Long-Running Portables

Every notebook owner who travels wants more battery life, especially today when a business trip can mean a 2-hour wait at the airport before boarding. But how much performance are you willing to sacrifice for extra work time?

Two new mini-notebooks propose different answers. Compaq's Evo N200 with Intel's 700-MHz Ultra Low Voltage Pentium III-M CPU is pricey, but it runs faster on AC power. Fujitsu's LifeBook P series with Transmeta's 800-MHz Crusoe TM5800 chip offers more for the money, but its performance lags.

Power Evo

The Evo N200 came with 192MB of RAM, a 20GB hard drive, 4MB of graphics RAM, and a 10.4-inch display. But its $1799 base price excludes a necessary optical drive: You have to pay $239 to $439 more for the clunky docking unit (depending on bundled drive).

The unit's CPU has Enhanced SpeedStep technology, which can switch it from 700 MHz to 300 MHz in battery mode, among other things. With that steep frequency drop and its on-board six-cell battery, it lasted just 2 hours, 5 minutes in our battery test. It weighs 2.5 pounds. A four-cell external battery costs $179 and weighs half a pound. We recommend it; you'll get a few more hours' work time.

On AC power, the preproduction N200 notched an 83 on PC WorldBench 4. That score puts it on a par with notebooks of comparable processor speed. But note: At 300 MHz, the unit's performance could drop by up to 28 percent, according to our tests.

Friendly Lifebook

Transmeta often complains that comparing an Intel-based notebook running on AC power with a notebook using its Crusoe TM5800 is unfair because the Crusoe dynamically alters its frequency to provide "just enough" performance while using less power on both battery and AC.

That's a plausible explanation for the preproduction LifeBook's poor score of 57 on our PC WorldBench 4 tests. The LifeBook fared much better in our battery test, however, running for 3 hours, 28 minutes on its standard three-cell battery. An optional six-cell battery is $169.

Another mark in the LifeBook's favor: It weighs 3.4 pounds and comes with everything you need for a reasonable $1699. That includes 256MB of RAM, a 20GB hard drive, 4MB of graphics RAM, a 10.6-inch LCD, an 8X DVD-ROM and 8X/4X/24X CD-RW combo drive in the modular bay, and a USB floppy drive.

We'd happily carry either unit on our next trip despite their smallish keyboards. We liked the slimmer Evo N200's slick design--and its performance--but the LifeBook impressed us more overall. The unit's PC WorldBench score underwhelmed us (shouldn't an 800-MHz chip run at 800 MHz?), but its price is good, and it has the oomph and the battery life to run standard apps and play a DVD while you're stuck at the airport.

SUMMARY

Compaq Evo N200 (Preproduction unit, not rated) Sharp-looking performer; but pricey with needed accessories. $1799 (as tested)

SUMMARY

Fujitsu LifeBook P (Preproduction unit, not rated) Mediocre performance aside, a true mobile user's delight. $1699 (as tested)