and Heat (Score:1, Troll)
I wonder (Score:1, Informative)
Anyway here's the 'overview' as they call it:
http://www.cnet.com/hardware/0-1027-8-20926222-
comercial? (Score:2, Interesting)
link? (Score:5, Funny)
That link won't make sense in the future... (Score:4, Informative)
And just so you won't mod me up, here's a link to goatse.cx [goatse.cx]
Article Link (Score:5, Informative)
(http://192.168.2.1/)
http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1027-8-20926
Enjoy. Oh, and, to be honest, I'm happy with my new 12" PowerBook G4 [apple.com] - It does everything I want, and then some.
For those who actually want a LINK TO THE STORY .. (Score:1, Redundant)
(http://www.mikey-san.net/ | Last Journal: Thursday March 04 2004, @06:23PM)
Pentium M? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Battery life (Score:5, Informative)
A recent Sony Vaio notebook I just got, while a lovely machine, lasts *maybe* 1 1/2 hours when all the consumption-related options are turned way down. Plug in the wifi card and it's borderline useless.
So why hasn't battery life advanced significantly ? Are we already at a theoretical limit of battery performance ? Or is battery performance improving, but just managing to keep pace with ever-increasing power-consumption ?
Re:Battery life (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.hollinger.net/ | Last Journal: Thursday April 14 2005, @03:43PM)
Out of that list, the three that you could most obviously increase the power efficiency of are the ones where the masses want the latest and greatest. You could make a machine that runs for hours and hours, but it'd have a crappy little i810 graphics chip, and a p3, and a smaller display, which, honestly, is last century's technology, and not as appealing as the new gigahertz monsters.
My VAIO (6 month old GRX), when running at the "slow" speed of 1.1 Ghz with full backlight and 3Com WiFi X-jack card, runs for 2.5 -> 3 hours, depending on how many packets I fling out to the base station, and how much I pound on the hard drive.
If you want to know where your battery's going, it's the new "space warmer" feature that comes standard with most laptops.
Re:Battery life (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.cityofhope.org/microseq)
There are two reasons that battery life isn't getting better. One is that there's an inherent competetion between improved battery life and improved features. Whenever somebody comes up with an improvement in energy storage, it can be used either to give you more time or to feed more cool stuff, like more powerful processors, extra storage devices, or a nicer screen. The competetion from cool stuff has a tendency to keep the life from improving as much as you might like.
Equally important, there are serious physical limits to the amount of energy that a battery can hold. For a given mass of battery, the total energy storage is limited by the chemical properties of the materials you can use in the battery. Since those properties are reasonably well known, and people have been making batteries for a couple hundred years now, most of the possible advances have already been made. There just isn't much space for improvement once you've switched to the highest energy materials available. The only way to get radically higher energy density than is currently available is by switching to something other than batteries, like fuel cells.
Re:Battery life (Score:5, Informative)
(http://riddoch.org/ | Last Journal: Saturday March 01 2003, @10:55AM)
In essence, batteries use well known chemistry/physics which we know a lot more about than making CPUs. Added to this, there are certain hard limits in this based on the chemistry/physics involved. We're probably already fairly near them using current battery techniques. The advances above may help out, but until they've delivered, we're stuck at current battery technology.
To be honest, another approach should be to make CPUs equivalent to 500MHz PIIs; it's enough for most things (word processing, email) and should be able to be designed at a very low power consumption.
Re:Battery life (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.dacels.info/ | Last Journal: Monday January 05 2004, @10:45AM)
Well, what about people who do realize this. They realize that is what PDAs are for and such, and for a laptop they do want a powerhouse. I want a laptop that can run my entire development environment, quick compiles, while listening to mp3s and when I'm finished, reboot into windows and play some warcraft 3.
Remember, not everybody feels the same way as you. This is why their is market diversity.
Underclocking? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://societaldetritus.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday December 17 2002, @01:09AM)
Is it even possible to jimjam with the bios settings, and lower the performance of the CPU? Would that even have an effect on battery life?
Re:Underclocking? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Battery life (Score:4, Insightful)
As for battery technology, slashdot has had several articles on fuel cells. (Whether these can strictly be called "batteries" we'll leave to the pedants.) Those are supposed to hit the market within a year.
These notebooks support only (Score:1)
(http://578.291.762.662/)
They will have 802.11g which is both a+b (a is faster speeds) in June according to stuff I've read before.
So if you're interested, remember that.
Target market dissonance? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://127.0.0.1/ | Last Journal: Wednesday March 31 2004, @01:41PM)
Why do these laptops then contain such battery burning parts as large screens, CDRW/DVD drives, and weigh as much as 7lb?
When I saw the Sony Picturebook with Transmeta Crusoe processor, I was drooling. Not because it was a Crusoe processor, but because it was a computer that could do what mobile people need it to do, and do it for a long time, and be unobtrusive enough to put in my jacket pocket.
If you're going to get a portable computer but you're always going to be plugged in when using it, get a cheap ECS Desknote that doesn't come with a battery. If you worry a bit about battery time, get a normal mobile Pentium IV or Mobile Athlon. If you're insane about battery life, get a Crusoe. I don't see the middle ground between the last two.
Nice reviews (Score:3, Interesting)
first, (as i type this on a G4 PB) it looks like Intel has done a great job with these chips. those battery life stats were just marketing fluff, looks like they're real. (although the 7 hour IBM had a "special" order battery with it that stuck out an inch from the back).
it's good to see the Windows world get some laptops that are actually focusing on what makes a laptop worthwhile, weight and battery life. the alienware machines are OK i guess, but suck as a true laptop IMO.
in any case, these chips look like a real improvement to both performance and to the Intel mindset. i'm happy to see them start working towards real world benefits in their chips over marketing hype and lame numbers games.
Hey, stupid! (Score:5, Funny)
This will not get you a review unit any sooner. Review units are sent to news sites that actually test machines; not to a "news" site that would use the machine and then post a three-sentence blurb on, which would be followed by 400 comments about goatse.cx and SOVIET RUSSIA, and one on-topic post complaining about the price of the product reviewed.
Call this flamebait, troll, whatever, but it's reality: slashdot isn't classified in the realm of a legitimate news site. It's a BBS, plain and simple.
In summary: go buy your own fucking laptop, Hemos.
Re:Hey, stupid! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/)
AMD's answer: Mobile athlons with 1watt(!) (Score:5, Informative)
(http://egghat.blogspot.com/)
Check here [amd.com]
The 1 watt number is from a Heise article [heise.de].
Bye egghat.
Re:AMD's answer: Mobile athlons with 1watt(!) (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Tuesday May 17 2005, @09:35PM)
Re:AMD's answer: Mobile athlons with 1watt(!) (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://egghat.blogspot.com/)
When the processor uses say 1 watt at 1 volt at 750 MHz and my notebook can support this: Hooray. If it uses 25 watts while running at 1500 MHz and 1,4 volt when the power cord ist plugged in: the notebook battery couldn't care less
Bye egghat.
weight? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Re:weight? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/)
*cough*
i am a woman.
and yet i fail to see what bearing that has on my desire for a 3 pound laptop.
Centrino looks great (Score:4, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Sunday November 11, @09:31AM)
I cant wait until we can get flex-atx or something like miniitx boards designed for these centrinos.
I want to put together little console-ish media players and gaming machines to plug into the TV, and VIA Edens offerings so far are just a little to gutless, and Shuttles spacewalker boards are great, but screaming CPU and case fans wont cut it.
I wonder how these things would cluster (yeah, imagine a beow...). Possibilities for my own personal little server farm without having to run another 150 amps of service to my PC room, and wont deafen me (a beowulf cluster of fans I dont need).
anandtech review (Score:5, Informative)
Little known fact (Score:2)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Monday December 30 2002, @12:57AM)
what accounts for the performance differences? (Score:3, Informative)
The performance of these machines varies quite a bit. The top performers are described and benchmark results are here [cnet.com].
What accounts for this range of performance. All four machines have the same processor, clock, memory speed, bridge chip, GPU, disk speed, etc.:
Is it all in the firmware settings?
BusinessWeek on the new Centrino (Score:5, Insightful)
Laptop Makers Don't Want This Intel Inside The new Centrino comes with a disappointing wireless chip
Too bad PC makers don't agree. Dell Computer Corp. (DELL ), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ ), and other top manufacturers are eager to harness the extra power and efficiency of the new Pentium, but they are underwhelmed by Intel's wireless technology, which they say transmits data more slowly than those of rivals such as Broadcom (BRCM ).
What's more, notebook manufacturers perceive an ulterior motive behind Intel's Centrino launch. While Otellini says Intel is combining features in one package "so everything works [well] together," some PC makers fear Intel could boost prices if it were to become the sole supplier for most of a notebook's innards. And even if Intel didn't raise prices, PC makers say they'd prefer to continue buying components from numerous suppliers so they can better set themselves apart from competitors.
ibook vs these new guys (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyways, long story short, if I had to do it again now with all these T&L windows laptops out, I would still go with the ibook.
Can it be transported on airplanes? (Score:1)
(http://timarmstrong.com.au/)
Unless I'm mistaken, the ICAO [icao.org] (International Civil Aviation Association) specifically forbids the transport of methanol in the cabin. I don't know if they have an issue with hydrogen or other hydrocarbons.
There isn't any reason to worry, but there are regulations to deal with...
Astro (Score:2)
Seems like it could compete with the Pentium-M if/when it comes out.
Heat is GOOD! (Score:1)
(http://www.stingydave.org/)
Astro (Score:1)
(http://www.zenfar.com/ | Last Journal: Friday February 25 2005, @05:16PM)
Toshiba Ultralight notebook (Score:1)
(http://freed.net/)
Frelling technology! (Score:1)
I just bought a laptop. It isn't even here yet. It's already obsolete. *cry*
I got a ultra-low-voltage P3/933 because battery life is paramount. Now they're making laptops ~2x as fast with half again as much battery life. Huzzah for technology.
installing Linux on these systems (Score:2, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Monday July 08 2002, @06:10PM)
Interesting stuff. This seems like a pretty nice step up from my current system. Question, would we be able to install linux onto these systems? (Will the generic pentium drivers,
Laptop comment metareview (Score:4, Funny)
Well, hard disks aren't getting any lighter, CD-ROMs aren't getting much lighter, keyboards're probably at the ragged edge of weight/reliability, TFT screens only get so light, and so, what's left?
Batteries.
Why's laptop battery life suck? Because as batteries get better they use less of them to make the laptop lighter. Why are laptops so heavy? Because if the batteries were any lighter, they'd have even less power...
I want a nice thick ten or fifteen pound laptop that's got enough battery life to last all day and enough reinforcement under the hood that I can thump users upside the head with it. Lightweight's overrated.
Astounding Pentium M? (Score:1)
Well it might have been astounding, except that ATI stuffed 107 million [tomshardware.com] into the mighty Radeon 9500 chip, and NVidia crammed 125 million [tomshardware.com] into the phenomenal GeForceFX!
It's a gimmick (Score:2, Informative)
Each of the seperate parts of Centrino are very good. The new processor should do wonders for battery life. The new wireless solution should be halfway decent, but it's a commodity part. The motherboard should be solid, as usual for intel. Individually, these parts are worth more than their sum.
In order to have the Centrino label, the OEM must use the specified Intel mobo, the intel WiFi part, and the Pentium M. If you have a large, paranoid company like mine, you do NOT want the WiFi part. Thankfully, this part is optional, but the computer can no longer be marketed as a Centrino and the OEM loses a certain amount of co-marketing dollars. This is bad for the OEM, okay for the end user (they get what they want), and bad for intel since they don't get to capitalize on all the marketing dollars they spent huckstering the Centrino name.
For a personal user, say that I want 802.11g or a different video subsystem. If I change out the WiFi portion, the product is no longer Centrino. From my understanding, intel is also taking this stance on using anything other than the included intel graphics subsystem, so if I need a more powerful graphics solution (for games, CAD, 3D rendering, etc) I lose the Centrino label. It is also not clear that you can even USE non-intel graphics. The Register mentioned that ATi was denied a license. Once again, this is bad for the OEM, good for the customer, bad for intel.
The only time this pays off for intel or the OEM is if the end user buys a stock Centrino unit. That may be a considerable number of people. But my bet is that there are plenty more individuals or corporate customers that only want a part of the package. Additionally, there will be many individuals that will be confused by the new label and not understand that there are other choices available that will give them either more power, or less if that's what they need.
So, what was the point of putting this package together in the first place? It limits choice, it doesn't pay off in many situations, and it will confuse the customer.
I guess intel figures if they can establish a brand that encompasses the guts of a laptop, they can control the laptop market. People will ask for a Centrino the way that they ask for Pentiums, regardless of their true merits.
Why doesn't intel just slap a chassis and LCD on them and be done with it? They seem intent on making laptops. There will be little or no product variation between OEMS.
Advertisement! (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.jackphelps.net/)
They're all over NYC today (aka WTF) (Score:2)
(http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ | Last Journal: Wednesday May 11 2005, @07:34PM)
"Do they have a PCMCIA card yet?"
"No, but they expect to soon."
Then I read this. You can also try out free 802.11 at 10 [mcdwireless.com] different McDonald's locations in NYC with the purchase of a Big Mac or McNuggets.
RE: Whoop-dee-doo. (Score:1)
(http://slashdot.org/Ihaveone.Askme. | Last Journal: Thursday June 03 2004, @02:37PM)
Skrew you guys, I'm going back to my 386.
Sony Centrino notebook - VAIO Z1 (Score:1)
The specs that mattered to me: 14.1" screen, 4.7 lbs, CD-RW/DVD-ROM, 2 x USB 2.0, decent keyboard w/ no obvious layout design flaws.
I'd post a link to the relevant page on the Sony site but the URL had lots of session gobbledygook in the query string.
2 years? (Score:1)
link. [cnet.com]
Apple just called, they want their design back.
Re:Maybe I'll buy one of these (Score:2)
I agree. I'm an iBook user instead of a Powerbook user for financial reasons, but this will certainly give me second thoughts next time I purchase a laptop. The only thing that came close to the Mac laptops in battery life and leetness factor was the Sony Vaio, which at the time I purchased the iBook was not enough to grab my sale. This might move Apple from their currently large chunk of the laptop market.
Re:Fule Cells (Score:2)
They sound like a good idea, but they also have the potential to explode and inflict damage on the user. Even current batteries can do that as one female owner of a dell laptop found out first hand.
Fuel cells contain hydrogen and I would be pretty scared to carry around a laptop with that much energy potential in it. Suppose you leave it in the sun? what if it leaks.
Re:Fule Cells (Score:5, Interesting)
I dunno if I would worry about it too much. First, fuel cells don't have to use hydrogen. A lot of different hydrocarbon fuels can be used, depending on the design of the cell. I believe that the new laptop fuel cells that have been announced will be using methanol (rubbing alchohol) for fuel. Second, you have to keep it in perspective. How many people carry around butane lighters? There is a significant amount of energy in one of those, yet they seem to be remarkably safe. I've never heard of a catastrophic lighter accident, although I'm sure it happens. No reason to assume that a fuel cell "tank" wouldn't be at least as safe.
Re:Great news for Linux (Score:2, Interesting)
(http://ibeentoubuntu.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday December 05, @07:12PM)
I want to put an article together on all this, and am trying to schedule interviews and translate the necessary articles into English this week.
Re:Fule Cells (Score:1)
Re:Powerbook G4, irony (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Powerbook G4, irony (Score:1)
(http://www.quantumflux.org/)
I don't find it interesting to read someone's obviously biased opinion without supporting facts.
It thought
Re:Powerbook G4, irony (Score:4, Funny)
That's a hoot, AC. You sit at your computer all day playing games and have the hubris to call Mac proponents "gayboys" (can you spell loser? Probably not, you'd probably spell it looser).
My guess is that most laptop purchasers buy laptops primarily to do useful work, not to play games. The story is about laptops, isn't it?
Once again, that's "loser" not "looser" or "loozer." It's a word you definitely should get used to hearing!
Re:Powerbook G4, irony (Score:2)
The Pentium-M 1.6 beat the P4 2.6 [anandtech.com], so it's at least equal to the G4 per clock cycle, and yet is clocked twice as fast as the G4 0.8. Oh, and it gets 5-7 hours of battery life. In other words, the G4 is thoroughly obsolete.
Re:Powerbook G4, irony (Score:1)
And what is it really? I have a TiPB and it sure as hell doesn't get five hours.
Re:Powerbook G4, irony (Score:1)
(http://www.synthstuff.com/mt/)
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp
Rob Galbraith runs an excellent site for digital photographers. In January 2002, he ran some real-life photo benchmarks with two high-end systems and two older systems. In most cases the Wintel system smoked the MAC. Excellent reading...