Gigahertz to Go

For years, notebook users have suffered from desktop envy: Despite high marks for versatility and style, mobile systems couldn't quite match the performance and features of their desk-bound cousins.

Intel's latest mobile CPU, the 1-GHz Pentium III SpeedStep--with help from new, larger hard disks and better graphics--is changing all that.

We tested five of the first laptops to use the new chip, ranging from a thin-and-light WinBook model to full-featured Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba units to desktop replacements from Dell and Gateway. All of them had at least 128MB of SDRAM, 20GB or larger hard disks, 8X DVD-ROM drives, and either Windows 2000 Professional or Windows Millennium Edition. And all performed very well.

The Score

As we expected, these 1-GHz systems reached highs on our PC WorldBench 2000 tests. A shipping WinBook X1 earned a score of 178, the top mark for this group; it also had the lowest resolution of the systems here, at 1024 by 768 (lower resolution tends to yield higher scores). The unit came with 320MB of main memory, with 312MB allocated to general tasks and 8MB set for graphics. A preproduction Toshiba Tecra 8200, with 256MB of SDRAM, posted the next-highest score, 172.

A preproduction Dell Inspiron 8000 and a shipping HP OmniBook 6000, both with 128MB of SDRAM, weren't far behind, with PC WorldBench 2000 scores of 169 and 168, respectively. These units offered a boost of about 4 percent over the average of eight similar notebooks with Pentium III-850/700 chips, previously the fastest available for laptops. The new units are still approximately 8 percent slower than the average of three 1-GHz Pentium III desktops, but many users wouldn't see any performance difference when running typical business applications.

Great as these systems are, top honors still go to a Pentium III-850/700-based IBM ThinkPad A21p system that we tested. Equipped with 256MB of RAM, this superfast system is at the upper limit of its processor class. (All the above systems ran Windows 2000.)

Runway Models

The shipping Gateway Solo 9500, the only one of the five running Windows Me, garnered a top-notch 158 on PC WorldBench 2000, the highest yet for a Windows Me laptop and a match for the average of four Win Me-based 1-GHz PIII desktops we've tested. The unit was also about 9 percent faster than the average of three PIII-850 laptops. All had 128MB of SDRAM. (Windows Me systems typically score lower on our tests than Windows 2000 PCs.)

Battery life was also good for these units: The HP lasted an impressive 3 hours, 19 minutes; the Toshiba and Gateway each managed nearly 3 hours. The Dell was still good at 2 hours, 41 minutes. The WinBook trailed at 2 hours, 15 minutes; unlike the others, it did not have Intel's battery-saving SpeedStep technology enabled (units will ship with SpeedStep enabled, however).

Although these systems don't have the stop-in-your-tracks appeal of Apple's wide-screen PowerBook G4, each of them has plenty to offer.

Dell's Inspiron 8000 and Gateway's Solo 9500 are true desktop replacements. Both pack top-notch components, including roomy 32GB hard disks, DVD-ROM drives, at least one media bay each, 56-kbps modems, touchpads, and fast IEEE 1394 ports. The Dell also has great graphics, thanks to NVidia's new GeForce2 Go chip set with 32MB of DDR SDRAM and a sharp 15-inch LCD with 1600 by 1200 resolution. The Solo's screen is larger--15.7 inches--but its ATI Mobility M4 graphics chip set offers less memory (16MB of SGRAM) and supports a maximum resolution of just 1280 by 1024.

The Dell we tested offers built-in ethernet and a pointing stick, as well as extra buttons to launch Internet and user-programmed apps or control your DVD-ROM drive. Gateway provides the quick-launch application buttons but no external drive controls. At $3319, the Dell offers a slightly better deal than Gateway's $3549 Solo. However, the Solo gives you a bigger screen, an LS-120 floppy drive, and a fiber-optic digital audio channel; it also weighs a bit less (8.9 pounds versus 9.3 pounds).