Low-Voltage Athlon: Peppy Processing

Photograph by: Marc SimonAMD has made a name for itself with fast, affordable desktop and consumer notebook processors; now, the company hopes to parlay its low-voltage Athlon XP-M processors into similar success powering thin-and-light notebook PCs.

I looked at one of the first laptops to use one of AMD's new CPUs--a preproduction model from Fujitsu's LifeBook S series, the LifeBook S2000. This notebook came equipped with a 1.47-GHz Athlon XP-M 1700+ (the top low-voltage Athlon XP-M is an 1800+). Though it couldn't match the dazzling scores we've seen with Intel Pentium M/Centrino-equipped notebooks, the S2000's PC WorldBench 4 score of 107 trumped those of some slightly heavier 2- and 2.2-GHz Pentium 4-M portables. Lasting 3 hours, 4 minutes, its lithium ion battery held out nicely, too.

The S2000--configured with 512MB of SDRAM, a 60GB hard drive, built-in Wi-Fi (802.11b), an 8X DVD-ROM drive, a 24X/10X/24X CD-RW combination drive, and the Windows XP Home operating system--costs $1539; and at 4.3 pounds and 1.4 inches thick, the unit fits right in among its thin-and-light brethren. It has an attractive silvery-blue case and sports a bright 13.3-inch LCD screen. Its combo drive is tucked into a modular bay that also accepts a second lithium ion battery or optical drive (pay another $20 to get a USB 1.1 floppy drive, if you need one).

Although it's designed with smaller function and page-control buttons, the laptop's keyboard has large, well-spaced keys, which made even my typing fast, smooth, and accurate.

Overall, the Fujitsu LifeBook S2000 portable should appeal to road hounds who are looking for a basic, well-designed, and relatively fast alternative to a thin-and-light notebook based on the Pentium 4-M processor.