In the Lab: Ultraportable laptops

Powerful portables that don't require power lifting

It's the ever present question: Should I pack my laptop? Myriad factors come in to play. How likely am I to really need it? How long will I be away from my desk? Is there accessible WiFi where I'm going? These questions are balanced against important factors like how big and heavy the laptop is—you're much less likely to pack up your desktop replacement for a quick jaunt to a wireless hotspot park, patio or coffee shop than you are a smaller and more easily lugged lappy. Battery life is also a major concern when it comes to portable computing. There's not much point sacking out to sort through your email while sipping a grande skinny mocachaicococachino if your battery is going to die before you're half way through your scalding hot and awkwardly named beverage.

Ultra portables defined

To be considered in the class of ultra portable, a laptop must be larger than a subnotebook, de facto defined as 1kg or less in weight with at the absolute most, a 10.4-inch display and a chassis and keyboard size to go along with it, but smaller than a traditional notebook, defined as 2kg or greater and with at least a 12-inch screen. At less than 1.8 kg (four pounds) as configured, these laptops all fit the bill.

Portable vs. powerhouse

Going ultra portable brings both benefits and detriments. Under the former come predominantly light weight and long battery life. Under the latter heading come the higher price and lower raw power, smaller screens and often, smaller keyboards than their full-sized counterparts. Whether the trade offs are worth it depend on your intended use and budget. There's something to be said for a computer that slips easily in to your briefcase, backpack or carry-on luggage and doesn't add too much to your overall load. Likewise, the longer battery life and extreme portability mean you can open up shop pretty much anywhere you can get a WiFi signal; in the departures lounge, in the park or at your local coffee shop.

Ultraportable vs. subnotebook

Subnotebook and ultramobile computers are a subset of ultraportables; these machines focus almost entirely on keeping to size down and make sacrifices in screen real estate and keyboards, sometimes using QWERTY thumbboards instead of a more usable touch typing QWERTY board. Ultraportables tread the fine line offering solutions that are not as small and therefore portable as a subnote or ultramobile PC but not as large and therefore powerful as regular format laptops. While sacrifices are made in keeping the size down (but not too far) and the power up (but not too far), ultraportables strike a good balance between power and portability, creating a light weight but not necessarily light duty PC.

HP Compaq 2710p

$1,749 www.hp.ca Windows Experience Index: 3.4 Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 1.2 GHz RAM: 2GB DDR2, 667 MHz (up to 4GB) Weight: 1.7 kg Dimensions: 290 x 212 x 28mm Battery life (manufacturer supplied): 5.5 hr Cache: 2MB L2 FSB: 533 MHz Hard drive: 100GB 4,200 RPM (up to 100 GB) Screen size / resolution: 12.1 1280 x 800 (WXGA) Optical drive: N/A USB ports: 2 FireWire: 1 Media slot: SD
HP's Compaq 2710p gets the distinction of being the only machine tested that is a convertible tablet notebook. It also has the more dubious distinction of being the biggest heaviest notebook tested and, counter intuitively given its size and weight relative to the competition, the only machine without an optical drive.

The exterior styling of the book is notably minimalistic and slick with its brushed steel look and lack of exterior adornment; something of a new one for HP who seem to like to dress their notebooks up. The result is a cool looking gun metal coloured slate when the magnesium alloy case is closed. Thanks to its solid chassis and given that its convertible screen (from notebook to tablet form) needs to be stronger than the average, it has a nice solid feel.

The 2710p is replete with neat little touches that add to the overall appeal. Above the screen is a small web cam, a pop-out LED light that makes it much easier to see the keyboard in the dark and a spring loaded WiFi antenna that slides gracefully out of the top of the screen when released. Also, at the top-right of the keyboard section of the notebook is a small touch-sensitive strip for volume control and switching to presentation mode. LEDs under the touch strip glow when activated. In a similar vein, the battery has a small button that you can press to light up a small battery gauge to get an idea of how much juice your battery has without booting up. On the right side of the screen sits a swipe style biometric fingerprint reader to lock the 2710p down and to manage passwords.

The pen interface works very well when used as a pointing device and the pen comes with a lanyard to tether it to the notebook but still allows plenty of cord to work with. It does add an awkward coil of string when the pen is docked however. The navigation nub set between the G and H keys on home row lacks refined control even when the properties are set to as slow as possible would arguably be much better gone and replaced with a trackpad, especially given the unused real estate below the keyboard. Perhaps that's just personal preference / prejudice speaking.

Panasonic Toughbook CF-W7

$2,299 www.panasonic.ca Windows Experience Index: 2.2 Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 1.06GHz RAM: 1 GB SDRAM (2 GB max) Weight: 1.4kg Dimensions: 272 x 214 x 25 / 45mm Battery life (manufacturer supplied): 7hr. Cache: 2 MB L2 cache FSB: 533 MHz Hard drive: 80GB Screen size: 12.1-inch 1024 x 768 (XGA) anti glare Optical drive: DVD Super Multi Drive with Dual Layer Support USB ports: 3 FireWire: No Media slot: SD Panasonic's Toughbook CF-W7 is small and light but true to its name. The upper lid housing the LCD feels sturdy and sports an armored look but still keeps the weight down and the performance up.
The CF-W7 is a member of Panasonic's "Business Rugged" line that packs in some of the features that define its semi- and fully-rugged lines that serve law enforcement, telecommunications and industry where computers are subject to harsh conditions. The CF-W7 is spill and drop resistant, has a full magnesium alloy case and a shock-mounted hard drive. Its screen is armor clad too. It also clocks in at a diminutive 1.4kg and has a stated battery life of up to 7hr.
Panasonic seems to have taken what a mobile professional really needs from an ultraportable PC. It is light weight, the screen is easy to read in a variety of lighting conditions and it has a comfortable keyboard, though with its 83-key board, a few keys may not be quite where you expected to find them. Also, its 4:3 aspect ratio screen is decidedly old school, and not in that good, nostalgic kind of way. At 1,024 x 768px, its resolution leaves a little to be desired too.
Its circular trackpad looks like it would take some getting used to but surprisingly doesn't. A circular pad may seem a strange choice at first. However, it does serve a purpose beyond just adding an interesting aesthetic element. Touching the outside of the pad, it can be used as a scroll wheel. While other track pads incorporate a scrolling section on the right and / or bottom of the pad, the circular layout works much better for scrolling through long documents. It feels a lot like the scroll wheel on an iPod.

Fujitsu LifeBook p7230

$1,987 www.fujitsu.ca Windows Experience Index: 2.0 Processor: Intel Core Solo U1400 1.2GHz RAM: 1GB DDR2 533MHz (2GB max) Weight: 1.33kg Dimensions: 273 x 201 x 27 / 30mm Battery life (manufacturer supplied): 5.45hr Cache: 2MB L2 FSB: 533MHz Hard drive: 60 GB, 4,200 RPM Screen size: 10.6-inch, 1,280 x 768 (WXGA) Optical drive: DVD+R DL USB ports: 2 FireWire: 1 Media slot: SD, xD and MemoryStick Pro
Having been on the market for a year, the Fujitsu LifeBook p7230 is a somewhat older machine than others tested. Its single core processor puts it at a disadvantage in our benchmark testing. It has since been eclipsed by the slick Fujitsu LifeBook p8010 which was not available in time for the In the Lab feature.
The LifeBook p7230 as tested is a capable machine and, while it doesn't fare well in some of the benchmarks, it still gets the a Windows Experience Index rating of 2.0, the same as some of the newer machines in the lab this month.
Navigation is via a smaller than usual trackpad that offers scroll-sensitive sides. The left and right buttons below the trackpad are one plastic unit, joined in the middle by a thin section and aren't as responsive as we'd like. In between these two buttons is a small swipe-style biometric fingerprint reader. Using the fingerprint reader, users can lock down the log-in screen or store online passwords simply and securely. It's encased in a magnesium alloy shell that protects the innards. However, the screen protecting lid is a little on the thin side; nothing a padded laptop bag can't remedy but a little worrisome none the less. A nice touch is the suede feeling underpad that gives the machine a little more traction when resting on your lap.
Sacrifices are made on overall keyboard size with any ultraportable and while the LifeBook p7230 is no exception to this rule, its keyboard take little adjustment to use but is comfortable and effective.

Toshiba Portege R500

$2,299 www.toshiba.ca Windows Experience Index: 2.0 Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 1.2GHz RAM: 1GB DDR II SDRAM (up to 2GB) Weight: 1.1kg Dimensions: 283 x 216 x 20 / 26mm Battery life (manufacturer supplied): "up to" 9h Cache: 2 MB L2 FSB: 533 MHz Hard drive: 120 GB, 5,400 RPM Screen size / resolution: 12.1-inch, 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) Optical drive: DVD±RW / DVD-RAM USB ports: 3 FireWire: 1 Media slot: SD
Undoubtedly the slickest of the bunch, the Toshiba Portege R500 is an impressive piece of engineering. Its screen is incredibly thin, akin to that of ultralight, ultraportable Sony VAIO machines. It's so shiny, it comes with its own microfiber cloth sandwiched between the screen and keyboard when you first pull it out of the box. Despite being the lightest of the ultraportables tested, it's a capable machine and somehow manages to incorporate an optical drive.
Its razor like dimensions come at a price however; the keyboard and upper chassis have a somewhat disconcerting bend to them; typing at a normal pace and pressure, I could see the keyboard giving under my fingers. Likewise, the underside gives when pressed in, as does the right-hand corner which, despite receiving repeated warnings that you're not supposed to carry your notebook that way ever, we all seem to do occasionally. There's an option to upgrade to a solid state hard drive in place of the traditional one as tested. Said option drives up the speed and battery life... and, of course, the price. Using LED to backlight the LCD screen (standard) also gives a boost to the battery life.
Navigation is via a trackpad which works well. In between the left a right mouse buttons is a biometric fingerprint swipe reader for locking the laptop down and for help with remembering passwords.
While it's far from an inexpensive option, the Portege R500 can be configured at purchase with a 64GB solid state drive (SSD) to bring access times way down and push battery life up closer to the ambitious "up to" 9hr stated by the manufacturer. The top-of-the-line SSD R500 commands a heady $3,100.
In our benchmark tests, the Portege R500 fared well giving, among other specs, the highest sustained write hard drive, completing in just over two minutes what other models completed in six in the Everex "random read" test. It showed a timeline with fewer peaks and troughs than others in the lab and an average read time of 48.1 MB/s. Consider that the hard drive often acts as a bottleneck, slowing everything down and that's significant.

Conclusion

While it requires some extra care in packing up to take on the road, the Toshiba Portege R500 comes out ahead in this In the Lab feature. It's super light weight, long battery life, LED backlit screen, solid state drive option and razor thin dimensions make it the perfect travel companion. Fitting an optical drive in to a package as slim as this is an engineering feat unto itself. If you're OK with handling your laptop with kid gloves, the R500 is a winner.

By Andrew Moore-Crispin

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