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• Wolfgang Gruener What is it: 2007 Apple iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacPro, Mac mini; Dell Dimension C521, E521, Inspiron 1501, Latitude 131L, OptiPlex 740 Why we chose it: Let's start with Apple. There are friends who you never thought could be friends. If you are an Apple aficionado and have visited Steve Jobs keynotes in recent years, then you probably know all too well how those Power-whatever machines drove those mighty Xeon machines in the ditch and smoked one Photoshop benchmark record after another. There was lots of strange schadenfreude against Intel and unshakable enthusiasm for Apple, which you just knew would last for an eternity. But here is 2006 and Steve Jobs and Paul Otellini are best friends. How did that happen? You could speculate that Apple really did not have a choice in times where the Power architecture was outmuscled not only in terms of performance but especially in power efficiency and Apple was in dire need of a different supplier. We are still a bit dazzled that Apple went with Intel and not AMD, as the green team, at least from our view, would have been a better fit for the mentality of the Apple camp. But then, Steve Jobs has the kind of sales talent every company would kill for. Jobs could tell us the snow is black and we'd all believe it: In that view, the Intel proposition was really child's play. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that Apple made one gutsy move that could have resulted in a riot in the Apple crowd. The numbers, however, prove that it was the right decision. The company sold 30% more Macs in the most recent quarter (1.61 million) than a year ago (1.24 million). Plus, the user benefit is obvious: Besides more performance, Mac users get closer to a wealth of x86 applications and Windows guys have a real chance of getting their hands on a cutting edge-style machine without having to move to an entirely new system. We patiently will wait for the final version of the Bootcamp software. Dell-AMD Finally! Jeez, Dell, what took you so long? It appears that everyone always knew it was a matter of time when Dell couldn't resist the pressure of consumers asking for AMD anymore. I remember asking a PR representative in 1999, if AMD wouldn't be a great move for Dell and I heard the same "we are always evaluating other technologies ..." phrase then as I did earlier this year - when an analyst floated the rumor that a Dell-AMD announcement was very likely for this year. I discussed this topic with many tech journalists, including Charlie Demerjian from the Inquirer and we were quite certain that Dell would not go with AMD this year. A major concern was AMD's potential production capacity, which was rumored to be running around 90%+ even without Dell being a customer. Charlie was confident enough to put a bet on it against VoodooPC president Rahul Sood. I chickened out and turned Rahul's offer to join Charlie in this bet down, luckily, I have to say. As we know today, the Dell-AMD announcement came and Charlie had to do his IDF coverage in a bunny suit. But, if you remember, even Intel appeared to have been caught on the wrong foot: In a rather memorable email to Intel employees, Intel CEO Paul Otellini expressed his disappointment over Dell's move. But in the end, Dell had little choice, but to offer AMD processors to its customers. Starting with 4P servers, it was obvious that demand for Opterons were skyrocketing and HP and Sun were grabbing market share from Dell, practically unchallenged. Moving down the ladder to the desktop and notebook came a bit late, but was a natural extension of this strategy. Rumor has it that Dell used its bold AMD announcement to negotiate new prices with Intel, but - true or not - there is little doubt that Dell has made the right decision for its customers and itself - we just wish the company would have made this move three years earlier. What it means to you: More choice for everyone, that's what this industry should always be about. Bridges were built this year, enabling new products strong enough to be considered part of the most significant hardware announcements in 2006. The AMD-Dell announcement (we should not forget that Lenovo also adopted AMD) is especially significant, as it will strengthen AMD: A stronger AMD will promote healthier competition, in which AMD will be able to not only tease Intel once in a while. The result should be more innovation in the microprocessor segment than we have seen before, especially with ATI now being part of AMD. Predictions for 2007: Keep an eye on AMD becoming much more visible in the Dell lineup. Today, Dell is selling AMD mainly in entry-level configurations. Don't be too surprised seeing AMD's new processors, Kuma and Agena/FX, in the company's XPS series of notebooks and desktop computers. Apple is a tough one. People went bankrupt over betting on Apple products for the new year, so I will be very careful here. But I will say this: Apple will build a breakthrough entertainment PC based on Intel processors, it will roll out quad-core enthusiast Macs with more graphics capability and it will offer an UMPC-like touchscreen mobile computer, based on Intel ULV processors in 2007. Article Coverage: Apple announces Intel-Macs Dell's AMD computers now available Paul Otellini "incredibly" disappointed by Dell decision

• Apple’s former ad slogan of “Think Different” isn’t entirely accurate. While Apple is challenging consumers to make the switch away from the most popular operating system in the world, the Apple world is one of conformity. Once you decide to play in the Apple sandbox, you are stuck in the Apple sandbox. I can only buy a notebook in two colors: aluminum and white. I can’t buy a 2.0 GHz Macbook with a lighted keyboard or a MacBook Pro with an aluminum unibody design and a matte screen. I can’t buy a laptop with eSATA or an iMac with a Core 2 Quad or a monitor-less Mac with a Core 2 Duo and an Nvidia GPU. If I go with Apple, I have to play under Apple’s rules. On the other hand, the Apple Kool-Aid is mighty tasty. The iPod and iPhone have been the gateway drugs to the Mac ecosystem and philosophy. Both represent highly structured environments. By giving up the flexibility to load music directly onto your iPod or to use exotic formats such as FLAC or APE, you gain the ease of use that an iPod offers and the widespread support of automotive manufacturers where integrating your iPod with your steering wheel controls requires no trickery. The same is true with the iPhone. You get one provider: AT&T. You only get one form factor. But in turn, you get one of the best smart phones on the market. The strengths of a Mac are clear. On the consumer side, iLife remains one of the best consumer multimedia suites ever produced. For years, iLife’s photo slide show capabilities have outclassed anything available on the PC with regard to ease-of-use and the ability to produce fully animated menus. Apple Aperture offers a great alternative to Adobe Lightroom 2 for a lower price while Apple Shake and Final Cut Pro Studio represent true Hollywood-grade applications falling short only of products from Autodesk/discreet. Built-in capabilities to the operating system such as Time Machine make data security a breeze. Keynote remains one of the most sophisticated presentation tools available on the market, and as soon as Pages and Numbers have support for EndNote and Error Bars, I’m confident that the Mac will gain even more traction in the scientific/academic world. Given the option between a PC that can only run Microsoft-branded software and a Mac that can only run Apple-branded software, the easy answer is the Mac (although admittedly, I am using Office 2008 to write this). Even the day-to-day Mac experience is pleasant. When comparing an eight-core system running Windows Vista/Aero, Mac OS X, and Xgl/Compiz; there is no question that Mac OS X offers the subjective feeling of a snappier interface. I’m not sure what it is about Mac OS X that makes it so responsive, but the last system to have the same level of responsiveness was my SGI Octane. The only similarity between Mac OS X and SGI IRIX was the use of Display PDF/Display Postscript and a closed system with tightly controlled hardware support. Vista/Aero may be slower because non-WPF windows are rendered in 2D (even though the composition is 3D), and Linux driver support lags behind Windows and Mac OS X (DRI2 may change things). In addition, recent benchmarks show that Mac OS X offers superior power management compared to Windows Vista (Anandtech), and in general, offers superior raw performance to Ubuntu Linux (Phoronix). With Mac OS X, you get style and substance.

• Style The U2E has "executive" written all over it. This ultraportable’s calling card is its leather skin, which gives it a very high-end, professional sheen—like an attaché case, billfold or luxury car interior. After seeing it, you won’t forget it, and after touching it, you’ll know that the leather does more for the computer than add a bit of glam. That’s because, while the leather is a bit stiff—at first it feels like nothing more than a nubbly plastic—it warms to the touch and makes your wrists (the leather extends to the wristpad) feel so much more comfortable than plastic or metal ever has. Leather also breathes, and it smells good too. Leather isn’t for everyone. The U2E also comes in a brown leather variety, which might appeal to more people, but in general, the leather gives the machine a more masculine look. To truly go ga-ga for the U2E’s style cues, you probably need the kind of ego that necessarily comes with high-paying, high-ranking executive roles (or the aspiration to get one of those jobs). Leather aside, the U2E also has other high-end touches, including gun-metal chrome hardware on the lip of the chassis and at the centimeter-round screen hinge. These bits of hardware are incredibly solid, making the U2E’s build quality feel the least flimsy of all the computers in this tiny-machine roundup. These chrome bits, however, are fingerprint magnets: after a while, the chrome started to look oxidized with the brownish tinge that finger oils can create. To keep the metal looking spiffy, you’ve got to detail these parts like a Mercedes-Benz. One other complaint about the screen hinge is that it doesn’t bend back quite far enough—only to about 130 degrees. But on the other hand, when you close the lid and then reopen it, you discover that there’s no latch. The lid simply stays shut and lifts open when needed—a classy, clean design. Ports Asus managed to include nearly every single port one could hope for on a machine of this size, with the exception of a Firewire port. Instead, Asus provides a Micro-DVI and a VGA port (double video output duty) on the left hand side of the machine. On the left side you’ve also got the power jack, a Wi-Fi on/off switch, a fan, two USB ports, an ExpressCard slot—the U2E doesn’t have a built-in Broadband chip so you’ll need an external device here if you want to go that route—and the headphone and microphone jacks. The headphone provides strong audio output. On the front of the chassis there’s a 4-in-1 SD card slot, as well as two panels of wheezy and thin speakers pushed over on the right-front side (you’ll want to use the headphone jack instead of listening to anything on them). On the right-hand side of the computer is the built-in DVD-RW drive—an impressive accomplishment for Asus, given this machine’s slim size. Past that is one more USB port, giving the Asus a total of three—more than any Apple MacBook, all of which are bigger than this unit—a gigabit Ethernet port, and a modem port as well. Size and Weight The back of the U2E features no ports, just a barely protruding battery. This ultraportable has less junk in the trunk than any other ultraportable in this roundup. There might as well not be a battery in there; it is the smallest one available for the U2E, and frankly, its performance stinks (see the Battery section below). But in exchange for that miniscule battery life, you get a much more svelte machine. It’s not the lightest in our bunch, but the U2E packs an optical drive and a 120 GB hard drive, and still manages to come in under 3 pounds (2.9 to be exact). The power brick adds another 0.68 pounds, bringing the travel weight to 3.6 pounds. In terms of size and shape, the U2E is smaller in dimensions (at 10.9” length x 7.6” width x 1.1” thickness) than any of the other ultraportables here with built-in optical drives. Packaging Ultimately, consumer electronics packaging doesn’t much matter—fancy packaging probably just drives up the price of a machine. But the U2E’s packaging goes beyond what is normally seen: it comes with a multi-tiered, well-designed box with satin pull-tabs for storage, a Logitech re-branded Bluetooth mouse, and a high-quality suede slip-case. You probably won’t want to throw any of this away. Style Score: 4.5 Usability Display With all the convenience that comes with a tiny ultraportable, also comes compromise, and the areas that most bother consumers are a smaller screen size and tiny keyboard. Three of our five ultraportable sport an 11.1” display; for some, this size, especially set to the full 1366x768 widescreen resolution, can cause some squinting. Eyesight and perhaps age may be factors here; for me, 11.1” doesn’t pose a problem, and the Asus LED backlit and glossy screen is extremely vibrant. We wish the screen hinge could bend back further for more viewing angle options, but when viewed head-on, the screen looks better than a full-sized laptop with a matte screen. The display is also sturdier than some of the other ultraportables’ screens, such as the Sony TZ. Like all the notebooks in this roundup, the U2E also has a low-resolution Webcam built into the top of the bezel. Keyboard Aside from netbooks like the Acer Aspire One, the Asus’s keyboard is one of the smallest put into an ultraportable—those of you with large or even average-sized hands will complain. I have small hands, and the U2E’s keyboard requires some economy of movement from me, but I don’t lose any accuracy while typing on it. This probably has more to do with the quality of the keyboard than its size. The keys have the traditional slanted-sides shape, even though they are small; visually, they sparkle, due to a metallic coating. They’re not slippery, but slightly grainy, which I like in a keyboard, since texture improves accuracy. The individual keys have a nice spring to them, but the keyboard as a whole does not bounce during typing—many small notebook keyboards sink quite a bit when even just one key is depressed. They keyboard is solid, even over the optical drive on the right-hand side. Trackpad and Buttons The trackpad on the U2E can’t compete with the keyboard in terms of quality; it is coated in some kind of brushed metal, which makes it feel striped. Texture on keys feels good, but texture on a trackpad, especially when inconsistent, is confusing. When running my index finger up and down this trackpad I felt lines, which occasionally made me feel like I had reached the top or bottom of the trackpad when I hadn’t. And even when I turned the trackpad sensitivity all the way up, the cursor still seemed to move slowly and cover little ground. My fingernail also got caught on the metal strip that separates the trackpad from the mouse buttons below. I would try to click the strip, thinking I had reached the button, but I wasn’t there. The buttons themselves are solid, once you actually reach them. They are small enough to depress fully from any part of the button, and they require a hearty click to activate them. I appreciate that last aspect—few unintended clicks here—though some folks might find that their fingers are working too hard for each click. The U2E’s keyboard chassis doesn’t include any multimedia buttons; all controls are operated by the blue function icons activated by the Fn key. Other than the power button, there is one other button on the chassis, on the left opposite side of the power button. This button features an icon of a little running man, and can be configured to operate various power management settings on the U2E. It’s not incredibly useful, and the lack of other hardware controls saves space on this already space-strapped machine. There is a very small fingerprint scanner on the right hand side of the keyboard chassis. Most consumers seem to eschew this type of security, but in many corporate settings it is de rigueur for protecting sensitive data. It also fits with the "executive" theme of this notebook. Noise, Heat, and Power The U2E makes virtually no noise when plugged in, but when running on battery, its fans get rather loud. Keep in mind, though, that the point of this ultraportable machine is to use it without wires. The noise level doesn’t appear to be tied to what applications the computer is running. The top of the computer stays cool, but the underside is always warm to the touch; again, when running without power, the bottom can get hot. Some of the heat and noise can be attributed to the U2E’s underpowered CPU (the weakest in this roundup), which strains occasionally, though almost never during basic Web browsing, word processing, or emailing. With such a low-power processor, this machine is bound to stay pretty cool to the touch most of the time. During basic computing tasks I never noticed an obvious sluggishness with the U2E, but don’t even bother asking this machine to play games with near-modern graphics, render photos or encode video. Even though our review unit has more RAM on board than any of the others in our roundup (3 GB), the extra gig didn’t seem to help. How bad could this machine have been with only 2 GB RAM? See the Performance section for more information about where the U2E may struggle. Usability Score: 4