Centrino Appears in a Slew of Notebooks

Several PC vendors released new notebooks Wednesday based on Intel's long-awaited Centrino technology. Most offered a choice between Intel's complete package of Pentium M processor and Pro Wireless chip, or a combination of the Pentium M and a wireless chip from some other company.

Centrino marks one of the first attempts by a chip maker to sell a processor, chip set, and wireless chip in a single package; and Intel has thrown millions of marketing dollars into the effort. Building on its long-running "Intel Inside" ad campaign, the Santa Clara, California, company will only help PC vendors market notebooks that feature the complete Centrino package. Despite that inducement, just about every major vendor that released a notebook Friday is making another wireless chip available in conjunction with the Pentium M processor for some models.

Customers want choices when they upgrade to new notebooks, said Margaret Franco, product marketing manager for Hewlett-Packard. Some customers want the performance benefits and longer battery life that the Pentium M processor supports, but their companies aren't ready to go wireless just yet, she said. Others want to be able to use 802.11a or 802.11g networks, and Centrino doesn't yet support those wireless standards, she said.

Beyond the Centrino package's wireless capability, it offers longer battery life and integrated support for USB 2.0 ports, noted Alan Promisel, an analyst with IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts. Just about every vendor promises longer battery life with its new Centrino and Pentium M notebooks, and many include multiple batteries to extend that life further.

Here is a listing of specific information on each company's new notebooks.

Toshiba's Tools

Toshiba America Information Systems released five Centrino notebooks. Two models in the Satellite Pro series, the M10 and M15, target consumers who want multimedia features along with performance and battery life that appeal to professional users, said Craig Marking, senior product marketing manager for Toshiba.

The Satellite Pro models are the heaviest of Toshiba's new models, at 6.8 pounds. They carry the 1.4-GHz version of the Pentium M and the Intel Pro Wireless chip. A base configuration of either model includes a 15-inch display, a 40GB hard drive, 512MB of DDR (double data rate) SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM), an NVidia GeForce4 420 Go graphics card with 32MB of video memory, and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive.

The $1999 M15 comes with Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition, and the $2079 M10 features Windows XP Professional Edition.

Slim, Trim Tecras

The slightly lighter Tecra series comes in two models as well. Tecras are designed for mobile users in a campus environment, either at a university or at a large company, where users can wander around a large area while remaining connected to a wireless network thanks to the Intel Pro Wireless chip, Marking said.

The Tecra S1, which weighs 6.1 pounds in its base configuration, comes with a 1.4-GHz Pentium M processor, a 15-inch display, a 30GB hard drive, 256MB of DDR memory, an ATI Technologies Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics card with 32MB of video memory, and a DVD-ROM drive. It's priced at $1979.

The Tecra M1 weighs 5.7 pounds, and packs a 1.4-GHz Pentium M, a 14.1-inch display, a 40GB hard drive, 256MB of DDR memory, a Trident Microsystems XP4m32 graphics controller with 32MB of video memory, and a DVD-ROM drive, all for $2154.

Toshiba's final Centrino notebook is the Portege R100, the thinnest and lightest of the group at 2.3 pounds. This notebook can't match the performance capabilities of Toshiba's other Centrino notebooks; it's designed to handle basic office productivity applications, such as e-mail and Internet access, in the smallest package possible, Marking said.

The $2199 R100 comes with Intel's "ultra-low voltage" 900-MHz Pentium M processor, the Intel Pro Wireless chip, a 12.1-inch display, a 20GB hard drive, 256MB of SDRAM, and a Trident XP4 graphics card with 32MB of video memory.