Picking the best of a group of systems is always
difficultespecially when several machines perform comparably. The vendors
that participated in the Windows NT Magazine Lab's NT-on-laptops
experiment are AST, Broadax Systems, Compaq Computer, Digital Equipment,
FutureTech Systems, IBM, Polywell Computers, and Texas Instruments.
And the Winner Is...
Who took home the trophy? The Lab picked winning systems in two categories:
high-end machines (portables designed for power users) and low-end machines
(reasonably priced portables with just enough features to run NT). We picked the
IBM ThinkPad 760ED as the high-end winner, for its overall features,
performance, and support for NT. The Lab's configuration cost $5614, but for the
money, you get quite a system features such as extensive multimedia
capabilities, a superb display, long battery life, and power management. For the
low-end machines, the Lab didn't identify a clear-cut winner between the two
participantsBroadax's BSI NP8620D and Digital's HiNote VP 535. Each
portable exhibits winning attributes: The Broadax BSI NP8620D has an excellent
price for its features and performance, and the Digital VP 535 has the best
battery life (of all the systems we tested). Both systems come with
high-quality graphics adapters, comparable performance (which you can improve
with more memory), and equivalent sets of features.
Selection Criteria
We judged the systems on the following criteria: performance (SYSmark/32 for
NT composite score), price, performance per $1000 cost, CPU speed, Level 2
cache, upgrade capability (memory, disk), display (size, resolution and color
depth, video memory, external resolution and color depth), CD-ROM speed,
multimedia (audio, video), battery (type, life, support for NT APM and PnP),
case (weight, dimensions), and NT 4.0 support (vendor sells NT, provides
drivers, offers technical support).
The bold entries in Table 1, "Summing Up the Laptops," page 58,
identify the winner (or ties) in each category. We weighted the criteria equally
in our decision because what one of us might consider important (e.g., display
quality), someone else might find trivial (e.g., compared to CPU speed). The IBM
ThinkPad 760ED leads in performance at 800*600 resolution (we tested all systems
at 800*600; the ThinkPad scored 30 percent lower at its maximum resolution,
1024*768), memory expansion capability, hard disk space, display size and
quality, multimedia features, and NT support.
Picking the high-end winner was tough: Almost all the systems perform
excellently, offer great features, and make fine power-user laptops. IBM,
Compaq, and Digital sell for $5000 to $6000, and although these machines are
marvelous, that's a heap o' dough! Therefore, special mention goes to the
Broadax BSI NP8620A, which costs less than $3500 fully configured and has the
best performance-per-price ratio. The BSI NP8620A's upgrade capability is less
than that of other systems, and its technical support infrastructure is not as
strong. However, the BSI NP8620A is a fast performer that offers excellent
video, works without a hitch, and maintains reasonable battery life.
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