Five Multimedia Notebooks, Tested

Features
By Ed Tittel and Toby Digby
published

Specifications

Specifications

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SPECAcer 8920GAsus M70SEurocom D90X
CPUIntel Core 2 Duo T9500Intel Core 2 Duo T7700Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
Graphics ProcessorGeForce 9650M GSATI Mobility Radeon HD 36502xGeForce 8800M GTS (SLI)
Physical Memory Total Amount4 GB2 GB8 GB
Memory Speed2x2048 MB DDR2-6672x1024 MB DDR2-6672x4096 MB DDR2-667
Disk Drive(s)WD3200BEVT 320 GBHitachi HTS545050KTA300x2 1TBSeagate ST9200420AS x 2 400 GB
Interface, Rotational Speed, Seek Time, Buffer SizeSATA 5400 RPM 12ms 8MBSATA 5400RPM 12ms 8MBSATA II 7200 RPM 11 ms 16 MB
Optical DriveMatshita UJ-120 Blu-ray RHitachi GSA-T20L DVD RWMatshita BD-MLT UJ-2205 RW
Display Size18.4" 1920x120017" 1440x90017" 1920x1200
Battery Capacity mAh (Mfgr)4800 mAh5200 mAh6600 mAh
Battery Voltage14.8 V14.8V20V
WiFi Throughput802.11agn –up to 200MB/s802.11agn –up to 200MB/s802.11agn –up to 200MB/s
Wired ThroughputGbEGbEGbE
BluetoothYesOptionalOptional
Number of USB Ports444
FirewireNoYesYes
Other PortsTV antenna, S-Video, HDMI, VGA, RJ-11, Kensington lock, mic-in, headphone-out. S/PDIFTV antenna, S-Video, HDMI, eSATA, VGA, RJ-11, Kensington lock, S/PDIFVGA, S-Video, CATV, RJ-11, DVI, 7.1 audio, Kensington lock
Fingerprint Sensoryesyesoptional
ExpressCard Slotyesyesyes
Memory Card Slotyesyesyes
Web Camyesyesyes
Dimensions WxDxH18.7" x 13.4" x 2.3"18.7" x 13.4" x 2.3"15.9" x 9.11" 1.2"
Weight with battery—pounds8.99.013.0
Weight Power brick –pounds1.1751.02.2
Operating SystemWindows Vista UltimateWindows Vista Home PremiumWindows Vista Ultimate
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SPECHP HDX 9203KWSony VAIO VGN-AR790U/B
CPUIntel Core 2 Duo T9500Intel Core 2 Duo T9300
Graphics ProcessorGeForce 8800M GTSGeForce 8600M GT
Physical Memory Total Amount4 GB2 GB
Memory Speed2x2048 MB DDR2-6672x2048 MB DDR2-667
Disk Drive(s)W2500BEVSx2 500 GBHitToshibaMK352GSXx2 640 GB
Interface, Rotational Speed, Seek Time, Buffer SizeSATA 5400 RPM 12ms 8MBSATA 5400RPM 12ms 8MB
Optical Drive Optiarc BX500A Blu-ray RMatshita BD-MLT UJ-220S Blu-ray R
Display Size20.1" 1920x120017" 1920x1200
Battery Capacity mAh (Mfgr)8800 mAh4 400 mAh
Battery Voltage14.4 V11.1V
WiFi Throughput802.11agn –up to 200MB/s802.11agn –up to 200MB/s
Wired ThroughputGbEGbE
BluetoothYesOptional
Number of USB Ports44
FirewireYesYes
Other Portsdual headphone, mic-in,expansion/dock, VGA, HDMI, eSATA, NTSC/ATSC video, 7.1 audio ports, Kensington lockmic-in, S/PDIF, headphone, coax TV, Kensington lock, battery connector
Fingerprint Sensoryesyes
ExpressCard Slotyesyes
Memory Card Slotyesyes
Web Camyesyes
Dimensions WxDxH18.7" x 13.4" x 2.3"16.2" x 11.8" x 1.32"
Weight with battery—pounds15.388.4
Weight Power brick –pounds2.471.1
Operating SystemWindows Vista UltimateWindows Vista Ultimate
Ed Tittel and Toby Digby
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • urimiel
    I am really sorry to be the one that points this out. I am Tomshardware reader for quite many years now. This is the first time I have seen an article or any kind of presentation like that. You guys are posting bar graphs and change the legend of each color bar for every different graph... this does not make sense.
    Reply
  • fudgeboy
    You guys are posting bar graphs and change the legend of each color bar for every different graph
    wow, and thats like the basic fundamentals of presentation. the writers on this site really need to go back to high school. they should have a standard layout over the whole thing (like you would if you were doing an experiment)
    Reply
  • Master Exon
    Basically purple is always at the top, regardless of who purple represents. Kinda dumb, but they really should have had the manufacturer's name on the bar itself.

    Hey, when will TH compare $300-$450 netbooks? You already did the $2000 ones.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    urimielI am really sorry to be the one that points this out. I am Tomshardware reader for quite many years now. This is the first time I have seen an article or any kind of presentation like that. You guys are posting bar graphs and change the legend of each color bar for every different graph... this does not make sense.
    Heya guys--sorry about that. I should have caught this in editing. The charts are now correct with each notebook appearing in the same place with the same corresponding legend data.
    Reply
  • FrozenGpu
    Master ExonBasically purple is always at the top, regardless of who purple represents. Kinda dumb, but they really should have had the manufacturer's name on the bar itself.Hey, when will TH compare $300-$450 netbooks? You already did the $2000 ones.
    Pretty pretty please with a cherry on top?
    Reply
  • TheGreatGrapeApe
    To me the $300-450 laptops aren't worth an in depth review, just a quicky 2 pager (is it capable as a netbook yes/no) that's a disposable laptop you buy a kids or as a couch laptop or travel one.

    I want to know what my $2K+ buys me, the $300 laptop is the price of one of the options on these things. That's the bigger risk. What's anyone really expecting in a $300-400 laptop, certainly not heaving gsaming, video editing or programming.

    It may seem elitist, but with the limited amount of info out there on laptops period, netbooks shouldn't consume much of the reviews time, nor space, I'd rather see more $1,000 and $2,000 and then $3,000+ reviews those 3 categories have more variability and value than the cheapest ones. Who can't figure out if a $400 laptop is worth it from a visit to the best buy or whatever?

    Personally I want to see an IBM W700 review, tell me if it's worth the $3,000+ (is the built in Wacom pad good enough, the keyboard stiff enough, is it worth it to get turbo memory now that it's faster & bigger or just go SSD and be done with it, etc), not something to tell me which of the cheap laptops is slower than my previous laptops that you could buy at a discount store for as much and which might be just a tiny bit faster but still just suited for M$ office and websurfing and light photoshoping.
    Reply
  • Is the image for this on the Toms Hardware site supposed to say "Multiedia" on the laptop screen or is that a typo?
    Reply
  • johntmosher
    I have been wanting to find a 20 inch laptop so I was excited to see the HDX review.....But still can't find it for sale online at HP.COM
    Got a sales link?
    Reply
  • maric423
    johntmosherI have been wanting to find a 20 inch laptop so I was excited to see the HDX review.....But still can't find it for sale online at HP.COMGot a sales link?
    According to the HP Sales guys, its out of production (I got interested and looked for it too). The replacement machine is supposedly the HP HDX 18t, which is only an 18.4", and doesn't have the same hinge structure. Not really a comparable machine. You can still find a few HP Pavilion HDX 20" from third parties if you search around, but I wasn't thrilled about the idea of buying a system they'd already stopped making.
    Reply
  • Can you please test one more little thing? Linux compatibility.

    Its easy, just toss in an ubuntu live CD, and tell us if things like sound, webcam, wifi etc work out of the box. If they don't, don't bother much trying to get it to work. But Acer for instance is notorious for having buggy ACPI implementation in the bios that detects the OS and only work with Vista. With Linux (possibly even XP) standby will be highly unreliable. Dell and IBM do a much better job at it, and that deserves to be known.

    Doing such tests should be very straightforward and accomplish two things:
    1) inform us linux users (we buy notebooks too you know :) )
    2) put some pressure on oem's to test their BIOS and hardware with linux

    Id appreciate it. No one does this, please be the first :)
    Reply