The Asus U1F-1P016E is a true ultraportable that weighs 2.7 pounds and tapers in the front of the case to a thin five-eighths of an inch tall. A lustrous black lid and real leather palm rest add to its appeal. So what's not to like? The speed and keyboard layout are so-so, the optical drive isn't built in, and the $2199 price (as of 6/6/07) is high.
Though lacking a built-in DVD burner, the U1F-1P016E is otherwise well designed. The unit feels solid, and the hard drive is shock-mounted on foam railings. It has both SD and ExpressCard slots, three USB ports, a FireWire port, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless communications, a fingerprint reader, and even a basic 0.3-megapixel integrated Webcam. The 11.1-inch screen is small but remarkably bright thanks to LED backlighting, and it is as easy to read in direct sunlight as it is under fluorescent lighting.
The keyboard layout is good except for the placement of the small Shift key on the right side of the Up arrow key instead of on the left. This arrangement will frequently cause touch typists to move the cursor up a line instead of capitalizing a letter.
The ultra-low-voltage 1.06-GHz Core Duo U2400 processor, paired with a slow 4200-rpm 80GB hard drive and 1536MB of RAM, didn't win any speed contests in our tests. Our test unit earned a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 44--but that's still zippy enough for e-mail, word processing, and other light work.
Battery life could be very good with an upgrade. The U1F-1P016E comes with two batteries, a 2400-mAh (three-cell) battery and a 4800-mAh (six-cell) battery. We tested with the six-cell battery, which lasted 3 hours, 42 minutes, a below-average time among currently tested ultraportables. For extra oomph, think outside the box and opt for the nine-cell sold for about $150 extra on the Asus site; this battery lasted 6 hours, 15 minutes during earlier tests on an identically configured U1F.
All in all, the Asus U1F-1P016E is a better-than-average choice for anyone who needs to get light work done wherever there's a Wi-Fi connection. It's ultralight and pretty, and it has a great little screen. People who need power, an optical drive, and a touch-type friendly keyboard, however, should opt for a larger ultraportable.
-- Carla Thornton
A laptop with a 17-inch wide screen for only $899 seems too good to be true--and in this case, it just might be. Though the Everex StepNote XT5000T has decent features and would make a nice computer for the kids, it lacks speed and keyboard comfort.
This consumer notebook, found only at TigerDirect.com, is well designed in many respects. The big screen's 1440-by-900-pixel resolution is comfortable both for everyday work and for DVD movie watching. A volume dial and stylishly scooped speakers, which produce better-than-average stereo sound, are also nice features for a sub-$1000 Windows Vista Home Premium entertainment laptop.
Budget shoppers will be happy with the feature set, which includes a dual-layer DVD burner and a DVI-I digital flat-panel port. A shared memory card slot, an ExpressCard slot, and three USB ports handle expansion needs. There's even room inside the laptop to add another hard drive.
Equipped with a 256MB nVidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics card, the XT5000T proved to be a surprisingly good gaming notebook according to our benchmarking tests. Its lowest average frame rates in Far Cry and Doom 3 were around 36 fps at 1024 by 768 with antialiasing turned on. With the smoothing feature switched off, the XT500T managed over 50 fps in both shooters. The 7.5-pound weight (not including the power adapter) is light relative to other currently tested desktop replacements.
You will need that power adapter, however. The battery gave out after 1 hour, 38 minutes in our tests. And performance in our benchmarking tests was undistinguished: Powered by a 1.6-GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 processor and 1GB of RAM, the XT5000T earned a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 41, placing it in the lower third of currently tested desktop replacement laptops.
Finally, the keyboard has two problems that will frustrate touch typists: a very small right Shift key and an Enter key that's L-shaped rather than rectangular. Both are hard to press without looking down at your hands.
If you're looking for an inexpensive desktop companion for playing games or doing light work at the house or in the office, the XT5000T might be just the ticket. Those with more heavy-duty needs should opt for a laptop with a faster processor.
The broadband-ready VGN-TXN15P/B is good for travel and a battery champ, but it performed poorly in tests and has a cramped keyboard.
The featherlight Sony VGN-TXN15P/B supports broadband and lasts a long time on one battery charge. Roving professionals who need to write short notes and answer e-mail in the field might enjoy this 2.9-pound unit with a built-in DVD drive and a gorgeous little LED-backlit screen. But mainstream users will find its snail-like performance and cramped keyboard a compromise.
The VGN-TXN15P/B is impressively feature-rich for a laptop that measures 10.7 by 7.7 by 1.2 inches (width by depth by height). It includes the standard connections--such as network and modem jacks, a monitor port, two USB ports, and a PC Card slot--plus welcome extras, such as a fingerprint reader and a FireWire port. Our test unit's instant-on AV button saved time and battery life by bypassing the Windows Vista Business operating system, allowing us to view thumbnails of photos on a Memory Stick or SD Card or to play a CD or DVD. For the latter activity, however, you'll need headphones, as the stereo speakers are shrill.
Icons are tiny on the 11.1-inch WXGA screen, but text and graphics are bright and easy to read and see, thanks to an antireflective coating. A combination keystroke lowers and raises screen brightness; unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to disable the annoying high-pitched beep that sounded each time I used it.
The VGN-TXN15P/B offers excellent battery life but slow speed. Our test unit's 7800-mAh battery lasted a little over 6.5 hours on one charge in our battery performance tests. Its 1.2-GHz Core Solo U1400 processor combined with 1GB of DDR2-400 SDRAM produced a relatively low WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 32. (That score, however, matched the mark of a Fujitsu LifeBook P7230 equipped with the same processor.) The VGN-TXN15P/B seemed zippy enough to handle e-mail, word processing, and surfing the Internet, but not much more.
A couple of design problems also prevent a wholehearted recommendation. The keyboard is very small, with Chiclets-size keys that are flat and slippery. My petite hands partially covered the touchpad, repositioning the cursor repeatedly as a result. The VGN-TXN15P/B might have the world's tiniest optical drive eject button, too: It's so small, I had to use my fingernail or the end of a pencil to press it.
While you might be able to overcome these annoyances with practice, the VGN-TXN15P/B should not be your first choice if you need to do heavy-duty word processing. For anyone looking for a no-wires, all-day-battery laptop, though, the freedom this $2300 unit (as of 6/6/07) offers is attractive.
If you can tolerate the short battery life, this inexpensive ultraportable is a super choice.
The Everex StepNote SA2053T has hideous battery life, but at $899 (as of 6/6/07), it costs half as much as most ultraportables. It also looks good and handles e-mail and Web applications just fine.
The SA2053T, currently available only at Best Buy, lacks bundled software. It does come with two batteries, a three-cell that lasted all of 70 minutes on one charge and a bonus six-cell that we did not test. (Everex estimates 2 hours for the three-cell and 3 hours for the six-cell.) Including the lighter battery, the weight is 3.8 pounds. Even adding the 1-pound power adapter, the total weight of the machine is still less than 5 pounds.
Black and silver with a case that's smartly beveled in front, the SA2053T looks more expensive than it is. It sports a reasonably bright 12.1-inch wide screen, a good keyboard, and remarkably robust stereo speakers for a small laptop; in fact, it's not a half-bad CD player. It's generously equipped overall, including such niceties as a DVD burner, an ExpressCard slot, and a 100GB hard drive.
Despite the unit's poor battery life, our WorldBench 6 Beta 2 tests indicate that its speed should be adequate for everyday tasks such as word processing and Web surfing. Equipped with a 1.73-GHz Core Duo T2080 processor, 1GB of RAM, and integrated graphics, the SA2053T performed sluggishly in our graphics and multitasking tests and earned an overall WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 54--just above average among currently tested ultraportables.
If you don't have the dough for a brand-name ultraportable from Dell or Lenovo, take a look at the SA2053T. Just remember to pack the power adapter for when your battery runs out.
If your dream laptop is a desktop replacement that doubles as a lights-flashing gaming machine, look no further.
The Asus G2P-7R009C is a big, heavy notebook short on battery life but long on gaming muscle. This powerful desktop replacement can handle e-mail and spreadsheets, but the flashing lights and red-honeycomb air pockets won't let you forget that its raison d'être is killing zombies.
If Black & Decker were to make a laptop, it might look like the G2P. The black and silver case has brushed chrome and red highlights. A menacing eye located between the mouse buttons glows red when the unit is running, and red side panels flash during moments in games when DirectX 9 is invoked.
Our test unit came with the multimedia extras you'd expect in a gaming laptop. Serious entertainment enthusiasts will appreciate the multiple options--S-Video, DVI, and VGA--for attaching an even bigger screen. However, the version of the G2P sold in the United States does not have an integrated TV-tuner option, despite what the user manual says.
The case layout could be a tad more convenient. The right side houses nothing but the DVD burner, and all but one of the five USB ports are stuck on the back. The keyboard is plenty comfortable, especially for gamers, with the crucial A, S, D, and W keys color-coded red. The palm rest is very deep, but people with long arms should have no trouble reaching the keys. In a more practical vein, a direct console LCD mounted above the keyboard on the left provides user-defined status information, such as incoming e-mail and appointments.
The G2P's hefty 9.6-pound weight is typical for a gaming notebook. So is the battery life, 3 minutes shy of 2 hours in our tests. But the speed of this 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7200-equipped machine with 2GB of RAM was superlative, earning a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 81, which ranks in the top 5 percent of laptops we've tested. In our game-play tests, 3D shooters ran without a stumble on the 17-inch WXGA+ screen. In our automated Far Cry test, our test unit reached a searing 99 frames per second, powered by a 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1700 graphics card.
For gaming fiends who can pony up $1949 (as of 6/6/07) and have a bit more in savings for a set of surround-sound speakers, the G2P would make a fine desktop replacement.
D-Link DSM-520 Wireless HD Media Player
The DSM-520 delivers great sound. Standard-definition video, however, was sometimes a little blocky.
D-Link's DSM-520 Wireless HD Player provides exceptionally beautiful sound. It also comes through with a wide selection of music-listening choices. Not only can it stream protected .wma files purchased from subscription services like Napster (using Windows Media Player 11), but it can transmit audio from sources such as AOL Live, Live365, Napster, Rhapsody, and vTuner. Free sample versions of both Live365 and vTuner are included with the player. The DSM-520 HD isn't able to play back AAC iTunes music, however, whether the files are protected or not.
The D-Link's video capabilities, though, are less impressive. Standard-definition clips looked a bit blocky, while HD videos (which can include .wmv, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 files) came through somewhat better. The DSM-520 can output video at resolutions up to 1080i over HDMI.
The DSM-520 was the only player that gave me absolutely no Wi-Fi setup trouble. D-Link assured me that using the DSM-520 with a D-Link router provides no advantage. The player permits you to enter the password via a point-and-select screen or a remote-control phone pad. Or you can skip these two options and set up the network with a flash drive prepared in Windows' own Wireless Network Setup Wizard--an excellent method that no other player I looked at offered.
Setting up the DSM-520 to take full advantage of my TV was another matter. With my input choice (HDMI) selected, I couldn't alter the resolution at which it output video to my TV; the unit simply grayed out the option. To work around the difficulty, I changed the output to component, altered the resolution, and then changed the output back to HDMI--but having to go through that routine didn't inspire confidence. (D-Link is working on a fix.)
Once set up, the D-Link sports a promising, eye-pleasing menu system. But despite its large, colored buttons and comfortable fit in the hand, the remote seemed unresponsive. Sometimes I had to press <Enter> a second time because the first press accomplished nothing.
Besides supplying the unit's own server software, the D-Link CD contains an excellent 122-page .pdf manual with one of the best guides to cables I've run across.
Mvix Wireless HD MX-760HD Media Center
This player handles many formats but calls for plenty of tech savvy. You can also add your own hard drive.
Mvix's player boasts some very nice capabilities. Besides supporting mainstream video formats like .mp4, DivX, and Xvid, it plays unusual formats such as .iso DVD images, DVD files (including .vob and .ifo), VCD files (.dat), .ts (streaming MPEG-2 DVD) files, plus .tp and .trp (used by some PVR/DVR devices). You can upgrade it with an internal 3.5-inch IDE hard drive. And it supports full, 1080p high-def video.
Unfortunately, it's an absurdly difficult device to set up and use. Nothing will help you with initial setup--not the on-screen menus; not the dense, overly complex documentation printed in a tiny, eyestrain-inducing typeface; and not the software on the CD (there isn't any).
The documentation can be unreliable; at one point it tells you to turn a screw clockwise when you should do the opposite. This is followed by information for Windows XP--but not Vista--setup. Vista instructions on Mvix's site either do not work in Vista Home Premium or involve editing the Registry.
If you're sharing your media folders with plain-old Windows networking, the Mvix will find them. But it lacks support for UPnP servers, which mars otherwise good format support and exacerbates already poor usability. Without UPnP support, the streamer can't use Windows Media Player to play any type of protected music files. And without the organizing capabilities of a server, you must drill through folders to find the videos and songs that you want to play--all identified exclusively by file name.
If you can't bring an ethernet cable into your home theater, you'll have to configure the MX-760HD for Wi-Fi, which entails entering your network ID manually and your WEP password in hex.
Menus are functional but the text they contain is presented in an ugly, monospaced font. Thankfully, video output looked good, though standard-definition files suffered from some blockiness (HD content showed practically none). Sound had a very slight harshness. The Mvix is one of only three players in this review that supports full 1080p high definition.
The MX-760HD comes with a four-line LCD screen that displays scrolling text, menu data, and song details. This screen is aligned for reading when the unit is standing upright; but I found the device unstable in this orientation, except when I propped it up with something heavy.
I liked being able to install my own hard drive, however. You can transfer, edit, rename, or delete files on the Mvix's drive from your PC, over the network. By copying files to it, you can avoid network problems and free up space on your PC's hard drive. But in the end, despite the MX-760HD's very good picture and audio quality, wide format support, and hard drive option, design issues make it an iffy proposition for anyone but a true geek.
Ziova Clearstream CS510 High Definition Network Media Player
The CS510 has nice sound and extras like weather information, but it suffers from awkward slide-show viewing.
The Ziova is a pretty competent digital media receiver. Physically, it's an attractive gadget--bigger than an Apple TV but smaller than the wide Netgear and D-Link boxes. The front-panel LCD, which displays one line of scrolling text information such as ID3 tag data and current activity, is big enough to be legible from across the room--a welcome exception to the rule.
Navigating around the Ziova can be both pleasing and annoying. Its colorful home screen is big, bright, and easy to read. The remote control's navigation buttons are big and well situated, but playback buttons are very small and awkwardly placed.
When you watch a slide show, all of the players I looked at will occasionally make you wait a few seconds for the next slide. But whereas the other players keep the last picture on the screen until the next one is ready, the Ziova tells you with its hourglass that you'll just have to wait.
Standard-definition videos were a bit fuzzy, and high-definition ones looked the tiniest bit blocky; but both were perfectly acceptable. The sound was excellent, with only a very slight muddiness preventing it from ranking among the best. Like Netgear's player, it comes with the free Shoutcast Internet radio network and can display weather information.
The Ziova supports 1080i HD and a range of video formats like .iso DVD images and .ifo DVD files. Although the device can work with UPnP servers, it can't stream protected files from Windows Media Player. And like most of the other players that I looked at, it can't play protected iTunes music files.
ZyXel DMA-1000 Digital Media Theater
This compact, easy-to-set-up streamer lacks Wi-Fi, and rival streamers provide better audio output.
The DMA-1000 may be easy to set up, but that's chiefly because it lacks Wi-Fi, the tricky part of a streaming setup. (ZyXel says it's working to add the feature to future versions, but you'll still see a nonfunctioning option for it in the setup screens.) The DMA-1000 doesn't play DivX files or anything at a definition higher than 1080i, but it can play video formats such as .mp4 and Xvid, as well as unprotected .wma files and unprotected iTunes music (.m4a files). It produced a very good HD picture but failed to accompany it with first-rate sound.
Indeed, the ZyXel had worse sound than any other device I looked at. But let me put that in context: The other six players delivered very good to spectacular audio, while the DMA-1000's was merely acceptable. It was the only streamer that lacked an optical audio output, though it does have a coaxial S/PDIF connection (which I used). Nevertheless, it didn't sound as good as the others.
This is a very nice-looking player--small and sleek, with only a row of status lights to make its outside any more communicative than an Apple TV. In fact, the DMA-1000 resembles a well-designed router minus the antenna.
Though the remote control fits well in your hand, little thought seems to have gone into button placement. The bottom, hard-to-reach section of the remote holds 20 identical-looking small buttons, including Play, Pause, Video, Music, and Rotate. Trying to pause or rewind quickly can be a pain; by the time I found the right buttons, the moment I wanted to reexamine would be long gone. The remote control does have one very appealing touch: a Tools button that behaves like the right-mouse button in Windows. If you are watching a video, listening to music, or watching a slide show, clicking the Tools button will bring up a small, activity-appropriate menu in the upper-left corner. For instance, if you hit the Tools button while examining photos, the ZyXel will display a menu of slide-show options, so you can pick the background music and the length of time each picture will be displayed.
The ZyXel DMA-1000 delivered pleasing video, despite its slight pixelation of difficult-to-render movements, such as dissolves and swirling fog.
Despite nice video and a low price, the DMA-1000 is our least favorite streamer in this group, mostly due to its lack of Wi-Fi and its average sound.
Buffalo Technology LinkTheater Wireless A&G Network Media Player
This is a great audio server that happens to connect to your TV. Other products stream video better.
Since the LinkTheater can handle high-definition video streams only at 2.5 mbps or less, it's not really an HD video receiver (though it can use that resolution for photos). It lacks digital HDMI and DVI connections, too, so I used component video to connect it to my TV. But to tell the device that I was using component video, I had to plug in the composite video cable, navigate the menus until I found the right settings, select a component video option, and watch the screen go blank. I then had 10 seconds to switch cables so that I could see what was on the screen and confirm the new setting before the player reverted to composite.
Setting up Wi-Fi was no picnic, either. Like many rival players, the unit has you enter your password in text-message style via buttons on the remote that resemble a telephone keypad. But the LinkTheater is overeager; if you pause even briefly after pressing the 9 key four of the nine times needed to get a capital Z, you'll get a lowercase z and a 9. Another snafu: The bundled software wouldn't install on my Vista PC (Buffalo is working on a fix), but Vista's own UPnP server worked just fine. Unlike the other non-Apple players, the Buffalo can't see files on a networked PC if media server software isn't used.
On-screen menus lacked the good looks and fun animation of many competing players, but they were responsive and reasonably easy to read and follow.
Videos had some pixelation, but not too much, and music played exceedingly well. Over an optical-audio connection, sound was clear, clean, and powerful. Photos looked sharp and vibrant, too.
The LinkTheater provides no Internet radio support, but if you use Windows Media Player 11 or a Viiv PC as a server, it supports protected .wma music.
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