It is agreed that Notebooks (NB) enable a person in getting
his work done even
when he is on the move. Now-a-days, NBs are getting more and
more versatile
in providing services that range from jobs done by desktops
to that of browsing the
net. While going in for a NB, one can look for its bundled
software besides
observing specifications carefully. Some NBs that range from
entry-level, mid
category and even the dearer ones are cited (two in each category)
here under.
While ACI Performer II and Acer TraveMate 506DXn fall under
entry-level NBs,
Compaq Armada E500 and Zenith Corporate NB come under the
economical class.
The rest, IBM T20 and Dell CPx come in for higher price, and
their price is justified
by their bundled software/ specifications. However, each of
the NBs possess
unique features as follows.
ACI
Performer II
The
main attraction of this notebook is its price.
At Rs 79,990 this was the second cheapest notebook
at entry-level. This NB is ideal for running most of
the productivity applications. It gives a maximum
screen resolution of 1,024x768 at 16-bit color depth.
It also has a USB port. ACI Performer II is built with
Win 95, while most others come with either
Win 98 or Windows 2000. It's an economical buy
for those who are on a budget, but still need a notebook.
Acer
TraveMate 506DX
The
notebook comes pre-installed with Win 98 SE
and has a restore CD with an easy-to-use browser interface.
One can install specific drivers or applications from here.
he bootable CD helps in recovering from a disk crash.
While Acer TraveMate 506DX comes with a one-year warranty,
its battery comes with three month's warranty.
Compaq
Armada E500
The Compaq Armada E500 weighs around 3.49 kgs
with its power supply. Notable features of this NB
is an integrated 56K modem for connecting to the Net
, and two PCMCIA slots for adding additional cards like a
LAN card. Another feature is its TV out port that can be used
to get the output on a TV screen. There is also an option
to install either Win 95 or Win 98 while activating the NB.
Zenith
Corporate Notebook
Zenith Corporate NB comes with PIII processor. Also its
4 MB Silicon Motion display card assure a maximum resolution
of 1,024x768 with 24-bit color depth.Its restore
CD lets the users to restore their notebook in case
of a system crash. Added feature of this NB is a 25-hour
freeInternet account. Its silver colour gives it an attractive
look.
IBM
T20
Though it costs Rs 2,75,000, it performs better than
other NBs, making it the best suited NB for those who
don't compromise on performance. IBM T20 accompanies
a recovery CD for Win 2000 and Win NT, an application
and driver CD, modem driver CD and Lotus
SmartSuite Millennium Edition. Its comes with a
three-year warranty for the notebook and a one-year
for the battery.
Dell
CPx
The
Dell CPx has a PIII/750 MHz processor, and
256 MB of RAM. It has an ATI Rage Mobility card with
8 MB VRAM, which gives a maximum resolution
of 1,600x1,200 with 32-bit color depth. It also has a
large 14.1" screen. The advantage with Dell notebooks
is that they are highly customizable. It lets the user
look at different price-performance configurations and
find the best fit for their needs.
General information for each of the above NBs are mentioned
here under.
(PII/III-Pentium Processor II/III, DVD-Digital Versatile Disk,
TFT-Thin
Film Transistor, HPA-High Power Amplifier, HDD-Hard Disk Drive)