Light Laptops Group Test

Dave Bayon | May 7, 2008 1:02 PM

Portability is key for these light laptops. We test six featherweights from just $1486 to more than $2500.

With laptops now routinely packing the necessary punch for pretty much all everyday tasks, many of us are beginning to question the need to lug around heavyweight machines. Carrying three kilos on your shoulder is more punishing than it at first seems, so we’re increasingly looking towards lighter models, both for convenience and style.

To this end, this month we’ve rounded up six of the latest and best light laptops in a variety of shapes and sizes. All we asked of manufacturers was that their offerings must weigh no more than 2kg including the battery, and they sent us a fascinating blend of laptops, from a genuine 1.4kg ultraportable right up to slightly larger – but still portable – pocket powerhouses.

There’s a choice of sizes, with 12.1 and 13.3in screens in the group, and even the tiniest come with dual-core processors, 1GB of RAM and an integrated optical drive. The average hard disk size now seems to be an incredible 160GB, and several laptops even include attractive bonuses such as draft-n wireless modules.

Prices range from an extremely attractive $1486 up to more than $2500, and the victorious laptop this month proves you don’t have to break the bank to get portability, power and eye-catching style rolled into one. Read on to find out which notebook won, but with so many budgets covered be sure to look beyond just the award winners when making your choice.

How we test. Plus, how we work out the ratings.

At the bottom of each review, there are five star ratings: one for Performance, another for Battery life, a third for Features & Design, one for Value for Money and a final Overall rating. We don’t just pluck these figures out of the air: they’re calculated using a complex mixture of benchmark results, objective scores and subjective quality ratings.

Performance

The Performance rating is based on each laptop’s scores in our 2D and 3D benchmarks. Each score in the overall 2D performance graph is relative to a 3.2GHz Pentium D 840 desktop PC with 1GB of PC2-4300 RAM. If a laptop scores 1.10, that means it’s 10% faster than the reference machine overall.

The figure is derived from the system’s performance in a number of real-world applications, including Microsoft Word, Excel and Access, as well as Photoshop. We also run media-creation benchmarks, and converting an AVI file to MPEG2 and DivX, including converting a WAV file to WMA, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis formats.

We use our low-settings Call of Duty 2 test to determine each laptop’s 3D performance. We set all details to maximum but with Normal textures and run a pre-recorded benchmark at 1024 x 768 with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering turned off.

Battery life

We run three tests to measure battery life. In our light-use test, we run a simple timer application with the brightness set to medium until the battery runs out; in the intensive test, we push the processor to its limit with our multitasking benchmark and maximum brightness. This combination of tests gives us a maximum and minimum battery life. In both cases, we use Vista or XP’s power-management settings most appropriate for longevity and performance respectively. Finally, we also measure the time each machine takes to recharge to 95% from empty, while switched on and idle. This may not sound vital, but it can make a difference for those travellers who need to recharge their notebooks every night.

Performance and Battery Test Results

Click to Enlarge

Features and Design

The Features & Design score is calculated using a huge array of scores that we give to each machine, based on objective measurements such as the range of ports and connectivity, expansion and hard disk capacity. We also give scores to any bundled software and the type of warranty given.

This rating also includes some subjective scores, which are decided by a panel of judges; this helps to overcome any bias resulting from one person’s taste. The subjective scores cover all those items that can’t be measured objectively, such as the quality of the screen and design of the chassis.

Value for Money

The Value for Money rating is based on a weighted average of the Performance, Battery life and Features & Design scores. We then factor in exactly how much each PC costs (including delivery) to give a bang-per-buck result.

Overall

The Overall rating is a straight average of the Performance, Battery life, Features & Design, and Value for Money scores.

Ratings explained

The star ratings you’ll find at the bottom of each review are relative only to the products on test in any particular Labs. A one out of six rating doesn’t mean the product is the worst of its type ever to be made, just the least impressive that month. Likewise, a six out of six score isn’t necessarily an indication of perfection.

This article appeared in the May, 2008 issue of PC Authority.